Gooby, the first alien to attend a human school, finds a valuable coin
It was a bright and sunny day, and Gooby was racing down the hot pavement. It had only been one year since humans had accepted aliens into Earth’s society. The planet that Gooby was from was taken over by another species, so they had no choice but to retreat and come to Earth and ask humans for help. It had been a hard six months, and Gooby was still getting used to going to a human school. He had been bullied every single day by the other human children, but he, the one and only Gooby, had been the first alien to attend a human school.
Gooby had the highest grades of all the students at City Square High School. I guess you could say he was a bit nerdy. He had inch-thick glasses that he needed to improve the sight from his lone eyeball. His head was the size of a beach ball and he had short, yellow hair. His long arms were six feet long and had hands at the end. He always wore the same old jeans and plaid shirt every day.
Every day Gooby did not have school, he would go searching the streets for rare coins. He had been collecting for years and had thousands of coins in his basement. Suddenly, something shiny caught his eye. It was under a door that led into the skyscraper that was scheduled to be torn down next year.
Creak. Gooby opened the door and was surprised to see that the shiny coin was not there? There were some metal stairs that led down to the basement. Gooby slowly made his way down. There it was, in all of its glory: a penny over a thousand years old. Gooby’s six-foot arms were trembling as he reached down to pick it up. He was too stunned to do anything else but stare at the beautiful coin. His shaky hands went to put the penny in his pocket. He put his hand in his pocket and took it out. The very rare coin was still grasped tightly in his fist. He tried opening his hand, but he could not. It seemed as though he had no control over the hand the coin was in. Rrrrrrr! Gooby tried to open his fist with his other hand, but his fist was still clenched shut.
He looked around and saw an old toolbox sitting on the ground. Gooby ran, full sprint, to it. He rummaged around in the box until he found a set of pliers. He carefully put the pliers into an opening in the fist and tried to pull them open with all of his strength. Bang! The pliers broke in half. He was starting to panic, and he had no idea what to do. He thought to himself, I love it! I can’t let it go! and ran up the stairs. He opened the door and ran home.
“Gooby, if you do not open up your hand, then I will send you to the principal’s office.”
Today was a big day. It was basketball tryouts at school. Gooby still had the coin in his hand. When he got to school, his teacher started talking. “Alright, class. Today we are going to write a two-page essay about your favorite basketball team to celebrate the start of our school’s basketball season.” Gooby slowly took his laptop out of his desk with his one usable hand. He started typing with one hand. As his teacher walked by, he hoped that she did not see his hidden fist. “Gooby, what have you got in your hand?”
“Um, nothing,” replied Gooby.
“Gooby, open up your hand and show what you have.” “You don’t understand. I-I-I can’t.”
“Gooby, if you do not open up your hand, then I will send you to the principal’s office.”
After a little more arguing, the teacher had enough and sent Gooby down to the office. He had never been there, and he was shocked that he was even going there. “Gooby, if you don’t show me what is in your hand, then you can’t try out for the basketball team, and I know how much you want to be the first alien on the basketball team,” scolded the principal. Without warning, the coin dropped, and his hand was free.
“Alright. What do we have here? A coin? Well, I see no danger in that, Gooby.
You shall be on your way.” “Thank you, sir.”
“No problem. And here is your coin.”
“Um, no thanks. You can keep it.” It pained him to give up the coin, but Gooby knew that the basketball tryout was more important than some coin. After a couple of hours of school, it was time: basketball tryouts. Gooby went to the gym and saw all of the other humans. Gooby thought he would have a big advantage over the puny little humans. They didn’t have six-foot-long arms. But he knew that he would have to try his best to ever be considered for the human team.
After the tryouts, cold sweat dripped down Gooby’s back, evidence of the effort he’d put forth. That whole two hours had been a blur to him. He tried his hardest, but he didn’t know if it would pay off.
“Man, that Gooby alien was really good! He hit ten threes in a row!”
Gooby stood in the corner of the dressing room and his mouth dropped as he overheard the human children talking about him. “He’s got such long arms, it’s impossible to get around him!”
“Did you hear that he blocked Oliver Oman five times in a row? And Oliver is the best player in the whole county!”
Gooby had been so focused on the tryouts he didn’t even realize that he had done so well. Gooby slept well that night knowing he had a great shot at making the team.
