Wrong Alien (TerraMates Book 6) Read Online Free Page A

paid for things. It was how I entertained myself. It had my memories. My whole life was on that device. I wasn't handing it over to a grim-faced woman who had never had a day of fun in her life.
    More than anything else, there was a picture of Kyle on my phone. I wasn't leaving that image behind. I had promised him I would always keep it with me while I was gone.
    Kyle wasn't my boyfriend. He was a four-year-old in my preschool class. I smiled as I remembered the way he looked. Kyle was a little boy whose overworked single mother hardly had time for him. She did the best she could with the time she had and always asked how he was doing. She wanted him to excel in school so he could make a better life for himself. He was a brilliant child and was already learning how to read.
    When I told my classes that I wouldn't be coming back for a long time, he was heartbroken and sobbed uncontrollably until his mother came to pick him up. Then he didn't want to say good-bye to me.
    We took a selfie together. I promised him I would keep the picture with me everywhere I went in the galaxy so he would be with me. The promise comforted him. And my heart, which felt like it was breaking at the thought of leaving all the students in my preschool classes, felt a little better.
    "There is no technology allowed on Yordbrook, Miss," the customs officer repeated, bringing me back to the present.
    "Surely there must be some exceptions," I said.
    The woman shook her head. "How can you come to a planet like Yordbrook without knowing anything about the planet?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "You're certainly in for some culture shock."
    TerraMates had sent me some folders about Jesse and his planet. I had no time to read them because I had been working overtime to buy new clothes. I intended to bring the information to read on the space flight, but my mother had tried to help by cleaning up for me. The folders had been missing ever since.
    My mother. I felt like grinding my teeth at the thought of her. I had returned from TerraMates that day to find her with a new boyfriend. A couple of days later, she asked me to move out. The timing was great because I didn't have to worry about what she would do without me.
    But it still hurt that she cast aside her daughter as soon as she met Marlo. Had she been using me the whole time for my money? Now that she had a new supplier, did she no longer need me?
    Right now, I had even bigger problems than my mother.
    "What happens to my devices if I leave them here?" I asked.
    "There's no if, sweetie. Technology is not allowed on Yordbrook. If you want to beam down, you have to leave everything behind."
    "Okay...where does my stuff go?"
    "It's all stored until you return," she said.
    "Can I have a minute?" I asked, and she smiled, shaking her head again.
    "Sure, dear," she said. The agent waved the next person in line forward. "You can have a minute to say goodbye to your belongings."
    "You're hilarious," I said, giving her an annoyed look.
    "Don't forget, I'll search you when you come back," she called after me.
    I pulled my luggage with me to the bathroom and locked the door, sitting down on the toilet. I could not leave it all here.
    I wondered what I could do. I would let go of the big items like the computer and tablet, and the less important things like my glasses that accessed the Internet and my music-playing ring. I would wear my regular glasses. The frames were way uglier than the Internet-capable glasses, but they would have to do.
    But my phone had to come with me. It couldn't be that big of a deal. It could recharge the battery from any light source. But how would I smuggle it?
    I looked at it thoughtfully. It was a piece of two-by-two inch adjustiplast stuck to the back of my hand. Adjustiplast was state-of-the-art plastic and could become hard or soft as necessary. It adhered to one's skin, so the wearer didn't have to carry it. I couldn't hide it somewhere on my person because the customs agent would find