What would you do if your school was run by aliens? How would you like being watched in school all day by aliens? That’s what Cade, Blake, and Drew have to deal with in their school. When the aliens invaded, they took power over their kingdoms and their schools. Every school has an alien in charge, usually wearing a white suit made of crystals. The aliens are somewhat taller than average humans. They have faces that look somewhat human but with lines up and down. Their faces are stretched, looking old but strong at the same time. Their skin is a sky-blue colour. Every school often has another alien of high position who works with the leader. Then there is an alien assigned to each classroom. They sit in the back watching the students and the teacher as well.
The aliens established in the school what they call their ONE WAY to succeed. This is for students and teachers. The aliens believe the only subjects that are truly important are English which includes reading and writing skills, math, and science. The subjects of history, some types of math and science, art, music, or anything else is not considered important. Even if you excel in those subjects it won’t help your ranking that much. Cade doesn’t really believe in reading, not that he thinks it doesn’t exist, but that it’s impossible to read more than ten pages before falling asleep.
The aliens established a ranking system for students which continues into adulthood as well.
BlackStar: This is the lowest ranking meaning failure.
BlueStar: This is the next highest ranking meaning average, just okay.
GoldStar: This ranking means you’re succeeding good, but not great.
WhiteStar: This is the highest ranking, meaning you are elite.
These rankings are really important for the students. If you are ranked as BlackStar, you will start getting punished. At first, you just get more schoolwork and tests, but if you still don’t move up then you start to have to either come in before school or after school to do chores. Most of them are cleaning the school, some are just other boring tasks that need to be done. If you continue to fail long enough, then you get tough jobs assigned to you working long hours with hardly any breaks and no pay. Cade and Blake are ranked as BlackStar. They, like many of their friends, face having to get these punishments soon. Do you get in trouble at school? Does it happen a lot? What do you have to do? What do you think is worse, having to come in before school or stay after school? Leave a comment below telling your experiences. Don’t worry, DadeStar Mysteries will not report anything you say to your school! WhiteStar Students get high rewards like various gifts, money, and high positions that have a lot of prestige.
The aliens only allow students to learn by listening to the teacher explain the subject and then write down notes. They are not allowed to draw any pictures or figure it out any other way. Every assignment is reading and answering questions. They are not allowed to do any creative projects that show them how the concept works. Tests are only a long set of questions where they have to write short essay answers. The students and teachers are not allowed to be creative, they must follow the aliens’ guides for how to learn the concepts. The aliens are also really strict with behavior. You have to sit completely still during really long lessons. If they see you moving at all you will lose grade points that will lower your ranking. How would you do in this system? Cade and Blake have had some adventures as well as problems in this system.
Cade struggles to learn in this style because for him to learn something he really has to just do it. Blake is similar, but for him he needs visuals and projects to understand how a concept works. They both struggle with sitting still since they like to be active. Both kids are smart, but they don’t learn well in the aliens’ system. They can figure things out by drawing pictures and learning by doing. Cade has a way of figuring things out as it happens. I’m not sure how he does it, like figuring out how to break through a trap set by the dark spirits to catch him, but it works. Blake knows the best strategies by looking at real examples and visuals, then he can figure things out even when he’s on the run.
They usually get through the worst lessons by playing a soccer game made of paper. They draw a soccer field and make paper goals and a paper soccer ball. Is this allowed by the aliens? Certainly not, so they have to get creative, which also isn’t technically allowed. The two kids put up books on the front end of the desk so it looks like they’re taking notes from the teacher’s perspective. But the alien is sitting in the back, so for him or her, they try to do most of their “kicking” directly in front of them, but they also have a fake set of notes written with their pens on hand just in case the alien takes a closer look. It works well most of the time, but one time they had a close call.
When any students step out of line or the teacher doesn’t seem to be teaching or managing the class effectively, the alien will communicate his message to a messenger, usually a WhiteStar Student. No one knows their language or how this works, but somehow they are able to communicate their message to the student who then states what the alien wants them to know. Their voice sounds kind of eerie and solemn when they are relaying an alien message.
So one time Cade and Blake were playing. It was a high scoring game, one of their best in fact, during an incredibly boring lesson about grammar. It wasn’t the teacher’s fault. She was a great teacher who used to teach really creative lessons that got the kids learning and moving, but she couldn’t do that kind of lesson anymore. She still secretly works with the BlackStar and BlueStar students helping them figure out how to do the best they can in the assignments teaching them creative techniques she can’t teach in front of the aliens. But yeah, this lesson was just awful. It had already been two hours. The kids were making some genius moves, but one move got away from them, actually the ball got away. Blake flicked it high, so high, Cade had to jump to block it, but it still went over his “goal.” Blake celebrated, until he saw how far the “soccer ball” went…five desks away. Cade had to act fast.
A sideways glance showed him the alien had stood up and was moving toward the paper soccer ball on the floor. He grabbed his pen, held it in his fist, and dove between the rows, sliding fast before crawling fast between the desks, rolling over several times before grabbing the ball. With his back to the fast approaching alien he quickly unwrapped it and wrote something he heard the teacher say in the lesson: “Exclamation points should be used sparingly.” The alien picked it up, staring at it with his crescent moon-shaped eyes that burned white. Cade shot a nervous glance back at Blake who was smoothly putting their fake notes down over the soccer field and putting the two soccer goals away. The alien looked it over, then handed it back to Cade. Cade watched nervously as the alien looked over at their desk before walking back to the back of the classroom. When Cade sat down he shot Blake a half-smile, half-relieved expression. Blake just put his head down with a long sigh.
Cade and Blake have a lot more to worry about now than just the strict way the aliens run their school. The aliens have created a dark illness that seems to threaten students like Cade and Blake the most. The weapon fueling this fatal illness seems to be set on a massive statue of a teenage singer floating high in mid-air at the new alien school of Daylustar. Find out what happens in the first book in the series The Cashes Dade Ghost Strikers which is available right now on Amazon. Click on the links to check it out:
MYSTERY OF THE ALIENS’ DAYLUSTAR STATUE
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0892HQTMN
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0894CYGK2
Get ready for the next mystery challenge. The mystery will focus on what key question reveals something important about the aliens, something they’re hiding. This post gives a few clues for what the answer is, but the next post will offer more clues. See if you can figure it out. Cade and Blake refuse to sit back and let the aliens destroy them and their friends. Daylustar is where the aliens’ weapon is fueling the dark illness, so that’s where they’re going…
