I felt like I was in paradise! School was out and everyone was celebrating by having a huge pool party; huge as in the whole school was invited. I couldn't wait to go since my boyfriend, Peter, said he would meet me there. I took one final look in the mirror; Best friend Alice did a Hunger Games Katniss Everdeen side braid, painted my nails aqua blue, and did a facial for me. At occasions like this, you dress to impress.

On the car ride there, I couldn't help but get butterflies in my stomach. I realized that I had never been to a pool party with Peter before.

"Sarah, remember to have fun, stay safe, and call me if you're going to be late," Dad always gets a little worried when I go to big parties like this.

"Dad! I'll be fine. Besides, Peter will be there, so what could possibly go wrong?" I grinned as I got out of the car.

"Hey! Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Dad called as I turned to leave.

I walked into the party and stood there in awe! Never have I ever seen such an extravagant place! There were chocolate fountains, fruit of every kind, cookies piled higher than imagined, soda, and milkshakes galore! But that's not all! Twinkling lights were strung everywhere, people were lining up to play 8-ball, there was a dance floor, and an actual DJ.

"Hey!" I jumped at the loud voice that was directed towards me. "There's my gorgeous princess!" Peter called as he hustled over to give me a hug. It was odd to feel his exposed skin against mine. "It's so good to see you again," I said. We broke apart and Peter looked at me weirdly for a moment.

"What? What is it?" I asked.

"It's just that...I've never seen you in a swimsuit before, it's different. I mean, it's not every day that I get to see you dressed like this," he explained.

"Well, I'm glad that you like what you see. Now, let's party!" I exclaimed as I grabbed Peter's arm and jumped in the pool, pulling him in after me.

"What was that for?" 

"Oh, I don't know, maybe because you're such an easy target?" I laughed.

"Well in that case, your on!" Peter said as he splashed me. 

After playing games, eating, dancing, laughing, and splashing for almost 3 hours, the party was finally starting to die down. Peter & I were sitting in the pool with my head on his chest and his arms wrapped around me tightly.

"I wish everyday could be like this," I said as I watched the lights sparkle on the water.

"So do I," Peter said and then added, "Sarah, I love you."

"I love you too," I said softly as I gazed into Peter's dark brown eyes. Then, Peter leaned in to kiss me. At last, I would have my first kiss! But then suddenly, BOOM! Our perfect moment in paradise was interrupted. Peter & I broke apart and saw something extremely odd. There in the sky, was a giant burning flame streaking past the the mountain range, past the big city, and then...GONE!? It just disappeared from plain sight, just like that, in a matter of seconds!

"Sarah, I think it's safe to say that now would be a good time to go home," Peter said as he pulled me out of the pool and gathered our belongings. 

The next morning, I woke up to the smell of scrambled eggs and bacon. Breakfast? That made no sense! Dad hardly woke up before me. Something serious must have happened! I dressed quickly and stormed down the stairs.

"Dad! Are you okay? You haven't been having nightmares about Mom again have you?" I asked worried.

"No," Dad said calmly.

"What about Jason? Did something happen to him?" I asked a little more worried.

"No, Jason's fine as far as I know," Dad sighed.

"Then...what is it?" I asked confused.

"Nothing, I was just so worried about you last night and I couldn't help but think-" RING-RING! My cell phone was ringing.

"Hello?" It was Peter.

"Sarah! Turn on the news. You won't believe what happened last night!" Peter said urgently. I grabbed the remote and turned on the news as fast as I could.

"Apparently, the supposed asteroid that lit up the sky last night turned out to be more than just a hunk of space rock," the news reporter continued, "According to our inside researchers, it appears to be a UFO!"

"No way! Peter, are you getting all of this?" I asked excitedly.

"I sure am. It's everywhere! On the news, in the newspaper, talk shows, radio, Facebook, YouTube, you name it, it's on there. This story has gone worldwide," Peter explained. I didn't know what to think! It all seemed too good to be true.

"So this is why you were up so early?" I asked Dad with a smile.

"Yeah. You know, Jason is down there right now working with the researchers. In fact, he wanted to Skype you and talk all about it," Dad said. Sure enough, Jason was already waiting for me.

"So what's new little bro?"

"So glad you asked! The UFO is actually an alien ship. It has extremely advanced technology, much more that what we can comprehend. Sarah, this is what you'd see in the movies, only it's here right now, at my fingertips!" my brother explained. 

We talked for hours about all of the scientific and technological facts. Then, someone whispered something into my brother's ear. Judging by the sudden face change, it couldn't have been very good. All of a sudden, the research lab alarms started blaring.

"Jason, what's happening?" I asked frantically.

"We have to evacuate the building. Hopefully it's nothing too serious, but for now, this is goodbye," Jason said as he hurriedly collected his data; I knew what was coming next.

"Jason, wait!" but it was too late. Jason broke up what might've been our last connection. I slowly went downstairs and told Dad what had happened.

"Don't worry! It was probably a false alarm. I'm sure that it will be fine by morning, you'll see," Dad said half-heartedly.

"But something is seriously going on! I can just feel it. I-" but Dad only cut me off with,

"Sarah, you're frustrated from having to come home so early last night. Why don't you just sleep on it? You'll forget it even happened at all by tomorrow morning," Dad said trying to sound convincing. Deep down, I think we both knew that something was definitely up. 

I couldn't sleep; The thought of not knowing if my brother was ok or not kept me up all hours of the night. Eventually, I got up and made some breakfast. I turned the news on, since I had nothing better to do, but slowly wished I hadn't. "Last night, the now confirmed alien ship that crashed into the Hawaiian Islands is taking a major toll on the citizens, streets, and all over their beloved island. Researchers said that the only explanation for this kind of explosion is extremely hot Gamma rays. However, that's just the beginning of the bad news," the news reporter went on with a video from one of the researchers.  

"Our youngest researcher on site shared his story late last night." Then Jason showed up on screen at the sad sight.

"The explosion was merely a distraction for the aliens to escape their ship. When they came out, they were armed with weapons and opened fire on everyone! They just plowed right through, destroying anything and everything, in their path," Jason explained.

Finally, the U.S. government Army Official came on screen and gave a big long speech about how nothing like this has happened since Pearl harbor. I decided not to sit through all of the interviews about the political side of the situation. I turned the news off and got up to put my dishes away, but stopped when I realized that Dad had been watching the whole thing.

"Alice texted you," Dad said as he held up my phone and set it on the table. "She wants to hang out at the mall and catch something to eat on the way back. I told her that you wanted to go. You only have 45 minutes to get ready." Dad looked like he didn't sleep much either. As much as I wanted to ask Dad about how to find Jason, I really needed to talk to Alice.