This is for @Contests contest #21 about aliens and @NationalReader's plot twist contest. 

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"Today's assignment will be something that requires a little more creativity than usual," the science teacher began. "I need you to write something to explain to me whether aliens exist or not, and if they do, what do they look like? How do they communicate? Would we discover them, or would they discover us? If not, why don't they exist? It needs to be short enough to fit on the index card that is on your desk, yet very informative. You may begin." 

Ellie Park reached for her pencil and the index card before beginning to write furiously. The answer to this question was obvious, she didn't see how anyone could possibly disagree with her. 

Aliens don't exist, it is simply impossible for the perfect conditions in which earth exists to be recreated elsewhere, giving opportunity for alien life...

She continued until her index card was covered in a messy scrawl. She was indeed very passionate about her opinions on this subject, and wrote so quickly she didn't bother to pay attention to her handwriting. 

While she waited for the rest of the class to finish, Ellie glanced over at the desk of her friend Sophie, who also seemed to be finished writing. However, only a couple of lines on her index card were filled up. Ellie squinted, attempting to read what Sophie had written, but she wasn't able to. 

A few minutes later, Mr. Weston came around to pick up the cards. The class worked on the projects they had started a few days ago while he read through everyone's answers. 

After about forty five minutes of work, the shrill tone of the bell was heard and the class filed out of their seats, eager to leave the final period of the day. 

"Sophie Carter, stay right here. I need to speak with you," Mr. Weston said menacingly. 

A chorus of "oooh"s and "wonder what she did"s came forth as Sophie stepped away from the crowd of students exiting the classroom and came forward. Ellie waited just outside of the door, curious and concerned for her friend. 

"Read for me what you've written on this card," he ordered, handing Sophie her index card. 

"Of course aliens exist, they are as real as you and me," she read. "If you don't know what they look like, you're blind. If you don't know how they communicate, you're deaf. If you don't know how they were discovered, you've been sleeping in history class." 

"Shameless," Mr. Weston shook his head, taking the card from her hand. "Did you think it was okay to make a joke of a serious assignment?"

"It isn't a joke, Mr. Weston," Sophie stated gravely. "Whether you believe me or not, it's the truth." 

"Sophie!" Mr. Weston pursed his lips in agitation. "You are a very talented and usually very well behaved young lady. I did not expect something like this from you. Since it seems to be a one time thing, I will be taking thirty points off your assignment instead of giving you a zero like I should. You may leave." 

"It's true, though," Sophie said quietly before exiting the classroom. 

"What did you think you were doing?" Ellie asked, horrified, when she saw her friend. "You could've easily gotten a detention for that! Mr. Weston's not someone you should mess with!" 

"I really wasn't joking, Ellie," Sophie pleaded. 

"Cut it out," Ellie said crossly. "You don't have to lie to me!" 

"Come with me, and I'll prove it. It'll only take, like half an hour," Sophie pointed to the door. 

"And why should I do that?" 

"Because I don't want you to think I'm a liar." 

Curious, Ellie nodded and followed her out the back door of the school. They mounted our bikes and rode in silence through the neighborhood, Sophie rode with such speed and urgency that Ellie could barely keep up. 

"Here it is," she said proudly, stopping randomly in the middle of the sidewalk and leaning her bike against a tree. 

"Um...there's nothing there," Ellie raised an eyebrow, looking out at a small grove of trees separated from the road by a thin sidewalk. 

"It's underground," Sophie grinned, making her way up to one of the trees. She knocked on the ground, patted it, and leaned her ear against it before shaking her head, moving and repeating the motion on another patch of ground. Ellie thought it looked downright weird. Was her friend going crazy? 

"Here!" She shouted, pointing to a small point in the ground. She ran her palms across the grass, then gripped something within it. Ellie approached to find a trapdoor with a nearly invisible handle buried in the grass. 

"Whoa!" Ellie gasped. 

"I told you," Sophie smiled. "Now get in here quick before cars come along! I can't risk anyone seeing this." She propped the trapdoor against a tree and descended the stone steps into whatever was inside. After a slight moment of hesitation, Ellie headed in after her, abruptly pulling the door shut as soon as she was inside. 

For a few seconds, there was complete darkness, but Ellie soon heard the flick of a switch and crude lightbulbs hanging from rusty chains lit the cave up with an eerie, flickering glow. 

"Walk through the tunnel!" Sophie called from somewhere ahead of her. "Keep one hand on the wall at all times so you don't get lost!" 

"Okay!" Ellie replied, slowly walking through the dank tunnel. The walls were cool and wet with what she hoped was water, and the floor was sticky, making her sneakers produce a ripping noise every time she took a step. She was pretty creeped out by the place, but the assuring sound of Sophie's footsteps in front of her calm her. 

After about ten minutes of walking, the long tunnel opened up into a dimly lit cavern. 

"So you brought me here to show me a cave?" Ellie asked, disappointed. 

"No," Sophie said, still smiling mysteriously. "You can't see them with the lights on." She walked over to the wall and flicked a second light switch, instantly darkening the cavern. 

Immediately, the dark space began to glow a fluorescent green. Ellie gasped at the hundreds of glow in the dark crystals that lined the walls, illuminating the cave even better than the lightbulbs had. The piles of rocks in the center also glowed, only now, Ellie could see that they weren't random. 

The luminous stones formed patterns across the surface of the larger, cylindrical boulders, outlining their regular, carved shapes. These were no ordinary rocks, they were spaceships in various sizes and stages of decomposition!

"I can't believe this!" Ellie's eyes widened as she ran her hand over the cool rock. "It's amazing!" 

"No," Sophie smiled. "You haven't seen anything yet. Come inside," she pointed to the largest and most intact spaceship. 

"Is it safe?" Ellie asked dubiously. 

"Of course!" Sophie smiled, sliding away the moss-covered door and crawling through the narrow doorway. Getting down on all fours, Ellie followed. 

From the inside, the ships' purpose and structure was even clearer. Rows of about a dozen seats filled the capsule, with a complicated steering mechanism in front. In the back, the ship was tall enough for the girls to stand in. Rising shakily to her feet, Ellie nearly shrieked at the sight of a skeleton reclined in the seat next to her. 

Its bones were turning brown and bits of decomposing flesh still hung from it. The most repulsive thing about is was the chain that circled it, tying it to the seat. Surprisingly, it looked...human. 

"A prisoner?" Ellie asked, disgusted. 

"No," Sophie said gravely. "This is how the King of the Ancestors punished traitors. He chained them to the ship and sent it underground."

"Wait...how do you know this?" 

"The Ancestor Princess forgot her diary on the ship," Sophie stated dryly, holding up a dusty old book. 

Ancestors...ships buried underground...

"If you don't know what they look like, you're blind..." Ellie trailed off, her eyes brightening with realization. 

"You're smart, Ellie," Sophie chuckled as she walked to stand between Ellie and the door. "The Ancestors were running from their dying planet. They came here in the early 1900s, settling right here. They exterminated the natives of Earth with their superior technology and greater population, then invented new, false history, telling their children they had been here all along."

"So...so the alien invasion has already happened?" Ellie stuttered. "Except the invaders were...us?" 

"Correct," Sophie smiled. "And of course, the Ancestors couldn't let anyone find out about their little secret, it would create an uproar. So they created the Luminatus, a top secret organization dedicated to keeping our interstellar origins unknown." 

"But how do you know about this Luminatus?" Ellie inquired. "That can't be in the diary." 

"Because, Ellie," Sophie began to grin as she fished the large, stone key to the spaceship out of her pocket and tossed it into a heap of moss outside. "I am an agent of the Luminatus, and I'm sorry, but it's my job to keep the Ancestors' secret."

"No!" Ellie yelled, realizing what her friend was about to do but her voice fell to deaf ears as Sophie exited the ship, slamming the door shut forever and muffling Ellie's screams.