odd when Cass was uncharacteristically quiet on Monday morning. And when she fell asleep in the middle of Mrs. Novak’s lecture on the updated food pyramid, everyone noticed.
Cass slumped over her desk, face resting on her forearms, fuzzy cat-ear headband pushed askew—Cass had chosen a black, feline-like outfit for school that day. She breathed deeply and wheezed with each exhale. I was surprised she wasn’t drooling.
“Robinson,” Mrs. Novak said in her usual gruff way.
Cass remained asleep.
It was go time. I slid my phone partially from my pocket and opened the app I’d downloaded for gathering audio—I was committed to recording every detail of the hoax. For science.
Mrs. Novak repeated herself, louder. Still no response.
She glanced at me. “Hofstadt, wake your friend.”
I leaned across the aisle and gently shook Cass’s shoulder. “Hey, Cass?”
She blinked and groggily raised her head, looking around with confusion.
“Wha—” She took in our teacher’s frown and crossed arms. “Was I asleep?”
“I’m glad you find my class so stimulating,” Mrs. Novak said.
Cass glanced around the room, mortified. “I’m so sorry. This has never happened to me before.”
“Stayed up too late partying, huh?” The stern look remained on Mrs. Novak’s face, but I saw a twinkle in her eye.
“I wasn’t partying, really,” Cass insisted. “I just…”
She bit her lip. All eyes were on her. A few people smiled, like they were expecting a punch line.
“I…” Cass tried again. “I saw something bizarro last night, okay? Lights in the sky. And there was a noise… Whatever. I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Wait,” Justin Howard said. “Did you see the Hofstadts’ aliens?”
Cass rolled her eyes. “There’s no such thing as aliens. I saw some lights, that’s all. It was weird, and yeah, I stayed up super late watching them. But it wasn’t aliens.”
People shot concerned glances at one another. Eyebrows raised. Whispered conversation began.
“What did the lights look like?” Sara Kang asked, leaning forward in her chair.
Cass took a deep breath. Then she began her monologue, a detailed description of the lights based on information I’d gathered from accounts of similar sightings.
It was both thrilling and unsettling to see people hang on her every word. I glanced at Mrs. Novak and even she, someone I’d pegged as a skeptic, listened intently and made no attempt to get back to the food pyramid.
We can do this, I realized. We can make this hoax work.
Step three of the scientific method was form a hypothesis.
Maybe something like: when presented with seemingly factual evidence, typically rational individuals will become convinced of the highly improbable, despite it going against their greater instincts and knowledge.
“This is bullshit,” Sofia Russo said suddenly, flipping her hair over her shoulder. (Sofia Russo: Cass’s longtime theater rival. Their relationship mystified me—they thrived off competing with each other and, though their conversations were fraught with animosity, still somehow maintained a friendship.)
“Language,” Mrs. Novak reminded her.
“Isn’t it weird that the UFOs just happened to appear to someone who’s friends with the Hofstadts? I haven’t seen any lights.”
“Zeus knows, the whole world would’ve heard about it if you had,” Cass said, smiling sweetly at Sofia.
Sofia smirked. “Maybe because, unlike some people, I’ve mastered speaking from my diaphragm.”
Before Cass could voice a comeback, other people began asking questions about the lights. Some took her story at face value while others were hesitant. Only Sofia showed outright disbelief. Admittedly, it made me gain respect for her.
As I listened to my classmates debate the possibility of alien life, I considered what a strange predicament I’d put myself in. If the hoax succeeded and people bought into the narrative Ishmael and I were spinning, I’d lose respect for them. But if they didn’t believe it and the hoax failed, I’d lose respect for myself.
The Next Four Days
Even if you plan something meticulously, you can be startled by just how easily you achieve results. Somehow, the situation in Lansburg became very strange very quickly.
A brief recap of events following Cass’s confession:
1. Cass’s tale of extraterrestrial lights spreads through Irving High School.
2. According to Maggie, the middle school begins buzzing about aliens as well.
3. Adam Frykowski writes a follow-up article about UFO activity in Lansburg, titled “‘I Saw a Fire in the Sky’: A Chronology of UFO Sightings in the Greater Pittsburgh Area.” While the article is mainly an exploration of past sightings, it closes with Cass’s story.
4. The comments on Frykowski’s post rapidly pile up, with both Lansburg residents and outsiders adding to the conversation.
5. Frykowski’s website is discovered by radio personality Robert Nash and featured on his