"You don't need a cape to be a hero. You just need to care."

-Kid President

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Kate skipped hand-in-hand with her twin Elena. The coins held in her fist made her smile and she jutted out her chin with pride.

They were going to look for rings. Not just any ring. They had heard a fat man sold alien rings.

They had many books about space and stars and they loved them. And aliens? They were amazing. Mom bought them a new book whenever they were good.

And daddy? He bought them whatever they wanted. Once she got home, she would show him the ring. They would get a ring, right?

"What if everyone buys all the rings?" Kate asked with a frown.

"We can never be sure unless we check," Elena said. "Come on, hurry up, Fat Legs."

"El." Kate groaned. "Stop calling me that." But her sister only giggled.

An ice cream van stopped in front of them and Kate dropped Elena's hand from hers, running towards it.

"Ice cream!"

"Come here, K!" Elena yelled. "We need to buy the rings first."

But it was too late. Kate bought a chocolate-chip ice cream cone and giggled.

"Let's go, Kate." Elena linked her arm with hers and ran towards the shop.

The ice cream in Kate's hand shook, small rivers of it covering her palm in a sticky mess. Running, she took a bite, the cream turning her nose cold.

"El, wait, hold this." Kate huffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "I have got ice cream everywhere."

By the time Kate rinsed her face with the water in her bottle, Elena had eaten half of her cone.

Kate stuck out her bottom lip. "I never asked you to eat it."

Elena licked her lips with a snigger, her pigtails dancing with the wind. "I was hungry."

Kate huffed. "You don't like chocolate. Why did you eat it?"

Elena grinned, her teeth brown. "I can eat grass if I am hungry. Chocolate is far better."

Kate handed her the water bottle. "Rinse your mouth, El. Mom will be mad."

They entered the shop. Different shapes and colors: red, blue, silver, gold and pink meeting Kate's eyes.

But her glance snapped to the ring with a green alien head, which was placed in the middle of the box of rings.

"El!" Kate shook her sister's arm with glee. "Look! There are two left for us."

"Actually, only one."

Kate and Elena turned to find a boy standing behind them. He took small steps and stopped next to them.

The first thing Kate noticed about him was his eyes--a blue so blue it could put the sky to shame.

The second thing was his dark hair covering his forehead.

"No, the color is lighter than the sky's," Elena whispered with a shake of her head, her eyes still locked to the boy's.

Kate smiled softly. Trust El and her thought-detecting skills.

"How much?" the boy asked the shopkeeper as he held the alien ring.

"Hey, we came here first," Elena said and snatched the ring out of the boy's hand. "You can buy another ring, there are so many of them."

The boy stood still, still staring at her sister. Then a small smile showed his perfect, white teeth. "I could say that to you too."

"But..." Elena pouted, her bottom lip slightly shaking.

Cry alert, cry alert, cry alert. Kate shook her head. She didn't want Elena to burst into tears now. Not in front of the boy, who smiled so easily at them anyway.

Who did he think he was? The way he looked at them like they were kids, made Kate mad.

And who was he? Just another kid, probably a year or two older than them.

But she wouldn't let him take away the rings they wanted.

She grabbed the alien from Elena's fingers and showed it to the shopkeeper.

"How much?" she asked, placing one arm on her hip as she grinned.

"That would be a dollar." The shopkeeper moved a little, lifting his face above the newspaper he had been reading.

The boy giggled and stepped closer. He took one ring from her finger and put some coins on the counter.

The shopkeeper slid the coins from the counter onto his palm, his face still hidden behind the paper.

"Sorry, but this one's mine." The boy wore the ring on his index finger. "You can share the other one."

"No!" Elena said and caught his finger, trying to remove the ring from it.

"Now, now, kids." The man got up slowly. He seemed like a penguin to Kate. "No fighting, please. There are only two rings."

The boy backed away, his smile gone. "I wanted this ring since so long. You can share the other one."

"No! We came here first." Elena stomped her foot. "The ring is ours, boy."

"It's Ivan."

"Okay, Van, you heard me, the ring is ours."

"It's Ivan. I for ice cream, V for van."

Kate giggled. "Ice cream van!"

Elena was angry and took the ring from Ivan.

"You can give him his money back." Elena knocked on the counter, but the shopkeeper was on his knees, searching for something.

"We are going to buy both the rings." Elena placed the coins she had on the counter.

Kate licked her lips. She had nothing to place on Elena's palm. She had no money left. The ice cream had eaten the money she had and she had eaten the ice cream. So, she, in fact, had eaten the money.

A shake of her arm made her gasp.

"Hand over the coins, K," Elena said, tapping her foot.

"I don't have any," Kate whispered. She didn't miss the smile on Ivan's face.

Yeah, he would be happy. One ring was his.

"Are you done, kids?" The man got up with a huff and sat on his chair. "Who is buying what?"

"We are buying one ring." Elena sighed and pointed at Ivan and handed the ring back to him. "And he already bought one."

"So, you are okay with sharing one ring?" Ivan asked.

"We don't have a choice." Elena shook her head.

"Look what I found?" The shopkeeper smiled and showed them another alien ring.

Kate grinned. Mom was right. Doing good things always lead to good things.

But the grin was gone. She didn't have any money. The ice cream had eaten it and she had eaten the ice cream.

"Here," Ivan said and placed more coins on the counter. "Give it to them."

"You don't have to..." Elena couldn't stop the smile from spreading on her face.

Kate smiled. "Thank you."

She grabbed the ring from the man and ran out of the shop.

"I'm going to show this to daddy," she yelled.

"Kate, wait." Elena held her arm. "Hey, that rhymed!"

"What?" Kate asked and noticed Ivan looking at three kids.

He walked towards them, so did Elena and Kate followed too.

Two boys and a girl stood on the grass. A boy, the smallest out of the three, wore an alien costume.

The other two stood in a suit and dress and laughed at the small boy.

"You will never win. Aliens are horrible." The girl giggled.

"Yes, what she said." The boy pushed the smaller boy on the grass.

Kate helped the small boy up. His face was full of tears and he blew his nose. "Aliens are amazing. Look, I bought this ring now."

Elena huffed and pushed the mean boy.

The girl stomped her feet and tried to push Elena.

The boy was mad and pushed Elena's shoulder. She fell down and Ivan helped her up.

He stepped closer to the boy and held the collar of his coat. "Don't hit girls. Be a boy and fight with a boy, not a girl."

Kate found the blue in Ivan's eyes turning like ice. His hands turned into fists.

"You and you." Ivan pointed at the mean kids. "The next time I see the both of you troubling others, you will see my bad side."

The girl ran away and the boy was going to but Ivan held his arm.

"Say you are sorry to him and her."

The boy's bottom lip slightly shook and he said sorry before running away.

"Kel, are you okay?"

"Mom!" Elena yelled and ran towards their mother with a little limp.

Their mom hugged her and Elena cried in her arms.

Ivan turned to walk away, but Kate touched his hand. "Don't go, Van. My mom clicks nice pictures. Let us take one."

Elena wiped her face and smiled, her eyes red. "Friends, Van?"

"Friends." Ivan giggled.

"How old are you?" Kate asked.

"Nine, and you?"

"We are eight."

Kate tugged her mother's dress. "Mom, this is our friend, Van. He bought one of the rings for us. Click our picture, please."

Elena held her hand up, smiling at the alien ring and Ivan and Kate did the same.

And the picture was clicked.

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Hey, people! 💖 How are you all doing? I'm back with Bonus Episode 4. I know this took a while, but it was really hard for me to write.

A big thank you to Dante_Greywolf and Spedzer for helping me out with the behavior and thoughts of kids. It means a lot, I was really clueless. :)

A big thank you to ssmith314 for reading the beginning of this Episode and for supporting me. :)

This Episode is written for my good friend, AnchanaRadhakrishnan, who wanted to know more about the twins and Ivan's love for aliens. :) I hope you like it.

This one tells the story behind the alien ring in detail and also how Ivan stood up for kids by not tolerating meanness.

What do you think? Did you like it? Yes?/No?

Next up will be Bonus Episode 5, the final one. It will be the last update of The Alien Memory👽. :)

It will be written for my friends, SmitaShukla16, AnchanaRadhakrishnan, Dante_Greywolf and InvisibleTris. I think you might have an idea what the last bonus is going to be about. ;)

Keep smiling! 💕
Lots of love❤💙
Sakina

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