Everything happened so fast. I can't exactly retell the events perfectly. I can't preach a sermon about what is going on, and how its going down. Just trust me when I tell you that nothing is the same. Just trust me when I tell you that your loved ones, your friends, may not be whom you believe them to be. They, in fact, could be your enemies.
My name is Brandon.
That's about all that I can tell you about me. I can't give you my facial features. I can't give you my height. I can't give you my eye color, where I live. I must abstain from telling you everything, but my name. Heck, I can't even tell you my last name. But this is my story. You may not like what you hear in this story, you may enjoy the thrill, the despair. You may enjoy our, as in humans, first and last defense against an alien war.
So there I was. I was at the arcade, it was that new fighting game...Tekken, I was very close to reaching the last boss. Ogre. I had been waiting to fight him every since the game had arrived. Ogre was a monster. He had killed everyone that had fought him. One arm was a retracting snake, the other could produce flames. His eyes glowed red, and wings would unfold like hidden weapons. The graphics of the game would intimidate the weak of heart. Yeah right. I beat him in five hits.
Then I saw them.
Jake, Cassie, Rachel, and Marco. At school they didn't hang out. But everywhere else they went they were always together. Wasn't it a little suspicious to anyone other than me? What did they do together? And why was the social status at school at risk when school was in session? It had been killing me for awhile now. Well, not killing me in jealousy, but...curiosity more like.
I had beaten the game I had been wanting to beat for awhile now. Was it an obvious sign? To go ahead and figure out why they disturbed me?
So I did.
I walked over to there table, and in the friendliest way possible, asked them what had been bothering me. "Hey guys."
"Hey," Jake replied.
"What's up?" Cassie asked, trying to not show her obvious affection for Jake.
"I was just wondering...why don't you four hang out at school? I mean...in public you guys are always together." I said.
They were taken aback I guess.
Marco's eyes lit up with terror, as if he had met a familiar enemy. Rachel automatically shot a glance to Jake. Jake nodded his head.
"What's going on?" I asked myself.
Rachel got up from her seat, and said goodbye to all of us. I looked back and saw her exit the arcade.
"Set down." Cassie said, it wasn't a hostile sentence, but it lacked emotion.
I obliged. The scene was tense. What did they expect me to do? Lash out at them because they don't hang out in public? Gosh.
"There's no real reason why we don't hang out at school. I mean...we just don't." Cassie said.
"Yeah, we believe in education." Marco joked.
"Then why are you failing?" I asked.
I had a response for every statement. I know I sound sort of...hostile, like a jerk, etc. But I'm not really a bad person. It was the scene that was affecting me.
Jake was the next one to speak. "We don't hang out at school, because we are members of the sharing, and it's our duty to help some other members. We don't really have time for eachother at school."
It was believable. To someone who had not been to a sharing meeting. "I've been to a couple Sharing meetings. I've never seen you there."
"You wouldn't see us. We are on the activities committee." Cassie replied.
"Oh."
"How long have you been a member?" Marco asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"I'm not. I go every so often. Mostly when someone invites me." I replied.
Cassie's face lit back up with familiarity. Marco sighed, and Jake relaxed.
"My dad's a full member though." I heard myself say before I realized I was about to poor a few weeks of emotion out. "Yeah, it seems he doesn't have time for his son anymore. Mom and dad divorced three weeks ago, that's when dad went to his first meeting. In three days time, he was a full member. My sister joined yesterday. Hah. She's already giving me a cold shoulder. No one is home anymore. Just me."
Cassie extended her arm, and patted my shoulder slowly. She was a good person.
"Tom's a full member." Jake said. I recalled Tom as being Jake's brother. Jake and I used to be pretty god friends. But when we got in Junior High, we sort of went separate ways. He had Basketball, I had academic team.
"Does he ignore you?" I asked.
"Somewhat."
Over the next few minutes, everything seemed alright. But at once, all three left. They said they had to go to a sharing meeting. I asked if I could tag along. But they said it was only for full members.
I grabbed my back pack, for I was going to go on home, and noticed Cassie had left some homework or something setting on our table. I picked it up, spun around and saw they had already exited the door. I ran outside clutching her paper, and saw Cassie rounded a corner into an alley. I walked slowly, knowing that the alley they had went down was a dead end.
I rounded the alley, it was darkening. But I saw three figures behind the dumpster, what were they doing that was so secretive? Drugs? I hope not.
I rounded the dumpster and stopped dead in my tracks. I tripped over my own feet, stumbled into the opposite wall, and slid to the floor. What I saw would haunt my nightmares forever. Cassie was half owl, half human. I didn't realize I was screaming, but somewhere in my head I heard...(Shut up!)
"What the?!" I yelled. I got to my feet and started to run, but Jake grabbed my arm and spun me around. One finger was up to his lips, yet I continued to scream. Jake put his hand over my mouth and dragged me behind the dumpster.
"Cassie demorph." Jake commanded.
Cassie/Owl started to "demorph"
My eyes were wide with terror and fascination. Slowly, the feathers disappeared, the outline of feathers remained, and in a waving motion, disappeared too. Her beak flattened and sunk into her face and her nose reappeared. With some more minor changes, Cassie was starring at me.
"It couldn't be a secret forever right?" Marco said.
"What can we do?" Cassie asked.
"Well...give him to Erek, The Yeerks, or make him one of us." Jake said.
All of this words were spinning in my mind. What were Yeerks?! Who was Erek!? And what was Jake, Cassie, and Marco?
I know its not the best starting chapter but, hey! Its my first Animorph fanfic.