"Someone's happy" said Marco as Rachel literally skipped into the room.

"Uh-huh," said Rachel and sat down, clutching her bag tightly to herself.

"Come on, spill," Cassie grinned.

"Okay but don't freak out," she said wearily.

"Oh, how can we freak out when we morph in to animals almost every single night?" asked Tobias in his human morph.

"Okay, basically, I met another Andalite. Don't interrupt me," she added as Marco started to talk. "He gave me these books. Basically, these books are about us, our future. I don't know how but they are. He told me that we have to read them all, to help us with our battle against the yeerks and to prepare ourselves for the future, if not, change it." They all looked at Jake for an answer.

"I don't know but, well, if the Andalite says we need to read them then I guess we should read them, shouldn't we?" Jake shrugged.

"Um, there is one thing I should point out," sighed Rachel.

What is it? asked Ax wearily.

"These books, they're in our point of views. Once we ave finished reading them, we'll have no secrets in the group. None." she said casting sad eyes around the group. She hated the fact that they were going to have no privacy.

"I suppose that's the risk we're going to have to take," said Marco solemnly.

"Okay, I think we should read our own books out loud just in case we want to leave some things out," Jake concluded and they all agreed.

"All right, this book is yours, Jake," Rachel handed the book to him. He took it.

ANIMIRPHS

The invasion

"Hey, that's the name I came up with," said Marco in shock.

"I think it's a cool name," said Rachel with a small shrug. "It kinda stuck."

"Are you going to interrupt all the time?" asked Jake, irritated and they both fell silent.

We can't tell you who we are. Or where we live. It's too risky, and we've got to be careful. Really careful.

The thing you should know is that everyone is in really big trouble. Yeah, even you.

Everybody shivered at this. Yeah, they knew it but it was still creepy to hear out loud.

Sometimes weird things happen to people. Ask Jake. He may tell you about the night he and his friends saw a strange light in the sky and ended upon a mission to save the human race.

That night Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias and Marco were given the power to morph into any animal they choose. And now they must use that power to outsmart an evil that is greater than anything the world has ever seen...

Jake took a deep breath and began to read the book. You may think it's silly to be so nervous about reading a book but your probably have never had all your secrets, all your thoughts, all you privet things get laid out in front of you and other people. Have you?

Chapter 1

My name is Jake. That's my first name, obviously. I can't tell you my last name. It would be too dangerous. The Controllers are everywhere. And if they knew my full name, they could find me and my friends, and then... well, let's just say I don't want them to find me. What they do to people who resist them is too horrible to think about.

"Yes, that is horrible," shuddered Cassie and Jake rested his hand on her knee and started to read again.

I won't even tell you where I live. You'll just have to trust me that it is a real place, a real town. It may even be your town.

"It most defiantly is real to us," muttered Marco, eyeing the books and wondering if they had the answer to his questions. Where is his mum's body? Is she still alive? Those kind of questions.

I'm writing this all down so that more people will know the terrible truth. Maybe then, somehow, the human race can survive until the Andalites return and rescue us, as they promised they would. Maybe.

The future you must have written this and given it to an Andalite to give to you Ax mused.

My life used to be pretty normal. Normal, that is, until Friday night at the shopping mall.

"Of course, it had to be Friday night at the shopping mall. I wonder whether or not it was the 13th as well. That would be so cool," said Marco and they laughed.

I was there with Marco, my best friend. We were playing video games and hanging out at this cool store that sells comic books and stuff. The usual.

"Boys." Rachel muttered and shook her head. What was so amazing about comic books?

Marco and I had run out of money for the games, right when he was ahead by a kit of points. Mostly, we're equally good at games. I have Sega at home so I get lots of practice time in, but Marco has this amazing ability to analyze games and figure out all the little tricks. So sometimes he beats me.

"Ha!" said Marco triumphantly though he was touched when Jake said 'amazing ability'.

Or maybe I just wasn't concentrating very well.

"Yeah right," said Marco. They all just ignored him as usual. Even Ax had learned to do that, eventually.

I'd had kind of a bad day at school. I'd tried out for the basketball team. I didn't make the cut.

It was like no big deal, really. Except that Tom- he's my big brother- he was this total legend on the junior basketball team. So everyone expected me to make the team easy. Only I didn't.

Like I said, no big thing. But it was on my mind, just the same. Lately, Tom and I hadn't been hanging out as much. Not like we used to. So I figured, you know, if I got his old position on the tam...

They all knew what this meant. This meant that Tom was already an controller. Cassie put a hand on Jake's knee. She understood how hard it was for Jake to know that Tom was a Controller.

Well, anyway, we were out of money and getting ready to head home when we ran into Tobias.

Tobias was... I mean, I guess he still is kind of a strange guy.

"Thanks," laughed Tobias.

He was new at school and he wasn't the toughest kid around, so he got picked on a lot.

I actually met Tobias when he had his head in a toilet.

"Not one of my best entrances," said Tobias airily, as if it meant nothing.

There were these two big guys holding him down and laughing while they flushed, sending Tobias's straggly blond hair swirling around the bowl.

"They were what!" Rachel was furious.

"Hey Rach, it's nothing," soothed Tobias and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, a thank you for caring.

"Do you mind?" sniggered Marco and everyone, again, ignored him.

I told the two creeps to step off, and ever since them, Tobias figured I was his friend.

Thanks for that Tobias thought privately and Jake nodded slightly to show he heard.

"What's up?" Tobias asked.

Why do your male species say 'what's up' as a greeting? asked Ax and the boys merely shrugged.

I shrugged "Not much. We're heading home."

"Out of quarters" Marco commentated. "Certain people keep forgetting that the Sleazer Troll shows up right after you cross the Never Fjard. So certain people keep losing the game- and out quarter." Marco kept jerking his thumb at me, just in case Tobias couldn't figure out who he meant by 'certain people'.

Both Tobias and Jake rolled their eyes at this though for different reasons.

"So, like maybe I'll walk home with you guys," Tobias said.

I said sure. Why not?

We were heading for the exit when I spotted Rachel and Cassie. Rachel is kind of pretty, I guess.

"How can you say that about that babe?" asked Marco, jerking his head at Rachel and Rachel glared at Marco.

"Okay, she's very pretty, although, since she is my cousin, I don't really thing about her that way," Jake shrugged and Marco rolled his eyes.

I mean, okay, she's very pretty, although, since she's my cousin, I don't really think about her that way.

They all laughed at this.

She has blonde hair and blue eyes and that kind of very clean, very wholesome look.

"That was just an accident." said Rachel of handily.

"How much do you bet that what she just said will show up in one of her books?" asked Marco.

"MARCO!" they asked said irritated and he started muttering about not being able to take a joke.

She's one of those people who always know the right clothes to wear and how to look like they just walked out of one of those fashion magazines girls like. She's also very graceful because she takes gymnastics, even though she says she's too tall to ever be really good at it.

"I am." Rachel muttered and Cassie shook her head at her.

Cassie is sort of the opposite. For one thing, she's usually wearing jeans and a plain shirt, or something else real casual. She's black and wears her hair very short most of the time. She had it longer for a while, but then she went back to short, which I like. Cassie is quieter than Rachel, more peaceful, like she always understands everything on some different, more mystical level.

Jake skipped the next bit, finding it to embarrassing to say out loud.

"You guys going home?" I asked Rachel. "You shouldn't go through the construction site by yourselves. I mean, being girls and all."

"Hey!" exclaimed Rachel.

That was a mistake. I should never have suggested to Rachel that she's weak or helpless.

"No, you should," chuckled Marco and Rachel waked him on the back of his head.

Rachel may look like Little Miss Teen Model or whatever, but she thinks she's storm form the X-Men.

"Are you going to come and protect us, you big, strong m-a-a-a-n?" she said. "You think we're helpless just because..."

"I'd appreciate it if they did walk with us," Cassie interrupted. "I know you're not afraid of anything, Rachel, but I guess I am."

Rachel couldn't say much about that. That's the way Cassie is - she always has the right word to stop any argument without making anyone feel bad.

"Speak for yourself." Rachel muttered so no-one else could hear. She felt guilty because she just turned down Jake when he was just trying to be helpful. Sometimes she had such a big mouth.

So, there we were. The five of us - Marco, Tobias, Rachel, Cassie and me. Five normal mall rats heading home.

"Yeah, until like five minutes later," joked Marco.

Sometimes I think about that one, last moment when we were still just normal kids. It's like it was a million years ago, like it was some totally different group of kids of kids. You know what I was afraid of then? I was afraid of admitting to that I hadn't made the team. That was as scary as life got back then.

"Those were the good old days," Marco mocked sadness and they rolled their eyes at him.

"Yeah, but not every kid gets to hang around with aliens or fly around in the sky," said Tobias.

Five minutes later, life got a lot scarier.

To get home from the mall, we could either go a long way around, which is the safe way, or we could cut through this abandoned construction site and hope there weren't any axe murders hanging around there. My mum and dad have sworn to ground me until I'm twenty if they ever find out I've cut through the construction site.

"Yeah, like that's scary," grinned Cassie.

So anyway, we crossed the road and headed into the abandoned construction site. It was a big area, surrounded on two sides by trees, with the highway separating it from the mall area. There's a broad, open field between the construction site and the nearest houses. It's a very isolated place.

Originally, it was supposed to be this new shopping center. Now it was just all these half-finished buildings looking like a ghost town. There were huge piles of rusted steel beams; pyramids of giant concrete pipes; little mountains of dirt; deep pits that had filled up with black, muddy water; and a creaking, rusted construction crane that I had climbed once while Marco stayed below and told me I was being an idiot.

"You were," said Marco in his most parent like voice.

"But it was fun," Jake whined like a three year old. They all laughed.

It was a totally deserted place, full of shadows and sounds that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up. When Marco and I went there during the day, we always found all these beer cans and liquor bottles. Sometimes we found ashes of little campfires back in the hidden nooks and crannies of buildings. So we knew that people came there at night. All that was on my mind as we crept through the site.

"That's creepy," shuddered Rachel.

"Do my ears deceive me, is Rachel scared?" asked Marco and they laughed at her.

"Am I not allowed to be scared then? Do I have to be fearless all the time? I thought I was human!" Rachel asked, hurt.

"Sorry Rachel, it's just that you're normally fearless," Cassie soothed.

"I've grown up," said Rachel matter-of-factly.

"Uh-huh," said Jake and carried on reading.

It was Tobias who saw it first. He had been walking along, gazing up at the sky. I guess he was looking at the stars or something. That's the way Tobias is sometimes- off in his own mind.

Rachel smiled at Tobias and he smiled back, a small, shy smile.

Suddenly, Tobias stopped. He was pointing. Pointing almost straight up. "Look!" he said.

"What?" I didn't want to be distracted because I was pretty sure I'd heard the sound of a chain-saw killer creeping up behind us.

They laughed at that. There was more to worry about than a chain-saw killer creeping up behind you in the dead of the night. The yeerks had made sure of that.

"Just look" Tobias said. His voice was strange. Amazed-sounding, but serious at the same time.

So I looked up. And there it was. A brilliant, blue-white light that scooted across the sky, going fast, too fast for it to be an airplane, then slower and slower. "What is it?"

"The Andalite ship" Rachel gasped in surprise, then frowned and looked at Ax, then Cassie. She nodded and turned to look at Ax.

"Ax, the next chapter in this book tells us about your brother's death. Do you want to hear it?" she asked.

Yes, I want to hear it said Ax and she nodded at Jake for him to continue.

Tobias shook his head. "I don't know."

I looked at Tobias and he looked back at me. We both knew what we thought it was, but we didn't say it. Marco and Rachel would have laughed, we figured.

But Cassie just blurted it right out. "It's a flying saucer!"

"That's the end of the chapter," said Jake.

"Me and Ax need to morph back. Maybe we should take a break before we carry on," said Tobias as he morphed. Ax started to morph to. The rest looked away. It was never the nicest thing to watch someone morph.

"Yeah, I think we should," agreed Cassie.