Disclaimer: Not mine. Oh no. Even though I think we all know they should be. Ok fine, not really. Damn.

A/N: This is probably… one of my favorites that I've ever written. I swear. Have fun with it.

My name is Rachel. Currently, I was hanging out with Marco. That's right I, Rachel, was hanging out with Marco. Yea, I didn't understand it either. Basically, the air conditioning broke and they couldn't make a hundred kids run in the gym against their will in the scorching heat. So they were fixing it. Until the AC was fixed, we were allowed to shoot hoops or hang out on the bleachers. I opted to hang out, we had had a mission last night and all I wanted to do was sleep. Unfortunately, Marco had the same PE period as me so he was sitting right next to me, preventing me from getting some much needed rest.

"So anyways, Marcia was right next to me and I watched her as she brushed her hair. Guess how many times she brushed her perfect locks." I wanted to punch him.

"Ten?" I asked uninterestedly, hoping to give him the hint that I wanted him to shut up.

"No! One hundred. One hundred times even. She just brought the brush down and put it right back up again. It was… amazing."

Marco had met this girl- Marcia in his history class, supposedly she was this major babe. From what he told me, I thought she was a major snob. But hey, that's just me.

"Then she turned to me and asked- get this- if her hair looked all right."

"Marco," I said, "how late were you out last night?"

Marco pondered this for a second before answering, "Four? Five? Around that time."

"And are you tired at least just a little?" He stared at me blankly. I think that means no. So I groaned and added an, "I hate you" before slamming face down onto the bleacher.

"Awww!" He crawled towards me and leaned down into my face. Somehow he found my hand and massaged it. I let him, I was to tired to reject it. "I love you too!"

I shifted my head to the side, trying desperately to hide from Marco without actually having to leave the room. Marco had finally let go of my hand when James came up to me.

James is a nice boy, sort of a geek but sweet all the same. He reminded me of Tobias actually; maybe that's why I liked him so much.

"Hi Rachel," he said and I smiled in return. "Um… can I talk to you for a second?" I nodded before he added, "Alone."

"Oh don't worry, you can say anything in front of Marco, his brain won't comprehend English." It all flowed so naturally. Hell the scene was so natural. Whenever I'm with an Animorph, it felt right you know? But all that spiraled downward when James did the unthinkable- he nodded and gripped his hands… and then kissed me. Right there- in front of everyone. In front of Marco- only of the only few that know about my uh… relationship with Tobias.

When James pulled away he looked at me with an unsure smile. I know he wanted me to say I liked it but I couldn't. I couldn't talk or move. I could only look at him with huge horrified eyes. Only when Marco shook me and asked, "Rachel, are you ok?" could I move. I stepped back, away from him and tripped on the bleachers. I fumbled for my binders and ran down them.

Marco called after me, wanting to know where I was going but I had a feeling he already knew. "Tobias," I yelled back and was gone.

I ran to the roof of the school, morphing as quickly as I could. It was when I gained wings that I realized what I had just done.

I had kissed a guy I didn't love. Actually, he kissed me but what did it matter. I felt like I had betrayed Tobias. Sure James didn't know about him and he had been taking a chance when he kissed me but that didn't make up for the guilt I felt.

I had flown to his meadow a thousand times before. I knew his hunting grounds, where he slept and perched- everything. I only hoped Ax wasn't there.

He was there, sitting on his regular branch. He waited until I was fully demorphed before asking, What brings a pretty girl like you to a place like this?.

We flirted with words sometimes, on good days. This was a good day, for him.

"We need to talk." I said simply while inhaling a huge breath. Tobias turned and fixed his stare onto me. I could only imagine the blackheads he was seeing. There was a silence. He was waiting for me to go on and I didn't want to.

It must be serious if you're this quiet.

I looked up at him. I didn't want to say it. I didn't want to but had to. "Tobias, a guy kissed me today."

Time stopped. He was silent, dead silent. He was shocked and overwhelmed and calm all at the same time. And then… it started again.

Did you like it? His thought speak had so much hurt and sadness in that one sentence. I thought I knew pain when I had my leg cut off as a grizzly bear or having to choose between my father and mother, but nothing I had ever known was as painful as this moment. Nothing hurt as much as what I was about to say.

"Yes." I said.

Oh. It was barely a whisper in my mind yet I understood.

"I didn't like him, that's not it Tobias. You have to listen to me! Don't think that I have a huge crush on him and want to ride off in the sunset with him, I don't." I looked to my hands and studied the deep crevasses of them, I thought it would help. It didn't. So I flipped my hair out of my face and looked back up towards him. "I like being kissed Tobias. And I want to be kissed… by you." Obviously there was nothing for him to say to that so I went on. "We're not working… we're doomed. No matter how many versions of Romeo and Juliet they write, nothing is ever going to compare to us. I love you but… I can't do this anymore."

And I had said it. I loved him. I loved him and hated him all at the same time.

I could see the changes on his skin but I morphed faster than him. I was gone by the time he was fully human.

That night, I skipped the meeting we had planned for tonight. Instead, I ended up dragging my mattress into Sara's room and was asleep when my friend Tobias came to see me.

The next day at school wasn't much better. Jake and Cassie treated me like a baby. I figured Marco had probably filled them in on my brush with James.

When I couldn't stand it in the gym with Marco, I ran outside. My fingers hurried to untangle the "braids" that resembled knots that Marco had decided to put in my hair.

Have I mentioned I hate gym?

I had finished with the last one when I felt someone in front of me. Before I knew it, he was on me, kissing me so sweetly and gently that I melted. It was Tobias and he had never felt as fantastic as he did now. I kissed him back and passion erupted. It was a rush to explore everything and a rush to hold back and enjoy the kisses. His tongue touched mine and soon we both craved more and more, harder and harder.

I stopped for air, breathing hard and fast. But I felt so good. I rested my forehead against his, brushing a strand of hair away from his clear eyes.

"I love you," he said.

You will never know how good those words are when you hear them for the first time from someone you love.

There was nothing else for me to do but say, "I love you too Tobias."

We kissed and kept kissing. Until that is, Marco interrupted up muttering about how I had taken out his braids when he worked so hard and long on them.

We stopped long enough to chase him away and then started up again.

All in all, it was a fun day.