The Unknown Animorph
By: Forlay
Never heard of me? Good. That's the way we're going to keep it, alright?
I'm an Animorph. Well, I was, and, if you want to be real technical, I still am. I'm an animal morpher, I just don't use my power to fight the Yeerks anymore.
Confusing, isn't it? Let me try telling this story from the begining, maybe both of us can make sense of it.
I was in my first hour science class. The teacher was introducing a new student, Tobias. Normally I don't pay attention when the teacher introduces new students. They never pay any attention to me. I'm a loner, dress all in black, just basically try not to be noticed. I don't bother anyone, they don't bother me. But the name Tobias grabbed my attention. I'm a senior in high school now, but when I was younger I read a book series called Animorphs. One of the characters just happened to be a Tobias. I looked up from my doodling to see this Tobias.
He was tall and had unruly dirty blond hair. He had a fierce expression, like he'd lived a hard life. Perhaps he was a gang member, that was the same expression the gang members in school had. But he certainly didn't dress like he was from a game. In fact, he could have been the Tommy Hilfiger poster boy. Everything he wore was emblazoned with the red and white logo. Oh, yeah, and was he ever cute. A definet '10' on the cuteness scale.
He shyly walked towards the back of the room. Where I was sitting. I was sure I'd freak if he sat next to me.
But, of course, he didn't even notice me. He sat down next to the pretty blond that sat a two tables away. What was her name? Oh, yeah, Rachel.
Wait a second, this was getting weird. A kid who matched the book Tobias' description nearly perfectly chose to sat down next to the girl who matched the description of Rachel? And had the same names? Definetly something to check out. Fortunatly, I'm a fairly decent actress, so I could easily pretend to be the most outgoing girl in school. And, who knows, perhaps get a date with the cute new guy.
Science was boring, as usual. I spent most of my time doodling in my notebook, and couldn't help but notice Tobias was doing the same thing. After class, while Rachel was busy talking to one of her other friends, I caught Tobias before he left the class.
"Hi, Tobias. I'm Julia," I said, trying to sound friendly, and keep the butterflies in my stomach at bay.
"Um, hi, Julia," he said.
"You need any help getting to your next class? I'd be happy to show you the way."
"Uh, thanks for the offer, Julia. But I can find my way."
"Oh," I said, trying not to sound too disapointed. "Well, if you need anything, just let me know."
"Coming, Tobias?" Rachel asked, finishing her conversation. "Oh, hi...Julie?" she asked, giving me a wary look.
"Julia," I corrected.
"Right. Julia. I'll see you later," she took Tobias' arm and walked off with him. I sighed as I watched them walk off together. Score one for Rachel, I thought. She's already got her hooks into the guy!
Wait a second...this was Tobias' first day here. How could Rachel know him already? I'd have to re-read some of my books to remember the details on the relationship between the two book characters.
I had seminar next. Since I was caught up on my homework, I was allowed to go to the library, either to read or play on the computers, which is what I normally did. Today, however, I made my way towards a dark corner of the library where the science fiction books are kept. It took a little searching, but I found the shelf full of old Animorphs books. I pulled out a few that I remembered to be my favorites: The Stranger, The Pretender, The Exposed, The Attack and Elfangor's Secret.
The Stranger didn't tell me much, neither did The Attack. The Pretender, The Exposed and Elfangor's Secret told me tons, though. It was obvious the book Rachel and Tobias had a thing for eachother. And if the two from my science class were these two...no. There were more rational explanations. Perhaps they used to live near eachother and have been friends forever. It could just be fate. There was no way that a sci-fi kid's book series was real.
But it was an interesting concept, wasn't it? I mean, I used to be obsessed with this series. I talked about Animorphs, I dreamed about Animorphs...why couldn't they have been real?
I kept my eyes open the rest of the day, looking for other possible Animorphs. I think I passed a Cassie in the hall, but I can't be sure.
I can tell you one thing I learned, Tobias was in all of my classes. I was probably reading too much into it, but it seemed as if I was meant to meet Tobias.
After school, I passed Tobias and Rachel talking to a group of other people. I slipped into an empty classroom close to where they were talking. Listening, I heard five distinct voices, including Rachel and Tobias. The other three voices I didn't recognize, but I definetly recognized their names; Jake, Cassie and Marco.
"Any of you know that Julia girl?" I heard Tobias ask.
"Julia -------?" Cassie asked, including my last name. Tobias said that was me. "Yeah, she's always in the school plays, but she seems to be a quiet girl off the stage. She's never talked to me."
"She seemed pretty talkative to Tobias in science," Rachel grumbled.
"Oooh, Xena's jealous," Marco joked.
That set off warning bells. There were way too many similarities in this group to be a coincidence. Now, course of action. Try to forget it, or confront them. Being the idiot I am, I chose confronting them.
I walked out of the classroom, "Hi, guys," I greeted cheerfully.
"Hi, Julia," Rachel said warily. Tobias, Cassie, Jake and Marco echoed the greeting.
"Hey, I was wondering if any of you could help me on something. I was looking some things up in the library during seminar, and found something about 'Yeerks'..." I couldn't finish my sentance because Rachel had me pinned back against the lockers.
"Rachel!" Cassie yelped.
"Geez, temper, temper, Xena," I said. Don't ask me why, but I kept trying to provoke Rachel. I was getting dangerously close to getting my face smashed in when Tobias grabbed Rachel's wrist and Jake helped me down.
"Where the heck did you find out about Yeerks?" Marco asked while Cassie and Tobias calmed Rachel down. Jake was standing with Marco.
"Okay, you guys are absolutely not going to believe what I'm about to say. But when you guys were younger, in middle school, there was a book series about you guys."
"Yeah, right," Marco laughed. "Seriously, Julia."
"I'm dead serious," I said. "There was Jake, the leader, Rachel, Xena: Warrior Princess, Tobias, the red tailed hawk nothlit, Cassie, the animal nut, and Marco, the joker. Oh, and an Andalite. Aximili-somethin-somethin. I just skimmed the books in seminar this morning, I don't exactly remember all the details."
Marco tried to laugh again, but failed. "So, what? We're a group of friends who happen to have the same names, and I happen to call psyco-girl over there Xena."
"Watch it, Marco," Rachel warned.
"Yeah, it could be a coincidence," I said. "Except for Rachel's reaction to Yeerks. If it was a coincidence, you would have laughed, rolled your eyes, and gotten away from me as fast as possible. Rachel decided she was going to make me into shish-ke-bab."
Before anyone could reply to that, we found ourselves in a bluish mist.
"This is getting real old," Tobias complained. "I'm sick of this. What do you want, Ellimist?"
"Ellimist? Who--oh, wait. I remember him. He's that guy who was just a general pain in the butt," I said.
"Pain in the butt is right," Tobias agreed.
I DON'T WANT ANYTHING, TOBIAS. IT'S WHAT YOU MAY WANT THAT CONCERNS ME.
"And just what do I want?" Tobias demanded of the still invisible Ellimist.
Without warning, he appeared in front of us. He gave the appearance of an old man, but there was a feeling of strength about him. He definetly wasn't your ordinary old guy. Of course, that was obvious from that fact that he was kind of glowing blue, and the fact we were in the middle of a blue mist thing that definetly wasn't from Earth.
"Not just you, Tobias. All of the Animorphs," the Ellimist explained. "You are wrong, your fight isn't over. You are still needed."
"Still needed?" Rachel echoed. "But we destroyed the Yeerks. I was there, the Andalites came, big fights all over the place, and we kicked butt. The Yeerks are gone."
"Unfortunatly, Rachel, no win is that simple," the Ellimist said.
"Simple? You call what we did simple?" Marco demanded.
"That is not the point. The point is, your fight is not over, with the Yeerks, or another being that will make himself known in time," the Ellimist said. "And to have any hope of winning this fight, more morph capable members are needed than you four. That is why I made sure Julia would realize who you were."
"So you're the one who got Tobias into all my classes?" I asked.
"Yes," the Ellimist replied. "You've had classes with all the Animorphs at one point or another, but you never made the connection between them and your books. You figured you were imagining things. But this morning, in science, everything finally 'clicked', as you would say."
"So, what am I supposed to do? You going to give me the morphing power?" I tried to keep the excitement out of my voice, but don't know if I succeeded. I couldn't believe this was happening. This had been my dream since 7th grade, and no one's going to turn down the opportunity for a dream to come true, no matter how outdated it is.
The Ellimist closed his eyes, for a moment, I felt a slight shock, "It is done," he said a moment later, and suddenly we all found ourselves back in the school hallway.
"Was that real?" I asked, just to be sure I hadn't imagined the whole thing.
"Yep, it was," Rachel affirmed grimly. "We're back in the fight."
"Correction," Tobias said glumly. "You're back in the fight. I'm of zip use to you guys without being able to morph."
Rachel gave him a quick hug, "You'll always be of use to us, Tobias. Maybe just in a different way now."
"Let's all go out to McDonalds or something," Marco suggested. "We need to get to know our newest group member." We all agreed and went out to our various cars and drove to McDonalds.
We spent nearly an hour just getting to know eachother. They didn't need to tell me much about themselves, afterall, I felt like I'd grown up with them. They, however, had alot to learn about me. Like I said, I'm a quiet person, a loner. Cassie was right, I am in the school plays, but off stage, I'm quiet. No one except my closest friends know much about me.
Anyways, I couldn't stay long, I had homework to do, so I said good bye to everyone and drove home.
The next day at school, I met Cassie and Rachel in the hall before class.
"Hey, Julia," Rachel said as I caught up with them. "Oh, there's another new kid in our first hour today. I haven't seen him myself, but I heard some people talking about him saying he'd fit in perfect with you. He's supposed to be an outsider who likes theatre."
"Yippee. Just what I need, a rival for my school freak reputation," I joked. That rep was already going down the tubes fast with walking around with Rachel.
"Hey, Julia!"
I spun around and saw one of my few friends, Lacey, running down the hall towards me. "Talk to ya' later," I told Rachel and Cassie, and waited for Lacey to catch up.
"What's up?" I asked her.
"There's this really cute new guy aho you'd absolutely adore," she told me.
"Who? The new kid we got yesterday, Tobias What's-his-name?"
"No, there's another new kid, and he's even cuter than that Tobias guy," she said. "And I heard he's an actor, maybe you'll finally have someone who can act as well as you do in the plays!"
"Who is this guy? I've heard a bit about him already, I want to meet him."
BRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
"I think he's in your science class, you'll meet him then, I've gotta get to choir, bye!" she ran off in the other direction. I dashed to my locker and pulle dout my chemistry textbook and got to class seconds before the final bell rang.
"Class, we have another new student today," the teacher said. "This is David..." I didn't bother listening to the rest of what she said, my head snapped up from my book. A few tables over, I saw Rachel and Tobias do the same thing. Too many Animorphs similarities had been popping up for a David to go un-noticed.
I glanced over at Rachel and caught her eye, "Is it him?" I mouthed.
Her face was white, her eyes wide, she nodded slightly.
"David, why don't you go back and sit with Julia?" the teacher suggested. Now it was my turn for my face to pale. But I got over it quickly and moved my bag out of the way to give him room.
"Hi, Julia," David said as he sat down.
"Hi," I mumbled, not wanting to really get in a conversation with him.
I ignored him most of the hour, pretending to be very fascinated in the ways you could mix different chemicals. I did notice, however, that every few minutes he would glance in Rachel and Tobias' direction.
I avoided Rachel and Tobias after class, no need to make David think I was connected to them. David was in two other classes with me, English and government. I kept away from him as much as I could, but one thought kept racing through my mind, how? David was supposed to be a rat right now, not a cute new kid who had three classes with me.
And once again, I had the feeling somebody was singling me out when David ended up having the locker next to me.
I didn't have a chance to meet up with the others that day, but I saw Rachel and Tobias the next morning on my way to class. As we stopped at my locker, David came up.
"Hey, Julia!" he said enthusiastically. "Oh, hi, Tobias, was it? And Rachel?" they nodded.
"Julia, I'll see you in science, okay?" Rachel said. I understood, she didn't want to be around David anymore than possible.
"Okay, bye."
"Um, Julia, I know I don't know you that well, but I heard there was a dance on Friday night and was wondering if you wanted to go with me," David said once Rachel and Tobias were out of hearing range.
I paused for a moment, trying to think of what to say. My first impulse was to say "heck no," and get out of there as fast as I could, but the actress in me saved myself.
"I'd love to David, but let me check my schedule. I think I might have...a play rehersal Friday night, but I'll double check," I said quickly. It was total bull, there weren't any plays right now, and Friday nights were always long, boring evenings for me, but David didn't need to know that. And I needed a chance to see what the others though I should do about this before giving a solid answer.
I made a quick exit and got to science as fast as I could. Instead of going straight to my seat, like I normally do, I walked over to where Rachel and Tobias were sitting.
"What'd he want?" Rachel asked.
"He asked me to the dance," I said, "He asked me to the dance!" I said again, not quite believing it.
"You told him no, right?"
"Actually, I made some excuse about having to check my schedule. What if he's the one the E--, I mean, our friend, was talking about? Does anybody else think it's strange he just suddenly reappeared? I could find out why he's here. He doesn't know I'm one of you."
"Good point," Tobias said. "Let's get together at lunch, see what the others think."
"You guys get together," I said. "He can't figure out that I'm one of the group." I looked up and saw David about to walk in. "Speaking of which, I'll talk to you guys later." I walked over to my seat just as David walked into the room.
I had carefully avoided everyone except Rachel all day. I had met David that morning with Rachel, there was no use hiding the fact I knew her from him.
"You talk to the others yet?" I asked her as we left school with Tobias.
"Yeah, it's unanimous, go to the dance with him," she said. "Find out as much about him as possible without seeming to pry."
"Oh, man," I moaned. "I've never been big on dances, and I definetly don't want to go to one with David."
"There are worse people to go with," Rachel said.
"Name them," I challeneged.
"Umm...well there's...uh, Tobias, name somebody."
Tobias laughed and held up his hands, "Hey, this isn't my area of expertise. I can't help this time, Rachel."
"Okay, I guess there aren't worse people," Rachel admitted. "Sorry."
"Thanks for that happy thought," I grumbled.
The next day at school, David found me before class. "Are you free Friday?"
I seriously considered lying to him, but I was an Animorph now, and I had to do what was best for the group, even if that meant going to a dance with David. "Yeah, I am."
"Great! I'll pick you up around 7:30?"
"Yeah, I guess," I said. Reluctantly, I gave him my address.
"Want to walk to class with me?"
Heck no! "Actually, I promised to meet some friends in the library."
"Oh," he said, obviously disapointed. "Well, I'll see you in science, then."
"Yeah, see ya'." I turned in the direction of the library, but once David was out of sight, I turned back and ran into Jake and Cassie.
"You see David yet?" Jake asked me.
I nodded sullenly. "Yep. The date's all set up. He's picking me up at my house at 7:30 Friday."
"You'll be fine," Cassie reassured me. "He doesn't know you're connected to us yet, and even if he did, he wouldn't be stupid enough to do anything at a dance."
"It's not the dance itself that worries me," I said. "You're right, he probably wouldn't do anything at the dance, it's before and after I'm worried about."
"Why don't I take you to the Gardens after school and get you some firepower," Cassie suggested.
"Cool," I said. "Talk to ya' later," I headed towards class.
Nothing happened that day, Wednesday or Thursday worth noting, except I acquired a panther at the Gardens. So I'll just cut to 7:00 Friday night.
"Oh, I'm so exicted!" My mom squeeled. "My little Jewel all dressed up to go to a dance!"
"Mom, how many times do I have to tell you not to call me 'Jewel'?" I complained.
"I'm sorry, sweetie, but you don't know how exciting this is for a mother!"
I rolled my eyes. It wasn't that exciting. It was just a dance, and I hadn't even dressed up that much. I had grabbed one of my few dresses, a sleevless black velvet one that ended just before my knees and had about an inch around the middle cut out and covered with black lace. I'd pulled my red-brown hair back into a loose braid that I threaded a black velvet ribbon through. As I said, not that dressy, but I might as well have been going to my prom, from the way my mom was talking.
I heard a car honk from the driveway. "Oh! He's here!" Mom exclaimed.
"Honestly, Mom," I said. "Who's going to the dance here, you or me?"
David honked again, "Hurry up, Jewel," Mom said. "Don't keep him waiting."
"I'm going, I'm going," I sighed. "Just to get away from you," I added under my breath. I love my mom, but she can be a bit annoying.
"Hi, Julia," David said as I slipped into the passenger side of his car. "Wow, you look great tonight."
"Thanks," I said.
"Want to go out for a burger once the dance is over?" he asked as we drove towards the school.
I shrugged. "Sure."
We drove the rest of the way to the school in silence. I sure didn't want to have a conversation with him, and he didn't seem to know what to say to me.
Once we reached the gym, I scanned the room for the others. Cassie and Jake were near the bleachers, dancing. Rachel and Tobias were heading towards a corner of the room from the direction of the concessions table. Marco was wandering from girl to girl, trying to find a dance partner. I relaxed a little. David wasn't going to try anything, and on the remote chance he did, somebody would morph something big and take care of him. If I didn't first.
"Shall we dance?" David asked, holding out a hand. I took it and allowed myself to be pulled out onto the gym floor.
"So, tell me about yourself," David said during a slow dance.
"About myself?" I repeated. "Well, there really isn't much to say that couldn't be learned from someone else. I've been in this school district my entire life. I'd much rather hear about you."
"Nope. I asked first," David replied.
I sighed. "Fine," and proceeded to tell him my (boring) life story. Purposely leaving out my obsession with Animorphs when I was younger and the events of the past week.
"Okay, I've told you everything about me, now it's your turn," I said once I was done.
"Um, why don't we go get some punch," he suggested.
Ah, something he didn't want to talk about. All the more reason to press the issue.
As we were weaving our way through dancing couples, I saw Rachel grab Cassie and motion for me to follow them.
"David? I'll be back in a minute," I said, starting to move away.
"Where're you goin?" he asked, grabbing my arm.
"Bathroom," I said, yanking my arm away and walking after Rachel and Cassie.
I followed both of them into the bathroom. "Have you found anything out yet?" Rachel demanded.
"No. He's stalling to tell me anything. He made me tell him my life story, probably thinking I'd slip and say something about you guys, if he suspects me having ties with you, and when I asked him to tell me about himself, he suggested getting something to drink, and we end up here."
"Do you tink you'll be able to get anything out him?" Cassie asked.
I shrugged. "You're the ones who know this punk. I only dit by him in science."
"Feed his ego," Cassie suggested. "Try and get him to tell you about himself that way."
I looked at her skeptically. "I'm supposed to act like he's better than me? I don't think so!"
"Hey, if I could do it, anybody could," Rachel said. "Besides, you're an actress, this should be easy for you."
I sighed. "I'll try."
"Cool," Rachel said. "You go out first, in case David is waiting for you. We'll come out in a minute."
It was a good thing Rachel and Cassie were waiting, because David was waiting for me across the hall.
"Why were you waiting for me?" I asked as we walked back to the gym.
"It's boring in there without a date."
"Oh, well, since I'm back, I believe it's your turn to tell me about yourself."
"Me?" he asked.
"You're the only other one here," I said, looking around the empty hallway.
"Um, well, there really isn't anything to tell," he stammered.
"Oh, come on, I'm sure a guy like you has lots of things to tell about himself."
"Well, I, uh, moved here from a small island."
"Really?" I asked as if this was the coolest thing I'd ever heard. "Where?"
"Uh, just a few miles off the coast."
"Cool. What kind of stuff did you do there?"
"Um, I think it's time to go," he said. I checked my watch. It was just barely nine, the dance went to 10, but I went along with him. "Okay." We walked back out to his car.
"Would you mind if I just dropped you off at home?" David asked.
I pretended to look hurt, but I forced a smile. "Okay, I guess." Truthfully, I was estatic. No more David! At least, not for this evening.
"I'll make it up to you tomorrow, I promise. Why don't we spend the afternoon at the park?"
"Sure!" I said, hopefully he wouldn't pick up on my fake enthusiasm.
"Pick you up around 2?"
He pulled into my driveway. As I got out, I turned back around to say, "Alright, see you tomorrow." I slammed the door shut and ran into my house.
"Jewel! You're home already?" Mom asked in surprise as I slammed the front door shut.
"Yeah," I replied.
"Anything wrong?"
"No, David just had to get home early. He's making it up to me tomorrow by taking me to the park. Yippee," I added sarcastically. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to change, then make a phone call." I ran up the stairs to my bedroom and changed back into a black T-Shirt and dark blue jeans, picked up the phone and called Rachel.
Her mom picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"
"Hi, is Rachel there?"
"No, I'm sorry, she's still at the dance. Would you like me to have her call you back?"
I nearly hit myself on the head. Of course Rachel wasn't back yet. She had a cool date. I had a rat. "Yeah, have her call Julia as soon as she gets home," I gave her my number and hung up.
I put my favorite CD, Ultimate Broadway, in my CD player, put my headphones on and started singing along with the music. I almost didn't realize that at 10:15 my phone was ringing. I turned off the CD player and picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Julia? It's Rachel, what's up? I saw you and David leave the dance early, anything wrong?"
"No, David just needed to get home early," I said. "But he's taking me out to the park tomorrow afternoon."
"Oh, cool," Rachel said. "Y'know, I was going to go over to Cassie's tomorrow morning and drag her to the mall. Want to meet me over at her house?"
"Love to. When are you going over?"
"10 o'clock."
"I'm there. See ya' then."
"See ya'." I hung up the phone and went back to my CD, and ended up falling asleep listening to it.
KNOCK KNOCK
"Jewel? You gonna get up?"
I bolted uprign in my bed. "Huh?" I glanced at my clock, 9:30!
"I'm up, Mom!" I shouted as I ran to my closet to grab some clothes.
"All right," she said.
I quickly pulled out a pair of black shorts, a black camisole and a large black silk shirt to put over it. I changed into that, pulled a brush through my hair and tied it back in a pony tail.
"Bye, Mom!" I shouted as I ran out the front door. "I'm going with Rachel and Cassie to the mall. I'll be back by two to meet David," I said as I opened the door of my car, a black Breeze, and drove towards Cassie's.
I arrived at her house at 10:05. There were 2 other cars in the driveway. I parked and ran back to the barn to find Jake and Marco, in their morphing suits, along with Rachel, Tobias and Cassie in normal clothes.
"About time you got here," Marco complained.
"Shut up, Marco," Rachel said.
"Why are we here, anyways?" Marco asked, ignoring Rachel.
"David's taking me out to the park this afternoon and I want backup," I said. "I don't trust this guy farther than I can throw him. He didn't try anything at the dance, but we'll be at the park where there's plenty of isolated areas, and I'd feel a heck of alot safer if I had a few eyes in the sky looking out for me."
"No problem," Jake said. "Hey, what did you find out about him last night?"
"Absolutely zip," I said. "I don't think he was prepared with a lifestory. All he would tell me was he moved her from an island off the coast."
"That's it?" Rachel asked incredulously. "He's gotten rusty being a rat. The David we knew would have been able to come up with a convincing story immediatly." The others nodded in agreement.
"When's he taking you out?" Tobias asked.
"He's picking me up around two."
"All right, at lest one of us should follow Julia to the park," Jake said. "The others should be waiting at the park. Tobias? Think you could be a ground spy?"
Tobias perked up a bit at the opportunity to help with the mission. "No problem."
"anything else we need to do?" Cassie asked. "Because I've got work to do around here."
"Yeah, I've got to help me dad at home," Marco said.
"That should be it," I said. "See ya' all around two." Jake and Marco promptly started to morph their bird of prey morphs, while Rachel, Tobias and I walked towards our cars.
"I do not have a good feeling about this," I told them as we walked.
"You'll be fine," Rachel assured me. "You'll have five sets of eyes looking out for you."
"You all better be," I said as I opened my car door. "Bye."
Since Mom expected me to be at the mall, and it takes a lot longer than half an hour to cruise the mall, I drove there and spent a few hours shopping.
I got back home at 1:45, just 15 minutes before David was going to show up. As I was letting myself into the house, I saw a peregrine falcoln floating above my house, probably Jake. I gave him a slight wave and went inside.
No sooner had I put my bags up in my room than I heard a car honking in the driveway. I looked out my window and saw David's car.
How rude is he? > Jake said to me in thought speak. Can't even come to the door. >
I smiled to myself and went downstairs, called bye to Mom again, and ran out to meet David.
We drove to the park in silence. I was getting a really bad feeling from David. Like he was planning something. I was doubly thankful I had friends in the air, and ground, at the park.
Once we reached the park and started walking, David finally began talking to me.
"When you were younger, did you ever read a book series called 'Animorphs'?"
That caught me off guard. "Read Animorphs? I lived and breathed Animorphs."
"Really? Me, too."
Yeah, and you tried to kill a few, if I'm not mistaken, I thought to myself.
"Ever realize that there's some similarities between people at our school and the books?" he continued.
"No, what do you mean?"
"Well, in science there's a Rachel and Tobias who always hang out together, and I have another class with a Cassie and Jake."
I laughed a little. "I think you need to get over Animorphs. I mean, I was way over them by my freshman year. I can't remember half the things that happened anymore."
"Somehow, I don't think you're totally over Animorphs either, Julia," he said darkly.
Uh-oh..."What do you mean?"
Without warning, David pulled a small hand gun out of his coat, don't ask me what kind, I'm not a gun expert, and stuck it into the small of my back. "Don't say a word," he hissed in my ear. "Now we're going back to my car and you're going to drive me to Rachel's house."
"Why?" I asked.
"C'mon, Julia. Put that pretty little head of yours to work. You read Animorphs. Who could I possibly be that would want to see Rachel?"
I decided to keep playing along as if I didn't know Animorphs was real. "No. You're not..."
He laughed. "Yep, that's me, Julia. Now, you going to cooperate?"
I nodded."Rachel's house," I said, hopefully loud enough for my friends in the air to hear, and started walking with David back to his car.
All right, Julia, > Cassie said. We heard you. Rachel's on her way home right now, but stall as much as you can. It should be a ten minute drive from here to there, but it's a 15 minute flight. > I couldn't acknowledge her without setting David off, so I continued walking straight ahead.
Once we were in his car, I could talk to him freely. "Why Rachel?" I demanded. "Why not someone else? Oh, wait, more important question. How the hell can you be here?! You are supposed to be a rat, you...you..." I couldn't think of a scathing enough name for him.
He pointed the gun in my direction. "Quiet, Julia. Just drive."
I sighed and put the car into drive.
I drove as slow as I could with out David noticing, but 20 minutes later, we got to Rachel's house just the same.
"All right. What we're going to do is you're going to go up and ring the bell. When Rachel answers, I'm gonna grab her and you're going to follow us into the house. Clear?" David asked.
"As crystal," I said, and got out of the car.
"Hi, Julia!" Rachel said when she answered the door. "What--Yah!" David had chosen that moment to leap out from hiding and push Rachel back through the door. I followed and closed the door.
When I got in, I found David had the gun aimed at Rachel's forehead and had her pinned against the wall.
"Pleasure to see you again, Rachel," David sneered.
"How did you get here, David?" Rachel demanded.
"An old friend of yours, I believe," David said. "Crayak."
Duh! I said to myself. Who else would restore this...thing's humanity?
"I'd love to stay and chat," David said. "But I need to get rid of you, Rachel, and then Julia's going to take me to the others."
Yeah, right. "Um, David?"
"What?" he demanded.
"Well, Rachel's one of my close friends, and if she's going to die, I want to be here. But first, I need to use the bathroom."
David paused. Would he buy it?
I got my answer. He pushed Rachel ahead of him, towards the bathroom. "You have two minutes. Any longer and I kill Rachel, then you, and find everyone else through other means."
"Gotcha," I said. Two minutes should be more than what I needed. I saw Rachel give me a "what-the-heck-are-you-doing?!" look. I just kept walking.
Once I was in the bathroom, I closed and locked the door, took off my outer clothes, revealing black bike shorts over a black leotard-my morphing outfit-and concentrated on my panther morph.
Almost immediatly, black fut grew over every inch of my body, blending away my morphing suit. From the base of my spine, a long tail grew. My knees reversed direction and I fell forward onto rapidly shrinking hands. My ears grew pointed and slid up my head as my nose and mouth grew out.
Suddenly the cat mind appeared beneath my own, threatening to overtake my own. No, Julia, I told myself. No time for that.
"10 seconds, Julia," David warned from outside the door.
I crouched and prepared to jump.
"Nine...Eight..."
CRRRRACK!
I lept through the door, pinning David under the splintered remains and knocking him unconcious. Rachel had a leg under the door, but managed to pull herself out.
I told you to get over that obsession with Animorphs, David, > I told him. It could prove deadly. >
Rachel laughed as she bent down and picked up David's gun. She straightened and aimed it at the unconcious David. "Now to take care of him once and for all."
"Rachel! No!" I said, demorphed.
"Why not?"
"Then you're just as bad as him. We need to figure out why he's here, then we can decide on a fitting punishment."
"I can do that," a voice from behind us said.
Rachel and I spun around to face the Ellimist, in the same human shape he had taken when I'd first met him.
"You better," Rachel said.
"It's the rules of the game. I gave you help, Crayak needed some to help his cause."
"So from the time this all started, David has been after us?" I asked. "More specifically, I led him here?"
"Not quite. David wasn't allowed to know exactly who the newest Animorph was. He just guess it was you and guess correctly."
"How do we get rid of him?" Rachel asked.
"You could kill him, but another would come to take his place," The Ellimist said. "However, there is another way..."
"What?" I asked.
"You give up your morphing power."
Rachel said, "Quit? No way!" at the same moment I said, "Done."
Rachel looked at me, "What?"
"You heard him when I first joined the group, the Yeerks are back. And while you may need another member, if it means endangering everyone with David, or a carbon copy of him, I can't do that."
"Julia, we beat him once before, we can do it again."
"But last time Crayak wasn't backing him."
"Ellimist, bring the others here," Rachel demanded. "Now."
In a flash, the rest of the group was standing in the middle of Rachel's living room.
"What are we doing here?" Marco demanded. Rachel pointed up the stiars to the ruing remains of her bathroom door. "Holy crap! How did he get here, and who pinned him under the door?"
"Crayak got him here, I knocked him out," I said.
"Remind me not to tick you off, Julia."
"Why are we here?" Tobias asked.
"The Ellimist has a little proposition for us," Rachel said. "Once Julia got to help us, Crayak needed someone to help his side, so he chose someone who wouldn't need any reason to hunt us down."
"He was told there was a new Animorph," I continued. "But he wasn't allowed to know who. He guessed it was me, and guessed right."
"And now, there's no way to get rid of him," Rachel said, taking over again. "Kill him, and Crayak gets another helper."
"But there is one way to get rid of him for good, but Rachel isn't too fond of it. I give up my morphing power. I quit the fight."
"Julia, that's an awful big price," Tobias said.
"Yeah, I know it is, but it's worth it. 'The needs of the many outweigh th needs of the few'."
"But according to the Ellimist, the Yeerks are back, too, and we'll need another member," Rachel protested.
"The Yeerks don't know who you are," I argued. "David does. He knows your names, your faces, your addresses, your classes in school, everything. He knows all that about me, too. The best thing is for me to just quit and at least give you guys a chance to win."
Rachel turned angrily to the Ellimist, still in his humanoid form and patiently watching the argument. "There has to be another way! There has to be!"
"The only other solution is for another one of you to give up your power. Crayak will not allow all five of you to fight and permanently get rid of David and his succesors."
"Then I will," Cassie volunteered. Before anyone could protest, she explained. "Jake, you can't quit, you need to be the leader. Rachel, you know you can't just stop. Marco, you've threatened to quit numberous times, but you always find a reason to keep fighting, and Julia, I can tell you're going to love this. You're a slightly tamer version of Rachel who has dreamed of this since Middle School. I'm the only one who will be able to give this all up."
"Cassie...I can't ask anyone else to do this," I said.
"That's why I'm volunteering," she replied.
"Is your decision final?" the Ellimist asked.
Cassie looked at each of us, we all nodded. I don't think anybody wanted her to go, but we knew we couldn't stop her. "Yes," she said, seeming a little sad.
A moment later, the Ellimist said, "It is done."
In a flash, David was gone. Rachel's bathroom door was repaired. I was out of my morphing outfit and back in my normal clothes. I could see out the front window, my car was parked there instead of David's.
"All memory of David has been removed from others. The only ones who remember him are you six." With that, the Ellimist disapeared.
"Y'know, I really don't like that guy," Tobias said. We all agreed.
"Anybody need a ride home?" I offered. Everyone accepted. We said goodbye to Rachel and piled into my car.
After that, I didn't see Cassie or Jake much. I still had science with Rachel, and every class with Tobias. Maybe the Ellimist was wrong saying the Yeerks weren't gone.
When I was younger, I always wanted to morph and help kick Yeerk butt. Now I can morph, but never do. Perhaps I will for personal reasons after a fight with the Yeerks, but the chances of that seem very slim by now. It's been three months since the David incident, and tomorrow I'm graduating from high school as one of two Salutatorians, Rachel being the other.
So that's my story. I told you it was confusing. Anyway, next time you pick up one of your old Animorphs books, think of me, a normal girl who got to live her dream, think of Cassie, who gave it all up when I was willing to. Think of Tobias, a nothlit once more, Rachel, graduating near the top of her class, Jake, trying to balance everything, David, a rat once more, and every person who's dared to dream of joining his or her childhood heroes.
Remember...
Author's Notes: Odd? Yep. Could be better? Possibly. But this is based on a dream I've had (names have been changed to protect the innocent, or weird in my case ;-) and Dreams are supposed to be weird. Julia's me, Lacey is a friend of mine, and so on.