My name is Cassie. You may have heard of me before. I'm one of those five kids, and one andalite named, The Animorphs. We are the ones who fought against the Yeerk invasion of Earth. The war here on Earth was waged over a long period of time. It was only 9 years ago, on the day that changed our lives forever. Yet it feels like a lifetime. My friends and I have, changed, and grown a great deal since that one lonely night in the construction site.
One thing that never changed, and hopefully never will is my barn, the old official meeting place of the Animorphs. At least once a year our old group gets together, to catch up on old times, and just have fun. The last time we met everyone looked a lot different. Rachel was the only one who looked nearly the same except for older. She looked a lot prettier too. If that's possible. Believe it or not Marco, grew to be taller then 6 ft. Last time I saw him, he could have touched the rafters on the barn! Ax, still around has grown to the point of looking just like Elfangor. Even if he is slightly taller, he still feels honored to be recognized as something more than just the great Prince Elfangor's brother. He has actually become honored more because he fought the war against the yeerks, as the only Andalite on Earth.
For about 2 years after the war ended, he went back to his home planet. Yet he decided that his true place, and home was on Earth. Here on Earth, Andalites, Hork-bajir, and even Skrit Na, are in a peace agreement with us. They are officially a part of our culture. I think it's wonderful that they can live on Earth, and help their own culture and ours prosper. Although, as everything has always been in history, there is prejudice against them. It really makes me fume when I see people making fun of Andalites. Yet, I love how the Andalites can make fun of humans right back, and be able to live with the bigotry.
Tobias helps work with the Andalites along with me. He still prefers his hawk body, although it's getting older. Today on the anniversary of Elfangor's crash landing to Earth, that was one of the things we were going to talk about. You would have thought, that Rachel and Tobias would have stayed together. But, because she had to move, they grew apart. Tobias was thinking about going with her, but decided to stay and help me. The day Rachel left, I think he cried for hours. He isn't all the perky anymore. The life of a hawk changed him, but the loss of Rachel, except for one day a year has made him dull. Never the less he always seems to help everyone when they are down.
The last of our members, but certainly not the least, Jake. Jake, the boy who grew to be a man all too soon. The boy who never got to keep his childhood, his teenage years, his brother, himself. The boy I fought with through everything. The boy...no the man...I fell in love with. Jake and I have drifted apart over the years. I don't see him much anymore...we went out a while... both of us being shy... it didn't work out very well. I know I still love him though. I never let the words come out of my mouth. I guess I was scared of rejection... or maybe I just didn't feel ready. It may have even been, I never got the chance. No matter what it was, I regret not telling him. It may have cost me the only person I'll ever love.
I was sitting quietly, in the back of barn, on that particular Saturday when our group was supposed to meet. While bandaging up a baby rabbit's leg, I stopped to glance around the barn. It had always felt empty, since our group had started to drift apart. I swore I kept hearing a ruffling of wings in the rafters, yet when I looked up, there was nothing there.
I placed the baby rabbit back in it's cage, with the other mother. When I turned back around, everyone was there, it felt so great. It was a day that we didn't have a mission, we were just hanging out. We rarely had days like this anymore. I leaned on the side of the barn looking over all my friends. Rachel sitting on a pile of hay. A single beam of sunlight shined from the window. It gleamed upon the upper half of her body, like that of a spotlight on a movie star. Her golden hairs glistening like gold in the bottom of an unpanned stream. The kind of look, guys drool over.
Ax stood erect in the back of the barn. Tail fighting, against a wooden dummy, I convinced my dad to help me make. Tobias sat preening his feathers up in the rafters, acting as look out for us. Every once in a while I'd here him comment on something Jake and Marco were arguing about. I smiled lightly, remembering Tobias didn't have many human memories, so being able to be included probably made him feel good. I glanced down at Marco and Jake. Marco was complaining about some new Nintendo game I think called... "Zelda"? Jake seemed to be having fun. Giddy, yet battle stricken Jake was back to acting normal, or at least pretending to act normal. He turned to glance at me. I froze for a split second, but relaxed noticing one of his slow smiles creeping upon his face. I felt my face turn slightly red, as I smiled back at him. At that moment, I noted the smell of animals in the air, the warmth of the day, how everything went silent. That moment would live with me forever.
A hard whapping noise broke the moment. I scrambled over to the barn window, seeing in the corner of my eye everyone following. I looked around frantically, trying to figure out where that familiar noise of the bug-fighter was coming from. My eyes caught a glimmer in the sky. At one moment there was just distorted air, but the next the bug-fighter and blade ship we all know so well appeared. All of the main dracon cannons aimed at the barn. I let out a muffled yelp. I caught the last sound of Jake's voice screaming for us to run. All the animals in the barn were going nuts. I turned to run out of the barn. I found Jake facing me, and reaching for my hand to run with him. The worry and fear crossing over his face made my flesh crawl. At that moment I saw him disappear in a cloud of smoke from dracon fire. The last thing I heard as I fell to my knees were the light screams of my friends, and the whapping of the bug-fighter. Then everything went black.
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I heard the whapping noise once more. I opened my eyes, and everything was normal again. Yet, there were none of my friends...and I was older again. A hallucination, a dream. I've had a lot of those since the war started. They are kind of my fears, and memories mixed. I heard the whapping noise again. What could it be? Then I realized, the door! How could I have forgotten, today we were all meeting. That was probably one of our group now! I jumped up, dusted myself off, and hurried to the door. I checked myself in the mirror that I had finally put up, after the 2 years of Rachel complaining about one. I opened it up to see a tall, dark-haired boy, Marco.
I smiled, " Marco!" I reached over and embraced him with a hug. " Long time no see!" The first thing out of his mouth was, " Ack, Cassie not in public, we can continue this inside, it would cramp my style if anyone saw me "involved". He held up his fingers in the little quote symbol from that movie Austin Powers. I laughed. He reached over and hugged me back. " Hey Cass, it's great to see you." I led him inside. " Hey, I see the barn looks the same as it did way back when, Man Cassie you need a new decorator!" I shrugged, " Well Marco, if you'd like to take up the job that would be wonderful." " Uh. No I'm fine. Did I tell you? I became a video game designer?" He said mockingly. " You did? Really?" He laughed shortly. " No, not really." I frowned "Oh, sorry." He shook his head, " Hey, don't worry about it! I'm fine, I have a job as a computer tech, and I'm making $69,000 a year, for Microsoft." I blinked, " Wow! Congratulations! You always were a computer expert." He laughed, " Cassie, please if Jake hears you complimenting me, he'd flip out." I stopped for a second. I saw a look of guilt cross over Marco's face. He knew that Jake and I had grown apart. He also knew that I still loved Jake. So I guess he thought, it wasn't the best thing to mention.
He opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was " Sorry." I guess, I was right. They always told me I had the gift of understanding, and being able to interpret people. " Don't be sorry, there is nothing to be sorry about." He quickly changed the subject. "So have you heard from any of the others lately?" I replied " No, no one since our last meeting, other than Tobias, at work." " OH Reeeeeally, so you and Tobias are...together now is that it? How does Rachel feel about this?" He smirked evilly. So I decided to rattle his chain, " Oh, actually Rachel has decided I can have Tobias, and she can have you!" I laughed as I watched Marco blush horribly. I had been able to make jokes like that. I learned them mostly from Marco. He was just about to say something when I heard two familiar voices, "Yes, Marco I have decided I want to live with you forever!" A mild female voice stated. " Cassie would you please marry me? I need you now!" Another one. I turned to the door, where I saw the slender figure of a girl, and the tall figure of an all-familiar boy. Marco blurted out; " Xena, and bird-boy have arrived!"
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Tobias, and Rachel stood in the doorway, both smirking. Tobias stayed human a lot lately. So he was getting used to emotions in his face again. I never really noticed when I was a kid, cause I never saw him smile, but he has a very cute grin. " Ah! Xena and Bird boy! Welcome! " Marco yelled out. I smiled. Rachel came over and gave Marco a hug. It was kind of funny, cause she was pretty much hugging his stomach. " Yeah Marco and Xena no longer has her shorter companion Gabriel, namely you. I guess I'm not going to be able to call you Mini-Me anymore aye?" Marco made a muffled laugh. " Oh I'm so sorry Xena, I didn't mean to disappoint you." The two of them went on to talking. I just stood there and smiled. Soon, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Tobias. The younger Tobias, still the same as he was when we started the fight. I guess morphs never get old.
I reached over and hugged him, " Hey, Tobias... it's great to see you." He squeezed me back." It's great to see you two Cassie." He turned and glanced at Rachel and Marco. I followed his gaze. "9th Anniversary aye? Wow...9 years since the night we all became friends forever. I used to regret that night all the time, but when I see my friends... I would do anything to get those memories back." I smiled lightly. " Believe me Tobias. So would I." Just then. I caught a glimpse of something light blue enter the barn with the corner of my eye. Then I heard a familiar thought speech voice, Hello everyone. It's good to see you all once again.
I think we all turned at the same time. There stood an almost exact replica of Elfangor, Ax. "Ax-man! No cinnamon buns bud sorry. How's good old Ax doing?" That was Marco of course. " Hey Ax. How are you doing?" I asked. Ax replied to them, I am doing very well my friends, it has certainly been a long time since I have last seen you all. I believe it has been exactly 368 Earth days, which would make it 8832 of your hours. Marco sighed, " AX! For the last freaking time it's your hours too!" Tobias, Rachel, and I laughed. It felt great to be having the group back together. We were still missing one person though, Jake. " So, may I ask where my fearless leader cousin is Cassie?" Rachel.I could tell they all seemed to tense up a bit when they mentioned Jake's name. Just to let them know it was alright to talk about him, I replied as if I didn't really care, " Well, he said he'd be here today, we all agreed to come together on this date. Maybe he just forgot." I shrugged, and they all just stared at me.
Tobias was the first to pipe up, trying to break the silence, " He's probably just late you know he did move a long ways away. I'm sure he'll be here soon." We all nodded silently. This time it was Marco to break the silence, " Hopefully this visit won't be all so dreary. COME ON PEOPLE! Let's find some fun things to do why we wait for our great leader!" I smiled, " Ok Marco, what do you want to do?" He grinned evilly at me, and then stated in a small voice, " WeEAT!!!!"
I laughed and nodded, " Alright, I've got food in the house, I'll run in and go get it" With that note, I ran out of the barn, and into the house. For some reason the house seemed a lot smaller then it did when we were younger. Of course, I'd grown taller since then, yet the feeling felt different. It felt like something much different, like it wasn't that much important anymore. The barn seemed larger even as I grew, which happened to be the exact opposite of my view of the house. It had made an imprint in my mind of MY childhood, of my friendship, our hardships, and our glory.
I walked into the house, dragged out a bunch of food on a cart, and headed back to the barn. Somehow I heard a yell of "BRO WELCOME!" I shrugged figuring Marco was making some stupid joke, so I entered silently, and started to set up some food, not even glancing up. Finally I lifted my head to call out the food was ready, when my heart stopped beating, and my speech caught in my throat. There stood a slightly pale-faced boy, with short hair, and bangs covering his eyes. I noticed a smile on his face raise up very slowly when he turned to face me. The slow smile that makes girls want to keel over and sigh. I realized my mouth was slightly open when a small comment was stated by Marco, " Your catching flies Cassie" I didn't really notice it but I stood up straight and bit my lip. The very handsome man walked straight up to me and cleared his throat, " Hello Cassie." I noticed his face turning slightly red, and mine doing the same. Without a second thought I leaned over and kissed him, wrapping my arms around his neck for what seemed to be forever. He was kissing me so hard back, I could feel my lips bruising, but I didn't care. So long had I wondered if I could ever hold him like this again, but now I knew for a fact. Finally after god knows how long, we separated lips, and I stared into his beautiful eyes, stated softly," Hello Jake."
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Thank you everyone for the suggestions.. I didn't get to spell check and stuff before I posted it. Um.. if anyone has any comments... death threats.. hate mail or whatever.. just post it on the review I guess.. hope ya liked it.. I'll try to make a sequel soon.. and if you think it sucked or don't want a sequel just say so..anyway.. ciao..
~Amberino~
Oh and PS:... if you guys see the paragraphs funny.. sorry.. my frontpage express doesn't take TAB well.. and it'll look a little distorted. Sorry.