Disclaimer: I only own Sarah. Everything else is KA Applegate's. Bless her!

"A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed...It feels an impulsion...this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons." --- Richard Bach

My name is Sarah and I'm usually much more active. I'm either fighting or planning for the next fight. I even dream about fighting. I tend to sleep like a cat; getting rest, but alert, so if an unusual noise was heard, I'd be on my feet in seconds. I don't usually relax so absolutely and let my guard down so completely.

Yet here I am. It was quite unnerving. I kept expecting to be ambushed at any moment, or some kind of catastrophe to happen. Not to mention I was very uncomfortable. I was lying on my back, staring at the sky. That's all it was. I wasn't fighting for my survival or saving the world. I was just watching the clouds. Normal kids would find this relaxing and serene. Not me. It was pointless.

Other than the soft sound of the wind, or the occasional chirp of a bird, it was very quiet. To me, it was too quiet. The wind rushing through the grass was pleasant, however. It reminded me of home. Which only made me more nervous, because thinking of home opened a whole new line of thoughts: are my parents okay? Did the Yeerks invade? Are they sending help? What'll happen if-?

"Isn't this nice?" my friend, Marco, said. He was lying beside me on this most uncomfortable patch of ground. I shifted a bit to get a protruding rock out from beneath my back.

"Not really," I replied. I paused. "Why are we doing this again?"

"Because I asked you to and you said yes."

"No, I mean really; why are we doing this? Of all the things we could do today, why this?"

"It's relaxing."

"Uh huh." Something told me that wasn't the real answer, but he didn't elaborate, so I didn't push it.

The wind seemed to be blowing pretty strong, because the clouds were creeping across the sky fairly quickly. There weren't a whole lot of them, so at least it wasn't going to storm on us. "You know, that one kind of looks like a fat rabbit," Marco said, pointing to a portly-shaped cloud in the sky.

I tilted my head to a different angle, but all I saw was a portly-shaped cloud. "Uh huh," I said.

"And that one sort of looks like a pole-jumper."

"Uh huh."

"And that one -"

"You know," I interrupted, "we could probably be doing something productive right now."

"Like what? Homework?"

"No, I mean something involving saving the planet?"

He sighed in frustration. "I don't want to talk about that part of my life right now."

"Why not?"

"Because, for once, I want to be normal. Right now, I finally have the chance to just lie under the sky and watch the clouds go by. No war, no blood, no death; just a pole-jumper trying to make it over a fat rabbit and a coyote."

He kind of chuckled. I tilted my head the other direction, but still only saw clouds. How was he seeing all these things up there?

We watched the clouds in silence for a while. Some of the clouds drifted away, while others were torn apart and merged into different shapes. "What do you thing that one looks like?" Marco asked me, pointing to a long, skinny cloud.

I sighed. "It looks like a cloud."

"Come on, Sarah. At least pretend you're enjoying this."

I sighed again. I looked at it for a second before saying, "Sort of like a skinny Dracon Beam."

"Oh, my God, can you think of anything besides fighting Yeerks?"

"What? You asked me what it looked like and I told you!"

"Haven't you ever just wanted to take a break from it all and relax?"

"If I did that, the world would be at a big risk."

"Well, you're relaxing now, aren't you?" He stopped and turned his head to look at me. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, but did not turn to look at him. "You are relaxing, right? I mean, you're not thinking about the war, are you?"

"Other than the usual 'What do we do now?' thoughts? No."

"Yeah, I don't believe you."

"Well, I can't help it, okay? That has been my life for eleven or so years. The only thing I know about is that stuff."

He went back to looking at the sky. "Then I'll help you become a normal human."

"I don't want to be a 'normal' human. I like who I am."

He sighed in frustration again. There was a silence for a while. I sighed quietly and pointed to a cloud in the sky. "If you kind of tilt your head, that sort of looks like a sleeping cat."

He tilted his head and knocked it into mine. "Ow!"

"Ow! Sorry," he said, rubbing his head.

"Why do we have to lie down to do this? We can see the clouds sitting up, right?"

"It's more comfortable lying down."

"Are you kidding me? I have a rock in my back here." He laughed. "I'm glad you find that amusing."

"Sorry." He was still snickering. He took a deep breath and said, "Do you hear that?"

I listened. All I heard was the grass in the wind. "I don't hear anything."

"Exactly," he whispered. "Exactly."

Not quite understanding what he meant, I merely said, "Uh huh."

A short silence. "You know, my dad's thinking of getting a new car."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh… Kay?"

"He thinks we should get a Volvo. I want a convertible."

"Uh huh."

"What do you think we should get?"

"Considering I don't know anything about cars…?"

He shrugged. "Just thought I'd ask."

"I see."

"When I'm old enough to drive, I'm gonna ask my dad for a convertible."

"Cool."

"Yeah. When I get one, I can take you for a drive in it. You'll like it; the air rippling through your hair, going at top-notch high speeds. It'll be like flying, only with metal."

"Sounds like fun."

"Jake'll be so jealous."

"Why?"

"Because I'll have a car and a -" He stopped and sort of blushed.

"And a what?"

"And, um, a driver's license."

I thought for a moment. "Wait, won't you both be old enough to drive roughly around the same time?"

"Yeah, but I'll for sure get a car before him."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because I get everything before Jake."

He grinned. Again, not quite understanding what he meant by that, I just replied, "Uh huh."

We watched the clouds float by some more. The wind was beginning to pick up and some of the clouds were getting darker. I feared there may be rain soon.

Before I could say anything, Marco asked, "Sarah, do you like spending time with me?" He didn't look at me, but I saw him blush again.

"Would I be here if I didn't?" He shrugged. I hesitated before asking, "Why?"

"I'm just wondering. Usually when we do things outside of the war, you tend to complain about it."

I sighed. "War is my life. If what I do doesn't have anything to do with war, I wonder about its purpose."

"Do you complain about school the same way?"

"About History, yes."

He grinned. "Jake says you're getting better."

"What I'm good at is repeating what the teacher says in different words. Apparently, in school life, that's the same as learning."

He laughed again. "My mother used to say the same thing." I groaned very angrily at that. He stopped laughing. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," I muttered.

There was an uncomfortable silence. Then he said, "Last year, I went to the park and -"

"Why do we keep having such pointless conversations?" I demanded. I think I may have been a little too harsh, because Marco seemed upset.

Nevertheless, he did reply, timidly, "I like talking to you."

"Why? We have nothing in common and I don't have any cute anecdotes to share with you."

"Then just listen to my cute anecdotes." He sighed. "You're just easy to talk to, is all."

"Jake's your best friend. I'm sure he's easy to talk to, as well. You could easily be 'normal' with him."

"He's already heard all my stories before. Or was part of them at one point. And besides, this is different!"

"Why is being with me different?"

He slapped his hands on his face and groaned irately. "Oh, my God, how are you this naïve?!"

"Excuse me?" I asked, sitting up, staring down at him. He sat up, too. "I'm smarter than you are!"

"Maybe in some things, but not everything! And certainly not in this!"

"All we're doing is talking about clouds and stuff!"

"It's more than that!"

"What's more?! I don't understand anything you've been saying and I still have that damned rock in my back!"

I rubbed my back to get the rock out, but for some reason, Marco found it all very hilarious. He laughed, then had to put his hand on my shoulder to steady himself as he laughed some more. "That's why I like hanging out with you! You're very funny!"

"I'm glad that my pain makes you happy!"

He snickered. "That's not what I meant."

I sighed. "So far, you haven't said anything you meant."

"Yeah." He kind of stared at me while he still had his hand on my shoulder. It was making me very uncomfortable, but I didn't know why exactly.

"You, uh, still have your hand on my shoulder," I pointed out flatly.

He jerked it away. "Oh, sorry." There was an awkward silence. "Do you want to look at clouds some more?"

"Not really."

"Okay." Lots of people in my life have stared at me before, but not like this. It was making me uncomfortable again. I was even beginning to miss that rock.

He shrugged. "Is there something else you want to do?"

"Uh… I don't know." He put his hand on my shoulder again. I looked at it, then back at him. "What are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Isn't what obvious?"

He groaned again. He took his hand away and stood up. "I give up," he said. "Even a simple 'I don't like you' would be less aggravating than this."

"Then what? And I do like you! You're my friend!"

"Great; twist the knife."

I stood up in a huff. "What knife? You are making no sense."

"You know what? Forget about it. Just -" He stopped to sigh. "Never mind. We should get going. It looks like it's gonna rain soon."

I looked up and saw more dark clouds. Some of them were blocking the sun.

"Look; whatever it is I did, or didn't do, I'm sorry, okay?" I said.

He grinned, but I think it may have been forced. "Ah, don't worry about it. I was just talking gibberish."

I decided not to agree with that.

We started walking. At first it was in silence, but then Marco said, "So, do you like looking at clouds?"

"I didn't really see the point, but I did enjoy the company."

I smiled. He laughed. "You know, I really don't get you at all. But I guess that might be part of the attraction."

I blinked. "What attraction?"

He laughed again…