" Well, now, let's see. Do we want to go on a mission or not? Hmmm!" I said sarcastically.
" Rachel, you don't have an option." Jake said. I sighed.
I passed by the new girl. She was always aggravated it seemed. Maybe it was cause she had to move here.
" Watch it!" She snapped and pushed me. Bad move, because I would probably tear her head off now.
" Watch it new girl!" I said, shoving her back.
" I have a name, idiot." She said.
" Oh?" I said, pushing her on. Egging her on.
" Yes, it is Gallia Smith." She said. What kind of a name was Gallia? Was that even a name? Or something her parents made up?
" But you can call me Gal." She said. I now, officially, didn't like her. I turned, sneakers skidding on the polished, tile floor of our school and walked the other way. I was angry. And an angry Rachel isn't always a great thing. Trust me.
I was mad. But, I decided to walk away from it. I didn't want to spend a week in detention.
" Hey, you chicken or something?" I wasn't going to kill her at first, but for now: she died.
" What did you say to me?" I was boiling now. " Cause I don't think I heard that correctly."
" Yeah, get you a hearing aid, granny." Gal said. Oh, oh, oh! That was it.
" Stay calm Rachel. Don't let her get to you." Jake whispered to me.
" I'm not sixty years old, you piece of trash. I'm not some mall crawling freak that you take me to be. Now, if you don't leave me alone in, oh, three seconds, I'm going to rip your head right off you shoulders. Understand?" I growled.
" No, I don't understand, you air head." She said, smirking.
" Oh, that was a major mistake, girlie. Because, no one, not no one calls me an air head. You are going to get it so bad if you call me that again." I was fuming. I was Veronica, with fire coming from my head.
" Air head." She said, testing me. I ran at her. With angry eyes, I picked her up by her sweater. I slammed her against a wall. She made a little noise. Her face was still smirking.
" Why aren't you afraid of me, mental?" I said.
" Me? Mental? Excuse me, but I stayed calm. I didn't rush over here to try to kill someone. Golly, you must retarded or some thing. Man, you can't control your anger. You're nuts. You should be in a mental hospital, in straitjacket, raving about a little girl, who drove your madness to it's peak, one day at school. And I'll be laughing, thinking " poor fool" and you won't be laughing." She said, finishing her little speech.
She was right. I couldn't control my anger.
" I'm…I'm sorry." I said.
" Good, you blonde headed freak." She said. I slapped her across the face. She punched me. She pushed me down, and I hit the tile floor hard. My palms stung from the impact and I was embarrassed. That witch!
Jake helped me up.
" Thanks." I said to him.
" I'm going to kill her. Do you hear me? I WILL KILL HER!"
" First, we go to class. We are both going to be late.
I looked back at the girl, that witch!
" Rachel, let it go. I'm sure she didn't mean anything." Jake said.
" How do you know Jake? Did you have a little fight with her? No. She's a little witch. I hate her. She has been mean from day one, Jake. How could she have not meant it?" I was angry. Very angry.
" Well, come on." I was mad, but getting over it. I went to the bathroom, only to discover that Gal was in there. Oh, no. She was dead.
I tried to avoid her as I went in the stall. Somehow, she seemed to annoy me without saying anything.
" Hey, blonde butt, you gonna be in there long?" I flung a wad of toilet paper at her.
" Oh, Rachel, I'm so scared! I'm going to die!" I heard her say from outside my stall. I flushed the toilet and went out, only to have her face inches from mine.
" Get away you freak! I don't want to have anything to do with you!" I said.
" Hey! I wasn't the one who started it!" She protested.
" Ha! And double ha! You started everything, so don't you dare tell me that." I stared at her.
" Gotta staring problem, Rachel?"
" No, I don't. But I think that you have a major problem. You see, you face looks so ugly, you'll never make it very far in the real world. I was scared of you when I saw you. I thought ' Gosh, they are doing chemical experiments down in Mrs. Lands class.' And then I thought ' Duh Rachel, that's just some stray dog that has come into our school, looking for scraps.'"
" But that wasn't it either. ' Oh, that must be the new janitor!' Oh, but then, I realized that it was Gal!" I probably hit home with that statement. Blurry tears formed in Gal's eyes.
" Don't say a word." She said and ran into the nearest stall, crying. Well, guilt was here now. Not the fact that I had won with that statement, but that I had made a girl cry. Go away, guilt, go away. I decided that I wasn't going to spend the rest of my time in the bathroom, listening to a girl cry in some dirty bathroom stall. I started to apologize, but no. She had to apologize first.
" Hey Rachel, what's wrong?" Oh, great. Cassie had noticed that something was bugging me. Well, Cassie, I guess you are right.
" Nothing, nothing at all. I'm fine. Couldn't be any better than I am right now. In fact, I am the most happy person living today." Cassie gave me that look. You know the look. The look when you know your friend knows that you are lying about something.
" Okay, okay. I'm guilty about something." I said. Marco laughed. I shot him a look.
" Why is Jake and Marco sitting by us at lunch?" I demanded.
" You didn't have a problem about them before. What gives?" Cassie got a puzzled look on her face.
" Um, this thing… it's kinda personal." I said.
" Well, look at the time. Whoa, how times flies when you're not having fun." Marco got up.
" Marco, sit back down." He sat.
" Look, I did something bad. I…"
" Okay Rachel. We're behind you all the way. Who did you murder?" Marco said. I laughed. Then turned serious again.
" Look, I made Gal cry. She's probably in the stall still, crying her eyeballs out. The place is probably flooded by now." I got up that sad look. The look that screams " Hey! I want pity here!" I just looked at the table, my pizza and my milk.
" What did you say?" Cassie asked.
" Golly, Cassie, I'm not some machine that remembers data. I'm not a computer and don't you forget that."
" Speaking of Gal, there she is right now." I noticed the girl coming in. That unmistakable face. Ooooh! But, I didn't have the guts to get up and call her something mean.
Her eyes were red from crying. She was looking for someone. That someone was me.
" Her name is Gallia." I told Erek and the others. " Call her 'Gal'."
" Sounds like an internal organ." Erek said. We all laughed.
" What do you want with this Gal character? Char- actor. Actor. Tor." Ax said.
" Please, don't do that Ax. It's disturbing." Jake said.
" Yes, Prince Jake. I am sorry. I know you do not like to be addressed by that name. I am sorry my prince…Jake." He said.
" Well, for one thing, I hate her. For another, she is probably planning a revenge as we speak." I said.
" Or doing her homework." Marco said.
" Marco, Marco, Marco. I think you should leave. Don't want that head to explode." I said.
" Why would my head explode?"
" Duh Marco! You have too small a brain. You're still stretching it." Focus Rachel, don't let Marco make you mad.
" Look, my point is that I do not like her and she has to be stopped." I said.
" She isn't a Yeerk, Rachel. She is a human being. Yes, she might be a controller, yeah. But I don't really care. Look, we are not going to trash her house, coming up in there in battle morphs to take down a girl. Rachel, she is an innocent little girl. We aren't going to kill Gal. Drop it Rachel." Jake said.
" Ugh! Jake, did I say kill?"
" Maybe."
" I've had it with you people…I…I…I." I let the sentence hang in the air. I noticed someone was coming in.
Boy, have I seen that face before. Where is she familiar from?
I thought. It was…" GAL? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" I screamed. Oh no! No where to run, no where to hide; Gal was eternal watcher of all. Noooo! My life was over.
" Oh, so that is Gal." Erek said.
" The one and only. The nerd of the universe. The horrible nightmare you have. Guys, meet the ugly person I call Gal."
" Nice introduction, Rachel." Gal said.
" Heh, heh, heh." I said.
" How did you get here? This is just not right." Ax said.
" Well, I've been out there for a while." She turned to face Erek.
" Internal organ, huh? Well, I like that name. Hmmm. What a war cry." She laughed at her own wit. Gal? Gal was in Cassie's barn? Gal? The very thought sickened me. What if she heard too much?
" Well, Gal. Let me have it. I just know you are dying to get me back. Embarrass the living snot out of me. I don't care. I doesn't hurt my feelings. I really don't give a care. Here, if words can't speak up, well, actions take over. C'mon, Gal, I dare you to try to hurt me. In fact, I think that would be very cute, little Gal, trying to kill me. Oh, I'm so scared." I was tempting Gal. That's right girl, you and me.
" Don't. Make. Me. Come. Over. There." She said, drawing out the words.
" Bring it on, shorty." I said. I was taller than Gal. Gal was shorter than Marco!
" Oh yeah?"
" I cannot believe I am having this conversation. Gal, dear, you know I can beat your butt. So don't try to hide the truth. Cause honey, you know it's there." I got a little head motion in the last sentence.
" Um, Rachel, you're scaring me." Gal said.
" Gal, get out of here. We don't want you here. No one does. So just get out of here. Before I have to escort you myself." Jake said. She walked over to Jake and grabbed a handful of light blue T-shirt. She flung him up against the wall. Okay, so maybe I underestimated Gal a little.
" You want me to leave? Hah! Like I would do that." She said.
" You know what? You just plain evil." Jake said and waited for her to punch him.
" Did you just say I was evil?"
" Um, no, I said you were…uh…sweet." Jake clenched his fist.
" Sweet…evil…they don't rhyme."
" Um…typo?" He said and she dropped him. He scampered away, and hid behind a cage with a raccoon in it. I felt like I should have killed her right then.
" Now, if anyone else wants a piece of me, bring it on." I stepped forward.
" I like an extra large slice, Gallia." I said, smiling an evil grin.
" Oh, so you want to mess with me?"
" Oh yes. Let me tell you one thing: One of us will make it out alive." I stared at her coldly.
" C'mon, big Rachel. And I don't mean height wise." Oh, did she just call me fat? I leapt. She ran, but I got her legs.
She crawled out of the barn, out into the grass. I was all over Gal. I called her some words I normally don't use. I went for the neck, the good spot. I was going to strangle Gal. Except one thing: She knew my plan. She blocked me and in the process, slapped me in the face.
" Oh, that's it." I looked around for an object to hit Gal with. A rusty, metal pipe. Perfect.
I raised it to hit her in the head and a strong hand lifted the pipe out of my hand. It was Erek.
" Erek! You ruined my master plan! I was going to kill Gal." I looked at Gal. For a moment, she got the saddest look on her face. Then, it was gone, only to be replaced by an angry, hard cold, stare.
" Oh yeah, look like sad. See if I care." I said.
" You were going to kill me?" I looked at her. She had a hurt expression on her face. Ugh. I felt guilty for trying to kill her.
" Sorry?" I said.
Morphing is always odd. It's never the same experience twice.
I was going to morph my bird of prey. Yep, the bald eagle.
I focused on the DNA stored within me. Changes occurred. Very gross. My finger turned into feathers, my arms were covered in feathers too and my body was shrinking rapidly.
" Oh my Gosh!" I whirled around like the freak of nature I was.
" You can…change." It was Gal. She fainted. I just hoped she died.
I changed back to human. Carried Gal to the barn, where everyone was already waiting for me.
" Gal saw me morph. Gal. So, do we kill her or does she become a new Animorph?" I asked. " All in favor of death, raise your hand." Everyone stared at me. So, I am slightly insane, so what? I put my raised hand down.
" Cassie, the blue box." Jake said. I felt anger build up. What? Gal was a new Animorph. Please die in battle, please!
" Ugh…where am I? What am I doing here?" Her voice became overwhelmed with fear. Mine with anger.
" You nut! Think! We are about to give you morphing powers and don't you dare think of…"
" What if I don't want morphing powers?"
" You're an idiot and you die." I said, walking over to her.
" Hey, hey, hey. Rachel, back off. She's getting them whether she likes it or not." Jake looked at Gal. " C'mon on over here." She got up off the dirty, barn floor and followed Jake.
" Press your hand to the box. No, it won't hurt." She closed her eyes and pressed her hand against it.
" Huh? Is it over?"
" Yes, now you need a morph…how about a…osprey? Cassie, get that injured one."
" Won't the injury affect me?" Gal eyes widened.
" No, the injury isn't carried through DNA." Jake said. " Here, acquire the bird. Concentrate and let the DNA flow into you."
She closed her eyes and reached a nervous hand out towards the bird. Pressing two fingers on it, she began to acquire it. The bird went into a trance, like they do when you acquire them.
" All done. Now, focus on the bird. Be the bird. Concentrate on it's feathers, color, size…anything. Visualize the bird." She crouched over and changes began. She, as David did, began to scream.
" Look, it's not going to hurt…now carry out the rest of the morph." Nodding vigorously, she did. Soon, she was a full grown bird of prey. We all morphed. For we Animorphs had a date with the Yeerk pool.
We flew to our school, where a Yeerk pool entrance is. As we demorphed, we told Gal the a short version of what was going on. We finished demorphing. We where going to walk along with the Controllers.
" Get in line, right there." Jake whispered to us. I did as he said.
We followed the Controllers down to the Yeerk pool.
Ah, the Yeerk pool. We meet again. Ha, ha, ha, ha.
Screams filled my ears, but I tried to block it out. People begging to be free, some screaming for help that would never arrive. Not a good sound.
We pulled from the crowd, and into a small room. The one we would morph in. Me, I went grizzly.
Power. Power? Oh, the grizzly had a ton of that. Heh, heh. I was a mad creature, tearing the place
I went for a Hork-Baijir, but he had a Dracon beam I did not see.
Pain went through me as I dropped to the ground. The Hork-Bajir came up, positive he'd finish me off. I had no one to help me.
Haarooooowwwwwww!
A lion! Gal jumped as the Hork-Baijir moved in and fought him off.
Gal, you saved me. Why?
Because. What are friends for? We stopped chatting and fought the rest of the Hork-Bajir off