The New Kids in Morph

Chapter 1—Michelle

Hi. I'm Michelle, latest of the group that calls ourselves the Animorphs.

Like the others, I can't yet tell you my last name or where I live. I can, however, tell you that I moved here from Washington State and that my parents are high ranked yeerks as of the time I'm writing this.

I found out about the Yeerks when I googled a word my parents had used.

Visser.

I was linked straight to a website about Yeerks, which I discovered were little yellow-gray parasitic slugs that take over brains of their hosts.

They can find all of your memories, and there was no way to tell the host pre-yeerk from the host post-yeerk, unless you look very carefully.

You see, yeerks need to rest in the rays of their home sun once every three days, and they find out how to make these rays…but in places called Yeerk Pools.

They'd stolen my parents from me.

One day I followed mom to her entrance to the local Yeerk pool and looked around, scouting the place. Looking around, I saw a red-tailed hawk also…scouting. I swear it noticed me looking at it and flew off. I watched it fly one direction, then look at me and change directions.

Odd…

The next day was my first day of school.

I wasn't even introduced to my classmates. The teacher just pointed to a seat next to a pair of girls.

"Hi, I'm Cassie," said one of the girls, "what's your name?"

"I'm Michelle," I replied, "Nice to meet you."

The blonde sitting next to her introduced herself as Rachel.

At lunch, they had me sit next to them, at their table, when this Latino kid walked up.

"Hello, and who might you be?" he asked flirtatiously.

"Michelle," I said, grinning.

"Well, since you are new here, you might want to know that I am the ultimate hottie here. My name is Marco," he said.

I couldn't conceal my laughter.

"Finished, Marco? Find someone else to hassle," Rachel said, "You're ruining my lunch, and obviously Michelle is unimpressed."

"And hello to you, too. How is the warrior princess today?" he asked, just taking her taunt good naturedly.

Meanwhile, Cassie told me about her barn. All those animals!

"I love animals. Hey, quick question, do red-tailed hawks usually go into the city? I swear one was…watching me yesterday near the mall," I said, then grinned, "I know, it's probably a silly question…what?"

Marco and Rachel were listening to me, and Cassie looked at me with the same look the hawk had taken yesterday.

"Ah-ah-Andalite," Marco sneezed.

"Bless you," I said.

Cassie looked sidelong at Rachel, who nodded.

Another guy walked up and the rest of them straightened up with almost military precision. Obviously this was the group leader.

"Jake, this is Michelle. Michelle, this is my cousin, Jake," Rachel introduced.

"Another animal lover, like Cassie," Marco said, then joked lamely, "They're taking over."

He then took Jake away and began talking quietly. I only heard bits and pieces.

"Tobias…watched…followed? Tested…Yeerk," the last word make me jump to my feet.

"What?" Rachel asked as I walked over to Marco and Jake, who'd stopped talking.

"Excuse me for eavesdropping, but I have good hearing…did you say Yeerk?" I spat the word, quietly.

I could feel the eyes of Cassie and Rachel upon me as Jake looked at me evenly.

"What does the word mean to you?" he asked.

"My parents are slaves to those parasites. I want to destroy them all. Do you know a place I can fight them?" I asked, still quietly. I looked Jake in the eye.

"I will tell you in three days. Can you stay home for three days? I mean, go to school, then home, nowhere else. I know its hard…"

"I understand. Mom and Dad go to the Yeerk pool every three days or less. In fact, that's where I saw the hawk," I turned to Cassie, "The red-tailed hawk that was watching me was in front of the Yeerk pool entrance my mother was using."

She nodded, "Just do this and we can answer your question. We have to know if we can trust you."

I nodded back, "You don't know who you can trust anymore."

"No, you don't," everyone echoed.