Author's Note: Thought-speak is denoted by double parentheses.


Chapter Two

Later that day, we all met in Cassie's barn. We being the Animorphs: Jake, Rachel, Cassie, Tobias, Ax and me.

Jake's our leader. He likes to pretend he's super serious and never has any fun, but I've known him ever since we were kids, so I don't buy it. Whenever he gets too into his leader role, I always joke at him until he's back to normal. You can't be serious all of the time, right?

Then there's Rachel. She's Jake's cousin. She's a tall blonde girl, and she'd be total dating material if it wasn't for the fact that she's completely insane. Whenever we have a dangerous mission against the Yeerks, Rachel always volunteers to go first. There's something seriously wrong with her.

Next is Cassie. Cassie is Rachel's best friend. She's basically a hippie. I mean, her barn is always full of animals like raccoons and skunks that any normal person would stay away from, but she treats them like they're her pets or something. The girl loves animals way too much, in my opinion.

Of course, the animal Cassie loves the most is a big, silly dog. By which, I mean Jake. Jake and Cassie have major crushes on each other, but they both refuse to admit it for some reason.

Finally, there's our resident forest-dwellers: Tobias and Ax. Ax's real name is Aximili-Esgarouth-Isthill. He's an Andalite. Andalites are basically blue centaurs, except they have stalk eyes on top of their heads. And no mouth. And a huge sharp tail blade that's so fast you can barely see it.

Ax's brother, Prince Elfangor, was the one who gave us the power to morph, shortly before he was killed by the Yeerks.

Tobias is a red-tailed hawk. See, that's the downside to morphing: if you stay in a morph for more than two hours, you get stuck permanently. Tobias can still morph, thanks to an all-powerful being called the Ellimist, but his normal body is that of a hawk.

((Hey Rachel,)) Tobias said. ((Nice outfit.))

"Thanks," Rachel said, happily.

I rolled my eyes. Tobias and Rachel kind of have a thing going on. I have absolutely no idea how their relationship works, seeing as stuck in a hawk body most of the time. I told you there was something wrong with Rachel.

"Say, Rachel, you wouldn't happen to have gymnastics later tonight, would you?" I asked.

"No, I don't have gymnastics class until Thursday," Rachel said. Her eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"I kinda lost my cell phone in Melissa Chapman's backpack," I confessed. "She's in your gymnastics group, right? I thought I could you could get it for me."

"What was your phone doing near her backpack?" Rachel asked.

"No reason," I said.

"What was your phone doing near Melissa's backpack?" Rachel repeated dangerously.

"It fell in there accidentally," I lied. "She left before I could get it back."

"You should stay away from Melissa," Jake warned. "Her father might suspect something if you hang around her too much."

Melissa's father, Vice Principal Chapman, is one of the highest-ranking Controllers we know of. It's hard enough to deal with a vice principal normally. Even harder to do so when he's under the control of an alien bent on destroying you.

"Okay, okay," I said irritably. "Sheesh, it's not like I'm hanging out with her or anything! She has my cell phone, that's all!"

"Touchy," Rachel muttered to herself.

((I believe Prince Jake has some news,)) Ax thought-spoke to us. Thought-speech is like normal speech, except you hear it in your head, instead of with your ears. Ax uses it all the time because he doesn't have a mouth. The rest of us can only use it when we're in morph.

"Don't call me Prince," Jake said. "This news is very important, so I need everyone to be mature about it, okay?"

Jake gave me a look.

"Why are you looking at me?" I asked. "Do you think I'm not mature?"

"I don't want you to make any jokes about this, that's all."

"About what?"

"I'm serious, Marco. I know you, man. Just try to cut down on the humor this time."

"What is it that you think is so funny?" I demanded.

Jake sighed. "We've just received word that the Yeerks are starting a dating service."