Rated T/PG-13 for implied activities. No spoilers.
"Mom, I'm going to Cassie's for the night, okay? We're going to camp out in the woods."
"Fine," Naomi says absently, showing no surprise at Rachel's sudden interest in the great outdoors. "Call if you won't be back by noon."
"Okay."
Rachel leaves, feeling no guilt for the lie. She's done it enough times that it's almost become a compulsive habit not to tell her mother where she's going when she leaves the house, even if it's something as innocent as the mall or gymnastics. Not that she has much time for either of those things these days.
She hikes over to a more industrial part of town and finds an alley where she won't be seen, shrugging off her sweater and GAP jeans and stashing them behind a dumpster.
Two minutes later she's several thousand feet up in the air, complete with wings, beak, talons, and the full brown and white plumage of a bald eagle.
She finds a nice thermal and glides, letting the warm air boost her wings and hold her aloft. It isn't long before she finds what she's looking for and drifts down to perch comfortably on a tree branch on the fringe of the meadow. He isn't there, but she has time, so she waits.
She doesn't wait long before a red-tailed hawk arrives, banking suddenly and flaring his feathers as she comes into view.
{Nice of you to show,} she says, twisting her head around to preen the feathers on one shoulder.
{Holy– Rachel! Jesus. I thought you were a real eagle.}
She laughs. {How many bald eagles do you know that are going to try to take over forest territory, Tobias?}
{Point taken.} He flutters down to land on another branch of the same tree. {So what brings you to my oh-so-humble abode?}
{I'm not allowed to just want to talk? Oh, and I'm spending the night.} She spreads her wings and drops to land in the grass so that she can demorph.
{You're– what? What did you tell your mom?}
{That Cassie's taking me camping.}
{And she believed it?}
Rachel shrugs with newly formed shoulders. {Seemed to. You gonna d- you gonna morph?} She very nearly says demorph, and stops herself just in time.
{Depends. Did you bring any Mickey D's?} She knows he's joking and smiles with the sharp yellow beak that's only just now softened into lips.
"Nah. Thought I'd save your appetite for that five-star restaurant I booked us into." She watches with interest as a boy begins to take shape from the body of a bird.
"Oh really?" He stands, brushing dirt from his morphing outfit as the feathers disappear with a shloomp. "Did you get us a hotel, too?"
"I could if you like," she offers, and this time she isn't joking.
They pass the afternoon uneventfully – unusual, for a pair of Animorphs – and Tobias demorphs and remorphs once as night begins to fall. When the stars come out they lie back in the meadow and watch them, side by side in the darkness.
A cloud shifts to cover the moon, blocking out their one source of light, and when it passes the silver glow returns to find a small pile of Spandex abandoned in the weeds and fingers tangled in long blonde hair.
Tobias pulls his head away briefly to look at her and she watches him in return, and she sees something new and different in his eyes, something she's never seen in him before.
"You know what?" she whispers in his ear as she pulls him back towards her. "This is one hell of a lot better than a hotel."