A/N: Hey, thanks for all of your guys' support! I hope that you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writting this! Well, here's the last chapter of this trilogy, in Jake's POV! R and R!
My name is Jake. And I care about my cousin.
Just looking at us, you might think that we just barely tolerate each other lately. That's because of this war with the Yeerks. She and I have opposing opinions. She wants a full out bloody war, while I want to keep it a secret as long as possible. If we switch our guerrilla hit-and-run attacks to a full out war, out in the open, with the entire planet fighting, I know we'll lose. The only reason the yeerks haven't done that yet is because keeping everything a secret and getting unsuspecting, vouluntary hosts is still working for them. If we go into interstellar war, the yeerks will simply kill whoever they don't need and destroy whatever land they don't need.
Anyways, with our opposing views, you might think that we can hardly stand each other. However, I really do care and worry about her. It's almost as if she's my sister.
Which is why I noticed when she and Tobias snuck out of the gym during the school dance.
The whole group had gone to the dance. Tobias had been in human morph for a little over an hour. He and Rachel had danced for a while, but were now over at the snacks table. I was sitting at a table with Cassie. Marco was with Ax, trying to flirt with some of the girls on the other side of the room.
I, of course, was looking out for any human controllers, including Chapman. I had warned everyone to be on alert, just in case anything happened. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw someone leave the room. At first, I thought it was just a regular teenager going to the bathroom or something. But then I noticed that Tobias was no longer in the room. I looked more carefully, and soon saw Rachel. She was also leaving the gym!
My first thought was that they had seen something suspicious out in the hallway and had decided to check it out by themselves. I looked at Cassie. She had seen it, too.
"Where do you think they went?" I asked.
"I don't know." Cassie said.
"I'll go check out what's up," I said.
I left the gym, telling the chaperones that I had to use bathroom. I started looking around the school. I couldn't find anything particularly suspicious. I must have looked for thirty minutes! A lot of thoughts went through my head as to what could have happened. I didn't like any of them. Finally, as I was passing a janitor's closet - the janitor's closet - I heard some noises.
I flung the door open, and there they were. Rachel's arms were around Tobias' neck and Tobias had one arm around Rachel's waist and the other hand was going through her hair. They were kissing like I had never seen two people kiss before!
"What are you two doing?!" I cried in shock. They broke apart to look at me in surprise.
"I've been looking for you guys for the past half hour! Tobias! You only have five minutes left until you're stuck in human morph!" I had no idea how much time he had left, but saying five minutes seemed to have gotten the message across.
"I've been looking for you guys since you snuck out." I continued. "What were you guys thinking?! You can't just sneak off every moment we aren't in a battle! Just think about what could have happened! Ax could have gotten the yamphut again! Chapman could have gotten suspicious! Something... something could have happened between you two!" I had said the last part before I could stop myself, and as soon as I said it, I knew that I had made a mistake.
Rachel and Tobias looked at me, shocked.
"Oh no you didn't." Rachel growled. Tobias put his hand on her shoulder and spoke.
"Jake. You know that we would never do that. Rachel is just barely sixteen. I would never...." He trailed off, looking at Rachel. "I love her too much." I knew that this was true, but my anger had swallowed me.
For a second I couldn't say anything, Then I said, "You'd better demorph. You probably only have a minute left."
He looked at me, kissed Rachel, and whispered in her ear, "I love you." He walked outside and started to demorph. Rachel and I stood guard, making sure that nobody else was watching. Finally, a red-tailed hawk stood in the field, and flew away.
"Why did you do that?!" Rachel yelled at me when Tobias was gone. "Why did you say that?! You know that we'd never do anything like that!"
"You're my cousin. I have to protect you. Like a big brother." The words came out of my mouth before I knew what I was saying.
"Protect me?! I don't need anyone to protect me! And you are no cousin of mine!" The words hurt. She ran away from me, and when she was quite a ways away, she morphed into a bald eagle and flew off, too.
I walked back into the gym. There was hardly anyone left. Cassie, Marco, and Ax came up to me.
"What happened?" Cassie asked, knowing something was wrong.
"Nothing." I said, starting to walk away.
"But why did-" Ax started to ask, but I cut him off.
"Nothing, okay?! Just leave it alone!" I stormed out of the room and walked home by myself. I had no idea of what had come over me that night. I just knew that I had made a mistake, and that Rachel might never forgive me.