Chapter 8
That day was one of those days. You know, the ones where every little thing goes wrong.
First, I fell asleep on the bus on the way to school and missed my stop. There wouldn't be another bus in the opposite direction for forty-five minutes, so I had to walk for a good twenty minutes in the rain to not be ridiculously late for class. Fortunately, I thought, first period is English, and Ms. Morris is usually pretty understanding. I'd just say I'd been having trouble sleeping since what happened to Rachel, and tell her the truth about missing my stop.
Except I also completely forgot about my homework.
I was going to do that the evening before, but then Jessica happened. I couldn't tell her that of course, and my sleep-deprived mind was way too slow at coming up with a proper excuse, so I ended up looking like I had just been lazy about it. It wasn't even a lot of work, which made me look especially bad. So she made me come back during the lunch break to do it.
Second period was math. Something about linear equations, I think. Whatever it was, it was boring as heck. Boring enough to fall asleep to. Now, Mr. Taylor is not one of the lax teachers. He called me out on it, I jolted up half-screaming from the nightmare I was having, everyone except Jake laughed at me, yada, yada, yada. Poof, and whatever would have been left of my lunch break was gone. Ugh.
The problem wasn't even that I had to work through lunch. The problem was that I wouldn't have time to talk to Jake or Marco in private until the end of the day.
The fact that they were in school at all meant that they didn't run into any problems flying home the night before, and I'd forced a smile at them when I arrived, so I'm sure they figured I was okay too. But I really wanted to figure out what to do next.
During the lunch break Vice Principal Chapman made an announcement over the PA system, asking anyone who'd seen Jessica recently to report to his office. Chapman is a Controller, and a high-ranking one at that. So either the whole thing wasn't a trap and the Yeerks were truly looking for Jessica, or this was part of the trap.
The rest of the day wasn't as eventful. I got called out a couple more times for dozing off, but it didn't net me any detention. I just had to stay after my last class for a couple minutes to explain myself to the teacher, but she was satisfied with my by then usual Rachel excuse.
Jake and Marco were waiting for me outside class.
"So either you didn't sleep much last night, or those linear equations bored you so much that you're still sleepy because of them," Marco joked.
I just groaned at him.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Jake asked.
I nodded. "Yeah, just a bad night." I would have been more specific, but there were way too many people around.
"Nightmares about Rachel?"
"Among other things…" I grumbled. I was in a pretty bad mood.
"How about I'll come around to your place around five? Then you can tell me all about it."
"Thanks," I said, not exactly happily. Class ends at three fifteen, so apparently they had to go home first or something.
He put his hand on my shoulder for comfort. "Hey, it'll be okay. We've had worse, right?"
I fought back a sudden urge to break down, hug him, and start crying. I really didn't want to do that in school, though. Especially not with Marco standing next to us, of all people. I just stared blankly ahead of myself instead.
Erek walked up to us while we swapped out our schoolbooks and got our coats from our lockers. He made eye contact with me for a moment to get my attention, but then turned to Marco.
"Hey, Marco, I was thinking of going to the pool. Want to come with?"
"While that is an excellent idea, I think I'll have to pass."
"Suit yourself. I'll catch up with you later this evening then."
"Okay, later."
Erek walked away again. Clearly he'd meant that he'd go to the Yeerk pool. Maybe to try to figure out if this whole thing was a trap or not? At least, I figured he wasn't sure whether it was or not either, otherwise he or my other friends would have tried to mention it. But in any case, my friends must have told him what was going on over lunch, and he decided to help us.
Knowing that Erek would help made me feel a little better. He should be able to figure out if this whole thing is a trap or not, and if a high-tech android wouldn't be able to find out why Jessica is immune, I didn't know what would.
Unfortunately, being thirty seconds late for the bus back home, not being able to morph and fly home due to my backpack, clothes, and coat, and therefore having to stand around in the rain for half an hour put me right back into my terrible mood. I was soaking wet and miserable when I finally walked up our driveway an hour or so after school got out.
≺Nothing out of the ordinary happened here,≻ Rachel thought-spoke to me. She didn't show herself though.
≺Did Jake and Marco get home safely last night?≻ Tobias asked.
I forced a smile and nodded slightly in response.
≺Okay.≻
≺Does anyone have an actual plan yet? I'm so bored…≻ Jordan complained.
I shook my head.
I found Jessica staring at the TV when I got inside. Dad's truck was in the driveway, but he wasn't in the living room. Mom wasn't home yet.
"Hey," I said.
She jolted up as if I woke her. "O-oh, hey."
"Are you okay?"
She sighed. "I'm so tired… I spent the last hour or so just trying to stay awake, so I don't end up Yeerkwalking without you around…"
I wasn't sure what to say. I wanted to tell her my friends had been guarding her the whole time, but of course that would have been suicide if there were Controllers watching us.
"Two more days of this…" she groaned. "And my shoulder is killing me."
I sat down next to her and started staring at the TV as well. I still didn't know what to say, but I figured she might at least feel a little safer with me around.
The phone rang a couple minutes later. I almost freaked out when the man on the opposite end told me he was with the police. But it wasn't about Jessica.
He said that a fox had caused an accident on the highway. It had tried to cross during the usual traffic jam. Someone ran into it and slammed the brakes. The guy behind wasn't paying attention either and caused a fender bender, which is how the police got involved.
Anyway, he called because the fox was still alive. Most policemen know about the Clinic, so it's pretty common to get calls like this. I noted down the mile marker, thanked him for calling, and hung up.
"Who was that?" Jessica asked. She looked a little scared; I guess she saw my initial moment of panic.
"Some policeman about a wounded fox by the highway. Do you know where Dad is?"
"In the barn, I think."
"Okay, I'll be right back."
Jessica was right. I found Dad tending to the wounded eagle again.
"How's he doing?"
"The antibiotics seem to be working. He'll be alright. You're home late? I was starting to get worried."
"I just missed my bus, Dad. I'm fine. A policeman just called, there's a wounded fox by the highway through the forest near mile marker 28.5."
"Okay, got it," he said, and handed me the partly sedated eagle. "Can you prepare the operating room while I'm gone?"
"Sure."
I put the eagle back in his cage. Then I went to get Jessica, so we could ready the operating room together. I told her what we had to do: make sure that all the surgical tools are in place and sterilized, make sure the table is disinfected, and prepare a ketamine shot. She was mostly silent and seemed too tired to really help, but of course the point was just that I could keep an eye on her, and wake her should she fall asleep.
But it wasn't good enough. I had my back to Jessica and was preoccupied with cleaning a scalpel when it happened.
She threw her body against mine, and before I could react, I felt a sharp pain in my left ear.
I was being infested!
