Chapter 10

"Wait, what?" Tobias asked.

It only took a few minutes to bring him up to speed with the ad hoc plan to install a spy cam in Chapman's office. Putting it in simple terms, it was easy to see why this plan appealed to Elfangor. It was definitely easier than smuggling the Andalite into school and having him morph and demorph over and over.

Tobias readily agreed with that analysis. "Morphing is weird, guys. Like you don't even know how weird."

I told Tobias and Cassie about my attempt at morphing my dog and felt embarrassed, but Tobias nodded.

"Straight up, if Rachel wasn't going to spend all night with potential Controllers, and if you guys hadn't been there watching, I probably would've scrubbed out, too."

"Does it hurt?" Cassie asked.

"Not really," Tobias said. "I mean, I could feel bones changing shape and I could feel the feather shafts when they broke through the skin, but it's not painful. Hella unsettling, but not painful."

*The technology suppresses some sensory feedback during morphing.*

That's helpful.

"So how was being a hawk?" Cassie asked. I have to admit, I was curious too.

"Once I got past the ick factor, being a hawk is amazing. The eyesight is off the walls. It took me a little while to adjust to the change in depth perception. But flying is literally the best thing ever. It took awhile to really get the hang of it, but once I did, it was amazing."

*I also enjoy flying. Strictly speaking, Andalites are not permitted to morph for recreation.*

Cassie arched an eyebrow. "And not-so strictly speaking?"

*Nothing the council can prove.*

"Alright," I said, "moving on, we have part of a plan - and I'm still not sold with the multiple felonies plan - and we still haven't heard from Rachel or Marco."

"Yeah, where is Marco?" Tobias asked.

"Family stuff," Cassie answered for me.

We went over the finer points of Rachel's sleepover, which was mostly movies, gossip, and typical girl stuff. Tobias noted that all the basement windows were blacked out, which backed up Rachel's comment that the rec room renovations were less than innocuous. But barring a secret tunnel in the basement, neither of Melissa's parents left the house last night.

"Alright, so we're all on the same page there. If we're breaking into the school, one of us is going to have to keep tabs on Chapman again."

"I can do it," Tobias volunteered.

I shrugged. "Maybe we'll get lucky and Rachel learned something. In any case, where do we stand with your brother?"

*Aximili has spent time calculating the ion trails and signal data from the Dome Ship main computer.*

"And that means, what, exactly?"

Elfangor nodded. *The Dome Ship computer monitors all data from all fighters. It allows the command on the main bridge to assess formations and losses. With the exception of seventeen ships, my own included, all fighters were lost in space.*

I wasn't sure if I should look happy or sad. I knew Elfangor was distraught over his fallen comrades. And I didn't mean to minimize that. It seemed uncouth to ask how many had been lost. Elfangor seemed distant. Well he always seemed distant, but even more so now.

"Do you have locations on the other sixteen ships?" Cassie asked.

Elfangor shook his head again. *No. Of those remaining sixteen ships, twelve of them indicate freefall entry into your atmosphere. Most likely, the pilots were already lost or else suffered catastrophic system failure and became victims of gravity.*

Wow. That was not a pleasant picture. I tried to imagine driving my SUV as it spiraled out of control, all efforts to turn the wheel to no avail, as the car eventually became engulfed in the fires of reentry. To die in battle would've been one thing. Zap, boom, gone. And I guess it's not the greatest exit imaginable, but I'd take quick and painless over the agonizingly impotent death of a dead-stick fireball landing. I snapped out of the reverie. "Don't your ships have heat shielding? Yours made it through the atmosphere."

*I was conscious, Jake. And not to boast, but I am an exceptionally capable pilot. Andalite fighters are built almost entirely for spaceflight, and their atmospheric profiles are less than ideal. The Dome Ships are equipped with other shuttles for planetary transport, but fighters are capable of making surface landings only in extreme emergencies.*

"Well what about the other four ships?" I asked.

*The Dome Ship loses the ability to communicate with fighter pods during planetary landings. Below a threshold altitude, the ships become indistinguishable from the background planetary magnetic fields, and the heat of the reentry ultimately becomes the only signal we are capable of accurately tracking. Aximili is working to extrapolate the trajectories from their known ion trails and angles of descent.*

"So still nothing definitive about survivors," Tobias said sullenly.

"Four possibles is better than zero," Cassie said.

"I'm not a big fan of false hope, Cassie," Tobias answered. That quip seemed to take her by surprise. Her face scrunched in a weird way, like she was trying to decide if she should be offended or hurt. I think Tobias noticed. "But you're right, four would be better than none. Assuming we don't have to take a road trip to Nebraska to pick them up."

Ugh. I didn't want to think of the logistics of trying to find Andalite survivors. Don't get me wrong, I was keeping my fingers crossed that Elfangor was going to get good news and we were going to have help. But Tobias wasn't wrong. We had no idea where survivors might have landed and my SUV wasn't built for fuel economy.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I was happy to see a text from Marco. His dad had just dropped him off. I told him where we were. "Marco's on his way," I said.

I was holding out a shred of hope that Marco would be the voice of reason here and give us a bulletproof reason why we shouldn't go through with this plan. Honestly, it was more of an idea than a plan. I mean, plans have steps, sequences, contingencies. We didn't have that yet. We had a vague concept of something we wanted to do, and that already had me nervous. When we actually got to a point where we were figuring out how to get into Best Buy or whatever electronics outlet had a good spy camera, I knew we were going to be deeper than I wanted to be.

Marco bitched the whole way down the small valley, lamenting the lack of stairs. "I fucking swear, the next alien that drops out of the sky can land in the mall parking lot. There's room in the construction site, right?"

Cassie laughed. "Marco, I don't think you need aliens landing in the middle of town. God, could you even imagine how many people would've seen him if he'd landed anywhere near Capitola?"

"Yeah, I can see it now. Hundreds, thousands of eyewitnesses, international headlines, vast eternal fame for some other poor schmucks that aren't us. The Yeerk invasion could be a national priority. Then the Twitter firestorm when Trump manages to immediately fuck up First Contact by having Papa Smurf here detained at Area 51."

"What happened to the Men In Black and the CDC quarantine?" I asked.

"Eh, blow me. I'm enjoying the fantasy that life would be better if this weren't my problem."

"Don't be hitting on my man. Go find your own." All eyes went to Cassie. She blushed, but she didn't back down. "You heard me." We shared a much needed laugh before she went on. "Besides, if this were someone else's problem, you wouldn't be making ground-zero policy decisions for First Contact, would you?"

Marco sighed. "Oh, what is that, a shameless appeal to my ego to make me feel important?"

Cassie shrugged. "Marco, we both know you are important. You were going to grow up and become some hotshot engineer for NASA anyway, just count this as skipping the middle steps."

"See, Jake? I told you she was cute."

"Really?"

"Moving on, children," I said in my most teacher-esque tone, "we have to get to brass tacks. I still haven't written my English paper, Tobias is the only one that's actually tried morphing and succeeded, Rachel's on day two of Operation Sleepover, and apparently we have a B&E to plan."

"Shit, I'm gone a few hours and you guys are all Ocean's Eleven over here."

We went over our options. Marco agreed with Tobias, Cassie, and Elfangor that smuggling an Andalite into the school was not the way to go. I wasn't pleased about that. But silver linings where you find them, Marco did share my trepidation about the spy cam angle.

"It's a major retailer, there's cameras. How are we going to get anything out of there without being seen?" he asked.

Tobias shrugged. "The easiest way would be for someone to take out the transformer outside the building, one of us morph something and go in through the vents or something, grab a camera, and run back out."

"Won't that kick off another blackout?" Cassie asked. "Plus, how do we blow up a transformer without killing ourselves?"

I held my face in my hands. "Ugh, I can't believe we're having this conversation."

"Jake?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah."

"What about this is specifically stressing you out so much?"

"What do you mean? We're casually discussing blowing part of the electrical grid, stealing high-end electronics, and then breaking into the school. How would I not be stressed?"

She smiled at me, and I found it relaxing. "Jake, smuggling Elfangor into the school tomorrow would be just as dangerous. We have how many kids at our school, how many teachers? Elfangor would have to demorph at least four times, you said so yourself. Look, I'm not condoning theft and vandalism, or any of this. If we could buy the camera, that'd be better, but we need this, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah, we need it. And you're right, it's not the plan that's bugging me."

"What then?"

I went for broke. "If we do this, we plan a mission, we all morph… Part of me is worried we're going to be past the point of no return. And part of me is worried that we passed that already, when we touched the cube."

"Jake, we were in this before Elfangor landed," Tobias said. "Chapman didn't become a Controller because we touched the cube, or because we stole a camera. The only difference is that you know what's going on."

Elfangor came over to me. It was still weird having an alien as a regular hang out buddy. Well, maybe buddy was going too far. But I was oddly comforted that he was here. Maybe it was that he put a face to this. Maybe it was that he was a soldier and he knew things. But I think it was something else. It was that we had helped him. He was here because we were there. He had survived because we found him in this same creek bed.

*I know what it is you're feeling,* he said. *It is what makes the best leaders.*

I stared at him. "You're kidding, right? Elfangor, I'm a mess. I'm going to get my friends arrested, or worse."

Elfangor did that telepathic laughter thing again. *Jake, doubt is the soul of leadership. You are worried, and truthfully, I think your friends may be downplaying the dangers in this plan. But you are searching for better options, you are not running blindly down a path chosen rashly. Believe me, Jake, confidence is far more dangerous.*

Four possible survivors. He had all the military superiority he could've asked for. That's what he told us. And he'd walked into a trap. I think he could've forgiven him that much. But he walked into a trap he knew he should've seen coming. That was the part that killed him inside. I could only feel a fraction of it, that terrible loss and a crushing sense of guilt. It was his fault. And he didn't delude himself otherwise.

"Alright, yeah. I'm scared this is all going to go south. Elfangor, do you have any thoughts?"

*My understanding of humans is limited, but I suggest a more subtle approach to the surveillance issue.*

"We're listening," Tobias said.

*If there are security cameras in the building, the real problem is not the cameras, but rather someone viewing the footage.*

"Ah, of course! Why didn't I think of that?" Marco said.

"Wait, what?" I asked.

Tobias got it. "Rather than blow up the transformer and take out power to the camera, we just distract whoever's in the security room."

I couldn't help but laugh at that. I suddenly had the image of a red-tailed hawk bursting out of an air vent and some poor wage slave in the back room running his ass off as bedlam ensued.

"Alright, I think we need a road trip. If we're doing this, I don't think it would hurt to go have a look around Best Buy. Some inside perspective should help us nail this down. And hell, maybe we'll get lucky and they'll have something in my price range."

Once again, I was in Best Buy. Marco had immediately gone off to look at XBox and PS4 games. I would've been more resentful, but he said it might not be a great idea for all three of us to be on camera if the stuff Cassie and I were looking at ended up missing later. I reminded him if he was the one bailing on being on camera, that he was the one that would have to actually grab the device. He seemed to accept that.

Tobias had flown off back to Chapman's house. Since Tobias couldn't exactly demorph bareass naked without the cover of darkness, and since Rachel was still there, Tobias was supposed to fly to the woods to demorph if needed. Apparently, red-tailed hawks can hit thirty miles an hour in level flight, and without having to follow roads, Tobias was fairly adept at getting around town.

Elfangor was actually on the roof right at that moment. He'd flown here, following my SUV, and landed on top of the building. It occurred to me that he could probably demorph up there if he wanted and no one would see him. Not that it was a good idea, but seriously, how often does anyone see the roofs of buildings?

In any case, Cassie and I were looking at cameras. There was a wide variety of different cameras. Some of them were security cameras, some of them were baby monitors. Some of them were wifi, some were wired. Some were indoor-outdoor, and some had infrared. We needed wifi, definitely. The idea was that someone, most likely Elfangor actually, was going to have to spend all day watching Chapman's office, and the five of us couldn't exactly be on our phones spying on the principal during class. That was a scenario I'd rather not dwell on.

"So, um, what is your budget, exactly?" Cassie asked.

"Honestly?"

"What, since we made out yesterday, you're going to start having secrets?"

"Hey, I thought us making out in the barn was the secret."

"Maybe," she said coyly. "But seriously, are any of these in your budget?"

I shrugged, and grabbed one off the shelf. It was wireless, it had infrared, an app for remote viewing, reportedly had a six-month battery life, so we wouldn't have to try running cables through the air vents. "I can get this one."

Cassie looked at the price sticker on the shelf. "A hundred forty? Seriously?"

"I've got about two grand in my checking account."

"You have a checking account?"

"Yeah. I got one when I started working the cinema. I've been working there Fridays and Saturdays, every weekend, since January."

Cassie looked embarrassed. "That's, that's impressive, Jake. I still get an allowance, if you can believe that."

"Well, some of it goes to gassing up the SUV, I pay a little under three hundred a month to my parents."

"You pay rent ?"

"No, but I have to cover my end of the cell phone, kick in for car insurance, and about a third of the cable bill. My mom says Tom and I watch more TV than she and Dad."

I flagged Marco and he came up to the counter with two games in hand. He got in line behind us.

Cassie and I headed back to the SUV ahead of Marco, and I watched as an osprey took off from the roof of the building.

"Can I ask you a question?" she asked as I started the car.

"Cass, you're one of my best friends. Making out in the barn isn't going to change that. Just ask; I'm not going to get offended."

She blushed. "Look who's suddenly all smooth and confident. Why do you have two thousand dollars in your account?"

"I just told you."

"No, I mean I get where you got it, I mean, why haven't you spent it? What are you saving for?"

I shrugged. "Honestly, I have no clue. I decided to get the job when Tom got accepted to UCSC, and I never really called it a college fund, but I think that was there in my head when I signed up for direct deposit. Plus when I got the SUV, Marco and I thought about going camping. And it's an older model, so I wanted to have some rainy-day money."

"You didn't spend any on yourself?" she asked.

I shrugged. "I bought a few games, fast food, nothing special. I wanted to have that money there for…" I trailed off.

She blushed again. "Were you saving up to have a girlfriend?"

"Wha- no. I- I mean, well, kinda."

"There he is."

"I think you like it when I'm flustered."

She kissed me on the cheek. "I do. It's an honest reaction, Jake. It means you're not trying to impress me, you're just being you."

I sighed. Relax, Jake. Honest reactions. I can do that. "I wasn't saving up to have a girlfriend. I mean, maybe I was, but I don't like that phrasing. Like there's a creepy girlfriend dealership, or brides-to-order. Ugh."

"Okay, so how would you phrase it?"

"I don't know, honestly. I obviously like having money. It came in handy today, getting Tobias that phone, having to get this camera so we could avoid extra felonies. But I don't really put a whole lot of value in money or things, y'know? I like being able to be with my friends. If I want to take you out on a date, or buy you a Boardwalk pass, I want to be able to do that."

She smiled at me. "So you're saving up for experiences? I can see that." She held my hand for a moment as we watched Marco come out of the store.

"So, you just bought the thing?" he asked as he hopped in the backseat.

"It was under two hundred, I didn't want to buy it, but I didn't want to add to our delinquency."

"I'll make sure the judge knows that at our sentencing hearing. If you could've bought it from the beginning, what got you so twisted?"

I shrugged. "Honestly I thought it'd be way more expensive, like six hundred or higher."

I started the SUV and pulled out of the parking lot. I didn't see the osprey, and if he was even remotely close, he could see us. Elfangor only had so many places to go, so it was a safe bet he'd gone back to his spot in the clearing. But that wasn't where I was heading. I went to the Boardwalk.

"What are we doing here?" Cassie asked.

"Well, first, I'm getting my girlfriend a ride pass. I wanted to do this for you anyway, but seriously, we keep going over to the WRC, your dad is going to get suspicious."

"Aww, that's sweet. I think. So if that's first, what's next?"

"Lunch. C'mon, let's go."

The three of us ended up grabbing some corn dogs and fries at the Surf City Grill. We were actually line of sight with the pay phone I'd used yesterday. Part of me was a little worried someone here was going to recognize me and call Chapman or something, but I dismissed it. This was the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. It got too many visitors for us to stand out. I was sipping on my Pepsi when my phone rang. I recognized the ringtone. Rachel.

"Hey, what's up, cuz?"

"Just wanted to let you know Melissa and I are heading to the Boardwalk."

"Oh, cool, we're there already."

"Well, that's cool. Maybe we'll run into you. Anyway, just wanted to let you know I'm leaving ."

God, I was thick. "Oh. Oh, right. Don't worry. Ten Piece has you covered."

"Don't call him that." And she hung up. She seemed a little defensive about me jabbing Tobias, which seemed a bit odd. Far as I knew, she didn't know Tobias that well.

"Rachel's coming."

"Good, we need to fill her in," Marco said.

"She's coming with Melissa."

"Less good," Marco said.

We talked for a bit as we ate lunch. Just normal kid stuff. I talked about the English paper I was so not writing at the moment. Marco made obscene comments about our English teacher and Cassie laughed as she tossed a handful of fries at him and called him a pig.

"Hey, Marco," Cassie said. "Did you mean that, earlier. Did you tell Jake I was cute?"

"Yeah, why? Did I offend you?"

"No, but I'm curious how that came up. You flirt with girls a lot, but you've never flirted with me."

"Oh, I told Jake if he didn't ask you out, someone would. What was it I said? 'She's cute, but not my type.'"

"Oh, thanks, I guess." She looked down and started picking at her fries.

"You're not my type, Cassie," he said again. She looked up and met his eyes. "I don't mean that as a bad thing, hon. I like hanging out with you. But," his expression changed, "you read people too well. And I'm… I'm really messed up, Cass."

"You ready to talk about it?" I asked.

"Talk about what?"

We spent the next fifteen minutes going through the bullet points of Marco's relationship with his dad since the accident, how Marco had been coping with things. Cassie looked like she wanted to cry.

"You knew all of this?" she asked.

"It wasn't my place to say anything," I said. "Marco didn't want anyone to know."

"And that thing Tobias said about his uncle?"

Marco had a questioning look, but I cut him off. I didn't want Marco saying anything more than Tobias wanted her to know. "Tobias has his situation. Marco and I know about it, but it embarrasses Tobias to talk about it. He'll tell you more as he feels comfortable."

"You'd make a good therapist," Cassie said.

"Yeah, right. Like I could get through a doctorate program. And what about you, Miss Positive Thinking?"

"I've considered it. Don't get me wrong, I love animals. And I think it might kill my parents if I don't become a vet, but I've been cleaning stalls since I was nine years old. I wouldn't mind becoming a psychologist."

I thought of something she said back at the store. She got an allowance. She seemed embarrassed about it, though, so I didn't come outright and say it. "Do your parents pay you for the work at the WRC?"

She laughed. "No, I get an allowance. Like fifty bucks a week, plus they pay for my phone."

I had thoughts on that, but I wasn't going to say anything. Thankfully Marco isn't known for keeping his mouth shut. "That's fucked up, Cass. You work more hours than me or Jake. Will they let you get a part-time job? We've been trying to get Tobias to apply at the movie theater. The manager will hire anyone on Jake's sayso. Trust me on that."

"You got me that job, douche." It was true. Marco had started working there about five months after his mother died. I wasn't sure how much of that was financial necessity or how much was part of his grieving process or how much was avoiding being home, but for as much as Marco claimed to hate working there, he took the job more seriously than he liked to admit.

"Yeah, but I half-ass it. Trust me, management likes you."

"Cassie?" I asked.

"I- I don't know, tell you the truth. My mom and dad are so into the WRC, and I love the horses, and I love the deer, the hawks, foxes, all of it. I mean, I really do love it. But… but I couldn't go out for soccer, because they needed me working. And I'm not really allowed to date. My dad hasn't taught me how to drive yet. Even though I aced the verbal test months ago. It's… it's like as far as they're concerned I'm still just a little girl."

I put my hand on her shoulder. She rested her head on me. "Aren't you the one always telling me to communicate my feelings?"

"Jerk," she said.

"Seriously, if we tell your parents we're dating, what's going to happen?"

"I don't know. My mom is softer on the no-dating thing than my dad, but I'm always going to be daddy's little girl and I don't know how to talk to him. You know what's really messed up?" Marco and I both shrugged. "The funding for the Center comes from the veterinary program at UCSC and the state of California. If my dad wanted a staff, he wouldn't have to pay out of pocket. He has undergrads that would do that work in a heartbeat if he asked them to. And they'd do it for college credit and certified hours. He doesn't need me. He just doesn't want me to grow up."

We sat there, picking at our lunches for a long minute. "Do you want to talk to my mom?" I asked. Cassie knew what my mom did for a living.

"I don't know, Jake. Do we really need couples' counselling this early in our relationship?"

"Don't be knocking Doctor Berenson," Marco said, half-joking. "She helped me through a difficult time, Cassie. Besides, who better to tell you how to talk to the parents of a hormonal teenager than the parent of a hormonal teenager?"

"Eat me," Cassie said, tossing another french fry at Marco's face.

"I thought that was my job." I froze. I couldn't believe I had just said that out loud.

Marco looked like he was about to explode. He was putting everything into not laughing, like holding his breath was the only thing keeping life on Earth alive. Cassie blushed a shade I have never seen her turn before in my life.

"You pervert!" she said, laughing. "I can't believe I ever liked you. Not dating two whole days and the sexual innuendo starts."

I blushed. "Weren't you the one that shouted 'hot dildo monkeys' back at the barn?"

Cassie went stoic. "Sir, I am a lady. I have no idea what kind of girl would ever say such a thing."

"She says 'starts' like she just blocks out all memory of us having done exactly this for the last three, four years. Or that 'blow me' comment she nailed me for less than an hour ago."

"Do you like getting hit with fries?"

"Um, yeah, free fries. Toss 'em, Cass."

It was at that moment that Rachel and Melissa walked through the door. Marco stood up and made room at the table.

"Ladies, welcome. What can I get you?"

"Cram it, Marco," Rachel said tersely.

"Oh, Rachel, it's fine. Let the boy hit on us. Let him buy us lunch."

"I have my own money, Mel."

"Yeah, but you can spend your money on shoes. Let Marco buy lunch."

"For real, chicas be mean, man. Talking like I can't hear you, gonna hurt my feelings. Melissa, you're vegan, right?"

Rachel looked at him as though he'd started demorphing and turned out to be Elfangor this whole time. That's right, Rachel. There never was a Marco. Just a shapeshifting blue alien. "How did you know she's vegan?"

"She's in my math class, we talk. Fried mushrooms and garlic fries?"

I rolled my eyes and let it go. Let Marco be Marco. Cassie held my hand. I just sat there, enjoying the weight and warmth of her leaning into my chest. "So this is us, huh? Boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Oh, we're putting labels on the relationship already?" she asked.

"Well, if I introduce you to someone, do I say this is my friend or this is my girlfriend?"

"Definitely girlfriend. Labels are fine."

"I should let you know right now, if we're going to be dating, I do share custody of a sixteen-year-old Hispanic boy with impulse control issues."

She laughed. "God, we're totally the mom and dad in this group, aren't we?"

There were five of us now, and as long as Melissa was here, we couldn't plan the breaking and entering part of our plan. I'd already come to terms with the fact that it was going to happen. I'd saved us all from blowing up a Best Buy, so that was my gold star for the day. One hundred fifty-four dollars, and forty-three cents, after tax, for that gold star, but achievement unlocked. As much as I had been against this plan, I was suddenly really wondering about breaking into the school a second time to take the damn thing back for a refund. Then again, the spy camera might not be a bad thing to keep around, assuming I did go back for it.

We continued our normal teen conversations, trashing on teachers, discussing summer plans. I was wondering when I'd get time to fill in Rachel, but luckily for me, she had been thinking the same thing and had way better tact.

"Oh, Melissa, before I forget, I need to talk to Jake for a few minutes. We're doing something for Tom's graduation and I need to go over some stuff."

"Yeah, no problem. Catching up with Cassie."

Rachel and I went out into the walkway of the Boardwalk and I filled her in as much as I could in the few minutes we had.

"One fifty? Screw that. I would've boosted it."

"Thanks, Rachel, appreciate it."

"I'll put in for half if you want." Rachel gets paid to babysit her sisters. Not exactly minimum wage, but better than Cassie apparently.

"So what's the plan other than break in?"

"We haven't gotten that far. Tobias has eyes on Chapman, so far as we know anyway. And it being Sunday, you're not staying the night again, so not sure where that leaves us."

"About that."

"Yeah?"

"Well, in case it's relevant, Melissa has a cat."

I didn't like where this was going.