CHAPTER SIX
"Hey Marco," I called over, "Didn't think I see
you here."
"I thought it was none of my business," he pouted.
"Oh, come-" I froze, there was a stray dog standing
beside him, the dog wagged it's tail slowly, barked.
I recognized the bark, it was Jake's dog, I stepped
close, yes it was. "That's somebody's dog I know."
"I doubt it." He replied.
"Yes, it is! Look it's Jake's do-"
"No it isn't." He snapped.
"What?" I said taken back, I stared at him,
"What's up with you people?"
I turned around and ran off, all of Cassie's friends
are weird, what I saw of them so far.
"Jessie!" Marco called, "Don't go there."
I slammed into someone, that person grabbed me roughly,
and shoved me off, out of the corner of my eyes I saw Marco slink away
cautiously, like he didn't want to be there. "Who do we have here?"
The voice was harsh and loud, I had managed to slam
into one big man which was flanked with another two equally big men. They smelt
like trouble.
"Ah, Jessie." I spotted Chapman come over, he
looked nervously at me, and then the other guy.
The other guy said, "I was under the impression that
today was a meeting for the inner sharing, wasn't that what you told m
Chapman?"
"Yes, sir." He mumbled, "Er, sir, this is the
girl I was talking about."
His attitude changed, one-eighty degrees, he looked
down at me and said, "Yes, our guest of honor."
"Jessie, did you bring someone with you?" Chapman
asked.
"Yeah, my friend."
"Who?"
"Shelby. Shelby Mclore."
"Ah yes." He licked his lips, "Didn't you bring
your cousin?"
I got up, "No she didn't want to come."
"Busy huh?"
"No." I said, "She said the place creeps her
out."
"Well then," The man I
slammed into said, "Why don't we make the atmosphere more pleasant
Chapman?"
"Err, we're working on that." He said.
"Let's go in. Then."
And they did, I didn't join them. Instead I went
home. I talked to Cassie, said I had changed my mind, in reality I was changing
tactics.
"What made you change your
mind?" She asked.
I shrugged, "I don't really
know."
"Jessie?" Cassie asked
hesitantly, "Are you following me? When I go out?"
I crossed my arms and raised an
eyebrow. "What makes you think that?"
"I don't know…Do you?"
"No." I lied, "You're
really acting weird…Maybe. Maybe you were being stalked."
She laughed nervously, "By
who?"
I shrugged at her, smiled
slyly, "Jake?"
I laughed, she didn't join
me, instead she bit her lip and looked away. Later that night, she crept out of
the room when she thought I was asleep. I waited until I was sure she was gone
outside. I threw open the window and climbed down, headed to the barn.
I waited two seconds and
stormed the barn, "Ha!" I said.
I stared wide-eyed at the empty
barn, I searched franticly, no Cassie.
"Where did she go?" I
wondered out loud.
I heard an owl hoot, and then I
heard the flapping of wings. As I ran out of the barn something flew into my
face. "Argh!"
Cheep! Cheep!
I swatted the air. Just a bat,
just a stupid bat, it flew away in the dark night. I head back to bed feeling a
little shaky.
I decided to keep my guard,
wait for Cassie to return. I think I fell asleep at one point. I'm not sure.
But I woke up and it was still night, the sun hadn't risen up yet.
I lay still in Cassie's bed,
waiting. I realized that the window was open. Strange, never realized that it
was. I decided to head for the barn. Maybe I'll see her there.
I hid in the loft, made sure
that I was not visible to anyone and drifted yet again to another sleep, I
don't think I slept for long because when I woke up I…well, it didn't feel
lie I had.
"Yeah? You think so? I
don't. Look why are we wasting time?" A voice said, I recognized it, to my
surprise it was Rachel.
"Excuse me." A voice
snapped, it was Marco. "Who said that you could be leader when Jake's
gone?"
"I didn't say I was!"
Rachel snapped back, "All I'm saying is that we have a tick-tock kind of
situation here. Right?"
Correct, I believe Prince
Jake's time is running out. It has been approximately one hour and thirty of
your minutes since he had morphed.
I froze completely, terror
froze into my heart, fear dried up my throat. I swallowed, but then stopped
incase someone heard me… My heart was beating so loudly I was sure that they
were going to hear it the moment they entered, there was no way that-
Well, Rachel checked the
house for Cassie and she didn't find her. A new voice said, Her cousin
is in her room though, fast asleep.
"This isn't answering
anything." The voices were near, very near. In fact they were in side the
barn.
I realized that I was breathing
hard, I had caught a flash of blue through the hay, there was no mistaking that.
"Oh yeah-" Marco started to
say when he was interrupted.
Quite! I hear
something!
No. I tried to calm down, tried
to ease my breathing, the only thing that did was make matters worse. My heart
hammered. I shut my eyes close.
Something brushed against my
face, my eyes snapped open. Two glinting black balls and a blurry gray thing
appeared in view.
"Ahhhh!" I screamed, I
jerked up. Slammed my head and fell to the ground. I looked up again. It was a
rat, that's what scared me, I felt myself flush.
A hand grabbed my shoulder, I
spun round, I caught a flash of blue.
"Andalite!"