CHAPTER NINE
"I can't believe it." I
said, as in me, Jessie.
Then Jake just smiled at me. It
was he and I, alone.
"Thank you." I whispered,
"How can I ever repay you?"
"You don't need to." Jake
smiled.
I stepped up to him, placed my
hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry for the trouble I caused you."
He looked into my eyes, "It
wasn't your doing."
"I hope your friend wasn't
badly hurt."
"Who? Ax?"
"Is that what you call
him?"
"Yes." He looked worried,
"I'm not sure if he's going to pull through."
He must have seen the look on
my face so he added quickly, "But I don't think there is a need to worry.
Cassie's taking care of him. He'll be fine."
"Jake?" I said in a low
voice, I put my head against him, then I looked up at him, "What do I do?"
"What?"
"What do I do? I can't just
live a normal life. That's not right, not with what I know."
"You want to join the
Animorphs?"
"If I'm worthy of such an
honor."
"You are," He said,
"But…"
"But what?" I was still
standing beside him, close. He didn't seem to mind.
He put his hand on my shoulder,
"I have to talk to the others."
"You think
they'll…wouldn't' it be weird?"
"We'll manage," He said
smiling, but then his look turned serious. "But you have to understand the
responsibility that goes with it."
"I will." I promised.
He looked at me again.
And I looked at him.
I don't know what made me do
what I did next. All I know was that I did it; maybe it was the look on his
eyes.
But I did it.
I kissed him.
He jerked away, surprised, but
not angry.
I smiled at him a little sadly.
He shook his head and left. He
stopped and then looked awkwardly at me.
"Let's get you home.
You've been through enough."
And I let him, he put his arm
around my shoulders, I put my arm around his waist. We walked home.
But it wasn't my home that we
walked to, it was Cassie's home.
But Cassie's home is my home.
And now, Cassie's boyfriend is going to be mine.
What was I thinking of?
I pulled away from Jake
suddenly.
"What is it?"
"This is wrong." I
whispered, "Cassie would be upset."
"We're not doing
anything." He murmured, "We're just walking to Cassie's."
I nodded.
We no longer walked with our
arms round each other, but we walked side by side, in silence. After a while,
Jake held my hand in his.
And I let him, trusting that he
knew what he was doing.
It was great. We walked for a
long time. After all we were at the forest. Just the same, I felt as if it were
a short walk, I saw Cassie's barn loom up in my view. I sighed, I was sorry
that it was over.
"See you tomorrow Jake."
"You too Jessie." He said,
"But first, I have to check on Ax. And Cassie too."
"What do I tell Cassie's
parents? I've been goes for a long time."
"Not to worry. The animorphs
covered that up."
"How?"
"Erek." He said,
"You'll get to know him, in fact, he might be in here with Cassie."
"But I thought Cassie was
with the Andalite."
"Yep." He said as we walked
to the barn, "That's right."
I stopped him. "In here?"
"Yes."
"How?"
"Erek."
"How?"
"Hologram."
"What?"
"I'll explain later."
We went into the barn. No one
was in the barn, so I said, "This is some kind of joke? You're pulling my
leg or something?"
"No." He said patiently.
He walked right up to a stall,
He opened the door and stepped in, I followed.
And there was Cassie, and the
Andalite, and something I hadn't seen before. Some kind of android.
Erek?
Jake looked down at the
Andalite, he was on his side, breathing heavily, Cassie was bent beside him,
looking worried.
"Is he going to be okay?"
"I don't know. But it
doesn't look good."
I saw a deep long cut down his
underside. She was cleaning the wound, when she finished she took his hand and
called out his name, he didn't respond.
"But he'll be fine
right?"
"I don't know Jake, he must have hurt himself in the fall."
"Well." He said, "Call me
when he wakes up."
"Sure." Cassie looked up,
she saw me standing beside him, she looked at Jake.
"She's free Cassie. And I
think she's going to be one of us."
Cassie smiled, "That's
great."
She didn't know half of it.
"I'll stay if you need my
help." I said.
"Thanks."
Jake left us, I sat beside
Cassie, I looked up at Erek, managed to smiled, "You're Erek right?"
"Yes, and you must be Jessie,
Cassie told me about you."
Cassie got up out of the stall
and looked around, she seemed to be looking for something.
I followed her, "What are you
looking for?" I asked.
"He's been down for a long
time, I've only been giving him water, I'm not sure what to give him to
eat."
"What does he normally
eat?" I wondered, "He doesn't even have a mouth."
"He absorbs nutrients from
grass, up through his hooves."
"Oh. I didn't know that."
Maybe you could crush up
grass or something you think that would work?
It was the bird.
"Jessie, this is Tobias."
"Hi."
Hello there.
"Could work." Cassie said
thoughtfully.
"You two wouldn't mind if I
went?"
"Where you going?"
"To your house." I
couldn't say our house, I didn't know why, I just couldn't.
"Sure."
I got out of the barn and
headed home, none of Cassie's parents were around so I made myself something
to eat and went upstairs, finished off my homework.
The door of the room opened, I
looked up. "Jessie?"
It was Cassie, she sounded out
of breath. "I need you to go over to Jake's."
"What? Why? What happened?"
"Tell him Ax is up."
"But I don't know where his
house is, couldn't I call?"
She gave me his house's
address. A few minutes later I had changed into something nice and my foot hit
the pavement, I borrowed Cassie's bike and started to pedal off when I caught
sight of Jade.
I slowed down slightly, she
caught up. Back home, I always took Jade walking, I'd be on my own bike of
course; she loves it when I go fast.
I increased speed slightly and
she barked. I watched as she ran off into some bushes, then she got out and shot
towards me.
I pedal faster, I wasn't
worried, Jade could catch up with me, Dalmatians are fast runners, in fact,
after some research I found out that they were used for hunting a long time ago,
and they had no trouble catching up to horses.
I slowed down when I reached
what I thought would be Jake's home, I put the bike at a side. Walked up to
the porch. Jade padded up to me and panted.
I rang the bell. I heard a dog
bark and then the door opened.
Jake's dog Homer jumped out
of the house and started playing around with Jade, I ignored them.
"Is Jake home?" I asked the
boy at the door.
He looked at me, "Yeah. Who
are you?"
"Jessie."
"I'm Tom, Jake's
brother." He turned away and yelled at the house, "JAKE, it's for you.
Jessie at the door."
Jake appeared a few seconds
later. "Jessie? What are you doing here?"
He stepped out and closed the
door behind him.
"Cassie sent me."
"What happened?"
I looked around, "He's
up."
"Oh," He said. "I'll,
er. How did you get here?"
"Bike."
"Okay, you go home I'll
follow." He grinned, "I'll beat you there?"
"How?" I aid as I grabbed
Cassie's bike.
"Got wings."
"Sure." I said. "It would
be faster."
I pedaled back home.