My name is Aaron DeKnight. Throughout my entire life my name has
pretty much been the only thing that has really been mine. That and
possibly my bike too. Life hasn't been extremely kind to me. It's given me
a lot of things, like my intelligence. I guess I'm pretty smart. I've never
really had any trouble at school. I get straight A's with no effort
whatsoever. I don't know what it is; everything just comes easy to me. Life
has also taken a lot from me, like my parents.
I was born and raised in northern California. My parents divorced when I was seven. I lived with my mom but my dad lived in the same city, so I saw him every weekend. When my mom remarried a year later, my dad decided that he wanted to move to the opposite coast. I saw him a lot less from that point on, just on occasional trips.
My stepdad, Jerry, was a great guy. Kids at school always complained about their stepfathers but I really never had a problem with Jerry. He was never going to fill my dad's shoes and he knew that. He was sort of like a favorite uncle, someone who I could always talk to.
By the time I was ten my mom had been diagnosed with cancer. She died a few months after that. Despite everything else in my life that I have gone through, hardest thing was learning my mom was going to die. My dad came to the funeral. It was the first thing he had really done with my mom since she married Jerry. When he went back to New Jersey, I went with him.
I kept in touch with Jerry a lot. He always wrote me and even came to visit. My dad hadn't come back to California except for the funeral. He was a police officer and he never really found time to clear his schedule. I wasn't bitter with him or anything, but I was glad that Jerry was still there for me. I was afraid that after my mom died that I wouldn't ever see him again. Over the years that followed, however, my contact with Jerry began to decrease. It wasn't anyone's fault really. We just drifted.
My dad died two weeks after my thirteenth birthday. He was shot in the line of duty. I remember how incredibly alone I felt at his funeral, despite all the aunts and uncles that had come to comfort me on the days before it. I asked to speak at the funeral. No one really wanted me to, but no one could tell me no either. Everyone thought it would be too much for me; I was only in seventh grade at the time. But like I said, I'm a pretty smart kid, and I could handle stuff pretty well.
When I was giving my speech, I looked out to everyone that had come to mourn for my dad. It was a fairly large crowd. There were a lot of family members, even some from my mom's side of the family. A lot of friends were there too, both his and mine. Neighbors, coworkers, and people he knew from church. I looked out into the crowd as I spoke and felt so alone, despite everyone that was there. It was as I spoke though that I spotted Jerry, and it made me feel better.
Once my father's estate was settled, and people began to wonder what should be done with me, I got a call from Jerry. He asked me if I wanted to come back to California and live with him. There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to. Jerry was more my relative than any of my blood relatives. So by the time I started the eighth grade I had come to realize that you aren't given a lot in life, and the things you are given aren't necessarily going to be there forever.
The first day of school was easy I guess. I mean, it's always easy academically, but it was easier socially then I had expected. Everyone had heard about what had happened to me, and everyone tried hard to be really nice without being overly sympathetic. People invited me to go places and do things, but I wasn't very interested. Marco Kolb had always been one of my better friends, probably my closest friend. I was never his closest friend though. That was always Jake Berenson's position. Marco asked me to hang out with him and Jake a couple of times, and I did go with them a couple times, but mostly I blew them off.
It wasn't that I didn't like Marco anymore. He was in a lot of my advanced classes, and I always could joke around with him. He could probably understand what I was going through more than anyone too. Jerry is Marco's dad's boss, or was at least, and Jerry told me about what had happened to Marco's mom. Jake was pretty cool too, but I just wasn't interested in friends too much at that point. I was mostly just into going to skate parks or practicing my flat-landing.
"So do you want to come?" Marco asked. I looked over at him. Had he been talking to me?
"Huh?" I said.
Marco sighed. "Do you want to come with me and Jake to the mall tonight or not?" Marco asked. I think he might have asked me about that earlier in the class. It was Pre-Algebra, the highest math an 8th grader could be in at my school.
"Eh," I said as I looked down from the black board to my blank notebook (I don't take many notes), "I don't think so. Thanks anyway."
Marco looked kind of hurt. I felt bad for turning him down but all I really wanted to do that Friday night was try out the new cranks Jerry had gotten for me. I looked over at the clock. Only a couple minutes left till I got to go home. I began to get my stuff together. I tried to avoid looking at Marco, and then felt a little bad for turning him down. Stupid conscience.
"Marco," I said as I slipped my books into my backpack, "Do you want to come over my house tomorrow? Play some video games or get a movie or something?"
Marco smiled a little. "Sure. Is your number still the same?"
"Yeah," I said as the bell rang, "Call me." I got out of my seat and walked to the door. My backpack got caught on a desk as I tried to swing it over my shoulder. I pulled on it to yank it loose and managed to knock it loose and smack Melissa Chapman in the head.
"Ouch," she said as she rubbed her head.
Her friend, Rachel Berenson, saw what happened then looked at me like she was going to punch me, but then it was like she remembered who I was and her face softened into a different expression, sort of like she felt sorry for even thinking about hitting me. I told Melissa I was sorry and then kind of rolled my eyes at my own klutziness.
I rode my bike to and from school. It beat walking or riding the bus. I got home to find Jerry sitting at the kitchen table.
"Hi," I said as I walked over to the refrigerator to get a Pepsi.
"Hey," he said as he looked over some papers he had spread out over the kitchen table. "How was your day?"
"Eh," I said, which was my sound of indifference. I sat down at the island and watched as Jerry typed some things into his laptop. "Why are you home so early?"
"I have to work late tonight so I took a dinner break," he said. "I'm actually late. I was just waiting for you to get home so you could know where I was. There's money on the dining room table if you want to get pizza or go out with your friends later."
I rolled my eyes again. Jerry worried that I was having a hard time adjusting and making friends. It wasn't so much that I was having a hard as that I wasn't trying. I told him thanks and then he was gone. After he left I went into the family room and lay down on the couch. I turned on the T.V. but there was nothing good on. Before I knew it I was sleeping.
I woke up a couple hours later and ordered a pizza. After it came and I had finished eating I went out to the garage and got on my bike. I went onto the driveway and did a couple tricks to try out my new cranks. I got bored of this after a while and rode off to find some more exciting terrain. Riding across town I ended up at the mall. I thought about going in and trying to find Marco but I decided against it. Instead I rode over to the construction site across from the mall.
I had ridden here a couple times during the day, but never in the evening. It was a lot more exciting when it was dark. The whole place was like a big skate park. I was at the top of a little hill when I spotted a couple kids my age walking into the construction site. I immediately recognized Rachel, her amazing looks made it so that there was almost a spotlight following her wherever she went. I also spotted Marco and Jake. Cassie Love, Rachel's best friend. The last one was a kid I barely knew. He was new this year, sort of like me. His name was Tobias Jefferson. He got picked on a lot at school, and people talked about how screwed up his home life was.
I never realized that those five were a group. I thought about riding over to them but I didn't want to try to weasel my way into their circle. So I stayed in the shadows and watched them instead. I felt like a creep, and I was about to go home when I saw them all looking up to the sky and pointing. I followed their gaze up to the sky and that's what I saw what they saw. A U.F.O.
It was amazing. Surreal. I watched from afar as the ship landed and Marco and the others slowly approached the ship. I watched them talk to the creature that came from the ship and "heard" his thoughts like the others did. I listened as told them about the Yeerks and gave them the chance to fight. I saw Jake enter the ship and come back out with a small blue cube. That's when the Andalite, Elfangor, asked me to come out of hiding.
No one really said anything to me; I think they were too shocked about everything else that was happening. Elfangor gave everyone the choice of whether to accept the power or not, but it was Jake who decided we should do it. We each pressed our hands against a side of the cube and Elfangor put his hand on top of Tobias's, activating the cube. A shock went through my body, but I didn't have any time to think about what had just happened because the Yeerks were on their way.
We hid and watched as Elfangor explained Yeerks, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons to us. We watched in horror as Visser Three arrived and killed Elfangor. That's when Marco started throwing up and the Hork-Bajir came after us. Everyone scattered. Jake and Rachel tried to lure the Hork-Bajir away from the rest of us. I sprinted to my bike. As I threw my leg over the seat I could see Rachel just barely in front of a Hork-Bajir, and it was gaining on her. I powered my legs on the pedals and flew at them. I hit a jump, got some air, and did a tail whip right into the bladed alien, causing my bike, it, and me to all land on the ground.
Rachel helped me up and I grabbed my bike. She hopped on the pegs and we rode off. Rachel got off my bike after a couple of blocks and we both walked together.
"Thanks," she said after a long stretch of silence.
"For what," I asked, my mind somewhere else.
"For going Dave Mira like that and saving me from that alien."
"Oh that," I said, "You were trying to save me first." There was another long stretch of silence.
"So what do you think about all this?" Rachel asked me.
I shrugged. "It's a lot to take in for one night."
Rachel nodded. "I wanted to just run out there you know. Run out there and save Elfangor. But, I couldn't. I hate that. I hate being helpless like that, you know what I mean?"
I knew what it was like to feel helpless. "Yeah," was all I could say. Another long stretch of silence as we approached Rachel's house.
"Do you want to sit down for a little bit?" Rachel said pointing to a swing on her porch.
"Sure," I said. I sat next to Rachel and we talked about nothing really. Normal things like school and music. Both of us were trying to forget about what we had just seen twenty minutes ago. Rachel jumped up when she heard the phone ring inside.
"Shit," she said, running to the door, "Knowing Jake that's probably him." Rachel opened her front door and stuck her head inside. "Mom, if that's for me I'm on the front porch!"
Rachel's mom walked out and handed Rachel the phone. She looked over to me and was at first a little upset to see a boy on her front porch with her daughter at this time of night, but then she recognized who I was and she got that sympathetic look on her face that Rachel had given me that day in math class. I was started to get sick of that look.
"Hi," Rachel's mom said as she handed Rachel the phone. I gave Rachel's mom a smile. "It's Jake," Rachel's mom said as she went back inside.
"Jake?" Rachel said into the phone. "Yeah I'm fine." There was a pause. "He's with me. Yeah, he walked me home. Do you want me to have him call him? OK. Yeah, call me tomorrow. Bye." Rachel hung up the phone.
"That was Jake," Rachel said to me, "Marco was calling your house and getting worried."
"Should I call him?" I asked Rachel as I stood up from the swing.
"No," Rachel said, "Jake said he would call him." I walked over towards my bike.
"Well," I said as I picked up my bike. I wasn't sure if I should have hugged Rachel or shook her hand or something.
Rachel smiled at me. "See you tomorrow." Her saying that made me realize how real this whole thing was. I was already trying to put it out of my mind as something that just happened tonight, like a bad dream or something. But it was real, and it was something that was going to change my life forever.
I slept in the next day. It's something I never do. My mom and dad were both morning people. Sleeping past 9:00 was strictly forbidden. So that Saturday morning I woke up promptly at 12:30. I took a shower and got dressed in a t-shirt and a comfortable pair of khakis and by 1:00 I was sitting on the couch in the family room eating a bowl of cereal and watching some T.V.
"Brunch?" Marco said from outside the open sliding glass door. "Mind if I come in?"
"No problem," I said as I moved over on the couch giving Marco some room. "So how did you sleep last night?"
Marco shuddered a little. Obviously not well. "Jake wants us all to go over to Cassie's. I stopped on my way to get you since you decided to become nocturnal."
I set my bowl down on the coffee table. "What are we suppose to do Marco?" Marco really didn't answer me; he just looked at me through sad eyes.
"Marco," Jerry said as we walked into the family room. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt from his old fraternity. This is one of the rare occasions were we wasn't wearing a suit. "How have you been?"
"Good," Marco said, "Long time no see."
"I know," Jerry said. He had always liked Marco. "How is your dad doing?"
Marco cringed a little at that question. "He's good," Marco lied. Marco's dad was not good. He hadn't been good since Marco's mom died almost two years ago.
"That's good," Jerry said with a smile, "Tell him I said hi."
"I will," Marco said. I saw that Jerry was holding a new movie in his hand.
"Did you want to watch that in here?" I asked him.
"It's OK," Jerry said, "If you guys want to hang out in here I can watch it in my room."
"Nah," Marco said, "We were just on our way to our friend Cassie's house."
"Do you need a ride?" Jerry asked. I could tell that he was happy I was doing something with friends, even if I was only barely friends with one of them. And I was pretty sure that if he knew what we were going to do he'd be against it.
"No thanks," I said, "It's not that far."
"OK," Jerry said, "Have fun. Call me if you need a ride later."
At Cassie's house I got to see my first morph. I always met my first controller. It was decided that we wouldn't decide what to do about the Yeerks right now. I was getting the feeling that everyone wanted to fight except for Marco. I was for fighting; I didn't have anything to lose.
Jake, Rachel, and Marco went home immediately after the meeting, but Tobias and I sort of hung out with Cassie for a little bit afterward. I didn't really know either of them very well, so I thought it would give me a chance to get to know them a little. Cassie showed me around the Animal Rehabilitation Clinic.
All of a sudden she stopped and smiled at me. "So do you want to try it?"
"Morph?" I asked.
"Yeah," Cassie said holding her arms out to indicate all of the animals, "You have the best selection you would every hope to find here."
"You have to try it," Tobias said, "It's so cool." Cassie nodded in agreement.
I looked around the barn at all of the different animals. That's when I noticed the ferret in the cage in the corner. I had a cousin when I was younger who had a pet ferret. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I thought about that as I stroked the ferret's fur. The small creature was very calm and still during the whole thing. It went back to its usual curious twitching a few seconds after I broke contact.
"The hardest part is going to be controlling the animal's instincts," Cassie said. "Be prepared."
I nodded then concentrated on the ferret. The process was a little slower than I thought it would be. It started with me shrinking. Then fur started growing on my body in patches. My fingernails took over my fingers turning them into claws. My stomach elongated. Whiskers grew from my now ferret face. Then the ferret mind kicked in. All I wanted to do was explore. I found myself creeping alongside cages and sniffing all of the animals before Cassie finally got my attention.
"Aaron!" Cassie said as she grabbed me and picked me up.
Oh, I said, followed by Oh! as I realized I was talking with the same thought-speech that the Andalite had used.
"Isn't it cool?" Tobias asked.
It's unreal, I said. Then I got a little worried. How long have I been in morph?
"Maybe five minutes," Cassie said. "You have plenty of time."
I should probably be getting home though, I said, as I started to demorph. Demorphing turned out to be just as gross as morphing.
"I guess I'll see you later or tomorrow or something then," I said to Cassie.
"Yeah," she said, "I'll see you later."
"Do you want to walk home with me?" I asked Tobias. He was looking at an injured red-tailed hawk in a cage.
"No thanks," he said, "I think I'm going to stick around here a little bit longer."
I walked home to find Jerry sleeping on the couch. I turned off the T.V. that he had left on. I grabbed the cordless phone and went out to the driveway. I got on my bike and tried to do some tricks, but all just seemed kind of pointless. Like what was the big deal? I could turn into any animal I wanted I was just riding my bike? Well, I could turn into a ferret at least.
I ended up just sitting on my bike thinking when the phone rang, snapping me out of my daze. The Caller-ID said "Berenson, Gregory." Jake.
"Hello," I said.
"Aaron," It was Marco on the other end. Jake knew me the least out of everyone. Marco was his best friend. Rachel was his cousin. I was pretty sure he had a crush on Cassie, and I would almost say that Tobias had a crush on Jake. Jake was like Tobias's hero.
"Hey what's up?" I asked.
"The Sharing," he said.
"The what?" I asked. I had never of The Sharing other than that controller cop who came to Cassie's barn today.
"It's sort of like the boy scouts and girl scouts rolled in one with a 90's spin on it," Marco explained. "We're going tonight to check it out to see if its 'open minded' about people like us."
"OK," I said, realizing what he meant, "What time?"
"Come over to Jake's house now," Marco told me. He gave me directions and I was on my bike and there in ten minutes.
The meeting was actually really fun. Fun, until we found out the truth about The Sharing. I felt bad for Jake. That's got to be rough finding out that your brother wanted you dead. That's when we decided that we were going to fight. Marco didn't seem to thrilled.
After school Monday we were all sitting in the food court of the mall sharing some nachos. Jake was explaining to us about the Yeerk Pool and want he had found. He asked me if he could borrow the notes from English since he had skipped class, expecting me to take good notes because I'm sort of a nerd. I told him I didn't take notes.
The next thing I know I'm on the way to The Gardens with my fellow Animorphs, as Marco named us. We were going to get some powerful morphs for tonight when we were going to attack the Yeerk Pool to save Jake's brother. Cassie's mom worked there as a vet so she was going to get us into restricted areas to acquire some powerful morphs. Everything was going smoothly till we were spotted by security. Before I knew it I saw Cassie sprinting down one hallway and I was behind her. We ran for a while but when I looked back there was no one chasing us. That's when I realized that Marco and Jake weren't with us either.
"Where did Marco and Jake go?" I asked.
Tobias shrugged. "I think they went another way. I'm pretty sure that the security guard followed them."
"I hope their O.K." Cassie said.
"Should we go look for them?" I asked.
Rachel shook her head. "I think we should stick to the plan. If we get caught trying to find those two then none of us are going to get any good morphs." It seemed logical enough
"What's behind this door?" I asked Cassie as we stood in front of an entrance to a habitat.
"African elephant," Cassie said, "Probably the largest and most powerful animal they have at The Gardens."
"Most powerful," Rachel said with a grin, "I'm all over it."
Cassie opened the door and her and Rachel walked right in to the habitat. Cassie said that the elephants were pretty tame and that it wouldn't be hard to acquire one of them. Sure enough less than two minutes later Rachel and Cassie came strolling out of the habitat. Rachel had a satisfied look on her face.
"Where to next?" Cassie asked us.
"What are we near that's worth anything?" I asked. Cassie pondered that for a while and looked like she was envisioning a map of The Gardens in her mind. Finally she snapped her fingers as she turned on a light bulb in her head.
"If only Marco was here," Cassie giggled, "This would be perfect for him."
"What?" Rachel asked.
"Hyena," Cassie answered with a grin.
It was decided that I would acquire the hyena. Lucky me. Cassie was standing guard outside the habitat incase any vets or anything came by. Tobias was standing guard with her. I don't think he was very interested in getting any other morphs than his new red-tailed hawk morph. Rachel volunteered to go into the habitat with me. She was the prettiest tomboy I had ever met. Cassie warned us about the first sudden drop off into the habitat, but not the second.
"Ah!" I screamed intelligently. "Ooph," I said when I hit the ground, knocking the wind out of me.
"Are you O.K.?" Rachel asked from about six feet above me.
"Yeah," I said as I began to dust myself off. That's when I noticed the hyena staring right into my eyes from about two feet away. "On second thought no, I am not O.K."
"What's the matter?" Rachel asked as she got on her hands and knees to look down at me. "Oh! Um, Cassie? I think we have a problem."
"What?" Cassie asked as she poked her head into the exhibit. "Did I mention the second step?"
"No," Rachel said, "But we have another problem." That's when it hit me. The idea, not the hyena.
"Wait," I said, "I have a plan."
"What?" Rachel asked.
"What's going on?" Cassie asked, "What's the problem."
I didn't answer either of their questions. I very slowly reached out with my hand to touch the hyena. The hyena followed my hand with its gaze and just when it thought that my hand was too close and was preparing to snap at it, I pushed for ward and grabbed it's neck. It started to attack me but then stopped as I began to acquire it. It got very calm, just like the ferret, or Marco's gorilla.
"Rachel," I said, "I acquired it and put it in a trance. I don't think it's going to last very long so we need to get out now."
After we left the hyena habitat when decided now would be a good time to try and find Jake and Marco. We went out a door and started to make our way to the front gate when we noticed Marco and Jake ducking their way through the crowd. They told us some story about being chased by security and then tigers. I was pretty sure they were exaggerating.
That night was when we were going to free Jake's brother. Marco met me at my house and we rode our bikes together to the school. That afternoon I had practiced morphing with tight clothes on like Cassie had showed us. Underneath my clothes I was wearing a gray t-shirt that was a couple sizes too small and a tight pair of cut-off sweat pants. I couldn't figure out how to morph shoes or even socks. I asked Marco if he had tried morphing clothing yet.
"No," he said, "Don't tell anyone but after tonight I'm not going to be doing much more morphing. I mean, I know you guys are all about saving the world or whatever, but I'm not up for the risk. I can't die, Aaron. If I died, I'd basically be killing my dad, and I can't do that. If you guys need me every now and then that's cool, but I'm not going to be full time or anything."
I could understand where he was coming from, and I knew that I didn't really have a right to question him. If my dad was still alive, I would do anything in my power to protect him, but my dad wasn't so I wouldn't be able to. I had nothing to lose in this war.
I wanted to ask Marco if he thought about what would happen if his dad got captured by the Yeerks, but I didn't want to get into a confrontation with him. I figured I could try to talk him out of his decision later, just not tonight. We got to the school to find Rachel waiting for us. Tobias had been at the school for a while, only he didn't ride his bike, he flew. Jake arrived a little bit later, and told us that he couldn't get a hold of Cassie, and her mom didn't know where she was.
Jake was upset about the mission already, and I couldn't blame him. Cassie was missing, and Tobias had started his morphing clock early. In the end though, Jake decided to carry through with the mission.
I don't really want to get into what happened down in the Yeerk Pool. It's sort of depressing to think about. We raised people's hope about freeing them, only to let them come crashing down. I knew all along that even if we freed people from the Yeerks tonight, the Yeerks would come back for them. The one woman we managed to save now had to live in hiding. On top of all that, Tobias was now a hawk. Forever.
So now there were four of us really: Jake, Rachel, Cassie, and me. Tobias was still with us, only he wouldn't be much help in the actual fighting of the Yeerks. Marco was with us too, but in an emergency only capacity.
That Tuesday at school, I walked down the halls a little different. I still didn't really smile a lot or care that much at all on the surface, but deep down I had a purpose. I was saving the world. I mattered. And most of all, I was a lot less alone now. I walked into the lunchroom and saw Cassie and Rachel eating lunch together. Rachel smiled at me and Cassie waved as I walked by. Jake decided that we shouldn't all act like a group so as to not attract the attention of Chapman or any other controllers. I walked towards Marco and Jake at the other end of the cafeteria. Marco saw me and waved me over, and I could feel a smile crossing my lips.
Author's Note: This story is going to take a while to write, but it should be fun. The beginning was probably boring, but it should get more interesting. I'm only going to write about certain books were Aaron makes a difference. He doesn't do that much until David comes around, but then the story gets really interesting. Please review this if you read it.
I was born and raised in northern California. My parents divorced when I was seven. I lived with my mom but my dad lived in the same city, so I saw him every weekend. When my mom remarried a year later, my dad decided that he wanted to move to the opposite coast. I saw him a lot less from that point on, just on occasional trips.
My stepdad, Jerry, was a great guy. Kids at school always complained about their stepfathers but I really never had a problem with Jerry. He was never going to fill my dad's shoes and he knew that. He was sort of like a favorite uncle, someone who I could always talk to.
By the time I was ten my mom had been diagnosed with cancer. She died a few months after that. Despite everything else in my life that I have gone through, hardest thing was learning my mom was going to die. My dad came to the funeral. It was the first thing he had really done with my mom since she married Jerry. When he went back to New Jersey, I went with him.
I kept in touch with Jerry a lot. He always wrote me and even came to visit. My dad hadn't come back to California except for the funeral. He was a police officer and he never really found time to clear his schedule. I wasn't bitter with him or anything, but I was glad that Jerry was still there for me. I was afraid that after my mom died that I wouldn't ever see him again. Over the years that followed, however, my contact with Jerry began to decrease. It wasn't anyone's fault really. We just drifted.
My dad died two weeks after my thirteenth birthday. He was shot in the line of duty. I remember how incredibly alone I felt at his funeral, despite all the aunts and uncles that had come to comfort me on the days before it. I asked to speak at the funeral. No one really wanted me to, but no one could tell me no either. Everyone thought it would be too much for me; I was only in seventh grade at the time. But like I said, I'm a pretty smart kid, and I could handle stuff pretty well.
When I was giving my speech, I looked out to everyone that had come to mourn for my dad. It was a fairly large crowd. There were a lot of family members, even some from my mom's side of the family. A lot of friends were there too, both his and mine. Neighbors, coworkers, and people he knew from church. I looked out into the crowd as I spoke and felt so alone, despite everyone that was there. It was as I spoke though that I spotted Jerry, and it made me feel better.
Once my father's estate was settled, and people began to wonder what should be done with me, I got a call from Jerry. He asked me if I wanted to come back to California and live with him. There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to. Jerry was more my relative than any of my blood relatives. So by the time I started the eighth grade I had come to realize that you aren't given a lot in life, and the things you are given aren't necessarily going to be there forever.
The first day of school was easy I guess. I mean, it's always easy academically, but it was easier socially then I had expected. Everyone had heard about what had happened to me, and everyone tried hard to be really nice without being overly sympathetic. People invited me to go places and do things, but I wasn't very interested. Marco Kolb had always been one of my better friends, probably my closest friend. I was never his closest friend though. That was always Jake Berenson's position. Marco asked me to hang out with him and Jake a couple of times, and I did go with them a couple times, but mostly I blew them off.
It wasn't that I didn't like Marco anymore. He was in a lot of my advanced classes, and I always could joke around with him. He could probably understand what I was going through more than anyone too. Jerry is Marco's dad's boss, or was at least, and Jerry told me about what had happened to Marco's mom. Jake was pretty cool too, but I just wasn't interested in friends too much at that point. I was mostly just into going to skate parks or practicing my flat-landing.
"So do you want to come?" Marco asked. I looked over at him. Had he been talking to me?
"Huh?" I said.
Marco sighed. "Do you want to come with me and Jake to the mall tonight or not?" Marco asked. I think he might have asked me about that earlier in the class. It was Pre-Algebra, the highest math an 8th grader could be in at my school.
"Eh," I said as I looked down from the black board to my blank notebook (I don't take many notes), "I don't think so. Thanks anyway."
Marco looked kind of hurt. I felt bad for turning him down but all I really wanted to do that Friday night was try out the new cranks Jerry had gotten for me. I looked over at the clock. Only a couple minutes left till I got to go home. I began to get my stuff together. I tried to avoid looking at Marco, and then felt a little bad for turning him down. Stupid conscience.
"Marco," I said as I slipped my books into my backpack, "Do you want to come over my house tomorrow? Play some video games or get a movie or something?"
Marco smiled a little. "Sure. Is your number still the same?"
"Yeah," I said as the bell rang, "Call me." I got out of my seat and walked to the door. My backpack got caught on a desk as I tried to swing it over my shoulder. I pulled on it to yank it loose and managed to knock it loose and smack Melissa Chapman in the head.
"Ouch," she said as she rubbed her head.
Her friend, Rachel Berenson, saw what happened then looked at me like she was going to punch me, but then it was like she remembered who I was and her face softened into a different expression, sort of like she felt sorry for even thinking about hitting me. I told Melissa I was sorry and then kind of rolled my eyes at my own klutziness.
I rode my bike to and from school. It beat walking or riding the bus. I got home to find Jerry sitting at the kitchen table.
"Hi," I said as I walked over to the refrigerator to get a Pepsi.
"Hey," he said as he looked over some papers he had spread out over the kitchen table. "How was your day?"
"Eh," I said, which was my sound of indifference. I sat down at the island and watched as Jerry typed some things into his laptop. "Why are you home so early?"
"I have to work late tonight so I took a dinner break," he said. "I'm actually late. I was just waiting for you to get home so you could know where I was. There's money on the dining room table if you want to get pizza or go out with your friends later."
I rolled my eyes again. Jerry worried that I was having a hard time adjusting and making friends. It wasn't so much that I was having a hard as that I wasn't trying. I told him thanks and then he was gone. After he left I went into the family room and lay down on the couch. I turned on the T.V. but there was nothing good on. Before I knew it I was sleeping.
I woke up a couple hours later and ordered a pizza. After it came and I had finished eating I went out to the garage and got on my bike. I went onto the driveway and did a couple tricks to try out my new cranks. I got bored of this after a while and rode off to find some more exciting terrain. Riding across town I ended up at the mall. I thought about going in and trying to find Marco but I decided against it. Instead I rode over to the construction site across from the mall.
I had ridden here a couple times during the day, but never in the evening. It was a lot more exciting when it was dark. The whole place was like a big skate park. I was at the top of a little hill when I spotted a couple kids my age walking into the construction site. I immediately recognized Rachel, her amazing looks made it so that there was almost a spotlight following her wherever she went. I also spotted Marco and Jake. Cassie Love, Rachel's best friend. The last one was a kid I barely knew. He was new this year, sort of like me. His name was Tobias Jefferson. He got picked on a lot at school, and people talked about how screwed up his home life was.
I never realized that those five were a group. I thought about riding over to them but I didn't want to try to weasel my way into their circle. So I stayed in the shadows and watched them instead. I felt like a creep, and I was about to go home when I saw them all looking up to the sky and pointing. I followed their gaze up to the sky and that's what I saw what they saw. A U.F.O.
It was amazing. Surreal. I watched from afar as the ship landed and Marco and the others slowly approached the ship. I watched them talk to the creature that came from the ship and "heard" his thoughts like the others did. I listened as told them about the Yeerks and gave them the chance to fight. I saw Jake enter the ship and come back out with a small blue cube. That's when the Andalite, Elfangor, asked me to come out of hiding.
No one really said anything to me; I think they were too shocked about everything else that was happening. Elfangor gave everyone the choice of whether to accept the power or not, but it was Jake who decided we should do it. We each pressed our hands against a side of the cube and Elfangor put his hand on top of Tobias's, activating the cube. A shock went through my body, but I didn't have any time to think about what had just happened because the Yeerks were on their way.
We hid and watched as Elfangor explained Yeerks, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons to us. We watched in horror as Visser Three arrived and killed Elfangor. That's when Marco started throwing up and the Hork-Bajir came after us. Everyone scattered. Jake and Rachel tried to lure the Hork-Bajir away from the rest of us. I sprinted to my bike. As I threw my leg over the seat I could see Rachel just barely in front of a Hork-Bajir, and it was gaining on her. I powered my legs on the pedals and flew at them. I hit a jump, got some air, and did a tail whip right into the bladed alien, causing my bike, it, and me to all land on the ground.
Rachel helped me up and I grabbed my bike. She hopped on the pegs and we rode off. Rachel got off my bike after a couple of blocks and we both walked together.
"Thanks," she said after a long stretch of silence.
"For what," I asked, my mind somewhere else.
"For going Dave Mira like that and saving me from that alien."
"Oh that," I said, "You were trying to save me first." There was another long stretch of silence.
"So what do you think about all this?" Rachel asked me.
I shrugged. "It's a lot to take in for one night."
Rachel nodded. "I wanted to just run out there you know. Run out there and save Elfangor. But, I couldn't. I hate that. I hate being helpless like that, you know what I mean?"
I knew what it was like to feel helpless. "Yeah," was all I could say. Another long stretch of silence as we approached Rachel's house.
"Do you want to sit down for a little bit?" Rachel said pointing to a swing on her porch.
"Sure," I said. I sat next to Rachel and we talked about nothing really. Normal things like school and music. Both of us were trying to forget about what we had just seen twenty minutes ago. Rachel jumped up when she heard the phone ring inside.
"Shit," she said, running to the door, "Knowing Jake that's probably him." Rachel opened her front door and stuck her head inside. "Mom, if that's for me I'm on the front porch!"
Rachel's mom walked out and handed Rachel the phone. She looked over to me and was at first a little upset to see a boy on her front porch with her daughter at this time of night, but then she recognized who I was and she got that sympathetic look on her face that Rachel had given me that day in math class. I was started to get sick of that look.
"Hi," Rachel's mom said as she handed Rachel the phone. I gave Rachel's mom a smile. "It's Jake," Rachel's mom said as she went back inside.
"Jake?" Rachel said into the phone. "Yeah I'm fine." There was a pause. "He's with me. Yeah, he walked me home. Do you want me to have him call him? OK. Yeah, call me tomorrow. Bye." Rachel hung up the phone.
"That was Jake," Rachel said to me, "Marco was calling your house and getting worried."
"Should I call him?" I asked Rachel as I stood up from the swing.
"No," Rachel said, "Jake said he would call him." I walked over towards my bike.
"Well," I said as I picked up my bike. I wasn't sure if I should have hugged Rachel or shook her hand or something.
Rachel smiled at me. "See you tomorrow." Her saying that made me realize how real this whole thing was. I was already trying to put it out of my mind as something that just happened tonight, like a bad dream or something. But it was real, and it was something that was going to change my life forever.
I slept in the next day. It's something I never do. My mom and dad were both morning people. Sleeping past 9:00 was strictly forbidden. So that Saturday morning I woke up promptly at 12:30. I took a shower and got dressed in a t-shirt and a comfortable pair of khakis and by 1:00 I was sitting on the couch in the family room eating a bowl of cereal and watching some T.V.
"Brunch?" Marco said from outside the open sliding glass door. "Mind if I come in?"
"No problem," I said as I moved over on the couch giving Marco some room. "So how did you sleep last night?"
Marco shuddered a little. Obviously not well. "Jake wants us all to go over to Cassie's. I stopped on my way to get you since you decided to become nocturnal."
I set my bowl down on the coffee table. "What are we suppose to do Marco?" Marco really didn't answer me; he just looked at me through sad eyes.
"Marco," Jerry said as we walked into the family room. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a shirt from his old fraternity. This is one of the rare occasions were we wasn't wearing a suit. "How have you been?"
"Good," Marco said, "Long time no see."
"I know," Jerry said. He had always liked Marco. "How is your dad doing?"
Marco cringed a little at that question. "He's good," Marco lied. Marco's dad was not good. He hadn't been good since Marco's mom died almost two years ago.
"That's good," Jerry said with a smile, "Tell him I said hi."
"I will," Marco said. I saw that Jerry was holding a new movie in his hand.
"Did you want to watch that in here?" I asked him.
"It's OK," Jerry said, "If you guys want to hang out in here I can watch it in my room."
"Nah," Marco said, "We were just on our way to our friend Cassie's house."
"Do you need a ride?" Jerry asked. I could tell that he was happy I was doing something with friends, even if I was only barely friends with one of them. And I was pretty sure that if he knew what we were going to do he'd be against it.
"No thanks," I said, "It's not that far."
"OK," Jerry said, "Have fun. Call me if you need a ride later."
At Cassie's house I got to see my first morph. I always met my first controller. It was decided that we wouldn't decide what to do about the Yeerks right now. I was getting the feeling that everyone wanted to fight except for Marco. I was for fighting; I didn't have anything to lose.
Jake, Rachel, and Marco went home immediately after the meeting, but Tobias and I sort of hung out with Cassie for a little bit afterward. I didn't really know either of them very well, so I thought it would give me a chance to get to know them a little. Cassie showed me around the Animal Rehabilitation Clinic.
All of a sudden she stopped and smiled at me. "So do you want to try it?"
"Morph?" I asked.
"Yeah," Cassie said holding her arms out to indicate all of the animals, "You have the best selection you would every hope to find here."
"You have to try it," Tobias said, "It's so cool." Cassie nodded in agreement.
I looked around the barn at all of the different animals. That's when I noticed the ferret in the cage in the corner. I had a cousin when I was younger who had a pet ferret. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I thought about that as I stroked the ferret's fur. The small creature was very calm and still during the whole thing. It went back to its usual curious twitching a few seconds after I broke contact.
"The hardest part is going to be controlling the animal's instincts," Cassie said. "Be prepared."
I nodded then concentrated on the ferret. The process was a little slower than I thought it would be. It started with me shrinking. Then fur started growing on my body in patches. My fingernails took over my fingers turning them into claws. My stomach elongated. Whiskers grew from my now ferret face. Then the ferret mind kicked in. All I wanted to do was explore. I found myself creeping alongside cages and sniffing all of the animals before Cassie finally got my attention.
"Aaron!" Cassie said as she grabbed me and picked me up.
Oh, I said, followed by Oh! as I realized I was talking with the same thought-speech that the Andalite had used.
"Isn't it cool?" Tobias asked.
It's unreal, I said. Then I got a little worried. How long have I been in morph?
"Maybe five minutes," Cassie said. "You have plenty of time."
I should probably be getting home though, I said, as I started to demorph. Demorphing turned out to be just as gross as morphing.
"I guess I'll see you later or tomorrow or something then," I said to Cassie.
"Yeah," she said, "I'll see you later."
"Do you want to walk home with me?" I asked Tobias. He was looking at an injured red-tailed hawk in a cage.
"No thanks," he said, "I think I'm going to stick around here a little bit longer."
I walked home to find Jerry sleeping on the couch. I turned off the T.V. that he had left on. I grabbed the cordless phone and went out to the driveway. I got on my bike and tried to do some tricks, but all just seemed kind of pointless. Like what was the big deal? I could turn into any animal I wanted I was just riding my bike? Well, I could turn into a ferret at least.
I ended up just sitting on my bike thinking when the phone rang, snapping me out of my daze. The Caller-ID said "Berenson, Gregory." Jake.
"Hello," I said.
"Aaron," It was Marco on the other end. Jake knew me the least out of everyone. Marco was his best friend. Rachel was his cousin. I was pretty sure he had a crush on Cassie, and I would almost say that Tobias had a crush on Jake. Jake was like Tobias's hero.
"Hey what's up?" I asked.
"The Sharing," he said.
"The what?" I asked. I had never of The Sharing other than that controller cop who came to Cassie's barn today.
"It's sort of like the boy scouts and girl scouts rolled in one with a 90's spin on it," Marco explained. "We're going tonight to check it out to see if its 'open minded' about people like us."
"OK," I said, realizing what he meant, "What time?"
"Come over to Jake's house now," Marco told me. He gave me directions and I was on my bike and there in ten minutes.
The meeting was actually really fun. Fun, until we found out the truth about The Sharing. I felt bad for Jake. That's got to be rough finding out that your brother wanted you dead. That's when we decided that we were going to fight. Marco didn't seem to thrilled.
After school Monday we were all sitting in the food court of the mall sharing some nachos. Jake was explaining to us about the Yeerk Pool and want he had found. He asked me if he could borrow the notes from English since he had skipped class, expecting me to take good notes because I'm sort of a nerd. I told him I didn't take notes.
The next thing I know I'm on the way to The Gardens with my fellow Animorphs, as Marco named us. We were going to get some powerful morphs for tonight when we were going to attack the Yeerk Pool to save Jake's brother. Cassie's mom worked there as a vet so she was going to get us into restricted areas to acquire some powerful morphs. Everything was going smoothly till we were spotted by security. Before I knew it I saw Cassie sprinting down one hallway and I was behind her. We ran for a while but when I looked back there was no one chasing us. That's when I realized that Marco and Jake weren't with us either.
"Where did Marco and Jake go?" I asked.
Tobias shrugged. "I think they went another way. I'm pretty sure that the security guard followed them."
"I hope their O.K." Cassie said.
"Should we go look for them?" I asked.
Rachel shook her head. "I think we should stick to the plan. If we get caught trying to find those two then none of us are going to get any good morphs." It seemed logical enough
"What's behind this door?" I asked Cassie as we stood in front of an entrance to a habitat.
"African elephant," Cassie said, "Probably the largest and most powerful animal they have at The Gardens."
"Most powerful," Rachel said with a grin, "I'm all over it."
Cassie opened the door and her and Rachel walked right in to the habitat. Cassie said that the elephants were pretty tame and that it wouldn't be hard to acquire one of them. Sure enough less than two minutes later Rachel and Cassie came strolling out of the habitat. Rachel had a satisfied look on her face.
"Where to next?" Cassie asked us.
"What are we near that's worth anything?" I asked. Cassie pondered that for a while and looked like she was envisioning a map of The Gardens in her mind. Finally she snapped her fingers as she turned on a light bulb in her head.
"If only Marco was here," Cassie giggled, "This would be perfect for him."
"What?" Rachel asked.
"Hyena," Cassie answered with a grin.
It was decided that I would acquire the hyena. Lucky me. Cassie was standing guard outside the habitat incase any vets or anything came by. Tobias was standing guard with her. I don't think he was very interested in getting any other morphs than his new red-tailed hawk morph. Rachel volunteered to go into the habitat with me. She was the prettiest tomboy I had ever met. Cassie warned us about the first sudden drop off into the habitat, but not the second.
"Ah!" I screamed intelligently. "Ooph," I said when I hit the ground, knocking the wind out of me.
"Are you O.K.?" Rachel asked from about six feet above me.
"Yeah," I said as I began to dust myself off. That's when I noticed the hyena staring right into my eyes from about two feet away. "On second thought no, I am not O.K."
"What's the matter?" Rachel asked as she got on her hands and knees to look down at me. "Oh! Um, Cassie? I think we have a problem."
"What?" Cassie asked as she poked her head into the exhibit. "Did I mention the second step?"
"No," Rachel said, "But we have another problem." That's when it hit me. The idea, not the hyena.
"Wait," I said, "I have a plan."
"What?" Rachel asked.
"What's going on?" Cassie asked, "What's the problem."
I didn't answer either of their questions. I very slowly reached out with my hand to touch the hyena. The hyena followed my hand with its gaze and just when it thought that my hand was too close and was preparing to snap at it, I pushed for ward and grabbed it's neck. It started to attack me but then stopped as I began to acquire it. It got very calm, just like the ferret, or Marco's gorilla.
"Rachel," I said, "I acquired it and put it in a trance. I don't think it's going to last very long so we need to get out now."
After we left the hyena habitat when decided now would be a good time to try and find Jake and Marco. We went out a door and started to make our way to the front gate when we noticed Marco and Jake ducking their way through the crowd. They told us some story about being chased by security and then tigers. I was pretty sure they were exaggerating.
That night was when we were going to free Jake's brother. Marco met me at my house and we rode our bikes together to the school. That afternoon I had practiced morphing with tight clothes on like Cassie had showed us. Underneath my clothes I was wearing a gray t-shirt that was a couple sizes too small and a tight pair of cut-off sweat pants. I couldn't figure out how to morph shoes or even socks. I asked Marco if he had tried morphing clothing yet.
"No," he said, "Don't tell anyone but after tonight I'm not going to be doing much more morphing. I mean, I know you guys are all about saving the world or whatever, but I'm not up for the risk. I can't die, Aaron. If I died, I'd basically be killing my dad, and I can't do that. If you guys need me every now and then that's cool, but I'm not going to be full time or anything."
I could understand where he was coming from, and I knew that I didn't really have a right to question him. If my dad was still alive, I would do anything in my power to protect him, but my dad wasn't so I wouldn't be able to. I had nothing to lose in this war.
I wanted to ask Marco if he thought about what would happen if his dad got captured by the Yeerks, but I didn't want to get into a confrontation with him. I figured I could try to talk him out of his decision later, just not tonight. We got to the school to find Rachel waiting for us. Tobias had been at the school for a while, only he didn't ride his bike, he flew. Jake arrived a little bit later, and told us that he couldn't get a hold of Cassie, and her mom didn't know where she was.
Jake was upset about the mission already, and I couldn't blame him. Cassie was missing, and Tobias had started his morphing clock early. In the end though, Jake decided to carry through with the mission.
I don't really want to get into what happened down in the Yeerk Pool. It's sort of depressing to think about. We raised people's hope about freeing them, only to let them come crashing down. I knew all along that even if we freed people from the Yeerks tonight, the Yeerks would come back for them. The one woman we managed to save now had to live in hiding. On top of all that, Tobias was now a hawk. Forever.
So now there were four of us really: Jake, Rachel, Cassie, and me. Tobias was still with us, only he wouldn't be much help in the actual fighting of the Yeerks. Marco was with us too, but in an emergency only capacity.
That Tuesday at school, I walked down the halls a little different. I still didn't really smile a lot or care that much at all on the surface, but deep down I had a purpose. I was saving the world. I mattered. And most of all, I was a lot less alone now. I walked into the lunchroom and saw Cassie and Rachel eating lunch together. Rachel smiled at me and Cassie waved as I walked by. Jake decided that we shouldn't all act like a group so as to not attract the attention of Chapman or any other controllers. I walked towards Marco and Jake at the other end of the cafeteria. Marco saw me and waved me over, and I could feel a smile crossing my lips.
Author's Note: This story is going to take a while to write, but it should be fun. The beginning was probably boring, but it should get more interesting. I'm only going to write about certain books were Aaron makes a difference. He doesn't do that much until David comes around, but then the story gets really interesting. Please review this if you read it.