Chapter Two - Rachel
In case you don't know by
now, I'm Rachel.
And lately, I haven't been
feeling so great. Besides the whole fighting space aliens thing,
my social life and family life have suffered. Not that I'd let any
of the others know about it, of course. We're all part of a web.
A chain. And if one of the chain links break, well, we'd all be up
the creek without a paddle. We've all been close to the breaking
point, of course. Myself included. But no one has actually
snapped, except for Cassie.
"Marco, your wit is showing."
I said sarcastically as I adjusted my sunglasses, and laid back down on
the lawn chair that I was sitting on. As much as I hated being sitting
around doing nothing, while the Yeerks were out there, terrorizing the
planet, I had to admit that this was a nice, well deserved break.
A much needed break Even Animorphs need to refuel.
"Must you two argue about
everything?" Cassie said. Marco and I looked over at her, and said
the same word at the exact same time, in exactly the same tone of voice.
"Yes." We looked at
each other, then broke down giggling. Cassie too. "Hey..."
Marco said. I looked over at him.
"What?" I asked. He
pointed over to Jake's seat. It was empty. I looked around
for a few minutes, then finally spotted him. He was standing in the
corner of the room, talking with Erek.
"Uh oh." I said. I
was dreading the moment that Jake came back already. When Erek talks
to Jake about something, it's never good. I stood up, and motioned
for Cassie to follow me.
"Huh?" She asked.
"Come on, Cass. We've
gotta go to the mall. I heard that there are some big sales at Penny's."
I said. Cassie looked at me blankly. I made a few motions to
her with my hands, then whispered. "Work with me on this, Cassie.
I want to do something normal before running into another death trap."
I hissed.
"Well... I guess we could
go by Natural Wonders on the way," She said. I nodded furiously.
Despite the size of the room we were in, I felt strangely claustraphobic.
I couldn't explain it. I just had to get out of there. Now.
I jerked my head back to Marco.
"Tell Jake that we took
off." I said. He nodded slightly, looking a bit concerned.
I grabbed Cassie's arm, and ran toward the elevator as fast as I could.
Something bad was going to happen. I could feel it in my bones.