The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series

The Faith

Chapter 2 - Lunch Hour Rush

(Marco)

Sarah twirled the plastic knife in her fingers as she lay out on the grass beside me. One of her feet was bouncing to the rhythm of a song only she could hear, but she was humming softly under her breath as a gentle breeze teased the bottom edge of her white shirt and stray hairs that had freed themselves from her ponytail. She look absolutely relaxed and calm, but, if you actually knew Sarah, she was never calm if she was relaxed - not to mention some part of me had a distinct feeling that something was bothering her. I wasn't sure how I knew but… I did. Something was wrong.

"How has it gone so far today?" I asked her as I idly picked at the hot lunch "food". Sarah's lunch was half eaten and, since she had taken less then half of what I had, she hadn't really eaten at all.

"It has gone fairly well," she told me quietly. "But…" The knife stopped twirling and she sat up, pulling her knees to her chest. "What did the other me do to cause Rachel to dislike me as she does? It cannot be simply because Tob'ias is mi atala." I glanced at Rachel out of the corner of my eye - seated with Cassie and some other girls I hardly knew, she was shooting discreet dirty looks at Sarah every so often. I had caught a handful of them, but it was obvious she had been doing more often then I was looking. When Rachel's jealous, she's Jealous, with a capital "J".

"The other you and Tobias were really close," I explained to Sarah with a shrug, trying to act nonchalant. Rachel's jealousy was really irritating, especially because it was completely unbased and just… annoying. It got in the way of a lot of things, even though both Tobias and Sarah had made it quite clear that any type of more-then-friendly relationship was complete incest and therefore, not going to happen. But, for whatever reason, Rachel still saw Sarah as Competition.

"How close?" asked Sarah, leaning one elbow on her knee and looking at me with curiosity in those gorgeous blue eyes… God, I could have died a happy man then. Her eyes, like that, were just so… innocent. Trusting. Beautiful. I had never seen anything like that in her eyes… Anger, hatred, fear, pain, happiness, or what was close to happiness but never anything so sweet as the blatant curiosity.

"Uhh, it was kind of a… thing." Way to be smooth, Marco. "A brother-sister thing." Nice save! "You confided a lot in each other and you were always there to help Tobias - and Ax - even when you wouldn't help us. The other you wasn't the greatest example of a teammate."

"Kithe, that was not the same me, though," she said, curiosity changing to irritation. Again, kill me now, so I can die happy. Everything that came across in her eyes was just such… pure emotion. It was so… hot. Every other girl I had dated or met was always so guarded or spent more time flirting but not Sarah. She was Sarah and didn't care who knew it. The only other person like that was Rachel and… well, she was a hopeless case. Not that I chance with Sarah anyway but I digress.

"Rachel doesn't know that," I pointed out. "Not that it would matter - you spend a lot of time with Tobias too."

"He is mi atala," she said, frustrated. "For him and I to… ciora," she said, shuddering.

Thanks, itala, came Tobias's sardonic thought speak. You know, I'm not so far away that I can't hear you. Sarah giggled.

"Of course, that is not to say Tobi'as is not cute - he is, in a vapid way," she said, poking at the ground with the knife. "Because vanity is just so… kith." With the way the word rolled off her tongue, it was easily to tell that "kith" meant something like hot. Well, damn, then maybe I did stand a chance. Of course, she was being sarcastic on Tobias' behalf, but still…

Ow…ow… ow…. Kithe na, Sarah, stop poking me! Sarah jerked her hand back and I gripped her elbow as an unfamiliar thought-speak filled my head. It sounded mildly grating and positively arrogant so that meant…

"Mei? Itala?" asked Sarah, surprised. "Mei…?" She scooped up something off of the ground and held it out in front of her. It was a medium sized spider, about half the size of Sarah's palm, and it sat there quite calmly, looking up at her.

That form suits you, I thought in its direction.

Hahaha, aren't you funny? came the new voice. It was Alay! Not bad for my first morph. Although, the poking thing wasn't so fun…

"Sorry," giggled Sarah. She was silent a moment, conversing with Alay in human to morph thought speak.

Yeah, yeah, I'm being good. All right, time to do the real bug thing and scamper off like I'm absolutely terrified to death of you big 'ole human creatures… well, maybe you Sarah. Marco's about my size, so he's not really scary, just ugly. She raced off, scampering down Sarah's arm, while I debated just how useful she was to the saving-the-world cause - certainly I could squash her and it wouldn't cause any problem…?

"At least we know now what that Ellimist said was true," said Sarah quietly. "We all have it, in addition to the rest of you…" I nodded and gently released my hold on her elbow. It probably wasn't a good idea to hold onto her for dear life like that. "Kithe mia, now I am really afraid…"

"Afraid?" I asked her. "Of… the thing?" She nodded, knowing what I meant by "the thing". The morphing "thing", of course. "Why?"

"I am just… afraid. Of losing myself," she said quietly. "That is all." Losing herself, in the morph. We were all afraid of that, deep down. I was. Every time I morphed, I wanted to stop, go back to being human, because maybe this would be the morph where I would stop being Marco and start being something else… and never be able to go back to being Marco. And the only thing I could do about it was push the fear aside and tough it out. I was an Animorph and no matter how scared I was, there were more important things that I needed to do…

"Na deha, Alay's opinion is a little biased," said Sarah, mercifully changing the subject.

"What do you mean?" I asked her, returning to picking at the unknown substance I had paid money for… just much profit did the lunch staff make, when they were feeding us other peoples' leftovers?

"I mean, she does not like boys," shrugged Sarah. "So she really should not make opinions on who is ugly and who is not, when the person is male, at least."

"Oh?" Was she trying to soothe my injured pride or… what? It wasn't really injured just… slightly wounded. A surface wound. Most people took cracks at my looks, especially those who knew I was vain. And Alay… well, it was true. She liked girls, so she really couldn't judge the extent of my good looks and sexual appeal… because she liked girls. And I wasn't a girl. So there.

"Jain, Marco, Ia dehi na anjeli." She turned her head back to the trees where Tobias lurked and glared.

All right, all right, no comments, came his thought speak voice.

Whee! I can still make 'em though! cheered Alay. Sarah thinks you're cute, Marco. Awwww, that's sweet. Sarah turned back and buried her face in her arms, shaking with laughter.

"I should have killed her when I had the chance," she told me, as I grinned at her. So she thought I was cute… that was nice. Really really really nice. REALLY nice.

"Hey, she didn't call you ugly," I said. "I have more excuse then you do." She threw her head back and laughed, while I did a little internal victory dance. Of all the things anyone had ever said, that was the best, most greatest thing…

Whoohoo, she thought I was cute!