Author's Note: I just noticed something weird, and I felt like mentioning it. If you look at my fics, most of my stuff is romance (this isn't, though a lot of the story will have to do with lurve). But the funny thing is that I don't really have much of a love life -- is that not weird? That aside, it's Jake's first chapter! Go big guy! =P A note about Tom's college-bound-ness: Like I said, everyone's high school age, therefore making Tom a senior. Nyah. Poor Jakie. Sorry, by the way, that this took so long. I've just been in desperate need of a BREAK!
Okay, enjoy the chapter!
Chronicle One
-Jake-
My name is Jake.
I guess I'm an average guy. There's not much about me. I don't have any weird or fascinating things happen to me, my family is like every other family in suburbia. I don't have extra toes or a family member who's a celebrity.
I'm fine with that. I mean, look at Spiderman or Superman. Don't you think they'd choose a regular life if they could?
Maybe that's what's been driving me and Tom apart. Tom, by the way, is my big brother. He's an annoying drug addict who comes home with ten girls every night. Nah, just kidding. Tom's a pretty nice guy. He doesn't do drugs, and while he does crush on a different girl about every ten seconds, he's not the type to sleep around.
Yeah, okay, my big brother is my role model. I know that's corny and dorky and all, but it's true.
Which is why I didn't want to tell him about what happened this afternoon.
Tom, for as long as I can remember, has been a star at basketball. I won't be surprised if he becomes a pro someday. Me? I can play but I'm not that great. Not enough for the George Washington High Eagles, anyway.
I dreaded telling Tom about it. I guess that everybody in my family thought I'd follow along in his footsteps.
Even I thought I could get as good as Tom. It didn't happen.
Which is why I was spending all my time in an arcade blowing up little green aliens instead of going home.
Of course there were other reasons I was at the arcade. All of my friends had gotten together to hang out, and I thought it made a pretty good excuse. Not like I was with them, per se, at the moment, but it was an excuse.
"Jake!" I turned around to see Nicole, a pretty freshman girl, waving at me. "Hi!"
"Hey Nicole." I muttered, putting more change into the machine. I swear I could almost hear Nicole's frown.
"Why don't you come eat with the rest of the gang?" She asked in a coaxing tone. "We won't bite."
I sighed knowing that Nicole wasn't going to quit until I went with her. "I'm not that hungry." I told her.
Nicole shrugged. She wasn't derailed at all by my brush-off. "Then just order a coke, Jake. Please?"
I hate it when people use the word please with me. Call me old-fashioned if you like, but I can't deny someone who's pleading with me, no matter how much I might want to. "Oh, all right." I sighed and walked away from the games.
Just so you know, I'm one of those guys who belongs to a big group of friends. I have a couple of close buddies, but most of the people I hang out with, I don't know all that well. Nicole was one of those people.
I'd met her through Tom and I've got to admit I sort of wish I hadn't. She's a happy, cheery person and I've seen her temper flare up now and then. The only thing is that she's very persistent, which gets very annoying.
On top of that, you have to add in the fact that I think Nicole might have a crush on me.
Yeah, it isn't all that pleasant. At the moment Nicole was dragging me by my arm into the food court. She could not hear my protests. I told her I wasn't hungry, I told her I had no money (not enough to buy food anyway, after about two hours at the arcade), I told Nicole I wanted to go home, and I got nothing for my begging.
Maybe Nicole was deaf and everyone forgot to tell me. It would make sense.
Before I knew it I found myself smack dab in the middle of the food court surrounded by my friends.
I wanted to jump up and run away. Go back to the arcade, back to a place where I didn't have to think about telling my brother I hadn't made the team. Was that so much to ask for? Could I not have just that one thing?
I guess not. I felt one of my better-known friends, Jim, put his arm around me in a teasing way. I wanted to shove it off.
Why am I feeling so irritated? I wondered. "I'm shocked! You decided to join us!" Jim shouted.
I shrugged, trying to shake off my tense feeling. "Yeah, I got hungry." I lied.
"Hey! I thought you told me you weren't hungry!" Nicole said, glaring at me with her hands on her hips.
Everyone started laughing. It loosened me up a little, enough to make my agitation just a little tug from inside.
Then I felt the growling in my stomach. I'd run off to the mall right after school and I hadn't eaten since, spending my time blasting away little green men. Now my stomach was sounding like a bulldog with rabies.
I got up off my sticky plastic chair. "Guys, I'm gonna go get something to eat." I told everyone. "Be right back."
One of the guys, a moody junior named Alan, snickered. "The Great Prince Jake doesn't want to stay with us."
I almost froze.
I don't know why, either. Nobody in my life has ever called me Prince Jake, so it's not like Alan's comment brought back some childhood memories or anything, but there was something familiar about the nickname. It sent chills down my spine.
"Alan! That was rude!" Nicole said, glaring at him. Alan didn't even pay attention to her, going back to his conversation with some weird blue haired chick. I decided to leave them be before Alan said something else.
So I made my way through the way-too-bright food court in search of a burger and coke. I was sure I'd find that somehow. I passed a health food store, a salad bar, a Chinese place, an Arby's, and a place where I was pretty dang certain the food wasn't edible; for neither man, beast, or extraterrestrial. I skipped that one, of course.
In the far corners of the food court, near the front doors to the mall, I found a little burger joint.
I went up to the place. The guy at the counter was half-asleep, I'm guessing he hadn't had more than three customers that day. I reached over and tapped him awake. The guy almost jumped fifty feet in the air.
"Whoa! Welcome to Star Burgers, what do you want?" He asked me way too fast and too loud.
"A Classic Burger and a Pepsi, please." I asked. The kid went to the back of the burger joint and in about a minute retrieved my meal for me. "That'll be three-fifty." He said, handing me a soggy bag.
I gave the guy my money and walked off. "Have a nice day." He muttered behind me.
I headed back to the table when I saw him. I came close to dropping my soggy bag of food.
It was Tom.
Tom, my brother. Tom, my role model. Tom, the one who I didn't want to see.
"Hey Midget." He said, with the most morose look in his eyes that I've ever seen. "We need to talk."
He headed off to the stores, away from the food court. I didn't know what else I could do but follow him, so I did.
Tom didn't speak to me the whole time we walked through the mall. It made the edginess I'd felt earlier come back tenfold. Jesus, if he talked, things would be so much better. My brother didn't speak. Looking at him was strange; it was almost as if I could see another person in his eyes. Someone that was a far cry from the Tom I knew.
I couldn't take it anymore. "Tom, what's going on?" I asked.
Tom said nothing. He just stopped walking, causing me to almost run into my big brother.
I looked up. We were in front of a Gadzooks. That explained nothing whatsoever, so I looked to my brother again.
"There's some benches by the record store." Tom told me, motioning to the place next to us. "You might want to sit."
It was right then that the uneasiness in my stomach reached a storming pitch. I did as Tom said and sat.
He walked over to the benches and with a deep sigh, sat down next to me. It looked like my brother was struggling to find the right words to say. Why? What could be so big, so bad, that he'd have to sit me down and think like this?
What, I wondered, had caused that sad look in Tom's eyes when he saw me?
My brother had been acting weird for the past year or two. I'm not that sure my parents noticed it, but I had.
It started off as little things. He'd been skipping practice to go to meetings of this new club he'd found, The Sharing.
It got worse. Tom's grades had been getting better, but he was almost never at home any more. The Sharing had taken up my brother's whole life. If it weren't for the fact that The Sharing went around doing good things for people, I would have said they were some kind of weird cult. That didn't look like the case, though, but it bothered me.
The moment when none of us, not even my parents, could deny something was off with my brother, came a week ago.
Tom had quit the basketball team. That team had been my brother's livelihood ever since junior high.
I remember the years Tom spent giving his blood and sweat, sometimes for real, so that he'd be good enough to join the GWHS Eagles. Years of tears, sweat, and hard work flushed down the toilet for what looked like no reason.
Tom hadn't been having any problems with his coach, and I'd never heard him complain about the other guys.
He said that he had better things to do with his life than "play stupid games". He'd been going to the Sharing more.
Maybe, I thought, my brother might tell me what the heck was wrong with him. I doubted it, though.
Ever since he'd gotten into The Sharing the two of us weren't close anymore. The funny thing was that he used to be my best friend. I guess that's part of why I tried to be so much like him. Heck, even part of why I tried to join the Eagles. I thought that maybe if I made the team my brother would snap back to his senses.
Back to basketball. Back to the Tom I used to know. The Tom that, looking at him now, I couldn't see.
Flash!
Marco looked at me. "Jake. He's one of them."
I looked at my best friend, trying to believe I hadn't heard him. "What?" I asked.
"Tom." He said. "Tom is one of them. Your brother is a Controller."
The first time my fist caught him on the side of the head. The second time, he jumped.
What?
I must have spaced out, because now Tom was looking at me like I was dying. "Jake, are you okay?"
I blinked a few times to get my bearings straight. "Yeah, I'm okay." I told my brother. I don't think he believed me.
One of them. What was that all about?
Tom gave me another worried look, and then he stared at his feet as he started to talk. "Midget, you won't like this."
I frowned and looked at my brother. His tone alone was worrying me. "I won't like what?" I asked him.
He put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a sad smile. "Mom and Dad are breaking up, Jake."
I don't remember how I managed to get home. Tom drove me back but I don't remember any of our conversation.
The soggy bag lay in the back seat of my brother's 1985 Oldsmobile. I hadn't touched it.
Learning that my parents wanted a divorce kind of zapped away my appetite. I couldn't work it out, they'd always seemed like a happy couple to me. True, Mom wasn't happy with Dad's long hours and there were sometimes weeks where they wouldn't talk, but that was normal, right? A divorce. I remembered a few years back when my cousin Rachel's parents got a divorce. Rachel and her sisters lived with their mom now, and my uncle Dan now lived on a different side of the country. Rach didn't talk about it much, but I knew that it still bothered her.
Now my parents were going to split up and I couldn't do a thing about it. Nobody could except Mom and Dad.
"You know," Tom said as we got into our neighborhood. "The Sharing offers family counseling now."
"You serious?" I asked. Maybe Tom had found an answer. God, I loved my brother!
"Yeah." Tom said and I could see a grin spreading on his face. "It's free and everything. We could all go."
Even though The Sharing gave me the creeps, I couldn't say no to a good idea. "You think we should go?"
Tom's smile grew a mile. "Yeah, Midget. I think it's a great idea." He said.
The flashback or whatever it was that I'd had earlier came back to me.
"Tom is one of them." Who was that guy? And what did "one of them" mean, and why did it freak me out?
I fought the wave of cold wet dread from inside as my brother pulled into our driveway.
It could have just been a daydream, not like it meant anything. There wasn't any reason to fear my brother.
I mean, come on, this was Tom! Besides, we had more important things to do.
Like saving my parent's marriage.
Mom saw Tom and I driving in. She gave us a lecture on being late. We'd scared her half to death, she said.
Mom was afraid something horrible had happened to us, like maybe we'd decided to take the long way home through the construction site. Tom told Mom that no, that hadn't happened. The two of us weren't idiots, after all.
Mom was satisfied and we followed her into the house. For the first time, I noticed she hadn't said a word to Dad.
The two of them never did talk much anymore. I can not believe I never noticed before, but now it seemed so obvious it hurt. How had this happened to my parents without my ever having any clue?
I almost ran upstairs. This was too much. I hadn't made the team, my parents were a sham, and I had a cold fear I couldn't explain. What the heck ever happened to a normal life? Why the heck couldn't I have that?
"Jake!" Tom shouted, running behind me as I slammed my door.
I didn't feel like talking. I was too riled up to talk. I locked my door behind me and turned on my Playstation.
Maybe blowing up more little green men would help. "Come on Jake, open up!" I heard Tom yelling.
My door stayed closed. Tom started pounding on the door. I pressed the start button.
"Jake, stop acting like an idiot and open the damn door!" Tom screamed. I almost dropped my controller.
Let me put it this way: my brother does not swear.
I turned off the Playstation and went up to my door and opened it as slow as possible.
Tom looked relieved beyond all belief. "You were worrying me." He said, taking a deep breath to calm himself.
I smiled. "You too."
My brother paused, looking unsure as he looked around. "Um, can I come in?"
"Huh?" I said, confused. Then understanding flowed through my brain. "Oh yeah, sure!" I opened the door for him.
"Thanks." said Tom as he walked in. "Now, I'm thinking we should talk."
"Yeah, you're right." I said as I sat on my bed. Tom sat down next to me. We said nothing for a minute or two.
"Tom, I don't want this." I told my big brother. "I don't want our parents to split up like this."
"Neither do I." Tom whispered. I said nothing and I looked around my room. There were old sports trophies, dirty laundry, and a beat-up basketball, one of those little hoops you stuck on your door and threw Nerf balls through.
My dog, Homer, lay asleep next to my pile of dirty clothes. It all looked so normal, just like this morning.
It didn't reflect that my life had changed.
"Tom, can I ask you something?" I said. My brother stretched his legs. "Shoot." He said.
"Why'd you quit the team?" I asked. For half a second, I saw Tom freeze. Panic. Then it went away.
"I wanted something more." He said, smiling at me. "I mean, sure I was good, but sports are risky." He said.
I must have been showing my confusion, because he went on to explain. "Even if I made it into the pros, there's no guarantee it'll last. I mean, think about it. One broken leg and my whole career would be shot." Tom said.
I nodded. He was making a lot of sense. "Yeah, you're right." I said. "So, question two -- why The Sharing?"
This time there was no weird panic in my brother's eyes. "I wanted something more." He said.
"I wanted to do something more with my life than just play sports. I wanted to help my fellow man." Tom smiled.
A little part of me fought some disquiet. Since when did he smile so much? "Your fellow man?" I joked.
"But what happened to the riches and the ladies?" My brother scowled and threw a pillow in my face.
"You can get the riches and the girls, Midget." He told me. I laughed and shook my head.
"I guess I'd have to." I said. "After all, you're going to be a poor college student soon, right?" I asked.
Tom shrugged. "Looks like it." Then he got what I call his "thinking look". He uses it whenever he's thinking, which is about ten times a year, just for the record. "Hey, do you want to go The Sharing tomorrow?" He asked.
"Tom, you know The Sharing isn't my thing." I told him. Tom's been wanting me to go for ages.
My brother shook his head. "No, not for you. So we can arrange a session for Mom and Dad." He said.
"Besides," Tom added, giving me a teasing smirk. "You never know, you just might like it."
I doubted that. I doubted that more than I doubted I could throw a car. But, it was for a good cause.
"Fine." I sighed. "Why not?" I swear Tom almost started doing a victory dance in the middle of my room.
I made him do his victory dance out the door. Then I sat and began working on the mountain of homework I had.
School, like usual, was a total bore. In fact it was so boring that only the thought of going to The Sharing with Tom was keeping me awake. Now if that doesn't say something, I have no clue what does.
At least it was that way until History.
The whole class had thundered in and maybe half of us started our work for the day when Mrs. Reid made her announcement. I think I was one of the few listening, since Mrs. Reid tends to babble on about nothing.
"Class, we have a new student." About half of the class looked up. I wasn't one of that half.
"He's transferred from Mr. Brian's History Class," Mrs. Reid's voice grew into steel. "Ron, stop laughing. Be nice."
Mrs. Reid coughed to deflect the attention off Ron. "This is our student, Marco Jones."
Then my head snapped up. I'd heard a little bit about this guy. He was known for being a class clown.
My guess was that he'd sent something to raise Mr. Brian's heart pressure further, so now he was in our class.
At the moment that didn't matter, though. I'd never heard his last name, and I'd never seen his face. When I did, though, I had to grab onto my desk to keep from falling out of it. There was no way to explain it, but I knew him.
He was the same Marco in my flashback. The same one that had warned me about Tom.
We'd never even met, though, and the Marco in my flashback was supposed to be my best friend.
I stared at him and he stared back with what had to be the same shocked expression on my face.
"There's a seat behind Tressa, that girl with the green hair." Mrs. Reid told Marco. He walked, still staring at me, to his seat. Then Mrs. Reid went to her desk and told us all to read pages fifty through sixty-seven in our books.
After ten minutes of putting up a show of reading, I tore a piece of paper out of History spiral. I pressed the click on my pen and scribbled a quick, fast note.
Do I know you? Y/N
Jake Berenson
Then I folded it up and tapped on the shoulder of the girl in front of me. She looked up at me, annoyed.
"Sorry," I whispered. "But could you hand this to the new kid?"
The girl rolled her eyes and took up my note. For a second I was afraid she was going to hand it to Mrs. Reid, but then I saw her give it to the girl in front of her, who then gave it to Tressa the Green, who handed it to Marco.
I saw his eyes scan the note, then he looked around the class for me, I guess. Then our eyes met for the second time.
Slow and uncertain, he nodded. Yes.
Either we were both nuts or had amnesia, but I didn't care. It was like something, a big something, that was missing had come back together. A piece had been placed back in the puzzle that I hadn't even known was gone.
Yes. Somehow, some way, I knew Marco Jones.
Class went on like normal until the bell rang and let us loose for lunch.
I met up with Marco after class, and the two of us headed off to find a table.
"You're kidding me."
I sighed. We'd had this little discussion about five times. "I am not kidding you."
"Then you're insane. There is no way Superman could beat Spiderman in a fight." Marco told me.
"Sure he could!" I protested. "Superman's an alien, with insane strength. All Spidey has are webs." "Spidey could swing away from about anything Superman can throw at him." Marco said. I rolled my eyes.
"Besides, Spidey could always ruin Clark Kent's career. He is a photographer." Marco added.
"What's that go to do with anything?" I asked. Marco shrugged. "No one said he could beat him with his powers."
"I thought that was the point you were trying to make." I said. Marco said nothing to me after that.
I went back to trying to pick out the edible parts of my slop du jour when something caught my eye.
Two somethings, to tell the truth. The first something was my cousin Rachel. She's not a cafeteria-goer.
The second something was the girl next to her. She was kind of short, wearing a pair of messy overalls.
"Who is that girl?" I asked. Marco looked up at me, confused. "What girl?" He asked.
I pointed at her. Marco blinked. "You mean the blonde? That's Rachel." He told me.
"No! Rachel's my cousin, I know who she is. I mean the girl next to her." I told him. "Oh." Marco said.
"That's Cassie Branch...wait a minute, your cousin is Rachel Berenson?" He asked. I nodded.
"You have got to be pulling my leg." Marco said as he gaped at me. I shook my head. "Nope, no joke."
"Jeez! If she were my cousin, I'd..." Then he must saw my murderous glare. "Never mind what I'd do."
"That's just sick." I whispered and he shrugged back. "Yeah, but she's not my cousin."
I shook my head to stop from thinking about it, and to my surprise I found myself looking at the girl, Cassie, again.
She looked around and would've spotted me staring if I hadn't dove my head into my school-made slop.
"Nice save." Marco muttered. I glared at him and we went back to our debate.
"Anyway, like I said, Spidey could produce blackmail."
"You're a psycho!"
It was four-thirty when Tom picked me up after school. Since he's a senior, and doesn't have to do the whole nine-period thing like the rest of us, he'd been out of school an hour already. It sucks. I wish I was a senior.
"I told Mom you were going with me to The Sharing, so hop in." Tom said. I threw my backpack in the back and did just as he told me. Tom seemed thrilled with this turn of events. "You're gonna love it here." He said.
"You'll be able to meet some of the older, special members." He was telling me. "Like Wade, and Sally, John and Miranda, Paul and Steve, Ruby and Gloria." Then his brows creased as he searched for more names.
"Oh! And Mr. Victor Trent is coming tonight, too." He added. I blinked. "Are these all adults?" I asked.
Tom nodded, his hair flying in the wind. My brother prefers the windows down. "Yeah, all of them." He said.
"That's part of what's so cool about The Sharing." He told me. "They don't care if you're young, old, black, white, Christian, Muslim, gay or straight. They're awesome." I smiled, indulging Tom a bit. It did sound cool.
"Wade, John, and Miranda are all guidance counselors. Wade works with kids, John does stuff with adults, and Miranda handles the group and family counseling. We'll be talking with her." Tom told me.
I nodded again, taking all this in. "What about Paul, Steve, Ruby and Gloria?" Tom bit his lip, thinking again.
"They work in the Tolerance Sector. Ruby and Gloria are lesbians, and Paul and Steve's brother is a Muslim."
"So they're kind of doing this for themselves." I commented. Tom frowned at my remark. "A little, maybe." He said.
"But for the most part everyone in The Sharing is doing this for the whole." Again that weird smile showed up.
I fought against the knot in my stomach, as my flashback came back to me again. I hadn't told Marco about it.
The two of us hadn't talked about our flashbacks. The only thing I knew was that he'd had one, too, and I was in it.
Perhaps I should have mentioned it. Maybe then Marco could have explained what he'd meant back whenever.
"Tom, you're turning into Gandhi." I joked as I felt the knot in my stomach tighten even more.
My brother laughed a good, hearty laugh. It sounded like him, looked like him, unlike that smile.
The knot in my stomach loosened a little. "I bet Gandhi would've liked The Sharing." Tom mused.
"Maybe, maybe not." I said. Tom seemed content with that. "I'm glad you came." He told me.
"I only came because of Mom and Dad." I said, not trying to be rude. Then I saw the hurt flash in my brother's eyes.
It faded away in a second. "We'll see once you've been there a while." Tom said, half-joking, half-serious.
My stomach was hurting. Why hadn't I asked Marco about his flashbacks? How stupid was I?
A minute later, we reached what looked like kind of like a Boys and Girls Club, except that across the building were the words "The Sharing" painted in black, and underneath that "Building a Better Life".
The knot in my stomach was almost overwhelming. Tom smiled. "Here we are."
We opened up the doors of the car and went inside. The vast number and variety of people there stunned me.
I saw people of all races, male, female, some I wasn't certain of, and religions all hanging out together.
It was, I have to say, mind-blowing.
"Jake!" I looked up in surprise and saw Nicole hurtling at me at the speed of light.
Tom caught me before the two of went smashing into the ground, though I have to wonder if that was Nicole's intention. "I'm so glad to see you!" Nicole enthused, hugging me. I heard Tom laughing. "Maybe you should get off him."
"Oh!" Nicole pulled herself off of me and I got back on my feet. "I didn't know you'd be here." I said to Nicole.
"Yeah, Nic here is a full member." Tom said. I swear the pride in his voice was louder than the music.
Nicole smiled up at my brother. "Tom introduced me to The Sharing." She explained.
I almost felt sick. Tom was a nice guy but not the kind to hang out with a girl like Nicole.
Tom put his hand on my shoulder and was leading me in another direction. "We've gotta go see Miranda."
We headed down a dark hallway, to what I guessed must be this Miranda's lady office.
"Tom, this place is cool. Thanks for taking me." I said. Tom smiled. "Be careful before you become a full member."
I laughed but in the next second it felt like someone had shoved a chunk of cold ice down my throat.
My brother had gone into a violent convulsion. His whole body was shaking. "Tom!" I ran to him.
He fell to the floor, still shaking. I dropped down beside him and tired to take his pulse. His heart was beating like a jackhammer. It felt like it was going to explode out of his chest! Then to my shock, my brother grabbed my wrist and pulled my head up to his ear.
"Jake." He whispered. "Run. Run away as fast you can."
Then he let go of me, his hand almost limp. "Tom?" I asked all too aware of the fear in my voice.
"Is he all right?" I looked up to see a man in his mid-40s. He was bald and wore all black.
"I think so." I said, my voice just above a whisper. The man looked relieved and my brother stopped shaking.
Then, with the utmost care, the older man helped my brother up to his feet. Tom was no longer shaking.
"This boy needs to be taken to a hospital." The man said, and about fifty people swarmed up and took my brother.
I almost collapsed to the ground myself. Tom had told me to run away, and I felt like doing just that.
But now my brother was going to the hospital. I couldn't leave. I could not.
"What's your name, young man?" The old man asked me. I stared at him for a moment, not quite aware.
"Jake." I told him. "Jake Berenson." The old man nodded. "Tom's brother, am I correct?" I nodded.
"I should have known." He said with a slight laugh. "You two look so much alike."
"Do we?" I asked, sounding like a total idiot. The man laughed again. "You'd be surprised at the resemblance."
This man was starting to creep me out. "Who are you?" I asked him.
The grin on his face was twisted and distorted. It was like he'd never done it before. "Victor Trent." He told me.
Three things happened to me all at once.
I was struck with the feeling I had just met some kind of an enemy.
An odd image had come into my head. The image of some kind of foul, evil mix of deer, human, and scorpion.
Then I thought, as I looked at Victor Trent, of a name. A name that frightened, enraged, and sickened me.
Visser Three.
Yo! Reader People! (reviewer response)
Doctor Strangelove - Glad you liked the Ellimist's perspective. Yeah, Rachel and Cassie were best friends at first. I'll give you a hint, though. It's more like "what didn't the Ellimist change?"
It's the amazing Rachelia! Actually, I was kind of thinking of her like Buffy pre-Scoobies...oh wait, there isn't much difference, is there? Enjoy the flashbacks, sir, there'll be many a more. Now you what Jake's troubles are. Rejoice.
Who knows who'll I'll be pairing Marco and Ax with. Keep an eye on them, you might be surprised.
Ginny_Star - Wow, glad you like it! Keep reading, please? =P
lauren - Yay! Hi! See, I updated! Yay!
RasberryGirl - Yep, you're great about hiding your agendas. =) Heehee. Wow, I'm kind of surprised people liked the Cassie/Rachel scene so much, but I'm glad you did! You're 17? That makes you, um, two years older than me. (Not for long. I'm 16 in a month! Pedestrians beware!) Well, I figure people still write about these characters because they're fun. And, um, thanks for the compliment.
Freak Apple - You liked Rocky the Teddy? Cool! Thanks, I'm glad you like the story, I hope it stays good...**looks down at the carpet** CLEANUP ON AISLE FOUR!
Puar Briefs - Yep. Cassie and Rachel are back together again. Run away now. Glad you liked the Tobias scene and don't worry, his chapter will be up soonish. (He's right after Marco, who's next.) Feather or no feather, I like him, too. You really think Cassie's name was that great? Wow. I hope you like Marco and Tobias's last names, too. (I happen to doubt that Fangor is Tobias's last name, myself.) As for the name "Sarah", I hadn't really thought about it. That's how my sister spells her name -- I hadn't even thought to check the spelling.
But since, according to Scholastic's monkeys, it can be either way, "Sarah" she shall stay. I'm willing to say it's a safe bet monkeys type worse than gorillas drive, but I don't want Marco to prove that for us. Though, on the plus side, 'least it isn't an Andalite driving. Or a Hork-Bajir. Those could not end well.
Sailor Hylia - I won't abandon this fic, trust me! Oh, hey, BTW...are you a Zelda fan?
Alikat - Nope, no tell. I want to surprise you! Don't worry though, you'll figure it out soon enough.
JCtigerwolf4e - Glad you like and no worries, I'll keep it up! Oh yeah, did you like the J/C in this chap?
DJ Eagel - Wow. I made someone swear. Go me! Seriously, glad you enjoy the fic. Oooh, David...I think you may have given me an idea, and I know just where he'd belong, too. Just trust when I say he won't show up for a DAMN LONG TIME. Other than that, thanks for the idea!