A comment to dark_munkee, who gave me a review on chapter 2:
The reason they all say "oh my God" is because something completely insane just happened, I think that's plausible. It's hard to deal with a situation where you don't believe what's happened actually just happened - see what I mean? So they could easily behave like that.
About the cuss words: I know Applegate never uses cuss words, but she does say that the Animorphs do. On several occasions she comments on them swearing. I prefer a bit of realism in the way that I actually let them say the words out loud in my text, I suppose to just having stuff like "he said a naughty words".
And thirdly: Yes, Ax does say "oh my God". How long has he been on Earth? Maybe five-six years? Surely he's adapted himself, and he's gotten a lot of Earth-like habits, he says so himself. One of them, I believe, is using some Earthy expressions. I've actually seen him say "oh my God" in a book somewhere before, so I believe I can use it as well...
Thank you anyways for your review. :)
Now, about this chappie! It's not very much action and humour in it, and I'm sorry for that... But I needed this chapter and another one to show how Marco and Rachel do in the other one's home. It'll be a bit of fun in any case, won't it, seeing how Rachel manages in Marco's house?
Reviews, please!
***
RACHEL: BEING A BOY
I couldn't believe what I was doing. How was I going to pass off as that lunatic? Wouldn't his father easily understand that I wasn't his son?
On the other hand, how could he suspect me being somebody else? I had the guy's body down to the last detail. One would be crazy to believe an engineered alien had swapped my mind with Marco's.
I reached Marco's house and unlocked the door, then went inside. At least I'd been at his house before, so it wasn't as if I was completely lost. Though I would get some problems if Marco's father turned up and asked me to clear out the kitchen or something. I had no idea where anything belonged.
Luckily, nobody was home. I took of Marco's weary shoes and jacket, and took the steps upstairs to his bedroom.
The first thing I noticed in there, was the big mirror. Of course, it wasn't surprising. Marco had apparently aquired himself this huge full-size mirror so he could overlook himself in all his so-called glory. No guy believes he's as beautiful as Marco does, he's got an ego that is just beyond understanding.
I lined up in front of the mirror and studied myself. Yep, I was Marco all right. At least I looked like him, I didn't feel like him AT ALL.
I ran my fingers through his hair and over his face, trying to adjust to this new, strange feeling. Who knew how long I'd be stuck like this, I thought I might as well get used to it first thing.
I looked around the rest of his room. Messy as ever, it was a horrible sight. Boxers, socks and all other kinds of clothing lay everywhere on the floor, occasionally mixed up with some CDs and videos. His desk was filled with papers, it looked like school work, but when I read it I learned it was just a long list of codes to hack into several illegal servers on the Internet.
Nothing like a real Marco-scheme, huh?
I took a quick glance at his bed, then looked away again. It wasn't all that bad, not messy and it seemed comfy enough. But just the thought of sleeping in Marco's bed made my stomach turn. I would probably have to sleep in his bed! Although I technically WAS him, it still felt weird...
I turned back to the mirror. It was still all Marco to see, no chance whatsoever. Not that I'd expected it to be, of course. This Drode wouldn't end his practical joke this quickly - if he would end it at all.
I studied Marco's face for a moment, and twisted it into a few grimaces, as if trying to get to know his apperance. It didn't feel any more natural to me, it still wasn't the face I was supposed to have. This was a guy's face! Maybe a slightly cute guy's face, but not as cute as he himself believes - and definitely NOT as cute as for me to want it for myself!
I showed Marco's reflection my - or his - tongue, to show my disrespect for him.
"Wow," a voice said.
I quickly turned towards the door, and saw Marco's father staring at me.
"Not too happy with our looks today, Marco?" he grinned.
"Oh, hi, Peter," I stuttered nervously. How would Marco behave in front of his father? I didn't know.
"So I'm just 'Peter' now," he said. "Oh well, I guess that's what happens when the kids grow up, ey? Though I'd prefer it if you sticked to 'dad' for a few more years, Marco. Come on down, help me make dinner."
"Uhm... sure, dad!" I said enthusiastically, still adjusting to Marco's dark voice and acting around his dad. What to do now? I had no idea how this dinner-thing worked out in Marco's family. I mean, it was just him and his father! Did they have special chores? Did they say grace? Did Marco have some special thing he used to say or do? I had NO idea.
"Oh well," I mumbled to myself and followed Marco's dad downstairs. All I had to do, was keep cool. I just had to be Marco. Piece of cake, right?
Yeah, RIGHT...
"All right, dad, what do you want me to do?" I asked "I'm... ready to work!"
"Where'd that enthusiasm come from?" Peter asked as he started unpacking the groceries. "I'll enjoy that while it lasts. Just start on the pizza, would you?"
"Right. The pizza. Sure thing."
Pizza?! This family was making pizza on a Wednesday? How long this take? Baking pizza in the house took forever, we usually never did it apart from in the weekends. Marco and his father must be really into pizza...
All right, so all I had to do was make the dough, then fill it with toppings. No problem, except that it would take hours. But hey, that was Peter's problem, not mine. If he wanted to -
My thoughts ended quickly when I saw what was lying on the table.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Peter asked me as he'd finished with the groceries. Stick it in the microwave, we don't have all day."
Oh my. This was a simple heat-and-go pizza, the kind that takes fifteen minutes in the microwave oven. This was what Marco and his dad had for dinner? How could that be any good?
"Uhm, dad," I said, hesitatingly putting the frozen pizza into the microwave. "Why do we have to heat it? Couldn't we just make a pizza? Or better yet, buy something else that doesn't take as long to make as a pizza, but that can be made without heating it in the microwave? I mean... It's not very healthy."
Marco's father looked at me for a second, curiously. "That's true, Marco," he finally said. "I guess it would be better for our health to eat something not heated up in the microwave... But you've always preferred it, and since I always get home too late from work to make anything else, I thought we'd come to an agreement on that."
"Yeah, sure, we had," I stuttered, searching for words, "but, you know... I just thought we could do with a bit of variation."
"That's not a bad idea," Peter said. "But if that's what you want, then you're gonna have to do the cooking. I'll never be home in time to do that, you know."
"Hey, don't worry about it," I said, trying to pull a typical "don't worry, I'll handle it" Marco attitude. "I'll do the cooking from now on! Just make sure we have all the things necessary, and I'll get right on it when I come home from school."
"Sound good, pal, we've got a deal," Peter said.
Then we heard a mechanical "DING!", and the pizza was ready.
* * *
I spent some of the evening going through Marco's stuff. I know, I know, it's really mean. But there was nothing else to do! And I still suspected Marco had something to do with this stupid mindswap, and just in case he had, I wanted something rotten to say about his room and his belongings when we met the next time. Just to have a chance to make fun of him.
There wasn't much of interest, though. Marco's room was pretty much filled with clothes and computergames, along with a few school books (amazing he even had any) and notes from classes. No homework was to be found though, although we had three papers to hand in within the next five days. Typical Marco.
One thing surprised me a bit more, though: He owned a book. Or, to be more correct, he owned three, but they all belonged together. It was "The Lord of the Rings", by Tolkien. But they looked as if they'd never even been touched.
I remembered Marco talking about that once, I believe he was supposed to write a paper on the first of the three, but he never managed to finish it. Sure, we were in a battle against evil space slugs, but he still could do his homework like a good boy, couldn't he? That was something I could mock him for the next time we met.
"Marco?" It was Marco's father again, standing in the door.
"Yeah?" I said, turning towards him from the desk, with Marco's hands all over his school books and notes, to study how bad Marco was doing in each subject.
"Wow, books," Peter commented. "This is looking good, Marco. But you've been up here for a few hours now, is something wrong?"
"No," I answered quickly. "What could possibly be wrong? I'm me, Marco, after all, the Magnificant and all that... stuff. I'm great. Why do you ask, dad?"
Marco's father looked at me, clearly shocked. I fear I might have overdone the part as Marco the cool and relaxed. "Well, usually you spend some time around the living room, but I've seen nothing of you since dinner. Sure you're okay? Is there nothing you wanna talk about?"
"Nah, thanks, dad," I said, smiling. "I'm glad you ask, though. You're a great father."
Peter's face seemed even more shocked. "Well, I'm, uhm... glad to hear you think that. Good. Yep."
"Aha," I nodded. "Good indeed."
"So as long as you're okay," he continued, "how about playing a round with me? I borrowed 'Zelda' from this guy at work, what do you say we hit the controls?"
"The... the controls?" I asked uncertain. What did he mean by that?
"Yeah, the Nintendo controls," Peter smiled. "In case you've forgotten. I thought you wanted to try out 'Zelda'?"
"Well..." I hesitated for a minute, knowing Nintendo really wasn't for me. But on the other hand, I couldn't be not-Marco-like, and I'm sure Marco would never turn down a game of Nintendo. But of course, I could act a bit professional, like he used to. "It depends. Is it the newest version?" I asked, trying to remember if there at all was more than one version of 'Zelda'.
"That depends," Marco's dad said, "what's the newest version?"
I pulled Marco's fingers through his hair desperately. The newest version? How could I know what the newest version was? I hadn't a CLUE! "I've... Kind of forgotten it's name. Don't worry, I'll recognize it when I hear it. What's it called?"
"It's 'The Wind Maker', I think," Marco's dad said. "Is that the newest one then?"
"Uhm... yeah, sure," I finally replied, then got up to go and join Marco's father in a game of Nintendo...
We went downstairs, and within few minutes we were right in the universe of 'Zelda'. It was practically impossible. I never understood how to work the controls, where to go on the game or what to do with the extra points and effects. What was going on? Why, WHY did Marco and Jake find this stuff so amazing? It was boring! And more than anything, impossible!
"Wow, you've got a bad day!" Peter laughed as he once more made a much better score than I did. "Maybe it's because you haven't played it before."
"Eh, yeah," I nodded. "Yeah! Haha, you probably sneaked yourself to playing it at work, dad, so you'd be better than me! Didn't you? Haha, admit it!"
Marco's father looked curiously at me. "We don't have a Nintendo at work, Marco. Don't worry, you're just having a bad day at this, normally you'd beat me. Hey, what do you say we play something you're good at?"
"NO!" I quickly replied and put the controls away. Calm down, Rachel. Don't make him suspicious! "No," I added, more calmly. "No, it's no point you getting beat over and over again." I turned towards Marco's father in the couch. I'd almost never talked to him before, and it hit me that he was a very nice person.
But, as a girl, I was certain I sensed something in Peter that maybe Marco hadn't sensed: This man was lonely.
"How are you, dad?" I asked, focusing at his eyes.
"Fine, I beat you," Peter laughed.
"Dad, I'm serious."
"Okay, okay." He stopped smiling and studied what he thought was nothing more than his son Marco. "You wanna talk serious now?"
"Well, I was just wondering how you were. How are things on work, with ladies, stuff like that...?" I asked, trying to sound as shy as Marco would have on a subject like this. I didn't want to make Marco look like an idiot in front of his dad, but I felt it was my duty as a son (or as a daughter, or the son's friend or whatever) to care about the father, after all.
"With ladies?" Peter repeated. "It's... fine, Marco, thanks for caring. It's really fine. Don't worry about it. I'm not really that much into dating now, you know? It's not the time for it. You understand...?" He looked at me, and in him I saw the real, genuine care a father has for his son, and that he was still longing for Marco's mother Eva. I'd never really seen anything quite like it before, my father had never acted like this in front of me.
Was dad missing mom at all? Could that be possible that he felt just like Marco's dad did?
I thought about this for a while that evening, but got something else on my mind when I realized I had to go to bed - Marco's bed...
***
There we are! Fun, isn't it? Well... anyways, reviews, please!
The reason they all say "oh my God" is because something completely insane just happened, I think that's plausible. It's hard to deal with a situation where you don't believe what's happened actually just happened - see what I mean? So they could easily behave like that.
About the cuss words: I know Applegate never uses cuss words, but she does say that the Animorphs do. On several occasions she comments on them swearing. I prefer a bit of realism in the way that I actually let them say the words out loud in my text, I suppose to just having stuff like "he said a naughty words".
And thirdly: Yes, Ax does say "oh my God". How long has he been on Earth? Maybe five-six years? Surely he's adapted himself, and he's gotten a lot of Earth-like habits, he says so himself. One of them, I believe, is using some Earthy expressions. I've actually seen him say "oh my God" in a book somewhere before, so I believe I can use it as well...
Thank you anyways for your review. :)
Now, about this chappie! It's not very much action and humour in it, and I'm sorry for that... But I needed this chapter and another one to show how Marco and Rachel do in the other one's home. It'll be a bit of fun in any case, won't it, seeing how Rachel manages in Marco's house?
Reviews, please!
***
RACHEL: BEING A BOY
I couldn't believe what I was doing. How was I going to pass off as that lunatic? Wouldn't his father easily understand that I wasn't his son?
On the other hand, how could he suspect me being somebody else? I had the guy's body down to the last detail. One would be crazy to believe an engineered alien had swapped my mind with Marco's.
I reached Marco's house and unlocked the door, then went inside. At least I'd been at his house before, so it wasn't as if I was completely lost. Though I would get some problems if Marco's father turned up and asked me to clear out the kitchen or something. I had no idea where anything belonged.
Luckily, nobody was home. I took of Marco's weary shoes and jacket, and took the steps upstairs to his bedroom.
The first thing I noticed in there, was the big mirror. Of course, it wasn't surprising. Marco had apparently aquired himself this huge full-size mirror so he could overlook himself in all his so-called glory. No guy believes he's as beautiful as Marco does, he's got an ego that is just beyond understanding.
I lined up in front of the mirror and studied myself. Yep, I was Marco all right. At least I looked like him, I didn't feel like him AT ALL.
I ran my fingers through his hair and over his face, trying to adjust to this new, strange feeling. Who knew how long I'd be stuck like this, I thought I might as well get used to it first thing.
I looked around the rest of his room. Messy as ever, it was a horrible sight. Boxers, socks and all other kinds of clothing lay everywhere on the floor, occasionally mixed up with some CDs and videos. His desk was filled with papers, it looked like school work, but when I read it I learned it was just a long list of codes to hack into several illegal servers on the Internet.
Nothing like a real Marco-scheme, huh?
I took a quick glance at his bed, then looked away again. It wasn't all that bad, not messy and it seemed comfy enough. But just the thought of sleeping in Marco's bed made my stomach turn. I would probably have to sleep in his bed! Although I technically WAS him, it still felt weird...
I turned back to the mirror. It was still all Marco to see, no chance whatsoever. Not that I'd expected it to be, of course. This Drode wouldn't end his practical joke this quickly - if he would end it at all.
I studied Marco's face for a moment, and twisted it into a few grimaces, as if trying to get to know his apperance. It didn't feel any more natural to me, it still wasn't the face I was supposed to have. This was a guy's face! Maybe a slightly cute guy's face, but not as cute as he himself believes - and definitely NOT as cute as for me to want it for myself!
I showed Marco's reflection my - or his - tongue, to show my disrespect for him.
"Wow," a voice said.
I quickly turned towards the door, and saw Marco's father staring at me.
"Not too happy with our looks today, Marco?" he grinned.
"Oh, hi, Peter," I stuttered nervously. How would Marco behave in front of his father? I didn't know.
"So I'm just 'Peter' now," he said. "Oh well, I guess that's what happens when the kids grow up, ey? Though I'd prefer it if you sticked to 'dad' for a few more years, Marco. Come on down, help me make dinner."
"Uhm... sure, dad!" I said enthusiastically, still adjusting to Marco's dark voice and acting around his dad. What to do now? I had no idea how this dinner-thing worked out in Marco's family. I mean, it was just him and his father! Did they have special chores? Did they say grace? Did Marco have some special thing he used to say or do? I had NO idea.
"Oh well," I mumbled to myself and followed Marco's dad downstairs. All I had to do, was keep cool. I just had to be Marco. Piece of cake, right?
Yeah, RIGHT...
"All right, dad, what do you want me to do?" I asked "I'm... ready to work!"
"Where'd that enthusiasm come from?" Peter asked as he started unpacking the groceries. "I'll enjoy that while it lasts. Just start on the pizza, would you?"
"Right. The pizza. Sure thing."
Pizza?! This family was making pizza on a Wednesday? How long this take? Baking pizza in the house took forever, we usually never did it apart from in the weekends. Marco and his father must be really into pizza...
All right, so all I had to do was make the dough, then fill it with toppings. No problem, except that it would take hours. But hey, that was Peter's problem, not mine. If he wanted to -
My thoughts ended quickly when I saw what was lying on the table.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Peter asked me as he'd finished with the groceries. Stick it in the microwave, we don't have all day."
Oh my. This was a simple heat-and-go pizza, the kind that takes fifteen minutes in the microwave oven. This was what Marco and his dad had for dinner? How could that be any good?
"Uhm, dad," I said, hesitatingly putting the frozen pizza into the microwave. "Why do we have to heat it? Couldn't we just make a pizza? Or better yet, buy something else that doesn't take as long to make as a pizza, but that can be made without heating it in the microwave? I mean... It's not very healthy."
Marco's father looked at me for a second, curiously. "That's true, Marco," he finally said. "I guess it would be better for our health to eat something not heated up in the microwave... But you've always preferred it, and since I always get home too late from work to make anything else, I thought we'd come to an agreement on that."
"Yeah, sure, we had," I stuttered, searching for words, "but, you know... I just thought we could do with a bit of variation."
"That's not a bad idea," Peter said. "But if that's what you want, then you're gonna have to do the cooking. I'll never be home in time to do that, you know."
"Hey, don't worry about it," I said, trying to pull a typical "don't worry, I'll handle it" Marco attitude. "I'll do the cooking from now on! Just make sure we have all the things necessary, and I'll get right on it when I come home from school."
"Sound good, pal, we've got a deal," Peter said.
Then we heard a mechanical "DING!", and the pizza was ready.
* * *
I spent some of the evening going through Marco's stuff. I know, I know, it's really mean. But there was nothing else to do! And I still suspected Marco had something to do with this stupid mindswap, and just in case he had, I wanted something rotten to say about his room and his belongings when we met the next time. Just to have a chance to make fun of him.
There wasn't much of interest, though. Marco's room was pretty much filled with clothes and computergames, along with a few school books (amazing he even had any) and notes from classes. No homework was to be found though, although we had three papers to hand in within the next five days. Typical Marco.
One thing surprised me a bit more, though: He owned a book. Or, to be more correct, he owned three, but they all belonged together. It was "The Lord of the Rings", by Tolkien. But they looked as if they'd never even been touched.
I remembered Marco talking about that once, I believe he was supposed to write a paper on the first of the three, but he never managed to finish it. Sure, we were in a battle against evil space slugs, but he still could do his homework like a good boy, couldn't he? That was something I could mock him for the next time we met.
"Marco?" It was Marco's father again, standing in the door.
"Yeah?" I said, turning towards him from the desk, with Marco's hands all over his school books and notes, to study how bad Marco was doing in each subject.
"Wow, books," Peter commented. "This is looking good, Marco. But you've been up here for a few hours now, is something wrong?"
"No," I answered quickly. "What could possibly be wrong? I'm me, Marco, after all, the Magnificant and all that... stuff. I'm great. Why do you ask, dad?"
Marco's father looked at me, clearly shocked. I fear I might have overdone the part as Marco the cool and relaxed. "Well, usually you spend some time around the living room, but I've seen nothing of you since dinner. Sure you're okay? Is there nothing you wanna talk about?"
"Nah, thanks, dad," I said, smiling. "I'm glad you ask, though. You're a great father."
Peter's face seemed even more shocked. "Well, I'm, uhm... glad to hear you think that. Good. Yep."
"Aha," I nodded. "Good indeed."
"So as long as you're okay," he continued, "how about playing a round with me? I borrowed 'Zelda' from this guy at work, what do you say we hit the controls?"
"The... the controls?" I asked uncertain. What did he mean by that?
"Yeah, the Nintendo controls," Peter smiled. "In case you've forgotten. I thought you wanted to try out 'Zelda'?"
"Well..." I hesitated for a minute, knowing Nintendo really wasn't for me. But on the other hand, I couldn't be not-Marco-like, and I'm sure Marco would never turn down a game of Nintendo. But of course, I could act a bit professional, like he used to. "It depends. Is it the newest version?" I asked, trying to remember if there at all was more than one version of 'Zelda'.
"That depends," Marco's dad said, "what's the newest version?"
I pulled Marco's fingers through his hair desperately. The newest version? How could I know what the newest version was? I hadn't a CLUE! "I've... Kind of forgotten it's name. Don't worry, I'll recognize it when I hear it. What's it called?"
"It's 'The Wind Maker', I think," Marco's dad said. "Is that the newest one then?"
"Uhm... yeah, sure," I finally replied, then got up to go and join Marco's father in a game of Nintendo...
We went downstairs, and within few minutes we were right in the universe of 'Zelda'. It was practically impossible. I never understood how to work the controls, where to go on the game or what to do with the extra points and effects. What was going on? Why, WHY did Marco and Jake find this stuff so amazing? It was boring! And more than anything, impossible!
"Wow, you've got a bad day!" Peter laughed as he once more made a much better score than I did. "Maybe it's because you haven't played it before."
"Eh, yeah," I nodded. "Yeah! Haha, you probably sneaked yourself to playing it at work, dad, so you'd be better than me! Didn't you? Haha, admit it!"
Marco's father looked curiously at me. "We don't have a Nintendo at work, Marco. Don't worry, you're just having a bad day at this, normally you'd beat me. Hey, what do you say we play something you're good at?"
"NO!" I quickly replied and put the controls away. Calm down, Rachel. Don't make him suspicious! "No," I added, more calmly. "No, it's no point you getting beat over and over again." I turned towards Marco's father in the couch. I'd almost never talked to him before, and it hit me that he was a very nice person.
But, as a girl, I was certain I sensed something in Peter that maybe Marco hadn't sensed: This man was lonely.
"How are you, dad?" I asked, focusing at his eyes.
"Fine, I beat you," Peter laughed.
"Dad, I'm serious."
"Okay, okay." He stopped smiling and studied what he thought was nothing more than his son Marco. "You wanna talk serious now?"
"Well, I was just wondering how you were. How are things on work, with ladies, stuff like that...?" I asked, trying to sound as shy as Marco would have on a subject like this. I didn't want to make Marco look like an idiot in front of his dad, but I felt it was my duty as a son (or as a daughter, or the son's friend or whatever) to care about the father, after all.
"With ladies?" Peter repeated. "It's... fine, Marco, thanks for caring. It's really fine. Don't worry about it. I'm not really that much into dating now, you know? It's not the time for it. You understand...?" He looked at me, and in him I saw the real, genuine care a father has for his son, and that he was still longing for Marco's mother Eva. I'd never really seen anything quite like it before, my father had never acted like this in front of me.
Was dad missing mom at all? Could that be possible that he felt just like Marco's dad did?
I thought about this for a while that evening, but got something else on my mind when I realized I had to go to bed - Marco's bed...
***
There we are! Fun, isn't it? Well... anyways, reviews, please!
