Jake and the other Animorphs led me out of the building. I shielded my eyes as I walked through the door. The sun was bright.

            "How can you people see anything?" I asked. "It hurts my eyes."

            "Just wait a few minutes," Cassie's voice said. "Your eyes will adjust to it soon."

            Slowly, my eyes began to get used to the light. I looked up and saw a blue sky with white fluffy clouds. I saw three birds fly overhead.

            "Where are we?" I asked. "This looks like a desert or something."

            The Animorphs looked at each other, smiling.

            "Actually, it is a desert. But it doesn't matter where we are now, since you aren't returning here," Jake said. "You are going to be a normal teenager who lives in a house and goes to school."

            "I have to go to school every day?"

            Marco laughed. "The girl hasn't even been to school yet and she already hates it."

            "I didn't mean that, Marco," I said, glaring at him. "Going to school should be fun."

            "Good," Jake said. "Because you start tomorrow. Everything's ready for you at home."

            I thought about that. "Wait a minute…I'm living with you?"

            He shrugged. "Why not? I live alone, and it's a pretty big house for just one person. After we stop by and get you in some normal-looking clothes, we can go to The Gardens and get you some morphs."

            I followed them around the back of the building and saw an SUV. I sat in the front passenger's seat with Jake next to me as the driver. I waited for him to start the car, but he turned to me instead.

            "How about a driving lesson? Most kids your age drive."

            "Me?" I squeaked. I recovered quickly. "Sure."

            He and I switched places and I started the car.

            Marco groaned from the back seat. "Please don't let her drive like me. Please. If she does, we're all going to die. My daughter drives like me, and now I know how you guys felt whenever I was behind the wheel."

            Ax, in human morph, looked at him strangely. "Why does this bother you? Oooo."

            I'd read enough about driving that I knew what to do, so I put the car in drive and pushed the gas pedal.

            Everybody fell back into his or her seats. It scared me, so I slammed on the brake, and everybody went forward.

            "So far, so good," Marco said nervously. "She hasn't hit anything yet."

            "There's nothing to hit, Marco," Tobias replied sensibly.

            Marco looked out the window. "Oh."

            I calmed myself down and tried again, this time going a little slower.

            "See, that's good. You're getting the hang of it," Jake said. "Just drive straight until you see the road. Then we'll switch."

            When we reached the road, I breathed a sigh of relief. I'd only had two close encounters with cacti, and probably scratched the vehicle a lot, but we were okay.

            As Jake drove down the road, I turned around to talk to the others.

            "Are you sick?" I asked Ax, who was looking green.

He nodded.

            "Oh, gross," Marco said, who was next to him. "Jake, man, if he blows, your new car won't be so 'new-car scented'. It will be 'puke-city scented'. Maybe he should demorph or something."

            Jake pulled over and Ax got out quickly. I watched as his skin turned blue and began to sprout fur. I saw two extra legs sprout as well as a tail. Within a few moments, he was fully Andalite.

            I feel much better now, he said in our heads.

            "It's thought-speech," Jake informed me. "We can use it while in morph."

            "Good, now let's get goi—" Marco began but was cut off when some kind of laser sliced the ground.

            "Animorphs!" a human cried. "I knew you were alive somewhere. Visser One will be pleased when I bring you in. He misses you."

            "Tobias, Serenity, I want you to run," Jake said.

            But I had a different idea. I began to change.

            Tobias grabbed my arm and pulled me away. "What are you doing? Look, there's half a dozen Hork-Bajir over there! Let the others handle this."

            Cassie began to morph to wolf, Jake to tiger, and Marco to gorilla.

            I freed myself from Tobias's grasp and ran at the nearest Hork-Bajir.

            What do you think you're doing? Marco cried, trying to pull me off of the beast. I looked at him and he let go. Jake, she's going to rip that thing to pieces! Look at her! She has her claws dug into its arms!

            I clamped my jaws around the Hork-Bajir's neck and he fell to the ground. Next to me, Ax's tail blade was flying, hitting a larger one. I tackled it from behind and clawed it up, which was what Jake was doing to another one.

            Once all the Hork-Bajir were down, the human wasn't so cocky. He kept looking at me, then back to the others. I growled, and he ran away, screaming for his life.

            "That was exciting," I said. "Let's do that again!"

!!!!!!