I don't own nothin'. * means Rachel's writing it, and ^ means Cassie's
writing it.
Chapter 8 Rachel
Principal Chapman led Cassie and I back to the crowd and we rejoined Melissa. As soon as Pricipal Chapman had turned his back, I pulled out my flowered notepad again. I scribbled a note to Cassie with my feathered pen.
*Are you sure he's like us?*
I passed the note to her, making sure Melissa wasn't looking. I didn't want Melissa to feel left out.
Without hesitating, Cassie wrote back ^Positive.^
Then I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. She was struggling with something. Finally she rolled her eyes up to the sky as if to say, "I give up," and wrote this:
^I remembered something else, too. Jake, and even Marco--they're like us. So is some Andalite, and we called him Saw. Or Hammer.^ She stopped writing and scrunched up her face. ^AX! That's it. Ax was our age and he crashed his ship in the ocean. The 5 of us rescued him.^
*Omigosh. I remember it too. And the 5 of us, plus Ax, we called ourselves Animorphs.*
^Marco came up with the name, right?^
*Of course.* I sighed; Marco was such a trial. But I think he probably saved my butt a few times, so I guess he's not ALL annoying.
Just mostly.
"Time to eat," my English teacher, Ms. McCallum, said into a microphone.
I took back the notebook and shoved it into my messenger bag. "I'm starving. Where are we going? I can't find my itinerary," I said to Ms. McCallum as we caught up to her.
"McDonalds." She turned her head to yell, "Last one to the bus is a rotten egg!" She's only twenty-three and lots of times seems younger. She grinned at me and said, "Let the other kids get a head start. You know you'll win anyway."
Cassie laughed and jogged leisurely--she wasn't very competitive. I held off for five seconds then sprinted toward the bus.
Shoot! Marco--of all people--beat me by a split second. He smirked. "Looks like these short legs are just as good as your supermodel ones," he commented while gazing adoringly at my legs as I climbed the steps onto the bus. I was wearing short-shorts--but they weren't nearly as short as Britney Spears's; they were actually kind of modest, and I was sick of him staring at me, so I told him, "Go stare at somebody else. I'm not a piece of meat. It's not like I wore these shorts so you could admire my legs."
"Meat. Yum. Micky D.'s here I come!" With that, Marco dashed down the aisle to the very back seat, knowing if he stayed any longer I'd step on his foot. Hard. (He was wearing sandals, so it was a the second most vulnerable spot on his body. I grinned as Cassie sat down next to me.
"Should we talk to Jake and Marco? About what's happening?" she asked, looking uncertain.
"Not now," I decided. "We need to be alone to do it. But when are we going to be alone? Chaperones are swarming wherever we go."
We contemplated that. The bus pulled into McDonald's. Spotting outdoor tables, I pointed them out to Cassie. "We could get the guys to sit with us out here--everyone else is gonna want to be in the air conditioning. Even the chaperones, and they'll be okay with that cuz it's easy to see the tables from inside."
As we got off the bus, Cassie touched Jake's arm. His face turned pink, and she looked nervous. Those two. They've liked each other for years, I wish they'd hook up already.
"Can we talk to you and Marco? In private?"
I added, "We can sit outside at those tables. It's really important."
Jake looked surprised but smiled. "Sure." He smiled down at Cassie. "Let me just go get Marco." Marco had already ran inside to order.
We got our food and convinced the chaperones to let us eat outside. Sure enough, they were okay with it and nobody else was around, except for a dad and his kindergarten-aged daughter on the other side of the eating area, but they weren't paying any attention to us. Marco complained. "It's too hot out here. Why are we eating outside? I'm sweating like a pig."
"That's because you are a pig," I informed him helpfully.
He rolled his eyes and was about to respond when Jake said, "Quit it, you guys. Cassie, what was it you wanted to talk about?"
I grinned at Marco, rolling my eyes at how Jake ignored how I asked him to talk, too; he was totally absorbed in whatever she had to say.
"Um . . . well . . . this is going to sound really weird. And you're going to want to lock me up, probably. But Rachel knows what I'm talking about, too. So if it's happened to both of us, then how could we be crazy?" Cassie reasoned.
"Oh, I think it's entirely possible that both of you are crazy," Marco said. "Actually, Rachel's craziness probably rubbed off on you, Cassie. Like girls who are with each other a lot get their periods at the same time? Because of some sort of chemicals or something that they release and then they get in sync with each other's bodies?" Jake turned crimson, Cassie looked away and turned pink, and I rolled my eyes yet again and turned a little rosy. I smacked Marco upside the head but he managed to squeeze in, "Okay, fine, here's a different example--in caveman times, a member of a tribe would yawn to sort of get the rest of the dudes on the same "page". That's why yawns seem contagious now, cuz we still instinctively yawn back to show we're paying attention."
I kicked his leg under the table. That should leave a nice bruise.
Jake's face was slowly turning to its normal tan color. Cassie was still looking down, embarrassed, so I took over. "What we're trying to tell you is that we've been remembering stuff. Stuff that hasn't really happened." I thought about that for a second. "No, it HAS happened--just not in the lifetime we know. Do you know what I mean?"
I searched the boys' faces pleadingly, silently begging them to say something, then turned my attention just to Marco's face and gave him a warning look, making sure he wouldn't make fun of us. But he didn't seem to notice, he and Jake just looked stunned.
Jake finally responded. "Are you guys serious?"
Cassie finally looked up and nodded.
"It's been happening to me too," Jake told us.
Marco added, "And to me."
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Thank goodness. We weren't crazy. (At least, probably not.)
Cassie told them what we'd talked about before, and about remembering Ax, and meeting Tobias and giving him my address and phone number.
Jake and Marco told us what they'd been remembering--mostly the same stuff we had. Jake added, "I told Ax to flush a Yeerk pool on some huge ship."
Cassie looked lost inside her own mind for a moment, then told us, "There was a boy named Erek. Except, the thing is, he's not really a boy. He's a robot. They call themselves the Cheese. No, the Chee. Sorry."
That sounded familiar, but none of the rest of us could actually remember anything about Erek and the Chee. Then it was time to go back to the hotel, where we had half an hour of free time and then would be dragged off to the White House for a tour.
Yay.
____________________________________________________________________________ ______
Hey y'all. I'm really sorry that it's been so many months since I posted anything. First, I had writer's block. Then I didn't have the energy to write--I have depression, anxiety, and possibly chronic fatigue syndrome and other stuff. Then--horror of horrors--my family's computer crashed so badly that we lost everything. All my fanfics (including maybe 2 unposted chapters of this story), all my mp3s, all our games, everything. It was awful. Oh, and my best friend moved away. So all in all, my life hasn't been great since I last posted! :-) Anyway, enough of the pity party. I got a few reviews in the past, like, 2 or 3 weeks, and that's what prompted me to write more. I'm proud to say I have over 40 reviews for this story alone! And each review gives me more incentive to write, so keep 'em coming! I love any and all feedback, good or bad, praise or flames. Thanks so much!!!
P.S. I'd love to hear your ideas for what should happen next. I don't have much of a plan so suggestions would be great--so far I'm mostly just making it up as I go along.
P.P.S. Who else likes Kelly Clarkson? I think she and Justin Guarini would make an adorable couple. Check out Smash Hit's (I think that's her pen name) story, it's called A Moment Like This but last time I checked, it didn't come up under a title search, so search for "american idol" as a summary and it'll come up--not as the first one but not too far down the page. It's so much fun!
Sorry this nonsense is so long! REVIEW!
Chapter 8 Rachel
Principal Chapman led Cassie and I back to the crowd and we rejoined Melissa. As soon as Pricipal Chapman had turned his back, I pulled out my flowered notepad again. I scribbled a note to Cassie with my feathered pen.
*Are you sure he's like us?*
I passed the note to her, making sure Melissa wasn't looking. I didn't want Melissa to feel left out.
Without hesitating, Cassie wrote back ^Positive.^
Then I could practically see the wheels turning in her head. She was struggling with something. Finally she rolled her eyes up to the sky as if to say, "I give up," and wrote this:
^I remembered something else, too. Jake, and even Marco--they're like us. So is some Andalite, and we called him Saw. Or Hammer.^ She stopped writing and scrunched up her face. ^AX! That's it. Ax was our age and he crashed his ship in the ocean. The 5 of us rescued him.^
*Omigosh. I remember it too. And the 5 of us, plus Ax, we called ourselves Animorphs.*
^Marco came up with the name, right?^
*Of course.* I sighed; Marco was such a trial. But I think he probably saved my butt a few times, so I guess he's not ALL annoying.
Just mostly.
"Time to eat," my English teacher, Ms. McCallum, said into a microphone.
I took back the notebook and shoved it into my messenger bag. "I'm starving. Where are we going? I can't find my itinerary," I said to Ms. McCallum as we caught up to her.
"McDonalds." She turned her head to yell, "Last one to the bus is a rotten egg!" She's only twenty-three and lots of times seems younger. She grinned at me and said, "Let the other kids get a head start. You know you'll win anyway."
Cassie laughed and jogged leisurely--she wasn't very competitive. I held off for five seconds then sprinted toward the bus.
Shoot! Marco--of all people--beat me by a split second. He smirked. "Looks like these short legs are just as good as your supermodel ones," he commented while gazing adoringly at my legs as I climbed the steps onto the bus. I was wearing short-shorts--but they weren't nearly as short as Britney Spears's; they were actually kind of modest, and I was sick of him staring at me, so I told him, "Go stare at somebody else. I'm not a piece of meat. It's not like I wore these shorts so you could admire my legs."
"Meat. Yum. Micky D.'s here I come!" With that, Marco dashed down the aisle to the very back seat, knowing if he stayed any longer I'd step on his foot. Hard. (He was wearing sandals, so it was a the second most vulnerable spot on his body. I grinned as Cassie sat down next to me.
"Should we talk to Jake and Marco? About what's happening?" she asked, looking uncertain.
"Not now," I decided. "We need to be alone to do it. But when are we going to be alone? Chaperones are swarming wherever we go."
We contemplated that. The bus pulled into McDonald's. Spotting outdoor tables, I pointed them out to Cassie. "We could get the guys to sit with us out here--everyone else is gonna want to be in the air conditioning. Even the chaperones, and they'll be okay with that cuz it's easy to see the tables from inside."
As we got off the bus, Cassie touched Jake's arm. His face turned pink, and she looked nervous. Those two. They've liked each other for years, I wish they'd hook up already.
"Can we talk to you and Marco? In private?"
I added, "We can sit outside at those tables. It's really important."
Jake looked surprised but smiled. "Sure." He smiled down at Cassie. "Let me just go get Marco." Marco had already ran inside to order.
We got our food and convinced the chaperones to let us eat outside. Sure enough, they were okay with it and nobody else was around, except for a dad and his kindergarten-aged daughter on the other side of the eating area, but they weren't paying any attention to us. Marco complained. "It's too hot out here. Why are we eating outside? I'm sweating like a pig."
"That's because you are a pig," I informed him helpfully.
He rolled his eyes and was about to respond when Jake said, "Quit it, you guys. Cassie, what was it you wanted to talk about?"
I grinned at Marco, rolling my eyes at how Jake ignored how I asked him to talk, too; he was totally absorbed in whatever she had to say.
"Um . . . well . . . this is going to sound really weird. And you're going to want to lock me up, probably. But Rachel knows what I'm talking about, too. So if it's happened to both of us, then how could we be crazy?" Cassie reasoned.
"Oh, I think it's entirely possible that both of you are crazy," Marco said. "Actually, Rachel's craziness probably rubbed off on you, Cassie. Like girls who are with each other a lot get their periods at the same time? Because of some sort of chemicals or something that they release and then they get in sync with each other's bodies?" Jake turned crimson, Cassie looked away and turned pink, and I rolled my eyes yet again and turned a little rosy. I smacked Marco upside the head but he managed to squeeze in, "Okay, fine, here's a different example--in caveman times, a member of a tribe would yawn to sort of get the rest of the dudes on the same "page". That's why yawns seem contagious now, cuz we still instinctively yawn back to show we're paying attention."
I kicked his leg under the table. That should leave a nice bruise.
Jake's face was slowly turning to its normal tan color. Cassie was still looking down, embarrassed, so I took over. "What we're trying to tell you is that we've been remembering stuff. Stuff that hasn't really happened." I thought about that for a second. "No, it HAS happened--just not in the lifetime we know. Do you know what I mean?"
I searched the boys' faces pleadingly, silently begging them to say something, then turned my attention just to Marco's face and gave him a warning look, making sure he wouldn't make fun of us. But he didn't seem to notice, he and Jake just looked stunned.
Jake finally responded. "Are you guys serious?"
Cassie finally looked up and nodded.
"It's been happening to me too," Jake told us.
Marco added, "And to me."
I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. Thank goodness. We weren't crazy. (At least, probably not.)
Cassie told them what we'd talked about before, and about remembering Ax, and meeting Tobias and giving him my address and phone number.
Jake and Marco told us what they'd been remembering--mostly the same stuff we had. Jake added, "I told Ax to flush a Yeerk pool on some huge ship."
Cassie looked lost inside her own mind for a moment, then told us, "There was a boy named Erek. Except, the thing is, he's not really a boy. He's a robot. They call themselves the Cheese. No, the Chee. Sorry."
That sounded familiar, but none of the rest of us could actually remember anything about Erek and the Chee. Then it was time to go back to the hotel, where we had half an hour of free time and then would be dragged off to the White House for a tour.
Yay.
____________________________________________________________________________ ______
Hey y'all. I'm really sorry that it's been so many months since I posted anything. First, I had writer's block. Then I didn't have the energy to write--I have depression, anxiety, and possibly chronic fatigue syndrome and other stuff. Then--horror of horrors--my family's computer crashed so badly that we lost everything. All my fanfics (including maybe 2 unposted chapters of this story), all my mp3s, all our games, everything. It was awful. Oh, and my best friend moved away. So all in all, my life hasn't been great since I last posted! :-) Anyway, enough of the pity party. I got a few reviews in the past, like, 2 or 3 weeks, and that's what prompted me to write more. I'm proud to say I have over 40 reviews for this story alone! And each review gives me more incentive to write, so keep 'em coming! I love any and all feedback, good or bad, praise or flames. Thanks so much!!!
P.S. I'd love to hear your ideas for what should happen next. I don't have much of a plan so suggestions would be great--so far I'm mostly just making it up as I go along.
P.P.S. Who else likes Kelly Clarkson? I think she and Justin Guarini would make an adorable couple. Check out Smash Hit's (I think that's her pen name) story, it's called A Moment Like This but last time I checked, it didn't come up under a title search, so search for "american idol" as a summary and it'll come up--not as the first one but not too far down the page. It's so much fun!
Sorry this nonsense is so long! REVIEW!