Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs. I wish I did, but I don't. - Anyways this story and any characters that are made up are mine and Cassie's. So don't use them without asking.
Just so people now this isn't just my story. My friend Cassie and I came up with this together. We're co-authors. I come up the ideas and she types them up. And the chapters will switch between Kitty's POV and Loren's POV. Enjoy!!
Loren's POVI knew what that bell meant. It meant that I was dead meat. I had been late to too many classes already.
"Oh crap," I said to Kitty, and started to run. I barely made it to my homeroom before the teacher closed the door. I sighed. I was safe, for today.
"Hey, look who's late again," sneered a voice from the back of the room.
"Oh, shut up," I said to him. His name was Tommy, and he was mine and Kitty's best friend. We always fooled around, in and out of class. Mr. Broman gave us a dirty look, and I sat down in my seat, right next to him. He elbowed me, and gave me a note. It didn't say anything, really. Then the bell rang, and class began.
The next few days passed quickly, and uneventfully. Kitty and I spent most every moment of them together. We always did. We didn't talk about what had happened that one night. Then one day, our principal called an unplanned assembly.
"Man, I hate these things," I whispered to Kitty. We were coming from math, which was one of the few classes we had together.
"You got that right," she agreed. Assemblies were nothing fun. They consisted mainly of our principal droning on about someone breaking the dress code, or commending someone for doing a good job on something. The good thing was, was that you could sit with anyone you wanted to.
Tommy, Jason, Kitty and I always sat together, with a few other people. Throughout the whole thing, which was for some girl who had gotten a good score on a hard test or something, we were laughing and playing paper football. We got a few dirty looks from the new teachers who tried to be decent, but nobody liked assemblies, and the teachers didn't want to be there, either.
"Hey guys," Tommy said suddenly.
"Hmm?" Kitty said distractedly. She was trying to make a field goal.
"Can you hang out with us later this week? We'll party or something." I loved to party, and he knew it. But Kitty, on the other hand, did not. She frowned at the idea. "Oh, come on Kitty, don't be like that," he whined. She smiled. Nobody could resist Tommy when he whined. Or at any time, I might add. But if someone could, it would be Kitty.
"All right," she said finally. Then the assembly ended, and school was over. We all piled out of the auditorium, and pushed and shoved our ways to our lockers. We finally got there, and got our stuff. Then we left. We didn't fool around, though, like we usually did. Maybe the assembly took all the fun out of us.
Kitty and I went to her house after school. My family life wasn't great. My parents fought all the time, and my mom wanted total control over me. Occasionally I'd call her to tell her where I was, but usually I wouldn't. I didn't have any siblings, so that made it a little easier, I thought. Both me and Kitty were only children, except she was adopted. Her home was nice. Her mom was always so kind to me, and I basically lived with them. I would sometimes spend three or four days at a time there without warning. It came in handy that me and Kitty were the same size in clothing.
When we got to her house, she went right into the barn, to do her chores. I wanted something to drink, so I went inside. Her mom was there, bustling around the kitchen. She wasn't usually home much, so I asked her about it.
"Oh, I just figured that I'd take some time off from work. It's getting very hectic there," was all she said. That didn't make sense to me, but I didn't push it any further. She wasn't a house person. She usually was either out in the barn, or riding through the woods looking for injured animals. I shrugged it off, and got my drink of lemonade. I went into the living room to go to the barn, and I noticed that Uncle Marco wasn't there. He must have left sometime during the day. I wondered where he went. It wasn't real possible to live in the woods. There weren't a lot of animals to hunt, and hunting wasn't exactly legal that time of year. I shrugged, and went out to the barn.
Kitty was dealing with a female wolf when I got there. I didn't see her at first, so I walked around a little. My scent must have gotten to the wolf, because she howled so loud the walls shook. Kitty gave me a look that said I was dead after she was done.
"You know, I was trying to re-splint this leg. You could be quiet," she said testily.
"Sorry," I said. She smiled at me.
"It's all right. I didn't really want to do this anyway. Wolves are a pain. Mom usually does them, but she's letting me do it this time."
"Really? That's neat," I replied. She nodded and smiled. She went back to working on the wolf, while I stood there and stared. Kitty grunted and tugged quite a bit, but she eventually managed to do what she was out here to do. She stood up with a grin, and wiped the grime on her jeans.
"So, what do you think? Do you think I did it right?" she asked me, still grinning.
"Of course you did it right," I said, a little too nicely. You know, how a mother says something to their child about a piece of art that they bring home, and they don't even look up to answer you? That nicely. She punched my arm playfully, and laughed.
"You know what I mean," she said, without the grin. "Go look." The wolves were kept in a pen far away from the horses, and separated from the rest of the animals in the barn. I went over to her and looked at the leg. The wolf was walking around on it a bit, so it was hard for me to see it, but when I caught a glimpse of it, it looked perfect. I may not know a lot about medicine, or treating animals, but I'd lived around Kitty for long enough to know what a simple splint should look like.
"It looks good," I said sincerely. She grinned, and bobbed her head. Her ponytail moved with her. It always did. "Oh, Kitty?" I asked, a thought popping into my head.
"What, Loren?"
"I was thinking about that night. I-"
"What? Do you think it was true?" she asked me, all jubilation gone from her.
"I don't know. It was so strange," I said slowly.
"Well, there's only one way to find out," she said playfully.
"Oh no, you are not serious," I said flatly.
"I think I am," she said with that glint in her eye that told you she was up to no good. Almost as if she knew something that I didn't.
"Well, what do we do?" I asked.
"Didn't my mom say something about having to touch an animal, and concentrate very hard on it?" she said, concentrating very hard, thinking back to that evening.
"Yeah, I think so," I replied.
"Well, let's try it," she said, green eyes flashing.
"I don't think-"
"You never think it's a good idea," she said playfully. It was true. I was usually opposed to her audacity. As moral as she was, she still had a streak of the wild side in her, and she could be mighty impulsive if you let her. But before I could say anything else, she knelt down next to the wolf pen, and carefully reached her hand in. The wolf snapped at it, and she drew it back just before the jaws closed.
Then she stood up, and tried reaching over the barrier. That worked a bit better. I was standing next to her, watching her. Her eyes closed calmly, and a look of serenity crossed her face. Her hand was only barely touching the hide of the wolf. The wolf calmed a little, and its breathing steadied. All of a sudden she opened her eyes, and gestured for me to do the same.
I reached my hand in gingerly. The wolf didn't even move. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was still slow and even. I touched her short, wiry fur, closed my eyes, and concentrated. After a while, I gave up. Nothing had happened.
"There, we tried. Nothing happened," I said.
"I think you're right, for once," she replied. I reached out playfully and smacked her arm. Before we knew it, we were rolling around, wrestling in the barn. Not before her mom came out did we stop.
I spent the night there again, and the next few days at school went by just like the ones before, slow and boring. But they went by, and nothing happened. Nothing came of our little experiment in the barn.
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