"No! No way! It can't be!"

Marco. Cassie would know that voice anywhere. Cassie looked to her left, and saw Marco grinning at her from where he sat, two rows over. Without the slightest bit of hesitation, Marco vaulted over the single row of seats that separated them, and slithered into the empty desk next to Cassie. Marco was staring at her in wide-eyed wonder, a little too much wide-eyed wonder.

"Who is this vision of loveliness? Who is this fantasy come true? Excuse me, but are you Tyra Banks? No. No, you can't be any mortal girl," Marco grinned teasingly at her. "So much perfection could never be achieved by any mere human. You're an angel descended from heaven!" Marco gasped a little too melodramatically. "I mean, they always say that clothes make the man, but those clothes make you an angel."

Cassie smiled indulgently, taking out her homework paper and placing it on her desk. "Are you finished?"

Marco gave her his famous 'considering' look, then he nodded. "Yeah, I think that should just about cover it."

"Good. Now, just how much did Rachel pay you to say all that?"

"Two bucks," Marco smirked. "Girls are such idiots sometimes. I'd have gladly done it for one."

Cassie shook her head, trying not to laugh. The teacher arrived then, and there was no more time for other things. The class was mostly one long lecture, like it was every other day. After she had turned in her homework, Cassie was pretty bored by the rest of the class. She took all the usual notes, of course, but as soon as class was over, Cassie was the first one out of her seat and ready to leave.

Cassie caught up with Rachel again in the hallway.

"I think I'm going to ask Slade if he wants to come along on this new mission." Cassie made sure to keep her voice down, but since the halls were always echoing with the sound of footsteps and the overlapping chatter of different half-heard conversations, she wasn't all that worried about being overheard.

"That sounds like a good idea," Rachel said, keeping her own voice down. "At least this way, I'll get a chance to meet him."

The two of them parted ways after that. Rachel continued on her way to chemistry class, and Cassie turned away to go to English class. English was only marginally more interesting to Cassie than History, and that was only because the teacher didn't have an annoying tendency to drone on and on.

Cassie tended to sit close to the back of the room, because this was where Jake liked to sit. Even as Cassie thought this, Jake walked through the door of the classroom and sat in his usual desk near the back of the classroom. Cassie stole a quick glance at Jake, before the teacher arrived, and then there was no more time for distractions.

Cassie took notes, the way she usually did in her classes, but at the same time she was wondering what Slade's reaction to this new Animorph mission would be. From the way he had acted around her earlier, Cassie got the feeling that he'd be more than willing to go with them.

English class ended, and Cassie managed to touch Jake's hand on her way out. Jake leaned close, so he could talk without shouting over the noise in the halls.

"Good luck out there, whatever you find."

"Thanks, Jake," Cassie said with a smile.

Jake blended into the crowd, heading for his next class of the day. Cassie headed for her locker to pick up the other books she would need. Once she had made that little detour, Cassie turned away from her locker, slammed it shut and click the combination lock back into place. Cassie's next class of the day was Art, one of her favorites.

As she made her way through the throngs of kids crowding the halls, Cassie unconsciously started looking around for one of the more recognizable faces in the crowd. Of course, it wasn't really Ryan's face that stood out in the general mass of otherwise unremarkable students, it was his hair.

Ryan's hair was a bit over shoulder-length, and usually tied up in a neat ponytail, which would have attracted plenty of attention in the somewhat mainstream school that they both attended. But Ryan had gone that next step, dying his brown hair a deep purple. It was a strange thing to do, but Cassie had to admit that it went with the strange, slightly eccentric image that Ryan liked to project.

Cassie and Ryan had slipped out of contact lately, since Cassie's responsibilities as an Animorph had tended to take up a lot of her time of late. The only time she could really get a chance to interact with Ryan was in Art class, and that was usually only for a few minutes, before the teacher arrived.

Now, as Cassie looked around, she failed to spot the familiar head of purple hair. Cassie wasn't overly worried at this early stage, since she merely thought that Ryan had gotten to class before her. When Cassie finally did get into class, she again looked for the form of her closest non-Animorph friend.

When the teacher called roll and Ryan didn't answer, that was when Cassie started to get concerned. Cassie had never known Ryan to miss Art class, although Ryan had asked her on occasion to take notes for a class like English or History so that he could space out – or, very rarely, sleep through – that particular class.

But Art was one of Ryan's favorite subjects, Cassie didn't know why he would suddenly decide to miss it. Maybe he's just sick, Cassie tried to reassure herself with this thought. Cassie didn't get to see Ryan as often as she would have liked, owing to her responsibilities as an Animorph, but she had no desire to just slip out of contact with him. Cassie saw Ryan as sort of an anchor to the world outside of the Animorphs' constant battle with the Yeerks.

I hope he's all right, Cassie mused, working on her sculpture. Once that class had come to an end, Cassie again joined the rush of kids that filled the halls. However, not one of them were heading for any of the classrooms. It was time for lunch.

Cassie decided not to sit down at her usual table, instead taking one next to the cafeteria's large windows. Plunking down her tray of what the school rather optimistically called food, and the rest of the student body called either slop or one of the less complimentary terms, Cassie stared out the window for a minute before huffing softly and turning to contemplate her meal.

"Is this seat taken?" asked a voice Cassie didn't recognize.

"What? No," Cassie looked up, watching as a pale girl with short-cropped black hair slid into the seat opposite her.

"I'm Karen." Karen cocked her head to the right, studying Cassie with intelligent dark blue eyes. "I like your outfit," she finally said.

"Thanks."

"That reminds me, Ryan Makenzie is one of your friends, isn't he?"

"We're not the closest, but yeah, I know him pretty well," Cassie nodded.

Karen looked down at her 'food' for a second, before turning back to Cassie. "Do you know where he is?"

Cassie shook her head. "He wasn't here today, but I just figured he was sick."

Karen's deep blue eyes seemed to stare right through Cassie, so intent was the other girl's focus. Karen's entire posture spoke volumes; she was worried. "That's just the thing, Ryan hasn't been here for over four weeks now," Karen gripped the table tightly, steadying herself before going on. "All of his closest friends are missing, so I thought that you or one of his other not-so-close friends might be able to tell me where he is."

Cassie was starting to get a bit worried herself. "Who are his closest friends again? I think he told me once, but I've forgotten."

"Fritz Wallace, Devon Connor, Cindy Connor, and Ness, Cain, and Shara Carter."

Cassie had been nodding absently as Karen listed the names, dimly remembering that Ryan had told her about his other, closer friends at one time. When Cassie heard those last three names, though, she snapped back to attention. "Could you repeat those last three names?"

"Ness Carter, his twin brother Cain, and their younger sister, Shara. I don't know if he's that close to the youngest brother, but judging by the way Raven Carter acts, I don't think he has any really close friends," Karen elucidated.

Cassie took a deep breath and let it out slowly, recalling the newspaper headline she had read only a few days ago.

"Why did you ask me to repeat their names, anyway?"

"Oh," Cassie started, pulled out of her musings by Karen's sudden question. "No real reason."

Karen didn't look convinced, but she didn't press the subject. Lunch was almost over anyway, and so the two girls finished their food in silence. When Cassie got up to leave, Karen tapped her on the shoulder. Cassie turned to the other girl, wondering what she wanted to say.

"It was nice talking to you," Karen said, gently patting Cassie's left wrist.

"Yeah," Cassie nodded. "I hope you find what you're looking for," Cassie said, even though she knew that the chances of Karen finding Ryan were pretty low, if not nonexistent.

"Thanks. You will tell me if you hear from him, right?"

"You'll be the first person to know if I do," Cassie reassured her.

Karen nodded, smiling quickly and walking away. Cassie stowed her empty tray and dishes with the massive collection of other trays and dishes all waiting to be cleaned. Reasonably full, Cassie was quick to rejoin the crowd of various students in the halls. Her second-to-last class of the day was Geography, one that Cassie found utterly boring.

Well, look on the bright side, Cass, Cassie sighed to herself. Only one more class after this one. That thought cheered her up a little, but not all that well. Finding her seat, Cassie took out her notebook. Once the teacher arrived and started the lesson, Cassie busied herself with taking the notes that she would need to get through this class.