I laughed. Probably a little too loudly, a little too fake.

"Just ask my brother. He won't go near worms, now."

Amanda also laughed, more convincingly than I managed, but still not very well.

"He's also a fan, then?" she questioned.

I nodded. "We share the books. I'm more sympathetic to the Yeerk cause, though. He has this mindset that they're all evil."

"What, you mean they're not?" Amanda practically gasped.

"Sure, there's some cruel Yeerks. Just look at the vissers for example."

I saw Amanda raise her eyebrows.

"I'm sure that some of the vissers are relatively decent creatures," I added. "But there's others that seem nice. . . Like Illim and the others of the YPF…And from what Aftran said in #19, they don't exactly seem like a minority. And there are other Yeerks…ones that don't really know what they're doing…see it as normal, what you do. I guess, when you think about it that way, there's really three groups of Yeerks- the peace movement, the evil ones, and the ignorant ones. And from how the story is told, well to be honest… KAA is awfully biased against the Yeerks."

Amanda was nodding now. Smiling even. I could see that I was making sense to her. She understood what I had seen from my many rereadings of the books. Encouraged, I continued. "Some of the Controllers are looking at their fate in the wrong way too. I mean, finally most of them, well let's just say the younger ones for now- they don't have to do homework anymore, because that's been taken care of by the Yeerk. Same with studying for tests." I smiled enviously, imaging never having to study for another test. I continued, "Their social life is secure! They might even get a boyfriend or girlfriend in the process, since the Yeerks probably think it can't hurt to have the human hosts become more popular among their kind…

"Besides, I doubt that what's actually going on in the host's mind is all that terrible. I doubt that most Yeerks would really torture their hosts 24/7, unless they were like the vissers. . ." I caught myself, realizing what I had just said. "The ones that the books talk about, I mean. Most might ignore them, but that's probably it."

"Why don't you become a voluntary Controller, then?" Amanda laughed.

I smiled. "If only it was possible…Andalites are far worse. They're the real bad guys. They're the ones who want the Yeerks either dead or blind for the rest of their life. Even if they have Gedds, it's not that much better than being blind. The Andalites are way too full of themselves."

Amanda bit into her apple. "Makes sense. I always thought the Andalites were the bad guys."

"Whenever I try to explain it to someone online, or in person, they start screaming, 'KILL ALL YEERKS!' until I finally just put them on ignore. Or walk away, or nod and smile as though I'm insane, if it's in person."

Amanda snorted. "Or the ever-so-classic response, 'I am an Andalite. I have killed many Yeerks and am currently fighting with the Animorphs.' Right, sure. The Andalites wouldn't fight with humans unless they were forced to, and even then just barely. To them, humans are even dumber than the Yeerks."

"They should look in the mirror." I glanced at my watch. "Oh great, class starts in about ten minutes. We need to hurry."

She groaned. "Class stinks."

"Well, I'll see you at the meeting, right?"

"Most definitely."

I couldn't tell if Amanda was a Controller, but at least she was on my side with the books. And she had read them. That was pretty rare to find, at least among people at my high school.

After school ended, I went home on the bus and then got some stuff ready for the meeting. I was both extremely excited and nervous beyond words. I took a few books in case there was some time to read, and homework to do as well. I also took a little money in case we were allowed to get snacks there. I headed out of the door at about 3:30 and got on my bike.

About ten minutes later, I was there. I parked the bike near some others in a parking lot, and began to walk near the labeled building. I opened the door but then realized that I had no idea where the meetings took place. The building looked huge. I saw some kids coming that looked more or less my age. They were probably members. I walked up to them sheepishly.

"Um, hi. Do you know where meetings for Fun for Family take place?" I asked.

A few nodded and one of them spoke. She was tall with short brown hair. She had on huge brown glasses and her face was covered with freckles. She was wearing a pair of baggy pants and one of those blue jean shirts. In other words, she was what everyone would call a geek. She even pushed up her glasses as she spoke.

"Second door on the left on the next floor. Room number nine."

"Is that for all members or just full ones?" I asked before they could turn away.

"The same girl answered, sniffing/snorting as she blew her nose. "All members."

"Thanks."

I turned to walk to the room.

"Hold up." A girl with shoulder length brown hair and pale eyes. "I'm conducting that meeting. I'll walk you there. Name?"

"Amy. You?"

"Jennifer. Okay, guys, you can take off."

The rest of the group scattered. We began to walk.

"We're here," she announced as we turned a corner. She opened the door. A few others were already there, pretty much all ages. "Hey y'all. Welcome to Fun for Family. My name is Jennifer, and I'm going to take charge of this meeting. How are y'all doing?"

Y'all?! Was she from Texas or something?

"Fine," they all said more or less enthusiastic.

"I can't hear you."

"Great, Jennifer!"

"Terrific! Now, let's all go around and introduce ourselves. Except, since you aren't going to remember each other's names, I want y'all to the turn to the person next to you on your right and get to know them."

I turned to a boy next to me with short, brown hair. "Hey…I'm Amy…"

"I'm David. So, how did you find out about Fun for Family?"

"Phone book," I laughed.

"Me too. Have to do community service for school because I busted a blackboard, so…"