Mkay! I thought I'd respond to some review responses first before I get carried away!

LittleMidgett; OH YEAH! MORE CHOCOLATE! AND MARKY MARK CAN'T STOP MEEEEEE!

rockergurl13 (sp?); yeah, you're right! But if u lyk Ax, u might like the little alien romance I have planned… (grins insanely)

THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR REVIEWING TOO!

Tiamath; hehe! I am sooo glad I got ya to laugh! Hehe!

'pp; whoever you are… um… what the:x

RT FAN14(sp?); thanks for the review… and remember, the more reviews, the faster I update! YAAAAY!

Genesisdragon; thanks for the review! And yes, I am continuing now, see?

ONWARDS WE GO! INTO THE ABYSS OF INSANITY! WHOOPEEEE!

Oh, and btw, if anyone gets confused about my character, just ask and I shall tell you! k? K! LETS GOOOOOOOO!

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Well, I survived the shopping trip… but barely.

By the end of the day Rachel had brought me a whole new outfit. Dress… shoes… necklace and earrings… all matching, mind you.

Woopee for me.

Two hours of numbing hell and 'ooh! Look a this!' and 'wow! Thirty percent off!' all the time.

How did I survive the shopping trips with Amanda?

The answer kind of came to me when I flopped face first on the bed, hearing my family moving downstairs.

My best friend Amanda was cute when she did it. And innocent.

Rachel was just a full-blown psychopath when she went shopping.

Please don't tell her I said that.

So there I was, enjoying my neat little faceplant onto my bed, thinking maybe I'd take a quick nap before Ryan and Tina realised I was back home, when there was a knock on the door.

"What?" came my muffled voice from my pillow.

"Your booooooooooyfriiiend is here" Tina teased through the door. I groaned… damn little sisters could be annoying… but decided to get up anyway, just patting my hair down so it didn't look so frazzled before opening the door and making my eleven year old sister shriek.

I grabbed her, tickled her sides and made her squeal, then let her go and watched her run downstairs, whinging to mum and dad about how I 'scared' her.

Well, she asked for it.

I went downstairs to see my dad talking to Marco. Marco looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"All right! I'll be back in a jiffy!" I called to mum, shooting down the rest of the stairs, then grabbing Marco's hand and bolting out the door with him.

"Jade, I was talking-"

"Later dad!" I shut the door, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Your dad… he's…" Marco looked shocked. I grinned.

"Overprotective too. But that's my dad for you"

"Bloody tall too" He muttered as I led him down the drive, and down the street. The sun was slowly sinking as we walked.

"Why aren't you like that?"

"I got my mums genes. Short and… stubborn" I grinned at him, making him groan. I just grabbed both his hands and swung them around, jumping around in front of him a little.

Gee, I must've been looking forward to the dance more than I thought.

"So…. what brings you here so late? Is it… about another mission?"

"No. I was uh… I wanted to ask you something"

"What?" I stopped walking, making him stop too.

"What's going on? Everyone's been so… weird, lately"

"Who is everyone?"

"Jake and… well, Rachel was crazy from the begging, but… not this crazy. Then I see Cassie in the barn crying when I go and get some notes off her cause Jake just happened to forget writing anything except Cassie's name over and over again in a notebook, and then I go and see Tobias and Ax. Tobias mutters something about Rachel, takes off… which I thought was really rude mind you… then Ax wants me to teach him how to kiss!"

I laughed at that.

Wouldn't you?

"Jade, what's going on?"

I frowned, letting go of his hands and continued to walk. Marco's arm soon slipped securely around my waist as we walked.

"Well… Rachel told me that Tobias doesn't want to go to the dance…"

"Nothing out of the ordinary, but I'm sure she'll get him back into it"

"Are you telling this story, or am I?"

"Sorry"

"Anyway, then after our mission last night, Jake comes over… scaring the crap outta me by the way… and says Cassie told him she didn't want to go… its all going to hell…"

"Wait, Jake told you, and not me?" Marco let go of me, turning to look at me.

"He thought I'd understand it better"

"But… but I've been his best friend since… god knows when! Why talk to you?"

"Like I know! Maybe he thought you'd laugh at him or give him bad advice"

Marco's eyes narrowed "Are you sure there's nothing else going on?"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He was accusing me of… of…

My god we really were all screwed.

"Marco, I'd never! Jake and I are just friends!"

"Yeah, well, we'll just see about that…" he turned and walked way.

"Marco…? MARCO! What are you doing?-!"

"I'll talk to you tomorrow!" Came his cold voice as he waved over my shoulder. Was he mad at me, or Jake?

Like this place wasn't weird enough. Now Marco had to leave this thing hanging?

I guess I wouldn't know until tomorrow.

Damn guys. They were so frustrating!

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Later that night, when everyone else was in bed and sound asleep (I checked them all myself) I decided to go check on Cassie. From what Marco had said, she sounded upset about something…

So I changed into my regular clothes, opened my window, and shifted straight to barn owl.

That was one good thing about being a shifter. With the right practise you could shift shoes and loose clothes into the change. Poor Animorphs when it got cold…

I flapped my wings, taking off into the night, heading in the direction of Cassie's house.

I was about to fly through her window when I noticed the barn light was on.

Strange. Did someone accidentally leave it on?

I had a sneaking suspicion that answer was no.

So I changed direction, gliding silently into the barn, landing on the floor and looking around with my intense owl eyes.

Then I saw her. She was sitting on a hay bale, crying.

How long had she been like this? From the look of it, quite a while.

(Cassie?)

She jumped at her name. Then she looked down and saw me.

"J-Jade?"

(Yeah. What's wrong Cassie? Why are you so upset?) I asked, then focused on becoming myself again, listening to her as she answered me.

"I… I'm… it's nothing. Just… just something stupid" she sniffled, wiping her nose with her sleeve. I finished my transformation before I answered her, giving her one of my famous 'yeah right' looks.

"Cassie, what is it? Has someone hurt you or anything? What's the matter?" I asked going to sit beside her. She looked at me and sniffed again.

"It's stupid"

"No its not. Look, I'm here now, so why don't you tell me?"

"I really wanted to go to the dance"

Wow. That was news.

"Um, Cassie, I thought… I thought you told Jake you didn't want to go?"

"But I do! I mean… after last night… I… I just… how can I ask him to go with me? When he's already got so much on his mind? He's barely keeping it together as it is!"

"Cassie, I think you might have misread him a little"

She gave me a weird look.

Hey, I would too.

"Jade, he doesn't have time… and I can't ask him now that I've… that I've…"

I felt like screaming at the lot of them. What was with these people?.!

"Cassie, you're great at a lot of things. Love isn't one of them. Actually, it isn't mine either but I can't complain, but what I do know is that you need to have another talk to Jake about this. Both of you just need to talk. Kiss and make up in a sense"

"But… what if he hates me for… for all of it?"

I was close to meltdown then. But I somehow managed to keep my cool. I was going to fix all of this before the stupid dance, we were all going, and all us were going to have a great time there too.

No Yeerks. No Hork-Bajir or Taxxons or creatures without mouths and with tails.

Just us.

Problem was I didn't know how I was going to fix it.

And I didn't know why I suddenly cared so much.

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Hehe! MORE TROUBLES!

TOLD YA! NOTHING IS SACRED!

Now review please! The more reviews the more I write! K? BYE!