I tried to remember where mom would be, and I did. She was supposed to pick something up from the mall today. So that was where I headed, naturally.

I entered, feeling hot, for the beanie on my head and also the hoodie. I slipped the hoodie down and took off the beanie, sticking it in my hoodie's pocket, you know, where you normally put your hands. I slipped into the front doors, looking around wide eyes, for fear of being seen. With the heating, it was especially hot in here, so I was glad I'd taken my hood and beanie off.

I had entered through the food court entrance, and winced as I saw my mom there, at the appointed time, picking something up from the...jewlery store?

Why the jewlery store? What did my mom want from there?

Weird. Really, really weird.

Downright strange.

It's not like she'd lost her wedding ring or anything. I'm sure she would have mentioned it, but, still...

She was now sitting down in the food court, enjoying a caffe latte and watching the jewlery store bag, which was right in front of her.

Then a man came and sat down across from her. She smiled nonchalantly at him.

"No." I whispered. No. I thought. No! It could not be. Mom would never cheat on dad...

Was this it, was this why these things had been happening to me? No. It couldn't be.

Mom would never betray my dad. My mom was not a slut.

Why would she do such a thing?

But as I watched, refusing to believe, I had my doubts justified. The man never touched my mother throughout their whole conversation. They remained seemingly distant to eachother as if afraid to touch eachother. But they chatted quite amiably or so it seemed. At times they seemed terse and serious. But the man would look around, or else my mom would look and they would, remembering where they were, smile and pretend to all happy and fake jokey.

It was making me sick.

I decided this couldn't be it. This had to be one of my dad's friends and mom was just trying to be nice and amiable towards him and just generally be courteous to him. She was probably trying to brush him off in the nicest way possible without him realizing it.

Yes, it seemed that way now. It definitely looked that way now.

They were detached, feigning friendliness.

Soothed, I walked away quickly amongst the food court tables hoping that my mom wouldn't see me.

As I did, I passed two strange teenage boys. One had blonde, messy hair, and the other was strangely, well, I know this is going to sound slightly odd and a little embarrassing, but beautiful. For a guy anyway.

But it wasn't mainly their looks that troubled or even interested me, ( well, okay, perhaps the blonde was kind of cute, and the beautiful guy was really, well, beautiful, and yummy, and gorgeous!)

It was what they said that startled me. What the blonde one said anyway.

"Man, Ax, calm down. The Visser might be watching."

I stopped dead in my tracks. There were several people around and I wasn't facing them, so they wouldn't really notice me listening in. Or so I figured.

"Tobias, I do not think the Visser would be dining in the mall food court." The beautiful boy said, spraying out bits of a sub he was eating. He said "MMmmm." and had almost an ecstatic look on his face. I tried not to laugh or smile. I was watching them in the reflection of a metal garbage can thing nearby. You know, like what they usually have at the malls, the big square ones.

But what was a Visser though?

And why were they talking so seriously about it?

"Yeah, but Chapman might be, or some other Yeerk."

That really perked my ears up. Chapman? As in my father, Hedrick Chapman the third?

No way.

I listened more intently. Come on, come on! Say something else!

"I do not fear Chapman or any other Yeerks." The gorgeous boy said.

"Ax, shhh! Keep it down! You might not, but I do, and Jake will blow his top if he finds out you were yelling out about Yeerks at the top of your lungs in the mall, and that that's why his head is being pushed into a kandrona pool!"

"His head is not being pushed into a kandrona pool!" The other boy said in astoundment, and partial surprised and shocked questioning. "Is he?"

"No...I...oh geez. I meant that figuratively. Oh forget it!" the blonde boy sighed. "Just keep it down okay?"

Jake. Jake...Gosh. Why did that sound so farmiliar...

Jake! Rachel's cousin!

Rachel's cousin Jake? My best friend's cousin Jake? Could it really be?

But what did he have to do with Yeerks. And my mom? And my dad, Hedrick Chapman?

And what the heck were the Yeerks anyways?

I sighed. Maybe it was all just coincidence.

But no, it couldn't be. Something just told me it had to be real.

I had to find out more. I had to listen more to what they were going to say!

But how to do it discreetly?

I would have to follow them. I just had to follow them.

And so I did...