Chapter 9
When I walked out of the Kings' house and into the warm, humid night, I heard Marco's voice. "Since when did you start getting closer to the robo-dog-boy?" I laughed and had to come up with a small lie, and quick. Marco, or no one else didn't need to know about Crayak. It was bad enough to know that he was after Laura, and not just me. I didn't want that creep to go after my best friend, too. "What's the matter? Rachel turned you down? Hey, it's nothing," I said simply and good naturedly. "I was just thanking him for his time. That's all."
Marco suddenly stepped in front of me. "Bull," he said, not looking happy, exactly. More like in concern. "I knew something was wrong since earlier this afternoon. I didn't think too much of it, but it's got something to do with Laura, right?" Nervously, my voice was wavering as I was trying my best to talk him out of his suspicion. "…I don't know what you're talking about." Marco nodded. "So, something did happen." He threw his hands up in the air and they slapped back down by his hips. "I'm not blind, you know. When I noticed how quiet you were, and the same look on your face as you did before…" He jabbed a finger in my direction.
Weaseling my way out of this just wasn't going to happen, with Marco being Marco. And again, I head Laura's voice in my memory. You're in charge of the group. Let it be up to you to decide. Not me. "C'mon," I said and Marco more than gladly walked with me. Because it took me a while to explain on what happened those very last few hours to minutes when the Yeerk inside my head was dying. When I was tied up and protected by my friends, as a Controller. And it took me a little more time to explain on what happened earlier in the afternoon with Laura, while he was frozen in place.
"And as if by fate, Laura left it all up to me to tell you guys about it," I admitted. "I guess that's what's going to happen by tomorrow." "So, not only is Crayak haunting your sleep, but Laura too?" Marco said. "Jeez, man! You can't hide stuff like that from us. What if the big ugly red eye decided to come after you two tonight? We would probably never find out about it, considering on how powerful that creep is!" We were both by my house by the time I had finished explaining everything. "You know, you're right. I'm sorry," I said. "But what if he wants to go after you too?" "Could be just all of us," Marco pointed out. "And if that's so, then all of us deserves to know about this Crayak freakazoid." "Okay," I said, trying to calm him down. "Not so loud…"
I wondered what the time it was… Marco didn't stop talking though. "Hey, what's the deal with Laura, anyway? Why did she only tell you and not all of us at once?" I didn't blame him for being mad about that, in a way. But I wasn't mad with Laura, and I had to try and make him understand about her. "I mean, I guess it's cool that she respects our secrets, but I think this Mr. All Powerful Psychotic of the Universe sounds like a major threat to all of us. Something that should not be kept as a secret." "But the Ellimist is fighting him, and was concerned for Laura when she first told him about the eye," I explained. "So, I guess he's doing all he can to fight him, and to prevent him from going near any of us." "And how can you know that," Marco demanded. "Because Laura told me the Ellimist tried to take away her powers," I said. "He tried to help her, but she didn't let him. It's her only way of knowing this planet." Marco looked at me in surprise for a moment, not saying anything. "Wow, and she still deals with that? …Miss Ultra Being's got some major guts." I nodded, feeling the same. I didn't take much time to think on that before. "That's got to be very hard to deal with." "Yeah…" I turned to Marco, seriousness on my face, I know. "I say we let her be one of us. A part of the team. Not only will she be useful, but it's also that she has no one else besides the Chee to turn to." "And they can't do much damage," Marco said.
So it had been decided. Marco agreed to help me in making the others accept her into our group. I felt it would be good for Laura, to have friends like us. Besides Erek and the rest of the Chee, she's been fighting the Yeerks alone, and life on this world for her wasn't as easy as it seemed to be. Clearly, I wouldn't know, but I guess for someone who could do so much… Maybe there were some good reasons for not interfering more than was allowed.
By the next morning, we assembled in the barn. All but Ax. Someone would have to fill him in on what happened afterwards. I wasn't even sure if Laura was going to come, but Erek did mention last night that he would give her a call. Or maybe he hasn't called her yet.
We waited about twenty minutes, and Rachel let out a heaved sigh. As she was about to say something, a voice said, "Hey." We jumped and turned to look by the back door entrance. Laura was leaning back against the door frame. Tobias never said anything, and even he jerked his head around in the natural bird like way like some predator was about to swoop dive on him. She just appeared. "Will you quit that," Rachel called to her, irritated. "That gives us the creeps!" The Rachel look alike had a sheepish grin. "Sorry. I'll try to remember to come a few paces away from you all from now on."
For a moment, nobody said anything. It was Laura who broke the silence. She looked up at Tobias who was in his usual spot, up in the rafters. Rachel looked like she was about to confront her, because of the glare in her eyes that we both caught in her expression. I touched her arm. "No," I silently mouthed to her. "Wait a second." The glare went away and turned into a look of defeat. "Look, Tobias… I'm sorry about yesterday. Just a friendly reminder though: if you're angry at Ellimist, take it out on him, and not me, okay?" Laura said, looking up to where Tobias was perched. -(It's cool, Tobias said. You're not like him, and I've realized that. I felt bad on my part too.)-
I was about to say something, but Laura must've known what it was, because she said. "Yeah, Erek called. Told me everything." "Not quite everything though," Marco said. Laura looked to me, and her face told me that she knew what he was on about. But she didn't seem too worried. Marco and I listened as Laura explained to Cassie, Tobias, and Rachel about Crayak and how she and I have been seeing him in our dreams. Cassie's eyes went wide in fear and stared at me. Rachel threw Laura a dirty look. But Marco and I came to Laura's defense, quickly before my cousin could say anything that she would regret. Tobias already regretted the mean things he said to Laura yesterday, but it could've been worse with Rachel. She didn't like Laura ever since she arrived.
Laura had been sitting on a bale of hay, a little tense throughout the whole thing. "I don't like this," Rachel yelled. "Not one bit!" She pointed to Laura accusingly. "She's sneaky, in a creepy way. And I don't know if we should accept her as one of us. Keeping secrets from us like that." "Hey, I wouldn't hide it if I wasn't worried about all of you," Laura spoke up in after what seemed to be a while. "I don't know what Crayak wants from me, or from Jake. I don't know much about him, period. Who knows what he could do now, since all of you know about him." "She's right Rachel," I said, but she didn't listen. "Well, why can't you just go up there and prevent that?" She didn't wait for Laura to answer her. I could see Laura's face turning red. "If you're that concerned, go march your all powerful butt up there and kick his. Oh, what's that? You can't? Afraid that you'll interfere too much?"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Laura yelled, really loudly. You know, it was a really good thing that Cassie's parents weren't around to hear this. The animals, in their cages, however started making noise and moving around in fear. Laura had noticed this and motioned to Rachel to come with her. "Alright, Ms. Ignorant. Out of the barn. I need to tell you something," she said tersely, and began to walk out of the barn.
A/N: I know there will be some Yeerk action, but I just can't see the line in between this chapter and possibly a couple more chapters ahead. So, I'm in writer's block over that. And you can't rush writer's block…