Chapter 2

Suddenly, a piece of screwed up paper hit me, and I jerked by to reality. I spun round in my chair, narrowing my eyes as I searched for the source of the weapon. Marco, surprise surprise, was busily screwing up another piece of paper, ready to throw it at me.

"What are you doing?" I hissed. "Stop chucking paper at me."

"Jake, did you fall asleep or something? Everyone's gone. Class is over."

I looked around, and to my embarrassment I saw a bunch of my classmates streaming out of the room. Some were laughing at me. I felt myself blushing and stood up, throwing my books into my bag.

"What were you day-dreaming about?" Marco asked. "Cassie, I bet. I hope you managed to take notes. I need to copy yours when we get back."

"Actually, I was thinking Sam and the others," I said, lowering my voice. "Hang on. Why do you need to copy my notes? I'm the one who wasn't concentrating. I should be coping yours."

"Oh," said Marco, not meeting my eye. "Well, no reason," he mumbled. "I'm just a slow writer."

"Whatever," I said, walking towards the main exit of our block. "Lets head off. Are you getting the bus home?"

"Actually, there was a little something I needed to check out first," he said, heading in the opposite direction. "You go on ahead. I'll see you later."

There was something in his voice that raised my suspicions.

"What are you up to?" I asked, trying to catch his eye.

He shrugged, and muttered something inaudible.

"I didn't catch that, dude," I said, coming to a halt. "What are you up to?"

Marco stopped walking. He ran a hand through his hair and looked at me.

"Fine," he said. "I'll tell you. Just don't laugh. And don't start yelling at me either."

"Yell at you? Why would I do that? Marco - you'd better tell me what's going on," I said impatiently.

"Ok," he said, shifting his feet nervously. "You know that new girl in class?"

"Nina? The Chinese girl?"

"Yeah. Well, I have to say it. She's cute. Mega-cute. So cute, she even stands me up."

I rolled my eyes. A girl. We were right in the middle of an intergalactic war, not to mention far behind on our classwork, and Marco was interested in a girl.

"That was why you were so distracted in class," I said. "Nina was sitting right behind us."

"Correct," he said. "And I think she made a pass at me earlier, although I couldn't be sure."

"She hit on you? Yeah, right, Marco."

"She did!" he insisted. "At least I think she did. Anyway, it was enough of a pass to get me interested in her."

"So, what's the problem?" I asked. I could sense where this was going, and I didn't like it.

"I think she's going out with that guy on the soccer team," Marco replied. "Darren. That stupid blond guy with more muscle than brain power. But I can't be sure."

"Marco…"

"So I thought I'd follow her. She plays tennis on Friday afternoons, and I was see if that Darren guys was with her."

I knew I was missing something here. "So, we'll just walk that way back," I said. "See if they're together."

"I can't do that, Jake," Marco said. "I can't let her see me. If she sees me, she'll know for sure I'm spying on her and won't be interested anymore!"

"If she's with Darren, she's not gonna be interested anyway."

"Well, I can't take that chance," he insisted. "I need to make sure."

He headed off in the direction of the changing rooms by the gym.

"You're not going to morph?" I asked incredulously. "No way, Marco."

"Just for a few minutes," he said, like that made all the difference. "Morph-check-done. It won't take five minutes."

"I don't care how long it will take, Marco. Whether it's five minutes or five hours. The point is, we can't just go round using our powers for silly reasons like spying on girls. Don't you remember last time you tried that with Darlene? We all ended up getting attacked by a live tornado!"

Marco ignored me and walked into the changing rooms and began checking out the cubicles for other people. The place was deserted. I sighed.

"You going to do this whatever I say, aren't you?"

"I certainly am," he said, stripping off his outer layers of clothes to reveal his morphing outfit. "You can come with me if you like."

"I'm not getting involved too! Anyway, I'm not wearing my morphing suit."

"You can morph in your underpants. Besides, I might need someone to watch my back," he suggested. "Or to keep an eye on me? Make sure I don't do anything stupid?"

I rolled my eyes, knowing I was defeated. "Don't say a word of this to Cassie," I warned. "She'll feed me to the wolves if she knows I've let you do something like this."

"Excellent," said Marco grinning. "Thanks. Seriously. And I won't say a word to anyone."

"What are you going to morph?" I asked, taking off my jacket.

"I was thinking spider," he said. "It's not far to the tennis courts."

"Well I was going to go lizard," I said, "so could you choose something else to morph? I had a rather bad experience with a spider the first time I'd morphed a lizard."

"Fine, I'll go mouse. You'd better find something to wedge the door open with, or we won't be able to get out of the changing rooms."

"Why me? This was your dumb idea." I rolled my eyes, then picked up a sneaker from the lost property basket and used it to hold the door open.

"See you in a second," Marco said as he entered one of the private cubicles. I entered a cubicle of my own and removed most of my clothes, tucking them under the bench. Hopefully, they would still be there when I got back. Normally, I keep my morphing suit - a strange ensemble of cycling shorts and a tight tee-shirt - on underneath my normal clothes. But my mom had decided to wash them today, and I'd gone to school hoping for a Yeerk and morph-free day. I sighed again at the craziness of my life, and began to concentrate on the image of the lizard, whose DNA was floating around in my veins. Immediately, I felt the changes begin. I began to shrink. It felt like I was falling. Falling but never quite hitting anything, and always with my feet on the ground. The walls, which had seemed dominating and claustrophobic a few seconds earlier, now formed the constructs of a huge stadium-size hall. My clothes became enormous sheets of rough, brightly patterned mountains. A half eaten Mars bar grew so the size of a car. A wad of gum became a gruesome, sticky boulder. As I shrunk, my skin turned green, becoming hard and thick. My arms and legs shortened, my fingers and toes forming the little claws on the lizard. I fell forwards, no longer able to stand on two legs. My face bulged outwards, my eyes rolled to either side of my head, forming a snout. My mouth became a huge grin, filled with sharp little teeth. My tongue became long, thin and snake like. A long, whip-like tail shot out of the end of my spine. Finally, I felt the lizard's mind surface below my own. When you morph an animal, you don't just take on the animal's form - you get it's instincts in there as well. Sometime they're helpful, like when we first learned to fly as birds, but other times, they can be overpowering. Right now, I could feel the lizard urging me to run after a fly it could sense in the main changing area. I shuddered, forcing my human mind to take control. No way was I going to let myself eat a fly for lunch. I focused my mind, resisting the urges.

--Are you morphed yet?-- I asked Marco in thought speak. It's like telepathy. It allows us to communicate when we're in morph. As humans, we can hear thought-speak, but we can't send it.

--Yeah,-- replied Marco. --Whoa! I'd forgotten how hyper mice are! Talk about being plugged into the mains electricity line!--

I scuttled under the door, and was soon face-to-face with a huge, brown snuffling face.

--Jeez, Marco, from down here, that mouse is one ugly little creature.--

--This?-- said Marco, in mock protest. --This is one of the cutest little creatures I've morphed so far! Look at these little whiskers. Look at these little eyes. Only I can out-cute this creature. --

--Would you for once stop talking about how cute you think you are?-- I said haughtily. --It's like, really disturbing.--

--That comes from a guy who's a lizard,-- he replied.

--Whatever. Come on, we'd better get on with this dumb mission before I bite your stupid tail off.--