Chapter 4

"I need to pick up some books from my locker," I told Marco as we walked through the new deserted school corridors. "I would have done it after class, but someone distracted me."

"I didn't distract you, you pressed me for information," Marco replied. "I wouldn't have bothered telling you if you hadn't gotten all suspicious."

"It's my job to be suspicious," I said, reaching my locker. It's one of those big, full length ones, and where I'd performed my first lizard morph. Dodgy, I know, but it was the best I could do at the time. I dialed in the combination and opened the door.

"So don't go complaining," Marco said, as I took out my math textbook. Yet another fascinating chapter to work though when I got home. As if I didn't already have enough to think about with the Fugitives and all that.

"I'm not complaining," I said, about to shut the door. However, I noticed a folded piece of paper on one of the upper shelves which I hadn't noticed before. Someone must have passed it through the ventilation gaps.

"What's that?" asked Marco, as I took the slip of paper.

"I think it's a note," I said, unfolding it. I recognized the handwriting immediately.

"It's from Cassie," I said, reading though. Cassie's another member of our little team. She's really into animals and is great with people's feeling s and all that. I guess you could say I like Cassie. You know. Like like.

"She wants to arrange a meeting at her barn after school," I said, looking at my watch. It was already nearly four o clock. "So much for a relaxing evening."

I pulled out the cell phone my dad gave me to use for emergencies and dialed Cassie's number. Her mom answered.

"Hi, is Cassie there?" I asked.

"Hey, Jake," Cassie's mother said. "Yeah, Cassie's here. She was just talking about you. I'll just go get her."

"Aww, Jake's girlfriend was telling her mommy all about you!" Marco teased. He had obviously been listening in. I gave him a quick shove. He shoved me back. I tripped and fell against my locker, bashing my arm.

"Ow!" I exclaimed. "Don't do that!"

"Don't do what?" said a voice. Cassie had just picked up the phone.

"Oh, hey," I said hastily. "Sorry, Cassie, ignore that. I was talking to Butt-Head here. He just slammed me into my locker."

"Good grief, you two," she said. "Did you get my note?"

"Yeah…I only just got it though. Mr. Shaw kept us on for a bit of remedial history," I lied.

"Right," she said. I could tell she didn't believe me - Cassie can see straight through anyone's lies - but she didn't say anything.

"So, you wanted us to come round to prepare for that presentation?" I asked. The presentation thing was of course a code for meeting. We had to be careful not to give anything away, in case anyone was listening on the other end of the line.

"Yeah, but you'll have to come round later now," said Cassie. "My dad wants me to go up to the woods with him soon. Some injured badger I think."

"Ok," I said, feeling a little guilty that I hadn't called her before the whole lizard thing. "I'll call the others, shall I? Let them know?"

"Oh, I already called them. I said I'd call back when I knew if you were free. Could you call Tobias and Ax and ask them to tell Sam and the others?"

"Sure," I replied. We'd managed to get Ax a cell phone too, so that we could call him if anything came up. We were planning to get another phone for Sam's team, but we were all running out of money. Cell phones aren't cheap.

I said good-bye to Cassie and hung up.

"Can you get round to the barn at about six?" I asked Marco.

"Yeah, I guess," he replied. "Did she say what it was about?"

"No, she just said Rachel had over heard something this afternoon and wants to tell us about it."

"Ah," he replied. "I guess bang goes another evening to catch up on my work."

"Marco, if you'd worked on your essay just now, instead of following girls, maybe you'd have more time," I sighed.

We headed out of the school gates and jumped on the bus.

"Catch you later, dude," I said, getting off at my stop. "Try not do to any more silly things before then!"

"Me, silly?" he laughed. "See you at six then."

I walked the last two blocks back to the house, knowing that any evening I'd planned doing homework and watching The X Files was soon to go out the window. I reached our house and crossed the drive of our house, where my parent's cars were parked. My dad's was in the drive, too. He usually tries to finish early on a Friday.

"Hey, dad," I called, entering the house and dumping my bags in the hall.

"Jake, hey," he said, coming out of the living room and patting me amicably on the back. "How was school?"

"Yeah, it was alright," I said shrugging. Just did a bit of morphing, turned into a lizard - the usual. "Had to have had the most boring history lesson ever. How was work?"

"Pretty chaotic, as a matter of fact," my dad said, shuffling through his briefcase, which was full of notes. He's a doctor, and generally has his hands full during the week. I think he's looking for a promotion in the new year, and tends to bring a lot of his work home with him. "Had about ten patients all in with the same symptoms. Pretty weird. Like flu or something. Must be something in the water. I had to refer them all to the general hospital. I was lucky to be able to get away early."

Just then, my mom came in through the front door, followed by my brother Tom, who went straight up to his room. Tom's a Controller, although I still find it difficult to accept. Even now, after coming face to face with him in battle, I still hate admitting the fact to myself.

"Hi, honey," my mom said, giving me a kiss before she'd even shut the front door. Why does she always have to kiss me in front of the neighbors?

"Hey, mom," I sighed, wandering into the kitchen. I pulled out a loaf of bread from the cupboard and started making myself a sandwich. It felt so normal. Something very rare since I'd become an Animorph.

"Oh, Jake, I meant to ask you," said my mom, stuffing dirty laundry into the machine. "Jean, from next door. She needs a babysitter for tonight and wondered if you'd be interested in earning a few bucks?"

"Oh," I said, feeling a little guilty. Jean, our neighbor, had been ill for the last couple of days, and I'd popped into see her the day before last before she went into hospital. "Um, I actually needed to catch up on some work tonight," I said. "I've got a paper due Monday and Cassie has asked me round the evening to go over a presentation for Tuesday."

"Can't you rearrange?" she asked. "It's the first time Jean's been able to get out since she got ill. You can take your work round there and get on with it while the twins are asleep."

"I'm really not sure, mom, I did kinda promise Cassie. Where's Jean off to, anyway? Is she better now, then?"

"Oh, I think it's a Sharing meeting. Tom's going too."

My ears pricked up at this. The Sharing is like a front organization for Controllers. They pretend to be some kind of boy and girl scouts group, clearing up and the community and all that, but really it's a way to recruit new Controllers. That's how Tom became a Controller. He went along, hoping to ask out some girl. He came out with a Yeerk in his head. Now, it seemed like Jean was a Controller, too.

"Look, mom…" I said, trailing off. I really couldn't think of any more excuses. But just then, Tom walked into the kitchen holding a pile of dirty soccer shirts, which he began throwing into my mom's linen basket.

"Hey, midget," he said, or rather, the Yeerk in his head said. "Sorry, mom, but Jake promised me he'd come to The Sharing with me later. So no babysitting for him tonight."

"What?" I spun round. "I never said that!" No way was that Yeerk going to drag me to become a Controller.

"Yeah you did. You agreed last night."

"Do you have to go tonight, Jake?" asked my mom. "Can't it be next week?" Thank god for pushy parents.

"Tonight's a special meeting," Tom insisted. "I guess Jean will have to find someone else to look after the kids. She's a member anyway, I'm sure she'll be able to find someone."

"Fine," my mother said. "I guess it's nice that you two are finally doing something together for a change. She smiled at us and went upstairs. I glared at Tom. I had to find a way out of this.

"Tom, you butt-wipe!" I said, playing the annoyed little brother act. "I never told you I'd go along!"

"Too late now, little bro," he said, throwing a dirty sock at me. "I just bailed you out of babysitting. You owe me."

"Can't I owe you in some other way? Like cleaning your room?"

"Yeah right. I'm not letting you near my stuff. Come on, Jakey," he teased. "Just this one meeting. And no screaming kids to put to bed."

"I would have rather gone babysitting than come to one of your dumb meetings," I said. Then, out of interest,

"What's so special about tonight, anyway?"

"Oh, Mr. Visser is coming along," Tom replied. I looked up at him, feeling a chill go up my spine. Mr Visser is Visser Three, the leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth. I guess he's not too imaginative when it comes to thinking up human surnames. If he was coming along to the meeting, maybe the Yeerks were planning something big.

"Fascinating," I said dryly. Maybe I should go along, just to check things out. One meeting shouldn't be any harm, after all. Tom told me before you need to be a casual member for a few weeks before you're made a full member. A Controller.

"So, you'll come?" he asked. "It's only for a couple of hours. I'm sure you'll enjoy it. You can bring Marco if you like. You'll have a laugh."

"Yeah, yeah," I said impatiently. "Fine. What time?"

"Meeting starts at eight, so we'll have to set off at about seven forty-five." He cocked his head and looked at me. "Seriously though, Jake. You should open your mind to things a bit more. There's so many possibilities out there that I'd never have known if it wasn't for The Sharing."