Disclaimer: You know, I doubt anyone even reads these….I could probably claim I do own the Animorphs and never get into any trouble. *glances around nervously* Although just in case….Not mine.

Author's Notes: Sorry about the long update delay…..RL is mean. This chappie is kinda short, so sorry about that, too. And thank you to my reviewers that I love sooooooo much...L, Yasei Raiden, and Dark Ice Dragon, you guys rock! Yay! Okay, well, now to the chapter.

Chapter Three – Rachel

Aka Stop Staring At Me!!

I had hoped today was going to be normal. But, like usual, it wasn't. The moment I walked into my second period class, I knew it wasn't going to be. Who am I? Sorry, I forgot. My name is Rachel. Yes, that's all you're going to get. Too bad if you want to know my last name. It's not safe for me to be giving it out. Not for me or any of my friends.

But, anyway. Back to second period. I walked in, and this girl I sort of know looked at me. Not too unusual, right? Well, it was the way she was looking at me. She was shocked. Like she recognized me from somewhere besides school, and school was the last place she expected me to be. Needless to say, it creeped me out a little bit. I went over to her, trying to remember her name. Sam. Yeah, that was it. We talked, occasionally. She liked gymnastics, too.

"Something wrong, Sam?" I asked, trying to keep the sarcasm from my voice and only partially succeeding.

She blinked and jerked slightly, like she was coming out of a trance. "Wrong? Me? No. No, I'm fine. Just..uhh….Just worried about the test today. Yeah." She nodded.

I raised an eyebrow. She was obviously lying, but I didn't have time to call her on it because my teacher told me to take a seat so he could pass out the tests. I did, but it didn't keep me from trying to tell Sam that I didn't believe her with my eyes. I tried to forget about it, though, and concentrate on my test, but I kept getting this creepy feeling at the back of my neck. You know, like someone's watching you? Every time that happened, I glanced up, and every time Sam's eyes quickly found someplace else to be. I wasn't sure if she was staring at me and then looking away or looking away because she was staring at something else she didn't want to get caught looking at. It was probably the first, but what was I supposed to do? Morph into a grizzly and tell her if she didn't stop staring at me I'd eat her? As fun as that sounded, Jake would yell at me until the end of the universe if I did that.

So, I did the second best thing. I forgot about it. And it wasn't until after school while I was walking home that I remembered it. And thought about why she was staring at me. And then a thought came to my mind. What if she was a Controller? What if she suspected me of being one of the 'Andalite bandits' or worse, what if she knew? I tried to tell myself I was being paranoid, but then I remembered her shocked expression. The way she kept staring at me, as if trying to discover something.

I thought about this for a moment, then decided to meet up at Cassie's barn. I'd rather tell them about it and feel stupid if I was wrong than not tell them and be right. When I got to the house, though, the phone was ringing. And ringing, and ringing. Sara was probably at Tisha's house, Jordan had after school practice, and Mom was still at work. Which meant someone had forgotten to turn on the answering machine. I dropped my stuff at the door and raced to the kitchen, hoping to catch it before the person hung up. I did. Panting slightly, I gasped, "Hello?"

"Rach? It's me." Cassie's voice replied from the phone.

"Hey Cass." I replied, my breath returning to normal. "What's up?"

"Have you studied for that history test yet?"

I thought about it for a second. "Nope. Haven't even started."

"You wanna come on over so we can study together?"

My breath caught again. Cassie was calling a meeting. Which meant something was up. "Yeah, okay. I'll be there in a bit."

"All right. See you."

I hung up the phone. Well, it saved me from having to gather everyone up. I felt a slight tinge of worry, though, wondering what was wrong. Deciding I didn't feel like riding my bike all the way out to Cassie's, I headed up to my room. I left a note on my bulletin board saying I had gone to Cassie's to study, then took off my outer clothing and shoes, leaving me in the black leotard I always wore under my clothes. And then I began to morph.

Now you're thinking, wait, what? Morph? Yes. Morph. Just as the Yeerks are here, we are here to fight them. A dying Andalite, Prince Elfangor, gave us the ability to morph, to turn into any animal we touch. Who's we? Jake, my cousin, who is our unofficial leader. Not that he wants the job. Which, in my opinion, makes him that much better at it. Marco, his best friend. He thinks he's funny and really, really cute. I just think he's a moron. But, despite his act, he really is smart. He sees things other people don't. Cassie, my best friend forever, although I'm not sure why. She has no fashion sense. Her idea of clothes is too short jeans, boots covered with animal poop, and a ratty old tee shirt. Her parents own the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic, which explains the poop, and also her love for animals. Me, the one who everyone thinks is fearless. Marco even calls me Xena: Warrior Princess, just to get on my nerves. Then there's Tobias. He used to be this kind of dreamy looking kid with messy hair. Used to. Now he's a red-tail hawk. There's a down side to the morphing. If you stay in a morph for more than two hours, you can't morph back. You're stuck as that animal forever. That's what happened to Tobias. Until recently, when a creature called the Ellimist gave him back his morphing powers, he was always a hawk. Now, he can become human, but only for two hours at a time. More than two, and he won't be able to morph anymore. And last is Ax. He's the only alien among us, despite what the Yeerks think. Ax is Elfangor's little brother. We rescued him when his ship crashed into the ocean, and now he's one of us.

Now you know why I was standing in my room next to my open window, turning into a bald eagle. That's my preferred flying morph, although I can also turn into a seagull. I was also far away from my mirror. I didn't want to see the changes happening to my body. Morphing is not very pretty. Only Cassie seems to have this weird ability to make most of her morphs look good. Once she controlled it to where she was fully human, but with wings instead of arms. She looked like some gray-feathered angel.

I was not that talented, so there was no mirror for me as my body shifted, shrank, and sprouted feathers. Once the morph was done, I hopped up on the windowsill, spread my wings, and took off. Let me tell you something; there is nothing like flying on a warm day, when the wind is nice and the air is filled with thermals for you to ride. As I soared towards Cassie's barn, I let the worry fade from my mind, enjoying the feel of the wind beneath my feathers.

I was there before I knew it, and almost regretted that my flight was over. Cassie? Stick your head out of the window if the coast is clear. I thought as I circled her barn.

Because she was human and you have to be an animal to use thought-speak, she couldn't answer me out-loud. Sticking her head out the window worked just as well, though. She spotted me and waved, and I began spiraling down to meet her. I swooped down through the window and landed in a pile of hay. I glanced around and saw only Cassie.

I'm the first one here? I asked as I began demorphing.

"Yeah. Jake and Marco said they were going to stop by and get Tobias and Ax."

I nodded as the last of my feathers were sucked back into my skin. "My clothes still here?"

"Right where you left them." Cassie said with a smile.

I had left a pair of clothes over here for emergencies. We usually met here in the barn, and sometimes I got there by flying. Which meant I couldn't bring any shoes or normal clothes. I found my extras and put them on. I was tying up my shoelace when Jake, Marco, Ax, and Tobias came in. Tobias flew up to land on the rafters, but Ax was in his human morph. A hawk we would be able to explain, a blue alien that looked like a cross between a deer, a man, and a scorpion we wouldn't.

I stood as Jake looked to Cassie.

"So, Cass, what do you have to tell us?" He asked.

She looked sort of embarrassed. "Okay, now that I'm thinking about it, it sounds really stupid and paranoid…Really, really paranoid…I probably shouldn't have even brought it up…"

Marco nodded. "Yes. You shouldn't have. Do you know how many times we end up doing dangerous, insane things when someone thinks they're being stupid or paranoid but tells us what's going on anyway?"

"Well, Marco, if we did something insane whenever someone said stupid things, we'd be doing insane things every time you spoke, wouldn't we?" I asked absently. You see, I was sort of beginning to worry now.

Jake rolled his eyes at us. "Go on, Cassie."

She shrugged. "Well, there's this girl in P.E. I know her 'cause she volunteers for the Animal Health Centre in town, and sometimes when we finds hurt pets we bring them there, and sometimes when they find hurt wild animals, they bring them here."

"Yes, that's fascinating. If you're done, can I go home and play Doom Watcher 3? I'm two levels away from beating it." Marco said.

"I saw her today, and she was acting really weird." Cassie continued, ignoring Marco. "She kept staring at me, like she knew something but didn't want to tell me. She's our goalie for soccer, and she's usually pretty good, but today, she missed all of the balls 'cause she was trying to watch me without me catching on. I asked her what was wrong, but she just got all nervous, said nothing, and practically ran off." She shrugged again. "It doesn't sound like much now, but it really freaked me out at the time."

I swallowed, ignoring the butterflies in my stomach. "Cass?" I asked, pleased my voice came out even. "Was her name Sam, by any chance?"