Author's Note: Ahhhh. Bad, bad me. I know it's been forever….. School started and I got way too busy to update. I do have a couple of finished chapters that will be going up, though. Does that count? Sorry about the wait, and thanks to the reviewers who reviewed during my absence!!

Disclaimer: "Wow. I wish I could speak whale."

Chapter Seven – Marco

Aka Stalking Girls: The Ultimate Mission

Yes, it is I, the gorgeous, wonderful, intelligent, hilarious Marco speaking. Okay, well, maybe it's just Marco. But if you want to call me all of the other stuff, go ahead. It would make my day, really it would. Not that my day's been all that bad. Compared to our usual missions, this one just seemed easy. Of course, missions that seem easy usually end up being the least easy, but so far that wasn't the case. All we had to do was watch this girl.

Rachel had her second period, and Cassie had her fourth, so they could easily watch her there. Problem was, she knew them, and would be able to recognize them. So, it was up to Jake and me to divide the rest of the periods. Jake was going to take first and third, which left me with sixth and seventh. My two easiest periods to ditch, so that was fine with me. Fifth period was lunch. We'd all watch her then, just from different locations.

Like I said, no problem. Hey, she's a chick, right? Which means she probably hangs out with a lot of other girls. So I get to spend my lunch period staring at girls. How's that for a mission? Now if only all of our problems could be like that.

Anyway, I was sitting with Jake at a bench that was a bit away and higher up than the table she and her friends were at. Unfortunately, most of her friends turned out to be guys, but there was still a good number of girls tossed up in there. Plenty enough to make this worthwhile.

"So." I said to Jake. "Which one do you think is the hottest?"

He gave me a Look. You know, the one that means 'shut up and get serious or I'll pound you'? Yeah, that Look. So, naturally, I added, "Oh, right, sorry. I forgot you only have eyes for Cassie."

He managed to blush and glare at the same time. Then, he cleared his throat. "What do you think about what Tobias said?"

"About the wolf?" I shrugged. "Maybe it was a dog. Hawks don't have the best eyes at night."

"Ax was in owl morph." He reminded me.

"Fine, fine. What if she's an animal loving hippie like Cassie? The wolf probably has a broken nose or something."

He raised his eyebrows. "Broken nose?"

I shrugged again. "It's possible."

He nodded slowly. "Uh-huh." He replied, his eyebrows still raised.

"Come on, Jake. She's just some girl our age. Cassie said she volunteered for that vet clinic, remember? So she took one of the patients home. No big deal. So she had a bad day once and freaked out around people. It happens. Notice anything strange now?" I asked.

He looked over at her table and I followed his gaze. She was sitting on top of the table, not on the bench next to it, and drinking an orange soda. A guy finished talking and must have said something funny because she sprayed orange soda all over a girl in front of her. She hid behind the guy who had been talking while the now orange girl fumed and tried jokingly to get at her.

Jake turned back towards me and grinned a bit. "Well, when you put it that way, it does seem kind of silly."

"Thank you. I'm glad you admit that I'm right." I informed him, then ducked his swing.

"Whoever said you were right? Besides, are you so eager to call off this plan?" Jake asked.

I thought about it for about a second, then shook my head. "Nope. If it'll save me from ending up on missions were I want to run away screaming, she can give Rachel and Cassie all the weird looks in the world."

The end of lunch bell rang just then, so Jake and I went our separate ways, him to his class and me to sneakily follow Sam around, then morph into something small once I discovered where her class was. So, I drifted along behind her, fighting the urge to flatten myself against the nearest wall and hum the Mission Impossible theme song. Just as I was about to give into the temptation, she headed into a classroom. I checked the number, then darted off to the nearest restroom, which actually turned out to be only a few doors down. Good for me, since I was going to morph fly. I had already figured out how I would be able to tell which was her; she was the only girl in the class wearing nothing but black. Just shoot straight for the darkest blob.

I shoved my clothes into my backpack, then hid it in the cleanest looking trashcan. Luckily, I was the only one there, but I still locked the stall door behind me. Can never be too careful. I changed as quickly as I could, fearing someone would come in to check the bathrooms for ditchers. Fortunately, I made it with no interruptions and zipped out of the bathroom. Then, I stopped. All of the doors looked nearly exactly alike, and there was no way I would be able to read numbers in fly morph. I muttered I word I shouldn't repeat, then decided to resort to shooting into random doors. Don't know how I thought that would help, but it was my course of action.

I was on maybe the sixth attempt when I heard a voice in my head.

Marco? Is that you? What are you doing?

Tobias! I yelled. I'm lost! I can't find her class.

He sounded amused. What's the room number?

I told it to him.

Turn to your left. See the door right in front of you? That's it.

Oh. I said, feeling a bit sheepish for some reason. Thanks.

No problem. Just try to do a better job keeping track of her then you did her classroom.

Hahhah. Very funny. I zoomed through the door and located her fairly quickly. That part of my plan worked well. I landed on the ceiling above her and settled down to watch. And watch. And watch. Nothing at all interesting happened, except that I learned she was annoyed because she was point three something away from getting a ninety-nine percent in whatever class this was. No, I was not paying attention to the teacher.

When she and the rest of the class began packing up, I bolted back to the bathroom. This time I found it all right. I had counted the doors over. I slipped my clothes on, tossed my backpack over my shoulder, and was leaving the restroom just as the bell rang. I stood next to the door across from hers, waiting for her to come out so I could follow her again.

"Marco?" Someone asked from behind me.

I turned slightly and saw this girl Reese. We had seventh period together and we sat in the back, talking about how stupid and boring our teacher was and various other meaningful things.

"I didn't know you had a class over here." She commented.

I was about to reply when Sam walked out of the classroom. She spotted us and headed over. Despite what I had said earlier, for a brief moment I felt worried. Then she smiled and said, "Hey, Reese, who's your friend?"

Reese turned towards her. "Hey, Sammie, this is Marco. He helps me annoy Mrs. Jones. Marco, this is my cousin Sam."

Sam turned green eyes towards me with another smile. "Heya Marco." This smile was different, though, as if she was holding back a laugh.

I went for the witty and intelligent response of, "Hi."

"Wanna walk with us? Sammie's class is right across from ours." Reese offered.

I nodded. "Sure. Why wouldn't I want to be seen walking with two girls at my side?" See, I can be witty under pressure.

Sam laughed and Reese rolled her eyes. "Marco, I've told you, we already have a pimp. If you want to take his place, you're either going to have to kill him or pay us better than he does." Reese informed me.

We kept up such meaningful chatter as that until we reached our classes. I was pondering how to ditch when I realized Sam's seat was by the back window, like mine, so I could see her from my seat, if not perfectly. Once again, the period went by with nothing unusual happening, and I was really beginning to feel stupid following her around. Nonetheless, though, when school was over I hung back a bit before starting after Sam and Reese.

Overhead, the form of a hawk swooped by.

I got her now, Marco, go meet up with Jake. He wants me to follow her home, then meet you guys back at the barn. Tobias called.

I gave a small nod, then shifted directions. Time to go meet Jake and inform him of my uneventful day.