Marco

Now I'll be the first to tell you, I'm not very good at reading people, that's more Cassies thing. But even I could tell that something was very, very wrong as we all filed into the barn. Rachel had been silent the whole way there, brooding. And Rachel's not the type of person to brood. At first I thought it was something between her and Tobias, who had also been eerily silent. Then I saw Jake and I knew that something big was up.

So I did what I usually do in situations like this, I played dumb. Acted like I didn't notice anything. Waited to see what the others would tell me before I started figuring things out on my own.

"So," I said as I casually lounged on my favorite bale of hay. "what's up?"

And there it went! The look that I had been waiting for shot around the room like a pinball. Jake shot it to Tobias, who shot it to Rachel, who shot it back to Jake, who glanced at Cassie, who smiled reassuringly back at him.

Oh yes...there was an elephant in the room, and I was the only one who didn't see it. But I knew it was there. And those looks had told me a lot.

Jake felt guilty about something. No, worse than just guilty, ashamed. Tobias was unreadable as always, with his perfect hawk poker-face. Rachel was definitly at least a little bit ticked off, and Cassie, as always, was on Jakes side.

"Well don't everyone all shout Goodmorning at once." I yawned.

Jake straightened his shoulders and cleared his throat. "Well," he said, much quieter than usual. "We know from the Chee that the Yeerks are going to try and make this new ground-based Kandrona mobile. Ax says they'll probably try to use some kind of hologram to disguise it. "

I raised my hand a bit, "Where is ax-man anyway?"

"He's with Erek, helping him infiltrate chapmans office to see what more we can find out about it." Jake answered.

Tobis looked up, "Why aren't we going with him?"

"Because," I said, answereing for Jake, "ironicly enough Chapman will be LESS suspicious if he catches Ax snooping around. He'd be expecting an andalite. But if he saw all of us hanging around before school, well, he can put two and two together."

Tobias nodded, a very strange thing to see a hawk do. And I smiled smugly, playing my part perfectly if I do say so myself.

Now it was Rachels que, the part where she said somehting to me, we had a witty little exchange, the Jake broke it up and we all got down to business.

Instead, she looked right at Jake and said "Tell him."

"Well, so much for the subtle approach." I grumbled. "alright alright, I was done playing dumb anway." I lied. "What did you do Jake? Just spit it out please, school starts soon." What can I say, it was early, and the whole thing had made me a bit grumpy.

So he told me. Then Tobias told me his part, and Rachel told me her part. When they'd finished the barn was eerily quiet. Even the animals seemed to quiet down a bit. Everyone was staring at me, waiting for my reaction.

So I did what came naturally. I smirked sardonicly and said "That's it? That's what everyone is so tense about? That's the big secret?"

Everyone blinked, surprised. Except for Cassie of course. I swear, sometimes that girls ability to read people scares even me.

I rolled my eyes with an exhasperated sigh.

"Look everyone, it's simple. Anyone here who thinks they've got what it takes to run this show, raise your hand."

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rachel wince slightly and I frowned inwardly. I hadn't meant that as a stab at her, had I? I mean, I was still a little resentfull over the whole "her being the leader" episode...

I pushed these thoughts aside and made a show of carefully counting and tallying the number of hands (and talons) in the air. The total came, unsurprisingly, to exactly zero.

"Now," I continued, "we all know for a fact that Jake is the best leader we've got. And we couldn't have asked for a better one." I looked around at them all. "As far as I'm concerned, since it looks like I'm the only one who hasn't thrown his hat into the ring, as long as Jake is still the best man for the job, I'm going to follow him."

Jake looked at me gratefully. Of course I would stick by him, we'd been best buds since we were in diapers. I sighed.

"That being said, that was a pretty stupid thing to do Jake man. With Tom there and everything, and a big mission coming up, we don't need these kinds of risks."

Jake looked down at the ground. I had a sudden vision of our roles reversed. Usually it was Jake keeping everyone in line, reminding people we were in the middle of a war. Now I was doing it to him and I have to say, it sucked. It was a crappy feeling. But this was war, and if the Yeerks won, crappy feelings would be the least of our worries.

I almost glanced at Tobias but caught myself in time. I couldn't get into it with him. I couldn't pass judgement on him because if I had been in his position I'm not entirely sure I wouldn't have done the same thing.

I lounged back on the bale of hay and made a mock bow to Jake. "Fearless Leader, the floor is yours."

Jake nodded and looked at each of us in turn. "I can't as you to follow me. Not after I screwed up like that. But if you all still want me to lead, I...guess I don't really have much of a choice."

We all agreed of course, unanimously.

When the "voting" was over, jake smiled and said "You know, I really don't deserve friends like you."

I grinned, "Of course you don't Jake. I mean, is there really anyone in the world that does deserve a friend like me?"

(Yeah, Visser Three) Tobias said jokingly.

"Oh come on now!" Rachel said, her hands on her hips.

What's this? Rachel, coming ot my defence? Really, in a way it was kind of sweet, I always knew deep down inside that she really liked me.

"Visser Three's not that bad!" She finished.

Everyone laughed. Even me.