"...And for those of you just tuning in, we are live at the -"

I came home to Wolf Blitzer. CNN was blaring on the kitchen TV as my sister Jordan watched, seated at the table with her phone in front of her. From my angle, I could see a picture of me over my cell number.

I felt my anxiety spike. Of course my family was looking for me. Dad always wanted to know where I was at and what I was doing. It was annoying, so sometimes I didn't tell him. But I told Jordan I was going to the mall with Cassie and Tobias. And she obviously heard about the…incident. So she was worried about me.

Right? Was it because she was a concerned sister, anxiously trying to make sure her beloved sibling was safe? Or was she a Controller, trying to track me down and see if I was in my usual hangout, a potential witness to the Andalite running lose in the shopping mall?

Was I going to have to fight for my life again today?

I mentally prepared to morph and cleared my throat. Jordan jumped and almost fell out of her chair, She whipped around, saw me, and gasped.

I looked down at myself. My clothes were clean. And it looked like that they were covering up most of…

The bloodstains.

…the evidence of my activities this afternoon. But in the reflective surface of the window over the sink, I caught sight of myself and saw I had a big red stain on my face. That was very obviously…the thing.

Well, shit.

"Oh my God! Rachel!"

"Hi, Jordan." I couldn't think of anything else to say. What possible excuse or reason could I give for walking into my house looking like I'd gotten on the wrong side of a fist fight? What could I –

Oh.

Jordan rushed up to me, grabbed be by the lower jaw, and angled my head to get a better look at the stain. Annoyed, I slapped her hand away. "What? I'm fine."

"Fine? Fine!?" Jordan's voice rose into a shriek. "You're covered in blood! You said you were going to the mall!"

I held up my hands, trying to placate her. "Jordan, relax. It's not blood." I went to the sink and started washing my face. "It's paint."

"Paint?" Jordan sounded incredulous. "Rachel, that's not paint. I'm not an idiot, I know what blood looks like!"

"Jordan, seriously, it's not blood." I turned the water off, dried my face with a dishtowel, and turned towards her. "See? All gone. And no cuts or anything."

Morphing heals all injuries. Tobias almost got ripped in half by a hawk, when we were first trying out our crow morphs, and he emerged from that wrecked body whole and completely unharmed. I actually had been cut in half, but if I were to use my rattlesnake morph again, I'd turn into a perfectly healthy murder noodle. So this time, when Jordan angrily grabbed my jaw again to inspect, I let her. I knew she'd find no visible injuries.

I hated lying to her. And Dad. Lying to to cover my bullshit always felt dirty and cowardly. I had no reason to defend myself from Jordan, and as far as Dad was concerned, nine out of ten things I do "wrong" I'm actually proud of.

But like I said, the sweet, loving sister in front of me worrying after my health could just as easily be a conniving slug trying to make me drop my guard. My overbearing "father" could stuff me into the trunk of a car and drive me off somewhere quiet to get murdered.

Like Dad's work-friend Randy had tried with Jake and I.

Jordan finally let me go. "Okay." She took a deep breath. "Okay. I'm sorry I freaked out. But no joke, you looked awful. How did you get that much paint on yourself?"

I gave her a fake smile. "I was at Cassie's helping her and her dad repaint their barn. Cassie poked me with a brush."

"Okay." Jordan took another breath and scowled at me. "Don't scare me like that again. Dad and I thought you were at the mall. He's looking for you right now."

I shrugged. "Send him a text and tell him I came home. I'm fine."

Jordan pointed at my phone, sticking out of my pocket. "You have your own phone. Tell him yourself."

I shook my head. "He's just going to yell at me."

"He'll yell even more if you don't."

I sighed, pulled out my phone, and sent Dad a quick text. I ended it with a smiley emoji and showed it to Jordan. "Happy?" Jordan nodded. I put my phone away. "I'm hungry. You want pizza?"

"Oh, pizza sounds so good right now," Jordan replied. "I think Dad bought some of those Red Baron mini-pizzas the other day. Can you warm one up for me?"

My bed was calling to me. I wanted to just collapse on top of it and spend the rest of my night streaming videos on my phone. But I could wait a little longer. I pulled the pizzas from the freezer and stuck them in the oven. Then Jordan and I sat in the kitchen talking about the shooting.

"They're saying some woman went nuts in the food court and started shooting at a kid." Jordan shook her head sadly. "That's insane. Why would somebody do that?"

I shrugged and gulped down a glass of water. "People are nuts. Did they catch her?"

"They were interviewing a cop who said they found the woman cut to pieces in the food court." Jordan visibly shuddered. "They think somebody attacked her with a knife and they're trying to figure out who. The cop said they're checking surveillance cameras."

I felt myself tense up. The Yeerks wouldn't release that footage; anything showing an Andalite running around the mall would clue people into their invasion. But the cameras might show three kids turning into snakes and dogs and whatnot. And the Yeerks would be interested in that. "Did they say if they've found anything yet?"

The stove beeped. Jordan got up to pull the pizzas. "I doubt they will. Everyone says half those cameras are fake, remember?"

I grabbed a pair of plates and held them out as Jordan carefully placed the pizzas on them. "Shame. Whoever took out that woman is probably a hero."

Jordan took her plate. "Agreed. They might have saved a lot of lives."

And tried taking mine. I held my plate. "Look, I've still got that paper for Mashburn due. I really need to go work on it. So I'll see you in the morning?"

"Yep. I've got homework, too." Jordan shut the TV off. We walked upstairs and went into our rooms at the top. "Good night!" she said brightly.

"Good night." I walked into my room, closed the door, and dropped gratefully onto my bed.

My phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket to check it. My dad sent me a thumbs up emoji and, glad you're safe call me next time. I rolled my eyes, set my phone aside, and changed into my pajamas.

My phone buzzed again. This time, it was a Facebook friend request. From Marco, of all people. I hit "ignore" and attacked my pizza.

My phone buzzed. Another friend request, this time from Tobias. I accepted that one. I put my phone back down and took another bite of my pizza.

My phone buzzed. "For fuck's sake, people…"

Oh. A message. From Jake. And an invite to a group chat titled, "The Usual Fuck-Ups." Sounded like another Marco name.

Make any new friends today? Jake's message said. Cassie and Tobias must have told Jake and Marco something was up. I sent Jake a thumbs-up and accepted the group invite. At the same time, Marco sent me another friend request. I paused, then accepted it.

My phone blew up. I gave up on relaxing.

So, Marco started.

So, Jake answered.

So? Marco asked.

So, Jake replied.

On second thought, "Usual Fuck-Ups" was probably an appropriate name for us.

Met the new kid today, Cassie said. He's cool! He's a foreign exchange student.

Oh good, we were speaking in code. I was wondering if it was safe to talk about Ax in Messenger. Enemies everywhere, and all that jazz.

How foreign? Jake asked.

I started texting. VERY, I answered.

Is he nice? Marco asked.

He hates dogs, I replied. So doubtful. Hopefully Jake and Marco picked up on what that meant. I was the only one of us that had a dog morph.

Sounds like a dick, Jake said. Good. He understood.

He's alright, Tobias explained. He's just different.

He REALLY hates dogs, I countered.

How bad? Jake asked me.

In his country, I responded, they kill dogs on sight.

DISLIKE. DISLIKE. Marco texted instantly.

He's not going to murder your dog, Rachel, Cassie replied patiently.

He could, I answered defiantly. Easily.

He can't sit with us, Marco said, followed by a Mean Girls .gif.

Am I a cool kid now? Tobias askedhim.

Chance would eat him, Cassie assured me. Despite myself, I grinned. I knew she was playing me. But, she was right. I liked my odds much more as Chance than I did as Rachel.

He's really secretive, I continued. Being able to take Ax in a fight didn't mean I wanted to set us up for one.

He's just shy, Cassie said.

Like a serial killer? Marco asked incredulously.

Like a kid with no friends, Cassie answered. That got a thumbs-up from Tobias.

I don't like people with secrets, I said lamely.

Stranger danger, Marco agreed. I might not like Marco, but for once, I appreciated Marco's reluctance to risk himself. He sounded like he didn't trust Ax any more than I did.

Cassie and I were hoping he could help us with some extracurriculars, Tobias mentioned. So he and Cassie still saw Ax as a potential ally. I could see the appeal. If Ax turned out to be friendly, he might help us access Elfangor's disk. But why would he? Ax was pretty clear that he didn't want to share any Andalite technology with us.

Why would the new kid want anything to do with us? Marco asked reasonably.

Someone got in his face today, Cassie explained. Rachel made the guy step off.

Rachel no, Marco told me.

Okay. Considering how saving Ax had gone for me, that was probably called for. I gave his comment a thumbs-up.

But then Jake said, I prefer meeting people before judging them.

Why? I asked.

Jake ignored me. Let's introduce ourselves tomorrow, he continued. See if the new kid is alright.

We talked to him already, Cassie said. Turns out we know his brother. He was the guy who got killed a while back.

Oh, Marco said simply.

Yeah, Tobias said to him. OH. And none of us said anything for a minute.

Well, Jake finally texted. Sounds like cool kid material to me. I got the sense that he believed it, too.

Little brother had spoken. We were meeting with Ax.

Why was I not okay with that?

Well, for starters, he nearly killed me. But I knew that was self-defense. I was attacking him, and he responded. Perfectly reasonable. Jake and I had done worse barely two weeks ago. And Ax stopped the second I told him I was a friend. He was a soldier behind enemy lines; I, a bright, young high school kid, was not familiar with that feeling. I suppose his reaction to two dipshits thought-speaking at him before jumping him was perfectly reasonable. And wasn't I musing not ten minutes ago that a touch of paranoia was required in this war?

Then why are you asking yourself why you're paranoid?

Great, now I'm talking to myself.

Ax made me feel weird. But he was a space alien from another planet. He was just…weird. That was it. That's all it was. And like us, he was risking his safety in reaching out to potential allies. This could not end in any way that wasn't beneficial to all parties involved. No one was going to get hurt.

Until you get shot at again. Or kidnapped. Or chased and blown up.

My phone buzzed again. Let's try and get together more, Jake said. Texting is annoying. Translation: texting wasn't safe.

Agreed, Marco said.

Might be difficult, Tobias said. I don't get a lot of free time.

Make time, Jake said.

I'll try, Tobias replied.

I gotta crash, I announced. My energy for the day was gone.

Later, Jake said to me.

See you tomorrow! Cassie replied.

Marco just sent a hand-wave emoji. Good night, Tobias said.

Ttyl, I texted. I set my phone back down and laid back on my bed.

My pizza had gone cold. I picked up my plate and went back downstairs to warm it back up. I placed the plate in the microwave and stood in front of it, arms crossed as I watched the pizza slowly spin in place.

Why did Ax make me…weird?