Rachel

"You messed up," Cassie had told me. "You did something you never would have because of extreme circumstances. Tobias will understand that you never wanted to kiss Marco--it just happened."

It was a good explanation. Probably I could have convinced Tobias. Cassie knew me better than anyone, and she seemed to really believe it. She seemed so sure that I couldn't bring myself to ask her the question I had: What if it was more than that? What if extreme circumstances hadn't twisted my view of Marco; what if they had just allowed me to see things I hadn't before?

What if I just honestly liked Marco?

Ok, it was a scary thought. Right up there with learning aliens had invaded the world, for a couple of reasons. The first was that I already had a boyfriend. A wonderful boyfriend that would be incredibly crushed if he found out. The second was that...well, Marco. I would never live that down.

Could I really be attracted to Marco? He was short, he was a dork, and he could be cold. Cold in a calculating point A to point B with no concerns for anything in between way. He annoyed me. He really annoyed me.

But then...ok, he was cute. I could admit that, right? Not that it was important, but, you know, it was true. And he was funny. Really funny--he could make people laugh in the worst situations. And if he was ruthless, I was probably a million times worse than he was because everyone knew I enjoyed the war. Marco could get from point A to point B, but I not only could get there, I enjoyed the ride.

And I knew that Marco, in his own way...he could be nice, too. Maybe he didn't do it the same way other people (ie, Tobias) did, but he could be kind. And you know, I actually liked and respected that he didn't go out of his way to do it all the time. I was like that myself, actually.

So maybe it was possible that I could, in some alternate universe, like Marco.

But did I?

There were some signs. First of all, I had obviously kissed him. I don't know why--it was a weird situation and I can't even begin to understand my own motives. Part of it had been because his body had this unbelievable nagging desire to do it--in fact, if Marco resisted that all day every day, then I can add "strong self control" to his list of attributes, because I had given in after all of a day and a half. But that couldn't be the only reason, because I had known, clearly, that despite the body swap, I was Rachel and I was kissing Marco.

And then, after that, when we were in our own bodies and he had kissed me...

I thought about these things as I flew home from Cassie's house. Cassie's explanation made sense--in fact, how could I even know for sure if what I felt when Marco kissed me had been real or just the twisted result of what had happened the day before?

Maybe there was a way to find out.

I flew to Marco's house.

I didn't plan for things to go as far as they did. It was supposed to be one kiss--an experiment, more than anything. I didn't think that once I started kissing Marco, it would be really hard to stop.

Because I knew, after that first kiss, that Cassie must have been wrong. This was more than what had happened in the past two days. This was years of looking and flirting and teasing and wondering all combined.

I wasn't sure if maybe, somewhere very deep down, I had always liked Marco. Was this new, or just me realizing it for the first time? I just knew that when I was kissing Marco, I had this overwhelming desire to get as close to him as possible.

And that was how I had come frighteningly close to having sex with Marco.

Luckily, I guess, his dad had came in and interrupted us. Sitting in the closet had centered me a little bit--I had a boyfriend. Marco was not that boyfriend. Therefore, I should not have sex with Marco. It was all very logical, actually. I should get out of the closet, tell Marco it had all been a mistake, threaten to kill him in his sleep if he told anyone, and leave.

When Marco's dad left and I could get out of the closet, I didn't do any of those things.

Well, ok, I did leave. But I didn't tell Marco that it had been a mistake. I told him I had to think some things over. Which was, actually, an understatement. I had to think everything over. What was going on with me? Did I feel any differently about Tobias than I had two days ago? No. I was staying with Tobias. What had happened with Marco was a mistake. Yeah, maybe I had some strange feelings for him now, but I was just going to have to ignore those until they went away. Which they would. They had to. Because I was meant to be with Tobias. And Marco...well, Marco was probably meant to be with his porn magazines.

But for some reason, I hadn't told Marco that this could never happen again. No, the words that had come out of my mouth had definitely been "Before we do anything else...", which implied that somewhere in my mind I wasn't planning on staying away from Marco.

I morphed back to owl and flew home where I got a full hour of sleep before my alarm went off. As I was getting ready, I realized that, since I was Rachel again, I was no longer suspended for two weeks. I had to go to school. Which meant that...Marco was going to have to go with Tobias to check out the elementary school.

Shit.

I called Marco and informed him of the situation. "Uh, I'm guessing you don't want me to say anything to Tobias about...?"

"Yeah," I said. "Unless you want to die, of course. Then, by all means, go ahead. Tell Tobias. If he doesn't manage to kill you, I will."

"I figured," Marco said. "But, since you're the one going to school now, don't you think you should stop by and pick up Baby Think-It-Through?"

Marco's house was actually on my way to school, so I walked there to pick up Baby Think-It-Through (Marco, for some unexplainable reason, had started calling her Mildred), then caught the bus at the corner.

My morning was pretty uneventful, except that I found a faux-leather whip shoved through the vents of my locker, and several guys asked me how much I charged per hour. I would have disemboweled them and joined Marco in Suspensionland, but Jake and Cassie were following me around (probably for exactly that reason) and managed to hold me back.

Cassie had told Jake about the whole body switch-back, and fortunately he didn't ask too many questions. I felt a little guilty about not explaining the entire situation, but Jake seemed to think it was just some kind of weird fluke--an alien device used to temporarily switch bodies for whatever alien reason. I was more suspicious--it seemed too likely that whoever had left it had it out for us. Maybe someone was trying to destroy the Animorphs from the inside out.

"Marco and Tobias should be letting us know what they found out soon," Jake said at lunch. The three of us were sitting together and trying to sound like we were making small talk, when really we were possibly discussing the fate of the world.

Cassie and I nodded. Cassie was trying to finish up some math homework. I hadn't had time to pack myself a lunch since I'd stopped by Marco's, so I was trying to pick out the most-wilted bits of lettuce from the school salad I had bought and putting them on my napkin. Jake was munching a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with one hand and proofreading through an essay with the other.

Sometimes, in moments like this, I almost feel normal.

"How long do you have to carry that thing around?" Cassie asked, pointing at Baby Think-It-Through/Mildred (who had her own chair next to me) with her pencil.

"Until Tuesday," I said, squeezing some Italian dressing out of its packet and onto my salad.

"Marco's going to be suspended that entire time," Cassie pointed out. "Is he going to get part of the grade?"

"Yeah, he is," Jake answered her. "They're letting him do all of his work. I'm taking all of his assignments to him."

"He's in charge of the baby log," I added.

"The what?" Cassie and Jake asked together. Neither of them had been stupid enough to sign up for home ec. Jake had gym as an elective, and Cassie was taking a computer class (I suspected Ax was doing most of her homework, but she wouldn't admit to it).

"Baby log. Basically, it's a record of who was taking care of the baby for how long. You'll actually be in it, Cassie, as a baby-sitter."

"You might want to leave out that Cassie locked her in a closet," Jake suggested.

"Don't baby-sitters usually get paid?" Cassie asked, looking up from her math.

(Guys,) Tobias's thought speak voice saved me from having to answer (or pay) Cassie. I looked out the window we were sitting next to. I could just make out an osprey, a northern harrier, and a red-tailed hawk sitting in a tree outside. (We have a problem.)

Cassie and Jake put down their pencils.

(We checked out the elementary school,) Marco took over. (We saw lots of new signs for the Sharing, but we don't think they're going to be using it to get to the kids. We think the Sharing is an excuse to draw in the parents--meetings about raising kids the right way and all. They're not bothering with convincing the kids. The teachers must all be infested already, because they've already started taking full classes down to the Pool.)

Cassie gasped.

(We need to stop it now,) Tobias added. (There's no time--if we wait any longer, they'll have the entire school.)

"Sara?" I said, hoping one of them could read my lips. My youngest sister was in the 4th grade. At that elementary school.

(They started with the younger grades,) Marco answered me. (She's ok. For now.)

Jake grabbed three of Cassie's French fries and broke one in half, then held them in his hand so they all looked the same. Cassie and I stared at him.

"Short fry goes with them," Jake said.

"What happened to 'We all need to be on this 100 percent'?" I hissed at him.

"We do," Jake whispered back. "In this case, though, two of us need to stay behind. We cannot draw any more attention or we're all dead. You know this, Rachel. No arguing."

I gritted my teeth, but grabbed a french fry without any more protest. It was long. Cassie pulled a long one, too.

Jake handed me his essay. "Hand this in for me next hour, will you?" He asked, threw away his trash, and left.

"What do you think they're going to do?" Cassie finally asked after we'd been sitting in silence for several minutes.

I shrugged. Picked at my salad some more. "I went over to Marco's last night," I blurted out.

Cassie raised her eyebrows. "What did you do?"

"Uh...seduced him?"

"What?"

I gave Cassie a brief summary of the almost-sex incident.

Cassie considered my story.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked her, not liking the frustrated look on her face.

"Mostly that I was wrong about your thing with Marco," she admitted. "I didn't think it would go any farther than that one kiss. And I'm not wrong very often. Actually, I can't remember the last time I was wrong."

I pointed at #12 on her math homework. "Well, that one's wrong."

"Damn."

I took her pencil and fixed the problem.

"So do you think you're actually....interested in Marco?" Cassie asked. "As in, dating-wise? Boyfriend material?"

I groaned at the thought of Marco as my....boyfriend.

"And what about Tobias?" Cassie continued. "Have you talked to him about any of this?"

I groaned again.

The bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

"I'll have to think about this one," Cassie said, picking up her stuff.

We both left the cafeteria. I dropped Jake's essay off at his English class and went to Home Ec, where "recent events" had led my least-favorite teacher to realize we needed to do a special, emergency segment on domestic abuse.

I've never been a nail-biter, but I gnawed through an entire right hand's worth just to keep myself seated and silent through that class. I almost tackled her when she said that tomorrow we would be covering "appropriate attire."

Yeah. This from a woman who was wearing a sweatshirt with a big happy cow on the front. I am not even joking.

When the bell rang, I jumped out of my seat and was halfway to the door when I heard it:

"Rachel?"

Oh no. Why me?

I walked back to my teacher's desk.

"Rachel," she said, looking me in the eyes. "I know what happened yesterday, and I just want to let you know that if you feel you cannot work with Marco, it would be totally acceptable for you to work by yourself. Or, you could work with Amanda, our 'single mother'. The school board encourages alternative couples for this project."

Amanda had actually volunteered to work on the project alone because she "likes a challenge." If I worked with her, she would spend the entire week trying to prove she was prettier, smarter, and more athletic than me. Plus, with all the rumors already floating around that I was a) a dominatrix, b) a prostitute, and c) dating/abused by Marco, I really did not need to add "possible lesbian" to the list. Not that was anything wrong with being a lesbian, but I had enough guys fantasizing about me in black leather, thanks to Marco. I didn't need them picturing me getting it on with other girls, too.

"No, that's ok," I said. "I'll stick with Marco."

Her jaw dropped, proving what I had suspected all along: she knew I hated Marco and had paired him with me out of revenge.

I shrugged, and left the classroom. My next class was equally torturous, because I kept waiting for Tobias or Marco or even Jake or Ax to fly past the window and tell me in thoughtspeak that everything had gone well, and everyone was alright, including my little sister.

My last hour, Tobias came.

I was staring at the chalkboard, my eyes glazing over as my older-than-the-Ellimist math teacher mumbled about inverse trig functions. (Rachel,) Tobias said, and I jumped a mile out of my desk.

"Yes, Miss...uh..." Mr. Littleton struggled to remember my name, even though I had had him the year before for geometry. "What do you need?"

(We need you.)

"I need to go to the nurse," I said, gathering up my books.

"Yes...very well..." Mr. Littleton went back to trig as I bolted out of the classroom and to my locker.

I met Cassie in the hall, and we ran out of the school and in the direction of the elementary school--it was only a couple of buildings over.

"What's going on?" I yelled at Tobias.

(We need some elephants.)

I could see flashers up ahead. "What happened?"

(Jake called Animal Control and reported a wild animal attack at the elementary school. Then we, uh, made a wild animal attack. It worked, too: they evacuated the school, so for now most of the kids are safe. But then Animal Control showed up really quick, and Cassie's mom's gotten better with the dart gun since the last time Animal Control showed up to capture us...)

"She took...shooting...lessons. Did...she...shoot anyone?" Cassie panted.

(Marco,) said Tobias, sounding like he was trying to hide his amusement. (In the butt.)

I snorted with laughter despite myself.

(Jake and Ax are trying to keep the Animal Control people away from Marco,) Tobias continued. (I managed to fly away to get you two.)

We were almost at the police cruisers. "Where can we morph?" I asked.

(No one could see you behind that McDonalds.) Not the safest place, but these were desperate times. I ran behind the building, Cassie stumbling after me, and Tobias swooped down and landed on the ground next to us.

(I think I'm going to go elephant, too) he said. I had forgotten that Tobias (and Cassie, too, actually) had an elephant morph from way back when we were trying to prevent the Yeerk infestation of several world leaders.

Tobias and I started morphing to African elephant. We both grew enormous, packing on thousands of pounds under our leathery gray skin. Cassie, however, grew smaller and sprouted black and white fur. The classic get-rid-of-people morph: a skunk.

When our morphs were complete, Tobias and I burst out from behind the McDonald's and charged for the school. Cassie trotted along behind us, trying to stay out of stomping range.

I had to admit, I was pumped. This was what I was good at. Fighting. Not all the messy emotional stuff that had been messing up my life the past couple of days. I needed to do some ass-kicking.

I bellowed my elephant war call and onlookers jumped out of the way of the sudden elephant stampede. The police jumped out of the way, too, actually. They weren't stupid. Cassie's mom, however, stood her ground with the dart gun. Until Cassie snuck up unnoticed thanks to the chaos Tobias and I were creating and sprayed her mom right in the face.

(You guys owe me,) Cassie said to Marco, Jake and Ax. Well, Jake and Ax. Marco was unconscious. (I have to live with her, you know.)

Jake was in his lion morph, and Ax was a cheetah. They were trying to stand ground around Marco, who was in gorilla morph and taking a nap on the pavement between them. He had a bright red tranquilizer dart sticking out of his left buttcheek.

I grabbed Marco with my trunk and hoisted his heavy ass onto my back as Cassie and Tobias held the crowd back. I couldn't help thinking that Tobias just wasn't using the elephant more to its full potential. He was too timid, too...delicate almost.

I stampeded through the crowd (again, they were all smart enough to jump out of my way...however, a police cruiser did suffer some major damage). "Awesome elephants!" I heard a familiar voice yell out. I turned to see my sister Sara jumping up and down from the large group of kids that had been evacuated from the school and pushed off to the side.

(Your sister's kind of scary,) Jake said. He let out the eardrum-splitting tiger roar. Sara squealed with glee and jumped higher.

Ax raced ahead of me. (We need to find a place to demorph.)

I turned around. There was a definite crowd following after us, and I couldn't run fast enough to lose them because I was afraid Marco would slip off my back.

(I think we've found our solution,) Jake said. I looked ahead. There was a kid our age standing in the street right in front of us, totally unafraid of the pack of wild animals headed his way. Erek King.

"Hey guys," he said with a wave. "I heard there was an animal attack going on...need some help?"

The crowd following after us sure got a shock. Erek put a huge hologram around us, making us disappear. Tobias grabbed him with his trunk, put him on his back, and we hauled ass out of there. Once we'd gotten a decent distance away, we all demorphed and remorphed to birds and Erek took the hologram off.

"See you guys later," he called out to us as we flew off for Cassie's barn.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Just so everyone knows, I was curious about whether or not Rachel could have actually lifted Marco with her elephant trunk, so I googled it. Male elephants can lift around 600 pounds. Male gorillas weight between 300-500 pounds. Go me! Now show me you all appreciate my (relatively) super-fast reviews by hitting that review button!