Marco

After I left Cassie's, I went the only place that made sense to me: Rachel's house.

I thought about doing things the normal way, and demorphing and knocking on her front door, but I figured her family wouldn't exactly be welcoming me warmly, since they thought that I had beat her up at school. Instead, I landed on her window ledge and tapped on the window with my beak.

Rachel was sitting on her bedroom floor, painting her toenails a dark blue. She stood up to open her window. "Hey," she said as I hopped in and started to demorph.

"Hi," I said as soon as I was human again. "So…what have you been up to?" I asked, trying to pretend that things weren't awkward.

Rachel shrugged. "You know, just celebrating being a girl in the 21st century again. I'll probably give myself a facial next."

"Speaking of facials, did you happen to give me one while you were in my body? Because my skin has felt really smooth ever since I got it back."

"There may have been a mud mask."

"I knew it."

Rachel and I sat down on her bedroom floor and she went back to painting her toes. "Marco, I know things got kind of weird the other night…"

That was an understatement. Kind of weird would have been if Rachel had complimented me on my bedroom décor. My vocabulary was not expansive enough to come up with the words to fully describe how weird Rachel taking her shirt off solely for my viewing pleasure had been.

"Look, Rachel," I cut her off. "I think we both know that whatever is going to happen next is up to you."

Rachel didn't look up from her toes. "Yeah. I know."

"And?"

"I'm not sure."

I wondered if it was obvious that I was trying to cover up sounding too hopeful by sounding annoyed. "What does that mean?"

"Trust me, Marco, I would love to be able to say that I never want you to touch me again, but-"

"Waaaaaaaaaaahn. Waaaaaaaaaaaaahn."

THUD!

That was the noise Baby Think-it-Through made when I grabbed her by the foot and swung her into Rachel's bedroom wall.

"Damn it, Marco!" Rachel said as she jumped up to rescue Mildred. "That is definitely going to get our grade marked down for child abuse!"

"I really hate that thing."

Rachel checked to make sure that Mildred's head was still attached and fed her a bottle before she sat back down next to me.

"What I was trying to say," she continued. "Is that I don't know what I'm doing."

"Well, if you ever figure it out, I would really like to be informed." Why was it easier to try and be an asshole than to be understanding?

Rachel started to repair the damage to her polish that she had done when she jumped up to help Mildred. She still wasn't looking at me. "Marco, I love Tobias. I really do. Do you know even know what that is like, to be in love with someone?"

Maybe, I thought, but instead I said, "Well, then how do you explain what happened with us?"

"I guess things get confusing when someone jumps in front of a bullet for you."

I nodded. "Remind me to never do that again."

Rachel smiled and finally looked up from her painting. "You're a dumbass, you know?"

"I know."

There was a long pause where Rachel went back to her toes and I fidgeted and tried to resist the urge to bite my own nails.

"I want to pretend that it never happened," Rachel said after what felt like an hour.

"Which part?"

"All of it. You never took that bullet, we never switched bodies, and nothing happened between us." Rachel sounded hard again, more like the tough Rachel I knew. The Rachel that hated me.

My stomach sank. "So that's it?"

"Yeah. We fight Yeerks together, and that's all. You're too short and you annoy me."

"Well, you're not so great yourself, you—"

Rachel stopped me before I had a chance to start listing her (nonexistent) flaws. She stopped me by grabbing me and kissing me again. This time everything was faster, harder, almost more desperate. I know I was holding her more tightly, moving things quicker, in case this really was the last time.

Rachel had pushed me back so I was lying on her floor next to her bed and she was on top of me. My hands were tangled in her long blond hair, and her arms were around my neck, holding us together. I was so lost in kissing her that I didn't even here the tap on the window, I just felt Rachel stiffen and knew that something was wrong.

"Shit!" She whispered, and I knew instantly what it was. Tobias. At the window.

"Can he see us from there?" I whispered to her. The way the room was positioned, I though the bed we were next to might be shielding us from view.

"I don't think so," she whispered back. I slid out from under her and squeezed under the bed. Rachel stood up. I could see her legs as she walked over to the window. I could have morphed into something smaller so I could be more comfortable in the small space under her bed, but I wanted to stay human to make sure that I could hear everything.

"Nothing, just painting my nails," Rachel said. Because Tobias was still in his hawk body and talking in private thought speak, I could only hear her half of the conversation.

"Yeah, my sister is really excited that she doesn't have school tomorrow."

"We really need a plan to deal with the elementary school," Tobias said in his human voice. I could see his feet now—he had morphed to human. "But I really wanted to talk to you about something…"

All of a sudden, it seemed like a very bad idea to be under Rachel's bed, listening to this conversation.

"You've been acting a little strange lately," Tobias continued. "I've barely seen you. Is something going on?"

Rachel sat down on her bed, and Tobias sat next to her. "No. What would be going on?" Rachel asked calmly.

"I haven't seen you," Tobias repeated.

"Well, I didn't think you would want to see much of me when I was trapped in Marco's body," Rachel said with a laugh.

"I always want to see you."

Great. Now I was starting to feel bad for Tobias. Not like he and I have ever been best friends, but he had an awful life even before he was trapped as a bird. And I'm the guy trying to steal his girlfriend.

"I'm sorry," Rachel said. "I was embarrassed. I was a boy!"

I could hear them shifting on the bed and could tell Rachel was moving closer to Tobias. Wonderful. They were cuddling right above me.

"You haven't even told me what happened when you were trapped at the Revolutionary War with Marco."

"That's because it's not important," Rachel murmured. More shifting on the bed above me. They were definitely lying down now. "I just want to forget about the whole thing."

"Did Marco do something to you?" Tobias asked.

I heard Rachel sit up quickly. "No! Of course not. Why are you asking me that?"

Tobias sat up, too. "You both have been acting so weird. And angry. You seemed so angry at him…"

"You know how annoying Marco has always been. How would you like to be sent back in time with him?"

"Rachel, I see the way he looks at you."

Note to self: Learn how to be more subtle.

"So Marco has a tiny little crush. What does it matter? I love you, Tobias. Let's just forget about Marco."

How could she forget about me when she knew I was trapped under her bed? There was no way I was going to risk even morphing to a cockroach and trying to escape—too possible that Tobias would see me.

Rachel and Tobias lay down again, and I could hear that they were kissing, although much slower and less forcefully than Rachel and I had been. I decided that if they started having sex on the bed above me, I would just climb out from under the bed, tell Tobias the whole story, and just let him kill me rather than have to listen to that.

"I'm sorry if I was being paranoid," Tobias said. "But I couldn't lose you."

"I know," Rachel whispered. Maybe I only imagined that she sounded sad when she said it.

Rachel moved over to the side of the bed and stood up. I could see her feet and the nail polish that had somehow turned out perfect on her toes. "Let's go for a walk," she told Tobias. "I need some fresh air."

That was my cue to leave. As soon as Rachel and Tobias left her bedroom, I morphed back to an osprey and flew out the window. As I left her house, I saw them walking down the street, holding hands.

And I had thought my life was complicated when I only had to battle an alien species.