Title: The Twins
Author: Alexis Steele
Fandom: Animorphs
Characters: all the majors
Genre: Alternate Universe, after #23 The Pretender
Series: First story in the "Descendents of the Ellimist" Chronicles
Summary: Tobias is about to find more family than he can deal with
Notes: This fic was my first attempt at fanfiction back in 1999. It has been lying dormant in notebooks and my computer until I pulled it from the Net in 2004. Looking back on the fic about a year ago, I realized that I had a lot of interesting ideas that I wanted to portray in this fic – eventually to become a series – and that I wanted to pick them up again, but I had some major changes that needed to be done to my OC, Shayla. She was a blatant Mary Sue, and now she's become an attempt to see if I can write a competent OC without her becoming a Mary Sue.
And, while I will be following more closely to the events that occurred in the book series, I will always see the characters as their TV counterparts. Let's face it, ladies, the TV series might've deviated a lot away from the books, but it definitely gave us some nice eye candy to glance at. I will also be extending the timeline of the story to five years, instead of three. Therefore, the Animorphs have been fighting the Yeerks for over two years.
Normal speech denoted with "…". Thought-speak denoted in ((italics)). From this chapter onwards, there will also be periods of telepathy written. Telepathy will be shown by ((bold-italics)).
Each chapter heading will tell you who is narrating this part of the story. If you don't see a character's name in the chapter heading, assume that the character from the previous chapter is still narrating.
Disclaimer: With the exception of Shayla and any other minor OCs, all the other characters are the property of K.A. Applegate and Scholastic Books. All feedback is greatly appreciated
Chapter 9:
At that moment, we arrived at the office. Tobias led the way.
"Hello. How can I help..." a man began.
The man suddenly stopped as he looked up and saw who was in front of him. I could sense Tobias' fear and contempt for the man before him. I knew why too. This man was a well-known controller –Vice-Principal Chapman.
He continued, "Ah, this is indeed a surprise. May I inquire where you've been for the past two years, Tobias?"
'Two years,' I thought. How horrible it must've been for him to be trapped in that frail body for so long. He must've felt what I was feeling because he 'pathed to me, ((It wasn't that bad.)) Then he turned his attention to Chapman, and sneered, "I can survive on my own."
"Can you now? Both of your guardians have no clue where you are. So where have you been living?" Chapman inquired.
"I'm not surprised they didn't bother to look for me. I was staying with a friend near my aunt's, until he and his family moved away," he said nonchalantly.
"Is that so? And this friend would be?"
"Doesn't matter anymore. They won't be back, so I figured I could use a change of scenery, and now, here I am," he concluded.
"I see. Well, I take it you're here to register for classes now? It's pretty late in the semester. How long do you think you'll be staying with us this time Tobias?" Chapman said.
He shrugged. "However long I feel like it," Tobias responded.
Tobias' attitude towards Chapman confused and frightened me. Why was he trying to sound all tough now?
"And who might this be?" Chapman directed his question towards me.
"I'm Shayla, sir. Frances Cooper called on Friday and said I would be registering today," I replied.
"Ah, yes. Mrs. Schultz has everything you need. I'll need to speak to you after school, Tobias," Chapman finished. With that, Chapman entered his office. He even closed his blinds. I stared for a moment, trying to see if I could get a reading of that Yeerk's mind, but then I brought my attention back to Mrs. Schultz.
Mrs. Schultz began, "All right, Shayla, here's your schedule and locker assignment. If you'll wait a moment, an envelope arrived just this morning, concerning you Tobias. It must be your transfer records from your previous school."
After Mrs. Schultz left, I walked over to Tobias. "Transfer records?"
"Probably the Ellimist, again," Tobias suggested. "It's not like I haven't kept up with school subjects. I usually hang out with Rachel and the others while they're studying sometimes. It gives me something to do with my time."
I noticed that Tobias kept pinching the bridge of his nose. "Are you feeling okay?" I asked
"Not really," he explained, "My head feels like it's going to explode. There are so many thoughts spinning through my head. How can you keep sane with them?"
"I've created shields to block them," I answered, "After school, I'll teach you how to build your shield. For now, just concentrate on the teacher's mind in your class today. Don't read his or her mind or make comments, though. Does that help at all?"
"Not really," Tobias said.
"Well then, try to concentrate on me for most of the day. I can help you if it gets too overwhelming for you," I suggested.
"What if we're in different classes though?" he inquired.
"Doesn't matter, if we're still in the same building, I can feel you and help you," I assured him.
"Thanks," he said.
"No problem. That's what incredibly gifted sisters are for."
"Get over yourself," he interjected as he shoved me, lightly, into the wall.
About ten minutes later, Mrs. Schultz returned. She handed Tobias two pieces of paper identical to mine. Two were white, two were blue.
"The white paper is your schedule for the year. The blue paper is your locker assignment and combination. We are in the middle of first period right now," she explained as she wrote two additional notes, "You can start with that class. You can use these passes for today in case you can't get to your classes on time. Just hand the teacher this note from me and he or she will understand. Your lockers are located on the second floor."
"Thank you," we said as I grabbed the pieces of paper.
"Here are some maps to help find your way," she finished.
We exited the office and made our way up to the second floor where our lockers were located. I glanced quickly at our schedules, then said, "Well, I guess I'll see you later."
Tobias smiled. "Yeah, at least we don't have all of our classes together. I think that would be a little weird, even for the Ellimist."
"So, I'll see you fourth period, then," I confirmed.
He nodded. "See you in geometry." With that, we split up in different directions as we made our way to our first period classes. As Tobias walked further away down the hall from me, I heard Tobias as he thought ((It's good to be doing something normal again.))
Author's Note: Posting may be sporatic in the upcoming weeks. This past week, my basement flooded due to excess rain and a faulty sump pump. Unfortunately, this basement is also where the house's internet router is located. The only reason I'm on now is I'm the only one home, and after I post this, I have to disconnect it again until who knows how long. My apologies in advance to my readers. And now, onto replies.
Replies:
- SouthrnBelle: Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed the other two chapters you had left to read. Thanks for your review.
- Spartin-226: I'm glad you enjoyed the chapters, spartin. Thank you for your review.
- Anily & Khythonia: Thanks for the heads-up. It's been awhile since I read #23. I skimmed through it, just to be safe, and found that they gave his birth date of the 25, but never said what month it was, so I'm hoping I'm in the clear. Coming up with the birthdays was one of the things that I had to drastically alter from my original draft, since I'd given Tobias and Shayla my birth month – April -- (my birthdate happens to be one day off from Tobias'). Thus, Tobias and Shayla's birthdate was changed from April 25 to October 25. Plus, it makes more sense to have the twins entering school in October than April. In October, there'd still be 3 quarters left in the school term; whereas, there'd be little more than a month left of school in April. Then, when I was searching through the birthstones, I really fell in love with this special kind of opal that's only found in Australia. Here's a website I found that gives an explanation about black opals: ((www. opalinfo. com / Opal-Types.html.)) If the website doesn't appear, email me and I'll send you the link that way. Thank you for your review.