Author's note: Thanks for the reviews! I'll try to update more often.

Marco

What would these kids do without me? Honestly.

Ok, the assistant principal probably wouldn't rain Hork-Bajir on us if Tobias sat next to Rachel or because Ax shouted a very enthusiastic "HERE!" right in Chapman's ear during roll call. But enough little mistakes like that and we really would be in trouble. Which is why even though Jake appointed Rachel the boss for the week, he had pulled me aside yesterday and asked me to keep an extra eye out.

I would've done that anyway.

But my powers of observation and intense paranoia are not the only skills I lend to our little group. I'm also the only one with a functioning sense of humor. For example, as I dozed with my head banging against the rattling bus window, I thought about how much more potentially twisted this situation could become.

Tobias liked Rachel but looked like her cousin Jake. The real Jake liked Cassie, but Cassie was Ax, who was really, by some bizarre trick of fate, Jake's…I mean Tobias' uncle, so…This whole group is too incestuous I thought as I drifted off to sleep.

Periodically I opened my eyes whenever the bus' crappy shocks hit the smallest dip in the highway. Tobias sat on the very edge of the seat, darting nervous looks around the bus every two seconds. Ax, sitting across the aisle from us with Rachel, was plowing through someone's civics textbook. It looked like he'd read 300 pages in half an hour. Rachel was turned around backwards talking to Melissa Chapman and some other girl.

A particularly big bump jolted me awake for good. Tobias startled from the impact.

"Dude, you have to calm down," I yawned at him, "you'll give yourself a heart attack."

"I'm not used to this," he replied through clenched teeth, "feels like when I was sick and I had to stay in a cage in Cassie's barn for a week."

"Yeah well, consider it practice for the plane. Five hour ride, man."

"At least we'll be in the air." He relaxed maybe one iota.

I annoyed all the girls around us for good measure and slumped back in the seat. I was bored. Just then a hushed conversation between the teachers made me perk up my ears. Nothing attracts a kid's attention more than chaperones trying to keep a secret. I scrambled over Bird-boy and crept along the aisle. Turns out it's a lot harder to be stealthy without morphing. I slipped into the empty seat behind Chapman and Mr. Reynolds.

"I just do not understand why the Visser would waste such resources on a bunch of children," Mr. Reynolds was saying.

"Actually, this was my proposal Quiriss. The Visser, though a…ahem…brilliant strategist, is not in the habit of thinking in the long term. These young people will graduate from this school soon and scatter to universities across the nation. If they are all infested, they can recruit other students and academics. It is a way to spread quickly through elite, young society," said Chapman.

"Yes, but why not simply call an assembly? Why transport these hosts across the country?"

"Surely you must know how difficult it is to contain even a dozen adolescents. As a teacher of almost two decades, my host has observed their ability to escape adult supervision and subsequently gossip uncontrollably."

"I see. And you believe we will have more control in an obscure location far from these hosts' families."

"Exactly," finished Chapman.

"What about your hosts' daughter? Do you intend to continue to spare her?"

"She is already taken."

From my position behind them, my mind raced. Infest our whole class? Could they really get away with that? A mass infestation would have to be a logistical nightmare, but with all of us contained like this it might be possible. I crawled out into the aisle again to get back to my seat. I had to tell Rachel and the others. Maybe someone could call Jake—

"What are you doing down there, young man?" said a voice behind me.

I stood up fast and came face to face with Assistant Principal Chapman. I thought fast.

"I lost a contact, sir!" I practically shouted. I could almost see the wheels in his head turning. I needed a distraction, quick.

Luckily, Rachel or must have heard me.

"Oh my God, Drake! I can't believe you're smoking on the bus!" She yelled, pointing toward a group of guys at the back. Chapman immediately forgot about me and charged at them. I slinked over to my place next to Tobias. I knew a week away from school was too good to be true.