A/N: Sorry about my long and unexplained absence. To make a long story short: Stephenie Meyer. I got a little addicted to all her books P But I'll be posting regularly now, so Enjoy!

Chapter 8

I wasn't positive, but I think Tobias was beginning to regret voting me into the group.

We were in the food court and I was starting to feel the need to tell Aximili to "act normal." He was at a point where he reminded me of a puppy that could see a treat clearly in its owner's hand and had begun to shake excitedly. It would have been funny, had he been joking.

"What a wonderful scent!" Aximili said. He was so excited that he wasn't even playing with words anymore.

"Um, Aximili—" I started.

"There it is!" he yelled and broke into a run. I cried out in surprise, but made no move to grab him. In my mind, he was still an andalite and his tail could still kill me faster than anything. His run was awkward and sure enough, he tripped and fell flat on his face in seconds.

I couldn't help but laugh.

"Phillip!" Tobias hissed. He grabbed the back of Aximili's sweater roughly. "If you don't act normal, I'm not going to buy you anything," he threatened. I had a feeling that he wouldn't have been so hard on him if I wasn't there.

I walked into the Cinnabon and ordered one for each of us. Tobias paid the cashier. We received them quietly and walked to an empty table.

Tobias and I shared an anxious glance as Aximili picked up the cinnamon bun and took a greedy bite. He made a moaning noise that was creepy in just about every way.

I glanced once again at Tobias, but he was glaring at me. I tried to reassure myself that he always glared, but I wasn't totally convinced that this wasn't another 'special glare.'

"I'm sorry!" I said.

Tobias just shook his head as Aximili took another massive bite out of the cinnamon bun. It only took him three more before it was finished, and he started looking around again. I hadn't started mine yet, and he eyed it closely before eyeing Tobias'.

"Have it," Tobias said, shoving his saran-wrapped treat across the table. Aximili unwrapped it and wolfed it down.

By this time, I had gotten the idea and started to eat mine before he could turn to me. Aximili looked at the thing in my hands resentfully and opted to eat the plastic wrap instead.

Tobias and I reached to grab it at the same time and brushed hands. A tingle went up my spine, and I glanced at him, but he seemed not to have noticed. I had withdrawn, and Tobias carefully pulled the stuff out of Aximili's mouth.

"You're worse than a toddler," I commented with a laugh.

Tobias set the slobbery plastic wrap down on the table. He spoke with as much patience as possible. "You can't eat that stuff."

"But how else—"

"You don't," Tobias interrupted. "You just don't."

Aximili didn't seem to notice the stern note in Tobias' voice. "More?" he asked greedily.

"We need to save our money," Tobias said.

Aximili looked directly at me and the last two bites of my cinnamon bun. I handed it to him. "Here," I said with a full mouth.

It was seconds before he had eaten that as well and was looking at the slobbery plastic wrap on the table longingly. There were still a few bits of icing stuck to it.

Tobias took this as a signal and stood up. "Let's go," he said. I followed his example.

Aximili began to quiver a little, standing up and craning his neck to look around the food court. He seemed to be looking for somebody, and Tobias started to say something. Instead of listening, Aximili broke off and bolted to a group of people sitting four tables away. The food court was full of chatter, but I didn't have to hear him to know what he said. He held out his hands to a little girl eating a cinnamon bun and asked "May I have, aaaave, your delicious treat? Tuh reat?"

Tobias rushed over to grab him, but I was enjoying the show far too much to do anything but stand there and double over with laughter as Aximili flitted between tables, asking for food as Tobias chased him around. When Tobias had finally caught the overwhelmed andalite and brought him back, my eyes were tearing up and I was gasping for breath. The first little girl he had asked still had a terrified expression on her face and was clutching the little piece of cinnamon bun that Aximili had not managed to rip from her hands.

I opened my mouth to say something clever as they approached, but then settled for just laughing again.

"You could have been more helpful," Tobias said.



"I'm, s-s-s-s—hahaha!" I couldn't even apologize. I just couldn't help laughing at Aximili, who was still looking around for more food despite Tobias' grasp on his upper arm.

We walked away from the food court and through the rest of the mall and I had to keep stifling more outbursts of laughter at the memory of the episode. Finally I found a distraction.

"Oh! Bootlegger!" I said, pointing. Before either of them could object, I rushed to the display window to examine the clothes on the mannequins. Before they could catch up, I had already chosen a very cute tee one of the figures was wearing and I dove into the store in a determined search for it. I was a master shopper, so it took me only a total of thirty seconds to find it and dig out my size.

Tobias and Aximili arrived and I put the shirt against my front and raised my eyebrows at them. "What do you think?" I asked.

Tobias smiled a little, but kept to his mission by pulling out the price tag and holding it up for me to see.

"Twenty-five bucks," I said. "Not bad."

"We don't have enough money to shop here, Alex. We only have about a hundred and we have to get you more than one shirt," Tobias reasoned.

I frowned. "Where can we get cheaper clothes?"

"Wal-Mart."

I blinked.

"We're going to shop at Wal-Mart?" I asked.

"It's better than here."

"Um, no. No, it's not. It's full of junk."

"We don't have enough money, Alex. Do you want to walk out of this store with one shirt and one pair of jeans or do you want to walk out of Wal-Mart with three different pairs?"

"Whatever," I said. "But can we at least get this one shirt? It's so cute!"

Tobias rolled his eyes with some concentration. "Whatever."



So we bought the shirt and went to Wal-Mart. I was not excited about shopping at the low-grade store, but I managed to pick out a good five pairs of jeans in my size, some shirts and sweaters and a bathing suit as a morphing outfit. I tried them on and picked and chose for a couple of hours until we had the perfect four outfits.

I don't know how we afforded all that stuff. I guess we had a little more money than Tobias had said. But we went through the checkout and I noticed Tobias using a credit card. I started to wonder how a bird pays off a credit card bill.

"Is that yours?" I asked before he tucked it into his pocket. We were walking out the doors, Aximili carrying all the bags. He seemed to like the idea that his arms were so strong.

"No," Tobias said.

"Whose?"

"It's Rachel's," he said.

"Really?" I asked. "Your girlfriend lets you use her credit card? Wow!"

Tobias gave me a sideways look. "We're not exactly boyfriend and girlfriend," he said.

"You're not?" I asked, wondering what changed. Had my presence in the story already made a huge difference. "What happened?"

He seemed uneasy. "Nothing really happened. We're just, not."

"Haven't you kissed?" I asked. I didn't really remember when in the books they had kissed.

Tobias didn't speak.

"Well you love her," I said. "You have to."

Aximili was blissfully ignoring our conversation, choosing to talk to himself about the 'ridiculous structures' and 'weird transportation' that humanity chose.

Tobias still kept quiet. I was very wrapped up in the worry that something was terribly wrong.

"You have to be with her. If you're not…" I tried to think about what horrible things may have happened had they not been in love. "If you're not…"



I stopped walking, hoping to put all my energy into this one thing. It was the most vital. Tobias was the thing that kept Rachel grounded. She'd said that before, I was sure. Tobias was her lifeline. And without Tobias…

"She'll be lost," I said. "She loves you. She needs you."

Tobias had turned around to face me. I grabbed his shoulders, desperate to get my message to him. "You need her."

He looked a little shocked. "I know," he said. "You're right, I guess. I just don't like to talk about it."

There were tears in my eyes. I wiped them away. I didn't want things to end the way they ended, no matter how much Rachel hated me. She couldn't do this to Tobias.

"Alex," he said.

"Yeah?"

"Is there something you need to tell us?"

"Like what?" I asked.

"Like something that you know and we don't. Something we should know."

Aximili now directed his attention to the two of us. I had to give him credit, he knew when to be serious about something.

"I don't know," I said truthfully.

"Well we have a meeting at Cassie's tonight, and I think it would be the perfect time to let us know if there's something on your mind."