Have you ever had a big fight with your parents, right before going to school? Or work? Do you have to struggle to keep your eyes at the front of the classroom, listening to the teacher try to explain a complex fractions problem that won't have any relevance to you when you go home to have to deal with it all again?

The fractions problem actually wasn't that complex. It was a bag of two for a dollar peanuts at a dingy convenience store compared to the twelve course turkey dinner I had on my plate at that moment. And I was absolutely obligated to eat the fruit cake afterwards.

"Sean."

I snapped up and looked at Mrs. Sparrow. Had I fallen asleep? The giggling of Tasha and her little friend in the back corner made me think so.

"Sean, do you know the answer?" Sparrow asked. That towering look of condescension and the annoyed way she had her hand on her overly nourished hip confirmed that I had in fact dozed off in class.

"No," I said honestly. "It's…I'm having a hard time following."

Another choir of laughter, also a smattering of, "what an idiot" from Bill Higgins and others desk. Mrs. Sparrow didn't bother addressing them, of course.

"If I catch you asleep again, you can spend the afternoon in detention trying to figure it out." Sparrow said, turning back to the board.

I suppose I should have been grateful. She didn't give me a detention or try to grill me more about the problem. Maybe it was easier for her to let my classmates punish me by pointing out my humiliation.

"Did you have fun this weekend?" Bill asked, pushing me against the locker as he passed. It was the end of the school day and there was hardly anyone in the building. I tried to get out of here as quickly as possible at the end of the day, but Mrs. Sparrow wasn't done reading me the riot act over one of the two times in seven school years that I had ever fallen asleep in class.

"Leave me alone," I said, trying to keep moving.

Bill kept following me.

"What was that?" He said in a louder tone.

I stopped and glared at him. Strangely enough I didn't feel the rush of adrenaline I usually get when Bill or one of the others harass me.

"Oooh, am I pissing you off?"

"You're making me kind of upset."

We both turned to see Bryce standing just a few steps away. Dressed in khaki pants and a plaid sweater similar to what he wore on his first day vest, it was easy to see why Bryce got picked on in the beginning.

For a second, I thought Bryce might actually try to restrain Bill. Bill had a good foot on either of us, but he was definitely no match for a Chee.

"Why don't you move along Brace?" Bill suggested. He still thought Brace was the funniest nickname in the world and so far no one had challenged him on that.

"Are you afraid of witnesses?" Bryce asked. His tone was firm, but not challenging.

Bill looked at me, smirked and turned to Bryce.

"Lucky day Sean," he said. To Bryce, he added, "You just pissed me off even more."

"Mr. Higgins!"

I looked up and saw Ms. Calintuno, the principal rounding the corner behind Bryce. She was tall and lanky, and whatever dress she wore always looked like it was hanging from a hook in a closet as opposed to a living person. But the fire in her eyes and the determined stride gave her life and it was enough to scare the life out of Bill Higgins.

"Get back here!" She shouted as Bill rounded a corner and disappeared.

I turned to Bryce questioningly when we were alone again.

"Thank you. But what if the real Calintuno sees that?"

Bryce shrugged.

"She's in her office right now. Bill will get caught running past it and will likely get a detention for running." He explained.

I laughed, trying to imagine the situation. Suddenly the concept of being a literal fly on the wall as Bill tried to explain his way further and further into detention…or worse, the psych ward.

"How are you?" Bryce asked, as we walked together. "You were distracted in class."

"Gee, you think?" I lowered my voice as a janitor stepped out of a classroom. "I can turn into animals suddenly, my Dad is a prisoner of war inside his own head, and, oh yeah, I watched your species die in 3D."

"You know if we could do something about it, we would," Bryce said. I didn't know who he was trying to convince, but he was trying pretty hard. "Some of us really wish we could change our programming, but we can't. All we can do is try to help you as best we can."

"You don't have much of a choice now," I pointed out. "What are you planning to do if I slip up and get infested? The Yeerks will know about you."

Bryce paused and sighed.

"We know that." He said. "Erek knew it too. Some of us had all ready made the decision to tell you everything while the rest of us are still upset over it. You have to understand that this is the second time in eons the Chee have been divided on a subject."

"Second? What, you mean over the Howlers?"

"No." Bryce gave me a long sad look. "We had to accept our master's fates because it was what we were directly ordered to do. But when we came to Earth and discovered your species and all it was capable of doing, we began to question our programming. The Pemalites were gone and so we were our own species all of a sudden. Then in the 1930's through the 40's, something terrible happened. Do you know about the Holocaust?"

I nodded.

"I was a factory worker in Poland," Bryce explained. "I was forced to watch my friends and neighbors, humans, get pulled off the streets into trucks, never to be seen again. Some of us tried to hide the persecuted, but if the Nazis discovered us, we were powerless. Their weapons were useless on us, but we could fake our deaths. We had to. But the humans we tried to help…"

We stepped outside and I took a deep breath. It was a beautiful afternoon. Rain clouds were moving in from the west and I knew from the weather report that it would be mostly soggy this evening. Typical New England weather.

"I'm sorry about all you went through," I said. "But this is now. This is the present and the Yeerks are the problem here and now, in the present. So how are you going to help me here and now and in a way that won't defy your programming?"

Bryce appeared to be thinking about it. That or he was genuinely stumped and didn't want to share that fact with me.

As we walked in silence, I looked around my small, quaint town. It's a bit of a hub, with three different state borders located about an hour's drive each direction. The safest road to my house takes me along Main Street, where all of the privately owned businesses and restaurants line the road.

There was a line of traffic all the way down to the Four Corners. Cars, trucks, RV's, tour busses and bicyclists, all on their way through here to somewhere else. What use did the Yeerks have for a place like this? Why did Dad's Yeerk have to come back here?

We stopped at a bridge over the river and leaned against the concrete rail. A manmade dam created a pool that kids swam in during the warmer months. Right now there were large brook trout swimming around in it.

That'd be cool, I thought. Flying and swimming, swimming and breathing underwater. First chance I got, I was getting some kind of water morph. No doubt.

"Erek knew about the infestation," I said, breaking the silence. "How?"

"Do you know about the Sharing?" Bryce asked.

I shook my head.

"The Sharing is one of the legitimate groups that were appropriating construction equipment and materials. On the surface it's like a club, or group organization, like the Cub Scouts. But in reality it's a front for the Yeerks to gain voluntary hosts."

"Those were the people that called Dad." I realized. "His contact was one of them, wasn't he?"

"Yes." Bryce paused for a minute. "Most of us have infiltrated the invasion. We join the Sharing and become voluntary hosts. Only the Yeerk doesn't take control of us. We learn everything it knows and we keep it alive by generating Kandrona rays."

"That's why John was with those controllers at the construction site."

Bryce paused again. I watched him as he seemed to be staring thoughtfully at the water. Why did I get the feeling that he was holding something from me?

"So Erek knew my Dad was going to be infested," I said. "Or he saw him get infested. But, why did the Yeerk come back here if the pool is back there? I overheard him on the phone. He's trying to get some kind of subterfuge going against Visser Three. It'd be like a five year old running away from home only to come back because he was hungry."

"Well the Kandrona on Earth is artificial. This Yeerk might have a few portable generators stashed away somewhere."

"And you don't know who Dad's Yeerk is?"

Bryce shook his head.

"Most of the Chee playing controllers are in low ranking positions," he said. "Some Yeerks are kept in the dark about crucial missions, to keep one person from sinking the ship, so to speak."

"Then I need to follow him." I said, finally. "That's all there is to it. Can you guys help me out there?"

Bryce nodded.

"Erek was about to suggest the same thing," he said, with a grin. "One of us can take your place at school for as long as you need us to."

"Perfect." I ran my head through my hair a few times. "I need to get some sleep. Hopefully I wake up alone tomorrow."