Chapter 9 Rachel: Xena's Worry

I was waiting for Tobias to come over when I heard someone at my door. Who could it be? Tobias should be here any time now, and I can't have anybody around when Tobias comes over. It would be way too hard to explain the red tailed hawk in my room. Or even how a strange blond boy in a skin tight shirt and bike shorts got in my room without going through the house and without any of my family seeing him.

"Who is it?" I asked. It had better not be Jordan, she has been really grinding my nerves lately.

"It's me." It was my mom, what could she possibly want? I went and opened the door.

"I just want to let you know that your father called, he wants to take you camping this weekend."

You see, I would love to go camping this weekend but, we are always busy. Normally I can't go because we have a mission planned. We had no mission this weekend but we were going to take Ax to the mall. So you see why I can't go camping this weekend.

"Sorry, mom, but I already had plans this weekend. I was going to go to the mall with Cassie and then the beach."

"But Rachel," My mom said. "You haven't been doing anything with your dad for awhile now. And you know how much he likes to spend time with you."

"I know mom, but I already had plans." I said, wishing that I could do both at the same time.

"Well, just think about it, you know how happy it makes him."

Why did she have to say that last part, now I felt guilty.

My mom left and I locked the door, and soon as it was locked, I heard a faint tapping on my window. It was Tobias. He was late.

I walked over to the window and let him in. He looked different, he seemed bigger than he normally is. But, I guess his hawk body was just growing, I didn't know that it could grow any more since his hawk body was an adult.

"Hey, you were supposed to get here almost two hours ago." I said with the right attitude. He has been late before but not like this.

[Sorry,] He said, sounding unlike himself. [I ran a little late with Ax.]

"Tobias, what is going on with your voice? It's all messed up."

[I don't know, Ax said it has to do with some complicated Andalite thing.] He explained. [I don't get it, honestly, I didn't understand half the words he said.]

"Why don't you morph to human so you can lay on my bed and watch some T.V. with me."

[I can't, Ax said that while this, whatever he said is going on, I can't morph very well.]

"Why's that? And when will you be able to morph again?"

[Oh, uh, he said that it should pass by tonight at midnight. That weird, since isn't it always midnight in fairy tales?]

"So, will you be able to come tomorrow?" I asked. "To the mall I mean?"

[Yeah,] He said hesitantly. [I don't know. I'll try. Hey, do you know of any missions we have planned that I don't know of?]

"No." I said, kind of confused by his question. "No, just that we are all going to the mall with Ax tomorrow to get him a kite. That's all I know of."

[Oh, I knew about that. K. I'll go.]

I layed back down on my bed and flipped through the channels to find something to watch. What Tobias said got me thinking, we always cuddled on my bed and watched T.V. when he came over, did he come up with the morphing thing as an excuse because he didn't want to lay with me on my bed. Is it because I've been hard on him lately? I doubt it, Tobias would never do that to me, if he had a problem with me he'd say it, probably.

Tobias and I just sat in silence watching a movie for an hour and a half until he said that he wasn't feeling good and that he had to go. I offered to fly back to his meadow with him as an owl but he quickly said that he'd prefer to fly by himself, and that he'd appreciate if I left him alone for awhile. He said this as he flew out my window, my jaw dropped, I couldn't believe that he had just said that. I was just about to stick my head out my window and yell at him when I heard someone walking by my door, I couldn't exactly yell at him with my mom or sisters listening, so I kept my mouth shut and silently cursed him under my breath.

Maybe I was right about Tobias being upset with me. He had showed up two hours late and refused to morph human and lay with me on my bed. We had always done that whenever he came over. I would always lay my head on his chest as we held hands. Sometimes I worry that he doesn't love me. Tobias is losing his humanity and emotions more and more everyday. As a hawk he doesn't feel joy, anger, sadness or love. Maybe he is becoming more hawk than man.

I sat in my bed for a few minutes thinking about what Tobias said to me before getting up to take a shower and go to bed.

I'll talk to him tomorrow, see what's going on with him, I thought.