Once they'd all decided to make their way down into the Yeerk pool, to try to stay out of sight and see if they could determine just where the Kandrona had been set up or stored, Tommy found himself only slightly less worried than he had been the first time they'd been down in the Yeerk pool. That moment, before they'd been attacked by the Yeerks and their forces but after they'd gotten close enough to the cages to see that there were people in them, had been the worst that Tommy had felt. At least, after the way he'd felt since he and the rest of the Animorphs had watched helplessly as Elfangor was murdered in front of them.
When their respective schedules had allowed them to meet up again, Tommy found himself drifting towards them at the mall, keeping them in sight without joining up with their group. Marco and Jake had both been adamant about him not looking like he was trying to become a part of their group, given the clear difference in their respective ages, and Tommy found himself agreeing once he'd taken the time to think about it.
He'd honestly never seen people of different ages – like him and the other Animorphs – trying to make friends with each other; he'd never quite know why that kind of thing was, but he'd seen it in enough places to know that it was just something that people expected. Tommy knew, just like the other Animorphs knew, how important it was that their group didn't do anything to stand out. So, that meant that Tommy had to stay away when they were all out in public.
Drifting towards The Gap, the clothing store where Marco and Tobias had managed to locate the Yeerk pool entrance they would be using to make their way inside this time.
(Okay boys, girls, and bugs,) Marco said, once all of them were in their respective cockroach morphs; he'd been sent to put their respective clothes in one of the coin lockers outside the dressing rooms, all except for his own, of course. (This has taken about fifteen minutes, which means that we're already down to an hour and fifteen minutes in morph. And this is not a morph I want to risk being trapped in.)
There was, of course, the expected chorus of agreement, before they climbed up under the seat in the dressing room to wait for someone on their way into the Yeerk pool.
