Rachel was missing; that was the thought that stuck in his mind, as Tommy tried to go back to his normal life, tried to go back to sparring practice, homework, and the foster parents who didn't seem to remember he existed half the time. His sensei did notice that his focus was off, sending him off to work on katas until he managed to regain his focus again.

Working by himself made things at least a bit easier.

"Hey, Tommy, I noticed that you haven't been doing so well lately," one of his fellow students – someone whose name Tommy didn't quite remember – said, hurrying after him once their class had been dismissed for the day. "And I've been thinking. Maybe you should come with me to The Sharing. It might help you to get your head on straight."

Forcing himself not to tense, Tommy struggled to recall the name of the Controller he was dealing with. "Sorry, Richie, but that kind of thing isn't really for me," he said, wondering just what kind of Yeerk was lurking behind the soft, brown eyes of the student who'd been so eager to catch up with him.

(Tommy, once you get away from that guy, I need you to morph and meet me in the air,) Tobias said, and Tommy paused for a moment as he heard the silent tones of his friend and fellow Animorph. (The others are meeting at Cassie's barn: there's trouble.)

For a long moment, while Tobias led him to an out of the way place where he could morph, Tommy found himself wondering just how many of his fellow students in this class were Controllers, or if it was just Richie. Still, once they'd made it to the alley, Tommy put that out of his mind so that he could morph once Tobias had led him to an alleyway where he couldn't be seen.

Back in the air again, Tommy headed for Cassie's barn, wondering even as he did just what it was that he and the rest of the Animorphs were going to do; or else what he was going to find out when the both of them got there. When the both of them made it to Cassie's barn, however, Tommy couldn't help but wish that one of them had managed to find Rachel while he was gone.

Or that she'd made it back herself, but neither of those seemed to have happened.