There were some days when I really missed having a normal life. I'd be flying around, spying on the Yeerks, see the time on a clock or somebody's watch, and panic because I was 20 minutes late for math class. Not that I actually enjoyed math, but then I'd been going to school for 10 years and only been a hawk for a few weeks. It's hard to completely shake off the feeling that I should still have been following the old routine. Any time I started to miss school, I'd just fly over there. It usually didn't take long to remember why I was glad I didn't have to go anymore.
Lunchtime. Bright, sunny weather. Lots of kids sitting outside on picnic benches out behind the cafeteria. I was flying high enough that people were mostly just little ovals of different colored hair. There were so many kids down there, it was hard to tell those ovals apart. But I was getting better at it. This time, I only had to search for a minute to find the gingery-brown oval that was Jake. Not that I really needed to search - we were close enough to communicate with Thought-Speech. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't distracting him at an awkward moment. But all he was doing was arguing with Marco again.
(Yo, Jake!)
He froze up for a moment, motioned for Marco to stop talking, and then I heard his voice in my head.
(What's up, Tobias?)
(I need you to come and check on our new Andalite guest today.)
(Yeah, I guess we should have come to visit sooner. We'll be there. And Lee says he has big news to share with everyone.)
(What kind of news?)
(He says it's absolutely earth-shattering.)
(What news hasn't been earth-shattering lately?)
(None. I'll pass the word to-)
Abruptly, he jumped out of his chair and ran over to another table. Marco sat there looking confused for a moment, but he quickly followed Jake. I'd been so focused on them that I'd missed a fight starting nearby. A fight involving Lee, and two people I'd hoped I'd never see again.
Andy and Tap-Tap alone were half the reason I didn't miss school too much. I'd stopped counting how many times they'd beaten me up between classes. They're the ones who were trying to shove my head in a toilet when I met Jake. Just looking at them now, I could feel a residual twinge of pain from the last time they'd punched me in the kidneys. And now they were going after Lee. I couldn't hear what they were saying - there were too many people trying to talk over each other - but Lee clearly didn't like it. He was smiling, but it was the smile of somebody who was just barely restraining himself from committing violence. And that restraint wasn't going to last long. Andy shoved Lee backwards with his lunch tray. I couldn't just watch - I had to do something. Quickly, I thought of a plan.
Before I learned about the Yeerks, these guys had been my worst enemies. For once, I had a way of dealing with them. And to be honest, I was getting kind of hungry anyway. This was going to work out great. I drifted over to the parking lot, caught a thermal and let it carry me up to 500 feet, then sailed back over to the lunch area. Even from up here, I could see my target just as clearly as if it was two feet away. The hawk brain knew what to do next. All I had to do was give it a nudge in the right direction. I trimmed my wings and tail, stretched my talons forward, and dropped down into a 100-mile-per-hour dive. In less than five seconds, I'd hit exactly what I was aiming at. Just before impact, I flared my wings to slow my momentum for precise control. I felt my talons sink into something soft and warm, started tearing at it with my beak. Finally, revenge for every time they'd ever shoved my head down a toilet, stuffed me in a garbage can, stolen my lunch money, or punched me in the kidneys.
Andy screamed. It was shrill, high-pitched, and absolutely undignified. But it was too late. There was nothing he could do. I'd snatched the hamburger right off his lunch tray and landed on the table without even spilling his milk carton. Most of the kids around the table had scattered and run away except for Jake, Lee, and Marco. Jake looked back and forth between me, Andy, and Lee for a few moments, then made a halfhearted show of pretending to shoo me away. As I flapped across the courtyard, still clutching the half-eaten burger patty, he finally remembered to finish our conversation.
(All right, so we'll see you behind Cassie's place after school, then?)
(Yes. As soon as possible, please.)