We were in Rachel's room the next day, af ter school. Her room is so neat. Straight out of a magazine, you know? Like everything matches or goes together. She has this bulletin board where she puts little wise sayings on Post-it notes.
I drifted over to the bulletin board and read '"Don't think there are no crocodiles just be cause the water is calm.' - Malayan Proverb."
Just beside that was '"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.' - Sun Tzu."
It made me a little sad. In the good old days, Rachel would have had a bunch of quotes about being a good person or whatever. It just showed how much our lives had changed.
In a very short time we had all grown accustomed to a world of fear and danger. We had arrived at Rachel's house separately. We had each checked to make sure we weren't being followed. We had planned the afternoon in advance to be sure that Rachel's mom and her two sisters would be out. We had even had Tobias fly over the area looking for anything unusual.
That's what our lives had become. That and quotations full of paranoia and battle.
Jake hadn't said anything yet. Tobias and I had both told everyone about our strangely iden tical dreams. About the voice that seemed to come from beneath the sea. The strange voice that called to us.
No one else had heard the voice in their dreams. Marco had made jokes. Rachel had been supportive but skeptical. Only Jake had remained silent.
I suppose you could say Jake is sort of our "leader," although he's not bossy in any way. It's more like this natural aspect of his personality. He's the one you just automatically look to when there's trouble.
Of course, I look to him for other reasons. Not that I would ever tell him or anything, but I really like Jake. You know, as in like.
10 He's very cute, in a big, strong kind of way. He has brown hair and dark, dark eyes. He seems very serious until you get to know him. And then you realize he's still pretty serious, but he also knows when to laugh.
Jake has to know when to laugh because Marco has been his best friend since they were both in diapers. They've competed and foughtand disagreed the whole time. Marco's mission in life is to find the humor in everything. Even in his best friend.
Marco is kind of cute, too, although he's not my type. He wears his brown hair long and has these amazing eyelashes that I would love to have myself.
Marco isn't interested in being in charge, or even in being part of a team. He wants us to just quit the whole thing. He wants us to forget the Yeerks and forget morphing and just try and stay alive.
But at the same time, it's Marco who is very aware of all the security problems. He's the one who makes sure we never discuss anything on the phone, where enemy ears might be listening in.
Rachel is my closest friend. She has been for years. How can I explain Rachel? First of all, she and Jake are cousins, and they have a lot in common. They seem to grow strong people in that family, because Rachel is the strongest person I know. It's like nothing ever intimidates her. She's totally fearless, or at least that's how she seems.
To look at her you'd think, Oh, she'll grow up to be some airheaded model, because she's very tall and pretty and blond. But I pity anyone who mistakes Rachel for a wimpy airhead.
Sometimes I think Rachel likes the way everything has worked out. It's like all along there was this Amazon warrior locked up inside of her, and now she has an excuse to bring it out.
But she was not a person who believed in dreams very much. "Well, okay," she said, "if we're done with the dreams, let's - "
"Rachel," Jake interrupted, "I think I have something that may be interesting." He pulled a videocassette out of his bag.
"Cool. Let's watch a movie," Marco said.
"Not a movie," Jake said. "I guess no one else watched the late news last night?"
"I was busy watching my taped reruns of Mis ter Rogers' Neighborhood," Marco said, giving Rachel a sly look. "Last night it was the one where it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood."
Jake rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, the way he'd done a million times before when Marco said something irrelevant or annoying. "Rachel, can we go downstairs and use your VCR?"
"Sure," Rachel said.
We trooped down the stairs. Except for Tobias, who fluttered down above our heads.
11 "Hey, Tobias," Marco said, "I've been mean ing to ask you, are hawks like seagulls? I mean, do they poop while they're flying?"
"Depends on who's down below," Tobias shot back. "Let me just put it this way - if you get on my nerves, you'd better buy a hat."
Down in Rachel's living room, Jake turned on the TV and popped in his cassette.
"There was just this one small story," he narrated, as, on the screen, an old guy in a bathing suit held up a piece of what looked like metal.
"So now we're interested in hairy old guys who should be wearing shirts?" Marco asked.
"This old guy says he found that on the beach. It washed up during the storm a couple of days ago. Watch."
The camera focused on what looked like a jagged piece of metal, about two feet long and one foot wide. As the camera zoomed in, I saw what looked like letters. Only they weren't any alphabet I had ever seen.
Now the tape was showing the anchorwoman smiling, and then it went blank. Jake turned the VCR off.
"Okay . . . so?" Marco prodded.
Jake sighed. "So the night the Andalite landed, when I went inside his ship to get the cube that gave us our morphing powers, I saw writing."
I felt a chill creep up the back of my neck.
"I could be wrong, I mean, I'm not some expert," Jake said. "But I think it was that same alphabet. Those same kinds of letters."
Suddenly no one was laughing. Not even Marco.
"I think what washed up on the beach is a piece of an Andalite ship," Jake said.
Suddenly, without warning, I felt the ground swirl beneath me. I fell straight back, not even caring that Jake caught me in his arms just before I hit the carpet.
12 Chapter 4
I was falling, falling, falling.
Falling into the sea.
Splash! I hit the water. But still I fell. Down and down and down through blue-green, sunlit layers of water.
"I 'm here," a voice called to me. "l am here. I cannot survive much longer. If you hear me ...
come. If you hear me ... come."
Suddenly I opened my eyes. I stared up at Jake's concerned face.
Glancing across the room, I saw Rachel with the telephone to her ear, preparing to dial.
"She's awake!" Jake said.
"I'd better still call an ambulance," Rachel said.
"No!" Marco snapped, "Not unless we know she's hurt. It's too big a risk."
Rachel's eyes flared the way they do when someone tells her something she doesn't want to hear. "I'm calling nine-one-one," she said tersely.
"No, Rachel, I'm okay," I said. I sat up. My head felt a little woozy, but I was all right.
Rachel hesitated, her fingers just above the keypad. "What about Tobias?"
I looked around the room and saw Tobias spread out on the floor, one wing crumpled beneath him.