Hi, my name is Jessie. I can't tell you
my last name, or where I live. It would be too dangerous. The Yeerks are
everywhere and if they knew how to find me and my friends , we wouldn't
stand a chance. The Yeerks are really just slugs that crawl inside your
head and take control of you. When that happens, you stop being a true
human. You become a controller. That's what we call someone with a Yeerk
inside their head.
We, as in, Theresa, Sara, and I.
I have brown hair, blue eyes and most of the time I wear jeans or leggings
with a skirt. I think I'm like Cassie in the Animorph books.
Cassie is short, black and most of the
time she wears jeans or overalls. Her mom and dad work at wildlife places.
She loves animals, and that's good because if she didn't, it would be hard
with parents like that. She is the best morpher. Unlike Cassie, I'm not
black and my parents don't work at wildlife places. But I do like animals
a lot. I also have better taste in clothing.
Theresa is my best friend. She has brown
hair and most of the time she wears jeans. She thinks she's like all the
Animorphs. I think she's most like Marco. Marco is like her because he
is always making jokes about everything.
Then there is Sara. Sara is stuck in red-tailed
hawk morph. She used to have long blonde hair. Now she has brown feathers.
But even though we can morph, we still
have to act normal, which also means doing normal things. But today
I was having problems that didn't relate to morphing or Yeerks or whatever.
The problem I was having was trying to drag Theresa with me to the mall.
Chapter 2
"Come on, Theresa, you've been getting
ready all day," I said.
"No I haven't," Theresa complained.
"Then what have you been doing in
your room all this time?"
"Um…..I don't know."
"Well, if you don't know, then how
come you've been in there all this time?"
"Um….you know."
"Yeah, I know all right. You
just don't want to go shopping."
"Yeah, and you can't make me either."
By then I was getting pretty mad
at her. See, I couldn't go to the mall all alone but there was nobody
else to ask. I thought for a moment about who else I could try to
drag along. I needed to think of somebody who could go to the mall
with me or somebody who could come over and help me drag Theresa to the
mall. I thought a little more, but I couldn't think of anybody who
knew where Theresa lived. The only person that I could think of who
knew where she lived was Colleen. So I asked Theresa if I could use
the phone. Then I called Colleen.
A few minutes later, I heard Theresa
yell, "Hey, what are you doing climbing in through my window?" I
giggled a little. See, when I called Colleen, I told her to come
over, come in through Theresa's window, and chase her out of her room.
The plan worked. A few seconds later, Theresa came running out, and
I just happened to have placed a gigantic hockey goal outside in the hall,
so she ran straight into it and got tangled in the net. Colleen came
running after, but unlike Theresa, she didn't get caught in the net.
"Very funny," Theresa said.
Then she added softly, "NOT."
Colleen and I burst out giggling.
Theresa untangled herself, and now that she was out of her room, we managed
to get her to go to the mall with us.
Chapter 3
While we were at the mall, we ran
into Janice. When Theresa and I saw Janice, we quickly ducked behind
some clothing racks. Colleen ran behind with us.
"What on earth are you guys doing?"
Colleen asked.
"What does it look like we're doing?"
I said.
"I don't know – hiding?" Colleen
answered.
"Yeah, so?" Theresa said.
"Who are you hiding from?" Colleen
asked.
"Oh, nobody," we replied.
See, some time ago, when we first
got our megamorph powers, we just happened to find out that Janice was
a Controller. And she just happened to be there when we got our powers.
If she knew we were still alive she'd either kill us, or make us into controllers.
I leaned over and whispered to Theresa,
"Don't you think we should do something about her? We can't keep
hiding from her for the rest of our lives."
"Like what?" Theresa asked.
"I think hiding from her for the rest of our lives is a good idea."
"Well, I don't," I answered.
But when I said that, I forgot to whisper.
"What are you two talking about?"
Colleen asked suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing," I answered.
Then Theresa whispered to me, "Well,
if we're not going to hide from her for the rest of our lives, what should
we do about it? Kill her?"
"No," I answered, "but we've got
to figure out something."
"Well, I still say that hiding is
the best answer," Theresa said.
"I know that you two are talking
about something, so tell me what it is," Colleen said. "And by the
way, I picked up the word Janice in that conversation."
"Do you know who Janice is?" I asked.
"Yeah, sure," Colleen said.
Then she stopped herself. I guess she realized that she shouldn't
have said that because she forgot that we never really introduced her.
That got me wondering. Where would Colleen know her from? Could
Colleen be a Controller?
Chapter 4
Just as I had that thought, Janice just
happened to walk into the store. Then she just happed to look over,
and accidentally noticed us. When she saw Theresa and I, she looked
very surprised. She also looked like she was about to say something,
and stopped herself when she noticed Colleen. Well, whatever she
was going to say, she said something different.
"Why are you guys hiding back there?"
Janice asked.
"Um, I dropped something," I answered.
Janice looked like she was going to say
something else, but she stopped herself again. She looked at Theresa
and I and then noticed who else was with us. I guess she recognized
Colleen the same way Colleen knew her before. She signaled Colleen
to step aside with her and started whispering something to her. I
couldn't hear what she was saying but then I knew. Colleen was a
Controller. It was the only logical explanation. Colleen knew
who Janice was. And, if I'm not mistaken, the times when Colleen
and me wouldn't and would play made up a perfect 3 days. I couldn't
believe it.
"Come on, let's scram," I said to Theresa
as softly as I could.
Chapter 5
We got up from behind there, sneaked out
of the store, and then started running. We ran all the way to the
elevators and quickly pressed the button and hopped in one. The door
closed and for a while, Theresa and I just talked.
"You know, I think we could live in here
if we really wanted to," Theresa said.
"Yeah, we could play elevator operators,"
I replied. "And then Janice and Colleen could decide to take a ride
on the elevators and we'd be dead meat."
"Well, we've gotta do something.
It's creepy in here," Theresa said.
"Why is it so creepy?" I asked.
"Um..." Theresa said.
"What, you don't have claustrophobia,
do you?" I asked.
"Well, sort of," Theresa said. Just
then the elevator started to move.
"Uh, oh, it looks like we're going to
be playing elevator operator," I said. "Let's just hope it's not
Colleen or Janice. If it's not them, then nothing could possibly
go wrong and this would be a perfect place to stay for a while."
"Oh, man, you jinxed it," Theresa said.
"Now you know it's going to be them."
And Theresa ended up being right.
It was them. Luckily, there's a button on the elevator called, "Door
close." Right as the door opened and we noticed it was them, I hit
the button and the door closed. I quickly pressed the button for
the basement. If they decided to try and follow us, they would have
no chance of guessing where we went. If two people were trying to
escape from Controllers, you would never guess that they would go to the
basement. You would guess they would go to any floor with a door
leading to the outside. That way you could run away.
When we reached the basement, we quickly
hopped out, and just in time, too. Right after we hopped out, the
door closed and the elevator started going up. It was probably Colleen
and Janice trying to follow us. That is, if they could find us.
"It's creepy down here isn't it," Theresa
said.
"Yes, it is" I answered.
I looked around the room the I noticed
a door. And, I knew exactly where it led. Straight to the yeerk
pool.
"Come on, this way," I said to Theresa.
"Hurry."
Chapter 6
We ran over to the door. "You're
not serious about this, are you?" Theresa asked.
"Come on, it's the only way out," I said.
"All we have to do is sneak over to the dropshaft and get out – it's that
simple."
"Yeah, simple, right," Theresa said.
"And I'm the queen of Sheba."
"Come on, this is the third time I'm going
to say it. It's the only way out."
"Oh, all right," Theresa said "But
if we end up being controllers, it's all your fault."
"Don't worry," I said. We opened
the door and sneaked in. There were a couple of stairs, but not many,
beings we were pretty far down. We went down one step, and then I
whispered to Theresa, "We'd better morph into something small so they won't
notice us."
I searched through my mind for something
that would be able to get through there very quickly. They only morphs
that I had that were small enough were a fly, a gerbil, and a parakeet.
A fly is so small that it wouldn't be able to get through there quick enough.
A gerbil would be noticed since it needs to walk on the ground. An
even though they're fast, it would still take more than the two-hour time
limit. But the parakeet would be just right. I could morph
into a parakeet and fly just below the ceiling. I'd be able to get
across and over to the dropshaft quicker than you could say, "Megamorph."
I concentrated on changing into a parakeet.
The parakeet that I had acquired was my parakeet, Whitey. And as
you could probably guess, Whitey is white so I would blend in perfectly.
Every time you change into an animal, the changes happen differently.
But, like Cassie I have the ability to control how I morph.
Chapter 7
The first thing that happened was I started
to shrink. It felt more like I was falling than shrinking.
Suddenly the ground came rushing up to hit me. Then I suddenly remembered
that I had my normal outfit on. I stopped the morphing and changed
back and put on my morphing outfit. Then I concentrated again.
I shrank one more time, and then my legs started getting scaly. My
feet split into teeny tiny bird feet, like talons except not really.
I looked down at myself and noticed that all over my skin tiny feather
patterns were appearing. Then suddenly they turned into real feathers.
My fingers ran together and my arms shrank and turned into wings.
And all this time, I kept wondering what was going to happen to my braces
because I got my braces recently and I hadn't morphed since then.
I thought that it would catch a lot of attention for a parakeet to be flying
through there with braces on its beak!
Suddenly my teeth started to run together
and go outward and turn into a beak. As they did, surprisingly my
braces started to disappear! They melted into the beak. And,
since the colors that I had on my braces were gold, they didn't need to
change color that much to make a beak. By then, I was pretty small
and the only thing left was that I didn't have a tail. I looked backwards
to see, and I looked pretty ridiculous. Imagine – a parakeet without
a tail! Then, my tail started to grow. Long feathers sprouted
out, kind of like in the science movies where they show plants sprouting
out of the ground in fast motion. I looked down at myself and extended
my wings. I looked pretty much like a bird. Then suddenly my
vision changed. Parakeets don't have really sharp vision, like a
hawk or eagle or predator, but the parakeet that I had morphed did have
pretty good vision. I couldn't tell that well, though, since it was
really dark.
Then to make things even weirder,
my eyes started sliding along my head to the sides and my hearing changed
too. It went from being normal human hearing to the sharp hearing
of a parakeet. Everything around me that was making noise sounded
like it was practically shouting.
I looked around. I was done
morphing. I looked over at Theresa – actually at where Theresa had
been. See, the only morph that Theresa had that could fly was a fly.
But she wouldn't be able to get to the dropshaft in the two-hour time limit.
<Theresa, hop on my back, or
you won't be able to make it over to the dropshaft quick enough,> I said
to Theresa.
<OK,> she replied.
Chapter 8
She hopped on and I flapped my wings and
took off. I headed straight for the ceiling. And let me tell
you, it was really scary. Parakeets have good vision in the light, but
in the dark their vision is bad. I mean, I could only see a few feet
in front of me. From the distance I was from the ceiling it look
all blurry. I could hardly tell how far away it was. It got
even more scary when I realized that I would need to make a sharp turn
or else I would hit it. My timing needed to be perfect. But
with these eyes it couldn't. I pulled out of the upward-dive and
just in time too.
SPLAT!
We hit the wall hard. If it would
have been straight on it would have killed us. We fell down and down
until we hit the ground.
<Theresa, I'm hurt bad.
I need to morph back, and fast!> I exclaimed.
<I'm hurt, too! I know
it's kinda strange but I am!> Theresa said.
I started to morph back. The
first thing that I wanted to change was my eyes. It worked.
Suddenly I could see normally. Then I started growing. That
got a few peoples' attention. Controllers were watching but I didn't
care.
Unlike the Animorphs, the yeerks
knew that we weren't Andalites. They knew we were humans. I
stopped morphing. I couldn't let them know who I really was.
That I was just a normal kid. But most of all, that I was me –Jessie
-- someone that they never thought could be a threat. I tried to
remember what Sara had said.
<You can morph straight into
S.H. morph from any other morph.>
So I tried to warn Theresa but I
could no longer thought speak. I started to morph again. But
as I did, I concentrated on going S.H. (By the way, S.H. stands for
Super Hero.) Suddenly, my feathers changed into fur. I grew
pointy ears. And a black mask covered my face.
When you morph S.H. it goes faster
than regular morphing. I looked over and saw Theresa slowly coming
out of morph.
" Ape -- morph S.H. now!" I told Theresa.
See, we need to have code names so the yeerks don't know who we are.
My S.H. morph is a cat of course, and my code name is Kitty. Theresa's
is a big monkey and her code name is Ape.
I looked around, to see how far away the
dropshaft was. And then, right in front of me, with a gun pointed
straight at us, was Colleen.
"Freeze! Don't move or I'll shoot!"
she warned. And I wasn't about to let her fire that gun. See,
it wasn't just a gun. It was a Dracon beam.
"RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled.
Chapter 9
So that's what we did. We couldn't
stay and fight. I couldn't fight Colleen, I just couldn't.
I ducked as she fired. The beam hit the person in back of me.
That person just happened to be JANICE! Colleen dropped the gun and
ran after us. She wasn't chasing us. She was running with us.
I got the feeling she was going to get in big trouble for accidentally
shooting Janice.
I stopped for a minute and turned around
to wait for Colleen.
"Are you crazy Kitty! Leave her
behind, she's a Controller!" Theresa called.
"I'm waiting, like it or not!" I called
back. Then I ran back a little bit, grabbed Colleens arm and teleported.
Theresa did too. And just in time too. But we both teleported
to different places! I teleported to my house and she teleported
to her house! But I didn't care right then. I was tired and
since I have asthma I could barely breath. Asthma is not a good thing
to have when you need to save the world from Aliens.
"What happened back there?" I asked as
soon as I had caught my breath. "Why did they start chasing you too?"
"Oh, no reason," she lied. But I
knew it was a lie. See that's what happens when you're around controllers
a lot. You start to be able to tell when they're lying, which is
most of the time.
Colleen and I called a truce. At
least for until we were both safe. I wondered what Theresa thought.
I mean, Colleen was a controller but we were still friends, and nothing
would ever change that. Theresa would just have to put up with it.
In the Animorph books, Jake's brother
Tom is a controller and Marco's mom is too. Well now I knew how they
felt. Because now I knew, Colleen was one of them too. But
unlike them, I was going to do something about it. I just didn't
know what.