The Vacation

By Jessie

Chapter 1

Hi my name is Jessie.  I can't tell you my last name or where I live.  It would be too dangerous.  Actually I see no point in keeping it a secret anymore.  We finally defeated the Yeerks.  We destroyed the yeerk pool.  The yeerk pool is the most important thing to a yeerk.  Every 3 days the yeerks need to leave their hosts and swim in the yeerk pool.  But now we the yeerk pool is destroyed and the war is over.  But I still won't tell you my last name or where I live.  First of all we means me, Theresa, Susie, Colleen, Sara, and Elizabeth (Liz).
I have brown hair, blue eyes, and most of the time I wear jeans, overalls, or leggings with a skirt.  I'm 11 and in 6th grade.  I love shopping and am very particular about how I look.  I mean, I always make sure my hair isn't messy and my cloths don't look babyish.  My favorite animal is a cat in fact, my S.H. morph is a white cat.  (S.H. stands for super hero.)  We each have code names too.  Mine is Princess.  My old morph was a Black cat and my old code name was Kitty.  We also each have extra powers.  Mine is that I'm psychic.  I can tell the future and I can tell who is a controller and who isn't.  As I said before my old morph was a Black cat and my old code name was Kitty.  Now my sister Susie has that morph and name.
Susie is my sister.  (She's also 11.)  Amazingly we like all of the same stuff, look exactly alike, and never get into fights.  I think maybe she could be my real twin sister.  She used to be a controller but we freed her.  Her special power is she is super smart.  She knows all of the yeerks' secrets and everything about them.  Susie and Theresa don't get along that well yet because now, me and Theresa don't hang out as much.  I hang out a lot with Susie instead.
Theresa is my best friend and has been for 4 ½ years.  She's 10 and also in 6th grade.  She has brown hair, brown eyes, and most of the time she wears jeans.  She doesn't care how she looks as much as I do. She's really smart and takes and take Megas math too.  And she doesn't go shopping as much as I do.  Her old S.H. morph was a monkey and her old codename was Ape.  Her new morph is a Eagle and her new codename is Jewel.
Colleen is also my best friend and has been for 5-6 years.  She's 11 and in 6th grade too.  She has blond hair and most of the time she wears jeans.  She, like me, loves shopping and cares how she looks.  She used to be a controller too but her extra power is that she is super strong and can get out of being a controller on her own.  She's very brave too.  Her S.H. morph is a wolf and her codename is Tania.
Liz is my buddy.  She's in kindergarten (KG).  She has blonde hair and I'm not sure what color eyes.  About the only time I see her is at school or when we're on an adventure after school so whenever I see her she's wearing her school uniform.  Her S.H. morph is a white mouse and her code name is Squeak.
And Sara is a girl stuck in red-tailed hawk morph.
Now that the yeerk pool is destroyed we can get back to our "normal" lives.  Or as normal as we can get them.  Right now we were going on "normal" vacations.  And nothing was going to spoil our fun.
  (Not even the yeerks if we could help it.)

Chapter 2

"You packed and ready?" my mom called.
"Yep," I answered.  This was going to be great.  A whole week of vacation was ahead of me.  We were going to the Lake of the Ozarks.  And the best part was there would be no interference from the yeerks.  Theresa was also going on vacation.  She was going to Florida.
"Come on Susie.  We gotta get going.  Are you packed?" I called.
"Yeh," She answered.  On the way there something kept repeating in my head.  What Kristen had said after we got our powers.< The yeerks may appear to be beaten, but they are stronger than you think. >  That's what was repeating in my head.  Maybe I was rushing this.  Maybe we all were.  But maybe not.  I was prob'ly just imaging thing but then I heard something like thought – speak.
< You're driving straight into a trap. >
"Sara?" I asked, not knowing that I hadn't thought–spoke.  See when we got our new powers, not the extra ones, the ones Sara gave us.  We also got the power to thought–speak when we're not in morph.
"What?" Susie asked.
"Oops," I said blushing.  Then she whispered:
"Did Sara contact you?"
"I don't know.  I'll thought – speak back and ask."  < Sara?  Was that you? >
< No.  And I said, you're driving straight into a trap! > the voice said.  Then I knew who was thought–speaking to me.  Kristen.  She was the one who gave us our new powers.  She used to be a controller but she died when the school collapsed.  She was the only other one who would thought–speak to me.  Just as she had said that the car screeched to a stop.  The ground in front of us exploded.  Literally!
"They know who we are?" I asked.
"Who?" my mom asked.
"Noone.  I was reading a book and when that happened I read a line out loud by accident." It was lame but it worked.  I knew who was shooting at us.  The yeerks!  I couldn't believe it, they knew who we were.  No, not that, they knew Susie.  That's who they were after.  Our car zigzagged off the road and into some grass.  We stopped the car and mom and dad got out to check if the car was alright.  Once they left I said to Susie "now!" She nodded.  And at the same time we morphed.  We teleported out of the car and up to the ship that had shot at us.  I couldn't believe who was up there.  Mrs. Bresnahan!  I pretended I didn't know who she was when Susie asked:
"Mrs. Bresnahan?"
"Who?" I replied.
"She's our math teacher at school.  I didn't know she was a controller."  Susie answered.  My plan worked.  She recognized Susie but not me.  That was really, really good because I didn't want her after me too.
"Why did you shoot at my sister too?  I'm the only one you're after." Susie asked.
"You look exactly alike.  But now I'm after her too.  Thanks for telling me she was in the car too." Mrs. Bresnahan smirked.
"Great," Susie moaned.
 

Chapter 3

Susie had blown it, and now the Yeerks were after me too.  But there was no way of telling who was who.  Susie and I looked exactly alike.
"Are we the only ones you're after?" asked Susie.
"No," she answered.  "We're after that hawk, too."
I knew who she meant by "that hawk."  She was after Sara.  And Sara was in Theresa's car, which meant that she would be shooting at Theresa, too.  That's what Kristen had meant when she warned me we would be driving into a trap.
"Why are we wasting time Susie?  We need to get back in time so your parents don't get worried," I warned.
"'K," she answered.  She raised her gun and shot.  Actually we don't have guns we have Dracon Beams.  They're yeerk technology.  They are kinda like ray guns except a lot stronger.  They can disintegrate stuff in like 10 sec.  Anyway, when she shot she aimed straight for the control panel.  The whole thing exploded and the ship lost its cloaking so every one who looked up would see it.
"GET THEM!" Mrs. Bresnahan shouted.  But it was too late.
"Bye yeerks.  And good riddance," we both said.  Then we teleported.
When we got back to the car my mom looked over just in time to see the bug fighter crash land.
"What the?"  My mom questioned.  But then she figured she was just seeing things.  We got on the road and kept driving.  Just a few seconds after we started on our way again Kristen said < Theresa's in big trouble.  You need to morph and stop that other bug fighter quick.  Stop at the next gas station that you pass and morph quick. >  I leaned over and told Susie the plan.  She nodded.  The plan was that first of all we wouldn't follow Kristen's plan exactly.  At the next gas station we'd stop there but instead of us protecting Theresa, we'd just contact her and let her handle it.  After all, she can take care of herself.  Plus she might get mad at us, or think that we think that she can't take care of herself.  Am I confusing you?  If I am, sorry.
Anyway, when we got to the next gas station, I said, "Mom, I need to go to the bathroom.  Can we stop here?"  She said yes, so we stopped.  Susie came with into the bathroom and once we were in there, I contacted Theresa.
I guess the gas station was a little too far away and it took too long to reach it, because when I told Theresa what Kristen had told me, she replied,  "Yeah, you could have told me that about 15 minutes earlier.  How about a little help over here?"  So I decided to go help her.
Chapter 4

I knew my mom would worry if I took too long, but I decided that it wouldn't take that long to go help Theresa.  I mean, how long can it possibly take to destroy a Bug fighter full of aliens?  We morphed and teleported to where Theresa was.  I knew that when my mom found that I was missing she'd have a heart attack.  That is, if she found I was missing.  Which she wouldn't. (I hope.)  She would prob'ly freak if she did happen to notice.
When we got there Theresa was in a little bit of trouble.  Make that a lot of trouble.  She was trying to hide Sara while her dad was checking to see if the car was OK.  And the yeerks had done some damage to the car.  The car was smoking a little bit and the trunk was gone.  I mean completely.  The one tire was flattened.
I guess the yeerks gave up because they weren't shooting at them anymore.  But what I was wondering was why would they shoot at us.  They try to cover up and make this a secret attack that noone knows about and then they go shooting at us in the open.  Anyone could have seen that and known but I guess the yeerks figured that if anyone saw they would just kill them or make them controllers.
We had teleported behind a tree so that Theresa's parents wouldn't see us.  Then we contacted Theresa.  She made up some excuse for needing to leave the car.  Whatever the excuse was it worked because a few minutes later she came running over and then turned invisible.  I already told you that that's her extra powers.
"What took ya so long?" Theresa asked.  "I could have used your help earlier.  The yeerks really damaged our car.  I have a felling that we won't be driving all the way to Florida now.  My parents are considering going to the Lake of the Ozarks instead."
"Then we'd be going to the same place!" I exclaimed.  "Look I gotta go.  My mom will be worried."  I teleported back and demorphed.  Then I went back to the car.  This wasn't exactly turning out how I had expected.  I thought that the yeerks were defeated but they weren't.  Like Kristen had said the yeerks may appear to be beaten, but they are stronger than we think.
But for now I wasn't going to worry about it.  I was going to have a nice vacation and nothing was going to stand in my way.
But I was about to find out just how untrue that was.
 
 

Chapter 5

Vacation at last.  We had finally reached the lake.  It had taken us longer than we had planned because of all the stops we had made.  When we got there we stayed at the Lodge of the Four Seasons.  Later I found out that Theresa was staying at Tan-Tara.  That's another hotel on the other side of the lake.  Tan-Tara is bigger than the lodge but they're both good places to stay.
Anyway when we got there the first thing I did was go into one of the rooms and contact Theresa.  She told me the phone number for her hotel room and I told her mine.  Then we made a plan to have our parents run into each other.  We would have them run into each other at the golf course tomorrow.  It turns out, that was as big of a mistake as underestimating the yeerks.
The next day everything went according to plan.  When our parents ran into each other, they went off to the side and started talking like crazy while we were stuck holding the golf clubs.
"Well this is my idea of a fun day don't you think?" I muttered to Theresa.
"You're telling me," Theresa said.  "But you're lucky.  You have a smaller family so you don't need to hold as many clubs!"
"Why don't you just put them down?" I suggested.  She took my advice and did.  Then we decided to go look around.  I mean, how much trouble could we get into?  Turns out – a whole lot.
While we were looking around, our parents noticed that we were missing.  Susie had stayed behind just in case our parents noticed, but they still got worried.  When they finally found us, our parents hollered at us a little bit, but in the end, things turned out OK because our parents had already planned to have dinner together at the Lodge.
After dinner, we went up to our hotel room and our parents talked a while.  While they talked, Theresa and I decided to explore a little.  We told our parents that we were going to the inside pool and went and got our swimming suits.  Then we left the hotel room and started to look around a little.  And who do you suppose we happened to see, but Mrs. Bresnahan!  But that was impossible – she was on the bug fighter when we blew it up.  But that didn't matter at the time.  We decided to follow her.
We made sure that we were far enough back from her.  Then we quietly crept down the hallway after her.  It seemed like we snuck around for a very long time, but the way we were walking, it was no surprise that it seemed to take forever.  She finally came to a stop in front of a closet.  It was right near the ice machine, so it was kind of cold.  She had some sort of a special key that she used to unlock the door.  Since Theresa didn't want to be seen, she turned invisible and turned us invisible too.  Then we followed her through the door.  It turns out that the door led straight to the yeerk pool, and the pool stretched all the way from the Lodge, under the Lake, all the way to Tan-Tara, where there was another passageway leading into Tan-Tara.
"We really underestimated these guys didn't we?" I whispered.
"You can say that again," Theresa replied.
"We really underestimated these guys didn't we?" I repeated.
"That's not what I meant," Theresa said angrily.  I could tell she wasn't in the mood for jokes.  Just then Susie slipped and she wasn't invisible anymore.  Theresa tried to grab her and turn her invisible again but she wasn't fast enough.  Mrs. Bresnahan heard her fall and turned around.  Susie noticed that Mrs. Bresnahan had seen her and jumped up quickly.

Chapter 6

"Well, you came here on vacation too?" Mrs. Bresnahan asked.  Susie decided not to stick around.  She turned and ran but a Hork-Bajir cut her off.  She turned and ran the opposite way instead!  That was even worse and I knew I had to help her.  I morphed and when I did I turned uninvisible.  Then I ran after Susie.
"Turn back!  Your going the wrong way!" I shouted.  But she didn't listen.  She was running straight into a trap.  And I couldn't stop her.  I teleported in front of her.  Then she stopped.
"What's with you!  They're getting closer!" she said.
"Turn around.  You're going the wrong way," I complained.
"Hey I know what I'm doing ," she said.
"Turn around!" I ordered.
"No.  and you're not my boss either," she sneered.  By then     Mrs. Bresnahan and the Hork-Bajir were just staring.  I guess they didn't know why we were fighting because they thought we didn't know each other.
"You know you could get yourself killed?" I asked.
"I don't care," she said and then teleported.  I did too.  What was with her anyway?  We never fight.  This was the first time we had had a fight since the day we had first met.  I thought that she was the perfect sister.  Normal sisters fight all the time but we never fought.  We always agreed because we were so much alike.
I never did go to the swimming pool.  Theresa did and so did Susie but I stayed behind.  I walked up to the room and over heard my mom saying:
"No she doesn't know yet."
"Well you better tell her," Theresa's mom said.
"She doesn't need to know.  She and Susie are perfect sisters and if I tell her that Susie is her real sister, that would jinx it," my mom replied.  I almost fainted.  Susie was my real twin sister!  I was going to go to the pool and tell Theresa but then I heard her in the hall.  I couldn't tell her then because Susie was there.  But I was so, so, what's the word?  Thrilled, to know that Susie really was my sister.
 
 
 

Chapter 7

As for the rest of vacation we only had two more big fights with the yeerks.  They were both Susie's fault.  Although she would prob'ly argue and say it wasn't.  It all started because Mrs. Bresnahan had followed Susie back to the hotel room.  Susie had really blown it the other night.  I was happy to have finally found out that we were really sisters.  That explained a lot.  But I was still mad at her.  She almost got us killed several times.  I was even considering not letting her be part of the team.  But then I realized that I was thinking just like I was her real sister.
It was late at night when the yeerks made their second attempt to catch us.  I woke up at 1:00 am when I heard a noise at the door.  I woke Susie and we snuck into the other room to see what it was.  The doorknob started to turn.  I was going to morph but decided to wait.  Whoever it was they wouldn't be able to get into the room without a key.  But then the door opened and in stepped……..a cleaning lady.  It was just a cleaning lady.
"Oh, I'm sorry.  Did I wake you up?  I didn't mean to.  The Do Not Disturb sign wasn't up so I thought noone was here," the lady apologized.  But I looked straight into her eyes and knew that she was lying.  I also knew that she was a controller.  See, I need to look the person straight in the eye to tell if they're a controller or not. She was definitely a controller.
"You guys never give up do you?" I asked.
"How did you know?" she asked suspiciously.
"Just call it a lucky guess.  Or the fact that I'm psychic," I answered.  She tried to grab me but I ducked and tripped her.  Then I grabbed Susie and ran off into the hall.  There I found a few more controllers waiting for me.  It wasn't that hard to beat a bunch of human controllers.  They out numbered us but that didn't matter.  I knew karate.  And to tell you the truth, now that I know Susie is really my sister I didn't really care if she could defend herself or not.  But the truth also is that deep down I knew that if she couldn't defend herself, I'd protect her.  After all, she is my sister.
We made it past the controllers and started running again.  We ran pretty far.  All the way to the big water fountain that they have in the one part.  We stopped there because I was out of breath and we figured that we would be safe.  I have asthma so that's why I needed to stop.  Asthma is not something you want when you need to save the word from aliens.
We sat there for about oh, say, can you see.  Just kidding.  We sat there for about 20-30 sec. then we were ambushed.  Actually we didn't even sit there that long but who's keeping track.  I was rested up enough anyway.  We jumped up and the chase was on again.
Chapter 8

We ran for a little longer and then I said "How long are we going to keep this up?  Lets stop running and morph and fight instead."  That was a good idea I guess because Susie morphed.  I did too.  Luckily there was noone around so we could morph.  The yeerks already knew who some of us were and we wanted to make sure that they forgot.
We fought them off and then demorphed.  At one point I fell into the water fountain.  It wasn't much of a battle but everyone who knew that we could morph was either dead or free.  We went back to the hotel room tired and wet and totally sick and tired of this war with the yeerks.  My mom never even knew that we were gone, even though when we came back we needed to change our cloths and dry our hair.(Quietly)
The yeerks made their final attempt to catch us on the day that we left town.  They seemed extremely determined to win this time.  We were getting packed up when I heard someone at the door.  I went over and called:
"Who's there?"  No answer.  I tried again. "Who's there?" No answer.  My mom and dad walked into the room and opened the door.  It was Mrs. Bresnahan!
"Hi!" she said sounding surprised. "I saw Jessie and Susie in the hall the other day and so when I found out where your room was I decided to come over."
"Come in and sit down," my mom said.
"No, that's OK.  I need to talk to the girls in private, though.  It's about their grades." Mrs. Bresnahan said.
"OK," my mom replied.  I slightly shook my head and so did Susie.  We went out in the hall and I was considering morphing but then I remembered that Mrs. Bresnahan didn't know that I could morph yet.  So instead I pretended like everything was normal.  Susie leaned over and pretended to whisper something in my ear.  Then we both broke into a run. Mrs. Bresnahan ran after.  Susie and I turned a corner and teleported before Mrs. Bresnahan turned the corner.  We teleported back to the room and then finished getting packed.
On the way home was when the yeerks made their last attempt to catch us.  And as you can probably guess, they didn't succeed.
 

Chapter 9

We were in the car when I heard Kristen warn < Turn around and go back or stay and fight.  But you're driving into a trap again. >  So I told mom I needed to go to the bathroom again.  When we stopped, both me and Susie went into the bathroom and I contacted Theresa.  Then we morphed and were off to go destroy some more Bug fighters.  We teleported up to the bug fighter and there was Mrs. Bresnahan waiting for us.
"You guys never give up, do you?" Mrs. Bresnahan asked.
"Hey, that's my line!" I complained.  "And you're right, we don't.  and neither do you.  Until now."  And then I raised my gun shot the control panel and the bug fighter should have blown up.  But it didn't!  It didn't blow up!
"What?" I asked.
"Surprise.  You see, I had a few adjustments made so that this can't be destroyed," Mrs. Bresnahan sneered.  I didn't know what to do.  She had us cornered.  We couldn't destroy the bug fighter.  But we also couldn't go back to the car because they would just blow the car up.
"Who are you anyway?  I know who the black cat is but what about you?" Mrs. Bresnahan asked.
"Princess." I answered.
"Ha ha very funny," she said.
"Well, I know one thing I can tell you about myself.  I have a friend.  Actually this little friend is a little white mouse.  And she's your worst nightmare," I said.  Then I told Susie to call Liz and tell her to morph and get over here fast.  She did.
"Mrs. Bresnahan, meet my little mouse friend.  Squeak.  She's the one that destroyed the yeerk pool," I said.  Then Liz zapped the control panel and it exploded.  We teleported off and were safe.
Susie and I got home safely and so did Theresa.  I had thought that we had won when we destroyed the yeerk pool.  But we hadn't.  The war wasn't won after all.  The yeerks were weakened but not defeated.  We had won a lot more battles than the Animorphs had but we hadn't won the war.  That's why I knew from the beginning that I shouldn't tell you much about me.
"Do you think Mrs. Bresnahan is still alive?" I asked Susie when we were home.
"Maybe," she said.  "Maybe."
The End

"Or is it just the beginning of another adventure?"

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