rescue2

The Rescue by Kristin

         As I was finishing up correcting POWs (problem of the weeks; a math problem that I assign to each student on Monday, and they pass them in on Friday) some Monday during a studyhall, Jake causally asked me, "Hey. Um, do I owe any work for you?" I knew that signal. It meant there would me a meeting behind Cassie's house this afternoon. Now it was my turn to talk in code to him, "Uh.. hold on a sec... let me look.. (I opened my gradebook, and scrolled down it, pretending that I was looking for how much work he owed)...hmmmm... Jake. Here you are.
Wow...You owe me 4 assignments in geography, and, didn't you finish half of your Famous Place report?" That meant that I would be at the meeting at 4:30 that night. He said, "OK." and then left.
         I almost began writing a comment about the meeting on Jake's POW, when Mrs. Hayden came in. I felt self conscience about it, so I stopped writing. It felt like she was staring at me. I looked up, and she was. I don't know why. Then, she leaned over and said in a silky whisper into my ear, "We will get you back Kristin. You can't hide from us."
         My eyes widened with fear. She was a controller. I could not believe that the person I worked with, every day was a controller! Great. This would increase my chances of staying free and alive, I said to myself.

* * * *          Later, at the meeting, we all sat around while Cassie had cleaned out some of the cages. Her father works in the woods behind his house and takes care of non-petlike animals that have been hurt.
         "Kristin. I think you need to acquire some morphs. First, you should get a bird. A bird of prey, specifically. Like..." She looked over at the row of cages. She finally pulled out a red-tailed hawk. Tobias looked over to me, and nodded. "Like a red-tail."
         I reached my hand out and touched the coarse feathers of this bird and concentrated. We both became a little spaced out with this process, me and this hawk. After that, I had 2 morphs. Rachel, and the hawk.
         "You better get some real morphs, Kristin. Wow, that feels weird calling you 'Kristin' instead of 'Miss Wilkinson' " Jake said with a shyness I had never heard from him before.
         "Why is it that Jake needs to call you 'Miss Wilkinson' while in the educational facility, yet not at our meetings?" Ax wondered aloud. Ax was in human morph, and he wonders a lot about human concepts.
         "It's a rule that the school has. The teachers are respected by being called 'Miss Wilkinson' or whatever their name is." I explained with a laugh.
         "C'mon," Cassie said. "Let's go to the Gardens."