I dropped toward the trees.

  I actually had time to notice the nest in a high branch. Just out of the corner of my eye. I had time to think, Isn’t that cute? Baby birds.

  And then they hit me.

  SWOOP!

  SWOOP!

  Faster than me! More agile! Small, dark birds zipped straight at me like they were going to hit. Too many of them!

  SWOOP! SWOOP! SWOOP!

  I turned a hard left. In a flash I knew what was happening. They thought I was attacking their nest. They were “mobbing” me! Trying to drive me off.

  I banked a hard turn. Too fast! I was still going fast from the dive. Too fast! Bank left! Turn!

  WHAM!

  I barely saw the tree trunk before I hit. Head-first.

  Down I fell. Down through branches that tore at me, banged me, slapped me, ripped at my feathers.

  I hit the ground hard. I was hurt. I knew I was hurt. Fading out. My mind was swimming. Human thoughts … eagle instinct, all swirling, shifting. I was falling down, down a dark well.

  Down …

  Morph out, I told myself. Rachel … MORPH OUT!

  And then I was gone.

  Marco

  “Look, it’s simple,” I explained patiently. “There’s this party. This pool party. And I was not invited. Not only was I not invited, but the girl who’s having the party went out of her way to not invite me.”

  By the way, hi, my name is Marco. I’m an Animorph, too. I’m the smart, cute one. No, seriously. Jake is the bossy one, Cassie’s the nice one, Rachel is the stupidly brave one, and Tobias is a bird.

  I am the cute one. All the girls think so. All except Darlene.

 

  That was Ax speaking. Well, not exactly “speaking.” He’s an Andalite, and Andalites don’t have mouths. They do “thought-speak.” It’s like telepathy. We can all do it when we’re in a morph. But for Andalites it’s their normal language. Ax’s real name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. Rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it? Now you know why we just call him Ax.

  “That’s right,” I explained to him. “I mean, Jake and Cassie were both invited. Rachel was invited, but she’s going to that stupid gymnastics thing. Basically, everyone at school was invited. All I’m saying is, there must be a reason why I was not invited. And I think I know what that reason is: Darlene likes me. There’s no other possible explanation.”

  Ax looked puzzled.

  “Not like. Like. I like you, Ax. But I don’t like you. There’s like, and then there’s like, like.”

  Ax stared at me with his main eyes. He has four eyes altogether. Two of them are fairly normal. The other two eyes are on these stalklike things that stick out of the top of his head like those little horns a giraffe has. On the end of each stalk, he has an eye, which he can point in any direction. Very weird. But you can’t sneak up on the guy, that’s for sure.

  Ax said.

  “It’s okay. You don’t need to understand. I just want you to go with me.”

 

  “That’s right. We have to go to the party to see what Darlene says about me. She and her cheerleader friends are probably going to talk about me. I want to hear what they say.”

 

  “Yeah. You and me. I need someone to watch my back.”

 

  I rolled my eyes. Ax is convinced Jake is his prince. I guess Andalites are into the whole royalty thing.

  “Yes, Jake will be there. But Jake is not going to help me spy on Darlene, is he? Neither will Cassie. Cassie doesn’t exactly fit in with the cheerleader crowd. They talk about clothes and guys. Cassie talks about animals and saving the world or whatever.”

  Ax said,

 

  Tobias. He zipped swiftly overhead and landed on a low branch. He was carrying something in his beak.

  “Hi, Tobias,” I said. “Do you have it?”

 

  “Drop it down to me,” I said.

  Tobias said.

 

 

  “Just give me the mouse and stop acting like a parent,” I interrupted. “I’m not blackmailing anyone. I’ll bring Ax the flea powder. Jeez. The suspicion around here.”

  Tobias dropped the mouse and I caught it with one hand. It squirmed and I almost dropped it. But as I began to “acquire” it, it calmed down.

  See, if you want to morph into an animal, you have to acquire it first. You have to make contact. Then you sort of focus on it, concentrate on it. The animal goes into a trance. And meanwhile the animal’s DNA is being absorbed.

  Don’t ask me how it works. It’s some weird Andalite biotechnology. I just know it works.

  When I was done acquiring the mouse I handed it to Ax. He had to use both hands to hold on. Andalite arms and hands are kind of puny. Of course, they also have four legs, and those are pretty strong. I mean, Ax can haul when he wants to. I’ll bet he could do forty miles an hour.

  Then there’s that tail. The tail is the reason Andalites will never be considered truly “cute.” I’ve seen Ax use his tail on full-grown Hork-Bajir warriors. And fast? Man, you don’t even see it move. It’s like WHAPP! and all of a sudden a Hork-Bajir only has one arm. I believe Ax could chop down a tree with that tail if he felt like it.

  Tobias said.

  “Hey, Jake was invited to the party, all right? He’ll be soaking up the rays at poolside. He’ll be having a good time. Meanwhile I, his best friend, was not even invited. Jake is big on justice. I ask you: Is this justice? No. Clearly not.”

 

  “I was like six years old,” I protested. “I didn’t know any better. Besides, it was funny.”

 

  “Whatever. Who remembers this stuff?”

 

  I ignored Tobias. “Are you done acquiring the mouse?” I asked Ax. “If so, give him back to Tobias for lunch.”

  Tobias said.

  “And who would know that better than you, Mr. Predator?”

  Tobias laughed.

  “There won’t be any eagles at the party,” I said. “The bird world is your problem, dude. I have a party to attend.”

  Ax said.

  Tobias said with a laugh.

  Jake

  “I feel bad even going to this party,” I said. “Darlene should have invited Marco. He wouldn’t have done the Baby Ruth thing again. He’s much more mature now. Sort of.”

  “I feel a little guilty, too,” Cassie said. She lowered her voice to a whisper and put her mouth close to my ear. “But I seem to remember you saying we should all take the weekend off and be normal. So I am going to be normal.”

  We were both in our swim suits, sitting in those long pool chairs. You know — the ones you can adjust so you’re lying down or sitting up.

  There were forty or fifty kids around the pool. Darlene’s family has money, I guess, because it’s a very nice pool.

  There was a long table loaded up with chips and dip and cold cuts. And there were coolers full of iced soft drinks. There was decent rock music playing on the stereo. Some kids were dancing.

  It wasn’t even noon yet, but the sun was already bright. It was going to be hot, that was for sure. I almost envied Rachel heading up to the mountains. It would probably be cooler up there.

  “It feels weird to just sit around and relax,” I said.

  As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I heard a bloodcurdling scream.

  “Yaaaaaaahhh!” someone shrieked.

  “Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!” someone else cried.

  I sat straight up. Trouble! I could feel the familiar rush of adrenaline. I quickly looked around, checking for the ways to escape, the places where we could stand and fight, the places we might be able to hide for a quick morph. People were running.

  No … on a closer look, only a couple of girls were running. They were the ones screaming.

  “That’s Darlene,” Cassie said. She sent me a puzzled, worried look.

  “Oh! Oh! Oh! Get it away from me!” Darlene screamed. “Get it awaaaaay!”

  Darlene ran straight toward us. She ran like the hounds of hell were right behind her. “Help me!” she screamed. “It’s after me!”

  “What is it?!” I yelled to no one in particular.

  “Mice!” this girl named Tracy yelled. “Miiiice!”

  Then I spotted them: two tiny, harmless little mice. Two little mice, chasing Darlene like a pair of lions trying to bring down a buffalo.

  Darlene dodged right. The mice went right after her. And then something very interesting happened. This guy named Hans yelled, “Darlene! Run this way! I’ll stomp them!”

  Darlene headed for Hans. Hans raised his foot up, ready to stomp the mice as they shot past. But suddenly the mice turned a sharp left, shot around behind Hans, and tore off after Darlene again.

  Right then, I knew. The mice had heard Hans’s plan. They had dodged away to safety.

  “Real mice don’t chase people,” Cassie said, giving me a meaningful look.

  “No, they don’t,” I agreed.

  “Marco,” Cassie whispered. “And he must have dragged Ax into it, too.”

  “I’ll kill him,” I said. “Just as soon as we save him.”

  I raced around the pool. I tore through a mess of overturned chairs and soda cans and paper plates. Cassie went the other way.

  “Help me! Help me!” Darlene screamed, running toward the patio door.

  “Hey!” Cassie yelled as loudly as she could. “It’s just a couple of mice. Nothing to be afraid of.”

  One of the mice hesitated. Marco had recognized Cassie’s voice.

  “You know, if those mice want to live, they should go to Cassie,” I said, trying to sound like I was making a joke. “Otherwise, someone might kill them.” Then, under my breath, I added, “Someone like me.”

  Marco said to me in thought-speak.

  I could hear his thought-speak. But since I was not in a morph, I could not reply. Probably a good thing. I might have used some words I shouldn’t use.

  It was total pandemonium! Forty kids running around like idiots. Half running away from the mice. Half running after the mice. Everyone making lots of noise.

  “Come here, little mice,” Cassie said loudly.

  We were trying to make Marco realize he had to head for Cassie. I knew he could hear us — mice have excellent hearing.

  But Marco either didn’t get it, or had decided he wasn’t done chasing Darlene.

  “Aaaaahhh!” Darlene was not done screaming, either. She reached the patio door. She was still screaming as she disappeared inside her house.

  Marco was after her like a shot, with Ax right behind.

  I heard Marco say in thought-speak a few seconds later.

  “Oh, man,” I muttered. I ran for the patio door. THUMP!

  I slammed hard into Hans, and both of us went rolling. No less than eight other people slammed into us, one right after another. It was like some bad football game, all of us jumbled together, yelling and giggling and pushing and trying to untangle our legs and arms.

  As it turned out, that pileup saved my life.

  I sucked wind and tried to stand up, and the sky above us grew dark.

  It was so sudden and so complete that everyone just froze.

  I looked up. The sun was hidden behind a swirling cloud of dust. Like a flat tornado. A tornado in a clear sky.

  I felt a terrible sensation of dread from deep down inside.

  The dust swarm grew solid.

  Within seconds, it assumed a shape.

  A shape like nothing ever seen on planet Earth.

  And then it struck.

  Marco

  Okay. Okay, maybe it was a little immature to sneak into Darlene’s party as a mouse. But you didn’t hear what she said about me!

  Me and Ax morphed in a vacant lot a block away. Then we toddled on over on our little mouse legs to the party.

  Of course, first we had to get used to the mouse morph. See, when you morph you don’t just get the animal’s body. You get its brain, too. And most animal brains are loaded with different instincts. Usually hunger. Also fear.

  The mouse had a lot of each. He was very obsessed about food. And he was one scared little animal. It’s often that way when you first morph a new species. As soon as Ax and I achieved total mousehood, those instincts kicked in big time.

  RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!

  The mouse didn’t like being out in the open, in broad daylight. He was scared of predators. Seriously scared.

  RUN! RUN! RUN! RUN!

  So we ran. It was like one minute you’re a normal human thinking, Hmmm, isn’t it fascinating shrinking down like this, growing a tail, having big whiskers? And the next minute that mouse brain kicks in and suddenly you are charged up with the energy of a thousand cups of coffee on top of a thousand bowls of Captain Crunch, and you are ENERGIZED!

  Ax wailed.

  I said.

  Let me tell you: Mice can move on those little legs. It was like being strapped to the front bumper of an Indy 500 car.

  ZOOOOM!

  We hauled butt, zipping in wild terror over leaves of grass as big as trees, pieces of gravel the size of beach balls, and bugs the size of collies. That much I’m used to. I’ve morphed small animals before.

  But what was sick was that I really, really wanted to stop and eat some of those bugs. There was this one beetle, kind of bluish-black, and the mouse brain was like, Ah, cool, lunch!

  But it was more terrified than it was hungry, so we just kept running like out-of-control lunatics, and I missed out on the flavor of bug. Eventually, we were able to get some control.

  I called to him in thought-speak.

 

 

  Ax said darkly.

  I said.

 

  In any case, we toddled off to the party, two little mice looking for a good time.

  Mouse senses are excellent, fortunately. Hearing is great. The sense of smell is great. The eyes are decent, but it’s hard to see much when you’re only an inch tall and your face is down at dirt level.

  Still, I was able to locate Darlene by the sound of her voice. She was talking to her friends about the usual stuff: school, music, some cute guy on TV. Ax and I hid underneath Darlene’s chair, so I was able to hear everything pretty well.

  All I could see of Darlene was this enormous chair roof over my head — stretched bands of interwoven plastic, bulging down like they might burst and crush me. Quite a distance away I could see her legs, looking like two gigantic pink pillars.

  I said to Ax.

 

  I said. Then it occurred to me. I could thought-speak to Darlene! I would just say the word “Marco” in her head. She wouldn’t know where it had come from. She’d probably think someone had said it aloud. With thought-speak, you can either do it so everyone hears you, or sort of aim it at just one person.

  I said.

  “What?” Darlene asked. “What about Marco?”

  “Nothing about Marco,” this girl named Kara said.

  “Good, because I don’t even want his name mentioned at my party. He’s such a jerk. I mean, after what he did? Throwing Baby Ruth bars in my pool? Panicking everybody?”

  “He’s so immature,” a girl named Ellen said.

  “No duh,” Darlene said. “He thinks he’s so cool and so cute, but he’s totally not. He always makes jokes about stuff that aren’t even funny.”

  Well. I could stand them saying I was immature. That’s what girls always say. But saying I wasn’t funny?

  I would show them funny. Oh, yes.

  I took off. I ran for the legs. Ax came after me yelling,

  I yelled back. I ran for that big pink leg. I saw the foot pressing heavily down on the grass. I shot past her heel, which was like a wall to me, and aimed for the toes.

  Let me just say this: Darlene thinks she’s perfect in every way. But her toenails definitely needed trimming.

  I scampered right onto her foot. I zoomed across her foot, then scrabbled wildly around her ankle and back over her toes.

 

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