Hi. I’m Cassie.

Just Cassie.

I won’t tell you my last name, or where I live. I can’t. I wish I could. Because that would mean that we’re safe.

Safe from what, you ask. The invasion. It’s not an invasion like you studied in history, with the Huns or the Mongols or whatever. It’s an alien invasion.

But you can’t see them. It’s not like Mars Attacks or Independence Day. It’s more subtle. More discreet. More horrific.

Yeerks.

That’s what they’re called. It rhymes with jerk.

They’re just slugs, really. A species of sentient parasites. They crawl inside your head. They slither and squirm, wrapping themselves around your brain.

And they control you.

Totally, completely, absolutely. They open your memories, and they read your thoughts. They can force you to betray your family and friends.

And all you can do is watch.

They don’t stop there. They are destroyers of worlds. They strip entire planets of life, until there is almost nothing left.

They’ve defeated and enslaved the Gedds and the Hork-Bajir. They even persuaded the Taxxons to become voluntary Controllers. They’re moving in on the Leerans. Fortunately, the Andalites are close enough to them to help.

But they’re also moving in on us.

Yes, us. Already there are thousands of human controllers. Maybe millions. We don’t really know.

But we do know that they could be anyone. Your best friend, your teacher. Even your parents.

Jake’s brother, Tom, is one. And so is our vice-principal. But worst of all, and probably the saddest, is Marco’s mom. She’s Visser One. Head of the entire Yeerk army.

Except for us Animorphs, everyone else thinks that she died two years ago.

Who are the Animorphs? Four teen-age kids, a hawk and an Andalite with a death wish is what Marco would say.

There’s Jake, the leader. But we don’t really treat him that way. Except for Ax, who is convinced that Jake is his prince. Which kinda gets on Jake’s nerves sometimes. But that’s part of the reason why Jake’s the leader-he’s the kind of guy that doesn’t want anyone sucking up to him. And he can make life-and-death decisions in the middle of a battle. And I kind of like him.

And there’s Rachel, my best friend, who is absolutely crazy. On the outside, she looks like one of those airhead super models. But inside, she’s like some sort of Amazonian warrior-princess. Marco calls her Xena: Warrior Princess.

Marco is the comedian of our little group. Even in the middle of a battle, he’ll come up with a joke that is so stupid it’s funny. But he’s serious, too. He notices things that other people would miss. And he gets on Rachel’s nerves a lot. (Personally, I think he likes her, but he would never admit it, and Rachel would kill us both if I told her that.)

Tobias is a kid trapped as a hawk. He’s a nothlit, which is what the Andalites call someone who stays more than two hours in morph. After two hours, you ARE that animal. So Tobias lives like a hawk, hunting his food, defending his territory. He used to have to sit out most of the battles because nothlits can’t morph. But a being called the Ellimist gave Tobias his morphing powers back. But he is still a hawk. If he stayed in his human morph for over two hours, then he would be trapped as a human, unable to morph. Confused? It only gets weirder.

The last member of our group is Ax. His full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. He’s got blue and tan fur. A scorpion-like tail that can slice up a Taxxon in the blink of an eye.

Oh, and did I mention that he’s the only unenslaved, cinnamon bun crazed Andalite on Earth?

I know you’re probably wondering what I’m talking about. You probably think I’m some escaped lunatic, ranting and raving about alien invasions. And a year ago, I would have thought so too. But it’s true. Only the six of us prevent the yeerks from taking over the entire human race.

But we aren’t just kids. We have powers. A mortally wounded Andalite prince gave us the power to morph into any animal that we can touch and “aquire.” He did this just before he was murdered by Visser Three.

With that gift came a curse. The two-hour time limit. I already told you what happens after two hours. What happened to Tobias.

Anyway, back to my story. I’m Cassie. I’m pretty average really, except for that whole save-Earth-from-the-aliens-by-turning-into-an-animal-thing. I’m a little short, with short black hair and dark skin.

I spend a lot of my time taking care of the animals in the rehab center in our barn. You can usually find me in there, giving medicine to the animals or mucking out the horse stalls in my jeans.

My old, grimy jeans. My old, grimy jeans that my friend Rachel has a problem with. She just can’t understand that I prefer wearing old, broken-in jeans.

So what if they’re six inches above the tops of my socks?

She was in the barn, waiting with me for Jake, Marco, Tobias and Ax to get there. She and Jake had called a meeting. And until they got there, I had to listen to her as I mucked out the stalls.

“I mean, c’mon Cassie, all I’m saying is please let me take you to the mall. Let me get you a couple of pairs of jeans that weren’t made a hundred years ago. That’s all. I promise,” she pleaded.

“No, Rachel. I remember what happened last time. We ended up spending way past your dad’s credit card limit. Then we had to go return half the stuff we bought. And someone didn’t keep the receipts,” I told her. I finished shoveling, then put the shovel in the tool room. Rachel followed me.

“I promise it won’t happen this time. C’mon, just two pairs of jeans. That’s all I ask. Is that really too much for you to do for your best friend?” She actually got down on her knees, begging. I heard the barn door being creaked open just slightly.

“Please, Cassie. I’ll do anything!”

I heard laughing as she said that. Then I saw Jake open the barn door all the way. Marco was with him. They were both giggling hysterically.

“I never thought I would see the day when Rachel would be on her knees begging for anything,” Marco gasped in-between giggles. He was literally rolling on the floor, laughing.

Rachel stood up very quickly, dusting off her pants. Her face was a little red. She gave Marco a LOOK.

Then Tobias flew in. He landed on his usual perch in the rafters, already on the look-out for Controllers or my parents.<

“Rachel, no, I won’t let you take me to buy even one more pair of jeans,” I said. I looked disdainfully at Marco. ”Marco, please get up off the floor. It wasn’t that funny,” I told him, “and also, I just finished cleaning out the horse poop from over there. When you get home, you might want to change clothes.” Rachel coughed, trying unsuccessfully to cover up her laughter.

Then Ax walked in. I still can’t get used to seeing him in human morph. Using Andalite morphing technology, he combined Jake’s, Rachel’s, Marco’s and my DNA to form a unique human morph. The result is that he looks like an ugly girl, or a pretty guy, depending on how you look at him. What’s weirder is that you look at him and you say, hey, he’s got my eyes. And then you realize that he also has Marco’s hair, Jake’s build, and Rachel’s skin color.

“Come, on guys, let’s get on with this meeting,” Jake said, interrupting my thoughts.

“Okay, Dad,” Marco said. He got up and dusted himself off, then sat down on the nearest hay bale.

“I’ll start,” said Rachel.

“Jake and I are going to Disney World,” she said.

“So what’s wrong with that, Xena?” Marco asked, as he resituated himself on the hay bale.

Rachel glared at him. “If you would shut up and let me finish talking, maybe you would understand why Jake and I called this meeting.”

“The reason we’re going is because it’s this stupid family reunion thing. And we have to go because it’s been, like, five years since the last one,” Jake interjected before Rachel could stop him.

“Like I said before, what’s wrong with that? It sounds cool to me, even if you will have old people pinching your cheeks.”

“Well, Marco, there’s good news about going, but there’s also bad news. The good news is that Cassie is invited, and the bad news is that you’re invited. Oh, and not to mention the fact that the Yeerks could pull something while we’re gone. They’ve been pretty quiet lately,” Rachel told him.

“You’re right. We can’t leave. If the Yeerks try something, how would we be able to stop them? We’ll be in Florida, and even if we were to pull that sneak-aboard-the-airplane-as-flies thing again, it would still take a little while. Not to mention the fact that people would notice that we were missing,” I said. For a moment I put the prospect of going to Disney World out of my mind.

<Ax-man and I will still be here,> Tobias said in thought-speak. He had just a hint of loneliness in the message, like he felt left out.

“Yeah, but you two shouldn’t have to deal with the Yeerks. Not while we go clown around in Disney World for two weeks,” Rachel told him.

“What is this Disney World? Dis-nee. Worrr. Ullld. Neeeeeworllld. Do they have cinnamon buns? Oh, cinnamon buns. Bunzzzzz. ZZZ. Disneeeey. That is a funny word, Disney. Almost as strange as yanked,” Ax asked. Ax has a little problem with talking. In his Andalite body, he doesn’t have a mouth, so he talks using though-speak. Thought-speech is like an email, you can send it to one person or lots of people. I guess it’s what you would call telepathy.

But because he doesn’t normally have a mouth, when he’s human, he drives us bananas playing with words. And don’t mess with him around food. Andalites don’t have a sense of taste, so when he’s human, he’ll eat anything. He actually thinks that motor oil tastes good. And we’ve repeatedly had to tell him not to eat cigarette butts. But his favorite food is cinnamon buns. One time he actually ate a whole tray of them.

“Yeah, Ax, they have cinnamon buns. And ice cream. If you go to Epcot, they have food from all over the world. Aside from the food, Disney World also has tons of rides. And there are 3-D movies and stuff. I guess you could call a 3-D movie a hologram,” Marco told him.

“Oh, I see. Eeee. Ssssseeeee,” Ax replied.

”Ax, why don’t you demorph?” Jake suggested, hoping to end Ax’s wordy interjections. Ax demorphed.

Tobias suggested.

“It’s not that simple. See, my parents already called Marco’s dad, and Rachel’s mom already called Cassie’s parents. It was supposed to be a surprise. They set everything up, and didn’t tell us until this morning, before school. We leave in two days, when spring vacation starts. We don’t really have a choice. We have to go, or they’ll think something’s wrong with us,” Jake told Tobias.

<Excuse me, Prince Jake.>

“Don’t call me your prince, Ax,” Jake told him for the trillionth time.

<Yes, Prince Jake. As I was saying, perhaps we could get Erek to help Tobias and I watch the Yeerks,> Ax said.

“You know, I hadn’t thought of that,” Rachel said.

“That would be great! Erek has a secure phone line, and we could keep in touch,” I said.

“But what would we do if they did try something? The Chee are programmed against violence of any type. They won’t be able to help us if something happens,” Marco pointed out. He was right. The Chee are a race(if you can call them living) of super intelligent androids. When their planet and creators, the peaceful Pemalites, were destroyed, they managed to flee to Earth. They transferred the remaining Pemalites’ essence into the wolves, creating the first dogs. Since then, the Chee have lived on Earth, posing as humans using holograms projected around their bodies. This Erek we were talking about actually helped build the pyramids.

<Well, I guess we’ll just have to figure that out when it happens. Notice that I say “when," and not “if," because they are sure to try something,> Tobias said.

“I hope they don’t, Tobias,” Jake replied. He had that look he gets on his face when he’s worried or nervous. “I really hope they don’t.” That pretty much killed everyone’s mood.

“Man, I hate this stupid war. I haven’t been to Disney World since I was six, and I don’t remember half of it. Now I get the chance to go when I’m old enough to remember. Only I have to worry about the Yeerks and Visser Three. I wonder if I should talk to the school counselor about it. You know, it’s such a common problem nowadays,” Marco complained.

<At least you’ve been to Disney World. Some of us haven’t,> Tobias told him.

“What? You’ve NEVER been to Disney World? Everybody has gone to Disney World at least once in their lives,“ Marco said.

“Look, if Tobias hasn’t been to Disney World, he hasn’t been, Marco.” Rachel told him. She gave him another LOOK. A shut-up-if-you-want-to-live LOOK.

For some reason, she gives Marco that LOOK a lot.

“Okay! Spare me the chakram, Xena. I’m sorry, Bird-Boy, I didn’t mean anything.”

“What’s a chakram?” I asked, puzzled.

“Duh, Cassie. It’s that metal Frisbee thing Xena carries around and throws at people she’s fighting. What are you people, cultural morons?” Marco answered, exasperated by my apparent lack of knowledge of TV trivia.

<So I guess Jake can call Erek and ask him if he can help. Marco, do you still have that number, he gave us? The one the Yeerks can’t tap?> Tobias said. I think he was a little embarrassed that Rachel had gotten upset over Marco teasing him. But that’s just how Marco is. And Rachel isn’t usually so touchy, but maybe my refusal to go to the mall with her had made her angry. I don’t know. Rachel can be unpredictable sometimes. We are, after all, talking about someone who morphed into an elephant and went on a car stomping spree. All because Tobias wanted to free this bird, and he needed a distraction.

“Yeah, I’ve still got it. Somewhere,” Marco replied.

<Prince Jake-> Ax started to say, but he was cut off by Jake.

“Don’t call me prince, Ax.”

<Yes. If you want, I will call you the prince formerly known as Jake.>

“Oh, no! Now he’s making bad jokes. Really bad jokes,” Marco groaned.

<As I was saying, These Messages will soon be back on my television, as soon as the president’s speech is over. I do not wish to miss the These Messages tonight,> Ax said.

“You can leave in a few seconds. We need to figure out a time to meet up again,” Jake said, in his leader voice. He always uses his leader voice when he’s trying to get our attention.

“How about Friday, here in the barn, at 3:30? We leave at 6 o’clock. That should give us enough time to meet and then go our separate ways,” Rachel suggested.

“Oh, and don’t forget to tell Erek to come, too,” I said.

“Sounds good. “Jake said.

<See ya.> Tobias said. Then he flew out of the barn loft.

<I will be here, Prince Jake.> Ax, of course. He left before Jake could tell him not to call him prince.

“I’ll be here. And then we get to leave for the happiest place on Earth!” Marco said in a baby voice.

“The only way it would be the happiest place on Earth is if you weren’t there,” Rachel muttered under her breath. Fortunately, I was the only one standing close enough to her to hear.

Jake and Marco left. It was just Rachel and me again.

“Hey, Rachel, talk to Tobias. I think he feels a little left out. You know, he had to miss all the battles at first, and now when he’s able to fight, we leave to go on a vacation. In Disney World, of all places.”

“Sure. But Cassie, before I go...”

“No, Rachel. Absolutely not. No new jeans.”

“But please! I’ll leave you alone about clothes for a whole month. If you just let me get you two new pairs of jeans. I’ll even pay for them with my own money,” she begged.

“No.”

“Okay, then. I’ll leave you alone about it for now. but I promise you, before we go to Disney World, you will have some new jeans. Even if I have to drag you there by your hair.”

“It’s not going to happen, Rachel.”

“Just wait and see.” Then she left, with a smile on her face. I didn’t like that smile.

She was up to something.

I found out what she was up to pretty soon. In fact, I found out that night.

I was eating dinner with my parents. My dad had made lasagna. My dad is the chef of the house, mostly because my mom has to commute to and from the Gardens. The Gardens is this kind of zoo/amusement park that is about 20 miles away from our house. My mom’s a vet, and she’s in charge of the animals over at the Gardens. The Gardens is where we get a lot of our morphs from, like Jake’s tiger, Marco’s gorilla, and our dolphin morphs.

My dad runs the rehab clinic in our barn that I told you about. Sometimes he helps my mom when they get an injured animal from another zoo. Otherwise he performs surgery on the animals in our barn that need it, with me helping him.

But back to the story. Dad had made lasagna. And he never makes lasagna. Mostly because he can’t.

I’m serious. My dad can cook almost anything else, and it will taste pretty good. But for some reason, his lasagna makes you want to gag.

Especially when you’ve just finished operating on an animal an hour ago.

Tonight, he was trying out a new recipe. This one was even more terrible, and the noodles weren’t cooked all the way. As I picked at my food, my mom coughed.

“Cassie, did Rachel tell you that you’re going to Disney World on Friday?” she said. I noticed that she was picking at her food, too.

“Really?” I said, with a false tone of surprise in my voice. It was almost scary how easy it was to lie to my parents. But when it’s a choice between lying or having the entire human race enslaved by the yeerks, I have to choose lying.

And what’s sadder is that I don’t even know if I can trust my parents all the way. The only reason we know that Tom and Marco’s mom are Controllers is because we have seen them with the Yeerks. So my parents could still be Controllers. I have to live with that doubt and distrust every day.

My dad started talking. ”Yes, you are. Rachel and her family are going to a family reunion for awhile. And she invited you. You leave on Friday, around six o’clock.”

“And Rachel called to talk to you while you were helping your father operate on that injured fox. She mentioned that her mom was letting her take off of school on Friday. She said she was going to the mall to make sure she had everything she needed.” Mom continued.

“And she mentioned that she thought you might need some more clothes for the trip. It is, after all, two weeks, and there isn’t a washing machine. So I thought you might want to go with her. I wish I had the time to take off and go shopping with you and get you some more clothes, but I just can’t,” my mom told me. So that’s what Rachel had been up to.

“But Mom, what’s wrong with what I’m wearing?” I protested, knowing I was sunk. I was wearing a tee-shirt that was bought two years ago, and my jeans were so tattered that I had actually started to consider throwing them away.

“Cassie, I know that you don’t like shopping that much, but you really do need some new clothes. I don’t want people to think that we can’t afford to get you decent clothes.”

“But, Mom, I’m already going to be missing a week of school. I don’t need to miss anymore,” I told her. The minute it popped out of my mouth, I realized what a lame excuse it was. How many kids would actually pass up a chance to miss school?

“It’ll be okay. I’m sure you won’t be doing anything much in school the day before spring break,” my mom assured me.

“But I don’t have any money. All I’ve got is ten dollars I earned baby-sitting Jordan and Sara that time Rachel was visiting her dad.”

“We’re going to give you some money. For shopping and for Disney World. Rachel’s dad can’t pay for everything while you’re down there,” my dad told me.

“How much?” I asked.

“Well, you only go shopping like once a year, when Rachel drags you to the mall. And clothes are pretty expensive nowadays, aren’t they? So how does, oh, $500 dollars sound?” my mom asked me, grinning. My jaw dropped open.

“$500 dollars?” I asked, not believing what I was hearing. I mean, my mom is generous, but never that generous. I don’t get an allowance or anything. I have to earn most of my money. Sometimes I manage to con Mom into giving me some money for a new CD. Like the time I told her NIN stood for Neat is Nice instead of Nine Inch Nails.

My dad continued, ”And that’s just for shopping. Don’t forget about Disney World. Do you think another $500 dollars will be enough?” he asked.

If my jaw hadn’t fallen off before, it certainly had now. “$500 dollars?” I asked. My voice was barely a squeak.

“This is your payment for helping with the rehab center, making good grades, and eating your dad’s lasagna for the last two years,” my mom told me.

“Hey, my lasagna isn’t that bad,” my dad protested.

“Yeah, well, why is most of it still on your plate?” my mom countered.

“Cassie, help me out here. Is my lasagna really that bad?” my dad asked. I didn’t answer him. I was still in shock.

“Okay, fine. I can’t cook lasagna. I admit it.” My dad laughed, “But don’t worry. We can order pizza for once.”

“So that’s why you fixed lasagna. You wanted pizza. And we only order pizza when you fix lasagna. I can’t believe you went to all that trouble for pizza,” my mom said. She sighed.

“But it worked, didn’t it?” my dad replied. Then he called up the pizza place and ordered two pizzas.

“Why’d you get two pizzas?” I asked him after he hung up the phone.

“For breakfast and lunch tomorrow,” he replied, grinning.

“Ewww. Breakfast?”

“Yep.”

“Come on, you two. Let’s clean up these dishes while we wait for the pizza to get here,” my mom said. She started to throw out the lasagna.

“Wait, shouldn’t we put that in the compost heap?” my dad asked.

“Honey, if we put that in the compost heap, when we spread it in the garden it will kill the plants,” my mom told him, joking.

“Very funny.”

So we finished cleaning up. When the pizza came, we ate while watching Just Shoot Me on the TV. After dinner was finally over, I went to my room.

And I called Rachel.

“I can’t believe you called my mom to get me to go shopping! Now I have to go. And Mom told me to spend all the money she gave me,” I told her. The whole time, I was shaking my head. How was I going to spend all that money on just clothes? What a waste!

“How much did she give you?” Rachel asked.

“$500,” I replied.

“$500?!?” Rachel yelled over the phone.

“Hey, I don’t want to go deaf,” I told her.

“Sorry. Are you serious?”

“Yeah. Rachel, you’re going to make my parents go broke.” I told her.

“But Cassie, this is great! Now we can really spend the whole day shopping. I thought your mom would give you maybe 50 dollars and we’d be at the mall for an hour.”

“I still can’t believe you called my mom.”

“I tried to warn you.”

“Nine o’clock. That’s when the mall opens.”

“I guess I’ll see you there,” I told her.

“Bye.”

“Bye.” I hung up the phone. It was about 9:30. I finished my homework. I had an essay that I had to write for English; Mom had said she’d drop it off to my teacher on her way to work.

After writing four and a half pages of worthless babble, I was done. But I didn’t have a title or a topic. I thought back to a paper Marco had actually gotten a B on not too long ago. I remembered that the topic he had written it on was almost identical to what I was writing about, but that was it.

Then I remembered. I wrote on the top of my essay, THE USE OF RHETORIC TO OBSCURE A LACK OF CONTENT. There. Not only did it sound good, but it meant basically the same thing as the use of total bull in the writing of essays. And that’s all my essay was. Total bull. I had made up almost everything in it.

As I fell asleep, I wondered why my parents had been so eager for me go to Disney World and go shopping. Were they trying to get rid of me so they could invite Visser Three over or something? I told myself that they weren’t Controllers. They were just being nice, that was all. I closed my eyes.

Then my mom and dad came into my room. They grabbed me by the arms. They took me down to the Yeerk pool. Down to the edge of the pool, amidst all the screaming of the captive hosts. Rachel and Marco and Jake were there. So were Tobias and Ax.

Visser Three walked up to us. <So, you are the so-called “Andalite bandits.” You were brave, especially for five human children and an Andalite child. But bravery is no more, as far as you six are concerned. Now I will decide your fate. Life, or death?> he said. Every word carried pure hatred.

“I would rather die than ever be a slave to the Yeerks,” Marco screamed at him.

<Ah, yes. You are the one who is the son of Visser One. Shall I give you to Visser One? And let her play back all the memories for you? Yes, I think that would be a fitting punishment.>

Marco tried to run. But the Hork-Bajir held onto him. He couldn’t get away. None of us could. We were trapped. The Hork-Bajir lowered us, one by one, into the Yeerk pool. I felt them slither around me, and I screamed. I screamed as loud as I could.

I woke up in a cold sweat. It had only been a nightmare. But it was a nightmare that could come true. Even though I was used to having nightmares about the Yeerks, none of them had ever been this scary. In this one, my parents had been Controllers, too.