(I DO NOT OWN ANIMORPHS OR ANY CHARACTERS THERE OF)

Chapter 1: Marco

My name is Marco, just Marco. You don't need to know my last name, my address, or any of that stuff. As much as I would love to be able to give that information to you, I can't. See, there are these really bad guys out there. Well…they aren't guys per say, more like bugs. Slugs actually. Yeah, I'm talking evil slugs from outer space. If you already know about them, then you know exactly why I can't tell you who I am. If you know what they are then you're praying right now that I slip up, let some little bit of information slip that you can use to hunt me down. If you know what they do, then you are one. A Yeerk, a controller.

If you don't know yet what they are, you're lucky. And I hope you never have to find out the hard way. The Yeerks are a race of alien slugs; they crawl through your ear, and into your head. They wrap themselves around your brain, flattening out, sinking into each crease, taking you over. They could be anyone. The doctor giving you your checkup, the cop out on the street, the mother, tucking you in at night, kissing your cheek and telling you to sleep tight, laughing with you when your happy, holding you when your sad. My mom, she's Visser One. The highest ranking Yeerk next to the Council of Thirteen.

Sorry, I usually don't act that way. I'm a really funny guy most of the time. Well, to anyone with a sense of humor, which this new girl evidently did not have. I was walking down the hall from my locker to my first period when I saw her. Sounds like the opening to some cheesy romance novel, it's not. She wasn't beautiful, far from it. She had mousey brown hair that was pulled back into a way to tight bun, a pointy little nose on top of which perched a pair of those square rim granny glasses you see on TV. The girl looked more like a middle aged librarian than a high school student.

The Music Man had been on the night before, and the sight of her made me think of that song with the Marian in the library and the music man is chasing her around. I laughed at the thought, and she turned to face me, as if she knew that I was laughing over her, "What is so funny?" She snapped at me in an almost teacher like way. God, the girl needed to lighten up!

"Nothing," I said playing it cool, and picking up pace to walk past her. As I made my way past I sung under my breath, "Madam Libraaaaaaaaaaaaarian!"

Her eyes narrowed some in disdain, but I've gotta hand it to the girl, she never missed a beat, "I suggest you steer clear of a career in musical theatre, or in comedy for that matter," with that she brushed roughly past me and disappeared into a class room. A classroom which was, by coincidence, the same one I was headed into.

I calmly went into the room right after her, matching her beat for beat as I plopped into a seat behind her and leaned forward hissing into her ear, "Ouch…that hurt, why not leave the comedy to me, Professor"

She turned and glared at me wickedly, and a sarcastic smile spread across her face, "Because if I left it to you, you'd lose it like you did whatever sense of humor you thought you had."

I grabbed at my chest like I had just been mortally wounded, "Argh! She got me!"

As she turned away I swear I saw the faintest hint of a laugh. I settled back into my desk as the teacher came in and cleared her throat, I whispered to the girl, "Hey…that's your future! Pretty grim…"

She didn't even turn around as she retorted, "Only if I have wise-guys like you in my class, now shush!"

The Teacher waited for everyone to be quiet. I'm not by nature the 'class clown' type, even though I like a good joke, and so I shut up, just like everyone else. Then she cleared her throat once more as she looked pointedly at the girl in front of me, "Class, we have a new student. Caitlin, please introduce yourself."

Caitlin, it was a fitting name for such a prim and proper girl, stood in front of the class and smoothed out her knee length grey skirt. The girl was wearing a skirt suit. A skirt suit! To a public high school! She looked straight ahead, no eye contact with anyone, "My name is Caitlin Torrelli, and I just moved here with my family."

Torrelli. Torrelli, the name sounded familiar. Where had I heard it before? Suddenly I remembered and I instantly regretted having called attention to myself. Torrelli was the name of that guy from Zone Ninety-one, the place with the Andalite toilet. If he had told his family about his little run in with 'Fox Mulder' I could be in trouble. He might have told them what I looked like! Then again, what were the odds she was related. I mean really.

After class I bolted, I didn't want to have to talk to her and risk that she might somehow know who I was. I got to my next class a whole two minutes early. I was never early for class. I wasn't sure what to do till the teacher got there, so I put my head down to catch a few Z's. I hadn't slept well the night before as it was. I keep having nightmares about various aspects of my life as an Animorph.

"Sleeping through class isn't a good habit." A familiar voice said and I looked up. There was Caitlin, smirking evilly down at me. I didn't know what she was thinking of right then, and I really didn't want to. But she took the liberty of filling me in, "I know all about guys like you! You think you're hot stuff, don't you! Well guess what, I can hold my own when it comes to smart ass little runts like you, ok?"

I blinked up at her, taken aback by the outburst. I didn't know what to think about that. She had been serious, I thought we were just fooling around, "Smart ass little runts?" It was all I could manage to get out.

"Oh just forget it, you never listen to anyone, and never will. I know your type. No discipline at all! So you think when you meet someone like me, whose parents were just a little more strict, that that makes you better than me!"

With that she walked off, leaving me sitting to stunned to speak. Rachel walked into the room, and seeing me, paused. "Marco?" Nothing, I was dead silent as I tried to process what had just happened. She had jumped to the conclusion that I thought I was better than her based on what evidence exactly? Rachel waved her hand in front of my eyes; I blinked and looked up at her. "Wow, what happened? Stunned into silence? You? It must have been big"