There are hundreds of ways for a secret to leak out. That's what makes my life so dangerous. One mistake is enough to blow me cover and end my life or worse. What's worse than death? Being a Controller is infinitely worse than death, even a slow agonizing death. Being a slave to the Yeerks is endless torture beyond imagining.

The Yeerks enter your brain through the ear canal and flatten themselves between the crevices of the brain and control you. The control is complete. You can no longer even blink your own eyes. You're a prisoner in your own mind and subject to endless taunting. The Yeerks use your body and your voice to lure your family and loved ones towards the same fate. They pass as you, flawlessly by reading your memory like a book.

You can never tell who's a Controller just by looking at them. My best friend's brother is a Controller and so is my mom well at least she was. I'm not even sure if she's alive anymore. You see, she was or is Visser 1's host and I kind of lured her into a trap and she fell off a cliff and we never found the body and that's that.

My life is like a total mess. This mess extends further than the simple fact that my dad remarried my math teacher despite the fact that my mom might still be alive. My friends and I are all that resists the Yeerk invasion of this planet. That's right, the only thing stopping an army of alien-slugs from completing their secret invasion of planet Earth is for teenagers, an alien youth and a red-tailed hawk. We're not totally helpless. We all have one thing in common, the ability to morph into any animal, alien or person we touch. Nevertheless the odds aren't exactly in our favor.

The weekend I almost blew my cover was unlike most weekends because of the fact that it was few times when we didn't have a mission planned. Some guys from school were having a party and out of boredom I asked my best bud Jake to go with me. It was a really cool party. The music was good and there were a lot of pretty girls. I was busy flirting with this girl named Amanda and having a great time.

Around 11 o'clock some guy came showed up with a case off beer. By then Amanda had given up on me. Actually she called me a jerk and spit in my face when I tried to kiss her. Jake was dancing with Cassie. I don't think they missed one dance. It turns out that Rachel was bored too and dragged Cassie and Tobias along.

I was the only one alone and getting bored so I figured what the heck I'll have a few drinks and soon enough I started to feel dizzy. I must have had more than a few drinks. My mind went fuzzy around that point so I don't really remember what happened after that. That's why I asked Jake to tell this part of the story.

I was having this great time dancing with Cassie when I noticed that Marco wasn't sitting and watching anymore. When I caught sight of him again he was with a bunch of guys getting drunk. Correction, he was drunk and making a fool of himself. I decided that it was my responsibility to get him out of there before he did something he'd regret. So I called the situation to Cassie's attention and told her I was sorry but I had to leave. Being the kind of person she is Cassie understood and even offer to come along in case we had to drag him.

It was only when I approached him that I understood exactly what he was saying over the sounds of the loud background music. He was babbling about being able to fly and was pretty close to trying to prove it.

The slightly more sober members of the group were insisting that what he was saying was nonsense. No one can fly but Marco was sticking to his story. "I'll prove it," he was saying. His peers, all drunks failed to notice certain subtle changes that he was undergoing but Cassie and I didn't.

We both knew that soon enough someone would notice the slow changes. The fact that his mind was probably all scrambled was all that kept him from changing more quickly. We had to move fast and practically drag him but we got him out in time and drag him into an ally.

Somewhere along the way he lost consciousness. We finally woke him no more than ten minutes short of the two-hour limit. He still very drunk but we managed to get him to demorph a few minutes short of spending the rest of his life as a not quite human mutant.

Jake and Cassie managed to get me home by two in the morning. I was still drunk but I managed to walk with their help. My dad heard me stumbling in and came to check what was going on. Had I not waken him or Nora I probably would have gotten away with my minor delinquency but as it was I got a long speech the next day and was grounded for a month: No TV, no PlayStation and I had to be home by nine. I didn't miss any missions though, just lots of fun. I'm not quite sure if that's a bad thing or a good thing.

As if a speech from my dad and getting grounded wasn't enough I got a super long speech from Jake about almost blowing my cover, which I must admit I deserved. Blowing my cover would have fatal for the whole group and thus the entire world.

So there you got it. That's how I almost blew my cover which come to show how dangerous my life is even when I'm not in the heat of a battle or even on a mission. Secrets can leak out when you least expect them to. When you have a secret like mine it's important never to let your guard down.