Converted to E-Book by: Rumeth

1.22 PM My name is Jake. I can't tell you my last name, or where I'm from. That would just help the Yeerks. They'd love to find me and my friends. They'd love to know who we are, even what we are.

Knowing my last name isn't important for you. What you need to know is that everything I'll tell you here is true. It's real.

It's actually happening. Right now.

The Yeerks are among us. The Yeerks are us. They're a parasitic species. They live inside the bodies of other beings. They take over your mind and body. Controllers. That's what you call a creature that is ruled by a Yeerk. A Controller. Something that looks human, acts human, sounds human, but whose mind is Yeerk. They are everywhere. They can be anyone. Think of the one person in the whole world that you trust the most. Think of that one special per son. And now realize, believe, accept the fact that they might not be the person you think they are. Deal with the reality that behind those friendly, loving eyes lives a gray slug. That's what a Yeerk looks like in its natural state. Just a gray slug. They enter your head, squeezing through the ear canal, and flatten themselves out to envelop your brain.

You know all those nooks and crannies in brains? You've probably seen pictures in school. Well, the Yeerk forms itself into those nooks and crannies and it ties into your mind. You wake up and you want to scream, but you can't. You can't scream. You can't move your eyes or raise your finger or make yourself walk.

The Yeerk controls you. You're still alive. You can still see what's happening. Your eyes move and focus, but you're not moving them. You can still hear your own mouth speaking and using your voice. You can feel it when the Yeerk opens up your memories and looks through them. You can hear the Yeerk laughing at you as it pries into your every secret.

I know. Been there. For a few days, I was Controller. The Yeerks are here, all right. Their mother ship is parked in high orbit right now. It's hidden from human radar, but it's there. And the Yeerk super-evil leader, Visser Three, is there, too. We are being invaded. We are being enslaved. We are losing our own planet. And we don't even know it.

My friends and I fight the Yeerks. But we're just five kids.

Well, five kids and one Andalite. Yes, we have some amazing powers, but we're still desperately weak and outnumbered compared to the force of the Yeerk invasion. We are the only humans resisting the Yeerks. We may be the only hope that Earth has. We have a lot on our shoulders. Which is why I really, really, really did not see why I had to have more suffering piled on. Wasn't I under enough stress? Life wasn't bad enough? We had to have . . . square dancing? Square dancing! The horror! The CD player was blasting out screaming- cat fiddle music. Which, in my opinion, is possibly the worst music ever created.

The lights in the classroom seemed blazingly bright compared to the dark gray clouds outside. The teacher was standing off to the side. She was wearing that smug, satisfied look teachers sometimes get when they know they are grinding the students" last nerves.

"Now promenade left! Bow to your partner, do-si-do!" the stereo drill-instructor yelled.

I promenaded, which consists of walking like a BIG HONKING GOOBER around in a circle. And then I bowed. A strange, jerky sort of movement.

And finally, my least favorite thing: I did a do-si-do. Or as the shrieking, yammering voice on the CD said, do-si-Doooo!

"You call that do-si-do?" Rachel sneered as I high-stepped backward around her.

"Don't mess with me, Rachel," I warned.

"Smile, Jake. Big smile!" Rachel said. "We are happy while dancing. Happy!" She was so totally enjoying torturing me.

Rachel is my cousin. She's an Animorph, too.

"Now swing your partner back to the left and promenade!"

"Promenade this," I muttered darkly. I grabbed Rachel to swing her. I was considering swinging her into the nearest wall. But although Rachel may look like some dippy Clueless type, she's a lot closer to being Xena: Warrior Princess. In other words, I'm just a little scared of Rachel. I've seen her in lots of battles. You just really don't want to make her too mad. You really, really don't.

"Excellent swing," Rachel mocked me. "Now you're getting into it. I can just picture you in a string tie, cowboy boots, maybe a bright red-checked western shirt "Don't push it, Rachel," I warned again. Then the worst possible thing happened. As I was "promenading" yet again, I heard Rachel yell.

"Hey, Cassie! Come by to watch?!" My heart sank. Cassie is another member of our team. She's also someone I really kind of like. If you know what I mean. And I really didn't want her watching me as I stomped clumsily around the circle. The sight of me, big old Jake, galumphing around in time to fiddle music was guaranteed to destroy any affection Cassie had for me. I mean, I was making myself sick. I could just imagine how I looked to Cassie. I met Cassie's gaze. She was standing in the doorway of the classroom. And she was laughing. She was laughing with her entire body. She was in convulsions.

I was so relieved. See, I was afraid I'd get a pity look.

Instead, she was cracking up. Tears were rolling down her cheeks as I "do-si-doed" right in front of her.

"You find this funny? Me, trying to dance?"

Cassie couldn't talk. She was laughing too hard. She just nodded. What could I do? I started laughing, too. There wasn't anything else to do.

Oh, maybe one other thing. I grabbed Cassie's hands and pulled her into the circle. Rachel backed away, letting Cassie take her place in the pattern.

Cassie stopped laughing.

"No way!" she said, alarmed.

"Let's see you do-si-do," I said.

I grabbed her and swung her, and in a breathless voice she whispered, "I just came by to tell you something. Tobias wants us. Right after school lets out. It's something big."

I took a deep breath. Suddenly, I wasn't in the mood to laugh anymore. Tobias wouldn't say "something big" unless it was something big.

And "something big" meant something bad these days. Cassie and I had to obey the music and separate then, but a few seconds later, we rejoined in the pattern, bowing to each other.

"I guess square dancing doesn't seem so bad now, huh?" Cassie asked me.

"Yeah, right. It would take more than the danger of sudden death to make square dancing okay," I said. "A lot more." I did some more promenading. I did some more bowing. I did some more do-si-doing.

But my thoughts were already running ahead, wondering what Tobias had seen. And just how much of a mess it would end up being.Then . . .

FLASH!

I fell!

I fell down and down through the green, green trees! A branch.

I snatched at it with my hand and swung and released, then flew through the air and caught another branch. I wrapped my tail around the branch and turned to look back. Monkeys were swinging toward me through the high treetops of the jungle.

I was giddy.

It was a rush!

It was . . .

FLASH!

Cassie was smiling, and looking a little strangely at me. The music was done. The class was breaking up.