"Yasmine Bleeth power?" Tobias echoed.

"Bleeth?" Ax echoed. "Is that a word?"

"If Jeremy Jason McCole becomes a spokes-

man for The Sharing, they'll be signing up girls like crazy," I said.

"Then this is serious," Jake said.

"Yeah, Jake, it is. We have to stop this from happening."

Cassie sent me a sly, sidelong glance. "Of course ... we might have to actually meet Jeremy Jason in order to save him."

"We have to do our duty," I said. "I mean, for a start, we have to find out if he's already a Controller."

"And we'd probably have to meet him to do that."

"Get close to him."

"Very close."

"Absolutely."

"Mmm-hmmm."

"The two of you are making me sick," Jake said.

Reruns of Power House came on every night at seven. Just after the news.

I watched it with my two little sisters, Sara and Jordan. Sara was too little to care one way or the other about boys. But Jordan was closer to my age.

"You think Jeremy Jason McCole is cute?" I asked her.

"On a scale of one to ten? Maybe about a thousand."

I nodded. "Yeah. He is cute."

"He's even cuter than that guy Marco. You know the one who's Cousin Jake's friend?"

"Yeah, I know Marco," I said cautiously. I shuddered. "You actually think Marco is cute?"

"Sure."

"Jordan, do me and the whole world a favor. Never, ever tell him."

"As if!"

"But you don't think he's as cute as Jeremy Jason, right?"

"Of course not. Jeremy Jason is famous."

"Oh. Well, let me ask you something. If you thought there was some club you could belong to that would mean you might get to meet Jeremy Ja-"

She leaped up. "What club? What club? What club?\"

Which answered my question. I wasn't foolish enough to worry about what might happen if Jeremy Jason McCole came out in support of The Sharing.

If anything, I wasn't worrying enough.

If using Jeremy Jason worked at recruiting girls into The Sharing, what would the Yeerks do next?

I watched Power House with a whole new outlook, knowing what I now knew about one of its stars. Was it really possible that someone like Jeremy Jason McCole could be a Controller?

No way. And if I did just happen to save him from being taken by the Yeerks. Well . . .

After dinner and after Power House, I went up to my room to attack my backed-up homework. I had a paper due and it was supposed to be five pages long, at least. I had maybe four pages worth of material. So I played with fonts and

margins until my four pages could more or less fill five pages. Then I hit "print" and hoped my teacher wouldn't figure out what I'd done.

"Rachel? I'm running down to the store for some milk," my mom yelled up the stairs. "You're in charge."

I dropped out of the word-processing program and logged on to the Internet. I opened my window since it was a warm night out and Tobias sometimes flew by in the evening.

Then I started checking out the various Web sites for Jeremy Jason.

"Know your enemy," I muttered under my breath. Not that I could really think of Jeremy Jason as my enemy.

I had to wait through several busy signals to reach his own actual home page. My screen filled with a picture of the actor.

"Way too cute to be a Controller," I said to no one.

I scrolled down and found a button for his biography. It was two pages long. I printed it out. Then I clicked on his schedule of appearances.

It was slightly out-of-date. I scrolled down the page. Then, "Whoa! Whoa!"

I stopped and scrolled back. There it was. The twenty-fourth. Jeremy Jason was doing the Barry and CindySue Show on the road. On the road . .

. right in our town for the week.

Two days from now! He's going to be here! Here!

I snatched up the portable phone. I speed-dialed Cassie. "He's coming here!"

"Who? What?"

"Jeremy Jason. He's going to be on the Barry and Cindy Sue Show when they come to town!"

"No way!"

"Oh, yes. Definitely yes." I hung up and started to click to another Web site to confirm the news.

I felt like I couldn't breathe. I was majorly excited. I know, I know, it isn't really cool to get all mental about a TV actor, but Jeremy Jason Mc-Cole was like my first crush going back to when I was ten.

I took a deep, steadying breath.

But I couldn't quite do it. My breathing was short. Rough. Like I was being squeezed. A swarming feeling of heat needles spread across my skin.

This wasn't about Jeremy Jason. There was definitely something wrong with me. I couldn't breathe!

I sucked in air and pushed myself back from the computer.

And that's when I noticed my hand.

My right hand was green. A dark, mottled, reptile green.

?What the. . ."

I held up my left hand. It was green, too. Getting greener as I watched.

Getting rougher. Changing. Morphing!

There were scales forming on my skin. Crawling up my arms.

I bolted from the chair and raced for my full-length mirror.

My face was just beginning to bulge out. A huge, long, black-green snout.

This is something you never want to actually see.

"Yahhhh!" I yelped.

The swelling bulge split open to reveal a row of long, yellowed teeth.

"Crckkk!" I started to say, but my mouth was no longer human enough to make human sounds.

My legs shriveled as I watched helplessly. I fell forward onto the floor. The huge tail was surging behind me. I felt my spine stretching.