Animorphs Primal: Invasion

Chapter 6

I think that I did pretty good on my test. After all, I always nail my tests. I never turn in my homework or any work at all, but when it comes to taking tests, I always come out on top. So I wasn't really worried about my score, especially when I managed to turn my scores around this last year. All I had to do was have Melissa force me to focus on my work and everything turned out great. But I was going to need another system for next year.

Graduation was next week. I can't believe that these last 4 years went by so fast. It felt as though I just moved to this town this year.

I actually didn't live in Ferndale my whole life. I came from Leeds when I was just 6 years old. After my dear ol' Dad left us because of his workaholic tendencies, we moved over to the States. And thanks to him we had a steady source of income. I guess he felt guilty that he couldn't be there for us, but I could care less. I didn't even know him at all, which is why I never understood my mom's constant desire to tell me that I was going to be fine without him.

Melissa and I always met up at the front of the building after school every day. But since today she left home early, I was surprised to see her standing outside waiting for me. I expected her to have gone home when she was finished, instead she was on her laptop sitting on a table under a tree waiting for me.

"Hello, Beautiful. I thought you left home early."

"Oh," she jumped. "Danny. I uh, I was waiting for you. I actually wanted to walk home with you," she laughed nervously.

I looked at her. She was acting strangely. I was about to look at her computer to see what she was doing when she closed it quickly.

"Shall we go now?" she grinned.

Any thoughts about what she was hiding quickly disappeared and we left.

No matter how many times I go to her house, I'll never shake off the amazement on the size of it. From the outside, there was a considerable size difference as it was bigger than any other house in the town. But inside it looked bigger. Now that I knew that aliens were real, I was beginning to wonder if Doctor Who or anything similar to the TimeLords existed. Along with generally any other alien from pop culture media. Were there any aliens that influenced their ideas or looks? I'd have to ask Elfangor later.

"Our last 2 weeks of school. What do you think about it?" she asked me.

"I think that. We should do something else. It can wait for later," I offered.

"Yeah. It can." I agreed.

We spent the next few hours focusing on her speech that she was going to give during the Graduation ceremony. I offered critiques and ideas for what she could say. Together we improved it a bit more. It was a little ritual we performed every time I came over. The speech she had now was completely different than the original save for the ideas. I was pretty sure that I was the only one to help her with that since Rachel never mentioned Melissa's speech. Or at least I hoped I was the only one to help her with it. I know, I'm selfish.

Afterwards, we just relaxed and watched a couple of movies. Her parents always came home late so it wouldn't be a problem. Plus tomorrow was the weekend so we wouldn't have to worry about getting any rest for a big day. Except for me, I had to meet up with the others to finally decide what exactly we were going to do about our predicament. I've been avoiding this whole thing far too long. While Jake, Cassie and Tobias were busy taking care of Elfangor, the rest of us have been going on with our lives as though nothing had changed. It was an illusion we would have to burst sooner or later.

I was twisting the ring on my finger nervously when Melissa decided to rest her head on my shoulder.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked me.

Shoot, she was always good at figuring out when someone was distracted. I was a great liar when I needed to be, but I didn't like to lie. But if I didn't then I would put my friends and me in danger if anything bad ever happened. Besides I couldn't just say something after we all decided not to get our loved ones involved.

"I was thinking about the future," I hoped that the glow and noise of the movie would mask the uncertainty of my voice.

"I know that I'm the one who didn't want to talk about it, but. I. I just wanted you to know that I will always be here for you. And to prove it I wanted to give you this," I pulled my ring off and slipped it onto her right index finger.

She already knew what the ring represented for me. I'd told her the story of how I got it a dozen times already, and she loved the story.

I got the ring from my grandmother who I was very close to before she passed away. She herself obtained it from her best friend before he went to war. The two were the closest when they were kids. Her friend had a crush on her and wanted to marry her when he came back from service. But he never did. All she had left to remember him by was the ring. And all I had to remember my grandmother by was the ring too. So I almost never took it off.

I was glad I did take it off yesterday though. If I hadn't, I think I would've lost it during the morphing process. Either that or broken it when my fingers grew fat into the paws of a cheetah.

But now I was intentionally giving it away. To my girlfriend. I know that it was in the promise of never leaving her, but I knew that she didn't want to stay here. And this was a dick move on my part. Tying her to this place because of me, but there was no going back now. At least like this, there would always be a part of me with her in case she did end up moving away.

"Danny... I" -tears edged to the corners of her eyes- "I want you to know that. I've decided to..." I pressed my lips against hers to silence her. I didn't want to know what her decision was right now. Either choice would hurt too much. Both would still be my fault.

"Don't. Not right now. We have all summer, right?" I smiled.

"Yeah, I guess we do," she sniffed.