The Invasion by K. A. Applegate Page B

jeans or a skirt.”
    I was relieved. Thank goodness for Cassie.
    “Yeah, let’s wait for a while,” I agreed. “In the meantime, no one say anything to anyone. We just go back to normal life.”
    There was a smirk on Marco’s face. He thought he’d won. But I wasn’t so sure. Tobias was still blushing. He sent a secret, grateful look to Rachel.
    Marco and I took off toward my house again, trying to act normal. We talked about the baseball season. We talked about who was going to slaughter who in Dead Zone 5, which is this game we were going to play at my place.
    By the time we’d reached my house, we’d run out of stuff to talk about.
    We played Dead Zone for a while. Neither of us did very well. Face it, games just weren’t all that interesting anymore. My mind was totally not there.
    Tom came in after a while. “Hey, you guys,” he said. “Can I give that a try?”
    It had been months since Tom had done anything with me like play a game.
    “Sure.” Marco moved over and gave Tom his control stick.
    We played for a few minutes, and Tom did prettywell. But then it was like he got bored or something. He gave the control back to Marco and just sat back and watched.
    “You guys hear about all the stuff going on with the construction site last night?” he asked me.
    Marco jerked in surprise.
    “What stuff?” I said.
    “It was in the newspaper,” Tom said casually. “They said some kids were there shooting off fireworks. A bunch of morons who live around there decided it was flying saucers or something.” He laughed. “Flying saucers, right.”
    Marco and I both laughed, too.
    “Yeah. And it was just these kids playing with fireworks,” Tom said.
    “Uh-huh,” I said. I was trying very hard to concentrate on the game.
    “You were out at the mall last night, weren’t you?” Tom asked me.
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Did you come back through the construction site?”
    I shook my head. “No way.”
    “Didn’t see any kids hanging around there, maybe?”
    “Nope.”
    “It’s not like I’d get them in trouble,” Tom said.“I mean, I think it’s kind of cool. They’re just shooting off fireworks and they get all these people terrified of flying saucers.”
    “Uh-huh.”
    “Flying saucers,” he said. He laughed again. “Only complete dips believe that kind of stuff.” He leaned close. “You don’t believe in that, do you? Aliens and spaceships and little green men from Mars?”
    I wanted to say no, none of them had been little or green. But I just said, “No way.”
    Tom nodded and stood up. “Cool. You know, Jake, I feel like we haven’t been hanging around much lately.”
    “I guess not,” I agreed.
    “That’s too bad,” he said. He snapped his fingers like he’d just had an idea. “You know, you should join The Sharing. Marco, too.”
    “Why should we join?” Marco asked.
    Tom just grinned. “I gotta go,” he said. He gave me a playful punch on the shoulder. “See you guys later. And don’t forget—let me know if you hear anything about those kids at the construction site.”
    He left.
    Marco looked at me. “Jake. He’s one of them.”
    “What?”
    “Tom. Tom is one of
them.
Your brother is a Controller.”

CHAPTER 12
     
    I swung my fist and caught Marco in the side of the head.
    He jumped back and I swung again. But Marco was quick. He dodged my second swing, and I slipped and went down.
    Marco snatched the bedspread off my bed, threw it over me to tangle up my arms, and sat on me.
    “Jake, quit acting like a stupid jerk,” he said.
    I was trying to grab him, but he had me pretty good. “Take that back!” I yelled.
    “Not likely,” Marco said. “You think it’s just a coincidence he’s suddenly all interested in what happened at the construction site?”
    I knew it looked bad. Even while I was struggling to get free and kick Marco’s butt. I had this sudden flash about the smell I’d noticed on Tom when I was morphed into a dog. And there was that laugh I’d