((I'll take Marco for this post, but anyone can feel free to claim him at any time. I'm not that funny, so I hope--for his sake--someone snags him soon! Anyone want to take Jake, even if just for the moment?))
As Marco's eyes followed Jake, he saw Elayne sitting on the bench returning his best friend's smile. Marco reflexively tensed. Elayne was a Chee, and any news the Chee thought was important enough to bring to them at school could not possibly be good news.
Suddenly aware that the pause in his conversation with Shawn was becoming awkwardly long, he turned to look back to his friend. "So three days of freedom," he said, trying not to grin too tersely. He hoped he sounded as if he was relishing the idea of a three-day weekend rather than musing grumpily about how it was inevitably going to be ruined by alien invaders. "What are you gonna do with yourself, huh, Shawn?"
Elayne watched Jake approach and patted the empty space on the bench beside her. Once he sat, she extended her force field and hologram around them so that any passerby saw and heard the two of them laughing and chatting. Her true metallic body was now visible to him, but his expression showed no surprise. Instead, he just looked like he was bracing for some kind of impact. "Jake, we have received important intelligence. Erek would have brought it to you, but he is currently indisposed. The Erek who was at school today was actually another Chee."