My mirror is starting to annoy me.
I know it's not it's fault that I'm covered in annoying freckles and my hair is flame red but as the item that projects my ugliness I often want to punch it.
And the barf green dress totally does not suit me.
Dad has no fashion sense. He runs an important company, is super rich but he cannot buy an acceptable dress.
"Janice!" I yell. My favorite maid comes rushing in, her brown hair in a bun and her gray eyes kind. Janice may be a little older, with plenty of gray streaks in her brown hair, but she understands me the most.
Most of our maids are flawless girls who are paid not only for service but for dad to enjoy them. Mom does not approve but she can't do anything about it.
"What do you want, Rach?" she asks. That's another thing I like about Janice. She doesn't call me Miss Dare like the rest of the maids.
"Get me out of this dress!" I whine. Janice glances at the dress and cringes.
"You'd think a rich billionaire would have some fashion sense!" she states. I nod, showing her that I agree.
"Do we have any other dresses?" I ask. Janice shakes her head.
"They're all in the wash."
I sigh. "Desperate times call for desperate measures." I change back into my regular clothes and head to my art table, the horrific dress around my neck like a scarf. I pull out some fabric markers.
I start drawing.
Janice is eagerly watching me as I doodle and grab other things. Her eyes widen as I show her the finished product.
My used-to-be-barf-green dress is now red. Instead of being a long flowing dress, I trimmed it so it just goes down to my knees. I added a belt around my waist that marks the part where the the feathers begin.
I covered the whole skirt area of the dress in blue feathers. So now I'm going to wear a red and blue dress. I had also cut the straps off so now my dress is strapless.
"One more thing," I mutter to myself. Then a lightbulb goes off in my head. I grab a blue marker and start to write.
The word DARE is now written on the red part of my dress.
"What do you think?" I ask Janice. She doesn't speak, just claps.
I smile. My dad's going to hate me but I don't care.
Tonight is a special occasion. Since dad likes to keep in touch with all our relatives, we're having dinner with our second cousins from England.
The Weasleys.
I really don't understand why we have to have them over, we could just skype. But when I asked (a day ago) my dad just shrugged.
"The Weasleys aren't really into technology."
So we left it at that and now I get to meet a bunch of kids I don't know.
When I get to the dining room the Weasleys and my family are already there.
It's shocking how many people I see.
The first person I notice is a small girl, around 12. Her hair is flaming red and her eyes are emerald green. She actually reminds me of myself a bit. Then I notice everyone else.
There are 8 other boys at the table, 7 teens, or older, and 1 middle aged man, who must be the dad. They all look around the same, each with red hair.
I look like I belong to this family, instead of my own, with Dad and his brownish-red hair and Mom's clear cut blonde.
"How nice of you to join us, Rachel," my Dad announces through gritted teeth. I smile and wave before sitting down across from the younger girl and next to my dad and one of the Weasley boys.
"Hi, I'm Rachel Elizabeth Dare," I say, waving across the dining table, which fills up the whole room. The rest of the family mutters a small 'Hi.' Then the boy next to me speaks up.
"RED?" he asks. I watch as he snickers along with another boy who looks just like him. They must be twins. I also notice their accents. Definitely British.
"Fred! George!" Their mother scolds. "Behave yourself!" She turns to me. "Hi, I'm Molly Weasley." I give her a small smile.
"I'm Arthur Weasley," says a man sitting right beside Molly, her husband, probably. "That's Bill, Charlie, Ron, Ginny…" he names off all the Weasleys. I can barely remember any of their names.
"And I'm Gred!" Pipes up one of the twins.
"I'm Feorge!" the other joins in.
"And Fred and George," Molly Weasley corrects, throwing them a piercing stare.
For a while it's silent, then I speak up.
"How's your summer been?" I ask. I watch as the Weasleys look at eachother, all of their stares usually ending at Molly.
"Great!" The youngest boy speaks up. He looks about 14. "Next week we're going to the world cup with Harry Po- Ow!"
He gives an angry glare to Ginny, who seems to have given him a kick.
"He means we're going to an Hurled cup, yes a Hurled Cup," Ginny smiles, obviously hiding something.
"At first I thought you were talking about the World Cup," my dad says. "But that doesn't happen until next year!" Then he gives a light chuckle, as if what he said was funny. The Weasleys stare at each other, nervously.
"What is a Hurled Cup?" I ask, eyebrows raised.
One of the twins quickly explains. "You see, you go to this football match but instead of cheering by yelling and whistling, you hurl to cheer. Then when you're done, you throw all your hurl into a giant bowl, you get to pick between two, one for your team and one for the other, and the team with the most hurl wins 50 extra points!" I watch the twins high five. The Weasleys all look relieved. My dad and mom look disgusted.
"Cool!" I say, though I don't believe them. "Think you could bring me along?" I ask.
The Weasleys look around, nervous again.
"Sorry, Brits only!" One of the twins says. I frown.
"I can fake a pretty good british accent," I beg. "You can smuggle me in."
I watch as the twins look at each other then, in unison, say, "I like her."
I grin.
"So," my dad clears his throat. "Any news you want to talk about?"
"Well I was head boy last year," one of the Weasleys brags, an older one.
"Shut up Percy," one of the twins says.
I sit up. "Did you say Percy?" I ask.
The twins look at me weirdly. "Yeah, so what? That's Percy."
The redhead boy looks nothing like my Percy, the demigod son of Poseidon.
But the Weasleys don't know anything about the greek gods. They're just a normal mortal family.
"What's Head Boy?" I ask. Percy perks up and the twins sigh.
"Why'd you have to ask that question?" one of them asks. I shrug.
"Head Boy is a very important position in our school," Percy starts. "I was awarded this position because of my exemplary behaviour." I look to see the twins mocking him and giggle a bit. "I was the closest a student could get to being a teacher."
"Like President of student council?" I ask. Percy looks at me, nose wrinkled in disgust.
"I am not aware of what that is."
"So, Rachel, how was your summer?" Molly Weasley asks, trying to stop the fighting boys.
"Great!" I say. "Everyone in Manhattan fell asleep and an evil dude tried to rule the world and defeat everyone! But luckily my friends and I stopped him and I got special powers!" Saying this is a dinner routine. I like to see the reactions I get when my relatives look at me weirdly, and my dad says that I'm delusional. What they don't know is that it's the truth.
But I don't get a weird reaction this time. The whole Weasley family is still, staring at me as if I'm a ghost.
"Special powers?" the oldest speaks up. "What kind of special powers?"
Well this is a surprise! They believe me! "Well, I can tell the future," I begin. "And I see when weird things happen that no one else seems to see."
For a second the table is silent. The Weasleys are giving each other looks of astonishment.
"She's delusional," My dad reassures the Weasleys. "She doesn't know what's real or not real."
But the Weasleys don't seem to hear. They're speaking in hushed whispers now.
What if they're demigods? What if they're some sort of mythological family.
Then Arthur Weasley stands up. "Thank you for dinner," he tells my dad. "We ought be on our way." Then he eyes me and I wonder if he knows. Can he see through the mist?
The rest of the Weasleys get up and exit the table but the last to go are the twins.
"You're pretty cool, Rachel," One of them says.
"Maybe you can come stay with us sometime," finishes the other.
Then they leave.