"Ever wonder how we're the same color?" I asked, holding one arm against Rese's.
The eight of us were in the main room of our new safe house, the seven of us doing homework and Mar trying to read.
Rese looked up from her Chemistry textbook at me, then looked down at the two arms. They really were almost the same color. So was our hair (without my highlights).
"Not really," she said, looking back at her book.
"B-but…" I started. "I'm black, and you're Latina, right? So how are you the same color?"
She looked back up at me, eyebrow raised. "I'm not Latina."
I looked at her closer. "You're not? But with a name like Teresa…"
She shook her head. "I'm mixed. My mom's from Spain, my dad's from Morocco." She grinned and tapped under her eye. "You ever seen a Latina girl with purple eyes?" She was right. That was the only major difference, as far as color went. Mine were amber, hers were purple.
"Hmm," I muttered, going back to Biology. "Weird, but that should've been expected."
"So, what about you?"
I looked back up at her, a bit surprised. "What do you mean?"
She shrugged. "Well, I know you're from Africa, but what countries?"
I thought a moment. "Ethiopia, Chad, South Africa."
She nodded, then gave me a meaningful look. "You know, I think I know everything about everyone in this room… except anything from before they were Hunters."
I looked at the rest of the group, who, by now, were all looking at us, and nodded. "You're right."
Rese looked at Cassidy. "So, Cass, tell us about yourself." She closed her book and put it on the ground.
He'd actually been the only one not looking at us. He looked up now, though. "Irish," he said simply.
Rese rolled her eyes. "Well, we know that. The eyes, the hair, the last name, it's not the most obscure thing."
"So why'd you ask?" he asked, curious but skeptical.
"You're not from anywhere else?" I asked.
He shook his head. "Just Northern Ireland." He grinned and his voice took on a very bad Irish accent. "Lassie, I was born there."
Rese gave him a withering look. "Lassie?"
"You were?" I asked, surprised.
He nodded.
"So do you speak Irish Gaelic?" Noh asked. Only she would call it that. Or ask.
He looked at her, smiling a little. "Well, I just call it Irish, but yeah." He'd cut out the accent. "English was my second language."
Rese looked annoyed. "So you speak another language. How did this never come up?"
"Don't you speak Spanish?" he asked, looking back at her.
She shrugged. "Yeah, but these days everyone speaks Spanish."
"We don't," the other six of us said in unison. Marina just watched. Everyone knew she only spoke English. Honestly, I wasn't sure if she could concentrate enough to learn another.
"I speak French," I added.
"I speak Russian," Noh said, raising a hand tentatively.
Rese scowled.
I looked over at Noh. "So, where are you from?"
"I'm Russian-Polish," she said in her quiet voice. "But I was born in Russia, and moved here when I was two. But my parents still spoke to me in Russian. I know a few words of Polish, too."
"You were?" I asked blankly. How did none of us know any of this?
She nodded, then smiled a little. "I kind of hope no one thought Nadezhda was an American name."
I chuckled. "Very true, very true." I looked over at Terrence. "You?"
"Congo, Kenya, Uganda," he said easily, as if he's been saying it in his head since I brought it up. But that was how he said everything.
"And those are… all along the equator, right?" I asked, trying to remember the geography lessons.
He nodded.
And that was why he was darker than me. Very, very slightly darker than me.
I looked over at the two Hunters who hadn't spoken. I wasn't surprised Jaq hadn't, but for Jay to be quiet for that long kind of worried me. "And you two?"
Jay looked up from next to his sister, mouth still open mid-whisper.
So he wasn't being quiet. That was a comfort.
"What are you saying?" Rese asked suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing," Jay said, fluttering his eyelashes at her. Jaq was as expressionless as ever, but I think we could all see that she was actually trying really hard not to laugh.
Rese narrowed her eyes at them.
"So…?" I said before things could turn violent. Again. It probably would've been amusing, but Teacher would get annoyed.
"French-British-German," Jaq said, a hand snapping out to grab her brother's wrist, obviously for the same almost-pacifistic reason.
"Yes, we're Brits," Jay said, using another terrible accent, tugging at the apparently tight restraint. "Please, Queen Cleopatra, have mercy on our souls."
Rese glowered and gripped the arms of her chair tighten, teeth bared. "That's Egypt, moron," she growled. But she didn't get up and start threatening him/beating him up, so I was kind of proud.
He shrugged, grinning. "But can I call you Queenie?"
Teresa jolted to her feet. I jumped up and grabbed her arm in a death grip.
"I suggest you run," I said to the shaggy-haired boy, fluttering my eyelashes like he would.
He nodded, pried out of his sister's (now noticeably looser) grip, and dashed off, the grin never fading.
Rese tried pulling from my hand, but her determination to hurt people wasn't quite as strong as mine to keep people from getting hurt.
"Rese, sit down," I said in her ear, gently tugging on her arm.
She didn't do anything for a moment, just stood there, glaring after him, shoulders tense, then slowly sat back down.
"Better," I said approvingly, sitting back down, too.
She gave me the same withering look she'd given Cass earlier. I ignored it and turned to the now-seventh person in our group. "What about you, Mar?"
She looked a little surprised, then thought hard. "Um…"
"Russian-Polish-Austrian-Hungarian," Noh offered.
Mar nodded. "Yeah." She smiled meekly.
I nodded slowly. "Are you two the only ones with any country in common?"
Everyone thought a quick moment, then laughed. Except Jaq. But she was on the inside. Or something. I don't know, it sounds artistic and mysterious.
After a moment, I stopped laughing, realizing something. I turned to the only remaining Hunter whose background hadn't been commented on. "Wait, you're French?"
On the inside, she tried not to facepalm.
Yes, Ten thinks Jaq's a girl. Teresa thinks Jaq's a guy. If you can't remember this, turn to the last few pages of book 4. It's kinda my favorite part. (I love how I'm the only one who's done anything for that... ^^')