Chapter Four: Treats and Twists

We sped into an empty Main Room when Beth stopped us.

"Wait, wait, relax. If we are going to go in late, then we're going to go in with style. Chill it."

"But we are three minutes late! I don't want this on my record!" Jessi sobbed.

"We're not in school anymore, we don't have a record, Jess," Paisley corrected. Beth nodded her approval. Now this really seemed outrageous. What was so great about dinner here? Did they put MSG in it so you wouldn't be able to live without it?

The Café was about the size of the Basketball Court, if not doubled, or even tripled, to accommodate the hundreds, if not thousands of kids in here. This room was square, not circular and each of the four walls was painted each Family's color. There were about fifty to sixty eight-seating white tables and white Chinese paper-lanterns hung low from the ceiling, bringing warmth and conversation. I shivered a bit; only now realizing it was practically freezing in here. I was from Los Angeles and I was used to going to Disneyland when I felt like it, not negative one degrees Fahrenheit. Mostly all the tables were full, but here and there, a few unoccupied tables lingered.

"We don't do well in the heat, Claire," Beth whispered in my ear. "We have to remain calm and cool, otherwise….let's just not think about that." She read my mind, and this time, she actually made sense. I could never handle the scorching, desert temperatures of Los Angeles in the summer. My mom said I was an expensive child because I would cry if she didn't turn on the air conditioner to exactly sixty degrees. She joked that that my sister, dad and herself would layer sweaters on top of sweaters and I would sit in my crib and laugh. This memory almost brought tears to my eyes, and I thought about the fact I would never see my mom again. Beth was already about two feet away from me so I quickly swept away the tears with my pinky, careful not to touch the eyeliner.

The girls walked over to a table where three girls already sat. Mostly all the tables were full, but here and there, a few unoccupied tables lingered.

One of the girls was Asian with very cream skin and charcoal hair with thin, shocking red streaks running through. So much for light, soothing shades. One of the other two girls had dark air as well, with very, very deeply tanned skin and warm amber eyes suggesting she was Spanish and the other had emerald green eyes and had the features of a normal, twelve year old American girl, with straight blonde hair and light skin.

"This is Maila Kim," Paisley said pointing to the one with the red streaks, "Ava Wiles," Jessi pointed to the Spanish girl, "and Anna-Lynn Hurst," Beth said, pointing to the last girl.

"And this is Claire Parker," Jessi said. "She's new here and Aria asked Beth to show her around. And of course she's a Mallana."

"Of course," Maila said as she shook my hand.

"You know, you guys always get the new ones," Ava joked as she shook my hand.

"Welcome to SOZ! I hope you really like it here!" Anna-Lynn said happily.

We all sat down in dining chairs that felt like the beanbags. On the tables were menus made of strong, laminated cardstock, but at each seat were plate and glass-sized circles. At the center of the table was a pad of white paper and eight white pens.

"So, um, food is good here?" I asked, picking up my own menu.

"All the food here is amazing!" Maila said, grazing the menu.

"How would you know? You never eat anything but salad," Beth's voice said in my head. The others stifled a laugh, indicating that they heard it as well.

Maila went on, suggesting she hadn't heard Beth's telepathic comment. "But I don't know if I should get the Greek Salad or the Caesar Salad. Probably not the Greek Salad because it comes with a falafel. What do you think guys?"

All the other girls rolled their eyes and ignored her as Ava leaned in and told me, "Maila is always on a diet even though she DOESN'T NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT!"

"Okay, relax, I know I don't need to lose weight; I look amazing! I just want to stay healthy. What is wrong with that?" Maila argued.

"We are not saying that there is anything wrong with staying healthy. We want to stay healthy as well. But look at us. We eat normal food and we're fine! But you eat plants all day and run three miles a week. By your own free will!" Jessi countered.

"Fine. Just to prove I'm not some plant-loving, running obsessed psycho-"

"Oh, but you are," Beth muttered under her breath.

Maila glared at her and went on, "I won't eat salad." The glancing at me she said, "In fact, Claire will pick out what I'm going to eat." She folded her arms across her chest and shrugged.

"Have it your way." Paisley smirked and then turned to me and said, "You can order a drink, entrée, side and dessert. You don't have to get all of them, those are just the choices. When you've chosen take a pen and piece of paper and write down your order and put it in your plate circle and do the same for your drink. Dessert will only come after you are done with your entrée and side."

The menu was far too long and I only remembered a few items:

Main Course

~Spaghetti

~Fettuccini Alfredo

~Linguine with Lemon

~Pesto and Garlic Pasta

~Cheese Pizza

~Veggie Pizza

~Green Pizza

~Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Sandwich

~Macaroni and Cheese with Mushrooms and Truffle Butter

~Minestrone Soup

~Irish Potato and Leek Soup

~Broccoli and Cheddar Soup

~Falafel Sandwich

~Grilled Vegetables, Beans and Cheese Burrito

~Kung Pao Vegetables

~Chow Mein

…

Sides

~Parmesan Garlic Fries

~Caesar Salad

~Greek Salad

~Garlic Bread

~Lemon Herb Couscous

~Guacamole with Grilled Tortilla

~Seven Layer Bean Dip with Grilled Tortilla

~White Bean Hummus with Pita

…

Deserts

Apple Pie

~Banana Cream Pie

~Cherry Pie

~Peach Pie

~Blueberry and Pear Crumble

~Raspberry Tart

~Mixed Fruit Tart

~Strawberry Shortcake

~Triple Fudge Cake

~Ice Cream Sundae

~Banana Split

…

Drinks

~Diet Coca Cola

~Diet Pepsi

~Coca Cola

~Pepsi

~Fanta

~7-up

~Sprite

~Strawberry Soda

~Ginger Ale

~Lemonade

~Pink Lemonade

~Apple Juice

~Mango Juice

~Strawberry Smoothie

~Peach Smoothie

~Chocolate Milkshake

~Banana Milkshake

…

My mind started working out calories, fat grams and portion sizes which wasn't very easy when all you had to go by were loopy cursive words. For Maila, I decided on Irish Potato and Leek Soup, Coca Cola, Greek Salad and an Ice Cream Sundae. For myself I ordered Macaroni and Cheese with Mushrooms and Truffle Butter, lemonade and Caesar Salad. My sweet tooth had worn off for some reason.

"No, I cannot have the Ice Cream Sundae. It's the size of this table!" Maila whined.

"For the first time, she is telling the truth," Ava admitted. "Considering food I mean," Ava assured her friend.

"You can share with someone," Paisley murmured.

"How about Claire?" Maila offered. Then turning to me she said, "I mean, if that is okay with you. Is it? Because you didn't get a dessert and I just thought," Malia rambled.

"No, don't worry, Maila. It's alright," I said.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Of course! Don't worry about it," I insisted.

The others scribbled down some foods on their piece of paper, but I couldn't make out the words. They then turned the papers over and set them on the drink and plate circles and I did the same with mine and Maila's.

For a couple of seconds, we waited in silence. And some more seconds. And a couple more. When the eerie quiet became too much for me, I said, "So, when does the food get here?"

Beth stared at her watch and held up her index finger, "Wait for it…"

Abruptly, the plate circles went into the tables. They descended slowly, and for a brief moment they disappeared completely. Then they popped up, this time each circle covered with a plate filled with steaming, colorful foods. Then the drinks popped up and tall glasses with brightly colored straws bobbing off the surface emerged, holding lemonade, 7-up, Coca Cola, strawberry soda, peach smoothie, mango juice, Pepsi.

"And this is what I like to call quality fast-food," Anna-Lynn said as she sipped her mango juice. "Take that McDonalds."

The plates had burgers, pasta, pizza, soup, sandwiches resting on them, with delicious aromas wafting up from the food.

"I don't think I can eat all of this food," Maila mumbled.

"Seriously?" Beth scoffed. "Claire didn't even order that much food. Mai, it is not healthy to malnourish yourself and then exercise as if the Olympics are coming. You need to eat. Consume as much food as you can and we will deal with the leftovers later."

"Come on. Take a sip of your soup, Maila," Paisley soothed softly. Jessi dipped the spoon into the piping hot soup and blew on it. Then she waved the spoon under Maila's nose, so the curls of smoke floated up into her nostrils and urged, "Come on, Mai. You know you want some."

She took a very deep sniff, and exhaled slowly, as if she wanted to hold on to the aroma of the soup.

"That smells better than the Japanese Cherry Blossom hand lotion at the Material World," she admitted softly. The twins moved the spoon under her nose in slow circles, until Maila tilted her head forward and took a miniscule sip from her large, dipped soup spoon, like a dainty kitten lapping water with her small tongue.

"That is the most amazing thing I have ever tasted!" Maila exclaimed, and in five minutes half of the big white bowl was empty.

"So what Families are you guys in?" I asked.

"I'm a Speaker," Maila said, pointing to her red streaks.

"Mind," Ava said.

"Shifter," Anna-Lynn said.

"You guys are so lucky you are not Mallanas," Beth announced.

"Oh, and why is that?" Anna-Lynn asked. There was amusement in her voice as Beth said,

"They cut us to three hours of television a day instead of unlimited because the boys were watching through dinner and after 10:00."

"Oh really?" Anna-Lynn asked, with mock-sympathy in her voice. "I truly do feel sorry for you. And while you're limited to three hours of T.V. a day, I'm blessed with having Sydney Sutton and her little slaves, for lack of a better word, in my Family. All they can talk about is their clothes and their hair and Todd Jerkins and his slaves-"

"Who are all Minds for your information," Ava interrupted.

"-and the fact that they deserve to be Mallanas instead of you," Anna-Lynn continued. "By the way, she calls you three-I guess four now-pesky little rats, and some other things I'm not allowed to say, who have stolen her right to be the best she can be. She says you are stunting her growth as the most important Shaif in the world and you are diminishing her potential to be something far more important than a couple of twelve year old babies and says that your position should be given to someone with more experience, someone of the age of, say fifteen years, just like herself. She says her daddy should talk to Aria. That since they were rich they should be able to be in the highest rank, rather than the one where their power really lies."

"Geez, Ann!" Jessi said. "I didn't know you hated us that much."

"I don't!" Anna-Lynn snapped. "They do. They can't get it into their thick skulls that they don't deserve that kind of power. They don't understand that being a Shifter will harness the amount of power they have. Lord, they are annoying. Vishnu should curse them for-"

"Excuse me, who?" I questioned.

"Sometimes I don't realize some don't know my story. I…well, my birth parents abandoned me when I was three. I don't know why, but I know my birth father just lost his job. One day, we drove to the highway. They stopped the car on the side and got off. They took out a couple of bed sheets and my pillow and teddy bear and laid it on the side of the road. Then they took me out and put me on the sheets. They got back in the car and drove off. I cried and cried, but they never came back. I learned at an early age that you couldn't trust some people, no matter how close they got to you. Some homeless men stole my blankets and pillow, and eventually all I had left was my teddy bear. I probably ate once a week, eating whatever people put on the side of the road. After two weeks I thought I should probably go somewhere where there was more shelter, since the cold was kicking in. I walked to safer grounds, mostly going to the back of a Burger King where the cook was nice enough to give me the leftover fries and burger patties. She gave me her sweater once. Then she got caught using some of the next day's supplies to cook me a fresh dinner and she was fired. The new cook kept the back door locked at all time and threw bottles at me, because hey, what's worse than a starved, homeless four year old? I eventually walked to a nicer part of town. There, people would drop nicer things on the ground like torn jackets and umbrella fabrics. I eventually made home behind a grocery store and waited for the baker to throw out the day's uneaten bread like he always did, not even bothering to put it in a bag. I would eat stale bread every day. Then, one day, I got my courage and went into the store. I was going to try to take something.

"There was this Indian boy in a shopping cart and he pointed and said, "Look, Mummy! That girl is wearing torn clothes!" The mother immediately knew I was homeless. After a few days, she came back to my shelter and had an attorney and some papers. Adoption papers. They took me in and I've lived with them ever since. I'm used to a lot of Indian things. I often say things like that without realizing it. Vishnu is a mythological Indian deity."

"Oh." I hadn't realized asking about someone with an interesting name would lead to this. "That's kind of depressing."

Anna-Lynn laughed light-heartedly. It amazed me how happy she was to this day, after going through so much. Bad things happen to good people.

"Let's eat! We don't have a lot of time before the Garpal game," Beth rushed, and took a bite of her pizza.

"What's Garpal?" I asked as I drank my lemonade.

"It's a Zambolian game, sort of like the Zambolian football. And I don't mean soccer," Beth replied, struggling to find the end of cheese coming off her pizza as she pulled with her teeth.

I looked down at my own food. I had ordered the macaroni and cheese. A generous portion of it was on a large square plate, with thick, creamy cheese sauce covering corkscrew pasta and Cromini mushrooms. To my left was a smaller bowl with bright greens covered in creamy Caesar dressing, bursting with color and a lemon wedge on the corner of the plate.

I lifted my fork and stabbed at a few pieces of pasta and a couple of mushrooms. When they entered my mouth, I nearly cried out. It reminded me of Mom. The crispy Parmesan crust and creamy, cheesy, decadent sauce covering soft pasta and beefy mushrooms reminded me of her mac n' cheese that she would make every Friday night. There was an added luxury to the sauce, something that had a nice marriage with the mushrooms and cheese, that I realized was the truffle butter. It tasted like heaven. But, more importantly, it tasted like home.

The rest of the meal went in silence. Mostly.

Halfway through, Maila asked me, "So where did you land? When Estania brought you here. I'm very curious." She was poking her Greek Salad with distaste.

"I landed in the Research Room," I answered after swallowing a mouthful of crisp, crunchy lettuce covered in delicious Caesar dressing.

This seemed to interest not only Maila, but the whole table. Beth put down her Diet Pepsi. "What? Why didn't you tell me?" She seemed alarmed and a little hurt.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I didn't think it mattered."

"No, it's not your fault, Claire," Beth said. "It is just that people who land in the Research Room are supposed to be geniuses. They are supposed to be very important to the future of SOZ, the greatest leaders. When the director gives birth, the baby goes to the place where they would land if they weren't the director's child. Madam Mason herself landed in the Research Room, as well as one of the first directors of SOZ."

It was quiet for a little bit as people ate their food and contemplated what Beth had just said. Something flashed into my head; when Estania was talking to me in Aria's office. She said I was special. She said that I was a leader. Mysterious, confusing and a little scary.

About two minutes after we finished our food, dessert came. But no one was looking at theirs because mine was taking up half the table.

On a large silver platter was an old-fashioned sundae glass, like the ones in the `50s diners. Inside the six inch glass were at least seven perfect scoops of vanilla ice cream stacked neatly on top of each other. Surrounding it were small glass bowls holding toppings like marshmallows, gummy bears, fruit, whipped cream and chocolate syrup.

All the girls forced down their deserts and eventually they disappeared. Then they grabbed spoons and started dumping the toppings in. After eight girls and eight spoons, the sundae glass was squeaky-clean.

"I think I'm going to pass out," Maila exclaimed.

"You are really not going to," Beth assured her.

"We better get moving," Paisley and Jessi said. "See you at the bleachers."

"But we're not sitting on your side, remember?" Ava reminded. "And we're going to win tonight."

"Sure you are," Beth said. "Keep on telling yourself that. A high self-esteem is healthy."

We all laughed and Ava took the opportunity to wiggle out, Anna-Lynn and Maila following her.

"Why aren't we sitting on the same side?" I was curious to the sudden change of behavior toward each other.

"Because we are playing each other, Claire," Beth responded. "Tonight's game is the Mallanas against the Minds. And we take our sports very seriously." As though that needed to be cleared up.

When we entered the Rec Room, Beth explained, "In Garpal, there are two teams of five. These are the Finals, the two teams being the Minds and us. On each side are bronze eggs. When it's your turn, your main player, called a Shattle, passes the line and gets past the defense- though they are not allowed to touch the Shattle while they are retrieving the egg- and grabs the egg. Then he/she has to make it across the white line back onto his side. This is the time when the opposing team is allowed to try and stop him/her, though once he/she gets back on their side, the other team can't touch them. The best part is that you get to use your powers. In this case, the Minds could, I don't know, convince the Mallanas to make way for you as you dashed back to your team. But for Mallanas they can only use the powers that the other team has, and none other or they are disqualified. If we are playing the Shifters we can only use our Shifting powers, etc.

The elevator doors dinged open and we entered a busy, bustling room of chatty girls.

"We should go get changed," Paisley said. "I cannot bear to be in these clothes for another second." And then she disappeared into her closet like the others.

I went over to my bed and then into my closet. Looking around, I realized I was used to my old closet, my old clothes, not these strangers. I made my way over to the casual ensemble and skimmed the rack. I selected a navy blue, loose shirt with wide kimono style sleeves and dark skinny jeans. I kept my blue sandals but traded all my jewelry, excluding my bracelet, for simple diamond studs. I slung the hair-tie out of my waves, disassembling the bun and pulled put the headband. I brushed my hair gently and took a couple of strands, braided them, and pinned them back. I slipped on a black blazer to protect me from the cold climate. Then I pressed the button on the floor, identical to the one near my bed. It sent me shooting toward the ceiling and for a scary moment I thought I was going to hit my head and start bleeding and have a concussion and die. I didn't even know if that was possible in that order.

Paisley, Jessi and Beth were already sitting on their beds waiting for me. Paisley and Jessi truly lived up to their twin title in matching cropped purple T-shirts, black jeans, purple Vans and tight pony-tails. Beth was dressed in a short white, cotton, button-down dress, black leggings and gold ballet flats, which made her beautiful, flaming red hair stand out. When I emerged, they all stood up.

"Aren't you looking smashing!" Beth grinned. "All thanks to me of course. Just kidding. Now get a move on or we'll have a tough time getting in!"

That was an understatement.

The entrance to the Gym was clogged with people, far worse than any plumber could think of. One very tall, burly man in a white uniform stood next to the door holding an iPad. A small white cord was hanging limply out of the side of the iPad. After we got in line, all of the girls took out white box thingies, about four inches long and two inches wide, with a three inch screen on it. There were four buttons on it. They all pressed the right-most button and a small tab, about the size of the end of a Popsicle stick, popped out. They laid their right thumbs on it. There was a soft, gentle humming and then, after a few seconds they lifted their thumbs and the tab slid back in.

Jessi caught me staring and explained, "They're called lineans. Sort of like phones with only text messaging on them. But they are also like our ID card. We were running a finger scan so that the linean and our bouncer, Roger, over there," she pointed to the large man with the iPad, "knows for sure that it is us and not someone trying to impersonate us. You need your linean for everything, even for checking out books at the Library. The tricky part is that you have to find it. The only way to get a linean is if you find it. The staff hides your linean somewhere and you have to find it. It tells them about your character. Some people have to buy theirs at the Material World because they could not find it."

After ten minutes, we finally made it to the Gym door.

"Hello Roger!" Beth greeted brightly. "How's it going?"

He chuckled heartily and replied with an Irish accent. " 'Tis a fine evening for some ale don't you think?" We all giggled beneath the palms of our hands. "Not that I would have any in me possession," he added, as if only just noticing we were a group of twelve year old girls.

"Not that we would want any." Jessi smiled.

He chuckled again and then glanced at me. "Haven't seen you before with this lot," he said, pointing a large finger at the girls. "Are you new?"

"Yes," I began. "I'm-"

"Claire Parker," he finished. "Arrived today at 2:30, landed in the Research Room, born on July 5th, 1999, daughter of Cindy and Joshua Parker, sister of Julia- oh. Sorry about that. Get a bit excited with the new ones." He tapped his iPad a couple times and then held out his hand. The girls slapped their lineans into his beefy palm. One by one, he plugged the small cable from the iPad into a USB port in the lineans, waited for a beep and then handed them back. The door slid open.

"Enjoy the game!" he said as we walked into the Basketball court. The room had been transformed into some kind of flea market. Booths had been set up, selling memorabilia for the Mallanas and Minds, as well as peanuts, foam fingers and other nick-knacks. Loads of people formed hundreds of twisting, winding lines.

"Why aren't people getting seats?" I asked.

"They think buying pins and clips is a once-in-a-lifetime-chance they shouldn't miss." Beth shook her head. "We just go and get seats. We always get the best ones. And there will always be other opportunities to buy things." she walked forward and scanned her eye for the Sports Main Room. Only a few people were dotted around the room, betting on the winning team and guessing who was most likely to break a part of their spine in the first ten minutes. I didn't like the odds of that.

Paisley stepped toward the door labeled Garpal and scanned her eye.

Garpal was played in a room that looked like an ice hockey rink, except minus the ice, with big sheets of glass shielding a kind of field. The ground was covered in grass and vines clung to the glass, exotic plants shooting up the sides. A solitary, thick white line divided the field into two separate sections.

Both sides had a large, twisted, chunky crystal spiral that rose to the ceiling. Encrusted on each side of it were five oval shaped patches that were covered by a thin-netted mesh-like fabric.

"That is for storing eggs once you have acquired them. We call it Zorecma, meaning "holder" or "jail-keeper"," Beth said. "The holes are called egg chambers and the cloth covering turns into metal after you push the egg in, to prevent the egg from falling out or being taken back from the other team. Although it is against the rules to steal back your own egg and the metal is impenetrable, many people still slam themselves into it and it usually results in a broken nose."

"Let's sit here," Beth announced suddenly, plopping herself onto the fluffy, cushioned bleachers. We all dropped down after her. From our seats, we could see the whole Garpal field in front of us. Slowly, the crowd from the Basketball court poured into the room until every bleacher was full to the brim, everybody crammed in. At the end of our row, I saw a familiar face. Aria Mason sat on the edge of the bleacher wearing a deep blue, spaghetti-strapped summer dress that came right above her knees, showing her toned, tan and delicate calves, her manicured toes slipped into white flip-flops, a wide smile on her face, her head inclined as she clutched her linean, obviously messaging someone. Then her smile was ambushed; her face twisted into a frown as she stood up and headed for a small door at the back of the Garpal field.

Before we knew it Aria was in the center of the field holding a microphone.

"Well, um," Aria said and then cleared her throat. "Hello there, Shaifs! I guess you are pretty pumped about the Finals, huh?" This received great amounts of cheering and clapping and rude foam-finger pointing to the opposing team from the audience. It took a while for them to calm down and after they did, she began again. "Well, I…..uh….. I am sorry to say this but we have encountered a small mishap and, basically, the game is off." This received large amounts of booing and cursing, and still rude foam finger pointing. It took even longer for them to calm down but when they did, Aria returned with a stern tone.

"Now, now, we are Shaifs are we not? We do not react to life's disappointments like this!" Then she softened up a little bit and said, "How about our lovely trainers set up the EC Room so that we can register for them today instead?" she offered, her gaze remaining on the top row of white suits that was the staff, as they groaned and complained. "It will be our treat," she said and those two words made all of the staff quiet and sit up straight, their faces blank and ghostly pale. I wouldn't be surprised if those two words were magical; after all, I had just recently been transported hundreds of miles by a rock. That kind of makes it impossible to be surprised.

The staff all nodded and marched themselves out the door, single filed, headed to the EC Room.

"We should get there quickly or we won't be able to get the mob," Beth urged. "Oh, look there are the others!" she announced pointing to Ava, Maila and Anna-Lynn. They were all decked out: Ava in dark jeans, black Ugg boots, a white lace cami and a purple blazer, Maila in a black leather jacket, jeans, a loose, silk, yellow blouse and high heels and Anna-Lynn in a dark pink V-neck T-shirt tucked into a flowing black mini-skirt and black flip-flops.

"I can't believe they cancelled the game!" we heard Ava say as we got closer. Then turning around to Beth, she said, "But we would have won anyway, so I guess there was no point."

"Fat chance of that, the way your number twenty-five plays," Beth sneered.

"What's wrong with number twenty-five?" Ava asked defensively.

"You seriously did not just genuinely ask that question."

"What if I did?"

"Are you blind?"

"What do you mean?"

"With that leg issue of his-"

"He doesn't have a leg issue!"

"Are you kidding? He ran out of lunch the other day to the nurse's office because he fractured something!"

"Were you hallucinating? He went to the nurse because Carissa Carter punched him after he broke up with her!"

"Sure she did. Someone also must have hit you hard in the head, seeing as you can't remember!"

"I cannot believe you just said that!"

Finally, as we were headed to the EC Room and they continued to argue, I asked Anna-Lynn, "Who is number twenty-five?"

"I highly doubt they even know," she giggled, soon followed by an uncontrollable chorus of loud laughs.