We ate breakfast in shifts; I was with Tom, Cassie, Marco, and his dad. The latter seemed upbeat, considering the weather. "No paper?" he asked, digging into his cereal so it sounded more like "Npapull?"
"No, unless you'd like to dig an igloo and get it," Marco replied.
"That's okay. All the papers ever have is "People blow up"."
Cassie shook her head. "I can't understand why people have to kill each other."
"They don't have to, they just want to," the Yeerk infesting Tom said with my cousin's lips. I wanted to…the adrenaline rush comes just thinking about it.
She reluctantly turned back to her mush, poking at it but not eating.
"Oatmeal, Tom?" Jake's mom asked.
"Nah, I think I'll pass, thanks."
I finished my cereal. "Could I have some more?" I asked.
Jake's dad reached for the box, but Marco leapt up. "Allow me." Melodramatically, he tipped the contents of the box into my bowl. Including the plastic bag. And the bonus CD at the bottom.
"Aw sweet!" Jordan called, running for it. "What's this…Benny Angle's greatest hits?"
"Who's Benny Angle?" asked Cassie.
"He's, like, the most awesome-" Jordan grabbed the CD, and the cereal spilled all over the floor. "uh, singer ever!"
Marco sighed. "Some people just can't ever be appreciated."
"And there's usually a reason for that." I put the plastic bag in the empty box and began scooping up cereal from the floor.
"Rachel, Rachel. Are you ever going to give me the credit I deserve?"
"I am giving it to you. You just don't know what you deserve."
"Hey, lay off him!" Marco's dad commanded.
"I can fight my own battles," I told him.
"Yup, that's our Rachel," Tom laughed. "Gymnast, beauty, and Amazoness warrior."
"What are you talking about?" I almost exploded. He couldn't have known. Could he have? Would I still be alive right now if he did?
"Well, I would have thought five minutes ago that you're one of the last people I would have expected to be violent. But now, based on that, I'm not so sure."
What could I have said? Luckily, Cassie was there to save me. "Hey, gymnastics is competitive."
"Cassie's the gentle one," I said.
Tom nodded. "Gentle. Yeah."
"I wanna eat breakfast now!" Sara whined.
We cleared the table and let her in.