Different

Chapter 2: The Logan's

WOWIES!! I never expected this to be so popular! I'm so psyched!! Yayness!

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em, probably (note the probably) never will. I do own the Logan's, though!

I have done a little changing with the Logan's. Serena/Selena no longer exists. Instead, when talking to a , she told me I should call her…well, you'll find out.

A smile spread across his face. "Be ready for the craziness that is the Logan household."

I laughed good-naturedly, but followed him inside nonetheless.

How bad could it be?

Different.

Chapter Two: The Logan's

He wasn't kidding at all. It is a madhouse in here.

"You weren't kidding." I said, slightly shocked. Crashes (harmless, I assumed) and yells cascaded all around us.

"Garfield!" Came a clearly distressed, young voice. "Becca's hurting me!"

Garfield sighed. "Off to do my civic duties."

He trotted off, and a woman walked around the corner, just in time to see me standing there.

"Oh." She said. "You must be Garfield's new friend."

What else was I going to say? That I had just possibly saved him from a thrashing, though I seriously doubted that Terra could do much damage.

"Yes."

"Well, don't just stand there. Come on in," She smiled. "You might want to go to the kitchen. It's safest-and sanest- there."

I took her advice, and when I walked into there someone else was already sitting at the table.

She looked to be about thirteen or so, dressed in faded jeans, and (like me) had a black hooded sweatshirt on. She also had two long blonde pigtails that emerged from under her bandana. She had earphones in and was busily writing in a notebook.

She caught me looking. She raised her blue/green eyes, dressed up in green eye shadow and rimmed in mascara.

"'Lo." She waved, and then went back to her writing.

Garfield appeared again, walked behind her, and pulled off her earphones.

"Hey!" She cried, "Gimme 'em back!"

Garfield dangled them above her head. "Not 'till you introduce yourself."

She scowled, and then crossed her arms defensively.

"My name is Jo. Short for Josephine, but if you call me that I'll make you regret it." She glared at Garfield. "Happy now?"

Jo grabbed her earphones and began vigorously packing up her things.

"So, I see you met the rebel," Garfield said, gently pulling off Jo's bandana.

"Hands off." Jo growled.

"She's…interesting." I admitted. She seemed so different from any other girl I sort of knew. Less superficial, more real.

"Jo likes to stretch school rules." Garfield reached for Jo's bandana again, but she swatted his hand away. "There's nothing about bandana in the school rules, so she and her friends constantly wear them. I just think that Jo likes to stretch the teacher's patience."

"No, it's a symbol of my individuality." Jo hissed. "And people like to laugh at me for it, and make a big joke out of it. They all now think I'm in a gang."

I almost felt sympathetic. I was beginning to like this girl. I saw some of myself in her.

Jo grabbed her things and stalked out of the room.

"She also wants to be a writer. She wants to get published before she is twenty."

"Damn straight." Jo yelled from the next room over.

Then, another guy, looking about twenty or twenty-one, strolled on through, muttering to himself and taking notes in a small spiral notebook.

"Angelo." Garfield motioned to that guy.

"Huh?" Angelo said, his eyes searching the room for the person who spoke his name.

He had the same unruly brown hair as Garfield, except for the green. He, like Jo, had blue/green eyes.

His eyes fell on me. "Ah." He said. "You're new."

Way to make a girl feel welcome.

"Raven." I said simply.

"Of course you are." Angelo said, walking towards the same room Jo was in.

"Angelo is in medical school." Garfield said as we watched Angelo walk out of the room. "He wants to be one of those medical researcher persons, who invent revolutionary medicines, and new medical techniques."

I nodded, impressed.

"Except he's a little absentminded."

That could be a problem.

"As you already know, Jo wants to be a writer. She's hard at work on some sort of supernatural novel. She's really into this sort of stuff."

I glanced at the clock. It was close to four. Not wanting to go home at all, I mentioned we should start on our homework.

We did, but every so often Angelo or Jo would walk through, muttering to themselves. Angelo turned out to be a big help with algebra, since neither Garfield nor I could understand it.

More than ever before, I wished I didn't have to go home.

"Raven?" Mrs. Logan said as me and Garfield packed away our homework around an hour later, "Shouldn't you be getting home soon?"

I knew it was wrong to wrong, but there was no way out. "No," I said cautiously, "my father should be getting home sometime in this hour. I can't reach him on his cell phone."

"Do you know his work number?" She asked anxiously.

"Yeah." I lied again.

"Great." Mrs. Logan smiled. "I'll let you call him then."

This was working out as planned.

Mrs. Logan handed me a phone and ushered me into an office, leaving me to make my call in peace.

Feeling slightly guilty, I pushed some random numbers, faked my call, and hung up.

After Mrs. Logan ushered Raven into Mr. Logan's office, Garfield ran to another room and picked up the other line.

"Well, Dad, I was wondering if I could stay for dinner?"

Garfield almost hung up, but the next words chilled him.

"At the time of the tone, it will be 5:54 and six seconds. BEEP."

"Thanks very much, Dad."

Raven hung up, but she left a very stunned Garfield with a dial tone ringing in his ear.

I passed Mrs. Logan, handed her the phone, and told her my father said it was okay. Garfield was standing nearby, and a funny looked passed over his face. I knew he hadn't heard the call, so what was that look for?

The strange look gone, he showed me to the dining room table that Jo was already sitting at, with a noticeable absence of the earphones and notebook.

Jo looked up and half-smiled. "Take a seat, any seat." I chose the one next to her, in the middle of the table set for eight.

A pair of twin girls walked in, looking only about six. One shyly pulled out a seat next to me, and sat down quietly, gazing at me in some sort of frightened interest. The other girl, who pulled out a seat opposite to the quiet one, was anything but silent.

"Hi!" She announced. "My name's Becca. That's short for Rebecca you know. Jo has a short and a long name, too. Do you have a short and a long name? What's your name? I'm six years old! How old are you? Are you as old as Garfield? My birthday is in June. When's your birthday. Why are you wearing black? I'm wearing pink. Pink's my favorite color! Look at my shirt!"

I had seen her shirt before. She was dressed in sloppy jeans, and a pink tee that said 'Hey, look at me! I'm cute and adorable!'

The thoughts and messages people market to the younger generations is just sad.

Garfield caught my frazzled expression. He cut Becca off just as she was about to speak again. She was almost as bad as Terra, but she was more innocent.

"You weren't kidding when you said your house was crazy."

Garfield laughed. "Rae, you haven't even made it into dinner yet."

I found out exactly what he meant later on.

"Stuffed shells," Jo practically drooled. "Meatballs, Italian bread, marinara sauce. Italian food. Mmmm…"

I'll have to say, my mouth was watering, too. I haven't had a decent dinner in a very long time. Dinner at my house normally consisted of sandwiches eaten before my father walked in the door.

"I don't know how you can eat meat, Jo." Garfield said, shaking his had sadly. "That thing was living once."

"Cut the lecture, Gar," Jo interjected. "You are not ruining my dinner tonight. Don't bore me with tofu talk."

I raised my eyebrows. "So I can guess you're a vegetarian- or more accurately- a vegan."

"That's right! I believe it's unfair to all living things-"

Jo "threateningly" held a fork in Garfield's direction. "I thought I told you," she said evenly, "To shut up and spare us from your lectures."

At that time Angelo walked in, pulled out a chair opposite to Garfield, and broke up Jo and Garfield's brewing fight.

It was such a happy family. Even though dinner was more of an actual "battleground", it was so warm and comfortable. So much unlike my father and me.

Mrs. Logan interrupted my thought by offering me herbal tea. I accepted, and took a sip.

This stuff was good.

I decided to get some of my own.

Dinner was over far too soon for my liking. This meant home was going to come soon.

Angelo glanced at the clock. "Raven?" He ventured.

Damn. The time had come.

Jo looked up from our game of Scrabble that we had so avidly been playing. Garfield glanced up just the same.

"Don't you think you should be getting home?"

I inhaled, trying to calm myself. "Yes," I said reluctantly. I went to get my things.

"I can drive you." Angelo offered.

There was no way in hell he was going to.

"No, that's okay. I'm only about two blocks away." And two blocks down.

"Don't be stupid." Angelo said dismissively. "It's dark out."

"My father wouldn't like it if I got out of a strange car. I'd be better off walking home."

And he would still beat me just the same.

"Oh." Angelo screwed up his forehead in thought. "Garfield," Angelo spoke after a few seconds of thinking, "Would you mind walking Raven home?"

"If it's okay with Raven." Garfield gave me a strange look.

For one instant, I thought that maybe he had heard the call. But that was impossible.

"It's fine."

I said good-bye to everyone and thanked Mrs. Logan for the dinner. Garfield and I walked out the door, and walked in comfortable silence until we got to my house.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow." Garfield said awkwardly.

A light went on in my house.

"Get down!" I hissed, and shoved Garfield to the ground, and covered his mouth with my hand.

We dove under a nearby bush. The heavy, booming footsteps of my father resounded in my chest like a bass drum. I hardly dared to breathe.

"What the hell was that for?" Garfield whispered loudly as the footsteps of my father went away.

"My father doesn't trust teenage boys." I whispered back with an edge. "Unless you wanted me to get into serious trouble, you better keep your voice down."

"Your father hurts you?" Garfield asked incredulously.

"No!" I whispered-screamed. "He's my father!"

"Oh." Garfield said uncomfortably. "My mistake."

"Damn straight." I replied. "You'd better get out of here unless you want the third degree."

Garfield did as he was told, and he ran all the way to his house. I watched him as he did. I was so upset after that. For the first time, it hit me:

I had no way out.

REVEIWER RESPONSES!!!!!

Eva: Great! Hope your piqued curiosity stays that way!

Random Reader: Do you have any more cookies? And I have a lot more reviews!

Maddie: You are Raven are alike? There must be some virus going around, making people act like Raven. Seems like I caught that bug, too!

dana1313: Wowies. You even resort to that word to tell me it's great! XD

iamhollywood: glad you like it! Shower me with more compliments!

Black Raven: I updated! –points to story- Seeeeee?

crazytaxigirl: Glad you like! I've got scary laughter too! –laffs like 0o scary-

Sarah1281: I am extremely happy that you are a Terra fan and still like this story! Wowness! Like the Logans? I modeled them off of real people!

Rosethorn1611: Lots of people like my story! Coolness!

I have nine reviews in my first week! XD I am totally thrilled!! Keep the reviews comin'!

Preview of ch3

Meet the other "titans!"

See Garfield deal with Malchior!

Watch Kori and "Amanda" get into a fight!

Be enthralled as Raven deals with Terra- again!

Author's note: I have two midterms (only two! Wo0T!) coming up soon, in algebra and Spanish. So, if update process is a little slow, this is why. An even BIGGER test comes early in March, so I'll be waaay behind then.

Why are you reading this pointless authoress's rambling? Get on with the reviewing! NOW!