I tipped over the next basket of laundry. Since we were washing clothes, everyone had decided they wanted their laundry done. Le sigh. I swear Matt took clothes out of his closet and stepped on them so they'd be dirty just so that he could be a pain in the ass.

"Anna!" Lexus called. "I have another basket ready!"

I looked imploringly at Aunt Kelli where she sat, mending the holes in the boys pants (from shrapnel, Dave and I thought), or his "Genie Pants" as DC had dubbed them the second they were recognizable as pants in any form or fashion—except in Europe.

My aunt just shrugged. "I'm sorry, honey. Would you mind?"

I sighed and grumpily stomped off to collect my bounty.

When I reached the room , I saw a grungy plomp on top of the pile that consisted mainly of dirty undergarments. "Honey, are these a pair of shoes?" I asked, holding up the very abused, gray canvas.

Lexus just shrugged. "I don't know, Anna."

I'm gunna kill her. I thought as I hefted the basket in my arms. She'd piled the lingerie so high that my eyes were level with a brazier, making me feel oddly bug-eyed. In any case, I couldn't see over or around it. This little girl is seven and has no boobs…How on earth could there be this many bras in the house, even if she's one of four?

I looked back at my younger cousin. She had gone back to her video game, Kingdom Hearts. Why does that kid look so familiar?

I turned to leave, stepping quickly but carefully, trying not to bump into anything. As I began my destined-to-not-ever-be-graceful trek to the laundry room, I remembered something very important. In this family, it doesn't matter how careful you are, because you were going to trip over something. In my case, it was my own two left feet.

"Ghak!" I yelled as I went down like the Titanic.

Someone else screamed in a very emasculating way. Somehow, I knew it was a straight guy. Just don't ask me how.

Wait a minute!

Something's not right here…

Matt had left with Jordan hours ago—I'm not the only one around here who has problems with blood—and Dave was on the front porch with a brand new laptop, an ice cold glass of Tequila—blegh—and a fresh pack of cigarettes, so he was in the zone and wouldn't be in for a while.

Neither Matt nor Dave would have been knocked over by my klutziness. Matt would've just let me fall on my face, given enough time to retreat, and Dave wouldn't have let hit the ground, let alone trip.

This guy was completely caught off guard, though he'd tried to help… As a result, there were dirty unmentionables all over the short hallway and I was basically on top of a complete stranger, one who smelled pleasantly like soap.

I glanced up and saw my worst fear: a hot pink towel—the only color clean—sitting a foot away from my head. Oh snicker doodles.

The boy beneath me groaned. Tripping over everything—even over the air—I rolled away and got up, blushing like a beet. Then I threw the clothes that covered his face into the nearly empty basket, my eyes closed the whole time. I gave him back his towel and pulled him up by the hand. "Are you okay?" It's a good thing I have good enough hearing to tell where I'm going—otherwise, I might have stepped on something.

"Yeah—why are your eyes closed?"

I blushed even deeper. "You dummy." I looked down at the floor, gathered up the rest of the laundry and took off for the washing machine, throwing the clothes in the alcove as unceremoniously as possible and then running for the front porch.

"Anna?" my aunt called. But I was already outside.

I sat on the swing, jerked the pillow out from under Fred the cat—he hissed and tried to attack my hand, so I slapped him away with the same pillow and sent him flying into our Vietnamese neighbors' yard—and screamed bloody murder, muffling the death cry.

Sora's POV/b/i

I just stared after the girl with the flaming red hair as she ran out the door. I didn't know why, but I felt…really hot—temperature-wise—inside my chest…and at the same time I felt a strange sense of loss.

I was so confused that I didn't register the soft footsteps coming from behind me.

The next thing I heard was "Sora? Why are you naked?"

My face burned and I started to turn around-So that's why she had her eyes closed-but I thought better of it. Instead, I wrapped the towel around my waist, glad that whoever it was was behind me.

A little girl with blonde ringlets framing her face walked around, giggling. "It's really you! I couldn't tell when your hair was flat, but now it's easy!"

I blinked at her. "You know my name?"

She giggled again and ran into the room to the left at the end of the hall and shut the door.

"Anna?" someone called again, walking down the opposite hall and stepping into the kitchen. Like the girl from before, she had long red hair but her eyes were blue. "Honey?"

Then she spotted me and smiled, motioning for me to meet her in the middle. "Well, hello—" Her eye twitched. "Honey, how'd you're hair get like that? You didn't get tree sap in it, did you?"

Self consciously, I reached up and touched my hair. "Why? Why's wrong with it?"

"It's gravity-defying!" another girl laughed. How many girls are there in this house? This one had black hair and mismatched eyes—one brown and the other green…just like the first girl. "You're a gravity defying menace!" She started laughing again. Are they all related? Like, sisters or something?

"It always sticks up like that. Has since I was little."

The older woman sighed and shoved her hands into her pockets. "I'll get a comb a-hold of it later." She pulled a cigarette and a lighter from her pocket and lit up.

"Don't take it personally," the one with the long black hair said, still smiling. "Mama's OCD."

"I am not, Donatella Claire."

The younger one narrowed her eyes at her mother then turned to me. "Call me Donna or DC, 'cause my real name's too long. This is my mama, Kelli Daw—I mean, Creek. You can call her 'Aunt Kelli.' Most of my friends do."

"Aunt Kelli" tried her best not to gape at my hair—why?—and said "You gave us quite a fright when you fell on our front porch. If I hadn't been a medic in the army, we would've had to take you to the hospital. As it is, you need to drink a lot of juice. Natural sugars help." She glanced down at my towel. "And we'll need to find you some clothes—Donna, do you think that anything of Matt's—"

"I asked him about that before he left. Matt ain't been that skinny since he was in Elementary school. That's why he and Jordan left. He was gunna drop her off and use his employee's discount at Wal-Mart to be nice for once and get some underwear."

My face went a little pink. This was so bizarre.

Kelli blinked. "Well, until I get those holes in his clothes mended, you and Anna need to do the best you can with what you've got—where'd she go anyway? I thought I heard a scream—"

"She's outside," I muttered, looking away.

"I'll go get her," DC said, smiling. "Help yourself to juice from the fridge. There should be some orange juice left. Anna's, Lex's and my room is down that hall"—she pointed down the hall I'd just come from—"last on the left." Then she went outside.

"So, honey," Kelli asked, poking her head in the fridge and pulling out leftovers from the supper I'd probably interrupted. "You got a name?"

"Sora."

"And where are you from?"

This so wouldn't have happened if I hadn't crashed on the wrong world. I was pretty sure I was on the wrong world. How could I have missed and landed on the wrong continent?

AJ's POV/b/i

I pulled my face out of the cat scented pillow and sighed. That was so embarrassing; I'm gunna die!

"What's wrong, kid?" Dave asked from across the porch. "You look like you're upset."

I bit my lip. Hard.

I had no problems with my step-uncle, except for my belief that he and my aunt had gotten married a little too quickly. It was just disconcerting. In the years since Uncle Mike had died, I'd gotten so use to—whenever I went to visit Aunt Kelli, Donna, and Lexus—there being no guys, especially not perceptive guys who were completely comfortable with discussing PMS, or MCD as Dave called it. As in "Mad Cow Disease."

"Nothing is wrong…per say."

"You're a bad liar, AJ. That's how I know you're a good kid. But be honest with me." He got up and walked over to where I was sitting, but instead of sitting beside me, he leaned against the porch railing and lit another cigarette.

I sighed. "Remember that kid with the all-over-the-place hair?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I couldn't see around the laundry basket and I tripped and I fell on top of him…and his towel went flying across the hall…and well…you can guess."

"You didn't lose—"

"Hell, no! But it was really awkward. What was worse, he didn't seem to realize it. Kept asking me why my eyes were closed while I was getting the dirty clothes picked up… And it felt like he was staring at me the whole time."

"I see," Dave muttered. He took a puff on his cig and deliberately blew away from me. "And you didn't—"

"No, I didn't see anything. Wasn't 'bout to look, either."

He grinned at me. "You know I'm just teasin' ya,' girl."

I rolled my eyes.

The front door opened. "AJ? You out here?"

I waved and Donna came over and sat beside me. "What's up?"

I sighed. "I'll tell you 'bout it later."

She blinked at me then shrugged. "Well, anyway." She leaned forward to whisper in my ear. "Remember how, when we were little, Grandma got us that Ken doll for Christmas but we didn't have any clothes for him?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, remember? We put him in Barbie's clothes."

"Get to the point, Donna."

"Well, our new friend the gravity defying menace needs something to wear until Mom's done fixing his genie pants."

My eyes widened. I was about to tell her—from sheer embarrassment—that I'd let her have all the fun this time when Matt drove up. His windows were down and scream-o was issuing from his speakers so loud I was afraid they'd burst.

He got out and threw two packages into my lap. He grinned demonically. "It was easy enough to get the right size, but I wasn't sure if he'd want boxers or briefs."

My cheeks—and Donna's too—went scarlet.

"Really, Matt? Really?" DC asked.

"Yes, Donatella. Yes."

Dave was just sitting there laughing at us. Go figure.

DC finally cracked a grin. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me up. I just barely caught the underwear. "Let's go!"

When we entered the kitchen, DC grabbed the package of "whitey-tighties" and threw them down the hall at her stepbrother's bedroom door, muttering something about how ridiculous Matt was.

Then we saw that boy, sitting at the table. Aunt Kelli had fixed him a sandwich and a glass of juice—half of which were gone. It was obvious that he was starving.

He glanced my way—and we—that is to say the boy and I—blushed in unison.

"Am I missing something?" Donna whispered in my ear.

"I'll tell you later," I hissed, looking away.

"Girls, go find something for our friend Sora, please," Aunt Kelli said, sitting down with an apple and a novel.

Donna nodded and dragged me back to the bedroom.

"Are your Care Bear pajama pants clean? I know you took them with you."

I blinked. "Yeah. Wh—Oh!" I watched her search through my bag. The clothes were all jumbled because I'd been rooming with my friend—ex-friend as of right now—whose name was also Anna, Anna Tie. She'd gotten upset at another friend—who was about to be a ninth grade—and started spreading rumors about her. I'd sided with the underclassman, as she wasn't nearly through the neck of the woods and Anna had conquered it already. Kids need a real friend when they're going through (or about to enter) Hell. AKA: Freshman year of high school. As a result of being mad at her, I'd gotten out of the room as soon as I could, meaning everything was unfolded, wrinkled, and "higgle-dee-piggle-dee." "Why are you going to be so mean to him?" I asked her, eyebrows raised.

"Because I feel like it," she answered sweetly. "Once Mom has his clothes fixed, we'll make it up to him. Or, rather, your credit cards will. They won't care, right?"

I sighed. "They won't even notice." Donna quickly tried to change the subject. She knew how sad talking about them made me.

"So—"

"What are y'all doing?" Lexus asked, leaving her video game un-paused, as per usual, even though she was in the middle of a fight.

"Trying to find something for that boy to wear till Aunt Kelli's done patching up his own clothes."

"If he's a boy, why aren't y'all looking for something for him to wear in Matt's room?"

" 'Cause Matt's fat," Matt said, walking in and grinning.

"You are not fat, Matt!" Lexi shouted, running over and slapping at his forearm.

He caught her hand easily and threw her over his shoulder. "Jeez, Lex, I was just kidding." He laughed as he tickled her, and he didn't stop until she gasped that she couldn't breathe. I loved watching their banter—it let me know that Lexi had a worse role model than Donna and me.

I glanced over at the TV. "Lex, you just got a game over, again."

"Aw, man!"

"Why didn't you hit pause?" DC asked, eyebrows raised.

Lexus just glared at her. "It's like you told me, sissy. You don't have a 'pause' button in real life."

"You don't have a 'continue' or 'load game' button either," I pointed out. "But you use those."

"That's different!"

"Naaaaaawt really," I said, dragging out the "o" sound a little longer than I normally would have. I was looking through my tank tops for one that wasn't nearly as mean as what I knew Donna was planning. Blue or brown sure, but she'd pulled out the sparkly pink one that my grandmother—the one DC and I didn't have in common—had insisted I take. I hadn't worn it the whole trip.

"How's this?" I asked Donna, holding up a chocolate brown shirt. The straps were three fingers in width—wide enough for me to have worn to school last year (There're rumors going around that sleeves are officially required now) but they might have sent me home anyway because of the innuendo. "I like to get WILD!" was written in bubble letters across where my boobs would be if I wore it. On that boy, it wouldn't occur to anyone that it was supposed to be dirty, especially considering there was a monkey drawn on the front and giraffe on the back. It was one of a set I'd made for a bunch of my friends in band. It was an inside joke that I'd mentioned to DC, so she understood what it meant and who exactly had said it.

She grinned evilly. "Absolutely."

We grabbed up the outfit and went to where the boy and Aunt Kelli were.

He was on his second sandwich. Aunt Kelli was still reading.

I held out the clothes to him. DC passed the boxers. "Here."

He didn't say anything, but took the clothes. Our hands touched for a moment but he pretended like it was nothing and went to the bathroom to change.

When he came back, it was all we could do not to laugh.

"What?" he asked, blinking.

I shook my head. "Nothing. What did you say your name was again?"

"Sora."

"Well, Sora?" DC asked. "How long do you plan on staying?"

"Um…just long enough to look around. I got separated from a couple of my friends a while back and I've been looking for them ever since…So…yeah."

I raised my eyebrows. "Well, maybe we know them. What are their names?"

He gave a bit of a half smile. "Donald and Goofy."

I blinked. "Nice nicknames."

He grinned, looking back at the table top. "I think those are the names they were born with."

Aunt Kelli whistled. "Those were some cruel parents."

Sora smiled. "Yeah. Sometimes I wonder if Goofy's parents dropped him on his head…a few times…a day…for the entire time before he could walk for himself."

That was so awful but I couldn't help laughing. "Is he that dumb?"

"Not exactly. He just sees the world in a different way than the rest of us do."

Donna snickered. "Sounds like us." She came up behind me and pinched my cheeks into a weird smile. It kinda hurt.

He had to look back at me, but when he saw what Donna was doing, he just smiled sadly. I think it reminded him of something.