Chapter 3:
Wren POV-
"Danny, Jazz, will you show them where they will be staying?" my grandmother…I mean…Maddie? Mrs. Fenton? Ugh, suddenly frustrated.
"Sure mom," they replied in unison and led us upstairs.
"So, you guys are from Turkey, right?" Aunt—I mean Jazz, asked, "What's it like there?"
"Well, it's sunny a lot," I said, trying to remember Turkey from my world geography class, "but I honestly can't tell you much about the cities and stuff because our parents kept us confined to base. It can be dangerous, ya know?"
Jazz nodded, and we continued down the hallway. "Okay, Wren, you'll be staying with me, in here," she pushed open a bedroom door to a pink room. I nodded, smiling, but really I was thinking. In the future, the pink paint is chipped and beginning to yellow with age, and this room was converted into a food storage room, with shelves of canned food lining the walls.
We continued down the hall to where my brothers would be staying together in the guest room.
"Um…I told Sam and Tucker that I would meet them at the Nasty Burger…so…" my dad—Danny backed down the hallway.
"Danny!" Jazz scolded, whispering in his ear. Danny sighed.
"Would you guys like to come with me?" he grumbled.
"It would give you a chance to meet some of the other people in town," Jazz added.
I looked over to my brothers, who looked, for lack of a better word, exhausted.
"I'll go," I replied, jumping at the opportunity to see my mom.
"Yeah, you go," Jackson yawned, "I think Eli, and me are going to stay here for a while."
Danny, turned to me, "Okay, let's go."
The three block walk to the Nasty Burger was…awkward. I wished my dad knew who I was; I wish I could tell him. Actually, I wish my real dad, my future dad was here. I sighed internally and watched the sidewalk cracks pass under our feet as we walked.
"So…um…" Danny cleared his throat, "What's your favorite movie?"
"The Avengers," I answered confidently. He seemed surprised.
"Really? That's one of my favorites too. What's your favorite part?"
"The part where Iron Man swoops in on Thor and Loki arguing and is all 'Doth mother know you wherith her drapes?'" I laughed as I quoted it in a fake accent. Danny laughed too.
"Yeah, that is the best part, or when Loki gets pounded by the Hulk," Danny added, acting out the scene with his hands. And I laughed, feeling the easy relationship I always had with my dad begin to resurface (or would it be surface because we're in the past?).
Finally, we arrived at the Nasty Burger, which is even nastier in the future (mostly because it became abandoned and is now a hideout for homeless people and a breeding ground for cockroaches).
Inside, at a back booth, sat my mom and my godfather, who is practically my uncle, Tucker. My mom looked at me, seeming a little confused, as we sat down.
"Hey guys…um, this is…Wren, she's with the foreign exchange thingy," Danny said, and I must say I was a little offended, it sounded like he almost forgot my name. 'Thanks a lot, Dad.'
"Nice to meet you," my mom and godfather extended their hands and introduced themselves.
"Yeah, we have kids at our house from the exchange thing too," Tucker said.
"I saw them get dropped off from our group earlier, you guys both have some of my cousins," I told them.
"Really, your cousins came from the Turkey air force base too?" Tucker asked.
"Yeah, pretty cool, huh? My whole family is in the air force and we were all stationed in the same place," I lied on the spot, smoothly.
"I really like your shirt," mom—I mean Sam, wow this is hard to get used to—commented. I looked down to see what I was wearing. It was actually her shirt…well, my mom's shirt. I had stolen it out of her closet some time last year but I liked it so I hadn't given it back. It was a loose-fitting shirt that hung just a little off of my shoulders that was dark blue, with sequined purple horizontal stripes.
"Thanks," I replied, beaming at her.
"So you're in our grade, right?" she asked me.
"Yep. Oh, and since you mentioned it, could you guys tell me a little about the school and teachers and stuff, I don't want to be completely blindsided tomorrow," I asked them, pulling out my schedule.
"Oh, cool, you have some of our same classes. English, Biology, and Lunch," Tucker pointed out.
"Great, glad I'll have somebody to talk to," I said.
"Biology is fun…Mrs. Durrell is great, but Mr. Lancer…not so much," Danny said.
"Well, yeah, to you, your grades kind of suck," Tucker said.
"Dude, shut up," Danny replied, shoving Tucker.
'Hmm…interesting, maybe after all of this is over, my dad won't be able to hassle me about my grades anymore,' I thought to myself.
Suddenly, my dad coughed and stood up, sliding out of the booth. I almost missed the brief second where Tucker tossed him a dime and he went into the coin-operated bathroom (which I always thought was weird).
I looked between Sam and Tucker a little confused.
"He has bladder issues," Sam told me, which I might have believed if I didn't know any better, which meant that she was lying to me…for some reason.
There was a loud crash outside the restaurant, and, even though I looked out the window, I saw nothing. This made my skin crawl. When you live in a world controlled by ghosts you start to become suspicious or afraid of what you can't see.
After a few seconds my dad returned from the bathroom.
He turned to me.
"Hey, my mom said that she's making dinner, so we better go back to my house," he told me.
I nodded standing up.
"It was nice meeting you," I told my mom and godfather, "I'll see you at school tomorrow."
"Okay, see you," they replied as my dad and I walked outside. He didn't really look at me, which gave me the same sense that there was something being kept from me.
I didn't know what it was, but I was going to find out.