So sorry to keep you waiting. But here's something more!
Tonight's dinner: beef steak, with green beans.
Fancy for Philadelphia, yes, but I guess Mom was still easing us into the transition of homes. On the plus side, it was real steak, not the plant simulated stuff we usually wound up getting in Loss of Angels. That was another thing I didn't miss about my old "home", right up there with the nepotism and twisted-up politics.
"Wow, Señora Jorgman," Vinny Lee said to Mom through a bite of beefy goodness. "This is amazing."
Mom frowned, as if wondering where this child learned table manners. After finishing my bite, I cleared my throat. "Vinny Lee, don't talk with your mouth full."
Vinny Lee swallowed before saying, "Lo siento. And this – I've never had siblings. This must be nice."
I frowned. I'd been to dinner at her place, and it was a lot quieter and more civil. (Then again, we'd had Tails drop in on us as well.) I wanted to tell her that it often got chaotic around the table, but I kept my mouth shut.
Sonic seemed to be enjoying his serving as well. I noticed him pacing himself, probably for the sake of the kids. Believe me, I'd seen the guy eat, and he ate… well, fast.
"So," Mom asked Callie, "how was the first day of school?"
"Fine." Again with the guarded expression. What was up with my sister?
"Is something the matter?" I asked. She always opened up to me, if no one else.
Callie sighed. "Too loud and noisy at my school. And I didn't get the sense they wanted me to learn. Hard to when kids are cawing like crows –"
Sonic nearly spewed milk. "WHAT?"
I swear, his voice went so loud you could have heard him in Allentown. I could hear his Queens accent getting thicker, as happened when he got upset. (Yes – Sonic still harbored a New York accent even after a few months in Philadelphia. It leaned more on the Queens side, even though he'd spent most of his life in the Manhattan borough. Don't ask why.)
Not that I blamed him for being upset. Avatars generally don't accept that people can just decide to be a dog or a boy or whatever, which is pretty common sense. For one thing, those sorts of people can disrupt a perfectly good day – as Callie was presently attesting to. For another, most times those kids were just acting out. You should be trying to get to the bottom of that behavior, not dismissing it as their "identity" (full sarcastic air quotes here).
"Are you okay, Sonic?" Mom asked him. "Because if –"
"It's fine, Liz," he responded, his voice still shaky from anger. "I just – what Callie's describing – I take that personally."
I had no doubt that he did. Something he'd told me about his powers came to mind – I have a lot of trouble with animal-minded madmen. I can communicate with animals and humans – but humans talking as animals – not a language Lingua can replicate, and nothing animal at all about the speakers.
Lingua, of course, was his ability to speak in any language he heard being spoken and immediately understand it. He could also communicate with animals, via another Sirensong power of his. It probably would've been a strain to exercise both at once. Just one limitation that was well needed in this time. Tails had once said he couldn't shift sexes as a limit to his powers. Again, a necessary limit.
I decided that was my cue to change the subject before things got too tense. "Anything else I need to know about?" I asked.
Callie shifted in her seat, picking at her steak. "Some rumors were flying around the school. Video game characters jumping into Philadelphia. Stuff like that."
I remembered Courtney saying, It's true. It's really true. I guessed such rumors had been flying around Belmont as well. Go figure. Given the avatars' nature, it was hard not to talk about such matters. Had these rumors been flying around Dex's school as well?
Mom moved on from that. "DJ –" she was getting better at referring to me by my nickname – "Vinny Lee, how'd you like Fairview?"
"Well enough." I decided not to mention Amos's little exchange with the teacher. Both because I hadn't mentioned him to her (again, that thing about not being able to explain it), and it might rub off poorly on my mom. "There's a student in my class – she's foreign exchange –"
"Don't see that often with a school like Fairview. Did she take to you?"
"She talked to me at lunch. She seems to like my company." I met Sonic's eyes and mouthed, she sees our world.
Sonic must've picked that up, because he gave me a subtle nod, mouthed, All right, and went back to inhaling his steak.
"Anything else you'd like to tell me?" Mom asked.
Oh, dang. I wasn't sure what to say. Why shouldn't I mention my friends in school, and the events of the summer? Why shouldn't I tell my mom what was going on?
Something told me I shouldn't mention the latter subject at the table. My adventures weren't exactly the most kid-friendly, and I didn't want to ruin anyone else's steak dinner.
So instead I brought up the former.
"Vinny Lee's not the only friend I've got," I told Mom. "I've been hanging with some other kids over the summer. Amos Darvosky and Imira Fadjir."
Dexter nearly jumped out of his seat when I mentioned the name Fadjir. Gee, wonder who he'd met with that name? It wasn't a common one, and I knew Imira had a half-brother Dexter's age.
"Amos Darvosky, huh?" Mom replied. "I know his mom. She's on the school board. And what are they like? Your… other friends?"
"Amos is… he's pretty funny. Likes to crack jokes. He's pretty much our heart. Imira… she's a little more aggressive. And blunt. She took to me after I saved her from some bullies."
"Sounds like an… interesting dynamic." Interesting was the perfect way to put it, given Imira was wont to snipe Amos at every opportunity. "And I take it they're from a different background, if you balked at mentioning them before."
Oh, crud. I decided there was no avoiding mentioning it now. "They are. Imira's Muslim, not to mention a –" I didn't want to bring up Imira's parentage with the kids listening. It's a thing. "An outsider. Amos is Jewish –" then I remembered if Mom knew Mrs. Darvosky, she might know she and her kids were Jewish as well. "But you guessed that much."
If Mom detected my sarcasm, she didn't let on.
"Muslims and Jews?" Callie sounded quite surprised.
"Callie!" Mom snapped. "I'm glad DJ's diverging. Keep looking for a different opinion. You never know what might be right."
"Thank you," I muttered, and stabbed at my steak. I hoped to at least get it finished before it went cold.
"Anything else you need to tell me?" Mom asked.
Now that I definitely couldn't bring up in front of my younger siblings. It was that scary. I shot a look that hopefully conveyed, not here. Later. Don't want to freak out the kids.
Fortunately, Mom seemed to get the general idea. "Okay, then," she answered, confused but understanding at once. "Dexter, how did you like school?"
"All right," Dexter said. "There was this one incident around noon."
"Oh, dang," I said apprehensively. "What happened?"
Sonic leaned back in his chair. The term incident normally doesn't sit well with him, as with most avatars, as it usually means a conflict or attack.
I shook my head at him, mouthing, Calm down. I didn't need another outburst from my hedgehog. Probably wasn't even anything to be concerned about, as Dexter would have already settled it. (Me and my siblings were raised to be proactive. It's one distinction out of a thousand from other Los Angelinos.)
Dexter shrugged. "Some Muslim kid needed to pray, and the teachers weren't exactly letting him. I told them I'd go with him. I figured –"
"Good for you," I cut in. "And I'm not just saying that 'cause one of my friends is Islam."
"What was his name?" Mom prodded my brother.
"Achmed Fadjir. Must be some relation to DJ's Islamic cohort." Another proof of Dexter's intelligence – he was more likely to use cohort instead of buddy to describe a friend. "He's very into wrestling, asked me the odds on a showdown between John Cena and this other guy. Some Transformers bot – I forget its name. Was it Bumblebee? Megatron?"
"Transformers?" I inquired. "WWE and Transformers? What a true boy."
Dexter smiled at my poor joke. "He actually thanked me for having his back. We sat together at lunch."
"Good," Mom said. "Glad you moved in to help him."
"Anything else?" I prodded.
"Some little rumors around the school. Like what Callie described. And then – Achmed brought something up. He mentioned you."
Oh, crud. Of course Achmed would blab about that little incident. "I saved his life once," I responded, not anxious to give Dexter the full story. (Hint: It involved drag queens and cysnakes.) "Him and his family. And Imira – she's his older sister."
"Half-sister, I think he said. But how?"
"I'll save the explanation for when you're older," I replied.
"Courtney," Mom responded, apparently sensing it was time to change the subject, "how was school for you?"
"Nothing terribly important," Courtney responded. "Except for the rumors Dexter and Callie mentioned."
"You haven't touched your dinner," Mom pointed out.
"Not hungry for steak."
"Well, what do you want?"
"Billy Kawatogama –" Dexter began.
"Shut up," Courtney growled at him.
"Well, you do. I saw you texting him."
I guessed Billy Unpronounceable-Name was a boy Courtney liked in Belmont. She must have been texting him about a first date when Mom called her downstairs. Given her current state, however, it probably wasn't wise to bring it up any further. We didn't need anyone else going off.
"I said shut it!" Courtney snapped. As I'd suspected, Dexter wasn't going to get it out of her with the tactic he was using.
"Drop it, Dex," I chided my brother.
"Well, she is!"
"Calm down, both of you!" Mom growled.
Dexter snickered. "You were telling him about dinner. For two."
How was it that my genius brother could be so immature?
"All right, that's it!" Courtney shoved my brother out of his seat.
"Hey, stop!" I hollered. "We have guests!"
Sonic jolted out of his chair – the conflict was a little too close to him. Vinny Lee yelped, "¡Ay dios mio!" The atmosphere was getting tenser by the moment.
"I'm going to –" Courtney rushed in at Dexter.
"Stop!" I shouted, but this time something weird happened.
Something like a blue light shot between Courtney and Dexter, and Courtney was knocked back into her chair.
Well, what was that? Something new from DJ? Verse for the update: 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7. Stay tuned!
