Kathy lay on her bed, staring up at the blank ceiling. She could hear the T.V. and conversation out in the living room. She almost wanted to go out there, but she wanted to be invited.
Suddenly, her older brother, Cameron, flung open the door and it banged against the wall.
Kathy sat up in surprise.
Cameron stomped toward her and grabbed her neck.
"What did you do with my iPod?" He screamed at her.
"Nothing! I swear!" Kathy yelled, clawing at her brother's hand.
"Come on, you little punk! You really think I believe that?" Cameron yelled at her, "Why would anyone else take it?"
"Go ask the twins, you freak!" Kathy cried.
Cameron released her and stomped out of the room.
Kathy held her hand to her throat. No one in her family was very smart and Cameron had just decided Kathy had stolen his iPod.
Kathy shook her head and turned on her T.V. There was nothing good on, but she watched anyway.
An hour or so later, Kathy's mother, Rebecca, called, "Kathy, it's time for dinner!"
"Okay, Mom." Kathy got up and walked down the hall, into the living room.
"Kathy," Her mother called back.
Kathy rolled her eyes and said, "Okay, Rainbow Destiny."
Kathy's mother, Rebecca, had insisted that everyone calls her Rainbow Destiny as her new name.
Cameron was sitting on the couch, watching T.V., listening to his iPod, and eating potato chips out of the bag.
"So, you found it?" Kathy said.
"Shh!" Cameron hissed, "I'm watching T.V."
"I'm asking you if you found your iPod." Kathy said, "Where was it?"
"Piss off." Cameron said, not looking away from the T.V.
Kathy gave him a look and went into the dining room. She sat down by Lunkwill and he said quietly, "The twins had it."
Kathy looked at Lunkwill and said, "What?"
"The twins had Cam's iPod." Lunkwill said, grinning.
Kathy smiled a little.
A second later, her five-year-old twin brother and sister, Joey and Beanabelle, came tearing through the dining room, screaming at the top of their lungs.
Rebecca tried to herd them toward the table and said gently, "Go on, children. Please sit at the table for dinner."
"What's the difference, Mom?" Kathy said, her cheek set glumly on her fist, "Cam never comes to dinner, Dad never comes to dinner, Liz never comes to dinner, and the twins never come to dinner. It's just you, me, and Lunkwill, just like every other night."
"Now, that's not true, Kathy." Rebecca said softly and gently, "Your father comes to dinner most days."
"Yeah, but he always has his DS or his laptop or something!" Lunkwill said, "He lives for gaming and sci-fi."
Rebecca sighed and said, "Well... God bless him. I'll put dinner on the table."
Lunkwill and Kathy exchanged a look.
Rebecca went into the kitchen and came back with a pan of some sort of casserole. She set it on the table and said sweetly, "Barely grass and tofu casserole."
Rebecca plopped scoops of the casserole on her kids' plates.
In unison, Lunkwill and Kathy sighed, picked up their forks, and stuck them into the food.
Kathy pulled her fork up from the plate with a mound of casserole on it. It had about the consistency of oatmeal, but thinner and.... Grassier.
Rebecca was what Cameron liked to call a 'hardcore hippie freak' and she was always cooking this type of food.
Kathy sighed and reluctantly opened her mouth. She shoveled a spoonful of the watery, tan-colored mush into her mouth and almost gagged. Her hand shot over her mouth and she looked at Lunkwill, who also had the casserole in his mouth.
Lunkwill shook his head. If Kathy spit out her mother's cooking, her mother would cry.
Rebecca kept herself together very well at most times, but she got extremely upset when her family (or anyone, really) didn't like her cooking. It was just... One of those things.
Kathy gave her brother a pleading look and he shook his head again.
Reluctantly, Kathy swallowed the casserole and shivered. She looked up at Rebecca, who was watching her intently.
Kathy smiled tightly and croaked, "Casserole's great, Mom."
Rebecca smiled and said, "Oh, excellent... And Kathy..."
"Sorry..." Kathy said quietly, "Rainbow Destiny."
Rebecca beamed and nodded. She ruffled Kathy and Lunkwill's hair and said, "Oh, you two are so sweet."
Her kids smiled tightly and waited for her to leave the room.
Once she was gone, Kathy and Lunkwill both grabbed their water glasses and chugged them down. Then, at the same time, they spit the water out all over the table.
"That makes it worse!" Lunkwill hissed.
"I... Know..." Kathy coughed.
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