“Hey Zoe. It’s time to get up.”

Hmm, someone is speaking to me. I try to remember what I had just been dreaming about. It was another happy one, but…

“Hey slowpoke, we gotta go to church!”

I open my eyes. This time, it’s my older brother Derrick who was sent to wake me.

“Give me a minute. I’m trying to remember what I was dreaming about before you came in.”

“Oh, you had a dream?” he asks, looking slightly snoopy. “Feel like sharing?”

“Hmm… I was outside a convenience store with our parents. There was… a little boy, with brown skin, who seemed lost. Then, some man came up to him and started saying mean things… I think it was supposed to be one of those KKK guys.”

“Oh…” Derrick says, looking a little horrified.

“And I told our parents that we should help the boy, but they said not to get involved. But then, Ashley walked out of the store. I said she needed to help, so she punched the racist guy, and he ran away.”

“Wait… which Ashley do you mean?”

“Davis. The girl who comes over sometimes.”

“Oh right, the redhead. Okay, continue on.”

“Well anyway, I went up to the little boy and asked him where his parents were. He said that he didn’t have any. Then, Ashley turned to me and said, ‘well, if he doesn’t have any parents, maybe we should adopt him.’ I agreed… hmm. I don’t remember what happened next…”

Derrick frowns at me. “A word of advice: I wouldn’t talk about that last part with our parents.”

“Wait, really? Why?”

“Well… adopting a child is usually only something people do when they’re married, Zoe.”

Suddenly, what he’s saying hits me all at once and I start blushing furiously. “What… no! It wasn’t like that! We just felt sorry for the little boy!”

“All I’m saying is that our parents might interpret that a certain way. Got it?”

I bite my lip. “Yes. I understand.”

That said, as I get ready for the day, I can’t shake the feeling that the dream I had gave me. The truth is, what I told Derrick when he asked me about the adopting thing was kind of a lie. Whenever Ashley said that in my dream, it made me really happy… What could it mean? It can’t mean what Derrick thought it meant. No, I don’t even want to think about that…

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Inside the church, I find that Ashley is not here yet. However, Terra and Diana have arrived and are talking about something in a middle row. In fact, they’re motioning for me to come over. I walk over to join them.

“Good morning, Zoe,” Terra says. “We want to talk to you about something before the service starts.”

“Um, sure thing,” I agree, taking a seat nearby.

“Do you remember what we talked about the other day at school?”

I think back to the previous week. “You mean the conversation we had about that space superhero movie?”

“Uh, no. Not that.”

“I think she means the rumors about Ashley’s new friend,” Diana interjects, leaning over the pew in front of us. “You’ve heard them, right?”

“Um… I don’t remember,” I say, shifting uncomfortably.

“It was something that happened when Anja was in sixth grade,” Terra explains, a serious look on her face. “She was caught kissing another girl. It was someone in her grade named Ruth.”

“Oh… right,” I say stupidly, not knowing how to respond.

“Ever since then, most people know better than to get too close to her. I’m sure you imagine what that would look like. But… Ashley seems rather oblivious to that, don’t you think?”

They’re looking at me expectantly, but I find myself getting rather flustered, my thoughts a confused jumble. “Um… Well…”

“No need to get so nervous. We’re not trying to grill you or anything. It’s just something I wanted to make sure you’re aware of. I realize that you and Ashley are close… In fact, you’ve managed to achieve a level of amicability with her that few others can.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Diana agrees. “She’s such a”- she mouths the b-word- “to everyone else. I’ve always thought that she has issues… no offense to you, Zoe.”

I try to think of a defense for her, but my mind draws a blank. Then, I see Ashley herself walking in with her parents. She looks a bit dour today.

“You can go talk to her,” Terra says, following my gaze. “I’m just letting you know; you should be careful with her. That’s all.”

“Uh… right. Thanks,” I say. To save myself from having to continue that conversation, I get up and walk over to where Ashley’s preparing to sit down.

“Good morning, Zoe,” she tells me.

“Morning! Um… you look kind of down. Are you feeling okay?”

“What… oh, it’s nothing. I’m just bummed about Glenn Cornick passing away.”

“Who’s that?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I think we’re about to begin,” Ashley’s dad tells me plainly. “You may want to find your seat.”

“Yes, I will,” I agree. “Ashley… let’s talk on Skype later. It’s important.”

“Sure. Talk to you later,” Ashley says.

I return to my seat near the rest of my family. For some reason, what Terra and Diana told me makes me uneasy. I’m having difficulty figuring out why, however…

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I’m in my room putting on more casual clothes after church, when I hear my phone buzz. It’s Ashley… I sit down on the bed and take a deep breath. I’m asking about a rather sensitive subject, so I need to choose my next words very carefully…

Hey Zoe. You said you wanted to talk about something?

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Yes. I wanted to ask if you kno anything about some of the rumors surrounding Anja.

Not you too.

No, I don’t mean it like that. I promise.

Well, if these rumors are really that important, go ahead and spill it.

Okay. In sixth grade, Anja was caught kissing another girl.

Oh.

I thought you were going to say that she smokes weed.

Do you think she does that??

No, she just kinda seems like the type.

Anyways, I wasn’t aware of that, no.

How does that information make you feel?

Honestly? I don’t care.

I had kind of guessed that she may be like that already.

But it doesn’t affect how I feel about being friends with her.

So you consider her a friend?

Yes.

She may be kind of annoying, but at this point we’re stuck together.

And I do admire her commitment to justice…

But you can’t tell her I said that.

Okay. I won’t.

I just wanted to check in with you. No issues here.

Good to hear.

I feel very relieved after this conversation. Anja maybe be like that, but she’s not… with Ashley. Knowing that is very encouraging…

But wait a minute. Something about that doesn’t make any sense.

Terra and Diana were concerned about that because they didn’t think I should be friends with someone like that… but isn’t that technically still true? I mean, we haven’t known each other for very long, but Anja still counts as a friend. Is there anything to logically be relieved about here? Hmm…

My confusion is interrupted by my mother coming into my room. “Hey Zoe,” she greets. “You’ve looked rather lost in thought today. Is anything on your mind?”

“Um… yes, kind of.” I say. I explain to her the beginning of the dream I had last night. However, I stop before getting to the ending part with me and Ashley. After everything that’s happened today, I feel too uncomfortable about that bit to talk about it.

“I wanted to ask you,” I say after finishing my summary. “If someone around us is in trouble… shouldn’t we help them? Didn’t the Lord say that any passing beggar could be an angel in disguise?”

My mom chuckles at this. “Zoe, I wouldn’t dwell too much on something that happens in a dream. It’s not real.”

“But… what if something like that does happen in real life?” I press her. I think about Anja. My other friends want me to quit being her friend because she’s… different. But I also feel bad for her… wouldn’t she be lonely if none of us were friends with her?

“Well, Zoe…” my mother explains, “It’s good to help people when you can. But you have to make sure first and foremost that you’re taking care of yourself. You know how those airplane safety booklets say to put the mask on yourself before helping anyone else? That logic applies to life as well.”

“I guess so…” I say. But I’m not really satisfied with that. I wasn’t disputing that I should take care of myself. I meant that if I was perfectly capable of helping, I should. Still, I don’t press this because I’m worried that I’ll annoy her.

“I know you have a tender heart, Zoe,” Mom assures me. “But if you don’t look out for yourself, you won’t be able to help anyone at all. Just remember that, okay?”

“Yes, mother.”

She smiles at me and steps out of the room. Well, that didn’t really clear anything up at all…

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My sister is terrible at Smash Bros, and she just can’t seem to accept that fact. She plays as Jigglypuff, one of the worst characters in the game, and seems to think she can win by doing nothing but spamming specials, especially Sing.

“Come on! Just let me win for once!” she whines, after my twelfth consecutive victory.

“No. You just have to get good.”

“I’m your sister!”

“Yeah, exactly. That’s why I can’t let you win.”

She pouts something fierce at me. Then, she pushes me.

“I bet I can beat you up in real life!” she declares.

“Get real!” I retort, pushing her back.

She pounces towards me, but I’m ready to meet her hands halfway. I topple her over again and try to grab her and lift her in a fireman’s carry, but she’s big enough now to where that doesn’t work anymore, so we just both fall onto the couch.

“Get off of me, idiot!” she screeches, as she repeatedly punches my back.

“Say uncle!” I demand.

“Why would I say that?”

“I don’t know, I heard a guy at school say that once! Just say it!”

I hear the sound of chuckling over me and look up to see that it’s Dad. We must have not noticed him coming home from work because of all the noise we were making. He’s looking at us with a weird expression; am I in trouble?

“After you two break it up, I’ll take you to get some ice cream,” he states.

“Oh really? Can we go to Sonic?” Kat asks, hastily jumping up from the couch.

“Whatever you want,” he says hoarsely, smiling at us. “Just go get your shoes on!”

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While driving out there, I remember Anja and I’s conversation from the previous day. I suppose now is an ideal time to ask Dad something I’ve been wondering about since then…

“Hey Dad,” I say. “How come you and Mom got married, anyway?”

He doesn’t answer immediately, as he’s concentrating on turning through a stoplight. Once he’s done with that, he replies, “Pssh… because I was an idiot, that’s why.

“Nova, listen to this very carefully, because my life’s story is one you should use as an example of what not to do. This applies to you too, Kat. I actually went to college for a while when I was younger. I ended up flunking out. Too much time spent smoking weed, not enough time spent studying.”

“Wait, you’ve smoked weed before?” Kat pipes up excitedly. “What does it feel like?”

Dad frowns at her. “Never you mind. Neither of you kids should be getting involved with anything illegal.”

“What if it becomes legal?” Kat inquires. “I heard it’s legal in Colorado now.”

“It won’t be legal here anytime soon,” I counter her. “Texas will be one of the last states to ever legalize it.”

Dad seems impressed with me. “Huh. I guess they are teaching you something in that school,” he comments. (I was actually just repeating something Anja told me a while back. But there’s no reason to correct him, so…)

“Anyways, it seemed like I had no future after flunking out,” Dad continues. “But I had met your mom while at college. She charmed me, just like how she charms that damn judge. She was on her way to law school and had a bright future ahead of her. I figured I’d ask her to marry me, so that if things didn’t work out for me, we could still live comfortably.” He sighs heavily. “Then we got married, and I found out her true nature. That woman’s just like a black widow spider. Doesn’t give a damn about anyone but herself.”

“But she’s not black,” Kat interjects unnecessarily. “So wouldn’t she be more like a brown widow spider?”

“There’s no such thing as a brown widow!” I argue. “I suppose there are brown recluse spiders, but…”

“Look kids, it was just a metaphor,” Dad cuts me off, looking amused. “Here’s what I’m really trying to tell you. You gotta know how to make your own way in the world. You can’t rely on someone else to save you like that, else you’ll just end up a pawn in their selfish game.

“And I’m not just talking about relationships, either. Our leaders do the same god damn thing. Every time someone new takes power in this country, they’re always promising that they alone know the answer, they alone know the best way to benefit the working class. But from my perspective, nothing ever seems to change much…”

This reminds me of Anja. How angry she got on Wednesday. How she got all up in arms about these people in power.

But then, I remember that she said her mother had run for governor years ago. I wonder if her mom ran on the exact same types of promises. I guess we’ll never know if she would’ve lived up to them or not. But it seems like most don’t.

My thoughts are interrupted by our arrival at the Sonic, and from then on, I mostly just think about ice cream. Still, there’s a weird feeling in the air. Dad seems rather morose the whole time. I suppose if the trial this week doesn’t work out, this could be the last time we all get to see each other like this in a while. I guess I need to get serious about this Metaverse shit. We really can’t afford to fuck this up. Or more specifically, I can’t afford to.

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1. "Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." - Hebrews 13:1-2