Strange Girl In A Strange Place, Part 2: Stupid Truth

As they searched for the words to say, they heard a loud, disembodied voice declare "Wipeout!" and start drumming on the door frame. They both laughed and looked at each other. "Gregory's here," said Diana, thankful for the interruption. Mara saw Diana's subtle relief and said "We'll continue this conversation later," as she crossed the room. "Looking forward to that one." Diana took a sip of her coffee, trying to shake thoughts of the impending arguments of Einon from her mind. She heard Greg chat up Mara in the living room. Something about wanting to kill his little brother but that was basically his morning routine.

"Why are you here early? You're not allowed to eat my cereal!" Diana yelled into the living room. "Aren't we rude and selfish this morning? Tyler woke me up early therefore I am here early," Greg responded. He walked into the kitchen and settled himself next to Di. He stood an easy 6 feet to Diana's mere 5' 5", with indifferent green eyes (He always called Poop Green), and shaggy blond hair that fell into his face whenever he looked down, which was often considering his best friend was 5'5".

"By the way, I wasn't going to mooch for the cereal. I was going for the coffee. It's like you don't even know."  She smiled. "I'm sorry that I was suspicious of your intentions. Please, proceed." "Thank you."




Soon, they were driving to school together when Greg spoke into the steering wheel. "So what happened between you and your mom this morning before I showed up?"

"What makes you think that anything happened?"

"Well, you both seemed a bit tense, not really tense but more of a nuanced tense, you guys were deflecting something and you have your 'I don't want to talk about it' face on again"."

"Because I don't want to talk about it."

"Which denotes that something happened this morning because you just said so. See?" Greg glanced at her, a smug smile on his face.

"Argh, I hate you so much."

"And yet you love me. What happened?"

Diana shifted in her seat. "I had that dream about Dad again."

Greg frowned. "The one where you're hiding?"

"Yep. So now Mom wants me to visit their old home. Where they grew up, where they went to school, the whole nine yards."

"What's wrong with that?" Diana always gave Greg the partial truth about her family's past. Surprisingly, exchanging an alien planet for a foreign country was easy to exchange in a conversation.

"What's wrong? I don't want to go because A. I like staying in my shell like a hermit crab, B. my parents left for a reason and it's probably wasn't for a better view, and 3-," "You were on letters, not numbers." "Whatever. And C. I had plans for this summer!"

Greg parked in the school parking lot and they both got out. of the car. "First, my dear crazy friend, when hermit crabs find another shell, they moved into it. They're adaptable that way. Secondly, just because your parents moved doesn't mean that they don't have good memories that Mara wants to share with you. Thirdly, gorging yourself on junk food, movies and cartoons doesn't as a 'plan' ."

"I see your logic and replace it with my own. Next week, you're abandoning me for 8 weeks in New York with your family. Have I mentioned how much you suck for that yet today?"

As they were discussing this and walking towards the school, Greg noticed that her mood was improving but she still had the proverbial black cloud over her head. He then had an idea. "Di, quick questions."

"Okay.

"What's my little brother's name?"

Diana looked warily at him. "It's Tyler. Why?" They stood nearby the school's doorway, Di looking at Greg curiously and Greg had a knowing expression of his face. "How long have my parents been married?"

"20 years in October."

"And my grandparents live where?"

"New York." He continued to ask her more questions about his life and his family until Diana snapped. "Why are you asking me this stuff? I know the answes and I'm sure you know them too."

"I do but my point is this: you know all this stuff about me and where I come from. What that about your mom? What she was like at your age, where was her favorite hiding spot, where she meet your dad, things like that. Not only does she want to tell, she wants to show you. You've already told me that you still miss your dad like crazy. Maybe this can help you. Go for it, D. It's an opportunity of a lifetime." With that, he turned and walked into the school, leaving her with his words and the morning's incident fresh in her mind.

She already knew what the right thing to do was. She just had to brace herself to accept it. "Stupid truth and people knowing me. I've got to get new friends."