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Names And Faces | Shook Chapter 6 Part 2
Dyan is meeting all the Blues one by one. Though she's met Maya's Mom and the majority of her siblings, she's still got one more sibling to meet, and don't even get started with Bear...
Maya went back through the kitchen, which was beginning to have a nice, savory smell to it as the cookies were eaten and Mrs. Blue finished cooking.
Maya opened the door at the end which led to a garage, where Mr. Blue sat at the edge smoking a huge brown cigar.
“This is my Dad. But you remember him from earlier. He loves to sit out here, smoke his cigars, and think.”
Mr. Blue let out a big puff of cigar smoke from his mouth.
He turned and smiled and waved. “Let me know when the food is done, ‘kay Maya?”
Maya nodded and began to walk off. “Com'on Dyan. I’ll show you Azure. He’s my other younger brother and twins with Wild Yonder.”
“Wait, more twins?” Dyan shook her head. “I thought you said your older siblings were twins.”
“Navy and Royal? They are twins, but so are Wild Yonder and Azure. My younger brothers are called 'The Boy Twins', and my older siblings are The Older Twins. I’m sandwiched in between.” Maya frowned.
They walked through the kitchen and dining room to the back door.
Out back there was a cement slab with a grill on it, and a basket of dog toys. Beyond this slab was lots of ankle-high green grass all contained by a brown wooden fence.
“That’s Azure, and he seems to NEVER run out of energy. He’s also more annoying than a mosquito.”
Dyan recognized this boy as the one who smelled like grass. Azure sported a curly high-top hairstyle on his head. He had the most plain blue colored hair, the type of blue that would come to mind if someone said they wanted a blue crayon, or a blue shirt.
Azure held the end of a rugged rope in his hand, with Bear pulling the other edge. The dog stood its ground pulling, legs bent back firm and neck leaned out to the rope, until Maya yelled “Bear!”
The dog began barreling towards her.
“Aah!” Dyan jumped and ran to the side, heart racing. Bear had seen this and began to change directions, but Azure quickly sprinted over and grabbed his collar.
“Bear! Foolish dog! Dyan doesn’t know you. You can’t just chase her like that!”
Maya went to the dog and hugged him. “Bear! I’ve missed you. School was awful, as usual.” His tail, which looked more like a thick and fuzzy caterpillar, wagged slightly as he sniffed Maya. Though Maya laughed, Dyan found nothing funny about that huge dog sniffing her face. Just on all fours the dog was to her hips. If he stood on two legs, he’d surely topple the girl.
Azure turned to Dyan. “Sorry. This is Bear. My parents got him in Boston. He’s a newfoundland, one of the biggest dog types on earth! He’s the same age as me!”
Maya rolled her eyes. “Can you stop saying that!? We get it, you’re eight and Bear is too, but in dog years he’s much older than you.”
Azure ignored his older sister and looked at Dyan. “Do you want to pet him?”
Dyan thought carefully. She didn’t hate dogs, but she didn’t want to get trampled by one either. “Uh, yeah…but won’t he just jump on me?”
“No! He’s nice! Bear’s just excited to see a new person. If he acts too crazy, you can just turn your back until he sits, then he’ll calm down and you can pet him.”
“Okay.”
“I’m gonna let go!”
Dyan’s heart was hammering, but she couldn’t sit there forever. “Okay!”
Azure released his collar. Bear trotted over to Dyan who turned away immediately. She didn’t hear anything but panting, so she turned and saw Bear sitting at her feet, or rather at her stomach, slobber oozing from his mouth.
Dyan leaned down to pet him, and he began to sniff her in turn. His eyes were a bright yellow, and his nose was cold and wet, tickling against Dyan’s arms as he sniffed away. She laughed. “This is nice! You’re a nice guy, aren’t you Bear?” Dyan said to the dog. She could have sworn the dog's ears perked up and his jowls lifted up slightly in a smile.
“Kids, come inside! Time for dinner!” yelled Mrs. Blue from the kitchen. The dining room light was on, a bright yellow in contrast to the dark blue sky.
“We’d better head inside. You’ve successfully finished the family tour!” Maya told Dyan as they crunched on grass back to the house.
Dyan felt bliss. At the table in front of her was a steaming plate of rice, black beans, and a drumstick of seasoned chicken. She could feel her mouth watering. It felt like Mrs. Moleti’s house fire had been days ago. The table had ten seats, enough for Dyan and one other person to be there. The other extra chair had been set aside for Teal’s highchair to be seated at the table.
Royal sighed. “Finally, winter break has begun. No school for three weeks!” Some other children voiced their relief as well.
“How long is she staying with us?” Azure pointed at Dyan, which gained him a scolding from Mrs. Blue. That’s what led Maya to explain Dyan's orphan situation.
“Mom and Dad are gonna find out where Dyan’s foster parent is, but until then, she’s stuck with us,” Maya finished.
Dyan looked across the table to see lots of sad looks, looks familiar to those that grown-ups gave her when they found out she had no parents. Annoying sad faces and “I’m sorry”s .
“That's a messed up situation. Sorry Dyan.” said Navy.
“It’s alright. I’ve been dealing with moving from home to home my whole life.” Dyan said before shoveling another mouthful of food. Dyan was trying to eat slowly, but her stomach felt like a hollow ditch that needed to be filled.
Royal smiled at Dyan. “Don’t worry, everyone here is nice, and the house is big. If my brothers get annoying, just ignore them.”
“And stay away from Royal when she’s in a bad mood!” added Azure.
“And stay away from Azure when he’s singing those lousy made up songs!” Royal shouted back angrily.
Before an argument started, Navy cut in. “Where is Dyan gonna stay during the family trip?”
This is when Mrs. Blue gasped. “The family trip! I completely forgot about that!”
Dyan turned to Maya. “What’s ‘The Family Trip’?”
“Dad surprised us last week by saying for winter break we were going to vacation somewhere special and out-of-state. He won’t even tell us where we're going, but we’ve been wondering about it for a while.”
“But we can’t just leave you behind! I didn’t think about that when I invited you to stay.” Mrs. Blue stared at Dyan sympathetically. She turned to Mr. Blue. “We can’t cancel this trip, but we can’t just leave Dyan behind either!”
Mr. Blue put a hand to his chin and looked up at the dining room chandelier. Then he looked at Dyan. “Would you like to come with us on a vacation, Dyan?”
Why does this sound so familiar? Thought Dyan for a second. Then she remembered. Spirit had joined the group of aliens on their vacation to a planet. A hot planet. Dyan couldn’t believe it. Was she literally writing the Blue family’s future!? She gasped in amazement.
“What?” asked Mr. Blue, dropping his smile in a serious manner. “Is something wrong?”
“No it’s just… I can’t believe you would invite me to join you on your family’s trip! I’ve never left the state before!” Dyan said, only half-fibbing. Dyan couldn’t tell them about their connection to Spirit's story. She’d sound crazy!
Mr. Blue made his way to the kitchen sink. “Well, you can go with us! It’ll be a challenge to order plane tickets for one more person at the last minute, but I'll make it happen. After all, we promised you could stay with us until we find your foster parent, and I’m not one to break promises.”
Dyan smiled. “Sure! I’d really like to go on this trip with you guys. Thank you so much!”
Mr. Blue smiled so big his cheeks turned all shiny and round just like when Maya smiled. “Then it’s settled! We’ll take her with us on our trip to...!”
All the children leaned closer to Mr. Blue.
“Come on, finish it! To…?!” Maya probed.
“You’ll see soon enough.”
A chorus of ‘aw’s and ‘really!?’s erupted from the table, and baby Teal squealed and giggled.
Dyan watched in awe. Just like that, the Blues had added her to their family trip.
Find out what happens next in the next part!
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