"I heard from Gemma what one of your classmates called you today," Mom opened with as soon she got home from work. I looked up from her from my place on my bed, taking out my earbuds.

"What?" I asked, pretending to be confused for my mom's benefit.

Her hair in a bun always meant business and when it wasn't taken out as soon as she got home, that business went to her children.

Mom walked over to me from my doorway. "How did Gemma find out?" My sister is a two grades below me and a little over a year younger than me. So how in the seven hells could she possibly have found that out? None of her friends were in my grade.

Mom sat down on the edge of my bed. She pulled her hair out of the bun, natural red cascading down in voluminous waves that I used to envy but now no longer thought necessary.

"Peri told her," my mother stated. My eyebrows furrowed. Peri?

"Since when did Peri tell Gemma anything?" I asked. "Since when were they close?"

Mom shrugged. "Who knows? But what is important, Sweetheart, is that someone in your class called you "mixed trash". How did you not think that I wouldn't find out about this, Marvel Rae?"

It was my turn to shrug. "I didn't think the situation was important."

My mom's mouth opened slightly in disbelief. "No, no... honey. Stuff like this is always important. No one should treat you differently for having a darker skin tone," she told me, placing a hand on one of my own, which were tangled in my sheets.

"Mom, people will treat me differently because of it. I may be mostly white, but there will always be a part of me that's colored," I said. I tugged my hand away from her, holding me in my safe place where no could get to me. "And I've gotten used to it, it's fine."

Mom shook her head. "It is not fine. People are people no matter what you look like. You being mixed makes you unique. You're a part of your father and me. I made a promise to your father that I would take care of the race issue the best I can." Mom paused, trying to find the right words to say. "I just never thought shit like this would still be going on."

"Mom, you can't quite understand this because you don't have the same experience," I said, trying to make her feel better. I really did appreciate that my very white mother was trying to fix this, but there was nothing to fix, just to understand. "I know one other person who understands what it's like to be mixed and looked down upon."

"Your aunt or possibly your sister?" Mom guessed.

I shook my head. "Well, yes, but not just them. Luna, too."

"Hi, Ms. Cheng," I said as the door opened up at Luna's house. After the "trash" fiasco as Mom and I dubbed it, I had called Luna up to talk to her and she had me come over to her house and eat dinner. Of course I said yes. On Friday of this week. It was rather chilly out tonight, being that it was closer to October now, the time of Spookiness as Peri called it. I clutched my sweatshirt closer to my body to trap in the heat that slowly leaked from it, like a faucet.

I walked up to Luna's front door and rang the bell. I waited for less than a minute before the door opened, revealing a beautiful Asian woman, Luna's mother. She grinned sweetly at me, her white teeth practically blinding me. I waved at her. "Hi, Ms. Cheng. You're looking lovely this evening," I addressed.

Ms. Kathleen Cheng was Luna's Chinese mother, a woman of very high standards. She wasn't new to the United States, far from it actually. She was, I believe, a third generation American. She worked at the local hospital as a child therapist, where her husband, Dr. Melrose, also worked as a general surgeon. So it was safe to say that Luna was pretty well off but didn't flaunt it like most people in her situation would. She was just too down to earth for shit like that.

"Hello, Marvel," Kathleen spoke, a smile on her face. "You must be freezing. Please, come in. Don't be a stranger. I've said it once and I'll say it again, call me Kathleen." She ushered me into the doorway, where the landing was nice and toasty. Perfect for me because all of the heat left my body as I stood outside of her house. "You really didn't have to ring the bell. You can come right in, you know." Her fondness for me crashed into me like a tidal wave. It was intense and very sudden.

I nodded my head. "I know. But I felt like being polite this evening." My sweatshirt felt heavy on my body, like a weight of some kind.

There was only silence between the two of us before Kathleen spoke, "I am so sorry about your father, honey." The Asian woman tugged me forward and pulled me into a hug, a very awkward hug. Don't get me wrong, I adored Luna's mother and her family, but I could only handle so much touching in my life, especially now. I felt Kathleen's grief and pity, grief for me. Grief over what I had lost.

"Don't suffocate the poor girl, Kathleen," Henry Melrose, Luna's father, said from behind her. "We still need her 'live." His New Zealand accent began to show through just a little. In the years I've known Henry, he would try to get rid of it and have a combination of the two accents, one of New Zealand and the other being Minnesotan-Midwestern kind of deal.

"Hi, Henry," I said, my voice muffled by Kathleen's sweater. She let go of me. Gasping for air, I directed my attention to the man in front of me. He was very tall, towering over my own tallish frame (I was 5'10", that's tall for a woman) and he had the same spiked up haircut that my uncle had. His skin was tanned with wrinkles around the eyes and lips, showing that he smiled often despite what his job sometimes entailed. "How's it going?"

He shrugged. "Oh, you know, me cutting people open on a daily basis, blood everywhere, almost death, and actual death," he droned on, his accent going away some. He looked at me, hazel eyes boring into my very being. "I'm really sorry about your dad, Marvel. I would have gone to the funeral in a heartbeat, Dear," he told me. Henry walked up to me, taking Kathleen's place. "How are you holdin' up?"

Pursing my lips a little bit, I nodded. "I'm doing great," I responded to the older man.

"How's the mother?"

"Mom is doing okay. She's a bit overwhelmed, but otherwise just fine."

He smirked. "Tha's good to hear," he commented. The determined hazel never wavered from my gaze. "Tha's good." I smiled.

I've known the Melrose-Cheng family for as I long as I could remember. They were practically my own family, a second family if you will. They were very kind people who would take me in if the situation ever called for it. Kathleen was a sweet woman who always tried to see into my psyche, as Luna used to mention when were little kids. She doesn't do it anymore, at least, I think she doesn't. Not openly, anyway. Henry was very straightforward and stern with his coworkers, family, and patients, but he cared immensely for all of them. He always gave one hundred percent.

I think that's why he took it so hard when my dad died in the same hospital that Henry worked at. He thought he could have done something to help because he was a doctor, but it wouldn't have done anything.

"Marvel!" a young voice called from the stairs near the landing. I looked up to see a pretty, young half Asian girl standing a few stairs away from me. Hadley, Luna's younger sister. "You're here! It feels like it's been forever since I last saw you!" She ran at me, squeezing me around my waist. Hadley barely reached up to my shoulders, so she was perfect "hug size" as Luna and I used to say. I noticed that she cut her hair to be a cute little pixie cut with her bangs swept to the side. I had to say that Hadley looked pretty cute with the new do.

I felt her excitement bubble up in me, a sweet feeling of gooey, melty goodness. "Hey, kiddo," I said. "How've you been? It certainly has been a while," I greeted her, wrapping my own arms around the kid.
What? I like Luna's sister despite all else going on.

"I'm doing great," she piped up. Hadley unburied her head from my torso to look at me with her giant, doe like brown eyes. "Eighth grade is so much fun, I don't know why so many people think that middle school is the worst time of their lives, I find these three years to be great," Hadley declared.

"Yeah, until school starts having you do actual work and busy work that counts for your future," Luna said from the entrance to the kitchen. Her straight hair was pulled into a high, tight ponytail and she had bits and pieces of what seemed to be batter on her face. She was holding a mixing bowl in her arms, a whisk gently stirring a maroon colored sauce. "Hey, Marvel. You're early."

Luna Melrose had a secret love of baking and cooking, but especially the baking part. She was good at science (Chemistry) so baking was right up her alley. She could spend hours looking at cook books for the perfect pound cake recipe. What am I saying, of course she already does that. Luna stares at cook books all the time at bookstores. She would zip past all the other books that she wanted and head straight for the cooking section.

Peri and I thought it was funny at first, now it's just tedious for us to wait for her to find the perfect book for her cooking escapades.

"You wanna help me with the pound cake sauce?" she asked, gesturing the whisk back to the kitchen. Contents of the maroon sauce started to slowly roll down the tool.

"Lucina Elizabeth," Henry said, "put the whisk back in the bowl. You're going to stain the carpet." Luna rolled her eyes before a wide smile split her lips.

"So, what d'ya say, hon, you gonna help me with this?"

I stared at her a moment, a feeling of what I thought could have been confusion bubbled up in me. "Aren't you almost done with that?" I asked.

"Well, yes, but I figured baking would be more fun with friends," the girl said, the smile never leaving her face.

"Luna, Marvel is our guest. She doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to," Kathleen declared, a stern look in her almond shaped eyes. "Besides, dinner is very nearly done." With that last word out in the open, the timer on the oven made a ding sound. "Would you look at that?" Kathleen left us to grab the food from the oven, leaving Henry, Luna, Hadley, and I in the landing, awkwardly standing by.

"Well, I better get cleaned up," Luna notified. "Ta-ta." And with that, she set down the bowl and whisk on a nearby counter and ran up the stairs.

"Take off your shoes, Marvel," Henry offered, taking the pound cake sauce into his arms. "You can get to your place at the table." Nodding, I slipped off my uggs, walking over to the dining room and sat down at the dining room table. It took me a minute to realize that the whole house smelled of Italian seasoning, like oregano, onion powder, garlic powder and other such spices.

It was chicken parmigiana with garlic butter bread. One of my favorite dinners. And Henry's ever since he moved here from New Zealand. The two parents were in the kitchen, grabbing the food and plates. Kathleen held five plates in her arms, handing them out to the three of us children. Henry brought over the platter of bread chicken smothered in seasoned marinara sauce first, the large pot of spaghetti noodles second, and then the garlic butter bread that was simply to die for.

All of us finally sat down to eat the delicious food that both of the parents prepared for us to dine on. I sat next to Luna, with her on my right. She changed into a plain, black T-shirt and sweatpants. The dried batter that was on her cheek had been wiped off. Her hair was still in the tight ponytail, sweeping over her shoulder elegantly. Luna grabbed hold of the forks and spoons, scooping the dinner onto her plate. She began to eat.

Hadley was on my left, also digging into her meal. She had two pieces of garlic bread to eat and a plate full of spaghetti and chicken. Her portion was huge but I suppose she is a growing girl.

"Marvel, tell me," Henry said suddenly. I directed my attention from my food to the man in front of me. Huh, that placement seems to be pretty fortunate. "How's school been going for you and your sister?"

I set my utensils back on the table. I wiped my napkin over my mouth, removing any excess of marinara. "School's going okay for me," I said hesitantly. "I'm not sure about Gemma, though. She and I aren't close enough to talk about those kinds of things."

"But do you know if she's doing okay?" Kathleen added. She was holding a spoon full of spaghetti noodles.

I shook my head. "She's not the type of person to share those kinds of things with me," I said. Or anyone, I added as an afterthought.

It was mostly true, my sister wasn't that kind of person to tell anyone her feelings. But I also knew that Gemma and I just weren't close to even think about talking about Dad, not like we should anyway. I also knew that I couldn't read what she was feeling.

"That's too bad. Do you think she would benefit from therapy?" Kathleen asked. The food was now on her plate.

"I'm not sure," I replied. Oh boy, would Gemma love to hear that Kathleen Cheng thinks she needs therapy. "I think Gemma is handling herself pretty well." I smiled pleasantly to myself at the thought.

I'd like to think Gemma was completely fine.

"Can we please talk about something else, please?" Luna asked instead of me being the one to break the ice. Her parents looked to her, similar colored eyes boring into her. "Please, this is a very depressing conversation for a great dinner," she said, pushing away her plate and placed her hands on the table.

"Okay, dear," Kathleen said. "We won't push young Marvel for answers anymore."

Dinner was silent for a few minutes. The sounds of chewing filled the room for a while. "Hey," Hadley spoke up. "How about we play a game of two truths and a lie?"

Henry wiped his hands on the napkin in his lap. He brought the napkin up to his mouth, wiping the grease from it. "That," Henry declared, setting the cloth down on his lap, "is a great idea, Hads." A self satisfied smile came to Hadley. I felt pleasure run through my veins, clearly from Hadley because I never felt happiness like that. Not in a very long time.

"Okay, I have a crush on a boy named Rishi, I am fourteen years old, and I have a brother," Hadley started.

"Oh, this is too good," Luna moaned. From the looks of it, she knew the truth because Hadley and Luna didn't have a brother. Luna was the oldest and she was a girl. So this was going to be a fun game.

"This is so obvious," Kathleen said, setting aside her own utensils. "Clearly the lie is you having a brother. I know you too well, sweetie." We all laughed. "What? Isn't that true?" She looked around the table, taking in our faces. An emotion raced through me. "Who's Rishi?"

I knew the answer to that. Granted, I only heard about him through Aiden because Rishi was his brother. I thought I remembered Luna saying that Hadley was in the same school as Rishi but I didn't think this was a possibility.

"Well now that that's settled," Hadley said. She turned to me. "Marvel, it's your turn now." I looked up from my dinner.

"Alright. Where do I begin?" A warmth spread through me. All of the content from the evening weaving into my body and becoming a part of me. I became an imitation of it.

These powers aren't so bad after all.