As they walked closer to the crimson Oak door, they could hear a man shout, "That is total bull crap!" before two other men began laughing.

"Sounds like everyone's having fun," Megumi said, turning the glass doorknob.

Dre gaped as he looked around the living room. The inside of her home looked like something that Dre had only expected to see in movies. The room was painted a peanut-butter brown, halved by a creamy white on the upper section of the walls. A crystal chandelier dangled over a large living room, where an almost theater-sized flat screen TV hung proudly in front of two white suede couches with a black suede armchair to match. 

Under the TV were more game systems than Dre could count. The white, rounded, square-shaped gaming system was currently being used by two men who looked to be in their mid-40s. Raheem Wolf, Dre's father, was sitting on the armchair, rapidly hitting the buttons on the controller. The other man, a barrel-chested man with the same rounded face and deep blue eyes as Megumi, sat in the suede chair with a big grin on his face. He was wearing a red T-shirt that barely fit over his muscled frame and a baggy pair of jeans.

Megumi cheerfully walked to him and tried to greet him, but he shushed her, kindly saying "Sorry, Megumi. Daddy's delivering some long overdue butt-whupping."

"The butt-whupping's not gonna last long, Toney. Believe m- Aw, you've got to be kidding me!" Raheem bellowed as Toney scored yet another touchdown. "Does the D-Line not know how to block anymore?!"

Toney laughed as he said, "It's not your defense, bro. It's my offense."

Ian popped his head up from behind a short couch. "Yo, Dre. Don't just stand there, man. Come watch pops get embarrassed for the sixth time today."

Dre made his way deeper in the living room as Ian shook his head in shame. "Twenty-nine to zero. And on the first quarter." Raheem remained silent as he continued clacking on the controller.

"Why is everyone here?" he asked Ian.

"I donno. Toney said that we would find out at about three, once everything got ready. Ya'll might wanna wait to introduce yourselves. They're too into the game to pay attention."

"Well, if that's the case," Megumi said, pulling Dre's arm, "I'll give you a tour of the house."

So she pulled Dre into the narrow hallway, where many pictures of the Gladestone family hung, along with war medals encased in a small brown box. In the pictures with Megumi as a child, Dre noticed that she had short black hair, as opposed to her long, dark red hair of today. In some pictures, he saw a girl who looked slightly older than Megumi, with braided, blond hair in most of the pictures she was featured in. He wanted to ask her about it, until Megumi stopped him in front of a white wooden door. 

They heard Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's Buddah Lovaz playing through the door. The bottom of the door was blocked by a damp towel. Megumi knocked on the door; the music quickly shut off as the door creaked open. A wall of smoke and the strong scent of marijuana hit Dre and Megumi square in the nose, making both of them cough.

"Huh? Oh, hey 8-Bit," the olive-skinned man asked in a slur, with a same rounded face as Toney. He was wearing a tan cowboy hat over his braided, black hair. His hazel eyes were halfway opened as he grinned drunkenly at them. "How's it going? Father called me over to talk about something 'urgent.' Wait a minute." He had a sudden look of realization on his face. "Aren't you were supposed to be in school right now? You know, if you're going to drop out, I can use a sandwich. Since, you know, you'll be making a living doing it."

"Something came up," Megumi irritably said. "Did daddy tell you what the urgent news was?"

"Nope. Is it important?"

Megumi opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Instead, she squinted her eyes as she asked him, "How high are you?"

The man chuckled as he said, "Quite. Thanks for asking. Ain't that right, Loyalty?" he asked inside the room.

"Loyalty's in there?" Dre finally spoke. He felt incredibly uncomfortable blurting out something without being introduced first.

The man leaned closer to Dre. The rancid smell of marijuana was overwhelming. Dre held his breath, trying not to cough in the man's face. "Who is this?" he asked, turning to Megumi.

Megumi pushed the man's head back as she said, "Joel, this is Dre Wolf. He helped me get rid of a persistent pest in school."

Dre shot her a hard glare. "Again with this story?" Megumi shushed him.

Joel stood up straight with a hardened face. "Couldn't you have gotten rid of him yourself?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Of course, but Dre said it wouldn't look good for the school if a new person suddenly began beating up everyone."

Joel's inebriated grin appeared on his face once again as he laid a hand on Megumi's head. "I bet 8-Bit was too short to reach the guy's head, huh Dre?"

Megumi pouted as she looked up at her brother, then at Dre, half expecting an answer from him. Dre wanted nothing more to agree with Joel, but he knew from Megumi's deadly glare that doing so would result in disastrous repercussions. It didn't make sense to him; how could someone look adorable and terrifying at the same time. "Uh...You said that Loyalty was back there?" Dre asked nervously, attempting to change the subject and possibly save his life.

"Yeah," he said as he opened the door further. Aside from the bed, couch, and stereo, the room was bare. There were no posters, no curtains, and no dresser. A dark-skinned man sat on the couch, his head resting on the top of the backrest. He was wearing a red jumpsuit and a pair of worn-out sneakers. He rose his head with a grunt, his eyes half opened. Loyalty had the same sharp features as Raheem, but instead of the long dreadlocks that were draped on Raheem's head, his hair was shaved. "What's up, bro?" he said to Dre.

"Have you two been smoking all day?"

"Nope. Smoking and drinking," Loyalty corrected him. "You got any more of these mini muffins, man?" he asked, turning to Joel as he held up a half full bag of blueberry mini muffins.

Joel's eyes widened, fully displaying his almond shaped eyes as he looked warily from Loyalty to Megumi. She looked furious at the both of them. Her eyebrow twitched as her full lips pouted. "Are those my muffins?"

"I don't know. Joel gave 'em to me. He said you wouldn't mind. Right, Joel?" he asked Joel, who was trying to discreetly silence him.

"You gave away my mini muffins?" she asked, her sinister voice slightly above whispering.

"Now, 8-Bit," Joel began, holding his hands in front of him, "let's try to be reasonable about this. This isn't anything to-" he quickly shut the door in both of their faces.

Megumi inhaled deeply through her nose before saying, "Let's continue, then." 

"Are you gonna be-"She began walking down the hallway before Dre could respond. "Okay."

Their house was huge, almost the size of a mansion. The hallway was longer than most houses he'd been in. Pictures were perched above each doorway. The doorway of the guest room had a group picture of the whole family, the next door adjacent to the guest room had pictures of Toney and Tiffany. He'd figured that the room under Toney and Tiffany's pictures were their room.

She stopped in front of the door under the pictures of her and laid her hand on the doorknob. The door had an anime poster of a young boy with spiky, golden-blonde hair and purple martial-arts clothing firing a bluish-white beam out of his hand. 

He looked above the door, seeing Megumi sitting in front of a water fountain with a dazzling smile on her face. This must be her room. Dre's pulse quickened at the thought of how another girl's room looked in person. Oh, God, I'm not ready for this.

Twisting the doorknob, she said, "This is my room. It's not much, because my stuff still isn't here yet, but it'll do for now."