CHAPTER 8

SHARING CAN BE MESSY

I don’t want you to read too much into this, but I actually took a shower and changed my clothes before dinner.

Trevor called and I made the mistake of telling him that Kat was going to eat with us. He was so jealous, he hung up on me. I thought that would be the end of it, but ten minutes before dinner he showed up at my house, hinting that he would like to eat with us.

My mom fell for it and invited him. Apparently, Trevor had told my other friends, because one by one they showed up at my house, begging to join us for dinner.

So by the time it was dinner, all my friends were there but there was no sign of Kat. My dad had mentioned to my mother that a foreign exchange student would be joining us, so she had made a ton of food.

Right before my dad started to say a prayer and bless the meal, the doorbell rang. All my friends and I jumped up and ran to get it. There was no one at the front door.

When we got back to the table, however, Kat was sitting in a chair next to Libby.

Apparently, Kat liked to create diversions. She had rung the front doorbell and slipped in the back door. We were all shocked to see her. My dad tried to make things better by explaining how Kat’s ways might be strange to us, but that different cultures did things differently.

I didn’t know where my dad was getting his information, but I had a feeling he was wrong. My friends and I took our seats, bummed that Kat had decided to sit between Libby and Tuffin. My dad told Kat that we usually bowed our heads and prayed before eating. We all lowered our heads, except for Jack, as my dad said an unusual prayer.

My dad didn’t need to worry about that. I’d never seen anyone attack food like Kat did. If she found my mom’s food to be strange, she sure didn’t show it. She shoved whole rolls in her mouth and drank gravy straight from the gravy bowl. I think if any other girl, besides Janae, had done that I would have thought it was disgusting, but with Kat it wasn’t so bad.

Everyone seemed to love her. My mom thought she was interesting, my dad thought she brought culture to our home, Tuffin thought she was funny, and Libby liked her style.

My friends were all trying so hard to prove they had good manners that it was beginning to get awkward. Each kept trying to act more polite than the other until they all ended up screaming at one another.

I don’t think Kat was impressed. When she wasn’t eating, she was busy talking to Libby. This was not a good thing. None of the creatures who had previously come from my closet had been normal size. I had kept them hidden, and for the most part, they had been my problem alone. Pinocula had tried to pass as my cousin, but other than that, they had stayed mostly out of sight. Not Kat. She seemed to have no problem letting everyone know she was around. I also noticed that since I had read The Hunger Games I knew the answers to all the questions people asked her. My dad questioned her about her parents, and for some reason I spoke up.

My mom looked at me like I was nuts. I suddenly remembered that she had read the books and would know I was talking about Katniss. I thought she was going to bust me, but she just said,

So Kat started talking. She went on about everything. Most of the stuff about her I knew. There were a few times, however, when her story didn’t quite hold up to the book I had read. For example, she complained a couple of times about her feet hurting, and when my dad asked her if her mother worked, she said,

I figured these were things I would have known if I had finished the second book in the Hunger Games series. In between all the questions and answers, Kat just kept on eating. She ate so much that in less than twenty minutes all the food on the table was gone. The only remaining food was on everyone else’s plate.

Jack offered to give Kat what he had left, but Teddy told her that Jack had licked all the food on his plate, so she should eat his. Rourk picked up his roll and tried to hand it to Kat, but Aaron wouldn’t have it. He grabbed the roll from Rourk and handed Kat a fistful of his mashed potatoes.

Now was my moment. While Libby was grossing out, I scraped my meat off my plate onto Kat’s. Trevor didn’t like that.

In the spirit of sharing, Trevor tossed her a handful of his peas.

The peas bounced off her dish and onto the floor. Tuffin picked up his plate and heaved it at my dad. My dad dodged the plate, which hit Jack in the back of the head. Jack wasn’t mad—he now had more food to give Kat. She was just a girl, but for some reason, Kat made me and my friends act like idiots. It felt like my brain was being spun around and around and that the only way I could think straight was to get Kat to like me. My friends were also having a difficult time controlling their actions and emotions. We wanted Kat to like us so desperately that we all began throwing food at her to eat. Teddy grabbed my mom’s plate, and Rourk grabbed Libby’s.

My mom and Libby were shouting and trying to make us stop. My dad got up and grabbed his video camera to film the fight. By the time we all ran out of food and came to our senses, Kat was covered in food. It was not pretty.

There was food dripping from the ceiling. There was food on the walls, food on the floor, and food in everyone’s hair.

My dad tried to explain to Kat how this was just a cultural misunderstanding, but she was already up and heading for the back door. She stopped in front of Teddy and looked him in the eyes. Teddy seemed as if he was going to throw up from nervousness. Kat blinked and said,

Kat left through the back door while Teddy wobbled and shook. My mom looked at me and my friends.

Whenever the house was a mess, my mom would just look at us and announce that she was going to nap. I always tried to get out of the room before she could tell me to clean up while she slept, but this time I was too slow. She was going to take a nap, and my friends and I were going to have to clean up everything.

Trevor stayed, but everyone else left. Libby went off to do homework I know she didn’t have. Tuffin went off to watch a movie he had already seen a thousand times. My dad went off to watch TV and think about what we had done. Trevor and I were on our own.

Trevor and I cleaned everything up, including ourselves, then went to the garage to work on our wood blocking and guiro skills. The funstival was only three days away, and we needed all the practice we could get. Even while practicing, it was hard not to think of Kat.

Down the street the sound of Mr. Foote’s gong rang out. The noise filled the neighborhood and then faded. I looked at Trevor and shivered.

She was counting down something, but I had no idea what she meant by it all. Trevor seemed excited.

I didn’t want to be mean, but there was no way Trevor was the one—at best he was the two. Of course in my mind I had a pretty good idea who “the one” actually was.

I just hoped that being number one was a good thing.