The next day dawned cool and cloudy.Taylor took Dominica on a walk to show her the woods. He pointed out certain plants and landmarks that he had become familiar with in his many years of living there.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you," he said. "You need to be careful when you're out in the woods alone, because someone mysterious roams here. One of us, Diego, was out foraging one day, when he heard quiet footsteps coming toward him. He ducked behind a tree, and a shadow went past. He saw no person. He was only eleven or twelve at the time, so he was pretty scared. He ran all the way back to our hideout. He saw it more after that, and he's even followed it, but it somehow always vanishes."
"A shadow and no person? Interesting," Dominica mused. "Is he sure it's not just his imagination?"
"Diego is a very trustworthy, honest young man," Taylor answered, ducking a tree branch. "I'd trust him anyday with my life."
Diego and Derek were grabbing a snack in the kitchen when Taylor and Dominica returned. The four sat at a table and talked over juice and cake.
"Remember the day you saw the shadow, Diego?" Taylor inquired.
"Sure, I do." Diego nodded. "I remember it as plain as day."
"Are you sure it wasn't just your imagination?" Dominica asked.
Diego nodded again, this time more vigorously. "I'm positive."
"It's still a possibility," Derek put in. He grinned. "It's a definite possibiblity of a firm maybe."
Taylor chewed thoughtfully on a forkful of cake and looked at Diego. "Er..did this shadow look like a walking shadow?"
"I didn't look." Diego shrugged. "Why does it matter anyways?" He looked at Derek. "What do you think, Derek?"
Derek shrugged. "I don't really see a difference." He pushed his chair back from the table, looking up and catching Dominica's eye. He grinned.
Dominica stood up, embarrased. "I'm gonna go to the TV room and hang out. Bye." She quickly left the room.
In the TV room, Dominica sank into a couch and thought about Derek. why was he looking at me like that? she wondered to herself.
A girl came over. "What's up?"
"A boy was looking at me funny," Dominica replied briefly.
The girl eyed her. "You're that old? I know how older brothers can be, but no one really looks at me like he loves me. I have an older brother myself, and three younger brothers, but no admirers. My older brother, Zadok, drives me crazy all the time, probably as much as my younger brothers, Zerah, Jeconiah, and Mehujael." She looked inquiringly at Dominica. "What is your name?"
"Dominica. And he wasn't looking at me like he loved me. He looked at me as if he recognized me," Dominica answered.
"I'm Solana. I'm the third oldest child in my family. I have a twin who is older than me. Do you have any younger siblings?"
"I have a younger brother," Dominica said. "I wish I had a sister or two, though."
"Oh," Solana answered. "How old are you?"
"I'm 16. How old are you?"
"Just turned 13. My twin, Thera, acted like it was a completely normal day, though it wasn't. She spent most of the time in our newspaper office. When she's actually around and being more social than usual-which isn't very often-she is crazy! When she is quiet, she could sit in the corner of a crowded room and no one would notice her. We are so different."
"What kinds of things do you do?" Dominica asked.
"Why don't I show you our newspaper office, and I'll tell you while we're going there," Solana suggested, standing. As they walked along, she said, "I do lots of chores. Mostly laundry and dish washing. In my free time, I collect news for our weekly newspaper. It's a whole lot more interesting than your usual paper. I'm one of the editors, too. I also enjoy writing short stories every now and then."
It was then that they arrived at a huge room filled with computers. Solana gestured to it and said:
"This is our computer room. This way..." She led Dominica to a small room crammed with desks, computers, and garbage cans.."is our editors' office. Taylor, Thera, Zadok, Dylan-one of my cousins-and I work here.Being the SOCIAL nut she is, Thera does upcoming events, Zadok does jokes and riddles, I does what's been going on lately, Taylor does sports, and Dylan, being a very technological kind of guy, does movie and CD stuff." Turning toward the computer room, she pointed to a desk with various computer parts scattered around on it. "that's him. His hobbies drive his parents up a wall."
Dylan was an average-sized, slim boy about Solana's age. He had spiky red hair and blue eyes. Looking up, he saw the pair and waved. "Hi, Solana!"
Solana waved back. "Hey, Dylan. What're you doing?"
"Fixing my dad's computer," he answered, "so that I can have a big slice of cake!"
"He really likes cake,and it's really annoying," Solana said. "Um..do you want to meet my family?" she asked, steering Dominica out of the room. "We'll start with my little brothers."
They went to a huge playroom, where Solana's younger brothers were playing war with plastic toys.
"Ka-boom! Got your snipers with my all powerful nuclear bombs, Jeconiah!"
"No fair! I only have cannons!" wailed a six year old boy, directing his anger on the army of his three year old brother, Mehujael, who in turn started blasting at the army of nine year old Zerah, yelling,
"I got your riflemen with my cannons, Zerah! They went SQUISH! Ka-BLOOEY! There went your snipers!"
Dominica and Solana stood by, watching and grinning.
"Here I come, Mehujael!" Zerah yelled. "Ka-BLAM! I wiped your army off the face of the earth!"
"Did not!" Mehujael returned, dumping out the contents of a plastic box that he had been hiding. "I saved some!" He set them up and the battle resumed.
Mehujael and Jeconiah teamed up to beat Zerah's army, then turned on each other. Mehujael beat his older brother. Then they turned to their audience.
"Hi, Solana," Mehujael greeted his sister. "Who's your friend?"
"Guys, say hi to my new friend Dominica," Solana told them.
The three boys looked at each other, grinned, and said at the same time:
"Hi, Dominica."
"Hi," Dominica answered. "Could you tell me your names?"
The boys looked at each other again, grinned again, and said at the same time,each saying their own name:
"Zerah!"
"Jeconiah!"
Mehujael!"
Rolling her eyes, Solana sent them back to keep playing and then told Dominica each one's name. Then they went off to find Solana's mother.
