We pulled into the driveway. The front door light illuminated the salmon-colored house orange and the basement was lit. The silhouettes moving around in the window reminded me of a bunch of blobs fighting. I nearly laughed at the thought, but fear overtook me. What if Isabelle would rather play with her cousins and leave me by myself? What if her invitation was a dream and I was leading my family down Embarrassment Road? So many what-ifs.

"Well, let's get going," my dad said from the passenger seat.

"Aspetta, devo controllare i miei capelli!" My mom said.

Do you have to check your hair now? My fears changed to annoyance as I watched my mom fiddle around with her hair. The fact she spoke in Italian proved she must be worried. Finally, my mom let her hands rest on her lap and my dad opened the door.

"That took way too long," Dante grumbled to the right of me. He slid open his door as I did mine. Soon we were all standing outside. The chilly air burned against my sides and my cheeks were tomato red. I followed my parents to the door, no longer worrying if I made a mistake. I wanted to get inside.

I heard a flash of a camera and I saw my mother slipping her phone into her pocket. I sighed in aggravation.

The black door opened and I stepped into a warm room. On the right, a hot stove drew me in closer.

"I'm so glad you guys came," Isabelle said in front of us. "I can take your coats."

I wasn't sure if I was ready to say goodbye to mine yet, but I obliged.

Isabelle hung the three coats in the closet on the left and stepped back to look at us all. "Everyone else is downstairs." She pointed down the lane between the couch and the wall. "Take the left before the kitchen and go down the immediate open door."

I watched as my parents and brother followed Isabelle's instructions and went downstairs. I could hear their loud stomps as they traveled.

"Aleida and Heidi are in my room. The four of us are the only kids." Isabelle beamed at me. "This is so exciting!"

After I took off my shoes, we went the same way my parents did, except we didn't go down the stairs. I could hear plenty of laughter from the basement as I passed. We kept walking until we came to the end of the hallway. There were two rooms on either side, only one with a door open. I followed Isabelle in the open door room, the left, and was greeted by giggling. I took notice of Isabelle's neatly done bed and the dresser across from it. A mirror hung above the dresser with a white cross embedded in the middle.

"Where are those two girls?" Isabelle's eyes glinted.

I saw a flicker of movement from under the bed. I looked at my friend and pointed.

She nodded and we went to either side of the bed.

"One, two, three," she mouthed. We lunged down and grabbed hold of the two younger girls and attempted to pull them out. Aleida giggled as I tugged her arm. The soft skin of the eight year old's, tingled underneath my fingers. Excitement bolted through my body, giving me more strength. With a final yank, Aleida tumbled out of the bed and rammed into me. I fell onto my knees and collapsed on her little body.

"That was awesoooome!" Aleida cried. She crawled out from under me and stood. With a grunt, I joined her.

On the other side of the bed, Isabelle still tried to pull out Heidi. The girl had no thoughts of moving. I rounded the bed. The rough rug brushed my feet, soothing my skin. I grabbed hold of Heidi's other arm and heaved with all my might.

"Okay, okay," Heidi said. She extracted her arms from our hands and creeped out.

"Let's play a game," Aleida said. She clapped her hands together. Without waiting for any suggestions she ran out of the room. She reappeared two seconds later, carrying a red box. Green and red cartoon apples were printed on the front around a title highlighted in yellow. Apples to Apples.

I smiled. The word game was a common pastime in my family and I enjoyed it deeply.

We all lowered to the ground and waited as Aleida divided the cards accordingly.

"So how was your Christmas?" I asked.

"Great! We got so many presents like books, CDs, and movies," Heidi said.

Isabelle nodded in agreement. "Church was kind of sad. The priest said something that upset my family."

"I'm sorry." I wasn't sure what I was supposed to say. I wasn't used to Isabelle saying sour things about church. "Maybe you'll get a different one next time."

Isabelle shrugged.

"It's all ready," Aleida said. She passed us each five red cards. "Since you're the guest, you can be judge first." She nodded to me.

We began to play, taking turns to pick out green cards. Adjectives and adverbs were written on the green cards while nouns and verbs were on the red. The point of the game was to have the best matching red card to the green card. When I played with my family, it was usually my father or me who won.

We would pause at times to laugh at funny cards with silly words or phrases. At some points, a red card with no resemblance to the green would pop up.

I enjoyed playing and liked being included. For so long, I felt isolated from the world. Isabelle and her sisters reminded me there were people who wanted to be with me.

"I got eight green," exclaimed Heidi just as I was picking another red card. "I win."

I smiled at her. "Nice job. One more green for me and I would've won."

Aleida shifted her legs. "Want to play again?"

~~~

"You girls have been having fun."

I looked up to see my mother standing at the doorway. A wave of annoyance washed over me. "Do we have to go?"

She nodded. With a sigh, I stood up. "Well, bye."

Isabelle rose and hugged me. "Remember to enjoy the rest of break and forget about Avani."

The pain from school fell back into place. How could I ever push that away?