The dinner!

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Dedication} -saoirses
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On their way back to the Holland's house the two took a shortcut that had made their journey slightly lesser. The girl had a worried look on her face as she rubbed her arm up and down repeatedly, something she did when nervous or anxious.

"Joe?"

"Yeah" he responded nonchalantly.

"You don't think people know about us? Do you?" She said sullenly.

"Well I can never say for sure but no" he figured. "Because we'd probably already be in another lab somewhere and not here enjoying our school years."

"Yeah, but what if people know about what happened? Not scientists, just others?"

"I don't know Fri" he answered. "I honestly don't know"

Her face fell and so did his as they edged towards their foster home. It was a long bungalow house made out of a red-looking brick but the colour wasn't distinguishable in the dim light. A footpath led to the front door where Joey spotted two figures walking down hands dug deep into their coat pockets.

"They must be the guests" Joey whispered into his sisters ear, pointing out the couple as they walked. They strode, aware of their surroundings, their heads turning at every noise. There was a noticeable 'for sale' sign that the twins had not spotted until that second that the couple were eyeing.

The brother and sister caught up with the unknown persons as they reached the door. Before the children could get past them they had rung the doorbell resulting in their foster parents answering the door and seating everyone down at their dining table.

ØØØØØ

The Hollands had laid out KFC buckets in the middle of the table as their dinner option. the options being, wings and popcorn chicken as such. Joey took a seat a the far end of the table as Fria took the other one opposite him. The six people began to eat, all slightly uncomfortable with the presence of one another.

"Sorry I didn't get to cook, I was gonna make that baked ziti you guys like so much, but I just forgot about the time, and before you know it, "oh, my God, it's five o'clock." Marsha spewed.

"It's fine, it's fine" Nancy stuttered turning her head to Steve awkwardly. "it's great" she encouraged him. Fria had yet to learn their names though Joey knew from the minute he had seen them. Not that he had ever met them before that moment.

"right-I love KFC" Steve mumbled more to assure Nancy than Mr or Mrs Holland. Marsha took a long swig from a glass filled with coke as Joey poured some for himself.

"Oh how could I be so forgetful," Marsha said slapping her head lightly in a joking manner. "Joey, Fria this is Nancy and Steve they're some friends of Barb. Nancy, Steve, Joey and Fria are some kids we offered to foster a while back"

They mumbled their hellos and greeting as Nancy continued the conversation "so, I noticed a for sale sign out in your yard, is- is that the neighbours or-" The older girl asked the pair sitting in front of her. The Hollands turned their hears towards each other and smiled.

"do you want to tell them?" Marsha asked her husband as he and everyone around ate.

"go ahead," he said his mouth stuffed full with chicken pieces.

The woman smiled warmly at her husband and turned her head to the couple in front of them slightly ignoring the twins. "we hired a man named Murray Bauman, have either of you heard of him?"

Joey choked on the coke he was trying to drink down and Fria dropped her fork and made a loud sound. Nancy shook her head and attempted to swallow the chewed up food in her mouth before she spoke."uh-No"

Steve cut across her as she looked over at him. "No I don't think so" He finished.

"He was an investigative journalist for the Chicago Sun-times," she told them enthusiastically.

"he's pretty well known" Mr Holland added, passing a card which held details about the man to Steve.

"uh-uh, y-you never told us about him?" Fria said her voice sort of high in shock.

"Oh well, we wanted it to be a surprise!" Marsha said kindly. " We thought once we told you, you'd be happy. We get to go on road trips and see monuments and all that stuff!"

Both their faces fell, they had only started school that day. "Foster kids, by state law are not allowed to legally stay with guardians who do not own a household " Joey recited heavily as a thin line of water underlined Frias's eyes.

"Nevermind about that"Mr Holland said optimistically "we'll get it all sorted out" but deep down the twins and the other four people in the room knew 'we'll get it all sorted out was not a certain promise. So like most people, in times like these, they changed the subject.

"uh- Anyway he's freelance now and" Marsha paused. "He agreed to take the case" she was so happy and smiley it almost hurt Joey and Fria to be sad about their joyfulness.

"um- excuse me, I'm sorry" Fria announced.
" I'm gonna-" she pointed to a door across the hallway. It was Joeys and her room. The Hollands smiled curtly oblivious to the mental states the two children were in.

"Yeah, actually I'm gonna go too." Joey asserted pushing himself from his chair to follow Fria into their room which was situated right beside a bathroom.

They sat down on their respective beds across from one another as the awkward chatter echoed down the hall.

"It's only been two weeks" Fri cried, her head in her hand as Joey came over to comfort her.

" I know Fri, it's ridiculous, but we have to realize that we aren't the only people with problems," Joey said.

Fri agreed as joey continued. "Marsha and Ted, they've been through an awful lot and for them to not actually know what happened must be awful"

" I-I know! But we've been through shit! Shit, no children should ever have to go through!" she screamed so that unfortunately the people in the other room heard.

"it's okay, it's okay" he soothed as Fria just cried and soon he began to cry too. He then started to laugh manically and Fria joined in not knowing exactly what they were laughing at.

Meanwhile in the bathroom beside their room, walked in Nancy tears filling her eyes. Joey could hear her thoughts and just feel the sadness radiate off her in waves.

"whats going on Joey?" Fria asked as she noticed his concentrated face. One he only made when he was using his weird genetics. His head bobbed in the air as he fished for more information. His eyes widened slightly.

"what Joe? Tell me what's wrong. Now!" Fria shouted.

"She knows" he whispered.

"Who? Knows what?"

"Nancy, and the guy too."

"About what!" Fria bellowed this time.

"About us, about the lab, about what really happened to Barb"

the two started at their wrists in mild shock, like deers in headlights." aw shit"

ØØØØØ

"What do we do now," Lucas asked Dustin as they both rode their bikes down a long dark road.

"We stick to the plan" Dustin answered while maintaining his grip on his walkie talkie and bike handle.

"Mikes not gonna like it"

"last time I checked, our party isn't a dictatorship. it's a democracy" Dustin stated.

"What if Max says no?" Lucas asked.

"How could Max say no to these?" He said as he lifted his top lip and purred weirdly.

Lucas gave him a weird look" and Fria?" Lucas questioned.

"we'll tell mike about it, but I think you were just seeing things," Dustin remarked."okay ill see you tomorrow"

"See you later"

They both turned in different directions, Dustin into his drive and Lucas onto another street on his way to his house.