by Jones, L. A.
In one week Aradia and her folks cleaned, painted, and organized the entire house from top to bottom. Upstairs there was a master bedroom where Ross and Liza slept, Aradia's room, and two extra rooms that were meant for the girls. They repainted the two extra rooms white, installed brand new furniture from beds to desks, but decided to leave the decorating to them. The entire time she was cleaning Aradia was thinking about Melina and Marietta. What were they like? Were they nice? More importantly, would they get along?
On Saturday is when they finally came, and Liza was dressed up in a blue skirt with a white blouse. Aradia was not dressed up in a fancy way, but at least she was wearing clean clothes. Her outfit consisted of blue jeans, a red and pink shirt that said, "Love is the answer," and black slip-on sneakers. As the minutes began to tick away, Liza and Aradia waited anxiously. Finally, the door opened and in walked Ross in his usual black business suit with Melina and Marietta in tow. As soon as Aradia saw them, she tensed up in anxiety.
Marietta was an average looking nine year old with long braided hair, round Bambi-like light brown eyes, a button nose, and a slightly pudgy body. She wore baggy clothes, a backwards baseball cap, sneakers that looked to be two sizes too big for her, and was ferociously chewing on a piece of gum.
Melina, however, was much more intimidating looking.
She was extremely tall with a rectangular face, pointy nose, round brown eyes that almost looked oriental, huge light brown lips, and her hair was pulled up in a high black braided ponytail. She wore a black denim rhinestone decorated mini skirt, steel toed punk rocker black boots, and a hot pink shirt peeked out from under her brown satin puffed up jacket. She also had several piercings in her ears, a belly button ring, and the meanest look on her face.
However, what was most awkward of all was the fact that both Melina and Marietta were African American. What were my parents thinking? Aradia thought to herself, inviting black people to live in a white person's house. We will look so weird to the neighbors! Almost immediately afterwards, Aradia scolded herself for such thoughts.
Brushing it aside, Aradia smiled and walked towards them holding out her hand. "Hey I am Aradia, but you can call me Rai if you want?"
"Okay, but what if I don't call you at all or just ignore you completely?" Melina asked with a mean snicker.
The room grew silent until Liza nervously asked, "Who wants cookies?"
Melina scoffed while Marietta's eyes lit up.
"What kind of cookies?" she asked.
"Well," Liza admitted, "I didn't know which you liked so I made a little of each. Sugar cookies, peanut butter, chocolate chip, and snicker doodles!"
"Cool! Where's the kitchen?" Marietta shouted.
Liza laughed, took Marietta's hand, and led her past Ross into the kitchen. Melina stiffened as she was led away. At least she is protective of her little sister, Aradia thought, as she watched Melina follow them. As Melina did so, Ross shrugged awkwardly, and took their stuff upstairs. Aradia exhaled deeply before deciding to go into the kitchen as well.
She was pleased with the sight that greeted her. Marietta was happily stuffing herself with every single of cookie laid out on a plate while Liza laughed. Melina, however, stood away from the table watching the scene unfold, but with folded arms and her eyes warning. Liza pretended not to notice, and got a glass of milk for Marietta.
However, it was not until they discussed where the girls were going to sleep when trouble first arose.
"I am not sleeping upstairs!" Melina screeched at Ross.
Ross did not yell back.
He just looked at her calmly and said, "I am sorry Melina, but that's the way it has be. All family members sleep upstairs with the rest of us. Tell you what though, once we start trusting each other you can move to the basement."
Melina scoffed, rolled her eyes, and said, "Tell you what why don't you just go..."
"Hey!" Aradia interrupted angrily as she stomped up the stairs. "Don't talk to my father like that!"
Melina chuckled scornfully, and then turned to face Aradia but even before she could even say anything Ross interrupted and said, "There are brand new locks on the doors."
Melina looked over to him and said, "Huh?"
"The doors to every bedroom in the whole house have brand new locks on the doors that lock from the inside. See for yourself," Ross said stepping aside, and throwing open the door so Melina could inspect it.
Cautiously and without taking her eyes off Ross as if she were facing down a dangerous animal, Melina crept past him and inspected the doorknob.
"Can I sleep in Melina's room?" Marietta asked suddenly from downstairs.
Melina looked up from inspecting the doorknob to her sister, and then back to Ross who just nodded and said, "Sure."
Melina looked at Ross in total shock, but none more so than Aradia who thought it was weird that a nine-year-old still wanted to share a room with her sister.
As soon as she could, Aradia asked her father this but Ross shook his head and offered no explanation. At least no other than, "If your sisters want to tell you than they will but until then..." he shrugged and went downstairs.
Aradia looked back at Melina who flicked her off, and then slammed the door!
Sisters, Aradia thought, yeah right.
The next month was a trial in itself for Aradia. Marietta was too young to develop an attitude and therefore was easily likable. She got along with everyone especially Aradia.
Melina, however, was a completely different story. She was rude, loud, obnoxious, crude, and vulgar. She cut classes, smoked pot, drank liquor, stole money, hung out with shady people from school including Bane's gang, and often bullied Aradia.
Instead of accepting her behavior, Aradia's parents took action. Ross most of all was the one who changed things dramatically. When he found out Melina was cutting school he actually arranged it so cops would go out, find her, bring her back, and sit with her in every class. Ross would search Melina's room every single day in order to find drugs. As for stealing money, Ross and Liza hid their wallets in different hiding places all over the house and changed them every single day. It also prompted Ross to register everything in the house with the police so if any of it were pawned from here to the next state the police would be notified. Unfortunately, Melina found out about this strategy the hard way when she tried to pawn some of Liza's jewelry and spent the night in jail.
As for the hanging out with Bane and his gang, Ross had arranged it so that whenever Melina left the house a cop car would follow her everywhere. Therefore, once Bane's crew started seeing cop cars following her they stopped hanging with Melina. As for the bullying, unfortunately, there was not much Ross could do about that. In all honesty, Aradia did not care what Melina said or did for she had other things to worry about.
Ironically, it was because Ross had prevented Melina from skipping school when Aradia's worlds began to collide. It had started during her history class, and Aradia was sitting in the back with Dax as she usually did. Dax was massaging her shoulders while Aradia tried hard to suppress her groans of pleasure. Unfortunately, Roy was also in their class and glaring at the two. Most unfortunate of all, was the fact that Tristan was there as well and sitting right next to Roy! Once he noticed Roy's bad attitude, and followed his angry gaze Tristan began to chuckle with understanding.
As soon as Roy heard him, he whipped around, saying, "What? What's so funny?"
"You know Roy," Tristan began, "If you really want to win over Aradia then you have got to stop being such a nice guy."
"What do you mean?" Roy snapped.
"What I mean is try applying some dirty tactics and stop waiting around," Tristan explained.
"Dirty tactics," Roy repeated, "What are those?"
Tristan sighed, and muttered under his breath, "No wonder in spite of his womanizing skills your older brother Al still doesn't have a serious girlfriend. You are all hopeless."
He then turned and leaned in closer to Roy. "Dirty tactics like
provoking Dax into a fight and making him look a fool in front of Aradia."
"Or," Tristan added in a dramatic lower whisper. "My personal favorite: making Aradia jealous by showing interest in other women."
Roy's mouth dropped open. "What?"
"It's like this Roy," Tristan explained while straightening up in his seat. "No woman wants a man more unless she is going to lose him."
Roy shook his head in disbelief. "Forget it Tristan. I am not like that."
Tristan groaned while Roy added, "And besides where am I going to find a woman who is interested in me? Unlike you, Dax, and my brothers I am not much of a ladies' man. So how the hell can I possibly snag someone that will make Aradia want to compete for my affections? I mean it's not like a beautiful woman who finds me attractive is going walk right through the door!"
At that, very moment there was a knock, which stopped the history teacher's lecture. Roy strained his neck to see who it was, Tristan's advice still on his mind. However, as the teacher answered the door the person they saw standing there was the vice principal who looked like a female version of Uncle Fester of the Addams family. Roy's face fell while Tristan snickered.
The vice principal then handed the history teacher a note who turned around and said, "Attention class, we have a new student in our class today."
The vice principal then stepped aside, the teacher motioned for the student to come forward, and in walked Melina! Today, she was wearing her usual punk rocker boots and denim mini skirt even though it was freezing outside. However, what was different about her appearance today was she was wearing a hot pink satin puffy jacket rather than a brown one, and large gold hoop earrings.
As soon as Dax noticed the earrings glittering in the classroom light, he leaned in closer, and whispered into Aradia's ear. "Aren't those earrings yours?"
Aradia just clenched her fists in response.
Roy's reaction to Melina, however, was very different. His jaw dropped open, and his eyes grew wide as dinner plates as he stared at her in utter shock. Tristan chuckled as soon as he noticed this. Melina noticed as well, but instead of chuckling, she sauntered next to the empty desk right beside Roy.
She then seductively crossed her legs, smiled at him, and said, "Hey."
Roy could not even reply. He just continued to stare at Melina who looked back at him, smiling sexily, and batting her eyelashes. Tristan looked back at Aradia who had just now noticed the interaction between Roy and Melina and started stiffening in her seat.
Tristan snickered as he turned around, murmuring to himself, "Now this is getting good."
Aradia waved to Melina at lunch and motioned for her to sit with her and her friends. Melina still walked right past them with her nose up in the air. However, Melina soon discovered that Bane's group was not allowing her to sit with them either. After recovering from the shock, Melina drew herself up defensively, stalked off to an empty table, and began to eat her lunch in anger.
"I can't believe you live with that," Everrett said as he flicked his thumb in Melina's direction.
"Me neither," Aradia said before biting into her sandwich.
Suddenly, Roy appeared and sat down at their table. Aradia greeted him happily, not mentioning his earlier behavior. However, by greeting he Aradia had unintentionally drawn Melina's attention to Roy once again. As soon as she recognized him, she stood up, picked up her lunch tray, and strolled over to them. Roy was laughing, and just about to bite into his apple when Melina showed up and stood behind Aradia.
"Hey," she said.
Roy's mouth froze in mid-air inches away from the apple. He then put it back on to the tray to stare at Melina dreamily.
No spoke until Melina asked, "Want to sit with me?"
Roy did not even hesitate. He grabbed his things and followed Melina to her table while the others just stared.
Aradia kept turning her head forwards and backwards. "What just happened?"
"I believe Aradia," said Tristan showing up at her side with a flourish and smiling wickedly. "That what has happened is you now have competition for Roy's affections."
"Yeah right," Aradia scoffed.
She then heard Roy's full-throated laughter from behind her. She turned once again to see Melina laid a hand on Roy's cheek, smiling seductively.
"Yeah," Tristan said triumphantly, "Right."
As much as Aradia wanted to confront Melina about Roy, she could not because tonight was Friday night, which meant Club Tolerance was supposed to be open. She had called Everrett, and worked it out with him that he could open the club early. Aradia had also convinced Al and D, not only to bring the food in early, but to keep an eye on Everrett as well. However, even after working all these things out Aradia knew she still had to show up as soon as possible. So after finishing her dinner, then her homework, and hiding it under her bed so Melina would not steal it Aradia got ready.
"I wish Rhonda was here," Aradia muttered as she frantically looked through her clothes.
Aradia's three biggest character flaws were her bad grades, her horrible cooking, and her lack of good fashion sense. The lack of good fashion sense thing was what plagued her the most. Therefore, for very special occasions her friends or her mother often helped her pick out things to wear. Unfortunately, there were times such as now when neither was available to help her.
After looking through her clothes dozens of times, Aradia was hit by a sudden wave of inspiration or perhaps desperation, as she thought about it further. Nevertheless, she dashed out of her room and knocked on Melina's door. Marietta, however, was the one who answered.
"What?" she asked Aradia.
"Is your sister here?" Aradia asked Marietta who shook her head.
"Damn!" Aradia swore but then remembered Marietta's age and corrected herself. "I mean darn it."
Marietta rolled her eyes. "Honey, I'm from Brooklyn I have heard worse things, and to be perfectly honest even though I am nine I think I know more swear words than you do."
Aradia laughed as she started towards her room.
Suddenly, she stopped, turned, and asked, "Hey Mattie, how would you like to help me pick out my clothes for tonight?"
"Sure," said Marietta running into Aradia's room and plopping down onto the bed. "But don't call me Mattie."
"So did your sister tell you where she was going?" Aradia asked as she pulled out a pair of black jeggings (leggings that look like jeans) to try on.
Marietta shook her head and said, "Something about a date."
"Hmm well at least your sister is adapting nicely to Salem," Aradia said sarcastically.
Marietta shrugged and said, "I have to say that this is the happiest I have ever seen her."
Aradia stopped, and looked over to Marietta.
"What do you mean?" Aradia asked.
Marietta shrugged again. "Before we came here we stayed with two other foster homes. The people there were either mean or didn't have a clue, and kept treating us like we were babies who were too stupid to know any better."
Marietta pouted. "And when we lived with our parents..."
She shuddered at the memory.
Aradia said nothing. Instead, she crouched down to look Marietta in the eye.
"And us? How do we treat you?"
Marietta sighed and said, "Like we're...normal."
Aradia smiled until Marietta added, "But they all did in the beginning. It's only after a while that things change."
"Yeah well," Aradia said straightening up, "We will try hard not to disappoint you."
Marietta raised an eyebrow before pointing out, "Melina won't make it easy you know. She says the only way to see if a person is the real deal is to give them hell that's when they show what they are really about!"
Aradia shrugged and said, "Well I hate to break it to both you and your sister but..."
She trailed off as she turned to look at herself in the mirror.
"Me and my family have dealt with much more difficult things," Aradia finished as she ran her finge
rs through her hair.
Marietta laughed and asked, "Are you sure?"
Aradia thought back to everything she had experienced since she had moved to Salem. She thought about defeating Derek, finding out about being the last of her kind, being kidnapped by Henry McAlester, and now being faced with the ultimatum of choosing a consort or igniting a war.
"Yeah," Aradia said smiling, "I'm sure."
"Now..." She said while turning to face Marietta. "What do you think of this top?"
Chapter Four
Aradia expected that by eight p.m, the club would be jumping, and she was not disappointed. The moment she walked down the staircase and into the club, she saw dozens of people, both hidden and human, dancing, or chattering lively. The different colored show lights were flashing all around the ceiling, and the smoke machines were puffing small amounts of grey smoke on to the floor. The bubble machines were floating various ultraviolet see-through soapy spheres above the moving crowds, and Only Girl in the World by Rihanna blared through the speakers. Everrett was smiling as he spun his turntables on the stage. Al and D had laid out food along the bar as Calvin was serving drinks, and cussing out people who tried to hurry him. This prompted Aradia to check out exactly what he was serving. She pushed, and shoved through the dancing crowd. Occasionally, she paused to answer the various greetings from the partygoers.
"Hey Aradia, great party!"
"Hey Aradia, looking good!"