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"Sorry it's so messy," River said cheerfully as she led Elliot and Zhi into the little house. "You know, living with two guys and all..." What a shameless lie. Alex and Daniel were actually quite neat. It was River who was the problem. She was messier than all three other siblings combined. "Do you want to change out of your dress so we can clean it? I have some things that you can wear. I don't think you'd fit in Elliot's clothes," she laughed. Elliot gave her sister a blank look. It wasn't her fault she was small for her age. "Anyway, make yourself at home, I'll go get you something. Alex should be in the kitchen, okay?" She had been talking the entire time, and when she disappeared upstairs it was finally quiet.

"...Sorry. River talks a lot," Elliot said to Zhi quickly before gesturing for her to take a seat in the living room.

Meanwhile, Daniel stood up at the top of the staircase. Ultraman sat on his head, and the two peeked down at the girls sitting in the living room. "...Is that... Elliot's friend?" Daniel whispered to his sugar glider. He didn't want for an answer to his question (not that a sugar glider could talk), because River's bedroom door opened, and he ran back to his own room before anyone saw him.

Elliot sat down across from Zhi, pausing to think about it. Sports? Martial arts? No, not really. Maybe only occasionally. "Huh? No. She was in a gang," she said simply, as if it was a totally normal thing to say. Didn't everyone know someone who was involved in crime as a teenager?

River had just reached the bottom of the stairs when she overheard Elliot and Zhi talking. "Elliot! Don't talk about that, it's embarrassing!" she cried, turning pink. She walked forward and handed Zhi a sloppily-folded-up dress. "Here, if you want to change into this, I'll get Alex to wash your clothes. The bathroom's over there," she pointed over towards the bathroom door.

It was surprisingly quiet once Zhi had left the room. Elliot sat still and stared at the wall as usual, but River was being quiet, too! This was the first time she got to play hostess, and it was very exciting. She felt all grown up, helping her daughtersister's friend~ When Zhi returned, she clapped her hands together and broke into a grin. "Yay! It fits! So cute~" she said cheerfully, but before Zhi had a chance to respond, she ran over, took the dirty dress, and disappeared into the kitchen.

"Alex, I need your help!" River bounced into the kitchen, holding the dress up over her head. Alex was standing in the kitchen, washing dishes, and he glanced over his shoulder at her. "What?"

"Elliot's friend got her dress dirty at the tomato festival," she said with a triumphant smile as she dropped the dress into her brother's hands.

Alex did a double take. "Wait, Elliot? Friend? What?" Setting the dress down on the counter, he turned off the faucet and hurried over to the kitchen door with long steps, and peeked out. Oh my god, River was serious!

"Huh?" Elliot shifted her gaze onto Zhi. Believe it or not, she had just been startled out of her thoughts. She was the queen of delayed reactions, so the actual startled-ness would probably kick in a bit later. "Oh, not really. Sometimes River will bring home animals." But those were animals, not people!

Alex stared at Zhi for a moment. "Hey," he grunted in her direction. "That your dress?" He jabbed a thumb in the direction of the kitchen, where the dress lay folded up. "I can clean it up in a minute." Tomato stains were no problem for him!

Well, she didn't seem too weird or disturbed, though Alex still wasn't convinced. Something had to be wrong with someone to choose Elliot as company. Not that he was one to judge, he spent all of his time in the kitchen. Anyway, it was obvious that she wasn't interested in talking with him, so he disappeared back into the kitchen and set about removing the tomato stains.

Elliot paused to think. "Furry things." Really, as long as it was cute and fuzzy, River couldn't control herself. "She got me a jerboa. Stuff like that." Of course it didn't occur to her that most people had never heard of a jerboa.

Elliot looked around the living room; she had to make sure that Jaeja wasn't out of River's room. But the fox cub was nowhere in sight, so she was safe. With a brief nod, she turned around and hurried up the stairs without saying a word. Several moments later, she came hurrying back to the living room. Bokonon, in all of his bizarre adorableness, hopped cheerfully after her. "This is Bokonon. Have you ever read Cat's Cradle?" she asked hopefully. She was in love with Kurt Vonnegut, and it would make her life to find someone else who knew his works! Bokonon hopped in circles around Zhi, pausing to sniff every once in a while.

She was disappointed that Zhi hadn't read any of his books (thankfully she didn't pick up on sarcasm that well) but it didn't matter because she thought Bokonon was cute! "Isn't he? He's the cutest!" she said almost excitedly. She liked him because he was weird! Her siblings had more traditionally cute pets, but Bokonon was strange looking, and that made him infinitely cuter!


River bounced out of the kitchen, Zhi's dress in hand. "Ta-da~~~! All clean!" she held out the dress for Zhi to take. "Alex is magic when it comes to stains~" she explained cheerfully. She looked down when the jerboa bounced over her feet. "Oh, Bokonononononono is out?" She always got confused when it came to her sister's pet's name, so she just repeated the 'no' syllable until she ran out of air.