I sat on Kort's couch, awkwardly sipping lemonade. I don't know how I managed to do that, but it was definitely awkward. We all sat in silence, drinking lemonade and eating the cookies that his mom had brought out. It uncomfortably quiet. No one really knew what to say.

The trip to his house hadn't been bad. Thankfully it was in Tikh and not were I lived, so no blow dryers or torrential downpours. Kort's house wasn't exactly like I had expected. In a lot of ways. It was fairly small on the outside, and not quite as modern as I thought it would look. But inside, it was sweet. The walls were painted a pale grey, and there were a lot of paintings and stuff that looked really expensive. I had guessed that Kort's family was wealthy, but not like this! The thing that surprised me most thought was that a lot of the decorations were hovering. Like, they were just suspended in the air. I wondered if that was a normal thing here. If so, I didn't think I would evwr get used to it. The room looked too big for a house that size. It probably was too big for a house that size. I guessed that magic was involved. And I was right.

"How is your house this big on the inside?" I asked. "It looks really small from the outside." He grinned.

"Magic," he said. "Pretty cool, am I right?"

"Totally!" I said, glancing at the pool and ping pong table he had in his game room. Just then his mom walked out of the kitchen, an apron on. She looked a lot like him. She had short blond hair that was perfectly styled and tamed. She had green eyes that sparkled like emeralds, and her green dress matched them perfectly. Their noses looked similar too. By the way, that is the weirdest thing you can compare. You could look at the peoples' smiles or hair color, or even face structure wouldn't be that weird. But comparing noses? No thank you, that's just creepy.

"Ah, you must be Sarah," she said in a welcoming voice. "Welcome to our humble home." Kort rolled his eyes.

"Mom, we're not from the 1900s," he said, turning a little red. "You could just say hi." His mom put her hand on her hip.

"But I sound so official when I say it like that," she said teasingly. I laughed. She winked at me. Then she turned to Jaquellen. "Oh, it's so good to see you again!" she said to her, giving her a hug. Jaquellen pulled away and smiled a little bit uncomfortably. Most people can't tell when Jaquellen feels uncomfortable, but I've learned to spot it. She tenses up slightly but then relaxes again. She smiles a little too big, and talks a little too loud. It gets annoying. Sorry, moving on.

"Good to see you too Mrs. Zgodan," she said, stepping back a little bit. Kort's mom smiled. She turned back to me and Kort.

"Would you care for a snack?" she asked us. I nodded my head. I hadn't had a very big lunch and somehow the excitement of today had made me really hungry. She led us into the living room and sat us down on the couch, telling us to wait a minute. She came back a little while later with sugar cookies and lemonade. And we're back where we started. Mrs. Zgodan cleared her throat as if to say something, but then just stood up and left the room. The three of us just sat there staring at the walls. I glanced at Jaquellen, but then regretted it as I tried to hold in a laugh. I don't know why, but when it's quiet and awkward and I look at my friends, I start cracking up. One time I was playing a game with my siblings and when I looked up at the light bulb in our kitchen, I started cracking up. The game wasn't even funny or anything! When Jaquellen saw that I was trying not to die of laughter for no real reason, she started looking like she had issues too. Kort just looked back and forth between us, raising one eyebrow. This just made me want to laugh even more. My internal struggle finally broke Jaquellen, and she starting cracking up. I started laughing at her laughter and soon we were all laughing so hard that I couldn't breath and almost snorted lemonade out of my nose. Thankfully I didn't, but it was close.

Once we had mostly stopped, Kort's mom walked in. "What's so funny?" she asked, looking from her son to me to Jaquellen to me again. This made me start laughing uncontrollably again. I triggered Jaquellen, she triggered Kort... you get the picture. We probably sat there laughing for like five minutes. His mom probably thought we were wack, which we kind of were. I was finally able to stop, although I was still gasping for air. Kort's mom just turned and walked back into the kitchen. I giggled a little bit, and flopped back onto the couch.

"Sorry," I said, still a little bit crazy. "It was just so quiet! You know what happens when it's quiet, right Jaquellen?"

"Yep," she said, "we go crazy!" Kort laughed.

"Well I think going crazy is fun!" he said, and we laughed some more. His mom eventually came back in.

"Are you guys all okay?" she said, leaning against the door frame.

"Yeah, we're fine," Kort said. "Just relieving the stress from the meeting." Her eyes widened.

"Oh yes, how did that go?" she asked, sitting right smack in between Kort and I. He looked at me apologetically. I shrugged, smiling. I turned back to her.

"I think it went pretty well," I said. Kort nodded.

He said, "And Sarah has some great news!" I looked at him quizzically.

"I do?" I asked. He gestured around his house, and I remembered. Duh. "Oh, right. The board said I could live in Tikh permanently!" She smiled wide.

"That's wonderful!" she said, clapping her hands together. "Do you know where you will be staying? Well, I guess it will depend on where you get sorted to. Where do you think you'll be?"

I shrugged. "I don't really know anything about any of the domakinstvos," I said. "Does each of them do something specific?"

"Yes and no," Jaquellen said. "You are put where you are because of what you can mainly do, but everyone is kind of taught everything. You do focus the most on whatever domakinstvo you are put in, but not only that. Like I was put in atletichen, but I still work on math and geography. You learn a little bit of everything, just like before."

"..okay?" I said. "So what does atletichen mostly do?"

She smiled. "Sports! So I love it a lot."

"And what about the other ones?" I asked.

She looked at Kort, silently asking him to answer the question. He rolled his eyes but smiled. "Well like she said, atletichen focuses on sports and activity. They are the ones who make up the teams for games like football, although we play a lot differently then you're used to. Lets just say our gifts are involved." I smiled at him, excited for football for once in my life. "Then there is vodach, which focuses on being a leader. That's the one that I'm in. And I don't really like it either," he mumbled under his breath.

"Anyways...the last one is Inteligentnost, which focuses on the brain. I'm guessing that's the one that you'll be in," he said, nodding at me. "The people who are in it are really smart, and they focus on brain power. And seeing as your gift deals with exactly that, you would fit in well there." Hearing the words fit in made me feel a little bit better about all of this. Yes, I was really excited to live in Tikh, but I was also terrified. I didn't know anyone there except for these three people and the board, I had absolutely no training, and no matter how hard I would try, there was no way I could hide the fact that I was from another dimension.

I think Jaquellen could tell I was feeling sad, because she grabbed my arm and said, "Okay, no offense Kort and Mrs. Zgodan , but we're going to go do something fun now." Kort eyed her.

"Like what?" he asked, slightly suspicious. She turned to me.

"You like Harry Potter, right?" she asked me. I stared at her.

"Oh no, definitely not, I just talk about how great it is everyday," I said sarcastically. "Yes I like Harry Potter!" She grinned.

"Then you're going to love this. How would you like to ride a broomstick?"