I felt something sharp poke the area just below my wound and I yelled out in pain, rolling onto the floor. I grunted as I hit the ground and realized that I was in someone's dining room and had rolled off their rectangular dining table which was covered with a thin plaid tablecloth. A man wearing a white doctors' coat and surgical mask hovered above me with an extended hand, blocking my view of the pale yellow ceiling. As I took his hand and stood up I noticed a syringe filled with a clear liquid in his other hand.

"What's going on? Where am I?" I asked.

"This is my parents' house." I heard Clark say and I whipped around to see him standing behind me in a fresh pair of clothes. "We couldn't wake you up, so they decided to go ahead and perform the surgery."

"What? Surgery?" I yelled at him and looked around the room to see the woman who hit Clark earlier with the bat, her dark green dress and her brown hair down in a bob. Standing at the foot of the the table was an African man who looked like an older Clark. Peeking their head through the doorway was a little girl with chocolatey brown skin and brown hair down to her chest. The army hat on top of her head toppled onto the floor and all heads turned in her direction.

"Jack. What do you think you're doing?" Asked Older Clark angrily.

Not at all unnerved, she answered, "I wanted to see what was going on."

"Go to bed." Ordered the woman in the yellow dress.

"But Maman-"

"To bed."

"Fine." She gave in and picking up her plastic camouflaged helmet, trudged away to bed.

"The bullet needs to come out, which is very painful, so we have anesthesia. We were giving you it when you woke up. Oh, and this" - He pointed to the man with the syringe - "Is my brother, Madiba. He's not a doctor, but he's a vet." Clark continued.

"I still don't get why we can't take her to the hospital." Grumbled Older Clark and Madiba rolled his eyes as Clark let out an exasperated sigh.

"Because, Papa, they'll ask too many questions and probably kill her." Said Clark.

I laid back down on the table and took a deep breath before I said, "Okay. Go ahead, take it out."

Clark came over and held my hand, giving me a comforting smile. "Ready?" Clark asked. I nodded squeezed his hand. The needle went into my arm and feeling a sharp pain, I squeezed Clark's hand even tighter and shut my eyes.

• • •

I opened my eyes to sunlight pouring in through a window and my arm stinging. I quickly closed my eyes only to hear the pitter-patter of soft footsteps. I suddenly opened my eyes to see a pair of bright blue eyes staring at me. I screamed in shock and she suddenly backed up, falling over.

Clark ran in and oblivious to the girl who I recognized as Jack, with wild eyes, asked me, "What? Are you okay? Is it your arm?"

"No. Um, just a bit of a shock." I answered and pointed at Jack with my uninjured arm, who was standing behind him, staring.

Clark turned to face her. "Jack... we told you to leave her alone."

"I couldn't help it, she's the princess!" She whined.

"You better not do it again." He ordered her and she immediately nodded. "Anyway, Venetia, this is my little sister, Jacqueline." She gave me a small smile, and I waved at her as she left.

"How's your nose?" I asked, noticing his nose seemed larger than normal and his eyes looked a bit bruised.

"Okay. Madiba said to take it easy and my nose should be fine."

"What happened to your eyes?"

"Apparently when you break your nose, it makes your eyes bruised."

"What happened to staying at your Aunt's house?"

"Yeah, um, that plan backfired. I wanted to stay with her because here there are 5 people while there are 1, and the less people who know where you are, the better. Maman also didn't leave m-us with much choice of whether or not to stay here."

"Okay"I smelled something delicious. I didn't know what it was, but I wanted it. "Is that breakfast?"

"Yeah."

I threw off the covers with my good arm and made my way towards the door. "Let's go!"

Then being the idiot I am, I hit my shoulder on the doorway. My bad shoulder. I grunted in pain and looked at my shoulder, which was covered by a orange fabric.

I wasn't wearing orange...

I looked down at my outfit to see that I was wearing a sunset-orange pajamas. I turned to face Clark and asked, "Clark, what happened to my clothes?"

"I couldn't let you sleep in your filthy dress, so I had Maman dress you into one of my sisters' pajamas."

"Okay. To the food!"

• • •

When I got downstairs, everyone except for me and Clark were sitting at the table with plates of pancakes and a glass of coffee or orange juice sitting in front of them. "Morning" I said to them.

A woman with brown hair up in a bun said, "There's a spot over there for you with pancakes."

"Thanks. You look familiar. Have we met before?" I asked as I sat down in the chair and began eating my pancakes.

"I don't think we have. I'm Amara. Do you know everyone's names?" She said.

I shook my head as I poured the maple syrup onto my golden brown pancakes.

"We'll all go around in a circle then and say our names."

Older Clark spoke first. "I'm Jaye."

Clark said through a mouth full of pancakes and syrup, "Clark."

Jacqueline piped up, "I'm Jacqueline, but you can call me Jack!"

Madiba said, "I'm Madiba. I performed the surgery last night. How do you feel?"

"Okay. My shoulder's a bit sore, but I'm good." I told him.

"That sounds pretty normal." He replied.

Suddenly, a pale girl with very curly chest-length black hair and bright red lips in a batman tank and ripped denim shorts entered the room and said happily, "Hey Maman, Hey Papa."

"What are you doing here?" Asked Amara angrily as she and her husband glared at her. I glanced over to Clark to see him frowning and next to him sat Madiba, who was busy eating, unfazed by the clearly unwelcome intruder.