We showed up at the Bellamont residence bright and early Saturday, with all our homework in tow. Nick’s house is nice: It’s kind of between an upper class suburban house (if there is such a thing) and a French country house; which kinda makes sense seeing as he’s French-Canadian and all. I mean, there aren’t that many brick houses on the west coast of Canada, it’s really something else. His dad is kind of a garden freak so there’s always some tree that wasn’t there before or sometimes completely different colours in bloom every time we visit.

Inside, everything is always kept really neat. I mean, yes, Nick’s a teenager, I don’t know how neat he’s expected to be at home, but being an only child without any pets probably is the biggest contributor to his neatness. Our cat, Nebula, sheds over everything. And her hair isn’t that long either.

Everything is in shades of light brown and gold and pastels, and there are lots of mirrors. It almost annoys me, this neatness; I can’t tell you how much I wanted to knock over the vase on the kitchen table with the sunflowers in it the first time I was over.

Nick didn’t answer the door; Simon did. He practically lives there. I don’t think I’d be the slightest surprised if they got engaged or they shared a bed or something. Plus they can totally play the old sarcastic married couple part. Zach says he doesn’t think so but I totally know he thinks so too. Hey, since when can only mono-zyges share brainwaves? Yes, I totally did just make that word up. ‘Monozygotic twins’ is too much of a mouthful.

And here’s another ADD- no, wait; another distracting-yet-educational moment brought to you by… the government of Canada!

Monozygotic twins are identical twins. Zach and I are dizygotic, or fraternal. Yup. It’s impossible to get identical male/female twins, don’t you know! We both look similar because, well, we’re siblings, and we both got, through pure chance, a lot of the same genetics. Wow! That’s amazing Julie! How do you know so much?!

Wikipedia, my friends. Wikipedia. Also doctors but they’re far less informative than the best encyclopaedia on Earth.

Right, so Simon answered the door. He was obnoxiously brightly coloured for the washed-out pastel-y house, but that was to be expected. He can’t wear dark depressing things all the time. So he gets all excited and calls for Nick to come (Like a wife…) and Nick waves and says “Hey!” from the end of the hallway briefly, returning to whatever it was he was doing (Like a husband…) and Simon hops around going “Oh you’re just in time for lunch!” (Do I have to keep pointing this out for you?) and starts raiding Nick’s fridge and pantry. Zach and I dragged our bags over to the living room.

The living room is painted red and a yellowy colour. Nick says this is because it’s his parent’s favourite combination and it’s been in every house he’s ever lived in. Huh. It’s the centre of his life, the living room. Second only to his bedroom, it has the biggest collection of movies and games in his house. It also has the nicest TV too. Many a time have we been bribed into having Star Wars marathons here, most recently in 2005 when the last episode came out. It was the place we’d be spending most of our time at today, I guessed.

Nick was on the floor, playing none other than the infamous Star Wars Battlefront II. So many things have spawned from that game it’s not even funny. But in a funny way, ya know? He was some kind of clone trooper on the rainy planet. I’m not exactly a Star Wars nerd, I mean I love the movies, but if you’re going to hang around Nick you’d better know the difference between a storm trooper and a clone trooper, at least.

Nick and Simon ended up playing BF2 into the afternoon, and we still couldn’t get through that homework. At least I couldn’t. Science can be interesting but nothing we’ve learned so far has been.

Our conversation turned to the exchange kids again. None of us had heard anything since that announcement on the first day. I wasn’t too concerned. (I mean, it is kind of odd. Do other countries start school in grade ten too? The States sure as hell doesn’t but they’re just weird. Being different for the sake of not being like Mother England, that’s why they’ve got the imperial system and don’t measure water freezing at zero like smart people do. Anyway, wouldn’t you rather start high school in your own country?) If they were going to be here for a while, then I supposed they would be like your average new kids. Zach and I have developed a theory about new kids: either they are super charismatic and loved by everyone (Very rare) or they are abducted by the popular kids, dropped, and they end up drifting towards people like us. It happens every time. Except for the time when we were the new kids, since we weren’t about to go drifting towards and approaching people. We stuck together.

Zach mentioned a weird encounter we’d had over the summer, but I’ll get to that later. I suppose he was right, no matter what country they were from they couldn’t have been that weird.

It was kind of funny, watching those two play. I couldn’t tell whether Nick was too distracted to play, or if Simon had gotten better, or if Nick was affectionately letting him win. Those two, honestly.

And I still had science homework when we got home. God damnit.

THE END… or is it?

A/N: No seriously, I’ll probably continue this. But not until after/during chapter two of I Love Earth.