Romance of a Rock Band

Annie

“I’m hungry,” said Tony. “Let's order pizza!”

“Do you like pizza, Annie?” she asked, turning to me.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Let’s do that then,” she said. “What do you want on it?”

“Pepperoni!” said Tony.

“I knew what you would say! I was asking Annie,” she said looking turning to me.

“Oh, I like veggie pizza,” I said.

“Me too,” she said smiling. We had finished getting my stuff put away about an hour ago

and

were now trying to find something to watch on TV. I heard the doorbell ring.

“I wonder who that is,” Monique said, her voice was thick with sarcasm. I wondered what

she

meant. She opened the door and a man that looked a lot like Tony came in.

“Hey, guys!” he said.

“Hey, Cosmo,” said Tony. “We’re having pizza!”

“Hi, Tony,” said the woman that had come with Cosmo. I noticed she was short and very,

very blond.

“Hey, Jen,” he answered. “Oh, this is Annie,” he said putting his hand on my shoulder.

“Annie, this is my brother Cosmo and his wife Jennifer.”

“Hello,” I said.

“Hello, Annie,” said Cosmo.

“Hello! You can just call me Jen,” she said and quickly walked to me and gave me a hug.

This is so weird, I thought hugging her back.

“Okay, pizza should be here in an hour,” said Monique.

“Okay!” Tony and Cosmo said at the same time. They looked at each other for a second and

then both dived for the TV remote. It surprised me how much they acted like boys my own

age. I decided I liked them both. I really liked Monique too, but I wasn’t too sure about Jen

yet.

The two guys were on the sofa trying to wrestle the remote away from each other, and

Monique and Jen had moved into the kitchen. I could hear them talking about something in

whispers. I sat down in the big red recliner next to the sofa and watched as they fought over

the TV remote. After about eight minutes, Tony managed to get it away from Cosmo and he

started flipping through the channels. He finally settled on something, but I don’t know what

because the pizza had come and I was at the table with Jen and Monique. Tony turned off

the TV and came up to the table.

“So, Annie, can we ask you about your parents?” asked Monique.

“Uh, sure,” I said. The question caught me off guard. “What do you want to know?”

“Were they human?” asked Tony.

“What do you mean?” I asked. I wasn’t sure I heard right.

“I think you know what I mean. Were they human?” he said. I took a deep breath.

“No, my father was a changeling” I said after a minute.

“And your mother?” asked Monique.

“She was a dragon,” I said staring at my pizza.

“That’s an odd combination,” said Tony.

“It explains the eyes though,” said Cosmo.

“I guess so,” I answered. “You aren’t human either, right?”

“No, we’re all werewolves,” said Tony.

“Oh,” I said.

“That’s all?” asked Cosmo, half laughing.

“What else is there?” I asked.

“Hmmm… good point,” he answered smiling.

“So, is this what you really look like?” asked Jen.

“Except for my hair, yes,” I answered. “It’s the only thing I can change.”

“Do you have a dragon form?” asked Tony.

“Yes, but I can only partly turn,” I said. This was getting to be too many questions.

“Let’s see it,” said Cosmo.

“I can do that,” I said and I stood up from the table. I backed about three feet way and started

to turn. It’s the strangest thing to turn. You have to totally relax your body and then try to force

your skin out. Except for the wings. Those are the easy part. They all just stared.

“I can only get this far,” I said, a little embarrassed.

“It’s pretty cool though,” said Cosmo. “Can you fly with those?”

“I don’t know actually,” I answered. These questions are just getting weirder and weirder.

“I’ve never had a chance to try it.”

“Let's go try it now then,” said Tony.

“Uhhh,” was all I could think of to say.

“Not right now, Tony!” Monique scolded.

“Why not?!” he asked. It struck me again how much of a child he was.

“Let her digest her dinner!” she said.

“Alright, how about tomorrow morning then?” he asked.

“I’d like that,” I said, getting back into the conversation.

“Tomorrow morning it is then!” said Monique.

“We’ll be there too,” said Jen.

“Okay,” I said smiling. I’m really going to like it here, I thought. Even if it’s going to be pretty

weird.