Maps of Minds

Chapter 1

My mother has a job that I'll never quite understand, married a man with interesting secrets that he shared with the world, and by far the most questionable thing she's ever done while in this family was decide to move.
Correction. The weirdest thing she did was name me and my sister. My name was at least a name, Bexley, which was cool because I had a awesome nickname (Bex), but my nine-year-old sister got the short end of the stick. She got the name 'Lyric'. Because, apperently, mom wanted her to be a LINE IN A SONG with a name like that.
Anyway, the reason I told you moving was the weirdest thing she'd done so I could tell you about the moving. So, um, here.
When she informed me and Lyric, I didn't care much until I realized my family- all of it- lived in Labanon, my home at the time.
We have a big family. Very. Like, fourth-of-our-small-town big. I'm not kidding.
My family was everything to me, especially my cousins. They were the only friends Lyric and I ever had. They were there for everything. And now we were leaving, and we would only have each other.
After I sulked in my room for a while I felt better.

The next day, I went to the place where all of us Coleman kids spent half our lives in- the willow tree. The kind with draping branches that all kids wanted. We called it Coleman Willow respectively, and I swept the leaves aside and rammed into cousin Herman.
He clucked his tongue and said, "Bex, password?"
"Orange glaze," I said.
He nods and tips the doorkeep cap.
Okay, the Coleman clan has some triditions I need to explain already.

Firston my list: orange glaze. Aunt Tina makes some kind of meat at every family meal. The problem? Well, that orange glaze some people put on ham during Easter? She puts that on every kind of meat. Every. Kind. And it's disgusting.

Second one up: What Herman was doing. This week he is the doorkeep, which means he waits by the entrance and asks everyone who comes by for the password. If they don't know it, they're not aloud in. The doorkeep makes up the password and tells everyone the password at the first meeting of the week. If you're not there, you can't show up again for the whole week. And the cap? That was my grandpa's when he was younger. He gave it to my dad and when he passed away, dad let Lyric use it to the doorkeep.

Moving along.
Dylia and Dylan, twins and Aunt Tina's kids, saw me walk it and smiled. "Speak of the devil!" said Dylia.
"Hi Bex. We were waiting for you. Sit down so we can discuss the issue of you and Lyric's branch of the Coleman family," said Dylan.
I nodded hastily and take off my jean jacket, revealing a blue sweater underneath. I spread the sweater on the grass and put the jean jacket back on, so my butt wouldn't get wet.
We all waited for the others to get there, and Lyric curled up next to me, and Dylia and Dylan started the meeting. I didn't pay attention, really. I just caught this much:
"First order of business.... watch out.... the kissy great-aunts are visiting.... orange-glaze.... mom says brisket...."
and would've fallen asleep if Lyric hadn't pinched me when Dylan mentioned our moving.
This caused some words to be exchanged among the cousins, and Dylia had to shout to get them to shut up. "Now, Bexley, Lyric, could you come explain?"
I nodded mutely and Lyric dragged me to the roots of the tree to explain our predicament. I got stage fright, so Lyric had to do it, and I didn't bother to listen to her either.
The surprising part? My cousins' reactions...