Queen of Diamonds

One Day After The Sorting (Part One)

I wake up with little clue as to where I am. The memories come back to me like punches to the face, one after the other. I'm lying on top of the sheets of a hard bed in a room that used to belong to a girl named Olivia. I left my family, the only boy I've ever loved, everyone I had ever known, behind, back in the Diamond Sector. All I had now was memories. The thought is almost too much, but before I can really consider it, another sensation rushes through my body. Hunger. I went to bed last night without lunch or dinner, and it's hard to tell how long I've been asleep, because the sky of the Spade Sector is so filled with smog, but my mouth feels clammy, like I've been asleep a long time. I roll over, and grab my carry with bag, which I must have kept clutched to my chest last night. I have one change of clothes in there, a pair of leggings and a tight fitting white top. I slip my - and Felix's - clothes off, setting my dress in a neatly folded pile on my bed, and tug the leggings and tube top on. I throw Felix's over-shirt on over it. I don't want to feel too out of place. As much as I miss my home, I don't want to get mugged. Again. 

I make my way down the stairs slowly, trying to take everything in but mostly unable to focus on everything that isn't my grumbling stomach. I take them two at a time, tripping over my own feet. At the bottom, the hallway only leads one way, so I follow it to the end, where I smell what must be some kind of lunch. the smell of the spices almost overwhelm me, a mix of flavors, some that I don't even recognize. My mouth begins to water. I push the door open, and am greeted with the strangest meal scene I've ever seen. A group of kids, not much older than I am, are sitting around a heavy wooden table. A few silvery knives are buried in the wood, and there are gashes and slits pockmarking the surface. At the end of the room, a tall girl with red brown curls stands at what must be an over, stirring four or five cast iron skillets at once. She sets her spoon down, grabs a towel, and pulls the skillets off the fire, setting them straight onto the table. The people at the table perk up. Felix sits at the head of the table, still shirtless but now without his heavy jacket, leaving the toned muscles of his chest exposed. To his left, I recognize the kid from last night, sitting in his knees in his chair, wearing an unbuttoned flannel and heavy cargo pants. He couldn't be more than ten years old. On his right, a lanky boy in pink tights with a wispy pink cloth draped around his shoulders has his feet up on the table. On the other side of the table, a girl of maybe 12 or 13 with short hair in a white undershirt and black shorts is bent over a book. All five of them look up when I enter. 

"Greenie," Felix says, "I was wondering when you would wake up."
"Do they not have clocks in the diamond town?" the boy in pink scoffs, sliding his feet off the table so he can reach for one of the skillets. I can't tell what the food inside is. Some kind of bread, heavy with spices and what might be meat. 
"Hush, Hugo," the girl with the skillets says, smacking him in the back of the head with her spare hand. He reaches around to hit back, but she's already gone, sliding into her seat next to the girl with the book. Felix gestures to the only open chair, the seat at the end of the table. I don't want to take it, it feels somehow wrong, but I'm too hungry not to sit down. Felix digs into his food, but the rest of the kids just stare at me. Finally, the younger boy in the flannel sits up. 
"I'm Remy," he says, sticking his hand out to shake. I reach out for the handshake as well, and he jerks my arm up and down in a child's interpretation of a fancy greeting. "But my Crew name is White Rabbit." He grins at me, then kicks the girl across from him under the table. She sits up. 
"What?" she asks, pushing her mousy hair out of her eyes. 
"Introduce yourself!" Remy hisses. The girl looks at me, brown eyes full of bewilderment. 
"I'm Alice," she says quietly. "My Crew name is the Red Queen." I smile at her, trying to reassure her. She just turns back to her book. 
"Sonya," says the girl who had been at the stove, offering me one of the skillets, "but I go by Fire." I take the handle of the pan gratefully. It's hot even through the towel, but I don't care. There's an awkward pause, then the boy in pink sighs and rolls his eyes. 
"I'm Fury," he says, not making eye contact, "or Princess Fury, depending on what I'm dealing."  I try to offer him a smile as well, but he doesn't answer, so I start eating.

The food is delicious. It's like nothing I've ever tasted before, nothing like the multi-course, carefully portioned meals we would have at home. This feels a little like something we would make when camping, but even that usually came from a box. This is different. 
"I grow all the spices in the greenhouse on the roof," Sonya says, watching how eagerly I devoured the bread-like substance. I try to smile up at her, but the faster my mouth is filled, the more space I have in my mind to worry. Remy doesn't help the worries much, babbling on to no one in particular about a lot of things, mostly me. 
"If she's staying in Mirror's room does that mean her name is Mirror to? Is she Marked yet? Can I watch when you Mark her? What's your name?" I open my mouth to answer, but he keeps babbling on before I get the chance, so I put my head down at focus on the scars and gashes in the wood of the table. Somehow, today is even worse than yesterday. I feel like the whole world is spinning away from me. It's all I can do to stay focused, when suddenly, alarm bells start clanging throughout the building.