Jon couldn't get over the surreal feeling of being in a house that had the same floorplan as his, just in reverse. And that's how this entire world felt so far as he walked down the stairs—gotta turn left, not right—to meet the rest of Madison's family.
When the two of them made it down, they found Madison's dad already seated at the dinner table and her two siblings making their way to the table. A bag of takeout food from a Mexican restaurant was on the table.
"Hi Madison and Jon," he greeted them.
"Hey..." Jon trailed off, not quite sure yet what his first name was.
"I wasn't sure what you'd want, so I got you a pork burrito... Is that okay?"
Jon nodded and took a seat next to Madison. This was his first chance to really see her siblings, and it turned out he hadn't really seen them all that well the first time. The boy wasn't gothy at all, but he actually was quite athletic and looked quite a bit more built than Zoe. The girl was a girly girl, in ways Madison definitely wasn't: she was wearing a pink shirt with a unicorn on it, and she was still rocking pigtails.
"Madison, Ethan, Mia, how were your days?" he began.
"Well, other than hanging out with Jon, mostly the same thing. It's nice to have a cousin around." Madison looked at her double, thinking to herself about how the two were a little closer than cousins.
"Baseball practice went well... First game of the season is in a few days, so we're really getting ready."
"Ehh, it was okay," Mia began in her high voice, "but I don't like learning about fractions."
"Aaaaand what about our visitor?" Everyone looked straight at Jon.
"We hung out at the park, walked the neighborhood a bit." Jon was slightly unconvincing, but the others didn't seem to notice anything amiss as they ate their burritos.
"So tell us a bit about some of the things you're interested in," Madison's dad continued, trying to spark a more interesting line of conversation.
"Well, I play a fair amount of video games," Jon began. "Skyrim, Call of Duty..." He figured nobody would notice, but he wondered if either of those even existed here.
"Sounds fun. You have a girlfriend?"
"I have a good friend, but I'm not dating anyone. That's more to keep up with on top of school and other things."
"Are you into any sports?" Ethan asked.
"No, I never was... I'm not really that type? I mean, my parents put me in karate once, but that's probably the closest I came. What about you, I know you said baseball?"
"Yeah, I do football and baseball. Opted against doing basketball too, but I stay in shape over the winter. I'm excited to be on JV next fall... Maybe if I improve enough, I can make the varsity team." As Jon looked at Ethan, he thought about how Zoe would be disgusted that her double here was so tanned.
"What about you, Mia?"
"I like to read sometimes... I really like to look pretty!" Much like Mikey, Mia was still kinda...shallow, which made sense at her age. She grabbed one of her pigtails, showing them off.
By this point, everyone had finished dinner. Dad threw the plates in the dishwasher as Jon and Madison returned to her room.
