The Tori Trilogy by Alicia Danielle Voss-Guillén

she takes all day long, and does not look pleased that I’ve discovered her secret hiding place. Her green eyes narrow at me, and she swats at my outfit in her snotty way.
    â€œSorry, Ebs,” I say, stroking the soft black fur on her back. “I need to use my overnight bag, so you’ll have to find somewhere else to sleep.”
    As if she understands my every word (and I’m not always sure she doesn’t), she picks herself up and stalks out of my room in a huff. Ebony is a pest and a brat, but I love her anyway.
    Now that my bag is empty, I can start packing. I pull my p.j.’s out from where I tucked them under my pillow this morning, and drop them into the bag. I add a change of clothes for tomorrow--jeans, a purple hoodie, a pair of underwear, and purple-and-black zebra-stripe socks--and my hairbrush, a couple of hair elastics, my stuffed dragon Starfire, and a flashlight.
    I hurry down the hall to the bathroom, grab my toothbrush, pop it into a travel case, and drop that in, too. As an afterthought, I pack my MP3 player and a library book just in case. There is no need to worry about a sleeping bag or pillow, because Gina and I always share a guest bed when we visit our grandparents.
    I zip up my overnight bag, sling it over my shoulder, and clatter down the stairs. “I’m ready!” I announce.
    Mom laughs. “You’ve still got half-an-hour before Auntie Luz and Gina get here. Are you sure you don’t want a snack now?”
    â€œOkay,” I agree, sighing. Half-an-hour seems like an eternity! I follow Mom into the kitchen, where she pours me a glass of juice and I fill a small plate with the last of the jack-o-lantern cookies leftover from Halloween, which was nearly a week ago now.
    It sure was an interesting Halloween, the first in my life that I didn’t go trick-or-treating. I was sick and had to stay in bed and miss out on wearing the gypsy costume I’d been so excited about. I was very depressed, until my brothers came through for me by throwing a very unexpected last-minute Halloween party in my bedroom! They can all be unbelievably obnoxious, but I’m starting to learn that, somewhere deep down, they just might be human.
    I finish my cookies and juice, rinse the plate and glass in the sink, and load them into the dishwasher. Then I sit back down at the table and stare at the clock on the microwave, wishing the minutes away.
    Half-an-hour finally passes. When the doorbell rings, I make a beeline from the kitchen to the entryway, nearly colliding with Joey, who is headed in the same direction.
    â€œWatch it, squirt,” he says, then pushes past me to answer the door himself. The human side of him is definitely in hiding right now. Then again, that’s only typical.
    â€œHey, Auntie Luz,” my brother greets our aunt. “Hey, Gina.”
    â€œHi, corazón ,” Auntie Luz replies in her sing-song way, dropping a kiss on Joey’s short brown hair.
    The Salinas side of my family is Peruvian-American. Abuelito and Abuelita were born in the South American country of Peru, and moved to the United States in their early twenties to start a family. But even though Dad and Auntie Luz and the rest of their siblings were born in Chicago and are proud American citizens, they keep alive the Peruvian customs and the Spanish language, which they blend nicely into their American culture.
    Because Dad married Mom, my four big brothers and I are half-Latin-American and half-Caucasian, a mix of dark and light with olive skin, brown hair, and brown eyes. But Auntie Luz married my Uncle Gabe, who is Puerto-Rican, so Gina and her little sister Sofie are fully Latin-American, with caramel-colored skin, black curls, and black-brown eyes.
    Gina is not only my cousin, but my very best friend. She and I are two months apart, and in the same fifth-grade class at Forest Grove Elementary School. We’re very different in a lot of ways, but where it really