Chapter 16

Dear Diary,

My name is Chocolate Savory and I am--. Okay, no. This sounds really cheesy, like some sort of stupid tween-romance novel.

Let’s try again.

See that girl in the picture? That’s me, Chocolate Savory. I know, my name’s weird, but apparently everyone in this family is named after a spice, food, or beverage. It doesn’t bother me though. I secretly really love eating chocolate. Wait. Does that count as cannibalism? I dunno. Anyway!

I’m a twin. My sister’s name is Cinnamon. That’s her, photographed below.

Technically, Cinn’s older but it’s only by one teensy minute. I really don’t even understand how we can be considered twins. After all, we’re totally different, and not just in looks. She's a blonde, I'm a brunette. How much more different can we get? Lemme tell you. Pretty darn different.

Well, we do have a few things in common. Very, very few. Both of us enjoy a good game of chess and that's where the similarities end. I enjoy the traditional game. You know. The one where you actually sit down at a real chess board with real chess pieces.

But not Cinn. Oh sure, she'll try her hand every now and then at the real thing, but she prefers the virtual version of chess. She can spend an entire afternoon staring at the stupid computer screen, playing with her stupid online nerd friends.

I don't get it. I really don't. What's the appeal? What's the fun in clicking a mouse to decide where your pawn will go? It's not just virtual chess that I don't understand. It's electronics in general. I hate computers and tv. Whoever invented them should rot in hell.

I mean really. What happened to losing yourself in the pages of a good book? Nooo. Now they have all these e-books where you can read online. You can do just about anything online these days. Which I hate. Stupid electronics. Our house is full of them. You can't enter a room without there being some sort of technological thing.

The only exception to that rule is my room. The one I share with Cinn. Oh I know she wishes we had a computer of our own and I know she's been begging mom for the past year to get her one for our bedroom. Thankfully, mom isn't that lenient, insisting that she'll have to make do with using the family computers upstairs. Good. I would loathe having one of those demonic devices in our bedroom. The closest thing to an electronic in our room is the toy oven.

I don't mind that one so much though. I'm the only one that uses it. I'll have to admit, my muffins aren't the greatest, but dad eats them just the same. I think he's trying to encourage me to learn how to cook seeing as I'm the only one that's shown interest in that. According to dad, our family is full of amazing cooks. I wouldn't know seeing as my grandparents are dead, so I obviously can't ask them. Speaking of family though...

This little rugrat photographed above is my younger brother, Parsley. He's a lot younger than Cinn and I, given that he was born a couple of years after we were, but he's alright. He gets along with Cinn better than me. I think, though, that it's because whenever mom buys us candy from the convenience store, I usually steal his share.

And this guy? That's dad, Curry Savory. He's currently a resident at the hospital, but he swears he's on the verge of a promotion. I always wondered why he went into medicine when he said our family was made up of cooks. Shouldn't he be a chef at some fancy restaurant? Not that he doesn't know how. Dad makes a mean spaghetti and I always look forward to eating dinner every night. When I asked him about that, he said that a good cook doesn't always have to stick to just one thing.

"It's good to be well practiced in lots of things, Chocolate." Dad told me that one evening. "Why become a chef? I love to cook, yes, but I also love helping people. That's why I started the path of a doctor. I can cook the foods I love for my family and friends, and I can also help others when they most need me. Does that make sense, my little Chocolate?"

I still don't get it. I told him I did, though, just to shut him up.

Enough about dad. This lady here is my mom, Selena Savory. Mom's not the type to cook. She prefers the stuff before cooking, aka gardening. In fact, mom's reviving the garden outside is the reason we hardly ever go without fresh fruits and vegetables during meals. I love my mom, really I do, but apart from an interest in gardening, we don't really share much in common. I don't get to see her as often as I see dad. You'd think it'd be the other way around, but nope. Mom's either at the office, editing the articles for the newspaper, or at home, busy, clacking away to finish her novel. See? Evil technology strikes again! At least dad always has time for a game of chess with me. I can't wait until I'm older. Then I'll rid the house of all these stupid computers.

Lucky for me, getting older isn't going to take too long. It's me and Cinn's fourteenth birthdays today. None of our relatives could make it, so we had a private, quiet party at home.

Cinn, my poor, unfortunate sister. She's been working hard on growing her hair throughout our youth, but being the klutz that she is... well... let's just say she had a little accident. She tripped at school the day after our birthday and wound up getting gum that some stupid kid had thrown on the ground tangled up in her hair. There was no helping the beautiful tresses. Nothing could get the sticky mess out. So in the end, Cinn had to cut it.

Cinnamon had hoped that she'd only have to cut off a little bit, but in the end, the damage was so bad, she'd been forced to get a pixie cut just to get rid of the mess. She cried as the hair dresser snipped away those beautiful golden locks. I know it sounds mean, but I just couldn't help sneaking away during the event to sneak a giggle. I mean really. Crying over hair? What a dumb thing to do. In the end, Cinn got used to her hair and actually really likes the style. It compliments her face given that she was also prescribed thick glasses, the result of spending too much time in front of a computer screen.

Why doesn't my family get it? Technology is bad. Mom hardly spends time with any of us kids because of the computer. Cinn needs glasses - and probably tripped because she couldn't see, thus causing the loss of her hair - because of the computer.

But no. My family doesn't understand. I'm the only sane one in this house. I stay away from computers and television and I've wisely kept my hair cropped short to avoid any bubblegum disasters.

My name is Chocolate Savory, and this is my story.