Archer Warrick February 22nd,20XX

“Watch your step!”

It was a large car; it was inevitable since it needed to fit four kids and an adult into it, so I understood why Aaron naturally moved to help Eva out of her seat and onto the floor. What I refused to understand was why he tried to help me out.

Yes, I was small for my age, but I was also the second youngest. I just needed a bit of time to catch up.

I dodged his arms that were outstretched to lift me out of the car and onto the floor. It was a fancy and large car, so the wheels put the platform about two feet off the floor. It was larger than average, but I could make the jump without breaking an ankle as he feared.

His thoughts still occasionally invaded my head, not much I could do about that. But it wasn’t as annoying as possible, and I only needed to spend more energy to keep them out.

“Okay, let’s get into the building.”

The giant whale he wrestled under one arm muffled Aaron’s voice. He carried Eva in the other, so carrying the giant whale turned into an undertaking far greater than it needed to be. Eva was too old to be carried around like a toddler, but since Aaron didn’t seem to be used to kids, he treated her like a five-year-old.

On one hand, I didn’t think being carried around everywhere was good for her, but on the other, she seemed to have gotten extremely attached to Aaron and Joyce. I didn’t want her to get mad at me for stopping them when they spoiled her.

I exhaled heavily as I picked up the large bag of souvenirs that they had ‘picked up’ for us kids and struggled to get it onto my back. It was heavy, but not so much that I wouldn’t have made it into the building.

“Here, I can take that. You get the other bag.”

Tillo suddenly grabbed the heavy bag out of my hands and effortlessly hoisted it onto his shoulder. He pointed to a much lighter and smaller bag and then quickly left to catch up with the rest of the group.

I felt like I was being babied, and I didn’t like it, but there wasn’t much I could do about it at the moment.

We were currently in front of a new-looking apartment building. From how far apart the windows were, I could tell that it housed large rooms, but I wondered if we would get to stay in them. The building looked too luxurious for a dormitory which Joyce had insinuated it would be.

Joyce’s car pulled into the parking lot as we finished unloading our things from the car, and Destia quickly got out of the car and unloaded her things, then came over to meet us. Joyce moved much slower in comparison, but they arrived at the door at the same time.

“Why are you guys still outside? Aaron, didn’t I send you the passkey?”

He put up an awkward expression and slightly raised Eva and the whale to show his hands were full.

“You did, but they’re in my phone. Didn’t have the chance to get it out yet.”

She rolled her eyes at his goofy expression and quickly brought her phone to the scanner I hadn’t seen until now. Scanners weren’t rare technology, but it felt wasteful to use them for a general entrance to a dorm. But then again, after seeing the scale of the ‘dorms’, it shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did.

Aaron took the lead and walked through the extravagant entrance into a warm and cozy living entrance area. Like a hotel, an attendant was waiting at a desk and a couple of people that only looked a few years older than us ran out to collect our luggage. One of them tried to take the giant whale out of Aaron’s left arm, but Eva’s glare scared him off.

She was usually a really kind and accommodating kid, but all of those traits usually went out of the window with whales. I didn’t know why she liked whales so much, but for as long as I could remember, she’d always carried at least one representation of the giant creatures with her.

“Well, why don’t you all go up and pick your rooms. We’ll do a tour in the evening.”

Someone’s phone rang right as Joyce finished giving her instructions and broke the atmosphere. We all turned to Joyce to wait for her to pick up the call, but our gazes quickly shifted to the true source.

Aaron panicked as he tried to decide between putting down Eva or the giant whale, but Joyce reached into his back pocket and brought the phone to his ear before he had to decide.

“Ah, yeah? Ye- that was today?! Give me 30- no, stall for an hour and I’ll be there.”

He suddenly put Eva down with an apologetic expression and looked down at what he was wearing with a burdened expression.

“Joyce, can I borrow your car?”

“You forgot a job again?”

“I’ll give you all the details later, but I’m kind of in a rush.”

She fished her keys out of her purse and tossed them over.

“Do you need a team there or is your company providing one?”

“It’s a showmanship match. Ahh, I haven’t practised in so long, what am I supposed to do?”

He didn’t even wait for a response to his rhetorical question and dashed out of the building. We heard the telltale squeal of a car’s tires and watched him drive off in the sports car. Kaja and Tillo looked the most shaken by his sudden disappearance, with Eva in a close second, but Joyce quickly ushered us into the elevator.

“Come on! He’ll be back, I promise. Now, the rooms are on the fourth floor. They’re all three-room suites, so if you choose to share a room with your siblings, then you can use the third room as a hobby room, or just as extra storage. You can also use it to house guests, but you need to report to me before you bring anyone into the building.”

The elevator beeped as we passed the second floor and made its ascent to the third. Even the elevator was larger than my room in my aunt and uncle’s house, so I struggled to understand how large the rooms would be. Well, if I could even call them rooms anymore.

I was glad that I wouldn’t have to room on a different floor from Eva. I’d heard that most dorms separated students by gender and had worried that Eva would have to stay by herself.

I was also glad that I wouldn’t have to share a single room with her, though. At the rate she was collecting items, I was sure that we’d end up using that spare room, eventually.

“The cafeteria is on the second floor. You’ll all have an allowance so you can eat wherever you want, but your meals will be free at the cafeteria. The third floor holds all the studios, that’s where you’ll be planning, filming and creating content for Squire. You’ll only have to make one video a week, but we’ll talk more on that later.”

The elevator finally dinged and the heavy doors split apart and let us into a brightly lit hallway.

Kaja and Tillo took off running and pushed all the doors open as quickly as they could.

“I like this one!”

“No Kaja, This one’s way better, look at the view!”

“Don’t be stupid, Tillo, this one has a hot tub!”

“There’s a pool right outside, what do we need a hot tub for!”

“Well, there are pictures of the ‘view’ right outside. What do we need it for?”

They glared at each other for exactly four seconds before suddenly thrusting their hands at each other. I winced as I thought they were going to hit each other, but they instead manipulated their fingers into symbols and yelled in synchronization.

“Rock!”

“Paper!”

“Darn it!”

Tillo had lost and begrudgingly trodden over to the door Kaja stood by.

I didn’t know when Destia had moved, but one second she was right behind us, and the next she was suddenly raising a hand by the door at the end of the hallway and smiling awkwardly.

“I’ll take this one.”

Being the last to choose, I let Eva pick out of the three remaining suites and instinctively reached for the bag I’d been carrying, then remembered that they were still with the people that had taken them from us on the first floor.

“We’ll take this one.”

Joyce double-checked the numbers on the doors and punched them into her phone. As she did so, her phone rang and she got a nasty expression on her face as she read the caller ID. She’d been careful to only smile around us so it was weird to see her with such a negative expression on her face.

“There are catalogues in the rooms for you to pick out whatever you think you’ll need in here. I tried my best to pick out some nice furniture, but since you guys will live here you should decorate it however you want. I have somewhere to be right now, but I’ll be back soon enough. Here.”

She walked toward Kaja, who was the closest to her, and fished out a shining black card from her wallet. She must have seen something in Kaja’s eyes because she pulled the card out of her reach and specified what it was for.

“The cafeteria isn’t complete, so you guys should get some lunch. Aaron and I’ll be back around seven, so keep yourselves entertained by then.”

And with that, she spun on her heels and stormed off. Before she entered the elevator, she turned around with a bright smile.

“Ah, welcome home kids. Aaron told me to make sure I said that.”