I suppose one could say it started when our godfather, Dominic, wanted to take us to meet his brother.

Dominic is a cool guy. He's got this brushed and gelled up hairstyle that's pretty much all you would expect from a guy with light brown hair. We all see his eyes as a bit of a mystery, though. They used to be hazel, but one day, he came back from a trip and they were just purple. Never told us what happened. Usually, he wore a red flannel shirt, ripped jeans, and boots. Basically, he looked like a guy from Indiana singing country music on The Voice.

His brother works at mansion in the mountains in a place he owns called "Beyond the Fence." "Beyond the Fence was just what the inhabitants called it. It was pretty much a gated community filled with nothing but children, my god uncle, and people they call "Instructors." Instructors were in charge of the "Education course."

But we'll get back to that later.

Anyways, my sister and I walked up to the mansion, loaded with bags our parents over packed for us. Dominic had one duffel bag for the whole six months. How? We're still not sure. He knocked on the door.

The large mahogany door creaked open. Ava grabbed my arm. "There's no one there!" She was right, I couldn't see anyone and the door kept opening. The thing about Ava is, she jumps to supernatural conclusions and somehow gets me to believe her.

A four-fingered hand popped into view. "Hey, hey. My eyes are down here!" As we looked down, we were greeted with a man who had hair that would put Einstein to shame. On both hands, he only had four fingers. His eyebrows were so bushy, they blocked all view of his eyes. The mustache he had stuffed under his big, round nose, was no better. It bounced when he talked, like that was his mouth instead of the norm. "Dominic," He had an accent the sounded somewhat like the noodle goose guy from Kung Fu Panda. Oh yeah, and he was about three feet tall. "You said nothing about children."

Dominic stepped in front of us. "They're not mine. They're the Dexters'."

The short guy looked at us around Dominic's long legs. "Oh?" Ava and I had to tear our eyes away from his hands to look at his face and at least seem polite.

"What happened to your hands?" The words came spilling out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

He looked at his hands, as though to recall what they were and looked back up. "Genetic mutation."

"Kids, this is Kevin!" Dominic yelled nervously. He pushed him inside and beckoned for us to follow. "Now, would you please give me a second alone with my brother?"

"That's your brother?" Ava gasped. "I thought he was some weird butler!"

"Yeah he's quite the charmer. Now, Kev, let's go!" He looked down at Kevin, who ushered him to another room. Once the door was closed, Ava dragged me over, so we could listen in. Dominic sounded slightly annoyed. "Listen, I don't want you to tell the kids what you do. Besides, their parents would kill me if they found out."

"Alright, alright, fine. " Kevin sighed in exasperation. "Now, let me show them to the guest rooms."

At the sounds of footsteps, we panicked. Ava and I bolted over to the wide, spiral staircase in the corner of the foyer. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed her shooting me a nervous glance.

Kevin waddled over and picked up one of Ava's bags. "Alright. To the guest rooms." We followed him up winding staircase to a pair of rooms next door to each other. "Dom's got your stuff. He'll be right up with them. Eh... Don't go to the attic or basement. Bad mold. Dangerous. All that. Make yourself at home or whatever." He tapped his chin with his index(?) finger. "I believe that is all. Dinner will be done soon." He gave us a 'peace' gesture with his middle fingers. "Later." He waddled back down the stairs, leaving us on our own.

Ava and I kept our eyes on the doors. "Which one do you want?" she whispered. In response to my shrug, she put her hand gingerly on the doorknob. "On three?"

I put my hand on the other doorknob. "One."

"Two." Twist.

"Three." Together, we pushed the doors and burst into our own door. Our rooms for the next nine months.

My room had a large bed with dust-covered, pale blue sheets pushed in the far left corner, the foot of the bed directly in front of the door. On the opposite wall, a dresser. It had double doors for hanging up shirts and jackets taking up half the height and drawers for whatever going down the rest of the way. To the right of the door, a desk, housing an ink pot, feather quill, and a scroll of papyrus, decorated by a bit of writing at the top. The wall to my left was dominated mainly by a large, green chalkboard. Yellow marks were left scribbled all over the thing. The eraser was seemingly missing. The walls were a bland eggshell color. Overall, the room was pretty boring.

My curiosity got the best of me. I found myself peeking over at the scroll. From what I saw, it was the beginning of a letter. All they had written was the heading and who it was addressed to. "Dear Scy" The quill tip was still covered by dried ink and there was a large splatter of ink on the desk.

"Allan!" Dominic called me. "Help me with your bags!"

It turns out Ava had brought her entire closet. At least that's what it felt like. She had so much, I didn't think it would all fit in her closet. We scuffled the bags into her room, which was identical to mine, but her chalkboard and desk were neat and tidy.

We finished lugging all the bags into the two rooms just in time. As soon as we finished dragging the last the last of it through my door when Kevin popped up at the top of the stairs, which were right outside of my room.

"Dinner, everybody." He yelled and waddled back downstairs. Aav bounded happily after him.

I was about to follow, but Dominic grabbed my shoulder. When I turned my head to look at him, he was gazing mindlessly down the staircase. "Keep your sister safe." He looked down at me. Something was off, but the look in his eyes told me to put Ava's and my safety before anything. I nodded and we walked downstairs.

Ava and Kevin were sitting next to each other at a small table for four. Dom and I sat down with the other and our sibling on either side of us. Covered platters and placemats decorated the bare, wooden table.

Kevin lifted all the tops off the platters one by one. "Dig in, kids." He paused. "And Dom."

The menu was pizza and burgers. He just had a lot of platters of them.

We hesitated until Dom scooped up a slice of pizza. I paused. Ava grabbed a burger. Kevin was about to shove a slice of pizza up his stache when he noticed I wasn't eating. He put the slice down and waddled off into the kitchen, yelling as he did so. "Ah, sorry. I forgot the mysterious case of mister Allan Dexter. Only eats-" When he came back, he placed a bowl in front of me. "beef ramen."

"Thanks." I smiled. I ate the soup fast, but slow enough to savour it. Beef ramen is my favorite food. Most days, it was all I ate. When I didn't eat it, it was either for breakfast or because I needed to eat something healthy.

I mean, come on, I can't live off ramen.

We finished eating in silence. Ava pushed in her plate and excused herself from the table, and I followed her. "Don't forget kids!" Kevin called after us. "School starts tomorrow!"