t w e l v e ;

Their session was dismissed after the big announcement and the team was given the rest of the afternoon off to do whatever they wanted. Everyone was happy that they wouldn't need to take their intelligence training or even their physical training for the remainder of the month until the start of the mission. But they were also hit with a sense of melancholy as it all sunk in for them. They had been continuously following the same schedule all their lives and it was all they knew. Now they didn't know what else to do with their time, not that they didn't have any other options. They remained in the classroom after Instructor Violet left the room. They talked about the possibilities. 

Many of them hadn't visited the ocean in a while, if even at all. They had an entire month to take camping trips to the mountains or to the beach. There was also a lake near the mountains that they could go to. They decided that they would do it all since they had a month to themselves. Roseanne had also mentioned that the fifth floor dorms were abandoned and that she heard from other kids and the instructors that it was haunted. She told the others she wanted to spend the night there and see if they could spot some ghost activity. Raven had been most excited about it, since ghost stories were all people told back in his province. It was told that ghost were very active in the mines and the rest of the province because of all the people who had perished in mine collapses.

After everyone agreed that they would do all activities together, they dispersed and went to their rooms. It was only Monday and they had the rest of the week off to do what they wanted. Roseanne had washed her first set of clothes--she had two sets, one for one week and the other to alternate on the following week. With all her newfound extra time, she decided that she would get her second set of laundry out of the way. She grabbed her basket in her room and left Scarlet there. Her room mate was listening to music and reading a book on fighting techniques. 

As she made her way down the hall, she saw two people turn the corner into her group's dorm hallway. They were a boy and a girl. The girl had straight white hair past her shoulders and white irises. Her learning uniform was all white and Roseanne couldn't help but wonder how she kept it so clean. It frustrated her how she was so clumsy sometimes and dropped either her drink or some food on her uniform during meals. Raven always made it a point to jokingly point out that she was super clumsy. By which she would reply by blowing a raspberry at him. The boy beside her had on a brown uniform, and had brown hair with brown eyes. His skin was also a dark brown that almost matched with the color of his eyes. Both of them were pretty, and both of them appeared to be very young, though no younger than Honey.

They were probably around Raven, Ciel, and Seville's age. Maybe a bit younger by the looks of them. When they looked up with their deer in headlights look, they frantically started to wave Roseanne down when they spotted her as the only other person in that hallway.

"Hey! Excuse me." The boy called, and then took a jog towards her as though afraid that she would either leave or suddenly disappear. The hallways in the dorms were strange, more like mazes. There were also three ways to get into the older crew dorms. One was a direct door, after leaving the cafeteria building and walking down a set of concrete steps. Then there was an entrance right after leaving the library building. And last there was the more maze like entrance, by going through the kids dorms which were located on the top floors of the cafeteria building. That was the way they seemed to come from. Roseanne set her laundry basket on the floor and offered them a polite, yet guarded smile. Maybe they were searching for their dorms, but she wasn't entirely sure she would be able to help them. Still, she would try. "I was wondering if you could tell me where we could find the 12191 dorms." As he finished, her eyebrows furrowed into a look of confusion.

12191 was her group. But no one had mentioned to them during final announcements that they were getting two new members. Then again, sometimes the admins did things without telling anyone about it. With the two new members on the team, they were up to ten members in total, which was a complete squad. A complete squad contained between ten to twelve members. Now they had six boys and four girls on their team. Likely, the girl would be sharing a dorm with Honey who had a room all to herself. While the boy would most likely be staying with Indy. 

She quickly recovered from her confusion and her smile returned to her face. As co captain of the expedition, she thought it her duty to help them find their rooms and to help them get set up. They were practically kids anyway, and she wanted to make them feel welcome in the dorms with everyone. "This whole hallway belongs to 12191. What rooms are you looking for? I can help you find them."

On their floor there were six rooms and each room housed two people. Each of the six rooms had one bathroom for the two people to share. Across the hall from the rooms was a lounge with couches, a television and a fridge to save any left overs from their meals. But they hardly ever used that room since their days were usually busy for the most part. Whenever they did use it, it was used as a study room when it was too cold or rainy to go out to the library. Next to the lounge was the communal bathrooms. It had three showers, three sinks, and three toilets. That was for anyone who couldn't take a shower in their own rooms or if their bathroom was in use. The last room was the laundry room, to which Roseanne had been headed when the two new people stopped her.

The boy looked at his instructions on his holo phone and then looked up to reply to her. "It says here I'm staying in 225 with Blue." 

The girl then informed. "And I'm staying in 229 with Yellow."

At that, Roseanne perked up. "Oh well, 229 is right over here, actually." She turned to the room right across from the laundry room at the end of the hall where they had just turned the corner. She walked towards the door with the two new kids in tow, leaving her laundry basket behind momentarily, and she knocked on the door.

It took about a minute for Honey to open the door, and when she did, the three standing outside felt a bit awkward when they saw Seville sitting on her bed. Honey smiled awkwardly at them and stepped out into the hallway. They didn't seem to be doing anything they weren't supposed to. But another part of their rules, other than not having romantic relationships, was that crew couldn't have crew of the opposite sex inside their dorm rooms. 

"Hey Roseanne," Honey started a bit nervously. She knew Roseanne had been top pick to be captain of the expedition and she wasn't sure if her crew mate would tell the instructors about what she saw. Roseanne and everyone else could see that they seemed to have something between them, they liked each other. But he was just harmlessly sitting on her bed and she didn't think the instructors needed to find out about it. She spent a lot of time alone with Raven, even if it wasn't in her bedroom. She also knew that if they really wanted to do something they weren't supposed to, they would find a way, whether it were in her bedroom, or anywhere else. "How can I help you?"

The two new kids looked on with confusion at the fact that Yellow had called Pink by a name other than her color designation. 

Since the new kids didn't have names yet, Roseanne called them by their own colors as she spoke. "Brown and White are going to be part of the team from now on. It says on her instruction card that White will be sharing the dorm with you." As she said that, her eyes darted to the holo gram sign by the door. It had once only said Yellow on it. Now it said Yellow and White. She imagined Indy's door had changed to Blue and Brown too. 

"Oh okay." She continued to smile nervously at the two newcomers. Offering her hand to White for a handshake, she introduced herself. "My name is Honey, its so nice to meet you. I hope you like staying with us."

White took her hand slowly and shook it. She just couldn't quite wrap her head around the fact that her new crew members actually had names of their own. It was such a foreign concept to them. They had always just been Brown and White all their lives since they were taken from their homes to join the garden.

"You guys gave each other names?" White raised an eyebrow at her new room mates.

Honey nodded. "Yeah. Well, Roseanne here named most of us. Raven came up with her name and Indy's. I like it because it makes me feel like a human and not some pawn." Gesturing behind her to the closed door, she said. "You want to come in? I can just ask my friend to leave. Where are your belongings?"

"Administration said they'd bring our things in the morning." White said with a small shrug.

"I'll leave you to get settled then." Roseanne told her, and then she turned to the boy who hadn't said a word in the last couple of minutes. He had just been standing there, listening to everything. "You can follow me down the hall to Indy's room. You'll like him. He's really nice and he's really funny."

He gave a nod of his head and followed as she walked down to the other end of the hall. The first room was 221 and it was where Mauve and Seville stayed. The second room on their floor was 223 and that was where Ciel and Raven stayed. The third room was 225 and it belonged to Indy. Room 227 was where Roseanne and Scarlet stayed, 229 was where Honey and now White would stay, and the last room on their floor was empty, since they didn't have twelve members on their team.

They stopped in front of the door marked 225, and already the sign read Blue and Brown. Roseanne gave a knock on the door and Indy opened it moments later. He looked down at his co captain which he towered over because he was so much taller than her. He even towered over Brown, who was taller than Roseanne, but not quite as tall as Indy. He smiled as he greeted her. "Hey cap." The smile dropped an octave when he realized what he said. She wasn't going to be the mission's captain like everyone thought. Indy could definitely say that he liked Raven as a person, but he wasn't sure if he would make a good captain. Everyone already respected Roseanne. But it didn't seem like most of the crew respected Raven. "What can I do for you?" He asked her after what felt like an eternity.

"This is Brown." She gestured to the boy standing next to her. Indy was also surprised that she had spent time prior with the new kid and he didn't have a name yet. That was their thing in that training group, giving people names. "He's going to be your new room mate."

"You and Raven giving him a name?" Was the very first question that came into Indy's mind. 

Roseanne smiled at that. "Please help him get set up. I'm going to find Raven and Scarlet so we can call a team meeting. We're going to have White and Brown introduce themselves, and then if they want to, we can all think of new names for them."

"Wait!" Indy gasped. "There's two new people. Cool!"

He tried to look down the hall to see if he could catch a glimpse of the other new person. But White had already gone into her new dorm with Honey. Roseanne reminded Indy that they would call a team meeting within the next half hour, and he nodded. He then helped get Brown into the room. But there was nothing to set up yet, since his belongings wouldn't be brought in until the next morning.

-

another little update for you all.

so today and tomorrow are the last two days of my vacation from work. how time flies! it felt like it went by in the blink of an eye. 

also, i thought i'd mention that irl white is scarlet's evil sister. she's a terrible person. and brown is her boyfriend. this is the sister that i mentioned scarlet kept trying to set up with raven, knowing damn well that i liked him. scarlet and white are sisters irl, and seville is their cousin. tbh they're all horrible people. but her bf is so nice. i feel so bad for him because he adores her and she treats him like shit and i found out recently that she cheated on him with indy. 

but that's tea for another chapter. i hope you're all having a wonderful day!

-clary