"Hi, sorry, excuse me, hi!" Thy trekked through the entrance to the San Francisco Travel Huggers HQ, stopping and hitting the reception desk with a thump. "Ow. Hi!"
"Hello," the receptionist examined him, frowning. "Are you... okay?"

Thy paused for a moment, considering it. "I think so."

"What can I help you with?"

"I'm here for my Travel Huggers trip?"

She seemed to come to life then, nodding and typing. 'Of course! I should have guessed, sorry, I'm new. My name's Riley. You are...?"

"Thyme Scott!" He waved. "I was sent this QR code, I'm not sure if it helps you."

"Perfect!" Riley hovered a zapper over it, and something pinged on her computer screen. "Aha! You're the first in your group to arrive. I'll get Frankie and she can take you to your apartment."

Frankie turned out to be pretty similar to Riley, Thy thought. They both had the same curly hairstyle, talked a lot, and had American names that ended in an 'e' sound. Frankie (or Riley 2) told him a bunch of stuff that could've waited until the others arrived as they walked to the apartment.

"Hi there! So, as this is your first stop, it's my job to talk you through what to expect on your trip and to reinstate what we've told you virtually. If you have any questions, I'm your girl!" She smiled cheerily. "You're going to be the first one in the apartment, so you get first pick of the beds! We've put you in an apartment with four rooms, two beds per room, and we've provided you with a welcome basket and put a couple of items in the fridge to help you settle in. There's a manual to show you how the shower works, and the oven is a convection oven! The coffee machine is new, so I can't tell you how to use it, but there's a leaflet that tells you where to find what, and tomorrow we'll meet again as a group, and you can choose your activities whilst I talk to you more about this process! For now, though, welcome to Cow Hollow, here's your apartment!"

Thy nodded politely, taking the set of keys she shoved in his hand, glad she had finally shut up. When she started talking about alarms and trash collection, he just went inside and closed the door. She left after that.

He discarded the keys on the counter and chose the room with the best window view, not really taking the time to look out of it, instead just dropping his luggage and falling fast asleep on the bed, still in his airport clothes. He only woke up when he heard Frankie's sunny voice through the walls, guiding new people into the apartment. His Travel Huggers. He sat up, hair sticking up on one side. He could have done with a shower.

"Hello?" a thick, Italian accent. One of the Rossis. His father always despised Italians, but these guys seemed nice.

"Bonjour," Thy responded sleepily, walking to the doorway. "Carlos?"

"Nope." A muscly woman was standing there. "His sister. Carlos is outside, chatting up that Frankie woman."

"You must be Giani!" Thy beamed. "Pleasure!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah let's raid the welcome basket."

That didn't seem like a bad idea. "Okay!"

Giani lifted the lid, discarding the friendly note on top. "Okay, we got jam, coffee for a machine, tea in weird flavours, chocolate biscuits, a bottle of orange squash, and Jelly Babies."

Carlos made a grand entrance. "Coffee?"

His sister rolled her eyes, nodding. "You can get yourself some."

"Is there anything in the fridge?" Thy asked hopefully. "I was told—"

"There's half a mouldy quiche," Giani informed him.

"After I have a shower, I'm going shopping."

A hesitant knock came at the door. Thy shrugged, leaving to grab a towel and hop in the shower.

The siblings looked at each other, silently deciding Carlos should answer it.

Coffee cup in hand, he scowled at the new arrival. "Yeah?"

"Hi!" It was the Australian, Imogen. She was wearing a cute lilac bucket hat. "Carlos, right? Frankie told me to give you her number."

"Ew!" Giani complained. "She's, like, 30!"

Carlos ignored her and took the piece of paper from Imogen. The awkward silence that followed was broken only by the sound of the shower running.

"So, rooms?" Ginny suggested. "Who do you want to share with?"

"No one," Gi scoffed. "Okay, maybe Lou. Or Thy. Or Carlos. Or Imogen. Or Mila. Or Aster."

"Thanks for the help, sis." he sighed dramatically. "Let's decide when Thy comes out the shower and the others turn up, fashionably late, might I add. Until then I'm going to drink at least five more cups of coffee and impatiently wait to reapply my eyeliner."

<<*>>

Aster 🍝🌿: my flight got delayed and I've been waiting for eight hours 😩

Aster 🍝🌿: as I typed that they announced boarding bye guys

Mila 🐦: aah no, I just got here

Lou 🐸🐸🍵: same

Mila 🐦: wanna meet?

Lou 🐸🐸🍵: sure!

<<*>>

Mila clicked on Lou and hit call without a second thought, getting a reply immediately.

"Hey."

"Hi!" they responded. Once they clarified they were at the same airport, Mila asked Lou where she was, pulling her luggage along and getting through all the faffy security stuff on the other end.

"Uh, I don't know, they just security checked me," Lou's tone was still very nervous. "I'm by some kind of Starbucks shop?"

"There's like a million of those in this place!" Mila exclaimed. "Wait, are you wearing a denim jacket? I see you! Hi!" She jumped up and down, waving.

"Okay, you don't need to do that, I can see you too," Lou muttered. "I'm going to get in line for an... Espresso Con Panna, I think. Do you want me to get you something?"

"Can you get me one of those non-coffee sugar drinks?"

"So, a Frappuccino?"

"Yes! Extra cream, please."

<<*>>

"What's taking them so long?" Carlos complained. "Did they stop for coffee or something?"

A/N

Heeyy! Sorry some characters have less lines, I apologise, I just wrote it and that's what happened. 

Hope you liked this chapter, the story is still unfolding but hopefully you're happy with how it's going!

Up to four more chapters before the proper proper travelling begins, but I promise you it's worth the wait. 

<3333