THE CRYSTAL HOUSE

¶Ground floor¶

No such luck. The guy stopped talking and spun her to face him, as he flipped his hair over his left eyebrow and grinned at her. Hazel brown eyes which flickered between her eyes and lips, a flat nose, long hair that fell into his eyes everytime he turned his head, his extremely bright yellow shirt, she absorbed it all and studied it in her mind. Not her type. Priya lightly pushed him away and turned her face to the side. She preferred something else, something like--- she looked around the hall and fixed her eyes on the guy who, at that moment, walked past them into one of the rooms. Her eyes followed him, she wanted something like that.

Priya picked her box and headed in the direction of the same room, determined to be roommates with the guy but before she got to the door, her new 'friend' grabbed her arm lightly. "Let's go there instead." He motioned, pointing at the room opposite the one she wanted to be in. In her mind, she laid out her options; she could abandon this self-absorbed creep and move forward into the room she wanted, or she could follow this guy to the room he wanted. If she left this guy, she might lose an ally who could be helpful in the games but she might gain a new one with more benefits. Priya nodded and let him drag her to the opposite room, sighing wistfully. Better to be with the devil you knew than the angel you didn't.

"By the way, Priya, you can call me JP. It's what everyone close to me does." He winked and opened the door for her, letting her go in first. Priya didn't know if she ought to be flattered by his nice gesture or run in the opposite direction. Wasn't the guy supposed to enter before the lady if they were in unfamiliar territory? No matter, there was nothing scary about the room. Three beds stood separated from each other with a curtain around each for privacy, each bed also had am arched window similar to the ones upstairs, but smaller. At one side of the room, two extra doors opened up and she strode into them, one was the bathroom while the other had three small wardrobes for their belongings. Priya walked back into the main room where her new roommate stood patiently waiting, and as she stared at him she had a flash of memory, his name was Jasper.

Chiara

By the time Chiara got around to figuring out where the rooms were, only two beds were left unoccupied. She stared at the door of Room C, the names of its current occupants were written boldly across it on a white board, and a black marker lay at the top of the board, waiting for her to pick it up and add her name. She wrote it down, it was either this or Room D and she didn't particularly like the letter.

Chiara opened the door and dragged her large suitcases into the room, instantly noticing that her roommates had half the luggage she did. Infact, she suspected she brought the most among all the housemates as some of them, including the girls brought one suitcase each while the others had smaller bags. Luckily, one of the girls she spoke to earlier was her roommate and together they helped her settle in and unpack her belongings. She had just freshened up when an intercom in the underground hallway announced that dinner would be served upstairs. She put on her night clothes and stepped out of her room while her stomach grumbled, it seemed like everyone had gone already, apparently she wasn't the only one starving.

Upstairs, the other housemates sat around the dining table while the masked men who had come earlier carried plates around the table. Chiara sat on the only available chair, and tried not to look disgusted when she was served. She detested only three things; the smell of smoke, trying to get her baby brother to eat his breakfast, and Chicken parmigiana. The third on her list sat before her in a white ceramic plate, along with cutlery of various shapes and sizes on each side of the plate. Chiara was not a fussy eater, her father had once said, very nicely, that her mouth was like a garbage can which could take anything. Anything except parmigiana, especially when served alongside spaghetti which currently decorated the right half of the plate. The taste had never appealed to her, it just never looked quite right, and whenever she tried it with spaghetti she vomited everything thirty minutes afterwards.

She looked around, everyone else looked happy and satisfied as they noisily ate. One guy even asked for a second helping, and she nearly offered hers' but her stomach decided to grumble again.

"Do you still want it?" Lola asked her. Her roommate held her plate towards her, trying to stare her down and make her give it up. She sighed, her stomach wouldn't let her rest through the night if she did.

"Oh, what else is there to do?" Chiara mumbled and picked up a fork carefully transferring all her spaghetti into the girl's plate. She wouldn't dare to go all the way, she still had a reputation to hold on to and it was not in her plans to become tonight's entertainment. The masked men waited till everyone was done eating, and cleared away the used plates taking them as they exited the house.

"Good evening housemates. I hope you all enjoyed the meal." Chiara grimaced in response. She hadn't enjoyed it one bit, it was a relief she didn't feel like going to the toilet yet. Maybe her intestines were in good spirits today.

Mr. Han's voice from the intercom continued. "The meal was a treat from the organizers to congratulate you on reaching here safely. From tomorrow, however, you'll have to make food for yourselves with the inventory made available in the kitchen." Chiara couldn't be more happier than she was at this moment, finally her chef-in-training skills would pay off and what she endured this night would not be repeated.

"The organizers have decided to let you interact with your fellow housemates for one more day, so the first game will begin two days from now at noon. Goodnight and good luck."

********

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS? LET ME KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS IN THE COMMENT SECTION.