f o r e v e r | lab rats | *EDITING*

c h a p t e r 1 ; new roomies

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"Welcome to your new home, Mrs. Davenport!" I hear Donald say as he carries his new wife bridal style into the house, accompanied by her squeal of delight.

"Why, thank you, Mr. Davenport," she says.

"Absolutely, Mrs. Davenport."

Leo and I exchange disgusted glances as we follow them into the house, only to be greeted with the pair in a loving kiss.

"We get it, you guys are married!" he cries as he throws their bags and his own on the ground.

I naturally follow his lead, dropping down all of my luggage, and adding, "It's getting old," while stretching my arms. My eyes take a quick scan of the living room, taking in its brilliant glory, the most fantastic place I'd ever seen.

"Wow!" Leo says. "You got this big house just from inventing things?" Davenport nods in response, closing the door and going to stand next to Tasha. "Way to go, mom. That's a husband." Tasha smiles and goes to kiss him again.

My eyes catch sight of a strange device taking refuge beside the couch. "What the hell is that?" I ask as I move closer, Leo on my heels.

"That is my latest creation," Davenport replies, following us and pushing us back gently. "Davenport Industries' first completely interactive 3-D TV." He turns it on and it brings up a baseball game in 3-D. One of them hit a ball and Leo goes to catch it, but being the clumsy boy he is, ends up slamming into the wall and completely missing it.

"Watch the vase, termite!" a male voice yells from out of nowhere. Leo stumbles away from the wall, nearly knocking into me before regaining his composure.

"Mom, I think the little voice inside my head is back," Leo enlightens.

"Mine never left."

"No, this is Eddy," Davenport explains, walking over to a small screen on the wall. The screen has a white background, but in the middle of it is a weird looking lock kind of emoticon. "He's my smart home system. Eddy, this is my new stepson, Leo, and his best friend Avalon. Remember, I told you Leo, Avalon, and Tasha were moving in today?"

"Hey, welcome," Eddy greets with a fake smile. "Everything here is mine."

I frown in offense. Davenport's eyes widen and he quickly gestures us away.

"Uh, Leo, Val, why don't you two go check out your new bedrooms?" he says, turning us away from Eddy. "Just go straight down that hallway, and when you see the room with the video games and the action figures and the 50-foot-screen TV—" His eyes widen with excitement. "—keep walking. That's mine."

With an eye roll, I grab Leo's wrist and drag him down to the hallway Davenport pointed us to.

"This place is huge!" I exclaim as we come across another room.

"We're gonna need a GPS just to find the bathroom," Leo sarcastically says, leaning up against a wall.

And almost like magic, the far wall glows with a pale yellow light, before splitting right down the middle and peeling open to reveal another room much smaller than this. An elevator. We exchange wary glances before curiosity gets the better of us and we move toward it.

"Hello?" I call.

I lead the way inside. However the moment we both enter, the doors slam shut behind us, and the next thing I know, we're free falling down. Leo and I began screaming, him latching himself around my arm as if I could spontaneously stop the elevator from dropping us. Luckily it slows to a stop after maybe fifteen seconds, though it still takes me a moment to set myself straight.