How The World Works

Chapter Eight

Hey guys! Sorry for the late update. High school just started and I was thinking:
"I'm just gonna take this time to get used to the school, as exams don't start for another few m-"
THEN BOOM INTERIMS
I THOUGHT I WAS SAFE
BUT NO
HELL HAS BEGUN
Other than that, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

         "Evicted, but why?!" I demanded, panicking. We didn't have the time or the money to move.
         "I'm afraid that you've exceeded the tenant limit quite a bit ago. I mean, you could make your other roommates leave and you could stay...?" The landlord, Mrs. Hudson offered. She really was a sweet lady, but she was just doing her job.
         Kicking the boys out wasn't an option, especially with their lack of knowledge about the real world. They wouldn't last the week. I guess it was time to say goodbye to my old apartment. "I can't kick them out Mrs. H. They're my family now." I replied as if it was the obvious thing on the planet. Although, I did a double-take on my words. I had only known these guys for a week or so. But yet, they felt more like the happy family I never had.
         "I know. I'm so sorry, (Y/N). If I had a choice in the matter, I would let you stay."
         "It's okay," I lied, "I'm graduating in a few weeks, so I was planning on moving anyway. When do you need us out?"
         "Thursday morning is the latest I can push it, my dear." I looked over at my calendar to see that it was Monday night, giving us two days to get packed.
         "Thursday..." I thought for a moment, "Yeah, we can do that."
         "Alright, I hope to be talking to you soon. Good night, dear." She hung up before I could reply. I sighed, shakily, throwing my phone onto the bed. My mind was buzzing with 100's of different panicked thoughts that I couldn't process, but one stood out from the rest.
       How was I supposed to tell the guys?
       After an hour of thinking, I decided that I wasn't going to be able to sleep for a while, seeing as it was already 1:00am. I thought about calling Faith, who had gone home a few hours before. Yeah, it was late, but I needed to make temporary living arrangements before it was considered last minute. Also, I remembered that her sleep schedule is practically nonexistent, so I punched her number in and called.
       As expected, she picked up on the first ring. "Hello?"
       "Faith, I've got really bad news, and I'm gonna need some help." I began. I wasn't sure how to word what was coming.
       "What's wrong?" She asked, sounding slightly more awake.
       "We're being evicted." I stated, nervously.
       "What? What happened??" She demanded.
       "Apparently, we have surpassed the tenant limit by quite a bit. Mrs. Hudson tried to find a way that we could stay, but there was nothing."
       "Do you need a place to stay? My condo is big enough for all of us." She offered, her hidden mom mode kicking in. She may have teased me for it all the time, but she was just as bad when it was needed.
       "If it isn't too much to ask, could we? We have to be out by Thursday." I queried.
       "Of course you can, dummy! How about packing? You need help with that?"
       "I think we're good with that, but you can come over if you want."
       "I might just take you up on that."
       "Awesome. Thanks Faith." I said, gratefully. "Oh, and get some sleep. You're practically an insomniac at this point."
       "Fine, MOM. Good night." She joked.
       "Good night." I responded, hanging up the call. I definitely felt a lot better than I had before, knowing I had Faith as my inevitable safety net. I had no clue what I'd do without her. I laid back down, falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
***
        I woke up around 8:00 the next morning to a clatter in the kitchen, the smoke alarm following in suit. I groaned, grabbing the fire extinguisher and rushing down the stairs. As expected, there was a small fire at the stove. I used the fire extinguisher to put it out. I then turned towards the men hiding behind me.
       "What the hell happened?" I demanded, coolly.
       Everyone was hesitant to answer, but KG soon exclaimed, "HERCULES DID IT!!!" and ran out of the room. I raised an eyebrow at his behavior then just shook my head, amusedly, turning towards Herc.
       "What happened?" I inquired.
       "I'm sorry, the guys and I were trying to make breakfast this morning, thinking we knew how, seeing that you did it every morning. Then, after waiting for about five minutes, these..." Herc trailed off.
       "Alarms." I added.
       "Yeah, the alarms went off and the fire started.." He kept his gaze dead set on the ground.
       "We're really sorry, Miss (Y/N)." John added. I glared at them for a moment, just to make them believe that I was angry with them, but then I couldn't help myself. My composure burst and giggles took over.
       "Don't worry about it, honestly. You should've seen the first time I tried using the broiler! I put a bagel in there and set the timer for 10 minutes. Once I opened the oven, all I saw was fire and the bagels which were as black as charcoal!" I reassured. (a/n: this is a true story haha). This seemed to relieve the men who began chuckling along with me. After a few minutes of giggling, I spoke up once more. "I can teach you guys, so you don't have to wait for me in the mornings." I offered, as I was usually one of the last people up. There was a murmur of agreements and nodding.
Everything started off pretty well, no one managed to break any of the dishes, but then once it was time to put the ingredients in, all hell broke loose. Alex decided it would be funny to flick some flour onto Thomas' cheek, ending with the taller of the two chucking a whole handful at Alex. This went back and forth before the flour was confiscated by James, who handed it back to me. I made sure to hide it in a spot where no one knew. The enemies were disappointed by this, but soon found a messier substitute: eggs. Soon enough, I had to shoo them out of the kitchen, forcing them to shower. After that, everything went smoothly, the boys realizing their mistakes as we went along. I set the pancakes on the table, as Thomas had gotten out of the shower. I realized that this was probably my best opportunity to tell them about the eviction.
Everyone sat down, immediately immersing themselves in conversation. I looked down at the table, nervously playing with my thumbs. What if they got mad? What if they felt like they had to leave because of this? These endless questions filled my head, as the tears filled my eyes, and I zoned out for what felt like hours before I felt a hand on mine. I gasped, looking up to see that the hand belonged to George, and everyone was looking at me with concern in their eyes.
        "(Y/N). What's wrong?" James asked, cautiously.
        "I-I'm fine. It's just that I'm supposed to tell you guys something, but I'm really nervous, because its bad news..." I babbled.
        "What happened, mon cher?" Lafayette questioned.
        "We're being evicted. We need to be out of here by Thursday." I announced, and the room went dead silent.
        After a good two minutes, Alex finally spoke up, furious. "They can't just kick us out for no good reason! We didn't do anything! Ooooh, just wait until I get my hands on the landlord. I'll write under a pseudonym, you'll see what I can do to them!!" He fumed.
        "Alexander, please. Calm down. The last thing we need right now is to make the landlord angry with us." Aaron said, then he turned towards me. "Is there a reason we're being evicted, (Y/N)?"
        "Uh... Yeah. First of all, this isn't the landlord's fault. She has to do this, because it's her job. She has no choice. Secondly, this isn't your fault, even if it may seem that way. It's not." I rambled. "We're being evicted because we've surpassed the tenant limit by what the landlord has dubbed as 'quite a bit.'"
        "(Y/N)... If you're having to move out of your own home because of us, we can leave." George offered, solemnly.
        "No, no! Like I said, it's not your fault. I'm not gonna kick you guys out. Until I can find a new house, we're just going to be staying with Faith for a few weeks. I was planning on having us move after I graduate, which is in a few weeks. We're gonna be okay." I reassured.
        "Wait, you're 22, right?" Alex asked.
        "Yeah, why?" I answered.
        "How are you just graduating? I thought you graduated at 19..." He replied, confused.
        "Oh, so you start elementary school at the age of 5. You stay there until your seventh year, which we dub 6th grade. From that onto 8th grade is middle school. After that, you start high school, which is 9th grade to 12th grade. After you graduate high school at the age of 18, you go to college. You can either get an Associate's Degree, which is two years of college. Or you can get a Bachelor's degree, like I did, which is four years of college. Other than that, eight years is a doctorate. So, it would make sense that I'd graduate at 22." I finished. (a/n: I'm sorry if this is wrong for you. This is just how school works for me.)
         "What is your emploi, if I may ask?" Laf inquired. (Emploi=job)
         "Well... It's kind of hard to explain.." I mumbled.
         "To swim around and look pretty, basically." Faith replied, a smirk growing on her face.
         "When did you even get here?" I asked, "I swear to God, that door never opened..."
         "You gave me a key. I plan to use it to my advantage while I still can." She teased.
         "Touché."
         "Faith, what did you mean when you said she just 'swims around and looks pretty'?" Aaron asked, cocking an eyebrow.
         "Oh yeah. She's a mermaid." She deadpanned.
         "Faith!" I whined, hitting her lightly. Yeah, I was a mermaid actresses at the aquarium, explaining why I knew the layout so well. I loved my job, but I felt that the boys would judge me if I told them. Also, they are pretty cute, causing me to be pretty insecure about my body. Therefore, I made Faith promise not to say anything to the boys just yet. I wanted to tell them once I was ready.
         Thomas scoffed, "Mermaids aren't real."
         "Even if they were, I'm afraid we can't take your word. You've stretched the truth about everything else, so why not this?" George questioned, disbelievingly.
         Faith just shrugged, stealing a sip of my coffee. "Fine. Just you wait." The boys looked at each other, but left it alone.
***
        
         The next few hours were spent packing boxes and cleaning the house spotless. Although, after a while, we were all beginning to become pretty dizzy from the cleaning chemical fumes. I decided that it would be best to take a break and grab some lunch. 
         "Hey guys, get your shoes on. We're gonna grab some lunch. The fumes are getting pretty bad in here." I announced, slipping on my converses.
         "Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Thomas replied. He stood up and walked towards me, but he stumbled. He began to fall, but I managed to catch before he could hit the ground.
         "Yeah, it's probably a bad idea to get shitface high off of Clorox fumes. Although, it seems it's too late for Mr. Jefferson here." Faith joked, patting Thomas on the back. Everyone chuckled, except Thomas, whose cheeks were a bright red.
        
         A few minutes later, we walked down the road to Subway, but we were soon stopped by a little girl, no more than 5 or 6, with her mother.
         "Mommy! Mommy, look! It's the mermaid lady! Hi mermaid lady!!!" The girl shouted excitedly. Grinning at the girl's enthusiasm, I couldn't help but wave back. The boys looked startled. Had Faith really been right? They didn't have time to discuss, because soon enough, we were walking into the restaurant. We ordered our food and picked a booth to sit in. I decided to sit next to KG, Laf sliding in after me.
         "... So that's the story of how Faith got so drunk that she started screaming at a mushroom to 'GROW MARIO GROW!!!'" I finished, resulting in hearty laughter from everyone at the table. I checked my phone to see that it was already 4:00pm. "What do you guys say, we get back to the apartment and get some more progress done on packing?" I proposed. Faith and the guys nodded in agreement and we made our way back to apartment, dreading the chore of packing. But, I suppose it wasn't so bad with my friends by my side.