The Day The World Changed

The much needed meeting

June 18th, 2020, The Facility
River Amber Ardenston

"How much longer." Arielle whined, kicking her feet as she watched River open another box. It was the same exact thing she had been doing with every box River had decided to open. She didn't seem to care that the task would've been faster with the two of them working. Arielle has long since grown bored, and River knew that she expected her to as well. Arielle wanted to go play, but she had barely made a dent in the living room boxes. As it was, she was sitting in front of their book shelves, opening the boxes near her and searching for the things that occupied it. It wasn't exactly easy. They were in a hurry during their last packing spree so everything got jumbled up. Nothing was labelled like it should've been.

"Until the bookshelves are filled." River commented, setting down the box cutter, before she used her hands to pull open the newly cut edges. "But that will take forever!" She complained, "You've barely got one shelf."

"Uh huh .." Peering inside, she found at least one set of the books she was looking for. Pulling out a few of them, River got up off of the floor and began to put them on the shelf. Arielle sighed behind her, "Does it matter the order?"

"Which way will get you to help?" River questioned, already knowing the answer, putting up the last two in her arms; she bent down and retrieved more. A process she repeated twice, emptying the box of its contents, before she glanced over at Arielle. She was busy looking at the doll in her hand and the boxes strewn around them. Most of them waiting to be unboxed, a few of them empty while a lot of them were opened; the contents waiting to be put out. Arielle appeared overwhelmed. River understood it, when she was younger she had been the same way. She had been a bit more persistent about it though, always tugging at their mother's skirts, stealing some of the boxes and hiding them away. It never really worked but it was the trying that mattered.

Grabbing the empty box, River carried it over to where Arielle was currently standing. Placing the box down near the other ones, River let out a dramatic sigh, "I suuupose it doesn't matter the order that they are put up there." Watching as Arielle's indecisive face came to determination. "The boxes are over there." She pointed behind River and over to the far corner, near the hallway that would lead to their bedrooms. River turned and arched an eyebrow. "Huh.. How did they get over there?"

"I carried them there." Arielle boasted, rushing past River and over to the boxes with a smile on her face. "These were all I found. If we put them up then can we play?" Shaking her head, River walked over to her and grabbed one of the boxes, hefting it up further so she wouldn't drop it. "Sure, but you have to do it nicely."

"Okay!"

Smiling with glee, Arielle grabbed one of the smaller boxes and picked it up a moment before she began to lead River back over to the book cases. Cases that resides on either side of their television. The one closest to their front door was the only one excluded from the boxes; giving them an ample time to fill one book case before going over to the other. It helped them make room for the bigger things to find their place and served to pull the room together. A small tradition that River had found herself doing since she had begun helping with the moves. Actually helping.

Once the two got to the bookshelf, they put down their loads and grabbed out the books. Wasting no time they began to fill the shelves in the way that they saw fit. Often times, River found herself glancing down and cringing at the order her sister was putting them up. A lot of them weren't in chronologic order, but she had a feeling that it wasn't intentional. A lot of them were stories that Arielle hadn't shown an interest in. She didn't have a big enough attention span for it, nor the desire to wait for things to pick up— often times she liked to 'skip to the good parts.'