"Alright." Minho sighed after Newt left the room to find Teresa and Thomas. "Hopefully these gents are worth something."
"Gents?" I frowned. "As in-."
He nodded. "Gentlemen, yep."
Alby sighed from the corner of the cleaning room. "And it's already annoying me."
Five minutes of waiting followed. It almost felt like hours, but then Newt's voice came from outside the door before it opened.
"What's up, gents?" Minho greeted. It took me everything not to laugh.
"Would you stop saying gents?" Alby said. "It's not funny and it's gettin' on my nerves."
Minho completely ignored him and got up. With a huge smile on his face, he walked over to the boy I assumed was Thomas and hugged him firmly. Teresa followed.
Thomas was about the same height as Minho. Newt was taller. He had brown hair that hung over his forehead and almost ears. Multiple moles covered his skin. His brown, deep eyes inspected us all. His nose was small and the top of it curved up, forming a— in my opinion— cute look.
Teresa was just as tall as Thomas. She had brown, almost black hair, tied up into a high ponytail. Her face was slim on the sides. Freckles were placed on her nose and a few on her cheeks.
"You two seemed cooler than I thought." Minho took a step back. "I was expecting a couple of greasy-haired bucktoothed weirdos quoting Shakespeare and writing out math problems on your hands. You actually look half normal!"
"Thanks?" Thomas peeped.
Alby stepped forward, pushing Minhos to the side. "I'm Alby. Good to meet you guys. Minho actually for once has a good point. With all the rumors about your highfalutin folks, we didn't know what to expect. And that's why we brought you here today. To check you out. It's nice to see you're not too bad, by the looks of it."
"Thanks?" Now Teresa said it. It caused everyone to laugh slightly.
Frypan stepped forward too. "I'm Frypan. Call me Fry. And yes, it's my name." He chuckled at himself and shook their hands.
"You gonna introduce yourself?" Minho whispered. I nodded fast and jumped up. Meeting new people had never been my favorite thing, so I was quite nervous.
"I'm Lenora." I tried my best to put on a smile. "Just call me... whatever."
"But not Lee," Newt added.
Thomas, whose resting face was very confused, raised his eyebrows. "Why?"
"Because, that nickname is claimed," Minho explained sternly.
"Okay." He almost stammered. "So, uh, how long have you guys been sneaking out like this? It's obviously not the first time."
"Nope," Alby replied. "It got boring to follow all their rules, and doing everything they tell us. And yeah, they might actually come out and tell us to stop, but as long as they won't, we ain't stoppin'. Am I right?"
Minho whooped a cheer and Fry and Newt gave him thumbs up. I encouraged with a nod.
"What are all these rumors about us that you guys keep bringing up?" Teresa asked. "And why are we isolated from you? It's like you five have known each other for years. Thomas and I just met."
Newt stood by a wall and answered her question. "Honestly, we don't know what's different between you and those other two, Aris and Rachel, right? The rest of us have been sharing a cafeteria, going to the same classes, and all that for almost four years. Way I see it, you're either way smarter or way dumber than us."
"Way smarter, obviously." Teresa sassed. It caught everyone off guard, but then Alby clapped and laughed, breaking the ice even more.
"Man, I like you guys." He commented.
"Look." Minho started. "As much as I'd like to say we're just nice to invite you down here, I'm guessing you know we have a reason."
I did not get informed of that reason, turned out.
"Of course." Teresa quickly answered.
"Good. Good." He nodded. "We have ideas. Plans. Nothing solid. Nothing too crazy. But information is king, and we feel like we're in the dark not knowing you two. Though it'll be a while before there's complete trust. Fair enough?"
The complete trust did not surprise me at all. Minho barely trusted anyone and I bet it took him months to trust each of us.
"Fair enough," Thomas replied. "You tell us what you know, we tell you what we know."
Minho smiled. "Nice. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. There will be plenty of other chances to talk. We just want to get to know you guys a bit, and maybe show you around a bit. The serious stuff can come in a few weeks. Sound good?"
Thomas and Teresa shared a glance and shrugged. Then they said yes.
Newt immediately hopped off his place, toward the door. "Let's get out of here. I know a good place to start their tour. Group B."
~
As the others were whispering some stuff about why we were visiting group B (Lizzy) Minho and I walked in the front.
"So, are they okay?" I asked quietly.
"I think so." He shrugged. "Hopefully."
Once we arrived in front of the windows to Lizzy's bunk, Alby spoke. "They call us Group A. And this is B. We're all boys, they're all girls."
Minho let out a cough and I cleared my throat.
"Except for our Lenora." He continued, glancing at Minho. "She was just there, one day."
"Minho invited her over and we became friends."
"There's never been an argument. We're the perfect group."
"And there's definitely not a duo that's obviously closer than the rest. Don't worry about that sort of things."
My whole face turned red. "Minho didn't invite me over. He said I looked like a homeless kid."
"Which means the finds you cute." Newt corrected.
"It doesn't." Minho and I said in unison.
"Anyway." I continued. "We did become friends. We had an argument that lasted for like a year, but that was just a little... misunderstanding."
"Alright, that's enough information." Minho interfered.
We turned to Group B's dorm again.
"So you guys live in a place like this?" Teresa stared at all the bunks.
"Yep. Lee has her own room, though," Minho explained.
"Where you like to sleep in too."
Minho gave Frypan the sharpest glare ever. "Don't spill all my secrets."
"He admitted!" Alby pretended to cheer.
"I never said I liked to-."
"Oh, of course you didn't. And you especially don't say 'Excuse me, I'm gonna visit Lee for a second' every night and then you don't even come back until the next morning."
My face turned even redder, if that was possible. "Just emotional support..." I slowly said. It was kind of the truth.
Teresa let out a laugh so quiet only I, since I stood next to her, could hear it. "Are you like, a couple?" She whispered.
My eyes widened. Heavily, I started shaking my head. "No. No, no. We're not."
"He seems to like you, though. More than a friend." She added, staring at Minho. He quickly averted his eyes from us, or me, and continued his argument with Frypan.
I shrugged. "I don't think he does and I definitely don't like him in that way. Plus, we're almost turning ten. That's kinda young."
Teresa smiled. "Okay, then. But I'd like to get to know you better. Only you. Thomas is a nice friend, but there's not wrong with a female one."
"We can gossip." I blurted out. "A lot. And other stuff I'll never do with the others."
"If only they had nail polish." She sighed dramatically. "Well, we better do that sometimes."
"How about today?" I suggested. "I honestly can't wait and I don't feel like having grumbling Minho in my room tonight."
"Sounds good." She laughed. "Sleepover it is."
Without exchanging any other words, we both let out a yelp and jumped on our place in excitement.
In the corner of my eye, I saw Newt pointing at Lizzy, with Thomas next to him. Then, without shame, Newt wrapped his arms around the boy. Thomas looked taken aback but then patted Newt's back. Newt's shoulders shook; he was crying. And as always, he also just did it without shame.