Vincent nodded grabbing his suitcase and walking into the house his eyes darted around looking at his surroundings. The house was definitely richly furnished, as everything was very neat and orderly, as if to hide the fact that many little children lived here. At the same time, the house gave off a feeling of strictness and the feeling of being overpowered. Vincent gave a slight shudder from the overpowering feeling and his grip on his suitcase and book got tighter to try and comfort himself.
"Some basic house rules. First off, don't disturb Scott unless someone is dying or the house is in danger." The man started.
"Okay." Vincent said the wonder from before came back to him.
"Second, you clean up after yourself. No leaving messes here." The man said.
"Understandably." Vincent nodded.
"third, don't bully your younger siblings. Even Scott doesn't get away with this rule." The man said, sounding stern.
"Yes sir." Vincent said.
"Fourth, no locking doors." The man said, sounding sterner about this rule.
Vincent nodded knowing that he should hold his tongue as he could tell that was going to be a problem for him.
"Fifth, and this is an important one, no arguing." The man said.
"Reasonable." Vincent responded.
"Those are the important rules. We have many more, but you'll find out about those from watching our children. Me and my wife tend to go out a lot, so when we're gone, Scott has absolute control." The man said.
"I see." Vincent said
"We are also very strict about schoolwork. We expect high grades and good performance from each of our children, both born from us and otherwise." The man said. "There are punishments to getting low grades and breaking rules."
"I will do my very best sir." Vincent said a little nervous.
"If Scott and our children can do these things, you can." The man said.
Vincent nodded.
"Now, you'll want to go up to our top floor up to Scott's room. I assume you know you'll be sharing your room with much of the children. That won't be an issue, i hope." The man said.
"I was informed of this. I dont think it will be a problem sir." Vincent said with a nervous gulp.
"Now, we were told you're known to be rather nervous, and there are suggestions of a social problem?" The man said. "Is there anything special that we need to get you? Medicine, entertainment, what?"
"I need some medicine actually. I can keep myself entertained as long as I have a good book." Vincent said.
"Very well, what kind of medicine? Ah, Scott's the same way. We have a large library in the study, you can pick from the books in there." The man nodded.
"Uh some sleeping medicine, and uh Schizophrenia i do believe is what they had said." Vincent said with a soft sigh.
The man looked unsurprised and nodded. "Sleeping medicine and Schizophrenia. Very well." The man nodded. "Okay then. Make your way up to Scott's room and introduce yourself. Scott has some rules of his own that you'll want to know." The man said, as he started walking away, signaling to a grand staircase.
Vincent nodded and started to walk up the stairs holding up his suitcase so it wouldn't hit the stairs as he went up looking at the walls. In the railing above he could see more kids peering down at him, either curiously or bored. Vincent gulped already feeling nervous but smiled as he walked up the stairs to the kids.
"Why's he all purple?" he heard one of the kids mumble.
"His hair's all weird." another grumbled.
"Oh great. Another bookworm. As if Scott wasn't enough." another one grumbled.
Vincent sighed hearing the grumbles from this kids that he had heard before only in different ways. A couple of kids watched him climb up the stairs, as more scattered, running to various rooms. Vincent looked around and set his suitcase down when he reached the top of the staircase. The kids continued staring at him, watching to see what he would do.
"Hello." Vincent said softly with a smile.
"Hi." they said in synchronization. "You're our new big brother?"
"Looks like it." Vincent said a little cheerful.
"Do you like toast?" One kid spoke out.
"I don't like toast. I love it!" Vincent said happily. The kids looked overjoyed as someone finally shared their love for toast.
"We get toast every morning here! French toast, buttered, jam, all sorts." One kid said happily.
"Awesome." Vincent said happily.
"Are you gonna be a dick to us like Scott is?" One kid grumbled.
"I'm nice not mean. And I didn't plan on being one. I don't really know you guys yet so I can't determine yet." Vincent said.
A couple of kids mumbled stuff to each other and walked off, leaving behind the kid who had asked about the toast. Vincent's smile dropped a bit seeing the other kids leave but looked at the remaining kid. The remaining kid smiled, approaching him friendly. Vincent smiled again. "What is it kiddo?" Vincent asked.
"Well, let me welcome you, as a representative of the others. I'm Carolyn." The kid said, holding out her hand.
"Hello Carolyn, im Vincent." Vincent said placing his hand in hers. Carolyn shook his hand stiffly and pulled a book from behind her.
"Here. We all picked this out for you. To welcome you." Carolyn said, holding out a book Vincent recognized as Sherlock Holmes. "Scott won't admit it, but he paid for it while we all picked it out."
"Good taste in books. Really i'll have to thank him then." Vincent said taking the book happily. Carolyn nodded, bowing a bit before running off to join her siblings.
Vincent smiled looking at the book and waving a goodbye to Carolyn. 'For once, i think i might actually like this place. Then again, first impressions can be deceiving.' Vincent thought, looking at the book. 'It's so weird, knowing someone actually went out of their way to get me a gift and spend money on me.' Vincent thought, a bit amazed. 'I guess I can only hope that things will be alright here.' Vincent sighed and looked around for wherever this Scott's room was. His eyes landed on another staircase, with a list taped to it of everyone who was sleeping up that way. Vincent shrugged and walked over to the staircase and read the list. "John, Jacob, Riley, Steven, Theodore, first room on the left. Emily, Eloise, Clara, Carolyn, Natalie, First room on the right. Scott, last room on the hall." He read aloud. "So last room okay." Vincent said as he started his way down the hall. As he got closer he could hear annoyed shouting from inside Scott's room, presumably Scott himself, and the sound of children yelling and crying. Vincent hesitated to knock and gulped. 'Maybe I should wait to enter.' Vincent thought nervously.
"You little brats! Get your hands off my shit!" Scott could be heard yelling.
"Ohhhh! Scott's cussing!" One kid said, sounding shocked. "I'm telling Papa!"
"You won't say a word to him. You do and i'll pummel your head into a wall." Scott growled.
Vincent chuckled a little at the loud conversation.
"You can't do that! The new kid's here. So you have to be nice." One kid said smugly.
Vincent took a deep breath and raised his hand to knock on the door. Suddenly there was a shriek and the door was thrown open as a wave of kids ran through his legs, tackling him.
Vincent made a slight noise of surprise and hissed as he was tackled. "Get off!" Vincent grumbled. There was a running towards the door, and he saw a kid about a year older than him, several shoes in hand as he started throwing them after the kids, hitting a couple and knocking them to the ground. Vincent grumbled pushing a few of the kids off of him and brushing off his shirt and pants. looking around for the book he had dropped in surprise.
"Who the hell are you?" The boy grumbled, running a hand through his longish black hair in frustration, ruffling it further.
"Name's Vincent. I'm the new kid." Vincent said picking up the Sherlock Holmes book and brushing it off inspecting it for damage as he stood up.
"Oh. Ew." The boy grumbled, pulling out some glasses and pushing them up his nose into place.
"I get that more often than you think. I presume your Scott." Vincent said looking over at the boy. His eyes were immediately drawn to the boy's eyes, turning out to be the blue eyes he'd seen in the window.
"Yeah. I'm Scott. What about it." The boy grumbled, looking annoyed just to be talking to Vincent.
"Well it seems that we're going to be roommates." Vincent said.
"Oh. Joy bunnies." Scott huffed, his annoyed look turning into a glare.
Vincent couldn't help but smile at Scott even though most of the time he would shy away from a glare. "I like you already, Scott." Vincent said happily.
"And i hate you even more." Scott huffed, turning back into the room and flopping onto his neatly made bed. Vincent chuckled and walked into the room with his suitcase in hand looking around curiously. Vincent's side of the room was messed up and disorganized, presumably an act of hatred from Scott, while Scott's side of the room was the total opposite.
