Yay! Another chapter! ^^ Now Fighter can stop buggin' me-- Er, I mean, yay! Another chapter! *hugs Fighter* Anyway, here it is! Oh, wait! Skittery! [Skittery: What? Oh. NO!] Aw, come on... we promised! [Skittery: Correction, YOU promised!] Pleeeease? It'll all be over in a few seconds... [Skittery: *sigh* Fine. *starts tap dancing and does a little twirl*] Thank you! [Skittery: *grumbles*]

Now, onto the chapter!

~*~

Michael

"Damn."

That was all I could say once I had gotten off the bus and seen our house for the first time. It was fucking huge! Three stories high, tons of windows, and hopefully a lot of rooms. No offense to any of the other guys, but I'm not too into sharing rooms with other people. Well, one person, maybe, but more than that – no way. I don't really like being around a lot of people at one time. Weird, right? Since I decided to volunteer to share a house with eleven other people for a whole year, right? Well, it was better than being stuck in Los Angeles, living in a college dormitory with the president of the chess club, and working at Burger King where the only new people I came in contact with were the ones I asked, "Would you like fries with that?" Yes, I led a happy, happy life.

"Holy shit! Look at this place!" Blink shouted from behind me as the bus pulled away. Well, good to know I wasn't hallucinating about the size of this place. I watched as he zoomed past me and to the front door of the house, beaming. There came more "ooh"s and "ahh"s from the rest of the group as we all made our way over to Blink.

"Where's the key?" Blink asked, looking around, "Who has it? Who has it? Hurry up! I want to get in!" I'd say he was a little over-excited…

"Why don't you just check if it's open, first?" suggested Kyriel. Ah, Kyriel. I had to admit, I was developing a crush on her. She was kind, funny, didn't take jokes too literally and was cute as hell. She can get really talkative, too. I learned while sitting next to her on the ten hour trip over here to never give her sugar in large amounts. Too bad the flight attendants didn't know when they were passing out ice cream. Kyriel spent at least three of the ten hours rambling on and on about… what was it? Ah, yes, how the kids in the Trix commercial never give the rabbit any cereal. She finally fell asleep after the sugar wore off. Oh, and guess where she fell asleep? On my shoulder. Of course, I couldn't complain. She's really cute when she sleeps. Whoa, how long have I been standing out here all alone?

I rushed inside, hoping no one noticed that I had been standing on the doorstep alone for about three minutes. They obviously didn't, because they were all too busy running up and down the stairs, and looking at the different rooms of the house. The interior of the house was even better than the outside. There were stairs in the middle of what I guessed we'd be calling the lobby, a huge kitchen with nearly every cooking appliance you could think of, a bathroom in each bedroom (there were six, which meant two people would each be sharing a room), a game room, and a living room with a huge wide screen television. Not to mention a study with three computers, and other places to just hang out.

Damn, how much did this all cost?!

"This place is awesome!" Ershey shouted from the top of the stairs. I looked up at her.

"Hey, Ershey, do you know where they put all our bags and stuff?" I asked. She nodded enthusiastically.

"Up here in the hallway with all the bedrooms," she replied before disappearing into that very hallway shouting, "This place is fucking huge!" I walked up the stairs to the third floor and into the hallway Ershey had disappeared into. Well, she wasn't lying. All of our luggage, minus the ones that had been retrieved by Ershey, were lined up against the walls. Grabbing my suitcases, I noticed that some people had already started claiming rooms. Jeez, we had only been here, what, half an hour? Anyway, the rooms that had been claimed had pieces of paper taped to the doors with the names of their occupants.

Erin and Randy. Hm, well they seemed to get along pretty good on the bus.

Kevin and Blink. Now, there's a mystery. The quiet one with the loud one. Well, opposites attract I guess.

Dewey and Alexia. Can't say too much there. I don't know them well enough yet. Were these all going to be same gender rooms?

Ershey and Mush. Oh, guess not. They seemed to get along pretty well, too. They kept glancing at each other on the bus. Oh, I know where that's going to lead. Anyway, next room. I turn around to look at the room across from Ershey and Mush's.

Kyriel and.

Do I even dare? Oh, what the hell. I rummaged around the pockets for a pen and wrote 'Michael' on the bottom. Gabe and Lucas probably would have gotten along better with each other than they would have with me. I opened the door, and walked inside.

Not only was the house big, but the rooms were pretty huge, too. Of course, they had to be big enough for two people. There were two beds (well, duh), each at opposite ends of the room with white sheets and at least six pillows. There was a closet on the walls next to each bed to store our clothes, a dresser to store our other belongings, a bathroom, and one of the hugest fucking windows I've ever seen. Nice.

Deciding to unpack later and join the others, I walked out into the hallway and back down the stairs. Someone was shouting. Wait, no, two people were shouting. I looked over the railing as I made my way down. Blink, Ershey, Mush, and Kyriel seemed to be crowded around—oh, I knew it.

"Hey! I fuckin' apologized!" yelled Gabe, glaring at, you guessed it, Randy. She scoffed.

"Well, I don't forgive that easily," Randy growled, fists clenched at her sides, "So if you don't want another black eye, I'd suggest just leaving me the fuck alone!"

"Guys! Guys!" exclaimed Blink, jumping in the middle of the two of them and waving his arms around, "This is no way to start off the year! Calm down!"

"He's right," said Mush, "Can't you just forget what happened earlier for now? We're supposed to be trying to get along…"

"I'm willing to put it behind me for now," said Gabe, "It's her who won't let up!" Randy glared at Gabe for another moment before her expression softened and she unclenched her fists.

"Fine," she said calmly, "But I may not be so nice next time." She turned on her heel and walked off into the living room, where I suppose more of us were.

"What was that all about?" I asked once I'd reached the others. Gabe shook his head.

"I don't have any idea," he said, "I guess she's just a complicated person…"

"Yeah, well, you're bound to figure her out sometime this year," Ershey said optimistically.

"Yeah!" Mush agreed, clapping Gabe on the back, "You know how girls are, sometimes." Ershey and Kyriel both let out exaggerated coughs before smirking at each other.

"Well, I'm going to go upstairs and unpack," said Gabe, heading upstairs.

"By the way," I shouted after him, "You're sharing a room with Lucas!"

"Alrighty then!" he shouted back before disappearing into the hallway. Just then, Lucas appeared in front of us.

"What? I heard my name," he said, running a hand through his sandy blonde hair.

"Oh, no, it was nothing," I replied, "Just saying that you and Gabe were sharing a room."

"Ah, I see," he said uncertainly.

"Something wrong with that?" There had better not be something wrong with that. I'd rather not switch rooms…

"No," Lucas replied, "I just don't know him too well." Ershey giggled.

"Well," she said, "None of us know each other too well!" Lucas laughed, remembering that fact.

"True, true," he said, grinning, "Guess I should go unpack, too." He jogged past the five of us and up the stairs. I felt someone poke my arm. I turned and found Kyriel next to me.

"So, that means we're sharing a room?" she asked, smirking, "Haven't you gotten sick of me, already?" I smiled back.

"Well, I spent ten hours trapped on a plane with you. What's a whole year, eh?" I said, enthusiastically. Kyriel laughed. I like her laugh.

"So, what do you say we celebrate the new year?" asked Blink, jumping up, "Let's order pizza!" Okay, he really needs to stop jumping.

"We're in New York and you suggest pizza?" Ershey asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What? I like pizza," Blink replied. Ershey rolled her eyes.

"Fine, fine, pizza! I'll go tell the others." With that, she made her way out of the lobby and into the living room.

I had to agree with Ershey, though. Pizza? I didn't travel for ten hours across the entire country for pizza. Although, I had to admit, I was pretty tired from the trip. Fine, pizza. Whatever.

"YES!" Blink exclaimed, rummaging around for a phonebook, "Pizza, pizza, I love pizza! Pizza—." Oh, good god.

"Please, don't sing," Kyriel said, cutting him off. He stopped. Whew.

~*~

All the characters who didn't appear in this chapter will most likely appear in the next *nod*. It shall be in Fighter/Randy's POV! Review and Skittery will--mmgghhpphh! [Skittery: *covers her mouth with his hand* Just review...]

Shout-outs:
Ershey - *pokes* Yes, yes, Kim and I are very shneaky. :D Don't worry, I shall not forget FL!
Dewey - Muaha, no problem addin' in Runner! And poor Spot, gettin' hit by a GIRL! Muahaha.
SpotLover421 - WOW! There really IS an Aaron Raymond? Interestin'...
TheLoneReed - I KNEW you'd like that part! Shnookums? Haha, never been called that before...
Zip1899 - 'Allo Zippy! Hehe, glad you're anticipatin' the next chapter! :D
Imrickjamesbitch4 - Thank you! :D
Soaker - That chapter was a little hard to write with all the intros.. Well, glad you thought I did okay with it. :D
azn-kimmi - Hahaha, you and Fighter both loved that part! Thanks for helpin' me get everythin' organized for this fic, by the way!