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Chapter Two

Hey, new chapter! I'm going to try and update every day, because for once, I'm on a roll with my writing.

This chapter is the day the Cliffords are moving to Sydney. It's nothing exciting though, so it's basically just a filler.

The photo of the Titanic staircase is how the main staircase of the Cliffords' new house/mansion looks, without the statue in front of it. The pool is how the Cliffords' new rooftop pool looks like. Y'know, like a pool built into the roof with deck chairs around one side of it. And with a low safety wall right on the edge of the roof so you don't fall out of the pool and to your death, but you can still see over the edge to the city.

***

Michael was right. Sydney was beautiful. His heart had leaped as he watched the pristine buildings pass through the window of his parents' car. The moving van was following them into the city, but Michael couldn't care less. All he cared about was finally having the chance at making new friends who will (hopefully) stay, who didn't know who he or his parents were. Well, as long as he could come out of his shell long enough to be able to talk to people he's never met. The prospect of moving school was actually quite intimidating. A lot of the people would already know each other, and Michael would be the new kid in every sense of the word.

Michael's heart sank faster than the Titanic when their new house came into view. It was just as big and beautiful as their last one, if not more. It wasn't flashy, but it wasn't inconspicious either. How was he going to hide a mansion from his new friends if they wanted to come round for dinner or to just hang out? He wouldn't be able to invite them over. He'll just have to keep making excuses on why they couldn't come round. But won't they find that suspicious? Michael didn't want to find out what would happen if they figured out he had been lying the whole time. They would all leave him, probably. But that's what they do anyway, he thought to himself as he got out of the car.

The inside of the mansion was just as beautiful as the outside. As soon as you walked through the door, there was the hallway that was more like a large living room, in which there was the main staircase that split into two leading to upstairs.

The doorway on the right led into the actual living room, which was larger than their last; double the size of Michael's old bedroom. Towards the bottom of the living room was another doorway in which Michael only looked through curiously.

It was the kitchen with an island in the middle. It was smaller than he expected, but it was still rather big for a place to cook. The back door in the kitchen led to a conservatory that had a large screened tv hung up on the wall.

On the other side of the main hallway opposite the living room was a small toilet toom that wasn't very small at all. Michael rolled his eyes. They could easily convert it into a different room, what was the point in having a large room for one toilet and sink?

Next to that was another large room, except it was completely empty. Maybe he could ask his parents if he could have that as his game room like the one he had before.

The last room downstairs was an indoor jacuzzi. A jacuzzi. Michael had to snort at that, because really? Stereotype of rich preople much? But then he supposed it is quite cool, like an indoor swimming pool, except much smaller.

The staircase leading upstairs to the right were all bedrooms. There was the master bedroom right at the top of the stairs, in which he guessed his parents will be sleeping in. Next to that was another bedroom, though much smaller, and he supposed that would be his room. But after that was three more large rooms that could possibly be spare bedrooms, and Michael supposed he would choose one of the others because who would want to sleep right next to their parents? Who knew how thin the walls were. Not that he got any in the first place. To top them all off, they all had en suite bathrooms.

On the other side of the upstairs part of the house (Michael had to go down the stairs only to climb up the ones leading off from the main stairs to the left, which he grumbled about), was only three doors.

The very first door led into what looked to be a large changing room, and what? Why would a mansion, or a house for that matter, need a changing room? Spotting an open doorway set into the middle of the right wall, Michael decided to explore this room more. He cautiously went to the doorway only to find a small staircase in which he climbed up. Which led to an outdoor pool on the roof. An actual rooftop pool. Michael's eyes widened. He had seen pictures of these kind of mansions, of course he had, but he had never known anyone to live in one or been to one himself. And now he himself was living in one. It was extravagent, but fuck. It was probably the best part of the house. Now he understood the changing room below.

Climbing back down the small stairs, Michael explored the rest of the upstairs. The room next to the changing room was probably what you could call a mini library; there were bookshelves all around the room, but empty of books. That didn't matter though, Michael's parents had plenty to fill the shelves. The room next to that was another big room, probably the room his dad would use as his office.

Michael went back downstairs to find that they had gotten the living room furbished by the time he had finished exploring, and the rest of their furniture was sitting in the hallway waiting to be taken up to the bedrooms while everything else were still packed in the boxes so nothing would break (Michael would kill the men helping them move house if they had broken any of his gadgets).

The rest of that afternoon was spent unpacking and setting everything up in their bedrooms so they would have something to sleep on that night. Mivhael also made sure he dug out his laptop so he would have something to do while sitting in bed (he had decided to take the room one door down from the master room).

He decided to unpack everything else tomorrow and then he will have the rest of the week to explore Sydney and think of what he will say at school when they ask about his home life.