The Impeccable Infinity

Chapter 3

As I stood at the front door, Ruth by my side, the gold knob turned and the door began to open with a squeaking sound I hadn't noticed before. The loud roar of voices erupted through the air while kids entered the house, all talking to each other at once. They stopped suddenly when they noticed Ruth standing with me close by, the smiles in their faces fading as they looked over at me, scanning my body up and down.

     I felt awkward and out of place with all of their eyes on me, and all I wanted to do in that moment was run away. I'm not some type of museum attraction, they can't just observe me this intensely without my consent.

    "Kids, this is your new housemate, Haley!" Ruth said enthusiastically.

    "Hey," They all said in unison. I gave them a timid smile and held up my hand, gently waving back.

Why do I feel so shy?

    "Haley, why don't you get unpacked and learn your way around the house, and then you can get to know everyone," Ruth eagerly stated, putting a hand on my shoulder.

    I looked over to her and smiled before grabbing the handles of my suitcases and attempting to balance my duffle bags over my shoulder.

    "Oh wait honey, you can't carry all of those by yourself. Riley!" Ruth called while looking over at the group of kids and making eye contact with one of them. "Help Haley take her things to her room."

     A girl close to my age stepped forward from the group, with a sincere look on her face, and began walking in my direction. She actually looked happy to meet me - unlike all of the others.

    "Haley this is Riley. She's going to be your roommate. You two are going to get along so well!" Ruth exclaimed before turning back to the group of kids. "Okay, as for the rest of you, follow me to the kitchen. And Riley, please make Haley feel at home, okay?"

    Riley gave her a nod and watched until all of the kids left the room before she turned back to me. Her brown hair whipped around as she turned to study my face.

    "Hey, I'm Riley. We're going to be sharing the same room. It's nice to meet you!" she said before grabbing the handle of one of my suitcases and swinging a duffle bag over her shoulder.

    "Hey, I'm Haley. It's nice to meet you too. So, what's it like living here?"

    I picked up the remaining bags laying on the floor next to us. They seem much heavier now that I'm bracing myself to lug them up the stairs. Riley on the other hand seemed to be unphased at the excessive weight.

    "It's pretty nice. There's some people you should try to avoid and some things you need to remember, but let me show you our room first. Then we can talk and get to know each other."

    I nodded, and with that, we began climbing up the wooden stairs with my luggage at our sides.

    Once we reached the top of the stairs, the only thing in front of us was a long, straight hallway. There were no turns, no bends, and no hidden rooms as I thought there would be - at least from what I saw in movies about orphans. Only one long, stretched hallway with multiple white wooden doors on either side of the walls, and at the end of the hallway, a single white door.

    "Our room's towards the end," Riley said, looking back at me.

    We continued dragging my luggage and trudged down the hallway until we made it to our room, the last door on the left side wall of the hallway. Riley looked over at me with a smile still plastered across her face.

    "The single room at the end is Ruth's bedroom, all of the other rooms are bedrooms and bathrooms." I nodded in response, desperately waiting to see my new room.