New Girl - The Creatures

Chapter 1

I exhaled slowly, clutching an overstuffed duffel bag in my left hand, my right hand raised into a fist, hovering in front of a large and handsome set of front doors. Understandably so, I was rather nervous about moving into a home with guys I barely knew, but I tried to remind myself that my best friend Marie would never lead me astray in a situation like this. I glanced down at my appearance quickly, making sure that I remembered to wear pants and that my shoes weren't untied or something.

My appearance was fairly conspicuous; faded, light blue straight leg jeans, black high rise Converse, an ivory and loose fitting tank top with 'Cage The Elephant' written in an abstract and messy black scrawl, and my favorite and well worn black zip-up jacket, the zipper was undone. I didn't know much about the guys I was going to be moving in with or how formal they may be, aside from the fact that they were video gamers on YouTube, and that Marie was fairly close with all of them. I felt that my casual look was appropriate since it was a crisp and late March day. I left my long, dark ginger hair down in its natural waves, and decided to keep my makeup at a lower level. Mascara, light brown and delicately winged eyeliner and my typically well-groomed eyebrows were all I chose to utilize today.

In addition to the duffel bag I was carrying, which held most of my clothing and my computer equipment sans monitor, I was wearing a large, mossy green backpack intended for hiking or camping. This contained pretty much all of my belongings, everything from toiletries to books to DVDs to a few small posters to the rest of my clothing. I also had my camera bag slung over my right shoulder, which contained my Nikon D3100, a 300-millimeter zoom lens, SD cards, battery charger, and card reader. The essentials, of course. I loved photography, I majored in commercial photography at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design here in Colorado.

I knocked on the door gingerly, hoping someone was close enough to hear it within. The exterior of the house was massive, a beautiful two stories with an additional sub-level. The backyard was just as impressive, accessorized with a large pool, porch, and generous amount of running room. There was a fairly good chance that no one heard my feeble knock, and, sheepishly, knocked again at a sharper and hopefully louder rate.

After a moment, the door was opened by a tall man with a black goatee and semi-spiked hair. He had a longer nose, a wide and contagious smile, and dark brown eyes. He looked at me and said, "I'm guessing you're Sam, right? Marie said you'd be over today, and I don't know how many other gingers were planning on visiting our humble abode today." He grinned the entire time he said this, and I instantly felt my nervousness slide away.

Grinning back, I nodded. "Yeah, I'm Sam. This is The Creature house, right? Or have I totally botched the address and become a nuisance?" He laughed and shook his head. "Nope, this is the right place. I'm Max, by the way. Come on in, the other guys should be out of hibernation by now."

He stood back, allowing for me to cross over the threshold. I let out a low whistle; I was lead into a cavernous room with two staircases, one ascending and one descending. The room was bare of furniture, but a multitude of hallways and doors branched off from it. My footsteps echoed, and I couldn't help but gape at the massiveness of the space. Max chuckled quietly and then bellowed out a procession of names. "Jordan! Dan! James! Seamus! Get down here, Sam is here!" I heard various shuffling, and the first new face I saw was one bedecked with a red St. Louis Cardinals hat. He shuffled out of the kitchen, bushy eyebrows and child-like eyes lit up.

"Hey! I'm Jordan, it's nice to meet you." He reached out and shook my hand firmly, and placed his hands on his hips, grinning. "It's nice to meet you too Jordan. Obviously, I'm Sam." Jordan opened his mouth to speak, but another voice cut him off before he could get a word in.
A short, stocky guy with a buzz cut and beard came up the stairs, a camcorder in hand. A red light was flashing dimly on the front, indicating that a recording was in process. I didn't really mind; at RMCAD, it wasn't uncommon to be on some sort of footage or camera reel at any given second, so being in front of the lens didn't bother me like how it bothered most. "Here she is! Sam, say hi to the Hub!" he said loudly.

"Hi, Hub!" I played along. The guy with the camera smiled at my cooperation and stopped the recording. He extended a hand to me and shook it in a far gentler manner than Jordan had. "I'm Dan. Sorry about the camera, I typically record everything new that happens in the house for the YouTube channel, and you're the new girl, so it only makes sense." I nodded understandingly and put my hand over my heart. "You're preaching to the choir, I'm all about cameras." His eyes lit up, and we talked about camera models for a few seconds before two figures came down the stairs, one in front of the other.

The first was a gangly, dark-haired and bearded tanned guy with a slightly larger nose than that of Dan or Jordan, but it wasn't obtrusive in any way. He looked tired and had obviously just woken up. He rubbed one eye with the back of his hand and yawned theatrically. I laughed quietly, and he looked up. "You're Sam, right? I'm James, and this lethargic fucker behind me is Seamus."

"Yeah, I can speak, asshole." The guy behind James had messy, dirty blonde hair, baby blue eyes, and was wearing black, rectangular glasses. He was pretty cute; all of the guys were attractive in their own respects, but he was definitely a looker. I chuckled at their exchange and nodded in response to James' question.

"Yep, that's me. It's nice to meet all of you, I'm really glad none of you turned out to be creepy old men or anything along those lines." I looked around at the bunch, as we had formed a semi-circle. I couldn't believe I was nervous earlier, they all seemed like extremely nice guys.

"Glad to know we aren't considered creepy! We must be doing something right. Here, I can show you to your room." Max said. He walked towards the stairs that led up to the top floor, and I followed suit. I glanced back down at the guys, who were all staring at me, but in a nonmenacing way. I felt my face get slightly red, but I grinned at them all the same. They smiled back, aside from Seamus, who seemed to be dozing off while standing. I laughed again and turned back to see where I was going.

Max led me to a room immediately to our right and opened the door. I was hit in the face with a barrage of pink, but I knew I'd be able to paint over it easily. The room was fairly large, but slightly chilly, even in the middle of the day. I didn't mind though, I prefer the cold over hot any day. To my relief, the room was accompanied with its own private bathroom. I knew I'd need it in a house full of guys.

"I know the pink is a bit much. James was gonna take this room as a joke, but he's a baby when it comes to the cold. Are you okay with it, or do you want a different room?" Max asked.
"Nah, this is good. Can I paint over the pink, though?" I replied, smiling.
"What, you don't like nauseating princess walls?" He said, feigning offense. We both laughed, and he started to move towards the door.

"Well, I'll let you unpack. We bought you a desk, desk chair, a bookshelf and a bed frame, courtesy of Ikea. We didn't think it would be too fun for you to sleep on the floor or not be able to use your computer. Oh, and James left a spare monitor, Marie said yours broke and we have them laying all over the place." I grimaced at the furniture part; I hadn't noticed them at first when I came into the room, but behind me was a black bed frame and mattress against the back wall, a 16 cubed black bookshelf against the left wall, and a large black desk and matching desk chair against the right wall. I immediately felt bad that they had already spent money on me when I met them about 20 minutes ago. "You guys didn't have t-" I began, but Max held up a hand.

"Sam, any friend of Marie's is a friend of ours. It was really nothing. Give a holler if you need anything!" He smiled and cracked the door behind him. He was super nice, as were the others. I would really have to thank Marie when I was done the unpacking. I dropped my bags to the floor gingerly and began.