Nation

Chapter 17- Accomodation

To say I was sick of all this travelling would be the understatement of the century.

It was getting darker by the minute, and we were all desperate for sleep. A random man showed us all to where we would be staying. I had to admit, it could have been worse.

It was in the basement, and there was wooden flooring with plain cream painted walls. There were four sets of bunk beds, which was slightly more than we needed, but I was sure we would find a use for the spares.

There were two doors on the opposite wall to the bunks, which lead to bathrooms. They looked clean enough, which I greatly appreciated. In between the doors to the bathroom stood a large, wooden wardrobe. If we were going to be staying here, at least the living conditions wouldn't be too bad.

The guy who showed us down here announced all we would need to know.

"You will be woken up at eight on the dot. You will be expected to be ready for that day's duties by eight thirty. Uniforms are in that wardrobe, and there is a laundry room upstairs where you will wash your own clothes. You may do as you wish as soon as you finish that day's duties. When you are finished, you may help your peers if you wish, to help them finish quicker. With most of the duties, you will be in a pair. If you mess up or behave badly, I'm sorry to say that there will be consequences. Just to say, I am really sorry this is happening to you and I will try my best to make sure you all are treated well. I really hope you get out of this place some day. Goodnight."

He dipped his head, and left us alone. It was nice to know he was on our side.

I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding. I was all of a sudden very sad, as a sudden wave of homesickness washed over me. I wasn't missing my parents one bit, because they were the ones who got me into this mess in the first place. I didn't know if I would ever forgive them- that is, if I ever see them again.

Gen, Steve, and Fliss all rushed to get dibs on bunks. It amazed me how, even though we were in horrible circumstances, they were all still acting like kids.

It dawned upon me that Darius and I would probably be like the parents of the group, and always organizing the others.

Gen, Fliss, and Steve had all gotten top bunks, and so there was only one top bunk left. Fliss had the one closest to the door, Gen was in the middle, and Steve was at the end. I had a bad experience with top bunks, so I decided to get a low bunk.

"Do you want the other top bunk?" Darius asked.

"Not really. I was on holiday once and I fell off the top bunk and broke my wrist."

"Bad times. I fell off a top bunk once and broke my sister's leg."

"You broke her leg?"

"Yeah, I broke her leg."

"By Gad."

"What accent even is that?"

"What?"

"Your accent."

"I don't know what it is myself, to be honest."

I took the bunk underneath Gen, and Darius took the one underneath Steve. We used the spare bunks to put our bags.

"What do you think the uniforms are like?"

"Only one way to find out."

The boy's uniforms consisted of a white shirt, grey waistcoat, black bowtie, black trousers, and black leather army boots.

The girl's uniform was a navy jersey skater dress, a black blazer and black gladiator sandals that laced up the front. I'm glad to say that there was a pair of short black shorts included for under the dress, because I'm really clumsy and the dress only went to just above the knees. There was also a box at the bottom of the wardrobe that contained hair bobbles and brushes.

"What time is it?" I asked, yawning lile a baby whale.

Steve looked at his watch, which for some reason, I was surprised he had.

"Half twelve." He replied.

I widened my eyes. I knew it was late, but I didn't know it was that late.

We assigned each gender a bathroom, and each person took it in turns to go and get ready for bed.

Everyone got in their bunks, and I switched out the lights.

"Goodnight everyone."

¤·········¤··········¤··········¤··········¤··········¤

It must have been about two in the morning, and I still couldn't sleep, despite my earlier exhaustion. Looking at the inside of my eyelids was getting boring, and I was getting restless. I was getting terrible hot aches in my ankles, knees, and shoulders, and it was horrible.

As far as I could see, with the little light the dark was providing, everyone else was asleep.

I sat up and rubbed my face with my clammy hands. Eventually, I got so restless that I begun pacing up and down the room just to pass the time and try to get rid of these hot aches.

"Can't sleep?"

A voice startled me, and I gasped.

"Don't worry, it's just me. I can't sleep either." I recognised the voice to be Darius, and I blushed. I really hoped he couldn't see me, because I looked mint in my shorts pyjamas and old charity t-shirt.

"Wanna sit up in the spare bunk for a while? I bet it's cold up there."

"Sure."

I suddenly felt very stupid. Of course, those bunks would be cold.

We climbed up into the top bunk, because the bottom one had all of our bags in.

Out of nowhere, Darius produced a torch and shined it in between us so we could see each other.

"What do you wanna talk about?" I asked feebly, picking at the hem of my shirt. I felt really embarrased that I hadn't bought any nicer pyjamas.

"Tell me all about yourself."

I sighed, before spilling everything to him. We were going to be together for a while, I assumed, so I decided it'd be good to get to know each other.

It turned out Darius got kicked out of his house, because his parents thought he was a failure. They wanted him to go to law school, but Darius said he wanted to be an engineer. I thought being an engineer was a good career, so I was surprised his parents weren't proud of him. Apparently his big sister got perfect grades and was now a lawyer, and they wanted him to follow in his footsteps.

Apparently he was sleeping rough one night, when he was drugged and taken out to Romania.

I could see us becoming big friends and fast, and as wierd as it sounds, I was looking forward to spending time getting to know him here.