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Chapter 6: Home

Thank you so much for reading! 

Happy reading!

~~~~~

Culture Cottage truly was a traditional cottage by the lake. It was bigger than Nella expected. The building was made of dark wood, sporting a pretty flower bed in the front yard and a cute little porch swing to the left of the door. The wrap-around porch led to a much more house than the front portrayed. With her guitar in-hand, Nella followed Oliver through a side door into a foyer-type of room. Nella was immediately washed in the scent of vanilla.

"Knock-knock!" Oliver shouted into the house. A patter of feet came rushing toward the front entrance. 

"Oh, they're here!" Uri swung around the corner clothed in a stained apron. "What took you guys so long? I just finished the frosting for the—"

"Our school is on fire." Oliver said nonchalantly.

Uri just blinked. "I think the proper term is 'lit.'"

Oliver rolled his eyes. "I'm serious, the school was on fire. We passed it on the way here."

Uri looked at Nella expectantly. "How bad was it?"

Nella shrugged and picked at her cuticle. "It'll be out of commission for awhile. There was lots of smoke."

Oliver shrugged and placed Nella's bags on the ground. "Yeah. We'll probably have to transfer somewhere."

"Well, that really sucks." Uri frowned, an odd look for the bubbly girl. "A lot of people will be out of jobs: teachers, janitors, coaches. Our entire class is going to be separated, too; we can't all transfer to the same high school."

"That's fine with me. I've never had much attachment to the student body." Oliver stretched, his back popping like bubble wrap.

"Oliver, you were the football captain. You have an entire team you might not play with again."

Nella raised her eyebrows. "You were captain?"

He looked almost offended. "Why is that such a surprise?"

"You just... don't seem like the type to lead people." She said, fitting her entire foot into her mouth. Oliver raised his eyebrows and rapid-fire, panic-filled words started to tumble out of her. "Not that you wouldn't be good at it! It seems like a position that comes to you naturally, but you don't really seek it out. So, you can lead, but you just don't want to. Does that make sense? Sorry, I'm trying to back-peddle because I sounded rude earlier and I--"

A large hand suddenly covered her mouth and the bottom of her nose, cutting off her air supply. "Shut up. Stop panicking. I understand."

Against her will, her tongue darted out and licked his hand. It tasted gross, like sweat and hand sanitizer. 

Oliver snatched his hand away and looked at it incredulously. "Did you just... did you just lick me?"

More panic flooded her system. "Oh, my God. I am so sorry! I couldn't breathe and it was just, like, instinct, and--"

"Alright! I am going to end this conversation right here." Uri took Nella's arm and pulled her through a hallway and into a kitchen. "I made some cake for our first night as roommates! It's vanilla."

Nella tried to ignore the fact that she just licked a near-stranger by admiring Uri's cake. It looked almost like a wedding cake. White and pink flowers made of frosting made up the border. In the center, beautiful swirly letters read "Welcome Nella!" with small pink hearts scattered across. Nella suddenly remembered the all-around odd interaction between the Kirkwood siblings and her at Barnes & Noble. "So this is why you asked for my favorite cake yesterday."