Protected

Cat Person

I stood in the doorway of the game room with my mouth open. Lucas closed it for me.

"Well... it's more of a child's playroom, to be honest," he said.

There was a massive pirate ship, the upper mast attached to the wall. There was a rope bridge that led from the floor up into the air to the deck of the ship. One wall was completely made of lego studs, so you could stick legos anywhere on the wall. There was a ball pit in one corner.

I punched his shoulder as hard as I could.

"Dammit, Lucas! How could you not show me this the first time around?" I cried, "I could live in here!"

He laughed.

"Meeting, in the dining room!" Zay called up the stairs. 

Lucas shut the game room door and led me down the stairs.

For the first time, I notice the strange contraption on the walls. It was made of rope and metal pipes and wood. It ran up the top of the wall, with an open top. There were occasional rope bridges, and a branch of pipe opened onto the floor in every room. They even ran up the stairs, I noticed. 

When we got downstairs, Zay, Josh, Farkle and Riley were already at the table.

"Did you see the library?" Riley asked me excitedly.

"Did you see the game room?" I said.

We laughed, and Lucas and I sat down.

"What do you girls think?" Josh asked.

"When can we move in?" Riley and I asked in unison.

We laughed, and all of the guys looked really happy.

Suddenly, something small and furry brushed against my ankle. I jolted and looked under the table.

There was a cat, chilling under the table. I laughed, and it jumped to my lap, then to the table. It was a silvery white short hair cat with big blue eyes. It nuzzled my hand, and I rubbed its ears.

"Who's this?" I asked. I had never been much of a cat person, but I really liked this one, for some reason. Then the contraption on the walls made sense: it was a cat transit system! I almost laughed out loud.

"That's Gala," Zay answered, "And the others are around here somewhere..."

"There are more?" Riley asked.

"Yeah, Gala's kittens," Josh said.

I smiled and continued to rub her ears.

"What are we going to do with our house when we move in here?" Riley asked.

Zay shrugged, "The same thing we all do. Leave it. Lucas goes to his house sometimes, and so do we. But we spend most of our time here." He answered.

I nodded, "Seriously, though, when can we move in?" I asked.

"Anytime you want," Lucas said.

Riley and I exchanged looks.

"How about right now?" I asked.

Lucas smiled and nodded.