Stranded

#20

"This place isn't haunted, right? I mean it looks freakishly old, but I can't handle ghosts well." Normani shivered along with Dinah as they stood outside the mansion.

"Since when were you such a scaredy cat?" Camila asks.

"Since the day, I've known these two idiots, I'd say since forever. Hailee actually told me a story of how you four got stuck in the high school theatre, and Dinah almost pissed her pants thinking that a ghost touched her leg." Luna comments, receiving a glare from Dinah.

"Haiz... you're dead." Dinah dead pans Hailee.

"You guys are such pussies. It's the only place we can work on our budget with, seeing that the University only sent out their exploration team two days ago to confirm our treasure is actually legit. And not to mention it's the only place that has big rooms and space for all of us. And it's only 15 minutes to the building we just looked at to open our dessert bar. Ghost or not, we can work with this place." Lauren explains like the proud woman she is, earning eye rolls from both Normani and Dinah.

"I think it's cool. Just make sure if there is a ghost haunting those walls, help me drag Normani and Dinah into a room and lock them in. It would be so worth it seeing them piss their pants." Camila wiggles her eyebrows, making Dinah smack her arms.

"Don't be a bitch Camila. One day karma will come back to bite you in the ass for doing that to me."

"Okay children. Calm down. Let's go have a look inside."

They had been brought back to society over three weeks ago, and Camila and Lauren seemed to be doing fine with them being around society again. They were coping well, Lauren had even searched for a therapist to start her sessions with, and they seemed to be helping her a lot. She had actually broken down a week after getting home, the stress of the paperwork, the housing, the gallery come dessert bar. Camila had to spend a good two hours hugging Lauren in bed, trying to get her to calm down, seeing that she was completely exhausted. Besides the breast feeding and taking care of their daughters, Lauren was completely depleted in energy, and their friends had stepped into to help a bit more. Only until after she had gone for her sessions did she come out of her shell and talk to everyone about her feelings. Of course, everyone understood, and the day after she talked, Normani had suggested that they bring Lauren out of the boat and head to the area they wanted their place to be in. It was nice to be making group decisions instead of a one-person view of everything. Camila saw it in Lauren that she wanted everyone to be happy with the decisions they made instead of everything falling onto one person. Their friends had spoken, saying that Lauren had done a great deal for them in terms of cash, paperwork and inventory on things. Sometimes they wished they could do more, but because Lauren was the only one who understood the business world better than they did, it was somewhat taxing for her.

Dinah and Normani however had agreed to be the ones to fix up the mansion, including Luna, who was a handy woman herself, leaving Hailee and Camila to be the ones to sort out the stuff with the university and the treasure, the amount of money needed for certain things and also with the planning and the progress of their situation. They had all agreed as well that the mansion would be a great place, seeing that Fish and Daemon could be a threat to the public, and therefore the forest around them would be a great place to have Fish and Daemon explore around without harming humans that go by. Or run into them for that matter. Things had been progressing so far, and once they have received their check, which was a big amount of money from the state as they found an old Spanish fleet worth of treasure that was lost to history for decades, they had planned to use their spendings well. They even had plans to store away cash for their children's future, which shows that they were thrifty people no doubt. And so here they stood, looking at their future home, thinking about what they could do to beef it up after Lauren had settled the papers with the property agent.