Distort the world into clarity

Chapter Eight: Settling

Since last week you guys got a double update, the chapter for this week is going to be a little bit shorter than usual. 

Lenny had come to bring Beatrice to her room, as promised. He had guided her to the golden elevator where they went to the sixth floor.

"So here's the thing, Missy. Every single floor is designed for a different size of animal. You'll stay with the medium sized animals. Your room has a bed, a closet and a shower. Most fish don't need a bed, but we still have some rooms with one. For us it's fun to lay in bed. I personally enjoy it very much. I imagine you like to sleep in beds too, correct?"

"Eh... yes."

"Great. Alright. It's room 646." Lenny handed her the key with his tail.

Beatrice took it, trying not to touch Lenny's tail while doing so. It looked pretty gross and slippery to her.

Lenny just shook his head, which made his piccolo hat almost fall off. "Just take the darn thing."

In one swoop, Beatrice grabbed the key. "Right, sorry. Thanks again, Lenny. I mean it. You really did me a huge favour."

The eel gave her a smile. "I know. I'm expecting you to do good work, alright? The boss will be mad if I hired someone useless."

This made Beatrice a little nervous, so she just smiled awkwardly at him. "I'll try to."

"That's all you can do. Just try and even if you do bad, keep trying. Try and try and try. If you're not fired yet, if it's not over, you have to keep trying. You understand? My reputation is on the line as well." Lenny looked into her eyes. 

This made Beatrice a bit more than just a little nervous. Did she have enough will-power to keep on going? She didn't think so, but Lenny was looking at her very intensely. "Okay," she decided to say quickly, so he would just stop staring.

"Great."

The elevator made a 'ding' noise. They'd arrived at the sixth floor.

"Now get out. I've got more work to do."

Quickly, Beatrice stepped out of the elevator. Before the doors closed, Beatrice waved to her sort-of-friend. He waved back, but Beatrice didn't notice it. His fins were too small for her to see.

At least she had Glen, Beatrice thought. She was supposed to meet him later for dinner and since she had nothing better to do today, she'd accepted. It might be fun to see what this restaurant had to offer and maybe she could already ask around about a way out.

Everything in her room was indeed medium sized, in comparison to the reception. Regular sized, that was the right word. It seemed almost normal.

Beatrice opened the door and stepped into the room, happily. It was quite a spacious room. She even had her own desk and an old-school reading chair. The lights were elegant and soft. It gave the room a nice warm feeling. Her bed had classy red sheets. It was quite big, bigger than her regular bed, but that only made it better for Beatrice. She was staying in an extremely expensive hotel, for free!

Her head was spinning, so Beatrice decided to lay down. The matrass was was extremely soft, she immediately felt comfortable. She looked up at the ceiling. What the hell was going on. She was in the fanciest hotel room she'd ever been in, she had a job, for the first time in her life. It had been a pretty good day. Then again, she was also still surrounded by fish, above her was still the earth and beneath her feet was still the sky. But... she'd made a friend. Maybe even two. For now, it didn't matter in what kind of strange world or situation she was, at least she knew she wouldn't have to face all of it alone.

With great care she arranged the pictures of her parents on the desk. After tidying up the rest of her stuff her stomach rumbled loudly. She was getting quite hungry...

Dinner, of course! It had almost slipped her mind, but Beatrice was still supposed to get dinner with Glen. She rushed towards the shower to get herself ready. She was still sweaty from all the walking. Even though Beatrice was completely exhausted and overwhelmed, she was looking forward to it. She'd missed talking with someone. Being alone for weeks hadn't been very fun.