The Highland Kids: Closet Space

Chapter 3

Meredith gathered us at the front door so we could "have a proper tour of the house" in her words. She passed out cartons of juice and the cookies Aria and I made earlier.
"I'm going upstairs to take a nap; Jordan will give the tour and answer any questions you might have." She headed upstairs leaving me alone with a small army's worth of fifteen-year-olds.

"Okay, we're going down to the first level to start, and we'll work our way upwards. The basement door is in between the kitchens so you'll have to follow me through the lounge. It's got a complete TV gaming setup, an aquarium, a cozy fireplace and really comfy sofas."
I led them into the back of the house.
"In here are the kitchens. There's one for cooking and one for baking. Aria makes most of the food but we can bake whenever we want."

I turned their attention to the door in the between the two kitchens.
"Here's the basement, watch your step when you go down as the stairs don't produce a lot of friction. I spend most of my time down here."

Most of them were pretty surprised when they saw the mini hair salon, but that's only in one corner of the basement. There's also a projector and lots of cushions for movie nights; a ping-pong table, a dartboard, and a giant wall of books. For some reason, Jackson took an interest in the mini hair salon.

"So, you know how to do hair?"
"Yeah, well I'm learning to. But Meredith is sending me to a camp for it and has one of her friends training me. Maybe she'll do the same for all of you and your interests."

Alyza got excited when I told her that. I swear her face lit up like a Christmas tree.
"You mean Meredith will financially help us pursue our dreams? Like, we tell her what we want to be when we grow up, and she'll help us?"
"Yeah," I matched her enthusiasm "Think of it as her way of making up for what happened in the past. Anyway, back up the stairs we go!"

We turned right and headed into the library that doubled as Meredith's office.
"Alright, the library, there's plenty of books in here and there's also a-"
"GRAND PIANO! Arty loves these things, almost as much as talking in the third person."
"Arty, do you play?" Alyza examined the cover of a book before putting it back on the shelf.
"No, but I've always wanted to learn. Maybe Meredith will get me lessons."
"There's a very high chance she will get you lessons. One of her top priorities is our happiness, it comes right after our safety and well-being. Now, up we go! Aidan, since you've been pretty quiet, which way do you want to go, left or right?"
"I don't know, uh...right?"
"Right it is. Up here is a free space, there's yoga mats and a ballet bar. You can use this space to stretch, dance if you're into that, do yoga, meditate or anything peaceful that comes to mind. Now to the left side of the level. In this room, you do the exact opposite of whatever was in the right room. The walls are soundproof so you can scream as loud as you want. Pretty sure it's there to serve as a practice room for musicians. But there's lots if pillows made for throwing or screaming and many sofas to sit on to cripple your spines... Any questions?"

Jackson raised his hand. "Uh yeah, who's the chick downstairs and how old is she?"
"Okay two things, one: ew, two: that would be Aria and she's twice your age. Moving on, you have all seen the bedrooms already, so we can skip the next two floors. Get ready to climb up three more flights of stairs."

This next fact is unnecessary but I feel obligated to say it: Jackson drew a dick on his nameplate.
Okay, fact over. Back to the tour. I guided everyone upstairs to the bathrooms. One hallway with bathrooms on both sides, three bathrooms on the left, four on the right; with the staircase up to Meredith's room right in the middle.

"Here are the bathrooms, each person eventually will have to share with one other person when the house gets full. At the moment, there are five of us and seven bathrooms. I already have mine and it's the one in the left corner of the room next to the window on the left side of the hall, now go kill each other for the best one. But do it quietly, Meredith is asleep upstairs. Oh, and Meredith and Aria's rooms are the only thing upstairs, so we're not going to go up there. Once you all have your bathrooms, you can go do whatever you want."