Chapter Two

The house was chaos as they entered, but Charlie couldn’t help but marvel at the sheer size of it. The living room was huge, with a dip in the floor where there was a TV, sofa, and a few chairs. There was a terrace going round the wall above their head, where a lot of doors led off, and there were more doors leading out various ways. There seemed to be loads of people running around. “How many of you are there?” James asked in astonishment.

“Thirteen. Fourteen, plus Kevin Cassidy. We need an adult supervisor in order to stay together.”

“How long have you been together?” Charlie asked.

“Six years, or there abouts.”

Matt nodded, “Impressive…”

Another boy who was totally identical to Martin ran up, “M, Frances is coming round later so be nice to him. And-” He bounced up and down in excitement, before holding out his hands, “-I painted my nails.”

“What?” Martin yanked his wrist towards him. “Pink?! Phi! I told you not to!”

The other boy yanked his hand back, “Since when I have I listened to what you say?” He noticed the other three, “Oh, yeah. You were arriving today. Phillip Young.”

“So you’re brothers?”

“No, sisters.”

“Phillip!”

Phillip rolled his eyes, “He’s so uptight.” He skipped off. Martin glared after him. He turned to Charlie with a sigh, “Try living with that for seventeen years. He managed to break a window a minute after he was born.” He shook his head slowly. “Anyway. Introductions. Want me to call everyone to us or take you to them?”

“Which is better?”

“Calling them to us is funnier because they all hate having to trail through to here, but they’re all in a really bad mood if you do that.”

“Let’s just incorporate that into a house tour,” Matt suggested.

*          *          *          *          *

They were given three separate rooms up on the terrace. They had to scan their hands to get in and James was shocked by the fact that their handprints had already been uploaded. He’d been told that they had a Meena Ran though, one of the smart Humans. Maybe she’d done it. “How can you afford this?” James heard Matt ask Martin in shock. Martin laughed and was probably about to answer before:

“MACKENZIE, YOU ARE SO FUCKING DEAD!”