To say it wasn't awkward would be a lie.
From the moment I returned to the accommodations that had been given to me and meet with my temporary roommates to this very moment, I have felt a wave of awkwardness in me.
Last night consisted of warm welcomes and happy faces those of which were not so appreciated by me. In response of their unnecessary and picking questions was my silence, which resulted in the awkward atmosphere that surrounded the room.
I simply hugged my knees and sat on the very edge of my bed with my back touching the back wall. Interacting with others was not my forte, which clearly came to affect me in situations like this. I watched as the other girls who slept in the same room as me prepared themselves to get ready for the day, each one of them at their own moment sparing an eye at me.
"Hey!" Arianna burst into the room with an easygoing grin on her face. I felt a breath of relief in me, Arianna had the ability to make tight situations breathable again.
"How's it going girls!"
"Hey Ari!" They responded in chorus.
"What type of training do we have today?" Arianna asked.
"Hand combat!" A tall girl with sparkling grey eyes sang. "I love hand combat days!"
"Well I hate them." Another chortled bitterly. She was tying up her short hair with a frown on her face. She was two heads smaller than the first, which would explain why she would have such issues with hand combat.
"That's only 'cause you suck Dan." Laughed another girl while pulling down her shirt.
"Don't worry," Arianna grinned, "I hated hand combat days too."
I glanced to see Arianna's facial expressions but they showed no hint of pain or regret.
"Well anyway, I was just here to talk to my friend over there. I hope you don't mind?"
"We were just about to leave don't worry." The last one muttered, her eyes piercing into my skin. She seemed the fiercest of them all, her lips curling downwards as if they came into contact with a lemon.
Arianna stepped aside as the group of girls stepped out of the room, she gave the smallest one a small wave before turning back to me.
"How was your sleep?"
My fingers pressed against the springiness of the mattress as I moved to stand. In truth I didn't sleep. My body and my mind felt it was still in an unsafe space as it is not accustomed to sleep with others. Breathing that is not my own usually signified a threat and the automatic adrenaline stops me from resting at all.
"It was okay." I muttered.
"I'm glad to hear that" She beamed. "Grandma told me all about your case and has currently given you two options during your stay here."
I nodded.
"You can either stay in this room the entire week," she stated looking around the boorish room, "or you can follow me around and help out with some of my chores. The choice is yours."
The thought of having to hang around someone who is constantly in crowds makes me nauseous. The best course of action would be to stay here for the rest of the week. I quickly glanced around the room and inwardly sighed. Then again, a week here would be complete hell.
I glanced to look at Arianna's opinion and it was clearly expressed on her face.
"I'll go with you." I decided after a few moments.
"Great!" She grinned. "Oh! After dinner we could also pick up your clothes at the laundry, I'm pretty sure by then they'll be finished with them!"
I nodded in response.
"Let's go then! We have a lot of work ahead of us!" She smiled.
After breakfast, Arianna went on the explaining more about the bunker and it's history. The bunker itself was called Orfidus, why? Arianna wasn't very sure either but its initial intention was to shield the small town of Grandel in case of an emergency. The oversight of the construction was Michael Small, who had served in the military, and his brother, a scientist who no longer walks amount the living. Ever since the beginning of the war, the town of Grandel had hidden here in solace of the horrors above. Some have left, while many of them have continued to stay to this very day.
"We have other bases as well," Arianna continued, "some of them still stand and are expanding really quickly."
"Ari!" The same red head from yesterday came by to greet us, a shy smile on his lips as he looked over to me. "Uh, how was your night?"
"It was one of the best nights I've had, but it's not me you're asking is it?" She grinned slyly.
Their eyes landed on me and I stared back, not getting what they were implying.
"She- she slept well." Arianna ended up responding for me.
"That's good." He smiled widely.
An awkward quietness enveloped us before Arianna suddenly stood up. "Don't you have somewhere to be Parker?"
His eyes widened. "I'm late!"
"If it's Vans you're screwed! He isn't going to forgive tardiness!" Sang Arianna with a villainous smile.
"Bye." He waved softly at me before sprinting down out the lounge. "Don't forget I'm eating with you at dinner today!"
"That brat." Arianna huffed. "He hardly eats with me but the moment you arrive it's like I'm suddenly someone he's best friends with."
"There's something wrong with him."
My eyes widened and my hand quickly flew over my mouth. Why did I say that out loud? Arianna's eyes were also wide in shock before a sly smile crawled onto her face.
"You're quite the charmer despite your quietness." She grinned.
I bit my lip awkwardly in response.
"Come on, everyone is starting to gather around." She said after teasing me.
I watched from behind the crowd as their group leader easily spoke to them, separating the tasks evenly and handing out broomsticks and mops from a little room. They all listened to her attentively and respectively, the organization of it all was very interesting to see.
As everyone dispersed to do their individual tasks, Arianna headed towards me with a broom in her hands. "Have you ever broomed before?"
I nodded hesitantly.
"Good 'cause that's your job today! I've asked Leah to give you a separate room for yourself, it's number 25 the very last door for the single males."
I nodded again, the feeling of gratefulness flooding me.
"I'll come up to check on you later okay? Bye!" She ran off to accompany the person who was speaking to the crowd earlier.
"Bye." I mumbled to myself and looked at the broom in my hands. I looked up to see others heading towards their respective rooms while others prepared to mop. Okay, this is fine. I can do this. I walked into the men's section and down the hallway. Peering into the individual rooms I noticed that each group would sweep every nook and cranny, making sure that no speck of dust was left.
I finally reached my assigned room, realizing that it was an unoccupied room and lacked any signs of life. I grabbed the broom in the most comfortable way I could think of, both of my hands grabbing it like a baseball bat, and began to sweep the dust.
It wasn't long until Arianna popped by to check up on me. "Whoa, this place is spotless!"
I stood awkwardly by the door as she began to inspect the room for any remaining particles.
"You did well thanks!" She exclaimed and I looked around as if asking what was next on the list. "It's time for me to check up on the bath house clean up so I came to pick you up."
I followed her out, the broom still in my hands. "Um?"
"Oh! Duh." She giggled. "Let me take that out of your hands."
She grabbed my broom and placed it into the closet where other brooms laid. Then we walked to the bath house, walking past the restrooms. Inside were several women laughing while scrubbing several different parts of the facility.
"Oh! Morning Ari!" An older woman greeted her happily,
"Morning Hannah!" Arianna responded. "How's everything here?"
"Everything's just dandy!" Hannah laughed. "We were just discussing some things we do while everyone's gone."
"Oh?" Laughed Arianna. "That sounds interesting, do you need any help?"
Hannah shook her head. "Group Two has plenty of hands, so everything has been covered so far."
"That's good to hear!" Arianna nodded, "Well if you need anything you know who to call."
"You're my gal!" Hannah chortled along with the other ladies accompanying her.
"Alright, I'll see you later Hannah!"
"Goodbye!"
Giggles and whispers were heard as left the bath house. Arianna rolled her eyes and smiled. "Hannah is such a busy-body, if something happens you can put it in your mind that she'll be the first to know."
She checked her watch and nodded. "Breakfast is in about an hour so we'll quickly check on the laundry and help out before we go."
Together, along with the group leader Violet, we collected articles of clothing from the women section and made sure not to mix any of it together.
The rest of the day went on like that, walking in circles to check on each independent group and helping out from time to time until dinner time finally hit.
"I'm famished." Arianna grunted rubbing her belly as we rested in the lounging area. "We can't go now though," she thought out loud, "if we go now we would clash with the crowd waiting to be fed. Do you mind if we check if everything is in its place before we go and eat?"
I shook my head gently.
"Great! Come on."
We made sure every room had their respective laundry basket, and were spotless. We checked the closet and counted every broom and mop to ensure everything was there.
I glanced to see the restrooms which were un touched the entire day.
Arianna sensing my question responded. "We leave the restrooms as punishments. Any trainees that fail to do something correctly or break anyone who breaks any rules end up there."
Seeing that the restrooms are latrines it makes sense to make them as a punishment. Where does all of the stuff go? I wondered but ignored such a disgusting topic.
We checked to see if the bath house was clear and the laundry as well.
"Well it seems like everything is in order." Arianna nodded in satisfaction. "Let's go."
Once arriving at the cafeteria she moved towards the line that awaited their share of food. At breakfast I learned that everyone in the bunker had one meal ticket per meal but it was possible to give one away.
I'll do that again. I had given my ticket away at breakfast and lunch, as yesterday's meal was enough to fill me up for the entire week.
"Don't tell me you plan to give your ticket away again!" Arianna exclaimed.
I nodded.
"You haven't eaten anything at all today!"
"I ate yesterday."
"No! You have to eat at least three meals a day!" She huffed. "It's not healthy if you do so otherwise!"
"I'm not hungry." I muttered.
She let out a sigh. "Hey, at least eat something light. A salad maybe? Please?"
I pursed my lips and finally agreed.
"Thank you."
I did as she asked, grabbing a small salad and a variety of different colored fruits, some I hadn't seen in a long time. She grabbed the other option, a turkey sandwich that came along with banana chips. We took a seat separately from others, and began to eat our food. Well, she ate, I just picked on my plate.
The red head suddenly came by with slumped shoulders and a dead expression on his face.
"What happened to you?" Arianna snorted.
"I hate hand combat days." He grumbled.
"That's the second time I've heard that today. Who ended up teaching it?" She asked taking a bite of her sandwich.
"Vans."
She inhaled sharply. "He's the worst. Wait-"
"Yep, the fact that I arrived late didn't help either. He also seemed to be in a horrible mood by the way."
She winced. "You definitely got-"
"Bathroom duty. Yup, that's my life as of this moment." He nodded absentmindedly but quickly changed the tune. "So how was your day?"
"Oh me? Same as usual, walked in complete circles while supervising everyone."
"Okay, how about you?" He suddenly turned to me.
I glanced between the two of them quietly and swallowed. "Interesting."
After a few moments they began to chuckle to themselves. Did they expect something else?
"'Interesting' is something I haven't at all heard." Arianna chewed with a grin. "I've heard awesome, cool, or some can't even express words but 'interesting'! How funny."
"Leave her alone." The boy huffed and turned to me. "What about it do you find interesting?"
I fumbled with the fork in my hand.
"Come on!" Arianna waved. "I need to know what makes it so interesting!"
I felt a sudden pressure to say something. "It's just- interesting."
"I find you interesting." Arianna mused and the boy suddenly sat up. "Oh, P, this one is just so cute! I just want to eat her up." Eat me up? What does that mean? "She said that there was something wrong with you for ignoring me for so long! Isn't that the cutest?"
He turned to look at me with alert in his eyes. "Be careful," he hissed, "even though Ari seems really nice, she's actually a cougar! She'll attack you when you least expect it!"
A cougar? Like the wild cat? I looked at Arianna who reached over to smack him, her eyebrows deeply furrowed.
"Don't be rude! I might be older than her but not much older! And don't say attack! I don't suddenly pounce on people!" She rambled. "I might pursue them but I don't claim anything as mine!"
"I thing aggressively pursuing counts as pouncing." He corrected while reaching for his sandwich.
"If you don't stop I swear I'll-"
"What? You'll what? Claw my throat out?" He poked.
She frowned and glared at him. "You seriously annoy me, just go back to your group of friends! I'll hang out with her!"
"No because you'll attack her, besides, they're busy baby-sitting!"
"Just because cute girls are my type doesn't mean I would instantly attack her!"
"Instantly! See! You're dangerous!" He huffed.
I kept looking between the two of them, the nature of the conversation was heading nowhere but a single question lingered in my mind.
The boy noticed the change in me and stopped arguing with Arianna. "Hey what's wrong?"
Arianna turned to look at me and leaned in. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
I struggled internally, wondering if my curiosity was worth satisfying. Ugh, whatever.
"What's a cougar?" I asked.