George and Georgia were walking on a wet road, towards the Dango University, when George got a call.
"Hello?" George said, his voice deeper than normal.
"I'm Lucio. Am I speaking to George?" the person replied in a lazy tone that seemed urgent, a complete contrast.
"Yes…"
"Yesterday, you said that you needed a house. We moved in and I'll send you the address. Do come here as soon as possible. There is no need for your luggage as you can treat it as a tour."
"Okay, we'll be there as soon as possible." George said enthusiastically.
George turned to his sister who was already looking at him and said,
"Remember the guy we met at work yesterday? The guy who was ready to let us live in his house?"
"Yea…" Georgia replied as hope reignited in her eyes.
Living in the dormitories with the other students was good, but it was unaffordable for the siblings as their parents had passed away a few years ago and the pair lived off of the meagre money that their uncle sent them every month.
After paying the dormitory fee, they could barely afford to eat three meals a day, so they had to turn towards part-time jobs, which made their life easier and hard at the same time.
Part-time jobs meant less time to study and Georgia, a top-scorer, did not like that.
After discussing for a few days, the siblings came to a conclusion that sharing a room was cheaper than dormitories. But, unfortunately for them, most people didn't want to share and the students had already made groups.
After about a month of waiting, they finally found someone who was willing to share a house with them.
"So, that guy told us to meet him. As soon as possible." George said and the next second, the location to Lucio's house was shared.
"Let's go then. We just have to do the most basic tasks and we get to stay there for free." Gloria replied as she looked at her brother's phone and exclaimed "Wow… that's just five kilometres from the Uni!"
"Looks like we hit the jackpot." George said as he smiled before walking towards the nearest bus stop.
*****
George and Georgia were sitting in front of a Lucio as he examined them for a whole minute in amusement before he spoke,
"Why did you both wear …. This?"
George facepalmed while Georgia blushed bright red in answer to the question.
Lucio simply shook his head as he told them to not mind it and check out the place, which they happily did.
George and Georgia wore grey suits and looked ready to go work in an office, not looked like they were there for a house tour.
A few minutes passed and they came back to the main hall where Lucio sat and said to him,
"The house is amazing… are you sure you don't want to share the house?"
"Yea, but aren't you guys going to help me with my siblings and the cleaning thingy?" Lucio asked back as he looked over at them.
"We can do that for free. It is a part of our daily routine to wash our clothes so adding a little bit more doesn't affect us a lot and who wouldn't want to take care of such lovely kids?" Georgia said with a very active body language as her hands flew everywhere.
"Well, if you insist…. You can pay me five hundred dollars each." Lucio said and didn't really mind of they paid or not.
"Okay, deal!" she said as her brother watched her do things at the spur of the moment, again.
George shook his head and took out his phone to transfer the thousand dollars to Lucio as many people preferred advanced payment.
"We can talk about the payments later. I've got more important things to discuss with you guys, so sit down." Lucio said as he opened his laptop.
Both the siblings sat down as Emiliano ran into the room with Emilia following behind him with a pillow. Lucio caught them both by their waists and got them to sit beside him before telling them to sit quiet.
George and Georgia smiled as they looked at them.
Lucio then looked at them and asked "Where did you study before uni?"
The "older" siblings looked at each other with a look that said 'This was what he wanted to ask?'
"Well, we studied in Dango from middle school." George, the serious one of the two replied.
"Good. Tell me about the school and your experiences please." Lucio said and George nodded.
"It's a good school for the average and an amazing stage for the talented. Sports, music, painting, literature, you name it. Studies are a secondary goal in Dango and most of the famous people out there graduated from Dango."
"It really is good huh…" Lucio said as he pondered. No one said anything bad about the school and the only bad thing was that it was a good school for the normal.
The worst-case scenario was his siblings being nerds, which he didn't mind but he did hope that they wouldn't be anti-social.
"Okay… getting an admission for a middle schooler is quite easy but the university wants me to pass the entrance test. Do you guys have any suggestion? I am not good at studies."
"Well… you will have a higher chance of acceptance if you try any test other than the entrance examination. You just have to apply for the special entry and you are good to go." Georgia answered before her brother could even open his mouth.
"Explain the special entry thing please." Lucio said as he absorbed all the new information.
"There are different categories in special entry and you can select which you want. Sports, Arts, anything. You name it, they have it. Of course, there are a few exceptions."
Lucio nodded as he went deep into thought and didn't talk for a minute.
George and his sister looked around during that time and Emiliano slipped away. Lucio noticed, but didn't really care to stop him.
"What did you guys take?" Lucio asked suddenly.
This time, George answered "I took music while my dear little, talentless sister took acting."
"You are the real talentless one! Your music sucks so much that even your ex left you." Georgia countered aggressively.
George was stunned for a few seconds and was about to counter when Lucio interjected "Alright, give me a minute."
The next thing Lucio did was call Alex.
"Hey Lucio, what kind of dilemma forced you to call me?" Alex asked jokingly.
Lucio completely ignored the question and asked his own,
"Which course did you take?"
"Huh? Well, I took up acting and I'm in my third year."
"Alright, thanks." Lucio said before hanging the call, leaving Alex stumped.
Lucio then looked at the two siblings sitting in front of him and said "Guess I'll be taking up the acting course."
The siblings looked at him in shock as they thought 'You choose your course this easily?'
Lucio continued "You can stay here for the night and bring your things tomorrow if you'd like. You guys can use the two bedrooms in the floor below."
George and Georgia nodded as Lucio stood up and gave George a spare key before saying,
"Keep the thousand dollars with you and use it to buy groceries and other stuff that we might need. If you exhaust the money, ask me and I'll give you some. Emilia, get Emiliano here pls, we are going to Gloria's house."
While Emilia ran over to call her brother, Lucio booked a cab and texted Gloria, who was very enthusiastic about the visit.
*****
When Lucio came back home from Gloria's, he was exhausted. George and his sister had settled in pretty well, so Lucio went to his own bedroom which was pretty big for a bedroom and the bed had the capacity to let three people sleep easily.
Emilia and Emiliano selected their rooms from the last two that were left. Lucio made a few rules that both had to agree to, which they did.
"Alright, listen here both of you.
No one is locking the doors and you should knock before entering. Are we clear on that?"
"Yes." They replied in unison.
"Good. Now, if you guys have any problems in sleeping alone, you can sleep with me. Just don't disturb me when I'm wearing a helmet." Lucio said and walked to him room, his siblings silently following him.
Before Lucio went to sleep, he opened his laptop and got the admissions for his brother and sister. He also applied for a special entry and his fee would be decided after he took the test.
After paying fifty-eight thousand dollars to the school, he closed his laptop and put on the headset before closing his eyes.
[Logging in… ]
[Congratulations, you are now in Oscuro]
Samael opened his eyes and sat up before stretching. He felt refreshed and nice.
"Time to get ready for the job…"