Reggie was feeling conflicted. He dreamed of joining his dream veterinary college but was afraid the dream would break when it collides with reality.
Yajo shrugged off. He knew of a fine way to make his twin accept this destiny and fight for it. Sama. If she couldn't work her magic, bring the big guns- parents. Would Reggie still refuse them? Especially when it was what he wanted desperately.
The brothers walked towards railway station, where the parents were already waiting. They didn't feel exploring the town without full family.
Sama came. Just like a hurricane. And she had packed more than others had brought, combined. Good thing that there were lots of hands to share that burden. They had to go to B and B again to dump the bags.
Sama had spent a month with a single backpack. Infact, her things were not even half of the backpack this time too. She was meeting her family after long time. She had to give them all the things she had prepared. But she didn't let anyone know that even when she was razzed.
Sama ...well, she planned something but life showed her a different way. She first dreamed of being a fashion designer because she could not be a fashionasta. She had to ditch that dream, so she planned to be a famous make up artist, working with super stars and all that. In the end, she didn't follow any of her dreams. She became resident family worker in one of the affluent families. The salary was great but there were lots of restrictions. Had to be on call always, though they would work in shifts. Had to stay in dormitories. Had to sign NDA and other things. The food was good. They could get extra if the chef had made a bit more or the owners didn't finish all the food. For a free spirit like Sama, being tied up in a single place with heavy restrictions on moving around was very bad. But she persisted. She even started liking her new job.
She had the first seat in the audience to watch all the drama happening in the family of rich. And she was upgraded to be make up artist worker in the family too. This way she could satisfy her dreams. And the dream of being a fashion artist? Well, she made many clothes and stuff for her family.
Looking at the shenigans in that family made her so happy, happy that she was not born to such family. The Mels were good to their servants atleast. She had saved up her holidays and now she could spend all that time with family. She could be as bossy as she wanted. Yay! Freedom.
As the whole family got together after four years and change, they decide to have lunch in a diner. Sit properly and eat. Chat. Share. Mock. Rock.
Best time ever. Even better than the time Atharva signed multi million credit contract or the time he saw his bank balance break ten million credit mark.
They walked around the town. Atharva showed whatever he could remember. The went to a tall building near the college so that he could show the buildings. Then a walk again, some window shopping.
No serious talk. This night twins would get to enjoy the service in the posh hotel. Sama refused. She had actually stayed in such hotels before.
"I don't believe you."
"Come off it."
"You called and showed off when you bought a dress. On sale. And now you are telling me that you stayed in such places. I don't believe you."
"Obviously, I won't talk if I stayed there due to work." Sama was so angry that these kids didn't believe her. They believed her when she said they were delivered in a express delivery and she took them into home. But now these snotty brats are not ready to believe her even when she told the truth.
Sama had to elaborate. "When madam travels with her family, she moves with a retinue to take care of the needs of the family. So I have seen even better places. I am fairly confident that my rooms in those places were on par with standard suites here."
"Really?"
"Of course. Why would I lie? And it's not like only I stayed in that suite. I had to share rooms with few other girls. No one would pay for a suite for each servant."
Mama Murphy said, " Like you said, that was work. Now you can relax and enjoy. So why don't you spend the night there? The breakfast spread was very good. Your father and I stuffed ourselves."
"Maybe tomorrow night? Today I want to spend whole night chatting with you people."
And just like that, Sama decided the twins would spend the night there.
Atharva got a new, fabulous idea. There was a VR pod in the suite. The twins could start playing from tonight. He had the evil grin.
Maybe he could pull Sama at the same time. The VR headgear was not delivered yet. But she could play tomorrow night and get oriented.
So remaining part of the dinner time, Atharva turned into a salesman pushing the game
"You are playing games?"
"You are not longer a child. You want to play games now?"
The standard questions didn't come at all. No, what Atharva heard was "Are you happy?" "Won't it affect your job?" "You have time to play?" Reggie and Yajo knew about him playing, so they didn't say anything.
The family didn't mind him playing games, squandering time. They drew the line at playing themselves though. It does not matter if the game could be played at night, using sleep time. It does not matter that they would be fresh as daisies even after playing straight eight hours.
Atharva decided to play the youngest kid card. He didn't pull that card much but it was very effective.
"I want to make something big in the game. Mom, dad, I know my limits. I know I can't do many things in real life. I started playing this game to pass time and diversion. But...I am good in it. I want to do more, be better. I want support to do so. I don't know anyone who plays this game and be willing to help me. I can depend only on my family. Please ...please agree to help me."
Youngest kid. Puppy eyes. Earnest request. How can they say no?
They can try by using technicalities. But would a brilliant boy be stopped by that?
Oh, there are VR pods in the hotel suite. Three of them. In next few days, all the family members would get a VR head gear. It had been paid already, can't sell back.
Okay now, so this was planned a long time back. It was not an impulse.
Any other wishes while you are at it?
Atharva said yes, disregarding the sarcasm. Yes, he would like to stay with the family. So please, do consider shifting to city L or this town.
The nerve of him. The siblings were ready to annihilate him. How dare he make such request. Even before his elder siblings did.
The talk turned loud, so loud that tthey were told to move out.
They moved towards one of the parks. It was lively with some old people enjoying the evening.
Atharva and twins slowly tried to explain the game. Whether others wanted to know or not, they did. Atharva rushed off first. He had to log into the game to create a referral code. Anyone could use that code and spawn in the village where Atharva was. It was not cheap. The game especially loved to swallow the credits from the rich and only rich people liked to have followers. Not really. Roommates, classmates, friends, family members - many tried to play together. But thanks to presence of guilds, would be guilds, wannabe guilds and workshops, the game decided that playing together from the beginning will cost extra.