The band arrives.

I went down to the first floor and found Diana, Grace and Alice talking to my classmates in the living room. I had to assume the other had already said hello, as I saw Sarah and Fern carrying baskets of dirty clothes to the laundry room. I was curious about what they could’ve been talking about, but my entrance interrupted them.

“Ah, speak of the devil,” Steven said, grinning.

Well, that gave me a guess.

“Sorry I wasn’t there to let you all in,” I said. “I was…”

“No, don’t worry. We caught you in the middle of cleaning, clearly,” Ruby said with a small grimace. “Sorry. We clearly rushed you by asking to come early.”

“It’s true we need the time to practice,” I said. “I’ll take them off your hands, then. Thanks,” I told Diana and the others.

“Don’t worry. I hope it all goes well,” Alice said.

“We’ll have lunch in a couple of hours,” Diana said. “That’s okay with you, right?” she asked my classmates.

“U-Um, y-yes, of course,” Eric said, nodding stiffly.

“We have nice weather today and we’ll be more than usual. Should we use the table outside?” Grace asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, sounds good. Anyway, come on. The music room is upstairs. We need to carry your drums up there, right Eric?” I asked.

“Y-Yes, if it’s not much trouble…”

My classmates excuse themselves and we went to get everyone’s instruments from Ruby’s car. I didn’t really need to look back to sense that their eyes were scanning the entire house as we walked. They caught a glimpse of the kitchen, the bar, the library and saw the many doors on the bedroom floor before we arrived at the music room. Steven, Eric and I made a second trip to get the rest of Eric’s drum kit while the two girls set up the keyboard and the amps.

There was a mildly awkward silence as we got everything ready, and again, it wasn’t hard to guess the reason. Steven, being the boldest of the bunch, eventually was curious enough to ask.

“Sorry, man, but I’ve got to ask. I think you mentioned something about getting lucky with this house, but… How on earth did you land a mansion like this? Did you win the lottery or something?”

I slighted. “Slimmer odds than the lottery, actually,” I said. “I once helped a woman who got mugged on the street. I caught the guy who stole her purse and took her to the hospital since she got hit on the face. Turns out she was Luke Allen’s girlfriend.”

Everyone’s eyes went wide.

“The… billionaire playboy?” Luna asked. “The… same Luke Allen that owns the hotel you work at?”

“It’s how I met him,” I said. It works in my favor that Luke already had a fame of being randomly generous with strangers, so I could easily omit the finer details of how I got this house. “He was grateful and practically wanted to give me a blank check for it. I didn’t want to accept, but… we, as in my girlfriends and I, were very close to graduating high school and at risk of having to move out of town. I was scared this would be our only chance, so… I ended up asking if he could just give me a house instead. I expected something smaller, but he went all out and gave us… this.”

It wasn’t a flat out lie, but it was a lie and it made me uncomfortable to tell it. Luke didn’t really give me the house as thanks, but as payment for helping with the potion. A… fairer deal, objectively speaking.

Thankfully, that was enough for them to understand. After all, the stories of Luke Allen building hospitals, schools and the like seemed to make the news every other month or so. At least that’s what I learned after meeting him. I don’t normally pay attention to news about celebrities.

“Yep, those do sound like slimmer odds than the lottery,” Ruby said.

“For what it’s worth, I’m a big believer in karma,” Steven said. “Good things happen to good people, or at the very least, they should. Happy for you, Oliver.”

“Still, Luke Allen…” Eric swallowed. “Try not to get involved in anything shady, Oliver. I hear he’s not the saint most think he is.”

“I doubt there’s a single billionaire out there who is,” Luna said.

I sighed. “I’m sure he has his fair share of shady deals, but… he’s a very good employer and a nice enough guy, at the very least.”

“Well, we’re not here to question you about your place,” Ruby said. “Sorry we made it awkward.”

“Don’t worry. It’s only recently that it even started feeling like home here,” I told them. “Wish I could say I earned this with my own blood, sweat and tears, but…”

“Hey, even with buckets of those three you still can’t own a house in this economy,” Luna said. “I don’t blame you for taking the chance. Hell, I would’ve taken the blank check…”

“No kidding…” Eric said, snickering.

Not like things were too weird before, but that did clear up the air a bit. For them, at least. I still felt awkward having to lie like that, but I also didn’t have the slightest desire to give them the full truth.

As we were almost done setting things up, we all heard the meowing from behind the door and everyone perked up at that. I chuckled and went to let Cake inside. She strolled inside like the diva she is and jumped on the stool I kept next to my own chair for her.

“Cake, would you mind telling those two girls how I force you to sit there while I play guitar,” I said.

Of course, since Cake always has my back, she deemed that too stupid a claim to even address and just got comfortable after a big yawn.

“...You’re still on about that?” Luna asked me, grimacing.

I sighed. “It’s a bad habit, I know.”

We began to test our instruments. Luna made sure her violin was properly tuned, Ruby played a few scales to check on the volume of her keyboard and Steven and I did the same while also fixing the settings on our amps. Cake raised her head and looked around with ears perked up, accustomed yet apparently interested in the new sounds.

…

Until Eric began to warm up on his drums.

Cake jumped from shock and ran to the door, staying close to it while arching her back and looking at the source of the awful noise.

“Oh, come on…” Eric moaned. “Does it really have to be my instrument she hates?”

“Well, it’s pretty loud,” Ruby argued.

“Sorry, girl…” I knelt down and scratched her around the neck. “That’s gonna be playing a lot today. You should probably skip this one.”

I opened the door for her and she walked out as casually as she walked in.

I kinda feel bad for Eric, honestly. It always sucks being the reason a cat leaves, and it was worse that it was through no fault of his own.

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