Chapter 28: Chapter 67 – Sleepover

On the day that Tamara's friend was supposed to arrive, some of the tenants seemed to be in high spirits. They were excited at the prospect of meeting the person that got her fidgety when she talked about them. It was clear, however, that Tamara was hiding some things about who they were, and the only thing we really knew was that she was a teenage girl like herself.

I made sure to sternly warn my tenants not to be weirdos around the kid. Hopefully they would behave like I asked. 

At noon, I received a call from Instructor Elaine that they had arrived at the dorm. Apparently, so did Tamara from her friend. Irapesha and I were having lunch downstairs when the sheep girl rushed down with Rakka flying close behind.

"She's here! She's here!"

"You want to come with?" I asked Irapesha.

The dragonewt rubbed the shoulder of her missing arm and declined. "I feel like I will only be an eyesore. Perhaps it would be best if I stay upstairs until the guest leaves."

Tamara came back and entered the kitchen. She grabbed Irapesha's hand in both of hers.

"Let's go together! I promise she won't mind, and I think you two might get along," she strongly insisted.

Since nobody could really say no to the baby sister of the dorm, Irapesha had no choice but to accept.

We went out together and saw Elaine's red convertible pull into the parking lot. The teacher emerged first, and I was shocked by her stark change in fashion, dressed in a light brown sweater and white pants, and a fluffy scarf wrapped around her neck. The woman went from looking more businesswoman than teacher to a homey housewife.

She opened the door to a young girl, bundled up in a puffy jacket. Straight blonde hair draped down a beanie and freckles dotted her cheeks, but the most surprising thing was that at such a tender age, she was missing an arm— her right arm to be exact.

Irapesha's eyes twitched uncomfortably, then her eyes softened to a sympathetic gaze.

"Alyssa!" Tamara, unable to contain her bubbly excitement, ran to greet them. However, with the walkway still slickened by moisture, she ended up sliding down but was fortunately caught by her friend.

"Hi, Tammy. It's nice to see you're like this at home, too." The girl named Alyssa giggled.

Elaine and Alyssa each took Tamara's hands, guiding her back up to the door.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Katagiri. Tammy likes to talk about you and her dorm mates a lot," the teen said.

"Hopefullly nothing embarrassing. You can just call me Akira. We're not that far apart in age, and being called Mr. makes me feel old," I replied, rubbing the back of my head.

Alyssa then turned to the despondent Irapesha and took notice of her missing arm.

"I'd like to shake your hand, but I think we have to be missing the same limb to do that," she said.

An uncharacteristic laugh erupted from Irapesha as she was caught off guard by the comment. Since she was missing her left, and Alyssa was missing her right, both arms were on the same side while they faced each other and wouldn't exactly clasp properly. Instead, the teen stuck out her hand with the palm upright.

Irapesha was quick to understand the gesture and placed her palm face down on it as an improvised handshake.

She smiled warmly at their joined hands. "My name is Irapesha. It is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, little one."

I threw a glance over to Tamara, who returned the look and was bouncing with joy at their meeting. Now I understood why she was missing one mitten.

"Let's go inside! I want to show you my room," Tamara said gleefully, tugging Alyssa into the dorm.

"Alyssa is one of Tamara's first friends," Elaine began, watching them take off inside with a chuckle. "They are almost always together at school, even in seating arrangements. You have to be there to see it, but they help each other a lot where the other struggles."

"As long as Tamara's having fun at school and not being bullied, that's good enough for me," I said.

We went inside and showed Elaine her temporary room adjacent to Tamara's so she could be closer to her students. Even as a chaperone, I wanted to make sure her stay here was looked after. A bed and towels were about all I had to offer though.

"Thank you. This is more than enough. May I ask where your bathroom is? I've been running around all day and worked up a sweat," she said, picking up a change of clothes from her duffel bag.

 "Downstairs past the living room and kitchen. It's a communal bath. Is that okay with you?" I asked.

"Only if you aren't there and there are no male tenants I'll run into." Slinging a towel over her shoulder and heading down.

Come to think of it… The dormitory had become somewhat of a clamfest. It would be a nice change of pace with a guy around. 

When I returned to my room, the first thing I noticed was that Ange wasn't inside. I figured she of all people would have tried to hit on Elaine first, but maybe she was properly behaving.

Cresta and Remmy were just passing my room, both steaming like they had just gotten out of a hot bath.

"Akira! We're going to go play with Tamara and Alyssa in the backyard. Wanna join?" Cresta asked, poking her head in.

"You guys go ahead. I need to start dinner for two extra people," I said. "By the way, have you seen Ange?"

"She's in the bath right now."

It took a few seconds for her answer to register in my head.

Ange was in the bath. Elaine had just gone downstairs to take a bath.

That couldn't be good.

As the group of girls went to play in the backyard, I snuck past the living room to check in the bathroom. Then I realized that, unlike the other girls, Elaine would throw a fit if I walked in on her naked and that wasn't a bee's nest I wanted to poke at.

I stayed outside instead and tried to call inside. "Is everything alright in there?"

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No answer.

Was that supposed to be a good or bad thing? I didn't know. It was possible they didn't hear my voice. I just had to pray nothing bad was going on.

By the time evening rolled around, dinner was ready and the five outside were still playing. When I went to call them in, I was horrified to see them swinging high up on a tree branch from swings made of slime. Cresta and Irapesha watched intently from the sidelines.

"It's so windy up here!" Tamara exclaimed, swinging with such force.

"Holy crap. That's dangerous! At least lower the height!" I shouted.

Remmy did just that, and slowly lowered them. I breathed a sigh of relief as Cresta walked up to me and slapped me on the back.

"Relax! I'm here to catch them if they fall," she said.

"That's fine and dandy, but I don't need this sort of heart attack—"

Cresta's ears twitched and flicked to the two just as the branch snapped.

Both Tamara and Alyssa went into free fall. Remmy couldn't extend her slime any further to catch them, so Cresta leapt into action. She caught Tamara and Irapesha caught Alyssa. I ran up to check on them.

"Are you two okay?" I asked.

"See, I told you they would be okay!" Cresta said.

I pinched her nose shut in response.

"O-Okay… I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Tamara hugged me from behind and apologized as well. "Don't be angry at Cresta. I only wanted to show Alyssa what netherfolks like us can do."

"That's fine." I sighed, patting her on the head. "But you have to know that Alyssa is human just like me. A fall like that can injure her worse than you think."

Irapesha let Alyssa to the ground, who was wobbling where she stood.

"You're daring for someone so young," she remarked, plucking a leaf from the teen's head.

"Hehe. Well, I'm not going to let a little danger stop me from trying things out," Alyssa bravely replied, which drew almost a proud fatherly grin from Irapesha.

Everyone came down to eat. I had to pull up extra seats and extend the boards on the island counters to fit two additional guests. Ange and Elaine sat across from each other, with the latter eating bashfully and quietly in her seat, avoiding eye contact as the other grinned impishly at her. Something definitely happened between those two. I'd have to interrogate Ange later.

Irapesha watched Alyssa eat with great interest. The girl didn't miss a beat, picking what she wanted and eating without so much as spilling anything. Certainly, she would have eaten more efficiently with both hands, but missing one didn't stop her.

After dinner, Ange and Elaine disappeared a second time. The other five, with the exception of Ines who was studying in her room, stayed in the living room to play video games until they began to pass out on the couch one by one.

As I went to bring down a couple of blankets for them, I noticed Irapesha and Alyssa were still awake. Not wanting to disturb either of them, I stood in the hallway to listen in.

"I've been meaning to ask," Irapesha began. "It's been on my mind the entire day, but you do not have to answer if the topic is uncomfortable— "

"About how I lost my arm, right? It was a car crash. My parents told me it happened when I was six, so I barely remember it anymore. As far as I can tell, I've lived most of my life so far without it," she answered.

"Do you not feel… less of yourself without it?"

Alyssa shook her head. "Why should I? It doesn't stop me from doing the things I want to do. What about you? How did you lose yours?"

Irapesha stared at her stub. "I think a demon bit it off."

Both of them burst into laughter and tried to control their volume so as to not wake the others sleeping around them.

This had to have been the first time Irapesha cracked a joke about her arm. Until now, she had been so depressed about it.

They continued to talk a few minutes longer until Alyssa nodded off, falling asleep against Tamara's bed of woolen hair.

Irapesha leaned back on the couch and turned the television off with the remote. "Alyssa, it seems I have been humbled by one much younger and braver than I. Thank you."

"Looks like you all had a lot of fun today," I said, finally walking in and laying blankets over their shoulders.

"It was… pleasant. I shall have to thank Tamara for this in the morning. It feels like she intended for our meeting," she said.

"That girl's always trying to put a smile on our faces. Want me to turn the heater higher for you guys?"

Irapesha shook her head. "This much is fine. I shall provide them the same warmth they have given me. Can you shut the lights?"

"Sure thing." I switched off the lights and turned back to see a content smile on Irapesha's face as she closed her eyes. "Have a good night, Irapesha."

"Hmm. I think I already have," she whispered.

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