After everyone reached the first floor, Lidia was studying a dozen of sheets of paper with slanted eyes. Noticing that Slimo had finally made it down with them, she hurried over and shoved the papers into his hands.

"Thank goodness you’re here! This stuff is so boring, how are we going to read through all of it!!"

Slimo smirked.

"If there’s one thing I learned from all my years of living, it’s that you never sign something if it sounds too good to be true. Let me give this a read."

Slimo moved his finger across the first page at a rapid pace. Not even halfway through the first sentence, he lifted his finger.

"Yup! Looks good! Let’s sign!"

Lidia smiled and grabbed one of the stacks of paper from Pops.

"So, we will be charged with school, correct?"

"That’s right. However, you won’t have to make the first payment for another week or so. They will send some officers to your house to collect the payment when the time comes."

"Got it."

Slimo and Lidia finished signing their papers and followed Pops outside.

"The houses are currently unlocked, but if you wish to get your keys, you may visit the palace tomorrow and retrieve them. Good luck!"

Zoey waved the old man bye along with many others. Squabee was the first to say something when he disappeared.

"What a weirdo. At least his last name is funny."

"I wonder if there’s a blacksmith here. I can improve my iron making after school with them if possible.

"I want to cut something."

Slimo raised his hand in front of everyone.

"Alright. We are going to be splitting up the houses. To make it fair for everyone, Sarah and I will go in sperate houses so everyone can have equally amazing food. Lidia will be living with me since we have to act as your guardians. Stand in front of the house you want to live in."

Slowly, everyone filed in front of a different house. On the left, Sarah, Luna, Squabee, William, Sydney, Bart, Lucy, Gabriel, Serena, and Zoey were standing proudly. On the right, Slimo, Lidia, Jacob, Maria, Doc, Abby, Harold, Lee, Steel, and Bo.

Squabee stared at the group suspiciously.

"What are you guys supposed to be? The relationship house?"

Jacob gave Squabee a dubious look.

"What are you talking about? Only two of us are couples here... I think."

Jacob looked back at his group for confirmation. Abby was tightly gripping Harolds hand with a small smile painted on her face. She shook her head up and down.

"Harold isn’t always the best talker when it comes to these kinds of conversations, but he is my boyfriend!"

Abby pulled Harold under her arm and started kissing his head of light brown hair. Out of embarrassment, Harold passed out. Abby looked like she didn’t care at all and simply started carrying him.

"He’ll be fine. He’s being dramatic."

Maria chuckled and smiled at Jacob warmly. Jacob looked back at her and felt his heartbeat slightly fasten. He loved seeing her doing something as simple as smile. It brought him a feeling that he couldn’t explain but welcomed dearly. Slimo called out to the group once more.

"I know there’s plenty of daylight left, but I feel we should all get settled in our rooms. Me and Lidia will see you off to school first thing tomorrow morning. Sarah and Squabee, you will meet with us after breakfast. Doc... well, you just keep doing Doc things."

Sarah nodded and waved them bye. Everyone filed into their respective houses. Jacob couldn’t tell what it was, but Maria kept looking at him weirdly. It wasn’t that she was mad or that she was happy, but it looked like she desired something out of him. Or perhaps, she wanted to ask him something that she was too afraid to. Jacob walked up to a room on the second floor and made himself familiar with it. He sat on the bed and bounced on it slightly. It was extremely soft, as if it was waiting for someone to sink into a deep rest in it.

"Wow. This is incredible."

Maria followed him in and looked over his room.

"These are such comfortable places. Are you planning on decorating your room a bit?"

"Hm. Probably not. I like to keep things simple when things are already so crazy right now."

Maria jumped on the bed and laid her head on his shoulder.

"Simple is nice."

They both sat in a comfortable silence with each other for a few moments.

"Hey, Jacob? Can I talk to you about something serious?"

Jacob’s heart suddenly dropped.

"Sure. You can talk to me about anything."

Maria sat up and started playing with her fingers.

"Listen, we’ve been dating for a little bit now but I’m starting to get worried."

"You’re worried? What are you worried about?"

"...losing you. I don’t know if I can handle it. Back when we had those trials, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything to you. I truly felt like giving up in that moment when the trial was over. Can you please be more careful in the future when we fight? I think after we’ve been through so much and how much stronger we’ve become, we lost sight of how difficult it really is to survive. However, losing our close friends recently just reminded me of it again."

"I see. So, you want me to stop hurting myself?"

"Well, I do... but it’s more than that. I think I need to distance myself a bit for now. You’ve been really great, but I think I need to learn to be an independent person, someone who doesn’t need to rely on your presence for a purpose. I still want to be your girlfriend, but I don’t want to be dependent on you for my own livelihood. Does that even make sense? I don’t even know. I’m really sorry."

Maria put her hands over face and started crying softly. Instead of being angry or being overly affectionate, Jacob simply patted her back.

"You don’t have to apologize for something you can’t help. I’m not in control of what you do and when you do it. The most I can do as someone who is not only your boyfriend, but your best friend, is to be here for you and support you when you need it. You can take all the time you need to figure everything out."

"But... I feel awful. I should have been honest with you earlier. I’m just new to this whole thing. I’m really sorry."

Jacob simply smiled and sighed.

"I’m new to this as well. However, I don’t think relationships are meant to be something like two different halves coming together to make a whole. That doesn’t seem right. To me, they are something more akin to two independent people sharing a close bond between each other. I feel that’s what we are both missing right now."

Maria looked at him with her emerald eyes, slightly smirking.

"Thank you. By the way, if I catch you with someone else while we figure things out, you don’t have to worry about what I’m going to do to you... worry about what my mom is going to do to you."

Jacob chuckled and gave Maria a small hug.

"I love you, Maria."

Maria gently hugged him back.

"I love you too, Jacob."

Jacob escorted Maria to her room next door to his. He assumed everyone else had already started claiming their rooms above him. After he left Maria in her room, he slowly walked back to his and closed the door. The moment he did, he walked up to the window. Small tears fell down his cheeks, but a smile still held on his face. He never admitted it, but this distance from someone who he cared about so deeply was still going to affect him.

"As long as she’s happy, this small bit of pain is nothing. I’ll be waiting for you to come back as your own person, Maria."

He wiped his eyes with his clothes and inhaled deeply before immediately dropping to the floor. Over and over he pushed himself off the floor for hours until he lost all his energy and passed out.

Upstairs, Abby finished tucking in Harold, ready to hop into the same bed as him. She was talking with Bo while fixing her short, pink hair.

"So what? We’re both old enough! Miss Lidia probably won’t even care."

"But what if she does find out?"

"Bo, can you please just keep this a secret? We aren’t harming anybody."

"Ugh. Fine. Where is Miss Lidia anyway?"

"I saw her go to the fourth floor with that Slimo guy. They said the fourth floor was theirs so they could use the extra rooms for planning."

"I can turn invisible and go check on her. I’m still not sure I completely trust that guy."

"You can go and do that; we are both going to sleep! Goodnight, Bo!"

Abby slowly pushed Bo out of her and Harold’s room before closing the door. Bo snuck up the stairs to the fourth floor, trying to find Miss Lidia. He heard a strange noise coming from one of the rooms furthest down the hall. After turning invisible, he slowly snuck down the hall to peak through the keyhole to see what was happening. Moments later, Bo’s face turned bright red, his invisibility immediately came undone and he crept back downstairs as fast as he could. He had been given two impossible secrets to keep within the span of three minutes.