"Hey, hey, I think Stacey's already sleeping," Endo pointed at the legs that were sticking out from beneath the curtain he had made for her. "Should we help her take her shoes off and help her put them on the bed?"
"She must be exhausted," Ken agreed. "Let her sleep. We'll wake her up later when this is all sorted and it's time for dinner."
"Do we need to tell anyone about the fact that we've agreed to let her stay in our room? I mean, they might not be happy about us having a girl in the boy's side of the building," Flail said.
"There are cameras everywhere," Endo pointed out. "Whatever they might be afraid of couldn't possibly happen when they're even gonna be watching us in our sleep."
"Good point," Ken said.
"Two!" Endo yelled. "I got praised twice already! Stacey must be my good luck charm. I've gotta be extra good to her and maybe Ken will stop calling me stupid so often."
"You can try," Flail raised his hands.
More boys ran past and many poked their heads into the room.
"All the beds here are taken," Ken told them. "Sorry."
Eventually, when most of the excitement had settled down, Aaron came by with a clipboard to record who was sleeping where.
"Who's that?" he pointed at where Stacey's legs were sticking out.
"Oh. That's Stacey," Ken said. "She's fallen asleep. We didn't want to disturb her."
"Oh. Ok," Aaron said, writing the name down and then he paused. Looking hard at the boys and then at Stacey's legs, he poked his bottom lip with his pen. "Wait. Isn't Stacey a girl?"
"Yeah," Ken admitted. "So?"
"Shouldn't she be in the girls' side of the building then?" Aaron asked. "Why is she here?"
"We kind of forgot she was a girl," Endo confessed.
"We ended up just dragging her along in our excitement," Flail said. "It doesn't matter, does it?"
"Well, yes, but no, but yes." Aaron pulled out his phone. "Don't try to confuse me. Of course it matters. She can't stay here. What happens when some boy decides to run around naked in the bathroom? It's a shared bathroom, guys. Not everyone is as pure as you three. Some of the other boys are sure to play pranks on her later. You three won't be around to protect her all the time. I have to admit, the curtain thing is a good idea, but…"
"The curtain thing was my idea," Endo raised his hand and swung his legs. "My good idea. Just sayin'."
"I seem to remember someone mention that all the beds in the girls' dormitory were full. I don't know why there's one missing. There's an even number of girls but an odd number of boys. That's not right. I clearly remember..."
"Then she can just stay here," Ken said. "We can take care of her and she's not as vulnerable and weak as people think she might be, you know. We can tell the other boys and make rules and times for when she can use the bathroom and toilet. Or something like that."
"Let me make a phone call," Aaron shook his head and walked out, dialling someone on his mobile. "I'll be back. Hi. It's me..."
"She's gonna get a sore back sleeping like that," Endo said, jumping off his bed. "I'm gonna take off her shoes and tuck her in."
"Careful, don't wake her up," Ken said, jumping off his bed to help.
Aaron came back to find all three boys repositioning Stacey on the bed and tucking her in. He scratched his nose at the sight.
"Listen," he told the boys. "She really can't stay here but there are no more beds and no way to fit another bed into the girls' rooms at the moment. It turns out that there's a spare bed in the ladies' bedroom upstairs with the mentors. If she doesn't mind that, she can move into that room."
He suppressed a smile at the boys deflating around the room.
"Anyway, with her background being so unclear and her health a bit off today, the producers want her somewhere where they can keep a better eye on her for the first few days," he said. "They'll sort out where she should go and find a way to get her an extra bed somewhere in the girls' rooms eventually, but they said she definitely can't stay here with you boys."
The boys seemed to deflate even more and Aaron coughed before continuing.
"We commend you for trying to help her out like this but this isn't the way to do things. There are rules for a reason. They've just gotten her some clean clothes and toiletries upstairs, so they said to send her up now. She also needs to take a literacy test before dinner."
"Alright," Ken shrugged. "I guess we should wake her up then."
With his shrug, Endo and Flail also shrugged, taking a deep breath.
"Hey, Stacey," Endo stuck his head under the curtain. "It's dinner time!"
Stacey sat up immediately and bumped her head into Endo's.
"Wha'? Ow! Endo. What you doing?"
"Just waking you up," Endo groaned, backing out from beneath the curtain rubbing his forehead. "Man, you scared me."
"Did I hear that it's dinner time?"
"He said it, not any of us," Flail shook his hands in a negative sign, pointing at Endo. "It's not dinner time yet."
"Is something happening then?"
"Yeah. You're moving rooms," Ken told her, pointing diagonally up at the ceiling. "You're going upstairs to the girls' side of the building."
"We seem to have miscounted the number of girls and there isn't enough room for you with all the other young ladies," Aaron apologised, "but there's a spare bed upstairs with the mentor ladies. So if you don't mind that… I'll take you up now."
"What happens if I do mind that?" Stacey asked, emerging from beneath the bedsheet curtain and rubbing her head. She felt kind of woozy. "Do I have a choice?"
"Well, there's also a spare bed among the female staff," Aaron acknowledged, "but the mentors have already agreed that they'd love to have you."
"Oh," Stacey looked around the room at the boys and waved. "Thanks, guys. So long and thanks for all the fish."
"What?" Endo turned to Ken. "What fish?"
"I don't think she's awake yet," Ken said.
"She might be referring to that song by an Alan somebody?" Flail said.
"Isn't that song about seagulls?"
While the boys were still trying to figure out what Stacey had meant, she had followed Aaron out toward the staircase.