18 Eighteen - Kind of forgot she was a girl

"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, racing around the room as if he'd kicked a goal. "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 in surrender.

More boys ran past and many poked their head into the room. Ken, Endo and Flail also took turns visiting other dorm rooms, while they made sure that there was always one of them there to make sure nobody disturbed Stacey's nap.

"All the beds here are taken," Ken told anyone who stopped by, enquiring if they had a spare bed. "Sorry."

Eventually, when most of the excitement outside 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 from under the bedsheet curtain.

"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, pointing with the back end of his pen. "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 boys decides to run around naked in the bathroom? It's a shared bathroom, guys. What if someone decides to play pranks on her while she's in the toilet? The cubicles have spaces under them, you know. People can stand on the toilet seats to peek at her. 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 from where he sat on his bunkbed. "My good idea. Just sayin'."

"Let me just make a call. 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 with a shrug. "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 and shook his head.

"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. 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 anyway. 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 she definitely can't stay here with you boys. 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 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."

"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?" Stacey peered out the curtain with squinted eyes, rubbing her face.

"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?" Stacey yawned.

"Yeah. You're moving rooms," Ken told her, pointing up at the ceiling. "You're going upstairs."

"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. Apparently they're really looking forward to it."

"Oh," Stacey looked around the room at the boys and waved. "In that case, thanks, guys. So long and thanks for all the fish."

"What?" Endo turned to Ken in confusion. "What fish?"

"I don't think she's awake yet," Ken said with a laugh, rubbing his head.

"She might be referring to that song by an Alan somebody?" Flail said with a frown

"Isn't that song about seagulls?"

While the boys were still trying to figure out what Stacey had meant, she had followed Aaron out of the boys' dormitory toward the staircase.