Jane looked around at Danielle’s ‘domain’ and was surprised by the fact that the basement was a house in its own right. Sitting on the couch that appeared to be in the living room, Jane could spot a full kitchen, a dining room, and an open area full of games next to the living room. That was on one side of the basement, the other side consisted of a long hallway filled with closed doors that were most likely bedrooms or storage rooms.

As for how the basement looked, it felt more like the exterior of the mansion in the way that it was simple and cozy. There were no expensive decorations or tacky designed items, only a few fuzzy carpets or little knick-knacks decorated the basement.

Jane really studied the gaming area that was behind Eric and could already spot a pool table, a poker table and a dart board. There were also a few cabinets off to the side that were filled with what appeared to be board games, cards or other trinkets.

‘This… is pretty awesome.’ Jane thought to herself seeing everything here. She hoped to create something similar in her own place since this was the type of thing she enjoyed— besides sports.

“How’d you claim the basement for yourself?” Jane asked. It seemed to her that Peter Petal wouldn't just give away an entire section of his house to Danielle for no reason.

“Normally when nobles come to Redwood, they stay here. The nobles will live up stairs and all the servants will stay in the basement, which is why it has everything you need down here.” Danielle began to explain. “Since nobles don't visit often, and even if they do come, servants don't really care about trivial decorations and such.”

“So when nobles come, will you just stay down here as well?” Jane questioned.

“Yep!” Danielle nodded with a smile. “Nobles have come once after I started living down here and it was the funniest time ever. All the maids and butlers were so fun to play with!”

“That's great!” Jane replied then turned to Eric with another question. “Now Ma told me you were planning to move out, is that still the goal?”

“Mhm, I have a few gold coins saved up after a few years of working and should be able to afford a small house pretty soon.” Eric explained. “I could probably get a loan but I'd rather just buy it outright.”

“Once you do get a place… will you two move in together?” Jane grinned seeing the blushed faces of Eric and Danielle. Danielle fidgeted while looking at the red faced Eric.

“I don't wanna rush it, but whenever Danielle is okay with it, she’d be welcome to move in.” He said and looked down. A smile blossomed on Danielle's face and the room went silent as two thirds of the people here were stuck in their heads picturing the future.

“Aw this is cute!” Jane commented and made Danielle shake her in protest.

“Stop teasing us!” She said and got a chuckle back from Jane.

“It's just cute to see! Mira and I were also like this at the start of our relationship.” Jane felt the shaking stop and saw Danielle looking at her with gleaming eyes.

“Mira! That's your girlfriend right!?”

“Oh ya, I guess I haven't told you about her yet.” Jane said, “She's coming to Redwood in a month so you'll be able to meet her and some of my other friends.”

“Ohhhhhhh we can do like a huge friend get-together when they get here!” Danielle’s mind began to go in overdrive as she thought of ways to accomplish this.

“We can go on double dates together as well.” Jane brought up and got an excited yelp of agreement from Danielle.

They continued talking amongst each other for what felt like hours upon hours, but only a single hour had gone by. Jane told Danielle all about her girlfriend Mira and how they got together— which included some embarrassing memories. Like the time she fell in a fountain, or the time she had been changing and Mira had accidentally walked in on her while she was naked. That last one got a massive chuckle from Eric.

Eventually the conversations shifted away from Jane's relationship after she asked them how they themselves had gotten together, and she listened with keenness as they told their story.

Surprisingly, it wasn't Eric who had confessed but instead Danielle with her extroverted personality, confronted the shy Eric. After they graduated and Jane had left for the academy, Eric found himself getting closer to another group of friends which were Danielle’s group at the time. After hanging out more, they all became close friends— this was roughly three to four years ago.

Then after having known each other for roughly three years, Danielle and Eric had fallen for each other, but only one of them wasn't afraid to confess. Once she confessed, Eric of course said yes and the two started to date. It has been just over a year since that day, and they were still happily together— which was great to hear.

There was one big challenge in their relationship, and that was the mayor. It wasn't that he didn't approve of their relationship but he had to have some level of skepticism concerning his daughter since she was to be the future mayor and those she got together with would become her consort.

The mayor didn't do anything to stop them from dating, but he was actively making sure Eric wasn't trying to just use his daughter, which might have involved a few one on one conversations and some snoopy behavior—It all was a bit stressful for Eric. Thankfully it all had worked as he gave up and let them do as they wished after he got a little stern talking from Danielle.

Ding Dong!

The doorbell to the mansion rang and broke up their conversation as they realized the time of the get together had already come— or everyone was just here early. Danielle ran up the stairs to get the door, leaving Jane and Eric downstairs by themselves.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“What are you planning on cooking for us?” Jane asked, her stomach beginning to growl.

Eric heard her stomach and chuckled, “Not sure yet, the others bring the food so we’ll have to see what they’ve brought. It's probably gonna be simple though, maybe burgers or sausages.”

“What, are burgers and sausages too easy for ya?” Jane teased, “I for one, would prefer the simple foods over higher dining any day.”

“That's perfect then for the most part.” Eric replied. “If you do want something more exquisite though, I'd be down to cook something more refined for you one day.”

“I can't refuse the offer of food!” Jane grinned and patted her belly. “I'll take your word so don't take it back!”

Eric nodded with a smile. This was his chance to show off his skills to Jane, maybe even get her hooked on his food.

They heard footsteps coming down the stairs and looked back to see Danielle with three others walking down the stairs . There were two guys Jane didn't know, but they did look a little familiar so they might have been in school together, but the other woman was someone Jane had seen the other day, it was Angeline Evergreen.

The two locked eyes with each other and stared. Angeline just pieced together the fact that the person she had talked to yesterday was the same person her friend had been talking about for years— and a classholder. Jane herself was also surprised to see Angeline here since she was a little older than herself and Eric.

Each of them was wearing a backpack presumably full of food or games, while one of the guys carried a heavy cooler down with him. Before introducing each other, they sauntered over to the kitchen and placed all their stuff down before Danielle pushed them into the living room and sat them down on the couch across from Jane.

“Everyone, this is Jane Bluegold, the one Eric’s always talking about, as well as the classholder that my father announced yesterday.” Danielle dramatically pointed to Jane who smiled and gave them a small wave— it was a little awkward.

“Jane this is Robby Ruddins, a real menace on the pillar ball field” She introduced the first guy who had brought down the cooler.

Just looking at him Jane could tell he was an athlete, he wasn't overly muscular but instead had a lean fit body meant for endurance. Alongside his body, he was also quite handsome with short black hair and light pink eyes that stared at Jane in return.

“Call me Rob— or Robby, whatever floats your boat.” He reached across the table that was in between the couches, and shook hands with Jane. “Nice to finally meet you after all this time.”

Jane felt his strong grip but saw his face change when he felt her diamond like hands. She smirked and replied, ”Nice to you as well— I didn't think Eric would ever make other friends, but here you guys are.”

Eric sighed hearing her say that, but it elicited a slight chuckle from some of the others around.

“This is Jared Junglesmith, he works as an apprentice at Travis’s smithy in the town square.” Danielle introduced the other guy. He was quite tall— taller than anyone else in the basement in fact— and had short dark green hair resting atop his head and little on his face.

He also shook hands with Jane but only nodded to her instead of saying anything, then his brown eyes shifted away from Jane to look somewhere else. He seemed a little shy according to Jane’s initial observations.

“This is—”

“We've met before. I didn’t think you'd be the one.” Angeline interrupted Danielle and shook hands with Jane. “So what's the plan for your new place?”

“Glad you asked. I worked out a list today with my family and Eric’s, and it looks like it will take quite a bit of work to get it up to par.” Jane explained, a little happy and surprised there was a ‘familiar’ person down here.

“You have your own place!?” Danielle leaned forward asking Jane with wide eyes.

“Yep, it's a shithole right now but hopefully in a few weeks it should start looking like a real home.”

“Wow, you gotta invite me over when it's finished!”

“I'd be happy to!” Jane smiled seeing Danielle enthusiasm.

She then turned to Angeline once again. “I gotta ask though, why is the place so run down in the first place?”

“There's a few reasons. I ended up looking into it yesterday and found out that your new place was Redwood's last classholders house as well. That was roughly a century ago.” Angeline said, more talkative when it came to real estate. “By the time the classholder died and my great grandparents at the time went to reclaim the place, it was already a shithole.”

Angeline sighed. “They decided it would be too much effort to fix the place, and it probably wouldn't even get sold since it would be so expensive after it's all renovated. So they left it as is and forgot to ever look back.”

“Lucky for me then, since I got a deal on the place.” Jane chuckled before her stomach grumbled loudly again, causing a silence to descend over the basement.

Eric burst into laughter seeing Jane's slightly embarrassed face. “Guess that's my cue to start cooking, what did you bring this time?”

Eric, Robby and Jared got up and went to the kitchen to sort out dinner, leaving only the women in the living room. Jane was a little embarrassed her stomach did that in front of everyone but it seemed no one really minded it— except Eric of course.

She took another look at Angeline who was outside of her realtor uniform and instead wore a loose black tank top and tight black leggings. Her exposed arms were covered in tattoos of all sorts, from flowers to symbols, Jane could even spot a few words tattooed on her skin.

Jane thought Angeline was quite hot after seeing her outside of her uniform, her black leggings extenuated the natural curves of her body while her tank top was loose and exposed her cleavage underneath. That paired with her contrasting grassy green hair and eyes, made for a beautiful look. Jane was of course speaking factually, she already had a girlfriend, she wasn’t looking for another.

“You look a lot different outside your uniform, it’s a good look.” Jane bluntly stated, trying to mimic how Angeline herself might act.

“Thanks.” Angeline put a bottle of beer in front of her and asked, “You want one?”

“I’d love one.” Jane grabbed the bottle out of Angeline’s hand and gladly started to sip on it.

“Can I ask about your tattoos? I'm pretty interested in them myself.” Jane asked Angeline.

“Mm, do you have any?”

“I have one on my back.” Jane explained. “It's pretty big for my first tattoo but I got it together with my girlfriend so it's quite special.”

“You gotta show me one day then.” Angeline said. “It's in a pretty exposed spot so maybe when we learn a little more about each other.”

Jane smiled and said. “I'll cheers to that.” She clinked beers with Angeline.

“Look, you two are already friends, this is great!” Danielle squealed and got herself her own beer before chugging the entire thing in one shot. “Ah, that’s the good stuff!”

Jane’s eyes widened seeing Danielle already finish an entire beer before she reached for another one.

Seeing the way Jane was staring at her, Danielle got a little flustered and explained, “it’s been a long week helping my father prepare for the celebration, I need a day to let loose!”

“No judgment here, I was just surprised.” Jane leaned back and copied Danielle by finishing her beer in one take. After finishing it she slammed the empty bottle on the table and let out a burp.

“Ah, sorry about that, old habit.” Jane apologized for her burp but only got a look of admiration from Danielle.

“Hehe, like you said, no judgment.” Danielle playfully giggled and then got up and dragged Jane over to the couch, sandwiching her between herself and Angeline.

“You're the new girl of the group! it’s finally an even split, it’s just been me and Angeline for years— not that that’s a bad thing!” Danielle rambled. “I’m just excited to have another girl to talk to.”

Jane smiled, she herself would love to have more friends to talk to, especially those that lived in Redwood. She didn't know what her friends wanted to do, but she doubted they would ever stay here— except for Mira of course but that was different.

The three talked amongst themselves, it was simple and a little awkward at the start but after having a few drinks, all the girls were happily chatting together. There was a dynamic of course, Danielle talked the most and was excited about every little subject, Angeline was quieter and light with words but got straight to the point while Jane was somewhere in between the two of them.