Sleepover (10) - Sienna's POV

"Thank you for going along with Rika's antics," Luke led us to a new sleeping quarter.

I looked down to hide my face. I didn't have the confidence to not give myself away like Delia, who was pretending not to notice Rika was tightly stuck in Luke's arms.

Normally, if someone twisted and turned that much, you would let her go. However, it was like he was handling annoying luggage, walking as if he was holding something heavy. Meaning, she was definitely in trouble unlike us.

Was it possible he knew everything already? My heartbeat banged loudly like ramming into a large drum while my mind was getting foggier. My smile started to falter, until Luke opened a door, interrupting my thoughts, "your rooms are right beside each other starting from this door."

"Please let me know if anything is lacking," he politely smiled.

Was anything lacking? My entire body froze, taking in the comforting view.

How did he know? This room- the room was incredibly similar to my favorite bedroom in my family mansions. The way I arranged my dorm room at school when I could- the way the cozy rug familiarly met the floors of my shoes.

I was one step away from flopping onto the bed far away from the windows, the place where the strong sunlight wouldn't get to me in the mornings. However, the bed was close to everything I would frequently use, having everything I wanted in reach within one step. Meaning, it was likely either Luke or Rika put a lot of thought into preparing my room.

"Is this room really for me?" I was touched.

"Yes, I prepared them for your use," Luke gestured to the items on the cabinet.

I stopped walking, stunned to see an expensive line of toiletries placed on a tray. It was to the point I wasn't surprised to hear Delia gasp from the room next to me. It was too good to be true.

I always had to fight with my older sister to use these precious products. Although my family was wealthy, we had many generations above us who lived lavishly. Especially my great great grandparents who were still alive due to the long lifespans in the first district.

It couldn't be helped. Our family money could only stretch so far, and my parents were allocated a budget from the generation above them, which they received from the generation above them.

It was natural my parents couldn't afford something limited in supply sometimes when it was considered expensive even for families ranked near the top in wealth.

When I turned to look at Michelle, I watched her appear unaffected like she was familiar with everything. Unlike Delia and I, she quickly glanced at her room and closed the door. And like slapping me back to my senses, my heart sank as she apologized to Luke, "I made a promise to Rika that we would sleep inside the same bedroom tonight."

She was right. We did. We made that promise as soon as Rika got permission to host the sleepover at this mansion. A moment of silence passed before Luke slightly bowed to us, "I apologize, these rooms are an offer and you can use both of them."

"I told you I had everything prepared," Rika interrupted him.

"Let me go now," she appeared frustrated.

Ignoring her, Luke sent us some more apologetic glances as he left us on our own. And almost immediately, Michelle awkwardly smiled at us, seeming relieved as she reminded us what our current situation was. "I don't think Luke knows what really happened yet."

"He doesn't know," Delia sadly nodded.

If he did, there was no way he would offer us those rooms. It was likely Rika got into some sort of trouble while taking the servants. Sometime later, Rika joined us again and Luke brushed her hair. His fingers were skillful, quickly working to create beautiful twisted braids within minutes.

"What's with the change in your attitude now?" Alex noticed Rika's timidness.

"You're horrible." Rika mumbled.

"That was the reason?" He was surprised.

"How could they not already know you can't do anything on your own?" Alex briefly studied us.

Taking a glance at Michelle, she was equally confused by their conversation as much as we were. Were they talking about how hard it was in getting the cake and feathers out? I had to admit it was a struggle in pulling them out while searching if more remained. I wondered what she was getting embarrassed about. My thoughts quickly moved onto how much I had enjoyed the long bath, using everything Luke prepared for us.

"You can borrow Rika's clothes if you need them," Luke noticed we stayed in our bathrobes.

A few minutes later, my mouth wouldn't close from Rika's closet. Michelle did mention to us it was impressive, but how could she have twenty large rooms for herself? Delia struggled to maintain her composure as Luke gave us a tour. I was confused whether I was inside a mansion or a clothing store. I started to look at Rika in a new light, going through her possessions. Luke seemed to provide everything she could possibly need with no faults.

I felt like a princess as Luke helped me alter the sizes. None of Rika's clothes would fit us without the tailoring, being extremely small. When he offered to match my hair with my new outfit, I was stunned by how pretty he made me look towards the end. He was more talented than the workers at the salon with the high ponytail he created for me. Luke did this for each of us, thanking us for being Rika's friends. There was no way Luke hated Rika as she claimed he did, it had to be the opposite.

I began to feel guilty for trashing his ballrooms, the servants cleaning everything to hide the mess. Eventually stiffening when Luke became confused from the near lack of ingredients for tomorrow's breakfast. Checking through the order history, his eyes widened to discover the number of cakes we threw out. He immediately checked the waste the servants handled in our place on his tablet. When Alex joined him, he sighed before making the arrangements to procure more ingredients.

"We don't blame you for anything. Rika ordered them before you arrived," Alex turned to us.

"But we wasted so much food," I had a hard time facing them.

"Rika wasted more than ten times this amount per day during social week," he explained.

Both Michelle and Delia went speechless with me, our guilt quickly being replaced with amazement. How was that even possible? The ingredients they used in their meals weren't cheap. We were too distracted to notice Luke's expression slightly changing when he discovered all the destroyed pillows.

"So this is where the feathers came from," Alex mumbled.

"I'll purchase more pillows," Luke sighed.

"Can you get the fluffy ones instead of the usual?" Rika didn't feel any guilt.

"You already have them inside your bedrooms," he dismissed her request.

It was unexpected this was how Rika lived with them. I thought she would be treated horribly, always hearing her complaints. However, Luke always gave her the best things in whatever he provided for her. From the food to her clothes, everything wasn't cheap. He was extremely patient while going through all the messes she created. It made me wonder if she needed our presents.

Near the time when we were about to go to sleep, Rika was excited to go over the horror stories from the book she pulled out. I covered my eyes as she brightly smiled while going through the vicious photos and recreated pieces of evidence. Within a few minutes, Luke noticed how uncomfortable Michelle and I were. He confiscated the book from Rika as her face slumped. But Rika seemed to have memorized the stories, telling the tales to Delia who was equally interested.

"It's time for you to go to sleep Rika," Luke tried to save us.

"Everyone knows you stay up for the entire night during sleepovers," she refused.

I was stunned when he started to kiss her forehead and then her cheeks. Rika's irritated face instantly switched to bright innocent smiles before she began to cutely giggle when he moved onto her neck. Her laughter filled the large room as we watched his displays of affection towards her. I have never seen Luke's eyes filled with such warmth to the extent it was dripping with honey. When Alex entered the room, searching for Luke, he seemed familiar with this scene.

"I told you not to attempt anything from that trashy book!" Rika shouted.

"Will you go to sleep?" Luke momentarily stopped.

"I will an hour from now," she tried to negotiate.

"The cakes? The pillows and- ."

"I'll go to sleep," she glared at them.

It didn't take long for Rika to fall asleep, Luke hinting to us we could use the bedrooms he provided now. Although we preferred the guest rooms, we couldn't go against Rika's wishes when she previously wanted to spend more time with us. Giving us the option, Luke began to carry Rika to move her to her usual bedroom. It was hard not to feel a little jealous of her as I could never imagine having a similar relationship with Cillian. Anyone could tell Luke's relationship with Rika was special. The sleepover left a lasting memory inside my mind as I couldn't stop talking about it inside the club room.

"They're building an entire waterpark for her with a budget of two hundred billion Aris," Ethan surprised all of us.

"Two hundred billion Aris?" Oliver didn't believe him.

"Their families are filled with money," Ethan shrugged.

"Did you give our presents to Rika yet?" I wondered, recalling her possessions.

"Does she even need our presents? They're building her an entire waterpark for managing to succeed once out of a million attempts to create a simple plate," Ethan possessed similar thoughts.

"You shouldn't pity Rika. They treat her extremely well," he added when we stayed silent.

"I heard a lot of food was thrown out during social week," Delia added.

"Rika wasted an abnormal amount of food to the point they could have fed the entire sixth district," he revealed.

"That much?" Cillian was stunned.

"She doesn't have any talent in cooking," Ethan explained.

"I watched Rika cook before and she was decent," Michelle became confused.

"Are you kidding me? She's hopeless in cooking to the point her instructors nearly cried from thinking it was their teaching skills that was the problem," he disagreed.

"Nine hundred billion Aris isn't enough," Rika pouted to Luke.

"You should spend the allowance mother gave to you more wisely," Luke gently stroked her hair.

"I need at least five trillion Aris to do anything," she was dissatisfied.

"How could nine hundred billion be lacking?" Cillian whispered to us.

"The initial budget was ten billion and she wanted a trillion back then too," Ethan agreed.

This was when I realized Rika didn't live in the same world as us. Michelle did mention the gap in wealth was large, but I didn't think it would be to this extent. When Rika begged them to increase the budget, I was surprised to see Luke and Alex giving her a billion more Aris each. A few hours later, Michelle approached them to check some fraction documents. But their treatment towards Michelle was cold.

"Half of your share of the work needs to be redone again," Alex icliy passed her the files.

"The quality doesn't need to be this high for the drafts," Michelle argued.

"This project is different," Luke gave her additional work.

"It's the first event of when we become fraction leaders," he loaded more work onto her.

"When are the deadlines for these?" Michelle sighed.

"Three days from today," Luke set tight dates.

"What about this design plan? Will it work?" Rika interrupted them.

"This has improved," Alex warmly complimented her.

"We can start with the construction for that design," Luke gently smiled.