Two is Company (House of Anubis)

Chapter 29: Jackal Anonymous

Mara shrugged slightly. "Well, I'm guessing since he's writing under a blog called Jackal Anonymous, it's probably an alias?"

"Well, he's a kid at the school," said Joy. "He sends me a few articles anonymously; if his blog's doing that good, I don't need to know who he is."

"Joy?" Ms. Valentine called from the stage, effectively ending the conversation. Joy gave them a quick wave goodbye, and the girls waved back, gathering their belongings and starting out the door.

"Hey, we've got English in, like, five minutes," Kira reminded Eddie as they passed him. "You coming?"

"That's what she said," Eddie blurted out automatically, lifting his tablet to defend himself from Kira's equally automatic smack. "And nah, I'm just gonna keep browsing this blog for now. Smell ya later, Nug."

"Yeah, yeah, later," Kira drawled. "When you flunk out, don't come crying to me!" Leaving him to his truancy, she jogged a bit to catch up to Mara who loitered in the hallway for her. She wasn't going to ask about Jackal Anonymous yet, not before reading it to see if the writing styles matched up. She didn't want to spook her friend, after all.

They settled into their seats in English and chatted for a bit about nothing in particular while they waited for the period to begin. The bell rang and on cue, Mr. Sweet strode in, ushering Nina and Alfie along in front of him. Fabian, Amber, and Jerome, who also had this class, were nowhere in sight.

"I would expect Mr. Lewis here to take advantage of a pink-eye outbreak," and Kira involuntarily put a hand to her eye, shuddering at the thought, "but I expected more from you, Nina. If this truancy continues, there will be repercussions." Mr. Sweet caught his daughter's eye, glancing at the empty space beside Patricia where Eddie would normally be sitting. Kira shrugged apologetically; Eddie wasn't going to change overnight if he ever did. "Right, well, now, Ms. Valentine has set you a surprise Shakespeare test."

The class groaned and Kira nearly threw up her hands in defeat. "Just when I thought we'd moved on to some other topic," she muttered to Mara, who just laughed at her pain while Mr. Sweet passed out the packets.

"You have exactly one hour," he said, pointing to the clock. "You may begin."

Not even two minutes in, Nina and Alfie were whispering really loudly, and Mara shot Kira a look that clearly read as, Are you serious?

Clearly, Mr. Sweet wasn't pleased either. "Mr, Lewis!" he barked, and immediately Alfie and Nina's chattering ceased, and Nina hid something in her lap. "First you stage a walk-out, and now you're talking during a test... I do hope you're not cheating." He strode over to them and held out his hand expectantly. "Give me that." With extreme reluctance, Nina handed over the paper. "'Why aren't you at the barn?'" the headmaster read out loud, blinking at it stupidly for a moment before he came to a conclusion. "Oh, it's a date," he deduced, and it took everything in Kira to not burst out laughing at the thought of Alfie and Nina together on a farm rendezvous. From the seat behind her, Joy snickered. "Well," Mr. Sweet continued, "I'm afraid you're going to be very, very late for that. Detention after school today for Mr. Lewis."

"But Mr. Sweet—"

"No buts, or it's detention for Nina, too!"

They slumped back in their chairs with a sigh, and Kira cleared her throat, thankful for the relative quiet. She flipped to the first question: What is the main theme of Richard II? Explain it in paragraph form.

Kira groaned audibly. She couldn't wait for Chekov.

—

Kira, Mara, and Joy sat together in the living room that night doing homework. Fabian and Nina were there too, though they didn't seem to be doing any actual homework. Despite being totally over Shakespeare, Kira was confident she'd aced the test that afternoon and was more than happy to start in on The Seagull. She was distracted, though, by Nina on the phone.