riddle me this. ― ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀɴᴜʙɪꜱ

one.

"no way, a new student?" the girl questioned a little too excitedly, confusing bella. "ah sorry," she quickly apologised, noticing her confusion. "my name's nina, i'm a resident of anubis house too. i was actually a new student who only joined last year, so it's nice to finally not just be known as the newbie." she explained, bella only nodding as she wondered if that meant she was taking that title. "not that you're a newbie or anything like that," nina quickly added, realising how that had sounded. "i just mean, i mean―"

"it's okay." bella assured, she couldn't help but laugh a little at the situation. "i'm aware of how students can be." she added, nina visibly relaxing as she nodded her head in agreement. 

"yeah," she nodded, reminiscing her first few weeks at anubis house and remembering how bad it was. she opted to keeping that to herself though― she didn't exactly want to scare the new girl away, especially on her first day at the residence. "come on, i'll show you the way." she changed the topic, handing bella her letter back before grabbing her own luggage.

"thanks, that would be great." bella finally smiled, although fake, but nina didn't notice. 

"so where did you go before?" she questioned, trying to make some small talk as they both walked side by side towards the house. 

"ah, i lived in china." she answered, taking nina by surprise.

"woah! china?" she exclaimed, wondering if she had heard right. "what made you move all the way down here?" she questioned, curiosity getting the better of her. bella mentally sighed at the question, she had been asking herself that too. she didn't really know how to answer nina, but luckily for bella, something else had seemed to catch the girl's attention. "jerome?" she questioned as she came to a sudden halt, bella following suite as she glanced to her right to find a boy seeming to be hiding behind a car?

upon hearing his name, he stood up straight, acting as if he wasn't being suspicious at all. "nina, hello, welcome back." he greeted the girl before his eyes landed on bella. "who's this?" he questioned, momentarily forgetting that he was meant to be hiding from someone.

"bella." the girl answered for herself. "new student." she added upon seeing his confusion. her short answers seemed sufficient enough as he nodded his head before walking away. the two girls watched as he suddenly ran towards the wall and threw his luggage over before his body followed. 

nina chuckled as she rolled her eyes, and bella turned back to the girl in confusion. "is... is that normal?" she questioned, pointing towards jerome.

"trust me," the girl began as they continued walking again. "jerome is anything but normal." she finished. "i wouldn't mind him, actually, i would steer clear of him. he has a thing for pranking and blackmailing people." she advised which bella took note of, nodding her head. lucky for her, it was the perfect distraction from their previous conversation and as they approached what she assumed was their house, nina had already forgotten all about it.