Unsteady; House of Anubis *B2*

[76] House of Illusions

"No, no, no, no." Fabian told the boy, "Cam's rule..."

"Wait! No." Nina agreed. "we don't want to rush in, it might be a trap."

Camilla titled her head as she looked from the floor to the statues, "doesn't this remind anyone of a weird version of chess..."

"Chess..." Fabian seemed to mull over the word before his eyes widened, "you are brilliant Cam!"

"I try!"

"I think this is a game," Fabian turned to the Sibuna's, "I swear I've seen this board before in Cairo Museum or somewhere. We need to look it up." With that Fabian rushed back all of them knowing he was rushing along the tunnels back to the house.

"Guy's let's go," Camilla mumbled softly grabbing Alfie's wrist and pulling him away from the room seeing Nina and Amber leave together too.

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"Can I borrow your laptop?" Mara asked Joy as the two sat in the living room that evening, both in silence up until that point doing homework, "I want to look something up for the history essay and I can't be bothered trailing all the way up the stairs for mine, just to fact check one thing Ms Valentine posted in the online notes."

"Sure, whatever, it's on charge in the kitchen," Joy absentmindedly told the girl not looking up from whatever magazine she had out on her lap, Mara got up and left for the kitchen.

Just then Jerome appeared from the living room doorway, iPad in hands looking rather odd – or as odd as Jerome Clarke could be in Joy's mind. "Joy... you know this article you wrote on father's and sons?" Jerome started looking at the girl in question who didn't look up from her reading though she did reply.

"What about it?" Joy asked rather flatly.

"the resentful son and the guilty father," Jerome quoted reading off the screen, "now that all sounds rather familiar."

"does it? I mean possibly, yeah..."

"Basically, my life with your words." Jerome told the girl trying not to sound as alarmed as he felt when he read the article that evening, "how could you possibly know that my dad is in prison? Unless..." Jerome paused, "but Milly would never tell so..."

"So what?" Joy asked looking up at him finally.

"So Mara must have told you."

"Y-yeah... Mara told me." Joy saw Jerome's expression stiffen at her words and quickly said, "but don't say anything will you."

"don't worry Joy, 'Discretion' is my middle name..." Jerome told her before looking to the girl in the kitchen with a slight frown before leaving the room not returning the small wave she gave him.

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"Okay, J, what the hell is wrong??" Camilla finally asked as Jerome stood silently by her locker as she swapped her history books out for the Shakespeare play, they were studying in drama. Jerome had been her silent companion all day and as much as she loved the company of the boy – she would never say no to hanging out with him – his silence was getting the better of her. She knew something was on his mind and at this point the only way she'd get any answers from him would be for her to just demand to know what was wrong.

Jerome sighed and rubbed his hand along his jaw looking at Camilla. He had stuck to the girl all day because he knew she wasn't the one who would tell his dad's secret. The whole thing about Sweetie Jr proved the twins knew how to keep a secret without letting it affect their judgement of a person – it was something that he admired about her. He met her expectant gaze and knew he was going to tell her before the words spilt from his mouth. "Mara spilled to Joy!" Camilla's eyebrows quirked together in confusion so the boy elaborated, "About my dad! About everything!"