━ DENOUEMENT ( jerome clarke. )

07 ⊳ HOUSE OF INTRUDERS.

Honestly, Sydney pitied Mara slightly, as she knew that she wouldn't like scraping gum off Jerome's shoes (she was also aware that the prankster had stolen Alfie's gum and purposely put more gum on his shoes, to give the girl a harder time), though it was somewhat deserved as she shouldn't have cheated for Mick – it'd teach her a lesson, at least.

"I just don't know how I managed to get all that stuff on them." Jerome lied, referring to the gum on his shoes as he watched the nerd struggle to scrape it off, finding amusement in it.

Rolling her eyes, Sydney nudged the boy slightly in his stomach, wanting him to be nicer to her roommate, as she mumbled sarcastically, "Yeah, I wonder."

"It doesn't even make sense that one shoe could step in so much gum!" Mara complained, a small huff leaving her mouth as she continued to struggle to get the gum off – it wasn't exactly a surprise she was struggling; she was using the end of a spoon to scrape it off - a knife would have been easier.

"Just unlucky, I guess."

"Has anyone seen my gum?" Alfie asked having entered the room, and upon noticing a piece of his gum on the table, he picked it up, blissfully unaware that it had been on Jerome's shoe, "Huh, thought I'd left it in the science lab."

And with that said, he threw it into his mouth.

"Alfie, no!" Mara and Sydney both cried out in protest simultaneously, whilst Jerome chuckled – all of them rather disgusted as they were aware of where the gum had been, although the boy dismissed their cries and motioned for Sydney to move so that he could sit down next to them, causing her to scoot onto Jerome's lap, the boy instantly moving his hands to steady her – it was the normal.

Then, Amber entered the room, seeming rather irritated as she approached the group, her eyes on one person in particular, "Hey, Mara, what's going on between you and Mick? You were acting very strange earlier."

"Nothing, Amber," Mara responded to the blonde exasperatedly, tired of the entire situation as she closed her eyes from frustration whilst she continued to talk, her voice laced with frustration and annoyance, "Please, let it go. I'm not even tutoring him anymore."

However, that did not stop Amber Millington.

Clearly not getting the answer that she desired, the fashionista took matters into her own hands, quickly moving to the side of Mara and grabbing her bag, beginning to rifle through it to find the proof that she wanted, knowing that she had been involved with Mick's suspiciously high grades and having a theory which she needed to prove to be true.

"Hey, that's private!" Mara protested, shooting up from where she sat and dropping everything in her hands as she went to grab her bag in an attempt to stop the girl from finding the proof that would reveal everything, but it was too late – Amber already had Mara's and Mick's tests in her hands and was comparing them.

There was a moment of silence.

"Funny – you and Mick must be like, psychically linked or something." Amber commented dryly upon seeing that both of them had the exact same answers – another rookie mistake; there needs to at least be some discrepancy and difference between the tests.

"Busted." Jerome remarked, an amused look on his face considering that he found the entire situation extremely entertaining – that was, until, Sydney nudged him in the stomach; that, he did not find entertaining and/or amusing.