Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter six. house of accusations

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            The next morning while I'm brushing my hair in front of the mirror, I notice Amber's reflection jumping onto my bed and asking me excitedly, "Ashley, have you seen what Alfie gave me for my birthday lately? It's gorgeous, isn't it?"

            I set my hairbrush down, turning to look at her. She's gazing at the clunky bracelet with a lot of admiration. "You've showed it to me twenty times since he gave it to you," I remind her with a chuckle. "So I take you're not mad at him anymore about the bacon flavored dental floss?" Amber doesn't give any acknowledgement she heard me, just keeps staring at the bracelet. "Amber. Hey, earth to Amber!"

            Amber barely manages to dodge the makeup brush I throw at her to get her attention. "You don't have to throw things at me, you know."

            "That bracelet is not pretty enough for you to zone out while I'm talking to you."

            She gasps dramatically and throws the makeup brush back at me. Fortunately, I manage to catch it before it hits my head. She puts her hand—the one that's got the bracelet—over her heart. "Ashley Adams, how dare you?" She puts emphasis on the last three words, taking breaths in between.

            I smile widely at her before deciding to change the subject. "So, have you figured out who Mara's mystery boyfriend is? It's really strange she won't tell us his name."

            Amber nods. "It is. She refuses to tell me. I'm really offended by it. I mean, I'm a great matchmaker. I've match-made her before. Why won't she say anything?"

            "Who knows? But she did say he goes to the school, which ought to narrow it down a bit. So maybe we'll be able to figure it out if we catch her giving stolen glances to some boy who is actually her new boyfriend."

            "Stolen glances, how romantic," Amber muses. She gets up from my bed and grabs her blazer from the end of hers. "I'm going down to breakfast."

            "I'll be down in a minute," I reply. Amber nods and happily leaves the room, still admiring that new bracelet of hers. I really need to figure out where Alfie got it from, because it doesn't look like something you'd find at your local shopping center. And it looks really old, too. There are two knocks on the door as I stand, and Joy comes into the room. "Oh, hey, Joy."

            "Hey, Ash," Joy greets. "I've got something for you."

            "Is it chocolate? Tell me it's chocolate."

            Joy blankly stares at me. "No." She hands me the paper in her hands. "As you well know, Fabian needs us right now, and us girls need to look out for him. So, I drew up a rotor. That's yours."

            I raise an eyebrow at her, scanning the words on the paper. Leave it to Joy Mercer. "Why do 'us girls' need to look out for him? What about the boys?"