Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter nine. house of revelations

"Yeah, neither can I," I agree, looking at what I've managed to figure out. Honestly, it looks like a lot of gibberish, but it has to mean something if Victor that was that upset his parcel was missing. "It doesn't make any sense."

Amber takes my copy—AKA I drew it out in my notebook—and gasps lightly. "I have an idea."

"Do you know how to break the code?" Alfie questions.

"No, just a sweet design for a t-shirt," Amber says. Our occasional accident genius has fashion on her mind, of course. I grab my copy back, quietly chuckling. Honestly, I think I'd buy it. "I'd have been so good at fashion school."

"Yeah, but you're good at this, too, right?" Alfie says as he stands.

Amber hums. "Practically saved the world twice, but I don't like to brag."

"Really?" I remark dryly. "Hadn't a clue."

Joy manages to get us all back on the original topic, commenting as she looks at the parchment, "The same symbol appears over and over again."

Really? I didn't notice anything when I was drawing it out, but then again, I was sort of distracted because Fabian was anxiously tapping his foot to get the parchment back so I was sort of rushing myself to get my own copy before he took the original from me. I look down, trying to find it, as Fabian asks, "What's that?"

She hands him the parchment and points it out. "I'm sure you would have figured it out."

He stares at it, commenting, "You're right."

"Hey, what's the symbol?" I inquire. If it appears more than once, it's definitely important.

"This one."

Fabian hits some keys on his laptop and turns the screen around to show me. There's an enlarged version of the hieroglyph on the screen. It's a star or a sun or something with twelve sides on it, and seeing it on a large scale helps me find it on my rushed copy. Joy's right, it appears over and over. It's important.

But...where have I seen that moon before?

—

Five minutes later, Patricia, Joy, and I have briefly left Fabian's room to go to mine in search of colored pens to further help in our hieroglyphic quests. Amber's idea, of course, color-coding. Mara, officially my new roomie, is in the middle of the room working out. Not exactly what I expected to see, but sure. I raise an eyebrow, slowly walking around her to grab my art kit from underneath my nightstand.

Mara, unusually chipper, questions, "Oh, what are you doing?"

"We're looking for colored pens," answers Joy. "It's...for the family tree thing."

"I thought Mr. Sweet told you not to do the family tree," Mara responds, still working out with weights in her hands. She nearly accidentally hits me with one of them as I sneak past her again, still looking at her oddly.

"Since when did anyone around here listen to teachers?"

"Since when did you work out?" Patricia asks her.

Joy takes the art kit from my hands, opening it up and grabbing one of the pink pens inside. She takes off the cap, turning it in her hand like she's determining if it's all right for our needs as Mara responds, "I needed to work off my frustration."

"What kind of frustration?" I ask.

Joy suddenly gasps sharply, pushing the cap back onto the pen. "It's about your secret boyfriend."