Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter eighteen. house of betrayal

            "Well, I took another one," he interrupts, "that said you once fainted after eating too many sweets and you woke up speaking French."

            "Speaking French?!" I repeat, looking over at Patricia and KT's stand. French, of all languages?! "How does—how does that make any sense?"

            "How does me taking secret ballet lessons make any sense?"

            On the stage, Alfie's voice suddenly comes through a microphone, "Hello? Excuse me, everyone, hi." Everyone turns their attention to him, still in his dog costume. "Uh, look, I realize Amber's not here, but she wanted to use this project to show off her talent, and, well, I owe this to her. So, if everyone's ready to rock..." Cheers and applause fill the room. "Hit it, KT!"

            KT, who's behind him on the stage, turns the boom-box on and fashion show music comes through the speakers. "That's right," Alfie continues. "Amber Millington proudly presents Foodie Fashion!" Willow walks out on stage, wearing a unique dress that only Amber Millington could have designed. "Willow is modeling a mouth-watering chow-fest. It's goodbye, black dress, and hello, snack dress. And to top it all off, your very own snack hat. It's fun. It's funky. It's Amber!"

            Willow blows a kiss to her audience before going backstage and the music stops. Alfie jumps off the stage, following after Amber's dad. 

            "I hate to admit it," Jerome says, "but Amber's actually pretty talented."

            "Yeah," I agree. "Maybe fashion school really is her calling."

            "Well, everybody," Denby says, "we have some judging to do. Take a break, but I want everyone back here in ten minutes."

            Fabian motions for me to come over.

            "Scooby gang?" Jerome asks, sighing.

            "I'll back before the judging starts," I tell him, kissing him quickly before walking over to Fabian, Alfie, and Patricia.

            "Now's our chance," the former says. "Let's go and get Amber."

            Unfortunately, Sweet seems to notice us leaving. "Your four," he says, causing us to turn back, "I need volunteers to help set up the stage." We start to protest it, but to no avail. "No buts, Patricia. Come, come on."

            Well, there goes that plan.

—

            It doesn't take us that long to set up the stage. I think we helped set it up faster than we usually would've because we had motivation to get out of there. "As soon as this is over," Fabian says as we get off the stage, "we're getting back to the gatehouse."

            Sweet taps the microphone to get everyone's attention. "Now, as you know, everyone's business project will be graded as usual. However, this is a small matter of a special prize for the very best idea. A brand-new laptop-y, computer-y thing, no less." More applause, but the four of us are just tired. "So now I'd like to ask Mr. Millington to please do the honors."

            Before Mr. Millington steps up to the microphone, he says something quietly to Mr. Sweet. I glance at the others, seeing their confused looks as well, before we see that Miss Denby appears confused and taken aback as well. Finally, he stops talking and steps up to the mic.

            But the applause is still going, the four of us clapping with more urgency than the others. "Hurry up," Alfie mumbles. "Come on. We need to get out of here."

            "Let's just hope none of us is the one that won," I mutter. If one of us won, that would mess everything up.

            "It's a great honor," Millington says, "to announce the winner of your very first business studies competition. The winning snack is an idea that asked, 'What does this place have to offer that no other business could?' The answer is... A Taste of Anubis, Joy Mercer and Fabian Rutter!"

            Joy looks thrilled, but Fabian looks down. The tension between them—what happened?—is clear as they get up onto the stage together. Millington offers them the laptop. Fabian looks like he just wants to get out of there as quick as he can and we're right there with him. Heck, Joy even looks uncomfortable.

            'Come on!' Patricia mouths to him. Fabian hurriedly hands the laptop to Joy, saying he had to go. But of course, Sweet stops him. "Fabian, Fabian, not so fast," he says. "I've asked KT to take some photographs of you and the winners, if you don't mind."

            By now, everyone has cleared out of the room except for us. "If we could hurry this along, Mr. Sweet?" Millington asks.

            Oh, for the love of Anubis!

—

            By the time we finally get out of the lounge, all four of us, we can see Sweet's door closing—with Victor and Amber both inside. Again, not good!

            "Amber?" Alfie asks.

            "The spy hole," Patricia remembers. "Let's go!"

            The spy hole in the girls' bathroom—I'd forgotten about that. Patricia uses a nail file to take the tile off the wall once we're inside, looking through it, while Fabian, Alfie, and I are just standing there, useless.

            "It's Amber," Patricia confirms. Alfie pushes her out of the way to look through the hole, and I try to lean closer to see if I can hear anything from Sweetie's office. It's all just muffled voices. I can't hear anything clearly.

            After a minute of looking through and eavesdropping on the conversation, Alfie moves away from the hole, leaning over the sink. He heard something. He hasn't told us. Why hasn't he said it?

            "Alfie, are you okay?" Fabian asks.

            "What did they say?" Patricia questions.

            "Alfie, tell us," I add.

            "It's Amber," Alfie says slowly, sounding confused. "She's betrayed us."