Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter thirty-five. house of setup

—

After breakfast, I go back up to my room to grab my bag, saying a hello to Mara, who's at the mirror brushing her hair. As I grab what I need and begin to head to the door again, it opens and Willow comes in. "Mara, Ashley," she greets, her voice strangely less happy than normal. I raise an eyebrow, glancing back to Mara. "Can I talk to you?"

"You know, I really have to go," I start to say, but Willow grabs my shoulders and sits me down on Mara's bed. "You understand it's a longer walk from Anubis to school than it is from Isis to school?"

"You might want to sit down," Willow says to Mara, sitting her next to me. This girl's been my roommate for exactly one night and I already can't stand her. I really can't wait until it's Patricia instead. Again, Sibuna roomie. "You know how at the end of every day, the sun sets? That day is gone and we can now look forward to a new dawn."

"Yeah, I can't do this," I remark, starting to stand, but Mara pulls me back down and whispers not to be rude.

"And every year, the birds fly south, and the whales swim to different seas, and the penguins move inland onto thicker ice?"

"Yes?" Mara comments, sounding as confused as I feel.

"I'm the whale," Willow states, spreading her arms wide. "Or the penguin." Now she's standing like a penguin.

"Okay..."

Willow sighs relieved. "I was so worried that you both were going to be mad at me."

"Willow, what are you talking about?"

"Oh. I thought I was quite clear," she muses. She sits down between us and takes one of my hands and one of Mara's hands. "I'm moving rooms."

"Oh, that," I say. Wow, I really had no idea what she was saying. "Yeah, okay, cool. Leaving now." I take my hand out of Willow's and leave the room, shaking my head. Thank God. No more metaphors about birds or whales or penguins.

—

Our solar eclipse project is not going on great. Aside from the fact that I literally could not care less about getting extra credit from a teacher/my uncle who is actively trying to destroy the entire world, no one else in my group cares at all. Patricia and Alfie don't care for the same reason I don't. Jerome just doesn't because he doesn't see the point in it. But at least he's still putting in some effort. Some effort being that last night I was in his room googling solar eclipses while he was on his phone listening to the soundtrack from Star Wars.

Before the first class of the day begins, I left Jerome and Alfie alone at the house to discuss the project in search of Patricia, who I've just found at school in front of the lockers with Eddie and Fabian. "Where's KT?"

"She hasn't arrived yet," Eddie answers. "And like I was saying," he lowers his voice, "we can't just give up on her. Look, I mean, we have this, right?" He takes the bracelet out of his bag. "And we have KT. And Ashley, who's Plan B."

"And the teachers could kidnap her at any minute," Patricia retorts. "Both of them."

"Look, all we can do now is keep KT away."

"Yeah, as far away as possible," Patricia says. "You, too, Ash."

"What?" I ask, looking at her with furrowed eyebrows. Wait, what's just happened?

"You're both in danger," Patricia informs me. "You both need to get out of here."

"No way," I retort. "I'm not going anywhere. Let the adults kidnap me. It won't work. As long as it keeps KT safe, let them take me. But... yeah, maybe she should get away from here."