Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter fifty-eight. house of dodgeball

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            I offer a bag of ice to Jerome in the lounge, watching him wince as he puts it to his head. "You got cocky," I tell him. "And distracted."

            "I'm always cocky," he retorts, which is true. "And I'm in pain. But hey, we're in the final. I won't be playing, but we're in the final."

            "Yeah, Eddie would be stupid to put you in after this."

            "He's stupid in general."

            From near us, Eddie says, "I heard that, Jerry."

            "He's stupid because he insists on calling me Jerry."

            "It's your name."

            "No, it's not."

            Anubis House aren't the only ones in the lounge. Our opponents in the final, Isis House, are here, too. Ben, Sven, Sergei, and Evan. I don't know where the rest of the house is but these are the four that have been playing the most, which means they're who we're gonna go up against. Ben and the two brothers are talking lowly to Evan, which Alfie notices first and tells Jerome and I about it, Willow with him. Evan comes over to the four of us, but his eyes are on me.

            "Hey, Ashley," he says to me.

            "Evan," I reply plainly. "Let me guess, Ben sent you over to try and distract me from kicking your—"

            "I just wanted to say hello," Evan interrupts. I narrow my eyes, glancing at my friends. I remember Willow coming up to me last year to inform me that she and everyone else in Isis House was mad at him for what he did and I'm starting to think she's the only one who was actually upset about it. Evan glances over at Jerome, who's in the chair I'm sitting on the arm of. "Yeah, I heard you two were dating now. Apparently, a lot of people won bets on it."

            It's Willow that responds to him. "Well, of course, they're soulmates. Meant to be."

            Alfie nods and agrees, "You were just a blip. Oh, yeah, you suck, by the way."

            "Well, considering we made it to the finals on our own merit," Evan retorts, crossing his arms as he glances back to his teammates, "and not because someone cheated, I'm pretty sure we don't."

            I stand up, mimicking his actions as I cross my own arms. "Even if you do end up winning, a trophy won't change the fact that you, Ben, Sven, and Sergei are all jerks and that's all anyone sees when they look at you. A guy who cheated on his girlfriend, lied to her. You're lucky you're not the laughingstock of the school like Atticus Monroe because these two," I point my thumb to Jerome and Alfie, "so wanted to get back at you for that whole thing. Oh, and by the way, what you did to me didn't really hurt me for longer than, like, a day."