Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter sixty-three. house of imposters

"What about Mara?"

"Mara who studies aloud and I had to order noise-cancelling headphones so at least I can try to sleep?"

"How does that make you paranoid?"

"It doesn't really. But because of it all I did have a dream about War and Peace being used as a way to teach chemistry and it was Mara with Amber's voice lecturing me. It's very weird hearing Amber name every element on the periodic table and then give me detention for doing nothing."

Fabian looks at me weirdly as we join Patricia and Eddie in the hallway. The latter is saying harshly, "She's a liar and a traitor. She is not Sibuna."

I sigh lightly, shaking my head as we leave the house. Something's not right here.

—

It's a pleasant surprise when I walk into the lounge at school and find Jerome reading again, except this time it's pretty obviously not Lily's diary. It looks like the script Mara had at breakfast, and he looks perpetually befuddled about it. I smile lightly, going around the back of the couch and leaning down beside him. "I'm really glad you didn't steal the diary again."

Jerome glances at me. "Nope. Started translating those hieroglyphs yet?"

"Procrastination's my best friend. That Mara and Joy's script?"

He lets out a deep sigh and nods. "Yep. I have absolutely no idea what's going on in it. I can't tell what the relationship of the main characters is, and I really don't see the purpose of a character named Cherry for many, many reasons."

"How can you not tell what the relationship is?"

"I don't know, you try reading this and you tell me."

"I'll pass," I remark, remembering why I needed to talk to him. "Listen, I've got a hypothetical question. If you were going to frame someone for something, how would you do it?"

Jerome raises an eyebrow as he sets the script on his lap. "It depends. What am I framing them for?"

I think for a moment. "Sabotage and destruction of property."

"Uh-huh, and who's investigating? The police or a group of rag-tag teenage misfits?"

Shooting him an annoyed look, I answer, "Rag-tag teenage misfits, hypothetically."

"Would this hypothetical have anything to do with why no one's talking to KT?"

"If I told you that, I'd have to kill you. Answer the question."

Jerome's not at all fazed by what I said and instead gives me an answer to my not-at-all concerning question. "Well... you'd have to plant something at the scene that leads back to them."

"Like?"

"You don't have the resources the police have, so DNA's out of the question. You could plant some hair and try and match texture and color, but that's too much. Fingerprints. You can match fingerprints just by looking at them. I'd use fingerprints."

"How would you get them?"

"Clean, hard surface. Like a mug or a mirror."

"So you would get the prints off a mug. How could you be sure a hypothetical group of teenage misfits have the idea to match the prints?"