Layla's POV
"Hi, I'm Nina. This is my sister, Layla. We're from America!" My sister introduced as we entered the living room to see the rest of our housemates, Patricia included, all seated on the couches.
"Nina! We get it, we're from America!" I told her as I grinned at everyone. I noticed the blonde guy from earlier was sitting staring at me and I sent him a small smile hoping he wouldn't hold that little incident against me. He did smile back so I figured maybe not everyone here would be so bad.
"Welcome space girls. Or blurp bleep blop as they say in your language," said one boy as he stood and came up to me and my sister. Um...okay?
"Supper's ready!" I heard Trudy call out. Everyone stood up and headed over to the dinner table. I glanced over at my sister as we struggled to figure out where to sit.
"Hey, there's a seat over there?" I pointed out to her as I snagged the free one next to the blonde guy, still didn't know his name yet. Unfortunately for my sister the one I had pointed to was next to Patricia.
"That's my seat!" I looked up to see a blonde girl standing over my sister, who hurried to stand back up.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" She told the girl.
"Where's Mick?" She asked.
"Um, I don't even know who you are so..." before Nina could finish her sentence the girl had dashed out of the room. I shrugged at my sister as she sat back down.
"You heard what Amber said, That's her seat," Patricia sniped. I rolled my eyes.
"Is she always like this?" I asked the boy next to me as my sister pointed out that Amber wasn't there at the moment.
"Pretty much, yeah." He replied as he glanced over at me. "I'm Jerome by the way, nice to meet you.
"I'm Layla, it's nice to meet you as well. I really am sorry about earlier! I hope I didn't hurt you too badly!" I told him.
His reply was drowned out by Patricia's shouting.
"That's your way isn't it? Someone's gone for five seconds and you've already moved in." I moved to stand up, not sure of what I was going to do but knowing I wanted to do something, when I felt a hand tug me back down into my seat.
"Trust me, you do not want to get on Patricia's bad side," Jerome whispered to me. I frowned.
"I think it's a little too late for that, she's clearly Malfoy," I said as I crossed my arms. I looked over at Jerome as he suddenly started coughing.
"What did you say?" He asked as his friend clapped him on the back.
"Well, Victor is Snape and Patricia's Malfoy, as far as I can tell," I told him with a shrug and a smirk as I watched him trying to clear his throat. Well at least I had managed to make someone in this house smile.
"Patricia is head of the welcoming committee.
Take no notice, just sit where ever you like," I heard another boy say to my sister. I smirked as I looked over and saw him staring wide eyed at her. Ohhh...that definitely needed further looking into.
I hummed with happiness as I dug into my pasta. Trudy was right, it was delicious. And reminded me of home which was nice. I didn't really know what I had been expecting as far as the food went but either way, it was good and I wasn't complaining. As I ate, Jerome quickly whispered the names of everyone else at the table to me and I hurried to say thanks. He sent me another smile before turning back to his friend who I now knew was named Alfred but preferred to be called Alfie. I chuckled as I watched him stuff two forks full of spaghetti into his mouth.
"Stop it Alfie, that's disgusting, And you're probably going to choke on it!" The girl Jerome had told me was Mara cried out.
"But it's delicious this way!" Alfie responded, though it was hard to understand him with the amount of food currently in his mouth.
"Alfie, don't play with your food," Jerome chided though as I watched he flicked his own fork of pasta over at him. I giggled at the site; missing the quick smug grin that flashed across Jerome's face as he heard me laughing.
"Alfie! Ah!!" Jerome cried out as Alfie retaliated by tossing two handfuls of pasta at Jerome. I quickly managed to dive out of the way but ended up falling on the floor. Ow. I took the hand Jerome offered me as I sat back in my chair; making sure to lean as far as I could as he began to reach for the salad bowl.
"Really guys? Every meal?" I heard Fabian cry out; he was the boy who had been staring at Nina earlier. Though I noticed she hadn't managed to duck out of the way of some flying spaghetti. I stuck my tongue out at her as I motioned to my clean state and she stuck hers back at me but before either of us could do or say anything else, Patricia had reached over and grabbed the pitcher of water and dumped in all over my sister.
"Oops, sorry!" She said, clearly faking as my sister shrieked and stood up. I rushed over to her and pushed her slightly behind me as I glared at Patricia.
"Classy Patricia," Fabian rolled his eyes though I noticed him quickly standing to grab some napkins.
"What? It was an accident," Patricia lied.
"Are you okay?" Fabian asked my sister as he handed me the napkins.
"Yeah. Except I think my sweater is shrinking to my body as we speak," Nina answered as I did my best to at least dry off her face and chest of water and pasta.
"So Nina. Layla. When are you going to tell us what you know about Joy's disappearance?"
"I guess when we actually know something," I growled at her. This was so weird for me. No one had ever been mean like this to Nina before. I didn't like the fact I attracted the bullies but I also was not pleased with the role reversal that seemed to be going on here!
"Oh come on. One minute I'm sitting next to Joy in class. And the next she's disappeared and you two have taken her place. Bit of a coincidence don't you think?" Patricia declared as I handed Fabian the dirty napkins and he swapped me for a few small towels. I smiled in thanks at him. He even looked a bit like Harry Potter! Minus the glasses. Totally perfect for Nina.
"I guess it is," my sister said forlornly to Patricia as I handed her one of the small towels. She smiled weakly at me but I could tell she was close to having a breakdown. Seeing as she had always been there for me, I was going to make sure that I took care of her this time. I never felt like I was able to be a very good sister to her since she was always doing the big sister thing with me. I didn't like the circumstances, but it was also kind of nice to be able to feel like I could help her with something for a change. If that made any sense.
"Maybe she's snatched her and locked her in the cellar. Whoooooh!" Alfie chimed in, waving his arms around as he made ghost noises.
"Shut up Alfie! Well?" Patricia demanded.
"We don't know anything about Joy or her disappearance. Now back off!" I told her.
"I'll get it out of you, eventually," she said.
"Yeah, whatever, Malfoy," I sniped back. Smirking as I saw the look on her face when I called her that. This was new to me, standing up to a bully, but I kind of liked it. I turned around and grinned at my sister proudly and felt my spirits rise a little higher as I saw she was smiling proudly back at me.
"Nina, Layla, phone-call for you. What's going on?" Victor said as he came into the room and observed the mess of food everywhere.
"Nothing. Just Nina spilled water everywhere," Patricia fibbed. I rolled my eyes as I gently pulled my sister out into the hallway and over to the table where the phone was. I let her sit while I stood next to her, listening in as she picked up the phone.
"How's Harry Potter land?" Gram's voice said on the other end. Boy was it nice to hear her voice but we obviously couldn't tell her how badly things were going. I squeezed Nina's shoulder as I continued to listen in.
"So go on. Tell me all. What's it like?" Gran was asking. I frowned. Not as magical as I had been hoping was the answer I had in my head.
"It's It's great. It's just how we thought it would be," I told her as Nina was struggling to pull herself together.
"Made some new friends yet?" Grams asked.
"Yeah, so many. Like, so many," Nina lied. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. She was terrible at lying!
"I knew you would. Are you ok?" Gran asked, sensing that something was up.
"You know, gran We're in the middle of supper, which means dinner so um..." I quickly told her.
"Yes, yes. You go. Don't let me stop you," she hurried to say.
"We'll call you soon, ok?" I told her.
"Only if you've got time. Get some sleep honeys! Bye." I hung up the phone as Nina leaned on the table and started crying. I rubbed her back with small circles like she always did for me.
"Is everything ok?" I looked up to see Fabian standing in the hall looking over at Nina with a worried look.
"Oh yeah, yeah, it's just allergies. You guys have cats right?" Nina hurried to say as she wiped away her tears. Again, such a bad lier, not that I was any better half the time.
"No," Fabian replied. I patted my sister on the back as she stood up.
"Um, must just be this soggy sweater then," she said slowly as I gently pushed her up the stairs so that she could change.
"Thanks, Layla," she told me once I had gotten her into a new outfit.
"No worries, it's nice to be the big sister for a change," I told her with a soft smile as she rolled her eyes at me. "Do, do you want to go back downstairs? It doesn't seem like everyone else is as mean as Patricia," I said as I thought about Fabian and Jerome. Even Mara and Amber seemed like they might be nice. And while Alfie was a bit weird he didn't seem at all bad. I hadn't really met Mick yet so judgement was still out on him.
She nodded slowly and we descended the staircase and went to go sit down on the couch with a magazine. I waved at Jerome who nodded his head at me while Nina attempted the same with Mara and Amber who were on the other couch having a whispered conversation.
A few hours later Mick had joined Amber and Mara on the couch and they were doing one of those couple quizzes while I did my best not to notice the small glances Fabian and Nina were exchanging. Aww how cute. I think I'll call them Fabina.
"Mostly a's - you're the shy, retiring type. That's hilarious, just so wrong!" I heard Amber say as Patricia suddenly stormed into the room and slouched down into a free chair.
"I can't believe that creep won't give me joy's home number. At least she should get her stuff back the day after tomorrow," she said.
"That's good. You'll be able to ring her then," Mara said.
"I know you've got something to do with this newbies," Patricia said as she glared at my sister and I. "And I'm gonna find out what it is!"
"So you've mentioned. Ten times!" I told her as I glared right back at her. She made my sister cry. Not acceptable!
"What did you say?" She said as she sat up straighter.
"Nothing," Nina told her as she poked me in the side.
"Owie," I complained.
"Don't poke the bear," she whispered at me.
"But you just poked me?" I pointed out. She rolled her eyes at me as she went back to reading her magazine. I glanced over and saw Jerome send me a wink as he proceeded to start poking Alfie all over and I burst out laughing.
*****
"It's ten o'clock You should be downstairs by now!" I heard Victor shouting from downstairs as Nina and I finished getting changed for bed.
"Wow, he's almost worse than Snape!" I told Nina as I handed her a towel and we made our way to the bathroom.
"You have five minutes precisely. And then I want to hear a pin drop!" Victor was shouting. I rolled my eyes at Nina. As we saw Patricia leaving the bathroom and quickly made our way in. I rushed to brush my teeth as Nina wiped off the mirror which had completely fogged up.
"What are you doing?" I heard Patricia exclaim as I spat out my toothpaste and rinsed my mouth out.
"Cleaning the mirror?" Nina replied.
"Didn't you see what was on it?" Patricia cried out.
"Steam?" I told her as I looked past her at Mara and Amber.
"She's wiped it off!" Patricia said.
"What did it say?" Mara asked.
"Help me! Joy" And she's wiped it off so now it looks like I'm going crazy!" Patricia threw her hands up in the air.
"Take it easy, Patricia," Mara told her as I crossed my arms and went to stand in front of Nina.
"This is what she wanted. She's involved, I'm telling you. They both are," Patricia declared as she pointed at us.
"We didn't see anything on the mirror other than steam!" I defended. "And I've got a photographic memory so I think I'd remember accurately," I huffed at her.
"Really? That's so cool!" I heard Mara say and I smiled at her. No one had ever said that before. A fact I shared with her as she sent me kind look.
"Why are you girls not in your rooms? You know the rules," Victor said as he approached the bathroom.
"I don't want to share with them," Patricia rushed to say.
"You know what? We'll move! Half of Nina's stuff is in a pile on the floor anyway. We can just sleep on the couch," I told Victor, looking back to see Nina nodding in agreement.
"Nobody is moving anywhere! Get to your rooms immediately!" I shrugged at Nina as she followed me back into our room, us both glancing over at Patricia as she climbed into bed.
*****
"We've already met Snape, so how bad could school really be?" I told Nina as we headed out the door the next morning; having decided to skip breakfast when we saw Patricia heading down there. I tugged at my tie, it was going to take some getting used to, but I did like the maroon blazer, and the colors did remind me a bit of Gryffindor so there was that.
"Ohh! Sorry! Are you ok?" Nina said as we almost walked right into an old lady on the road who was wearing a nightgown.
"That's my house," she told us.
"I don't think so. It's a school," I told her gently as I sat her down on a bench.
"That's my house," she said again as Nina joined us on the bench.
"Ok, it's your house. It kind of suits you. Maybe you can tell us where you really live and we could take you back? Oh, here. You'll get cold!" Nina said as I quickly took of my blazer and handed it to her so she could lay it over the lady's shoulders.
"It's you isn't it? I knew you'd come," the lady said as she stared at Nina.
"I'm sorry, I don't know," Nina started to say as I shrugged at her.
"Sarah, Sarah. My name is Sarah!" The lady whispered urgently.
"Okay, Sarah. Why don't you come inside for a cup of coffee?" I asked her.
"I can't go in there. He's waiting. He's always waiting," she said, looking horrified at the idea.
"All right then, um, why don't you just wait here, while my sister goes and brings someone back!" Nina said as she looked over at me. I nodded at her to let her know I was fine with that plan.
"Okay? Are you coming back?" She asked me.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" I rushed to reassure her as I quickly dashed back into the house and ran to get Trudy. She seemed sweet but that didn't mean I felt comfortable leaving my sister alone out there.
*****
"It's not like you to go wandering, Emily." The lady at the nursing home said as she ushered us inside.
"Emily?" I asked, a bit confused as she had told us her name was Sarah.
"She's rather confused, as you've probably realised. But she's not normally a sprinter," the lady said.
"That's Anubis house. She said she used to live there," I told her as I spotted a photo on the wall.
"I don't think so, Although with some of these old dears, you never know. Truth is, we know very little about Emily's background. Isn't that right Emily?" She said the last bit a little louder and I winced.
"There's no need to shout. I'm not deaf you know," Sarah, or Emily said as she grinned at me. I smiled back as Nina and I followed the caretaker into her room and watched as she sat her down in a chair with a blanket.
"There that's better isn't it, Emily?" The woman asked.
"No," I couldn't stop the laugh that burst out as I stared at Sarah/Emily. She was glaring at the lady but when she heard me laugh she sent me a wink. I liked her. She reminded me of gran.
"Now, you two got time for a cup of tea or something before you get back?" The caretaker asked.
"I doubt anyone's missing us," I said as I looked over to Nina with puppy dog eyes. She sent me a stern look but I could tell she felt the same way.
"Thanks. That would be nice," she replied as I did a little happy dance and grinned over at Sarah/Emily who was smiling at my antics.
"I've been waiting so long. Keeping the secret. Now it's your turn. Quick. Take this. But keep it well hidden, or they'll take it away from you.
They take everything away from you in the end," Sarah/Emily said as she went to remove the necklace around her neck; handing it over to Nina. "And you, you have your bracelet don't you? Keeping it secret, I hope?" She asked as I stared and nodded. How did she know about that! I always wore it on my upper arm so that I could keep it close without anyone spotting it. It was a winged version of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of magic, death, healing, and rebirth - who had married her brother; Osiris. It was all I had when I was found on Nina's doorstep as a baby. I had no idea why but it was my most treasured possession.
"Oh. I couldn't possibly take it!" Nina tried to say but Sarah/Emily wasn't having it.
"But you must. It will keep you safe. And you must keep her safe," she said as she glanced over at me. I frowned, not liking the worried look she was giving me, it was as if she knew something I didn't. "There's treasure hidden in that house. And only you two have the power to find and protect it. But you must be careful. There's danger in that house. Evil. It's a bad house. A dark house!" She told us.
"Evil? Spooky, yes, But I don't know about evil.
Emily, I don't think..." Nina said.
"Sarah. My name is Sarah. And I know you!" She said looking at us both.
"I'm sorry. I know what it's like to miss the place you come from," Nina told her.
"And you know me Nina, it's your duty to protect the reincarnation. You must protect Layla!"
"How do you know our names?" I asked as I took a step back as Nina looked over at me clearly worried about Sarah's warning.
"But you must beware the black bird. Do you hear me? Beware the black bird!!" Well that wasn't ominous at all! I thought to myself.