Eddie" You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"
Fabian" What, teaching you two patience, nah, not at all"
Eddie and I are currently trying to get at least one brick away from the wall.
Charlie" That's it, yes!"
Both of us high five.
Eddie" That's it! Guys, ready?"
Eddie" Well, There's definitely a room"
Patricia"Another room. Great"
Fabian" Excuse me, Eddie"
Fabian then shines his phone torch in the hole Eddie and I have now made in the wall.
Charlie" What is it?"
Fabian" I can't make out anything distinct, but there's something in the back"
Eddie" Let's get in there"
Fabian" Right, okay. We need to take this slowly, all right? Quiet, methodical work and one brick at a time"
We all agree with Fabian, he was right we had to do this quietly, if we didn't want to alert Victor, if he was even here, he spent a lot of time at The Gatehouse. Eddie clearly has another plan which is made clear when he runs at the wall with an oxygen tank.
Fabian" And we should no, no, no, Eddie"
Charlie" Eddie, Eddie no!"
There is a huge clang as the oxygen tank collides with a metal pipe.
Eddie" There's a pipe on the other side"
Fabian" What did I say about taking it slow?"
Charlie" And being quiet"
Eddie" Okay, so there's a pipe there.I know that now. We'll just have to avoid it"
Eddie then confidently goes for it a second time and it makes the same noise, sounding louder this time.
Eddie"Ooh! There's a pipe there too"
Patricia" No kidding"
Eddie" What are the chances of a third pipe?"
Eddie goes to slam it again but we hear Victor. Great. We all immediately scatter.
Victor" What is this noise?If anyone is there, show yourself"
———————————————————
Eddie" So oxygen tank was a bad idea"
All of us Sibuna's walk down the corridors next morning chatting about yesterdays misadventures. After the miscommunication Eddie is still annoyed that his plan didn't work and his now making faces.
Charlie" Yeah, slowly and quietly, that's how we're gonna get in there, Eddie"
Eddie" You guys are a regular old tortoise and hare, aren't you?"
We all stop as we all watch Ben picking up Patricia's books that she has dropped out of her locker.
Eddie" Get a load of this guy, will you?"
KT" Yeah, how terrible. He's helping her with her books"
Eddie" What? No, no. You don't understand Ben. He has to have everything that I have, including my girlfriend"
KT" Oh, relax, will you? Trust me. That girl only has eyes for you"
Eddie" Well he isn't having my sister either"
Charlie" Don't worry about that, he isn't my type"
Fabian" Well that's good to know"
I smile at Fabian and playfully put my arms around him as we enter the empty classroom. We had a few minutes before class so we all sat down around Fabian, me next to him. He pulled out his notebook and he has sketched the wall.
Fabian" Okay, so I've calculated that we need to remove six bricks across by six bricks down. At a half hour per brick, that's 18 hours"
Eddie" If we remove all those bricks, isn't Victor gonna notice? I mean, he's down there stoking the furnace all the time"
Fabian"I thought about that. For each brick we pull out, we put back, but with fake mortar around it so no one will notice. Then each night, we just take it out again"
KT"Mortar?"
Charlie"It's the bit inbetween the bricks"
Fabian" Right. If we match the colour of the mortar around them, in that light, it's unlikely Victor will notice.We only need six days"
Charlie" Only six days, well that's alright we have all the time in the world"
Everyone looks at me.
Charlie" It was a joke"
Patricia" She is right though, I mean we don't have a lot of time"
Fabian" Well there isn't much else we can do"
KT" So how do we make fake mortar?"
Fabian" Um Dough? We can make it in the kitchen"
Alfie" I love dough!"
Charlie" Of course you do but then who doesn't it makes pizza"
Eddie chuckles at me.
Willow" Hey, Alfie.Where were you last night?"
Alfie"What,why? When?"
Willow" Our date. We were gonna go camping in the living room, toast marshmallows over the hair-dryer"
Alfie" Oh, yeah, I sorry, I got distracted. Um, you want to meet tonight?"
Willow"Yeah, we could play cards with cookies"
Alfie"Oh, brilliant"
The classroom has started to fill up with students and also Miss Denby. I didn't ever think I could hate someone more than Vera but it was possible. It even made my stomach drop when she made eye contact with me or Eddie. This lesson I decided to sit with Eddie while Fabian sat with KT and Patricia sat with Joy.
Miss Denby" Okay, take your places.We've got a lot to get through. Now, as part of our partnership in business syllabus, we are going to explore trust. Partnership is nothing without it. So to start with, I want everybody up and paired off for some basic exercises"
The whole classroom stood up and I know Eddie was hoping to get paired with Patricia.
Miss Denby" Uh, Eddie, you're with Alfie,
Patricia, you're with Ben. Fabian, you're with Charlie. And KT you are with Joy and you know what? Everybody else, just go with the person to your left"
Everyone stood up and began pairing themselves.
Miss Denby" Now, for our first activity, take a blindfold and place it over your partner's eyes"
Everyone does as they are told and I wrap the blindfold around Fabian's eyes since I was nervous he said he would be the one with the blindfold. So while helping Fabian I was also keeping an eye on my brother who was paying no attention to Alfie what so ever. All his attention was devoted to Patricia who Ben was touching.
Charlie" Okay, right Fabian, okay, right"
I slowly and carefully help Fabian making sure he doesn't bump into a table. His grip on me is very comforting, I can see him smiling.
Charlie" Okay, left a bit, now just walk straight"
Fabian" It's okay I trust you"
My heart then leapt as he said that. He trusted me. Jerome never said that to me. I snuck a glance at Eddie who again is paying Alfie no attention.
Eddie" Dude have you seen how close they are"
Alfie" No, I have a blindfold on"
Eddie" He is way too close"
Miss Denby" Okay, everyone, that's enough of that exercise, but keep your blindfolds on or if you like some of you can switch over"
Some people switched over and some people didn't, Patricia and Ben didn't switch much to Eddie's annoyance, Mara and Willow stayed the same and Eddie and Alfie stayed the same. Fabian and I however switched, so now I had the blindfold and he was meant to catch me.
Miss Denby" Because next I want you to fall backwards while your partner catches you. Remember, this is about trust"
Charlie"You won't drop me, will you?"
Fabian" No, of course I won't drop you, you trust me right?"
Charlie" I do trust you"
Fabian" You ready?"
Charlie" Okay, alright"
I then fell back and Fabian caught me, his hands holding me tight, he made sure I didn't hit anything. Then I heard Alfie cry out in pain. I slipped my blindfold off, Fabian is holding onto me, Alfie is on the floor and Patricia and Ben look cosy.
Alfie" Ah ow! I do not trust you"
After class I stood at my locker, Eddie was leaning against the adjacent one waiting for me to put away books.
Eddie" What do I do about Patricia?"
Charlie" Why are you asking me?"
Eddie" Because you are a girl and you don't seem to have trouble with relationships"
Charlie" Yes, I am a girl but shall I redirect you to my relationship with Jerome and the cheating that went on between Mara,Willow and I"
Eddie" Oh yeah but what about Fabian, he seems so lovely to you"
Charlie" Eddie, I don't have magic book on relationships, no one does, I don't know, maybe do something for her, that's what Jerome did when he wanted to cover things, it all makes sense now to be honest"
I finished stacking my books and shut my locker. I lean against it next to Eddie.
Charlie" You are the only one who knows her well, only you can figure this out"
Eddie" Fine, come on let's go back to the house"
As we headed back to the house, our satchels swinging by our sides, Eddie initiated a conversation about the upcoming dodgeball tournament, earlier he had seen Patricia cutting orange slices with Ben. It was probably what had prompted his speech with me.
Eddie" Look, I need your help to get all the Anubis residents hyped up for this dodgeball tournament, I just know we can win, if we practise hard enough"
Charlie" Remind me again, what dodgeball is"
Eddie" Well someone throws a ball at you and you try and dodge it"
Charlie" That seems like bullying to me, lots of people threw balls and other things at me"
Eddie" Didn't you play sports at school?"
Charlie" Well other people did, I didn't, I spent a lot of time in the library"
Eddie" Well, you don't have to play if you don't want to, I can do that, just help me get everyone on side"
Charlie" Sure, why not what are twins for"
We then wiggle our little fingers.
Eddie and I arrive back at the house and Eddie bursts in to the living room, most likely stopping any current conversations and pre determined ones.
Eddie" Okay, huddle up, everyone. Huddle up, as you know, the dodge-ball tournament is coming up, and this year, we need to win it"
Alfie"Uh, we've never actually come in the top three"
Charlie" Yeah, well this year's gonna be different, right twinnie?"
Eddie" Right, we are going to win"
Alfie"What, there're only three teams competing?"
Eddie" No, no! It's just dodge-ball, guys okay, me and KT, we grew up on it. And this year, Anubis is gonna win, people"
I can see that no one is quite convinced and I can tell Eddie annoyed that he hasn't got everyone on side.
Charlie" Come on, guys. We need you to sign up, I mean we need to beat this for Eddie and Anubis House, we want to beat Isis House right?"
Alfie" I guess"
Charlie" Come on guys, we can do this, what about the ping pong tournament last year"
Alfie" That was good but that was all you and Jerome, no one else did that"
I resist the urge to look at Jerome.
Charlie" Look just do this for my brother if not anything else, so he can see the look on Ben's face when we beat him"
Eddie" KT, you're in, right?"
KT" Of course"
Eddie"Okay, good, Jerome, you're tall"
Jerome"I am tall"
Eddie" Right? Yeah. Alfie, Willow, Joy, you guys have legs. Come on, guys. You'll sign up, right?"
Fabian then speaks up and he just generally sound offended.
Fabian" What about me?"
Eddie" Oh, uh, you know? I think we're okay, Fabian, I think we got enough people"
Charlie" It's okay, we can both just watch, do you like the idea of someone throwing a ball at you"
Fabian" No not really"
Charlie" Me neither"
Willow"Oh I have a question, How do you play?"
Eddie" Dodge-ball? Well it's just the other team throws a ball at you.You dodge it"
Willow"Oh. I'm with you. Cool"
After Eddie had left with Patricia and Mara and Joy went upstairs with Letdown we decided to work on the fake mortar. All of us were now covered in a lot of flour.
Fabian" Ugh, it's a disaster"
Charlie" Well, so much for the mortar"
KT" Hey, how was your date?"
Eddie and Patricia have now entered the kitchen looking way cleaner then we did.
Patricia" Why are you so interested?"
Eddie" Patricia, She's just a little grouchy
because I had to take a call"
We head down to the cellar after dinner and KT had made a fake brick wall from her art project, it looked real.
Charlie" KT you really are genius"
We all head over to the wall eager to put the plan into action.
KT" Uh, guys someone has closed it up"
Eddie runs over but I beat him do it and lean over to see what has happened, Patricia and Fabian scream and Eddie pulls me back just as a huge guillotine comes down. I stand back in shock at what had just happened. I nearly fall over, Eddie just catching me. I push myself into him and he holds me.
Eddie" Oh my god, I nearly just lost my sister, this is serious"
Story Notes
So Sibuna have to pick the bricks out one by one, Patricia and Eddie are still having troubles and The Twins try to raise everyone's spirits about upcoming Dodgeball Tournament.
Authors Notes
I really hope you like this chapter. Your comments make my day always. Don't forget to Vote/Comment and Follow if you haven't already.
Thanks.
Next Week:
House of Winning and House of Moonlighting.