Everyone in Anubis was gathered by the door, watching as Trudy put her coat on and prepared for her departure.
"Trudy...we're really sorry." Fabian told her sadly.
"We never wanted you to be fired." Max insisted softly.
Trudy swallowed hard. "I know...it's my own fault for believing your silly stories." They winced.
Mara frowned. "We're going to miss you..."
This made Trudy tear up. "I'm going to miss you too, all of you." Amber hugged her.
Victor came in. "Your taxi's here."
"How can you do this?" Everyone was surprised that the angry comment came from Max. They looked over at her.
Max trembled with anger as tears slid down her cheeks. She glared up at Victor. "Trudy doesn't deserve this, you know that...YOU'RE A MONSTER!"
"MAX!" Fabian hissed, grabbing her before she could do something else stupid. Max struggled against his hold.
But Victor ignored her, perhaps he felt as though he'd already done more than win.
"Goodbye, Trudy." He told her, waving her out.
As Trudy walked out, Max shoved Fabian away from her and stormed off to their room.
She collapsed on her bed and screamed into the pillow, allowing her tears to flow freely.
It wasn't fair. Trudy was one of the few people who were innocent in all of this, and now she was gone.
And it was their fault.
God, what would William think of her if he knew?
Max whimpered uselessly as she grabbed the photo of her brother and her off her side table.
"'m sorry..." She hiccupped. "I-I failed...I'm still...still failing." She heaved.
The red gem on her ring began to darken.
~~~
"Are you sure you're alright?" Fabian asked softly the next morning when they walked to the dining hall.
Max nodded a little. "Yeah I just...I just needed a bit..." She wasn't fine, but she couldn't afford to be sad forever, they had a mission.
Victor was in the kitchen, he made them all something strange, it was sort of like oatmeal but a lot more...glue like.
He dumped it in bowls and set it down in front of each of them.
"Enough, I'm not eating this." Mick shook his head.
"Why don't we go get breakfast from the vending machines at school guys?" Amber suggested.
Everyone was in agreement and got up to leave, but when they entered the walkway area, they were shocked to see men setting up cameras.
"They can't do that, it's a total invasion of our privacy!" Fabian snapped.
But there was nothing they could do, since cameras did help protect the students and none were placed in any personal rooms.
~~~
After school, the gang was in Nina and Amber's room. Patricia stormed in. "I don't know why I'm still trying. Rufus is never gonna pick up, it's like Joy all over again."
"I don't accept that." Max snapped, making them all look at her.
She gripped her hands together tightly. "I've already lost my brother...I can't lose an uncle as well..."
Nina suddenly gasped. "Max, your ring!"
Max frowned and glanced at her; her eyes widened.
The gem had darkened significantly.
"That...looks bad." Amber commented.
"Okay look, there's a lot we don't know about all of this, there's a lot of mysterious, we don't know who took Joy, or why Victor took Rufus, the point is, we need to stick together now more than ever. Sibuna." Nina placed a hand over her eye.
The others followed suit. "Sibuna."
"Sib- what?" Patricia looked lost.
The others looked at each other.
"What do you think?" Nina grinned.
"Yes." Amber smiled.
"Yes." Fabian nodded.
Max smirked. "Welcome to the club." Patricia grinned at her. "But if you're gonna be part of our group, you need to know a secret, and you have to swear to not tell no matter what."
Patricia looked at her curiously, then nodded. "Alright, I suppose we got a lot of those already."
"I'm a girl."
Patricia's jaw dropped. "...Say again?"
Max sighed. "I'm a girl, my real name is Remi. But you can't tell ANYONE. Nobody knows outside of our group, not even Mick."
"I don't...understand." Patricia frowned. "Why?"
Max bit her lip. "Amber already knows but...the truth is...I'm gay." Their eyes widened. "I like girls and at my last school, students and teachers had it out for me because of this. Some of the female students claimed I harassed them and the school didn't even investigate before deciding I was guilty. I was thrown out, and then no schools wanted to accept me. So I changed my name, cut my hair and put on contacts to get into this one. My parents didn't care, they already think I'm a disgrace anyways, so whatever got me out of their hair."
The others looked stunned.
"So there, now you guys know everything." Max swallowed hard. "What are you gonna do? Are you guys gonna report me?"
They all exchanged looks, before smiling slightly.
"Well, I certainly don't mind. You're still Max to me." Nina shrugged.
Fabian smiled. "We're still roomies, and I already told you before, I really don't care about that sort of thing."
"Neither do I." Amber insisted.
Patricia let out a laugh. "I don't care either, you know, Joy was bi."
"She was?" Max looked at her in shock.
Patricia nodded. "Yep, it's not really something she made a big deal about or announced, but the people in Anubis house knew, so if you ever did come clean, I don't think anyone would care. I think the whole being a girl thing would be more of a shock than that."
"Thanks guys." Max smiled softly. "You have no idea what this means to me."
Patricia smirked. "Now that we got all of that out of the way, I've got an idea for the cameras, but it means enlisting the help of Jerome and Alfie."
~~~
They stood up on chairs in front of the cameras for ages, as a form of protest. And then during the middle of the night Alfie and Jerome walked around with sheets on their heads, pretending to be ghosts.
Meanwhile, Fabian was up and practicing his guitar in front of the mirror, while Max was on her laptop,
Nina suddenly barged in, scaring the living daylights out of Fabian, which made Max burst into laughter.
"Sorry, should've knocked, but you guys have to see this." Nina showed them her laptop.
It was all about an expedition party, and two of the members were the Frobisher-Smythes. Apparently at one point they were accused of stealing items from the tomb and smuggling them back to Britain. They had been found not guilty, but only by majority verdict. Some of the jury was recorded saying they think the couple hid the items. The items to this day still haven't been recovered.
"So you're saying...the treasure we're looking for could've come from Tutankhamun's tomb?" Max asked, in a mild daze.
"That's exactly what I'm saying." Nina grinned.
~~~
The next morning was chaos. Everyone was trying to make breakfast, but they were all terrible at it.
"STOP!" Fabian exclaimed. "We can't go on like this, we're gonna starve!"
"We need Trudy back." Patricia insisted.
"And those cameras taken down." Nina snapped.
Max nodded fiercely. "I have an idea."
~~~
They all sat around the dining table, messing with arts and crafts supplies.
Victor stormed in. "What is going on here? Get to your classes immediately."
"Not until you bring Trudy back and take down the cameras." Max snapped; the others nodded in agreement.
Victor stared down at her. "You dare deliver ultimatums to me? Very well, you'll soon see reason when I speak to Mr. Sweet about getting you all thrown out of school! Now get to class, all of you!"
For a moment, nobody moved.
But then, Mick slowly stood up. "The thing is... it's this sports scholarship, I need a good reference from the school." He sighed.
"And there's a class on sea cows I really want to hear..." Mara trailed off, standing up as well.
"If I get expelled from another school my parents will kill me." Alfie told them.
"I'm out too." Jerome huffed.
Max shook her head in disgust. "You're all cowards."
To their shock, Amber stood up as well. Max's jaw dropped as the gem darkened even more. "Amber?"
"I'm sorry..." Amber told them helplessly. "I'm really, really sorry...but I'm...I'm scared of the consequences."
"Wise choice." Victor told her simply as she headed out.
He looked at the four of them. "And so we have the ring leaders. I'm giving you one last chance to obey my orders. Go to school."
"No." Max snapped, making them look at her with wide eyes.
Victor almost looked amused. "What did you say?"
Max stared him down angrily. "I said no."
Fabian bit his lip. "Yeah. He said no."
"No." Patricia added.
"NO!" They exclaimed in unison.
Victor was fuming as he stormed out of the room, making them all let out a breath of relief.
~~~
Later that day, Fabian got up from his seat and dragged Nina and Max to the kitchen to show them the paper with the numbers, he grinned.
"1922?" Max's eyes widened.
"The year the tomb was discovered!" Nina beamed.
"That's what the numbers meant." He told them excitedly.
Max stood there deep in thought for a moment, then gasped. "The sarcophagus in the hallway! I bet the next thing is in there."
"It's a good idea, but we need to check for numbers without being spotted." Nina frowned.
Fabian smiled. "I have a plan."
They looked at him curiously.
~~~
They went into the hallway. "Alright Nina, how's this?" Max posed.
Nina held up her phone, pretending she was taking a picture. "Not bad, a little to the left." She zoomed in with her camera to behind Max, where she could see 1922 written on the sarcophagus.
Fabian gave a small thumbs up to signal Max they found it.
"You've got thirty seconds." Fabian told them. "Go!" He tossed his sweater vest over the camera and bolted up the stairs to stop Victor from coming down.
The two quickly began searching all over the sarcophagus for anything, and eventually Nina hit a button the side near the bottom, which opened up a small compartment. Max snatched the clue and quickly shut it. She slipped the paper into her bra and the two stood up, looking over at Victor and Fabian innocently as they came downstairs.
"Oh yes, how very amusing." Victor snapped, snatching the sweater vest down.
~~~
Later that evening Victor went out, giving them a chance to finally look at the clue with Patricia.
Max snatched it from her bra and opened it up. "Beleathered and clasped here is the only place where yesterday always follows tomorrow." She read out loud.
"A briefcase?" Fabian guessed.
"Or a diary, or book!" Nina gasped.
Patricia grinned. "Like it."
"Under the stairs, there's a ton of books and stuff." Nina told them.
They dug around in the boxes, looking for a book that would make sense with the clue, only for Nina to discover a horrifying photo from 1925.
It was of Victor, but he looked exactly the same as he did now.