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bella sighed, shutting her locker door after taking out the books she'd need. as she was turning away, she caught sight of eddie approaching his locker, side eyeing the girl before turning to face her. "wait, lemme guess," he suddenly began, an amused smile on his lips. "booby trapped? know you too well already." he grinned before turning to open his locker.
he was visibly disappointed when nothing happened. "oh," he mumbled, a little embarrassed for getting ahead of himself. "that wasn't expected."
bella rolled her eyes, walking over to the boy. "sorry to disappoint, but i don't mess with the teacher's pet." she shrugged as the boy turned to face her properly, his arms crossed as he stared at her in disbelief.
"what are you talking about?"
"come on," bella raised her eyebrows, wondering how he didn't realise. "sweetie totally let you off yesterday, playing the bad boy when you have a get out of jail card at hand is a little pathetic, don't you think?" she taunted him, clearly hitting a nerve as he scoffed.
"sweetie and i are not friends." he corrected, standing firmly as bella rolled her eyes.
"yeah, sure, i'll believe it when i see it." her snarky comment only fuelled eddie as he nodded in agreement, clearly up for the challenge.
"i'll take you on that offer," he agreed. "but don't cry when i prove you wrong." he smugly finished as bella chuckled, nodding her head.
"whatever you say." she patted his shoulder and gave him a tight-lipped smile before walking away and leaving him to himself. she headed into the student lounge where the rest of the sibuna gang were waiting for her as they had agreed to meet up after class to discuss something that fabian and nina had found last night just after they left the new task room.
"okay," fabian began as she took a seat on the arm of the sofa he was sat on, nina sat next to him, and patricia and amber on each sofa either side of the two. "these are the riddles nina found." he scrolled through the ipad in his hands, showing them the pictures of the walls that they had taken.
"we think they're clues to the different chemicals we need to use." nina explained. "there are six funnels down the lion's mane, six of those," she continued, referring to the riddles. "so one per snake." she concluded.
"the first one, the taste of the great bitter lake, that's a real lake in egypt." fabian read out one of the riddles, explaining it to them. "the water's salty, so that makes it bitter."
"so the bitter taste is salt." nina reiterated.
"sodium chloride." bella corrected, causing the others to look up at her. "what? copying a periodic table a hundred times makes you remember things." she shrugged.
"okay," nina nodded. "so we've got one, only five to go."
"you know what we could do?" alfie suddenly joined their conversation after doing god knows what behind them this whole time. bella did notice a ping pong bat in his hand and a line of sweat across his forehead. "we could bring samples of the chemicals up from the tunnels and try to identify them in the chemistry lab." he suggested. he was met with a stunned silence as they were all taken aback by his useful idea.
"you came up with that while bouncing the ball," fabian glanced down at the ping pong bat in his hand before back up at alfie. "really badly?" he questioned in disbelief as he voiced everyone's thoughts.
"yeah." alfie nodded his head before returning back to his terrible game of ping pong by himself.
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"seriously, i would like one day of not having to figure out egyptian spirits and spooky riddles." amber sighed as she sat at one of the tables in the frobisher library as bella was busy flicking through a few books that she had found on egyptian rulers.
"hey, i did say i could do this by myself." she pointed out, sending a look towards amber. amber sat up straight in her seat, shaking her head.
"there's no way i'm missing out, plus you can't do this all by yourself." she added. bella chuckled, nodding her head before returning to the books she had sprawled out on the desk. amber watched attentively, wondering what kind of research the girl was doing that she needed to read a million books at once to figure it out.
"i think i found it." she mumbled, picking up one of the books as she flicked through it.
"found what? what exactly is it you're looking for?" amber questioned, finally asking her thoughts aloud.
"the mark of anubis," bella began, lowering the book as she turned to amber. "haven't you wondered why this lady is able to curse us with the mark of anubis? and also why didn't i get cursed? not that i want it, but it didn't add up until..." she trailed off as she glanced over at the assortment of books.
"until?" amber pressed on, wanting to know where she was going with this.
"here." bella picked up the book she was looking for before placing it before amber. amber's eyes widened as she stared at the picture before her.
"family of three go crazy after growing and inhaling the poisonous aroma of lotus flowers." amber read the passage aloud, shock clear in her tone as she couldn't believe what she was reading.
"it was a death that turned into a discovery and is now studied in schools, but look here." bella turned the page and pointed at the picture.
"mei." amber acknowledged, recognising the little girl from the picture they had seen of her.
"yes, but look closer." bella instructed, pointing to mei's hand in the picture.
"the mark of anubis." amber looked up at bella as she nodded her head. "so you're saying our crazy spirit lady cursed her too?" she questioned, unable to understand how everything is pieced together.
"i think so, the study shows that the family went crazy because of the lotus flowers, and although they are known to emit a poisonous gas under certain environmental circumstances ― like the chamber we found," bella began explaining, putting the pieces together for amber. "but i also think that our spirit lady tormented mei too. in the room we found, the wall had the mark of anubis scratched into it multiple times, as if she was going crazy. i bet that's also why nina found her trapped in the cup of ankh too." she finished off, satisfied with her discovery.
"wow." amber mumbled, taken aback by all the information dumped on her as she processed it. "so... she didn't curse you because of mei?" she finally asked after a moment of silence. she was still trying to understand what it all meant, and frankly, she was surprised by how everything was linked.
"yeah, but i don't know why," bella admitted with a sigh. "i don't understand how i'm linked to her, or how it falls in line with the duat stuff too." she added, glancing down at the books as she wondered if she had missed something.
"do you think you're related to mei?" amber suggested, taking bella by surprise as that thought hadn't crossed her mind.
"maybe." she mumbled, but she doubted amber's words, unable to believe that she was somehow related to a random chinese lady who lived in the house next to her current boarding residential.
"i see you ladies are still here, doing some light reading?" jasper joked as he nodded his head towards the pile of books on the table, having just entered the library after going out for a quick break. "well, it is always nice to see students going the extra mile." he added with a smile as the two girls returned it.
"actually, jasper, i was wondering if you had any books on certain people in egyptology?" she suddenly asked the man, remembering the voice she had heard yesterday.
"well, maybe not all, but who is it you wanted to learn about?" he asked enthusiastically, excited that there were more students who were into egyptian mythology who weren't just his god son.
"senkhara." bella answered.
"ah, the forgotten ruler, senkhara." jasper nodded, knowing exactly who she was on about, surprising bella. "but i think you'll find out more from your friend, nina," he pointed out, taking the girls by surprise. "she seemed to know more than i did." he added as bella and amber shared a knowing look.
"sounds like a plan." bella smiled, nodding her head. "we'd better head back anyway, it's getting late." she added as she stood from the table. she was about to pick up the books she had laid out on the table when jasper suddenly stopped her.
"don't worry about those, i'll put them away. you girls go on." he instructed the girls, the two of them shrugging in agreement as they grabbed their bags and left jasper to it. little did they know that he took an interest in the books they were studying, reading through the article of the lotus flower.
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bella jumped in surprise at the sound of a screeching whistle, glancing up from her book and towards the entrance of the student lounge, she saw alfie smiling brightly with a slightly annoyed jerome who looked done with his best friend. she chuckled, shaking her head at the pair, remembering that she had heard from amber that alfie was "coaching" them for their ping pong tournament.
bella had to admit, she was a little interested to know why the sudden interest in ping pong especially when she had never seen jerome so passionate about anything before in her life. however, since the day she had gone to meet jerome's dad with poppy, she hadn't really spoken to the boy other than acknowledging one another's presence when they passed each other in the hallway or sat together in classes they shared.
it had been awkward, but bella hadn't had a chance to even think about their distance considering everything else she had going on with her life right now.
"ugh, seriously." speaking of the devil, jerome sat on the sofa across from her, throwing his head back as he seemed visibly stressed out.
"coach alfie not working out?" bella teased, starting a conversation with the boy. he clearly wasn't expecting her to say anything, even though he had sat there on purpose to get her attention, he just didn't think it would work.
"well," he sighed, sitting up right. "sometimes i forget how... eccentric he can be when he gets into his role." jerome did a good job in putting it nicely, but bella knew he was frustrated with his best friend's over the top behaviour.
"well, leave it to alfie to take a ping pong coach seriously." bella joked, setting aside her book as she turned her attention to jerome. "but, i didn't expect you to take ping pong so seriously, jerome." she averted the subject to him, wondering what his underlying motive for playing the sport was. "don't tell me you want to get the trophy and sell it?" she questioned, putting the pieces of the wrong puzzle together ― although it was definitely plausible.
"no," he laughed at the idea, shaking his head. "definitely something i'd do," he admittingly agreed. "but no."
"then what is it? to the point where you even asked amber for help." she added, curiosity getting the better of her. jerome sighed, glancing around the lounge before standing up and walking over to sit next to her. bella was taken aback as she scooched over, not expecting him to sit so close.
"well, you know the other day, when there was a wild goose in the school?" he questioned. bella's eyebrows knitted together in confusion as she nodded her head.
"vividly, yes." she remarked.
"my dad wanted me to return this gem that he had taken whilst he was at school, apparently it gave him years of bad luck and he wanted to end the streak." jerome began, jumping to the beginning of the story and confusing bella as she wondered how the two were linked. "so i searched the suit of armour that i thought was in the library, but then it ended up being in sweetie's office, so we released a goose to get sweetie out and then he did and i got the gem but then the goose ate the gem, so we had to wait for it to... let it out, and then i dropped it down the sink, and then vera stole it, but then i got it back and now i can't even put it in the rightful place because the frobisher shield was lost to another school during the ping pong tournament after the year my dad took the gem." he explained in one breath, bella blinking as she took a minute to process what was just said to her.
"so, now you have to win the frobisher shield back to break your dad's bad luck curse?" she questioned, looking up at the boy.
"exactly." he smiled, glad that she understood him.
"well," bella nodded, blinking slowly as she still couldn't believe what she had just heard. "good luck." she patted the boy's shoulder before standing up from the sofa, however, jerome grabbed hold of her wrist before she could walk away.
"you'll come watch, right?" he questioned, taking bella aback. "cheer me on?"
bella gently pulled her wrist out of his grip, nodding her head. "i will, for amber, of course." she agreed, establishing her reasoning before he got the wrong idea. she walked away before jerome could say anything else, a little relieved that she stood her ground ― she wasn't going to be swayed by boys anymore.
she was heading to her locker when she saw eddie at his, a smile spread across her lips as she knew what was coming. just as he opened the door, a flood of dog treats came pouring out as the boy stepped back in surprise, glancing around and catching her watching him expectantly.
the boy laughed, clearly happy that she had pulled through with her word. "your handy work?" he joked, pointing at the mess by his locker.
"well, you were so pathetically desperate for a prank, so i thought i'd give you what you wanted." she shrugged, walking over to the boy with a knowing smile. "see, i do have a heart."
"its very kind of you, thanks." he sarcastically responded, before glancing over and picking up one of the biscuits. "what are these?" he questioned in confusion, taking bella by surprise that he didn't know.
"pet treats," she answered. "you know, for the teacher's pet." she taunted, clearly hitting a nerve as the smile fell off of eddie's face and he threw down the biscuit in his hand. her eyebrows knitted together in confusion at his sudden change in behaviour. "for someone who loves calling me a goody two shoes, you're not good at taking what you dish out." she commented.
"i can take it, its funny." he argued in a not-so-convincing tone. "it's just that me and sweetie are not bff's." he added, contradicting his last sentence as he was obviously bothered by her teasing.
"oh yeah, that's believable." bella rolled her eyes as eddie shook his head.
"no, no, no," eddie denied as the two began walking down the hallway. "he does not cut me any slack, alright? and very soon, i'm gonna prove that to you." he declared as they stood in front of sweetie's office. bella looked up at him with an amused smile, nodding her head.
"okay then, can't wait." she reached up, teasingly pinching his cheek. "so excited for the teacher's pet to go rogue." she gave one final joke before turning and walking away.
so much for no longer being swayed by boys.
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