DENOUEMENT
xv. house of drama
❝I DON'T KNOW HOW TO HANDLE THIS!❞
"THIS IS HILARIOUS." Sydney managed to get out through her fits of laughter – she had been laughing so hard and for so long that she had tears stinging her eyes; if it wasn't for the attached strap on the camera that was around her neck, she most certainly would have dropped it from how much she was shaking with laughter.
"Yeah, yeah, have you taken your photo yet?" Jerome's voice sounded out from the back of the camel, sounding rather fed up – he didn't want to be at the back of the camel, but Alfie had beaten him and already claimed the front half, and thus Sydney was even more entertained by the whole ordeal.
"I think it came out as blurry. I might have to take some more." Sydney lied – she had taken plenty of high-quality photographs with both her camera and her phone of the pair in their camel costume, and numerous of them had already been sent to Poppy Clarke, obviously, without Jerome's knowledge.
"That's fine with me." Alfie responded, beginning to do some weird poses whilst in the camel suit – Sydney was pretty sure he was trying to cross the feet over as he exclaimed happily, "I feel like a model!"
"A model for camels?" Sydney quizzed, her eyebrow quirked up in confusion and mild amusement as she shot another picture of the pair in their camel costume – she was pretty sure that most, if not all, of the pictures that she had taken thus far were of the pair in their camel costume, though she couldn't help herself – it was hilarious.
However, Alfie seemed to enjoy it as he agreed with the girl, "Exactly!"
"Sydney!" Amber Millington's voice sounded out from behind the female prankster, who quickly snapped her head around to see the fashionista wearing a cactus outfit, and she had trouble restraining her laugh as soon as she set sights on it, "Why are you making that face? Oh, it doesn't matter. Don't you think that the cactus should sing?"
"You're not singing in the play, Amber!" Mr Winkler called out to the girl with a mildly frustrated tone as he was trying to get everyone ready for the dress rehearsal, and it was absolutely chaotic, "Can we please go to the drama studio and begin now?"
"Sorry, Ambs. It looks like Winkler has his mind set on no cacti singing." Sydney told the fashionista, patting her on the shoulder seconds before she let out a huff and began to follow the teacher to the drama studio, complaining and whining about her lack of lines and how she wasn't able to sing as a cactus.
"But I don't understand!" Amber whined out, as everyone began to follow their teacher into the drama studio – Sydney honestly loved the girl, but she really couldn't take her complaints seriously when she was dressed up as a cactus, "Why can't the cactus sing?!"
"Because cacti can't speak, Amber." Mr Winkler reminded the girl, quickly walking off from her before she continued to complain about it, as he had to start the rehearsals and it certainly wasn't going to happen if he had Amber Millington crying down his ear about why a cactus did not have any singing parts in his play.
"And anyway, you've got a terrible voice." Jerome piped up, his voice rather muffled considering he was inside his camel costume – although, him being inside his camel costume didn't stop Sydney from lightly hitting where she thought he was inside the costume, in order to tell him to be quiet and to be nice.
"No, she hasn't! Take no notice, fair cactus!" Alfie protested, still having a very deep unrequited love for the girl and hoping that his compliments would put him in her good books and that she'd eventually fall head over heels for him.
"Okay, everyone, let's get on with it!" Mr Winkler called out, glancing around the room to check that all the cast members were there, before noticing that the photographer of the play (Sydney) was obviously lost as she wasn't going to take photos of the rehearsal, and thus he called out for her to help backstage in the meantime.
At the end of the dress rehearsal, Sydney had been forced to go up on stage to take a bow with the rest of the cast and crew (with Mr Winkler stating that she was part of the crew in a sense, and would probably have to go up on the night) as their teacher applauded for the students, a smile on his lips. In fairness, the dress rehearsal had gone extremely well, and the script had turned out a lot better than everyone first thought it would – Nina clearly took the advice of everyone onboard and had made an amazing script.
"Okay, guys! Well done, well done!" He called out, congratulating them as everyone began to jump down from the stage to change out of their costumes and back into their uniform – however, Sydney noticed one group of people who were stood to the side and seemed to be making no effort to change out of their costume.
Sibuna, minus Amber (she wanted to get out of the cactus costume as soon as possible).
"Hey." Sydney called out as she approached them, causing them all to turn her heads to face them as she pursed her lips together, thinking about what she should say, "I shouldn't have quit the other day, and I just wanted to say sorry."
"You don't have to apologise." Nina told the girl, sending her a small smile as she did so, "You were just worried about your best friend; we're really glad he's okay."
"Yeah, and you helped me with Rufus." Patricia added, a smirk on her lips – she had missed Sydney being in their club, as everyone seemed duller and as though there was a piece missing from their club, "I say that you join us again."
"That's if you want to." Fabian piped up, sending the girl a small smile as he glanced around the group, before telling the girl, "I have to say, it has been weird not hearing your jokes about being in a cult."
"Just say that you all missed me already, why don't you?" Sydney joked, a smile on her lips as she let out a small giggle, before putting her right hand over her eye as she re-joined the group, saying the group name, "Sibuna."
"Sibuna." The rest of them chorused, with wide smiles on their lips upon having their jokester back into the group – as soon as she entered, it felt like the atmosphere was lighter once again.
Sydney Anderson truly was meant to be a Sibuna.
"So, what's been happening without me?" Sydney questioned, glancing around the group until Fabian went to open his mouth to explain, but then the prankster shot him a look and stated, "The brief notes, please. I don't want details or else I'll feel like I'm in science, and I may just fall asleep or throw a book at you."
"Nina wants to break into Victor's safe during the play tomorrow night to retrieve a puzzle piece that he confiscated from us last night after he caught us with it, and Rufus has gone missing, but we found the next clue inside of a dictionary." Fabian briefly explained, causing the girl to blink a few times as she processed all of the information that she had just heard, before she turned to Nina with quizzical eyes.
"Do you just know how to break into everything?" Sydney asked her, confused, causing them all to let out a small giggle before she continued, "First it's breaking locks with your hairpins, and now it's breaking into safes."
However, Nina released a small sigh at the mention of breaking into the safe and how they would do it, before she informed the girl, "Well, that's what we're struggling with – we don't know the code to Victor's safe."
"Alfie, Jerome!" Mr Winkler shouted suddenly, causing Sydney to instantly spin around as she looked at them, still on the stage in their camel costume, as they moved around weirdly, causing the teacher to ask the pair of them, "What exactly are you doing?"
"Being idiots, sir." Sydney answered him before either of her friends could, a smile on her face as she did so, that also stayed on her face as she continued, telling the teacher, "They do it every day."
"Get a move on!" Jerome yelled out from inside the camel costume, causing the female prankster to narrow her eyes at it as she tried to figure out what her friends were doing – the camel was just moving extremely odd – but she soon realised what they were attempting to do as the boy continued, shouting, "I'm sweltering in here!"
They were stuck in the camel costume.
"I can't! The zip's stuck, dude!" Alfie told him, whilst they continued to struggle in attempts to burst out of their costume; Sydney could have only imagined how hot it was to be trapped inside there – it was a small space and furry.
However, their pain was Sydney's gain as she began laughing hysterically, pulling out her phone and recording the pair's struggle (it was definitely another file that she'd send over to Poppy Clarke later) as she exclaimed, "Oh, this is the best day of my life."
"Can you help?!" Jerome cried out at the girl from inside the camel costume, wanting to get out of the camel as soon as possible due to how hot it was – he didn't want to spend a second longer than he had to in that costume.
Stopping the recording on her phone and deciding to embrace the moment in real life
(she never wanted to forget the memory, so she had to make sure it was ingrained in her head), Sydney glanced up and watched the pair struggle for a few more seconds, laughing as she did so, before she asked them, "Do I have to?"
Unfortunately for her, the two boys (plus their drama teacher) answered with, "Yes!"
And that's exactly how Sydney ended up dragging her two friends, who were still in a camel costume, back to Anubis House - they hadn't managed to get the zip undone, so had instead decided to ask their wonderful housemother for assistance. However, that meant struggling with them and leading them back to Anubis House (perhaps Sydney directed them into a wall once or twice), and now they were extremely restless and dying to get out of the camel costume, their irritated faces being revealed to the world as the female prankster pulled off the camel head.
As the head got taken off the boy, Patricia piped up, an amused smirk on her lips (because who could not laugh at the sight of two boys trapped in a camel costume?) as she told the two boys, "You're going to have to sleep like that!"
Upon hearing that, Jerome's eyes widened significantly as he began to shake his head vigorously, protesting against the idea that he appeared to despise as he cried out, "No way! His feet stink!"
"Okay, don't get the hump!" Patricia joked, and they all let out loud laughter at her pun - the boys did not seem amused.
"Ugh, where's Trudes? I'm busting for the bathroom!" Alfie yelled out, bouncing in his costume - and as though he had summoned her, the woman in question walked in right after with the supplies needed to get them out of their costume, clearly trying to hold back her laughter at the sight of them.
"Come on, Humphrey. This won't hurt a bit." Trudy told them, holding scissors in her hand as she motioned for them to come over to her so she could finally get them out - it was disappointing, really; Sydney would have enjoyed it if they had spent the night like that.
Quickly, the pair shot up from where they sat and tried to shuffle over to the housemother - however, the two soon tripped and fell onto the ground, causing Sydney to burst out into laughter as she watched them; she had to thank Mr Winkler for assigning the two boys the role of a camel.
"Oh, this is hilarious." Sydney laughed boisterously, clutching her stomach as she mumbled through fits of laughter, "I love this camel costume."
"Trudy, get me out, please!" Jerome pleaded desperately, the woman coming over to cut them out of their costume whilst they were stuck on the ground and writhing around, and Sydney was simply laughing hysterically at the scene, not even paying attention to what was happening behind her as she couldn't stop herself from giggling at her ridiculous friends.
"There you go! You're free!" Trudy announced to them as soon as she had cut them out, causing them to quickly break out of their costume - they looked even more ridiculous (if that was possible) out of their costume, considering that they had the furry camel trousers on paired with their white school shirt.
"I feel like I've just broken out of jail!" Jerome exclaimed as he began to stretch his limbs, considering that he'd been stuck in such a confounded and small place for so long and he was extremely tall, "A fur-lined jail"
"Make way, make way!" Alfie yelled out, zooming out of the room so that he could go to the bathroom - he'd been dying to go ever since they began their journey to Anubis House, so he was rather desperate.
As their friend left the room, Jerome glanced over at Sydney, who was still laughing hysterically at the situation - she physically couldn't stop, and she had tears in the corners of her eyes as she continued to giggle, causing him to shake his head at her, a faint smile on his lips at the sight of her laughing so hard, despite it being at him. He nudged her arm slightly, pushing her lightly and causing her boisterous laughs to fall into small giggles as she pushed him back.
However, that ended out in a full-on war.
After a few more nudges, the male prankster hastily grabbed the female by the waist and lifted her up, forcing a small shriek to escape her lips as she begged and cried out for the boy to put her down, giggles still leaving her lips. Following her instructions, he dropped her onto the sofa and began to tickle her, turning her giggles into cries of laughter as her limbs began flailing everywhere - this was an average day for those two.
"Just kiss already!" Patricia shouted to the pair from over where she was at the dining room, and the pair of blonde pranksters rolled their eyes at her, but nonetheless split apart with blushes on their faces considering that all of Sibuna had turned to look at them with smirks on their lips, and Jerome soon excused himself to his own room so that he could change out of the furry trousers that he was wearing.
"So, what's happening?" Sydney questioned, getting up from the sofa and walking over to the group at the dining table, with Fabian seeming rather concentrated with his eyes squeezed shut.
Upon glancing over at the notebook he had it front of it, it seemed as though he had a keypad drawn out on the paper, trying to figure out Victor's passcode to his safe as he began to murmur to himself, saying, "He pressed the top right one twice, the middle one once, and the bottom left one once, I think."
"You only think?" Amber asked,
"We need to know definitely," Patricia told him, clearly not fond of the idea and not liking the lack of confidence he had in his memory of the pin, causing her to snap her head to turn to face the American, telling her, "Nina, you can't do this."
"Why don't I do it? I'm the photographer, so I don't need to be on stage, and I'm good at sneaking around." Sydney suggested, knowing that she had no chance of being late to coming on stage and certainly had enough time to go to Anubis House and come back, considering that she never had a set time to take photos - she just had to take them throughout the play.
"No, they're going to expect to see you around and taking photos." Patricia pointed out, shaking her head at the idea and rejecting it instantly.
"Yeah, and the first person Victor accuses will be the person not on stage, so it's best you have a teacher's alibi and stay there for the entire thing." Nina supported the purple-haired girl, which was a good point and caused the prankster to release a small sigh, knowing that the pair were right and that she couldn't help them.
"Good point." Sydney muttered, before she questioned the American with curious and worried eyes, "Are you sure this is a good idea, Nina?"
"Sarah trusted me with the treasure. I can't let it fall into Victor's hands. I have to try." The American stated, as determined as ever to get the puzzle piece out of their housekeeper's safe in order to complete the search - there was no stopping her, and it seemed to be the only chance that they had to get it back, though it was extremely risky, especially since they didn't know the passcode for the safe for certain.
However, Fabian sounded certain enough as he lifted up the notepad with the passcode on it, declaring, "It's three, three, five, seven."
They just hoped he wasn't wrong.
The next day, Sydney made her way into the dining room alongside Sibuna (minus Amber, who had left earlier in order to still have time to make sure that she looked absolutely perfect after breakfast), and upon entering, Patricia stated, "Today is the day."
It was the day of the play, and they were all ridiculously nervous and anxious, even Sydney, whose only job was to help some people backstage and take some photographs. However, it was a pretty big play that they hadn't had much time to perfect, but the dress rehearsal went extremely well, so they all had hope that it'd go well. Although, it wasn't just whether the actors would remember the lines that made them nervous - the play was basically the life of Sarah Frobrisher-Smythe, and the portrayal of Victor was shown in there - Victor was going to be watching the play. Furthermore, Nina was still determined to go ahead with her idea of sneaking away from the play and breaking into his safe to retrieve the puzzle piece that he had stolen from them.
There was a big chance for something to go wrong.
"I'm really nervous." Nina murmured – every time somebody mentioned the play, her skin paled and she looked rather sick, and she'd had a worried look plastered on her face all morning – although, it was to be expected, as she was in charge for the story of the play and it could have negatively impacted Sarah.
"Got some good luck cards in the post this morning." Alfie stated as he walked in with the other member of the prankster trio beside him, the two of them holding a ton of envelopes in their hands and laying them out on the table – Sydney didn't even have to reach forward to grab one; she knew that she didn't have one.
Everyone had received a card, all except her and Jerome.
For a split second, Sydney had actually expected to have a card, just like she usually did when the school held events, but then she remembered everything and the smile that had previously been on her face faded away, her gaze locked on the table. She found it strange how everything managed to seem so normal for a while, and she was able to forget about such a tragic incident for a split second until it all came rushing back to her, like a sudden wave rushing in.
Nobody had noticed Sydney's odd behaviour, except from one. He noticed everything she did, so he also noticed the smile that he adored slip from her face, and her expression morph into one of sadness as her glance fell down to the table. Before they even passed out the cards on the table, Jerome had already checked through them all and had noticed how the girl didn't have a card like she usually did, and he found it peculiar. After abandoning her for five years of her life, her parents tended to put in extra effort to make up for it, by sending her cards constantly – it was odd.
However, deciding that he would pry not the situation later, he simply placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as he sat in his place next to her, sending her a small reassuring smile, which she soon returned upon noticing the worried look in his eyes.
"You okay?" She whispered to him, knowing that his parents didn't send him a card again – he didn't expect them to at this point; he wasn't exactly sure where his dad was, and his mother didn't care – he was determined that they had left him at boarding school to rot.
"Always am, Anderson." He mumbled back, though it wasn't particularly convincing, especially considering the fact that he had a frown on his lips, causing the female to raise her eyebrows at him, making him aware that she knew he was lying – she always did.
"You and I both know that's a lie." Sydney told him, shaking her head at the boy as she took a small bite out of her toast, eating it before she spoke up once again, saying to him, "We'll talk later, okay?"
Of course, he didn't deny it, and instead nodded in agreement – he already knew that they were going to talk later; they always did, and Sydney made sure that he wasn't alone on days where everyone received things from their family – it had began years ago, and they'd stuck with it, even when Jerome had told her that he'd accepted that his family were never going to send him anything and that he didn't expect them to – she still stayed, she always did.
"And... yep, my folks are coming." Alfie declared upon reading his card, a frown on his face as he did so – he always felt like he disappointed his parents and that he was never good enough for them, and he hated whenever they visited as he couldn't be himself around them and he was constantly on edge.
At the news, Sydney sent him a sad smile as she tried to reassure him, putting a hand on his arm for comfort as she told him, "It'll be fine, Alfie. They're going to love the play."
As the boy walked past the two blondes, going to his own seat, Jerome leaned over and whispered to the female so that he couldn't hear, stating, "He's a camel."
"Shh." Sydney whispered back to him – they both knew that Alfie's parents weren't going to be too happy about the role he was playing, but they didn't want him to worry about it, but at the hushing, the pair then burst out laughing at one another, smiles on their lips.
Despite them being sad only moments ago, the pair were now laughing in the presence of one another – that was just how they worked, and they both loved it.
"Aren't you going to open up yours, Patricia?" Fabian asked, upon seeing the purple-haired girl just staring at the envelope in confusion, and the question caused everyone to turn to her, wondering why she hadn't opened it yet.
"It says open in private only." Patricia informed them, causing Sydney's eyes to narrow in confusion, knowing that a private card was unusual and rather peculiar – why would her parents give her a card to open in private only?
"Let's have a look, don't be shy! Maybe it's a postcard from Joy." Alfie suggested jokingly, attempting to snatch the envelope and causing the purple-haired girl to push him away, so that the envelope was out of his reach, as she warned him:
"Touch it and lose a hand, I swear."
Thankfully, the Anubis House residents had managed to finish breakfast without anyone losing their hands, and as soon as it was done, many of them quickly went off to school – however, Sydney and Jerome decided to go to her room (Alfie was perfecting his costume in their room, and both of Sydney's roommates had begun to make their way to school, so her room was empty). As soon as Jerome closed the bedroom door behind them and they stepped further into the room, Sydney held out her arms for him and he instantly fell into them, the pair of them hugging one another tightly – their company was enough to cheer them up.
"Do you want to talk?" Sydney questioned him, it being practically a whisper in his ear as she did so – her tone was very soft, delicate almost, considering how sensitive the topic was and how she wanted him to feel comforted enough so that he'd take down his mask.
She was the only one who knew about his mask, just like she was the only one who knew a lot of things about him – that's kind of inevitable when she grew up with him, and had witnessed him build his mask first hand. Around everyone he showed he didn't care about anyone; he was always laughing, making fun of people or scamming them. He never opened up about his issues - nobody really knew Jerome had issues, except Sydney, who knew everything about him. The Anubis House residents weren't even aware that Jerome had a sister, which he decided to hide as he didn't want anyone to know about her for some odd reason. Some people would have called him cold and uncaring.
Although, Sydney knew that was all a mask – the stupid mask that she had aimed to get him to stop wearing, though it was easier said than done.
Despite that, Sydney knew that her best friend had a sensitive side and that he did care for people - a lot, actually. However, he hid it away to save his reputation, and simply buried it away deep inside himself until Sydney didn't let him anymore and told him to speak to her – she could tell when a lot was on his mind.
"I'm fine, Syd." Jerome responded to her question; he'd grown used to not having much contact with his parents and not having the typical family life that everyone else seemed to have, "I expected it."
"That doesn't mean you're fine with it." Sydney pointed out, pulling away from their hug so that she could look at him, though she still kept her hands on him as a form of comfort, letting him know that she was always there.
"I was left here to rot, and I know that." He stated, a sad expression crossing upon his face as he did so, though he soon shook his head, "I don't expect anything from them."
"You're not rotting." The girl assured him – he used that word several times to describe how his parents had left him there and why; he thought he was withering away into nothingness and was turning bad with each second that passed, though he was maturing and thriving instead – it was a shame that he didn't realise that, "I promise you, you're not rotting, okay?"
"Okay." He nodded in response, hugging the girl a little tighter before they parted once again, sitting down on her bed for the last few minutes before they had to go and walk to school, "You know, I don't say it often, but I am grateful for you not leaving – you were the only one who didn't."
"I'm not leaving – not now, not ever." Sydney told him, a stern tone crossing through her voice as she did so before she let out a small giggle and added, "Even if you get really annoyed at me and want me to go away, I'm not going to."
Upon hearing that, the boy let out a small chuckle and shook his head at her – whenever she tried to annoy him (which she had attempted many time before), it simply amused him and he typically ended up giving her a look or laughing at her, causing him to go against the claims and tell her, "I don't think I can ever be annoyed at you."
Of course, that seemed like a challenge for the female prankster, who quirked an eyebrow up in response to that whilst a devious smirk fell upon her lips, quickly responding with, "Oh, really, Gerbil?"
"Nevermind, I take it back." Jerome joked, letting out slight laughter at the familiar nickname, thus causing the girl to grab one of the pillows on her bed and throw it at him, him yelling out in response, "Watch it, that hurt!"
"It's a pillow!"
"And it still hurt!"
As he protested against her defence, the boy hastily grabbed the girl's phone out of her pocket and stood up, raising his arm high in the air before she could even attempt to stop him – she had been too distracted trying to grab another pillow to hit him with when he managed to take her phone from her, and now she was stuck trying to reach up to grab her phone.
Now, Sydney Anderson normally considered herself tall, being one of the tallest females in Anubis House alongside Amber and Patricia, but she was certainly not tall in comparison to Jerome Clarke, who was quite a bit taller than her.
There was no way she was getting that phone back.
Upon realising that, she crossed her arms and glanced up at the boy and her far-away phone, a childish pout forming on her lips as she simply stated, "Okay, this is unfair."
"You could at least try to get it." The boy chuckled, causing the roll her eyes as she was very much aware there was no chance of her arm reaching up to her phone, but she still stood up on her tip toes and tried to reach her phone, but couldn't grab it and thus made the boy glance down at her with a grin on his lips, "That is, truly, adorable."
"Shut it, Gerbil." Sydney murmured, glancing down at the ground until an idea suddenly popped into her head, causing her to quickly jump behind the boy and onto her bed, snatching the phone out of his hand and letting out an adorable cheer as she did so.
"That's cheating!" Jerome protested as laughter seeped through his words, him grabbing the girl and lifting her back down from the bed so that she was back on the floor – his ulterior motive was to take her phone back from her, but she was aware of his goal and kept it tightly in her hands.
"There were no rules, so ha!" Sydney denied the accusation with a rather good excuse (in her mind), before she stuck her tongue out to the boy, the pair of them falling into laughter until the girl's laptop began to ring, causing her to quickly go over to it and notice that her aunt was trying to video call with her, "It's my aunt."
"You want me to go?" He asked, pointing towards the door – he'd heard about Sydney's aunt, Erin Montgomery, but he'd never met her in person or actually spoke to her as the families weren't exactly close and only met up every now and then to catch up.
"No – she's been dying to meet you actually." Sydney told him as she sat into the chair at her desk, accepting the call as Jerome came to stand beside her, waiting for the screen to pop up which revealed her aunt, holding her four-year-old cousin in her lap, the blonde-haired prankster cheerfully greeting them both with, "Hi, Aunt Erin!"
"Syddie!" Lila exclaimed happily upon seeing the teenager on the screen, almost making the two pranksters cry out from how cute she was as she tried to reach out to the camera.
"Hi, Syd! And is that the Jerome Clarke beside you?" She questioned, a smirk on her lips as she did so – afterall, Sydney had told her aunt lots about her friends at Anubis House, especially Jerome – Erin already knew about Jerome and Sydney from what Sydney's mother had told her whenever they came and visited.
"That would be me." Jerome responded, sending a small wave and a grin to the camera as he did so – he'd always loved Sydney's family and they tended to make him feel extremely comfortable whenever he spoke to them, although it was his first time speaking to her aunt.
"I've heard a lot about you." Erin informed him, causing Sydney to shake her head whilst the boy turned to look at his friend with a small grin, making her aunt laugh before she decided to change the topic, "We just wanted to wish you luck for the play today, and Lila misses you a lot – she keeps asking where you are."
"I miss her too." Sydney stated, sending a wave at the small girl who had a beaming smile on her lips at the sight of her – it was so precious and Jerome could instantly tell that Sydney adored her little cousin; it was plastered all over her face, "We've got to go soon, but thank you for calling. You didn't have to."
"I know, I wanted to, and so did Lila." Erin answered, before turning to face the small girl who was sat in her lap playing with a toy, and questioning her, "Didn't you, Lila?"
The small girl nodded adorably.
Upon seeing the nod, Erin let a faint smile pass on her lips before she turned back to face the camera, an awkward look on her face as she began to talk, "I know that everything's a little weird right now and that life has kind of took a whole turn, but we'll make this work, okay? I mean, I never expected to be looking after two kids instead of just one two months ago, but we can do this together. If you need anything, then don't hesitate to call me, Syd."
She'd already felt Jerome's extremely confused eyes on her as soon as the first words came out of Erin's lips, and she knew he'd ask for an explanation.
Pursing her lips together, Sydney pretended as though nothing was wrong as she nodded in response to her aunt, telling her, "I'll call you if I need you, I promise. I'll call you after the play as well and check in with Lila."
"Okay, that's fine. It's also nice to finally get to be able to talk to the person who Sydney never shuts up about, even if it was for a brief time. Take care of her for me, Jerome." Erin asked for the boy, who instantly nodded as he glanced back towards the camera, a grin on his lips as he tried to hide how confused he was about the entire situation.
"I will, don't worry. It's nice to meet you and the little one too." Jerome answered, sending a small wave to the child, whose smile managed to get even wider at the sight of the boy waving at her.
"I love you, Syd. Good luck to the both of you." Erin stated with a smile on her lips, turning to her child in her arms as she motioned for her to say goodbye, causing the little girl to wave to the screen whilst she spoke,
"I love you, Syddie! Goodbye, Jerome-y!"
"Jerome-y?" Jerome mumbled under his breath, so quiet that the microphone didn't pick it up, but the girl beside him did, causing her to let out a small chuckle as the pair of blondes waved back to her family.
"I love you both too. Talk later." Sydney said, before she hung up the call, releasing a sigh as she closed her laptop and turned to the boy beside her, who looked extremely confused, "So, I have a lot of explaining to do."
"Is your aunt having another kid or something?" Jerome questioned, not particularly understanding what had exactly been said on the call – he'd picked up on life being weird for them and how her aunt has to look after two kids, but it seemed like a huge piece of the puzzle was missing.
"No, it's a lot more complicated than that." Sydney stated, moving to sit on her bed as she held her head in her hands, trying to think of what to say whilst also trying to stop the flashbacks from coming back to her head.
"Syd...?" Jerome mumbled, his eyes narrowed and filled with worry as he watched her cautiously, moving over to sit beside her on her bed – he'd noticed the sadness that had come across her face and was even more confused than before – nothing made sense.
"My parents are dead, Jerome."
What?
At the news, Jerome's eyes had widened significantly, as he certainly had not expected to hear that Emilia Anderson and Alexander Anderson – two people who had constantly welcomed him into their home and hade made jokes with him numerous times – had died, and it was silence in the room for a moment.
Suddenly, everything made a lot more sense, and Jerome hated it.
The private chats with Victor. The way Sydney seemed upset whenever people mentioned death or family. The lack of a card for her on the day of their play. The nightmares that she had mentioned having all the time (although, Jerome and Alfie had simply thought that maybe she'd begun having nightmares about The Grim Reaper again – she had a big fear of that guy and had a few nightmares of him every now and again). Her knowledge on panic attacks.
It all made sense.
Of course, Jerome had met Emilia and Alexander Anderson numerous times, and they were good people – obviously, not initially. For the first ten years of Sydney's life, they had practically abandoned her and sent her to boarding schools as they could not deal with a child whilst having such demanding jobs, but they had soon redeemed themselves before she joined Anubis House, deciding to make an effort in her life. Jerome grew to love them, just like Sydney had after they followed through with their promises of looking after her, visiting Anubis House as much as they could and constantly contacting the girl to check that she was okay.
Of course, Jerome was slightly confused at why she hadn't told him beforehand, but also wasn't surprised or angry over it – he knew Sydney well enough to know that she probably didn't want to think about it herself, nevermind speak about it to somebody else.
"It was a car crash." Sydney started, breaking the silence and interrupting Jerome's thoughts, "It was a few weeks before term began, and... we were going out for a meal, or something. We were in the car, and-." She cut herself off, letting out a small sob that pained Jerome so badly as he grabbed her hand, letting her know that he was there.
It was evident that it still haunted her.
"I remember hearing the screams first – my mum's... and then, I glanced up and it was already too late." She continued to cry, not even bothering to wipe her tears as she knew that they'd keep coming – it was the first time that she had actually spoken about the crash in detail since she came back to the school, "I'd come away with minor injuries – just a few cuts, I think, because I was in the back of the car – the impact was at the front. They thought..."
A few minutes before the incident had occurred which had thrown Sydney's world upside down, she was having a conversation with her parents. She was sat in the back of her car, her head buried deep within her phone whilst she texted Jerome, as her parents attempted to converse with their daughter, being sat in the front of the car and turning round to her to catch her attention at times. In all honesty, Sydney could not recall a single word said in that conversation, as she was more focused on her phone than her family and wasn't paying attention to the conversation – she only remembered having it, though the words said during it were a blur to her. She didn't know that those words would be the last words her parents would say, or else she would have paid a lot more attention, and perhaps even remembered their final words.
However, Sydney didn't pay attention to that conversation, until she heard a terrifying screech escape from her mother's lips – one of the many screeches that continued to ring through her ears, haunting her both in her nightmares and within her day.
Her mother attempted to grab the steering wheel to get them out of the way, but it was far... far... too late.
The sound had to be the most haunting and horrendous thing - the sounds that still haunted her to that day.
The sound of pained and agonised screeches coming from those whom she loved with a mix of her own thrown in there, although she couldn't really distinguish them properly; and the intensified sound of bones crunching filled the girl's ears, lodging themselves in her mind and being trapped in there for seemingly the rest of her life, as they would not allow her to forget the memory.
Then most of the sounds came to a halt.
She could hear a faint buzzing noise, and some far away chatter and yelps for help that seemed as though they were coming from outside the vehicle, although she didn't pay much attention to it. Her attention was instead drawn to something else - her parents. The shallow breaths of her parents were apparent, but they were worryingly shallow, and Sydney wondered why they weren't calling out.
It seemed as though the world was flicking a light switch, as her vision went from bitter darkness to blinding white light repeatedly, her not being able to make out much. Although, she could taste something cold and metallic in her mouth - blood, of course - which grazed her teeth and speaker her tongue, tainting it. She could feel the aches and cracks in her bones, as it felt like her entire body was being crumbled and smashed into a tiny box which even contortionists wouldn't be able to fit into.
However, before she could even try to figure out if she or her parents were okay, the world stopped flickering it's figurative light switch and the blinding white light slowly turned into a bitter darkness as a blanket of despair took over her version.
Then, it was dark.
"You don't have to continue." Jerome told the girl, wiping away the tears that were on her cheeks as he did so, whilst he tried to keep his own back – he already could guess what happened, and he didn't want to hurt the girl more.
"No, I have to do this. If I can't talk to you, then I can't talk to anyone." Sydney stated, protesting against it as she shook her head, taking a breath to recompose herself before she continued, "They thought that my parents would make it too, but..." Not being able to finish her sentence, the girl shook her head – that was enough to let Jerome know, so she simply started a new sentence and further explained, "My aunt is the only still living member of my family, so she instantly decided to take me in – she gave me a choice to stay with her or continue at Anubis, and I chose here, obviously, so she's my guardian for when I go back home, and she keeps checking in to make sure I'm okay."
"And... are you?" He hesitantly asked.
"I'm trying to be." Sydney answered, before sending him a small smile, juxtaposing the tears that had trickled down her cheek as she sadly stated, "I'm Sydney Anderson, afterall. I have to be okay, right?"
"No, you don't." Jerome responded, shaking his head at that statement as he wrapped his arms around her, "You don't always have to be okay, especially not with that happening. You just need to make sure you deal with those emotions in the right way."
"The issue is that I don't know how to handle it." Sydney revealed – she didn't know how she was meant to react in the situation of losing both of her parents; they didn't exactly teach you that in schools, and a few more tears fell down her cheeks as she began to feel overwhelmed, yelling out, "How do I handle this? I don't know how to handle this!"
"I'm here." Jerome assured her, not particularly knowing what else to do as he continued to hug her tightly as she sobbed, her tears falling onto his jumper – though, that was the least of his worries, "You handle it by speaking to people, okay? By not bottling or hiding everything away."
"You know, I swear I've said these exact words to you." Sydney murmured to the boy through her tears, becoming slightly calmer at the words being spoken.
Letting out a small chuckle, he nodded, "Probably – looks like I learn from the best."
And thus, in the next few minutes they spent with one another, Jerome spent it attempting to cheer the girl up – whether it was with dumb jokes, poking her repeatedly, or tickling her, he didn't care as long as the smile was back on her lips. And soon enough, the smile that he adored was back adorning her lips and the tears she had shed were long gone, thanks to Jerome Clarke.
In their minds, the pair of them were almost like rag dolls, with way too many rips to count. They just kept sewing the gashes up for one another until they were a patchwork of invisible scars.
Eventually, it was almost time for the play, and it was extremely chaotic as everyone raced around backstage. Considering that she couldn't take any photographs before the play actually started and thus didn't have a role, Sydney had been tasked with the painful job of making sure that everyone's costumes were fine and that they were where they needed to be before the curtains pulled up, and upon seeing Nina, Fabian, and Patricia in the middle of the stage, she quickly rushed over to them to get them to move before Mr Winkler yelled at them.
However, as she approached and joined in the group, nobody really thinking much of her arrival and continuing with their conversation, her purple-haired roommate handed Fabian a card, which he quickly read out loud, "D4? What does it mean?"
"I was really hoping you would know." Patricia responded, showing that she had no idea what it meant – it was extremely cryptic, and didn't exactly give much away.
"Is that the secret card you got?" Sydney inquired, causing her to nod in response – Sydney had found it confusing for one of Patricia's family members to send her a secret card, though it seemed unlikely that it was her family with the secret message inside.
"Maybe a secret message from Rufus!" Nina suggested, although the suggestion caused both Sydney and Patricia to look at her, confused as they wondered why she had that idea in her head – it could have been from anyone.
"Why would you say that?" Patricia asked her, voicing what her roommate was thinking – there had been no sign of Rufus ever since he had disappeared from the bike shed that Patricia had hidden him in, apparently.
However, it seemed as though he had decided to make an appearance, as the American responded to the girl's question, announcing, "He's in the audience."
At the news, a look of horror and worry for the man came across the purple-haired girl's face as she exclaimed, "What?! Is he insane? What if Victor sees him?"
As Patricia goes off to peek through the curtains to find out where Rufus was, Sydney peeks over and looks at the card, before calling out to her roommate and instructing her, "Check if it's the seat number!"
However, the girl unfortunately shook her head as she came back to them, denying the claim and not allowing them to figure out what the card meant as she informed them, "No, Rufus is in Row G."
"Well, then, who's in D4?" Nina asked – however, before they could go to look again and figure out who was sat in that seat within the audience, and perhaps figure out what the card meant, their teacher called out once again, extremely stressed.
"Patricia, places for curtains up!" He demanded from her, rushing over as curtains were set to be up any second and forcing her to be in place, before his eyes darted around for any other members of the cast that had to be on stage and he was making sure that everyone was in place, "Guys-! Mick, Mara!"
Knowing that she couldn't stay any longer, Sydney quickly rushed off stage and to the side of the audience, holding her camera in her hands so that she was prepared to take pictures of the play. However, seconds before the curtains were due to go up, she glanced around at the seats, her eyes darting around to find D4.
Finally, Sydney found the seat number, and had to squint to properly see who it was. Most of their face was hidden underneath a hat and a beanie, with a hoodie covering their form – most certainly a disguise. However, Sydney recognised them within seconds, thus causing her eyes to widen whilst the camera that she held in her hands almost slipped out of them, but she managed to keep it in her hands and quickly turned to see the curtains opening, snapping a photo instantly once the curtains opened – the first scene was important, afterall.
For some reason, Patricia, a mask covering half of her face, was alone on the stage, despite the opening being with both Mick and Mara, but that was the last thing on Sydney's mind as her purple-haired roommate glanced around the room worriedly, before her eyes landed on the person who sat in the seat D4, causing her to impulsively shout one name that the Anubis House residents were far too familiar with.
"Joy!"
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[20.05.2020]
NOTE: now you guys finally know the full extent as to what happened to sydney and the storyline is about to get a lot more interesting! i'm so excited for the coming chapters!
also we reached 1k views?? you are insane and i love you all so much. thank you x