━ DENOUEMENT ( jerome clarke. )

31 ⊳ HOUSE OF HELLO.

DENOUEMENT
xxxi. house of hello
❝RECOVERY IS A PROCESS.❞

IT WAS THE first day of the new school term, and it was safe to say that Sydney Anderson already had extremely high hopes for the new term and was rather optimistic, completely contrasting the attitude that she had at the start of last term, which... wasn't exactly a normal term for the Anubis House residents. However, it wasn't exactly a surprise that the blonde-haired prankster was a lot more optimistic that term, as she had changed quite significantly over the past few months.

Over the long break, she had recovered quite a lot mentally, having attended numerous therapy sessions and was given the opportunity to properly grieve and mourn the death of her parents - she didn't even have nightmares about the crash anymore. Furthermore, she had even opened up to Alfie Lewis about what had happened to her parents (it was kind of inevitable, seeing as the pair typically hung out during the breaks and he came over to her house, just like her and Jerome Clarke did) - of course, the rest of the residents of Anubis House weren't aware, but the girl had already planned on informing them at some point that term.

Due to all of the improvements in her life recently and how optimistic she felt, Sydney Anderson had a bright and radiance-filled smile plastered on her lips as she walked towards Anubis House, camera wrapped around her neck as she was alongside her childhood best friend, Jerome Clarke - who, on the other hand, was not that optimistic and the reason for that was the exact same reason why he was forcing the girl to sneak behind cars to get to Anubis House with him:

Poppy Clarke.

Unfortunately for him, his worst nightmare had aged up to a teenager and had started her time at Amun Boarding School, meaning that she was constantly going to be around to pester and annoy Jerome Clarke, her big brother. Of course, the male prankster being who he was had decided that he wanted nobody to be aware of her existence or his link to her and that he wanted to avoid her at all costs - and he truly meant 'at all costs', which was why he was sneaking around the cars and acting rather shifty whilst the female beside him just looked amused with his antics.

"You know, you're not going to be able to hide from her forever." Sydney pointed out to him with a slightly exasperated sigh as he peered out from behind yet another car - if they hadn't had to keep stopping to peer out from behind cars, they probably would have already been inside Anubis House at that point and the female prankster was very tempted to send her location to his little sister to end their game of 'hide and seek' early.

"Watch me." Jerome retorted, causing the girl to playfully roll her eyes at him as he peered out once more (which Sydney may or may not have sneakily taken a photo of, because it looked kind of funny) - he was deadly serious about avoiding his little sister at all costs, apparently.

"Jerome, Sydney?"

Upon hearing their names, the two blondes glanced up and noticed their favourite American resident of Anubis House (perhaps because she was the only American resident of Anubis House, but they didn't need to tell her that) looking at the two of them suspiciously, considering that the pair were crouched down behind a car and acting rather suspicious.

"Nina, hello, welcome back." Jerome awkwardly greeted, trying to act casual and pretend that the American hadn't just caught him peeking out from behind a car and acting rather suspiciously.

Confused at the odd behaviour, Nina sent a glance over to Sydney in hopes that she'd provide an explanation for the peculiar behaviour, but the blonde-haired girl just slightly shook her head, muttering amusedly, "Don't even ask."

Before Sydney Anderson continued speaking to the American and spilled any sorts of secrets about 'thou who shalt not be named' (Poppy Clarke), Jerome Clarke hastily grabbed his fellow prankster's hand, dragging her away whilst Nina watched the two of them with furrowed eyebrows - yeah, the secret wasn't going to remain secret for much longer; he was already doing a terrible job at acting normal.

However, the next thing Sydney Anderson knew (she had been waving goodbye to the American, and hadn't been paying attention to anything happening in front of her), her suitcase was thrown out of her hands, being tossed over the brick fencing alongside Jerome's, seconds before the boy wrapped his arms around the girl and forced the two of them to dive over the fencing themselves, with Sydney instantly protecting her camera with her arms as they landed on the grass behind the brick with a 'thud'.

"What the-?!" Sydney exclaimed, too consumed with the fact that she had just been thrown over a brick fence to realise that her cheeks had warmed slightly due to Jerome's arms still being around her, but her words were cut off as the blonde boy shushed her - instead, she brushed the arms wrapped around her off and went to get up to brush the dirt off her clothing until her head was pushed down and she was forced to stay to the ground, causing her to look at the boy irritatingly, "Why did you throw us over the fence?"

"She's there." He muttered with spite in his voice, peering over the fence and looking at a crowd of students passing by - one of those students just so happened to be Poppy Clarke, and as the girl glanced around, Jerome hastily ducked so that he was out of sight and dragged Sydney, once again, down with him.

"Have I ever told you how much I hate you?" Sydney questioned jokingly, both of them knowing that she couldn't hate him even if she tried to, and that caused the boy to roll his eyes at her before he turned back to watching his little sister and praying she didn't notice the two pranksters behind the wall.

Soon enough, Poppy Clarke had passed (or, at least, they thought she did) and there was no sign of her, causing the boy to slowly lift himself up and offer a hand to Sydney Anderson, helping her up to her feet as the pair of them glanced over the brick fence to see whether or not his little sister was in sight or not and whether it was "safe" to walk like a normal human for their residence for the next term. Due to that, they didn't particularly focus on the rest of their surroundings, which was how neither of them noticed the boy approaching them.

All of a sudden, a familiar voice, one that belonged to their mutual best friend, called out cheerfully and loudly to announce his presence, "Hey, roomie and not-roomie!"

At the rather abrupt greeting, Jerome Clarke jumped from fright and let out a rather petrified yelp, causing the female beside him to instantly begin laughing and snickering at his hilarious reaction whilst their mutual best friend had a wide smile at the two of them, before Sydney Anderson composed herself and her laughter slowed down as she stepped towards their best friend, Alfie Lewis, wrapping her arms around him tightly as she greeted him, with him asking how she is and whether she's better now after her parents, whilst she complimented the bright red sunglasses on his face - honestly, they suited him.

However, Jerome Clarke didn't seem to think so, having finally recovered from being absolutely petrified by his roommate's sudden arrival and abrupt greeting, the blonde boy turned to him and stated with an amused and slightly confused smile on his lips, "If you're lost, the eighties are that way."

"Yeah, they look okay, but..." Sydney trailed off, pinching the bright red glasses off his face and examining them in her hands before the boy soon snatched them away from her once again and she finished her sentence, "They're a little odd."

"It's for Amber." He declared in a matter-of-fact tone, "New term, new girlfriend, new Alfie."

At that, the two blonde pranksters shared a small glance with one another before they simultaneously shook their heads, not believing that anything was going to happen between Amber and Alfie that term and knowing that they'd be very surprised if something did happen. Amber Millington was the exact same Amber Millington that she had always been (Sydney had found herself texting the fashionista numerous times over the holidays) and thus was still likely to say no to any of the jokester's advances, just like she did last term (minus prom, though that was a one time and last minute situation).

"Okay, well, you enjoy your 'new term, new girlfriend, and new Alfie', and I'll go and find my new roommates." Sydney commented, picking her suitcase up from the ground before she walked away from the two boys and left them to talk, hoping that she'd be able to catch up with Nina Martin before she entered the House of Anubis - oh yeah, Patricia Williamson had texted the prankster earlier that morning to ask about the room situation, considering that Joy Mercer was returning to school after the whole Chosen One mix up, and the blonde prankster offered to share a room with Amber and Nina (she was closer to them anyways) so that Joy Mercer could take her bed.

Unfortunately for Sydney Anderson, she hadn't found the American girl or her favourite fashionista (she had texted both of them - apparently Nina had walked around the school for a bit and Amber was already inside) and thus went up the stairs to Anubis House herself after having taken a picture of the building with the camera. It looked the same as it always had, though seemed much creepier after everything that occurred last term, and instead of the sign which said 'Anubis' offering a sense of familiarity, it instead sent a sense of mystery as it swayed with the wind. Many things may have changed for Sydney Anderson in the break, but the creeps that Anubis House gave her certainly did not change, yet she still entered the house with her suitcase dragging behind her.

Upon hearing voices in the living room, which seemed extremely familiar, the female prankster put her suitcase among the rest of them before she pushed open the door leading into the living room and greeted the group in typical Sydney Anderson fashion, "Sup, losers."

"Sydney!" Amber exclaimed cheerfully, quickly leaping up from her place on the sofa and wrapping her arms around the prankster excitedly as the two of them smiled widely - honestly, Sydney had missed her enthusiastic, fashion-loving, fellow blonde quite a lot, "I can't believe you're mine and Nina's new roomie!"

"Neither can I, but this does not mean you're giving me makeovers every day." Sydney warned the blonde, knowing exactly what she was hoping for after the prankster had submitted to allowing the fashionista to give her makeovers numerous times last term, before she glanced over to the rest of the people in the room, Fabian Rutter, Patricia Williamson, Mick Campbell, and Mara Jaffray and curiously asked, "So, what are we doing?"

"Well, Patricia claimed that she is the master of catching food in her mouth, but she's not on a great streak so far." Fabian claimed, grabbing a brownie from the spread of food set out on the table (courtesy of Trudy Rehmann, of course) and throwing it at the purple-haired girl, allowing for Sydney to witness the brownie completely miss her mouth and causing them all to groan in disappointment.

"That was your worst one yet!" Mara announced, playfully rolling her eyes and acting frustrated with the goth girl despite the smile on her lips.

"Oh, come on, you're terrible, Trixie!" Sydney whined, sitting down beside the purple-haired girl and opening her mouth wide, motioning for someone to throw a brownie in her mouth which Fabian soon did and she managed to catch it inside her mouth, eating it before she announced with a giggle leaving her lips, "Looks like I'm the master, instead."

"That was pretty good, Syd." Mick complimented, leaning over the table to give the prankster a high five, which she soon accepted.

"Aw, come on!" Patricia groaned frustratedly, mildly annoyed that she couldn't catch the food in her mouth and wanting her to succeed, causing her to tell Fabian, "Come on, let me try again!"

Sydney laughed, pointing around the girl threatening as she warned, "If you miss again, I'm telling Trudy that you're wasting her precious brownies."

"If Alfie knew, he wouldn't be so happy." Amber pointed out, and that caused the female prankster to nod in agreement as she was well aware of how much the boy adored Trudy's cooking and would have killed anyone who wasted it - it was surprising that he wasn't already in the room eating all of the delicious food, as he typically ran to get the food first before none of it was left.

"Okay, you get one last shot, Patricia." Fabian declared, picking up another brownie and waiting for the girl to open her mouth before he threw it at her, yet she missed once again causing them all to groan disappointingly and laugh at her poor attempts.

However, before they were able to complain even further and declare how they were going to tell their housemother about the wasteful use of food, the sound of the door opening caught their attention and caused them to glance over as Joy Mercer entered the room, a smile on her lips - once again, she was a student at the school and a resident of Anubis House.

"Joy!" Patricia cried out happily, seemingly forgetting her failure at catching brownies in her mouth as she jumped up from her seat and ran over to her best friend, wrapping her arms around her tightly as the new-but-not-new girl squealed excitedly.

"It's so good to be back." Joy declared as the pair pulled away from their hug, before she glanced around at the people in the room whom she had missed whilst she had been practically held hostage in her room with no contact to the outside world.

"It's good to have you back, Joy." Fabian replied genuinely, a smile on his lips – it must have been nice for him to have the girl back, considering they were quite close friends before she suddenly disappeared into thin air and they all lost contact with her.

"Thanks, Fabes." The girl smiled, a love-struck expression on her face, which was enough for Sydney Anderson to be quite aware that the crush that Joy Mercer had on Fabian Rutter (a now taken man) was far from over, and that caused for the prankster to share a worried look with Amber Millington – then, Joy spoke up once more but it was directed towards Mick and Mara, who had their arms around one another, "And you two! I didn't see that one coming."

The pair of them chuckle as they shared a glance with one another before looking back over to Joy, having wide smiles on their faces whilst Mick Campbell started for them, shrugging as he said, "Oh, I know – the athlete..."

"...and the mathlete." Mara finished, laughing.

"She can't run," Patricia stated with a grin on her lips, pointing at the so-called 'mathlete', before she moved where her finger was and then pointed at the athlete and continued, telling the group, "and he can't add up."

At that, they all broke out into giggles.

"What's going on with everyone else's love lives then? I've missed an entire term of gossip, so you guys need to tell me absolutely everything." Joy quizzed once the laughter in the room had slowly come to a halt, glancing around the room for somebody to tell her more gossip before her eyes landed on a specific blonde-haired prankster, causing her to call out expectantly, "Sydney?"

Upon being called on, the girl simply shrugged as she didn't have any sort of love life in her mind – she wasn't dating anyone, nor did she have a crush on anyone, and she had never kissed anyone, and that caused her to declare, "My love life is non-existent."

"Oh, that's a lie and you know it." Amber instantly remarked, nudging her fellow blonde gently and rolling her eyes at her, before the fashionista turned to face Joy with a bright smile on her face, quite happily telling the girl more things to fuel the rumour that the two blonde-haired pranksters had crushes on one another, "She was Jerome's date to prom last term, and they seemed very cosy to me."

"And to me, as well." Fabian supported, a teasing smirk on his lips as he did so and that caused a death glare to quickly get shot over to him as the female prankster mumbled something about wanting a hole to swallow her up under her breath – she had not expected to feel such a strong sense of betrayal so soon into her stay at Anubis House.

"Sorry, Sydney. I can confirm that you looked rather cosy." Patricia agreed, making the death glare then go to her whilst the purple-haired girl turned to face her best friend, elaborating and informing her, "Jerome had his hands on Sydney's waist constantly."

"And I noticed the two of them having loved-up smiles on their faces all night." Mara pointed out from over where she sat on the couch, with her boyfriend nodding in agreement beside her – it was safe to say that both of them also received a death glare.

"And, they kept ditching supper to have picnics last term!" Amber continued, exposing more and more about the blonde-haired couple-that-were-not-a-couple, despite the murderous glares being thrown around the room by one half of it.

Exasperated, Sydney threw her arms up into the air as she protested against all the 'stupid' and 'ridiculous' claims that she had a crush on her best friend, questioning, "Yeah, and I threw a muffin at his face – where's the love in that?"

Upon hearing about food, Joy soon chimed in and thankfully began to divert the topic away from Sydney and Jerome, as she remembered a funny story and quickly went to recall it to the group with a smile on her lips, "Oh, do you remember when Fabian got the brownie-."

"Nina!" Amber exclaimed, as both hers and Sydney's attention were taken away from Joy Mercer's story once they noticed the door to the living room opening up and they witnessed their favourite American walking through it, a grin appearing on her lips whilst the two blonde girls hastily stood up from their seats and wrapped their arms around the girl tightly, greeting her with very kind words and warm smiles before the rest of the house soon joined in, with Patricia Williamson and Mara Jaffray standing up to welcome the girl with hugs as well as she sent a wave to the boys in the room.

"Hope you're prepared to room with me this term, Neens." Sydney commented, nudging the girl slightly before she pretended to think, putting a finger to her chin as she hummed to herself thoughtfully, "I wonder what pranks will get the best reaction from you."

"Don't you dare." Nina responded, giggling and having a wide smile on her lips as she shook her head at her new roommate – she had been thrilled to hear that Sydney Anderson was moving into the same room as her and Amber Millington, considering how well the three got on; they were like their own little group and were quite close friends.

"So, how are you?" Amber inquired curiously, considering that they hadn't had much contact with the American since she had gotten onto her plane to travel over to the UK and had yet to see how her flight was.

"Still American?" Patricia quizzed, a challenging smirk on her lips as they recalled the many times that the girl had introduced herself by saying that she was from 'America' last term – it was a fond memory, really, of Nina Martin bursting through the doors that she had just come through and calling out, 'Hi, I'm Nina. I'm from America'.

"Yep, still Patricia?" Nina teased, causing all of them to break out into laughter whilst the American girl's eyes drifted over to her boyfriend, Fabian Rutter (yes, it had become official and they were dating – Sydney Anderson may have squealed alongside Amber Millington when she had found out the news), and the most love-struck expression that the prankster had ever seen came across on her face as she spoke softly, "Hey."

"Hey." Fabian mumbled, his voice almost a whisper due to how soft and gentle he was speaking – his tone almost mirrored the smile on his lips, and it was evident that the two were extremely loved-up and had missed each other dearly over the break.

Seeing that the pair needed some serious 'Fabina' time, Amber and Sydney shared a knowing glance before the former of the pair called out to the rest of the Anubis House residents, "Okay, time to make a discreet exit, everyone!"

"Let's give the lovebirds a moment." Sydney told everyone, sending a teasing smirk to the couple that they were leaving alone as she began to push everyone out of the room with the help of Amber Millington – god, they really were big supporters of 'Fabina'.

"Do you want to come and see our new room, Joy? We share with Mara now!" Patricia informed the girl, practically dragging her best friend to their new room no matter what her answer was, whilst she asked what was wrong their old bedroom, clearly confused at the sudden switch – unfortunately for Joy Mercer, a lot had changed in a term.

One thing that most certainly hadn't changed was the antics of the three pranksters – they still were the trio and forever would be the trio, and that was why Sydney Anderson sent them an amused look as the two of them burst through the entrance to Anubis House seconds after the rest of the girls (plus Mick) had gone upstairs to check out the new bedroom arrangements.

"Where is the food? I need Trudy's food now or I may just break down into tears!" Alfie cried out desperately, his eyes darting around the place frantically in search of the amazing food that their housemother always made for them.

Amusedly, Sydney pointed into the living room as she recalled all of the treats that had been spread out on the coffee, but then she remembered who was in there and quickly called out to the two pranksters, "Wait, you can't go in there-!"

It was too late.

Smirks on their lips, the male pranksters burst open the door into the living room and caused the couple within to quickly split apart with wide eyes, clearly seconds away from having a moment with one another, as they turned to who had just entered the room awkwardly, one of whom had already dived onto the sofa and taken the cooking of his housemother to shove in his mouth delightfully.

"Do you mind? People are eating in here, thank you very much." Jerome spoke as he entered further into the room, and as he finished he grabbed the plate of sandwiches from the coffee table and sat down beside Alfie, a smirk present on his lips.

"Did you really just interrupt a 'Fabina' moment?" Sydney groaned, entering further in the room and sitting in the middle of the two pranksters, though she had narrowed eyes filled with annoyance that were darting in between her friends, whilst the couple in question were quite awkward and had blushes on their cheeks, until Fabian picked up the plate of brownies and offered it to his girlfriend, with her taking one of them awkwardly.

Despite all of the snacks and delightful food that everyone had when they arrived at the house, that wasn't all that Trudy Rehmann had prepared as the group soon were called for their supper, with all of the Anubis House residents soon filing in and sitting down (Sydney being in between Alfie and Jerome) until, finally, everybody was in the dining room, with Joy Mercer being the last one to enter as she glanced around the table, taking note of how the two official couples in Anubis House (Fabina and Mickra) were holding hands, causing her to have furrowed eyebrows as she commented, "It's got very couple-y in here."

"You're not wrong there, Joy." Alfie Lewis responded, a grin on his face as he reached to take the hand of their resident fashionista, Amber Millington – honestly, Sydney wasn't exactly so sure whether the pair were officially dating or not, considering that the girl had agreed to date him last term – then again, she did think that the boy was dying.

"What are you doing?" Amber inquired, pulling her hand away from the boy and seeming rather uncomfortable and awkward as she did so – yeah, they most certainly were not officially together, and if they were then the fashionista certainly did not want to be.

"Uh, being couple-y." Alfie answered honestly, using the adjective that Joy Mercer had used to describe how people had become during her time away as he was slightly awkward after his gesture to hold her hand was rejected and she had literally moved her hand away from him.

"So, go hold his hand." She instructed him, nodding towards the boy's roommate, Jerome Clarke, who instantly pulled his hand away and shook his head, not exactly wanting to hold hands or be 'couple-y' with Alfie Lewis, of all people.

Not wanting an awkward silence to fall among the table, Fabian Rutter quickly changed the topic as he turned to face his grandmother quizzically, as he reminded her, "Your last mail mentioned something about your grandmother coming over?"

At the reminder, the American quickly swallowed the food that she was eating and nodded, proceeding to turn to the group and tell them, "Mm, yeah, yeah, she's coming to visit. She's staying at a hotel in town. She's really excited to meet you all." Then, she turned towards her nerdy boyfriend and set her hands atop his as they shared a grin, with the girl adding, "Especially you – told her a lot about you."

"Yeah, we do breed better geeks over here." Patricia Williamson joked, causing the table to let out giggles whilst the couple amusedly rolled their eyes at her words, and Sydney Anderson nodded in agreement with her ex-roommate's words.

"I'm sure that Granny Martin is going to have a blast of a time with Mr 'Let me tell you about the Theory of Computational Intelligence'." Sydney joked, causing the table to laugh even more whilst Fabian shook his head at the prankster.

"I'm surprised you even know what that is, Sydney." The nerd remarked, a challenging smirk on his lips whilst the prankster poked her tongue to her cheek, not having any good comeback – for once, Fabian Rutter had actually managed to deliver a decent comeback.

However, a phone then rang in the middle of the table, not even allowing for the prankster to deliver a comeback even if she had one, causing Mick Campbell to reach forward and pick it up with furrowed eyebrows before he looked over at Jerome Clarke, who the phone belonged to, and spoke, "You're popular for once. Who's 'Poopy'?"

Instantly, Jerome practically dived over the table and snatched his phone back from the jock, declining the call from his little sister whilst he badly lied, stumbling over his words as he claimed nervously, "Just my life coach."

At those words, with the addition of his terrible lying skills, Sydney Anderson silently chuckled to herself as she tried to restrain her laughter, lifting her hand up to her mouth to stop her from bursting out into giggles – she knew that the secret would not remain that way for much longer.

Speaking of secrets not lasting much longer, Mara Jaffray soon turned her attention to the chuckling, blonde-haired prankster and commented inquisitively, "Hey, Syd. I noticed that you didn't get dropped off by your parents today." At the words, the female prankster noticed both Jerome and Alfie stiffen, their eyes becoming wider as they glanced over to the girl to make sure that she was okay – Mara was right; her aunt and her cousin had brought her to the school that morning, "I haven't seen them in a while – ever since before last term; they normally visit all the time."

"I think..." Trudy Rehmann started as she came out of the kitchen, having overheard the conversation between the students – before supper, Sydney had spoken with the housemother (after giving her a large hug, of course) about how she wanted to inform the Anubis House residents about what had happened, causing the housemother to now glance over to the girl, who nodded in approval and allowed for the woman to continue, finishing her sentence, "Sydney has something she'd like to tell you all."

"Yeah." Sydney agreed with a nod, taking a breath before she just let the words fall out of her lips, telling the entire group for the first time, "My parents died."

"Sydney, I'm so sor-."

"Mara, it's fine." Sydney quickly cut in, interrupting the apology that fell from her lips and sending her a reassuring smile, letting her know that it wasn't the girl's fault for mentioning it, before she turned to the rest of the table and continued, "I spent the break recovering properly, and the last step in my recovery is to be honest and open up to those I care about – no more masks, I suppose. I didn't want to worry anyone before, so I just put on a mask and bottled everything up – believe it or not, that didn't go well."

"...What happened?" Amber quizzed, her voice hesitant and soft as the table all looked over at the girl, sympathetic looks on their faces as they wondered how they hadn't noticed that she had been suffering all last term – it's strange what a mask was able to hide.

"Breakdowns and nightmares – a lot of them." Sydney answered truthfully, causing a few people to gain a look of understanding on their face – specifically, Mara and Patricia, who had been there when the girl had shot up from nightmares several times last term, "Thankfully, they've stopped, and I've learnt to not hide my true feelings behind a mask."

"Are you okay... now?" Nina inquired worriedly – whilst the American was only young when her own parents died, also in a car crash, she still wondered how she hadn't noticed the girl grieving when she had gone through the exact same thing with her own parents – then again, grief and emotions are different for everyone to process; each person is different.

"Recovery is a long process." Sydney answered, remembering the words that her therapist had told her, and Nina nodded in understanding seconds before the prankster added, a smile on her lips, "But, I'm smiling and it's not fake – that's a win for me."

"I bet your parents are so proud of you." Alfie said to his best friend, being genuinely truthful – he remembered when the girl had told him the news over the break; he had been confused when they arranged to meet and she had sent him an address that he didn't recognise, only to arrive at a house that was also unfamiliar, and then to see an adult and a kid who he had never seen once before in his life – then, Sydney took him to her room and broke down in floods of tears, telling him absolutely everything.

"They are." Jerome confirmed, completely agreeing with his roommate as he supported it with a confident nod – he had upmost faith that both Emelia and Alexander Anderson were immensely proud of their little girl – and he laced his fingers with hers underneath the table, squeezing her hand tightly to let her know that he was there – he was always there for her.

"I'm Sydney Anderson." Sydney pointed out to them with a small giggle falling through her lips, before she dramatically flicked her hair with her free hand and jokingly quizzed, "Why wouldn't they be proud?"

"You've spent way too much time with Amber." Jerome stated with an amused roll of his eyes, as the room fell into laughter at the two pranksters, including themselves.

Instantly, Amber cried out, "What's that supposed to mean?!"

And even more laughter roared upon the group as smiles beamed on all of their faces. For once, it felt like Sydney Anderson wasn't hiding a big secret from absolutely everyone or that she was faking a laugh in front of all the residents; she was being herself and had opened up to them, and she was genuinely happy doing so. Yeah... she had extremely high hopes for the term to come.

Of course, it wouldn't have felt like the residents were back for another term at Anubis House if it wasn't for their absolutely delightful (note the sarcasm) housekeeper, Victor Rodenmaar, who continued his nightly ritual of dropping a pin at precisely ten o'clock. Honestly, it was weird not hearing his speech boom throughout the house every night during the break, so much so that sometimes she hadn't even been aware that it was so late in the night until she looked at an actual clock and saw it was one in the morning and realised she had been on her phone for the past four hours doing nothing productive.

However, coming back to Anubis House also meant that the speech was back, and that soon became apparent later on in the night when their housekeeper's voice boomed throughout the house, declaring, "It's ten o'clock, you know what that means. You have five minutes precisely, and then I want to hear a pin... drop."

Weirdly enough, Sydney Anderson had missed that.

Something else that Sydney Anderson had missed was the secret group that she had been involved in for the majority of last term, Sibuna, (though, just to make it clear, she most certainly did not miss the creepy things they had to go through and their near-death experiences) and apparently she wasn't the only one as a midnight feast in the attic for the group was soon organised, which was exactly why Amber Millington, Nina Martin, and Sydney Anderson found themselves sneaking out of their bedroom at midnight, seeing Patricia Williamson doing the same from across the hall.

"Do we have anything to pick the lock?" Amber whispered as the four girls approached the door to the attic – despite the threat that their housekeeper had made last term of keeping the door padlocked, it seemed that he had now removed it, though he still locked it with a key that the students didn't have access to – however, they did have access to hairpins and a student who was weirdly good at using them to pick locks.

Although, they apparently didn't even need to make use of the student's suspicious ability to pick locks, as the attic door soon swung fully open by itself – yeah, completely normal.

"Believe it or not," Sydney began, taking a gulp as she was rather petrified that the house did things by itself – that was something that she'd never, not once in her life, get used to, "I haven't missed the house doing that."

"Welcome back to creepy towers." Patricia remarked.

"Maybe this midnight feast should take place in daylight." Amber stated nervously, the door opening by itself causing her to become increasingly creeped out (like it would any normal student) as she called out with her voice shaky, "Goodnight!"

As she tried to head back to her bedroom, the three girls instantly reached out and pulled her back towards them, with Nina Martin and Sydney Anderson (the closest to the fashionista, with her being in between them) grabbing her arms, whilst Patricia Williamson placed her hand on her back and pushed her forward. There was absolutely no way that Amber Millington, the one who formed the club and created the name for it, wasn't coming to a reunion that was initially her idea – they just had to push her through her fears, which was why the girls tugged her towards the attic, with Nina going in first, whilst Patricia was last and closed the door behind them.

Whilst the girls waited for the boys to arrive, they set the attic for the feast, using a white sheet and placing it on the ground with various snacks being put in the middle of it, which the girls all sat around until the two final members of Sibuna arrived, Alfie Lewis and Fabian Rutter, and joined the girls in sitting around the white sheet, with allowed for the reunion to officially start with Amber Millington greeting them with, "Sibuna, everybody, welcome back."

"Sibuna." They all chorused, putting their hand over their eye for the first time that term - the group was back together once again, completed with their symbol of trust and understanding.

"No trouble getting past Victor then?" Nina inquired towards the two boys who had to sneak past their housekeeper's office to get to the attic - presumably, they hadn't had much issue doing so as the pair of them had arrived seemingly fine.

"No, he wasn't in his office." Fabian announced, which was usual for their housekeeper - perhaps he had changed over the break too, and the nerd even suggested that theory as he added, "Maybe he's finally changed his ways and gone to bed early."

Amber nodded, pointing out to the group, "Well, he needs his beauty sleep. He is a hundred and one."

"I still can't believe he's that old." Sydney let out a breathy chuckle, still finding it odd that her housekeeper was over double the age they originally thought he was - it certainly wasn't normal.

"Talking about creeps obsessed with living forever," Patricia started, finding that it was a perfect time to bring up something that she had discovered and thus taking a piece of paper out of her pocket and unfolding it as she continued, informing them, "I thought you guys would be interested in this."

With that being said, the piece of paper got handed over to Nina, whose eyes quickly scanned over the piece of paper before her mouth dropped, revealing to the group, "It's an obituary for Rene Zeldman."

"Rufus." Alfie realised, having recognised the alias the leather-jacket-clad man typically went by, and that meant something rather important: Rufus Zeno had died.

"Guess he found out he wasn't immortal the hard way." Fabian mumbled, a somber mood falling upon the group - whilst they weren't the biggest fan of the man who literally threatened their lives and held them hostage, it wasn't exactly brightening the mood when they had a conversation about him dying.

Fortunately enough for the secret group, one of their members was Alfred Marmaduke Lewis, who seemed to constantly mess up (of course, accidentally), and his failures were very entertaining to everyone else and managed to brighten up the mood massively, which was exactly why the group soon began to giggle, as Amber Millington had let out a shriek after the boy had spilt some of his drink onto her clothing.

However, the laughter and giggles didn't last for much longer as the sound of what appeared to be a door opening downstairs caught their attention.

As all of them shared a wide-eyed glance, all of their movements coming to a halt, Fabian's voice seemed shaky as he quizzed warily, "What was that?"

"Someone's coming." Alfie remarked, which led to them all wincing as they waited for their housekeeper to open the door and lecture and punish them for being in the only forbidden place within the house on their first day back - that certainly wouldn't have gotten them to a great start.

Creaking, the door opened.

"Joy!" Patricia exclaimed, causing the female prankster to look up with confused and furrowed eyebrows and notice that the noise that they had heard and the approaching footsteps wasn't due to their housekeeper and, instead, was due to a fellow student who they soon all lay their eyes on, her head peeking through the door, "You scared us to death!"

With a roll of her eyes, Joy Mercer simply ignored her best friend's statement and turned behind her, calling out, "Guys, they're in here."

With that call, she opened the door and walked in, the rest of the residents of Anubis House following behind her and filing in the room, not looking too impressed - especially Jerome Clarke, whom tilted his head at his two best friends quizzically, wondering why he hadn't been invited to or told about the little reunion when two of his best friends were there.

Not being the only person confused about the lack of invite for the rest of the residents, Mick Campbell shoved his hands into his pockets as he commented plainly, "Nice hangout, guys."

"I can't believe you're having an Anubis midnight reunion and you didn't invite us." Joy whined, her arms crossed over her chest as the disappointment and slight betrayal was evident on her features, whilst the members of the secret group shared a glance with one another and tried to figure out how to get out of the whole mess that they had been thrown in, not wanting any bad blood between the residents on their first day of term.

"Surprise!" Patricia suddenly called out, and the rest of the secret club members soon got the hint as they all joined in and began to cheer loudly, painting wide and very faked smiles on their lips as they hoped that the residents believed their very obvious lie, "Yeah, we wanted to welcome you back properly."

"Up here?" Joy asked sceptically, glancing around the creepy attic - clearly, she did not believe their lie, but the group kept it up anyways and nodded, causing her to ask more questions about the suspicious nature of the surprise, "While I'm asleep?"

Sticking to their lie that they had planned for the rest of the residents of Anubis House to crash their reunion, the group all nodded and mumbled out various forms of 'yes' before the female prankster made a lame excuse and informed the residents falsely, "It's an American thing - right, Nina?"

"Totally!" The American quickly agreed with a lot of very convincing (not really) nods, before she quizzed the group with mock enthusiasm and excitement, "Are you surprised or what?"

"Uh, I'll just get another sheet." Amber stated with a nervous smile on her lips, still trying to make it believable that everything had been done to surprise the additional members to their party and thus causing her to stand up and grab a white sheet from around the attic, nobody really paying attention to her as she pulled it off, until they heard the girl breathe out, bewildered, "Wow."

At her sudden expression, the group turned around to face what she was so in awe of, only to see that she had pulled a white sheet to reveal a dollhouse that looked exactly like Anubis House, even including the sign outside - honestly, it was beautiful, if everything creepy about the actual house was ignored. Wanting to take a closer look, Amber quickly enlisted the help of Alfie in order to help her move it, only for the residents of Anubis House to watch amusedly and break out into soft giggles when the pair of them dropped the dollhouse, it falling onto the poor boy's toe, and he quickly let out a very loud cry of pain and began hopping around on one foot.

"Sorry, it was heavy." Amber spoke, not sounding sympathetic in the slightest whilst the boy continued to scream in pain and hop around, causing a few people to shush them as they didn't want their housekeeper to be alerted of their little reunion, whilst the fashionista knelt down in front of the doll house and declared, "I always wanted a dollhouse."

Although, Fabian seemed suspicious and not so certain of that statement, his finger gently brushing over the details of the dollhouse as he noted that it was exactly like Anubis House - he didn't think that the fashionista would want something so creepy, causing him to ask, "Even one that's a replica of creepy old Anubis House?"

"Where dollies go to die." Alfie added, using his 'spooky voice' as he did so, which made a few of the residents giggle - though, it was short-lived.

Their giggling was cut off from a booming voice outside of the attic door - Victor Rodenmaar's voice, to be specific, as he yelled out sternly, "Whoever is up there, come down immediately!"

Instantly, Jerome Clarke shot up from his seat beside Sydney Anderson and dragged the female up with him, grabbing hold of her hand and lacing their fingers together tightly and comfortingly before he tugged her towards the exit as the pair of them were the first to leave, not even sparing their housekeeper a glance as he demanded for them to get to their rooms immediately, which eventually led to the pranksters splitting apart and going to their own separate rooms, with Amber and Nina eventually returning to the bedroom Sydney was in, all three of the girls frustrated that their plans hadn't exactly gone how they wanted them to.

So much for a Sibuna reunion.

It turned out that those weren't the only plans that hadn't gone exactly as people had planned them to do so, as something seemed to be going quite wrong for Alfie Lewis as him and his girlfriend-not-girlfriend (Amber Millington) entered the dining room the next morning, with the male questioning, "What do you mean you can't remember our arrangement?"

"I don't make arrangements more than forty-eight hours in advance," Amber stated in typical Amber fashion as her defence, "unless it's spontaneous."

"But you promised you'd be my girlfriend last term." Alfie argued, reminding everyone in the room (Mick and Mara weren't present) of how the boy had faked dying and then asked the fashionista to be his girlfriend, and he soon motioned to the students in the room and claimed, "I have witnesses."

"Heard it with my own ears." Jerome supported his roommate just as he finished doing the tie for the girl beside him - many things may have changed about Sydney Anderson, but her capabilities of doing a tie most certainly had not; she was still extremely terrible at it and messed it up constantly, hence why the boy did it for her.

"Same here." Sydney agreed.

Probably the first and last time that the pair will ever agree on something, Fabian raised his spoon and nodded alongside the prankster, claiming, "Me, too."

Feeling slightly defeated and in need of some support, Amber looked at the two girls at the end of the table, whining, "Patricia, Joy, help me out here."

"Actually, Amber," Joy began, reaching forward and grabbing a banana from the centre of the table before she completely went against the fashionista's requests, finishing her sentence, "you did say that."

"Yes, okay," Amber caved frustratedly, knowing that she had agreed to be the jokester's girlfriend but wanting a way out of it as she defended herself, telling the group, "but, I thought he was dying! That's what Daddy calls a loophole!" Hoping that somebody would have her back, the fashionista turned to the purple-haired girl yet to speak, hopefully inquiring, "Patricia, what about you?"

"Yeah, come on, Judge Trixie." Alfie chimed in, everyone now turning their attention to the goth girl as they awaited for her answer on the situation.

"Okay, no, Amber didn't quite say that." Patricia disagreed, causing the blonde to thank her whilst the boy deflated - however, neither of them realised that the purple-haired goth wasn't finished until she spoke up once again, a smirk present on her lips, "What she actually said was, 'yes, yes, yes, anything'!"

At the plot-twist, the group burst out into chuckles as the fashionista huffed and the victor of the discussion exclaimed triumphantly, "Thank you, your honour!"

"Thanks a bunch," Amber spoke sarcastically, sending a death glare to those who didn't support her - especially Patricia and Sydney - as she snarked miserably, "So much for the sisterhood."

One thing that never seemed to change about Anubis House, no matter how much time they spent away from the place, was how quickly the mood of happiness was able to evaporate within seconds, and the main cause of that was typically the wonderful housekeeper, Victor Rodenmaar, so it was no surprise when he stormed into the dining room, following Mick and Mara, and the wide smiles were wiped from everyone's faces as the housekeeper began to talk.

"I want a word with all of you. Sit down, please, sit. So... first night back and already you are up to no good. Well," With his words, he began throwing toothbrushes onto the table towards each and every single student, and Sydney Anderson instantly released a groan upon seeing them, brushing her fingers through her hair frustratedly - everyone in Anubis House knew what the toothbrushes meant, especially the pranksters of Anubis House, considering they seemed to get the punishment the most amount of times, "I shall not stand for this nonsense this term. Do you hear me?" They didn't respond for a few seconds, causing him to prompt them, "Well?"

"Yes, Victor." They simultaneously spoke rather flatly and glumly - believe it or not, they weren't exactly thrilled about their punishment, and all of them felt rather disgusted as they glanced at the toothbrushes that they had been given during breakfast - of all times to give the ludicrous punishment to them.

"Wait," Mick Campbell began, holding a toothbrush in his hand as he glanced around the group suspiciously, asking, "does this mean all of us cleaning one toilet?"

"No, Mr Campbell, no." Victor responded smugly - and, whilst the residents of the house thought that the punishment couldn't get worse, the housekeeper soon proved their beliefs wrong as he announced to them, "It means all of you cleaning every single toilet in the entire school."

Yep, their appetite was most certainly gone as they let out disgusted groans, with their housekeeper seemingly satisfied at their displeasure and beginning to leave the dining room after he had delivered the horrible news to them - perhaps Sydney Anderson was a bit too optimistic for the term ahead.

"I'll have you know this is a fifty pound manicure!" Amber, being the self-care and beauty-obsessed person that she was, called out after him, as if the man cares about how much the state of her nails cost.

With an annoyed roll of her eyes at how badly the term seemed to be going thus far (and they hadn't actually been to school yet), Sydney Anderson took the toothbrush and put it into her bag, declaring, "That man has got to get a new punishment."

At that, Jerome nodded before he glanced over to where the housekeeper had exited, remarking sarcastically, "He's definitely missed us."

Just like Victor Rodenmaar hadn't missed the residents of Anubis House, Sydney Anderson hadn't missed actually attending school and having to do work, which was exactly why she was planning on leaving attending her next class to the last minute as she remained at her locker for an additional few minutes, pretending to sort things out inside.

"Hey." An unfamiliar and rather raspy voice suddenly spoke from behind her, whilst a rough and calloused hand gripped her shoulder and caused the female prankster to quickly snap around to see who was speaking to her, laying her eyes on a rebellious type of boy who she did not recall seeing ever before in her life, not even in passing, and the boy soon had a smirk on his lips as he commented, "Wow, I didn't realise how cute the girls here could be."

"You're a confident guy, aren't you?" Sydney pointed out rather confusedly, glancing him up and down warily considering that she didn't know him and he was suddenly complimenting her, and he didn't exactly look like the resident 'sweet-heart'.

Smirk still present on his lips, the boy learnt against the locker beside Sydney's, his eyes wandering up and down the girl and slightly biting his lip before he declared smugly, "I call it like I see it – you're cute."

"Thanks." Sydney spoke dryly, not wanting to be mean to the boy (she'd like to think of herself as a nice person) but also not liking how he was looking at her - as though she was just a game for him to play around with for a while, which she most certainly was not - causing her to try and divert the topic away from herself and figure out why he approached her, causing her to state inquisitively, "I don't think I've ever seen you around here."

"That's because you haven't; I'm new." He informed her, the smug smirk still on his lips - honestly, the female prankster wondered if that was just how his lips naturally were, considering that the smirk wasn't going away whatsoever, "The name's Damian Cyrus."

"Sydney Anderson." The girl introduced herself, her responses remaining rather dry in hopes that the rebellious boy would soon leave her alone or tell her what he wanted - he had come up to her for a reason.

"Pretty name for a pretty face." Damian complimented like it was second nature for him, probably having said the same comment to many girls, which made the female prankster almost roll her eyes, having to stop herself whilst the rebellious boy continued, telling the girl (yep, still smirking), "It's a shame that I'm not in the same house as you – I was told that you were in Anubis House, but I wasn't told about how gorgeous you are, though."

"What house are you in?" Sydney quizzed.

The same smirk still present on his lips (seriously, did he ever stop smirking?) the rebellious-looking boy answered almost immediately, and seemed rather proud of his answer too, "Hathor House."

Unsurprising. It seemed as though Amun Boarding School really knew how to allocate people to houses almost perfectly, considering that Hathor House was known as the house that threw the most parties and had the most teenage drama, with most (if not all) of the residents being cheaters, playboys/girls, or just extremely rebellious students that were constantly in detention for cheating on tests or not going to lesson.

Yeah, Damian Cyrus appeared to fit perfectly in that crowd, and Sydney Anderson assumed he'd make no trouble fitting in with the rebels/heart-breakers.

"What about Hathor House?" Jerome's voice suddenly came from behind the girl, causing her to spin around and notice that he was wearing some sort of disguise (a bad one, only consisting of a hat, a scarf, and sunglasses, so it just made him look suspicious - though, she already knew it was so he could hide from his little sister) as he approached the students, a confused look on his face as he pointed to the unfamiliar man, asking curiously, "And, who's this?"

"Damian Cyrus." The man greeted, crossing his arms over his chest whilst his smirk seemed to only get bigger as he recognised what he thought to be a hint of jealousy and overprotectiveness to Jerome Clarke - his jaw was clenched and his eyes narrowed, and the rebel instantly pointed out, "And you seem like you're this pretty girl's overprotective boyfriend."

"I'm not her boyfriend." Jerome corrected.

"That's good news for me, I suppose." Damian said, slinging his arm around the female and causing the blonde boy's eyes to slightly widen (only for a split second) at how bold he was, whilst the rebel continued and informed him, "Sydney, here, was just welcoming me to the school." Then, he turned to the girl (who he still had his arm around), finally revealing the reason that he had approached her initially, "Actually, I was told that you might know where my tutor is."

"Your tutor?"

"Yeah, I kinda' have a bad rep – don't do homework and flunk all my classes, so I got given a tutor." He revealed as though it was a normal and casual thing, pulling out a slip of paper from the leather jacket that he had over his blazer and reading the name on it with narrowed eyes, "Her name is Mara Jaffray – apparently she lives in Anubis House."

"Yeah, she's over there." Sydney spoke, having seen the girl across the corridor and thus pointing over to where the nerd in question stood with her boyfriend, the pair of them near the lockers, "She's the nerdy one with the jock-type-of-guy."

"Well, I best get going before she runs off." Damian declared, leaning forward and clapping his hand on the other boy's shoulder within the three, Sydney watching them with narrowed eyes whilst the rebel whispered in his ear, "She's a pretty little thing, ain't she?" He pulled away from Jerome, who looked angry at his words, and briefly sent a glance to Sydney, winking at her as he muttered, "Catch you later."

"I don't like him." Jerome Clarke declared as soon as the rebel went down the corridor towards his new tutor and his tutor's boyfriend, the prankster's jaw still clenched from anger and his eyes narrowed, clouded with irritation and pure annoyance.

"I could tell from your death glares." Sydney responded, chuckling slightly before she leaned towards the boy and spoke in a more hushed voice, so that none of the students passing by were able to hear her, "But, if it's any consolation, I don't like him either."

Through his laughter, he commented, "Good."

As he laughed, his head went downwards and thus his scarf blocking a little bit of his smile, which caused the female's attention to turn back to his weird disguise and caused her to speak up about it, "Also, you do realise that this-," She snatched the hat from his head, placing it on her own as she continued, "is not going to hide you from her."

"It's doing a great job so far. Now, give it back before she finds me." Jerome instructed worriedly, glancing around frantically for any sign of his younger sister whilst he took his hat back, quickly putting it on his head before the pair of blonde pranksters made their way to the class that they were due to be in, passing Nina Martin and Fabian Rutter who gave them (more specifically, Jerome) an odd look as they walked into the classroom.

Breathing out a sigh of relief once he was safe from the so-called 'devil', inside his classroom, the boy took off his disguise one by one before slotting into his seat beside Alfie Lewis, who glanced at him with a look of perplexion on his face which was soon directed to Sydney Anderson, in hopes that the girl would provide him with some answers. Instead, she just amusedly rolled her eyes before sitting at the table in front of the two pranksters that she shared with Amber Millington, the pair of them watching a rather awkward situation with Nina/Fabian/Joy and not exactly being too impressed - it was quite clear that Joy Mercer still had a crush on the very taken Fabian Rutter, and the two blondes, being the close friends they were to Nina Martin, weren't exactly fond of that.

"Morning." Mrs Andrews greeted the class as she entered the room, causing the female prankster to roll her eyes frustratedly - she had not missed school in the slightest, and her frustration with it became even worse when she remembered that they'd be set homework once again that term which she was actually expected to complete.

Yeah... she hated school.

"Morning, Mrs Andrews." The class chorused flatly, none of the students present sounding particularly enthused to be in the room and back with boring homework and teachers - Sydney Anderson was one of those students, of course.

"Right, uh, world literature – fairy tales and folk stories. So, will you hand these out?" She asked one of the students (it wasn't like he was able to say no), grabbing a stack of books and placing it on their desk as she told the rest of the class, "Page twenty-two, please."

"Once upon a time, there was a poor boy named Alfredo." Alfie's voice narrated from behind the two blondes, causing the female prankster to turn in her chair to look at her fellow pranksters whilst a snicker left her lips, her and Jerome sending an amused look to one another whilst the boy continued, clearly annoyed, "He fell in love with a beautiful but very choose-y princess. The princess made Alfredo a promise, but-!"

"I did not promise!" Amber declared adamantly, cutting off his little story and spinning around in her seat to face him, her hair dramatically flipping before she defended herself and declared, "And, anyway, I took you to the prom. No one can say I don't give back."

"Gosh, Alfie." Sydney mockingly agreed, imitating the fashionista's voice whilst the girl in question turned to her bag, taking out a bright, pink, and fluffy scrapbook that literally screamed 'Amber Millington' due to how it was decorated, before passing it over to the boy who relentlessly kept trying to date her, despite all the rejection.

"The Amber Millington Guide to Dating." Alfie read out, those being the words printed on the cover of the book, and his face appeared to be one of confusion, not understanding why he needed a guide to dating - then again, his attempts at dating the girl were unsuccessful as of thus far.

"Oh, that's what you told me about last term!" Sydney cried out, remembering how she had been told about a certain checklist inside of it which was filled with materialistic things, and how Jerome had already unknowingly completed part of it for Sydney.

"Of course!" Amber agreed, also remembering the conversation that the pair had about the scrapbook, before she turned back to Alfie and informed him, "Take a look at that and you'll see why we can never be Amfie or Alber – see, it doesn't even sound right!"

With that exasperated huff, the fashionista span around in her seat to face the front once more, beginning to focus on the actual lesson like the students were meant to be doing, whilst Alfie Lewis opened up the scrapbook that he had just been given and began flicking through the pages, with Sydney partially leaning over their table so that she was able to see the scrapbook and Jerome peering over his roommate's shoulder - the pair of blondes were curious, okay? Honestly, Sydney Anderson wasn't so surprised by the contents of the book, presumably because she was close friends with Amber Millington and thus used to her antics. Although, Alfie and Jerome shared horrified looks as they continued to flick through the book - apparently, they had not anticipated for 'The Amber Millington's Guide to Dating' to be so... extreme, as it literally described the perfect boyfriend and had many goals that the boy had to meet in order for Amber Millington to date her.

Soon enough, Sydney Anderson was given a warning by their teacher for not paying attention, and thus had to turn back to the front and actually pay attention (or at least look like she was) to the lesson, though she was left to ponder whether Alfie Lewis was actually going to do anything with 'The Amber Millington Guide to Dating'. Honestly, she hoped he did, purely for entertainment purposes only.

Something else that caused Sydney Anderson immense entertainment was walking alongside Jerome Clarke to the drama studio, who had yet to give up on his plan of hiding from his sister and, due to that, was acting extremely suspiciously and caused a few looks to be sent their way. And, yes, it was very amusing to watch him act so weirdly, and it had caused Sydney to snicker at him plenty of times during their short trip to the drama studio. His arms were crossed over his blazer, as he tried to cover his face as much as possible with his hat, sunglasses, and scarf - believe it or not, it wasn't working, but he refused to take any sort of criticism to his disguise and was determined that he'd be able to hide from his sister and keep her a secret from the rest of the Anubis House residents, even though they clearly knew something weird was going on with him - he wasn't being very subtle as he closed all the doors leading into the drama studio, where most of the Anubis House residents were, and looked through the blinds cautiously whilst Sydney amusedly rolled her eyes at him before she joined the group of Anubis House students.

"That one," Joy Mercer declared whilst the female prankster sat down beside Patricia Williamson, who shot her a small curious look over the behaviour of Jerome Clarke, to which she just shrugged at before the pair tuned back into the conversation the group was having - apparently, they were helping Fabian Rutter choose a profile picture, hence why Joy pointed at his laptop screen as she stated, "I love you in that shirt."

"Nina?" Fabian asked his girlfriend, looking towards her for inputs and suggestion, wanting her confirmation and her approval on whatever picture he chose to put online.

"That one." Nina answered, pointing towards the complete opposite side of the screen to where the other girl had pointed and thus not choosing the same photo, as the American explained her reasoning, telling the boy with a soft and adorable smile on her lips, "I like the way you're staring straight at the camera – nice eyes."

"No way!" Joy cried out in protest, shaking her head vehemently as she glanced behind her to the two other people in the group who had yet to give their input, desperately wanting their support as she hopefully said, "Patricia, Sydney, tell him."

At that, the purple-haired girl leaned forward, looking at the photos over the nerd's shoulder before she declared with a shrug, "I think he looks like a dork in all of them."

"That's because he is a dork – look at him." Sydney agreed with the goth girl, motioning to the nerdy boy, who in turn rolled his eyes and let out a very dry and sarcastic laugh in response before he selected the picture that his girlfriend had suggested, making it his new profile picture as he valued the girl's opinion above anyone else's.

Nina - 1. Joy - 0.

However, then Patricia's eyes narrowed in confusion as she pointed towards the laptop screen, which now showed the nerd's profile rather than numerous pictures of him, and she announced, "Hey, it still says you're single, Fabian!"

Okay, nevermind.

At that revelation, Sydney's eyebrows raised from shock as she sent a brief glance over to the boy's girlfriend, noticing the awkward and slightly upset look on her face and thus causing the prankster to become agitated, glaring at the nerd, telling him with her annoyance and bitterness laced in her tone, "You might want to change that."

"Yeah, of course." Fabian quickly agreed, quickly sending a very apologetic and sheepish glance to his girlfriend (it was a very awkward situation, in fairness - the atmosphere was very thick with tension) and stating, "Sorry, I'll change that."

Following through with his word, the nerd quickly typed a few things and hit a few keys on his laptop before Fabina was an official couple both in real life and online, with his profile officially stating that he was in a relationship and satisfying his girlfriend. Unknowingly to him, it didn't satisfy the girl who he used to be close to, Joy Mercer, who hit Patricia Williamson's arm for mentioning it to the boy. Upon seeing that, Sydney rolled her eyes and glanced back towards her childhood best friend, having to suppress her giggle when she saw him peering out of the blinds and just looking very... odd.

And, Sydney Anderson wasn't the only one who had noticed the peculiar behaviour, or who was behind it (the disguise did not hide him whatsoever and just made him look weird), as soon enough, the Anubis House residents within the drama studio called out to the boy, "Hi, Jerome."

Realising that his disguise was terrible and not hiding him from anybody, the prankster gave an exasperated look to all of the residents before he removed his hat and his glasses, then began his journey into the corridor whilst the rest of the Anubis House residents turned to Sydney Anderson, the closest person to Jerome, quizzically. Knowing that Jerome having a sister was not her secret to tell, the girl simply smirked before she hopped off the chair that she was sitting on and followed her friend into the corridor.

"Jerome!" Sydney called out after him, causing the boy in question to flinch at the sudden noise due to him constantly being on edge, before he released a sigh and turned back to the girl who had called out for him, who approached him with an amused smirk on her face as she declared, "You can't hide this forever, you know - she's going to find you."

Despite the many times that Sydney Anderson had told him variations of those words, Jerome was still very adamant that he could hide the existence of his sister from everybody (including himself), and thus shook his head confidently and determinedly, as he declared, "Not if I have anything to do with it."

"Anyone would think you're trying to avoid me." Poppy Clarke's voice called out from behind the pair of blonde pranksters, and whilst Jerome's eyes went wide with pure fear, his entire body freezing, a wide smirk instantly fell on Sydney Anderson's face as she heard the familiar voice - absolutely perfect timing, "Big mistake."

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Sydney repeated the words that Jerome had said moments prior, imitating his voice before she playfully stuck her tongue out at him, not checking for his reaction as she approached the younger Clarke sibling, wrapping an arm around her and quizzing cheerfully, "How've you been, Poppy?"

Poppy Clarke and Sydney Anderson - what a duo. The mischievous pair weren't ridiculously close, considering that they didn't see each other much in real life except from within the breaks away from Anubis House. Although that didn't stop them from texting each other many embarrassing pictures of Jerome Clarke and having many conversations where they teased the poor boy. In addition to that, Sydney Anderson typically was invited by Jerome Clarke to attend some shows that the girl was in, and she always accepted the invite.

"Great." Poppy answered genuinely, a small smile on her face as she looked at the older female beside her, before her gaze fell onto her brother and she added mischievously, "Even better now that I've found Gerbil, here."

"There's the nickname that I love!" Sydney exclaimed gleefully, very enthusiastic and practically bouncing up and down whilst cheering due to the use of the iconic nickname.

At that, Jerome Clarke rolled his eyes at his childhood best friend, pulling her away from the side of his little sister and instructing her in a hushed (though very serious) voice, "Stop encouraging her – she's evil."

"She looks pretty harmless to me." Sydney replied with a teasing smile, before she decided that the siblings probably wanted to talk alone and thus motioned down the corridor, telling the pair, "Well, I'm going to leave you two alone for a bit. See ya!"

"You're not subtle about your little crush, Clarke." Poppy spoke after a few seconds of silence, having made sure that the female was much further down the hall and out of hearing-range before she did so, and then she continued, a smirk plastered on her lips, "If you want to buy my silence, about that and me, here's a list of my demands." The little girl stated, handing over a very long list, "Same time tomorrow, Clarke."

With nothing else being said and the female having passed along her demands, Poppy Clarke walked away, not realising that her older brother was mouthing declarations of hatred for her as he watched her leave. It was safe to say that he'd continue trying to avoid his little sister as much as possible, and thus his suspicious behaviour ensued.

Due to that, it wasn't exactly a surprise when somebody mentioned how odd the boy had been acting, and that was exactly what happened later on in the day, when Jerome Clarke and Alfie Lewis were in their room, with the latter questioning as he glanced up from his laptop, "So, do you want to tell me what's up with you?"

"Me?" Jerome quizzed in response, causing his roommate to nod in agreement and forcing the blonde to think of some excuse (he still refused to tell anybody about his little sister, and that included his best friend/roommate), quickly and easily lying as he stated, "I'm just wondering when you're going to give up on 'Princess Pushy'."

"Oh, well, I need to find the perfect gift." Alfie informed him, glancing back down at his computer at the shopping website that he had been looking through for several minutes and re-looking at the options, before he lifted his head back up at his friend and inquired, "Do you think she'd prefer flowers or an adoption certificate for a baby vulture?"

Jerome blinked, "If you don't know the answer to that you're going to be single forever."

Before the boy was able to respond, a knock sounded at their bedroom door and caused the pair to glance over, the door opening slightly and their housemother's head popping through, asking, "Alfie, do you still want help with those cupcakes?"

As the boy in question quickly nodded and said that he was coming, Jerome's eyes had brightened and had become increasingly intrigued after the mention of the delicious dessert, causing him to ask quizzically and hopefully, "Cupcakes? What cupcakes?"

"Let the gift shower begin. Tonight, it's raining cupcakes." Alfie declared - unlike many other people probably would have done, he had decided to actually complete each thing in 'The Amber Millington Guide to Dating', which was why he was making cupcakes in order to try to complete the checklist in scrapbook, and that also included buying some flowers, hence why he soon passed his laptop to his roommate and instructed, "Could you choose some flowers for me, dude? Think, uh, big gesture, yeah?"

Yeah... that was a mistake.

Although, Alfie Lewis, not realising it was a mistake, seemed like he had trust in his best friend as he left the bedroom, giving the boy a thumbs up before closing the door behind him, allowing for Jerome Clarke to browse the Internet for a gift to get Amber Millington.

"Orchids – that's far too safe." Jerome stated as he browsed the options that his roommate had been looking at for the past few minutes, a small chuckle leaving his lips as he continued to search, saying, "I think something a little edgier."

Yep, definitely a mistake.

Something else that was a mistake was letting Alfie Lewis in the kitchen without any supervision, and all of the Anubis House residents were very much aware of that, hence why Sydney Anderson became increasingly concerned when she walked into the kitchen around fifteen minutes later to discover the student all alone nearby the oven, with ingredients seemingly thrown all over the place - eggs, flour, dough, everything. She had only come to grab some snacks, as her and Jerome had decided to watch a film together before lights out, and suddenly she felt like she had been given the job of babysitter.

"What are you doing and why are you in here?" Sydney instantly inquired worriedly, her eyes darting around frantically as she glanced around for any sign of a fire beginning to start and prayed that Trudy Rehmann was somewhere nearby in case there was a dilemma.

"I'm making cupcakes for Amber," Alfie informed her, turning around from where he was nearby the oven so that he was facing the girl, revealing his bright smile as he continued, enthusiastically telling the girl, "following a recipe and everything."

"The only recipe that's being followed here is the recipe for disaster." Sydney declared, walking over to the oven and inspecting it worryingly - it was safe to say that she did not trust the boy anywhere near the source of fire, and she genuinely considered telling Jerome that she had to watch over him to make sure that Anubis House didn't burn down.

"It's going perfectly fine – there's no fire." Alfie assured her, motioning around to the kitchen as his evidence with a gleeful smile on his face - he was evidently very proud that he was yet to cause a fire, though that said a lot about how little they should have trusted him in the kitchen.

"Yeah, I wonder how long that'll last for." Sydney responded, the worry still perfectly evident on her face as she quizzed, being genuinely serious, "Should I have my phone and be ready to call emergency services?"

"No! Everything's fine." Alfie assured her, very confident in his abilities to make some cupcakes despite all the many issues he had encountered in a kitchen beforehand - but then, he recalled his best friend's peculiar behaviour and leaned against the island, speaking up curiously, "Although, Jerome isn't fine – d'ya know what's going on with him?"

"Oh, don't even get me started." Sydney groaned, resting her head in her hands frustratedly - it felt like it had been the millionth time somebody had asked her what was wrong with the boy and why he was acting suspiciously, but she knew that she wasn't able to tell anybody about the existence of Poppy Clarke - it was his secret, not hers.

"Aha, so you do know!" Alfie called out, pointing at her with a whisk covered in cupcake mix accusingly - it wasn't exactly threatening, so she simply lowered the whisk with an irritated expression on her face.

"Yeah, but I can't tell you." Sydney replied, before the very faint smell of burning became apparent to her, causing her to inform the boy, "Also, I think I smell burning."

"The cupcakes!" Alfie exclaimed panickily, quickly rushing over to the oven and delicately getting his 'babies' out of the oven to see that they were thankfully (and very surprisingly) fine, as he muttered to himself, "Oh, I am so proud of you. Come to papa."

Not exactly thinking about how hot the cupcakes would be, considering that they had been in the oven for a long time, the boy quickly grabbed one and put it into his mouth, not being able to wait a second longer due to how delicious they looked - unfortunately for him, he hadn't managed to go undetected stealing a cupcake as Trudy Rehmann came in the room, calling out, "Alfie, there won't be any left at this rate!"

However, his cupcake-stealing soon backfired on him, and Sydney Anderson watched amusedly as he started to fan his mouth frantically, whimpering due to the pain his mouth was going through - it made sense, considering that the cupcake he put in his mouth had only come out of the oven moments prior and was still burning hot.

Sydney glanced over to their housemother, motioning to the cupcakes with a saddened expression on her face as she muttered glumly, "I guess that means I can't have one."

"You guess correctly." Trudy responded over the sound of the boy with a cupcake-stuffed mouth still whimpering, the housemother shaking her head - honestly, Sydney wondered how she managed to deal with all of Anubis House residents constantly.

"What is that amazing smell?" Amber Millington's voice called out from the living room, where she had just entered, causing the three people in the kitchen to gain widened eyes before Alfie Lewis quickly grabbed a towel to cover the cupcakes on the side, the housemother watching him amusedly before telling him to use the blender, just as Amber approached the counter, a smile on her lips, "Something smells nice."

"Yeah, uh, I'm helping Trudy cook supper." Alfie stammered over his lie, not wanting for the girl to know of his surprise yet - Sydney was kind of intrigued about how she'd react, though she knew that if she wasn't there to witness it, the fashionista would tell her absolutely everything about it anyways.

"After last time?" Amber asked sceptically, clearly not fond of the idea of the boy helping their housemother with supper - which, really, was not surprising, and the reason why soon became apparent as she told him, "No one's forgotten your marshmallow meat surprise."

"She's right." Sydney agreed with a nod, shivering as she recalled the monstrosity, and the disgust was clear on her face as she didn't even attempt to hide it, whilst she stated, "Gordon Ramsey would have had a breakdown if he saw that... thing."

"Delicious." Alfie recalled, obviously having a much different memory to the two girls about the supper that he had helped with, and the pair of them rolled their eyes before the fashionista walked away - and that was rather lucky for her, because only a few seconds later did Alfie hit the button on the blender.

The only issue was that he had forgotten to put the lid on it.

And, that was a rather big issue which soon erupted, quite literally, with the contents in the blender overflowing and spilling on the counter as their housemother let out screeches, calling out the boy's name exasperatedly as she rushed forward to turn off the blender, before picking up the lid of the blender and presenting it to the boy.

"Trudy, make sure you have a phone for emergency services nearby." Sydney warned the housemother, walking over to one of the cupboard and grabbing some popcorn before going back to Jerome and Alfie's bedroom, knocking before she pushed open the door, the boy glancing up at her quizzically, considering how long she had been gone for, "You may not want to go in the kitchen for a while - Alfie's cooking, and you can only imagine how well that's going."

At that, he let out a soft chuckle, before motioning for the girl to join him and sit beside him on the bed, where he soon wrapped his arms around her so they were comfortable, and then the pair began to watch the comedy film that they had planned on prior.

During the film, the pair had moved positions quite a few times for comfort-purposes, which then led to Sydney Anderson having her head in Jerome Clarke's lap when they were almost an hour through the film, small giggles coming out of their lips quite often as they watched the film displayed on his computer screen - it was definitely a comedy and cracked several jokes throughout; it was exactly what Sydney Anderson needed after the stressful experience of watching Alfie Lewis in a kitchen, and it was exactly what Jerome Clarke needed after the stressful experience of his sister being at the exact same school as him, though that seemed to leave his mind in the moment.

He sighed quietly to himself - not a frustrated sigh, but a relieved one - sneaking yet another glance at the girl whose hand was in his lap, her eyes trained on the computer screen playing the film. He loved her profile: the way her nose dipped, her eyelashes curled upwards, and her eyes darting towards the figures on the screen. She was absolutely stunning, and that was something that Jerome Clarke couldn't deny.

Before he had even registered it, he found his hand moving to the stray wisps of blonde hair falling onto her face and tucking them behind her ear gently, sparking her attention and causing her to turn away from the film. Instead, she tilted her head to look up at the boy, a small smile coating her lips once she noticed his stupid smile.

"What? What's the grin for?"

Feigning innocence and confusion, the boy nonchalantly shrugged despite the adoring and very gentle smile still lingering on his lips, and he claimed, "I'm not grinning."

That was very much false, considering that the same smile had remained on his lips even as he denied her word, causing the female prankster to roll her eyes at the boy, a teasing smile on her lips whilst he playfully and lightly hit him, stating, "You're so grinning."

"No I'm not." Jerome insisted, even though the smile was still evidently there on his lips, now being accompanied with a playful roll of the boy's eyes, similar to the one Sydney had done and thus causing her to release a small groan.

"Yes you are!" The girl protested, both of them completely forgetting about the film that they were meant to have been watching as they became too involved in their little debate about a grin that was most certainly on a boy's lips, despite how much he denied it.

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"Okay, that's it." Jerome declared, small chuckles leaving both of them at his words, which then transformed into full-blown laughter as the boy began to tickle the poor girl, their little tickling-fest managing to go on for two minutes until the girl gave up, reluctantly agreeing with the boy that he wasn't grinning (though, he most definitely was), and then they resumed the film that they had meant to have been watching.

It wasn't their fault - they just became lost with one another at times... that's what happened to best friends, right?

Eventually, lights out neared and it was time for everyone to go to bed as they were well aware of the speech coming from their housekeeper at any moment, thus Sydney Anderson had gotten ready for bed in the bathroom. As she came out, she noticed that Alfie Lewis was coming down the corridor, holding a red and white box that presumably held the cupcakes that were for Amber Millington, which explained why he knocked on the joint bedroom door that belonged to Amber, Nina, and Sydney, and the female prankster soon followed him into her bedroom and saw that her suspicions were right.

"Here we go, Amber – the first gift of many." Alfie stated, passing her the box that contained the cupcakes - Sydney had managed to sneak a glance of them earlier, and they actually looked decent considering who made them (though, she assumed that was due to the supervision and help of Trudy Rehmann).

"Oh, you shouldn't have!" Amber cried, a beaming smile on her lips as she accepted the box from the boy, before glancing up at him and asking, "How many, exactly?"

However, before Alfie Lewis was able to answer her question, the start of the familiar speech from their housekeeper boomed through the corridors as he declared that it was ten o'clock, causing for the boy to hastily say his goodbyes, "Gotta go."

Amber opened up the red and white striped box, revealing the pink and delicious-looking cupcakes inside as she exclaimed cheerfully, "Cupcakes, yummy!"

Yeah... those cupcakes weren't going to make her that cheerful in the morning, though the three girls weren't aware of that fact and thus went asleep peacefully, not aware of the red and blotchy mess they'd be faced with that morning.

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[14.06.2020]

NOTE: the first chapter of season two is done and sydrome are even more adorable!!

sorry for the late-ish update. my bedroom is being decorated so i've been kicked out and i'm sleeping in the living room so i didn't get as much sleep as normal and only just woke up.

also, there's a small detail that i connected in this chapter to one of the early ones in season one - chapter five, to be specific. damian is shown to be a bit of a rebellious boy and a flirtatious person and is from hathor house, and in chapter five it talks about the other houses and says: "Hathor House was home to some of the worst playboys and girls, with them throwing parties constantly and music always blasting from their house - none of them had a good reputation, being known for their rowdiness.".