━ DENOUEMENT ( jerome clarke. )

41 ⊳ HOUSE OF PENDULUMS.

DENOUEMENT
xli. house of pendulums
❝I LOVE HIM.❞

BACK AND FORTH the pendulums constantly swung, the sharp edges piercing through the air in front of and behind Patricia Williamson, who stood on the middle of the bridge over the chasm as frozen as she was possibly able to, whilst the rest of the members of Sibuna watched the situation from a place of safety with widened and worried eyes as they realised that the purple-haired girl's safety was in immense danger. The slightest wrong move could have meant the loss of a life, as the girl would have literally been sliced in half, which was something that they definitely didn't want to happen. Thus, all of the members of the secret group began to give instructions to the girl in danger in an attempt to help her get back to safety.

"Okay, turn around, Patricia." Nina Martin advised, speaking cautiously as none of them exactly knew what the best move was - it was a dangerous game, and none of them knew how to play it; they just guessed and hoped they'd win, "Don't move, just turn around."

At the contradictory instructions, Sydney Anderson's eyebrows furrowed with confusion, and she wasn't the only one who was perplexed by such odd instructions, as Patricia Williamson spoke up, telling the American frustratedly and rather worriedly, "Nina, make sense!"

Despite the instructions not making much sense, the goth assumed what the girl had meant and began to very cautiously turn around, causing Alfie Lewis to instruct her, "Slowly, slowly, slowly."

"Okay, steady." Nina told her, considering that the purple-haired girl had to turn around, avoid the pendulums of doom, and also remain steady on the crocodile-shaped bridge so that she didn't fall down the chasm that presumably lead to a terrifying death - although, Patricia seemed to be doing quite well with dealing with it, slowly inching around and following their instructions, "Yeah, yeah."

"Go now." Alfie stated, all of them wanting the goth girl back to safety as soon as possible and thus trying to get her past the pendulums quickly.

"I can't go now!" Patricia protested, being petrified of the pendulums that were swinging right in front of her and threatening to end her life in what would have been presumably a very gruesome death.

"What about now?" Sydney Anderson quizzed practically straight after, not exactly being sure of when the girl was meant to go in order to ensure her safety and just saying whatever, because, in her mind, any suggestion (even extremely dumb ones like her's) were better than none.

Although, Fabian Rutter disagreed and quickly protested against the statement, telling the purple-haired girl not to follow through with it as he yelled out, "No, Patricia!"

"Okay, one, two, and then go." Nina offered another suggestion, wanting to have the purple-haired girl back on their side and safe as soon as possible - as anybody would have expected, it was extremely panic-inducing to see their friend having something that had the ability to cut them in half swinging back and forth in front of them, and it was also panic-inducing for the girl herself, who watched the death trap with wide eyes.

"Anyone who does not have a pendulum swinging in front of their face, shut up!" Patricia snapped, causing the entire group to follow her instructions and fall into a silence, simply watching the purple-haired girl with worried eyes as they pondered over her next move and how she would manage to pass the death trap safely.

Without having numerous different instructions and suggestions thrown her way, Patricia Williamson was able to concentrate a little bit more on the pendulums of death and watched their rhythm intensely, waiting for a few seconds before she hastily passed the first pendulum (the one out of two that were shaped like a sun) that had been blocking her way to safety, causing the first sound - loud and panicked gasps - to emit from the group since she had willed them to be quiet.

However, instead of focusing on the gasps from the group, Patricia continued to focus on the swinging and sharp tools that were threatening death upon her. After passing the last pendulum, she was now faced with another one - that one being one of two that were shaped like a moon - and she observed it for a few more seconds, bracing herself to risk her life once more to pass it, before she finally rushed past it and ran into the arms of the group.

She was safe.

Letting out relieved breaths, wide smiles appeared on the lips of all the members in the group whilst they crowded around the girl with the purple hair, showering her with love and hugs as they were absolutely over the moon that they hadn't had to watch their goth friend get sliced in half by their next task and that she was still breathing.

"You made that look so easy - honest." Amber Millington informed the fortunately still-alive Patricia Williamson, though she then turned to the boy beside her - Alfie Lewis - and added in a poor attempt of a whisper, "I actually thought she might die."

Leaning towards the fashionista, Sydney mimicked the fashionista's tone and pretended to whisper, though doing a poor job of it and thus her voice was rather loud - exactly like her perky roommate's, and told the girl, "You know, Amber, I think she can hear you."

Meanwhile, the nerd of their group hadn't been focused on the fashionista's poor attempt at whispering and had been more focused on their next task instead, causing him to soon speak up to the group and tell them his latest theories and thoughts on the pendulums, "We can learn this. It's just like a song."

And, considering that the rest of the group weren't as smart as Fabian Rutter, the seemingly ridiculous statement confused a few of them for a moment or two, with Amber Millington being the first one to express her confusion with a simple dumbfounded, "Huh?"

"Uh, it's not like a song - it's like a chopping board." Patricia corrected, having experienced the threat of the so-called 'chopping board' herself and not exactly seeing how it was like a song, of all things it could have been compared to.

And, having seen how the pendulums of doom almost killed their friend a few moments prior, Sydney was inclined to agree with the purple-haired goth and stated rather plainly, "Yeah, I think we have different definitions of what a song is, Fabian."

"No, it's got its own rhythm, so think of each pendulum as a chord - so, say, the sun's A and C, and the moon's B and D." Fabian explained to the group, causing a few of them to begin nodding in understanding - the female prankster of the group was one of those people, considering that she understood music (and, thus, chords and rhythms too) quite well, with her having taken lessons in the art when she was much younger.

Sydney Anderson wasn't the only person who understood what the nerd was explaining, as Alfie Lewis soon agreed with the idea, becoming rather excited about it due to him being an avid music fan, and thus claiming, "Yeah, it's like pendulum hip-hop, man!"

Of course, it wasn't much longer before the boy began to beat-box to support his claim, causing a small chuckle to escape from the lips of the female prankster as she shook her head at him amusedly - however, it also caused the fashionista to roll her eyes at him, "Oh, here we go."

Taking a brief break from his beat-boxing - a break that the female prankster thought was going to last for a while, considering the comment from the fashionista - Alfie, instead, seemed unfazed by the murmur and grinned as he stated, "This stuff is finally useful."

Realising that the pair had been acting rather weird ever since the female prankster had returned from her trip to the prison, Sydney's eyebrows furrowed curiously and confusedly as she looked in between the couple, soon asking, "Okay, have I missed something?"

Although, it turned out it wasn't just the female prankster who had noticed the pairing acting strange and was unaware of the reasons why, as Patricia Williamson nodded in agreement with the girl before she quizzed herself, "Yeah, what's up with you two?"

Once again, Alfie Lewis took a small break from his beat-boxing to inform the pairing of the seemingly sad news, though he still had a small grin on his lips whilst he told them, "We broke up."

In shock (at both the news and the boy's seeming lack of care about the subject), Sydney's eyes widened and her jaw became slack as many questions came to her mind, though she soon had even more questions filling her brain as the other half of the ex-couple denied the news, yelling out frustratedly, "No, we didn't!"

"What?" Sydney muttered confusedly, her widened eyes becoming narrowed with confusion as she glanced in between the ex-couple-that-apparently-weren't-an-ex-couple, and she soon asked for clarification from the pair that weren't on the same page, or even the same book, about their 'break-up', "So, did you or didn't you?"

"Did."

"Didn't!"

Believe it or not, that cleared absolutely nothing up and only caused them to still have questions, hence why Patricia Williamson and Sydney Anderson shared a confused look with one another as they wondered what was happening with the pairing.

And, once again, whilst the rest of the group had been distracted by what was occurring in 'Amfie Land', Fabian Rutter had been focusing on listening to the pendulums and trying to figure out how to get past the task that threatened their lives with the help of music, and had thus soon brought them back to the more important topic as he informed the group, "It's a refrain - the song loops. If we learn the song, we learn the gaps."

"We learn the gaps," Nina repeated, a small smile growing on her lips as she understood exactly what the boy beside her was getting at, "and we walk straight through."

"Exactly." Fabian nodded.

"For some reason, I don't think this is going to be as easy as you make it out to be." Sydney muttered hesitantly as she sent a glance over at the swinging pendulums of death - in theory, it seemed simple; though, things were much different in reality and it was rather petrifying to even think about, considering that a small mistake meant that someone lost their life in an extremely vile way.

"More practice?" Patricia suggested tiredly, wishing that the group had a simple task for once that didn't involve them constantly practicing and preparing for it.

"More practice," Fabian confirmed with a nod, but then he threw a wary glance towards the task ahead of them and added, "but, maybe not with real pendulums."

And, that was their que to make their way out of the tunnel system so that they were able to find a way to replicate pendulums in a safe way above ground, so the members of the secret group soon began to make their way out of the tunnels with the noise of Alfie Lewis beat-boxing being the soundtrack, whilst the boy himself plus Sydney Anderson fell towards the back of the group, with the latter sending him an amused glance.

Despite how amused she was at his antics, she still had a few questions for him rampaging around in her mind, all of them relating to his apparent break-up-but-not-break-up with the girl who he had been chasing after for years and had managed to finally win over - she wondered what had changed and why/how the apparent break-up had failed so badly. And, the only way she was going to receive answers to those questions was to ask the people directly involved in it, and that was exactly what she did as the group made their way through the tunnel system, attempting to ignore the many cobwebs around them and the dust floating past them - honestly, the place needed a deep clean.

"Okay, Mr Beat Box, are you going to tell me what is happening between you and your girlfriend... or your ex-girlfriend... or whatever she is to you now?" Sydney quizzed, considering that her questions didn't exactly get answered previously - her voice was a little bit quiet so that the other half of the couple, who was further ahead of the pair anyways, wasn't able to hear her questions.

"I dumped her." Alfie stated as his beat-boxing came to a halt, still sticking to the story that he had presented to the group originally despite the persistent and vehement denial that had come from his girlfriend-but-not-girlfriend.

"I don't think she got the message." Sydney plainly responded.

"You don't say!" Alfie cried out, his distress at the situation becoming apparent at that moment - yet, he still persisted with his story as he informed his best friend once more, being rather adamant, "I'm telling you, I totally dumped her."

"I think you need to tell her that, not me." Sydney told him, a small chuckle falling out of her lips in the process.

"I tried!" The boy declared frustratedly, before he explained how the break up had managed to fail so exponentially as he told her, "She refused - I mean, how do you refuse someone breaking up with you?!"

Blinking a few times at the information she had just received (honestly, the prankster really did not put it past the fashionista to refuse a break up with somebody - although, the information was still shocking to hear), Sydney finally answered the boy, "Just like she did, apparently."

Casting her a small and mildly frustrated side glare, Alfie responded, "You're not helpful. I mean, you're one of her closest friends - any advice?"

"Uh.... nope, not really." Sydney answered after a moment of thinking, causing the boy to become even more deflated at the news whilst the female prankster shook her head at him as she continued, telling him, "Sorry, I just don't understand why she'd refuse to break up with you, unless she-."

At that moment, Sydney Anderson had realised that, after so many years of Alfie Lewis pining after the fashionista, Amber Millington finally liked him back - that was exactly why she had refused the break up. Thus, she cut herself off, her eyes being wide with shock at the thoughts running through her mind.

Of course, it didn't take the boy beside her much longer to notice her silence and wide eyes, knowing that she had reached a revelation - thinking that she had figured out a way for him to break up with the girl (again) or understood why she had refused the breakup, he eagerly repeated what she had began to say, "'Unless she' what?"

"Nothing!" Sydney quickly answered, plastering a rather large, yet faked, smile on her lips whilst she hastily tried to change the topic and make the boy forget about the words that she had gone to say, "Movie marathon tonight, yeah? Aliens?"

Fortunately, the topic of aliens was something that the boy simply could not resist, causing him to soon forget about his ex-girlfriend-but-not-ex-girlfriend and cry out excitedly, "You're on!"

As the pair had been talking about the love life of Alfie Lewis and their plans for the night, the rest of the group had been discussing their plans to get past the next task safely, and the two friends soon tuned back into the conversation once theirs had ended and they had found their way back to the study.

"So, we just need to learn the song - I know it seems real complicated, but I promise it's not." Fabian assured the group, sending them a small smile in order to comfort them further, as they all piled into the study through the rotating bookcase.

"It's not the song I'm worried about - it's the swinging pendulums of doom." Patricia told him - she was, really, the only person who knew how utterly frightening the entire task and situation was, being the only member of the secret group who had stepped upon the bridge and had the threat of death swinging back and forth in front of her.

"That's why we need to practice." Nina stated in order to comfort the goth, seeming pretty confident in the abilities of the group to practice enough that they'd be able to complete the task easily, as she soon claimed, "By the time we're finished, you'll be able to do it with your eyes closed."

"That... doesn't sound like a good idea." Sydney murmured warily - as experienced as she was with music, she wasn't experienced with relating music to a literal death trap, and the entire idea scared her; she didn't exactly believe it was going to be as easy as they were making it out to be.

"That's the only way I'll be able to do it." Amber chimed in, supporting the idea of going across the bridge with their eyes closed simply due to the fact she wasn't sure if she'd be able to face the swinging pendulums so up close - even the thought of it petrified her.

Yet, the threat of death wasn't the only thing that the group had to worry about as they took the amulets off from around their necks, setting them atop the desk like they usually did before they pressed the button to open the shelf that led them out of the cellar. Soon enough, it slid open and the group slipped out of the secret room, not seeing a single person in sight, so they casually began to make their way out of the cellar.

A big mistake.

Clearly, the members of the group did not observe the room well enough, having missed the two figures that had been hidden in the cellar, who had witnessed the code to the secret room appearing above the shelf and had watched the members of the secret group pile out of it. Once the students had disappeared from the cellar, the pair came out of the shadows and revealed their hiding spot, smirks plastered upon their faces as they approached the shelf. It was safe to say that Vera Devenish and Victor Rodenmaar knew much more than the students thought that they did.

Despite being unaware of what was occurring in the cellar at that moment, Sydney Anderson and Alfie Lewis still had worries of their own that came in the form of the death trap ahead of them (also, for the latter, the fact that his girlfriend-not-girlfriend was refusing to break up with him), and thus they soon found themselves sneaking into Alfie's and Jerome's bedroom (the latter was fast asleep) and trying to distract themselves from their worries by watching alien movies, as previously promised. So, the laptop sat in front of them whilst the pair sat together on the floor, trying to remain as quiet as possible so they didn't wake Victor Rodenmaar or Jerome Clarke.

After two movies, both of which related to aliens, Sydney Anderson was rather shattered - really, it wasn't surprising when she thought about everything she had done that day. She had spent a majority of her day attending a prison to speak to her childhood best friend's father (in which she spoke to him about her deceased parents), and then she had to practice dropping a bridge perfectly onto a small slab, then wait until it was past lights' out to actually drop the heavy bridge perfectly onto a small slab, then watch her best friend almost die due to pendulums of doom, and then she decided to watch alien movies with her best friend until three in the morning - due to all of that, it wasn't particularly surprising when her eyes finally shut midway through the third film, and the alien-loving boy beside her soon followed, his eyes closing shut too.

And, despite having fallen asleep on the floor of the room that belonged to Jerome Clarke and Alfie Lewis, when she had found herself being shook awake by the latter of the pairing a few hours later to face the school day ahead of her, she had found herself on a comfy mattress - one that she was rather familiar with and had slept atop numerous times, though the person who usually accompanied her wasn't there - although, the question about where he was soon was answered through the form of a text from him, which told the female that he had gone to sort out an errand and to cover for him in lessons.

The slight issue that arose from Jerome Clarke being missing in the morning was that he was normally the person who did the tie for Sydney Anderson, considering that she had absolutely no clue how to do it. Thus, the girl had simply decided to leave her tie undone, having left it like that for all of breakfast and being seconds away from leaving Anubis House with it like that until Alfie Lewis released a humongous sigh, briefly scolding the girl about how she had to learn how to do it, and did it himself.

Unfortunately, that created an even bigger problem for Sydney Anderson, as the tie around her neck felt extremely weird and she found herself constantly pulling at it throughout the day - she was seconds away from untying it and leaving it untied once again, but she knew that she'd probably get a detention for doing so, and she'd already had one from Mr Sweet that morning, as he apparently didn't appreciate when she had excitedly told him that she had learnt a phrase in Latin (with the help of Google Translate, of course), 'Et odio scientiam', which translated to 'I hate science'. Apparently, she also mispronounced it and completely butchered the phrase, which made him even more agitated. Yeah, she was going to leave the translation to Mara Jaffray next time.

So, the tie was left as it was, despite the female prankster constantly pulling at it, whilst the members of Sibuna met up within an empty drama studio and quickly decided to use the opportunity to practice their way to get past the pendulums, causing Fabian Rutter to quickly rush to grab a wooden bench, with Alfie Lewis hastily helping him pull the bench into the room, whilst the remainder of the members looked at the bench.

"What are we looking at?" Amber Millington quizzed, not exactly understanding the situation as well as the other, who had instantly seen that the bench was meant to resemble the bridge.

"It's a crocodile." Nina Martin answered, referring to the bridge down into the tunnels that was shaped like a crocodile as she motioned towards it with a smile, "Can't you see?"

"It looks like a wooden bench to me." Sydney commented jokingly, chuckling a little bit at her own joke before she was thrown a look by the American member of their group, one that was slightly amused but also told her to take the situation seriously - yeah... Nina Martin really should have known that Sydney Anderson hardly took anything seriously.

"So, we will take turns as pendulums, and on the beam, and rotate." Fabian explained to the group, informing them about how the entire thing was going to work and thus causing them all to nod in understanding; the concept seemed simple enough.

"Don't learn the gaps, learn the swings." Nina advised - ever since the nerd had come up with the idea to get past the pendulums, she had seemed fairly confident in the idea, knowing that the group was able to learn the song that'd help them pass the death trap.

Although, there seemed to be one issue that soon arose when Sydney Anderson's eyes narrowed at the statement and she bluntly reminded the group, "I don't learn, like, ever."

"Well, you're gonna have to." Nina concluded, knowing that there was probably no other way the group were going to be able to get past the pendulums than to learn the song - thus, she motioned for the boy who was in charge of the entire idea to continue with his plan and begin giving instructions to the members.

"Patricia, you are A. Sydney, you are B. Amber, you are C. Alfie, you are D. Nina, you're with me for the first watch - I need a second pair of eyes." Fabian informed them, causing the members of the group to nod before they made their way to their respective places, with Nina and Fabian standing at the head of the bench beside one another.

However, there was one person who didn't move around, and that was Amber Millington, who had remained completely still for a few moments with a look of confusion plastered across her face - the reason why was soon discovered, though, as the fashionista quizzed, "Wait, am I U, R, or C?"

Considering that U and R weren't even mentioned, the answer to that question was quite obvious and caused the man in charge of instructions to let out a faint chuckle, subtly shaking his head at the girl before he clarified, "C."

"Amber, honey, U and R weren't even options." Sydney added, causing the girl to look a little bit confused, clearly thinking for a moment or two as she thought back to when the boy had given them all their positions, and then a look of realisation hit her.

"Okay, Alfie, give us a beat." Fabian instructed once that entire ordeal was over, causing the boy in question to begin beat-boxing whilst the nerd began to call out the chords, "And A, B, A, C, A. B, C. D, A, B. A, C. B, C, D." Honestly, the fact that they were jumping over a wooden bench to try to get past a literal death trap was ridiculous, and they were also terrible at being in time with the chords that Fabian Rutter was calling out, hence why all of them began hysterically laughing whilst they hopped over the bench - yet, that didn't stop them from continuing, "And it loops again..."

It was safe to say that it took a lot of practice to get the beat perfect, but once they managed to do it after a long time, they had decided to practice it with somebody walking across the bench. Sydney Anderson had been the first one to go across the bench, and almost had some minor bumps but had managed to get across it successfully in the end, causing them all to switch again - then, it had been Nina Martin's turn on the beam, whilst Sydney Anderson took watch and observed them all.

"I did it!" Nina Martin cheered gleefully, a wide smile upon her lips when she realised that she had reached the end of the bench without hitting a single 'pendulum'.

"Well done!" Fabian Rutter complimented her happily, glad that they were getting somewhere with his idea and that the practice seemed to be working - though, they still had a few more people who had to get past the beam, so he quickly began swapping places and handing out his instructions, "Okay, Nina, you take watch and, Sydney, you be A. Patricia, your turn on the beam." Fabian informed her, causing them all to move to their respective places with Patricia Williamson standing atop of the bench, ready to attempt to get to the end, "Ready? Here we go. A, B, C, D, A. C, A, C..."

Upon noticing that the purple-haired girl had come to a halt upon the bench, Fabian cut his words off and glanced up at her confusedly, noticing that her jaw was dropped as she stared at the door - of course, the group didn't hesitate in turning towards what had forced the girl to come to a halt, and their eyes widened upon seeing Mrs Andrews, who looked rather confused by what was occurring, "What are you doing?"

"Interpretive dance, Miss." Alfie quickly answered, causing the rest of the group to follow along with his words and nod in agreement whilst he added believingly, "For drama."

Honestly, Sydney didn't exactly think that the teacher was going to question it further - yet, she did, clearly still being a little suspicious of the group as she inquired, eyes narrowed, "And what are you interpreting?"

"Shouldn't you be able to guess, Miss?" Sydney chimed in, trying to save the situation as interpretive dance was all about being able to guess what it was about - although, the woman continued to have a disbelieving look on her face, forcing an answer out of Alfie.

"It's... an exploration into the cultural origins... and influences of man's... struggle... against oppressive institutions." Alfie slowly explained to the woman, clearly thinking of something on the spot and improvising his answer and doing rather well at it, "But, if you have to ask, then obviously we're not doing it right. Like Sydney said, you should be able to guess! Come on, Sydney!"

"Sydney?!" The girl herself cried out incredulously, being completely confused at what the boy was going to do and also mildly worried - they had literally nothing prepped and she was suddenly thrown into the spotlight, though that didn't stop Alfie Lewis.

"Five, six, seven, eight!"

Suddenly, it was like the sound of a guitar had filled the air, despite their being no music, as Alfie Lewis jumped onto the bench and did a small dance, only giving his friend a few more moments to prepare before he put his hand out to her and lifted her onto the bench, spinning the female prankster around quickly and then dipping her so she went behind him, whilst he finished the rest of the dance that resulted in him jumping off the bench right in front of the teacher, whilst the rest of the members of the secret group looked at the pairing who had danced in complete shock.

After a moment of rather stunned silence, Mrs Andrews managed to find a few words to say as she spoke up with a nod, telling the group, "Very well. Carry on."

Having believed the boy's lies after seeing the impromptu dance, the teacher soon made her way out of the room and continued her day as normal - yet, as soon as she had exited the room, the silence disappeared and was replaced with loud laughter and exclamations from the group, all of whom had many questions, with the nerd of the group quizzing the pair, "Where did you learn how to do that?!"

A small grin plastered on his lips, Alfie nonchalantly shrugged as though he hadn't pulled the best lie that anybody in the secret group had ever managed to do, telling the members, "Don't know."

"Are you sure you two didn't have that planned?" Nina inquired suspiciously, not believing that they had managed to pull off such a flawless routine on the spot.

"Pretty certain - if it was planned, then I would have gone against being spun like a spinning top." Sydney declared with a small chuckle passing through her words, sending a joking glare towards the boy who had spun her and causing him to raise his hands in defense of himself mockingly.

"I knew Sydney could dance, but not like that!" Amber exclaimed, clearly surprised by the revelation - of course, the entirety of Anubis House had witnessed the female prankster dancing with her childhood best friend, but it wasn't on the same level as what she had just performed with Alfie Lewis, which was exactly why the fashionista was shocked.

Sydney chuckled, "Yeah, neither did I."

Yet, the laughter in the room soon came to a halt when Joy Mercer rushed into the room, seeming a little bit frantic and worried for a moment - though, that disappeared for a moment as she laid her eyes on Fabian Rutter, saying a small 'hi' to him in a loved-up tone before she snapped out of it and grabbed the wrist of Patricia Williamson, dragging her towards the doorway as she declared, "Houston, we have a problem."

Inquisitive, the rest of the members of the secret group shared a small look with one another before they followed the two girls towards the doorway, looking into the hallway to see what the so-called 'problem' was, and not seeing anything that seemed like a problem. Instead, they saw that Eddie Miller had a box of chocolate in his hands, offering it to numerous and random kids in the hallway with a huge smile on his lips.

Despite the seemingly innocent sight, the face of the purple-haired goth girl dropped significantly, worry becoming plastered across her face as she murmured, "Oh, no."

"Oh, so I have to steal food from him but he offers chocolate to random kids in the hallway?" Sydney questioned frustratedly, recalling the times she had to snatch a crisp from the new boy and thus crossing her arms over her chest and stomping her foot like a little kid as she declared, "I want chocolate too!"

"Oh, no you don't." Joy responded, shaking her head at the female prankster confidently.

Although, Sydney certainly knew what she wanted and chocolate was definitely on that list, causing her to retort just as confidently, "Oh, yes I do."

"Mrs Andrews, Mr Sweet, chocolate?" Eddie offered to the two teachers, holding out the box to them with a smirk on his lips as he informed them, "They're fancy, and French."

"Okay, so he even offers them to Mr Sweet, of all people, and Mrs Andrews!" Sydney cried out, shocked and disappointed at the entire situation - even if she wasn't so close to the new boy, she at least expected for him to give her chocolate before the teacher whom she hated the most, "I want fancy and French chocolate!"

"Oh, no, no, no, no!" Patricia called out, not taking anymore time to rush forward and quickly snatch the chocolate out of the hands of the teachers before she turned to face Eddie, seemingly scolding him for handing out the chocolate.

"How come he offers the teachers chocolate, yet I can't even have a singular crisp from him!" Sydney yelled out, very devastated by the revelation as she continued to stomp and pout like a child, claiming, "This is unfair!"

"Trust me, it isn't." Joy assured the girl, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder whilst her eyes remained locked on the exchange occurring behind Patricia, Eddie, and the two teachers about a box of seemingly innocent chocolates.

Yeah... something wasn't right, and it hit the female prankster at that moment, causing her eyebrows to furrow whilst she examined the situation, soon questioning the person who seemed to know a lot about it as she inquired confusedly, "Why?"

"Oh, you'll find out." Joy declared, as though she was waiting for the moment that everything was going to come to light - her eyes were wide and worried, seemingly becoming even more worried when she watched the two teachers take a bite out of the chocolate and she noticed the children in the hallways running to the toilets, hands covering their mouths like they were about to throw up.

Sydney Anderson soon had an inclination of what was occurring, and did not hesitate in taking her camera out of her bag, lifting it up and beginning to record the last few moments of the ordeal - just in case her inclination was right and she was correct in her reasoning about why all the students who had eaten the chocolate was running to the toilets like they were about to be sick.

And, the reason why soon became apparent when Mrs Andrews took the box that the chocolates were from and glanced over the words on the box, her eyes widening with pure horror as she practically screeched, "Mealworms?"

"Beetle larvae?" Mr Sweet added disgustedly, grabbing the handkerchief in his pockets whilst the two teachers ran away, presumably to go and spit out the chocolate they had just taken a bite from - it was at that moment the group realised exactly what had happened and realised that Eddie Miller had been offering the students (plus the teachers) chocolate that included mealworms.

Whilst the rest of the group was rather disgusted by that fact, Sydney Anderson burst out with laughter when she realised that the teacher who she disliked the most had eaten insect chocolate and she was most certainly going to thank the rebellious boy for that later - honestly, she now understood why all the girls had been swooning for him upon his arrival, and she declared with a wide grin on her lips, "Okay, I love him."

"He gave people insect chocolate." Fabian pointed out incredulously, confused at why the girl 'loved' him when he had done something so disgusting.

"One of those people being Sweetie." Sydney pointed out, causing all of them to realise exactly why the girl was so happy about the situation as she stopped her recording and put her camera down, observing the video that she had just taken of the teacher's reaction, "Oh, this has to be one of the best days in my life! I'm cherishing this video for the rest of my days!"

Meanwhile, Eddie handed the box of insect chocolate back to the girl who had initially given it to him, a smirk plastered on his lips as he walked away from her - as expected, the extremely smug look, topped off with his smirk, remained plastered upon his face as he strutted past the Anubis House residents.

Alfie remarked, "I've got to admit, he is good."

And that was exactly the reason why Sydney Anderson soon approached the boy who was the talk of the school a few minutes later, catching him sitting in an empty classroom with his feet up on a desk and his hands behind his head - the typical bad boy and smug attitude that he had immensely radiating off him.

"Hey, Beetle Boy." Sydney greeted him with a new nickname (normally, she would have opted for using his full name, but 'Beetle Boy' seemed more appropriate considering the events that happened prior) as she entered the classroom, dropping her bags onto the table beside his table before she propped herself up onto the desk.

"Is that nickname sticking?" Eddie inquired, his eyes narrowed - obviously, he was proud of the stunt that he had pulled, though he didn't particularly want to be called 'Beetle Boy' for the rest of his time at Amun Boarding School; it wasn't the best of nicknames.

Although, it was a bit too late to get rid of the nickname now, with a smirk appearing on the lips of the female prankster as she informed the boy, "Oh, it's already on the list."

Of course, Eddie Miller had been fully aware about how the female prankster of Anubis House didn't always use the names that people preferred whenever she spoke to them - she had heard her refer to Jerome Clarke as 'Gerbil' and 'Clarke', and she had heard her refer to Fabian Rutter as simply 'Rutter', and of course he had 'Edison' thrown at him every once in a while, but he wasn't aware of the so-called 'list' that the girl had accumulated over his short amount of time at Anubis House, causing his eyebrow to quirk up as he quizzed, "You have a list now?"

"I've always had a list." Sydney confirmed - obviously, it wasn't a physical list that she had created, but she had a mental list of many names to call the new boy.

"What names are on this list?" Eddie asked, unsure about whether or not he wanted to know the nicknames the girl had created for him but also wanting to be prepared for if she threw an embarrassing one at him one day - then again, he was sure that the list was going to grow as he spent more time at Anubis House.

And, despite the limited time the pair had known each other, Sydney Anderson already had quite a few names for the boy and did not hesitate in listing them all, a smile on her lips as she began, "Edison, of course. 'Beetle Boy' is the new addition, and then there's 'G.W.I.S.C.F', which stands for 'Guy Who I Steal Crisps From'."

Instantly, Eddie scoffed and quickly corrected her, not exactly used to the difference between American and British words and thus stating, "It's called a 'chip', actually."

Yet, that didn't phase the female prankster, who simply continued with an even wider smile upon her lips as she stated gleefully, feigning innocence as she told him, "And that brings me to the next one on the list: 'Dumb American'."

"Haha." Eddie plainly commented, not seeing amused at the name whilst he rolled his eyes at her - though, she still wasn't done with the list of names.

"Oh, and don't let me forget 'Mr Williamson'." Sydney added, a smirk present on her lips as she referred to how he seemed like he had a crush on Patricia Williamson.

"Okay, did you just come here to annoy me or is there something else?" Eddie instantly questioned, wanting to change the topic as soon as possible so they didn't have to talk about his crush on the purple-haired girl who had dumped milk all over him.

"Well, at first I wanted to thank you, but now annoying you seems more fun." Sydney answered, though that only caused for the American boy to be more confused as he glanced at her with narrowed eyes and furrowed eyebrows.

"Thank me? For what?" Eddie inquired - as far as he knew, he had done absolutely nothing to deserve her praise nor her thanks; actually, nobody should have been thanking him after he had given a lot of the school insect-infested chocolate, including the teachers.

Yet, that was exactly what the female prankster was thanking him for as she told him, "Giving Sweetie that chocolate - a genius prank, by the way. I wish I thought of it, and it gave me a video to enjoy for the rest of my lifetime."

"You recorded it?"

"The last part." Sydney clarified, grabbing her camera and showing the clip to the boy, who let out a small chuckle, waiting until it had finished to continue speaking and explaining the situation to the boy, "You see, Sweetie and I have a feud going on because I hate science, he teaches science, and I'm almost certain that he's out to get me, so anything like this that happens to him makes my day."

"Oh, yeah?" Eddie asked, becoming a little awkward at the topic of conversation.

"Yeah, so the video of your little stunt will add to the collection of terrible things that have happened to Sweetie that have extremely amused me, along with the videos and pictures of a cloth falling on him in the middle of the exhibition opening and many other pranks - I think pictures of him with an extremely red face are in there from when I put chilli powder in his drink." Sydney gleefully told him, grabbing her bags from the table that she had placed them on and slinging them onto her arm, "Anyways, catch you later, Protector of Chips."

"Is that another name?!"

Ignoring his call and only staying long enough to hear him chuckle slightly upon realising that she was indeed ignoring him and it had indeed been another name, the blonde-haired female simply made her way towards her locker in order to drop off her bags that she didn't need anymore, thus quickly opening it up and placing her bags inside and being seconds away from closing it when a pair of hands covered her eyes, "Guess who?"

Being the tease that she certainly was, Sydney didn't hesitate at all before she responded, the smirk that she had on her lips only growing wider as the words left her lips, "Damian?"

"I'm going to pretend that you didn't just say that." Jerome Clarke muttered, amusedly shaking his head at his childhood best friend whilst he removed his hands from her hands and placed his hands on her waist, spinning her around so that she faced him before pulling out a wrapped-up gift from his bag, handing it to her as he continued, "Especially not to the guy who just got you a present."

"So, this is where you've been all morning." Sydney commented, causing the boy to nod for confirmation - he had spent a long time the previous night and that morning thinking of a gift to get for her and then actually trying to find what he had wanted, which was why he had been absent before breakfast even started and had led to something that had irked the female prankster all day, "I had to get Alfie to do my tie for me, and it feels extremely weird."

Letting out a small chuckle at the statement, the boy shook his head at her amusedly before he became a little bit more serious and informed his childhood best friend, telling her, "This is for being a rock - I really couldn't have visited my dad without you."

"You could." Sydney was adamant in her statement - she fully believed that the boy was capable of doing whatever he wanted without anybody's help, and that included going to see his father, but that wasn't going to stop her being on the sidelines to support him, "Although, I'll always be here for you no matter what."

"Anderson and Clarke, right?" Jerome muttered happily.

"Anderson and Clarke." Sydney confirmed with a rather confident nod, a soft and appreciative smile gracing her lips as she took a small glance at the blonde boy, before tearing off the wrapping paper that covered the present that he had given her and admiring the gift, her soft smile growing ever wider at the sight of it.

"I remembered what my dad said about how everyone always said we were inseparable, so I thought this seemed fitting." Jerome explained his reasoning behind the choice in his gift, watching the girl's reaction to it observantly and feeling something swell up inside of him when he noticed her gorgeous smile growing wider and her eyes twinkle slightly.

Like the last present he had given her last term, it was a rather stunning photo frame that fit four photographs, and Jerome Clarke had already taken the courtesy of placing four photographs inside. Honestly, Sydney Anderson couldn't stop her smile growing even wider (if that was possible) as her eyes scanned over the four photographs he had chosen - the first of which was a picture from when they were children, literally only just having turned six. At that time, a few people had already begun saying how cute the pair were and how they were constantly in their own little world, the population of that world only being themselves - yet, nobody was exactly aware of how long that friendship was going to last. The photograph itself showed much younger versions of the pranksters with humongous grins on their lips as they chased each other around the playground at their previous school - it had been the teacher who had taken the photograph to show at the 'graduation' type of day (the last day) to show how much the students loved each other there and how well they got along.

The second photograph was a picture of them that seemed much more similar to how the pair looked at that moment, with them being much older than they were in the first picture. Differences were still obvious, of course, as the pair were eleven in the second picture and had matured since then. Once again, they had grins (though, not as wide as the prior picture) on their lips as they posed for the picture taken right outside of Anubis House, which had been taken by the parents of Sydney Anderson when Emelia and Alexander had dropped the pair off for their first day at Amun Boarding School.

The third photograph resembled them even further, having only been taken last year. Upon seeing it, Sydney Anderson recognised the photo instantly, recalling seeing it many times as Jerome Clarke's lockscreen the prior term. Similarly to the prior photo, it was taken right outside of Anubis House, though there were a few differences - one of which was that Alfie Lewis had taken the third photo, and that the pair were unaware that the photo was being taken. It was a time when Jerome Clarke was unsure about their friendship, considering how distant the female prankster had been during that break (unknown to him at the time, due to the death of her parents), yet had still waited for her to arrive at Anubis House - once she did so, Sydney Anderson recalled how the boy did not hesitate for a single second to call out her name, causing the girl to snap her head around to face him. She recalled the overwhelming amount of emotion that she had felt in that exact moment, having missed the sense of familiarity after so much change, and she hadn't wasted a single second in rushing towards him and wrapping her arms around him tightly, despite the few tears that she shed. She recalled that, for the first time in weeks, she had felt a slither of comfort and what it felt like to be 'home' once more.

And then, it was the fourth photograph, one that had been taken much more recently, and that time, it was a selfie that had been taken with Sydney Anderson's camera during the last picnic date that they had, the pair of them grinning widely as they were meant to be looking at the camera. Though, at the last second of the picture being taken, the pair of them had turned to look at the other as they grinned widely. And, perhaps, the sight of the last photo caused a small blush to fall upon the cheeks of the female prankster as she noticed how adoring the pair looked at one another - they truly seemed like a couple, though she thought that they could have never become a couple; they could have only ever been best friends.

Quickly trying to recover from the thoughts whirling around in her mind, Sydney subtly shook her head and quickly responded to the boy, a humongous grin plastered upon her lips, "We still are inseparable, Clarke. You're never getting rid of me."

"Would I ever want to get rid of you, Anderson?" Jerome inquired with a small chuckle, knowing that he had absolutely no intention of living a life without Sydney Anderson, before he glanced down back at the gift that she held in her hands and told her, "I thought it could go with the picture I gave you last term - the one-."

"Of me and my parents." Sydney finished, nodding in agreement and knowing exactly what he had been thinking when he decided to get her the photographs, and the smile she had seemed locked upon her lips whilst she told the boy gratefully, "It'll go right beside it." Not wasting anymore time, the girl wrapped her arms around him and brought him in for a tight hug which he soon returned as she murmured, "Thank you so much."

"I should be the one thanking you." Jerome retorted, considering that the gift was due to her coming along with him and supporting him in meeting his father in prison, before he recalled what the girl had said prior about how odd her tie felt around her neck and motioned towards it, stating, "Here, let me re-do your tie."

"Jerome- oh, am I interrupting something?" The voice of Mara Jaffray cut through their conversation, causing the pair of blondes to glance over at her and realise that the nerd had approached the pairing just when Jerome Clarke had began leaning in so that he could do the tie, making the female prankster blush slightly at their compromising position but shake her head at the nerd, who soon turn towards Jerome (who had finished the tie) abd inquired, "How did it go... at the prison?"

"Really good." Jerome confirmed with a nod.

"And... what about Poppy?" Mara asked, knowing that the younger member of the Clarke family was unaware of the meeting that had occurred despite being the person who actually wanted to go and visit the father - additionally, the nerd had become rather close friends with Poppy Clarke over time, and felt bad keeping something so big from her.

"You want me to tell her?" Jerome concluded with a sigh, the mood instantly changing as the male prankster knew exactly where the nerd was heading with the conversation.

"It's only fair, right?" The nerd continued, confirming that his suspicions were correct and that the nerd did indeed want Jerome to tell his younger sister about him going to meet up with his father.

"Mara has a point." Sydney agreed, though she soon added towards her childhood best friend, "But, you should do it when you feel like it's the right time."

"Why not now?" Mara pushed, not wanting to hide the information from the younger member of the Clarke family for much longer - she had agreed to help Poppy Clarke, but it seemed like she was going against that the more she continued to respect the wishes of Jerome Clarke.

"I can't - not yet." Jerome declared, shaking his head at the seemingly absurd idea.

"But, why?" Mara continued, not understanding why the boy was unable to tell his younger sister - she didn't understand, and the female prankster was seconds away from releasing a rather frustrated sigh, the only thing stopping her from doing so was a new voice, a rather unwanted one, entering their conversation.

"Hey!" Poppy Clarke's voice rang out as she approached the group of three, her arms crossed as she glanced at them suspiciously - of course, she had overheard the last part of the conversation and knew that the trio were hiding something from her, though they didn't know that, which led to the trio exchanging a worried and awkward glance.

"Hey!" Mara called out, feigning happiness before she glanced around the hallways, quickly finding an escape route for her to take and running for it, "Oh, I've just remembered that I've got to go and tutor Damian. Uh, I'll see you later."

"What's the gift for?" Poppy inquired as soon as the nerd of Anubis House had left the conversation, glancing down at the photo frame in the hands of Sydney Anderson suspiciously and noticing that it was filled with adorable photos of the two pranksters, so she instantly knew that it was a gift from her brother.

"It's from Jerome." Sydney answered, her words rather slow as she tried to think of an excuse on the spot that was somewhat believable - so, she thought of the first thing that came to mind: his hair, "He was saying 'thank you' for letting him sneakily borrow Amber's hair straighteners."

At the rather dumb excuse, Jerome sent an incredulous look towards his childhood best friend before he released a sigh, knowing that there was no turning back left and the only thing he had to do was to get his sister and his childhood best friend away from each other before anything else was said, causing him to grab the spare hand of the latter (the other hand was occupied with the photo frame) and drag her away from the little girl.

And, after their remaining lessons, it was time to find a space for the photo frame to occupy other than Sydney Anderson's hand and Jerome Clarke's bag (where it had been kept throughout the rest of the lessons so the former didn't have to carry it around, and so it didn't get damaged), so the blonde pairing soon found themselves going up to Sydney Anderson's bedroom as soon as school finished, quickly glancing around the room to find the perfect spot for the photoframe to go. Of course, they both already had an idea, which led to them quickly observing around the space where the picture of Sydney Anderson with her parents was, soon finding a home for the photographs beside it.

"Perfect." Sydney commented with an adoring smile covering her lips whilst she took a step back to observe where they had placed the photo frame - of course, she normally just threw objects around on her side of the room and didn't particularly care about where they were, but her photographs were different.

"Yeah, perfect." Jerome agreed, his eyes unconsciously looking towards the girl herself rather than the placement of the photo frame - he had meant to look towards the photo frame, but clearly his eyes simply had different plans.

Upon feeling eyes upon her, the girl's head turned to face the staring boy in question and her smile grew even wider at the sight of him, her head tilting as she inquired, "What's that look for?"

"What look?"

"That look." Sydney persisted, pointing towards his face in the process considering that the look hadn't wiped off his face even when the girl had pointed it out.

Shaking his head, Jerome decided to deny any such accusation of having some sort of look on his face, instead claiming, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, whatever, Clarke." Sydney chuckled, in addition to giving him a humongous eye roll before she hastily picked up a pillow from her bed and tossed it towards him, hitting him in the face as she let out yet another giggle.

"Hey!" Jerome cried out, grabbing the pillow that had been thrown at him and hastily approaching the girl, softly hitting her with it a few times as she continued to giggle, before he threw the pillow to the side and tackled her onto the bed, beginning to tickle her - her ultimate weakness, of course.

Although, the tickling came to an abrupt halt when the door swung open, with Nina Martin and Amber Millington rushing into the room and being unaware of the additional presence as the later of the duo called out, "Sydney, the kitchen-."

Upon noticing the non-Sibuna member in the room, Nina Martin hastily cut off the fashionista's sentence with a harsh nudge to her ribs, causing the perky blonde to soon realise that Jerome Clarke was also in the room (the roommates of Sydney Anderson also took note of how close the two pranksters were) and how he had an intrigued look on his face at the start of the conversation, wondering what was happening with the kitchen.

"The kitchen has so much food in it - who would have thought?" Nina quickly improvised, her lying skills somehow not having improved despite her constantly lying due to the secret group for the past year, and, if the non-Sibuna member wasn't practically on top of her, the female prankster would have facepalmed right then and there.

Not exactly believing the lie completely, Jerome sent a suspicious and also weirded-out look towards the American female, which lasted for a few moments before he released a small sigh and shook his head, deciding to not even bother and just deciding that girls were weird, so he soon stood up from the bed and turned to face his childhood best friend, telling her before he left the room, "I'll leave you to it."

As the boy made his way to the exit, the room was completely silent whilst the girls watched him leave, waiting for the exact moment the door came to a complete close before one of them spoke up - that person being Sydney Anderson, whose gaze flickered in between her two roommates in confusion as she recalled what they had started to say when they first entered the room.

"Okay, what's actually happened to the kitchen?"

"Oh no, no, no." Amber quickly protested against talking about that topic, shaking her head vehemently as she took a seat on the bed of the female prankster, putting her arm around the girl in question before inquiring, "First of all, what actually happened with you and loverboy."

"Nothing happened." Sydney answered, rolling her eyes at the fashionista.

"Oh, please!" Amber scoffed incredulously, not believing that nothing happened between the pair after she had seen how close they were and thus turning to the other girl who had walked into the sight in order to receive back up, "Nina, what do you think?"

"You two did look pretty cosy." Nina agreed, a smirk on her lips whilst the female prankster released a large groan at the agreement.

"Am I actually going to have to go down to the kitchen to see what's happening with it, or are you going to tell me?" Sydney inquired, not wanting to talk about what was happening between her and her childhood best friend - because, in her mind, that's all they were: childhood best friends.

Sharing a rather exasperated look at the denial from the prankster, Nina and Amber soon decided to give up trying to work the information out of their roommate, before the former of the duo decided to tell her the information they had initially planned on telling her before they had noticed that Jerome Clarke was also in the room, "It's free."

"Not a single Victor or Vera in sight." Amber confirmed with a nod, letting the female prankster know what the plan was without even explicitly saying it.

"Let me guess - it's tunnel time?"

"Ooh, I like that - sounds fun." Amber commented, a smile on her lips at the phrase 'tunnel time', which sounded a lot more fun than the situation actually was - and the fashionista's statement caused the other two in the room to have amused smiles on their faces as they rolled their eyes at the girl, before quickly gathering up their stuff to meet the others in the kitchen, in order to go down through the secret oven entrance to get to the tunnels.

Like Amber Millington and Nina Martin had said, the kitchen/living room was completely empty with not a single student, or Vera Devenish or Victor Rodenmaar, in sight, allowing for all the members of the secret group to easily sneak down into the cellar and begin making their way into the study as they put in the combination to open up the shelf that led into there, with Sydney Anderson entering the study behind Alfie Lewis.

"I can't get that," Amber Millington began, cutting off her words to beat-box the tune of the pendulums that they had all learnt, before she continued, "out of my head."

"That's a good thing, Amber." Nina Martin pointed out to the fashionista, considering that the members of the group had to remember that exact tune to help them... not die.

"It'll help you to not get sliced." Sydney Anderson added.

"Nobody-" Fabian Rutter started loudly, sending a small glare towards the female prankster for her bluntness about the situation before he continued in a tone that wasn't as loud, assuring them, "-is getting sliced."

"You do realise there's an actual band called 'Pendulum'." Patrica Williamson informed them, which was rather funny considering that they were relating music to the swinging death trap, and apparently (also, surprisingly) they had not been the only ones to do so.

"Where's the bookcase?" Alfie Lewis inquired, causing all of their eyes to widen with shock as they snapped their head to face where the bookcase usually was, only to see a blank wall - yeah, that wasn't normal, considering that the only times Sydney Anderson had seen the bookcase wall be blank was when Amber Millington had spun around in it and had gotten blinded, and when Fabian Rutter and Nina Martin had gone past it to test the amulets - it only occurred when somebody was in the tunnels.

Just as that fact hit the female prankster, the sound of a creak echoed throughout the room and before anybody was able to comprehend anything, the bookcase hastily whirled around. If Sydney Anderson thought that she was scared before, her fear had skyrocketed as her eyes widened exponentially at the sight in front of her, a gasp threatening to leave her lips as she laid her eyes on the person standing in front of her, staring at the group.

Victor Rodenmaar.

It was safe to say that many panicked thoughts were swirling around the mind of Sydney Anderson, a majority of them being just incoherent screams and the phrase 'I'm going to be expelled' being repeated over and over again, whilst the rest of her panicked thoughts were extremely worried questions that she assumed that the rest of the group were also having flash through their minds.

How did he find the secret study?

How did he know the combination?

And, probably the thought that only flashed through the mind of Sydney Anderson rather than all of their minds: 'I cannot believe that this, of all the stupid things I've done at this school, is what gets me expelled, and not my pranks on Sweetie'.

Yeah, it was clear that the minds of the students were messes as they stared straight at the older man in front of them, the silence in the air overwhelming as the pressure upon their shoulders managed to get even heavier with each second that ticked by, the members of the secret group being absolutely frightened as they wondered what was going to occur next and what the housekeeper was going to say when he eventually broke the quiet that the group had been thrust into.

However, it wasn't Victor Rodenmaar that broke the silence.

"To those who've trespassed where they do not belong," The sound of the recorded voice belonging to Robert Frobisher-Smythed filled the room, alerting the members of the group who had witnessed the same thing happen with Amber Millington that the housekeeper was blinded - he hadn't seen the students and was unaware of their presence, and that made Sydney Anderson almost let out a huge sigh of relief before she realised that she couldn't make any noise - despite his blindness, the housekeeper was still able to hear.

Thus, the members of the secret group soon sprung into action whilst Victor Rodenmaar tried to make sense of the situation, rubbing his eyes frantically to try to recover his sight whilst the group (silently) told Patricia Williamson and Alfie Lewis (who hadn't been present to witness the trap beforehand) that the man was blind and couldn't see them and to remain silent through hand gestures.

Meanwhile, the recording continued, "the beacon of light is your morning song. Your eyes shall not see. All shall be dark until Ra completes his blazing arc."

Sydney Anderson never thought that she'd find herself grateful for one of Robert Frobisher-Smythe's traps, with her constantly using the sarcastic phrase, 'Thanks again, Frobisher!', though that time she truly did want to thank the man from preventing the group being caught.

Well... somewhat.

There was still a chance for the group to be caught, considering that the housekeeper still had to make his way out of the room without his sight and thus would presumably reach his hands out to find the exit - if he bumped into any of the students, they were doomed.

As expected, Victor Rodenmaar soon had his arms outstretched in front of him as he attempted to make his way out of the study without his sight, and once he stepped forward, the feeling of panic slipped into the veins of the members of the secret group once more as they quickly got out of his way, with Sydney Anderson pulling both Amber Millington and Alfie Lewis towards the couch, whilst Patricia Williamson crouched down beside the chairs and Fabian Rutter and Nina Martin pressed themselves against the wall.

With wide eyes, they all watched the housekeeper for his next move and hoped that the man didn't hit anybody, all of them doing their best to dodge him as he turned and began to swing his arms around in order to find something to hold onto, and that caused Alfie and Sydney to quickly crouch down so that the housekeeper didn't hit them, before the former of the pair soon found an escape route and grabbed Sydney's arm, rushing towards the wall where Fabian and Nina were and tugging the female prankster along with him. Although, Amber Millington, who hadn't ducked like the other two and had gotten higher on the couch, was still stuck there with the housekeeper getting closer and closer to her, causing the group to worriedly watch the fashionista and expect the worst until the man eventually turned away from her, making his way elsewhere and allowing both Alfie and Sydney to return to their prior positions by the couch alongside Amber.

However, Victor Rodenmaar still had yet to find the exit and continued to try to do so, which led to him approaching the wall which Nina Martin had pressed herself against, and he was getting dangerously closer to her with each second that passed. Noticing that, Fabian Rutter didn't hesitate in formulating a plan to help his crush, quickly grabbing a chair from the desk and putting it in front of the housekeeper, causing the man to trip up and stop approaching the wall, and thus giving the nerd enough time to pull the American away from the housekeeper and towards him.

Although, the move was sketchy and caused a little bit of noise, causing the housekeeper to shout out frustratedly and accusingly, "Who's there?!"

Remaining silent, Fabian noticed that the housekeeper was somewhat close to the exit of the study and pressed the button that made the shelf (the exit of the study) slide open, and upon hearing the noise of the shelf opening up, Victor Rodenmaar soon went towards it - in the process, waving his hand right in the faces of Fabian and Nina, before he finally went out into the cellar and the door slid shut once more. Despite the divide between the students and the housekeeper, Fabian Rutter still motioned for the group to remain silent as he glanced through the peephole, clearly watching the blinded man.

"All clear."

At that news, the entire group let out a rather loud sigh of relief, letting themselves rest for a small moment or two after that panic-inducing encounter - although, they weren't able to rest for much longer, soon thinking about their next plan as Nina Martin declared, "Okay, this is way too risky."

"He can't get through without an amulet, right?" Fabian started, already knowing the answer to that question, though the group still answered his question and nodded in confirmation, allowing for the nerd to continue as he told them the instructions for his plan, "So, let's take the amulets and get out of here."

"Sounds great to me." Sydney agreed, not being the biggest fan of roaming the creepy tunnels at night anyways - especially when their housekeeper had been in it moments prior.

Nodding in agreement, Amber, who was probably the person who disliked the tunnels the most, quickly chimed in, "Yeah, creepy tunnels really aren't my style anyways."

Of course, all of the members had soon agreed with the plan and had grabbed the amulets before making their way out of the study, knowing that their housekeeper was going to be unable to get through the tunnels if he didn't have one. Speaking of the housekeeper, as the group made their way out of the oven passageway, their ears perked up once they heard the familiar voices of the housekeeper himself alongside the voice of their housemother and, once all the group had crawled out from the passageway, the six members popped their head up from the counter in order to look into the living room, catching sight of Vera Devenish looking after the older man due to his loss of sight, which they were also discussing.

After listening to their conversation for a few moments longer and making sure that the housemother wasn't looking their way, the group hastily snuck out of the kitchen and quickly (yet, also silently) made their way up the stairs to make their way to the bedroom that belonged to Sydney Anderson, Amber Millington, and Nina Martin (it was the only room where all the roommates were members of Sibuna, so it was less likely for someone to walk in mid-meeting) - to further ensure that nobody would hear their conversation, Amber Millington shut the door to the bedroom once everyone was inside and leant against it, relieved as she told them, "Oh, it's so good to make noise again."

"But don't be afraid to not." Alfie snapped, causing the female prankster beside him to shoot a confused glance at him - whilst the break up that had exponentially failed had been explained to her, she still was unsure about where it had all come from, considering that she was almost certain that the boy had been deeply in love with the fashionista who he had spent years pining after merely a few days ago, though it had suddenly changed; she still had to ask him about where it had all come from, and put it on her mental to-do list alongside teasing Eddie Miller and cuddling Jerome Clarke.

Oh, and there was something else that she had to do: panic about the fact that the housekeeper had managed to find his way into the secret study and had worked out the combination code for it, though it seemed like the other members of the group (specifically Nina) were doing it for her, as the American worriedly inquired, "How did Victor get in there?"

"Well, let's not panic yet." Fabian advised.

"I think we're pretty panicked." Sydney retorted, glancing around at the worried expressions that were plastered upon the faces of the secret group members - it was exactly the situation that they had expected when they had gone into the tunnels that afternoon, and it was safe to say that they were pretty spooked.

"Listen, he's only seen the antechamber." Fabian reasoned, calming the members of the group down and making them realise that the situation wasn't as terrible as it seemed.

Also helping to make them realise that the situation wasn't so bad, Patricia Williamson held up her amulet as she added, "And he can't get through to the tunnels."

"These amulets are not safe in our rooms." Fabian declared, glancing at them worriedly - as much as he liked to claim that the situation wasn't terrible and that there was no need to panic, he knew that the older man wasn't going to stop until he found a way into the tunnels, and that probably meant he was going to check the rooms for the amulets.

"Then, we'll hide them in the one place he won't search." Nina responded, quickly thinking of an idea and putting the amulet around her neck, knowing that the housekeeper was unlikely to search them for the amulets - thus, everyone soon followed her lead and did the same, placing their amulets around their neck, though there soon appeared to be an issue, as there were seven amulets and only six members of their group, "One spare."

"I'm sorry, but I can't wear two - I'd look like a rapper." Amber commented, quickly fixing her hair and her collar to make sure that she looked perfect after she had (very slightly) messed it up when she had placed the amulet around her neck.

Upon noticing the glance sent her way by the American girl, clearly wondering if she'd be able to wear two amulets, Sydney soon shook her head as she pointed out to the group, "Jerome does my tie everyday - I can get away with one amulet, but two would probably have him questioning why I'm wearing so much jewellery."

"What about the dollhouse?" Nina suggested, causing the members of the group to nod in agreement as they remembered the secret drawer where they had found the map of the tunnels - and so, the girl found herself following through with her idea and placing the final amulet in the dollhouse, closing it shut and hoping that it was going to be safe there.

"Now what?" Patricia inquired, wondering what the group's next move was going to be as she pointed out to the members, "We've still got to get across the beam."

"Yeah, well, we can't go back tonight - it's too risky." Fabian responded, knowing that there was probably a high chance of their housemother going into the cellar in order to try to figure out how to get past the trap - in addition to that, it was nearing lights' out and the adults were most certainly going to be on the prowl.

"We'll go first thing, before everyone else gets up." Nina decided, knowing that was probably their safest bet and thus telling the group, "Let's go get some sleep now."

As decided the prior night, the members of the secret group had woken up early the next morning in order to go down into the tunnels, with the four girls of the club meeting up in their corridor before they went to sneak downstairs to meet with Fabian Rutter and Alfie Lewis, and the latter came into their sights as the four quietly made their way down the staircase, though he soon began to send them extremely odd hand gestures, clearly motioning for them to do... something... though it was extremely unclear what it was for a few moments, causing the girls to look at him with confusion plastered on their faces.

Of course, that led to more hand gestures being sent towards them, which Sydney Anderson watched observantly for a few more seconds before she leaned towards the girls and whispered, "Be quiet. Jerome's awake - he's in the bathroom."

"You guessed that from-," Amber started, evidently impressed by the expert deciphering skills of the female prankster as she pointed at the boy's absurd hand gestures that he was still continuing to do, "-that."

"Oh, please," Sydney scoffed amusedly, surprised that they were shocked at her ability to understand the boy after the many years she had been friends with him, and her voice still remaining quiet as she explained to the members of the secret group, "I've been on enough fake alien stake-outs with Alfie Lewis that I could probably understand his hand gestures even if they told me that Shrek was in my kitchen and eating all my chocolate."

At the odd statements, the females of the secret group sent the girl a confused glance, before deciding to think nothing of it and simply shrug - everything seemed casual and fine, with not much panic in their systems.

Well, that was until an odd sound erupted from the kitchen, causing their eyes to widen with shock as the familiar panicked feeling entered their systems once more, before they hastily went to hide from whomever, with Sydney Anderson and Nina Martin both rushing towards the living room whilst Patricia Williamson went towards the stairs to hide - Amber Millington being, well... Amber Millington... had remained still despite the panicked look on her face and her having the knowledge that she needed to hide, causing the female prankster to roll her eyes before she hastily rushed back out into the hallway, gripping her girl's arm and pulling her into the living room to be with her and Nina.

Hearing a small conversation (too quiet for them to hear) occur between the intruder and Alfie Lewis, the females all sent one another a wary glance before they noticed that it had become quiet, apart from the sound of footsteps. Thus, the four girls peeked their heads out in order to glance at the intruder, with Sydney Anderson noticing that it looked suspiciously a lot like the younger Clarke, who just so happened to be going into her older brother's bedroom. At the sight, Sydney's eyebrows furrowed and she knew that the situation was most certainly not good, though she knew that she was unable to inform Jerome or confront Poppy about it when she shouldn't have been awake in the first place, and thus she quickly continued with the task that had been the reason she was up so early, with the entire group moving towards the secret entrance and making their way to the tunnels.

So, it wasn't much later when the members of the secret group were faced with the pendulums of doom once more - fortunately, they were more prepared than the time prior and actually knew what to expect, and that led to the members being a little bit more confident, with Fabian Rutter stating, "I'll go first just to show you all how straightforward it is."

"You can do it." Nina assured him, sending a comforting smile his way as he braced himself to face the death trap - of course, it wasn't the first time that the members of the group had faced death, yet it was still absolutely petrifying for them.

However, after practicing so many times, the nerd was somewhat confident to pass the pendulums safely, which led to him stepping onto the beam and soon passing one of the pendulums. As he passed the tool that could have led to his death, Nina Martin had worriedly gripped onto the arm of Sydney Anderson, using it as a bit of stress relief as she tried to restrain her squeals whilst she watched the man she loved face death - it became much more difficult for her to restrain those squeals, and her grip became deathly tight, when the nerd passed the next pendulum but soon found himself losing the balance on the beam, it seeming like he was about to fall down the chasm for a moment or two until he managed to straighten himself up.

"You can do this, come on!" Patricia called out, encouraging the boy - the rest of the members would have joined in, but their fear left their words stuck in their throat as they simply watched the boy with hope that he wasn't going to die right in front of them.

Fortunately, he didn't die, flawlessly making his way past the next two pendulums and reaching the side of safety, causing the grip on Sydney Anderson's arm to instantly loosen whilst the members of the group cheered gleefully.

Straightening his jumper out and acting as though the task had been extremely easy, the boy let out a confident 'See?' before he turned to face his ex-girlfriend, holding his hand out for her and giving her a reassuring look as he said, "Come on, Nina."

Nodding, she stepped onto the beam and waited for the nerd to begin repeating the sequence of the pendulums, allowing for her to easily remember the gaps and pass through the bridge of doom flawlessly. As she made her way to the end, she took the hand of her ex-boyfriend and rushed towards him, the pair of them hugging and cheering at their success - though, the rest of the group still had to pass the beam, and there was many ways they could have failed, and, in consequence, lost their lives.

"Sydney, you can do it." Fabian assured the girl.

"It's a piece of cake, really!" Nina exclaimed, trying to seem as convincing as possible in order to give the girl some confidence in passing the bridge - yeah, Sydney wasn't convinced in the slightest, though it did distract her from the impending doom ahead of her for a little while.

"I'd much prefer a piece of cake than this..." Sydney hummed, the thought of cake clogging up her thoughts - delicious and yummy cake, preferably one baked by Trudy Rehmann - before she turned around to her friend, "Alfie, can we get some cake soon?"

"Oh yeah! Chocolate, or-."

"Back to the task at hand!" Fabian quickly interrupted the conversation before it went much further, amusedly shaking his head at the pair of them and taking them back to the task at hand - it was really like the prankster was going to forget about it, considering it was like huge knives swinging back and forth in her face,

"You are no fun, Fabian Rutter." Sydney groaned, rather disappointed that she hadn't been allowed to talk about cake for longer but deciding to simply get the task done with, so she stepped forward onto the beam only for a pendulum to swoon swing right in front of her face, almost hitting her, "Okay, that isn't fun either!"

Yet, she still had to complete it and get past the beam, which led to Fabian Rutter reciting the sequence for her and allowing her to remember the gaps - despite the rocky start of almost being hit with a pendulum instantly, she managed to pass through the rest of the beam flawlessly and practically dived off the beam, hastily wrapping her arms around the two on the safe safe. And, a few minutes later, there were two more additions to the safe side, with Patricia Williamson and Alfie Lewis making it across the beam with barely any mistakes. Of course, that left one more member.

Amber Millington.

"Come on, Amber, you've got this." Nina encouraged the fashionista, with the rest of the members agreeing and chiming in with their own comforting words, knowing that the perky blonde most certainly needed a lot of them, considering she was the person who was most frightened of the pendulums of doom and was the one who wanted to do it the least - although, she knew that she had to do it for Sibuna, so she soon stepped up to the beam and prepared to pass the swinging and sharp pendulums.

With a screech escaping her lips each time she passed a pendulum, Amber Millington eventually made it to the end of the bridge without any mishaps, causing the group to pull her off the bridge at the end and instantly wrap her up in a tight hug and cheer for her gleefully, knowing that they had successfully beat the pendulum task due to her combatting it and also letting the fashionista know how well she did and that she had actually managed to do it, despite her overwhelming fears.

"Okay, guys, and now the exciting part - let's see what's down here." Nina declared, their attention turning away from their previous task and to the one that lay ahead of them, turning to face the uncharted territory as they theorised about what else was going to be thrown their way.

"Well, this should be interesting, considering what we've seen so far." Fabian commented, none of them particularly knowing what to expect as they began to walk towards where they presumed the next task to be, simply ahead of them.

"As long as it doesn't involve bugs." Amber muttered, shivering slightly at the thought - the fashionista had a humongous fear of bugs, and the female prankster recalled the many times she had been forced to capture a spider and take it outside due to the screeches of Amber Millington echoing throughout the entirety of Anubis House.

"A giant rolling ball?" Patricia suggested with excitement, beginning to simply throw ideas as to what could lay ahead of them as they continued to walk towards it - honestly, even the absurd ideas seemed possible after what they had already been through.

"Subterranean cannibals?" Alfie joked, beginning to playfully mimic a zombie and soon being joined by the other prankster in the group - Sydney - the two of them pretending to eat each other's shoulders whilst everyone laughed at their antics.

Although, the laughter soon came to a halt as they reached a dead end, the group being faced with a wall rather than any of the ridiculous ideas they suggested. Previously, they had been faced with a wall, though it had a pattern on it or some sort of clue to what they were meant to do - the wall that they were faced with at that moment was just a simple wall, with absolutely nothing on it to hint to what the group were meant to do.

That was something that the group hadn't considered in their list of what lay ahead of them, and they most certainly didn't like the fact that they were faced with a dead end.

Trying to figure out a way past the wall, the group soon began to push on the wall and examine it closely for something - anything - though, there seemed to be absolutely nothing as the purple-haired member of their group told them, "Well, it doesn't open."

Despite how hopeless the situation seemed, Nina Martin was adamant that there was more to the wall and that there was a way to get past it, shaking her head in denial of the statements as she declared, "No, there's got to be something."

Yet, there was absolutely nothing that the group were able to see, and they soon found themselves needing to leave the tunnels before they had managed to figure out the next task due to breakfast fast approaching. Of course, the group simply had the dead end plaguing their mind, and it was the topic of conversation as they strolled the hallways in school.

"No one gets a dead end." Alfie announced, still being perplexed by the sudden halt on their tasks and how there had been literally nothing on the wall that they had been faced with - it didn't seem normal for the tunnels, especially after everything they had been through, and the group couldn't get their head around it.

Even the nerd of the group was confused by the situation, shaking his head frustratedly as he told the group, "It can't be right. It just doesn't make sense."

Amber huffed, "None of it makes any sense."

"Yeah, this entire thing is pretty unusual for... normal students who aren't being threatened by a cursed spirit." Sydney reminded them - honestly, they had become a little bit normalised to the fact that normal students and teenagers didn't get threatened with death every single day, and it was really odd that it was just an average day to them whenever they were faced with something so horrific.

"We must've missed something." Nina insisted, still being in denial that they had reached the end of the quest and thus telling the group, "We need to look at the map."

"Alfie." The voice of Jerome Clarke cut through the conversation, catching the attention of the boy himself plus Sydney Anderson and causing them to stay behind whilst the rest of the group went on ahead, and once they had gone a little bit further down the hallway, Jerome turned to face his roommate and inquired, "So, how'd the break up go?"

Knowing exactly how the 'break-up' had gone, Sydney couldn't resist making a small remark as a chuckle fell out of her lips and she crossed her arms over her chest, sending a glance over to the boy being questioned as she stated, "Oh, that is a stellar question."

"Um..." Alfie started, being rather hesitant at first and clearly trying to think of something for a moment or two before he informed his roommate with a nod, "Pretty good."

"Yeah?" Jerome responded, "Took it well?"

"Really good." Sydney confirmed, over-exaggerating her words as she tried to suppress her laughter, before she turned to face the lying boy with a smirk on her lips and spoke up, "Right, Alfie?"

Hesitantly, Alfie chuckled before he agreed with the blonde-haired female, turning towards his roommate and declaring, "Yeah, like you wouldn't believe."

At least that part wasn't a lie.

And, whilst Sydney Anderson would have absolutely loved for the rest of her day to only be about the mess that was the love life of Alfie Lewis and Amber Millington, she had soon found herself coming up with theories alongside Fabian Rutter, Amber Millington, and Nina Martin as the four members of the secret group sat in the room of the three girls before lights' out, their gaze locked on the map they had in front of them to try and figure out how they were meant to get past the wall and whether or not it was truly a dead end.

"There's no dead end on here." Fabian pointed out, with his finger on the part of the map where the wall would have been if it was included and allowing them to see that he was correct, "The tunnel just goes straight through."

"There's been nothing from the dollhouse." Amber stated, everything seeming a little bit hopeless as their only source of clues weren't providing them with anything.

"We're missing something - something obvious, like the crocodile." Nina concluded, trying to think about anything that she could have seen in the tunnels which could open up the wall or lead to whatever they were meant to do next.

"I know that he was like... a respected man, or something," Sydney started off awkwardly not exactly being completely aware about how much the man was adored, probably due to her zoning out whenever there were speeches about the history of Anubis House, though she soon continued to tell the group"but I really dislike Robert Frobisher-Smythe."

"We just need to figure this out." Nina muttered, ignoring the statement of the female prankster as she was too absorbed in thinking about how to get past the wall.

"Well, it's late - we can't think straight, so we'll get some sleep and reconvene tomorrow?" Fabian suggested, hoping that an idea was going to spring to their minds the next day so that they were able to progress - nobody knew how long it was until the spirit showed up once more and made more demands for them to get the mask, so they knew they had to keep progressing through the tasks in order to keep her... somewhat happy.

"We'll figure it out." Amber assured Nina, noting that the constant worrying about the quest was clearly taking its toll on the girl - it was way too much for any teenager to deal with, yet it had become somewhat normalised for them.

"Yeah, we're Sibuna." Sydney added in agreement, plastering a small smile on her lips as the two roommates tried to comfort the American, "We've solved a lot more than typical teenagers our age - what's one more puzzle?"

Meanwhile, Fabian had gotten up to make his leave as he knew that it was only a few more minutes until they were all meant to be in bed, and he found himself coming to a halt as he opened the door, turning around and looking directly at Nina, who had gotten up to put the map back into the dollhouse, and he spoke up softly, "Sweet dreams."

And, despite the wish bestowed upon the American girl, not a single member of the secret club had sweet dreams that night, instead being plagued with nightmares.

Honestly, Sydney Anderson didn't recall much from the nightmare that she had been experiencing that night, though she certainly remembered the feeling of fear seeping through her veins and turning her cold. She remembered a familiar voice - one that screeched that she had to run - though she didn't recall why it was familiar for a moment or two until it hit her.

It was the spirit.

But... wait.

Why did it sound so realistic?

"I will bind them to you." The voice of the spirit declared, and it was only then when the world found its colour as the female prankster blinked her eyes open, and she soon realised that it was far from a nightmare that she was having - it was instead reality, and the spirit that she had witnessed in her dream was right beside the bed of Nina Martin, who was yelling 'no' at the spirit as her palms began glowing.

Apparently, Sydney Anderson wasn't the only one to wake up due to the commotion, as the female prankster noticed that the voice of the fashionista screeching was mixed in with the prankster's own shrieks, and that alerted the spirit of them both being awake as she turned towards the blonde pairing, holding one of her palms out to both girls.

And, as the spirit faded away into a cloud of darkness, her laughter seemed to be the only thing that lingered for a moment or two - or so it appeared, until the sensation of burning on the female prankster's thigh caught her attention, her eyes widening at the unfamiliar feeling as she wondered if the fashionista felt the same thing, thus turning towards her bed whilst Nina Martin rushed towards her roommates, sitting on the bed of the fashionista but facing both of them as she worriedly cried out for them.

"Amber! Sydney!"

Concerned at the burning feeling on her thigh, Sydney Anderson pulled up her pyjama shorts slightly to examine what it was only to discover the Mark of Anubis etched upon her upper thigh, her widened eyes staring at the mark on her skin for a few more moments before she worriedly looked over at Amber Millington, seeing the fashionista pull down her sock to reveal that she also had the Mark of Anubis.

At the sight, a look of dread had appeared on the prankster's face - she knew exactly what it meant, but she didn't want it to be true, and that caused her to speak up hesitantly, though her words soon trailed off as she didn't even want to speak it into existence, "Please, tell me this doesn't mean..."

Amber Millington was the one to declare what had occurred to them, and it made it a lot more real as the dreadful words passed through her lips:

"We're all cursed, aren't we?"

▲▼▲

[04.08.2020]

NOTE: this chapter doesn't have much sydrome in it (jerome isn't featured too heavily in the episode, and it's mainly about the mystery), but i tried to make the scenes with him in extremely cute and long.

i absolutely love sydney and alfie in this chapter - they truly are my favourite friendship and they only get better from here on out. i also love sydney and eddie due to how similar they are, and i feel like eddie's super awkward yet very amused when she's talking about her dislike for mr sweet and how many pranks she does on his dad.

there's also many references to season one in this chapter, which i always love to do (chilli powder in mr sweet's drink, which was one of the first pranks that sydney did on him in denouement).

also, yes i am a huge tease. the "i love you" quote at the top was actually about eddie and not jerome.

chapters will (hopefully) continue as normal from now on. i plan to pre-write a lot within the next few weeks, so let's hope i stick to schedule!

i love you.