THIRD PERSON'S POV.
Considering he was about to lose his grip, a struggling Alfie grabbed onto the closet thing near him — Patricia's leg.
"Ow!" Patricia complained at the sudden act.
"Patricia, don't just stand there. Help me!" Alfie begged of her. Patricia outstretched her arm to Alfie and he grabbed it, holding on for dear life. Patricia pulled him up and finally, the boy was safely back on the ground, causing River to let out a sigh of relief. "Trixie, you are freakishly strong."
"You're welcome."
"Hey, nice reflexes there, Alf," River remarked, earning a small chuckle from Alfie.
"Alfie, are you okay?" Amber asked him.
Alfie stood up, replying, "The Amazing Alfredo lives to fight another day."
The Amazing Alfredo, however, began stumbling back to the open floor, but luckily he (with Patricia's help) caught himself.
"Okay, let's get back to the drawing board," Fabian declared as he got off the chair. "Everyone retrace your steps. Let's get out of here."
. . .
At least six bottles of water were in River's arms as she stepped out of the kitchen and into the dining room. She didn't know how she managed to carry them to her seat without dropping them, but she did. Thankfully, it was only her, Amber, and Alfie in the room for breakfast, so no one threw her odd looks. The water bottles and the food Amber was putting in her bag were for Nina. As she and Amber were packing the items in the latter's bag, Patricia walked in, growing confused.
"Are you two planning a picnic?" Patricia questioned the roommates.
"Yes, Patricia. Would you like to join?" River sarcastically replied and the auburn-haired girl lightly shook her head.
"Supplies for Nina," Amber informed Patricia. "We need to get into Sweetie's office and throw them down the grill for her. She'll be starving."
"And in need of hydration."
"Or," Patricia began, taking the banana out of Amber's hand and sitting down, "we could spend that time trying to work out how to save her."
"Nina needs her fruit and veg," Amber stated, taking the banana back from Patricia. "Do you want her to get scurvy?"
"And she needs to be hydrated too," River added as she sat in her seat next to Alfie. "The average human body should be taking in at least six glasses of water per day."
Fabian stepped into the room, looking pretty confused upon hearing what River and Amber were saying.
"Anyways," Patricia spoke up, changing the subject as she looked to Fabian, "how's the practice going?"
"Alright, well, there are a few subtle differences between this game and the one in the task tunnel," Fabian replied as he sat down.
"Yeah, this one doesn't have hidden trap doors all over it."
"Or freaky guards of Anubis," River voiced with a displeased frown.
"The danger squares are marked, but the Anubis guards downstairs are more... limited," Fabian elaborated. "They don't move."
"No, they just swivel and then point at you until you go," Alfie explained, being one of the victims of the guards, and to emphasize his point, he fell off his chair, "ohh!"
River gave an amused smile as she pointed to Alfie. "Yeah, pretty much."
"So, in theory, what—" Fabian got cut off by Alfie, who quickly sat up in his chair while making a noise. Once Alfie settled down, he gestured to Fabian.
"Continue," Alfie said.
"So, in theory, the game downstairs should be easier. We should be able to plot a safe path across to the other side."
"A lot of shoulds there, Fabian," a wary Patricia pointed out.
"I'm in over my head. We need a strategist. It's not just about being clever. We need someone... sneaky."
. . .
The Sibuna gang walked through the corridors of Amun Academic Boarding School, heading to their lockers while waiting for Fabian's revelation. Apparently, he had the perfect person in mind to be the gang's strategist.
"Okay, so I've thought of the perfect person to be our strategist," the nerd of Sibuna began, gaining everyone's attention. By the hesitant look on his face, River assumed it was someone she or some of her friends wouldn't agree with. "Joy."
River's face fell in disbelief as Fabian sped to his locker, with the rest following behind him. Considering the most recent events, Joy helping Sibuna didn't seem like the greatest of ideas.
"Joy?" Amber repeated, having the same look as River, though she looked more offended than shocked.
"Is that really the best idea?" River inquired. She didn't know where she stood with Joy, but her helping Sibuna sounded like a huge risk.
"Look, okay, think about it," Fabian began his explanation while he and Alfie opened their lockers. "She is a brilliant chess player. She spent all of last term playing chess against a computer and beating it too. I vote we bring her in."
"I vote we really don't," the blonde of the group countered before making her way to her locker.
"Me too," Alfie agreed. "Uhm, Joy's been acting a little crazy recently and I'm pretty sure she'd checkmate us down the hole on purpose."
"Okay, I doubt she's that crazy," River voiced her thoughts. "But Fabian, I don't think we should bring her in. Her head isn't exactly screwed on this term and we've all seen that ourselves."
"And Nina would be totally against it," Patricia added as she and River joined Amber by the girl's lockers to get their books.
"Because it's Joy," Fabian muttered, following the girls, though they all heard him.
"No, because it's endangering someone else."
"Joy would be the one calling the shots. She wouldn't be in any immediate danger."
"Oh, so we'd be in immediate danger?" River dryly remarked, shutting her locker door closed. "Because that's so much better."
"Then why not Mara?" Amber suggested. "She's good at chess and she doesn't hate us."
"You said sneaky," Alfie pipped up. "Gotta be Jerome, right?"
"Ooh, yeah!" River agreed with a nod. "He's actually really good at chess too."
"Are you guys insane?" Amber questioned the prank-loving duo with wide eyes.
"Okay," Alfie replied, his teeth gritted, while River shrugged.
"I vote for no one," Patricia spoke up.
"No, don't you get it, Patricia? I can't do this on my own," Fabian argued. "The stakes are too high. We have to give this our best shot and that means getting some help." Seeing that the corridors were empty, the five members of Sibuna made their way to their History classroom. However, when they arrived at the doorway, they all halted their steps, and River couldn't help but grow confused. Mr. Sweet was in the class instead of Miss Valentine. Odd. "What's Sweetie doing here? I thought we had History now?"
River let out a groan upon thinking of the worst. "I swear if this some surprise Bio or Physics lesson, I will throw myself off a building."
"Hey, if Sweetie's here..." Amber trailed off before grabbing the closest person to her, aka Fabian, and dragging him toward Mr. Sweet's office. Sharing shrugs, River and Patricia began making their way forward, but Alfie jumped in the middle of them, grabbed their shoulders.
"Guys, I've just had a brainwave," Alfie informed them.
"Oh, boy," River muttered with a sigh.
"Then you'd better sit down," Patricia advised.
Alfie didn't take in their remarks. Instead, he dragged them by their arms, while the pair of ex-roomies whined. Upon reaching a desk in the front, Alfie and Patricia took the two seats while River sat on Patricia's side of the desk, waiting for Alfie's brilliant idea.
"What's this idea?" River inquired after letting out a huff.
"We get Mara and Joy to have a chess off to see who's best," Alfie explained. However, neither River and Patricia found that idea brilliant as they both let out scoffs and tried to leave, but Alfie pulled them back. "Wait, no, no, no, it'll work—"
"Attention everybody, please," Mr. Sweet's voice cut Alfie off. River decided to get off Patricia's desk and sit at the desk behind her and Alfie, where Noah was sitting. She gave him a greeting nod and sat down next to him, while Mr. Sweet made his way to the front of the class. "I have an announcement to make. The school website, imaginatively renamed The Jackal, has been shortlisted for a national student weblog competition."
"Nice one, Joy," Patricia commended her. Had Joy not shown another side River had never seen from her, she would've complimented Joy too, but she didn't feel like the girl deserved it.
"Uh, what about the Blogger of the Year prize, Mr. Sweet?" Mara asked the man.
"Well, that's going to be announced around the same time," Mr. Sweet answered. "Oh, and you'll be pleased to hear, Mara, that thanks to the quick thinking of Jerome and Eddie, your article has been deemed eligible after all."
"Yes!" Jerome cheered as he and Eddie shared a high-five. River shared a confused frown with Noah, wondering why the two boys were so excited about something school-related.
"Sorry, was there a problem with it then?" A perplexed Mara inquired.
"Joy?" Mr. Sweet looked toward Joy, only causing River to grow even more confused as she watched her former roommate put on an innocent smile. "Didn't you tell her?" Joy didn't give a response; just an innocent shrug. "There was a power outage just as Joy submitted it. All the computers went down and she missed the deadline."
"Oh."
"So I rang up the organizers to explain and they were very understanding."
"Thank you."
As Mr. Sweet left the classroom, River whispered to Noah, "I smell a rat." In response, Noah slowly lifted his hand and sniffed it and River gave him a look of disbelief. "It's a figure of speech, Noah."
"Oh!" Noah replied in realization.
"Why didn't you say?" Mara questioned Joy.
"Uh, it—" Joy began.
"Because it isn't true," Jerome cut Joy's excuse off.
"There wasn't a power outage," Eddie carried on. "She just didn't submit it."
"Hmm, might've known you'd go telling tales to Daddy," Joy remarked, giving Eddie a hard look.
"Listen up, lady, okay?" Eddie continued as he stood up. "We could've dropped you in big time, okay, and we didn't. All we wanted was Mara to have a fat shot in the competition. Now she does."
River knew Joy was... acting unusual, but this didn't seem like her at all, especially since she and Mara were close and Mara even covered for her about the whole Jackal Anonymous drama.
"Why would you do something like that?" Mara asked her roommate.
"Because, for once around here, I wanted something that was just mine. Is that so bad?" Joy replied. She grabbed her belongings and stood up. As she headed for the door, she stopped her tracks and turned to the class. "Okay, haters, floor's yours."
Upon Joy leaving the room, Alfie nudged River's arm as well as Patricia's. The pair leaned toward him to hear what he had to say.
"There goes my chess off idea," muttered Alfie.
"She does know we still have a lesson, right?" Noah voiced to the rest of his classmates, however, no one had an answer for that. River shook her head lightly. Maybe this was a sign. Maybe Joy just wasn't the right person to be Sibuna's strategist. And maybe that was for the best.
. . .
please don't be a ghost reader :(
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