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As happy as I am to be back at school, about to return to Anubis House for my final year before graduation, I can't help but feel like something's missing this year—someone. Still, I'm so happy to be back and I'm so looking forward to seeing everyone again. My good mood today, despite who I'm missing, is probably influenced by two different things—the fact that I now live an hour away in Manchester rather than several continents in Sydney (no more jet lag, no more having to reset the time on my phone, no more panicking I got on the wrong flight), and the fact that I get to see my boyfriend every day now.
Holiday was really, really fun this year. The fact that I'm actually living in England full-time instead of just for school meant I not only got to see my friends on a regular basis, but I also got to spend a lot of time with Jerome. I even met his mum—nice enough woman, but maybe a little too nosy as to what he and I have been doing in our relationship. Yeah, things got...real awkward once or twice.
But also, things weren't not as fun when I was forced to spend time with Eddie and his dad, because surprise—turns out that Sweetie is actually my mum's half-brother, which unfortunately means I'm a Sweet by blood. And yes, it's as tortuous as it sounds. Sweet insisted on getting to know me better as a niece and not a student. It was horrible. The only positive of the situation is that Eddie and I are a lot closer now, too, and honestly, we probably act more like siblings than cousins. Insane.
And honestly, given everything that happened last year and the year before, I'm about 80% certain that there's some new Anubis House mystery on its way. I'm starting to think this is a pattern. Man, I really hate the Frobisher-Smythes. Except for Sarah, of course.
Anyway, right now I'm in the courtyard, and I'm meant to be meeting Jerome here, but seems I'm early because I've been standing here for ten minutes and he hasn't shown up yet. How exactly that's possible is a mystery, but considering it's Jerome, well...mystery solved then. I'm about two seconds away from shooting him a text when suddenly there's a hand over my eyes and a familiar voice in my ear says, "Guess who?"
Deciding to mess with him, I gasp dramatically and reply, "Patricia?"
Jerome drops his hand from in front of my eyes, grabbing my waist to turn me around to face him. I'm pretty sure he got cuter than the last time I saw him earlier this month. "I'm hurt."
"Oh, we both know you're not," I state, shaking my head as I scrunch up my nose and smile.
"That we do, and when you do that thing with your nose, it's absolutely adorable."
"I think adorable's definitely an upgrade from cute. Think I should do it more often."
"Think so, yeah."
"You think?"
"Say the word 'think' one more time," Jerome murmurs, leaning closer to me with each word and hardly managing to get the last one out before his lips press against mine.
I will say this: I am so glad the two of us finally got over ourselves and got together after several months (years in his case—which, by the way, I never fail to bring up) of ignoring feelings. It's a lot of fun being with him, and especially a lot of fun kissing him. I really love him.
Behind us, Eddie's irritatingly familiar voice says, "Gross. Seriously? You can't even wait five minutes?" I roll my eyes as I part from Jerome, turning around to look at him. He's standing with Fabian and Mara. "I can't believe these people have been rooting for you two for three years."
Mara chuckles and responds, "You'd understand if you'd seen them in the beginning."
I grin at her and throw my arms around her in a hug. Fabian greets, "Hey, Ash. Have you seen Nina, by chance? We were supposed to meet, well, now."
Oh, I think this just...got a little awkward for me. As I spare a tense glance to Eddie, I answer his question, "No, sorry. But it's good to see you, Fabian. I have so many stories about hieroglyphics to tell you."
Fabian raises his eyebrows at me as I hug him. Might as well get at least one hug in before he finds out and becomes angry with me. I move to hug Eddie next, briefly tilting my head pointedly Fabian's way. He just nods a little at me.
As Jerome wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me back to his side, Fabian remarks, "Guess I don't need to ask you two how your vacation went."
"It went really well, for the most part," I reply with a smile Jerome's way, which he returns, "but then there was Edison Sweet over here and the fact I was forced to hang out with him and his father multiple times over holiday. It was horrible. I'm still recovering."
Mara laughs at my over-exaggeration. "I still can't believe you two are cousins," she says, gesturing between Eddie and me. If she thinks she can't believe it, then imagine how the two of us feel! Eddie had a lot of fun with it though. I think he likes not being the only person related to Sweetie at school. "Small world, isn't it?"
"Small world," Eddie agrees.
"Has anyone seen Amber, Alfie, or Patricia?" I question, glancing around the courtyard for the Sibunas that I know for a fact should be here.
"Hey, guys!" Ever heard the saying 'speak of the devil and he shall appear?' Yeah. Yeah, that's Alfie, rushing toward us with his luggage rolling behind him. "What a day to get stuck in traffic. Trudy's cookies might all be gone. This is a disaster of epic proportions, guys."
I raise an eyebrow at him. "Alfie, how much sugar have you had today?"
"Not enough!"
With that, he picks up his suitcase and takes off toward Anubis House. Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Sharing loud laughs at Alfie's antics, the rest of us make to follow him to the house. Alfie's ahead of us and is running so quickly that he actually trips over his own feet and lands face-first into the grass outside the house, and yet still manages to get up before any of us can laugh at him again.
Alfie's rushing makes him the first of us to enter Anubis House, and he immediately drops his suitcase on the floor of the entrance hall and shouts, "Cookies!" before taking off into the kitchen. Yeah, that's definitely Alfie's priorities: eat all of the cookies first while leaving none for the rest of us, see fellow housemates later.
Eddie announces, "Honey, we're home!"
Amber and Joy have both already arrived, and are standing at the top of the stairs, greeting us with wide grins and in unison with, "Hi!" Amber squeals as they come down the stairs to us, and she immediately wraps her arms around me. I laugh enthusiastically as I hug her back, and then turn to hug Joy. I really have missed this place.
Trudy, AKA the single best thing about Anubis House, comes out of the kitchen beaming with her arms outstretched. "All my lovelies back again."
Fabian gives her a hug and asks, "Where's Nina?" Again, Eddie and I share a tense glance. Exactly how long are the two of us expected to keep up this charade? The past two weeks have been horrible enough. "Is she here?"
"Not yet," Trudy answers. "When's she due?"
"I'm not sure. I tried messaging her, but..."
Amber comments, "That girlfriend of yours is really bad at keeping in touch."
"It's not just me then?" Fabian questions.
Eddie has the right idea making a quiet, hasty exit down to his room. I leave my luggage in the hall and follow him, closing the door behind me. This is the first time he and I have had a chance to actually talk about this face-to-face. "Have you got it? She gave it to you?"
Eddie sighs deeply and nods. "Yeah. You want it?"
"Amber could find it and wonder what I'm doing with it."
"Well, Fabian could find it and wonder what I'm doing with it, and by the way, it's a lot more suspicious for me to have the locket than you."
"Rock-paper-scissors for the locket? Loser gets it?" I suggest.
"I'm game," Eddie agrees. One quick game of rock-paper-scissors later, and I win, scissors over paper, which according to our terms means he keeps the locket. "C'mon, two out three."
"You're a sore loser."
"Two outta three, let's go."
The second game, unfortunately, Eddie wins, paper over rock. He cheers his win, but I quickly remind him, "One more game. Two out of three, remember? You don't win yet." Eddie shrugs, and we play the third game, the one that determines which of us gets the Eye of Horus locket. And my rock crushes his scissors. "Ha! I win, you lose, you keep it."
Eddie regretfully closes his eyes, and glances the direction of his suitcase. "Yeah. I keep the locket."
Well, that's one problem caused by our friend, the third part of our so-called trinity, we've solved. Still a couple others unresolved. I understand why she had to do this, I do, but...I just got back to Anubis and I miss her already.
My hand raises to the ankh charm around my neck subconsciously. "I can't believe we just had to have that conversation. I can't believe she's not coming back."
"She chose not to come back," Eddie gently reminds me.
"I know. But it's our fault she can't."
"What would Nina do if she heard you say that?"
"What's Fabian going to think? Especially when he finds out that you and I knew Nina's not returning and didn't tell him?"
"Maybe he won't find out," Eddie suggests. I narrow my eyes at him. Is he insane? In what world is Fabian not going to find out? First of all, I'm pretty sure Nina already wrote it in the letter Eddie's supposed to give Fabian. Second of all, it's already killing me that I'm keeping this huge thing from him. "Okay, maybe he will. But trust me, he's gonna be a lot harder on me than you. I'm the one with the locket."
"I'm their best friend, Eddie," I retort. "I've seen them through everything, you haven't. He's gonna be crushed."
"Guess that's why they call it a crush," he mutters. Don't really think I can argue there. He pauses for a second, and then says slowly and carefully, "Have you heard from Patricia?"
I forgot for a second there that Fabian's not going to be the only heartbroken boy in Anubis House. Eddie and Patricia had broken up over holiday, and he likes to act like he's cool with it, but one look at him and you can actually see his heart crushed. It was actually kind of sad. I thought they were cute together.
"No, sorry," I tell him. "We should get back before they realize we're missing. You coming?"
"In a minute."
I nod and leave his room, looking down the hall. Alfie's back from his cookie shenanigans coming out of the kitchen, while both Mara and Jerome have disappeared. "Where'd my boyfriend go?" I inquire.
"Through there," Alfie says, gesturing with his cookie-holding hand to the living room doors, before he actually hugs me. "Have I mentioned lately how happy I am my two best friends are finally together?"
"Alfie...can't...breathe," I joke in a fake-strained voice, and laughing when he lets go of me. "And yes, you've mentioned several times the past few months. Say, where's our friend Trixie? My American cousin wants to know."
Alfie shrugs. Joy grabs both of our arms and pulls the rest of us—that would be him and me, her, as well as Amber and Fabian—into a Sibuna group circle. She puts her right hand over her right eye (I'm really glad she's finally got it right; for the record, I do sort of consider her an official Sibuna now) and starts, "Si—where's Patricia?"
"Someone mention my name?" says the familiar voice of Patricia Williamson as she enters the house and joins us. She puts her hand over her eye, our official Sibuna sign, and we all mimic her (except Alfie's weirdly got a cookie in his hand, so that's interesting).
"Sibuna," the six of us chorus in a lowered voice.
Just a second later, the cellar door opens and Victor steps out. "This is an entrance hall," he states. "It is not a meeting room. Move."
Amber links her arm with mine and drags me into the living room, the others follow. Fabian remarks, "Same old Victor. Hey, Amber, have you heard from Nina? I can't get through."
"Not a peep," Amber answers. The table is covered with delicious-looking food, which is definitely the bright-side of everything. Honestly, I think me and Eddie are the only people Nina has spoken to in the past two weeks. "It's a bit rude, actually."
Mara looks at her. "Hey, I saw your post about going to fashion school this vacation. Was it amazing?"
"It was fashion-ating," Amber states, "and New York is totally amaze." That, I can believe. Amber sent me so many photos of her New York fashion adventure that I'm pretty sure she once broke my messages. She looked so at home there in her selfies. "They think I have a special gift."
Alfie says to Jerome, "Dude, did you get taller or is it just the hair?"
"Definitely the hair," I state, playfully bumping my shoulder against Jerome's before reaching for one of the cookies on the plate. And honest to God, I think this may be the best cookie I've ever eaten. "Trudy, I didn't even think it was possible for your cookies to get better!"
Alfie agrees with a vehement nod. "Trudy, I have missed your peanut butter cookies so much. You know, one night, I dreamt I was one."
I've had a lot of weird dreams in my life—and I mean a lot—but I can say definitively none of them even come close to being that weird.
Amber asks him, acting as casually as can be, "Anything else you missed while you were away, bubs?"
"Um...blueberry muffins," he responds.
Ooh, that was not the answer she wanted to hear. Proven by Amber grabbing a blueberry muffin from the plate and throwing it directly at his head. That simple act has the room filling with laughter again. I can't believe Nina's missing out on all of this. I really hope I'll be able to keep her up to date with everything, if she wants to hear about it.
Joy looks Patricia's way. "So, come on. Eddie? Spill," she urges. She mustn't know they broke up. Patricia shakes her head, walking away from the table and sitting on the couch. "The America trip? Where did you go? What did you see?"
"Joy, I really wouldn't," I warn.
Joy waves her hand dismissively at me and continues to Patricia, "Did you and Eddie bond like superglue?"
"Or trade insults as par?" Amber adds. "Where is Eddie, anyway?"
"No idea," answers Patricia.
"He's in his room," I tell them, sitting on the arm of the couch by Patricia. Movement behind me catches my eye. Fabian's leaving, probably to find Eddie. "Seriously, let's change the subject to something else, not Eddie-related."
Amber grins and swirls to face me. "I can do that. Let's talk about you and Jerome."
"Gonna have to be a bit more specific, Ams."
Joy hits me on the arm. "Come on, we want all the details, and you two have been mum about most of them. We've only been waiting for three years for you guys to stop being so stubborn."
Mara joins us and sits beside Patricia, telling us, "The boys' club over there doesn't know what's considered appropriate," she gestures back to the Tweedles themselves, Jerome and Alfie, who just smile at us, "so what's the girls' club talking about?"
"Trying to get Ash to tell us all the Jashley details," Amber states.
A matching grin appears on Mara's face. "Oh, a topic I can get in on," she says. I roll my eyes in jest, knowing full-well how interested in my relationship these girls are. "You know, it still seems like you two came out of nowhere, despite all the flirting, and you kept disagreeing on when exactly you two got together."
"Yeah, that was weird," Patricia agrees, though she just seems happy that the topic is no longer Peddie. She seemed really uncomfortable. I wonder why she didn't mention to Joy she and Eddie broke up.
"Well, it—it depends on your definition on got together," I reply with a frown. "Do you mean first-kiss/admission-of-feelings, or when we actually called each other boyfriend-girlfriend?"
"Doesn't matter, just tell us," Joy says.
Laughing lightly, I respond, "Okay, well...first kiss was around the time the Jack Jackal column first came out," here I motion between Mara and Joy, who were both at one point (even if just for a nasty article she's since made up for on the latter's end) the face behind the name, "and the boyfriend-girlfriend thing was the end of exhibition party, which you all were there for. Oh, speaking of the party, Mara, how's Mick? Did you enjoy visiting him in my homeland?"
Now Mara's the one that looks a little uncomfortable. Uh-oh. "I didn't go," Mara admits to us. "We broke up."
"Oh, sorry," I apologize. Amber looks as surprised as I am, while Patricia and Joy both must have known already, because they look sympathetic. "How are you?"
Her discomfort disappears immediately as she straightens and gives us a real, happy smile. "Perfect, actually. I'm actually dating someone else now."
"You are?" the rest of us girls chorus. Wow, wait, Mara's dating someone new and not even Joy and Patricia knew? Who's the boy that's captured our sweet Mara's heart? Just Amber adds, "Who?"
"Just someone I met over the break," she confesses. Girl's blushing right now! "He's really sweet, and he actually goes here."
Oh, the mystery deepens. Mara Jaffray meets a boy she's entirely taken with judging by her demeanor, and he happens to go to school here? Now I'm really curious who he is, and really curious as to why she hasn't given us a name.
"What house is he in?" Joy asks.
Fabian unwittingly interrupts our conversation about Mara's new boyfriend as he comes in with Eddie. "Ash was right. He was in our bedroom, hiding."
"I wasn't hiding," Eddie denies as he takes a seat. "I was hanging. I mean, who would I be hiding from?"
"Who indeedy?" questions Patricia as she leans back in her seat.
Eddie looks at her awkwardly, and greets, "Patricia."
"Hey."
I look between the former couple warily. Yeah, this room just got a lot more awkward. Are they gonna be like this all term? Meanwhile Joy's eyebrows furrow at the display. "Well, anyway—Fabes, did you and Nina have a fab time in America?"
And Nina's name again. This is so not gonna get any easier, I realize glancing at Eddie.
"Um," Fabian says, pausing for a moment. "W-well, I never got there. I—I could afford it."
"And then you wonder why she hasn't answered any of your texts."
"Oh, come on, it's really expensive."
"If someone had treated me like that, game over," Amber replies in a sing-song.
Fabian laughs a little. "Well, Nina understood. Anyway, it just means I'm really, really looking forward to seeing her now."
Yeah, so not any easier. Eddie clears his throat and stands. "Ash, I need to talk to you. Now."
"Yep," I agree hastily as I stand as well.
I hardly get a chance to turn to leave the room to speak with Eddie again when I see that both Trudy and Mr. Sweet have appeared at the door, and neither with happy faces. Oh, no. It's about to become official, isn't it?
Alfie grins and says, "Hey, look, it's Sweetie. I mean, Mr. Sweet. Mr. Sweet."
Joy adds, "Trudy, you don't look so good. Everything okay?"
Jerome's voice says, "Why's Sweetie in the house?"
And Amber asks, "Trudy, what's the matter?"
I carefully sit back down on the arm of the couch, glancing at Eddie again. This is exactly the moment I've been dreading for the past two weeks. And him, too, judging by the look on his face.
Sweetie takes a deep breath, and starts, "Pay attention, please. I have an announcement to make." With our undivided attention on him and what he has to tell us, he continues, "I'm afraid some of you may find this rather bad news."
"What do you mean 'bad news?'" Joy inquires.
Fabian stands from the couch, and everyone but me and Eddie does the same. Probably because we both already know what's about to happen. "What?" he says. "What is it? What's happening?"
"It's regarding Nina Martin," Sweet states.
"What about her?" Patricia questions.
"Missed her flight?" Jerome adds. "Is she sick?"
Sweet doesn't say the bad news immediately, and looks reluctant to tell us, but Fabian exclaims desperately, "Tell us!"
"Nina's not coming back," Sweet finally informs. And now it's official. We're down an Anubis resident. The others (excluding Eddie) start to protest against this decision like they think it was his, which is the farthest thing from the truth. Nina made this choice herself. "I'm sorry. That's all the information I can give at the moment. I'm sorry."
As he leaves us alone, everyone is still shouting, except now everyone's shouting at each other, and suddenly they all round on Fabian, like he'd know any more than the rest of them. He looks the most heartbroken of all. With them all distracted, I stand and pull Eddie up from his chair, dragging him into the hallway to speak to him.
"Well, that went well," Eddie remarks sarcastically, glancing back into the room where they're all still shouting.
"Better than expected," I reply weakly. "What'd you need to talk to me about?"
"Well, I was looking for the letter," he lowers his voice, "and—"
"You were looking for the letter? Shouldn't you already know where it is?"
"Yeah, having some technical difficulties there," Eddie retorts. I roll my eyes. He can't have lost that letter. That letter is the only thing that can help Fabian right now, and I swear to God if he lost it— "Anyway, I was looking in the wardrobe and...there were people in it."
My eyebrows raise at him. He was...looking in the wardrobe...for the letter he was supposed to give to Fabian after Sweetie told us Nina wasn't coming back...and there were people in it...in the small wardrobe. "What?"
"There were people in it—"
"I heard you the first time. What, did you find the magical country of Narnia in the shining city of War Drobe in the wondrous land of Spare Oom?"
Eddie tilts his head at me and gives me a look. "Are you kidding? Look, listen to me. It looked like a hospital room," he says seriously. This is sounding more insane by the minute, but he's deadly serious about it. "There was an old man, and he was dying, and there was a girl our age at his bedside. He told her that she has to come to Anubis House, because apparently there's a great evil stirring here or something. He gave her a key."
Yeah, this is...definitely odd. It'd be odd for me or for Nina, and definitely odd for the Osirian right here. "Have you ever seen this girl or this man before?"
"No. But I think he called her...KT. That's it, KT."
"KT? Uh, doesn't sound familiar. Look, are you sure you've never seen them? Because the people you see in dreams are always people you've seen before, like, passed by on the street or stood by in a line."
"Ashley, it wasn't a dream. It was a daymare. It felt important. Come on, you've had to have had weird stuff like this."
"Weird stuff, definitely, but I've never looked into a wardrobe while I'm wide awake and seen an entire hospital room, Eddie."
Eddie sighs. "Yeah, does make me sound a little crazy. Let's get back in there. It's getting a little suspicious we keep disappearing every time Nina's brought up."
I reply, "They're too busy shouting, they might not have noticed."
"They're not shouting anymore."
Oh. I didn't even notice the others had shut up, too distracted by Eddie's strange wardrobe-vision-thing. He walks past me back into the living room and sits down like he never left. The Sibunas are now sitting again, staring blankly ahead of them. Poor Fabian.
Deciding not to sit down again, thinking it might put some attention on me that I really don't want, I choose instead to walk over to Jerome, nudging his foot lightly as I lean against the table next to him. He looks at me, asking in a quiet voice, "You okay?"
"Yeah," I answer, though it's probably not convincing. "Yeah, I just...miss her already."
"Hard to believe she's not coming back."
"Unbelievable."
He narrows his eyes at me. But he doesn't say anything else on the subject, and instead grabs my hand, squeezing it. "Need help with your luggage?"
Somehow I find it in me to laugh lightly. "Absolutely not, babe. Last time you touched my luggage, you broke the suitcase. Still have no idea how."
"That was two years ago."
"I love you, but don't touch my stuff."
I end the conversation with a quick, chaste kiss and a smile which he returns before going out into the hall. Apparently Mara's out there, because the next thing I hear him say is, "Need any help with that, Mara?"
"Mara, I wouldn't—" I start to call.
Then there's the sound of thudding—AKA her suitcase falling down the stairs, and thus proving Jerome Clarke should not try and help anyone but himself with luggage—and then the sound of Mara shouting, "Jerome!"
—
"She wouldn't just not come back," Fabian says, voice breaking. It's completely heartbreaking seeing him right now. I wish she had told him first. "Not without saying anything to anyone."
"Did she say anything to anyone?" Amber questions.
Patricia shakes her head and denies it verbally, while I nervously tap my foot on the floor. So my options here are either: lie to my friend's faces, or tell them the truth when Fabian hasn't read the letter yet. Speaking of the letter, the person who's supposed to give it to him says hastily, "I'm just gonna go finish unpacking." Eddie gets up and leaves. Guess the conversation got uncomfortable for him as well.
"I mean," Patricia says, "I messaged her a few times, but nothing. Ashley, did she say anything to you?"
The decision needs to be made quick, considering now everyone's staring at me. Not trusting my voice, I just shake my head silently and avert my eyes. Patricia's most likely to kill me when she finds out. Fabian and Amber are just gonna...feel betrayed. Which is going to kill me anyways, so...lose-lose situation for all of us here.
Amber sighs and glances back to Fabian. "Maybe you not making the America trip upset her more than you thought."
Maybe not the best theorizing from her. Fabian's crestfallen as he looks to the rest of us, and Patricia and Joy exchange a tense glance before getting up and leaving the three of us alone. He asks, "Where is she, Amber? Ashley?"
"I'll just...go try her again, see if she answers," I lie as I stand. Really, I just need to get away from them for a minute. My luggage is still in the hall, probably a good idea to bring it up. Once I'm out in the hall, I shake my head and sigh. This could have gone a whole lot better. I take my suitcase up the stairs to the girls' corridor, only to find, oddly enough, Jerome standing outside of it with a perplexed expression and two voices floating out from inside. Uh, considering Amber and I are the only people who live in that room and neither of us is in it... "What's going on?"
Jerome looks at me. "There's a ginger that wants Nina's bed, but Mara wants it, too."
Oh, that explains it. But also, what ginger? "Barely back an hour and her bed's already being fought over," I remark, exhaling deeply. Although admittedly I'd much prefer Mara take it than some random new girl. Well, this is my room, might as well see what's going on. "Mara, Ginger, let me hel—wait, Willow?"
Willow Jenks? Weeping Willow? Squealy ginger? The girl who's supposed to be in Isis House with my cheating ex-boyfriend? Who came up to me in the hall to apologize for what he did while offering me whatever cypress oil is? Why is she standing in my room across from Mara? Oh, wait, noooooo.
Willow's face breaks out in an even wider grin than she already had when she sees me. "Ashley! Hi!" she exclaims as she pulls me into a hug, which takes me entirely by surprise. I've spoken to her exactly once in my life. That smile is definitely always plastered on her face. "I'm so glad to see you're doing so well after Evan cheated on you!"
I mouth the word 'help' to Mara while at the door, Jerome comments, "Ah, you see, I'd almost forgotten about him."
Willow lets go of me and waves at him. "And now you're dating Jerome! I always knew you two were meant to be."
"You don't even live in this house," I remind her, looking at her strangely. "How did you—was I the only person not aware?"
Mara responds with a light sigh, "You were painfully oblivious, but we still love you."
"Right," I mutter. I shake my head, looking between the two girls. "Look, as the person who's lived in this room the longest, no one's getting Nina's bed until all of this is actually sorted out and we know if we're getting a new student. Willow...please leave."
Willow nods and gives all three of us another smile before she turns around and leaves the room as happy as can be. Jerome gives her a weird look and glances back to us, questioning, "Who was that?"
—
With my messages to Nina open, my fingers hover over the keyboard on my phone. It'd be so easy just to text her and let her know how the others took the news, but I can't until Eddie's given Fabian her letter. Then I can actually text her, because then things will be somewhat sorted out.
"Your cousin is weird," Jerome remarks as he falls onto the couch beside me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me against him.
"Already know this," I reply, dropping my phone on my lap. "What'd he do this time?"
"He asked me what I knew about writing a letter from girl's perspective."
"He said that?"
"Yep. Weird, isn't it?"
Weird's definitely one word for it. I'm gonna kill Eddie. He's totally lost the letter, hasn't he?!
From behind us, I hear Joy say decisively, "Okay." I turn around to see specifically she's looking at both halves of Peddie. "So end of last term, you two were all loved up. You go quiet on me during the summer, and now, you're acting all, like...that. What gives?"
Patricia tells, "We split up."
"Shut up!" Joy exclaims, sounding as surprised as I was when Eddie told me what happened. Except I had followed mine up with asking him what he did, which did not go over that well with him.
"It was a mutual decision," Patricia claims, "and we're both totally cool with it."
"Yeah. I mean, as a cucumber," Eddie adds. Stop while you're ahead, Edison. "As two cucumbers who are just no longer together. Right, Patricia?"
"Right."
"Good. Well, I'm so cool with it I'm practically a popsicle."
I roll my eyes. Yeah, he's so not cool with it, and somehow he's managing to be completely obvious about that fact. This in addition to what he asked Jerome, Eddie's rep is not doing so well today.
Fabian comes in a few seconds later. Patricia gestures for me to get up and join them, which I do. More Nina business, I assume. Joy's asking Fabian in a low voice, "Any news?"
"Something's not right. It's just not like Nina," Fabian replies, which is code for 'no.' "It's as if she's disappeared."
"I'm sure she's fine," I attempt to reassure him. "She's probably just busy with her gran."
From where he is on the couch, Jerome questions casually, "Did you ever find what it was you were looking for, Miller?" And that officially means he's getting suspicious.
Eddie throws him a look and starts walking toward the closed doors, retorting dryly, "Funny." As he opens them, there's suddenly a feminine scream accompanied by the sound of things falling. I look at the others, posture straightening. "Watch where you're—you."
Okay, his voice just completely changed. I give the other Sibunas a curious look before walking out into the entrance hall to see what had happened. There's a pretty, unfamiliar girl with curly hair on the ground, cardboard boxes surrounding her. Eddie opening the doors must have startled her. She's apologizing to Eddie and asking him if he's okay, while he's just in a daze staring at her. New student.
Ignoring Eddie's weirdness, I walk over and hold my hand out to her. She smiles gratefully at me as she takes it to stand. "Hey. You new here?" I question.
The girl nods at me. "Yeah, hi. Sorry about that, I guess I'm just a little clumsy, I guess." She's American. Of course she is. But seems nice enough. Joy kneels to help her put her things back in the boxes. By now, the rest of the house has joined us in the hall, various curious gazes on her. "Hi, I'm KT."
KT. That's the name of the girl Eddie saw in his wardrobe vision! I look to him with wide eyes after she says her name, and he raises his eyebrows in a 'do you believe me now?' kind of way while still looking dazed.
"Totally new here."
Amber says what mostly everyone's thinking, "You're taking Nina's place."
"Nina?" KT repeats. "I'm not sure. This is where they told me to come. I'm staying in Isis House tonight and moving in here tomorrow, apparently."
"Cool," Mara says with a friendly smile. "Welcome to Anubis House."
"Thanks," KT says, grabbing one of her boxes as she stands straight and looks around. "Wow, this place is so cool. Is everything here from a museum or something?"
"No," Patricia replies as she tilts her head. "Only Victor."
The (definitely partially true) joke causes us, including KT and excluding the still-dazed Eddie, to laugh. She smiles. "Yeah, I heard about him. Anyway, I thought I'd bring some stuff over tonight, and—" She suddenly stops and looks at Eddie, who's been staring at her this entire time. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Eddie abruptly breaks out of his trance. "Huh? Yeah."
"Am I okay?" she asks hesitantly. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything."
"No, you're fine."
"That's a relief," KT remarks before looking back to the girls. "Um, where should I..."
"Oh, sure, just through there," Joy says, gesturing to the living room, "and I'll bring these in."
KT gives a grateful smile before following her and the rest of Anubis House back into the living room. Eddie falls behind, grabbing my arm. Without saying a single word, he makes various hand gestures at me while repeatedly pointing at the new girl. I shrug in response, pushing him into the room, which ends up being a mistake.
Because the first thing Eddie says to KT is, "I've seen you before."
"Oh, God, please, don't," I mutter to myself, knowing full well he's about to put his foot in his mouth.
"Really, I have."
KT looks at him a little oddly but reasons, "It's possible. Where are you from?"
"No, it's just—" Eddie cuts himself off, hesitating. Tell me he's not about to—"You're the girl from my dream."
"Oh, my God," I mumble, shaking my head. 'Cause this is definitely the best thing to say right now! Is he insane? The answer is a resounding yes, for anyone curious. Patricia's reaction is similar as she retorts, "Oh, please."
KT, the recipient of the foolish remark, just looks at him weirdly. "Okay. Um, got to go." She glances at Joy. "Nice to meet you." Joy echoes her statement and KT glances back at Eddie, still looking at him oddly. "I'll see you later."
KT walks past him, but as she's leaving, she ends up walking right into Victor. Victor demands, "What is going on here?"
"I was just—I was just leaving," KT replies nervously. "Sorry."
She rushes past him, and I hear the main door close behind her. Victor announces to the rest of us, "It is ten o'clock!" Never one to stray from schedule, is he? Well, at least this means Anubis House is officially back. I throw Eddie a glare as I follow Amber out. "You have five minutes precisely, and then I want to hear a pin drop."
( welcome to season three sibunas! really love this one. so, kt's been introduced, nina's left, ashley and eddie both knew she was leaving which really sucks for ash when the others find out. but there's a lot to look forward to in season three... ) ( i only own ashley adams and her storyline. this can also be found on my quotev account at /queenlucythevaliant. )