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"What have you got in these boxes, rocks?" I question KT as I set down a heavy box, one of many she's brought with her, on the couch at the house. Fortunately for the both of us, considering we're not supposed to be back at Anubis before school lets out, there's been no sign of Victor nor Trudy.
KT looks over from the box she's rummaging through. "Those are snow globes. I'm sort of a collector. Be careful with them, they're special."
"No prob," I tell her, sighing heavily. "Snow globe collector, huh? Never really got into them. I did order one once, and ended up being scammed by some cheap website. It literally looked like something out of horror flick."
"Yikes. Did you send it back?"
"No, Alfie wanted it so I gave it to him. And then he and Jerome broke it a week later."
"What happened?"
"Long story. It involves a gardening tool, Victor's stuffed raven Corbierre, and a football. English, not American."
"I—" KT cuts herself off with a confused frown. "I can't even imagine an animated way those things go together. Anyway, so how exactly is your family tree so complicated it rivals the one on Once Upon a Time? Aside from that Eddie guy being your cousin."
I laugh humorlessly. "That's only the tip of the iceberg, my American friend. Honestly, I'm still trying to make sense of the rest of it 'cause I've only found out it fairly recently, but I can say there hasn't been a plot twist yet that's as twisty as Peter Pan being Rumpelstiltskin's dad."
"I know, right? Talk about a plot twist. Still can't believe they made Peter Pan evil."
"Oh, you should check out the online conspiracies about Peter Pan, kid's been evil for a long time," I inform her with a dramatic shudder. KT giggles and turns back to her box. "Hey, you want lemonade? I think there's still some left over from this morning and you haven't lived until you've tasted something Trudy's made."
KT nods. "Sounds great. Thanks, Ashley."
Leaving her alone with the boxes, I walk into the kitchen and grab two glasses from the cupboard, glancing back to the living room. She's turning her head away from me and reaching into one of the boxes, and out of it she takes what looks like a small photograph—and a peculiar-looking key that has my eyes widening as she speaks quietly to the photograph to herself.
That must be the key Eddie saw in his vision of her! The one her grandfather gave to her. Huh, so Eddie isn't crazy. Not that I thought he was, but the fact that it's actually there in her hands—
"There really was a key," Eddie's voice says as he appears out of nowhere, eyes on the key.
And so it begins, I guess. I leave the glasses on the counter, returning to the living room to see if I can get a better look at the key, as well as making sure Eddie doesn't freak KT out again. That'd be, like, the fourth time in less than twenty-four hours. "Hey, KT," I say casually, giving him a pointed look, "nice key. Bit weird, though..."
"That key," Eddie says, stepping further into the living room with his finger pointed at it. "What's it for?" Before she gets a chance to say anything, he takes the photograph from her hands. An older man, probably her grandfather. "This guy. This is your granddad, isn't it?"
"Please give it back," KT says, snatching the photo back. She looks at it regretfully.
"That guy was in my dream, too. He was the guy that told you to come here, wasn't he?" Eddie continues, now pointing his finger accusatorily at her as he backs her into the entrance hall. Yeah, fourth time in less than twenty-four hours. I exasperatedly roll my eyes and follow. "And then gave you that key and said if you came here, there was a great danger."
The great danger stuff again. I have to say, I'm pretty used to those by now, though I had kinda hoped this year would at least attempt to be calm on us.
"That you had—"
"Students are not allowed in the house during lunch break," Victor interrupts from the top of the stairs. I throw Eddie another look before turning to Victor, prepared to give him some stupid excuse about forgetting homework or something for Amber's birthday when he continues. "Did you hear what I said?"
"I was just unpacking," KT says. Wait a second, was I about to lie badly when the truth was an entirely reasonable reason to be here during lunch? "Ashley offered to help me. You're Victor, right? I'm KT, the new girl. Everyone says this is the best house." He just looks at her blankly. "Hi."
"Get back to school immediately," he orders. "All three of you."
"Yes, of course," KT agrees nervously. "Absolutely. Totally."
With hardly another syllable, she runs out the door. Eddie follows her, wasting no time, and I quickly duck into the living room to grab my bag before running out of the house, hearing the office door upstairs slam shut.
—
"We're creeping her out."
"Hey, you're creeping her out, too."
I roll my eyes at Eddie's remark, briefly breaking my gaze on the back of KT's head as she walks through the halls at school, ignoring the fact that we're not far behind her. "I know that, that's why I said 'we're.' Do you ever listen?" I question.
Eddie glares at me. "Shut up."
"Come on, Eddie, there has to be a better way to go about finding out what the key unlocks instead of hounding her," I point out, punching his arm as I gesture widely to her. "Okay, listen, it's probably got something to do with Robert Frobisher-Smythe, because it always does, which basically narrows it down to just Anubis House."
"That's exactly my point!" he exclaims, and I hit him again to shush him. The last thing we need is for people to overhear us. He lowers his voice, "There can't be that many locks in Anubis, right? But in order to figure out which lock that key goes in, we actually need the key, which is hard when she refuses to talk to us."
"What exactly is your plan to get her to talk to us about the key?"
"Easy. Watch." Eddie looks back to KT and calls to her, "Hey, KT, will you talk to us for a second?"
Oh, that's his brilliant plan? That?! I roll my eyes at him, picking up my pace to catch her before she disappears on us. "Look, KT," I start as she keeps walking, though her steps have slowed a little, "we—the two of us have some serious problems you wouldn't believe even if we told you, but one of them is that you won't talk to us. Eddie's completely serious about his dream and that key. Just listen, please."
Eddie nods and says, "In the dream, your grandfather—he..." As he trails off, she stops walking and slowly turns to face us. I recognize that look on her. Grief. "He was really sick." She's crestfallen now, and he adds in a whisper, "Wait, did he—did he?"
"Yeah, he did," KT confirms her grandfather's death, voice breaking and tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I didn't—"
"He was very old and he'd been sick for a while, so..."
And now I feel even more horrible about what Eddie and I have been doing. She must have only recently lost her grandfather, and it seems like they were really close. I remember when Sarah died two years ago. She wasn't my grandmother, of course, but she had been the only living connection I had to my actual grandmother, her best friend and adoptive sister. I miss Sarah so much, and I can't even imagine how KT must feel losing her grandfather.
"Look," Eddie starts, carefully walking toward her, "I don't blame you for being upset with me—with us," he corrects with a glance back to me. "It's just—I know he sent you here to stop a great danger and—"
"Eddie, please," KT interrupts before turning around and heading into the classroom.
As much as I want to follow her and make sure she's okay, I'm pretty sure Eddie and I are the last people she needs to see right now. I sigh, shaking my head. Eddie turns back to me and states with a heavy sigh, "We are terrible people."
"Yeah," I agree dejectedly. "We need to give her a little while before we ask her again."
"How long is a little while?"
"I have no idea."
Eddie gives me an exhausted look before turning and heading into the lounge. I follow, seeing him toss his bag on one of the chairs. I take a seat across from Mara and Joy, frowning when I see that they're working on what appears to be a very, very glittery banner. "What are you guys doing?"
Mara replies happily, "We're making a banner for Amber's birthday."
"Ah, so either you guys did remember, or this is a last-ditch effort to make her forget that you all forgot."
Joy looks at me confused before suddenly looking at Mara. "You didn't tell her?"
Mara replies, "I didn't think she was going to agree."
I lean toward the two girls, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at them. "Hi. You talking about me?"
Joy turns to me. "Mara was supposed to tell you, but since she didn't, I will. We haven't forgotten it's Amber's birthday. We're acting like we don't know it's her birthday and then we're going to surprise her tonight with a big party."
Suppose this explains the weird 'postman came to the door with no mail' thing that happened this morning. Mara was probably right not to tell me, because I don't think I would have agreed. I nod slowly, looking between them, and stating bluntly, "Amber's going to kill you."
"Yeah, thanks, Ashley, you're a real help."
Mara chuckles lightly. "Well, since you know now, your job is making sure she stays happy so she doesn't kill us. And making sure she doesn't find out before we jump out and yell 'surprise.' Can you do that for us?"
Messing with her (and also entirely curious about it), "If you tell me who your secret boyfriend is." Joy laughs. Mara frowns, returning to writing on the banner. "I'm kidding. Just a bit. I'll handle Amber for you."
Joy looks at me again and opens her mouth, and suddenly remembering that earlier she was looking for me and Eddie re: Nina Martin, I almost grab my bag and make a hasty exit. Almost, because fortunately—and also unfortunately—Mr. Sweet enters the room and greets his son, "Ah, Eddie, are we still on for lunch? Ashley, would you like to join us?"
"Oh, God, no," I decline. The blunt words are out of my mouth before I can stop them. Mara and Joy suppress their laughter as I abruptly try to backtrack, trying to make my declining seem a lot less rude. "I—I—I, uh, I mean that I can't, because...because I'm helping Mara and Joy with Amber's birthday surprise! Right, girls?"
The two of them nod, still biting back their laughter. Eddie claps a hand on my shoulder and mutters, "Smooth." I roll my eyes as Eddie and Sweetie leave the lounge, leaning back in my chair. That could have gone better.
The next thing that has me stuttering is noticing Fabian entering the lounge, and he immediately spots me and opens his mouth. I grab my bag and jump up, stammering, "Hey, you know, I've got to go...somewhere that's not here. Later!"
Okay, it's official, I'm screwing up more than Eddie is. I brush past people, pausing outside the classroom I saw KT go into. She's sitting by herself at one of the desks, looking at the picture of her grandfather again. I knock lightly on the doorframe, greeting softly, "Hey."
KT glances at me and wipes tears from her eyes. "Hey."
"Can I sit?" I ask quietly, gesturing to the seat beside her. She looks at it before nodding, and I cautiously sit beside her. I take a deep breath before starting, choosing my words carefully, "Look, KT...I know how hard it is to lose a loved one. I've lost a lot of them way before I should have. Sometimes I even wonder if I'm cursed, so...and Eddie and I—we shouldn't have hounded you like that. I'm sorry. That was wrong of us, and I promise we won't do it again."
She nods silently, and says nothing. I continue, "But...Eddie...he really did have a dream—or a daymare or a vision or whatever we're calling it now—about you and your grandfather. I know you don't believe us, but trust me, Anubis House is...full of weird things. This vision thing of his doesn't even compare to seeing actual ghosts."
Her eyebrows raise. "Ghosts?" she repeats skeptically. "Ghosts don't exist."
"Give it time, young Padawan. You'll learn," I reply. She looks confused now. "Did I use that right? I've never actually seen Star Wars. That's the 'star' it's from, right, it's not Star Trek?"
She smiles now, still a little sad, but it does make me feel better. "You've never seen Star Wars? You serious?" she asks. I nod. Jerome kept trying to get me to watch it with him over holiday, and the thought of a young Harrison Ford is definitely appealing to me, but I was much more interesting in spending time with him without sitting through several films. "Okay, one day, you and me—we marathon the original trilogy."
"Okay, I'm in," I agree, and her smile gets more genuine. "Does this mean you're not upset with us anymore?"
"Oh, I'm...still a little upset," KT tells me a little quieter, and I sigh. Well, that's to be expected. "I'm just gonna put it all aside for now. Where is Eddie, anyway?"
"Lunch with his dad."
"His dad."
"Mr. Sweet."
KT gapes at me. "Eddie's dad is Mr. Sweet? As in, the headmaster Mr. Sweet?"
I nod. "Yep."
"Your uncle is Mr. Sweet?"
"Unfortunately."
KT laughs, despite everything. "That's—wow. I can't even imagine having a family member work at my school. I guess I better count myself lucky they're all American and we're in England, huh?" I respond to it with a laugh and a casually shrug. Her eyes glance to my neck. "I like your necklace. What are they?"
"Family heirlooms," I answer, looking down and picking up the charm and the ring so she can see them properly. "This is an ankh charm, from Egyptian mythology. It means life. It's passed down from my great-grandmother, the ring too. Oh, you might find this interesting—when she was a kid, she actually lived in Anubis House."
"Whoa, seriously?" she asks, glancing back at my face from the ring. "So, what, it, like, runs in your family, living there?"
"Sort of, I guess. A lot of things run in the family. But hey, we'd be here for hours if I got started on it before Denby's family tree project this afternoon. How about you tell me about your family instead?"
So KT tells me all about her family. She talks about her parents, telling me how proud they were when she got the scholarship to come here, and she talks about her grandfather. When she's telling me about her granddad, she pauses in the middle of it, eyes welling with tears. I set a comforting hand on her shoulder, giving her a sympathetic smile as she apologizes, "I'm sorry."
"What are you sorry for?" I ask. "You're allowed to cry, KT. There's no rule against it."
KT shakes her head. "No, it's just...my granddad really did tell me that there was a great danger at Anubis House...and it's all just really freaky and I don't know what to do."
"I know freaky," I assure her. "The house is way freaky. But the best way to get to the bottom of it is to work with other people, because you can't do it alone. I know pretty much everything there is to know about Anubis House," this is a slight lie because I'm pretty sure there's a room full of poison somewhere that we haven't stumbled across yet, "and if you want to know what to do, we start with finding out what that key goes to."
"We?"
"Yeah, you and me. But Eddie—believe it or not, he can help. I'm still not a hundred percent certain how, but he can. And there's other people in the house that can help if you want them to, but for now, it can just be you and me trying to figure this out and figure out what your granddad meant by great danger."
"I'll think about it. All of it. Thanks, Ashley."