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For the record, when I agreed to help Fabian and Joy with the hieroglyphs, I did not realize I would feel like a third-wheel the entire time. I don't know how but that's the energy in Fabian's room right now with them. For the most part, it's been pretty quiet while we search the net and books for the answers to the parcel code except when one of us has spoken to get a consultation on our assigned piece of the parchment. Hence the not knowing how I feel like a third-wheel right now, just that I do.
Something that probably contributes to that is the fact that they're both over by his bed whereas I've taken Eddie's—who knows where he is right now? Probably with KT now that I think about it. She did shoot me a text to tell me they got her key back, but that was hours ago. I haven't heard from either of them since. It's kind of weird Eddie hasn't answered my texts. But they're totally fine though, right?
"Oh, here's my family tree," Joy says suddenly, pulling out a folded, crisp white sheet of paper out of the otherwise aged, yellowed pages of her textbook. "I put it in my textbook."
"Oh, right," Fabian says absentmindedly, likely not paying any attention to her at all.
"Hope KT didn't go through too much trouble looking for it. Do you want me to have a look?"
I glance up again to see that she's nodding to his laptop, but it takes him a second to get it. "Mm? Oh, no, I've got this."
"You sure? Might be able to help. Not that it isn't fun just being here."
Fabian mumbles something in response. Yeah, little awkward being in here with them. I look back to my section of the parchment, flipping through my own textbook for one of the symbols. The door opens and without an invitation, Alfie walks in and questions, "Got that bad boy translated yet?"
"Yeah, it says 'bring Fabian a drink from the fridge, Alfie,'" Fabian retorts.
I laugh at the remark, catching Joy's smile at it, as Alfie replies plainly, "Those things are always so cryptic." He sits beside me on Eddie's bed, handing me the textbook that had been in the spot where he's just sat down.
The door opens again and this time it's Patricia and Amber together, the former announcing to us, "Victor is putty in my hands." Amber's cell is in her hands, which I assume it was she means, but I am so interested to know how she managed to get it back from Victor.
Alfie notes a little nervously, "You got Amber's phone back."
"I have four missed calls," Amber states, "but the battery's died. Does anyone have a charger in here?"
Before anyone can answer her question, Alfie says quickly, "Fabian's making great progress, isn't he?"
"I can tell what most of the symbols mean," Fabian states. "It's just the way they're arranged. It's like a code. I just can't figure it out."
"Yeah, neither can I," I agree, looking at what I've managed to figure out. Honestly, it looks like a lot of gibberish, but it has to mean something if Victor that was that upset his parcel was missing. "It doesn't make any sense."
Amber takes my copy—AKA I drew it out in my notebook—and gasps lightly. "I have an idea."
"Do you know how to break the code?" Alfie questions.
"No, just a sweet design for a t-shirt," Amber says. Our occasional accident genius has fashion on her mind, of course. I grab my copy back, quietly chuckling. Honestly, I think I'd buy it. "I'd have been so good at fashion school."
"Yeah, but you're good at this, too, right?" Alfie says as he stands.
Amber hums. "Practically saved the world twice, but I don't like to brag."
"Really?" I remark dryly. "Hadn't a clue."
Joy manages to get us all back on the original topic, commenting as she looks at the parchment, "The same symbol appears over and over again."
Really? I didn't notice anything when I was drawing it out, but then again, I was sort of distracted because Fabian was anxiously tapping his foot to get the parchment back so I was sort of rushing myself to get my own copy before he took the original from me. I look down, trying to find it, as Fabian asks, "What's that?"
She hands him the parchment and points it out. "I'm sure you would have figured it out."
He stares at it, commenting, "You're right."
"Hey, what's the symbol?" I inquire. If it appears more than once, it's definitely important.
"This one."
Fabian hits some keys on his laptop and turns the screen around to show me. There's an enlarged version of the hieroglyph on the screen. It's a star or a sun or something with twelve sides on it, and seeing it on a large scale helps me find it on my rushed copy. Joy's right, it appears over and over. It's important.
But...where have I seen that moon before?
—
Five minutes later, Patricia, Joy, and I have briefly left Fabian's room to go to mine in search of colored pens to further help in our hieroglyphic quests. Amber's idea, of course, color-coding. Mara, officially my new roomie, is in the middle of the room working out. Not exactly what I expected to see, but sure. I raise an eyebrow, slowly walking around her to grab my art kit from underneath my nightstand.
Mara, unusually chipper, questions, "Oh, what are you doing?"
"We're looking for colored pens," answers Joy. "It's...for the family tree thing."
"I thought Mr. Sweet told you not to do the family tree," Mara responds, still working out with weights in her hands. She nearly accidentally hits me with one of them as I sneak past her again, still looking at her oddly.
"Since when did anyone around here listen to teachers?"
"Since when did you work out?" Patricia asks her.
Joy takes the art kit from my hands, opening it up and grabbing one of the pink pens inside. She takes off the cap, turning it in her hand like she's determining if it's all right for our needs as Mara responds, "I needed to work off my frustration."
"What kind of frustration?" I ask.
Joy suddenly gasps sharply, pushing the cap back onto the pen. "It's about your secret boyfriend."
At that, Mara abruptly turns around, her eyes on me now. "Did you tell them?"
"Uh, no," I reply, "but I think you just did."
"What—she knows who it is? Her?" Patricia questions, pointing her thumb at me. Honestly, I'd be offended if it wasn't weird that out of everyone in Anubis House, the two girls I'm standing between included, I was the first one (and Jerome, but not relevant right now) to know she's dating Atticus Monroe. "Who is he?"
"He's Mara's boyfriend," I point out. "Interrogate her. I'm an innocent bystander."
Patricia and Joy both turn back to Mara with matching crossed arms and expectant faces. Mara shrinks a little under their gazes, but eventually confesses a few seconds later, "It's Atticus Monroe."
"Atticus Monroe?!" Patricia and Joy exclaim in unison. Mara waves her hands around, trying to shush them. Joy adds in a lower voice, "Are you serious? He's, like, the ultimate bad boy."
"But he's really sweet," Mara insists.
I laugh quietly at their shocked faces before asking her, "So, why are you frustrated with Atticus?"
Mara sighs and tells, "He told his friends we were dating before I was ready. You were right, Ashley. He likes to brag. It got around to a lot of people. That girl Willow actually came up to me today and congratulated me on getting over Mick, even if it was with 'the boy who broke a window and accidentally hit a bird with a rock.'"
(Behold: the previously mentioned thing with the bird and the window. Like I said, Atticus Monroe is the last person I would have expected Mara Jaffray to date.)
"I always wondered if he did that on purpose," Joy comments, which earns her a sharp look from Mara. "What? Come on, we all thought it. That's why none of us talked to him."
"All right," Mara concedes reluctantly, "but he has changed. He doesn't break windows anymore—"
"No, he just got suspended last term from breaking some kid's nose," Patricia says. Really, I'm pretty sure the only reason Atticus hasn't been expelled is because his parents have connections. "He's trouble, Mara."
As much as I'd love to agree with that, I already had this conversation with Mara this morning. "Guys, she says he's been treating her right," I say, "and she's clearly happy—even if she is resorting to exercise because she's frustrated with him. Don't worry, I already told her we'd kill him if he ever hurt her."
Mara frowns. "Wait, that's not what you said."
"I thought it was implied."
"Atticus Monroe?" Joy says again, still clearly surprised. "How—how do you even start that?"
"It's a long story," Mara says a little shyly.
"Well, give us the short version."
"Um, well, we ran into each other at a café, he asked me out, I said yes."
Patricia nods slowly, replying as she sits on Mara's bed, "And now you're frustrated with him because he told his friends about you two before you were ready. Okay."
Mara sighs and gestures back to the exercise mat and the weights. "Exactly. So, I'm working off my frustration."
"I wish I had the energy to do that," I remark. Working out's not really my thing. "Alfie keeps interrupting me and Jerome. I mean, everyone else has, too, but Alfie holds the record and—I swear, Jerome and I have barely thirty seconds to ourselves before Alfie pops up."
"Why doesn't one of you just tell him to get lost?" Joy says.
"Oh, we've tried. It doesn't work," I tell her. Turning back to Mara, I add, "That reminds me, I need you to hang out in their room," this with a nod back to Patricia and Joy, "from, like 7 to 8:30 tonight. We're gonna watch a movie. First date back at school."
"All right," Mara agrees with another sigh. "I just can't believe Atticus would do that. Especially after I specifically told him I wanted to wait."
"You should be more assertive," Joy tells her, putting the pink pen back in my art kit. "You know, tell him in a stern tone."
"Me?" Mara repeats incredulously. "What about you?"
"I am very assertive."
"Except where Fabian's concerned."
Joy glances toward me and Patricia, asking us in a slightly meek voice, "Is it that obvious?" The two of us nod. I'd wondered if she still had a crush on Fabian, but I guess that confirms it. And Mara is right, Joy's assertive except when it comes to Rutter, which is probably something worth fixing regardless of what happens.
"Why haven't you asked him out yet?" Mara asks.
Joy sits beside Patricia on Mara's bed. "It's not that simple."
"We need a pact," Mara decides. "From now on, we do not get pushed around."
"Like I need any more encouragement to say what I think," Patricia comments. I nod to agree. I already went through the saying-what-I-think thing with that Senkhara hex. "Or Ashley, come to think of it."
"No, I like it," Joy says, grabbing another pen from my kit. This time it's a blue one. "The Anubis Sisterhood."
She draws something on her hand, and then does to the same to Mara's. Four hearts connected in a circular pattern. She grabs my hand next and draws the four hearts on my palm. Oh, we're starting an Anubis Sisterhood. Cool. I like it.
As Joy draws the hearts on Patricia's palm, Mara comments, "Those boys won't know what hit them."