DENOUEMENT
i. house of arrivals
❝JOY, THERE'S SOMEONE TO SEE YOU IN MY OFFICE.❞

"MOVE BACK A bit more." Patricia instructed Joy, small giggles passing through her lips as she watched the camera in her hands as she held it up to the brunette, waiting for her to fall in her and Sydney's trap.

Having a small break in their timetable, the three girls had decided to spend their time outside of the Amun Boarding School, messing around in their break before they had to get to class and resume their boring day filled with boring lessons, which – believe it or not – was very boring, especially since Sydney (surprisingly) did not have any pranks planned for the day.

With her being a prankster, Sydney Anderson would typically spend her time with the two other pranksters within Anubis House, Jerome Clarke and Alfie Lewis, who were also her best friends – how could they not be with them all having a love for jokes and pranks? On an average day, the trio would be spotted together, most likely plotting their next prank (in which the victims were normally people in the lower years, or Mick Campbell and Amber Millington, the 'It' couple). However, on this particular day, the blonde female had struggled to find the two pranksters, resulting in her giving up and tagging along with Joy Mercer and Patricia Williamson, helping the latter in yet another scheme to bring Joy and Fabian Rutter closer together in their never-ending quest to make the two brunettes date, as it was increasingly obvious to everyone in Anubis House that the pair had a crush for one another that they were refusing to admit.

Growing impatient, considering that she had been walking backwards for quite a while now, Joy let out a loud and irritated groan, not being aware of her friend's scheme as she called out, "Hurry up!"

"Only a bit more." Sydney encouraged the brunette, hiding her laughter behind a small smirk as she saw an unsuspecting Fabian a few steps behind Joy – the man in question reading a book like the geek that he was, because what else would he be doing?

"Come on, that's it!" Patricia exclaimed, only a few moments before Joy hit Fabian's leg, tripping over it and tumbling to the ground with a scream falling out of her lips, causing Sydney to finally let the laugh she had been holding in escape.

"Oh, hey, careful!" Fabian called out a little bit too late, causing him to try to grab Joy to protect her from the fall, but that resulted in him falling over alongside her.

With it being a beautiful (and funny) moment between the pair, Patricia did not hesitate to take a photo of it, the sound of the camera snapping filling the air as a photo of the adorable moment was taken, with Patricia stating, "That's my new profile photo!"

Glancing over Patricia's shoulder and messing with the camera so that she could get the photo on the screen, Sydney released a small chuckle before she glanced back over at the love-struck pair, teasing them, "Aw, cute!"

Little did they know, that would be the last photo taken of Joy before her sudden disappearance, or else maybe they would have treasured the moment a lot more.

Taking the book that Fabian had been reading out of his hands, Joy briefly read over the title with confusion on her face, "The Theory of Computational Intelligence? A bit of light reading?"

Rolling his eyes at the girl, Fabian snatched the book back from her and pointed towards the cover, "Joy, just because it doesn't have Robert Pattinson on the cover, doesn't mean it's not worth reading."

"Eh, sounds fake." Sydney murmured, shaking her head at the nerd whilst she laughed.

Agreeing with the blonde, Joy made a face to tell Fabian that his statement was wrong – without Robert Pattinson on the cover, the book was not worth reading – causing the boy to sigh, standing up and picking up his and Joy's blazer as they noticed a taxi approaching the school, and being the nosy teenagers they were, they watched a blonde girl step out of in, admiration and bewilderment present on her face as she did so, taking a glance at the humongous school.

School – that's right, they had to attend that, and that became even more apparent as they heard the bell ring, signifying that they only had a ten more minutes before they had to be in class, or else they would most likely get a detention, depending on the teacher.

In this case, they had Mrs Andrews, and she would definitely give a detention to you for being late – or at least, to Sydney, who was a little bit of a troublemaker, so they were harsh on her to keep her as tied down as they could.

None of them particularly wanted detention, because that was even more boring than class itself (even though that seemed impossible at times), so they decided to make their way to class, with Sydney walking next to Joy and making small talk with the group until their conversation was cut off rather suddenly as the blonde girl from earlier bumped into Patricia, knocking her backwards a little.

"I'm so sorry!" The girl apologised, halting in her running for a second before she ran off again, clearly having somewhere to be.

With a perplexed expression on her face, Patricia watched the American run away before she turned to her friends and asked, "Who's the American?"

At that question, the three of them shrugged, never having seen the blonde girl before in their life, and they all simply forgot about the incident as they continued walking to their lesson, not knowing that the next time they would see the American, she would be an Anubis House resident.

As they opened the doors leading into the main school building, Patricia reached into her bag and pulled out a box set, passing it over to Joy as she exclaimed, "Oh yeah, look what came this morning."

A smile coating her lips at the sight, Joy took the box set from her best friend, letting out a small gasp as she did so, "Yes! BFF box set marathon tonight, Patricia?"

Of course, Sydney wasn't included in that, and she wasn't sad about it, nor did she expect to be. Whilst she was friends with Patricia and Joy, they were best friends, roommates, basically sisters, and absolutely inseparable. Just like Sydney was typically always spotted with Jerome and Alfie, that was the same for Patricia and Joy, with the two of them being joined at the hip. As she remembered the other two members of her trio, a confused expression appeared on her face as she glanced around, trying to find them.

Although, she didn't have to look for long as she was hastily pulled away from the group of now three, causing them to let out a small laugh as Sydney let out a groan, knowing exactly who it was.

"Alfie!" Sydney yelled out with laughter bubbling through her groan, though the boy didn't care as he continued to drag her over to where Jerome, as well as some kid who Sydney didn't recognise or care about, stood.

So, that's where her best friends were.

"So, I've got the perfect plan for making Amber notice me, yeah?" Alfie informed them, a humongous smile on the boy's face at the mere thought of his plan, but Sydney already knew that it was not going to work.

Amber, of course, was none other than Amber Millington – the resident rich girl of Anubis, and also Sydney's roommate, and thus the victim of a lot of her pranks. The girl was extremely spoilt by her father and had a major obsession with fashion, and the perfect example of a stereotypical rich girl, and whilst that sounded harsh, Sydney actually had a decent friendship with the girl, despite the pranks (in fairness, Sydney only made Amber a victim of a lot of her pranks due to how easy she was to prank, and the hilarious reactions she got out of it – you could hide her hairbrush and she'd throw a tantrum).

She was a little annoying at times, obviously, but she was rather funny and had also been the person to show Sydney how to apply makeup and did help her with her absolutely horrific fashion sense (a lot of her previous clothes caused Amber to shriek as soon as she saw them, instantly throwing them away and tugging the girl to many clothes shops). Furthermore, Sydney typically spent most of her time with Jerome and Alfie, of all people, so it was good to be near an extremely girly girl for at least a few seconds a day.

And yes, Alfie had a humongous crush on Amber, though it was very much unrequited, and everyone thought that Alfie should just give up – everyone, minus Alfie, obviously.

"Hang on, Alfie." Jerome responded to the boy as he briefly turned to him, before turning back to the kid in front of him with a stern look on his face, "I told you this would cost a tenner. Now, do you want this homework or not?"

Reluctantly, the kid slapped a ten pound note into Jerome's hand, taking the homework from him and storming away without saying a single word – the interaction causing a grin to coat Jerome's lips as he muttered a thanks, whilst putting the money in his blazer pocket, along with the other money he had received from selling his old (and somewhat bad) pieces of homework to the lower years, who simply knew no better.

"Sucker." Jerome murmured once the kid was out of hearing distance, before he began to walk to class, with Alfie and Sydney following behind him.

Jerome Clarke was one third of the jokesters – the troublemakers from the Anubis House, and honestly, the one who caused the most trouble and came up with a lot of the pranks and scams that they did. Despite his bad influence, he had been Sydney's best friend ever since the two of them could remember, and they were attached to the hip. Nobody at Anubis could ever recall a time when Sydney and Jerome weren't best friends, because they always had been, then they took Alfie under their wing once he joined Anubis House, his goofy personality fitting right in and contributing well to their pranks and ideas.

"Poor kids, I feel bad for them." Sydney murmured, although Jerome simply shrugged, not exactly caring about the kids whom he sold his homework to as long as he received money from them, "Your homework from last year is most definitely not worth ten pounds, Jerome. Didn't you almost fail a majority of your classes?"

"What they don't know won't hurt them." Jerome responded, a smirk on his lips as he confirmed her suspicions (even though she knew that she was right), causing the blonde-haired girl to roll her eyes at him.

"So, that's a yes." Sydney stated, a smirk gracing her lips as she began to tease her friends, this being rather common in their friendship, "I may not be that smart, but at least I actually passed my classes with a decent grade."

"That's a good point, dude, why don't you just copy Sydney's homework and sell it?" Alfie asked, causing the two males to glance at Sydney in hope that she'd agree, although the shake of her head told them that she would definitely not agree – honestly, she didn't even know where her homework from last year was anymore; probably in the bin.

"Oh, Anderson, you wound me." The blonde boy sighed dramatically, putting his hand to his chest as though she had harmed him, but Sydney was used to this after so many years – him acting hurt by insults and putting his hand to his chest to mock being offended was a usual.

"Someone has to wound your ever-growing ego, Clarke, or else your head may explode from the narcissism overflowing inside it." Sydney retorted, a smile on both of their lips despite the harsh insult, as everyone knew that it was only a joke and that Sydney didn't intend to hurt him with it – she knew he wasn't truly like that, and it was simply a mask, but that did not stop her from poking fun at his stupid mask which she despised.

"You really are as sweet as always." Jerome replied, sarcasm oozing through his words whilst a small grin was on his lips – one that he noticed always seemed to be on his lips whenever he spoke to Sydney.

Smirking back at him, Sydney shrugged, "Haven't changed, Gerbil."

Gerbil – the nickname which Jerome resented, despised, hated, and had such a huge distaste for, and his eyebrow twitched at the mention of it, causing Sydney to snicker at the annoyance displayed on his face.

Why did Jerome hate that nickname so much? Because it was given to him by his younger sister, Poppy, whom nobody else knew about – not even Alfie. However, with Sydney having known the male for so long, she had met Poppy on numerous occasions and had a good friendship with the little girl, texting her a few times to let her know how Jerome was and sending her funny pictures of the man, which Jerome loved and hated at the exact same time.

"You're flirting again!" Alfie called out, annoyed that the pair of blondes never seemed to acknowledge how they truly felt about one another and kept blatantly flirting in front of everyone, although, the suggestion of the pair flirting caused Sydney and Jerome to roll their eyes (they were used to this), so Alfie turned to a random student passing by, "Someone else, please, tell them they're flirting! Someone else has to tell them, because they won't listen to any of us Anubis folk!"

The poor student looked scared and confused, so Sydney glanced their way with an embarrassed and apologetic look on her face, muttering, "I'm so sorry."

With how close the two blondes were, it was inevitable that a rumour would spread about them, but they thought that it would die down after a few days – nope. The rumour had been a thing for the longest time, and no matter how many times Jerome and Sydney denied it (which was a lot of times), it continued. A few years ago, Amber had started it, being the queen of matchmaking and relationships, within the first few weeks of them being at Anubis, asking them if they loved one another, and Sydney remembered almost choking on her orange juice as soon as the suggestion fell out of her mouth, before her and Jerome began to profusely deny it, although their denials were ignored as everyone began to discuss and debate about them flirting, and then it continued even to this day. However, they were slightly used to it.

Deciding to give up, knowing that the two would not admit they were flirting or that they had feeling for each other, Alfie ran in front of Jerome and instructed him, "Shake hands."

Following his instructions, Jerome did so, pulling the arm and revealing it to be fake, although it wasn't had to guess due to the skin colour being very green and not even close to Alfie's skin colour, causing Jerome to let out a small chuckle, "Subtle."

And with that, Jerome walked off, slinging his arm around Sydney's shoulders and dragging her with him, as Alfie called out after them, "Why would anyone want to be subtle? Jerome! Sydney!"

Although the pair of blondes simply walked into their French class, being a few minutes early, with Alfie running in behind them, almost falling into a desk as he waved around his fake arm.

"So, what do you think of it?" Alfie questioned the pair, referring to his fake arm, which he must have thought was absolutely amazing.

"Next time you could maybe try and find a fake arm that matches your skin tone." Sydney suggested to him, seeing his smile deflate and instantly feeling bad, so she added, "But, it's a good start."

"I thought it would help Amber to notice me..." Alfie murmured, causing Jerome to let out a small snicker at how badly his friend was at flirting.

Sydney shook her head, feeling bad for the boy but also not wanting to give him false hope about getting with Amber, "Amber is madly in love with Mick, Alfie. it's not going to work."

Deflated, Alfie took his seat, causing the pair of blondes to also sit down. Jerome and Alfie sat next to one another at their desk, whilst Sydney sat on the table next to them, which was thankfully close enough so that Sydney could lean over and whisper to the two. Eventually, everyone was seated just as Mrs Andrews walked in, papers in her hand, and Sydney begged to be wrong about what they were doing in lesson,

Sydney was smart(-ish), but that didn't mean she liked school – who did, except from Mara Jaffray and Fabian Rutter?

"So, this afternoon, we're going to have, as promised, a practice exam." Mrs Andrews informed them, proving Sydney's predictions correct as the rest of the class groaned in annoyance.

"Why?" Sydney questioned, frustrated that the class managed to get even more boring than she originally thought it'd be.

Upon overhearing the girl groan, Fabian, who sat at the table in front of her, turned around in his seat with an amused smile, "Because it helps to get your grades up?"

Sydney wasn't too close to Fabian Rutter, but considering that he was one of her housemates, they had a few conversations and would just about consider them as friends. Although, their conversations were usually only were focused on three topics: Joy, school, and whatever havoc that Sydney, Jerome, and Alfie had caused that week.

"My grades are perfectly fine where they are, so personally, I think I should be dismissed from this class." Sydney responded with a smirk on her lips, causing Fabian to roll his eyes at her as he turned back to his desk so he could focus on the test about to come.

Although, there was one person in the class who didn't let out a groan when the test was announced, but instead had their phone pressed to their ear as they spoke to the person on the other end, "But, Daddy, you have to extend my credit limit."

Of course, that person was no other than Amber Millington – the resident rich girl whom Alfie had a crush on, and Sydney's roommate.

"Phone off, Amber." Mrs Andrews demanded from the girl, although, Amber ignored her, not even glancing at the woman, and continued to speak on the phone to her father.

"But I've seen a pair of really important shoes." Amber cried out, about to continue until her boyfriend, Mick Campbell, walked into the room, still sweaty from his football practice, and Amber instantly said goodbye to her father, "Dad, I have to go, I'm in school." And as soon as she put the phone down, Amber exclaimed happily, "Mick, you're back!"

Showing off his athlete skills, he threw the ball in the bin, it perfectly landing in, causing him to let out a small cheer, before he turned to face Mrs Andrews, "Sorry I'm late."

As you could probably tell, Mick Campbell was the jockiest of the jocks to ever have jocked, and another resident at Anubis House. He was the popular and handsome boy who loved sports, and didn't exactly succeed much in any other subject, and for some reason, all the girls drooled over him.

Of course, Sydney thought that he was mildly attractive, but really didn't see why all the girls loved him so much. His personality was rather dull (or at least, too dull for Sydney), from what Sydney had seen of him – she didn't speak that much to him, only exchanging a few words whenever he came into her room to speak to Amber, or whenever they were at the dining table, or whenever she pranked him (which was a few times, as he was dating Amber and also cared a lot about his appearance, making it easy).

"You might have changed first. Just try not to perspire all over the paper." Mrs Andrews told him, passing him a test paper as he went to take his seat, "Right, you have exactly one hour to complete the paper. The time is six minutes past two."

Glancing over at Alfie and Jerome, Sydney had to restrict her laughter as she saw them messing with fake blood and tissue, but the two of them noticed her glance and looked up at her, her shaking her head at them as she did so.

"Idiots, the both of you." She whispered, as Jerome put his hands up in mock surrender and pointed at Alfie to put all blame on him, even though he most definitely contributed in it.

Before the test could begin, Alfie called out, "Mrs A?"

"Yes, Alfie?"

"Nose-bleed - it's a gusher." Alfie called out as he stuck the bloody tissue in his nose, causing everyone to turn to face him to see how bad the nosebleed was whilst Jerome and Sydney both attempted to hide their laughter, knowing it was fake.

Instantly, Mrs Andrews shooed him away, a mildly disgusted and worried look on her face as she did so due to how much blood was on the tissue, "Infirmary quickly. Come on."

The boy got out of his seat and began to rush to the infirmary, before turning around midway and showing everyone it was fake, causing everyone to let out small giggles before he put the tissue back into his nose, running into Mr Sweet, the head teacher, as he did so.

"Festine lente, boy; more haste, less speed." Mr Sweet told the boy, before allowing Alfie to leave and turning to Mrs Andrews, "Sorry to interrupt, Mrs Andrews." He turned to face the class, glancing around until his eyes landed on one particular student, "Joy, there's someone to see you in my office."

Clearly having no clue what was happening, Joy grabbed her things, sending a glance to Patricia, before she left with Mr Sweet, a perplexed expression on her face as she did so.

None of them knew that was the last time they'd see Joy for a long time.

Pulling her attention away from Mr Sweet taking Joy out of class, Sydney focused on her work as the test began, answering all the questions that she knew, which was quite a few, but most certainly not all – she was not anywhere near Mara's level of intelligence, but was just smart enough to pass the test with a decent grade with no revision.

After a long, long, long, time, the test had finally finished, with Sydney instantly jumping out of her seat and grabbing her things as soon as the bell rang, not wanting to be in that classroom a second longer than she had to.

Noticing how quick the girl had shot up, Jerome let out a small chuckle and shook his head at her, putting his bag on his shoulder as he grabbed his test, approaching the girl as he mumbled, "Don't think I've ever seen you grab your school things so quickly."

"Yeah, well, that's what happens when you sit dying of boredom for an hour, now can we please leave this stupid classroom? I don't want to be in it for a second longer." Sydney grumbled, picking up her test and slamming it down on Mrs Andrews' desk before she left the classroom, Jerome laughing at her behaviour as he followed along.

However, the two pranksters stopped in their tracks, confusion coming on their faces as they turned and saw Alfie approaching them, pulling a werewolf mask out of his backpack with a smirk plastered on his lips – Sydney wondered how many weird objects he had in his backpack – first a fake arm, and now a werewolf mask – he most likely had his favourite Jester's hat in there too. If there was a bag search, the teacher would be rather confused.

"Why do I deal with this?" Sydney mumbled so only Jerome could hear her, small laughter leaving her lips as she did so, which showed that she didn't hate Alfie's actions as much as she was suggesting she did – of course she didn't; Alfie was her best friend and she loved his goofy acts.

"Hey, if I have to deal with Alfie, then you do too. We're in this together; it's been a thing since we were five." Jerome told her, obviously not wanting her to ditch him and leave him with their mutual friend, although, Sydney shook her head jokingly, suggesting that she didn't have to deal with either of them and that she didn't want to - both of them knew that wasn't the case and that she adored them, despite the insults she handed to both of them on a regular occasion.

"What are you going to use that mask for, Alfie?" Sydney asked, turning to face the boy who had just reached them, which made an even bigger smirk fall upon his lips as he put it on his face, beginning to scratch Jerome wildly.

"Get off." Jerome demanded of the boy with an unimpressed look on his face, although it was fake and Sydney noticed the boy trying to restrict the laughter that wanted to burst out – he was hiding it with a small smirk - but Alfie ignored Jerome's protests and continued anyways, "Alfie, stop!"

"I take back what I said before, I love dealing with this." Sydney mumbled, chuckling as she took her phone out of her pocket and began to record the scene, making a mental note to send the video to Poppy later, whilst Jerome sent her a glare.

"Alfie, stop!" Jerome tried again, tearing his gaze away from the blonde and looking down at the man wearing a werewolf mask, whilst Sydney continued to laugh at Jerome's irritated expression, making sure that the video she was recording caught it.

"Have you guys seen Joy?" Patricia questioned with a worried look on her face, seemingly appearing from absolutely nowhere and cutting the three off from their conversation, with Sydney stopped recording, putting her phone in her pocket as she glanced over at the purple-haired girl.

Upon taking a single glance at her, Sydney noticed that Patricia looked frazzled, so the blonde assumed that she hadn't seen Joy since class, and she had probably looked everywhere for her, due to them being inseparable – you never saw one without the other.

Being the idiot that he was, Alfie began making random noises whilst making a bunch of hand gestures, causing Sydney and Jerome to let out a small laugh at his actions.

"Yeah, she's about this tall, dark hair." Jerome joked, not realising that Patricia was being serious and was genuinely worried as he put his hand to just below his shoulder to display Joy's height.

"Probably gushing over a certain geek called Fabian Rutter – don't forget that." Sydney added to the description of Joy, nudging Jerome's side as they continued to laugh.

Rolling her eyes at them, Patricia let out a sarcastic laugh before she turned serious, actually wanting some answers to where her best friend had disappeared to, "No, I've just been to Sweetie's office, and she's not there."

"Maybe she's gone back to the house?" Jerome suggested to the girl, actually being helpful and giving a decent suggestion to her, which was mildly surprising.

Agreeing with the blonde boy beside her, Sydney nodded her head, "Yeah. If not, then she'll probably turn up later. You guys have your box set marathon later, right?"

Patricia slowly nodded, still wary and clearly not having a good feeling about Joy's whereabouts, but she murmured, "Yeah... you're right."

With that, she hastily ran off, presumably to the house, and Sydney watched her leave with a small frown on her face, hoping that Joy was okay, but Alfie shrugged before going back to scratching Jerome, causing Sydney to laugh once again and forget all about Joy, it falling to the back of her mind.

"No! Stop it-!" Jerome cried out, but then gave up because he knew his best friend wouldn't stop, making Sydney laugh even more which made him smile slightly as he shook his head, "Alfie, stop! I have an idea!"

Of course, the mention of a plan made Alfie come to a stop as he tilted his head, wondering what his plan was, as Alfie thought that all of Jerome's plans were amazing – he looked up to him almost, wanting to be like him, and thus went with everything he said.

A grin plastered across his lips, Jerome slowly turned his head to face Sydney, and Alfie obviously understood what it meant as he began to reach forward to the blonde girl with his werewolf hands.

Sending a glare to them, Sydney took a step back as she muttered, "Don't you dare."

However, the pair didn't listen to her, and before she could escape, Jerome had already ran around her, grabbing her shoulders to hold her in place whilst Alfie began to claw at her with his werewolf hands, laughter erupting from the girl as she was very ticklish.

"Stop!" Sydney called out, eventually finding the strength to push Alfie away from her, taking a breath, "You two-." She pointed between them, as they wore humongous grins (at least, she could presume Alfie had a huge grin under his mask), "-are absolute idiots."

"You know it." Jerome responded, before he looked at his watch, "Oh, shoot, we need go back to the house; supper will be ready in about half an hour."

"If you two hit me with one more piece of food, I will kill you." Sydney threatened them, knowing that the pair have a food fight almost every meal, causing food to normally get thrown over her as she sat next to Jerome.

"No promises, Syd." Jerome laughed, causing the girl to jokingly pout and cross her arms, acting like a child before she herself let out a laugh, and the three of them walked back to the house.

Once they went back to the house, the three of them separated to get changed, but eventually found themselves together again in the living room just before supper with a few other residents of the Anubis House present.

"Hey, nerds." Sydney greeted them all as she sat down on the arm of the chair that Jerome had perched himself upon, but of course, Alfie could not let her rest as the male bumped into her whilst running around the room, causing the girl to tilt to the side on the chair, Jerome attempting to stop her fall by pressing a hand to her back, but they inevitably failed, with Sydney falling into Jerome's lap with a pout as everyone burst out laughing.

"Wait, nerds? Fabian may be a nerd-." Jerome began, putting an arm over Sydney's shoulder as she stayed in his lip, whilst he remembered the greeting that she had gave them all, causing him to look at her in confusion as the blonde boy knew that he was the furthest thing from a nerd.

However, Fabian cut off Jerome before he could finish, defending himself against the accusation that he was a nerd, although he totally was, "Hey!"

With an apologetic look, Sydney glanced over at the boy, "Sorry, Fabian, but you are kind of a nerd, but it's not anything to be ashamed of. Some nerds are cool, and if it makes you feel better, I think you're a really nice and polite nerd."

"Anyways, why did you call me and Alfie nerds?" Jerome questioned, causing Sydney to simply shrug as Mara and Amber came into the room, joining in with the group and finding a seat to sit in.

"Has anyone seen Mick?" Amber asked, filing her nails whilst Sydney simply shook her head, the rest of the group replying with no.

"He's probably on a run; you know Mick with his sport." Sydney told the girl, sending her a small, yet reassuring, smile.

Suddenly, Patricia stormed into the room, her footsteps booming loud against the floorboards as her cheeks were slightly red and her eyes blazed with anger, "Has anyone got Joy's home number?"

At that, Sydney's eyebrow quirked up as she lifted her head to the purple-haired girl, wondering why she had asked that question, and it didn't seem like she was the only one. Everybody was confused at the question, but shook their heads in response to it, as none of them did have Joy's home number - they never needed it, as Anubis House was basically all of their homes and they were here most of the time – if they needed an Anubis resident, they used their cell phone or simply came to their room. Who used home phones still anyways?

With that question lingering in her mind, Sydney glanced up to the girl inquisitively, asking, "Why do you need her home number?"

"She's gone!" Patricia announced, causing everyone to become even more confused at the news, and upon seeing the perplexed expressions, the girl continued to elaborate, "Apparently, her parents have come and taken her, and there's already a girl in her room! But, she didn't say goodbye, she hasn't taken her phone, and she hasn't taken 'Bunzy Bun', and the picture of us was scrunched up in the bin!" Patricia listed everything peculiar with the situation, and she must have thought that something odd was happening, but nobody knew what to say, causing the girl to brush her hands through her hair as she sighed, "I can't believe no-one's got Joy's home number."

Amber, who had hardly been paying attention due to filing her nails, briefly looked up at Patricia, before looking at her nails yet again and saying, "That's because this is her home – just call her phone."

"Amber, keep up. I told you: she left her phone behind." Patricia reminded the girl as she paced around the living area, trying to figure out what to do or where her best friend had gone.

"So, text her?" Amber said like it was so simple, seemingly forgetting that without a phone, you couldn't text or call.

Sydney loved Amber, truly, but there were times where she just didn't think.

"Stupidity leak!" Patricia stated, knocking against Amber's skull as she rolled her eyes, annoyed and irritated beyond belief.

It was odd for a student to just disappear and to not say any word of goodbye or even take their objects – especially Joy. Whilst Sydney wasn't best friends with Joy, she was close enough to the brunette to know that Joy would have taken everything, her phone especially, and would have said goodbye to them all as she was a sweet girl and loved them all.

Why would she suddenly just go?

The unanswered questions were, of course, worrying the girl, causing her to drum her fingers against her leg as she was trapped within her own thoughts, trying to figure out the answers to questions that she simply couldn't answer.

However, her thoughts were cut off as she felt a small nudge against her side, causing her to turn and see Jerome giving her a small look of concern, having noticed the worried expression on her face and picking up on her nervous habit of drumming her fingers, and the man gave her a small nod of reassurance, which she smiled at.

"So, they've already got someone else in her bed?" Fabian asked as he peered up from his book to look at Patricia for an answer, who knew more about this situation than any of the Anubis students.

Not understanding how that was possible, Sydney shook her head as she piped up, "But if Joy leaving was unexpected, how would they have got someone to pack everything, travel down here, and sorted out all the necessary stuff in less than a day?"

"It's that girl we saw in the taxi." Patricia informed them, glancing over at Fabian and Sydney, who were the only other people beside Joy who were with her when they saw the girl in the taxi.

"The one who bumped into you?" Sydney questioned for clarification, causing Patricia to nod whilst the blonde let out a wince, "Wow, she's really not getting off to a good start, huh?"

"You don't say." Patricia mumbled, rolling her eyes as she remembered the girl from the taxi running into her harshly, hardly even staying to make sure that she was okay before she had ran off again, and now she had taken over her best friend's bed, "She's American, and she's like totally obsessed with it. She's said it like a hundred times."

Mara glanced up as well, a concerned expression taking over her face, "And Joy's just gone? That really is weird."

"Maybe Joy's been abducted by aliens and this new girl's one of them." Alfie suggested, which wasn't a surprise as the boy was absolutely obsessed with conspiracy theories and aliens, having created a conspiracy theory that Victor was a vampire beforehand, but the suggestion caused Jerome to let out a small laugh.

"Yeah! Maybe the new girl is an alien in a flesh suit." Jerome added, jokingly supporting Alfie's idea whilst Sydney shook her head at the pair, though she knew that both of them only just wanted to lighten the mood a bit.

"We were planning a box set marathon tonight. You know Joy's rom-com obsession. How can she have gone just like that?" Patricia questioned, her concern growing with each passing second that Joy wasn't present.

Seeing that Patricia constantly talking about the situation had begun to stress out and worry Sydney, Jerome released a sigh as he turned to face Patricia and gave her a serious answer, trying to calm down her worries, "Patricia, you've disappeared more than enough times."

"Yeah, but this is Joy, not Patricia." Sydney spoke up, protesting against Jerome, "Joy wouldn't have left her phone here; she's obsessed with it, and she would have said goodbye."

"And she would've called me!" Patricia called out in agreement, adding to Sydney's point.

"Yeah, I know she would've, but she has not-." Jerome argued, and suddenly the room burst into chatter as everyone began to discuss Joy's disappearance and the new girl.

However, it suddenly all faded away as everyone noticed that the new girl had entered the room, a smile adorning her lips despite the awkward tension in the room as it turned deathly silent and everyone looked at her.

"Hi, I'm Nina. I'm from America."

Whilst Patricia rolled her eyes at the greeting, Fabian glanced up at her, being the first one to respond as he sent her a small wave, "Hey."

Suddenly, Alife stood up from this chair, approaching the new girl, "Welcome, space girl, or "blurp bleep bop" as they say in your language."

"Alfie! You could have just insulted her in the alien language!" Sydney called out, trying to ease the worry she had about Joy, and it somewhat worked as a few people let out laughter.

Jerome was one of those who had let out a laugh, but he knew Sydney had only made a joke to ease her own, and everyone else's, worry, so he leaned towards her and rubbed her arm slightly, whispering, "She'll be fine."

The good thing about her and Jerome was that they had been friends since they were kids, and had witnessed each other grow up and get moulded into the person that they were today, so the two blondes knew almost everything about each other, including their mannerisms whenever they were feeling a certain type of emotion, even when they tried to hide it.

Nodding to the boy, Sydney smiled and pushed away all her worries, sending a smile towards Nina before Trudy, their amazing housemother, called out, "Supper's ready."

And with that being said, they all walked over to the table and sat in their seats, Sydney sitting next to Jerome at the end of the table. Not knowing where everyone sat, Nina hovered back for a few moments before she sat in an empty chair, which just so happened to be Amber's, with the blonde girl having left to fetch the salt.

But, then, Amber returned, placing her hand on her hip as she looked at Nina, expecting for the girl to move as she simply stated, "That's my seat."

Instantly standing up, obviously not wanting to upset anyone on her first day like she had already done with Patricia, Nina turned to face Amber, "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want to-?"

"Where's Mick?" Amber asked, the only thing on her mind being her boyfriend she cut off Nina and hardly gave the poor girl chance to speak.

"I don't even know who you are so-." Nina stated, but then was cut off once again by Amber passing her the salt and walking away, presumably to find Mick, whilst Nina sat back down in Amber's seat.

Patricia turned to face Nina, evidently annoyed as she spoke to the new girl, "You heard what Amber said, that's her seat."

"Yeah, but she's not here right now." Nina shrugged, defending her actions as she didn't see an issue with where she was sat – it was only a seat afterall.

"That's your way, isn't it? Someone's gone for five seconds and you've already moved in." Patricia taunted the girl, obviously upset over Joy being gone under very mysterious circumstances and Nina moving in her room not even a day later – in fairness, it was very odd.

Not being a fan of Patricia's hostile attitude towards the new girl (especially since she was new, and seemed nice enough), Fabian Rutter spoke up to defend the new girl, "Patricia is head of the welcoming committee. Take no notice, just sit wherever you like."

After that, the room fell silent, and Sydney was almost certain that this was the quietest meal she had endured at Anubis House, as nobody wanted to break the silence and the tension that was between Nina and Patricia, scared that the latter would throw a knife at them if they even dared to speak to the new girl.

Alfie, sensing the tension and wanting to break it, pushed in a lot of spaghetti in his mouth using two forks, and as Jerome glanced up to his friend, he let out a small chuckle whilst Mara instantly ridiculed the boy, "Stop it, Alfie, that's disgusting, and you're probably going to choke on it."

With his mouth full of food, he spoke, "But it's delicious this way."

"It's delicious either way, Alfie." Sydney responded, shaking her head at his behaviour, although a small smile was on her lips as she did so.

"Alfie, don't play with your food." Jerome scolded him, before flinging a fork full of spaghetti at Alfie and laughing, before Alfie picked up handfuls of spaghetti causing Jerome to try to warn him, "Alfie!"

Of course, he didn't listen and threw the spaghetti at Jerome, causing Mara and Sydney, the closest to the boy, to let out gasps as spaghetti hit them, "Take that!"

"I told you guys not to hit me with food this time, idiots!" Sydney yelled at them, frustrated that she now had sloppy food coating her.

Although, Jerome ignored the blonde girl's complaints and grabbed the salad and threw it at Alfie, and it was clear a food fight had broken out as Alfie threw yet another handful of spaghetti across the table, some of it hitting the other end of the table and Amber, who had just walked in, before she left again with her mouth open in shock and disgust.

Giving up on being nice and civil, Sydney rolled her eyes, before she leaned to the middle of the table and grabbed the first thing she laid her hands on – some salad – and threw it at Alfie and Jerome – she was part of their group after all; if they were involved in something, so was she.

"Really, guys, every meal?" Fabian muttered in annoyance, sending a small glare at the trio as he picked up a napkin and began wiping some spaghetti off his face.

However, the fun mood was ruined, coming to a complete halt, when Patricia picked up the jug of water that was on the table, pouring whatever was left of it (which was a lot) onto Nina's lap, causing her to be completely drenched, "Oops, sorry!"

Oh no.

"Classy, Patricia." Fabian sarcastically commented, evidently annoyed at her and her bad behaviour to the new girl, who really had done nothing wrong from what they knew.

"What? It was an accident!" Patricia lied, acting sweet and innocent when they had all just witnessed her purposely throw the water all over the new girl.

Ignoring Patricia, Fabian looked over at Nina with sympathy and concern written all over his face, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, except I think my sweater is shrinking to my body as we speak." Nina told him, as he stood up from his chair and went to the kitchen, most likely to grab something that would help to clean Nina up – although, it definitely seemed like she just had to change clothes and become a lot drier.

With distaste laced in her tone, Patricia, still sat in her seat, spoke up to the American, "So, Nina, when are you going to tell us what you know about Joy's disappearance?"

Shrugging, defeat clouded over Nina's eyes as she looked at the girl who despised her for something that was not Nina's fault, "I guess when I actually know something."

"Oh, come on." Patricia groaned as she stood up out of her chair, being the same height as the American now, "One minute I'm sitting next to Joy in class, and the next she'd disappeared, and you've taken her place - bit of a coincidence, don't you think?"

Having returned from the kitchen, Fabian passed napkins over to Nina, who used them to wipe her face and get rid of the spaghetti just as the phone began to ring from in the hall, all of them assuming that either Trudy or Victor would handle it, and thus ignoring it as the fight continued between the two girls.

"I guess it is." Nina responded simply.

"Maybe she's snatched her and locked her in the cellar." Alfie suggested, doing "spooky" hands and making a spooky sound effect as he laughed, causing everyone to turn to face him, some with amused expressions whilst others were irritated.

"Shut up, Alfie." Patricia ordered him, being one of the people who had looked at him with an irritated expression, before she turned back to face Nina, expecting a revelation from her about the whereabouts of Joy, "Well?"

"Like I said, I don't know anything about Joy or her disappearance." Nina told the girl, her voice laced with a desperate tone, but Patricia either didn't hear it or didn't care.

"I'll get it out of you, eventually." Patricia murmured, her eyes narrowed as she glared at the girl, clearly not liking and/or trusting her.

"Nina, phone call for you." Victor stated as he walked into the dining room, his voice turning to one of confusion as he noticed the mess that the dining room had been transformed into, "What's going on?"

"Nothing. Just Nina spilled water everywhere." Patricia told the housekeeper, putting on a sickly-sweet voice as she sat back down in her chair and Nina walked out to the phone

Sydney waited for a few seconds to make sure that victor was truly gone, before she picked up some spaghetti and wiped it on Jerome's cheek, the man turning back at her with a gasp and his jaw dropped, before he let out a small chuckle.

"You're in for it, Anderson." Jerome whispered, before he grabbed some spaghetti off his own plate and wiped it on her face, the two of them chuckling at one another.

"Oh, you guys, not again!" Trudy whined as she entered the room and saw the mess, instantly looking over at the end of the table where Jerome, Alfie, and Sydney sat, faces absolutely covered.

"Okay, in my defence, it wasn't just me this time!" Alfie told the woman, raising his hands in mock surrender, whilst Sydney chuckled at him.

She looked around the table with a disappointed look on her face, seeing all the students with spaghetti splatters on their face, and she shook her head, "Go and get cleaned up, then."

Following her orders, everyone dispersed to get cleaned up, and soon enough, Sydney made her way back into the living room, seeing that a few people were already sat in there. Walking in, Sydney went to sit on the arm of the chair that Jerome had sat on, once again, but then Jerome shuffled slightly, making room for her and patting there, instructing her to sit there with just his actions.

"I can't believe that creep won't give me Joy's home number." Patricia whined, annoyed as she sat down in the leather chair, still frustrated over not being able to get in contact with her best friend "At least she should get her stuff back the day after tomorrow."

Upon hearing Patricia whining about Joy's disappearance yet again, Sydney rolled her eyes and hoped that nobody saw it, but of course, Jerome did, with the boy letting out a small snicker as he did, with him finding himself getting annoyed at the constant whining too.

Of course, she was worried for Joy like everyone else, as she was somewhat close to the girl. Joy and Patricia, despite them not being her roommates, were the closest female friends that she had in the school and found that their personalities were a lot closer to hers than Amber's or Mara's. She didn't spend all her time with them but tended to spend a few breaks and free periods with them whenever she was too lazy to find Jerome and Alfie, or they were just conveniently by one another.

However, despite how close she was to the girl, it didn't mean that she wasn't annoyed by Patricia's constant whining about her disappearance, especially when they couldn't do anything about it, and it was just worrying them more.

"That's good. You'll be able to ring her then." Mara stated, looking on the positive side of things, although Patricia was evidently still upset as she made a face.

Patricia looked over at Nina, who was a lot drier than when they had previously seen her and was now reading a book, I know you've got something to do with this, Newbie, and I'm gonna' find out what it is."

"So, you've mentioned..." Nina responded, rolling her eyes and looking back down at the book that she was reading as she let out a mutter, "ten times."

"What did you say?" Patricia questioned, having heard the girl mutter something under her breath, but not knowing what and being extremely irritated by it,

Nina sent the girl a fake smile, "Nothing."

Not wanting to be in a room with such awkward tension, Sydney rolled her eyes before getting up from her seat, deciding to go and pester Alfie, who the blonde presumed was in his bedroom as he wasn't in the sitting room, and thus she went to the familiar room, knocking on the door until it opened, showing her best friend.

"Hey, you okay?" Alfie quizzed upon seeing her with an annoyed look on her face, moving aside so that she was able to brush past him and enter the room.

"Well, believe it or not, my worry for Joy gets worse when surrounded by people who only talk about Joy." Sydney muttered, dryly chuckling as she said it, before she sat down on Jerome's bed, brushing her hair back with her hands, "We can't do anything about it. Why can't she complain to Mr Sweet?"

"She'll be fine." Jerome spoke up as he opened the door, closing it behind him before he sat down next to his fellow blonde prankster, "The teachers have no reason to lie about her whereabouts. I mean, it's all stupid and overdramatic. Joy will contact us soon – stop overthinking, okay?"

Letting out a sigh, Sydney was silent for a few moments before nodding, leaning slightly more into Jerome for comfort whilst Alfie went over to his side of the room, taking a few of the joke items out of his backpack and putting them back, causing Sydney to chuckle before she remembered the video she had taken of Jerome being scratched by Alfie in a werewolf costume, a gasp escaping her lips before she took her phone out of her pocket.

Within seconds, she had unlocked her phone, with a faint smile crossing her lips as she saw her phone background. It was a picture of the three jokesters that Sydney remembered Amber taking without Jerome's or Sydney's knowledge, so they weren't looking at the camera. Instead, they were outside of Anubis House, with Sydney sat on Jerome's back as he gave her a piggyback, the pair of them having their heads thrown back as they laughed boisterously, not realising that a camera was on them. Alfie was in front of them, being the only one looking at the camera, as he gave a thumbs up and a wide smile to it. Amber had wanted the photo to be only Jerome and Sydney to prove to them how "cute" they were, but Alfie had jumped in at the last second. Despite Alfie, Amber had shown it to Sydney in attempts to prove that her and Jerome were adorable together, and Sydney had simply shook her head before asking her blonde roommate to send it to her, as it was a good photo.

Soon enough, Sydney found the video she was looking for, instantly going to share it with Poppy before Jerome's eyes widened, having realised what she was going to do and quickly trying to grab the phone from her, but the girl had already sent it.

"Whoops."

"I hate you." Jerome muttered, shaking his head at the blonde as he pulled away, seeing that the video had been sent to his younger sister.

"We both know that's a lie." Sydney chuckled, sticking her tongue out at her friend as the two of them laughed, not realising that Alfie had been watching them and was now waving his arms around, annoyed that they did not realise how close they were.

"Hey, you have an unopened message – best not be mine." Jerome informed the girl upon seeing the notification on her phone, causing Sydney to glance back down at the phone in her hands and check who the text was from – her aunt.

"No, it's just my aunt." Sydney informed him, a look of confusion passing on his face as he recalled Sydney telling him that she hardly saw any of her family, except from her parents, so Sydney elaborated, trying not to lie, "Over the break, I became closer to her."

"Oh, that's great, I guess." Jerome hesitantly responded, not actually knowing if it was until Sydney nodded in agreement, sending a reply to her aunt as he went to continue speaking, he was cut off by his phone beeping, his eyes narrowing as he pulled it out.

His lock screen was a picture of him and Sydney that Alfie had taken just two weeks ago, when term had first begun. It was taken right outside of Anubis House, and Jerome remembered that he had been waiting for Sydney to arrive, very anxiously and with a worried expression on his family – he honestly didn't know if she'd even turn up. Most breaks consisted of the pair constantly meeting up, sleeping over each other's house, and constantly texting one another, but this one was different and Jerome wasn't aware of the reason why – Sydney had stopped texting him so much near the last few weeks of the break, and if she did text then it was normally dull, and she constantly refused to go out, and when Jerome went to her house to check if she was okay, nobody answered the door.

It was odd indeed, and Jerome had missed his best friend.

Thus, as soon as he saw her exit a taxi (which the blonde boy thought was peculiar, as her parents typically dropped her off, but didn't question it), Jerome did not hesitate for a single second to call out her name, causing the girl to snap her head around to face him, and he noticed that her eyes became slightly watery before she rushed towards him, wrapping her arms around him tightly whilst they heard Alfie yelling about them flirting in the background, taking a picture of it to save for "proof".

Of course, he had asked about her odd behaviour, but she had simply told him that she was busy with family – Jerome just put the pieces together; she had been busy getting a family relationship with her aunt.

At least, he thought he'd put the pieces together.

Of course, at the cute picture on his lock screen, Jerome couldn't help but smile, but it was soon wiped away as he saw that he had a text notification from 'Poopy' – his little sister's contact name, and he rolled his eyes, sending a glare to Sydney who giggled, becoming even louder when she saw the teasing message that Poppy had sent to her brother, which made Jerome let out a groan before responding to her text to go away, putting his phone away.

"Okay, now you've embarrassed me enough, I say we have a film marathon tonight." Jerome declared, glancing over at Alfie, who now had his eyes glued to his laptop, "You in, Alfie?"

"Nah, dude, I haven't finished the biology assignment yet." Alfie revealed sadly, making Sydney guess that he was probably doing his assignment on his laptop, hence why his eyes seemed to be glued to it – the assignment was due tomorrow.

"Even I've done it, Alfie." Jerome announced, shocked that his friend had left it so last minute, but Sydney crossed her arms and turned to look at him, her eyebrow quirked up.

"But, is it good?"

"It's... a pass."

Chuckling, Sydney rolled her eyes at her friend before she nodded at him, "Film marathon – I'm in. I'll just need to change and get my stuff."

And with that, the blonde left their bedroom and quickly changed into a pair of pyjamas, before she ended up in her bedroom with Mara and Amber, talking to them as she began to pack a few things that she'd need to sleep over in Jerome and Alfie's room. However, the conversation they were having got cut off as the door opened, causing the three girls to turn back to see whom had entered – Mick.

"Hi, guys." Mick greeted them, slowly entering the room as he glanced at all of them, with Sydney sending him a small nod before she turned back to her wardrobe, presuming that he was only in the room to speak to Amber.

Shocked and confused by the sudden drop in, Amber, who had only wiped off half of her makeup, snapped her head back to face her boyfriend, "Mick, I've only got one eye on!"

"I like the panda look." Mick told his girlfriend with a small laugh, causing the blonde to also smile, feeling more assured of her appearance despite the fact one of her eyes were much darker than the other, as the other had concealer around it.

"Aww! Thanks, bubs, and it's sweet of you to come and see me." Amber responded, with the smile remaining on her lips and seeming to only get wider at the cute gestures that her boyfriend was doing.

"Actually, it's Mara I've come to see." Mick informed them awkwardly, causing Sydney's eyes to widen as she turned to see that Amber's jaw had dropped, and Mara had glanced up from her book, her eyes also wide – it seemed that none of the three girls were expecting that.

"Me, Mara?"

Turning to face the nerd, Mick nodded in agreement before he spoke, "Yeah, I was kind of struggling on that biology assignment, and, I wondered, since you're the biology babe, whether you could help me out?"

Knowing that Amber would not be happy about that situation, Sydney pursed her lips together as her eyes flickered over to her fellow blonde, taking notice how the annoyed look plastered across her face – she really was not being subtle about her jealousy.

Hesitantly, Mara let a nervous smile fall on her lips before she looked back at the jock, "Yeah, sure. Why not? A friend in need. Tomorrow evening?"

"It's a date." Mick let out, causing Sydney to make a low whistle in shock that he had the courage to say something like that in front of his girlfriend, who was extremely mad, whilst Mara awkwardly chuckled, causing Mick to add on, "In a manner of speaking."

"Yeah..."

And with that, Mick walked out of the room, saying his goodbyes to everyone before the door shut, and as soon as it did, Amber tilted her head towards Mara, causing the nerd to try to defend herself, "What? You want him to fail biology?"

"Probably not, but why doesn't he ask me to help him with his homework?" Amber questioned, and Sydney couldn't restrain the laugh that fell out of her mouth, whilst Mara gave Amber a look, causing Amber to realise why he didn't ask her before she continued to speak, "Okay, but I don't like him asking another girl - even when it's you."

"Amber, relax, he only wants me for my brains, and you - you're textbook gorgeous. He's crazy about you." Mara assured her, not wanting to get in a fight with her roommate and knowing that Amber was insanely jealous; she always wanted to know where Mick was and what he was doing, and always wanted to tag alongside him.

"Come on, Ambs, you two are the 'it' couple – nothing's gonna break you up - and, like Mara said, you're gorgeous." Sydney added on, sending the girl an assuring smile in hopes that this would not become a big deal – she did not want her two roommates fighting, especially if it was over Mick Campbell.

"Yeah, you two are right, as usual. After all, what's not to like?" Amber responded, which made Sydney let out yet another laugh, which was cut off by Victor's voice booming down the hallway.

"It's ten o'clock. You should be downstairs by now." Victor spoke, before he said the phrase that he spoke every single night, Sydney mouthing along to it with a roll of her eyes, as she had become so used to the phrase, "You have five minutes precisely, and then I want to hear a pin drop."

There was a moment of silence, presumably when the pin dropped, before Victor spoke up again – which was peculiar, normally after the pin drop, he stayed silent, returning to his office.

"I can still hear something!" Victor yelled out, and there was a pause before he spoke up once again, "Three minutes."

Suddenly, the door flew open and Patricia burst into the room, her eyes wide as her skin was a lot paler than normal – she was scared, and before Sydney had time to question it, the purple-haired girl yelled out, "Come quick!"

"What is it?" Mara questioned, confused at what had frightened the girl so badly that they had to follow her when it was three minutes until lights out – it was inevitable that Victor would find them and scold them for being out of bed.

"Joy." Patricia announced, causing Sydney's eyes to widen with shock, dropping the things that she had in her hands and following Patricia to the girl's bedroom, where the purple-haired girl opened the door to reveal Nina, who was innocently wiping the steam off the mirror with a towel.

"I mean, I know you said that the newbie replaced Joy, but I didn't think you meant they swapped bodies, because that is certainly not Joy." Sydney muttered, her eyes narrowed with confusion as she glanced back and forth between Patricia and Nina, wanting answers – however, her statement only caused Patricia to send a harsh glare at the blonde, before turning her hatred-filled stare to Nina.

"What are you doing?" Patricia questioned, evidently angry and seeming as though she was a volcano that could erupt very badly very quickly and destroy everything around her and the neighbouring towns.

Seeming as confused as the rest of the girls, Nina turned to face them as she hesitantly answered, "Cleaning the mirror?"

"Didn't you see what was on it?" Patricia asked her, her voice laced with irritation, and Sydney knew that this would only further prove Patricia's point of Nina having something to do with Joy's disappearance.

At that, Nina seemed even more confused, if that was even possible, as she answered the girl yet again, "Steam?"

"She's wiped it off!" Patricia concluded, once again blaming Nina for everything, whilst the poor girl just stood there, extremely confused at what was happening.

Trying to calm her down whilst figuring out what was happening, Mara looked over at Patricia, "What did it say?"

"'Help me! -Joy' and she's wiped it off so now it looks like I'm going crazy!" Patricia cried out, sounding as though she was on the verge of tears due to the whole predicament.

In an attempt to comfort the girl and calm her down, Mara put her hand on Patricia's shoulder, muttering, "Take it easy, Patricia."

"This is what she wanted. She's involved, I'm telling you." Patricia demanded, seeming very certain about this as they all looked back towards Nina, hoping that she'd have a good explanation.

"I didn't see anything when I wiped the steam off the mirror, except for myself, I swear." Nina defended herself, seeming rather truthful and desperate, which made Sydney feel slightly bad for the girl, who must have really wished she stayed in America at this point.

Suddenly, they heard a booming voice from behind them, causing them all to flinch as they snapped their head around to face Victor, who was glaring at all the girls with a confused yet stern expression on his face, "Why are you girls not in your rooms? You know the rules."

"I don't want to share with her." Patricia informed him, pointing towards Nina.

"Y-You know what? I-I'll move! Half my stuff is in a pile on the floor anyway, or I can just sleep on the couch?" Nina suggested, not wanting to cause a fuss or to have any drama, so just deciding to do what was easiest.

"Nobody is moving anywhere! Get to your rooms immediately." Victor declared, causing them all to run off to their rooms so that he didn't scold them again.

Half an hour later, in which Sydney spent doing any homework that she had for the rest of the week as she really did not want another detention, the blonde girl glanced up from her laptop and noticed that Amber and Mara were sleeping, and she hoped that Victor would be too. Thus, the girl quickly grabbed her things and sneakily crept downstairs, entering Jerome's and Alfie's room to see the blonde boy sat at his desk, glancing up at her as she entered.

"I was wondering if you were gonna' show up or not; I thought you'd ditched me for a second." Jerome told her with a small chuckle, moving his position on his chair so he was fully facing her, watching as she placed her bag of things down to the side.

"I'd never; Victor was just on the prowl again after some incident with the girls and Joy, I couldn't exactly leave immediately." Sydney explained, moving to sit on Jerome's bed as she noticed Alfie was fast asleep – she really hoped he had completed his assignment, but pushed it to the back of her mind as she asked, "So, what are we watching?"

It was silent for a little bit as Jerome thought, but then he glanced back at the fellow blonde, a smirk on his lips as he suggested, "Horror?"

"Sounds good, although expect me to jump and cling to you a lot." Sydney reminded him, laughing quietly as she knew how much she jumped whenever a frightening scene came on.

Shaking his head, Jerome moved to sit next to the girl on his bed, bringing his laptop as he quickly loaded up a random horror film, hoping that it was good as he muttered, "I always do."

And that's how both of them ended up cuddled next to each other, both of them fighting to remain awake but eventually failing as their eyes fluttered shut, although, both of them were still tangled together, refusing to let go of the other due to the sense of comfort they provided one another.

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[01.05.2020]

NOTE: if you notice any weird errors or things not making sense, please tell me! i have gone through and checked numerous times but for some reason some paragraphs kept getting deleted? i think i fixed it but i'm not sure.

anyways i love sydrome (that is their ship name unless u can think of a better one bc i'm not creative) and they're my children. i also love her friendship with alfie (and also amber) which will be explored more throughout the book.