DENOUEMENT
xiv. house of reunion
❝EVEN THOUGH HER LIFE WASN'T PERFECT, IT TRULY FELT LIKE IT IN THAT MOMENT.❞

"CLEANING FLUID?" AMBER Millington repeated the words that their housekeeper had just told them, with him having said that the test results came back saying that their friend had drank cleaning fluid, although that was rather confusing, and Amber clearly thought that as well as she continued, repeating once again, "Alfie drank cleaning fluid?"

"That is what the hospital said." Victor confirmed to them, not straying from his story and thus causing Sydney to subtly roll her eyes – none of them, except maybe Jerome, believed that, as the ones who didn't believe his story knew that the liquid had been taken from the cellar, and was thought to be the elixir of life.

Considering that lots of people didn't believe the story, Sydney wasn't the only one who let out a scoff, with Patricia Williamson doing the same, with an extra addition of mumbling under her breath, "Yeah, right."

However, she was clearly not as quiet as she had expected herself to be, as the housekeeper soon spoke up once again, having heard what she had said and thus questioning the purple-haired female, saying, "Perhaps you would care to enlighten us on exactly what you think was in that bottle, Miss Williamson?"

"Pass." Patricia simply stated, clearly not giving him the answer that he desired as he soon let out a small grumble, a scowl on his lips whilst he turned and left the dining room, having nothing else to say and thus presumably retreating to his office.

As he left, the complete opposite of him entered – Trudy Rehmaan, who literally carried an aura of delight around with her, and instantly the mood lightened as she entered a room; it was either her, or the grin that had appeared on Jerome's lips as he turned to their housemother.

"Trudy-kins, how are you today?" Jerome asked the housemother, a smile on his lips as he turned to her – however, his oddly pleasant and positive behaviour let everyone in the room aware that he wanted something, especially with the addition of the nickname he had given her; nobody ever called Trudy 'Trudy-kins'.

Considering that the boy was blatantly after something and that everyone had recognised that, including Trudy, the housemother turned to him and told him, "Old enough and wise enough to know when you want something, Jerome - out with it."

"Well, you know how Alfie and Sydney and me are best mates, yeah? And now he's in a hospital bed, probably bored to death with no-one to talk to, except old men with hacking coughs and bad breath." Jerome began, pausing for a second before he rushed out the statement that told her what he wanted, saying, "We want the day off to go and visit him."

"Fine." Trudy responded, nodding in agreement with the idea - she had expected for one of them to come to her and to ask to see the boy, so it wasn't much of a surprise.

However, the answer that the housemother gave was a shock to Jerome and Sydney, who had expected to get rejected.

"Come on, Trudy! It's not like we've been bad-!" Jerome yelled out instinctively, cutting himself off as he realised what the housemother had said, and that she hadn't rejected his offer, his eyes widening as he looked at her, confused and repeated what she had said, "Fine?"

Confirming it, the housemother nodded but then quickly told them, "But not the whole day though - you can have a couple of hours this afternoon."

"Thanks, Trudy." Sydney said, sending the housemother a very small smile as she poked at the food on her plate - she was exactly in the mood for eating.

"Erm, Trudy? Can I do that as well, please?" Amber asked, before explaining her reasoning behind wanting to go as she added, "I feel a bit bad that he's not got something nice to look at whilst he's in there."

Did she just call both Jerome and Sydney bad looking?

Before the pranksters could think about that question any longer (they had already shared a confused glance with one another and sent a look towards the fashionista, who hadn't noticed it), the housemother responded to her request with a nod as she told her, "Oh, okay, I'll see what I can clear with Mr Sweet."

"Erm, Trudy-." Patricia began,

However, before the purple-haired girl could continue and ask the question, the housemother held her hand up and cut her off, telling them, "No! I can only get permission for three of you to go; you'll have to fight it out amongst yourselves."

"We're his best friends; we're going." Sydney stated, pointing between herself and the blonde boy beside her, who nodded in agreement - obviously, this then caused Patricia and Amber to begin arguing about which person should go to the hospital, causing the pair of blonde pranksters to roll their eyes.

However, it seemed as though a few hours later they had solved their argument (though Sydney was unaware how), as Patricia Williamson had been the one to join Sydney Anderson and Jerome Clarke on their trip to the hospital, having brought some grapes for the hospitalised boy but also eating them on the way there. Although, nobody particularly cared about that too much once they arrived at the hospital, rushing to the receptionist and asking for Alfie's room number, then going in that direction and opening the door slightly, peering in as they heard the sound of some sort of game - of course, Alfie Lewis was killing aliens on a game, and that caused Sydney to have a small grin on her face.

That was the Alfie Lewis they knew and loved.

To make themselves known to the boy, the three Anubis House students made their way into the room, only for their eyes to narrow in suspicion and confusion when the boy in the bed quickly hid the game that he was playing, covering his face with a sad and tired expression that Sydney was easily able to see through - he should have known better, hardly anyone can hide how they truly feel to the girl.

"Yo, dude, what's up?" Jerome greeted his best friend cheerfully, being glad that he was actually alive and seemed better, and thus putting his hand towards him so that he could get a high-five.

"You know..." Alfie wheezed out, faking a weak voice as he pretended that he had to struggle to lift his hand to return the high-five - he really was trying to fool them and make them believe that he was still sick, despite what they had seen mere moments ago, "...been better."

"Quit play-acting, you goof." Patricia instructed him with a small smile on her lips, causing the boy to roll his eyes at them, annoyed that he had been caught out, before he was forced to give up the act and return back to his usual self with a smile on his lips, "We just saw you obliterating aliens."

"Very well, might I add." Sydney added, the group letting out a small chuckle before the blonde-haired female reached out and hugged him, the boy quickly returning it as she told him, "We all missed you so much, you goofball!"

"Even if I force you to watch alien films practically every night?" He questioned as they pulled away from the hug, though it only caused the girl's smile to widen.

"Especially because you force us to watch alien films. When you get out of here, we're going to watch every single alien film that you want." Sydney informed him, causing Jerome to release a small groan, making the female elbow him in the side to shut him up - she didn't care if they watched the same alien films over and over again as long as her friend was okay.

"Wicked!" Alfie exclaimed excitedly, a smile beaming on his lips as he effectively bounced in his bed, clearly enthusiastic to have yet another alien movie marathon with his best friends.

"We brought you some grapes." Patricia informed him, holding out the bag which used to hold the grapes in them, causing the boy to reach out and take them from her to reveal the stem, with no grapes, "Jerome and Sydney ate them all."

At that, Jerome and Sydney threw her a confused glance, with the former of the two protesting against the statement and yelling out, "You did, you mean!"

"Here, go and buy him some chocolate." Patricia ordered the male prankster, ignoring his protests and putting some coins into his hand, and Alfie was obviously on board with that idea and seemed to love it - if his grin wasn't wide enough already, it had managed to get wider.

"Ooo, chocolate, yum-yum!"

With a roll of her eyes, Sydney grabbed Jerome's hand and practically dragged him out of the hospital room, though she didn't exactly get very far until she was pulled back by the boy, entering the hospital room that they had just been in a few seconds ago.

"Hang on, why are we buying the chocolate? You go!" Jerome questioned the female, holding out the money for her to take whilst the girl beside him rolled her eyes, knowing that they could have probably already been at the vending machine at that point, but the boy had to have an argument.

And, an argument he soon received as the purple-haired goth didn't take the money and quickly reminded him, "Uh, because I'm paying for it."

However, Jerome shrugged, "So?!"

Realising that the prankster clearly did not want to go/was not willing to go, Patricia eventually have up and snatched the money out of the boy's hand with a scoff, about to leave until a nurse entered the room to check up on Alfie - however, it seemed as though she'd get a lot more than just test results as Jerome's eyes widened, and Sydney instantly knew that he was thinking.

Quickly turning to his bed-ridden best friend, Jerome begun to act like he had been giving a whole speech the entire time they'd been here, talking about how dedicated he was and how much he cared for the boy in the bed, "And no matter what, I'll take care of you for ever and ever, because I am your best friend."

Of course he'd try to impress the nurse.

"Looking good, Alfie." The nurse remarked, ignoring the other boy in the room as she grabbed a thermometer, continuing to do her job.

Clearly, Jerome wasn't the only one who wanted to impress and/or flirt with the nurse, as the compliment given to Alfie made him smile at her as he quickly responded with, "Always do, Nurse Delia."

Continuing her checks, the nurse noticed that he seemed much better and was almost fully recovered from the incident, thus causing her to state, "I think it's safe to say we'll soon be saying goodbye to you."

Upon hearing the news, Alfie quickly placed his hands on his stomach whilst faking a cough, pretending that he was in pain as he cried out, "Feel sick!"

"So, what was the official diagnosis? We never heard at school." Patricia inquired, clearly only being present at the hospital so that she could find out more information about the elixir and what the boy saw down in the cellar - she was only there for Sibuna.

As Sydney remembered the secret club that she had left yesterday, a wave of sadness came over her; she loved that club, because, despite all the creepy incidents and how risky it was, she gained some more amazing friends that helped each other through it all.

"The doctors still aren't sure - some sort of allergic reaction to something he drank." The nurse vaguely answered, clearly not having all of the answers, despite their housekeeper saying that the doctors had come back and claimed that he drank cleaning fluid.

Clearly, Sydney wasn't the only one confused by the claim, as her purple-haired roommate spoke up herself, "I thought he drank cleaning fluid?"

"The tests are still with toxicology." She told them, letting them know that the housekeeper had lied about what the drink was and the tests having come back, before she turned to Alfie and instructed him, "Leave the thermometer in, I'll be back in a sec."

And with those instructions being made to the boy, the nurse soon began to leave the room, which left the four Anubis House residents in the room altogether, in silence as they watched the nurse leave, waiting until the door had shut before they spoke up, and Sydney was the first one to do so.

With a scoff, the girl lightly hit the blonde-haired boy beside her as she accused him, stating, "I swear, you flirt with anything that has a pulse."

"I don't flirt with Patricia or Alfie!" Jerome defended himself, pointing at the two people in the room who cringed at the thought of the boy flirting with him.

"Try it and you'll lose your head." Patricia threatened, shaking her head at the boy.

"I wasn't going to, Trixie." Jerome stated, rolling his eyes at the girl before he glanced around the room and told everyone, "You know, Nurse Delia makes getting sick kind of appealing."

"Keep your eyes off my nurse." Alfie demanded, the thermometer still in his mouth and thus causing his speech to be somewhat muffled and his voice not to come out as intimidating as he may have wanted.

"Your nurse?" Jerome asked, the boy nodding in response and causing him to continue, telling the boy, "Alfie, you are way too unversed in the laws of flirtation - unlike moi. Don't worry, I'll show you how it's done."

At that, Sydney released a large sigh and placed her head in her hands, her voice coming out as a very faint groan as she stated, "This is going to be bad."

Evidently not wanting to stay in the room with the three pranksters for much longer, getting fed up with their antics and how peculiar they were, Patricia stood up from her seat and approached the door, telling them, "I'm going to the coffee shop, losers."

"Oh, I think I might be coming down with a case of Delia fever." Jerome declared as he pretended to be dizzy and way too warm, fanning himself with his hand, causing the girl out of the three to let out a small chuckle as she watched him with amused eyes.

"You, Clarke, are something else, truly." Sydney mumbled, shaking her head at his stupidity.

After a few minutes, Nurse Delia came back into the room, causing Jerome to begin his "flirtation", if that's what it could have even been called. Faking being too warm, despite the room being pretty cool, he took off the blazer that he had been wearing and placed it on the side, before continuing to fan himself whilst the nurse tried to do her job and make sure that Alfie was okay.

"Is it me, or is it hot in here?" Jerome questioned, unbuttoning his shirt and revealing the t-shirt that he wore underneath, and the female prankster noticed that the nurse had rolled her eyes at the question - she was evidently used to this and knew that the boy was being an idiot, but that didn't stop him from continuing, "My heart is pounding." He claimed, placing his hand on his chest and his eyes widening with shock as he continued the lie, telling the nurse, "You know, I think it might be palpitations - feel how fast my pulse is racing."

Playing along with the boy's schemes, Nurse Delia followed his instructions and felt his pulse, before her eyes widened as she turned to the boy with a shocked expression on her face as she stated, "My word - that is exceptionally fast."

Upon hearing that, Jerome's eyes became confused as he didn't notice that the woman had noticed his game and was lying to him, causing him to ask, "Is it?"

"Dangerously so, I'd say." Nurse Delia lied, though the use of the word 'dangerous' made the boy rather concerned as he began to panic, wondering whether or not he was okay and whether he'd have to be hospitalised.

"In what way dangerous?" Jerome quickly inquired, whilst his two friends were behind him and very much amused, having figured out what the nurse was doing whilst Jerome had clearly not, watching the nurse with cautious and worried wide eyes.

"I think you need an injection of beta blockers straight away." She told him, walking over to the tray with all her equipment on, though the word 'injection' made the boy worry even more - he was beginning to get even more panicked.

"Beta blockers?" Jerome repeated, turning around and sharing a worried glance with his two friends, who didn't seem slightly bothered about the whole incident - normally, he would have looked into that more and wondered why they weren't more concerned, but his mind was racing with questions that were asking if he was going to die.

"Don't worry, just because the needle is gigantic, doesn't always mean it hurts more. Although, in this case it does." The nurse told him, taking out a humongous needle that instantly made the boy's face pale, turning into a sheet of white as pure panic took over his face - he was petrified, causing him to stammer over his words as he tried to protest against it and stop the nurse.

"No, Nurse, I haven't really, I mean, I was only-."

"What? Joking?" Nurse Delia asked, turning around from the tray to look at the boy, who now seemed confused, and caused the nurse to continue with a smirk on her lips as she declared, "Gotcha."

Whilst Jerome let out a sigh of relief, his two best friends behind him began to laugh hysterically, having found the whole thing hilarious.

"Nice one, Nurse Delia." Alfie complimented the woman, a grin on his lips as he did so - clearly, he was rather fond of the nurse who had been taking care of him, and she seemed nice enough.

Not being able to stop laughing over the hilarious ordeal, Sydney continued to giggle boisterously as she exclaimed through fits of laughter, "You should have seen your face, Jerome!"

Despite all the worrying that she had done yesterday, Sydney Anderson was now smiling widely and laughing cheerfully with her two favourite people in the world, Jerome and Alfie, and even though her life wasn't perfect, it truly felt like it at that moment.

A while later, Nurse Delia had left and Patricia Williamson had yet to return from the coffee shop, and thus it was just the trio of pranksters, with the two blondes sat in the chairs next to their best friend's hospital bed as the two boys laughed with one another, with Jerome watching Alfie play on his game and obliterate the aliens on his screen excitedly. Meanwhile, Sydney had her phone out and a frown on her lips as she texted her purple-haired roommate, wondering where she was and whether she was okay until her phone began to ring - it was Patricia.

"I'll be back in a second; it's Patricia." Sydney told the two boys, quickly stepping out of the room as she answered the call, putting the phone up to her ear as she quickly exclaimed, "Patricia, where are you? You've been at that coffee-."

"Come to the exit of the hospital." She instructed, causing the prankster's eyes to narrow in confusion and suspicion, but before she could ask any questions, the phone hung up.

Releasing a sigh, the blonde-haired female soon rushed over to where her roommate had told her to go, rushing outside of the hospital and glancing around to see nobody, until she felt a hand grab her and pull her to the side, and she was about to scream until she saw a flash of purple hair - Patricia Williamson.

Snapping around, Sydney went to scold the girl until she noticed the man in a wheelchair beside her - he seemed familiar, but she didn't know where from and thus thought it was just a passing resemblance, and her eyebrows furrowed in suspicion as she looked at him and then back at her roommate, confused.

"It's Rufus." Patricia informed her, clearly worried as she looked over at the man, "I saw him in there and I don't know what they've done to him, but he's like..." She trailed off, motioning to the man who was unconscious and completely out of it, as she continued, "...this, so I took him."

"Okay, how does that sound like a good idea in your mind?" Sydney questioned, brushing her hair back as she was frustrated, her mind going crazy as she thought of what would happen if someone figured out that they had taken a patient from the hospital.

"I couldn't just leave him there!" She declared, defending her actions before she told the girl, "We need to go and hide him, now!"

"Patricia, this is crazy." Sydney stated, before her eyebrows furrowed in confusion - she wasn't a part of their group anymore, and she certainly was not leaving the hospital early to hide Rufus; she still had a bad feeling about him, "I'm staying here - I'm not leaving Alfie early and both him and Jerome will get suspicious if I do."

"Okay, just help me get him into a taxi back to Anubis House." Patricia instructed the girl, who released a sigh but followed her instructions, pulling out a phone and ringing a taxi before the pair waited for one to pull up, hiding at the side of the building so no workers saw them stealing a patient - after a while of silence, the purple-haired girl spoke up, "You know, you could re-join Sibuna again - it's not the same without you; we're all... dull. Nina left yesterday as well, and now she's back - you could come back too."

With a faint smile on her lips, Sydney turned to the girl and told her, "I'll think about it."

Soon enough, the taxi pulled up and the two girls hastily put Rufus into it, with Patricia going in after him and Sydney closing the car door, making the purple-haired girl promise to text her once she got back to the school and once she had met up with the rest of Sibuna, whom Patricia said that she would call and tell them to bring supplies once she had gotten back to the house and hid the man in the wheelchair. Once that was out of the way, the blonde quickly entered the hospital and went back to the rooms with her best friends, both of them thankfully too engaged in conversation to notice how long she had taken or her sudden appearance.

"-And Mr Winkler has finished assigning roles for the play." Jerome informed the boy, causing the female prankster to nod as she slid back down into her seat, joining the conversation and fitting into it effortlessly.

"Yeah, and he's given me a professional camera to take the photos with - said that I can keep it if I do a good job of the photos." Sydney told them, a small smile on her lips at the thought - if she had a professional camera, then she could have high quality pictures of Alfie and Jerome in stupid costumes; sounds like a great idea.

"It's going to be sad not being able to talk to you; you can't come backstage." Alfie mentioned, a frown on his lips at the thought as he knew that in breaks/when he wasn't on stage, he would have loved to speak to her, but the girl soon shook her head.

"No, I can go anywhere I want." Sydney stated, a smile on her lips as she remembered how she had managed to convince the drama teacher to let her move around and to come back stage during some parts of the play, "I spoke to Winkler about it and rambled about the importance of having different angles and showing different perspectives to get a good shot, just so that I can join you guys on the side of the stage at some points. Although, I will have to be taking pictures as well as talking, so don't distract me too much."

"How many times has rambling helped you?" Jerome questioned, chuckling slightly - the girl rambled a lot, especially to teachers, to help her get something that she wanted, and it typically seemed to work; it always distracted the teacher and made them think that she was right from how much she was explaining it - they thought that she was passionate about it.

At that, Sydney also let out a chuckle as she told the boy, "Way too much, my friend, way too much."

Despite the fun time that they were having, the two blonde pranksters soon realised that their time was almost over and that they had to leave, so they said goodbye to their friend and got a taxi home. However, Jerome had begun getting worried about Patricia, who had never returned from the coffee shop because she wasn't there; she wasn't even at the hospital anymore. Not lying, Sydney had managed to convince Jerome that the purple-haired girl was probably back at Anubis House and had decided to go home early.

Although, he still wanted to check once they got home, and upon not finding her in the dining room, living room, or kitchen, he went to go upstairs to her bedroom with Sydney trailing behind him, until they ran into all of Sibuna, minus Patricia, obviously.

"Guys, have you seen Patricia?" Jerome called out to them, causing them to stop in their tracks as he continued, telling them, "She disappeared at the hospital, and I'm thinking we should tell Trudy."

"Uh, Patricia is-." Fabian began.

"Oh, she's at-." Amber interrupted.

"She's got a boyfriend!" Nina cut them off before the fashionista before she could say anything that would give something away, "Madly in love! He's in a band; I think they are kind of goth."

"Patricia has a boyfriend? You're serious?" Jerome asked, causing them to nod at him and resulting in the male prankster cringing, "Poor guy!"

With that being said, Jerome slung his arm around Sydney's shoulders, and they went into the living room. However, before they entered, the female shared a small glance with the members of Sibuna and sent them a small nod just before they left the house, as she began to wonder if she should re-join the secret club - she definitely missed it.

Although, she had more important things to deal with first - Alfie Lewis' return from hospital and his arrival back to Anubis House.

Fortunately, the nurses had soon deemed the boy okay and declared that he'd be out of the hospital the next morning, so the entirety of Anubis House got together and planned to surprise him - they had all missed his witty jokes and, surprisingly, even the food fights that he tended to cause; the mood of the house was dull without him there, and it seemed to brighten up as soon as he stepped through the doors the next day alongside Trudy, who had gone to get him.

"Has everyone gone to school already? It's not even quarter to nine yet." They heard the boy say as he entered the house, his tone mildly disappointed and confused as he was obviously upset that nobody, not even his best friends, had greeted him when he'd come back from hospital - little did he know, they were all in hiding, with Sydney sharing a bright and wide smile to Jerome, who was stood beside her as the pair of them hid together.

"I know - terrible, isn't it?" Trudy murmured, continuing the lie as she led the boy into the living room, having told him that he needed to rest on the sofa before they entered the house - it wasn't out of the ordinary.

Upon seeing the pair enter the living room, everyone instantly shot out from their hiding places with grins on their lips, setting off party poppers as they yelled out cheerfully, "Surprise!"

Of course, they'd be there to welcome him home.

"For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow, and so say all of us!" All of them sang, approaching the boy and clapping their hands in time with the song, watching as his face contorted from an expression of disappointment into one of delight within a few seconds.

"Welcome home, mate." Jerome greeted his friend, whilst the female out of the prankster trio reached forward and hugged the once-hospitalised boy tightly - they were all glad that he was safe and back home.

"Is it okay to go now?" Mick asked, eager to go and do his workouts for the day as he was still training for something - however, Sydney didn't care about what; she never exactly paid much attention to the jock, and the only reason she knew he was training for something was because her roommate was the one typically helping him.

With a sigh, Trudy agreed, "Oh, go on."

"Welcome back, mate. You look strong." Mick said, slapping him on the back before he left the house to exercise - Sydney would have much preferred to stay in Anubis House than exercise, and that is exactly why she wasn't best friends with Mick Campbell.

"We're so glad you're home!" Amber exclaimed, which was true - the entirety of Anubis House, even the ones not involved in Sibuna, had been worried about the boy when he had been hospitalised; they missed him a lot and the conversations at the dining table never felt the same without him.

"Are you coming to school today?" Jerome asked the boy - they had dress rehearsals for the play for most of the day, and everyone was rather excited about it - Sydney was rather glad she was only a photographer, because a lot of the costumes were ridiculous, though she thoroughly enjoyed her friend's costume and he appeared to as well as he said, "Because our costumes for the play have arrived, and our camel suit is awesome!"

"Yeah, I want to see you both in it. It's going to be hilarious and I have to make sure I have at least one photo of it!" Sydney added, a mischievous grin on her lips at the thought - ever since she had found out the ridiculous roles that the boys were playing, she had been dying to get pictures of them in their costumes to add to the album she had on her phone of embarrassing pictures, and also so that she could send more pictures to Poppy Clarke.

However, Trudy shook her head at the pranksters as she quickly cut in and informed them, "Alfie's not going into school this morning."

"Aw, Trudes, I want to go to school!" Alfie told the housemother, protesting against her - although, it was probably the first (and last) time he'd ever say those words; they were very out of character for the boy.

"That's a first." Sydney mumbled, chuckling as she did so, before she glanced over at the housemother and jokingly told her, "Think he might need to go back hospital; he's still sick."

"You're right, I never thought I'd hear that coming from your lips, Alfie Lewis." Trudy agreed, also chuckling at how odd the statement was coming from the boy, who typically did whatever he could to skip lessons, "Are you sure you're up to it?" The boy nodded, so she shrugged and caved in as she told him, "Okay, if that's what you want."

"Come on, we've got to show it to you!" Jerome exclaimed, referring to the camel costume that the two boys had to wear, and thus dragging both Alfie and Sydney out of the room with him, the three of them letting out fits of laughter as he did so.