DENOUEMENT
xvii. house of hazard
❝WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, SIR-.❞

HER MOTHER ATTEMPTED to grab the steering wheel to get them out of the way, but it was far... far... too late.

The sound had to be the most haunting and horrendous thing – the sounds that still haunted her to this day.

The sound of pained and agonised screeches coming from those whom she loved with a mix of her own thrown in there, although she couldn't really distinguish them properly; the sound of a million shards of glass shattering; and the intensified sound of bones crunching filled the girl's ears, lodging themselves in her mind and being trapped in there for seemingly the rest of her life, as they would not allow her to forget the memory.

Then most of the sounds came to a halt. She could hear a faint buzzing noise, and some far away chatter and yelps for help that seemed as though they were coming from outside the vehicle, although she didn't pay attention to it. The shallow breaths of her parents were apparent, but they were worryingly shallow, and Sydney wondered why they weren't calling out.

"Sydney!" A voice called out, causing Sydney to shoot up from her bed with wide eyes, the call of her name having snapped her out of her nightmare, although her breathing was rather fast as her chest rapidly rose up and down, the prankster's eyes darting around the room as she attempted to ground herself, before glancing over to the person who had called her name – Mara Jaffray, her roommate, "Are you okay? You were rolling around in your sleep like you were panicked or something, and it's not the first time-."

"Mara, I'm fine – just a bad night." Sydney assured the girl, brushing her fingers through her hair as she got out of bed, quickly grabbing her things to get ready, and once she was ready, she noticed how quiet the room had gone, causing her to glance over to the third bed in the room, which was empty and made, "Where's Patricia?"

"Trudy said she went out with her family, but I thought she'd be back by now." Mara answered, sniffling slightly as she did so – it was almost like she was crying, causing the blonde-haired prankster to glance over at her and look at her through the mirror, seeing her watery eyes – something was wrong.

"Are you okay?" Sydney asked the nerd carefully, not wanting to tread too far and upset the girl further – whatever it was, she was distraught about it and didn't need to shed anymore tears about it.

In response, the nerd shook her head as she glanced at the prankster through the mirror, wiping away a few tears that were on her cheeks as she began to ramble slightly, telling the girl, "I did something really bad, and I need to talk to Patricia."

"Maybe she's come back. We can go check downstairs for her, if you'd like?" Sydney suggested, not wanting for the girl to cry anymore so trying to think of anything that would help her - also, she wanted to check if Patricia was downstairs anyways, considering she should have been back at that time anyways.

Thankfully, Mara agreed to the suggestion, and the two found themselves quickly going into the dining room in an attempt to find the girl, as it was the only place where their purple-haired roommate could have been hiding if she had returned home from "going out with her family" which was actually her meeting up with Rufus. However, the two girls were disappointed (with an added bonus of worry for Sydney) when they walked into the room, setting their sights upon Nina Martin, Fabian Rutter, and Amber Millington sat around the dining table - no sign of Patricia Williamson.

"Have any of you seen Patricia?" Mara asked the group, making them all turn to face the two girls with widened eyes, clouded with worry for their friend, considering that they were the only ones who knew the purple-haired girl's true reason for leaving the house last night and they had all assumed she would have returned by morning.

"Didn't she come home last night?" Nina questioned, feeling a lot more worried about their housemate that she had a few moments ago - she'd had a bad feeling ever since last night, and the revelation that she had yet to return was only making it worse.

In response, Sydney shook her head - she had become increasingly concerned for her purple-haired roommate in the past few minutes, especially since she was never fond of the man that she had gone to meet, and now she was seemingly missing, not being found anywhere in the house; something was wrong, "Unless she's invisible or really good at hide and seek, then she hasn't come back. Her bed hasn't been slept in, and there's no sign of her."

"Trudy said she went out with her aunt and uncle after the play. I thought she would be back by now." Mara added, giving the group a little bit more information, although sounding like she was on the verge of tears as she did so (because she was) - her eyes had tears stinging them and she was slightly shaking, and it was clear that whatever she did that was 'really bad' had heavily affected her.

Upon noticing her watery eyes, shaking body, and broken tone of voice, Fabian glanced towards the girl and observed her for a moment or two, seeming confused and concerned at the state of the nerd, before he inquired, "Are you alright, Mara?"

"No! I need to talk to Patricia." Mara responded, sounding completely devastated whilst she looked up to the ceiling in an attempt to stop the tears from falling down her eyes, though it didn't seem like she was doing such a good job of that.

"Hey, you can talk to us, if you like." Nina assured her, motioning to the rest of the group who liked to claim that they were good at helping people and giving advice – after all, they didn't like seeing the nerd upset and wanted to help the girl.

However, Mara seemed to consider it for a moment or two, until she glanced around and cast her gaze upon Amber, who had moved to stand beside her, before she shook her head and cried out, "No, I can't!"

As she stormed out of the room, Sydney worriedly called out after her to no avail, before she released a sigh and decided that she'd check on her later – Mara probably needed some space, so Sydney was willing to give her that, hence why she sat down at the table with the rest of her secret group, considering that breakfast was starting within a few minutes anyways.

"Trouble in paradise." Amber stated as she sat in her seat, causing everybody's eyebrows to furrow in confusion as they faced her, wondering what she meant as nobody had heard anything about there being any trouble in paradise, so the fashionista soon clarified, "Her and Mick – they were boyfriend and girlfriend for all of one hour and then they broke up."

"That explains why she's so sad." Sydney realised, pursing her lips together – she didn't want to say that she said so, because that was cruel when someone was going through a tough time, but Sydney and Patricia told Mara that the relationship wasn't going to work.

"Why?" Nina inquired, wondering why the athlete and the mathlete had split up so quickly – it was peculiar, considering that the former of the pair seemed to really like the jock and they seemed to be getting on fine, including at the play last night; they did kiss.

"Who knows?" Amber responded, clearly not bothered much about the reason why her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friend had decided to split up, as long as they were over – she still wasn't over Mick Campbell, so the news that he was single once again was good for her.

"She said she did something really bad - never said what." Sydney informed them, as she was pondering about what Mara Jaffray could have done that was 'really bad' that it ruined her relationship with the man who she had liked for a while and practically worshipped the ground of – whatever it was, the girl was distraught over it.

Deciding to get away from the Mick/Mara topic, as it didn't really concern them much, Nina released a sigh and soon changed the topic to what the secret group talk about most of the time they were together, considering it was what brought them together – Sibuna-related things, such as: "Where do you think Patricia is?"

"Hopefully with Joy, and not with Rufus." Fabian answered, with the female prankster out of the group nodding in agreement with that statement – she had never liked the unfamiliar man, and whilst they hadn't actually spoken to Joy Mercer in a while, Sydney still hoped that they could trust her.

"Yeah, something's odd about Rufus." Sydney chimed in, stating her opinion on the man who claimed to be a 'private investigator', though she wasn't particularly sure if he was, and his behaviour was extremely suspicious.

"I thought he was one of the good guys." Amber remarked, shaking her head at the new information that she was hearing as she exclaimed, telling the group, "Okay, it's impossible to keep track of who is good and who isn't – we need a newsletter."

"We need to figure out where Patricia is." Sydney stated, drumming her fingers on her legs underneath her table as she worried and thought about where her purple-haired roommate could have been and why she wasn't back at the house yet, continuing with, "Surely she would have contacted us by now about how her meeting with Rufus went and whether or not she found Joy – something's wrong."

Nodding in agreement, Nina sighed, "I hope she's okay."

"However, I do have some good news for you guys." Sydney informed the group, taking out her phone from her pocket as she went onto her photos – she had sent over a few of the photos from the play to her phone, and quickly clicked on the one that had Victor's reaction to his portrayal in the play, "I had a little plan of my own – I rambled to Winkler about the importance of perspective in photography so that he let me backstage, which allowed me to pretend that I was taking photos of you guys when, actually, I have Victor in the background and his reaction – thank me later."

"You're amazing!" Nina exclaimed, loosely hugging the girl as they all gained smiles on their lips – now, it wasn't just their memory as they had photographic evidence of the reaction, which they all leant forward to look at, "He definitely does not look happy."

"He looks like someone has superglued his pin to his hand so he couldn't drop it." Sydney blurted out, before her eyes widened upon realising what she had said, and she let out a small laugh, "That would make an amazing prank idea! Why have I not thought of that before?"

However, before they could have continued talking about Sibuna-related topics or pranks to pull on their housekeeper, the rest of Anubis House began to pile into the dining room for breakfast, minus the missing Patricia Williamson and the distraught Mara Jaffray, who had yet to return after running out of the room earlier – Sydney doubted that she'd come down for breakfast. Although, that went to the back of her mind as her two prankster friends walked into the room, with Alfie instantly going over to his seat whilst Jerome went over to the kitchen, causing Sydney to get up to her seat and approach the latter of the pair, leaning against the counter as he poured two bowls of cereal – one for him and one for her.

"You are a terrible person." Jerome greeted her with, their voices quiet as the rest of Anubis House seemed to be in a very awkward silence, with nobody at the dining table talking as they simply ate their food (that even included Alfie Lewis, which was rather surprising), although Sydney let out a soft chuckle at the blonde boy's words.

"I love when you say such sweet words to me." Sydney responded, a smirk on her lips as she fully turned to the boy, who did the same once both bowls of cereal were poured, though he looked down at her with a fake angry expression, "What is that look for this time? I've done a lot of things over the past few days and I've lost track of which one could have annoyed you this time."

Without saying anything, the boy pulled his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it, before going onto his text messages and showing the girl his conversation with his little sister, Poppy Clarke, who had somehow managed to get her hands on a video of the dancing camel and cactus and had begun to tease him with it – of course, Sydney had sent the little girl the video last night before she had gone to sleep and after she had called her aunt and Lila again to tell them how the play had went.

"Whoops?" Sydney stated, shrugging slightly and causing the boy to roll his eyes at her, though a small smile was on his lips as he did so – as much as he didn't love the fact that his sister had many embarrassing photos and clips of him thanks to Sydney Anderson, he did like the fact that the two of them were quite close; it was cute.

"I can't believe that Winkler actually let you keep the camera." Jerome grumbled, though he was actually proud of the girl for having taken such impressive photos that their teacher had actually allowed her to keep the camera, saying something about the lines of refining a natural talent and making people the best they can be then reciting a Shakespeare quote, "You're going to be able to get high quality pictures of me now."

"And I'm going to love every second of it." Sydney added, a smile on her lips.

"Here, let me." Jerome mumbled, motioning to her undone tie and quickly doing it for her like always, before he went to grab spoons for the pair so that they could eat their cereal – in the meantime, an actual conversation begun in the dining room.

"You're quiet, Mick." Amber blurted out, suddenly becoming observant of her ex-boyfriend's behaviour as she glanced over at him from across the table – he wasn't the only one being quiet, however; the entire table was quiet and there was an awkward atmosphere in the air – it seemed as though Mick and Mara's breakup had caused quite an effect on the Anubis House, despite them only being together for an hour.

At the observation, the jock peered up from his previous gaze, which was on the bowl of cereal that he had been eating, and looked at the fashionista as he asked, "Am I?"

"Trouble in Mara-dise?" Amber inquired, obviously wanting to know more details about why they broke up, although her play on words made herself and the prankster with an undying crush on her laugh, "Wow, that was so clever! Get it? Mara-dise!"

From over at the kitchen, Sydney pointed to the fashionista with a slightly amused look on her face from the pun that her friend had said a few seconds ago, speaking up and stating, "You have spent way too much time with me."

"Yeah, it was ingenious!" Mick exclaimed with a fake smile on his lips, seeming amused for a few seconds before the grin suddenly fell off his lips and was replaced with an expression of anger and aggression as he yelled out, "None of your business!"

And with that, Mick Campbell stood up from the table and stormed out.

"Ooh, touchy." Jerome called out, causing the girl beside him to weakly nudge him in his side in order to get him to be quiet – she felt bad for Mick Campbell (which she never thought that she would say), as it was evident that whatever happened between him and Mara Jaffray had upset him deeply and he didn't want to talk about it.

Wanting to get rid of the awkwardness in the room, Nina quickly thought of a new topic that was able to get them away from the relationship drama within Anubis House, as she hastily stammered out a question, "So, uh, Alfie! Are your parents still here?"

"They leave tonight." Alfie answered, and the female prankster almost cheered at that news (she really wasn't fond of his parents), but the boy spoke up again before she had the chance to, looking over at all the Anubis House residents as he informed them, "Actually, there is something that I want to ask you guys."

"Oh, is this why you've been so quiet?" Sydney asked him, having noticed that he had been looking into his cereal bowl for most of breakfast and hadn't spoken much – the first time his voice had been heard that morning was when he laughed at Amber's pun.

"I sort of got a bit carried away last night and I may have led my parents to believe I'd been promoted to, well... head of house." Alfie announced to the group, causing his two blonde-haired prankster friends to let out a small chuckle from where they were in the kitchen, already understanding where the situation was going.

"Oh, congratulations!" Amber cheered for the boy, proud of him for a few seconds, before she realised a vital piece of information and her smile dropped from her face, stating, "Wait, we don't have a Head of House."

"That's true, so it's not exactly a lie now, is it?" Alfie responded, though Sydney thought that his logic was flawed as it most certainly was a lie, but before she had the chance to call it out, he slowly continued, being rather hesitant and awkward as he spoke up, "So, I was wondering if when they come around if you guys could like..."

"Bow down and kiss your feet."

"Treat you like royalty."

Simultaneously, the two blonde pranksters finished for him as they came out of the kitchen with their cereal bowls in hands, going and sitting in their seats after they had stated those words to their friend, rather amused faces on them as they did so, whilst Alfie nodded at them in agreement.

"Yeah, exactly!"

Although, Sydney Anderson knew why Alfie Lewis wanted everybody to treat him like royalty and as though he out-ranked them, as his parents were strict and constantly disappointed of the boy, when all he wanted to do was to make them proud whilst still being himself – unfortunately, he could only do one of those things, and that was exactly why Sydney Anderson despised Mrs and Mr Lewis.

Speaking of people who Sydney Anderson despised, Victor Rodenmaar was one of them, as he managed to make the atmosphere in the room turn dark within seconds, which was exactly what happened nearing the end of breakfast, when he gathered up all the Anubis House residents into the dining room, dragging Mick Campbell back in there and telling him to sit down with a stern look on his face and a scowl on his lips – he was not happy, and the female prankster presumed that she was able to guess the reason why.

The missing puzzle pieces from his safe.

It turned out that, despite there being only one puzzle piece that Victor confiscated from the group, he had managed to find one himself that looked exactly like the confiscated one, which he had been keeping in his safe. Nina, of course, took both, considering that both of the puzzle pieces were likely to be important and it was presumably the only chance that they were going to get to break into their housekeeper's safe.

Turning to face the enraged housekeeper with a cheeky smile on his lips, Fabian asked the man in a mildly smug (at least, it sounded that way to those in Sibuna, but to everyone else it probably sounded rather interested) tone, "Is this about the play?"

"Do you think I'm here to give you a review? Your juvenile fantasies are of no concern to me whatsoever." Victor responded harshly, moving to where Patricia would have normally sat and resting his arms on the chair as he continued to talk, telling the residents of Anubis House, "I am here because a serious theft has taken place - items of great value were removed from my safe last night." With that being said, the housekeeper went over to Fabian Rutter, leaning down and asking him, "Are you responsible?"

Fabian answered, "No."

Then, he turned to Nina, "You?"

"Why do you think it was any of us?!" Fabian questioned, having snapped upon seeing the accusing look the housekeeper was sending to his crush with it having made him rather irritated, and the housekeeper snapped his head back to look at the boy for an explanation, causing the nerd to elaborate, "The school was full of people last night. When were they taken?"

"Well, they were there during the intermission - the only other time I was away from my room was during the second half of your irritating little play." Victor informed them, giving them a timeline of the events whilst also describing their play – clearly, he thought very fondly of the play that they had worked hard on (note: the sarcasm).

"There you go – we were all on stage." Fabian reminded him, which was mostly the truth – the only student not on stage was Sydney, who soon spoke up for herself in order to defend herself from any accusations that the man was bound to send her way.

"I was the only person not on stage, though I was with Mr Winkler taking pictures." Sydney stated, leaning back into her chair casually – that was also the truth, as during the second half of the play she had always been somewhere that the drama/history teacher could have seen her, and she was always with someone – whether it was Jerome and Alfie, Fabian and Patricia, or Mr Winkler; she also had many pictures from that timeline for extra proof, if the housekeeper wanted it.

"Yeah, couldn't have been any of us - we were performing. The show must go on and all of that!" Amber spoke up with a bright smile on her lips, lightly giggling whilst Sydney had a mildly amused look on her face from how the fashionista was not subtle in the slightest.

"Of course, of course. How very, very, remiss of me!" Victor responded, a smirk on his own lips whilst he rubbed his hands together evilly – something was really odd, and Sydney didn't like it as he exclaimed, "Very well! Off to school, all of you, go!"

"Is that it, then?" Fabian questioned, as everyone began to stand from their seats to leave to school, considering that they only had a few minutes left before their first lesson and nobody wanted to be late and receive a detention (especially an unjustified one, considering it would have been their housekeeper's fault if they were late).

"For now, yes." Victor answered, although the female prankster took notice of how it seemed as though he was suggesting that there would be more at a later date – he had something planned that was going to expose the thief, and he soon proved that assumption to be correct as he continued, saying, "But I shall discover who took those items – you mark my words, and when I do-."

"What do you mean?" Nina inquired, with worry clearly plastered on her face as she cut the housekeeper off, considering that it seemed like he was suggesting that he had a way of finding out who the thief was, and he soon revealed that was the case.

"When the security cameras were taken down, I asked for one camera to be left in my room – I had totally forgotten." Victor informed them all with a humongous smirk on his lips, whilst all of Sibuna had widened eyes at the information – he had security camera footage of Nina Martin taking the artifacts from his safe, and that most certainly wasn't going to end well, "So, whoever has stolen those items will have been caught."

Luckily, before Victor Rodenmaar had the chance to notice the worried glances that the secret group were sending to one another, and how frightened Nina Martin looked at the news, Trudy Rehmaan (she really was the guardian angel of the Anubis House residents) came rushing into the room, "Victor! I've just taken a phone call from Mr Sweet in your office. He said, can you get over to the school?"

"What, now?" Victor asked, clearly confused at the request as he typically wasn't sent over to the school first thing in the morning – he only went to the school a few times, which was when there were issues there with maintenance (for example: when the fire alarm got set off due to Alfie and Jerome), or when he had a meeting with Mr Sweet, which was usually later on in the day.

Although, the housemother quickly clarified the information with a nod of her head, telling the housekeeper, "Yes, right away. He said it was an emergency."

With that being said, the housekeeper quickly turned and left the living room, presumably to lock everything up and then to go and see what the head teacher of Amun Boarding School wanted, and what was such an emergency. Meanwhile, Sydney sent a concerned glance over to her American friend who was in the midst of a conversation with Fabian Rutter, presumably about the tape that she was on, whilst Jerome dragged her out of the room alongside Alfie, the three of them grabbing their things before they made their way to class. Unfortunately for Sydney, the topic of conversation the entire way there was who could have taken what was in Victor's safe.

However, it seemed as though they didn't have to wait much longer to find out.

They had managed to get through their first class without hearing any news about the stolen puzzle pieces, although that did not stop any member of Sibuna from worrying about it – especially Nina Martin, who had practically tugged Amber Millington and Sydney Anderson out of the classroom as soon as their lesson and dragged them along with her before they could have gone to anyone else, allowing them to talk and worry about the security footage of the American stealing the puzzle pieces together as they made their way down the corridor.

Concerned, Nina glanced down the school corridor, her gaze landing on the door of Mr Sweet's office – the room that Victor Rodenmaar was still having a meeting in after being called there for an emergency – before she turned back to the two girls, questioning, "Have you seen Fabian?"

The two of them shook their heads.

"As soon as Victor goes through that tape, I'm done for." Nina declared, although the female prankster shook her head at that, knowing that there had to be a way to stop the American girl from getting out of trouble and that there had to be something that they were able to do to prevent their housekeeper from seeing the tape.

"Maybe he hasn't managed to get his hands on the tape?" Sydney suggested, placing a comforting hand on the girl's hand as she tried to assure her, although it didn't do much help as they knew that it was unlikely – if Victor wanted something, he was going to do everything that he could to make sure that he had it, "Or maybe we could-."

"Boarders from Anubis House!" A voice bellowed out, cutting the girl's idea off and causing all of the students in the hallway (most of which are Anubis House students) to turn their head back, causing all the students to snap their heads back to see Victor Rodenmaar coming out of the head teacher's office, "I want you back there immediately."

With that being said, he made his way down the corridor and past the students, looking directly at Nina Martin with his pointed eyes, that seemed filled with anger and irritation – that was certainly not good, and only managed to make all of them a lot more nervous and worried than they previously were – especially, Nina Martin.

"He knows it was me! I'm toast!"

Despite how much they didn't want to go back to Anubis House, they reluctantly followed their housekeeper's orders and followed the rest of the confused Anubis House residents back to the house, with Sydney catching up and walking alongside Jerome and Alfie as they did so – nobody dared to talk loudly with Victor a few footsteps ahead of them, so conversation was kept to a hush as the two male pranksters whispered about what the situation was about and how great it was that they were missing lesson for it.

If only Sydney was able to feel that happy about what was to come.

The dread that she felt within the pit of her stomach only seemed to get worse as they stepped into the house, hearing the housekeeper, sounding rather pleased with himself, usher the students into the living room eagerly, "Come along, come along!"

Doing what he said, the Anubis House residents, most of whom looked very confused at the sudden order to come home, filed into the living room and sat down within the chairs (or in Sydney's case: on the arm of Jerome's chair), getting comfy before they listened to whatever Victor had to say, which surely wasn't going to be anything good.

"It's show time, boys and girls - time to expose the thief!" Victor called out, holding the tape in his hands with a smirk on his lips, before he took a disc and placed it into the DVD player connected to the television, and Sydney's heart continued to race with every second that passed, sending an occasional worried glance over to her friend, Nina, who had her head in her hands as she braced for the worst, all of them tremendously worrying as they expected to see the video of Nina Martin sneaking into the office and stealing the puzzle pieces.

However, that was not the image they were presented with.

Instead, they were presented with an absolutely wonderful video of their angry housekeeper trimming his noise hairs with an electric trimmer – it was a masterpiece, and soon had all of the students burst out into hysterical laughter and the nerves of the members of Sibuna were long gone. None of the Anubis House residents had ever imagined their housekeeper trimming his nose hairs, but were now presented with absolutely amazing footage of it, and Sydney was extremely tempted to either record it on her phone to laugh at later, or steal the CD so she could laugh at it later.

Either way, it was hilarious, and it meant that Nina wasn't in any trouble and that she had been saved from the wrath of Victor, although Sydney wondered who her knight in shining armour was. Although, it soon became apparent when the prankster glanced over to Nina, noticing Fabian showing the girl a CD case which presumably contained the video of the American girl stealing the two puzzle pieces, and her eyes widened out of shock as she witnessed the girl place a kiss on the boy's cheek – Sydney's eyes weren't the only ones that widened, as Fabian's did as well whilst a humongous blush coated his cheeks.

Deciding to give their two their little romantic moment, Sydney glanced away from the pair and laughed once again once her eyes landed on Victor, who was frantically scrambling to figure out why the wrong tape was playing and how he was able to turn it off, and her head soon fell on Jerome's shoulder as the pair of them laughed together, not being able to contain themselves.

"Which of you miscreants have dared to interfere with my equipment?!" Victor yelled out, managing to turn of the footage and thus allowing him to turn back to the students, extremely outraged and angry – however, his yelling didn't quiet down their laughter, and they simply continued to make jokes and giggle about the situation.

"Don't know, Victor-." Alfie began, a smirk on his lips as he continued to chuckle along with the rest of the house, however Sydney shook her head as she chimed in, correcting the boy's statement.

"Nobody nose." Sydney added, laughter seeping through her words as she stressed the 'nose' part of her phrase, emphasising the pun and causing everyone to fall into even more laughter, which managed to get even worse when Alfie added his own pun into the equation – what did you expect when you had them together in the same room laughing at the exact same clip?

"Yeah, but can we see more of your home movies? You've obviously got a nose for comedy!" Alfie joked, causing Sydney to lean over to the boy and give him a high five as everyone laughed, minus Victor, who soon stormed out of the room as he did not find the situation amusing whatsoever.

Although, Anubis House residents most certainly found it amusing, with it being the topic of conversation for the rest of the school day and spreading around the school, until they found themselves back at the Anubis House once again, having gotten changed into their regular clothes and were now doing their own thing, and Sydney was in her own room and sat atop her bed, texting her aunt – she wasn't exactly sure where Mara was, and Patricia had shown no signs of appearing, so she had the room to herself – that was until a knock was heard at the door, causing the girl to yell 'come in' and for the person to enter.

Jerome Clarke.

"Are you ever going to clean your side of the room?" He questioned as he glanced around the room, although he wasn't surprised with how untidy it was – it wasn't exactly a secret that Sydney Anderson just threw things around her room and hoped she'd be able to find them at a later date, and she never really saw the point in organising it as she was always in Jerome's and Alfie's room.

"Have you just come into my room to insult my organisation skills?" Sydney asked, quirking an eyebrow up at him as she motioned for him to lie next to her on her bed, considering that she would have felt uncomfortable if he just stood there.

"I think you mean your lack of organisation skills." Jerome corrected, walking over a few books and also numerous prank-related objects to get to the bed, lying down next to the girl who was already on it.

"You cannot say anything." Sydney commented to the boy, knowing that his and Alfie's room sometimes became extremely messy and that they'd spent days cleaning it up before, so it was simply hypocritical for him to tell Sydney to organise.

"Oh, shush." Jerome replied, rolling his eyes at the girl as both of them let out faint laughter, before Sydney's phone chimed – she had a notification, "Is that Alfie? He's panicking about the supper with his parents."

Sydney slipped the phone out of her pocket, unlocking it and seeing that the message was not from their friend, but instead from her aunt, "No, it's my aunt – she sent a video of Lila and said that I might like it."

With that, she pressed play on the video and moved the phone so that both her and Jerome could see the screen – it was odd, really, not having to keep the secret from the boy anymore. She'd been so nervous over the past few weeks as she tried to not lie to him but also not to reveal everything, and now she felt like a weight was off her shoulders – at least, a little bit of weight, and that she could actually turn to somebody at Anubis House and have someone be there to comfort her.

It was nice.

A smile fell upon the girl's lips, although whether it was at the feeling of having a little bit of weight off her shoulders or whether it was seeing her little cousin, that was unknown. However, the smile remained on her lips as she watched the video, seeing Lila wave at the screen adorably with a huge smile on her lips.

"Syddie is best photographer!" Lila cried out to the camera, slightly struggling on the last word and having to be corrected a few times by her mother until she finally got it right, and then she continued with, "I miss Syddie! I want to see Jerome-y too!"

"He was the camel in the pictures I showed you, Lila." Erin Montgomery's voice was heard from behind the camera, slight amusement in her tone whilst Lila repeated the word again, a puzzled look on her face.

"Does that mean I call him Camel-ey?" Lila asked, clearly looking at her mother behind the screen before she turned to face the camera again, shouting out to it, "I want to see Camel-ey! He seems fun, like Syddie!"

And with that, the video cut off and the two blondes turned to one another with very amused faces, though Sydney was the first one to talk, her tone even sounding amused as she asked, "How you doin', Camel-ey?"

"Are you going to call me that forever, Syddie?" Jerome retorted, using the nickname that the little girl seemed to use for Sydney quite a lot – it was adorable, really.

"Nope, I'd miss Gerbil way too much." Sydney told him with a smirk on her lips, knowing how much the nickname irked him, before she glanced back to her screen and saw a picture of Lila, a fond smile appearing on her lips, "She seems to like you way too much – I think you might steal her off me when you come to visit."

"How does she know about me?" Jerome inquired, being genuinely curious – after all, he'd never met either Erin or Lila Montgomery, and had only heard of them occasionally, and yet the pair seemed to know a lot about him.

"Whenever we met up before the... incident," Sydney began, a downcast look appearing on her face for a second and causing the boy to reach over and squeeze her hand, letting her know that he was there for her, and she continued, "My parents would speak about you a bit – you know how much they liked you. When I moved in with them, I began telling them a lot about everyone here at Anubis House, and showed them a few pictures of you and Alfie – I sent them some from last night, hence why Lila was calling you a camel."

"You know, if your aunt didn't say anything during the call last night, would you have told me?" Jerome hesitantly questioned, considering it had been something he had wondered ever since the play had begun and had been on his mind since, but he didn't know if it was right to bring it up – however, now was a better time than any.

"Yeah." Sydney answered without hesitance, nodding at the boy – it was without a doubt in her mind that she would have told him at some point; it would have been hard to hide it from him for much longer, but she wasn't aware of when, "Eventually, I would have."

And with that being said, the pair returned to their normal goofy selves, beginning to play wrestle each other after they had annoyed each other with the nicknames that Lila had given them, which then turned into a tickle war until it was half an hour until supper, and they were forced to go downstairs to help out.

Unfortunately, Sydney had offered to help out that night with setting up the table for the supper with Alfie's parents (it had to be a lot fancier than normal), not realising that she'd have to attempt to do it alongside Jerome and Alfie – they were the worst people to have to help to do chores with, especially when it was both of them, as they normally ended up play-fighting and somehow ended up roping Sydney into it, and that's exactly what happened, until Trudy's voice sounded out behind them and caused them to freeze in their places, with Sydney dropping the pan that was in her hands onto her foot to act innocent – it did not work, and caused the girl to have immense pain in her foot which she played off, sending a weak smile to the woman.

"Are you setting this table or wrecking it?" Trudy questioned them, causing the two boys to quickly put the things that they were holding down and resume their duty of making sure that the table was presentable, although Jerome first came over to Sydney and sent her a small worried glance, wanting to know if she had hurt herself – however, before they were able to engage in a conversation, another voice rang out.

"Trudy!" Nina called out as the housemother went to leave the room, causing both Trudy and Sydney (who was concerned and worried about the call) to glance over to the American girl, who was sat in the living room alongside Fabian and Amber.

"Yes, sweetie." The woman replied, turning her attention to the group and quickly walking over there, whilst Sydney leaned on one of the dining room chairs and listened in to the conversation from there, instead of walking over to them – partially due to her laziness, partially due to her foot hurting.

"Patricia has been gone for a while now, and we-." Nina began slowly, not knowing how much they should tell the housemother considering that the last time they told her something related to Sibuna, she got fired, and none of them wanted that to occur again.

"And we haven't heard from her." Amber interrupted, finishing off the American girl's statement for her and telling the housemother enough information to see if she knew the whereabouts of their purple-haired roommate.

At the news, Trudy's eyes widened in shock as she glanced at her watch, looking at the time with worry - she was obviously unaware that the girl was still gone, "You mean she hasn't come back yet? I just thought she'd went straight to school this morning. Victor!"

"No, no, no!" Nina hastily cried out, protesting against calling their housekeeper as they didn't think they could trust him, and thus didn't want him to be aware of the situation – for all they knew, it could have been Victor who had her, just like he did Joy Mercer, "Don't tell him! We don't want to worry him!"

"Don't be silly!" Trudy told them, considering that she did not know everything and wasn't aware of the student's lack of trust in the housekeeper, before she went out into the hallway and continued to call for the man, attempting to find him, "Victor!"

"I heard you the first time." Victor simply stated, entering through the other door that their housemother hadn't gone through and announcing his presence to them all, Sydney feeling herself freeze as she heard his voice.

"Oh, Victor, it's about Patricia." Trudy announced, coming back into the room and resuming her previous position behind the sofa as she continued to explain the situation to the housekeeper, telling him, "Well, she went out with her aunt and uncle after the show last night, and well, she hasn't returned."

"Calm down, her aunt phoned me this morning – the uncle was taken ill during the night and they are currently at the hospital." Victor informed them, although it only caused the members of Sibuna to narrow even more – something was seriously wrong.

"Oh, well, that's a relief." Trudy breathed out, seeming pleased enough with the answer as the two adults left, leaving the secret group to talk about the new information that they had been provided with, with Sydney going over from the dining room and sitting on the arm of the sofa, as the group all huddled in.

"Okay, now we know something's wrong." Nina stated, with Fabian and Sydney nodding in agreement, whilst one member of the group seemed confused – Amber Millington,

"Why?" The fashionista inquired – Amber was actually rather smart and managed to get very good grades in school, though sometimes... it was really hard to tell that she was intelligent – for example, that moment in time, which caused Nina to explain to her,

"Because the aunt and uncle who called Victor - they don't exist."

"Oh, yeah, good point."

"Where were they supposed to meet?" Nina questioned, whilst the female prankster shrugged, considering that she had no clue that they were even meant to meet until the purple-haired girl was already gone, "We need to find that good luck card."

"I'm heading back over to the school to do some research on these anyway." Fabian announced to the ground, pulling out the two puzzle pieces that had been stolen from the safe so the group understood what he meant – they had to figure out what they were, after all, because it could have helped them progress to the next part of their search.

"I'm going to go and find that card in Patricia's room. Sydney, you're coming with me because it's your room." Amber stated, not giving the blonde-haired prankster any room to protest before she raised her hand to her eye, speaking up once again as she said the group name that they were all familiar with, "Sibuna."

"Sibuna."

Pushing herself off the arm of the sofa, Sydney followed her favourite fashionista out of the living room, giving her a suspicious glance as she did so – she was very much aware of why Amber Millington had forced Sydney Anderson to come with her to the bedroom: to leave Fabian Rutter and Nina Martin alone in an attempt to let them get together.

Sydney definitely was not against it.

"Nice game plan there." The prankster complimented her, nudging her side as the two of them laughed, making their way up the stairs to go to her bedroom.

"I know, I'm a genius, right?" Amber replied, a smile on her face as the two giggled, before the fashionista continued, saying, "I really hope that Nina and Fabian get together quicker than how you and Jerome are going – I've been trying for years to get you two together, and nothing! You give me nothing! You just sit there acting oblivious when you're obviously in love with one another!"

"Can we go back to talking about Nina and Fabian?" Sydney mumbled, rolling her eyes at the girl's accusations – she was not in love with Jerome Clarke, her best friend, afterall.

"I've been calling them Fabina, recently." Amber told the girl, a smile on her lips – it was a good name for the pair of them - before she pursed her lips together, thinking for a moment or two before she spoke once again, saying, "You know, I'm still thinking of a name for you and Jerome – Jedney? Sydrome? I think Sydrome – Sydrome, it is."

"Amber, sometimes, your mind truly baffles me." Sydney stated, shaking her head at the girl as they opened the door to her bedroom – however, the pair of them stopped in their tracks upon seeing Mara Jaffray in the bedroom, writing something down.

They should have expected that.

"Oh, hi, Mara!" Amber called out awkwardly, the two blondes sharing a glance with one another as the fashionista continued to speak, "I was just wondering if you needed any... any... help with the Mick thing! If you needed to talk, I'm kind of an expert."

"I'm here because it's my room." Sydney murmured, considering that it wasn't exactly odd for her to come to her own bedroom, so the girl glanced around until she noticed Patricia's costume that she wore in the play hanging up on the wardrobe – thus, needing an excuse to go there, the prankster awkwardly continued as she unnecessarily told the nerd, "And I need a cardigan! Because I am cold!"

Whilst Amber distracted the nerd by talking about the situation between Mara and Mick and whether or not the former of the pair should write him a letter, Sydney made her way over to the wardrobe and opened it up, pretending to look for a cardigan but subtly looking through the pockets in Patricia's costume, finding a card. Sneakily, Sydney put the costume back and took out a cardigan, hiding the card underneath it.

"Okay, I have my cardigan! Let's go, Ambs." Sydney called out of the fashionista, cutting off whatever conversation that she was having with the nerd and grabbing her arm, practically dragging her out of the room until they were called out after.

"Wait!" Mara spoke, causing the pair to stop in their tracks and turn to her with innocent smiles, acting as though they had nowhere to be as the girl asked, "What do you think?"

"About what?" Amber questioned, whilst the blonde girl beside her let out a small snort, trying to restrain her laughter – the fashionista had certainly not been paying attention to the conversation for the past few minutes, and Sydney didn't exactly blame her; it was probably hard for her to listen to Mara talk about how she planned to apologise to Mick.

"About writing Mick a letter." Mara repeated what their entire conversation had just been about, considering that Amber did offer to give the girl advice on how to work things out between them – she had brought it upon herself.

However, Amber shrugged, "Whatever, Jane Austin, just text him."

And with that, Sydney once again pulled at the fashionista's arm and tugged her out of the bedroom, showing her the letter with a grin on her lips and she took the card out of the prankster's hands as the two of them put their right hands over their right eyes before the pair rushed to Nina's bedroom, with Amber holding up the card and greeting her with, "Look what we found in the pocket of Patricia's costume!"

"Yes!" Nina exclaimed triumphantly, quickly taking the card and holding it up to the mirror to reveal the message was mirror writing, reading it out loud, "Meet me tonight, nine, clearing in the woods, Joy." After reading it, Nina turned back to face the two girls, "I think I know where that is. I've been there before with Patricia! Let's go!"

Upon hearing that, Sydney nodded in agreement and went to leave the room in order to get a coat, before she noticed that Amber was just stood there, not moving and extremely hesitant to leave, causing Sydney to turn back to her with a confused expression.

"Aren't we going to wait for Fabian?" Amber asked, wanting any excuse not to go out into the woods at night – she hardly liked going into the woods in the day due to the amount of insects and how it ruins her shoes, so night time was terrible for her.

However, Nina shook her head at that question, a small smile on her lips as she told the two blonde-haired girls, "You know how he is when he's doing research."

"But it's getting dark outside, and it's going to be supper in half an hour, and it looks a bit cold out there, and I haven't put my hand lotion on." Amber began to list all the reasons why they shouldn't go, and the female prankster was very much aware from the look on her face and how she was rambling that she was scared – that caused both Nina and Sydney to turn to her, giving her a look, before the former of the pair called out flatly.

"Amber."

At the call of her name, the female released a sigh before she confessed, her worry becoming even more evident as she spoke up, "Okay, I'm scared, I admit it! But I don't like going into the woods at the best of times, and this is, like, the opposite of that!"

"A bad time?" Sydney suggested, mildly amused at her friend and thus having a faint smile on her lips, shaking her head at the fashionista who soon agreed with her, before Nina brought them back on topic.

"If we stick together, we'll be fine." Nina assured her roommate, whilst Sydney nodded in agreement as she assumed that they'd all be fine, although Amber didn't seem to budge, causing the American to try to encourage them, "Come on, we owe this to Patricia!"

"Wait, I just remembered," Sydney started, releasing a sigh and causing the two girls to glance over at her, confused, and thus causing her to elaborate as she reminded them, "Alfie's parents are coming, and they'll get concerned if I'm not there."

"Okay, me and Amber will go." Nina declared with a nod, not holding it against the girl as nobody wanted anybody to get suspicious of them, and so she grabbed Amber's wrist and dragged her away, with the fashionista complaining the entire way there, whilst Sydney released a sigh and chuckled, making her way downstairs to see Alfie's parents had just entered.

How fun...

Not.

"Sydney," Mr Lewis greeted upon seeing the girl descend down the stairs, her sending them a very much fake smile as she looked over at them, "It's nice to see you – I hope my boy hasn't been getting you into too much trouble."

"Mum! Dad!" Alfie's voice was heard as he came out of the kitchen, being followed by both Trudy and Jerome as the boy hugged his parents, a grin on his lips upon his lips as he hoped that neither of them would disrespect him or be rude to him – he wanted to impress them, but it seemed like he was never able to.

"Shall we have a picture? Parents and son." Sydney questioned, taking her phone out of her pocket (she had left her camera upstairs) and snapping a photo of the scene.

"It's lovely to meet you. You're just in time for supper." Trudy informed them, motioning for everyone to go into the dining room and sit in their seats, before she went over to the kitchen to bring out the last of the food, and as she brought it back, she noticed the lack of people around the table and soon inquired, "Where is everyone?"

"Who cares? More food for me!" Alfie exclaimed, an excited look on his face before he noticed the raised eyebrows of his parents, causing his smile to drop as he corrected himself, acting like the proper son that they wanted him to be as he added, "Uh, what I meant to say was they're all off, Trudy, doing their chores, and quite right too."

"What?" Trudy wondered, confused at what the boy was talking about considering that nobody was meant to be doing chores, but simply shrugged it off, shaking her head, "Nevermind, we better start, otherwise it'll get cold."

They began to eat.

"So, Mrs Lewis," Trudy began, sending the mother of the jokester a bright smile as she continued to talk, asking the woman, "Did you enjoy the play last night?"

"Oh, yes!" The woman eagerly responded, having found the play very interesting and well-written and also enjoying the acting in it – for a school play, it was rather good.

"We'd have enjoyed it more if our son had more to do, wouldn't we, my dear?" His father stated whilst the mother quickly agreed, making the blonde-haired prankster roll her eyes subtly as she had to restrict her growl – that was exactly why she hated Alfie's parents.

"Dad, I don't want to embarrass my friends by talking about that." Alfie awkwardly chuckled, trying to change the topic quickly and hide the frown on his lips – his parents made him way too sad, and it was extremely frustrating for Sydney to watch.

"No, I'm sure you don't." Mick mumbled with a roll of his eyes, clearly not fond of the situation that they were put in as he stabbed his food with his fork – despite the conversation already having become awkward, Alfie's parents decided to make it worse as they continued.

"That's the problem with you, Alfred: you don't push yourself forward. you could be so much more than a back end of a camel," His father told him, causing the boy's face to deflate even more, before turning to face his wife for support as he added, "right, dear?"

"Yes, Phillip." The woman agreed, causing Sydney to roll her eyes once again – she had a feeling that she'd be doing a lot of that whilst at the supper, and she mildly wished that she had gone with both Nina and Amber to find Patricia.

"Actually, I was the front end." Alfie informed his parents, a smile on his lips as he did so – it was clear that he had said that to try to impress them, but it only caused the female prankster to release a sigh, knowing that wouldn't impress his parents any further.

"I can't imagine young Jerome here allowing himself to be overshadowed." Alfie's father spoke, shaking his head as he sent a faint smile to the blonde-haired boy, before turning to the girl beside him and continuing, "Also, Sydney, I saw you taking some photos – have any copies?"

"With all due respect, sir-." Sydney began, about to snap at them and tell them that their son was amazing and they should pay more attention to him rather than herself or Jerome and to not compare them with one another, but she soon got kicked in the leg by Jerome, causing her to press her lips together into a small and very much faked smile as she finished, "Yes, I do. I'll get Alfie to send you them over at some point."

"Jerome played the camel's butt, and Sydney was never on stage!" Alfie cried out in protest of the compliments to his blonde-haired friends, as he was eager to defend himself and to impress his parents – that's all he ever wanted to do.

"Tell them about your chores." Jerome instructed Alfie in an attempt to help him – probably the first time that he's actually tried to help his friend without giving him stupid advice that typically ended up badly – although, despite Jerome actually trying to help the boy, it still seemed like it was going to go terribly as Alfie asked,

"Uh, what chores?"

"You know, your chores." Jerome said in an attempt to remind him that he was meant to be head of house and wanted to impress his parents, but the blonde-haired boy decided to take things into his own hands, turning to Alfie's parents himself and elaborated, saying, "The reason why nobody's here at this dinner table – away doing his bidding."

"Yes!" Alfie quickly agreed, understanding what his friend meant as he quickly added on, a grin on his lips whilst he tried to impress his parents, rambling a little as he exclaimed, "Those chores, lots of chores, too many to mention, really!"

At that, Sydney nodded in agreement as she tried to help her friend, supporting him as she turned to the parents with a smile, telling them, "Yeah, I don't know how we get them all done in time – that's where everyone else is, I suppose."

"Jerome and Sydney seem to have a better handle on the work force than you do, Alfred." His father declared, causing his son to deflate once again and for the female out of the pranksters to almost begin shouting, until she felt a hand grab hers – Jerome – in an attempt to calm her before Alfie's father turned to face the two blonde-haired pranksters, asking, "How did my son beat you two to head of house?"

"Because, he's-!" Sydney went to snap.

"We turned it down." Jerome answered with a complete lie, interrupting the girl beside him and causing her to snap her head towards him, a confused expression on her face which became even worse when the blonde boy continued, telling the parents in the room, "Alfred was looking forward to the title so much-!"

Now, it was Jerome's turn for his words to get cut off, as Alfie stepped on his foot harshly in order to get him to shut up – it seemed to work, and Sydney distracted Alfie's parents from witnessing the scene, as she knew they would have been least than impressed with his behaviour and their scolding would have caused the boy to get a frown on his lips.

With a fake smile on her lips, Sydney decided to try to help her friend and support him, informing the parents, "Yes, he was looking forward to the title so much, but we also thought he was better for the job, and we were right. I mean, he's put all these rules and chores in place."

"Like what?" Alfie's father asked, intrigued, and that was exactly where Sydney Anderson struggled, with her eyes becoming significantly wider as she stumbled over her words for a second, before saying the first thing that came out of her lips.

"Like, uh, no chores, no chow!" Sydney blurted out, causing Alfie to look over at her in confusion, wondering what she meant by that phrase, whilst the girl continued and elaborated, explaining what exactly 'no chores, no chow' meant in her mind, "People have to do their chores if they want supper, hence why nobody is here right now."

"Yes!" Alfie agreed enthusiastically - he thought it was a great idea and he was happy that Sydney had defended him, and that caused him to add, "If people want to keep their eating privileges in this house, they have to do their chores – no chores, no chow."

"Eating privileges – that's outrageous, Alfred."

At that, Alfie's face deflated once more that night, seeming devastated as he tried to backtrack and began to stumble over his words, asking, "Is it? Well, um-."

"I might try that in the board room. Perhaps there is hope for the boy, he's much more like me than we thought, hey, Marsha?" His father announced, and the words caused a smile to appear of Alfie's face, especially as he continued, "Ruthless."

"How can Alfred possibly fail with parents like you?" Jerome asked, sucking up to them like he tended to do with people so that he could get anything he wanted and be on their good side, "Unstoppable ambition-er on one side, and a beauty on the other."

"Very perceptive, Jerome, I can see you're a good influence on our boy - you too, Sydney." The man responded, and that caused Alfie to flick a small piece of food at Jerome, which unfortunately, his father noticed and scolded him for, "Manners, Alfred."

Considering that he had food flicked over him, Jerome glared at Alfie, who let out a small laughter after having hit the boy with food – it was the only genuine thing that the female prankster had seen from him since the start of the meal, so it caused a small smile to appear on her lips – she was glad.

"You know, Jerome, I'm always on the lookout for an apprentice – businesses like mine can always do with fresh blood." Alfie's father stated, causing a smirk to appear on Jerome's lips whilst Sydney rolled her eyes once again – she was getting more and more irritated as the seconds passed, and she really could not wait for when Alfie's parents finally left and she didn't have to see them again for a while longer.

It seemed as though Sydney wasn't the only one irritated with the compliments that Alfie's parents were giving to people who weren't his son, as Alfie leaned towards his friend and whispered to him so that his parents couldn't hear his words, as he told him, "Back off, Jerome, they're my over-controlling parents, not yours."

Glancing back over to the boy's parents, Sydney finally snapped and couldn't contain her irritation any longer as she tilted her head at them, inquiring, "What about your own son?"

"Excuse me?" Alfie's father questioned, a confused look on his face as he turned to face the girl, whilst Alfie and Jerome watched the girl with wide and cautious eyes, wondering what she was doing.

"Well, you said that you're always on the lookout for an apprentice and fresh blood, so why not consider your own son? Wouldn't it be good to keep the business within the family, afterall?" Sydney elaborated, still remaining polite despite the irritation that she felt, although she did make sure to send a very hatred-filled glare to the man.

However, the man chuckled, "That's if he could live up to it."

Before Sydney had the chance to snap at the man (which she was on the verge of doing), Fabian came rushing into the room and glanced over towards the female prankster, inquiring with worried eyes, "Where are Nina and Amber?"

"Probably mucking out the horses, hey, Alfred?" Alfie's father answered, causing the boy to become confused considering that he hadn't been at supper for most of the conversation, in which they'd declared that everybody was out doing chores.

"What horses?" Fabian asked, perplexed.

"The school horses, Fabian, and I hope you finished polishing the silverware." Alfie told him, sending him a look which was practically pleading for the nerd to go along with the lie, and Sydney sent him a nod to assure him that everything was okay.

At that, Fabian slowly nodded, "Oh, okay. I'll just go and look for them... with Sydney."

Before Sydney had the chance to protest against the man, he'd already grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room, only hearing the calls from everyone else behind them as he dragged her into the corridor – she was pretty certain that she'd heard Jerome call out, whilst Alfie said something along the lines of them being dismissed.

As they made their way up the stairs to go into Nina's and Amber's room, Fabian glanced over to the blonde-haired girl with confusion, remembering the situation that had just occurred and how he'd been told that the two girls were mucking out horses, so he asked, "What was that all about?"

"Alfie's 'head of house', remember?"

▲▼▲

[24.05.2020]

NOTE: just so you know, i've been writing some scenes from when jerome and sydney are actually together (perks of being the writer here - are you jealous yet?) and they're the cUteST couple ever i adore them. i've actually written quite a lot of their big scenes (realising they like one another, first kiss, getting together, etc) and it's SO hard for me not to spill all the secrets because they're probably the cutest couple i've ever written and i just want to tell you eVeRYtHing but no you have to wait because i also don't want to ruin the surprise. so, have fun waiting - i'll cry over sydrome by myself. although, i will tell u there are lots of fun little hints to things that happen in s2 throughout this entire book and when we get to those parts you'll realise "oh yeah she included this previously" or "that's why she did that!"