DENOUEMENT
xix. house of arrest
❝I'M PROUD OF YOU.❞

"JOY!" PATRICIA EXCLAIMED cheerfully, a humongous smile beaming on her lips as she rushed to the seat in front of the laptop, the rest of the group following and crowding around the seat – Amber was sat in the other chair in the room next to the Patricia, whilst Sydney, Fabian, and Nina stood behind the chairs as the purple-haired girl continued to speak to her friend, "Joy! I got your card, Joy. I came to find you, but you-."

"They wouldn't let me meet you - too dangerous." Joy informed them, cutting the girl off with a shake of her head and almost a bitter-sweet smile on her lips, that was very much tight-lipped.

"Hey, it's okay, it's not your fault." Patricia assured the girl, before an even bigger grin appeared on the purple-haired girl's lips, as she excitedly asked her ex-roommate the question that all of them were wondering, "So, when are you coming back?

Instead of immediately answering, Joy became silent and almost hesitant-like, before she decided to change the topic upon seeing a certain fashionista on the screen, leaning closer to her screen as she inquired, "Hey, is that Amber?"

"Hey, Joy! I have so much to tell you." Amber exclaimed happily, grinning widely as she wanted to immediately tell the girl about all of the Anubis House gossip – in fairness, a lot had happened that term and it was the most exciting a term had ever been, with a lot of drama and certainly a lot more mystery than the group were ever used to.

"Yeah, a lot has happened but I'm sure we can catch you up, especially with 'Gossip Queen Millington' here." Sydney added from behind the fashionista, sending the girl on the screen a small wave as she announced her presence to her, causing the missing girl to perk up a little more as she remembered her last few moments as a student at Anubis House – Patricia and Sydney had tricked her into falling over Fabian's leg.

Of course, Amber, being the one who absolutely loved gossip and tended to know all of it, took that as her que to begin to tell the girl on the screen all of the gossip that had happened that term, "Okay, so Mick and I split up, and he's totally devastated but pretending not to be. Sydney and Jerome are still Sydney and Jerome-."

"Hopelessly in love and pretending not to be?" Joy interrupted, giggling slightly at the news whilst Sydney's face morphed into one of confusion, throwing her hands up into the air exasperatedly as she threw a glance that yelled 'help me' to Nina, who nodded in agreement with both Joy and Amber.

"Exactly!" Amber agreed with a smile on her lips, as all of the group (minus Sydney) giggled, before the fashionista turned slightly and motioned towards the person who Joy had yet to meet as she informed her, "And, Nina started the school - she's American."

"Hi, I'm Nina... from America." Nina awkwardly greeted with a nervous smile on her lips as she sent a small wave to the girl – it was rather awkward and Sydney already felt the mood change in the room at the introduction, after all, it was the first time that the pair had met and Nina had somewhat replaced Joy in a way, obviously unintentionally.

"Hi, so you're the new me?" Joy asked, obviously also having the same impression that the girl had replaced her – in a way, she had, considering that she had Joy's old bed, Joy's old crush, and Joy's old best friend – yeah, it was definitely awkward, and Sydney winced upon hearing those words.

"Um, well, sort of..." Nina answered hesitantly, considering there wasn't exactly a good way to answer that question, before deciding to quickly switch the topic and get rid of the awkwardness in the room, saying to the girl, "So, do you want to tell us where you are?"

Before the girl on the screen even had a chance to speak, the housekeeper (who they had honestly forgotten was in the same room) spoke up and answered for her, causing the awkward tension to continue to fill the room as he bluntly stated, "No, she does not."

"And, Fabian's here." Amber spoke up in an attempt to finally get rid of the awkward tension, thus gesturing towards the boy who Joy used to be close to – after all, the pair seemed like they were going to get together if she hadn't disappeared.

At that, Fabian sent a small wave to the camera with a faint smile on his lips as he greeted the girl whom he used to be close to, saying, "Hey, Joy."

"Fabes," Joy spoke softly, calling out the nickname with fondness as she instantly fell back into the lovestruck girl that she always was when she lived at Anubis House – upon seeing this, Sydney glanced over at Nina, watching as the American's eyes turned to her crush worriedly, obviously also recognising how lovestruck the girl on the screen had become, before her eyes awkwardly fell back down to the ground as Joy continued, "Hi."

"So, when are you coming back?" Patricia inquired once again, hoping that they'd finally get an answer to when they could expect their friend's return back to the house – they had to get at least some answers to their questions, considering that their housekeeper told them that they were going to get them.

At that question, Joy glanced down and remained silent once again – however, instead of changing the topic and not answering the question at all, the girl eventually shook her head and looked back at the camera, finally speaking up and telling them, "I'm not."

"What? Why not?!"

"I can't say too much, but my dad says there's someone after us, so we have to move away and change our names and stuff." Joy informed them, whilst someone who the female prankster of the group assumed was the girl's dad walked into the frame behind her.

"Rufus." Patricia breathed out, sending a small glance over to their housekeeper who seemed to also know about the man, in order to receive confirmation – however, the housekeeper remained silent and showed nothing on his face, like he had done for most of the call.

"I'm still your best friend, Patricia, and I always will be. But, it's just too dangerous for me to be there anymore." Joy told them, and the smiles that they all had beforehand were all wiped off their faces – of course, they were glad that Joy was safe and that she was being protected, but they hated that she wasn't coming back and that she was in that situation to begin with.

Joy's dad, or at least the person who had been assumed to be her father by the rest of the group, leant down beside the girl so that he was in full view of the camera as he instructed her, telling her, "Off the cam now, please, princess."

Following the man's demands, the girl glanced back over to the camera with a sad look on her face and begun to say her goodbye, almost rushing her words as she said to them, "Guys, I have to go, but listen: Victor and the other teachers-."

"Joy."

It was the man beside her who had interrupted her, causing the girl to glance over to him to see that his eyebrows were raised with an almost stern look on his face – it was something that Sydney picked up as odd, her eyes narrowed at the scene despite it only being quick; it certainly was peculiar.

However, Joy turned back to the camera as she finished what she had been saying previously, telling the group, "They're protecting me. You can trust them, okay?"

Before anything else was able to be said, the girl went to slip out of her chair with a sad look plastered on her face, and that exact same expression was mirrored on the rest of the students who were watching her leave – none of them wanted her to go, and they just wanted her to be safe and back at Anubis House, Patricia especially.

"Joy, don't go!" Patricia cried out, causing the girl to reappear on the screen and sit back down in the chair with her father next to her as the purple-haired girl continued, muttering out sadly, "I miss you."

"I miss you too." Joy replied to her best friend, and it looked like she had tears in her eyes (though it was hard to tell, considering they were looking at her through a laptop screen) as she sent them a sad smile as she spoke up once again, "Bye."

With that, Joy Mercer slipped off the chair and out of the frame.

"Happy now?" Victor questioned, looking over the group of five students who glanced at him in curiosity and confusion, as the housekeeper hoped that they stopped asking so many questions and stopped sneaking/snooping around the house.

"But, why is Rufus after Joy?" Patricia questioned, not understanding or being able to see a reason as to why the man would want her – they were definitely missing something, and it was like there was a big part of the puzzle that they were missing.

"He's not after Joy - he's after me." The same man who had been on the screen beside Joy earlier spoke up, causing them all to turn their attention back to the screen as the man sat in the chair in front of the camera, "Hello, Patricia."

"Mr Mercer."

"I work for the government." Mr Mercer stated, it being quite a shocking revelation, although the next part was even more shocking as the man continued, telling the group, "Zeno is after some top-secret information, which we cannot let him have. It's a matter of national security. Sorry, but that's all I can tell you at the moment."

"Very well, boys and girls. Let's wrap it up now." Victor stated, not allowing the kids to ask any more questions as he turned the laptop around, pressing some keys on his laptop before he stood up and unlocked the door, "And there's one more thing: from now on, you are to go straight to school and then directly back to the house afterwards - no one is to go anywhere without my knowledge; Rufus Zeno is still out there. Now go."

Once he opened the door, all five of the students left as they shared wary and confused glances with one another, with Nina cautiously looking back at the office before she whispered to the group, "I can't believe Victor's put us under house arrest."

"I can't believe he's one of the good guys." Amber added, which the prankster of the group nodded in agreement with – there were many creepy things about their housekeeper which didn't exactly correlate with him being a good person in the equation - but of course, that wasn't Amber's reasoning for the surprise that their housekeeper was good, as she said, "He has such evil hair!"

"You know, I don't think that's the only reason that we thought he was evil, Amber." Sydney responded with a small smile on her face, shaking her head at her fashionista friend, who was honestly hilarious, "Although, I do admit, it's odd to think of him as one of the good guys."

"But, is he good though, really?" Nina questioned, clearly hesitant on believing what the housekeeper said after everything that they had seen and heard – there was so many peculiar things that didn't add up, and that's exactly what the American must have been thinking about as she was very wary still.

"Yes, you heard Joy." Patricia reminded them as they descended down the staircase to head back to the school, and it was obvious that the purple-haired girl believed her best friend whole-heartedly, and any thought in her mind about Victor being evil was gone.

"At least we know Joy is safe." Fabian spoke up as he looked at the more positive side of things – whether or not their housekeeper was evil or not, their friend was safe with her father and that was the most important thing to all of them.

"It's pretty scary though, having to reinvent yourself to get Rufus off your back." Patricia remarked, the thought of it being extremely creepy and scary – especially when they thought about how quickly Joy had to leave Anubis House; her entire life had changed within the space of a few minutes, and there seemed to be no way of her getting it back considering that she wasn't allowed to return to her school – to her friends.

"She's miles away, Patricia. He can't get to her now." Nina assured the girl, and the female prankster nodded in agreement in an attempt to calm the girl down and make her worry less about everything.

However, Patricia shook her head at the reassurance, it clearly not helping as her mind wasn't on Joy Mercer at that moment in time, as she looked at the group and told them, "It's not her I was thinking of."

Of course, Rufus had kidnapped Patricia and held her hostage already, and considering that he was close enough to Anubis House, he could have easily done it again to not only her, but also the rest of them or any other student of Anubis House. It was definitely scary to think about, and a frown was on Sydney's lips at the thought.

"Guys, wait, give me a minute." Fabian instructed them, brushing past all the girls as they finally made their way down the stairs, him rushing off to his bedroom and causing all of them to glance at one another in confusion until he came back, holding the two puzzle pieces that they had taken from Victor's safe as he told them, "I'm taking these to school with me. I know Joy said Victor was one of the good guys, but I still don't trust him."

Suddenly, Fabian's eyes widened, and he quickly rushed to put the puzzle pieces into his bag, hiding them from someone and thus causing the blonde-haired prankster to glance behind herself, confused until she saw Trudy walking into the entrance hall.

"Oh, Fabian, be a love - give these letters to Victor." Trudy instructed, passing the boy a few letters which she had clearly just collected, before she told the group, "I'm off to the supermarket. If I don't go now, I'll miss my bus - and then lunch with your Uncle Ade."

With that piece of information, a smirk fell on the prankster's lips as she watched their housemother leave to the supermarket, and once the door was shut, the prankster turned to face the nerd, very much amused she jokingly sang to the boy, "You're going to be calling Trudy your aunt!"

At that, the boy rolled his eyes at the prankster, despite the amused grin on his lips, before he glanced down at the letters, filing through them until he came to a stop, his face falling and losing all of its colour – it could have definitely been said that he wasn't wearing an amused grin anymore, and instead seemed dreadful at whatever he had seen.

Having seen the boy's face fall, it prompted the boy's crush, Nina Martin, to quickly inquire about what had upset him worriedly, "Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?"

Sending a brief concerned glance to the prankster of the group, he lifted up a letter – one that had the address from the hospital that Alfie had gone to on it, as he told the group, "This one's from the hospital."

"It must be Alfie's toxicology report." Sydney stated, remembering the incident that had been very panic-inducing - thankfully, Alfie Lewis had been fine and everyone had seemed to have forgotten that he was hospitalised, but they were still unaware of what he had actually drunk yet had the results right in their hands.

"The hall is not an area for loitering!"

"Just, uh, letters, Victor." Fabian called out to the housekeeper, running up the stairs to pass them all to him – including the toxicology report - before he returned back down with a sigh, all of them quickly scurrying off to the school, "I'm still worried about all of this."

"You need to relax, Fabian. We basically have to trust Victor - remember what Joy said." Patricia assured the boy, who was still not so keen on trusting their housekeeper despite what his ex-crush had told them – meanwhile, Patricia had the upmost faith in Joy and believed every word that she had said, including the ones about trusting the teachers.

However, as those words fell out of the girl's mouth, they unfortunately just happened to walk into Mara Jaffray, who had overheard the last part of the conversation and had naturally become very confused and inquisitive as she spoke up, making all of their eyes widen as she asked, "Did you just say you spoke to Joy? Is she all right?"

Patricia's eyes widened with shock upon being overheard, her mouth agape whilst all of the members of the secret club shared a glance with one another, not knowing what to say to the nerd until the purple-haired girl regained her composure and told her, "Joy is fine. She just said she doesn't want to come back to the school, and- and she doesn't want to talk to any of us anymore."

"When did she say all of this?" Amber questioned, her head tilted in confusion as she clearly did not realise that they had to lie to the nerd and that the real reason why the ex-student had gone missing had to be kept a secret.

In an attempt to hint to the girl to shut up, Sydney subtly nudged the fashionista in her side, whilst Nina not-so-discreetly stomped on her foot, causing the girl to send her two friends a confused and annoyed look, wondering why they had both hurt her, "Ow."

"I'm sorry." Nina apologised, trying to act innocent whilst also hoping that her roommate received a hint and wouldn't give anything else away about the conversation that they had with Joy, as she asked, "Was that your foot?"

"Yes. More importantly, that was a very special shoe." Amber stated, still not understanding why she had been targeted by the two girls until the prankster nudged the girl once again and subtly nodded towards the nerd, making her face contort into one of realisation as she stammered out, "Oh. Yeah, Joy hates us all."

"All of us." Sydney added convincingly, whilst all of Sibuna nodded in agreement with the girl's words in an attempt to convince her that nothing strange was happening and that they weren't lying, although they weren't sure if they managed to convince her that well.

"Okay." She said slowly, obviously confused as the group brushed past her quickly as they didn't want to speak about the topic much longer – however, the prankster of the group didn't get far until she was called back, causing the rest of the group to go on ahead and leave the two roommates to talk, "With how long you and Jerome have been friends, you've met his parents, right?"

At that topic, Sydney's eyebrows furrowed, and she crossed her arms as she became slightly worried at the mention of her best friend's parents, but she nodded in agreement as she told the girl, "Yeah, why?"

"Nobody sent him a good luck card and I don't recall ever seeing them around, and I asked him about it, and he went all... weird – he said he was going to go find you." Mara revealed, and the girl had to restrain the sigh she wanted to release as she knew that the boy was undoubtedly upset at the topic being mentioned, so she just pressed her lips together and nodded in understanding.

"I'll go find him. Thanks." Sydney told the girl, sending her a very much faked smile as she turned, walking a bit away from the nerd (who was already beginning to walk away, presumably to another class) and taking her phone out of her pocket, noticing a few missed calls and unopened texts from the boy himself and thus causing her to ring him.

It only rang for a few seconds, hardly even making it past the second ring before the ringing stopped and the blonde-haired boy answered, a very slight sad tone to his voice as he inquired, "Hey, where are you?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing." Sydney told him with a very slight chuckle – she couldn't exactly tell him that she was dragged back to Anubis House with the rest of her secret group by their creepy housekeeper to speak to the student who had gone missing earlier in the term because of a man out to get secret information from the government.

"I got some jellybeans – hold on, I see you." He answered the girl before he hung up the call, causing her eyes to narrow in confusion as she glanced around the hallway, being unable to see anyone who slightly resembled Jerome Clarke (and he wasn't exactly hard to miss), although it became clear where he was as she felt something small hit the back of her head – a jellybean, "Got you!"

Amused, the girl turned on her heel with a grin on her lips, shaking her head at the boy who was beginning to approach her with a pack of jellybeans in his hand, causing the girl to reach forward and grab one before aiming to throw it in his mouth – he missed, "Wow, you suck at that."

"No, it's just that you're bad at throwing them at me." Jerome protested, taking one of the jellybeans and trying to throw it into his own mouth – yet still failing, causing the girl to release a laugh at the sight of the jellybean completely missing his mouth.

"No, it's just that you're bad at throwing them at me." Sydney mocked his previous words, sticking a tongue out at him as the pair burst into laughter, before the girl decided to bring up the topic that had got her to call him in the first place, "Mara spoke to me."

"Mhm."

"She asked about your parents; I didn't tell her much." The female prankster told him, causing him to nod in understanding as she glanced up at him with a worried look, asking, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"She just asked if I saw them – not much else." Jerome informed the girl, though he didn't even try to lie to her and pretend he was okay, as he knew that she'd easily be able to see through him, and he released a sigh as he continued, "I wish I did see them."

"I know." Sydney mumbled, sending him a sad smile as she grabbed onto his hand for a second, squeezing it to give him reassurance, before she decided to cheer him up and picked up a jellybean, throwing it at the boy's chest before glancing up at the boy with a shrug and a devious smile on her lips, "No, I think I can throw them at you pretty well."

At that, the boy chuckled, shaking his head at the girl whilst a grin instantly made its way onto the boy's face once again – a genuine one that he tended to only have around the female prankster – and he took a jellybean out of the packet as he raised his eyebrows at the girl – it was war.

"You're on, Anderson."

And that's exactly how the two ended up throwing jellybeans at one another for twenty minutes, running around the entire school whilst laughing at one another hysterically as they tried to constantly hit each other with jellybeans. Soon enough, it eventually resorted to the boy chasing the female as she ran into the drama studio, now holding the entire bag of jelly beans herself after having stolen them from the boy, until she felt arms wrap around her from behind and the bag of jelly beans was snatched out of her hands. Sydney whizzed around in his arms, about to protest until a familiar voice called out.

"Jerome!" Mara called out, causing them both to turn around and realise how close they actually were to one another as the nerd eyed them suspiciously, causing Jerome to quickly unwrap his arms from his friend as Mara approached, telling the boy, "I hope I didn't upset you earlier."

"About what?" Jerome questioned, his mood instantly changing at the mention of the topic and a frown appearing on both his and Sydney's lips as they both took a seat in the drama studio, with the female laying down on the sofa that her and Jerome shared, with her head on one of his legs whilst she took another jellybean and put it into her mouth.

"When I mentioned your parents, and you got very odd and ran away." Mara reminded the boy, sitting down on one of the chairs herself as she continued the conversation that Jerome didn't want to have – that was Mara Jaffray though, she always wanted answers.

"No, I didn't." Jerome brushed her off casually, hoping that she'd drop the topic – however, Mara Jaffray simply did not do that, and she continued to press on with it; one thing was for sure and that was that Sydney Anderson was definitely going to have to throw more jellybeans at him to cheer him up later.

"You did, actually." Mara persisted, and the female prankster realised that the conversation wasn't something that she wanted or needed to be a part of (also, if she continued to hear anything else about parents, she was almost certain that it would have ended up upsetting her), causing her to reach into her bag and pull out some earphones, clicking a random playlist and letting the music blast in her ears, drowning out the conversation between Jerome and Mara.

"Honestly, Mara, it's fine." Jerome assured her, before he glanced down at Sydney and noticed that she was slightly bopping along to the music that she was listening to, causing a faint smile to appear on his lips whilst the nerd continued to talk to him.

"Okay, good." Mara responded, before she glanced over at the prankster herself and remembered how many times that the blonde had woke up petrified that term, and she wondered if the boy who seemed to be closest to her knew about the nightmares that she was having, causing her to reveal, "I've been worried about her a little."

At that, Jerome turned back to face the nerd with confusion evident on his features, wondering why she was worried about the girl laying on his leg and whether it was something that he had to be concerned about as well.

Upon seeing the confused expression on the boy's face, Mara continued, telling him, "She's been having a lot of nightmares this term – she keeps waking up from her sleep petrified and I had to calm her down this morning. She said it was about the-."

"The Grim Reaper?" Jerome interrupted, though his face still showed confusion whilst the nerd nodded in agreement – he was very much aware of the Sydney's fear of the figure of death, considering he had calmed her down from plenty of nightmares about it before, however she hadn't had one in a long time so he assumed that the nightmare had to be about something else that the girl didn't want Mara to know – her parents, and as he glanced down at the female prankster, he lied to the nerd, "She probably got shown some pictures of it by Alfie, or played The Sims and had her family die again – she'll be fine."

"You really care for her, huh?" Mara mumbled, noticing how the boy continuously glanced down to her to check that she was okay and the fond smile on his lips as he did so – she'd also noticed how as soon as she had mentioned that she was worried about Sydney, his head instantly turned and he seemed concerned and worried.

At that, Jerome nodded – it wasn't exactly a secret that he cared for Sydney (and vice versa) and anybody who could see was able to notice that simply from how the two interacted – he treated everyone else like dirt compared to her, and they were typically always seen with bright smiles on their lips when they were together. Honestly, the biggest smiles that anybody had ever seen from Jerome Clarke and Sydney Anderson were when they were with the other.

It was silent for a moment or two as the boy glanced down at the girl in his lap, before he lifted his head up once again, remembering the topic about his parents and how Sydney always told him to be more open and let down his mask, thus causing him to reveal to the nerd, "Do you know, Sydney and I have been at boarding school since we were five years old?"

At the news, Mara was slightly shocked considering how young that was to be sent away from home, and she shook her head as she replied to the boy with, "I didn't. That's so young - even Harry Potter didn't go till he was eleven. Is that how you two met?"

In response, Jerome nodded whilst he remembered him and Sydney when they were half the height that they were now, and how full of life they both were – Sydney never changed; he did, "Sydney never changed; she's always been this ray of sunshine, really – but, I just learnt how to hide my emotions."

"Wow, who'd have thought it? You have a sensitive side."

In response, Jerome narrowed his eyes as his eyebrows furrowed, not particularly liking that comment. He had actually taken Sydney's advice and let down his mask a little, opening up to somebody who wasn't the girl who already knew everything about him, and they made a joke about the situation and thought he was just emotionless.

Due to that, he nudged Sydney, who quickly took out her earphones and looked at the boy in confusion, instantly noticing how upset he was as he motioned for them to leave, so the pair grabbed their things and went to stand up, until Mara quickly rushed up from her seat, standing in front of them and blocking their way.

"Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just used to you two and Alfie going around, that's all." She apologised, causing Sydney's eyes to narrow in confusion before she managed to piece together what had happened from the apology and the previous question that Mara had asked about Jerome's parents – she'd assumed that Jerome had actually opened up to Mara, and she'd made a joke about it – especially due to the look on Jerome's face, "There's more to you that meets the eye, isn't there?"

"I'm actually a very deep person, Mara." Jerome told the girl, before he let out a small chuckle and the three of them all sat down as the boy continued, informing the girl, "For example: did you know that I am the current Anubis House jellybean eating champion?"

"You're really not." Sydney groaned, putting her head in her hands despite the amused smile that was on her lips as she watched the boy, seeing him take out a handful of jelly beans before throwing them up in the air, all of them falling onto the ground and not into his mouth, "Told you so. Here, let me show you who is really the Anubis House jellybean eating champion."

With that being said, she followed exactly what the boy beside her had done, taking a handful of jellybeans out of the packet and throwing them up into the air as she tried to catch them in the mouth. Of course, Jerome couldn't let her win and kept trying to shove her so that she'd miss and not catch any of them, whilst the nerd watched the pair of blondes with a smile on her lips – it was great to see how good the pair were together.

As the girl managed to catch at least three jellybeans in her mouth out of the handful she had shown (plus with the disadvantage of being moved constantly by Jerome), she turned to show her victory to both Jerome and Mara proudly, with the latter amusedly commenting, "That should really be an Olympic event."

"I'd score gold." Jerome stated confidently, though it caused the girl beside him to turn to him with a quirked up eyebrow, clearly not believing a single word that came out of his mouth considering that he had just missed every single jellybean he tried to catch.

"Okay, if you're so confident in that, try again." Sydney instructed, taking out some jellybeans and throwing them up in the air, and surprisingly, the boy managed to catch it, making the blonde-haired girl cheer for him, "Oh, I'm proud!"

"You seem shocked." Jerome responded with a smirk on his lips as he did so, knowing that it was actually surprising that he had been able to catch the jellybeans – he just loved to tease the girl and pretend that he was amazing at everything.

At that, Sydney rolled her eyes with mock-annoyance as she flicked the boy's forehead, causing all of them to let out a small laugh as the female prankster exasperatedly exclaimed, "That's because you've missed the past several times!"

Nodding in agreement with Sydney, Mara glanced at the pair of blondes, wanting to know more about the two of them, before she looked more specifically at the male as she suggested to him, "Yeah, maybe we should find something that you're better at."

And that's exactly how the trio ended up playing chess (switching people in and out after each game so that everyone had a turn), which Mara expected them to not be so good at – little did she know, that the pair of blondes had actually played it quite a few times back when they were children and thus Jerome was especially good at it – Sydney wasn't as much, considering that she never really paid attention when she played it.

"Okay, you are way better at this than jellybean challenge." Mara commented, and the female prankster of the group nodded in agreement from beside the boy – considering that he failed most attempts at getting the jellybeans in his mouth, but was doing fairly well at chess, it wasn't exactly hard to tell he was much better at the latter.

"Oh, I'm a guy of many and varied talents, Mara." Jerome told her as he beat her, reigning victorious as he finished the game with a smirk on his lips before he turned to face the blonde girl beside him, telling her, "Your turn."

"You know, I think I prefer the jellybean challenge." Sydney commented with a small laugh, moving to sit next to Mara, who'd already begun reorganising the pieces so that the pair of blondes could play again – honestly, Sydney wasn't that bad at chess and was better than most average people, but she didn't exactly care for the game, "I think I should get a photo of this – Jerome Clarke willingly playing chess in public."

"Don't you dare, Anderson."

As the pair of blondes started their game with matching smirks on their lips, both of them obviously eager to win (although the female knew she had no chance of doing so), Mara observed their game with impressed eyes before she asked the two of them, "Why don't you two come to the school chess club?"

At that, the pair of blondes glanced up at the nerd simultaneously. Jerome tilted his head at her, whilst Sydney quirked an eyebrow up – it was like she had forgotten their reputations of not caring about school or anything academic, and chess most certainly was academic and something that neither of them would do for an extracurricular activity.

However, at the glances that the blondes were giving her, Mara soon realised that neither of them would partake in chess club and knew exactly the reason why, saying, "Oh, right – uncool." The pair made a face agreeing with her, causing her to continue, "Ouch, that's more like the Jerome and Sydney that I know - you two are made for one another, truly."

Before they had the chance to protest against that claim, Alfie came onto the stage, dressed up in his skating gear and having a new skateboard under his arm as he exclaimed cheerfully, "Half-pipe, here we come! Check the new deck, bro!"

"Looks cool, Alfie." Sydney complimented him, causing his grin to widen before he glanced over to his friend, wanting to know if they could go to the skate park together so that he could show him some new skills (and probably end up trying) on his new skateboard.

Although, Jerome didn't particularly want to go, considering that he'd been wanting to hang out with Sydney for most of the day and they had only spent an hour together, at most, thus far considering she had gone off with the secret group she was in earlier, causing the blonde-haired boy to point towards the chessboard and the blonde girl, "Busy."

"Aw, come on!" Alfie cried out, attempting to convince and encourage his best friend to join him as he continued, putting his skateboard down on the stage as he began listing a few reasons to come, "You? Me? Skate park? Knee pads? Injuries? It's gonna be awesome!"

"You should go." Sydney encouraged the blonde-haired boy with a faint smile on her lips, knowing that their friend wasn't going to be happy if he didn't go with – despite her attempts at trying to encourage the boy, he still shook his head.

"Busy, Alfie."

"Fine." Alfie huffed, causing the two blonde pranksters to resume to their game and not particularly pay much attention to the boy, even though Sydney felt really bad for him effectively being left out – though, he still received their attention once again when the boy let out a screech and the skateboard slipped out from underneath him, making him fall onto the stage as the skateboard hit all the pieces of the chessboard, "Why?"

Quickly, Sydney jumped onto the stage and knelt down beside her friend, checking that he was okay and hadn't seriously injured anything before motioning for Jerome to go and get his skateboard that had ended up on the other side of the room, which he reluctantly did and brought it back to the boy, who let out a small and weak thanks before he got up and walked off somewhere. Mara had also taken her departure after having packed up all the chess pieces, telling Sydney that she'd see her later. Thus, that left Sydney and Jerome by themselves as they made their way down the corridor, his arm slung around her shoulder.

"So, you opened up to someone." Sydney commented, glancing up at the boy with a smirk on her lips as she did so, which the boy noticed as he looked at her, letting out a small chuckle at it – honestly, the female prankster was beyond proud of her friend for finally opening up and letting someone else besides herself see the real him.

"Well, a certain someone has been pestering me for quite some time to let down my mask, and I thought that I could make a start on it." Jerome responded, bringing the girl into him a little tighter as both of them knew that the 'certain someone' was her.

"That certain someone is quite something, huh? She sounds great." Sydney said teasingly, causing the boy to roll his eyes at her and slightly nudge her as the two of them laughed, before the girl became serious, looking up at the boy with a smile, "Seriously, I'm proud of you. I know that it took a lot for you to do that, but how did it make you feel?"

The boy had furrowed eyebrows for a second – he hadn't even considered how it had made him feel until she had asked, and he blinked a few times before he answered her simply, "Good, actually."

"Is now the time where I say that I told you so?" Sydney questioned him, letting out a small giggle as the boy shook his head, sending her a small glare albeit the smile on his lips, "I told you that people would still like the real you, I'm just glad you're getting a bit more confident to show it off – real you is pretty good."

"Just pretty good?"

"Oh, stop fishing for compliments." Sydney instructed him, playfully hitting his arm as the two of them chuckled – they were definitely happy with one another, and anybody could see that; it was apparent to literally anybody who set their sights upon them and it was hard to miss their happiness with the radiant smiles on their lips.

"It was only because of you that I managed to do it." Jerome informed the girl with a fond grin on his lips, though she instantly shook her head at the claim and denied it.

"No." Sydney protested, continuing to shake her head and thus causing the boy to look at her with a confused look on his face, forcing the girl to elaborate and explain why it wasn't her fault, "I may have influenced it, but you're the one who acted upon it – it's all on you, and you should be really proud of it."

However, before either of them were able to say anything else, Sydney's eyes narrowed in curiosity as she managed to peer over the boy's shoulder and noticed that all of Sibuna were gathered nearby the lockers, and were motioning for her to come over to them.

Releasing a sigh as she didn't really want to leave her friend, Sydney sent a tight-lipped smile to Jerome as she told him, "Wait here, I'll be back in a sec – duty calls, I suppose."

Although he wasn't exactly fond of her ditching him for that group again, he nodded in agreement and leant against the wall, pulling his phone out of his pocket and doing whatever with it whilst Sydney walked over to the group, with Nina and Fabian explaining absolutely everything that they had found out to them.

"So, Victor isn't a hundred and twenty, and there is no elixir, and the voice on Sarah's recording is Victor's dad?" Amber repeated exactly what the group had been told once the pair had finished explaining everything – it turned out that they had snuck into Victor's office and found a photograph from 1922 of someone who looked like their housekeeper, plus a young boy, and on the back of it was two names which were both Victor Rodenmaar, though one was Senior and the other was Junior, and they had come to the conclusion that the voice on the phonograph was their housekeeper's father – also, the toxicology report turned out to be some water and herbs, thus was not an elixir of life, "That's insane."

"Wow, you really were listening." Fabian responded, being in shock that the blonde had actually paid attention to what they had to say and had fully understood it, considering that she was typically very confused whenever they gave her a lot of information at once.

"I know!" Amber exclaimed, seeming shocked that she had been able to do it as well, although she soon gave away her method as she told the group, "I find it helps to imagine I'm Mara, but only for like a second because then it's weird."

"So, there is no mystery." Patricia concluded.

"But none of it adds up." Nina insisted, glancing over at everybody's reluctant faces – honestly, Sydney seemed to be the only one who wasn't reluctant, considering that she had already concluded that something was odd and she agreed with Nina when she said that nothing added up – however, the American still looked at Amber and Patricia, asking, "You guys aren't giving up on me, are you?"

However, Sydney didn't even get the chance to say that she wasn't giving up on the group before both her and the fashionista of the group were dragged away by Patricia down the hallway, who clearly had given up on the entire quest. Releasing a sigh, Sydney split up from the two girls and went back over to the blonde-haired boy who had been waiting for her by the wall, with him glancing up from his phone as she stopped in front of him.

"You okay?" He questioned with a concerned look in his eye, putting his phone in his pocket before he slung his arm around the girl, watching her carefully to see her nod to his question, and it wasn't a lie – she truly was fine, although she still felt odd about the entire situation with the secret club; Nina was right, it didn't add up, "Well, we need to go to the drama studio. Alfie ran up to me a few minutes ago and said Mrs Andrews has some big important announcement to make – he seemed really excited about it."

"Sounds riveting." Sydney commented sarcastically, the boy letting out a small chuckle as they made their way to the drama studio and found themselves stood near the nerd whom they had played chess with earlier, her sending them a polite smile which they returned.

"Okay, quieten down now everybody's here." Mrs Andrews called out after a few minutes and once the room seemed filled enough, causing the chatter to stop within the room as she continued, "I just want to let everyone know that we are officially moving ahead with our idea of a school representative, and that person will be chosen from this year group."

"Is that it? Boring!" Alfie called out, clearly unhappy with the announcement and deflated that it wasn't as big as he'd hoped for, "I thought it would be some exciting mystery."

At that, Sydney glanced over to her fellow Sibuna members, knowing that nobody wanted a mystery like the one that they had – Alfie had to be careful what he wished for.

"So, do we have any nominations?"

"I nominate Mara Jaffray!" Sydney called out after having shared a glance with Jerome, and the prankster sent the nerd a small smile which was soon returned – both of the blondes knew that Mara was perfect for the role of school representative, and it was their way to say thanks to her after the male between the two had opened up to her.

"Very good. Any other nominations?"

From the corner of her eye, Sydney noticed Jerome not-so-subtly pointing towards Amber Millington and sending a wink towards Alfie Lewis – obviously, another scheme to try and get the fashionista's attention, and of course, their friend went through with it and thought it was a great idea.

"I nominate Amb-!"

Already realising what the boy was going to do, Amber quickly turned to him, interrupting his nomination before he managed to finish the complete name as she snapped, telling him, "Don't you dare!"

However, Alfie had already started nominating somebody and would have seemed rather dumb if he didn't finish his nomination, causing him to keep going and choose the first girl who he sees whose name begins with A, causing him to call out, "Am-Amelia pinches!"

At the nomination, everyone turned to the girl whilst Jerome threw a questioning look to his roommate, wondering why he had nominated the poor girl. Sydney didn't know much about Amelia Pinches, considering that she was in a different house, although she did know that she was a bit of a geek and only had a few friends.

"Amelia? Excellent." Mrs Andrews responded, not picking up on the fact that the boy didn't actually want to choose Amelia and chose the first person that came to his mind, though the girl still accepted the nomination, "Any other nominations?" Mrs Andrews asked, although the room stayed silent, "No. So, nominations will close in five days' time. Thank you very much."

Everybody begun to file out of the room, going off to their next lessons, which was when realised that she needed to grab a few of her things from her locker, thus causing her to tell Jerome that she'd be back in a second before she went away to her locker, not realising that the boy was watching her walk away – honestly, he hadn't realised either.

"Hope that you're enjoying your stay at 'We Love Sydney Land' - population: Jerome." Alfie stated once he had approached the boy and noticed who he had been watching, a smirk on his lips as he did so – Alfie desperately wanted his two best friends to get together after so many years, and he had a gut feeling that they were perfect for each other; he just had to make them realise that as well.

"Calm down." Jerome instructed the boy, dismissing him with a roll of his eyes and deciding to change the topic quickly, "I had no idea you were into 'Brace Face'."

Instantly, Alfie shushed his friend as he didn't want to be approached by the girl whom he had nominated, who had seemed to have developed a crush on Alfie ever since he had nominated her and didn't stop blushing or waving at him whenever she saw him, causing Alfie to tell his friend, "Shut up. She'll hear you."

"Amelia!"

As soon as Jerome had teasingly called out the girl's name, Alfie had hid himself in between the lockers and the wall within seconds in an attempt to get away from the girl, who had already begun searching for the person who had nominated her, causing Jerome to chuckle at him and shake his head.

"You can run, but you can't hide, mate."

The next morning, Sydney found herself shooting up from yet another nightmare, it being the exact same as all the past ones. Of course, this caused her to take a deep breath as she tried to steady herself and calm herself down, her hand clutched against her chest before she glanced up, noticing that both Patricia and Mara were awake and had snapped their head over to look at the blonde-haired girl with worry.

"Both of you? Really?" Mara questioned, her eyes darting in between her two roommates whilst Sydney became confused, wondering what Patricia had a nightmare about - however, before she had the chance to question it, the nerd inquired worriedly, "I'm surprised you didn't wake up earlier with Patricia's scream – must have been a deep sleep. Did you have another nightmare?"

"Grim Reaper." Sydney simply stated, it being a lie that she managed to convince them of as she sent them a reassuring smile to tell them that she was fine – it turned out that her fear of the figure of death was helping her quite a bit that term, and she never thought that would ever happen considering how petrified she was of the thing.

After she had begged her roommates for ten minutes in which she constantly asked them to go and convince their housemother that she was ridiculously sick and thus couldn't go into school, Mara had finally had enough of the girl and literally pulled her out of the bed until her entire body landed on the ground with a loud thump. As soon as that happened, Sydney realised that it was probably best that she gave up on her begging technique and simply got ready for school before going downstairs alongside Mara, who told the blonde that their other roommate said she'd come down in a minute because she was still tired.

"Need any help, Trudy?" Sydney inquired as soon as she entered the kitchen, glancing around to see if there was anything that she could take into the dining room in order to help the woman out, although most of it had already been done so she shook her head.

Due to that, Sydney found herself making breakfast for two people – her and Jerome - like always, before she made her way over to their seats and placed the bowls down, sitting in her own seat and making small talk with Fabian, Mara, and Amber, who were also sitting around the dinner table and eating their breakfast.

Soon enough, Jerome and Alfie entered, with the latter looking a lot weirder than he normally did. It seemed like he didn't get any sleep, though the only times he never slept was when he had a movie marathon, which they certainly did not have last night considering that Sydney was in her own bedroom, rather than theirs.

However, she dismissed her worry for the boy as overthinking whilst the more-awake looking person out of the two, Jerome, sat down in his seat next to the girl and quickly turned to her and did her tie for her, as though it was an impulse, before glancing back to his breakfast that was already laid out for him, "Thanks."

"Thanks." Sydney repeated his words, motioning to her tie and thanking him for constantly doing it for her, causing the two to let out a soft chuckle before a discussion broke out between them and they continued to dig into their food.

Soon enough, Sydney's attention is pulled away from the conversation when her purple-haired roommate finally entered the dining room for breakfast, although she was still wearing her pyjamas despite the fact that everyone had to leave for school soon and were in their uniforms already – upon seeing that, Mara greeted the girl, concernedly asking, "Hi. You okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" Patricia responded, not wanting to talk much about how she felt and trying to lie about how exhausted she was – although, it was clear that she was lying simply based on her appearance, because she never usually came down to the kitchen in her pyjamas; obviously, her nightmares were worse than she was letting on, and she had been like that ever since she returned from being held hostage by Rufus, which wasn't surprising – a = kidnapping was bound to cause some mess in a teenager's mind.

"You had a bad night." Mara stated, before she turned her head to face her other roommate, the female prankster, at the table, "And so did you, Sydney, again."

Honestly, Sydney felt bad for Mara Jaffray, considering she had to sleep in the same room as the two girls who were having constant nightmares and kept waking up petrified – it certainly wasn't something to be overjoyed about, and the blonde wondered how many times she had disturbed her roommate's sleep due to her nightmares.

As she was thinking about that, she didn't notice that the boy beside her had turned his head to face her, resting his curious eyes on her as he wondered if she was okay, and also how long it was going to take for the rest of the Anubis House residents to recognise something was wrong. Sure – everyone knew that Sydney Anderson was absolutely petrified of the Grim Reaper after her shrieks echoed through the corridors of Anubis House when she once accidentally killed her family and the figure came up on her screen, but they were also aware that she only had a few nightmares about it every now and again – not every single day.

"I'm fine." Patricia groaned out, brushing past the nerd and going to her seat in an attempt to dismiss the conversation and change topics as fast as possible, despite her clearly not being fine.

Sydney shrugged, "I'm always fine."

Sending a concerned look to her two roommates, the nerd let out a sigh before she decided to not pester them about whether or not they were okay, and simply sat in her seat as she spoke up, glancing over to the female prankster as she stated, "I don't understand why you're so scared of The Grim Reaper, Sydney."

"The Grim Reaper, again?" Amber asked – as mentioned earlier everyone knew about Sydney Anderson's fear - her eyebrows raised up as she looked over to her friend, who nodded in response and thus caused the girl to continue, exclaiming, "I know the outfit is absolutely hideous, but even I don't have that many nightmares about it and I'm the fashionista here!"

At that, Sydney let out a small laugh as she remembered when Amber Millington had first seen The Grim Reaper and had made a remark about how terrible it's outfit was, before she shook her head at the girl, informing her, "It's not the outfit I'm scared of."

"I can't believe you still play The Sims. I mean, considering you fell off your chair the last time you killed your household and had Victor and Trudy running into your room to make sure that you were okay." Fabian reminded the girl, causing everyone at the table to let out a small chuckle whilst the girl groaned, remembering how scared she had been at that moment and how she was on the verge of tears when the two adults of Anubis House came rushing into her bedroom.

Feeling a small sign of a headache, the girl put her head in her hands and groaned out tiredly, "I am way too tired to talk about my phobia of that evil thing."

"I didn't sleep too good either. I was up all night looking for UFOs." Alfie revealed to the group, causing everyone to glance up at him with confusion in their eyes whilst snickering slightly – it explained why he looked so tired and... off, that morning, but his reasoning was rather weird and they wondered if they had heard him right for a moment or two.

Then again, it was Alfie Lewis.

Of course, Alfie Lewis stayed up looking for aliens.

"UFOs?" Jerome repeated, attempting to hold back his laughter as he did so as they hoped that they had misheard the boy, and that he wasn't being genuinely serious – however, he seemed to be as his face didn't waver at what his friend had said.

"You spent the entire night searching for UFOs and aliens?" Sydney chimed in, her eyebrow quirked up at him as she wondered if it was karma for allowing the boy to watch so many alien/sci-fi films all the time, and for always encouraging his talk about aliens.

"Yeah." Alfie agreed simply, not understanding why nobody was taking him seriously and why they didn't believe him, and as he saw the amused looks on everyone's faces as laughter began tumbling out of them, he rushed to defend himself, "They're coming, trust me, and then everybody will come running to Alfie for his alien expertise."

"What?!" Jerome laughed, not understanding why his roommate was blabbing so much nonsense and why he actually believed that aliens existed and were coming – he knew that the trio watched a lot of alien movies, but they never expected for one of them to actually believe that aliens were coming to take over the world.

"Alfie Lewis, Champion of the Earth." Patricia announced, deepening her voice to imitate a commentator of some sci-fi movie, before she returned back to her normal voice and bluntly stated, "We're doomed."

Unfortunately, aliens weren't able to arrive fast enough to get Sydney Anderson out of going to school – curse the aliens – hence why she had soon found herself in a classroom seconds before a lesson started, with her sat atop of Jerome and Alfie's desk as the three of them spoke about the latter's search for aliens last night. Of course, Sydney believed in some form of different life state out there, but she didn't exactly think that they were going to come and corrupt Planet Earth, which was exactly why her and Jerome both had amused looks as they listened to their friend ramble on and on about aliens until finally-,

"Okay, settle down everyone - quickly, quietly, please." Mr Winkler called out as he came into the classroom, causing the blonde-haired prankster to hop off the desk that she was sat on and to sit in her actual seat whilst the chatter in the room died down, allowing for the teacher to begin his lesson, "I want to talk numerology."

"Numerology?" Jerome repeated, "Sir, this is a serious class, not new age crud."

"When have you ever taken a class seriously?" Sydney asked the boy, a smirk on her lips as he rolled his eyes at her – not having a comeback as he knew that she was right; the pair often goofed around in lessons alongside Alfie, and never took a class too seriously.

Mr Winkler ignored the pair, putting a chair on top of his desk as he continued with his lesson and explanation, "Today, we would look at something like this chair and say it isn't alive, but the ancient Egyptians believed everything was alive. They believed everything was made up of living particles and that every person - every object - could be reduced down to what they believed were divine numbers. The god, Osiris, represents the first perfect odd number – three - whilst Isis represents the number four. The result of the two was their son, Horus, who is represented by the number five."

Suddenly, his explanation was interrupted by a loud screech, causing heads to snap to face Patricia Williamson – the source of the screech – and everyone's eyes widening as the girl gathered up her things and sprinted out of the class.

Without a second thought, Sydney and every other member of Anubis House instinctively grabbed their belongings and jumped out of their seats, chasing after the girl through the hallways as they were all ridiculously confused and worried for why she had let out a screech and left in the middle of class – although, the female prankster had a theory that it was something to do with her nightmares. Although, soon enough, the residents of Anubis House had lost track of the purple-haired girl, deciding to split off into groups in an attempt to find her until, about an hour later, Alfie announced to them all that he had found her and spoke to her about whatever had happened in Mr Winkler's class.

"So, she's definitely alright?" Mara asked once again, wanting to make sure that her roommate was fine after the extremely worrying incident, whilst Sydney and Jerome began to gather up the dishes and were only half-paying attention to the conversation.

"Yeah, it took me ages to find her. She's a bit embarrassed, that's all. So, when she comes in, no one mention it, okay?" Alfie told them, causing them all to nod in agreement as they wanted the girl to feel comfortable and not to freak out and run away again like she had done previously in class – they really didn't want another wild goose chase in an attempt to find her again; hide and seek was never Sydney's favourite game, anyways.

"Fine by me. I've had enough scary talk and screaming for one day." Amber announced, before she put a scarf on her head and spoke up once more, telling the group, "Listen up, you guys, Mr Winkler said the Egyptians were really big on numberology, and I happen to know how to work out your perfect love match by working out your numbers. Any takers?"

Instantly, Alfie moved to sit next to the girl, eager for his perfect love to be her, and thus causing Sydney to snicker at the sight, shaking her head at her friend from in the kitchen, where her and Jerome were sharing amused looks with one another as they knew that whatever Amber was doing was not going to end up in the way Alfie wanted it to.

"No, thanks. There is no science behind that whatsoever." Mara denied, shaking her head at the offer to partake in what the fashionista was doing as she let out a faint chuckle, finding it all ridiculous considering that there was no logic to it.

Meanwhile, at the mention of the topic that she despised with a very strong passion, Sydney let out a loud groan from the kitchen, "Oh, please don't mention science."

"Science isn't that bad." Jerome defended the topic, causing the girl to look at him with a betrayed expression mixed with shock plastered on her face – in her eyes, science was the worst topic in the entire world and the fact that anybody liked it was a mystery to her.

"You are dead to me." Sydney blunted stated, before she glanced down at the bubbly water and an idea popped in her head, causing a grin to pop up on her face before she grabbed some bubbles and threw it at the boy, "That's what you get!"

"Are bubbles meant to hurt me?" Jerome inquired, glancing down at the bubbles that had been splattered onto his face and shirt, before he looked back up at the girl who had nodded in response, "In that case," He lifted up a large handful of bubbles, "take that!"

Of course them washing up dishes ended up in a bubble fight.

"Mr Sweet?!" Alfie eventually yelled out from behind them, his voice laced with disbelief and thus causing the two blonde pranksters, who both now had bubble beards (Sydney had already taken a photo of it on her phone – her camera was upstairs- to send to Poppy later), to lift their head up from the dishes as their friend continued to complain, "My perfect love match is old Sweetie?!"

At that, Sydney and Jerome burst out into hysterical laughter due to their friend's misfortune, causing their bubble beards to slowly pop away. Meanwhile, Alfie cringed at the thought of him and the head teacher dating, which was a very normal reaction

"Sorry, Alfie!" Amber called out to the boy as he slid out of his seat, presumably retreating to his bedroom to deal with the outcome of his results being that he was going to fall in love with Mr Sweet, of all people he could have had.

However, Sydney still called down the hall, "Invite me to the wedding!"

"Like I said, the numbers never lie - it's science." Amber stated with a smirk on her lips, her words mostly directed towards the nerd of Anubis House, who had previously said that she wasn't interested in it, before she turned around to the kitchen to the two blondes, "You two lovebirds, what about you? How about you put us out of our misery and find out what we already know is true – that you two are madly in love and meant for one another?"

"Us?" Jerome repeated, his finger pointing in between both him and Sydney, and thus causing the girl to nod, and the pair of them rolled their eyes whilst the boy plainly stated, "Ha, you're hilarious, Millington."

"Maybe she should take up comedy instead of fashion." Sydney suggested to the boy beside her, who nodded in agreement whilst the fashionista rolled her eyes.

"Your loss!" Amber called out, before she turned to her next victims, who happened to be sat together on the sofa, both seemingly with blushes on their faces as the blonde-haired girl called out to them, "Nina, let's work out your number, and then maybe Fabian's."

"You still have some bubbles on your face." Jerome mumbled, causing the female prankster's attention to be taken away from the match-making and over to the boy as he grabbed a cloth and approached her, gently grabbing her face and wiping off the remaining bubbles, "There we go."

"What if I wanted the bubbles to stay?" Sydney asked him, a smirk on her lips whilst the boy rolled his eyes at her, knowing that she was trying to annoy him, "You've just killed a ton of bubbles for no reason. Bubble-murderer!"

"I apologise sincerely." Jerome stated plainly – he most certainly was not sorry.

"My left pinkie can give me a better apology than that." Sydney told him, flicking him with some more bubbles just as he left the kitchen to go and gather up some more dishes, making him release a small groan despite the amused smile on his face.

"Guys, where's Alfie?" Jerome questioned Mara and Amber – everyone else seemed to have left, though Sydney did not recall seeing anyone leave, presumably due to how focused she was on the bubble fight, "He's meant to be helping me and Sydney is causing more chaos."

"Excuse me, I've cleaned more dishes than you!" Sydney defended herself, picking up a few dishes and waving them around (rather carelessly) to prove a point to the boy, who had quickly grabbed it out of her hand so that she didn't drop it and shatter it.

"No, you have not!"

"Yes, I have so!"

"Okay, we get that you're hopelessly in love, but can you take your married couple bickering somewhere else? I'm having a dilemma here!" Amber interrupted the pair as she snapped her head back to face them, forcing them to come to a stop as she released a huff, "How do I not match with Robert Pattinson? There must be something I'm missing!"

"Uhm, Amber, I was just wondering if you could do my number's and Mick's." Mara awkwardly asked the fashionista, obviously having changed her mind on the whole situation, though the question caused Amber to quirk an eyebrow up at her as she remained silent for a second, thus the nerd asked, "Is that too weird?"

"A little." Sydney called out from the kitchen, whilst she passed some clean dishes over to Jerome for him to put away, considering that she couldn't reach the top few shelves and he constantly laughed at her about it.

"No! No!" Amber protested, though she certainly didn't mean it and definitely looked and sounded a little bit awkward as she spoke, "Not at all. I'm so, like, over Mick, it's like I'm in another universe." The fashionista lied, passing the girl beside her the notebook and pen before instructing her, "So, uh, write down your full name and date of birth."

"What happened to there being no science behind it?" Sydney questioned the nerd with furrowed eyebrows, wondering what had happened to change her mind, and also hoping that she still didn't go through with it due to it upsetting Amber.

However, Mara shrugged it off and dismissed it as she passed the notebook back over to the fashionista, informing all of them, "It's just for a giggle."

"So Mick's a four which means he's going to be really successful, which is why I got with him in the first place, even though I'm a nine which means I'm a little bit more creative and not really suited to a four-." Amber rambled, before realising that she hadn't gave the nerd the actual results she wanted and was making it quite clear that she was not over the jock, making her stop before she continued, saying, "Anyway, it's not about me. Uh, so, uhm, let's see, you're a..."

"What?" Mara questioned, upon the girl having trailed off and her eyes clouding over with sadness as she circled the result on her notebook – one that, clearly, Amber Millington was not happy with.

"You're a four." Amber announced, taking the scarf off her head as she continued, faking happiness for her ex-roommate, "Perfect match. So, congrats, well done – go get him"

With that being said, Mara smiled widely before she gathered up her things, presumably going off to her room to contact her "perfect match", and that caused the female prankster to slip into the chair next to her female best friend as she tried to cheer her up, "Hey, put that scarf back on. You have a few more numbers to figure out."

Thankfully, that caused a smile to worm its way back onto the fashionista's face, and she quickly went to figuring out the numbers of both Jerome and Sydney. Once she did, her smile became even bigger, practically beaming, as she announced cheerfully that the pair were a perfect match.

Who would have thought?

A few minutes before lights out, Sydney, Patricia, and Nina found themselves in the American's bedroom, doing a little bit of last minute homework together and drifting through fun conversation topics until Fabian Rutter rushed into the room, sitting down on the floor and putting out a map in front of him so that they could all see it.

"Hello to you too." Sydney mumbled, mildly amused at how frantically the boy had rushed into the room, without a single greeting and had simply entered the room and joined the conversation without a single warning.

"Okay, so here is a map of the house. If Sarah's numbers are coordinates, we'll be able to use this to pinpoint a location, which, in turn, may lead us to another clue-." Fabian began to ramble, obviously excited about figuring out something else and everything seemingly going right – apparently, he had lost one of the puzzle pieces, but Patricia had found it and given it back to the nerd, so they were rather happy at that moment.

"They're not coordinates, Fabian." Nina interrupted him with a shake of her head, causing the nerd's smile to deflate as he had been so convinced that he was right – although, trust the moment of happiness to disappear as quickly as it came.

"They're not?"

"Aw, you just crushed his little nerdy heart." Sydney teased, letting out quiet laughter alongside Patricia, whilst Nina and Fabian (though they had faint amused smiles on their lips) rolled their eyes.

"Sarah's an eleven - the same as me." Nina informed the group, passing the nerd of the group a notebook with a bunch of numbers and scribbling on it before she elaborated, telling him, "It's Sarah's numerology number and her date of birth." With that, she picked up one of the puzzle pieces and began to turn the dial to input the numbers, reading out the numbers as she went along, "Eleven, zero-one..."

Suddenly, the house begun to creak, making extremely peculiar noises that buildings weren't supposed to make, and it seemed as though it was moving – which, once again, houses weren't meant to do by themselves. Sure – the Anubis House was creepy, and they had all seen that in the brochure before arriving there, but they never expected it to be creepy to the point of it making strange noises and moving by itself.

It seemed like Sydney wasn't the only person confused by the odd noises/movement of the house, as Fabian, with confusion plastered across his face, soon asked, "What was that?"

"I don't know, but it's freaking me out." Patricia responded, and Sydney nodded in agreement – her eyes constantly darting around the room as she tried to figure out what it was, whilst Nina finished putting in the numbers.

"...zero-one, one-nine-one-five."

Upon turning the final dial, the house begun to furiously shake like an earthquake was suddenly tearing through Anubis House. The issue regarding that statement was that earthquakes weren't exactly a regular thing in Britain, and if they did happen, then they were hardly noticeable. The earthquake-not-an-earthquake tearing through Anubis House was most certainly noticeable, with objects falling off the walls and Sydney pressing her hands against the floor in order to keep herself upright.

"Guys, I don't want to alarm anyone-." Nina began slowly, although that caused the female prankster of the group to snap her head towards her, confusion and fright plastered on her face as she interrupted the American.

"I think we're already quite alarmed!"

"Well... I think the house may be... coming to life."

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[25.05.2020]

NOTE: hi i felt really bad that the previous update hardly included any sydrome, so i decided to give you guys a double update (even though this is rather late). there's a lot of syndrome in this and they're getting even closer than they already are, so i hope this satisfies your want for them to kiss for a little while longer. thank you SO much for all the positive support, it means a lot and i'm literally writing some s2 chapters as we speak (once again, are you jealous?). i love you so much!