DENOUEMENT
xxii. house of yesterday
❝A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN.❞

"REMIND ME WHY I agreed to this, again?" Sydney Anderson questioned, an exasperated look on her face as she sat in front of Amber Millington's mirror, allowing for the fashionista to do her makeup and hair once again before breakfast – so far, they had been in front of the mirror for the past hour and the prankster was heavily regretting her decision in letting her friend make her over.

"Because I'm your favourite person." Amber told the girl, a cheeky smile on her face as she continued to work her magic, pulling some more things out of her makeup bag before she turned to the fidgeting prankster once more, scolding her, "And, could you please stay still?! It's like you want me to poke your eye out with mascara!"

"I've be sat here for like five hours! I swear we've missed breakfast and school!" Sydney dramatically cried out, throwing her hands into the air as she complained.

"Actually, you've been sat there for an hour – breakfast is in about ten minutes." Nina corrected the girl, an amused smirk on her lips as she watched the scene unfold; she was rather happy, considering that if the prankster hadn't volunteered to be the puppet of Amber's makeup dreams, then it would have probably been the American sat in front of the mirror – she'd gotten a lucky escape.

"One hour, five hours – same thing." Sydney groaned, dismissing the correction away as the two other girls in the room chuckled at their friend's grumpy behaviour.

"You know, I don't think it is." Nina said, laughing slightly, before she went over and took out the riddle that they had discovered the previous day in the attic, mumbling it to herself as she paced around the room, clearly thinking about what it could have meant.

"I'm almost done anyways." Amber informed the prankster, who let out a humongous sigh of relief at the news which forced the fashionista shake her head at the reaction, telling the girl, "You can't rush perfection, Sydney."

Frustrated, Sydney replied, "It's hardly rushed when it's taken an hour to-."

However, she was cut off by the sound of a knock at Nina's and Amber's bedroom door. Thinking that it was probably another member of Sibuna coming to check on them, Nina absentmindedly called out for whoever it was to come in, only for the door to open slightly and for Jerome's head to peek around the door awkwardly, glancing around the room until his eyes landed on Sydney, now with her hair wavy and natural makeup on.

"Uh, Patricia said you were in here." Jerome mumbled towards his best friend, before he glanced over to the two other girls in the room, both of whom were looking at him with confusion (and slight annoyance over the stunt he had pulled that hurt Amber), "Do you mind if I steal her?"

"Do I not get a say in this?" Sydney asked.

"Nope, you don't – you're going. Let me just finish this eye." Amber forcefully stated, completing the look with the final touches of mascara before she stepped back and observed her work, "There we go. If you ruin my masterpiece, I will unfriend you on all social media platforms – that goes for you too, Jerome."

"Got it." Jerome replied with a nod, sending a thankful smile to both Amber and Nina as the former of the pair pushed Sydney into his arms whilst the latter grabbed Sydney's bag for school and passed them to the boy – as much as they disliked Jerome for the stunt that he pulled on Amber, they were still big shippers of Sydrome and humongous matchmakers.

"Believe it or not, I didn't expect to be kidnapped when I woke up today." Sydney muttered as the boy dragged her down the corridor, the stairs, and then out of Anubis House – she frowned upon realising that she wasn't even allowed to have breakfast anymore, and would miss out on Trudy's cooking, "You owe me a muffin."

"I think I can do you better than that." Jerome told the girl, before he presented her with a picnic set up on the grass outside Anubis House, kneeling down and grabbing a breakfast muffin out of the basket and passing it to the girl, "Although, you can still have a muffin."

"Is it poisoned?" Sydney questioned, looking at the (very tempting) muffin with narrowed and suspicious eyes as the boy chuckled, shaking his head, though that caused her to come up with even more ideas about what the muffin could truly be... instead of just a regular breakfast muffin, "Does it have some sort of weird filling inside of it?"

"Sydney, it's just a regular breakfast muffin." Jerome assured the girl, pulling out another one from the basket and taking a bite of it to prove his point to the girl – thus, still with a wary look on her face, Sydney took a bite out of the breakfast muffin in her hands.

It was a regular breakfast muffin.

"Okay, so what's the catch? What's the breakfast picnic for?" Sydney inquired, sitting down on the blanket set out beside the boy as the two of them continued to eat the breakfast food that Jerome had brought with them.

"It's an apology breakfast picnic." Jerome corrected the girl, before he released a sigh and explained to her, "We both know I'm not the best at apologies and that I hate saying that I'm sorry or feeling guilty, because-."

"Who has the time to feel guilty?" Sydney interrupted, finishing the sentence as she already knew what the boy was going to say as they have had the conversation about why apologising wasn't worth it and why it was pointless numerous times.

"Exactly." Jerome agreed, before he gestured around to the picnic and continued with, "Actions speak louder than words, so here is my apology and I'll make it up to Amber later, as well, though I still need to think of a way to do that. Like you said, I don't want to feel guilty because I don't have the time for it, but I have time for you."

"It shouldn't be me who you're apologising to – it should be Amber, and you shouldn't have gone for her looks, of all things, in the first place, okay?" Sydney told the boy, who nodded in understanding, and thus the girl continued, "Although, what you just said was oddly sweet, Clarke." She commented, picking up another breakfast muffin from out of the basket as she shot a small glance at him, whilst he looked at the girl hopefully.

Considering that her comment was rather cryptic about whether or not she had accepted Jerome's apology, the boy inquired, "Does that mean we're good now?"

Then, Sydney smashed the breakfast muffin into his face.

As soon as she pulled her hand away from the boy and witnessed the sight of crumbs covering his face, a slightly annoyed but mostly amused expression hidden behind all of the ruined breakfast muffin, the girl let out a loud laugh, "Now we are!"

Soon enough, the picnic was forgotten about as the pair of blondes engaged in a huge tackling fight, fits of laughter leaving both of them endlessly to the point where tears stung their eyes.

They were always going to be okay.

Unfortunately, the pair weren't allowed to tackle one another forever and were soon broken up by Alfie Lewis, who claimed that as much as he loved watching the pair flirt relentlessly with one another through the window (which apparently all of Anubis House had been doing, and that knowledge caused the two blondes to feel a very powerful warmth rise up to their cheeks), they had to go to class. Thus, Sydney Anderson soon found herself sat in a classroom, amusedly throwing paper balls at Jerome until Amber came into the classroom, carrying a ton of art supplies.

"Thanks for all your help with this campaign, guys." She stated, causing everyone to glance up from their work to see how irritated and annoyed she looked as she continued, "I've only had to struggle all the way from the art room with this stuff."

Looking at the girl in confusion, Mara remembered what the fashionista had said merely a few days ago and stated, "I thought Alfie was going to be your campaign manager."

"Not anymore." Amber informed them – though it wasn't particularly any news to Sibuna, who had been there when she had fired the boy, although Sydney's eyes narrowed as she wondered how the fashionista was coping without a campaign manager.

Meanwhile, an idea flashed in Jerome Clarke's mind at the news of Amber Millington, the same girl who he had to do something for in order to make it up to her, not having a campaign manager, and it was a perfect opportunity in his eyes.

"Mara, I quit." Jerome simply stated, as though it was a rather casual thing whilst the nerd's jaw dropped in shock, "It's for an apology, so you can't be that mad at me." Then, he turned to face Amber, who seemed completely confused (like the rest of the class, minus Sydney, who had worked out exactly what the boy was doing), "Come on, Amber, let's celebrate – you've won. I'm your new campaign manager."

It seemed like Jerome Clarke was doing a lot of unexpected things that day – first, he planned out a picnic in order to apologise, and then quit being a campaign manager for the nerd to switch to being the campaign manager for the fashionista.

However, one thing that was expected of Jerome Clarke was that he'd soon be found alongside Sydney Anderson, the pair of them way too close for the label of 'just friends' (despite them saying that's what they were), and that's exactly what was found later on in the day. Both Sydney and Jerome were sat in the living room, with the former of the pair considerably happy now that he had made it up to Amber. Sydney's head was resting on Jerome's shoulder as the boy read a book about elections, with him occasionally turning his gaze from the words on the page to the female beside him with a small smile on his lips, which fell into faint laughter whenever she poked him and messed with him. Eventually, his attention fell back to the book and Sydney felt herself drifting away slightly, until she noticed both Fabian and Nina enter the living room, sending a small smile to the pair of them.

However, her smile was soon wiped away when a sudden yell was heard from behind the two pranksters – Victor, of course, who seemed inexplicably furious as he noticed that Jerome's feet were propped up on the table, "Get your feet off the furniture, boy!"

Instantly, the two prankster both flinched with their peaceful moment being ruined – the only thing that they had heard for the past few minutes was the faint sounds of their own laughter, so a sudden yell was rather alarming to them and caused the boy to hurriedly remove his feet from the table as they all turned to face their housekeeper with confused faces, wondering why he was in such a foul mood.

"What are you two staring at?" He questioned, having noticed that Nina and Fabian were looking at him with slight fear and confusion, and thus forcing the pair to look away from him and instead turn to the female prankster with confused eyes, making her give them a small shrug whilst their housekeeper continued, "I want you all in bed by nine o'clock, or else there will be consequences."

Not leaving anymore room for discussion (not like any of them were willing to debate it with him when he was in such a grouchy mood originally), he stormed out of the room and presumably went to his office, leaving the four Anubis House residents in the living room to glance at one another with pure confusion coating their features.

"What's bugging him?" Jerome inquired, snapping his book shut as he turned to face everyone else in the room with confused eyes, wanting answers for why he had just been unexpectedly scolded for something that was rather normal in Anubis House.

"Who knows? I say that we abort before he throws another tantrum, though." Sydney suggested, with the prankster nodding in agreement to the plan and thus causing the blonde pair to hastily leave the living room, going to Alfie's and Jerome's bedroom, where the female resided until the next morning, with her falling asleep with Jerome's arms around her – the usual, of course, because that's what all friends did.

The next morning, Sydney woke up feeling rather refreshed, considering that she didn't have another nightmare and actually felt safe, both throughout her sleep and when she woke up. Of course, that meant she was in a very cheerful mood as soon as her eyes opened, and once she noticed that the boy whose arms locked her in place was still asleep, she couldn't help herself and found herself continually poking his face until he opened one of his eyes that were clouded with confusion, before both of his eyes opened and he let out a small laugh, shaking his head at the girl.

She truly was something else.

However, the sweet moment was soon juxtaposed by the looming feeling of election day, which became even more apparent at the start of breakfast, when the sound of war music might as well have been heard in the dining room as the two candidates, Amber Millington and Mara Jaffray, came strutting into the room and sat down at the dining table, looks of determination and scowls plastered on their faces.

It was war.

"So, election day - the big vote-off." Jerome started, glancing around at everyone on the table – in all honesty, Sydney was rather impressed at how dedicated he was to his role of campaign manager and how seriously he was taking it, "Now Alfie, of course, is a definite for Amber, so is Nina, and so are Sydney and I. And, that just leaves Mick and Patricia for you then, Mara. Are you getting nervous?"

"Oh, back off, Clarke." Mick instructed him, already frustrated with the boy despite him only being present in the room for a few minutes – ever since Jerome had orchestrated the entire Mick/Amber/Alfie situation, the pair hadn't exactly gotten on much.

Fortunately, before a fight was able to break out over the elections, the personification of sunshine, Trudy Rehmann, entered the room. However, unlike her usual demeanour, she seemed slightly serious, her lips lacking a smile as she came to the table.

"Nina, sweetie-." Trudy began, gently touching the girl's shoulder as she turned to face the housemother, who soon continued, requesting, "Could you come with me, please?"

Following the request, Nina Martin, who had seemed somewhat in a daze for most of breakfast, slowly stood from up from her seat as everyone watched the interaction quietly and slightly worried, seeing the American follow their housemother into the corridor, before they all turned to face one another with puzzled looks on their faces.

"What's all that about?" Fabian questioned, though none of them were able to give him an answer, and they simply waited until Nina returned for an answer – however, she didn't, and that meant that the members of Sibuna were rather concerned, hoping that the election would distract their mind as they went to the school.

For Sydney, she had managed to distract her mind quite a lot with the help of Jerome. However, he soon had to leave the girl for his campaign manager duties, having to make sure that everything was set up for the election and also needing to go over a few things with his candidate, and Sydney soon found herself worrying about Nina Martin's whereabouts once again, and it didn't particularly help that Fabian Rutter was vocalising his worries to the girl.

"Where is she?" Fabian groaned for what seemed like the hundredth time as the two of them sat in the drama studio, causing the female prankster to roll her eyes once again (for what also seemed like the hundredth time), "Has she replied to any of your texts?"

"Do you think the answer is going to be any different from when you asked me two seconds ago?" Sydney inquired, her eyebrow quirked up as she glanced at him, making him realise that he had been way asking the prankster that question was too many times, "You know, you are absolutely terrible at hiding your feelings for her, Rutter."

"I-I don't know what you mean, I-." Fabian stuttered out, his cheeks instantly going bright red as he became a nervous wreck – yeah, he truly was terrible at hiding how he felt about Nina Martin, and it was rather adorable to see how much the pair of them liked one another.

Although, it was very easy to say that about another couple.

And that's exactly what Fabian Rutter did.

"What about you and Jerome, huh?" Fabian retorted, a smirk falling on his lips as the question came to his mind, and he decided to tease the girl just as much as she teased him, "I mean, you two are ridiculously close."

"Speak one more word about that topic and I will set fire to your science books." Sydney threatened, before she tilted her head as she thought about the suggestion further, "Actually, that's a great idea. Why haven't I done that before? I get to show my hatred of the stupid subject that, may I add, is incredibly stupid, and also annoy you."

"Remind me to hide my science books when we get back to Anubis House." Fabian instructed the girl, a mildly scared look on his face at the thought of his books getting burnt, before he glanced back down at his phone again, "I wonder why Trudy took her out of breakfast earlier."

"Well, at least it wasn't Victor." Sydney pointed out, the nerd nodding in agreement with the girl – if it had been their housekeeper, they would have been extremely worried with certainly valid reasons to be, "We can trust Trudy, so she'll probably be fine – maybe it's something to do with her gran or America?"

Nodding in agreement, the nerd let out a huff, sending another brief glance to his phone in hopes that he'd received a text from the girl – nothing, of course – before he lifted his head up to Sydney and stated, "I just hope that she's safe."

"Just confess your undying love already, Rutter."

A while later, there had been no text from their friend and the nerd was practically going insane – Sydney had never seen anybody check their phone so much – yet they were served a rather good distraction as the elections began, with Sydney standing beside Jerome and placing her head on his shoulder as Amelia Pinches went on stage, beginning her speech.

Maybe it wasn't such a good distraction afterall, considering Sydney Anderson soon found herself extremely bored and zoned out, practically falling asleep on the blonde boy's shoulder with the background noise of the speech. Of course, she didn't notice the few glances the blonde boy stole of her, a fond smile on his lips – he didn't notice either.

At the sound of applaud, Sydney snapped out of her daydream and quickly clapped her hands together, pretending as though she had been listening the entire time. However, she managed to receive the impression that Amelia Pinches' speech was not that good from the confused and mildly disturbed expressions on everyone's faces – even Fabian Rutter seemed disturbed as he shared a weird glance with Alfie Lewis, the pair of them clapping rather hesitantly.

At the negative expressions plastered upon people's faces, Sydney glanced up at Jerome, rather amused as she noticed the disturbed look on his face as well, causing her to inquire, "Was it really that bad?"

As soon as Sydney had rested her head on his shoulder, he knew that there was no way that she was going to pay attention to Amelia Pinches' speech, and his assumption was proven right at the question, and he let out a small chuckle as he told the girl bluntly, "Just be glad that you blocked most of it out."

"Our next candidate is Mara Jaffray!" Mrs Andrews announced, causing people to clap for the girl whilst Mick and Patricia, her main two supporters, nudged her forward and she took the stage, going to the microphone and taking a breath before she began.

"Hi. As you know, my name is Mara Jaffray." The girl started, introducing herself before she began with her speech – truthfully, her campaign was rather good and her speech was well thought out (slightly boring and a little bit too long, but still good), and Sydney actually managed to pay attention to all of it, which was certainly a bonus point.

As the speech finished and the girl said her final thoughts, many people applauded for her before she hopped off the stage, being embraced by her boyfriend whilst a smile graced her lips. However, the smile was soon wiped off her lips and replaced with an expression of confusion as the lights on the stage switched off and Mrs Andrews took the microphone off the stage. Instantly, Sydney found herself very intrigued – she knew that the only candidate remaining to make a speech was none other than Amber Millington, who had received help from Jerome Clarke for her campaign, and the female prankster found herself ready to applaud loudly for both of her friends, whilst Jerome had a smirk on his lips as he watched the girl become fully immersed into the show and paid full attention, even pulling out her camera so she was able to take pictures of whatever was about to happen.

Of course, she paid attention to everything Jerome Clarke did with full attentive eyes.

"Lights!"

Everyone heard the familiar voice of Amber Millington called out, though nobody was exactly sure where the fashionista was – however, her demands were still met as the lights switched on once again.

"Music!"

Once again, her demands were met as music began playing through the speakers. Of course, Amber Millington – the Amber Millington – had to make a dramatic entrance to her campaign speech – what else did everyone expect? However, she wasn't done, as only a few seconds later did the girl's voice call out once again:

"Amber!"

Within seconds, Amber Millington came rushing into the room, followed by numerous cheerleaders, all of them wearing a very vibrant and bright purple and white cheerleader costume (Amber's had the great addition of a humongous, sparkly 'A' on the front) as they all went onto the stage with beaming smiles plastered on their faces, shaking the purple pom poms in their hands until the fashionista-now-turned-cheerleader counted, and then the group burst out into a choreography routine, with Amber throwing away her pom poms and strutting down the stage like the queen that she was, before all of them began dancing and sassily flipping their hair, until it soon ended with Amber jumping and being lifted onto the shoulders of the cheerleaders, her arms extended up into the air.

It was safe to say that Sydney took many photos of that entire thing.

Instantly, everyone broke out into applaud, with Sydney Anderson being one of the very first people to begin clapping her hands, letting the camera hang around her neck using the strap attached to it. Perhaps her speech wasn't actually a speech, and she didn't exactly want anything that'd help the school, but it certainly was fun and kept the attention of the audience. Also, Sydney had to give Amber props for doing an entire choreography routine, because after simply two seconds of exercise Sydney felt like she was about to pass out, or perhaps she just hated exercise and couldn't be bothered to do it – who knew?

Sorry, Mara Jaffray, but Amber Millington had most certainly secured Sydney Anderson's vote.

Once all the campaign speeches were done, Sydney wrapped Amber up in a tight hug, telling her how amazing she was and how she was unaware that the fashionista was able to do such things. However, the pair of blondes were soon torn away by Fabian Rutter, who quickly suggested to Sibuna that they should go and check Anubis House for any sign of his crush, who had yet to respond to his texts – of course, Amber being a candidate in the election meant she wasn't able to follow, but Sydney promised to text her with any updates. Thankfully enough, they were given a break before the votes were announced, and thus that led them to Nina's and Amber's bedroom, where Fabian knocked on the door. It was silent for a few seconds, with all of them sharing a small glance to one another, before a familiar American voice told them to come in, causing them to push open the door and walk in, seeing the girl sat at her desk.

"Hey, just checking you're okay." Fabian said to the girl, a comforting smile on his face as they all approached her – Sydney was seconds away from teasing the boy and saying something along the lines of how he'd been whining and how he'd missed her, until she noticed how sad Nina looked, seeming like she had been crying.

"Sarah died last night." Nina announced – that was why she had been crying, her eyes red and slightly watery as she motioned to the boxes and random objects on her bed, telling the group, "These were her things – she wanted me to have them."

"Nina, I'm so sorry." Fabian responded, putting his arm around the girl as she leant into him, a few tears streaming down her cheeks as the rest of the group shared wary glances – none of them knew how to comfort the girl or the right things to say.

"She came to me." Nina started, causing them all to glance at her in confusion, wondering what she meant – however, they became even more when she continued, telling them, "Last night. She spoke to me, sat on my bed."

Instantly, Sydney's thoughts went to the supernatural, and it appeared that she wasn't the only one who thought such a thing, although she was the only one who kept the suggestion in her mind as Alfie inquired, "Like... a ghost, or an alien?"

Instantly, Fabian snapped his head to the boy and sent him a harsh look, it practically screaming at him to shut up so that he didn't upset Nina any further, whilst Patricia snapped his name angrily – he didn't have to vocalise his thoughts, nor did he have to bring aliens into everything, especially when it involved death.

Putting her hand on Alfie's shoulder, Sydney shook her head at him as she spoke in a much gentler tone than the rest did, knowing that he was just saying what they were thinking and just wanting clarification, but still reminded him of the situation, "Not the time."

"Seriously though, it freaks me out." Alfie defended his words, and he was right – if Nina truly did see Sarah Frobisher-Smythe on her bed and spoke to her last night, when she had died, that was extremely spooky and certainly not a normal occurrence.

"Okay, well, if you want to be freaked out about something, be freaked out about the fact that the only person with any answers or who could help us in any way is now gone." Nina yelled out at him, her thoughts clearly overwhelming her and her frustration taking over.

Sydney knew exactly how it felt to lose somebody that the heart had a special hold of. At first, it felt peculiar and, sometimes, like it was not real. There were many times Sydney found herself calling out for her parents, or waking up in the morning and being confused to why she was in a completely different house – sometimes, it still didn't feel real for her, and it had been over a month since their deaths. Sydney found it odd how people who she spoke to everyday were suddenly just gone – it was like a dandelion; the petals seem altogether and then something happens to blow them away, and they're disconnected – never seen again, and it hurts like hell. Sometimes, it just randomly hits that they're gone and never coming back, and that realisation causes tears to fall like an endless river whilst nasty thoughts tramped in the mind, wondering if more attention should have been paid to them – Sydney had been there far too many times. Before term began, she'd feel like she had a cheerful time ahead of her until it suddenly hit her, her legs feeling like jelly as she collapsed to the ground, tears hitting the floor as she sobbed, feeling like she couldn't breathe – her own thoughts and her own guilt for not remembering the last conversation she had with her parents, their last words, were drowning her and choking her.

During that time, Sydney Anderson felt the furthest thing from herself and tried to bottle it up as much as she could, and she still did that and, sometimes, it killed her.

Due to that, she was glad that Nina Martin wasn't bottling up all of her frustration and sadness over the loss of the elderly woman whom she had become fond of, but Sydney just hoped that it didn't upset her best friend, Alfie, who quietly apologised as he walked away, sitting on Amber's bed and staying silent as Sydney sent him a sympathetic glance, knowing that he hadn't meant to upset anyone and was genuinely scared.

However, Sydney was snapped out of her thoughts as she noticed the purple-haired girl's widened eyes, locked on some pieces of paper that she had taken from one of the many boxes on the desk, her eyes scanning them as she suddenly spoke up, worriedly, "Um,"

The sudden noise caused the group to look over at her, also seeing what she had in her hands, and the nerd of the group quickly took it from her, his own eyes reading the words as she spoke up, "Gustav and Isabella Zeno – Rufus' parents."

"What is it?" Nina inquired, looking at them with narrowed and curious eyes, whilst the blonde-haired prankster peered over and looked at the pieces of paper, her eyes widening as she recognised the format – it was a much older version than the one that they had at the time, but it was basically the same.

Therefore, she quickly snatched it out of the nerd's hands and read it over, absorbing all of the information as she paced the room, whilst the group watched the prankster with concerned and worried eyes. At first, Fabian had threw his hands up in the air over the girl stealing the document from him, but his expression soon turned from exasperation to concern as the girl read over the documents, actually seeming concentrated when reading, which she never did.

"A certificate of legal guardianship." Sydney stated, causing them all to look at her with confusion, and thus forcing her to elaborate, "That's what this is – it's a very old one, but definitely still a document to confirm changes to somebody's guardian."

"How do you know that?" Alfie quizzed, all of them being surprised at how much the girl knew and how she had recognised what it was instantly – little did they know that a few weeks ago, she had seen something similar (though a much more modernised version).

"This says that Rufus' parents became the legal guardians of Sarah two years after her parents died." Sydney explained to them, having ignored her friend's question, before she hummed to herself, recalling her own experience with having her guardian changed and absentmindedly saying, "It musn't have been in their will if it took that long. There should be a birth certificate here." She flipped through the pages, eventually landing on a very old birth certificate and presenting it to the group, "There it is – Rufus' birth certificate."

Within seconds, the documents were back in Fabian's hands as he glanced over it himself, nodding at the new information as he informed the group, a worried tone to his words, "He's definitely the same age as Sarah."

With that new information stored into their minds, Sibuna found themselves quickly going back to the drama studio in order to cast their votes before they were counted (Sydney, of course, voted for Amber Millington), with the prankster of the group texting their fashion-loving member to inform her of the death of Sarah Frobisher-Smythe and the revelation that she had been adopted by Rufus Zeno's parents, and that Rufus Zeno was certainly the same age as Sarah Frobisher-Smythe.

After having cast her vote, Sydney found herself laughing alongside Jerome as the two of them were on speakerphone to her aunt and her cousin, listening to the four-year-old babble about how she missed them. Although, Sydney's laughter cut short and her eyes became narrowed as she spotted something rather intriguing – Robbie (the kid in charge of the votes) and Mick having a conversation, despite them being far from friends. Sydney was pretty sure that Mick had literally put the poor kid in a locker once before, so for their conversation to be running on as long as it was, was very suspicious – of course, Sydney pointed it out to Jerome, the two blondes ending their conversation with Sydney's family and quickly jumping down from the stage as they approached the unusual pair.

"Not cheating, are you, Campbell?" Jerome inquired, making their presence known to the jock, who quickly spun on his heel to face the blonde pair (who, unlike Robbie and Mick, was not an unusual pairing, considering they were typically always seen together).

Mick scoffed, "We're not all like you, Clarke."

"Yeah, we're not all like you, Clarke." Robbie mimicked his new 'best friend' with a grin on his lips, sharing a glance with Mick who seemed rather proud of the boy for following his lead, whilst Sydney's eyebrows rose from shock as she looked at the boy, who'd clearly been brain-washed, then back at Mick – of course, Sydney had a comeback.

"That's rather funny, because if I recall correctly, your girlfriend – the one who is running for school representative, may I add - was the one who cheated for you in a test, not Jerome." Sydney reminded the jock with a smirk on her lips as she watched his lips contort from a grin to a scowl, knowing that the girl was right and thus storming away – that just left Robbie, who the female turned to with an exasperated look on her face as she told him, "And, you - don't be a follower, they're annoying, and have no personality, and it's not good for anyone, including yourself."

"Do you have anything else to say?" Jerome inquired challengingly to the boy, who quickly shook his head, "Good. It's King Clarke to you, Pondweed." The male prankster informed the poor boy with gritted teeth, whilst Sydney let out a small scoff at the new nickname – of course, Jerome ignored that and continued to intimidate the kid, leaning towards him as he questioned, "So, who's in the lead?"

"I'm not allowed to say." Robbie informed them, which led to Jerome pulling out a note from his pocket and slapping it into the boy's hand, it not taking much for him to reveal who was in the lead as he went against the rules and told them, "Amber."

Due to that reassurance, the blonde pair were practically certain that Amber Millington was going to be elected school representative as they stood beside the fashionista with confident expressions on their faces, a few minutes after the voting had closed and seconds before the announcement of school representative was to be made.

"So, the votes have been counted and verified. Now, Mr Sweet will announce the new school representative." Mrs Andrews announced to the room, allowing for their head teacher to come onto the stage and take position in front of the microphone as everybody clapped for him, him lifting an envelope that contained the results in the air excitedly.

"It's a shoe-in. You're the new school rep." Jerome assured Amber, who was anxious over the results as she didn't want to get beat by her ex-best friend/the person who was dating her ex-boyfriend that she still had a crush on – to her, that would have been absolutely mortifying and probably one of the worst things to happen in the world, alongside ruining a limited edition shoe.

Still unsure, Amber kept her gaze straight ahead of her, showing no sign of weakness or concern to anybody who wasn't involved in their conversation, whilst she asked the boy, "How do you know?"

"A little bird told us." Sydney told her, reassuring her worries, with the male of the three nodding in agreement as he glanced back at their 'little bird', Sydney continuing with a roll of her eyes as she thought of the annoying child who had been in charge of the votes, "A small and mildly annoying bird, but a bird nonetheless."

"Well, this is amazing - only two votes in it." Mr Sweet informed them, after having taken the results out of the envelope and now having a smile gracing on his lips before he announced who the new school representative was, "And the winner is... ah, Mara."

What?

At the announcement, the room fell into applause whilst Amber, Sydney, and Jerome all seemed perplexed, having widened and very confused eyes and their mouths slightly parted as they absorbed the news that certainly was not what they were expecting, with Amber muttering to the pair, "I can't believe you'd build up my hopes like that."

"And now I have to kill Robbie." Jerome muttered out, turning his head to the kid with gritted teeth and a furious expression on his face, whilst the child looked very nervous and scared as he was the victim of a very harsh death stare – if looks were able to kill, he would have died, been resurrected, to then die again.

"Congratulations, Mara, come up on stage." Mrs Andrews instructed the nerd, who had a humongous smile on her lips at the news and followed the teacher's instructions, going up onto the stage whilst Sydney wrapped an arm around Amber, comforting her as they had to watch the person who she had lost against make a speech and gloat in her victory.

As she hopped onto the stage, the audience began clapping for her whilst she received a red sash from their head teacher, who then led her to the microphone in order for her to make a speech, "Firstly, I want to thank everyone who supported me, to everyone who voted, and my amazing boyfriend, Mick."

Not wanting to listen to anymore or to be stood in the same room as the person whom she had lost against, Amber quickly left the room and Sydney soon followed behind after she had requested for Jerome to grab her things for her, so that she had more time to comfort Amber. As the prankster ran into the corridor after the blonde beauty, she was very much aware that she'd probably have to suffer through another makeover in order to cheer the girl up, but that didn't matter as long as Amber was happy. Thankfully, after catching up with the corridor and giving her a few hugs and many words of reassurance, reminding the girl that she was still as beautiful as ever and still had perfectly flawless skin, Amber Millington was okay – a little humiliated, but okay and just wanted to return to Anubis House to wallow in her own self-pity, and thus Sydney promised her that she'd be there once she received her bags back from Jerome, whom she soon went on a mission to find – eventually, she gave up and texted him, meeting the boy by her locker, which he was leaning against with both his bag and hers in hand.

"For you, m'lady." He jokingly stated, putting the bag in her hand gracefully (as gracefully as one could put a bag in somebody's hand) as she let out a small laugh, taking it from him as he continued, questioning, "How's Amber?"

At the mention of her friend, Sydney let a small frown cross her lips before she answered him honestly, "She feels a little humiliated, but she'll get past it. I may have to be the victim of another one of her makeovers, though."

"Well, she won't be humiliated for much longer." Jerome revealed, causing the girl to glance up at him with confusion swirling around in her eyes, forcing him to explain to her, "I've just overheard a conversation between Mick and Robbie. Mick promised Robbie a date with Patricia if he rigged the vote in Mara's favour. I plan to tell Mara first, and see what she does, so don't tell Amber yet – think of it as a little secret for now."

Upon hearing that revelation, Sydney blinked a few times as the information sunk in, before she realised something – Mara cheated for Mick in the French test, and now Mick was cheating for Mara in the elections – due to that, she rolled her eyes as she scoffed, "Wow, those two really are a match made in heaven – cheating for one another."

Whilst it may have been a little secret, all secrets came out in the end.

▲▼▲

[01.06.2020]

NOTE: thank you all for reading. typically, i'd leave a comment here about how the writing process is going or what i like from this chapter (i'll talk about it in the comments, if you'd like, but it is not the main point right now). however, there is something much more important than that which i'd like to address: racism, police brutality, and the unnecessary deaths of several innocent people just because of their skin colour. please, i urge you all to spread awareness about the numerous black people who are falling victim to police brutality and being hurt, sometimes even killed, unnecessarily due to their skin colour. these people were human beings who deserved their lives. these people had families - a mother, a father, kids, siblings. the very least that we can do for the people who have been a target of this despicable behaviour is to spread the word until they receive the justice they and their families deserve. please, make sure to sign the petitions - there are tons of them and they're very easy to find on twitter under hashtags, but there's also this link —> https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/ <— which has lots of petitions, donations, and resources.

black lives matter.