DENOUEMENT
xxxv. house of tunnels
❝I'M THE BEST AT SNEAKING AROUND.❞

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

"Nina." Mr Sweet called out, telling her to hush, and that seemed to snap the American girl back into reality rather than the rather messed up world that she appeared to be in as she let go of Fabian Rutter's arm, which she had been holding onto tightly since a few seconds before she had began screeching (seemingly got no reason), and she let out a small gasp, soon realising that everyone, even Gustav Ziestack, was staring at her for some sort explanation for screaming outburst that had completely pierced through the cheerful atmosphere, instead making it completely awkward and strange.

"Nina," Alfie Lewis called out from above them, still chained to the second floor of the library whilst wearing a bright purple outfit meant to resemble that of a pharaoh's, "you're making me look normal."

"And nobody can ever do that." Sydney Anderson added with a small giggle, causing the boy in the pharaoh's outfit to playfully roll his eyes at her, despite knowing that it was true (he was literally chained to the second floor wearing a costume meant to make him look like King Tutankhamun, so there was no way that he was able to deny it without making himself look stupid) - however, they all turned back to Nina Martin, wondering what or who she was yelling at and being rather concerned about her odd behaviour.

Noticing that everyone was paying attention to her and waiting for some sort of explanation, she improvised and thought of the first thing that came to her head, which resulted in her turning to her ex-boyfriend, Fabian Rutter, and yelling angrily, somewhat stammering as she cried out, "Who-who are you, to break up with me and then send me text messages saying you still like me?!"

A cover story.

Honestly, it was rather surprising that nobody else had realised that the pair were lying - their abilities to lie were atrocious, and that became extremely obvious as Fabian went along with the story that his ex-girlfriend had made up on the spot, sending her a scared look whilst he awkwardly and nervously responded, "I guess I'm just a crazy person."

"You were sending her text messages whilst I was doing the presentation." Joy Mercer spoke up, seeming rather betrayed and distraught for some reason that the female prankster of Anubis House was unaware of, "Classy, Fabian."

"I simply cannot apologise enough, Mr Ziestack." Victor told the man, and the female prankster could only wonder what sort of punishments the ex-couple would receive for almost blowing the exhibition, alongside the punishments that Alfie Lewis was bound to get after dressing up so ridiculously and causing such a commotion on a very important night - knowing Victor Rodenmaar, it'd involve a toothbrush (technically, three toothbrushes) and some toilets.

"No need, Victor. Their youth zest confirms I've made the right choice." Gustav Ziestack revealed to the group, fortunately still sticking by his choice of choosing them to run the exhibition even after the outburst, hopefully meaning that nobody was going to be punished as the bid went successfully, "I like the pupils here."

Pleased at the result, everyone let out a laugh and the room fell into boisterous chatter and cheers once more - however, Sydney's laugh was quite awkward and forced, her mind elsewhere as she cautiously watched Nina and Fabian in the corner of her eyes, seeing Amber approach the two of them as they fell into what seemed to be a concerned discussion. Something was definitely happening - that much was obvious - and the female prankster was determined to find out what it was, especially when she could have sworn that she heard the mention of Sibuna in the conversation.

"Does anybody care I'm hungry?" Alfie's voice snapped her out of her thoughts, with him complaining from where he sat on the second floor of the library - still in costume, of course - hands gripping the railings as he hoped that somebody would save him and get him out of the chains that kept him stuck to the second floor soon enough.

"Speaking of being hungry, do you want to go to that picnic now?" Jerome inquired, a cheeky grin on his lips as he did so - although, as he looked at her, he had noticed her concerned eyes drift over to where Nina, Fabian, and Amber were standing, but he simply presumed that she was worried about the American girl's outburst and whether she was okay, considering that the pair were quite close friends.

"Uh, in a while, okay?" Sydney answered, hardly looking at the boy (who had nodded in response) as she formulated a plan in her mind that'd perhaps help her find out what was happening in Sibuna, brushing past the numerous crowds of people in the library and sneaking out before anyone else - including Sibuna - was able to do so, and that meant that she was the first person back at Anubis House, with even Victor Rodenmaar and Trudy Rehmann still being at the bid.

Not having to worry about how much noise she was making made life much simpler, enabling her to easily go up the stairs without worrying about her strict housekeeper yelling at her for being back at the house at such a time. However, there was quite an issue with getting into Victor's office - the start of her plan - due to it being locked, though she soon remembered the trick that her roommate used quite often - a bobby pin. Seconds later, she had returned with a bobby pin in hand and manipulated it to the lock of the office door, struggling for a few seconds before the door swung open, and then she did the exact same thing with the bobby pin to the cabinet with all the spare keys in, and that swung open too.

And so, her plan to figure out what was happening with Sibuna was in motion.

Meanwhile, hardly anybody had noticed the disappearance of numerous Anubis House residents. Sydney Anderson had disappeared, and soon after that so had Nina Martin, Fabian Rutter, and Amber Millington. Though, that wasn't to say that it was completely unnoticed - Joy Mercer had noticed that Nina and Fabian had left the library, and had proceeded to tell Patricia Williamson. Furthermore, Jerome Clarke had noticed simply a few minutes after his childhood best friend had left his side that she was not in the library anymore, and had become a little bit concerned about it, though he comforted himself with the assumption that she had gone alongside Nina, Fabian, and Amber, who he had also noticed weren't present in the library anymore. Although, most people were focused on other things, such as the exhibition and also Alfie Lewis still being chained to the second floor, which was due to be solved within the coming moments.

"The good news is I am going for my bolt-cutters, and when I return, you shall be released." Victor informed the teenager-turned-pharaoh, honestly not sounding as enraged as everybody had expected him to be, probably due to winning the bid.

"What's the bad news?" Alfie quizzed, already having an idea as to what the punishment could have been due to him (and his friends) having it numerous times beforehand, and that's what led him to asking, "And, does it involve a toothbrush?"

"On any other day, yes, but luckily for you, today is a great, great day for me," Victor revealed, a hint of a smile on his lips (which was most definitely surprising, probably even more surprising than them winning the bid despite everything going wrong), before he glanced around to everyone else and soon added gleefully, "and today is a great day for us all!"

"Your attention, everyone!" Mr Sweet exclaimed cheerfully as he ran back into the library, pausing for a second before he announced, "We've signed on the dotted line, and the exhibition is officially ours!"

Instantly, the room fell into cheers and applause once more at the brilliant news - Jerome Clarke was one of those people clapping and cheering, but that soon came to a halt when he noticed Damian Cyrus approaching him, and the blonde-haired prankster couldn't help but to roll his eyes as he groaned out frustratedly, "What do you want?"

"Great to see you too." Damian commented sarcastically, putting his hands into his pockets as he glanced around the library for a few seconds before looking back at the male prankster, "Where's your little girlfriend? It appears that she's left you."

Yet again, Jerome rolled his eyes - he really despised the rebellious boy, and it didn't exactly help his case when he made comments like that, thus the male prankster corrected, "She's not my girlfriend."

Grinning mischievously, the rebel made a thoughtful humming noise for a second, before his grin managed to get even wider, almost like it was mocking Jerome, "Perfect - that means I can ask her out."

"She'll say no." Jerome quickly responded, already fully much aware of the answer that his childhood best friend would give to the rebel if he did ask her out, especially since Sydney had told him before that she didn't like Damian, and since she knew of his reputation and how he flirted with numerous girls - Jerome was also very much aware of Damian's flirtatious reputation, having seen him in action, and that's what led him to say roughly, "Don't you have other girls to flirt with and stick your tongue down?"

"Well, I was kind of hoping to do that with Sydney." Damian answered, seemingly with no shame (Jerome didn't exactly think that the rebel was capable of feeling such emotion as shame) as he let out a small chuckle through his words - yeah... it was safe to say that Jerome Clarke loathed that boy.

Though, that time, it was Jerome Clarke who let out a chuckle, laced with malice and frustration as he stated bluntly, "Take your hopes elsewhere, dude. You're not coming near Sydney."

"Why not?" Damian asked, shrugging nonchalantly - it was like he was challenging Jerome and wanted to rile him up, and that seemed even more evident as he continued, reminding the blonde boy of his prior words, "You just said that you're not her boyfriend."

However, the reminder didn't really phase the prankster in the slightest, and it only caused Jerome Clarke to step threateningly closer to the rebel as he pointed out to him with a low tone, words clearly laced in frustration, bitterness, and anger, "I'm her best friend, and she deserves better than you."

Then, Damian Cyrus laughed - it wasn't a chuckle like he had previously let out, it was a laugh - a laugh filled with pure amusement at the words, as though it was hilarious and all just a joke to him, before he asked, "Oh, who does she deserve then? You?"

"She deserves someone who looks at her and can't imagine being with anyone else." Jerome revealed, his eyes narrowed and clouded with frustrations before he pulled away from the man and stepped further back, declaring, "This conversation is over."

"You know where I can find Mara, then?" Damian inquired casually, as though he hadn't just been talking about how he wanted to stick his tongue down Jerome's childhood best friend and trying to rile him up, "I noticed she didn't go up for her speech."

Just at that point, Mara's boyfriend finally made an appearance at the library, stepping through the door that led into the main area - just beside where Jerome and Damian had been standing and having their conversation, and his presence made a grin appear on the rebel's face as he realised that he'd be able to get his answer from the jock.

"Ah, Mick - perfect timing!" Damian called out, catching the jock's attention as the pair stepped towards him, the rebel inquiring, "Where's Jaffray?"

Soon, Jerome chimed in - he didn't particularly care much about where the nerd had been, although he was intrigued about why she had missed her speech, as it seemed like something she wouldn't have missed for the world - and revealed to him, "Yeah, Joy had to take over her speech - tut, tut."

"She was dumping me at the time." Mick announced awkwardly, his eyes averting away from the two males whilst the pair of them were in slight shock.

"Wait, what?"

Mick Campbell and Mara Jaffray - the couple that had been together since last term, and despite being complete opposites, made it work and seemed so right for one another. Nobody had really expected for them to break up due to how smitten they seemed with one another, though upon looking back over the past few days, the signs were pretty obvious with Mara suddenly becoming a nerd and her running out of breakfast that morning. Honestly, it seemed like Mick hadn't expected the breakup either, as he had a fleeting look of sadness on his face - he most certainly wasn't as happy or playful as he typically was.

Although, one person seemed to feel quite the opposite of Mick Campbell, and that was Damian Cyrus, whose expression turned from pure glee at the news of their breakup to devastation once the jock turned back to face the pair, and the rebellious boy placed a comforting hand on the jock's shoulder and stated, "It must be really hard for you."

"I just don't understand her reasons. I mean, I thought she really liked me." Mick told them, revealing that the male prankster's suspicions were true - he hadn't been expecting the break up.

"Is it because of Australia?" Jerome asked, remembering how his parents were relocating to Australia and wanted him to go with, and perhaps that could have been a reason why the nerd broke up with him.

"Probably, yeah. I was thinking that I should maybe talk to her first, before I decide to go." Mick replied, and that seemed like a decent idea - one that the prankster nodded in agreement with, although, the person beside the prankster shook his head.

"Bad idea - you do not want to seem desperate." Damian advised, very much against the seemingly good idea, and that caused Jerome to glance over at the rebel with furrowed eyebrows, a look of confusion plastered across the prankster's face as he clearly did not know what was happening.

"Oh, Mick!" Trudy Rehmann exclaimed delightfully before the jock was able to notice the confusion and awkwardness between the two boys who he was in a conversation with, them all turning to their excitable and gleeful housemother who approached with a tray of food, "You're missing all the fun, have a bun!"

Pretending like nothing was wrong and that he was happy, the jock took a bun from the tray and let out a rather forced laugh as he faked enthusiasm, "Yay!"

"Yay!" Trudy repeated after him, though her enthusiasm most certainly was not fake, before she left the three alone once more to continue their conversation about his devastating break up with Mara Jaffray.

"I'll tell you what, I'll talk to her for you." Damian said to the jock, pretending as though he cared about them and was willing to fix them - although, the prankster had a strong feeling that the rebel aimed to cause more damage, "Mara listens to me."

Once again, Jerome Clarke rolled his eyes, not believing the act that the rebel was putting on - however, Mick Campbell certainly did believe the act, seeming stunned by it as he responded to the rebel, "I can't believe you're being so sympathetic."

"Me neither." Jerome muttered, his tone very dull as he did so, but then the prankster walked away so that he didn't have to hear anymore of the conversation - he was aware that if he listened to anymore, he'd roll his eyes a lot more until they rolled to the back of his head - frankly, he didn't want that to happen.

And, whilst Jerome Clarke didn't want his eyes to roll to the back of his head, Sydney Anderson also had things that she didn't want to happen, and that became apparent when she was down in the cellar. Using the keys that she had stolen from Victor's office earlier, she had already checked the attic (which was in the process of being turned into a spare bedroom still) and noticed nothing much out of place or nothing that informed her as to what Sibuna were up to, and then she was down in the cellar, and had been glancing around and examining things until she heard noise approaching, and that led to her hiding behind a wall as she hoped that it wasn't Victor Rodenmaar.

"Back in the dusty cellar again, just like the old times," Amber Millington's voice commented, making the female prankster release a large sigh of relief that the group evidently didn't hear as the fashionista continued, "you know, when we used to share."

It was silent for a moment or two, only the sound of ruffling being heard - Sydney couldn't exactly see what they were up to due to her hiding, but she assumed that they were moving something. It sounded like the ruffling of clothing, like a shirt.

"Ouch, matching tattoos right before you split up?" Amber quizzed, presumably to Nina Martin and Fabian Rutter, causing the female prankster's eyes to widen with shock, wondering when Fabian Rutter, of all people at Anubis House, managed to have the courage to get a tattoo - she couldn't exactly ignore that, hence why she peeked around the corner for a second only, noticing that the pair had their shirt sleeves rolled up to reveal matching marks on their arms.

"It's the Mark of Anubis." Nina corrected, putting her sleeve down whilst the female prankster hid behind the wall once more, hoping that none of them saw her - it appeared that they didn't, as the American soon continued and explained, "It means we have to find the Mask of Anubis for this Egyptian spirit."

"So far, so Sibuna."

"If we don't, we forfeit our lives." Nina finished, making the female prankster's eyes widen once more, taking a breath to try and process the fact that the pair were probably going to die if they didn't find the Mask of Anubis, which was something extremely hard to process, believe it or not.

However, Amber Millington clearly did not understand the situation very well, as she nonchalantly replied, "Oh, well, it's not like you're gonna die or anything."

"Amber!" Fabian snapped, his yell covering the female prankster's faint chuckle as she wondered how the fashionista was so dumb, whilst the nerd explained, "That's what forfeit our lives means."

"Yeah, I didn't want anyone else to get involved in case they got cursed, like this crazy person." Nina informed the fashionista, presumably talking about her ex-boyfriend beside her, and being very much unaware of the prankster hiding behind the wall who was also now... somewhat... involved, considering that she had heard everything.

Of course, Fabian went to defend himself and his actions, turning to the girl and telling her rather frustratedly, "Wha-? If by 'crazy', you mean 'trying to help you', then guilty as charged!"

"When you're done squabbling," Amber cut in loudly, cutting the pair of them off from arguing about the situation much further, "I am trying to deal with the fact that my best friends are totally cursed here."

"Yeah, me too." Sydney spoke, finally announcing her presence in the room as she came out from behind the wall with an awkward smile on her lips, all of them staring at her wide-eyed, jaws dropped - she didn't exactly make it any better when she did very awkward jazz-hands and mumbled, "Surprise."

"What-? How did you-?" Fabian stammered, clearly in disbelief and shock as he pointed at the secret entrance which they had used to get through, that they couldn't get through without Nina's locket, and then looked back over to Sydney for an explanation.

And, an explanation he soon received as Sydney Anderson lifted up the spare cellar key in her hands (the spare attic key was in her pocket, not wanting them to get mixed up), tossing it around in her hands smugly as she commented, "You guys really forgot that I'm the best at sneaking around this place, huh?"

"What are you doing down here?!" Nina practically screeched out, running her hands through her messy hair - in her mind, it was already bad enough that Fabian had gotten involved (especially since he had now received the Mark of Anubis), but it had gotten even worse when Amber became involved due to her persistence, and then it was now much, much worse upon Sydney also overhearing everything.

"Did you really think I wouldn't notice how strange you've all been acting? Your cover story didn't exactly cover much up for me - it just proved to me that something was happening, so I came down here to figure out what." The female prankster told them, revealing how bad their stories and lying abilities were as she crossed her arms, letting out a faint chuckle as she joked, "Honestly, I'm quite sad I wasn't invited to the party."

"This isn't a party." Fabian huffed.

"It's a saying, Fabian." Sydney muttered in response, rolling her eyes frustratedly, before she became serious, her eyes falling onto the spot of their arms where the two of them had the Mark of Anubis, albeit it being covered by their sleeves, as she stated, "So, you two are cursed - that's a lot to take in."

"Yeah, I know how it feels." Nina replied in a much softer tone, clearly not liking the idea of the boy who she liked having the Mark of Anubis and thus being cursed, and she also didn't like the idea of her friends and roommates also having it and subsequently being cursed as well, so she told them, "So, here's the deal. We have to put in the combination and go through that door - you two don't."

Of course, Fabian nodded in agreement, adding, "We can't ask you two to take a risk like that just for us."

"And you can't ask us to ignore that you're both cursed. I'm in, regardless of what you say." Sydney stubbornly told the cursed couple, her gaze confident and unwavering - they couldn't get her to change her mind - though, the prankster then turned to the fashionista, wondering if she was in, thus asking, "What about you, Ambs? Are you taking the risk?"

"Have you seen the colours I accessorise with? I am the queen of risk." Amber declared, causing them all to let out a small chuckle whilst the fashionista put her right hand over her eye - the Sibuna symbol.

At the sight of it, Nina caved, knowing that there was no way that her two roommates would back down and that they were now joining the quest to help find the Mask of Anubis regardless of what she said, so they all smiled and followed the fashionista's actions, putting their right hand over their right eye as they chorused, "Sibuna."

"Can we go and find this mask now?" Amber asked, "Because I think they're doing cake upstairs."

"And, I have to return these keys before anybody notices they're gone, plus I have a picnic with Jerome." Sydney added, ignoring the many teasing looks she received from the group during the latter half of her sentence that mentioned the picnic - though, she was pretty sure she saw Amber mouth if it was a date to Nina, but wasn't too certain.

Releasing a sigh, Nina stepped over to a shelf on the wall, reaching up to the top where there were seemingly the symbols of snakes, but then turning them to reveal that they were numbers and putting in a combination, "Okay, eighteen-ninety. Here goes."

Once the combination was put into the shelf, the American stepped back and waited alongside the group as they waited for something to happen - anything. Honestly, Sydney Anderson didn't particularly know what they were expecting, considering that she had just joined the group and didn't even know how they managed to work out the combination, but she expected something cool to happen, at the very least.

A few seconds passed.

Nothing happened.

Giving up on that combination and realising that it was wrong, the group released a heavy sigh and began thinking about what else the combination could have been. Although, the sound of rumbling soon caught their attention and forced them to glance back at the shelf, seeing it eventually slide open to reveal an extremely dusty room on the other side, forcing their jaws to drop open and their eyes to widen.

That was something cool.

Wanting to investigate what was on the other side further, the group wasted no time in stepping inside and looking around, with the nerd of their group remarking, "It's some kind of study."

"A very dusty study." Sydney added, one of her fingers brushing over a book that was on the side and collecting a ton of dust, which she soon grimaced at and wiped off - she was definitely washing her hands once they were finished in the cellar.

Amber, who clearly wasn't fond of cobwebs and dust (which seemed to be the only thing that covered the study), glanced around the room warily, commenting, "Seriously, isn't there gonna be something behind door number one that isn't old and crusty?"

Before anybody was able to respond, the sound of something slamming behind the group caught their attention and forced them to whirl around to find out what it was, their eyes widening with pure fear and shock upon seeing the shelf that had opened to grant them access into the study had closed, thus trapping the group on the inside with absolutely no way out.

Okay, perhaps it wasn't so cool afterall.

Instantly, the group rushed towards the shelf and tried to figure out a way out, looking everywhere around it for any sign of an escape before the nerd of the group fortunately caught sight of a small button on the wall, muttering, "This must be it."

With that being said, Fabian pressed the button that he had seen, resulting in the shelf sliding back open once more to reveal the cellar on the other side - there was a way out to get out, afterall, and that allowed for the group to take a small sigh of relief, thankful that they wouldn't be stuck in the cellar of Anubis House for the rest of their lives.

It took a few seconds for the shelf to shut once more, like it had done previously, in which Nina Martin had stepped a little bit out into the cellar and then came back into the secret study, turning to the group and saying, "At least we know we can get out now."

After that fiasco was over and they knew that there was definitely a way out of the secret study, the group went back to examining the room to find out what they could about it and to see if there were any clues as to what they were meant to do next, with Sydney Anderson and Amber Millington taking the liberty to look at the opposite side of the room as to the side that Nina Martin and Fabian Rutter were looking at, though they were able to hear the former of the pair talking, "It's Sarah. Look at this. RFS - Robert Frobisher-Smythe, it was Sarah's dad's."

Sarah's dad, Robert Frobisher-Smythe, seemed to be everywhere in the room as Sydney and Amber also noticed a picture of a man on the wall - a man who the female prankster assumed to be Sarah's dad, Robert Frobisher-Smythe - and the pair approached it in order to see if there was anything around it, with the fashionista between the pair reaching out to touch the framing.

It turned out that whilst the two girls were looking for anything around the picture, they should have been looking behind the picture instead, because once the fashionista's fingers came into contact with the framing, a crash sounded and the pair of blondes hastily jumped back, with Sydney reaching out and grabbing the arm of the fashionista, quickly tugging her away from the portrait-turned-death-trap, as the picture of (presumably) Robert Frobisher-Smythe had fallen off the wall to reveal that, behind it, there were seven different amulets.

Upon hearing the crash, Fabian and Nina had quickly turned around and laid their eyes on the amulets, thus quickly approaching the fallen portrait, whilst Amber, lover of makeup, fashion, and accessories, commented, "Weird place to keep your jewelry."

Then, the seven amulets began to glow.

"Yeah, I don't think it's typical jewelry." Sydney muttered, glancing at the amulets warily and watching the glowing slowly come to a halt, which was when it felt safe enough to actually touch one of them (they'd learnt their lesson not to touch glowing and/or smoking objects after the dollhouse incident, in which Fabian had been burnt), and thus the female prankster reached out and touched one of them, tracing the outline of it - they all had animals on them, but different ones.

Deciding to examine the amulets more, thinking that they could potentially help them to figure out what they were meant to do next, they took them and lay them down on the desk, looking at all of them in an attempt to figure out what they were meant to do, or potentially what they represented - either way, the amulets were clearly in the study for a reason, and also hidden for a reason, and it was up to them to figure out exactly why that was.

"There's a different hieroglyphic on each one." Fabian noted after glancing at each and every single one, pointing at the different amulets as he listed, "A jackal, spider, crocodile, cow..."

"I've seen these before." Nina murmured, her eyes narrowed before she let out a small gasp and picked up the map that she had placed on the table prior, opening it up and revealing that all hieroglyphics on the amulets were also on the map, "See - same as the amulets, but how do these amulets help us find the tunnels? We've hit a dead end."

"Well, isn't that great?" Sydney commented sarcastically, being very much aware about how much the group hated not knowing what to do next and being stuck - it made them rather riled up and frustrated, two emotions that weren't great.

"Wait, have you seen these?" Fabian inquired, causing the three to glance over at him and see him holding two extremely dusty books, "They look like journals." He shone his torch on them, being able to make out the writing on the spine a little better and reading out, "RFS - they're Robert Frobisher-Smythe' diaries. Why don't we take a few each and see if they make any references to amulets or doorways, yeah?

"Fabian, are you really asking me to-." Sydney cut herself off, a look of disgust on her face as she shook her head vehemently, telling the group, "I can't even say it - the thought is too horrendous."

"Yes, I'm asking you to read, Sydney." Fabian confirmed with a small chuckle passing through his lips, putting two diaries in her hands (he knew she wouldn't take them from him, so didn't even bother trying to pass them to her), before grabbing four more diaries and passing two diaries each over to Nina and Amber, the latter of which wasn't exactly too happy about the circumstances either.

And that became pretty evident as her face scrunched up with disgust and annoyance whilst she took the two dusty books from the nerd, with her sarcastically commenting, "Great, because I had nothing planned for the rest of my life."

"You know, there's more chance of me burning these diaries than reading a single page of them - you know that, right?" Sydney asked, a panicked look in her eyes as she gazed between the group and the diaries, though the group simply giggled at her statement whilst they gathered the rest of the diaries.

"Let's get out of here before Victor comes back - Sydney still needs to put the cellar key back." Nina reminded them, so she pressed the button to open up the shelf and the group walked out, diaries in hand.

"If these diaries are mysteriously burnt in a fire, it is not my fault!" Sydney called out, being genuinely serious as she chased after the group, following them out of the cellar.

Only a few minutes after she had managed to put the spare keys to the cellar and the attic back and had washed her hands to make sure that there was no remaining dust or cobwebs on them from the cellar, her phone had began ringing in her pocket - it was Jerome Clarke, of course, questioning where she was and whether or not she wanted to go on that picnic yet, and who was she to say no?

And, that's what led to her approaching the boy, who had managed to make an impromptu picnic right outside of Anubis House. He'd obviously been in the house for a few minutes, presumably once the picnic was confirmed, to grab a picnic blanket, a basket, and a few snacks for the pair to eat. Due to it being lunch and them still having the latter half of the school day remaining, the pair of them were still in their school uniform - it was the same uniform that the pair always wore, and it hadn't changed. However, when Jerome Clarke lifted his head up and lay his blue eyes on the sight of his childhood best friend approaching with her camera around her neck, a humongous smile growing on her lips and her hair flowing in the wind, the only thought that he could comprehend running through his mind was how gorgeous Sydney Anderson was, but... that was normal, right?

"Hey." Sydney greeted him with a soft smile, her voice managing to break him out of his thoughts as he muttered a small greeting back to her, causing her to glance around at the already set up picnic, "I would have helped you do this, you know. You didn't have to do it all by yourself, dummy."

"I wanted to do it." Jerome assured her, putting his hand on her arm comfortingly as he did so, before he moved it to the picnic basket and opened it up, taking out some of the snacks in there and passing them over to her whilst he continued to talk, "Alfie's not chained to the library anymore - he also says that Amber is now his girlfriend, which-."

Instantly, Sydney began choking on the apple that she had just taken a bite out of, it taking a few seconds for her to recompose herself before she practically screeched out, "Since when?! They're dating?! Amber told me nothing, that sneak!"

"You have been hanging out with her way too much - you're just as obsessed with ships now." Jerome pointed out to her, chuckling slightly as he did so, "Where'd you go anyways? One second you were beside me, and the next you had disappeared from the library altogether - I wasn't the only one who noticed, either."

"Nina and Fabian keep arguing, so Amber and I tried to fix it." Sydney informed him, trying to be as quick and brief as possible - it wasn't particularly a lie, considering that the pair did argue about the nerd getting involved with the quest, and the fashionista had to loudly cut it off, but she still felt bad about not telling him the complete truth, which led to her changing the topic, "Wait, who else noticed?"

He rolled his eyes, "Damian."

"Oh, I presume you spoke, then?" Sydney commented, taking note of the irritated look that had crossed his face upon speaking his name, and the boy nodded for confirmation, "How bad did the conversation go?"

"I hate him."

Hearing the familiar words that she had heard quite a few times over the past few days, especially whenever the rebellious boy was mentioned, Sydney Anderson let out a small laugh and hummed, "I really need to keep a tally of how many times you say that."

"Whatever." Jerome playfully groaned, lightly nudging the girl before he took note of the camera that was around her neck once more - however, that time he reached out and pulled grabbed the camera before the girl was able to comprehend it, quickly turning it on and snapping a picture of the girl just as she reached out to grab it, "Cute."

"Jerome!" Sydney whined as he pulled the camera away from her, examining the photo that he had just taken - with his eyes on the picture taken moments prior, he hadn't noticed the blush that had rose to the cheeks of the female prankster, "Give it back!"

"Hm, I don't know." Jerome teasingly hummed, taking a few more photos of the girl as she pouted and continued to try to grab her camera from him, before he eventually fully pulled away and glanced around at the picnic he had set up - more specifically, the snacks - and came up with a challenge, thus stating, "Okay, if you manage to catch a jellybean in your mouth, you can have it back."

"You know I'm a champion at this." Sydney reminded him, quirking her eyebrow up at him - she had honestly expected an easier challenge, but she wasn't complaining.

"Oh yeah, let's change it-."

"Nope! You can't take it back!" Sydney stubbornly declared, a wide grin on her lips as she did so, whilst the boy groaned at the statement as he knew that he was going to lose.

Albeit that, he reluctantly opened the packet of jellybeans and grabbed one of them, leaning back as far as he could from the girl to make it harder for it and throwing it towards her as he hoped that she didn't manage to catch it.

She caught it.

"Cheater." Jerome huffed playfully, although he knew that there was absolutely no way of her doing such a thing - meanwhile, the female prankster nudged him with a laugh falling out of her lips whilst she motioned for him to pass the camera over, which he did.

As soon as the camera was in her hands again, she lifted it up and began taking some pictures of their surroundings (particularly Anubis House) and Jerome Clarke really couldn't help himself as he found his eyes lingering on her, admiring her. He took note of how a small smile, a delicate one, was on her lips as she took photos - the hobby truly did make her happy, and he loved that. He took note of how her hair gently blew with the wind. Thankfully, the wind was facing so that her hair didn't blow into her face, or else she'd look a little bit messier - though, Jerome would have probably just seen it as adorable, and he took note of that too. He took note of the small giggle that fell out of her lips once she turned to him, noticing his observant watch and how his eyes remained on her, and then it hit him two seconds later that she had caught him staring. Then, it hit him two seconds later that she had taken a picture of him.

"Aw, you look so cute!" Sydney called out, snapping him out of his trance as she looked at the photo that she had just taken of the boy, before she turned the camera to face him, allowing him to see exactly what he looked like when the girl had turned around and noticed him watching her - and, god... he looked like he was in love.

But, he wasn't, right?

Looking at the picture of himself, he noticed how his bright blue eyes were transfixed on the camera, and it was easy to notice how they were clouded with pure adoration, joy, and perhaps even love as he watched the girl take his photo. Then, his smile gave away a lot, perhaps even way too much - it was a smile that he typically held with no other, and it was so genuine. In the photo, the smile on his lips was dumb and bright, revealing all his teeth and seeming extremely fond of the person in front of him, and it was so ridiculously genuine that nobody would ever assume that the man hid away parts of him from people. He liked it... he liked that it was genuine.

That was new...

Soon enough, the picnic had come to an end as the bell had gone, signifying the end of their lunch break and the need for all students to return to their classes. Sydney had been immensely bored in every single class, and she had hoped to get rid of that boredom when she had returned back to Anubis House, but had instead found herself facing more boredom as Fabian Rutter and Nina Martin had dragged her to the living room, putting one of Frobisher Smythe's diaries in her hands and then sitting down themselves, flicking through the pages of their own diaries and reading it. Now, Sydney Anderson may have held the diary in her hands, but she most certainly was not reading it. Instead, she was internally screeching about Amber and Alfie finally being a couple after numerous years of the latter pining for the fashionista - she had seen the both of them during school, and had jumped up and down with Alfie about the news - he said that he was going to tell her, but then she disappeared. Then, Sydney had lightly hit Amber for not telling her about the very important news, in which she revealed that it was meant to be kept a secret for now as she was telling people in her own time, which Sydney agreed to. During her mental screeching, she was pretty sure that she saw Damian Cyrus come downstairs from the girl's corridor with Mick Campbell, patting the jock comfortingly on his shoulder before he left Anubis House - weird.

"'Today I saw a cloud that looked like a sphinx. What a joy it is to be alive.'." Fabian Rutter read out from the diary of Robert Frobisher-Smuthe, sounding extremely dull as he did so, before he glanced from the book in his hands and looked up to his ex-girlfriend, commenting, "This is so boring."

"If I read anymore, my eyes are going to fall out." Nina concluded, snapping the book shut and placing it on the coffee table in front of them, where a few of the other diaries lay.

"Sydney, have you found anything? You've been silent for a while." Fabian quizzed, and it was true - the female prankster had been practically silent since she had opened the first page of the diary, contrary to their expectations of her relentlessly whining and complaining about it - though, they became a little worried when the girl didn't respond, looking over at her and calling out once more, "Sydney? Sydney?"

Suddenly, Sydney blinked a few times as she snapped back to reality and out of her own thoughts, nodding vigorously (despite not knowing what they had asked) as she told them confidently, "Yeah, definitely, totally, one hundred percent."

"You found something?" Nina almost squealed, her eyes widening whilst she was rather excited at the news, thus leaning forward in her seat, intrigued, and ready to hear the information that the prankster had found within the diary of Robert Frobisher-Smythe.

"Oh, you thought that I was actually reading?" Sydney asked, causing all their excitement and hope to disappear as they groaned, falling back into their seats with a heavy sigh and the feeling of disappointment hanging over them all.

"We were kind of hoping." Fabian muttered.

"Well, I read the first word... and then I zoned out. Dude's boring." Sydney declared bluntly, not really having much care about the diaries and thus snapping the book shut, then tossing it over to the nerd of the group, knowing that he'd probably care more about reading it than her, and he caught it whilst rolling his eyes at her.

Opening the diary up to the first page, the nerd's eyes scanned over to where the first word (and, thus, the only word that Sydney Anderson actually read) was, before he glanced up to look at the prankster with pure disappointment on his face, "The first word was 'I', Sydney."

"Like I said, dude's boring."

"B-But I-?" He stammered, his eyes darting between the girl and the book as he wondered how many words she had actually read within the past few years and how she managed to get good grades, despite doing hardly any reading and studying.

However, before Fabian Rutter was able to question Sydney Anderson any further about her lack of reading, the fashionista of their group - Amber Millington - strutted into the living room and stopped in front of the three, who glanced up at her upon her entrance, whilst she declared, "I've got the lowdown on the amulets - not omelets, whatever you three might think." Now, Sydney never exactly recalled calling them omelets, and she was pretty certain that Nina and Fabian didn't call them omelets either, so the three shared a confused look whilst the fashionista informed them, "They were worn for protection."

"Protection?" Nina repeated confusedly, though she was rather glad that they had managed to find something out that day after the diaries had been a complete and utter let down, "Against what?"

"Bad luck, danger, evil spirits!"

Upon her voice getting even louder towards the end of her sentence, the group quickly hushed her as they noticed a few residents of Anubis House beginning to pile in for supper, before Nina, who seemed rather cautious and concerned, quizzed the blonde worriedly, "How did you find that out, Amber?"

"I've always been the brains of Sibuna. That's why you need me." Amber stated in a matter-of-fact tone, though it caused for the prankster of the group to let out a small chuckle that she had attempted to stifle but had failed to do so - from her knowledge (and everyone else's) Fabian Rutter was the brains of Sibuna, and most certainly not Amber Millington, and the fashionista soon realised that too by the doubtful looks that the rest of the group had shared with one another, causing her to reveal to them, "Okay, I asked Jasper," A worried and panicked look appeared on all of their faces, knowing that they typically didn't speak to the adults about anything to do with their secret group as the adults were typically against them, but then the fashionista turned to Fabian, "but he's your godfather, we can trust him, right?"

Sharing a small and cautious look with Fabian - the apparent godson of Jasper Choudhary, which was the first Sydney had ever heard of it - Nina eventually nodded in agreement, "Yeah, but we still need to be discreet."

"Wait, go back a second." Sydney spoke up, causing the nerd of the group to playfully groan as he already knew that the prankster was going to tease him - it was why she had not been made aware of who his godfather was, as he had tried to hide it from her for as long as possible so that she didn't use it against him - yeah, he failed, "Jasper Choudhary - curator of the exhibition and total Ancient Egyptian nerd - is Fabian's godfather?" Reluctantly, he nodded, "Ah, so the nerdiness runs in the family - got it."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Fabian muttered, waving the girl off as he pretended to be annoyed, though a small smile was on his lips which let everyone know that it was only jokes between them - although, he then turned serious and told the group, "Look, I think we should go and take another look at those amulets, yeah?"

Of course, they all agreed to the idea with a nod before the smell of food became clear, causing the female prankster to glance back towards the dining table and notice that the delicious food made by Trudy Rehmann for supper was already being set out by the amazing housemother. Hastily, Sydney jumped up from her seat and rushed over to the kitchen, taking a few plates from the hands of the housemother and going over to the dining room with them, setting them down on the table whilst the rest of the Anubis House residents began filing into the room. A few plates later and once everyone had entered the dining room, Sydney sat down in her seat beside Jerome Clarke, sending him a faint smile as she did so - none of them were aware of the announcement coming next.

Although, the mood in the room soon became odd when the jock of Anubis House - Mick Campbell - stood up from his seat, tapping the side of his glass with a spoon and causing everyone to fall silent, glancing over at him with confusion before he announced to them, "Uh, guys... so I spoke to Mr Sweet, so it's official - I'm moving to Australia."

Instantly, Sydney's eyes widened with pure shock as she wondered what had caused him to change his decision so abruptly - the last thing she had heard was that his family were moving to Australia, but he was adamant on staying behind at Anubis House and simply visiting them in the holidays, and then she wondered how Mara Jaffray was feeling about it - she was yet to hear about their breakup, and wondered how their relationship was going to work with him being in Australia and whether they had decided to break up or have a long distance relationship. There were a lot of questions left unanswered, and it was up to the residents to ask them to figure out the answers.

"What?" Fabian muttered - he was one of the more distraught residents, considering that he had been roommates with Mick Campbell ever since the pair joined the school, and they'd consider themselves quite good friends - Mick had been there for Fabian when he had a crush on Nina (the jock had supported him and encouraged him to ask her out constantly), and Fabian had been there for Mick during the entire love triangle between Amber, Mick, and Mara, and had given the jock advice on what to do.

"When do you leave?" Patricia quizzed, which was a rather good question - they had to know when their fellow housemate was leaving them for Australia, yet none of them were expecting it to be as soon as the jock told them it was.

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Mara repeated, being one of the first things that she had said, and she looked completely distraught - her words caused the female prankster (among many others) to glance over at her, realising how it seemed like she wasn't aware of anything, and Sydney found that quite odd, considering she still thought that the pair were dating, "It's all decided?"

"Well, I reckon some people just can't wait to see me go." Mick responded, his words seeming rather targeted towards the girl, and it made Sydney Anderson wonder if something had happened to them, and whether that had encouraged the jock's decision to leave and relocate to Australia so abruptly.

"But I-I..." Mara stammered, her words getting stuck in her throat and her eyes welling up, and it only took a few seconds before she pushed herself out of the chair that she had been sitting in and ran out of the room, evidently upset over the situation.

They were losing an Anubis House resident.

That supper had been quite an awkward one. Obviously, it wasn't the most awkward supper that they'd ever had, considering the amount of terrible suppers that they had when Nina Martin had first joined Anubis House (for example: when Patricia Williamson had poured the whole pitcher of water over her), but sadness hung above them as they ate. They had tried to be cheerful, considering that it was going to be one of the last suppers that Mick Campbell had with the residents, though it was sort of hard to do, especially since one of the chairs was empty as Mara Jaffray remained absent.

So, it was safe to say that Sydney Anderson was rather thankful when she returned to her bedroom alongside Nina Martin and Amber Millington. The former of the pair was reading one of Robert Frobisher-Smythe's diaries whilst sat atop her bed, whilst the latter was brushing through her hair and making sure that there were no knots. Meanwhile, the prankster was sitting atop her own bed, her camera in her hand as she flicked through some of the images that she had taken that day, eventually landing on the picture of Jerome Clarke that she had taken once she noticed him staring.

Of course, she hadn't noticed him at first, until she felt the observant gaze on her and had turned to the side and noticed him staring with a look in his eyes that she really did not recognise, though it seems positive. Plus, he had a smile on his lips which was one she hadn't seen before, and it was safe to say that she adored his smile, especially when it was genuine. Despite her looking, it seemed like his eyes still remained on her and that he was lost in thought, so she saw an opportunity and took it, snapping a picture of him right then and there.

"What are you grinning at?" Amber inquisitively asked, a teasing look on her face as she glanced over at the prankster through the mirror that she was staring into in order to brush through her hair perfectly.

"Yeah, you have this love-sick smile on your face." Nina observed, glancing up from the diary and over to the prankster and also noticing that the fashionista meant and why she had pointed it out.

"Well, of course it's Jerome then." Amber muttered, which resulted in a blush falling onto the prankster's face as they were absolutely correct, and the pair of them realised that as they jumped onto Sydney's bed and looked at her camera, noticing the picture that was on her camera, "Aw, that's so cute! I've never seen him look like that before."

"Me neither." Nina agreed with a nod, glancing back at the camera, "He looks like he wouldn't hurt a fly."

"No, he looks in love." Amber corrected, a teasing smirk on her lips as she did so whilst the American giggled alongside her.

"Oh, shut it." Sydney mumbled, lightly hitting the both of them before she pushed herself off the bed, going towards the bedroom door.

"Where are you going?" Nina inquired, the prankster being unaware that her roommates had just starting texting and made a bet that she was leaving to go over to see Jerome and Alfie's room - Nina bet that she was going to the kitchen for food, Amber bet that she was going to Jerome and Alfie's room.

"To Jerome and Alfie's room - I might sleep there too, so don't wait up for me." Sydney informed them, grabbing a few things before she left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Instantly, Nina took a five pound note out of her purse and passed it to the fashionista, "You win."

"Always do."

The next morning (yes, Sydney had slept in the same room as Jerome and Alfie), the female prankster was seen helping their housemother carry over the many delicious dishes for breakfast - there was a lot more than there normally was, but she simply assumed that it was all for Mick Campbell leaving for Australia that day, especially considering that he was known to be the resident who ate the most food at Anubis House. Thus, she didn't really complain much as she continued to bring over the many plates from the kitchen into the dining room, where only Fabian Rutter, Nina Martin, and Amber Millington were sitting.

"So, we found our hidden tunnel system." Nina informed them ('we' obviously referring to her and Fabian, who had apparently gone down without the pair of blondes) just as the prankster came over, causing her to pause in grabbing the plates and remain standing at the table for a little bit whilst the American told them, "It's behind the bookshelf."

"We just need to trigger the opening." Fabian added, and the group were rather excited that they weren't at a dead end anymore and knew what to do, and also very eager as the nerd told them, "So, I was thinking we'd go back down there later tonight, or sooner."

However, the conversation soon came to a halt when the rest of Anubis House began to pile in for their breakfast, which meant that the female prankster had to hurry along with bringing the dishes over to the table and that caused her to turn back to the kitchen, grabbing a few more plates from the housemother and bringing them over - it got to a point where there was hardly any space on the table, with it being covered in lots of different dishes filled with delicious food.

"Whoa, Trudy, how many people are actually leaving?" Jerome questioned with a slight chuckle as he entered the room, his eyes widening upon seeing how many plates littered the table - honestly, it'd be a miracle if they could actually fit their own plates on there.

"Yeah, I know that our resident foodie is leaving, but my arms are about to drop off from how many plates I've been carrying." Sydney added, giggling slightly as she did so - though, her statement caused the male prankster to quickly begin helping her, taking some of the plates from her and putting them on the table.

"Well, Mick isn't the only one." Trudy revealed, and her statement caused all of their heads to instantly snap up to stare at her with a worried expression as they wondered who else was leaving them, and were thus waiting for an explanation, "I've been offered a job - assistant curator at the exhibition."

Shock - pure shock. That was the only emotion that filled the room, and was quite evident in the way that Alfie Lewis spat out the water that he had just taken a gulp out of, whilst Sydney Anderson's jaw dropped, her eyes widened - she truly and deeply adored Trudy Rehmann, and really wasn't able to imagine Anubis House without her.

Of course, Sydney was ridiculously happy for their housemother (or... ex-housemother... yeah, that was going to have to take some getting used to) and was also immensely proud of her, but that didn't mean that she wanted the woman to go. Trudy Rehmann was like her second mother, constantly reassuring her and giving her advice, so how was she just able to leave?

Apparently, some of the other residents had similar thoughts, and it didn't take long until Amber Millington devastatingly cried out, "First Mick, now you. Since when did everyone become so selfish? I need you, Trudy!"

"Please don't say we're going to be stuck with Victor. I cannot deal with his cooking after last year's attempt." Sydney muttered, causing a few of the other residents to nod in agreement whilst they shuddered, remembering the slop that they had been served when their housemother had been fired previously - then, when they tried to do their own cooking, it had been absolute chaos, "We'll get a new housemother, right? A nice one?"

"What if we get someone who doesn't think it's funny to pull spaghetti out of your nose?" Alfie asked worriedly, causing a few of the others (specifically Jerome Clarke and Sydney Anderson) to laugh loudly, knowing that was definitely something that the boy would do - however, it made them wonder who else was going to deal with the residents of Anubis House, because they were rather a chaotic bunch - especially the pranksters

Yeah... the thought of a new housemother was particularly worrying.

"Don't, please." Trudy told them sadly, clearly not being fond of having to leave behind the students who she had seen grow up over the past five/six years and had become a mother-figure to - they all adored her, and she adored them, "I'm missing you all already."

And, she wasn't the only person who was leaving that day, meaning that the sadness in the air only hung lower above their heads as the other person leaving that day entered the room - a feeling of melancholy sweeping everyone in the room as Mick Campbell stood beside Trudy Rehmann. After that day, the pair would no longer live at Anubis House.

"So, Mick..." Trudy began, clearly trying to brighten up the room after the news of her departure as well, thus putting on an Australian accent as she continued, "One more day and then it's g'day, Australia!"

"Ready for boot camp?" Fabian questioned - Sydney wondered how he was coping with the soon-to-be loss of his roommate, and the residents of Anubis House were still unaware if they were getting a new person or not to fill up the jock's space, so the nerd also had to prepare for that outcome, all of which were apparently being sprung on him rather suddenly.

"Really not." Mick answered with a faint laugh, before he glanced over at his former personal trainer/former ex-girlfriend (when Sydney went to Jerome and Alfie's room the previous night, the former had told her about how the nerd had dumped Mick rather unexpectedly) with a small smile, acting rather polite with her despite her making a point by not even sparing him a glance, as he spoke, "I guess I need to get back down to my PB, right, Mara?"

Despite how kind he was to her, Mara simply brushed past him and went into the kitchen, clearly still distraught over the fact that the boy that she loved was going across the globe and that they had split up (despite her breaking up with him). Upon the negative reaction, which was evidently not what the jock wanted, Mick simply went back into the corridor and presumably to his bedroom.

Once he had left the room, Trudy's voice fell to a hushed tone as she turned to all of the students sitting around the dinner table, asking, "All right, come on. What are we going to do for his send off? I've got enough food in there to feed a Mick."

"I'm thinking..." Joy began, pausing for a thoughtful moment before she came up with a rather decent plan for his send off, "Operation Make It Seem Like We Don't Care, And Then We Jump Out And Tell Him We Love Him."

At that, all of the residents nodded and hummed in agreement, discussing a few plans for a small Anubis House party during the rest of breakfast so that they were able to send off Mick Campbell positively. Therefore, it looked like 'Operation Make It Seem Like We Don't Care, And Then We Jump Out And Tell Him We Love Him' was in motion.

And that became painfully obvious much later when Nina Martin, Fabian Rutter, Amber Millington, and Sydney Anderson went back to Anubis House in order to sneak down into the cellar and take a look at the amulets, with the American member of the team telling them, "Trudy will be in the library, so we can-. Oh."

Unfortunately for them, Trudy Rehmann was working in the kitchen in order to prepare for the plan (which, by that point, Sydney Anderson had already forgotten the name of), meaning that there was no way of them being able to sneak down into the cellar using the secret passageway through the oven, and Fabian Rutter soon stated that, "Of course, Mick's leaving party. But, we'll never get past."

"Shame." Amber remarked, not sounding upset in the slightest and causing the prankster to release a small giggle, although her giggles were cut off when the fashionista continued and said, "Let's go choose what to wear. Oh, and Sydney, I'm giving you a makeover."

"You what now?"

"Or, we can borrow the cellar key from Victor's office." Nina suggested, ignoring everything that the fashionista was saying - honestly, Sydney would have preferred having a makeover in comparison to Nina's idea, and apparently the nerd of the group was also against it as he began to protest, causing the girl to defend the suggestion as she told him, "Sydney did it yesterday, and this might be our only chance today."

Unexpectedly, Sydney felt a hand on her arm and only seconds later was she tugged away by the American, who led her up the stairs to Victor's office whilst the prankster plainly asked, "Why am I coming with you?"

"You're the one who said you were the best at sneaking around." Nina reminded the girl with a pointed look, to which she rolled her eyes at before the pair of them went into their housekeeper's office - which, fortunately for them, was unlocked - though, as they shut the door, it slammed rather harshly and loudly, causing the pair of them to flinch.

"You would make a terrible ninja." Sydney commented with a huff, causing Nina to shoot her a mildly amused, yet pointed, look that forced the prankster to lift her hands in mock surrender, "I'm just saying - you don't slam doors when sneaking around!"

Ignoring her despite how amused she was by the comments, Nina Martin simply went over to the cabinet with the spare keys in and began to pick the lock with one of the bobby pins that she pulled out from her hair, briefly turning back to face the prankster as she asked, "Did you do this yesterday?"

"Yep. I've clearly learnt a few things from you." Sydney confirmed with a slight chuckle whilst she continued to watch the American pick the lock with the bobby pin - it appeared that she was struggling a little bit with it, and the prankster was just about to help when they heard a muffled yelp from downstairs.

"Victor!"

"Oh, shoot." Sydney muttered, her eyes widening whilst she glanced out of the window and noticed the housekeeper beginning to climb the stairs, Fabian following behind him and crying out after him, causing the prankster to turn to face the girl picking the lock hurriedly and asking, "Have you got it yet? You have, like...two seconds, and I truly do mean two seconds."

"Victor!" Fabian cried out once more, much louder than before as the housekeeper stepped dangerously closer towards the office - the one place where they really did not want him to go at that moment - and his call made the two girls in the office notice how close the housekeeper was, forcing Nina to give up trying to pick the lock as she motioned for both her and Sydney to kneel down underneath the windows into the office, hiding.

"Yes, is there some kind of emergency?" Victor quizzed, sounding rather frustrated with the student's persistent and boisterous calling out after him as he finally stopped walking towards the office - now, they just had to get him away from the office.

"Uh... wait, Mick," Fabian trailed off, the jock apparently having caught his attention for some reason that neither Sydney Anderson or Nina Martin were able to see as they continued to hide underneath the window, not even daring to risk taking a single peek, "What are you doing? You're not leaving now, are you?"

"Yeah, I thought I'd get an earlier train. I hate goodbyes." Mick's voice sounded from below the office as he revealed the news - honestly, it was kind of good that they had caught him trying to leave, especially since it would have been extremely awkward if he left before they were able to give him a send off after all the party planning they had done.

Although, Victor clearly didn't care much about the jock leaving, as he soon began walking to his office once more whilst he declared, "Well, I must prepare for the arrival of the exhibit, so if you have nothing of consequence to say..."

"W-Wait! Yes, I do!" Fabian stammered, causing the housekeeper to stop once more before the nerd improvised and exclaimed, "Victor, it's party time! For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow - that's right, Victor, it's party time!"

"I did not authorise any party." Victor grumbled, his footsteps sounding a little bit more distant as he went away from the office door, enabling for the two girls inside the office to quickly and quietly open the door and for them to sneak out, carefully closing the door behind them so it was like nobody had ever entered.

"Uh, bit early, Fabian." Trudy informed him as she exited from the kitchen, clearly having heard all of the commotion, "We're not ready yet."

"There's no time like the present, Trudy." Fabian defended his obscure actions, having a humongous fake smile on his lips whilst he called out gleefully, "Woo! Surprise!"

"Surprise!"

Joining in among everyone else, Sydney Anderson and Nina Martin quickly jumped in from behind their housekeeper with bright smiles on their lips, acting as though a few seconds prior they weren't in the man's office and had most certainly not tried to steal one of the spare keys from inside his locked cabinet.

Whilst the man was not that impressed with all the happiness and a sudden party (he let out a grumble and pushed past the two girls to go inside of his office), he would have been much less impressed if he caught the two of them inside of the office and attempting to steal his keys. They had been extremely lucky to get out of the office without a punishment, and the girls let out a sigh of relief as they descended the staircase.

"That was too close." Fabian muttered as they reached him at the middle of the staircase, where he had been whilst he was crying out after their housekeeper, and the three continued to go down as he questioned the pair, "Did you get it?"

"Nope." Nina informed him, clearly not fond that they couldn't go down into the cellar and check out the amulets until later as she heavily sighed, "Back to plan A."

Eyes narrowing in curiosity and mild worry, Sydney glanced over at the two of them before she questioned, clearly panicked, "We're having cake first though, right?"

Yes, they did have cake first.

Although, before they were able to have the cake, Sydney Anderson had been subjected to the torture that was being forced to have a makeover done by the one and only, Amber Millington - they only had a few minutes to get ready, considering that they had somewhat spoiled the surprise for Mick Campbell by doing it a little too early, so the fashionista was very frantic as she rushed around the room in order to do what would have typically taken an hour in ten minutes. However, Sydney Anderson still looked extremely gorgeous once the fashionista was done with her, having her hair styled as wavy and down and then wearing quite natural makeup along with a blue skirt and a black blouse that she had tucked in. A pair of small black heels had also been added to the look, which the prankster wasn't particularly fond of (due to them being high heels and the prankster being extremely clumsy), but had worn them anyway.

And, after a few minutes of quickly rushing to get the send off ready, all of the Anubis House residents (minus Mara Jaffray, who had stayed in her room presumably due to her breaking up with the boy who the send off was for the day prior) were waiting in the living room/dining room - which had been decorated with lots of banners and balloons - for the boy of the hour, Mick Campbell, to arrive, and soon enough, he was led in by his roommate, who was covering his eyes until the group finally called out simultaneously:

"Surprise!"

"Oh, guys, thanks so-." Mick spoke, though he cut himself off, clearly overwhelmed as a humongous grin formed on his lips at the sight of the decorated room and the residents with whom he had spent about five years living with, "This is amazing."

"Come and get some food." Amber instructed him, glancing back over at the dining table that was covered in food once again - perhaps even more than there was that morning at breakfast - and then towards the housemother herself as she revealed to the jock excitedly, "Trudy's made a cake with your face on it."

And, that wasn't even a lie, as the housemother soon displayed the cake that had Mick Campbell's face plastered over it, causing the jock to let out a laugh before he told them, "Yeah, I'll be there in one sec."

"Well, if you don't get here fast enough I'm eating the piece of cake with your nose on it!" Sydney called out to him, causing him to laugh once more - that time, accompanied by the rest of the house who shook their heads amusedly at the girl's behaviour, though she simply had a bright grin on her lips and didn't care.

As Mick turned to speak to his roommate, presumably saying a quiet goodbye to him after having spent five years being roommates, the rest of the house turned to grab some food and chatter filled the room that had been silent merely moments before. Of course, Alfie Lewis picked up as many sweets that he was possibly able to, having his hands filled with them. Jerome Clarke instead opted for a few bags of crisps, whilst Sydney Anderson grabbed the packet of jelly beans. Although, due to the many fights that her and Jerome had with jelly beans, she simply couldn't resist when she tore one of the packets open, and thus that is what led to a jelly bean hitting Jerome Clarke right in his face.

"Really?" He muttered, glaring at her despite the faint smile that had formed on his lips, showing that he was very much amused by the incident - however, that didn't mean he wouldn't fight back, causing him to attempt to reach over for the packet of jelly beans.

After knowing him for ten years and playfully fighting him countless of times, Sydney Anderson was very much aware of his tactics and thus hastily hid the packet of jelly beans behind her back, so it was harder for him to get to them. Not being a quitter, Jerome reached around her back to grab them, not even realising how close the pair of them had become until they were only a few centimeters apart - perhaps, not even that. Furthermore, in an attempt to grab the jelly beans, Jerome had tightly yet gently gripped onto the girl's waist so that he didn't fall and was also able to keep her still - yet, that touch seemed to be electrifying upon noticing their distance, or lack thereof.

And, suddenly, it was silent.

No, it wasn't silent, it just felt like it was. If he paid close enough attention, then he could hear the dull noise of everyone talking and chattering in the background, none of them seemingly noticing the couple in the corner as they continued to laugh and make noise, and that was all it was: background noise. However, at that moment, it seemed quiet as neither of the blondes said a single word, just glancing at one another and their eyes locked on the others, emotions swirling around gorgeously inside of them and revealing everything to the other person. At that moment, it just seemed like it was Jerome and Sydney, Anderson and Clarke.

In a crowded room, they were all alone yet beautifully together.

And, wasn't that how it always was? Ever since they met, they had stuck together and grown together, being each other's light in such a dark world - a dark world that they had unfortunately been exposed to since their youths, with both of their parents ditching them and abandoning them. Then, they met each other, they grew (both closer and older), and then they stayed. Looking back, the entire time they had been surrounded by people - in their past boarding schools, there were other kids and other teachers - yet, they looked back and they only saw each other, even when they were in crowded rooms. So, once again, have it repeated: in a crowded room, they were all alone yet beautifully together.

In their own personal room, their breaths were the main sound, and it was all that the pair were able to hear until Jerome Clarke eventually spoke up, lifting one of his hands away from the waist of Sydney Anderson and placing it on her cheek, his fingers gently brushing against them as a fond smile grew on his lips - honestly, the jelly beans had been long forgotten - and he inquired, "Have I mentioned that you look beautiful?"

"Nope." Sydney answered, her eyes shyly averting down to the ground and away from him - he noticed her cheeks slowly getting warmer underneath his hand, or perhaps that was him, or maybe even both of them - he didn't know, and he didn't know why either.

"Mhm... well, you do." Jerome told her, causing her smile to grow a little bit wider as she finally had the courage to look back up at him - he could have sworn her cheeks were a little bit redder, and her smile held emotion that he was unable to recognise.

Yeah... it was love.

But neither of them recognised that.

Eventually, the pair of blondes were dragged out of their own little world and had partied with the other residents of Anubis House - they all ate and danced and talked the hours away, but then spent the last few minutes filling up all the storage on their phones and cameras as they decided to have group pictures. With Trudy Rehmann having made herself scarce, they had to swap the photographer quite a few times to make sure that they had a selection of pictures with everyone in, and the pictures were rather ridiculous due to the poses the people made in them. For a few pictures, Sydney and Jerome had managed to pick up Alfie and were holding him (perhaps Sydney dropped him on the ground afterwards, but that's not important). Then, Sydney and Jerome had posed back to back with finger guns, acting rather cool. Then, Sydney had jumped onto Jerome's back unexpectedly for a piggy back, and that had led to her remaining there for most of the other photos that she was in. However, there were also few normal ones, where she and her childhood best friend just had their arms around one another and were smiling, or there were a few where she was beside her two roommates, her arms around the pair of them as the three of them laughed.

As they took the photos, Sydney Anderson recalled what Nina Martin had told her about people taking photos of what they cherished most, and she had to agree in that moment - yeah, the Anubis House residents were who Sydney Anderson cherished the most.

Eventually, it was just the boys having their photographs taken, so all the girls had resorted to being the photographers - of course, Sydney Anderson was using her camera instead of her phone (which was the device that most of the other residents had opted for), and the girls were all calling out instructions for the boys to follow as they snapped pictures of the group.

"Get together." Nina told them, causing them to press even closer together whilst attempting to maintain their poses - a few other instructions were being called out at the same time, and it was kind of hard to hear every single one of them.

"Smile!" Patricia called out to the males once again - it was an instruction that had seemed to be repeated a lot over the past few minutes and continued to be called out.

"Say cheese!" Sydney added teasingly - however, the only person who noticed that she was teasing was her childhood best friend, considering that it was aimed towards him - he had noticed the smirk on her lips and how she had glanced towards him as she said it, and he recalled the incident a few days ago where they had been messing with the camera and refused to smile when they were told to say 'cheese', though he wasn't able to think too much about it as a flurry of instructions continued to be yelled out.

"Three, two, one..."

"You could smile more, you know!"

"One more, one more!"

"Look this way!" Patricia told them, being one of the last instructions before she turned her phone and looked at the picture, a small smile appearing on her lips as she examined it before announcing, "Ooh, that's a good picture, actually."

However, the positive mood soon turned melancholy when their housemother came into the room, switching off the music and glancing over at the jock regretfully before she informed him, "Sorry, Mick, but your taxi's waiting."

Mick Campbell was leaving Anubis House.

After being roommates for numerous years, it was rather inevitable that Fabian Rutter and Mick Campbell had some sort of special handshake between them, and the pair of them did it together one last time as their final goodbye - honestly, they didn't even know if they'd ever see the jock again, and that was a rather scary and devastating thought.

One person who was particularly upset about the jock's departure was Amber Millington, considering that she had dated the boy for quite some time and still considered them to be friends up until that day, hence why she stepped up next as she told him, "Bye, Mick. I hope you'll be okay. I wanted to give you this," She offered him a colourful bracelet - one that he seemed to recognise, before she stated to him, "I know it didn't exactly bring us luck, but... I bet things will be different in Australia."

"Thanks, Ambs." Mick smiled at her, and knowing how sad the fashionista was going to be, Sydney stepped up to the makeup-loving girl and placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly, giving a small smile and a nod to the jock as her goodbye to him - they weren't really close and only had some conversations during his time at Anubis House, but he had been a good prank victim at times - though, he seemed to want a goodbye from someone else, that being his ex-girlfriend who he still had feelings for and loved, "No Mara?" He inquired, glancing over towards the nerd's roommates - Patricia and Joy - who shook their heads "I guess, uh... I better be going then."

With that being said, everyone began to disperse out of the living room to follow the jock to his taxi for one last goodbye. However, the members of Sibuna - Nina Martin, Fabian Rutter, Amber Millington, and Sydney Anderson stayed behind. Jerome Clarke had sent a brief look towards his childhood best friend, checking whether or not she was coming - though, she simply motioned towards the fashionista, which told him that she was comforting the girl, so he nodded and left, going to give a final goodbye to Mick Campbell.

Considering that she had only joined the previous term, Nina Martin wasn't as close to the jock as her fellow members of Sibuna were, and thus she gazed over at them concerningly as she questioned, "You guys okay?"

"Yeah..." Fabian muttered, his voice wavering slightly as he tried to hold back the tears, though he soon thought of an idea that'd help him to restrain crying, which led to him suggesting, "Let's do something to take our minds off it."

"Food fight?" Sydney quizzed.

"Not exactly what I had in mind." Fabian muttered, letting a small chuckle pass through his lips whilst the girl pouted in disappointment - she had been seconds away from getting her hands on some cake to throw at them, as well, "Victor's made himself scarce so..."

"I never thought I'd say this," Amber started with a confident nod, glancing around at all of them as she took a small pause before saying something completely unexpected from her lips, "but bring on the cellar."

"I mean, I still like the idea of a food fight."

The food fight idea had not won, and thus the girl had followed her fellow members of the secret club into the cellar through the secret passageway. Only a few moments later did people begin occupying the kitchen and living room once more - one of those people being Jerome Clarke, who wasn't exactly sure where his childhood best friend had gone to, but simply assumed that she was comforting the fashionista in a private room, so he instead put his attention on food, cutting a large slice of cake and being seconds away from taking a bite out of it when he saw his little sister peek out from round the corner.

Frustratedly, he put the cake down whilst his sister went back around the corner, hoping that she hadn't been caught - although, her hopes were soon crushed as her older brother called out, "Poppy Clarke, you will never make a cat burglar."

"I was looking for Sydney and Mara - not you." Poppy told him stubbornly - he had made it pretty clear where he stood when it came to finding their father, and thus she didn't bother attempting to find him anymore, opting with Sydney and Mara - honestly, ever since she had decided to find her father, her and Mara had become much closer friends.

Not trusting the younger sibling, Jerome grabbed her bag and rifled through it for only a few seconds before he pulled out a piece of paper, though it wasn't just a simple piece of paper - it was a poster for their lost father, presumably to put around the streets in an attempt to find him, "Tell me you weren't going on a quest."

"Well, if you aren't going to help me." Poppy defended herself and her actions, as she didn't know what else she was meant to do in order to find her father - using a picture of him and getting his name out there seemed to be the only way, considering not much else was working.

Taking another look at the photo, Jerome noticed that it was their father - despite it being years, he still recognised the face of the man who hurt him the most - yet it was an old photo, and the man was wearing similar clothing to the uniform that was hung up in Jerome's uniform, "Dad really went to Anubis - you weren't making that up?"

"Yep, same time as Sweetie." Poppy confirmed with a nod, and it was easy to tell that she wasn't lying - the younger sibling, realising that her brother was intrigued, began her attempt to convince him into helping once more as she spoke, "Doesn't it make you curious? Come on, Gerbil, there's stuff we need to know!"

"If we do this, we're going to do it properly." Jerome stated sternly, causing Poppy to nod in agreement - thus, the older Clarke had made his decision - one that was contrary to his original stance on the situation as he informed his sibling, "I'm going to hire a private investigator." Then, he pulled out a piggy bank from the bag that he had in his hands, "Correction: we are going to hire a private investigator."

Meanwhile, Sydney Anderson was among her fellow members of the secret group, whilst they were inside of the secret study, and the group were examining the room once more for any sign of the animals that were on the lockets elsewhere - so far, nothing.

"There's no hidden catch." Nina remarked as she stared at one of the bookcases in the study, her eyes narrowed as she glanced at it, before she pointed something out to the group, "But there is this symbol of a bird on the top shelf here."

"I've seen that somewhere." Fabian murmured, glancing at it from afar - he was beside Amber and Sydney, the three of them looking at the amulets that were laid out on the desk still and attempting to figure out something about them, and it appeared that he had done exactly that as he picked out one of the seven amulets, lifting it up as he informed the group, "Here it is. It's the ibis, the symbol of Thoth."

Sydney's eyebrows furrowed - considering that she didn't do her ancient Egyptian studying, or any studying in general, she was unaware of the different Gods and Goddesses involved in ancient Egypt, and that led her to questioning, "Who?"

"The God of wisdom and learning." Fabian stated excitably, somewhat glad that they were getting somewhere, although the prankster's tone completely contrasted his, being completely dull and devoid of life as she responded bluntly:

"I hate him."

"He sounds awesome." Amber commented, sarcasm dripping from her words as she did so - however, her tone sounded much more enthusiastic only a few seconds later, when she piped up once more, telling them, "I've seen him before - on one of these books." Whilst Nina and Fabian remained looking at the amulets in an attempt to figure more out, the two blondes walked over to the bookcase, with Sydney having followed Amber - however, the latter of the pair stayed a little bit further back than the fashionista, simply observing what she was doing as Amber glanced over at the books, before she put her hands on one and stated, "Yep, here he is - our crazy, fun-time god of moldy old books."

With that being said, she pulled on the book she claimed to have the symbol of Thoth on it, and only a few seconds later did the bookcase begin spinning and disappear - however, it wasn't only the bookcase that had vanished without a single trace, because apparently it had taken Amber Millington along with it, with her no longer being seen in the room, and that caused Sydney Anderson to stare wide-eyed at the bookcase, her jaw dropped as she tried to process what had just happened right before her eyes - she was aware that they were losing Mick Campbell that day, and Trudy Rehmann in the following days, though she was completely unaware that Amber Millington was also leaving.

"Uh... guys?" Sydney mumbled cautiously and carefully, her eyes still wide and locked on the wall where the bookcase and her fashion-loving roommate had once been, though the ex-couple weren't paying much attention and were more focused on the amulets.

But, when a muffled screech that had come from the lips of their fashionista friend pierced through the air of the study, echoing from behind where the bookcase once was, the pair instantly whirled around to face the wall where the bookcase had once been, joining Sydney Anderson in staring at it with wide eyes as they came to the realisation:

Amber Millington (plus the bookshelf) had vanished.

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[22.06.2020]

NOTE: pls ignore that this is like nine hours late thank u

in this chapter, i referenced a season one chapter (also a few season two chapters, especially with the camera scenes and the "say cheese!" part). the season one chapter i referenced specifically was the chapter in which sydney helps nina to sneak downstairs before she's involved in sibuna. in this chapter, sydney says that she's the best at sneaking around, which was what she also told nina before they snuck downstairs. i also talk about how she's the jelly bean catching champion, which is a reference to the chapter where her, jerome, and mara played with jelly beans.

i have a few online classes tomorrow (technically today as it's turned midnight) but i hope to have the chapter out at the right time. sorry for being late in the past few chapters. i love you all.