DENOUEMENT
xxxix. house of pressures
❝THE DREAM'S COMING TRUE.❞

"YOU LOOK TERRIBLE" Those were the first words that Sydney Anderson had heard that morning after her nightmare when she had finally come downstairs, sitting beside the blonde-haired male prankster who had spoken the three brutally honest words.

"Thank you, Jerome, that's just what every girl wants to hear in the morning." Sydney murmured sarcastically in response, a clear frown on her lips that was soon hidden from the view of the few residents of Anubis House that were in the dining room when she had put her head onto the table.

"You know that you're pretty, shush." Jerome Clarke uttered in response, his eyes clouded over and his eyebrows knit together due to concern as he watched his childhood best friend be grumpy in the morning (which, honestly, was sometimes normal, but she was more grumpy than normal that day), and he soon quizzed, "Are you okay? You woke up late, as well."

"Late?" Sydney repeated confusedly, her eyebrows furrowing together in concern as she lifted her head up from the table, taking her phone out of her pocket to check the time.

"Late for you." Jerome quickly clarified, referring to how the female was usually up and ready for school quite early in the morning in order to help set out the breakfast alongside their housemother, and upon realising what the boy meant, Sydney let out a breath of relief as she was glad that she wasn't going to get in trouble for being late on an already bad day, "You normally help out Vera - what's wrong?"

"Nightmare." Sydney whined, exhaustedly putting her head back on the dining room table as she wondered if she'd be able to take a small nap right then and there so that she could catch up on some of the sleep that she had missed due to the horrific nightmare.

"Again?" Jerome inquired, becoming even more concerned at the news, which led to him questioning his tired childhood best friend more, "Was it about The Grim Reaper or-?" Before he was able to continue, the girl had already nodded at the first option (she went by the logic that the spirit was a wannabe of the figure of death, so she wasn't technically lying), so the boy had cut himself off and released a heavy sigh as he pointed out to her, "That's twice in a few days, Syd."

"What was twice in a few days?" Fabian Rutter questioned, seeming quite tired himself and having bags underneath his eyes as he walked into the dining room, clearly having overheard the last part of the conversation between the two pranksters - instantly, he had noticed how exhausted Sydney Anderson seemed, and his eyes narrowed inquisitively.

"Nightmare." Both Sydney and Jerome answered simultaneously, with the latter keeping his eyes on his childhood best friend and putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"About The Grim Reaper?" Fabian asked, although his tone seemed to infer something else, causing the female prankster to curiously lift her head up once more and take a glance at him, seeing that he had a certain look on his face - he was asking if the nightmare was about the spirit, and seemed quite worried.

Before she was able to nod towards the nerd, Amber Millington entered the room and made her way through into the kitchen to grab some breakfast, whilst she absent-mindedly commented, "I had such a weird dream last night."

At that, both the nerd and the prankster, who had discussed having nightmares prior, had unconsciously widened their eyes with shock, wondering why all three of them had an odd dream that night. Clearly concerned about the situation, Fabian subtly motioned for the female prankster to follow him as he went into the kitchen towards the fashionista, so Sydney hastily made a small excuse of quickly grabbing some cereal for herself before she got up from her chair and entered the kitchen, feeling the most awake she had that entire morning due to the fear and worry that had begun coursing through her veins, whilst her mind continued to repeat that it surely had to be a coincidence over and over again.

"Amber, what was your dream?" Sydney hesitantly asked as she stepped into the kitchen, opening up some cabinets and taking out a box of cereal to keep up with the excuse that she was grabbing some cereal - they didn't need to draw attention to themselves.

Not thinking much about the question and simply thinking they were curious about the dream that she had, Amber simply continued to grab some food whilst she nonchalantly explained to the pair, "We were at the ball, and then we went into the tunnels and-."

"-the spirit pushed Nina into the chasm?" Fabian finished warily, causing the eyes of the blonde pairing to widen significantly as he had predicted exactly what happened at the end of their dream - yeah... it wasn't just a coincidence anymore.

"Woah." Amber whispered, instantly placing the food that she had been getting out for herself onto the counter as she stared at the boy with wide eyes, wondering how he had managed to predict the end of the dream - little did she know that every single member of Sibuna had the same, or very similar, dreams; they all had the same ending.

"You had it too?" Sydney breathed out, causing the two other members of the group to nod in agreement as they stared at one another, wondering what the dream meant and why they all had the exact same dream - it wasn't exactly a normal situation, and that was exactly why the nerd of the group soon commented:

"That's weird."

"Wait, you both-" Amber started confusedly, pointing between both the prankster and the nerd as she continued, clearly trying to make sense of the odd situation that they had been put in, "-had the exact same dream as me?"

"Yeah." The pair agreed with wary nods, sharing a concerned look as they did so - although, Amber Millington was a little bit more concerned about something else.

"Okay, so that means that you two also saw our favourite prankster-" The fashionista teasingly nudged the other girl in the group of three, a wide smirk plastered on her lips as she continued, "-getting a little bit close with a certain someone?"

"Nope, nada, nicht." Sydney vehemently denied, deciding to quickly change the topic to something else that occured in the dream as she looked over at the nerd of their group, "The only people I saw getting close were our little nerd here and-."

Blushing bright red, Fabian quickly intercepted before the female prankster was able to finish her sentence, thankfully having a saviour that came in the form of Nina Martin, who had just entered the dining room and caused the boy to motion his head over towards her as he declared, "There's Nina."

Within seconds, the fashionista had rushed out of the kitchen and into the dining room, grabbing the arm of the American girl and tugging her into the kitchen before any of the Anubis House residents had even noticed her presence, hurriedly revealing to her the troubling news, "Nina, you'll never believe the dream Sydney, Fabian, and I all had last night."

"The spirit pushed me down the chasm."

"Wow, that was a really good guess." Amber complimented, very much shocked that the American girl had managed to guess what had occurred in their weird dreams/nightmares perfectly (and within seconds) and, apparently, the fashionista had not once assumed that the last member of the secret group to join them had also had the same dream as the rest of them - it was far from a coincidence.

However, Fabian soon realised what had happened - they had all had the exact same dreams - and his eyes widened, his mouth dropping open before he stated, "I think she had the same dream."

Rolling her eyes frustratedly at the odd occurrences that kept happening in their lives, Amber muttered, "Right, obvie."

"Just to clarify: that's not normal, right?" Sydney questioned, honestly being unsure about what was and wasn't normal after so many weird things had happened to the group - though, the nerd of the group gave her a small nod to confirm that having the exact same dreams between a group of four most certainly was not normal.

"We're having shared dreams now? Amber and Sydney are seeing the spirit too?" Nina questioned, leaning against the counter frustratedly - it was clear she wasn't fond of the situation happening, telling them, "This is getting out of hand."

"Wait, what if we have the mark?" Amber asked, causing all of their eyes to widen with fear as they realised that the dream was the second time that the two non-cursed members had seen the spirit and that they could have been cursed, so both Fabian and Nina pulled up the sleeves of both the girls, flipping their arms around and checking them for the mark as the fashionista continued to panic, "I have flawless skin."

"It's okay." Nina breathed out, letting go of their arms and letting the two girls calm down as she informed them, "Relax, neither of you have it."

"We can't relax though, can we?" Fabian responded frustratedly, the situation obviously aggravating him as he realised that the spirit was practically taunting them, and he soon voiced that opinion as he continued, "I mean, the spirit is reminding us that Nina's life is at stake. I mean, we have to get-."

Cutting him short, Amber hit his arm and forced him (plus the remaining members of the group) to fall quiet as their housemother, Vera Devenish, walked into the room and sent them a small smile. Quickly pretending as though they weren't discussing the fact that two out of four of them were cursed and that they were looking for an ancient Egyptian mask underneath the house due to a creepy spirit lady threatening them, the fashionista of the group began to nervously hum to try and make them seem innocent and casual - two things that they most certainly were not in that moment.

Eventually, Vera left the room and returned back to the dining room, causing the fashionista's humming to come to a halt and for the nerd to continue what he had been saying previously, but in a little bit more of a hushed tone, "-we have to get her safely on the other side of that pit and find the mask."

"In your version of the dream," Amber started, a smirk plastered on her lips as she turned to face the ex-couple and inquired, "did you two get kissy-kissy?"

Suddenly, it was like the aura that hung above them had completely changed - it had gone from one of panic to one of awkwardness as the former couple began to nervously stutter and blush brightly, averting their eyes anywhere else but each other as they both profusely claimed that they couldn't remember that specific part of the dream and that they were remembering bits and pieces throughout the day - though, it was evident that was a lie and both parts of the ex-couple remembered the kiss in the dream perfectly.

Due to that, Sydney amusedly shook her head, a faint chuckle escaping her lips at the pair of them whilst she continued to pour the cereal that she had told her childhood best friend that she was going to get several minutes ago, briefly sending the pairing a small glance as she bluntly told them, "You're both terrible liars."

"Oh, don't think I've forgotten about what I saw happen with you, Sydney Anderson!" Amber cried out, causing the female prankster's eyes to widen as she knew exactly what was coming - thus, she took her bowl of cereal that she had just poured and began practically running back to the dining room (where they couldn't speak of the dream), causing the fashionista to whisper yell at her roommate, "Hey, don't walk away from me!"

As much as Sydney Anderson would have adored to avoid the fashionista all day in order to avoid talking about what had occurred in the dream between her and her childhood best friend, she unfortunately shared a room with the perky blonde and thus couldn't hide from her or avoid speaking with her for too long, which was exactly why the pair fell into conversation only a few minutes later, when Sydney Anderson swung open the door to her bedroom and saw her roommate throwing numerous masks around the room, which now looked messier than it normally did. Sydney didn't even think that was possible for the room to become messier prior to the fashionista's meltdown, due to the amount of mess that she made simply by herself - yet, there she was, looking at the mess with wide eyes.

"You know, I didn't think that anybody else could make this room messier than I do." Sydney commented as she stood at the door, hesitantly stepping over the mess littered over the bedroom floor and approaching the fashionista, sitting on her bed whilst she continued to watch her throw numerous masquerade masks around different places in the room, until she finally asked "Is there any reason why you're throwing masks around?"

"I'm trying to find a mask for Alfie." Amber frustratedly huffed - she had clearly been looking through the masks for a while due to the state of the bedroom, and the prankster assumed that the bubbly fashion-loving blonde had been throwing around masquerade masks ever since she went upstairs from breakfast about ten minutes ago.

"He already has a-," Sydney started, taking a quick pause as she hastily dodged a mask that had been thrown towards her and almost hit her in the face, "-mask."

"Yes, a zombie mask that is green. Is my dress green? No!" Amber complained angrily, taking out another three masks before throwing them to various places in the room and releasing a loud groan as she practically yelled out, "Why are there no nice masks?!"

"You know, if Nina saw how messy this room was right now, I think she'd burst out into tears." Sydney hummed, glancing around the bedroom to further observe the mess before her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, noticing that their roommate's bag had disappeared, and thus she quizzed her fellow blonde, "Where is she, anyways?"

"She went to the school early with Fabian, I think." Amber revealed with a nonchalant shrug, and a different topic seemed to be good for the blonde as it calmed her down slightly, causing her to soon let go of the masks that were in her hands and then turn to face her roommate briefly, inquiring, "You saw them get kissy-kissy too, right?"

"Oh, definitely." Sydney answered with a confident nod - she had remembered seeing the cute scene between the ex-couple when she had been spun around by her childhood best friend - though, she wasn't going to mention the latter part to the fashionista, so she instead continued to talk about Nina and Fabian, "They remember it too, they just don't want to admit it in front of one another. Do you think it'll actually happen tonight?"

"I don't know." Amber muttered unsurely - on one hand, they wanted the kiss to happen between the pair as they were adorable and most certainly loved one another, but then again, they didn't want the dream to come true and that meant the kiss unfortunately shouldn't come true either just to make sure that their best friend wouldn't go falling down a chasm, "What about you and Jerome, huh?"

"Just friends."

"That doesn't explain why you two got so close in the dream - it looked like you were about to get kissy-kissy like Nina and Fabian." Amber continued to press on, sending a stern look towards the girl so that she'd reveal the truth before she eventually stood up from her place among all the masquerade masks and sat beside the prankster, asking, "Come on, spill - how do you truly feel about Mr Jerome Clarke?"

"Why does everyone keep asking me this?" Sydney responded with her own question, truly being curious as to why everyone always asked her what her relationship was with her childhood best friend - yesterday, she had been asked by the new boy, who apparently was able to see something that she couldn't despite only being at Anubis House for a few days.

"Because, it's clear that there's something between you two." Amber answered in a whiny-tone - she was rather fed up with how the pair couldn't see their connection and how loved up they both were, and both of those things only seemed to increase with time and that made watching them constantly flirt with one another every single day even more intolerable yet it was still somehow adorable, "I didn't think it could get more obvious than it already was, but this year the romantic tension between you two is ridiculous. Can you please just put us all out of our misery and date already?"

"We're friends, Amber." Sydney repeated with a dramatised, yet still very much frustrated, eye roll - she was almost certain that if she gained one pence for every time she had to say a variance of that phrase, she'd already be a millionaire.

Trying to gather the truth out of the girl (because everybody knew that Jerome Clarke and Sydney Anderson being 'just friends' was far from the truth, they just wanted the pair to admit it), Amber put her hand atop of her roommate's and instructed, "Look me in the eyes and tell me that you haven't felt weird around him this term."

Within seconds, Sydney had stood up from the bed and had gathered up her belongings in a record-breaking speed, sending a small wave over her shoulder as she left the bedroom, "See you later, Amber."

"Sydney! You can't run from this forever, you know!"

Oh, but she sure could try, and that was exactly what she did and exactly why she soon arrived at the Frobisher Library, where everyone was trying to help to set up the opening of the exhibition - one of those people was Trudy Rehmann, who was making her way out of the library as Sydney Anderson was coming in, but the prankster couldn't contain herself as she saw the ex-housemother and wrapped her arms around her, "Trudy!"

"Sydney, sweetie!" Trudy chuckled at the love she received from the Anubis House resident, pulling away from the hug to look at the student as she spoke, telling the girl, "It's good to see you, lovely. How are things back at Anubis House?"

"It's okay." Sydney informed her genuinely, before leaning closer to the woman and whispering to her, "Don't tell Vera that I said this, but you're still the best housemother."

Once again, the ex-housemother let out a small chuckle and amusedly shook her head at the prankster, telling her that she had to go and bake a cake for the exhibition opening tonight before she left the library. In all honesty, Trudy Rehmann and Sydney Anderson had a very special friendship, and the female prankster was arguably one of the closest residents to the ex-housemother, after the student had constantly helped the older woman set out all the food for most meals - Trudy Rehmann truly was a second mother to Sydney Anderson, and that was something that Vera Devenish couldn't have ever achieved.

However, before the prankster was able to ponder for too long about her relations with the two housemothers, she had soon set her eyes on her two best friends, Jerome Clarke and Alfie Lewis, and approached them whilst the former of the pair questioned the other, "How's it going with Amber?"

"Really good." Alfie answered, though he seemed to be lying and putting a rather fake yet humongous grin on his lips as he continued to tell them, "Really, really good!"

"I've been looking for you." Amber Millington spoke, announcing her presence to the group - more specifically, to her boyfriend - before she then turned to face the roommate who had ran away from their prior conversation and continued to speak to her, "And you - did you not see me chasing after you all the way from Anubis House?"

"Oh, I saw you." Sydney answered honestly, "I just ignored you."

"Rude." Amber responded, causing the prankster to shrug before the fashionista turned back to face her boyfriend - the person who she had initially intended to speak to - and informed him, "Anyways, Alfie, I've chosen a selection of alternative masks for you to choose from for the ball - all compliment your bone structure and my outfit."

"Yay!" Alfie cheered, though the excitement seemed extremely fake and soon proved to be when a look of fear and stress appeared on his face once the fashionista had turned and walked away from the trio of pranksters, yet the boy still followed her.

"He seems thrilled." Sydney sarcastically commented, shaking her head at the pairing - she knew that her roommate loved appearances and always looking perfect, but the prankster didn't understand why Alfie couldn't wear what he wanted to wear.

"Yeah..." Jerome replied, though he trailed off and seemed to be paying attention elsewhere, and that caused his childhood best friend to look in the direction his eyes went to in order to see that he was paying attention to his younger sister and Mara Jaffray, who seemed to be in some sort of conversation in the corner of the library - only a few seconds later did the blonde pairing make their way over there, hearing the last part of their conversation and causing Jerome to chime in with, "Can't wait that long for what?"

"Uh, for..." Poppy Clarke started nervously, trying to hurriedly think of an excuse to provide her brother and the girl beside him - fortunately for her, Mara soon stepped in.

"For big hair to come back." Mara finished, causing the blonde pairing to look at one another in confusion, not knowing why a conversation about big hair would have started - yet, the nerd still continued, "I told her it's cyclical."

Yeah... something was wrong.

Speaking of something being wrong, about half an hour later there was something else wrong as the members of the secret group all remained inside the drama studio (that was also being set up for the masquerade ball) and the thing that was wrong was that the group had yet to practice hopscotch that day and were waiting on the nerd of their group in order to do so, hence why Amber Millington soon inquired, "Where's Fabian? We need hopscotch practice."

At that, Nina Martin rolled her eyes, clearly sick of the lack of commitment towards the group that the boy was showing as she informed the blonde pairing, "He's kind of busy with his 'study buddy'."

"Oh, the quotation marks are out - this is really getting bad, huh?" Sydney mumbled, referring to how the American had used mimicked quotation marks when she had spoken the words 'study buddy' - in fairness, everybody knew that Fabian Rutter being Joy Mercer's 'study buddy' was just an excuse the latter had made in order to spend more time with him.

Apparently, Nina Martin wasn't the only person sick of the situation, as Amber Millington soon decided that enough was enough, tugging the two other girls in the secret group along with her as she approached Joy, telling her, "Joy, we're taking Fabian."

In order to take the nerd away from the girl, Amber had let go of the female prankster's arm that she had previously grabbed, and used her now free hand to grab Fabian's arm to pull him away - yet, as she did that, Joy had hurriedly grabbed the nerd's other arm, practically hugging it, and protested profusely, "Wha- no, no, no, no, no, no, I need him - t-t-the smoke machine's not working; we've got no smoke."

At that, Sydney's eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she inquired, "Why do we need smoke?"

"Exactly," Amber agreed with a nod in the prankster's direction, before she turned back to face Joy and continued, not taking 'no' for an answer as she declared, "and sorry, but this is far more important."

Although, Joy Mercer was still determined to keep Fabian Rutter beside her - her grip on his arm was quite tight as the two girls treated him like he was the rope in a game of 'tug of war', and she asked, "What's more important?"

"That we're playing hopscotch." Amber stated honestly, before she used a majority of her strength for one last time to finally pull the boy away from the girl and to take him away so that they were able to practice hopscotch for the night ahead of them.

However, before they left the room, a few people (aka, Edison Miller) had something to say about the revelation, "Dude, you play hopscotch?"

Taking one last glance back towards his new roommate, Fabian stuttered, "I-I-I guess so."

Yes, Fabian Rutter most certainly did play hopscotch, alongside the other three members of the secret group who all soon found themselves back at Anubis House, ready to use the tiles in the entrance hall as their pretend hopscotch grid - they had to make sure they were ready for that night, as they had to complete all the tasks as soon as possible to find the mask quickly; Nina's and Fabian's lives were at stake, and they most certainly did not want to mess up and have the ceiling fall down on them again.

So, that's what led to the fashionista of their group perfectly skipping across the mock grid, and within a few seconds she found herself on the other side and having made it safely, sending them a wide grin upon doing so as she asked those on the other side, "Was that okay? I was a little shaky on cow through dog."

"It was perfect." Sydney complimented her, all of them being rather amazed at the fashionista's astounding hopscotch skills - she truly was the champion of the child's game - though, it was soon the female prankster's turn, with her being motioned to go by the other members, which was what led to her stepping forward and then perfectly skipping through the tiles, not making a single error as she recited, "Moo, baa, woof, quack, meow."

"Ten out of ten!" Amber declared once the prankster had reached the other side, the two celebrating with a high five before they turned back to the people on the other side of the grid, "Nina, your turn."

With that being said, Nina soon began to hopscotch her way across the grid, doing seemingly quite well until she inquired towards her ex-boyfriend/crush, "Do you really care what Joy thinks anyway?"

"Yeah." Fabian answered without really thinking, though once he noticed that the girl had slipped up on the hopscotch and then halted completely due to it, her face clearly distraught at the revelation, he had realised his error and quickly went to backtrack, "I mean, no."

"Quack, Nina, quack!" Amber yelled out, trying to help the girl and correct the many errors she had suddenly begun to make, "Dog, not sheep!"

"I'm sorry." Nina apologised, seeming to snap out of her thoughts and realise that they were in the middle of a practice for their next task as she shook her head, telling them, "I'll get it right on the night."

As she reached the other side of the grid finally, Sydney placed a comforting hand on her shoulder in an attempt to console her, knowing that what her crush had said upset her quite a bit - that had been the reason why she had messed up the hopscotch. Though, soon enough, it was Fabian Rutter's turn to complete the hopscotch, so he had the piece of paper with the sequence written on it in his hands, and took one last glance at it before he began to hesitantly hop on the grid, following the sequence and only stumbling a little bit before he finally made it to the other side without completely messing up.

"I got it!" Fabian cheered gleefully, a wide smile on his lips, "I think I might be-."

"-a little girl." Jerome Clarke finished, announcing his presence (alongside Alfie Lewis', who was behind him) to the group of four, as the best friends and roommates wondered why the four were playing hopscotch and why their mutual best friend, Sydney Anderson, was involved in it - of course, they knew that she had become much closer to Amber Millington, Nina Martin, and Fabian Rutter after last term, but they had never expected her (or any of them) to play hopscotch in Anubis House.

"Oh, don't pretend like you didn't play hopscotch with me when we were younger, Jerome." Sydney responded, glancing over at the boy with a challenging look in her eyes - if he wanted to tease them for playing hopscotch, then she'd tease him back; he was very much aware of that.

"I thought we were never to speak of that." Jerome mumbled, shaking his head at the group whilst him and Alfie walked past them, soon leaving their conversation and being out of hearing-range as they entered their own bedroom.

Thus, Amber Millington turned to face the other three members of the secret group, a smile plastered upon her lips as she announced confidently, "We're ready."

"Okay, let's do this," Fabian agreed with a nod himself, though he soon added with a faint laugh, "before I lose any more street cred."

"Oh, Fabian, like you have any to lose."

At the fashionista's statement, Sydney burst out into laughter and nodded in agreement with it, declaring once she had calmed down a little, "She's right."

"Why are you still here?" Victor Rodenmaar's voice sounded out, causing them to look over and see him descending the staircase of Anubis House whilst dressed for the opening of the exhibition in a formal black and white tuxedo, telling them, "The opening to the exhibition will begin in fifteen minutes, and you still must change. Come along, please."

Becoming frantic at the reminder, Amber let out a piercing screech and began to run up the stairs, tugging the female prankster along with her as the fashionista had already agreed and wanted to do Sydney's makeup and hair for the night, like she typically did for the parties that happened at the school. Due to that, Sydney Anderson had not heard their housekeeper announce that there was mail for Jerome Clarke and Poppy Clarke, and had not been there to witness Mara Jaffray's suspicious behaviour - she was completely unaware that the younger Clarke had written to her father, who was in prison, and that Jerome Clarke was also completely unaware of it.

Due to being completely unaware of the situation happening, Sydney's mind was instead focused on looking as good as she was possibly able to for the opening of the exhibition and the masquerade ball, and she was able to achieve that with the help of Amber Millington. Of course, the outfit was already completely decided - a gorgeous (and somewhat tight-fitting) mainly black, sparkling dress - though, some of the sparkles that adorned the dress were coloured red and purple, which truly made it stand out and twinkle different colours, especially underneath the light; it was safe to say that a lot of attention was going to be drawn to Sydney Anderson that night. Her mask, selected by Jerome Clarke with the help of Amber Millington, covered only her eyes and was coloured mainly golden, with a few extra detailing on the mask being black and then having a red and purple (fake) flower attached near the edge, meaning that it matched perfectly with her dress. There was also the addition of a purple gem in the middle. Her shoes (unfortunately being heels) matched with her dress, being black and sparkly. Due to there being a lot of sparkles in her look, Amber Millington had decided to be a little bit more casual with the hair and makeup, simply doing the prankster's hair in very loose curls and keeping her makeup fairly natural. Once she had been spun around to face the mirror, Sydney had to admit that she looked gorgeous.

Then, she helped both Nina Martin and Amber Millington get ready, with the latter being a lot more frantic. The American had practically gotten ready within a few minutes without much help, though the fashionista insisted on perfection - in the end, they both looked great. Whilst Amber Millington had opted for quite a simple dress, it being coloured peach and looking absolutely flawless on her, Nina Martin had instead opted for a very original kind of dress that honestly seemed to be one of a kind; it had many different colours splashed over it - pink, blue, red, black, white - and it looked amazing on her. Both of them had also gone quite simplistic in terms of hair styling, with Nina tying hers up into a wavy high ponytail and Amber keeping a majority of her hair down and wavy but pinning back some of it.

The three of them looked absolutely stunning in their outfits, though... that couldn't have been said for absolutely everyone and that soon became clear when the three roommates stepped into the library, where the exhibition opening was being held, and within seconds Amber Millington had worriedly questioned, "Sydney, what is your boyfriend dressed as?"

"For a starter, he's not my boyfriend. Secondly, what do you mean-?" Sydney Anderson responded, though she cut her response short when she turned around and saw her childhood best friend dressed in a mummy costume, and she instantly burst out laughing, "Oh, that has made my day."

"I made him order a tux that matched with your dress. Why is he not wearing it?" Amber frustratedly inquired, seeming extremely panicked over the rather funny situation due to it not going as she had planned and also being a complete fashion failure.

"Who cares? This is hilarious!" Sydney laughed, the grin on her lips extremely wide at the sight of the boy she lov... liked dressed up in such a funny way.

"Was it just me who noticed that Sydney already knew who Amber was talking about, despite her calling him her 'boyfriend'?" Nina questioned, a teasing tone dripping off her tongue as she did so, whilst both her and the fashionista of the three sent each other a knowing look - it was only a matter of time before the pair of blondes admitted their feelings for one another.

"Oh, shut it." Sydney dismissed the pair of them, playfully hitting the American's arm before she turned around to face the man dressed up as a mummy, calling out to him, "Jerome!"

Upon hearing his name, he instantly spun around and was seconds away from calling out something in return until he laid his blue and bright eyes on the girl. At that point, whatever he was going to say had been completely wiped from his memory, with no trace of it left, and he was fully aware of the look of shock that was on his face - his cheeks were red (he could tell from the heat that he suddenly felt covering his cheeks), his eyes were wide, clouded over with infatuation and a hint of surprise, and his jaw was slightly dropped - but he really could not help it; he really couldn't deny (nor would he ever deny) that she looked gorgeous, stunning, beautiful, beyond words.

Honestly, Sydney Anderson had been so entranced by the boy's reaction (and he had been so entranced by just... her) that neither of them had noticed that her roommates had left a few moments prior, mumbling something about giving the lovebirds some alone time, yet the female prankster soon snapped into reality and noticed the shocked look on the boy's face, and that caused her to speak, "Woah, you okay? You look like you're in shock - did you see a mummy?"

"Haha." Jerome responded plainly, her voice having snapped him out of his daze - though, he almost felt himself falling back into it as he looked her over once more, but he had (only just) managed to stop himself, which led to him trying to ignore his weird heart rate that had suddenly grown much faster as he actually managed to get out a sentence, commenting honestly, "You look... really pretty - beyond words, even."

"I try to." Sydney easily responded, brushing her hands over her sparkling dress as she nervously looked up at him, a fond smile covering her lips as she set her gaze on him - wait... why was she nervous?

She wasn't the only person with a fond smile on her lips, as the same exact smile was mirrored on the face of the male prankster whilst he shook his head at her, telling her truthfully, "You don't need to try."

At that, Sydney let out a faint giggle, amusedly shaking her head before she responded without exactly thinking much, thus letting her thoughts just fly out of her mouth as she said, "I cannot believe we're flirting whilst you're in a mummy costume."

For a second, Jerome was taken aback, the surprise at her words evident on his face before he blinked a few times, then seeming like he... enjoyed... the idea of them flirting as he acted casually, his eyebrow quirking up as he asked, "Oh, we're flirting now?"

And, whilst the male prankster had simply gone along with it, Sydney Anderson panicked and instantly took back what she said, shaking her head as she declared, "What? I never said that."

Confused, though slightly amused, Jerome stuck by the comment that the pair of them were flirting and argued against her, reminding her, "You just did."

"No, I didn't." Sydney protested, vehemently shaking her head as she denied the (very true) accusations.

Though, no matter how much she denied it, the male prankster was fairly adamant on what he had heard and thus stated, "I'm pretty sure that you just did."

"I don't recall - it was too long ago."

"It was five seconds ago."

"Too long." Sydney responded, and before Jerome was able to protest, the blushing girl had decided to hurriedly change the topic and thus had already lifted up her camera that had been wrapped around her neck so it was facing his way, and she announced, "Say cheese."

"I-." He began, though cut himself off when the flash of the camera hit his eyes, and as the girl lifted the camera down, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he quizzed, "Are we going to talk about that?"

"Nope, see you!"

And, before another word was able to be said between them, Sydney Anderson had already practically ran away from the boy dressed as a mummy, her focus then turning to taking pictures of the exhibition as she walked around it alongside Nina Martin and Amber Millington, who she had re-joined. Due to their recently changing and developing feelings for one another, both of their heads were already messes... yet, it suddenly felt a lot more messier for the pair of them as they noticed that their eyes kept being drawn to one another the entire time, and their faces erupted with huge blushes whenever they caught the other looking.

Something had changed.

Whilst something had changed for Sydney Anderson, a lot of her opinions remained the same - one of those opinions consisted of how much she disliked Robert Frobisher-Smythe for the many death traps that he had installed underneath the house that they lived in, which was exactly why she had tuned out a majority of the speech that Jasper Choudhary gave later on, and she had only began paying attention near the end of his extensively long and extremely boring speech, "Complementing this grand estate's history as the original home of two of this country's premier Egyptologists, the Frobisher-Smythes."

"Yeah, I still don't like the guy." Sydney Anderson declared, her tone barely a mutter as she stood beside Amber Millington (that being the person who she had been talking to) whilst she continued to take pictures of the exhibition with her camera.

"I now invite my esteemed colleague, Mr Gustav Ziestack, to cut the ribbon." Jasper continued, motioning towards the man himself and then towards the red ribbon that was tied to the railings of the library's second floor.

"I hereby declare the Treasures of Egypt exhibition officially open." Gustav Ziestack announced, cutting the ribbon whilst the room fell into applause.

After taking a few more pictures of the shot, Sydney lowered her camera and began to scan through the photos when she was abruptly nudged by the fashionista beside her, causing her to lift her head just in time to see Fabian Rutter step over to Nina Martin, passing her a drink whilst an adoring smile was plastered upon his lips, "You look..."

"I look what?" Nina urged once the boy had trailed off, clearly getting a little bit too nervous to finish his sentence - though, at her encouragement, he managed to finish it as he declared:

"Better than the dream."

At that, both Sydney and Amber had humongous and joyful grins on their faces, both of them frantically yet lightly hitting each other's arms and trying to suppress their sequels at their ship finally coming together once more as they bounced up and down.

"Well, here's hoping I never have to live through anything from that dream." Nina responded, and that caused both of the blondes watching them to immediately stop bouncing and hitting one another, looks of shock and frustration plastered upon their faces, considering that if the American wanted nothing from the dream to occur, that also included the kiss between Nina and Fabian.

So much for their ship coming together.

Although, Nina soon realised her mistake and quickly added, "I mean, the whole falling down the hole-."

Their conversation now being rather awkward due to the mishap, the pair of blondes tuned out, only just hearing the nerd agree with what his ex-girlfriend had said as Amber turned to face Sydney, inquiring, "So, did you ever find out why Jerome is dressed up as a mummy, or did you two just flirt like always?"

"We do not-." Sydney began to protest, but then cut herself off and released a rather heavy sigh, her eyes finding the boy that they were talking about whilst she decided to actually answer the fashionista's question, telling her, "It's probably for money - no, it's definitely for money, actually. Though, do you know why your boyfriend is doing... that?"

And, that caused the fashionista to glance over to where the prankster had pointed, which was towards Jerome Clarke and Alfie Lewis, who were beginning to pass the pair with the latter of them holding the gauze for the mummy costume all around him and lifting parts of it up - as the pairing passed, Amber questioned, "Alfie, what are you doing?"

"And why?" Sydney chimed in.

"I'm winding up Jerome." Alfie stated, the joke making the female prankster chuckle slightly whilst the boy continued, chuckling himself as he added, "Or, you know, unwinding Jerome."

Meanwhile, Amber Millington clearly did not find it funny, not a single look of amusement on her face at the joke - instead, she reminded him with a frown evident on her lips, "You're meant to be my date."

"Oh, bake-off!" Alfie exclaimed happily, letting go of all the gauze and quickly rushing over to where the apparent bake-off was happening, and the revelation of a bake-off happening caused the female prankster's eyes to widen, quickly glancing over to where her friend had rushed off too.

"Bake-off?" Sydney repeated, "Food?"

"Guys, if we want to disarm the hopscotch trap, now's our best chance to slip away." Nina Martin announced as she and her ex-boyfriend approached the blonde pairing, merely seconds before the prankster was about to rush off to the bake-off.

"But, the bake-off..." Sydney groaned, a pout forming on her lips as her eyes, filled with longing for food, glanced over to the cakes that were beginning to be displayed at the bake-off - it was Trudy versus Vera.

"And the ball will be starting soon." Amber whined, clearly reluctant to go down into the tunnels to do the hopscotch so close to the special time.

"Come on." Nina encouraged them, not listening to their complaints about the terrible timing as the pair of them huffed frustratedly - Sydney could not believe she was about to miss two whole cakes in order to complete some hopscotch.

"Okay, let's go." Fabian motioned for them to leave, glancing around to check that nobody was watching.

"Somebody best compensate me in cake afterwards." Sydney muttered, rather annoyed, when the nerd motioned for them all to go upon seeing nobody looking their way, causing the four of them to rush out of the library and back to Anubis House in order to complete the hopscotch task.

And that's exactly why only a few minutes later the four members of the group had found themselves down in the tunnel, amulets around their necks as they faced the grid covered in animal symbols, plus a ceiling that was able to begin falling down on them with a simple wrong step - a small mistake was able to be the end of it all. It was safe to say that it was extremely nerve-wracking, and all of their breaths were shaky as they looked at their next task, knowing that they had to get through it. Sydney Anderson never thought that she'd be a little nervous of a game of hopscotch, especially when she was a teenager, yet here she was quite scared for what was to come.

"Okay, no mistakes, no stopping, and if the ceiling starts coming down, go back and start again - it won't stop 'til we're all across. Remember: don't stop or the ceiling drops." Amber Millington recited all the rules of the task ahead to them, causing all of them to nod in understanding, "For Nina, for the mask," Then, she held up her hand, which held onto her heels that she had taken off in order to be able to do the hopscotch better, and used her heel to cover her eye as she continued, "for Sibuna."

Not even a second after, the remaining three members of the group - Fabian Rutter, Nina Martin, and Sydney Anderson - each put their hand (that did not hold a heel) over their eye, "Sibuna."

And, with that being said, it was time to start the next task - ancient Egyptian hopscotch.

As the member of the secret group that was the best at hopscotch, Amber Millington was the first to take a step forward, having a moment where she took a deep breath to calm herself, before she hopped onto the first time and then continued, flawlessly making her way across as she recited the way that they had remembered the sequence - with animal sounds, "Moo, baa, woof, quack, meow!" And, like that, she had made it to the other side in seconds with a huge grin on her lips, congratulating herself with a, "Self-five!" Which meant that she tapped her heels together before glancing over at the three members of the group on the other side, calling out for the next best member at hopscotch, "Your turn, Sydney!"

"You know, I really did not plan to be doing hopscotch this term." Sydney mumbled, shaking her head at the situations she had managed to get herself in before she decided to focus solely on the hopscotch, taking a breath before she stepped forward, making her first step on the grid which then triggered a series of hops until she had flawlessly made her way to the end, repeating, "Moo, baa, woof, quack, meow - I did it!"

Realising that she had flawlessly made it, she wrapped her arms around the fashionista as the pair of blondes grinned widely, glad that everything was going perfectly and it seemed like there was no way that they were able to go wrong, so they eagerly turned to Nina, encouraging her, "Come on, Nina!"

Following the instructions of her friends, Nina soon began to hopscotch and slip through the grid, and everything seemed to be going so well for them - then, it wasn't. Becoming troubled, Nina paused on one of the tiles, the ceiling rumbling loudly above her and threatening to crush her due to it, and she glanced up at it warily, yet remained stuck.

Hastily, Amber tried to help as she desperately cried out to the American, "Quack, Nina! Quack! Quack!"

"Oh no!" Nina yelled out, her eyes widened with pure fear as the ceiling slowly began to lower once more, "I've done it again!"

In order to help her, Sydney hastily reminded the girl of the next steps, telling her, "Duck! It's a quack!"

"Don't stop! You can't stop, Nina!" Amber reminded their roommate of the rules of the game, though that seemed to make her even more panicked as she informed the two girls worriedly:

"I can't remember!"

"It's duck! Dog, sheep, quack!" Amber recited the next steps to her, allowing her to recall the next steps and finish hopping the grid, eventually reaching them.

Despite her reaching the other side, the ceiling continued to rumble and lower, getting closer and closer towards the ground with every second, causing the group to look at it confusedly before Nina worriedly questioned, "Why is it still coming down?!"

"You have to start again!" Amber informed her, causing the American to rush back underneath the slowly lowering ceiling to the other side in order to start the sequence again, hopefully getting it correct.

Within seconds, she began hopping the sequence once more, the ceiling growing lower and lower.

"Moo, baa, woof, quack, meow!" Sydney and Amber both yelled out the sequence to help her, allowing her to eventually make it back to their side having done the sequence successfully - yet, the ceiling was still falling and Fabian Rutter was still on the other side.

"Okay, come on, Fabian!" Nina urged, watching him through the gap that was slowly becoming smaller.

With her encouragement, the nerd soon began the hopscotch, following the sequence correctly and, for a second, it seemed like they'd be able to complete the task. Then, all hopes of that seemed to be shattered into a million pieces. Fabian had hardly made it halfway before he tripped over a stick that had covered the grid, and that caused him to fall over onto his back, his eyes looking up at the ceiling that was slowly getting closer and closer to crushing him. All that the three girls on the other side were able to do was watch and hope that their friend didn't get killed right in front of them, with them crying out to him desperately in order to encourage him to quickly get up and try the sequence again to get to them.

"Fabian!"

Their screams piercing through the air seemed to snap him out of whatever thought process he was having, as he stood got up and went back to the beginning, starting to skip the hopscotch again until he realised that the ceiling was coming down way too quickly - there was absolutely no way he'd be able to hopscotch it all. So, instead, he dropped down to his hands and knees and crawled underneath it, barely making it to the other side, where the girls hastily dragged him up before the ceiling crushed him.

"You've done it!"

"Yes!" Amber squealed gleefully once the ceiling began to lift once more, the fashionista turning back to it and declaring, "You lose, Mr Ceiling!"

"Loser!" Sydney joined in, her and the fashionista joyfully high-giving one another with wide grins spread across their lips.

"I thought we were gonna lose you." Nina revealed to the boy, the pair of them being rather close whilst the two blondes watched from the sidelines.

A smile coating his lips, the nerd shook his head and responded breathily with, "Not a chance."

After a few more seconds of loved-up silence between the pairing, the blondes finally broke in and split it up, with the fashionista announcing, "I'm impressed."

"I messed up." Fabian reminded her, confused at why she was so impressed when he tripped and almost died due to the ceiling almost falling on him.

However, that wasn't what the fashionista meant, and she soon clarified that - instead, Amber had meant, "No, I mean, I had no idea you could do push-ups."

Letting out a faint giggle at the girl's comment, Sydney nodded in agreement and clapped the boy proudly on his shoulder as she complimented him (partially), "Not bad... for a nerd."

Having passed the hopscotch task, there was only one more thing left to do for them: try to figure out how to get past the humongous chasm. So, that was their next destination, with the group soon coming around the corner and being faced with the extremely long way down into darkness that seemed to have no way past it, which was something that the group required.

As they gazed into it, they turned back upon noticed Nina Martin looking around the area worriedly, causing them all to concernedly ask her what was wrong, so she turned back to them and revealed, "Uh, nothing - nothing, thankfully. I'm just... I'm terrified that dream is going to come true."

"It's not going to." Sydney sternly said, vehemently shaking her head - there was no way that any of them were going to let the spirit push their best friend down the chasm; that was one part of the dream they most certainly weren't letting become true.

At that, Fabian nodded in agreement, putting a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder as he told her, "Sydney's right."

"Oh, I am?" Sydney asked, a teasing tone to her voice whilst her eyebrow quirked up - it wasn't everyday that she was told that she was right by the nerd of the group, and yes, she'd most certainly revel in it.

"For once." Fabian muttered, playfully rolling his eyes at her before he turned back to face his ex-girlfriend and became serious, quickly assuring her, "Look, it won't come true while we're with you. You were alone in the dream, right?"

Realising that the boy was right and that nothing was going to happen whilst the rest of the group were with her, she let out a small sigh of relief and felt a little bit better when she nodded in agreement to his assuring words, though she still felt worried when she glanced over at the large chasm that seemed to have not a single way over it, which led her to questioning, "How are we ever gonna cross that?"

"Okay, I may hop, but can I just say right now, I don't jump." Amber informed them, though the female prankster was almost certain that literally nobody in the entire world was able to jump over a gap so large simply by themselves - it seemed impossible.

"No way, no jumping." Fabian dismissed the idea instantly, knowing that they'd all probably fall a long way down if they even attempted it, so he began to think of another way to get across, telling them, "There must be some way to get across." Then, his eyes caught sight of something that he soon pointed towards - it was across the chasm and caused him to curiously question, "What's that?"

Following where his finger was pointing to, they glanced over to the other side of the chasm to notice what appeared to be a ledge, and it caused Nina to say, "It looks like something goes over there."

"Like what?" Sydney wondered, whilst the American looked around at the walls surrounding them, trying to see if there was anything that they'd be able to use to be some sort of bridge.

"I don't know, but it must be in the house somewhere." Fabian informed them, starting to step forward to see how stable the ledge was - they also had one on their side, which they were testing - so, Amber and Sydney held onto his arm, making sure that he didn't fall and they were able to pull him back if the ledge wasn't stable enough, and they watched concernedly as he set one foot on the ledge...

...It was stable.

Glad that he didn't fall but not wanting to jinx it, they hastily pulled him back off the ledge and to safety - however, when doing so, Amber took a look at the watch that was on the nerd's wrist, "People, look at the time! The mask will have to wait - I've still got mine and Alfie's mask to worry about."

"I'm telling you now, he's going to wear the zombie mask." Sydney declared to her fellow blonde, knowing exactly what her best friend was like - he may have had a gigantic crush on the fashionista and wanted to do absolutely anything that he could in order to please her, but he was also still Alfie Lewis, so he was going to wear the zombie mask.

"Well, I need more time to fix that then! We have to go, now!" Amber pressed on, becoming more frantic as they continued to spend more time in the tunnels.

"But, we're finally getting somewhere." Fabian countered, wanting to get past the next task and find the Mask of Anubis to get rid of the curse placed upon them and the weird spirit lady as fast as possible.

"Exactly." Nina pointed out, using his own statement against him, "We're finally getting somewhere - I think we could all use a little downtime."

Although, Fabian was still quite unsure about ditching the tasks so soon when they were doing quite well at figuring things out, and thus still went to protest, "But, the dream-."

"Look, as long as we don't do anything we did in the dream, everything will be fine." Nina reminded him, and the female prankster nodded in agreement alongside her as she was certain that none of them would let the dream become true.

Thus, she was completely fine to go to the ball, and instructed the nerd, "Don't be such a party-pooper."

"Yeah, relax, Fabian." Amber told him, placing her hands on the shoulders of her two roommates as she continued, telling the man, "We'll have fun - you can spend the time thinking where to find the bridge."

And, before he was able to protest anymore, the fashionista had already begun leading the two other girls out of the tunnels, leaving the nerd no other choice but to follow them out, before they all made their way over to the school for the masquerade ball. Amber Millington, of course, expected for everything to go delightfully, but that dream had soon smashed into smithereens as soon as they entered the school and saw Alfie Lewis wearing the zombie mask that she hadn't wanted him to, and he was acting like a monster in the process. Sydney Anderson, through her giggles, couldn't help but to state:

"I told you so."

The statement seemed to snap the fashionista out of her shocked state (and she truly had been shocked, with her jaw dropped at the sight) and she hastily stormed up to her boyfriend-turned-monster, frustratedly reminding him of their agreement, "We agreed you wouldn't wear a Frankenstein mask."

Realising exactly what the boy had done, Sydney let out a chuckle and shook her head the fashionista, telling her, "Oh, Amber, there was your mistake."

Confused, the fashionista soon asked, "What do you mean? I told him not to wear a Frankenstein mask!"

"I know, I didn't." Alfie informed her, removing the mask from his head to show a smirk on his lips before he revealed to the girl in a matter-of-fact tone, "Frankenstein was the scientist, not the monster."

"What?"

"That was your mistake." Sydney pointed out to the girl, letting out a chuckle as she approached her best friend and high-fived him for his genius in tricking the girl, congratulating him, "Well done, dude!"

"Sydney!" Amber whined, not happy that her roommate was siding with the boy and thus causing the prankster to hold her hands up in surrender - yet, Amber still turned to the other two people in the group (Fabian and Nina, who had been giggling but hadn't said anything yet) and complained to them, "See what I'm up against? This is why we have to get a move on." Then, her eyes lowered and noticed his red shoes, which most certainly didn't match with the mask on his face and thus caused the fashionista to cry out, "Look at this! They're not even green!"

"Amber, these sneakers cost more than the suit."

"Really? Okay, look, now we have to find you a red mask." Amber decided, grabbing his arm and pulling him with her, thus causing the boy to reach out to the three other students with his free hand, mouthing 'help me' at them desperately before they both disappeared through the red curtains.

Only a few seconds later did Sydney Anderson follow the couple, going ahead of Nina and Fabian who had stayed in the corridor for a few more moments - however, when the female prankster had pushed through the curtains, she had found them to be rather irritating and her eyes soon landed on Joy Mercer - the person who had decided on having curtains there - and thus she inquired, "Why are they there?"

"Dramatic entrance." Joy answered, a smile gracing her lips as she did so - it was clear that she was very proud of what she had done for the ball, and the prankster had to admit that it did look stunning.

However, at the answer, the prankster took another glance back over at the red curtains before she shook her head and stated, "It doesn't feel very dramatic."

"I have to agree." Jerome spoke up, announcing his presence to the pair and instantly wrapping his arms around the female prankster's waist from behind, resting his head on her shoulder as she turned to face him, a grin on her lips at the sight of him.

However, she then noticed that he wasn't covered in gauze and bandages and that the mummy outfit had obviously taken its leave - she couldn't particularly see much, due to him being behind her and having his arms wrapped around her, so that didn't allow her to move and refused her permission to see him and his outfit completely. However, she was able to notice that the colours of his suit most certainly matched with her dress/mask, being black, purple, and red.

"Oh, you're out of the mummy outfit - that's a shame." Sydney pointed out, a faint giggle leaving her lips as he rolled his eyes at her comment - however, her giggle was cut short when she noticed something, her eyes cutting over to the dress that Joy was wearing that soon caused her to cautiously speak up, "Speaking of outfits..."

Before the girl was able to finish her sentence, the sound of people coming through the curtains caught their attention and caused them to glance over, seeing Nina Martin and Fabian Rutter make their way into the room, though they soon came to a halt and had widened eyes upon seeing what the female prankster had been literal seconds away from pointing out to Joy Mercer before they had come through

Joy Mercer and Nina Martin, who were basically rivals, were both wearing the exact same dress - perhaps it wasn't so much of a 'one of a kind' like Sydney Anderson had initially thought, afterall.

Pointing between the two identical dresses awkwardly, Sydney Anderson quietly revealed to the girl that she had been previously speaking to before the bombshell had entered (quite literally), "...yeah, that was what I was going to point out."

The voice of the female prankster seemed to snap Joy out of her shock, as she soon spun around to face the boy who had sold her the dress - of course, none other than Jerome Clarke, "Are you kidding me? Jerome, you said this dress was one of a kind."

"He told me the same thing." Nina agreed, the two girls looking over at him for some sort of explanation.

"Okay, see, now it's dramatic." Jerome responded, evidently amused by the situation until his arm was hit by his childhood best friend and the girls in identical dresses went to yell at him, causing him to unwrap his arms from around his childhood best friend, stepping forward and quickly intercepting their complaints with, "Girls, girls, I can explain! But, before I do, I have to..."

He bolted it out of the door.

"Jerome!" Both Nina and Joy called out for the male prankster, their tone laced with frustration as they yelled out for him an additional time upon him not returning at their first call - their last hope was behind them, and caused the pair of them to turn to face his childhood best friend, who rolled her eyes.

However, she still followed the orders that she had been given (they had given her a look which had begged her for help), so she soon yelled out to the boy, "Jerome, come back here!"

Within seconds of her call for him, he had popped his head back around the frame of the door and began awkwardly and sheepishly stepping towards the group once more, telling them, "I can explain, but before I do, may I please introduce Mrs Andrews."

As though it wasn't bad enough that the male prankster had given the exact same dress to the two girls who were competing for the same boy, it turned out that he had also sold one to their English/French teacher, who had stepped into the room wearing the exact same dress as both Nina Martin and Joy Mercer. The smile that had been on her lips when she first entered the room had soon vanished completely when she noticed that the 'one of a kind' dress that she had been sold was far from being 'one of a kind', and it seemed like the other two girls who wore the same dress had become even less impressed at the revelation.

"Jerome!"

Abruptly, the sound of boisterous rock music filled the room and blasted out from the many speakers within the room, causing everyone to confusedly snap their heads around to face the stage. That was where they all set their eyes on a rock band standing upon the stage, even though everyone was almost certain that there was meant to be a classical quintet on the stage instead. So far, the masquerade ball was a disaster and it had only just begun... perhaps they should have stayed in the tunnels and tried to figure out how to get over the chasm afterall.

Victor Rodenmaar was clearly not a fan of rock music, as he soon stormed onto the stage and pulled a lever that was on the wall, instantly shutting off the loud rock music as well as the lights, thus causing the room to fall into a deep darkness where nobody was able to see anything for a few seconds until the lights flickered on once more, filling the room with brightness and allowing people to see once more.

"Yeah, I feel the dramatics now." Sydney mumbled, her words being meant for her childhood best friend A however, as she finished her sentence, she noticed that the boy wasn't even there and that, amidst the darkness, he had disappeared, "Are you-."

Within seconds, Joy stormed up to the person who knew the vanishing boy the most and had been beside him before he had ran in the dark, crossing her arms as she inquired, "Where's he gone?"

"Probably to hide." Sydney bluntly responded, considering that she hadn't even known that the boy had disappeared until everyone else noticed, and thus she had no clue where he was - yet, Joy apparently thought that the prankster had some sort of built-in night-vision, as she soon asked:

"Yes, but where?"

"The whole point of hiding is that people don't know where you are." Sydney pointed out to the girl, her eyebrows furrowed - the blonde didn't understand why Joy thought that she knew where the male prankster was, despite her clearly not having seen him run away in the darkness herself.

"Aren't you two soulmates or something? Can't you, like, sense where he is?" Joy quizzed with a roll of her eyes, and the questions almost made the blonde begin hysterically laughing, though she managed to stay composed enough to make a response.

"What sort of rom-coms have you been watching recently?" Sydney responded, causing the girl to release a frustrated huff before she stormed away, clearly intending to find the boy who had sold her the same dress as her teacher and rival - it was only a few seconds later when the female prankster had unintentionally found her childhood best friend, as she had glanced over at the buffet table and had noticed Mara (who was beside it) glancing down at something/someone and clearly having a conversation about something that appeared to be a letter in her purse, and that led to the blonde-haired female approaching the table with a faint chuckle, muttering to the boy, "Clarke, oh, Clarke - you may be sneaky, but not sneaky enough to hide from me."

"I wasn't hiding from you, I was hiding from- ah!" Jerome quickly hid himself under the table once more once he noticed that the two girls who he had sold identical dresses to had noticed him, though it was too late - they had already seen him and they were most certainly not letting him out of their sights.

That was exactly why the two girls in identical dresses soon approached the table, calling out the boy's name in a similar frustrated tone, "Jerome."

"Yeah, I should have warned you that your hiding place is terrible." Sydney hummed, causing the boy to shoot her a rather small glare as she had delivered that piece of valuable information a little bit late.

"You sold us the same dress." Nina declared, evidently annoyed as both her and the girl in the identical dress stood in very similar positions - apparently, the pair were only getting more and more alike as the seconds ticked by.

"Technically," Jerome started as he stood up from his hiding place, "not the same dress."

"Jerome!"

"I mean, he has a point." Sydney murmured, though her voice was still audible and her statement had caused her to be shot glares that could have killed, forcing the prankster to say, "Okay, I'll be quiet now."

"It's not my fault. I honestly, honestly thought they were different." Jerome continued when the girls in the identical (though, beautiful) dresses turned back to him for an explanation, and he quickly tried to get himself out of the situation by compliments, soon pointing out, "And, by the way, aren't we all ignoring a key point here? The fact is that you both look stunning - don't they both look stunning, Fabian?"

Pointedly, both Nina and Joy turned to look at the nerd, causing his eyes to widen with shock as he didn't want to say anything that'd upset anyone, thus making him stammer as he nervously responded with, "I-I think everything's stunning - everything."

"See?" Jerome spoke, clearly trying to get out of giving the girls their money back due to how beautiful the dresses were on them, regardless of whether or not someone else was wearing the exact same one.

Shaking her head at the boy and his antics, Mara said, "Jerome, you have to give them their money back."

"I agree." Sydney revealed, nodding her head in support of the nerd before she looked towards the boy, trying to encourage him to do the right thing as she reminded him, "Jerome, you just got out of scamming people - don't fall into it again."

At that, Jerome shot his childhood best friend a look - one that she couldn't particularly decipher, though it seemed like she had won when the boy (still quite reluctantly) reached into his pockets and pulled out the money, giving Nina Martin her money back first and enabling the American to walk away alongside Fabian Rutter, before he then put the money in the hands of Joy Mercer, who angrily spat out at him before storming away again, "You ruined my ball."

"Back to square one." Jerome muttered.

"You're a dummy, you know that, right?" Sydney amusedly told him with a slight laugh, shaking her head at him as everyone around them dispersed, and she placed a hand on his arm before she instructed, "Go and give Mrs Andrews her money back, then find me afterwards, kay?"

"Only for you." Jerome grumbled, shaking his head as he turned and began to search for their teacher that was wearing one out of three identical dresses.

"Nah," Sydney responded, causing him to halt in his steps and turn around confusedly, allowing for her to continue as she told him with a wide smile gracing her lips, "You're going to use the excuse that you're only doing it for me, but you know it's the right thing to do deep down - that's why you're doing it."

Not denying it, he simply let out a small huff and turned away, continuing to attempt to find the teacher that he had been instructed to do and thus leaving Sydney Anderson by herself, though she wasn't alone for too long - it was perhaps about five minutes until someone finally approached her.

"Well, don't you look gorgeous?" A familiar voice questioned from behind her, causing her to spin around to face the man, whose face was covered with a sparkling black mask - however, it only covered his face for a few more seconds until he pulled it away from his face, revealing the man underneath to be Damian Cyrus, completed with his signature smirk, "We haven't spoken in a while - missed me?"

"I've been busy."

"Ah, yeah," Damian hummed in understanding, shoving his hands in his pockets whilst he nodded, a small chuckle falling from his lips before he revealed, "I heard about your boy toy's Donkey Day - saw the video of him eating all the carrots too."

At the first part of his sentence, Sydney's eyes had narrowed, and she instantly stated once he had finished talking, "He's not my 'boy toy'."

"Whatever you say." Damian mumbled, subtly rolling his eyes in the process - though, the female prankster had seen it and knew that he was clearly doubtful, and she didn't really want to speak about Jerome anymore if the rebellious boy was going to act in such a manner, so she changed the topic.

"I thought Hathor House didn't come to these events." Sydney stated, recalling when he had come to the bid in order to cheer on Mara Jaffray.

"The last one was entertaining, so I decided to attend another." Damian announced, his eyes drifting over to a group of people on the other side of the room as he continued, informing her yet still being rather vague, "I even brought some of the Hathor House residents with me, but I wouldn't talk with them right now - they're a little... crazy, and rowdy. They're probably going to need help back to the house later, honestly."

Before she was able to question why that was, the sound of her best friend desperately yelling for her came to her attention, and it was only a few seconds later when Alfie Lewis had practically bolted to the side of the prankster, "Sydney, please save me!"

"I'll leave you to it, then, but save me a dance for later, yeah?" Damian spoke, sending a confused and weirded out look towards Alfie's way, but not even waiting for a response from the female prankster about them dancing together before he walked away, the sound of him calling out for the female nerd being the last thing that they heard from him, "Mara!"

Whatever Alfie Lewis needed saving from seemed to be put on hold for a few minutes, as the boy's eyes narrowed in concern as he protectively questioned his friend about the rebellious boy, "Who was that?"

"Dami-."

"Oh, that guy." Alfie cut her off, already having heard lots about the (somewhat) new boy from Hathor House - all of which had caused the jokester to be able to form a negative opinion, "I don't like him."

Instantly, Sydney was already fully aware about where the boy had received all his information from, and she curiously inquired, "What has Jerome said?"

"Enough." Alfie huffed, sending a glare towards the rebellious boy as he laughed with the female nerd of Anubis House, before the jokester turned back to face his female best friend and spoke, "I only want the best for you, and that guy is most certainly not the best. Shall I tell you who is the best for you? Jer-."

"Anyways, why do you need saving this time?" Sydney interrupted him, getting back to the conversation that they were meant to have initially - though, she soon managed to figure out the question herself, "Wait, nevermind. It's Amber, isn't it?"

"You got it." Alfie confirmed, instantly forgetting about the prior topic of conversation at the mention of the girl who had been chasing him around with different masks since the start of the masquerade ball, and he had grown rather sick of it - that was exactly why he had wanted saving and soon asked, "Can you, like, hide me from her?"

"Where, exactly?" Sydney wondered, motioning around to the lack of places to hide around them.

In response, Alfie cried, "I don't know! You're good at sneaking around and I just need a place to hi-."

"Alfred Marmaduke Lewis!"

"-de." He finished his sentence.

"Have fun with that, bud." Sydney murmured, not even wanting to get near the bad side of her fashionista roommate and thus simply patting his shoulder, quickly leaving and making her way to somewhere else - that just so happened to be nearby Edison Miller at the buffet table, and the female prankster had been sat eating cupcakes for a few minutes before she had noticed the rebel eyeing up Patricia Williamson, a smirk instantly falling on Sydney's lips as she commented, "I see it."

Turning his head to face the prankster, Eddie's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "See what, exactly?"

"You and Patricia." Sydney answered bluntly, motioning towards the goth girl of Anubis House as she casually grabbed two cupcakes, handing one to him before asking, "You're into her, right?"

"No." Eddie denied with a small chuckle that seemed kind of nervous and hesitant, like he was lying.

At that, Sydney amusedly rolled her eyes, picking off a bit of her cupcake and throwing it at him as she informed him, "Yeah, whatever - you're making it kind of obvious with your heart eyes, Edison."

"You're one to talk about making heart eyes obvious, Anderson." Eddie retorted, picking off a bit off his own cupcake and throwing it at her to get even, a smug smile coating his lips when the bit of cupcake hit her in the face, before he elaborated on his previous statement and told her, "Perhaps you should look at the way you and Jerry look at each other."

"And, perhaps you should get your eyes checked." Sydney countered, brushing the bits of cupcake off her face as she finished eating hers quickly (she didn't want to waste too much cupcake by throwing it at him), before being genuinely honest towards the boy and telling him, "Anyways, if you are into Patricia, then go for it - I'd say you're quite a good match, just be prepared to get some sort of liquid spilt over you if you do anything that upsets her."

"She does that?" Eddie asked, seeming a little bit amused at slightly surprised at the thought of the purple-haired girl pouring drinks over everyone.

"Twice, last term." Sydney confirmed, remembering that both Nina Martin and Amber Millington had been victims of the wrath of the goth and her drinks.

"Ouch." Eddie winced, "I'll be careful, then."

However, that caused a large smirk to fall on the prankster's face, realising that the boy had somewhat just stated that he was going to try to go for the goth, and she asked, "So, you admit that you like her?"

"I admitted nothing, Anderson." Eddie denied, shaking his head at her before glancing around the room, "Now, don't you have a boyfriend to get to?"

Finding a lot of entertainment in teasing the boy about his potential relationship (and wondering if that's how the Anubis House residents felt when they teased her about her relationships), Sydney shook her head at him with a wide grin on her lips, deciding that she was going to stay and torment him for a few more minutes and thus declaring, "Nope, I don't-."

"Sydney, I need you!" Amber announced, quickly rushing up to the girl and dragging her away from the American boy without the prankster being able to get in a word - well, that ruined all her plans, but she became concerned about her fashionista, who dragged her to the corner of the room as she revealed worriedly and panickily, "I've heard all the same gossip all night, and Alfie refuses to wear any other mask than the stupid zombie one and-."

Cutting her off was the sound of classical music that was being played by the band that had previously been playing the rock music, and it was the exact same song as what they had heard in their dream.

"There's classical music." Amber muttered warily, the pair of blondes sharing a wide-eyed and worried glance with one another as they realised that everything happening exactly as it did in the dream meant only one thing, and they really did not like what it meant, yet someone had to say it and it turned out to be Sydney Anderson, who concluded:

"The dream's coming true."

▲▼▲

[02.07.2020]

NOTE: here is a picture of sydney's mask if you care. i found a picture of google of a mask i liked, and kind of (poorly) edited it to show the colours and stuff. it'd obviously look better than this if it was properly done in the show, but one detail i like is the purple gem. it sort of foreshadows the frobisher gem, and as jerome's dad once said to jerome (about mara in canon, perhaps about sydney in denouement) "she's the real gem".

also, yes, the people from hathor house are drunk (minus damian) but it wouldn't have been explicitly said in a nickelodeon show, so damian doesn't say it either.

the ending scene between sydney and amber mirrors the scene between nina and fabian a little, which i've always loved the idea of doing.

also, can confirm: sydrome realise they like one another in less than fifteen chapters and that's the only specifics you're gonna get from me i'm not telling u exactly when or narrowing that time frame bc i gotta keep y'all on your toes.

i love you!!