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.*･｡. THE UNEXPECTED! .*･｡.
————HOUSE OF SECRETS
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004.
WELCOME TO THE
DARK SIDE.
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   Griffin brushed her teeth twice the next morning.

   All the while, she made sure the bathroom door was open, her eyes glaring up the stairs and at Victor's office, hoping that if her stare was hard enough then he would feel it through the windows.

   It probably didn't do much in the grand scheme of things, but it did make Griffin feel better, somewhat.

    "Thanks, Mick."

    "No problem, G," he shrugged.

   She exited the bathroom, adjusting her tie, and strolled past his stationed position as look out.

   Ever since she could remember, Griffin had been using the boys bathroom in the mornings. The girls bathroom was always a crazy dash to get in before Amber who took her sweet time, and if not an argument starting between the beauty queen and whoever got in the way, then it was Patricia who ran inside while everyone else fought; then she always gave it to Joy. Griffin didn't have any effort to deal with that so early, so she had gotten into the habit of getting up the earliest she could and going down to use the boy's bathroom, while Mick stayed on the avid lookout for Victor or Trudy.

   Mick had been the one to start sneaking her downstairs back in year eight. He said it would make her morning better because they were all done with the boys bathroom by breakfast, and she had to give it to him: it was a good idea — perhaps even the best idea he'd ever had. Griffin just kept her second toothbrush in that bathroom.

   It was genius. Nobody was any the wiser.

Or if they were, they didn't care.

As Mick dipped into the bathroom for his own turn, Griffin got her bag from the stairs and instead threw it on one of the sofas as she passed through to the dining room. Much to her surprise, and to her pleasure, Damien was at breakfast this morning. As were his new best friends, dumb and dumber, which was less enthusing. Her brain told her to take what she could get however, and slipped into her usual seat between Damien and Jerome. As soon as she sat, the three boys stopped giggling and flew apart, shovelling food in their mouths like wild animals. Suspicious.

   Griffin paused, watching them with squinted eyes, wondering what they were all up to but also not caring enough to find out. Her brow arched, "Should I ask? Or am I going to find out what you're up to, some other way? 'Cause I don't wanna end up scrubbing Amber's miserable face again because she looks like she's done the dirty with bloody Shrek,"

"Why'd you think we're up to something?" Alfie asked.

"Because you're you," fair play.

"You have so little faith in us, Griffy." Jerome pouted, speaking through a mouth of his toast and jam; "It's very disturbing."

"Your face is disturbing."

"That hurt."

"Sod off," she scoffed, pushing his face with her hand. Jerome's response was to smack her away and take an obnoxious bite of the toast in his grasp, chewing it like a maniac, and smiling with pride when her nose wrinkled up and she looked away.

"Grow up," Damien chuckled at them.

"It's him!"

"It's her!"

"It's me!" Alfie threw in.

"What?"

"I felt left out," he shrugged, spooning cereal between his lips.

"Of course you did." Damien shook his head, mouth quirked up at the corner as he watched the boy keep on eating. Humming to himself, Damien handed Griffin the milk when she had poured herself a cup of tea and rose a brow; "What happened, last night? The man in the moon could probably hear Victor yelling," he saw her eyes roll and snickered at her classic reaction, "That bad, huh?"

"Patricia was on another Joy rampage," she said.

"Another one?"

"Yeah," Griffin nodded. "Apparently Joy left her a little note on the bathroom mirror."

They snorted.

Griffin frowned, very suspicious.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Wait—" she glared, "Was that you three?!"

"No!"

"Of course, not!"

"You wound me, Griffy!"

"Don't screw with me," the girl scowled. She wasn't remotely convinced by their responses, though she had a feeling she wasn't really supposed to be. As if they wanted to be caught. "Victor told me to go to bed without brushing my teeth because of that! Your little prank made me brush my teeth twice this morning!"

"He didn't let you brush your teeth?"

"He said to use my finger!"

"Ew!"

"Gross!"

"Kinky," Jerome wiggled both eyebrows at her.

"Moron..." Griffin muttered, elbowing him as he went to pick up his orange juice and take a sip. The glass slipped before it met his lips and splashed over the dining table, dribbling past his chin.

"Ugh— Griffin!"

She ignored him and drank her tea, turning back to Damien, a far less amused expression on his face. Griffin ignored it, "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Patricia came in on another Joy rampage before I can even say Joy's dead—"

"I can't believe Joy hasn't called me, yet!"

"Told you."

"Something's definitely happened to her," Patricia moaned in an effort to convince the rest of their housemates who were gradually filing into the dining room and sitting down for breakfast. A groan came from each of them, a chorus of frustration with her constant badgering about Joy's disappearance, and she angrily picked up an array of pastries from Trudy's counter as she marched towards the table. Jerome swiftly snatched two, shoving one into his mouth and placing the other on Griffin's plate. She frowned at him, but wasn't surprised enough to question it. Patricia huffed, "What if—"

"If you bang on about Joy one more time, I'll knock your head right off your shoulders!" Griffin said.

"Yeah— I mean seriously, Patricia!" Jerome agreed, taking a big and angry bite out of his pastry and reaching over to take another one, "You're driving me crazy!"

"Jerome!" Mara scolded, "Some of us are worried about Joy, even if you're not." She turned to Griffin, "And you should know better!"

"Give me a break, Jaffray."

"Did you get a response to that email you sent her, last night?" Amber asked Patricia, hoping to pass over some of the tension. It was no secret that they were all growing tiresome of Patricia, even if Jerome and Griffin were the only ones willing to say it aloud. All of them were getting bored of the drama. Even Mara, whom tried to defend all of Patricia's bizarre behaviour last night. "Anything?"

"No," Patricia sighed.

"It's difficult to know what else we can do," Fabian said.

"Question the newbie!" She argued.

"Who are you? James Bond?" Damien snorted.

"Hilarious."

"Nina has nothing to do with this, Patricia." Ever the parent, it was Fabian who defended Nina's case. "She just has..." he thought on it briefly, "...really bad timing,"

Griffin thought that was the understatement of the century but ultimately stayed silent as she ate her pastry. Eating it in a state of tranquility would have been more ideal, though she supposed that breakfasts in Anubis House were never particularly tranquil, and as of the arrival of Nina and disappearance of Joy, they would almost never stand a chance of being tranquil ever again. She debated the chances of bringing her breakfast to school.

Nah.

"What about last night?"

Everyone raised their brows at Patricia.

"That business with the mirror," she tried to argue her case.

Jerome laughed to himself, finding something particularly funny, meanwhile Damien whistled to himself and went back to his toast before it went cold.

Griffin rolled her eyes and glanced across the table, only to find that Alfie was no longer where he had once been. She scoffed, the smirk on Jerome's face showing her that he had heard it, but made no effort to tell Patricia the truth of the matter, while everyone else exchanged uncertain glances and skeptical stares.

"What?" Patricia asked, "You don't believe me, do you?"

"Yes we do," Amber denied.

"Yeah," Mara agreed, "We really do."

"It's just..." the blonde girl sighed, "Mick saw Alfie hanging out on our corridor, last night."

"Not even Alfie would have the nerve to sneak in the bathroom and do something like that!" Patricia exclaimed, casting her eyes to Jerome and Damien, being that they were rather close to Alfie, just enough to know what he would have been up to.

Jerome blinked.

"Are we talking about the same Alfie?"

"This tall? Cheeky smile? Speaks Alien?" Damien quizzed.

Patricia sighed, heavily.

Fabian shrugged, "So, who do you think did write it then?" His words regained their attention. He didn't believe her, either. "Joy?"

"I— I don't know," she said. "Maybe— maybe Nina wrote it to drive me crazy!"

"You're already crazy," Griffin informed her.

Jerome snorted into his pastry, and Damien nudged her to shut her up. Sometimes Griffin could shout her mouth off without considering how her words could hurt someone. That came with a lack of sympathy for other people, a trait they all knew she had, so they had all grown used to it. But, judging by Patricia's face, they'd still hurt her feelings. Griffin felt a bit bad, but shrugged it off. That was unexpected. Since when did she feel bad for something she had said? It wasn't particularly Griffin-like.

"Where is she, anyway?"

"She got into school early, I think." Fabian explained.

"Oh— so, she's a geek as well as everything else, is she?" Patricia made fun of that idea.

"I think it's probably more about getting away from us," the boy reprimanded, and glanced towards everyone at the table with that disappointed frown— the one he always brought out whenever all his housemates acted awfully, or did something he didn't condone; Fabian Rutter was like living with your father sometimes. "I mean, I think we've hardly been welcoming."

"I know," Mara sighed. "I was thinking that, too."

"Strangely enough, only Griffin was decent to her." Fabian tried to sound shocked but he knew that Griffin was a decent girl on the inside. Somewhere within her, deep down, she had the potential to be kind. She had a heart, it was just frozen over.

Griffin pointed her fork towards him.

"I take offence to that."

"Alright, Edward ScissorHands," Damien pushed the fork down.

"Jerome could do with a haircut," Patricia muttered.

"I heard that."

"Good." She sent him a snarky smile and stood from her chair, four legs squeaking against the floor. "Where's Alfie? I'm going to murder him before biology,"

"Now that, I need to see!" Jerome beamed, jumping up to follow her out of the room. They were both gone in an instant, and their housemates were left to finish their breakfasts and disband, getting sorted for school.

"Still up for town, at lunch?" Damien said.

"Sure," Griffin nodded.

"Great," he smiled. "It's a date."

Before she could say anything, he patted her shoulder and then headed out of the room, meeting up with Mick at the doorway. In the few seconds it took him to leave, Griffin stayed sat, blinking her eyes as she processed what he had said.

   A date? She knew it was just a figure of speech, and that he didn't mean it in that way, but it had her feeling all weird. It made her think of what Mick said to Mara, the night before, and she tried to shake it off.

"G?"

"Hm?" She turned.

"You coming?"

"Yeah," Griffin nodded, leaving her seat and grabbing her bag from the sofa. She frowned at Amber, "Where's the nerd?"

"Probably with Mick," she spoke sourly.

"I would ask..." Griffin analysed her grumpy face, knowing he was actually with Damien, although she wondered what may have happened to bug Amber in the last few minutes. How long had she been sat at that table for? "...but I don't care." She shrugged, giving the girl a light nudge. "Let's go."

————

Apparently Joy wasn't in the school photo, anymore.

Apparently.

Patricia was adamant.

"She's gone! I swear she's gone!"

"Why are you telling me?" Griffin frowned.

"Because... I guess I thought you might believe me," she sighed. It made Griffin's frown deepen, because she didn't think that she'd be Patricia's most trusted housemate, but it admittedly had piqued her interest. Patricia toyed with her bag, "I dunno, forget I said it."

When she turned on her heel and disappeared down the hall, it wasn't like Griffin to try and stop her. So rather, she let her go and closed her locker. Patricia would likely have told everyone else that same story by the time supper came around, so she didn't think all too much about it. Although, as she walked along the corridor and headed to find Damien by his locker, Griffin couldn't help but take a pitstop by the office. She peered around and then walked close to the wall where their school photo was hung and leaned in with her eyes squinted. Griffin took note of every face, rolling her eyes as all she noticed for a moment was the way Jerome'd held up two of his fingers above Alfie's head — how did he get away with that? — but her moment of ponder was pushed aside, and she focused on checking off her mental list of Anubis inhabitants.

Fabian... check. Mara... check. Mick, Amber, Damien, she was next to the three of them. Jerome, Alfie, both accounted for, a grumpy looking Patricia, check, Joy—

Griffin narrowed her eyes.

   Where was Joy?

   She had been there, that day. Griffin knew she had. Joy had been in that photo and standing next to Patricia.

   That morning, Joy had asked her to braid the front of her hair back. Griffin remembered it perfectly because she had groaned as if it was a chore, but she had done it for her anyway.

She thought Patricia was just being paranoid and seeing things, but no— she was right. Joy Mercer was no longer in the photo, so what the hell had happened to it?

    "What're you looking at?"

   Griffin jumped back, hand flying to hold her heart.

She turned, a laugh sounding next to her ear, and immediately scowled at him with a dirty look; "Very funny, Damien. Hilarious,"

    "What's got you so jumpy?" He asked, still chuckling at her. "I don't think I've ever seen you look at a photo for so long," Damien speculated. He leaned over her shoulder and analysed the picture, a soft smile on his lips as he spotted the two of them. "We look so young!" He teased, "Weren't we adorable?"

    "Butter wouldn't melt," she muttered.

    "What's up your arse?"

    "Look at it," Griffin instructed him, which received her an odd look. She rolled her eyes, "Like, really look at it, yeah?" She waited for him to relent and it didn't take much time. Sighing, Damien did as he was told and directed his full attention back on the picture. Griffin waited a second to see if he picked up on it but when Damien's face remained unchanging, she huffed. She pointed a finger at the top right of the photo, to where Patricia stood. "Right there."

    "What am I looking at?" He said. "There's nothing there."

    "Exactly."

    "...wait, what?"

    "That's where Joy was standing," she explained herself simply, "She was stood next to Patricia."

    "Jesus," Damien groaned. "Not you, as well!"

    "She was there," Griffin repeated.

    "What? So, you think Joy's been abducted by Nina, too?" The boy asked her, skeptically.

"Don't be stupid," she scoffed.

He sighed, shrugging his shoulders. What else could he do? He never thought Griffin would end up following Patricia's footsteps like this. She'd never done it before, apart from that time the two girls had held a revolution against the school binning off all their vending machines.

"I'm sure Joy was sick that day," Damien went with.

    "Sick?"

    "Tonsillitis, I think..."

    "No she wasn't," Griffin denied it.

    "Then, why isn't she in the photo?" Damien offered her a brief moment to dwell on that. "You think they just, like, photoshopped her out of if? Sweetie? As if, Griff!"

    "Of course not!" She snapped, then faltered. "I dunno..." her bottom lip was tugged between her teeth, "I can't explain it, but I just— isn't that weird?" Griffin tried to get him to hear her out. It was strange and unsettling. Surely he could see it. But as he stared at her silently, Griffin felt herself growing irritated. "Trixie would swear it on her mum's life."

   Damien thought on it.

   It was weird. The fact that both Patricia and Griffin were certain that Joy Mercer had been in that photo was weird, and it was very strange, and very unsettling. He knew it was. And Damien had to admit he would've been lying to say that, even if for a moment of time, he wasn't convinced. Because for a second there, Griffin had him sold. Damien might have believed anything Griffin Pillai told him. After all, he was a sucker for her. He would believe her if she said Father Christmas was real, or that it was safe to jump from a window when there was a fiery death below, and he would believe her if she said that this was true.

That their school photo used to have Joy in it, and now she was suddenly nowhere to be seen.

   He believed her.

   Until, he didn't. Because it didn't make sense.

"Griffin," he held her arms, "Patricia's got in your head."

"No she hasn't." She narrowed her eyes. "No one's got in my head. Let alone Trixie."

He sighed, "Nothing's happened to Joy—"

"I don't think there has!" Her voice grew louder as she pushed his hands away from her, "I don't even care about Joy, Damien, I just think it's weird!"

It was tense.

Griffin watched him closely, trying to figure out what was going through his head, but, truth be told, she didn't want to. Because all that was going through his head was also totally visible on his face.

He didn't believe her.

Griffin knew he didn't. She could tell.

She had known him for years, of course she could tell. She knew him back when they were kids, when he had braces and spots and zero popularity. Griffin had known Damien even when she hadn't wanted to, back when she hadn't wanted any friends, but he'd tried endlessly to worm his way in anyway.

He had tried so hard to be her friend and for what? To ditch her for Jerome and Alfie? To not believe when she told him something she was serious about?

Griffin didn't think something had happened to Joy. She didn't. It wasn't in her nature to be the conspiracy theorist type, and it had never been as though she was close enough with Joy Mercer to get all worked up over her sudden disappearance— Griffin had barely cared that Joy was even gone, conspiracy or no conspiracy. Joy had enough people to care that she'd left without Griffin joining in, all Griffin really cared about was—

Well, it wasn't very much.

Griffin had little care for anyone and anything, and certainly not Joy. Nothing happened to Joy— she knew that. Victor said she had been taken out of school by her parents which was plausible, but it still didn't explain why she wasn't in the school photo anymore. All of it was weird and if Griffin Pillai could admit it, then everybody else should have been able to as well.

"Griffin..." he said her name in a breath. Damien took one step forward, closer to her, meeting her heated stare. "Joy wasn't there that day, she was sick and missed the photo," he explained like she was a kid, "Can we go into town, now?"

That tone to his voice, the one that sounded patronising, made her face twist into a frown.

She didn't like being patronised.

"Shove off," Griffin hissed.

With that, Griffin adjusted a strap on her bag, and marched on down the hallway without him.

She wasn't in the mood for town anymore, or being around him in general. Griffin just wanted him to leave her alone and go hang out with his new BFF's; their friendship seemed better to him than hers, anyways. It had only been two weeks and things were already changing. Damien was changing. And maybe her anger stemmed from her own self-pride, maybe it wasn't warranted, but she didn't care. Because she didn't want things to change, so if Griffin let him go first, then she wouldn't have to witness it. Damien wouldn't get the chance to go AWOL on her.

"Griff!" He called out, but she didn't listen.

Griffin cut people from her life. She kept them at arms length. It was how it had always been.

"Griffin, come on!"

Flipping her hair, Griffin ignored the calls and pushed through the double doors leading to the next corridor. When they fell shut and he didn't follow, she gave a huff.

Leaning against a random locker, Griffin closed her eyes, a sad and melancholy feeling bubbling in her chest. It was unwelcome, and it replaced most of the anger she felt. Griffin was left feeling cold and lonely. So lonely, that it was an almost foreign feeling, one that she didn't feel often because she chose not to.

She wasn't lonely.

"Trouble in paradise?"

Griffin cursed, couldn't she get a break?

"Unless you've finished my homework—" the girl gritted out, cracking an eye open to see a big head of blonde hair, "—piss off."

"That's not nice," Jerome hummed, shrugging. "But I guess I'll let you off this time because I haven't finished your homework. So, what's with the demon eyes?"

"You bug me."

"I get told that a lot," he responded. "What's actually wrong?"

"Get out my business, weasel." She spat, pushing off the lockers and continuing down the halls. It didn't take him long to catch up; his legs were longer than hers, despite her being the tallest girl that resided in Anubis House — he was just freakishly long.

"So dramatic," Jerome rolled his eyes. "I heard you yelling over by the office, at our dear friend Damien."

"Jer—"

"Relax, I'm not going to ask you about it— I don't care," where her jaw had clenched at the mention of him being their friend now relaxed; her face scrunched up with skepticism. Jerome managed it very well: the ability to somehow confuse her and soothe her, at the same time. Noticing that she no longer looked ready to murder him and dump his body in the woods, the boy grinned with a sorta devilish grin — one that she had seen many times on him but gave no mind to, until now. Why was he smiling at her, like that? "But, in my opinion, you've been blessed with a golden opportunity, Griffy."

She scoffed, "And what's that?"

"Me."

"...come again?"

"You're mad at Damien," he began, "Right?"

"I suppose."

"You are mad — don't look so suspicious," Jerome scoffed, "His general idiocy has finally pissed you off and you want to throw his corpse into the fireplace..."

"What?"

"You're mad, and you're angry, and you need a way to show it to him, "the boy continued, lip quirking when he saw that her eye flickered with a glint of agreement. "Well, Griffy, that's where I'm going to help you," he slowed to a stop; "I can help you get even."

Her brows jumped.

Jerome Clarke was going to help her?

Was the sky falling?

She glanced at him apprehensively, "What's in it for you?"

"Just the general joy I get from hurting people," Jerome smiled at her question, "So? Are you in?"

Was she?

Griffin wasn't sure, getting back at people wasn't her shtick. She never had to get back at people. Whereas Jerome Clarke seemed to get back at people in advance, before they had even done anything to him, Griffin never let people close enough to have a need to get back at them when they frustrated her; she kept everybody at arms length, but Damien Lockehart had managed to get closer and now he had frustrated her. A lot, actually.

From ditching her constantly over the summer holidays, to not believing her when she told him Joy was in that photo, to talking to her like she was a fool, he had let her down. He had pissed her off! Jerome was right!

Griffin did want to get even.

Badly.

Perhaps just this once, she would agree with Jerome Clarke.

She slowly nodded, "Okay. Fine."

"Fine?"

"Fine," she repeated. Griffin tilted her head to look at him, her brows raised. He looked surprised. "What did you have in mind?"

He blinked a few times, almost as if he couldn't believe that she had actually agreed to his idea, which was true — he couldn't. In all honesty, it was pretty unbelievable. Jerome was truly surprised.

Then he beamed.

"Welcome to the Dark Side."

━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━

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