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.*･｡. THE UNEXPECTED! .*･｡.
————HOUSE OF SECRETS
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005.
BEWARE THE
BLACK BIRD.
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"You're still angry?"

"No," Griffin shrugged. "I'm seething."

    "Griff—"

   With a scoff, she slipped around Damien and forced her way in to the dining room. He called after her, following like a lost dog or something far less cute, hot on her heel. She completely ignored him.

    "Griffin!"

    "Piss off!" She hissed at him.

   All eyes fell upon the duo as they entered, everyone watching in confusion — Damien and Griffin never fell out.

   The only one who wasn't surprised was Jerome Clarke. In fact, his eyes danced with excitement as Griffin smacked away Damien when he tried to reach for her, and marched over to her usual seat. However, instead of sitting down like everyone commonly did to eat their breakfast, Griffin grabbed Jerome's hand and tugged him out of his chair, then pushed him into her seat — he blinked, surprised for a moment that he was a human barrier between her and Damien now, but ultimately grinned and giggled under his breath.

    "Incredible," he said.

    "Shut up," Damien shot him a glare.

   Jerome raised his hand in mock surrender and grabbed back a bowl of cheerios from his prior placemat, replacing it with a mug of tea and the jug of milk for Griffin to help herself. Damien took his own seat with a scowl as he watched the interaction go down.

   He usually did that.

   And Jerome knew that, very well.

   It was why he did it: to get under Damien's skin, to push every button at the same time, just to see when he would explode. That was one of his worst habits — getting under people's skin. Jerome was told that often and he would never even try to deny it. He did get under people's skin. Because he found it fun. He enjoyed them squirming uncomfortably, and glaring at him with daggers, and he was certain there was no better feeling than being yelled at because he had pissed someone off. Jerome lived for it; he relished in it. His housemates urged him to stop, but he wasn't sure that he could. As long as he could remember, that had just been how he acted. It had always been who Jerome was.

   Some people liked chess, some loved reading, and Jerome enjoyed messing with people and seeing them snap. Why would he stop?

   Damien shoved his toast into his mouth, not evening bothering to butter or jam it.

   It was a sweet sight to Jerome's eyes.

    "Quit staring," Damien huffed. Jerome laughed.

   He was friends with Damien. Of course, he was. They had got close over the summer holidays. But that didn't mean he wouldn't screw with him if he got the chance — Jerome would screw with anyone given the opportunity. And to screw with his friend Damien, his opportunity had been Griffin Pillai.

   Griffin hadn't spoken to Damien since their argument, that day prior. She didn't even look at him. They hadn't gone to town, and they hadn't had any interaction other than Griffin telling him that he should leave her alone before she threw him down the stairs. Safe to say, Griffin was still mad. Like she had said, she was seething. She gave her best shot at avoiding him yesterday, and it had worked. She sat with Amber and Mara in the living area, and Patricia had given as she could offer by swapping seats with her at supper — which, had been strangely nice of her, but Griffin assumed it was only because the new seat gave her a better angle for tossing pieces of bread roll at Nina's face.

   But now it was the next morning and Griffin had to deal with a whiny Damien, all over again. He didn't shut up.

   Luckily, neither did Patricia.

    "Beware the black bird!" She mocked, squawking obnoxiously. She flapped her arms and pulled faces, "Beware the black bird! It was hilarious!" Patricia laughed, "Priceless!"

   Alfie and Jerome seemed to find it especially funny, snorting at all her theatrics. Griffin rolled her eyes and ate her eggs, not finding it as funny to take the piss out of Nina's nightmares— even if it had sounded hilarious, at the time. Apparently she had woken Patricia, muttering in her sleep about beware the black bird! It was strange, but she probably just had a fear of birds or something, which was much more mundane than it was entertaining.

    "I wish I could've seen her face when she woke up just covered in feathers!" Jerome hooted.

    "Like this!"

   Alfie leaned to the side and pulled a face of horror, imitating a terrified girl — which was how he imagined Nina to look —, and getting another laugh out of Patricia and Jerome. Griffin gave the boy a light snicker, rolling her eyes again, while Damien scoffed at them, clearly still in a grump over Griffin ignoring him.

   Fabian was easily the most unamused. He slid into his seat and sent them that typical disappointed look, shaking his head, before tucking into his breakfast. Nobody seemed too fazed by his reaction seeing as this was Fabian always has to be the biggest fun-sponge Rutter.

   They were all used to it.

    "Hey, guys—" Patricia leaned closer, "I have an idea that really will give her nightmares," she informed, smirking.

    "Yeah?" Jerome asked, "What's th—?"

    "Sh!"

    "Alfie! You spat on me!" Griffin groaned, "Disgusting."

    "Sorry," he winced.

   Griffin squinted at him and snatched a napkin, wiping her face and turning to see what the big deal was. Turns out, Nina walked in while Patricia was still making fun of her, and she looked rather upset about the fact.

    "Sleep well, Nina?" Patricia taunted.

   Before she could say anything, the purple haired girl started up an awful chorus of birds sounds between herself, Jerome and Alfie — it made Griffin wonder when they had started a bad bird choir.

    "Beware the black bird!"

    "Ooh!"

    "Beware! Beware!"

    "Beware the black bird! So spooky!"

    "Grow up, Patricia." Griffin defended Nina, somewhat.

    "Oh please, Griffin—" Patricia bit back, "You've just been in a terrible mood since yesterday because you and Damien broke up."

   She glared.

    "And, what's your excuse?"

   Patricia's nostrils flared, "Did he cheat on you?"

    "Sod off, Patricia!" Damien snapped, pushing away from the table and storming out of the room.

    "What?" Said girl blinked, after a moment of silence amongst the teenagers. She peered around, delighted by Griffin's nasty eye, but feigned confusion. "Think I hit a nerve?"

    "Ignore all of... that," Fabian told Nina, waving a hand towards the other end of the table.

    "Got it," she said.

   They began whispering to each other, but Griffin wasn't all too interested by whatever was the topic of conversation. She was too busy glaring at her eggs and stabbing them with her fork, irritated by Patricia's words more than she would like to admit. Cheat on her? Broke up? Griffin and Damien weren't even dating! Everyone knew that they were just friends, just how she was friends with Mick, and how Patricia was friends with both Alfie and Jerome, and how Mara was friends with—

    "With Mick, in our room."

   Amber's eyes widened.

   Griffin wasn't sure what she had asked, but she could tell that it wasn't the answer she had wanted, regardless.

    "What?!"

    "Uh oh," Jerome snickered, "Green-eyed monster alert!"

    "I'm not jealous," lie. Amber sat down in her seat and held her chin up, acting as though Mara being with Mick didn't annoy her. "Why would I be jealous?" She spoke through clenched teeth and angrily slapped eggs onto her dish, "What's there to be jealous of?"

    "She's helping him with homework!" Fabian rushed out, with a pure intention of making her feel better, though when her face fell and Griffin glared at him from across the table, he realised that the intention had failed. Actually, he was just making it worse. He gave the blonde an awkward smile, "...that's all."

    "Yeah, I know all about that." Amber said, "And it's cool— I'd help him but I'm just so busy,"

   She flipped her hair over her shoulder and Jerome mirrored the movement, clearly mocking her. Griffin elbowed him, making him wince and rub his ribs. They all knew that Amber was jealous, and maybe it was slightly amusing, but Amber was still her friend. That situation with Mara and Mick was clearly upsetting her still, despite talking to Mara about it, and Griffin didn't think people taking the piss out of her was very fair. She didn't say anything though.

    "I see you haven't sneaked out at the crack of dawn, today." In attempt to change the conversation, Amber leaned closer to Nina.

   Nina chuckled, awkwardly. "Wow, everyone really does keep tabs on everyone else around here— don't they?"

    "Fabian said you'd gone to school early," the blonde ignored the obvious sign to keep out of Nina's business and innocently carried on, not really seeing where she was going wrong in asking her, "But then you didn't show up to first class,"

    "Nina was helping an old lady across the road."

   They all looked up at Trudy in interest, trying to see whether it was pastries or more eggs she was carrying, though there was just as much interest in the words she had said. Griffin was, anyway. In all her years living in Anubis, she had never thought Trudy would actually say that sentence— nor would anyone else for that matter.

    "Literally!" Trudy laughed.

    "What?"

    "We had a surprise visitor from the old people's home," Trudy explained, putting the new dish down.

    "I'm not very good with old people," Amber hummed, taking a second scoop of eggs and then passing the dish down the table, for Jerome and Alfie to destroy. "They're all so... old, aren't they?"

   Alfie snickered.

   Jerome sighed, "Really?"

    "Still, you must be used to it." Amber ignored them, her focus on Nina. "Trudy said your gran brought you up," when the newer girl nodded and said that her gran did in fact bring her up, Amber threw out her next question: "So what happened to your parents?"

    "God!"

    "Amber, no!"

    "You can't just ask people that," Fabian scolded.

    "Amber Millington: Queen of Tact." Jerome observed, and in that moment, Griffin found herself agreeing with him. It was very poor judgment on Amber's part, but looking at the confusion all over her face, she hadn't intended for it to come out offensively. Amber wasn't a mean person, after all. She had asked a genuine question; she wanted to know more about Nina.

    "They died in a car accident."

    "Oh."

    "That's awful," Fabian pursed his lips, cautiously patting Nina on the shoulder.

    "Sorry," Amber apologised.

    "It's okay!" The American assured her, noticing her pale face. She peered around at the table and realised that everyone was an awful lot quieter than before, "It was a long time ago," Nina tried to rid the awkward, "My gran and I are really close."

    "How come she's packed you off to a big, bad boarding school, then?" Patricia leapt at the chance to make any dig at Nina. They all tensed, "Miles away from home? Shipping you off to England?" She shrugged her shoulders, and smiled mockingly; "Ah— sounds to me like she just wanted to get rid of you!"

    "Patricia!"

   Griffin's jaw physically dropped as Fabian snapped, throwing a hand down onto the table.

   She wasn't very sure whether she was more horrified by Patricia and her poor behaviour, or the fact that Fabian Rutter had finally snapped — it could have been a mixture of both, but Griffin found her wide eyes going back to Patricia and sticking there. Had she really just said that? She genuinely couldn't believe her ears. All of them knew that Patricia could be rude and bitter, and there was no one more affected by Joy's disappearance than her, but that comment had crossed a line that couldn't be uncrossed. What she'd said couldn't ever be taken back.

    "Don't be such a witch!" Fabian cursed.

    "But—"

    "We know you're upset about Joy," he shook his head at her, an uncharacteristically angry expression plastered over his face. They all stayed very silent; "But there's no need to take it out on Nina!"

   He had a good point.

    "Yeah?" Patricia's faced contorted, twisting in hurt and anger. "Well, everyone seems to have forgotten all about Joy except me!"

   With that, Patricia hopped out of her chair and — for the second time in two days — stormed out of the dining room.

   Griffin sighed.

   She wasn't very hungry, anymore.

   With the loss of appetite, Griffin pushed her plate aside despite the eggs and toast remaining.

   It seemed Jerome felt much the same after choking into his glass of orange juice. He placed it down and leaned back, put right off his favourite morning drink by all the arguing; it was odd. Usually Jerome would be living for the drama of it all, bouncing in his seat and asking for some popcorn, but not today.

   When Griffin glanced at him, he looked... sad.

   Or, at least, something close to sad — disheartened, maybe? In all honesty, it was hard to tell what he was thinking. Jerome Clarke had never been easy to read. Much like herself, the boy was known to be a blank canvas. Nothing to him; no heart in his chest and no conscience to his name. Griffin and Jerome were empty, and void of emotion, always.

   But in that moment, there was something.

   Something about him that just seemed so very un-Jerome-like. It was an odd sight, and Griffin found herself wondering what about Nina's grandma shipping her to England had bothered him. But it wasn't as though she really had the chance to figure it out.

   A loud thump came from above them.

    "Agh— Jerome!" Someone yelled from upstairs.

    "Bingo," his smile reappeared.

    "What did you do?" Fabian asked, his eyes wide. "Was that Dam—?"

   As if on cue, thunderous footsteps stormed down the stairs and an alarmingly purple-looking Damien Lockehart marched in. A loud snort escaped Alfie, laughing so hard he nearly fell from of his seat and onto the floor, but Damien stormed over and pushed Alfie out of it so he didn't have to fall. Alfie groaned.

    "Damien!" Jerome grinned, "New look? Very Barney,"

   He scowled.

   Purple paint ran down his face and into his eyes, staining all the way from his hair to his school shirt. He looked vexed, shaking in rage. "What the hell, Jerome?!"

    "Wasn't me."

    "Sod off!"

    "I'm not lying," Jerome said.

    "Jerome!"

    "Well, it wasn't just me..." the boy shrugged, watching Damien groan and leave the room, shouting about needing another shower.

   As soon as he was gone, they all erupted into giggles. Alfie gave Jerome a happy nod, please with his prank, while Nina smiled the brightest she had since arriving as she laughed along with Amber. Even Fabian was fighting back a smile at his roommate's misfortune — although, it dropped when he realised that he was going to end up scrubbing the purple paint from their stuff for the rest of the term. Still, he found it rather funny.

    "Nice one, mate!"

    "Thanks," Jerome grinned at Alfie.

    "Wait—" Amber frowned, her giggles slowing. "If you didn't do that with Alfie..." she glanced at his usual partner in crime, "...and it clearly wasn't Dames..." she gathered, "Who did you do it with?"

    "Ah!" He tapped the side of his nose, "I never prank and tell,"

    "Well, it made my morning!" Nina smiled, "Thanks."

   He smirked.

    "I'm here all week."

   As everyone continued with their breakfasts, Griffin sank down in her seat and tried to hide the quirk of her lips. She remained as stoic as possible and felt Jerome sink down beside her, and slapped her palm against his under the table, where no one could see. With a brief glance, mischief in their eyes, Griffin stood up and went for the last pastry in the middle of the table.

   Jerome watched her, eyes twinkling.

   Welcome to the Dark Side.

————

To be fair, Mara was getting very close to Mick.

"What the hell is she playing at?"

Griffin watched with a funny look as the girl stuck her thumbs up at Mick, the latter grinning foolishly and mirroring the gesture after he handed over his biology assignment. They were both acting like lovesick children; it made sense why Amber despised it.

Griffin hated it, too.

"And apparently she doesn't even like him," Amber muttered in irritation, her pretty face twisted. "Fibber."

Amber had spoken to Mara that morning, apparently, before rushing down the stairs to drag Griffin out of the house and tell her what she'd said before Mara could catch up. She tried to express her dislike — saying that she was helping Mick too much, and that all the time they were spending together was driving her nuts. Her exact accusation had been I know you fancy him, to which Mara instantly denied anything of the sort.

What was wrong with Mick?

Everyone fancied him. Griffin was sure that she would probably fancy Mick had they not been friends — because that way, she would have no idea he lacked a severe amount of braincells. It would be easier to focus on his face.

Despite the idiocy, he was an attractive guy. He was sweet too, and always tried to be kind, so it made no sense Mara wouldn't be interested in him. Everyone else was. Mick was the coolest guy the school had to offer.

   "Total fibber," Griffin agreed with her.

It was obvious to anybody that Mara was interested, not just to Griffin. Amber knew it, also; everyone probably knew Mara liked Mick by now, except for Mick. Why else would someone help him with a biology essay? He had literally two braincells in that head of his so it couldn't have been easy. Griffin would have got frustrated and hit him if he'd asked her what a double helix was twenty-four times over. It wasn't like biology was easy for Griffin, but she knew how it all worked well enough to finish her own work and hand it in without any help.

Regardless, Griffin wasn't surprised. Mara wasn't the first girl to fawn over Mick while he was seeing Amber and she wouldn't be the last. But really Mara shouldn't have been getting so close to him; he was Amber's boyfriend.

Amber was her roommate. Amber was her friend.

So yes, it bugged Griffin.

Was she meant to he thrilled about Mara's attempts to get closer to her friend, and simultaneously upset her other friend? Because, while it was just studying and there shouldn't have been a problem with it, it might have been turning into a problem — and very quick!

She didn't like it.

"End of desks, please!" Sweetie instructed as the bell rang and class finally finished.

Both Griffin and Amber scoffed when Mara turned and sent an innocent look at them, placing their assignments at the end of their desk and packing away their things, trying to get out of there as quickly as possible. Griffin didn't want Amber to go tear Mara's hair out or to burst into tears, so she aimed to get her to the nearest Mara-and-Mick-free zone: the corridor.

"Griffin!"

She ignored the calls for her.

Sighing dejectedly, Damien walked out of the classroom with Mick close by, patting his back.

"Still ignoring him, then?" Patricia's voice sounded.

Griffin ignored her too, and tried to follow Amber out of class. But, before she got very far, a hand grabbed her denim jacket and tugged her back. She groaned, reaching out to Amber, but the blonde was too busy yacking at Mara — who had somehow caught up — about being a really bad friend for fancying her boyfriend. Mara's denials were too loud for Griffin to be noticed, and she found herself spun around, a very familiar purple haired girl standing before her. Patricia made a face at her.

"You're not still annoyed about breakfast, are you?" As Griffin didn't respond, instead trying to spin on her heel and make a dash for the door, Patricia managed to catch her; "Seriously? C'mon! It's not my fault you and Damien argue like some old married couple, is it? I'll reckon you'll be engaged by end of term."

Griffin glared at her.

"Okay— okay! I'm sorry, alright?" Patricia huffed out, crossing her arms like a child. She puffed her cheeks out and pouted, "Will you talk to me again, now?"

   "Do I have to?"

Patricia beamed, "Yeah!"

Before Griffin could do anything, the girl grasped her arm and tugged her through the science room. Griffin let out a sound that showed her reluctance to follow, but was nonetheless dragged to the far side of the room, pulling to a halt in front of Nina and Fabian.

Griffin frowned, what was the scheming goth-pixie up to?

"Hey, Nina!"

At the sound of her name, Nina stopped hauling her bag over her shoulder and watched Patricia skeptically, like she'd expected some sort of attack, although she calmed when she saw Griffin at the mean girl's side. "Yeah?"

"I just wanted to say, y'know... sorry about breakfast," she said.

"What?"

"I'm sorry," Patricia repeated.

"Oh," Nina blinked, taken aback by the apology. Honestly, so were Griffin and Fabian. But Griffin quickly got over her shock and squinted. Patricia never apologised to anyone — which meant she was definitely up to something. However, it seemed like Nina wanted to think the best of her. "It's okay," she assured Patricia even though it really wasn't okay, "A bit of teasing helps the tea and toast go down,"

Griffin sent her a funny look.

...did it?

Nina turned to leave with Fabian, but Patricia stopped her.

She grabbed Griffin again, and the girl released another moan of annoyance. There were laughs from behind her and she found herself flanked by dumb and dumber; Jerome on her side and the other prankster, Alfie, on Patricia's.

"Ah— but I think it's about time that we introduced you to the school properly," Patricia informed her.

   The boys giggled.

    "The traditional way."

    "What're you going on about?" Fabian frowned; confused, but intrigued to know what was going on — Griffin was too.

    "Alfie," addressing him a bit too formally, Patricia grinned over at the boy by her side. Their attention went to him, and then back to her, "Why don't you tell Nina all about the initiation ceremony?"

    "—the what?!"

    "Right," Alfie grinned. He ignored Fabian's bewilderment and looked to Nina, who was already looking at him with interest. The prankster seemed giddy to talk, and Griffin wondered whether this was completely improvised, or the thing the trio had been gossiping all about during the last hour at their desk. Judging by Jerome's smirk, at least some of it was pre-planned. "Every new person who arrives at the school has to undergo, like—" Alfie paused, trying to find some words, until he glanced at Patricia and realised she had already said the sum of it: "—well, yeah, an initiation ceremony,"

   Fabian scoffed at that, "Since when?"

   Patricia glared at him, "Since forever, Fabian!"

    "Why am I here?"

    "Sh, Griffy."

    "Ugh!"

   Fabian eyed them up, skeptically.

    "What're you trying to—"

    "It's alright!" Nina cut him off, smiling widely. Griffin tried her best to figure out if she knew this was all a giant rouse, and she was merely trying to live up to Patricia's lies, or if she genuinely was up to do an initiation ceremony that didn't exist. "Sounds like fun," with a raise of her brows, she asked them: "What do I have to do? I'm up for anything,"

   Griffin was mildly impressed by her guts, not bad America.

   However, as she took in Patricia's smirk, Griffin had a strong feeling the newbie might've signed her own death warrant.

━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━

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