A brand new House of Anubis story about what happens to Sibuna and all the trimmings five years after graduation. Rated T for suggestive scenes in the first few chapters and some adult themes later on. Of course, much as I'd love to, I do not own House of Anubis or any of the original characters. I do own the new characters that will appear later on in the story.

I'd love any feedback and comments. Otherwise, you can tweet me EveGlass_Author for any further questions or requests.

P.S.: Moy shippers will love this first chapter!

Nina

I was sitting in the small airport café, listlessly stirring sugar into my coffee and looking out of the window over the runway.

It was getting dark outside, and the stars were spread out over the navy velvet backdrop like a scattering of diamonds. I was far too nervous – and jet-lagged – to fully appreciate the beautifully clear midsummer night. As I watched a plane take off, soaring up into the cloudless sky, I wondered if my little trip was a mistake. Maybe I should have just gotten on the next plane back to Los Angeles. Or perhaps I should never have left at all.

Either way, it didn't matter. I had arrived, and there was no going back. And the whole thing wasn't even my idea. Since I'd moved back to America to care for Gran three years previously, I hadn't been on a proper vacation. Gran had gotten weaker towards the end of my time at Anubis House, and she'd needed me, even though she was too stubborn to admit it. Once upon a time, it had been me and Gran together against everything and everyone, whatever life wanted to throw at us. It was Gran caring for me after my parents' accident. But as time passed, the roles were reversed.

It was strange living without her. Growing up the way I had, I knew that nobody was immortal, but I'd still been ignoring the inevitable, completely dismissing the idea that one day Gran wouldn't be there anymore. I had clung desperately onto something that I knew was too hard to hold. Gran had slipped through my fingers like smoke, fading and disappearing into thin air before my eyes.

Ultimately, it was my mother's older sister, Aunt Jenna, who had convinced me to take a break. In the weeks before Gran's death, I had received an invitation to go back to England for a school reunion. I wasn't intending on going, but both Gran and Aunt Jenna had told me that it would be a good idea. After all, I hadn't seen most of my old school friends since I'd returned to America.

Amber Millington, my best friend and my old roommate had kept in contact with me, and she even came over to stay for a few weeks at a time with her boyfriend, Alfie Lewis. But I had never been back to England. After many phonecalls and emails from Amber, I'd finally been persuaded to take a week's vacation in for the reunion.

So, there I was, sitting in that airport café, nursing the strongest coffee available on the menu and the disturbing urge to strangle the little brat on the table behind me who was demanding candy from her parents. I put my cup down and glanced at my watch. Amber was picking me up and taking me back to her house. I was looking forward to seeing her as much as I was looking forward to seeing the bed in her guest room. The last time I'd seen her and Alfie was the previous summer, during their last trip to LA.

My phone began to ring in my pocket. It took my exhausted brain a few moments to realize what the noise and the buzzing against my leg was. I reached into my pocket, flipped my phone open and pressed it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey Neens," Amber's voice smiled down the line.

"Hi, Amber," I greeted, trying to sound more awake. My eyelids had been drooping, and I'd felt my head bobbing on my jelly-neck. "What's up?"

"Not much. I'm just calling to tell you that we're five minutes away." Amber told me.

"I'm in the café. I'll go wait for you guys by the front entrance."

"Great. See you there." Amber's dancing voice said. "We can't have you being late for the reunion!"

I felt a twinge in my stomach. "No, we can't. See you in five."

"Byeee!" Amber said. Then, the connection was terminated. To be completely honest, even the thought of the reunion made a wave of nerves and fear rise up inside of me body. When I'd decided to move back to America at the end of my final year, not everybody thought that it was for the best. I tried to put that out of my head as I got to my feet and gathered up my luggage. I wheeled my suitcase along behind me and walked out of the café, thinking of the positive things that this vacation would bring me. But the fear and nerves were still there behind the excitement of being back

I only waited a few minutes in one of the uncomfortable grey metal seats at the entrance before I saw a pretty girl with silvery-blond hair and a tall half-cast boy coming through the open glass doors.

"Niiinaaa!" Amber squealed when she saw me, making a couple of Japanese tourists a few seats along from me look up in alarm. I got to my feet just as Amber rugby tackled me in a huge hug. I smiled and hugged her back, breathing in the smell of her expensive perfume. When we pulled out of the embrace, we both took a half step back to inspect one another. Amber looked pretty much the same as ever: model gorgeous. Her straight, fine hair was shorter than I remembered and cut into layers of pale, shimmering starlight. Her clothes were all designer labels. Somehow, I thought, she wouldn't be herself without them.

"It's so good to see you!" Amber giggled, taking a hold of my hands and hopping up and down in excitement.

"It's great to see you too, Amber!" I replied, smiling and half hoping myself. Then I heard Alfie clear his throat. I turned and smiled at him. He was standing awkwardly, watching me and Amber as we acted like a pair of prize idiots in the middle of the airport. "Hey, Alfie," I said, stepping forward and hugging him too.

"Greetings, Alien Lady." Alfie said as we stepped away. I smiled, remembering the first time we'd met five years ago, when he'd been obsessed with the idea that I was an alien hell-bent on devouring his brains.

"Come on, Neens, let's get you home." Amber asked. Alfie took my suitcase as Amber linked arms with me. "I have got so much to tell you…" She said, guiding me towards the door. I stifled a yawn so big that it hurt my jaw. She smiled. "But I guess it can wait until tomorrow…"

Fabian

"Fabian Rutter, you really are no fun!"

I was getting used to that line. I didn't bother to look up from my laptop at my flatmate, Mick Campbell, keeping my eyes fixed on the thousands of words on the screen.

"You know I'd love to come with you, but this report won't write itself."

"Fabes, that's the worst excuse ever!" Joy Mercer said as she came into the kitchen, fixing her little diamond stud earrings. Both she and Mick were dressed for a night out. I, however, was dressed in my pyjamas.

"You can't be parted from that computer! You'll want to marry it next. Seriously, what have you got on there?" Joy asked, putting her hands on her hips.

I finally looked up at them. "My coursework, Joy," I told her. "It's my entire future."

She sighed. "Fabes, it's not healthy for you to spend so much time in front of a computer screen. You know what they say: you'll end up with square eyes."

"Who are you, my mother?" I asked. I was getting annoyed. It wasn't up to her to dictate to me what I could do in my own life. "And anyway, you two are going to go out to a party and probably drink your own weight in alcohol. Then you'll stumble in at three in the morning. So don't try to tell me that what I do with my spare time isn't healthy." Joy's eyes flared.

"She's right, Fabian." Mick said quietly. Of course he'd pick her side. But then, I wasn't childish enough to care what he did.

"I'm always right." Joy said, looping her arms around Mick's strong neck.

Mick smiled. "Like you ever let me forget," Then he pressed his lips against hers. I rolled my eyes and turned back to my laptop.

"Come on, Fabian! There'll be girls there…" Mick said when they pulled out of the kiss, elbowing my arm meaningfully. I looked up at him.

"Then I'm sure you'll have a good time."

"Fine, be like that. Let's go." Joy tutted huffily, turning towards the door. I heard her stiletto heels click across the linoleum floor. Mick stood watching me for a moment longer, no doubt waiting for me to change my mind, but I continued typing feverishly, ignoring him. Mick was so intent on staring me down that he didn't notice that the sentences that I was writing had stopped making sense. It wouldn't have mattered if he had, of course, unless he suddenly understood Egyptology.

With a final sigh, he followed his girlfriend.

"Don't look at anything inappropriate while we're gone, Fabian." Mick called back to me as he opened the front door.

"Have fun, guys!" I retorted. Then I heard the door close, and I was alone in the apartment.

I waited for a moment, and when I was sure that they were gone, I dropped the article and clicked on a little camera icon.

It took the file a few seconds for the files to load, but when they did, I was greeted by the laughing face of a beautiful girl with the darkest shade of blond hair possible tied back in a ponytail. Her eyes were smoky grey with a thick ring of black around the iris. Most people would have mistaken them for brown. I felt a sad smile curl the corners of my lips.

I wondered where Nina Martin was now. I remembered the violent arguments, the insults and name-calling, the doors slamming so hard that it shook the whole of Anubis House to its foundations. Then there were the long periods of ignoring one another. The most vivid memory I had of those times was the thing that I now wanted to erase from all existence: Nina's tears. I hated thinking about them spilling down her face, leaving tracks down her pale cheeks. I felt an iron fist clamp around my chest, crushing my lungs and my heart.

But it clearly hadn't bothered me that much at the time, because the arguing went on and on right up until the day that Nina went back to America.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. When I opened them again after a long moment, I clicked on the little NEXT at the bottom of the photograph, and Nina's smiling face was replaced by a group of people in school scarlet red and grey uniforms.

Like Nina in the first photograph, they were smiling and laughing and looking like they didn't have a care in the world. That one had to have been taken about two weeks before the fighting began.

I clicked through the photographs one by one. I wasn't just sitting staring at these captured fragments of perfection and happiness, wishing that I could just melt into them and stay there. Joy had given me the job of getting a slideshow of out schooldays at Anubis House together for the reunion the next day.

I didn't want to go. I'd spent the whole of the previous two days trying to find an excuse not to go to, but I'd come up with nothing.

The truth was that I didn't know if I could be in the same room as Nina without drowning in the ocean of guilt I was harbouring inside of me. If I so much as caught a glimpse of her face, I was sure that the dam that held it all back would break and let everything out.

Stop wallowing in self-pity and get on with it, said a voice in my head. It was right. I couldn't bury my head in the sand much longer.

With a sigh of defeat, I made up my mind.