"Bry, are you scared? Even just a little?" I ask my brother. He looks at me quickly then nods.
"Mira, we'll be fine. It's just another boarding school. And we're away from dad. Okay?" He grabs my hand and squeezes. I give him a small smile as we pull up to our new home. Anubis House.
Brian and I walk out and he starts to run a little, taking my bags with him. Ugh, brothers. I chase after him and accidently bang into a girl.
"Hey. Watch it." A girl with red hair glares at me. She's a good 4-5 inches taller than me and is kinda terrifying. The girl on her left smiles in an 'I'm sorry about her' way. The boy and girl on the right are holding hands and talking about something completely illegible to me. I can't help but assume they're dating.
"I'm so sorry, I'm just trying to catch up with my brother. Oh, do any of you know how to get to Anubis house?" I puff out, half cause I'm out of breath and half out of a slight fear of the redhead.
"Hi, I'm Joy. That's Patricia, Fabian, and Nina. And we live in Anubis too. C'mon, I'll show you where it is." The girl on the left smiles at me. I smile back and start to follow. Patricia follows both of us, looking really annoyed.
"Oh, I'm Miranda, but call me Mandi. And my twin brother Brian took our bags and took off." I finally introduce myself. As we reach the house, I see Brian standing on the porch with our bags.
"Brian! You're an idiot!" I yell and run over to him. He smiles and hands me my bag. Joy and Patricia come up to us and Joy helps me with my bags, while Patricia just storms in the house.
"What's her problem?" I ask Joy. She explains that one of their friends, Mara, had left the house to go to college early. And Patricia is still in a bad mood cause of it. We finish getting my bags in and I run into a man, He's tall, kinda scary. Actually, he's incredibly creepy.
"Who are you?" He gives me a look that sends chills down my back.
"I'm Miranda Van Ankh. Me and my brother Brian are moving in here." I tell him. He just glares and tells us to take the stuff upstairs.
"So I think you'll be sharing the attic bedroom with Patricia. Good luck." Joy tells me when we stop in front of the attic door. She walks away and back downstairs. I look up the stairs and grab my bags, groaning a little in the process. I lug my bags up the stairs and tentatively knock on the final door. The door swings open and Patricia's standing there.
"What do you want?" She sneers and tries to close the door. I stop it with my foot, making her roll her eyes.
"We're roommates. So you should probably let me into our room." I say, pushing the door open and stepping inside. One side of the room (the side closest to the door) is decorated with stuff, and the other is bare. I pull my bags over and start unpacking. I fold my clothes and put them away. I don't really have much clothes. And finally I pulled out my bear, Bambi. My brother has a matching one named Bulls Eye. I place her on my dresser and start unpacking my books. I really like to read, so I have quite a few books. Mostly mystery books, like Nancy Drew and stuff like that. And I love James Patterson. Once I'm finished, I grab my beanie and leave the room. On my way downstairs, I bump into Lina (I think that's her name) and a blonde girl.
"Hi, I'm Mandi. Do you know where Joy is?" I ask them, wanting to see someone I know. They look at me and their eyes widen.
"Where'd you get that necklace from, if you don't mind me asking." Lina asks. I look down at my necklace.
"I don't mind. My Grandmother gave it to me. She died about two years ago. She actually lived in the elderly home up the street. But anyway, she gave me this necklace when I was about five, and she told me that it would protect me from great evil. I miss her a lot. My brother and I we're supposed to come live here with our dad Rene. But he seemed to just disappear. And that's where the necklace came from." I look up at them and the look on their faces was weird. I don't know what was going through their heads, but they almost look scared.
"I'm Amber and this is Nina. Can you come up to your room with us? We need to talk to you and Patricia with a couple others. Please?" Amber pulls me by the arm and drags me upstairs before I could even answer. Nina is furiously texting someone and Patricia is looking annoyed. As usual. There's a knock at the door. Nina opens it and reveals Fabio, an African American boy, a blonde boy, an African American girl with curly hair, and Brian. He looks just as confused as I feel.
"I'm Fabian, that's Alfie, that's Eddie, and that's KT. Nin's, I think the text got messed up. Sarah can't have a child, let alone a grandchild. Let me see the necklace." I hand it over to him. He opens it and sees the picture my grandmother left inside. It's of her when she was little. My mom used to say I look just like her when she was my age. "Nina, can I see your necklace?"" She hands it to him also. He compares the pictures. They're identical. The pictures in the locket.
"Mandi, who'd you say your dad is?" Nina asks me.
"Rene Zeldman. But we are under our mom's maiden name, Van Ankh. It's Egyptian, I think." I say. Patricia's face is white. The others are pale too. What'd my dad do?