A/N: So this is my latest attempt at an HoA story. There will be NinaxFabianxJoy triangle and hexagon because I want everyone to end up with someone. Hope you like it~!

-3rd person omniscient point of view-

Trudy was finishing up cleaning the breakfast dishes when she heard a cab approach. The engine came to a stop and, three minutes later, a knock on the door was heard. Trudy dried off her hands and went to go answer the door, having no idea who it was. To her complete and utter surprise, Joy Mercer, the student who had gone missing months ago, was standing just outside the entrance to the house.

"Joy!" exclaimed the housemother. The two hugged and Trudy took one of Joy's bags. "What are you doing here?"

Joy was beaming from ear to ear. "I'm so sorry I left so suddenly! It wasn't my idea! I had no idea what was going on. The man said that my parents had sent him, but I had no clue I would be leaving. I was trapped in Egypt because of some cult for the last few months. If it hadn't been for Fabian, Amber, and the new girl, I never would have been able to come back! It was them who cut off Victor's "life support", per say, and them who continued trying to solve the mystery I had began to uncover."

Trudy didn't understand half of it, but she didn't question the poor girl. She was missing in action for months, and she must not have had good food for that whole time! "Here, there are some leftovers from breakfast that you can have. I'm afraid that Alfie and Jerome ate most of the food, but I think we have some waffles and potatoes left."

Joy laughed. "I'm actually not too hungry. I think I should just get my stuff to wherever it needs to be and go to class."

Trudy smiled. "Of course, sweetie. You'll be staying in Patricia and Mara's room for the time being."

"I thought Amber and Mara shared a room, and Patricia shared with the new girl," stated Joy, confused.

"Oh, um...Amber and Patricia swapped rooms, so Mara and Patricia share, and you'll share with them until we can find another place for you to stay," explained Trudy. "I'll take this bag up, and you take your other."

Once Joy was all settled in, she sprinted to first period history. She just barely made there for the last ten minutes. She was going to take her normal spot next to Fabian until she realized that the new girl, Nina, had taken over her spot. That was expected, since there would have been a vacancy in each of Joy's old classes, but...

Fabian and Patricia both looked up as they heard the door open. "Joy!" Patricia exclaimed. Fabian just sat there, mouth open. The new teacher looked up from his desk, where he had been grading papers.

"Oh, you must be Joy. I'm afraid we only have one empty desk left. You'll be sitting in the back corner, next to Sam," said the new teacher. "I'm Mr. Winkler, by the way."

Joy nodded and made her way to the desk that he had told her to occupy. A boy sat in the seat next to hers. He had black hair and a mixture of Chinese and British features. His skin was an Asian tone, but his eyes were very obviously European. It was actually rather disturbing to see both types of features on one person. But Joy had to admit he was kind of cute. Not nearly as cute as Fabian, but still cute.

Nina looked over at Fabian. Nina mouthed, "She's back!"

Fabian nodded, and glanced back at Joy. She gave him a quick smile and a wave before he turned back to Nina. Suddenly, he realized something... Before Joy left, it was obvious that she had had a crush on him. And he had been beginning to kind of like her, too. And he assumed that her disappearance made him really hope she was still alive and well, which...well, he had developed a crush on her.

Nina looked at Fabian, whose expression had frozen a few seconds before. "Fabian, you alright?" she whispered.

Fabian snapped out of his thoughts, though his excitement over Joy being back was gone. He mustered up a somewhat-convincing smile to show Nina that he was perfectly fine. "Yeah, just thinking," he whispered back.

"Good," said Nina, smiling back at him.

"Back to work, everyone!" ordered Mr. Winkler. They were studying for their midterm, which was scheduled for that Thursday and Friday.

Fabian rested his forehead on his hand and closed his eyes. Oh, Lord, how am I going to get myself out of this mess?

Before Mara knew it, the day was over. She picked up her books and hurried out to go back to the house.

Jerome caught her on the way out. "Not planning on doing Mick's history test for him as well, hm?" he asked.

"What? No!" protested Mara. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind. She wanted Mick to trust her, not think that...well, whatever he thought now.

Jerome, however, felt like teasing her more. To Mara, it appeared that she hadn't got her point through to him. "Shame, those few weeks you had to do my chores were heaven." He stretched his hands above his head and, for a joke, placed one arm around Mara as he put his arms down.

Mara felt Jerome's arm around her shoulders and immediately broke out of his grip. "Are you sure chores are the only thing I'd be doing for you if I cheated for Mick on another test?"

Jerome feigned shock. "Why, Mara, that hadn't even crossed my mind!" he exclaimed, acting hurt and innocent.

Mara sighed. "See you at dinner, idiot."

Jerome chuckled to himself as she stormed off. Mission accomplished. Alfie appeared next to him and the two began walking to the house.

Back at the house, Fabian was sitting alone in his room, working on various homework. Normally he would be working with Nina out in the common room to solve the mystery or just to do homework, but he felt that he needed to be alone to work things out in his head.

Joy seemed to note his absence because he had always worked with her and Patricia after school before she disappeared, so it wasn't a huge surprise when she showed up in Fabian and Mick's doorway about ten minutes after she got home.

"Hey, Fabian, the whole house is in the common room. Why are you alone?" she asked, walking over to his bed and sitting next to him.

Fabian scooted a few inches away from her, as she had sat uncomfortably close to him. "Well, you know, I kind of...I kind of wanted some...you know, peace and quiet." Stupidest. Cover. Ever, Fabian.

Joy seemed to think so as well, because she grabbed his hand (which caused him to blush and try to pull away) and said, "Come on, join the rest of us."

He reluctantly agreed and Joy pulled him out into the common room, still holding his hand.

Nina looked up as he entered, and Fabian mentally slapped himself. Why had he let Joy keep a hold on his hand for this long? He quickly released Joy's hand, but it was too late. The hurt had already registered on Nina's face. They weren't technically going out, but it was close enough.

Nina closed her book and said something along the lines of, "I'll be in my room," before she ran up the stairs, full of feelings of hurt and betrayal.

Joy confusedly looked at Fabian. "What's her problem?" she asked.

Jerome felt the need to answer for Fabian. "Oh, did you not know? Fabian found himself a girlfriend while you were away!"

Joy now had the same expression that Nina had had just moments ago. Fabian shot Jerome a sarcastic "thanks a lot" look and Jerome replied with a nod which Fabian interpreted to mean "no problem".

At that point, Joy had also fled upstairs to her room. Fabian called after her, "Joy, wait!" But Joy didn't wait. She didn't want to hear anything Fabian had to say. She had thought that the two of them had something special. I guess I was wrong... she thought as she buried her head in her hands, sitting on the floor of the room she shared with Mara and Patricia.

Both Nina and Joy, from their respective rooms, heard footsteps coming up the stairs. They weren't light enough to be a girl's, so it had to be one of the guys. However, the footsteps stopped abruptly when each girl estimated that the boy was halfway between their room and the other girl's room.

Fabian sat down, smack dab in between the rooms of the two girls. He put his elbows on his knees and ran his hands up his face and into his hair so he ended up looking down, supporting his head on his wrists.

Nina was laying on her back on her bed, her knees bent. She was just staring at the ceiling. Does he just not like me anymore? She felt anger towards Joy swelling up in her chest. She wanted to scream, but didn't want to scare the living crap out of whoever the boy who had come up the stairs was and Joy, so she took a spare pillow and yelled random nonsense into it until she felt at least a little better.

Fabian heard a muffled noise coming from Nina's room. It was complete nonsense, muffled by what he suspected was a pillow. He sighed and stood up, slowly walking back down the stairs.

Mick and Amber were cuddling on a couch, talking about one of their upcoming dates, when Fabian reentered the room, but they both fell silent as they saw him come down the stairs. The whole room was suddenly very quiet.

"Well?" asked Patricia and Amber simultaneously, breaking the tension.

"Erm...I didn't...I didn't actually talk to either of them. I didn't know which one to talk to first. But Nina seems more upset. That, or she just expresses her anger more physically than Joy," admitted Fabian.

"Well, of couse Nina's going to be more upset, mate. You just walked into the room holding another girl's hand after all you and Nina went through to solve that mystery. She fancies you, and you fancy her. I don't know what's going on between you and Joy, but it's up to you to decide," mused Jerome.

"Yes, Jerome, that was very helpful. It's almost like you can read my mind," said Fabian sarcastically. He turned to Amber. "Amber, you're Nina's best friend." Then he turned to Patricia. "And Patricia, you're Joy's. Can you two tell me what to do?"

"Oh, fine," agreed Patricia. "Well, I read Nina's diary a few days after she got here, and she mentioned something about you being really sweet to her...and that may mean she likes you more than you think. However, you should totally go for Joy. She's nicer, prettier, smarter, and you've known her for longer."

"I, personally, think you should go for Nina," announced Amber. "She obviously likes you a ton, and Joy...well, let's face it. She just showed up today, after months of being gone. She can't expect you to have waited for her to reappear for that long, now can you?"

Fabian sighed. "I need an unbiased opinion. All of you are friends with one or the other...who can I talk to?"

"There's always Trudy," mentioned Mara.

Fabian looked at her like she was crazy. "Why would I talk to Trudy about my relationship problems?"

"Well, Trudy's been here the whole time, and she's a great housemother. I think she would be able to help you."

Fabian sighed. "Okay, fine. I'll go ask Trudy for help." Alfie snickered.

"Running to the mummy you never had, mate?" asked Alfie.

Fabian grew tense. "Shut up, Alfie, or I'll make you."

The whole room went silent. At that moment, Trudy conveniently walked in. "How is everyone? Would you like an afternoon snack? How was school?"

"A snack would be great. Thanks, Trudy," requested Jerome.

"Hey, Trudy, there's something I want to ask you about. Could I help you prepare the snack?" asked Fabian.

"Well, of course, sweetie! Come right with me!" the housemother said as she walked into the kitchen, Fabian at her heels.

Once they reached the kitchen, Trudy turned to face Fabian. "So, what do you need to talk to me about?" she asked.

"Um...I'm having relationship problems and I don't think there's anyone else I can talk to about this, so..."

"Go on," urged Trudy.

"Well...since Joy came back this morning, I remembered that I kind of had a crush on her before she left, and she obviously had a crush on me. But...well..."

"Is it about Nina?"

Fabian looked up in amazement. "How did you know?"

"Feminine instinct. Plus you and Nina are so cute together. Go on," ordered Trudy.

"Well, I kind of managed to upset both of them at once, and now I have no idea what to do or who to talk to first about it."

"Well, what in the world did you do?" asked Trudy in amazement.

"I...Joy dragged me out of my room to the common room, where everyone else was, and Nina saw me holding Joy's hand because she had been dragging me," confided Fabian.

"And what did you do to upset Joy?" inquired Trudy.

"Well, after Nina ran off to her room, Joy asked what was going on, and Jerome said that I had found myself a girlfriend. So, of course, Joy ran off to her room," finished Fabian. "And now I don't know which one to talk to first."

Trudy took a few steps and put her hand on Fabian's shoulder. "Girls at this age are very hormonal, especially at certain times. Maybe it's just one of those times for both of them. In any case, you have to explain yourself."

When Trudy mentioned the girls being hormonal at certain times, Fabian blushed slightly as he realized what she meant. Once she was finished talking, he smiled at her and said, "Thanks for the advice, Trudy. I'm going to talk to Nina first, because she's been waiting longer for an explanation. But first, I can help you make a snack for Jerome and Alfie," he offered.

"Thank you, Fabian. That would be sweet," replied Trudy.

A/N: Well, that's the first chapter. I really want to write more, so the next chapter should be up tomorrow. But I'm glad I've gotten the tension started between Nina and Joy, and the relationship between Mara and Jerome is building. I just need to add in some MaraxMick and AlfiexAmber to stir things up. Oh, and AlfiexPatricia, because I'm mean like that. :P