Hi guys, this is my first story and I'm super excited about it!

Basically this story AU from the night of the prom (but the story doesn't actually start until the start of season two). Couples include Mick/Mara (in the beginning), Jerome/Mara (later), Patricia/Eddie (also later) lots of Fabian/Nina, a few mentions of Alfie/Amber and some one sided Joy/Fabian. There is also an OC, Charlotte, but I'm not sure if I'll be pairing her with anyone yet.

If you have time to review that would be amazing because I'd really love some feedback, but don't worry, I won't be one of those writer who refuses to post until they have a certain number of reviews. At the moment I think I'll post a new chapter once a week, but if I'm writing faster then I'll write faster.

Also I'll try to keep the POVs the same throughout the whole chapter but they will vary between chapters.

Anyway, on with the story. Enjoy!

Charlotte's POV

"This is it- Anubis House."

I craned my neck, looking out the window to get a view of the boarding school that was to be my new home. The house was old to say the least, and it had a mysterious, almost creepy air to it. I shuddered as my taxi pulled into the driveway.

"Thanks," I got out and paid the driver- this took a while as the English money was very confusing.

"No problem ma'am," he pulled my bag out of the boot before getting back into the driver's seat. "Have a nice day."

Once the taxi had left I turned around to inspect the schoolyard. It was buzzing: students were everywhere, saying goodbye to their parents, reuniting with their friends after the long summer holidays (it felt weird saying that in September!). Grinning with excitement, I picked up my suitcase and made my way towards Anubis House.

"Hello? Is anybody here?" my voice echoed through the house as I pushed open the door. Surely I wasn't the only person here- somebody else must already have arrived.

"You must be Amber's replacement."

I looked up to the top of the stairs where the voice had come from. A dark haired girl was watching me from the landing.

"I'm sorry, I don't know who Amber is," I told her, my smile faltering slightly.

"You wouldn't," she said flatly. "Too late now."

"Okay," I said slowly, extremely confused. "I'm Charlotte. Charlotte Brown. I'm supposed to be staying here this year?"

"That's nice," she didn't seem the slightest bit interested, so I decided to change the topic.

"Where can I put my things?" I asked brightly.

"Just leave the in the hall," she shrugged. "We haven't decided on rooms yet. We have to wait for Nina."

"We?" I asked, hopeful that maybe there was somebody else here as well, someone a little less… cold?

"Who are you terrorising this time, Patricia?" as if in answer to my question, another girl appeared behind the first. She stopped short when she saw me. "Oh. Hi."

Wow, the people at this house really knew how to give you a warm welcome! Not.

"Hey," I waved at her. "I'm Charlotte. I'm new here."

She looked at me for a moment, as if weighing me up. "Mara," she smiled eventually. "Nice to meet you. What's the accent?"

Mara was observant, I'll give her that.

"Australian," I told her. "I'm from Sydney."

"Cool," she nodded. "We were just going to the common room to wait for the others. Want to come?"

"Sure," I grinned, glad to finally be sort-of accepted. "Lead the way."

The two girls descended the stairs and led me into a kind of lounge room, where a middle aged lady and a tall, blonde boy were placing food on what appeared to be a dining table.

"You must be Charlotte," the woman smiled warmly. "I'm Trudy, the housemother here. This is Jerome, and I see you've met Mara and Patricia."

I nodded.

"Have you heard from the others?" Patricia asked.

Trudy frowned. "Mick's stuck in traffic, last I heard. Nina's plane landed at noon, so she'll be here in a little while. I haven't heard from Fabian, so I guess he'll be here soon."

"What about Alfie?" Mara frowned.

Trudy sighed. "Alfie's decided not to come back, sweetie. He's going to a school in London, I think."

"I'm not surprised," Patricia said. "Not after everything that happened last year."

I wondered what had happened last year, but decided it wasn't the time or place to bring it up. There would be plenty of time to find out later.

Just then I heard the front door open. A few moments later a tall boy with dark hair entered the room.

"Is Nina here yet?" he asked without even saying hello to anyone. He seemed almost…worried?

"No sweetie," Trudy told him. "But she shouldn't be more than about fifteen minutes, I don't think."

"Oh, alright. Hey guys," he turned to the teenagers before looking at me. "Who are you?"

"I'm Charlotte, I'm new here," I told him.

"I figured. I'm Fabian, nice to meet you," he nodded.

The next person to arrive was the boy called Mick. As soon as he'd said hi to everyone and been introduced to me he made a b-line for the table.

"Not until Nina gets here," Trudy told him sternly.

"Like she'll eat any of it," I heard Mara say to Patricia, who agreed sadly.

About five minuted after Mick had arrived, a girl with dirty blonde hair appeared in the doorway and everyone fell silent. She was thin with dark rings under her eyes, and she didn't smile as she looked around the room. Her eyes stopped travelling when they met mine and we stayed that way for a moment, everyone watching silently. Suddenly the girl broke eye contact with me and ran out of the room. I could hear her… sobbing?... as she ran up the stairs.

"Nina!" Fabian, the dark haired boy, followed her out of the room. Mara when to get up, but Patricia stopped her.

"Did I do something wrong?" I looked between my new housemates.

"Of course not, sweetie," Trudy told me. "Nina's just taking a bit longer to adjust, that's all. She'll be alright."

"Adjust to what?"

I watched as everyone in the room exchanged glances.

"She and Amber were close," Mara told me eventually.

"But this is the 21st century," I pointed out, still confused. "Can't they just text, or use Skype or Facebook or something?"

Patricia got up and left the room, leaving me more confused. I mean, it sounded like this Alfie dude wasn't coming back either, and they weren't making such a big fuss about him.

Mara opened her mouth, but it was a few moments before she actually started speaking. "Amber…" her voice cracked. "Amber died, at the end of last year. She and Nina were really close, and… Nina kind of blames herself."

Suddenly everything clicked into place.

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Mara shook her head. "And it's not Nina's either. Fabian will be able to cheer her up though. He's the only one who can."

So Fabian and Nina were dating, I assumed. That explained a lot.

At that moment we heard the door open.

"Guys?" an unfamiliar voice called out and a few seconds later the owner appeared in the doorway.

"Joy!" Mara jumped from her seat and hugged her. "What are you doing here?"

"Just thought I'd pop in and say hi," Joy told us. "I'm staying in Isis House this year. Where's Fabes?"

"Upstairs talking to Nina," Patricia's face appeared in the doorway. "And she's really upset Joy, so don't even think about it."

Joy pouted, but didn't say anything else.

The afternoon passed relatively quickly- I made polite small talk with Trudy, Mara and Patricia until tea time.

Fabian and Nina were the last to arrive to eat. Nina sat at the head of the table, closest to the door, and Fabian sat to her right. There were two free seats, one on either side of Patricia. I went to sit to her right, but for reasons unbeknownst to me quickly redirected me so I was sitting on her other side.

Trudy brought out a bowl of spaghetti and placed it at the centre of the table. Not wanting to cause any arguments, I let everybody else get some first.

"You go," Nina smiled weakly at me when we were the only two left with empty plates.

"It's okay," I shook my head, but she pressed the tongs into my hands.

"Really, I'm fine," she told me, so I reluctantly began to serve myself. "I wanted to say sorry," Nina said eventually. "For before. I just… I didn't expect them to replace her so quickly, I guess. It really had nothing to do with you."

"It's fine," I told her, passing her the tongs. I noticed that everybody stopped eating to watch her as she put the spaghetti into her bowl.

She ended up with only about two mouthfuls of food. I watched as she poked at it with her fork while the others exchanged worried glances. I wondered what was going on.

Without saying anything, Fabian began to put some more pasta into Nina's bowl.

"I'm not hungry," she told him, but he ignored her.

"We need to sort out our rooms," Mara declared. "We didn't want to make any decisions until you came, Nina."

Nina frowned. "Well I know you two probably want to share again-" she began.

"But we don't have to," Patricia told her.

"-and I'm fine with that," she hesitated. "But I can't sleep in that same room."

Patricia nodded. "If that's what you want. Mara and I can sleep in your old room then, and you and Charlotte can sleep in ours. Are we decided?"

All the girls nodded.

"I'll go take up my stuff then," Nina decided, and before anybody could stop her she'd left the room.

"How much did she actually eat?" Patricia asked once Nina was out of earshot.

"Maybe three mouthfuls," Fabian sighed. "What if she's been doing this all summer?"

"She'll be alright Fabian," Mara assured him.

"Not if she doesn't eat, she won't," he got up and left the room, taking Nina's dinner with him.

Thanks so much for reading! Tomorrow's a public holiday, so I'll see what I can do, but no promises. You will definitely have a new chapter within the week though.

See you soon!

-Bobbi