Shoebox
Summary: When Trudy finds a shoebox hidden under the stairs, Jerome panics. What secrets from their pasts could it hold? My first JARA!
Author's Note: I wrote this a few years ago for a different cast of characters but never posted it, then found it and decided it would work better for the House of Anubis cast. I decided on JARA because everyone has been begging for it from my other story, and since it'll be a few chapters before I can consider the possibility of that couple in "Just a Game" I'm putting them here. Hope this holds you all over. For the sake of this story, pretend that Mara and Mick were never together. Everything else in the series happened. FLUFF ALERT!
Disclaimer: I do not own House of Anubis.
"I'm so bored," Mara complained, laying down the book she had just finished. It was the last weekend of the term before summer began and the members of Anubis house went their separate ways. Mara was in the library with Jerome, keeping him company while he worked.
"Why don't you start the work we were assigned for the break?" Jerome proposed, lifting his focus off the mathematics on his desk.
"I already did," she shrugged. He turned around to stare at her.
"What kind of person does homework this long before it's due?" he exclaimed.
"Well, I finished all my assignments, so I started to work on the summer work, and now I just have to read the required books before the new term starts," she explained quickly, avoiding his baffled stare. He stared at her for a moment, contemplating his comeback. Before he could, however, her phone rang. She checked the caller ID before picking it up.
"Hey Trixie," she greeted, excited to have someone new to talk to.
"Hey Mara, bored much?" Patricia teased. Mara laughed.
"Yeah, Jerome and I are in the library. He's trying really hard to do the math work, and he won't let me help."
"Wait, you're with Jerome? Did I interrupt anything?" she lowered her voice, praying he wasn't eavesdropping.
"No, he's...struggling," Mara giggled. Jerome turned to scowl at her, but she ignored it.
"Okay, hold on one sec," Patricia replied, slightly relieved. She covered the mouthpiece on her phone, but Mara could still hear Joy's loud reaction. Mara giggled. "I'm back. I actually called to tell you that Trudy was doing a little cleaning and found something amazing under the stairs. You have to come see this. How fast can you and Jerome get here?"
"We're on our way," Mara confirmed, hanging up the phone. "That was Patricia. Apparently Trudy found something under the stairs that we have to go see." Her tone accented her confusion. Jerome closed his book and hid the look of fear that crossed his face. Unlike Mara, he knew exactly what Trudy had found.
"Well then, let's not keep them waiting," Jerome encouraged, holding out a hand for her to take. When their skin touched, Jerome pulled Mara up easily. She landed on her feet, her chest inches from his. Color filled her cheeks when she stepped away to grab her bag off a nearby table. She slipped into her flip flops.
"Coming?" she checked. He sighed.
"I'm definitely going to regret this," he mumbled, snatching his books off the table where he had been working. Together, they walked back to the house, lost in quiet conversation. When they arrived, they discovered that they were not the only ones who had been called in from their other activities. Mick jogged through the door, sweating visibly.
"Guys, Trudy found the shoebox! We can open it as soon as everyone gets here," Alfie announced excitedly. Jerome grabbed his arm and pulled him aside, leaving Mara with Joy and Patricia. They sent Mick to his room to change out of his dripping clothes.
"Do you remember what we wrote?" Jerome asked, panic seeping into his voice. Alfie shook his head.
"What is going on with you two?" Patricia asked once the boys were out of earshot, ignoring the suspicious argument they were having.
"Absolutely nothing," Mara sighed, lowering her head.
"Well if you don't do something about it, Amber will," Joy warned. Right on cue, their blond housemate waltzed through the door. Fabian and Nina, who had been in town visiting Fabian's Uncle Ade, soon followed. When Mick returned sporting a fresh set of clothes, Trudy ushered the nine members of Anubis House into the living room, where they took their places spread out among the couches. Mick dropped into one of the two armed chairs, and Alfie stole the other. Fabian and Nina curled into the corner of one of the two couches, leaving space for Patricia and Joy as well. Jerome sat down on the other couch. As Mara moved to sit beside him, Amber purposely walked into her, banging into her shoulder. The force threw the petite brunette backward. She fell into Jerome's lap, and he instinctively wrapped his arms around her waist. They both blushed, yet neither moved. Amber smirked, satisfied with his work.
When they noticed the stares of their friends, Jerome and Mara both moved at once. Jerome lifted his dream girl off his lap, setting her down beside him on the couch. Mara swiveled away from him slightly, so her knees faced the table in the middle of the formation. Jerome left his arm wrapped around her waist, rubbing small circles in her back like he often did. However, instead of filling her with comfort as his gesture usually did, his efforts caused her blush to deepen. She moved her head to the nearest hiding spot: his chest.
Noticing the awkwardness slowly surrounding the entire group, Nina broke the ice.
"So, what exactly is the significance of the shoebox Trudy found?" she asked. Mara lifted her face slightly to send a thankful smile in Nina's direction. However, before anyone could answer, Trudy walked in, holding the box in her hands.
"This is not just a shoebox, Nina," she corrected. "It's a time capsule." Mara and a few others gasped, finally realizing the significance of the day.
"We all came to Anubis House from different schools. To help us get to know each other, Trudy had us do a lot of different things. About two weeks after we all moved in, we created this time capsule," Fabian began, indicating for Patricia to continue the story.
"We filled it with letters to our future selves that had all sorts of information: our hopes and dreams, our secrets, fears, that sort of thing," Patricia added, turning to Joy to finish the tale.
"That night, Trudy sealed the time capsule and hid it someplace while we were all asleep. Now, five years later, we can look back and see how much we've changed since those days," Joy concluded, turning her eyes to Trudy, who now stood in the front of the group. She slowly opened the box, removing the top with care.
"Jerome, looks like your letter is on top," she announced, passing him the note. He gulped, glancing around at the others nervously. One by one, the letters returned to their original owners. She pulled out a framed photograph similar to the one that Nina had seen on her first day: all eight students stood in front of the house, smiling and laughing. Though most of their appearances had changed significantly, their personalities – at least judging from their poses – had remained the same over the years.
"On the count of three," Fabian decided. "One..."
"Two..." Amber continued, leaving the last number to Alfie.
"Three." The sound of shredding envelopes filled the room as 8 students reconnected with their past selves. Silence ensued as each member of the house read the letter they had once written. Nina reached out to Trudy for the photograph, taking a moment to look at it while the others read. She placed it on her lap and felt a paper on the back. Turning the photograph over, she discovered a paper taped on the back. Written on it in Victor's classic scrawl was "The Chosen." Arguing from the opposite couch caused her to look away for a minute.
"No, you can't look at it!" Jerome exclaimed, grabbing his letter and holding it away from Mara.
"What's the big deal?" Mick asked. He snatched the paper from Jerome's outstretched hand.
"Hey!" Jerome shouted, grabbing for it. Mick passed it over to Alfie, who started running toward the kitchen. Fabian, grinning, stood up to follow them. He ran past Jerome and changed to a steady pace alongside Alfie. Unseen by Jerome, he handed Alfie his own paper and took Jerome's. The two boys split and, as predicted, Jerome followed Alfie up the stairs. Fabian stopped and turned around, running quickly back to the group. He grinned at Nina, who shook her head, hiding a grin of her own.
"You wanted to have a look? Well here's your chance," Fabian offered, holding the paper out to Mara. She took it hesitantly. Curiosity overcame her, and she slowly began to read the letter. She gasped about halfway down, raising one hand to cover her mouth. Suddenly, Alfie and Jerome returned to the room. Alfie allowed Jerome to pass between the chairs first, stepping back to the chair Mara lifted her eyes to meet Jerome's.
"That's my letter, isn't it," he commented, shutting his eyes forcibly for a moment and making a visible effort to keep his breathing steady. She nodded slightly. He took a deep, audible breath.
"You don't have to be embarrassed," she whispered. "I think it was really sweet."
"What's really sweet?" Patricia prodded.
"Apparently something I wrote, though I don't agree," Jerome explained.
"Well let's hear it anyway," Fabian suggested. Jerome sighed and sat back down on the couch. Following his lead, the other members of the house reclaimed their places. Mara handed Jerome his letter, allowing him to read it aloud to the group.
"I wrote that I dreamed of marrying my high school sweetheart," he remarked quietly. The girls cooed. Jerome smiled half-heartedly.
"That's really sweet, Jerome. Why are you embarrassed? Aside from the fact that it's totally out of character," Amber interrogated. Alfie, grinning almost evilly, began the story.
"Because he hasn't had a girlfriend since-"
"Mate!" Jerome interrupted, appalled that his roommate would share the information.
"How are you going to marry your high school sweetheart if you don't ask Mara out?" Mick added. Everyone turned to stare at him in shock. Unfazed, as if he hadn't noticed his words or their presence, he continued. "I mean, she loves you, you love her, and neither of you has done anything about it." No one dared break the silence that now filled the room. Mara looked at Jerome's frozen face, her eyes shining with unshed tears. He turned to her momentarily, and then turned away again. She fled the room.
"Mara!" Patricia called after her. She and Nina jumped out of their seats, running after her. Jerome sat silently.
"Jerome, what are you doing?" Joy scolded. "Go after her!" Jerome didn't hear her, though.
"She loves me," he whispered, more to himself than to anyone else. He looked around the room at his housemates. "She loves me."
"Yeah, we got that, Romeo. Now go do something about it, or you'll prove that you're even stupider than we've always thought," Amber interjected.
"She loves me! She practically admitted it herself, and I sat here like a bloody idiot! I'm more of a meathead than Mick is!" he shouted. Mick gave a disgruntled groan at the analogy, but he didn't protest.
"Just stop ranting and go get her!" Fabian argued. Jerome took a deep breath and pulled a paper out of his pocket. It was the second piece of his letter, which no one had noticed him hide. He held it in his hands, reading it slowly, ignoring the others in the room.
"I'm going to murder that boy if he doesn't fix this," Patricia muttered. She and Nina sat on either side of Mara, whose sobs had now reduced to a trickle of tears. They sat at the top of the stairs, looking down to the entrance beneath them. Patricia had settled snugly between Mara and the wall, and Nina curled against the railing. They each wrapped an arm around Mara, who hid her face in her hands.
The top of the steps was a well-known hiding place of Mara's – at least, to anyone who knew her it was. When her parents had first dropped her off at the school, she had curled up on the stairs, watching them leave. They were her refuge when her parents had called with the terrible news of her grandfather's death, and again when they brought her back to the school following his funeral. She hid on the steps whenever she was stressed, troubled, heartbroken, or depressed. Patricia had discovered it just before they had first become roommates, when Mara had her first major falling-out with her then-roommate Amber.
Jerome stepped into the entrance and looked up, meeting Nina's eye when she looked over her shoulder. Nina gently touched Patricia's arm behind Mara's back, gathering her attention. Patricia looked first to her friend, and then past to the spot where Jerome stood, waiting nervously. The two girls' eyes' met just as Mara lifted her head. She looked between them for a moment, confused.
"We'll leave you alone, Mara," Nina whispered. Mara looked past Nina and, seeing Jerome, bit her lip.
"We'll be right through there," Patricia assured her, motioning to the door behind them, which led to the girls' bedrooms. She and Nina left before Mara could protest and crawled through the doorway.
"I knew I'd find you here," Jerome whispered from below the landing. He had spent many nights comforting her on the landing over the years and always knew when to find her there. She was the only one who ever saw his softer side. Their eyes met through the bars. "Can I come up?" She nodded, despite the hurt he had caused her. His eyes remained locked on hers as he walked up the stairs and sat beside her. He sat beside her and handed her both pages of the letter.
"I want you to read it. All of it," he commanded gently. Mara took the papers from his hand and read through the first page, not noticing the second.
"I don't understand," she muttered, looking back to him, still gripping the letter in her hands. He reached across to her and covered her hands with his own. Steadily as he could with the fast beating of his heart, he revealed the second page of the letter.
"Do you really mean this?" she asked, her voice barely audible. She looked back at the paper, rereading it in disbelief.
"I meant it then, and I mean it now. I've been in love with you for five years, Mara Jaffray," he admitted, rephrasing the same thing he had written in his initial letter.
"So now what? First Mick shares my deepest secret, which I didn't even know he knew, and then you just sit there like a statue, so I run away, crying my eyes out, scolding myself for ever hoping we could be more than friends, and NOW you come along to make everything all better? You expect me to just fall into your arms like I always have, and-" she ended her rant by dramatically falling into him. He caught her and pulled her against his chest. As he soothed her, he kissed the top of her head instinctively. In that instant, something changed between them. In one synchronized movement, their bodies separated and then reconnected. He kissed her lips, salty with the remnants of her tears. The kiss was nervous, testing, hopeful.
Around the corner, the door creaked open silently, and Nina and Patricia took a few hidden pictures of the pair. Meanwhile, the group downstairs had appeared in the entrance room, standing in the doorway. Mara and Jerome pulled away once again, and he held her cheek in his hand. Noticing the reappearance of their friends, Mara blushed, and Jerome took her hand. They stood as if to leave the stairs, and their housemates scurried back into the living room. Nina and Patricia closed the door and waited until the landing was empty to join the group.
"Now that we're all here, I have an announcement," Jerome stated, pulling Mara up with him. "Yes, we are officially official. No you girls can't steal her to have one of your girls-only discussions. You can have her later. Right now she's mine." He wrapped an arm around her shoulder, causing the girls to grin. Trudy walked in from the kitchen carrying a plate of snacks, and the nine housemates reclaimed their spots around the room, snacking, chatting, and knowing that wherever they were 5 years down the line, they would have each other.
Author's Note: Thank you all for reading this! Please review, and if you haven't already, check out my story "Just a Game." I'll be updating that shortly, once I'm fully moved in to school and all of that.