I sigh as I packed by bags, sloppily throwing my somewhat gothic (mostly just darkly colored) clothes in there. I sat on the jet-black suitcase, finally getting it to shut. A week ago, I turned thirteen and that meant I was moving to the school my brother Jerome was at. I was going to live in Anubis House just like he did. I'd have to share a room with two of the girls, which was fine with me. Even though I wasn't supposed to be going to boarding school since that school was only fifteen and up, they made an exception because I'm pretty smart. I was smart enough to be bumped up to Jerome's grade level. Plus my dad just wanted to get rid of me. I put my extremely dark brown in a ponytail, my dark side bangs still spilling over my right eye, after changing out of my pajamas (grey sweatpants with a plain red shirt) into black skinny jeans and a plain white shirt covered with a thin black grey vest, which looked great against my perfectly tanned skin. As I looked into the mirror, my normally emotionless and sometimes cold brown eyes were filled with anxiety. I was really nervous about leaving. But, it's not like I begged my dad to go there; he's just trying to get rid of me so he can be happy with his newly wed blonde bimbo wife who HATES children. So as you can see, she hates me. Dad only wants to get rid of me because I remind him of Mum. He hates me because Mum died giving birth me. That's why Jerome hates me too.
"Hailey come on! We're going to be late if you don't hurry up", my father yelled at me. I stepped out of my small, uncomfortable bright yellow (ugh) room and out of my house, getting in the black car with the driver that would take me on the two hour journey to my new home and new life. My father and Sally waved good bye to me with fake smiles across their face as I drove off. I put in my purple and black earphones while I listened to my favorite bands: Paramore, Nickelback, and Hollywood Undead. All American bands I discovered on our monthly trips to California I got dragged too after some unscheduled explosions happened when I stayed home alone. Oddly, I was glad to be leaving home. Nobody at school liked me and I had no friends except Mitchel, but it was just because I was unafraid to be myself and not go along with the crowd, but I didn't care. I was sad to be leaving Bert's Pet Store though. I had a job there on the weekends and spent almost every waking moment there; I only used my house as a place to store stuff and sleep. Anyways, I really don't care I just want to be myself. After about two hours I arrived in front of a huge school. I stood there in awe before regaining my senses, slinging my black Jansport backpack over my back before grabbing all my other stuff, including two guitar cases. One held my black ibanez and the other held my black acoustic guitar. I wrote a lot of songs and I'm a pretty good singer. A pretty girl with dirty blonde hair that was wavy walked up to me with a guy with brown hair that hung right above his eyes who was about half an inch taller than the brown-blonde girl.
"Hey are you Hailey Clark?" the girl asked. I replied with a small nod. "Cool. I'm Nina Martin, from America, and this is Fabian Rutter. I guess you're staying in House of Anubis with us", she explained with a bright, genuine smile. Like her accent didn't give it away.
"Yeah no offense but why are you staying in Anubis with us. You look really young?" he asked in a curious manner.
"I-my brother lives in Anubis. Jerome. So my parents wanted me to come here to be with him", I explained quietly.
"Jerome has a sister! How come he's never told anyone? Oh well, that's cool that you get to live with your brother. Let's take you to him", Nina said excitedly. I gave a small nod and walked behind her into a big, wooden, ancient looking home. "Victor said you'd be sharing with me and my friend Amber so Fabes and I will help you take your bags there if that's alright", she added on the last part quickly. Fabian took my big black suitcase while Nina took my small black suitcase and headed up into my new room. On the west and east side of the room were two girly looking beds and in the north corner was an empty wall behind a plain, small bed.
"Thanks", I murmered to Nina and Fabian as I started to unpack. The wooden bed had drawers on the side where I'd store my stuff. I threw on the gray comforter covered with neon blue and neon purple stars (go to and look at the SO Cal pretender bedseat) along with the matching pillows. I hung up various posters of the bands I mentioned earlier along with a few others. I unpacked all my clothes and put them away. Lastly, I grabbed the two guitar stands out of my backpack and put them by my bed. I smiled as I looked at the small corner that was now my home. I heard the door open and Nina came in.
"Do you want a tour of the house?" she said, Fabian peeking over her shoulder. I gave a small half-smile and nodded, following her out the door. I noticed both of them were somewhat matching, both wearing dark skinny jeans and a grey top. Nina had a purple undershirt covered by one of those grey tops that kind of shows your shoulder while Fabian had a grey t-shirt with a purple hawk flying on it.
"You play guitar?" Fabian asked.
"Yeah, I've been playing since I was six years old", I told him with a real smile on my face. I couldn't help it; evertime I talk about music I couldn't help but smile.
"Cool...I dabble a bit in it but I prefer bass guitar", he explained. I gave another half-smile and nodded.
"This is Patricia and Mara's room", she said, pointing at the door down the hall. "And that's the bathroom", she said pointing at the other door. We walked down the stairs and she showed me around the ground floor before leading me to the boys dorms. "That's Mick and Fabian's room and that over there is Jerome's and Alfie's room", she said before pointing towards the bathroom. Suddenly, Jerome came out with a thin boy with black skin and big brown eyes came trailing out behind him. Then, he glanced towards me, freezing as we locked eyes. "Jerome! Hey you're sister's here!" Nina said excitedly.
"Great", Jerome said sarcastically, not even glancing towards me.
"H-hi Jerome", I meekly said, getting a small glare in return. He turned around to walk away, when Fabian stopped him.
"Dude that's your sister. You could at least say hi", Fabian defended me.
"Hi", Jerome said in a sarcastic and menacing tone before stomping off past me in a angry way, with the boy who I'm guessing is Alfie following him. Nina and Fabian shot a worried glance towards me.
"Forget it", I muttered to them, and they looked away, clearly embarrassed about what they witnessed.
"So now I guess it's time for you to meet the gang", Nina told me, trying to clear past the awkwardness. I solemnly nodded before following her into the common room, where a bunch of teenagers were hanging out. "You guys!" Nina yelled, clapping her hands together which got their attention. "This is Hailey. She'll be living in Anubis from now on. She is rooming with me and Amber", she explained. "Hailey, this is Mara, Amber, Patricia, Alfie, um...yeah, Mick, our house mom Trudy and the head of our house...our guardian I guess Victor", she said pointing to each person, saying the 'um yeah' as she pointed to Jerome. That really nice-looking Trudy lady gave me a warm smile and came over to give me a hug. "You guys meet Hailey Clark", Nina added on.
"Clark...as in Jerome's sister?" one girl, Mara I think, asked.
"Forget it Mara", Jerome said before angrily walking back to his room. A few seconds later we all heard a door slam.
"Jerome has a sister? Hahahahahaha. Got any embarrassing secrets about him?" Alfie asked intently with a warm smile.
I shook my head, trying to hide my sad face at mention of Jerome. He gave a small nod and leaned back into the dark red sofa. That Mara girl came over to me.
"Hi", she said shyly.
"Alright Hailey why don't you get to know everyone and Fabian and I are gonna do some chores", Nina said while waving good-bye before walking out the door, dragging Fabian along with her.
"I expect Ms. Martin and Mr. Rutter haven't told you the rules. You must have lights out by ten o' clock and you're expected to do your fair share of chores. Trudy will assign them to you. Also, you may not under any circumstances venture your little self in the attic and/or the cellar", Victor ordered menacingly.
"Yes sir", I said, looking him straight in the eye with a small nod.
A small grin mused at his face. "Sir...I like that", he mumbled before the angry look sketched itself upon his face again as he walked off, carrying a creepy stuffed black bird with him.
" 'Yes sir'. Well you've clearly made a good impression upon Victor. Good choice", Trudy said with a warm smile. "Well, I should start making supper now. Come and talk to me anytime if you'd like", she offered sweetly before turning around to walk to the kitchen.
"Wait- what are my chores?" I asked, earning laughs from everyone.
"Don't worry about it today. I'll have Nina drop you off the schedule later", she said with another warm smile before walking back to the kitchen.
"So...", Patricia said awkwardly.
"You're so cute!", Amber said, pinching my cheeks. I gave her a weird look. "Oh my gosh I've always wanted a little sister that I could dress up like a doll", she squealed.
"Um...", I said trying to find a way to tell her I'm not a girly-girl and wouldn't do that without being rude and making a bad first impression.
"I don't think she'd like that Amber", Patricia said, saving me. I breathed a sigh of relief and shifted my weight onto my left foot, standing there awkwardly.
"So where are you from?" Mick asked.
"Same place as Jerome dummy! She's his sister, duh!", Patricia butted in.
"Whatever Trixie. So what do you like to do?" Mick asked.
"Um, I like music. I play guitar, bass, piano, drums, violin, and a bunch of other instruments and I like to read and write", I answered timidly.
"Reading and writing is so boring! It's like...work", Amber said. I grinned at her answer.
"What kind of music?" Mara asked.
"Mostly rock. You know, like Three Days Grace, Anberlin, Hollywood Undead", I explained.
"Oh...that's cool", from the way Mara replied I guess she had no idea whatsoever who those bands were."Come on Hailey. I'll show you the campus", she offered, Patricia standing up to come with. So, we went on a tour of the campus and I met all the teachers. Finally, it was supper time and we went back to the house. They all finally left me alone for a few minutes so I went to the boys dorms and tapped on Jerome's door. He opened up and once he saw it was me he glared.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"Y-you didn't come home for Christmas", I explained while holding out a rather large parcel in green wrapping paper. He hastily grabbed it and unsurely looked at it, turning it around in his hands as if inspecting it. "Open it", I urged. He carefully opened it to see a brand new skateboard I saved up for months for. It had black grip tape and on the bottom it was black and in neon blue it said Jerome. It cost so much because it was custom made. "I got it custom made", I told him with a smile.
"Oh, um thanks", he said awkwardly. I gave him a quick hug, and he stood there stiffly. "I hope you realize two things. One, it's February. A little late for Christmas gifts. Second, I didn't get you anything", he said coldly.
"I know, and as for the second reason it's fine", I said quickly.
"Good night", he said once again in the cold tone I hated before slamming the door in my face, but I stopped it with my foot.
"It's not my fault Jerome! If I had a choice, you know I would have chose her over me", I hissed fiercely as he slammed the door in my face.
Then I heard a female voice say, "She's your little sister you could at least be a little nicer towards her Jerome". I recognized Mara's small and timid voice.
"You wouldn't understand Mara!", I heard him exclaim.
"Maybe I don't understand exactly what's going on but at least be kind to her! You don't have to be such a jerk", Mara yelled.
"You see? That..thing hasn't even been here a day and she's alreading messing up my life", angrily refuted Jerome. With that sentence I quickly and quietly tip-toed away up to my room and lay down. After a few minutes of calmly lying there, I got up and went down to the kitchen were I saw Trudy getting plates, forks, knives, spoons all that stuff out of a cupboard.
"Would you like some help with that?" I offered meekly.
"Oh thank you dear. Your so kind", she flashed me a huge smile while I took all the stuff and set the table.
"S' no problem", I mumbled modestly. "You need help with anything else?"
"No, I'm good dear. Actually, do you mind telling everyone it's time for supper", she said, patting my cheek in a motherly way. I flashed her one of my extremely reserved genuine grins before running to my room to go tell Nina and Amber. As I opened the door, I saw Nina looking irritated and frustrated and Amber who looked perky and excited.
"Just admit it!" Amber yelled towards Nina in sort of a teasing manner. Both were lying on their beds.
"Oh hey Hailey", Nina said, finally noticing me.
"T-Trudy told me to tell you guys it's supper time", I said, still shy around my new house mates. I never got along with kids; I'm more compatible with adults. They both said a quick 'thanks' and went to go tell the guys. I went and knocked on Patricia and Mara's room and Patricia opened up.
"Hey...Hailey right?" she asked, a bright blue streak evident against her auburn hair. I gave a small nod.
"Trudy wanted me to let you know it's supper time", I said, even more shy around these girls than my roommates. They both muttered a quick thanks and ran out. I quietly followed them down at sat in a chair as far away from Jerome as possible. It was a table that seated ten people. Nina sat at the head of the table, Fabian at her left and Amber at her right. Next to Amber was Patricia, and next to Patricia was Alfie. Next to Fabian was Mick, Mara, and then Jerome. I was next to Alfie. While everyone was chatting exciteably, I uncomfortably ate my delicious meal of chicken and potatoes.
"So Hailey, how did you get in? Nina tells us you are only thirteen after all", Mick asked.
"Well, I really like school and I'm good at it, I guess. Plus my dad wanted me to be with Jerome", I explained, my cheeks turning a dark red as everyone turned their attention to me.
"Oh great so it's Dad's fault I'm stuck with you", Jerome glared venomously at me.
"Jerome just shut up okay? Gosh you're such a jerk she's only thirteen what could she possibly have done?" Patricia butted in. Jerome angrily threw the tan napkin off his lap and onto the table before he stomped out.
"What happened? I've never seen Jerome that upset", Alfie asked in a small voice. I sigh.
"It's complicated", I said seriously.
"I better go after him", Alfie threw off his napkin in a similar manner to Jerome and walked away.
"So what classes will you be taking?" Mara asked inquisitively.
"Well, um, here's my schedule", I said, handing here the perfectly folded white piece of paper in my jeans pocket. She passed it around.
"You have the same schedule as all of us!", Amber exclaimed.
"All house members always have all of the same classes except for elective and foreign language, because those depend on your choice", Fabian explained. I nodded and finished up my meal. I grabbed my silverware, Alfie's, and Jerome's and put them in the sink. After everyone finished, I helped Mick with the dishes quietly before running up to my room. After Amber and Nina explained to me about the school and the house for a while, then Victor said something about a pin dropping and I changed into black gym shorts and a red t-shirt before curling into the soft covers and drifting off to sleep.
