Hello! Thanks to those two lovely reviewers from the first chapter. You two made my day! :)
I forgot the disclaimer last chapter. Oh well. I think we all know I own nothing.
"Nicole?" a voice called from behind me. I took a step back from the photograph I was looking at and turned around. Behind me was a lady who wore a bright turquoise blouse and tan pants. She was wearing a kind smile. Her happiness was contagious because I started smiling too. This was strange because I don't smile too often.
"I'm Trudy, your house mother," she said, wrecking my train of thoughts. "Welcome to the Anubis house. You will be rooming with Mara and Amber. Let me show you," she said and started up the stairs. I grabbed my lavender suitcase and black duffle bag and followed her.
She led me down a long corridor, naming rooms as we passed. Sadly, the rooms were commemorated to my memory. It's not like I wanted this. It was forced upon me.
I'm sure you're wondering what I'm talking about. I have an incredibly rare medical condition called hyperthymesia or hyperthymestic syndrome.*
It's a curse. I'm forced to remember every little detail. Everything I have ever seen is stored in my mind. It may seem luck or even a blessing, but it's horrible. Truly horrible.
Wait. Trudy is stopping at a closed door. I'm guessing this is my room.
"Here we are," she said and opened the door. I took the first step inside and tried to memorize the surroundings. The room was decorated with yellow wallpaper with white flowers. I soon noticed that on the headboard of one bed it said 'MARA' in bright colored stickers. She had a tiny vanity in the corner and above it was the periodic table of elements. I'm guessing the other side was all Amber's. I also made a guess that Amber was a fashion-loving, blonde. How did I guess that? Above the bed was a portrait. The portrait consisted of the same picture of a girl's face; the only difference was the artist changed the background color. Both girls had various pictures scatted on their side of the room.
My side of the room was only occupied with a bed and a tiny nightstand. The rest was for me to spread my creativity.
"I'll leave so you can pack. I'm just downstairs if you need anything!" Trudy called in her cheery voice. She turned around and walked back out of the door. "Welcome to Anubis house," she said once again and left.
I twisted my long hair into a ponytail. I turned back to my side of the room and placed my luggage on top of my bed. I unzipped both bags and started removing things. I removed my skateboard from my duffle bag and grinned at it. I couldn't wait to ride it around the school and practice my moves. Skateboarding was always a simple escape for me. My dad got me a skateboard for my birthday one year and I fell in love with it. I loved feeling the wind blow while I was riding. I slid the skateboard under my bed. This was going to be a long day.
"Who are you?" a voice called from behind me.
I spun around and saw my two roommates staring at me. "Hi. I'm Nicole," I explained.
"What are you doing in our room? And why is there a third bed in here?" the blonde shouted.
"I'm your new roommate," I explained.
"Another roommate?" Amber groaned.
"Amber, relax! We knew we were getting a new roommate!" she yelled. "I'm sorry about her. It's nice to meet you. I'm Mara," she said to me, holding out her hand. I grabbed it and shook it.
"I'm sorry if you didn't know I was coming, but I can't go back to California," I said to Amber.
"Why not?" she asked.
"I don't want to, I just got here, and my dad thinks this will teach me to be a bit more responsible."
"Responsible?"
I shrugged. "I have no idea what runs though his mind. He's the one who raised me like this."
"What about your mum?" Mara asked.
I shook my head. "No mum here. She left when I was just a baby."
Amber frowned. "I'm sorry."
I just shrugged her off.
Amber sat down on her bed next and looked at the creation I called my side of the room. I had taped photographs everywhere. There were also note cards my friends made with inside jokes written on them.
"Laggard?" Amber asked.
I smiled. "It means a very slow person. My friend, Bradyn, made that for me. I was always extremely slow in between classes."
"I love Gilbert," Mara read. "Who's Gilbert?"
I started laughing. "No one."
"He's her boyfriend!" Amber exclaimed.
"No! He's not real!" I exclaimed. "My friends and I made him up!"
"Oh," Amber muttered. "I'm Amber, by the way," she said changing the subject.
"I know."
"How?" she asked, confused.
"Trudy told me that I was rooming with Amber and Mara. Mara's bed has her name written on it, and you have a portrait above your bed. I can put two and two together."
"That's more like putting people and their items together," she replied. Mara and I stared at her, then burst into laughter. "What?" Amber said looking at the two of us, "It is!"
"Are the other students like this?" I asked.
Mara nodded. "Have you met them?" I shook my head.
"Why not?" Amber shrieked.
"I haven't left the room!" I replied.
Amber jumped off her bed and grabbed my wrist. "Come along," she said, then started pulling me out the door.
"Help me," I mouthed to Mara, who was following us. She smiled. "Oww!" I screamed. "Watch your claws!"
"Sorry!" she exclaimed, but kept pulling on my arm. I sighed and gave on hard tug and released my arm from her grip.
"Freedom!" I yelled.
"What's with all the yelling?" a girl called in an aggravated voice. She had dark red hair and a blue and red colored clip in. "Nina? Weren't you just in there?" she yelled looking at the door she just came out of.
"Nina? You said your name was Nicole!" Amber yelled at me.
"My name is Nicole," I said to Amber. I turned to the angry girl. "I never went in that room. I'm sorry."
"Patricia, what are you talking about?" Mara asked.
"Look," she instructed. She walked back to her door and opened it. Inside there was a girl sitting on her bed and she looked like she was crying. "Aww. The newbie is crying," she said in a sarcastic voice.
The girl looked up. "What do you want?" she said staring at us.
Patricia pointed to the girl in the room and then at me. "Look at them."
"What? Why?" I asked.
"Amber and Mara, just do it," Patricia instructed. Everyone's eyes turned to me, including the mysterious girl, and then all eyes turned to her.
"What is this about?" I asked.
"You two look the same!" Patricia screamed.
"What?" I shrieked.
"Mara? Look at them!"
"They have similar features, but I can tell that she is Nicole," she said pointing to me.
"Nina!" Patricia barked. The girl glared at her.
"What? I thought I was 'newbie'? That's apparently what you think my name is," Nina said through gritted teeth.
"You were, but now there is another newbie. So Nina is 'Newbie number one' and Nicole is 'Newbie number 2'," Patricia concurred. "Now, Newbie number one, come here."
Nina came over and stood next to me. I could see the tears still running down her cheeks. She quickly brushed the aside with the back of her hand.
"Are you okay?" I whispered to her. She nodded.
"They look like twins!" Patricia shouted.
I rolled my eyes. "We do not! I have never seen her before!" I yelled at Patricia. I turned to Nina. "Where we you born?"
"Florida."
"I was born in California."
"Nicole was raised by her dad," Amber said. I shot her a death glare. "Sorry," she whined.
I sighed. "My mom left my dad when I was little," I explained.
"Newbie number one, where is your father?" Patricia asked.
"He died. Along with my mother," she whispered.
"Speak up," Patricia demanded.
I walked to Patricia and whispered what Nina said in her ear.
Patricia frowned. "Who raised you?"
"My gran."
"See? We aren't twins," I said.
"She's right Patricia," Mara said. Amber nodded.
Patricia sighed. "Fine. You're free to go," she said. She turned around and started down the stairs, mumbling the whole way down. Amber and Mara followed her.
Nina stared at me then turned and walked down the stairs as if nothing had happened. I shrugged and followed her.
We walked into the living room to find everyone lounging around on the chairs and couches. They were all talking amongst themselves. When Nina and I walked in, all eyes turned directly towards us. I started shifting with nervousness. After a few seconds I started tapping along with it. Shift. Shift. Tap. Shift. Shift. Tap. While doing this I was also staring everywhere. I looked all around the room, trying to soak everything in.
"Hi! I'm Nina! I'm from America!" she said cheerfully.
I rolled my eyes at her enthusiasm. I noticed Patricia did too. "Nicole," I muttered.
"Speak up, mouse," a blonde hair boy called. He was sitting on the couch with another friend of his.
"Nicole," I said through gritted teeth. I always hated introducing myself.
His friend stood up and walked towards us. "Hello space girls," he said then made weird noises. Everyone started laughing. "As they say in your land," he concluded.
"My land?" I asked. "I'm just from California."
That caused everyone to laugh more.
"Supper's ready!" called Trudy. She placed plates of food in front of all the chairs.
Amber grabbed the pepper shaker from Trudy. Everyone else sat down and started eating. That just left Nina and I standing up.
"Sit," hissed the boy from earlier. I quickly sat down at the head of the table. At the other was Patricia and she was glaring at me. Nina was still standing. She saw a chair next to Patricia and grabbed the fork by the plate when Amber walked up to her.
"Umm. That's my seat."
"Oh I'm sorry. Do you want to—?"
"Where's Mick?" Amber asked, cutting her off.
"I have no idea who that is. So sorry," Nina apologized. Amber handed the pepper shaker to Nina and left the room. Nina shrugged and sat back down.
"You heard what Amber said. That's her seat," Patricia snapped.
"Yeah, but she's not here right now."
"That's you way, isn't it? Someone's gone for five seconds and you've already moved in."
"Patricia, is head of the welcoming committee. Take no notice, just sit wherever you like," said the boy across from Nina. He had dark hair and was wearing a blue plaid jacket.
I leaned closer to the boy with blonde hair. "What is Patricia talking about? Gone for five seconds and you've already moved in." I whispered.
"Patricia thinks Nina has something to do with her friend Joy. She went missing today and Nina already moved into her room," he explained. "I'm Jerome, by the way."
"Thank you. It's nice to meet you," I replied and took a large bite spaghetti.
"Nina and Nicole, tell us about yourself," the boy with the blue jacket asked us.
"Oh yummy food!" I said, taking an extra large bite of the spaghetti.
"I think she wants to tell us all about her life," Jerome said. I shot him a death glare, while trying not to choke on the spaghetti.
"Oh please. You already told us," Patricia said.
"That's only because you interrogated us!" I shouted at her. "I grew up in California with my dad. My mom left us when I was younger," I explained.
"I could never understand why," Patricia muttered, her voice oozing with sarcasm. I dropped my fork and stared at my plate.
"Patricia!" Mara shouted.
Everyone was silent until Jerome's friend took an extra fork and decided it was a brilliant idea to eat that way.
"Alfie! That's disgusting. You're going to choke on it!" Mara warned. Jerome started laughing and I couldn't help but laugh along.
"But it's delicious this way," Alfie explained with his mouth food. It was quite disgusting.
"Alfie don't play with your food," Jerome said, bringing his fork full of food to his mouth. Right before he placed it in his mouth, he flung it at Alfie.
Alfie grabbed handfuls of spaghetti and threw it at Jerome and Mara. I backed my chair up a bit, praying I didn't get hit with flying food. Jerome threw some back. Alfie grabbed salad from the bowl in the middle of the table and threw it towards Mara, but ended up hitting Nina and the boy who's name I still don't know alongside Mara.
"Really guys, every meal?" the boy asked.
To make matter worse, Patricia picked up the large plastic pitcher of water and poured it all over Nina's lap.
"Oops! Sorry!" Patricia said while pouring it.
"Classy Patricia," the boy said.
"What? It was an accident."
"Are you okay?" the boy asked Nina.
"Yeah, but I think my sweater is shrinking to my body as we speak," she answered trying to wring some of the water out of her clothes.
The boy stood up and went into the kitchen to grab so towels for her.
"So Nina, when are you going to tell us what you know about Joy's disappearance?" Patricia asked.
"I guess when I actually know something."
"Oh come on! One minute I'm sitting next to Joy in class and the next she's disappeared and you've taken her place. Bit of a coincidence, don't you think?"
"I guess it is."
"Maybe she snatched her and locked her in the cellar," Alfie joked.
"Shut up, Alfie," Patricia barked. "Well?"
"Like I said, I don't know anything about Joy or her disappearance," Nina replied.
"I'll get it out of you, eventually."
"Nina! Phone call for you… what's going on?" our caretaker, Victor asked.
"Nothing, just Nina spilled water everywhere," Patricia lied. She sat back down and Nina followed Victor out the room.
When I was positive Victor was gone, I stood up, grabbed all the spaghetti off of my plate, and threw it onto Patricia's head. Everyone gasped.
"Oh my gosh, Patricia! I'm sorry! Here I'll help clean up," I said. I took Mara's plate and poured it onto Patricia's head. I set the plate down. "That's for my mom!" I shouted. I took Jerome's, and Patricia's own cup and poured the water all over her. "That's for Nina!" I screamed. I placed the cups down and marched out of my room and up the stairs. I stopped at the very top of the stairs and looked down. There was Nina talking on the phone. "You're welcome," I muttered and continued to my room.
When I reached my room, I ran straight to my bed and grabbed my skateboard. I headed back down the stairs and I was almost out the door when someone stopped me.
"Hey, Nicole!"
I turned around to see the boy with the blue jacket. "Let me ask this first. Who are you?"
"Fabian. Fabian Rutter," he answered.
"Alright. I just need to know you name. What do you need?"
"Where are you going?"
"Skate," I replied, holding up my skateboard.
He nodded. "I'll tell Trudy."
"Thanks," I replied and turned back to the door.
"Nicole?" I turned back to him. "That was really brave. Standing up to Patricia like that," he said.
I smiled. "Thanks. Again."
What the * means: You now know about Nicole's memory. If any of you have see Disney's show Ant Farm you may know what this is. It's what Olive has. She can remember every little detail of every little thing. Nicole is very similar. It's just an important part to the story.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Please click that button and type a message. It would mean the world.
