So one of the races I was supposed to be running today got cancelled, which means I had more time to write and I'm able to get a chapter up tonight.

Next chapter should be up on Monday unless I can find time tomorrow.

I don't own House of Anubis.

Enjoy the chapter and please review!

Charlotte's POV

It was only about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, but I was exhausted. That probably had something to do with the fact that it was three o'clock in the morning in Australia.

Can't say I loved the jetlag.

I decided to go up to bed, but I thought I should check my emails first to see if my family or any of my Australian friends had sent me anything.

The regulation school laptop that I had been given the day before loaded surprisingly quickly, so I was logged into my emails within a few minutes.

14 unread emails.

I frowned as I read through them. Most of them were from my old school friends and my vast variety of natural, step and half siblings.

I'll admit it now, my family was pretty messed up.

There was one from my mum, telling me that her most recent divorce application had been approved, so it was bye-bye husband number four.

That's right, husband number four. I told you my family was messed up.

I was about to turn off the computer and go to bed when a bar popped up at the top of my screen.

Incoming call, it read. Angus Porter.

I frowned as I clicked on the word 'accept'. What on earth was Angus doing, calling me at three in the morning?

"Hey Charlotte," I heard him say, and a moment later my boyfriend's face appeared on the screen. "How's England?"

"English?" I suggested, and he rolled his eyes.

"Ha ha. How's your new school? What are the other kids like? Did you meet any boys cuter than me?" he pouted playfully.

"As a good girlfriend, I'm pretty sure I have to say no," I teased, causing him to laugh. "The others are alright; I haven't spoken to them much though."

Angus frowned. "Charlotte Brown, the social butterfly, is having trouble making friends?"

I rolled my eyes, hesitating slightly. "You know how I was only able to come to this school because a place opened up, right? How I was on, like, a waiting list?"

"Yeah."

"Well the girl whose spot I've taken, Amber, she… died. They're still getting over it. My roommate burst into tears the first time she saw me."

"Only you could make someone cry just by looking at them," Angus laughed, despite the serious topic.

I yawned, rolling my eyes. "What are you even doing up?" I asked him. "Isn't it some ridiculous time in the morning?"

"Is it a crime to want to talk to my girlfriend?" he asked. "I figured I'd have to wait until you got home from school."

I laughed. "As sweet as that is, classes don't start until tomorrow."

"You mean I stayed up for nothing?" he groaned. "Thanks for the heads up, Char."

I laughed. "Anyway, I'm exhausted. You should work out the time differences and call me in the morning. My morning, that is."

"Glad I'm appreciated," Angus said, mock offended. "Talk tomorrow?"

"Sounds good," I nodded and the screen went black. Without even bothering to put my computer away I collapsed back into my bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

The next time I woke up was on account of a loud thud.

I rolled over sleepily in my bed. Apparently the universe had decided that it didn't want me to sleep- last night it had been Nina, and tonight the mysterious thud.

I heard light footsteps, so I opened my eyes slightly. Through the darkness I could see a figure moving in the direction of the door, and Nina's bed appeared to be empty. I watched as she opened the door and silently slipped out.

"Hey," I heard a male voice from the other side of the door, presumably Fabian's. "Are you sure you're okay to do this with your ankle? I can go look on my own if you want."

"I'm fine," Nina said. "Come on, let's go."

I leaned over and glanced at my alarm clock. It was midnight, so I guess I had had a fairly decent amount of sleep. The question was, what on earth were Nina and Fabian doing sneaking around the house at that time?

I decided to find out.

Slipping my dressing gown on, I followed her out of the room. I was just in time to see them slip into the door which I had been told led to the attic, one of only two places in the house that was strictly out of bounds.

My curiosity got the better of me, so I quietly approached the door they had just disappeared through. Silently I pushed it open and made my way upstairs. I opened the door at the top to be met with the surprised and anxious faces of Fabian and Nina.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked them.

"Charlotte?" Nina asked as the pair visibly relaxed. "What are you doing here?"

"I asked first," I pointed out.

They looked at each other for a moment.

"We were… going on a date," Nina told me eventually. "We're secretly a couple."

While the story was definitely plausible, something about it didn't quite add up.

"That's right," Fabian confirmed after the confusion on his face had disappeared. "But you can't tell anyone, okay?"

Admittedly I had never been very good at keeping secrets, but there's a first time for everything, right?

"Sure," I nodded. "But can I ask why it has to be a secret?"

"More romantic that way," Nina told me as if I was the most obvious thing in the world, reaching out to grip Fabian's hand.

But wouldn't it have saved them so much trouble to just be honest about it? I was about to point this out when we heard a voice.

"Whoever is up there, come down immediately!"

The three of us looked at each other wide eyed- it was Victor, the caretaker of Anubis House. I had been told he was very strict. Nina moved to a corner of the attic where a large wooden board was leaning against the wall. Fabian followed her. He pulled the board aside slightly, knocking something off the table beside it but also revealing a kind of alcove.

The three of us squeezed inside. It was tight, but we managed to get the board back over just as the attic door opened.

"I know you're up here," we heard Victor say. "Show yourself immediately."

We held our breaths, willing him to go away and not find us.

"What do we have here?"

I looked wide eyed at Fabian and Nina, the three of us sure we'd been caught. The board of wood, however, did not move.

"The athenaeum is the place to look," a young girl's voice echoed through the silence. "Lift the wings to find the book. Hidden in this book of old, water of life and tears of gold."

What the hell was that? Was Victor holding some little girl hostage up here in the attic? I wouldn't have put it past him.

I saw Nina lean over and whisper something in Fabian's ear, but whatever it was she wasn't going to share it with me.

We heard Victor leave. I went to move the board so we could get out, but Nina stopped me.

"It might be a trap," she said in a whisper. "We should wait a few more minutes."

So that's what we did. The three of us stood in silence for who know how long without hearing a peep. Eventually Fabian nodded.

"I think we're safe. Come on, let's get out of here before he decides to come back."

Nina and I nodded, and silently we left the attic.

Though I went back to bed, I barely slept at all for the rest of the night. If the amount of tossing and turning Nina did during the night and the dark rings under her eyes in the morning were anything to go by, neither did she.

Breakfast was much quieter than it had been the day before. Everyone ate almost in silence, with the occasional 'pass the jam, Mara' or 'is there any more toast, Trudy?'. Everyone was already in their school uniform except me, so I went upstairs to get changed. By the time I'd come back down the house was as good as empty.

"Oh, hello Charlotte," Trudy frowned as I entered the kitchen in search of my housemates. "I thought you'd gone over with the others."

"Nope," I shrugged, trying not to show that I was a bit upset to have been left behind. "It's alright, I'll go over now. Bye."

"See you later, sweetie," Trudy smiled as I left the house.

The walk over to school was relatively short, and it wasn't hard to find to find my first class of the day- English.

As I entered I noticed that all the other Anubis residents were already there, seated in the row closest to the wall. Nina was still arranging her books and was het to sit down, and she was the first to see me.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry Charlotte," she said. "We were going to wait for you."

"It's fine," I shrugged it off, taking a seat on the desk at the front in the second row.

While Nina had been talking to me another girl had taken her seat. It was the one from Isis House that I'd met on my first day.

"Erm, Joy," Fabian frowned, looking at Nina.

"Oh sorry," Joy said, reluctantly gathering up her things. "We used to share, I didn't…" she trailed off as she got up and came over to sit in the last vacant spot, which was incidentally right next to me.

"First my friends and now my Fabian," she pouted.

I wasn't sure if she was actually talking to me, but if she was I had no idea what she was going on about.

"Sorry?"

"Oh I forgot you're new, aren't you?" she said. "Let me fill you in. Basically I used to stay at Anubis, but then my parents took me out of school for a year and Nina took my place. Now I'm back, and she's taken everything that used to be mine, not to mention the fact that Fabian practically worships her. It's so unfair."

"So you and Fabian used to date?" I was really confused.

"Basically. But not anymore. He, along with everyone else, likes Nina way more than me."

This Joy girl seemed pretty insecure, to be honest. Nina didn't seem like the sort of person who would come in and demand attention over another girl.

I took Joy's silence as a chance to have a look around the classroom. There was a lot of whispering among the kids from the other houses, and many of them kept sending glances in the direction of the Anubis residents. The latter were remaining determinedly indifferent, not really acknowledging the fact that anybody but themselves existed.

The teacher -Mrs Andrews, according to my timetable- entered at this point.

"Morning," she addressed the class.

"Good morning Mrs Andrew," everyone replied.

"Right," she put her bag down on her desk. "World literature: fairy tales and folk stories. Joy, will you hand these out? Page 22 please."

Joy groaned, but got up and did as she was told.

And viola! See you on Monday and remember that reviews make me happy!

-Bobbi