"Rocky-boo, what are you doing?" Amber asked. Rock, who had been randomly standing in the main hall staring at the door, turned around with an irritated expression.

"Don't call me that," she said. Amber rolled her eyes; she was going to call her that anyway.

"Anyway, I found this totally adorable dress for the dance. Now, I want to find you one," she said, cheerfully. Rocky prepared to argue even though she knew that she would likely lose anyway.

"I am not wearing a dress, Amber."

"Why not?" Amber couldn't understand why anyone would hate pants.

"Let me phrase this carefully; unless it wraps around my legs and goes below my knees, I'm not wearing it." It took a while for Amber to connect this to pants.

"Aw, but I found this adorable green one!" She whined. Rock's eyes widened with worry, and she cocked her eyebrows.

"I hate green."

"You hate a lot of things. When has that ever stopped you?"

"Never, but I hate green."

"Well, that sucks because it's your boyfriend's favorite color."

"I love green! What are you talking about, Amber? But, I'm still not wearing a dress." Amber rolled her eyes again.

"Why are you standing here staring at the door?"

"I'm waiting for Trudy. She went to the market."

"So you have to stand here and watch the door?"

"No, but I don't want to go downstairs. There's some strange luggage been delivered and I'm afraid Jerome or Alfie is going to pop out and scare me to death."

"Oh… understandable. But, I don't think Jerome would do that to you."

"Yes, he would."

"Well, you're right. I mean, you would know," Amber teased, playing at the boyfriend button. "So, speaking of which, how is the Jero-mance going?" Her eyes got wide as she realized her pun. "Oh, see what I did there? Jerome, Romance, Jeromance?"

"Leave me alone, I never did anything to you!" Rock whined. The door opened and Trudy came walking in, followed by a girl. She was tan and had black hair. She wore a blue and green plaid skirt, with a blue sweater vest over a white shirt, and topped it off with a uniform jacket and high heels of a similar tan color. "Trudy, I thought you went to the market," Rock continued whining, pointing to the girl.

"Oh, sweetie," Trudy said, shrugging at Rock, who she knew to have a tendency to whine. "This is Roser. She's my niece."

"Well," Rock paused. "Why is she here?" she asked harsher than she'd intended.

"Rude," Jerome said, walking into the room. "Why is who here?" he added. Rock sighed.

"I'm still pointing!" Rock exclaimed. He caught on and looked over at the girl standing behind a clearly embarrassed Trudy.

"Take her out of the room, Jerome. I think Amber has been trying to get her to wear a dress again," she said. Jerome made a face and threw his head back.

"Why, Amber, why?" he joked. Rock slapped him in the arm and pushed him out of the room. He went to go do what Rock assumed was some sort of dangerous plan with Alfie.

"Go with him, love," Trudy said.

"No," Rock said, in a baby voice. "I'm Rock." She finally decided to stop being rude and held her hand out. The girl shook it.

"I'm Roser. I'm going to go track down the kitchen and find some water," she said.

"Here, instead of 'tracking it down,' why don't I just show you where it is? I'm pretty sure I can find it." Rock led Roser into the living room to find Jerome and Alfie wrestling behind the couch. She sighed. "That's Alfie, who is now being owned by my wonderfully responsible and not violent boyfriend, Jerome." Roser just stared.

"I hope you were making a joke," she said. Rock nodded.

"Yeah, but, who am I to ask him not to be himself?" she said. Suddenly a chair toppled over. "Okay, Jerome, for five seconds, could you be anyone other than yourself?" she shouted, exasperatedly. He and Alfie stopped moving and stared.

"Well, hello, I'm Steve," Jerome joked, extending his hand. She lightly kicked him in the leg and rolled her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Alfie laughed to her.

"I'm showing Roser, here, where to get water," she said. "She's Trudy's niece and a new student here; who I'm assuming is going to be my roommate."

"I'll get you water," Alfie offered. Rock shook her head fanatically.

"Oh, goodness, no, Alfie. Not after last time!"

"It was only a little flood!"

"Alfie!"

"I forgot that the water was on!"

"For six hours?"

"I was sick!"

"Not too sick to flood the cellar!"

"So? It's just the cellar!"

"It's my room!" It was true. Alfie had managed to flood Rock's room in only the two weeks she'd been there.

"Oh, yeah, huh." Rock rolled her eyes as Roser appeared next to her, holding a glass of water.

"I found water," she said, pointing as if she'd made some huge discovery.

"Oh, my gosh," Rock sighed monotonously.

"You also found a cup!" Alfie congradulated her. The two feigned excitement to each other as Jerome stood up. He didn't bother to help Alfie up. He finally stood up and went off in a corner, discussing things with Roser that Jerome and Rock really didn't care about.

"Just what we need," Jerome mumbled. "Another Alfie."

"You don't know her yet. Don't be mean," Rock said.

"I am mean." He didn't understand it, but it really upset her when he said that about himself. She was too caring, he knew it, but he wouldn't have had it any other way.

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I really am."

"Not as a general rule."

"…Maybe. It's just hard for you to understand because you only see the good in everyone."

"That's not a bad thing."

"It is for me."

"Just because you're cute doesn't mean you get to be mean."

"Fine. I'm not being mean. I'm judging a book by its cover."

"Much better." He smiled triumphantly.

"It is," he said, now making a move to put his arm around her.

"No, it's not. I was kidding!"

"I know." He pulled her in close to him and led her out of the room, while she shook her head at his overall Jerome-ness. They ran into Amber again in the main hall, talking to Patricia and Nina about some preppy new girl, while Fabian just stood witness. Rock pulled her hand back and over Jerome's arm, which was still around her, and grabbed onto his shoulder, putting her other hand in her pocket.

"…Anyway, we have so much to discuss. The dance, the new girl, Sibuna," Amber said.

"Oh, yeah, Rock," Nina said, turning to the tiny girl, who cocked her head. "You haven't, um… did you drink anymore of that stuff?"

"No," she said. "It wasn't exactly the most inviting feeling the first time."

"Well, this new girl, should we worry?" Patricia asked suddenly.

"She's Trudy's niece, Patricia."

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't make her trustworthy."

"Look, I'm not saying we should go say 'hey, Roser, you want to know a secret?' but we shouldn't interrogate her, or make her life miserable thinking she did something. Why would Trudy's niece know anything about Rufus?"

"Should we be talking about this in the hallway?" Amber asked. Everyone exchanged glances, and they broke apart; Jerome and Rock went to the living room, Amber trespassed—Rock noted—into her room to start searching her closet for dresses worthy of a dance, Patricia followed after Rock and Jerome to go find this new girl, and Nina followed Amber to stop her from raiding Rock's stuff. Fabian stood awkwardly alone in the hallway, wondering whether he should aid his girlfriend, or stop Patricia from tormenting the new girl. When he entered the room, he saw Jerome laughing, Rock looking mortified, Roser cocking her head observantly, and Patricia sighing at Alfie entangled in a slinky.

"Alfie, what happened?" Fabian asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," Alfie replied, miserably. Rock slammed her palm into her forehead frustrated.

"Oh, Alfie."


"Amber, get out of there already!" Rock shouted, as Amber tossed things around in her closet.

"No!" Amber shouted. Roser looked up from her bed.

"Go back to your room, and foray there." With that, Rock stood up, dropping her iPhone on the bed, and walked over to Amber. She grabbed the blonde girl by the shoulders and led her out of the room. As soon as they left, Rock's phone began ringing. Roser knew it wasn't right but still, she stood up and made her way to the bed. She picked up the phone and held it up to her ear absently.

"Hello?" she said in her thick British accent. She heard an angered sigh.

You're not Rock Valentino.

"No. I'm not. Who is this?"

None of your business. Where is Rock Valentino?

"Oh, she's upstairs with some other girl who lives in the house."

Who am I speaking to?

"Roser Rehmann. Who are you?"

Rene Zeldman.

"That's a weird name for a man." That was when Rufus caught on that this girl was easier to manipulate than Rock.

Yes. Yes, it is. Listen, those students you're boarding with, Miss Rehmann. They have stolen something very important from me.

"Oh, that's awful. What have they stolen?"

A… goblet. A special, very special, cup. Do you think you could find it for me?

"Sure! What does it look like?"

Give me your cell phone number, and I will draw it and text you a picture.


"Rocky-boo, could you do me a favor?" Amber asked, walking into the living room. Rock looked up from her position on the couch. Jerome, who was sitting next to her, looked up as well.

"Yeah, sure," she said. She didn't bother to mention her dislike of the pet name. That wouldn't stop Amber Millington.

"I need Alfie so we can coordinate outfits for the dance, but I can't find him. I've looked everywhere. Can you call him?"

"Why don't you?"

"I lost my phone." Rock pulled out her phone. "Call faster!" Rock rolled her eyes.

"Fine, I think I have him in my recent calls, and that's faster." She pressed the send button, taking her to the recent calls list. Nina, Amber—She read the list—Jerome. One name rang out to her and it was not Alfie's. "Rufus Zeno," she said ominously. Amber and Jerome looked shocked. Jerome leaned over her shoulder and Amber took a seat next to her. "It says here that Rufus Zeno called me."

"Missed call?" Jerome asked. Rock shook her head.

"No. It says I answered it… but I didn't." She looked at Jerome and then at Amber, and back to the phone.

"Then, who did?"


This was a weird place for a meeting. Roser looked around, and then into the tunnels, where a man in black discreetly walked out. She jumped.

"Mr. Zeldman?" she asked. He looked at her.

"Roser Rehmann?"

"Yeah."

"What have you got for me?"

"I don't know. I don't have a plan." He sighed.

"Okay, listen. There are seven people who know about the cup; Jerome Clarke, Nina Martin, Fabian Rutter, Amber Millington, Alfie Lewis, Patricia Williamson and Rock Valentino. You need information from them."

"How do I get it?"

"You are a smart girl, I can tell." How far from the truth, he thought. "I know you can find a way to get the information you need."

"Okay. I'll try."

"Now, I would start with Rock Valentino."

"Why?"

"Well, I don't know for sure that she's working with the others. She's said it, but I think she was bluffing. She made up some weird name for them—Sibuna or something."

"Sibuna? Isn't that Anubis backwards?"

"It doesn't matter. The point is that it will probably be easiest to get information from Rock. She comes off as strong, but deep inside I know she's weak."