Sorry for disappearing.. life's been hectic.
Chapter 9
I walked into the kitchen next morning my excitement unable to be quelled even when Mick who happened to be carrying the entire fruit basket out the door slammed into me. I considered asking for a second, but Fabian's eye roll promised that it was just drama I really didn't want to hear. Settling down next to him I spoke,"Can I see your phone? I think I found the symbols from the painting." An excited Fabian quickly handed over the picture and after studying I was thrilled to know I'd been right. "I thought so, look.. This symbol here that means terraced hill or stairs. And then this one means buried or underneath and this one is the number 8. So what if the treasure is buried underneath the 8th stair."
"You think?" Fabian dubiously asked. I couldn't blame him for his apprehension… who keeps treasure under a stair? Still, it was worth a shot.
"I don't know maybe I've seen too many Indiana Jones movies but I think it's worth checking out," I admitted lightly. I probably was entirely wrong, but it would be stupid not to follow our first lead.
"Prying up floor boards is my specialty," Eddie, who seemed always to be eavesdropping, told us with a laugh. "I say we give it a shot tonight."
With everything agreed, we headed off to classes. After all, even treasure hunting, possibly magic, high school girls must know their Algebra.
Before dinner, Fabian, Eddie and I sat at the kitchen table going over our plan when we heard Patricia's excited cry, "Yes! I have an email from Joy!"
Forgetting our conversation immediately at the thought of his friend, Fabian jumped from his seat and went to look at Patricia's screen. "That is great," he told her with the slightest trace of guilt evident in his voice. Obviously, he felt bad for 'forgetting' one of his oldest friends to a mysterious mystery.
"What she say?" Jerome asked with a false sense of indifference. Jerome might be a jerk sometimes, but he does seem to really care about his friends.
"Hi Patricia!" Alfie answered with a Joy imitation so bad even I, who'd never spoken to the girl, knew it was wrong.
Ignoring the foolish boy I heard Patricia reply, "Hang on I'll read it. 'Hi Patricia.'"
Excited that he was right, I saw Alfie do a little fist pump in the corner of my eye. "That settles it. I'm psychic."
"Sorry I haven't been in touch." Patricia continued, "It's been hectic since I left. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I'm fine. I know it probably seemed a bit odd of me disappearing like that, but dads business went under and he needed to get me out of there ASAP. I was a bit shocked myself. Hope you're all okay and not missing me too much, love Joy." If I'd hoped Joy's response would quell Patricia's thoughts of conspiracy, I'd have been wrong. "There's no smiley face at the end! Joy always puts a smiley face. And there's no text speak. It's all written out properly." So now, Patricia thought the conspiracy went so far as faking emails?
Jerome didn't see anything weird with it, but instead raised a pillow to the gods and spoke, "Joy's learned to spell at last. Hurray!"
"And it's from a new email address," Patricia hurriedly panicked.
Trying to comfort her friend Mara spoke gently, "Sometimes I use text speak in emails and sometimes I don't."
"And a new email address makes sense if she's moved house," Fabian pointed out.
Sighing in resignation, Patricia responded in an unexpected way. "Yeah you're right, sorry. I bet I've been driving you all crazy… Especially you Nina."
"Hey!" Eddie replied indignantly. "You've been horrible to me too!"
"You deserved it," Patricia replied with a smirk that, if I didn't know better, I would have taken as a flirtation device. But no, Patricia couldn't possibly be flirting with Eddie… right? I mean she hated him!
Or did she? To be honest, I don't really get either of them.
Breaking up the love fest, Trudy appeared. "Can somebody help me take this food to the table please?"
Once a joyful (and suddenly helpful) Patricia disappeared Fabian returned with a smirk, "Wow I think that might have been Patricia's attempt at an apology!"
Startled by how much good there was inside the previously hateful Patricia, I smiled in a baffled surprise. "I think you might be right."
The joy just seemed to be contagious in Anubis house when a smiling Amber and Mick entered, "Hey guys, guess what? Mick and I have made up!"
"Thank God," Eddie muttered clasping his hands in a prayer of thanksgiving. "Now I can break up with Mara. Seriously, all the girl talks about is school work."
Unaware to the other conversation of used girlfriends, Amber continued bouncing from foot to foot. "And we're having a party to celebrate! Tomorrow night you're all invited."
"Oh great, a party. Maybe I'll wait a day to break up with Mara."
"Why? Hoping she'll see you dance and break up with you first, Slimeball?" Patricia, ever the eavesdropper, asked slapping the embarrassed boy's back.
"Well there goes my date." Ah. So Eddie had meant to say that at such a high volume. He wanted Patricia to think she won. That sly little thing.
"So, Nina, want to go to the party with me?" Eddie asked sliding his arm around my shoulder.
Moving his arm like a disgusting piece of trash I smiled, "Not going to happen."
Victor was studying intently in his office, so I knew that I'd be able to sneak out easily as long as I stayed silent. Counting backwards, I found the 8th step just as Fabian and Eddie arrived besides me.
"Anything there?" Eddie whispered in my ear. I went to shake my head, but eventually felt something with my hand. Pulling out a small brown key, I flashed my friends a funny grin before creeping up the stairs. "Careful!" Eddie's hushed voice came just in time for me to not slide on the step and make a very loud noise.
"Thanks," I told him honestly. "See you guys in the morning."
"Night Nina," they both told me quietly before heading back into their rooms. Softly I crept back to my room and into bed before breathing a sigh of relief. Victor didn't know what we were doing, so, as long as we got the key back soon, he'd never know of the treasure to come with this key.
So I'm thinking this will be the last bad chapter and next chapter I'll go completely off book. I mean I've already messed with the relationships, Sibuna, and now Victor doesn't even know the key is missing! Yeah... it's time to make this completely my own :)
