*runs in and skids to a stop* I'm baaaaaack! Did ya miss me? I missed you guys! The strange thing is, as soon as I put this story on hiatus I could suddenly write again. That's just odd. I promise there won't be another hiatus announcement in this story though. I don't think you guys would like me much after that. Anyway, enjoy the long awaited Chapter nine: Peddie Awkward.
Chapter nine: Peddie Awkward
Callie
About two days later, we still hadn't gotten Victor's pocket watch. We had everything else, but I wouldn't let anyone go get the watch from Victor. I had a plan, of course, but I wasn't going to tell anyone what it was until the staffs sank into the ground. I knew that they would fall tonight, and I had already set something up with Jerome tomorrow afternoon, so all I had to was wait until the staffs fell to suggest Eddie being a Sibuna temp.
Sure enough, at around six that afternoon we all went down into the tunnels and everyone but me watched in horror as the hands sank into the ground.
"No!" Nina said. "No, no, no! This cannot be happening!"
"Nina, it's okay," I said. "We can still complete the challenge."
Nina glared at me, and for the first time I realized just how scary her death glare really was. "Callie, the staffs are gone! We can't finish the challenge! We're never going to be able to find the Mask, and we'll never be free of Senkarah!"
I sighed. "Nina, how many staffs were there?"
"Six," she grumbled.
"And how many of us are there?" I prompted.
Nina thought about it for a second before letting a small smile spread across her face. "There are six of us! We can stand in place of the staffs!"
I congratulated Nina on 'her' idea before ruining her good mood. "Actually, I can't do it," I said slowly. "We've still got to get Victor's pocket watch, and I have an idea that'll get it for us tonight, but I won't be able to be here when we finish the task tomorrow. Jerome asked me for help with something."
"So ditch him," Patricia said.
I rolled my eyes. "Why ditch him when I can help you be a better girlfriend? Tell Eddie he's going on a date with you and get him into the library. Once he's in there, blindfold him and take him into the tunnel. He can stand in place of the sixth staff and he'll just think it was a date."
"How're we supposed to get him in here from the library?" Patricia sneered.
By way of answer, I crossed the room and pressed my amulet to the indent on the wall. I had made sure the day before that it was my amulet and not Victor's that opened the secret passage, so I knew it would work. Everyone watched in amazement and a little bit of suspicion as the wall slid back and revealed another tunnel.
"Does that answer your question?" I asked smugly. "It goes to the library."
"How did you know it was there?" Amber asked.
"I noticed a part of the wall in the library came loose," I lied. "And when I pulled it, it came open. Then I found a tunnel that ended here, but it hit a dead end. So I figured that one of our amulets had to open it."
"But do I really have to bring Eddie down here?" Patricia whined.
"No," Nina said before I could reply. "You can't bring Eddie down here; he'll figure out about the tunnels and he'll get marked."
"Not if he's blindfolded," I countered. "Come on, Nina; just let Trixie be a better girlfriend."
"Hey!" Patricia exclaimed, but everyone just ignored her outburst. We all knew she wasn't the best girlfriend.
After I managed to convince Nina it was a great idea to let Eddie become a Sibuna temp, we left the tunnels and started to enact my master plan to get Victor's pocket watch.
Alfie
I grinned when the time came to get Victor's pocket watch. I had to distract him when he took the watch out of his pocket –huh, watch pocket, pocket watch; haha –and get him to drop it onto his desk. Simple enough.
I snuck into his office and hid underneath the desk. Wait for it, wait for it . . . Victor came in, making me chuckle a bit. This was working perfectly. Just as he was about to walk around the desk, I jumped up and grinned.
"What's up Victor?" I asked, startling the old man.
"Lewis!" he bellowed, grabbing for me. I dodged him, making the golden watch slip out of his pocket. My part was almost done; now all I had to do was get Victor out of his office.
"Victor," I said in a mock cheerful voice. "Why don't we talk this out in the common room? It's much roomier in there."
Before he had a chance to yell at me –and I knew I was going to get toilet duty for a month over this –I rushed out of his office and down the stairs. As predicted, Victor started chasing me. Now it was all up to Nina and Fabian.
Nina
After Alfie ran out of Victor's office with the man hot on his heels, Fabian and I made our move. We rushed into his office and saw the glittering gold pocket watch sitting on the desk. Callie's plan was working perfectly. I motioned for Fabian to grab it. He slipped the watch into his pocket –huh, watch pocket, pocket watch –and we ran out of Victor's office before heading downstairs to see what happened to Alfie. The rest of Sibuna was already in there so we could fake innocence if needed.
"Mr. Lewis," Victor boomed. "You snuck into my office and I want to know why."
"Well you see Victor," Alfie began "I just wanted to, um, surprise you! Isn't today your birthday?"
"No, it is not," Victor growled. "But even if it were, that does not explain why you were hiding in my office."
"Well, I thought it was your birthday, so I decided to surprise you with a . . . happy birthday song! Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Victor . . . happy birthday to you!" Alfie sang with a smile plastered on his face. I had to bite down a giggle at the look on Victor's face. I couldn't tell whether it was anger or confusion. Probably both, I decided.
"While it is not my birthday, nor shall you ever know when that is, I suppose I cannot punish you for trying to make my day a bit better," Victor said after a minute or so of silence. I swear every Sibuna who was in the room let out a small gasp. Victor wasn't punishing Alfie for being in his office?
"Wow, thanks Victor! Happy, uh, not birthday!" Alfie said with a grin.
After that whole fiasco was over and Victor let us leave, all of the Sibunas met up in my room. Amber immediately demanded to see the pocket watch. Fabian pulled the golden watch out of his pocket and showed it to the Sibunas.
"I knew you'd get it!" Callie said excitedly. "Now you can do the challenge tomorrow."
"I still can't believe you can't help us," I said. "What if everything goes wrong because we have a non-Sibuna helping out?"
Callie gave me a knowing smile. "Don't worry Nina. It'll be fine. I know it will."
I blinked in surprise. What was going on with her lately? Ever since we finished the chemistry challenge she had been acting strange, like she knew what was going on before the rest of us did. I ignored the strange feeling I was having though, and we all talked about what we were going to do tomorrow.
Patricia
The next day, Callie left just like she said she would. She and Jerome were headed somewhere, though they refused to tell us where. While Callie went out with Jerome, I searched for Eddie so we could go on a 'date.' I found him in his room, listening to Sick Puppies.
"Eddie, we're going on a date," I announced after pulling his headphones out of his ears.
"We're what?"
"We're going on a date," I repeated. "As in, right now. We're going on a date right now. Come on."
Without waiting for an answer, I grabbed Eddie's arm and pulled him out of his room.
Once we got to the library, I tied a blindfold over his eyes. Eddie automatically reached up to take it off, but I batted his hands out of the way.
"Nope," I said. "You don't get to take this off. It's part of the date."
Eddie grumbled about how this was a stupid date, but I ignored him. Instead, I gestured for the rest of Sibuna –minus Callie of course –to come into the library and open the secret entrance into the tunnel. I followed with Eddie, making sure no one had seen us go inside.
Once we were down in the reflector challenge, I made Eddie stand around where one of the staffs used to be. Just as everyone was getting into position, Eddie started to talk.
"So, this is . . . interesting," he said slowly.
"Uh, yeah," I tried, handing him the music box mirror. "Here, hold this."
"Okay? Um, so anyway, I've wanted to say something for a while," Eddie continued. "It's about us."
I froze. Right then, I felt like I wanted to die of embarrassment.
"I really like you Yacker. I just want to say that I . . . I think you're beautiful."
Oh someone kill me now. This couldn't get any worse.
I saw everyone else trying really, really hard not to laugh. I silenced them all with a glare. This so wasn't funny!
"Patricia, I think I might be falling in love with you," Eddie continued, oblivious to the audience.
I was wrong. It just got worse. Now what was I supposed to do?!
"Um, Eddie, we haven't been dating long enough to be falling in love," I tried. "I mean, I really like you too, but let's give it some time before we decide we're in love, okay?"
Even though he was blindfolded, I could tell Eddie was crestfallen. I felt the overwhelming need to comfort him, but I couldn't do that in a room full of people! I didn't know how to act all coupley. After a few seconds, Fabian moved into position, making the beam of light soar toward Nina. Eventually the beam made its way to Eddie.
"Um, Eddie? Can you move the mirror a centimeter or so higher?" I asked.
"You mean half an inch?" he asked.
"Whatever, can you just move it?"
"Sure."
After Eddie moved the mirror up, the beam hit it perfectly. I watched in amazement as the blue light formed a huge falcon over us. Wow, I might not like the mystery all that much, but even I had to admit that this challenge was beautiful.
Once the light faded, a door opened up across the room. Everyone cheered silently, remembering that Eddie had no idea they were there. I glanced at him, watching the American stumble across the ground. I was about to get him to turn around and follow me out of the tunnel before I heard the familiar swishing noise of a blade.
"Watch out!" I said, knocking Eddie to the ground just as a curved blade swung out at his head. That could've killed him.
"What was that for?" he demanded angrily.
"You were about to hit your head," I lied. "Low ceilings. Now come on, we've got something else we need to do."
I pulled Eddie to his feet and we made our way out of the tunnel. I felt a bit better about this. Sibuna had solved the next challenge and I was being a better girlfriend. Callie's plan was actually working pretty well.
Callie
"I still don't know why you wanted to do this," Jerome said for the fifth time in fifteen minutes.
"Because I thought it would be fun," I told him. "Now come on, we're running late."
Jerome grumbled as I dragged him into the movie theater. I paid for my ticket and him for his, and we split the cost for a small thing of popcorn. I had talked Jerome into going to see the Mortal Instruments movie with me. I had read the first book, and now that it was a movie I was super excited. It was a bit strange though. It was like the only difference between my world and this one was that Anubis House existed.
All through the movie, Jerome acted like he didn't care, but I knew he really wanted to know what happened. By the time the movie was over, he was on the edge of his seat, his gaze focused on the images on the big screen.
Once the movie was over, Jerome and I headed out of the theater. I wanted to grab his hand, but I decided against it. It might be too soon. Besides, in the show, Mara and Jerome hadn't gotten together yet, so if I was sort of taking Mara's place in this season then Jerome and I wouldn't get together yet.
"Foreign One. . ." someone whispered in my ear as we were walking down the sidewalk. I turned around, but no one was there. I decided to ignore it, until I heard it again, louder this time. "Foreign One . . ."
"Did you hear that?" I asked Jerome.
"Hear what?" he questioned innocently. I rolled my eyes.
"Okay, cut it out."
"Cut what out? I didn't say anything," Jerome insisted.
"Well," I began, "if you didn't say it then who did? Someone just said Foreign One twice in my ear, and you're the only one close enough to have said it."
Jerome shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it wasn't me. Maybe it was your imagination."
I didn't know what to make of it, but I eventually decided to ignore it again. As we walked, I suddenly remembered where I had heard the words Foreign One before.
You are not from this world, are you, Foreign One?
All in good time, Foreign One.
Senkarah had called me the Foreign One. I frantically started looking around for the evil spirit, wondering why she would show up while I was out with Jerome. But try as I might, I didn't see her. Was Senkarah even here? She had to be; no one even knew she called me the Foreign One.
Maybe it was time to get some help with this. Sibuna help, that is.
Tada! So, what did you think for my comeback chapter? Next chapter will be Callie talking to a few select people about her Foreign One status. Oh, and I know that what Eddie said in this chapter wasn't what he said in the show, but I wanted to add some romantic drama to it. Thanks for reading!
~C