AN: Lollipop! (song stuck in my head). Anyway. A reviewer wants me to update quickly so I am. I want to as well. I hate Jara. This episode really made me hate Jara she's such a bitch to him! She's so caught up in her ex-boyfriend she can't see she's got a great guy who likes her. And after all this, she really doesn't deserve her (now that being said, I was just thinking of a Jara oneshot I was going to write...girl full of contradictions). Anyway, lollipop! Here's the next chapter!

Rose POV

Neither Jerome nor Mara saw me come up behind Jerome after school the next day. They were in the living room, talking.

"I just always thought we'd get back together when he got back from Australia," Mara was saying. Ah, Mick.

"So you thought, who could I pretend to date that would piss Mick off the most?" Jerome asked.

"You're not mad?" she asked. "What about Rose, will she mind...?"

"Rose never talks to Mick. She doesn't have to know," Jerome replied, and I decided on then to make my entrance.

I cleared my throat and Jerome spun around. "You scared me," he said. "I can explain—"

"Don't even. I heard it all," I said emotionlessly.

"I wish you'd show some emotion; I can't tell if you're mad or not," he said.

I kissed him to let him know I wasn't mad, and to prove a point to Mara. We were interrupted, however, by Alfie coming in the room and screaming like a child. Boy, we'd better finish this task soon.

"Why don't you go...subdue your childish friend?" I suggested. He went and led Alfie out of the room, and I waited until he was gone before rounding on Mara.

She spoke first though. "Look, I don't have to do this if you don't want me to," she said.

I sighed, contemplating. I had turned a blind eye for too long, and if I didn't do something now, I would lose Jerome. But I knew a thing or two about lying, which caused me to say, "No, I want you to do this."

"You do," she repeated.

I nodded. "Go ahead. Tell Mick how me and Jerome broke up and how tragic it was. Tell him how he begged you to go out with him until you agreed to go on one date with him. Tell him how sweet he is, where he takes you for dates, what gifts he gives you." I paused. "But sooner or later, Jaffrey, the lies will catch up with you. And when they do, I will be there, laughing my ass off, and I will not help you out of it. In fact, I might just let my tongue...slip." I was about to walk away when I turned back and stepped even closer to her, so I was towering over her, even though I was only a couple inches taller. "And remember this too. If I catch you doing anything to my boyfriend—" I put emphasis on boyfriend so she knew I was serious "—I will make your life a living hell. Are. We. Clear?"

"Crystal," Mara replied in a whisper.

I stepped back and she kept looking at me with a scared look on her face. "Run away crying," I said, and she pushed past me and then Patricia—who was in the doorway writing on her notepad—on the way to her room. She showed me the note she wrote.

'Don't you think you were a little harsh?' it said.

" I made my point. I've been sitting back watching this happen for long enough. I'm sick of it."

'You really think Mara likes Jerome?' she wrote.

"I wouldn't put anything past Mara. Have we all forgotten she stole Mick right out from under Amber's nose last year?"

'You're overreacting,' she wrote.

"Well, now she knows I'm serious," I said as Jerome came in and Patricia left, frustrated, to talk to Eddie or something.

"What did you do?" Jerome asked.

"Threatened Mara," I said before thinking. Damn it! Can we really get this task over people?

Jerome sighed but didn't say anything. He was used to my insecurities as he called it.

"I'm sorry," I said, not really meaning it. He ignored me. "I love you?" I tried again. Nothing. I pulled him into a hug, which he didn't return. "Come on, please? Talk to me."

"You don't trust me," he said.

"I don't trust her," I replied.

"Then trust me!" he shouted, exhasperated.

"I do!"

"Do you?" he asked and I knew I was in trouble.

"No."

O-o-O

It was before class started the next day that I got this pretty song stuck in my head. Well, melody. And I couldn't get it out. So I started humming it as Jasper came in, delivering books for Miss Valentine.

"I was wondering if you knew anything about ancient Egyptian music," Amber asked Jasper.

"Yeah, I do. What particular song were you looking for?" he replied.

"It's called the song of Hathor," Nina replied.

The song of Hathor! That was it! The melody that was stuck in my head! I started, and Jerome, who was sitting next to me, noticed. "What's wrong?" he whispered.

I shook my head.

How does it go?" Alfie asked.

"Well no one really knows," Jasper replied. Haha, well, one person does.

But there was one problem. We needed an ox-bell.

Somehow, a few days later, the ox bell from the museum landed itself on Fabian's bed. His memory was getting worse, but I knew he didn't steal it and we were being framed. Still, we took the bell to the tunnels and played the tune and unlocked the next task.

The good part was that I didn't have to tell Jerome the truth anymore, which meant I wouldn't risk having him get cursed and involved in this.

The bad part was that he wasn't talking to me anyway, so I wouldn't have to worry if I was still cursed.

O-o-O

"So what have you found?" I asked after school one day. They had went down into the tunnels the day before and hadn't yet told me what was going on.

"We found this on the tunnel wall," Nina said, showing me a picture of a zodiac. "And I just figured out Victor had this one." She showed me another picture, of a more completed zodiac. "We need six things that reflect light that have the falcon symbol of Horus on it. Those will reflect the light from the tunnels and form a constellation, which we think is the last task."

"So look out for the falcon symbol, because we—" Fabian began, but was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Nina called.

Jerome came in and smiled at me, a smile that seemed off somehow. "Could I borrow my girlfriend for a moment?" he asked, and Nina and Fabian were confused, because they weren't even aware if we were still dating, the way we'd been avoiding each other lately (or, rather, the way he'd been avoiding me).

"You guys don't need my help with anything right now, do you?" I asked.

"No," Nina said. "We can do our homework on our own."

I practically pushed Jerome out of the room and closed the door. "What?" I hissed.

"Come on, I need your help. Look at this," he said, shoving a piece of paper in my hand. I took it, and it was a letter from Trudy, explaining where she's been. Maybe it was my paranoia, maybe my prophetessness, or maybe just my unwillingness to trust, but I saw the secret message right away. The first letter of each line spelled out, 'Help me.'

What a coincidence. Oh wait, I don't believe in coincidences.