Juliana was paired by Ms. Denby to work with Fabian and Joy for their project at the upcoming fair since with her there, the class was uneven. Joy glared at Juliana as Fabian excitedly smiled to Juliana and the two exchange a knowing look before looking back to the teacher. She claimed Fabian and she were only friends…but they seemed awfully cozy…Cozier than they seemed last year…Was it because Jerome and Nina were out of the picture? Would Juliana's crush from years ago suddenly return full force?

Joy groaned inwardly and for a split second as she glanced around the classroom, she could have sworn she saw Jerome glaring at Fabian. Joy had figured she better ask out Fabian before anything with Julie happened and so she wouldn't miss her chance once again, and she quickly headed out with Fabian after class.

Juliana gathered her books and was straightening up when she bumped into Jerome who was walking out of the room.

"Watch it!" she hissed, flipped her now darkened hair out of the way and bent down to retrieve her history notes when a once familiar hand brushed against hers. She looked up and Jerome was right in front of her, helping her.

She stared for a moment before Jerome stood up abruptly, seemingly red in the face and shoved her notes into her hands. "Sorry Jill- Juliana. My bad." He smiled halfheartedly and quickly left the class, calling after Mara to discuss something or whatever. Juliana had stood shocked for a moment, and then gathered her wits and headed to the rec. room where Joy and Fabian ought to have been, so they could discuss their topics and ideas. On the way there, instead of thinking of ideas, she thought of how pained Jerome had looked when he stopped in the middle of saying Jillian. Just as she was about to walk in, Joy ran out, Fabian calling after her. Juliana took one look at Joy who was crying, before chasing after her into the restroom.

"Joy, what happened?"

"He rejected me! He'll never think of me as more than just a friend. What did Nina have that I didn't?" Joy cried, trying not to look at her reflection in the mirror above the sink. Juliana looked straight into the mirror as Joy's back was turned on her, and saw how torn Joy was as she looked at herself.

Juliana stood there for a moment, selfishly feeling glad about this, and then she dropped her bag in astonishment. For a moment…

She went forward and embraced Joy, consoling her, but as Joy hugged her back, weeping, Juliana looked at her reflection, feeling something inside her wasn't right. How could she be so self-centered as her friend looked to her for comfort.

"Julie?" Joy looked to her silent friend tearfully and Juliana snapped her head to look back and smiled, as if the past moment hadn't happened, all the while, feeling confused and guilty…for reasons she wasn't too sure of herself.

To take her mind off of all of this Joy drama, Juliana went with the old Sibuna crew to the gatehouse that night to look for clues and symbols about this new mystery they were being sucked into. Juliana went upstairs with Amber, and before she knew it, they were locked in a stone circular room with a creepy frozen man in a machine as the centerpiece of the room. Juliana looked to Amber wide-eyed and gulped.

"They'll find us. They had to hide. They'll notice we're gone, and tomorrow they'll come and get us. It'll be fine. Fabian, Alfie, and Patricia wouldn't forget us. We're Sibuna." Juliana tried to make the situation hopeful as Amber slid to the floor and complained about how cold it was and how there was no food or clothes.

"We'll be stuck in here overnight. Do you have anything on you we could use as a blanket or pillow or-"

"No, I didn't plan on getting stuck in here overnight!"

"Amber, calm down! I told you already, they'll-"

"Poor Alfie." Amber moaned, putting her face in her hands. "Poor Fabian."

"Fabian? What's Fabian got to do with this?"

"You two are best friends. He'll be worrying about you all night. Why? Did you think I meant something more?"

Juliana went wide-eyed and quickly looked down, hoping the poor light quality wouldn't give her away. She thought that since Amber had put Fabian on the same level as Alfie for that moment she meant like…boyfriends or something. Not that Juliana liked Fabian that way, but still.

Juliana knew who she liked. And he wasn't single. And he didn't want her. She took a breath and bit her lip. "Do you have your phone?" she asked quietly.

"No. It's in my room." Amber groaned after checking. "I wanted to charge it."

Juliana shook her head. "No, it's fine…Let's just try to sleep or something. Night Amber."

The following morning, the two tried to find a way out of the room. They had pushed the statue to the door when they heard Ms. Denby coming in for lunch. They looked around, knowing there was no place to hide, and hid on opposite sides of the door, trying to press themselves against the wall, hoping they wouldn't be seen.

"Amber?" Ms. Denby questioned, and Juliana saw Amber pretend to faint and snuck out the door into the office. She debated running or hiding, and had hidden when she heard Ms. Denby coming downstairs to call Victor and Mr. Sweet.

When the two men came over and talked to Amber, she acted as if she knew nothing, and Juliana who had hidden down the hall in a dusty closet sneezed.

"What was that?" Victor paused and turned directly to the closet Juliana was in. Juliana panicked and tried to press herself deeper behind the coat rack, but she bumped into a pile of shoes and knocked them over. "Come out now, or you'll be punished with trespassing!" Victor boomed as he threw open the door and he spotted Juliana.

"Ms. Clarewell." He stated, and Juliana put a hand to her head and whispered, "I came looking for Amber due to her…sleepwalking issue lately, and someone stuck me in here. The door was locked and I couldn't get out…I was in here all night…" Juliana pretended to faint and Victor awkwardly caught her and looked to the others, not knowing what to do with this one.

"She is freezing…and she does look rather exhausted…could she be telling the truth?" Ms. Denby examined Juliana as Victor put her down beside Amber who was watching Juliana closely, knowing Juliana was completely awake at the moment, and had put up an even more convincing act than she had in that creepy room upstairs.

"Of course not…she's always running around with her little friends in Anubis House…I don't know who she managed to get into Anubis after all the trouble I took to get her into another house on campus the first time."

What?

Juliana decided it was a fine time to 'wake up' then, and dizzily sat up beside Amber, putting a hand to her hand and asking where she was.

She widened her eyes when she saw Amber sitting beside her somberly.

"Amber!" Juliana grinned and threw her arms around her friend. "I can't believe this sleepwalking business has gotten this bad!"

"Cut the act Juliana Clarewell. Now." Victor leaned in closer and seriously whispered to the both of them, "All your friends will disappear if you do not do as we say."

The girls gripped onto each other for support and gulped, straining to get as far from Victor as possible as they leaned back. "That Alfie…and especially you," he snapped his glare to Juliana. "Those boys…Mr. Rutter and Mr. Clarke, right? They will be expelled from this school and you will never see them again if you do not follow us."

Of course the girls had no choice but to comply. Juliana should've escaped when she had the chance. Victor let Juliana return to the house before Mr. Millington got there with Mr. Sweet.

Juliana stayed in her room just as Victor demanded, and only went downstairs for a late dinner and as she passed by her dorm mates on the way to the kitchen she heard Jerome ask, "Why does everyone always assume it was me who did something wrong? I need to hang out with people who don't know me."

Juliana snickered and Jerome glanced up to his ex. "You obviously don't realize how sickening you are." Juliana muttered, so only Jerome would hear and he seemed more shocked than angry at the statement, but he said nothing. He just stared for a moment sadly before resuming his chat with Mara as if nothing had happened.

KT and Joy went into the kitchen as Juliana was forced to listen to Mara and Jerome talk and grew more and more forceful as she spread jelly over her bread.

"Is she okay?" KT pointed at Juliana was practically attacking her sandwich, muttering snide comments to herself as Jerome and Mara were all lovey-dovey.

"No she's fine. Brits don't like to show they care. And she cares about Jerome more than she cares to let on. She pretends she's moved on, but she's still in love with him."

"They dated?" KT whispered back, so Juliana wouldn't hear.

"Before Jerome cheated on her…with his now current girlfriend…Never did trust him much anyway. Why do you think she always comes and gets dinner late around this time every night? So she doesn't have to take her usual seat across from Jerome like she used to. She can't stomach any food while watching Mara and Jerome across from her."

The sound of silverware clattered to the counter, and Juliana spun around.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk about my personal life with KT if that's alright with you." Juliana snapped, cleaned up, and headed upstairs with her sandwich, just after Victor had announced Amber was leaving.

"Alfie, now Juliana." Fabian muttered, and ran after his friend, practically bounding up the stairs to confront her about what Joy had said.

Joy groaned. "Great. She'll vent about how terrible I am and he'll hate me more. Just what I need."

"Are they currently going out?" KT asked, confused.

"No. They might as well be. They've been best friends for as long as they can remember. They've been attached at the hip since they were babies."

KT nodded, sensing there was more to this Joy-Fabian-Juliana-Jerome-Mara thing then any of the five would be willing to let on, but let it slide.

That night, Juliana lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling when her phone beeped with a text message. She grabbed it off her nightstand without even looking and held it up to read the message.

"Meet in school…unknown…" Juliana thought about it for a moment, before going to retrieve her shoes. She got downstairs, caught up with the Sibuna group, who had also received the message and headed towards the school.

"Stay behind me." Fabian warned to the group as they headed down the empty hallway and gripped Juliana's hand tightly and protectively, and Juliana let him, not seeing much weird about it…until Patricia commented on it and the two broke apart and continued on. They also joined up with Eddie and KT in the rec. room and for a moment there was confusion but then Amber appeared.

It had been Amber who called them all there, and she explained everything, even the stuff with Juliana…but Juliana noticed how Amber conveniently left out the part about Victor threatening all of them. Juliana hugged Amber, and Amber gave Juliana a look as though warning her not to tell the rest of the truth. They group wanted to head to the gatehouse, but Juliana ran back to the house to get her phone in case something happened once again, and just as she got upstairs she saw Jerome's figure outside Mara and Joy's room as he apologized for some fight from earlier. "I'm arrogant, selfish, and I can't believe I hurt you. I can't believe I hurt my little beanie bob." Juliana froze for a moment, listening, and then realized she heard something she wasn't meant to hear and escaped down the staircase and back out the door to the staircase, hoping Victor wouldn't notice she'd already broken her house arrest. She met up with the group just as Fabian, KT, and Eddie were about to head upstairs to the creepy chamber once more as Patricia and Alfie provided a distraction.

They got upstairs, and KT confronted Fabian at the wrong time about Fabian knowing about her key as Eddie and Juliana angrily tried to get them to look for clues so they could get out fast.

Fabian said something to KT that set her off, pushed him into that frozen man in the machine, which in turn toppled on top of Eddie and Juliana. The pair had turned, about to yell at the two for being stupid, and then they were crushed under the machine.

REVIEW!

ALERT!

FAV!