*Disclaimer, I do not own House of Anubis all of that belongs to Nickelodeon, Hans Bourlon and Gert Verhulst. I, however, own Cammie and her little storyline :P I hope you enjoy!*

Series 2, Episode 21 ~ House of Pressure

Nina's screams caused Camilla to bolt upright in her dream, glancing across the room to the American who was in her bed hugging her toy rabbit to her. It was a dream... it was all a dream...

Breakfast was a buzz the next morning as all the students knew they where only having to be in school for half the day and most of that was to help Joy set up the hall with last-minute details before the ball that evening so it was one huge skive of a day. Apart from 4 students who, once Amber grabbed Nina and pulled her into the kitchen had one very scary dream the night before. Camilla was sitting on the worktop, Fabian stood beside her leaning against his sister for support as they both drank their respective tea and coffee as Amber dragged the American girl into the room.

"Nina," Amber started as she looked to the twins who hadn't had enough caffeine in their systems, "you will never believe the dream that Camilla, Fabian and I all had last night."

"the spirit pushed me down the chasm." Nina instantly said to the group causing the twins to look her way in shock.

"Wow," Amber seemed almost shocked she did guess correctly having not clicked onto the same thought as the twins that Nina also had the same dream and it was clearly a warning from the spirit, "that was a really good guess."

"I think she had the same dream Amber," Fabian said the worry in his tone clear.

Camilla groaned into Fabian's shoulder as she leant forward to lean on it, "I hate all these dreams!" Fabian unsure of how to comfort Camilla, knowing somehow, she was to protect Nina from this chasm death, just lifted his hand and patted her head.

"Right obvsie..." Amber mumbled as she took in Fabian's words.

"I'm sharing dreams with you two as well now?" Nina asked worry seeping into her tone.

"You share dreams with other people?" Amber asked almost a little offended.

Camilla raised her hand and waved at the girl, "Chosen One's Protector nice to meet you, Amber," she said causing the girls mouth to open in realisation.

"And Amber's seeing the spirit too!" Nina turned to look at her protector, "this is getting out of hand."

"Wait, what if I have the mark?" Amber asked clearly very scared, as Nina and Fabian grabbed her arms and lifted her jumper's sleeves to check, "I have flawless skin!"

"It's okay, it's okay," Nina reassured the blonde goddess with a small smile, "relax, you don't have it."

Fabian lent into his sister with a sigh, Camilla leaning her chin on his shoulder and rubbing his arm up and down to try to comfort him. Out of the three of them, it was Fabian who seemed most shaken about the dream with Nina. Camilla was worried but that was more because Nina was unpredictable at the best of times, this was at least a little warning into the danger the girl ran face-first into, "we can't relax though can we," he told them all, "and the spirit is reminding us that Nina's life is at stake." Fabian went to keep talking but stopped as Amber hit his arm when Vera walked in.

The woman looking over the four of them with her beady eyes as she wandered in and picked up a fresh pot of tea she had left brewing, Camilla more than happy to stare back at her coldly. She didn't like the woman, something felt off about her, and Camilla was more than happy to make sure the woman knew – whilst the other three pretended to look busy.

The moment she was clear of the room the Sibuna's got back to the topic at hand. "We have to get safely on the other side of that pit and find that mask!" Fabian told them in a hushed tone.

Of course Amber knew how to lighten the tone as she looked between Fabian and Nina with a smile, "in your version of the dream did you two get kissy kissy?" she asked, instantly causing the two to look away mumbling about forgetting. Though the bright smile the crept onto Camilla's face told the girl that they had in her dream.

"COME ON PEOPLE!" Joy's shout could be heard from the other side of the school Camilla was sure, "keep it moving you're on my time!" Camilla and Jerome had been trusted with nothing. Joy claimed she didn't trust them to not booby trap whatever she gave them but Mr Sweet said they had to work which resulting in the two being handed a bag of 100 balloons each (Jerome's being black balloons and Camilla's being red) and the two where sat on the stage blowing them up watching the chaos around them. Alfie was following after Trudy like a lost puppy wanting to make sure all the food for the night was perfect, resulting in him being roped into taking glasses to the exhibition with the woman. Eddie and Patricia had been thrown material to hang because Eddie was tall and Patricia was a girl so it looked right – whatever that logic was.

"This is more like what the inside of Joy's mind must be like," Jerome commented as he tied a balloon and added it to the bin bag full, he already had. Camilla had explained to Joy they'd be best putting the balloons down once everything else had been done so they wouldn't pop them, which caused her to frown but nod understanding the girl's logic – so far they had filled 5 big bags of balloons.

"Scary chaotic organisation?" Camilla laughed, as she watched Joy scream at a girl about her banner not being perfectly straight, before racing out the room and dragging Fabian back into it muttering about lights flashing, "you know what, you're probably right,"

"You looking forward to seeing Amfie in their prime tonight?" Jerome smirked as Camilla threw a balloon his way. she wasn't stupid she knew there was a little strain on the Amfie relationship, Amber was using Alfie more as a butler than being his girlfriend but that's only because she didn't know any different. They'd work it out she knew it.

"Amber has a good heart, I think Alfie has this personified idea of her which he's learning isn't who Amber is," Camilla told him with a sigh, "they are good together they just need to work out the kinks. Thought the whole ball/dress/mask arguments are getting on my nerves. Though I guess she didn't need to worry about finding a date like she did for Prom so she needs something to focus on." Camilla added with a laugh, as she picked up another balloon and blew into it.

Jerome seemed to be debating something in his head and she wasn't going to push him to talk, instead, she watched as Patricia climb a step ladder at the opposite end of the stage where she and Jerome sat, Eddie, holding onto the bottom of it because she was probably on the shakiest ladder Victor owned. Patricia was adjusting the ribbons on the corners of the stage.

"How does it feel having your life in my hands?" Eddie asked Patricia in what Camilla assumed he thought was a smooth way.

"I'd feel safer on the deck of the Titanic," Patricia quipped back without even thinking not looking down at the boy as she adjusted the ribbon.

"Talk about two people who need to get together," Camilla muttered to Jerome nodding her head to the bickering pair and causing the boy to smile. Camilla looked around and whispered, "Motus," gathering up some air in her hand and pushing it towards the ladder causing it to shake ever so slightly. That was enough for Patricia to fall backwards into Eddie's arms.

"Nice one!" Jerome laughed as they watched Eddie grin at Patricia.

"I knew you'd fall for me!" Eddie instantly told Patricia who groaned and hit him.

"get off me slimeball!" she shouted.

Eddie, of course, ruined the moment Camilla had set up by shrugging and dropping the girl onto a couch that had yet to be moved. Camilla groaned and rolled her eyes if she wanted these two to get over themselves and finally kiss, she had a lot of work on her hands.

"HEY!" Patricia got to her feet and turned to Eddie, however before she could say anything boss lady Joy entered the room and looked up at their handy work.

"Perfect!" Joy then turned to Jerome and Camilla who had stopped blowing up balloons to watch the Peddie interaction. "Guys! Chop chop!" she shouted at them, "I need all 300 balloons blown up before the ball starts."

"you've only given us 200," Camilla muttered holding up the two bags they had, instantly regretting it as Joy threw over another bag of 100 gold balloons that Jerome caught easily though it caused the balloon he was holding to deflate.

"300." Joy smiled before turning on her heel to deal with the next issue.

"Yay..." Camilla sarcastically said, "and here I thought saying a speech would be my only job today..."

"How are you feeling about the speech?" Jerome asked as he opened the packet of golden balloons and poured it onto the pile of black and red balloons waiting to be blown up.

Camilla shrugged, "it's nothing me and Fabby haven't done before, though I was fun to see Joy's face when I condensed it down into a 2-page speech instead of the 10 paged one she handed us."

Jerome nodded his head as he tied the balloon he'd just blown up and added it to the bag before he turned to the girl, "Milly?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you going to the ball with anyone?"

Camilla looked over at him in surprise, she hadn't even thought about a date for the ball. "no one..." she said slowly, "I guess I'll be third-wheeling Amfie and Fabiana," she joked with a small smile looking down at the balloon.

"well... I was wondering... seeing as no one wants to go to the ball with a mummy," this caused Camilla to snort she had seen him in his new costume for the exhibition and along with Alfie the two had taken more photos than Jerome could possibly delete, "plus we had a great time at the prom last year..."

"Is this your weird way of asking to be my date?" Camilla asked the boy with a kind smile, finding his awkwardness kind of adorable.

"Yes..." Jerome admitted softly looking down at the balloons by his feet.

"Sure," Camilla smiled, causing his head to whip up and look at her in surprised, "but as long as your not wearing the mummy costume for the actual ball part of the night," she teased, "I know I'm a Rutter but I'm not that obsessed with Mummies." The two shared a smile, both now feeling a little bit more excited about the ball than they had been when they had woken up (though Camilla was still dreading it for the whole spirit killing Nina in a pit thing)

"Thank god you finally asked her Jerome!" Amber spoke up as she strutted into the room, announcing to all of the student body Jerome had just asked Camilla to be his date and causing the boy to go red much to the amusement of Camilla, "your matching tie to Camilla's dress is in Alfie's drawer, it has been for over a week. Camilla where is your brother?!" Amber demanded causing Camilla to shrug as she had been on the stage since the school day started. "Jerome, I need Camilla," was all the beautiful blonde said as she grabbed Camilla's wrist in a death-like grip and pulled her across the room to where Nina was treading string onto red lanterns to but hung across the ceiling.

"Have you seen Fabian?" Amber asked the American once they reached her, "we need hopscotch practice,"

Nina looked across the room where Fabian was sat with a screwdriver out trying to fix the lighting board, Joy sat near him talking his ear off the boy nodding but not listening from the look of concentration Camilla could see on his face, "he's kind of busy with his 'Study Buddy'," Nina told them bitterly.

Camilla was prepared this time and moved her hand out of the way as Amber grabbed Nina. The three girls walked over to Fabian and Joy and before Fabian knew any better Amber had grabbed his arm and was trying to drag him from the room. This didn't work as Joy grabbed onto his other arm causing Fabian to look desperately at Camilla as he was tussled between girls.

"Joy we're taking Fabian!"

"What no! I need him the smoke machine still doesn't work and -"

"Sorry, this is far more important!"

"what's more important?!"

"We're playing hopscotch!"

Camilla let out a laugh before she stepped in, hitting Joy and Amber's hands with her own causing the girls to let him go before Camilla turned to Joy, "I pull twin rank! Fabian is ours!" Before Joy could say anything, Camilla had put both hands on Fabian's shoulders and marched him out the room, Amber and Nina behind them smiling as Joy watched them go looking bewildered.

As the twins passed Eddie and Patricia, Eddie couldn't help but laugh at Fabian "Dude, you play hopscotch?!"

"Apparently?" was all Fabian could respond weakly before his sister had pushed him out the room.

Due to the fact, everyone was helping set up the main school or the exhibition for opening night Anubis house was empty.

Fabian had made a colour-coded guide to help him out and was unfolding it as Amber stepped up to have a go at crossing, "Moo, Baa, woof, Quack, Meow!" she said as she expertly navigated the floor, in heals none the less. "was that okay?" she asked as she fixed her hair and turned to look at the other three, "I was a little shaky on duck through dog, Cam your turn."

Camilla too had to say what she was hopping but once again she used the gods names, something Fabian too had done on his little cheat sheet, "Hathor, Anum, Anubis, Geb and Bastet," Camilla mumbled as she hopped getting a cheer from Amber as she reached the other side.

The two girls turned to Nina who sent them a nervous smile before she started, "do you really care what Joy thinks?" Nina asked Fabian as she hopped.

"Yeah!" Fabian said instantly causing Nina to stall and look at Fabian who stuttered, "I mean no!"

"Quack, Nina, Quack!" Amber shouted at her as the girl stalled, Nina didn't listen as she looked around at Fabian, "its duck not sheep!"

"Eh... I'm sorry," Nina mumbled realising what Amber was yelling at her, "I'll getting right on the night..."

With that it was Fabian's turn, he started to hop stiffly looking at his cheat sheet. The twins mumbling in unison, "Hathor, Anum, Anubis, Geb and Bastet,". As he made the last jump he looked up at them in amazement.

"I got it! I think I may be-"

"A little girl!" Jerome interrupted causing the four Sibuna's to look towards the kitchen where Alfie and Jerome stood, A bag of unblown up balloons in Jerome's hands clearly, he was moving the operations to Anubis house where he could blow up the balloons without being shouted at. "Cam, wanna get back to our only job? I talked Sweetie into letting us do it here so we can at least watch TV whilst we tackle this mounting of balloons."

Camilla nodded, "I'll be with you in a sec," the boy turned and wandered into the living room.

"We're ready!" Amber told them all the moment the coast was clear.

"Let's do this," Fabian laughed as he folded up his cheat sheet, "before I lose any more street cred."

Amber and Camilla instantly looked at Fabian with disbelieving looks, "oh Fabian, like you had any to lose..." Camilla pointed to Amber in agreement before she moved past her brother and through to the living room to help Jerome out with the balloons.

Jerome and Camilla finally got the balloons done with half an hour left before the exhibition open – during their time blowing up balloons Amber had come down with her curling wand and curled Camilla's hair, clipping each curl up so the curl would hold and causing Camilla to have the most ridiculous hairdo once she was done – Amber promising it look good once the girl was dressed and she finished it off.

Jerome let Camilla run-up to get dressed and ready once they were done saying he'd drop the balloons off himself as he only had his mummy costume to slip into whereas they both knew Amber was waiting for Camilla makeup brushes ready.

Amber had picked a beautiful dress for Camilla. The dress was a long dark grey almost sliver when the light hit it, it was sleeveless with square neckline – Amber remembering Camilla's scar and knowing as much as the girl was okay with it now Camilla deserved one night not to worry about it – though the really eye turner was the large slit up one side (enough she was sure some teacher was going to comment but ah well) which caused Camilla's leg and her bejewelled black heels to be seen as she walked, Amber matched the dress with a dark black belt which emphasised Camilla's waist. Amber had brushed out and pinned back Camilla's curls just enough so they were out of her face but apart from that, her hair was left to flow down her back in dark chocolate covered waves.

Amber knew she and Camilla were going to turn heads as they walked into the exhibition hall arm in arm – Alfie saying Jerome needed help with his mummy costume and Camilla was more than happy to escort the beautiful Amber Millington to the start of the ball. The two wandered straight over to Alfie who was stood next to Jerome who was holding a tray of juice, Camilla taking one with a smile as Alfie looked gobsmacked at Amber.

"You smell funny..." Camilla muttered to Jerome as she stepped closer to him to allow Alfie to stand next to his date.

"Trust me... I know," Jerome grumbled as Jasper stood at the top of the balcony above with a mic to start the first of way too many speeches.

"complimenting this grand estates history as the original home of two of this country's premier Egyptologists, along with it being the school of what we are hoping is to be our next generation of Egyptologists," Jasper smiled down at Camilla and Fabian both of whom forced smiles back at their uncle, "to the Frobisher-Smythe's," he toasted.

"to the Frobisher-Smythe's," everyone in the room repeated raising their glasses before breaking out into applause.

"I now invite my esteemed friend, Mr Gustav Zestack," Jasper said turning to Gustav and handing him a pair of scissors so he could cut the ribbon stretched across the balcony, "to cut the ribbon."

Gustav stepped forward with a smile looking around at the students and teachers all dressed to the nines, "I hear by declare, the Treasures of Egypt Exhibition officially open." He spoke, missing the twins mouthing along to his words with rolls of their eyes. They joined in with the applause however as he cut the ribbon.

With that Jerome mumbled something about doing his job and moved off, Alfie following him untying the bandages of his costume, Camilla smiling making her way up to the balcony hoping to escape Gustav as he climbed down the opposite side to mingle with everyone.

Camilla bumped into Victor as she reached the top level, the man was trying to fix his bowtie in a glass case but it just wasn't sitting right "Wow Vicky, you look amazing!" she told him causing him to turn round to look at her, "want a hand?" she asked with a smile. Victor let out a sigh and nodded and Camilla stepped forward and fixed his bowtie.

"Thank you," Victor smiled at her, "I've never quite mastered the bowtie, Sarah always had to help me out..." he told her in a soft reminiscent voice. Camilla gave his arm a small squeeze before he coughed and was back to his grumpy self, spotting Vera below, heading down the stairs to talk to her.

Camilla shook her head fondly at her guardian before she turned to wander the upper level, stopping as she met up with Eddie who was leaning against the back wall his eyes watching Patricia as she watched the party from the opposite side. "Amber's been trying to put that dress on Patricia for years, the poor girl finally had to bend to the will of Amber," Camilla said to the boy as she copied his pose against the wall making her think they were posing for the Mr and Mrs Smith movie poster.

Eddie's head whipped around at Camilla's words seeing the mischievous smile on her face, his eyes trailing down as he took in her full appearance, clearly, Amber Millington played fairy godmother to 80% of the Anubis house girls that night, "you look –"

"Out of place? Nervous? Extremely short in this dress?" Camilla offered for him listing the reasons off on her fingers as she stood back up, walking over to the bannister and looking down. Amber was shouting at Alfie to behave and Fabian and Nina were talking quietly smiles on their faces.

Eddie joined her, looking down before talking, "you look great, Cam," he told her with an honest smile.

"Well, gee, Jerk-face, now my life is complete thank you," Camilla sarcastically responded but the smile on her face told the boy she took the compliment. Camilla glanced over at Patricia, "go talk to her," she told him with a nudge of her elbow, "no snarky remarks or anything, be nice..." Eddie looked at her confused causing Camilla to sigh, "you like her, or you're defiantly intrigued by her. Go for it, Trish needs someone in her life who's got her best interests at heart and Eddie, I think you could be him." With that, she pushed him gently, "so go!" Eddie was almost too shocked to do anything but follow Camilla's instructions as he walked around the balcony to go talk to Patricia.

Camilla used the time alone to look up, whispering a soft plea to her deity, since the dream it had been on her mind why wasn't she in the dream with Nina what did that mean, "If I'm going to die tonight, could you like give me a warning?" she asked, not getting a response but not needing one. She had asked and she could only hope Isis was feeling kind that night.

"And now the most eagerly anticipated part of the evening," Mr Sweet spoke up causing Camilla to lean on the bannister and watch as the 'Cake off' started – of course she was on team Trudy no matter what.

Alfie ran over to the adults as Mr Sweet announced the competition, just in time for Trudy to reveal her cake, causing gasps from the Anubis house as they loved Trudy's chocolate cake.

"May the best cake win," Trudy told Vera with a smile.

"Well, that's how a bake-off works," Vera sassed back as she turned to lift the lid of her cake. Her cake was almost too perfect and something about it felt off, Trudy's looked loved and home-baked whereas Vera's didn't.

Before Camilla could watch any more, she felt a hand on her arm and turned to see Fabian, "we're going to disarm the hopscotch trap."

"Now?!" Camilla asked standing up and following her brother who simply shrugged. It didn't take Camilla to know this was Nina's bright idea and from the angry look on Amber's face, she wasn't too happy about it either.

The moment they got to the hopscotch trap Amber and Camilla took their heels off, holding them in their hands. All four of them stared down at the tunnel ahead, they could do this, they knew they could.

"Okay," Amber spoke up, "no mistakes, no stopping and if the ceiling starts coming down go back and start again. It won't stop until we're all across. Remember don't stop or the ceiling drops." They all nodded at her instructions.

"For Nina, for the mask," Camila added quietly.

"For Sibuna" Amber added using her shoe as a way to cover her eye.

"Sibuna," they all replied.

With a deep breath, Amber stepped forward to go first. "Moo, Baa, woof, Quack, Meow!" Amber almost made it look easy as she jumped from tile to tile. "Self-Five!" Amber clapped her shoes together before grinning at Camilla.

Camilla took a deep breath, "Hathor, Anum, Anubis, Geb and Bastet," she was slower than Amber but her movements were just as clean, causing Nina to let out a victorious shout as Camilla reached the other side.

Nina's turn next, however unlike the other two girls she hadn't taken her heels off, causing her movements to be slightly wobbly and resulting in her hopping on the wrong tile. "QUACK NINA!" Amber screamed. The two girls watching as Nina ran back to the start and re-did the hopscotch this time making sure to not mess up.

Fabian didn't have time to think as due to Nina's slip up the ceiling was descending. He could see Camilla's ring light up as she ready herself to use magic against the ceiling but he wasn't going to have that. Fabian looked to Camilla and in that second the screams of Nina and Amber disappeared it was just him and his sister and she believed in him so he could do this.

The timing was tight and Fabian ended up on all fours as he reached the end but he somehow managed it, not realising he had until Nina flung herself into his arms and the two turned to watch the ceiling ascend again. They had overcome the challenge that had almost taken out Camilla – due to her own stupidity.

They were one step closer to the Mask.

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