Liliana XXXII

Summary: Jerome wins the Frobisher Shield and breaks his father's curse. The Anubis residents decide to throw a party, but for Liliana the celebration takes a dark turn.

Notes: I'm back y'all! I'm so sorry this chapter is late, this week was super crazy between the election, grad school and grading/lesson planning.

Also, thank you for all the love and support you have given to this story. We passed 300 hits! I appreciate all of your comments and feedback. Hearing from y'all lets me know what you want to see more of!

Trigger Warning: Liliana gets cornered and has to deal with unwanted attention. If you don't want to read the scene, skip the section where she is in the kitchen.

They had actually won! Jerome Ambs and Alfie had secured the Frobisher shield. After the match, Jerome, Poppy, Alfie, Amber, Liliana and Mara hung back for an impromptu photoshoot and to call Mr. Clarke to share the good news. Wrapping up the photo op, the group headed back to Anubis for the victory party.

The party was already in full swing as the group entered the house. The victorious ping-pong trio were swept up in hugs and congratulatory high fives by the grade ten and eleven students which left Lili with Mara. Liliana frantically cast her mind for something to talk about. It wasn't often that the two girls had been left alone together, Lili could probably count the number of times on one hand. Whenever the pair would be 'hanging out' together Jerome was always there to mediate and stop anything from getting out of hand. When she had first arrived at the house her opinion of the girl was already tainted by Alfie's stories and the call from Poppy. In hindsight Lili could admit that her actions had been rather antagonistic right out of the gate, but to be fair the other girl gave as good as she got. "So Mara… what are you planning to do for the holidays?".

The other girl rolled her eyes but replied, "My parents want me home even though we only have a week off. They're sending a car for me early Saturday morning".

"Well at least you'll get to spend some time with them" offered Lili

"Yeah, it'll be super fun" she muttered sarcastically. "A whole week of being paraded around and shown off to all their friends. The only plus is that Jacob will be home as well".

"Oh who's Jacob?"

"He's my older brother currently at University, he was gone on an internship all last summer so this will be the first time I've seen him since last winter hols".

"Well I'm sure you'll have a great time reconnecting"

"Yeah…I'm going to get some punch. See you later" agreed Mara leaving for the kitchen window where the food was set out.

With Mara gone, Lili looked around for someone to chat with since Roe and Ambs were still being congratulated on their win. Glancing over by the far wall Lili found Abigail from Osiris and her friend Joanna Burke one of the commuter students chatting on one of the couches. Liliana had been paired with Abigail on a project for their literature class back in September and they had got along rather well.

"Hey Abbi! Hi Josie, can I join you two?"

"Of course Liliana!" said Abbi scooting over on the couch to make room for Liliana. "That was a crazy ping-pong match!"

"I know right! It was touch and go there for a while with the fake balls and Amber's injury, but your boys pulled it off!" agreed Josie

"Yeah! When Ambs hurt her arm we were afraid we would have to forfeit the rematch. But when Alfred J Lewis gets an idea in his head there is no talking him out of it. Lucky for us, his ping-pong skills miraculously improved and we won!"

"Was he really that bad? Because he played great today" asked a doubtful Josie.

"Oh yeah!" assured Liliana. "You obviously missed the practice when he accidentally hit the fire alarm setting off the sprinklers in the drama lounge. Or when he was practicing in the back of our chemistry class and the ball got away from him landing in Mr. Sweet's tea".

"Ok that does sound bad" laughed Abbi.

"Well I'm just glad he was able to improve in time for today" remarked Josie. The girls chatted awhile longer before Josie had to head home and Abbi had a date with her boyfriend Jason McCreery.

Now that the other girls were gone the faint black spots which kept flashing in front of her eyes were getting harder for Lili to ignore. Chalking it up to a caffeine headache, Lili made her way over to the kitchen in search of a bottle of Pop.

*(beginning of possible triggering scene)*

Rummaging through the fridge she finally found a bottle stuffed in the back which had escaped Vera's latest health food craze. As she went to stand back up she felt a hand land on her lower back. Shocked Liliana froze as she tried to figure out what to do when neither Alfie, Amber or Jerome's voices accompanied the unexpected touch. Hurriedly straightening up, she spun around snapping "Please remove your hand from my person now!".

The hand, it appeared, belonged to a boy she had never seen before today, "Oh come now birdie, I just wanted to introduce myself" cajoled the stranger as he pointedly did not remove his hand from her hip.

"You can make introductions and get someone's attention without touching their waists" she rebuked pushing his hand off her.

"Yeah well I wanted to make sure I caught your eye birdie. I'm Edmund Thomas Woodson III, but you can call me Ned." replied the boy his eyes sparkling with charm, but all Lili felt was fear as he tried to take her hand.

"First of all my name is not 'birdie'," she ground out "and you have exactly three seconds to stop touching me and leave this kitchen before I scream and bring the wrath of Anubis house down on you. I'd take the chance to run, our house comes with a death count".

The boy eyed her like she was bluffing, but Lili simply held up 3 fingers and drew in a deep breath preparing to cause a scene. Sensing that she would actually make a scene Edmund quickly released her hand and backed away, but not without sending her a final wink. Liliana didn't begin to relax until he had left the room.

*(end of possible triggering scene)*

Between the black spots, growing headache and general dirty feeling due to the unwanted touching, Lili just wanted a hot shower and to go to bed. Grabbing her bottle of pop, a sandwich and a package of crisps she tried to sneak past the party to her room. She had just made it to the bottom of the stairs when Amber came running out after her.

"Lils what's up sweetie? Why aren't you in there partying with us? They're playing our song!" Amber sang.

"Look Amber I'm really not in the mood"

"Did something happen?" asked the beautiful blonde stepping closer, suddenly serious. "Your boyfriend just won a famed ping-pong shield, we broke a twenty year curse and Vera is out for the night so we get to have Trudy's chocolate cake rather than her Chocolate Nightmare cake!".

"Look Ambs, I'd rather not talk about it, I just want to take a shower, eat my dinner and go to bed. Go back to the party" protested Lili wincing as her voice cracked betraying her emotions.

"Yeah NO. You are clearly upset and I'm not going to let you run off like this" Lili saw the hug coming but couldn't stop her flinch. Amber frowned upset and confused "Seriously Liliana, you're worrying me".

"Look Amber, I just need to not be around those people right now. Go on and enjoy the party, I'll be fine upstairs".

Amber's frown deepened and because she was actually a secret goddess she replied, "if you are upset, I'm not leaving you on your own. I know you don't want to talk about it right now so why don't we go up to my room and eat, then you can shower and go to bed. Sound good?".

Liliana relaxed, while she didn't want to be around the others Amber provided a sense of security and calm that Lili desperately needed. "Are you sure A? I don't want you to miss out on your victory party because of me".

"We have a party for some reason or other every week Love. I'm not missing out on anything special, heck we had a party last week just because it was Tuesday! Besides my main girl is hurting and I'd rather be up here making you smile than downstairs watching Nina and Fabian fail at flirting".

"That's fair" laughed Liliana slipping into a pair of sweats and putting her hair up in a messy bun before making herself comfortable on Amber's bed.

"Besides, next Friday is our Christmas party and I've got the perfect present for my S.S.!" bragged Amber booting up the latest episode of the telenovela the pair had started a couple weeks ago. Curling up into her best female friend's side wrapped in Amber's pink fluffy blanket, Liliana listened as Alejandro professed his love for the comatose Vanessa and felt safe and loved.

Next Week: The Sibunas meet to try and solve their curses.

Question: Do y'all like the various OCs ? Do you have a favorite one?

I love hearing from y'all! Let me know what you think of the chapter and the story so far in the comments or my Tumblr House-of-Secrets! Xo Evie