Patricia LVII
Summary: Patricia sulks, Joy schemes and the Sibuna Crew gets destructive.
Evie's Notes: We have a longer chapter again today so I hope you enjoy! Let me know your favorite part in the comments!
Patricia sulked all through breakfast. Luckily or unluckily, Patricia was known to not speak much in the mornings, so her sullen silence went unnoticed by the other residents. Her rage over her sister's betrayal with her boyfriend continued to build until she finally burst into a dramatic rant to Joy on their way towards the student lounge for lunch.
"Eddie and Piper kissed!" revealed Patricia to her best friend.
"What?" gasped Joy surprised.
"Yeah! Piper had just left after giving me her twin charm so when he came out, he mistook me for her. He said that it was 'wrong' that I didn't know about it. So, I just had to stand there and smile before rushing out of the room. I was hoping that he would then come talk to me, and I would find out the whole story. But he has had all day and he still hasn't come clean to me yet!".
"Yes, he has though" argued Joy.
"The real me, Joy" Patricia clarified.
"I mean what kind of relationship can we have if it's not completely honest?"
"First of all, this is super awkward for me since you both are my best friends. And secondly, you pretended to be Piper".
"Him honest, not me" scoffed Patricia.
"So, what are you saying Trix? What happens if he doesn't confess?" sighed Joy unhappily.
"Then we have a problem" decided Patricia leaving Joy to eat lunch with the Sibuna Crew.
"Okay, so each opposite pair of symbols equals one object. But that object could be anything or anywhere" explained Nina pointing to the picture of the zodiac on Fabian's computer.
"Good" snarked Patricia flopping down into the open chair beside Liliana. "This isn't going to take long at all".
"At least there's only six reflectors" comforted Lili.
"And at least we get some help" added Fabian. "Each object will have a falcon symbol on it. So, we will know if we have found the right thing".
"That's if we find them though" pointed out Amber from her spot resting her head on Jerome's lap.
Things had not gotten any better between Alfie and Amber. She was still avoiding him and shooting him death glares when they were in the same room together. Patricia had cornered the blonde earlier in the day and found out that Amber had witnessed Alfie asking Piper out the night before. The fact that Patricia's twin had left that morning wasn't enough to heal the hurt that Amber felt at being tossed to the curb by the boy she loved. Patricia was obviously in a hard place with the whole situation, but she hoped that the pair would somehow work their issues out soon.
"We have to find them, if we want to get the mask first" snapped Nina. "And look, I think I already know what another of the reflectors is".
The American girl pointed to two of the hieroglyphs saying "See that? It's a cup bearer".
When the group failed to show any reaction, Nina explained "The cup?"
"But I thought you hid the Cup of Ankh in Vera's room…" asked Alfie.
"I didn't say this was going to be easy," laughed Nina.
"Why can't just one thing be easy" whined Jerome, drawing laughs from the other Sibunas.
The ringing of the bell marked the end of the group's lunch period. Patricia grabbed her bag and headed towards Miss Valentine's room for the first meeting of the newspaper staff after Joy took over.
*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
Patricia watched as Joy excitedly prepared for her first meeting as editor. The girl had prepared a flip chart, dozens of folders full of assignment ideas as well as a full PowerPoint presentation! The other students all filed in slowly and when Liliana and Eddie entered the room Patricia made sure to pull the bubbly blonde down beside her to ensure she filled the space between her and Eddie.
Her boyfriend apparently missed her silent cue and offered her some of the chips he had been snacking on, "Want some?".
"No thanks" she snarked. "Don't know where you've been".
"What's your problem?" he snapped.
"I'm looking at him" she replied, hurt that he didn't want to tell her what he had done with Piper.
Eddie just rolled his eyes and took his seat between Lili and Mara as Joy began her speech.
"Listen up, people. It's time for a shakedown. This website is stepping it up a gear. There's a whole world of eyeballs out there, and it's our job to grab them with our hot, punchy stories" declared Joy tapping the board enthusiastically with her pointer.
"Hell yeah, chief!" whooped Eddie, cheering on their mutual best friend.
"And after some… regrettable lapses in journalistic standards, we need a new identity!" dissed Joy. "Starting with the name, so from now on we call it The Jackal!".
"Isn't that a bit tabloidy?" asked Mara.
"Don't worry, we won't be printing any lies or conspiracy theories on this website. Well not anymore" muttered Joy. "Which reminds me! Mara, Mr. Sweet told me that your Vera retraction was supposed to be your last posting for the paper"
"Well yes, but I still want to be a part of the staff" argued Mara.
"Hmmm, well okay then. Eddie, I want you to write an article on the history of the school. The footage I put together for the exhibition bid should be an invaluable resourse. You will need to spool through several hours of excellent raw footage!"
"Yeah… I don't spool" protested Eddie trying to pass the DVDs back to Joy. The editor simply smirked at her best friend and pushed them back into his hands.
"Oh! I have an idea" blurted out Mara. "It's a human-interest piece on…"
"Oh, thanks Mara. But this human isn't interested" cut off Joy heading back to the front of the room. "But I guess if you want to contribute you could help Eddie with his piece" she offered with a wicked smirk, cutting her eyes between Patricia and Eddie.
Patricia shot Joy a look, but was confident that Eddie wouldn't fall for the bait.
To Patricia's shock and horror, the American fell for it "Yeah that's… Inspired chief". Throwing his arm around Mara he continued "I mean, we'd make a great team".
"Fine. But you watch all the footage" agreed Mara reluctantly.
Patricia sulked throughout the rest of the meeting as Joy passed out the other assignments before wrapping it up when the bell rang. At least she had art next… art makes everything better.
*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
After classes wrapped up for the day, Patricia received a message in the Sibuna group chat asking everyone to meet in Amber's room as soon as possible.
Once the group were settled, Nina outlined what she and Fabian had figured out about Vera and the cup. "So bad news guys, the cup is not a reflector".
"Awww. I thought the bad news was Vera" protested Patricia.
"I always knew she was evil" stated Amber
"You loved her" protested Alfie.
"Okay… Well Mara said it, and she was right, and they put her on trial for it. And working for some mystery person is a whole other level of evil than just partnering with Victor. When do we get even?"
"And she definitely said 'the teenagers will do the rest'" checked Patricia.
"And she definitely called us foolish?" asked Alfie.
"What does that even mean?" asked Patricia.
"That we're stupid, Obvi" declared Amber.
"No, I mean has she told this mystery person about the tunnels?" clarified Patricia
"Or worse? Do they want what we want?" added Nina.
"Who was she talking to?" worried Fabian. "How would that person even know that the Mask of Anubis was hidden here?".
"More and more people keep finding out about all of this" bemoaned Nina burying her head in her pillow.
"Well, we're not exactly subtle, guys. I smashed an amulet with a shoe in front of five people at a dinner party".
"We just have to be more careful" cautioned Fabian.
"So, is there any good news?" asked Lili from where she had been silently sitting with Jerome in the corner of the bedroom.
"Yeah! We have the amulet, and we can finally try the secret door" smiled Fabian. "We can go down to the tunnels after dinner tonight".
*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
"So, I was thinking…" began Lili.
"Oh no! Alert the authorities! Liliana Wells has been thinking!" teased Patricia.
"Shut it" laughed the girl throwing one of her pillows at the girl. She shifted to fall down beside Patricia on her bed. "I was thinking about the cup Nina has".
"What about it?"
"Well, it's kinda creepy, right? Like if anyone is ever able to make more elixir, they could kill somebody… like us!"
"But Fabian destroyed all of the elixir, so Victor won't be able to reverse engineer it" assured Patricia, trying to calm the blonde down.
"I know, but what if he does figure it out? I mean as long as it's assembled, we will always be in danger".
"So, what do you want to do?"
"Can we try and destroy it? I mean, why the hell did you guys even assemble it?!"
"Nina needed to build it to allow the spirits of the Frobisher-Smythes to achieve eternal rest. Now that they have found rest though, Nina might be open to us destroying it. Do you want to go talk to her now?" offered Patricia.
"Yeah, I think I'll feel a lot better knowing that at least that threat would be dealt with" agreed Lili, as she followed Patricia to go speak with Nina.
*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
Thirty minutes later found the seven Sibuna club members gathered in Sibuna Clearing with the Cup of Ankh and various tools of destruction.
"So… who wants to try to destroy the super expensive ancient Egyptian relic first?" asked Jerome.
"I'll go first" offered Alfie hefting the machete he had brought. The boy set the cup on a stump and gestured for everyone to step back. Squaring up, Alfie lifted up the blade and quickly swung it down against the cup. A loud clang echoed throughout the clearing, but the cup remained perfectly intact, not even the paint was chipped.
"Huh, well that didn't work" remarked Amber. "Plan B?"
"FIRE!" cackled Fabian his eyes lighting up with glee. Patricia laughed as Lili took three huge steps back from their pyromaniac friend.
Nina, being pretty much the only one who knew how to build a fire due to her past as a girl scout, quickly built a fire in the same can they had used for the sacrifices. Once a strong blaze was going in the barrel, Fabian tossed the cup into the flames. The group all held their breath as they stood around the blazing fire waiting for the cup to melt. It became apparent after a few minutes that the evil Egyptian artifact was far too stubborn and wouldn't be destroyed by something as simple as burning. Alfie removed the cup from the fire with his sword and the group waited for it to cool off as they brainstormed new destructive ideas.
Amber suggested that maybe if they threw it from a great height the cup would shatter upon impact. Having no other ideas at the moment, the group gathered their things and hiked across campus to the bell tower. The campus was mostly deserted, with most students gathering in their houses for supper and homework, so the Sibuna Crew were able to quickly climb the bell tower stairs undetected. Amber happily defenestrated the awful cup out of the tower's window and the group watched as the hunk of gold plummeted towards the earth. A resounding crash marked its arrival, but unfortunately when the dust cleared Nina confirmed that the cup was still in one piece and no worse for wear despite their many attempts.
Patricia, who had been spending a lot of time in the chemistry room during detention, remembered that there was a large supply of acid set out for next week's experiment. After quickly sharing her plan with the other Sibunas, the group set off again, this time with Patricia in the lead. The seven students laid a tarp in a basin and placed the cup on top of it after donning safety materials. Patricia snapped her gloves in place and lowered her protective goggles before pouring a large beaker of acid over the latest bane of the group's existence. The mixture bubbled and fizzed when it made contact with the mystical cup, but unfortunately once the bubbles gave way, they revealed the cup standing tall in all of its mystical glory. Patricia wanted to scream!
It was Jerome who suggested that maybe they were going about this all wrong, the cup had only been able to be assembled by the chosen one, so maybe Nina was the only one who would be able to destroy it. Deciding that it was worth a shot, the group dried off the cup before passing it over to their leader. Nina tried placing her amulet in multiple different places but to no avail.
Just as the group was about to give up Lili shot up excitedly proclaiming "Wait! Couldn't the cup only be assembled by Nina on a special day?"
"Oh yeah, it was December 17th, every 25 years" recalled Fabian.
"So, if it could only be built on that day, I bet it could only be destroyed on that day too!" remarked Jerome looking at the cup in a brand-new light.
"By that reasoning, we have to wait 24 years to destroy the damn thing" spat Patricia. "What are we supposed to do with it in the meantime?".
"Well, we obviously need to hide it somewhere safe…" pondered Lili. "So definitely not back in Vera's room".
"What about the tunnels?" suggested Alfie.
"No way! This is Victor and Vera we're talking about. I'm sure they will find a way back into tunnels one way or another" protested Jerome.
"Well, what do you suggest we do then?" protested Alfie
"We need to bury it somewhere no one will ever find it!" declared Jerome. "Somewhere hard to get to, out of the way, and mostly forgotten".
"What about the wishing well?" suggested Fabian.
"What?" asked Liliana.
"It's this old, dried out well, deep in the woods. It's off a mostly overgrown path, I stumbled upon it on accident in 9th year while hiking with Joy and Patricia"
"I don't want to just chuck it down a well!" argued Nina. What if someone worse than Victor finds it?"
"What if we bury it in the well… in like a lock box!" suggested Amber. "I think I have a box that could work".
"Fine let's put it to a Sibuna vote. All in favor?" asked Nina reluctantly. Fabian, Amber, Lili, and Alfie's hands flew up with Patricia's.
"All right, since Patricia knows where the well is she can go back to the house with Amber to get the box. The rest of us can grab shovels and rope before heading to the well" directed Fabian. The group all quickly agreed and split up to their assigned tasks.
*Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold – Tears of Gold*
Twenty minutes later the Sibunas gathered at the wishing well. It was decided that Nina would be the one to go down the well first. The American girl knotted a length of rope around her waist and passed the rest of the coil to Amber and Patricia, as they were the strongest members of the group. Patricia wrapped the rope around her own hands a couple times before stepping back with Amber to support Nina as she scaled the wall of well down into the pit. Once Nina was safely on the ground, she sent the rope back up for the next Sibuna. Soon Amber, Patricia and Lili were the only ones left above ground. Patricia made herself comfortable against a tree trunk as she listened to the sounds of the other Sibunas digging the hole in which to place the locked box.
It ended up taking the digging crew thirty minutes to successfully bury the box and return to ground level. Given how late it was, the group had to hurry back to Anubis house to hastily eat their dinner, before excitedly heading to the cellar for their journey into the new tunnels.
Evie's Notes 2: The whole cup thing was driving me crazy while watching season 2. Hypothetically, Nina just stashed it in the secret tunnel and no one ever saw it when they continued to use it over and over again. Hope you like my temporary solution :)
Next Week: Secret Tunnel TIme!
Question of the week: Thoughts on Vera?
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! Have a great week and stay safe! - Xo Evie💕