Previously on Big Time House of Anubis
"Tower of love notes?" Katie wondered. "Seriously, whoever put together this treasure hunt is smart."
"Alrighty, let's put everything back before someone suspects something and tries to bust us," said Camille.
"Um guys, I think I hear something," said Amber.
"Hide!" Kendall loud-whispered and gathered his friends behind the middle school building.
"Who's there?" Nina asked nervously.
"It looks like a person," Camille panicked.
"Everyone quiet," Lucy commanded.
"They're getting closer!" said Katie. "And our dorm house is that way!"
"Relax baby sis," Kendall insisted. "Let's see who that really is first."
As the students took a peek, the mysterious person walked right past the middle school building.
"He's gone," said James, confused.
"Who could that have been?" asked Joy.
"I wish I knew," said Amber.
"Now let's get back to our dorms before anyone catches us," Logan begged. "Come on! We can look for the next clue tomorrow."
"At least let us cover up the holes and put the shovels back first," said Patricia.
...
"Good morning students," Mrs. Knight greeted. "How did you all sleep?"
"Well," Nina lied.
"Like a baby," Camille insisted.
"Good to hear," Mrs. Knight responded and smiled.
"Well, look at the time," said Kendall, looking at his watch. "We're gonna be late to class if we don't leave now."
"Bye Mrs. Knight!" said the students.
"Not so fast!" Mrs. Knight called, scaring the students.
Oh no, did she catch us sneaking out? thought Nina
The gang faced Mrs. Knight with fear all over their faces.
"I told them not to!" Logan confessed.
"Logan!" Kendall scolded.
"You told them not to what?" asked Mrs. Knight. "You know destroying school property is a serious offense."
"We were curious!" said Carlos, thinking about the statue and the dug-up ground. Wait, how did Mrs. Knight know about the statue and the dug-up ground? She didn't even leave Fellows House from the time they snuck out to this morning. Was it Griffin? How did he know it was us anyways?
"You kids know well enough not to throw things onto the floor," said Mrs. Knight, referring to the bookend Alfie knocked down. "Now, who made the hole in the floor in the living room? Confess, or you're all in trouble."
"Okay, fine, it was me!" Alfie admitted. "I'm sorry Mrs. Knight, I just wanted to have a pillow fight! I didn't meant to throw it that far and knock the bookend off the shelf!"
"Alfred Marmaduke Lewis!" Trudy scolded, causing laughter from some of the Palm Woods students.
"Well Alfred, thank you for your honesty," said Mrs. Knight. "I'm gonna let you off the hook for now, only because you confessed and you kids need to get to class. We'll discuss the consequences later."
"That was close," said Amber, after the gang left their dorm house.
"I can't believe I'm gonna spend my exchange program in detention," Alfie complained. "And that Trudy revealed my full name in front of you people."
"Marmaduke?" James asked his exchange partner.
"Besides, my mom never said the consequence was detention," Kendall pointed out. "You know, one time she caught us coming back after curfew, and we scrubbed showers and toilets for a week."
"That was disgusting," James gagged. "At least we learned to start paying attention to the time."
"But I can't afford to pay a fine for the damaged floor," Alfie continued.
"Oh, don't worry about that," said Katie. "My mom's pretty close with Griffin, he can make you do work around the school to pay for it, or, if Griffin's in a good mood, he'll pay it for you."
...
During break, the students went back to the quiet area in the woods and went over some information on the second clue of their treasure hunt.
"So where exactly could the tower of love notes be?" Amber wondered. "And what does 'three steps forward, one step backward' mean?"
"Why couldn't they just say two steps forward?" asked James.
Just then, the bell rang, and the students went to study hall.
"Okay Amber, quiz me and Lucy," said Camille, handing Amber her flashcards for the upcoming French test.
Tower of love notes! Lucy suddenly thought about their latest clue as she and Camille went through the flashcards. Paris is the city of love, and Paris is in France, where they speak French!
Lucy quickly made a note of that and continued preparing for her French test.
...
"Guys, I think I got an idea of where our next clue is hidden!" Lucy excitedly told her friends.
"Ooh, where?" asked James.
"So, our clue is hidden in the tower of love notes, right? And Paris, which is in France, where French is spoken, is known as the city of love, right?" Lucy noted.
"The French classroom!" Nina exclaimed. "Lucy, you're a genius! You already helped us solve the first two clues."
"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Carlos. "Let's go find our treasure!"
"Well, not yet, but let's get closer to finding our treasure," Katie insisted.
"No, we still have school, remember?" Logan pointed out.
"Hey, Amber and mine's next class is French," said Camille. "We can check- wait, what could 'tower' mean?"
"Hmm... maybe look for something tall?" said Nina.
"The bookshelf!" Amber exclaimed.
...
Camille and Amber quickly made it to class and searched the bookshelf of the French classroom.
"Okay, three steps forward, one step backward," Camille quietly repeated to herself. "But from what?"
"Tower of love notes," Amber said absentmindedly. "That's it! We should probably look for a novel about love!"
"And your friends say you're an airhead," Camille teased and began searching for a love novel. "Ooh, found one!"
"Me too," said Amber.
"Well let's try both," Camille insisted. "Okay, we read things from left to right, so one step forward must be one step to the right, and two steps backward is to the left."
Camille and Amber tried that method with both books, but when they didn't find anything and tried the other way around, they still couldn't find anything. Before they can try again, the teacher came in.
"Rats," Camille muttered.
"Hey, I have an idea!" said Amber. "We find a way to get the teacher out of the classroom after classes."
Just then, Camille and Amber got a text in the AmSibuna group chat.
Guys, I think our next clue could be in the French section of the library- Lucy
What makes u say that?- Amber
The library is taller, and you know, tower? Idk for sure tho, I'm just guessing- Lucy
Besides, we couldn't find anything in the French classroom bookshelf- Camille
Good thinking! Meet in library during free time. AmSibuna?- Nina
AmSibuna- Camille
AmSibuna- Lucy
AmSibuna- Amber
After evening study hall, the secret AmSibuna club dashed to the library and headed to the French section.
"Okay, so Camille and I decided that we should probably look for love novels and count from there," said Amber.
"Good thinking, let's go," said Katie.
The students were going up and down the French section, looking for books that focused on the subject of love.
"Wow, there's a lot of love novels in French," Kendall pointed out.
"The French must really love love," James teased.
"Okay, but which one is it?" asked Patricia.
"I guess there's only one way to find out," said Fabian. "Trial and error for all of them."
"Also, how are we supposed to count?" Carlos pointed out. "Like, one step forward as in the book forward or shelves?"
"Again, only one way to find out," Fabian responded. "It's gonna be time-consuming, but if we want the treasure and that's all we get in our clue, then so be it."
One hour later...
"Still nothing!" Nina panicked, after the students tried everything they could.
"We need to find the treasure," Carlos insisted.
"It's almost curfew, and I'm tired," Logan reminded.
The students left the library and went back to their dorms to get ready for bed.
Katie was sleeping when she suddenly thought of where their next clue could be hidden. Not wanting to forget it the next morning, she quietly grabbed her phone and texted everyone in the AmSibuna chat.
Our latest clue said one step forward, two steps backward, right? Since the saying "one step forward, two steps backward" means you make progress but you run into some sort of event that causes you to fall behind- Katie
Which means we should probably look in a book about love that seemed to be going well but then went wrong- Katie
Realizing the time, Katie put her phone away and went back to bed. As the brunette was sound asleep, suddenly, she started having a dream about a mysterious person wearing what looked like a trench coat.
Sweetheart, it's me! the mysterious person said in her dream.
Katie woke up a while later, realized it was just a dream and tried to go back to sleep but couldn't. She spent the rest of the night trying to make out that mysterious person in her dream, and figuring out why he or she called her sweetheart. He looked familiar, but not in the way Katie thought.
"Guys, there's something I need to tell you," Katie announced the next morning in a serious tone.
"What's up?" asked Camille.
"Last night, I had a dream about some strange person," Katie responded. "All he said, or at least from what I could remember, was 'Sweetheart, it's me!' And the weirdest thing wasn't even that some random stranger I'm definitely not related to called me sweetheart, it was, they kind of looked like that strange person we saw the other night after we found our second clue! I mean, for one, they were both wearing a trench coat!"
"And you're telling us this because?" asked Alfie.
"What if the mysterious person has something to do with the treasure?" Katie insisted.
"Well, of course, we're not going to jump to conclusions yet, but make note of your thoughts," said Nina.
"Well, I got a test in first period so I'm gonna head to class," said Logan. "See ya."
"Later friends," said Kendall.
"Guys wait!" said Fabian. "I just remembered something! Katie's text in the AmSibuna chat!"
"Right!" said Lucy. "Emergency AmSibuna meeting during break!"
"Okay, everyone, look for a book about love that went wrong," said Nina.
"Ooh, found one!" said Lucy. "This one's literally about a tower of love notes."
As Lucy opened the cover, something caught Katie's eye.
"It looks like a message."
"Dear J, happy one year anniversary. Love, D," Kendall read out loud.
"Aww, how romantic!" said Amber. "D must've really loved J. Or still do, maybe, I don't know."
"But who are D and J?" asked Carlos.
"Definitely not Drake and Josh, that's for sure," said Lucy.
"Hey! You should try looking in the chapter where love starts to go wrong!" Patricia suggests. "There's got to be something about our treasure hunt in there!"
"Wow, talk about vandalizing school property," Logan scoffed upon seeing circles and underlines in the book.
"Wait, wait," Fabian interjected. "I think the circles and underlines create a message."
"Ooh, let's see," said Amber, writing things down in her notebook and mentally translating them. "It looks like the annotations make up 'Oh wonderful! Now that you've got your third clue'."
"Then what?" asked James.
"Turn the page," Kendall insisted. "There might be something on the next page!"
"Oh!" Amber exclaimed as she recorded some new notes while Nina turned the pages. "It's saying 'just remember the numbers'."
"What numbers?" asked Jerome.
"I think there's something written on the next page!" Alfie pointed out.
"There's the numbers 1-9-8-6-6-3 and 'don't be late'! written at the bottom," said Joy. "Make note of that, Ambs."
Before anyone could say another word, the bell for the next period rang.
"AmSibuna meeting tomorrow evening," Amber ordered.
"AmSibuna," everyone else repeated and put their right hands over their right eyes.
Kendall was trying to focus in class when something, or rather, someone, out the window caught his eye.
He kind of looks like that guy from the other night, Kendall thought to himself. As Kendall was flipping through his thoughts and completely zoning out, he noticed the color of the mysterious person's coat.
Oh my gosh! What if it's the guy from Katie's dream?
"Mr. Knight?" Kendall suddenly heard his teacher call him. "Are you getting this down?"
"Yes, sorry," said Kendall, who zoned back in as quick as possible.
"Pay attention next time," the teacher commanded.
"Yes ma'am," said Kendall.
When the teacher turned her back to the students, Kendall mouthed "the guy in Katie's dream" to his friends, who looked confused.
...
"So what were you trying to mouth to us in class?" asked Fabian.
"The guy in Katie's dream," said Kendall. "I think he was outside our classroom!"
"How'd you know it was him?" asked Logan.
"Well, Katie said the guy from her dream looked like that mysterious person we all saw the other night, and that strange person seemed to be wearing a trench coat," Kendall explained. "The guy outside our classroom was also wearing a trench coat, a blue one to be exact, and definitely looked like that mysterious person we encountered! Same height, same outline."
"I feel like Katie's right," said Mick. "What if the mysterious man has something to do with our treasure hunt? I mean, I'm no genius, but we first saw him after we got our first clue, right? And he's always randomly appearing and disappearing."
"Our treasure hunt's just getting started," said Logan. "But yeah, what is he doing outside our classroom, and why our classroom?"
"This AmSibuna meeting is now in session," Amber ordered. "To start off tonight's meeting, let's go over our new findings and speculations."
"Here's one," said Katie. "A strange person popped up in my dream last night, and he looked just like the strange person we saw after retrieving our second clue."
"And to add to that, I may have saw that strange person again in class today," said Kendall. "I don't know how important this is for our treasure hunt, but his trench coat was blue."
"Interesting," said Amber, writing things down in her notebook.
"We also found our next clue, which is 'Oh wonderful! Now that you've got your third clue, just remember the numbers 1-9-8-6-6-3. Don't be late!'" Nina added.
"Okay," said Amber, writing things down.
"What could the numbers mean?" Jerome wondered.
"More like what does the phrase 'don't be late!' have to do with those numbers?" asked Logan.
"Okay, first thing's first," said Amber. "So based on Kendall and Katie's reports, we should definitely start paying attention to the strange person in the trench coat, since he seems to have something to do with our treasure hunt. Now let's figure out our next clue."
"What if the numbers make a time?" Alfie suggested.
"Hmm, 1-9-8-6-6-3," Logan looked through the sequence. "Well, 19 o'clock is 7PM in twenty-four hour time, but we only have sixty minutes so the times 7:86, 7:66, and 7:63 don't make sense. Besides, that doesn't really look like a clock time."
"Maybe the numbers are out of order!" Carlos insisted.
"1-9-8-6," Nina wrote the numbers down, hoping to get an answer, when she realized something. "What if the numbers form a date?"
"What month is 19 though?" asked James.
"No, 1986/6/3," Camille corrected while dividing up the numbers. "If we went backwards, the date would be March 6, 6891, which is too far into the future for us to be concerned. It's got to be June 3, 1986!"
"But what significance does June 3, 1986 have?" Kendall wondered.
To be continued...