SO congrats to our winners of the last chapter! And sorry to those who weren't as fortunate. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 10
Nina had been avoiding Fabian the rest of that day. Fabian had expected a huge blow up. But she kept calm as soon as she read it. Everyone waited for her reaction, but it didn't come. Which made Fabian feel worse. She just reread the last sentence over and over again. When she was done she looked up at Fabian, who looked at his feet. She sighed.
"Did you really do it?" she asked him. He nodded. Another sigh. "Did you read about..."
"Yeah" he said quietly. She nodded, and left. Since then she hadn't looked at him or spoken to him. She switched seats with Amber at the dinner table. Fabian felt horrible. That night, just a few minutes before lights out, Nina finally went to him.
"Why?" she asked him. Mick jumped up and jetted out of the room.
"I wanted to impress you" Fabian admitted. Nina gave him a 'how's that working out for you' look. "I just wanted to give you the perfect date, and I read a little too far"
"I don't understand it. You, along with a bunch of other people, complain about Jack Jackal invading your personal business and then you turn around and do the exact same thing!" Nina said, her voice rising more and more with each word.
"I know. I'm a terrible person" Fabian said.
"You're not terrible, your hypocritical" Nina told him. "I can't believe you of all people would do that"
"Can I make it up to you?" Fabian asked.
"No"
"Please let me-"
"Fabian"
"Seriously I need to do something!"
"No Fabian you can't do anything!"
"I don't want you to hate me!"
"LOOK Fabian!" Nina interrupted him and shutting him up. "You can't make it up to me! You can't! You read my diary. YOU READ MY DIARY! You can't just say I'm sorry and give me a cookie and I'll be like 'yes Fabian let's go out on another date all is forgiven'. You were the most honest and loyal in my opinion and I can't look at you the same. I'm not gonna forgive you, I just came here for clarity. Looking at you right now, just makes me really upset. So just... stay away from me for a while ok?"
"Nina... I'm sorry. I never wanted you to hate-"
"I don't hate you Fabian" Nina told him. "I just don't trust you anymore"
Fabian didn't say anything else after that. Nina sighed and left the room.
"We told him not to do it" Jerome's voice startled her. "He insisted on it"
"You told him not to do it?" Nina repeated.
"Yeah, Eddie, Mick, Alfie and I" Jerome said. "Mostly me though, I knew it was a bad thing to do and it would bite him in the ass soon"
"Well thank you" Nina smiled. Jerome smiled back. It had hit him earlier that day, that there were only two girls in the house who he hadn't slept with yet. One of them being Nina. So he set his sights on her. So far, everything was going to plan. She was hurt and vulnerable. It would work perfectly.
"Yeah, I'm sorry he did that. Fabian can seem like the sweet one at first-"
"Then he shows his colors" Nina mumbled. Jerome smiled and nodded. Phase one was complete. He had shown a sensitive side while making Fabian look like the bad guy. Now for phase two.
"So yesterday you said I was a ten?" Jerome asked. Nina had a faint blush and she looked at her feet.
"Yeah" she said slowly and quietly. "It was probably the alcohol"
"Oh yeah blame it on the alcohol" Jerome shook his head.
"Well it probably was!" Nina exclaimed.
"And what makes you so sure?" Jerome asked. Nina looked up at him.
"I guess I can't be sure, can I?" Nina asked in a very different tone that threw Jerome off. "Not without a reminder, at least"
Jerome blinked, now unsure of who the hunter was, and who was the prey. "Uh... yeah I guess not" he struggled to say feeling unusually like Fabian.
"And maybe... this time you can score me on a scale from one to ten" she said slowly with a husky undertone and rising on her toes with an arm snaking around his neck and pulling him down.
Jerome was pulled out of shock as soon as the kiss happened, wrapping his arms around her waist and pressing her against the wall. He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his. Jerome led the way to his room, both knocking things over in the process. He managed to open the door and put her on his bed. He slowly began to take her shirt off and she unbuttoned his pants.
Alfie looked up from the comic he was reading, and quickly put the comic away knowing he was supposed to be Anti-Alfie. At that point, he was unaffected by Jerome's bringing girls to the room. He walked to them, both now practically naked, and said: "I'm bored. Anyone up for a threesome?"
Both looked at him with annoyance. Alfie sighed "Ok no, not yet? Fine, I'll be sleeping on the couch in the living room. If I come in later, don't mind me it'll only be for a second till Vic goes away" Nina looked annoyed and Jerome gave him a 'go away' look. Alfie rolled his eyes and walked towards the door. "Have fun and don't be too loud, remember I'm literally right out there"
Nina quietly stepped out of the bedroom and tip toed up the stairs, catching a glance at a sleeping Alfie. The floors seemed to be extra loud, each one more creaky than the last. Luckily for her, Victor slept like he was dead. She slowly, just to be sure she wasn't being loud, went through the door to get to the girls corridor. She opened her door and quietly went inside, very thankful she didn't get caught.
"Oh my God you fucked Jerome!" Amber exclaimed, shocking Nina into the air.
"Keep it down!" Nina shushed her. "How did you know?"
"You didn't come to bed last night, I saw Alfie sleeping on the couch, and girl, your hair" Amber said. Nina's hair was sticking up all over the place and was surrounding her face sloppily. "Only Jerome can give someone that hair style"
"Could you not tell anyone?" Nina asked her.
"Yeah of course!" Amber shrugged. "He's good isn't he? Best I've ever been with"
"Let's not discuss-"
"Alfie and Mick are really good though, depending on the time one is better than the other" Amber said. "Mick's get back together sex is phenomenal, absolutely amazing. Alfie's break up sex is totally on point. Always hitting the spots at just the right time"
"Break up sex? I thought you and Alfie were never together" Nina said.
"Not me and Alfie break up, me and Mick break up. Yeah that really gets him going" Amber thought aloud.
"So I'm guessing you and Alfie have recently-"
"Unfortunately no. The last time we did anything was months ago. He's kind of... not very happy with me right now" Amber admitted.
"Why?"
"He wants me to admit I have feelings for him" Amber said.
"So why don't you?" Nina asked.
"Because I don't" Amber said. Nina gave her a look, and Amber sighed. "I need to shower... and so do you. In fact... you go first you smell like sex"
Nina rolled her eyes and got her uniform and headed to the bathroom.
It was hard to be a nerd. Mick had to give it up to Fabian and Mara. Or maybe it was just hard for him. Sure dressing like it and acting like it was pretty easy. He roomed with Fabian, he just picked up a few things from him. Actually doing the work was hard. He wanted to play the part to the fullest and get the grades, but he was having a hard time doing it. Last night he stayed up long enough to hear Jerome's gross finish with a familiar sounding girl. That morning he got up early enough to double and triple check his work. And after all of that, he still didn't think he'd be able to pull a good grade. Not a 'nerd worthy' one. He gathered his stuff and put it in his bag, keeping it unzipped knowing he would pull it out at some time during breakfast.
"So how was your night?" Alfie asked sitting down across from Nina and looking at her. It was only Nina, Alfie, Amber and Mick who wasn't paying the least bit of attention to them. "Did you have fun with my roomie?"
Nina jumped out of her seat and ran to the other side, slapping a hand over Alfie's mouth. She glanced at Mick, who was deeply into his studies, and at the door. When she saw no one was around she pulled Alfie out of his seat, with her hand still over his mouth and into the hallway by his door.
"Don't say- don't mention it!" Nina stumbled over her words. "Don't tell anybody"
"Why? What's the big deal? You didn't get caught by Victor last night so you're good" Alfie shrugged.
"I... I think-no I'm pretty sure Fabian has a crush on me" Nina said quietly.
"You're only pretty sure?" Alfie asked.
"And I like him too... just not particularly at this moment" Nina said. "But if this ever goes away... if we could somehow get through this... I just don't want Fabian to know ok?"
"Fine I won't tell Fabian" Alfie rolled his eyes.
"Don't tell anybody!" Nina exclaimed before going back to a whisper. "It'll be hella more easy if less people know. So far, only you and Amber know and that's the way I want to keep it"
"Maybe..." Alfie thought and looked at her seductively. "If you give me something in return"
Alfie's arm was leaning on the wall and his face was close to hers. Nina was confused as to why he was acting that way, before remembering he was supposed to be Anti-Alfie. She understood more, because Alfie would probably just say 'ok' and the conversation would be over without making things more difficult for her. Just when she was going to respond, Fabian came out of his bedroom and saw the two immediately. Alfie brought his arm down and straightened up and Nina avoided eye contact. Fabian looked between the two, going back and forth from Nina to Alfie, before walking into the dining room.
Nina sighed. She looked back at Alfie, who had his eyebrows raised. "I'm not doing anything... anything like that for a while so if that's what you want forget it"
"Fine, we don't have to do anything" Alfie said. "But like I said, I want something in return"
"Like what?" Nina asked. Alfie shrugged.
"Whatever you can give me"
"How about twenty bucks and a nice peck on the lips?" Nina suggested.
"How about forty bucks and something a little deeper?" Alfie asked.
"Forty bucks and a one time offer make out session to keep this quiet" Nina offered. Alfie shrugged.
"Fine"
"And don't tell anyone about this exchange either" Nina told him. He nodded and they made their way back to the dining hall.
Eddie was on his way to class when his dad stopped him. "Edison, I was wondering if we could have another lunch like the one we had yesterday" Mr. Sweet said hopefully. "I had such a great time"
"Sure" Eddie smiled, though he would have wanted anything else.
"I don't know what's gotten into you, but I like it" Mr. Sweet said. "It's been really hard to spend time with you since you got here and I really like doing it"
Eddie smiled, but when Mr. Sweet left, he quickly frowned. His dad didn't like hanging out with Eddie, he liked hanging out with Edison. And Eddie could tell he would much rather to have Edison, the tea loving Sweetie Jr, than Eddie. Eddie and his dad could never hang out like this, and he knew because every second of yesterday's lunch was excruciatingly annoying.
"C'mon I want to go to French hurry up!" Joy urged Alfie, Jerome, and Patricia.
"We're going" Jerome rolled his eyes. "Chill out"
"Hurry up!" Joy yelled. They turned into the classroom and stopped short looking at Ms. Kenny.
"Wow" they mused. Her outfit and hair were as put together as ever, but her skin was red and flaky and peeling.
"I'm sure you'd be happy to know I broke out in hives last night" Ms. Kenny said quietly getting her papers together.
"It did way worse than I expected" Patricia said.
"It looks like she got a bad sunburn" Joy said. "Not that bad... right?"
"Uh..." Jerome and Alfie looked at each other. Joy sighed and walked to Ms. Kenny.
"Uh... sorry I guess" Joy said awkwardly. "I didn't know it was going to do that. I thought your skin was gonna turn purple or something"
Ms. Kenny sighed and nodded. Through the class, Joy felt really bad about what she did and how Ms. Kenny looked. Even the evil Joy in her seemed to feel a little bad. So Joy felt she needed to clear her guilty conscious in an evil Joy way. The least she could do for someone as possible.
Ms. Kenny was getting ready for the last class of the day, when something she didn't see before. Two creams. One said Burn Butter and the other was a tube of Clinique sun-care. It was a sign of what seemed to be a truce. True Joy move. No confrontation necessary. Ms. Kenny smiled and took the products and put them in her bag.
Joy smiled to herself, she wasn't being out of character, because most times Joy never wanted to actually hurt someone. And always felt bad when she did. Unless on a rare occasion where she didn't because she meant to hurt them. It was complicated, Joy sometimes couldn't decided what she wanted to do. The Evil Joy that Joy was acting like was in between her just want to have fun phase, and her bat shit crazy phase. During her bat shit crazy phase, she didn't care who she hurt. As her and Jerome were walking with Alfie and Patricia in tow, she decided to do something in true Joy manner.
"Can we skip Jason's class?" Joy asked. "Let's ditch"
"And do what?" Patricia asked. Joy shrugged and thought for a while, before looking at her friends.
"Is there anyone in the drama room?" Joy asked.
"Probably not. Theater classes don't go on when Jason has history" Jerome answered.
"Then I know exactly where we're going to go" Joy smiled and led the way through the theater to the secret room in the back of the prop room. "Ah, my home away from hell"
"What do you wanna do?" Alfie asked. "Play cards? Some board games? Just chill and talk about people we hate?"
Joy looked mischievous as she went behind the couch and got out what she used to call 'their little bag of fun'.
"Seriously?" Patricia asked. "No, we're all sober"
"Oh come on! Don't be a bunch of bitches get over here and have a good time with me!" Joy ordered.
As Patricia and Alfie were trying to convince Joy that it was a bad idea, Jerome watched Joy. She had a little smile on her face. A smile that said 'winning'. He knew that smile well. But the question was... what was she winning at? So they argued and he thought before it hit him. It had been so obvious!
While Jerome dared Joy, he was sure she was going to pass. He didn't expect for her to actually go back to her old ways for a week. She thought about it, her expression as she did so was unreadable. But he guessed that she had developed a plan. She was going to try and rub 'old Joy' in their faces until they got sick of her. That was always the plan for her. Jerome smiled. Now he had a plan too.
"Let's do it!" Jerome interrupted them. Joy's smile faltered, for just a split second.
"What?" Alfie and Patricia exclaimed.
"It's one time, what's the worse that could happen?" Jerome asked and directed his look at Joy. "Just like old times, right?"
Joy sighed and tried to keep her act up. "Right"
After school, the house decided to walk together. Amber looked really said and finally, Nina asked what was wrong. "The Shopping trip!"
"What?" Patricia asked.
"Remember we planned the shopping trip and now we can't go because we're grounded!" Amber yelled.
"Ugh let's just go" Joy said. Everyone else stopped. "We'll just go straight there, what's he gonna do? Ground us again?"
"Is everyone else up for it?" Mara asked. All of the girls nodded and Amber squealed.
"Cover for us for as long as you can!" Amber called to the boys. They all ran to Patricia's car that was parked right outside the school, it seated five. Nina grew nervous, she wasn't thinking. She's been able to keep it a secret that she was pretty much poor, but now she feared she'd be found out and shunned or something. They'll kick her out and take Willow or KT. The drive was about three minutes long, with close to no traffic since everyone was just getting out of school, and for some people, work. After they found a place to park, they began to enter Liverpool One, Shopping Center. As soon as the group made their way inside, Amber went straight to business.
"So it's obvious Joy and Patricia are gonna shop together, Nina and I are" Nina looked at Amber, surprised by the new information. "It's just a decision for you Mara"
"I'd rather eat bark than go with you" Mara said to Amber and then turned to Joy. "And I'd rather set myself on fire than go with you, so I think my options are limited"
"You can always go by yourself" Nina said.
"That sounds like the least excruciating" Mara said and went on her way.
"We'll meet at the food court at six thirty" Amber called to her. She turned towards Joy and Patricia, who were staring blankly into space. "Did you hear me?"
Joy snapped out of it and looked at Mara. "What?"
"Meet us at the food court at six, ok?" Amber repeated. They nodded and went off to shop somewhere. While Amber was doing business, Nina was looking at the map and was making her way to the second floor. "Where are you going?"
"Gap" Nina said. Amber stopped her.
"You're joking" Amber said in a serious tone. Nina shook her head.
"I won't be shopping much, I didn't bring much money" Nina told her.
"How much did you bring?" Amber asked.
"Forty five dollars" Nina admitted.
"That's all you brought!" Amber exclaimed.
"That's all I have" Nina sighed. "I know all of you guys are super fancy and rich and stuff, but I'm not. I'm here on a scholarship"
"Why didn't you just say that?" Amber shrugged. Nina's eyebrows rose.
"I thought-"
"You thought we wouldn't like you because you're not rich? As long as you look like a million bucks, who cares?" Amber asked. Nina smiled. "And I'm gonna make sure you look like a million bucks, come with me!"
Amber dragged Nina to one of her favorite stores. She dragged her to the shoe section and found a pair of beige lace up three inch tall ankle boots. Nina liked them, but the price made her jaw drop.
"Did you miss the part where I said I only had forty five bucks?" Nina asked. "These are sixty"
"Don't you get it? I'm paying for you!" Amber smiled finding a shoe for her to try on.
"I'm not gonna let you-"
"You're not letting, I'm insisting" Amber told her. "So save those forty five bucks for a better cause and let me treat you!"
Nina couldn't believe what Amber was buying for her. Like the $135.00 Lace up Seanne Floral Wedge boot. A hundred and thirty five dollars for a pair of shoes? But Amber spent the money as if it were a bag of skittles at the store. Once they were done, Amber must have spent over a thousand dollars on her, not to mention what she spent on herself. When they were approaching Joy and Patricia, the two were laughing their asses off.
"What's so funny?" Mara asked, getting to the two at around the same time. When they stopped laughing they looked confused at Mara.
"What?" Patricia asked.
"Never mind" Mara rolled her eyes. They ordered Pizza hut and stuffed themselves and their millions of bags in the car and drove back to Anubis by around seven thirty. Mara was the first to walk through, making sure the coast was clear before waving the others in. They rushed up the stairs and into their corridor, and there stood Trudy with her eyebrow raised.
"Well hurry into your rooms before Victor sees you" Trudy said in a hushed voice. The girls smiled and raced into their rooms.
Some of the girls changed into their outfits right away, namely Amber, Mara, and Joy. Patricia put on her pajamas to avoid wearing Amber's clothes (Amber was disappointed when she had to take off her new dress and put on Patricia's new black skinny jeans). Nina put on some some sweats and pulled her hair up into a bun, she just wanted to relax. She took out all of her new clothes, and stuffed them in her part of the wardrobe. Which was near impossible. Amber gave her about twenty-thirty pairs of shoes, and three fourths of them were heels. The new... er old... uh current... the good Joy would not be happy. She stuffed them at the bottom of the closet, unaware that she was pushing her old sneakers to the back of the closet, and made her way down stairs.
"Well?" Alfie said when Nina came down the stairs.
"Yes, yes" Nina rolled her eyes. She stopped at the last stop and dug in her pockets for the forty bucks, leaving her with just five. Alfie gladly took it, letting it slide that they were American. He then took one of the American twenty dollar bills and started folding it up in an origami like manner. Nina watched him with annoyance, she could have used that money for something better than origami. When he was done, he showed it to her. It showed what looked like the twin towers smoking. After she got a good look, he unfolded it and stuffed in his pocket.
"I think America was the one that actually crashed the planes" Alfie speculated. I think their-your government had something to do with it.
"That's ridiculous, why would they crash their own country?" Nina asked.
"I don't know... maybe aliens took over their bodies!" Alfie exclaimed. Nina sighed.
"That's not very Anti Alfie" Nina told him.
"But this is important, we have to warn people, how can there be so many planets and only one of them have living creatures?" Alfie challenged her as they walked slowly down the hall towards Alfie's bedroom.
"I don't know, ask nasa" Nina shrugged.
"They're probably keeping it from us!" Alfie exclaimed. "You know who's probably an alien? Victor!"
Before Nina could tell him how crazy that was, he broke out into a fit of hysterics. Nina watched him, wondering what was going on in his head. "Your acting extra weird right now"
"Sorry" he said now much calmer. He led her into his bedroom and closed this door.
"Just remember, this is a one time thing. Simply just business, you get this in exchange for-" she was cut off by Alfie's lips landing right on hers wasting no time. She was shocked by how soft they were, like two little pillows. She didn't know why, but she didn't care because all she wanted to do was keep kissing them. Her lips basically wanted to sleep on his. The pair fell back onto the bed, not caring that it wasn't Alfie's, it was Jeromes. Alfie flipped her over so he was the one on top, being the dominate one. Alfie's hands went through her hair, and she grabbed onto the edge of his shirt, lifting it ever so slightly. Their kiss was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Jerome, are you in there?" Fabian's voice called. Alfie quickly got off of Nina and went to the door.
"He's not in here" Alfie answered through the door.
"Ok I just need to get my English notes" Fabian said opening the door. Nina jetted to Alfie's bed, without Fabian seeing her, and hid under it. He got his notebook and left. Alfie watched him until he went into the living room.
"You're good" Alfie said. Nina wormed from out of the bed and quickly left the room, going through the kitchen. Alfie left his room as well, running into Joy and Patricia.
"Your lips are swollen" Patricia observed.
"I forgot that making out with someone is so much better when you're stoned" Alfie said feeling good.
"You're still stoned?" Joy asked.
"I started getting sober and boy was it not as fun" Alfie said.
"Patty and I brought some fun with us to the fall aaaaannnnnnnddd yeah" Joy said and giggled at herself, which just caused the three of them to burst into a fit of hysterics, again. They were interrupted by a phone ringing.
"Shit it's mum" Patricia looked at the screen.
"Don't answer it!" Alfie told her.
"I'm not gonna answer it" Patricia sneered at Alfie. She looked at her phone, he thumb hovering above 'ignore' and she sighed. "I'm gonna answer it"
She pressed answer and she tried her best to sound normal, ignoring Joy say that she was being stupid. She could mention that they've all done it. "Hey Patricia" her mum said.
"Uh" Patricia cleared her throat. "mum, hi"
"Are you ok?"
"Fine... why don't I sound ok?" Patricia's nerves came through.
"Um.. Piper wants to talk to you" her mom dismissed her question.
"Helllllllooooooo?" Piper's voice came through.
"Why are you calling from mums number?" Patricia asked.
"My phone's not working" Piper said. "Can I visit you guys?"
"NO!"
"Great, I'll be there next week" Piper said hanging up. Patricia groaned and made her way to her room, and groaned again. Then slammed the door. Joy and Alfie just laughed at her. They made their way to the living room, laughing the entire time. Which caused Jerome to laugh. Amber looked confused.
"Why are you guys laughing?" Amber asked.
"Because Patricia... Patricia she- she..." Joy began to explain. She paused to catch her breath and then looked at Amber. "Wait.. what?"
"I said-"
Amber was cut off by the sound of phones buzzing off the hook. They took their phones out and read the new Jack Jackal article.
It's my reveal of the day! And I was assigned poetry so here you go!
Roses are red,
Violet's are blue.
Nina kissed Alfie,
And fucked Jerome too!
Have fun with that! -Jackal
Nina's eyes widened, her heart pumped double time and she looked at Fabian who was looking at her. The look of horror on her face was confirmation enough. Nina may not get angry, but Fabian certainly did. He stomped over to Jerome who was looking at the phone.
"Seriously Jerome!" he yelled. Jerome looked at him confused.
"What?"
"What do you mean what? What Jack just said!" Fabian practically screamed.
"Hold on I'm still reading" Jerome said turning back to his phone. Fabian snatched the phone out of his hands and threw it on the couch.
"Spoiler alert! He said you FUCKED NINA!" Fabian yelled. Jerome blinked at him.
"Oh..." Jerome said slowly getting up and heading to his room. "Yeah"
"Yeah!" Fabian yelled following Jerome in his room and slamming the door shut. "Why would you do that? I like her. You know that! I mean... I really like her. I've liked girls before but... Nina's different. There's no one like her, I think I'm actually falling for her. I really messed up, and you're just making things worse for me. And I know you know how I feel, so why? When I've already screwed things up? Screwed them up bad"
Fabian sat on Alfie bed and put his head in his arm. He said quietly: "She's probably never gonna trust me again"
It was silent for a good minute, before small laughs were heard. Fabian looked up at Jerome to see him almost crying, bursting out laughing. Fabian watched him in horror, before his laughter died down. When they did Jerome looked at him and said: "Fuck I'm sorry that wasn't funny"
Fabian felt like jumping up and strangling him, but he just looked at him with disgust and ran out the room. Jerome sat silently on the bed, feeling the bad side effects of the 'fun bag' hit him like a ton of bricks.