Hey guys! So this is a special little treat, a prequel!
Obviously there are some people who aren't in this chapter. It's the beginning of the fearsome four. Also Jack isn't in this chapter, I'm just trying this out. I might do another one in a few chapters or so, but only if you guys want me to.
Chapter 12
The Becoming of Little J
"So this is my new home" Joy sighed looking at the large, old house in front of her.
"I'm sorry this is how it had to be" her mother said. "But with your dad's work, and me always being up in the air... Boarding school seems to be the only option"
"Dad couldn't hire a nanny?" Joy asked. "That way I could stay with you?"
"You're dad wanted to, but I didn't" Mrs. Mercer said. "Your dad grew up with a nanny"
"Oh..." Joy said. "Never mind, I don't want a nanny"
"You know he means well"
"I know he ignores me" Joy said walking towards the building with her luggage, wanting nothing more to do with the conversation.
"So we're going to play two truths one lie" Trudy smiled at the group after gathering everyone. "As a way to break the ice, everyone take a piece of paper and a pen"
Joy took the paper and leaned on the arm of the chair. She wrote the two truths easily, but the lie was hard. She was really bad at lying.
"Ok, so when you go, you're gonna say your name, age, year, and then tell us what you wrote on the papers" Trudy said. "We have to guess what the lie is. How about you go first?"
The tall older boy looked at Trudy and then back at his paper. "My name is Cole, I'm sixteen, I'm in Year twelve, and um" Cole looked at his paper, and then looked up trying to keep a straight face. "I was born in France, I hate carrots, and I have a twin sister"
"I know!" a girl about his age said.
"If you know the answer don't say anything" Trudy said to her. She sighed and put her arm down. Joy guessed the France thing was a lie, but in fact, Cole loved carrots, and his sister was in Isis House.
"I'm Maria, I'm also sixteen and I'm in year twelve" Maria said. "I have a boyfriend named Sam who's perfect, I get straight A's every year, and my favorite animal was a panda"
Joy thought for sure she was right when she guessed the lie was that the girl got straight A's every year, not because the girl looked dumb, but because it seemed like the best guess.
"The truth is" Maria started. "I have a girlfriend named Sam. And she's perfect"
Joy narrowed her eyes at the girl. Her grandmother always told her that all gay and lesbian people were sinners that were going right to hell. They were wrong.
"It's your turn squirt" a girl tapped Joy. She looked up and spoke quietly.
"Um.. my name is Joy, I'm in year eight and I'm uh twelve" Joy started. "My two truths and lies are uh, my mom is a flight attendant, I want a pet monkey, and I'm extremely uncomfortable right now"
The group laughed, which made her feel a little better. They guessed that the lie was that her mom was a flight attendant, because by their logic, everyone wants a monkey. Not Joy, monkey's scared her. They acted crazy, just yelping and jumping around. The truth was her mom was a flight attendant, and she was very uncomfortable with all of the older students. The oldest in the room was a guy in year thirteen, who was held back a year. The youngest besides her was a girl in year ten. She wondered where all of the kids her age went. She'd have to share a room with Maria, which made her uncomfortable. She had never even met a lesbian, and now she was living with one.
As the school year began to go by, Maria's girlfriend Sam often came over and made out in their room. Joy was happy when they broke up, only to find that two weeks later Maria had another girlfriend, Hannah. By October, Joy was used to it. She just stayed in her side of the room, quietly keeping to herself at all times and stayed out of everyone's way. It was the first week of November where things changed for Joy for the worse, and shaped her as the person she never saw herself becoming for the rest of her life.
"Joy, dear" Trudy said knocking on the door. "I have a phone call from your father"
"I don't want to talk to him right now" Joy said. "Could you please tell him I'm busy, besides I'm doing homework"
"I think you better answer it" Trudy said to Joy. Joy sighed and walked to the phone where she picked it up.
"Joy I need you to come home now" her dad's distressed voice came through. "I'm sending a worker to come and get you, he should be there in an hour"
"Why?" Joy asked.
"It's about your mother" he said. "The plane... went down"
That was the hardest month of her life. When she left that day she hadn't come back for weeks. She didn't speak to her dad for the longest time while staying with him. Their mom was what bined their relationship. She wasn't sure she would ever speak to him again. Until one day, her dad made a mistake. He let her open the door.
When the bell rang, Joy was just a few feet by the door and opened it to see a tall, skinny brunette who wasn't older than twenty five, in a tight blue tube top and jeans Joy could have sworn the girl bought at a childrens store.
"Who are you?" Joy asked rudely.
"I'm... I'm one of your father's interns" the woman told her. "Melissa"
"You don't look like any of his other interns" Joy looked her up and down.
"Could you just send me to his office please?" Melissa asked impatiently. Joy directed her to the office, and her dad looked shocked, almost scared, to see the two of them together. He brought her in and closed the door. That didn't stop Joy from listening.
"I can't do this anymore" her dad's voice came through very muffled. Melissa's voice came next, but it was so low and seductive, she couldn't hear it. "My wife just died!"
"I just wanna take your mind off of it" Melissa said. Joy waited to hear her dad push the slut away, to yell at her to leave but instead she heard a familiar sound. After living in a room with Maria, she knew what two people making out sounded like. She heard enough.
She raced downstairs, grabbing her dad's lighter on the way, and turned on the alarm. It started to countdown from thirty seconds and she ran into the kitchen. The kitchen was right under her dad's office. She stood on the chair, and then on her toes, letting the lighter hover below the smoke alarm until it finally went off. She hopped down, and ran back to the alarm, which was now on. Then she opened the front door. The alarm went off, and she heard the office door open. Both sounds were going off loud like sirens.
Melissa looked annoyed, her dad's expression was unreadable. Joy escorted Melissa out and looked to her dad waiting for an answer. The smoke detector went off on it's on quickly, and Joy turned the alarm off. She looked to her dad, waiting for him to say something. Following him, ready to answer whatever bullshit he would try to pull to try to get out of the situation. But when he didn't say anything, she did. Speaking to him for the first time since the plane went down.
"So who is she?" Joy asked him. "And don't lie, I know the answer. I just want to hear you say it"
"Joy..." he said. She held a stern look. She was only twelve, but she looked quite intimidating at that moment. "She's a woman who... helps me"
"Helps you what?" Joy challenged.
"Joy there are just things I needed while your mother was away"
"Just as I thought" Joy said not sounding nearly as strong as she did a few seconds ago. "When mum was being nothing but loyal to you... you were out with her"
"It's a lot more complicated"
"What's complicated? It all seems pretty simple to me" Joy said.
"When your mother... when she left us" Mr. Mercer started. "I told Melissa to go away. I ignored her calls, I avoided her"
"Yeah you really avoided her in there" Joy pointed up stairs.
"She was persistent"
"You know my old dog, Roy?" Joy asked him. He nodded, happy to get away from the conversation. "You know how you used to dangle a treat in front of him, and he would watch it, and you would bring it closer and closer but he never ate it until you said it was ok?"
"Yes"
"Roy was more trained than you dad" Joy finished. "If you were a dog, you would have eaten the treat and probably bitten off a finger as well"
"Don't talk to me that way"
"Don't boss me around" Joy snapped. "I'm going to my room and I'm packing my stuff, and you're going to take me back to Anubis tomorrow. You won't come to any openings. You won't come to founder's day. You won't come to school plays. You won't come to my school because I want you out of my life"
Joy stomped to her room, and packed her stuff just like she said. That day, Mr. Mercer lost the Joy almost as much as he lost Laura Mercer. The very next day, they drove back to campus and pulled up at Anubis by noon. He tried to speak to her before she left, asking to just talk, but she slammed the trunk door before he could finish getting out the sentence. So he drove off.
"Joy, I want you to know we're all here for you" Trudy said after her third day of being absolutely silent.
"Yeah" a boy in his eleventh year, Reggie, spoke up, and had a grave look on his face. "Some of us have even lost a parent. It's hard at first-"
"You don't know what I'm going through" Joy interrupted him. "If that's where you're going with this"
"Hey, hear him out he just wants to help" Diana told her. "You have no idea if he knows what you're going through or not because you didn't even give him a chance"
"You're so sure you understand?" Joy looked at Reggie. "Ok, let's play two truths one lie. My mom just died, aka the only parent that truly cared about me. My dad was having an affair, and was about to sin again even after her... parting. And I'm having a really good year so far. See if you can figure out which one's the lie"
With that, she felt she made her point, and she made her way up stairs.
"You know what might help you deal with this shitastic year?" Maria asked Joy, who was writing something in a journal. "Loosen up"
Joy looked up at her roommate, acknowledging her existence for the first time that day and urging her to go on.
"All you do is study. Just try to have a little fun" Maria smiled at her. "I promise you, it'll take a little bit of the stress off"
"Have a little fun?" Joy repeated. Maria nodded. Joy sighed. It's not like she had much to lose. Why not? From that day on, Joy was going to try to have fun.
The First Batch
"This is so stupid" Joy complained while helping Maria pack her things. "How are they going to just change the people in the houses halfway through the year?"
"Well, can't blame them" Maria said sitting on her luggage trying to get it shut. "We made you into a little monster"
"That's not true" Joy told Maria. "My dad made me into a little monster"
"Well, if you need anything just come to..." Maria pulled out a paper from her pocket. "Isis House. Oh gross"
"I'm gonna miss you" Joy sighed.
"We're all gonna miss you too, squirt" Maria smiled and hugged her. Joy helped her get her luggage down the steps and they all left. Joy groaned in frustration as she went into the living room to watch TV. After about an hour of awful daytime TV, a bunch of kids walked through the door and Trudy and Victor rushed to them, Trudy to greet them, and Victor to recite the rules. Joy turned off the TV and decided she wanted to go to her room. She walked by, getting a small look of the kids before starting to go up the steps.
"Joy come say hi!" Trudy said kindly.
"Nope!" Joy called slamming her door shut.
"Oh she's really nice" a sarcastic voice said.
"And who are you?" Victor asked.
"Jerome Clarke" he smiled at Victor. Victor looked through the files in his hands and pulled out the one on Jerome. After a quick scan he eye'd Jerome with distaste.
"We've got a trouble maker on our hands" Victor groaned. Jerome just smiled proudly and began to look around the place.
"So where am I sleeping, pops?" Jerome asked. The other kids looked at the boy with a little bit of appreciation. Jerome looked at the girls he was staying with, and laid his eyes on a girl with dark red hair, hard green eyes and sharp features for a twelve year old. She was hardly paying him any attention. "Hopefully with you"
"Bug off" she sneered.
"Oh I know, why don't we play a game! Victor bring Joy down stairs!" Trudy smiled at him. He groaned but made his way up stairs.
"Victor seriously let go of me!" Joy's annoyed voice called from upstairs. He dragged her down the stairs and into the living room where everyone was waiting for her.
"Sit!" he pushed her into a chair. "Stay!"
"Not a dog" Joy grumbled.
"Great now everyone is here!" Trudy smiled. "So the way this works, is we're going to start with me, and I'm going to say my name. Then the person next to me" she looked to Joy, who looked away. So she looked to Jerome, who was on her other side. "Is going to say their name and then my name. And then the next person will say their name and everyone elses's name who went"
"Easy" the red head called.
"I agree, so to make it harder, you're going to say you're full name and your favorite color" Trudy smiled. "It'll be harder the further you go"
"Get on with it, we haven't got all day" Victor sneered from the doorway. After Trudy did her ice breakers, the kids were his.
"Ok, Trudy Rehmann and um... green" Trudy started.
"Jerome Clarke, orange" Jerome started. "Trudy Rehmann, green"
"Deanna Jacobs, blue" the girl with the long brown hair said, looking very happy to be there. "Jerome Clarke, orange. Trudy Rehmann, um... green"
"Tyler Baker, blue" the boy said looking at Deanna who smiled. "Deanna Jacobs, blue. Jerome Clarke, orange. Trudy Rehmann, green"
"Patricia Williamson, red" she said with a bored expression. "Tyler Baker, Blue. Deanna Jacobs blue. Jerome Clarke, orange and Trudy Rehmann, green"
"Joey Morrison, rainbow" Joey started. He heard Joy mumble 'rainbow's now a color moron' but ignored her. "Tyler Baker blue. Deanna... Deanna uh Johnson blue. Jerome Clarke orange. Trudy Ramon green"
"You skipped me" Patricia rolled her eyes. "You got Deanna's last name wrong and it's Trudy Rehmann, moron"
Joy laughed to herself, but caught everyone's attention. Trudy didn't look pleased. "You two, not one more word" she said to them. "In fact, I think the game is finished for you two, Victor will take you upstairs"
"You mean I don't have to recite a thousand names of people I don't care about?" Joy asked with a sarcastic sadness. "Oh the horror!"
"Come!" Victor said to the two girls. They heard a girl begin to start her turn of the name game.
"My name is Lisa Thomas, my favorite color is pink..." she started.
"I don't like her" Patricia decided walking up the stairs.
"Quiet!" Victor hushed her. "You two will be staying together"
"Good, I don't think I could stomach staying with any of the other girls" Joy said as Patricia took her suitcase in their room.
"Yeah you seem pretty cool" Patricia said checking out the room. "Better than Deanna and Lisa"
"I'll agree with that" Joy laughed.
"So you're kind of famous on campus" Patricia said beginning to unpack.
"Famous?" Joy smiled at the thought. "How so?"
"Well you're the reason all of the houses changed" Patricia explained. "Apparently you were nice and then you stayed with the seniors and juniors and you changed"
"Ugh it wasn't their fault!" Joy groaned missing Maria.
"Who's fault was it?" Patricia asked.
"Don't worry about it" Joy sighed.
"Hello ladies" Jerome said at the doorway. Patricia scoffed and looked away. "Thank you for that lovely invitation into your room"
"But that's the thing, you haven't been invited into our room. So why are you here?" Joy asked him rudely.
"I got kicked out of happy fun game time down there too" Jerome shrugged. "They told me to go to my room but I came up here"
"Why?" Patricia asked.
"I was bored" Jerome shrugged. "And guess who gets to share with Joey?"
"Ooh, tough break" Joy said actually sympathising.
"You two may be the only way I don't shoot myself" Jerome sat on Joy's bed. "Everyone else is..."
"Stupid? Happy? Annoying?" Patricia provided. "Something about that Lisa girl reminds me of pepto bismol. But instead of curing my nausea, she's causing it"
"That's the most accurate description of a person I have ever heard" Joy laughed.
"I'm glad you are all amusing yourselves" Victor said.
"Are you Victor? Are you really?" Jerome asked. Victor narrowed his eyes at him.
"You were supposed to be in your room" Victor pointed to him.
"But there's no hot girls there" Jerome whined.
"It's time for dinner, Trudy wants you all downstairs" Victor growled and left. When going down the stairs and into the living room, Joy was annoyed to see Lisa in her seat. Before she could say anything, Trudy dragged her to Joey.
"Apologize" Trudy said grabbing Patricia as well.
"Sorry Joey. Hey Pepto, would you mind moving?" Joy yelled to Lisa. Lisa looked up, confused. "Yes you"
"Why would I move?" Lisa asked.
"That's my seat" Joy said.
"It is?" Lisa asked looking at the chair. "I don't see your name on it"
"You know what? You're right" Joy said. She went behind Lisa and moved the chair to the side, scratching the floor while doing it. She took another chair and put it where Lisa was before. She slid Lisa's plate in front of the girl and got a fresh plate for herself. "You can keep that chair"
"Um... how generous" Lisa said quietly, surprised by what happened. In fact, everyone was, except Joy. Who quickly became annoyed with everyone staring at her.
"Ok start eating now!" Joy groaned. No one said anything, and continued to eat, looking at Joy every few seconds.
Jerome and Patricia came into the living room, where everyone was having a study session together, and began to move the table out of the way. Everyone was looking at them with both curiosity and annoyance. Joy came in with a box of twister and everyone's expressions became solely annoyance.
"What are you guys doing?" Mike asked them.
"Wow, you're not too sharp are you?" Patricia insulted him. "What does the box say"
"Do any of you guys wanna play with us?" Joy asked.
"No, I don't really-" Deanna started.
"Good, now move your feet" Joy said spreading out the mat.
"Don't you have homework to do?" Tyler asked.
"Don't feel like it" Patricia shrugged.
"Fine, whatever. Your future" Tyler rolled his eyes and he and Deanna continued to study. Or at least tried to, but the three playing the game was distracting for everyone.
"Could you guys play somewhere else?" Mike asked kindly.
"Yeah" Jerome said spinning the pointer. "Left foot red"
"It's already on red!" Joy complained.
"Oh... then left hand red" Jerome shrugged. Lisa groaned and went up the stairs.
"See that? Pepto figured something out now you guys try it!" Patricia said to the others while in some kind of bridge position.
"She has a name" Joey said.
"Yeah... Pepto's more suited. But she's becoming less annoying, maybe she can get a new nickname" Jerome spun. "Right hand yellow"
"Don't move another muscle" Victor commanded. Lisa was right behind him with a smirk on her face.
"Seriously, and you were just about to go from seriously-make-me-want-to-puke annoying to Just annoying" Joy sighed. "You people are no fun"
"How about we can all have fun after we're all done homework" Joey suggested.
"I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a pushpin" Patricia told Joey as she folded up the twister mat. "Ten times"
"Give it here" Victor said snatching the box and walking off.
"Then maybe you should leave since we annoy you so much" Lisa said sitting in her spot next to Joey and Deanna.
"Maybe we should go?" Joy repeated. "Maybe you should go! I was here first!"
"So? There's five of us and three of you. All in favor of sending those three out of here say aye" Mick sounded. A collective 'aye' was heard by the housemates. "It's been decided"
"It's been decided?" Jerome repeated. "This isn't a democracy! Who do you think you are? America?"
"If anything it's a meritocracy" Joy said. "We have the power here"
"You have no power" Deanna spat.
"We'll see who's here at the end of the day" Patricia sneered.
"The end of the day? This is all happening really fast can't it be the end of the month or something?" Joey asked.
"You dunce!" Patricia groaned.
"I say we go for the weakest link, Joey" Jerome suggested as he plotted with Joy and Patricia.
"Right, if we go for Joey, one by one they'll all fall" Patricia agreed. Joy shook her head.
"Guys, I have a better idea" Joy smiled. "You can make any link weak if you bang on it enough. I say we go for Deanna"
"Why Deanna?" Patricia asked.
"Because Deanna and Tyler are inseparable. If Deanna leaves, Tyler will follow. And that only leaves them with three, and we'll be even" Joy smiled. "Lisa should go after Deanna seeing as they're like BFFs or something, and Joey would go after Lisa since she's the only one who cares about him"
"And that just leaves Matt" Jerome finished. "Genius"
"Of course it is" Joy shrugged.
"Deanna are you ok?" Tyler asked her. She looked weird and her arms were in front of her chest.
"I'm fine, I just need to go to the bathroom" Deanna said. Joy and Jerome looked at each other smiling.
Deanna went into the bathroom and closed the door, finally she could scratch her breasts without looking like a freak, or promiscuous. They were itching like crazy and she couldn't figure out why. She took her shirt and bra off and saw that there were huge lumps on them. She freaked out, thinking of the worst first. Her grandma had breast cancer. But then she saw something on her bra she didn't notice before. When she looked closer she knew exactly what it was.
"Did you two put something in my bra?" Deanna raced out with a new shirt and confronted Joy and Jerome.
"Yeah actually!" Jerome said. "We put pollen in your bra, that's not a problem is it?"
"I'm allergic" she snapped at them.
"No way! I had no idea" Joy said with terrible acting. "I'm so sorry"
"You... UGH!" Deanna said and ran to find Trudy.
"Seriously?" Tyler called.
"What if it were a deathly allergy?" Lisa asked.
"It's not though, so who cares?" Joy asked.
"You guys are so immature" Mike shook his head.
"I hope you like the juice!" Trudy smiled putting the glasses of pink juice on the tables next to each person.
"What is it?" Tyler asked.
"It's fruit punch mixed with a little lemonade and a gummy worm at the bottom" Trudy smiled. They each took a sip and smiled.
"This tastes amazing Trudy!" Patricia smiled.
"Really good!" Joey sipped. Trudy smiled and went back to the kitchen.
"It has a weird aftertaste" Deanna said when Trudy was out of earshot. "It's good, it just tastes funny after..."
"Mine doesn't have a weird aftertaste" Lisa said drinking more of hers. Deanna shrugged and continued to drink her's. After a little while she screamed and dropped the cup of juice spilling it everywhere, and in it was a real worm instead of a gummy one. Deanna ran out and rinsed her mouth in the sink, gargling, anything she could to help her mouth feel clean again.
"I wonder how that happened" Joy said coming out of the kitchen.
Deanna didn't want to admit it, but she was extremely nervous now. She hated being the subject of all of their little pranks, and couldn't understand why they were only messing with her. She knew she was showing how anxious she was. She couldn't help it. She sighed and went in her room and picked up a black book that held all her secrets. Her diary. It was plain and black because she hoped that made it look uninteresting. But just as she was about to write, she saw he hands had black stuff all over it. Confused she put the book down and went to wash her hands. That's when it happened.
"You girl!" Victor yelled at her making her jump. He grabbed her arm and pulled her into the office. Someone had sprayed his windows totally black, and he looked pissed. She looked at her hands and back at the window. "Think this was funny?"
"I didn't do it!" she yelled.
"You take me for a fool, Ms. Jacobs" Victor sneered. "You were hoping you could get rid of the evidence before I saw? Well you were wrong"
"Please I swear it wasn't me" Deanna pleaded. Victor pulled something out of his jacket. A tooth brush.
"First I want you to clean the toilet bowls" he growled. "I want to see my face in those toilet bowls. Then you are to wash my windows immediately"
There was no hope in convincing him, so she simply nodded. "Yes sir"
"So, wait... you dumped a load of dog poop in the toilet, and then backed it up?" Joy asked Patricia and Jerome who was laughing.
"Yup!" Patricia smiled.
"Genius!" Joy laughed. "Where did you get the dog poop though?"
"I can get anything" Jerome shrugged. The two girls looked at each other, not wanting to pursue that topic further.
It was a week later when Deanna cracked. After the stuffed rat in her bag, that looked like a real dead one, she was done. She had a deathly fear of mice and rats ever since she snuck in her parents room and watched the movie Ben. She had terrible nightmares after. Lisa came into their room to check on her, only to find her with her luggage open and half full.
"Deanna you can't leave!" Lisa ran to her and stopped her from putting the clothes in. "Then they win!"
"Fine! Let them win, I don't care!" Deanna yelled. "I'm done with this house, I'm done with those three, I want nothing more to do with any of it"
"Even me?" Lisa asked. Deanna looked up, realizing she phrased herself wrong.
"No not you, or Tyler, Mike, and Joey" Deanna said.
"Don't let them run you out of the house" Lisa said. "If you put up with their cruel pranks then they'll probably leave you alone for good"
"That's easier for you, you're not the butt of their jokes" Deanna said. "I can't do it anymore, I refuse"
Lisa sighed, she knew she wouldn't be able to stop her at that point. So she helped her pack and helped her bring the luggage downstairs. The boys were shocked at first, but they all saw it coming as well. They felt bad for her, she really had it bad there. Jerome, Joy, and Patricia came to see what the noise was, and were unable to hold in their smiles. Which made Deanna sick.
After that, it only took a week for Tyler to leave. After Tyler, Lisa left almost immediately, feeling like it wasn't worth staying there without her best friend. Joey was gone soon after and that just left Mike. Just as the three were going to plot over Mike, he interrupted them.
"Don't bother" Mike told them, luggage in hand. "No point without the rest of them. You win"
And that was the end of that.
Introducing Alfie
It had gone all around school that those three had managed to get all of the kids to leave. Soon Mr. Sweet chose five new students to attend the house. Some were actually afraid of what could possibly happen at the house to make everyone want to leave. Some didn't care, it was just another house. As the five students walked to the doors of Anubis, they were unsure what to expect. A huge mess? Maybe. Screaming out of control kids? Possibly. But they didn't expect anything good.
As it turned out, the house was no different from any other house. They looked around, crowded around the entrance hall. Well most of them were crowded together. One short, dark skinned boy stood behind them focussing on killing Bowser on his Nintendo DS, hardly noticing that he was inside of the house. Trudy's warm welcoming smile came towards them shortly after, which made them feel better.
"Hello! My name is Trudy Rehmann" she welcomed. Sher led them into the living room where the three resided. "This is Joy Mercer, Jerome Clarke, and Patricia Williamson. Would you like to introduce yourselves?"
"I'm Alison Durand" A girl with short blonde hair pulled back with a headband, and dark green eyes introduced herself. She looked shy. She basically hid behind her sweater and messenger bag. The girl next to her was nearly identical from head to bottom. They were twins, which was obvious, the only differences being that the other girl had long blonde hair and she hid behind her thick framed glasses, which showed her eyes to be a bit bigger, though they were more squinted. They wore matching sweaters and had matching bags, just different colors. Joy blinked at them. Putting it aside that she felt twins shouldn't purposely dress alike after the age of five because it wasn't cute anymore. If they were going to dress the same one of them should have a sense of style.
"I'm May Durand" she spoke quietly.
"Harry Mundane" a boy spoke. He had shaggy red hair and pale skin, even for someone from England. His face looked bored, but his eyes showed fear. The trio took pride in being so feared. The fair skinned one looked like a cross between all of the main Harry Potter characters. His hair was bright red, like a fire. The bushy texture was like Hermione's, and the green eyes and small circled glasses were like Harry. He towered over the rest of the students.
"Harry Mundane?" Jerome repeated. Everyone looked at him. "Mundane as in dull?"
"Yes" he sighed heavily. "Like I haven't heard that one before"
"Looks like you took the last name thing very literal to me" Patricia commented. Harry gave them all a very bored expression and turned to the boy next to him. He had long hair and a lopsided toothy grin directed at Joy, who blinked at him knowing what the look said.
"Mo" he said simply.
"No, you're Marvin Obert" Patricia snarked. "And sharing a house with you for four months was torture enough"
"I go by Mo now" he said directing a glare at Patricia. Joy snorted.
"I would too if my name were Marvin Obert"
"Do you have a middle name Marvin?" Jerome asked him.
"Andy"
"Marvin Andy Obert" Joy repeated. "Wow..."
"OK!" Trudy scorned the three, who put their hands up in defense, and turned to the boy in the corner of the room. "How about you honey"
He didn't answer at first, too distracted by his game. A small and hesitant tap from May had him mumble something.
"I'm old, you have to speak louder than that" Trudy joked. "Did you say Albert?"
"Al-fie" he enunciated.
"Do you have a last name Al-fie" Jerome mocked.
"Lewis" he deadpanned.
"Great, now that we all know each other, how about-" Trudy started.
"No ice-breakers!" Joy groaned. Trudy sighed.
"Fine" she said. "The twins will be rooming together and so will Harry and Marvin- I mean Mo. So that leaves Alfie to room with Jerome"
The twins looked ecstatic to be rooming together. Mo tried to pull off a whatever face and Harry looked... the same.
"We can get Jerome, Patricia, or Joy to show you to your rooms" Trudy said ignoring the annoyed look they gave her.
"Where'd the little guy go?" Jerome asked peeking out to the entrance area to see Alfie with his luggage rolling into his room. "Well look at that, he figured it out"
"Great!" Patricia smiled. "So I'm sure the rest of you can do the same"
"Uh, the girls are upstairs, the boys down stairs" Trudy smiled as they all rolled their bags into their new rooms. She turned to the three with a stern face.
"What?" Joy asked.
"Why are you being so rude?" Trudy asked. "They are your new housemates, and after the problems you cause last time with Mr. Sweet trying to find students willing to leave their houses to come here, you need to be nice"
As Patricia and Jerome mindlessly nodded, Joy rolled her eyes. She couldn't take Trudy seriously. Trudy was unable to be stern and usually let them off with a dozen warnings before actually giving them a punishment.
After another month of putting up with the new kids, Jerome, Joy, and Patricia had enough. The twins were apparently allergic to all noise, no music no talking no breathing too hard. It will disrupt their study. Harry was a ridiculous know it all and MO tried too hard to be cool. Alfie didn't talk much, didn't really do anything. It took only days to get the twins out, and a week to get the boys out. All that was left was Alfie, who didn't do anything, but they decided it should stay just the three of them in the house.
They tried everything. Alfie scared easily, but he didn't run easily. He was hard to break. They locked him in rooms, got him in trouble with Victor, even managed to get him suspended for a day. They pranked and humiliated him, but he wouldn't break. He wouldn't do anything. Then, he beat all of his Nintendo games.
Alfie went out all day once, didn't come back until dinner. At night he got to work, it was time for Alfie to strike back. He chewed a mouth full of gum and stuck the clump on Joy's pillow right next to her head. No doubt she would roll onto it. With things he stole from the Chem lab he poured it into Jerome's body scrub and finally, the biggest job of all, he took all of Patricia's clothes and threw them in bags and replaced them with the girliest things he could find. Then he smiled at his work and slept soundly.
The first one up was Joy, whose loud scream of annoyance woke everyone else up. Her hair was all clumped together with big pink gum. She stayed in the bathroom trying to get it out all morning until finally scheduling an appointment with a barber. Patricia came next where she was down right scary. She yelled at everyone. Luckily for her, they had a uniform. Unluckily for her she had to wear girly pink ballet shoes that made her gag. Jerome was last, and he looked like a tall smurf. Alfie was beside himself laughing, no sense in hiding. It was very obvious it was all him. Jerome, Joy, and Patricia glared at him, but he smiled as he left for class. He also didn't get in trouble with Trudy or Victor, who all felt those three had it coming. He got a pat on the back by some students like Mike and Harry and Deanna full on kissed him, since her and Tyler broke up. He was sure he was gonna get something bad from them all when he came back. Especially when they came into his room when he was 'working on homework'.
"Impressive" Jerome said to him. "You didn't strike me as the type"
"How long did you expect me to do nothing?" Alfie asked.
"Well we thought you'd just leave" Joy said. "Like the others"
"But you're not like the others" Patricia smiled. "We like you"
"No more pranks from us to you" Joy smiled. "But we could use a hand with pranking some other kids, with a creative kid like you we could really do some damage"
Alfie looked between them and shrugged. "Sure"
Alfie's fifteen minutes of fame were over as soon as he began to hang out with Joy, Jerome, and Patricia. He didn't care though, he was too busy having fun. No one remembers when had started being called Fearsome Four, but it stuck. They were all devious and damn near indestructible. The only thing that could stop them were themselves.
Ok so I hope you like the chapter!
I was really sad I didn't get many reviews, I think it was the least I ever got on this story. I hope you guys are still interested. If not just tell me and I'll stop (not a threat, just really want to know if I'm wasting my time).
Also review if you want another chapter like this in the future. It would be introducing the other characters and Jack if I did another one.