I know it's been forever and a year, but here you go! Chapter 14! There are some very important things at the bottom so make sure you read ALL of it even if it's long (it may be, I don't know I haven't written it yet)
Chapter 14
It's not 'the twin thing'. Patricia has known her sister her entire existence, and she would still call Joy her sister before Piper. The only thing they really have in common is looks and parents. Piper is the golden child, and Patricia just... isn't. Not that she would want to be. Not really, too much pressure and too much work. Her parents expect nothing from her, and she doesn't mind at this point. It's easier, that's for sure. Piper said she would be coming over but that was a while ago, and Patricia was hoping something came up. So Patricia doesn't know how she knew it was her sister who knocked on the door, but it wasn't 'the twin thing'.
"Don't you dare!" Patricia pointed at Alfie's hand on the doorknob. "Do not open that door."
"Why not?" Alfie stood frozen in place.
"Just trust me." Patricia half pleaded. Alfie blinked, and then opened the door anyway. There in front of him, was Patricia. Before Patricia number two could say a word the door was slammed in her face.
"Oh no!" he said. "Aliens have come to earth and cloned themselves to look like us, and are slowly going to take over the world!"
"..."
"What's going on?" Jerome asked after hearing the noise, Joy on his heels.
"It's horrific!" Alfie exclaimed, half hysterical with his back to the door. Jerome rolled his eyes and pushed him off of it, opening it. He also closed it right away.
"You're right!" Jerome exclaimed. "One Patricia is awful enough!"
"Is someone going to let me in?" Piper's voice came through muffled. Joy rolled her eyes, understanding immediately what was happening, and opened the door. Alfie ran away at once, leaving Patricia, Patricia number two, Joy, and Jerome.
"Hey Pipes!" Joy hugged her.
"Ahh so this is the twin." Jerome nodded at Piper and shook her hand. "Jerome"
"No she's my pet fish." Patricia scoffed.
"So where can I put my stuff?" Piper motioned to her bag,
"How about on a train?" Patricia suggested. "Feel free to be on it as well"
"Don't be like that Patty cake." Jerome antagonized her. "She's here now, isn't she?"
Patricia rolled her eyes, she knew Jerome was messing with her, but he was also right. "Whatever, put your stuff upstairs in the room with three beds"
"Could you show me the-"
"Nope."
Piper sighed at her sister's typical behavior and began to move up the stairs. Amber came rushing down the stairs past Piper, somehow not noticing her at all, and pushed the three into the common room where most of the Anubians sat. She commanded them to "Sit!" and went off again. She came back shortly with Mick and Eddie, the last two and stood in front of everyone.
"It's time we start planning the Man Hunt" Amber squealed. "Nina, KT hold your questions I'm about to explain."
The two American girls quickly closed their mouths.
"So, I can't believe you wouldn't know how to play Manhunt, but basically it's a big game of people hunting other people, and the whole school does it once a year." Amber explained. "Some teachers know, but we've only gotten caught once, and Anubis wins every year. We also always are the ones to plan it."
"So when do you think would be a good time?" Joy asked. Amber opened her mouth to speak, but everyone's attention was suddenly shifted. She turned around, and got dizzy. But not from the spin.
"Patricia there's another one of you in the doorway." Amber said.
"Yeah." Patricia rolled her eyes. "That's my twin, Piper."
"Twin!" Alfie exclaimed, then made a thoughtful face. "I'm not sure why my first guess isn't always the most obvious."
Piper couldn't help giggle at the strange, kind of cute boy's weird antics. Willow noticed, Amber noticed first.
"So what's she doing here?" Amber asked.
"That's what I want to know." Patricia crossed her arms.
"Is 'visiting my sister' not an acceptable answer?" Piper asked.
"Not when it's the first time you've visited ever!" Everyone shifted uncomfortably, there was hardly family drama, but when there was, it was never fun to watch.
"Okay everyone," Trudy interrupted from the kitchen. "Dinner is-"
She looked between Patricia and Piper. Patricia grunted out and introduction and mentioned she was supposed to be staying.
"Hmm, well it would have been nice to be informed of this" Trudy scorned. "I'll have to talk to Victor and Mr. Sweet, but it all should be fine."
"It's no bother." Patricia said sweetly. "She really doesn't have to stay."
"Non-sense, should be fun." Trudy grinned, which made Piper grin, which made Patricia grimace. "The space at the table is a bit tight already-"
"No kidding."
"Obviously."
"What space?"
"-so I'm not sure where you'll sit." Trudy thought aloud.
"She could sit with me." Alfie suggested. Alfie sits at the couches most meals because of his claustrophobia, and he hoped when the new table they promised came in he'd be able to actually sit with the group.
"Excellent!" Trudy smiled. Willow just shrugged, being jealous took time away from being squeeful. Amber, however, was not smiling.
"So Amber how about more info about this man-" Nina started before being bumped semi discreetly by Fabian.
"Yeah, who's the mystery man?" Mara covered smoothly.
"I'll tell you later." Amber said. "Can we redirect this subject to school?"
Several forks dropped.
"Don't looked so shocked" Amber rolled her eyes. "If I don't start doing better in school I won't be able to graduate. If I do better on tests and big projects I'll be fine"
"We should all be focused on finishing the last drafts of our papers." Fabian said.
"You've already turned yours in" Mara rolled her eyes.
"And you haven't?"
"No I haven't" Mara snapped. Eyebrows began to rise.
"This is a very strange dinner" Mick said to Eddie as he stuck his bookmark in his book and payed more attention to the conversation.
"It's not that I haven't started it yet, I just haven't finished it. Jesus" Mara explained.
"We could all help each other out" KT suggested.
"And what about that huge test in Forensics?" Alfie called from the couch.
"Right!" Amber pointed to Alfie. "Also that."
"We'll focus on school work for the next two weeks." Eddie mumbled with food in his mouth.
"Oh yeah, Jack's gonna love that" Joy sarcasmed.
"Us being normal students?" Mick asked.
"Yeah, exactly" Joy said.
.
The next day during lunch, Alfie sat outside with his head in his notes for the test, when Piper came up next to him. "Hey Piper"
"Hey!" She said happily. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing, just studying" Alfie answered. "Aka, torture"
"Hi Piper!" Willow beamed at her. "Hey Alfie! Forensics notes?"
"No, punishment" Alfie groaned.
"For what?"
"I don't know, I DON'T DESERVE THIS!" Alfie yelled to the sky.
Willow giggled. "Well do-"
"Would you like a study partner?" Amber asked coming up to the group.
"With Forensics?" Amelia's voice made them all turn around. Alfie noticed it begin to get pretty crowded. "Please, you can help him when he's studying for a mall or something"
Amber blinked, not used to Amalia being mean to her.
Alfie looked between the girls surrounding him, before spotting Jerome a little further back. "I think I'll just go study with Jerome, but thanks."
Alfie gathered his stuff and went to Jerome, who was gaping at him. "Dude!"
"What?"
Jerome gave him an 'are you seriously that oblivious' look before remembering who he was talking to. "You have four hot-" he paused and looked at the girls again. "-Three hot girls and four girls in total who are hanging on you!"
"Wha-" Alfie looked over to where the girls were, but after Alfie left they quickly fled the scene.
"You're winning at life!" Jerome laughed.
.
Amber walked down the hill with her mouth twisted in a frown. Mick. Why was he being so frustrating? He won't even look at her, it's been long enough. Without Mick, Alfie, or even Jerome, she was getting a little antsy. With the stress of her school work piling down on her, she could use a study buddy. But that wasn't important at the moment, as she came up to Joy and Nina, who were eating lunch together.
"Hey Neens!" Amber grinned, joining them. Nina smiled at her nickname. "Hey Joy!"
"Hey Ambs." Joy smiled.
"I want to talk to you two about the-" Amber looked around, not one of them spotting Amelia hiding in the background. She wasn't really spying, not until she realized they were talking about something interesting. Then she was spying. "About the Man Hunt!"
"Ohh right" Nina said. "That thing, could I get a more detailed description."
"Well each year the students plan a Man Hunt-" Joy started.
"By students she means us" Amber interrupted.
"...Right." Joy didn't see that it was an important detail. "We plan a man hunt. It's pretty spontaneous. We go to each house to deliver the cue word, which could be anything from 'milk' to 'sporty'. We decide the day literally the morning of the hunt and send Jackal the cue word. She or he or it sends it out one of her posts and when the people see the cue word, we all meet at a stump in the forest and play."
"Last year the cue word was 'eyes' and the post was 'Eddie is totally blind to Patricia totally being into him. Maybe if actually used his eyes he'd be able to see that she wants him more than she wants hair dye to keep up with her edges'" Amber said. "Hathor House totally missed the word last year, and they were so pissed about it."
"That's a lot of work" Nina observed.
"Well some of the teachers know about it, and if we get caught then the fun's over" Joy explained. "It's hard to go around to people and be like 'Man hunt in a few days' because it'll easily get busted. If it's all spontaneous, less chance of getting caught"
"Yeah, 'xactly" Amber said, now realizing why they did so much.
"So what about it did you want to talk to me?" Joy asked.
"You should organize it." Amber said. "You have every year except last year and you should do it again"
Joy thought about it, she did like doing it, and it was her idea way back in the day... "Why not?" Joy decided. "So when did you think you'd send out the cue word?"
"Well I was thinking today." Amber suggested. "And speaking of, I thought the cue word could be 'thinking'"
"Eh, it would be a good one but it's kind of... used a lot" Joy said, and then explained to Nina: "If we made the cue word something like 'the' or 'great' or any word commonly used, Jack might accidentally use it in one of their other posts and it could confuse everything"
"Sense is made." Nina nodded. "Then how about... celery?"
"Ooh!" Joy snapped. "What about celebrate?"
"Celebrate?"
"Well yeah, you wanna use the next nights for studying, so it would have to be after the test and the projects right?" Joy asked and Amber nodded. "Then we should do it sometime after we've caught up on sleep, and Jack could make something easy like 'tests are over let's celebrate' or something"
"Ooh! Yay!" Amber clapped.
"And we'll send Willow to Isis with the word cause she'll have friends in there and it would make sense for her to talk to them" Joy brainstormed. "Uh, I can go to Mut and who's gonna go to Hathor?"
"Maybe Alfie? Isn't he friends with Amelia?" Nina asked.
"No!" Amber said quickly while Joy laughed.
"He hates her!" Joy giggled.
"Oh..."
"Maybe Fabian?" Amber asked. "He might have a friend in there"
"Okay then it's settled." Joy smiled. "We'll send them say around... five? Before dinner?"
"Sounds good." Nina smiled and Amber squealed. When the three girls gathered their stuff to go back inside, Amelia emerged from the trees. So she had this information, but there's not much she could do with it. Besides knowing that the word is celebrate and the hunt will be sometime after the test and the paper, the only thing she could really do is wait. She decided she would catch up to the girls and walk with them. Maybe walking with them and easing in will get her into Anubis.
But as soon as Amber caught a glimpse of Amelia behind her, she whispered to the girls to run. Too late however.
"No!" Amber yelled at Amelia. "Go away!"
"Amber don't be so har-" Nina started.
"Nina you don't get an input because you haven't been here long enough but she's been annoying us forever!" Amber yelled. "No one likes her!"
Joy cleared her throat and all three girls looked at her. "Yeah. She's annoying. No offence"
"Offence has been taken!" Amelia squeaked. "Just because you two don't like me-"
"No one likes you" Amber growled and turned to Nina. "I'm serious, no one! You can even ask your sweet, nice boyfriend!"
"Amelia, you're not getting into Anubis." Joy said.
"I mean why would you want to be where no one wants you?" Amber asked. "Alfie? News Flash, he hates you!"
"Okay Amber!" Nina interrupted.
"No it's fine." Amelia said calmly, the wheels turning in her head. "I've just decided being in Anubis is overrated. Hathor, is exactly where I want to be."
"Good!" Amber spat as Nina lead her away. "Stay there."
"No one's going to want to be at Anubis." Amelia continued.
The next morning Amelia awoke, but felt different. She ran her tongue across the front of teeth. Smooth, no braces. She took the hand mirror conveniently located beside her bed. Her acne cleared, her face wasn't puffy from the allergy medicine she had to take, her hair wasn't frizzy... she looked good. Amelia knew it was a dream. She's had it before. She woke up suddenly flawless, in Anubis house. She was apart of the fab five. Willow was begging to be her friend again, and Alfie worshipped her feet. But this was different. She was aware enough to realize that. She had studied a bit of lucid dreaming after all.
She wasn't in Anubis. She was in her room at Hathor. Her room which she shared with four other people. Her roommates even looked better. The residents of Hathor weren't famous for their looks. Everyone looked unnaturally and unfairly perfect, like the Anubis House people. She walked down the steps and to her surprise, was Trudy, and she was actually preparing breakfast!
"What's the occasion?" Amelia asked. "Why are you making breakfast?"
"I always make breakfast dear" Trudy answered giving Amelia a strange look.
"Right..." Amelia said. "Could I visit the Anubis House?"
"Of course! You can do whatever you want to! Although I don't know why you would like to go there" Trudy said matter of factly. Amelia's eyebrows rose. Yeah, this wasn't like any dream she's had before.
She crossed the grounds to get to Anubis House and once she got to the front door she knocked. Joy opened it, and she looked really different. Her hair hung flat her jeans were ripped and her sweatshirt surrounded her. Her eyes widened at the sight of Amelia.
"Oh my gosh! Amelia Pinches!" She exclaimed. "Come in!"
Amelia walked into the common room, they were all there apart from Alfie. The sight of the Anubians was jaw dropping. They all looked pretty plain, but the most surprising were Jerome and Amber. Jerome seemed to take as much time worrying about his looks as Willow did what people thought of her. And Amber! She looked like the pictures Amelia saw from when she was first at Anubis House. Braces, dirty blonde hair, glasses, a bit of an acne problem, she looked like how Amelia did, not in the dream.
"Um..." Amelia said. "Why isn't Anubis House the best house anymore?"
They all looked at each other. "Hathor is the best house." Mick said. "Everyone knows that."
"You guys took over the school..." Mara continued. "We just don't matter anymore"
"Oh my-" Amelia whirled around to see Alfie looking bug-eyed and... lovestruck? Oh right. Dream.
"Hi Alfie!" Amelia smiled and Alfie giggled. Giggled!
"Oh Amelia..." Alfie sighed. "Amelia... Amelia..."
"AMELIA!" Amelia jolted awake by Vera's calls. "Up!"
Amelia quickly got dressed and went downstairs to tell her housemates, who couldn't have cared less.
There were 32 students in her house, 16 girls herself included and 16 boys. Even though their house was way bigger than the Anubis House, it was still pretty crowded. Some of the kids who were at Hathor were in one of the trial runs of Anubis House. May was in Hathor, though her sister, Alison, was in Mut. Joey was in there, and so was Mo.
"I'm telling you its possible!" Amelia said over breakfast, which Lauren was assigned to make that day. "This dream was so vivid, and I'm a little psychic too."
"That's what you say whenever you had a dream of you at Anubis House" Mo pointed out.
"I was mixing my desires with my actual future prediction!" Amelia explained to them.
"Jerome not caring about his looks? Amber with glasses?" Lauren said. "Joy in a giant sweatshirt? Amelia come on now."
"Fine, wait and see then" Amelia grumbled.
.
"Listen up everyone!" Trudy announced. "The washer is broken, we should be getting a new one next week but you can't wash your clothes right now."
Amber pushed her glasses up her nose and groaned. It wasn't odd that she was wearing the glasses. She always wore them if something was wrong with her contacts. She had to get new ones. However, Amber never wore them outside of the house. Joy sniffled, feeling a bit under the weather. Everyone in the house was doing something for school. Eddie and Jerome were catching up on their homework, Alfie, Amber, Mick, Willow, Joy and KT were studying for their test, and Nina, Mara, and Patricia were working on their papers while Fabian helped them. They'd hardly touched their food. Trudy was both proud and worried.
"Alright guys, it's time for school" Fabian announced.
"Wait! You haven't eaten yet!" Trudy called after them.
"It's okay" Alfie mumbled not looking away from his text book.
"Yeah we'll come back for lunch" Eddie said.
"Mick don't you at least want a fruit or something?"
"Hmm?" Mick looked up. "Oh no I'm fine, thanks"
"Amber you forgot to take off your glasses" Mara reminded her as they walked outside.
"Oh no I'm keeping them on" Amber said. "I can't read without them and I really don't want to repeat senior year"
Amber 'I'll squint' Millington was willing to wear her glasses for school. Any other time this would be surprising, but it was understandable.
Mo stared. He didn't even know Amber wore glasses, but there they were, just like Amelia's prediction. He shared the look with his housemates. Amelia looked smug.
"Joy" Mick whispered to her. She groaned.
"I feel horrible" she said as they began to walk to maths with her teeth chattering.
"Maybe you should go home then" Mick spoke.
"No, I'd be fine if I weren't so cold" Joy shivered. Mick had an idea and went to his locker. He took out his sweatshirt and handed to her. She took it gratefully, and put it on, but it was very large on her. She didn't seem to mind. Lauren, Amelia's roommate, ran out of the bathroom and ran right into Joy. "Sorry" she said, before looking at Joy's attire. A giant sweatshirt. She backed away quickly before Joy could say a word, leaving the sick girl confused.
At the end of the day, May walked back thinking of Amber in her glasses, and Joy in her huge sweatshirt, and if that weren't crazy enough, when she walked into her house, Trudy was there! Cooking!
"Umm." May said. Trudy looked up.
"Vera isn't going to be here for a while," Trudy told her. "I'll be here for a little while."
"Oh my God." May ran to her room.
Amelia walked downstairs to go to the kitchen hours later, to find that the entirety of her housemates in the common room were talking. When they saw her they stopped abruptly. A student, Richard, came up to her.
" Uh..." he cleared his throat. "Tell us again, your dream?" Amelia grinned.
"That's not important." Amelia told them. "What's important is how we make for certain that it becomes true."
"How do we do that?" someone else said.
Amelia cleared her throat and took out her notebook and started making notes. "What does the Anubis House have that makes them so popular?"
No answer.
"Image." Amelia answered for them. "They look good all of the time-"
"Well..." Mo said. "Not today."
Amelia smiled. "Exactly. You need to make yourself look the best you can, and then better. Think as if you were getting judged by Amber Millington at her snobbiest. Now, what else?"
Again, silence.
"Their ability to throw fantastic parties, even in short notice. But all of this would be nothing without the last thing. Which is...?"
This time Mars spoke up. "Uh... the fearsome four?"
"Mars, no one can replicate or personate the fearsome four, they're an entity all on their own." Amelia spoke up. "But perhaps we can have something just as good, even better. But we'll need someone on our side first."
Suddenly, April got it. "Jack Jackal!"
"Precisely!" Amelia exclaimed. "We have to have Jack as well!"
"How do we-" Amelia silenced Morris.
"We have to be noticed," Amelia said. "Today's the perfect day as well, since the Anubis kids have been so into their studies they've given Jack nothing to write about. She's probably tempted to write about a leaf falling from the tree."
"What are we gonna do?" Mo asked. Amelia smiled deviously.
.
"Joy! " Amber yelled. "We forgot to send the cue word yesterday! "
"Damn!" Joy remembered. "Okay, we'll do it after dinner-"
.
Holy Hathor! Either we're all in an alternate universe, or... nope. No other explanation. About five students in Hathor House just set off a stink bomb in Sweet's classroom! I KNOW! While the Anubis kids are studying and being boring, Hathor did something crazy! The group, led by Amilla Pins or something, is being talked to by Mr. Sweet himself! What an interesting change of events... -Jackal
.
The kids of Anubis have been ignoring the feed from Jack all that day and the day before. They had no idea what Jack was saying. Joy was the only one who actually looked at the message this time, and it surprised her. When was the last time Jack posted something not about Anubis?
"Joy?" Amber asked looking at the smaller girl.
"Amber look at the Jackal post." Joy said. "Everyone look at the post!"
The ones in the room, Amber, Jerome, Alfie, Willow, KT, Eddie, Mick and Joy, all looked at their phones. After a few minutes of silence, Mick said something.
"Uh... wow." he said.
"That's really... unusual" Jerome said. They were all feeling something, but they didn't know what it was. The silence was interrupted with a knock on the door. Alfie went and got it, immediately regretting this, it was Amelia. She smiled at him and walked through the door to the common room.
"Amelia?" Joy asked.
"I thought you were getting disciplined by Sweet!" Mick said.
"I was, we got detention." Amelia said. "I'm glad most of you are here, can you get the rest of your mates?"
Eddie looked curious, but nodded. He went around the house to get Fabian, Nina, Patricia, and Mara. When they were all there she smiled. She looked around for Victor and then looked to them again. "The cue word, is blue!"
They blinked, surprise written all over their faces. They all looked at Amber and Joy, who were looking at each other.
"...What the hell are you talking about?" Joy asked her arms crossed.
"For the manhunt." Amelia said in a 'duh' voice. "Look, I overheard you talking about sending out the cue word yesterday, saying you'd send it soon but you didn't. I figured you forgot, and then I figured you were stressed. So I thought I'd take something off of your shoulders."
"You were eavesdropping?" Nina asked.
"Don't be silly." Amelia said. "Now, the Anubis House always organizes the manhunt."
"It's a tradition" Amber said through gritted teeth.
"Traditions change." Amelia shrugged.
"They wouldn't be traditions if they changed." Fabian added.
"We're just giving you a break." Amelia said. "You all look so tired and stressed"
They narrowed their eyes at her and she looked at Amber, with a sickeningly fake, caring smile.
"You're even beginning to break out." she said. Amber's eyes widened and everyone looked at her. She rushed to the bathroom, where an eardrum breaking scream could be heard. Mara and Nina rushed in there to help her calm down.
Joy frowned. They could all see her intentions, but everything she said was right. They were all stressed and tired, Amber's skin was breaking out, and they did forget to send out the word.
"Fine, Amelia." Joy said. Everyone looked at her in surprise. Amelia smiled.
"Remember, blue!" she said as she walked out of the house.
"She's right!" Joy exclaimed from everyone still looking at her, and she went in the bathroom, the boys bathroom, where Amber was.
"It's just stress." Mara reassured her. "You've been working harder than ever, it will clear up as soon as you're done with the assignments."
"It better." Amber sobbed.
"It will, it happened to me all ninth grade." Nina told her.
"Amber we're gonna let them do it." Joy told her. Amber looked at Joy, exasperated. Joy thought she was about to tell her off, but Amber looked back in the mirror, and nodded sadly.
Trudy didn't come back to Anubis House until around seven pm. She had just finished dinner for the Hathor students. They were in the same positions as they did when she saw them yesterday, except maybe a little more tired.
"Where have you been?" KT asked her, generally curious.
"Vera's left for a while, I'm filling her role in Hathor" Trudy told them.
"Maybe they killed her so they can have Trudy." Eddie whispered to KT, who snorted.
"What about our dinner?" Patricia snarled.
"It's just for a little while" Trudy said. "You can't make your own food for a little while?"
"Oh of course we can!" Patricia groaned.
"Where's Piper?" Eddie asked her.
"She's upstairs, I was trying to get away from her when Eddie went and got me so Amelia could tell us the word" Patricia said. "And I'm not going back in there."
"Patricia why do you hate your sister?" KT asked.
"Someone has to!" Patricia grunted. "Everyone can't always love her, her head is big enough!"
"I think you should talk to her." Nina said.
"I think you should mind your own business." She spat.
"Nina's right." Fabian said. "Go hang out with your sister, figure out what the problem is."
"I already know the problem!"
"Good, so go tell her." Fabian said. She sighed.
"I'm only going to get you all off my back." Patricia said as she got up and stomped up the stairs. Trudy looked at them all on the couch and sighed. Then, she got an idea. She went into the laundry room, where she found some board games. Twister. When she came out with the box, Amber immediately shook her head.
"Trudy, I need to pass this test because if I have to take a makeup test, I'll continue to be stressed, and if I continue to be stressed, I don't get my perfect clear skin back!" she screamed.
"You all have been working so hard, you need a break." Trudy told them.
"No can do Trudy." Jerome said. "I'm behind."
"No you're not." Mara said looking at the paper he was proofreading.
"I'm behind where I want to be!" he said. Mara nodded.
"Yeah Trudy, I should have been finished everything by now." Mara said. She turned to Jerome. "Do you want to peer edit? We can go in your room?" Jerome nodded and they left. Trudy sighed sadly.
"I'm in." Mick said suddenly. "But Twister isn't fun with one person."
"I'll do it." KT shrugged.
"I love twister!" Willow grinned.
"I guess I can play too." Eddie shrugged.
"Yeah, me too." Nina said and Fabian made a deciding face. Trudy did have a point. And he'd be able to see Nina bend-
"I'll play!" he exclaimed surprising everyone by his outburst. Trudy grinned.
"I'll spin for you!" Trudy smiled.
Patricia marched up the stairs towards her room when:
"Piper..." came Alfie's voice in a sigh and Patricia stopped dead in her tracks. "You're hot, I'm pretty sure you know that"
Piper giggled.
"But I have a girlfriend" Alfie finished. "And she's pretty damn awesome."
Piper sighed next. "She's a very lucky girl."
Patricia walked in the room and cleared her throat, making the pair jump. "I'd like to talk to my sister"
"Oh... yeah sure..." Alfie scratched his head awkwardly while easing out of the room. They watched him leave, never taking their eyes off of him until he shut the door to which Patricia eyed her sister.
"You're headed for trouble." she said simply.
"Yeah I see I have some competition but-" Piper started.
"Competition?" Patricia rose her eyebrows. "If I'm not mistaken there are three other girls who are hanging on his arm and one of them is his girlfriend. He's cut off Amber, he hates Amelia, and he turned you down. If that didn't sound like a no to you, you need to get your ears checked because he seems to be staying loyal to me."
"I never said I was gonna get him to cheat or anything." Piper roller her eyes. "Just... seeing where things go."
"How long do you expect to be here?" Patricia asked arms crossed. "Why aren't you at that music academy?"
"Gas leak." Piper answered. "Or that's what I said to mum and dad."
"And how long is this gas going to be leaking?" Patricia inquired.
"I don't know." Piper shrugged. "Why? Do you want me gone?"
"Kind of!"
"Are you afraid I'll steal your boyfriend?" Piper asked.
"I don't have a boyfriend!"
Piper blinked. "Nuh uh you so do! That Freddie guy!"
"Eddie Krueger isn't my boyfriend" Patricia said.
"But he is a boy you like."
"No he's not!" Patricia stomped her foot like she was Amber having a tantrum about the wrong shoe or whatever. "I'd really like it if people would stop saying that."
"If you don't like him, then you wouldn't mind if I asked him out, would you?" Piper asked with a smirk that made her look even more like Patricia. Patricia went cold.
"You don't even like Eddie." she said slowly. "You've got the hots for Alfie."
"Fine, maybe I wouldn't ask him out but someone else might." Piper told her. "So you might want to get a move on"
Patricia snarled at her. "Whatever." She said and left the room. When she went down the stairs she saw Eddie, Nina and Fabian on the couch watching KT, Willow, and Mick playing Twister. Nina was lying on Fabian's chest with his arm around her, their fingers interlocked loosely on her shoulder. When Fabian saw her he looked at her expectantly.
"How'd it go-" Patricia put her hand up and left to the kitchen. Nina and Fabian shrugged. Alfie came out of his room and looked at the group.
"Do you want to join us?" Willow asked. "Eddie, Fabian and Nina already fell"
"Yes!" He answered. "But I can't. I've only just finished the first draft of my paper." And he was off again. Amber was also watching soundlessly from the kitchen as she got herself some water and crisps.
"No!" KT exclaimed as she fell on her butt.
"Ooh!" Fabian laughed.
"You're out!" Eddie called. "Come join the out crowd!"
KT frowned, but was giggling as well, and sat on the 'out' couch. Mick was in a weird position with all of his limbs spread out except for his left leg, which was keeping him up under his body on a blue dot. Willow was in a downward dog-like position over him.
"Left hand yellow" Trudy called. Mick managed to make the move, but Willow slipped and, just as Alfie came back to ask Fabian a question, she fell on Mick knocking him down as well. Willow was giggling like a maniac and Mick was laughing too.
Amber looked up from putting the pitcher of water back and Alfie looked away from Fabian. Mick and Willow stopped laughing and were now kind of just panting in each other's space. Alfie twisted his lips and Amber narrowed her eyes, but neither said anything. Amber took her bowl of crisps and left while Alfie asked Fabian his question, and went to study outside for some fresh air.
"That was so much fun!" Willow grinned finally getting off of Mick. "Could we do it again?"
"Uh not me." Eddie sighed. "I've taken a long enough break."
"Same." KT said. "I've got a lot to study now."
"Yeah we should go over some stuff as well." Nina said.
Willow frowned, and it really brought down Mick's mood. "I'll play again."
Willow grinned at him and looked to Trudy. "Would you mind spinning again?"
"Of course not dear." Trudy smiled.
A few feet away, Mara and Jerome were going over their papers in his room. Well... Jerome was. Mara had something else on her mind. If Jerome and Mara from a year ago were looking at themselves at the moment, they'd think there's been some kind of switch.
Jerome was looking over his paper with Mara's corrections, when she began to trace circles on his hand. He looked up, suddenly mind completely away from his paper and looked at Mara. She had a mischievous smile on her face.
"Jaffray you bat those eyelashes, and it's so hard for me to resist you"
"Then don't" she said. He leaned and their lips collided. There was no resisting then. The kiss was starving, as if it were the last glass of water in a desert. He picked her up and put her on his bed, skillfully removing her shirt in the process. The rest was history.
Ok, so a couple important things, but the first thing I'm saying isn't actually that important.
FUN FACT! The bottom scene (Jerome and Mara doing the naughty) is actually a revamp and partially rewritten version of the sex scene I wrote ages ago. Do you remember chapter 5 or 6 or whatever chapter it is that Alfie and Mara do the nasty? Do you remember that I told you I had both Mara and Alfie as well as Mara and Jerome scenes written just in case? The line starting with "Jaffrey you…" and on is from that scene that I wrote. So there you go, those who wanted Jerome and Mara instead of Mara and Alfie got it anyway. YAY!
Ok, now onto more important things. Couples! Yeah I know you may be thinking 'why is this important?' Well… it's important to me, it's important to the plot, and it's important to a lot of readers. In the very beginning, I got asked which couples I would end with. Well I didn't know. As you've read a lot of people have at least experimented with a lot of others. For example: Eddie and Amber, Alfie and Mara, Nina and Jerome a little. Well there is an end in sight and I chose couples and I was working towards writing them. But then I thought, why don't I let you guys decide? So now is the time. I NEED to know what couples you want to see in the end otherwise I will not know what direction to write the characters in. I've already started as you may be able to see with Fabian and Nina, but I need time to redirect my character paths if necessary. So I need your answers as soon as possible or I cannot write anymore. They can be any pair you want. Literally, any pair and I'll write it, as long as it has some more supporters. I'm open to gay/lesbian couples, crack and odd pairs, just review and tell me what you want and I'll list the answers I get next chapter.
So yeah, it's been forever. But I actually have up to 17 chapters completely finished. My plan is to update every week, and I will, only stopping if something comes up or the wifi is down. Actually the wifi at my house is down but I'll figured something out today and I can figure something out later. I WILL NOT UPDATE if I get one review or no reviews on a chapter. I'll even be happy with just two reviews on a chapter. If I get ten reviews I will upload the next chapter the minute I see the tenth one. These are my rules, I promise I'll update as long as I get two or more reviews. Here's a visual.
0-1 reviews = no chapter update
2-9 reviews = one chapter update next week
10+ reviews = a chapter update the next day or sooner
So that's all, I was right, it was long. I really hope you read because if I don't get reviews, I will not update (sorry to be that person but I'm ready to move on and I won't waste my time. I already know how the story ends). And if I don't get any couple names, it will end the way I planned it to end.