Sorry for the delay, but I had to make a few adjustments. To the guest who gave me those suggestions for the Anubis vs Hathor war, they were great. Unfortunately I had already written the chapter, but I gave you some thought and added in a few shootouts to a few of your ideas. Those were the revisions I was making. Tell me if you catch them.
For the person who suggested the pregnancy scare, not really my thing. Though I have a brief one coming up in a much later chapter. But I'll be sure to find some Peddie drama to work in just for you.
Finally, someone suggested spaces in between my scenes. The crazy thing is I have spaces, but fanfiction deletes them. Thanks a lot! Even though I'm not a fan of them, if you tell me they're necessary, I'll start adding dividers.
Also HOLY REVIEWS! I got like twenty between last night and tonight!
Now, as I said I need at least a week before I can start updating again, I'm working on Chapter 18. Spoiler: It's another prequel.
In the meantime, enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 17
For Amelia, the holiday was much too long. She went shopping, that was nice. But she really just wanted to get back to her school. Her school. She loved saying that. It was hers, not Joy's. She stepped out of her dad's car, her dad watched her closely. He expressed that he thinks she changed for the worse. She tried to tell him that she's the same person, just more confident, but he still doesn't let his eyes off her. When he drove away she breathed out a "finally" and walked to her house.
The walk seemed significantly longer in the heels she wore. She had to take little steps to stay upright. She didn't want her first steps after holiday to end with her face on the ground. She grinned as she finally stepped to the door to Hathor. She opened it, dragged her luggage in, and stopped short. Vera was there.
"Vera?" Amelia asked shocked. Vera looked over at her and sighed.
"Hurry inside, do you want all the hot air to fly out the door?" Vera barked. "That's all that's in your head isn't it? Hot air?"
Amelia grumbled as she closed the door. "Where's Trudy?"
"She's at Anubis House where she works." Vera said.
"But Joy said we could have Trudy full time!"
"Well contrary to what most of you believe, Joy doesn't run the school." Vera sneered. "Mr. Sweet does and Mr. Sweet wants Trudy to do what she's paid for. Working at the Anubis House."
Amelia huffed as she dragged her luggage up the steps. Her first fifteen minutes on campus had not been how she expected. Lauren, Sara, and May were the next of her roommate's to join her.
"Did you see Amber on your way here?" Amelia asked May excitedly. She'd always get dropped off at the same time as Amber. "I'd love to see what sweater she's wearing."
"Uh, actually I didn't see her at all." May responded. "No one's seen anyone head Anubis's way."
"They're late?" Amelia asked, and then shrugged.
"It's very strange isn't it?" May asked. Amelia nodded, but shrugged and moved on.
"So, Welcome Back Party?" Amelia asked. "We won't invite anyone from Anubis again. Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll try to look through the window aga-"
"A party already?" Lauren interrupted.
"Anubis House threw a party every time we got back from a holiday." Amelia shrugged.
"Well we're not Anubis." Lauren plopped on her bed. "Although for someone who hates the house you sure are aiming towards being them."
"So are we going to have a party or not?" Amelia asked, ignoring Lauren's comment.
It was the day before school starts. Everyone needed to be back by ten thirty, by which Jack usually posts the 'arrivals list'. For the ones who love Anubis Fashion, Jack posts pictures of what they wear, however this time it would be for Hathor. Amelia was sure of this as she hungrily took out her phone, but there was no list.
Welcome back my beautifuls and not so beautifuls. Today we're back together after an unbearable separation. Normally, I'd post a list of the fashion that showed up, but damn there's a lot of them Hathor kids. I could not keep track. If you want to know what they look like, go to their house and see for yourself. Now, what's really strange, is we're missing some kids. The Anubis Kids. They can't all be late, can they? #WheresAnubis? -Jackal
"They get their own hashtag?" Amelia whispered angrily to herself. "Why is everyone worried about them when they made it very clear they do not want to be in the spotlight anymore?"
"Amelia, where do you think they are?" April asked.
"Who cares?" Amelia snapped. "They probably came extra early like the losers they are and are hiding out in their stupid house. In fact, I'll go there myself and take a picture of them from the window and send it to Jack. Then maybe Jack will find better things to focus on."
"Isn't that a little obsessive?" Sage asked.
"No, Jack's the one attached to them. He needs to cut the cord, May you're coming with me."
"Am I? Do I have to?"
Amelia growled lowly and stomped out the door. May quickly followed her. The walk from the Hathor House to the Anubis House was just a few minutes away, but it felt like it took forever with the stupid high heels, and May found herself missing her old clothes. When they got there, Amelia took out her phone and peaked through the window.
"They're probably all studying." Amelia mumbled. But the only person they saw in there was Trudy, who was laughing at something on the TV. There was no sign that they had been there. So they went back to Hathor House.
So someone swears they saw Mick, but I call bs. What do you think they're doing? Think they all just quit? #WheresAnubis? –Jackal
Amelia was not happy about the buzz being about where Anubis was instead of her. They weren't there, so who cared? She focused on more important things. The party. She'd do it on Friday at the end of the week. Seemed like a good time. Maybe she'd go to the store on Wednesday after school... Her head was buzzing. No, wait that was her phone.
Q&A! Answering your questions from over holiday.
Why do you think Anubis House suddenly started to be boring? Because of school obvi. Do you think some of them could have graduate without spending at least a little bit of time on studying? Duh!
Who are you? Are you new? I kind of have to protect my identity, I have to go to this school and that will be a lot easier without everyone knocking on my door pissed at me for spitting the truth.
Are you a boy or a girl? My name's Jack. What do you think?
What house are you in? Wouldn't you like to know?
Who do you think the next couple is going to be at Anubis? Question is, do we care? I mean, they don't want me to talk about them anymore. ...Of course we care. I see Jerome getting with either Joy or Mara. If he doesn't get with Mara, I predict she'll get together with Mick.
Send me your questions, I'll answer them all with complete honesty. Unless you ask about my identity, that stays secret. -Jackal
Amelia growled. No one asked anything about Hathor, or Jack was avoiding those questions. But why? The Anubis kids have never been so irrelevant, so why waste time on them? Amelia tried to think other things but damn it was just so hard.
No need to fret about it anymore. It was time to hear all of Mr. Sweet's announcements for back to school. As they all walked into the theater, where the seats were set up for them, there was a row of empty seats in the front. The Anubis seats. They had always sit in the front, as a way of showing superiority. But not anymore. Amelia led her fellow housemates to the front. Of course there were thirty two of them, not twelve, so only a selected few sat up there. Amelia, of course, and her favorites.
Mr. Sweet smiled at them all and began his welcome back speech. Little did he know that they were all hardly listening. On everyone's mind was why he didn't seem at all fazed by the absence of his son and his housemates. Where could they possibly be? But that question was soon to be answered. At one of the breaks in his speech, one girl in the back heard a faint clicking of heeled shoes on the floor. Seconds later, there were several footsteps. Everyone turned in their seats and looked at the door even Mr. Sweet stopped. But then again, what good is a speech when no one is listening?
For a of couple seconds, the footsteps just stopped. Then Gods and Goddess walked in the room. There was no other way of putting it. After just seeing them in busted jumpers, ripped jeans and the worst worn out hand me downs, seeing them as they were in that moment was jaw dropping. And it was very obvious in the confidence radiating off of them that they were well aware of this.
"You are all late to assembly." Mr. Sweet said into the microphone.
"And late to check in." said Amelia, whose red face was hard to separate from her red hair. "It states very clearly in the letter sent to your homes that all students must check in with their-"
"Housemother by ten. I didn't get the letter." Eddie said. "I helped stamp them."
"No calling out!" Mr. Sweet spoke loudly trying to get the attention back on himself. "All of the students of Anubis got permission to come back one day earlier, they were checked in last night now please sit down!"
Patricia immediately grabbed a chair from the back and took it with her to the front where she sat in front of Richard and just inches from the stage. The others followed her, taking places in the front where they belonged and with their backs to several students from Hathor House.
Mr. Sweet looked irritated but once he had as much of the attention back on him as he knew he would get, he continued. He focused on rules, introduced new students, but mostly wanted to be finished and quickly ended it. People just weren't paying him any mind.
When Mr. Sweet dismissed them, Amelia jumped on her seat. Even with them being farthest from the door and them basically shimmering, she managed to lose them. Once she got outside of the theater, they were gone. Like ghosts. She ran to Anubis (first taking the heels off) where she found them lounging around. Unlike when she visited them before everyone left for holiday, they hardly looked at her.
"Yeah, Amelia?" Patricia asked uncharacteristically sweetly without looking at her.
"Don't 'Yeah Amelia' me!" Amelia yelled. "You set this up!"
"Do you honestly think we planned this or something?" Fabian asked from his seat on the couch. He gazed at Amelia with a bored expression.
"Eddie, is your dad cool with us coming early?" Patricia asked the boy on the phone. On the line was also Mick but no one else because they were currently the only ones up. They'd tell the others what they talked about.
"Yeah, he sees it as enthusiasm." Eddie said.
"Now remember the plan." Patricia ordered. Mick's long sigh came out low.
"We meet up in town and come back late to make an entrance, which will piss Amelia off." Mick replied.
"Right and-"
"Look our very best, we got it." Mick huffed out annoyingly. "I'm too tired for this, goodnight."
Amelia groaned. "I know you have a hidden agenda!" she glared at Joy, but Joy didn't talk.
"But we're not hiding anything." Nina said semi innocently.
"Fine. Game on." Amelia said looking between them all. Several people rolled their eyes as she exited the house.
"Game on?" Alfie asked. "Could she be any less corny?"
Everyone laughed but Willow.
Hours later, after everyone had unpacked, Eddie and Patricia were alone in her room. Like most conversations, they weren't sure how they got from point A to point B but they ended up talking about animal birth, and were hardly able to breathe from laughing so hard. When they could finally speak and the laughter died down, Patricia sighed.
"You're one of the only people who can make me laugh like that." she said.
"Wish I got to see you over the break." Eddie admitted.
"So do I."
"Then why didn't you see me?" Eddie asked. "And why couldn't I see you?"
"Because I hate my parents, no need for you to be around that." Patricia said. "And I find your dad rather annoying. No offence."
"Come on, is that the real reason?" Eddie asked her. "Look, I won't push if you're pulling but you should know I'm always around to talk."
"It's nothing." Patricia said. "Just... I like who I am here."
"...Okay but what does that have to do-"
"I like who I am here, and you do as well apparently, and I don't like who I am at home." Patricia continued. "I'm completely out of my parents minds when I'm here, but when I'm there they expect two perfect little princesses and I let them have that."
"How do you mean?" Eddie asked. Patricia sighed.
"Alfie and I have more in common than I allow people to think." Patricia said and thought about an old memory.
An angry and annoyed thirteen year old Alfie sat in the laundry room between the laundry basket and the washer. He'd excused himself from dinner with his parents and planned to hide there until they thought he'd been eaten by a wolf, or abducted by aliens. He wore a fancy, dorky dress shirt and pants to match. He didn't know how long he'd been in there, but he soon heard footsteps. Patricia had come in looking for Trudy.
Alfie and Patricia didn't really have a friendship. Patricia was friends with Joy and kind of friends with Jerome. Alfie was good friends with Jerome and friends with Joy. Patricia kissed both pranksters on a dare once, and they all hung out but the pair didn't really talk.
"Alfie have you seen Trudy?" Patricia asked surprising him. He didn't know she saw him, she hadn't looked at him.
"No." Alfie answered. "How'd you know I was here?"
"Dude, that's my spot." Patricia said. "But I won't bother you anymore, I'm only there when I want to be as far away from people as possible."
That was what Alfie wanted before, but now that he started talking he didn't want to stop. "It's my parents."
"I figured." Patricia said sitting down, understanding that they were going to have a conversation. "You've been sulking around here ever since you heard they were coming."
"Yeah well, they don't like me very much." Alfie said. After he said that it was silent for a minute, and Alfie looked at Patricia. "You're not going to say 'I'm sure they do!' or something?"
"No, because as sad as it is it's probably true." Patricia said. "They don't like who you really are, but what they are trying to sculpt you to be."
Alfie stared at her. Never had he ever felt so connected to someone. No she didn't say it, but he could tell she had similar experiences. He smiled at her, and surprisingly she smiled back. The short conversation in the laundry room molded their friendship.
"I have to be someone else in front of them, and I don't like that person." Patricia said looking at her knees. Eddie sighed.
"Well fuck that." he said and her head snapped up. "Sweet wants me to be a different person. I never changed. Eventually he had to just accept that, and now we have a somewhat ok relationship."
"It's not that easy!" Patricia exclaimed.
"Actually it is, you just need some practice." Eddie assured her. "Little by little."
Patricia glared at him. He didn't get it. Eddie could feel her anger.
"Look, I know it's hard. Don't do anything you don't feel comfortable, but I really think you should be you all of the time. Even when you're with your 'rents." Eddie said and her glare went away slowly. "You can pass that on to Alfie."
Patricia smiled at him. "I guess I can try it."
"Thats my girl!" Eddie grinned and went to wrap his arms around her, but she moved back.
"Get this straight, I'm not anyone's anything." she responded annoyedly. But she melted at the pouted look he gave her and moved back over so he could wrap his arms around her. It wasn't like she really minded.
The next day when Victor found all of the residents of Anubis sitting and laughing at something that Eddie said in the living room when school was supposed to begin in eight minutes, he was confused and angry. "What are you all doing? Get to school!"
"Can't." Kat said. "Door's stuck."
"Yeah, we're just gonna have to sit here instead." Jerome sighed. "How sad."
"Preposterous." Victor mumbled going to the door and jiggling it. He opened the first one easily, and then the second one. "It's opening fine-"
He was suddenly covered in red paint. Several students smiled. "Victor are you ok?" Mara asked sweetly. Victor growled.
"Who is responsible for this?" Victor asked from the door, not wanting to drip paint inside.
"We didn't do it." Jerome said as he grabbed his bag and walked to the door. "Maybe they did."
He pointed to the few Hathor students with stunned looks badly hidden behind a couple trees in the distance. Victor only growled again. "Get to school. NOW."
They all hurried out of the door, and to their first class, French. Hathor followed behind them far enough that they didn't see the smug written all over their rival's walk but close enough that the Anubis kids could feel their embarrassment and shame radiating off of the Hathors.
"Now." Ms. Kelly started as she got her students attention. She has just passed out the results to their tests. "Some of you did very well on your tests. And some of you very poorly."
But Fabian and Mara were too busy giggling to listen. Jerome tapped Fabian on the shoulder from behind him. "Why does April look like they canceled the entirety of the History channel?"
"Mara and I changed her CD on the test." Fabian explained. "We changed enough that she got a D, but not too much so she thinks she got it herself."
"Not bad Rutter." Jerome praised. "Perhaps there's a tolerable human being inside of you after all."
Fabian rolled his eyes. It didn't stop there though. After the first day of school, KT urged everyone to follow Anubis to the Hathor house. Apparently she did something when she 'went to the bathroom' during their final class. When they finally got close enough, KT watched excitedly as they all entered the house. It took about another minute for them to hear at least fourteen screams.
"KT, what did you do?" Mick asked, though he sounded excited.
"I put snakes in their house." she said proudly.
Jerome laughed loudly, as they all fell out screaming and spotted the Anubians, who weren't trying at all to hide. Amelia began to talk to them, but they moved very fast and she moved very slow as Jerome and Alfie blew her kisses and ran with them all to Anubis. It wasn't that they were scared, but they really didn't care to hear what Amelia was going to say.
That wasn't the only surprise they got. Some of the Hathors started to believe the Anubians were actual wizards. Somehow, they didn't know how, while they were all in the living room, they went to their mattresses gone. When they stepped outside, they saw them. On the roof. On the side of the house were the words 'ANUBIS HOUSE BITCHES', and this was all done while they were just sitting in their living room.
Yes! THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! ANUBIS VS HATHOR! All of that smack talk about the Anubians, all of the blogging about Hathor finally worth it! I'm sorry Hathor but you guys are like the Pepsi to their Coke. Blogging about you felt like blogging about knock offs. Maybe this will change if you somehow manage to defeat Anubis in this war. Who knows, my money's on Anubis though. -Jackal
Mo smiled to himself as he watched Mick from a far take out the sandwich he managed to spike with cat litter a couple days later at lunch. The war was still going and Hathor had managed to lose every single battle. To his surprise, though, Mick pulled out a second sandwich. Mo watched from a far as Mick got up from his seat on the grass with the other guys and began to walk towards school, Mr. Sweet's office to be exact, with the cat litter sandwich. Mo jumped up from his hiding spot, and sprinted to the building. He burst through the door just as Mr. Sweet was putting the sandwich to his mouth.
"...Yeah Trudy made me two sandwiches by mistake so-" Mick stopped abruptly when Mo came in.
"Mr. Obert!" Mr. Sweet exclaimed at his intrusion, Mick couldn't help but chuckle at his name.
"Do not eat that sandwich!" Mo huffed out.
"Why?" Mick asked with an amused expression.
"Yes, why?"
"Because it's Mick's!" Mo exclaimed. "You're supposed to eat it and gag on the cat litter!"
"Cat litter?!" Mr. Sweet exclaimed. "Marvin Obert we're going to need to have a talk. Mr. Campbell if you could please excuse us."
Mick left smirking, and winked at Marvin. When the day was over and everyone went home, Marvin told Amelia what happened. She was pissed, which was expected.
"They are really on their a game." Amelia frowned in deep thought. "Somehow they know exactly what we're going to do before we do."
"Uh, yeah..." May and Sara looked at each other as Sara talked. "We were about to tell you, we found this."
In her hands, was a baby monitor. Amelia snatched it and made such an inhuman growl, some were sure she'd turn into a lion. She opened the door and chucked it as far as possible.
"Mick it's your turn to listen to them." Mara told her holding it up to him. They took turns listening for an hour, to see if they were planning anything. "Marvin is going to put cat litter in your sandwich, just so you know."
Mick's eyebrows rose and he grinned. "I guess I'll have to make another sandwich then."
"Fine." Amelia muttered. "We'll play dirty then."
Everyone was in such good spirits since they came back. Hathor seemed to be regretting they ever attempted to mess with Anubis, well, except for Amelia. Girl was going crazy. The only person in the house who wasn't having a good time was Willow. But she didn't do anything to stop them. Willow walked with Alfie, Mick, and KT to the Hathor House as they talked happily about the plan. Amelia was planning some party on Saturday, so they were going to have a party on Friday. At least half of the people who would go to the Anubis party wouldn't show up to the Hathor party because most people aren't into back to back partying, and they'd probably compare parties. The Anubis party would come out on top, and Amelia would blow a gasket.
But as they walked back from Anubis after putting the invitations in their mailbox, Alfie noticed that Willow just wasn't into it like the rest of them were.
"Something wrong?" Alfie asked his girlfriend.
"I just don't think all of this is necessary, we could find another way to deal with this besides these stupid wars." Willow admitted, pouring out her compressed thoughts as soon as she was given the opportunity. "We could talk to them!"
"Will, do you think Amelia would want to talk?" Mick asked.
"Yeah, I mean it's not like we're doing something totally crazy. Just a few pranks." KT said. Willow sighed and stayed quiet the rest of the night.
When Amelia and others found the stack of invitations in front of her door, they expected her to scream her head off. But Amelia was actually in a good mood as she canceled the party. She had something up her sleeve, and she wasn't going to let anyone know until it was time.
So no more pranks to report, which is kind of sad. Did Amelia give up already? Doubt it, although she did cancel her party, which was lame. I'm not sure what was a bigger slap in the face: The Hathorians not inviting Anubis, or the Anubians inviting Hathor. Either way, Friday is bound to be a good night. -Jackal.
Friday came soon enough. After school everyone at Anubis set up everything. Trudy and Victor were there, but Trudy turned a blind eye and they weren't afraid of Victor. The party would be half inside and half outside. They liked having parties outside because it was more room to dance, but if it got too cold they'd go inside. And inside was where all of the food and snacks were. The party was in full swing by eight. As expected, everyone who was invited came and there were some crashers but they were allowed to stay. Even the Hathor students were having a good time. Amelia kept to herself in the corner, not talking to anyone. Victor yelled at them all at nine that it was time to go home and at ten when he yelled again they sprayed him with the hose. Jerome and Alfie got three weeks detention for that and they didn't care. Detention was detention, it wasn't a big deal, but Victor did leave them alone for the rest of the night.
Sometime around eleven, Amelia finally emerged from her corner where she was munching on pretzels with an evil grin. She pulled something out of her pocket and walked to the speakers where the music was coming from, and stopped it. Everyone looked at her and she smiled as she opened the letter she got when she ransacked the Anubis House a couple nights earlier. She found something very interesting in Jerome's room. Jerome recognized it immediately and froze in shock. Amelia spoke loudly.
"Dear Jerome and Poppy," she started. "This is long overdue, but I am truly sorry. I don't want to put all of this in a letter, but I'd love to see you two."
It took Alfie another second to register what was happening and to race to Amelia.
"I know I haven't been the best father-" Alfie snatched it out of her hands. "Whatever, I read it like five times. Jerome Clarke's father is in prison. No wonder he's so messed up it runs in the family!"
Alfie had thrown the letter and was now angrily pulling her away as she yelled. Mick quickly helped as Joy dove for the letter before anyone's nosy little paws could get their hands on it. Jerome was still frozen and Mick and Alfie were personally escorting Amelia back home. "OUT!" Joy yelled and people quickly scrambled to get home.
Amelia was in bliss. "Are you mad?" Amelia asked a fuming Alfie. "I told you game on. You invaded our privacy, I invaded yours."
"You had no right to broadcast his business like that." Mick grumbled.
"You don't even like him, what do you care?" Amelia rolled her eyes. "I just gave you some new info, you should be thanking me."
"Shut up." Mick growled. Amelia laughed so loudly that they hadn't heard the footsteps coming behind them.
"We've got her from here." Lauren said. Alfie said nothing but pushed the laughing girl into Lauren and weaved through the crowd back to Anubis. Mick followed, and they walked in silence. The outside was deserted, which means they managed to get Jerome to move from his spot, but doubted they were able to calm him down. When they walked inside he could hear Jerome freaking out, which hurt him because Jerome was always the cool one.
"I swear he's not- he just made a mistake he- I'm not going to be- he's not even there anymore-" the others were failing to make him feel better, but Jerome was still very obviously upset about his father's whereabouts being put on blast.
"Jerome you could have told us, we don't judge you." KT said softly.
"But it's none of your business." Alfie said lowly. "Everybody can leave, I need to talk to Jerome."
Everybody left without another word and Alfie sat on the couch where Jerome held his head in his arms. He was still muttering. He was afraid people would begin to treat him like a criminal once learning of the truth. These thoughts included Alfie, even though Alfie was one of the few who already knew. "Dude." Alfie said. "Dude cut it out."
He continued. Alfie growled.
"Stop being stupid. Did you forget who you are?"
Jerome stopped. "What?"
"You're Jerome. You don't get sad, you get even." Alfie said. "And you've got your best mate right here."
Jerome stared at Alfie for a moment, before he smiled slowly. "Lewis and Clark?"
Alfie smiled. "Lewis and Clark baby."
Amelia realized something was wrong as soon as she got up. She jumped up from her bed as her head felt heavy and looked in the mirror, and screamed. This woke all of her roommates. Amelia stared at her reflection, at her hair. It was sticking up in every kind of direction and a pillow was attached to her head. She felt her hair which was hard and waxy and screamed again.
"What the heck happened to your hair?" Lauren asked as she got up to help Amelia remove the pillow from her head.
"I could drive you to the hair salon and see if they could fix it." April suggested sleepily. "If you let me get dressed first."
"I think the only thing that could help her is a bulldozer." Lauren finally was able to remove the pillow, with a bit of hair. Amelia whimpered.
"Amelia you had to have known this would happen after last night." May yawned.
"I'll drive you to a place." April said getting out of bed and going to get clothes from her dresser, only nothing was there. "Where are my clothes?"
April looked in every dresser she used but they were all empty. As the others went to investigate, she opened someone else's dresser, they were all empty. Lauren threw the pillow to the side and helped them all look. The only dresser that wasn't empty was Amelia's. There was a note.
Come downtown for your clothes.
Bring your wallets!
Lauren glowered at it. "You had to mess with Jerome?"
April was already out the room and getting ready to shower so she could go downtown. Amelia sighed slowly and went to get something to eat, whipping her eyes. She soon regretted this.
"Argh!" she exclaimed putting her pajama sleeve to her agitated and red eyes. "Pepper!"
"Pepper?" May asked. "Pepper in your eyes?"
"On the doorknob I think!" Amelia ran to flush out her eyes, just to run into a damp April, still in her pajamas.
"I went to shower, they put something in our body wash!" April frowned. "It smelt like something rotten!"
"Come on, we're all going downtown." May said. After Amelia flushed out her eyes, April dried all of the way off, and they checked on the boys, they left. The boys were still asleep, but they were hit as well. They were all coated in all types of smelly food and it looked as though all of the doorknobs were peppered. They didn't have time to warn them. After getting to town, they had to find Jerome who was with Alfie. In the park. There was a crowd around them, they were selling their clothes.
"Good morning!" Jerome said rather chipper.
"Milly your hair looks amazing, are you using a new shampoo?" Alfie asked her with a smile. "I hear crazy glue's in."
Amelia whimpered again.
"You're selling our clothes?" May exclaimed.
"Of course not." Jerome said as he handed a girl their age, looking at all of the girls in their pajamas and the boys in front of an abundance of clothing curiously, a few dresses. "We're giving them away."
"We donated about half of them to kids who need the clothes, we were feeling generous, and now we're giving them to anyone who wants them." Alfie explained.
"We want them!" Lauren growled. "We want them all!"
"Ooh, well…" Alfie started.
"It's not free for you." Jerome said. They'd all expected this and pulled out their wallets grumbly. "Three hundred."
"Three-what?" Amelia finally found her voice.
"If you'd come here earlier there'd be more clothes, but we're beginning to run out of stock." Alfie said. "So it's less than what it would have been."
"Three hundred for the whole lot."
Amelia pulled out about ninety, and May, Lauren, and April dug in their wallets coming up just ten short. Jerome smiled and took the money as Alfie gave them most of the remaining bags of clothes, leaving one bag.
"This can be the ten you owe." Alfie said. "But don't worry, this is all boy's stuff. None of yours."
They dragged the bags back to the car a rode back in silence. Until they parked, May had something to say. "Amelia we need to be finished."
"What do you mean?" Amelia asked.
"Time to wave the white flag." May said as they walked inside of their house.
"No way!" Amelia yelled but stopped short at the look of their housemates. The boys were covered in all types of gross food. Some of their eyes were red and burning most likely from the pepper. There was a smell of cat piss, which April guessed came from someone not catching the scent of it coming from their soap. Richard limped to the girls.
"What's wrong with your leg?" April asked while holding her nose.
"Mouse traps in the boys bathroom." He explained. "My toenail broke, it was bleeding. Pretty gross. But Vera took Sage to the hospital, there was syrup in the girls bathroom and she slipped. Vera said she might have twisted her ankle."
"Oh yeah I slipped on that too, but I didn't fall." April said.
"Do you see why we have to stop now?" May asked. "They have no boundaries. If we don't stop they could kill somebody!"
"That's actually why I came over here." Richard said. "We've all decided to throw in the towel."
"I agree." May said at once.
"Same." April said.
"I'm sorry, I'm with them." Lauren added.
"Fine!" Amelia yelled. "You give up, I'm seeing this through!"
"You're kidding!" Patricia laughed as Jerome and Alfie told them all that they did, including Amelia's hair. "You got a picture?"
"Yup!" Jerome showed them the picture.
"You guys are insane." Eddie laughed.
"Can't say I agree with all of your methods," Fabian said. "But I'm sure they're effective."
"Those mouse traps could have really hurt someone." Willow said quietly.
"Let's hope!" Alfie laughed. Willow didn't.
"I have to make a call." Willow excused herself.
Everyone had given up the fight, except for Amelia. Now with a bowl haircut, she did all she could to torture them, but only got whammed herself. Everyone let Alfie and Jerome do the work, they were happy to. Although Patricia got great satisfaction fro putting something in Lauren's shampoo to turn it teal. Willow said nothing. Then one day on a Thursday afternoon, she had news.
"Amelia's gone." She said to them.
"What do you mean she's gone?" KT asked. "She left the school?"
"Her dad came and removed her from the school." Willow explained. "I called him and told him everything, and she no longer goes here."
It was quiet for a while, and then the room exploded with praise for her. Willow hardly heard any of it, her eyes were focused on Alfie, who's smile went down as he looked at her. They quieted down as they saw the two staring, and Willow exited the room and went upstairs. Alfie quickly followed.
"Willow that was brilliant! Kind of anticlimactic but brilliant all the same." He said as they reached the top floor. "It seems so simple, so elementary, and yet no one else would have thought of it-"
"It seems so simple because it is so simple!" Willow rounded on him.
"What's the problem?" Alfie asked.
"You!" Willow yelled angrily, surprising them both. Willow didn't usually get angry.
"What did I do?"
"I don't like the side of you I saw this past week." Willow admitted. "You really hurt them all, you were awful! I never thought you could do those things!"
"What do you mean? You hear about Jerome and my prank's all of the time." Alfie said getting increasingly annoyed.
"I didn't know you were as involved as it seems you were." Willow said. "You just always seemed too nice, kind, to pull those things off. I thought Jerome more so dragged you along, but you seem perfectly proud of yourself and happy with the things you do to people."
"Yeah I am." Alfie stepped forward, now in her space. "They hurt my best friend, I'm not just gonna sit there and let them be all smug!"
"THEY didn't do anything!" Willow's voice echoed and they knew the rest of them could probably hear them. "Amelia did, and there are better ways to deal with her! If you had actually listened to me, you would know no matter what she does not give up! I had no idea you were so ruthless!"
"Well now you know." Alfie said. "So now what?"
They stared at each other for a very long time, until Willow finally said, "Now I'm finished."
Willow walked to the door to the steps that lead to her room and closed it behind her. Alfie was so angry, that he didn't realize until he had stomped back to his room what just happened.
"What have I done?" he asked himself as Jerome came in to check on him.
"You okay?" Jerome asked his best friend.
"It was a mistake, it was all a mistake." Alfie said. "She broke up with me."
Jerome sighed, scratched his head, and sat next to Alfie. "Did she say why?"
"She said she thought I was kind, and she was wrong." He recounted. "What am I gonna do?"
Jerome rolled his eyes. "Snap out of it dude."
Alfie whined and laid down.
"They've made us weak." Jerome continued. "We were worried about girls, but the only ones we need to be worried about are ourselves."
Alfie sat up again slowly, listening.
"She's right man, you're not kind. Neither am I." he said. "Look at what we've been reduced to. Me chasing after some girl, you with a girlfriend. No more, it's time to get back to the way things should be."
Alfie blinked for a moment, and then said hesitantly and quietly, "Lewis and Clark?"
Jerome nodded. "Lewis and Clark baby."
Ok, I'll update in a week. No later than Tuesday the seventh. And also, I got no questions for Jack Jackal. Shame.
Review!