Chapter 4- Nina's POV.
The next morning when I woke up, both Joy and Chloe had already gone downstairs for breakfast. I decided that today I would go downstairs so Joy doesn't think I'm trying to anti-social. The words Sarah said to me yesterday kept running through my head. Beware the black bird! I honestly had no idea what she meant. Unless she was talking about Victors stuffed bird. I got dressed and walked downstairs. Not everyone was there though. Fabian and Joy were sitting next to each other with Patricia opposite them. Chloe, Jerome and Alfie were sitting at the bottom of the table. The second Chloe saw me she said
"Sleep well Nina? Caw Caw caw" She laughs. Alfie and Jerome joined in when Chloe was cawing. Fabian looked up at me.
"Just ignore them" He says. I nod at him
"I am" I reply simply, sitting at the head of the table.
"So what was this dream anyway?" Joy asks. I sigh.
"It was awful. I know they're making jokes, but it felt so real. Almost evil" I say. Before they could reply to me, Amber walked in.
"Has anyone seen Mara? She's got my hair straighteners" She asks.
"Yeah, uh she's in our room with Mick" Fabian states turning back to his breakfast. Amber suddenly looks really jealous.
"What?!" She exclaims. Jerome stifles a laugh
"Green eyed monster alert" He says. Amber glares at him.
"Jealous? I'm not jealous. What's there to be jealous of?" She says, sitting down next to me and Patricia. Fabian looks up.
"She's helping him with homework, that's all" Fabian explains.
"Yeah I know all about that, and it's cool. I would help him but I'm just so busy." She says, flicking her hair over her shoulder. I raised my eyes and the other giggled. Jerome mimicked her. Amber then turned to me.
"I see you haven't sneaked out at the crack of dawn today" Amber say.
"Wow, everyone really does keep tabs on everyone else around here don't they"?" I say sarcastically. Joy giggled slightly however Amber frowned.
"Patricia said you'd gone into school early, but then you didn't show up for first class" Amber says. Patricia looks at me apologetically. Before I could answer, Trudy jumped in.
"Nina was helping an old lady across the .We had a surprise visitor from the old people's home." Then Trudy walked off.
"I'm not very good with old people. They're all so... old aren't they?" Amber says. Fabian choked on his drink and other started to laugh. The Jerome muttered 'Really?' Amber turned back to me.
"Still you must be used to it; Trudy said your gran brought you up." Amber says I nod my head wondering where this was going.
"Yea, she did" I answer.
"What happened to you Mum and Dad?" Amber asks. Joy looked at my wide eyed and I sunk down into my seat. I hated talking about this. Luckily Joy was there to rescue me.
"Nina's parents died in a car crash when she was 5" Joy says quietly. Amber suddenly looked very guilty.
" 's awful" She says. I simply nod at her
"It's okay. It was a long time ago. My gran and I are really close" I say. Chloe snickers from the other end of the table.
"So how come she's packed you off to a big bad boarding school miles away from home then? Sounds to me like she wanted to get rid". Fabian slammed his hand down on the time and Joy glared at her. I felt tears pricking in my eyes. My gran didn't want to get rid of me. I wanted to come here and now she's is in the hospital. I felt so guilty.
"Chloe! Don't be such a witch! I know your upset about KT but there is no need to be taking all of this out on Nina!" Fabian shouted. Patricia grabbed a jug and put eggs, milk, ceral, jam and water into it. She walked over to Chloe and dumped it on the top of her head. Chloe screeched. I stifled a laugh and to be honest I think the whole table was trying not to laugh. Patricia tapped me on the shoulder and signalled me to walk to school with her. I nodded and grabbed my bag. Patricia, Fabian, Joy and I walked out the room. The second we got out the house we burst out laughing and congratulating Patricia on what she did. My first lesson was Maths with Joy and Amber. Then I had science. I sat with Fabian one side of me and Joy the other. Once class was over Chloe came up to us. She faced me.
"Hey Nina! I just wanted to say...you know...sorry about breakfast" She said almost...nicely? Fabian and Joy were looking at her in disbelief.
"That's fine. A little teasing helps the tea and toast go down" I reply. I was about to leave when Chloe stopped me.
"Oh and I think it's about time we welcomed you into the school properly." She said. I didn't know about this. I mean Joy had never said anything about this in her emails...
"The traditional way" she says. By now, Jerome and Alfie had joined her and Fabian and Joy were either side of me looking mildly confused.
"What are you going on about?" Fabian asks.
"Alfie, why don't you tell Nina about the initiation ceremony?" Chloe said looking at Alfie.
"The what?" Joy asks.
"Yeah, every new person who comes to this school has to undergo like...an initiation ceremony" Alfie says. This made me even surer that Chloe was making this up.
"Since when?" Fabian says.
"Since forever Fabian."Chloe says.
"What are you...?" Fabian starts but I hold my hand up.
"It's ok" I tell him. I then turn back to Chloe.
"Sounds like fun. What do I have to do?" I ask her. Chloe smirks.
"We'll tell you at dinner tonight." Chloe says. She then walks away. Fabian turns to me.
"You don't" He starts but I cut him off again.
"Fabian, Like I said: It's ok" I say to him and then I start to walk off. It was a pretty boring day after that. When I arrived back at the house, I Skyped Yasmin, Jade and Sasha until they had to go. After that I called the hospital to check on how my Gran was doing. Once I had finished I went downstairs for dinner. I sat at the head of the table with Fabian on my right and Joy on my left.
"So...Nina's initiation takes place tomorrow night okay. At midnight" Chloe announces.
"The witching hour" Alfie cackles.
"Cut it out Alfie" Fabian groans. Jerome turns to Fabian
"Tell me Fabian, does it get boring always being the one who's like: cut it out or that's not right or fun is bad?" Jerome teases. Fabian laughs sarcastically and then says 'no' very simply.
"What does she have to do?" Amber asks.
"Go up to the spooky attic and bring something back to prove she's been" Alfie explains. Amber turns to me.
"You're going up into the Attic?" Amber asks me as if I was crazy.
"Sure. Why not? I mean it's not like it's..." I get cut off by amber
"Totally Haunted" Amber says. Suddenly I feel a little less confident.
"Really?" I ask nervously. Amber nods her head.
"Yeah she's right. By the ghosts of former students who went up there, Never to return" Jerome said laughing.
"Getting cold feet?" Chloe asks. I shake my head.
"Not at all. Let's start tonight. Can't wait" I say confidently. Chloe laughs
"Oh we've got something else planned for you tonight" She says
"I can't wait to hear this!" Fabian mutters sarcastically.
"The Key. She can't go into the Attic without the key. She has to steal it from Victor" Says Chloe. Oh great! So not only do I have to go into the Attic which is forbidden, I now have to STEAL a key of our caretaker! I thought this was going to be easy...
After dinner Chloe, Alfie, Jerome and I went up toward victor's office. Unfortunately he was in there. We stood there looking into his office hoping he wouldn't see us. Alfie turned to me.
"See the bunch of keys on the desk next to Victor." He says to me. I nod my head
"Those are the master keys. He carries them everywhere he goes so you'll never get them"
"But there is a key box on the wall just beside him." Chloe says.
"Yeah. He keeps a spare set of every single key in there" Jerome explains. Victor then suddenly saw us. He stood up and started making his way over here
"What are you lot looking at?" He asks.
"Sir, we were just..." Jerome started however he couldn't finish so I quickly took over.
"We were just admiring your coat," I lie. He looks at me oddly. "Is it vintage?" I ask.
"Yes, just as i thought. This floor... it could... use a polish" Alfie says nervously. Victor smirks.
"Hmm, yes. In that case please feel free to polish it Alfie" Victor says. He grabs Alfie's arm and drags him down the stairs. Once he was out of view i made my move. Quick as a flash i ran into Victor's office, grabbed the key for the key box and unlocked the door. I then grabbed the spare Attic key and locked the door. I ran out of the office however I realised that I hadn't put the key box key back. Sighing i ran back in to victor's office and place the key back. This time on my way out I tripped a crashed into the desk, accidentally pulling the raven with me. At that exact point Victor had to walk in...