Nina stepped out of the taxi and took a deep breath, bundling herself up further from the chilly winter English wind. She couldn't wait to get inside the house and see everyone, especially Fabian. Even though they'd spent the break chatting on Skype, seeing someone on a computer screen just wasn't the same.
"NEEEENS!" Amber's voice echoed through the hallway as she opened the door and swept up her friend in a huge hug. "Ohmygosh I have SO many clothes to show you! And I have your Christmas pressie - well, pressies, as in more than one…."
Nina beamed at Amber's enthusiam. "I missed you too Amber." As she returned her friend's hug, she scanned the hallway for Fabian, but caught someone else's eye instead.
"Oh, hi Nina," Joy said as she walked down the stairwell. "How was your break?"
"Kinda boring, actually, especially considering what the last few months were like here," she smiled. As Amber loosened her vise-like grip on her, Nina seemed to suddenly remember something. "That reminds me! This is for you," she smiled, pulling a slim parcel out of her travel bag. "I saw it over break, and it was just too perfect to pass up. Consider it a welcome-back-to-Anubis-House present."
Joy inspected the package, which was wrapped in a festive holiday themed paper featuring photos of the Twilight characters in Santa hats. "Well, I definitely love the outside already."
"Open it!" Nina grinned.
Joy flipped the package over and pulled the paper apart on the back seam. As she finished removing the paper and flipped the item back over, she beamed. It was a finely-crafted journal with a faux-framed front, featuring a manga version of Edward, Bella, Jacob and the rest of the Cullen family from Twilight. "Where on earth did you find this?"
"My gran loves vintage and craft fairs, and when she heard there was a new one in town, she brought me along. Turns out the lady who made this lives 3 doors down from her house. Small world, right?" Nina smiled.
Joy's eyes looked bright, and she impulsively hugged Nina. "Thank you! Now I can definitely see why Patricia likes you so much."
Nina looked confused. "Are we talking about the same Patricia?"
Joy laughed. "Yes, silly! I'm going to go run up and let her know you're here." With that, she turned and ran back up the stairs.
"Can I have a hug now too, Santa?" a very familiar voice asked from behind her.
"Fabian!" Nina exclaimed and leapt into his arms. He swung her around in an elated hug. "I've so, so missed you!"
"I didn't think January would ever get here," Fabian said as he dipped her, then gave her a soft kiss.
"Awwwww," Amber said, clutching her hands to her heart. Alfie then made the unfortunate mistake of choosing this very moment to walk down the boy's hallway into the main atrium and was met with a punch in the arm from Amber.
"Uhm, OW!" he hollered. "Now what did I do?"
"Why didn't you do that when you first saw me after break?" Amber complained as she gestured at the still-dipping-and-smooching pair.
"I pulled a muscle lugging around all of your Official Boyfriend Manual binders," Alfie complained. "Do you know I asked Mick earlier today if he could pick all of them up at the same time, and even he couldn't hold them all up for more than a few seconds?"
Amber pouted. "Well, if you felt THAT way about it, you could have always asked me for the e-reader version."
"There's an electronic version?" Alfie asked incredulously.
"With a searchable index, but that's not important right now," she grinned as she bounced over to Fabian and Nina, who had finally broken their embrace, and swept them both up in a monster hug. "What's important is we are all finally here and back where we belong!"
"Nina!" an excited voice echoed from the hallway. "I didn't know you were back already!"
Nina was almost taken aback at Patricia's exuberance as she shot down the stairs and embraced Nina, a huge change from the reaction she'd gotten from the girl the first day she had arrived at Anubis House several months ago. I guess Joy was right after all about Patricia's really being my friend, she thought. Although she sometimes sure has a weird way of showing it.
After a dinner spent mostly chatting non-stop about break, presents, and other holiday gossip, most of Anubis House plopped down in the living room, to relax and digest their evening meal, except for Nina and Joy, who had both had the unlucky privilege to draw first week for kitchen duty. After a few minutes of bustling around the kitchen, Joy shot a sidelong glance at Nina.
"Nina, can I….can I talk to you….about something?" she asked tentatively.
"Sure," Nina said as she placed two more dishes into the soapy water in the sink.
"I, uhm, well there's no real easy way to say this," Joy stammered. Nina was a bit taken aback by how utterly uncomfortable the other girl looked.
"It's just that, well, you ended up being so NICE, and not at all what I expected, even after Patricia told me I should really give you a chance, and then you got me that amazing present even though you barely know me, and…" Joy continued. "Oh I just have to say it. Nina, I have something to confess to you."
Nina got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. Whatever this was, it was not going to be good.
"At the dance, well, when Fabian was standing around waiting for you to come back, Patricia sort of asked me if I still liked Fabian and I said…." she turned red, "I said…well, that 'that Nina girl better watch out next term'."
An uncomfortable silence drifted across the kitchen.
"But I didn't mean it - I mean, I don't mean it anymore," Joy continued. "It's just that it was such a long few months for me with the whole Chosen One thing, and it was so hard being away from everyone here for so long, and I was feeling jealous, and replaced, and…."
Nina walked over to the other girl and took her hands in her own. "I totally understand, Joy." She gave the other girl's hands a squeeze. "That must have been really, really hard for you to say to me."
Joy nodded. "I hope you can forgive me."
"I can't forgive you because there's nothing to forgive you for," Nina smiled as she let go of Joy's hands and gave her a quick hug. "There's something I wanted to ask you, though, now that well, the cat's out of the bag and all."
"By cat, you mean Fabian?" Joy asked.
"Well, yeah," It was now Nina's turn to look uncomfortable.
"Shoot," Joy said as she grabbed a nearby a dish towel.
"What exactly was….you know, with you and Fabian before….you know…." Nina lamely attempted to finish her sentence.
Joy smiled as she picked up a large serving platter and began to dry it. "You ever really liked someone, like really, really liked them, and sort of thought maybe they liked you back, but neither one of you ever did anything about it?"
Memories of 8th grade and Brad Kavanaugh danced through Nina's head. "Definitely."
"Well, that was me and Fabian," Joy said as she walked over to the cabinet to put the now-clean platter back in its proper place. "But I realize now I can't blame you - or anyone else - for doing something and acting on something I never had the courage to do."
"I'm really sorry, Joy," Nina said. "If I had known, I'd never have…."
"After I saw you guys at the dance together, I could see you two were really meant to be," Joy observed. "I just hope someday Robert Pattinson realizes what he's missing and gets himself over here so I can have my moment too." She flashed Nina a huge grin.
Nina rinsed the last two dishes in the sink and passed them to Joy to dry. "I'm really, really glad we had this talk."
"Me too," the other girl smiled back, looking as if a two-ton weight had finally been lifted off her shoulders.
I'd hoped now that was I back at Anubis House with all of my friends that the dreams would have stopped, but if anything, they've gotten more frequent and even more confusing. I'm still dreaming of a tapestry through the same archway, except this one features two men - one older and one younger - fighting on a medieval battlefield. The older one brandishes an elaborate looking sword at the younger one, who pulls out a cup and holds it in front of him, as if to shield himself from the blow. Then the tapestry catches on fire and crumbles to ash on the ground. A dark-haired woman, about my mum's age, steps through the archway and places a needle and thread in my hands.
Only you can complete it.
And then, right before she is about to say my name, I wake up.