Chapter 24 Mixed Signals and Emotions

November 6, 10:23 P.M.

Alfie's P.O.V.

After a few more hours in the hospital that afternoon they decided to let me go. Good riddance too! I hate hospitals after my near death experience last year and I'll probably have nightmares again for weeks about doctors eating my face off!

But now that I was back in Anubis, without Alan or Jerome around, Joy came to me and told me to bring the camera. I eagerly left mine and Jerome's room, ready to see what Joy could do with the photos that I had taken. They weren't the best since I didn't actually get any photos of them kissing but they should still be good for something.

Joy didn't think so when she saw them all.

"These are no good Alfie." Joy said, "What will you show Amber? Mick and Sophia talking? Because that's all that you have here Alfie."

"But they're not just talking anyplace Joy! They're in the rooms for varsity players only! Not even in sport's clothes!" I protested.

Joy shushed me before I could continue with my rant. Everybody was worn out from today apparently so there was nobody in the kitchen where we were on Joy's laptop. Trudy had gone to bed at 10 o'clock like she always does, no doubt enjoying the quiet of her new room which was made from Victor's old room. None of the guys are allowed in the room but Amber's told me that it was pretty gorgeous inside.

"They could just say that they had changed out of their clothes after working out or something." Joy explained, a bit annoyed with me. "You said that they had plates and stuff from eating together? You don't even have pictures of that or any pics of them about to kiss."

"You can at least do something with these photos can't you?" I pleaded with Joy. Joy looked at me and then back at the photos, thinking things over in her mind. I scratched my itchy cast in anticipation.

"They are far from what I was hoping for," Joy in a hushed tone, "but these pictures could still be useful to scare Mick I suppose. But there will be a time and place to do that and right now isn't the time. I assume that you don't have anything important planned for tomorrow night?"

"No." I answered.

"Good, because you're coming with me to meet Jim." Joy said.

"Jim?" I said confused, and then realized who she was talking about, "OH! Jimmie Jim!"

"Yes him. We're meeting tomorrow at 9 o'clock near the forest." Joy explained, "You'll leave first at about 8:30 and then I'll follow you to the meeting place at 8:45. We don't want to attract too much attention to us when we leave."

"Sounds good." I answered somewhat absently mindedly. I thought about asking Joy why we were meeting Jimmie Jim in the freezing cold like a couple of gang members but decided against it. What was the point? I'd find out soon enough.

Joy nodded and closed her computer. "What about the pictures?" I asked Joy.

"Like I said, there will be a time to use them."

"When?" I asked.

"Sometime in the future. For now just focus on tomorrow night." Joy said, leaving the kitchen without so much as another glance. Before she left I blurted out at her.

"Did you mean what you said?" I said a bit loudly.

Joy turned to me, "About Mick?"

"No," I said, "in the hospital. When you said that you care about me, do you?"

Joy looked at me and then chuckled softly. "I care about you to the point that you're useful for me. Which to be honest isn't much." I looked at Joy, hurt and stunned, and she returned by glance with confusion. "What? You thought I'd lie and say I do? This morning you threatened me Alfie, which I don't take lightly. Your work up to this point for me has been sloppy at best and when I tried to help you it ended with you breaking your arm and photos which are pathetic. Good night Alfie, and dress warmly for tomorrow night."

November 7, 9:06 P.M.

"He's late." I mumbled into Joy's ear, seeing my breath in the cold night air.

"I know." Joy said angrily. Whether it was because of me or Jimmie Jim being six minutes late I couldn't tell. My mind was just so distracted with how cold it was outside and how the only light around was a dimming lantern hanging above us on the side of the road. It was one of the few places on campus besides the houses that didn't have camera installed nearby. Why Joy didn't want people recording this meeting I wasn't sure.

After another few minutes a figure began to emerge from the darkness. Jimmie Jim's face materialized in the glow from the lantern as he stepped closer to Joy who stood in front of me. He smiled at her, probably trying to look good but failing miserably.

"So glad to meet you Joy." Jimmie Jim said.

"It's also good to meet you Jim." Joy said, stepping forward to embrace him. All traces of Joy's anger was gone, disguised by a happy and hopeful demeanor. It was moments like this that I grew scared of Joy, when she showed how good of an deceiver she was.

"So I got your note," Jimmie Jim began, not even offering an explanation to why he was late, "Is there more money involved?"

"Possibly," Joy said in a sweet voice. "but first I wanted to ask how you were?"

"How I am?" Jimmie Jim said surprised, "I'm fine. Cold as hell but otherwise fine."

'How do you think we feel you ass?' I thought. Joy's face didn't give away if she was thinking the same thing, and she continued talking. "How's school?"

"Are we going to stand here and talk about my life?" Jimmie Jim asked, jumping up and down to keep his body warm.

"What we have to talk about has to deal with your life." Joy explained, not disturbed by Jimmie Jim's comment. "I hear you got a lead role in the upcoming play."

"Ya, what about it?" he asked, clearly not expecting to be talking about his theatre life.

"You must be really good to have landed a part like that in your freshmen year. Or just had an extraordinary amount of luck befall you." Joy said. I had no idea where Joy was going with this but I guess Jimmie Jim did because he looked pale, or at least paler then he should be with this cold.

"I guess so. Michael got into that big fight with Tony and got kicked out of the play so I got the part since I was his understudy." Jimmie Jim explained, voice attempting to be neutral.

"I'm surprised that you knew it was Tony who Michael got into a fight with." Joy said.

"Of course, everybody knows Tony." He responded quickly.

"Some more than others." Joy said smiling. "It's ok Jim, I totally understand why you did what you did! I can imagine kissing a beautiful America must be a dream of yours."

"I didn't do anything." Jimmie Jim said, stepping forward as if to terrify Joy. Joy wasn't impressed with the display.

"Of course you didn't, Tony just happened to get all the money for the Halloween party from picking it off trees didn't he?" Joy said. Suddenly it all clicked in my head, 'He paid Tony off!' I thought, 'He's the one that got Michael into Honor Court and out of the play so he could take over as a lead role!'

"Stop it!" Jimmie Jim begged. "Just shut up!" Now it was Joy's turned to step forward and she meet him head on as they stood at about the same height. Joy's face had lost the friendliness and now held an expression of mischief.

"You're new to this school Jim," Joy said, looking him dead in the eyes. "It would be really sad for you to have to leave so soon due to this little case of bribery against you."

"What do you want?" Jimmie Jim said, who was shaking probably from a mix of fear and the cold. He had finally understood why Joy, a popular and beautiful junior girl, had called him to a secret meeting in the dead of the night.

"Drop out of the play." Joy said.

"What? Why?" Jimmie Jim said shocked. Joy looked at him hard and he seemed to flinch away from her gaze. She continued talking as if the cowering freshmen hadn't said anything to her.

"Once you drop out, and you will drop out, you will tell Mr. Winkler that you recommend Michael Ericson for the part and say anything that your feeble mind can come up with to making Michael seem larger than life."

"You're working for Michael!" Jimmie Jim cried out.

"I'm working for myself." Joy said calmly, taking a few steps back from Jimmie Jim. He looked like he wanted to cry.

"And if I don't?" He asked, trying to hold onto some sort of defense for himself.

"I'm sure the honor court will like to hear about how you wormed your way into a leading role by paying off a student to ruin another." Joy said smiling.

Jimmie Jim looked excited for a moment, "You don't have any proof! I was extract careful and Tony won't testify against himself!"

"Ah but Tony had to have people testify for himself to make sure he wouldn't get into a lot of trouble, so he too had to buy off people! People who would testify themselves to clean their slate shall we say." Joy said, "And if that doesn't work we can always look you up on the video cameras and see you paying off people."

"Your don't have access to those! Student's can't access those!" Jimmie Jim said, more of hopeful plea then an actual statement.

"My father can, and I'm his little girl." Joy said smiling sweetly. "Plus he owes me for some stuff."

Jimmie Jim was scared, and because of that he wasn't thinking right. His eyes seemed to dart back and forth to nobody in particular and he had gone quite pale, so pale I was sort of concerned about him. After a minute of silence Joy said, "I don't need your answer now of course, that's asking a lot. But I would prefer if you dropped out of the play by Wednesday. After that I might have to take a more active role in this situation."

He didn't say anything, just sort of staring at Joy in disbelief. Personal I was terrified, if she could plan this entire thing out then I couldn't even imagine what she had in store for me if I turned against her.

Joy looked towards the campus and sighed. "I think it's time that we went back to Anubis, don't you think Alfie?" I nodded and Joy smiled, "I'll be seeing you around then, and here, have this." Joy said to the terrified Jim, she stepped forward and reached into her coat pocket and pulled something out. She put what looked like money into Jimmie Jim's coat pocket. "Five pounds, go buy yourself something from the café to keep you warm. Good night Jimmie Jim."

Joy walked away with me following, leaving Jimmie Jim alone underneath the lantern in the dark and coldness. After he was out of sight I leaned into Joy to ask her how the hell she managed to pull that off when she spoke first, not even looking at me. "If you ever think again about betraying me Alfie I will ruin you like I will Jimmie Jim if he doesn't come through. Do we understand each other?"

I didn't say anything for a little bit, even more intimidated then I was a few minutes before. "Alfie are we clear?" Joy said in a stern voice.

"Clear!" I exclaimed, "Crystal clear in fact!"

"Good," Joy said, "then let's head back to Anubis, Trudy was suppose to serve some of her hot chocolate tonight and I could really use a few cups now."

November 9, 6:15 P.M.

Nina's P.O.V.

I ran into Odin House, lungs on fire from sprinting from the theatre apartment back to our house. "Where's Michael?" I shouted out at nobody in particular as I stripped off about three layers of clothing that had protected me from the cold outside. It was suppose to start snowing in about a week or two and I can't wait for it any longer! Though I could do without the cold that it brings.

"He should be in the library Nina!" I heard Debbie shout from the kitchen, or at least I think it's the kitchen, and awful stench was coming from that direction so I cringed as I prepared myself for Debbie's cooking.

I began moving to the back of the house to get to the library when I saw Mick coming down the stairs. "Mick? What are you doing here?" I asked curiously.

"Nothing. Leaving in fact." Mick said angrily, opening the front door and then slamming it as he left. I didn't even think about pursuing Mick to talk to him since I would have no idea how to comfort him. I turned again to go to the library and saw Sophia standing near the stairs on the second floor. She looked at me and then walked back to her room with dignity before slamming her own door. Her I would have to talk too.

"Stop slamming the doors!" I heard Debbie screech from the kitchen.

I opened the door to the library and stepped inside, finding Michael relaxing near the fire place with his AP book in his lap and a computer nearby. He looked up at me in surprise, though not an unhappy surprise.

"Nina! I didn't expect you to be back until seven or so with Tori." Michael said, putting his book to the side.

"I had to leave early to tell you the good news!" I nearly squealed. Michael smiled and laughed.

"Ok, what's up?"

"Guess who dropped out of the play today?" I said, practically jumping up and down with joy. "Come on! Just guess!"

"Um-" Michael began but I stopped him before he could answer.

"Jimmie Jim!" I shouted, jumping around like a five year.

"What? Why?" Michael said, clearly happy for me.

"I don't know why he just did! But you want to hear even better news?" I said smiling to point where it was hurting my cheeks.

"What?" Michael said again.

"YOU'RE BACK IN THE PLAY!" I shouted, this time squealing with happiness. Michael's jaw dropped and he began stutter and smile.

"That's… that's amazing!" He said, jumping out of his seat. "I-I didn't get- I don't- HOW?" Michael finally managed to say.

"The Mr. Winkler said that Jimmie Jim said that you were the best to replace him, which is really pretentious of him but whatever. Anyways! Mr. Winkler went before the honor court and testified to your good behavior as did Jimmie Jim and they agreed that their ruling was harsh so now they said you can be back in!" I exclaimed, breathing deeply as I tried to recuperate from speaking so fast and loudly.

"YES!" Michael shouted dancing around. We both did and he went for me and hugged me, flinging me around in the air. I laughed and embraced him, realizing for the first time how warm his body was.

We stopped dancing and stood there, arms wrapped around each other and looking at each other. Michael laughed awkwardly, "You smell incredible." Michael said.

"Oh, well thank you." I said laughing awkwardly myself. "Tori got me this perfume from when we went into town Sunday. She said that I smelled fine already but I could always use some help."

Michael chuckled in his deep voice. "Nice." He said.

"I'll admit it seemed a bit rude, but she's trying to be nicer and everything so I'm-" I began but Michael interrupted me.

"I meant that you're nice smelling, and looking." Michael said.

"Oh." I managed to say. Michael's face looked red and I think I could feel his heart beating fast in his chest, or maybe that was just mine.

We looked at each other for what seemed a good amount of time, but I broke us apart with haste when my eyes began to wonder towards his lips. "Well um…" I said.

"Oh ya um… well that's great! I'm happy to be back in the play!" Michael said, backing away from me and back towards his seat.

"Ya I'm happy with you! FOR you! I'm happy for you!" I said, laughing nervously as I slowly backed away out of the library. We both continued to laugh nervously until I exited the library and closed the door behind me. I exhaled heavily and ran up to my room, slamming my own door. Debbie screeched again about slamming doors but I didn't care.

'What the hell was that Martin?' I thought to myself, my heartbeat going out of control. 'I almost gave myself to Michael! MICHAEL!'

My body was shaking, from what I don't know but what I did know was that guilt was racked through my body. I quickly pulled out my phone and started a new text to Fabian, eager to start thinking about him and not my tan, warm American friend who I would be kissing in three weeks for the play.

Things heat up in the next few chapters, be prepared!

Sorry for not update a lot, school and the Holidays hurt my schedule again.

I'm also sorry for not responding to all the reviews. I enjoy taking the time to respond to each and everyone of them and I'm sad that I wasn't able to last time. I will now and as always love and desire reviews.

Saw another trailer for Anubis Season 2, excited and I want it to happen already!

So now please REVIEW! and Happy New Year to you all!