Long time HOA fanfic reader here. I decided to take a whack at a fanfic of my own after seeing a lot of good fics on here. So here is my story; it's an OC one, but trust me, it's different than others. The first chapter is pretty much just introducing the new character, but more will happen in the next chapter. Oh, most of the story will probably be in my OC's point of view, but that is subject to change.

Disclaimer: I do not own House of Anubis, just my OC, because she was my idea. :)

Acting Isn't Just For The Stage

Chapter 1- A New Stage

I slowly opened the solid wood door and stepped through the threshold, my heart beating fast and hard. Being in a new country and going to a boarding school for the first time where I knew absolutely no one was scary enough, but seeing the creepy house named after the Egyptian god of death that I would have to live in with a bunch of strangers scared the life out of me. I mean, who knew what lay behind those doors?

When I finally made it into the house, I quickly closed the door behind me, bracing myself for something to jump out and cause me to pee my pants. Instead I turned to see a middle aged woman with nearly black hair and a friendly face come towards me.

"You must be our new student!" she exclaimed. I nodded my head. "I'm Trudy Rehmann, the house mother. Welcome to Anubis House!" Before I could properly introduce myself to Trudy, I heard movement from the room nearby, and then saw eight teens the same age as me walk into the entrance room, curious to see who was at the door. And this was where I began to panic.

Although I am a major theatre freak, I am kind of self conscious at times. But honestly, no one would be able to tell from looking at me. I always present myself in a confident manner, and if I begin to feel self conscious, I pretend I am onstage where if something goes wrong, you play it off and make it look like it's supposed to happen. On the inside, though, I am usually afraid of silly little things, like tripping and falling on my face when walking up the stairs, or having a booger in my nose without realizing it. And now, as 18 eyes stared at me, I definitely felt under the spotlight, but being in theatre for so long, I knew exactly how to handle it.

"Hello!" I said, waving to everyone. "I'm Violet Jane Handelen, and I'm from Norway!"

"You're from Norway? But you sound like Nina. And Nina's American," a blonde girl with clearly straightened hair wearing sparkly heels said, pointing at another girl with long, wavy, light brown hair, who I assumed was Nina.

"Well, I am American," I told her.

The blonde girl looked confused. "But how are you from Norway if you are American?" I could tell she wasn't the brightest crayon in the box.

"Amber, I think she means that she's American, born in America, but she lived in Norway before coming here," a brown haired boy with dark blue eyes standing next to Nina clarified for the blonde girl who I now knew was Amber.

I nodded my head. "Yeah, I was born in South Dakota, then my family moved to Norway when I was a year old, and I've lived there ever since."

Amber mouthed a big "oh" which meant she understood now.

"Well, Violet, we are glad you could join us here in England!" Trudy assured me. "Why don't I help you bring your bags to your room? Mara, have you finished preparing the attic?" A petite girl with black, wavy hair nodded. "Well, then allow me to show you to your bedroom!"

Trudy grabbed one of my bags, and I followed her upstairs, holding my other bag. I gazed around at the old house as Trudy led me to where my room would be, in the attic apparently. I really hoped the attic wasn't too creepy, but with the look at this place, I imagined it would be. She led me through a door and up another flight of stairs, and let me tell you, it wasn't pleasant. There were no lights leading up to the attic, and it just gave off a feeling of eeriness. I gulped as I prepared myself to see my new bedroom.

"Here it is!" Trudy said, opening the door. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was easy to tell though that this was once used for storage because I noticed a pile of random items in the far corner.

I suppose living here won't be too bad, I thought to myself. I set my bag on the iron rod, twin sized bed. Trudy placed my other one near the old, oak dresser that resided against the wall closest to the door.

"Thank you," I told her.

"Oh no problem, lovely!" she replied in a cheery voice. "I hope you don't mind being in the attic. This house was meant to accommodate only eight students, and there is a strict residence code stating that there can be only two to a room."

I shook my head. "I don't mind! I'm always open to new experiences!"

Trudy smiled. "That's great to hear! Well, supper will be ready in about ten minutes, so why don't you come downstairs and learn who your housemates are? And then after supper, you can unpack and get settled in!"

I smiled. "Sure!" I followed Trudy once more, downstairs and into the living room. When I entered, all the teens, who were previously chattering amongst themselves, stopped immediately and stared at me. I began to feel that self conscious feeling again.

"Wow, you people sure do know how to make a girl feel awkward," I joked. The girl I remembered as Nina stood up.

"Sorry about that. They did the same thing to me when I first arrived," she told me. "I'm Nina, as you probably already figured out."

"Hello!" I replied, and then sat down on one of the couches next to a boy with blonde hair holding a football.

"So, Violet, tell us about yourself," the girl who's name I recalled to be Mara said to me.

"Oh, I'm really not that interesting. I'd much rather learn about you all."

"Are you kidding me? You lived in Norway your entire life! That's pretty interesting," the blonde boy next to me commented. "And, I'm Mick by the way."

"Yeah, an American who has lived in Norway can't be boring," the boy, Fabian, added. "How come you're parents packed up and moved all the way to Norway?"

No ordinary person could have been able to tell that I lost composure for a split second, panicking as I tried to come up with a believable answer to that.

"Um, worldly experience. They always dreamed of living in Norway." Yes, good answer, Violet.

"Is your family Norwegian? Your last name sounds kind of Norwegian. Is it?" Mara asked me. I internally sighed with relief that I could answer this question truthfully.

"Oh no, Handelen is Dutch," I replied, smiling.

"Dutch?" a girl with red hair and a blue clip on hair piece questioned. "You don't look Dutch. Well, you don't actually look Norwegian either, really."

"Patricia's right," Fabian jumped in. "The most you look is… Irish."

I chuckled. "Yeah, I get that a lot. I'm a ménage of different European countries, the most being Dutch and Irish. But I'm also Finnish, Greek, Bulgarian, Welsh, Romanian, Portuguese, Albanian, Polish, Italian, English, and Swiss. I might be a tad Icelandic, but I still haven't figured that out quite yet."

The faces on my housemates were priceless. "Wow," said a thin boy, with slightly darker blonde hair than Mick. "Are there any European countries that you're not from?"

I laughed. "Like I said, I'm a complete mash up of countries." The group smiled at me. "So what else do you want to know about me? My zodiac sign? My shoe size? My favorite type of cheese?"

A dark skinned boy sitting next to the thin blonde boy, whose name I still had yet to learn, raised his hand. "I would actually like to know what your favorite cheese is."

We all laughed at him. "And I would like to know your name," I replied.

"Alfie Lewis."

"Mozzarella," I said, answering his question. "Pleased to meet you, Alfie."

"You seem like a very confident person, Violet," the blonde boy said, taking notice of my manner.

"Touché—,"

"Jerome."

"Ah, touché, Jerome," I retaliated. "But I guess you gain a ton of confidence when you're onstage in front of an audience nearly every other month."

"So she's a theatre girl!" Alfie exclaimed.

"Yes, I'm a theatre freak! I fell in love with acting when I was nine and began participating in productions at age ten," I explained.

"See? You aren't a boring person!" Amber pointed out.

"Yeah, but aren't theatre people… dramatic?" Mick asked.

"We make life interesting, but we save the drama for the stage," I corrected him.

"Supper's ready!" Trudy announced, as she carried a bowl of lasagna to the table. I followed everyone into the dining area and sat down at a chair that had been squeezed in at the end. We all began to enjoy a delicious meal, and I began to realize that I could actually be myself here.

New country. Not new me.

A/N So yes, Violet does have secrets. Any confusions you might have right now WILL be cleared up eventually. Um. Thanks for reading!

~Mia