Mara wasn't the first, but she also wasn't the last to know.
She was distracted, she admits, what with Jerome and Poppy and their father and school and Mick and just everything. She didn't pay much attention to her own love life, actually, and that's why her and Mick were broken up by December break.
No, it wasn't until around the end of the year that she noticed anything. By then, things have settled down. She started sorta-dating-sorta-not-dating Jerome (it's complicated), he had finally decided to stop visiting his father after the whole steal-the-gem thing (it was harder to persuade Poppy to stop seeing her father, but she understood after Jerome told her about what he made him do)... All was well.
All was well indeed.
She noticed it while playing chess with Jerome one afternoon. It was a Saturday, so not many people were in the house. Nina, Joy, and Amber had gone shopping, Fabian was visiting his cousin, and Alfie went... Actually, he hadn't said where he was going beforehand, so no one really knew what he was doing. The only ones left were Jerome, Patricia, Eddie, and Mara herself.
"Check Mate." Jerome gives a little half-smile at Mara's shocked face as he defeats her.
"You so cheated!"
"Did not!"
"Did t-"
"Can you two love birds keep it down?" Eddie saunters into the sitting room, collapsing on the couch and switching the TV on. "I'm trying to watch some TV here."
"Shut it, Miller." Jerome glares at the blond as Mara lies a hand on her sorta-boyfriend-sorta-not's arm.
Eddie flashes a fake smile at Jerome and Jerome lets out a shaky breath, attempting to calm his nerves, as Patricia waltzed in, snatching the remote from the unknowing Eddison's hand.
"Hey!" he exclaimed, pawing for the device. "Give it back!"
"Why are you watching..." she gives a disgusted face. "EW, why are you watching this trash? How are you even getting it, this is American television."
"It's called the American Channel, Yacker." Eddie rolls his eyes. "Because America is so much better that we get our own channel." he salutes, grinning.
"Well, let's watch something actually decent." she flips through channels before selecting one, grinning. "Ooh, Misfits marathon!"
"Misfits?" Eddie raises a single bushy eyebrow but sits back in his chair, suddenly interested.
Mara and Jerome shrug and start another game of chess. They go through 10 whole games, Eddie and Patricia watching Misfits, not noticing everyone else settled in the house of Anubis gradually coming back, and don't move until Trudy (Vera was fired, and Mara wasn't exactly sure why, she seemed nice enough) called for supper.
"So is it bad I want Alisha and Curtis to be together more than I do Alisha and Simon?"
"Yes! How could you say that, Alisha and Simon are soul mates!"
"Simon is incredibly creepy! He has the same face all the time!" Eddie imitates the character's deer-in-a-headlight face.
"You are terrible." but she smiles none the less, shoving him playfully.
"Do they... Like each other?" Mara whispers to Jerome.
He raises a thin eyebrow. "You didn't know?" he laughs when she shakes her head. "Yes, they do, although they don't admit it. Peddie, Joy and Amber call them."
Peddie.
It won't last, Mara repeated to herself.
She took back those words after receiving Patricia and Eddie's wedding invitation.
A/N: OKAY I KNOW THIS IS A TAD EARLY BUT I AM GOING TO CRY OH MY GOD HOA HOLY CRAP OH MY GOD
ahem
incase you were wondering, I will eventually do Mick (heheheh. Do Mick.)
Next... Is Alfie, I believe.
Reveiw?