Original A/N: I LOVE this chapter! It's my favorite so far =] Thanks for all those who read, reviewed, gave ideas, favorited and all that good stuff! =] Here's the chart again-

Nina plays Mick/Fabian plays Mara/Patricia plays Jerome/Amber plays Fabian/Mick plays Patricia/Mara plays Alfie/Jerome plays Amber/Alfie plays Nina

I do not own House of Anubis

Updated A/N: This is the first story I have where I was conscious of 'kicking it up a notch' in chapter 4. We get our first twist, and some big plot threads start to be sewn.

"Wanna tell me what that was all about?" Patricia asked once she found Mick.

He was in the gym -a place he thought of as a slice of heaven- sitting on the bleachers. They were the only two there.

"I will." His assurance was conditional. "But only if-"

She gave him a glassy-eyed glare. "If what?"

"Tell me if you like Jerome or not."

She felt like kicking something, maybe Mick. "Give it a rest, will you? I already told you, it doesn't matter!"

"It matters to me."

His argument didn't seem to faze her. "Well, you're the actor. What do you think?"

"I think I wanna know the truth."

"Don't make me come up there," Her warning didn't make him flinch, even once she was through giving it. "or you'll find yourself on the floor in three seconds flat!" Mick just smirked. "You are so stubborn." Patricia said, wishing he'd just drop the subject.

This filled him with pride. "I know. That's why I'm so good at playing you."

"Just tell me why you even wanna know." She was tired of the back-and-forth. Patricia looked at the clock and saw that they'd be late to class.

"It would help me play you better if I knew one of your secrets." Mick explained.

"I'll tell you a secret," Patricia submitted. "just not that one."

"So it's true!" Mick said, springing up.

"What's true? I didn't say anything!"

"Yes you did!" His exclamation came with a frustrated tone. "PATRICIA, YOU JUST ADMITTED YOU LIKE JEROME!"

"First of all, no I didn't." She sounded surprisingly calm as she said this. "And second you're talking to me, not all the kids in the hallway." She hoped Jerome wasn't one of those kids.

"Wait, so do you like him or not?" Mick asked.

"I don't know." Patricia murmured.

Mick thought he must have heard wrong. "You don't know? 'I don't know' would be an acceptable answer if you asked me anything science-related, but how do you not know if you like somebody? Especially someone you live with?"

Patricia wasn't fazed by anything that Mick said. "What's your opinion? Do I or don't I?"

"I can't decide that for you, but it seems like it to me. You're both deep, I'll admit. Doesn't make you a couple though."

Patricia was caught off guard. Mick had just called her deep. And more shockingly, Jerome.

She'd always agreed with that. To her, the rabbit hole to Wonderland didn't hold a candle to Jerome in terms of depth.

She had to laugh about the compliment. "Mick Campbell, did you just say something somewhat heartfelt?" Patricia teased.

He replied: "I'm not heartless, you know."

Just because the words 'jock' and 'jerk' shared two letters didn't mean they were basically the same thing. At least, not in his case.

"Oh yeah, you're not?" As she said this, she walked up the bleachers in search of proof. She checked for a pulse, but it took her awhile to find it. When she did, she found Mick's heartbeat going like a bullet train.

Patricia eyed him awkwardly over the speed of his pulse. "I ran here, remember?" He made a good point.

"Now we both gotta run." Patricia told him. "We're late."

They headed off to class at that point, and Mick guessed that unless she brought it up again, Patricia would never know the reason why he 'ran away' in the first place. And he thought it best not to mention that he'd been sitting there in the gym for at least fifteen full minutes before she even found him.

"Hey." Amber said to Alfie when she came up to him in the hallway later that day. By her slight stammer, he could tell she meant the greeting as Fabian. Jerome never imagined he'd hear the words she spoke next. "Do you wanna go out later?"

Alfie blinked. "Uh, hold on a second." He said this using his American accent. Though some of the words were slurred.

Jerome realized why when he found himself being dragged into an empty classroom. "Pinch me." Alfie practically begged, unable to stop smiling. In compliance, Jerome proceeded to hit him upside the head. "OW! I said pinch me!"

"Oh, sorry, I misheard you." Jerome laughed. Although he did that to get the stupid grin off Alfie's face. He looks dumber than I do with this plaster on my face…

Jerome's little 'plan' was to no avail. Alfie couldn't care less about what he did, he was overjoyed. He gushed: "I love this project."

Jerome scoffed. "Calm yourself down, the date's not even real."

"I don't care!" Alfie replied, practically skipping back to where Amber was. Jerome didn't even know why he bothered to follow.

"Yeah, sure." Alfie told a very confused-looking Amber, as if it was nothing. The two shared a beaming smile, and a long, loving look they'd seen Fabian and Nina give to each other countless times, while Jerome turned his attention elsewhere. Focusing on another conversation while Amber and Alfie made 'date' plans.

"So, are you talking a break from being me today? I wouldn't blame you, you seem so drained. "

Mick shrugged his shoulders in response to Patricia's question, and stepped in front of her locker. The second he touched the dial, Patricia questioned him again. "What're you doing?"

"Testing my judgment." He told her this although she had absolutely no clue what it meant.

"You don't even know the combination, Meathead."

"Oh, yeah." He took no offense to that. It definitely fit Jerome's profile. What she did next, however, didn't even fit hers.

Rather than swat Mick's hand away from the dial, Patricia guided it through the combination with her own hand.

Jerome's eyes widened just as much witnessing it as Mick's did experiencing it. Patricia didn't even seem to take notice of what she'd done, and practically ripped open her locker door.

Mick pushed some textbooks aside and pulled out a small, yet thick book of poetry.

"That's just creepy, how did you know where to find that?" Patricia asked him, amazed.

"Everything's a little complicated with you." Mick reasoned. "I figured if you did write poetry you wouldn't leave the book around for anyone to find." She nodded a bit, both impressed and surprised that he thought about her on such a deep level.

"Plus," Mick went on, "telling me your locker combination doesn't really count for you telling me a secret, and I'm kinda determined to find out… the answer to that question I keep asking you." He kept his explanation vague, not wanting to name names, since he knew Jerome was in earshot. The whole time Mick was speaking, he was thumbing through Patricia's poetry book, and -although he didn't know it- he was dangerously close to the 'J' pages.

Hearing this, Patricia yanked the book out of Mick's hands and started hitting him with it. Jerome was suddenly glad he decided to be nosy, enjoying the show.

"Okay, okay! Ahh!" Mick realized he should have known that Patricia considered anything a potential weapon. "C'mon Patricia," He tried to dodge her incredible aim and reflexes, but got knocked down in the process: "don't you realize that in theory you're beating yourself up?" (Although, he had to admit he wouldn't be surprised if one day Jerome decided to beat him with a book.)

"Stop saying that!" Patricia told him, keeping up the 'attack'. Jerome wondered why no one was doing anything to stop it, but his smirk said he couldn't complain.

"'In theory,'" Patricia mocked. "Who are you playing now, Fabian?"

"No…Fabian…wouldn't be… stupid enough… to get himself in… this situation." Mick replied, obviously exhausted from trying to squirm away from the path of the book.

Patricia stopped on a dime. She tore out a handful of pages from the book and then tossed it back to him. "Now you can have it."

Mick stood up. "But you tore out, like, twenty pages!"

The hyperbole was met with hostility. "You're lucky I didn't tear out your hair instead." Patricia said, walking off.

"Yeah, I love you too!" Mick called after her sarcastically. Oddly enough, he smiled after he said so. Crazy girl…

Jerome scowled at this.

"What's with your face?" Amber asked, making him jump about a mile when she came up behind him.

"Yeah." Alfie laughed. "'What's with your face?'" Jerome motioned to Mick, who was too deep into his reading to notice.

"He only wants what he can't have. It's disgusting." Alfie looked at Jerome oddly.

"Did you just call yourself disgusting? Because you like M-" Protective instincts told Amber to pull Jerome back by his shirt, before he had the chance to lunge at Alfie. She turned him around so she could say something to him. "Quit worrying. Mick's in a whole nother world right now, and he definitely doesn't like Patricia. That's just weird. Besides, everyone knows you fancy... you-know-who." Jerome gave Amber a weird look.

"How brain-dead are you?" He turned to Alfie and said: "Your 'girlfriend' thinks I have a crush on Voldemort."

Alfie narrowed his eyes. "Oh, yeah. Like I haven't heard that one a trillion times." A few seconds later, he added: "She's not brain-dead!"

"No wonder you two make such a beautiful couple." Jerome walked away from them laughing.

Turning a corner, he caught sight of Ms. Robinson. She happened to be passing by Mr. Winkler, and didn't acknowledge him in the least.

Jerome's "Amber instinct' kicked in and told him to do something about the situation. He thought himself insane to listen, but ran to catch up with Ms. Robinson anyway. She knew about the project, so it wouldn't be weird for her to see him all Ambered-out. Plus, for him, playing Amber meant he could be as weird as he wanted without consequence.

"What the heck was that Ms. Robinson?" Inside he laughed because of the fact that Amber found the word 'heck' to be threatening. "What do you think he is, a brick wall?" He couldn't believe she was still holding a grudge.

She couldn't believe he was actually talking to her like that. "I don't think this concerns you."

"Of course it does! It's part of my job as matchmaker. And I don't care how mad you are at him, everyone knows you two are a perfect match." Ms. Robinson shook her head. "Not everyone would agree."

Jerome gave Ms. Robinson his best 'Intimidation by Amber' face. "Oh, yeah? Give me one good reason."

In response to that, she held up her hand with the back facing out.

Back at the house, everyone was working on homework, or enjoying a 'pre-supper.' (A term Nina learned from Mick.)

All was quiet until Jerome burst through the front door at full speed, yelling: "MS. ROBINSON'S ENGAGED!"

Unintentionally following the rules of cliché comedy, Nina spit took right in Mick's face. He was too shocked -as everyone else was- to tell her that he hadn't asked for a shower.

"What? To who?" Amber asked. "Mr. Winkler?" She hoped Jerome would say 'yes' but doubted so at the same time.

"No!"

"What?"

Everyone started whining.

"Now my appetite's gone." Mick and Nina said in unison. They then looked at each other, sad that they couldn't share a laugh about it.

Jerome was taken by surprise. "Wait. Every one of you thinks they should be together?"

Amber spoke for most of the girls when she mumbled: "Well, if not one of us…"

"Who's she engaged to?" Fabian asked slowly. The words sounded too strange to come out right.

"I don't know!"

"The point is not Jason." Patricia groaned. Jerome would have laughed at that if any of his housemates could manage a laugh in that moment.

"That's just stupid." Alfie grumbled.

"How long has she been engaged for?" Fabian asked. Always with the details.

"Almost the whole summer." Jerome told everyone. "She only just found her ring again today, but this makes no sense whatsoever. Where did she find a guy so fast?"

"Where did she find a guy better than Jason?" Amber wondered aloud.

"We gotta do something about this." Nina told her housemates.

Joy looked at her. "Like what?"

She had her there. "I don't know." Nina replied. "Let's figure it out in the morning."

"Just one secret. Everyone has to tell one. Joy made the rule." Mick taunted Patricia after lights out.

He was standing in their room, and gave Joy a thankful smile. It was like she could read his mind. Patricia wasn't having it, though.

"But you have a book full of my secrets. You just have to know how to read between the lines." Her smile turned upside down. "Now get out of my room."

He didn't argue, walking out after he kissed Mara goodnight.

"Patricia, Joy, can you guys go too?"

"Why?" Joy asked Mara.

"Fabian's gonna be here any second, and-"

"You can't trust us with your secrets?" Patricia finished for her, sounding fuming mad. Mara looked apologetic. "Fine, whatever." She mumbled this as she and Joy walked out of the room.

Fabian came around right after that. Mara figured he wouldn't make her spill anything deep and dark, so she said: "What do you wanna know?" It wasn't much of a conversation -she didn't greet him or anything- but he looked like he didn't want to be there anyway, so she tried to get things over with.

But his question sideswiped her. "What's the worst thing you've ever done?"

It was hard for Fabian to imagine Mara as anything other than innocent, which is why he wanted to know so badly.

And why he reacted the way he did to hearing the real story of what happened before Mara was officially with Mick. She swore she heard Fabian's jaw hit the floor.

"How could you-" He groaned, unable to find the words to finish.

"I guess that's why they're called secrets." Mara told him, trying to laugh about it, even though she knew she never would.

Fabian was in no mood for laughing either.

Most people didn't see the sense in it because it went against cliché, but Mick and Fabian were best friends. And no one got away with almost getting his best friend kicked out of school, twice.

Fabian swallowed strings of aggravated profanity, pushing on his teeth for a way out, and instead said: "Why are you even with him?"

"Because I like him." Mara saw that question as a stupid one.

Fabian shook his head. "I love Nina, and I'd never do anything like that to her."

"It was a mistake, Fabian!" Mara insisted.

"Yeah." Fabian replied. "Just like your and Mick's relationship? I'd say so."

Mara got angry then. "You make it sound like you're going to issue a restraining order against me!"

"I think it's best if you do keep your distance. And if you're half as smart as you pretend to be, you will."

He left with that. If Fabian had to fight about something, he was glad it was that. And he was glad that he got the last word.

Jerome shook Alfie awake. "How was your 'date' with your with Amber?"

His sleepy-eyed best friend replied: "Not like I expected." He sat up.

"Is that a good thing?" Jerome asked.

"No, we were bored." Jerome's laughter was interrupted when Alfie glared at him.

"Oh, sorry…" He answered in a dragged out whisper. It was still sort of comical, though.

Alfie had been chasing after Amber forever, and their first date was an absolute snooze fest.

"Yeah, is that zit gone yet?"

"Shut up!" Jerome told Alfie.

"That's what you get for waking me up." Alfie replied. "Why'd you do that, anyway?"

"Because Patricia's gonna kick you out of here in about five seconds." Jerome explained. Right on cue, she walked into the room.

"Hey, Alfie."

Her greeting was met with: "Yeah, I'm goin'." Alfie walked out as fast as possible.

Patricia looked at Jerome. "All I said was 'Hey'."

"Yeah, but he's tired. Plus, he saw you beat Mick down with a book today." Jerome was in hysterics, but Patricia hadn't even heard a word he said. She was staring out their bedroom door.

"Hey, come back to reality." Jerome said. Patricia blinked, and turned back to him. "So, tell me a secret."

She didn't take that order. "Why? I'm playing you, it's not the other way around."

"Icebreaker." Jerome explained.

"Pointless." Patricia argued.

"Fine. I play chess."

"So what? That's not a secret, I could have guessed it." And she had, in one of her poems, a long while back.

"The deal was to tell one secret, and I did." Jerome was uncaring.

She looked at him, first feeling angry. Then her eyes glazed over. "Open up, Jerome." She sounded like she was begging him. She knew he wouldn't listen, though. She knew she wasn't as insufferably sweet as Mara, but she still wanted his trust.

What Patricia didn't know was that he was actually seriously considering doing what she told him.

He was just left speechless, seeing her eyes shimmer the way they did. It was heart-wrenching. He convinced himself that he was seeing things. That she couldn't even be close to crying. By the time he did, though, she was gone.

It didn't help that Amber showed up immediately afterward, smiley as always.

"Wanna know a secret?" She asked this without noticing how shocked and sad he looked.

"Humor me." Jerome replied, half-heartedly. He was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to laugh no matter what she said, being that he still had the image of Patricia crying stuck in his head.

Meanwhile, Nina was having the same kind of conversation with Mick.

Out loud, he asked himself: "Where do I start?"

Nina laughed, surprised. "How many secrets do you have?"

He shrugged. "I don't really think about it that much." He chuckled when he saw that Nina had an apple in her hand.

She told him: "You got me addicted to apples. I'm healthy as an ox and happy as a…clam." They both cracked up at her strange sentence. "I get a little loopy when I'm tired, just ignore me." Before she bit into her apple, she asked Mick: "Want half?" She knew he must be hungry.

"When it comes to food, I don't really understand the concept of 'half'." Nina giggled, thinking she should have known that. "Thanks, though." She wondered if it was like torture for Mick, letting her have the whole apple for herself.

"I do have a secret no one knows about." Mick admitted. "But it's something you have to see to get the full effect, you know? Only I can't show you right now.

"Why not?" Nina asked. She wasn't mad, just curious.

"My secret's a place, and it's in school…"

Thanks for reading, please review! Next chapter should pick up right where this left off. What was your favorite part of this one?

I'm open to any ideas for everyone's secrets, because the only one I know for sure is Mick's. Forgot to mention when I first uploaded this, any ideas for Ms. Robinson's fiance? (Like his name, his look, and reasons to hate him lol.) I'm planning on having him show up real soon. Thanks again, I'll update ASAP! =]