Here's the next chapter. Hope you enjoy! A big THANK YOU to everyone who read, reviewed, gave ideas, favorited and all that good stuff! =]
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
"I must warn you, Jerome. This is a dark, dark secret." Amber began, though he doubted the validity of that statement. Still, he was slightly concerned, due to the anguish in her voice, so he decided to just listen. "I mean, it's scarier than anything you can imagine. Absolutely mortifying." To stress her point, Amber pulled Jerome closer to her by his shirt, shaking him a little. Then, she got to the point, in a terrified voice. "I used to… hate the color pink."
It took a second for that to sink in, but when it did Jerome threw his head back and laughed like he hadn't laughed in ages. His whole face turned red, and his eyes teared up. Once his hysterical laughter died down, he told Amber: "That's the stupidest secret I've ever heard!" She said it like she'd shot the queen. She was absolutely crushed, heartbroken beyond repair.
Once she saw Jerome's reaction, however, a smile spread across Amber's face. "I knew I'd cheer you up. I guess it's funny 'cause it's true."
After saying this, Amber did something that left Jerome feeling like he was the brain-dead one. She kissed him on the cheek. Then, she turned on her heel and walked out as fast as she could.
Jerome slapped the dumbfounded look he had off his face, along with the kiss.
What was it for anyway? What did it mean? Amber never did that. At least, not to him.
She seemed to read his mind, because she was back mere seconds later. "That was to thank you. For listening. Nobody knows that about me." As she said this, Amber took an envelope from behind her back and handed it to Jerome, who still wasn't fully functional. He managed to take the envelope from her, though. Amber left again, and Jerome flipped the envelope over.
He found his name, written on it in calligraphy. Definitely not her handwriting. Jerome thought.
Still dazed by what Amber had done, Jerome didn't even want to be holding the envelope. He threw it over his shoulder, knowing all too well that curiosity would sooner or later get the best of him and call him back to wherever it landed.
A thought crossed Jerome's mind: If Amber didn't write the note -if she was just playing messenger- who did? Curiosity got the best of Jerome right then, because he turned around to find the envelope resting lazily on the window sill.
He tore open the envelope from the top -since it was sealed so tightly- and pulled out a card with a lacy edge. The front cover read Thank You, in the same handwriting that was used on the envelope.
Slowly, Jerome opened the card. It was dated the previous school year.
The message was short, semi-sweet and to the point. Although, the point was unclear.
Thanks for the wake up call. I don't really know what to say except I needed that. Oh, and you rock.
Jerome looked at the last line of the note, and found something hauntingly familiar: Don't let it go to your head.
He doubted the message would get to his head at all the way it was spinning. What was Amber thanking him for? Why did she feel the need to do so on paper rather than in person?
It wasn't that she couldn't tell him her secrets. She'd done that already.
What was it then? Jerome couldn't figure out why he was suddenly obsessing over what the card meant. Amber never thought about anything that extensively. He had to ask himself why he was contemplating the situation as if Amber liked him. Only in his nightmares.
Fabian opened his bedroom door as Amber walked past. "Wanna know my secret?"
"Sure." She said enthusiastically, from where she stood in his doorway.
"Okay, so, basically since Nina got here last term, it was pretty obvious that I like her. Right?"
Amber scoffed, giving Fabian a look. "Pretty obvious?"
The repetition made Fabian rephrase himself. "Okay, more like blatantly obvious."
Amber nodded. "Yeah, that's the word."
He laughed. "Alright now, Ms. Matchmaker. Do you wanna know how long I've liked her?"
Amber's eyes lit up. "Of course!" Then -before Fabian had a chance to speak- she said: "Out with it, already! I can't handle the suspense!"
"Well, the simplest way to put it is that I liked her from the moment she arrived." Fabian admitted. "I'm talking before she even got out of the cab."
By the way she looked at him, Fabian could tell Amber hadn't seen that coming. "Fabian, that's-"
"Insane? I know. I'm a weird kid."
"I was gonna say THE SWEETEST THING I'VE EVER HEARD!"
"Okay," Fabian shushed Amber, while swallowing a laugh. "but did you have to say it so loud?"
"Oh, sorry. I'm just excited. How can I not be? It's love at first sight." Thinking about it, Fabian blushed. Amber tapped her fingernails on the doorframe, in thought. "You know, that could make for a really good song."
"Amber, there are plenty of songs out there about love at first sight."
"Yeah," Amber agreed. "but none by Fabian Rutter…yet." She left him with that, heading back to her room. Right before she got out of his line of sight, she called back to him: "Think about it!"
Alfie knocked on Mara's door. In her opinion, the knock was a lot less incessant due to the fact that he was so tired. She didn't mention it though. She didn't mention anything. So, he decided he would just have to do all the talking himself, barely pausing to take a breath.
"I can tell you don't wanna talk much less listen, but you care about your grades so you deserve to know my secret. I was really nerdy when I was younger. Like on your level, and Fabian's. I guess you can blame it on my dad's workaholic mindset, but it's just another one of my quirks. Or it was, at least until Jerome rubbed off on me, and somehow the two personalities…merged… to form, well, me."
His lips curled up into a small smile, but he didn't get one back, so his face dropped. Without anything left to say, Alfie walked away.
"Is the coast clear?" Nina giggled. "Mick, of course the coast is clear. No one else knows this place exists. Right?" The two were about to enter Mick's secret spot, the following day.
"Yeah, I'm just being dramatic." He told her this as he pushed the door -which was actually part of a wall in an abandoned classroom- open.
Nina said: "I thought you hated drama. Seems like you're always running from it."
The only way he responded to that was with an inaudible gulp.
Nina found herself staring down a dark, narrow stairwell. For a second, she thought of the cellar.
"Alright, let's torch this place." She made Mick laugh. "See, it's so much more exciting than saying 'flashlight'. I'll never get over how much I love your lingo."
He followed her 'order', still laughing, as he led the way downstairs.
She heard two clicks. One was the flashlight shutting off, and the other was a desk lamp turning on as she closed the door. Light poured into the room.
"Wow." Nina said. "This place has… a lot less cobwebs that I expected."
"That's because I clean it." Mick told her. "It was so much creepier before, now it's my second room."
The place was cozy and surprisingly elegant, in a way. The walls were covered with framed pictures and posters of all sorts of things.
"You decorated?" Nina asked.
Mick shrugged. "Got bored."
"Nice." Nina complimented, beyond impressed. She admitted to herself that she would never have thought of Mick as anything but a jock unless she saw the place. Then she caught sight of something that was really unexpected: a piano on the back wall. "I'm guessing that came with the room?" She punctuated that question with a laugh.
At first, Mick didn't answer. "I guess the good thing about arriving to school three days before everyone else starts to show up, is being able to… sneak my latest obsession into my new hideout." The sentence came out awkwardly. It was difficult for Mick to admit.
It took awhile for Nina to catch on. "Slow down. Are you saying… it's yours?"
"Yeah. I only know, like, four songs by heart."
Nina's jaw dropped. "I thought the only thing you played was sports!"
Mick smiled. "So did I."
"Are we the only two up?" Patricia asked as she came into the kitchen.
"No," Jerome told her. "Believe it or not Nina and Mick went into school early."
"I believe it." She said this as she sat down next to him at the table. "So we're the only two up in the house, right?" He nodded, since Fabian and Nina were outside, sticking to their act with training. "Okay, then. Tell me your secret before anyone else comes around."
Jerome sighed silently. Why did she have to choose such a bright and sunny morning to say something like that? "I'm getting really tired of telling this story. Even though I've only told it once."
"What story?" She locked eyes with him. That was too much, knowing that she was concerned for him. Jerome couldn't pour his heart out to Patricia the way he had done with Mara. So instead of digging deep he tried to avoid that and decided to start his explanation over again.
"Look, no offense, but it's no secret that you have mom issues. I do too."
"And dad issues." Patricia offered.
"How do you know that?" Jerome asked her. He'd never made his situation obvious.
"By the way you talk about them, because… you avoid talking about them." On the contrary, according to Patricia, he had.
"Do you know why I don't talk about them?" Jerome asked her.
"Because of whatever they did," Patricia began. "or whatever they didn't do."
"What kind of a guess is that?" The ridicule hurt, but she didn't show it.
Jerome wanted a guess? Patricia would give him a guess. "You were neglected."
There was a long, chilling silence before Jerome choked out a response: "Good guess."
Patricia rolled her eyes, but not at him. "It's not a guess. It was my second impression of you."
"What was your first impression of me?" Jerome asked in a hushed tone. His emotions were starting to take over. "That you were a slimeball." Her teasing tone turned serious. "But you proved to me that I was wrong."
"What do you mean?" Jerome asked, suddenly lost.
She blinked. "I don't actually think that about you."
"Then why do you call me that?" When he asked this, he sounded even more confused.
"To remind myself that things aren't always as they seem, and sometimes that's a good thing."
Taken by surprise, Jerome was about to ask what Patricia honestly thought of him. Only, the question he blurted out to her was completely different. "What did I do wrong?"
A question that never came up when he talked about his parents with Mara.
For a split second, there was a slight quiver in Patricia's voice. "Jerome, you didn't do anything wrong. It's their fault, for not breaking the cycle." She figured his parents had to learn neglect from somewhere.
Jerome figured the next thing that was coming his way was an apology. "Hey, do me a little favor."
That proved him wrong. "Okay, what?"
"Stand up." He did what she asked -not sure why- and Patricia did the same.
When she threw her arms around him and held tightly for a few long seconds, he understood. They didn't have to say anything after that. For awhile, they both just smiled.
At lunchtime, Alfie went looking for Amber. He found Nina instead, sitting outside all alone. "Hey." His greeting was soft. He knew something was wrong.
"Hey." Her echo came out hastily, as she wiped a tear away from her eye. "Don't worry about me, I was just thinking about my secret."
"Tell me about it." Alfie said as he sat down, nearly throwing himself into a flashback. He had to get his mind off the 'classy' laundry room and back to the conversation he was having.
Nina sighed heavily. "Okay. You'll be the first to know."
He was shocked just to learn that. Nina had a secret neither Fabian nor Amber knew? That was a difficult concept to grasp.
The quiver in Nina's voice was haunting. "Well, my parents…died but, but not in a car accident like I tell everyone…"
Speechless from all the scenarios running through his mind, Alfie could do nothing to urge Nina on besides look at her, trying to hide that he was afraid to hear the end of what she had to say.
"They were murdered. I was only seven when it happened, and I guess I should remember the details, but who would want to remember the details in that situation? And I can't bring myself to ask my Gran about what happened because I don't want to bring up bad memories-"
Alfie interrupted Nina's hurt rambling with a hug. Tears streamed down both their faces, and when Nina cried, her whole body shook.
Alfie couldn't manage the words to tell Nina how incredibly sorry he felt, but the hug said all he couldn't say, and he silently promised he wouldn't let go of Nina until she stopped crying.
There wasn't much talk back at the house after classes. Joy was almost convinced that everyone had gone along with Mara's idea. They all seemed to be acting the same.
Mara hadn't talked since her fight with Fabian, but neither of them said a word all throughout supper. Alfie and Amber were still awkward around each other because of the way their first date had gone.
Unsettled by the silence, Patricia tried to keep a conversation going with Jerome, but he spent all of supper practically staring at Mara, and Mick never even noticed. He was too busy thinking about his secret place, and how it was no longer just his secret.
Something bothered him even more than that: the look on poor Nina's face. The light had gone out in her eyes, but whenever Alfie looked at her, she managed a smile.
Someone knew what she was going through, even though they couldn't relate, and knowing that helped her calm down, even though she still wanted to cry.
It seemed that normal behavior was a long way off.
When Mick woke up the next morning, he was convinced that normal had been thrown out the window. Fabian could tell just by the way he moved that something was off.
It was like he was in a daze.
"Are you okay?"
In answer, Mick sighed heavily, trying to figure out how to explain himself. "Well, uh, it's just, I-I, um-"
"You sound like me." Fabian told him, laughing.
"My commitment issues aren't funny." Mick answered bitterly.
Fabian blinked. "What makes you think that you have commitment issues?"
"Aside from the fact that Mara and I have broken up at least four times -and, no, I don't keep count that would just be…" Mick's voice trailed off, and he decided to just get right to the point.
"I like Patricia."
Fabian was dead silent for a full ten seconds, as was Mick, waiting for his roommate to respond. "Our Patricia?"
Mick shot him a look. "Exactly how many other Patricias do you know?"
" It doesn't matter if I know any other Patricias, I'm asking if you do." Fabian replied.
"Why, what's wrong with our Patricia?" Mick asked, sounding as if Fabian had insulted her.
"Nothing." Fabian answered under a frustrated laugh.
Mick was frustrated too. "Are you just stalling 'cause you don't have any advice to give me?"
"Oh," Fabian said. "you're asking for advice?"
"Not anymore I'm not, since you obviously have nothing to say."
Mick walked out to get breakfast, and Fabian followed even though he knew they wouldn't get to finish their conversation any time soon.
If they both weren't so hungry, they probably would've noticed Jerome snickering in the hallway. He'd overheard the entire conversation. "Life is good."
Knowing him, Alfie had to ask: "What now?"
Jerome raised his eyebrows, and -as he led the way to the table- said: "Get your smock Alfie, and prepare to be schooled in the art of sabotage."
Alfie was glad he could laugh again after the previous day's events, and did nothing to hold back his hysterics. " That is the dorkiest thing you have ever said, and that's coming from me."
Jerome didn't even feel the need to come up with a comeback. He'd soon be too happy to care…
Original A/N: Thanks for reading, please review! I'm planning on the next chapter to be pranky. Any ideas for how Patricia and Mara should prank the others? I have some but the more the merrier. Also, how do you think Jerome and Alfie should sabotage Mick and Mara's relationship? I know Jerome would love to 'torture' Mick before telling Mara what he knows, lol. Speaking of torture, any specific way you want the Anubis kids to torture Ms. Robinson's fiancé? (I already have a picture in my head, and as soon as he gets a name he should make an appearance.) Thanks again!
Updated A/N: I'm noticing a pattern of adding a y to the end of word and turning it to an adjective. Coupley, pranky. I even do that later on in the story itself with angsty. Some things never change.