It's great to be back back!

Been working on this chapter a LONG time. Sorry for the wait, I'll explain. Thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited and all that good stuff. And a GIANT thank you for still supporting the story. This chapter is dedicated to my dad, who helped me write the first scene!

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

Amber fought if the chill of the night air while she sat up in the attic with Alfie. The way she saw it, when it came to relationships, shivers were an excuse to get snuggly. Being snuggly was exactly what she was trying to avoid.

The two of them had been totally silent the entire time they were locked up in the attic, but that didn't mean they had nothing to say. With that thought running through both their minds, the silence was deafening.

The situation was complicated, but nothing involving the two of them had ever been simple.

Amber knew if she looked at Alfie, she was bound to break. She just wasn't sure if the silence was what she would be breaking. She thought if she even so much as glanced at him from out of the corner of her eye, she'd be on the verge of breaking down. Again.

Aside from feeling upset, Amber was bored out of her mind. She began to absentmindedly tap her fingernails on the trunk she sat beside, making a small dust cloud take flight. Which was apparent by the tingling in her nostrils.

Feeling a sneeze coming on, Amber desperately tried to muffle the sound, in fear of being caught by Victor if she didn't. The sneeze came out sounding mousy.

The dust had stirred up the sneeze, but the sneeze itself stirred up laughter. Genuine laughter from Alfie, that he couldn't hold back.

"Is that what you call a sneeze?" Alfie asked. "I would offer you a tissue, but the size of that sneeze doesn't warrant a tissue. Perhaps litmus paper?"

Amber recognized the humor in the situation, but also that it was a turning point. By something as simple as the way that she sneezed, Alfie could see that she wasn't perfect and -in fact- human. He was no longer putting her on a pedestal.

"Most people would just say 'God bless you' and let it go." Amber replied, sounding almost as if she was complaining about his teasing. She went on: "but being the goofball you are, you never let the opportunity to make fun of someone else's flaws go by."

By the time she was finished with her sentence, Amber realized she didn't really feel annoyed by what Alfie said. She was actually relieved that he acknowledged she had flaws. Just like everyone else.

"Being a goofball is my nature." When he told her this, he felt relief. Because he could finally be the type of goofball he wanted to be around Amber. The funny guy, instead of the babbling buffoon.

"So, as long as we're talking…" Amber began in a hushed voice, still staring straight forward rather than making eye contact and fidgeting a bit.

Alfie didn't seem to notice, and gave a simple "Mmm?" in reply. He wanted to hear what she had to say without interrupting.

"I'm sorry I made you upset." She continued: "I didn't mean to, and I would have followed you after you walked away, but you yelled at me. You never yell."

"I know." Alfie replied, trying to let her know that he had been just as shocked as she was when the fight happened. "I'm sorry too."

"So, you think Joy's gonna let us out of here soon?" Amber asked after a slight pause. Her question came out rushed, sounding as if she was in a hurry to get out of the attic. In Alfie's opinion, however, the conversation wasn't over.

"Well, wait…" He was having flashbacks of the fight. Alfie wasn't looking for another one, but he'd only yelled because he was so bothered by not getting an answer. Even after an attempt at talking things over, Amber still hadn't said how she felt about him. She was avoiding that part of the conversation entirely, which meant she was trying to forget the whole reason they were locked in the attic in the first place.

Amber knew what Alfie was thinking, but it took awhile for her to speak up about it. He didn't notice she had to squeak out every single word. He was distracted by her smile -the one he hadn't seen in days- and the way it didn't match the mood of what she said. At least, not to him it didn't.

"Alfie, we're friends, and I want us to stay that way."

To her surprise, he laughed happily in reply. She waited for an explanation, stunned back into silence.

"Why didn't you just say that?" Alfie asked, having to swallow his laughter to speak. "Amber, I can't be mad at you if you don't like me. It's not like you can help that."

Just like Alfie couldn't help the way he felt about her. He couldn't really explain it either, not even to himself. There was no really reason he could think of. He liked Amber because he liked her. He just did.

Alfie decided that giving up Amber had been the wrong move, and that it was time he accepted what really needed to be done. He had to let her go.

She was still going to be a big, important part of his life. Just not in the was he'd always pictured.

Alfie decided he wasn't going to try to fight fate this time. He wasn't going to try to make Amber realize what she had to lose.

Reality hit as he sat there with her. They weren't meant to be, and he was going to have to live with that.

No matter how much it hurt, because the truth always did.

Patricia turned out to be the one who let Amber and Alfie out of the attic. She also witnessed the most awkward goodbye in history -in her opinion- at the same time. "See you later, friend." She had to laugh. Only Alfie.

He said it like he meant it too, not like he wanted anything different. It would just take some getting used to, and he sounded fine with that. Which is why it made even less sense to Patricia when she felt herself cringe as they hugged. She guessed that it was more of a reaction to the look on Amber's face: like she'd been outgrown or left behind, and completely unprepared for such a change.

Knowing that she would be unable to sleep or find a way to keep herself occupied, Patricia made her way down to the living room. For some reason, that had become natural instinct to her since the project started.

Her theory on that was the living room was the place she found another one of life's little surprises.

Things aren't always as they seem, and sometimes that's a good thing. Patricia reminded herself.

When her restlessness brought her down to the living room on the second night of the project, the last person she expected to find there was Mick. This made her realize that there was probably a lot more to him than he ever let on, but she didn't know why she thought that way.

The living room was the start of another one of the house's mysteries, as well as the bond between the two of them. It was comforting.

Patricia froze when she got to the living room, though. Whispers in the kitchen made her stomach turn, although she couldn't explain the reason behind that either.

Jerome's voice barely carried, even if Patricia managed to make out the words "What is it?"

She didn't notice the tone behind Mara's utterance of "Never mind."

Patricia figured that was good advice. She went back to her room. She had to remind herself not to stamp her feet along the way.

"Is the fight over?" Joy asked as soon as Patricia got in the door. It seemed like Joy could barely keep her eyes open, but wouldn't sleep until she knew the answer.

Patricia wondered why it mattered so much that talking about it couldn't wait until morning. "Yeah, it's over. They're friends again."

"Just friends? How's Alfie taking that?" Patricia shrugged, but it wasn't because she didn't know how to respond. She was trying to shrug off her annoyance. She really wasn't in the mood to discuss that -or anything- but Joy was her best friend. Finally, she answered: "He's really happy. And I'm sure Amber will be too. Nina will take her shopping tomorrow and she'll forget all about the fight. She might even forget that Alfie liked her in the first place. You know, if there's a sale."

Joy laughed, and rolled her eyes playfully in reply. "It's sort of sad."

"Why?" Patricia asked, trying to figure out Joy's reason before she gave it: "Because something's changed?" In response, Patricia felt the need to state her own opinion. "Thanks to this project, Amber plays guitar, Nina's on the football team, Mick writes poetry, Fabian has the highest grade in every one of his classes, I get compliments every day because of how I dress, Mara's learned how to loosen up and have fun, Jerome looks even more like he just stepped out of a magazine and Alfie makes heads turn just by talking."

Joy didn't seem to understand. "What's your point, Patricia?"

"Change is good. I don't see why you think otherwise."

"What store do you wanna go to first? I mean, I'm still the new girl and you're more of a style expert than I am so… you choose."

Amber didn't seem to care, which shocked Nina. "I don't know. What would Fabian pick?"

"This isn't about Fabian." Nina told her calmly, since she was trying to keep her calm. Amber was a little hyper, probably on account of sleep deprivation.

"Why not? Shouldn't I be focusing on the project? My score is probably nowhere near as high as yours. Plus, I didn't even want to go shopping."

It was hard for Nina to keep calm when Amber said outrageous things like that. "You love shopping." Nina said, wondering why she had to remind her.

"Yeah," Amber said. "but Fabian-"

"Amber, please." Nina interrupted. "Forget about the project. Joy's not even here to film us, so it's not like our score can go down."

Amber seemed fed up. "If I go shopping, will it make you happy?"

Nina was taken aback. "I was hoping it would make you happy."

"I am happy." Amber argued.

"You sure sound it." Nina hadn't meant to be sarcastic, but the eyebrow raise didn't make that too convincing.

"Well… I'm just tired. I was locked up in the attic last night."

"How did everything go?" Nina asked. Although by Amber's attitude, she wouldn't guess things went well. The fact that Amber hadn't told her anything about the conversation backed up Nina's theory.

She held open the door to a clothing store where any particular item made her entire wardrobe look frumpy, while Amber thought of a way to answer that question. "He thinks the way I sneeze is funny."

Nina nodded. "Really sounds like love."

Amber took the joke seriously. "Well of course we love each other. It doesn't mean we're in love."

Nina knew she was on thin ice when she asked her next question. She could almost hear it cracking beneath her feet. "Do you wish you were?"

Amber smiled. "No. I don't wish anything."

"Really? You don't even wish those shoes over there were on sale?" Following the direction of Nina's gesture, Amber's eyes lit up. For once, they were seeing eye to eye when it came to fashion.

The black heels had zigzagging straps that tied with a ribbon. "They're perfect!" Amber exclaimed.

"I'd agree with that if they were less than half the price." Nina told her, trying to be reasonable.

"If you wanna see a smile on my face, my feet are gonna need to be in those shoes." Amber insisted.

"They're shoes. I'd put a price like that on a lung."

"Great analogy, Nina."

"What are you talking about?" She asked this seeing that Amber's smile was still just as bright as it had been when she first laid eyes on the shoes.

Amber gave her explanation as if the answer was obvious: "Because I wouldn't be able to breathe without them."

Nina shook her head as she watched Amber walk up to the counter with the shoes, which happened to fit her feet perfectly. Maybe we should have stayed focused on the project. Nina thought. Fabian would have never let this happen.

Amber walked tall the entire way home.

In part, because of the three inches the heels added to her height. Also, her confidence had skyrocketed thanks to them.

Nina was still mentally shaking her head as her best friend gushed about how excited she was to show everyone her new footwear. "Not that anyone will have trouble noticing." That sentence ended with an exasperated yelp-scream hybrid, as Amber was thrown into a face plant by a broken heel.

She didn't even wait for Nina to help her up, storming into the house barefoot, completely forgetting the definition of the word 'calm'.

As Alfie looked her way, however -with a questioning look on his face, given her one-shoe-on-one-shoe-off fashion statement- Amber put on a smile.

That way, no one could question why it was missing…

Original A/N: PLEASE REVIEW! This was the start of Amber's day of bad luck, I need ideas for the rest of it. Once I have them, I'll type up the next part. Thanks! I'll update ASAP! =]

Updated A/N: Reflecting on the sureness with which these kids talk about love -Nina especially, I've noticed- I'm not sure if that's about how I was a hopeless romantic, or the way relationships were portrayed on the show.