House of New Discoveries & Newbies Pt.2
The next morning, almost everyone was awoken by an extremely loud trumpet blasting throughout the house at six am. The housemates all rushed quickly to the foyer to find the source of the sound and possibly decapitate it. To their utmost shock, they gathered to find Trudy and Sammy, who had a bugle in hand, quite literally laughing their a$$es off.
"I-" Sammy started, mimicking how she played the instrument that woke them from their slumber. "And then,-" now running in place to exaggerate the housemates' frantic, angry, jogging to the main entrance. "And-"
"What the heck is going on here?!" Joy yelled out, irritably stopping Trudy and Sammy's laughter short.
"I found Sammy walking around," Trudy started, "So I told her to go wake you guys up. I had no idea she was going to use the bugle though!" And with that, the two females burst into a new round of laughter.
"But you gotta admit," Sammy said, "That was pretty funny!"
"Funny?!" Fabian yelled suddenly. "I have half a mind to string you up a flagpole and be done with it!"
Sammy cowered behind Trudy, eve though she was a good head taller than the housemother.
"
Yeesh. First day and he's already snappy," she muttered inaudibly to herself. "He's got a long way to go if he's to keep up with 'em."
"Alright, go on, lovelies," Trudy said, shooing the grumbling housemates, "You've got to get ready for school."
As soon as everyone had left besides Sammy, Byron popped out of the room he shared with and stared at Sammy curiously, giving her once-over. "What?" Sammy asked
"Aren't you going to wear your uniform?" he replied
She was wearing a grey V-neck with long sleeves and horizontal thin black stripes, black skinny jeans, grey work boots, a black leather jacket, a grey beanie and black glasses. "Oh, this?" she asked, looking down at her outfit. "The school got into an argument with their supplier and I have to suffer."
"Oh." was all he said.
"Now, go on. Go get ready for school," she said, making shooing motions at him. "Alright." he laughed lightly.
Sammy turned to walk up the stairs and leave him there alone, when he said, "Hey, do you need someone to show you around?"
She stopped and cocked an eyebrow at him questioningly. "Around...?"
"Around school, I mean," he quickly amended. She thought about his offer for a while before saying, "Sure, why not?"
"Great." he smiled.
"I'm leaving in five minutes. Be done in forty-five," she said. He just stared at her sardonically and said, "You sure you don't want to rethink that sentence?"
She just laughed and said, "I'm going to see some family nearby before I head to school and I'm supposed to be there in seven minutes."
"Alright-y. Then I'll be done in an hour just to spite you," he informed jokingly.
She started up the stairs."Take longer than an hour I'm leaving your butt behind!"
He waited for her to enter the girls' quarters before saying, "A beggar with a choice."
She popped up from banister overhead and said, "I always am!", before running back through the door behind her.
Meanwhile, Nina sat in her room, fully dressed and writing fervently in her diary. She had been sitting there for a while when she noticed smoke seeping out of her bedside table. She pulled out the drawer to see the chimney piece from Sarah's dollhouse, literally pouring smoke, filling up the drawer it occupied. She reached for it and as soon as she grabbed it, the smoke started to form a screen. An image of a throne of fire and stone with its back facing Nina. There was also a figure wearing a hooded cloak standing, facing the throne, with their head bowed. Unfortunately, with the hood, she could barely see their face, much less tell who they were. Fortunately, the cloak had no sleeves so she could just make out a faint burn in the shape of a bird on the back of their hand. Right then, a voice from the throne said in a regal manner, "Has she arrived?"
The figure responded, in an almost Darth Vader-like voice, "Yes."
"Good. the voice said. "Has she been seeing them?"
"Not that I know of, sire," the figure said shakily, bowing down.
"No matter. We will have lots of time to make sure she's as clueless as the others. Leave no clue behind, understand?"
"But that is nearly impossible to do, sire!" the figure cried. "With her abilities, she would know from miles away once I acquaint myself!"
"But that would be nearly impossible to do, sire!" The figure cried out. "With her abilities she would know from miles away as soon as I acquaint myself!"
It was quiet for a while after the figure's outburst before the voice said, "Yes, you're right." An extremely pale, grey arm emerged from the throne holding a tube of clear gel. "Very well. Take this."
The figure shakily reached out and took the tube. "This should ward powers off of you for a while."
The hand settled back into the throne as the figure examined the gel. "How will I know if it's worn off?" the figure asked.
"You'll have a migraine the size of Kentucky, so I'm told." The voice said. "You are dismissed."
"Thank you, sire." The figures said, quickly scurrying away. After the figure was gone, it was quiet again for a while, before Nina said, "Shouldn't this be over?"
"Not quite." The voice said, causing Nina to shriek in shock. (Don't. Just don't.)
"I'm sending you this to even the playing field. As much as I love playing dirty, your twisted flax would rip my head off and make it watch my body being eaten by her griffin if she found you and acolytes were left in the dark for your first clue."
Nina scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion and amusement.
"So!" The sound of a clap and the furious rubbing together of hands was heard as the fire on the throne died down. "The twisted flax, the lasso, the folded cloth and the loaf. Each symbol with its own significant meaning. Usually vowels aren't included, but this is a special case, so."
Nina quickly memorized the symbols that appeared on the back of the throne as the voice said that.
"You currently have the twisted flax. She is partially immortal, preserved from the 1500s to date by the Khonsensual curse she bears, placed upon her by the god Khonsu, of youth and the moon. Daughter of Horus and a half-mortal woman of Roman descent, she has the ability to shape-shift into any person you have seen as she also has the ability to hear, see and relive your thoughts and manipulate anything using the power of thought. Basically, anything she can imagine comes to be. Special markings denoting her as Ra's blessed and her significance symbols are etched into her back. She is one of the few half-god children of the Gods of Egypt. You will need this basic knowledge in order to control her into doing your bidding as she has a vast collection of knowledge you will need to complete a majority of your search. She will choose to work in the shadows for now until you find her identity out for yourself."
"But what about- "
"And as for who she is..."The voice said as the image of the throne flickered and changed into someone, it was hard to tell if the person was dark-skinned as wherever she was was dark, sleeping on their stomach with a pillow on their head. Four symbols glowed brightly behind her right shoulder through her red tank top. The last three were slightly faded, leaving the first one, which resembled two intertwined ropes, to glow brightest.
Fabian and Byron sat downstairs in the common room stuffing their books into their backpacks when Sammy walked in through the door leading to the main entrance, walked over to the counter between the dining area and the kitchen, leaned over and grabbed an apple. As she took a bite out, she walked over to Byron, lightly punched his shoulder and said, "Forty."
Byron looked confused for a bit before understanding. "Forty." He echoed as she walked out of the common room, still facing him.
"What's forty?" Fabian asked, not looking up from skimming through his Chemistry textbook. Byron just shrugged, saying, "I'm showing her around school today, but she's visiting some family nearby before heading over first."
"So." Fabian started slyly, reaching out to nudge his fellow Brit. "Showing her around, eh?"
Byron looked up and, almost pleaded, "It's nothing." Fabian just ignored him and said, "So, what do you think of the new girl?"
"She looks nice." Byron answered nonchalantly. Fabian , on the other hand, "You like her!" he gasped, pointing an accusing finger at the poor boy.
"What?" Byron asked, unaware of why his answer was affecting his senior so much.
"You said she looks nice!" Fabian replied, excitedly. Byron looked scandalized. "What? She's attractive! Dare I deny it? No!" he defended.
"I said the same thing about-"
"Drop it." Byron warned, just as Nina walked in. "Drop what?" she asked, sitting next to her boyfriend. Fabian, not wanting to anger to young boy any more, whispered his answer into her ear. After hearing his response, Nina looked Byron up and down and frowned in agreement. "Good choice."
"I do not like her!" Byron was ignored as Nina whispered something into Fabian's ear. He looked thoughtful, before whispering into her ear. She nodded erratically at what he said.
"You know, Sammy told me about you guys ignoring her yesterday, and now I know exactly how she felt."
Sammy strolled leisurely down the road, chomping decidedly on her apple as she bobbed her head to the music playing through her blue and black Coloud headphones. "Download this revolution- I want all my brothers and my sisters to say- HEY! This conscious music revolution. You have to take a stand- All you have to say is- HEY!" she sang gaily.
Just then, a brown object whizzed past Sammy, taking her apple with it as she was about to take a bite. When she noticed the apple was gone, she opened her eyes and looked up to see a falcon toss the apple in the air and catch it in its talons again. Now, most people, at this point, would look at the falcon flabbergasted and walk away slowly. But no, not Sammy. Instead, she yelled, "Gimme back my apple, you!"
The hawk squawked happily as Sammy practically flew towards it. It flew away to escape her grasp and turned around to face her while flying to taunt her. Seething, Sammy launched herself off of a nearby tree and tackled the bird in mid-air, landing in a pile on the ground. They rolled over each other continuously, succeeding in resembling two toddlers fighting. Finally, Sammy managed to hold down the falcon and say, "Gimme back my apple."
The falcon held out its talons to reveal the apple, still dirt-free. Sammy snatched and readied herself to take a bite, when she stopped and said, "Please tell me you washed your talons?"
The hawk shrugged as if to say, What're you gonna do?
Sammy dropped the apple in disgust and said, "You're lucky I have granola bars." She released the bird. "Ya nasty." She quickly added. The falcon let out shriek laced with amusement and flew off, doing loop-de-loops as it went.
"Show off!" she yelled, shaking her fist at the creature. She looked at her watch to see it said 6:15.
"Dear Lord, I'm late! I'm late!" she yelled, rushing off down the road.
At the house, the housemates had gathered in the common room getting ready for school when Victor, Mr. Sweet and Trudy walked into the room. Immediately, all chatter died down as the housemates noticed the adults present.
"We are all aware," Mr. Sweet started, "That Ms Rush is not present with us for the start of the term." The students murmured their agreement.
"Now, the bad news, depending on how you see it, is that she will not be with us for a while as she is spending some time with family abroad. The good news is, she'll be back in two weeks!" Mr. Sweet informed them. There may or may not have been sighs of relief let out as the info sunk in.
"I thought this was gonna be a repeat of the Nina fiasco." Alfie said. "Now all we need is-"
"Oh, so now I'm a fiasco?" Nina said. Before Alfie could defend himself, however, "Also," Mr. Sweet interjected, "Last year, you all signed up to spend a part of your gap year, back here, doing what we call a TTP."
"How do you double-T-P a school?" Eddie asked.
"Wait, why did we sign up for the TTP last year?" Willow asked. "You were very vague."
Mr. Sweet just sighed tiredly and said, "Once again, Willow, since most of you lacked the credits you needed for recommendation, you all signed up for the TTP."
"I think we're all missing something very important." Fabian said, looking around the room to see all eyes on him. " What the heck's a TTP?!"
"A TTP," Victor started slowly, "Is short for Teaching Trial Period. It's a period of time where you spend a portion of your gap year acting as teaching assistants to various teachers to earn your required credits for recommendation."
Everyone present stared at the older gentleman in awe, shock and… horror? Never had they heard him sound so gentle and soft. Huh. I guess almost dying protecting ten or so students from a giant gold pyramid changes a man.
"Anyways," Mr. Sweet said, slightly jarred, "The teachers you will be assigned to will be posted on the bulletin board in two weeks to give a little while to relax and so as not leave KT behind."
The students cheered loudly as they heard that. "You will still have classes, though." Mr. Sweet said, exiting as Alfie said, "Wait, you'll be posting teachers on a bulletin board?! How does that work?!"
At the local hospital, Sammy walked in clutching the strap of her satchel as she eyed the walls, looking for the front desk. When she finally found it, she said, to the nurse sitting behind the counter, "Good morning, Gladdy."
The nurse just frowned disapprovingly. "Gladys, Sammy. Gladys." She corrected softly. "How may I help you today?"
Sammy leaned slightly over the counter to peer at the computer monitor in front of the nurse. "Here to see Jacob, please." Gladys deadpanned at Sammy. "Jacob who?" she said, as if she was talking to a five-year old. Sammy groaned dramatically. "Jacob Langwood."
"Oh, that Jacob." Gladys smirked. "Miss your big brother already?" she teased.
"Half, Gladys. Half." Sammy groaned, mocking the nurse's first statement. Gladys frowned. "Shouldn't you be heading to school?"
"Classes start at eight. It is currently six-fifteen." Sammy informed. "Don't you have a clock on that computer?"
"Hey, I just want to get you out of here as fast as possible." Gladys teased. "Don't feel like losing my job." Sammy groaned again. "He was hitting on me!" she yelled out in exasperation
Gladys smirked. "Sure." She dragged sarcastically. "I believe you."
Sammy closed her eyes tightly. "Just give me the room number before I strangle you." she let out. Gladys handed her a slip of paper. "Room 207."
"What's the paper for?" Sammy asked, eyeing said item, confusedly. Gladys stood up and shoved the door girl in the direction of the wards. "Just so you don't forget."
"Real funny, Gladdy." Sammy poker-faced, walking off towards the elevator.
In Room 207, a Caucasian man with dark brown hair and eyes that seemed to flicker from dark-brown to gold in one eye and silver in the other, sat tossing a hacky-sack from hand to hand when four knocks thudded through the door. He stopped tossing the toy and said, "Come in."
"You decent?" Sammy said, poking her head through the door, but keeping a hand over her eyes.
"Well, it ain't bath time…" he said. Sammy walked in. "I'm surprised. The nurses here look your type. Wouldn't be surprised if you spilt pudding on yourself every other day just to get one in here."
"Oh, how I love these talks with you, sister dear." he said sarcastically. She looked him over. "Everything okay?"
He let out a sigh. "Yeah. I'm fine." She put a hand under his chin and looked him in the eyes. "Ah, ah, ah. The eyes." She said, quickly tapping under her own.
He groaned. "Sorry. I guess I don't have enough self-control to match up to the great Samantha Hudson, who is wearing glasses!"
"I'm already well-aware of your lack of self-control." Sammy said, taking off her glasses to show the same dark-brown eyes as before. "After all, it is what landed you in the hospital!"
"Hey." He said, trying to defend himself. "I got in here because I care too much."
"Yes." Sammy said, looking bored. "Because caring breaks your shin in four different places." Jacob ignored the sarcasm, saying, "It's deadly, I tell you."
Sammy let out a soft laugh. "Came this morning, if you're interested." Jacob's expression turned serious. "Any idea what you're up against?"
"Other than an exceedingly arrogant major whose well-aware of my capabilities and spilling more than he should, I'm not sure." Sammy said
Right then, AllStar Weekend's Can't Sleep Tonight started playing, shocking the two mismatched siblings. " How the hell?" Sammy cursed as she slid the phone out of her pocket. She looked at the caller ID and immediately brightened. Which was saying something, since her brother's presence seemed to fill her with some sort of giddiness, despite the situation.
Jacob smiled. "Lemme guess; Mum." Sammy just nodded still smiling down at the picture of her and a rather stout woman with slightly red hair smiling at the camera, covered in some unknown –not that you'd want to know- substance.
"It's not gonna answer itself, ya know." Jacob teased. Sammy just held out the phone as a British female voice rang out of the device, saying, "SAMMY!"
Jacob's smile dropped as Sammy said, "A new feature."
Meanwhile, "HEY, SAMMY!"
"Hey, Mom." Sammy laughed softly. "How's everything goin' down there? The boys aren't giving you any trouble, are they?" Sammy's mom laughed. "I'm fine. No need to go all Samzilla on me." She teased.
"So, they allow phones in school?" Sammy's mom asked. Sammy glanced at her brother, saying, "No, I'm actually with Jake."
"Hi, Ms Holloway." Jacob said, letting his presence be known.
"Hey, Jake. How're you doing?" Sammy's mom inquired. Jacob, being the manly-man he was, wasn't about to let the woman baby him. "Forget about me. How're you doing?"
Ms Holloway, on other hand, wasn't about to let it go. "Yes. Feeling horrible." She said quickly. "How're you?"
"Okay." Sammy interrupted. "Before you start reaching dangerous levels of care, where's Kellan? Shouldn't be hanging around his new bride?"
"HERE I AM!" a male voice with a British accent boomed through the phone.
"Hey Kellan." Sammy chirped. Jacob just gave his sister a strange look. "We got a lot closer in February."
His look of shock didn't leave his face. "And I gave him a Windows 8. I couldn't figure out how to use that thing to save my life!"
"But I can!" her stepfather boomed. "Hey Sammy, heard from your father yet?"
"No, not since the call." Sammy answered. "Not that I'd expect him to. What with-" She stopped short as she heard something moving around behind the door. She stood and walked soundlessly towards the door, slowly twisted the knob to reveal a stumbling Gladys.
"H-Hi." She greeted shyly. Sammy looked down at the older woman and clicked her tongue disapprovingly. Looking down at her watch, she said, "Well, that's my cue. I gotta get goin'. Bye, Mom."
"Aww, can't you stay a bit longer." Jacob, Kellan and Ms Holloway whined in unison. Sammy helped the nurse up and stood with her in the doorway. "I gotta go and I gotta go now. I promised someone I'd be back by six-fifty and with the seals on, I'm totally spent, so I gotta go now." She ended the call.
Jacob opened his arms wide for a hug, saying, "Yeah, yeah, I heard. Now give your big, incapacitated brother a hug."
Sammy walked over to give said brother a hug and said, "I know me leaving you with these hot nurses is total torture, but I promise I'll be back next week."
Jacob just lightly smacked her on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry. I think I can hold out." As she walked back towards the door. "Don't get into any trouble!"
"Can't promise that, you know!" Sammy yelled back. "Sorta comes with being me."
"Worth a shot." he muttered a bit dejectedly as she left.
Back at the house, after Fabian and Nina were done teasing Byron, they had gathered Sibuna in Nina and Sammy's room.
"First day back and there's already some big hotshot baddie who thinks they can take over the world giving a ginormous clue." Patricia grumbled. Fabian shrugged. "At least he's got faith in his abilities."
"Well, since we're on the topic of clues, Nina can you tell us what you saw?" Alfie said. Nina took in a deep breath and said, "Well, there were these two people in a dark chamber of sorts. I didn't see one of them because he was sitting behind a throne of fire and stone. But I could tell it was a guy, because he had a very deep voice. The other, I'm not sure, but he or she was wearing a hooded cloak and there was a burn in the shape of a bird wing on the back of their hand. They were talking about-"
"Wait!" Eddie interrupted. "You had a vision?" Nina shook her head.
"More like I was watching a video." she corrected.
"How?" Alfie asked.
"Well, first, the chimney piece from Sarah's dollhouse started smoking and the smoke formed screen. That's what I was watching them on."
"Back to the vision, please." Alfie urged. Nina continued. "Well, they were talking about someone, a twisted flax , and they said-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, twisted flax?" Fabian interrupted.
"Yeah. He had four symbols glowing on the back of his throne and he said they were the twisted flax, the lasso, the folded cloth and the loaf."Nina answered. "I'm not sure what they meant though."
Fabian quickly stood up to grab a piece of paper and a pen from his pocket and said, "Repeat them for me again."
Nina nodded slowly. "The twisted flax. The lasso. The folded cloth. The loaf." She said as Fabian quickly scribbled something onto the paper and when he was done, held it up triumphantly.
"What, what is it?" Nina asked everyone present gathered around Fabian to see what he had written. They stared quizzically at the four letters on the leaf of paper.
H O S T
Finally done typing up Chapter 1! Sorry I'm a month late, what with extra classes for two major exams I have coming up (British: Checkpoint and Ghanaian: BECE (Basic Education Certificate Examination)), I have been entirely booked this Christmas season. Not to mention my family dragging me around the country to visit friends and family, attend important family meetings involving extended family members (Did you know I'm distantly related to Amu Djoleto? Kidding.) and just being undeniably and extremely lazy, it took a while to type this up. But these are not the actual reasons I mentioned for not being active on the site besides reading. Those will have their own chapter. 'Cause trust me, there are a lot of 'em. So, until next chapter,
PeacE!