It's A Twin Thing | j. clarke [1]

fifteen

 -:- House of Drama / House of Codes -:-

Today was the dress rehearsal for the play, which was surprisingly coming together. Nina had taken more of the stories from Sarah to help make the play more interesting, and everyone was doing their job correctly. All of the costumes looked great, and my job was essentially done. It was a relief, considering how stressed Mr. Winkler had been about everything.

After rehearsal, my sister, Patricia, Fabian, and I met up in the lounge to discuss our plan to get the next piece back. Apparently, Nina had come up with something and wanted to fill us in. Rehearsal had only just ended so they were still in costume, Fabian with a drawn-on mustache and Patricia swinging around her staff.

"So, hit us with that insane plan there Nina," Fabian encouraged.

"Okay, so tomorrow night everyone will be at the play, right?" she asked rhetorically. "Even Victor, so Anubis House will be empty."

"Yeah?" I asked.

"After the first few scenes, I'm not on again until the second act," she continued. "So, I've got about thirty minutes to sneak back, break into the safe, get the puzzle piece, and get back to the play in time for my second act entrance."

"Brilliant," Fabian nodded.

"I could go too," I reminded them. "After today I'm basically done with my job unless anything goes wrong backstage."

"We should both go," Nina nodded at me. "Two heads are better than one."

"Um, aren't you forgetting something?" Patricia asked suddenly.

"What?" Nina turned to Patricia.

"The code to Victor's safe?"

Nina groaned loudly. I opened my mouth to reassure her that we'd figure something out, but Mr. Winkler's voice spoke before I could.

"Alfie, Jerome!" He yelled. "What exactly are you doing?"

They were still on stage, wiggling around in their camel costume.

"The zipper's stuck," Alfie said from the head of the camel.

"Oh my god," I groaned, saying my goodbyes to Sibuna before walking up to the dysfunctional camel.

"How did this even happen?" I asked, pulling at the zipper.

"Ask him," they said at the same time.

"That's very helpful, thank you," I rolled my eyes.

I tried tugging at the zipper again, but nothing was working. I gave it a harsh yank and thought I'd loosened it, but upon further inspection, I realized I'd made it worse.

"Is it working?" Alfie asked.

"Um, yeah," I hummed.

"Liar," Jerome accused. "We're going to be stuck like this forever."