The Curse of the Osirians

House of Proof

Layla's POV

"I saw him outside the door and he was staring right at me. You believe me don't you?" Patricia asked. Nina and I had barely gotten back inside our room before hearing her suddenly scream. All of us were now crowded around her bed as Victor and the police searched the house.

"Of course," Trudy reassured her. Suffice it to say no one got much sleep the rest of the night.

*****

"Hey Neens, Lays, I've got something that is going to help us find treasure," Amber said as she sat down next to us in class the next morning. I paused. Did she just call me a bag of chips? Well at least it was a delicious bag of chips. I have been known to snack on them.

"Ta-da!" Amber exclaimed as she sat down next to my sister.

"An mp3 player?" Nina said, confused.

"A state of the art mp3 player, which also works as a digital recorder. My dad thought I might use it for homework revision. Like that would happen," Amber rambled.

"I'm sorry, Amber, but you lost me," my sister said, completely confused.

"Sometimes you are so slow, Nina. We can record all that stuff from those sphericals onto it," replied Amber.

"Cylinders," I corrected her.

"That's what I said. Save us from going up and down the creepy attic every five minutes," well lookie here. That was actually a smart idea! Not to say that I didn't think Amber was smart in her own right.

"Amber, I'm not going to say this a lot, but you're a genius!" My sister cried out.

"What was that, Nina? You think I'm a genius?" Amber called loudly as she looked over her shoulder.

"Until now. Just, shh," I warned her.

"I think the bling must be hidden behind another secret panel, like the one in the attic.
What do you think?" She asked us.

"I think you may be right, but maybe we talk about this somewhere more private," I gently scolded her.

"Morning, everybody," Mrs. Andrew's greeted.

"Morning, Mrs. Andrews," we chanted back.

"I have your french test papers to hand back here," I looked down and smiled at my A.

"No surprise there," Nina said as she looked over my shoulder. I playfully shoved her.

"I got an A? I got an A!" Mick exclaimed. Now that was a surprise. I looked over as he suddenly hugged Mara and as I did so I noticed Jerome staring at them all funny.

"What's going on?" Amber said, clearly jealous as she watched Mick hugging Mara.

"I got an A!" Mick told her.

"What?" She hopped out of her seat to look over his test.

"I'm sure I didn't get all of these. But, maybe I just, did some really good guesses?" Mick told her.

"Stranger things have happened, eh, Mara?" I heard Jerome quip. Why was going on?

"Okay, settle down please. Amber, back to your seat," Mrs. Andrew's demanded.

*****

I ducked into the lounge area at lunch time, as I did my best to ignore the heated glare that Brandon had been sending me every time I passed him in the halls. I'd spent enough time around bullies (and Jerome and Alfie) to know that he was clearly plotting something but I figured that was a problem for another day.