The Connection (House Of Anubis)

[Chapter Sixty-Eight]

Amelia had the worst night off sleep in weeks the night they came back from the Senet room. It was as if since the unveiling of the mask was going to be the biggest reveal, she felt the most amount of pain. Alfie and Fabian had to guide her back through the tunnels and up to her room. The pain felt everlasting as she rolled around in bed all night. She practically threw her alarm across the room when it went off the next morning.

"Maybe you should take a sick day," Nina suggested as she handed her a glass of water that she had filled up for her. "No, I'm fine," she groaned as she stood up from her bed and shuffled over to her closet. All of the pain had finally vanished, but it had just been replaced by a strong headache.

She was the last one down for breakfast as she slowly made her way over to the table. Fabian and Alfie immediately asked her how she was feeling. She let out a loud groan as Alfie threw his arm around her, trying to be thoughtful. "Oops, sorry," he cringed as he noticed the pained look on her face. "I'm okay, I just barely got any sleep because of the pain and my head is throbbing right now." "You good Edwards," Jerome asked, catching on to the last part of their conversation. "Uh, cramps," she smiled causing him to scrunch his face up, "Tmi Edwards, tmi."

Eddie walked in from the kitchen and immediately switched the topic to Mara's article. "Hey, Jerome. So, if that was you in Mara's article, then does that mean your dad's like in prison?" Amelia slightly kicked Eddie's leg as he sat down, not thinking that it was appropriate for him to bring up such a personal topic like that, especially in front of everyone. "What, it's just a question," he sighed as he reached down to rub his leg.

Everyone looked over at Jerome waiting to hear what his answer would be. "Yes, he is." Amelia looked around at all the shocked faces as she said a silent prayer to herself, hoping that no one would treat Jerome differently because of this. "I mean, we're all cool with that man. You could've just told us," Eddie smiled as the rest of the people at the table nodded their heads. "Yeah, maybe; sorry," he awkwardly exclaimed as he reached over the table to grab an apple.

There was an awkward moment of silence before Alfie decided to break it. "Woah, did I just hear that right? Did you just apologize?" "It seems like he's caught the apology bug. He just can't stop doing it lately," Amelia joked as she smiled over at him, happy to see that he was seemingly changing in some ways for the best. He was becoming his best self and it was a beautiful sight to her.

"Shame Joy couldn't apologize to you, hey Mara," Amber scoffed. "She won't even come down to breakfast," Patricia told them as they all looked over toward Joy's clearly empty seat. "She feels really bad," she continued causing Jerome and Eddie to both roll their eyes. "Well, what'd she expect? I mean with all the bad mouthing, and lying, and plagiarism," Eddie reasoned.

"Hey, no Joy bashing," Mara scolded them, "I second that notion," Amelia spoke up, catching them all by surprise. "Yeah okay, I do have to admit she has been pretty out of order recently." "The article she wrote on Nina, it was just low."

"Amelia, since when were you Joy's number one supporter? Weren't you just yelling at her a few days ago," Amber asked her. "Yeah, because it had all just happened and, in the moment, I was angry. But all of this has gone on too long. She did a stupid thing yes, and I'm not saying anyone has to forgive her, especially Nina. But we're supposed to be a family and we aren't acting like one right now," Amelia finished as she bit into her muffin.

"But then to take credit for everything else that Mara's written," Nina mentioned but Mara just shook her head. "But you all just assumed she'd written them. Joy is not all bad you know," Mara tried to reason with them but none of them were willing to budge. "You all do realize we are doing exactly what she did by writing that article about Nina, right? We're bashing her based on what we've seen with our eyes and have made assumptions from it. Think about that," Amelia told them as she grabbed her bag and headed out of the house.