Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter two. house of necklaces

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            You know what's not fun? Amber's annoying alarm clock waking me up far before I want to be awake. Nina's clock was much less annoying, it's just the sound of the alarm that's bothering me. I groan, grabbing my pillow and pulling it over my face. Too early for this after everything that happened yesterday.

            "It's my birthday," I hear Amber state, like she's just realizing it. Oh, right, it's her birthday. Girl's eighteen today. "It's my birthday! Ashley, get up, it's my birthday!"

            "It'll be your birthday for the rest of the week, just give me five minutes," I mumble, rolling away from the sound of her voice and the irritating sound of the alarm. "Could you do me a favor though and turn the alarm off?"

            The alarm shuts off, and just when I think she's actually going to give me the five minutes I asked for, she suddenly jumps onto my bed, grabbing my shoulders and physically shaking all of the sleepiness out of me. "Ashley, Ashley, Ashley!"

            "Amber, Amber, Amber!" I mimic her tone of voice, throwing her a look as I sit up. Amber grins at me, sitting on the edge of my bed. "Happy birthday, Amber."

            "Thank you!" she exclaims. Clearly trying to act casual, she adds, "So...did you get me anything?"

            "Why wouldn't I?" I reply with a smile. "It's in my ba—" I don't even get the whole word out before she's suddenly jumped up again and gone to grab my bag, rifling through it for the gift I got her. "In my bag. You're welcome to look through it, by the way."

            In her rifling, Amber has successfully found a small jewelry box, and looks at me as she holds it up. "Is this it?" she asks. I nod. "Can I open it now?"

            "If I said no, would that actually stop you?"

            "Probably not."

            "Open it."

            Amber excitedly opens the jewelry box and gasps upon seeing the necklace inside. A silver heart-shaped locket on a matching silver chain, and it had reminded me of Amber the moment I saw it. "It's so pretty!" she gushes, taking it out of the box.

            "Why I bought it for you," I say, watching her hold it up to the sunlight to see it better. It had been between this necklace and a bracelet, and I decided to go with the necklace for locket-related reasons. "If I were you, I'd open it."

            She opens the locket to see the photo on the inside, and she beams. "It's all of us!" She turns around the locket to show me the photo I'd resized to put in there. It's a Sibuna group photo we took together last term, one of my favorites of all of us (me, Amber, Nina, Fabian, Patricia, Alfie, and we even managed to convince Joy to get in on it).