Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter eighteen. house of betrayal

☾ ☽

            As our unfortunate Alfido project is closest to the end of the room Mr. Millington is at, he starts with ours. "Hot dogs," he reads our sign as Jerome offers him one. "All right, then." He takes a bite out of it, chewing slowly.

            Stepping closer to Jerome, I mutter under my breath, "We're going to fail."

            "If you keep saying that," he says at the same volume, "we are actually going to fail."

            "We wouldn't be failing if we had gone with my idea—"

            "The one you suggested too late—"

            "—because you didn't admit that your hot dog idea was on flames until it was too late—"

            "Adams—"

            "Clarke—"

            Denby interrupts, a raised eyebrow and an amused smile on her face, "Shall we give you two a minute?"

            "No," Jerome and I say at the same time, not even sparing a glance at each other as I give her, Millington, and Sweet spiteful smiles. Jerome does apparently notice that I'm not wearing the stupid hat that he made two of because he grabs mine from behind our project, sticking it on my head crookedly.

            Mr. Millington finishes chewing his bite of the hot dog, saying, "The thing is, Jerome, Ashley, people sell hot dogs the world over. What makes yours so special?"

            I fix my hat, glaring at Jerome as he answers, "I'm glad you asked. Meet Alfido, our multimedia marketing campaign." Alfie comes out from behind the curtains on the stage, grinning as he jumps down to join us.

            "A.K.A," he says, "Hot Doggy Dog." Alfie does a little dance, barking along with it, earning laughter from the rest of the students.

            While everyone's distracted, I notice that Patricia and Fabian start to sneak out, likely to go find Amber and speak with her. I'm actually tempted to follow, but all the attention is on me and my project partners so if I were to sneak out, it'd be noticed. But Patricia and Fabian don't even get a chance to sneak out before Denby's watching them, and they come back. Please, can we just get this project thing over with?

            "Stop, stop," Jerome tells Alfie. "Alfie, stop."

            "Fido, down, boy," I add, grabbing Alfie's shoulders.

            "Oh," Alfie says. "Oh, yeah, sorry, business."

            "The idea," Jerome informs, "is to not only make money from Alfido hot dogs but from Alfido toys as well." He brings out a small stuffed animal from behind the project.