Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter thirty-four. house of names

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            When we get back to the house, Alfie's the first one in. I nearly walk smack into the door as he closes it back. I'm confused until I hear him talking to Willow, but Eddie doesn't and he opens the door. Joy walks right past us with nothing more than a wave, but Willow's still there.

            "Fabian," she says, sounding concerned. "Are you all right?"

            "I'm..." Fabian glances at Alfie. "Fine. Thank you."

            "Is it very sore, you know, your ..."

            I share a strange look with KT, not liking how this conversation was beginning to sound. "Your hand, dude!" Alfie shouts strained. "He's been in the hospital so long," oh, that explains it, "he's completely forgotten what he..."

            "Right!" Eddie shouts. "Your hands!"

            Eddie hits his hand and Fabian lets out a fake pained groan. "Oh, my hand! Yes, it's my hand."

            "So, well, um," Alfie says quickly to Willow, "you're gonna be late for school, so I'll just walk you over."

            "This place is always so exciting," Willow muses. "Bye, roomie!" she adds to me.

            "Oh, kill me now," I murmur to KT as she grabs my hand to go upstairs and freshen up. I tell her she can take the shower first, as I wanted to see what Willow had done to my poor bedroom. KT utters a thank you before running into her room to get her clothes and I go into mine, preparing to see a rainbow of things.

            To my surprise, it's not horrible. A bit worse than the major pink I was used to with Amber, and a sharp contrast from the soft purples of Mara's stuff and the light blues of mine, but... it's not horrible, just looking at it. It's probably worse when Willow's actually here. Mara probably got her ear chatted off last night. I can't believe Willow Jenks is my new roommate.

—

            The first person I look for when I get to school is Jerome. We were late for breakfast so I haven't had a chance to see him. I finally find him in the lounge, a notebook and a mathematics textbook on his lap. I sit on the couch next to him, questioning, "Forget to do your maths homework?"

            Jerome immediately closes shut the notebook in the textbook, throwing his hand on top of it. He looks over at me, sighing. "Ashley, where've you been? You never got back to me last night."

            "Sorry, my phone died," I apologize, showing him my half-charged phone. I charged it while I was waiting for KT to get out of the shower so I could take one and while I was taking mine. "And I had no service." Not a lie, technically. "So, flamingo balloon animal?"