Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter sixty-four. house of auditions

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            KT sits by herself on a chair across from us in the lounge, where further auditions will be taking the place. The rest of the house is here as well; Joy's beside me as I show her the pages in Lily's diary, and to say she's excited is an understatement.

            "This is fascinating," Joy says, and I can feel Fabian's judgmental eyes on us. "Your grandmother was fascinating. She wrote all of these down by memory from a dream?"

            "Yeah, believe it or not," I confirm. "I'm hoping she didn't get any messed up and it's an order for take-out. That would suck."

            "I doubt that. Have you translated any of them?"

            I nod, pointing toward the hieroglyphs as I give her the translations. "Rise and dark sun."

            "Dark sun—like that parchment. That's just two out of what—three dozen? This is going to take a while. Can I take a pic?"

            Joy's already taking her phone out to take a photo of the page, so I nod. On the stage, Mara's shouting for us to be quiet, but it doesn't do anything. So, then Jerome's voice says loudly (too loudly), "Hey, guys, uh quiet down. Quiet down." Joy pushes her phone back in her purse. "So we have a—"

            "I had it under control," Mara interrupts, stepping in front of him as she pushes him out of the way. "I am in charge here."

            Joy leans toward me and whispers, "They're having creative differences over the script. He still doesn't understand a word of it despite us explaining it to him in Jerome-speak." I smile, elbowing her lightly.

            "Actually, Mara," Jerome continues as Joy and I watch them amused, "this bit—what we in show business call 'the stage'—" he says this dramatically while pushing her to the side and holding his arms high, "—is the director's turf."

            Alfie lets out a frustrated sigh as he sets his phone down. "Where is Willow?"

            Sweet comes in, seemingly out of nowhere. "Apparently, Miss Jenks has gone shopping for costumes."

            "Did you see Willow this morning?" I ask Joy, nodding my head toward Alfie ever-so-subtly. "He's been going out of his mind. She won't answer the phone."

            Joy shakes her head. "No, she was gone before I woke up. Probably wanted to get to the stores before the day began."

            "Yeah, but shouldn't she be here by now?"

            "She's probably channeling Amber. She'll be there 'til lights' out."

            I nod, finding it believable. Willow worshiped Amber—it's not strange that she'd want to be in charge of costumes and would use her life motto WWAD (What Would Amber Do?) to do that. "So, uh, you gonna audition? You'll know the lines better than any of us would."