Force of Nature ▸ House of Anubis [3]

chapter sixty-eight. house of red

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I write down my latest one-liner regarding Joy and Willow's relation in the tense silence of the lounge. All of Anubis House is here and rehearsals are over, so now we're just... existing together. It's very quiet, but I don't mind. It's giving me a chance to make fun of them on paper, because I'm not letting this opportunity go to waste.

"Well," Jerome's voice breaks the silence and I look over at him stepping down from the stage. "As rehearsals go, that was, uh... shocking." KT and Eddie glare at each other. "What is going on between you two?"

"Hey, there's nothing going on with me," Eddie defends. "Okay, I'm the same as I was ever was. Let's just make that clear."

I shrug as Jerome sets his hand on my shoulder, still watching KT and Eddie. KT's response to what Eddie said is, "You know what? I'm sick of this. I'm guessing it would be a lot easier if I wasn't in this play. So I'm gonna do you a favor." She stands. "I quit. Sorry, Jerome. Find another Jo."

KT leaves the lounge and I look down at my notebook, closing it. I forgot about the tension with her with the rhymes and the shocks we've had about them today. Things are just... wrong lately.

"That is just great," Jerome states sarcastically, throwing his arm toward the doorway.

Fortunately, most of Sibuna is already close by together, so we all lean forward in a tiny huddle. Patricia snarks, "See? That is not normal behavior."

"Yeah, definitely a Frombie," Alfie agrees.

I shake my head. "I disagree. Look, Fabian, you said something about expecting a sinner's behavior to be heightened, right? She's not... at all sinnerlike. She's sad."

"Well, either way," Alfie says before we (read: me and Patricia) could get into a debate about it, "shouldn't someone go after her?"

"No, let her go," Eddie states. "We can't just keep locking her up. We have to stick together. Then we'll be safe."

"If she's the sinner," I say, "or whoever the sinner is if it turns out it's not her... they're gonna slip up sometime." I unwittingly glance at Patricia as I say this. "We just gotta wait."

—

Following KT's quitting of the play, Mara and Joy are scrambling to find a new Jo and people who actually want to be in the stupid thing. I just want to do make-up and lighting, that's all I want. So after school, the two girls made all of us gather in the living room—minus KT, who quit— so they could talk us into it again. I'm sitting on the arm of the chair Jerome's in, his arm around me and discreetly pulling me toward him further.

Mara paces in front of the fireplace as she inquires, "Do you want to be in this play or not?"
"Not really," I say as everyone else gives similar answers.