How it Ends ▸ House of Anubis [4]

chapter one. house of the beginning

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            Basically, my day started like this: ringing up my phone bill with several international calls because my friends hate me. Just kidding—they don't hate me. They're just not cooperating the way I hoped they would.

            "Just buy the ticket!" I exclaim, holding the phone to my ear as I pace outside the school. There's still, like, ten minutes 'til I gotta be inside for our final class at Amun Academic Boarding School. It's practically the middle of the night for her but she called me. "I thought you wanted to—okay, okay, I get you're nervous, but come on. I've been planning this for weeks and you agreed to it weeks ago. It's just for a couple days, the world is not going to end just because you're in the same room as—"

            "Who are you talking to?" a voice near me asks.

            I speak quickly into the phone, "Gotta go, bye." I hang up without giving her a chance to respond and turn to the person who spoke to me, sighing deeply. Jerome. "Nobody. My sister."

            "Right," Jerome responds, clearly not believing me at all. I mean, it's a pretty lame answer, especially if he overheard the whole 'world's not gonna end' thing. But he fortunately drops it, which means my surprise is still intact. "It's our last day at school and I haven't been able to find you since you left the house. You missed breakfast, by the way."

            Well, sorry if trying to get a hold of my overseas friends to make this surprise happen is more important to me right now than breakfast. "Did you bring me anything?"

            "Muffin," he offers, taking it out. It's wrapped in plastic and I take it immediately, unwrapping it as he continues. "Trudy told me to bring it since you left so early. What, have you just been pacing out here yelling at people on your phone for the past hour?"

            "Something like that," I reply. Actually, I had to clear this whole thing with Mr. Sweet (whom I've somewhat mended fences with since the whole Frobisher thing, but not all the way, assuming we had mended fences at all in the four years I've known him) so I was stuck with him for half an hour before coming out here for better reception. "Where is everybody?"

            As if on cue, a blur rushes past us. Jerome and I share a knowing look as we turn around, finding Alfie doubling back toward us. "There you two are!" He runs back, panting, and puts his hands on his knees while he catches his breath. "Come on, I thought we were walking to school together! You know, end this how it started—Alfie, Ashley, and Jerome. The three musketeers!"

            My eyebrows furrow. "Uh, Alfie, I thought you were walking with Willow."

            "Yeah, so did I," Jerome agrees. "You never said anything about the three of us walking together."

            "I didn't?" Alfie asks. We shake our heads. "Oh. I must've said it in my head and never said it actually to you. Well, anyway—" He shakes his own head and gets back on point. "I had to get away from Joy. She keeps asking everyone what they're wearing to the party so she can figure out how to place us in our last photo together."