It's A Twin Thing | j. clarke [1]

twenty-one

-:- House of Masks / House of Pursuit -:-

While Nina showed Patricia and Fabian the newspaper article we found in the attic, I ran down to the kitchen for a quick snack. Dinner in about an hour, but we'd skipped lunch when going to visit Sarah so I hadn't eaten since breakfast.

When I passed through the dining room I saw Jerome and Mara sitting together at the table, discussing her campaign for School Representative. I swallowed and glanced away before I could linger too long on the disappointment bubbling in my chest. Our visit with Sarah had distracted me, but now that we were back in Anubis house it was hard to avoid either of them.

Unfortunately, Mara noticed me from the kitchen and waved me over.

"Would you mind listening to my policies for a second?" She asked. "I really wanna get this right."

"I'm sure your policies are great," I said, picking up a bag of pretzels.

"You'll win by a landslide," Jerome reminded her. "Amelia Pinches doesn't stand a chance against us."

The 'us' at the end of his sentence sent a rush of discontent through me.

"I'm confident in that, but I still don't want to waste my leadership," Mara continued.

"That's not possible, you're Mara Jaffray," Jerome said with a bright smile.

I set the bag of pretzels down, suddenly not hungry anymore.

"Still, it's nice to have a varying opinion," Mara turned back to me. "So, Lizzie—"

"I'm kind of busy right now," I cut her off. "But maybe tomorrow?"

"Sure, we can talk on the way to school," Mara offered.

"Sounds great," I said with a tight smile.

Jerome gave me a quizzical look, but I ignored it as I walked to the doorway. I raced up the stairs quickly, trying to forget that conversation. Thankfully, Sibuna was in full swing when I returned to our room, with Nina pacing around the room and Fabian trying to comfort her.

"Alfie could jeopardize the whole thing," my sister cried.

"Why are we talking about Alfie?" I asked, trying to keep up.

"We may have given him some details about the pieces," Fabian explained.

"It was just a few things, that's all," Patricia defended. "Enough to keep him at bay."

"Still," Fabian interrupted, holding the newspaper. "This is exciting, it proves we were right all along. About Victor, the elixir."

"We still haven't got any proof, though" Patricia pointed out. "That stuff we've got is just water and herbs according to the toxicology report."