Two is Company (House of Anubis)

Chapter 22: The Second Date, The Hami Khafi, & The Familar Visitor

Saturday arrived all too soon, and Kira spun around so Mara and Patricia could get the full view of her date outfit. "What do you guys think? Is it too much? Too little?" she fretted, lifting a hand to make sure the braid was still pinned in place.

Patricia gave her a silent but supportive thumbs-up, finally having had her own redo date with Eddie the night before. She was left communicating only in gestures and facial expressions since the site she used for text-to-speech had inexplicably stopped working.

Mara grinned gesturing at her appreciatively. "You look gorgeous!" she assured her. "Greg's not gonna know what hit him."

Kira smiled, but Eddie's words from the other day continued to haunt her. She did like Greg, right? She wasn't just doing this to get over her fruitless crush on Joy, right? "Right," she said, shaking her nerves out through her hands. "Thank you, guys, seriously. You're lifesavers."

"I'm honestly surprised Amber wasn't keener to help you get ready," Mara mused. "She loves this stuff."

"She and Nina claim she's suffering from some 'allergic reaction'," Kira said with a shrug. "Honestly, I've never seen anything like it. Patricia, you're closer with them than me; do you know what's up?"

Patricia's eyes were wide with panic and she shrugged noncommittally.

"Right," Kira chuckled, slightly unnerved by her reaction. "You can't actually tell us."

"Well, I hope she feels better," Mara said, mild concern in her voice. "But on a brighter note, do you know where he's taking you?"

Kira shrugged a little as she touched up the last of her make-up. "I guess there's a new hibachi restaurant about thirty minutes away that he's been eyeing. Fine by me! I love Japanese food."

"Same," Mara agreed, while Patricia mimed closing a box. "Yeah," she continued with a laugh at Patricia's game of charades. "Patricia's right. Make sure to bring us home the leftovers!"

"Oh, I'll make sure to," Kira chuckled as she fiddled with the bangles Patricia let her borrow.

Just then, there was a knock at the door, and Vera popped her head through. "There you are, dear," she said with a smile. "There's someone waiting for you downstairs."

She let out a shaky breath and looked back over her shoulder one last time at her friends. "Well, I'll see you later!" she bid, and her friends offered her one last thumbs up before she set off down the hall with Vera.

"You look very nice, Kira," her housemother complimented. "Going out on a date, are we?"

Kira nodded nervously. "Yeah, it's, um, kind of our second date?"

"Well, here's to many more," said Vera. "If there's an emergency, just call the house."

"Will do," she said and gave Vera a small smile. It was a shame she'd been so ruthless with Mara during the hearing. Otherwise, this woman would have been a complete sweetheart. "Thanks, Vera."

"Of course," she said warmly, and with that, she stepped into Victor's office and shut the door behind her.

Kira took a deep breath and started down the stairs where, to her horror, she found Eddie and Joy having a conversation with Greg.

"And have her home before nine, okay?" Eddie was saying as Kira practically king jumped the stairs. "And no funny stuff, okay? Or I'll—"

"Oh my god, Eddie shut up," Kira hissed sheepishly, shoving her brother out of the way while Joy— because of course Joy was there— laughed. "Sorry about him," she said to her date, mortified, "he's a dick."