When the Lion Roars [House of Anubis]

four. The Chosen Returns

As Nina placed her hand on the door to Anubis House, thousands of amazing memories of this place suddenly rushed through her mind. She had to stop for a moment to take it all in and regain herself. She had already been to the house where she would be sleeping to leave her things in her new room but she knew she hadn't finished arriving properly yet. Not without seeing all of her old friends she had made whilst staying here in school.

She finally twisted the handle and entered. The hallway she was greeted with as she stepped through the door hadn't changed at all since she had been there last. She noticed that there was no one in the living/dining room, and realised they must have all already gone into their rooms. She started to walk towards Fabian's room, but hesitated when she heard laughter coming from inside. She recognised the laughs perfectly. It was Fabian, Eddie and Mick. She smiled at the fact that Mick had returned from Australia, but that smile quickly faded into a neutral expression as she realised that she had no idea how to speak to Fabian after so long, especially with Mick and Eddie there too.

She quickly ran up the stairs so that she could greet her best friend, Amber, who she could definitely talk to.

Once she reached the top of the staircase she noticed Victor's office looked different. There were no creepy stuffed animals, or papers cluttering the desk. His desk was still there, only one half of it was mostly cleared just with a neat stack of lined paper. The other half seated a computer.  The cabinet next to the door remained the way it was, just with nothing on top of it and the safe had been replaced by a metal filing cabinet with a printer on top. The cabinet of keys still remained where it was, untouched, and the master keys were left on the desk, just in case they were needed by any of the students.

Although Nina knew there would be nothing of interest in there, she still felt drawn towards it as though she should search it. She chose to resist the temptation and continued to her and Amber's old room. As she walked past the corridor leading to the attic door, she just stopped for a moment to look at it. Just like the hallway, nothing had changed there at all. She turned back to face Amber's door and readied herself before bursting through the door.

"Hello" she said with disjointed words as she swung the door open.

Amber let out a high pitched scream as soon as she saw Nina making Arabella jump so much she nearly fell out of her bed. Patricia was unfazed by the scream as she'd been accustomed to it, but she did laugh at Arabella.

"NINA!" Amber cried, running up and hugging her best friend. Arabella didn't follow and do the same because obviously she had no idea who this strange person was. Patricia hugged Nina once Amber was done strangling her.

"I missed you guys so much," Nina told them through the hugs and, once she had let go of Patricia, she focused her gaze on Arabella, "And you are?" she questioned with a sincere tone.

"Arabella"

~*~*~*~*~

In Joy, KT and Willow's room, they were being forced by KT, who needed catch up, to discuss Walfie and Jeroy. Joy and Willow were both lying on there stomachs with their heads at the foot of their beds, their arms or hands supporting their heads. KT also had her head at the foot of her bed, but she was lying on her back with her head nearly hanging off the edge of her bed.

"I don't know," Willow responded after being asked how her and Alfie were, "I guess we're ok, I think he might have been a bit annoyed with me after I dropped out of university with him, but that was ages ago, he respected my decision and he must have forgiven me by now"

"Cool," KT continued, not really waiting to see if there was more, "What about you Joy?" she turned over and buried her face in her duvet, clearly still tired because of her flight from America, "How's Jeroy going?"

"Good, I guess. I haven't really seen him in a while and we haven't had a proper face-to-face conversation for about a month, but I guess that's just how long distance relationships go," she replied, her voice having a slight melancholy tone.

"Go talk to him now," KT advised, her voice muffled through the duvet.

"Are you sure?" She asked KT.

"Yes, just go downstairs, talk to him and let me sleep," her head raising away from the bed, revealing how tired she actually was.

Joy groaned as she got up from her position on the bed and walked out the door. KT put her head back into the duvet as soon as she heard the door click closed.

~*~*~*~*~

"I have to get back to my house now, guys" Nina sighed after sitting with Amber, Patricia and Arabella for awhile and having a long conversation about America, Fashion school and of course -Amber just couldn't stop herself- Fabina.

"Bye," all three of them said as Nina closed the door behind her. She walked back down the corridor towards the staircase but bumped into someone as she did so.

"Sorry," she said before noticing who it was, "Oh, hi Joy"

"Hey," she responded awkwardly.

"Well I have to go, so-"

"-Nina, wait," Joy interrupted as Nina tried to walk away, but she did stop, "I was just going to say... No hard feelings, about... You know... Everything that happened before you left. I'm totally over Fabian now and I promise nothing will ever happen again"

"It's fine, Joy. I'm over him too now," she hesitated, "but I do actually have to go"

"Truce?" Joy questioned as she held out her hand towards Nina. She didn't say anything in reply, just shook Joy's hand. Joy gave a half (but genuine) smile at this. Nina hurried out of the house after this. Her intentions before the confrontation with Joy were to go downstairs and talk to Fabian, but she stormed out of the house without even looking at his door.

*~*~*~*

There you go. This is the first chapter I have written in my little writing marathon. I have decided to put chapters up twice a week. Once on a Wednesday to get you through the mid-week struggle, and one on either Saturday or Sunday as a reward for working hard during the week. There's not really much else to say here so:

What do you think about the fact that Nina's staying somewhere else to the rest of Sibuna?

Do you think that she should have talked to Fabian?

How do you feel about Joy's apology?

Do you want Jeroy to be fixed?

That is all from me for now, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the many more to come.
Sibuna ✋🏻