House of Anubis: Triad of Memphis

House of Dates/House of Days

Sarah found Lucille up in their room, and Lucille asked her where she'd been. Sarah ignored the question and grabbed onto Lucille's hand, pulling her up and out of the room.

"Where are we going?" Lucille asked.

"It's a surprise," Sarah smiled.

Meanwhile, Jonah had gone to get Jared. At first, Jared was reluctant, but Jonah finally convinced him to stand up, and he pushed him the rest of the way there. Just as they were going out into the corridor, Sarah had shoved Lucille through the doors to the dining area. She watched as Jonah brought Jared, and he ushered Jared inside as well. Sarah pressed play to a set list of romantic music on her phone, sat it down on the dresser in the room, and disappeared out of sight by slipping back out the door.

Lucille and Jared faced eachother. They were unaware of what was going on, also unaware that Sarah and Jonah were listening just outside the door.

"I don't know what this is," Lucille admitted.

"Neither do I," Jared responded, just as confused as she was. "But I see food, so there's some benefit to this."

Jared headed over to the table where candles were lit and the food was set out on the plates. Lucille came and sat next to him in front of the plate he hadn't chosen. Lucille suspected this was all Sarah's plot to make her happy, and she go along with it for as long as it would last.

"I know you probably have better things to do," Lucille started off the conversation.

"No, my schedule's pretty clear."

"Right..." Lucille fell silent for a moment. She was still convinced in her mind that Jared didn't want to be there. "Of course, if you want to go-"

"-you don't want to spend time with me?"

"N-no! It's not that; it's not that at all," Lucille corrected. "It's just, this is probably just Sarah fiddling where she doesn't belong."

"Fiddling?" Jared repeated, chuckling at her choice of words.

"Okay, I didn't know I was having a dinner date with an eight year old," Lucille remarked, acknowledging Jared's lack of maturity.

"Date?" Jared repeated. At this point, he paused in his eating and looked over at her.

"Well, maybe not exactly-"

"-I can do a date."

That made Lucille smile, but Jared took no notice. He had gone back to eating, but in that moment, he had just warmed Lucille's heart to the point where she almost thought he loved her back.

She finally decided to bring back up an impending topic of discussion. "You asked, one time, if I wanted to. If I wanted to kiss you."

Jared dropped his fork and glanced back over at her at the word 'kiss'.

"And I brushed it away because I was afraid it'd ruin our friendship," Lucille continued. "Honestly, how could a girl like me date a guy like you?" She muttered this more to herself than to him.

"I-is there a certain issue there?" Jared asked concernedly.

"We're complete opposites," Lucille explained with a nervous laugh. "I'm a nobody, and you-you're Jared. The type of guy who just...overlooks girls like me. And has every right to."

"What makes you think I'd ever want to overlook you?" Jared challenged softly. "What makes you think I have any right to? And what kind of nobody ends up being the Chosen One? Of all the billions of people in this world, and you're so convinced that you don't matter."

Lucille hesitated, but still wasn't able to give a response.

"You make me a much better person than I really am," Jared informed. "And I don't know, I kind of like that...I kind of like you."

Lucille had slowly given into the moment. The two of them had subtly admitted their interested in each torn to one another, and they were on the verge of a kiss until the doors swung open and a voice frightened them back to reality.

"Turn of that accursed music!" Mr. Carroway demanded. "And blow out those candles! And both of you-" he pointed to Jared and Lucille, "-and you-" he pointed behind himself to Sarah and Jonah, "-to your rooms immediately."

Sarah grabbed her phone, and Lucille and Jared blew out the candles and scurried off before upsetting Mr. Carroway more than he had already been. Jared waved to Lucille as she headed up the stairs with Sarah, but she hadn't noticed as she was determined to get back to her room, just as Mr. Carroway had said.

~~~~~
The same night as the date, Sibuna met up after lights out, just at the base of the stairs. While Sarah and Lucille were waiting for the boys to arrive, Sarah complained, "You still haven't told me how the date went."

The others showed up before Lucille could give an answer, but she and Jared did exchange smiles as he approached. Unaware of what was going on, Tyler explained the solution to the puzzle to everyone, and they'd be able to solve it that night.

They headed down to the cellar, and during that time, they were silent with an exception to their footsteps. Lucille and Jared hung close together, and tension was raised amongst them, but Tyler still remained oblivious to the awkward nature of the other four.

They finally arrived to the task where Jared, Jonah, and Tyler headed back to their previous levers and allowed the girls to watch as they cycled through six days within the room. The dome repeatedly changed from day to night until they all heard a final click. The levers locked and place, and Tyler, Jared, and Jonah stepped back, waiting for something to happen next.

Part of the wall slid open revealing a further passage way for them to explore and discover the next task.

"We did it!" Sarah exclaimed, and the rest of them cheered along. After their excitement died down, Sarah stepped forward toward the passage. "And now to see what awaits us for task three."

~~~~~
Update: I forgot to add in the whole end notes and discussion questions for the chapter! Nevertheless, it's here now. I'll just keep this one without discussion questions seeing as there's not much to ask anyway. Feel free to comment, especially on the whole Jucille/Jucy dynamic, and as always, until next time Aristocrats.