Impossible; House of Anubis (B1)

[12] - House of Cheats

*Unedited* 

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Something was wrong. Camilla didn't know what it was exactly but she knew something was up, like a horrible gut feeling, and she couldn't help but feel really irritated that her normality that was Amber and Mick's party and the grounded weekend had only lasted that. A weekend. As she sat bored in French, with Amber yattering off in her ear about everything she and Mick might have in common, waiting for the bell to ring so the class would start. The first hint at the fact something was wrong was that Patricia was nowhere to be seen. As Mara passed by her and Amber's table to hand them their headphones for the listening test, Camilla couldn't help but ask her, "Have you seen Trish?"

"No, sorry," Mara said softly, glancing at Amber who had turned her back so she could talk to Mick. Letting out a soft sigh the girl looked back at Camilla, "she forgot some homework and went back to the house before lunch, that's when I saw her last."

Camilla sent Mara a small sympathetic smile before muttering a "thanks." Letting the girl move off and finish handing out head phones.

It wasn't until the bell rang and Mrs Andrews walked in that Camilla started to worry for another reason – her brother and Nina hadnt come back from lunch with Uncle Ade.

"Thank you, Mara," Mrs Andrews said noticing the headphones already around most student's necks and test papers in front of them all, "Are we all ready?" she asked the class, and just as Camilla was about to raise her hand and inform the teacher that her brother and Nina were coming but clearly were late; the two in question burst through the door a little out of breath. "You're late." Mrs Andrews informed the two in a serious tone not many liked to hear.

From where she was seated she could see that both Nina and Fabian were not happy to be on the receiving end of their teacher's tone of voice, both of them squirming a little as they looked at one another before saying in unison "Sorry."

"Sit down as we are about to start," Mrs Andrews told them and neither of them needed to be told twice as quickly they both took their seats at the front of the room and settled, getting ready to do the French listening test. "Have you seen Patricia on your travels?" Mrs Andrews asked, and when both of them shook their heads that gnawing feeling in Camilla's gut came back. Something had happened with Patricia, she knew it, and she would do anything at that moment to just run out of the room and find her friend to see if she was okay. However, she knew she couldn't. They had to keep up the appearance that they were no longer as friendly with one another, at least around the teachers, if they wanted to find out the truth about Joy. "Right, she'll be getting an F then." Camilla suppressed and eye roll at how dead pan Mrs Andrews spoke. "Right, we will begin the test then." and with that, she pressed the enter button on her computer and the test started. Camilla knew she was only half paying attention, and she knew she might have just passed the test. When it came to listening exams she was screwed. Her photographic memory did nothing to help her there.

It seemed Camilla wasn't the only one who was distracted throughout the test; near the beginning, Mick interrupted to ask if a question could be repeated – with Mrs Andrews giving him an annoyed stare and reminding him that the test had already started-, and Camilla was sure that Jerome had clocked something as from in front of her she watched as he kept glancing Mara's way. From where she sat – and the fact that Mara kinda slumped when she wrote – Camilla had no idea what Jerome found so fascinating, and decided to just dismiss it. There were too many things she was already worrying about, for once she would just let Jerome do whatever the hell he wanted – unless it somehow caused Amber or Alfie any grief again, and then she would step in.

Thankfully – it seemed to all students in the class, not just Camilla – the bell rang and with that Mrs Andrews announced their time to be up. The usual scraping of chairs against the floor could be heard as they all got to their feet, grabbing their bags and test papers wanting to be out the class as soon as possible. Camilla's attention was on Alfie as he walked back out the room chatting to her, meaning neither of them noticed Jerome as he watched them leave – making sure they couldn't see him – before picking up a test paper from the rubbish. Instead, Camilla's attention was on Patricia who stormed up the corridor and grabbed Mara who exclaimed: "Where have you been?"