What Lies Beneath ▸ House of Anubis [1]

chapter five. house of locks

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            I watch nervously through my fingers as Nina stumbles over herself to come up with a decent excuse. I know her getting expelled is exactly what Patricia's hoping for, but after last night, I can't afford for Nina to be leaving so early. That woman from my dreams told me to find the girl with the Eye of Horus, which is Nina, and the old woman Nina helped back to the nursing home told her to find the girl with the Ankh, which is me.

            "Get out!" Victor shouts, and Nina runs out of his office. "And don't let me catch you in my office ever again!"

            I look at her as she comes to a stop by us. "What did you say?"

            "I kind of told him I was an amateur taxidermist," Nina answers. A bad lie, but apparently it got her out of Victor's crosshairs. She pulls something from her pocket—the spare key to the attic! She still got it out, and he hasn't even noticed.

            "Lucky," Alfie remarks, holding cleaning supplies.

            "Very lucky," Clarke observes.

            Patricia sneers, "We'll see how lucky she is tomorrow night when she goes into that attic."

—

            "The calls were going through to Joy's voicemail, but now I'm just getting an unattainable signal," Patricia rambles on about not being able to reach Joy as she, Alfie, Clarke, and I walk into history class the next morning. "What does that mean?"

            I shrug, suggesting lightly, "She moved somewhere where there there's no cell service? Like the Alps or something." The three glance at me doubtfully. "Or the towers are out?"

            "It just means, Patricia," Clarke answers her question, "she's gotten fed up with your bombarding her with messages and texts, and now she's changed her phone contract."

            "Not funny, Jerome," she replies with a roll of her eyes as she and I take the closest empty desk.

            From the back of the room, an unfamiliar voice quotes, "'All the world's a stage.'" I turn with the rest of the class to find that it's a man in his late twenties probably, super cute, and definitely not Mr. Fleming. "'And the men and women merely players.'" He drops the book he was holding on the desk and smiles at us, going forward to the front of the room. "Hey. My name is Jason Winkler, and I'm your new history teacher. I'll also be teaching drama."

            "You're Mr. Fleming's replacement?" Mara questions.

            "Yeah, that's right."

            Oh, this is awesome. I lean toward Patricia, whispering, "A pretty face to look at. It's about time the school gave us that."

            Amber's reaction is far more extreme. "Wow, I am so pleased he had a heart attack!" I burst out laughing, along with the rest of the class. "Sorry, that didn't come out right."