Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter fifteen. house of who?

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            "Okay, remind me again what book we're looking for in Mrs. Andrews' classroom."

            It's the next day now, and the four of us skipped breakfast to come to the school before our French/English teacher arrives for the day. Nina was talking really quickly when she explained it to me last night and pretty much all I heard was 'book' and 'DABED.' The next thing I knew I was being dragged out of the house this morning with the other Sibunas before I even had a chance to grab something for breakfast.

            Fabian answers, "We think she checked out the final book we need to spell Robert Frobisher-Smythe's name on the bookcase in the study so we can see what's on the pedestal so we can get through the next door."

            I'm pretty sure only one word of that made sense to me—bookcase. The rest of it? Complete gibberish. "I think I need to go down to the tunnels see what you're talking about. Oh, by the way," I remark, glancing at them as I move books off one of the shelves in search of the final book with an initial on the side, "I accidentally came up with a cover for us when we're doing Sibuna stuff. Saving Inanimate Boring Unicorns one Narwhal At a time. It...spells out Sibuna, sort of. Stupid, I know, but I panicked. Mara saw the SOS Sibuna text last night."

            Fabian blinks while Amber and Nina share a strange look. "And..." he starts. "That's what you came up with?"

            "I panicked!"

            "Why were you with Mara?" Amber inquires.

            "Uh..." I walk over to one of the cabinets, biting the inside of my cheek. "It's stuff to do with Jerome's dad, we're helping him out. Sorry, I—I can't tell guys anything else. So the book is gonna be leather-bound and red, right?"

            "Yeah," Fabian answers. "We just need that one last book to complete the path."

            "You think Andrews left it lying around her classroom for two years?" Amber questions doubtfully. "Yeah, right. Why don't we search her bag as well?"

            The blonde may have a point.

            The door opens and in comes our teacher herself, who stops in her tracks when she sees the four of us in school before we should be. "Oh, all very keen, aren't you?"

            Amber grabs a random book from the shelf and exclaims, "Found it! Ashley says it's a real page turner."

            "Yes, that's a dictionary, Amber."

            I glance at Amber, watching her realize she's just called an actual dictionary a page turner. "Yes. Yes, it is," she says. "I've been wanting to read it for ages."

            In what turns out to be a poor attempt to cover for her, I take the dictionary and flip it open to a random page. "Yeah, I—I love reading the dictionary. I mean, some of these words are just so beautifully described. Like, uh, this one. Ga—gastrovascular..."