Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter forty-eight. house of hex

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            Nina's gran is in hospital. Apparently she fainted whilst sightseeing in London, and she's fine now, but they're keeping her checked in for a while until they can be completely sure she'll be all right. Nina went and stayed with her for a while, but seemed really freaked out when she returned and didn't tell Amber and me why. But Nina's gran wasn't the only bit of surprising news that came about last night—Mrs. Andrews is resigning, so she'll no longer be our teacher.

            Shame, really. When Andrews isn't involved in a secret society that took Joy out of school and tried to get immortality by tipping the scales of life with the Cup of Ankh, she's actually pretty cool. Except for the whole being the French teacher thing.

            "It's the morning of the ping-pong tournament," Alfie states, walking into the living room with a handheld video camera trained on him, "and the entire school is holding its breath. Whoa, Amber, waffles before a big match? Is that really a good idea?"

            "A) you're not my coach anymore," Amber reminds him. "B) they're low-carb waffles. And C) there's mush on your lens."

            "No, there isn't," Alfie says, checking. Amber takes a piece of food off her plate, putting it on the camera lens. "Oh, well, now there is." He takes the food off and eats it, causing me to cringe, and goes back to recording. "It's all getting tense in here, waffley tense." And now I just roll my eyes while he laughs at his own joke, the others just staring at him. "Get it, Nina?"

            "Ow, Alfie!" Nina exclaims as he hits her arm.

            "Waffley tense?"

            "You're just some big kid," she remarks, pushing him slightly.

            And for some reason, which we'll probably never know because who knows how Alfie's brain works, he starts sucking his thumb like a toddler does. Joy mocks him, which actually gets me to laugh.

—

            With about an hour left until the competitors arrive, I think the best course of action is to see how our ping-pong players are getting on with their day. Amber, I already know how she's doing, 'cause, see, I share a room with her. But Jerome, I don't know how he's doing, and I'm a bit more concerned for him considering his stakes in this game.

            As in, he's actually doing it in order to get the Frobisher Shield back so he can put the gem back where it actually belongs. (Yeah, Alfie spilled the real reason why there's a ping-pong tournament today, and I'm not sure why Jerome didn't just tell me in the first place.)

            "Hey," I greet him, going up to him at his locker, "ready for the tournament today?"

            "Uh, sort of," Jerome answers, closing his locker. He turns to me, leaning against it.