Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter forty-nine. house of silence

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            Nina's head slumps forward and her eyes close. Patricia's got some water now, but still seems like she's unable to speak. Fabian's staring off into space without a care in the world. That leaves me as the only person trying to wake Nina up.

            "Nina? Nina, wake up!"

            Nina gasps all of a sudden, causing me to jump back, and sits straight up in her chair. She looks around wildly before laying her eyes on her ex-boyfriend and asking, "Fabian, what happened?"

            "Oh, we lost at ping-pong," Fabian answers. At least he knows that, even if he doesn't know who Senkhara is for some reason Nina's yet to tell me. "Are you all right? You dropped off or something."

            "I don't know. I can't remember," she says. Then she gasps again, recalling, "I was talking to you three, and then—oh, why can't I remember?" Patricia taps Nina's shoulder, still mouthing her worse. "You still can't speak?" She shakes her head. "And Ashley just confessed something she never would have...something really weird is going on."

            "Yeah, I'll say!" I agree as Alfie runs around the room, imitating a plane propeller. Gesturing toward him, I comment, "At least that's somewhat normal. Except...not really, considering we just lost what could be considered the biggest game this school's ever had. Nina?"

            Before she and I can even talk about what's going on, Jerome speaks up suddenly, "That ball is weighted." Whoa, what? Does that mean Wincott Academy cheated? "Am I in denial, or did that look like a total fix?"

            "Oh, it totally was," I answer, speaking mainly to Patricia. I didn't mean to say that either. "Nina!"

            "Oh, is it magic?" Alfie questions excitedly, like a little kid. "Cool! Oh, have you got any more tricks?"

            "Please step forward," Sweet says as Alfie goes off and pulls our opponent's hat off, causing a dozen ping-pong balls to fall out and clatter onto the floor, which pretty much confirms that they cheated, "Giles Winner-Freston—"

            "That is magic," Alfie states with a grin.

            "He's a cheat!" Poppy exclaims. "The balls were there the whole time."

            The guy claims, "I didn't use them. I swear. Why would I need to?"

            "You're lying," Jerome accuses, pointing at finger at him. "You must have used one of these every time you served. You little maggot—"

            "Calm down, Jerome," Sweetie tells him.

            "He's cheating."

            Amber pipes up, "Can someone make a decision, like, soon? My feet are killing me."