House of Anubis

House of Locks p4/House of Eyes p1

"I don't understand why you're so upset that Nina passed your test." Mara said as she and Patricia walked together out of class.

"It's not about that." Patricia frowned, leaning against the lockers. "Nobody seems to be taking this Joy thing seriously except me. She would have called me by now Mara! You know she would." She insisted, standing her ground.

"It is strange;" Mara tilted her head, agreeing with her ever so slightly, "I'll give you that."

Patricia stared at her incredulously. "'Strange'?" She repeats, "It's more than strange. But no-one cares. Everyone's more interested in buddying up with the new girl. As if Joy never even existed. Even Victoria..."

She shook her head, not wanting to think about everything that happened earlier that morning or the things Victoria had shouted at her. Her eyes then land on her ex-roommates locker, her name covered up. "I wonder..."

"What are you doing?!" Mara hissed in shock, staring in disbelief as Patricia dug into her bag, pulling out a metal ruler, sliding it between the thin gap between the locker and its door. "You can't just break into her locker!"

"Watch me." Patricia said with challenging eyes, only sparing her a glance just as she managed to break the locker open.

"Vandalism will not be tolerated in this school Patricia." Patricia jumped in fright as Mr Sweet had come out of nowhere, the locker revealing to be cleared out and empty. "You will pay for that to be repaired and you are also grounded."

"What have you done with Joy? Where is she?"

"Pull yourself together young lady." Mr Sweet said, ignoring her cries, walking away without sparing her a moment.

"Why won't you give me her home number at least?" The goth pixie sulked, falling back against the lockers, nearly being brought to tears once again.

"Patricia-" Mara reached out, trying to comfort her, but was pushed aside and shrugged off.

"Leave me alone." Her frown deepened as she trudged down the hall feeling hopeless.

~~~

"So this panel just opened when you fell against it?" Fabian whispered as he and Nina sat down in their seats; Nina telling him about what happened in the attic, continuing their discussion from this morning on their walk to school after Fabian found the key Patricia had thrown out the window.

"Sort of."

"Sort of?" Fabian repeated. "What kind of an answer is that?"

"Well, there are some other things." She answered hesitantly, unsure how much she could actually disclose, since a lot of it had to do with the secret Sarah-Emily-whatever!! Had entrusted with her and Victoria. Along with the fact that she had been the one to point out how the panel opened in the first place.

"You're a real girl of mystery, aren't you?" He said with a smile, slinging his book bag off his shoulder, staring at her shy smile before the look on his face softens. Knowing very well that he wouldn't be able to convince her not to go back up into the attic, despite how crazy it was to do so. "Look, if you're going up there again, then I'm coming with you. And that's all there is to it." He insisted, not wanting to hear any objections.

"Wow. That was forceful." Nina smiled awkwardly, teasing him, knowing he wasn't capable of hurting anything or anyone.

"It was, wasn't it?" His face scrunching up as he realised how it had sounded before looking back her with a soft smile. "You can trust me Nina. I promise."