Chapter Text
Hallie's eyes widened as she stared out of the window of the taxi at her new school. This place was enormous.
She glanced down at her phone to the open conversation with her dad. No replies. She sighed as she picked up the information pack that the school had posted to her. They accepted her father’s letter to have her transferred just a week late to the school year. She would be staying in the Anubis House and the principal Mr Sweet wants to meet her on arrival.
She shoved the phone into her blazer pocket as they slowed to a stop. She had looked up pictures of the school and noticed that the dress code was very laid back so she took great pride in tweaking it to her style.
She gracefully exited the taxi and grabbed her black messenger bag to sling over her shoulder. A tall man with greying hair bustled out of the school and sped towards her.
“Ah, you must be Hallie.” he stuck out his hand and Hallie smiled as she shook it.
“That’s me.”
“I’m Mr Sweet, the principal of Amun Academic Boarding School. It’s a pleasure to have you here.”
Hallie smiled, “Thanks. It’s a pleasure to be here. My dad spoke very highly of this school.”
Mr Sweet’s eyebrow twitched faintly, “Yes. Well, we do pride ourselves in our students. Now would you like to unpack now or?”
Hallie shook her head, “I should probably head to class and unpack later and I’m already in the uniform.”
“Your father mentioned how ambitious you are. Excellent. I’ll lead you to your classroom.”
Hallie took in all the rooms as they walked past them, eventually coming to a stop outside of Mrs Andrews class. Mr Sweet told her to stay there for a moment while he entered the classroom and talk to Mrs Andrews.
“Hallie.” Mr Sweet called and Hallie took a deep breath before entering the classroom. Trying to mentally prepare herself for all the stares and whispers she’s going to get.
“We have a new student joining, this is Hallie and she will be staying with the Anubis House so...” he gestured to the other Anubis House members, “be nice.”
Hallie stood awkwardly as the rest of the class gawked at her.
Fun.
Everyone had started to make their own first impressions of her as she stood there.
Amber checked out her outfit and gave an exaggerated “Wow.” She shouldn’t feel threatened by this girl's style, right? Right?!
Fabian looked at her in wonder and Nina saw his reaction, instantly getting jealous. Joy had the same reaction since this girl was going to be living with them now. She could take Fabian's attention off of her which was unacceptable.
Patricia stared at her with complete disinterest. What was the big deal anyway?
Mara smiled and wondered would she be a good study partner.
Alfie smiled at her too to be nice. Another girl in the house could mean more pranks for him and Jerome to pull. So, he started making up schemes in his head to tell Jerome later.
Jerome was completely enamoured by her. She was extremely pretty and he blinked to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. Alfie nudged him excitedly and whispered, “New girl initiation.”
Jerome cleared his throat and tried to look as disinterested as Trixie. “But of course.”
Mrs Andrews checked her watch, “Now, Hallie this lesson is almost over but you take that seat there and we can try to get you caught up.” She pointed to the empty table at the front beside Nina and Fabian.
She dropped her bag on the floor and rested her chin on her hand. The teacher handed her some of the notes they’ve been working on this past week and Hallie just left them in front of her. She can look it over some other time.
The bell rang not long after so she put the pages into her bag and let the classroom empty a little before leaving. She now had to make her way to the biology classroom.
Within a blink of an eyes there were two people on either side of her. One was extremely tall with downright gorgeous hair and the other was around her height and staring at her with a crazy wide smile.
“Hello newbie.” the taller one spoke in a deep rich voice.
She looked up to him in confusion, “Hello tall person.”
“Call me Jerome. That’s Alfie. We’re residents of Anubis house.”
Hallie smiled, “Oh. Cool.”
Alfie bounced energetically, “We thought you could use a helping hand that can show you around the school.”
“That sounds great. Thanks.”
“Alfie!” shrieked a female voice.
The three of them turned to see a girl with long blonde hair and a red blotchy face staring at Alfie expectantly.
“Oh. Coming my sweetness!” Alfie shouted and ran back over to her.
Hallie turned to Jerome with one eyebrow raised.
Jerome shook his head, “It’s fine. He’s trying to complete her tasks to become her boyfriend.”
Hallie just laughed, “That raises so many more questions than it answers.”
They could hear a large crowd ahead of them laughing and standing around in the corridor.
“What do you think that’s all about?”
“Only one way to find out.” Jerome gestured for them to walk through the crowd together. Some of the other students pointed at Jerome and started laughing and Jerome knew that whatever happened wasn’t good at all.
He quickly made his way through the hall and shoved people out of his way as he saw a large canvas photo of him dressed up for a Christmas pageant from years ago. Not good.
He spotted his sister handing everyone photos of him, “Poppy!”
Poppy spins around with an evil grin on his face, “Oh hi gerbil! Do you remember that time you dressed up as a girl?”
Hallie walked through the crowd and saw the picture in question and raised her hand to cover her giggles.
Jerome spun around to her, “They made me do it. It was a school play.” he explained desperately.
“You never told us you have kid sister.” Joy laughed as she stared at the photo in her hand.
“That’s because I refuse to acknowledge her existence.” he grabbed Poppy’s arm and leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Take it down now .”
“No chance.” his sister nudged him and went to walk past him when he expertly pulled the strap of her bag off her arm and he shoved his hand into the side pocket. “Give me that back!”
“If you do the crime. You pay the fine.” Jerome rhymed as he grabbed her phone out of her bag and held it high over his head. His height did come in handy sometimes, it was amusing to try and watch her jump for it.
“What is going on out here!?” boomed Mr Sweets voice, “Don’t you all have classes to go to?”
All the students quickly scattered but Hallie didn’t know where to go so she just stayed behind to wait for Jerome.
“Ah! Who is responsible for this?”
Hallie watched as Jerome stood forward and told Mr Sweet that it was him.
“Take it down immediately, Clarke. We have very important guests arriving soon.”
Hallie walked over to the siblings and stood behind Jerome.
“I’ll say thanks if you give me back my phone?” Poppy tried to negotiate.
“I don’t think so, poopy.” he got into her face and made ‘L’ shapes with his hands, “Loser.” He grabbed the canvas off the wall and looked for Hallie and gestured for her to walk with him.
“For what it’s worth. You look really good in a dress.” Hallie smirked at him.
“Well of course I do. I look good in everything.” Jerome smirked back.
They walked through the drama studio talking and laughing as they passed the rest of their housemates. The group stared at the two as they walked out the double doors.
“Looks like Jerome’s trying to get in with the new girl.” Mick pointed out.
Alfie gestured to Jerome’s back, “Never mind that. He’s got a sister?!”
“Poppy? Yeah, she started this term.” Fabian explained.
Mara leaned forward, “Why is Jerome so secretive about everything?”
Patricia snorted, “I know right? Like who keeps a sister a secret? Weird.”
“Not as weird as Jerome in a dress.” Nina laughed.
That’s when Mr Sweet entered with Victor and a strange man and their conversation died.
As Hallie and Jerome walked through the corridor Hallie whined, “I think I’ll just skip the rest of my classes and go unpack.” she nudged Jerome’s arm, “Wanna come with?”
Jerome placed a hand over his heart in mock horror, “Hallie. Are you trying to get me to skip classes? Because the answer is an astounding yes.”
Hallie looped her arm through his and the two jogged through the corridor laughing.
Hallie came up to the large house and whistled. “This place looks so creepy yet so cool.”
“It’s totally haunted.” Jerome winked.
They entered the house and Hallie looked around the main hall, “Wow.”
“Care for a tour madame?” Jerome gestures her into the left where they enter the sitting room and combined dining room.
“This place looks so amazing.”
“The house was owned by Robert and Louisa Frobisher-Smythe, they were part of the expedition team that found Tutankhamen's tomb.” Jerome gestured to the portrait that hung beside the dining room door.
Hallie nodded at the information, “I love Egyptian history.”
“This place is filled with Egyptian history.” Jerome whispered under his breath.
“Ohhhh hello!” A cheerful voice came from the kitchen.
Hallie jumped at the voice before seeing a small woman coming towards her and taking her into a hug.
“Hello, dear. You must be Hallie.”
Hallie nodded, “That’s me.”
“This is Trudy. She’s our house mother, the best house mother ever.” Jerome grinned as Trudy ruffled his hair.
“Have you had a chance to look around?” Trudy questioned.
Hallie pointed to the taller boy, “Jerome was just showing me around.”
“Trying to get out of lessons again?” Trudy raised an eyebrow.
“Trudy. How could you! I would never do that. I had to help this poor lost girl find her way.”
“Mmhmm. Well, she’s here now so back to school young man.” she pointed to the front door.
Jerome groaned and stomped out of the house and headed back towards the school.
“Now then deary. All the girls' rooms at the moment are full up so I’ve made up the spare room for you and all your bags are there now.” she gestured for Hallie to follow her up the stairs.
Hallie walked slowly as she took in her surroundings, her heels clicking on the wooden stairs was the only noise until Trudy spoke up again.
“Where are you transferring from?”
Hallie adjusted the strap on her shoulder, “London, my dad’s work moves him around a lot so he thought it would be better to go to a boarding school and he knows of this one quite well.”
“Ohh, and what does your dad do for a living?”
Hallie smiles, “He occupies a small position in the British government.”
“How very interesting.” Trudy gushes, “He must be a busy man.”
“You have no idea.” Hallie laughs.
“Now then, this is you, the bathroom is just over there on the right and Nina and Amber are right next door.”
Hallie walks into the room and looks around, a single bed up against the back wall and a desk and chair beside it. It wasn’t the worst and it would look better after she decorated it. And that’s what she spent the next few hours doing until she heard everyone coming back from lessons and chattering up the stairs. The chattering suddenly stopped and Hallie stopped moving as she could hear them whispering outside her door.
“Come in!”
The door opened slowly to reveal all the girls smiling sheepishly.
Amber was the first one to enter, “Wowww, your room is so cool. You’ve got really good taste.”
“Thanks.” Hallie smiled.
“I’m Amber.” she said introduced herself with a flick of her hair then pointed to all the girls. “And that’s Nina, Mara, Joy and Patricia.”
Hallie raised her hand in a wave, “Hallie.”
“Where are you from?” Mara asks.
“London.”
“How come you’re here?” Patricia asked next.
Hallie frowned, “My dad moves around for work, he knows this school so he thought it would be better if I stayed here.” she hated having to rehash the same story ten thousand times.
Nina sighed, “Come on guys. Let’s not do the twenty thousand questions right now.”
The other girls sighed and nodded before going to their own rooms.
“Thanks.”
Nina turned back to Hallie, “That’ll only hold them for so long. Trust me, I know.”
Dinner time rolled around quickly and Hallie walked down with the rest of the girls. Victor was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, glaring at the rest of the students until she came past.
“Ah. Miss West. Our new lodger. I spoke to your father earlier and he hopes you settle in well and behave . Bedtime is ten PM and I expect absolute silence after five minutes past ten.”
Hallie nodded, “Yes, sir.”
“Victor is just fine. Thank you. Off to dinner.” He gestured for her to move on.
Jerome and Alfie were walking up the corridor and Jerome perked up when he saw Hallie coming towards him so he stopped after Alfie went in, “You can sit beside me if you want.” he offered. Hallie smiled and nodded before walking in and taking the seat beside Jerome, glad that she had already made friends with someone, kind of.
Hallie didn’t notice the whispers going on between Nina and Fabian at the end of the table.
“So, Hallie. What does your dad work as?” Mara asked.
She took a drink before answering. “He holds a minor position in the British government.”
“No way.” Patricia scoffed.
Hallie raised an eyebrow at her, “Yes way.”
She didn’t pay much attention as Fabian dragged Nina away from the table and out into the hallway. Much to Joy’s chagrin.
“Fabian, what’s wrong?” Nina whispered.
Fabian looked around to make sure no one was around to listen before he came closer to Nina, “What Hallie just said, it reminded me of Joy last year.”
Nina raised her eyebrow in jealousy as if to say ‘and this is important how?’
“When we were on that skype call her dad said about how Rufus was after him because he works for the government and handles national secrets.”
Nina shook her head, “But that was a lie.”
Fabian raised his eyebrows and gestured with his hands as if to say, ‘yesss.’
Nina gasped as she finally caught on to what he was trying to say, “You think she’s lying about her dad and could be working with Victor?”
Fabian shrugged, “I’m not sure yet but her father could definitely be involved in their cult. We’ll need to keep an eye on her just to make sure, she might not even know.”
Later that night Hallie was up reading, some nights she just finds it hard to sleep. She heard a door closing and the slight creaking of floor boards and she frowned. No one’s supposed to be out of bed. Her curious mind had her get up out of bed and go investigate the noise. She grabbed her matching hoodie off her chair and zipped it up before pulling on her furry slippers. She quietly made her way to the door and opened it slowly, looking through the gap she saw Nina head towards the door to the attic. She slipped out of her room and quietly followed Nina, placing her back against the wall she glanced around the corner as she saw Nina disappear upstairs.
Hallie crept towards the attic door and quickly checked behind her before heading upstairs behind Nina. As she got closer to the top, she could hear voices coming through the door. Two different voices.
She could hear something about a ‘Chosen One’ and Nina asked who she was. Hallie would love to open the door and see what was going on but her gut told her to stay where she was.
“Find it. Bring it. And you shall weep tears of gold.” the other woman had a much deeper voice than Nina.
“The Mask of Anubis, child. Find it and bring it to me. Or forfeit your life.”
Hallie stared at the door. This was seriously freaking her out so she turned on her heel and as quietly and quickly as she could she went back down the stairs and ran into her room.
There was more to this place than meets the eye and Hallie thinks she might have just gotten dragged into it.