CHAPTER I —— house of hello!

Maude was having a few mixed feelings about the first day of the new school year. On one hand she would get to see all her friends again, because her summer was spent practicing her powers and hanging out with her friends from London which left no time to schedule meet-ups, and on the other hand it was very likely that there would be another mystery that would put her life on the line.

Hopefully this time, she'd have the help of the Goddess in her head.

Why did you stop? Speaking of Hathor, there she was.

Maude sighed, because i'm nervous. There was no point in her hiding how she felt, if Hathor wished she could read every emotion that Maude had ever experienced.

Hathor laughed and it boomed around her head, just keep going. You'll be fine, you've known most of these people for years. This year will be your most exciting yet. The end of that sentence made Maude raise an eyebrow, what on earth could that possibly mean? Before she could finish asking herself, someone came barrelling towards her in a rush.

"M&M!" Alfie, the person currently tackling her to the ground was Alfie.

"Hello to you too," Maude said, winded. She sat up on the grass that she'd been pushed into. "Have a good summer?"

Alfie nodded, "The best. I'll tell you about it soon, first—"

Maude's body tensed, she was suddenly aware of everything around her and she knew what that meant. "Jerome's over there," She said, pointing towards the boy who was currently ducked behind a ledge.

Alfie beamed, dragging them both off the ground and over to Jerome. Alfie waited for the perfect moment and then, "Hey roomie!"

Jerome shrieked, jumping to his feet and Maude hid her snicker behind her hand.

"Alfie! Don't do that!" Jerome paused, taking in Alfie's outfit and his unique choice of sunglasses. "If you're lost the 80s are that way." Jerome proceeded to point to the left, his other hand still on his heart.

"It's for Amber," Alfie said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "New term, new girlfriend, new Alfie."

Maude raised her hand, "I am personally loving the new look Alfie, how could Amber ever resist you?"

Alfie poked her on the cheek, "don't make fun. Anyways aren't you guys going to do the usual thing couples do when they reunite, like, run into each other's arms?"

"We're not a couple." Both Jerome and Maude replied at the same time. Maude's was reluctant but it had become second nature to react with that, her and Jerome dating was likely to never happen, no matter what Alfie thought.

"I am glad to be back with you guys though," Maude said. "I'm just hoping there won't be anymore life threatening mysteries, I don't think I could handle it again."

Alfie nodded, "Yeah, the possibility that there might be a zombie apocalypse gets bigger in my head every time I think about what we saw last year."

Jerome wrapped an arm around both of his best friends shoulders, his luggage discarded next to his feet. "Personally I am hoping for this year to be full of scams, pranking and nothing else."

"That would be the dream."

☦︎︎☦︎︎

Jerome opened the door to the Anubis house but he paused before entering. "I have just realised that we'll have to deal with Victor for another year."

Maude stepped passed him, dragging her suitcase over his foot. "Maybe this year the bet on when Victor will get a girlfriend will be settled."

The two of them shared a look, before shaking their heads. "Not plausible."

The sight when they walked in to the house living room made Maude's face light up, the obvious attraction between Fabian and Nina flooded her veins and not even Jerome's dramatics would make it go away.

"Do you mind? People are eating in here, thank you very much."

Maude hit him on the arm and then hugged both Fabian and Nina. "It's so good to see you guys again! How was your flight, Nina?"

"It was good, how was your journey here?" Nina's american accent was always lovely to hear, because it meant that Maude wasn't the only one with awkward ties to deities in the house.

"It was good! My head was a little loud, if you know what I mean."

Nina nodded because she did, Maude hadn't been planning to tell her about Hathor and her linage but when everything with Sarah and the cup of life happened, Maude felt like it was important that Nina knew she wasn't alone. Maude had been dealing with non-normal things her entire life and sometimes it still weirded her out, she knew it couldn't have been easy for Nina and she wanted to be helpful.

Jerome and Alfie shared a look, both confused. Maude wasn't proud to say she had yet to tell them but she wasn't sure how they would take it, Alfie might have turned her into one of his stories and Jerome could be weird about things sometimes, especially when it came to crushes. Maude was just happy that a lot of the time Hathor kept quiet when she was around the two, even if Maude could usually feel her presence, especially when she was alone with Jerome.

"My trip was good too, thank you for asking, Maude." Fabian remarked, flicking her forehead.

"You're welcome, Fabian." Maude smiled sharply at him, patted his head and flopped onto the couch next to Jerome. She then watched as Nina and Fabian proceeded to be horribly awkward with each other. Maude was just very glad she wasn't like that with anyone.

☦︎︎☦︎︎

When Maude headed downstairs that evening she walked in on Nina and Fabian being the typical new couple— touchy and flirty around other people. Maude was happy for her friends, she was a 'cupid' and helping people fall in love was her job, but that didn't mean she didn't find it a bit awkward whilst she was trying to eat her dinner.

Maude felt a buzz in her veins and raised an eyebrow at Joy when she walked in. Joy's eyes flickered from Maude to Fabian and Nina and then to Maude again. Maude understood what Joy was trying to say because Maude felt it, Joy still had feelings for Fabian but Fabian seemed to be interested in someone else now. Jealousy fuelled by love.

"It's got very couple-y in here." Joy said, sending a pointed look to all the new couples in the house.

It must have been weird for her, Maude thought offhandedly, coming back to school after being away for a year and everything being different.

"You're not wrong there, Joy." Alfie replied, trying to take ahold of Amber's hand. Maude kicked Jerome under the table and he lifted his head to stare at the interaction too.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Amber asked, pulling her hand away and making an uncomfortable expression. Maude and Jerome shared a look.

"Uh, being couply."

"So go hold his hand." Alfie moved away from Amber and closer to Jerome in response. Maude tapped Alfie's leg with her foot and gave him her best sarcastic sympathetic look. Alfie threw a pea at her in reply.

"Your last mail mentioned something. About your grandmother coming out?"

"Mm, yeah, yeah. She's coming to visit. She's staying at a hotel in town. She's really excited to meet you all. Especially you. I told her a lot about you."

Maude thought it was cute but by the look on Jerome's face he would have preferred for them to not have this conversation at the table.

"Yeah, we do breed better geeks over here." Maude laughed along with everyone else other than Nina, Patricia could have some good one liners when she tried.

Amber leant over and whispered something to Nina before blinking at Maude. The blonde mouthed 'later' so Maude sent her a thumbs up in reply.

Jerome's phone began to buzz like crazy, so Mick picked it up. "You got popular for once, who's Poopy?"

Jerome grabbed the phone, he seemed very obviously panicked to Maude. "My... life... coach." Not his best lie, but Maude wouldn't call it out until they were alone. Jerome glanced at her, and then glanced away when she raised an eyebrow at him.

She'd figure out what that was all about soon enough.

☦︎︎☦︎

"It's 10:00. You know what that means. You have few minutes precisely, and then I want to hear a pin drop." Victor's signature catchphrase was uttered, no matter how many years past it never got more annoying to hear.

Nina, Amber, Maude and Patricia crept out of their room's. Maude had been informed that they'd decided to meet up in the attic where the mysteries had truly began and celebrate being back in school. Maude thought it was a recipe for disaster and that was the exact reason she was giving up sleep to go.

"Do we have anything to pick the lock?" Amber asked, and as if on cue the attic door opened up for them.

"Whoa."

"Welcome back to creepy towers." Patricia said.

"So excited to be back." Maude bounced on the balls of her feet.

"Maybe this midnight feast should take place in daylight. Good night." Amber nervously said, trying to walk away before being promptly pulled back towards the door by Patricia and Nina.

☦︎︎☦︎

"Sibuna, everybody. Welcome back." Amber put her left hand up to her eye, and everyone repeated the action. "Sibuna."

"No trouble getting past Victor, then?" Nina asked, her knee pressing into Maude's.

"No, he wasn't in his office." Fabian said, "Maybe he's finally changed his ways and gone to bed early."

"Well, he needs his beauty sleep. He is one hundred and one."  Maude nodded her head, thinking about how old Victor was didn't creep her out the way it creeped the rest of them out, Maude had a literal ancient goddess in her brain, after all.

"Talking about creeps obsessed with living forever, thought you guys will be interested in this."

"It's an obituary for Rene Zeldman." Nina seemed shocked, and so was Maude. The idea of him dying hadn't crossed her mind but she guessed with the lack of elixir it wasn't impossible.

"Rufus." Alfie added.

The atmosphere wasn't so happy anymore, none of them had really gotten over what Rufus had done to them, especially not Alfie.

"I guess he found out he wasn't immortal the hard way."

Alfie took that moment as the one to open his can of soda, it spilled everywhere over Amber's trousers. Maude snickered as Amber screamed. "Alfie!"

Everyone's head swivelled towards the entrance to the attic, the noise of a stair creek echoed throughout the room and everyone shared a look.

"What was that?"

"Someone's coming."

The door opened, and Maude attempted to hide herself behind Nina, even if it wouldn't be much help if Victor came in at that moment.

Luckily, it wasn't Victor, instead it was their newly returned housemate, Joy.

"Joy! You scared us to death." Patricia let out a sigh of relief and Maude sent an annoyed Joy a wave.

"Guys, they're in here." Joy walked in to the room, followed by the rest of the housemates that weren't members of the Sibuna club.

Jerome spread his hands and sent both Maude and Alfie a betrayed look, clearly annoyed that they hadn't invited him.

"Nice hangout, guys." Mick said.

"Thank you, we thought it'd be perfect for a private party." Maude made an awkward face at her own words, realising that was probably not the best thing to say.

Jerome frowned at her. "A private party. How great for you, Maude."

Maude frowned back. "Sorry I didn't ask you to come because I didn't want you to invite your life coach."

Jerome's eyes flicked away from her and Maude glanced at Alfie. He shrugged his shoulders in reply.

authors note:
this update has been sitting in my drafts for THREE years. here you go! i can't remember if i proof read this or not so i'm raw dogging it