"Did I completely embarrass myself up there?" Nina couldn't help asking Fabian for a review of her performance, mostly because she knew he wasn't going to be too harsh on her. They were waiting by his locker for the next bell to ring and Nina was still reeling from her self-perceived awful public introduction that she had to give in her pervious class.

"Definitely not. You did way better than I would have." Fabian answered, giving her the reassurance she needed. "I doubt anyone was really paying attention since it's so early in the morning, anyway. But you were fine."

"I see you paid attention." Nina coyly pointed out, growing more comfortable with talking to him. He seemed warm-hearted and friendly, even a little soft-spoken like her. They could probably become good friends for the rest of her time there.

"Yeah, well, maybe I wanted to know a bit more about you."

Nina felt her cheeks grow hot and looked away, only to awkwardly share a split second of eye contact with Patricia. Nina hoped there would be some time for the two of them to talk later on. The same went for Joy, since there was obviously something she had against Nina based on her attitude the previous night. Maybe it was a misunderstanding of some sort. They'd talk it out and everything would end up being fine for the rest of the year. This was all depending on whether Nina had the guts to go up to them and ask what their problem was, though. And she wasn't feeling all that confident yet.

"Oh, have you spoken to Joy at all yet?"

The sudden question made Nina turn back to Fabian, who must have noticed her looking in the direction that Patricia and Joy were standing.

"Um, no. I thought it would be better not to. She clearly doesn't think highly of me." Nina tried to keep a positive tone in her voice.

He sighed. "I'm really sorry about that. I'm sure she'll apologize soon. She must have been in a bad mood yesterday. Not that it's any excuse, but an explanation I guess."

Nina had certainly hoped she'd get an apology, but she wasn't holding her breath. "It's fine, it's not like it's your fault."

Since they were standing around by his locker, Nina remembered the piece of jewelry she had mysteriously received. "Oh, by the way, do you think I could have my box back now? I didn't get a chance to read the note inside earlier." She kept up with the lie she had told Jerome and Fabian about having a note from her grandmother, when in reality she was trying to protect the necklace. Maybe it was given to her by mistake, or Jerome really was playing some kind of trick on her. Either way, she would love a closer look at it.

Fabian nodded and she thanked him for giving it back afterwards. They didn't have much more time to talk as the bell had finally rang, and he showed her where her next class was. It was biology with a man named Mr. Sweet (who also happened to be the principal), and Nina quickly learned that her other housemates had basically shared the same schedule. And luckily the classes weren't hard to find at all. The school was smaller than she had expected, so she no longer saw getting used to the school as a problem. That was one less thing to worry about.

Throughout the period Nina would look down at the opened box, in awe of the beauty of the revealed necklace. It was imperative that it stayed hidden, so she kept on her lap where the table acted as a shield for it. More than once she was tempted to wear it around her neck. Who wouldn't want to wear such a beautiful accessory? After all, it had been sent to her, joke or no joke. Being as gentle as possible, she slightly lifted the pendant and she was surprised to spot a white piece of paper folded underneath it.

"Your grandmother sent you that?" A sudden whisper was heard on her left while Mr. Sweet was lecturing the class about chromosomes.

Nina jumped and slammed the box shut, worried if anyone had seen the content in it. Her head turned in the direction that the whisper came in and she saw that it was just Fabian. "Sorry," she lowered her voice to the same volume, "You scared me."

"That I can see," he whispered back. It looked like he was trying to hold in a laugh. "I thought you said she sent you a note?"

"Um…" Nina had felt bad about lying, and it wasn't like she was any good at it either. Whatever she made up at this point he was sure to see through it. "Okay, I lied. I didn't actually get any note from her. I don't even know who sent this to me."

"What?" He said in a normal voice. The two looked around in panic to see if they had been heard by anyone else, but no one noticed. "Who would send you a necklace like that?"

"I'd love to know that to," she opened the box again and slipped the white square piece of paper out from under the pendant. She held it up for him to see. "I suppose this will tell us?"

Nina eagerly opened the paper up, careful to not make any sound or to accidentally rip it. Printed on it was just the address of Anubis house, followed by Nina's first and last name. No sender was mentioned at all.

"That's weird." Fabian commented, taking the paper into his hands to inspect it further. "Unless this is one of Jerome's pranks, this is kinda… creepy."

"Seriously creepy." Nina agreed.

Who could have sent it to her?

"Don't you think we should throw a party or something? To celebrate the new girl, I mean." Mick followed his girlfriend, Amber, to their usual table at lunch. Today it sat everyone except Fabian, Mara, and Nina. "It'd be a nice way of welcoming her after… what happened."

"Tell me about it, that was incredibly awkward last night." Amber placed her tray down on the table and taking her seat while Mick did the same. She looked around. "What do you guys think? It has to be a group effort, though. I'm not doing all the work. Especially since I just got my nails done."

"Why don't we make Joy head of our little welcoming committee then?" Jerome teased. "I'm sure Nina would love that."

Joy narrowed her eyes at him. "Shut up, Clarke. I'm going to apologize to her the next time I get the chance, so why don't you do it?"

"Because I have got better things to do than making sure some newbie feels like she's being included."

"Oh like what, pull some more unfunny pranks with Alfie? What a productive use of your time." Joy sarcastically replied.

"Hey! I take offense to that," Alfie held a hand over his heart, faking how crushed he was. "Our pranks are another form of art." He quickly got over it as he started stuffing his face with a bag of chips.

"No one's taking it seriously," Mick rolled his eyes, visibly frustrated. He moved his attention back to Amber. "I'll ask Mara if she'll help you plan it, Ambs. I know at least she'll be mature about it."

"Since when do you care so much about Nina, Mick?" Patricia shot back at him. "We've barely known her a day and everyone is already worshipping the ground she walks on."

"It's called being nice, something you might wanna try some day."

"Okay, okay," Amber put a hand on her boyfriend's. "Let's all just calm down. A party it is! This will be fun. You guys will see."

A/n: Hi everyone! I'm so sorry these chapters take so long to come out. I'm such a perfectionist that I will literally rewrite a chapter if I'm not happy with it haha. I'm definitely feeling insecure about this one but I am proud of myself for writing it! Hopefully you guys like it! The mystery will be kicking off soon, within the next two chapters for sure. Thank you so much for reading