Hey guys. Long time to chat.

If you read the authors note that I posted in place of chapter seven then you would know that I'm re writing this story to improve just about...Well… Everything.

So here we go. Chapter one. The thing that will be staying the same is the mystery but other than that, I'm putting my own twist on things.

Thanks for reading of you do!

Disclaimer: I do not own HOA.

I stood in front of the house, my suitcases by my side. Okay Nina. You can do this. Just knock on the door. I took a deep breath and stepped forward to knock on the door when it opened for me. Okay, that's not strange. That's just a British thing… right? I shook my head and pushed open the door some more as I made my way into the entrance hall. The door slammed behind me and turned to look. Seeing nothing strange I turned back to the hall almost jumping out of my skin. A man-who I swear hadn't been there when I walked through the door 10 seconds earlier-stared me down.

"I'm sorry," I began, "the door was open and-"

"You're late." Two weeks late." He said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, there was a problem with my visa and we didn't know about the scholarship until last week and-"

"No excuses Miss Martin."

"But-"

"Trudy! The new student is here." Thanks creepy man, for not letting me finish a sentence. I sighed and looked as a woman with crazy curly hair and one of the warmest smiles I've seen in my entire life made her way from the kitchen to the entrance hall. I couldn't help but smile back at her. If only everyone else could be as nice as her.

"Oh hello Nina! It's nice to finally meet you, a shame Joy had-" looks like I wasn't the only one creepy house guy interrupted.

"That's quite enough Trudy. Help take Miss Martin's things up to her room and give her a tour of the house." He said before heading up the stairs and into a room which I assumed was his office.

I stared at the door wondering what in the world is going on with that man before I turned back to Trudy.

"Don't mind Victor, he's a little stressed and doesn't like children. And he never leaves his office." She moved my bags to the foot of the stairs before offering me a tour of the house that I accepted with a smile on my face.

She led me through an archway into a gorgeous main living room. High ceilings, plush leather couches, and Egyptian inspired artwork and architecture everywhere.

"Is this Egyptian?" I asked my eyes going wide at how beautiful everything was.

"Yes," responded Trudy, "the previous owner of the house were archaeologists in Egypt, and they fell in love with the time and brought it back with them."

I continued to wander around heading into the dining room. "I bet there's so much history here."

"Ah, an aspiring historian are we dear? So is Fabian, one of your housemates. He's trying to unlock the secrets of the house, with little success I might add. The only thing he's succeeded at is getting into Victor's bad books the poor boy." Her usual smile turned into a small frown.

"Yeah I am." I headed over to a writing desk sitting in the corner. Looking up I saw a photograph of a group of people on the front lawn of the house, with carefree smiles on their faces. "Are these my new roommates?" I asked to Trudy.

"Oh yes sweetie. That's Jerome, Fabian, Mara, Joy-she had to leave-Patricia, Alfie, Mick and Amber." One of them looked quite familiar, but I was sure I hadn't seen any of them before.

"They look like nice people." And they looked very close. I wonder if they would let me be a part of their group.

Trudy sensed my discomfort and wrapped her arm around my shoulders. "They are Nina. You'll love them and they'll love you." She gave me a gentle squeeze before leading us both in the direction of the stairs. We grabbed two bags each and made our way up. "The boys live downstairs and the girls are upstairs. Victor has a light out at 10 rule but other than that feel free to do as you please. Just sign out if you're going out to places that aren't on the campus." I nodded and she pushed open the door to what would be my new room.

We finished unpacking and I put the last thing down. It was a picture of myself and a few of my friends and some new ones we met on our summer trip to California. Trudy looked over at it, a look of recognition crossed her face.

"How do you know Fabian?" she asked as she picked up the photograph to take a closer look.

"Fabian?" She held it out to me and pointed. "That's not Fabian. That's someone I met in California, Simon."

"Oh," she put the picture back down on my nightstand, "he looks an awful lot like Fabian."

The slamming of a door made me jump and I turned around. The sound of chatter and laughter drifted up towards me as I slowly made my way to the door. This is it Nina. Time to make an impression on these people.

I took a deep breath before following Trudy out of my room and to the balcony by the stairs. Victor was already there waiting.

"Quiet children!" the chatter immediately subsided and they all looked up. "This is your new housemate Nina Martin." I looked down at them and they said nothing as they continued to stare. Great.

Trudy started to head down the stairs and I followed her, their eyes following my every move. That was creepy feeling at all.

"Hi I'm Amber!" Said the blonde girl once I had made it to the bottom. She gave me a hug and I stood there in a sort of shock before hugging her back. I wasn't used to strangers giving me hugs. It was… nice.

Everyone started asking me questions, and after hearing my American accent they had even more. We had shifted this friendly interrogation to the living room and some of them had left to go to their rooms so I was left with amber, a brunette named Mara and a guy-whose hair added another four inches to his height-named Jerome. We sat talking, and a let go of a huge breath that I didn't know I was holding in.

"Nervous were you?" Jerome asked with a chuckle.

"A little. I'm going to brand new school in a foreign country. I was scared I wouldn't be able to make friends."

"Well that was a silly fear, we British are quite a nice bunch." Said Mara giving me a small side hug. I could get used to it here, the friendliness, the history, how beautiful everything was.

Just then the front door opened again and soon after someone walked through the archway into the living room. Amber looked over and stood up.

"We have a new housemate! This is-"

"Nina?" he questioned looking at me. His face lit up with recognition as he came over to hug me. I took a step back. It couldn't really be him could it? But despite my wanting I knew I couldn't change who was standing in front of me.

"Simon."

So here it is. A rewritten chapter one. Hopefully this turns out better than my original one. Please let me know if there's anything that is confusing at all or things that you don't understand.

Reviews would be highly appreciated!

Love,

Victoria