Saturday arrived all too soon, and Kira spun around so Mara and Patricia could get the full view of her date outfit. "What do you guys think? Is it too much? Too little?" she fretted, lifting a hand to make sure the braid was still pinned in place.

Patricia gave her a silent but supportive thumbs-up, finally having had her own redo date with Eddie the night before. She was left communicating only in gestures and facial expressions since the site she used for text-to-speech had inexplicably stopped working.

Mara grinned gesturing at her appreciatively. "You look gorgeous!" she assured her. "Greg's not gonna know what hit him."

Kira smiled, but Eddie's words from the other day continued to haunt her. She did like Greg, right? She wasn't just doing this to get over her fruitless crush on Joy, right? "Right," she said, shaking her nerves out through her hands. "Thank you, guys, seriously. You're lifesavers."

"I'm honestly surprised Amber wasn't keener to help you get ready," Mara mused. "She loves this stuff."

"She and Nina claim she's suffering from some 'allergic reaction'," Kira said with a shrug. "Honestly, I've never seen anything like it. Patricia, you're closer with them than me; do you know what's up?"

Patricia's eyes were wide with panic and she shrugged noncommittally.

"Right," Kira chuckled, slightly unnerved by her reaction. "You can't actually tell us."

"Well, I hope she feels better," Mara said, mild concern in her voice. "But on a brighter note, do you know where he's taking you?"

Kira shrugged a little as she touched up the last of her make-up. "I guess there's a new hibachi restaurant about thirty minutes away that he's been eyeing. Fine by me! I love Japanese food."

"Same," Mara agreed, while Patricia mimed closing a box. "Yeah," she continued with a laugh at Patricia's game of charades. "Patricia's right. Make sure to bring us home the leftovers!"

"Oh, I'll make sure to," Kira chuckled as she fiddled with the bangles Patricia let her borrow.

Just then, there was a knock at the door, and Vera popped her head through. "There you are, dear," she said with a smile. "There's someone waiting for you downstairs."

She let out a shaky breath and looked back over her shoulder one last time at her friends. "Well, I'll see you later!" she bid, and her friends offered her one last thumbs up before she set off down the hall with Vera.

"You look very nice, Kira," her housemother complimented. "Going out on a date, are we?"

Kira nodded nervously. "Yeah, it's, um, kind of our second date?"

"Well, here's to many more," said Vera. "If there's an emergency, just call the house."

"Will do," she said and gave Vera a small smile. It was a shame she'd been so ruthless with Mara during the hearing. Otherwise, this woman would have been a complete sweetheart. "Thanks, Vera."

"Of course," she said warmly, and with that, she stepped into Victor's office and shut the door behind her.

Kira took a deep breath and started down the stairs where, to her horror, she found Eddie and Joy having a conversation with Greg.

"And have her home before nine, okay?" Eddie was saying as Kira practically king jumped the stairs. "And no funny stuff, okay? Or I'll—"

"Oh my god, Eddie shut up," Kira hissed sheepishly, shoving her brother out of the way while Joy— because of course Joy was there— laughed. "Sorry about him," she said to her date, mortified, "he's a dick."

Greg looked shaken up but laughed all the same. "Er, no worries," he said, then turned to Eddie. "And I will be a perfect gentleman, I promise."

Eddie nodded seriously, but Kira could see he mostly was doing all this to mess with her. "You'd better. Because I was assigned protector at birth, so if you hurt my sister—"

"Oh my god!" Kira said again. "If you don't shut up I'm telling Patricia about the time you pissed yourself at the circus!"

Eddie blanched, and Joy's laughter turned to howls. "Kira!" he yelped, now his turn to be mortified.

"Oh gosh, this is too good. I'll be sure to use this for blackmail purposes as well, Eddie, don't worry," Joy said, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. She gave Kira a quick hug. "Have fun! Be safe! Use protection." She whispered that last part and Kira wanted to kill herself right where she stood. Her crush telling her to have a good time on a date with someone else.

Fuck my life, Kira moaned inwardly.

"Well?" said Greg, looking unsure whether he should laugh or sink into the floor. "Shall we? The cab's outside."

"Right, the cab," she said. "Alright, let's go! Before I can be tormented any longer."

"Byeeee," Joy drawled, waving at her, while Eddie had his bright red face in his hands, mumbling about his reputation continuing to be tarnished.

Serves him right, Kira thought, flashing a distracted smile at Greg when he held the door for her and they walked out into the cool evening air.

The cab ride was long and rather awkward. Not painfully so, but awkward enough that thirty minutes felt more like forty-five. Soon enough, though, they'd arrived at the restaurant. It was unsurprisingly busy for a Saturday night at a hip new eatery, but Greg swore he'd made them reservations. Sure enough, they had two seats right up at the hibachi grill.

"This is nice," said Kira, and it really was. The decor wasn't too gaudy or distasteful in the way that many establishments did in an effort to play it up for tourists, and the food from other tables smelled delicious. A chef at a grill off to their right did the classic onion volcano, sending a plume of flame high into the air.

"So is this better material then?" Greg replied, eluding to their conversation in the foyer during the afterparty.

She chuckled and made a show of thinking hard about it. "Hmm... well, I guess it's not too bad."

"Oh, is that so?" he said, holding back laughter.

Before Kira could answer, their hostess came back, leading a large group to their seats around the grill. "The chef will be with you shortly," she informed them as the family sat down.

Greg and Kira exchanged slightly awkward glances as the large group with a fussy toddler and a moody ten-year-old sat down beside them. Unfortunately, the hibachi experience came with sitting next to strangers.

"Oh, aren't you two adorable?" cooed the elderly woman who'd sat down with her family. "Aren't they adorable, Harold?"

Harold, presumably the woman's husband, flashed them a yellowing grin. "Very, Eve."

"Mum, let them be," said the younger lady bouncing the screaming toddler on her knee. "They're clearly on a date."

Greg and Kira smiled awkwardly and thanked Eve, exchanging pleasantries and trying to ignore the toddler having a temper tantrum. It definitely killed any date mood.

The waitress came by with a miso soup and salad, and soon enough their chef came over and got behind the grill. It started off quite fun, with the usual tricks and magic show that Alfie could only ever dream of mastering. Kira even caught the zucchini in her mouth on the first try when it was thrown to her.

Through it all, though, the moody ten-year-old just got more moody. Harrumphing even when his mum and dad tried to encourage him to engage with the talented chef in front of him.

The show was almost over, with the chef now mostly just cooking their food, when the ten-year-old began groaning. "Mum..." he moaned, clutching at his stomach.

"What, Tommy?" his mother asked, impatience wearing thin.

Instead of answering, Tommy promptly threw up all over the table, eliciting screams of horror from just about everyone who'd seen it as his vomit sizzled on the grill, contaminating their food in a most unsavory way.

The restaurant staff poured out of just about every door like bats out of hell, shouting in a frantic combination of different languages, while Tommy began sobbing uncontrollably.

Kira had leaped up and away from the table, screeching in horror at the sight of the kid's puke cooking on the stove. Meanwhile, Greg held his napkin over his face, gagging at the smell.

"I'm so sorry!" the boy's mother cried. "It was a long drive up, and he wasn't feeling well then, but it's been a few hours—"

As the staff tried valiantly to clean up the medium-well throw-up from the grill, Kira and Greg made their exit, accepting the free meal voucher from the manager without the intention of ever cashing it in. They walked outside in total silence, stunned and disgusted by the nosedive their date took.

"Well... that was a fail," Greg said, trying to salvage it. "I'm so sorry."

"It's, um, not your fault," Kira replied, but her tone ended up coming out flat. That was too big of a disaster to even speak of.

Greg shuffled awkwardly. "I mean, if you're still hungry, we could—"

"I'm not," Kira cut him off quickly. "Hungry, I mean. I don't think I'll ever be hungry again, actually."

"Me neither," he sighed in defeat. "Let me just, er, call a cab."

They got back to Amun Academy an hour earlier than they'd planned, and Greg walked her up the steps to Anubis House.

"So I can't say it was the most fun date I've ever been on," he joked, trying to lighten to awkward mood, "but it was certainly the most eventful."

"You can say that again," she said, just wanting to go inside, shower, and go right to bed.

"Well, uh, ha!" he laughed breathily, going in for a hug, which Kira stiffly returned. When they pulled away, Greg's eyes lingered on her mouth and he leaned in.

She leaned back an inch and chuckled uncomfortably. "Goodnight, Greg," she said with a sheepish smile. "I'll text you later."

He stepped away, disappointment clear on his face, but his tone was understanding. "Yeah, definitely," he said, starting down the steps so he could get on the path back to Mut House. "Um, goodnight, Kira."

"Goodnight," she said again, opening the door and slipping through. What a train wreck.

—

"I think you're being too harsh," Mara said later that evening while they were brushing their teeth. "It wasn't like he threw up."

"Ugh, Mara, it's not that!" Kira spit into the sink and shuddered at the memory of the boy quite literally spilling his guts. "It was already awkward before then, you know? It was just the nail in the coffin."

"You sound like your self-sabotaging," she said. "Didn't you once tell me how you ended things with someone just because of what ice cream flavor they chose on your first date?"

"Hey, all I'm saying is that if you go to the ice cream parlor, and you get plain vanilla without even any toppings, clearly that says something about you as a person," Kira defensively pointed out. She'd only had one somewhat serious relationship, but the few beginnings of any others had always been cut short. "I bet Joy wouldn't get plain vanilla."

"But you're not dating Joy," Mara reminded her. "I think it's just time to accept that you're too particular."

"Whatever, fine! I'm particular. Sorry if I don't want to go on dates where my food gets marinated in a little boy's vomit!"

"Okay, well that's understandable," Mara said with a wince. "But still. Don't just write him off because of this. What if he's your soulmate?"

"Then remove my soul," she deadpanned, then started to laugh. "But fine, I won't totally write him off. For you."

Mara smiled, tapping her toothbrush against the edge of the sink. "Good. I just want you to be happy."

Kira smiled back at her in the mirror. "Same for you," she replied.

—

"I know it's last minute, but can you please do me a massive favor?" Nina asked Kira on Monday.

She put her book down and gave her roommate her full, albeit wary, attention. "Depends," Kira replied slowly, "but if I can help, then totally."

Nina smiled, but Kira could see she was agitated about something. "Right. It's just that yesterday you were so good with Alfie— Alfie's little brother, I mean— that I was wondering if you'd be able to watch him this evening?"

She wrinkled her nose apologetically and shook her head. "Oh, gosh. I'm really sorry, Nina, I'd love to help you out, but I told Mara I'd go into town with her to check out that antique shop on Swannery Road. Actually, I think Fabian's uncle owns it?"

Nina's already tense smile tightened. "Oh, yeah. That's right! Well, it's fine really. You go have fun. I'll just see if someone else can watch him."

Kira bit her lip and mulled it over. "You know, if you asked one of the younger students to watch him, I'm sure they'd be up for the challenge. Like, what about Jerome's little sister? That's the right age to start babysitting, don't you think?"

At her suggestion, Nina softened a bit and nodded. "You know that's not a terrible idea," she admitted, then sighed. "I'll probably have to pay her though, won't I?"

"Poppy? Definitely," Kira chuckled. "Just don't give her too much. Maybe like fifteen or twenty bucks for the whole time. Not like it's your kid."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Nina agreed, scooping up the book bag she'd dropped by her feet and started out the door. "Well, thanks anyway. Have fun with Mara."

"I will!" she called back. "Sorry I wasn't more help!"

When Nina had left fully, Kira shook her head in complete bemusement. Seriously, were Alfie's parents so neglectful that they'd drop their kid off on some random teenager's doorstep? And Eddie always complained about their family.

—

"Ready to go?" Mara asked, slipping on her red winter coat. "Fabian's uncle always has such good stuff, and I heard he's just gotten back from an archaeological dig! He's probably got a ton of cool stuff."

"You know, they don't just let people take the stuff they dig up, Mara," teased Kira as she zipped up her own jacket. "That's called stealing, and it tends to be illegal."

Mara rolled her eyes and smacked her lightly on the shoulder. "You know what I mean," she laughed. "Just that he's probably brought a bunch of legitimate antiques back for the store."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," she laughed. "It's a good thing Fabian's uncle isn't big into tomb-robbing. Knowing the legends, he'd probably get cursed to, like, have locusts fly out of his mouth whenever he spoke or something."

"Don't be silly," Mara said, and the two walked out to the waiting cab. "Curses don't actually exist."

"Um, you try having Eddie as a brother and then you check back in with me," Kira snorted.

The two girls burst into giggles, and after about seven minutes of chatter with both each other and the cab driver, they'd arrived on Swannery Road right outside Rutters' Antiques.

Mara graciously paid the fare, and the two got out of the cab. It was still strange to visit such a little town in the north of England when Kira was used to city life. She used to spend half her weekends taking the ferry or train into New York City, and now she spent her free evenings going to antique stores in a town smaller than her block.

"Let's go!" Mara urged, grabbing her hand and tugging her inside. "This stuff is right up your street!"

"I think you mean alley," Kira corrected her but allowed herself to be pulled along.

The inside of the shop was crowded but overall quite cozy and inviting in the way that being surrounded by relics from the near and distant past often tended to be. An older man who Kira assumed was Fabian's uncle sat at a desk near the back of the store, rifling through yellowing papers and other such documents; he looked up when the door closed behind them.

"Ah, I do love when young people stop by!" he said delightedly. "Hello, hello, is there anything I can help you with?"

"We were just browsing, Sir," Mara explained. "We're actually friends of Fabian's."

The man brightened. "Oh, Fabian! You're his schoolmates then? I'm his uncle, Ade."

"Nice to meet you officially," said Mara, and Kira nodded in agreement. "Fabian has talked about you a lot!"

"All good things I hope," Ade chuckled. "It is strange though... Well, you ladies may have heard that I just returned from a particularly interesting dig in Egypt. Fabian said he'd come visit once I returned, but he hasn't called. I do hope he hasn't forgotten." He pursed his lips and shook his head. "Oh, I'm just being silly. Don't mind me."

"I'm sure he'll visit soon," Kira assured him.

Ade smiled. "You're right. I'll give him a call soon, just to make sure. Do let me know if I can help you with anything, ladies."

The girls thanked him politely and began poking around the shop. There was so much to look at, from gorgeous hand-carved furniture to elaborate broaches and hat pins from the early twentieth century and beyond.

"Look at this!" Mara called, holding up a silver cup with small, detailed flowers etched around its middle. "It's so pretty!"

"You can use it to hold your ever-growing pen collection," Kira joked.

"I don't think they'd all fit!"

They laughed and continued picking through the collection, every once in a while showing each other a particularly interesting find. Ade would occasionally chime in with a fact or a particular object's origin, and the girls would listen with rapt attention.

By the time they were done, Mara had her silver cup and an antique abacus in her hand, while Kira had managed to get find an old pocket collection of classic literature from the Middle Ages. They were just about to make their purchases when something caught Kira's eye.

"Where did you get this from?" she gasped, reverently lifting the glass orb from its pedestal. "It looks just like one I used to have back home!"

Indeed it did. The pattern wasn't exactly the same, but the colors were. The same deep blues, reds, and golds swirled across the surface in an almost hypnotic pattern, and Kira felt warm just holding it.

"That? Oh, that's what the local peddlers in Cairo call a hami khafi— a hidden protector," Ade explained, taking the glass out of her hand and holding it up to the light. "These particular baubles are glass made out of sand from around and in the pyramids. It's supposed to be a totem of protection to those who need it." He handed it back to her. "It's also supposedly used to keep things hidden."

"Things like what?" Mara asked.

"Spiritual things, I suppose. Thoughts, dreams, feelings, magic."

"Dreams?" Kira asked, thinking back to her brother's nightmares after he'd broken the ball their father had given them.

Ade laughed, removing his glasses so he could give them a quick polish. "All superstition, of course. There's no record of any hami khafis or anything of the sort in any ancient texts, though other items like amulets, bracelets, and the like have been used for protection for thousands of years. So who knows really! I received this one from a colleague in Cairo on my last day in the city." He smiled as he watched Kira's eyes trace the patterns. "It's beautiful, isn't it? You said you had one like it?"

She hummed distractedly. "It was a gift from my father," Kira explained. "My brother broke it when we were little, and I never thought I'd ever find another one like it." She looked over at him with a sad little smile at the memory. "It meant everything to me..."

"Then it's yours, my dear," Ade said, his eyes warm.

"Oh! Oh, I couldn't possibly! I'll pay for it along with the books," she insisted, trying to hand it back to him.

"No, I insist," Ade said, wrapping her fingers back around the hami khafi. "Any friend of Fabian's is a friend of mine. Besides, I hear these work far better as gifts."

Kira clutched the bauble to her chest, eyes pricking with appreciative tears. "You're very kind, Sir," she said, not having the heart to tell him she wasn't exactly besties with his nephew. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it," he said gently, ringing the rest of their purchases up. "Just make sure you remind Fabian to come visit his old uncle! Don't want him forgetting all about me."

"As if he would ever forget about an uncle as cool as you," Mara exclaimed, lifting up her bag or treasures, "but we'll be sure to remind him all the same."

They waved goodbye, still thanking Ade for his kindness, and left the store, looking up and down the street for something else to do.

"It really is gorgeous," Mara said, gesturing to the hami khafi still in Kira's hand as they walked down the sidewalk. "You must be happy to get a replacement after all this time!"

Kira turned it over in her hand and smiled at her faint, distorted reflection in the glass. "I really am," she said before placing it carefully into her bag with the books. "Now, come on, let's find a cafe or something. I'm starving!"

—

School flew by the next day, apart from Mr. Sweet calling for a bag search at the request of Victor and Vera. Supposedly they'd had information about the identity of the ox bell thief that had apparently been on the loose for a day or two, but when the search came up null, her dad had been kind of pissed. When Kira asked him about it, he shook his head and explained that Victor often jumped to drastic conclusions and dragged him into it. Frankly, it wasn't hard to see that was the case.

Nevertheless, she was glad none of her housemates were criminals. There wasn't really anywhere to hide her valuables in the limited space she had to herself.

"Listen, I know my article was a little wrong," Mara was saying as she, Joy, and Kira climbed the steps back to the house together after school, "but that was odd for Vera to be ripping apart people's bags like that, right?"

Joy rolled her eyes. "Mara, she thought she knew who'd stolen a priceless artifact from the library. I don't think it's strange she'd encourage a bag search."

"I'm with Joy on this one," Kira said, blushing when her crush beamed in her direction. "I mean, would I appreciate not having my stuff dumped out? Yeah, but I guess it was necessary."

Mara sighed and nodded as she entered the house. "Guess I've got to stop clinging to leads with dead-ends," she relented. She suddenly stopped dead, causing a bit of a pileup behind her.

"Don't just stop in doorways, Mara!" Kira yelped when she crashed into her best friend and Joy crashed into her. It was then, though, that she saw what made Mara halt in her tracks.

"Piper!" Joy cried, running around the stunned Mara and Kira to hug the girl standing in the foyer.

Mara and Kira exchanged bewildered glances, unsure of what the hell was going on. "I think I've finally lost it," Kira mused absently, trying to process the information being presented to her.

Patricia crossed her arms defensively from where she stood next to Amber. "What? You've never seen a twin before, Kira?"

"Not your twin!" she exclaimed, barely noting that Patricia's voice was back, too busy looking between Patricia and the stranger who shared Patricia's face. "Oh my god? You have a twin?"

"A twin you never told any of us about?" Amber chimed in, confused and rather unimpressed. She looked much better than she had earlier, clearly over whatever "allergic reaction" she'd been suffering from.

"Yep!" Patricia said, clearly not thrilled by Piper's arrival. "A twin with some explaining to do." She reached out and grabbed her sister's arm, tugging her up the stairs, which left the rest of them to follow in tow.

Once they were safely tucked away in the room Patricia shared with Joy and Mara, Patricia sat Piper down on the bed like a museum exhibit. The other girls, minus Joy, gawked at her, while she began her interrogation.

"Okay, shoot," she demanded, eyebrow raised menacingly.

Piper folded like a house of cards under her twin's stare. "I ditched a trip to Europe," she admitted, and Kira was shocked by how similar and yet vastly different her mannerisms were to Patricia's. Maybe it was silly to be so fascinated by a pair of twins when she herself was a twin, but something about the fact it was the secret identical twin of her friend and her brother's girlfriend made it just so bizarre. "The school thinks I went home ill; Mum and Dad think I'm in Milan for Music Week."

"No one would ditch a trip to Milan," Amber said, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the very thought. "It's every fashionista's spiritual home."

"Milan's okay," Piper explained, "it's my school that's the problem."

Patricia rolled her eyes so hard, Kira was legitimately afraid they might get stuck. "Oh, the special music academy for special music geniuses? Yeah, that must be rough ." She crossed to the nearest wall and leaned up against it, regarding Piper appraisingly. "So what? You wanted to come and see what school for muggles is like?"

Piper bit her lip and looked down at her hands. "Actually... I missed you, Trix."

Patricia looked like she didn't know whether to believe her or not, but Mara saved her from having to respond: "Look, this is touching and all, but how are we going to hide you from Victor?"

Joy pursed her lips in thought and plopped down on her bed. "Well," she said slowly, "so long as no one sees them together, it should be fine. I'm in favor."

Piper smiled gratefully at Joy before turning her pleading eyes on the other girls. Mara smiled nervously. "Okay, fine," she caved politely. "I'm in."

"Seriously? Milan?" Amber asked; Piper nodded. "What a waste." Piper and Patricia gave her twin— no pun intended— looks, and she cleared her throat. "Oh, right. In favor, definitely."

Kira bit her lip, looking between the identical sisters. There was just one nagging worry in her gut about the whole thing. "Does Eddie know?" she asked Patricia.

Her eyes widened. "No, he doesn't, and we're going to keep it that way!" she exclaimed.

Kira crossed her arms. "And why not? You know about—" She cut herself off, but Patricia got the message. "It's just weird, you know? To hide this from him. I mean, you're a twin too! It's weird it hasn't already come up!"

"She's got a point, Trish," Joy sang pointedly, and Kira understood by her tone this wasn't the first time this particular conversation had been brought up.

Patricia sighed, ignoring Piper's bemused looks. "I'd rather tell him myself than have him find out from bumping into her randomly," she said. "I don't know, just let me handle it? Please? I promise I won't do anything too drastic."

"Same goes for me, whatever this is about," Piper added. "I'll be the perfect houseguest. You won't even know I'm here!"

Mara leaned over and whispered in Kira's ear, "Why do I not believe either of them?"

Kira acknowledged her words with a grimace but relented. She really hated when she got dragged into other people's business. "Okay, okay, I'm in. I won't say anything."

"Okay, we need to keep this a secret just between us," Patricia said, laying the ground rules, "because the more people who find out, the more chance Victor will too. And then, we're toast." She stared down her group of accomplices. "Agreed?"

They nodded their assent, some more reluctantly than others.

"This might be fun!" Joy giggled, and Piper smiled warmly at her.

However, Kira didn't miss the expression on Patricia's face when she thought no one was watching. She looked pissed, and Kira knew this whole charade was going to be a bona fide disaster.