29. A Very Unexpected Guest

"Are you guys awake?" Maxine whisper-yells from her bed.

"Yeah, I am." I whisper-yell back.

"I am." Kayla says.

"Me too." Jocelyn and AG say, and Hayley sits up from her mermaid suite.

"I guess everyone is awake. Do you guys hear that?" Maxine asks.

"I thought it was just me...." Kayla says.

I hear faint yelling in the distance.

"It's coming closer..." AG says.

"It sounds like they're saying, 'Where are you, I'm here'." Jocelyn points out.

"Weird, it does!" We say.

"Wait a sec, who's here? I thought the guards don't let anyone unexpected in." Kayla says.

"Do you wanna go investigate?" I ask. My friends get up and follow me out the door. "Look, someone's down there." I point down in the grand foyer.

"Who is that? I can barely see." AG says.

"I don't know, but let's find out." I say, and we carefully walk down the stairs.

There, I come face to face with someone I was totally not expecting to see.

Jack Spriggins.

"JACK!?" All of us yell simultaneously. "What the heck are you doing here?? How did you get in??"

"I told the guards I was part of your crew. They were expecting another one of ya, and they assumed it was me." Jack says.

"Jack. Why did you come? I didn't invite you." Jocelyn says.

"You told me you'd be here, so I thought I'd come hang out."

"Come hang out?? You're out of your mind!!" I say. This is crazy. Why is Jack Spriggins-out of all people-here?? I am so confused. I was expecting it to be my sister or something, but I know that's impossible.

"Jack, you can sleep right here on the cold hard floor tonight. You are not invited here." Kayla advises and leans over to whisper in my ear. "Jax will be infuriated."

"Good one, K. And yeah, not sure what Jax will do when he finds out." I say. Jack starts walking down the hall.

"I'm gonna go explore the place." Jack says, and darts off.

"NO!!" We all yell. Maxine and Jocelyn run after him.

Let's just say that the reason we're all so unhappy that Jack is here is because he's gotten worse over the years. He got kicked out of the MMC program (not sure why he was enrolled in the first place) for his change of ways.

"Should we ask Miri to get word to Jax? AG asks.

"Yes." We agree. I find the nearest mirror. "Miri. This is urgent."

The mirror starts swirling colors. "Hello Miss Cobbler, what seems to be the issue?" Miri says.

"I need to speak to Jax."

"Alright, one moment..." The mirror turns from ice blue to green to deep orange.

Jax comes into view. "What do you need at this time of night?"

"Jack Spriggins is here. We don't know why-"

"JACK!?" Jax yells. "I didn't invite him!!"

"I need you, Ollie, and some handcuffs over here, stat."

"No questions asked." The mirror goes back to normal.

☆𖣔︎᯽-𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓼𝓴𝓲𝓹-᯽𖣔︎☆

Maxine threw some gingerroot petals on Jack to paralyze him for a short time (the petals only last a few minutes), and now Jax is busy handcuffing him.

"You were uninvited, and it's rude to invite yourself. I'm locking you in a room where you can sleep on the cold hard floor like Kayla said, and we'll deal with you when the sun comes up in a few hours." Jax locks the door from the outside with a paralyzed Jack inside. "You don't know how mad I am at you!"

"Geez, that was one crazy moment." Kayla says.

"Sure was." I agree.

"Well, now we can go back to bed and deal with him in the morning." Maxine says.

☆𖣔︎᯽-𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓼𝓴𝓲𝓹-᯽𖣔︎☆

Most of my friends went back to their room and now I'm standing here in the grand foyer talking to Jax and Ollie about what to do with Jack in the morning. The moon and a few candles are the only light source illuminating the room.

"I told the security guards that we had Hayley coming, so they can let her in if she says she's with our party. Hayley came in through the docking area and so the guards that I told never saw her, that's why they let Jack in." Jax sighs.

"That explains it." I say.

"Maybe we should ask Miri to tell Headmistress Flora what happened." Ollie suggests.

"That would get him outta here pretty fast." I say. "But definitely in the morning, because I don't know if Headmistress Flora would like us bothering her at this time of night."

"Alright. Let's do that." Jax says. "Ollie, we should probably get back to our rooms. See ya later, Gilly."

"Alright, bye!" I start walking back up the Grand staircase as Jax and Ollie head down a hallway to the left.

☆𖣔︎᯽-𝓽𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓼𝓴𝓲𝓹-᯽𖣔︎☆

I'm almost to my room when Jax and Ollie come running at warp speed towards me. "Whoa, guys, what's up?"

Jax inhales sharply. "Your sister is here."