The House of Puzzles Read Online Free PDF

close to seemed to end up on the
receiving end of Mason Green’s wrath wasn’t Gerald’s doing. At least, Gerald frowned
into the darkness, not entirely his doing.
    A movement at the window caught his eye. He rolled his head to get a better look.
    Snow.
    Gerald kicked his legs from his sleeping bag and dropped silently to the ground.
He stepped across to the window in his thick woollen socks and peered outside.
    The air was alive with snowflakes, white wintry fluff dancing across a blackened
stage. Gerald stared at the scene with wonder. The ground was carpeted. Tree branches
stripped bare of leaves cradled thick clumps of snow in their arms. It was a postcard.
    Perfect.
    The setting was just what Gerald wanted for his grand plan to ask Ruby to be his
girlfriend.
    He had it all figured. It would be on a night just like this one. As the other students
made their way to the various after-dinner activities that the teachers had prepared
for them, Gerald would take Ruby by the arm and hold her back until they were alone.
It would be snowing and a few flakes would settle on the tip of Ruby’s nose. He would
brush them away, then say some special words (still to be determined—possibly a limerick)
and give her a gift with a ribbon tied around it. Ruby would be overjoyed by the
gesture and would agree to the whole girlfriend arrangement on the spot. Then it
would be a warm embrace and kisses and she would gaze at him in wonder and hug him
again and squeeze his hand and laugh and everything would be a blur of pulse-thumping
perfection.
    Too easy.
    Dr Crispin would hate it.
    And Gerald had already bought the perfect gift: a brand new copy of Zombie Viscera
Quest V for X-Box. And if Ruby didn’t like it, Gerald could always play it. Win–win.
    Now all Gerald had to do was go through with the plan.

    Breakfast the next morning was a rowdy affair as two hundred hungry and excited students
crammed the dining hall. The clatter of cutlery on crockery echoed in the rafters.
    Gerald and Sam eased onto a bench seat and put their plates, piled with bacon, fried
mushrooms, tomatoes and eggs, on the long wooden table. Felicity emerged from the
kitchen and wandered over to join them with a small bowl of porridge and a fruit
salad.
    Sam looked at Felicity’s breakfast and wrinkled his nose. ‘Have they run out of food
already?’ he asked.
    Felicity stabbed a piece of kiwi fruit with her fork and popped it in her mouth.
She peered at the mound of bacon that was congealing on Sam’s plate in a shimmering
swamp of fat and gristle. ‘One can only hope, Sam, that your life will be as rich
and full as your arteries are going to be,’ she said.
    Sam stuffed a rasher of bacon into his mouth. ‘You’re funny,’ he said through his
mouthful.
    Felicity blanched and looked away. ‘That is terribly sick-making.’
    Gerald upended a tomato sauce bottle over his plate, drowning its contents in thick
red goop. ‘Where’s Ruby?’ he asked. He was excited about his plan and already had
a good line on a limerick. Another day of drafting and it should be ready for the
big event.
    Felicity bit into a strawberry and looked back towards the kitchen. ‘She was only
a few behind me in the queue. She can’t be far away.’
    Gerald spotted her across the hall in her St Hilda’s maroon and navy tracksuit with
her blonde hair pulled into a ponytail. She was talking to a boy who had his back
to them. Then Gerald realised who it was.
    ‘Why is Ruby talking to Alex Baranov?’ Gerald asked.
    And more importantly, Gerald thought, why is she smiling?
    Felicity shifted along the bench to make space for Ruby as she joined them. ‘Good
morning everybody,’ Ruby said, cradling a bowl of honey-drizzled porridge in one
hand and a mug of tea in the other. ‘It’s so beautiful outside. All that snow last
night—’
    ‘What did Baranov want?’ Gerald asked, cutting her off mid-sentence.
    Ruby looked at Gerald with surprise. ‘And good morning to you too,