Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 44th cycle. Now cycle 45!

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** UPDATED WITH CYCLE 45 CHEAT SHEET ** Check it out to find out about shift days!

This is a shift day [see above]. There was another upload this morning: Brothers to Sunshine.

"Mystery Takeover"
New Directions

1. The Case of the Camps

Kurt was gone now. It still felt odd to be in the choir room for Glee practice and not find him there. Now he was at Dalton, and as happy as they were for him, that he could try and turn things around, they still missed him terribly. He was friend and family, and his departure had not been so much by choice. They still wanted him to know he was part of them, not a foe all of a sudden just because he was in a rival club. Then one day the idea came.

It had started between the three of them: Rachel, and Mercedes, and Tina. Standing about the choir room one day, they had sort of nudged the piano and, in the process, revealed an odd sort of stain. Leaning in, it was hard to tell. It kind of looked like blood, but not really…

"Fake blood?" Tina guessed, and then Rachel realized what it was.

"Must have been from that one mystery dinner, the circus, with all the blood packs." They smiled instinctively. That had been one of their favorite ones. But then they paused, remembering. "Guess we won't be having any of those again anytime soon," Rachel stood, as did the others.

"Yeah…" Tina sighed, but then Mercedes looked to them.

"Why not?"

"Why not what?" Tina asked.

"Why can't we still have the dinners? He's not that far away," Mercedes pointed out. Rachel gasped.

"That's what we should do, we should do it," she nodded. "We'll make the mystery this time, surprise him." The idea found two supporters immediately. "Okay, then first we need to make sure everyone's up for it. We just need to go and ask, there's three of us, we each ask three…"

"So Lauren, too," Tina figured by the numbers. Rachel paused. She was so used to their number twelve including Kurt, but Tina was right, now their twelfth was her.

"Yeah, Lauren, too," she nodded. "I'll ask her, and Finn, and Quinn."

"I'll ask Puck, and Brittany and Santana," Mercedes followed.

"So I'll ask Mike, and Sam, and Artie," Tina rounded it up.

"Great, meet back here when it's done," Rachel told them, and they were off. They would soon return, with everyone on board, even Lauren. "It's… a work in progress with her, but she's in."

"Well what do we do?" Tina asked. Rachel didn't miss a beat, reaching in her bag for a notebook and pen.

"First thing we need is a setting, I'm thinking kind of classic horror," Rachel gestured like the visionary she aspired to be.

"Summer camp," Mercedes pitched in, and Tina nodded in agreement.

"I like it," Rachel scribbled it down. "But wait, campers or counsellors?" They gave her a look. "Counsellors, right."

"Maybe two camps, a boys camp and a girls camp," Tina suggested.

"Friendly rivals," Mercedes added.

"Yes, and yes, keep going," Rachel kept on writing.

They continued laying out the information, plotting out by taking a cue from what they'd usually get in their envelopes. When it came to making and assigning characters, the dry erase board was invaded by three handwritings, three colors, as they all provided names, suggested pairings of character to player, to go along with what they had already planned, relationships past and present, friendships and rivalries. When they were done, there was just one thing left, crucial to this whole thing of course: which names would receive a special letter? V for victim, K for killer…

"Okay…" Rachel nodded to herself as they stepped back. "Now what?"

"We have to make the envelopes," Tina told her. They looked to each other… They needed envelopes.

The next morning, after a group session of copying down the information for each of their participants, the envelopes were filled, sealed, and identified. The stack of thirteen was split between them – of course they'd still made ones for themselves, and each girl left to find the same people they had approached the day before. The last envelope would be delivered last, together.

Rachel went and sought out her three. The first she found was Quinn, by her locker. "Hey," she called her up before she could walk away.

"You guys are done already?" she was surprised.

"Yeah, it wasn't that bad, actually, but then there were three of us, and… But, anyway, here," she pulled out Quinn's envelope and handed it to her. "You play Charlotte. We all play counsellors at a pair of summer camps, one for boys, one for girls. Your character is dating one of the guys in the other camp, three guesses which one."

"Alright," Quinn smirked.

"Great, gotta go," she moved on when she spotted Finn down the hall. "Finn, wait up!" He turned and waited for her to get to him. Things were still kind of awkward between them since the break-up, but they weren't going to let that stop them, not with this project especially. "Here," she handed him his envelope.

"Thanks. So who do I play?" She explained about the summer camp again.

"You play Tommy, you have all the information in there," she breathed.

"Who do you play?" he asked.

"Daphne, from the girls camp," she told him, soon moving along after telling him she'd keep him posted.

"Hey, Berry." She hadn't seen Lauren first, startled when she heard her voice. "Is that for your murder thing?" she nodded to the envelopes.

"Ah, yes," she confirmed, handing her the last of her envelopes. "Your character is called Becca, you'll find everything you need in there. Now I know this is your first time…"

"Please, it's not like it's hard," she scoffed.

"No, I know, but the rest of us have been doing this a while, so there are certain guidelines we follow, I added those in your envelope." Lauren nodded to herself, moving down the hall without another word. "Okay, see you there!" Rachel called after her, mildly concerned.

Tina had gone looking for him before anyone else. "Mike!" she called when she saw him, sprinting to him with a grin. "Look what I got," she presented him with his envelope.

"Sweet, who do I play?"

"You are Joshua, and you have a girlfriend named Annie…" He looked to her, silently asking with a pointed finger. "Yes, I'm your Annie," she beamed, and he kissed her. "Okay, I have to go find the others." She went a few steps, came back and kissed him again before running off for real. She got to Artie next, handing him his envelope, explaining again about the camps.

"I like that," he nodded, inspired.

"You play Nathan, and well… your girlfriend and your ex are best friends," she blurted out.

"That sounds about right," he frowned. After leaving him, she had found her final target in Sam. She told him about the camps, and he listened, nodding along.

"You will be Evan," she told him.

"Great," he tapped the envelope. "I think it's really good you guys are doing this for him," he commented, and she smiled. "I'll be there."

Mercedes had gone and found Puck first. He had given much the same reaction as Sam, completely up for doing this for their friend. So she gave him the whole pitch. "Your character's name is Simon."

"Okay," he took the envelope. "What about yours?"

"Veronica," she told him. Her last two envelopes would be handed out together, she figured, even if things had been kind of off between them lately. She found the two Cheerios at their adjoining lockers. "Hey, guys, I've got your envelopes for the dinner. We're doing summer camp, boys versus girls."

"Nice," Brittany grinned.

"You play Kristy, and Santana you'll be Ruby," Mercedes explained as she went.

"How do I die this time?" Brittany asked, curious. Mercedes had sort of been waiting on that one.

"Actually, you're not dying in this one," she revealed, and the girl froze.

"But… I always do," she defended.

"We know, but we want it to be a surprise for him, and, well, your dying wouldn't be one." Brittany looked to Santana, shaking her head.

"It'll be fine," she promised with a shrug.

"Yeah, I guess," Brittany gave a bit of a pout.

There was one more envelope to hand out, and at the end of the day they had hurried to get in Rachel's car, knowing they had to hurry if they wanted to catch him. When they arrived, he was coming out of the building. "Kurt! Hey!" Rachel called and he turned, startled at the sight of them.

"What are you doing here?" he asked as they came up and each hugged him in turn.

"We've got a surprise for you," Tina announced. "Go on," she looked to Mercedes, who pulled out the envelope and presented it to him. He held it, confused at first. He had never been on this end of the invitation process.

"We put this together for you, everyone's on board, all we need is you to say yes," Rachel explained with a smile. Now he got it.

"It's a murder mystery?" he asked.

"We'd never planned one before, but we wanted to, so you'd know that no matter what, we're all still with you," Mercedes told him and he smiled. "Is that okay?"

"It's more than okay," he looked on the verge of tears.

"The game takes place in a summer camp. On one side of the lake it's the Arrowhead Boys' Camp, and on the other side of the lake there's the Weatherbee Girls' Camp. You play Walt, my boyfriend," Rachel revealed, to a snort from Tina and Mercedes. "Think you'll be ready for Saturday?"

"I can't wait…" he smiled to his friends.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)