It was a typical Wednesday morning at Ridgeway High School. The first bell had just rung, students were milling about in the hallways. It took Megan Marx all of thirty seconds to go from zero to completely wazzed off. She rounded the corner, heading towards her girlfriend's locker and totally lost it.

Instead of her pretty blonde, she had walked up on David Sharkey and his spacey redheaded girlfriend, joined at the face.

"JESUS! What is it with you two? You think I wanna go blind?"

They stopped momentarily. A loose, flirty smile crossed Trina Shapiro's face, as though she had been completely oblivious to the fact that the champion cage fighter had been standing right there.

"Ooooh, Hey…"

Megan grumbled. It wasn't as though the straight couple offended her with their straight-people love, it was simply that she was in a bad mood. She was perturbed, solely because her girl wasn't here. She was going all wiggy inside, but, to her, it all made perfect sense.

The Puckett girls rounded the corner, much more chummy and chatty than usual – at least at school. They babbled to each other in their own way. It was simply a twin thing. The girls walked together, something of an unlikely pair, in that they were so different. They babbled to one another, completely unconcerned with the world at large. They had finally – like their mama and aunt before them – found common ground with one another and could relate to each other not only as sisters, but as grown, mini-adult versions of themselves. In one another, they had legitimately found a person besides their partner to enjoy on a somewhat intimate level – someone with whom to share secrets and one who could be trusted with anything under heaven itself.

Ashley Puckett didn't completely realize what had happened until it had. Before she knew what had hit her, she had been snatched up in big, muscley arms and lifted her off her feet. The blonde didn't mind the attention by any means, although the fact that she was getting it at school , scared the ever-loving chizz out of her.

"Megan… Jeez… what gives?!"

The fighter held her close, pressing her mouth to the pretty blonde girl's ear. She whispered to her, the way she typically did when they were all alone and the lights were out.

"I love you so much… you need to understand… I can't do all of this without you…"

This wasn't the Megan Marx that she knew; Ashley was afraid for her. She let herself be held. She didn't care if her sister heard.

"Honey… you're scaring me… what's this about?"

"I just… it's… I love you…"

Ashley understood that much.

"Megan, talk to me, Sweety…"

Melanie Puckett interrupted. She felt that she needed to be the voice of reason.

"Uh, you two do realize that you're at school, right?"

Megan Marx shot the Nerd a harsh glare. Melanie could read the fighter's eyes.

"Alright… I'll wait for Bridget over there, Shoosh…"

It didn't take Melanie's genius-level IQ to see what was going on. Something – she wasn't entirely sure what just yet – was eating at the redhead from the inside. She wasn't sure entirely where it started, but she knew that it involved her sister. Though they never spoke of it aloud, the Puckett twins – like Mama and Mythical Melanie before them – were everything to one another.

Melanie spotted her own precious little partner some fifteen feet away. She ran to her, giving her a dainty, non-descript hug. It was no secret that they were a couple, but she also felt that there was something to be said for discretion. She absolutely had to talk to Bridget. Unlike Megan Marx, Melanie and Bridget kept no secrets from one another.

LATER THAT DAY…

Melanie picked at her lunch grumpily. It had taken her half of Physics and both study halls before she deduced what was going on, but much like one of her favorite literary characters – Conan Doyle's famous detective – she'd cracked it, and it was exactly as Sir Arthur had said it would be. "When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

Bridget held Melanie's hand. They both could tell that Megan was staring at her. Melanie poked her salad with her fork.

"What do you want, Megan?"

The redhead grumbled a curse under her breath. Melanie felt snarky.

"You know I speak four languages and have a 168 IQ, right? I can hear you…"

The eyes that looked up at her, radiating hurt, weren't dark and set in a tanned, olive-toned face. They were bright blue.

The implication was perfectly clear. This wasn't to be discussed.

"Uh… Look, Megan… I'm sorry about… whatever's going on…"

Bridget Xi had had enough.

"You're all being dumb… whatever's going on, you're all… look, I love you all…"

Bridget paused, locked eyes with the fighter, and smirked.

"…okay, so maybe I don't love you… but anyway… we're all friends and we can trust each other…"

Across the table, Megan bowed her head. She inhaled deeply. She was all whipped up, but knew fully well that this wasn't the time or place for any of it. She knew the little nerds would understand – they were good like that – they would find out why she was all wazzed off, but it wouldn't matter. The nerds would tell her it was all okay, and even better, they would make it so.

LATER THAT EVENING AT THE PUCKETT HOME…

Carly spoke to Sam in a hushed tone in the kitchen. The more things changed, the more they truly had stayed the same.

"…Dammit, Sam… if I knew, I'd tell you, Honey!..."

"Carls, don't you think you might just be blowing this a little bit out of proportion?"

Carly didn't think so.

"Sammm..."

Sam had to smile. Carly made it just too easy.

"Ya know what, Cupcake? You're kinda cute when you whine, but it's really not ladylike…"

Sam poked Carly gently in the navel. It was what she did in private, behind closed doors, when her Cupcake needed to lighten up. Carly giggled quietly. She knew that Sam loved her. The blonde spoke quietly. This needed to stay between them.

"Just let this drop, okay, Carls? Mama's got this…"

Sam pulled the brunette close, kissing the crown of her head.

MOMENTS LATER…

Megan Marx walked through the living room, ready to head down the hallway that led to the twins' shared bedroom, where she and Carly and Sam's eldest had plans to 'study'. The problem – at least for the redhead – was that this wasn't home to a normal family. This house was home to Seattle's only invisible ninja.

A slender hand clamped down on the redhead's shoulder.

"Uh, not so fast there, Missy…. We gotta talk…"

This was clearly not Megan's day. She mumbled to herself. Unfortunately for the prizefighter, Sam Puckett had the hearing of a hunting dog.

"What was that?"

"…Oh chizz…"

Megan knew it would be a long night.