Metrocity and Bernard walked out of science class on Monday, both gushing over their recent A. As Mindy walked by with her new friends—cheerleaders, of course—she scoffed. "Nerds!" she taunted.

"Ollo to you, too!" Metrocity called back. "And we're not nerds, we're dorks!"

"The best dorks!" Bernard reminded her, and they laughed as Mindy "hmphed" and walked away.

Suddenly there was a crash outside, and Metrocity smiled at the distinct reverberations of a bomb going off and the unmistakable sounds of shattering marble somewhere nearby.

"I gotta go!" she told her friend. "Can you cover for me?"

"No," he replied with a straight face, and they both cracked up as Metrocity ran from the building and met her father only yards from the school. Good times...

***Break***

"And as it turns out, enough play dough with enough applied force and heat, combinined in the right conditions, can trigger a large enough explosion to break through even igneous rock." Metrocity finished recounting the tale of the bank robbers and bit into her turkey sandwich.

"Fascinating!" Bernard exclaimed, jotting down a quick note and ignoring her slip-up in speech. "And you said earlier that they used a flamethrower to apply the heat and pressure, right? Are those even legal?"

"Mhm. I read about it on this weird website. Oh! And what's really weird is—"

"Awww!" A familiar voice sounded, and Metrocity braced herself for another battle of insufferably mean vs. suffocatingly nice.

"What is it now, Mindy? Would you like to threaten me, or mock our dorkiness? Because as you know, we are the dorkiest!"

"Oh, no, I just wanted to congratulate you both!"

"On our science project?" Metrocity asked warily, sharing an uncertain glance with her best friend.

"No, silly; on yourselves! You make such a cute couple, I'm so happy for you!" Metrocity turned bright violet, and Bernard flushed violently.

"What are you getting at?"

"I just said it—you two are obviously dating, and I think you're perfect for each other!"

"We're not dating!" Metrocity shouted in a voice almost too high to be her own, jumping to her feet as Bernard hid behind a textbook, still as shy as ever.

"That's absurd! It's ridiculous! It's positively preposterous!"

"So why are you... Wait, are you blushing? I can't tell. You're purple now, not pink, so I think—"

"I am not blushing!" Metrocity yelled. "I'm flushing; there's a difference!"

"Oh is there? I seem to have struck a nerve!"

"You'll find it's dangerous to cross me." Metrocity growled, grabbing Mindy and shoving her against the nearest wall. "I've tried to be nice to you, but you're just an insufferable little witch who has nothing better to do than humiliate others!"

"So what would you do if I told the school you were dating?" she asked smugly. In reality, Metrocity would probably do very little, or, even more likely, nothing at all. She didn't care what other people thought—though she knew Bernard sometimes did, and she might be tempted to knock a few heads together just to make him feel more comfortable. On her own, she'd most likely ignore it, but Metrocity's eyes narrowed dangerously all the same—it was all about presentation, after all.

"You don't want to find out."

A chill ran up Mindy's spine.

Author Comments:

Yes, so if you want to see Mindy get crushed...Mhm. :D Yes, everybody thinks Bernard and Metrocity like each other. Do they? *Shrug* I don't know. Is Mindy going to die? No, not yet. Is she a main antagonist? Perhaps. She's certainly persistent enough. Where did Damion go to? You'll find out. You'll find out...