At lunch, Deuce sat down with Clawd and Romulus since Cleo was busy with her ghouls working on prom plans. Heath had wandered off with Manny after being blown off by Abbey...again which, bad as it sounded, was fine with Deuce today. Heath wasn't a bad guy but Deuce had serious things on his mind that the flame elemental just wouldn't understand.

Clawd, who was more observant than people gave him credit for, immediately asked, "So, what's up, dude?"

Deuce answered with a less than eloquent, "Huh?"

"You've been writing and taking off after class like...I don't know. So, what's up, you writing another song with Operetta?"

A brief pang of regret flashed through him. Writing that song had been a lot of fun and he wished he'd made more of an effort to maintain that friendship so that they could have done it again. If he had started making sure to keep his friends that were ghouls earlier then he might not have to be resorting to notes now and dreading the conversation he planned after school. Still, getting the guys on his side now might not be a bad idea. "No, not anything like that. You know that note I got earlier this week?"

Clawd nodded but Romulus shook his head. "What note?"

"Earlier this week, Cleo was really mad at me and I didn't know why until a ghoul left a note on my locker telling me about it."

"Why didn't she just-" He stopped as Clawd and Deuce looked at him. "Yeah, Cleo."

"Yeah, well, anyway, she seems really nice but she doesn't want me to know who she is 'cause she thinks it will cause problems."

Clawd nodded. "Dude, it would but at least it..." He trailed over and put down his burger. "She's not still leaving you notes, is she?"

"Well, yeah but-"

"Dude, Cleo's gonna bust a bandage that you have a secret admirer."

Deuce tensed. "She's not a secret admirer, she's nice and she's already been a good friend to me."

"But to keep writing to you."

"I asked her to." Deuce took a deep breath and held Clawd's gaze. "She's nice and she's not acting like a secret admirer. She's nice. Cleo needs to understand that I can have friends who happen to be ghouls."

Romulus tilted her head. "Normally, I'd say yeah you can. I mean, look at my pack, but after what happened the last time you hung out with us...Cleo's not going to agree."

Clawd nodded, "Yeah, and hiding this from her is not cool."

"I'm not gonna hide it from her. I'm gonna tell her after school today." Deuce's fist clenched in unaccustomed frustration. "She should trust me. I've never given her any reason not to. I've never cheated on her. I've been avoiding every ghoul in the school to reassure her. This is ridiculous, I haven't done anything wrong."

Clawd held up his hands. "Hey, dude, calm down. We know that, we're just..." He trailed off and looked over at Romulus.

The other werewolf nodded. "We know you're not doing anything wrong but we're not Cleo."

Deuce nodded. "Yeah, I know. It's just not fair and it's frustrating and...and I'm not giving up another friend."

Clawd leaned forward. "Dude, I get it that it's not fair but is some ghoul you don't even really know who doesn't even tell you her name worth risking your relationship with Cleo?"

"You don't get it, Clawd." The snakes on his head hissed, reflecting his internal anger. "This isn't about the notes. This is about her forcing me to drop friends. Operetta won't talk to me, I haven't seen Romulus outside of lunch in I don't know how long, I haven't made a new friend since then. I know she worries but this has gone too far for too long. I found someone willing to be a friend to me, who took a risk. I mean if she'd been caught dropping off those notes..." All three mansters shivered at the thought of what might have happened. "But she still took the risk. I can't be less brave than her, can I?"

Clawd and Romulus nodded in understanding.

Clawd tilted his head. "You want backup tonight when you tell her?"

Romulus grinned, "Yeah, or some undertakers when she kills you."

Decue laughed at their good-natured way of letting him know he could rely on them.

Purrsephone wasn't writing her return note during lunch. It was payback time for the vampiresses. It was all arranged and it might have been an older prank, a repeat, but it was a good one and would teach Belfrey Prep that cats had claws and didn't like being toyed with.

She and Meowlody were hidden near the edge of the roof of the entrance of the school. Being the editor of the fearbook, Toralei had arranged for the Belfrey Prep refugees to gather for a "look at our legacy" portrait to be "prominently featured" in the fearbook, a look back at all the major events of the year. The vampires had just eaten it up with all the inferred pomp and circumstance, just like Cleo's group had after Mashionals.

The Belfrey group were arranging themselves on the steps of the school, jockeying for best positions even though, if they thought about it for even a few minutes they'd remember that only their clothes were going to show up on camera. It was really kind of sad how eager they were to have their picture taken when vampires didn't even appear on camera. Still, that was just another reason to target them.

They could hear Toralei clearly. "Ok, everyone ready, 1, 2,-"

That was their signal. The twins quickly upended the two buckets of water, making sure to get the whole group as Toralei snapped pictures. Peering over the edge, they enjoyed the sight of the vampires realizing exactly what they had been doused with. The reek from the garlic water was strong even up here and the werecats breathed shallowly even as they giggled at the sight of the vampires pushing away from each other and trying to hold their wet clothes and hair away from themselves. Vampires couldn't stand the smell of garlic and for it to be all over their clothes and hair and skin...well it was no surprise that there was a mob fighting to get into the school to get to the bathrooms and Toralei made sure to capture it all on lovely film. Oh, this would definitely need a very prominent position in the fearbook...and maybe a few posters for the boards.

They were still laughing as they headed in a side entrance to grab some lunch before the bell rang.