Disclaimer: Never have, never will, own Detentionaire.

So Nora's on the Reality Border (to remind what that is look a few chapters back). And she's following The Serpent who's snuck in the school? Any guess which episode this is?

Just a reminder: This is rated T

All's Fair:

Daydreams of Snake Oil Part 2!

Nora's POV

I'm finally back (sorta) and what do I decide to do? Shadow the very guy who had me locked up in Coral Grove, and is currently skulking the school he infected with lice! "Dude's got serious issues…" No one can see or hear me while I'm on the Reality Border, so even with all the kids just literally within yelling distance I can't tell them anything that's happening unless they fall asleep.

"So I guess I'll just have to bet on them noticing before he gets what he wants?" But just what does The Serpent want? He used Jenny to get the lice into the school, snuck in, and reported the outbreak himself. What could he gain? On top of that he set up a one way communication that goes right to my cell in Coral Grove. What he doesn't know is that I'm right there seeing everything that's happening. "Ugh, where are you guys?" I talk, just to let out my own frustration. The detention group should have been all over this! "There's an enemy, a big hitter I might add, roaming the school! There are at least six- no, five of you walking around, why can't you see him?"

Because 1. The Serpent is like a master Ninja who's really good at sneaking.

2. Only the four boys have actually seen and identified him (how did we not tell the girls about him?)

And… 3. If they did spot him, I would not want them engaging him.

No one except me, who they currently think is dead, can stand up to him in a fair fight. And I've seen that The Serpent hardly ever fights fair. I keep trying to think of what he could gain by reporting lice in school, but nothing comes up. Then he decides to talk to me in Coral Grove.

"Nora~! It's me! Now, just to catch you up, I have reported the lice I sent to your school. So no hard feelings about that. Okay?"

I can't even respond. "If you love hearing yourself talk so much, get a tape recorder. Bet even you would find yourself annoying and creepy."

"Here's where things get complicated. Try to keep up."

I growled and gritted my teeth.

"When the Outbreak Experts arrive there will be a mandatory attendance search in the auditorium. Every single student will be there."

You don't need to elaborate, genius. I had these before when I was a kid.

"The medical crew with be inspecting each head looking for lice. These bugs are easily dealt with a special shampoo and will be gone in a day. See? None of your precious students will be harmed."

As traitorous and too soon as it was; I couldn't help let out a sigh of relief. He wasn't going to hurt them from the beginning. He wasn't going to break Casandra's deal. As usual the Council had just been trying to rile me up. None of the kids were going to be hurt.

"Oh! But you don't know what I'm really after, do you?"

Oh… yeah. Forgot about that.

"I am going to disguise myself as one of the medics! That way I can get close enough. To what, you think? Why, Lee Ping of course!"

So Lee's his target after all. But didn't he just say no one would be hurt? Leave it to this guy to say one thing but do the complete opposite the next second. Just what is his problem with Lee? Something in my head tells me that the answer is so close, but I'm just not sure what it is! The hints lead to one answer, the question is The Serpent's own honesty. He's always lied about who he is so far, can I bet on anything he says? "Just like a real serpent all that comes out of his mouth are hisses and poison." I guess… that's just the end of it. "That's the most depressing thing I've ever thought about a human being."

"I'll let you know why: I need his DNA."

"Huh?"

"I already have samples from Mr. and Mrs. Ping. His is the last piece, and then I'll finally have my answers. Sorry, Nora but I can't share them with you. That would be cheating. Ha-ha-ha!"

Urgh… I hate that laugh!

"You know what, Stink-Ninja?" I blurted out hovering in front of him. "S**** you! I'm going to find my kids and I am going to warn them!" I had no idea how, or by what means. I'm a ghost that they just can't see. But twice now Lee had clearly felt when I touched him on the Reality Border. "Sensei says we have a connection. I just need to find out how to use it while he's awake!" I took off flying. Because I could!

Finally away from Samurai Stinks-a-lot, I found Lee along with Biffy, Barrage and Tina. I saw Lee blush and look away from Tina when she ran up, he looked really uncomfortable. Tina did the same, but quickly spoke to the still-in-place cyborg Principal. "Barrage! A. Nigma High has a lice outbreak!" Several students around them gasped. Some who were already scratching their heads. I heard Chaz run away and scream like a little girl. "That's the second time he's done that." I managed to laugh.

"Lice?!" Barrage yelled out. "In my school?" Here comes the disregarding of the wiser. "Horse-hooey with a side of picked chives and gravy! And a most likely story."

No sooner had Barrage spoken, sirens were heard outside and men in protective suits with toxic symbols came through the front doors. "School is quarantined. You've got lice!"

While the students groaned, Barrage smiled. "I do love a good lockdown." He pulled out a remote and pressed a button. "Why do all the insane, irresponsible people have those?" I asked. No answer, obviously. All the open doors automatically shut and locked, and then covered over by a metal door similar to the one in my cell. Even the windows were shut in the same way. Great, looks like everyone gets to see what life in prison is like. Actually, I noticed not many of the students reacted much. "Geez, maybe you guys are more ready for Coral Grove than I thought."

I followed the group, with the new addition of Holger, and even Barrage was walking with them. This was the most cordial and polite I had ever seen him be with them. Which says a lot! Eye-bots were rounding up students to go to the auditorium to be 'disinfected'. Tina asked why the experts arrived so fast when no one reported, and Barrage just brushed her off. I placed a hand on Tina's shoulder to see if she would react like Lee did. But as she tried to talk to him and he sadly walked away, she showed no reaction to me at all. "Guess it's just Lee who can tell then." I groaned, "Man, I hope this doesn't cause any future mental problems for the poor kid."

I flew ahead to the auditorium to see what tall, dark and creepy was up too. I couldn't find him at first, until I picked out a medic aid in a full white suit and mask. I had to admit, if he hadn't told me his plan, I wouldn't have known he was there. I flew back to Lee who had just gotten in line. I looked back to the Serpent relieving the current aid and taking his place. I have to warn Lee right now! He came up to Biffy and they started talking.

"Hey," Lee said to Biffy, "uh, where's Holger?"

Biffy pointed up by a hope behind him. "Trying to find out if he can fly."

What?

A second later Holger came crashing down onto the mats. Is this what they've been doing instead of looking for me? Ugh! Biffy laughed, "Flying? Oh to-the-no he did not!"

Kimmie walked by saying to him. "I thought taking advantage of the already disadvantaged was cruel. Gee, who's the mean one now?" Huh, good call by the mean girl. This school is really full of surprises. Biffy stuttered and tried to come up with an excuse, but he ended up dropping his shoulders and saying, "Ah, she's totally right."

I nodded. Holger shot up looking unharmed. "Ooooo! Holger be having strange feeling!"

"Like what?" Lee asked. "A lack of feeling in your arms, buddy?"

"Noo! It be the feeling of on tingling iciness. Being mixed in with feeling of friend and feeling of sorrow and fear."

"You shouldn't have jump head-first, Holg." Lee said

"It is Nora! Nora is here!"

My eyes almost jumped out of my head. Holger knows! He can tell I'm here! Now's my chance! I fly up behind Lee as the line moves forward.

Biffy talked to Holger. "Dude, look no more testing that involves serious bodily injury. And stay away from using that name. She's gone; no one knows where she is." So Biffy thinks so too. He looks sad.

"Aw, Holger be not accepting this. Friend-Nora is still with us!"

Lee said to him, "No Holger, she's not here. Didn't you say she got drowned in you dream?"

"Holger only see fox go in water. She could have come out! Holger is being sure of this! Nora be having magic powers too! Remember?"

I placed my hand on Lee's shoulder. He shivered which meant he felt it. Then I squeezed my hand tighter on him, he rubbed his arms like he was completely cold. I quickly let him go.

"Lee?" Biffy had noticed too. "What's up? It's not cold in here."

"I feel the cold. It happened last night after I had a dream about, Nora."

Both Biffy and Holger's eyes popped open.

"Oh-hoho! Lee of Pings be missing Nora most of all! What was being your dream?"

Biffy pulled him off Lee and set back on the ground. "Seriously, stop that! We all miss her so sure Lee had a dream about her." However, Biffy had a curious look as he looked in Lee's direction. "Sooo… what exactly happened in your dream?"

Lee glared at him. Then dropped his scowl when he saw Holger nodding eagerly. "Well… at first I was happy to see her. Like, really happy. Yesterday really sucked and I needed her around." Biffy and Holger shared a look of understanding before going back to Lee. "Then I told her she couldn't really be here because it was just a dream. She looked sad." Because I had been. I needed Lee to believe me and he didn't. Was it because I wasn't there in a time when he needed me? "She said that she was alive, but she didn't say how or where. She told me a few cryptic things, and then I woke up."

I had been cryptic? I face-palmed because I hadn't meant too. My only company lately has been Sensei Hong and the bad guys who are always cryptic. It must have rubbed off on me. "Or I forgot to tell him…"

"When I woke up I was completely warm. And then…"

A bit of hope! A slip of doubt.

Holger interjected. "And then there was coldness, yah?"

"Well… sort of. It's just on my shoulder. Just that one spot. I don't know how to explain it. Just now that same feeling came back, and then spread all over my body."

Biffy shivered. "That's creepy."

"That is Nora!" Holger cried, joyfully. "She be telling you she is close by with chills. And in dream times!"

Can't someone more convincing than Holger be explaining this? I'm in agony over here, and they're moving closer!

"Or Ping's been eating chicken before bed too." Biffy pushed in. "Nora's always straight with us; she wouldn't be sending 'cryptic' messages. She'd just tell us."

"C'mon Biffy!" I squeezed Lee's shoulder again, and poked his head.

"Ow!" He rubbed the back of it. "Okay, that is weird."

"It's nothing, but stress." Biffy assured him. "All in your head. There might be a chance Nora's still alive. But we've discussed this, so no it might not be likely. None of us are happy with that. Remember how Jenny got?"

"Ooo! Ooo! Holger remember!" Holger jumped excitedly, "Jenny of Jerkins became extra loud, then refused to accept other words saying Nora is among Valkyries. Instead saying brave Nora is still alive and in hiding!"

Oh, Jenny… I had noticed she was particularly snappy this morning. And when low-life, Serpent told her he knew me she perked up. "Is Jenny the only one looking for me?" The way things sound: Everyone, except Holger and maybe Jenny, think I'm gone for good because of The Serpent. That guy was just annoying, but there's going to be consequences for this! I can't get them out of the line, there's nothing I can do but watch… again.

Lee looked down and to the side. "I kinda want to believe that she's right. Nora's like… one of our best friends now and…"

"Look just stop!" Biffy cut in, "All this is just leaving us depressed and worried. Besides if Nora were here, she'd probably be telling us to focus on the task at hand. Which currently is: …uh, nothing."

"No. I'd be telling to start paying attention and being more open-minded to see that I'm right behind you, and that arch-enemy number one is only a few feet away!"

Biffy cast a glance over at Kimmie. She saw him but only turned back away from him. I sighed, "Looks like all of us are having relationship-related issues. Wait, what am I saying?"

"Ah, not to be worrying." Holger placed a comforting hand on Biffy, "Kimmie is only pretending to have the madness feelings, she really has the love-smell for you! Just like the love-smell you have for her."

Love-smell? Could Holger be talking about… pheromones? That would take a really sensitive nose to pick up and identify. Is Holger able to read people's emotional states based on the smell he picks up from them? I'm forced to admit Holger been on a pretty on target lately. With the thing in the Tunnels, his dream about what would happen to me and Lee, and… didn't he guess that Principal Wurst was down in the Tunnels too? Holger may really have something from the Eclipse! C'mon Lee, you can put together these clues. If he does maybe he can believe that I'm really here!

And, the most miraculous thing I've seen all day, it looks like he does!

"First you have a dream about me getting my heart crushed; now you're picking up love-smells?" Lee had his heart crushed? When? Did something happen with Tina…or Jenny? Aw man, if that happened the day I disappeared, that would really suck.

"Jaa!" Holger nodded. "And Lee is mentioning, he has been extra smelly for Tina lately. Pee-yew! Take a shower, Monsuier Love-Sick!" (A/N: I know the spelling is wrong, I'm just trying to write it the way he said it.)

I laughed. It was the first time I had laughed so hard in days! Holger had put it hilariously, but it was more obvious Lee had a thing for Tina, and I knew she had crush on him too. I almost didn't catch what Lee said next.

"What? No!" He's blushing so hard! "I mean… Okay, you're right." He admitted it! I nodded in approval. Good job, Holger. "Maybe you're like Captain Love-Vibes or something." The way he said it, Lee affirmed that believed the things Holger said now. Not wasting my chance, I put my hand on his shoulder again. Lee shivered.

"What is Nora saying?" Holger asked.

"Oh my gosh! Nora? Holger, how is she doing this?" He believes! So cliché, but so right now. I tap him on the shoulder, poke his head then tap his other shoulder. He shivers with each feeling of cold.

"Dude?" Biffy looks weirded out. "Er… Nora?" I pat Lee on the back twice.

Lee has a smile that's a mixture of joy and confusion. "It's really her!" He whispers to his friends.

Holger looks excited while Biffy is scratching his head not understanding this at all. An explanation doesn't matter to me now. They know! I did it! They finally know! With no one to see me I do my own little victory dance. "Oh yay! Who's the Dream Master? I am! I am!"

"OW!" Mrs. Ping's voice breaks me out of my celebration. "Watch it with the rough stuff." She says to the aiii- SERPENT! When did the boys move this close? Oh no, oh no! I still need to tell them. They still don't know one of our most dangerous enemies is in disguise! As Mrs. Ping gets a cleared stamp on her hand she looks strictly at Lee.

"Lee, you better not fail the test." Oh for the love a- This lady has real priority issues!

"C'mon Mom," Lee tries to tell her, "it's a lice-outbreak; it's not that kind of test."

"No excuses!" And she walks away. Maybe I can't compare her to my mom… but there are plenty more examples for me to use.

Lee sighs and starts walking up for his turn. I know I can't stop him, so I try to hang on to his shoulder. He shudders and tries to brush it off like its dust, but I stay even as he sits down. "Lee Ping!" I yell out as I lean in front of his face. "Mortal enemy at six o'clock!" I glare dangerously at The Serpent. His hand brushes the top of Lee's head and he plucks one red hair.

Drat! I take my hand off Lee and glare right at The Serpent,

"Ow!" Lee yelps and sends a glare behind him. "Is that really necessary?"

The Serpent giggles, which immediately gives him away. Lee quickly stands up and looks at him. "No, but it's way more fun."

"Tried to warn ya, buddy." I shake my head.

"Guys!" Lee yells over to Biffy and Holger. "It's The Serpent!"

The Serpent only has like a half-second head start, but he's out of their reach by the time he reaches the auditorium door. I follow behind them. As they run down the hallways, I stay with the guys for a second.

"He can't go far, the school's in lockdown!" Lee says.

"That's right!" Biffy laughs, "This time he's trapped on our turf."

I have a good feeling that Biffy has a plan, but they might still need help hunting this jerk down so I zip ahead and catch up to him. Right as I do he's taking off the disguise he put over his regular clothes and talking to his hidden phone again.

"What's the point in winning if no one knows, eh?" This arrogant jerk just did all this to brag before he's even won.

"You haven't won yet, Snake-Boy." I say. "You still don't know how you're going to get out of here." I silently thanked Barrage for his obsession with prison-like security. Even The Serpent would have a difficult time getting out, Council member or not. The only other way out is the Tunnels which requires one of the two keys that he does not have and Lee does. Point: Good Guys.

The Serpent reaches the library and throws away the disguise. I know he's trying to get out via the Tunnels now. After all there's an elevator right to his own office in there. He goes straight into the Genius clubroom… and is just as surprised as I am to see all three of the kids who were so far behind him, standing right in front of his only exit.

"You're not getting away this time!" Lee tells him.

"Way to go, boys!" I cheer from behind.

Serpent however, despite being blocked of his escape, was still his confident self. "Really? I'm intrigued." He pulled out his out his bamboo long staff. "How are you going to stop me?"

Oh, double-drat! This is the opposite of an ambush.

"Good question!" Lee turned to Biffy standing next to him. "How are we stopping him?"

"I don't know that's Nora's job!" Aw, Biffy… "Holg! Use your superpowers!" What?

Holger went right up to The Serpent and… sniffed him?

"Ah! Tiny love-smell on you, but overpowered under lifetime of sadness and much loneliness." Holger sounded like he felt sorry for him. But if he's accurate, that means that even The Serpent has someone he actually likes. "I wonder who the 'love-smell' is for." Maybe for someone Cassandra set him up with and he works with. I noticed Serpent looked confused for second, but regained composure.

"Boys, it's time to stand aside." Serpent pulled out a scanning card. I realized that was how he had been planning to get into the Tunnels. Lee had mentioned something about the Council having technology that could mimic the keys. "Take the card, Holger!" I yelled out.

Surprisingly, Holger was actually able to. The Serpent kicked him to the ground and Holger swallowed the card!

"Not bad Holger! Not what I had in mind… but not bad."

"What did you do!?" Serpent roughly jabbed Holger in the stomach with his staff, "Spit it out!" Holger was able to hold it in. I wanted to laugh, yet I couldn't.

"Pile on!" Biffy called out. He and Lee jumped at The Serpent, but he was able to leap up with his staff and run out. I wanted to stay with the boys, I just needed to find out where Serpent was going and lead them there. "Hang in there guys."

So, yet again, I was following the Stink-Ninja. I was really curious about what Holger had said. Serpent's life being sad and lonely could be his own doing. He creates sadness for everyone else; he could easily do it for himself. But love? Holger's abilities have only been identified a few minutes ago; maybe he's made a mistake? "Unless it's Priscilla." Yeah, truth be told she more his type than anyone. I sighed, "Why was I stupid enough to fall for a guy like this?"

The Serpent ran into… the Principal's office? Where's Barrage? Oh, yeah… the lice-outbreak. And Wurst is on his side. "There's no way out from here with the lockdown." Even the windows are out. "What the!" The Serpent pressed something on the side of the wall and it gave way to a stone door with an ancient key lock. It also had a high-tech keypad. He began punching in numbers while I watched carefully. But the lock rejected the combination.

"What?"

He put it in again. Denied.

"Grr!" He tried a different set of numbers.

I laughed mocking my rival and enjoying my good luck. "I'll check on the kids while you're figuring that out, hon." I flew off. I had a plan on how to tell them where to go. I'd have to move fast before Serpent decided to leave.

I flew through the halls until I saw Holger, Lee and Biffy by a set of lockers. Biffy opened one and it was full of crystallizers! "I've been saving them for a rainy day!" Biffy said.

"I am so proud of you boys right now!" If I could have hugged them I would have. Now they're armed. The Serpent won't be expecting that! "Okay," I readied myself for my plan, "let's hope this works!"

I came down next to Lee. Again I placed my hand on his shoulder and took it off.

"Guys!" He said to Holger and Biffy, "She's here."

"She?" Biffy asked. "Nora? Sorry, still not convinced of that."

I drew a line on Lee's shoulder telling him to go down the hall. "I'm not sure either." Lee said, "But I'm willing to test it. I think she's telling us to go this way!"

Lee Ping, you are a true hero. Lee went were I told him too with Holger and Biffy following. When they reached the end of the hall he stopped. "Now what?"

I drew on Lee's left shoulder to tell him the next way. "Follow me!" Down every hallway I told Lee which way to go. I felt like he really started to believe I was here. He ran faster and faster. When we came in front of the Principal's office I squeezed Lee's shoulder to tell him to stop. He did. I drew a line to the door telling him to go in. "Moment of truth." All three charged in.

Serpent was still trying to figure out why his code wasn't letting him into the Tunnels. "Who changed this?"

When the three boys burst into the room, Serpent was fairly surprised.

"Gotcha!" Lee fired up his crystallizer. I was against those guns being allowed in school, but now they are handy. "I know you're stalking my family! And I know you're the reason Nora is missing!" Lee sniffed the air. His tone changed. "Hey, how come you don't stink anymore?"

Serpent looked at Lee, bored. "How come you don't stink anymore?"

"Uh, you're not very good at comebacks, are you?" Biffy mocked.

"Seriously, dude. That was weak." When he and I fight the insults fly back and forth on their own. What happened?

Biffy pointed his crystallizer at him. "End of the line, pal. You're gonna pay for whatever you did to Nora!"

"Not quite." He gives a weak comeback and he still acts so confident? He takes out his long staff and the boys fire at him. He ducks out of the laser's path and throws his staff at a vent above them. The staff hits the vent just right so that it opens. The Serpent catches his staff again as leaps in the air and disappears into the vent. "Okay, that was… pretty good."

"What are you smiling about?" Said Lee. He was looking up at Biffy who was indeed smiling.

Biffy laughed. "Because he's still on our turf. Specifically, yours. Go get em!" That's right! Lee has been crawling around the vents since his first day of detention. He knows more about where they lead and how to move around in them. It was also a bad idea because it meant being in close, restricting space with a guy whose tried to kill him before. If he takes the laser, Lee should be okay. Operating word here being 'should'. "Yeah, lucky me." Apparently Lee wasn't too thrilled with this either.

"Ugh." I groaned in frustration, "If I were really here I could so take this creep on." Instead I'll have to settle for following Lee through the vents and give him hints when he needs them.

As Lee lifted himself and the crystallizer on his back to the open vent, he called back, "Biffy! Grab Barrage's files on Nora. He has her address, maybe we can piece together what's going on!" That was from the time I visited Lee in his own dream. I told him to look in my files to find my address. I was so happy that he actually believed me I even did a flip in the air before flying to catch up with him.

Lee and The Serpent had a chase through the vents that seemed to go on forever. I stayed in the gap between them, less than half my intangible body in the vent with them. Serpent maybe of ninja status, but he couldn't avoid making sound in the vents that gave away his position to Lee. Lee was also careful about firing; a missed shot would cost him in blocking an exit for himself and possibly losing track of his enemy. My help wasn't really necessary again, so I followed and watched. Biffy had good knowledge of the vent system too thanks to all those times he kept track of Lee's location on his computer during missions. "These boys are reliable. Even without me here they've learned how to defend themselves in an impossible situation." I felt proud, and at the same time sad. "Maybe they don't need me anymore." And if they didn't, would they still come rescue me?

Even right now, with my new Dream-Walking thing, my help is limited. I'm dead weight at this point. And if it comes down to saving me or continuing the conspiracy investigation… the higher cost comes at failing to stop the conspiracy. No! How could I think that? But then again… Alex.

Lee finally caught up to The Serpent with him less than a foot away. "Gotcha! For reals this time!" All it would take is one zap and The Serpent would be caught. A noise up ahead got our attention. Holger popped out of an opening ahead of us and yelped when he saw who was in front.

"Stinky ninja person!"

Holger fired, and Serpent leaned out of the way. The ray hit the frame of the vent and a green crystal began forming a wall between him and Lee. "Oopsie-daisy flower."

Lee tried grab The Serpent's ankle from a hole in the crystal, but couldn't get him in time. Holger tried to fire again, this time at point-blank. The Serpent just pushed the weapon down, scaring Holger into jumping up and hitting his head with a smile. "I really hate that guy." I grumbled. He crawled past Holger to another vent opening. I flew back to Lee; it was time for him to get out. Using the same method as before, I led him out.

"All clear." The Serpent came out right in front of the auditorium. Figures. "Not quite." And Biffy was right behind him! Serpent ran straight ahead, only to be blocked by Lee dropping out from the vents in front of him. The Serpent had no hole to hide in now.

"I'm sick of your games!" Lee said to him. "Why are you messing with my family? My friends? What do you want from me?!"

"I already have what I want." Serpent simply told him. He does, doesn't he? Looks like me being here wasn't much help after all. Ugh… Sensei promised these new powers would help us! All they do is show me how restricted I still am!

"Okay, enough with the riddles!" Lee said to The Serpent. "Everything with you is slow-mo-doves flyin'-around-in-the-rain! I've had it. Biffy, lock and load!" Lee was a perfect mirror of my frustration right now.

"With pleas- oh! I keep doing that!"

"Give no quarter, guys." I said. "This guy's never shown us any mercy."

Serpent looked at both boys and reached into his jacket. "Fine. Have it your way." He pulled out a plastic bag containing Lee's picture along with the hair he had plucked earlier in a test tube. I wondered what he could do with that. Why go through all this trouble just for a piece of hair?

"What?!" Said Lee. "Okay, I know you're a gold-medal class weirdo, but why do you have that?"

"Wouldn't you like to know. Oh! And I should tell you… Nora sends her love."

Biffy and Lee stood there as wide eyed as I probably was. "What did you do to her?" Biffy demanded with his finger on the trigger.

The school bell went off, accompanied by Barrage's booming, "DISMISSED!" The doors of the auditorium burst open, revealing the guy I used to report to every morning, and beside him, a clone of the dirty rat who lured me out of my house to send me to Coral Grove. Most of the people I really hate are in three feet of me and don't even see me. "Lice have been con-tained. Lockdown is over! Just in time for lunch. Hoo-whee! I hope its pizza day."

"No-no-no-no!" But Barrage had already pressed the button that undid our greatest advantage. "As ever… way to go, DUMMY!" When all the students flooded the hall, Serpent ducked behind a pair of Jocks (I think one of them was Steve) and escaped Lee and Biffy's sight. Lee tried, but he couldn't fight through the crowd. "Nora?" I heard him whisper, "Which way did he go?" I drew an arrow on his shoulder to follow, but as I did I felt myself being pulled back. "What the? No! I'm out of juice?" I tried walking back in the opposite direction, resisting the pull. As I did I caught sight of The Serpent.

With Jenny.

"Hey!" she greeted him happily. Jenny, no! "What are you doing here?"

"Jenny! Throw him off!" Now more than ever I wished someone other than Lee could tell I was around!

"I forgot to get your number."

What… did… he…say?

Jenny was blushing a bright red, and he had said in just the right way to mean…

My resistance wavered and like a piece of paper caught in a tornado, I was blown up and into the darkness of the school's ceiling…

And I opened my eyes back in Coral Grove.

Veronica was playing a chess game by herself, having not noticed that my 'meditation' was done. I didn't try to get her attention. My legs were asleep so I let them hang over the edge of the mattress. The room was silent. Meaning Serpent either turned off the phone, or-

"Now Nora," Nope, he was still chattering. "I understand that using the helmet I gave you would set anyone over the edge in rage. So, when I go and pick Jennifer up from class today, I'll give her a shiny new red one! Mm-hm, okay? Turning phone off now, but I'll see you later." He said the last part seductively.

As the room went into true silence, Miss Victoria finally turned her head to see me standing up with a sleepy neutral expression.

"That… was…" she tried to say. I held up my hand to stop her.

"I am not going to get mad." And then I Barrage-style yelled,

"I AM GOING MAKE HIM WISH HE WAS NEVER BORN!"

Whao-ho-ho! Nora's going to let him have it next time!

IMPORTANT: There is a poll on my profile now. If you've been sticking with this story, I urge you to go vote!

Review! And thanks for reading!