Brooke found the next day to be odd. Of course, not on the same level of odd as the angry turkey mob chasing her yesterday, but odd in a way that concerned her more than it confused her. Normally when she left her house in the morning for school, Kenny would be waiting for her by the sidewalk, then he would join her and Lucy on their way to the bus stop. Today, he was not there when they left, and upon reaching the bus stop, they found that he was already there. Of course, this wasn't something that bothered her. However, the rest of his behavior today did.

If not Darren, then Kenny was usually the first one to greet her when she joined the group. Today, Darren was the first, and Kenny's greeting was little more than a hum. He also usually would move to stand beside her and talk to her, but today he stayed where he was and seemed to be avoiding looking at her. He also would always sit with her on the bus, but today he sat a few seats behind her, so Lucy took his place instead.

Brooke wondered about it for a little bit, silently staring out the window at the passing scenery until Riley leaned over the seat in front of her.

"Lucy, what copy of the homework do you have?"

"B. Why?" Lucy looked up at him from the book she was reading.

"Oh. I have A. There's a question on the first page that stumped me. I don't remember the teacher talking about it."

"Let me see," she held her hand out for the paper. He handed her the paper and she skimmed over the question he pointed out. "This question is from the textbook. Did you read it?"

"I…read most of it…" he looked away bashfully.

"Do not lie to me, Riley," she fixed him with a stern look.

"Okay, okay. I read the first paragraph and got bored."

She sighed. "Read the fifth paragraph on page two-fifty-two." She handed the paper back to him then said to Brooke, "You're awfully quiet today."

"Hm? Am I?" she said absently.

Lucy gave her a look almost identical to the one she had just given Riley but said nothing.

At lunch, the school faculty and staff decided to stay in the cafeteria today to make sure that another food fight did not occur. Like every day, Kenny sat beside Brooke at the lunch table, which actually surprised her a little considering he had avoided her all morning. However, he still didn't say anything and kept his attention fixed solely on his plate.

She had never really realized or thought about just how close the two of them usually were when they stood or sat next to each other, until today now that there was a space between them. In most cases, she disliked being smothered or touched by anyone outside of her obsessed servants, but she had never actually minded it with him. She usually even enjoyed being alone, but had gotten so used to his almost constant presence that she now found herself craving that attention from him and was quickly becoming annoyed with the sudden unexplained distancing.

She was subconsciously bouncing her leg in an impatient, almost anxious, manner that attracted Lucy's attention. Lucy watched for a minute out of her peripheral vision then turned her head to look at Brooke directly. "Is something the matter?"

She froze and stared at her. She was confused by the question until she suddenly realized how annoyed and antsy she was feeling. Of course Lucy would notice. It was difficult to get anything past her. Lying, for example. Werewolves seemed to have some strange ability to tell if someone is lying, so denying that something was wrong would be pointless and only annoy Lucy. Whether it was because of their ability or not, Brooke knew that werewolves held a particular disdain over being lied to. But…what exactly was wrong?

"I don't know," she grunted out. This was truthful, but clearly not a satisfying answer to Lucy.

"I see," she said slowly. "You seem agitated. Did someone upset you?" She glanced very briefly at Cartman across the table.

Brooke thought about it for a moment, rapidly tapping her index finger on the tabletop. She really didn't want to talk about it, especially with everyone else around. "No." She said and quickly looked away from her. She knew Lucy would be giving her a leer for lying, so she tried her best to avoid it.

"Interesting," Lucy said with an icy tone like cold daggers. Even some of the boys looked over at Lucy upon hearing her tone change so dramatically.

The remainder of lunch was accompanied by a tense atmosphere in which everyone suddenly became very careful with what they said around the two girls. At recess, Brooke and Lucy left the group to have a private conversation in the shadow of the building where Riley usually hung around. Today however, he was playing with Butters and Tweek somewhere else instead, so the spot was left to the two girls.

"Do you think they're having an argument?" Kyle asked.

"They don't look like they're arguing," Stan said.

"Yeah, but Brooke was acting kind of weird today. Right?"

Darren hummed agreement. "Cartman, what did you do this time?"

"I didn't do anything! …Did I?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. You just being here is enough to annoy me, so probably. You guys know who else is being weird?" He turned to look at Kenny and the others looked too.

Kenny winced and glanced around at them. "What?"

"Huh, yeah," Stan said. "Did you and Brooke get in an argument or something?"

"What? No! I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Okay, jeez. Why are you so mad?"

"I'm not mad!"

The others backed away from him a little. "All right dude, chill. You don't have to yell."

He was surprised with himself. He didn't mean to yell at them.

About halfway through recess, the two girls joined back up with them, and Lucy seemed to be carefully watching Kenny's behavior now. The uncomfortable silence had returned. Darren shifted his feet, pushing snow around, then was the first to break the silence.

"SO," he said loudly. "Brooke, what did YOU do after school yesterday?"

She shrugged. "Nothing really. I read a book… Oh, I was on the phone with Tweek for like two hours."

"Tweek? Oh, was he calling to ask why you kissed Craig?" He smirked.

"Yeah."

"What?" Stan winced. "It took TWO HOURS for you to explain that?!"

"Oh, well it would've taken only about one hour, but he kept freaking out and hanging up then calling back over and over. It was really annoying. Anyways, to explain THAT, I had to explain a bunch of other stuff, and he about had a heart attack when I mentioned the Nether and soul stuff."

Lucy turned to her. "Why did you tell him – Never mind. I think I understand."

"Wait," Kyle said. "What does all that have to do with it?"

"Huh?" Brooke looked at him. "Oh, well I had to explain about souls and how I can affect them before I explained what exactly I did. Otherwise, he'd just have more questions. Like you guys. You look like you have more questions."

"I do."

"Okay," Darren said. "So, what DID you do? Some kind of voodoo magic?"

"No. How many times do I have to tell you, it's NOT voodoo?"

He shrugged rather nonchalantly.

Brooke sighed. "Okay. So, several different types of monsters are dependent on souls and the energy that comes from them. Those monsters are the ones that are naturally able to see souls; Wechuge, banshees, ghosts, other souls, and elder gods. Those are some examples."

"Okay." Kyle nodded.

"They're also able to directly interact with and affect souls, even souls that still hold a living vessel. Like, for example, they could literally, physically touch your soul. They could grab it, crush and destroy it, rip it from your body, or use their own soul to share a sense of calm or joy. As long as there's physical contact, they can send that sense of calm or joy, but different touches work faster or better than others. The more personal or intimate the contact, the quicker and stronger the sense acts. Do you understand?"

"No," Cartman said.

"Yes," Kyle and Stan said together.

Darren thought about it. "So, a kiss would work the fastest? That's why you kissed Craig? To get him to chill the fuck out?"

"Yes, that's why I kissed him. But no, that's uh, not the fastest actually."

"What is the fastest?"

She blushed a little. "Uh, very close, intimate, physical contact would work the fastest and most efficiently. Um, basically like pressing really close up against each other."

"Kinky," Cartman said.

"Eh, yeah. Right. Any other questions?"

"Yeah," Darren said. "If your real mom was a giant monster, and your dad is a skeleton, how did they make you?"

She stared dumbly at him for several moments, her head tilted very slightly. He couldn't figure out if she was trying to figure it out or if she was just that bewildered by his idiocy. Even Lucy had stopped to give Darren an odd look.

"Well," Brooke said slowly. "For one thing, Mother could change her form into that of a human's. Like me, or Lucy."

"Okay, but like, how did they DO it? You know? I mean, he's a skeleton. Where is his…you know?"

"That's…not something I know, nor do I wish to know, about my father."

"And how does he eat? He said something about nachos that one time. Where does it go?"

"Eh." She was beginning to look uncomfortable.

"Let's just go with: magic," Lucy told him. "Monster bodies are…unique in many ways."

The bell ending recess echoed across the grounds. "Oh thank god!" Brooke breathed out with relief and quickly moved towards the building. She had never been so happy to go back to class…

After school had finally ended for the day, she was planning on going straight home to her dog. At least she could always count on Sniper to never waver on her. Maybe she'd even call Charles and Lamar over for company. From her birth, those two fools were her personal playmates. As such, they were always more than happy to be around her, no matter what. After school, Kenny would usually join her on the walk home, either to her house or his, but because of his behavior today, she was not expecting him to do so. She was secretly incredibly surprised when he caught up to her on the way and started walking beside her.

Lucy eyed the both of them with a very critical, almost suspicious look, but she said nothing.

No one said anything for a few minutes until they heard someone running up behind them. They stopped and turned to see Karen hurrying after them. "Brooke!" She smiled as she caught up. "Are you doing anything today?"

She thought about it. "No. Not really."

"So… Will you come over and play today?"

"Mm. Okay. I'll come play."

"Hooray!" She grabbed Brooke's arm and leaned against her. "What about you, Lucy?"

Lucy winced at the thought of entering that house again. "Eh, w-well, I would love to, but… I-I…" She spotted Kyle walking by and quickly went over to him. "I'm going over to Kyle's house, so…"

"You are?!" he jumped. "I-I mean, sure! Okay…" he squeaked.

"Aw, okay," Karen said then looked up at Brooke. "Can we pick up Sniper on the way? He has a date with Miss Bonbon."

Brooke snorted at the idea of the younger girl setting up a date scene with Sniper and the stuffed blue elephant toy. "Yeah, okay."

After stopping by Brooke's house to pick up Sniper, they headed straight for Kenny and Karen's house. Sniper was currently wearing the leather outfit and do-rag that Brooke had gotten him, so the idea of the dog going on a pretend date with a cutesy stuffed toy was becoming even funnier to her by the second.

"Miss Bonbon must like bad boys," Karen said as they entered the junkyard house. "Too bad I don't have a toy motorcycle, huh doggie?" Sniper tilted his head, not quite understanding what he was getting in to yet.

Brooke stood in the doorway to Karen's room and watched as Sniper sniffed around at all of the toys while Karen set things up. She glanced over her shoulder at the door across the hall. Kenny had gone into his room without a word. She stared at the door, debating for a long while, then huffed and told Karen, "I'll be right back. I have to go talk to your brother about something."

"Okay," she smiled. She held the stuffed elephant up to show Sniper. "This is Miss Bonbon! She's your blind date today!" The dog flinched with surprise, his ears standing straight up.

Brooke smirked then went across the hall to the other room. She thought about knocking first, but she was already annoyed with him, so she just kicked the door open instead.

"Holy fuck!" He almost fell over from the scare. "What the hell did you do that for?!"

"Because fuck you and your stupid door!"

"Huh?!"

She kicked the door back closed and grabbed him by the front of his parka, roughly pinning him against the wall. He was surprised at how strong she was and terrified by the sudden aggression, yet he found himself feeling a strange rush of heat and an exciting tingling sensation.

"What is your problem today?" she snapped. "You've barely said anything to me all day! And don't think I didn't notice how you've been avoiding me! Why are you mad at me?"

"Huh?" He winced. "I'm not mad at you!"

"Well, you WERE! Don't lie to me! I can read souls and their emotions, remember?"

"I –" He paused. He had forgotten about that, and now he couldn't come up with a way to defend himself over it. "I thought you said you didn't do that."

"Normally I ignore it. But I paid attention to yours today because of your weird behavior. Don't try to change the subject! You were mad or upset about something up until around recess. When I started talking to the others about souls, yours suddenly went back to normal. So, what is your problem!?"

He quickly looked away from her. "Okay, so I was jealous!"

"Jealous? Why?!"

"Because you kissed Craig!" His face heated up as soon as he said it. "I mean! I…I always get jealous when it comes to you and other people. Every time you get really personal or close to anyone else… Like with Clyde or Darren. Fuck, even with Lucy!"

She looked away too, suddenly feeling embarrassed. "But why?"

"I don't know!" He did know, he was just afraid to admit it. "I just…I just want all of your attention to myself I guess…"

She was confused. "What? Well, you can't have ALL of it! At least, not all of the time."

"No, that's no-" he stopped himself. "I know…"

She let him go and stared at the floor. There was a long silence between them before she said quietly, "I thought you didn't want to be my friend anymore for some reason… Like you hated me all of a sudden."

"No! I like you a lot, I –" The rush of heat passed again, but it was almost unbearable this time and the words got caught in his throat. "I… You're really important to me… I'm sorry."

She took in a slow, deep breath, not looking at him and resisting the urge to cry. How stupid. Why did she want to cry over this? She let out the shaky breath, waited for a few seconds, then slowly pushed him back against the wall in a tight, close hug. "You're…really important to me, too."

It felt like there was a lump in his throat and his eyes burned a little. There was something he wanted to say so badly, but he couldn't get it out. Instead, he buried his face in her neck and held her tightly. It was impossible for them to be any closer right now, but, somehow, he still wished they were.

"I'm sorry, too," she muttered into his shoulder. "I'll keep your feelings in mind from now on."

He had never felt to sad and so happy before. All he could manage to choke out was, "Okay." He didn't know exactly how long it was that they stayed like this, holding each other tightly and feeling each other's heartbeats. It felt like a long time but also not long enough. It was a little disappointing when she finally pulled away.

She sniffed and looked away with a small smile; her face was tinged pink. "I'd better go see what your sister's doing to my dog. She set him up on a date with a stuffed elephant."

"Heh, I gotta see that!" he smiled at her.

The sight was definitely funny, at least to them. Sniper, on the other hand, was less than amused. Karen had the dog sit at the tea table and seated the toy in a chair across from him while she pretended to be a waitress when she wasn't controlling the elephant. She even made voices for both of them, playing out an entire conversation of small talk between the dog and toy. Sniper only sat there, a very unamused look on his face, and regrettably went along with the girl's game.

"Oh," Karen said upon noticing Brooke and Kenny. "You're back!"

Sniper slowly gazed over at them, a look that said 'help me' on his face.

"Did you come to play, too, Kenny?"

"Yeah! But I'm happy to wait until their date is over."

Sniper narrowed his eyes at him.

Karen picked up the toy and held it close to Sniper. "Be a gentleman and give her a kiss on the cheek, Sniper."

He made a face. Sniper glanced several times between the stuffed elephant and the little girl's innocent, happy face then sighed heavily and gave the toy a very quick lick on the side of its face then turned his head away, nose up.

"Aw, how sweet!" she smiled. "Okay, your date's over. I think she really likes you!"

The dog grunted.

"Good boy," Brooke praised him for going along with Karen's game. Her prideful dog had never looked so embarrassed in his life.

Happy that it was finally over, he stood up and walked away from the little plastic table.

"All right Karen," she said. "What's next?"

"Next is YOUR date."

"Me?!"

She smiled. "Both of you!"

"Huh?!" the two older kids jumped.

Sniper glanced over his shoulder at them, his jowls twitching into a smirk.

"Yeah!" Karen said cheerily. "Sit down at the table."

They exchanged awkward glances with each other before sitting across from each other at the tiny table.

"Kenny," his sister said, "you have to take your hood off."

"I do?"

"Yes! You're supposed to take your hat, or hood, off in fancy restaurants. That's why I took off Sniper's hat thingy."

"I was wondering where that went…" Brooke muttered.

Kenny glanced around at the 'not fancy' room. "O-kay?" He pulled his hood down.

Karen clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "Your hair's so messy!"

"I wasn't given a warning first, okay?" He ruffled his blonde hair with both hands and she giggled at him.

"Okay! What can I get you guys to drink?"

"…Water?"

"Uh," Brooke hesitated when Karen looked at her. "Same?"

"Okay!" She placed two plastic cups on the table and pretended to fill them, then handed them each a hand-drawn 'menu'. "Are you ready to order, or do you need more time?"

"Um, I'll have the 'grilled salmon'…I guess?" Brooke skimmed over the list that was written in multiple different colors of crayon.

Karen pretended to write something down in her hand. "Mm-hm. And for you, sir?"

"Uhhhh…chicken…tenders?"

"Okay. Now you have to wait for your food to cook." She went over to the mattress in the corner and sat down on it to watch them.

They sat at the table in awkward silence for a minute or two, avoiding eye contact. Kenny strummed his fingers on the tabletop. "So," he said with a crack then cleared his throat.

Brooke bit her lip, trying to hold in a laugh. "So."

"Do you…uh, like…flowers?"

The urge to laugh was so strong that she took a moment to actually answer him. "Of course! Um, roses are my favorite."

"Oh! Really?"

"Yes. Actually, that reminds me… After school, on Valentine's Day, someone rang the doorbell but no one was there when I opened the door. But they left a heart-shaped box of chocolates with a rose attached."

"O-Oh!" he blushed a little. "So, you…don't know who it was from?"

"No." she gazed over at Karen's drawings on the wall.

"…Did you, uh, like it?"

She suddenly looked at him and he quickly looked down. "Yeah. I mean, I like food." She laughed a little. "Actually, the rose was my favorite."

He hummed. "Good. I-I mean! It's better than if it was something you didn't like, right?"

"I guess so," she smirked.

Karen hopped back to her feet and walked over to them, pretending to place something down on the table. "Here's your food!"

"Uh, thanks." Kenny pretended to take a bite out of the invisible meal.

Brooke chuckled. "Delicious."

After eating their 'meal' and pretending to pay for a hand-drawn check, they both stood up from the tiny table. Kenny stretched while Brooke dusted off her jeans.

"Okay," Karen smiled. "Now you have to give her a kiss on the cheek!"

"What?!" he almost fell backwards in the middle of his stretch. "Karen!"

"Kenny!"

"Ah –" he stopped at her scolding expression. He shared a quick glance with Brooke, both of them quickly looking away with red faces. He shifted his feet a bunch, trying to ignore his sister's scolding look, then gave in and gave Brooke a quick peck on the cheek.

Both of their faces heated immediately, and Karen giggled at them.

"Okay," Brooke breathed. "Uh, it's getting late. Sniper and I should probably head home."

"Why don't you just sleep here, like always?" Karen asked curiously.

"Er, well…I – I could…I guess, but…" She looked at Kenny. "What do you think?"

"That's –" he cleared his throat. "That's fine. Yeah. Cool. I'll, uh, meet you…in the other room?"

"Mm-hm."

"Yeah." He walked to the door. As he passed, he noticed Sniper giving him a very smug look. "Fuck off," he muttered to the dog.

When he got into his room, he went straight to the bed and threw himself on it, flopping over onto his back to stare up at the ceiling. Why in the world did he do that? Well, on one hand, Karen… On the other hand, and the main reason, he actually wanted to do it. Actually, he wanted more than just a little peck on the cheek. He blushed and took in a long breath. Would Brooke be mad? She didn't seem like she was. He felt a small rush of…excitement? when he heard the door open and close.

Without a word, Brooke climbed into the bed and settled very close beside him. He suddenly realized that he was holding his breath and released it quietly through his nostrils. He was just wondering if he should say something when she turned her head and planted a long, soft kiss on his cheek. He felt a rush of adrenaline pass through his body followed by a strange calm.

"Just so you know," she said. "THAT'S how you kiss someone on the cheek."

She was surprised when he suddenly turned over and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her up against him. He pressed his face into her shoulder, trying to hide the deep shade of red it had turned. He came so close to telling her that night…

To be continued…

So much cute...