Chapter 10

Before I get started on this very special last chapter of the story, I want to say a few things.

I want to thank Jss2141 and Narwhalpuppy for following this story since the beginning. I'm glad to know that my stories entertain people and I wouldn't have known if they didn't say anything.

Also, after the chapter ends, there will be a teaser and a post-teaser scene right after.

I hope you enjoy this very special ending of my story!

In his office, Scudworth is making a phone call. Mr. B is calmly pouring a cup of tea beside him.

"Hey, Doofenshmirtz! It's me, your old pal Scudworth!

Listen, could you call me back as soon as you get this? I have a favor that I need to ask of you. I'm paying… handsomely.

Okay, I hope you're doing well and… call me back."

Wearing white tuxedos, Vergil and Caligula look at the other ten guys in the RV who are also wearing matching white tuxes.

Gandhi, being his usual self, sticks his head out the vehicle's sunroof.

"Gentlemen! Check this out! I got my head sticking out this vehicle's sunroof as it's driving! I bet no one's ever thought of this!"

Vergil shakes his head and leans closer to Van Gogh. "Between you and me, I'm starting to think this isn't a good idea."

Van Gogh talks back. "Hey, if you wanna stay single, go right ahead."

Meanwhile, Caligula is speaking with Moses. "Mark isn't your half-brother. Stop lying!"

"I swear he is. Bible truth." Said Moses. "We're both clones of Charlton Heston."

Caligula turns to face Vergil. "Vergil! Moses said that he isn't the clone of Moses! Can you believe that!?"

Vergil raises an eyebrow. "Everybody knows, Cal. Where have you been the last five years?"

52 year old Tommy Walter, lead singer of Abandoned Pools, sighs as he reads the text message that he received from Scudworth.

"DO NOT PLAY START OVER

UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!"

"Were the all caps really necessary?" He shakes his head before facing the other members of the band.

He couldn't believe that he was about to play in front of the same group of cloned teenagers that he performed in front of exactly 20 years ago. He strums a few chords on his guitar as he looks at all the fake trees scattered around the gym.

Twenty-five thousand dollars is twenty-five thousand dollars at the end of the night anyway. Plus, he already collected ten-thousand of it up front.

Just as they had practiced, the band began to play.

"I could use… a shot your novacaine.

My… soul's a fuse… Blows away your name.

…

Then you can be the remedy, and I can be the enemy,

And he can go and live as nothing!"

Dancing along to the song, Cleo, wearing her finest crimson dress, speaks to Abe.

"This is so awesome, Abe. I mean, the winter prom! This is supposed to be the best night of our lives, and it is!"

Not paying attention to anybody else in the gym, Abe looks down at Cleo. "Yeah, you look great tonight."

Slow dancing with JFK, Joan couldn't keep her eyes off of Abe. When is he gonna recognize his feelings for her?

"Joan and JFK, what a surprise!"

The two of them look over to see Dante and Beatrice move towards them. Looking as happy as ever with Dante wearing a black and red tuxedo and Beatrice wearing a white and light blue prom dress.

"Dante!" JFK yells out. "Haha! How've you been, man!? I see you've, er uh, taken Beatrice to prom!"

Dante chuckles. "Yeah. The two of us wouldn't miss prom for the world."

He takes a second to look at Joan from the top of her head to the heels on her feet. "So… you and Joan, huh? How's that working out for you?"

Hearing what Dante had to say, Joan started to fake laughing. "Hahaha! Oh Dante, you're so funny!"

Beatrice puts her hands on her hips as she shakes her head. In her alluring German accent, she speaks. "That's not a genuine laugh. I should know."

Joan's smile quickly fades away as she looks at the girl from GESH. "You… you can tell I wasn't really laughing?"

Noticing that he needed to change the topic of the conversation, JFK speaks.

"Hey aren't they gonna be announcing who the prom king is soon? I thought really hard about who I, er uh, was going to vote for, Dante. I chose you."

Joan's smile returns to her face. "Yeah, I voted for you too. If there's anybody here who deserves that crown, it's you."

Dante chuckles again. "Well thanks a lot guys. I really appreciate it. But I think the title of prom king is gonna go to somebody else."

"Attention, everybody! May I have everybody's attention, please!"

On the stage is Mr. Sheepman, who dyed his wool tuxedo black for this occasion. He continues speaking.

"In my hand here is the envelope that contains the name of the new prom king. Now I gotta say, the Elvis twins were responsible for counting the votes and they said that they casted their votes when the winner already won. They were very excited to hand me this."

To the surprise of everybody, he stuffs the envelope in his mouth only to take a soggy sheet of paper out of it a few seconds later.

"And your new prom king is…"

JFK crosses his fingers as he wipes some sweat from his forehead.

"Dante Alighieri!"

Dante's eyes lit up as soon as he heard his name being called. Everybody surrounding him was congratulating and patting him on the back as he made his way to the stage.

Getting down on one knee, he lets Mr. Sheepman put the crown on his head.

The crowd began chanting. "Speech! Speech! Speech! Speech!"

Dante smiles as he walks towards the microphone.

"Uh, hello guys! It's uh, it's me, Dante. Leader of Fanfiction Club. Um… okay, show of hands, how many of you HAVE voted for me? Come on, don't be shy."

Slowly, a third of all the people in the gym raised their hands. Shortly followed by another third… and then the rest.

Seeing that everybody in the gym voted for him, Dante became astonished.

"Wow...I… I don't know what to say, just… wow."

He looks over to Beatrice to see her smiling at him. He smiles back.

As Joan sat down by a table, Abe approaches her.

"Hey, how's your night?"

In response, Joan started fake laughing again.

"Hahaha! Abe, you're so funny!"

"Yeah Joan I'm hilarious." Said Abe. "Anyway. Enough about that. Do you, by any chance, know where JFK is? Something… important just came up and only he and I need to talk it over."

Joan looks at Abe with curiosity. "You… wanna be alone with JFK? Um… what do you want to talk to him about? Why not talk with him after prom?"

"Because of how important it is and I want to speak with him NOW, Joan!" The moment Abe said 'now' was when Joan felt that something wasn't right. This isn't anything like what he said twenty years ago. "If you don't tell me, I'll just find him by myself. Do you know where he is? Yes or no."

Without wasting any time, Joan answers. "Yes. He's outside. He said he needed some fresh air."

Abe smiles. "I was already heading over there, Joan. Thanks so much for your help."

Getting increasingly nervous, Joan let out a different kind of laughter. "Heh. Heh. Anytime, Abe."

Right outside the gym, JFK can be seen blowing out a purple cloud. A rolled up piece of paper with a certain dried fruit enclosed is in his hand.

"I'll need any kind of placebo effect to get me through the night." He says to himself. "JFK…"

"Eep!" He shouts out as he sees Abe Lincoln walk up to him with the creepiest of smiles on his face.

"Is that a raisin blunt you're holding there, buddy?" He asked him.

JFK looks at the blunt he's holding. "Yeah, I know these things don't really, er uh, intoxicate us… but tonight's just got me really nervous for some weird…"

That was when JFK stopped himself. How did Abe know that there were raisins in his blunt and not actual drugs? "Er uh…"

Still having that creepy smile on his face, Abe chuckles. "Heh heh. Come take a walk with me, JFK. There's something I want to show you."

Crushing the blunt with his hands before throwing it in a nearby trash can, JFK puts his hands in his pockets. This is Abe we're talking about. There's nothing he can say or do that can actually hurt a guy as strong as he is.

Abe continues speaking as they walk towards his car.

"You know, originally, I planned to give you a long quote of Abraham Lincoln, but I think I'm going to speak my mind on this one:

JFK, I've had a chance to look around and I've come to appreciate everything people have managed to create over the last 20 years.

The smartphone ALONE has changed the world in ways we never thought possible. With wireless internet service, we're now able to access information faster and easier than ever before…"

JFK raises an eyebrow. "I, er uh, already KNOW all that stuff! Why are you telling me this!?"

Abe takes out his car keys and inserts them into the keyhole of his car trunk. "You should also already know, JFK, that the worst thing you can ever take away from a person is their time. I wasn't born yesterday, or on any date in the 21st century!"

He opens the trunk, sending a chill down JFK's spine. "I never got to see the world change for myself, JFK. Whose fault do you think that is?"

JFK struggles to speak. "I, er uh, eh…" "I'll tell you."

Abe takes out his silver painted golf club from out the trunk and slams it shut. "It's you. You're the reason why we're all stuck here in 2023 with all these fake memories! Do you feel ANY guilt for what you have done!?"

JFK raises his hands. "Whoa! WHOA! You aren't gonna do what I THINK you're gonna do! I'll crush you to a PULP if you, er uh, even think to hit me with that golf club!"
This doesn't faze Abe. "Every second you walk unharmed brings me a different kind of pain, and I'll do anything to stop it! Even if it means getting hurt for real!"

JFK gulps. That golf club does look dangerous. "If I, er uh, say that you could have Joan as a girlfriend with my help, would you try to, you know, not hurt me?"

Abe gives an angry sigh. "I already regret ditching Cleo once. I won't do it again!"

The two of them get into their fighting stances. They know they're going to be walking away from this bruised and bloody.

Back inside the gym, Dante continues with his speech.

"And regardless of whether or not I have been elected prom king, this still is the best night of my life. Not just because it's prom night, but because I get to spend it with a girl that I'm lucky to be together with: Beatrice Portman!"

The clone students applaud Beatrice as she happily waves at them.

Dante continues speaking. "Now, if anybody else doesn't have anything to say, I'd say that it's time for the traditional prom king-led conga line!"

As she sees the multitude of people(Fanfiction club, Gandhi's prom posse, anybody else not mentioned by name, etc.) start to form the conga-line, Cleo rolls her eyes. "Where the hell is Abe?"

Dante points at Tommy. "Abandoned Pools! Hit it!"

Tommy points back at Dante. "You got it, prom king!"

The band starts off another song as the conga line starts moving.

"Wipe away the summer air!

You don't wanna see…

That's you in that photograph from 1973,

And you don't even know me…

…

God only knows I wanna be,

The other side of misery!

Gimme a plate of Fluorescein!

I'm gonna paint an ugly scene!"

As everybody was having a good time inside the building, JFK and Abe were experiencing the opposite outside as they continued their fight.

JFK tries to punch Abe in the face only to see that he quickly jumped backwards in response.

Taking advantage of the space between them, Abe treats his golf club like an extension of his arm and directly slams the end of his weapon on JFK's skull. "AAAHH!"
Ignoring the throbbing pain on his head, JFK closes the distance between him and Abe by rushing a left hook straight into his gut.

This doesn't work for him however, as Abe simply takes advantage of the lack of distance between them while also taking the force of his punch. He tightens his grip on his weapon as he brings it down on his opponent's left shoulder blade. "AUGH!"

JFK couldn't believe what he was feeling right now. He felt something under his skin start to move when it made contact with the club handle.

He's probably going to have to go to the hospital and get it checked out.

The noise of JFK screaming still fresh in his mind, Abe kneed him in the stomach, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the hard ground below him.

His head hurting, his shoulder hurting, his arm hurting, his pride hurting; JFK looks up at Abe. Now JFK has always looked up at Abe before due to him being of taller height, but now he seems like a peasant looking up at a giant from one of those fairy tales.

And just like a scared peasant, JFK feared the giant looking down at him right now.

Tears gathering up in his eyes, he changes his tone as he starts speaking.

"How could you hurt me like this, Abe? How did you get so… so strong!?"

Abe smirks as he continues looking down at the guy he hates the most. "How you ask? I'll tell you how. I trained. Not for five, ten, or even fifteen minutes of training either.

I trained for a full HOUR. In the cold with my shirt off, I may add. It made me much more stronger than ever before!

If only you didn't screw up as much as you did back then, you wouldn't have had to face ME!

You brought this on YOURSELF!" "OKAY!"

Tears start running down JFK's face.

"You win, Abe! Break my bones for all I care! I don't blame you! Everything WAS my fault!"

Abe smirks. That was exactly what he wanted to hear. He raises his golf club over his head.

"Just so you know, JFK… I don't expect anybody to love me anymore after I do this…"

JFK slams his eyes as he raises his right arm, hoping that whatever pain he'll be feeling soon, would quickly pass.

But that pain didn't come…

"AAAHH!" Abe screams in pain as he takes a few steps back. JFK looks up to see the face of his savior.

"JOAN!"

Holding her stun gun tightly. Joan looks at Abe with disgust.

Abe was the first to speak. "Joan! Who the hell do you think you're TASING!"

"What is wrong with you!?" Joan answers Abe's question with a question. "It wasn't JFK's fault for freezing everybody! Stop thinking that right now!"

Abe kept baring his teeth at her. How could she have come to that conclusion?

Joan continues. "You think JFK PLANNED to have us all frozen for 20 years!? THINK ABE! There was only one thing on his mind! Rather, one person on his mind… that being me."

Abe raises his head up as he continues to look down at Joan.

"So… you ALSO know everything that happened back in 2003."

Joan sighs. "Abe… I know what we're facing now is… something none of us ever expected to face… But I still want you to know… despite everything… I still love you…"

Abe relaxes his shoulders. "You… STILL love me?" "You still love him!?" JFK shouted at the same time.

Joan gives a small smile as she recalls her thoughts of Abe. "Yes Abe, there isn't a day that goes by where I don't think of you. You went into that freezer before everybody else did. If only I had waited another hour. Maybe if I just went back to Cleo's house instead of sitting on those steps. I would have ended up sleeping with you and not JFK…"

She then raises her hands as she looks at Abe.

"Abe… I've had a crush on you for a very long time now. I know you're with Cleopatra right now, but if it's okay with you… would you start dating me instead of her?"

A winter breeze caresses Abe's face as he takes a second to think it over. But only for a second.

Abe shakes his head no. Joan's smile slowly disappears.

"I'm sorry, Joan. There was a time where I was confused about who I wanted to love. And I DID fall in love with you for a little bit of time back then. But I never really stepped back and thought about how I've hurt CLEO!"

His mind then wanders back to all the good times he had with her back in 2002 and 2003. The airport where he had his first kiss with Cleo. The time they smoked raisins together while stargazing. The time he cleaned up litter with her after Ponce's death. The time where he opened his locker to see that she stuffed herself in it and patiently waited for him. The morning after JFK's party where she slipped him a note. She appreciated his honesty about the non-alcoholic beer and wanted him to know that.

Snowflake Day 2003. "You know what, Abe. It doesn't matter that you got me a crappy present. I'm happy to have you as a backup gift."

Looking back on those better days, he wouldn't change a single thing about them.

He drops his golf club as he runs his fingers through his hair while thinking of those pleasant memories.

"I can finally see that nothing truly stays the same. The world has changed and it's important that WE have to change with it or else we'll get left behind by everybody else. The one who helped me realize that is the one who's having a good time in that gym right now: Cleopatra Smith! My one TRUE love!"

To say that Abe's words hurt Joan would be an understatement. It's like if he had grabbed a knife and extracted her heart out of her body.

That image playing in her head, Joan fell to her knees as she dropped her stun gun. She began crying. "Oh Abe… I…"

Abe looks at Joan with pity. "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, we can still be friends. I just won't see you nearly as much as I would see Cleo and I'd talk about nothing but-"

That was when Abe felt a tap on his shoulder. He turns around only to get punched in the eye by JFK.

"DINGER!" He shouts out as he falls to the ground.

"That's for, er uh, breaking her heart!" JFK shouts before spitting on him.

Grabbing his throbbing shoulder with his right hand, he walks over to Joan.

"So… I think it's safe to say that it hurts more than when you cried twenty years ago."

What Joan did next surprised him, she hugged him tightly as she cries into his chest.

"WHY! Why doesn't he like me, JFK!? What's wrong with me!?"

JFK pushes her away and looks directly into her eyes.

"Look at me! Look at me! There's nothing wrong with you, Joan! Abe just doesn't see you in that way!"

Joan looks away. "You're just saying that so you can try to sleep with me again, AREN'T YOU!?"

"NO! That's not it at all!" Said JFK. "You make me feel more than just that, Joan! I was blaming MYSELF before you, er uh, pointed out that it wasn't my fault we're here!"

Joan sniffs, and starts to smile. "You mean… I helped you when you needed it most?"

JFK nodded. "Just like the time you started that teen crisis hotline! I, er uh, appreciate your commitment to community service!"

Joan blushes as she moves closer to him. "Those are, uh, words that I wanted a certain someone to say to me… You know, JFk, it really is nice to know that you're there for me. Even though I may not always appreciate it."

JFk moves closer. "Joan, if it's okay with you, how about we ditch this place for real this time and… hang out."

"Nah, screw that!" Said Joan, who's mostly cheered up thanks to JFK. "Let's go on a date! You could show me that fanfiction that you've been working so hard on!"

JFK looks into Joan's eyes. "You took the words right outta my-"

It was then that he stopped talking. Joan could only watch in fear as he saw her soon to be lover freeze in a giant block of ice right in front of her.

She turns her head to face the attacker, but only to get frozen herself, "AAAHH JF-"

As soon as he heard Joan screaming, Abe perked his head up. Quickly understanding that the two people in front of him suddenly became encapsulated in giant blocks of ice.

It lasted only for less than a second, however, as they seemingly got teleported away by a wristwatch worn by some random man in a lab coat.

"A… a pharmacist!?" Abe managed to yell.

"Ugh, seriously? You just saw me freeze AND teleport two of your fellow clones and you STILL think I'm a pharmacist!? I think I could cure CANCER and everybody would still think I'm one!" Doofenshmirtz shakes his head before pointing at Abe. "Now listen up, clone of Abraham Lincoln, the reason why I had to freeze your friends was that they simply knew too much!"

"Well then what are you waiting for!?" Shouted Abe. "Freeze me too! Make me forget this fight with JFK! Don't I know too much too!?"

"Er, yeah, about that…" Doof rubs the back of his head. "You see, this watch only has enough juice to freeze and teleport only TWO people. It's pretty much useless after that. Hey, your eye's pretty swollen up, you need any help with that?"

"No."

Doof shrugs his shoulders. "Okay, look Abe, I know it may not seem like it, but we are both dealing with something that's much bigger than the both of us. The moment you see Joan and JFK again, they're going to be acting much… MUCH more differently!"

Abe crosses his arms. "Well, I can already tell that things are going to get worse before they can get better. Just… why are you helping me?"

Doof looks at Abe with pity. "We're in the same boat, Abe. I wish I could tell you more, but things are just too risky as they are now. Maybe I'll see you again some day, but right now, just know this: Your story isn't over."

Abe looks at Doof. "My story isn't over. Right."

Exiting the gym, Cleo looks back at Gandhi and Marie Curie.

"You better not be lying about seeing him leave, Gandhi!"

"I swear I'm telling the truth!" Said Gandhi. "I want answers just as much as you do!"

It was then that they both hear Abe's voice.

"If it's answers that you want… then it's answers that you shall have."

Cleo closes her eyes and sighed. "Abe, where the hell were you when I wanted to-" The second she opened her eyes was when she saw his black eye.

"Oh my god… ABE! Who did this to you!?"

She ran up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. Ready to console him in any way she can.

"It's nothing that you should worry about, Cleo." Said Abe. "It's thanks to him that I can honestly say that while tonight may not be the best night of my life, I have become stronger thanks to it."

Meanwhile, Gandhi focuses his attention on something else.

A random stun gun on the ground.

"Heh heh. Score." He walks up to it and picks it up

The second he does so however, his mind clears itself of any alterations as it reminded him that he got tased by Joan at JFK's party… Six years before he was supposedly born.

The chill that he had experienced back at the Grassy Knoll last year came back to him, this time a hundred times worse as he re-experienced everything.

"Uh, what's wrong, Gandhi? You're looking a little cold."

He sees the face of Marie Curie look at him with concern. It's not unlike the one that Cleo is giving Abe.

He could only force a smile as he vividly remembers everything that happened to him twenty years ago.

"Yes Marie. I am feeling kinda chilly right now. Thanks for asking."

As the sun starts to rise over the town of Exclamation, Abe, dressed in only his tighty-whities, types in his quote of the day on his laptop.

"You know you're in love,

When you can't fall asleep…"

He looks over to the bed behind him to see his girlfriend, Cleopatra, sleeping.

She is completely naked and lying face down hugging a pillow. The blanket covering her lower half.

Abe smirks as he remembers what they did together late into the night. He can still taste her on his tongue.

He goes on to type in the rest of the quote.

"Because reality is finally better than your dreams."

Next time… on the very special next season of Clone High…

Abe's voice: What's wrong with Joan!?

Joan, her hair now longer and unkept with widened eyes, stares into Abe's as she gets uncomfortably close to him. Abe actively searches where he could run away to.

"Joan Lincoln… that's a name I keep repeating to myself before I go to sleep."

Dante's voice: What's wrong with JFK!?

Dante opens his locker and Vergil, Mark Antony, and Caligula fall out of it. JFK had stuffed them in there.

Caligula speaks. "Okay, if anyone asks… I did NOT get a boner in there!"

Gandhi's voice: I get to meet an old friend again.

Abe raises his silver painted golf club at Geshy, who's baring his sharp teeth. "Okay, you purple candy eater. It's time to take your medicine!"

Gandhi moves through the crowd that's running the other direction. "Geshy! Geshy! It's me, Gandhi!"

This astounds Abe. "Wait, Gandhi how do you know Geshy!?"

Monogram's voice: New problems arise.

Major Monogram and Perry look at the computer screen.

"Where the hell did this… frankenclone come from!?"

A humanoid creature mostly covered by the darkness of the cave roars at the camera. Causing Perry to jump into Monogram's arms.

Doof talks to his daughter on the phone.

"Vanessa! I'm not asking you, I'm TELLING you to not speak to these clones!"

Abe's voice:I have the DNA of Abraham Lincoln, but his story ended at Ford's Theater…

Abe's shadow shows that he's putting on a headband and a facemask.

The man in the lab coat was right. My story isn't over.

On the field outside Clone High. Abe Lincoln can be seen wearing all black with a skull facemask and a black and white American flag headband. He's also tightly holding the silver painted golf club in his hands. Ready for a fight.

Behind him is an equally angry JFK, who has brass knuckles on both his hands, and Dante who's holding his hockey stick.

In front of them, General Classified (Shadowy Figure) narrows his eyes at the three before cracking his knuckle.

"Well… it looks like Phase 2 will have to be carried out a little earlier than I thought."

My story is just beginning.

Clone High: The Price of Fame

November 2038

(Post-teaser scene)

Cleo moans as Abe rubs her back. She had just woken up as Abe went back to bed. The events of the previous night are still fresh in their minds.

"Hey Abe, do you remember that funny name I came up with for myself back when we used to smoke raisins?"

Abe laughs. "How could I forget. It was Rain Melon. Boy, that was a crazy-"

Abe stops talking as he realizes what Cleo meant. She smugly looks back at him.

"Oh my god. Cleo, you have your memories back! When!?"

"I'd say about two… no… three seconds after you penetrated me."

Abe sighs as he lies down on the bed and looks up at the ceiling.

"If you remember… then you remember back when I ditched you for Joan… I was such an IDIOT!"

Cleo said nothing, she just moved next to Abe and wrapped her arms around him. Her bare flesh clinging onto his.

"Don't worry Abe. It's alright. We're here now and that's all that matters. We're going to be the best couple that Clone High has ever seen. That's a fact!"

Abe smiles as he looks at Cleo. "I love you, Cleo."

Cleo kisses Abe on the mouth. "I love you too, Abe."

The lovers share a passionate hug. Preparing themselves for the uncertain future ahead.