A few days later, at Hexside, Amity was walking through the halls when she spotted her reflection in a particularly shiny locker. She couldn't help but notice an uncharacteristic slouch and dark circles under her eyes.

Then she spotted Amelia, a green-haired witch who, though she hung around with Boscha and the gang, didn't have her mean-streak, or at least didn't when she was on her own.

"Hey, Amity," she said. "I didn't see you at Skara's party."

"That's a long story.'

"Are you OK? You look… uh, I mean, you look great! Better than usual! Uh, not that you don't usually look great!"

"It's OK, Amelia, you can say I look tired. I am. Ed and Em have this cockamamie bet going on where they have to stay apart from each other, which means whenever they're bored or lonely, they turn to me."

"Oh, I can imagine that could be tough. But you used to talk about how… strained things were between you and the twins. Isn't this kind of a good thing?"

"Well… I don't know, maybe it is kind of nice in some ways. But it's only temporary. Whenever this bet finally ends, things will go back to normal."

Amity sighed. Then, when she realized that she'd sighed, she tacked on, "Which will be a relief, not having them always bothering me anymore."

"Uh huh," Amelia said, raising an eyebrow.

Then, Amity heard two voices from opposite ends of the hallways say "Mittens!"

Ed and Em spied each other from across the hallway and raced each other to their little sister's side, getting there at the same time.

"Hey Mittens," Ed said. "How'd you like to take a boat onto the lake tonight and wrestle octopuses?"

"Don't be silly!" Em said. "She's going to be coming out with me! There's a sale at the shoe store, and I hear they have a pair that'll try to eat someone's feet if you can get them to put them on!"

Ed grabbed Amity's left arm. "Come on, Mittens, you'd rather come with me, right?"

Em grabbed her right arm. "No, she'd rather come with me!"

"Uh… I think I'm going head to class," Amelia said. "Amity, good… luck?"

"We can look for shells by the lake!" Ed said as each twin pulled one of their sister's arms.

"I bet Luz would like to get a pair of winged shoes, or maybe some seven-league boots!"

"No, Luz, would rather go to the lake! With three of us, that's twelve limbs to eight! And that's not counting tongues!"

"Guys, stop!" Amity yelled out. She pulled her arms away from them. "I can't keep dropping everything every time one of you wants some company! And I'm way behind on my work. I'm going to head to the library after school where I can study in peace. Don't you both have other friends?"

Amity walked off.

Ed and Em glowered at each other and went their separate ways. They took out their scrolls, but their friends all told them that they needed to study or had some other commitment or just wanted some time alone.

At the illusion homeroom, Ed and Em practiced sullenly without looking in each other's direction. Then, Keeko came over.

"You two both look miserable."

"We're not," they both spat out.

"Maybe you've taken this too far? I told you that you spend too much time together. I never said you should spend all your time apart."

Ed and Em just stayed silent.

Keeko sighed. "Hey, I tried. Just don't blame me for this."

Ed and Em looked at each other, hoping the other would offer to call the bet a draw. But, of course, neither did.

Then class, ended. Em sighed and pulled out a snail from her pocket to flip it. "You win."

"Great," Ed said gloomily as he walked off to head home.