Joe's Note: This… isn't quite what was in Chapter 8 in the previous incarnations of this story; it actually contains pieces of both Chapters 7 and 8 from Blue Belle. There's a variety of reasons for it, ranging from me expanding certain sequences in Chapter 5 and pushing part of it into Chapter 7, to the fact that I actually wrote some stuff to cover the weekend between the aftermath of Halloween and Michelle's day at school, to the current timeline having a major canon event that occurs on said first day of school and me wanting to address that. And so without further ado? Let's handle people waking up and getting ready for school, and then find out what that big canon event I just mentioned is…
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Alexander, Howard, Alonsis2, Connor, MJ, Daniel, Christopher, Sarsif, Fablesrogue, Morgan, Janne, Eric, DireSquirrel, Joseph, Jason, mpop, RileyWestfall, bloodylord, Luke, Zachary, Marc, Ziryo, Elliot, Crusifikz70, Timothy, Leigh, Chris, George, Koby, Ken, Dimitria, William, Invernos, Paul, Pat, Joel, Kentucky Fried Dragon, Warren, Mitch, and Jess for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.


November 4, 2013
Rosenberg Household - Michelle's Room
Sunnydale, California


"…ugh, you're right. This bed has got to go."

"Tell me about it. Why do you think I like sleeping in your room? I mean, other than the obvious." Rolling over with a groan, Michelle batted at her iPhone blindly until one finger managed to hit the sweet spot, silencing her alarm. Setting it to play a compilation of Rock quotes she'd pulled off of YouTube as an alarm… funny in theory, not nearly as funny in reality. Then Michelle opened her eyes for the first time. While Willow had continued to use male pronouns and Xander over the weekend, it was time for that to come to an end. She. Her. Hers. Michelle. Not he, him, his, or Xander. Not for now, possibly not ever again if Giles couldn't figure things out and she couldn't figure out how to shift into a decent male form. While it would take time to genuinely accept her new situation, the sooner she could passably fake it, the better. Especially since she was going to be jumping into the deep end today, trying to fit in with other teenage girls at school. And not just any girls. Cordelia's girls.

God, why had she agreed to that particular bit of stupidity?

Oh, right, she'd been far too complacent when Cordelia started making plans for her and then executing them because it was far, far easier than trying to figure things out for herself. Curse her perpetual mix of laziness and apathy when it came to her own existence. Although hey, her new life would include things like sleepovers full of hot, scantily-clad girls and so it wasn't all bad. Even Harmony wasn't exactly hard on the eyes, at least as long as one tuned her out so they didn't lose braincells due to the stupidity that usually flowed from her mouth.

Wiggling out of Willow's grasp and then shifting her hair right out of the redhead's last desperate attempt to pull her back into bed, Michelle yawned and stretched before looking around her room uncertainly. Thankfully she'd messaged Cordelia the night before and laid out today's outfit with the cheerleader's help, meaning that all she had to do this morning was shower and get dressed. Well, shower, dress, and then decide whether or not she wanted to do something other than the natural look with her hair. And if she finished all of that before Cordelia arrived, Michelle mused, she would probably try her hand at morphing on at least a minimal amount of makeup, lest Cordelia try to put the real thing on her. While she didn't have anything against girls who wore as much makeup as Cordelia and her friends, it wasn't a look she was dying to see staring back at her in the mirror anytime soon…

Michelle was rudely yanked from her thoughts by a pair of arms wrapping around her waist from behind, hands sliding up her stomach before moving to cup her breasts. She moaned softly before rolling her eyes as she leaned back against Willow, turning her head to meet her best friend's impish expression with an exasperated one of her own. "And this is why we're going to be taking separate showers this morning. I feel like I've helped create a monster, Will. You're insatiable."

"I'm a teenage girl who just discovered the joys of sex for herself and who has a shapeshifter living down the hall from her." Willow buried her face in Michelle's neck, kissing and nibbling up and down it before biting Michelle's earlobe and tugging it playfully. "Fuck yeah, I'm insatiable. Although now I'm starting to wonder… you may not be able to turn all the way back into Xander right now, but have you trying shifting back… certain parts?"

It took her words a moment to penetrate Michelle's increasingly foggy mind but when they did, it brought things screeching to a halt for her. Pulling out of Willow's embrace, she turned to stare at her best friend incredulously. "…are you seriously asking what I think you're asking?"

Willow shrugged unapologetically as she closed the distance between them, pressing her breasts against Michelle's larger ones as she molded her body against the curvier girl's. "Why not? The other Willow left a lot - and I really do mean a lot - of naughty experiences behind in my head. Now that I've experienced how amazing sex is for myself, I wanna try… well, pretty much all of it for myself. Problem is, a whole lot of those experiences involve penises. I definitely don't want a boyfriend; they seem like way too much work and I'd be worried about bringing a guy around here for the near future. Which means my choices are either become the geeky ginger Harmony, or…"

"…or ask me to help out. Uh huh. For the record, I feel like 'shift into a dickgirl so you can fuck me or I'll turn into Harmony' is literally the exact dictionary definition of blackmail, Willow." Backing away from Willow again, Michelle shook her head before leaning over and grabbing her underwear off the top of the dresser. On one hand, it really was blackmail in the most literal possible sense, and it felt really weird and unnecessary given how well she'd taken to the whole dom/sub dynamic that Willow seemed to enjoy. On the other hand, she still had lingering curiosity about a whole host of things she hadn't gotten to try as Xander. Willow was eager. And pretty enough. And offering, which was something no other girl had done. So she gave the disappointed-looking Willow a slow once over before turning and walking away, calling back over her shoulder as she passed through the doorway. "If you're not kneeling in the shower stall in front of me by the time I figure this out, you don't get any."

She found herself deeply regretting her first attempt at being dominant a few seconds later, when she found herself slammed hard into the wall opposite her room's door as Willow shoved her way past and took off running toward the master suite.


November 4, 2013
Leigh Household - Fox's Room
Sunnydale, California


She'd been drugged.

While personally Fox had absolutely no experience with anything even remotely like that, the memories that she'd inherited from Natasha Romanoff on Halloween were screaming a warning that she'd been sedated and… well, she had no reason to doubt them. As she opened her eyes and took stock of her situation, she quickly realized that it was the truth: not only was she sprawled out on her stomach instead of in her customary position on her side, but someone had stripped off her pajamas and left her in just her panties. Which took the rising terror of knowing that somebody had broken into her house and drugged her, and added a whole new dimension of creepiness to it.

Try to stay calm, Fox stretched languidly but incredibly carefully, sweeping her arms back and forth through the space on either side of her. At first she was relieved to realize that she was in her own bed and that she was alone, but then she found herself frowning as she realized she was encountering a bit less than she was used to. One… wait, no, two of her favorite stuffed animals were missing. One… no, two of her favorite stuffed animals were missing. So not only had she been drugged and stripped - if not molested - by her mysterious assailant, but the person had robbed her on the way out? And taken some of her plushies of all things? Who the fuck even did something like that?

Sliding out of her bed, Fox found herself stumbling forward and throwing a hand out to catch herself before she slammed into the wall. Oh yeah, she'd definitely been drugged with something. Jesus. Closing her eyes, she took slow and steady breaths as she waited for the spinning to stop. After nearly a minute, she tried opening her eyes again and let out a sigh of relief as the world remained largely stationary around her, allowing her to make her way out of her room and down the hall to the bathroom. Flipping on the light, she shot a cursory glance over at the mirror hanging above the vanity as she passed it by… and then stopped, took a step backward, and looked again. What on Earth was on her shoulder?

Fox leaned in to get a better look at what turned out to be a small red hourglass, only to discover in the process that it wasn't one of a kind. There was a matching hourglass about half an inch back, and then she turned around and peered back over her shoulder to find a cascading series of increasingly large hourglasses running down the left side of her back, ending above several lines of black letters. Several lines of black letters… that was written backward so that she could read it perfectly fine in the mirror.

'Там может быть только одна́ Чёрная вдова. И ја изгледам боље у одећи.'

Given that it wasn't even written in the Roman alphabet, Fox was caught completely off-guard when her brain not only recognized the writing - the first sentence was Russian, the second was in Sokovian - but translated it. 'There can only be one Black Widow. And I look better in the outfit.' And so if the abundance of red hourglasses hadn't been a big enough clue, Fox now knew exactly who was responsible for her multifaceted violation.

And please, she was definitely the prettier Widow out of the two of them.

Licking her thumb, Fox rubbed at the frontmost hourglass experimentally before rolling her eyes; of course the bitch had written on her with some sort of permanent marker. As she stepped into the shower and turned it on, she made a mental note to be extra nice to Cordelia today. Willow too. Because if the captain of the varsity cheerleading squad didn't know the home addresses of all her girls, the school's biggest computer nerd could probably find the information for her. Then she'd 'borrow' a few things from the school's chemistry lab and pick up some electric hair clippers on the way home…


November 4, 2013
Cordelia Chase's Lexus GX 460
Sunnydale, California


After a pass through the Espresso Pump, made substantially longer by Cordelia's five minute rant about how horrible Sunnydale was for having only one Starbucks and putting it at the opposite end of town as their school, Michelle was in possession of a large French Vanilla coffee, light and sweet, and was feeling a good deal more put together than she had when she'd stumbled out to the SUV and slumped into the front passenger's seat. Soft muttering from the back seat made her peer back over her shoulder at Willow. "Will? Everything okay back there?"

"The more I think about this, the more cheated I feel. I'm the Jewish girl with Holocaust survivor relatives and he's a Jewish mutant who suffered through the Holocaust. I should be the one related to Magneto, not Cordelia." Willow paused for a moment, taking another sip of her coffee. "Can you imagine how useful that would be for slaying? I could wrap some kind of ferrous wire around a wooden staff and stake vampires with my mind… or hell, even wrap stakes and turn them into vamp-seeking missiles. And I'm pretty sure that Magneto can fly, so I could probably learn to do it too and I'd be able to go anywhere I wanted without needing a car…"

Cordelia glanced up at the rear view mirror briefly before returning her attention to the road. "Grandpa can fly, but it's not as easy as you think. I get the nastiest headaches whenever I try. As for the rest of that? Not everyone can be as fabulous as me. Sorry not sorry. Now that we've got a conversation going, though… Rosenberg. Your neck. Please tell me that you were the victim of a home invasion this morning by a vampire desperate to get out of the sun, and that it managed to bite you before Michelle saved the day and put it down?"

Pulling out her iPhone, Willow held it out in front of her so that she could use the front-facing camera as a makeshift mirror, a shriek of outrage marking the exact moment that she spotted what Cordelia was talking about. It was a nice one, too; Michelle had sunk her teeth into the redhead's neck hard while buried in Willow from behind. "Michelle! You bitch!"

"Turnabout is fair play, Will." Michelle ignored the rude gesture that Willow sent her way, turning her attention to the wide-eyed Cordelia. "Or at least I feel like that's fair? I mean, she did leave a bite mark on my ass the size of a half dollar; sitting straight in those hard plastic chairs at school is going to be a nightmare." If possible, Cordelia's eyes got even wider at that revelation and then Michelle realized exactly who she was talking to… and about what. As Willow buried her face in her hands with a groan, the shapeshifter decided that if she was in for a penny, she might as well be in for a pound. "So, yeah. Remember that breakdown that you were predicting I'd have? Hasn't happened yet. Not sure, but I feel like I probably have Willow's expert use of the Marvin Gaye method to thank for that."

Willow lifted her head a bit at that, a faint smile on her lips as she peered up at Michelle and Cordelia. "I did provide some quality sexual healing, didn't I?"

Coasting to a stop at the red light, Cordelia threw her hands up in exasperation. "Seriously? Even you two freaks are getting laid? That's just… even if it's with each other, that's still more than I'm getting. The closest I've gotten to rocking the casbah since I got back from my vacation this summer was Chris Epps trying to turn me into part of Daryl's zombie bride thing. I can't even count Richard over at Crestwood because he just wanted to sacrifice me to a demon. Couldn't he have at least tried to fuck me before offering me up to his creepy snake god? This is an outrage. I am outraged. Since when am I the untouchable loser out of the three of us?"

"Wait, really? Because I've heard at least four different guys claim that they've-"

"Yes and by the end of today, I know for a fact that I could produce at least six different girls - two of them non-cheerleader, non-Cordette girls for extra credibility - who would swear up and down that the weird new girl got them alone and tried to kiss them." As Michelle gaped at the green-haired girl in disbelief, Cordelia waved dismissively. "Not saying I would, just that I could. Queen of the school, remember? One of the first things that you'll learn as a popular girl is that gossip is a lot like a Tumblr post: even if it sounds plausible, don't believe anyone who can't provide you with a credible source of proof. And if it's big, verify the source's source."

Fair enough. And now that she thought about it, it was really something that Michelle should have known without Cordelia needing to slap her upside the face with it. Hell, Lord knew there were enough weird rumors swirling around Buffy these days thanks to her inability to come clean about the weirdness that swirled around her. As the light turned green and they continued on their commute, Michelle shot uncertain looks over at Cordelia. "Really? Your only reaction is 'why the hell are the losers are getting laid when I'm not'?"

Cordelia offered a faint shrug as they turned into the smaller and slightly more remote of the two available student parking lots, the cheerleader confidently making her way to a very particular spot under two trees that would keep her car in the shade for most of the day. Personally, Michelle was a little surprised that the self-proclaimed 'queen' of the school hadn't managed to browbeat the school into letting her park in the staff lot or something. "Well, I mean, the fact that you two are supposed to be cousins makes the whole thing kinda creepy and West Virginian but-"

"Actually, first cousins can marry in California and eighteen other states. Oh, and in Maine if you submit to genetic counseling first, and North Carolina as long as you're not double cousins. So Michelle and I technically aren't…" Willow trailed off as both Cordelia and Michelle peered back at her, blushing faintly. "I'm not helping, am I?"

"Pretty sure that revealing you've put serious thought into incest before now is the exact opposite of helping, Will."

"…will you two rejects shut up and let me finish? God!" Turning off the car, Cordelia reached over and grabbed her purse from beside Michelle's feet, tossing her ring of keys into it with a huff. "I was going to say that considering my Aunt Wanda and my Uncle Pietro have two kids together, I'm not really in a position to pass judgement. Plus I know you're not really cousins and that it's not actually incest. That said? There are only six of us who do know. So there's gonna be a whole lot of people who will be judging the fuck out of you if they find out."

Michelle hopped out of the car, opening the rear passenger door and retrieving her backpack from next to Willow. "And that's something you do care about because if they're judging me, they're judging you for being friends with me. You don't have to worry, though; this is a strictly behind closed doors thing. There's absolutely nothing relationshippy going on between us." Hmm. Was it just her, or had that sounded a little bitter?

Evidently it had to Willow, who eyed her strangely before shaking her head and sliding out of the opposite side of the Lexus. "What she said." Swinging her backpack up onto her shoulder, she began making her way toward the school, calling back over her shoulder to them as she wandered off. "I'm gonna go round up the other girls who already know about Xander's blue side and fill them in on what's going on. Oh, and I had my hair down on Friday, so if anyone else asks about the hickey? I'll blame it on Missy."

Cordelia opened her mouth to reply but then paused, her brow furrowed in confusion. By the time she gathered her thoughts, Willow had disappeared from sight between two of the campus's outer buildings and so the cheerleader turned to Michelle in disbelief. "Her and Missy? Really?"

"Apparently? I mean, she says so but I haven't verified it with Missy. Should I?"

"I… don't… know…"


November 4, 2013
Sunnydale High School - Hallway
Sunnydale, California


Cheerleaders. The final frontier. She was about to boldly go where no man - or probably at least no straight man - had gone before. Michelle took a deep breath to steady her nerves, watching as Cordelia pulled away and walked towards the knot of girls clustered near one locker. Was it too late to change her mind? Flee school, stick to the shadows until she could manage to resume a male form of some sort again, and then reinvent herself yet again? Maybe as Cordelia's new boyfriend or something, if she really had some sort of plan that required her cooperation and proximity?

Cordelia turned to look back at her, beckoning impatiently, and Michelle sighed in resignation. Fixing a fake smile on her face, she moved forward to 'meet' the Cordettes. To her left, she could see a smirking Willow herding Kat, Avery, and the others into the library and Michelle made a vow right then and there: she was definitely going to take advantage of Cordelia's willingness to take them as a package deal so that she could drag Willow into the Cordettes as well. If she had to suffer through the horror of hanging out with girls whose IQ was smaller than their band size, so would her 'cousin'. Finally she got close enough that Cordelia could reach out and grab her arm, and Michelle stumbled as Cordelia yanked her in. "So, girls, meet Michelle Flaherty. She's Rosenberg's cousin on her…"

"Mother's."

"…mother's side. Thankfully I grabbed her before she got sucked into that black hole that is Harris, Rosenberg, and Summers." The girls tittered at that and Michelle bristled mentally but managed to keep her fake smile on her face. This was nothing new, she reminded herself. She'd known all along how the popular kids at school regarded the Scoobies: Willow had never been popular, neither had her previous form, and one mishap after another had quickly destroyed what little chance Buffy had of regaining even a fraction of her Hemery High social status. "So, girls, meet Michelle. Michelle, these are the girls. The faux blond is Harmony Kendall, the platinum blond is Aphrodesia Michaelis, honey blond is Gwen Ditchik, and then we have Aura White and Janet van Dyne, the school's token black girl and the one hot nerd respectively. Seeing as how they're both rare as fuck around here, I had to have them because… well, precious commodities and all."

Michelle arched a brow at that but since neither Aura nor Janet seemed to take offense at Cordelia's words, she decided that she wasn't going to go to bat on the pair's behalf. If they wanted to defend themselves, she reasoned, they could open their mouths. "Nice to meet you. So…" Safe topic… safe topic… think of a safe topic… "Cordelia mentioned she was the varsity cheerleading captain. Are you all on the squad with her?"

Grinning, Janet leaned forward and pointed over at one of their number. "All of us except Harm. She can't walk and chew bubblegum at the same time, so we don't exactly trust her to catch someone being thrown into the air or anything like that." Harmony let out an indignant huff and tried to counter, but Janet smoothly steamrolled over her sputtered objections and pushed onward with the conversation. "What about you? Were you a cheerleader at your old school? And why'd you decide to transfer, anyway? Especially to Sunnydale?"

"Well, I didn't really decide to transfer. My parents had this monster fight because they both found out the other one was cheating, but decided to try marriage counseling when they did a bit of googling and realized it was cheaper than two good divorce lawyers. Now they're off on a second honeymoon to try and put their marriage back together." That matched what she'd told Buffy, but since they weren't sure how long she'd be stuck like this, Michelle and Willow had cooked up an excuse as to why she might be in Sunnydale for longer. "After that, they have a couple of major business trips early next year - they work for the same company in the same department, it's how they met - and so when you put it all together, they're going to be gone for like, eight months. So they sat down with me, we talked it over, and we agreed it would just be easier for them to send money to my aunt and uncle and have them take care of me for the rest of the school year. I might leave early if something changes, but until I hear otherwise… well, I'm a Sunnydale girl from now till June." Michelle paused, wondering how to handle the sports question. All but one of the Cordettes were cheerleaders and she was supposed to be trying to fit in with Cordelia's friends so the magnokine would have an easier time of keeping her close. But even if she was a biological girl - or at least playing one these days - hell would freeze over before someone forced her into a miniskirt and gave her pom-pons to wave. "And no cheerleading. I'm more of a softball girl."

As the girls exchanged looks, Michelle knew she'd have to play the ensuing explanation carefully. Despite her true thoughts on the matter, she didn't want to put down their sport of choice lest they decide she was a bitch, which would cause problems for Cordelia. But then she also had to appear loyal to her sport of choice without coming across as a fanatic: failing the former might get her an invitation to cheerleading tryouts while succeeding at the latter would also make it harder to win Cordelia's friends over, leaving the magnokine in the same difficult position. Finally Harmony spoke up on behalf of the Cordettes. "Oh. Softball. That's… nice."

Michelle shrugged in what she hoped was a nonchalant manner. Here went nothing; hopefully her farting around on the Internet while waiting for the pizza to show up was about to pay off. "Well, my uncle - on my dad's side, not someone related to Willow - was a major league baseball player. Now he's a commentator. John Flaherty. Wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of him; he was a catcher for the… hang on, I actually have to think about this for a second. The… Red Sox, then the Tigers, then the Padres, then the Devil Rays, and finally the Yankees. Then he retired and started working for YES. Anyway, he used to drag some of his old pads with him even on vacation so he could keep in practice and so I'd see dad pitching to him out back on nice days. I was kinda chubby in elementary school and so my parents wanted me to do a sport… I thought Uncle John was pretty cool so I let them sign me up for the local Little League Softball league. It just sorta stuck." Hmm. Oh! Way to stroke their egos. "Besides, I don't have the work ethic to be a cheerleader. I mean softball is just a bit of workout year round and then getting my butt in gear each spring, but you guys are busy pretty much all year. I can't imagine how hard that's got to be."

Thankfully, before she had to add any further to the growing nest of lies that was her new pretend life, Cordelia stepped in. "So, has nobody noticed the all new me in the excitement of the new girl? Or are we going to pretend there's nothing there and hope it goes away, like we do when Summers comes near us..?"

"I was kinda curious, but I couldn't really think of a tactful way to phrase 'Cordelia, why do you look all freaky?'." Aphrodesia leaned forward, tugging gently on Cordelia's bright green hair, which the cheerleader had decided to leave down that day. "But, since you brought it up… Cordelia? Why do you look all freaky? I mean, my first guess would have been a bad reaction to dye but your white hair on Halloween was a wig. Which means that you weren't messing with dye at all, making it pretty impossible for you to have had a bad reaction to it."

Cordelia batted Aphrodesia's hand away, running her fingers through her hair to smooth it back so the others could see her roots even as she arched her back a bit to thrust her chest out. "Tact is just not saying true stuff. You know how I feel about that. And besides, a hair dye accident wouldn't explain my chest, would it?" The girls shook their head in confusion and Michelle tilted her head to the side curiously, wondering how Cordelia was going to talk her way out of this one. The cheerleader's next words made Michelle's jaw drop. "None of you caught my eye on Friday, but… did anyone else here buy some or all of their costume from Ethan's? Not remember much of Halloween night? Have any weird thoughts still floating around in their head?"

The reactions were… interesting. Aura and Gwen were quick to shake their heads, even as Harmony and Aphrodesia nodded almost in sync. Janet, on the other hand, was strangely still and staring at Cordelia with wide eyes. After exchanging a series of looks and small gestures with Harmony, Aphrodesia spoke up. "I, uh, may or may not have some pretty impressive parkour skills now." Michelle raised an eyebrow at that revelation; what the hell had one of Sunnydale's finest dressed up as that she had memories like that floating around in her head? Thankfully Aphrodesia realized the 'new girl' might need that little tidbit of information to be able to follow the conversation, and volunteered it without being asked. "I went as… well, not exactly Captain America, seeing as how I'm a girl and all. But I don't understand-"

"Long story short? Magic is real. Amber Grove bursting into flames last spring during tryouts? Magic. My sudden blindness? Magic. Equally sudden cure? Magic. Unless any of you have a better explanation for those things?" Cordelia looked around, waiting until each Cordette had shaken her head, and then continued. "Last night, this guy turned everyone who bought anything from Ethan's into their costume. So Aphrodesia, you turned into American Dream and I turned into the Black Cat. And other people turned into pirates, medieval ladies, ghosts, demons, whatever. Except for some lingering memories, everyone else I've talked to turned back to normal after a few hours. But something weird happened to me and… well, when the costume came off, all of the catsuit's padding was a part of me and my hair and eyes had changed colors." Cordelia let out a huff of annoyance as she leaned back against her locker, crossing her arms under her breasts. "Since I can't seem to find someone listed under 'wizard' in the phone book to fix me, I'm pretty sure I'm stuck like this. I was thinking about dying it back to normal, but I'd have to constantly touch up my roots and don't even get me started on my eyebrows. And I looked into surgery… I should probably wait till I'm older to make sure I'm done growing, and even then there's risk of scarring, loss of sensation, and a bunch of other crap. No thank you. I think I'll just date a masseuse."

Aphrodesia looked Cordelia up and down slowly a few times before clucking her tongue. "Huh. Suddenly, thinking that it's normal to jump a wall instead of going around it… not so bad."

"I know. That's rough. I mean, if Cordelia had been turned entirely into the Black Cat? She's pretty. And the white hair would be exotic. But green? That's kinda freaky." Harmony trailed off, looking to the other Cordettes for support that failed to materialize, before finally returning her attention to the leader of her pack. "But, well, I guess green is exotic too. I mean, nobody else has green hair. Just… you're not going to try and turn it into an 'in' thing and make us dye our hair green too, are you?"

Cordelia reached up and pulled a strand of hair forward, staring at it as she contemplated the blonde's words. Eventually, she let out a snort. "Now why would I do something stupid like that, Harmony? Then I wouldn't be the exotic girl with green hair anymore. Supply and demand. Right now, I've got the only supply and once guys get a good look at me, I'm sure there will be a lot of demand. Blondes, brunettes, redheads… dime a dozen. Green…ettes? Zip. Zero. Zilch. I'm one of a kind. Well, even more than I used to be."

The Cordettes were left pondering that as Cordelia opened her locker, pulling out the textbooks that she'd need the day. But even as Harmony opened her mouth to share what was undoubtedly a scintillating thought, the hallway came alive with noise as hundreds of voices began chattering excitedly. Everywhere that Michelle looked, people were staring avidly at their smartphone or crowding in next to someone who already had theirs out. Given that she was a relative newbie when it came to her iPhone, Michelle opted to sidle up on Gwen's left, shooting the blonde a grateful look for not protesting the move before peering over the girl's shoulder. Rather than head for Facebook as Harmony claimed to be doing, Gwen instead made a beeline for CNN, whose website loaded with a bright red banner across the top.

'BREAKING NEWS: Superhuman known as 'Thor' has engaged hostile aliens in battle on the grounds of the University of Greenwich.'