After the first day fiasco, Molly's time at her new school had improved significantly. She managed to make a couple friends...though Scratch, the ghost that lives in her new house, was her number one bestie. Scratch was, of course, less than enthused about the whole situation, having accidentally cursed himself to follow her wherever she goes, but he was glad she was at least making human friends so he could have a break every now and then and get back to scaring people.

Though what he wanted more than anything was to break this curse.

The last school bell rang, and everyone left for the day. Molly caught up with her friend Libby.

"Hey Molly! You doing anything after school?"

"Oh, yea...when I finish my homework, I was gonna go to the park...maybe you'd want to come?"

"Sounds like fun...see ya then!"

Libby walked to the bus. Molly waited by the entrance because her mom was on her way to pick her up. Molly preferred it this way because she can have some control over the playlist on the way home. She was soon accompanied by her little brother, Darryl, who noticed Molly looking over at Libby as she boarded the bus and waved back at Molly.

Molly suddenly found herself feeling...flustered...

"Hey, Molly..."

"Oh...uh, hey Darryl..."

"Who's that girl that was waving at you?"

"Oh...she's my friend, Libby..."

"Hmm...from the shade of red on your cheeks, I'm sensing something more..."

"What are you talking abou...oh, no, she's just a friend..."

"Are you sure? This has happened before...remember Allison at our last school..."

"Don't remind me...she ended up being kinda mean after I told her I liked her..."

"And Lizzy at the school before that..."

"Okay, I get it...but..."

"And..."

"List any more and I'll snatch your tounge!"

"Okay, fine...my point is you tend to fall for girls super easily..."

"Hey, I can totally be just friends with her...I mean, sure, she's nice...and she has such a pretty smile...and she makes my heart flutter...oh no..."

"Called it."

Molly was about to tell Darryl off when her mom pulled up in the car.

Once Molly got into the house, she went straight for the bathroom. The bathrooms at school today were...less than sanitary...so she held it in for almost the entire day.

While Molly was in the bathroom, Darryl had an idea...he went upstairs to Molly's room to go see Scratch.

"Hey Scratch, you got a sec?"

"No, but I know you're gonna ask me something anyway, so shoot..."

"Do you know anything about ships?"

"Oh, do I ever!" Scratch went into the closet and pulled out a model ship. "I thought nobody would ask about my collection!"

"No, I meant relationships..."

"Oh...well in that case, no, I don't..."

"Okay, nevermind...it's just...I think Molly has a crush on her friend Libby, and I wanted to help her out."

"Listen, Derek..."

"It's Darryl..."

"Even if I knew anything about relationships, I have too much on my plate to worry about tween romances."

"Oh, come on, Scratch!"

"No, and stop asking! That girl drives me nuts, so why should I help her?"

Darryl thought for a second. "Well...if Molly's dating Libby...that means she'd be spending more time with her..."

"And less time with me...hmmm...you drive a hard bargain, kid...okay, I'll help..."

"Excellent!"

"But I'm not making any guarantees that this will work...and I need to keep up my scare quota, so we're doing this quickly."

"Okay, cool, Molly is supposed to meet up with her later at the lake."

The door opened and Molly walked into her room. Darryl quickly hid in the closet.

"Hey, Scratch...I'm gonna head out for a bit..."

"Okay, Molly...make sure to bring home some more of those tacos!"

"You got it buddy!"

Molly walked out of the room and went downstairs. Darryl came out of hiding and looked out the window. He saw Molly walking through the driveway and taking a left down the sidewalk.

"Okay, Scratch...let's get going..."

Darryl and Scratch made their way down to the lake, making sure to stay out of sight of Molly. They saw Molly meet up with Libby, who brought some sandwiches for the both of them.

"Okay, Darryl, here's what we're gonna do...uh...ummm...I don't actually have an idea..."

"Then why are we here?"

"Wait, look..."

The clouds were darkening, meaning that it was about to rain. Scratch, making sure nobody could see him, went through Molly's bag and poked massive holes in the umbrella she took. Scratch then went back over to Darryl.

"What did you do, Scratch?"

"Just watch..."

The rain started to come down.

"Oh, it's raining," Molly said. She went to grab her umbrella, and was shocked to find it was ruined. "Oh no! Mom's gonna kill me!"

"Hold up, I have an umbrella." Libby took out her umbrella. "Here, come under here."

"W...with you?"

"Yea..."

Molly got under the umbrella right next to Libby. Oh, I'm so close to her...

"Hey, Molly..."

"Yea..."

"You look really red...do you have a fever or something?"

Molly was blushing bright red.

"Oh, uh..."

Libby put her hand on Molly's forehead, which made Molly blush even redder.

"Hmm, you don't seem to have a fever..."

"Uh...hey! Maybe we can go on the trail!"

Molly had to come up with something so she didn't die right then and there.

"Oh, sure...I love walking on the trail, especially when it's rainy out...I don't know, I'm weird like that..."

"Hey, it's not so weird..."

Molly and Libby started walking down the trail. But Scratch wasn't done just yet. The trail was starting to get muddy, so Scratch went under Libby's feet and slipped her up and she fell in the mud.

"Libby! Are you okay?"

"Oh, yea, I'm fine...these pants need to be cleaned though..."

Molly helped Libby up...but Libby's face became too close to Molly's and she turned red again.

"Are you sure you're okay, Molly?"

"Oh, yea...positively...dandy..."

Scratch turned to look at Darryl.

"I've got one more trick up my sleeve..."

Molly and Libby went through the trail and arrived at the other side of the lake. Libby took a pebble and skipped it across the lake. Scratch snuck behind Molly as she walked up to Libby with a pebble. He tripped her and Molly fell into Libby.

"Molly! You okay?"

"Yea, I'm, uh...fine..."

Molly's face was close to Libby's again.

Come on, kid, just kiss her and get it over with...I need to scare someone!

Molly got up and helped Libby up.

"Ugh, just ask her out already!"

Libby looked around. "Hey, who said that?"

Did I say that out loud? Oh crud...

"Uh, Molly...what's going on?" Libby was confused.

"Uh...give me a sec..."

Molly walked behind a bush.

"Okay, Scratch, you can come out now..."

Scratch revealed himself to Molly.

"Oh...hey Molly...did you do something different with your hair?"

"What are you doing here?"

Darryl came out of hiding. "He's here because of me..."

"Darryl, stop trying to get me to ask Libby out...you always do this..."

Libby had snuck over and started listening in on their conversation.

"But...it's obvious you like her...I was just trying to help..."

"Yea, but...I wanted to take it slow...I don't know if she even likes me back, so...I just wanna try to be her friend for now..."

Libby ducked behind the bush. Molly...likes me? Like, 'likes me' likes me...oh...ooohhh...that explains so much...Libby's heart started to pound as the thought of her and Molly possibly dating crossed her mind...

"Libby?" Molly came out from behind the bush to find Libby sitting on the other side of the bush. "Did you...hear all that?"

Libby got up. "Yea...I wasn't aware you thought of me that way..."

"Hey, it's okay...I understand if you don't feel the same way..." Here it comes...come on Molly, don't be too upset...she just isn't into you...that's fine...

"Actually...I like you, too..."

That was not the reaction Molly was expecting.

"You do?"

"Yea...uh...I don't know what to say...you're such an amazing person...and you're so...pretty...I just never thought you'd be into me like that..."

"Are you kidding me? I didn't think you'd be that into me!"

"Then I guess we were both wrong, huh?"

Libby let out a little chuckle, and Molly chuckled back, cracking a smile.

After a few minutes, a car pulled up.

"Hey, Libby, time to go!"

"Hey, my mom is here to pick me up, so maybe...we can make a little time tomorrow for a...d...date?"

"Oh...okay...that'd be n...nice..."

"C...cool...see you tomorrow, then..."

Libby planted a kiss on Molly's cheek and got in the back of the car. Molly looked out towards the car as it drove away into the distance, all the while holding her cheek...

"Alright, this has been a success," Scratch said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go scare Libby's mom. Gotta keep up that scare quota..."

"You will do no such thing, Scratch!" Molly yelled as Scratch flew away. "Get back here, Scratch!"

Scratch found himself being hurled towards Molly. "Ugh, fine..."