Everything was set up. She felt like she had cleaned the house for three days straight and honestly, it had not been this clean since she moved into it. The timer on the oven pulled her out of her daydream as she took out the last tray of cookies. This was the first time her fanfiction writing group had allowed her to host their biweekly meeting and come up with the topic of discussion…'crossovers: friend or foe for the fandom'. She felt that most of the other women in her group didn't understand her. She wasn't like them. She wasn't married, no kids, had a full time job she loved, multiple degrees and a trust fund that allowed her to travel the country following the path the Winchesters did in the show every season. She would spend three weeks every summer driving through every little town mentioned in that season. She would be so pumped when she would get back, and she would read over each new story she had written while she was out on the road just to reconnect with the freedom she felt when she was out driving, listening to the rock music, living her fantasy. Every time she would get back she would want to tell her group about everything but they never believed anything she ever told them about her trips to these places, the people she has met, or even the stories they have told her. They just roll their eyes and smile condescendingly at her. They always say, "You do know it's just a TV show, right?" She normally just shut her mouth, nodded her head and start writing down the next sentences to the next piece they would never read. She set the cookies on the decorated table she had set up in her living room. She smiled as she thought about everything she had done to get into their little clique that she so desperately wanted to belong to. She had gotten new writing pads for each woman who was going to be there. She had even gotten everyone new pens or pencils in the brands they liked most just to try and show them that she was truly dedicated to the writing process and not just a wild fangirl with money to burn. She looked around the room she had decorated with all of her collectables and some of the items she had picked up on the road during her travels. The doorbell rang causing her to take a nervous, unsettling breath. Ok, it's showtime, Veronica. Let's show them who you are.
"Hey, Ron, it's me!" Veronica relaxed a little knowing that Piper had agreed to come to the meet up. She opened the door to find her friend standing there in a Supernatural t shirt holding two cases of beer. "This Dean girl wasn't going to let this party go without a little hunter's helper!" She walked in and gasped. "Ron, this place looks amazing! If they don't start treating you like one of the girls then you need to drop them and just hang with me forever." Piper walked into the kitchen to start icing down the beer. "And you made mini apple pies! I KNEW down deep you were a Dean girl."
Veronica walked up to Piper and kissed her on the cheek. "Now you know I could never take Dean from you. I'm a Sam girl until the end. Thanks for being here today. I really needed someone who was going to have my back during my presentation."
"You even made a powerpoint presentation on your topic, didn't you?" Piper shook her head. "You are what the kids call now a try-hard. They should love it. If they don't, tell them to fuck off." Piper pulled the whiskey out of Veronica's cupboard and poured them each a drink. "Here a little liquid courage before the angels show up."
Veronica took the glass. "Angels? Don't you mean demons?"
They both shot the whiskey as Piper started to laugh. "No, everyone knows angels are the dicks around here." The doorbell rang as Veronica brushed off the nonexistent crumbs off her shirt. "Calm down, Ron, you look fantastic. Matter of fact after this, I need to borrow that flannel shirt. It would set my Dean cosplay costume off." As Piper went to answer the door, Veronica poured herself another glass of courage.
"And this is why I do feel like crossovers not only give the fandom some other places to allow the guys to explore, new and established characters for them to interact with, and different situations or monsters for them to deal with but helps us grow as authors. Any questions or comments?" Veronica hit the switch for the lights to come up in the living room to see everyone except Francine was totally enthralled by her presentation. She was literally asleep in her chair.
Mary Ann glanced over at Francine and just shook her head. "Veronica, that presentation was excellent. I think for this week's challenge we should all write a crossover using our guys in a situation in another TV show. We have to use characters from that other TV show and yes, I see your hand up, if you want to, you can write yourself into the piece for a little tryst with your favorite but it's not required."
"Does it have to be another TV show? Could it be a book series or even a movie?" Erin asked as she was already outlining a story on her legal pad. "I would LOVE to write the boys into a Hardy Boys novel. Don't look at me like that, Grace! You know I still love those books."
Grace laughed as she walked over to get another cookie and a beer. "Erin, you still love Shaun Cassidy. Don't get that twisted. You may have loved the book series but that TV show made your heart flutter from the moment you saw Shaun as Joe Hardy. " She motioned for Susie to help her pull Francine's chair out of the way. Everyone got quiet as they watched the precision and grace they used to move her into the hallway without waking her up. Grace then shut the door to the living room, leaving her in the quiet, darkened hallway to sleep off whatever she had taken before she came to the meet up. "That's better. I'm sorry but most days she's an old, cranky hag who really needs to be laid. I think she is on the 'painkillers and cocktails train' again. I mean she smells of vodka and her purse sounded like a pharmacy when she got in my car earlier. I really don't know why we keep her around."
Mary Ann never looked up from her outline. "Because she won't leave the group, even when we hint that maybe her writing style is not improving because she won't stretch her mind. Her stories are always the same thing….Sam and Dean with the 'Monster of the Week', she writes herself in as the damsel in distress who always sleeps with Chuck of all characters. I mean she really does need to get laid. Chuck? REALLY? Of everyone who is on the show, Chuck is the last one I would sleep with. I would have a foursome with Rowena, Charlie, and Castiel before I would sleep with Chuck! And you all know I can't stand Castiel."
Veronica couldn't hold back any longer and started to laugh. Everyone looked up at her as she leaned on the table to cover her face. "Are y'all telling me that I have been trying to impress y'all when it was only HER who hated me?" She looked up to see the other women in the room nodding their heads. "Why didn't any of you tell me sooner? I mean I think I have gained 15 stress pounds since I joined this group. I've been trying to improve my writing, but have always felt like it was never good enough to share with any of you."
Erin smiled and grabbed another mini pie off the table. "That's funny since most of us have read some of your work. Piper would give us copies of the stories she loved the most to pass among ourselves as long as we promised not to let the Evil Witch read them. That piece with the evil buddha really gave me nightmares. I freaking loved it."
"I have to be serious when I say that I'm really naughty and loved when you let any of the guys especially Crowley's freak flag fly high! That one where you had him sleep with Abaddon to see who was the most powerful. I can't even tell you how many cold showers I had to take after reading that one." Susie said as she started to write in her notebook. "I think I want to use Crowley in mine this week. I think he's going to go fuck shit up on Lucifer. You know have a real 'mine's bigger than yours' kind of fight for Hell." She sat back on the sofa and started to feveredly write. "Oh yeah, I'm going to like this challenge."
Piper spoke up as she smiled at Veronica. "Ok Ron, I think I'll give this writing thing a shot this week. I want the boys to end up having to deal with Gibbs, Dinozzo, McGee, Abby and ZIVA! Annapolis is having unexplained murders of naval officers on a ship and come to find out one of the ensigns has summoned a hydra that he has lost control of. I say Dean sleeps with Ziva in the end to celebrate." She nodded as everyone else laughed.
"I think Ziva would hurt him." Grace said as she started to scratch out a rough outline on her paper as she sipped her beer.
"And he'd LOVE it," Piper added as Veronica shook her head. "What about you, Ron? Where are you sending the boys?"
"Oh I have thought about this several times and I always think you know Forks or Mystic Falls and let them kill off all of the sparkly, pretty vamps." She shook her head. "But I'm going to send them to Las Vegas." She smiled as Piper just gave her a look.
"You just can't get away from him can you?"
"You know I love the way he walks and the way he talks." They all looked at her as she typed on her keyboard to pull up a photo of George Eads. "I think Nick Stokes is just such a … well an all around man I would love to play with."
"Yes he is! I think he and Dean might butt heads a little bit but he and Sam would make a good pair." Grace said as Veronica nodded in agreement. "I'm going to have the boys deal with the actual FBI from Criminal Minds." She started to write as she smirked. "I think we should see just how smart Reid is compared to Sam." A couple of the girls let out giggles as Erin rolled her eyes. "What? You have an issue?"
Erin just shook her head. "Don't give me any crap about Shaun Cassidy when I KNOW that Matthew Gray Gubler is your guilty pleasure." Grace just blushed as everyone got to work on their own stories. Veronica put on some music from the show quietly in the background as everyone spread out and started helping each other with ideas. Several of the women asked if they could look at some of the things Veronica had collected during her trips to give them some inspiration. She even took out some photos that she took of different places that look eerily like some of the scenes from the show. "I know our little show is shot in Canada but this salvage yard looks dead on to the Singer Salvage Yard."
Veronica kept her head down. "Yeah, the guy there said he would sell that whole place to me for little to nothing just so he could run to LA and try to woo Tori Spelling."
Blue, the resident hippie child, looked up and smiled. "If we can use movies, do you think I could put the boys in the Marvel Universe? Let Dean actually BE Captain America and Sam could stand in for the Winter Soldier? Let them help Iron Man and Thor save the world?" She moved her wild braid out of her face as she frantically started to write down her ideas as everyone around the room smiled and nodded to her supportatively.
"Blue, you don't want to put Sam in as Thor? I mean he did pick up the Hammer of Thor in that one episode?" Grace asked as she looked over Blue's shoulder.
"I was thinking about that but I just think that they would work better together." She looked up at Grace. "So I think if Dean is Captain America as he should be, then Sam would have to be Winter Soldier." Grace nodded aa she smiled at Blue who continued to sketch her outline in her notebook. "Maybe Sam and Black Widow can have a little something in the end," she giggled as everyone looked at her. "You girls know what I mean, right?"
Everyone laughed again enjoying the support and creativity flowing through the room until they heard the sleeping bear they had forgotten about in the hallway wake up from her nap. "Where the HELL am I? Why am I in the dark?" Grace walked over and opened the door causing Francine to fall into the room on her face. Piper stifled a laugh as Francine rolled over and got up. "What are you people doing in here? Why are all of you laughing and having a good time? Writing is a serious thing especially when you are using someone else's creations to form your …" She started to sway before she could finish her sentence.
Veronica smiled at the room. "You know, Francine is right. Writing is serious business and if we can't act like adults maybe it's time to call it a night. We're getting too wild and loud. Do you need a ride home, Francine? My neighbor is an Uber driver and I'm sure she can take you home for half fare. Would you like me to call her?"
Francine nodded as Veronica walked into the kitchen to call her neighbor. "I don't know WHY any of you are having a good time with this spoiled brat. I mean don't you just hate that she has all of this and didn't work for any of it?"
Piper walked past Francine towards the table of picked over refreshments. "You know, Francine, she works her ass off every day at her job. This house was NOT a gift but rather her first investment after working and saving for over 5 years. Yes, she has a trust fund and yes, she travels every summer but she deserves to have a little fun." She turned and got right in Francine's face. "So just because you're a bitter old hag who is angry at anyone who has a little better life than yours, that's not any of ours problems any longer. Do you know that most of the women in this room have degrees? Do you know that some of them aren't married with kids and are happy that way? Did you know that none of us like your writing AT ALL?" She backed up and looked at Francine. In that instant, she went from the bully to the bullied and just wanted to run.
Veronica walked back into the room with another tray of cookies. "Good news, Francine. Emily was home and said she could drive you home for free since she has another fare to pick up near your street." She smiled as Grace helped Francine gather herself and walked her out to the edge of the driveway.
Piper took a cookie from the tray. "How are you still nice to her? She's so evil to you."
"I guess I'm just sorry that she's so sad that she wants to make everyone else as miserable as she is just to make herself feel better." Veronica took a drink from her beer bottle as she smiled slyly. "That and Em is going to take her all over the city BEFORE she gets her home. I'm paying for the extra mileage." She laughed as everyone else looked at her shocked. "Don't worry. She'll make it home. It may just take her an hour to get there." The whole room erupted in laughter as they went back to their outlines and forgot about the bitter old crow they had sent on a wild goose chase home. "Now if everyone's ready, we can either go back to writing or watch last week's episode on this big screen."
As they settled in to watch the episode, Veronica relaxed knowing that she had found her people. As the lights went down, she glanced over at Piper who smiled at her flashing her eyes black. These were the people they were going to use to take over the world for the new Queen of Hell. She also knew that poor little Francine was already dead. Em had been given instructions on how to make her death look like an overdose and none of these women would be any the wiser once this first round of poison they were feeding them wore off. Piper and Veronica would act surprised when news of her death got back to everyone and then Veronica would continue to play host to the group, keeping control of their minds, hearts, and hands. She smiled to herself just thinking about how much off their list was going to get done with all of this 'girl power.' Piper looked around at everyone in the room. "Ok, everyone eat, drink and be hunters. I know that Ron worked really hard on all of these treats and I would hate to have to give them to the dogs." The ladies giggled as they snacked on mini pies and beer not knowing what was in store for them next. "On to Kansas, Ron! Let's see what the Winchesters do next."