A/N: Alright, I'm just gunna warn you guys right now (cause I had a few of you saying that what Zed was doing was 'mean' - and yeah, you're right lol) But let me just say, that this is totally the beginning of the 'meanness' xD As conflict rises between the two, and let me just tell you holy shit it does, they both say and do extremely mean and hurtful things to each other... BUT, it's not anything dire, and it's not anything that could be a story ender xD I'm trying to make these two as raw as possible, and lets face it, every relationship has these hiccups.

So, just so no one is ever surprised, here's the disclaimer - Tessa can be a real bitch, and Zed can be a real ass. But together they make one confused, head over heels crazy as butt couple.

That made no sense.

But please know, I don't want to make mary-sues or anything. They're not perfect, and they WILL make sure you know that xD But do they always kiss and make up?

Well, if you don't know the answer to that by now, then go back and reread the last 295 chapters I've slaved away at. 330 that you guys don't know about, quite frankly.

Song Listened To : No Control - Girl Almighty 1D

*Chapter 95*

As Sugar Rush's warm night came to a close, everyone slowly moseyed back to their own respective games. Penny and Oliver said their goodbyes to Tammy, Emery, Otto and Zed, and pushed into their large, though humble, castle. Penny said her kind, quiet 'goodnight's to her younger cousin and began to slowly mosey to her bedroom. She knew her mother and father, as well as the King and Queen, were likely fast asleep and prepared for the next Arcade day. Penny yawned softly, though she merely glanced at Tessa's room and noticed her bedroom light was still on. Her bedroom door was just barely cracked, and as if curiosity was bound to get the best of her, eventually, Penny sneaked closer to Tessa's bedroom.

As gently as she could, she peered in without a sound. Penny held her breath and let her eyes dart around the room. She froze and felt a delighted smile grace her cheeks as she noticed Tessa's bathroom door agape, with Lickity's long, floppy tail hanging out of it and rested half way into the bedroom. Penny smirked and tried to hide a small giggle with the endearing sight. She knew Lickity had extremely sharp hearing, and likely even heard Penny and Oliver approaching the castle, though she still tried to not kid herself. She quietly pushed into Tessa's bedroom and crossed over to her bathroom. She gingerly peered into the bathroom and nearly jumped clear out of her skin; she could feel her pupils dilate in total, unnerving fear as she her brain was pressed with the raw image of Lickity's face. Tessa's dragon sat calmly, though as if she were part owl, her head was largely cranked all the way around. Her massive bat like ears were taught atop her head, and her eyes were wide, to gather every single last pixel of information she could about the new soul added to Tessa's room. Just as Penny was about to open her mouth, to speak to Tessa, she noticed Lickity knowingly relax her tense shoulders and neck.

"Penny, I'm pretty sure sneaking up on me, with Lickity or not, is impossible," Tessa muttered; she was dressed in a pair of comfortable grey sweats and a dark red sports bra. She tediously tweezed at her eyebrows, though she continued on, "Lickity has been frozen solid ever since you and Oliver were at the castle's front gates. I'm serious, she didn't move from that position for at least four minutes."

"I wasn't trying to sneak up on you," Penny giggled as Lickity finally unraveled herself from Tessa's side.

She opened her mouth and let her tongue lightly hang out from her fangs. She largely bumped Tessa, with her left wing, as she quickly pushed closer to Penny. She grumbled an excited noise, and Penny was thrilled to see her sharp, slits of pupils lull back to dilated, puppy-dog eyes, like usual. Tessa wobbled and grunted an annoyed noise as Lickity continued to bump into her, with her body, as she shoved her snout into Penny's center to say hello.

"Lickity looked as if she were ready to pounce on me," Penny laughed as she scratched the underside of Lickity's chin, which caused her tail to gently flop about. Tessa flinched as her tail largely slapped the top of the toilet, which brought down a towel rack that was hanging right above it. Penny raised her eyebrows in hard surprise, "Sorry."

"I'm numb to it," Tessa mumbled in dismay as she continued on with what she was doing, in the mirror, "I've learned not to hang crap up in my room, anymore, 'cause tyrannosaurus rex, here, knocks everything down."

"She's just a teddy bear," Penny smiled down at Lickity and rubbed under her jaw, some more, "Aren't you."

"Y'guys have fun shooting?" Tessa kindly wondered, though it was clear she was still upset.

"Oh yeah, it was great!" Penny chimed kindly as she moved past Lickity and into Tessa's bathroom. Draped in a comfortable tank and pants, as well, both girls were ready for a good night of comfort. She eyed Tessa in gentle knowing before she glanced about Tessa's sprawling, cream-marbled counter top, "There was this really cool thing that happened."

"Oh yeah?" Tessa wondered in kindness Penny knew she was forcing. Tessa finally stood upright, put her tweezers down and faced Penny lightly. She lazily put her hands on her hips and watched as Penny idly gazed down at Tessa's messy bathroom counters.

"Yeah!" Penny chuckled as she furrowed her eyebrows in an incredulous way, "There was this girl that was there. She was such a badass."

"Hmm," Tessa cocked an eyebrow and gave Penny a dull, knowing look.

"She was totally hot stuff, too, Zed was like... Clearly checking her out," Penny rushed in a girly, almost dull tone as she shook her head. She lightly picked up a buzzer on Tessa's counter, that was likely Oliver's. She gripped it in her hand and continued to approach Tessa, "She was so cool. She had this awesome exiting line. She said, 'there's one thing in this room, you should be more scared of, than this buzzer... And it's not Lickity.'"

Tessa continued to hold her now uninterested, annoyed, dull stare to her cousin. She remained solid with her hands on her hips as Penny got closer to her. Tessa barely budged as Penny shoved the butt of the buzzer into the center of Tessa's rib cage, just under her breast.

"It's me," Penny muttered in a sarcastic, exaggerated, mean tone, though she finally exhaled a hard laugh as Tessa largely rolled her eyes and shoved the buzzer away, as well as Penny's hands.

"I'm so frightened," Tessa muttered under her breath as she leaned her larger hands on the counter and peered at herself in the mirror. Penny looked on, as well, and caught eyes with Tessa's reflection.

"What do you have this buzzer for, anyways?" Penny inquired as she lightly looked down at it.

"It's Oliver's," Tessa replied softly as she looked down at it, as well, though Penny idly set it down and began to put her hair into a lazy pony-tail; her hair desperately tried to curl out of order, however. Tessa carried on, "He was in here shaving, the other night, because his bathroom light burnt out and he was too lazy to fix it. So he just came in here."

"He should really just grow his facial hair out, he has such a baby face," Penny mumbled as she peered to Tessa, her elbows awkwardly moved about as she tried to get her hair into the pony-tail she wanted, "Him and Uncle Ralph are so weird about that."

"They want to be clean shaven, for some reason," Tessa rolled her eyes, "I like stubble."

"Yeah, then there's my dad, Uncle Gloyd and Zed," Penny giggled as she finally released her arms from the position they were in and relaxed, "They have enough to go around."

"Tell me about it," Tessa grumbled, though she felt her heart jump at the sound of Zed's name.

"You still upset about the whole prom thing?" Penny gently wondered.

"I don't want to talk about it," Tessa mumbled as Lickity finally came back into the bathroom and got comfortable behind the two girls.

"Yes you do," Penny burst with a kind laugh as she shook her head.

"Oh my User, no I don't," Tessa muttered as she gestured her hand in an annoyed tone, "I'm just going to show up to prom, in a really nice dress, and he's going to feel sorry he didn't ask me."

"What if he doesn't even go to prom?" Penny innocently wondered, though she tried her hardest to keep a straight face through Zed's looming surprise.

"Well, then... I'll look awesome going to Academy every day," Tessa mumbled as she crossed her arms in dismay and gave Penny an almost defeated look.

"Like how," Penny slumped her shoulders and gave Tessa an annoyed smile, "You gunna bedazzle your bra and hope the straps show or something stupid?"

"Oh yes, exactly," Tessa muttered as she rolled her eyes and looked at herself in the mirror, "No... I-I want to do something more drastic."

"Drastic?" Penny worried as she caught eyes with Tessa's reflection yet again. The two girls were silent for a moment as Tessa bit her bottom lip in contemplation, though Penny flinched once Tessa suddenly tensed into action and gestured towards Penny with both her hands, as she faced her.

"I want to cut my hair," Tessa rushed, though Penny's eyes bulged.

"What!" Penny laughed, "You... You what!"

"You heard me," Tessa urged in an annoyed rush.

"But... Your hair is so long! Doesn't Zed love your hair?" Penny worried, though Tessa largely slumped her shoulders and exhaled a hard, annoyed noise. She stepped around Penny, in a fit of confusion, and whirled around to face Penny, yet again.

"I have to do something to get his attention," Tessa urged desperately, she grappled her hair and dangled the long, auburn strands around, in pure annoyance, "I'm sure these dead ends and endless strings of nonsense aren't really impressing him."

"I think he likes your long hair, Tessa," Penny worried with a bashful smile, though she crossed her arms and tried to imagine her cousin with shorter hair, "How short were you thinking?"

"I don't know, I want to do something daring," Tessa sighed as she looked herself in the mirror, yet again, "Something bold."

"You should give yourself a faux-hawk, like him," Penny stifled laughter, "THAT'D get his attention."

"He'd dump me on the spot," Tessa muttered through an annoyed giggle.

"You gunna change your appearance settings, in the code room?" Penny wondered as the two caught eyes, yet again.

"I can't," Tessa started gently, "I've only ever had one hair style. You have to acquire a different hair style, in order for the game to memorize it, so you can switch back and forth whenever you want."

"So you HAVE to cut it, by hand, first?" Penny worried, though Tessa shrugged with a nervous nod.

"Unfortunately, yeah," Tessa eyed Penny in growing contemplation, though she suddenly threw her arm out and grappled for Penny's arm, which cued Penny to let out a hard, annoyed groan and roll her eyes in a huge amount of dismay.

"Tessa, nooo," Penny complained.

"Come ON, you have to help me," Tessa urged pleadingly, though Penny giggled and gestured to herself.

"Do I LOOK like a hair stylist?" Penny laughed as she largely shook her head, "I will make your hair look like Dr. Eggman's mustache."

"No you won't!" Tessa begged with a pleading smile, "Please? All you have to do is just cut maybe... A little off. I can probably handle styling it."

"User, almighty," Penny groaned as she shook her head, "If you look weird, I am going to force you to reset your code and get your hair back to normal, though, you hear me?"

"Fine," Tessa urged as she finally began to search her counter top for a pair of scissors, "Just maybe... Cut six inches off, and we'll go from there."

"Holy, User, Tess... This doesn't sound like a good idea," Penny giggled as she covered her face, though Tessa continued to quickly search around her messy counter top. Penny furrowed her eyebrows, "Do you not have scissors?"

"I could've sworn I did," Tessa mumbled to herself, though she shook her head in defeat and largely grappled for Oliver's buzzer, "Here, just use this, it will work just as well."

"What!" Penny cried as she swiped the buzzer from Tessa's hands, "Tessa... This isn't for styling!"

"It's just to get the length off," Tessa gestured to the buzzer, "I'll go find scissors afterwards! I'm sure there are some in the kitchen."

"If I mess this up, you're not allowed to blame me," Penny argued as she pointed a hard finger to Tessa; she rolled her eyes and waved her hands in an urgent kind of way.

"I'm not going to blame you, this was my idea!" Tessa urged in hard annoyance, though she curiously peered down to her feet and noticed Lickity's snout lightly began to sniff the ground out of curiosity.

"You should thank User you have access to the code room," Penny stated as she cocked an eyebrow, "Can you imagine if we didn't, and I somehow messed this up? We'd waltz up to the castle, like idiots... 'Excuse me, your highness, Mrs. Vanellope, can we uh... Redo my hair in the code room really fast?'"

"We'd be laughed outta there," Tessa muttered as she began to nervously straighten the left side of her hair out, for Penny's sake, though Penny largely furrowed her eyebrows and pointed to Tessa's trembling hands.

"Tessa, you're shaking!" Penny urged loudly, though Tessa gestured her hands in a flustered way.

"Penny, I'm nervous! This is the only hair I've ever had, you'd be shaking too!" Tessa argued, "Just... Get it over with, all this waiting we're doing is making it worse!"

"Okay, okay," Penny worried as she gently set the buzzer down and softly grabbed the majority of the long strands on the left side of Tessa's head, near her chest, "Hold your breath."

Penny lightly glanced at Tessa and noticed her scrunch her eyes shut, as tight as she could. Penny bit her bottom lip and nervously held Tessa's hair taut, out before her. As calmly as she could, she grabbed the buzzer and turned it on. Before she could over think anything, she tenderly began to lightly sweep the buzzer over the area of contact. With much ease, hair began to daintily fall away and onto the floor, and Penny's feet. Penny exhaled a reviving sigh and let the shorter strands now fall away, so she could get a better grasp at the longer hairs that still needed to be cut. Six inches continued to lightly fall to the ground, though just as Penny began to readjust her stance, Lickity suddenly exhaled a massive, hard grunt of a sneeze. Her wings popped outwards, only slightly, and her head flapped about with the chaos, though with the massive disturbance, Penny jolted; in the action of it all, Penny's arm flung upward and caught Tessa on the side of her scalp.

Penny gasped a hard noise and dropped the buzzer as she slapped her hands over her mouth. She was successful in nearly buzzing the side of Tessa's head, just above her ear. The left side of her head was now sat with only about half an inch of hair, on her head. Tessa shook her head nervously and gestured her arm in confusion, though with one look in the mirror, she gaped and inhaled a hard cry of a gasp. She gripped the counter and leaned forward in hard, terrified surprise, though she easily brought her hands up and clenched her taut fingers in confused terror.

"PENNY!" Tessa cried; she didn't care who she woke up, at this point.

"Oh my User!" Penny shrieked as she scrambled to pick up the loudly tinkering buzzer, which scoot about on the floor, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"Look what you did!" Tessa urged loudly as her nervous fingers did everything they could to prod at the suddenly raw difference on her scalp. She largely bent over and grappled for the long strands of her hair, that had fallen. She shoved it in Penny's face and gave her a crazed look, "You just shaved off two feet worth of hair, Penny!"

"I-I didn't mean to!" Penny loudly worried, "Lickity scared me and-and-and... Y-you actually look kind of cool!"

"COOL?!" Tessa bellowed as she quickly looked at her reflection, in the mirror, "Penny, I look like I got into a fight with a lawn mower! And lost!"

"I-I don't know, I actually kind of like it!" Penny smiled a confused smile and crossed her arms. She turned the buzzer off and set it on the counter, though Tessa continued to give her a massively confused look.

"Are you joking?" Tessa barked, "C'mon, lets go to the code room."

"No, keep it!" Penny urged as she grabbed Tessa's arm, "C'mon, lookit! Who else, in Academy, has this hair-style!"

"Exactly!" Tessa hissed, though Penny rolled her eyes and grabbed Tessa's chin. She forced her to look at her own reflection, in the mirror.

"Zed will flip," Penny chuckled as she gestured outwards, "It's different! No one else has this hair-style. You SAID you wanted to get his attention. I'm pretty sure this will do the trick!"

"Yeah, and then he'll run in the opposite direction of me, and never return," Tessa breathed an incredulous chuckle as Penny continued to hold her chin in place.

"C'mon," Penny rolled her eyes and beamed a wide smile, "You look cool! It's edgy!"

Tessa furrowed her eyebrows and, on cue, Penny lightly dropped her hand as Tessa straightened her posture. She slowly crossed her arms and titled her head up in mild contemplation; she peered at herself, in the mirror, in pure curiosity and felt a wave of weird acceptance fall over her. Before she could try and deny her bubbling thoughts, she gently side-eyed Penny, in delightful confusion, and bit her bottom lip. She finally peered her attention back to her reflection and cocked an eyebrow.

"It is... Different," Tessa mumbled as she finally began to run her accepting fingers through the still long, untouched strands on the right side of her head. The short, raw and fluffy hairs, on the left side of Tessa's scalp, were rearranged in a sharp, collective kind of way. She finally braved a small smirk and gave Penny another look of incredulous disbelief.

"You're welcome," Penny chimed in a high voice as she eyed her cousin, though Tessa rolled her eyes.

"I haven't fully decided if I want to keep it, or not," Tessa mumbled.

"'Course you have," Penny swat her hand downward and gently picked up the buzzer, once more, "Here... I'll tidy it up and make it look clean."

Tessa slumped her shoulders and, with much defeat, she let Penny back into her bubble, though she eagerly watched as Penny carefully cleaned up the half inch-long hairs on her scalp. She made it so it was nearly buzzed and razor-sharp, in clean lines of organized disorder. She began to lightly buzz off the longer strands in the back, to make it even with the rest of her head, though just as Tessa was about to protest, Penny beamed a wide smile and uttered an annoyed few barks of a noise, to halt Tessa from complaining. Penny laughed softly and shook her head, though she pressed on. Smaller hairs fell to the way-side, and before Penny could venture farther than she should, she finally took a step back and turned the buzzer off.

"...Holy User, you look so cool," Penny laughed softly. Tessa gave Penny a curiously nervous look of anguish, though not without the hint of a delightful smile.

"Are you sure?" Tessa scrunched her face and peered at Penny through innocently worried eyes, though she peered back to her sharp look, in the mirror.

"I'm positive," Penny beamed, "Wow, I kind of like doing this! Here, let me get the dead ends on the right side of your head."

"If you buzz the right side of my head, too, I will literally punch you," Tessa muttered in hard annoyance as Penny moved around her and began to clean up the very ends of the long strands down the right side of Tessa's back, which hung just above Tessa's hip bone.

"I'm prepared, your highness," Penny said under her breath, though she beamed and exhaled a hard giggle as Tessa tensed.

"Stop calling me that!" Tessa complained, "I may be Sugar Rush's princess, but I don't like the royal stature that comes with it. How many times is someone going to call me 'your highness' before I deck 'em?"

"You'd like it if Zed said it," Penny muttered, though she flinched as Tessa largely swat at Penny's hands and grappled for the buzzer in Penny's hand. Both girls let out loud giggles as they played keep away with the buzzer, which Penny quickly and skillfully turned off.

"I'm going to buzz your face off, if you keep that up," Tessa laughed in an annoyed way.

"Oh, come on, I haven't teased you, about Zed, in forever," Penny giggled, though Tessa heaved a hard sigh and turned back to her reflection, though not without giving Penny the stink-eye.

"I'm nervous to go to Academy, tomorrow," Tessa finally said after a few seconds of tidying her hair and wondering just where everything would fall, now. Penny smiled softly and crossed her arms, to admire her handiwork.

"You gunna see Zed before school?" Penny kindly wondered, though Tessa gave her reflection a curious, scrunched look.

"I don't think so," Tessa heaved, "I'm going to try to get there early... I don't really feel like talking to him just yet."

"You're going to have to face him eventually," Penny raised her eyebrows and looked down in exhausted delight, "He was pretty beat-up, after you left the shooting range, today."

"He was?" Tessa worried as she nervously turned to face Penny, though she felt it weird that half her scalp now had a breeze every time she moved, and felt incredibly light and uneven with the rest of her heavy hair, on the right side of her body.

"Of course, Tess," Penny gave her cousin an incredulous smile, "You shoved the butt of your favorite gun into his chest and dared him to try you. I'd be pretty sad, too."

"I was sort of a bitch, wasn't I," Tessa slumped her shoulders and gave Penny a sad frown, though Penny largely rolled her eyes with a wide beam full of white teeth.

"You were just upset, I get it," Penny shrugged, "But, as we've learned in the past, you should just TALK TO HIM."

"He can find me, if he decides he's man enough to tell me he's not going to prom, and let me down in private, instead of for the whole world to hear," Tessa muttered as she pushed past Penny and into her bedroom; Lickity followed suit.

"Oh, he'll find you, alright," Penny muttered under her breath.