"Yeah," Jenny responded. "And it was awful! He tricked me in like every possible way."

"I told you... I had to...", the Serpent began, and then paused. "And to answer your question from before: yes, I did sort of like you."

Lee had been looking from Jenny to his brother and back during this exchange. He now thought Jenny was about to say something in response to that last part, but he decided to interrupt: "Seriously, guys, now is so not the time to figure out our romantic relationships!"

Biffy chuckled. "Yeah, like you and Tina weren't kissing literally in the middle of the battle, right? Like literally right in front of the just-arrived monster?"

Lee and Tina both blushed slightly. Lee's mother piped up inquisitively: "When was this? Lee, did you kiss when I was frozen?"

Lee began to respond sheepishly: "Uh..." Then he realized something: "Of course! That was the monster Finnwich was talking about!"

"Doy!" Kimmie was clearly becoming herself again. "That was so obv! I figured that out like right away when he mentioned the stuff about the marks and everything."

"You know...", Jenny began with a slight smirk. "Since we're talking about romantic relationships and all... you two would be perfect for each other!", she said, pointing at Kimmie and the Serpent.

"Seriously? Us?", Kimmie said in shock. "I don't think so."

"Why not?", Jenny continued. "No offense, but you're both not exactly the nicest people around, and you're both sneaky... not to mention that you both have weird connections to MWF, right?"

"Like you're any better," Kimmie retorted.

"What? I'm sarcastic, okay? You're just... well... jerks. Sorry for using your term given the... uh... circumstances, but you know what I mean."

"Uh, Jenny? I sort of have to agree with Kimmie here." It was Tina, surprising Lee not for the first time recently. "You're not exactly Ms. Nice McNice either. Remember how mean you were to me before we became friends?"

"Yeah, and now I'm thinking softening up to you might have been a mistake. Traitor!", Jenny snapped.

"Meanie!", Tina snapped back.

"'Meanie' isn't much of a comeback, you know...", Biffy added. He had been quietly chuckling throughout the later part of this exchange.

"Says the guy who was gonna leave his parents to run Coral Grove by themselves," Jenny retorted.

Biffy's mom piped up. "Actually, Biffy offered to stay with us while his friends left, at least for a while. He's such a good boy!"

Biffy smiled triumphantly, and then smirked at Jenny. "See?"

"Enough!" Lee had had it with this. "Why can't you girls just get along? And Biffy, seriously - you're not helping! Ugh!"

"Holger soothe everyone's nerves with tale of friendship cake, oven-fresh!"

Apparently, this quip from Holger was exactly what was needed to bridge the discord between the rest of the teens. Several of them - those who were far more familiar with Holger's stories than they had ever wanted to be - yelled "No!" at the same time.

"No! No stories, no songs, poems, allegories, or anecdotes! Nothing!", Biffy said, repeating almost word-for-word what he had quipped at Holger last time they were stuck together and he and the others were forced to listen to Holger's tale.

"Aw... How about...", Holger began.

"Enough!", Lee exclaimed again. "What we need to do now is to make sure that nobody else... well..." He paused and sighed. "We're going to do what we originally set out to do. We're going to open the pyramid and let that guy out, and then...", Lee hesitated for a moment - he wasn't sure whether he was quite ready to reveal his plan, particularly in present company.

"And then what?", Biffy asked impatiently.

"And then... we're going to destroy the pyramid for good."