It was after spring break. The students had settled back in, and finished unpacking, which meant it was about time for one house or another to throw a party.

She heard about it pretty quickly, of course, but not from someone. She just heard people ask each other to go together, and only because she had werewolf ears. It was strange, really. People didn't go out of their way to keep things from her, especially not everyone all at once.

She saw Ajax on his way to class and made sure to get in his way. After The Raven, when he'd told her why he'd missed their date, it had seemed like they'd get together. And they did! ...sort of.

They made out a few times, and he seemed to like it too, but before they even got to spring break it had petered out. And they'd gone back to being just friends.

"Hey, Ajax."

"Oh, Enid. Hi."

"So I hear there's a party coming up."

"I think so? It isn't in my dorm house so I haven't really heard much about it."

He was avoiding eye contact, something was definitely up.

"Care to tell me why everybody's trying to hide it from me?"

"I-" He glanced to her left. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She looked to her left as well, but only saw Wednesday coming toward her. Wednesday definitely didn't have anything to do with it. If they didn't want her to attend they didn't have to worry, Wednesday never went to parties to begin with. The Raven had been an exception. And Wednesday also wouldn't tell people to keep it a secret from her. No, he'd just been avoiding eye contact.

"I gotta go now." He hurried off before she could ask any more questions.

She'd chase after him, but she also had classes to get to, so instead she smiled at her bestie and went to class with her. At least she knew Wednesday wouldn't lie to her like Ajax just had, mostly because she didn't care about people's opinions enough to keep things from them.

It made her sad to think about, that despite her feelings for Wednesday the shorter girl wouldn't care about making her cry, but she still appreciated her bestie's honesty. It really was an easy trait to fall for.

And she had, fallen for Wednesday that is. She wasn't even sure when it happened, but if she had to guess it was before Crackstone came back to life and she transformed to save Wednesday, she just hadn't realized it at the time. She was pretty sure that's why things didn't work out with Ajax; she'd just lost interest in him.

She decided to ask Yoko next.

She sat down at her friend's table at lunch, and herd how the conversation died down.

"Hey, Yoko."

"Hi."

The others at the table all acknowledged her with their own greetings.

"Do you know why everyone is trying to hide the party from me?"

Yoko gave her a long suffering look. She wasn't really into gossip, not like Enid. Actually, none of her friends were super into gossip, but Yoko heard things too and always humored her when Enid wanted to talk about the latest news.

"Nobody's hiding the party from you. It's from nine to midnight at the Salome Hall tomorrow."

"Yeah, you say that, but I've heard like ten conversations about the party die the moment I walked into the room."

"That just means they're avoiding the subject around you."

"Okay, but why?"

Yoko stared at her, for a good ten seconds nobody at the table said anything.

"I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole. Sorry. Maybe ask Wednesday about it."

Wednesday? Why her again? She still doubted that her bestie/roommate/latest crush was directly involved or knew much about it, but somehow people had it in their head that she was. And if there was gossip about Wednesday that she hadn't heard about then she knew who had.

She stood up and went straight to the scales' table, and sat down next to Bianca.

"What's up?" Bianca asked.

Half the table was staring at her, but unlike Yoko and her friends the sirens hadn't stopped their conversations.

"People aren't talking to me about the party tomorrow and Yoko thinks it has something to do with Wednesday."

Bianca snorted. "I'll say."

"So what's up?"

Bianca leveled a stare at her, and for a moment it seemed like she'd say the same thing Yoko had.

"They're afraid you'll ask one of them to the party."

"What?" Not that she'd ask anyone on a date, since she had a crush and Wednesday wouldn't go with her even if she asked, but why would they be afraid of that?

"Your last two dates ended pretty badly."

"So? Do they think Wednesday put a curse on me or something? She had nothing to do with what happened."

"You really don't know?" When Enid didn't answer Bianca continued.

"The morning after Ajax was a no-show something happened to him. He hasn't told anyone about it, but Wednesday asked his roommate if he really turned himself to stone in the shower before he showed back up. Apparently he was freezing and it's a miracle he didn't catch something.

"And then your date at the Raven, Lucas. He was so scared of something he made sure to avoid both you and Wednesday like the plague when he did his community service here. Nobody knows what she did to him, and he's not talking either, but he hasn't so much as said a mean thing to an outcast since."

Enid wasn't sure if she believed those rumors mainly because it had taken really long for Wednesday to admit she could even stand her. She wasn't even sure Wednesday cared about her at that moment, much less back when Ajax hadn't shown up to their date. Even so, a part of Enid hoped that Wednesday had cared, that she'd done something when Enid was feeling down.

"Then there's what she did to Tyler, or what she was about to do before the sheriff stopped her. She said there wouldn't be any marks left after she tortured him, doesn't take a genius to put two and two together."

"You think Wednesday tortured them?" Suddenly Enid hoped Bianca was wrong about everything. "Bianca how could you-"

"I didn't spread those rumors, but the two of us aren't the only ones here who hear things. And people have heard what happens to people who try to date you, or who break your heart. The fact that nobody knows if it's for one or the other means that even just getting asked means their fate will be decided by a coin flip. Either they go with you and risk her wrath or turn you down and risk her wrath."

If she was being honest Enid wasn't sure what to think. Wednesday was... different. She was willing to torture Tyler to prove he was the Hyde, and going by Yoko's and Bianca's words she seemed to have had the skills to go through with it. But torturing people for making her cry? There was no way Wednesday cared that much.

'If he breaks your heart, I'll nail gun his,' she remembered Wednesday say before her date with Ajax. Maybe she should have known something was up, but it had seemed quirky at the time, in Wednesday's usual macabre sort of way. Enid had actually thought that it might have been an empty platitude. But then again, Wednesday didn't make empty threats so why would her platitudes be empty.

So maybe Wednesday actually did care about her feelings, and the thought of that made her happy. Too bad it would also mean her bestie was secretly torturing people for hurting said feelings.

A cold dread settled in her stomach. Or maybe betrayal? She felt sick.

What should she do? What could she do?

"Just talk to her if you want to know any more," Bianca said, giving Enid one possible avenue. But would Wednesday tell her the truth? Would she listen if Enid asked her not to torture people?

She had thought Wednesday wouldn't ever lie, but the fact that she hadn't heard about any of what Bianca told her from her bestie made her question that assumption.

As for listening if Enid asked her to stop, well, Enid doubted even five people in the world could tell Wednesday what to do. Her headstrong nature was another thing Enid really liked about her bestie, another thing that had made her fall for her.

But maybe, if she was doing whatever she was doing because she wanted Enid to feel better, she'd listen to her. Not in general but just when it came to how she went about trying to cheer her up. Or maybe she'd just hide the evidence better.

"She's right over there," Bianca pointed out. "Go. Talk to her already." Enid stood, but she wasn't sure it was such a good idea. Maybe she should wait until the evening when it was just the two of them, or after Wednesday came back from sneaking around at night and was too tired to try lying.

Wednesday came over to her. "Did you want something?"

"Hu?"

"You were staring at me."

"Oh! Um. Could we talk? Alone." A bit of heat rose to her face at the thought of being alone with her crush but she pushed it down. This was serious.

"Sure." Wednesday spun on her heel and guided her somewhere for them to talk.