Later that day at around 11:00 p.m., Gwen had gathered Leshawna and Trent in her room to discuss Heather's actions that day. She and Leshawna compared notes about their own encounters with Heather.
"Any ideas about what she might be up to?" Gwen asked.
"Nothing here," Leshawna said then rubbed her forehead in frustration. "I can't think straight with how well Heather's messed with my head."
"I'm surprised it's gotten to you this bad, Leshawna," Gwen said. "Heather only said that stuff to get us."
"That doesn't make her wrong," Leshawna said. "I didn't know she was messing with my head when I helped her win that bet and proved I'm just as vindictive as she thinks I am."
"I know how you feel," Gwen said. "Heather was right when she said I don't think of her as human: I've thought of her as a soulless demon spawn spat forth from the depths of hell to sow discord and misery among mankind."
Gwen paused for a moment as she put her hands on forehead for a moment. "That hit me pretty hard," Gwen continued. "I've had lots of people at my high school say stuff about me just because I'm a goth: that I'm a slut, that I disembowel small animals and sacrifice them to Satan. You'd think after that kind of experience with labeling, I'd learn about how wrong it is to that but apparently not. So I now think of Heather as a human: specifically, I think she's an amoral, borderline sociopathic human who is most likely up to something even I have no idea what her villainous endgame is."
"I have a theory about that," Trent said. "But you're not going to like it."
"Tell me anyway," Gwen said.
"Heather really is trying to apologize for all the stuff she's done," Trent said. "The two of you aren't taking it well because of how emotionally invested you are in hating her guts."
"You're right Trent," Leshawna said. "I don't like that at all."
"But it makes sense," Gwen said. "What else could Heather hope to accomplish with the actions she's taken."
"Exactly," Trent said. "Let's look at her dating Harold. Leshawna, you've made it clear that you only like him as a friend if even that much, so getting to you through him would be impractical. Associating with him can't help her with whatever high school status games she likes to play. There is no competition, so having a duped drone won't get her closer to a hundred grand. What does she have to gain by dating Harold?"
"Nothing from what I can tell," Gwen said.
Maybe it's not about what she has to gain, Leshawna thought as a possibility occurred to her.
"I have to go now," she said to Gwen and Trent then left the room.
"I still have trouble believing that Heather is dating Harold because she likes him," Gwen said.
"I know," Trent said. "But keep in mind that people have said stuff about us not being a good couple and look how we've worked out."
Gwen knew that Trent was right once again. As she thought about how forgiving and open minded Trent could be, she knew that Heather was wrong about her liking him just for his looks, even though she couldn't put it into words at the time.
…
Heather and Harold were in the room they shared finishing up a game of Yugioh. "Oh look," Heather said. "I win again."
I think I've created a monster, Harold thought, remarking on Heather's skill and wondering if he should have taught her this game in the first place. They were getting ready to play another game when they heard a knock on the door. Heather opened the door and saw Leshawna standing there.
"What do you want?" Heather asked.
"I've figured out what game you two are up to," Leshawna said. "I'm surprised at you Heather. I thought you had more pride than to let Harold use you to play hard to get with me."
Damn it, Heather thought. Well it looks like my plan has officially gone to shit.
"The joke's on you Leshawna," Heather said calmly, making sure not to show her displeasure at this development. "Harold playing hard to get with you was all my idea."
"Why would you do that?"
"Because Harold won't stop talking about you. About half of everything he says is 'Leshawna is so hot' this or 'Leshawna's so awesome' that. I figured if I helped him finally get together with you, it might get him to shut up for a while."
Harold heard Heather's explanation and wondered how much of it was true. He knew that Heather was helping him out because she was a good friend, but did he really bother that much by fawning over Leshawna? He considered it more likely that she didn't feel like being completely honest with Leshawna.
"Anyway," Heather continued, "You're probably more interested in talking with Harold, so I'll leave you two alone."
Heather exited the room and walked through the hall to another room. She knocked on the door pulling an object out of her pocket she had from earlier.
Gwen opened her door and saw Heather standing there, waving a napkin back and forth. "What do you want, Heather?" Gwen asked.
"I couldn't find a flag on such short notice," Heather began, "so I hope you'll settle for me waving the white napkin of surrender." Heather stepped into Gwen's room and stopped waving the napkin. Once inside, she saw that Trent was there as well. This did not bother her. "I bet you've been wondering what I've been up to lately."
"Yeah," Gwen answered.
"Well I'm here to tell you," Heather said. "My plan is to help Harold with his goal of getting together with Leshawna by pretending to date him so he can play hard to get with her."
Gwen was surprised to find herself not immediately dismissing Heather's explanation. She'd had no luck figuring out what nefarious goal Heather was currently up to and her explanation made a bit of sense. Of course, she still had her doubts. "But Harold's not you," Gwen pointed out. "Why do you give a crap about him?"
"Because that's what friends do," Heather answered with a smile. Gwen had never seen this kind of smile on Heather before. This wasn't an evil smile one would get from enjoying the suffering of others: this was a much more benign expression. Under the circumstances, Gwen was willing to give Heather the benefit out the doubt.