AN: This chapter brought to you by Wikipedia reading. Once I found out Mandy was the only blonde girl in her school (with one other background character named Keero being the other blond; he has all of two lines in the show) this all clicked together wonderfully. Anyway, I'm writing this before I go see Twilight (which I don't like, but my niece who's almost my age does) so if there's any errors, I'm sorry. I was in a rush and I'll correct any problems as soon as I can.

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"Book burning isn't a serious crime, Irwin."

Mandy smirked at her cowering friend, having deposited the last of their books into the oven. The flames were roaring as Billy stood, hunched over in the corner, eyes watering. He grinned stupidly at her, still not understanding quite what his part in this was. Which was good, because if he had any idea that she was deliberately putting Endsville Middle School into debt by ruining the most ancient of their books, he'd probably stop her or fly into a confused rage. Of course, Irwin understood what she was doing. The school system would have to divert funds from the mega fund holder that was X into Endsville, supplying them with books from this century. And no one would accuse her because she was a registered student of X Middle School now.

Irwin, on the other hand, was still registered at Endsville, and knew very well he could be expelled. "Maybe we should get out of here, yo. It's getting late- Mandy, what are you-?"

Billy was looking particularly ill, and in a few swift movements Mandy had him puking into the oven.

"The acid from vomit will keep the paper burning until its ashes aren't even recognizable." She explained coldly. "Uh, Billy, you can stop now."

"Okay!" he chirped, swaying on his feet. "Wow, I feel lots better now!"

Sighing, Mandy smiled benignly at him and shook her head. Despite the thoughts that raced through her mind sometimes, when her blood sugar and serotin levels were regulated - something she was attempting, however failingly, to do by herself - she was rather fond of him. Ruffling his red hair briefly, she cleared the room of any signs they'd been there. Although the Pottery Club would get reprimanded for leaving the oven on, there wasn't going to be any truly bad consequences here. Maybe a detention for the PCC leader or a brief speech from Folsom, but there was no indicator to anyone other than Billy, Mandy and Irwin that anything had happened here. Mandy even took the time to clear their finger prints off of every last surface, an act that she had been sure would have calmed Irwin's nerves. Yet he still seemed on edge.

Billy snapped her out of her thoughts by nearly falling over. "I'm hungry now."

"Yeah, you would be," she muttered. "Irwin, the Sandwich Club has a stand down by the west campus exit. You and Billy go grab something to eat." She handed him some money, running her other hand through her hair. "I'm going to go home."

"O-okay," Irwin replied, hastily taking Billy's hand. "Let's go, yo."

And as Mandy headed out into the silent winter night, she couldn't help but feel something was off. As she thought about it, in fact, she would later realize Irwin had gone the wrong way, deeper into the eastern campus. Later Irwin would be found with Mandy's money still in his pocket, and the Sandwich Club would report never seeing the two boys there. Her serotin levels were low, and her preception was skewed, so the genius blonde was unable to realize what was happening as she staggered home. Blood sugar low, she would make to her house before demanding cookies from her mother. Seven chocolate chip cookies and thirty minutes later, Joseph Anza would appear to charge her with the very murder she'd backed out of, and the schizo-affected girl would say nothing for the first hour of her interrogation, memories veiled in a fog. It would take her hours to recall what had happened, hours in which Mindy and Irwin were out there going free. Smarter people would have skipped town. Too bad Mindy wasn't smart, and never thought the blame would fall on her. Mandy sighed, burying her face in her hands.

Book burning isn't a serious crime.

But it had very serious consequences.

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Having been released from the custody of the Safety Patrol long enough to go to the bathroom, Mandy stood in a crowded stall, using her cell phone.

Her parents had been wonderfully, amazingly on her side. She was never close to them, in that they were weak willed and soft spoken and gentle while she was commanding and sharp spoken, but she was their daughter and they'd really come to bat for her. Proof, alibi, witnesses - they were the only reason she wasn't in police custody right away. She called them up, and told them that Mindy was now the prime suspect. Her mother let out a shriek that echoed in the bathroom, and the phone went dead. Mandy didn't have to be a genius to know her mother was probably calling up all her relatives at this point, being the over dramatic soul that she was. Hitting another button on speed dial, the platinum blonde glanced at the clock and sighed as her stomach rumbled.

"Hey, Grim?"

"Mandy!" And she pulled back her head as the Jamaican accented voice rang out. "Where have you been? Do you have any idea what it's like to find about Billy on the news and not know where you are? I swear, child, you're driving me to an early retirement!"

"I was in interrogation, Grim. I couldn't call anyone at all until just now. Anyway, I need you to do me a favor," she took a deep breath, her tone lowering down to a whisper. "I need you to tell me about Mindy. She wasn't in school today, and I think she's behind this."

"She's been gone all day," he told her, glancing at their mutual neighbor's house as he spoke. "She and Nergal Junior and some blond boy got up at three in the mornin' and took off. Haven't seen them all day."

Mandy's eyes narrowed. "A blond boy? Grim, I'm the only blonde in the school besides Keero."

"It wasn't him, child. He was a lot taller than that, and had blue eyes instead o' brown." Grim frowned. "I think he's from X or something. Now, about you not calling me-"

Mandy had ended the call, and quicker than lightning she was in Safety Patrol Headquarters, digging through papers in Ingrid's desk. Tehama and Anza shared startled looks, but before they could ask anything, the Endsville girl was dialing Ingrid's number and praying she'd pick up. This wasn't right. She should have known Mindy wouldn't be able to plan something out this well, wouldn't be able to convince Irwin to hurt his best friends like this. Nergal would be the one keeping them safe from blame, using his power and intellect to keep the whole thing free of evidence and concot a backstory, but why? Why would he ever agree to helping Mindy, someone he didn't know, hurt Billy, his own cousin? It all didn't add up. There was a missing link here, something she just didn't have the ability to piece together.

"Ingrid, it's Mandy."

"Mandy, we just got Mind y into custody. What-"

"Shut up and listen. A friend of mine who was at home today said he saw Mindy, Billy's cousin and a blond boy with blue eyes leave town early this morning. There's only one blond boy in Endsville, Ingrid, and he has brown eyes and is about a foot shorter than everyone else. I don't know who he is, but he has to be from X, and he's masterminding this entire thing." Mandy cringed. "I don't know if that narrows down your pool of suspects or widens them, but somewhere out there, there's a genius who managed to pull all this together, someone whose reputation is spotless enough for Mindy to like him and charismatic enough to convince Irwin to murder someone. Someone with pre-med school knowledge, someone who knows how to get forensic evidence removed from a room - maybe someone who used to be a Safety Patroller..."

As Ingrid frowned thoughtfully, Fillmore froze in place, eyes gone wide beneath his glasses, and the two locked eyes as one thought came to both their minds.

"Parnassus."