Right. Let's keep this story going! Oh, and about Sideshow Bob – a course I took had a lecture about psychological and mental disorders, and Bob fits the symptoms of Antisocial Personality Disorder.

Bart, of course, joined us and then so did Mom and Dad, although they didn't know everyone. They'd met those who'd come to our house, and since Helga had lived next-door, they knew her vaguely by sight (even if she looked a little different), but that was it. Mom seemed pleased to see everyone, and Dad managed to be less embarrassing than usual.

I managed to be nicer to Rhonda than I had. After I'd said hi to just about everyone else, it was her turn. I tried for a smile and said awkwardly "Hey, Rhonda. I like what you did to your hair."

Rhonda's ice princess facade melted slightly, and she said "Oh, thanks, Stephanie. I started growing it in sixth grade. You know, I have to move with the trends. I see you moved on, too." She gestured to my top and my more conventional (not so gothic) makeup. "Not bad."

I didn't particularly want to be patronized about my fashion sense by a twelve-year-old, so I moved back to the others pretty quickly.

Eventually, people started drifting apart. We hung out at home, for a bit. Lisa took all of the girls up to our room, except Helga, who wasn't interested. Bart started engaging Arnold and Gerald in some conversation about girls, which left Helga and Curly to me. However, Helga insisted that she'd stay and listen to the boys talk (clingy much – it was obvious she just wanted to be around Arnold) and so it was just us.

"Maggie!" I called as I headed up the stairs.

Maggie's door opened and she looked out. "Yeah, Steph?"

"Can we crash in your room? Lisa's in mine with most of the other girls. Speaking of, only Lila and Nadine have met you – go introduce yourself to Rhonda and Phoebe. Or go downstairs – Arnold, Gerald and Helga are down there. You haven't met any of them."

Maggie sighed, and then noticed Curly beside me. "Who's that?" she asked.

I laughed. "Maggie, it's Curly. You don't recognize him?"

Maggie's eyes widened. "You're that scary boy! I remember you!" she looked at him again. "You don't look so scary now." she said bluntly.

Curly gave one of his manic laughs. "Oh, I can be scary when I want to be." he teased her. "But don't worry, I don't prey on little girls."

Maggie folded her arms and scowled. "I'm not that little!"

"Well, I only go for those my age and older. Right, Steph?"

I grinned back at him. "Right, nutcase."

"Nutcase?" said Maggie. "Aren't those on trees?"

I giggled, explaining "Lisa thinks 'nutcase' isn't a good synonym for crazy person, so I don't use it around her. It means I don't say it, so Mags doesn't know the meaning of the word." I sighed. "Maggie, can we hang out in your room? Go bug Lisa or something – most of the other girls are in our room."

Maggie sighed dramatically and ran across the landing to our room, so Curly and I took her room.

"So." I said. "Thought about anything you wanna do this week?"

Curly shrugged. "Not really. You know the town, right?"

I smiled. "Sounds like the tour's going to be about the people in the town, not the places. Lisa's into the library, the museum and other places like that. Bart pretty much likes anywhere where he can take his current girlfriend and look good. As for me, I just wander around, trying to find some guys. Believe it or not, the person I find most interesting in the whole town happens to be in prison – I forget why, since it's happened several times for like four years – even Lisa became friendly with him for a short time, although to be fair, she just wanted someone intelligent to talk to."

"Oh, that doesn't sound weird to me." Curly grinned. "Have you forgotten who you're talking to? Besides, like you said the first day we met, you like crazy people."

I was talking about Sideshow Bob, Springfield's own personal supervillain, but I wasn't going to be seen at the prison. We definitely weren't going there, even though I did find him very interesting.

"Huh." I said thoughtfully. "Maybe you two would get along. Well, he hasn't been disagnosed or anything, but I think he suffers from Antisocial Personality Disorder. But even so, I think you two could swap schemes...

although, to be fair, he's more into murder than anything else."

Curly shrugged again. "Anyone else in the town that's interesting?"

"Well..." I said. "I guess my friends are in town. Laura lives really nearby, and I told Tasha and Azure to come by, anyway. Azure thought you were really interesting."

The doorbell rang just then. "Perfect timing!" I exclaimed.

"Steph, could you get that?" Lisa yelled from our room. "I asked Allison over to meet the others."

I groaned, wondering who it was. Allison Taylor was Lisa's friend and rival. They'd made friends in second grade and drifted apart a little bit as time went by, but now they were closer than they'd ever been...possibly because there were a few things Lisa had learned to do that Allison couldn't – up until then Allison had all of Lisa's talents and was better than her at all of them, as well as having been skipped in first grade. I didn't like Allison, so I hoped it was my friends.

It was Tasha and Azure, but Allison was just walking up the path. "Great!" I exclaimed. "You guys made it! Come on in, the others are here."

Azure spotted Curly hovering immediately, and grinned. She'd mellowed out a little from last time they'd met, but she was still a little crazy. "Hi!" she greeted him. "Don't tell me the crazy part of you wore off...I can't see it!"

Curly gave her a manic grin. "Nope! I'm still the same guy."

Allison had reached the doorstep by then. "Hi, Stephanie." she said sweetly. That was one reason I didn't like her. She was always very nice, although she wasn't as sugary as Lila. That's one reason why she drove me nuts.

"Hey, Allison." I said, forcing a smile. "Lisa invited you over to meet our Hillwood friends, right? Stop in the kitchen – Bart's talking to Arnold and Gerald there. Helga's hovering around there, so say hi to her, as well. Then go on up to my and Lisa's room...Rhonda, Nadine, Lila and Phoebe are all up there. Oh, and this is Curly. He's my closest friend here."

"Oh." Allison said. "Hi, Curly." Curly waved at her and grinned.

"So, Steph," Tasha said, "You planning to take anyone out?"

"Not yet." I said. "But we will."

"I've got an idea!" Azure said. "Why don't you set up a reservation somewhere for tonight? Give them a real taste of Springfield." Then she clapped her hand to her mouth. "Oh no...please don't tell me I just made a lame pun."

"You made a lame pun." I chorused with Tasha.

"But sounds like a great idea!" I said. "Where should we go?"

"Professor V.J's Cornucopia etc, etc." Azure said.

"No way, the Happy Sumo." Tasha said. "From what I saw, Phoebe especially would love it."

"Dad nearly got killed from eating Fugu there." I reminded her. "What about the Pimento Grove?"

"Bor-ing." my friends chanted together.

At that moment, Lisa and her friends came back down.

"Hey Lise, we've got an idea." I said. "We should make a dinner reservation for everyone tonight.

Lisa grinned. "Great idea." she said. "All we need to do is figure out where to go."

They'll work it out in the next chapter. Sorry this one took so long. Thanks for reading, and please review. Why didn't I get any in the last chapter?