This is a shift day [see above]. There was another upload this morning: You'll Find Wonder, chapter 12.

"Mystery Takeover"

4. Dinner Among Friends

The rule had been set as thus: two screams, and the game is paused. It had stumped most of them, but it was made clear now. With each discovered death, there had been a scream, and silent as the school was, they could hear those screams from the choir room to the gym and back. So when the second scream had come, the groups had come stumbling out of their rooms into the hall – neutral ground – and marched out to meet one another. There were some whisperings here and there, which stopped when they all pooled together.

Kurt and Tina moved forward to greet each other with smirks, both of them victims. They had run into one another just before, when they had gone to the room where they were to be discovered dead. She hadn't said a thing, and he hadn't either. But now she could say.

"It was my idea," she bowed her head.

"I've always wanted to play the victim. Although… I would have liked to be able to get kind of dramatic about it, you know a fall maybe, or a stagger, some blood…"

"Maybe next time," she hugged him.

"It was nice, really nice, even if I could never surpass the master of death," he gave a semi-bow toward Brittany, who grinned.

"If I could get everyone's attention," Rachel stepped up then, and the others looked to her. "Dinner will be served momentarily, if you'll follow me," she lead the way and off they went. They went into the room across from the home economics class, where the tables had been pushed together and chairs and settings were laid to accommodate their group of thirteen. Mercedes and Tina came along with her to get the plates ready and served. "How are we doing, you think it's okay?" she asked them.

"Everything's going great," Mercedes promised.

"From what I saw in the gym, everything seemed good," Tina provided.

"Good, okay, that's good," Rachel breathed. The plates were made, and in a couple of trips each they were able to get everyone served and join them to start eating – which a couple of them had already started doing. Kurt was placed at the head of the table – their guest of honor – the rest of them placed six on one side – Rachel, Brittany, Artie, Sam, Quinn, and Lauren - and six on the other – Mercedes, Tina, Mike, Santana, Finn, and Puck.

"Can I… say something?" Kurt looked to the three who had organized the game, and they nodded. The others came hushed, looking to him. "I'm just… I want to say thank you, again. One of the hardest things in all this has been to leave all of you, I mean I hope you know that," he looked to them, briefly catching some small nods. "And these dinners, the first time I made one, I never really thought it would work, much less catch on. Having you guys come, time and time again, so eagerly… especially today… It's more than I could have ever asked for…" he shook his head. There was a moment of silence, after which he coughed. "Sorry, didn't mean this to turn into a speech, I…" He waved his hand about as though to say 'someone start talking.'

"If you all start crying, I'm out of here," Lauren warned them, half-honest, which did break some laughs out of them, though judging by the way most of the girls – and a guy or two – kept their heads bowed, they had to guess they had some tears to wipe off.

"Kind of glad not to be the newbie anymore," Sam admitted.

"Third game already," Quinn smiled to him before turning to Lauren on her other side. None of them were still too familiar with the girl, but she had come through for them in a pinch, and she was still with them, so they couldn't complain. "How's it going for you?"

"It's okay," she shrugged, even if they could all see through her – she loved it.

"Are we changing into our new characters immediately after dinner?" Kurt asked Rachel.

"No, actually, you'll have to play dead a little while longer."

"No problem, more time to digest… so long as we don't fall asleep," Tina looked to Mike. It wasn't the first time where having to see one's boyfriend or girlfriend play dead was difficult on some of them, and in that moment he was just looking at her like he was afraid she'd fall over at any moment. She reached over under the table and gave his hand a squeeze.

"So… they just let you use the school like that?" Lauren asked all of a sudden.

"Well, not… just like that," Rachel replied. "We have to follow the rules, and if ever they have any reason to revoke these privileges, they will. No second chances. It's kind of in our best interest to do as we're told so…"

"… so you don't have to carry me down the stairs," Artie completed for her, guessing she might not want to actually say it.

"I see…" Lauren nodded. If she had other ideas for that night, it sounded like she was abandoning them, which would hopefully be the case.

The meal carried on, garnering a few praises for their chef of the evening. A few times, Rachel could feel a gaze on her, and maybe she'd thought at first that it was Finn, but in fact it was Brittany, a few seats down. It took her some time to figure out why she was looking at her, but then it started dawning her. Their 'resident victim' was still not quite over her maintaining her one character throughout the game, not dying at all. Now it appeared she was campaigning to kill Kristy at one time or another. "Brittany, we're not going to kill you," Rachel finally declared, getting looks from the others at the statement, while the blonde frowned, dragging her fork about in her food.

The dinner was all eaten up, dessert as well, and finally they were all directed to return to the rooms they had left, to the moments they had left, which meant Tina going to the gym with the guys and Kurt going to the choir room with the girls. When they got there, Rachel pointed to the spot where he had been, as she herself knelt down to resume Daphne's vigil at the body of her dead boyfriend. "Please no one prod me, toss me, or yank me?" he begged.

"Don't worry, we don't like you 'that way,'" Santana promised him, getting a frown before Kurt resumed dead duties. As before, they couldn't well synchronize the start of their respective rooms' games, but as she would warn them now, and as Tina would also do in the other room, for this second portion of the game, the halls were no longer neutral ground. They were the bridge, from one camp to the other, as soon they would be forced to join forces.

TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)