CHAPTER TEN: OPERATION E.T.M.

Francine felt completely betrayed, but there was nothing she could do. Sue Ellen felt her pain as the two went to The Sugar Bowl for a post-dance snack. They felt completely deflated compared to earlier in the evening, and both wondered if everything had been a mistake.

"What do you want to do?" Sue Ellen asked. Francine shook her head, taking a huge bite of her banana split. Sue Ellen put down her spoon and looked Francine dead in the eye. Francine locked eyes back, still chewing a large piece of banana. Sue Ellen sighed, "I have an idea, but it's...it's going to be hard for both of us."

"What?" Francine said, her voice muffled by the banana piece.

Sue Ellen took a deep breath, "Maybe we should just end this. Arthur is worth our time, but he obviously has an agenda that doesn't include either of us. All we're going to keep doing is eating ourselves into obesity, and I just can't keep dealing with this emotional roller coaster. Our grades are suffering, our friendships are suffering, and our lives aren't getting any easier. We need one last operation to end it all: Operation End The Madness."

"We should just give up, just like that?" Francine asked. Sue Ellen nodded firmly. Francine slammed her spoon down on the table, "Why do we have to give up? We can still win him! Muffy is easy to defeat-"

"Then he'll find someone else. We just have to accept that neither of us are ever going to get close to him. The best thing we can do is work on ourselves for the next few years, find someone better, and make him regret ever putting either of us through this," Sue Ellen grinned deviously.

Francine smirked, "I thought your idea was stupid at first, but I see your point now. If we end this, we can become better people than all of those girls. We'll get even better guys than Arthur and make them all jealous! But...what if we both really do still like Arthur deep down?"

"No one ever gets completely over their first crush," Sue Ellen said, adding quickly, "but I only read that in a magazine. We could ask our mothers or something, but I think it's true. We'll never forget the first person that made us feel this way. But right now, we both need to semi-forget. We've got to move on and end the madness. Can you do it?"

"Only if you help me, because I'm really going to need it," Francine smiled.

Suddenly their mission to binge-eat The Sugar Bowl out of business felt too taxing, and both of them returned home. The internet was buzzing with gossip about the new happy couple, but Francine and Sue Ellen ignored it completely. Both turned off their phones and computers and did the right thing—they went straight to bed.

When the next morning arrived, the girls realized that this was finally their first successful mission. Instead of living and breathing Arthur Read, they focused on life again. Things had changed so much since all of this started, and so much time had passed. They'd made new friends in the process and new memories too. They had to keep it up and make more new memories, so they arranged to go out with the girls to another grand opening at the mall.

This adventure wasn't ruined by petty drama. Though Muffy was there parading Arthur around like a trophy boyfriend, the girls focused solely on their friends and their desire to have a wonderful time at the mall.

Muffy noticed the change in the girls. She could see they were interested, but they weren't fixated like they were before. As the days passed, she realized this made Arthur less valuable, and soon he was on the market again.

Arthur would keep going in and out of relationships, and though Sue Ellen and Francine did care who they ended up with, they decided to care more about themselves instead. They eventually found boyfriends and kept them, and they improved themselves as high school continued and came to its inevitable end.

Timejump: Twenty-Five Year Reunion

Still life-long friends, Sue Ellen and Francine entered the high school reunion together. Years had passed, and while contact was lost with many classmates, these girls had stuck together. Despite their efforts, both were single women with good jobs. Judging by the crowd, most of their classmates were in similar boats, including Arthur Read.

And though he was still on the market, and though both women were in their prime, they let Operation: A.R.T.H.U.R. slip through their fingers. He was someone else's problem now, but they'd never forget the ultimate crush they'd had on him and how it shaped them into the women they ultimately became.

~End