After detention got out, Purrsephone caught a bus to the park. Jackson was waiting for her near the bus stop. The dark-haired werecat walked over to him.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hey," he returned.

"Thank you so much for telling the ghouls about our encounter earlier," Purrsephone said. "And I think I know how to repay you. There's a shop nearby that has the best ice cream in town."

They started walking towards the shop.

"So what's been going on with you and Holt and Frankie lately?" Purrsephone asked.

"Things between me and Holt are much better now," Jackson began. "We've worked out a timeshare of sorts. As for Frankie, she and I are hanging out as friends but emotionally, we're at arms length. I don't know what the deal is with her and Holt."

"Keep in mind," Purrsephone began, "that if things between you and Frankie don't develop the way you want, there's always more fish in the buffet."

"You mean fish in the sea," Jackson said.

"No I don't," Purrsephone corrected. "Werecats say 'other fish in the buffet' instead because of how much we like seafood."

Jackson nodded in understanding as they kept walking. "Why didn't you tell Cleo and her friends about that conversation we had?"

"That was a very personal moment between us, mostly you," Purrsephone explained. "Besides, if I told Cleo and her friends about that, they wouldn't have believed me and then Cleo would have gone to you to verify it. I didn't want to put you on the spot like that."

"Thank you," Jackson said as he began processing stuff.

Not wanting to tell Cleo's group about her attempt to comfort me for my sake, Jackson began thinking. Texting me in detention, asking me about where I stand with Frankie, her talk of other fish: I think she's coming on to me.

Jackson looked at the dark-haired werecat and thought about this. He was far from opposed to the idea of pursuing this course with her, but things with Frankie complicated matters. He needed time to decide what he was going to do, but he was tempted to move on from Frankie and try his luck with Purrsephone.

They made it to the ice cream shop and walked in. A few minutes later, Toralei and Teala had pulled up outside the shop on Toralei's motorcycle. They got off, Teala very glad to be on solid ground after a somewhat scary and very thrilling ride. They walked inside and saw Jackson and Purrsephone start to walk out with ice cream cones in hand.

"You," Toralei said in shock at seeing her estranged friend.

"Hi Toralei," Purrsephone said in fear. Between Toralei still being angry over her betrayal and being seen with Jackson, this was not going to go well. She then turned and saw Teala. "Hi Teala," she said awkwardly.

"Hi Purrsephone," Teala said enthusiastically.

"Who's this?" Jackson asked.

"This is Teala, the troll girl: she's a troll girl," Purrsephone explained as walked to the side and motioned for them to stop blocking the entrance to the shop. "Toralei, my sister and I met her at the math camp Cleo's group sent us to as revenge for trying to frame them for an expulsion level prank."

"Okay," Jackson said, remembering what Frankie told him about that.

"What are you doing here with him?" Toralei asked.

"Business," Purrsephone answered.

"What kind of business?"

"None of your business."

Teala laughed a bit Purrsephone's joke, which did not help Toralei's mood.

"You're not going out with him, are you?" Toralei asked. "Look at him: he's a total dork."

"Saying that next to the home-schooled troll math nerd kinda hurts whatever point you're trying to make," Purrsephone countered and then turned to Teala. "No offense."

"None taken," Teala clarified.

"And why did you go with that first instead of the normie thing?" Purrsephone asked.

"I got over my hatred of Normies recently," Toralei explained.

"What?" Purrsephone asked in astonishment. So that's what that feels like, she mentally added.

"It happened during my trip to Japan last month," Toralei said. "I never told you how that went, did I?"

"No," Purrespone answered. "All I know is that you were dreading the trip to your ancestral homeland. Though I don't see why: my ancestral homeland is in the part of Africa you see on commercials asking you to adopt their children for fifty cents a day so they can have clean drinking water."

"My ancestral homeland is Hoboken, New Jersey," Jackson interjected. "Not much of a step up."

"I was uncomfortable with my Japanese scaritage because of what happened to my uncle," Toralei began. "And then last month, during that family trip, a normie saved my life."

"Saved your life?" Purrsephone asked with a quirked eyebrow. "You almost died again!?"

"Again?" Teala asked.

"Oh, I never told you about what happened to me in Syria?" Toralei asked.

"All of Monster High knows what happened to you on that trip," Jackson started. "So there's no reason for you to….." he stopped as Toralei held up her shirt and revealed two nasty looking scars on the left side of her stomach. "Do that," Jackson said as he rubbed his forehead in frustration. "Why?"

"Why not?" Toralei said as she lowered her shirt.

"Cool," Teala said. "What's the story behind those?"

"My step-dad brought me with him on a business trip to Syria," Toralei explained. "These are shrapnel scars from a car bomb that went off near a cafe I was having lunch at. Now where was I?"

"A normie saved your life in Japan," Purrsephone said.

"Oh yeah," Toralei said as she reached into her jacked pocket and took out a ring with a large, amber stone on top. "His name is Haruto Souma, or Souma Haruto depending on which naming convention you use. He's a wizard, though not like any we're familiar with. He saved me from this demon spirit thing that wanted to drive me into despair so that I would give birth to another of its kind."

"I see," Purrsephone said in curiosity. "Can you tell me more?"

"I don't want to go into the details right now," Toralei said. "You remember how it was like two months before I got over what happened in Syria to the point where I wanted to talk about it and start grossing people out with my shrapnel scars."

"I don't like you," Jackson said with a glare.

"Don't like you too but only because you're a huge dweep," Toralei shot back. "Anyway, while I was in Japan I found out that the normie S.O.B who killed my uncle and was never identified eventually got what was coming to him. Between that and Haruto saving my life, I've pretty much lost all the disdain I had for normies and my own Japanese scaritage."

"Good to know that you are no longer interested in chopping off any of my body parts for stuff I had nothing to do with," Jackson said. "I'm very glad we had this chat."

"Whatever," Toralei said dismissively. "I'll see you later, Seph."

With that, Toralei and Teala walked into the shop. Jackson and Purrsephone walked to a spot where they could cross over to the park while finishing off their ice cream. They had just finished their treats when a car drove past them that was blaring rock music. Jackson was covered in a ring of fire as he changed into Holt.

"Hey hey hey," Holt said as he looked around to see where he now was. "Well hello there pretty kitty. What are you doing here hanging out with the prince of dorkness?"

"There's an explanation for that," Purrsephone said as she looked past Holt and looked like she just saw something interesting. "Is that Frankie in a tube-top?"

"What!?" Holt exclaimed as he turned to see that Frankie was not there and certainly not in a tube-top. He turned back to ask Purrsephone about that but she wasn't there or anywhere around. He shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

It's almost sad how easy that was, Purrsephone thought. When she got Holt to turn around, she jumped up and climbed onto the branch of a nearby tree that was planted in the sidewalk. She jumped down when she saw Holt had walked away.

I'm gonna have to work out some kind of shared-custody arrangement with Holt and Frankie, Purrsephone thought. She thought about calling this off with Jackson but decided not to. She was really starting to like Jackson and was determined to make this work. Besides, she thought, Frankie's counting me to be there for Jackson when she rejects him. For both their sakes, I need to see through. Good thing I'm pretty sure Jackson's worth it.

Purrsephone decided to go back to the ice cream shop and talk to Toralei and Teala. She walked back and caught them shortly after they left. "Hey," she called to them. They stopped and turned around to see her.

"What happened to that normie guy?" Teala asked.

"Holt showed and I decided to ditch him."

"Who's Holt?"

"Long story."

"I'm glad you came back," Toralei said. "I talked with Scarah recently. After she told me about how you havne't spilled your guts about everything you know about me, I started thinking that maybe I did piss you off into turning on me. If I say I'm sorry, will you come back to me?"

"I can't do that," Purrsephone said with regret. "It's not part of my plan."

"What plan?" Toralei asked.

"I'd tell you, but that would spoil the surprise," Purrsephone said with a mishevious grin.

Toralei wasn't sure what to think right now. Considering that Purrsephone joined Cleo's group because she didn't want make peace with them, it seemed very likely that that was the goal of Purrsephone's plan. Toarlei had never been interested in making peace with Cleo but Purrsephone's headway with that and her curiosity to see what the plan was enough to convince Toralei to let Purrsephone continue with it.

"Fair enough," Toralei said. "I am sorry though."

"Thank you," Purrsephone said and then hugged Toralei.

"I'm having a little get together tomorrow," Toralei said as they separated. "It's just going to be me, Spectra, Scarah and Teala. I wanted to surround myself with what friends I had left after you… that part's not important, do you want to come?"

"Aw, crap," Purrsephone said. "That's gonna be a problem: I've already been invited to a party Cleo's having tomorrow. It's important for the plan that I go to that party."

"All right," Toralei said.

…

A few hours later, Heath and Scarah had finished their date. Scarah was able to telepathically sense how nervous Heath was about not making a total jackass out of himself, especially when during dinner when their waitress was a well-endowed cyclops with a low-cut blouse. Scarah could sense that Heath was both aroused by the sight and ashamed at how he was thinking of another girl while on this date that he had waited so long for. Scarah decided to pretend that she hadn't noticed him looking because she could sense how much he wanted her to like him, and not even for sleazy reasons.

"I had a good time tonight, Heath," Scarah said.

"Good enough for a second date?" Heath asked with a smirk.

"I'll need to think about it," Scarah said.

"I ask because there's a party tomorrow and I'd like you to come," Heath said.

Scarah's eyes widened in shock (although with her pupil-less eyes, it was really hard to tell). "I need to think about that Heath and go over some stuff with a friend," Scarah said as she took her icoffin out of her purse and auto-dialed a contact. "Purrsephone, it's Scarah. We have a situation."

…

Author's notes: Toralei's tirp to Japan will be chronicled in a story I will write later that takes place before this one. It's going to be a crossover with the tokusatsu show Kamen Rider Wizard.