Scarah explained the circumstances to Purrsephone and they agreed to meet in person. Heath had been allowed to borrow his dad's car for his date and Scarah was able to talk him into picking up Purrsephone then going to Cleo's place. Scarah called Cleo ahead and asked her to meet them outside her place.

Heath pulled his car into the driveway of Cleo's house and Scarah and Purrsephone got out. Heath decided to stay in the car and listen to the radio rather than deal with 'girl stuff'. Cleo walked out of her house and walked up to them.

"So what's the emergency?" Cleo asked.

"Heath has invited me to your party tomorrow night," Scarah said. Which wouldn't normally be a problem except Toralei has invited me to another party tomorrow night as well. I want to go to your party but if Toralei thinks you've turned me against her, things will bad get bad very quickly."

"Toralei invited me to her party as well," Purrsephone continued.

"I thought she was still very pissed at you," Cleo said.

"She's less pissed now," Purrsephone said. "I turned her down and that went okay. I think I'll be able to smooth things over with her eventually, but if she thinks you're turning Scarah against her it will really piss her off and it might set me back to square one. Also, is Spectra coming to your party tomorrow?"

"I was going to invite her tomorrow as a surprise," Cleo answered. "It's my way of showing her that there's no hard feelings over her secretly associating with Toralei behind my back."

"That's even worse," Purrsephone said. "If both Spectra and Scarah go to your party, Toralei will think you're trying to turn them against her and plan something for revenge. Which will be bad for both of us because she might go back to being pissed at me again."

"I'm not scared of her," Cleo said. "She's tried to take me down many times in the past, but I've always stayed on top: exactly where I belong," Cleo said with an almost tangible air of smugness.

"Do you know why Toralei has it out for you?" Scarah asked.

"Because she's a bitch," Cleo answered.

"No. Well yes, but there's more to it than that," Scarah replied awkwardly. "Do you remember back in freshman year when you were struggling on the fearleading team?"

"Yes," Cleo said nervously, not liking where this was going. "And to answer your next question, I do remember Toralei showing me some gymnastic pointers. But all the improvement I made was mostly due to my own greatness."

"I'm sure it was," Scarah said diplomatically, hoping to smooth things over for what was about to happen. "What you don't know is that your sister only let you onto the fearleading team in the hopes that you would fail and embarrass yourself. When Toralei threw a monkey wrench into that plan, Nefera decided to punish her by giving you the captain position."

"That's ridiculous," Cleo shot back indignantly.

"Is it really?" Purrsephone asked. "Nefera hates you, right?"

"Oh yes," Cleo admitted. "And it's very mutual."

"I'm sure it is," Persephone said. "Doesn't it seem strange that she gave you the captains position despite that?"

"I assumed that despite our issues with each other, she wanted to keep the position in the family," Cleo said and then put her chin in her hand as she thought things over. "What you're saying is possible, but raises a few questions. For starters, why am I only hearing about this just now?"

"I was going to tell you eventually," Purrsephone said. "But I needed to win you over first. For example, Clawdeen wouldn't have believed me when she was still upset about that whole 'pretending to be mute' thing."

This is so not according to my plan, Purrspehone thought. Her original plan was to gain the trust of Cleo and her friends, then explain why Toralei was so mad at Cleo in the hopes that they could all work this out like emotionally mature monsters. Scarah had ruined that plan, but there was a chance that things could still work out.

"Fair enough," Cleo said, accepting Purrsephone's explanation and then turned towards Scarh. "What about you?"

"I didn't want to get involved," Scarah said. "You were pretty mean back then and according to Toralei, you had completely forgotten about her helping you. I didn't want to get you angry at me."

"Cleo," Purrsephone said to get the mummy girls attention. "When I originally suggested to Toralei that we try to talk things out with you, she didn't want to do it on the grounds that you are impossible to reason with: do you really want to prove her right? Keep that in mind for what I'm about to suggest," Purrsephone took a deep breath. "I think you should invite Toralei to the party tomorrow."

"You're even crazier than I thought," Cleo said.

"First off, I'm not crazy: I'm just really, really weird," Purrsephone said. "Second, Toralei will be coming to your party anyway. Better to invite her so she comes in through the front door where everyone can keep an eye on her rather then she scurries in through the back."

Now that's the kind of thinking I can get behind, Cleo thought. She also wanted to confront Toralei about what she had just learned.

"I'll invite her," Cleo said.

"Great," Purrsephone said as she took out her icoffin, auto-dialed Toralei and put her on speaker.

"Hey seph," Toralei said.

"Hey," Purrsephone said. "There's someone else here who wants to talk to you."

"Hello Toralei," Cleo said.

"What is she doing here?" Toralei said.

Cleo started explaining the situation about how the two of them were unintentionally playing tug-of-war with Spectra and Scarah's loyalties and that it would be best for them to settle this by having Toralei come to her party.

"Can I bring someone?" Toralei asked.

"Who do you want bring" Cleo asked.

"A troll ghoul named Teala," Toralei said. "She was really looking forward to my party. If I tell her that my party's been cancelled, she won't take it well."

"I suppose one more person wouldn't be a big deal," Cleo said. "So are you coming?"

"Yes," Toralei said. All the stuff that happened recently with Purrsephone made her realize that ignoring her about trying to make peace with Cleo may have been a mistake. And if Cleo's invite had anything to do with Purrsephone's plan, then she wanted to see where this was going.

"I'll have someone pick you and Teala up tomorrow," Cleo said. To make sure you come in through the front door, she mentally added. "I'll text you the details." Cleo took Purrsephone's phone, ended the call and proceeded to do just that. "I better not regret this," Cleo said to Purrsephone.

"You won't," Purrsephone said. I hope, she thought.