That Saturday, Purrsephone and Operetta met in the catacombs underneath Monster High. The werecat had brought a few joints with her and they were going to enjoy themselves before the party. Operetta took a long drag of a joint and let out a sigh of enjoyment.

"Where do you get this stuff?" the southern ghoul asked.

"I skim off the top of my grandma's glaucoma medication," Purrsephone explained.

"Really," Operetta said as she processed that. "Your granny has great taste in weed."

"You should thank grandpa," Persephone said. "Thanks to his decades of employment with Green Spear Green Sword, we have awesome insurance."

They sat in silence for a while as they took a few more drags.

"What do you thinks gonna happen at the party tonight?" Operetta asked.

"I have no idea," Purrsephone said. "Cleo seemed pretty open-minded to the idea of making peace with Toralei last night. She already surprised me once before when she found out I was blackmailing Toralei and didn't pressure me about it. And Toralei is going along with this pretty well. Hopefully everything will work out."

…

Around seven that night, most of the ghouls had gathered at Cleo's house and were either waiting for everyone else to arrive or making final preparations for the party. Cleo was not happy with a last-minute surprise Clawdeen had dropped on her.

"I can't believe you brought your little sister with you" Cleo said with almost tangible irritation.

"I'm sorry about that," Clawdeen began. "Howleen overheard Clawd and I talking about how Toralei is coming to the party tonight and said she wanted to be here to help finish whatever Toralei might start. Honestly, how could I say no to that?"

"Good point," Cleo conceded. "But I really want to try talking things out with Toralei first, so make sure she doesn't get ahead of herself."

"Alright," Clawdeen said, turned to walk away and then turned back to Cleo. "Do you really think this will work?"

"I have my doubts," Cleo said. "But I also had my doubts about Purrsephone, and look at that's turned out."

….

About thirty minutes later, everyone had arrived at Cleo's place. Toralei and Teala walked through the door with everyone else (Frankie, Draculara, Clawdeen, Cleo, Ghoulia, Lagoona, Abbey, Operetta, Spectra, Venus, Rochelle, Robecca, Clawd, Deuce, Jackson, Heath, Scarah, Howleen and Purrsephone) looking at them.

"Hi everybody," Teala said enthusiastically, completely unaware of the tension in the room. "My name is Teala and I'm looking forward to meeting all of you. And in case you're worried about getting too close to me, Toralei made me take a forty minute shower and brush my teeth with half a tub of tooth paste before coming here. I'm so glad….."

"That's enough for now, Teala," Toralei interrupted her. "Right now, I'm pretty sure everyone wants me and Cleo to talk things out."

"That's right," Cleo said. "I've heard Purrsephone's version of events that involves you me only becoming fearleading captain because Nefera decided to punish you for helping me. I've been thinking things over and while a lot of the pieces fit, this still raises a few questions. First off, if you have such bad history with Nefera why did you work for her again during Mashionals?"

"Thanks to Nefera," Toralei began, "Me and the twins were going to go from not even being on the fearleading team to competing in Mashionals: it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. Besides, I thought that giving us the opportunity was Nefera's way of saying that she was sorry for how she acted. Turns out, she'd actually forgotten all about that."

"That definitely sounds like her," Cleo admitted. "But why haven't you confronted me about this earlier?"

"You forgot all about me helping you," Toralei said. "By that point, talking things out didn't seem like an option."

"And with Nefra graduating you decided to take out all your anger on Cleo and those close to her," Clawdeen said. "I can understand being super pissed off about getting royally screwed over by both de Nile sisters, but I don't think you picked the best way to handle the situation. Then again, neither did Cleo and I'm sure she's ready to make up for that now."

"Whose side are you on, Clawdeen?" Cleo asked.

"I'm on whatever side involves settling this mess for good," Clawdeen said with her hands on her hips. "You haven't always been as easy to get along with as you are now, Cleo. You'll have to forgive me if I think you making up for stuff you did back then so that Toralei stops being a thorn in all our asses is a price I'm willing to pay. Besides, what lead to you being more easy to be around?"

"Well," Cleo began, "I knew that I needed to rethink my leadership style after the old fearleading team walked out on me because...," Cleo paused in awkwardness as she looked at Toralei, "she convinced them to."

"And needing to rethink your leadership style," Clawdeen continued, "was a big part of what lead to us winning Mashionals."

"You're welcome," Toralei smugly. Cleo closed her eyes as she gathered the strength for what she was about to say.

"After taking everything into account," Cleo said, "I am willing to make a gesture of good faith. Would you like to be on the fearleading team, Toralei?"

"About that," Purrsephone interjected. "I think I might have an idea you'll both like. You remember how Nefera created a fearleading B team?" Everyone nodded yes. "I suggest the creation of another B team that Toralei has mostly free rein over."

"I like the idea of not having Cleo bark orders at me," Toralei said.

"And I like the idea of not having to integrate Toralei into my team," Cleo said with a grin as she rubbed her chin in thought. "This could work."

"Does that mean we have a deal?" Toralei said as she held out her hand.

"Provided that you don't cause anymore problems for me or friends, yes," Cleo said as she shaked Toralei's hand. Everyone around them clapped in celebration of a successfully reached peace of agreement.

This is awesome, Spectra thought as she recorded the proceeding on her iCoffin. Not only will this be great for my blog, but I probably won't have to worry about any conflicts of loyalty in the future.

"This was your plan all along, wasn't it?" Toralei asked Purrsephone. "Get in good withs Cleo and her friends, then tell them why I've had it out for them in the hopes we could talk everything out."

"Yes," Purrsephone said and then turned to Cleo's friends. "I'm sorry for not being completely honest with all of you but I have some bad experience with how people will go to great lengths to believe only what they want to believe." Cleo then glared at her angrily. "Not you, Cleo: I'm talking about my sister."

"Oh, you'll like this," Toralei said with a grin. "Purrsephone and I have been working on this bit for a while now. So she's herself and I'm Meowlody," Toralei finished as she cleared her throat.

"We've been over this before Meowoldy," Purrsephone said in irritation. "We're not Bitalian: we are of African descent."

"According to you," Toralei said in a perfect mimicry of Meowldy's voice.

"And our family history of sickle cell anaemia."

"Which is also a problem in countries on the Mediterian coast: like Bitaly."

"And what about those pictures we have of Grandma [1] from the 70's with those normy political radicals."

"For all we know, that afro was a wig and she went to that rally deeply confused about what a black panther party was."

A few people laughed at this but most didn't.

"I don't get it," Frankie said in confusion.

"Ask your parents," Draculara said.

"You did all this for me, even after I sent out that embarrassing picture of you. Why?"

"Because," Purrsephone said as she reached into one of her vest pockets, "You're like a sister to me." Purrsephone took out the drawing symbolizing how she and Meowlody saw her as their third, non-identical sister and handed it back to Toralei.

Toralei took the drawing and was speechless. She was very tempted to hug Purrsephone but fought down that urge because she didn't want to display sentimentality in front of so many other people. After suppressing that urge for about five seconds, she decided she didn't care anymore and embraced Purrsephone. Purrsephone returned the hug and everyone observing decided it would be a good idea to never bring this up in front of Toralei.

With the negotiations and reconciliation out of the way, everyone began enjoying themselves. Teala went to try making some new friends. She had trouble hitting it off with other people but Draculara and Frankie decided they were going to help her: Frankie because she knew how much it sucked trying to make friends while thrown into an unfamiliar situation and Draculara because she was just that nice.

Jackson had turned into Holt, who had taken on DJ duties. Purrsephone had decided that that was for the best because a party environment was simply not the best place to enjoy Jackson's company. Besides, Frankie hadn't rejected him yet and it would be kind of weird to hang out with him while she wanted to take things further but couldn't due to social complications.

I can understand Frankie not wanting to reject him at the party, Purrsephone thought, but I hope she goes through with this soon.

Purrsephone then looked around and saw Howleen, who was trying and failing to insert herself into a conversation between Clawd, Deuce and Heath. The dark-haired werecat then went over to her and tapped her shoulder.

"Disappointed toralei didn't give you a reason to go apeshit on her?" Purrsephone asked as they took a few steps away from the guys.

"The night is still young," Howleen said. "So you really went through all this just to settle things between Cleo and Toralei because you knew that it would be best for Toralei?" Howleen asked and Purrsephone nodded yes. Howleen paused for a second as she thought about to say. "Toralei is very lucky to have you as a friend."

"I know," Purrsephone said smugly. "You probably don't know this, but you and I have a quite a bit in common."

"How's that?" Howleen asked.

"We have similar sibling issues," Purrsephone began. "My main issue is interchangeability: people thinking me and my sister are the same person because we look alike. I imagine you have issues with invisibility: people not noticing you or only noticing you as Clawd and Clawdeen's little sister Wanna talk about it?"

Howleen was stunned into silence for a moment over how absolutely right Purrsephone was about them having similar issues. She decided to open to her about and compare notes - so to speak - in further detail.

Toralei went over to Clawdeen and got the female werewolf's attention.

"So I hear that Purrsephone gave you season 1 of Grizzoli and Biles," Toralei said.

"Yeah," Clawdeen admitted, thinking it was a little odd that Toralei wanted to talk about a show that was about a female homicide detective and her medical examiner friend. "I'm really liking it so far."

"You might not want to keep watching," Toralie said. "At the end of the second season, they become more than friends."

Clawdeen began glaring at the werecat in an attempt to convey that much like an overpriced and horrendously colored dress, Clawdeen was not buying what Toralei was saying about the titular female leads.

"You're just messing with me," Clawdeen said matter-of-factly

"You know me so well," Toralei said playfully.

The party continued on and even though things got awkward when Teala asked Robecca if she could survive being crushed into a cube, everything went smoothly. That is, until the stereo was cut off unexpectedly and everyone turned to see the bane of Cleo's existence behind it.

"What do you want, Nefera?" Cleo asked angrily. "Dad knew about this party happening, so you can't blackmail with that."

"I know," Nefera said. "I also know that he let you have the party with a maximum of twenty people, which you are over by one."

Oh crap, Cleo thought as she looked around and took a quick headcount. Unfortunately, her count verified that Nefera was right. And knowing Nefera, she's taken pictures to prove that I went over the limit. It's only one person: I'll take my chances with dad rather than give into her demands.

"Are you for real, Nefera?" Toralei spoke up before Cleo could express her refusal to comply. "You really have nothing better to do on a Saturday night than harass your little sister and her guests over a minor matter? How the mighty have fallen."

"Like I care what a mangy alley cat like you thinks," Nefera shot back.

I like where this is going, Cleo thought as it looked like her two least favorite people in the world were about to be at each other's throats.

"In that case," Toralei began, "you won't care when I say that you are in this sorry position because of your own inability to think ahead."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Nefera asked angrily.

"Back at mashionals," Toralei said. "Both Monster High teams were in the final round and despite your various attempts to undermine your sister, you were technically in charge of both teams. No matter which team won, it would have turned out good for you. But no, you just had to try using your family's mystic doo dads to sabotage Cleo and her friends, and look how that turned out."

While Nefera was seething in anger, Purrsephone decided to sneak behind the spoiled Egyptian princess. The werecat reached into one of her vest pockest and grabbed her sock of pennies, ready to intervene in the increasingly likely event that Nefera decided to resort to violence.

This is Perfect, Purrsephone thought to herself as she got into position. I can further endear myself to Cleo and her friends, help Toralei out of a tight spot and take Nefera down some much needed pegs. I'm a genius!

"Now look here, Toralei," Nefera said with barely contained fury, "We go back a ways, so I'm going to give you a chance to take that stuff you said back before I make you." With that, Nefera reached inside one of her wraps, pulled out a small handle-like object and then flipped out a knife blade from it.

"Since when do you have a switchblade?" Cleo asked with equal amounts of shock and fear.

"It's a long story," Nefera said.

…..

(Begin flashback)

Nefera was walking through the maul when she looked through a store's display window and saw something that caught her eye. It was a switchblade that had a black and gold handle with the Egyptian hieroglyphics for 'insurmountable strength of Ra' inscribed on the blade.

"Neat," Nefera said in glee.

(End flashback)

…..

"Well," Nefera began, "I suppose it's not so much long as uninteresting, but that's not important. What's important is…," Nefera was interrupted by Purrsephone swinging the sock of pennies at her head just hard enough to distract the knife wielding princess. Toralei capitalized on the distraction by knocking the switchblade out of Nefera's hands.

"Thanks for the help, Seph," Toralei said. "Not that I needed it: this isn't the first time someone's pulled a knife on me."

"That does not surprise me," Clawdeen said. "You are very good at pissing people off."

"It's a gift," Toralei said with a smile of pride. "Now what are we going to do about her?"

"I have an idea," Purrsephone said with a smile as she took out a roll of duct tape from one of her vest pockets and stretched out a bit.

….

Three minutes later, Nefera had been successfully duct taped to a chair as the party continued around her.

"She is going to be very pissed when she gets out," Toralei said to Cleo as they danced next to each other.

"I'm not too worried," Cleo said. "I'll call dad first then let her out. After I explain to him that my guests felt duct taping her to the chair was necessary to make sure she didn't stab anyone, he'll probably see things my way."

Cleo still had her doubts about trusting Toralei but after seeing the werecat call out Nefera on her lack of foresight at great risk, Cleo was willing to make this work.

Besides, Cleo thought, Nefera's current situation and this new truce with Toralei are the result of giving Purrsephone the benefit of the doubt. It would seem that in certain situations, a little trust can go a long way.

…

Author's notes: [1] that grandma is different from the one the twins take glaucoma medicine from.

There will be a short epilogue to conclude this story.