A hard chapter to write, but it's out here nonetheless. Hopefully you all enjoy it, especially since it sets up the main conflict once and for all. The Ed's have a lot to deal with now since things are going off the rails.

Also, extra news; I'm sort of starting something else now. I'll explain more about it at the end of the fic, but you guys might like it. Either way, enjoy the chapter and have a nice day!

To say the least, the headmistress's room was tense. Bloodgood wasn't angry at the Ed's, but something had certainly put her in a bad mood.

The three boys were nervous, but still kept their bravado. They knew that they weren't brought up for a social visit, but they also knew what this was about.

"I'm sorry to bring you all up here." It sounded sincere, but the stress in her voice was still clear. "But considering recent events, I feel it's necessary to play catch up here. How have all of you been faring so far?"

"Pretty well, all considering. Blending in has honestly been a smoother process than we thought." Double D's voice was neutral, all considering. He wasn't lying in the slightest while he said this. "A few hiccups in backstories occurred, but we eventually smoothed those over. All to be expected."

"Of course, of course." Bloodgood wasn't surprised by this. She was honestly proud of the complexity of their disguises, especially since they did this on their own. She looked to Eddy and Ed as well, trying to discern their expressions. "Would either of you agree?"

"Pretty much." Eddy carefully inspected his nails, seemingly disconnected from the conversation. "We got everyone fooled. Have a transformation here, a little magic there, and the awesome invention or two, and nobody's caught on."

"We've made some cool friends too." While Ed wasn't oblivious to the tension in the room, he did act like he didn't. "They wouldn't know any difference if they didn't already like us. Plus, they're kind of helping us without knowing it."

The headmistress did know that and was also distantly impressed by it. Of course, as she loved all of her students, she did feel a slight pang of guilt at deceiving them in a roundabout manner. However, she stored that away. This wasn't the time to focus on that.

"Excellent." She took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. "And since you've been attending the schools, I'm assuming you know a decent amount of what's happening in them. Am I correct in that assumption?"

"Yeah. Our friends know a lot of people and we're able to obtain plenty of reliable sources of information." Double D adjusted his tie nervously. "Admittedly, some of them are almost to the equivalent of gossip rags, but we've made it easier to discern fact from fiction."

"Blondie Lockes and the Gory Gazette." Ed shrugged noncommittally. "Cool websites, not so great at reporting. Nice pictures though!"

Bloodgood nodded once more before straightening up, folding her hands in front of her. "Good. Because I have a question to ask since you three are my inside men on this."

The boys shrugged, shifting in their seats once more. They were expecting this since they came in.

Taking their silence as a response, she leaned forward and stated her question. "Just what in the world is going on right now?"

Eddy sighed, hand running through his hair. He looked her in the eyes before responding. "It all started after Legacy Day…"

The whole school had been ready to explode since Raven made her 'announcement' on Legacy Day. And while Eddy was a big proponent of chaos, this tense and suspicion wasn't exactly what he had in mind.

The lunchroom especially wasn't something he wanted to deal with either. All of the snide comments and the occasional arguments, in front of his sandwich?! It was really getting on his nerves.

He still didn't know what possessed him to sit at Apple's table today. Raven and Cerise were out and Double and Ed were unable to meet up, so that was one idea, but he could've just eaten alone. However, despite being annoyed by all of the petty drama, he still kind of lived for it. Unfortunately, it all sounded like rich person complaining to him.

"I can't believe any of this!" Some long-haired girl was having a panic attack, tugging on her hair. "How can she just decide not to follow her story?! That can't be possible."

"It seems to me that she just did, Holly." Briar didn't look to worried about it, poking at her salad half-heartedly. "I mean, she didn't sign the book. She closed it and walked off stage while everyone was booing. Seems like she made the decision herself." She stole a glance toward a worried Apple, who hadn't eaten anything since lunch started. "I'm sure she'll change her mind, Apple. It's not like she can continue doing this."

"She seemed so serious though." Apple fiddled with a loose pendant. Eddy would admit that he felt some concern as he'd never seen her this anxious before. "I've never seen her that angry or determined before. It was like she was a completely different person."

"Not to lay blame on anyone here," Eddy jumped in, despite the fact he very clearly didn't want to join in. "But you were coming on pretty strong with the whole destiny thing. We're in high school, Princess. Teenagers aren't really known for commitment."

"Says the guy who doesn't have any idea what his destiny is." Briar lazily pointed her fork at him, eyes narrowing. "Besides, we've been raised our whole lives for this. It's not like this is all new to Raven."

The short boy frowned. "You know, I'm surprised you aren't on her side about this. Seems like you'd have the perfect reason too."

"Why would she do that?" Daring was there, something Eddy had forgotten until now. The blonde had been staring into a mirror the entire time, so he'd been thankfully silent. "She gets her own happy ending and has a nice nap while doing so. Doesn't sound like too much of a fuss to me."

"I wouldn't call sleeping for 100 years a nap, Charmless." Eddy summoned a small pocket watch with a flicker of his magic, looking into it. "According to my calculations, our friendly neighborhood narcoleptic, is that you're sleeping for a very long time."

"Doesn't seem that long when you compare it to those immortals from the Monster side." Briar took a bite from her salad. "100 years isn't a long time for them. Plus, I can skip right to the cool stuff."

"Yeah, when everyone you know is dead!" Eddy slammed his hands onto the table, pocket watch dissipating. "I know a girl that could have seen the wooly mammoths, but she knows how long 100 years is. Why do you think humans celebrate it when a guy becomes 112 or something?"

"It's not like we can." Apple wasn't liking the direction of this conversation. "We can only change so many details before something starts to break."

"Real funny when it comes from you, Princess." Eddy summoned another item into his hands, a book this time. He flopped down into his seat open it carefully. "Most of ya' don't even do half the things your stories used to do."

"We don't?" Holly didn't know what he was talking about, which only seemed to fuel her anxious state more.

"Yeah, ya' don't." The short Ed boy flipped some pages before pointing at Holly. "Assuming that Long Hair is Rapunzel's kid, she's supposed to have twins, be sent into the wilderness to die, and her prince goes blind out of grief. Surprisingly, I haven't heard anything weird about your parents."

Ignoring the horrified look, he looked pointed at Ashlynn off in the distance. "Her stepsisters would have to cut off their own heels and toes to make the glass slipper fit. Not sure if they died or anything, but I can't imagine they live that long after something like that. I'm guessing that's not there anymore either."

Turning to Briar finally, he looked over the notes on her story. "There used to be a version of your story that happened before the Grimm Brothers version where you pretend to sacrifice your children to an ogre queen. Again, that doesn't seem to happen anymore either."

Closing the book up, he gestured to Apple too with an indignant look. "Heck, Princess, your story doesn't have that True Loves First Kiss stuff. You're supposed to wake up by spitting out a part of the apple that poisoned you. Charmless is effectively useless in that equation unless the whole thing was made to create political marriages."

"I'm sorry, what we were we talking about?" Daring asked, having not been listening.

Eddy groaned, flashing the book away with a flick of his wrist. "Of course, you weren't listening. Trophy husbands never do."

"As… informative as that was," Apple started, looking dazed despite knowing the details herself. "That doesn't change the fact that Raven is outright refusing to do our story. Not only is there no chance for a Happy Ending if she refuses, our story could outright disappear."

Eddy did shrink a little at that. "Ya' got me there." He slumped forward in his seat, grabbing his sandwich to take a bite out of it. "You can try to convince her, but I don't she's going out without a fight. I don't what she saw in those mirrors up there, but it was enough to scare her off."

"Oh, come on, don't back off now!"

The entire table jumped as the sound of a voice a table away shouted at them. Turning around, they saw a boy with a buzzcut and combed over brown hair standing there indignantly. He didn't look happy at what he just listened to.

"You were making a pretty good argument there! Heck, you had me pretty convinced." The boy tapped his foot, rolling his eyes. "Made more sense than anything the Royals have been saying since this all started."

"Royals?" Eddy never heard that one before. "The heck are you talking about?"

"Don't listen to the Rebel, Eddy. Just because he thinks Raven has a point doesn't mean that he's an official figure on the subject." Daring waved it all off, not taking any of this seriously.

"Rebel- Wait, you guys are already making sides on this?" Eddy stood up, looking between the two with surprise. "I mean, I get that people aren't going to agree on this, but named sides? Seriously?"

"The entire school has been going into a serious panic over this and many people are finding that it's a very divisive subject." Apple seemed especially nervous at this. "Turns out Raven has quite the following, even though her actions are a little extreme."

"This is ridiculous." Eddy knew that was something Raven wouldn't want, even if he wasn't here long. That was just insane. "The school can't be going to war just because one girl didn't sign a magical contract."

"It is if it's the Book of Legends." Daring put down the mirror and looked at the boy with the buzzcut. "Look, Hunter, I'd suggest quieting down. You wouldn't want Headmaster Grimm to hear you."

"Who cares what Headmaster Grimm thinks?" Hunter scoffed. "He isn't even here. He's been in his office since Legacy Day, so he's no help."

"Whatever." Daring went back to preening himself in the mirror. "Do what you must. I certainly won't stop you."

Hunter definitely didn't like this, bristling at the dismissive comment. "At least look at me while I'm talking to you!" He grabbed a piece of pizza from his lunch tray and launched it at Daring.

Eddy suppressed a laugh as the greasy good slipped down the boy's face. He didn't though, since Daring almost immediately got up to throw whatever it was on his plate at Hunter.

He wasn't sure who yelled out to start a food fight, but it was warning enough to teleport out of incoming fire. He appeared a couple of tables away, watching as the chaos unfolded as several tables went to absolute war with each other. Lasagna, pizza, and whatever else was on the menu for that day.

It would've been fun if it didn't send a pit down into his stomach.

"I'm assuming that isn't the only incident?" Bloodgood looked disheartened by this news, nervously playing with the keychain she got from them.

"Some other stuff happened, but it was just arguing between a lot of people. Nothing as serious as a food fight." Eddy didn't look happy about it either. "Apple's is more or less anxious about everything, which makes the rest of the 'Royals' anxious, with the 'Rebels' just running around. I haven't heard anything from Raven."

"That's certainly disadvantageous." While the sorceress didn't appear to be leading a revolution on purpose, it would be important to get in contact with her to maybe calm things down. Bloodgood had no intention of making her change her stance, but it is pertinent that they found her to stop things before they escalated further. "We're going to have to change that if things continue at this rate. I hope she hasn't left the school."

"She hasn't." Everyone turned to Ed, who rubbed at his neck nervously. "I actually know where she is if you want. But she did make me promise to keep it secret."

The headmistress raised an eyebrow at this. "That would be good to know, actually. How do you happen to know this?"

Ed straightened up, a look of concentration entering his face. "You know everything that happened in the science building yesterday, right?"

"Of course." She nodded, pulling out the file related to the incident. "I remember your involvement in that as well."

"Yeah," Ed leaned back, thinking it over. "Raven actually called me while I was going to class…"

[LINE BREAK HERE]

"You sure you don't want to stay in the Ever After High dorms?" Ed talked into the iCoffin with trepidation, unsure of how to go about the subject. He'd only heard some things from Double D and Eddy about what was going on, but he knew things were pretty bad. "I mean, I get it, but running from it doesn't sound right."

"Things are a little too heavy right now for me to do anything about it. I just need to bug out for a little bit before trying to fix things." Despite the logic being sound, Raven didn't sound convinced of it herself. "Besides, I'm pretty sure Monsters will write me off as a witch if they see me around there. Maybe."

"Probably. Might have to change your look." Ed saw Ghoulia in the farther down the hallway, messing with her locker. He waved at her, speeding up a little. "Any idea who you wanna stay with?"

"I'm honestly not picky. I just don't want to deal with anything right now. God knows all the looks I get from Apple are making me feel guilty enough." A clanking could be heard on the phone, which Ed recognized as the sound of a suitcase closing. "I promise this won't be too long. I just need to hide out right now."

The boy winced, stifling any other excuse he could make right now. Ever After High did sound almost ready to start an angry mob, so maybe she should get away from the worst of it.

Ghoulia, who was already heading close to him, could see the look on his face. "Is everything alright?" She didn't necessarily see him when he wasn't smiling, so this was honest concern coming from her.

"Raven's looking for a place to hide out for a bit. Some things are going down at Ever After and she needs a place to be between classes." The Ed boy moved the phone away from his ear for a second. "Know a place that could take her in for a little bit?"

"She can board with me for a little bit." Ghoulia shrugged, looking somewhat noncommittal. "I actually live in the dorms, but I don't exactly use much that much except for sleeping. I'm either in the lab and don't really have a roommate."

He nodded, putting the phone back on. "Would you be okay rooming with Ghoulia?"

"Uh, sure. I mean if she doesn't mind. I don't plan on staying longer than a few days." There was as moment of hesitance before Raven started speaking again. "I can get there at the end of the day. I'll leave a note for Apple, so she isn't surprised."

Ed looked at the zombie and gave her a thankful look, causing her to nod. "Good to hear. Hope this blows over soon."

"Me too. Thanks for the help." She hung up then and there, causing Ed to hang up too. He gave Ghoulia a smile, walking beside her to head to their classes.

"Thanks. I didn't know who else to ask about this." Ed knew he'd get to class little later, but he made sure to match his step with hers. "Raven's not exactly in the best spot right now, so…"

"I know. We get the Blondie Lockes girl's broadcasts here and things look pretty tense." She popped open a soda can, drinking from it. "It's honestly not that hard to relate. Things aren't going to well on this side of the tracks either."

"Seriously?" Was everything falling apart around here?! Ed thought about getting the others and maybe talking to Bloodgood about this. "What's going on over here that's got everyone worried?"

"Headmistress Bloodgood had to take in some students from a couple of rival boarding schools not that long ago." The zombie looked around, like she was expecting people to eavesdrop on them. "One of them was for vampires, and the other was for werewolves. It was thought to be a good idea at the time, but that kind of changed after school started."

"Why's that?"

Ghoulia sighed. "Werewolves and vampires are natural enemies in the Monster world."

Almost as if to prove her point, they heard a crash occur within a hallway not far from them, causing them to speed up. It sounded a lot like glass, which wouldn't be surprising in the science building, but the arguing following shortly afterward was what caused the greatest concern.

From what they could tell, it looked like a normal argument between some vampire and a werewolf. If only there wasn't a group of each behind their respective monster, growling at each other like they were lions on Pride Rock. It wasn't a pretty picture, especially since it was over a single broken beaker.

"I would've thought a dog like you would hear me coming, but I guess you need your hearing checked." A blonde vampire was staring at a taller werewolf, baring his fangs at him with an overconfident smirk.

"Must be, because I really don't believe what I'm hearing right now." The werewolf was staring the vampire down, growling in a low baritone. "And I wonder what'll happen if I hear more of it. Feel free to test that."

"This isn't good." Ghoulia looked over the other monsters in the hallway, noting how half of them were preparing to either join a fight or watch one. "It doesn't appear that anyone's willing to stop either of them. If anything happens…"

"If what happens?"

The two turned to their heads to the side, watching as Cleo came down with an air of annoyance. Deuce was close behind her, giving Ed and Ghoulia a nod, a look of hesitance crossing his face.

"Ed." Cleo regarded the boy coolly, looking him over. "I see that you're doing well. Is Frankie still hiding behind you?"

"Not today." Ed didn't get the sarcasm behind it. "She's off at her Clawculus class, I think. We were just watching those two." He pointed at the scene going on down the hallway.

Cleo looked briefly and scoffed, realizing what it was in under a second. "Seriously? They're having another fight today? Typical." She moved past them, haughty and preparing to shut it down. "They'll have to learn that they can't fight in my school if they want to stay here."

"Cleo, I don't think-" The zombie was silenced with a shush as the mummy walked down towards the two. As soon as Cleo got a good ways to them, she cleared her throat.

"I'd suggest you two break it up before a teacher comes on by." She said it authoritatively, like she was attempting to calm the masses at a political rally. "Considering this is the third incident since the school year started. I highly doubt Bloodgood will allow this to continue even further."

"Get off your high horse, De Nile, this ain't about you." A random werewolf called out, earning some whistles and howls from his side.

"The mutts right." A vampire in the crowd chortled. "Just pass on through. Isn't any of your business."

"Excuse me?" Cleo held a hand to her chest, offended by the disrespect. "Just because you all happen to be from different schools does not mean that you can-"

In the middle of her ranting, someone (from one crowd or the other) had thrown a petri dish in her direction. It was unclear what it was, but considering it most likely came from somewhere in the Mad Science labs, it was most likely nothing good.

Cleo didn't have to deal with it splattering on her, though, as she was suddenly snapped up by a tentacle that wrapped around her. Pulling her back suddenly, she was deposited into Deuces arms.

Several other ones appeared, grabbing the feuding monsters and separating them, pulling them upwards until they were near the ceiling. Catching the attention of the rest of the crowd, they followed the tentacles to the source.

Ed, said only a few words to the crowd as they watched him unfold few more tentacles from his body. "Is everybody going to keep calm now?" The last bit came out threatening, the free tentacles poised to strike at whoever tried anything.

Despite the bravado from earlier, the crowd couldn't help but bow out, feeling a sense of malice from his side of the hallway. Some mumbled and tried to stay back but joined the crowd soon after.

Cleo huffed, moving delicately out of Deuces arms as she brushed herself down. "I suppose I owe you one for that." It sounded like it pained her to say it, tapping a heel on the floor as she looked up at the tall boy.

"I'll," He paused, looking up at the clock with a pensive expression, then looking at the dissipating crowd. "I'll get back to you on that. I need to get to class."

"Not much else happened after that." Ed shrugged. "I didn't talk to anyone else after that and everyone kind of avoided me. I don't even know what that whole 'natural enemies' stuff is about."

"It's a difficult situation to explain." Bloodgood was already planning out several announcements to make to the visiting schools. That kind of behaviors was not acceptable as long as she was in charge. "Anything else you've heard?"

Ed looked to Double D, who sighed. "The whole school has been on edge due to the infighting." Double D had to ask a few people that weren't immediately wary of him. "Supposedly, their behavior has led to some inherent relations between monster become much more tense."

That only upped the importance of addressing the school about this. "You did a good thing, Ed, but I do suggest you find an easier way of deterring people." She clacked her fingernails on the wooden desk. "I'd also make sure to keep Cleo up on that favor she owes you. It would be an excellent thing to keep in mind."

Ed nodded. Bloodgood moved her attention solely onto Double D.

"Both of those incidents, however, were not why I brought you into my office." She pulled out another folder, her frown the deepest it had been since their conversation had started. "Eddward. Do you mind explaining what happened afterschool yesterday?"

Double D looked to be the most uncomfortable, looking between his friends with trepidation. After a couple of seconds, he sighed and started his own story. "I was with Clawdeen, Cerise, and Madeline when it happened…"

"Mr. Hackington really should ease up on homework a tad." Double D flitted through a list of the assignments the Mad Science teacher had given. "As much as I like the subject, he really doesn't take into account how much time students actually have."

"Can't be worse than Professor Stiltskin." Cerise sipped at her soda, leaning against the cold stone of the ruined castle behind her. "He'll give out a test on seven different chapters after telling us to read five other ones the night before. I think he's just out to get us."

"That's rough." Clawdeen was trying to get ahead in her current homework, hating every second of it. "Isn't there some kind of union on your side of the pond? I'm pretty sure he can't do that type of stuff."

"Oh, we'd report him if he didn't have tenure." Maddie was balancing herself on a tree branch, playing some game that only she understood. "He's lucky he doesn't live in Wonderland. I'm sure the Queen of Hearts would've made short work of him."

"…I really don't know if that was a pun." Double D set down his work with a roll of his eyes, though it was fond. They'd started doing this after a couple of days when it was proven that there were some pretty strict teachers at both schools. While it wasn't all studying, it was nice to have some more friends outside of Ed and Eddy for once. "Though, I wouldn't exactly condone decapitation in his case, I'm sure he'd behave quite a bit better there."

"You've only had him for a little bit. Trust me, you'll wish he met Queen of Hearts eventually." Cerise knew she was neglecting her Crownculus homework, but she had too much on her mind. "Oh, Maddie? Have you heard anything from Raven? About, you know…"

Maddie leaped off the tree branch, landing beside the rest of them. Sitting down and crossing her legs, she hmphed and put her chin into her hands. "Nothing. She's been pretty quiet and everyone else has been asking me about her, so I don't have any answers. A lot of people are still pretty mad over it."

"Considering she threw years of tradition in the faces of everyone there, I can understand laying low for a little while." Clawdeen gave up on understanding the numbers on the paper, putting the paper down in favor of the more interesting conversation. "Personally, good for her. She didn't seem like she was happy about the whole thing if I'm honest."

"I can't say that I don't support her decision either, though I wish Ever After High wasn't in such an uproar about it." Double D twirled his pencil, checking a few things off his list. "Though I did get a message from Ed earlier about her. I think she's staying with Ghoulia until the worst of it blows over, which might be the wise decision."

"Good for her. It really hasn't been fun without her though." Maddie leaned into Double D's shoulder with a sigh, ignoring the nervousness it brought him. "Any idea when she'll be back?"

"Hopefully soon." Double D looked over at Clawdeen. "And everything with the boarding schools?"

"Not that great. Still plenty of infighting and it's getting more annoying than anything else." The werewolf stifled the urge to roll her eyes. "My brothers been trying to ease things down with some of them, but it's not going anywhere. The more we try to talk them down, the more they just want to fight each other."

"At least someone's trying on your end. Nobodies willing to talk each other down on ours." Cerise put the empty soda into her bag, sighing. "I'm just hoping this doesn't escalate. It could be a lot worse if this gets outside of the school."

"Knowing the author's writing style, you probably just set up the next beat of the story." Maddie only looked up briefly at the others before shrugging. "I'm just saying."

"I really don't get you sometimes, Mads." Clawdeen laughed but stopped after a second. Her ears twitched, eyes narrowing. "…Do you any of you hear that?"

"None of us have super hearing, so I'm going to say no." Double D put down his book, concern falling over his face. "Is everything quite alright?"

Clawdeen didn't respond for a few seconds, concentrating on the sound herself. Cerise, strangely enough, appeared to be doing the same thing, looking between everyone, nerves on edge.

And just a second before someone would be brave enough to ask another question, Clawdeen was already up and running into some random direction with purpose.

It, surprisingly, didn't take long for Double D to scramble himself up from his position, octo-arms out and ready. "Clawdeen!" He yelled out to the rapidly disappearing werewolf, using his arms to grab Cerise and Maddie. "Wait up! We don't have superspeed!"

While moving on just two octo-arms was difficult, it still didn't take long to catch up to their friend. The longer strides matched a werewolf's speed slightly, if only leaving them slightly behind. However, they did see what was happening around the same time.

While Double D wasn't very familiar with the more sports-oriented crowd at Ever After High, he did recognize some of the people as members of the fencing team. They were arguing with some members of Monster High, some of which he recognized as being part of the Casketball team. One of them, a minotaur that Ed identified as Manny one time, was arguing with the guy at the front. A werewolf hung back, seemingly trying to talk them all down.

None of them were particularly sure what was being said, but it probably wasn't good. Especially since it appeared some of the members of the fencing team had their equipment on them while this was occurring.

Double D may have reacted on instinct when he put Cerise and Maddie down, moving in suddenly. He was able to snatch up the three Ever After High students with one arm before they could react, shutting the argument down before it could escalate. It was something of a miracle that nobody reacted violently as Double D settle onto the grass, frowning heavily.

"I really hope none of you were planning to have a fight right now." Despite a heavy amount of nerves, his voice came out calm. "It would look bad on all of us if anything came to violence. Especially with weapons on their person." He looked at the Ever After High students with a cold eye. "I'm sure Headmaster Grimm would like to hear about this. I hope you have a good excuse for this."

"We didn't do anything! They just walked up to us complaining about some weird thing going on at their school!" One of the guys said, struggling against the restraints.

"That's a load of minotaur crud!" Manny pointed out, stomping his foot. "We were just walking around when they started blaming us for some 'Rebel' stuff. We don't even know what they're talking about!"

"Quiet!" Everyone shut up at that, shrinking back at the tone. Double D was glad that no one could tell that he was about to start shaking, despite the authority he tried to exude. "I don't care who started it. However, the only reason I don't bring you in personally is because you weren't carrying weapons. I'd suggest going to Bloodgood to report your own side on this as well."

The male werewolf, finally making himself know stepped up. "I'll take them there! As long as that's okay?"

"As long as Bloodgood is informed, that's fine by me." The smart Ed boy moved up onto several more of his octo-arms. "Assuming that they'll cooperate."

"Why the heck would we do that?" Manny tried to stand taller, turning to the werewolf. "We don't have to listen to this guy, Clawd. Why are you backing down?"

"I was trying to stop you guys!" Clawd sighed, grabbing Manny's shoulder, pulling him away from the scene. "Besides, he's friends with that Ed guy. You don't want to mess with any of that."

That changed the guys tune fairly quickly, eyes widening and immediately turning towards Monster High without a word. It was honestly a relief, though, considering how much worse it could've been.

Double D almost hesitated, but he sent a look to the others. "I'll have to leave for now. Sorry to cut this short."

He received some platitudes, but he didn't stay longer to hear anything else. Nothing about this sat right with him, especially with some of their comments.

He had a feeling this type of thing would only occur more often.

It was silent for about a minute as the headmistress took all that information in. She tapped her fingers together, contemplating. Eventually, she let out a loud sigh.

"This isn't good." If felt like she was stating the obvious, but it was important to say it. "While I have made sure to punish Manny and his friends for their part, this doesn't fix the issue entirely. I'll have to take a more active role in the matter."

"The Ever After High students were also properly punished. Several days suspension, along with a month's detention due to the weapons on their person." Double D fiddled with his fingers, looking at Ed as well. "You also seem to have a reputation, Ed. Care to explain why?"

"Well," Ed laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "You know, just talked with some people. Made some friends."

"Jeez, you guys are getting tough guy reputations and everything?" Eddy leaned back in his chair, annoyed and somehow insulted. "I'm in the actual villain classes here and you guys are already making names for yourselves. Things really are going nuts out there."

Bloodgood snapped her fingers, catching their attention. "I'd like to hear your suggestions on moving forward in this. I have a few ideas of my own, specifically on my school, but I'm open for any."

"Oh!" Ed jumped up, waving his hand in the air. "Some people have been talking about getting some band to play here. Maybe if they come around, that could distract some people on the Monster's side."

"If you can get them, consider it done." Bloodgood looked over at Eddy. "Any idea how to lower tensions at Ever After High?"

"I'm thinking as long as we can get Raven and Apple to make some kind of statement together, things might calm down. If not, go for the distraction route." Eddy didn't necessarily know how he would get those two together long enough to hash something out, but he was fairly confident in himself. "I'll look into anything else, but that's probably our best bet."

"Good." Hopefully, those two would listen to reason if need be. However, that didn't fix the ongoing issue between the schools. "Do you have any plans on your end, Eddward?"

"Possibly." Double D wasn't exactly sure how to tackle something like this, but he figured that he would have to put some significant effort into making something happen. "I do believe some more events between the schools would be pertinent to our situation. Of course, some more resources will have to be allocated to help make those happen."

"Any idea for an event is welcome as long as it's within specific parameters." Bloodgood reached inside her desk and pulled a folder out. Opening it, she gave out some more news. "You will also not be the only dual student by the time the week is done. I plan on adding another one in order to make things easier on yourself. A Chariclo Arganthone Cupid, preferred to be called 'C.A. Cupid,' will be attending the schools soon enough. I ask that you show her around, especially in the media areas of the schools."

"Done and done." Double D was glad for the possible help, foot tapping on the floor. He looked over everyone and gave the headmistress a wary glance. "Do you believe everything is going to be alright, Headmistress? This is a very precarious situation."

Bloodgood sighed once more, the headache throbbing in her head incessantly. "I hope so. I sincerely hope so."

Those last words would haunt the boys as they were dismissed to commit to their plans.

A very precarious situation indeed.

Things are certainly getting heated up, especially with tensions on the rise. Hopefully the Ed's have a few ideas in mind, otherwise their goose might be cooked.

Also, as I said at the beginning, I have something to announce; I'm starting a collection of drabbles and one-shots set in this universe! It's in another fanfiction that you'll find on my page, and it will mostly focus on certain aspects or other things involved with this fic. No spoilers for the main story, but it will feature many of the same themes as the story goes on. Only one thing is on there so far, but I will expand if inspiration is running low or a plot bunny comes to me. Leave your suggestions on what I could write at "Blending In: Drabbles and One-Shots!"