My updating schedule seems to get more and more inconsistent as time goes on, huh? At least you guys get it sooner.

I hope you guys weren't too much in suspense, as the next chapter is here! Things are still going steady, with the Ed's planning their next move and making their case heard to anyone that hears it. For better or worse, of course.

Either way, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

The Ed's had participated in so many harebrained schemes in the past, it was almost weird when they weren't planning their next strange adventure. They did other things such as hang out and watch movies, sure, but scams were their bread and butter.

And while this plan wasn't a scam like the ones they were in right now, it had all the makings of one. Strangely enough, that made Double D almost feel calm about doing his part of the plan.

C.A. Cupid. A student with good grades, a polite personality, and her goal as a cherub was to help people find love. An interest in broadcasting, whether radio, television, and other noted forms.

Her goal was to help people of both schools find their true love one way or another. His was to maybe see if he could use that to make the schools closer in some way, shape, or form.

Double D figured that it was possibly manipulative for him to do something like this, which he did bring up with his 'welcoming committee.'

"I can't say that it isn't a little bit… opportunistic to do that. But I can't really say it's a bad idea either." Cerise toyed with the idea, a complicated expression on her face. They decided to hang out on the Monster side of town in while waiting for Cupid to show up. "I mean, it sounds like you're using her, but it's not for a bad reason."

"I think as long as you tell her about it, she won't mind the idea. She's going to both schools, right?" Clawdeen was going over the designs she was commissioned for, consciously fighting the urge to chew on her pencil. Her ears twitched occasionally to indicate she was listening to the conversation. "I doubt she'd put up a fight. You don't ask to go two schools because you don't like the people in one of them."

"I'm just curious about what she's like." Maddie was doing a balancing act on one of the stone walls, tongue sticking out with concentration. "How does she plan on fitting in, by the way? We don't really know what she looks like."

"As long as it's someone that's pink and has wings, that's apparently her." Double D had been only given a brief description on how she would look. A shapeshifter of some kind apparently. "As for any other distinguishing characteristics, that depends on situation to situation."

"That isn't vague at all." Cerise jumped up and mumbled something about staying sitting around too long. "How long till she makes it to us? I'm getting antsy."

"Not long. She should be here within the next few minutes." Double D looked at his own iCoffin. It really was as he said, considering the time. "I hope she isn't- oh, I think that's her."

Most of them moved up to turn and see a girl walking down the street. She looked confused and was obviously lost, judging from the look on her face. More importantly, she had wings on her and had bright pink hair.

Double D figured it would be best to stop her confusion now. "Excuse me?" He waved to her, catching the pink girl's attention. "It isn't too much to assume that your C.A. Cupid?"

"Oh, thank goodness, I thought I was lost." Cupids wings fluttered in a way that showed her relief. "I've never been down here before, so the landmarks were pretty confusing."

"That's fair. All the gargoyles on the buildings around here tend to blend together sometimes." Clawdeen greeted her as well, shaking her hand. "Glad to have you aboard here. Wanted to make sure you had a good welcome wagon here."

"Exactly!" Maddie grabbed Cupid's other hand and shook it as well, smiling widely. "Can't believe we're going to be having two part-time students. Hope it isn't that scary. What do you plan on doing here, anyway?"

"Maddie, stop interrogating the girl, you're scaring her." Cerise pulled the hatted girl back, nonchalantly shaking the girl's hand as well. "Sorry, she's excited. I hope you like high school, because we've got a lot of people like this around here."

"I don't really mind." Cupid only looked slightly frazzled by it but seemed glad that everyone here was so friendly. She looked around at everyone, eyes squinting. "Are you all going to Monster High? I mean, don't get me wrong, but I'm pretty sure some of you aren't Monsters."

"Some of us attend Ever After High. We figured that having some students from both schools would be beneficial to showing you around here." Double D moved back into the forefront, adjusting his tie. "I'll be the other dual-student, so we'll likely be working closely. I figured introducing you to other people would be beneficial to making friends around here."

"Well, I can't say I don't appreciate it." The winged girl raised an eyebrow and looked him over. "I can't really tell what you are. Some type of disguise?"

"In a way," Double D realized how good he was in dealing in half-truth by now, which would've been shameful if it didn't work to his advantage. "My status as dual-student is public, but what exactly I am is not. It's suggested you can do the same, but not required."

"I don't really have much to hide I guess," Cupid mumbled before eventually shrugging. "I'll figured something out, I suppose."

"Well, since we've all become friends right about now," Clawdeen put her hand on the new girls' shoulders, casually showing the fangs in her smile. "Where do you want to go first? We got all day to visit both schools."

Cupid thought about it before she looked at them, a little embarrassed. "Monster High wouldn't happen to have a multimedia room, right?"

Monster High did indeed have a media room, something Cupid seemed especially excited about. She was moving all about, checking on some of the equipment with interest, flicking on certain camera's that lied about. It was pretty impressive place, though it could use better lighting.

"Some of the equipment here is pretty old, but I can definitely work with this." She sorted through some of the more high-tech stuff, checking their durability. "It seems like it's more focused on radio. Maybe we can get some camera equipment from Ever After High."

"You'd have to ask Dexter Charming about that. He's in charge of most of the tech-based stuff there." Cerise tapped her foot on the ground. "I think he'll jump at the chance to work on something outside of Blondie's newscast."

"You think he'll help her? Knowing Eddy, he's probably run into him since he's Daring's brother." Maddie played with one of the spiders climbing about on the walls. "Then again, Dexter's cool. Could use a vote of confidence, though."

"We'll have to hope he didn't scare him off." Clawdeen chuckled. She looked over at Cupid, who was studying another piece of equipment. "Speaking of which, you're planning some kind of show to do here, right? What's the subject?"

"Ah, right. Makes sense that you're curious." She put down the item she was looking over. "As a cherub, my job is to help people find love. My own domain, of course, focuses more on young love. I think doing an advice show would be a good way to do it."

"Are you doing two shows?" Maddie attempted to be subtle, which didn't really translate to her personality type. "Seems like that would be a lot of trouble. Probably simpler to do one."

"Well, maybe. It would be pretty difficult if I had to do it in two different places." Cupid looked pretty confused at first. She looked over everyone with suspicious eyes. "Is something going on?"

Double D sighed. It was probably about time to be straightforward about this.

"Let me cut to the chase," He straightened up and looked her in the eye himself. "You were told the main reason why you were accepted to study at both schools, correct?"

"Pretty much. We're supposed to be some form of example of how both schools can interact with one another peacefully." Cupid said it in a matter of fact way. She didn't necessarily know what was going on, but she guessed this had something to do with it.

"We kind of figured that if your show would be a good way to start with that. I guess you're ahead of the curve when it comes to that." Cerise pulled at her hood, feeling a little embarrassed. "Sorry about giving you the third degree there. We just weren't really sure how to bring this up."

"Things have just been really… tense, around here." Double D knew that was minimizing the problem as it was, but it had to be stated. "A few problems within the schools have started to boil over, making tensions between them rise even more than usual. The conflicts have been nonviolent so far, but it would be pertinent to prevent any incidents that may occur."

"My brother tried to stop a fight the other day that would've probably ended up with him getting hurt." Clawdeen frowned deeply at that, ears drooping downward at the memory. "Some idiots had swords. If anything went wrong, I don't know what would've happened."

"I got a friend who's in a bad situation. Not technically my sister, but close enough." Maddie had noticeably dimmed as well, not looking Cupid in the eye. "It's only at my school that counts, but a lot of people are mad at her right now and I want things to slow down a bit. Something like this could help."

"We're not trying to guilt trip you," And Double D seriously meant that. Appealing to her was the main priority, but he wasn't going to gaslight someone like this. "You have complete free reign over your show. But a shared program would certainly help, if only in bringing people together."

Cupid seemed little surprised by all of this, but she didn't wait to nod. "You guys really don't have to ask, I'm already in. Just didn't expect to hear that on your first day."

"Sorry," That probably was very rude and somewhat manipulative, now that Eddward thought about it. But he also felt a sick satisfaction that she was on their side. "I suppose that was a bit heavy, but my introduction to this was about as intense."

"I get it, it sounds pretty bad. Makes me understand a little how serious this all is." The pinkette did seem to realize the gravity of her position but was holding up well. She stopped and thought something over. "Might want to go with a pretty good disguise then."

The cherub snapped her fingers, magic enveloping her slowly as her form changed. Double D saw her outfit change into something a bit more modern, a sweater vest and white long-sleeved shirt and skirt. Her wings vanished and her pink hair turned into a very light blonde that could be mistaken for pink under a certain light.

He was about to question why she picked that as her disguise before Clawdeen gasped. "Oh, those bony wings look pretty cool on you! Where'd you come up with that?"

"Bone wings?" Cerise voiced the question that entered Doubles D mind. "Her wings still look pretty normal to me."

"Sorry," Cupid seemed embarrassed, twirling her hair nervously. "I know you were probably told that I was a shapeshifter, but I actually use illusion magic. They always get it wrong because my Glamour spells make me look pretty convincing."

Ah. Eddward couldn't help but be glad he didn't say anything as that would've immediately given him away. He felt an elbow tap his ribs, interrupting him from his musings as he looked over at Maddie.

"So," She drew the word out slowly, trying to be sly. "What are you seeing right now, Double D?"

The hatted boy smiled carefully, but mischievously. "Wouldn't you like to know."

When Maddie stuck her tongue out at him, he made sure to give her one in response.

Eddy was not a person known for self-restraint, so the fact he didn't kick down the door with magic was an amazing show of patience. However, that would probably change soon if Raven didn't open the goddamn door.

"I suppose we should have planned for this." Ghoulia watched Eddy pace back and forth outside her room, cursing under his breath. Apple was standing beside her, watching it all unfold with worried eyes. "She's been pretty guarded when it comes to talking about her school. This probably came as a nasty surprise to her."

"Maybe we should save this for another day. A gentler approach would probably work." Apple may have wanted to sort all of this out, but she figured nothing would happen if she kept pushing. "It seems like she's pretty adamant to stay away from me for now."

"If we don't do anything right now, you two aren't going to talk at all!" Eddy waved his arms in the air, fighting the urge to yell. "You guys need to sort this stuff out now before your little spat here destroys the school. I ain't letting you idiots go until you actually get something done."

"I said I'm not coming out, Eddy. I said what I said about my destiny and I'm not changing my mind." Raven said behind the door. She somehow enchanted the damn thing to keep closed, which made Eddy even angrier. "Besides, if Apple has a problem with it, she can find a different Evil Queen."

"Raven, we don't even know if that works!" Apple couldn't help but respond. "We've done this with familial lines for years. Trying to get someone else to do it now is not acceptable."

The two girls continued to bicker, leading to Ghoulia rubbing her hand down her face. "This is getting nowhere fast." She looked at the fuming Eddy, a sarcastic look on his face. "I would like it if you didn't blow up my door just yet. I rather like my things to be undamaged."

"I'll do my best, but I promise nothing." Eddy moved around the Apple, knocking on the door once again. "Ray, we really need to talk about all of this. You pretty much inspired a revolution back at Ever After and you kind of have to take responsibility for that."

"I didn't mean for that to happen." The sorceress said it fast and defensive, almost angrily. "They probably would've done that anyway."

"Eventually, yeah." He conceded but didn't back down. "But you happened to speak up before anyone else did, so that means you have a responsibility here. So, open up the door so we can maybe make things a little easier on everyone."

There were a few seconds of silence before a loud sigh could be heard from the other side. The enchantment on the door was lifted and the door cracked open slightly, in invitation to let them inside.

"Thank you." It came out as sarcastic, but Eddy meant it. He turned to Apple, pointing at the door. "Now get in there and keep any unnecessary comments to yourself, Princess."

She nodded, moving towards the door, followed closely by Ghoulia. As soon as the zombie herself made it inside, he moved in himself. He was not looking forward to this conversation.

The room itself couldn't be called "inviting," but it was suitable. It was mostly filled with lab equipment, though there was a bed along with a futon that was brought out. Guess that was where Raven was sleeping the past few days.

"Alright, now that we've got this all-in order, let's set up some ground rules here." Eddy grabbed a lone chair, turning it around and sitting in it with his arms resting on the back. "One, no talking about personal stuff. Two, we focus mainly on the situation with the school. Three, no insults or hair pulling while all of this is going on."

"This isn't a cage match, Eddy."

"Irrelevant. Now," The teen motioned at the two vaguely. "Start."

The two looked at each other, but quickly looked away. Neither of them said anything for almost a minute the ticking of the clock within the room grating on everyone's nerves. Eddy himself was about to try something to talk before Apple straightened up and sighed before speaking.

"I'm not happy about any of this. There's a lot of things going wrong at the school right now that really shouldn't be, and as class president for over two years now, I feel like I need to correct it." Apple shifted in her seat, not looking Raven in the eye. "While I'm upset about your… statement at Legacy Day, I do want to try and stop the infighting at the school. I do need your help on that, though."

Raven took a second to let her own response slip out, face set in stone. "I'm not happy about what's going on at school either. However, I'm not going to take back what I said despite that. I don't get why so many people are rallying around it, but I guess I do have some responsibility for starting it. I don't exactly know what to do here."

"Alright, this is progress." Apple leaned forward smiling lightly. "I don't exactly have a control of the Royal side, so to speak. But they are made of my friends, so I can do some mitigating on my part. I do think a couple of the people on the Rebels side, but I'm not so sure how many there are."

"They made up names for themselves?" Raven questioned, but quickly shook her head. "Never mind, think about that later. I guess I can talk to Maddie and Cerise about this, see if they can everyone else to calm down. Maybe we can make an official statement? You studied Kingdom Management, so you can help me say something to everyone to calm them down."

"That could work." Apple nodded, glad to have made some progress. However, she did stop. "Though, I guess that doesn't mean they'll stop completely. Something does need to be done to keep people from fighting each other when we aren't around."

"If you don't mind, I think I have a suggestion." Everyone jumped at the sound of the zombie's voice app cutting through the air. They were almost embarrassed by that since this was her room they were crashing in.

"Go for it, Thriller."* Eddy made a note to find a better nickname for her in the future.

"Assuming there is a middle ground, there should be someone within the school that can try and stop conflicts that happen between Royals and Rebels. Someone relatively unbiased that won't be taking anyone's side into account." Ghoulia paused before she said her next sentence. "I personally suggest Eddy."

"What." Eddy blinked owlishly at the zombie, unfocused. "Why the heck would I want to become a part of this, Thriller? I've been trying to stop it so I high school isn't a dramatic nightmare."

"Well, considering high school is a dramatic nightmare already, you've failed that mission." The zombie said sarcastically. "Plus, as I've said before, you are a perfect candidate for this since you badly don't want drama to happen. Since you also have no confirmed story, you don't necessarily have a stake in all of this."

"She's got a point." Apple said slowly, eyes lighting up at the idea. "You wouldn't necessarily be taking anyone's side. Your judgement won't be biased… as far as we know." She waved off the last part.

"I don't know." Raven looked over Eddy, skeptical. "Eddy's cool and all, but unless he wants to do it, we can't really force him. It's all up to him, really."

Eddy sputtered, looking between the three of them with disbelief. He was about to say that his entire existence tended to bring chaos rather than disrupt it, but he felt himself shut up as he thought the details over. He didn't like it, but this could be a good move. Plus, he'd be the guy in charge of making things go smoothly.

"You know what? Fine." Eddy got up from the chair and moved to the door with a huff. "But if anyone has a problem with my methods, don't blame me. You put me in charge."

He opened the door but stopped before looking at Ghoulia. "You, me, and the guys are still on for learning Zombie speech tomorrow, right?"

"Right."

"Okay, good." Eddy went through the door, giving her finger guns as he passed. "Thank you and curse you, Ghoulia."

The girls wondered if they made a mistake, but they decided to not think of that now. They had some things to do.

Like the last time Eddy was here, the lunchroom was filled with tension the like he's never seen before. While no one had decided to opt for the food fight again, something told him that they weren't far behind.

Eddy snapped his fingers, using some magic to give it some extra sound and bass. This caused everyone to jump at first, making a food fight almost happen then and there.

"Alright, listen up!" Eddy pointed to Apple and Raven with little care, looking at everyone with narrowed eyes. "You listen to these two right now, because if you're all fixing to have a gang war, then they're going to set the terms. Whoever's not listening will be hit by a curse of my choosing and I will keep it random."

He moved back, letting the girls step forward. Nobody seemed to be ignoring them, but Eddy kept his eyes out.

"I will do my best to make this brief." Apple started, actually sounding regal to Eddy's surprise. "I can't say that I don't understand why most of you are upset, but that doesn't mean I condone any of the things you're all doing. Since some of you are dear friends of mine, I'm actually quite surprised at some of the things you've done these past few days."

"I get why too." Raven shifted, looking less experience, but just as righteously angry about things. "I'm not taking back what I said, but that doesn't mean any you have to riot for or against it. My whole point was that I don't want to be the villain, meaning I don't want any more chaos happening around here, even if I agree with why you're doing it."

"Which is why, from here on out, this will actually be a discussion." Apple's extra emphasis on the last word made everyone shrink. "We can talk about this all we want but devolving into violence over it isn't acceptable. Many of us will be running our own kingdoms one day, so we need to be better on that front."

"And if some of you aren't planning on doing that." Raven fought down a smirk as she finished things up. "We have a moderator that'll keep things from blowing up too much."

A sudden magical blast appeared, causing a metal tray full of pudding to be shot out a cat girl's hands. Eddy teleported onto a table in the middle of the room. A gleam in his eye.

"You heard her right, folks!" Eddy smirked as everyone's attention landed on him. "I'll be the one making sure that none of you kill each other over this insanity. If anyone one of ya' decides to try and pull some stuff against someone who disagrees with you…" He shrugged, leaving the threat in the air for it to sink in. He jumped off the table, sitting and crossing his legs at one of the seats.

"And while Raven here may not want to be the bad guy," Eddy lit up a hand, bright blue fire lighting up and causing everyone to back up around him. His smile was outright devious at this point, sending shivers down everyone's spines.

"I'm certainly not afraid to make up for it."

"As much as I appreciate that you decided to come to me for help," Cleo started calmly, looking down at Ed with a gleam of annoyance in her gaze. "I don't understand why you would come to me first."

Ed wasn't so sure either, but it was Eddy and Double D's idea to get help from the queen bee of the school. Technically, she said he owed him a favor, but that didn't mean she had to uphold that promise. Plus, she did say that they weren't friends, which honestly hurt his feelings a bit.

Not to mention he's apparently kind of annoying to her.

"Well, it's not like I have a lot of other places to go." Ed twiddled his thumbs, not looking the mummy in the eye. "I figured you'd have the easiest time in helping me. Not a lot of people here have as many resources as you do, especially with other students."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Ed." Cleo pulled out her nail file, not making eye contact either. Her expression showed boredom, plain and simple. "I suppose I owe you a favor, but I have a feeling you want more than one thing out of this, judging from your expression."

Ed figured she'd realized that. Again, Eddy would've been a better fit for this since he knew how to deal with people. Double D was smarter in general too, so why'd they pick him for this?

"You aren't wrong," He did his best to be honest, even though he figured it wouldn't turn out too well. "I mean, I'm willing to work around to try and get both things, but I need to make sure you'll actually help me first. Eddy said not to trust you unless you can provide proof."

"Quiet." She raised a hand to silence him. He did, keeping an eye on her as she sighed and sat up straight to look him in the eye. "I am willing to keep my word, but that does mean you will have to be specific on what you want. Plus, if you do want to fulfill the second request, you will have to do some difficult tasks in order to win that favor. Especially if it comes at a particularly high price."

Ed was afraid she'd say that, causing him to gulp. He had a feeling the ideas he had would both result in him getting indebted to her, something he couldn't really afford to do. He and his friends were on a schedule right now, so getting caught under Cleo's web would do a lot of damage to that.

However, not trying at all would be wasteful, as Double D said. He'd have to go for it.

"I have to requests." He started again, more officially this time. "One involves you being nice to someone or to ignore them. Another involves her, but also deals with something a little bigger."

"Then consider me curious," Cleo went back to filing her nails. "Though I believe I have an idea as to what you may be asking about."

"You do?" The suspense was killing Ed, causing him to fidget in his seat.

"Frankie, that girl you helped get away, wants to see if she can bring the Jaundice Brothers to Monster High," She looked up at him briefly to see him nod. "However, seeing as I don't like her, you think I might hold back on her plan unless you force me to forgive her. I also have the opportunity to bring that plan to fruition simply by getting her some more help from some people in the school."

"Yeah," Ed sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "And I guess that you're only going to do one but not the other, right?"

"Correct." Cleo didn't look up from her nails at all.

Of course. Ed wasn't the smartest guy, but he did figure that would happen. Eddy did ultimatums all the time, why did he expect her to be any different? He really should've come here with Ghoulia. Or maybe Deuce. He should've gotten to know that guy more by now, but everyone avoided him for some reason.

"Is there any way I can convince you to do both somehow?" Might as well try to talk her down.

"Not a chance."

Darn it. Back to the drawing board.

Ed frowned deeply at this, thinking back to the advice Eddy and Double D told him to do in case this went wrong. Something Eddy told him immediately stuck out within his mind.

Rich girls like her usually don't respond to threats, complaints, or anything else that isn't begging. If you don't want to be wrapped around her pretty little finger, you gotta go with something that'll set her off. Something that'll make her do it out of spite.

…Didn't she have an older sister that she didn't like?

"Seems kinda weird that you don't want to help out the whole vampires vs werewolves problem." Ed straightened up, words leaving him before he could stop it. "People keep on saying your sister would've gotten this under control."

Cleo abruptly stopped filing, blinking before looking at the boy with a blank face. "Excuse me?"

"I don't know, I just heard some stuff." The tall Ed boy couldn't help but feel like he jumped on a land mine but decided to keep going with it. "People talk about your sister all the time. Like how she was on the fearleading team before you were."

"Yes, Nefera just happened to be the captain." Her tone didn't change at all, which was worrying all together. "What else have people been saying?"

"That none of this would be happening if she was still in charge?" Ed shrugged, pretending to be confused. "I don't know who said it, but people have been agreeing. Something about how if you had a little more power over them, they wouldn't have tried to throw anything at you. I mean, they aren't from Monster High, but you could try to get them to respect you."

This got the nail file to snap in her hands, loud enough to shut him up. Cleo's eye twitched as her eyes narrowed. She looked almost ready to pop judging from how red her face was.

"Is that so?" She stood up slowly, chair screeching across the floor. Ed fought the urge to flinch. "I guess I'll have to rectify that. I'm guessing that your favor is that I forgive Frankie for her transgressions?"

"Pretty much." Ed nodded furiously, not liking the mad look in her eye at all.

"Then consider it done. Everything is a blank slate for now." She moved to the door of the classroom with clear purpose in mind. "I suppose I'll have to show a few certain someone's why you shouldn't doubt a De Nile's power."

As Ed sat there in silence for a few, harrowing moments, he couldn't help but feel like he should stop taking Eddy's advice.

Ed wasn't a social media expert, but he couldn't help but feel like it was all working to expectations. Despite the amount of dread he felt sicking Cleo onto the populace, it showed some results.

A lot more people were starting to join in on Frankie's campaign to get the Jaundice Brothers to Monster High. Cleo either had her servants sign on the online petition or was able to call in a few favors from people around the school, but she clearly used enough power to get the original goal to be met within a few hours.

He did received warning from Deuce saying that Cleo, after she got down from her spite-induced charity that she was a little peeved at Ed's manipulation. It was fine, though, he had plenty of ways to avoid her since he figured out about the Catacombs below the school. Plus, Eddy was trying out teleportation now and might be able to get him out of stuff.

Ed scrolled through the text from Double D and Eddy too, confirming their own victories. The plan was coming together very nicely, though it was only the start. As long as they kept reacting to anything weird going on at the schools, it would probably take them no time to get things back to normal.

"It looks like Ms. Stein's petition is reaching a good amount of people."

Ed looked up to see Bloodgood walking towards him, holding her head at her side. He never knew why she did that, but Double D mentioned that it might just be a scare tactic to keep people in line. Or she was just eccentric when not making weird plans like bringing humans to a Monster and Legend school.

"Yeah, we're doing a pretty good job. Didn't think this would blow up so fast." Ed flipped through some apps, checking on certain things. "Eddy and Double D are working hard too on their own things. Eddy might be a moderator and Double D's got some media under his control."

"Should I be prepared if you three take over the world?" She raised an eyebrow, which looked infinitely weirder with her head separated from her neck.

"Probably. This is the most productive we've been in years." Ed clicked off the apps and put his iCoffin away. "Then again, Eddy always said world domination was for losers who don't care about assassins trying to kill them all the time, so we might wait until Thursday to do that."

"Well I very much appreciate that. I do have some plans tomorrow that I would like to finish up before then." Bloodgood finally decided to put her head back on, fitting it without any trouble. Ed distantly noted that the threads that she always tore to take it off repaired themselves almost immediately after she put her head back on. "Though, I do have to honestly thank you boys for the help so far. I honestly thought this would all take longer."

"I would wait before celebrating. Everything's off to a good start, but that usually means something's going to go wrong later." Ed rubbed the back of his neck again, chuckling. "At least Eddy thinks that. He's usually right about it, though."

"We'll deal with that when it happens, I suppose." Bloodgood brought out a notepad, picking something off of it. She handed it to Ed with little effort. "Give this to Mr. Where. He'll be able to smooth things over if the concert comes on. The sooner the better but take your time if you need it."

"You got it." Ed didn't bother looking over the note, figuring it would be rude. "Shouldn't take long. I think he wants some help in building some sets for his Drama class, so I'll think he'll be happy to see me."

"Good to hear." Bloodgood didn't know why she did, but she felt her hand rise up to try and ruffle the boy's hair. However, when she did, he dodged it, almost jerking out of the way completely

"Have a good day, Bloodgood!" He ran off, not noticing her pause at his movement.

She stood there for a few seconds, eventually letting her arm drop as she looked at his retreating form. A part of her felt a pit of dread form, cataloging that interaction for later.

"I really need to know why they left their home." She thought out loud, turning back to head to her office.

She had some research to do.

Eddy becomes an official moderator, Ed has tricks he learned from his friends, and Double D knows how to bring others onto his side. I really made these guys into manipulative people, haven't I? I suppose I write them that way because these three are scam artists that know how to get money from kids they've known their whole lives, something that does transfer well to this. Hopefully they know how to trick Bloodgood though, if they want their backstories to stay in the dark.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I will see you again soon enough.