Blackmailed

by Flower princess11

Danny and Star's 6 month anniversary is met with some bumps hold due to Star's upcoming birthday and Colette's latest attempts to drive a wedge between them. To make matters worse, Colette discovers Danny's secret and uses it to blackmail him into finally having him all to herself. Now Star and Team Phantom have to work together to save Danny from Colette, before it's too late.

26. A Stepmother's Denial

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any of the characters. Danny Phantom is the sole property of Butch Hartman, Nickelodeon and Paramount global.

---

Blackmailed

Chapter 26: A Stepmother's Denial

Danny was upset. It was 10 minutes before lunch ended and Colette had just come back to school.

"I have returned, Mon Amore..." Colette said in a flamboyant way, as if it was something special.

"Oh joy..." Danny said sarcastically as she kissed his cheek and he mentally cringed.

"So, did you miss me while I was gone?..." Colette asked playfully as she held onto his arm.

"Do you want the truth or what you want me to say?..." Danny asked with sass.

Colette glared at that.

"You should be thankful I'm willing to see you as a challenge and as a potential partner..." She said in a whiny way.

"I never asked to be either of those..." Danny said while frowning.

"And yet I deem you worthy of both. You truly are a lucky boy..." Colette said, flashing her million dollar smile towards him.

Danny rolled his eyes at her ego. He really couldn't be so unlucky.

The self-image of this girl was reaching new heights every second. At this point, no ecto-blast or ghostly wail could knock the girl down. Even if he knew it would do no good, he couldn't help but argue against her again.

"How exactly are you still popular when you go out of your way to make people hate you, Colette? You treat everyone around you like dirt, I'm sure that the A-Listers are getting sick of you, you won't give the time of day to guys who are actually interested in you solely for your looks, and the only reason I'm even associating with you is because you aren't giving me a choice since your forcing me!..." Danny said, glaring at her.

"You have left me no choice, Mon Amore. You played too hard..." Colette said, acting like it wasn't her fault.

"You're just lucky that I'm not ending this twisted game of your, solely because of the leverage you have on Star, me, Jazz and our friends..." Danny said.

"There is that attitude of yours again. If you keep this up, then I suppose you want Estelle's life to be ruined...with just a simple press of zee button..." Colette said, holding her phone up in a threatening manner.

"You wouldn't dare..." Danny shot a warning.

"I can be quite daring… or I just think ruining her life is just fun… I'm not so sure, myself..." Colette said arrogantly.

Danny glared at that, his fists clenching but barely controlling himself. He grit his teeth, while his knuckles nearly started to glow a faint greenish shade of color and spark a tiny bit of ecto energy, which thankfully nobody noticed.

"Forget my "no hitting girls without superpowers" rule. If she keeps this up, I'm giving that witch a black eye for everything she's done!..."He thought, glaring at the evil spoiled brat.

"Say what I want you to. Say that you missed me..." Colette said in a naggy way, holding her phone up.

"Fine…" Danny grumbled.

"Say it…"Colette ordered it again.

"I missed you…" He said miserably, lying through his teeth.

Colette smiled at that.

"Vonderful. I shall make that my new ringtone..."She said as she placed another kiss on him.

Danny grimaced and tried to block it out. Once she was done, the spoiled brat kept acting like she was some "loving, doting" girlfriend.

And by which he means, she pulled out her cellphone to literally create the ring tone by recording his words again. Even if they were lies.

"There, all done. Now make sure to call moi later so I can hear my new wonderful ringtone..." She said, as if that was normal.

"I'll put it on my schedule..." Danny said sarcastically, wishing she'd shut up already.

"Oh and make sure that you say you missed moi again, once you call..."Colette said, ordering him around.

"Whatever..."Danny said but she sent him a glare and an expecting look ."Fine..." He said knowing he didn't have a choice here.

Colette smiled again.

"Good boy. You're on the path to be forgiven. Far more capable of learning your lesson than that Loadman idiot..."She said with approval.

"The only thing I'm sorry about is ever meeting you..." Danny mumbled in angry as she kept talking to him.

"I know. We should have met far sooner, Mon Amore. But better late zhan ever, as they say..." Colette said sweetly as if she wasn't blackmailing him.

"In this case, never is the keyword. Man, do I wish I slept through our first meeting..." Danny thought as Colette put her phone down, pleased that we now had her new favorite ring tone.

"You will be grateful as we grow old together..." She said as if nothing was wrong.

It was driving Danny nuts that she seemed to think this was acceptable.

"She really isn't human is she?! Why couldn't Jean-Puke just let Toadman marry this witch?! She's as bad as he is!..." Danny complained under his breath, making sure Colette didn't hear him.

Danny rolled his eyes, already tired of this. At least more so than yesterday. Unfortunately, she then had the audacity to hug him and whisper stuff into his ear.

"It feels good to be this close to you..." She said "sweetly", still refusing his wishes to be away from her.

"Not to me..." Danny thought, feeling dirty even after she released him but still remained too close.

As Colette kept clinging to him and nagging, the ghost boy was forming thousands of questions, all racing at mental high speeds. Namely, he was questioning Colette's stepmother's thought process.

"How could Stella raise Colette for almost 5 years and not pick up that she's a psychopath? I guess Star got her brains from her dad..." Danny thought, believing she really is that clueless or somehow blind to reality.

Maybe both. But, unfortunately for him, his slave driver was still babbling away.

"Don't give me that look. I tell you this now but you'll soon see the beauty of moi and learn to appreciate how lucky you are..." Colette said, smiling that possessive smile towards him.

Danny rolled his eyes as his started barking orders again.

"Now, let us go to class. After school, we have much to prepare for my birthday party..." Colette said, showing a long list of things she wanted to discuss with him.

"Like I have a choice..." Danny muttered, while his slave-driver looked smug.

"There see, you're already understanding your role. Keep that up and we will have a wonderful future together..." Colette said, not caring about his feelings as she kept telling stuff about the party.

Danny barely listened to her, drowning it out with his thoughts of wanting to never see her again.

"I don't feel good. Calm down, Fenton. Just gotta deal with her garbage just a little longer. Just a little longer..." He thought.

Danny reluctantly left with Colette to class, refusing to hold her hand.

Unknown to Colette, someone else witnessed the entire interaction and decided to make their next move.

---

With Star

She was still at Fenton Works with the others. Misty was still in the middle of the finishing touches of her potion.

Once done, she grinned.

"Okay, this should work. While I don't have enough ingredients to make her tell the truth. I will at least be able to tell if she is lying and we can expose her..." Misty said.

"As if we need a potion to know that. Colette always lies..." Star grumbled.

"True, but at least we can confirm it...and we can make everyone else know it. And this other potion will let us be invisible and let us sneak in...but it only lasts 10 minutes at a time, so we can't use it until we absolutely have to..." Misty said.

"Right, we'll keep that one safe for now..." Star said.

"Okay, that should do it..." Misty said.

"We need to hurry up for our sakes and Danny's. There's no way he can put up with Colette as her slave for another week without snapping..."Star said, worried about him.

"It's completely pathetic that Colette is admired by boys but turns into a raving nutcase just because one doesn't like her. Now do you guys understand why I hate rich spoiled brats more than anything?!..." Sam said, frowning.

"Aren't you rich too?..." Val pointed out.

"She is?..." Ember questioned, raising a brow.

"Hey! For your information, it's my grandma who is rich. My parents are just leeching off her because they think they are above working like normal people and I actually plan to do more with my life than being a mooch who lives off the family's fortune!..." Sam said defiantly.

"How admirable…" Misty snarked.

"I don't appreciate your sarcasm..." Sam responded.

"My bad… What do I know? I just lived my whole life in an unpleasant neighborhood with little money for our family, barely enough to pay for groceries until recently…" Misty responded.

Sam was ready to snap before Jazz pulled her back.

"Knock it off, we have something else to worry about. Colette developed a delusional one-sided obsession with Danny just because he's the first guy to ever turn her down. It's safe to say she was never stable to begin with..." Jazz said, pointing out the obvious.

"That was obvious when we met her. Colette is too shallow to love anyone but her own reflection. And even then, she'd probably pick a fight with it over who is prettier..." Sam said.

"No kidding. That witch is even more stubborn and delusional than my mom because they're both interested in a guy who couldn't care less about them but keep living in denial about not really being in love with them..." Star said, still angry that he is cheating on her mom.

Misty heard this and shook her head. She began to regret ever antagonizing her out of jealousy over Danny.

"I can't believe I was ever jealous of Star enough to want her life. I'd rather be me than Star. Anything's better than dealing with that rich brat..."Misty thought, knowing that being related to Colette would be a nightmare.

The magical girl still found Danny very attractive and loyal, but she now understood that Star is the one loves. She is also relieved that in hindsight, her spell to try and switch places with Star a few months ago failed. She really wasn't sure if could ever handle being related to that wicked rich girl for even a day.

"I guess Mom helped me dodge a bullet, that one time..."Misty thought.

Star then suddenly got a phone call and she was dreading who it was, before she angrily glared at the caller ID when she recognized it.

"Speak of the… well, I was gonna say devil… but I feel that's not enough of an insult at this point..." Star said as she answered.

"Hello..." She said.

"Estelle…" Colette was heard saying.

"What do you want now?..." Star demanded.

"Oh, no need for such pleasantries so soon Estelle. I just wanted to know if everything for MY party is set. Are they?..." Colette said.

Star frowned.

"I already sent a message to Mom. She should have gotten it by now..." Star said.

"Perfect, that's exactly what I wanted to hear..."Colette said, sounding jolly at the news of getting what she wanted.

"That all you want to hear? Then maybe you'll hang up now..."Star said bitterly.

"No. Tell me what you told her..."Colette ordered.

"Why?..." Star questioned her actions.

Colette did not give an immediate response. She merely huffed at her step sister's words before flashing a wicked smile on the other end of the phone.

"I'm not waiting for her to speak, I want to hear it from your mouth. Especially since Danny won't do as he's told and find out for me. Just as he won't try on the clothes I bought for him without arguing, even though they are an improvement over that shirt he wears all the time. I had to resort to drastic measures just to have him try the shoes…" Colette said, sounding impatient.

"Considering you had to resort to threats just to get Danny to give you the time of day, you clearly aren't as confident in your "charms" as you claim to be, Colette..."Star said.

"A win is still a win, Estelle. How I manage to obtain it is irrelevant. Besides, moi amore will learn to appreciate my charms with enough time and proper training..."Colette said, seemingly not too bothered by the taunt.

Star had to fight the urge to crush her own cell phone within her hand by calming down her endless rage. She stopped herself, saving that for Colette in person.

Colette was ready to go, but not without one last taunt of her own.

"Though I suppose I should thank you for being so generous for offering not just Danny, but your own party as well Estelle. You truly are significant for something...or at least you were!..." Colette said with a laugh.

"I got more for ya! Like a fist to your overly moisturized face with super gaudy makeup!..." Star snapped, striking a nerve in her wicked step sister.

Colette heard this and her smug voice changed into a calm yet furious one.

"Don't tempt me, Estelle..." She said, raising her voice.

"Oh… I'm so scared of someone who's too scared to throw a punch because she's too afraid to risk bruising her skin..."Star said.

"You vill be! My party had best be ready. Do not tempt me… you are a dung, Estelle… and I am the beetle that will eat you up if you aren't careful!..." Colette said.

"Did you just say that you eat animal poop?..." Star asked in a mocking manner as the phone call went silent.

"... n…. No…" Colette awkwardly said before she then hung up, likely too embarrassed to keep acting haughty.

"Heh… that was almost worth this whole experience… almost..." Star said.

"What's going on?..." Sam asked, having not heard the entire conversation.

"Just Colette being Colette again..." Star said.

"Geez, does she really have to remind you of who she is? Doesn't she have a hobby or something?..." Sam asked.

"She does. Making me miserable. She said so herself..." Star said bitterly.

"Yes, she really is a textbook case of a sociopath...though that might have been obvious from the start..." Jazz said while frowning.

"No kidding. This is deja vu. Colette is doing to Danny what that old harpy tried to do to me and Toadman: force him into a toxic relationship he doesn't want with someone he completely hates and being treated as a dress up doll. I won't let Danny share the same fate that I was almost subjected to!..." Star said with conviction in her voice.

"No worries, we'll have you two back together soon..." Misty said.

"I kinda figured you'd have taken advantage of this to steal him from that rabid poodle, seeing as he'd take even you at this point over her..." Ember told the sorceress.

Misty sighed bitterly.

"I always wanted Star and Danny to break up but not if it meant making him miserable by leaving him stuck with the world's most awful person in cheap hair extensions..."She said.

"I kinda respect that. Though. I was almost tempted into mind controlling Baby-Pop's emotions again, but didn't since that kind of tactic is beneath me. Unlike what some people here might think, I don't need mind control to get a date..." Ember admitted.

"Baby-Pop?..." Misty asked, a bit confused as to who the ghost pop diva was referring too.

"You know, the dipstick you're crushing on..." Ember explained.

"Wait...you call Danny by a cute nickname, even though he's your enemy. Why?..." Misty asked while Jazz eavesdrops since she is also curious and will info Star later when she's less fuming from anger.

"Mmm...cause I feel like it. And haven't really decided between making him a king or totally wasting him when I take over the world..." Ember answered, trying to act cool as Misty listened.

Star, on the other hand, was still fuming and wishing she could wring Colette's neck.

"Worst birthday ever..." She grumbled, angry, bitter and exhausted.

She hated Colette. More than Plasmius, more than she hated her snobby A-lister past self. Most of all, she really wanted this feud to end. Sam and the others were right, Colette Bevier is pure evil. She has gone past spoiled brat and went straight to irredeemable.

"She takes the cake, the rotten cake. As far as I'm concerned, Colette and the A-Listers deserve each other..." Star thought, taking in air through her nose.

She knew how rotten both were but in different ways, but was still thinking that A-listers were a good enough fit for Colette to surround herself with.

Whether the spoiled brat used them as pawns or slaves, it didn't really matter to Star in the slightest.

However, there was a silver lining as the would-be villainess made a crucial error. Star's evil stepsister was so overcome with conviction that she had won, Colette didn't even waste her time on checking back with her minions. The wicked brat solely focused all of her attention on her current happiness on celebrating her ultimate victory over Star.

Which means that she had no idea that they knew she had help, help they could use against her. Colette's plan was crumbling and all they'd have to do next is steal her phone and be done with it. Until the next scheme, which didn't help that Colette had been getting smarter.

She was learning and slowly getting crafter with each new wicked plan. It was like she was some kind of machine that learns and adapts as it gets more data.

The only reason they knew about Cartland and Yolanda was because she bragged about it to Star's face. What if the next time she wised up and didn't gloat about it until after she got everything she wanted. What if the next time she got social services to take Danny away and got some family of her choosing to foster him? What if she found out about Danielle? They didn't just need to stop her, they needed to expose her.

The question, however, was do you make a total psycho like Colette leave you, your boyfriend and your new friends alone for good?

It wasn't like Star could just snap her fingers and turn Colette into dust.

Even if they make her keep her mouth shut or expose her, she knows Danny's secret, she'll find another way.

Hearing this in her head made Star sigh in frustration.

They'd win a battle, but not the war. A war that raged on because of her mother's incompetence at being a mother.

"How did I end up with the world's most oblivious mom? How could Mom even let Colette stay in the same town as Danny? All the signs were there that she was an obsessed stalker! I guess she really is too deep in denial to see the obvious..." Star muttered, infuriated and disappointed in Stella.

Star couldn't bring herself to hate Stella, her mother has good intentions. But she lacks some self-awareness about certain people's true natures. However, there is a limit and it was time for her to reach it.

"If she still sides with that brat when this is all over, I just don't think I can ever forgive her for this..." She thought in disappointment towards her mother.

She could only take comfort that the wool over her mother's eyes might finally be wiped away, even if it'll ruin Stella's vision of a so-called "perfect family", no matter how much that is a delusion at this point. If her mom still thought Colette was in the right and kept siding with her, then Star honestly didn't know what she would do with her mother.

Star might even consider cutting all ties with Stella all together if she does side with Colette after this. But that was still a last resort decision Star might make, she was still unsure. What really clouded Star's mind right now was her Danny's well being.

He was the biggest victim here and the one who needed the most help.

Star was beginning to get a bit desperate on how to finally be rid of her evil stepsister for good. As well as keep her mouth shut.

"As his girlfriend, I'm supposed to make Danny happy, instead I just made his life a living nightmare by dragging him into this mess with Colette. What could I do to make it up to him?..." She thought.

It wasn't just Danny, there was also the inhumane treatment she gave to the rest of her friends. The blonde girl knew the longer this 'game' went on, or it would become far worse for her friends.

Sam and Tucker saw her distress and felt pity for her.

"Poor Star..." Sam said.

"Poor Danny..." Tucker added.

Both teens wanted to comfort Star, but neither were all that sure how to or what to say. Normally they'd leave that task up to Danny, but he was here right now and their were at a bit of a lost on how to cheer up Star.

It didn't change the fact that they still felt sorry for her.

"To think we used to hate her..."Sam said.

"Technically, you did, but I don't like seeing this too..."Tucker added.

Unknown to them, a certain fairy was watching them from a distance and was curious.

He arrived in Amity Park to pick up some mayonnaise and some pies for dessert, and then head back to Titania and her family but decided to play a quick joke on his mortal friends here. However, he could feel the tension and knew something was up.

"Geez. Who died?..." He went.

He would have gone and asked them, but he was in a hurry.

He pulled out what looked to be a wand, a projection screen. Soon, at almost the speed of life, he saw what had happened in this town since his last visit. And for a rare moment in his immortal life, he was surprised.

"Geez, you spend a few weeks torturing a fruit loop and you miss so much..." Puck said, actually feeling sorry for Phantom.

He did like him and his friends, and he felt like what that brat did was going too far.

"You know...it would serve that brat right if I turned her into a giant chicken again and sent her to a freak show..." Puck was considering it before dismissing it.

"But that won't clear Fentons friends of the extra traps she has in place. Plus, I wanna try something a little more...original...and less likely to get them arrested..." Puck said before an idea.

"Hmmm...why not? I got about 5 minutes to kill before I gotta rejoin Titania and her family..." Puck said, as he soon snapped his fingers and vanished, going to a particular place...in Europe.

---

Meanwhile

In Switzerland

Far away from the drama happening in Amity Park, someone was arguably having an even more pitiful time than our heroes right now.

One woman was on the street, begging passersby. It was a certain old bat was still tasting her just desserts.

It was Beatrice.

"Money! Money! I need money!..." The former Grand Dame yelled desperately to anyone who would listen but seeing as she was in another country where hardly anyone spoke English and those who didn't understand the elderly woman simply chose to ignore the old bat, chalking her as a crazy homeless person.

"Why is no one helping me?!..." Beatrice cried out like a banshee.

"I need more than two cents to survive! I was just evicted from that tiny horrible shack unbefitting someone as me!..." She complained, hating every moment of this.

"I say it fits you perfectly..." A voice snickered.

"After all, Madam Liver Spots, you don't even have a penny to your name and unless you don't want to sleep another night on a bench in the park, may I suggest that you get a job?..." The old woman heard.

"AHH!..." Beatrice yelled in horror at the mere mention of the word.

"NEVER! I'm a Grand Dame! I'll never do commoners' work! I am the matriarch of the Traville family and I am above such nonsense!..." She yelled.

"Is it any wonder no one likes you?..." Puck asked sarcastically.

At this moment, Beatrice noticed who she was talking to and screamed in sheer terror at the sight of the Grim Reaper before her.

As it turns out Puck had decided to wear the dark robes just to mess with the elderly woman and seeing as she tried to run from him in fear, it only meant his disguise worked.

"Ah, ah, ah..." The fairy moved his finger patronizingly. "Not so fast, you old bat, there's something we need to talk about..." He said.

Next thing Beatrice knew, the entity she tried to escape from froze as she soon discovered her feet were unable to move, the former wealthy woman tried to call for help but no one came, it's as if she was invisible to the world around her.

"Ah, don't worry you old bat..." Puck said with a wide grin.

"I'm not here to take you to the other side, it's not your time, after all, you haven't yet paid your debt to society, you only have been here for just four days after all..." Puck said.

Hearing the short amount of time that Beatrice heard she's been poor, made her scream in despair.

"NO! NO! THAT CAN'T BE!..." She shouted in desperation.

"Oh, trust me, I'm not lying..." Puck said while looking at his fingertips with disinterest.

"For everyone else it has been longer but for you? Time moves much more slowly..." He added, smirking.

"WHY?! That's not fair!..." Beatrice yelled.

"Well, neither was it fair for you to try and ruin the lives of Phantom, his family, your granddaughter and their friends just to get your way. So cry me a river..." Puck replied with contempt.

"I was trying to save my family lineage! Why can't anyone understand that?!..." Beatrice replied stubbornly.

"What you were being was a control witch. A witch that finally lost control, mind you..."Puck said evenly.

Despite her fears, the old bat could still manage to find just enough bravery to glare, though rather pathetically, at the entity that had a hand in her captivity in this never ending nightmare.

"What... Do... You... Want?..." She asked while putting a brave face that didn't fool the fairy.

"Ah, glad you asked..." Puck said.

"Well, you old bat, here's the thing, Phantom and Star both hit a big snag..." He said.

"As if I care what happens to the monster that put me in here! Or that little traitor Estelle!..." Beatrice said bitterly.

"Oh, you're gonna care plenty when I tell you the whole story. So don't interrupt me again or I will make sure that when the month's over, I'll take your soul and it won't be to the big paradise up there..." Puck said with narrowed eyes, mentally crossing his fingers.

That's when Beatrice closed her mouth, her eyes wide with fear at the implication.

"Now, as I was saying, my friend Phantom got into a bit of a snag, all because of a certain French spoiled brat, I think you know who I'm talking about..." Puck said.

Beatrice nodded, feeling unable to talk.

"I won't give you all the details since I am in a hurry but Colette currently has Phantom as her servant, against his will I might add. And also framed his friends, sister, and the granddaughter that disowned you for a crime they didn't commit and, well long story short, things don't look well and unless something is done to help them, Danny will be trapped forever serving that spoiled brat and his friends and girlfriend will go to the slammer for a substantial amount of time..." Puck explained with disdain.

This is when Beatrice started laughing like a crazy person.

"FINALLY! Justice! Colette has done my family lineage a great service! She really is such a darling girl, why couldn't Estelle be more like her? Now, Colette is a true example of an elite of elites to society. Soon that Phantom menace will be away from my ungrateful granddaughter and maybe Estelle spending some time in juvie will do her some good! She'll learn the hard way to stay away from that horrible Phantom freak and she'll have no choice but to find a proper future husband, one that has enough money and influence to continue with the family legacy!..." She said cruelly as she kept cackling.

The fairy heard this and crowned as he decided to crush her illusion.

"I wouldn't sing victory if I were you..." Puck said darkly, not liking her mentality.

"Why?! Colette can do whatever she wants with that freak and I don't care as long as she keeps him away from me and my family!..." Beatrice said selfishly.

The fairy decided to spell it out for her.

"Think it through you old bat, if Phantom is in France, then he's far away from Amity Park, which means he'll be far away from the Ghost Zone..." Puck said.

"That's not of my concern. The farther away he is from Estelle, the better..." Beatrice said with a sneer.

"Guess I'm going to have to spell it out for you then..." Puck said with an eye roll.

"Madam, and I use that term loosely, if Phantom is nowhere near the Ghost Zone then he can't return the sword that got you here back to his rightful owner, which means that YOU will be forced to live out your worst fear... Forever..." Puck said, slightly lying.

This is when Beatrice's cruel grin disappeared and she panicked.

"What? WHAT?!..." She screamed.

"You heard me. Danny's the only one that can set you free from here and if Colette is successful and gets him far away from his town, you'll be poor till the end of time..." Puck said with crossed arms.

"No...NO! YOU'RE LYING!..." Beatrice said in fear.

"Hardly..." Puck replied evenly.

"I'm as serious as a heart attack, and, here's something else for you to consider, I highly doubt that Star's first thought after getting out of juvie will be to free her monster of a grandmother from her nightmare. After all, she made it perfectly clear that she doesn't like you..." He said frankly.

"Why are you telling me all this?! Just to make me even more miserable?!..." Beatrice asked angrily.

"Lady, I don't like you and trust me, if it were up to me, I would have given you a far worse punishment for your actions but Danny decided to be merciful with you and only put you for a limited amount of time here so unless you don't want to make this your permanent residence, you'll listen and listen well..." He said.

Beatrice cried at the thought of living like a commoner for the rest of her life, so the only thing she could do was hear what the entity had to say in order to prevent a fate worse than death as she saw it.

"What do you want from me?!..." She demanded.

"It's simple. Due to certain rules and regulations, I'm inclined to grant you one wish to make your stay here less miserable, now think it well, if you wish for money, I can grant you enough to eat something for a few days but if you wish for something that might help Danny and Star then I might just convince Phantom to shorten your sentence... Keyword might, if not, then you better get used to wearing a potato sack for what remains of your life..." Puck said.

Beatrice was faced with the worst decision, she hated Phantom with every fiber of her being and the thought of helping him made her feel nothing but revulsion... But she hated the thought of being poor till her last breath even more.

"Fine..." She sneered.

"You win... What do I have to do?..." She demanded.

"Just make a wish. Any wish that might help Danny and Star and I'll grant it..." Puck said.

Beatrice growled angrily, but reluctantly complied

"I wish... For Este-..."

"Star..." Puck emphasized.

"Fine… I wish for… Star… to have something...Anything to save her... Ugh... boyfriend... from Colette..." Beatrice said with great reluctance, acting as if she had swallowed something sour.

Puck snapped his fingers and grinned.

"Done..!" He said happily.

"Your wish has been granted and don't worry, after everything is back to normal and Colette is dealt with, I'll tell Danny of your contribution... Maybe..."He said, looking at his nails.

"Wait... WHAT?!..." Beatrice bellowed "But you said..."

"I said I MIGHT! Never said I would do it, nor did I say when…"Puck said, while the former grand dame sputtered.

"Y-You ca-...YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO ME, YOU FLYING NUISANCE!..."Beatrice screamed as she began to use foul language now.

The fairy just ignored her.

"I can't hear you... bye..." He said in a cheeky way.

Puck then disappeared, leaving behind an old bat, who could do nothing but scream in anger and despair.

---

Back in America

Puck soon appeared and kept a distance, needing someone to carry out this plan.

"Okay...let's see exactly what they need first..." He thought before spotting Ember.

"Where did she come from?..." He thought, curious.

Ember was currently tuning her guitar, trying to calm her own nerves. At least better than Star currently was at the moment. The blue flaming haired ghost girl was just as angered and annoyed with the bratty rich girl and also wondered how to be rid of her for good.

"What a brat. She even makes me look nice to those dorks..." She thought before she then had the misfortune of a string breaking. causing her to frown.

"Darn it. Not again..." She muttered as her hands glowed and soon new guitar strings appeared.

She used her powers to replace the broken guitar string with the new one, fixing her guitar.

"Too bad we can't create another Baby Pop to help out ..." She muttered as she examined the copy.

This then gave Ember an idea.

"Wait..." She paused as she began to brainstorm.

She then noticed the magical girl going through her book of spells and soon enough suddenly had an idea pop in her head. An idea that might have both Star and Danny owe her a favor later on in the near future. One that she plans to cash in on a later date, one that'll be most convenient and fun for her.

"Hey, Miss Hocus Pocus?! Come here for a minute..." Ember told the sorceress.

"What?..." Misty asked.

"I just want to have the two of us chat in private, since you and I aren't official members of Team Dipsticks. Plus, I think the Vice Captain needs some time to herself to calm down or at least stop pacing back and forth..." Ember said while Star was busy racking her brain on how to end her personal feud with Colette.

Misty frowned at heh but reluctantly decided to listen to what she had to say. Jazz noticed that Ember was conversing with Misty and decided to cautiously follow them from a slight distance.

"What do you want?..." Misty asked in an untrusting tone.

"Relax, Sailor Scout. What I'm about to ask isn't anything nasty...well not to you, Baby-Pop, Blondie or any of their friends at least. I just had an idea of what to do to make sure that brat doesn't try this blackmail thing ever again. Or at least make sure no one buys what she says..." Ember said, which peaked Misty's curiosity as well as Jazz's from behind a corner.

"First off, they're called Sailor Guardians, the term Sailor Scouts came from the original English dub. Second, my powers are nothing like theirs and I'm not Japanese. Third, how exactly do I help you accomplish that sudden idea of yours?..." Misty asked while being reasonably cautious.

"Easy. I just need you to mix your magic with my music and maybe do a little show..." Ember bluntly said, without a hint of dishonesty in her voice.

Misty raised a brow, but used a drop of her potion to test the ghostly rock star's sincerity.

"Ok...you're not lying to me so far...so I'll hear you out at least. What's this idea of yours?..." Misty asked, but still stayed cautious around the blue flaming haired ghost girl.

"Sure...just hold that thought..." Ember said, while slightly moving her head and staring at something from a distance.

"Hey Red, how's about you step out of your hiding spot and join us so you can hear me better..." She called out.

Jazz realized that Ember caught her red handed and stepped into view, surprising Misty in the process.

"How did you find me out so quickly?..." Jazz asked.

"You're not as stealthy as you think, Red..." Ember responded before adopting a slightly more serious tone.

"So...are you willing to hear my ideas? I promise that I'm not gonna backstab any of you. Well, at least not this week..." She said.

Danny's sister frowned at that.

"You're not making me more willing to trust you..." Jazz said.

"Whatever. Anyway, this is the plan..." Ember said as she went over the details with them.

Both Jazz and Misty listened carefully to Ember's risky yet admittedly sound idea. Even though both human girls had mixed reactions towards Ember's plan, yet didn't have the luxury of being picky with the limited amount of time they had.

All the while, Star was still pacing back and forth as she tried to brainstorm ways to strike a counter attack at her evil stepsister with mixed results.

"Colette is dreaming if she thinks she can force my Danny-Boo to be something he's not without some resistance. I can't let her win!..." Star thought, more determined to rescue her boyfriend and finally putting an end to her stepsister's reign of terror.

Star was starting to get lost in her train of thoughts, all about saving Danny and getting payback on her wicked step sister for good. That is until someone gently tapped her shoulder.

Once Star turned around she saw Jazz with Misty and Ember standing behind her much to the blonde cheerleader's slight confusion.

"Star, I think we might have a way to finally get Colette off our backs, especially yours and make sure that even if she tries something after we get rid of her proof, she can't do anything about it afterwards..." Jazz said, much to Star's immediate surprise.

"Really, how?!..." Star asked, until she noticed that Jazz seemed a bit apprehensive about said idea.

Especially from who came up with it.

"Okay, this is it..." Ember said as she went over the plan again, but Star, Tucker and Sam all listened this time.

While Tucker and Sam weren't all too sure about trusting a plan from Ember of all people, Star listened to the pop diva ghost's plan and was actually considering it with genuine interest, much to the shock and surprise of everyone else.

One way or another, their feud will end at the party.

Puck saw all of this and grinned.

"They seem to have this part handled but maybe I can nudge things a bit into a more preferable direction. Time to grant a wish..."He said as he used his magic to make things speed up.

The fairy snapped his fingers and vanished off into a completely different location as he began to interfere.

Namely by messing with some enemy pawns, for completely justifiable reasons of course.

---

Elsewhere

Once Puck teleported himself into Cartland's apartment, he was immediately overcome with the most horrid stench he had ever smelled that he nearly lost his lunch.

"Geez, what stinks?!..." He said as he used his powers to add a gas mask to his face.

He looked around and saw how filthy the apartment was. He frowned.

"Wow, doesn't this guy ever clean? The River of revulsion is more pleasant than this place..." He wondered as he used his powers to neutralize the smell and make the area less toxic.

However, the stench of the apartment was practically etched on the fairy's brain, but he did his best to ignore it and focus on his task.

Thankfully, Cartland wasn't present, which meant the fairy decided fast.

"Let's see what I can find…" He said.

He looked around and found what he was looking for. He found it fast. He used his magic some more and did what needed to be done.

"There we go..." He said as he started to snap his fingers.

The fairy man used his magic to change Colette's secret phone number on Cartland's cellphone into the number of a professional cleaning system company.

"I feel like I'm doing this human a favor by doing this..."Puck said to himself while still wearing a gas mask.

However, he wasn't done yet.

While meddling in human affairs was beneath him, the odor offended him too much to ignore. not to mention there could be fun in messing with this human. Anyway, he checked and saw that while Danny's friends already got rid of Colette's dirt from here, Cartland was guilty of other crimes as well.

"Let's see… loitering… gambling… fake IDs… stalking…Geez, this guy is as nasty as his apartment..." Puck read all of this and frowned.

The fairy smirked as he got ideas on how to mess with the crooked PI. He had many ideas he couldn't wait to share. Puck watched all of this proof he could use and grinned.

He used his magic and soon everything was all set.

"This should be good..." He said.

"So, this is where you have been..." Titania said, appearing.

Puck saw her and sent an apologetic look.

"Sorry I'm running a little late. Had something to do.." He apologized.

Puck offered the queen of fairies a gas mask to prevent smelling the disgusting odors of Cartland's apartment, but Titania declined as she had her own way of dealing with bad smells with her fae magic.

However, that was not enough to keep her from cringing at the malicious odor before her magic started to work.

"Is there a reason you're inside a home that, if I were human, I would vomit my insides out from the stench?..." The fairy queen asked.

"Nice image…" Puck snarked before he told his queen what had happened and why he did this.

This was her response.

"I guess I'm not surprised you'd aid these mortals you've taken a liking towards. Though I'm curious. Why didn't you appear before them...or use your powers to deal with that rotten little brat yourself?..." Titania asked.

"Oh, that'd be way too easy. If we fae keep bailing mortals out of their troubles every chance, they will become dependent and never deal with problems on their own..." Puck said, but also enjoyed messing with bad humans.

"You just find this entertaining, don't you?..." Titania accused.

"Maybe a little but I'm not worried. Fenton's sister and his girlfriend are tough cookies and their friends are good enough to provide some backup when and if they are needed. They got this. Even if one of them is a ghost who can't decide if she wants him or wants him dead..." Puck said in confidence, snapping his fingers and gesturing to her playfully.

The Far Queen noticed Puck's more relaxed attitude and how he's risking much in evoking Oberon's wrath, but chose to ignore it for now since he didn't act upon it. After all, Titania didn't want to issue a third strike on her friend's irresponsible and harmful use of fae powers on a mortal...again.

Still, she smiled a bit.

"You really do like these humans..." She said.

"I do. Besides, the spoiled little brat is a typical villain of the week for these kids. They don't need me. I'd be like using a bazooka to kill a fly. Phantom's girlfriend got this..." Puck added on.

"Well...It's a shame this Phantom boy is taken, he'd have made a fine suitor for some of my other daughters, and not just the ones with Oberon..." She said, recalling her other children she had over the centuries.

"Star, Ember, and even Misty would join them on the list of ladies he'd pick over the fake redhead..." Puck said as he crossed his arms and hovered up with a knowing smile.

Titania did use her powers to see Team Phantom's actions these past few days. She frowned when she saw the young girl responsible for this entire mess.

"Such a dreadful girl..." The fairy queen said in disdain.

"You're telling me. She's almost as nasty as Plasmius..." Puck said.

Titania thought about Colette's actions and frowned, knowing her actions were from hate and entitlement.

"If this is what happens when you spoil your children too much, then Lorenzo and I need to make sure Luciana doesn't end up like that. It would be a nightmare if she ever turned out like that terrible human girl..." Titania said, worrying over her daughter's future.

"No worries. Luciana is a sweet kid and isn't anywhere close to mean. You guys will be doing great, milady..." Puck said

Titania smiled at that.

"Thank you..." She said.

Puck quickly made a top hat materialize and tipped it, while bowing down to the fairy queen.

"A pleasure as always milady. Besides, lots of parents spoil their kids a little but this womanizer took it to extremes, always giving her what she wanted and never disciplining her when he knew she did something bad. He basically just ended up destroying all his good if gullible wives work of instilling good morals into her, only getting mad at her for obsessing over a "peasant". It's like ol' Oby, but less charming..." He added.

Titania frowned.

"An appropriate comparison. I honestly don't know what his wives see in him. He is no different than Oberon, only less powerful..." She said.

Indeed, this Jean Luc certainly sounded like her first husband. Perhaps she should look into this mortal.

"Now, I got what I need here… I'll be joining you soon, my queen..." Puck said.

"Be thankful it's not my first husband you're keeping waiting. Anyway, I'm leaving this hovel and heading back to my family…" Titania said as she disappeared, Puck himself leaving a moment after.

He'd make a stop on the way…

---

Back in Polter Heights

Stella had just given Fifi some of her treats, calming her down.

"There you go..." She said, happy to see her calm.

Just then, she heard her son crying and went to check up on him.

"What's wrong, my little angel?..." Stella asked as she held him.

She soon realized what the issue was and after a quick diaper change, her son was calm now. But she wasn't.

With no more distractions to worry about, Stella mind went back to that disastrous meeting at the school. At what makes her currently not calm.

---

FLASHBACK

A few hours ago

Stella heard everyone accuse her stepdaughter of being the culprit and, as a protective stepmother, stepped in to protect Colette's supposed innocence.

"Now see here! You are all just jumping to conclusions again..." Stella shouted.

Most, if not all the other parents sighed at this predictable response from Stella.

They knew her well-enough to know when to roll their respective eyes at her obliviousness of her step-sister's actions. It had almost become a routine at this point, one that was getting old.

"Stella..." Jonathan tried to speak.

"LEAVE HER OUT OF THIS!..." Stella screamed at him.

She was still in total denial about her stepdaughter and kept trying to defend her innocence.

As everyone shared disapproving looks with each other over her actions, her daughter's voice spoke inside her head.

"Mom, it's so obvious it's Colette she's trying to steal Danny from me again..." Star's words echoed in her head.

Those words made her panic and her jaws halt their grinding. Her muscles relaxed as the woman took a seat, trying to push those words out of her head.

"No, that couldn't be right!..." She thought, deeply in denial and still blindsided to the truth.

Stella stared wide-eyed, gasping out half-words as the room remained quiet. The mother gritted her teeth momentarily as she stared back with red eyes.

Stella saw the expression on her ex-husband's face, namely his scowl. It was a look that she was unfortunately familiar with but she refused to back down.

A stern look flew in her direction.

"Yes, Colette is the only one I can think of with the motive and the cruel detachment to do this..." Johnathan said, upsetting his ex.

Stella seemed a bit flustered. She could barely find the right words as she stuttered and choked as she tried to defend her stepdaughter against these accusations.

"There… there has to be a mistake… right?..." She asked, getting no answers.

She kept trying to argue.

No...it couldn't have been Colette..."Stella tried.

"Stella..." Johnathan tried but she cut him off.

"This is all nonsense! You all are going off what evidence?! That my daughters are both attracted to the same boy! That's hardly a crime!"..." Stella insisted.

"It is when that brat won't leave our boy alone. And if she actually is behind these crimes..." Jack said, but Stella glared at him.

"I already told you that she was home when these incidents happened, so there is simply no way that she could have done it..." Stella insisted.

"Did you see her at home?..." Lancer asked.

"Well, no. But Jean Luc told me that she was home. Plus. I trust my daughter. And why would she do this to her own sister?..."She said, still refusing the claims about Colette being an evil hearted girl.

Johnathan and so many others just sigh or roll their eyes at the obliviousness Stella has on Colette's true nature. While Stella can be quite the mother hen at times, Colette is more like a cross between a snake and a crocodile willing to bite the hand that feeds it, especially if it amuses her.

"Your stepdaughter HATES Star and made it clear she's jealous that Danny likes Star and not her. And I wouldn't put it past her to photoshop this so-called evidence..."Joy said flatly.

Stella glared at her former stepmother and remained stubborn.

"You're all making a mistake. Colette doesn't know how to use photoshop, much less any editing software. There's no way Colette could have learned how to make these forgeries..." Stella pointed out.

"She could have paid someone to do it for her though..." Angela pointed out, ironically using the same reasoning that Stella had used to Jazz when the redhead pointed out that Dash couldn't have done it.

"With what money? My husband and I have strict limits on her spending since Halloween..." Stella rebutted.

"You sure?..." Maddie asked, distrust evident on her tone.

Stella hated that they were still doubting her.

"Ladies, gentlemen, please. I know my daughters aren't perfect, but Colette would never do this. Especially to her sister. She's a good girl deep down..." Stella insisted.

Everyone, including the educators, decided to spell something out for her.

"Mrs. Bevier, in the six months since she's been enrolled here, we've had multiple disruptions during class hours complaints of bullying with her as the instigator and she often tries to approach Mr. Fenton without his permission. He even flat out complained to the office when she happened to run into him after he exited the boy's restroom once and followed him to the other side of school until Miss Strong and her got into a fight that Miss Tetslaff had to break up..." Ishiyama revealed.

"And one time I had to give both her and your other daughter detention when I had to break up a flight between them after Colette hugged him from behind without permission while Manson and Foley had to pull her off of him..." Lancer recalled.

"I remember that. Poor Danny, it stinks when the Fenton charm works against us, especially since what that brat is doing is literally stalking him..." Jack said, earning a befuddled look from his wife for thinking it's the work of some charm.

Stella looked mortified upon hearing this and groaned.

'I should have worked faster at sending her to that boarding school…" Stella thought before she noticed something was off.

"I've never heard any of this. Why wasn't I informed as her mother?..." Stella questioned this, demanding to know why.

"I agree with you, Principal Ishiyama, but that's a valid point. Why didn't you call her?..." Maddie asked firmly with crossed arms.

"On Miss. Bevier's transcript we received from her school in France, it says explicitly to only call her father about disciplinary issues, not that he routinely answers or comes to parent teacher conferences... " Principal Ishiyama explains.

"And whenever he does attend it, never for very long, since he coincidentally excuses himself to answer a business call he gets and walks away with his daughter out the doors..."Lancer explained with a noticeable upset tone in his voice from recalling those 'meetings'.

"Essentially, Jean-Puke doesn't really care what his daughter does so long as it doesn't interfere with his work.. Some father he is..." Mr. Strong said with disgust.

The blonde woman noticed the not so subtle look her ex-husband sent her way, and she didn't like the disappointment she was feeling as his eyes were clearly saying "this is the man you cheated on me with?"

Stella felt her heart constricting but her feelings had to wait, right now she needed to get to the bottom of this.

"That can't be right. I added my contact information to Colette's school records the same day as I received after me and Jean-Luc turned in our marriage papers. They couldn't have just disappeared..." Stella said in disbelief.

"Not unless someone else with access removed your number..."Johnathan said, realizing part of why Stella had a hard time believing Colette was a bad seed

"That may be the case, but you were not on the records we received. Legally speaking, I couldn't contact you even if I knew your number without the proper paperwork..." Principal Ishiyama said apologetically.

"Are you certain my number isn't there?..." Stella questioned.

"See for yourself..." The principal took out a file from her desk.

Holding it up, the mother mentally absorbed everything on the papers as anything pertaining to her information was missing from the records. One could call Stella a ghost, given how pale she just became.

Her number was gone, much to Stella's disbelief, and she was also shocked by just how large Colette's permanent record was.

"This is just ridiculous! So you're telling us that the only reason Colette has been harassing our son non-stop was because you couldn't call Stella because her number was not on file?!"..." Jack said in disgust.

"Unfortunately so, Mr. Fenton..." Principal Ishiyama nodded.

"As I said, legally my hands were tied. There was only one number, so either it was never added or someone had it removed..."She added.

This excuse was appalling to everyone in the office, especially to Stella who just couldn't comprehend it all.

"Jean-Luc handled all of the paperwork...but he never told me about any of this..." Stella said, not aware of this fact.

"I doubt he ever cared..."Joy muttered.

"Are you really that surprised, Stella?..." Johnathan asked.

"That man cares more about money and appearances than anything else, if he didn't tell you then it's only because, in his delusional eyes, his daughter can't do no wrong. And as a result, Colette was raised to believe the world revolves around her and that she can get away with anything..."He said as the rest agreed with him.

"Sounds about right..." Maddie agreed. "Face it Stella, Colette is not the innocent angel you think she is when the evidence clearly says otherwise..." She said frankly.

Stella refused to make eye contact with them.

She didn't want to believe the things the people closest to her were saying about Colette being a bratty spoiled villainess or of Jean Luc's bad parenting response towards Colette's behavior. Or that she's been made a fool of by them.

She knew that almost 5 years of marriage should have meant something. However, all that time was comparable to a garbage can right now as Stella gripped her hair, tugging at her follicles.

The blonde woman still chose to be in denial and turned her back to them.

"Rest assured, I will get to the bottom of why that is..." Stella said, repressing her anger.

"But the only evidence you have against my daughter is that Danny was not framed. That's not exactly a signed confession..."She said, still wanting to give her stepdaughter the benefit of the doubt.

"I see you don't have any problems believing her obsessive crush on Mr. Fenton.." Mr. Lancer commented with crossed arms.

"My husband and I have been looking into boarding schools for Colette for that very reason. There's a school in Paris that we are considering..." Stella answered.

"Does Colette know about these plans?..." Principal Ishiyama asked.

"We mentioned the idea briefly. It was around the time Jeremy and Pamela learned that you were in the golden guild from my husband..."Stella said.

"So I have him to thank for that headache of a weekend..." Ida grumbled, annoyed just remembering the fiasco of her son trying to start his own country club.

"Let's bring Colette in right now for questioning, I'm sure she can explain herself... "Stella said.

"I'll send over some officers to go pick her up and have her tell her side of the story..."Officer Johnson said, quickly getting the Chief's permission to do so.

"Will this be a problem for you?..."Chief Boyle asked.

"No Chief, I have no issue cooperating with the police. Though I think you are wasting your men's time..." Stella answered.

"Speaking as a parent Ma'am, I understand where you're coming from." Chief Boyle said. "And if your stepdaughter-..."

"My daughter..." Stella corrected. "It doesn't matter if I didn't give birth to her, she is my daughter..."She said seriously.

"Understood, if your daughter is innocent as you believe then there'll be no problems..." Chief Boyle said.

"No, I don't see any..." Stella said.

"Good, hopefully she'll cooperate.." The chief said.

"You clearly haven't had the displeasure of meeting her…" Jack and Maddie muttered in unison.

"From what I've been hearing, she is no princess.. But according to the law, everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Even if I've never heard so many people express distaste for them..." Chief Boyle said.

"That's a very accurate description..." Johnathan said as this earned him a glare from his ex-wife. "What? Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean the rest of us are blind to the type of person she is..."He said.

"Colette can't have done any of these crimes. I mean for goodness sakes, she's Star's sister..." Stella said, sounding somewhat unsure.

This was the first time that everyone could see as bright as day that Stella was beginning to have doubts about Colette's true nature.

"She's innocent, I know she is! I know it!..." Stella insisted.

Another collective sigh was heard, dragged through the ground like a plow. This was getting old, too fast.

"Mrs. Bevier, I've seen many siblings' biological as well as step siblings or adopted ones, and let me tell you there is no relationship between those two outside of hate..." Ishiyama stated.

Everyone else nodded in unanimous agreement. It was no secret given how the two would yell and scream at each other, pushing buttons. However, the only missing audience member had always been Stella. Or rather, she just refused to see that this wasn't just a simple case of siblings not getting along. It was on a completely different level. One of hatred and loathing.

"Star isn't shy to tell me just how much Colette gets under her skin. And I have no doubt Danny has seen it more often than once..." Johnathan said.

"You're not wrong about that. He has said more often than not how much he would want Colette to stay out of his relationship with Star, he loves Star, NOT Colette. He said so himself..." Jack said.

Everyone in the office stared at Jack with surprise.

"Love...?" Stella repeated, that word having always meant something to her.

"Are you sure you heard him say that?..." Joy asked, looking excited upon hearing that.

"I wouldn't make something like that up. "A Fenton is serious about who he loves, especially about the special lady in his life..."Jack said firmly.

At that moment Maddie gazed lovingly at her husband, moments like these showed why she picked Jack over anyone else, he may have his quirks but his loyalty and love for those around him was the main reason as to why she married him.

Her husband then spoke up again.

"Besides, I once overheard him talk with Star over the phone when he thought no one could hear him and her show they have less love for her than they do for cockroaches, so I don't think I'm far off when I say she isn't well liked..."Jack said.

"Ok, as sweet as that revelation is, we have other priorities at stake here..." Maddie stated.

"Agreed..." Johnathan said before making a mental note to have conversation with Danny not to show too much love towards his daughter should they be able to prove her innocence as well as her friends.

"But Cole-..." Stella started but was cut off.

"Colette needs to understand that no means no. Danny has made it perfectly clear from day one that he has no interest in her but she doesn't seem to care and only thinks that just because she has money she can just buy his love..." Jack said firmly.

"Not only that, but she needs to learn that there are rules and boundaries, and that money shouldn't be her "get out of punishment" card when she's misbehaving..." Jonathan added.

"She can't go through life without taking accountability for her actions..."He added.

"I know that but I believe that she had nothing to do with this! I know you think I'm a terrible mother Johnathan you've told me for years but I didn't raise my daughter to do something like this callous and cruel!..."Stella insisted.

"I don't think you're a terrible mother Stella. I just think you're blind to the fact Colette isn't the same kid you met and that's on her, not you..."Johnathan said.

"I just know in my heart that she didn't do this! Call it a mother's intuition, Johnathan." Stella said.

Everyone sighed again in disappointment, it was clear that the blonde woman wouldn't change her mind until she saw things with her very own eyes.

"She's at it again…"Johnathan mentally sighed, somewhat expecting that response, but hoped he could reason with his ex-wife.

"Then I guess we'll just have to show you Colette's real self as proof..." Johnathan said.

"As if everything that has been discussed hasn't been proof enough..." Jack whispered to his wife.

"I know, right?..." Maddie responded.

"I CAN HEAR YOU!..." Stella snapped.

"Well… we're not wrong..." Maddie responded.

"Look, I can prove to you that she's at least been home everyday after school this week…" Stella said, pulling her phone from her purse.

"After the time she spent all night out, I installed a tracking app onto her phone..." She explained, loading up the app showing that Colette, or at least her phone, was at home.

Stella placed her phone down and let the teachers and parents look at the device scroll back through the day.

"App schmapp. You sure that tracking thing isn't defective?..." Tesslaff asked.

"I'm positive, it's top rated and impossible to remove. Plus, it was highly reviewed..." Stella insisted.

"I know this app. I use it on my son's phone..." Ida agreed.

"Isn't your son a grown man?..." Chief Boyle asked, raising a brow in confusion.

"You've met my son, Chief. Would you call him an adult?..." Ida answered with her own question.

"Fair point..."The chief of police shrugged in agreement.

However Stella's lawyer noticed something.

"Mrs. Bevier, how exactly does your app work?..." He asked.

"By tracking a device's ip address, why?..." Stella answered.

Stella's lawyer took the phone.

"Because I know the IP address. It's set to track your husband's office computer. I remember it back when I established your husband's legal papers and approval for his home work office..." He explained.

Johnathan sighed again. Somewhat expecting that response, but hoped he could reason with his ex-wife.

"When exactly was the IP address changed?..." He asked.

"According to the app, nearly six months ago…" Stella's lawyer said as he examined the phone.

"So, I am guessing that negates the alibi..."Johnathan said while frowning.

"Very much, so..." Stella's lawyer nodded.

Stella couldn't believe it. She paled at the revelation. She had routinely checked it after school and before Colette's curfew especially when Stella had been out of town with Jean Luc or when she went to visit her father and her siblings in New York after her mother left the country.

"So she's guilty of at least lying to her parents. Granted, all kids keep secrets and have a right to their privacy, but your daughter is the queen of lying..." Jack said.

"Agreed. Who knows what she's done since messing with your tracking app?..." Maurice added agreeing with Jack.

"That can't be right. There has to be a reason for this…" Stella tried to reason, but everyone could hear the doubts forming in her voice that were now cracking as her eyes darted to the sides.

Stella could even feel her eyes beginning to water up a bit. But did her best to fight back the urge to shed a single tear in front of everyone, not wanting to show any doubt. After all, crying wasn't going to solve anything, especially now more than ever when things got bleaker and bleaker by the minute.

And while they could understand now why she'd been so quick to believe Colette's innocence now, she might finally see what they saw Colette for what she really is. She could finally understand why everyone else saw Colette as nothing more than a bully, a pest and a spoiled brat.

Johnathan and Selene walked over. The former placed his hand on her shoulder as the latter gave a small cringe.

"Stella, look..." Johnathan spoke softly. "There's a quote my grandfather used to say to me when I was younger... Ignore the one person saying the sky is green and trust your eyes..."He said.

"He had a whole book of kooky sayings like that. But it doesn't mean that it's wrong..." Kirk agreed with his son as he nodded.

His ex-wife looked at him quizzically as if expecting him to explain why this was relevant to her current situation, which he soon did.

"My point is that while you think of Colette as your own child, she isn't who you think she is..." Johnathan said gently.

"She's not the sweet kid you think she is, she never was... You may want to believe she's a sweet girl but the truth is, that she's far from that. Everyone else can see it, plain as day, you can't live in denial when evidence is so overwhelming. You have to accept reality and I know it's hard for you but, you got to remember that Star IS your daughter and she's the one that truly needs you right now, don't forget that..."Stella's ex said seriously.

"You're right about Star. But Johnathan, I have been raising Colette for years and my motherly instinct is telling me that she's innocent..."Stella said.

Solene rolled her eyes.

"Not surprised that her gut is wrong. After all, she wasn't bright enough to hold onto such a good man and instead left him for an arrogant skunk..." She thought.

"Stella, please...you have to let facts fly. Colette isn't who you think she is. She's not the innocent daughter you think she is, she never was..."Johnathan tried, but his ex still refused to see it.

"Yeah, she is nothing but a spoiled entitled brat and is as rotten as one can get at her age. I might even go as far as to say that she's nearly unredeemable..."Joy said, recalling all of Star's complaints about her.

"Not exactly what I was going to say, but I won't disagree with that statement..." Jonathan said, while his ex-wife lashed out.

"YOU SHUT UP! How can you say such a thing?! She is only 16! She's no criminal!..." Stella snapped at him.

Both of them stepped back as Stella turned her head, refusing to look at them. Deep down Stella knew that Jonathan was right, but she still shed some tears nonetheless.

"I take it you don't object to my officers talking to the girl?..." Chief Boyle asked.

"No. I'm going to get to the bottom of this..." Stella answered as she pulled out her phone and began to call her husband.

After the first few attempts of only getting his voicemail, she eventually got through. It took a moment for him to answer. It took A moment for him to answer.

"Bonjour?..." He went.

"Jean-Luc, where is Colette?…"Stella looked around the place. It was almost too quiet for a normal day.

"In school..." Jean-Luc did not bother to sound like he cared or was even sure of his own daughter's whereabouts.

In fact, all his focus was on who he was with as he barely acknowledged his wife.

"I was just there. The principal said that she had stepped out during lunch time and hasn't seen her since then!..." Stella said.

"Well, then. You just missed her..." Jean-Luc said.

"Jean-Luc, please listen to me..."Stella begged but the plea was ignored as the man remained uncaring still.

"What is it?..." The womanizer went.

"Everyone thinks Colette was involved with the scandal that has Star in trouble?..." She said.

"Uh huh..." Jean Luc muttered, not paying attention, still deciding on what he'll be dining on later with his latest companion.

"... didn't you hear what I said?..."

"I did. What does that have to do with Colette?..."Jean-Luc asked.

"Colette left school at lunch time and we have no idea what she did?..."Stella said, upset at this.

"Why is that a big deal as long as she returns promptly after? There's no problem with those so-called educators..." Jean Luc asked, either confused or uncaring.

"Darling, at Casper High... students are expected to stay at school until the final bell. It is the law..." She said.

"That's barbaric, you're saying they're not allowed to eat until school lets out!..." Jean Luc said.

"Of course not, the school serves food..." Stella said.

"That's even more barbaric. Forcing my poor daughter to eat such garbage..." Jean Luc exclaimed for his daughter and heir eating "peasant slop".

He was unaware he was on speaker phone, making all the school's faculty dislike Jean luc even more than they already did.

"Our food is the bare minimum of required health!..." Ishiyama shouted, only to be held back.

"Oh? They can hear me? Good!..." Jean-Luc said.

"That's besides the point, Dear. The police are here, wanting to speak with her..." Stella said.

"What? Why? What do they think I've d- I mean, what she'd done?!..." Jean-Luc went quickly.

"Nothing, but everyone is saying she sabotaged Star and her friends. Everyone hates her and thinks she is some sort of manipulative entitled troublemaker. I know she isn't but she apparently stepped out for lunch and isn't answering her phone. Are you sure that you haven't heard from Colette or know where she might be right now?..." Stella asked.

"Why would I know where she is right now? It is not my job to keep track of her whereabouts when she is at school, that is the job of so-called educators to keep an eye on her during school hours. I am not a worthless helicopter parent, I give my girl her freedom and I actually trust my child not to behave like a delinquent commoner. These fools must just be looking for any excuse to discredit the rich and wealthy since they have nothing better to do with their sad pathetic lives..."Jean-Luc responds back.

Stella cringed at that while the other parents frowned.

"Seriously? She left Johnathan for that?!..." Maddie thought, she and the rest frowning at this display.

Stella began to regret placing her cellphone on speaker mode at the moment. This was evident as she avoided eye contact with everyone. Before this could continue, Mr. Felluca entered the room.

"What's all this?..." Mr. Felluca asked.

"We're ordering pizza, what does it look like?!..." Chief Boyle responded.

"Oh my..." Felluca said. "Did that overblown windbag let us call the police to exonerate Mister Fentons friends or did the parents-..."

"We called them…" Maddie said "You believed our children were innocent?..."She asked and the teacher nodded.

"Of course, they're good kids. They look like they could get more sleep some days, especially Mr. Fenton, but they're good kids…"He said sincerely.

The parents smiled at that.

"Knew it..." Jack said.

"Do you know where my stepdaughter has been?..." Stella questioned, hanging up on her husband.

Mr. Falluca blinked. He tried to think back on the day and recall when and where he saw Colette Bevier.

"Ms. Bevier? Why I saw her before lunch..."Mr. Felluca scratched his chin as he ventured further into his memory. "Though I did not notice anything strange, even for her. Just the usual snobby behavior she exhibits...which makes her more unbearable than usual when she doesn't get her way..."He said.

"How can he tell?..." Jack muttered to his wife, she simply shrugged.

"He must be more used to dealing with her rotten attitude to her than us..." She hypothesized as her husband nodded, feeling sympathetic for the short teacher.

"Can you recall anything else?..."Chief Boyle asked, wanting to get to the point.

"I'm afraid that's about all that I can recall at the moment..." He said.

The officer sighed, taking one hand to rub his temples. This was the expected answer, but that did not make it any easier. Nor did the stares from the angry parents, but that was part of the job.

"Though I did see her head towards my class a few minutes ago, I think. I will see her at sixth period, which won't be for fifteen minutes. Must want to not be late. I assumed she had to grab something from her locker..." Mr. Felucca replied.

"Aha! See? She's here! I knew it. Case closed..." Stella said.

"Kids can get away with a lot when a teacher isn't around…" One officer said.

"Especially an understaffed building like this one. Not that the tightwad Baxter will give us more money to hire more teachers…"Testlaff said.

"Just because Mr. Felluca didn't see anything doesn't mean she's innocent..." Ida said, still not trusting that brat.

Not many of the adults disagreed with the elderly woman's statement. Just one and it was Stella.

"Miss Bevier may be nothing short of a brat but you can't exactly say whether or not she has done something criminal on school grounds. At least not without sufficient evidence to back it up..." Boyle stated.

"Colette may be a brat but she's still smart, she could have done something without being seen..."Solene theorized.

"I agree. Colette is not exactly subtle as she wants to be the center of attention, but even if she knows when to stay out of things, she could have hired someone to do her bidding, especially if she bribed them..."Johnathan said.

"Sounds like her M.O..." Solene nodded, having grown to dislike that brat over time.

Stella just gritted her teeth, she was still in denial of the fact that everyone was pointing the finger at her daughter. There was no proof. Not to mention that was protocol in these situations. Everyone was innocent unless proven guilty. And here they were, treating her like the exception. That couldn't be right, could it? There had to be a person responsible for this. Someone who might want to use Colette as a patsy in case they got caught.

But who, she wondered.

"Let me call Colette and see if she can explain for herself where she's been..."Stella said as she pulled out her phone.

She dialed the number and waited for her stepdaughter to pick up. However, the call went straight to voicemail. This did not help her one bit in convincing everyone Colette was innocent.

"Oh my..."Stella said, wincing as everyone sent her dirty looks.

"This doesn't prove anything..."She insisted, while her ex and the other adults sighed at her blatant denial.

Stella tried calling again and this time Colette answered.

"Bonjour..."Was heard.

"Colette. Thank goodness. Where are you right now?..."Stella asked, sounding desperate as she put her on speaker phone.

"Oh, I had just returned from lunch. I was about to head to moi's next class..."Colette said.

"I see...Colette, how nice..."Stella said, feeling a bit uneasy.

Unknown to Stella, Colette could sense the hesitation in Stella's voice and was suspicious.

"This twit sounds strange. I'd best be careful with what I say..."Colette thought.

She thought fast and quickly thought of several possible lies and alibis if needed. Just in time too.

"Colette, darling. You know I trust you when you say you do nothing wrong..."Stella said.

"I have done nothing unexpected, Mama..."Colette said, being vague and trying to sound innocent.

"So… you're staying out of trouble?..." Stella asked.

"Believe me… everything is as it should be, Mama..." Colette responded.

"I see...good...now...um...I was just informed that you left the school during lunch time. Where exactly did you go?..."Stella asked.

"Oh, I was craving something FAR more exquisite than simple cafeteria food and I went to a nice restaurant for lunch. I paid for it all on my credit card..."Colette said.

Stella quickly checked on her phone and saw the credit card statement, including the location and time the purchase was made. She was relieved to see she was being honest here.

"I see. Darling, you know that you mustn't leave school grounds without permission, even for lunch. If you wanted something nice, I could have had it catered like always..."Stella said.

"I am sorry, Mama. I did not realize what I did was wrong..."Colette said, sounding apologetic, though anyone other than Stella could sense it was fake.

"It's alright, mon petit Colette..."Stella said, only for the other adults to send her certain looks.

She realized that she was just stalling and decided to get it over with.

"Uh...Colette..."Stella began.

"Yes, Mama?..."Colette asked, sounding so innocent.

"Um...well...Colette. I need you to answer me some questions..."Stella said in an uneasy tone.

"About what, Mama?..."Colette asked, trying to sound so innocent right now.

It worked on her stepmother, but Stella was still desperate to convince the others too.

"I just want you to try me where you've been during your sister's unfortunate punishment from the school board..." Stella asked, hoping to get an honest, truthful and reasonable answer from her stepdaughter.

"Why, I have been preparing for my birthday party. I am all ready for it..." Colette answered.

Stella looked relieved as she sent a hopeful look to the police, who didn't respond right now.

"That's nice..." Stella said.

"I have been so busy with it that I barely have time for anything else right now..." Colette said.

"I see..." Stella said with a nod, thinking Colette was telling her what she hoped to hear, unaware her words had different meaning.

Stella smiled and was about to end this, until a certain something mentioned something.

"Excuse me? What about the IP address change?..."Chief Boyle pointed out, wanting an answer right away.

"Yeah, don't forget that's the main reason why you called that spoiled brat of yours..." Ida said with a bit of force, ignoring the stern look from the cop about interrupting him.

Hearing that made Stella cringed as she recalled that.

"Mama?..."Colette questioned.

"Um...Colette..."Stella began, trying to find the right words. "Do you remember the app I use to locate your phone?..." The blonde woman asked her.

"Oui, Mama..." Colette answered, fearing her stepmother finally learned the app wasn't set to it.

"I've just figured out it was pointing the location of your Papa's computer all this time. Can you please explain what is going on?..." Stella said, confirming Colette's fears.

"I must have been some glitch, Mama..." Colette argued, glad to have thought ahead.

Stella began to fear she was lying and no one else in the room seemed to believe Colette's words. However, something happened that surprised even Stella.

"Colette...sweetie...can you please switch so that I can see your face on the phone?..."Stella asked, wanting to be sure of something.

"Of course, Mama..."Colette said, and did just that.

Soon, it became a video call and Colette saw that her suspicions were confirmed.

"So, please tell us where have you been lately these past few days when you weren't at school?..." Stella asked.

Colette's calm expression didn't change at all as she answered in a seemingly innocent sounding voice.

"I was shopping and going to my salon appointments almost every day this week. You could see my credit cards to confirm what I bought if you're so unsure of my whereabouts that day..."Colette said, sounding confident.

"We will most certainly be doing that Miss Bevier..."Chief Boyle said.

"Glorified security guard…" Colette thought disrespectfully, as the adults kept asking her questions.

"And about the IP address? Can you explain why it changed to your father's computer?..."One cop asked, wanting to get to the point.

Colette, however, remained calm and gave them a poker face, having already thought far ahead a long time ago.

"Oh, well, as I said it must be some kind of glitch. My papa's computer connection has been very as you Americans say 'lousy' lately, he's been meaning to have that fix but everything has been quite chaotic and he hasn't had the time to do so..." Colette lied smoothly.

"It's possible that because it has been glitching more often than not, the IP address suddenly changes on the app?..."She went, trying to look as convincing as possible.

Stella didn't know much about computers but, evidently Colette did, so she trusted her reasoning.

The police grudgingly had to accept that could very well be the case but they still gave the spoiled brat suspicions gazes, something she arrogantly taunted them with an air of superiority and a smug smile.

"That sounds valid, but it is just a possibility..." Boyle said, making a mental note to check that later.

"Wait...look..."Stella said, as she pointed to the app on her phone, which is now linked to Colette's.

"How did that happen?..."Boyle asked, surprised.

"I don't know. Maybe it really was just a glitch..."Stella said, surprised.

"Hey, we still don't know that. How the heck do we know this brat didn't just mess with the system?..."Joy accused.

"Excusez-moi?! Une) I would do no such thing and deux) I am not some techno geek and I don't even know how to do such a thing in the first place..."Colette said, sounding angry.

"Plus, she is on the phone with us RIGHT NOW. How could she possibly do that and change IP address at the same time?..."Stella pointed out in defense of her stepdaughter.

Joy was silent but glared at Stella. Colette smirked, mentally praising herself for thinking ahead.

"I am so glad I used my secret spare phone to message Cartland into changing the IP without those fools noticing. I guess he isn't as useless as I thought he was..."She thought, confident that Stella and her father wouldn't discover it since it was connected to her mama's account.

The police and the educators asked more questions but Colette easily answered them without any trouble at all, to an almost frustrating degree.

"If we are done...may I go? Class will start soon..."Colette said over the video phone.

"Yes, of course…" Stella said, sounding relieved now.

"Au revoir..." Colette said, hanging up abruptly.

The phone hung up and Stella looked at the other adults in almost smugness.

"See. She's staying out of trouble..."She said, but the others didn't look convinced.

"More like she can sound convincing to you..."Maddie grumbled.

Johnathan and the others nodded, much to Stella's irritation.

"Unfortunately, without any actual evidence, we'll have to let her go..."The chief took his hand off his belt and tipped his hat. "So for the moment, we'll have to drop her as a suspect..."He said.

"Thank goodness..." Stella signed in relief.

"Unless you come across any new information. Even so, we will be keeping a close eye, so don't let you step-daughter or husband leave town..."The chief said, hinting that he still had his own suspensions about them.

"You think she'll be a slight risk?..." Stella asked with horror.

"If she's guilty, then yes..." The Chief nodded.

"She's a minor, she can't fly internationally..." Stella pointed out

"But she can domestically and the country's a big haystack for a red haired needle to hide in..." Jack said before turning to the police chief.

"Chief, whoever this is, I still think it's Colette, but I'm pressing charges against whoever this is..."He said, wanting payback on who wronged his daughter and her friends.

"Us as well…" The other parents and one grandparent added.

"I don't like you, Fenton, but as a parent I agree with you. Not to worry folks, whoever's behind this has a date with a judge and jury in the near future..."Chief Boyle said.

He then turned to Mrs. Bevier once more.

"Regardless of who the true culprit is. But it doesn't mean she's out of the woods yet, especially if she has the reputation she does..."He said in a serious tone.

Stella ignored the cold sweat she had on her forehead. Still, she knew that she couldn't argue against the police either.

"Understood…" Stella said, figuring Colette isn't out of the woods yet.

That's when her ex-husband cleared his throat.

"I think you should keep Colette's passport hidden, Stella..." Johnathan suggested it to his ex-wife.

"I know you may think she's innocent but it's best to be safe than sorry if she tries to run away from her actions..."He said.

Stella was upset by the mere suggestion but still nodded. Since refusing would only make her stepdaughter seem more guilty and suspicious and Stella didn't want to do that to Colette.

"If it makes you feel better Jonathan, I will..." She agreed. "But it's pointless because trust me, she... Is.. Innocent..."She said, though it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself at this point.

"Well if there is nothing else that needs to be discussed any further, then I think we're done here..."The superintendent said, wanting to finish the day and end the meeting, considering it a waste of his time.

"Ah… well… that's nice..." Stella said, hiding her actual thoughts with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

"Stella?..." Johnathan knew from his years as a lawyer when to spot a fake smile when he sees it.

"Ta ta..." Stella said as she started to leave.

With the meeting officially over, most of the adults could finally start to relax from that stressful endeavor. Or , that is what should be happening now.

No, right now, as the rest of the parents were believing that Colette was behind this. The police were involved now and if Stella was wrong, then Colette had dug herself deeper with nowhere to climb.

Stella, in all her kindness, only hoped her worst expectations were not to be real. She hoped that all this was just some massively big misunderstanding.

End of Flashback

---

Present Time

That was what happened and now Stella is home.

Good news, Star and the kids were no longer in danger of expulsion or suspension, but they still don't know who tried to frame them.

Well, everyone had a suspect but Stella couldn't believe it. She refused to believe it. She simply didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to believe all the horrible rumors about Colette being an awful person.

Stella left in a hurry before anyone could stop her. It was a quick run to the car and then driving home. It was highly possible she had run some red lights as she parked in the driveway. After turning off the ignition, she ran into the house, searching for Jean-Luc, who she knew should be home by now. Especially after spotting his limousine parked in his personalized VIP spot, much to the anger of the other patrons of the building and many of the staff that have to deal with Jean-Luc.

"I really should tell him how much space that takes up..." She thought, assuming he just needed to know better.

She was trying hard to make sense of everything that has happened today... Namely about her family.

Her father taught her people rarely did things without a reason, even if they didn't think of the reason until after they did it. There was always a reason. Even if that reason doesn't make sense to others. She was sure that Colette was innocent. Even if everyone else said differently.

"There's just no way that Colette could be behind all this misfortune, she just couldn't..." Stella thought, as recalled everyone being so quick to suspect her stepdaughter as the evil mastermind.

Stella knew that she wasn't the perfect mother. She knew she made mistakes with Star growing up but had tried and done her best by Colette adopting her in America and France, trying to do the right thing by her being a mother figure that Colette lacked since her birth mother abandoned her and Jean Luc. Not to mention the string of women only interested in his money and lavish lifestyle, and how they all treated Colette like an accessory rather than a daughter.

Stella was at her wits end and tried to make the best of things between them.

Stella knew that she had also made some mistakes with Colette down the road as well but she tried so hard to be a good mother and properly nurture her. To teach her right from wrong and to be compassionate to other's feelings. However, it was easier said than done. But she couldn't have missed any recent misbehavior, could she? No, she was sure that she did not.

There is no way that Colette would be responsible for all of this, right?

There is no way she is the culprit!

Colette has an alibi-reasonable excuse for not being the culprit. She had to.

"I mean...I know that Star and Colette have never really gotten along but that's just a normal sibling rivalry right? It's not that far from normal family dynamics...right? I certainly didn't always get along with my siblings growing up but I'd never frame them..." She thought as she tried to think of all the good times they had together.

Like...

Like...

Stella's eyes widened as she realized that she couldn't think of any!

"No...that can't be right. I mean...surely there must be SOME good times between them..." She thought, as she tried to remember a wonderful memory she shared with both of her daughters.

However, none came to her mind. Most memories involved both girls either bickering with one another or complaining about the other when an incident had happened. One was clearly at fault, which was usually Star.

Or so she thought? As of today, she wasn't so sure anymore.

Was it really Star who was the one at fault all those times? Was Colette ever at fault for any of those times instead?

Stella felt uneasy, like she didn't want to know the answer.

Her husband soon arrived home and didn't bother looking in her direction.

"That took longer than I thought..." Jean Luc complained, wanting to get back to work.

Or at least make it seem like he was working, so as to not make his wife suspicious of where he REALLY had been earlier today.

Stella saw him, suddenly getting an idea.

"Perhaps Jean Luc could refresh my memory..." Stella thought as she approached her husband.

"Jean Luc, could you help me with something?..." Stella asked. Her husband didn't look up as he spoke on the phone, speaking to someone in French.

"Jean Luc..." Stella tried again, speaking louder. Still no answer. Stella became annoyed as her face turned red with anger. "JEAN LUC!..." She shouted, finally getting his attention.

"Yes, what is it? Why are you shouting?!..." Jean Luc asked shortly.

"I have something important to ask you..." Stella said, hands on her hips.

"Fine, but make it quick. I have an important business call to Prague in a moment. It can't wait..." He said impatiently.

Stella didn't approve of his tone and frowned. She crossed her arms and glared at him.

"You will make it to your call on time. I just need you to refresh my memory..." Stella replied, frowning in disapproval.

"Oui, now what is it?..." Her husband questioned impatiently, wanting to get back to his phone call.

"Can you remember a good time we spent with both of our daughters? Colette and Star?..." She asked, hoping he'll answer and she'll recall it.

What he said next didn't help.

"No..." He said flatly.

Stella was silent, not expecting this...not at all.

"W-What?..." She asked, looking troubled.

"You are not deaf, Stella. I said no, those two never bonded..." Jean Luc replied quickly, his face showing how unenthused he was to state the truth.

"Really? That can't be right?..." She said, wanting to be sure.

Her husband just frowned and looked annoyed. He rolled his eyes and sighed out of frustration.

"It is true, Stella. Those two have never seen each other as family, much less on any friendly terms..." He said in a cold tone as he shook his head.

"He can't be serious… can he?..." Stella thought.

But he wasn't done.

"You know that I am right. Since the very day those two met, they have never seen eye to eye or have ever shared even one second of polite company with one another..." He said in a cold tone.

"Not once?..." Stella questioned.

"Those two are not sisters but It is probably for zee best. The behavior your daughter has shown in the past six months has led Colette down an unbefitting path!..." He said, looking away with a disappointed scowl.

"What? Wait?! What are you talking about?..." Stella demanded, upset to hear this.

"Before moving to this backwater town and before she attended that pathetic public school, Colette was my perfect daughter who behaved as a proper blue blood and the perfect daughter of the Bevier family. It was perfect...until you decided we should live here, and I can only imagine how worse she'd be if she had bonded with Estelle and those peasants, especially that Fenton boy..." Jean Luc said coldly, making it clear he blames Danny and Star for every inconvenience he and his family suffered.

"You're not seriously blaming Star just because Colette misbehaved a bit recently?!..." Stella snapped at him.

"Misbehave?! That iz like saying zhe ghosts are just a minor inconvenience! Face it, Stella. My daughter has been around bad influences and the sooner she is with someone of better class, zee better..." Jean Luc said before shaking his head in disapproval.

"Especially in getting her away from that peasant boy who turned her into a lovestruck fool!..." He quickly pointed out, snorting in anger.

"I...I mean that it is true that her bothering Star and Danny is wrong and I have scolded her a lot for that, but it's not our fault that both she and Star fell in love with the same boy and that Danny chose Star. That's not my fault!..." Stella tried to argue.

Her husband just frowned and clenched his hand tighter around his phone. He was clearly visibly repulsed by his daughter's unreasonable interest in the American boy.

"A proper lady of high society, especially a Bevier, must always pick someone bred for better. Anyone or anything better than the best would be a disgrace to the entire Bevier much better than people born in this haunted dump of a town. Especially that boy!..." He said in a strict tone.

"Jean Luc..." Stella tried, but her husband kept complaining.

"All because of that boy, my daughter has become completely obsessed over him, acts absolutely ridiculous and I get no peace and quiet anymore!..." Jean Luc said, stomping his foot.

"You're not seriously blaming Danny for all this now, are you?..." Stella asked, sounding upset since she knew Danny was faithful to Star.

"Not just that gold digging son of lunatics. As much as I hate to say, you are part of it..." Jean-Luc said, shocking his wife.

"Excuse me?! What are you going on about?!..." Stella asked, looking offended he would say that.

"You keep trying to get Colette and Estelle to be friends, a feat that is impossible. The odds of them ever getting along, even for a femtosecond, is less likely than me trying to spit water into a champagne glass that's strapped to the top of a bullet train while riding a unicycle on a tightrope… blindfolded..."Jean-Luc stated without a hint of amusement.

His wife frowned, irritated and down right angry with the strange image he just described to her.

"You are not being funny!..."Stella said, hands on her hips.

"I am being serious! You are simply fooling yourself if you actually believe that they ever got along even once in their lives! Every time you tried to and didn't see it would require me to have at least 10 hands for the amount of fingers I could hold up for when that happened..." He said, frowning at her naiveté.

Stella felt a migraine forming and tried to make sense of what her husband was trying to say. She didn't like it at all. She tried to push what he just said out of her head in favor of the topic on the girls.

"Darling, please just tell me there had to be at least one time where both our girls got along. Anything? A birthday? A holiday? Even when we tried to get ice cream once?..."Stella begged, looking desperate as she asked this.

Her husband just shook his head

.
"No, Stella. They never have and it is unlikely they will suddenly start any time soon..."Jean Luc said, being nowhere near as naive as she was.

"Well…what about the time for Star's birthday when she was little?..." Stella asked, recalling something.

"Colette pushed her and pretended Estelle insulted her, thus making you take back your promise for ice cream. She refused to speak to you for a month because you sided with Colette even though it was obvious. You even still offered to buy Colette sweets to cheer her up..." Jean-Luc answered flatly.

"W-what?.." Stella asks before thinking again. "Well…what about that one Christmas wh-"

"Colette destroyed your gift for her and said it was the work of some wild dog that got in…even though we were in a hotel and on the 8th floor..." Jean-Luc answered flatly, making it obvious that no dog could've gotten inside.

He had figured it out instantly.

"... seriously?..." Stella went before thinking again. "Well… what about on my birthday before we moved in?..."She asked, looking even more desperate now.

"... did you seriously forget that Estelle had half her hair shaved off and demanded she be sent back home while crying? You actually thought it was Estelle's own fault. If she was being naughty and tried to shave Colette's hair, why was the only hair on the floor blonde?..." Jean-Luc responded, pointing out his wife's airheaded observational skills.

Stella went silent and felt a deep uneasiness as those memories came back. Back then, she had been certain of what Colette told her, but now she was seeing those times in a different light and began to see that some things didn't make sense anymore. That in hindsight should have been obvious.

Especially since Jean-Luc of all people was spelling it out for her.

The blonde woman, hands shaky, began to see the truth...as well as realize he knew the whole time and said nothing since he couldn't be bothered with it.

The blonde woman looked angry, hurt and betrayed. Before anything happened, she needed to ask him one question first.

"Wh-why are you telling me this now?..." Stella asks, looking upset.

"Did you seriously not see that those two have never bonded and hate each other worse than cats and dogs? Do you seriously have no idea who is at fault? Do you now realize who is the instigator of all their fights? I'll give you a hint…it's the girl living under the same roof as you. I never said anything because it's not my daughter she's constantly fighting with..." Jean-Luc said coldly.

Stella gasped.

"What..but Star...and Colette...our daughters-..."

"I only have ONE daughter and her name is Colette. The only child we have between us is Pierre and nobody else. His lack of behavior can only be excused because he is an infant..." Her husband said.

"Jean Luc..." She tried but he continued.

"Your daughter and I are not family. As far as I'm concerned, Estelle is just a free babysitter when Alyssa is unavailable but zhat is it! Estelle is yours and Colette is mine..." Her husband said, making it clear that he didn't see Star as part of his family.

This upset his wife even more.

"Colette is OUR daughter! Not just yours! OURS! I have stood there for her since we got married. So after all these years, why didn't you scold her or tell me?! And why did I have to hear from the principal that my number is not on Colette's transcript?! My number should be there as well!..." She shouted at him.

"Well... as her biological father, I felt it was my job to be involved in whatever that school had to say about her. Hence why I made sure I alone would handle it..." He said.

"It was you..." Stella said in a gasp. "You had my number removed from Colette's emergency contact info..."She accused.

"Oui. I had good intentions, I assure you. As her blood father, I felt I was better suited to deal with situations..." Jean-Luc said dismissively.

"But I am Colette's mother! I should be aware of what's going on!..." Stella argued.

Her husband was silent, as if trying to figure out how to get her to listen to him before speaking.

"I apologize, Mon Cherie. But you had seemed quite stressed lately and I felt that you needed less to stress over. I didn't see the need to bother you over some childish pranks. So I handled it..." Jean Luc said in a nonchalant manner.

His wife's jaw dropped slightly upon hearing how he was referring to all of this.

"You really believe that what Colette has done to Star are childish pranks?!..." Stella questioned as she was getting furious with her husband.

"Of course! I did the same things to my brother at that age and my father never scolded me once. He was always the crybaby..."Jean Luc said, showing no remorse for it.

"What?..." Stella asked, even more shocked now.

"I said-..."

"I heard what you said! We have been married for almost half a decade. How is it that I'm only now hearing that you have a brother? I thought that you were an only child!..." Stella demanded, hands on her hips.

"I may as well be, considering my brother was such a fool. We have been estranged for almost 15 years. He disgraced himself and the Bevier family tree by marrying a woman who was from zee rural countryside who was pretty much a plain beggar compared to elites like us, as well as refusing to work for the family business when he chose to besmirch our family's prestigious name and become some insignificant little baker and waste his time making bread and crepes like some lowly commoner. That's even worse than Colette chasing that peasant!..." Jean-Luc said, justifying his actions.

Stella was shocked by what she heard.

"You cut ties with him...just because he fell in love and chose to follow his dreams?..." Stella asked, sounding shocked.

"He was being foolish. He turned his back on our family's elite business that has been with us for over 200 years! He chose to walk away from us and is now making a peasant salary when he could have easily made 10 times his yearly income in one month if he stayed and helped me run the business like he was supposed to instead of chasing that stupid dream of his! It iz foolish indeed. Even more insulting, he took HER surname upon marriage...but I suppose it is best. Less people who know a fool like him comes from our bloodline, the better..." Jean Luc said cruelly.

"Jean Luc..." Stella tried but he cut her off.

"Not to mention, that wife of his wasn't just a peasant but she didn't have even 1/10th of your beauty Stella. Her plain looks weren't enough to make up her lowly upbringing but, apparently, my idiot little brother just has no taste. I mean...her plainess was almost as bad as That Fenton's boy's savage countryside aunt..." Jean Luc said rudely.

Stella glared at that.

"Hey now, don't be mean. I know Alicia can be...a bit much...but she means well. And I don't appreciate you calling her plain..."She said, since the crazy country woman did try to help with her situation with Beatrice the last time she was here.

"And I'm sure your brother's wife isn't a bad person at heart. I probably would have liked her if I had the chance to meet her. And how she looks shouldn't be the whole reason to cut all ties with your brother. You should talk to them. You'd be surprised what can happen..." Stella tries, but her husband brushes her off.

"My point remains the same. My brother walked out on our proud family and disgraced himself. He is no longer a Bevier in our eyes..." Jean Luc said.

Stella didn't like the way he said that, and then got a troubling thought. She saw her son, who was still so young and carefree. She then tried to think about what might happen in the future.

What did time have in store for him? What would Jean-Luc do when their son grows up? And what would Pierre want to do in his life in the near future?

To say or think such things seemed alien to her.

"But...what if Pierre grows up and wants to-..." She was cut off.

"Pierre is my only son and my heir. I adore Colette but she has made it clear that she'd rather marry someone who will work for our business than run it herself...which I cannot respect but have come to terms with since as long as she maintains our family's proud image, I will accept her choices. Anyway, Pierre is my son and he WILL grow up to take over our family's business, just as I did, just as my father did and his father did. He is a true Bevier and will grow up as such..." Jean Luc said, making his expectations of his only son quite clear.

His wife was upset but soon realized they were getting off topic.

"That's besides the point, this is serious. We'll definitely talk about Pierre's future another time. But for now it's solely about Star and Colette. What if it turns out she is indeed behind this? I know that she isn't but this is too much. Childish pranks are not what she has been doing. A whoopie cushion on someone's chair is a childish prank, putting sugar in the salt shaker is a childish prank, doodling a mustache on their face while they're sleeping is a childish prank. What you're telling me is harassment is a childish prank to you?..." Stella asked, looking like she was about to lose it right now.

"Oui..."Jean-Luc nonchalantly answered, already getting bored of this pointless conversation.

As he was about to leave her alone to go make his "work" calls, Stella stood there, frozen in shock.

"H-how could I have let this happen for so long?..." Stella mentally asked herself.

Not only was she angry that her husband never clued her in on any of this information sooner, but she was angry at herself for not seeing things as they truly are. Colette could have signed a written admission of her deeds and Stella would have thought it doctored.

But she was now even more troubled by discovering her husband's actions...or lack of actions to be more precise.

"You could've said something to me, for me..." Stella said.

"Estelle has hated me since the moment we met, and it's you whom I married… as long as she never harmed Colette, it mattered not to me what they do when they confront each other. It just astounded me that you never saw it until now. As much as I despise your ex-husband, I agree with him that those two will never be friendly with each other, and that someone needed to spell it out for you..." Jean-Luc said.

"Oh come on… I can't seriously be that naïve and blind to obvious hints of Colette acting that way just to get away with being mean to Star… right?..." Stella asked.

Jean-Luc didn't respond, he just shook his head and walked away. Stella's nervous smile dropped.

"Jean-Luc?..." She asked

"Do you seriously not see what everyone, even me, sees? Here…let me show you." He put his phone on speaker.

"Pardon, Rodrigo? Old friend?..." He asks who he was supposed to be speaking with.

"Yes?..." He responded on the other line.

"Do you remember that time my wife brought her daughter from her first marriage to a party?..." Jean-Luc asked.

"Yes?..." Rodrigo replied again.

"True or False? My daughter and my wife's daughter hate each other. Oui?..." Jean-Luc asks knowingly.

"...true..." Rodrigo responded in a manner that made it clear he knew the answer.

"Oui. Thank you for playing, I'll be with you in a moment..." He said before putting the phone off speaker.

He then turned to his wife, who had an agape expression on her face. The vineyard owner groaned as he tried to be frank with her again.

"Stella… you are lovely but… did you really think that because you want them to be friends that they DIDN'T hate each other?..." He asked, while his wife remained quiet.

Jean Luc didn't wait for a reply from Stella. He left to go to his home office, talking in French to someone on the other end of his phone, probably Rodrigo again.

"They always did?..." Stella asks under her breath, hoping he'd respond.

Jean-Luc shook his head at this, the door to his office slammed and his wife was now left alone.

Stella stood there in silence, frowning at this. She didn't like how his cold attitude was but was more troubled by what he said about their...or more accurately...her daughters.

"Never bonded? No, that couldn't be right could it?! There had to be something..." She thought, thinking hard.

Every recollection ended with Star looking in the wrong, Colette claiming Star did something, yet Star herself always says in tears what Colete did but Stella not believing it. And every time, it ended with Star angry with her.

The more she thought back, the more guilty and foolish she felt as she saw things in a different light now.

"Was I...a bad mother even then?..." Stella thought as tears started running down her face.

She was hurt and mortified by the realization that her daughters had always hated one another. She knew that they didn't ever get along but...but...but...

"I just wanted them to get along and be the perfect happy family I wanted. I just… thought they wanted that too..." She thought as more doubt began to sink in.

Stella noticed that it was what she wanted...not what they wanted. Not Colette and especially not what Star wanted.

Not once.

Stella's mascara began to run alongside her tears, horrified at how blind she was. She had been certain of a happy life with her family, but now she was just deluding herself into thinking that she made her own happy family that she longed for during her younger years and childhood.

Now the fog of denial was lifting and she nearly fell to her knees as reality began to slowly set in.

Stella felt a strange sense of déjà vu, one that was similar to the nightmare she had not too long ago. The one where she's completely shunned from Star's life and left in the cold all alone. That dream still occasionally haunts to this day. She felt like she was having another bad dream, only to realize that she was fully awake. And that she helped cause the worst outcome for everyone else.

"Am I really such a bad mother? Did I make a horrible mistake?!..." Stella quietly asked herself as she buried her head in her hands.

Had she really failed that badly as a parent?!

"No, that can't be right! Clearly, Colette wouldn't do anything like that…would she? She is innocent! She has to be!..." She thought, trying to cling to her denial again.

She didn't want to think she was wrong. Because it would mean she did indeed fail, something she can't bear to think of as it would mean she hurt Star and left Johnathan for nothing!

It means that she had failed far worse than she imagined.

It meant she left a man who strived to guide their daughter down a good path over a man who didn't care what terrible things his daughter did, and that would make her break.

She was also speechless about her husband and his cold attitude towards not just her but Star as well. She loves Jean-Luc but Star is her blood daughter and someone he showed no love to. It made her re-examine him as someone else. Someone who had tormented a brother she didn't even know that he had, and who also removed her name from Colette's transcripts No, it couldn't be right. Her knees trembled, threatening to give out like her soul as the woman did everything to keep composure.

Fifi noticed that her owner seemed distressed and walked up to try and comfort her, which only slightly worked. The blonde woman was still distressed and silent.

"It can't be Colette… it just can't. Why can't Jean-Luc help me on this?..." She thought, angry with herself.

While Jean-Luc would be sleeping on the couch for a month minimum and Colette would be grounded for all the 'pranks' she'd done over the years, but that didn't mean Colette would jump to such a psychotic criminal behavior.

If she had, Stella would be vibrating with rage. She was vibrating right now, something she now noticed.

"Wait what?..." She thought as she felt something vibrating.

Stella pulled out her phone and finally noticed a message on her phone.

From Star.

"Oh my. I haven't told Star yet that she's back in school. I'm sure she'll be happy to hear some good news about what has happened so far. I wonder if there is anything else about her party that she wanted? I'll get it..." Stella said as she checked it.

She was about to call and give her the good news but she saw that it was about the birthday party for tonight. The blonde woman blinked in surprise.

"Oh my...I almost forgot about the party. With everything else going on, I completely forgot about it. Oh I hope I didn't miss any important decision making for the party..." Stella thought, as she wondered if she wanted to get an update on any new additional requests Star wanted for her birthday party.

She quickly read the contents. Once she did, her eyes widened in shock.

"Mom, it's me. Look, after what's been happening with my life so far in the last few days, I don't think a big sweet 16 party is what I need right now and I don't feel like celebrating my birthday either. Don't want your work to go to waste so Colette can have the party. I'm positive that she won't mind the extra attention..."Was all that was written.

She had to put down the phone and check her vision before inspecting the text.

"Wait, what?..." She went, shocked as she reread this message.

As she was reading the context of the text message Star sent her, Stella couldn't make any sense out of this for a moment. This didn't make sense to her at all.

Star wouldn't visit Colette in the hospital and she made it clear that she wasn't even invited to her birthday party...so what was going on here?

All it said was to give the party to Collette, but there was no time to change things. Everything was set in stone. Stella knew that none of what was written on this text message could possibly be what Star would actually want. Which only made it that much harder to understand what was going on around her.

Stella sat down, holding her hands to her temples as if she were afraid she'd break open.

She even began suspecting Colette's involvement in Star's sudden 180 decision. Few people ever got to Star like this, and Colette was the only one who had access to both of them.

The blonde woman had a bad feeling about this and began to doubt her thoughts of Colette being innocent. She felt uneasy as she was trying hard to understand her stepdaughter but was having even more trouble now.

"Colette... What are you doing?..." Stella thought, horrified that the picture of the girl she thought she knew was crumbling.

A picture that was not accurate to what it represented.

No, she was sure that she was innocent. There had to be proof of it. She had to find it.

She had to find it.

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Elsewhere

With Star

Star had arrived home, later than usual, and for good reason.

She was currently going through her secret compartment under the floorboards of her nightstand. Which she made thanks to some help from Danny awhile back.

She came here to pick extra weapons and get ready for their next phase of their plan. They would go to Kwan's house to eliminate any dirt he might be keeping as backup for Star's evil stepsister. There was no telling if Collette had him hold back up copies.

Afterwards, all that was left was the girl's phone. There had to be NO trace of evidence left. If one bit of data was overlooked, it could ruin everything.

They had to make sure that they find all the copies she might have, maybe trash Colette's secret shrine to Danny again, if they have enough time to do so but right now the main focus was finding any copies and destroying the main evidence on Colette's phone.

They had a plan to get that phone. However, that was proving too difficult to accomplish.

"I just wish that I knew how Danny was right now..." Star thought, still worried about him.

As if her wish was granted, her phone went off. At first Star was going to ignore that as she had other priorities in mind, but the moment she saw Danny's number, she gasped and quickly answered it.

"DANNY!..." Star said, as she jumped towards her cellphone.

Only to slip and fall on her bedroom floor, but she still caught her phone. Seeing Danny's number, Star gasped and quickly answered it.

"Danny boo?! Oh I'm so happy to hear from you! Are you okay? Where are you right now?!..." Star asked, so happy to hear his voice now.

"Hey Starlight, I don't have a lot of time. Colette is thankfully distracted right now, so we can talk. Also I'm fine and I'm currently alone but her royal craziness can be back any minute..." He said with disgust.

"She just wants to make me her eternal servant... it's taking all my self restraint from not using her as target practice..."He added.

His true girlfriend heard this and felt guilty about what he went through.

"Sorry, we've been taking so long Danny-Boo, taking care of Colette's minions hasn't been an easy task..." Star said.

"No problem, Starlight...her royal brattiness is insane..." He said. "Do you know she wants to take over France?..."He mentioned.

"Not just France. She has bigger plans and none of them are good for everyone on the planet..."Star muttered.

"Why am I not surprised to hear that?..." Danny said.

"I'm positive that it's somewhere on her vision board..." Star commented, getting a small laugh from her boyfriend.

It was a nice lighthearted moment to help both teens deal with the craziness that's been happening these last few days.

"I haven't laughed like that in a while. She's not only awful, she's got no sense of humor outside of ruining people's lives..." Danny said.

"She must have one like that, seeing as she's basically made you her pet..." Star said.

"I'm likely the first "pet" Colette ever had. And it's no wonder she never had one before, she stinks so bad at the job that she's the most unqualified person on the planet!..."Danny said.

"You said it, Fifi doesn't count since my mom and Alyssa are the ones who take care of her. Thank goodness..." Star said.

There was also the fact that Fifi never liked Colette from the start, much less Jean-Luc for that matter as well.

"Dogs really are good judges of character. I mean...Colette is just as demanding, spoiled, overbearing, and impossible to please as that old bag Beatrice! Are we sure they're not related by blood?..." Danny questioned.

"Absolutely, but so I can't blame you for thinking otherwise..." Star said, feeling disgusted at having a grandmother like Beatrice who will still remain to be forever referred to as the old hag.

As far as Star and everyone she cares about feels, she only has one grandmother that matters to her.

"Yeah, I mean... I always knew Colette was rotten to the core, but I should've figured out she was nothing but pure evil.. Not just cartoonish evil..."Danny said, visibly shuddering.

"You must wanna take a long hot shower and scrub her off of you..." Star said.

"You don't know the half of it. I really, REALLY wanna scrub all her germs off of me. You have no idea how crazy she is driving me. She follows me around everywhere and insists we spend every waking moment together. The only thing clingier than her is my own shadow. And she makes it clear she intends to plan out the entire wedding after moving to her hometown in France..." Danny complained.

"I'm so sorry, Boo. For real. Besides Toadman, I'd pity any guy who marries Colette..." Star said, believing only a desperate man would marry Colette willingly.

If anything, those two spoiled brats deserve each other. Like spoiled milk and rotting meat in a dumpster.

"Anyway Starlight, that's not the reason why I called, I need you to listen carefully and inform the others right after this call ends..."Danny said.

"Of course, go ahead..." Star immediately responded, as she gave her boyfriend her full attention.

Star listened to Danny and grinned. The answer to the question that she'd been racking her brain for far too long had been delivered to her boyfriend on a silver platter. Exactly what she'd expect from her superhero boyfriend.

"This is it. I can finally be with my Danny-Boo again and hopefully be rid of that brat forever..."She thought.

"So, are you ready to expose that witch?..." Danny asked.

"Of course but how do we expose all the evidence and the stuff she has about me? We already dealt with her minions but we need to get her phone and who knows where else she kept backups..." Star pointed out.

"We can get rid of it all in one shot, Starlight. I've got a plan but we need somewhere with a lot of people..."Danny said.

Star grinned, as she had an idea of where to start.

"I know just the place..." She said, as she realized Colette gave her the perfect opportunity.

"Do you know where your 'girlfriend' is taking you tonight?..." Star asked.

"No but I'm sure I'll hate it..." Danny said.

"Oh, come on, Boo. You like Eleanor..." She hinted.

"Eleanor? What about her I-..." Danny paused. "You've got to be kidding me..."He said, sounding annoyed.

"Yep. She demanded I give her my birthday party..." Star said.

"I'd say I'm shocked she sank to such a low but I'm honestly not even surprised to hear that at this point. She really is just like that old hag..."Danny said with disgust.

"Believe me, Danny-boo. The irony isn't lost on me..." Star commented.

However, they both felt a sense of hope as they had a plan to expose her and finally free Danny from her clutches. Hope that instead of getting away with a slap in the wrist she'd face actual punishment. They even have Ember's backup plan, in case things go sideways. Which both Star and Danny hoped wouldn't happen, but we're at least reassured that they had a backup plan in case of any setbacks.

"Ok, then. It's time to end things..." Danny said. "She has been a torn on our sides for far too long, if this goes according to plan then she'll go down for good..."He added,

"I'm all ears Danny-Boo. Tell me your plan..." Star said, wanting to be with him again.

"Ok... The first thing I need you to do is..."Danny began to give her the details of his own plan.

Star made sure to grab a pen and notepad to write everything down so that she can relay everything to everyone else. She grinned as she and her Danny-boo were in the middle of making a strategy on taking down their evilest enemy for good.

"This was going to be good..." She thought.

The endgame of their shared mission was made crystal clear to everyone. Tonight was the day Colette finally got what was coming to her.

It was time to end this waking nightmare, for good.

-To be continued-

Next time on Blackmailed

Birthday Party Payback

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A/N(1): I dedicate this chapter to my family, my friends and my love for God :)

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A/N(2): Special thanks to NeoMark, 61394, Jay The Average Fanboy, BCW, Luiz4200, Invader Johnny and RonaldM40196867 for all their help. You guys rock :)

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REPLIES to my loyal and totally awesome reviewer:

Jebest4781, Pokemon fan 1991 and NightShadow2955: Thank you:)

Thunderdragon453: Looks like it.

Luiz4200: I guess that we will have to wait and see what happens.

Invader Johnny: I guess that we will have to wait and see what happens.

RonaldM40196867:

1) Sorry, no spoilers. I guess that we will have to wait and see what happens.

2) A jerk.

3) Darius.

4) Sorry, no spoilers. I guess that we will have to wait and see what happens.

5) About 2-3 hours at the most.

6) Ok.

7) Not officially yet, anyway.

8) Not much.

9) Sorry, no spoilers. I guess that we will have to wait and see what happens.

10) No. Not yet anyway.

11) It would be a HUGE birthday party with all the fanciest and coolest stuff she could buy.

12) Thanks for the suggestion about how Team Phantom ruining Colette's party. I will consider it.

13) She meant that she wanted a kiss from him.

14) Yes.

15) Star and Danny had a literal dream wedding in Dreamt.

16) Her full name is Estelle Joy Strong.

17) Not sure.

18) Not sure.

19) I thought it be nice to include them and a friend gave me some ideas.

20) I will think about it. Thanks for the suggestion.

21) Maybe the Lost Episodes but I am not sure.

Guardian1989: How is this so far?

CZS4: Yeah.

JDF Legacier Morphicon: Thank you :)

Here are my responses to your questions:

1) I don't see him interested in sports.

2) No comment.

3) Danny would do everything to save both of them.

4) Yes.

5) She started out as a house sitter for Johnathan when he first started his law career and eventually became a fulltime housekeeper and later nanny for Star.

Riccardo facchini03: I still have a few more ideas for Stranded before ending the series.

Rock1030: How is this so far?

Jacob Cook: Yeah.

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:) I hope you enjoyed this! Remember to read and review :)