The next couple months since the Treaty scam were legitimate chaos as the hatred between the Kids Next Door and the teenagers had escalated immensely, making the neighborhood an absolute mess. It went from constant fighting, arguing, threatening, ambushes and physical attacks to.. well, less-than-legal behavior, to say the least. I've once even gotten word of a few teens attempting to commit arson on a few tree houses, to which they fortunately got caught and arrested before they seriously hurt, injured or killed anyone, including themselves. It was absolute hell on Earth.. to keep me from getting caught up in any fights, Mom and Dad often kept me from going out or wandering too far, which I didn't mind at all, since I was too terrified to even leave my bed room for a while, peeking through my closed blinds every now and then.

Teens were being arrested left and right as Cree had told me so and several things she's seen them do beforehand - shop lifting, more arson attempts, even under aged drinking.. they were losing their minds.. I've never seen the others this unstable, ever. A while later, the police department, including my dad, had to put a stop to it all themselves, saying there will be fines against those who instigate anymore conflict. Luckily everything started to die down, but the hatred clearly did not, kids and teens continuing to give each other death glares as they passed each other. Even during the holidays, they had continued to give each other the cold shoulder, which honestly broke my heart, as the holidays are time for family and love..

One day in early February, I felt it was safe enough to go out for a short walk, so I slipped my coat and boots on and exited the house after notifying my parents. And so I went strolling on the shoveled pavement of the sidewalks, watching for cars and getting showered with light snow. Though the sight of barren bushes and trees was rather gloomy, I actually felt calm for once since the last couple of months.. until I heard Sector V walking on the other side of the road, to which I stopped in my tracks and just stood in one spot, listening in on their conversation.

"I heard a lot of yelling at your house a couple hours back, Numbah Five. Are you sure everything's alright?.." Wally asked before Abby sighed. "It's just Cree and I got into a giant fight, and.. a few very nasty things were said. Both of us got grounded as a result."

I was about to resume walking, until:

".. I haven't seen her this angry ever since our Deep Sea scientists infected her with that zit virus.." My ears perked up and my eyes went wide once Hoagie said that.. all at once, I felt a burning rage take over me as I stormed towards them. ".. your scientists did WHAT???" I shouted, instantly getting their attention. "Y'all were the ones behind all that??"

"Delilah, listen!" Abby began, stumbling on her words a little. "We tried to tell them that releasing the unpoppable zit virus on Prom Night was going too far, but--"

"But it still happened! HOW could you do that to my Cree-bear!.."

"That's not OUR fault!" Wally responded.

"Why would they even CREATE that virus in the first place??"

"We--" Abby sighed and shook her head, "I-I dunno.."

"You wanna infect ALL teenagers with that stuff? Well, what about ME? I thought I was your friend!" at this point I felt tears welling up in my eyes.

"Delilah--" Nigel began, but I was having none of it at this point.

"No! Ya know what? NO. I don't even wanna hear it! Y'all tried to humiliate Cree and ruin the poor girl's life, you know DAMN WELL that could've been ME, and y'all STILL went through with that???" I snarled as hot tears flowed down my cheeks, my fists now clenched so tightly my knuckles turned white, "We teens have had to deal with this constant hatred from your organization for so long, and frankly I have had ENOUGH of it. The minute we turned thirteen, you guys just.. tossed us aside and deemed US the bad guys?" as soon as I felt the need to cry grow stronger, I averted my gaze and turned my back on the kids. However, this still hasn't completely deterred them.

"Delilah, we know you're not a bad person at your core. We're just doing our job.. I really hope you understand."

"..Y'know what? I think I do."

"Really?"

"Yeah.. we're DONE.." I manage to say before ultimately choking up. Squeezing my eyes shut, I decided to walk back home, tears of anger and newfound guilt making tracks down my face and nose. I always HATED having to push away others like I just did, mainly because I knew how it felt.. ever since I was little, I deeply craved positive interactions with others and making new friends, only to be pushed away and avoided by others. I honestly don't really care as much as I used to.. but, oh my God.. seeing Cree get the same treatment, if not, even WORSE than the rest of us.. it made me SNARL. I was not about to let her suffer alone while everyone else callously portrayed her as some kinda social pariah. Needless to say, I became incredibly protective of her and Maurice for a good while.

I walked a short distance back home, and as I entered I took my boots and coat off, still sniffling with warm tears rolling down my cheeks. After setting my boots on a towel to dry, I quickly went up the stairs and into my room, where I cried myself into taking a nap.. and a much needed one.

By the time I woke up, it was dark outside. Guess I was worn as a wrung towel... But anyway, my phone went off and I gave it a look. It was a text from Cree.

"hey dilly-bean," she sent me, "how u holdin' up?"

Even though it was just a casual little message, it reminded me how to smile. "Howdy there," I texted back. "Had a rough afternoon earlier - had an argument with Abby and a few of her friends over the acne incident.. honestly, finding out them brats n their scientists were behind such a nasty deed makes me sick.."

"ugh!!! I kno." Cree texted, "I had a fite with Abby too. I'm legit SO angry rite now!"

"Yeah, I just want everyone to be at peace with each other again. The endless hatred between teens and kids over the years is really breaking my heart.."

"I hear ya." Cree texted back, "I'm sorry u hav to go thru all this. I wish I could spare u from it all.."

"Same to you.." I texted before smelling something sweet.. mama decided to bake some cookies this night!

"Hehe, Mama baked cookies again, I can smell em from up here! X3 whaddya say I save some for you? We know how to keep em nice n fresh-"

"Homemade cookies?" Cree texts, "sound gr8 rite about now."

After a moment, she also texted, "u wanna get together sometime soon? I miss u pup~" this made me grin and my tail wagged softly before responding. "absolutely! We can do whatever you want!"

And so Cree and I got together the next day. The first moment I arrived, she gave me the biggest hug, and suddenly the dark cloud I didn't realize was looming over my head got a little smaller.

"How're ya feelin', honey?" Cree asked genuinely. "So much better, I missed you so much!" I squeezed Cree as my tail wagged at a rapid pace. "Sooo whaddya wanna do?"

"You wanna bake some cookies and gossip?" Cree asked as she rubbed my ears a little. "Absolutely!" I chirped, bouncing lightly. "OH, and speakin' of cookies, I kept my promise and brought you one that my mom baked last night - sugar cookies! Kept nice n fresh~" grinning, I handed her a zip lock containing a medium sized sugar cookie with rainbow sprinkles. "Aaw, thanks Dilly-bean~!"

Cree and I soon bought some cookie dough and made chocolate-chip cookies, then caught up as they baked. But.. it didn't take long for the topic of that one specific incident to pop up in my head.. "Still cannot believe those brats tried to ruin your life in such a way.. I actually found out yesterday that they were behind it.. chewed a few of em out yesterday before walkin' back home. It was really hard to do.." my ears drooped a little. "I mean it, I HATE havin' to even yell at others, even though they deserved it." My ears flattened a little as I let out a sigh, to which Cree nodded.

"Believe me, I was probably angrier than you." She sighed, "From what I heard, a few kids DID get caught after the fact and got grounded, but a lot of people who went to prom are still pizza-faced, and.. I don't know how much of that antidote I have to go around."

I shake my head in slight disbelief, "This is terrible.. though I'm lucky I didn't go that night. Glad a few of them lil crib lizards got grounded, but I think they deserve MUCH worse.." suddenly my ears perked up to a familiar sound: the oven ding, indicating the cookies were done baking.

Cree put on some oven mits and carefully took the tray out from the oven, "I agree. But how do we top unpoppable zits?" I simply shrugged a bit and said, "While I'd absolutely love to get revenge on em, my Dad always tells me - 'Getting even gets you nowhere'. Y'know.. kind of a 'two wrongs don't make a right' sorta thing.." my eyes darted to the right, ".. buuuut the kids DID retaliate first, soooo.." I said under my breath.

"Well, the way I see it," Cree leaned back against the counter, "I say we fight fire with fire. Give 'em a taste of their own medicine!"

"Alright," I nodded, "now what's the plan?"