"I NEED YOU TO TAKE THIS FOR ME," Marla said Monday morning as she pulled out the Gryphons & Gargoyles manual from her backpack. "My mom found it by accident and I need you to keep it safe."

     "A G and G manual? Marla, where did you even get this?" Betty flipped through it. "I stole it from Dilton's bunker. Figured it would give us some clues for our investigation." Marla closed her backpack and shifted it onto her back.

     "I can't take this. My mom is just as snoopy."

     "You have to! I can't just get rid of it. Please, just take it. Hide it in one of the filing cabinets in the Blue and Gold if you have to. Just hide it well."

    "Okay, I'll take it. But I can't promise that my mom won't find it. She's got the nose of a bloodhound," Betty complied, grumbling the last sentence afterward. "Thank you!" Marla breathed out a sigh of relief and hugged Betty. Then the bell rang. She took off and called behind her, "I'll see you in Newspaper!"

     When Newspaper rolled around, Marla was sitting in the Blue & Gold looking over more photos that had gotten sent in that needed to be approved.

     "How're the pictures coming, Mars?" Betty walked over to stand behind her so she could see the photos, as well. She bent down a little to peer over her shoulder. "Sports page needs a few more photos and then I think we should be good for printing." Marla turned around in her swivel chair to face Betty with a smile. "That sounds awesome, Marla. Good job," Betty complimented, touching her wrist fondly.

     "Hey, guys," Jughead greeted them as he walked into the Blue & Gold and there was at least a foot of space between Betty and Marla as they jumped apart. "How's the newspaper coming? I assume you got some good shots, Marla?"

     "Good shots?" Marla scoffed jokingly. "I got great shots. And we should be good with the paper now that Sports has more photos."

     "That's great. Hey, Betty. I need to talk to you." Jughead nodded his head towards the door and they both walked out. Marla scooted her way to the door and pressed her ear up against it to listen. "You up for visiting Ben tonight? See if we can get some more information?" Jughead asked. "Sure. We need to get as much evidence as we can so we can just get an understanding of this whole thing," said Betty.

     "Alright. See you tonight."

     "See you then."

     Marla quickly scooted her way back to where she was and pretended to shuffle through some pictures. "I thought you said you were done with those," Betty spoke. "You can never be too sure. It's nice to double-check every once in a while," Marla replied, putting the approved photos into a nice stack and off to the side. "Can someone make sure these get to editing? Never mind, I'll write a note." She pulled out a sticky note and a pen and began to write TO EDITING in all-caps and several underlines.

She wrapped them up with a rubber band and then set them down to the side. "Bets, are you still coming with me to Pop's this afternoon? I wanna ask if Veronica needs any extra hands. Waitressing and whatnot," Marla asked. "Oh." Betty's eyebrows creased in realization, remembering the offer. "I'm sorry, Mars. I have a thing I need to get to this afternoon. But please, feel free to call me and tell me how it went, okay?"

"Will do." Marla deflated. Jughead shrugged in a sorry sort of way.

The rest of the day was going to be quite long.

.｡.:*☆

Talking to Veronica about working at La Bonne Nuit wasn't as hard as Marla thought.

     In fact, Veronica was thrilled that Marla asked in the first place. "We do need a waitress to take orders and serve drinks," she said, "Reggie can't do it all by himself."

     "Then I'm happy to be of service." Marla smiled. "Film doesn't come cheap these days and I'm running out of developing money. I swear capitalism is going to eat us alive one day."

     "There has been a strange spike in pricing now that you mention it." Veronica tapped her chin in thought. "But don't worry about that. I'll make sure your camera stays full."

     "Awesome."

"I'll be back with your schedule and then we should be good to go." Veronica went into the back — wherever "the back" was — to get her schedule and Marla sat down at the bar. She looked around and took everything in, thoroughly impressed with how Veronica was able to pull all this off. I guess with a fistful of money and bull-like ambition, Marla thought, anything was possible.

      Marla went home with a brand-spanking'-new schedule and a pair of uniform pants that day.

     Later that night, Betty called. "Hey, Bets," Marla said as she answered. Betty didn't reply just yet, but there was the distant sound of shallow breathing in the background. "Betty?"

     "Oh." Betty sounded like she forgot that she called. "Sorry, I'm just a little frazzled, is all."

     "Are you okay?"

     "I'm fine. Um, Jughead and I went to go visit Ben in the hospital again and when he entered his room, he was sitting by the window and we tried to get him away but he wouldn't listen and he. . ."

     "No," Marla gasped. "He said something about ascending to meet with Dilton or something like that," said Betty. "Being able to fly and whatnot."

Marla shuffled around to find a pen and a scrap sheet of paper so she could scribble this down; she'd rewrite it later. "I feel like I've heard something about players ascending to meet with the King. Sounds a little 'Blue Whale-y' to me."

"Blue whale?"

"In twenty-fifteen, this crazy Russian guy set up this dumb challenge for people to complete fifty tasks over fifty days. They got more and more sinister as time went on and on the last day, you were forced to kill yourself and that's how you would win, I suppose."

"Oh my God." Betty sucked in a breath. "Yeah," Marla agreed, "it's some crazy stuff."

     "Do you think that's what's going on?" Marla was about to answer when she heard a muffled voice shout, "Betty, I need to talk to you!"

     "Sorry, it's my mom. I gotta go. I'll talk to you later, Mars," Betty said ruefully. "See you soon," Marla replied and Betty hung up afterward.

Marla lay back on her bed in a huff, thinking that she was getting stuck again. She closed her eyes, in hopes of resting a little. But she knocked out within the first ten minutes of sleep.