After the performance, there was a nice weekend where Veronica's family congratulated her on the successful play (Veronica didn't even need to be there to know they were lying), and then it was a normal Monday.

A completely normal Monday. No mysteries to solve. No bad guys to catch, no companies to investigate, no plays to practice. It was just... a Monday.

Veronica sat down at her desk. It didn't feel right.

Slowly, the class filtered it, and Veronica waved to them. It surprised her. She'd become closer to every single one of them. A far cry from the start of the year, where the only way to identify anyone was to pick out what they were known for. This was new.

Ms Wormwood came in once they were all settled down, taking out her attendance book. She didn't need it, Veronica knew, everyone was clearly here. That was another thing. It might have been the first time Veronica had ever seen the classroom full. Ever.

Once Ms Wormwood was done the unnecessary attendance, she started on what they were doing for the day.

Creative writing... Veronica wondered who chose that.

Yet again, Veronica found her mind wondering, reflecting. It was November twenty third, she realized. How it really only been so little time? It seemed like a full school year had gone by.

There was so much time left... and Veronica was already bored. She sighed, and tried to refocus on what Ms Wormwood was saying. She was just in time, it seemed.

Perhaps Ms Wormwood could sense her audiences waning attention, because she made sure that what she said next grabbed everyone's attention.

"Creative writing, at its heart, is basically story writing," Ms Wormwood told them. "Story writing can be applied to practically everything. Video games have stories, cartons have stories, even songs can have story writing applied to them. So, while creative writing may sound like hard work, and I'm not saying that isn't hard, but it can be applied in so many more ways than just one way.

"So even if you think you can't write a story, that isn't what creative writing is about. I'm certain you all will excel in this class, because I've seen you excel at everything else that seems impossible."

"Excel?" JD asked, laughing. A couple people joined in. Ms Wormwood shook her head.

"You're referring to the play?" she asked. JD looked around, like 'what else could I be referring to?'.

"Well, though the play wasn't perhaps the best," Ms Wormwood said. "It wasn't the worst, especially for the time and materials we had on hand."

"Yeah, JD, and it's not like you were the star of the show," Brooke told him.

"Christine was, if we're all being honest," Glinda added. There were multiple nods around the class, and Christine blushed, grinning widely.

"Who was best isn't important," Ms Wormwood sighed. "Though you were very good, Christine. But I was more talking about the troubles you've faced this year. Despite the awful things that have happened, you've all become better people, I think."

"Not because of the 'bad things'," Connor asked. His voice had a mocking tone in it, but it sounded like he was actually wondering.

"Bad things happen to people all the time," Ms Wormwood answered. "And I assure you, most people don't come out better because of them, in fact, most of them become worse. The fact that you all have grown says a lot of you all."

Veronica thought about that.

"In fact, I think it's important to mention that the fact that you all learned something from these last few months is very important," Ms Wormwood continued. "And I want you all to understand that you can't give that credit to Denaro or that app or anything like that. Your growth is almost certainly all yours."

The class perked up, but Ms Wormwood waved her hand.

"Now, I think I've complimented you all enough for today," she teased. "Now I want you all to give me a summary of a beginning, middle and end from any sort of story, whether it be from a song, video game or book. It doesn't matter."

Veronica grinned. Without hesitating, she immediately got out her notebook. Despite her misgivings at the start, this perhaps would be fun. Maybe Ms Wormwood was right.

Although, the flattery certainly helped a bit.

"Creative writing?" Veronica was put off by the wistfulness of Alice's voice, though at this point she really shouldn't have been. "You're so lucky."

Veronica shrugged. "We'll see," she said. "What do you want to do today?"

Alice's face lit up, and she sat up straighter on the bench from where the two were sitting, a little bit away from Denaro.

"That doesn't have anything to do with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland!" Veronica added hastily, and Alice's face fell.

"I don't know," Alice muttered sulkily. Now it was Veronica's turn to brighten up.

"We're not looking for more ghosts!" Alice exclaimed. "I refuse to actively search out ghosts ever again! Ever!"

"Alright, alright, I get it," Veronica huffed.

"Did I hear something about ghosts?"

Veronica looked up to see Lydia heading towards them two of them, with Jenna and Jared trailing behind. At the sight of the girl, Alice went white.

"Ghosts?" she asked, her voice about twelve octaves higher than normal. "Noooo. Why would we be discussing ghosts?"

"Fair enough," Lydia shrugged. "Demons, on the other hand..."

Alice let out a whimper as she shuddered.

"I'm on Alice's side," Jenna spoke up. "I am firmly against seeing another ghost for the rest of my life."

Jared nodded determinedly behind them, and Lydia snorted.

"At least you all didn't get possessed by one," she muttered. "Count your blessings!"

"You're the only one here you didn't get stabbed-!"

Before the conversation could turn into a full blown argument (again), Veronica spoke up.

"There still is the problem of what to do today," she told them. "I don't know about all of you but listening to all you bicker is not exactly how I want to spend an afternoon."

"You could start your homework," Elphaba shouted to them as she strolled past. Alana and Glinda nodded, grinning.

"Hey!" Jared whined. "Ms Wormwood said it was optional!"

Elphaba shook her head as she walked away, Glinda and Alana giggling as they followed.

"We're not doing that," Veronica decided, and the rest of the group nodded. Only Alice looked disappointed.

"You guys could come play video games with us?" Michael offered. "There's a cool new multiplayer one out. And it's free."

"It's not going to turn out evil, like TechBehind's app was, right?" Veronica asked. The way she said it was as if it was a joke, but she was completely serious.

Michael shook his head, chuckling. "Nope! Don't worry, you can trust me when it comes to video games. Usually."

Veronica looked around at all her friends. They weren't raising any complaints, so she shrugged.

"Sure," she said. "Got nothing better to do."

Michael nudged Jeremy, who Veronica hadn't even noticed before, with his elbow. "Told you they would want to do it."

"Fine, fine, you were right," Jeremy sighed. He quickly dodged another attack from Michael. "Hey! Watch it!"

Michael told them the name of this game, and Jared whooped and pulled out his phone.

"I'm going to beat you all at this!" he promised enthusiastically.

"I'll take you up on that," Veronica said calmly, taking out her phone as well. There were about half a dozen worried texts from her mom that she hadn't seen in class. Veronica sent back a reply before pulling up the game. Alice settled behind her, watching over her shoulder.

"I'll cheer you on, Veronica," she promised. Lydia moved down next to her.

"I guess I will, too," she said. "I have no plans to play."

"You could cheer me on..." Jared sulked, looking up from his sprite.

"I'd rather cheer on someone I like," Lydia told him, and then laughed. "I'm joking, I'm joking..."

"I'll cheer you on!" Alice offered enthusiastically, moving from her spot. This instantly cheered Jared up.

"I'll win," he promised, just as his little sprite audibly died.

"Hey, you're not playing the game," Lydia accused behind Veronica. Her voice had zero bite to it, though, and was more mildly interested than anything.

"No, I'm not," Veronica agreed. "I'm looking up who made the game."

Michael looked up. "Huh? I'm pretty sure it's just a harmless game..."

"Yeah, yeah," Veronica said. "I'm just checking. TechBehind left an impact on me. You can never be too careful."

Michael shrugged, and went back to his game.

A couple rounds passed, Michael winning some, Jeremy winning some, Jenna winning two and Jared winning one... but the games stopped when Lydia and Veronica sucked in a huge breath. Their friends looked over, slightly worry and mostly exasperated.

"Please just tell me your search went awry and that has nothing to do with this game," Jared huffed. "This little harmless game that means literally nothing."

"Hmm," Veronica said. "Just keep playing, I'm going to check this out."

Despite what she said, the mood for playing was dead and gone, and her friends put away their phones and crowded around Veronica. They couldn't see what was happening on the screen, but the tension grew anyway.

"...Well," Veronica eventually said.

"It can't be that bad," Jeremy groaned, but he didn't seem to believe it.

"This game was made by TechBehind," Veronica announced. The group groaned simultaneously. Even Alice and Lydia had heard enough to know what this meant.

"Really?" Michael asked.

"You all know what this means," Veronica told them. Various answers were heard from her friends.

"No..." Jared moaned.

"We don't have to do this!" Jeremy pleaded.

"It probably doesn't mean anything!" Jenna insisted.

"We could really just walk away," Michael suggested.

"It means we've got a new thing to investigate!"