"This is…really weird," Sai said.

Principal Penteldtam stared blankly ahead, both hands leaning on the wall in front of him. Between his hands was some motivational reading poster with a man's face that just said "REED" at the bottom. I wasn're sure how that would motivate anyone to read, but that wasn't the big issue at the moment. Penteldtam nodded to himself, humming in spite of his blank stare.

"What should we do?" Esther asked. "I'd say follow him, but…he doesn't seem to be going anywhere."

"Oh, gonna beat him up again?"

A chill ran down my spine, like snow charged with lightning. Penteldtam didn't even notice anyone said anything, but I turned to see Nikki rolling her eyes at me, brushing her orange hair aside with her hand.

"Nikki!" I said. "No, we're…Mother asked me to…just keep an eye on…"

Nikki scoffed, or bitterly chuckled, it was so fast and my panic was spiking that I couldn't exactly tell which. I couldn't read her expression, either. Esther tapped my shoulder.

"We can keep an eye on him if you need to…" Esther said quietly.

"Y-yeah, sure…" I said. "Nikki, can we talk maybe?"

One of the last conversations we'd had that was longer than a few minutes was her chewing me out for what we did to Penteldtam on the stage. She wasn't the type to get too heated, so she didn't stay mad long once I managed to explain the situation. Things were already strange between us, but the strangeness rift probably widened by magnitudes after the talent show.

"Nah, kinda busy, sorry," Nikki had a bundle of papers with her, and handed me one. "Figured out our next gig is all."

It was an ad for our band to play at the upcoming dance. "Oh, wow! This looks great!"

"Thanks," Nikki winked. "Kay, I'm gonna pass them out so I'll talk to you later."

I held my arms out hoping for a hug but Nikki didn't notice, walking past me.

It felt physically painful to return to my friends, the embarrassment over them all absolutely seeing that disaster of a social interaction play out almost too much to bear. Esther looked at me like she'd found an injured puppy that stuck its head in a pipe that was too small for it, while Charmaine had a less charitable expression.

"Oof," Charmaine said. "Are you even still together?"

"I…I think so…" I said.

"Maybe you should reconsider that," Charmaine said.

"Charmaine!" Esther said.

"It's alright," I said, clenching my fists so I could so something, anything physical that wasn't wildly lashing out at whatever was closest to me.

"Ana…" Sai said. They pointed to their eyes.

"Huh?" One of the other reading posters on the walls had someone holding a mirror with big bubbly text asking "Are you reading right now?" The mirror part actually kind of reflected, and in it I could see my eyes had turned a pinkish hue, a sign I was about to reach my more powerful devil state. I felt my forehead to see if my horns had made an appearance. We were good there, so I just had to try and breathe it out and calm down to return my eyes to their normal state.

"We just need to really talk and figure things out," I said. We could get back to normal, I felt it in my bones. I didn't know how we'd be able to do that, but if I could just get her alone without any distractions, then maybe…

"I guess that's progress from the time you said it was all because of your 'Awkward Silly Game,'" Charmaine said.

"We really did have an Awkward Silly Game though!" I said. "It just…wasn't about that particular…whatever, how is Penteldtam doing?"

"Still just…standing there," Sai said. "Like he didn't hear any of that."

"I'm still on my ghost theory," Esther said. "Do we have anything that can scan for ghosts?"

"We could try that ping for retention sprites and the like," I suggested. I reached for my wristband, but Penteldtam jolted the instant I did, head whipping toward me like he was possessed.

"Don't." Penteldtam said.

I wasn't intimidated by this. If need be we could take him down again. I hoped it wouldn't come to that right after I told Nikki I wasn't going to, of course.

"Is something the matter, Mr. Kilander?" I asked.

"We won't attack you this time," Esther said. "We only did that because the school board made us, we don't want to hurt you."

We approached cautiously as Penteldtam shook his head.

"Not you," Penteldtam said. "I wasn't talking to you."

He caressed the poster in front of him, which froze all of us in confusion.

"Don't…underestimate me," Penteldtam said. "That's what you told me to say, my new friend. But did ol' Penty remember? Nope. And I got fired. They'll see. You'll all see. What a mistake it was…"

He reached up, slowly peeling the poster off of the walls. He shuffled away like a zombie.

"I guess…we keep following him?" I said.

"If we have to kick his ass a second time I'm gonna be really annoyed," Sai said.

"Maybe this time it'll save him? From whatever the hell this is," Charmaine said.

Without much else we could do, we continued to follow the former principal.