“This is going to be great,” Tacita chuckled. She grinned at Jade and Valo. “Now, are you positive you can get people to see this?”

“Between me and Jade, we know enough of the right people to get this shown in the right classes ‘accidentally,’” Valo replied with a smirk.

“And as an added bonus, we can show this on Clique News Crash,” Ophelia added with a chuckle. “The straw that breaks the camel’s back, so to speak.”

Tacita chuckled to herself. “Excellent,” she replied. To Eli, she said, “Thank you for helping us film this. I almost don’t hate you now.”

“I have to admit, the combination of songs is rather… unique,” Eli remarked.

“I’d like to call it the Revenge Sampler; it’s a little something I whipped together the other day,” Tacita replied. “Of course, it was Emily’s idea to throw in one of the songs from the play, just to really mess with him.”

“Okay, so you want me to be there at eight-thirty, right?” Eli asked.

“Yeah, that should be fine. That should be enough to send him over the edge, if the video doesn’t do it,” Jade said with a nod.

“Does it have to be Eli?” Emily asked.

“Yeah. Trust me, it has to be,” Jade responded. “I’m speaking from experience.”

“I just hope this works,” Ophelia said slowly. “I mean, it would really suck if all of this planning has been for nothing.”

“Trust me, it’ll go fine. You’re forgetting, honey, you’ve got some of the best thinkers North Oakdale has to offer,” Jade reassured her.

“Patting yourself on the back a bit, huh?” Tacita teased.

“Well, why not? I figure I deserve some credit. After all, I’ll be doing the bulk of the serious work.”

“Good point. I think we all would both love and hate to be in your shoes,” Valo agreed. “Still, it would be fun to see his reaction for ourselves.”

“Well, I don’t have money for a teeny-tiny spy camera,” Jade responded. “So, you’ll have to just imagine it for yourselves.”


Dunstan took a long, slow drag on his cigarette. He tapped his foot nervously, checking the clock for what felt like the millionth time. Where is she? She said she’d be here, he thought anxiously.

Earlier that day, Jade had called him, saying she needed to talk to him. Apparently, she had something important to say to him, something that couldn’t be said over the phone.

I bet she wants to ask me to take her back! he thought, smiling at the thought. But should I do it? I mean, if I leave Charise, that could mean potentially marrying below my status, given that Jade’s from a working class background. Still, she is a lot prettier than Charise is… Maybe I can keep one as a mistress…

His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. He leapt to his feet, quickly ground out the cigarette in the ashtray, and raced to the front door. He smoothed his hair down and feigned calm nonchalance to the best of his ability before opening the door. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped at the sight of Jade, who was clad in a simple white dress and had a matching ribbon in her hair.

“You look surprised,” Jade remarked with a flirtatious smile. “So, are you going to let me in or not?”

“S-sure,” Dunstan stammered, still staring at Jade. He swallowed hard, trying to regain his composure. “Come in.” Jade grinned at him and sauntered in, watching him close the door with shaky hands, then followed him to the parlor.

Dunstan leaned against a wall, still trying to feign nonchalance. “So, what did you want to tell me?”

Jade smiled shyly and peeked up at him from beneath her long lashes. “There’s something I’ve wanted to tell you,” she said softly. “Something I’ve wanted to tell you for so long.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about how I feel about you, and, well… once I got started, I just couldn’t stop. I asked my friends whether or not I should tell you, and they all agreed that I should let you know how I feel.”

“And how is that?”

Jade giggled and blushed. “It’s kind of hard for me to say it.”

“Try.”

Jade took a deep breath, and then stepped closer to him. Dunstan swallowed nervously. She stepped closer and then closer still. A soft smile was on her lips as she raised her hand slowly. She ran her fingertips slowly up his cheek, and then--


“OW!” Dunstan screamed, as she grabbed a handful of his hair as hard as she could. “What the hell is that for?”

“Here’s what I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Jade snapped. “You are the biggest slime bag ever! You go after young girls because you know the ones closer to your age will see right through your act. You try to force girls to conform to what your ideal woman is. And what’s worse is, when they rebel against you, you hurt them in terrible ways.” She leaned in closer, until their lips were nearly touching, and hissed, “I know what you did to Ophelia, you b*****d. You make me sick.” She sneered. “And you know what else? I know why you treat Charise the way you do. Oh yeah, I heard all about that.” She smirked. “You’re afraid of losing her to someone better, aren’t you? You know that one day, Charise is going to see what an a*****e you are, and she’ll leave you for Samuel Verona.” Dunstan averted his eyes. Jade snickered. “It’s just a matter of time before she finds out about your other ‘friends,’ you know. How many have you knocked up so far? No, don’t answer that. Point is, you are a disgusting person. Hell is too good for you. You deserve to live forever, perpetually tortured by all the people you’ve hurt throughout the years. That is a somewhat better punishment for you.”

She finally released Dunstan’s hair from her grip. “And now, if you’ll excuse me--”

“Where are you going?!” Dunstan snapped, following her as she walked back to the front door.

Jade did not respond, but instead merely opened the front door. “My ride’s waiting,” she said, pointing to the car waiting nearby. Dunstan’s eyes narrowed in fury as he recognized the car.

“Eli?” he choked out.

Jade turned and gave him a triumphant smirk as she walked to the car. Dunstan stared into the night, watching the car’s taillights slowly become tiny pinpricks of light as the car drove away from him. He sank slowly to the ground, stunned, and, much to his astonishment, felt a tear slowly make its way down his cheek.


“This batch of music videos you guys have created were… interesting… to put it mildly,” Dr. Flute announced. “I must say, some of you have really surprised me. There were a few videos that really stood out, which I would like to show you now.”

She dimmed the lights and turned on the television. The first video she showed featured the song Someone that You’re With by Nickelback. In it, a rather good-looking redheaded guy (or was that really a guy?) with long hair was shown to be attracted to his rather attractive neighbor (a rather gothy-looking girl with long black hair), who was shown to be dating a rather attractive, albeit older, guy. It ended on a promising note, showing the girl accepting flowers from the guy.

S grinned to himself, recognizing most of the cast members. So, that’s Cy in drag. I bet no one has any idea that’s who the “guy” is either! he thought, amused.

“Hey, the guys in that video were really hot!” a chick called out.

“Calm down, Amanda,” Dr. Flute responded, struggling not to smile in amusement. “This next one was one of my favorites and makes use of a really good classic song,” she announced, popping the video in.


Gideon’s music video came up. It used the Queen song Killer Queen and featured a beautiful assassin, in a variety of disguises, taking down various important-looking men. At the end of the video, it was all shown to be an elaborate daydream… or was it? The girl, played by Tacita, smiled at the camera, pulled some piano wire out of her pocket, and slunk away, a sinister look on her face.

“Pretty clever,” Cy whispered to Gideon.

“Thanks. Your video was pretty awesome too,” Gideon replied. “Who was the other guy?”

“This guy that Lia’s family has known for years. He taught her to play the guitar.”

“Oh, cool.”

“Now, this video almost didn’t make it into my stack of videos that I’d show in class,” Dr. Flute continued, “but I have to admit, despite the song being rather troubling, the music video was quite impressive.”


Sheridon grinned to himself, knowing that it was his music video that she was referring to. Sure enough, images of him and Tacita filled the screen. In the music video, Sheridon (who, without his glasses, looked much different) was put into prison after seeking revenge against someone who harmed Tacita, and then fell into despair when he didn’t hear from Tacita. At the end, both of them were dead.

“How’d you get Tacita to help you out?” Gideon whispered to Sheridon. “And how’d you keep her from telling anyone about it?”

“I paid her off,” Sheridon admitted.

“Smart,” Gideon said, nodding. “How’d you convince Dr. Flute to let you use this song?”

“I convinced her that I’d handle it in a tasteful manner.”


“And this one, I found to be particularly empowering. The person who put this music video together is a very skilled storyteller,” Dr. Flute announced, beginning another music video.

The video, set to Ozzy Osbourne’s You’re No Different featured two interconnected stories; in one, a teenager was being bullied at school, while in the other, a young woman, sick of dealing with sexist behavior at her job, tries to change things. At the end of the video, the woman left her job, after her boss refused numerous times to do anything about the clients’ behavior, while the teenager walked home and cried.

“That was yours, huh?” Gideon whispered to S, who silently nodded in response.

“How’d you get Valo and Emily to help you with that?” Cy asked.

S grinned a little and replied, “I helped them with a little something. You’ll see.”

“And this video was very amusing to me. It was made by a former student of mine who asked me to show this in class,” Dr. Flute continued.

“Brace yourself,” S whispered, nudging his friends. “This is so funny, I almost peed in my pants when they showed it to me.”


The video opened on a blonde man, shown from behind, flirting with numerous women, who soon learn about each other. The rest of the video showed them planning revenge and then making the guy’s life miserable in numerous ways, whether embarrassing him in public with signs insulting very personal details about him, sneaking Nair into his shampoo and conditioner, leaving business cards with his picture and number in a gay bar, and so forth. The video featured clips from numerous songs, including Macavity: The Mystery Cat, Bizounce, No Scrubs, and Creep. At the end of the video, a picture of Dunstan was shown, along with the words:

I’ll be the thorns on every rose
You’ve been sent by hope.
I am the nightmare waking you up
From the dream of a dream of love.
--HIM, “Vampire Heart”

This music video is dedicated to Dunstan Diggory, and he knows why.

S, Cy, Sheridon, and Gideon laughed the hardest, out of all of the people in the class.


“Dunstan,” Angela said softly. “You can’t let it get to you. You haven‘t left the house in days.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Dunstan snarled, pushing her away. “They made me look like a fool.”

“Isn’t there anything I can do for you?”

“You can get the hell away from me!” Dunstan yelled. Angela shrunk back a little, frightened.

I can’t let it get to me. I can’t. But I can’t show my face after this, Dunstan thought. Not after what she did!


“I thought you had to leave at five,” the man remarked. “It’s past five.”

“Damn, I lost track of time,” Ophelia groaned, setting down the guitar. “My friends are going to think I bailed on them. I just wanted to come by to thank you for helping with the video, and then--”

“I’ll drive you, if you want.”

“Sure, that would be great,” Ophelia replied. “In fact, Graham, there’s someone I want to introduce you to when we get there. Her name is Jade…”