Mena couldn't sleep for the rest of the night. She was much too worried about the terrible fate that could befall the play so she sprinted in her pajamas all the way to the headmaster's tower. "Stellaris! Stellaris! she cried between pants.

When the door opened, Mena nearly screamed before reminding herself it was okay. Stellaris once again sported green facial cream and her pomadour was in a hair curler. She looked very much like an green witch agent of Anguish, but Mena remembered that if she lived for an eon, she'd probably need weird beauty products like that too.

"Mena, honey, what is it?" Stellaris asked, mildly annoyed. "This better not be because you dreamed someone put frogs in the school pots and pans again!"

"Much worse than that, headmistress, my dark sister and Anguish are going to put doom and gloom in our play tomorrow!"

Mena proceeded to tell Stellaris everything about Anguish brainwashing that guard.

"They're brainwashing service members of the theater to sabotage us," Mena said, a look of absolute dismay on her face.

Stellaris was silent for a second, and then, she burst into laughter. "What's so funny?" Mena asked, still feeling greatly uncomfortable.

"Little do they know," Stellaris responded. "We can prepare a pre emotive strike!"

"But how?" Mena asked.

"You just told me their plans," Stellaris said. "Even my sister Nebula could figure that one out, and she gets hit in the head daily "

Mena's face eased into a smile. "You're right headmaster. I never thought of it that way."

Stellaris continued to lightly chuckle. "Focus on getting your beauty rest for the play."

"Right!" Mena said. "I'd hate to wear as much weird skin cream as you, then I'd look like an alien mine!"

Stellaris glared at Mena. The young witch giggled nervously. "Err...uh...a sexy alien mine? One who leaves people as speechless as you are?"

"Go to bed, dear," Stellaris grimaced and closed the door.

"Well that went down like lead broom," Mena admitted. "But at least I can get the jump on Anguish."

Mena returned to bed and immediately dreamed again...or nightmared in her case.

***

"Mom! Mom!" Dark Mena said, running to Anguish. "I had the most wonderfully awful dream. My light self just told that Stellaris about our plan!"

Anguish narrowed her eyes. "So Mena's finall seeing things through your eyes, my dark daughter. This is a setback to our plans, but in the long run, it matters not."

Dark Mena's eyes widened. Anguish placed her frost bitten hand on her shoulder. "My plan entails far more than brainwashing bumbling goons. When the time is right, evil will prevail!"

Dark Mena began to giggle like a sinister chipmunk. Anguish peered right into Dark Mena's soulless eyes. "But do me a favor, my dark daughter. Punish Mena for spying on us. Next time you see her, really jinks her good!"

"Snitching witches," Dark Mena sang. "Are too big for their britches."

"It's end up with stitches," Anguish said deadpan. "You were never the brightest!"

"Duh!" Mena's evil twin said, crossing her eyes. "Why do you think I'm called Dark Mena!"

The two witches howled in laughter until Mena awoke in broad daylight. "Drat rats!" Mena screamed pulling her pillow over head. "They pre-empted our pre-emptive strike!"

***

Mena's breakfast did little to cheer her up. It was green dream ham made from green pigs known as squigs and harvested by the finest dream farmers. It was considered a celebratory delicacy but Mena didn't want to eat it at all. Her stomach was in knots from her night of bad dreams.

"Are you gonna finish that?" May asked with green squig bacon in her mouth. "You're eating less than Janus and she's all ribs "

"Yes," Janus nodded. "I'd savor good food while you're living. Everything I eat just tastes like death itself. "

"What's death taste like?" May asked.

"Tastes like burnt liccan," Janus responded dryly.

Mena shook her head. "I can't taste anything either, Janus," Mena pouted. "It all tastes like bitter defeat!"

"Nonsense," May said. "Nothing even happened yet. We're gonna dominate this play like the Grasspeare goddesses we are."

"Easy for you," Mena responded. "Anguish already knows every move we make!"

Mena was so frustrated she face-planted in the ham. Even if she didn't want to eat, it still cushioned the blow of smacking her head against the table. (Though maybe that would dislodge Anguish and her dark self from seeing inside her soul.)

She didn't pick her face up until she felt a consoling hand on her shoulder. "Go away!" she whined, until she realized the hand was neither pudgy or bony.

A gallant if slightly whiny voice accosted her. "You'd tell your own boyfriend to go away right after he got out of the medical ward?"

Mena turned around and saw Tal, who no longer had the bandage wrapped across his chest. Even for someone who frowned 99% of the day, he actually had a kind smile on his face. "Tal!" Mena exclaimed, a look of joy in her eyes. "Of course I don't want you to go away!"

"Good," Tal said, "because otherwise I'd sit in my room and cry while writing more poetry cursing your very name!"

Mena's eye twitched, but she put her hand forward. "Oh Tal. I love when you get so moody I can't even tell if you're joking!"

Tal laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Me neither. You're free to hug me all you want now!"

Mena soared on her cloud and embraced her prince of d'aww-kness tightly. "Tal," she sobbed. "My mind is all mixed up and I don't know what to do with my life, and I'm worried my mother is peering through my very soul like a parental peeping tom."

"Welcome to my own world of teenage angst," Tal said, hugging her back.

"Fortunately," he said, "We can share it together."

Even hugging someone who was normally as frigid as Tal warmed Mena's heart. Even if there was nothing he could do, at least he was there to hold her.

As Mena pulled away, Tal grinned at her. "Ready for our debut as perilous starcrossed lovers tonight?"

"As long as we aren't starcrossed in real life," Mena said with a nod. "I am! I've always wanted to grace the stage with my presence!"

"I think you will succeed," Janus added, "You're certainly getting good practice being dramatic today!"

Janus giggled and May guffawed too.

Mena glared at her friends; but Tal held her again, and she smiled happily. "Maybe I can handle this. I've got my friends and they give me the strength to deal with these sons and daughters of witches!"

Mena pumped her fist in the air. "I've got the greatest magic of all: the power of friendship!"

"Wow," Tal chuckled. "Even cheesier than our egg breakfast, but to be honest, Miss Shiny Teeth, you're the only reason I smile."

"And that isn't cheesy," Mena rolled her eyes and kissed Tal on the lips.

His smooch made her lips tingle and she blushed. But their moment of kindness was interupted by Stellaris voice. "Teachers and students involved in with our production of Romulus and Julianna, everyone gather at the trainbow in five minutes!"

"This is it," Tal said. "The debut of our play to save the world. We can't fail no matter what!"

Mena looked at Tal and even though she was inside of herself and imagined her mother looking at her boyfriend through her eyes, she smiled. "I'm gonna to shoot for the stars tonight or die putting on the best play of my life."

"Probably not the best to say in front of a reaper," Janus sung. "But I'll try to have my daddy overlook this comment!"