What a strange, strange little box. Danny heaved it up onto her desk, a little out of breath from the trek back from the office. The stupid thing was HEAVY, even for Danny! She pulled her rolling chair up and sat down, hands tinkering with the box. How did you even open this thing? It didn't seem to have a lock or anything. It just ... looked like a box.

That was definitely May's name though. There was no way this didn't belong to her or didn't have anything to do with her. Danny had feigned a boredom in the druid ghoul, but the more she thought about her and Tex, the more she felt bad. The ghoul never got her happy ending.

Danny shook the box gently, wiggling it. Her fingers moved around its creasing, looking for some kind of secret switch- not a single one was found. Well this wasn't how it was supposed to work. She was supposed to find the switch, and then it would pop open revealing gemstones or something. Not fair.

Sighing, smacked her head on the table, slamming a fist onto the box angrily. Apparently, the box thought force was great and popped open with a soft click. WHAT? THAT was all she had to do? Danny could've groaned and moaned about it if she wasn't so curious about what was in the box. Maybe a treasure map? Hellma's undergarments? The key to all the doors in the school?

She was sorely disappointed when she opened it to find two small friendship bracelets, a dried up leaf and a small book- yearbook? Danny frowned. Some prize. She looked at the friendship bracelets first, since May seemed so hellbent on making them and giving them out. One was bigger, red and grey with bits of yellow woven in. The other was green, brown and (oddly) purple. She thought the color choices were incredibly weird, but then, so was May.

The leaf was useless, that was for sure. Danny stuck it on her desk, not really caring. In all actuality it was probably some incredibly rare flora that May treasured dearly, but Danny couldn't give less of a s**t. Plants were plants. Danny was always torching them up or being eaten by one- they weren't in good standing with each other.

The yearbook she opened last, setting the bracelets back in the box. Danny flipped through a few pages, faces mostly unrecognizable. It looked incredibly retro, everyone's outfits hilariously outdated. She recognized one person from the past- Arcana? That was his name right? May only talked with him for a short while, so it wasn't really a big attachment or choke up or anything. Still, it was weird to think that these people- all of these faces she recognized anyways- were dead.

Danny leaned back in her chair, wings folding neatly against the black leather. Dead. They were dead.

It was odd, she'd never really thought about it. Being dead wasn't exactly a huge stigma in halloween- there were undead and ghosts walking around everywhere. Not that kind of dead though- the real, dissipation death. She'd eventually coaxed it out of Rikki what'd happened- the hunters pendants and Edel's weaponization. That was death. Real death.

Her mind replayed the closing hours of May's end. Carrying Tex through the cave- May had been terrified. She made idle conversation with Tex to pass the time, each painstaking step, even though she was shocked down to her core. In a strange way, it was brave. Apple pie was the last thing she said, but not the last thing she thought about. The final thing that went through her mind was Tex.

When was the last time she'd talked to Rikki? Really talked to him? They were supposed to be dating, in love even and yet she couldn't remember the last time they'd spoken for more than a few minutes. A tiny part of her wanted to shove the blame away, say it was his mom's fault, but that wasn't quite true. If she really wanted to, she could've made the effort. She could find time if it really meant that much to her. Which it did! She should've been over there right now, helping him with his studies or something.

Even worse was Roch. She hadn't really stayed in the same room with him for more than class, let alone talk to him. She was holding a grudge because she messed up and didn't want to admit it. She wanted Roch to come here and beg for forgiveness. What kind of best friendship was that?

How could she even call herself Roch's best friend when she was here groveling and not even asking what she did wrong? If May had gotten in a fight with Tex, Danny was almost positive the spritely ghoul would've found a way out of it and back into his favor.

That's it, it was game time. She was marching straight over to Roch and demanding hugs and friendship forever. She threw the yearbook into a drawstring bag and grabbed the friendship bracelets out of the box, gripped tightly in her hand. If all went to hell, she wanted it to at least be known that she tried. She jacking tried.

IT WAS FRIENDSHIP TIME.