Gunnar's offer was still on Penelope's mind as she reclined in the Adirondack chair on Beth's porch. It was hours later and she had only told the mayor that she'd 'think about it' to get him off her back but she hadn't actually intended to follow through. Yet now his offer had dug in at the back of her mind and just wouldn't let go. She shook her head, like that might loosen its grip, but it didn't. She frowned beneath her oversized sunglasses and looked around the campground for something—anything—to distract her.

The campground was somehow even busier than the day before. It was late in the afternoon and the guests were returning from their day excursions back and coming home to their camps for dinner. The place was teeming with life as people gathered outside in the good weather, circling around their fire pits to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. In the distance, Penelope could hear a guitar strumming over the slight smokey air.

This place must be making a pretty penny, Penelope thought as she looked over the crowded campground. But thinking of Beth only brought up Gunnar's offer again. She was exactly the kind of small business owner who benefitted from the town's booming tourism...

Enough of this, Penelope thought with a mutter and a growl. She dug her phone out of her hoodie and pulled up Twitter to do some mindless scrolling. She had been avoiding it all day, but now it seemed like a welcome distraction. As she opened the app, she was not surprised to find her mentions chock full of people vying for her attention. As she tried to read them, more added to the pile, pushing the others down. She scrolled after them, trying to keep up, but it was impossible.

She chose one at random, tapping at the individual tweet before it could slide off the screen. But her random choice hadn't been a good one. The tweet was from a user named Daevons001Girl and their message read:

Does anyone else think that Paranelope had something to do with Daevonic's disappearance?

They finished their thought with the emoji of a person raising their hand. The tweet included a poll, and the majority of votes—hundreds of them—fell under the 'YES' answer.

It's WAY too much of a coincidence that they BOTH ended up in Ridgestone, someone replied. SHE'S A TOTAL STALKER!

Yeah I bet she followed him after he dumped her, someone else added. Bitter ex much?

Penelope quickly backed out of the conversation with a shudder. She couldn't believe that people actually thought that she had anything to do with Daevon's disappearance. She fought the urge to reply to that first horrible tweet but knew that it wouldn't end well. You could never change the view of someone who had made up their mind about you.

As she scrolled back through her mentions. Thankfully, the rest of them seemed supportive. Most of them were from her fans who were just worried about how she was doing and waiting to hear from her. She knew she owed them some kind of sign she was alive. She opened up a new tweet and her thumbs hovered over the onscreen keyboard, trying to figure out what to say...

"What're you doing here?"

Penelope snapped her head up.

Henry was climbing the porch steps, dressed in his usual overalls. He had a large-brimmed canvas hat pulled down low to keep the sun out of his eyes. The dark shadow it cast on his face gave him kind of a sinister appearance, but his expression was friendly enough.

"Waiting for Liam to get back to work," Penelope replied, pushing the sunglasses off her face. "He's running late and Beth said I could wait out here for him. She's inside doing paperwork," she added, jabbing her thumb in the direction of the house, in case he was looking for her.

Henry nodded but didn't make a move towards the front door. Instead, he picked up a metal water bottle that was sitting on a small table in the shade. "He's probably just running errands. He should be home soon," he said. He checked the watch on his wrist and nodded again before taking a long drink from the bottle.

Penelope nodded, too, and rubbed her lips together, not sure what else to say.

A stiff silence stretched between them.

"So," Henry began, the first to break it. He pulled off his hat. Beneath it, his hair was matted to his head with sweat. He ran his fingers through it to loosen it. "I guess your dad decided to let you stay a bit longer, eh?"

"Yeah," Penelope said. "But he says we have to leave if things start to get, uh, weird again."

"They might do that," Henry said with a smirk. "Are you going to make more, what're they, life streams?"

"Live streams," Penelope corrected while she fiddled with a strand of her hair. "And I-I don't know. Right now it doesn't seem right, y'know, with those people still missing..." Plus, the messages on Twitter were fresh in her mind... If she leapt right back into it, then they'd really think she had sinister intentions.

Henry just nodded and the silence stretched on again.

Penelope fumbled for something to fill it. "D-Does the campground always get this busy?" she said, motioning to the many groups of people milling around.

That caught Henry's interest. He looked out across the campground, taking it in. He smiled. "For the most part," he said. "Though it seems to get busier and busier every year."

"Yeah, you guys seem to be doing pretty well for yourselves," Penelope said, then worried that it sounded like a weird passive-aggressive comment about money, added, "That's really great."

Henry nodded. "Yeah, it is. For a while we were worried that we wouldn't be able to make it work. When our dad retired and we inherited this place, it was just after the mill closed, and things were so uncertain for the area. But things have really turned around." He made a face. "Y'know, I hate the guy, but Gunnar's whole Raven thing has been good for business."

Penelope couldn't help but frown. She didn't need him agreeing with that little nagging voice at the back of her mind, the one that wondered if maybe she should help with the festival. Do it for the people that rely on the Raven, came Gunnar's words, echoing in her head. She frowned harder and shook her head again, to no avail. She was back to worrying about how Liam would react if he knew about the offer and that she was thinking of maybe saying yes. Maybe.

Then Penelope realized she was worried about the wrong person. Liam had beef with Gunnar, sure, but only because of Henry. So, if she wanted to ask for anyone's blessing...

"So, Henry," Penelope began. "I was..."

Henry raised his eyebrows, waiting for her to finish, but the rumble of an approaching vehicle pulled his attention away. Penelope looked, too. Beth's SUV was pulling up to the house, Liam at the wheel.

"There he is," Henry said, sounding almost relieved, as he turned back to her. "Nice chatting with you Penelope, but I gotta get back to work." He shoved his wide-brimmed hat on again, put his bottle back on the table, and headed off without another word.

Penelope wanted to call after him but decided against it. Liam was already getting out of the SUV and she didn't want to ask Henry for his approval with Liam around. She already knew that Liam would be against it. There'd be another chance to ask him privately, she was sure.

"You're ready and rarin' to go, eh?" Liam said as he walked up the porch steps, taking the place his uncle had just vacated. He was still wearing his purple polo with the little embroidered raven.

"More like bored with nothing else to do," Penelope said with a half-laugh.

"Poor you," Liam replied, tugging at the hem of his purple work shirt. It wasn't until he turned to look in the direction that his uncle went that Penelope realized that there was a large graphic embroidered onto the back, too. It looked like the same image of the Raven in the style of a retro sci-fi magazine she had seen the day before. "What were you talking to Henry about?"

"Just small talk," Penelope said quickly, trying to keep her expression from giving herself away. She slid her sunglasses down again.

"Huh." Liam didn't seem to catch her awkwardness as he turned around again. "So, what's the plan? We filming something? Another livestream?"

"No," Penelope shook her head. "With Daevon still missing, we should lie low for a bit. I was thinking we should just stick to shooting a bit of B-roll, maybe do some research or something, for now."

To Penelope's surprise, Liam's smile widened. "Way ahead of you. That's why I'm late, actually. I figured since I was already at town hall, after I was done with my shift I took a look at some local documents about just who owns the land across the river."

"And?" Penelope asked, leaning forward in the chair.

"I'll tell you all about it," he said, plucking at his purple shirt again. "Once I'm changed." And then he flashed her a wicked grin and swept off into his house.