[jilly putty: season 1, episode 8]
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        Serena had no idea what to make of her interaction with Erica the last time she saw her. So Serena did what she does best: avoiding people. But she did end up keeping her promise to Erica. She didn't tell anyone what had happened, even Wes and Aaliyah, who were not used to Serena being so secretive.

"Okay, what is your problem?" Wes asked quickly, showing up at the spot beside Serena's locker.

"What's your problem for asking about my problem?" Serena retorted, even though it made no sense to either Wes or Aaliyah, who had just shown up.

Aaliyah frowned. "Serena, that didn't make any sense," she said, voicing Serena's thoughts from earlier.

Serena shut her locker quickly, "I know. I just couldn't think of a good response," she admitted.

"Wow," Wes sounded. "I think that's the first time I've ever Serena say something like that," he said, elbowing Aaliyah in the side of the rib.

"Oh ha ha," Serena said dryly. "You guys are really funny."

Aaliyah frowned, "Seriously, Serena what's up with you?" she asked. "You've been a little weird ever since that doll was walking around the school."

Wes's eyes widened, "WHAT?! What do you mean a doll? Why didn't you tell me about the doll?" he asked Aaliyah. "AND why didn't you tell me about the doll either?" he repeated, whipping around to look at Serena. "I feel left out now."

"Wes, it wasn't anything serious," Serena said, brushing the whole situation off. "Ethan and Benny ended up handling it. So, it's chill. Very, very chill."

"Okay, yep, there is definitely something wrong," Wes decided, clapping his hands together as if he had figured out something life-changing. "Serena's been replaced by some robot or something. Or a shapeshifter because the Serena I know would never say that."

Serena didn't have an adequate response to what Wes said, as she was incredibly grateful that a bumbling Ethan came to interrupt their conversation. "Oh! Serena!" he said quickly, taking a moment to catch his breath. "I was gonna ask Sarah, but it doesn't hurt to have a second opinion. If a girl asks you if you can trust her, what do you say?"

Serena blinked, "Okay by asking me this question you are already proving that you know little to nothing about girls," she stated.

"She's not wrong, bud," Wes said, patting Ethan on the back. "If a girl asks if you can trust her, you shouldn't go running off to go ask for someone else's opinion."

Aaliyah nodded, "I don't normally agree with Wes, but that was some pretty sound advice."

Wes scoffed, "Oh please, you love me."

Aaliyah rolled her eyes, "You wish, Wesley."

"That's not even my full nam-" Wes began to say but Ethan interrupted him.

"Wow, you three were no help at all. I'm just gonna go find Sarah," he decided.

Aaliyah watched Ethan walk away, "This sounds interesting, I wanna see how this goes."

"You're gonna make me come with, aren't you?" Serena asked her, although she already knew what Aaliyah was gonna say next.

"Oh, obviously," Aaliyah said grabbing onto Serena's hand. "Wes?"

He shook his head, "No thank you. I have better things to do than follow the dweebs around. Have fun though!"

Aaliyah sighed, "Suit yourself," she said as she began to pull Serena down the hallway where Ethan had just come from. The two found him standing in front of Erica and Sarah.

"Hey, Sarah. Um- a girl just asked me if she could trust me," he started. "What does that mean? It is a trap?"

"Oh no, this is far worse than I imagined it would be," Serena said, feeling embarrassed for the seer.

Both Sarah and Erica looked extremely confused. "What does that mean?" Sarah asked.

"What do you mean?" Ethan retorted.

Erica looked over to her friend. "Sarah, you have got to stop hanging out with him. You're turning into the same person. Next thing you know, you'll be reading comic books and snorting when you laugh."

Ethan laughed, which then turned into a snort.

"You just proved her point," Aaliyah said, appearing behind Ethan.

Ethan scowled at Aaliyah. "Hannah Price," he continued as if Aaliyah hadn't said anything. "She asked if she could trust me. Can she?"

Sarah blinked, "Can she?" she repeated.

Erica sighed, "I can't watch this happen. Nice seeing you, Shrieky. Shrieky's friend," she said to Serena and Aaliyah before walking away.

"It's Aaliyah," Aaliyah mumbled, even though she was pretty sure that Erica had stopped listening by now.

"If she wants to trust you with something. It probably means she likes you," Sarah told Ethan.

"Really?" Ethan asked, his brows raised. "What do I do?"

"You really are clueless," Serena said quietly, shaking her head.

Sarah laughed a little but she continued to give Ethan genuine advice. "Just see what happens. Think of it as an experiment."

"Good idea," Ethan said quickly. "I need to collect more data."

"Oh my god, this is gonna end badly," Serena said quietly.

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After their conversation earlier in the day, Ethan kept on filing Serena in on all of the things that Hannah Price had done today. Not that Serena cared because she really didn't. "I swear Serena, it's like she has an evil twin or something," he complained as they walked down the hallway together. "I mean, she'll say something really nice to me. And I mean really nice, Serena. But then the next second, she's dumping Benny's lunch into his lap, or throwing a pepper shaker at Rory," he explained.

"She threw a pepper shaker at Rory?" Serena asked, trying to hold back her laughter. "Maybe I should talk to this Hannah Price girl, she seems like my type of person."

Ethan shook his head, "No, if you don't like Erica. You definitely won't like Hannah, or at least the evil version of Hannah."

'Right because I obviously hate Erica, obviously,' she thought to herself. Serena took a deep breath. "Okay, look. Sometimes girls are just like that," she began to explain. "Mood swings, you know? But if Sarah says she likes you, then I would be willing to bet that it's true. I don't have any experience in that department, Sarah does, so there," she finished.

"But you've liked girls," Ethan pressed.

"Yeah, and that's different than liking guys," Serena continued. "I think. Again, I wouldn't know Ethan. Listen, I can look into this Hannah Price girl and I'll let you know what I find," she offered.

Ethan blinked, a little surprised that Serena wanted to help him. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked quickly. "You have a cold or something?"

Serena shook her head, "No, why?"

"Because you are offering to help me with no strings attached," he started. "I swear, you would never do that."

Serena narrowed her eyes at him, "You are the second person to say that to me today."

"That's when you know somethings wrong," Ethan said with a slight laugh. Serena responded with a swift punch to the side of his arm. "Ouch!" he exclaimed. "Serena, that's gonna bruise."

Serena shrugged, "You'll get over it," she said as she began to walk away. "I hope," she added quietly.

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Serena had already regretted her decision to look into Hannah Price. Mainly because she couldn't get any dirt on the girl. She was squeaky clean, and that was nearly impossible in White Chapel Highschool. She flipped through yearbooks, old paperwork, and testimonials. She even tried to hack into the school's records to see if she could learn anything, granted she was terrible at hacking into things so it didn't end up working. Alas, her search turned up nothing.

The last room she ended up checking was the dark room, where Hannah would develop her photos. Serena had never been there before, so she wasn't sure what she was looking for. Serena opened the door as quietly as she could and groaned, "Great, you're in here," she said, looking at Erica with disdain. "What are you even doing in here? You're not into photography."

"Practicing," Erica answered simply, brushing her blonde hair over her right shoulder.

Serena scoffed, "For what? You're not gonna show up on film, everyone knows that."

"Well, you and I know I'm gonna look good, so just let me have this, Shrieky," Erica retorted.

Serena shrugged lazily, "Fine by me."

Erica sighed, "What are you doing here anyway?" she asked pointedly. "I didn't even know you knew where the Darkroom was."

"I didn't," Serena responded. "I'm trying to dig up dirt on Hannah Price, but this girl seems as clean as a whistle."

"Why are you trying to dig up dirt on her?" Erica pressed.

"Well Ethan is freaking out because the girl obviously has a crush on him," Serena began to explain. "He thinks she has an evil twin because she's nice to him one second and then mean the next. So, I offered to help him and try and put his mind at ease."

Erica raised her brows, "Hmm, that's surprisingly nice of you."

"Well, what can I say? I'm turning over a new leaf," Serena said dully. She began to rummage through the supplies in the dark room. Lifting up every file, tool, and roll of film, trying to find something to prove Ethan's theory that there was something off about this girl.

"Smile," Erica said slowly.

Serena scoffed, shaking her head as she turned to face the blonde. "Why are you asking me to smile?"

"Trust me, Shrieky," Erica started.

"I don't like the sound of that," Serena said slowly.

Erica scoffed, "What? Am I not trustworthy to you?"

"Obviously not," Serena answered.

"God! Just smile, okay?" Erica said quickly.

Serena grimaced, before looking up. "Fine," she said slowly, flashing Erica the quickest smile that she could. "Happy?" she asked, placing her hand on her hip.

"Extremely," Erica said as she pulled down on the handle of the old-timey camera in the room. Serena blinked as a bright flash nearly blinded her.

"Did you just take a picture of me?" Serena asked, a smile playing on her lips.

"No, obviously not," Erica answered quickly.

Serena rolled her eyes, "I saw the flash," she deadpanned. "So what are you gonna do with the photo? Burn it?"

"No," Erica said shortly. "I'll give it to you once it develops. But don't be surprised if it comes back to you with burn marks," she joked.

Serena rolled her eyes, "Shut up," she said quietly.

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"Serena," Erica said walking up to her locker the next day at school. "There's a problem with your photo," she said quickly.

Serena blinked, "What?" she asked quickly. "What do you mean, could you not destroy it? Burn it, or whatever?"

Erica shook her head, "No, no. I wasn't actually going to do that. I was making a joke!" she insisted.

Serena rolled her eyes, "Sure you were."

"This is serious, Shrieky," Erica said with a frown. "So stop making jokes and just look at this, please!"

Serena looked down at the photo that Erica had placed on the top of her book. "What the hel-" she sounded, staring at the thing in front of her. Most of the photo seemed normal, it was just a very annoyed-looking Serena with her hand placed on her hip. But she looked off to the right where she saw a strange great figure behind her. "Oh my god!"

"Oh my god, what?" Erica questioned.

"That thing," she said, her hand shaking slightly. "I've seen it before. The day my dad died," Serena began to explain. "What is it doing in this photo?"

"Hell if I know," Erica responded.

Serena shook her head, tucking the photo in between the pages of her book. "There's got to be something wrong with the camera," she started as she began to walk away, Erica right next to her. "Okay, Benny said that he got that camera from his grandma's basement, you know, the witch grandma. So, that means there has got to be something wrong with it," she figured. "Not wrong with it per se, but there has to be something off about it. Like maybe it shows you your worst fear, or something traumatic from your past, or the worst part of yourself. Are you following?"

"Vaguely," Erica answered. "You kind of sound like those nerds right now. Maybe both you and Sarah should just stop talking to them altogether."

"I'm gonna ignore the fact that you just said that because we have to figure out what's going on with that camera," Serena decided.

Erica clicked her tongue, "Isn't that a little bit above our paygrade? Usually, Ethan and Benny handle that stuff."

"Yeah, well I don't know where either one of them is right now, so I guess it's our turn," Serena said quickly before opening the door to the Darkroom.

"As long as I get to beat up that Hannah girl, I'm good," she spat.

"Why exactly are you gonna beat her up?" Serena asked, against her better judgment.

"Because she refused to take a closeup of me," Erica answered simply. "She insisted that we all go into the gym for a group shot, or whatever."

Serena kept her hand on the handle to the Darkroom, "Again, you weren't gonna show up on the film anyway," she pointed out. "It doesn't really matter!"

Erica looked extremely offended. "It mattered to me, Serena!" she argued. "I got my hair done for this photo and I wanted it to be appreciated."

Serena huffed, "Fine. Your hair looks great, happy now?"

"Extremely," Erica responded as Serena pulled the door to the Darkroom open.

Serena blinked, "Ethan, Hannah, and Hannah?" she questioned, seeing a carbon copy of the photographer standing in right of her as the other was tied up. "What's going on here?"

"The camera makes evil doubles and she's one of them," Ethan said pointing to the Hannah that wasn't tied up. "Congratulations, now you are caught up!"

"Oh," Serena said.

"Hey Hannah," Erica said, peaking her head out around for behind Serena. "This is for ruining my yearbook photo!" She walked right up to the evil version of Hannah and slapped the girl across the face. Serena stepped back in horror as Erica's fangs shot out, trying to bite the girl.

"Gah," Ethan sounded, trying to sneak past the two of them. He began to fiddle with a small case on the counter.

Erica and the evil version of Hannah were still struggling with one another, "You're tougher than you look," Erica commented as Ethan finally got the case with the negatives open.

"Use the acid!" Hannah told Ethan.

Serena looked over at him, "What are you doing?" she hissed.

"Destroying the negatives so that the evil twins will go away, obviously," he responded in a similar manner.

Serena began to dig through her book where she placed the photo. "Well then, here," she said, slipping the photo of herself that Erica had taken the other day. "Destroy this one too!"

Ethan looked at it for a split-second, "But that's just a photo of yourself," he argued.

"Yes, taken with that weird camera," Serena continued. "I haven't run into the evil version of myself, and I really don't want to. So, destroy this one as well. Quickly, please!"

Ethan nodded, adding Serena's photo to the case. He unscrewed the top of the acid and poured it into the case. Serena heard a whooshing noise and a scream from Evil Hannah.

"No!" She glowed a bright purple color before disappearing into thin air.

"How did you know that one was the evil twin?" Ethan asked Erica.

"Evil twin? Really?" Erica asked.

Serena blinked, "That was the theory we were just discussing!" she pointed out.

"You were discussing that theory," Erica retorted. "I just came in here to eat- uh, slap her around a bit," she finished, looking at Hannah. She then spun on her heel and walked out of the room.

Serena looked at Hannah awkwardly, "Hi, I'm Serena. Nice to meet you," she said quietly. "I'm gonna go now. You guys, have fun, or whatever." Before Serena could leave the room, she was greeted by Benny dressed in a leather jacket. "I didn't know you stepped up your fashion sense," she commented.

Benny just smirked, pushing past her. "New flash, Ethan, you didn't destroy all of the negatives," he spoke. "You know, I think Evil Benny needs a worst friend," he said, holding up the old camera. "Say, um, oh no!"

He quickly took a picture of Ethan and grabbed the negative from the camera and slipped out the door. Serena heard a clicking noise and knew that she was locked in the room. "Crap!" she shouted as she began to bang on the door.

Ethan and Hannah ran up to the door and started banging on it. "Someone help us!" they continued to yell as all three of them rapped on the metal door.

Not long after their incessant yelling, Sarah came and pushed the door open, "Erica told me you three were in here."

"Sarah thank god!" Ethan said, relieved to see the girl in the doorway. "Evil Benny took a photo of me and we don't know where he's headed."

"I got it, I'll just follow the sound of stupid," Sarah said. "And the broken toothpicks on the ground."

"You know, is this a bad time to say I kind of liked Evil Benny better?" Serena asked.

"YES!" Ethan and Sarah said at the same time.

Serena frowned, "Okay, well go get him then. We don't want an evil version of him running around!"

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Sarah and Not-Evil Benny ended up flushing the negative down the toilet, meaning the last of the doubles were gone, erased from White Chapel. Serena was secretly grateful that no one ended up running into her evil double. Everyone was human, but hers. She didn't know how to explain it, and she honestly didn't even want to think about it.

She rounded a corner and saw the outline of a black veil standing outside of her locker. "Oh- oh my god," Serena shuttered.

It was still here.

And we were in screaming colors,
and I remember thinking ♕

Grace talks ig: Sorry y'all I just thought this was an interesting way to end the chapter so this is all you get hehehe, don't hate me for that. I know it's been over a month since I updated, but I actually have a good explanation for this, and it's because I had most of the chapter written like two weeks ago, but I came up with a better idea for how I wanted this plot to go, so I had to rewrite it. But now it's so much better YAY!!! HEHEHE. If you can't tell, I'm actually really proud of this one for like no apparent reason. It was just a blast to write. Soooo, I hope you all liked this one as well and I'll see y'all in the next chapter. Also, before I go. I wanted to thank y'all for getting this story to over 5K reads since the last chapter. That's actually crazy and I never expected this to hits those kinds of numbers. Okay, again, thank you so much and BYEEE <3