[die, pod: season 1, episode 10]
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       "Are you two weeding the school lawn right?" Serena asked as she walked up to Ethan and Benny, who were sitting on the bright grass in front of White Chapel High. "Did you nerds actually get detention for once? I mean, besides the time that the supply closet broke and you all blamed me."

Ethan blinked as he drove his hand-held shovel back into the dirt. "Weren't you the one that broke all of the supplies with your banshee scream?" he asked.

Serena frowned, "You're focusing on the wrong details here, Ethan. What the hell are you guys doing?"

"We got detention because of our ghost alarm prank," Benny said quickly before turning back to Ethan. "Oh, man, that earwax was epic! I'm serious, I couldn't get the earbud out. It was like it yanked it back in!"

Ethan looked away from Serena and over at Benny. "Earwax can't do that, Benny," he told his friend as Serena's noise scrunched up in disgust.

"Hence my unease, but that explains why my charm fell on deaf ears," Benny said before chucking a pile of weeds in front of him.

Serena shook her head, "You two are disgusting, I hope you know that," she whispered under her breath.

"Well, maybe the girl was just ignoring you like all the others?" Ethan offered, ignoring Serena's comment.

Benny glared at him, "If they're running from you, they're not ignoring you!" he insisted

Serena was about to comment when Sarah strolled up to the three of them. "Hey guys!" she said cheerily. "Getting punished for your ghost alarm thing, huh?"

"Oh my god, Sarah, please save me from these two. Benny is talking about earwax," Serena hissed.

"Actually since you are probably gonna be a lot more helpful than Serena here, can I ask you a question?" Benny said, rotating on the grass so that he was looking at Sarah. "Do girls have way more earwax than guys? Is it a puberty thing?"

"Do guys have fewer brain cells?" Sarah retorted. "Or is it just a Benny thing?"

Serena instantly exploded into a fit of laughter. "Sarah, have I ever told you how much I love you? Seriously, you are my favorite person here. You wanna go hang out, we can ditch these losers," she said gesturing to the two boys on the ground.

Sarah nodded, "Yeah sure, it beats having to hang out with Erica. She's kind of obsessed with this metal band right now? And honestly, I'm sick of hearing about it," she said as the two of them walked away from the lawn.

Serena raised her eyebrow, "Is it called Single Tear?" she asked casually. "Wes has been trying to get me to listen to them for like ever. Normally, I would but I've never really been a fan of metal music like that. I'm more of a Paramore girl if you catch my drift."

Sarah smiled, "Oh my god, I absolutely love Paramore."

"Don't tell Aaliyah and Wes this, but you are definitely becoming one of my best friends," Serena told Sarah. "Not that they're not my best friends, they still are but now you are too. If that makes any sense."

"You're one of my best friends too, Serena," Sarah said with a small smile. "Now, as my newest best friend, what should we do tonight? You wanna go see a movie? We could totally go ditch seventh period, my laptop isn't working anyways so I had to get Ethan to try and fix it. He, obviously, hasn't gotten around to it so it's not really worth staying here for the rest of the day."

Serena nodded, "Yes, a movie sounds great!" she said.

"Perfect," Sarah said as she linked to two girls' arms together. "Let's go!"

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Serena and Sarah had decided to see a movie called Jennifer's Body. They would have to sneak in because they were both under the age of 18, or at least bribe the attendant to let them in. Serena felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. "Is it just me or did it get really chilly over here?" she asked, wrapping her jacket closer to her arms.

"Hmm?" Sarah sounded, looking over at Serena. "Oh, it might just be you."

"Great, that's great," Serena mumbled under her breath as she continued to look around the empty street. She jumped back slightly as she saw a shadowy figure out of the corner of her eye. "No way," she said in a small voice, remembering what she had seen the other week. The graveyard monster, the banshee, or at least, the traditional one, her father's killer. 'Please tell me that's not what I think it is,' she thought to herself, turning her head in the direction of the thing she saw. But it was gone, the monster had disappeared without a trace.

Serena honestly had no idea why she kept seeing this thing around. It scared her. No, it terrified her. It shook her to her core, she felt like she couldn't move, or breathe for that matter. "Serena?" Sarah asked, placing her hands on the girl's shoulders, snapping her out of her trance. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Serena breathed. "I just thought I saw something strange, it must be my eyes playing tricks on me or something," she said, brushing over the whole experience.

Sarah's facial expression softened, "Do you want to just go home?"

Serena shook her head, "No, it's fine. We should just stick to the plan, you know?"

Sarah nodded, "Hang on, I think I'm getting a phone call," she said quickly, pulling her flip phone out of her back pocket. She sighed, "Yeah, it's Ethan. Probably some dumb nerd stuff. I'll put him on speaker phone," she prefaced before picking up the call. "Hello?"

'Hey, Sarah, it's me' Serena heard Ethan say through the phone.

"Hey! How's my laptop?" she asked. "Please, please tell me you brought it back to life!"

'Um, yeah, not exactly.' Ethan stuttered. 'Are you busy tonight?'

Sarah clicked her tongue, "Serena and I were just about to walk into a movie, why?"

'Oh, well, uh, actually we could use your guys' hands with something,' he said slowly as the two girls turned to look at each other. 'It's kind of related to your laptop.'

Sarah blinked, frowning down at her phone. "Wait, you're asking me for computer help? I thought you were the nerds on demand?!"

'Well, this isn't exactly a programming issue,' Ethan admitted. 'Do you like gardening?'

'What the hell?' Serena mouthed to Sarah as the vampire shrugged.

"The last time I bought a plant, I killed it in a week," she stated blankly.

Serena heard Ethan breathe a sigh of relief. 'Perfect! The more plants you've killed, the better!'

Sarah rolled her eyes, "You guys really need to stop inhaling science experiments," she told Ethan before looking over at Serena, asking for permission to go and help Ethan and Benny. Against her better judgment, Serena gave her a small nod. "We will be there in a bit," Sarah told Ethan before hanging up her phone.

Serena and Sarah ended up meeting Ethan and Benny at Ethan's house, where he filled the girls in about the vision that he had seen, as well as the girl with weeds growing out of her face, which was surprisingly tame for what the group had experienced lately. Serena narrowed her eyes once he had finished his story. "A magical tree?" she questioned. "What is this, pixie hollow?"

"Pixie Hollow?" Benny retorted, raising her eyebrow at her.

"Yeah, like the from tinker bell," she sounded. "The Tinkerbell movie? A new one just came out a few weeks ago," Serena pointed out, but Benny still looked at her like she was speaking a foreign language. She scoffed, "You have no taste," she muttered under her breath.

"Hey Benny, check this out," Ethan said, gesturing to his computer. "The oldest tree in town just got cut down a few weeks ago."

Benny looked up from Ethan's bed, staring at the screen. "It's right next to the school," he pointed out.

"Yeah, looks like the tree was a site of old druid rituals," Ethan said, reading off the webpage.

"So this tree soaks up magic over the years, gets knocked down, and what- now wants revenge?" Sarah questioned.

Ethan scoffed slightly, "Well, someone cuts me off at the shins, they're gonna hear about it!"

Sarah looked over at him, "So what does this mean for what's happening at the school?" she asked.

Ethan tilted his head, "Well, like Principal Hicks said: to kill the weeds, we got to cut out the root."

"Time to do some gardening!" Benny said with a smirk. "Let's wax some weeds!"

Ethan groaned, "Really, again?"

"It's all I got," Benny replied with a small frown.

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Serena looked at the sad-looking stump next to the school. Most of it was cut off, leaving a large trunk in the middle of the ground. "Yeah, this is nothing like Tinkerbell. She would never live in this sad, sad environment," she stated.

"That is one freaky stump," Benny said, his eyes wide. "Do you think a tree could hold a grudge?"

Ethan raised his eyebrow, "For what?"

"I carved my name into it," Benny admitted. "'Benny loves Sally'. And Beth, Kailey, Della, Erica-"

Serena held back a laugh, "You should stop before this gets even more embarrassing," she told him.

"Catwoman," Benny finished timidly.

Sarah huffed, "Okay! What do we do?" she asked quickly.

"Well, looks like the only way to stop it is to cut the root," Ethan explained.

Serena, Sarah, Benny, and Ethan began to walk along the visible roots of the tree. Serena was honestly surprised by how long they were. She traced her foot along the side of one of them as Benny began to speak once more. "Roots lead back to the school," he announced.

"This tree wasn't ready to die," Sarah added, tapping one of the decrepit roots with the side of her feet.

Serena looked forward a frowned at the sight in front of her. A large root, covered in small green leaves had wrapped itself around the school's power box. Creeping up from the hard ground beneath them. Serena had never seen something like this before. "Okay, I might not be well-versed in biology, but I don't think a tree can do that," she said, pointing the power box out to the rest of the group.

"Well this is not your normal tree," Ethan responded slowly. "And, I think we just found the mother root."

"You think?" Sarah retorted.

"The school's internet cables run through here," Ethan said, crouching down to get a better look at the box. "These crazy roots have grown right into them."

Benny groaned slightly, "Does this mean more yard work?" he asked as Ethan straightened himself back up.

"Let's get this thing open," he stated, trying to pry the metal sheet open with his hands. The door was slightly a jar but seemed like it, whatever it was, was pushing back against Ethan's multiple attempts to keep it open.

"Maybe you're not as strong as you think you are?" Serena said sarcastically.

"Normally, I would agree with you," Sarah said as she took a step forward. "But it looks like someone is holding the door shut."

"Something strong," Ethan added, wiping bits of green goo off of his hands and onto his pants.

"Maybe there's some haunted venus fly trap trying to get illegal pay-per-view?" Benny joked. "Right? Right-"

Serena shook her head slowly at Benny's attempt at a 'joke' while Ethan continued his explanation from before. "Cutting the roots should kill it. Then we can save vegetable girl."

"Please tell me you didn't call her 'vegetable girl' to her face because that is just awful!" Serena exclaimed, her voice lined with disappointment. "And you wonder why girls continue to run away from you!"

"It has nothing to do with that!" Benny said defensively, his voice an octave higher than it normally was. "Whatever, it's gardening time!" he exclaimed.

Sarah shook her head, "Is that the best you can do?" she asked him.

"Pretty much," Benny replied awkwardly, as Ethan began to pass a shovel to both Serena and Sarah. Benny grabbed a pair of clippers off of the ground while Ethan took out two bottles of weed killer and sprayed them onto the mess of roots in front of them.

Serena whacked the roots with the edge of her shovel, trying to break them apart so it would be easier for Benny to cut them in half. The roots began to emit a weird electronic noise, but Serena ignored it and kept cutting at the roots. It didn't take them long to clean the roots off of the power box and Serena smiled. "That was surprisingly easy," she said. "And I don't say that a lot when it comes to these types of things."

"We should check inside the school," Ethan said quickly. "The computer lab was covered in the weeds when Benny and I were there earlier."

Sarah shrugged, "Better late than never," she said, brushing her hair out of her face.

An eerie feeling washed over the girl as she stepped into the high school. She had never been there this late. Serena expected the hallway to be dark, but it was illuminated with a strange blue light. She rounded the corner and almost let out a large scream. A huge root was growing out of the lockers to the left of them.

"Oh," Ethan said, looking at the root with a terrified look on his face. "Did anybody else just lose their job well-done feeling?" he asked timidly.

Serena nodded as Sarah peered around the two of them. "Hey, where's Benny?"

Before Serena could respond Benny appeared behind the three of them, clutching a metal axe in the palm of his hands. Ethan let out a small shriek. "Where did you get that?"

"Janitors Closet," Benny replied coolly. "Always upgrade before a boss level!" he added. "Let's go," he said, nodding at the large root.

"Okay!" Ethan said as the group lunged forward. They began to fight off the vines that grew out of the lockers as they weaved their way into the computer lab. Serena used all of her strength to prevent one of them from just pulling the shovel out of her hand.

"Why the hell are these things alive!" Serena said loudly, but she would get her answer soon enough. Serena jumped back as she peered up at the wall of the computer lab. Rory was encased in a mess of roots and electrical wires. His face was glowing and his eyes had completely glazed over, leaving a black color where his sockets were.

"I will not be destroyed by poison or blade!" he said, in an oddly robotic voice. "I will build a new force, fertilized by human souls!"

Serena took the end of her shovel and drove it into one of the tree branches. "Apparently trees can possess people, that would've been useful information to know earlier!" she yelled over the sound of the electrical wires frying.

"Yeah, we are dealing with one angry tree now!" Ethan yelled back. "And it's upgraded its hardware. With Rory! This thing's mostly cable and computer now. We can't just spray it with weed killer!"

"No, but smashing works with almost everything!" Sarah responded, holding her shovel up over her head.

Benny nodded in agreement, "I'm with her!"

"Wait!" Ethan said as Benny began to hit the roots with his shovel. "If it's half tree and half computer, maybe a virus can infect its system and take this thing down!" He took out a laptop from his messenger bag and set it on a nearby table.

Benny frowned, still attempting to cut at the roots with his axe. "Where do you just get a computer virus?" he asked.

"You've hacked into a computer system before, right?" he asked his best friend. "Just cover me!" he shouted over the sound of Serena and Sarah swinging at the roots with their respective weapons.

"Cover you with what?!" Benny shrieked.

"Just keep killing and don't get me killed! Simple enough!" Ethan said loudly as he began to type on the computer.

Serena didn't bother trying to understand what Ethan was going to do, she just kept hacking away at the roots in front of her. Each one that popped up, she whacked away with the sharper edge of her shovel, resisting the urge to scream at them, trying to shatter the roots with her voice. But that was too risky. She could break the windows to the computer lab, or shatter all of the screens, or even worse, shatter her friends' eardrums. She didn't have enough training, plus, she wasn't sure if the thing would show up again if she tried to use her powers.

"Hey, tree boy!" Ethan yelled suddenly. "Ha ha! Get ready to be nickrolled!"

Rory screamed as Ethan slammed a bottom on the keyboard. Rory's face began to return to normal as the video that almost every White Chapel had seen, 'Nickroll' played on every screen in the computer lab. The vampire fell to the ground, and the four teens ran up to him.

"Rory, are you okay?" Ethan asked.

"Guys, I had the strangest dream," Rory said slowly. "I was made out of carrot and I got 'nickrolled'."

"Ha, ha," Ethan chuckled awkwardly.

Serena frowned, "And to think, I was supposed to see a movie tonight."

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

Grace talks ig: wow, this chapter honestly kinda slayed (IMO). I had a lot of fun with this. Honestly, it's kind of a filler chapter with a few hints of foreshadowing sprinkled in there, ahahaha. And Erica wasn't here, which was kind of a shame but to be fair, she wasn't really in the episode all that much. But, I will try to get more Serica moments in here before the final chapter, because that's a big one for my girls! Anyways, I kind of neglecting my other fics just so I can finish this one as fast as I can. SOOOOO I hope y'all enjoyed and I'll see y'all in the next one. And as always, vote and comment if you enjoyed. BYEEE <3