"My mom...is...Mrs. Woods."

"WHAT?!" Chloe shrieked, jumping up and down.

Francesca reeled back suddenly, realizing what she just said. "Oh my gosh, I, I can't--I can't believe--" her eyes were wide with fear.

Dream's eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets. She drew in a shaky breath, still unable to process the last ten seconds of her life. Like sure, Mrs. Woods and Francesca were the two most hated people in the entire Pebblebrook Creek High School, but for completely unrelated reasons. They were literally nothing alike.

"Where. Is. My. Popcorn," Chloe said. "And the dramaaaa, unfolds!" she sang.

Francesca shot Chloe a particularly nasty look.

Chloe squealed, and said, "I'm going to go back to the cabin, you guys can stay here and talk this out."

Francesca heaved another sigh. "Could you take my brother back to our cabin, while you're at it? Tell Fatima that I told you to bring him back."

"What?" Damon said. He was making an ugly snowman near them and overheard. "I don't want to go back right now!" he stomped.

"I don't care, you will," Francesca said. "Follow...whatever her name is," she said dismissively, gesturing at Chloe.

"My name is Chloe," Chloe scowled. "And why do I have to deal with the demon spawn? And besides, the tea was just getting piping hot."

"You were the one who said he was cute," Dream shrugged, a grin tugging at the corners of her lips.

Chloe glowered but complied, dragging Damon by the ear. Damon yelped in pain and complained, but Chloe whispered something harshly to him, and he fell silent.

"She's good with kids," Francesca said, an edge to her tone.

"She's a babysitter. Not a popular one, but if parents are desperate enough, or if the kids are rowdy enough..." Dream joked.

Francesca let out a very light laugh.

"I'm really sorry," Dream said. "I didn't mean to push you or anything--"

"It wasn't your fault," Francesca said. "I've been wanting to get this off my chest for ages," she sighed, pausing. "Although, you two are the first people I've told this to, other than family who already knew. Please do not betray my trust by going around announcing this."

"I won't," Dream said. "Although, why are you telling me?"

Francesca sighed. "She might be my mother, but I hate her more than anyone else on this planet, you know? She's a psychopath, she's not really a mother. If I dare say...more of an egg donor."

"How is this possible, though? You and Fatima, your last name is Baren."

"We changed our last name," Francesca said quietly. "We were embarrassed. I didn't want to be linked to my mother in any way. So we changed our last name to our dad's first name. He changed his name too. His middle name became his first, and his first became his last. The only one in our family whose last name is still Woods - besides our mother - is Damon."

"So..." Dream pursed her lips. "I don't want to sound pushy or anything, but..."

"What?"

"Why does...Mrs. Woods...do all this stuff? Kidnapping, killing, that thing."

"Oh," Francesca said, her eyes wide. "It's...kind of a long story. Earlier today, you asked me about money printing and drugs?"

"Um, yeah?"

"Mrs. Woods is kind of a...crime lord."

"What," Dream said. "For heck's sake, a crime lord is a teacher at my high school?"

Although, come to think of it, she did remember Mr. Baren saying that Mrs. Woods was a crime lord from New York...

"Well..." Francesca said, nervously glancing up the hill to where the cabins were. "You can put it that way. She's into...printing counterfeit money, and transporting illegal drugs, things like that."

Dream narrowed her eyes. So that's what this whole thing was about. "So what about all those missing students from Pebblebrook Creek?" Realizing she was kind of interrogating Francesca, she quickly added, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to," although she really, really, wanted to know the answer. "I guess..."

"The students from Pebblebrook Creek that go missing are the ones that found out about our mom's dealings. She can't be caught. Her life depends on it. So...she...kind of disposes of the people who find out about her...business."

"What," Dream said, horrified, feeling panicked. "So, Zac and I knew a little bit, so that's why we were kidnapped last time? But you freed us, so Mrs. Woods is going to find other ways to 'dispose' of us?" Dream felt her heart stop, and she was gasping from lack of air. "And then, I'm just going to suddenly disappear, and if I'm lucky my body will be found in a stream in the forest before I die, and I'll go into a coma and have to sue Mrs. Woods, or I'll just die and my dead body will be found and," Dream shrieked.

"Calm down," Francesca said, steadying Dream. "You just had a panic attack."

Dream gasped for air.

"Relax, you're not going to get kidnapped, go into a coma, or die, or any bad stuff like that," Francesca assured her. "You're safe here now, and Mrs. Woods is currently being detained in France for making up false accusations. You're not going to see her until Lili Robinson's court case."

Dream sighed, feeling her heartbeat slow and her breath getting steadier. "There's still one thing I don't understand. Why does Mrs. Woods assign so much homework - a lot of which isn't even related to the subject she teaches - and punish us with so much detention?"

Francesca bit her lip, picking at her perfectly manicured nails. It was a wonder her hands hadn't frozen solid already, since she wasn't wearing mittens. "It's, well, complicated. She mostly just wants to keep her students busy. When she leaves, she doesn't want any of her students following her, so she gives detention. To make sure no one spots her while she is out, she assigns more homework."

"Oh," Dream realized that everything seemed to make quite a bit of sense. "You know, if you really hate Mrs. Woods so much...why don't you explain everything to my friends? You guys can all work together to defeat her. Especially in the upcoming court case, I'm sure Zac and Savannah especially would appreciate it."

"I don't know," Francesca said. "She may be a selfish, unreasonable, crime lord who kidnaps students and robs them of her life so she can get what she wants, and I may hate her, but she's still the one who gave birth to me and I'm not sure if I'm comfortable testifying in court against her. Besides, Fatima would kill me." Her eyes suddenly sparkled. "Fatima would kill me!" she said. "I'm in!"

Dream gave her an extremely confused expression at her oddly quick change of heart.

"You don't have any siblings, but if you do, you'll realize that often, the one thing you want the most is to annoy the heck out of your siblings," Francesca said smugly.

---

A/N

So I hope this chapter gave you a better sense of what's been going on this whole time! Did anything surprise you? Let me know in the comments!

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Next update: Monday :)

💙, Stella Rose