All right, it's been quite a ride, but I think we're ready to do the final short for this series of stories. It's been fun doing this little shorts, but I always planned on ending this series with ten chapters. Will I do another set of shorts with the Milo Murphy's Law characters? Who knows? For now, this is the final one, and this takes place BEFORE the Season 1 finale of Milo Murphy's Law! Anyway, enjoy!

It was late afternoon for the perfectionist known as Amanda Lopez as she had just got out of her bassoon lessons from the music shop. She gave a warm smile as she looked at her schedule and checked something off her list.

"Okay, so that's the bassoon lessons all done." Amanda said as she gave a firm nod. She checked her watch as she gave a small smile. "Next up on my list... meeting with a friend."

Putting aside her list for the moment, Amanda looked over at the sky and gave a small smile as she decided that, walking to her destination would be pretty nice right about now. And walk, she did.

And as she walked, she started to reminisce over the past few months and how things have certainly taken quite an interesting turn. Sure, she was still a little wary of Milo and his condition of 'Murphy's Law', but she started to warm up to it quite a bit. She couldn't believe she would admit this to herself, but Milo actually made things more fun rather than perfect, like she wanted. She was still a bit of a perfectionist, but maybe it was because of him and his friends that she decided to mellow out a bit.

But, even she knew that Melissa liked him. She could see it in the girl's eyes. And even though she was cool with Milo, she didn't quite like him in that way. She hadn't told him that yet, but she wanted to let him down easy. Still, maybe he knew. Maybe Milo, deep inside, knew he had a crush on Melissa. After all, she and him had been best friends since kindergarten. And with Zack coming in and accepting Milo for who he was on the first day, which, even to her, was pretty surprising, it seems that people had become less afraid of Milo and more interested in what would come next for the jinx.

Still, she couldn't help but smile when the subject of Zack Underwood entered her mind. Oh, she recognized him right away as the lead singer of the Lumberzacks, but she restrained herself quite well. After all, a perfectionist didn't need to overreact... not at a proper time, at least. But, he was just as cute in person as he was on TV. In fact, she sort of had a small crush on the former boy band leader. The only catch was, she didn't quite know how to approach him.

"Why is it so hard...?" Amanda sighed to herself as she turned the corner and noticed that, sitting nearby on the bench was her smiling friend, patiently humming to herself as she was kicking her feet. "There you are, Lydia!"

"Hm?" The brown haired girl in the red and yellow dress looked up to see her friend, looking a little confused. "Hey... you!"

Amanda just rolled her eyes a bit, wondering why Lydia was acting strange, but shrugged it off as she gave a smile. "Sorry I'm late. I got a little caught up in my bassoon lesson."

Lydia just blinked twice, before giving a smile. "Oh! How did it go?"

"It went quite well, actually. As a matter of fact, better than okay." Amanda smiled. "I guess thinking about Zack really helped out."

Lydia just stared at the girl for a mere moment, before giving a smile. "Aww, that sounds pretty cute."

Amanda paused as she noticed that though Lydia was smiling, she was a bit... off. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, though. "Uh, Lydia, are you feeling okay?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. The sun is probably shining at the wrong angle." Lydia grinned as she got up. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I got to go. Important business, you understand."

"Important... business?" Amanda asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion as she watched Lydia just scamper off. "Lydia never has important business."

It was at that moment that she couldn't help but notice the citizens walking around in the town. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was something particularly... off about each citizen... some in the way they walked, some in the way they smiled... it was as if something in the back of her mind had bugged her.

"Something strange is going on around here..." Amanda whispered to herself as she started to casually walk, keeping a wary eye out. "Something... off. I don't like it."

The more she walked, the more paranoid she became as the Latina girl focused on her footsteps. Everywhere she turned, she saw a familiar friend from school doing the strangest activity she seen, from Chad helping Mr. Darko with something, to Mort actively reading a long book titled 'Crime and Punishment', a surprise to even her as he usually didn't read the longer books.

The more she walked, the more she looked nervous. Something inside her brain was biting her away, but she didn't know what it was. All of a sudden, just as she was about to snap, she heard a familiar voice.

"Amanda?"

The girl stopped as she turned to see a familiar boy wearing glasses motioning to her. Bradley Nicholson was looking around in concern as he was motioning her over. Amanda gave a sigh of relief. Bradley may be a little jerk sometimes, but he was at least safe to be around. He was acting the most normal so far. She approached him as Bradley looked out to see the oddly walking citizens. "You noticed something weird in the air, too, no doubt."

"I certainly did, Bradley." Amanda sighed in relief as she gave a sigh. "I was just talking with Lydia and she just... acted like she didn't know me at first. I didn't want to say anything to her, but... she just nodded along and just..."

"...ran off, acting like she had important business?" Bradley asked.

"However did you know?" Amanda asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I've noticed that happening all around town." Bradley said as he and Amanda looked out to see the citizens just hanging out. "Just... most of the people I've seen outside today haven't been acting or looking natural at all. As a matter of fact, it's as if some type of outbreak just happened."

"An outbreak?" Amanda asked. "Like, something out of a zombie movie?"

"Maybe so, or maybe even body snatchers." Bradley said. "Now, before you say I'm crazy, think about it for a second. We have a student in our class that can cause bad luck everywhere we go. Would a body snatcher sound far fetched in comparison?"

Amanda remained silent as she knew Bradley was right. The boy nodded. "I thought so. Look, things are getting bad, worse even."

"You're right. We need to find some more people to help us." Amanda said.

"Agreed." Bradley nodded. "Our best bet right now is to find Milo Murphy. He might be the key to help us."

Amanda gave a nod as she turned and looked over. "Good plan. I-"

The Latina girl then blinked twice as she narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Wait a minute... you didn't even shudder once when you mentioned Milo's name. You didn't even sound conscending towards him."

"What?" Bradley gave a nervous grin. "Amanda, I am surprised that you, of all people, would-"

"Okay, who the heck are you?" Amanda asked as she tried to get into a fighting pose. "I'm warning you, what I'm about to do to you won't be pretty. You're not even Bradley, are you?"

The boy looked surprised... before giving a sigh. "Okay, grab her."

"Grab... her?" Amanda asked as she suddenly looked around to see some strange looking creatures popping out from behind the various objects. Strange... plant-like creatures, with nuts for heads and evil red eyes.

The girl couldn't help but gave a shriek as she tried to run... only to bump straight into Lydia, who gave a smile.

"Sorry, girl, but this is for your own good." 'Lydia' said as she grabbed Amanda and gagged her. As the perfectionist struggled, 'Bradley' just stood there, giving a sigh as he took off his human mask to reveal himself as a Pistachion.

"Well... so much for that Murphy kid's friend leading us straight to him." The Pistachion gave a sigh. "Bring her in with the others."

As Amanda struggled for her life as she was being dragged off to a van, the only thing she could do now was pray. Pray that somehow, Milo, Zack and Melissa would survive the strange creatures that just came into the lands.

But little did Amanda know that the Pistachion takeover was merely taking effect even now...

TO BE CONTINUED IN "FUNGUS AMONG US"...

Orange Ratchet Story

"That's All, Folks!"

An Orange-Ratchet Fanfiction

Well, that is that. The shorts are finished, and I'm glad to be done with this story. Sorry for this final short being a bit of a downer, but since this was taking place in Season One, I knew I would have to reference the Pistachion storyline in a way! Let's get to final thoughts.

When I first started the story, it was mostly for fun. As Season One of Milo Murphy's Law was airing, I thought it would be fun to explore the lives of the kids, but after six shorts, I stopped. When I decided to get back to them, Season Two had aired all of its episodes about a year ago, so I decided to have this series of shorts be more focused on Season One. I knew I wanted to end this story with the Pistachion Take-over that was apparent in the first season, so that's exactly what I did, with Amanda being the central character. Aside from that, I'm glad I wrote those shorts, wrote a few Milolissa stories, and even explored the lives of students and friends I couldn't before.

Will I do Milo Murphy and Friends shorts based on Season 2? Probably, but they'll have to be AU, depending on if MML gets a third season on Disney Plus or not. Either way, I'm glad I was able to do these shorts, and I hope you guys had fun as well! Anyway, thank you all for reading, and have a very wonderful day!