"I need a new venture." Vera sighed looking at her phone.

"Pardon?" Liam looked up.

"My bank account lost a zero after I had to pay my parents back for a lost venture and now, I need to recover." She said "I need something new to market and sell. Something cheap efficient and quick."

"Drugs!" Polly yelled.

"Too easy."

"Suffering?" Miranda smiled.

"Too complicated I said quick." The gorgon rolled her eyes.

"Destruction." Damien nodded.

"Can we get some material goods and not abstract concepts please!" Vera groaned "There has to be something that's missing from this school."

"Why do you care so much?" Oz asked.

"Oswald!" she groaned "This is important okay!"

"Oh dear she's breaking out full names this is serious!" Miranda gasped.

"The game got canceled." Scott frowned sitting down "Apparently no one told the rest of the lacrosse team that the fifth-floor hallway got infested with man eating plants and now we have no goaltender. Wish they knew, ah well more sports for me!"

"Yes…yes that's it!" Vera laughed and started rapidly tapping on her phone "Perfect idea you slobbering buffoon! How could I never had seen the untapped potential of this market!"

"Ummm you're welcome." Scott smiled.

The Next Day

As soon as Oz got to school the next day they immediately noticed a change, everyone was in possession of larger papers, newspapers.

"Oz." Vera threw one at them "Take it, read it, love it, pay me for it."

"What?" Oz looked and saw it was a cheap tabloid about the general goings on at the school "We have a school paper?"

"We do now, courtesy of me of course…and some slave labor I was owed by an octopus gang." She shrugged.

They opened the page and saw the first article was about the gruesome death of a fellow student the day before.

"Don't you think this is a little…much? Wait…half these are obituaries!"

"I find this new totally truthful document quite engrossing!" Miranda said walking passed.

"See Miri gets it." Vera smirked "So long as everyone keeps reading it, and paying me for it, what's the big deal."

"I have the feeling this will get out of hand very quickly." Oz sighed.

"You worry too much Oz what could possibly go wrong?" Miranda smiled.

A FEW LATER

"EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE!" Miranda yelled throwing the 'afternoon' edition of the paper on the lunch table "Look at this…This, this seditious material!"

"It's Vera's paper." Liam looked up from his book "What's the big deal."

"I heard she's been selling like a shit ton!" Polly laughed looking down "so what's up Miri?"

"This drivel's gossip section has the audacity to accuse me of supporting the use of suboptimal facial boosters." She huffed.

"In English please." Damien said.

"They said I use cheap makeup!" Miranda cried "I'll have you know that I use only the finest and have it applied only by the most skilled make up serf in all of the underwater kingdom!"

"What's the big deal, it's probably just nonsense Vera had them print." The demon said.

"Says here you spent a thousand dollars on designer hair gel." OZ told him.

"I'll burn her into a snake steak!" he roared "Who the hell does she think she is."

"What the hell it says that someone else drank more than me!" Polly yelled "And it says Liam appreciated the student film for it's clichés!"

"Afternoon poor friends. Did you read today's paper" Vera came over and immediately got a sharp glare from everyone "I'll take that as yes."

"The Fuck is this shit Vera!" Damien yelled "It's a bunch of made up crap!"

"Look sales were dwindling and people like the gossip section so we…spiced things up a little." She shrugged "It's not like anyone believes this stuff."

"My eavesdropping serf reported hearing girls giggling in the bathroom about me having a chapped lip!" Miranda yelled.

"Look sometimes sacrifices have to be made for financial gain." Vera said.

"But we're like your friends." Scott said.

"Exactly, which means I know you'll forgive me and this will be no big deal." Vera said as her phone rang "Pardon me it's the editor."

The gorgon got up from the table and the others sighed.

"I don't know why but I expected this to take longer than a few days for her to sacrifice us for power in the marketplace." Polly laughed a bit.

"This paper is a bad idea." Oz said "Also why even print it don't people just use the internet and social media to get totally true and unbiased news now?"

"I have a plan." Miranda's eyes suddenly shimmered with a dark glint "If Vera wants to play business lady, then we simply play business back."

"Oh I love playing business!" Scott yelled "Who goes first."

"Between the six of us we have nowhere near enough experience to stand up to Vera." Liam told her.

"Let me guess, business serf?" Oz asked.

"No." Miranda smiled "Someone even better, we'll need…HER!"

The rest of the table gasped.

"Y-You don't mean…" Polly gulped.

"Last time she took all my money." Damien shivered a bit.

"But how would we even find her?" Oz asked.

Miranda just cackled a bit.

"Is there a reason these fish dudes dragged me here?" The cat shopkeeper said.

"Welcome friend." Miranda smiled "Let's talk business…"

THE NEXT DAY

When Vera arrived that day for school she was already angry, she saw her friends handing out papers with her face on them calling her all sorts of strange things, and revealing disturbingly true secrets about what she did in her home.

"Give me that!" she snatched them all away "What the hell is this?!"

"Oh simple fair play in the marketplace." Miranda smiled.

"Fair play saying I feed my snakes cockroaches?!" Vera hissed before whispering "how did you even know that?!"

No one answered.

"And how can you even afford to do this in such a short time." Vera growled.

"Well technically these two are royalty." Polly pointed at Damien and Miranda.

"This one couldn't find her way out of a paper bag" she pointed at Miranda "and he doesn't know how to finance a paper!"

"We asked for help." Oz said "From someone with experience."

"What?" Vera let out her stone cold glare looking passed them and seeing a cat girl "You bitch!"

"Hey not my problem they came to me with a totally fair deal." The cat smiled.

"Valerie!" Vera growled looking at the cat.

"Hey you published stuff about your friends they should be able to publish stuff about you." The cat said "They just asked me to facilitate some of the business side."

"By selling them my secrets?" Vera hissed "I'm so telling Mom!"

"Oh don't be a brat!" Val groaned "You started it anyway."

"See I told you asking sweet Valerie for help would sort this out in no time." Miranda smiled.

"I do feel bad having to go behind her back to get her sister to help us." Oz said.

"It's fine I'm sure this won't be the last time we need to do that." Miranda giggled.

"I'll destroy mine if you destroy yours." Vera said.

"Deal." Miranda shook her hand "See that was easy as can be."

Vera stomped off to go close up shop.

"I wonder why she was so into making money this time." Polly said.

"Who cares it's done." Oz shrugged.

"Well glad I was able to help you out." Valerie said walking by "Oh but one quick thing."

"Hmm."

"Hold any of that against Vera and I'll end all six of you got it." She growled.

They all nodded rapidly.

"It's nice Vera has such a caring sister." Polly laughed "Hmm, I wonder what's for Lunch today that paper used to have the menu."

"You don't eat!"

AN

Thank you for reading. Feedback is appreciated. Feel free to message me any questions or concerns.

Till Next Time!