Medusa, a.k.a. the evil Modessa. So when Yaz phones Katie-Rose to have an after-school chat, at first Katie-Rose is like, “Yay! Yasaman! Love my bestie!” But when she realizes that all Yaz wants to talk about is Modessa and Modessa’s latest plan to ruin the world, she’s like, “Boo. Boo!!!”

Why? Because they have been down this road before, Katie-Rose and Yaz.

The first Modessa battle played out at the beginning of the school year, and it had to do with Modessa and Camilla. Milla—once upon a very long time ago—was part of Modessa’s clique. Helping Milla escape from Modessa’s clutches was sort of a big part of how Yaz and Katie-Rose became friends, so maybe that particular Modessa battle needed to happen and was even fated to happen. Maybe.

The next Modessa battle had to do with Violet, who stood up to Modessa when she was picking on weird Cyril Remkiwicz. The FFFs won that battle just as squarely and awesomely as they won the first battle, so ha.

But then, last month, another Modessa battle reared its ugly head. Seriously! This time it was about Elena, and how Modessa was trying to steal Elena’s soul and turn her into a Modessa clone. Which she succeeded in doing. Which sucks. But Elena does (or did) have a brain. Elena could have put her foot down (on top of Modessa’s! Ha! That would have been epic!). And she could have kept wearing jeans and button-downs, which looked like cowgirl clothes to Katie-Rose, and which Katie-Rose always secretly admired, because she wouldn’t mind being a cowgirl herself, only without the cows.

Elena could have stayed herself, but no. The “new” Elena wears skirts and cute little tops now, and beneath her tops are the obvious bumps of bra straps. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Elena still wears her cowboy boots on occasion, but paired with her new style, they look … well … stylish. Again, stupid, stupid, stupid.

Does Katie-Rose wish Modessa hadn’t blown her poisonous un-fairy dust all over Elena? Sure. Of course. But there’s nothing Katie-Rose or Yaz can do about it now. They can’t go back in time and vacuum it up, obviously.

Elena made her bed and now she has to lie in it, as Katie-Rose’s mom would say. And the flower friends should let her—that’s what Katie-Rose would say. And she has! Repeatedly. Katie-Rose has also repeatedly shared her opinion that it would be far more FUN to just, you know, focus on being flower friends forever and forget about any and all annoying classmates.

But Yaz refuses to listen, because Yaz has a huuuuge heart. So now, in addition to being concerned about Elena, she’s all concerned about this new girl, this Hayley person, and … blah. It’s just so annoying.

“—fake laugh, maybe. Do you think?” Yaz is saying. “Or maybe not. Maybe she didn’t even know, because maybe Modessa was putting on an act for her. Like, maybe Modessa thought it would be fun to …”

Yaz talks and talks. Katie-Rose shifts positions on the sofa and sighs, thinking about how Yaz’s voice sounds different over the phone than it does in person. Most people’s do, but Yaz’s does more so than others. Maybe because Yaz is already so soft-spoken, even when she’s feeling urgent about something or other? Maybe the whisper-shush of the phone lines—if phone lines even exist anymore (do they?)—wrap around Yaz’s words and cloak them in one extra layer of telephone gossamer, muffling them just a snitch, just enough to make them buzz in Katie-Rose’s head?

She has had enough of the buzz, she decides.

“SO!” she says, loudly and brightly.

Yasaman stops in the middle of her sentence. “Um … huh?”

Katie-Rose plasters a wide smile on her face, because even if a person can’t see your expression, she can hear it, and if you’re smiling, you sound smiley. And Katie-Rose needs to sound smiley in order to lure Yaz away from the non-smiliness of all things Modessa.

“Have you found any stray bubble-gum balls in your basement?” Katie-Rose asks. “From the bubble-gum treasure hunt?”

“Um, I haven’t looked. I got home and called you straightaway.”

“Ahhh. Well, you probably should make a sweep of the basement just in case, because you don’t want your mom or dad tripping over a rogue bubble-gum ball and falling on their heads or anything.”

“Why would they fall on their heads?”

“Because bubble-gum balls are balls! Round! Slippery! Like banana peels, only worse. Like marbles, only worse!”

“Oh,” Yaz says. “You’re right. Maybe I should go check …”

“And Nigar. Is she back to being Nigar, or is she still Princess Bubblelina?”

Yaz laughs, an excellent sign. “At home? Nigar. At school? Lucy was calling Nigar ‘Princess Bubblelina,’ and Nigar was calling Lucy ‘Lucilicious.’”

“She’s living two lives,” Katie-Rose says approvingly. “I like it!”

“You are so strange, Katie-Rose,” Yaz says. “My little sister is not living two lives, and I don’t even know what that means, and why would you want her to, anyway?”

That question sets a new course for the conversation, and the two girls argue (in a friendly way) about whether a girl could live two lives, or whether she’d get caught eventually. Also about whether a girl can change over time—like, really change, and not just change the color of her hair or whether she wears all black or whatever—or if you are who you are and that’s that, the end.

All in all, Katie-Rose is quite pleased with herself for successfully distracting Yaz from the Medusa Wars saga. She doesn’t know how long it’ll last, however, so she signs off while their convo’s on a high point.

“Adios, dahling. See you tomorrow,” she says.

“Adios to you,” Yaz says. “Bye.”

Katie-Rose clicks the “off” button and rests the phone against her chest. Disaster—or drama—averted.