The New Kid: Will Cipher x Gender-Neutral!Reader

Monsters Like Candy Too

        "How do you know about that?" Aubrey whimpered.

         "Girls!" Pacifica exclaimed. "Calm down! Gideon and I have experience with these things before. We'll survive!"

          Monsters actually exist? I thought the monsters from Gideon's journal were made up. 

          "How do we get rid of them?" I asked. "Do we lure them out with candy or something?"

          "No, they'll just come back for more," Gideon replied. "Melody! Turn on the TV!"

          "Why?" Melody groaned. 

          "Because if you don't, then we're going to tell Bud about last week's incident!" Pacifica said.

          That seemed to make Melody comply. Footsteps were heard from the living room. I heard the click of a button, and creepy voices could be heard. 

        "Did she turn on The Nightmare Before Christmas?" I asked in disbelief. The lyrics of the song that was being played were familiar. 

        Tiffany craned her head back to hear better. "Yep," she answered.

        The monsters stilled when they heard the song playing. They crawled closer, craning their necks to stare at the screen. It was like the TV had hypnotized them.  

        "What do we do now?" I whispered. "It's not like the TV's going to keep going on forever."

        "Maybe we wait them out until they get bored?" Aubrey suggested.

       "Yeah, but they could just get back to destroying everything," Gideon pointed out. "And eat our candy."

        I pondered for a little bit. What could make the hairy gumdrop things go away? Then a light bulb switched on in my head.

         "I have an idea," I said. Everyone turned to look at me. 

         "If the monsters like candy," I began. "What if we lure them out with it?"

         "But what if the monsters come back?" Gideon asked. "Then how are we going to keep getting rid of them? We can't use candy again."

          "We could hide a bunch of candy in the woods. That'll distract the hairy gumdrops for a while and they might think the forest gives them candy or something."

         "How sure do you think that this would work?" 

          "About 40% sure?" I replied. 

           "C'mon, Gideon, it's the only idea we got. Or we could just spend two hours trying to get them out of the house," Pacifica said.

            Gideon hesitated. "Fine, we'll do Y/N's idea," he sighed.

            Everyone huddled around me. "Okay, guys," I said. "Aubrey and Tiffany would make a trail of candy. Gideon and Pacifica would go to the woods and hide a bag of candy there. I'll stay here in case if the monsters come back."

             "Let's go!" Pacifica cheered. 

             "Wait," Gideon began.  I froze, thinking Gideon would scoff at my idea.

             "I'll get the walkie-talkies," he said.

Fifteen minutes later

             "Candy trail ready?" I asked.

             "Yep!" I heard Aubrey's voice crackle over the walkie-talkie.

             "Is the candy bag in the woods?"

            "Yes, Captain Y/N!" Pacifica affirmed.

            "Alright," I said to myself. "I just have to get these hairy gumdrops out of here."

             I strolled into the living room, broom in hand. I stared at the monsters as I grabbed the remote from a chair. I switched the TV off. 

             The candy monsters stirred. I immediately started whacking them, in case they were going to attack me. They flew thruogh the air, slamming against the furniture in the kitchen. Dang, I have a long aim. 

            I didn't give them a chance to recover as I kept whacking the hairy gumdrops to the backyard. I quickly slammed the door as I hit the last one. Hopefully, they would see the candy and follow the trail. 

              I peeked through the little window on the door. The monsters were following the candy trail! They were scampering after it like puppies when they see bacon.

             I got out the walkie-talkie. "The monsters are following the trail! I repeat, the monsters are following the trail!"

             Tiffany's voice crackled over the walkie-talkie. "Alright. Aubrey and I would leave the area."

             "Got it. Phase 2 begins!"

             "Okay, Gideon and I placed the motherload," Pacifica said.

             "Is it near the candy trail?"

             "Aye-aye, captain!"

              "Y/N, what happened to the kitchen?" someone asked.

              I turned to find Bud staring dumbfounded at the kitchen. I winced. The kitchen looked way worse than when the candy monsters were in here. The table was splintered into a lot of pieces. Monster-sized craters were on the fridge. Water was spouting out of the sink like a fountain. 

            "Uh...." I trailed off. How am I going to get out of this? If I told Bud the truth, he's going to think I'm crazy. If I lied to Bud, that could help me, but what about the others? That left me only one option. 

           "Who's Y/N?" I asked. Then I tried to run past Bud.

           Unfortunately, he grabbed the collar of my shirt. I struggled, with no success. "Listen, kid," he said, rubbing his temples. "You made this mess, and you probably don't want to know your parents about it. I'll pay to get this fixed, but you're gonna have to do something for me."

          "What is it?" I asked. I gulped, hopiong it wasn't anything too bad.

          "You'll work in the Mystery Shack for a few weeks. You'll be doing whatever odd job the other employees or I ask of you. You're not going to get paid. Understand?"

           "Wait, what?"

          "I have enough staff as it is. Besides, you're not working here for long," Bud explained. "Unless you want me to tell your parents about this?"

          "No, I'll work at the Shack!" I said.

           "Good," Bud said. He released me, then walked out of the room.

           I got my walkie-talkie and said, "Hey, are the monsters in the woods?"

           "Yeah," Gideon's voice crackled. "The four of us are coming out. The monsters are probably going to be distracted for a while."

            I breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay, that's good. I was worried something happened."

           "Hey, Y/N?"

           "Yeah?"

           "I just want to say," he began. "you did a good job, coming up with the idea and getting the monsters out. If it weren't for you, they'd probably still be here."

          Gideon thanked me? That wasn't what I was expecting at all.

          "Thanks," I grinned.

            Maybe there's a chance Gideon and I could be friends after all. Then I felt a stab of guilt. What about Jake and Jessica? I can't just forget about them.

            I sigh sadly. What am I going to do?