Friendship Schemes Arc

The Friendship Schemes Arc is the twelfth story arc in SPY x FAMILY.

Anya continues to do her best to strike up a friendship with Damian for the sake of the mission. On the other hand, Yor begins a peculiar friendship with a certain woman that will give Loid enough advantage to continue with Operation Strix.

Summary
This arc starts when the bus driver had a medical emergency which makes the bus extremely late, which means Anya now has time on her hands. Housemaster Henderson talks to Anya, wanting her to help him with carrying school supplies. His actual intentions is to check on how she's doing after getting a tonitrus bolt for "forgetting her handkerchief", when in reality she gave her handkerchief to Damian Desmond to prevent him from getting a tonitrus bolt, with the intention of this act helping with the friendship scheme. Anya declines this, but Housemaster Henderson convinces her by offering to give her tea cakes if she helps. Master Henderson and Anya talk about school and the goal of becoming an imperial scholar. They go through a hallway that have portraits of all of the imperial scholars ever on Eden Academy on the way to Housemaster Henderson's office. Housemaster Henderson tells Anya about how a former Eden Academy imperial scholar made the cakes and how they spent years refining the recipe, then asking if Anya can perceive the depths of their flavour. Anya, saying that she likes that they're sweet, makes Housemaster Henderson think she's utterly shallow for the second time in this chapter. Henderson offers to help Anya with questions she missed on the quiz yesterday, but as Anya ate the tea cakes, she left. From talking this Housemaster Henderson, Anya finds motivation to study, which leads Loid Forger to the conclusion that she got another tonitrus bolt and faints from the disappointment and shock.

The next day, Yor asks Anya if she wants to have her pick anything up for her as she was going to do a little shopping. Anya asks for the crunch tea cakes that Master Henderson gave her, which she doesn't know the brand of, but Yor says she'll try her best to find them. She ends up going to a department store in search for the crunchy tea cakes and she goes to the stairs to go to the lower floor after rejecting an employees offer at a makeup shop and instead asking where the bakery is. She encounters a woman, later to be found out her name is Melinda Desmond, and Melinda's assistant, Nola. They are both carrying a many boxes, tall enough to block their vision, Melinda trips when her boxes start becoming unsteady but Yor saves Melinda by catching Melinda with one hand, balacing several boxes on another hand, and balancing more boxes on her left foot, leaving Yor only standing on one foot which impresses Melinda greatly.

Melinda invites her to hang out with her, but Yor refuses as she was determined to buy the cakes, however, Melinda offers Yor her cakes which were the items inside of all the boxes and tells her to take as many as she wants as a token of her gratitude. Yor ends up playing volleyball with a group called the Lady Patriots Society, and because of her being an assasin from an early age, she has no clue how to play volleyball and accidentally continues to break rules as she uses her athleticism to her advantage and even causes a big dent in the floor because of her hitting the volleyball too hard. They go out to what appears to be a fancy restaurant to talk and when Yor is afraid of not fitting in and tried to order the same tea Melinda got, she looked a bit intimidating and asked Yor if she was one of those girls that were afraid about not fitting in which Yor said no to. They ask Yor questions about her marriage and family life and then Yor realizes that not knowing what to do is normal, Melinda then says that she hopes that Yor will have fun with them again. They then get on the topic about Eden Academy and that's when Yor learns that the woman who she saved at the stairs was Melinda Desmond.

Yor talks to Loid about how she met Damian's mother and then Loid tells her that she's famous, which Yor didn't know which led to her being nervous, then saying about how she had a strange air about her. The book takes us back to where it left off as Yor's explaining what happened, at when Melinda told her name, which let Yor make the connection that Anya punched her son, making her immediately apologize for what Anya had done. When Yor was in her nervous state and still trying to apologize, Melinda looked intimidating saying that it's fine and she doesn't really care about that. Melinda's friends change the topic to talking about how lucky Yor is to be hanging out with Melinda, being the First Lady. Yor doesn't know what this means, but she doesn't have to pretend she knows what this means as the others keep talking. S Melinda still hopes to be friends with Yor even with her knowing that she's an important person.

Melinda gives Yor a ride home and they talk about Anya and Damian getting along with each other, Melinda says with the strange air that she does hope that Anya and Damian can stay friends, and then we go back to Yor and Loid’s conversation. Yor shows Anya the cakes that Melinda gifted her and then we see Loid go into Twilight Mode, being suspicious of Yor and Melinda but then reassures himself that Yor isn't an enemy. He continues to be suspicious of Melinda, and Anya reading his mind, feels guilty about asking Yor to get the cakes. Yor then asks Loid if it's okay to atttend, which Loid is more than happy to let her go, with his intentions bith being for the mission but also for Yor being less likely to get reported by the secret police. Loid then creates a new plan C: The Mommy-Friends Scheme. Anya reading his mind, thinks that if plan C is successful she's going to get canned. She wants to be friends with Damian faster than Yor becomes friends with Melinda in order to not be abandoned, which she won't, but this gives her motivation.

Story Impact

 * Melinda Desmond is introduced, revealed to be Donovan's wife and the mother of his sons.