A chess king is said to attack all the squares one step away from it, horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. For instance, a king on the center square of a $3$ x $3$ grid attacks all $8$ other squares, as shown below. Suppose a white king and a black king are placed on different squares of a $3$ x $3$ grid so that they do not attack each other. In how many ways can this be done?

$\textbf{(A)}\ 20 \qquad \textbf{(B)}\ 24 \qquad \textbf{(C)}\ 27 \qquad \textbf{(D)}\ 28 \qquad \textbf{(E)}\ 32$
~Diagram by Andrei.martynau
Corners have $5$ spots to go and there are $4$ corners, so $5 \times 4=20$.
Edges have $3$ spots to go and there are $4$ sides so, $3 \times 4=12$. 
That gives us $20+12=32$ spots to go into totally.
So $\boxed{\textbf{(E)} 32}$ is the answer.
~andliu766