Do not own JTHM or Squee! Why must i remind myself this?

Ariel Barrio

It was 6:00 am as a radio alarm went off. The radio was playing the song "Bodies" by Drowning Pool. As the chorus sprung out with a loud scream of "FLOOR!", a teenage girl shot up from her bed in terror.

"Awa...Awake...!" she mumbled as she tumbled out of her bed to turn off the ear-piercing music, "Gotta get ready…" Slowly but steadily, she tossed off her pajamas (which happened to be nothing more than a pair of shorts and an old t-shirt). She then put on a pair of blue jean pants and her favorite black top. She liked this top the most because it had her favorite cartoon character on it. Though she was already 17, she still very much liked to watch cartoons. She went to the bathroom to brush her wavy yet thick dark brown hair. She decided to wear it down today because it had been cold outside lately. She did not put on any make-up, for she believed it to be a waste of time. Instead, she put on her thick black eyeglasses. Last, she put on a pair of socks and some sneakers before heading downstairs.

Once she was downstairs, she could smell the scent of bacon in the atmosphere. She then saw her older brother making breakfast in the kitchen.

"Morning," he said with a slight yawn, "You hungry, Ariel?" She shook her head slowly.

"No, Javy. You know I hate bacon," she responded, "And who has a BLT for breakfast anyway?"

"A man!" he grinned, "So stop calling me by that nickname; it's Javier now. You know I start college in a couple of weeks."

"Again? What was wrong with that two-year college you were going to?"

"I graduated there, you fool! Shows how much you pay attention."

"Oh, really?" she scratched her head, "Hmm. Must have forgot."

"You have the memory of a fish, you know that?" he sighed, "We're moving in two weeks and this new college is in the next city. You're going to wake up and go, 'Crap, was I sleep walking again?'" His sister grumbled at his statement.

"Hey, you seen my good luck charm anywhere?" she asked, going through one of the cabinets in the kitchen.

"By the phone," he answered. Ariel saw a little black figurine, it was clay painted black. The figure looked like somewhat of a lizard with yellow beads for eyes, curly white pipe cleaners for what might have been horns, and a detached zipper heading from it's neck down to it's belly. Her brother made a disgusted face as she picked it up and put it in one of her backpack pockets.

"Why do you carry that weird thing around?" he finally asked, "It's creepy."

"I told you, it saved me from those mental meth-heads that tried to attack me in the 4th grade."

"What saved you was me. I'm the one who beat the living crap out of them with my baseball bat."

"Yeah, but it brought me the luck that you came to rescue me." Javier shook his head in disappointment.

"That didn't even make since, you loser," he sighed.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm heading for skool now." Ariel put on her red and black beanie that was hanging on the key rack and swung her backpack over her shoulder. Javier stuck his head in the hallway as he watched her leave.

"You don't want a ride?" he asked her. She opened the front door and turned halfway to him.

"I'm fine on my bike. Besides, doctor wants me to do something physical." With that, she walked out the front door.

"And stop hanging your hat on the key rack," her brother called, "It's for keys, I tell you! KEYS!"

The Boy Who Cried SQUEE!

Ariel road her bike on the neighborhood sidewalk. As she road, thoughts of her skool life traveled rapidly through her head.

"Man, I hope I don't have to deal with those snobby preps today," she mumbled to herself, "Or those 'gangsta' wannabes. Or those emo losers. Or those satanic Goths. Or those crack-head skaters. Or those lame teachers. Or those crazy…" The teen continued on with her irrelevant rant of hate for every subculture in school and began to pedal faster in frustration. While going at full speed, she then suddenly spotted a young boy standing still on the sidewalk. "Hey! Look out!" she yelled at him. The boy turned around to see her speeding towards him.

"SQUEEEE!" he 'screamed' and covered his head with his tiny arms. Right before she was about to hit him, she slammed on the breaks and flew over him, creating a head-on collision with the sidewalk. The boy, finally looking up, saw her twitching on the ground while a little blood started trickling down the cracks of the sidewalk. He took a few steps closer to her.

"M-miss?" he asked meekly. He gently pulled on her shirt to see if she was at least still alive.

"Don't. Touch. Me," she murmured loudly to him. Ariel then jumped up as if nothing had happened. She stood there facing away from the boy for a couple of seconds. After those couple of seconds passed, she swung her head over to him causing a ribbon of blood to fly away from the wound on her forehead.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, KID?!" she screamed at him loudly. The boy flinched at her outburst. "YOU'RE LUCKY I HAVE A HARD HEAD OR I COULD HAVE FREAKIN DIED! HELL, YOU COULD HAVE FREAKIN DIED! DO YOU WANT THAT? HUH?! DO YA?!"

"N-n-no!!" the child whimpered, "I'm s-s-sorry!" Ariel gasped for breath, but saw the boy was on the verge of tears. She then steadily calmed herself down.

"N-no, that's all right… I was going too fast anyway," she said in an apologetic tone, "Sorry about flaming on you like that." She waited for a response from the tiny child but he just stared at her, trembling with his large eyes. He looks like a Chihuahua, she thought to herself and chuckled a little. "Um, my name's Ariel. Ariel Barrio. What's your name, kid?" she asked as she squatted down to reach his height. The boy fiddled with his fingers a little but then finally spoke out.

"Todd…" he said quietly.

"Todd, eh? That's cool," she said as she wiped her bleeding head with her homework. Man, I really do have a hard head, she thought, That could of given anyone a concussion! "How come I never see you playing outside like all the other kids, Todd? This explains why I've never seem you before." The boy just stared at her. "Um, what were you staring at anyway?" she asked him. Todd slowly looked over to the house they were standing in front of. The house was old and a little small. The windows were blocked off with wooden boards and the lawn was dead except for a couple of weeds. All in all, it was pretty creepy.

"Oh, that's were that guy lives," Ariel stated as she stared, "He never comes out, does he? I wonder what he does all day…" Suddenly a loud scream could be heard coming from inside the house. Todd ran behind Ariel in terror. "Hey, don't worry," she smiled, "He's probably just watching Psycho or something like that." Ariel felt blood trickle down her face from her head wound. She knew she couldn't go to school looking like a bloody mess.

"Hey, I wonder if he's home?" she stated. She then turned to Todd. "Stay here, Todd, I'm going to go ask for a band-aid."

"No! You can't!" the little Todd cried as he grabbed onto her shirt.

"Hey, I'll be fine!" she chuckled at his overexcitement, "I mean, it's not like he's a killer or something." Leaving Todd behind, she began to walk down the walkway to the creepy house. When she finally reached the porch she stared at the doorbell. "Ring me, I dare you?" she read the words on the doorbell out loud, "How charming." With that she pressed the doorbell, which let out an agonizing scream. Ariel quickly brought her finger back to her and looked around. "What the-?" she looked up at the gray sky, "A bird… or something?" She pressed the doorbell again as the scream echoed once more. "This guy… just a bit weird…" Suddenly she felt a strange aura. It had actually been there the whole time but she hadn't felt it until she hit the doorbell. She felt some chill bumps rise as she took a gulp. "Hey Todd, I-," Ariel turned to where she left the boy but he had already ran off. "Huh," she let out, "Must be late for skool… Oh crap! Skool!" Forgetting about her injured head she dashed off the porch got on her bike and began to ride off.

As she rode away, a dark bony hand clenched on to one of the boards that were blocking off the window. A pair of deep red eyes that stared out the boarded window soon followed this action. They watched Ariel as she disappeared into the morning sun.

Tales From the Skool

The teenage girl finally reached the High Skool she went to. She chained her bike up and began to walk inside. She walked through the great hall, where all the kids like to hang out. The teachers made it a rule not to, but who listens to teachers these days? Ariel stared at all the students who seemed to be laughing at some of the most stupidest things.

Uugh, how can they be so content? Ariel thought in disgust. She stared down at the ground and tried to block out the senseless conversations. She imagined herself at her grandmother's house. She sat at an old table that may have been there since the 60's. In front of her was a plate of tamales. She picked one of the tamales up and brought it up to take her first bite.

"Arrrri-eeel!" screamed the tamale. The girl's daydream was broken by a loud, obnoxious voice coming from behind. Before she could even turn her head to see who it was, she was tackled/squeezed by a tall teenage boy.

"GLOMP!" he screamed as Ariel struggled to break free.

"James!" she growled in a muffled tone, "Lemme go, you loser!"

"Wat up, freaks?" said a voice with a Hispanic accent. A boy a little shorter than James walked up to them, waving with one hand and holding a Brainfreezy in the other. "Having another fun-filled morning, eh chaparita?"

"I most certainly am not, Chewy!" shot Ariel, "I have a six-foot black guy stuck to me right now!"

"Oye…You don't know how wrong that just sounded," he said, with a nervous chuckle.

"Not as wrong as this!" shouted a female voice. Suddenly another teenage girl jumped on Chewy and swung her arms around his neck, "Chewy, when are we having sex?!" she grinned.

"Good morning, Saiyuri," said James, finally letting go of Ariel.

"Back atcha!" she replied as she let her grip on Chewy go.

"I don't see what's so good about it," groaned Ariel, "I mean, were at skool fer Pete's sake.

"Well, you're negative as always," laughed Chewy.

Ariel's group of friends seemed to be a little diverse. James was, how he would say, the 'token black guy' though he didn't act at all like the ghetto-thugs Ariel despised. He was just very energetic. Saiyuri was Asian, Japanese to be exact. She was probably as crazy as James, just in girl a form. Chewy on the other hand was Hispanic, like Ariel. Only difference was that he had an accent as if he had just came to the U.S. from Mexico, while Ariel was a Chicano. His nickname, 'Chewy' was probably short for Jesus. It was obvious that Ariel hated her friends but not as much as everyone else at skool. That's why she hung out with them.

"Hey guys, you know what happened this morning?" Ariel was going to tell them about the kid she had met a little while before.

"WHOA!" James exclaimed, "Ariel's starting a conversation?"

"Is she sick? Maybe she should have stayed home." Chewy took off her hat to check if she had a fever. Instead, he saw a piece of bloody cloth tied around her forehead.

"What the?!" exclaimed James.

"Eeeww!" Saiyuri stuck her tongue out.

"Orale, chica! What the hell happened to you?!" Chewy finished. Ariel grabbed her hat and put it back on her head.

"Shut up!" she growled, "That's what I was going to talk to you guys about! I was riding my bike until I had to dodge this little kid. The landing was my head and the concrete, okay? I was going to ask this guy for band-aid but… he didn't answer the door."

"First off, with that wound, I think you're going to need a bit more than a band-aid," chuckled the Asian.

"Well, you seem to be walking; I always knew your hard head would come in handy," James smiled as she glared at him, "Did you loose any more brain cells?"

"Yeah," she replied rubbing her head, "I haven't lost this many brain cells since my brother and I watched Monty Python's Personal Best."

"Who's door did you go to?" Chewy came in, "He's got to be a jerk to not help a injured girl."

"Well…" Ariel trailed off, "It was…you know… that old house that's all boarded up on my street. Number 777." The teens all froze, while their eyes grew wide. Chewy's Brainfreezy slipped through his hands as it splashed all over the floor. Ariel stared at them strangely.

"What's up with you guys?" she asked, almost afraid to.

"Ariel, are you crazy?!" Chewy yelled. Almost everyone in the great hall stopped to look at the quad. After a few seconds, they started to mind their own business again.

"Why'd you yell?" she asked him.

"Ariel, nobody ever goes near House 777!" cried Saiyuri.

"Yeah, that guy who lives there is demented! You're lucky to be alive!" added James.

"Aw, come on you guys," Ariel laughed, "You're taking this too seriously. I mean, sure he never comes out of his house and almost nobody knows what he looks like…but that doesn't make him bad!"

"Yeah right!" said James, "I heard that he drags people who disrespected him into his house and mutilates their bodies with his horrid tools of DISTRUCTION!!"

"I know!" Saiyuri came in, "I heard this girl made fun of the way he looked and he struck a scythe through her mouth!"

"Yeah, I remember a story about a lady calling him goofy and he ripped out her intestines with a spork," added Chewy.

"No, no. You got it wrong Chewy, it wasn't goofy it was freaky. And the 'lady' was a transvestite," James corrected him.

"Really? I heard she called him ludacrissy. And wasn't she an alpaca llama?"

"Guys, please!" Ariel tried to shut them up. Chewy sighed.

"Well, whatever the stories say, it's a good thing you're safe," he told her.

"Yeah, yeah," she sighed, "Look you guys, I'm going to be late for class. I'll see you later." Ariel waved to them as she walked away.

"Later," Chewy waved as the others copied.

"So anyway," Saiyuri tried to continue, "I heard he's GAY!"