~Chapter 1: Lies and Rumors~

What a horrible week! And Frankie had only made it worse not only for herself but now for others. Who knew fitting in could be so hard? Was it supposed to be this hard? Frankie ran out of the Creepateria and down the hall into the Pool and started to cry again. Lagoona had gotten out of the pool and was dabbing herself with a towel when Frankie said, "I have to tell you..." But Lagoona already knew, "I know, everybody knows. I see you made your choice." She said starting to walk again, "Nice work Newbie." Right when Frankie was about to burst into tears again she heard another in the Pool area with her. Going around the corner she saw Cleo standing there.

"You!" Cleo said angrily, "Following me? Haven't you done enough?" She then turned and raised her hand as she left, "You are dead to me!" Frankie just stood there, unsure of what to think or even what to say anymore. Was it safe to talk? She didn't know, but all she could do was finish the day off and try to make things right tomorrow.

Friday ~

The next day at Monster High Frankie tried to find Clawdeen and Draculaura. She finally succeeded when she went into the Ghouls Room.

"A little more to the left." Clawdeen said as an invisible Draculaura was attempting to apply a new coat of lipstick. "No, too far."

"Uhhh... Well..."

"Don't talk you'll mess up the lips!"

They both stopped once they noticed Frankie was standing there behind them and turned away.

"Yeah I know I messed up big time, epic! I can't take it back but I can make things right. But only with your help." Frankie said as Clawdeen and Draculaura turned around, Draculaura's face being worthy of a few laughs due to how she had squiggled her lipstick all over the place. But moving on!

"So yeah there's this thing that we need to talk to you about." Clawdeen was coaxing Cleo out of the classroom with a little nudge from Draculaura. And right as Cleo turned she saw Deuce with Frankie and the tears started again and all the hurt came back. "So NOT cool!" Cleo stomped adding emphasis with her arms as she turned to leave. "Wa-wa-wait!" Frankie begged. "Cleo I am so sorry, I totally lied! Deuce is not never was and never will be my boyfriend! No excuse I was just wanted you to like me..."

As Deuce made his way over to Cleo she turned around. And instead of being forgiving, she was enraged. "You honestly think you can make a fool out of me?" She stated standing up straight, her head held high. "I will not forgive you for this. And as if that would ever happen, me 'like you'?" Cleo then laughed. "As if!" She then turned to Deuce who was standing there with a look of shock on his face for the moment. "We are over, Deuce! DEAD!" Not knowing what to say as Cleo walked away from the small group, they all stood there in silence. Well, almost near silence. The snakes on Deuce's head made a slight hiss here and there.

"Well," Draculaura started. "That went really well." Clawdeen and the others just looked at her as if she was dumb. "I am so sorry, I can't express it enough just how sorry I truly am." Frankie said as she turned to Deuce, no expression could be seen on his face now especially with his eyes hidden behind his red sunglasses. All he did was slowly walk away from the girls. "It's gonna be alright Frankie." Clawdeen tried to sound reassuring to the strangely stitched together monster. "Cleo and Deuce have their own moments and work through them. I bet this'll be no different." Frankie looked at Clawdeen. How could the werewolf girl be so sure? I mean yeah, she'd known them both longer but still. Things looked really bad! And the thing is, Frankie didn't know just how bad things were really about to seem. To certain people at least.

2 weeks later ~

"Oh... My... GHOUL!" Draculaura burst into the classroom excitedly and took a seat next to Frankie and Clawdeen. Since everything that had happened during Frankie's first week at Monster High the girls had bonded more and gotten closer. Even Lagoona was in and out a bit as she did have her own classes involving her environmental studies. But she would hang with them whenever they had their get togethers at the Maul or set up sleep overs. Heck even Ghoulia was able to sneak away from Cleo to have some time away from being bossed around. Less tension on her not quite so dead brain cells ya know? But anyways back to Draculaura's excitement!

"What's up?" Frankie asked her eyes shining a little. "Have you read Spectra's latest blog?" Draculaura asked.

"Uhhhhh... No." Clawdeen and Frankie said at the same time.

"Well you should!" Draculaura pulled out her iCoffin and started to scroll. "It's about Cleo and Deuce!"

"No way!" Clawdeen said snatching the vampire's phone out of her hands and reading.

"Let me see!" Frankie said leaning over as far as she could, until her foot got caught on the leg of her chair and popped off causing her to fall to the floor right as Mr. Where, their teacher for the class, walked in.

"And now students if you could all please sit in the up right position and put your gizmos and gadgets away, we shall begin the days activies." Mr. Where said as he grabbed the chalk and started to write the days subject and chapters of study up on the blackboard. Oh how the ghouls couldn't wait for the class to end so they could get on with reading Spectra's blog. Hurry up already!

After the class the ghouls met up in the Creepateria for lunch and found themselves a secluded little table and gathered around. "What's up Gils?" Lagoona asked as she sat down next to Frankie, "What's all the chatter about?"

"Draculaura is looking for Spectra's latest blog article." Frankie answered.

"Yeah apparently it's got to do with Cleo and Deuce." Clawdeen said as she took a huge bite out of her burger. The meat was delicious and Draculaura was too distracted with her phone to even notice the blood dripping from the raw hamburger. Now even that made the other ghouls shiver a bit and make a weird face. "Cleo and Deuce? Think they got back together then?"

"We're not sure. That's why we're waiting to read the article." Frankie sounded a little hopeful. 'If they got back together then maybe what happened a couple of weeks ago can just be forgotten.' She thought as she poked at the food on her tray almost as if she was waiting for it to get up and move.

"Ah ha! I found it!" Draculaura said as she waved her iCoffin around only to once again have it snatched by Clawdeen who then started to read:

"Monster High's hottest couple Cleo de Nile and Deuce Gorgon split up? Well no way! It seems the couple of going steady for almost a year are moving onto other things! That's right! Cleo has been spotted with a mystery man without a face and Deuce has been seen making plans with Clawd Wolf that are being kept on the hush-hush! But rumor has it that these super spookirific plans are for a new ghoul Deuce has his eyes set on! Possibly waiting for the right time to surprise the ghoul he's been eyeing! So who are the plans for and who is this faceless man you ask? Who knows! Keep reading faithful viewers!"

The ghouls just sat there in silence. 'Well so much for that.' Frankie thought to herself as she rested her chin in the palm of her hand and went back to poking at her food again. "Is she serious?" Clawdeen finally said. "A 'faceless man'?" Lagoona asked, "Who could that be?"

"And is Deuce really making secret plans with Clawd for someone else besides Cleo?" Draculaura looked around at the others for a bit. Everyone was a bit lost in thought.

"Maybe the plans are for Cleo." Lagoona piped up, "Maybe Deuce isn't over her yet like Spectra claims he is and he really wants to try and get her back. And there's quite a few 'faceless men' that roam these hallways so no telling who that could be exactly."

"Well I haven't seen her with anyone here lately." Frankie finally spoke. "I always just see her alone. Walking alone... Sitting alone... Always alone..." Clawdeen had to cut her off. "Alright enough with that!" She said. "You tried to make things right and Cleo didn't want it so let's just forget about it."

"Yeah! You even went out of your way to get Justin Biter to come to Monster High to perform just for her and she didn't even listen long enough to know he was here." Draculaura added. But all Frankie could do was hang her head. "I'm not really hungry right now." She said standing up with her tray as she took it to a trash can, dumped the food in, and then left the Creepateria. Once she reached her locker she had to zap the lock again. It had been sticking a lot here lately and she didn't know why exactly. Upon opening it up an envelope floated down to her feet and landed. Frankie just sorta stood there and stared at it for a bit before finally kneeling down and picking it up. It was a cute little envelope she had to admit. It was a pretty lilac color with a star sticker being used to keep the flap closed. With a smile she gently peeled the sticker away and opened it pulling out a thin piece of paper from inside and opened it. Once she started to read she was struck with a warm fuzzy feeling somewhere inside she could quite explain.

'Your eyes are like gemstones when they shimmer, with such radiance that is only befitting of one as true as you. So please don't let us go without even a glimmer, as I only wish for us to be true."

Frankie smiled at the letter and glanced around a bit. 'Who could it possibly be from?' She wondered. The only person she could really think of was Heath Burns seeing as he hadn't stop trying to 'hang out' with her or 'get her number or email'. But if it was from Heath, it was a rather sweet letter. Kinda out of character for him though. 'Shimmer and Glimmer?' She thought, 'He's really trying!' Frankie found it rather romantic. Closing up her locker she tucked the envelope away in her books and started off for her next class with the ghouls, a rather big smile could be seen on her face that she just couldn't hide. Even if she wanted to.