Chapter 2

As soon as the words left Casper's mouth, Ra couldn't stop himself from laughing.

"Thatch? Like a fleshie girl?" he said once he'd caught his breath, "Casper, buddy, I knew you were a friendly ghost, but no one ever told me you were a funny one, too."

Mantha rolled her eyes. "Ra, this is serious."

"Yeah, I mean, look at him," Casper said, gesturing to the vampire, still with a love-struck look on his face. "The signs are all there. Here, I'll show you."

He stood up and motioned for the others to follow him. Once they reached Thatch's table, Casper waved a hand in front of Thatch's face. He received no reaction.

"Dazed, faraway look," he began, ticking it off on his finger as he continued the list, "drooling; I'm pretty sure I've heard him sigh five times since Carly left." As Thatch sighed again, he added, "Six."

"Well," Ra said, "we don't know that it's because of her. He could be thinking about anyone."

"Hey, what's that written on the table?" Mantha wondered, and the boys' gaze drifted to where she was pointing. Next to Thatch's hand, which held a pencil, was a little doodle of a bleeding heart.

Inside the heart, he had written "Th + C."

Ra and Mantha gasped. "Casper," said Ra, "as usual, you're right." Returning to their table, they were still unable to remove the looks of shock from their faces. "Wow," Mantha finally said after a while, "Thatch likes a fleshie girl."

"Yeah," Ra added, "too bad she's never gonna give him the time of day."

As Mantha joined in on the laughter, she said, "I've got two words for you guys-Black, mail."

Casper weakly giggled along, although the two words in his mind rarely ever strung themselves together.

Poor Thatch.

…

"Thatch? Thatch!"

Thatch broke out of his daze as Harpy squawked in his ear. "What gives, chicken lips?" he yelled at her.

Harpy squawked again. "Bell rang! Lunch over!"

Once the ringing in his ears subsided, he looked down and noticed what had been written on the table. In his handwriting. Glancing at the clock in the far corner of the wall, he also realized that the ringing was an actual bell.

He was late for class.

Oh, crud, he thought as he quickly stood up, grabbed his backpack, and headed out the door. "See ya, Carly!"

Realizing his mistake too late, he turned back to Harpy's look of confusion. "I mean, Harpy," he corrected.

On his way to Mr. Burns' Science class, he continued to mentally kick himself for what had just happened. "What the heck is wrong with me," he said to himself. "There is no way I would ever like that stupid fleshie. I'm Thatch, for cryin' out loud!"

With his hand lingering over the doorknob, he said to himself, "Alright, Thatch. When you get in there, you're gonna tell the teacher why you're late, and you're gonna walk to your desk without another word. Don't make eye contact with her, don't even acknowledge her existence." Taking a deep breath, he repeated, "I am not in love with a fleshie girl. I am not in love with a fleshie girl."

He entered the classroom, doing his best to look nonchalant, and just as he was about to open his mouth-

There she was. Sitting in his desk.

The second he looked at her, time seemed to stop. He was aware of Mr. Burns' voice in his ear, but all he could say at the moment was "I…uh…" He couldn't remember a single word of his made-up excuse. All he thought now was how could someone look so pretty with their nose buried in a textbook.

No. Stop. It's a fleshie textbook, and there is nothing attractive about that.

"Well, Thatch," Mr. Burns said impatiently, "are you going to tell me why you were late to my class?"

Snapping back to reality, Thatch said, "Oh! Um…I got distracted. Sorry." Hey, it wasn't entirely a lie.

Even though he could see she was busy, he walked up to Carly and said, "Um, excuse me?"

"Ugh," she groaned. He had just gotten there, and she was already sick of him. "What now?"

Now, what Thatch meant to say was, "Move it, fleshie, you're sitting in my seat!", but what came out was, "Uh…you're in…that's my…"

As he continued to stutter, Carly couldn't help but remark, "What's the matter, Thatch? Bat got your tongue?"

Everyone expected Thatch to fight back, throw a few insults and maybe a threat or two in her face, but he just sat down in the desk right next to hers and told her, "Know what? It's fine. You…you can sit there." She had clearly stopped paying attention to him a long time ago, but he just couldn't stop rambling. "But just keep in mind," he stammered, "for future reference? That's my seat. So…so next time you're in this class, don't sit there 'cause that's my seat."

"Okay, yeah, I get it," Carly said, obviously annoyed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm trying to do my 'fleshie homework' as you so affectionately call it, so unless you know the Pythagorean Theorem, I suggest you shut your yap!"

"Just so you don't forget, you wanna switch seats real quick?"

"That tears it!" she screamed, slamming her book shut and raising her hand. "Mr. Burns, may I please be excused? I'm trying to concentrate, and Blood Breath over here won't leave me alone."

"Carly, you may leave," Mr. Burns said, nodding. Then he nodded at Thatch, saying, "Thatch, see me after class."

Thatch realized what had just happened, and quickly hid behind his textbook to hide the fact that he was blushing.

This is not happening.

…

A short while later…

"So I thought Mr. Bradley had caught me with his Creature Catcher machine, I start freaking out, yelling "Jimmy help Jimmy help!" I turn around, and I just got closed in the window."

Ra laughed, even though Casper had told this story before. "Oh, yeah, that is pretty embarrassing, but it's nothing compared to the time Mantha caught me using her-"

He stopped when he heard a faint yet familiar voice nearby. "This is not happening. This is not happening," it kept saying.

Casper and Ra followed the voice to an old storage closet that was no longer in use. Casper opened the door and found Thatch sitting on an overturned box and muttering, "This is not happening," over and over again.

"Thatch? Are you oka-"

"Help me," Thatch interrupted, grabbing them both by the collar and yanking them into the closet with him.

…

I did not expect this chapter to be so long. Hopefully, it was worth it.

It may be a while before I get the next chapter written. I have a ton of ideas for it and I can't decide which one I like best. Just stay tuned for now!