*{Chapter 1}

The ghoul giggled softly, cuddling and rocking her most precious of pets, her mutated moth larva, Silkie. It wiggles joyfully in her arms, giving her a happy smile that revealed peddle sized white teeth and a pink-grey tongue. She gently pet its somewhat yellow head, cooing over it.
"Who's a scary-berry cutie-pie?" she asked, her voice perky. "Who's a scary-berry cutie-pie? You are, yes you are. That's right!"
"Who's a tickle monster?" Beast Boy, her father, said, sneaking up behind her. "Who's a tickle monster? I am, yes I am."
"Oh no you're not," she said, dodging him with fast reflexes. "Not today anyway, you'll wrinkle my cape."
"You're such a meanie." Her father said from her onyx colored bed, a deep frown on his face as he pouted. "What kind of daughter doesn't let her own father tickle her? Big meanie…"
"Sorry, dad, but I've got a date later." She answered, lifting the moth larva in the air. She wiggled it around for a moment and then pressed the giggling larva baby to her chest. It wiggled about, happy.
"A date?" her father stood instantly. "With who? What's his name? Do I know him? What does it take to knock him off the face of this earth?"
"Oh, daddy," she whined, passing him and going over to flop down on her bed. She did just that, still holding Silkie. "It's with Jarr'ah, just like it always is."
"Hmmm," Beast Boy thought for a moment, turning into a monkey. He sat in midair on one leg, putting his ankle to his knee as he folded his arm and put the other hand to his chin, making a thinking pose. His face grew playfully serious as he pretended to think. "And I have nothing to suspect, right? There's nothing going on between you two, correct?"
"Of course not, daddy." The ghoul sang, lifting Silkie in the air once more. She lowered it, placed a kiss to its forehead. It smiled brightly, still giggling. "There can't be anything going on between us. Jarr'ah likes other mansters, if you haven't noticed."
"Don't go getting all smart with me, young lady." Beast Boy said, now jumping and transforming into a sloth in midair. He landed next to his daughter, slowly turning onto his side. He put a hand to his head, causing his elbow to make a crease in the black purple-blue bed. His other hand went to his hip. "I totally knew that, I was just checking!"
"Whatever," the ghoul sang again, sighing loudly as she lowered Silkie to her again. She sat the moth larva to her stomach, began to pet it. "It's not like I would have a chance with him anyway…"
"What do you mean?" Beast Boy asked, turning into a green puppy now, with darker green spots. He cuddled up to his daughter, preparing to listen to her rant as he got comfortable.
She put Silkie down next to her side, transforming herself. She turned into a white-grey dove bird, flew over to her window seat. She sat, sighing once more. She picked up one of her new textbooks, skimmed through it. "Don't worry, dad. It's nothing…really."
"You sure, kitten? I'm happy to help if you need it." the green puppy said, now turning into a bat as it flew over to the window seat. Beast Boy transformed back into his original form, gave his daughter a kind, caring smile. The ghoul lifted her dark purple eyes to her father, glimpsing at the frown lines on his face. He's aged. He was now old with dull green hair that had a coat of grey over it. His eyes had now become tired and weary, and they had bags under them. You wouldn't be able to see due to his thick square glasses, but if you looked close enough…Not to mention he had frown lines on his forehead. She now saw that her father had aged somewhat in the years, but still he was quite handsome, and still as ever, green. She returned his kind and caring smile with a gentle grin.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Thanks anyway, daddy." She said softly, quietly as she lowered her eyes back to her textbook.
"Alright," Beast Boy sighs, giving up. He knew enough from experience with his wife Raven when to leave a half-demon woman alone. "Well, is there anything that you'd like for dinner?"
"I'm not really that hungry, and I doubt I'll get hungry later. I guess…I'll just eat Rox." The ghoul shrugs, unsure.
"You mean that one cereal Raven buys you and it's made with rocks from planet Mars?" Beast Boy asks, confused. All he ever ate, even until this day, was tofu and nothing more.
"Yep," the ghoul tried to grin coolly. "They are sugar coded in pixie dust and melting sugar crystals. They taste really yummy with two percent goat milk, but then again…organic Yak milk works too."
"Such a silly girl," Beast Boy shakes his head disappointedly, dropping a hand to his daughter's head. He pets her smooth, long wild untamable curly dark purple hair, scratching through it. "And to think I raised you on tofu. I knew I should've let Raven watch you for a second, my precious scary-berry sweet-pie."
"Yeah, well, I'm glad mom did watch me." The ghoul says, shaking his hand off her head. "What kind of monster only lives on tofu? Gro-oss."
"You'll understand when you're older, kiddo. Now don't come back too late, got it? Raven will have a fit if I allow you to stay out too late." Beast Boy stands, turning into a kangaroo.
The ghoul giggles, watching as he hops off. "Got it, daddy." She calls.
A gentle smile finds her soft face. Although she looked more like her mother with her identical dark purple eyes and hair with her grey-white skin, she was happy to look somewhat like her father. She had his pointy elf ears that had been all too big and his odd sharp bottom teeth fangs, but she wouldn't trade her feature for anything in the world. She was happy, proud to be like her father in any way, just as she was with her mother.

"Black cape attire, again?" Jarr'ah the Avatar greeted, a cool grin on his blue with dark blue tiger striped face.
"Yeah, and?" Moratalia said, giving him a look. What had been wrong with her onyx cloak? She liked it, and that's all that was important.
"Fine, I'll back off." Jarr'ah shrugged his black leathery jacket shoulders.
Moratalia looked him up and down, a dark purple eyebrow lifted. "Ummm, don't you think you may be a little overdressed?"
The Avatar looked down at his black leather coat with the white v-neck shirt and faded jeans. He glanced back up to his best friend. "You think so? I thought I looked purrfect."
The ghoul shook her head, as her father had done earlier. She took a seat on the creamy light brown bubbly L-shaped benched. "Well, hun, put it like this: this is the Black Lagoon Café, not some cheesy Normies movie where the guys dance around with tall troll-looking hair and sing."
"Whatever." The manster's bright yellow eyes rolled. He then flicked his eyes to the side, lifting his black eyebrows. "Anyway, cute monster past the bamboo plant, six forty-two o'clock."
Moratalia looked over to where he had been hinting at, leaned back in her seat to eye the manster curiously. He had, just as Jarr'ah said cute with blue skin and a black tattoo that marked along his face, shaped around his right eyes. His hair had been made of blazing red, orange, and yellow flames and his eyes like a sunrise. Lying on his neck is a pair of black and orange headphones. As for his chose of clothing, he'd been dressed in a red leather jacket with gold stitching, and under that jacket had been a one-side-white and one-side-black shirt. His pants had been black and purple pinstripe with a flame pattern and around his waist was a yellow belt. His shoes were black and yellow high-top sneakers.
Moratalia leaned forward, her eyes widen excitedly. "Oh my darkness, you're so right! He's a total cutie!"
"I know right?" Jarr'ah said, leaning in too. "But do you think he likes guys? You know…the way I like guys?"
"Does it matter?" Moratalia rolled her eyes. "Just GO!"
"Okay, fine!" Jarr'ah said, biting his lip in excitement. He lifted from his seat, biting his lip even harder. He gave one last look of hope to his best friend. She encouraged him with a bright smile. He gave an official nod before beginning to walk around the bamboo plant. When he was finally around it, around the very plant that separated him and the cute flaming head blue skinned boy, he froze nervously.
Holt Hyde gave the shy lanky manster a cool, friendly smile.
"Hey there." he said, lifting his finger to Jarr'ah, making a hand-gun.
The now shy Avatar manster nodded his head, his heart pounding nervously and his knee feeling somewhat knobby. He swallowed the lump in his throat, taking a seat across from Holt before he gave himself time to hesitate. He blinked his eyes up to Holt for a moment and blinked them back down, smiling timidly. "Um…h-hi. I'm…um, sorry to bother you, but do you…maybe go to Monster High?"
Holt stared confusedly at the bashful manster before his with the feminine also blue face that had been biting his lip. His face was somewhat red. "Yeah, I do," he finally answered, his smile confident. "I'm a sophomore there, a known DJ too."
"You are?" the Avatar manster leaned forward, interested and curious in Holt. His knee buckled together in nervousness as bats invaded his stomach. Again, he swallowed the lump in his throat, lowering his eyes as he gave a nod, leaning away as he smiled shyly. "That's so cool."
"Isn't it?" Holt said, gulping down his Bed bug latte, with extra creamy, fluffy white Phantom Foam.
Jarr'ah put the knuckles of his fist to his lower neck, near his collarbone. He hoped that his voice didn't sound as squeamish and bashful as he felt. "Do you DJ at a lot of parties?"
"Yep, almost all the time, the fans can't get enough of me and I always love playin' a good tune." Holt answers, flicking one of the cherry bombs into his mouth. Jarr'ah watches, lifting his eyes again. His lips part.
"Aren't those, like, suppose to be super hot…or something?" he asks.
"Yep, but only the hottest of monsters can eat them." Holt winked.
Jarr'ah tried hard to suppress his giggle, instead he bit his lip. "Oh…I didn't know."
"Well now you do, but you know something? I'm in the mood for something sweet." Holt said, standing. He removed himself from the two seat-er booth. "Be back in a sec." he promised.
Jarr'ah nodded, watching as he walked off. Quickly he lifted from his seat, slid from the two seat-er booth, and pranced to the other side of the bamboo plant. His face turned red as he slid back to his seat across from Moratalia. "Oh my Na'vi, did you see that? He winked! Oh my Na'vi, please tell me that you saw that."
"Yeah, yeah, I saw, I saw." Moratalia said, waving his excitement away.
Jarr'ah tried not to bounce in his seat. "Do you think it means something? Oh, never-mind, I'd rather not have you ruin this for me! Oh, here he comes, wait a sec, 'kay?"
"Sure." Moratalia said, sighing as she watched her best friend run around the bamboo plant again. She resumed what she had been doing, watching the scene from the corner of her eye.
"Sorry," Holt said, taking a seat again. He sat a bowl of white fluffiness on the table. In the bowl had been two spoons. "I didn't have enough for two. Hope you don't mind."
"Um…o-of course not! Thanks, you didn't have to…really." Jarr'ah said, thanking Holt with a soft smile. He accept Holt's gift of creamy delight, picking up his silver spoon.
"You know," Holt said, stopping Jarr'ah just before he could dig in. Holt picked up his spoon too. "This is Cloud Covers ice cream. Do you know why it's called that?"
"Nope, not really." Jarr'ah smiled, engaged in the conversation. He'd never really thought about why things were named whatever name they were given. He just never gave it much thought before.
"Well they say that it's called "Cloud Covers" because the sweet sugar vanilla ice cream melts over your tongue. They say it's made from goat milk so its suppose to be soft with Yak milk. Or, you know, something like that." Holt said with a charming smile.
"I take it you really like ice cream?" Jarr'ah asked before scooping up some of the ice cream. He sat the spoonful in his mouth, enjoyed its, just as rumored, overall freezing cold creamy sugar taste as it melted in his mouth. He smiled with utter complete satisfaction.
"I guess you could say that." Holt shrugged, taking in a spoonful for himself. He took on the bone-chilling freeze of it, taking another scoop.
Jarr'ah giggled softly. "You're gonna get a brain freeze, hun."
"Hun?" Holt questioned. He swallowed the ice cream, decided not to think much about his name nickname. "Well, whatever, that's alright, pet. I never get brain freezes. If you haven't noticed, heats my thing."
"Well…yeah. You're sort of…hot." Jarr'ah said, looking away as his face brightened to a intense red. Another giggle escaped him.
"You got that right." Holt agreed, eating more of the ice cream.
"Hey," Jarr'ah said, suddenly now looking up and lifting his head to finally meet the flame headed Holt's eyes. "Mind if a friend joins us?"
Holt shrugged. "Why not?"
"Oh, purrfect! Hey, Moratalia, get over here!" Jarr'ah called. Moratalia stood, her shoulders slumping somewhat sadly as she walked over to the other side of the bamboo plant. She greeted Holt with a casual "whatever, I'm not too interested in you that much" wave and took her place next to her best friend. She felt awkward. "Okay, so this is my friend, Moratalia, but feel free to call her something like Tali, or whatever. That's what I usually call her. You won't mind, right, bestie?"
"Whatever." The ghoul shrugged, sinking a bit in her seat.
"I'm Holt, it's nice to meet ya, friend of a friend." Holt said, lifting out his hand. Moratalia looked at it for a moment before she finally shook it.
"Tali, or so I was introduced." She said.
"Coolio, Tali table-turner. Tell me, do you've got a fire hot temper?" Holt said teasingly, still eating the ice cream. Jarr'ah chuckled lightly, eating the ice cream as well. Moratalia glanced at him, knowing to keep her cool for him. After all, he'd made it as far as eating ice cream with the guy. Maybe he'd even be lucky enough to get his phone number.
"No," she answered, still hidden well by her hood. "I don't have a 'fire hot temper', or whatever."
"Al…right then." Holt blinked, wondering if he'd lost his "mojo".
"So Holt," Jarr'ah said, perking up his mood with a lively smile. "What do you're classes look like?"
"Well, I've got Dead Languages, music, and Physical Deaducation, but those are my favorites. The rest…well…you know." Holt answered, shrugging casually.
"Cool," Jarr'ah's smile was bright, yet timid. "Maybe…you could possibly….sometimes help me with my homework. I, um…sort of take that class too, so, you know."
"Sure, why not." Holt leaned back in his seat, full from ice cream. He left the rest for Jarr'ah to eat on his own. "I can't say that I'll be much help, but then again two brains are better than one, right?"
"Right." Jarr'ah replied, his blue face blushing to a bright red. His heart fluttered about in his chest as he took out his iCoffin from his leather jacket pocket. "Let's exchange cell numbers, you know, for later."
Holt blinked, giving a nod. He took out his iCoffin. "Sure, hand over your iCoffin. I'll put my cell number in, and you do the same."
"O-Okay." Jarr'ah said, exchange iCoffins. He pressed the buttons lightly, entering his phone number. With a burst of joy, he pressed save, looking up to Holt. "Um, well, I'm done."
"Nice." Holt said, giving the iCoffin back as he took his own.
Jarr'ah stared excitedly at the screen of his iCoffin for a moment, a bit nervous. He paused, sending a secret text under the table. He pressed the "Send a Scream" button, waiting. Holt's phone vibrated in his pant's front pocket. He took it out, checked the scream. He read it aloud.
"'Hey there, guess who?' – cute, really. You even put a smiley face." Holt said, chuckling.
"Just making sure it wasn't a fake cell number." Jarr'ah said, biting his lip.
Holt nodded understandably. "Yeah, I got it. So hey, I need to go and set up for this gig I'm doing over at Club Jinx. If you two are up for some partying, feel free to come."
"Is…that sort of, like, an invite?" Jarr'ah said, blushing.
Holt shrugged, ever so casually. "Sure."
"Cool, we'll be there, promise!" Jarr'ah said excitedly, his smile beaming.
Holt put up a thumbs-up. "Nice. See you two there, I'll pay for the tab."
"Thanks, Holt!" Jarr'ah called as he walked off. "I owe you one!"
"Thanks Holt!" Moratalia teased, mimicking Jarr'ah's silly wave that Holt didn't even see. "I owe you one!"
"Shut up," Jarr'ah said, pushing Moratalia's arm with his own. "I so don't sound like that."
"It was close enough," Moratalia said, rolling her eyes. "And ew, please, make it even more obvious that you're crushing."
"Didn't I tell you to shut up?" Jarr'ah said, shoving a spoonful of Cloud Covers ice cream into Moratalia's mouth. She shivered, not being fond of the ice cream as Holt and Jarr'ah had.
Well, the ghoul was never one for cold things…