Chapter 2! I really love the way this story is shaping up! I hope you all enjoy! Don't forget to favorite, follow and leave a review! ~Discoballmind
Lunchtime at Monster High was always a frenzy. Literally. So many monsters trying to get their grub could be overwhelming, especially for someone who had never experienced public school at all. And overwhelmed was exactly what Jackson was.
He was the new boy at school, and so far all today had been was trouble. He missed the bus that morning and had to walk to school; He couldn't get into his locker so he had to carry around all his books, and to make things worse, the only person he knew at this brand new school had completely forgotten that he was supposed to show him around. Jackson silently cursed his cousin for that as he tried to wander to the lunchroom.
Across the room, however, Deuce was sitting with Heath and some of his other bluddies, laughing and joking while eating. Deuce managed to briefly catch a sight of Jackson out of the corner of his eye.
"Hey who's that?" The gorgon nudged the fire elemental next to him, motioning towards the familiar sore thumb in the crowd. The fire elemental snorted, bit into his sandwich and proceeded to talk with his mouth completely full.
"That dork over there? That's my Normie cousin, Jackson. I thought mom said he was transferring in
today. I think I was supposed to show him to his classes, but I forgot." He said through a mouthful of meat and bread.
"That's cold, dude." Deuce chided. He looked the boy up and down again."A Normie, huh? I don't think Monster High has seen anything like that before." The gorgon thought. "He's pretty cute too."
A bright yellow hand waving frantically in front of his face shook Deuce out of his thoughts. "Hello? Earth to Deuce?" Heath prodded. The gorgon shook his head and turned to face Heath, slightly embarrassed he had spaced out so quickly.
"Sorry man, I was just thinkin' about how strange it is to see a Normie around these parts. Is he an exchange student or somethin'?"
"Tell me more about your cousin. Jackson's his name right? Did you two grow up together?" Deuce asked a little too quickly. He tried not to sound too eager, but he was afraid it was too late for that. He just hoped that Heath wouldn't comment on his curiosity.
"He was sick a lot as a kid, I didn't really see him often." Heath shrugged. There was much more
too it, but he didn't really feel like he was at liberty to disclose everything about his own flesh and blood, even if it was to one of his best friends.
"Sick?" The gorgon pried, intrigued.
"Well, I'm not sure how Normie human anatomy works-" Started Heath, but he was soon interrupted.
"Of course you don't you hardly passed Monster Anatomy!" Deuce tried to joke. Heath didn't laugh.
"I'm being serious here, Deuce. Like I was saying; I don't really get Normie human anatomy, but I do know that all that changing he had to do as a kid really wore him out."
"Changing?" Deuce questioned again.
"Yeah, his mom is the daughter of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He flip-flops between Jekyll and Hyde, Jackson and Holt."
"Holt? So, he's got like a whole other personality? Whoa."
Heath shook his head. "Nah, think of it as a whole other person living in his body too. And all that switching was hard on his body I guess, but it doesn't matter anyway, Holt's the fun one! He's totally a party animal!"
"Wow, that must be a major bummer, having to share everything with someone, including your own body." Deuce shuddered at the thought of it.
"Yeah, I guess. Jackie hardly got out of his room. Practically spent his whole life in that bed." Heath paused. "I know he read a lot. When you're too tired to move 10 feet I guess you spend a lot of your life in books."
"So he must be pretty smart then, huh?" Deuce reveled aloud. Heath nodded and continued.
"Yeah he's super smart actually. He was never really one to play contact sports. Visiting him was strange; It was like visiting a museum, you know? Look but don't touch. He usually just read to me or tried to play dumb science games with me." Another pause. "Why do you care so much all of a sudden? He's really not that interesting, and you've never even met him" Deuce looked slightly offended as the words rolled out of the fire elemental's mouth.
"Don't say that about your cousin, Dude." He threw a disapproving glance at Heath, but it went unnoticed. "And I have met him before. We played a game of casketball once together once. He was pretty good too; ya sure he was bedridden as a kid?" Deuce did actually wonder about the credibility of Heath's story. It just didn't seem to make sense; one of the two had to be hiding something.
"Look, all I'm saying is that Jackie grew up kinda rough okay? He's had a hard life and I don't think you should pry. If you want to know more about his childhood maybe you should ask him yourself.." The bell rang signaling the end of Lunch. "Anyways, I have that Clawculus test next period, I gotta go." He finished before leaving Deuce alone and confused.
Jackson's Lunch period didn't go as horribly as he thought it would. He sat with a group of ghouls who demanded to show him around afterward and introduce him to everyone at Monster High. Everyone here seemed so nice, except for maybe Manny Taur, but when Manny tried to bully Jackson, more than one person stepped in to defend the Normie and chastise Manny for acting so cruel.
The group of ghouls walked Jackson to his next class, Bite-ology, and while they seemed scared for him, he wasn't worried. Jackson loved science classes and he was sure this one wasn't going to be too different.
When he walked into the classroom he immediately scanned the room for any open seats in the back of the room where he wouldn't be noticed, but then he remembered his promise to his mom and began to look for open seats next to friendly looking monsters.
A snake haired gorgon caught his eye right away. Deuce waved to him happily, pointing at the available seat next to him. Jackson made his way over to the boy and set his stuff down with a shy smile.
"This seat open?" Jackson asked shyly. Deuce gave him a small smirk and shook his head.
"Sure is man." Deuce replied coolly. Jackson sat down in the chair next to the gorgon boy and got settled in, taking out his notebook, pencils, pens, folders and textbook so he was completely ready for class. Next to him Deuce put his feet up on the desk and his hands behind his head.
"Are you not taking notes?" Jackson asked Deuce apprehensively. Deuce chuckled in response.
"Nah, I'll just wing the test when it comes around." He replied. Deuce's response immediately stressed out Jackson, who prepared as much as physically possible before any form of assessment.
"Well, I-Uh, okay." Jackson sputtered as he turned to face forward in his seat.
While Deuce was spacing out, Jackson also had a hard time focusing on what the teacher was saying throughout the entire period. He just couldn't help but think about the monster next to him, and how utterly attractive he was. Jackson closed his eyes and pictured Deuce's statuesque face, trying hard not to look over at him. Before he even knew it the bell was ringing, signaling the end of the school day. He shook himself out of the daze he was in and began to pack up his things, prepping for his walk home. Jackson almost jumped out of his skin when he looked over and saw that Deuce was, in fact, still there and staring right at him.
"Need a hand?" Deuce asked, grabbing one of Jackson's folders and handing it to him. Jackson felt his face flush a bright red.
"Haha! You're blushin' like crazy dork. Ya gonna make a move?" Holt teased Jackson through their mind link. Before thinking Jackson yelled out his heated reply.
"Shut up you jerk!" Jackson yelled much to Deuce's bewilderment. The gorgon looked at Jackson shocked, confused, and a little bit hurt.
"I'm like sorry for whatever I did man." Deuce tried to apologize, still confused as ever.
"No no no no no!" Jackson tried to cover up quickly. "I wasn't talking to you. I'm so sorry. I was talking, well, it's like kinda hard to explain, but like I was talking to my brother, I meant to say it in my head but I accidentally said it out loud, and I know that sounds crazy but me and Holt, my brother, share a body and we can talk through our minds." Jackson rambled quickly. Deuce nodded his head slowly.
"Oh yeah, Heath was tellin' me about that." Deuce said. Jackson was sure he paled completely.
"What exactly did Heath say about me?" Jackson asked quickly. He looked worried, but Deuce just shrugged.
"I dunno, he was just tellin' me about you're both Jackson and Holt, that's his name right? It'd be cool to meet him too." Deuce explained, he wasn't sure why the Normie looked so scared all of a sudden.
"Oh, well, yeah, Holt is my brother. You can meet him some other time. I gotta go, like, right now." Jackson said hurriedly, picking up the rest of his things and leaving without waiting for Deuce to say anything else to him.
Deuce couldn't do anything but watch Jackson practically run out of the room. He sat alone in the Bite-ology room, as confused as ever.
"Did I say something I should'nt have?" Deuce said aloud, but only the silence of the room echoed in response.
