I don't own TNBC, leave me alone.

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Chapter 4

The Pumpkin Princess

I sighed as Lock, once again, attempted to make the fire under his beaker get hotter than he was supposed to, and Aubrey muttered the cooling spell under her breath. A blast of cold wind blew past the devil and put out the growing flame. He turned around and glared at me, and I, in turn, pointed at his girlfriend. She shoved me. "Shock!"

I shrugged. "It's not like he'll try to set you on fire."

After class let out, Lock caught Aubrey in the hall. "You're going to pay for that." He muttered, his tail swishing against her legs. She giggled.

I rolled my eyes in disgust. "I'm outta here." I told them, going to my locker. It was our first day back, and already I was sick of High School again. Oh well, at least Barrel was here this year and we all had the same lunch so we could plot and crap.

It was funny though. Every class we had, (Aubrey had almost every class with either Lock or me) everyone always freaked when they found out it was Aubrey Skellington. We had lunch next, so I headed over to our regular table. Well, technically, it was the regular LSB table, but since Aubrey was back (and it would seem weird to put an 'A' somewhere in there), it was the trick-or-treater's table.

Aubrey and Lock sat down next. "I'm starting to regret this decision." Aubrey muttered, laying her head down on her arms.

"What decision?" Barrel asked. When he'd gotten here, I had no clue.

"The one to let Jack and Sally adopt me."

Lock rolled his eyes. "They're calling her the Pumpkin Princess."

I bit my lip, but it was too late. A giggle had already escaped from my mouth. "Go ahead." Aubrey sighed. Barrel and I both cracked up laughing.

"P-Pumpkin P-pr-princess!" I choked out. "Oh my fucking god that's good!"

Aubrey glared at me from between her arms, her eyes glowing red. "All right all ready, you've both had your laugh, now do me a favor and shut up!"

Gradually, we stopped laughing. Then I caught sight of the cafeteria doors opening and groaned as I saw who was walking through them. "Lock, put your head down, it's Vida."

Aubrey blinked, confused. "Who's Vida?"

Lock growled and sank down in his seat. "Vida Areolas. She's head cheerleader on Junior Varsity."

Barrel rolled his eyes. "She's the leader of what we have oh-so-venomously named the 'pop' squad, which consists of at least all the preps and jocks in school-"

"Save you." Aubrey interrupted.

"Save me, and did I mention that she has a HUMUNGOUS crush on Lock?"

Aubrey's eyebrows shot up. "Really now?"

Lock put a book up in front of his face. "Can we talk about this later…?" He hissed, glancing over the top of his book.

But alas, it was too late. Vida had seen us and was walking over, her ever present group of cheerleaders behind her. "Lock, what are you doing?" She asked. Vida was a very odd mix; half-vampire, half-cat demon. Fuzzy ears poked through her straight black hair, and a tail poked out from under her skirt. Green feline eyes surveyed our table with quite obvious annoyance. She was abnormally pale, even for someone who was dead, and had really, really long canines.

Lock sat up. "Back problems…" He muttered, his tail twitching under the table. How do I know this you ask? Simple: the tip hit me in the leg.

Vida gave Lock a smile, then turned to Aubrey, whose eyes I could've sworn were glowing red a second ago. "And you must be the new girl. Aubrey Skellington, right?"

"Yeah." Aubrey answered curtly.

Vida sent a look of disgust toward Barrel and I. "Why in the world would a Skellington be hanging out with the lowest end of the food chain?"

"Vida, do you like being turned into a slug?" I asked. "Because you should know I don't have a problem doing it aga-"

"What can I say?" Aubrey cut me off. "I like hanging out with my friends and boyfriend." She gave Lock a kiss on the cheek.

Vida's eye twitched. Barrel was having trouble not laughing. "Oh. I'll see you later then." She turned tail and left, her entourage following her, twittering incessantly.

Lock grinned. "I have finally discovered something that will make Vida leave me alone!"

Aubrey glared at him halfheartedly. "I believe 'thank' and 'you' are the words you're looking for." Lock hugged her and muttered 'I love you'. Aubrey sighed, pretending to be annoyed. "That works too."

I smirked. "That worked almost as well as when I turned her into a slug."

"I would've paid to see that. Five seconds and I already hate her." Aubrey growled.

"That's longer than most." Barrel commented. "I think you turned her into a slug in, what, three?"

"Three and a half." I responded, poking the food on my tray cautiously. It growled at me. "You know, I'm suddenly not hungry."

xXx

After school, we all headed straight back to Skellington Manor, preferring to avoid Vida and her 'pack' for the rest of the day. Thankfully, we managed to avoid her today and get back to the house.

Jack and Sally were waiting in the main room. "Whatever it is, we didn't do it." I automatically responded. Jack raised a nonexistent eyebrow. "Sorry. It's a reflex."

"Don't worry, you aren't in trouble, but we need to talk to Aubrey." She nodded and followed them upstairs.

"See you in a minute!" She called.

Ten minutes later, Aubrey came flying back down the stairs (quite literally), grinning. "Whoa, what happened?"

"Sally's pregnant!"

I blinked. "Wait, say what?"

"How the hell'd that happen?" Barrel asked.

Shock and Aubrey looked at him like he was speaking German or something. "Barrel, do you just not pay attention in health?"

He blushed. "No, I know about that! What I meant was, Jack's a skeleton and Sally was pretty much built from doll parts. How can Jack get her pregnant?"

"Well, apparently, the Grim Reaper can make it so that undead who want to have kids but can't, like Sally and Jack, can have kids. But only once." Aubrey explained. "They went to visit him while we were at school."

"So that means you're gonna have a little sister or brother?" Shock asked. If my ears weren't fooling me, she sounded excited. Aubrey nodded. "Cool!"

Barrel and I looked at each other. "Run on three?"

He nodded. "One…"

"Two…"

"Thr-"

"Try it and we'll gut you both." Shock said, walking out the door before we could move. Aubrey followed her, laughing quietly.

I blinked. "Scary."

"You said it." Barrel murmured, following the girls.

xXx

The next couple of months went by rather slowly. School does that, whether it be in living world or Halloween Town.

On a better note, Vida now absolutely despised me. One, I was dating Lock. Two, I was pretty much the most high ranked girl in town, and I refused to hang out with her. Three, well, there wasn't really a three, but I'm sure I could make one.

School was going pretty well actually. None of us were failing anything, Barrel was trying to work up the courage to ask Shock out on a date, and Lock was… well, Lock.

As Shock and I (Lock was probably skipping again) walked into Basic Magic and Potions, Ms. Aurelius, a witch, looked up. "Ah, there you two are. The counselor wants to see you both."

Shock and I glanced at each other and took the pink slips of paper from our teacher and walked out.

"What did we do this time?" Shock asked.

I paused to think. "Well… maybe when we switched the labels for the Frog's Breath and Dragon's Breath?"

"Yeah, but that was like two weeks ago."

I shrugged. "I don't know, that's all I can think of."

"Well, whatever it is, we can probably blame it on Lock."

"Shock!" I laughed, not really all that surprised.

We reached the door to Mr. Bitter's office and walked inside. Mr. Bitter was a vampire, and therefore had a windowless office and always had low lights. "Ah, Aubrey, Shock. Just the girls I wanted to see."

"Whatever it is, I blame Lock." Shock said quickly. I sighed and shook my head.

Mr. Bitter chuckled. "No, no. You two aren't in trouble this time. Actually, I was wondering if you knew your grades in Ms. Aurelius' class?"

We looked at each other again. "Um… passing, I'd hope." I replied.

"Oh, much better than passing. You two are excelling in that class. Therefore, Ms. Aurelius came to me with the proposition of moving you two up to her advanced magic class."

"But… that class is for seniors!" Shock exclaimed. "We aren't taking that for two more years."

"Ah, let me finish. I can only move you up if you two are alright with it."

Shock grinned. "I don't know about Aubrey, but I am."

"Same here." I agreed.

Mr. Bitter nodded and handed us each a schedule. "You'll start tomorrow."

xXx

"Advanced Magic?" Barrel asked. "Isn't that for seniors?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but Mr. Bitter said that Ms. Aurelius recommended us to be moved up."

Lock frowned as he looked over me and Shock's new schedules. "Yeah, but now most of your classes are moved. We hardly have anything together."

Shock rolled her eyes and took her schedule back. "Oh, stop whining. Look, we still have History of Halloween, Haunting, and Gym together."

"Gym doesn't count. The guys and girls don't even use the same gym."

"Yeah, well you still get to see Aubrey in those annoying little short shorts." I blushed heavily and shoved her.

"Shut up." I muttered. Lock grinned and put an arm around me, kissing my cheek.

xXx

After school let out, we all raced outside to get home. Unfortunately, we never got outside. "Vida's waiting for us." Shock told Barrel, Lock, and I as we neared the doors.

"Well, what if we went out the back and cut through the Graveyard?" Lock suggested.

"Better than trying to sneak past Vida." I muttered. "C'mon, let's go."

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SC: Okay… this took WAY to long to update, and I am so, so, so, SO sorry. Anyway, I only need one review to get started on the next chapter, but more will make it go faster!

Ja ne

SC