The bell rang, and the class gathered up their things and filtered out of the room.

"Next stop, Government, room 308," Frisk said. "Learning anything so far?"

"Yeah! I learned how to properly spell 'Physics'!" Papyrus said.

Frisk laughed. "So far, so good!" They turned into the next room, and were some of the first students there. "Pick a seat, any seat," she said in some sort of funny voice.

Papyrus didn't notice. "Second row, middle of the room!" he said, taking his seat right away.

"Just like when we go to the movies, huh?" Frisk laughed. She sat down at the desk beside him and set her backpack on the desk, swapping her Physics book and notebook out for her Government supplies. She looked at the chalkboard to find out which page in the book to turn to.

"What will we be learning here?" Papyrus asked.

Frisk went to the assigned page and took a quick look. "Looks like we'll be going over some groundbreaking court cases," she answered. She thought for a moment. "You know what, Papyrus? Government… the way things in this country are operated… I want to be a part of that."

"Well, I mean, aren't you already? Technically speaking, that is. Being the Ambassador, and all."

"I guess you're right," Frisk shrugged. "Maybe what I should have said is that I want to change it."

"Change it?"

"Yeah. I mean, the government is set in place to revolve around humans because the government has served humans and humans alone for years and years," she explained. "But humans aren't the only inhabitants anymore, and things need to change. I'd like to change it. Or help, at least."

"I think you can," Papyrus said. "I really do. And I think you've got a great start, too, with all the work you've been doing." He paused for a few moments. "So… thank you, Frisk. For doing what you do for us."

She smiled. She was going to say something, but the bell rang and cut her off. She turned around, and noticed that the classroom was almost full. She hadn't noticed the other students come in. She gave Papyrus a quick nod before class began.


Another ring of the bell dismissed class, and the students all left to go in their separate directions.

"Gym's up next. You ready for this?" Frisk said.

Papyrus cracked his knuckles. "Been waiting all morning for this," he said confidently.

The two of them made their way to the middle floor and joined the rest of the people who had gathered in the center of the gymnasium floor. Frisk looked around for a place to put her backpack, then eventually walked over to the nearest wall and let it fall to the floor, propping it up against the wall.

As the bell rang, a short, stocky man in shorts, a polo shirt and a baseball cap blew a whistle as loud as he could. It caught everyone's attention.

"Alright, listen up, soldiers!" he yelled. "Dodgeball day." He quickly counted everyone. "Two teams of twelve. Team up, I'll get the missiles."

"We've gotta be on the same team," Frisk said, clenching her fists. "Quick, get on this side."

She gently tugged Papyrus by the arm and led him to one side of the gym, which was divided directly in half by a blue line painted right in the center of the floor.

Through the mess of scrambling students trying to pick a team, none other than Bratty and Catty made their way to where Frisk and Papyrus were standing.

"Like, no way! Frisk!" Bratty said.

"Frisk? No way!" Catty mimicked.

"Hey, you two!" Frisk greeted them. As thoroughly annoying as Bratty and Catty were, Frisk always enjoyed seeing the friends she had made in the Underground.

"What's up, girl? Good to see you!" Bratty said.

"Always good seeing you guys," she said. "Hang out near any good dumpsters lately?"

"Have we ever!" Catty squealed. "The one out back behind the school is amazing!"

"You wouldn't believe all of the juicy notes we find back there," Bratty added, putting her hands over her mouth.

"Oh yeah?" Frisk asked, actually kind of intrigued.

"Yeah!" Bratty and Catty replied in unison.

"Guess who Amy Histo has a crush on this week," Catty teased.

"Brady Grant!" Bratty yelled before Frisk could even respond. The two of them giggled as they jumped up and down.

Out of the corner of her eye, Frisk looked over at Papyrus, who looked nothing short of embarrassed just by being in the general vicinity of those two. She chuckled.

"I'm sure they will be very happy together," she said.

Just then, another loud whistle blew, and everyone instinctively got in single file lines on the team's respective sides of the gym floor. The gym teacher set about a dozen bright red dodgeballs down the center line.

"On my whistle, the first round begins. Ready?" He paused for a moment, perhaps for dramatic effect, then blew the whistle.

The more ambitious members of each team darted to the line to retrieve as many of the makeshift weapons as they could. Frisk, Papyrus, Bratty and Catty were among those who stayed a safe distance away from the strike zone. But after the initial chaos, Papyrus joined the game.

"So, Frisk," Bratty started.

"Like, who's your friend?" Catty added.

"Who? You mean Papyrus?"

"Is that his name? He's so cute," Bratty said, drawing the word 'so' out for a good five seconds.

Frisk turned her attention to the game, and watched as Papyrus frantically scrambled around, trying not to get hit by anything. She let out a laugh, then looked back at Bratty and Catty, who's expressions did not change.

"Wait, you're being serious?"

"Duh!" Catty said. "He's totes adorbs. You know, in a dorky and awkward sort of way."

"Well don't let Undyne hear you say that," Frisk advised.

"You mean big scary fish lady?" Bratty said. Her and Catty both cringed. "They're a thing?"

Frisk smirked and shrugged.

"I thought her and Alphys were a thing," Catty said, scratching her head.

Frisk's smile faded, and she shrugged again.

"Oh my gosh, Frisk, don't even mess with us like that!" Bratty laughed.

Out of nowhere, a dodgeball came rocketing back to where they were standing. Frisk dove out of the way, but Catty got nailed right in the arm.

"You're out!" the teacher yelled.

"If Catty's out then I'm out, too!" Bratty declared. She picked up the ball that had hit Catty and threw it at herself. The pair walked off of the floor together. Frisk waved goodbye before joining the game.


After a few rounds, the teacher ended the game and let everyone cool down before class was technically over. Frisk jogged over to the wall where she had set her backpack, and waited for Papyrus to join her.

"Boy, that was something," he said once he got there.

"You should have seen yourself out there, Papyrus!" she marveled, hiking her backpack onto her shoulders. "You were as agile as a fox, as slippery as a snail! I don't think you got hit even once."

He smiled. "Well, after all, I am pretty great." He looked off into the distance as if he were posing for a movie poster. "Where to next?"

"Study Hall," Frisk answered. "Back upstairs to Room 302."

"My goodness. This whole 'school' thing is quite a work out," he commented.

They made their way to Room 302, which appeared to normally be inhabited by a science class. There were goggles and beakers everywhere, and instead of desks, there were tables long enough to accommodate two students each. Papyrus and Frisk sat down at a table by a window.

"Bratty and Catty think you're cute," she informed him.

"Oh…" he said flatly. "Isn't that… special."

Frisk threw her head back with laughter. "Yeah, special, that's the word."

"Well they will have to just keep dreaming, because as far as I'm concerned, I'm spoken for," Papyrus said rather proudly.

Frisk smiled. "You're a good guy, you know that?"

Papyrus shrugged. "I'm alright, I guess." The tardy bell rang. "So what are the rules of Study Hall?"

"Well, to study, I suppose. This is basically a free period to work on homework or study some notes or catch up on sleep or something." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "We have to keep the noise to a minimum, though."

Papyrus nodded, then helped himself to dig through Frisk's backpack. He got out her Statistics book and placed it on the desktop. He opened it to a completely random page and blindly pointed to a passage. He pushed the book over to Frisk's side of the desk.

She gave him a thumbs up and started reading.

For some reason, she could hardly comprehend math. She still did well, she still had a passing grade, mostly thanks to Toriel's help, but it wasn't her strongest subject. Whenever she attended the school in person she would always study up on her math a little bit extra.

After what had to have been at least 35 minutes, she looked up from her book and stretched. Out of the corner of her eye she could tell that Papyrus had elected to take a small nap.

'Sans would be proud,' she thought to herself.

The dismissal bell rang, giving Papyrus a rather rude awakening. He looked around the room, then stood up and stretched.

"What did I miss?" he asked groggily.

"Nothing," Frisk replied. "Except now I have a complete understanding of how numbers directly relate to the world around us." She flung her backpack over her right shoulder. "Lunch time! Better hurry and get to the cafeteria so we can get Mom something good for lunch."

The cafeteria was located back on the first floor. By the time Papyrus and Frisk had arrived, the elementary school children had already had their lunch and were headed back to their classes. The middle schoolers were seated at their designated tables, and some high schoolers were already in line.

"Let's go before the line gets any longer," Frisk suggested.

As they waited in line in an overcrowded little hallway outside of the kitchen, Papyrus looked at a menu that was taped to the wall.

"It says that today they are serving vegetable fried rice, cheese pizza, or something called a la carte," he read. "What is an a la carte?"

"It means they have other loose options to choose from. Like some apple slices or a bag of chips or something," Frisk explained.

By this time they were at the front of the line. The pressure to choose something for lunch was too much for Papyrus, so he switched places in line with Frisk.

She grabbed a tray, observed the selections, then elected to grab a prepackaged peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bag of apple slices, and a bottle of water. She looked back at Papyrus.

"What are you getting?"

"That pizza looks better and better the more I stare at it," he said. "What should we get for Toriel?"

Frisk thought for a moment. "Get her the rice. I think she'd like that."

Papyrus nodded. He grabbed a tray, a bottle of water for Toriel and a small carton of chocolate milk for himself. He politely asked the lunch lady for the lunches that he and Frisk picked out.

Before exiting the line, they handed a cashier the $15 that Toriel had given them. She quickly added everything up on a small cash register and handed Papyrus back the change.

Instead of heading back into the hectic cafeteria, they made their way to Toriel's office. On their way, they had condensed their lunches so that they could be carried on two trays instead of three. They passed through the collection of offices that led to Toriel's, greeting principals and school nurses as they went.

The door to her office was closed, but Papyrus knocked without hesitation.

"Room service!" he called.

They could hear her chuckle from the other side of the door. A few seconds later she opened the door and let them in, smiling warmly.

'Asriel has the same smile,' Frisk thought. She took a quick moment to observe Toriel's smile as closely as she could. Toriel was happy to see them, even though it had only been a few hours. She had so much love to give. So much light.

"Come in, you two. How is your day?" she asked.

"Great! You should have seen Papyrus playing dodgeball earlier," Frisk raved. She walked over to Toriel's desk and set one of the bottles of water down. "We brought you some veggie fried rice for lunch."

"Thank you." Toriel took the plate of rice off of the tray that Papyrus was carrying and took it to her desk. She sat down and motioned for the others to do the same.

There were two office chairs sitting in front of her desk. Frisk and Papyrus each selected one.

"And your academic classes?" Toriel inquired.

"Eh, they were okay," Frisk shrugged. "Government is already a breeze, and I think I'm getting a little better at Physics. There's homework, though."

"How can you have homework if you won't be coming back for who knows how long?" Papyrus asked. He handed Toriel her change.

"I'll make sure she gets it done," Toriel said sternly, although she wore a smile.

"I looked through my Stats book during study hall to brush up on things last minute. I think I can at least get through the class without having a mental breakdown," Frisk said.

"Oh, come on now," Toriel laughed. "You're exaggerating, my child. You are very intelligent, and will pass the class with flying colors!"

"The class with flying colors? I didn't see Art on the schedule," Papyrus grinned. He waited for one of them to laugh.

Frisk let out a small snort. "Not bad, not bad," she said.

"Thank you," he said proudly. "So, Toriel, spill. What's your 2 o'clock meeting about? I've been wondering all day."

"I'm not sure," Toriel answered in between bites of her lunch. "No one told me. They just told me to be there."

"Yikes." Frisk took a bite of her sandwich. "Do you think it's something bad?"

"I certainly hope not," Toriel said. "Frisk, honey, please don't talk with your mouth full."

Frisk, still with food in her mouth, gave Toriel an apologetic look, to which she nodded in return.

"Shortly after you two left this morning, Mrs. Danes came in and handed me a paper with a list of things that need to be addressed around here. I've been reviewing it and trying to decide how to handle things. Perhaps that's what the meeting will be about," Toriel thought out loud.

"Could be," Papyrus said, brushing his hands together in order to get some crumbs off of his gloves. He had already finished his pizza.

"But you two shouldn't worry much about it," Toriel advised them. "Focus on your studies for now and I will fill you in later," she smiled.

The three of them finished their lunches and generally enjoyed each other's company until the bell rang. When it did so, Frisk slumped over slightly and gave a small grunt of disappointment.

She retrieved her Sociology binder from her backpack, then hoisted the pack up onto her shoulder. She stood up, then carefully leaned over to pick up her empty tray without the backpack falling off.

"I'll take care of the trays, go ahead and get to class on time," Toriel told her. She gathered up the trays and the trash and walked to the door to hold it open for Frisk and Papyrus.

Frisk looked at the clock on the wall on her way out. 12:50. "Thanks, Mom. See you in a couple of hours!"

The duo made it to class just in time. They walked in just as the tardy bell was ringing. They couldn't find seats right next to each other, so they settled for being seated diagonally.

The Sociology teacher also happened to be the school's Director of Student relations. She was a fan favorite among the students, and she did her best to make sure that the students had anything they needed to make their experience at school enjoyable.

"Ms. Dreemurr! Good to see you here today," the teacher remarked when she saw Frisk amongst the crowd.

Practically every other student in the room shifted their attention to Frisk, since she had been addressed. A few human girls that she had gotten to know waved at her, and she sheepishly waved back. There were a couple of monsters in the class, too, although she didn't know any of them personally. They seemed to recognize her, and they gave a friendly smile.

"Welcome, everyone, to class today," she continued. "Let's begin. Today we will be focusing on how the social behavior in a large city differs from that in a small town or rural area. Now…"

Frisk opened her binder, grabbed a mechanical pencil from her backpack, and quickly began taking notes. When the focus of the class was on people in cities, she couldn't help but think of the young man that she encountered when she was mailing the letter. She remembered how friendly he was, along with how handsome. She decided that she wished she could see him again.

Her focus returned to class when one of the students sneezed and it snapped her out of being sidetracked. She shook her head and reexamined her notes.

After class, she swapped her Sociology binder for her Statistics textbook. She got up and walked out of the room, then stood in the hallway waiting for Papyrus.

"I'm surprised that the teachers are just kind of letting you sit in on all of these classes, no questions asked," she laughed.

Papyrus shrugged. "They probably just assume I'm a student. No one has bothered to check otherwise."

The way the school took attendance was different to say the least. Since anyone was welcome to attend, students seemed to come and go, and it was a little uncommon to see the exact same group of people there all the time. So instead of having a list of students to check off, teachers wrote down who all had shown up.

The classroom they were headed for next was just a couple doors down. They were there in a matter of seconds. Frisk picked a desk, and Papyrus sat down beside her.

"Second to last class of the day," she said. "And in my opinion, the hardest. If we can get through this, we're golden."

Papyrus reached over and offered her a high five. "We've got this!"

Class began, and the teacher greeted everyone very monotonously. He took attendance, then instructed the class to turn to a page in the book.

"Today I will be teaching you how to determine the odds of something happening. Riveting stuff," he said. The way he carried himself and the way he sounded would lead someone to believe that he was perpetually sarcastic. But he was just… plain.

Frisk sighed and got out a few pieces of loose leaf paper to write notes on. The teacher had only spoken a few words so far and she already wanted the class to be over.

Eventually, after what seemed like a lifetime, the sweet, shrill sound of the school bell dismissed class. Frisk turned to Papyrus wearing a huge grin.

He smiled in return. "We're golden," he said.

"You know it!" She bookmarked the textbook with her loose notes, then put the book in her backpack. "Advanced Lit, then we're home free." She glanced at the clock before she left the room. "Time for Mom's meeting, too."

"Now, she told us not to worry about that," Papyrus reminded her. "But I'm not worried, I'm curious!"

"Same here," Frisk agreed. As they passed the library, Frisk glanced inside out of the corner of her eye, and saw Bratty and Catty both hunched down behind a book, probably snickering about some gossip that they either heard or started themselves.

"Walk a little faster," she suggested, picking up the pace herself.

"Why? What's back there?" Papyrus asked.

"Your girlfriends," Frisk said, trying not to laugh as she said it.

Papyrus started power walking. "Keep moving, Frisk. Gotta get to class on time."

Frisk threw her head back in laughter, then jogged to catch up to him.

They made it to class in plenty of time. The room, although it held an English class, was set up much like the room where they had study hall. Tables for two instead of desks.

Papyrus selected a table for them to use, and they both took their seats. Frisk ended up sitting next to the wall, where there was some sort of movie poster hanging. She tried not to bump into it in fear that it would fall off of the wall.

"Last time I was here, the class had just started reading this novel," Frisk explained, pulling the book out of her backpack and handing it to Papyrus. "I'm probably a little behind on it, but it's a good read."

"Looks interesting enough," Papyrus said, reading the back cover of the book.

"This teacher is my favorite, too. She's awesome." Frisk sat back in her seat. "What a great way to end the school day."

"I wonder what everyone else has been up to," Papyrus wondered out loud.

"Ha! I can't wait to hear about their day. I'm sure someone got into some kind of mess."

"Never a dull moment in that house, that's for sure."

The bell rang, and Frisk looked around the room. The teacher was nowhere to be found. A few of the other students started muttering to one another.

A few seconds later, the teacher all but burst in the door. She headed straight for her desk and picked up the attendance clipboard without looking.

"Good afternoon, class! Sorry I'm late, there was a computer issue on the middle school floor. Let's get started here…" She looked around the room. "Frisk Dreemurr! What's up? Good to see you, girl!"

Instead of shying away as she did in Sociology, she smiled and waved.

"Mrs. Jones! Good to be here," she replied.

"Welcome, everyone," Mrs. Jones continued. "Now that I've got a headcount, we can get down to business." She returned the clipboard to her desk and picked up a stack of papers. "Pass these worksheets around the room, please."

The papers made their rounds, and Frisk inspected it closely as soon as she got hers.

"Oh, good, I've already read these chapters," she said only loud enough for Papyrus to hear. "This review sheet should be a breeze."

"Today, class time will be spent catching up on reading and doing this worksheet. Whatever you don't get done in class is homework," Mrs. Jones explained. "Happy reading!"

"Here, you can use my book," Frisk whispered, pushing the book over to Papyrus. "I should know most of these anyway."

Papyrus flipped through the pages of the review sheet, seemingly intimidated. "Oh, uh, thanks," he said.

Frisk swept her way through the review and actually completed most of it. She took a break, and checked the clock.

"The elementary students should be out of here by now. Which is good, because the sooner this place empties out, the sooner we can split, too," she told Papyrus.

He had only read a portion of the required reading, but still attempted to answer the questions as he went. Frisk looked down at his paper and noticed that most of the answers were wrong.

The dismissal bell rang, and Papyrus slammed the novel down on the surface of the desk.

"Thank goodness," he exhaled.

Frisk picked up the book and stuffed it, along with the review sheet, in her backpack. For the final time for the day, she lifted the pack onto her shoulders.

"Let's go," she said.

They maneuvered their way through the swarm of children, human and monster alike, frantically trying to exit through one insufficient set of double doors. They made it to Toriel's office, only to find that she was locking things up.

"Great timing, you two!" she smiled.

By the time they made it back to the main hallway, it was practically devoid of students.

"We'll just wait a few more minutes for the stragglers to clear out, then-"

Toriel was interrupted when a monster woman charged through the doors. She looked around a bit, then approached the three of them.

"Have you seen my son?" she asked frantically.

Frisk knew right off the bat that she was talking about Monster Kid. The woman had striking similarities to him, the primary one being that she had no arms.

"No, ma'am, I haven't," Toriel answered calmly, hoping to calm down the distraught mother.

"Oh, dear… he hasn't come home," she said. "He walks home from school, we don't live very far away… he should have been home by now." She began to pace back and forth. "My sweet little boy… I hope so much that he is okay."

"We'll help look," Frisk said, when she noticed how upset the woman was. "Papyrus, you check the ground floor. I'll make my way up the stairs."

Papyrus nodded and took off down the hall.

Frisk ran up the stairs as if she were doing some sort of military drill. She arrived on the middle school floor of the building, and began looking around.

"He's not on the gym floor," she said. She ran around the perimeter of the floor, looking in all of the classrooms as she did so. "Monster Kid!" she yelled. "Hey, Monster Kid!"

When she was unsuccessful in her search, she tried the same on the third floor.

"Monster Kid!" As she ran by the library, she noticed him in there, trying to prop a book back up onto a shelf using his head. "Hey!" she called.

Startled, he fell backwards, and the book fell off of the shelf.

"Frisk! Uh, hey," he answered.

She ran into the library to help him up. She also put the book back where it belonged.

"Your mother is downstairs worried sick about you. She said you were supposed to be home some time ago."

"Oh, man! That's right! Yo, I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay," Frisk said, breathing a sigh of relief. Her adrenaline was still active. "Let's go, okay?"

Frisk brought him back downstairs, and when his mother saw him, she ran directly over to him.

"There you are," she said, falling to her knees so that she could be eye level with him. "I was so worried…"

"I know, Mom. I'm sorry," Monster Kid said, hanging his head slightly.

"It's alright," his mother said. "I know where you are and I know that you are safe, and it's okay."

Frisk happened to look up at Toriel, and found that she was looking back at her. Not so much directly at her, and not looking into her eyes, but more like looking at all of her at once. Toriel's expression was solemn, with a twinge of… what was it? Heartache?

Confused and slightly concerned, Frisk looked away.

"Thank you for finding him," the woman said.

"Not a problem," Frisk smiled. "Stay out of trouble, okay, buddy?"

Monster Kid nodded, and him and his mother made their exit.

"That was kind of scary," Papyrus commented. He looked around the room and noticed that no one was left in the building besides them. "Well, are we ready?"

Toriel nodded. "Yes, let's go home."