Disclaimer: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and its characters are copyright Jhonen Vasquez. The Original Characters in this story are mine, not yours. Enjoi.
"Todd!" Called out a charming voice in singsong. "Wake up!" Todd, up in his undecorated room adjacent the prince of all darkness, stirred reluctantly in his sleep. The first real bed he had slept in for years and school had to be the thing to move him out of it. Not an interesting prospect to move one in the morning. "Todd!"
"I'm up!" Todd called out. He warily rose up to his feet and stretched his arms out at the window.
"Do want a piece of toast with your eggs, Todd?" Mrs. Satan sweetly shouted again. Todd thought for a moment as he reached for his shirt and decided after several years of only toast, he could do without it.
"No, thank you." Todd shouted back as he changed. "I'll be down in a minute."
"Alright!" was the woman's response. Once Todd had changed from his jamies to his school-appropriate apparel, he shambled over to the door. The carpet in his room felt even nicer between his toes, as it usually did after the months and years he went between hard plastic and squishy cushion floors.
"I hope this school isn't another zombie-orgy like elementary," Todd mused carefully, "or the crazy-boy schools where you couldn't hear over the kids climbing on the ceiling…" Finally, he went to open his door to the hallway. "Well, at least I'll have a friend to--"
"Buenos Dias, Hermano" growled Pepito. He was leaning against the door at an angle that allowed him to stare straight at Squee through the dark shade of his own brow. The effect was chilling to a point, for any normal person, but having seen Pepito at every conceivable angle before (once even inside out), Todd just smiled.
"Morning, Pepito" he greeted. Without hesitation, the Anti-Christ brought his hand down in a twirling, hammer-swing motion and swiped it swiftly across Squee's face. The whole thing was to quick to warrant a reaction from Squee, but he noticed something different. He was now wearing some kind of strange, fur hat with horns awkwardly protruding upwards.
"Listen up, bro" Pepito started as he wrapped his arm around Squee's shoulder and moved in close. "I've already spread the word about your arrival at school, but you're the Chupacabra, so you'll have to come into the room screaming bloody murder and try to eat someone if you can. Got it?" Squee blinked once and stared forward with an unmoving, extremely confused face.
"What?" he said at length. "Also, Chupacabras eat goats, right?"
"Not the Canadian ones!" Pepito shouted back. He retreated for the stairs and slid down the guardrail. "Remember: Cannibalistic!" He drew his hands up to his face and made a demonically funny look as he vanished down the steps. Squee continued to stare for a moment, when the hat was mysteriously lifted from his head.
"Wendigo" said the sultry darkness behind him. Squee turned astonished to see his new father, Satan himself, holding the horned wig in his bony hand and looking down. "Canada has no Chupacabra, only Wendigos. Go on downstairs and have your breakfast, child." Squee nodded with a smile and went casually to the kitchen. Satan smiled after him and thought for a moment how good his life may one day become…his, not Squee's.
The boys proceeded out the door and down the street to the bus stop, where a group of other youths had already gathered. They were dressed poorly in baggy pants and undershirts with wool caps and incorrectly worn visors on their heads. They had all huddled around something on the ground and were mocking it audibly from a distance.
"Ignore these termites" Pepito said to Squee as they approached. "They enjoy tormenting things which cannot defend against them…like small animals and children."
"Jerks" Squee retorted.
"Wiggers, really" Pepito corrected. "They think they're black and act like rappers. Ironic that they think rappers are tough when they can't even sing." As the boys came to a stop in front of the bus sign, the 'gang members' stood up and started circling them.
"Oh, now what's this shit?" One boy said in a heavily fake black accent. "Little Ms. Pointy-Boots brought her boyfriend to visit!"
"Yeah, yeah," taunted the other. "What'chu girls gon' do? Have a little tea party?"
"Hey, Horns!" one taller nerd shouted, "we just got off the line with our boy Jamal in the state! He said when he get out he gon' kill yo ass!" Pepito slowly gazed over at the grammatically retarded young man through his fiery eyes. Squee just stood silently and watched to learn how one deals with problematic people at this school.
"Oh, so?" Pepito lethargically retorted. He shot out his arm, grabbed the punk by the face and squeezed until his skull cracked open and blood started gushing out. "Well, I'll be waiting." He let the body drop down, with Squee now staring fiercely ahead with utterly blank eyes. In the wake of the violence he had to experience while hospitalized, Squee had learned to void his mind and dull his senses until the event had passed.
The boys flocked over and picked up their debilitated comrade, who was miraculously still alive, somehow. "You'll die for this, Peppy! DIE!" Pepito shooed them away with his hand as the scurried off with the groaning boy resetting his skull bones in place and pushing the blood back in.
"My father has forbidden me from actually killing anyone at school" Pepito explained to the zoned-put Squee, "so I just suppress the actual death spirits and give them pain. Anything I do to these dicks can't kill them, just hurt like all fuck…are you awake?"
"Yeah," Squee said at length. "I heard something about not killing people. You could've told me that earlier."
"Yeah," Pepito growled, "and you could've worn that hat I gave you! Some Chupacabra you are…"
A short silence followed until the big, yellow bus finally rolled up and hissed to a stop.
"Wendigo, actually." Squee said as he boarded. Pepito hissed behind him angrily and followed.
"The far back seat is mine" Pepito said to Squee. As they walked down the narrow hall to the back, all eyes were intently averted away from the boys. Everyone was trying hard to keep their vision focused outside without making any noise. Squee couldn't help but think about what kind of reputation Pepito had here. Finally, they arrived at the farthest back seat, a long one stretched across the back that blocked the emergency exit.
"Go on and sit," Pepito said happily. He himself lounged deeply so his head was resting and his feet were far out into the aisle. Squee sat down cautiously, half-expecting something to pop out and tie him down. He looked over at his demonic brother, who seemed to be peacefully relaxing in what looked like a very uncomfortable position.
"Hola" squealed a new, girly voice from nowhere. Squee darted his head around to catch the glimpse of a mysterious figure about to tackle him with flashing fangs.
"Down, girl" Pepito commanded. The girl dropped to her knees on the seat, still staring down Squee. She had translucently pale skin painted with black makeup across her lips and around her eyes. She was wearing a short-cut, gothic-lolita style dress with abundant frills and lace, metal spikes and buckles and black-leather stiletto heel boots. Something one would expect from any given friend of the Devil's son, a super Goth.
"HI!" she shouted. "Who're you?" Squee just sat there, paralyzed, and wheezed out a few vowels.
"He's my brother. Be nice to him and don't eat him." Pepito said sternly. The girl sat gently next to Squee and straightened out the wrinkles in her dress.
"I'm Lena, short for Lexenne Aria Vladim" she said politely in a valley girl accent.
"She's a vampire," Pepito interrupted, "if you were wondering" Todd shook off his shock and extended his hand haltingly in greeting.
"H-hi. I'm Todd" he said frightened. She took his hand, brought it up to her face and kissed it. First, Todd was curious, then bashful, and then creeped out when she started licking her lips.
"Hello, Todd" she replied seductively. "You taste delicious." Todd shook for a moment and scooted over closer to his brother-in-law. "You sure I can't have just a taste of him, Peppy?"
"Yes" Pepito snarled, "and don't call me that. It's not a term of endearment." Todd felt uncomfortable. He felt like he was coming between something that these two had established beforehand, like he had broken into their own secretive society without proper initiation.
"Don't worry then, Todd" she said sweetly. "If Pepito doesn't want me to eat you, I won't eat you. And if you're really his brother then you're more than welcome to hang with us! We're the most popular kids at school!" To this, the tension was lifted from Todd's shoulders, and he felt calm again.
"Don't listen to it, hermano" Pepito said lowly. "Fear and Popularity aren't the same thing. But if someone does mess with you…" he paused to resituate himself and stare Todd at eye level to continue with "…just tell me" and finish with a nefarious, sharp-toothed smile.
The bus screeched to its halting stop in front of the horrific building. The students all shambled out onto the curb and marched onward through the filthy air onto the school ground proper. The last to exit were Pepito, Lena and Todd. Lena had an umbrella at the ready once she stepped down and opened it up before the sun could incinerate her. Pepito reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen-marked cigarette with an evil smiley-face emblem. He pulled out a stick and lit it in his mouth. With a mouthful of smoke, he turned around and wisped out a smoky call.
"Squee! Come on! You'll be late!" Todd stepped warily across the paved walkway littered with trash and debris to his friends. He took a long, almost angry look up at the sign. A testament to his earlier torment, a beacon of just what this place was doing to its youth. Under the heavy amounts of graffiti and explicit images in multiple colors, the stone lettering read:
HI SKOOL
Todd gave a heavy sigh and continued forward. Today would be but the first of many disappointing days he would have here, so this one shouldn't be made worse by his own sour attitude. Best make the best of it…for now.
