Disclaimer: This is a complete work of fiction, there's no resemblance to actual persons or events or places. If so, it is utterly not intended. I do NOT own Monster High, or anything to do with it. Exclusive to this chapter only, I also do not have anything to do with 'Ghostbusters' what so ever. (You'll understand better after reading XD) Thank you.

A / n: Every single time there's a review, or a favorite, or a follow I just blush as I receive them. It honestly means the world to me that people care enough to read anything that I write, or co – write. Thank you so much! :)

Conflicting The Conflicted
Chapter Ten

It was now 'Family Game Night' with the new video games Skyler and the boys had picked up earlier. With a round of scream cheese bagels and other good, fun snacks it was going to be a great night. 'Name something you would do if you recently found out your house was haunted?'

Jackson was lounging in the chair as he held the game controller in his hands, waiting for any one of them to speak up. Heath had a sudden outburst, "Ghostbusters!" He shouted as he seemed completely positive about his answers.

The normie scoffed, "Heath, it's not up there I can guarantee you."

"You don't know that."

"You're being dramatic."

"Just try it!" He urged as the time ticked away in the game. Heaving a sigh Jackson did as he was told, entering 'Ghostbusters' as one of the options. To everyone's ultimate surprise, it appeared to be the number one answer. "HA! See? See! I told you. I told you ALL." Heath figured he automatically earned his bragging rights as he even got up to do a little victory dance all his own.

"Oh alright, okay so the answer was there. Sit down boy and come up with another answer." Isaac prompted Heath in a friendly, father / son competitive moment. Manny glanced at the two briefly as he smacked his screaming scream cheese bagel off the end table before eating it. He felt so bad hearing it scream, even if it was ever so slight.

He wished he had the bond that this family had with one another. They didn't realize how much of an absolute treat this was for Manny, spending actual quality time together as a family? It was all he'd ever wanted and dreamed of having. They had it all day, every day and didn't even know how lucky they were to have it.

It would be suspected that in Manny's shoes he would be feeling envious, but it was truthfully the last thing he was feeling. He finally felt at peace in the environment he was in and if he had to go home tomorrow… he'd beg and plead not to leave. He'd never felt more… happy in his entire life as he did in the mere amount of hours he spent here already. "Okay, I got it. Get the fuck out."

Isaac raised a curious brow, "Excuse me?"

"If I found out my place was haunted, I'd get the hell out of there."

Jackson chuckled, "Says the one that attends Monster High?"

Heath laughed heartily, "That probably did sound really strange coming from me, but try it."

Typing in the answer, Jackson only did it to keep Heath from jumping out of his seat and coming after him to type it in himself. "Ding! Number two answer baby! I'm on fire!"

From the kitchen came Skyler's voice as she was on her way to join them for the rest of the evening, "YOU BEST NOT BE!" Laughter erupted from the lot of them and the entertainment of gaming went onward without a hitch.

Later that evening, Heath had retired to his bedroom while Manny was rooming with Jackson for the night. It would seem odd that Manny Taur would choose Jackson Jekyll to room with but he had his reasons, in that he wanted to talk to someone who could perhaps relate to him a little better than Heath could. He was lucky with his parents, but when it came to Jackson and Manny with their fathers? Not so much.

"Hey Manny, I have an idea. There's something I want you to try but you have to trust me to be able to consider it even." He stated, still coming up with the idea in his mind as Manny glanced at him curiously.

He then spoke cautiously, "You ain't never not given me a reason to trust you so, I trust you."

Jackson nodded as he quickly grabbed his laptop, opening it and it resuming his desktop operations. "Alright, I want you… to create a Scarcebook account but here's the thing, you have to make up a fake name and add some people from school. I'll help you set it up."

Manny Taur was a little confused. Wasn't being fake and phony a bad thing? "I don't get it… ain't bein' fake a bad thing?"

"Well yes, however this is a… an experiment to prove a point." He told Manny as a matter of factly, "which is justified or cancels the other option out – however you see it. What I want to prove to you Manny… is the fact that absolutely no one knows exactly who you are, but you. Now what I want you to do is to create this new Scarcebook account and I want you to be exactly who you want to be, to other monsters. What your heart inside wants to say or do, not what you are pressured to be and see what happens. It's a social media experiment."

"Nah thanks, I don't need a 'sparamint."

Jackson resisted the urge to face palm right then and there, "Right. Okay then, let's set this up and see what happens shall we?" It didn't take the normie very long at all to set up the fake account and start adding a base and then friends. Many of which accepted right away. "Wow, do you guys really have nothing else better to do?" He questioned out loud, sighing. "Okay, people have accepted you as friends. I want you to go write on their walls,"

"How am I gonna get to their houses?"

"No, no… when you click on someone's profile like this…" he showed the minotaur, clicking on Clawdeen Wolf's page at random. "this is considered a wall and this box right here, allows you to type what you want to say to them and click this when you're done to post it. Do this for a few people and see what happens."

He handed the laptop over to Manny with confidence, but the strong minotaur felt anything but confident right now. "Uh, thanks." He took it in his hands ever so gently; he definitely couldn't afford to get Jackson a new one if he broke it.

He clicked the home page button, searching through his newly added friends for someone to start with. Ah of course, Frankie Stein. Blush came to Jackson's cheeks, "Good choice to start out with. She's naturally nice. Go on, don't be shy – but don't be creepy either, just saying."

Manny rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he began to type, lightly hitting one key at a time.

Hi, thanks for adding me. Just wanted to say that you are such a nice person

One down and that didn't seem so bad at all. He blushed as he clicked on Purrsephone's profile.

Hey! Thanks for adding me. I also want to say that you are so pretty - that's the truth. :)

He barely got done writing the comment when Meowlody and a couple others 'liked it' within a matter of a couple minutes. He read a comment from Toralei, he didn't recall adding her as a friend but he read it anyway.

If I didn't consider this so coughing up hairball worthy… it's kinda cute :3 you're sweet.

Manny smiled softly to himself. They thought he was sweet? They didn't even know who he was! "See?" Jackson said abruptly as if he could read Manny's mind. He of course couldn't, but what he could read was the very shocked expression the minotaur had on his face.

"They don't… even know me and they like me 'cause of some things I said... or wrote on walls, I think." His genuine puzzled expression made Jackson chuckle to himself.

"Right and it seems this nice person… is who you truly want to be Manny. If not, you'd have posted mean things on people's walls, as you've been prompted or, pressured to do. Especially by your father." He shifted his position, leaning back on some comfy pillows as he crossed his one leg over the other. "Y'know, it's amazing how people… or monsters, just… are so quick to say that, 'Oh they have their own mind and body and voice and opinion, use it' but sometimes it's just far more complicated than that. I used to try and make my dad proud of me too. I knew that I probably never would, or could… he just didn't care. But I did it anyway, not because I didn't know any better, but because I wanted to believe something different. I don't know if that makes any sense what so ever but, there's my input."

Manny nodded, "It does make sense. It did."

Jackson gently took the laptop back, "Just seeing it for a second." They took several minutes to make Manny an actual scream mail address and set it up so he had it for future use. "Hey, check this out. Fourteen minutes ago, Howleen Wolf posted on Clawdeen's wall, 'Could you imagine if Manny Taur got a Scarcebook and added people? Lol' and Clawdeen replied, 'I wouldn't ever accept that friend request, he's so rude!' and there are some other comments too. But… when you're this fake person, on Scarcebook… they know the real you, that you're nice and not as mean as you played off to be. See the difference? That's exactly why no one truly knows you, but you."

The minotaur nodded solemnly, "You are right, I mean I shoulda known but… no one does know me. Well, maybe except you now. Thanks Jackson, you're a really great friend." Jackson gave a warm smile, attempting a hug when he had a hand stop him. "Uh, not quite there yet. Let's shake on it." He extended out the offering, which Jackson took completely satisfied with his suspected hypothesis and newly gained friendship. Everything always did have a strange way of working itself out.

Here's the next update! Hope the wait wasn't too long, or not worth it.

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