A week later, my bandages gone and canine piercings added, I'm about to walk out the door. The new holes around my mouth were not a favorite of my parents, but I've explained that eventually the holes will close up with time. But since they were already there, I might as well embrace them. If they left ugly scars, I would welcome them. This, of course, didn't stop them from grounding me for the last week, but how else was I going to explain the holes in my lips from my vampire boyfriend?
They also added before I left to keep an eye out for weirdos, apparently some disappearances were happening around Whitechapel and they wanted me to be careful. I nodded in response and reminded them about my working at Lotta Late tonight. Ever since Sarah took her old job back as Ethan and Jane's babysitter, I lost mine. So now I'll be working there three nights out of the week and during alternate weekends. But with this new epidemic, I wonder if I'll have to drop a couple shifts.
"Babe!" Rory yells, waving me over across the street. I wave back and run over to him, meeting up with Latoya as she rounds the corner.
"My best bud's babealicious, how's it hanging?" Rory says with a smile, his hand high in the air for a high five. Analis stares at him incredulously.
"I have a name, Rory. Don't make me backhand you before school." She threatens, the look of death in her expression.
"It is too early for this and I haven't had my coffee yet." She complains, grudgingly shuffling her feet as we walk to school.
"Someone wake up late again?" I tease, but also out of curiosity.
"Were you up being a fan warrior again about your recent anime?" I ask, trying to lighten the mood. But just like Rory, I receive the look of death and am completely ignored.
"Don't even start with me this morning, Shaquisha. I am not afraid to kick you in the crotch." She threatens with a glare. I sigh and roll my eyes at her, linking arms with Rory instead. I love my best friend, but she's as chipper as walking into a cheese grater while having third degree burns in the morning.
By the time we get to school, I head to my locker and get ready for first period while Latoya goes looking for Benny. Now more than ever before, I do not want to be him. Rory walks with me as we go walking off after her, because where there's a Benny, there's an Ethan. She practically pushes past people, looking for Benny. Her scowl increasing looking at all the plastic cups from Lotta Late in people's hands.
"Benny!" She shouts, finally spotting him as he walks down the next hallway. Ethan stands right beside him, both of them looking the nerdiest I've ever seen them. They're hair is slicked down to their scalps, almost as if they used gel to keep it that way or they left the shampoo in.
"I need coffee, NOW!" She shouts, practically slamming him against a locker as she grabs fistfuls of his striped shirt.
"Nice look, guys." Rory says in between laughter. Everyone that passes by us, points and stares at the guys' new hairdo. I shake my head in disbelief that they let this happen. Benny stumbles over his words, but finally conjures up an acceptable coffee. Analis gulps it down happily and sinks down to the floor in contentment.
"Yeah, yeah. Our showers cut out this morning before we could rinse." Ethan defends, looking to Benny.
"Our whole street lost water pressure." He adds, his face pitiful as he looks back to Rory. I never pegged Benny as a morning shower guy.
"See this is exactly why I take my showers at night. You don't have to hustle to get ready in the morning and deal with incidents like this." I say, tilting my head to stare at the two of them. Grabbing a strand of E's hair and bringing it up to a point, wiping the residue left behind on my jeans.
Rory goes into a laugh fit as he thinks the two were showering together, but Ethan quickly puts that assumption to rest.
"Actually, I was in the middle of a deep conditioning cycle." Benny adds, playing with a strand of his own hair.
"What?! Not everyone is born with hair this thick and shiny." He defends, pouting a bit as Analis finally comes up to join the conversation.
"There is no one at this school who has it worse than us." Ethan says in a huff. I give a half chuckle in response as Analis finally asks what happened to the guys' hair. It takes explaining from me on their behalf, and explaining on hers to them, because I already know that while her eyes were open it didn't mean her brain or her ears were on.
It's after lunch and Latoya and I are in the girl's bathroom talking about this morning, when Sarah comes running in.
"Sarah, you okay?" I ask. Latoya and I exchange a look of concern as I knock on her stall door. She answers that she's fine, but she doesn't sound okay. A girl goes into the stall next to hers and we shrug it off as a bad lunch.
Just as we're about to leave, we hear screaming coming the other girl's stall.
"Whoa, AHH, HELP!" She screams, the sound of toilet water moving heard directly after. There's a loud crunch and several glass like pieces falling to the floor. Analis and I look to one another, trying to decide what to do about what we've just heard.
"Get the nurse!" Sarah screams after us, Latoya goes running after her and I stay behind. I walk over and knock on her door, asking if she's okay. There's no answer. Sarah comes out of her stall just in time for Analis and the nurse to get back. They both knock on the stall door as Analis steps back, curious about what happened to the girl in the stall. She crouches down to try and get a look under the stall walls.
I go in the stall Sarah was just in and climb on top the toilet rim, holding onto the wall for support. Sarah gets the same idea and looks over the wall with me. There's a red sneaker on the floor and the toilet bowl is smashed to pieces, the seat completely unhinged. Both the floor and the wall where the pipes are, have long and deep cracks along them. Inside the bowl is pitch black water, almost marsh like. Whatever happened to her, she's not here now and I don't wanna know what got her.
Sarah chases off the nurse and after she leaves she reaches under to grab the shoe. Inside the hem where the toes would be is a large tooth.
"What is that?!" Analis shouts in disgust. Her eyes widen and her face scowls at the look of it. Sarah shakes her head in disgust and flies out of the bathroom. We follow after her, she's already got her phone up to her ear to call Ethan.
She's so frantic, she bumps right into him as he and Benny come walking down the hall.
"You scared me!" She shouts, practically hitting him as we catch up to them.
"Look, we need to talk," She adds, walking away fast from the bathroom. They cut her off before she can explain and say the exact same thing.
"Something terrible just happened to Kate in the bathroom, it's like something came up-" She starts, but Ethan finishes.
"Came up through the pipes?" He adds, she nods in agreement with him.
"I think whatever it was, came to the Home Ec room looking for dessert." He says, looking from both Benny and Sarah with a complete straight face.
"But what is it?" Latoya asks, still in shock from the bathroom. They all shake their heads, stumped by what they've found.
"I know one thing, I'm never using the bathrooms here again." She jokes, looking to Benny as the two smile and point their fingers at each other. They're so perfect for each other that it's actually sickening.
We all agree we should take a look at where the pipes lead to get a better idea of what we're dealing with. So the five of us take off down multiple flights of stairs and the closer we get to the basement, the creepier the stairs get.
"Maybe there's a reason the basement is off limits." Benny says with a nervous chuckle. They slide closer to the railing on the wall as a weird thump is heard, randomly in the distance. We're about to reach the final steps as the lights start flickering in the stairwell until they go out completely. Ethan says it must have bit through a power line while Benny and him dig flashlights out of their book bags.
As we reach the ground floor, I spread out from the group and look around to see if there's any pipes nearby. The others are clustered together, Analis almost directly behind Benny. Suddenly another loud crash is heard, making us all jump in response.
"Whatever that thing is, it's the world's greatest klutz." Benny jokes, looking around.
"Hey guys!" Rory shouts, zooming up to them with his super speed. They all gasp in shock at him and I jump on him from behind, giggling at his jump. Benny and Analis start yelling at him, asking him what he's doing down here.
"Looking for a snack, what else?" He asks, completely hurt by their accusations.
"We thought you were.." Ethan says, looking behind Rory and I. His words start to stumble in his fear,
"Th-th-that!" he shouts. He points at a gator, just outside the doors leading out. We're all looking in shock as it seems to glow in the dark.
"How is that an alligator?!" E screams, completely astounded.
"Uh, guys, remember that random locker search a couple months back?" Rory asks.
"I was supposed to go back to get them after it was over, I thought they'd be safe there!" Rory defends, trying to make us see reason. I stare at him in complete disbelief. Then Benny adds in how his jock potion must've made them bulk up in size.
"You know, you're all missing the vital point in that story. One: Benny didn't flush the toilet after dumping the jock potion. So even if Rory had gone back, they'd still be the size they are now. Two? Benny was the one who ultimately flushed them, NOT Rory." I defend, hitting Benny upside the head.
"Well, I mean, if you put it in so many words." He says, his nervous chuckle coming back. I glare at him and hit him upside the head again. This time Analis grabs my hand and smacks the back of my head.
"Don't you touch a hair on his wittle head!" She shouts, defending her boyfriend. I tilt my head and glare at her. I know she is seriously not in agreement with him right now.
"I'll touch whatever hairs on his 'wittle' head I want to!" I snap, just as stubborn and childish. We both give each other a stare down as Benny looks from the two of us with a smirk. Rory taking notice too.
"I don't think I like this." Rory says, his frown coming through. Benny cracks a joke about he never thought mutant gators would get him two girls fighting over him. Earning him a slap on the back of the head from both Analis and I.