Cytisinth: Oh god, I can actually see Mrs. Addams saying something like that if she was in a Pixar film! xD She's not actually a kindergarten teacher, but I agree that she certainly acts like one! I'm glad that you liked the interactions between Chet and Chip in the last chapter. Chip is probably going to end up as Chet's best friend from the gang. He's got that nice, understand streak in him. And yeah, Chip is the only normalish one...everyone else has screwed up backstories all courtesy of the evil author over here. I guess you're right about how it's surprising that Chet hasn't gone swimming before, but he has lived a very sheltered life and has been kept inside most of the time. Thank you so much for the review; I really look forward to them! Oh, and I don't mind you reviewing out of order at all! I really love reviews. About Chet regarding Terry and Terri, yes, it's true that Chet hasn't seen a two-headed monster before. He was really sheltered and kept in his home, so he hasn't been exposed to monsters like the Perrys before. The twins are your favorites? What do you like most about them? I'd say Chet is my favorite character followed by Johnny and Javier. TerrixSquishy is a cute pairing! I tend to ship Terri with Art, but I'm not a hardcore shipper of it. Also, yeah, Reg and Jav definitely aren't rays of sunshine, haha. The hints with Sulley and whatnot were written in chapter nine on purpose. Chet is later going to feel inadequate because his physique doesn't match up to that of Johnny of Sulley for instance. Thanks again for commenting!
BloodRedRoses04: I'm so glad that you thought the last chapter was great! :D Let me know what you think of this one.
Nymris: "Chip and Chet" is fun to say! Luckily, Chip is an understanding friend that will help Chet through his entire stay at the university. Johnny might be Chet's love, but he seems to have his mind on other matters, you know? And true, a rainbow can always improve a painting! Speaking of which, I think that all of my paintings back in art class were "rainbows". :P
Guest: Chet is kind of a klutz, isn't he? I'm like that too; I run into stuff all of the time and cause big messes. I agree with you about all the of the ROR's scares being scary! For some reason, I never really include Randall as a ROR because he doesn't seem to fit in with the other five guys in my opinion. What do you think about Randall and the other RORs? Hope you like this chapter!
james95: Thank you so much for the nice review! I don't think that I've ever seen you review before...did you just start reading this story? :) Anyway, I'm glad that you liked the comedy in the last chapter. I try to make things funny when I can. I'm going to sound like an idiot, but what do you mean by Junjou Romantica-esque? I'm not sure that I know what that is. *feels stupid* Thanks again for the review though and I hope that you keep reading this!
Chapter XXI
Trying to save Chip's picture of the sunset, I lunge forward to grab the paint palette with a crab claw. Unfortunately, my aim is not so good and I end up knocking the paint palette off of the desk. It lands with a little plop onto the ground and spatters yellow, red, and orange paint all over me. By now, the entire class has turned to stare at me, but I only have eyes for Chip. Picking up the paint palette, I hurry over to the shocked-looking monster and exclaim, "I'm so sowwy! I didn't mean to! Your preddy sunset is all ruined now."
My face falls and I stare at the green, purple, and blue smudges that are now visible on the center of Chip's painting. Any other monster probably would've gotten really mad at me, but Chip stays calm and takes a deep breath, replying, "It's alright. It was only a painting, but Chet? Try to be a little more careful, okay?"
"Yes, I'll be more careful!" I nod frantically, wanting to do something helpful, but accidentally bumping a paintbrush off of the table instead. Uh oh. The floor is starting to look very colorful at this rate. It actually matches the "eccentric", as Chip called it, door to the art classroom. Maybe Mrs. Addams will like the design that I'm accidentally creating on the floor!
It turns out that Mrs. Addams does not like my design because she chooses this moment to ooze over to the desk Chip and I have been sharing to figure out what's going on. Her spectacled eyes immediately zoom in on the paint splattered all over the floor. A vein in her neck throbs as the teacher says, "Mr. Alexander, will you please go wash the paint off of your claws before you make an even bigger mess? At this rate, it will take more than just the janitor's help to get this floor cleaned."
Hanging my head, I nod somberly and say, "I'll go wash my hands right now, Mrs. Addams. Do you want me to come back when I'm done to help pick up? I don't mind cleaning. I'm usually not so bad at it – honest!"
I don't think that Mrs. Addams believes me because she shakes her head quickly and says, "That's alright. There's only five more minutes of class left, so you can just leave early."
"Oh, okay," I nod along with this, figuring that getting dismissed early is a good thing. Before scuttling out of the classroom, I hold up my picture to show Mrs. Addams, pointing out, "I drew Johnny!" Mrs. Addams squints through her spectacles at my picture, not looking like she's seeing what I see when I look at it. When I see the painting, I see a tall, proud monster with beautiful violet eyes and sharp fangs. When Mrs. Addams looks at the picture, she just sees a blob of gray with two brown streaks next to it that are supposed to be Johnny's horns. Not wanting to get into any more trouble, I wave to Mrs. Addams and say, "I'll go now. Bye bye!"
With that said, I scuttle out of the classroom and out into the hallway before realizing that I have no idea where the bathroom is. Frowning, I realize that without Chip or my map, I'm lost! I try to peer over the heads of the other monsters scurrying here and there, but they're all taller than me so I can't see a thing.
Doing the only thing that I can do besides for wandering the hallways, I raise my voice and ask helplessly, "Can someone help me? I'm lost and I dunno where to find the bathroom!"
A few monsters turn in my direction and smirk or chuckle at me, but nobody offers to help me. Since nobody is being helpful, I decide that the only thing left to do is search for the bathroom on my own. The students in the hallway surrounding me all seem to be moving in a certain direction, so I decide to follow them just in case they're all on their way to the restroom. While I follow the wave of monsters, I look down at my picture of Johnny and smile at it happily. I can't wait to find Johnny and give it to him!
A few minutes later, I find myself at the cafeteria instead of at the bathroom. It looks as if all of the monsters are going to the lunchroom. I guess that makes sense since it is lunch break after all. I'm not looking for the lunchroom though. I need to find the bathroom! Wait, what's that? After narrowing my eye and squinting down the hallway, I'm pretty sure that I see a bathroom. Hope restored, I scuttle along against the wave of the crowd of students making their way to the cafeteria until I reach my destination. Sure enough, it is a bathroom after all! Feeling smart since I managed to find the bathroom all on my own, I pop it open and hurry inside it before practically getting knocked over by the stench of smoke.
Jerking to a halt, I look around the bathroom in an attempt to try and find the source of the smoke. Forgetting all about why I'm actually here in the bathroom, I go to the bathroom stalls and pop them open one by one in case there's a fire somewhere. I'm so frantic about the possibility of a fire that I don't hear the familiar voices chortling inside the big bathroom stall at the end of the room. Almost slipping along on the tile floor, I fling the last bathroom stall open and find myself looking down at two familiar figures.
Reggie and Javier are lounging on the bathroom floor together, both smoking and talking in loud voices. Javier looks drugged as usual and has his arm casually swung around Reggie's shoulders. The furry green monster doesn't seem to mind this much and is actually leaning against the buggy monster while enjoying his cigarette.
"Whoa, crab man! You're lucky that we weren't taking a piss or something!" Javier exclaims when I pop the door to the gray bathroom stall open in fear of a fire. Frowning up at me, the pink-eyed monster takes in my anxious expression and says, "Look, if you've got a problem with something, go take it up with Johnny."
Reggie glances up at me with his three yellow eyes before turning back to Javier and pointing out, "Hey, whoever said that I'd piss in the same stall as you, dude?"
Javier just smirks and sticks out his tongue at Reggie while I look between the two of them and suddenly realize a few minutes too late that there's no fire. Nodding my head at my own realization, I point out, "Oh, there's no fire then. That's good. I thought that the whole school might be burning down!"
"Wait, a fire? What the fuck, Chet?" Javier asks me blankly before Reggie elbows him and points at the smoke he's puffing out of his cigarette. Rolling all four of his eyes at me, Javier says, "Oh, so ya smelled the smoke and thought that there was a fire. Well, good news, there's no fire. What are ya doin' in here anyway?"
"Um, that is a good question," I reply since I've already forgotten what I am doing in the bathroom to begin with. Looking down at my paint-splattered claws, I get my answer and pipe up, "I was going to wash my claws after I accidentally spilled paint on Chip's painting, but it looks like the paint is dry now. Maybe I'll just leave it! It actually looks sort of cool, don't you think?"
I admire the paint on my claws in the bathroom lighting while Javier inconspicuously tightens his grip on Reggie's shoulder and tells me in an expressionless tone of voice, "Yeah, totally awesome, man. Aren't you, um, hungry? Maybe you should go crash at the cafeteria for a while, ya know?"
I'm unaware of the obvious fact that Javier is trying to get rid of me and realize that I actually do feel hungry. Nodding, I reply, "Good idea! I'll go get some lunch and see if I can find Johnny so I can give him the painting I made for him!" I scuttle backward, feeling pleased with myself before I pause and get a bad gut feeling that Reggie and Javier are doing something that they're not supposed to be doing. Hesitating, I ask, "Is it okay for you guys to smoke as long as you don't set a fire?"
Javier and Reggie exchange a look before Reggie nods, his yellow eyes bouncing as he says, "Yeah, it's totally fine. As long as Jav and I don't go setting fires, it's all good. Seeya around, okay, man?"
"Okay. Bye!" I wave at the two smokers before making my way out of the bathroom and back out into the hallway. If Javier and Reggie tell me that they know what they're doing, then I'll just go ahead and trust them. Following the sea of monsters leading to the cafeteria, I go straight to the food counter to grab something to eat. I'm just about to grab a chili dog when I see a familiar pair of majestic brown horns across the room from me.
Forgetting all about my appetite, I drop the chili dog that I already picked up much to the annoyance of a large gray monster next to me and practically run across the room in Johnny's direction. The sad thing is that crabs can't really run, so I just do my best at scurrying along until I reach the sleek, gray-furred monster.
"Hi Johnny!" I grin up at him, glad to see my beloved leader, but not so glad to see that five of the PNK girls are surrounding him. It seems as if they're attached to his side or something. Trying to ignore the girls since they're ignoring me, I extend my painting proudly out toward Johnny and beam as I exclaim, "I painted a picture of you in art class earlier! Here, you can keep it!"
Johnny takes the picture from me with a clawed hand and assesses it with an expressionless look on his face. The PNK girls stand on their tiptoes to peer over Johnny's shoulders to see what he's looking at. When they get a good look at my painting, most of the girls start up their giggling and smirk at one another.
"This was, ahem, very thoughtful of you, Chet," Johnny says, looking as if he's trying very hard not to smile. I don't know why he's trying not to smile. I like it when the boss smiles and I want him to like my painting.
"It's no problem, boss!" I reply enthusiastically, my eye fixed on the handsome monster in front of me.
An awkward silence falls between the two of us while the PNK girls continue to giggle amongst themselves. Finally, Johnny manages to smooth over the lull in our conversation by saying, "Well, I'm off to advance arithmetic. Remember to study your subjects and recheck your homework."
"Ooo, okay, that's good advice," I nod vigorously, not realizing that the reason Johnny says this is because he doesn't think that I'm very smart and that's why I should recheck my answers, you know, to see if I have them right or not. Waving a paint-splattered claw at Johnny, I call, "Bye, boss! Good luck with English!"
I follow Johnny with my eye as he struts out of the cafeteria with all five of the girls following him. It only occurs to me once Johnny is out of sight that I could've followed him too! I mean, if the girls are following him, why can't I? Unfortunately, Johnny is gone now and so I'm just going to have to get some lunch instead. That's okay with me because my stomach is grumbling.
Before I can turn and start off toward the food counter for a second time, a soft, barely audible voice sounds from behind me, saying, "Hey."
Always happy to see a friendly monster, I turn around and find nobody. Frowning, I scan all of the monster faces in front of me, but none of them seem to be looking in my direction. Huh, that's weird! I could've sworn that I heard someone say my name. Maybe I'm hearing things! Daddy always said that my senses weren't the best…
I'm still wondering about my sanity and whether or not I'm hearing voices or not when the same voice from before sighs and adds, "Down here."
Looking down, I notice a gray and black striped monster with a long-lashed, deep blue eye. Recognizing the little monster from earlier, I smile my missing toothed smile at her and say, "Hi Nancy! How's it going?"
"Oh, it's going alright," Nancy says in a voice that makes me think that she doesn't like college very much. Looking at the floor, Nancy admits, "Already, I've almost gotten stepped on three times today and I always have to wait for someone to open the doors in this place for me since they're all above my head."
"Wow, that must be really horrible," I frown, realizing that even though I'm short, it could be worse. Nancy is shorter than me and she can't even open doors for herself because she doesn't have any arms.
"I'll learn to deal with it," the blue-eyed monster shrugs before nodding shyly toward a table to our left, saying, "I got some lunch from the food counter, but I'm not very hungry. Would you like to see if you'd like any of it?"
Perking up at the mention of food, I nod eagerly and scuttle over to the table Nancy pointed out to me. Sure enough, there's a big tray of lots of different sorts of foods on it. I see jello, a chili dog, a hamburger, fries, and an apple sitting on the tray. It probably should've been obvious to me that Nancy purposely got this food for me and not for herself, but my stomach is distracting me and keeping me from thinking straight.
"Wow, this is a lot of good food!" I state, proceeding to pick up a French fry and toss it into my mouth. I think about its flavor for a minute before deciding, "This tastes great, but it's missing ketchup."
I'm about to look up when Nancy suddenly scoots her chair directly in front of me as if she's trying to block my view of something. I blink at her in confusion before noticing Johnny and the PNK girls standing next to the trash can on the far side of the room by the door.
"Oh look, there's Johnny! He's so brave and fierce," I sigh adoringly before realizing that something fishy is going on here. Scratching my head, I let my half-eaten French fry drop back onto my tray as I point out, "He said that he was leaving for advanced English a while ago though…I wonder if his class got cancelled?"
Nancy gives me an almost sympathetic look before shrugging and says, "Who knows? Anyway, what's your next class? I have math."
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