Hey, guys! After a cancer-related sabbatical, I'm ready to return with my new work: Count's World High, the high school reboot! I hope you enjoy it!

Being the new student in school is never easy. But have you ever tried being the new kid in a dimension? That's what Timpani was looking forward to as she rolled up to Flip-Flop High, clutching her satchel close as a lifeline; it was all she had from her old life. Even the clothes she was wearing were new, a pastel colored dress she had acquired at a shop in Flipside. At the time she had felt hopeful about the prospect of rejuvenating her identity. Now she felt disconnected from herself, as if she had abandoned who she was in favor of some fake identity she could no longer relate to. Her long, chestnut hair spilled in front of her face as she hurried up the steps to the stone building, hiding her visage as if to shield her from the uncertainty ahead.

Her first stop was the front office to pick up her class schedule. The secretary was a friendly woman, but Timpani wasn't used to the people here. They were angular and their bodies segmented, their flesh colors nothing like the humans in Timpani's homeland. While humans there did come in a variety of colors, those colors were never green or purple unless something was seriously wrong. Timpani tried not to look uncomfortable as she gave her name, waited for the computer's ancient printer to wake up, and then took her printed schedule from the kind woman behind the walnut desk.

Then it was a matter of finding her homeroom. There was a map with her class schedule, and the secretary had been kind enough to circle the rooms she had to go to, but it was still a headache to find. Left, left, right, and then another left, and Timpani realized she had gone in the wrong direction. She turned yet another corner and collided with another student who was turning around the same corner.

Timpani fell to the ground and groaned, "Ouch." A moment later, a white gloved hand extended down in front of her.

"I'm terribly sorry," said the boy she had crashed into. "I wasn't looking where I was going, and I was keeping left instead of right."

Timpani took the hand and looked up, and almost audibly gasped at what she saw. The other student was obviously not human, but strikingly handsome all the same. His face was somewhat gaunt, his head more cylindrical than round, and purple in color for both his skin and his shaggy hair, though the shades varied all over. He wore a long, white coat and dark slacks, his shoes shined to reflect the flourescent lights of the hall. His gloves were not woolen winter gloves, but the fine leather gloves of a gentleman.

Timpani found her face growing hot as she rose to her feet, wishing she could do something to stop the blush that now surely had spread all across her face. "I'm sorry, too," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's no wonder why," said the boy. "Your hair seems to be getting in your way."

"I know," said Timpani. "I forgot my hair ties this morning. I'm sort of discombobulated."

The boy laughed warmly, not at her, but in understanding of the situation, Timpani was sure. "Well, I think I have something for that." He opened his coat to reach into his inner pocket, and Timpani could see he was even wearing a waistcoat underneath. A waistcoat! She had never seen anyone wear one before and immediately she knew that if all men still wore them, none of them would be single because it was the single most attractive garment she had ever seen- or perhaps it was simply the one wearing it? But before she could straighten out her fluttering thoughts, the coat was closed again and in his fine, gloved hand was a long ribbon striped with every color of the rainbow. "Here," he said, as Timpani stared at his chest where the waistcoat had been. "I happen to have this left over from a sewing project in home ec. It should suffice as a hair ribbon."

Timpani took the ribbon. "Th- thank you," she said.

Then the bell rang, and immediately Timpani panicked. "Oh, no! I'm going to be late!"

"Don't worry," said the boy. "That's the warning bell. You have two minutes until the late bell."

"Oh."

"First day?"

"Yeah." Timpani pulled her hair back and began to tie the ribbon in a bow, but her fingers fumbled.

"Here, let me," said the boy, and he moved behind her in one graceful, elegant step that caused his coat to sway around him. He took the ribbon and hair, and his hands brushed the nape of her neck and she trembled slightly as he did. A moment later, he said, "There. Now everyone can see your face."

"Thank you."

"Now, who's homeroom are you in?"

"Mr. Merlon," said Timpani.

"Then you're in luck, for I am heading there myself. Just follow me and we'll make it with time to spare."

"Thank you."

The boy began to walk briskly down the hall, with Timpani following. "My name is Blumiere, by the way," he said.

What a marvelous name, she thought. What a spectacular, extraordinary, magnificent- "My name is Timpani," she managed to say.

"Timpani, eh? Hmm..." Blumiere clicked quietly to himself once or twice. "You know, before now I had never thought about the timpani being a beautiful instrument, but you know what? I think it is. Like the viola or the flute."

If there was a single part of Timpani's face that hadn't been blushing, that was no longer true, for every part of her from the neck up was red as a tomato. Blumiere turned down one more hallway before stopping in front of a door like every other door, except labeled 129. "Here we are," said Blumiere. "It was nice talking with you, Timpani." He went into the room.

Timpani took a moment outside to calm herself and let her red face return to some semblance of peach before she stepped into the room. At first she hoped that there was an empty seat beside Blumiere, but then she realized that if there was, she would be able to focus on nothing else. Still, when she saw the only empty spot was in the back row, she felt disappointed.

Timpani hustled to the desk and sat down, tucking her satchel under the chair. The room was active, with students chatting or going through their work for the day, but none of them paid her any mind. A cloaked and hooded teacher sat at a desk in the front of the room, ignoring the chaos with his bushy mustache buried in a thick textbook.

Next to Timpani's seat on the right was a squarish green girl with bouncy pigtails and a yellow sundress dotted with white. Her limbs were thin, black, and spiderlike, and her eyes were beady but active, taking in Timpani from head to toe in a matter of seconds. In her cheek was a wad of gum which she chewed heartily, like a cow with cud.

"New kid, eh?" said her neighbor.

Timpani nodded. "My name's Timpani."

"Mimi." Mimi blew a bubble and let it pop. "You don't look like one of us."

"I'm kind of new to this whole dimension," said Timpani.

"Makes sense," said Mimi. "Well, stick close to me if you can. There's a lot of creeps and weirdos in this school, so you'd better watch out." She pointed to one boy in the middle row, dressed in yellow and purple horizontal stripes, with half his face white and half his face black, his jet black hair sticking out in every dimension. "That's Dimentio. He's a real meanie-pants and he'll do anything to trick you. But the biggest one you've got to watch out for is him." Mimi pointed at Blumiere.

Timpani felt her blush rising again. "Him? But he seems so nice."

Mimi was looking at Blumiere as she continued, "Yeah, he may seem nice, but he's from the Tribe of Darkness. They're the guardians of this really evil ancient artifact, they use dark magic, and none of 'em can be trusted. I mean, who would trust someone who spends all his time with an evil book that-" but Mimi stopped short when she looked back at Timpani, and then she grinned. "Oh, no way. This is too good."

"What?" Timpani tried and failed to sound even and undisturbed.

"You like him."

"I don't! I don't even know him yet."

"Yeah, you clearly don't, or else you wouldn't be blushing."

"Well you said that his people guard an evil artifact, but... I mean, you didn't say he uses it, does he?"

"I mean, how could you tell?"

"Maybe he's not like them."

Mimi leaned forward on her desk, chin on her fists. She blew another bubble but it flopped because she couldn't stop grinning. Then she pulled it back into her mouth. "You know what? I love challenges. Let's fix you two up."

"What? No, no, I-"

"No buts."

The bell rang and the teacher slammed his book shut and stood up. "All right, class is officially in session. On the board is your journal assignment for today. I want you to spend the next fifteen minutes on it. If you really can't think of fifteen minutes worth of journal, you may quietly read from your English- Mimi, is that gum again?"

Mimi swallowed her gum. "No, sir."

Mr. Merlon sighed. "All right. You know the rules." He reached into his desk and pulled out an index card with her name on it, divided into 10 squares. Eight of them had a hole punched into them. Merlon used his hole puncher to add a hole to the ninth square. "One more and it's three days of detention."

Mimi rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mr. Merlon," she said as sarcastically as she could get away with. She pulled out a spiral notebook and a glittery pink pen. "You'd better start writing," she whispered to Timpani. "He's serious about homeroom work. It's so lame. All the other teachers just let their classes hang."

"No talking!" Mr. Merlon called from his desk.

Mimi jumped and then hunched over her journal, scribbling away about where she would travel to if money was no object. Timpani pulled out a fresh new notebook, wrote her class information in the cover, and got to work herself.

She was now ready to face the day.

Timpani had her first class, Physics, with Mimi, but then was on her own for Statistics and Music. Then it was lunch, and they both were in the same lunch group. Mimi had told Timpani to sit with her at the table closest to the trash cans. When Timpani came through the lunch line with her hot meal, she spotted Mimi, now dressed in a paisley blouse and khaki slacks, at a table with two other people.

One of them was more human than the others, but still angular and segmented. He had thick muscles visible even through his varsity jacket, and thick red hair that matched his facial stubble. The other was Dimentio from homeroom.

Timpani sat down. "Hi," she said.

"Hi," said Mimi. "Dimentio was just leaving. Weren't you, Dimmie?" she added in a syrupy-sweet voice.

Ignoring Mimi, Dimentio looked down at Timpani's lunch tray. "A pizza rectangle," he said as if no one else could see. "Truly the pinnacle of public school lunch, I daresay."

"He won't leave me alone," said Mimi. "He's mad because I turned him down for junior prom when we were freshmen because he's a smelly poopy-head."

"Please, my dear, you flatter yourself." Dimentio turned to Timpani. "So, I hear that you're a human, hmmm? Ah ha ha... how interesting for you."

"What do you mean?" asked Timpani.

"Oh, nothing unseemly I assure you... we've never had something like you in school. I'm sure that you won't have any trouble fitting in once you get used to us."

"Ey, would ye leave the lass alone?" the jock nudged Dimentio. "She doesn't need any o' yer particular way o' bein'."

"This is my friend, O'Chunks," said Mimi. "You need anybody beat up, he's your guy. Just ask him nicely."

"Uh, I'm good," said Timpani.

Dimentio leaned forward, chin on his hands, and smiled a little too widely. "So Mimi tells me you're already making aquaintenships. In addition to her, there's the mysterious-"

O'Chunks stood up, a whole foot taller than Dimentio, and picked Dimentio up by the collar. "All right, yeh've been warned. Time to go." O'Chunks dragged Dimentio across the cafeteria.

Mimi sighed. "Whew. I'm glad that's over."

Timpani glanced down at Mimi's new outfit. "Uh, did you change clothes since we last spoke?"

"Yeah, I change about two or three times a day," said Mimi.

"You have a lot of clothes, huh?"

"That and I'm a shapeshifter. But enough about that. Have you looked into any clubs yet?"

"Clubs? No way, I'm still trying to get through my first classes. Once that's over then maybe I can begin to think about clubs."

"Well, you might want to think about expediting that, because there's a little something you don't know yet: this weekend is our school festival where all the clubs are putting together expos of what they do and the classes are putting on exhibits. The Literature club he's in will be putting together a haunted house based on the folklore characters they've been studying this semester. If I were you, I would join up with the literature folks now and you'll get to spend some time making kissy faces with him."

"Really? Would they let me in?"

"Oh, yeah, they take anyone. You don't even have to have ever read a book in your life. You just have to be willing to start."

"Wow. Okay, so, er, where do I go?"

"They meet in room 161 as soon as school's over. If you get lost maybe you'll run into Blumiere again and he can take you, eh? Eh?" Mimi gave her eyelashes a quick flutter. "What do you say?"

"It's worth a try," said Timpani. "Okay. I'll do it."

Her resolve had been strong at lunch, but by the time the last bell rang it had started to falter. Still, she held her head high and followed her school map closely to find the empty classroom where Blumiere would be. Since the consequences for being late to a club were far more lax than those for being late to class, she could take her time to find the classroom, thus avoiding her panicking and getting lost again. Still, by the time she found the club meeting it seemed to be already underway.

Timpani could see the meeting through the window built into the classroom door. There was a small cluster of desks pulled together in the center of the room, with the rest pushed off to the side. Blumiere was sitting in one of them, casually leaning back with one arm slung over the back of his chair. It took a second for Timpani to register that five other students were also there. She knocked lightly, and when the group turned to look at her she opened the door a crack.

"Hello," she said timidly. "I'm Timpani. Er... well, someone told me the literature club was meeting in this room."

One of the group members stood up. She had blue skin, purple hair, and catseye glasses which she adjusted to get a better look at Timpani. "Ah. Hello. I believe I've seen you around today. I heard there was a human coming to this school... Yeah, so my name is Nastasia and I run this club. We don't have a lot of members so anybody who wants to join up is free to... you just need to have a passion for literature, k?"

"Oh, yes, I do," said Timpani. "I spend a lot of time reading."

"Is that so? So, what's the most recent book you finished?" It was not a friendly question. It was a test, and they both knew it.

Timpani replied easily: "Madame Blomeba, by Gustave Koopa. I was especially moved by the desires of the protagonist to live beyond her means a life of high society even though she would always be just a weird blob from the Bitlands."

Nastasia smiled. "I enjoyed that book as well. Well, why don't you pull up a desk and we'll introduce ourselves. The meeting proper hasn't yet started so this will be a good way to get underway."

Blumiere scooted his desk to the side, leaving a large gap between himself and his neighbor. "There's a spot over here," he said. "Come, sit."

Timpani pulled a desk from the wall and positioned it between Blumiere and his neighbor, a pink girl with an orange ponytail. Next to her was a girl with similar colors, but she was shorter and squatter with low pigtails.

"This is Blumiere," said Nastasia, "and the other two members are Muffy to your left, and Elli to my left."

"Hey," said Muffy cooly, while Ellie said, "HI!" with great enthusiasm.

Timpani smiled.

"We've already met," said Blumiere, "but maybe Ellie and Muffy should say something about themselves?"

"I'll go first," said Ellie. "I'm the youngest, I'm the only freshman, and I love reading comics just as much as books. I wanna write really good comics so I read a lot."

"I like comics, too," said Timpani.

"They're not really literature, but they're cool," said Muffy.

"Video games aren't literature, either," said Ellie, "but you like them,"

"Yeah. I like video games better than books, but you can't put a video game club on a college application and expect to get in on that." She flipped her hair. "I've got the high score on every game in the Flipside Arcade. Even the secret ones that the regular people don't get to play."

Nastasia picked up a packet of papers and tapped them on her desk. "All right. That should suffice for introductions. Now onto business. We were just discussing our presentation for this weekend's fair. We were planning to pair up and choose a folklore monster to scare visitors to our classroom. Each group would pick two that would compliment each other. Timpani, since you haven't really been here, I think it would be best if you chose a pair to observe."

"All right," said Timpani.

"All right, then I suppose we'd better get to it. Muffy, Ellie, I believe you're still going through the omnibus of Lineland Folk Monsters? Yeah, so you two just go over and figure out which monsters you want to read about, and me and Blumiere will work on our project, K?"

"Yeah, sounds cool." Muffy stood up.

When Muffy and Ellie left, Nastasia moved to a desk next to Blumiere. She gestured for Timpani to remain seated, so she did.

Blumiere turned to Nastasia and said, "Have you picked a creature yet?"

"Unfortunately, I haven't yet."

"That's disappointing," said Blumiere. "I haven't, either. There are just so many. I've read so many stories that I can't narrow it down."

Nastasia and Blumiere began discussing monsters back and forth in quick succession, monsters from stories Timpani had never read and wasn't familiar with. She felt like she couldn't catch up and was being left behind. But what was worse was she was noticing how Nastasia was looking at Blumiere, how the other girls had looked at him. She was not alone in her affections. Those eyes Nastasia was using weren't overt, not even visible, but the way her face softened when she got close to him gave the impression of someone feeling a great longing. Timpani could see neither pair of eyes yet she knew how both of them were looking at him.

The discussion waned, and though Timpani couldn't follow it, she knew it had not been productive. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head, so crisp and clear it was a wonder it hadn't existed until that moment. "Excuse me," she said, "but I think I have an idea."

Nastasia looked surprised. Blumiere smiled, looking warmly pleased. "Oh?" he said. "What is your idea?"

"Well, I don't know a lot of folklore characters, but I do know one very well..., rather, three. Have you heard of the Underchomp?"

Nastasia shook her head.

"I think I have," said Blumiere. "It's a mythical monster that guards the gates between the Underwhere and the Overthere. It's a chain chomp with three fierce heads, each one possessing a slightly different power."

Nastasia's demeanor brightened. "Oh, I think I see. If you choose our group, we can each be one of the heads. Is that it?"

"That's right," said Timpani. "One head is red with fire breath, one is blue with blue fire, and one is yellow with putrid, stinky breath. We could use some magic to make it look like our costumes have weaponized breath."

Blumiere rubbed his hands together, grinning. "Oh, I like this idea," he said.

"I do, but I'm not sure how to connect it to literature."

"I have a book about this subject," said Timpani. "It's at home right now, but I could bring it tomorrow for you. It's packed with myths and legends about the Underwhere and has a whole section with stories about the Underchomp."

"I have some ideas for the costume," said Blumiere. "I'll bring some things tomorrow. If your book has pictures in it, then we'll be all on the same page, so to speak."

The rest of the meeting went well, though it was uncomfortable for Timpani after her realization about exactly where she stood in all of this. Then, before she knew it, it was time to pack up and go. The club said their goodbyes, everyone making sure to say a special goodby and hope we see you tomorrow to Timpani, which she accepted gratefully. She left the classroom last, with her head high, trying hard to be proud of herself for stepping out of her comfort zone and doing what she could to get what she desired.

"Interesting group, isn't it?"

Timpani jumped, for the voice seemed to be coming from right behind her, where she had left an empty room. She spun around and saw Dimentio standing there, grinning as he had been every other time she'd seen him

"Hello," she said cautiously. "Dimentio, wasn't it?"

"You remember me. But of course, I always make an impression, like a brass relief of a sculptor's model."

"Were you waiting for someone?"

"I was waiting for you. Your new friend Mimi told me all about your desire to win the affections of Blumiere."

Timpani was tired of her face going red that day, but having Dimentio say that out loud sent her blood rushing to her cheeks yet again. "Okay, so? What do you have to do with it?"

"I'm sure you noticed that you're not the only one who pines for his attention."

"I had a feeling..."

"Yes..." Dimentio reached out and gave her a gentle brush on her chin. "My question to you is, what do you have to offer him that no one else can?"

Timpani shrugged. "I suppose all I really have to offer is myself, and if it's not enough then it's not enough."

Dimentio laughed. "Oh, you poor, naive fool. It's never enough and you'll wind up alone if you think otherwise."

"That's not true," said Timpani.

"Aren't you willing to try a little harder?"

"It isn't that I'm not willing," said Timpani, "it's just that I don't really think there's anything I can do."

"That's simply not true. There's so much you can do if you're willing to."

"Like what?"

"Hmm... tell me, did they tell you why the Tribe of Darkness is so feared?"

"Because they guard an ancient evil artifact?"

"People fear their dark magic as well. Magic is very important to them, you see."

"I hope you're not implying that I use any sort of dark magic. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I'm a human."

"Not dark per se, but magic all the same. And there's some magic that anybody can use. Here; hold out your hand."

Timpani held her hand out, and Dimentio pressed a small, glittering object into it. Timpani looked closely at it. It looked like a chip off a yellow rock. She frowned and looked up at Dimentio.

"That's a star fragment," said Dimentio. "Have you heard about shooting stars granting wishes? Well, sometimes those stars fall to earth and split into fragments. Those star fragments still contain a little bit of magic in them. If you want to, you could use your wish to make your haunted house extraordinary. Think about it; Blumiere does love his little literature club, and he is impressed by magic. You would set yourself apart from the other girls. It would still be up to him, but you would have given yourself a fighting chance. What do you say."

Timpani looked down at the star fragment for a long moment, then up at Dimentio. "Thank you... I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but thank you all the same."

"You're welcome. And if it doesn't work out between you two, I'm always available." With that he laughed, and walked away down the hall, leaving Timpani well and truly alone with her thoughts.

She thought, all right. Timpani sat down at her desk in her room as soon as she got home and let herself think, let her mind reach out to all the thoughts that were bustling around in her brain. She thought about the other girls. She thought about Blumiere. She thought about the legend of the Underchomp. She thought about her math assignment. She thought about Blumiere. She thought about the literature club. She thought about sitting next to Blumiere at the literature club. She thought about the two of them dressed as the heads of the Underchomp, standing right next to each other. She imagined his hand reaching out and brushing against hers. She thought of them stealing a quiet moment away from the group after their presentation was a rousing success.

Then she thought about Nastasia doing the same thing. She thought about her and Blumiere talking and laughing about how awkward they were in their costume, and then Nastasia walked up and began talking to Blumiere. She thought about Nastasia taking him by the arm and leading him away from Timpani. She thought about them going into an empty classroom. She thought about Nastasia giving Blumiere a gentle kiss, or a passionate one, or-

Timpani snatched up the star fragment she had left on her desk. It was sitting on top of the book she promised to bring to the club the next day. She was done thinking. It was time for doing.

The next club meeting went better than the first was welcomed back warmly by all the girls, though she could not stop herself from seeing the affection in all their eyes when Blumiere spoke. Again, Timpani went with Blumiere and Nastasia when they went to discuss their presentation.

"I brought the book," said Timpani. She had bookmarked the page with the best illustration of the Underchomp, so she easily opened it and set the book down on the desk in front of Nastasia. "What do you think?"

"Impressive," said Nastasia. "This is exactly the kind of thing I'm interested in."

Blumiere leaned over to look at the picture. "What a fearsome beast," he said. "Three mighty heads, each one more than ready to throw down with any wanderer who gets too near."

"I think I favor the red one," said Nastasia. "Yeah, so does anyone mind if I claim that head?"

"I have no problem with that," said Blumiere.

"Do you want to be the yellow one or the blue one, then?" asked Timpani.

"I'm partial to yellow, if you don't mind. You see, I usually look better in cool colors as opposed to warm ones, and I feel like I need a change."

"I like any color." Timpani lightly touched her rainbow hair ribbon. She was still wearing the one Blumiere had given her the day before, though she had taken it out and re-tied it since then so it was no longer his knot.

"Now, I've brought some supplies," said Blumiere. He picked up the cardboard box he'd brought with him. "Foam rubber makes a good base for the costume, and I've got bolts of fabric from my mother's sewing room that she doesn't need... I only brought a little today so we can experiment with it."

They worked on the costume all that day. While they did Muffy and Ellie stopped by so they could touch base. Muffy was making a pig costume based on a book written about the story of Twilight Town's curse, as she was impressed with the subtle horror of what had happened there. Ellie was making a simple duplighost costume.

"I wish we had more members," Nastasia remarked sadly as they examined each other's costumes. "It would be more interesting if we had more than two stories to share with the group."

"I'm afraid that's my doing," said Blumiere. "I think people are afraid to join the group once they find out that I'm going to be in it."

Wouldn't that be something, Timpani thought. Everyone is either too afraid to join or joins because they're in love with him.

"Well, that can't be helped," said Nastasia. "We'll just have to show them the club is worth joining anyway."

"Sometimes I wonder if it would be best for me to bow out gracefully," said Blumiere wistfully.

"No way!" Muffy's protest wasn't exactly loud, but it was firm and harsh, with an edge of annoyance. "If they don't want to be in our club, then that's their problem. If anybody isn't going to join simply because of you, then they aren't truly passionate about literature, and I think passion is what makes a club great, not quantity of members."

"Yeah," said Ellie. "I'd much rather be in a small, honest club than a big, sterile one."

Blumiere smiled. "Do you mean that?"

"Of course we do," said Nastasia. "Now, let's get back to work. We have to be ready by this weekend and I don't want to put on a slapped-together show. If people are going to join, this is how we'll convince them. And if they're not, then, well, who needs them?"

Friday night Timpani couldn't sleep. She kept turning the star fragment over and over in her hands as she stared up at her bedroom ceiling. Occasionally she drifted off to sleep, but woke up without actually realizing she had been asleep. So the night passed long and uninterrupted from her perspective, and when Saturday morning came she felt uneasy and unrested. Still, she got herself up, dressed in a beautiful but simple white dress that wouldn't clash with her costume, settled her stomach with some toast for breakfast, and headed to the school.

Everything was different on a festival weekend. The school was still abuzz, but there wasn't the usual weekday tension. Nobody was stressing about tests, studying, or writing essays. The stress in the air was from a project taken on voluntarily and cheerfully, and stress you choose is always more palatable than stress forced upon you from above. The conversations were cheerier, the rushing was more easygoing, and the overall mood was so much higher than it had been the previous few days.

There were lovely decorations in the classrooms as well. Timpani couldn't stop to get a good look at all of them, but she did take in a good amount as she hurried down the corridors that were slowly becoming second nature. Lovely streamers and paper garlands lined the halls, colorful posters were hung by students to showcase what was in the nearby rooms, and as Timpani walked she saw a Flopside girl hanging up paper flowers around the doorways.

When she made it to the classroom, she saw that yet again she was the last one there. As soon as she stepped through the doorway Blumiere waved her over to the desk where he and Nastasia were hunched over Timpani's book. "Over here!" he called cheerfully.

Timpani hurried over to the table and pulled up a chair. "What did I miss?"

"Very little," said Blumiere. "We were just going over our items. You see, as the yellow head, it's my job to breathe putrid breath. I can't do exactly that, but I have a stinky herb that can imitate the smell."

Nastasia held up a fire flower. "I brought a fire flower that I can give a little squeeze to make it spark, and say it's fire breath. Of course, I'll have to be careful not to set anything on fire."

"But we realized as we got here that we didn't think of anything for you to pretend to breathe," finished Blumiere. "I can't think of anything that can imitate blue fire breath that we could get our hands on at such short notice."

Timpany casually slipped her hand in her pocket so her fingers could brush against the star fragment, assuring herself it was still there. "Don't worry," she said. "I've brought something that might work."

Blumiere smiled. "Very good!"

Nastasia turned to Muffy and Ellie, holding their pig suit and duplighost bedsheet. "Is everything working out all right?" she asked. "You've got your costumes ready? Know what you're going to say?"

"We're hammering something out," said Muffy. "Can you give us like two minutes to fix this?"

"Of course." Nastasia turned back to her group. "You've written your parts, right?

"Yes," said Blumiere. He was holding the yellow foam chomp head and slipped it over his head, so his face was looking out between the costume's mighty teeth. The chain attached to the back trailed behind him like a giant tail.

Nastasia slipped her costume on and hooked the end of her chain to the end of Blumiere's chain. "All right, then."

Timpani copied Nastasia, and in a moment they were ready as the fearsome Underchomp.

Blumiere cleared his throat and began his introductory speech: "We are the Underchomp, the terrible guard between the deep recesses of the Underwhere and the airy comfort of the Overthere. As long as we stand guard, no one may sneak into eternal paradise from the domain of those awaiting judgment of their lives. I am Yellow Underchomp, and I breathe a horrible, putrid stench to incapacitate anyone that might challenge me." He surreptitiously pulled the stinky herb out of his inner coat pocket and wafted it slightly, holding his breath as he did, before tucking it away again. For such a small herb with so little exposure, the rotten smell was pungent.

"I am Red Underchomp," said Nastasia, "and my fire breath will burn those who dare face me!" She gave the fire flower a squeeze inside the costume, and a few slight sparks jumped out. They hit the fabric on the costume but did not catch, and faded out quickly. She continued with a short description of the Underchomp fighting a shayde, but Timpani's heart was pounding so hard it was drowning out her surroundings. Or else it was the anxiety.

She didn't hear Nastasia finish, but she took her context clues when Nastasia stopped talking. Timpani took a deep breath and recited the line she had prepared. "I am Blue Underchomp, and my blue fire burns hotter than any fire you've ever encountered." Timpani reached into her pocket, closed her eyes, and thought as hard as she could: I wish I could make blue fire. I wish I could make blue fire. I wish I could make blue fire.

It happened in an instant with no warning, no transition. One moment Timpani was facing Muffy and Ellie on the other side of the room, whispering about their presentation. The next, she was facing two pigs who were looking around in confusion. The star fragment Timpani was holding was gone, leaving her to feel nothing in her pocket but her own sweaty palm. She ripped off her Underchomp costume and looked at Blumiere and Nastasia. Blumiere was still himself, and looking alarmed, but Nastasia was a pig as well.

"No..." Timpani gasped. "No! This wasn't supposed to happen!"

"What wasn't?" asked Blumiere. "Timpani, what happened?"

Overwhelmed and panicking, Timpani ran out of the room. She looked up and down the hallway, and saw that two doors down across the hall was a door labeled UTILITY CLOSET. Timpani ran to it, ducked inside, and slammed the door behind her. Inside it was small and cramped, with barely enough room for a mop and bucket, a water heater and a shelf of cleaning supplies. The lighting inside was dim, barely any at all coming from a single fluorescent tube. Timpani turned the empty bucket upside down, sat on it, and began sobbing hysterically.

It took her a minute or two to get herself under control, and when she did she could hear some faint laughing. Timpani looked up, and saw that Dimentio was squeezed between the water heater and the wall, barely visible and barely containing his laughter. When he saw her, he laughed out loud as heartily as he could.

"You- you actually thought- oh, this is too delightful! I can't believe you believed me! It's been so long since anyone actually believed me!"

"What are you laughing about?" Timpani demanded, her eyes still spilling tears onto her splotchy, red cheeks.

"My dear, star fragments don't grant wishes! They're nothing more than glittery rocks you can trade to a collector!"

"Wait, so... the pigs?"

"Merely a prank. Oh, don't give me that look, it's all in good fun. They're unharmed. It's really nothing to change their shape if they aren't paying attention."

Timpani stood up, the white-hot rage in her chest building rapidly. "You- you can't be serious! You actually-" But then she blinked in surprise, as Dimentio was gone. She stood there gaping, not knowing what had just happened, when the door was gently opened.

Timpani turned around and saw Blumiere standing there, looking at her with a sad face. Timpani looked down immediately and sat back down on the bucket.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I think I was just tricked into doing something stupid."

Blumiere shook his head. "No. You weren't. You didn't do anything. I recognize one of Dimentio's tricks. I assume you were warned about him?"

"Nothing specific, just that he was untrustworthy."

"Well. Really, there's no harm done. I turned them back right after you left. They've gone to find Dimentio. I believe they plan to murder him."

That got a weak laugh out of Timpani.

"But why did you think you had caused that?"

"Well, he told me-" she stopped, then chose her words carefully. "He recommended that I would get something I wanted if I showed I could use magic."

"Oh? And what is it you wanted?"

Timpani looked up at Blumiere but said nothing.

Blumiere touched a hand to his chest. "Me?"

She didn't say anything, but the natural change in her eyes told him everything he needed to know.

Blumiere knelt down in front of her and looked her straight in the eye on her level. "Dear heart, you didn't have to do anything. All you had to do was say something."

"I thought... I thought that those other girls liked you, too."

"They do."

"And?"

"And we've spoken about it. I don't feel that way about them. They understand. They're sorry about it, but they'd rather have me as a friend than not at all."

"Then... how could I expect you to like me?"

"I already liked you," said Blumiere.

"What?"

"From the moment you collided into me, I liked you. I don't know why. I don't know why some people stir feelings in you and others don't."

"I.. had no idea."

"I thought I was being rather obvious," said Blumiere. "I've never flirted that hard in my entire life."

Timpani laughed. Her face was still splotchy, but she didn't feel ugly or undesirable anymore. She felt like the most beautiful girl in the entire dimension. "I... didn't have to do anything?"

"One of us should have just said something," said Blumiere. "I think we both could have done better."

"Well... do you still like me?"

"I do."

"Do you wanna kiss me?"

"I do."

Timpani reached out and kissed him. It felt exactly like she wanted it to, like sunshine and rainbows and crisp new erasers and daisy crowns, and everything wonderful in the world. And when they broke apart, she was smiling so hard she couldn't pucker again to save her life.

Blumiere stood up and offered her his hand, which she took to help her stand up. He opened the door to the closet, and standing outside was Mimi in a purple dress with lavender spots. She clapped her hands wildly and started hooting. "I told you!" she said. "You just needed to put yourself out there!"

"Thank you," said Timpani. "Your advice was so much better than Dimentio's."

"He's been cornered in the cafeteria," said Mimi. "You should come see it. Pretty much everyone's joined in on beating the stuffing out of him. I don't even think the teachers are gonna do anything."

"Not right now," said Timpani, linking her arm with Blumiere and pulling herself close. "I think we're gonna work on our presentation by ourselves before the rest of the club gets back."

And when he kissed her, she knew that nothing would ever come between them again.

Hope you liked it, and I'll be back soon with more... okay, okay, yes, April Fool's. This isn't really my new reboot that I'm writing instead of the Count's World. I also can't say when I'll be back with what I promised, but I will be back. I'm still struggling with cancer and it's still kicking my butt. But it's all going to work out :)