Yeah, yeah, I know- Zephyr and Randall kissed. But, although things seem to be progressing well between the two of them...this chapter says otherwise. Unfortunately.
Chapter 15- Disappointment
Randall opened his eyes a second later to see a flash of black dart in between two trees, but that was none of his concern. He could feel Zephyr's heart hammering close to his chest, but then...it was gone.
Zephyr trembled as she did something she regretted even thinking about. Her arms, wrapped around Randall, tensed, as did her whole body. She pushed him into the water.
Beneath the surface the pond was murky and full of mud. The water was icy cold yet, a moment or two after he had been pushed into the water, Randall didn't move. Instead, he let it support his body, and he felt himself go numb in shock. The pondweed's flailing arms twisted themselves around him, as they were known to do, (plants from their world are significantly different from ours) holding him down as he began to struggle. The air in his lungs was being used up with every movement, but still Randall couldn't get free.
There were thoughts running through his mind that questioned whether he even wanted to. But, eventually, he decided that if he was going to die, he didn't want to go out like this, so he mustered all of his strength to getting his arms and legs free. A few seconds later, the situation had gotten even worse and Randall was becoming more and more desperate. The world, blurry enough as it was, became even more distant. Everything spun, and the only thing that Randall could hear other than rising air bubbles was a deformed ripping noise.
Then it came back again, making Randall shudder, his muscles scrunching up one last time before finally relaxing. He only had a few seconds left...
The air introduced to Randall's lungs was accepted with warmth, and, spitting out a mixture of pond-water, mud and pondweed, he coughed and heaved and gasped for a while until the spinning had stopped and the pale face looking down at him came into focus.
Zephyr was also breathing quite heavily, but smiled when she saw that Randall was going to be alright. The hood of skin that ran along her face and thinned at the base of her neck was rising and falling, dripping with water. But, realising the full truth of what had just happened, Zephyr stopped smiling half-heartedly and got up, turning away from Randall and looking deep into the bushes, plants and trees. Whoever or whatever she was looking for obviously was not there, so, feeling incredibly unsatisfied yet content for the time being, at least, Zephyr held out a hand to help Randall to his feet. He took it shakily, and got up, shivering.
"W-w-what...h-h-happened?" he questioned Zephyr, quite bewildered, but still hopeful. Zephyr's reasonably blank face turned to one of a more apologetic nature, and she looked down at the ground, shuffling her feet.
"I'm so sorry. I guess when we were...you must've slipped- we were pretty close to the edge..." Randall was happy with this answer- at least, he convinced himself that he was- and, as his date put her arm around his side, the fact that what had just happened was an 'accident' became the truth to him. "Come on, let's go in- get us both a towel," Zephyr said, looking up at Randall. He nodded, still shivering, his whole body quivering with cold as the gentle breeze became a strong wind, and they made their way back into the Hall.
"C-c-can't we g-go some b-back way or s-something?" Randall asked as the pulsating lights from the Hall came into sight.
"Maybe it's best just to go back the way we came- the Professors might tell us off for going another way." Randall nodded glumly, and as they got closer to the Prom, whether or not Zephyr was going to KEEP her arm around his side became a relatively big question. But the short monster beside him didn't just want to put her arm around his side to comfort him. Instead, she wanted to hug him, to beg him for forgiveness...
But what for? Zephyr knew that Randall thought that everything that had just happened was an accident, although it was actually part of the plan. Another possible part to go down was the one in which Zephyr actually told the truth and revealed everything. Well, nearly everything. Just the things to do with giving Randall a bit of a surprise. The other stuff, the bigger, more important stuff, was to be kept a secret- Zephyr had no choice about that. She COULDN'T tell Randall what those scream canisters were for, or why the Sports Hall was always out of bounds, or why the Harbour had been closed for this evening, and this evening only, or what that flash of black had been earlier. And not being able to reveal a shred of evidence to him was getting very tiring, let alone upsetting. She had to say something. But when?
They had reached the Hall, but just as they were about to go back into the stuffy air that had been circulating around the students, (which the Professors had attempted to stop by bringing several large fans into the Hall) Zephyr let go of Randall and lagged on behind him a little. Randall didn't think to question this- maybe she was a little embarrassed or unsure of their relationship.
Once again, Zephyr's blood rushed through her veins quicker than usual in panic, sweat trickling down her face and, for the second time that evening, tears welling in her eyes. She couldn't watch.
Not knowing or realising what had happened to Zephyr, the lizard-monster went into the Hall alone. Zephyr's friends came at him suddenly from the sides, two carrying towels. They all had devilish grins upon their faces.
"Aww, look at da ickle lizard! All wet!" The girls giggled. "Well, don't you worry there Randykins- we'll get you all dry!" Before Randall's brain had acknowledged exactly what was happening, the girls had thrown two large towels over him, creating a blanket of darkness. Randall thrashed his arms about for a bit, helpless.
"HEY! W-what the-"The towels were ripped off of him, swiftly and painfully.
"Painfully?" Randall thought urgently. "What's happened?" Looking down at himself, he could see that he was covered in something yellow and gooey. Two of Zephyr's friends stood before him, smiling.
"It's the insect attractor we use in science," one said, holding up the underside of one of the towels to reveal that it had been covered with the stuff. Randall glared at them openly.
"But don't get too excited just yet," the other girl started. "There's more to come. Someone has sneaked into the main Staff Room of South House, and one of our friends is just about to tell the Professors on duty at the Prom the bad news." They turned around in the direction of a little gathering of Professors, all listening intently to what Celia was saying. Then, a second later, the Professors hurried out the Hall, blustering and frothing with worry. "Which leaves us to do what we want."
Randall was fed up of this. He shoved them apart, making them squeal as some of the insect attractor was wiped off on them, and then stopped in his tracks. One of the large fans had been wheeled over to them by the one remaining member of their pose', and the rest of the students had stepped back, forming a circle in the centre of the Hall. She switched the fan on, making Randall put up an arm in protection as the air made his fronds whip back, and picking up an open box of something, she grabbed a handful of whatever it was and threw it up in the air. The others joined her, laughing gleefully while Randall stepped back a little.
Ripples of laughter emerged from the audience, but Randall was oblivious to what was really going on- the cold air made his eyes stream and he felt numb all over. Determined to stop the torture, whatever it may be, he turned around, trying to wipe his eyes without getting insect attractor in them, and looked back at the open doors behind him.
Zephyr was long gone. Disappointed, he then began to head in the direction of the other doors- he couldn't go outside because the only way back in would be through the doors that he would've just gone out of- and he desperately needed to go to the bathroom to try and wash some of that disgusting, sickly yellow stuff off.
Slowly, the air grew warm again and the whirring of the fan ceased, only to be replaced by laughter. For the first time, Randall had a chance to look at himself. Apart from the insect attractor, he was covered in something else which the fan had blown over him; something which hurt a lot, lot more. One of the girls- the one who had spoken to him earlier- stepped up to him, smiling.
"Courtesy of Kellogs the snake down at the science lab, along with his brothers and sisters. We thought that they would be a bit moody if we got rid of their shed scales, so we had an idea to put them to a better use." Randall's eyes narrowed to frightening green slits.
"You're sick. Sick and pathetic."
"Not as pathetic as you. Do you see ANYONE not laughing? Anyone at all?" This was a good question. Randall looked around at the crowd, and, spotting Carmen and Jay, became more confident. But, soon enough his confidence ebbed away as he saw Jay laughing his head off drunkenly, and Carmen struggling to keep a straight face. His hurt expression said it all. "See? No-one cares. The only point of your existence is to be a clown for the rest of us." As she said this, she poked Randall in the chest, making several sticky bits of shredded scales float down like autumn leaves to the ground. For the first time in a while, Randall couldn't think of a retaliation, and, for the first time in a VERY long while, he didn't want to.
He had had enough.
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"...was a sailor on the sea, and this sailor...ooh, I've forgotten the words!" Jay crashed into the door, slamming it open and startling Randall who had his nose deep in a riveting book. Entering their room, with Jerome and Fungus following, (Fungus seeming to be the only one who wasn't drunk) Jay sang the song that he was known for, except with about half the words missing. He spotted Randall sitting on the far and darkest corner of his bed, reading in the shadows with hooded eyes, and tried to join him. But if Randall couldn't sit on the bottom bunk without banging his head, what was the likelihood that Jay would be able to?
Nevertheless, the spiky monster tried, failing miserably, and, in the end, decided to address his friend by shouting.
"HEY THERE RANDALL!" It was incredibly hard for Randall to ignore him, and he couldn't have doubted that fact that he had heard him, but still he concentrated and focused with all his might on the book held in front of him. "YO! RANDYKINS!" Now THAT, Randall just couldn't ignore. He slithered off his bed and stood as tall as he could, being supported by only his back pair of legs, chest puffed up in anger. For once, Randall could look eye to eye with his 'friend'.
"I expected you to be one of those few people out there that DIDN'T laugh. I was wrong. But for you to be one of those people that would keep it going afterwards..." He leant in closer. "I am REALLY beginning to hate you." Jerome, standing in the background, howled with laughter while Jay stared squarely at Randall.
"Look, there's-a gonna be a brawl, eh? Spiky Jay-a versus the Stinky Yellow Lizardy! Put up-a your dukes!" Jay, for a while, seemed not to be drunk, (and if he was, he hid it very well) and let loose all the contained rage that he had held within, all of it aimed directly at Randall.
"You have totally spoilt this evening for me Ran, for being such a CRY BABY WHO CAN'T TAKE A JOKE! What's WRONG with you?! Haven't you EVER heard of having a LAUGH?!" Randall couldn't help but take these words to heart. Did Jay really expect him to be smiling and laughing, acting as though nothing had happened that evening? Well, if he did, it was a long shot- a VERY long shot. Randall might not have minded Jay when they first met, but as their relationship had progressed and grown, he had gradually ended up hating him. Hating him, loathing him, despising him, even though he couldn't really afford to- it wasn't as though Randall had queues of people knocking on his door and begging him to be their friend. So, instead of getting hyped up and mad, he tried to talk things out without showing Jay how much his seemingly innocent words had hurt him.
"You remember, oh, it must've been about a month ago, and those same girls had been pestering us in the Form Room? You didn't bother to fend for me, though I don't blame ya or anything...But, y'know when we came into our room afterwards and you were sayin' that you didn't get why my kind are treated differently?" Randall waited to see if any of this was having an effect on Jay, and also to steady himself; this was one of those 'touchy' subjects that he hated talking about, but this time it was inevitable.
"What has that got to do with anything?!" Jay said after a long pause.
"Everything. Because, when you were talkin' about that, well, I don't think you realised how much it hurt, and still hurts. You just thought it was kinda weird, but nothing to worry about." Jay's expression softened as Randall continued. "But for me, it is. It's probably one of the things that has changed my life from something that ain't so bad, to something unbearable. That's why I'm not laughing or smiling or being myself. I just can't right now. And I'm sorry if that's affected you so much." He crawled back on top of his now sticky bed (he had tried to wash the insect attractor and snake scales off earlier, and though he managed to get most of it off, some had still stayed stuck) and picked his book up to carry on reading.
Randall didn't really notice what went on afterwards, but he heard the shower spraying for a little while, the bathroom light having been switched on, and after about half an hour, all three of his roommates had crept into their beds silently, still feeling quite dumbfounded. Jay felt especially ashamed, and quite sad- it seemed so long ago when he and Randall had sat outside, watching the sun rise as the charred remains of Jay's car cooled off. That was when they became proper friends, but it had been downhill from there. Now all Randall seemed to do was shout at Jay, and all Jay seemed to do was bug and annoy Randall. But still, Jay was resolute about making their friendship work, and as each light in their room went out, leaving Randall to read in the darkness, he made a little promise to himself that one day, they both would find common ground.
Five minutes had gone by with Randall trying to read in the dark- he knew this because he had been staring intently at the travel clock on his bedside table, watching the second arm jerk its way around- and he eventually gave up, putting his book down on the side for another time. He didn't bother to put the covers over his body as it was a particularly humid evening, and even with the gathering wind blustering around the room through the open windows, Randall still felt very hot.
Curling himself up into a little ball in the corner of his bed, he shut his eyes determinedly, trying to get to sleep. But all that his eyes seemed to want to do was to let salty water out, which made getting to sleep even harder. Randall tossed and turned, ghastly thoughts and images infesting his mind, as he wished that, just before he and Zephyr had kissed, time had stopped and he could've changed the rest of the evening's events. But he couldn't.
Zephyr had played a trick on him, or was at least part of it, as Xenon had warned him that she would, and she had disappeared, unable to bear watching the outcome...Carmen had been right as well, as had...Jay. It hurt to admit it, but it was the truth. Everything had gone wrong, once again.
Randall rolled over one last time, so that he was lying on his back to make the tears run down the sides of his face. He felt like death itself at this point, sick to the stomach at what had happened. Soon enough, he seemed to doze off with fatigue, only to wake ten minutes later in a cold sweat. Randall turned, panting, and looked at his clock. 11:57. His mouth seemed to be suddenly very dry, and he had a sore throat, feeling as though someone had rubbed sandpaper up and down his oesophagus, so he slipped out of bed and popped into the bathroom. All the glasses had been used.
"Great," he muttered to himself, coughing soon afterwards as his irritated throat complained, and he headed to the Form Room silently to get a glass out of one of the cupboards. As soon as he had gotten close to the Form Room door though, he heard muffled voices. If he was caught out of bed in the dead of night, there would be a great punishment, so now was the time to put his newfound ability to use.
As quietly as possible, he shifted into the background and, content with the outcome, sneaked into through the half-open door to see two figures standing before him.
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"No...but...mummy! I wanted the ice-cream...AARGH!" Jay toppled out of bed with a loud thump and got up, disorientated. For a second, he was lost, expecting to be safe at home with his parents, but, gathering his senses, he soon worked out where he was.
Amazingly, Fungus and Jerome had not been disturbed by the commotion, and as Jay checked to see whether Randall had been, the empty bed before him shocked him. He became very worried. What if Randall was going to do something stupid because of him?! It would ruin Jay's reputation! So he figured out the best and most sensible (or maybe not) action to take would be to find Randall, stop him doing whatever he was going to do and save the day, therefore becoming a hero, boosting his own rep and maybe even jumping up a few steps to becoming a celebrity. Perfect!
But he had to make sure that he did this with the stealth and cunning of...something that had a lot of stealth and cunning. So, acting as though he was in a James Bond movie, he leapt to a wall and started shimmying around the edge of the room, making the door creak open and peeking outside before bursting into the corridor with his hands in the shape of a pretend gun. He inched his way along the corridor till he came to the Form Room, and, hearing voices and seeing the door ajar, settled on listening to what was going on inside.
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There were dozens of corridors in South House; some which were used regularly as a route for students to take to and from class, others secret and unheard of, leading to places beyond Crynferse's boundaries. It was the Captain and Captainess's job, along with several other randomly selected students and Professors, to wander along the more familiar corridors at night, ready to catch any that might be breaking a rule by creeping out of bed in the middle of the night for whatever reasons.
Carmen was currently sliding her way down a corridor that would eventually lead to the out-of-bounds Sports Hall, and, remembering the stern word that Professor Fern had given her about going that way, took an abrupt left and carried on, waving the torchlight around on the floor in front of her. Yawning, she rubbed her eyes with a spare hand.
Carmen understood that being Captiness had responsibilities- in fact, that was one of the things that made the job look very appealing- but this whole patrolling after hours thing was plain unnecessary. She had never caught anyone before; not because of her senses, she liked to think, but because many students knew the ferocity of the punishment that she would give them if caught.
She swayed along, muttering indistinctly to herself. Stopping for a second, she tuned in to a noise that sounded like claws scuttling over wood. And it was behind her.
She swept round, shining the light where she thought the noise to have come from, but all there was were a few squishy armchairs and some paintings of previous students of South House that had actually managed to achieve something. Convincing herself that it was the lack of sleep making her hear things, Carmen carried on, now exceptionally wary. As she came to a cross- junction, her ears picked up something else, and they twitched in alertness. It was the same noise again, but this time from the right.
This time, Carmen didn't move. She stood as still as a door-mouse, and slowly turned her head in the direction of the sound.
Scratch, clank, scratch, clank...
But she couldn't see without the torch being shone in that direction. In a second, she spun round, so fast that she nearly dropped the only source of light she had. There was nothing there, nothing at all.
"GAAAARRRGGG!"
"AAARGH!"
Carmen screamed, nearly falling backwards and dropping her torch in fright, and ran into the darkness. She hid round a murky corner, not being able to make out a thing without her torch, breathing heavily, scared out of her mind.
But there did seem to be something in front of her- it was casting a bit of a shadow.
Carmen stared harder into the darkness, and, after a little while, three small red eyes stared back.
She had no choice. She had to get back to the Form Room, and quick.
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"I'm going to kill that ignoramus father of yours, because his incompetence in the plan has just been outrageous. It was a joke, and soon, he's gonna pay. And so's that sister of yours. Didn't I tell you to stop their date? Didn't I?" Xenon nodded, backing up against the Form Room's westerly wall, not knowing that they had a few guests. "Yet, you disobeyed me. I should kill the lot of you- you Stefani's are just pitiable. And I thought I could trust you." Cy shook his head dismally. "Maybe not. But I guess I'm to blame as well, eh? I should've listened to my mother. 'Trust no-one,' she would say. And how right she was." Cy caught himself drifting off the subject. "But now's not the time for regret. No. Now's a time for blood..." He flashed his claws, pretending to cut his own throat in slow motion. "...to be shed..." He took a few steps back and leant on the back of a sofa. "But, if you do as I say, it won't be your blood that's gonna be spilt this fine evening. Just that of those you love and care. And that's nowhere near as bad, is it?" Cy smiled outright. "I'd do anything for MY sibling's blood to be shed." Resting his chin on a hand, Cy blinked several times, sighing. "But I guess yours is a different case." He suddenly looked very tired, old, not up to what he used to be able to do. "Ah well. Look, just do as I say, and I might- might, y'hear me?- be able to spare your sister's life, okay? Though I don't really want her around, after what she was like with my brother."
"But...I thought she pushed him in..."
"Yes. But it was what she did before that that changed my opinion of her." For a second, the lizard-monster looked strangely sad. "As I said before, no-one is to be trusted. No-one."
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Everyone in the 'unused' Sports Hall at this time was either panicking, rushing, barking out orders or just very afraid. They had been painstakingly preparing for this night for the past two months, making sure every little detail was perfect, every problem or complication smoothed out, just to satisfy one monster who would be paying them, and even though he was never actually there, his angry and impressing presence lingered in their minds, forcing them to get on with it.
Zephyr stood in the middle of it all, fussing.
"Are you sure that it's right? Are you certain? They've got to be perfect- no, no, that's the wrong way around..." she said, passing by a group of disorganised monsters gathered round a pile of open boxes. "Look, like this." She took hold of the two undone sides of the elastic material that was wrapped around the boxes for their security, twisted them around to the correct position, and clasped the two ends together. "See? Simple." The other monsters that had gathered round to watch all nodded, ah-ing.
Zephyr shoved through a couple of them and, spotting one of the key organisers of this evenings 'events', took his arm, pulled him aside and started to rant her concerns to him, the stream of words coming out of her mouth so quickly that he could barely understand her.
"...and I'm sure that it won't be ready..." The monster that she was talking to, who was, in essence, a big blue ball with dozens of eyes arranged in a circle around a round mouth and two burly legs sticking out of his torso/head, nodded.
"Yes, well I'm sure your worries are unnecessary. And anyway, it isn't like you to fret about something like this. You're usually so calm. Maybe there's something else on your mind?" he said softly, raising his eyelids. Zephyr rubbed the back of her neck pensively, sighing.
"You don't have any idea where my brother might be, do you?"
"Xenon?" He shook his head, or rather his whole body. "No, no. Why do you ask?"
"It's just...he's seemed a bit distant recently. I wanna check if he's alright." She wrapped her arms around herself comfortingly. "I'm worried about him."
"Oh, pish-posh, I'm sure he's alright." Whispering, he added, "I think that by now, you and he have both realised that he doesn't need his older sister tagging along with him all the time. He's big enough to fend for himself- you're both practically adults! From my experience, if you worry about someone too much, when the time comes, it will be even harder to let go." Zephyr smiled a little timidly, but thankfully.
"Thank you, Mr Henry."
"Oh, now don't you go worrying about it," he replied, brushing off the gratitude. "As long as you take care of yourself." As he turned around to get back to work, Zephyr called out to him.
"Oh, and Mr Henry?"
"Yes?" he said, wobbling back up to her.
"I'd appreciate it if you kept this between you and me."
"I.e., 'don't get my father involved'."
"Please?" Mr Henry looked doubtful for a second, the twinkle in his numerous eyes seeming to disappear, but soon afterwards he smiled.
"Of course." Zephyr could finally relax, assured by Mr Henry's words, and let everyone get on with it. Gradually, the thousands of boxes were being taken away, and, soon enough, the cause for all of this commotion would be revealed.
Chapter 15- Disappointment
Randall opened his eyes a second later to see a flash of black dart in between two trees, but that was none of his concern. He could feel Zephyr's heart hammering close to his chest, but then...it was gone.
Zephyr trembled as she did something she regretted even thinking about. Her arms, wrapped around Randall, tensed, as did her whole body. She pushed him into the water.
Beneath the surface the pond was murky and full of mud. The water was icy cold yet, a moment or two after he had been pushed into the water, Randall didn't move. Instead, he let it support his body, and he felt himself go numb in shock. The pondweed's flailing arms twisted themselves around him, as they were known to do, (plants from their world are significantly different from ours) holding him down as he began to struggle. The air in his lungs was being used up with every movement, but still Randall couldn't get free.
There were thoughts running through his mind that questioned whether he even wanted to. But, eventually, he decided that if he was going to die, he didn't want to go out like this, so he mustered all of his strength to getting his arms and legs free. A few seconds later, the situation had gotten even worse and Randall was becoming more and more desperate. The world, blurry enough as it was, became even more distant. Everything spun, and the only thing that Randall could hear other than rising air bubbles was a deformed ripping noise.
Then it came back again, making Randall shudder, his muscles scrunching up one last time before finally relaxing. He only had a few seconds left...
The air introduced to Randall's lungs was accepted with warmth, and, spitting out a mixture of pond-water, mud and pondweed, he coughed and heaved and gasped for a while until the spinning had stopped and the pale face looking down at him came into focus.
Zephyr was also breathing quite heavily, but smiled when she saw that Randall was going to be alright. The hood of skin that ran along her face and thinned at the base of her neck was rising and falling, dripping with water. But, realising the full truth of what had just happened, Zephyr stopped smiling half-heartedly and got up, turning away from Randall and looking deep into the bushes, plants and trees. Whoever or whatever she was looking for obviously was not there, so, feeling incredibly unsatisfied yet content for the time being, at least, Zephyr held out a hand to help Randall to his feet. He took it shakily, and got up, shivering.
"W-w-what...h-h-happened?" he questioned Zephyr, quite bewildered, but still hopeful. Zephyr's reasonably blank face turned to one of a more apologetic nature, and she looked down at the ground, shuffling her feet.
"I'm so sorry. I guess when we were...you must've slipped- we were pretty close to the edge..." Randall was happy with this answer- at least, he convinced himself that he was- and, as his date put her arm around his side, the fact that what had just happened was an 'accident' became the truth to him. "Come on, let's go in- get us both a towel," Zephyr said, looking up at Randall. He nodded, still shivering, his whole body quivering with cold as the gentle breeze became a strong wind, and they made their way back into the Hall.
"C-c-can't we g-go some b-back way or s-something?" Randall asked as the pulsating lights from the Hall came into sight.
"Maybe it's best just to go back the way we came- the Professors might tell us off for going another way." Randall nodded glumly, and as they got closer to the Prom, whether or not Zephyr was going to KEEP her arm around his side became a relatively big question. But the short monster beside him didn't just want to put her arm around his side to comfort him. Instead, she wanted to hug him, to beg him for forgiveness...
But what for? Zephyr knew that Randall thought that everything that had just happened was an accident, although it was actually part of the plan. Another possible part to go down was the one in which Zephyr actually told the truth and revealed everything. Well, nearly everything. Just the things to do with giving Randall a bit of a surprise. The other stuff, the bigger, more important stuff, was to be kept a secret- Zephyr had no choice about that. She COULDN'T tell Randall what those scream canisters were for, or why the Sports Hall was always out of bounds, or why the Harbour had been closed for this evening, and this evening only, or what that flash of black had been earlier. And not being able to reveal a shred of evidence to him was getting very tiring, let alone upsetting. She had to say something. But when?
They had reached the Hall, but just as they were about to go back into the stuffy air that had been circulating around the students, (which the Professors had attempted to stop by bringing several large fans into the Hall) Zephyr let go of Randall and lagged on behind him a little. Randall didn't think to question this- maybe she was a little embarrassed or unsure of their relationship.
Once again, Zephyr's blood rushed through her veins quicker than usual in panic, sweat trickling down her face and, for the second time that evening, tears welling in her eyes. She couldn't watch.
Not knowing or realising what had happened to Zephyr, the lizard-monster went into the Hall alone. Zephyr's friends came at him suddenly from the sides, two carrying towels. They all had devilish grins upon their faces.
"Aww, look at da ickle lizard! All wet!" The girls giggled. "Well, don't you worry there Randykins- we'll get you all dry!" Before Randall's brain had acknowledged exactly what was happening, the girls had thrown two large towels over him, creating a blanket of darkness. Randall thrashed his arms about for a bit, helpless.
"HEY! W-what the-"The towels were ripped off of him, swiftly and painfully.
"Painfully?" Randall thought urgently. "What's happened?" Looking down at himself, he could see that he was covered in something yellow and gooey. Two of Zephyr's friends stood before him, smiling.
"It's the insect attractor we use in science," one said, holding up the underside of one of the towels to reveal that it had been covered with the stuff. Randall glared at them openly.
"But don't get too excited just yet," the other girl started. "There's more to come. Someone has sneaked into the main Staff Room of South House, and one of our friends is just about to tell the Professors on duty at the Prom the bad news." They turned around in the direction of a little gathering of Professors, all listening intently to what Celia was saying. Then, a second later, the Professors hurried out the Hall, blustering and frothing with worry. "Which leaves us to do what we want."
Randall was fed up of this. He shoved them apart, making them squeal as some of the insect attractor was wiped off on them, and then stopped in his tracks. One of the large fans had been wheeled over to them by the one remaining member of their pose', and the rest of the students had stepped back, forming a circle in the centre of the Hall. She switched the fan on, making Randall put up an arm in protection as the air made his fronds whip back, and picking up an open box of something, she grabbed a handful of whatever it was and threw it up in the air. The others joined her, laughing gleefully while Randall stepped back a little.
Ripples of laughter emerged from the audience, but Randall was oblivious to what was really going on- the cold air made his eyes stream and he felt numb all over. Determined to stop the torture, whatever it may be, he turned around, trying to wipe his eyes without getting insect attractor in them, and looked back at the open doors behind him.
Zephyr was long gone. Disappointed, he then began to head in the direction of the other doors- he couldn't go outside because the only way back in would be through the doors that he would've just gone out of- and he desperately needed to go to the bathroom to try and wash some of that disgusting, sickly yellow stuff off.
Slowly, the air grew warm again and the whirring of the fan ceased, only to be replaced by laughter. For the first time, Randall had a chance to look at himself. Apart from the insect attractor, he was covered in something else which the fan had blown over him; something which hurt a lot, lot more. One of the girls- the one who had spoken to him earlier- stepped up to him, smiling.
"Courtesy of Kellogs the snake down at the science lab, along with his brothers and sisters. We thought that they would be a bit moody if we got rid of their shed scales, so we had an idea to put them to a better use." Randall's eyes narrowed to frightening green slits.
"You're sick. Sick and pathetic."
"Not as pathetic as you. Do you see ANYONE not laughing? Anyone at all?" This was a good question. Randall looked around at the crowd, and, spotting Carmen and Jay, became more confident. But, soon enough his confidence ebbed away as he saw Jay laughing his head off drunkenly, and Carmen struggling to keep a straight face. His hurt expression said it all. "See? No-one cares. The only point of your existence is to be a clown for the rest of us." As she said this, she poked Randall in the chest, making several sticky bits of shredded scales float down like autumn leaves to the ground. For the first time in a while, Randall couldn't think of a retaliation, and, for the first time in a VERY long while, he didn't want to.
He had had enough.
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"...was a sailor on the sea, and this sailor...ooh, I've forgotten the words!" Jay crashed into the door, slamming it open and startling Randall who had his nose deep in a riveting book. Entering their room, with Jerome and Fungus following, (Fungus seeming to be the only one who wasn't drunk) Jay sang the song that he was known for, except with about half the words missing. He spotted Randall sitting on the far and darkest corner of his bed, reading in the shadows with hooded eyes, and tried to join him. But if Randall couldn't sit on the bottom bunk without banging his head, what was the likelihood that Jay would be able to?
Nevertheless, the spiky monster tried, failing miserably, and, in the end, decided to address his friend by shouting.
"HEY THERE RANDALL!" It was incredibly hard for Randall to ignore him, and he couldn't have doubted that fact that he had heard him, but still he concentrated and focused with all his might on the book held in front of him. "YO! RANDYKINS!" Now THAT, Randall just couldn't ignore. He slithered off his bed and stood as tall as he could, being supported by only his back pair of legs, chest puffed up in anger. For once, Randall could look eye to eye with his 'friend'.
"I expected you to be one of those few people out there that DIDN'T laugh. I was wrong. But for you to be one of those people that would keep it going afterwards..." He leant in closer. "I am REALLY beginning to hate you." Jerome, standing in the background, howled with laughter while Jay stared squarely at Randall.
"Look, there's-a gonna be a brawl, eh? Spiky Jay-a versus the Stinky Yellow Lizardy! Put up-a your dukes!" Jay, for a while, seemed not to be drunk, (and if he was, he hid it very well) and let loose all the contained rage that he had held within, all of it aimed directly at Randall.
"You have totally spoilt this evening for me Ran, for being such a CRY BABY WHO CAN'T TAKE A JOKE! What's WRONG with you?! Haven't you EVER heard of having a LAUGH?!" Randall couldn't help but take these words to heart. Did Jay really expect him to be smiling and laughing, acting as though nothing had happened that evening? Well, if he did, it was a long shot- a VERY long shot. Randall might not have minded Jay when they first met, but as their relationship had progressed and grown, he had gradually ended up hating him. Hating him, loathing him, despising him, even though he couldn't really afford to- it wasn't as though Randall had queues of people knocking on his door and begging him to be their friend. So, instead of getting hyped up and mad, he tried to talk things out without showing Jay how much his seemingly innocent words had hurt him.
"You remember, oh, it must've been about a month ago, and those same girls had been pestering us in the Form Room? You didn't bother to fend for me, though I don't blame ya or anything...But, y'know when we came into our room afterwards and you were sayin' that you didn't get why my kind are treated differently?" Randall waited to see if any of this was having an effect on Jay, and also to steady himself; this was one of those 'touchy' subjects that he hated talking about, but this time it was inevitable.
"What has that got to do with anything?!" Jay said after a long pause.
"Everything. Because, when you were talkin' about that, well, I don't think you realised how much it hurt, and still hurts. You just thought it was kinda weird, but nothing to worry about." Jay's expression softened as Randall continued. "But for me, it is. It's probably one of the things that has changed my life from something that ain't so bad, to something unbearable. That's why I'm not laughing or smiling or being myself. I just can't right now. And I'm sorry if that's affected you so much." He crawled back on top of his now sticky bed (he had tried to wash the insect attractor and snake scales off earlier, and though he managed to get most of it off, some had still stayed stuck) and picked his book up to carry on reading.
Randall didn't really notice what went on afterwards, but he heard the shower spraying for a little while, the bathroom light having been switched on, and after about half an hour, all three of his roommates had crept into their beds silently, still feeling quite dumbfounded. Jay felt especially ashamed, and quite sad- it seemed so long ago when he and Randall had sat outside, watching the sun rise as the charred remains of Jay's car cooled off. That was when they became proper friends, but it had been downhill from there. Now all Randall seemed to do was shout at Jay, and all Jay seemed to do was bug and annoy Randall. But still, Jay was resolute about making their friendship work, and as each light in their room went out, leaving Randall to read in the darkness, he made a little promise to himself that one day, they both would find common ground.
Five minutes had gone by with Randall trying to read in the dark- he knew this because he had been staring intently at the travel clock on his bedside table, watching the second arm jerk its way around- and he eventually gave up, putting his book down on the side for another time. He didn't bother to put the covers over his body as it was a particularly humid evening, and even with the gathering wind blustering around the room through the open windows, Randall still felt very hot.
Curling himself up into a little ball in the corner of his bed, he shut his eyes determinedly, trying to get to sleep. But all that his eyes seemed to want to do was to let salty water out, which made getting to sleep even harder. Randall tossed and turned, ghastly thoughts and images infesting his mind, as he wished that, just before he and Zephyr had kissed, time had stopped and he could've changed the rest of the evening's events. But he couldn't.
Zephyr had played a trick on him, or was at least part of it, as Xenon had warned him that she would, and she had disappeared, unable to bear watching the outcome...Carmen had been right as well, as had...Jay. It hurt to admit it, but it was the truth. Everything had gone wrong, once again.
Randall rolled over one last time, so that he was lying on his back to make the tears run down the sides of his face. He felt like death itself at this point, sick to the stomach at what had happened. Soon enough, he seemed to doze off with fatigue, only to wake ten minutes later in a cold sweat. Randall turned, panting, and looked at his clock. 11:57. His mouth seemed to be suddenly very dry, and he had a sore throat, feeling as though someone had rubbed sandpaper up and down his oesophagus, so he slipped out of bed and popped into the bathroom. All the glasses had been used.
"Great," he muttered to himself, coughing soon afterwards as his irritated throat complained, and he headed to the Form Room silently to get a glass out of one of the cupboards. As soon as he had gotten close to the Form Room door though, he heard muffled voices. If he was caught out of bed in the dead of night, there would be a great punishment, so now was the time to put his newfound ability to use.
As quietly as possible, he shifted into the background and, content with the outcome, sneaked into through the half-open door to see two figures standing before him.
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"No...but...mummy! I wanted the ice-cream...AARGH!" Jay toppled out of bed with a loud thump and got up, disorientated. For a second, he was lost, expecting to be safe at home with his parents, but, gathering his senses, he soon worked out where he was.
Amazingly, Fungus and Jerome had not been disturbed by the commotion, and as Jay checked to see whether Randall had been, the empty bed before him shocked him. He became very worried. What if Randall was going to do something stupid because of him?! It would ruin Jay's reputation! So he figured out the best and most sensible (or maybe not) action to take would be to find Randall, stop him doing whatever he was going to do and save the day, therefore becoming a hero, boosting his own rep and maybe even jumping up a few steps to becoming a celebrity. Perfect!
But he had to make sure that he did this with the stealth and cunning of...something that had a lot of stealth and cunning. So, acting as though he was in a James Bond movie, he leapt to a wall and started shimmying around the edge of the room, making the door creak open and peeking outside before bursting into the corridor with his hands in the shape of a pretend gun. He inched his way along the corridor till he came to the Form Room, and, hearing voices and seeing the door ajar, settled on listening to what was going on inside.
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There were dozens of corridors in South House; some which were used regularly as a route for students to take to and from class, others secret and unheard of, leading to places beyond Crynferse's boundaries. It was the Captain and Captainess's job, along with several other randomly selected students and Professors, to wander along the more familiar corridors at night, ready to catch any that might be breaking a rule by creeping out of bed in the middle of the night for whatever reasons.
Carmen was currently sliding her way down a corridor that would eventually lead to the out-of-bounds Sports Hall, and, remembering the stern word that Professor Fern had given her about going that way, took an abrupt left and carried on, waving the torchlight around on the floor in front of her. Yawning, she rubbed her eyes with a spare hand.
Carmen understood that being Captiness had responsibilities- in fact, that was one of the things that made the job look very appealing- but this whole patrolling after hours thing was plain unnecessary. She had never caught anyone before; not because of her senses, she liked to think, but because many students knew the ferocity of the punishment that she would give them if caught.
She swayed along, muttering indistinctly to herself. Stopping for a second, she tuned in to a noise that sounded like claws scuttling over wood. And it was behind her.
She swept round, shining the light where she thought the noise to have come from, but all there was were a few squishy armchairs and some paintings of previous students of South House that had actually managed to achieve something. Convincing herself that it was the lack of sleep making her hear things, Carmen carried on, now exceptionally wary. As she came to a cross- junction, her ears picked up something else, and they twitched in alertness. It was the same noise again, but this time from the right.
This time, Carmen didn't move. She stood as still as a door-mouse, and slowly turned her head in the direction of the sound.
Scratch, clank, scratch, clank...
But she couldn't see without the torch being shone in that direction. In a second, she spun round, so fast that she nearly dropped the only source of light she had. There was nothing there, nothing at all.
"GAAAARRRGGG!"
"AAARGH!"
Carmen screamed, nearly falling backwards and dropping her torch in fright, and ran into the darkness. She hid round a murky corner, not being able to make out a thing without her torch, breathing heavily, scared out of her mind.
But there did seem to be something in front of her- it was casting a bit of a shadow.
Carmen stared harder into the darkness, and, after a little while, three small red eyes stared back.
She had no choice. She had to get back to the Form Room, and quick.
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"I'm going to kill that ignoramus father of yours, because his incompetence in the plan has just been outrageous. It was a joke, and soon, he's gonna pay. And so's that sister of yours. Didn't I tell you to stop their date? Didn't I?" Xenon nodded, backing up against the Form Room's westerly wall, not knowing that they had a few guests. "Yet, you disobeyed me. I should kill the lot of you- you Stefani's are just pitiable. And I thought I could trust you." Cy shook his head dismally. "Maybe not. But I guess I'm to blame as well, eh? I should've listened to my mother. 'Trust no-one,' she would say. And how right she was." Cy caught himself drifting off the subject. "But now's not the time for regret. No. Now's a time for blood..." He flashed his claws, pretending to cut his own throat in slow motion. "...to be shed..." He took a few steps back and leant on the back of a sofa. "But, if you do as I say, it won't be your blood that's gonna be spilt this fine evening. Just that of those you love and care. And that's nowhere near as bad, is it?" Cy smiled outright. "I'd do anything for MY sibling's blood to be shed." Resting his chin on a hand, Cy blinked several times, sighing. "But I guess yours is a different case." He suddenly looked very tired, old, not up to what he used to be able to do. "Ah well. Look, just do as I say, and I might- might, y'hear me?- be able to spare your sister's life, okay? Though I don't really want her around, after what she was like with my brother."
"But...I thought she pushed him in..."
"Yes. But it was what she did before that that changed my opinion of her." For a second, the lizard-monster looked strangely sad. "As I said before, no-one is to be trusted. No-one."
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Everyone in the 'unused' Sports Hall at this time was either panicking, rushing, barking out orders or just very afraid. They had been painstakingly preparing for this night for the past two months, making sure every little detail was perfect, every problem or complication smoothed out, just to satisfy one monster who would be paying them, and even though he was never actually there, his angry and impressing presence lingered in their minds, forcing them to get on with it.
Zephyr stood in the middle of it all, fussing.
"Are you sure that it's right? Are you certain? They've got to be perfect- no, no, that's the wrong way around..." she said, passing by a group of disorganised monsters gathered round a pile of open boxes. "Look, like this." She took hold of the two undone sides of the elastic material that was wrapped around the boxes for their security, twisted them around to the correct position, and clasped the two ends together. "See? Simple." The other monsters that had gathered round to watch all nodded, ah-ing.
Zephyr shoved through a couple of them and, spotting one of the key organisers of this evenings 'events', took his arm, pulled him aside and started to rant her concerns to him, the stream of words coming out of her mouth so quickly that he could barely understand her.
"...and I'm sure that it won't be ready..." The monster that she was talking to, who was, in essence, a big blue ball with dozens of eyes arranged in a circle around a round mouth and two burly legs sticking out of his torso/head, nodded.
"Yes, well I'm sure your worries are unnecessary. And anyway, it isn't like you to fret about something like this. You're usually so calm. Maybe there's something else on your mind?" he said softly, raising his eyelids. Zephyr rubbed the back of her neck pensively, sighing.
"You don't have any idea where my brother might be, do you?"
"Xenon?" He shook his head, or rather his whole body. "No, no. Why do you ask?"
"It's just...he's seemed a bit distant recently. I wanna check if he's alright." She wrapped her arms around herself comfortingly. "I'm worried about him."
"Oh, pish-posh, I'm sure he's alright." Whispering, he added, "I think that by now, you and he have both realised that he doesn't need his older sister tagging along with him all the time. He's big enough to fend for himself- you're both practically adults! From my experience, if you worry about someone too much, when the time comes, it will be even harder to let go." Zephyr smiled a little timidly, but thankfully.
"Thank you, Mr Henry."
"Oh, now don't you go worrying about it," he replied, brushing off the gratitude. "As long as you take care of yourself." As he turned around to get back to work, Zephyr called out to him.
"Oh, and Mr Henry?"
"Yes?" he said, wobbling back up to her.
"I'd appreciate it if you kept this between you and me."
"I.e., 'don't get my father involved'."
"Please?" Mr Henry looked doubtful for a second, the twinkle in his numerous eyes seeming to disappear, but soon afterwards he smiled.
"Of course." Zephyr could finally relax, assured by Mr Henry's words, and let everyone get on with it. Gradually, the thousands of boxes were being taken away, and, soon enough, the cause for all of this commotion would be revealed.