Let's say in this fic that Casper is 15 and Thatch is 16.
And the concept of Thatch and Casper having crap handwriting was inspired by one of "ulecelecs-fanfiction" fics. :)
"Thatch, this is another C." Mr Burns huffed as he placed the quiz sheet down on the young vampire's desk.
Thatch just scowled at the floor. The other students watching as Mr Burns continued.
"I've had a chat with Mrs Hopper, your slipping in that class too!" The dragon continued.
"You've left us no choice, were assigning you a study partner!"
Thatch snapped his attention back up at his teacher;
"I don't need a study partner!" he snapped.
"Oh yes, you do." Mr Burns growled, blowing a puff of fire way too close to Thatch's face.
Thatch shut up and glared at his desk.
"Casper. I'm putting you in charge of tutoring him."
Casper looked alarmed, and Thatch made a noise of annoyance. A few snickers came from the class. Casper wanted to protest, (mainly due to the daggers he could practically feel Thatch glaring into the back of his head) but knew that Mr Burns wouldn't change his mind.
The class was dismissed, and they all left the classroom. (duh) Casper found his friends waiting for him in the hallway.
"Tough brake, Casper." Ra frowned.
"I'm sure It'll be fine." The ghost smiled.
Mantha crossed her arms and scowled; "This is Thatch were talking about, it's never 'fine.'"
"Oh, come on, he's not that bad." Casper continued.
"Not that bad? He tried to turn us into stone!" Ra added with frustration.
"When he was 10. And so did the entire class. Besides, with the kind of society we live in, that's really not that unusual."
Mantha sighed and rubbed her forehead in frustration;
"Just don't let him push you around, or get you in trouble, ok?"
"You two have nothing to worry about. I'm helping him study, no one is going to die…again." Casper chuckled lightly.
Casper walked through the attic door, literally. Thatch had told him to meet him there after class for studying. Technically, the attic was off limits to students unless a teacher instructed them to go there. But considering it was full of just old furniture and clutter, no one cared. The only two that might care are Alder and Dash, but the never went into the attic ether.
Long story short, it was cold, dusty, full of cobwebs, old furniture, and nearly untouched.
Casper, found Thatch sitting on an old couch. The lack of dust on the couch hinted that Thatch was up here often. The ghost couldn't blame him, it was quite, away from school faculty, and hard to access. It was a perfect place to be alone with oneself.
Thatch hadn't seemed to notice the ghost in the room.
Casper coughed, alerting his presence to the young vampire, who snapped to look at him.
"So uh…I guess we're, uh, study buddies." Casper chuckled awkwardly.
"I don't think the word 'buddy' works for this situation." Thatch stated crossly, turning away from him and crossing his arms.
Casper sighed tiredly;
"Look, I know you don't like me, -"
Thatch interrupted him;
"Oh, really? What gave it away?" The vampire stated sarcastically.
"Please let me finish." Casper responded sternly.
"I know you don't like me, but if we spend all night arguing, we'll never get this over with. So could you please quit being hateful and not mock me every two seconds?"
"…Fine." Thatch mumbled grumpily.
"Thank you."
Casper sat down on the couch next to the bully, putting his backpack on the floor. He pulled out his textbook, his note book, and a pencil. Casper considered changing his position to the floor to avoid being so close to the other, he knew how much Thach hated this, and it made the whole situation very uncomfortable and very awkward for the poor ghost. But he supposed it would have made it weirder to sit on the floor.
"I figured we could look over each other's notes…" The ghost suggested awkwardly.
"Unless you had another study idea…your choice." Casper chuckled nervously, still sensing the air of annoyance around the other.
"Ok, whatever." Thatch sat up and dug around in his jacket pocket and pulled out a few folded pieces of paper.
Casper handed over his notebook and took the pieces of paper, swearing that Thatch grimaced when he handed over those papers. And when the ghost started looking at the vampires notes, he could see why. Thatch's handwriting was awful. His spelling wasn't too hot ether.
"My hand writing isn't great ether, but geez Thatch. What does even half of this say?"
Thatch squinted at Casper's notes, though he didn't seem to actually be paying attention. He kept looking back up at the young phantom, his face a bit flushed.
"…so are you going to complain about my handwriting, or are you just going to stay silent and keep struggling to read it?" The vampire mumbled with a mix of annoyance and embarrassment.
"I didn't want to point it out…" Casper grimaced.
"You can just say it. My hand writing is crap."
"Well, I wouldn't say that…"
"You're right. My hand writing is shit. Better?"
"Language!"
"I'm soooo fucking sorry."
Casper groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, almost pouting.
"You promised to not start arguments."
"I didn't promise anything." The vampire smirked.
"…Lets just get back to what we were doing, ok?" Casper sighed.
"Alright, Alight."
"So, when is the best time to make a potion of unbridled terror?" Casper decided maybe he should quiz the vampire.
"A new moon, and with water from the depths of the ocean."
"Correct!"
"What kind of bug is used to scare humans by emitting a sudden high pitched scream when startled?"
"A banshee slug."
"Correct again!"
It was about 10 minutes into this quizzing that Casper started to get confused. Thatch was failing his class's, but he seemed know the answers. Maybe he had just a string of bad luck?
About an hour later they decided they had studied enough for one night, and left the attic. Both going back to their dorm. The night proceeded as usual.
The next day was a Saturday, Wolfe had hooked up an old TV and dvd player for a movie marathon that night. It was at this point Casper started noticing things about Thatch. During the movie marathon he noticed just how much Thatch squinted. At one point the vampire got up and left the marathon, as he did he rubbed his eyes, which appeared to be watering. He couldn't have been crying, the movie wasn't emotional. Unless he had been crying about something unrelated, depressed people do often let their grades fall, Casper knew this all too well. He decided it was best to observe for the moment, Thatch wasn't one to talk about his emotions, asking would just lead to a fight.
Sunday came, and the young ghost continued quietly observing. In the morning, Casper had walked past the vampire in the hall, who was sitting on a bench and looking at his phone. Once again, he was squinting, and his eyes looked rather tired. At lunch he noticed Thatch blinking a lot, and rubbing his eyes. He constantly would close his eyes for minuets at a time. He supposed that Thatch could have just been tired from the night before, but Casper wasn't too sure that was the issue.
That evening, they spent another hour and a half studying. Once again, Thatch seemed to know the material. Casper had a pretty good theory about what was going on, but the quiz on Monday would tell him if he was right or not.
Monday's classes came and went, and the quiz was on Mr. Burns desk, awaiting to be passed out the next day. Now, Casper was not one to break rules, he was a good boy who thought it rude. Buuuut, he also wanted to help Thatch, who stubborn. He knew if he asked to see the test, Thatch would say no. Sooooo, what else is a friendly ghost supposed to do other that sneak into a classroom and peek at some test results? It was pretty easy to sneak in actually, the school surprisingly had few measures against ghosts. Casper found Thatch's test, and none to surprising the results were not good. The essay questions were given negative marks mostly for spelling and grammar. Next, he looked through multiple choice, and as he figured, most of the answers were off by only a space. Thatch was simply filling in the wrong question bubbles.
It was evening and Thatch was in his dorm, Slither thankfully not there. Casper felt it best to talk to Thatch alone, he wasn't quite as grumpy when by himself. He was about to knock when Thatch abruptly opened the door, looking surprised when he saw the young ghost standing there.
Casper; "Oh, uh, hi."
Thatch groaned in annoyance. "What do you want?"
"I need to talk to you, can I come in?"
"I don't know, can you?" The vampire smirked.
Casper frowned and gave the other a bemused look. Thatch still hadn't moved to let him in. Fine. Casper then phased right through the vampire and into the dorm. Thatch stood there wide eyed a moment, he hadn't expected the other to actually do it. The vampire closed the door behind him and turned back to the ghost.
"Ok, what?"
"I think you need glasses." Casper stated rather bluntly.
Thatch's heart dropped and his eyes snapped open.
"I do not need glasses." Thatch rolled his eyes.
"Your grades are bad, but you know the material." Casper insisted.
"So?"
"Your eyes keep watering."
"Allergies!"
"You squint ALL the time!"
"I DON'T NEED-…I don't need glasses." He lowered his voice, clearly not wanting anyone else to hear the conversation.
"Oh really? Well then what is your issue?" Casper tapped his foot frustratedly.
"None of your business!" The vampire hissed back.
"Thatch, I'm just trying to help"
"Well quit trying!"
Casper sighed. As expected, Thatch was being difficult.
"Look, I peeked at your test results. All your incorrect answers are only off by 1 answer bubble, or by grammar and spelling. Ether it's your eyesight, or you've suddenly developed extreme test taking anxiety. And I really doubt the latter." Casper continued.
"I don't need glasses." Thatch just muttered grumpily.
"Oh really? Well how about we go to an Underworld eye doctor and prove that?" Casper insisted, with the confidence of a frustrated mother.
Thatch's face turned a little redder and his eyes went wide again.
"I-I don't got anything to prove to you!" the vampire snapped defensively.
Casper sighed again, but this time with disappointment.
"Alright, fine. I won't try to force you. I just wanted to help…" Casper frowned with disappointment and headed to the door, walking past Thatch.
As he was about to leave the vampire grabbed his arm and groaned in defeated kind of way. Casper turned and looked up at the Thatch, who was staring at the wall intently, his face a little red.
"So you'll go to the eye doctor?" Casper asked carefully.
"No." Thatch stated surprisingly calmly.
The ghost raised a brow in confusion.
"You gotta promise not to tell anyone, ok? And if you do tell anyone, I'll-!" Thatch was interrupted.
"Thatch, you don't have to threaten me. You can trust me, I promise." Casper smiled kindly and warmly.
Thatch blushed and frowned with embarrassment. He then pulled a pair of glasses out of his inner jacket pocket and place them on his face, he then crossed his arms and looked at the floor with shame.
Thatch started saying something, but Casper was a bit too busy blushing to hear him. The glasses were angled slightly and nearly frameless, they suited his face shape very well. So well in fact, that Casper was zoning out and swooning all the while. They gave Thatch such a smart and charming look, very handsome indeed.
"ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod,fgdfgfvv" Casper internally screamed and started staring at the floor, desperately hoping the vampire wouldn't notice his blush, which went all the way down to his chest. (Casper blushes blue and glowing btw X3)
"Yeah, yeah, they look awful on me, I know." Thatch grumbled embarrassedly.
"What?! No no, they suit you! Honest!" Casper responded very nervously.
"You're a shit liar."
"I'm not lying! I just..was taken by surprise is all…" The ghost rubbed the back of his neck with embarrassment.
There was a moment of silence.
"I guess you were right; you don't need glasses. You already have them."
Thatch just made a humpf sound in response.
"But I don't understand, why don't you wear them?" Casper asked, rising a brow.
Granted Casper was rather thankful Thatch didn't wear them in class, he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to get any school work done with Mr. charming over there being in the same room.
"It's embarrassing! It would ruin my tough image!" The vampire exclaimed with annoyance.
"Oh, for the love of…" Casper muttered as he gripped the bridge of his nose with frustration.
The ghost could have argued with the vampire, but he decided that enough for one day.
"Would sunglasses fit your "tough image?" Casper asked tiredly.
"Yeah, why."
"Do you have any sunglasses?"
"Yeah…."
"Tape your eyeglasses inside the sunglasses, then you can just wear those."
Thatch thought about it for a moment.
"Yeah…I guess I could do that." The vampire muttered after a moment, walking over and sitting on the lid of his coffin.
Casper walked over and sat down next to him.
"So are you supposed to wear them all the time, or..?" the young ghost asked.
"Just for reading and stuff."
"Oh." Casper answered simply, grateful that he wouldn't have to see Thatch in those glasses again. Seeing the vampire look that attractive just once gave him whiplash enough as it was.
"I wanted contacts, but they don't make them in my prescription…Vampires aren't known for eyesight issues." Thatch muttered the last part shamefully.
"Ah, well, maybe one day. Though frankly, I really do think they suit you…" Casper smiled a bit shyly.
"…thanks." Thatch blushed and looked down shyly.
There was an awkward pause. Thatch was still wearing the glasses, and Casper was trying not to ogle him, all while internally swooning and panicking about it.
Casper cleared his throat. "Well, uh, I guess that solves your problem. I guess we won't need to have any more study dates-study sessions. No more study sessions. So uh, I guess, I'll just leave now. Uh, have a good day, I guess." Casper rambled flusteredly, getting up to leave.
The poor flustered ghost proceeded to walk into the door, forgetting to go intangible. Thatch gave a short snort of laughter. Casper laughed nervously, and looked back to the vampire.
"It's uh, easy to forget about that sometimes." And he phased through the door and scurried off to his own dorm.
Thatch watched on, rising a brow at the weird way Casper had acted.
Casper went back to his own dorm, where he proceeded to almost have a panic attack about new feelings towards a certain detestable vampire.