Chapter III

Today was the second day of school for Alex and today he planned on meeting few more people that Brian mentioned to him yesterday while hanging out in the bathroom, from what Alex understood, Brian, himself, Polly and Vera are supposed to hang out with a mermaid called Miranda and a vampire named Liam, Polly told Alex a bit about them but all that he managed to comprehend was that the mermaid was some sort of undersea royalty, he could only assume sha was probably very spoiled and egoistic, but Alex knew better then to judge someone without getting to know them, he already figured that he'd try to befriend as much people as he could, especially influential individuals, this way he can have connections that could benefit him greatly and the other reason is well so he had someone to spend time with aka to have friends. The next person Brian mentioned was Liam, he was a vampire and apparently really old and had a "son" called Dimitri that also attended school , Liam was also a hipster from what could Alex grasp, either way the ghost was sure that this day was bound to be quite interesting.

After doing his morning routine of showering and shit, he decided to have a cup of coffee before school, he went out to his balcony half expecting Polly to be there as well, but much to his surprise she wasn't, Alex could only guess she was either showering or still sleeping, nevertheless he lit up a cigarette and enjoyed his coffee while thinking about what he'd wear today. After finishing his coffee he entered his bedroom and chose black ripped jeans, white t-shirt and black Convers All Stars, as for the jewelry he decided to wear a golden bracelet, silver ring with a black stone that had a gothic feel to it and lastly an earring that had a dangling black rose, the earring specifically worked considering his last name is literally Blackrose.

Exiting his apartment, he noticed Polly wasn't waiting for him, he walked towards her door and knocked. A minute passes and there was still no answer, Alex noticed the door was left unlocked and decided to go in and check on her, it's not that he needed to go to school with her every single morning or anything, but he wanted to see her either way because it made his morning so much better. He walked into her home and took in his surroundings, her home was a bit smaller then his place but it looked homey, much to his surprise it was rather neat then messy, he quite honestly expected to see empty beer bottles just laying around her place or a bong in every single room but no, her home was quite normal. He walked into her bedroom to see her spread on the bad only in her bra and panties and he quietly laughed at the scene, he approached her bed and sat on the end and gently tried to wake her up.

"Hey sleeping beauty, wake the fuck up or we'll be late for school. " Alex said.

Polly only yawned and sat up rubbing her eyes a bit and looked up to see Alex in her bed and mentally blushed at the thought but she quickly pushed those ideas aside not wanting to make things awkward or anything but she'd be lying if she said she didn't like the idea of waking up beside him. She also noted that she was practically half naked in front of him, but her being confident in her appearance didn't really mind that much, she knew Alex was a gentleman and wouldn't try anything without her consent. She chose to break the silence that filled her bedroom.

"Do we have to? Can't we go a bit later?" Polly asked slightly annoyed, she wasn't angry on her new neighbor considering he just transferred to new school so it was only natural he didn't want to miss any classes at least first few days, although he skipped few yesterday while hanging out with Vera and Brian.

"Well I suppose we could skip first few classes today, but you and Brian promised me you'd introduce me to that mermaid girl Miranda and the vampire guy later." Alex quickly said while standing up.

"Sure that sounds fine but- hey where are you going?"

Polly said as she noticed him standing up, she really didn't mind him being here, she'd rather spend this morning with him then alone, considering she wasn't much of a morning person in general, at least with him around she won't get bored, as far as she was concerned, they could watch a movie or some shit tv show for a few hours.

"I'm going to leave so you could sleep some more, but around 10 or so we'll leave for school ok?" Alex asked her.

"You don't have to go, we can stay here and do something together, besides I already woke up, no point trying to sleep again, I'll just have a quick shower, you can watch TV or something while you wait."

Polly says to the other ghost as she got out of bed.

"Alright then."

Alex replied as he exited her room and walked towards a couch that was directly in front of the TV, he noticed Polly walking out of her room and going in the bathroom, he must say she looked cute in the morning with her hair undone and messy, this was definitely something he could get used to, he hoped as time goes on they'll get closer. The ghost then turned on the TV and was going through channels, he watched the news for a couple minutes and got mad already at the dumb shit that was happening around them, being dead really gave him a new perspective on life, he was never someone that was interested in politics or things in similar nature, he knew that most of those things were out of his control, so what's the point in getting mad over it, it's like trying to kill the president, there's no point, they'll just replace him with some other dickhead. He was surprised when he died and became a part of this monster population, apparently all these monsters including himself lived with humans forever it's just that there were ways that monsters stayed under the humans radar for all this time, it was probably some sort of magic, like a hiding spell or some shit from Harry Potter. Things worked similarly here, only thing he found quite different was the fact that there were some laws that said if humans saw you exist, you'll get punished, apparently by getting spotted, you put the rest of the monster population in danger of being found. It made sense in some way, he had no intention of interacting with humans at all, he had no business in their world anymore. However he knew for a fact that some ghosts would mess around with people by haunting places or just throwing shit around, hence why there are so many haunted videos and places etc. Alex finally settled to watch some tv show that had monsters as the main cast, just like in the human world, the monster world also has their own books, movies, music, industry and so on, it was like two separate realms on the same planet and they both were connected. After a couple minutes Alex saw Polly exiting the bathroom wearing only her towel, she was levitating towards him. She stopped to look at the TV and only laughed at what Alex was watching. She turned to face him and saw him smirking while checking her out slightly, she was not annoyed in the slightest, she really loved the attention he was providing her, she really wanted to get to know him more, she knew nothing about him, he was a mystery to her, just as much as she was to him. Polly was pulled out of her thoughts as she heard Alex speak to her.

"Are you trying to seduce me Polly? Because if you are, I must say It's working."

Alex only laughed while saying this, and that's one of the main reasons Polly liked him, he was confident, fun, quite bold and care-free, he just said whatever he wanted to in most cases, especially to her since Alex knew that Polly like himself was quite fun and didn't really take things too seriously.

"Maybe, glad to see its working, I'll just go and change then we can watch something together."

She replied while laughing slightly, she noticed Alex nod at her, and just like that she walked through a wall that was leading to her bedroom rather then going through a door, they were ghost after all, they could do both. She decided to wear denim jeans, a sleeveless blue t-shirt and pair of white sneakers. After looking at the mirror for few minutes Polly decided to join Alex on the couch. The ghost duo was watching some romance movie that was actually not bad, yes there were few cliché scenes that made both of them cringe, but there were few really emotional scenes as well, for example there was a car crash scene near the end of the movie that was caused by a drunk driver, Alex actually noticed that Polly stiffened up during this scene, he found it weird because he never saw her look so uncomfortable, Alex could honestly just wonder what caused her to feel like this, he concluded that maybe she or someone she knew had gone through similar experience, for the majority of the movie they were laughing and talking but during this scene they stayed quiet, Alex knew something was wrong then again maybe it would be out of place to ask her why she's acting this way, if it was really related to her past, maybe it would be the best for Alex to wait for Polly herself to open up to him about it.

Polly was way more emotional than what people thought, almost nobody knew her story and for good reason, she just didn't want to talk about it to just anyone, she had unclosed business regarding her death. Polly cursed herself when she noticed Alex throwing secretive worried glances towards her during the car crash scene, she just hoped he doesn't ask any questions, Polly knew Alex was smart and observant and that he could easily put things together without much problem. Polly wanted to talk to him one day about it, not yet however as she still wants to know him a bit better before talking about such serious matters. Alex assumed Polly was afraid that he would try to persuade her to talk about something she was trying to hide or just wasn't comfortable talking about just yet, whatever the reason may be for it, Alex decided to speak up and let Polly know that it's ultimately up to her if she ever wishes to talk about it at all, he hopes that maybe one day they'll completely understand each other, Alex was sure that day will probably be the same day they get together, if that happens at all.

"Listen, I noticed you looked uncomfortable during one of the scenes, however I'm not gonna ask you anything, but know that when you're ready I'll be there to listen, okay?"

Alex told her this silently with a voice full of empathy and he saw Polly gave him a small smile that spoke more than any words possibly could, he saw a hint of pain in her eyes which made Alex feel sad a bit, its true when they say the people that laugh the loudest suffer the most.

After finishing the movie the ghost duo saw it was 9:30 at this point so they chose to leave for school. The walk towards the school was quiet at first but then soon they both started talking about random things, then Alex decided to ask Polly about the people he would be meeting today aka Liam and Miranda. Polly started talking about Liam firstly and what Alex understood basically is that Liam and Polly found common ground in musical festivals, where Liam can enjoy nice bands while Polly enjoyed just partying. Polly is acknowledging and hedonistic to a point that makes Liam stop caring so much about other people's opinions , which is beneficial for him. Also, Polly is pretty close to Liam, and she values him for who he is underneath all the cool hipster persona.

The next person Polly talked about is Miranda. While Miranda's childlike actions triggers her to misinterpret some of the things Polly says about sex and drugs, they are still very close. Miranda asked Polly for ideas for her party which meant in some regard they share at least some things in common, from what Alex could gather it seemed there was more to Miranda then the whole royalty thing she's mostly known for.

Soon they found themselves in front of the school. They entered the school and walked through the walls in order to avoid awful crowd of monsters that walked through the hallways , being a ghost sure had its perks. After a minute or so they found themselves at the cafeteria and the immediately spotted their friends at one of the tables in the center of the room, around the table were Brian, Vera, Liam and Miranda.

"Heyyy everyone"

Polly said in her usual voice, as Alex appeared towards her he noticed the zombie and the gorgon look at him and wave, he waved back and decided to introduce himself to the vampire and the mermaid. The ghost made his way around the table to shake the vampires hand.

"Name's Alex Blackrose, I take it you're Liam, Polly told me much about you."

Alex said in his kind voice, he noticed the vampire ease up at his words, Liam shook Alex's hand and replied sounding really interested in the new ghost, this was no surprise considering the fact that Brian and Vera were talking about Alex prior to his and Polly's arrival at the cafeteria.

"Nice to make your acquaintance Alex, and you're right, I am Liam de Lioncourt." The vampire replied.

As soon as Alex finished introducing himself to his new hipster friend he made is way towards the mermaid princess. He took a good look at her she has pink skin, yellow fins, ears, and palms, and blue eyes. She has hot pink knee-length hair. A little gold crown that rests on top of her head. The mermaid was also wearing a sky blue sundress and sky blue sandals. Alex heard from Polly that Miranda was really innocent but somehow had her scary moments, apparently her whole family was rich and tyrannical. Alex made sure to get on her good side, having a princess for a friend can really be beneficial for him, he had to admit the mermaid girl really did look like a princess, she looked cute and adorable, however Alex already made up his mind when it came to girls, he had one on his mind ever since he got here, but its still too soon to tell what might happen between them. Clearing his thoughts he started levitating towards her thinking about how to introduce himself , he didn't want the mermaid to think she could control him and tell him what to do, he needed to show her that he was no one's serf but at the same time he wanted to be kind enough so she could like him. Alex walked and stopped in front of her and kindly kissed her hand and began talking.

"My name is Alex, nice to meet you Princess Miranda."

Alex said in his natural kind-hearted voice and he heard Miranda giggle a bit, she was really childish but that made her unique. The ghost also noted that Polly looked slightly annoyed for a second but quickly had her usual grin on her face, Alex knew that Polly had a thing for him, however he never took her for a jealous type of person, she probably wasn't, if she was she would still have an irritated expression on her face, Alex only hoped that Polly understood his reason for doing this.

"Nice to meet you too Alex, are you also royalty by any chance and not a simple commoner?"

Miranda asked him excitedly which only confused him a bit, for what reason did she think he was royalty, not that he minded but he was quite surprised, Alex didn't know how to respond at first, if he lied and said yes then it would be just the matter of time before Miranda learned that he lied and that could cause some problems for him, then again if he said he was just a plain commoner that could make the princess dislike him or rather completely ignore his presence, he decided to half lie and tell Miranda that he was not in fact royalty but again not a commoner as well, he just needed to execute it correctly so it doesn't sound stupid and weird, thanks to Alex's natural charms this will be possible easily.

"I am not exactly royalty Miranda then again I'm not a simple commoner neither."

Alex replied in a charming voice while maintaining eye contact with the mermaid. Alex noted that she looked confused, he only hoped this ends well, if their first meeting goes well there's a high probability that they will stay on good terms, that is unless something happens that damages their friendship.

"How so? I though you could only be in one class?" Miranda asked sounding confused.

"What can I say princess, I'm quite special myself, by the way what made you think I was part of a royal heritage." Alex replied charmingly at her.

"You are really well mannered, you have that vibe and you look rich too, with all the jewelry and stuff." Miranda explained her reasoning behind her assumption.

"I'm glad you think so Miranda, I hope we become good friends."

Alex replied smiling at the princess, she smiled back and they all sat down and spent the lunchbreak together discussing various things and arguing over dumb shit, they were also deciding what to do today. For start they chose to go to the next class and afterwards go to the outdoors, which is an area the students use to rave and party at. After finishing the cyberterrorism class which wasn't half bad considering they learned how to make quick money on the net scamming rich and dumb assholes online, the 6 friends found themselves at the outdoor party, the music was loud and there were shit loads of students everywhere and apparently parties here were non-stop 24/7 even after school hours.

As for the music, they mostly played drum & bass, progressive house and techno. Alex just loved the idea of partying during school hours, it was so fun to think that somebody was in class while he was raving and they were both at the same place, it was so surreal for him, something like this would never happen in the human world, at least where he was from. Alex also noted that everyone had a great time altogether, he looked to see Brian and Vera were casually talking, probably making plans how to be rich or some shit like that, Liam and Miranda were talking with some creatures that Alex didn't get the chance to meet yet, the first creature was a demon with red skin, and two darker red horns at the top of his head, Alex had no idea who that was but he knew that guy was probably very chaotic, you could see almost it instantly. As for the second creature it appeared to be a werewolf that has somewhat spiky ears and a brown tail , Alex also noted the werewolf was really muscular, the ghost only hoped that he won't ever have to fight that dude, because if he did, he could certainly be overpowered, it's true that Alex had some past fighting experience but still how the fuck are you supposed to beat a werewolf in a fist fight and why would you even want to do that in the first place. Alex then turned around to see Polly dancing like crazy and he smirked and decided to join her. Alex quickly made his way towards his favorite girl and started dancing, moving as much as he could to be on the same level as his fun-filled neighbor. They both danced for some time not really saying anything, they were both too distracted by moving around and getting lost in each other's eyes, to the both of them it almost felt like they were alone. Alex decided to take off his t-shirt, not for the purpose of showing off his body ironically but because it was way too hot for him, he noticed a lot of other people were casually staring at him with hint of lust in their eyes ,which was not anything weird considering he was quite attractive plus he had a tattoo on his right upper-chest that resembled a rose. Alex didn't care about the looks he was receiving from everyone else , he only cared about the girl in front of him, Polly. He noticed she was quite surprised to see him shirtless, which is understandable, she didn't say anything she just smiled at the sight in front of her, then Alex chose to surprise her yet again by undoing his ponytail and letting his long beautiful hair fall down his shoulders, Alex was sure Polly was losing her cool at this point as he saw her make her way towards him only to stop in front of him. Alex took this opportunity and placed his hands on her hips and started dancing with Polly that way, he also turned her around and gave her a small hug from behind while still dancing and Polly responded by putting her arms around his neck, they danced like this for some time, Alex even noticed couple of his friends stare at them with awe. Vera and Brian were smirking in their direction and Alex gave them a quick wink and continued to dance with Polly. After a bit she turned to face him and they were so close to each other, they both fought the temptation to make out on the spot, despite both of them being bold and fun-driven they actually didn't kiss, but that doesn't mean it won't happen in the near future plus they had the best situation possible ,they were neighbors, for fuck sakes they could literally make out and have sex whenever they wanted, they both lived alone and they were next to each other at all times.

"You're an amazing dancer you know that right?" Polly told Alex while they walked back to the rest of their group.

"Well now I know, I must say you dance amazing too, I hope we can do it again soon, if that is what you want?"

Alex asked her this completely randomly as if he didn't know she was going to say yes, he just wanted to hear her say it.

"Uhhh yeah, of course I want to do it again, why do you even bother asking?" Polly said while playfully punching the other ghost in his stomach, Alex only smiled.

"By the way, nice tattoo, did you choose it because of your last name, which is also cool as fuck." Polly said which caused Alex to laugh and reply.

"Yeah I had that tattoo ever since I turned 18." Alex said.

Soon the ghost duo found themselves talking with the rest of their group. During this time Alex also managed to meet Damien LaVey who was the demon Liam and Miranda were talking with while he danced with Polly and next to Damien was Scott Howl, the buff werewolf that Alex hoped not to fight.

Alex found it truly noteworthy that Scott has a "stupidly giant heart". Alex learned that Scott is a very caring, loyal and genuine person who never aims to harm anybody, even when he does wicked things, it's out of obliviousness, not cruelty. He very easily presumes anyone is or can be his friends merely because of having a few things in common, like going to the same school and participating in the same regular activity. Scott is difficult to provoke and he tended to see the optimistic side of everything. Alex liked this guy a lot, he seemed like the type of friend to do anything to get you out of a bored or depressed state of mind. Scott and Alex mostly spent time talking about different sports and activities in the school, Scott even invited Alex to play dodgeball with him in the gym tomorrow morning and the ghost happily accepted the invitation.

After talking with Scott, Alex turned towards Damien to start a conversation with him. The demon at first tried to intimidate the ghost a bit, but it didn't work at all. Alex wasn't insulted by Damien's actions but rather quite amused, he also quickly learned that the demon is intense and chaotic. The ghost didn't mind this in the slightest, he actually came to respect Damien a bit once he learned he was a prince as well, apparently his family rules the 8th Circle of Hell, which Alex found to be cool as fuck, him and Damien quickly became good friends when they learned they both shared love for fashion and hairstyling as well as destruction and intimidation, they were truly a terrible combo.

For the next two hours the new group of friends spent their time pranking other students and messing around, the most successful of the group were Vera and Damien, which is not that shocking for…obvious reasons. Alex quickly noticed that his popularity scale was increasing since a lot of people were staring at him some even coming up to him and starting making small talk, this amused him greatly, for the most part he didn't remember the conversations unless the person who was talking was somewhat interesting and unique, though for the most part they were bland girls throwing themselves at him much to his and especially Polly's annoyance, Alex even noticed Polly giving death stares to some of them, which made Alex laugh like crazy and the fact that Polly looked so cute pissed off made it even funnier.

Soon it was around 11 PM and the group decided to go home since most people already left as well, they said their goodbyes and just like that Alex and Polly were left alone again to walk through the beautiful night while heading home. They arrived home and decided to go to sleep immediately considering they were tired from all the partying and drinking. Polly was first one to say goodbye to Alex by thanking him for the awesome time they had and she quickly kissed him on he cheek and hugged him and turned around and walked in her apartment leaving Alex there just rubbing his cheek. Alex really loved how bold she could be, he laughed to himself and went to sleep.