Chapter 5: School

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The next morning, an alarm clock woke me up at five. I groaned in annoyance and pulled the sheets over my head. I never owned an alarm clock before. Monger gave me this ugly silver rectangular one. It gave off this horrible beeping sound that made it sound like the grandmother of alarm clocks.

I reached my arm over to knock it off the dresser. The alarm clock only got louder. I sighed and decided to get up. Once I sat up, I immediately wanted to lay back down. My hair was a mess and the inside of my mouth tasted like death. I was not used to waking up at five.

Eyes glued shut from sleep, I felt my way around my room. I knew where things were, but I was so groggy and out of it, it didn't matter. I ran into practically everything in my room. Once I got my clothes, One eye was able to crack open and I could see. I walked in a zig- zag pattern to the bathroom. I showered, got dressed, and made my way to the cafeteria, it was almost six.

Dr. Cockroach was already up, digging through yesterdays trash to see if there were any new "delectable" pieces in there. He shot straight up in surprise when he saw me sluggishly saunter in.

"Bat? You are up early," Doc pointed out. I yawned, covering my mouth. "Yeah...I have school today," I told him as I grabbed a tray and began choosing my breakfast. Doc blinked in surprise and confusion. "School? Since when did you start going to school? You are a monster," he said. I told him what Monger told me about being "too young" and needing to finish school, etc.

"Oh..." was all Doc said.

I nodded. "Monger says they have it all sorted out, so all I have to do is be "normal" in a school of teenagers, get through high school, and see what John is up to," I said. Doc nodded. "I see...and you are ok with all this?" he asked me. I shrugged, picking up my tray of food and walking over to one of the empty tables.

"I really don't have a choice. Monger and the government are basically my guardians. I'm sure they thought of homeschooling me or something, but weren't able to find a teacher on short notice, and who would be able to stand seeing me like this," I said as I pulled up my sunglasses for him to see my freakish eyes, and to prove a point.

"Still, seems like a lot to go through," he said.

I shrugged and ate my pancakes.

Doctor Cockroach sighed quietly and nodded his head. Doc was silent for a moment before asking a bunch of questions.

"How are you going to hide your wings?" Doctor Cockroach asked. I pulled out my backpack and showed him the holes in the place where the back would rest against. "I slip them through here," I said. Doc silently nodded. He didn't seem to really understand this whole thing, but it seemed that everything had a reason.

"What about during P.E.?" he asked.

"I have a "doctor's note," I don't have P.E. Monger said I can still work out with Link if he's ok with still letting me borrow his equipment. I still have to exercise to keep my wings strong to be able to lift me," I answered.

Doc continued asking questions and I already had an answer for him from what Monger told me.

I would have to wear contacts to hide my eyes. Make-up to cover up my paper white complexion. I would have to wear a beanie or a hoodie to hide my ears. Last but not least was my fang. I did have a set of fangs, but one got ripped off in an accident with me and the other's first encounter with an alien. I would have to keep it hidden and to not get angry, since that's when it juts out.

I finished my breakfast and headed over to the trashcan where Doc stood. I dumped the contents into the trash and left the tray on the counter. "See you later, Doc," I said, shouldering my backback before I left. "Good luck on your first day, Bat," Doc said before he started rifling through the trash again.

I walked back down the very enormous long, tall grey hallway back to my room. It never usually takes long for me to get ready. I'm not one who needs to take hours putting on make up and washing my hair five times till it curls a certain way. I'm usually ok with just putting on jeans and a t-shirt.

This time though, I was gonna be a while, but not for the reason I just mentioned. This was so I could blend in. I had a brand new set of make up. I never had my own make up set before. The only make up I had growing up was Halloween make up for when I wanted to dress up as a skeleton or some sort of zombie. Black, white and sometimes green were my make up colors. This time it was different shades of tan.

I could maybe just put my contacts in and dress up goth. There were kids who were making themselves pale like vampires. I could maybe be like those kids. I did ask Monger that, so I could avoid the whole make up process, but Monger told me I should be blending in, not sticking out. So here I was, stuck putting on make up to look normal. I'm sure if I did stay white, it would have been scary death white that would have made all the students who encountered me become very uneasy.

I wondered if any of my monster friends felt the same when they saw my deathly pale complexion. I still hated looking at myself in the mirror. Especially my eyes. They were still the most terrifying; and here I was, without my sunglasses, staring at the most creepy looking teen monster that lived.

I ignored the negative comments from my mind and began applying the tan colored make up to my face. Afterwards, I tried putting the contacts in. They were blue contacts. I read the directions on how to put them in. I never had contacts before. It was a little scary, even the idea of figuring out how to take them out. They felt itchy and a little uncomfortable.

Lastly I pulled this loosely knitted black beanie over my ears. Had to adjust a little for my ears to sit comfortably inside. It felt very weird since my ears were on top, and now everything was muffled a little, but the beanie was nice and soft. I checked myself in the mirror. Not too bad for a disguise. As long as no one ripped my hat off my head, I looked like a somewhat normal teen.

It was around seven by the time I was done.

I walked out and made my way down the huge corridor and the long elevator ride up. The elevator doors opened and I stepped outside. The sun was barely coming up and the outside air was still cool. I stopped in my tracks when I made it to the surface. A black car was waiting for me with the driver already inside, but that's not why I stopped. Susan, Doc, B.O.B., B, and Link were there next to Monger. Susan and Link were exhausted, they didn't look like morning people. While Doc looked wide awake as usual. Monger had his hands clasped behind his back.

"Monsters, I have a quick announcement. Bat wont be fighting with you guys. She is doing a solo mission," Monger said. The monsters looked surprised. Link looked impressed. Then Doc had to ruin it.

"I thought she was going to school."

I felt the tips of my ears burn when Link burst out laughing. Doc winced when he saw my face and mouthed 'sorry.' Monger sighed. "I should've started with the first part...John is back," he said. Link stopped laughing and everyone went dead quiet. Monger told them everything he already told me. Once he was finished, everyone was caught up...for the most part.

"So...wait...is Bat leaving us? Is school another monster facility?" B.O.B. asked. Link shook his head. "No, B.O.B. School is a place where kids like Bat go to learn and stuff," he said. "Except they look more human, like this," I said as I gestured to my disguised self. B.O.B. turned to look at me.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"It's me, B.O.B." I said

"Who?"

"Bat."

"Where?"

"Right here,"

"Who are you?"

"Bat."

"Where-?"

"All right, All right, enough of this "Who's on first?" skit. Bat's gonna be late for her first class," Monger said as he gently pushed me towards the black car. I grabbed my backpack and got into the back of the dark tinted Nissan. Behind Monger, the monsters waved goodbye to me. B.O.B. turned to Doc and pointed at me. "Who is she? Is she new?"

"Good luck," Monger said. I nodded.

"Have a good day on your first day of school, Batty Bat," Link teased before Monger closed the door. The driver started the car and we were off, down the dirt road, away from the base, and towards my new school.

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The drive was basically a forty five minute close to an hour drive. I stayed quiet the whole time as I stared out the window. The roads were mainly empty so there was no problem with traffic, except for when we got closer to the school. The place was packed with cars. Parents honking at other parents to hurry up so they could drop off their kid and get to work on time.

I saw a lot of kids leaving their parent's cars and just walking to the school. Some took bikes since they just lived a couple miles from the school. Others skateboarded or rode a scooter. Some of the cool seniors who already had their licences drove their cars into the parking lot. One kid I saw rode a motor bike up to the school and was showing off to a group of girls. Revving his bike and doing a couple wheelies.

This high-school was weird.

"Would you like to get out here, Miss Batula?" the driver asked, speaking to me for the first time. I blinked and turned to him. He looked at me from the rear-view mirror. His eyes were dark brown. He had really nice dark colored skin and a sharp suit on. I looked out the window. There was a bench near some wild flowers on a cracked cement sidewalk. If we stayed in this crazy mess, I wouldn't make it to class on time.

"Um, sure...and you can just call me Bat," I said. The driver nodded. "Noted. You can call me Patrick," Patrick said. I smiled a small smile. "It's nice to meet you, Patrick. Thank you for driving me," I said before getting out of the car. Patrick tipped his hat. "No problem, Bat. I'll pick you up here after school," he said.

Once I was out, I closed the door and he drove off. I followed the kids walking to the school. The school had a chain linked fence that went around the multiple green fields for track, baseball and football. The chain-link fence broke off and became bars. The school had a looming multipurpose room and a bunch of smaller buildings. There were a bunch of pine trees everywhere.

It was similar to my old school in some ways. I felt my heart beating fast. I was very nervous. I knew no one, and had no idea how the layout was. I stopped before the wide open gates that lead into the school. I fished my schedule and map out of my pocket. My first class was English, and it was in the Five Hundred building...wherever the heck that was. Pocketing my schedule, I checked the map. It was to the left of me. I looked up and took a deep breath. Here I was. Solo mission. Going to my new school, on my first day. First day at being normal. I took a step forward and through the entrance. The same kid that was riding his motor bike shoved past me, knocking me to the side.

I regained balance and gave the kid a look. The guy gave me a half wave and continued running. I rolled my eyes, brushing the dirt from my jeans. I muttered under my breath about teaching that kid a thing or two, but decided not to.

I made my way through the hallways with the other teens. I preyed that my disguise worked; worrying that someone would see right through it, maybe see my paper white skin color peeking through. Rip my beanie off my head. Grab my backpack, exposing my wings. There were so many things that could go wrong with this.

I found The five hundred building and walked inside, taking my sunglasses off in the process. A bunch of kids walked or sprinted to their classes, moving in different directions. The five hundred building also had the library. I used to hang out a lot at the library at my old school. It was nice to see a familiar place. Two kids ran past me; their sneakers squeaking against the polished floor as I continued walking, looking around for my first class.

I found my English class on time and slowly walked in. Inside on the white board it said 'Welcome' in fancy cursive. All along the walls were posters of novels that most likely we are going to be reading in class during the semesters. On the other side were old English projects students did possibly last year. The teacher's desk was empty, but it was cluttered with a bunch of knick knacks and jars of pencils, pens and erasers.

I slowed my walk and surveyed the desks. There were a couple kids already sitting at desks, which meant that I didn't have enough time to find a desk. A girl was drawing dragons in class with a black ballpoint pen in her spiral notebook. A boy was on his phone, most likely playing a game. His friend was watching him play. Three girls pushed their desks closer to each other so they could gossip or talk about make-up.

I froze in my tracks when I saw a shock of blonde hair. It was the kid. The kid from the national forest. He was here, in my English class. He sat in the front row of the desks and was staring down at a book in his hands. I kept staring at him. He had his head down, his blue eyes darting back and forth behind his thick black glasses. He was deep into the book he was reading. I was about to see what he was reading when I was shoved from behind. I fell forward to the ground.

"Move it!" snapped a girl's voice. I turned and found a girl glaring down at me. She had pink hair with blue streaks in it, tied into a ponytail. Her eyes were lined in black eyeliner. She wore a shirt that said 'Whatever' but spelled wrong. She wore black tights under a pink and purple skirt. I got up and stepped aside for her, muttering sorry. She just popped her gum at me walked into the classroom.

Close behind her was a big guy with spikey green hair. He was a couple inches taller than me. He looked a little chubby, but he looked like he was trying to slim down. He smirked maliciously at me as he followed behind the girl. He wore a Joker shirt and dark blue jeans. They sat in the back. I decided to stay away from them as best as I could...which meant sitting next to the blonde haired kid with the book. Great.

The bell rang and the rest of the students came shuffling in, followed by the teacher. The teacher looked nice. She had short brown hair and wore a yellow sweater and a black skirt. She smiled warmly and introduced herself and said the English class we were in, just so the other students would check to see if they were in the right class. Sure enough, more than half checked their schedule. One kid left the class, causing the other kids to snicker.

The teacher took roll. I listened carefully to the names being called, and who was responding to their names. The boy who sat next to me that I saw at the park was named Hunter Thorson. The girl's name sounded like mirror. I guess it was Mirr or something, but I just thought of it as Mirror. Mirror Henderson. The Joker looking kid was named Jason Gonzalez. I shifted nervously in my seat when he looked over at me; afraid that he would recognize me. I turned my head away from him. I heard my fake name Monger gave me being called.

"Here," I muttered. The teacher stopped and looked down at me. "You are new here," she said. I nodded. Her name was Ms. T. She had a long complicated last name so she said we called her by the first initial of her last name. She pointed at my shirt which had a couple bats flying across it.

"I like your bat shirt," she said. I felt my face heating up. The whole classroom was quiet, listening to me and the teacher's conversation. "Thanks," I said in a shy voice. The teacher didn't walk away. "I like bats," she said. I looked up in surprise. "Really?" I asked. I never met anyone who liked bats. Usually people gave me looks and said bats were creepy. The teacher nodded.

"Yes, I used to catch them when I was younger, at my parent's house."

My eyes widened as I felt my blood drain from my face. For some reason, that comment gave me chills. Might be for being part bat, but even if I wasn't, how she said it...freaked me out. She turned away from me and started lecturing. I didn't realize I had been holding my breath and exhaled.

A paper ball hit me from the back of my beanie. I turned and looked to see who threw it. The Joker kid was looking away from me, but had that weird smirk on his face. Mirror was busy filing her nails. I turned back to look at the paper ball. I smoothed the crumpled up ball and found a crude drawing of the teacher feasting on a bat in her clawed hands. Red marker lines represented the blood. On the top, it said Teacher's Pet. The bat had an arrow pointing at it, with the words You, written above. I sighed and stuffed the paper in my pocket before Miss T. saw it.

This was gonna be a long day...

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A/N: Hey guys. Thanks for reading my fanfic, hope you guys are enjoying it so far. The bat conversation was a real conversation I had in Sophomore year of high school with an English substitute teacher. To this day, what she said still freaks me out.