Another Chunky Chapter! Over April and possibly the start of May however Monsters will be updating fortnightly, just till I can can get ahead with the story a little more. Also Name change! I got sick of spelling Monstrous wrong.

Mildred tried to not let it bother her. Especially on top of everything else that had happened today. But often, the more you try to pretend that everything is okay, more obvious it is that you aren't…

"Cool." Ruby had said and she had gone back to her cards. For a moment. But then she glanced up and saw the look on Mille's face and gaped. "Sorry I just wondered what you were! I didn't- I meant it's cool you're C- you're a scholarship girl? Just magic? Sorry sometimes dad says I'm being rude and don't realise it."

Maud and Jadu now both frowning. "Millie what wrong?"

"It's nothing- I just!" She didn't want to cry in front of her new friends or upset anyone. But couldn't leave her own room, maybe she could go to the bathroom. But trying to be brave won out, so Mildred wiped her face and blinked back her tears as much as she could and asked, "Cackle's isn't super posh like Oxford or story book schools are, is it?"

"No. Millie, I don't get what you mean?"

"Cackles is so not a posh school have you seen this place? None of us are what you call posh. Bar Ethel."

"I think that C word I said upset her." Ruby hissed in distress.

"What? Common?" Jadu asked. And got not just another pillow thrown at her head, but a whole pile of them magically dumped on her! "Ow!"

"Oh!" Maud said then flustered upsetting herself. "Oh, I'm so sorry Millie I didn't mean- earlier. Your sort like that or you know Common as in Common -common! I meant Human Common."

"Human common?" Mildred gulped.

"Wait no that sounds worse-!"

"Okay!" Jadu said disentangling herself from the pillows turned back to Mildred. "Right I think I get it. I suppose your sort would say normal Mil."

It was now Mildred's turn to look confused.

"That sort of common, it's not a class thing. Is that what you thought it was?"

"…Yes?"

"Well it isn't." Jadu said.

"Common is what Monsters use to say totally non-monster humans." Ruby said awkwardly explained scratching the back of her bolts.

"I didn't think." Maud mumbled polishing her glasses, and apologised again. "Because there's more of you then there is of us. And even with magic your normal isn't our normal. Does that make sense?"

"Oh." Mildred relaxed. That wasn't as bad then. "Human common. I get it. Maud it's okay! So, am I 'common' then?"

"You are. Well, generally speaking." Jadu teased giving her arm a squeeze. "Not in here though. In here you're so 'normal' you're the oddity!"

Mildred laughed feeling a lot better. Maud and Ruby relaxed a bit too.

"Just be a bit more careful yeah? Like what happened with Ethel? Some people get a bit well tetchy about commoners. So they might be tetchy about you before you even meet them. All the past hunting, b movies and persecution stuff." Ruby said passing the smarties over. Mildred promised. "Don't take it to heart though."

"Okay. So some girls here look common but aren't? And that's passing? Like how you said I wasn't scary looking." She asked, dealing Maud a new card.

"Yes sort of. Passing monsters could go to 'normal' schools. Or common-witch schools if they have magic and use shielding spells if they wanted too." Ruby said. "But you know using them every day that's hard work even for just day schoolers. I live in a town and just use them to go outside. But it's like wearing a second skin. Well not second hand skin I mean-!"

The others laughed in disgust.

"Ew. (Got any threes?)"

"It's true!" Ruby said handing them over. "And it's so hot in the summer. So if you're a monster and a witch you're better coming here or another monster school. (Jadu got any kings)?"

"(Go fish). Shield spells are a pain. I mean I can without them but it's so exhausting. and all that walking upright so much too," Jadu said. "I can't imagine wearing one in a classroom for a whole day! Maud any twos?"

"Same. Most older wolfs can shift to look very nearly passing but it's an effort. Some girls here don't really identify as witches either, but they still need to learn how to use their magic." Maud put in. "Mostly fairy students and ghost students. Some of the monsters here aren't 'girls' either."

"That happens in normal schools too." Mildred said. "Well sort of. A girl in my old schools 6th form became a boy changed his name and cut his hair. And it was fine but some parents made such a fuss over the toilets and a lot of people still called him Liz."

"Huh." Jadu considered this putting down another pair. "Good on him. Some girls don't like being called monsters either. We just get lumped in all together. It's nicer then Peculiars I think personally, but some call themselves 'different humans'."

She made a face.

"What's wrong with different humans?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing! But some of them then make out all other monsters are less important of a person- well less of a being. Some of them." Jadu stressed.

"Oh yeah, those ones suck."

"It's like when grandad calls Were's who've been bitten 'part timers'." Maud agreed. "It's so rude. And if anything, they've more problems! And not everyone has a clan or magic to help or shield."

"So there's monsters as well as witch monsters?" Mildred asked still learning. "And Common means human. Plain human. You've commoners, magical commoners and monsters and then you've magical monsters?"

"More or less. There's also the argument where demons, genies and ghost ort to fall. But never mind that now." Jadu shrugged. "Someone really should have taught you this beforehand though."

"How? With a leaflet? I didn't even know magic was real till February." Mildred pointed out. "or that Monsters-! Wait can I say things like monsters and common?"

The others shrugged unsure themselves. So, Mildred erred on the side of caution.

"You were all real not just stories. Or this school wasn't just a Witch school till three weeks ago. I didn't know magic schools were a thing until my old school asked my parents to transfer me."

"Would you go back to your old school?" Maud asked, quietly.

"No it's just…I was odd there for having magic. now I might be the odd one again here for being Common…Does that make sense?"

"Well it's true." Maud said. And then more firmly. "But even though you're ordinary human, Mil you're also a witch. And Cackle's is a witch school just as much as it is for monsters, so regardless you still belong here."

"I hope so." She said.

"Oh you'll be fine Mil."

"I hope so" Mildred thought again later, as she and her new friends eased back in to gossiping and playing cards. "I really hope so."

Thanks for reading! And to those who reviewed so far. Mildred's Monster Misadventures returns the 15th and the 29th of April