1/30/16

Its crazy how much time has passed since I started this fic and even crazier on how long it took me to finish this revamp (almost a year). Similar to ch1, I added more detail and constructed the beginning better (imo). I've also gotten into the habit of making an intro before getting into the chapter, I like to think it eases you all in.

[Intro]

P.E was the only class Abbey had that she didn't share with any of her ghoul-friends. She had deliberately set aside this class as her "Abbey time"; an interval in her day where she could just think and do what needed to be done without dealing with the chit chatting and opinions of others.

However, sitting alone like always on the bleachers, while everyone else laughed and mingled was making her regret her decision. "Who knew it was possible to feel so alone amongst so many?" Blowing snowflakes in the air, she spotted a familiar face sitting two benches below her, alone – Robecca Steam.

She had met her last year when she was a temporary member of the SKRM team, but never had much one-on-one interaction since then. "Strange, how have I not noticed her before?" It had only been a little over a month into the new scaremester, but she could name every ghoul in the class… So were in the yak had Robecca been hiding? Did she just enter the class? Abbey decided that she'd simply just ask.

Gathering her thoughts and remembering what Cleo said about "proper speaking"– for Abbey had a way of talking that could make a monster feel rather uncomfortable - she got up and walked over. As she got closer, she noticed that the robot was actually… "Really pretty". Her metallic skin glowed brightly under the heavy lights of the grimnasium and her hair bounced and swayed to a wind that wasn't there. "Ugh, okay, you're starting to sound like cheesy romance novels."

Robecca was so busy tinkering with the bolts on her arms that she didn't even notice Abbey, so she took that moment to give her a one up. Even when she was sitting down, you could see that she was obviously toned with a slim figure and a set of legs that could put anyone to shame. Realizing she was staring, Abbey looked away and loudly cleared her throat, startling Robecca, "Do you mind if I sit next to you?"

"Abbey! Oh… Sure" Robecca slid over the bench, giving room for the girl to sit, "I didn't realize that you were in this class too."

Abbey shrugged as she sat down, "Have no friends in this class so I'm always on bleachers by lonesome."

"I can understand that. I'm a bit uncultured to the happenings of the modern world, so no one ever approaches me, I usually just stand by and observe."

"I guess that's something we have in common – Outsiders amongst friends. I usually watch trashy shows on MTV to learn what is hip and hopping."

Robecca laughed, "I settled on listening to Cleo's advice and reading those trend setting magazines. You know, the ones Fr-", she paused for a minute, "Err, Draculaura reads. I just… Yeah…"

Taking notice of the sudden change in her mood, Abbey decided to change the subject, "So… I have not noticed you in class before, did you transfer in?"

Robecca nodded, "Yeah, since I'm the "Legendary Skultimate Roller Maze Champion Robecca Steam", she air-quoted and rolled her eyes, "I was put in the boys cardio and weights class but you can imagine how idiotic boys can get when there's a girl in the room so I asked to be put into something more fitting for a ghoul. But because of my status as an athlete, no one here wants to play. I didn't know that my options would be harassed by the guys or outcasted by the ghouls."

Abbey gazed out to the different cliques of girls, huddled into tight circles, idly exercising and laughing.

"Perhaps you and I can spend this class time together, much better than being bored and alone."

Robecca smiled, "I'd love that! I've actually been eyeing that casketball down in the cart for a while, do you want to play?"

Abbey stood up and cracked her knuckles, tempted by the challenge and a bit excited to be hanging out with such an attractive ghoul – wait, what?

"As long as your pride can handle the beating, I'm game!

[Chapter]

It took a lot of will power not to freeze Robecca in a block of ice. With the score four to one, Abbey could only throw glares at the metallic girl as she effortlessly landed another score. "That makes five to one, I win!"

"I call rematch!"

Robecca laughed, dribbling the ball between her feet, "You already called a rematch twice now!"

"I just need to come up with better strategy."

"Seems like someone is just a sore loser."

"Abbey does not lose!"

"Abbey just did. Three times."

Just as Abbey was to unleash the curses of the yak, Robecca's steam pumps conked out and she fell to the ground hard. There was a short chime of tick-tocks before steam was unleashed from the bolts of her body. Robecca held her head and groaned, "Aww, man!"

Frantic, Abbey dropped to ground and pulled Robecca up to a sitting position, "What's wrong?"

"I'm overheating. All that running around left me winded – I just need to rest my gears for a moment."

Abbey thought for a minute before taking Robecca's hands in her own and bringing it her lips. Inhaling deeply, she blew; a wave of tiny snowflakes flew from her mouth and dissolved into Robecca's skin. The metal on her hand turned blue for a short moment before turning back to its bronze tone. Shivering, Robecca closed her eyes and allowed Abbey to do… Whatever it was that she was doing. She could feel a cool breeze surging in, out and between the bolts and rings inside of her body; a dance of wind that felt a bit painful but completely refreshing.

Once the feeling had passed, Robecca opened her eyes and smiled, "What, what was that?"

Abbey smiled back, "Think of it as thermal dis-transferal. With others, you can come together and get warm. With me, you get cool. It helps when summer sun gets too hot."

"That felt wonderful. And my gears are back and running! Thank you Abbey."

"Anything for you."

"Abbey… My hand."

Abbey looked down and saw that she still held Robecca's hand between her own. Frantically she dropped them, "Oh! I'm sorry." As a monster of the cold, Abbey could not physically blush, but she could feel her cheeks heating up – For what reason do I do this?

Wanting to get rid of her embarrassment, she stirred back up some conversation, "By the way, where are your friends?"

"Well, Rochelle and I only share two classes, Mad Science and History of the Boonited States, and those are in the morning. I'll have to wait till lunch to see her again".

"You do not have other friends, like Neighton? Draculaura? Clawdeen? I thought you grew close after the Vampire Queen and freaky fusion fiasco."

Robecca bit her lip, trying to find a way to answer without revealing too much of what was really going on. "I mean, they are great ghouls and I do believe we have grown to be good friends, even with Cleo and Elisabat. But, I rather not get too involved with those who are friends with Frankie".

"What do you-?"

A loud whistle went off, cutting off Abbey. Mr. Lou Zar, who was substituting for the Physical Deaducation coach, was standing in the middle of the gym in a pair of shorts that could pass for underwear and, of course, a blazer.

"Okay girls, up and at them. We will be playing volleyball today. Everyone will be divided into two teams with the captains selecting their players. Everyone must play, or they will be given an F for the day. The winning team will receive extra credit."

Ignoring the groans of the crowd, he went down the attendance sheet, "Okay there are sixteen girls in the class so eight per team… Abbey and uhh, Me-wow-dy, you're team captains!" Meowlody hissed, "It's pronounced as Meowlody!"

"And you're grade is pronounced as EFF, now hurry up and choose your team." Rolling her eyes, Meowlody quickly scanned the crowd, making a few faces and gagging. "Such a pathetic group of ghouls buuuut… I choose Toralei and Purresphone! Uhh… Hmm… I guess-"

Already aware of the students in the class, Abbey interrupted Meowlody and counted out "Catrine you always land on your feet, Venus your powers will come in handy, Gilda you're fast, Jina you're strong, Wydowna you have six arms, Catty you're flexible and I'll take Robecca too. The rest – Iris, Gory, Gigi, Jane, and Sirena, you're all on team Meowlody."

Meowlody bristled and hissed loudly, "What? She can't do that! Hey, loser! Tell her she can't do that."

"That's Mr. Loser, err I mean, Lou Zar. And actually she can."

"But she stuck me with all the shitty people, that's not fair!"

"Language Ms. Were-son! If you put some faith in your team and create a good strategy, you'll have nothing to worry about." Meowlody growled and flipped the finger before marching off, "Let's just get this over with."

X

As a substitute, Mr. Lou Zhar had seen a lot of things in his teaching career; entire statues getting defaced, students running naked in the halls and once, a student masturbating on the frogs in the science lab. But this, this right here was unreal; it was like watching a documentary of animal life on the Discovery Channel. Fangs were bared, claws were outstretched, edges were snatched, and… Was it fucking snowing? There was even a student hanging upside down on the ceiling above him with a tarantula woman looking like she was about to devour her. In other words, this simple game of volleyball had tuned chaotic.

He blew his whistle so much that someone had actually took it from him. He thought that the next best thing to do, was to intervene physically, but witnessing some of those body slams and kicks, he decided that the best thing to do "was to just sit you ass down, George". So instead, he sat by the bleachers, playing solitaire on his mobile device.

The volleyball game had turned into WWE smackdown after Toralei had instigated a fight with Catty by throwing the ball at her stomach, hard. Getting fed up with her, Abbey had taken the ball, threw it up in the air, froze it and then smacked it with all her strength towards Toralei; quick on her feet, she was able dodge it in time, but it went to the person who had stood behind, Meowlody, right in the face. Abbey still considered that a win. After that, it was full on war. With everyone know taking shots at another. And with physical jabs, came verbal ones too – You wouldn't hear more curses even if you listened to an entire Lil Pain album.

During the midst of the battle, Robecca came up behind Abbey. "I got your back" she called out, and boy did she ever – anything that came for Abbey was caught by her and flung with the power of ten men. At this point, the game was pretty much Meowlody's team versus Abbey and Robecca, as their own realized that Abbey was no joke and just stayed on the sidelines throwing insults to the others. As the opposing team started to back down, Robecca stepped out the area for a breather. It was only Meowlody and her sister who were playing now. Everyone else was simply too tired and injured to move, and with all that intense playing, she could feel herself overheating again.

So, she sat down by the net and cheered on Abbey. She had to give credit to the girl for keeping up all that energy the entire class period and she looked great doing it too; all that movement and her hair was still perfectly in place, and not an ounce of sweat was seen on her. Those little snowflakes that followed her around, swirled around her, encasing her in what looked like eternal glass.

After serving the ball one last time (it doubled and hit both twins in the face, score!), Abbey bent down and finally caught her breath. Victorious! She thought. And the most fun she had in Physical deducation ever. Winding down, she paused. She could feel someone's eyes on her, looking around, she noticed Robecca staring. She raised an eyebrow, signaling if everything was alright. Robecca shook her head, "You were great!" she said and smiled.

Such a beautiful smile… "When you look at me like that, it makes me want you so badly". Wait – what? Wait, was that out loud!? Clearly it was, by the sudden groups of gasps she was suddenly hearing. Shit! Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Abbey. Even Mr. Lou Zhar was staring in surprise. Abbey could feel herself warming up – a near impossible feat for a creature such as herself.

RING DING RING DING

The bell signaling the end of class filled the silence of the grimnasium, but there wasn't anyone rushing to leave as usual. There was no "Thank Zeus, it's over", no calling out dibs for the shower with the hot water… Just everyone huddled around a mortified Abbey, giving her bizarre looks. Except for Robecca. Her face was unreadable. Is she angry? Is she disgusted? Is she going into shut down mode because of the overwhelming awkwardness? Abbey couldn't tell and she sure as yak didn't want to stick around to find out.

But she couldn't move. Her brain was jumping all over the place but her feet were locked to the floor and her mouth felt like it was glued shut. What do I do? Should she run out and never look back or should she just pretend that nothing was wrong? Or maybe… Fuck… She couldn't think straight with her heart beating so loud and that damn ringing in her ears.

Lucky for her, she didn't have to do anything as Torelai was the first to speak, "As much as I would love to put that ice freak on blast for what she just said, I really need to take a cat nap. All this exercise has left me breathless." As she walked towards the locker room, the rest of the class followed behind her, leaving Abbey and Robecca alone…

"Abbey, what di-"… Before Robecca could finish her sentence, Abbey spun on her heels and raced to gather her things, "Sorry, but not now." Ignoring all the stares from her peers – Or maybe she was trying to ignore them as they were stripping out of their gym wear – Abbey opened her locker, stuffed her dress in her bag, grabbed her pumps and ran out of the locker room. She'd change in an empty stall in the bathroom. For right now, she couldn't be around other girls. Why?

That was a good question. Why did she say what she did out loud? Hell, why did she even think it? Why was she so embarrassed around Robecca and why on earth was she too nervous to change in the girl's locker room? Abbey could feel a small voice answering the questions in the back of her head, telling her something that she didn't want to hear.

Forcing herself to calm down, she went into the nearest ghouls bathroom and locked herself in a stall. She'd change, she'd splashed some water on her face, she'd eat some lunch… Then everything would be back to normal. Well… That's what she was going keep telling herself.

In clarification

Chapter 7 is the continuation of this chapter. And chapter 5 and 8 fall in with one another (8 happens before 5 and is then followed by 6 and then 9). Chapter 1 leads into chapter 3 which is followed by 4. Because of the onslaught of characters, one group will be encountering a different situation than the other, but it all happens at the same time and bleeds into one plot.