3/9/15

I'm sorry for the long wait you all had to endure, I've been wondering for the longest on how to continue and what to write next. I started this a while back when revamping chapter three, but with all the lovely reviews from you all, turned it into a new chapter and hurried to give you all something more. Next chapter will be a short interlude that I already started. I also got halfway through with the revamped version of chapter two.

PS: To clear any confusion that might be arising, all of this is happening around the same as chapter five. Manny had left this chapter early, so he got back to class in time, hence his involvement in CH5. Meanwhile the others came back to school late, so while Draculaura's tantrum was going on, they weren't yet in the building.

With the onslaught of homework, date nights and the stress of simply growing up, one thing that the boys realized, was that setting time for themselves was just as important as anything else – Time to just kick back, relax and be themselves without worry. So came the 3 days of terror dubbed "Guy time". Guy Time was divided into three parts: Wake up Workout (Monday Morning), All You Can Eat (Wednesday Afternoon) and Game Night (Sunday Night), and consisted of Deuce, Clawd, Jackson, Heath, Gil and Manny.

Today was Wednesday, so as the lunch bell rung, the guys all met up at their usual spot near the parking lot. They had all decided to spend Wednesday's lunch periods on the road since none of their ghouls shared the same lunch time. Tossing his keys in the air, Manny asked, "So where to today boys? I could really go for something to eat." Jackson raised his hand, "I vote for the café at Dark&Noble. They have a half off sale on drinks and cakes today."

Manny snorted, "A single slice of cake isn't going to fill any of us up Nor-" he paused, "Jack." Being a part of the gang now, Manny wasn't allowed to call Jackson, or any of the others, by anything else but their name. Guy time had been given some rules after the first night when things got a little heated. Both figuratively and literally; Heath in his anger had set Deuce's living room couch on fire (They weren't allowed to have game night over at his place anymore).

"How about Black Castle?" Gil offered, "My mom's on this new vegan diet and has forced my dad and I to basically eat seaweed all week. I'm dying to sink my teeth into some meat."

Nodded in approval, Manny said, "Now, that's a meal. I say we take it a step further and go out to FIVE GUYS. The burgers there are the size of your head."

"And a heart attack waiting to happen" Jackson murmured.

"Let's take a vote on it!" said Deuce, "All in for FIVE GUYS?", he counted the hands: Clawd, Manny, Gil and Heath. "Alright, looks like FIVE GUYS it is." With Clawd and Manny the only ones with cars, they paired up and headed out.

X

"Almighty Zeus", Deuce groaned while nearly toppling out of his chair, "I shouldn't have had that extra bite."

"Extra bite?" Jackson nearly choked up his fries in laughter, "You shouldn't have eaten four burgers! In fact, neither of you guys should have." He shook his head at the table as his friends clutched their stomachs and moaned around in pain. "What were you thinking?"

A loud belched of fire erupted from Heath, "We weren't. We just ate."

"And now you're all going to pass out in postprandial somnolence." Manny moaned, "Ugh, too full for big words!", Jackson rolled his eyes, "You all got the itis and are going to knock out."

Manny shrugged, "I have History class next, so I was probably going to knock out anyways". Suddenly a Justin Biter song came on. Looking around, all eyes landed on a sheepish looking Manny who quickly scrambled for his phone in his pocket. "Hey Iris! Hmm? Oh, I'm not busy. What do you need?" Hearing the giggles of the others, he threw up the middle finger and mouthed, "Fuck you".

"Uh, sure. I can get it for you. When do you need it? Now? Umm, alright. I'll be there as fast as I can. Bye… Yes, I love you too. Of course I'm you're snuggly bear. Alright bye." As soon as he hung up, the table erupted into loud laughter. Heath was on the floor, holding his stomach, "Oh my gosh, Iris has got you whipped."

"No she doesn't!"

"Hey man", Deuce said, "As the boyfriend of Cleo De Nile, I know exactly what it's like to be whipped. It's not completely terrible, I say take pride in it."

Gil nodded, "Honestly speaking, we've all been jerked around by our ghouls."

"Let's make a toast" Deuce smiled, holding up his near empty soda cup, "to be being whipped!"

"To being whipped", they shouted. Quickly downing the rest of his coke, Manny gave the guys a quick wave before heading out.

Jackson sighed, "What I'd do be whipped…"

Waggling his eyebrows, Heath answered, "Always knew you had a thing for chains and domination."

Jackson blushed, "Wha-! You know exactly what I meant!"

Heath shrugged, "Do I? You have a split personality, a dual side. I don't know what kind of things you two are into." As Heath continued to tease his cousin, Gil gave Deuce a weak kick to his shoes; getting his attention, he quietly nodded towards Clawd. The wolf had been unusually silent the entire afternoon, and Gil wasn't sure if it was his place to ask why. Sure, the two were good friends but Clawd and Deuce were like brothers. If anyone could get Clawd to open up, it was him.

Deuce gave a quick nod to Gil to let him know that he understood. He too was wondering what was wrong with his beast friend. For a while now, Clawd had been acting strange and with the gossip he got out of Ghoulia, he knew that things had been going south with his relationship.

Honestly, he had been waiting for a time when they were alone to talk but couldn't seem to grab the time. Even now, in a fast food joint surrounded by others, he wasn't sure if this was such a great time too. But with Gil having caught on to Clawd's despair, he decided that now was the perfect time.

"So", Deuce began, "I've heard from Cleo that Draculaura has been pretty depressed. Acting all kinds of weird..." he trailed off, staring hard though his shades at Clawd, waiting for him to respond. Clawd didn't have to look up, he could his gaze burning into his forehead. He knew that eventually Deuce was going to figure out that something was off, and he dreaded the coming talk. Sighing, he picked up his fork and poked the tomatoes he picked off his burgers, "Uh… What have you heard?"

"Well, she had been smearing her makeup and not caring. Now, she just doesn't bother to put it on. And she barely leaves her house. Cleo has to literally drag her out of her coffin for school in the morning. She just goes to school and home. Even missed that Howlester sale this weekend. The one Cleo, Lagoona and Abbey had me wait in line for, for five hours. And yesterday…"Deuce paused for dramatic effect, "She wore sweatpants. Sweatpants bro. Cleo had me drive her back home during home room. Something about hitting rock bottom."

Clawd's picking turned to quick stabs, till his tomatoes turned to mush. He could feel Deuce's eyes challenging him to look up but he couldn't. What was he supposed to say? He was sorry? He hadn't told him (or anyone) about the lunar moon and even then, what would that do? He made his ghoul wear sweatpants to school for Zeus sake! That was like, a breaking point for her.

Sensing his inner turmoil, Jackson intervened, "Maybe she just realized the comfyness of them. I mean miniskirts and combat boots every day? Seems a bit impractical."

"But sexy – Ow!", Heath rubbed his arm from the harsh smack of Gil's flippers.

"Well whatever it is, it seems like you should do something."

Deuce was right of course, but Clawd wasn't sure what he could do at that point; things had gotten too far for any simple solution to work. All he could do was simmer in his own frustration and hope for the best. But that wasn't working and now he felt his bottled emotions springing to the surface.

He was upset about the lunar moon, agitated that he never said anything about it from the start and was angry that he couldn't be around the one person who made him feel all warm and nice on the inside. Deuce didn't deserve to be the target of his animosity but Clawd needed an outlet and couldn't keep back his words.

"And it seems you could give your own ghoul the attention that she needs."

Taken aback from his tone, Deuce cautiously responded, "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you have a lot of questions about Draculaura and me. Too many. Yet somehow we haven't mentioned you and Cleo. The obvious fight that you guys are in right now and how she slapped the almighty out of you yesterday."

"Woah dude, back down the anger. I was just trying to help."

"Help that I didn't ask for."

Sensing the tension rising, Gil took a quick glance of his phone and jumped up out of his seat, "Crap baskets! We're going to be late for class if we don't hurry it up now." Jackson and Heath were quick to their feet, shoving their chairs back into place and racing to dump their trays.

"We'll have to continue this talk another time", said Gil, "The last thing we need is a detention from the hall moan-itors."

Breaking the staring contest between them, Clawd rose to his feet, "Yeah, let's go."

X

The ride back to school was a quiet one. A painfully awkward quiet one. Unsure of how to react to the slight hostility that went on at the restaurant, Gil, Heath and Jackson had settled on slight coughs, sniffles and yawns. Arguments between the guys was nothing new, but this time it felt different. This time it felt… Intense. And neither of them knew how to handle that kind of situation.

Once they pulled into the school's parking lot, Gil grabbed his book bag and rushed out of the car. "I'm all the way at the end of building three, so I'll catch up with you guys later." It was only guys grimnastic and with his undefeated reputation as number one male swimmer and his status as the school's male swimming captain, none of the coaches really cared if he showed up or not. He just really needed to get away from the drama he knew was to ensue. Yanking out his phone from his pocket, he sent a quick text to Lagoona: "Need your help with emotions and stuff." And dashed off to class.

Back at the parking lot, the guys were

"Yo Wolf, what's your problem?"

"What?"

"What the hell is your problem? You've been acting like a real man bitch to everybody for no reason."

"You're getting slapped around by your ghoul friend and yet I'm the man bitch? Okay Gorgon. Whatever you say."

"You know what? Fuck it. Get pissy. And if I were you, I wouldn't be so damn condescending about other people's relationships. Your last girlfriend left you for me. Continue acting the way you do and I'll be seeing Draculaura around real soon too.

Clawd clenched his jaw. He could feel his claws extending and the anger inside of him turning into full outrage. Slowing his breathing to keep himself from ripping off Deuce's head he growled out, "What the fuck did you just say?"

Heath and Jackson had stopped walking and were just staring at the two in shock. The bromance and friendship of Clawd and Deuce were legendary in the school. The two never went beyond a scuffle and always had each other's back. Clawd even saved Deuce from drowning once, mouth to mouth and all.

And yet here they were, locked in a staring match in a parking lot, minutes away from possibly killing each other.

Heath kept nudging Jackson, urging him to say something but the poor half normie was too terrified to even blink much less say anything. It was the sound of phones going off that interrupted the showdown.

Happy for the distraction, Heath yanked out to phone and opened up the notification. It was an update from Spectra's blog. Opening it up, he nearly dropped his phone at the headlines. "Uh, guys… You need to check your phones now!"

Jackson followed suit and after skimming through the article, quickly ran in between Deuce and Clawd. "Umm… I don't think that's a good idea. I think we should j-just go inside." Jackson could feel his heart racing and his lunch threatening to come back up. This was bad, this was so fucking bad…

Confused, Clawd reached in his back pocket for his phone and entered his pin. The screen lit up with a notification from the Ghostly Gossip. Clicking open, he read the latest update on – "What in the SHIT?!"

In Spectra's latest update were photos of him and Cleo from the day before, under the bleachers. Out of context, the pictures were pretty incriminating and the headlines that shot out to him made his blood run cold. "Oh my God… Did Draculaura read this? Of course she did. Oh man… I have to tell her this isn't true. And then slash Spectra's throat for fucking up my life once again."

Nearly crushing his phone into pieces, he looked up and saw Deuce staring at his phone, his hand trembling as he scrolled down. "Deuce, man… This isn't what it looks like."

Slowly looking up, betrayal, anger and hurt were etched into his face, "You... You backstabbed me? You and Cleo… Well, this explains everything."

Clawd shook his head, "Wha-? Dude, I would never steal your ghoul. I would never steal anyone's ghoul. And Cleo? Cleo loves you man, she wouldn't do something like this. I wouldn't do something like this."

Deuce went on, ignoring him, "This is why she started acting so closed off… Why you've been so angry. Was it the guilt Clawd? Was it because you had to look me in the face and fucking lie that you started getting moody. I-I… Does Draculaura know? Zeus Almighty… This is why you've been ignoring her because you… How could you?"

"Deuce! Listen to me. This is just another one of Spectra's rumors! This-"

"Enough of your lies!" Deuce shouted, "You're dead to me." And with that, he yanked off his shades and glared at Clawd, unleashing his magic. Jackson and Heath hurriedly covered their eyes and backed away. Once the blinding glittering gleam was gone, they opened their eyes and stared at the now stone sculpture of Clawd.

"D-Deuce." Jackson was hesitant. Deuce stull hadn't put on his shades and the last thing Jackson needed was the possibility of being a statue for the rest of his life. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, Deuce finally tossed on back and his shades and spat on the statue.

Looking at Jackson he replied, "We'll talk when he return to normal."

"When will that be?

"Eventually." He answered as he walked off into the school building.

"Oh fuck", Heath panicked, glancing from Deuce's retreating back and the figure that used to be Clawd. "What do we do?"

Jackson shook his head, "I don't know… But we should get him out of here. "

"That thing probably weighs a fuck ton."

"We can't risk leaving him out like this. If anything happens to him… What if he gets chipped? Loses an ear or a leg… when he turns back solid… that'll be gone."

"Oh man, oh man, oh man… This is bad. This is so fucking bad!"

"I know! Just, just calm down." Jackson took a deep breathe, forcing himself to think rationally, "Look, we'll move the statue somewhere safe and then get Manny and Gil to help us figure out what to do about Deuce."

Heath shook his head frantically, but before he could speak, the ground started shaking ferociously, sending him and his cousin to the floor. Struggling to rise, Jackson was sent flying straight into the car behind him, the glass shattering from the shrill screams of a creature he was sure only existed in hell.

Heath could only look on as Jackson was knocked unconscious from the impact. As soon as it seemed that whatever was happening was coming to an end, a last minute shaking of the ground sent the statue of Clawd teetering back and forth until suddenly it fell to the ground, hard, smashing it to pieces.

"NO!" Crawling to the debris, Heath slowly raised a hand to a piece of Clawd's hand.

It broke apart at his touch.

So who saw that coming?