Frankie looked at the clock on her iCoffin and sighed thinking about yesterday. Sometimes that boy could really get her picking at her stitches. Which she was doing, mostly because one of the seams was loose and uneven, though her efforts only seemed to be making it worse.

Looking up she saw an awkward looking Holt entering the class with Jackson's glasses on. Though strangely didn't seem to be mocking his other half.

The fact that he wasn't serenading her, jumping on a desk or dancing actually had her just as worried about him as she was the day before.

Speaking of the day before. Frankie rose from her seat approaching him. He smiled at first then face melted into a sort of fear as she backed him into a corner, bolts sparking slightly.

"I can't believe you skipped swim class yesterday!" she started, as he sputtered "And just! Ran out on me in the nurse's office. She probably thinks I'm crazy now…" she recalled trying to show the nurse a picture of him being hurt and the embarrassment of not being able to explain properly.

Then she blinked mood switching "Wait why are you wearing Jackson's glasses?"

"What?" he looked surprised before quickly taking them off, a face of guilt like she'd caught him in a lie "Haha these aren't Jackson's glasses… These are mine. He just holds onto them sometimes for me~"

"Nice save, you dolt" she rolled her eyes, as the bell rang.

"I think you mean, nice save you Holt~" he seemed pleased with himself that he was on a roll as she started back to their seats.

He probably thought he was off the hook but she wasn't that forgetful "You still didn't tell me where you went. Or why you didn't go back to class?" Frankie grilled.

"Uuumm."

She grabbed his arm making a face at him so he couldn't just wander off to avoid her.

"Well?" she was hoping to get an answer before they got called out for being slow to their spots.

"I would love to expand on uh. What happened yesterday but unfortunately this isn't my class~!" he smiled, grabbing his headphones off his head and tossing them to Frankie. Who caught them reflexively. Her interrogation subject going up in flames.

She sighed.

Jackson looked more than pleased to see her. But it would be too rude to force him away.

"Long time no see~" he attempted to flirt before Mr. Rotter cleared his throat at the two of them.

"Ahah… talk to you later…" she handed his headphones back to him before taking a seat. Feeling like he was causing her a lot of embarrassment in front of authority lately.

Adjusting a loose stitch as she half paid attention to the instructions. Mind caught up in that boy… those boys? Plural…? Still friends with him even if they weren't exactly dating anymore.

The thought causing her to accidentally pop the thread from a hole in her skin.

Woops.

She pulled out a needle from her pencil case and started adjusting it, tying off while Mr. Rotter passed out a …

Frankie looked at the board for a clue.

… group quiz.

Everyone was changing seats, she was about to call over a ghoulfriend if only to stave off the

"Heeey Frankie~"

Jackson hopped over his lecture hall table setting into the row ahead of him so scoot next to Frankie. The space beside her conveniently vacant. It appeared he still hadn't put his glasses back on, which Frankie considered something of a good look for him, but kind of odd.

But at least he was good at Clawculus, so Frankie couldn't complain much if he wanted to do the quiz together.

"Do you wanna split up the problems or do it together?" she asked looking over the first question.

"Um. Together sounds great." he nodded "I mean it's just like a glorified worksheet right?" he was doodling something in the corner of his page, not looking specifically at her. Kind of fidgety actually.

"Right." she started to get to work. Wondering if she should continue the convo from earlier. Then again, Holt wasn't the only one skipping yesterday.

"Sooo. Where'd you go yesterday?" she asked raising an eyebrow and giving him a good side look for maximum sass and guilt effect.

He blinked tapping his pencil on the desk to a made up beat. "You're going to have to be more specific"

"Home Ick."

"Oh, I got sick."

"And you went to the nurse?" she quickly quipped suspiciously.

"Of course~~" he sang happily.

"Then why did she seem to have trouble finding your file when I took Holt there?" Frankie retorted trying to catch him.

Jackson made this weird choking noise "O-oh? You took uh Holt?" he seemed tongue tied on Holt's name at first. Then cleared his throat.

"Yeah to make sure he was… you were ok. Nurse didn't seem to recognise either of you." she looked at him expectantly.

"Well. that's probably because I didn't go…"

"Jackson!"

"Well! I needed to toss my cookies I didn't have time to go to the nurse." he explained looking uncomfortable.

"Why didn't you go after?" Frankie looked at the clock on her iCoffin then started to try and work on the problem while he thought of an answer.

"Because I wasn't really like. Sick sick." he took awhile to think of an answer. Which made Frankie further suspicious "It was just because of something I … ate" he seemed sort of confused by his answer making a face, no pencil marks on his paper at all. "Sides I don't really remember what happened after… uh."

Frankie was waiting expectantly for more info before she realised what he was about to imply "What happened.. after you blacked out?" she finished with an accusatory tone.

"Well.." he scratched his neck.

"Did you fork that off to Holt?!" she whispered more hushedly as Mr. Rotter was giving them a weird look.

Jackson shrugged not making eye contact.

"I don't like you lying to me… or being… mean." she huffed resting her cheek on a fist and looking at question 1 again.

He muttered something.

"What?"

"I said he does it to me. So it's not mean." he shrugged "It's just the way we are."

Frankie recalled Holt's earlier escape from a less than comfortable moment, Jackson probably wanted to do the same now. Their past two encounters had pretty much been arguments and she was feeling kind of bad about it.

"Hey…" her voice was soft "Sorry.. Let's just work on the quiz?" she offered.

"Oh. Yeah. What'd you get for the first one?" he was looking at her work, also writing. Or well, transcribing her answers onto his own page.

"Undefined, is that right?" she wasn't actually entirely sure herself.

"Well. It." he pulled out his glasses suddenly putting them on dramatically "Certainly appears to be so." his voice got extra nasally as he did so and Frankie giggled at his extra-nerdy impression.

"Oh how do I start on the second one?" she asked really unsure as it was a similar problem but she didn't know how to approach the different variable set.

"Uhm. Well just try what you think you should do…" Jackson bit his lip and squinted "Then I'll. See if it's good."

Ookay? She did so proceeding on the work. Glancing at his hand that was also working on solving similar questions with his disheveled extra crispy looking pencil. Continuing for about 30 minutes, asking for Jackson's help a few times on what answer he got, but she seemed to be doing good if all her problems matched his.

Even if he seemed to be working at a normal pace instead of super speed math. Maybe he was struggling with this section too, he did ask for her notes yesterday…

As they wrapped up the last question she realised they still had a bit of time "So uh. You're not sick anymore?"

He grinned "Fine as a stein~"

"Aaand you haven't been feeling… dizzy?"

"More of a head rush thing..."

"Nauseated"

"Not since yesterday."

"Headaches?"

"Just from Holt~"

"Blackouts?"

"Always."

"Memory loss?"

He gave her this look.

"More so than usual?" she had just run through all the concussion symptoms she looked up after the nurse's visit and he seemed to match all of them but then again he may have always experienced all of them.

"Frankie." he looked at her "There wasn't a time I wasn't getting blackouts, headaches, with memory loss and head rushes. My freaky flaw is in my brain remember?"

"Yeah I know…" she pouted "I just get really worried about my friends sometimes. You were acting so weird yesterday…"

He shrugged "Everyone has bad days~" Then kicked back resting his knees against the table as he laid against their seat backing.

"Both of you." she looked at him weirdly again. Something was off she just couldn't place it. Like a haircut or something.

"Guess you'd have to ask both of us then." then looked at their paper sitting up slightly excitedly "Oh hey are we done with this?"

"Yeah, if you're gonna take ours up to the front can you add my homework to the pile."

"Yup yup." he started gathering things up before Frankie sparked.

"Oh! Hey can I see your homework to see what you got on that too?"

Jackson stiffened up. "Uhm. Sure, sure… what'd it look like?" he cocked his head pulling out his bag.

Frankie knit her brow, sliding over her work "Like this…" back to suspicion. Watching as he pulled out 5 different folders, peeking in them before he put them away in his bag, finding the math one last.

"Wow… I'm certainly… organized." he looked through the papers slowly.

Frankie wasn't sure what to say, but he finally realised that the top most page of his folder was the homework and pulled it out comparing it to hers. Noting it lacked as many pages.

"Looks good." he answered casually "You done?"

She nodded as he took the papers to the front.

Something was definitely still off she just couldn't figure out what.

He could still be sick.

Or up to something.

He was always something of a mystery since she met him the first time… both times rather.

Why there was a normie at Monster High? And who the blue monster was at Cleo's party? Two questions that led her to her first few dates.

Feeling weirdly nostalgic, she was too lost in thoughts to realise everyone else in the class were packing up their supplies, so the bell caught her off guard.

Giving Jackson a zap in surprise as he happened to be returning just then.

"Sorry…!" she squeaked.

He grimaced, a forced smile through what was sure to be pain "Aw you know I like how electrifying you can be~!" he smirked at her before hurrying off himself.

Her face felt hot, unsure if it was embarrassment or recalling the past feelings. Slow to pack up her notebook and thread she left on her desk, Frankie was the last to leave class. Looking at her stitch spacing again she must not have realised a peer was in the doorway because she hit him firmly. Stumbling back.

Nope. She was vigilant enough and she still ran into an invisible wall.

Or an invisible stude-

"Hey Frankie." she heard nervously. White blue hands appearing.

Frankie smiled politely "Not quite there InvisiBilly."

"Ehhn.." he sounded frustrated.

White blue hands and arms appearing. "Uhh well you know I'm here, so how much you can see is beside the point."

A phantom hand guided her to the hallway and sort of gave her a push and a tug as he began walking beside her. She didn't mind the fact that he was touching her shoulder as it seemed his way of making sure she knew where he was. Dodging students in the hall that didn't seem to realise she had an attached trailer.

She didn't know InvisiBilly that well, mostly through Scarah, she wondered if this was about girl advice "Something up with you and Scarah?"

"No we're great but Jackson's in your class right?" he asked. She couldn't see an expression but he sounded weirdly anxious.

"Yeah just that last class why." she looked over to see something of a ghost, looking worried.

"Oh about time…" he looked down at himself, fully visifying "Yeah but. Not to sound too weird but, has he been acting strange lately?"

Frankie looked around "Define strange at this school?"

"Point taken. Just you know him pretty well right?" InvisiBilly was at full opacity now mostly focusing on that. "Didn't you used to date? Ow!" he let go of her as she sparked at that question.

Rubbing his hand and looking at her kind of annoyed as he faded again.

A loud sigh.

Frankie pulled him in front of her to avoid clashing with a gargoyle quarterback. Pushing him down the hall to chaperone him, feeling responsible for his hallway troubles. "Yes we used to date." she sort of winced out "Your point being?"

"I'm not the only one noticing it right?"

Frankie thought back to how she felt in Clawculus.

"I mean I don't want to overanalyze students but we're like friend-quaintances and I'm getting weird vibes off him."

Frankie's vision was darkening as she realised InvisiBilly was regaining focus and let go walking beside him again. She fixed her hair "It's not just you… Do you know what's wrong?"

"Well unless it's invasion of the pod people I don't." then frowned "Am I being crazy?"

"No…" Frankie didn't know her invisible classmate very well "Well. Maybe. Maybe we're both being crazy. He's kind of a weird guy in general you know?"

"Looot of issues yeah…" InvisiBilly shifted his books in his arms "You have Scarah's number right?"

"Yeah I do, why?" she looked at him innocently.

"There's just. A lot of weird stuff that can happen here you know? Mixed school and all. Mind control, shapeshifters, potential evil forces of doom…"

Frankie raised an eyebrow.

"Ok kidding about the last one.. mostly. But.. I'm sure it's nothing. And I'm just being a giant snoop. Which I can't help.. ok? I'm an invisible I'm used to observing." he started backing down one hallway that Frankie realised was the opposite direction of her class so she stopped while he still sort of faded off "Text Scarah if… I don't know something happens? It's bugging me ok?" he seemed to keep making excuses for himself "I'm probably just being invasive but sometimes when there's a mystery to be solved I gotta keep an eye on it."

"No I understand what you mean…" but her concern was more of a motherly way. Or a nurse and her potential patient.

Biting her lip, "Hey wait InvisiBilly."

"Yeah?" he stopped for her.

"Have you ever seen Holt wear Jackson's glasses?"

A few seconds of thought.

"I don't know him well enough." he shrugged "Ask Heath."

Frankie probably was just being crazy "I'll ask Scarah for your number." she shrugged smiling as the warning bell rang.

"K thanks! Bye!" he smiled at her looking awkward as he jogged to his next class.

But she wasn't the only crazy one…

This was something she should defs talk to her ghoulfriends about. They had more unlife experience.

They'd know if something was wrong, or she was just being over analytical.

Because something was there she just couldn't put her finger on it… yet.