Jackson's schedule was weirdly hard to memorize…
Holt stood in the middle of a cross section of the hallway trying to remember yesterday.
Wet catacombs… Frankie…Wait Jackson took him to class yesterday as a minotaur repellant precaution. But there was no one, not even a bully in the halls… this late into passing period.
Wait had that been the warning bell or the final bell?
Where was he going…
Ghoulia… literary elements. That was English for sure.
He knew where the English hall was! The other side of the school…
Adjusting his bag he speed walked there, only because it seemed like a class where the teacher might actually call him out for stuff. Meaning probably someone who cared about tardiness.
Buuut Holt didn't care enough to flat out run there. Though it was nice to stretch his legs after an, entire. hour. of. math. At least he had a good view last period. Thinking about what he could say to Frankie when they had class together again.
They seemed to be hitting it off well today. He "helped" her with her work, she laughed at his impression of how much of a nerd Jackson was. Made her feel good about her tendency to shock anyone within 2 feet of her.
He wondered if she was going to Cleo's party…
Stopping as he realised his thoughts about Frankie had landed him at the Home Ick classroom.
English was close, so wasn't that bad of a detour.
Backtracking a bit before heading off to the right class. Or the right hall.
Waiting for his brain to recall the right door.
If Jackson knew then he knew, in a way.
He waited some more looking at all the doors, and realising that was most definitely the final bell he had heard earlier.
More waiting for his brain to kick in.
Huh…
Maybe it was one of those things where he had to not be thinking about it.
Or maybe if all the doors weren't identical.
All the same, frosted glass windows he couldn't see through, spiderweb transom windows, no one entering or leaving…
No use in staring.
Grabbing a random door and pulling. It locked.
He tried knocking.
No reply.
They'd better not all be like this.
Going to a more occupied looking classroom.
He couldn't really tell the difference.
He just felt lucky.
Opening the door maybe with a little too much force after a locked one.
There was chatter but it stopped when he opened it all eyes on him.
He heard someone mutter something.
Asking if he was in the class.
If a normie from New Salem was lost.
An unknown voice knew his name at least recognising him. Rather Jackson's.
The antlered middle aged teacher looked at him with three eyes. "Can I help you?"
"Uhhh. Nope!" he smiled closing the door and backing off of that one. Good thing he wasn't so big on the whole social anxiety thing like Jackson was.
Shuffling along he'd have thought his memory would have been jogged at this point. Starting on door number 3. Barely creaking it open this time before it burst open on it's own.
He fell back and only caught a glance of black flailing suckers, before a tentacle hooked around his ankle. He kicked it off and scrambled to shove it back in and close the door.
Well geez if that wasn't it, where was this class…? Standing up peeved as he heard the tentacle cause a ruckus in that room. Slamming against the door. He knew those things tended to thirst for nerds.
Backing off to be on the safe side.
The next one he opened even slower, incase another arm or tentacle cousin was also in here. Peeking in, just a normal class. Squinting to see if one of the zombie girls was Ghoulia he creaked open the door more. And realised the instructor was looking right at him.
"Um." he opened it a bit more smiling innocently.
"Jackson Jekyll, it's 7 months into the school year how many times do I have to tell you your class is 117 not 111." the elephant looking woman sighed rubbing a temple.
"Ohh. It is? Thanks~!" Holt grinned shutting the door with enough information to finally get to English. He made it less than 10 steps before he realised he had already forgotten what the teacher said.
Turning back around to open again.
"117." she repeated flatly.
"Thank youu~~" he winked and closed the door again heading off to the correct class. Trying not to think too hard that Jackson got lost too. Well they did have memory problems…
He figured if he could suddenly remember things, maybe they were stolen from another part of the brain. Or something like that.
Slowly entering 117.
The teacher immediately looked at him. As did Rochelle standing at his desk with an important air about her.
Donning a shiny hall monitor badge and sash...
"Oh you aren't absent." his English teacher looked mildly worried.
Rochelle folded her arms and flexed her wings. He'd seen that look before. Actually he'd been in this situation before a few times. Whenever Rochelle came to class in that sash it was not a good thing.
"I'll mark you as excused, read the next two chapters." Holt was handed a couple of papers, worksheets for the book, as Rochelle stared him down.
"What's happening?" Holt asked playing innocent.
"I am here to escort you to the Headmistress's Office." Rochelle spoke up with a heavy french accent. "Please step this way" she started towards the door.
Holt stuffed the papers into his bag without a folder and trotted after looking back at the class he finally found. It didn't seem fair that he had to leave as soon as he arrived.
"You were awfully late for that class, no?" Rochelle turned her head back to look at him as she led him down the hallways.
"I got lost." Holt explained. Though an edge of sarcasm in his voice suggested he was lying.
"Are you new to this school?" she asked squinting as if trying to remember how long he'd been here. "I think not. I have seen the other you in Swimming for 7 months and 2 weeks, Mr. Jekyll."
Holt scrunched up his face. How dare she sass him like an authority figure.
Then again she kind of was…
He squeezed his bag straps thinking about where they were going. Never wanting his music more. If he had his music he could kind of sink back into it and try not to think about what was going on but.
He bit his lip.
If this was about what he thought it was about, then he could be in some deep trouble. Well both of them rather. Wondering if everything was about to come clean he could be excused from all this. Blame it all on Jackson.
But….
He'd been in Bloodgood's office before, she didn't usually split things the way their mom did.
"Were you attempting to skip again Jackson Jekyll?" she asked as they approached the final hallway, her heels clacking a bit louder than the other ghouls.
"Again?" how would she know about Home Ick. "Hey wait why would I show up to English if I was trying to skip it?"
"Like in Swim Class yesterday, no?" she spread out her wings more looking at him like she was afraid he'd take off running. Which she had every reason to be concerned.
Holt'd had this walk before and he wasn't exactly always keen to go straight to the principal's office. Getting tackled by a gargoyle was not something he wanted to experience again. Especially one in skulltimate roller maze.
Then he connected the dots, Jackson had swim class yesterday, he wasn't 100% sure what happened between Mad Science and recording with Operetta but apparently he skipped at some point.
Lagoona never cared if he disappeared for the later part of class, but he knew one sink prone gargoyle who would care.
"Oooh you rat." Holt's head sunk "That wasn't even me."
"All I know is Frankie left class with you and returned without." Rochelle refused to look at him. "I am bound to my duty to this school."
They arrived at the door to Headless Headmistress Bloodgood's office.
"The Headmistress will see you now. I hope that is the only thing on your list of crimes." she told him standing outside the room like a guard. As he cautiously entered.
The whole room had something of a dark atmosphere. Darker than the rest of the school. Her windows were tinted glass and didn't allow in much light. The wallpaper was dark, the floor was dark, still in appropriate pinkish maroon school colors. And the entire office smelled of alfalfa.
"Take a seat Jackson."
Holt looked at a sleeping blue mare in the corner, before looking up to the Headmistress silhouetting at her windows. She held her head by her waist side looking out over the courtyard before reconnecting it to her body. Adjusting her neck rotation, as Holt took a seat at the slightly uncomfortable standard office armchair.
Waiting for her to address his crimes, he never spoke first, or he could end up admitting he'd done something he hadn't got caught for.
Staring at her large mahogany desk.
It wasn't super organized, but it wasn't exactly messy either, stacks of paper and folders laid out. He saw his in the center, a sort of thick manilla folder with Jackson's name on it, probably looked worse than it actually was, they moved around a lot.. maybe that info was taking up all that bulk.
Not wanting to dwell on his permanent record, he poked curiously at the tiny novelty guillotine she had decorated her desk space with.
Cute.
"Do you know why you're here?" her voice almost seemed to boom in the quiet room. She turned around to face him ominously.
Holt was never sure how, but she seemed to be more menacing with her head on.
Maybe it was the added height.
Or the monster's learned aversion to normies.
Or possibly just because a talking separate head seemed funny somehow…
"Jackson." she snapped interrupting his thoughts.
He made a face shrugging, not wanting to admit anything she might not know.
But he had a feeling she knew.
Jackson could be sloppy and he was the mastermind behind all this.
Should have let him steal the chemicals… if he knew what to look for that was…
"Here at Monster High…"
Oh ghoul, she was starting the speech.
"... We pride ourselves in excellence, understanding, and the pursuit of knowledge."
Holt couldn't' help himself "Don't you mean hexellence?"
She stared at him like he'd just said something offensive. Then again forcing in monster slang from a normie's tongue may have come across that way. But that was kind of what he was going for.
Maybe she was just surprised at "Jackson" sassing her instead of Mr. Hyde.
She continued "Our school offers sanctuary for some unique monsters that can't find a place at vampire academies, or human public schools. But remember when I say sanctuary that does not mean: excused from less than favorable actions."
Holt didn't like the way that sounded. Pushing his feet into her carpet he kept looking at her little guillotine, mostly just not wanting to make eye contact.
"I try my best to understand every student's situation." she still hadn't sat down "For example if a pyrokinetic student continues to cause fire damage to school property, it's more understandable to make him simply replace the lost property rather than continue to punish him."
Holt's heartbeat picked up at her reference to "lost property".
"So when a student's issue is…" she squinted, perhaps unsure if she should have used the word issue "...Dual personality. I do keep in mind your family history, and school history."
She sat down "I understand you aren't exactly the uhm…" struggling "Same person. Holt does seem to be distinctly different than a usual MPD.. "
Holt wondered if she had to take some sort of seminar on political correctness or this was something she'd learned from talking to other monster teenagers after all these years.
He'd been called worse though, he was used to it.
"But while you don't have control over the others actions, you still need to take responsibility for each other." she affirmed "Yesterday I received some alarming information from several of your teachers. Namely Mr. Hackington…"
Holt's eyes widened. Mr. Hack, plus long speech about responsibility …
She knew didn't she.
He wondered if it was going to be monster juvie or expelling. Actually hoping for monster juvie, he could probably hold his own there, and it was better than getting shut out again while Jackson went to normie school.
"He's missing some equipment."
This was it.
"Namely a beaker, damaged bunsen burner. As well as disrupting class in general. Endangering other students, and causing an explosion."
Wait was that it?
If that was it, this was easy.
"I think that was that pyrokinetic student you mentioned before." he smiled lightly.
"Your classmates say otherwise."
"Like multiple or just Heath?" not to throw his cousin under the bus but, his record could handle another caught-something-on fire mark.
"I'd prefer if we kept names out of it, but you were involved in the experiment. It was unclear which personality was present at the time, but it was you specifically, correct, Jackson?"
He didn't admit anything.
"Even if you didn't start it, you were his partner, and like you're Holt's permanent partner you and Heath share responsibility over that." she affirmed.
"Alright, do I have to like, pay for it or something?" Holt rolled his eyes.
"Well that's not all." she opened up his file, seemed to be a new page.
He stiffened up, recalculating, maybe it wasn't over yet.
"It appears you had a rather troubling day yesterday, which is why this is more of an office visit than just informing you of detention." she held up the sheet reading it off. Holt could vaguely make out marks that noted what form he was in for clarification.
"You've been consecutively tardy to your first class of the day, for weeks now, beside misuse of lab equipment it appears you've caused quite the mess in the Music room and never attempted to clean it up. Most concerning was you were skipping not just one class yesterday, Mr. Jekyll but two. Claiming you went to a nurse visit when you did not show to sign in, and never returning to class after a second nurse visit." Holt felt like she sounded too alarmed by this.
Stupid Rochelle.
"Not to mention suspected academic dishonesty." she squinted menacingly "Which I will not have at my school. "That is however under more investigation."
"Yeah but which ones were really me? With all due respect." Holt sighed.
Bloodgood set the paper down "As much as you would like to evade responsibility, Jackson. Whatever Holt does you will hear about and vice versa. Speaking of, I would like to speak to him about this same conversation. As well as inform him that you collectively have two sessions of detention next week with Mr. Hackington. I don't care who shows up, as long as you're there."
Crap.
It was nice that she didn't know he was stealing drugs… rather science chemicals, but he knew how to handle office visits better. Jackson might spill the beans if he didn't know to keep his mouth shut.
"How about I just tell him?" Holt piped up trying not to sound nervous. "I mean uh I'm in so much trouble for skipping as it is, wouldn't it be better to catch what's left of class? You already gave me all the information."
"Unfortunately procedure requires me to tell him too." Bloodgood seemed to be onto him hiding something by avoiding transformation.
Since when was it procedure to tell him something twice if he was legally the same person?
"I must insist you hand it over to Holt." she put her hand on an old timey looking radio. Already turning it on to adjust off of classical. Though low volume.
Holt put his hand on the radio to her surprise, tugging it away from her "Yeah but." oh ghoul excuses "Half this trouble is because of him." yeah blame the evil twin "Don't want him screwing up anything more."
"Jackson!" she seemed offended he was physically trying to stop her.
"Uhhhm. It hurts?! Yeah transforming can really hurt sometimes" he blurted nervously.
"We don't have time for this." if anything she was doing this more on principle by now "Sit down." she told him firmly finding an appropriate station and starting to turn up the volume, holding his hand away.
The volume was going up and he wasn't sure what to do. The sweat of pretransforming reaching his neck. "Really Bloodgood I can just tell him laterrgn." he cringed as it reached peak volume. Resisting.
He knew this song. The beat pounding through his bones, he couldn't help but sit as she said.
Curling up a little as he grabbed the chair's arms.
Getting so hot.
Pins and needles poked at his hands, and arms.
Like the awful rush of blood coming back after a limb fell asleep.
Millions of fireants over his body.
He wasn't lying it was going to hurt.
This time.
He grunted, unable to think of Bloodgood. Or what she was seeing of him.
Thoughts racing and trying desperately on focusing on staying himself.
Being him.
Before he went up in flames.
Whiteness. He couldn't see anything.
Then the dark maroon room flooded into his vision with a heavy headrush.
"Oww…" he squinted rubbing his head.
"Are you… alright?" her voice accented and concerned and deep.
He nodded, fending off a headache.
Before he recognised that voice and fear came flooding in.
Why was he in Bloodgood's presence?! Crap.
Crap.
Crap crap crap.
This could only be bad.
She must have noticed he was rattled because she was silent and had her hands folded at her desk. Waiting patiently for him to get his bearings. Then pulled something out of her desk and handed it to him. One of those little stubby water bottles.
"Oh uhm. Thanks?" he struggled unscrewing it then sipped it looking at her cautiously.
"Well." she skipped her speech "Holt Hyde do you know why you're here?"
Jackson's pounding stressed out heart slowed and he looked at her. She called him Holt.
Ok if she did know anything…. it wasn't what the potion did.
He had to be in here for the chemical stealing though.
What else could there be?
"I… think I might?" he tried not to squeak too much. But maybe his uncomfortable entrance would cut him some slack on the whole, constantly confidant Holt, thing. "Does it involve Mad Science…?"
"Mr. Hack's equipment, yes." she began "You exploded a beaker and nearly took out half the classroom with it." she started firmly.
"Wait I did?" Jackson didn't remember that. Though his mom mentioned something about unburnt clothes.
Bloodgood scanned him "If you were unaware of… well I suppose it was Jackson after all." she got out the white out, marking something on a file in front of her. "Of the incident, what else did you think you would be in trouble for?"
She didn't know?
He felt like a gargoyle had been lifted from his chest.
Breathing much easier now.
He was not good at improvising. Last time he was caught in a lie he'd had the whole night to think of things to say to that officer…
"Uhhh." he put on his best pokerface.
He really didn't have a good pokerface. "Well. I honestly don't know ma'am."
Bloodgood blinked slowly then raised an eyebrow "Uh huh. Go on."
"Well you know. My brain is kind of. Whack. Sometimes we just get random bits of information from the other side." he shrugged "It just came to mind. Guess Jackson knew." he smiled hoping she'd take it.
"If you say so Mr. Hyde." then pulled out a skull shaped post it from a mini guillotine on her desk, writing something in cursive he couldn't make out. "You know if you are hiding any crimes, I could go a lot easier on you if you were upfront about it."
His heart pounded. There was a chance he couldn't hide this forever.
Tempting but not that tempting. If she didn't know.
He still had a chance.
"Yeah but. That's it. All I know." then squinted looking for the music source, a radio. What station was this on…?
"And the skipping." she looked over her list again, sliding her finger on certain topics.
"Ohh…" he actually did feel a little guilty for those "I'm sorry it was a sick thing. I came to in the bathroom with stomach cramps and couldn't make it to the nurse."
"Swim class as well?"
Oh no that was just him avoiding Frankie. But he was in the nurse and didn't come back to class. Lagoona seemed so chill about that kind of thing too.
"I forgot something in my locker, and by the time I made it back to class it was over." he told her straight faced, that one sounding like a far more convincing lie.
She was writing stuff down, maybe he could get out of further punishment if she believed him.
"While it is nice to hear reasons, you still have to take responsibility. I told Jackson the same thing, two days of detention with Mr. Hackington, starting next week, I don't care who shows up, just that you attend. Are we clear?"
Mann. "Yes Ma'am…" he pouted, not too bad considering his real crimes. She was still writing stuff "So, is that it? Am I free to go?"
"Not this." she pulled out a form.
"What is it?" he asked starting to skim it.
"School parking ticket. Your car was illegally parked in 3 spaces yesterday. Just see to that when you can. There's a fine for the beaker on there too."
Aw man.. they were really going to need that gig tomorrow then.
Holt was not allowed to touch the car ever again.
He pulled out a folder from his bag and placed the ticket neatly inside, sliding it back in he heard the rustle of an unfoldered paper in there.
"But that's it then?" he asked again. Nightmare whinnied waking up as the bell ringing for the end of the period was heard in the room too.
"That's it." she put her hand on the radio and Jackson hurriedly turned on his replacement music to supply his existence. The whole music bubble thing was the most anxious part of this experiment gone wrong. "Hurry along now, wouldn't want to be tardy again."
He was more than happy to leave, exiting and seeing Rochelle standing outside the room.
"Oh hey Rochelle." he greeted her friendly.
She folded her wings "Hello Holt." then seemed mildly confused "You are not mad at me?"
"Why would I be mad at you?"
She smiled "Ah, no reason. Do not forget, dress out day in Swimming!" then removed her hall monitor sash and placed it in her bag, going to attend her own classes.
Right. Next class.
Jackson smiled, feeling overly confident he escaped Bloodgood's office without being expelled.
Frankie was in next class too.
He hoped she wasn't still mad at him.