Jackson woke up to a dark room. He was in about the same position as before, resting against a beanbag at the foot of Heath's bed. The tv was now off. The room was now silent except for the snoring of a werewolf, and soft hissing of Deuce or his snakes.
He was so used to his timeskips being mid-movement it surprised him sometimes when it was actual sleep.
Carefully getting up and stepping over the monsters in a pile of blankets and pillows on the ground, he made his way to Heath's bathroom to take a leak.
It was dark and the shower curtain was drawn. He had just lifted up the toilet seat before the sound of bubbles and water sloshing caught him off guard.
Freezing, he peeked past the shower curtain to see Gil sleeping in a bathtub full of water. Vinyl-esque sheeting lined the tub protecting Gil from Heath's teenage cooties.
Though knowing Heath, Gil had every right to protect himself.
He looked at the toilet then at Gil.
And decided to leave the room.
Carefully sliding his bookbag out of Heath's room, and slowing the door to close as quietly as possible.
He decided on the hall bathroom, at least getting to turn on the light.
Holt's face in the mirror was still weird but he was more caught off guard by additions to his face. The opposite of Holt's black clawing mark on his jaw his friends had drawn a mirrored mark but much more scribbly. A smiley face. Aaand…
Across his forehead someone had written 'PARTY ANIMAL' he squinted reading the backwards text in the mirror.
He groaned and rolled his eyes. Trying to scrub it off with a wet hand towel, but the permanent marker only blurred.
Grimacing, he went for a different tactic, pushing water into his hair and finger combing Holt's thick poof of orange hair to partially block his forehead text not too dissimilar to his own bangs.
He checked his iCoffin. InvisiBilly and Scarah had started a group message with him.
-Meet you there soon?
Jackson started a quick reply.
-Leaving now. It's like a 30 minute walk. Thanks!
He noticed a ruder, cruder, more obnoxious drawing on his hand in sharpie and sighed. Taking soap to that one.
Jackson jogged to the green Volkswagen in the Monster High parking lot where Scarah was fiddling with something in her trunk. She was heaving a set of bolt cutters with orange handles out of the trunk of her car.
He raised an eyebrow "I didn't know you'd be so prepared."
Looking at the device it looked like a cousin to the jaws of life a firefighter might use.
A faceless voice snerked, "Jackson buddy. Give us some credit. Like this is the first time we've broken into the school."
Scarah elbowed her invisible boyfriend after closing her trunk. Looking annoyed that he seemed intent on bragging of their illegal activities.
But Jackson really didn't think of either of them as criminals. Hardly even delinquents.
Scarah sighed "Let's just say Disappearing Club gets really intense sometimes, lad."
They looked at the half full parking lot and lit up school. All mentally thinking of their own routes of action. Not sure if this would be harder or easier with night classes going on. Jackson rubbed his cheek still a little warm with his efforts to scrub off the marker.
"Don't worry Jackson, no one's gonna notice whatever those boys at your creepover did on your face." InvisiBilly laughed "They probably won't even notice the 'Princess' written on your neck."
"They did what now?!" Jackson squeaked, slapping his neck in response.
Scarah unzipped air and slid the bolt cutters into an invisible backpack where they disappeared from view. Trying to ignore Jackson's whining and InvisiBilly's laughter.
She took a step in front of the boys raising a finger in leadership.
"Ok first off. We're going to the Mad Science Lab, correct Jackson?"
Jackson refocused and nodded.
"Alright then." her soft Irish accent murmured to herself "First we're just going to go in. Look like we're going to class. It's … 2:05 am… Passing period is in a minute so we won't look out of place."
She began walking with the two boys following her step while she spoke the plan.
"Mr. Hack doesn't teach a night class on Fridays so we should be good. Unless he has an additional reason to be there. Or… unforeseen school security."
Jackson scanned the rooftops "Does… Rochelle stay at the school at night?"
InvisiBilly shrugged as he visified "Y'know I've never asked her if she has a host family or just sleeps on the rooftops. I don't really know what's natural to her race…"
"She's got to sleep sometimes" Scarah mused "And she has her own social unlife I'm sure."
They passed in the entrance as the bell rang, sliding into the crowd as naturally as they could.
Jackson noticed the amount of students he was unfamiliar with. Sure he felt like he'd seen some at parties, but overall it was like a different school.
He was following Scarah trying to stay focused when he heard a voice at his back.
"Holt Hyde?" he turned to see a werewolf he definitely didn't know. She grinned "Man I haven't seen you since last semester. Where've you been? I see you at parties sometimes but never at school anymore. Did you get glasses?"
Her eyes wandered to the 'new' claw mark someone had drawn on his face.
And she made a funny smile at some of the other doodles.
Jackson glanced at Scarah who was getting swept up in the crowd drifting further away from him.
"Oh yeah uh…" he searched for a name "You…?"
She looked displeased and insulted. "Jennifur. You sat at my lunch table for like a week or so before you disappeared." she pointed at the smiley face someone had drawn on him "Fall asleep in class or…?"
A guy slowed down next to her, white as bone. He had red eyes and Jackson could practically see through his skin. He spoke with rows of sharp teeth. "Hey, give him a break Jenn." he pulled out a Ghostly Gossip article anticipating Cleo's party on Saturday. Featuring a past photo of Holt DJing somewhere else. "He's clearly busy and popular now."
Jackson felt like he'd hurt his … friends? Did he know them? Did Holt know them? It didn't matter because he was losing his window to get to the lab and steal more chemicals.
"I just stopped being nocturnal." Jackson shrugged looking around for anything to get him out of his trap of social awkwardness.
His eyes landed on a familiar teacher looking at him across the hall with delighted surprise. She walked over to them causing the other students to back away.
"Oh Holt! You came to my night class! I knew you would!" His ogre ge-ogre-phy teacher smiled brightly showing her tusks in pride. "Now it's not much different from my morning one but maybe I can talk to Bloodgood about getting you on roll."
She began to usher him to class, and while he was thankful to have left the unfamiliar students, he looked down the hall to see Scarah and InvisiBilly raising their hands in confusion. Motioning towards the hall they were going to.
He grimaced as he was pushed into class.
The bell rang as Jackson left his second dose of school that day. Eyes feeling the twinge of night tiredness. Or maybe just because he had to endure that class twice today.
Not that he minded a break, but it didn't help his anxiety that was centered around getting his cure done as fast as monsterly possible.
He jogged down the hall looking for InvisiBilly and Scarah. Glad those other two monsters he didn't know had gone on and hopefully forgotten about him. The halls were beginning to thin out as he felt a hand on Holt's jacket's popped collar and he was pulled into a dark, damp room. Based on the chemical smell and the mops he imagined it was the janitor's closet.
The door shut on it's own as InvisiBilly appeared with an arm against it. Scarah stood in the end of the closet looking around like she was listening.
Jackson started "Sorry-"
"It's fine dude." InvisiBilly waved him off "Me and Scarah can occupy ourselves for 45 minutes."
"Yes Billy, but we're still burning moonlight." Scarah mumbled at least slightly annoyed at Jackson's detour.
Jackson wondered what they had been doing for the class period.
He noticed Scarah fixing her hair that seemed messier than earlier.
InvisiBilly's clothes were more wrinkled than usual.
Right. They were dating.
Scarah blushed at Jackson's thoughts and sounded embarrassed and squeaky as she changed the subject. Grabbing the boys' arms.
"Come on boyos, the ghost is clear." She pushed out into the hall, glancing around for confirmation that the hall was indeed empty.
They made their way quietly to the Mad Science wing. Scarah shielding InvisiBilly's form as he pulled out a set of keys and let them into the lab.
They all filed in and closed the door quietly behind them, glancing around the dark room.
Some moonlight filtered into the windows, blinds up and unused. The room still smelled of the lab Jackson had done earlier that day. It was gloomy and spooky, and mostly clean. Like the custodians had cleaned up all the blood, but left things like a broken pen rolling against desk chairs.
InvisiBilly set his bag down while Scarah hefted the bolt cutters out again.
"Alright which ones do you need to get into?" Scarah asked motioning towards the newly secured cabinets.
Jackson hopped to "Oh, uh… fang on a sec."
He pulled out some clean jars to collect the chemicals in. Though looked at the lab equipment he wished he could use too.
"You guys could just leave me here, and I'll take care of the rest."
Scarah shook her head.
"Too dangerous. I can tell if someone's about to walk in. And InvisiBilly is our lookout and distraction if we need it.
Jackson shrugged; accepting. He pointed at the cabinets he was pretty sure had the correct chemicals as Scarah got leverage and scrunched her face trying to cut through the locks.
Watching her commit this crime for him he had to ask.
"So uh… what exactly goes on in the Disappearing Club. I thought it was just like um." it seemed obvious "Disappearing?"
InvisiBilly laughed "Oh, disappearing isn't as simple as it sounds. We get into some pretty gnarly games of hide and sneak."
"Twyla." Scarah grunted "Can go into locked areas when she shadow dives."
The first lock came off dropping down with a ringing bang.
She continued.
"Howleen can catch her scent easy but if she's curled up in a locker or something it can be batty hard to get her out."
Jackson had never thought about it that way.
"Howleen's in the Disappearing Club?"
"Aye, Twyla brought her. No use disappearing if no one's looking for ya."
"I object to that statement actually, to go unnoticed is the very art of-"
"You know what I mean InvisiBilly. Besides that's how you got me to join."
"Yeah and it's damn hard to beat a ghoul who can read your mind."
They both laughed at enjoyable memories. "But the fun part is evading teachers and creatures outside of the game."
InvisiBilly was opaque for once smiling at Jackson,"Ever think about joining?"
Jackson rubbed the headphones around his neck. "I have a different kind of disappearing thanks." he shrugged "Unless you only count finding me and not Holt. Wrestling his headphones off could be a challenge in itself."
InvisiBilly mused thinking about just chasing Holt down the halls of Monster High, it not counting unless he tagged actual-Jackson. When they heard the next clunk of a lock falling and Scarah set aside the cumbersome bolt cutters.
Jackson crawled past pulling out the jugs of liquid he wasn't able to steal before due to their size.
Pouring sizable quantities into separate jars.
"Go easy there buddy…" InvisiBilly began, concerned. "Do you need that much?"
Jackson nodded "I don't know if I'll get another chance in here. And I might mess up."
He paused the reality of failure a heavy reminder.
Scarah put her heavy tool back into her boyfriend's backpack. Helping Jackson wrap his jars in paper towels for cushioning, as she added them in as well.
Jackson looked up surprised she was helping that much.
InvisiBilly spoke up "Do you mind if I sneak into your house later with these or do you want to take them."
Jackson thought of having to go through the party again, but now with smuggled goods, next to a werewolf who could probably smell everywhere he'd been tonight if he really wanted to.
"That would be amazing, thanks." Jackson smiled. Writing reminders of which chemicals were which with a sharpie on the jars. "Uh, watch out for mom though. I could probably spare you a key, just leave it with the stuff…"
InvisiBilly nodded, getting his backpack loaded up like a pack mule. He bit his cheek looking at the locks on the ground. Wishing he could replace those so that no one knew they'd been there. But maybe it was a necessary evil.
Scarah froze up, suddenly ducking and crouching towards the door.
As Jackson put the last chemicals in and zipped up. She scrambled over to him.
"Hyde!" she hissed.
"No, remember I'm Jackson-" he started.
She shook her head shoving him into one of the unlocked cabinets "No! I mean hide!"
She began to crawl in as well, scooting him to the back as they rustled stray lab reports, and measuring equipment. Closing the cabinet and holding it shut.
She glanced at him as he felt a pressure in his head.
Don't say a word.
Her mental voice echoed.
He bit his lip, mouth feeling dry as he heard keys jangling outside the door. And footsteps enter.
Then an angry clattering of someone discovering the locks were cut off.
He heard Mr. Hack's voice, surprised he was here on a friday night. "Alright Mister or Missus! If you're still hiding in here you're gonna be sorry!"
Jackson saw the lights switched on via a glow rimming the edges of the cabinet door.
He heard him banging around the cabinets to see what chemicals were taken. Then him opening closets and other cabinets around the room.
Jackson sweat knowing this was it. Definitely going to get found out.
His body heat up in a panic, warming the small space he shared with Scarah. He tried to think of excuses.
He was hiding from a bully and the door was unlocked!
Or uh… he left something in here earlier and had to come back for it!
No that was lame.
He heard the shuffling of his teacher's feet nearby and another cabinet connected to theirs flew open. Light came in, but Mr. Hack couldn't see them from this angle.
Suddenly he stopped. Turning around as the door to the hall opened and fell shut on his own. Running after it.
"Ah ha! You stop right there thief! Ghost! Invisible!" Jackson could hear him distantly accusing the possibility of Mr. Where trying to prank him out of revenge for stealing his coffee mug in the creatures lounge.
Light flooded in as the cabinet door opened on it's own. He heard Billy's voice.
"It's amazing how often people fall for the door-opening-and-closing-trick."
Scarah took his hand as he helped them both out.
Jackson's heart was pounding as he shook, starting for the door before Scarah pulled him towards the windows.
"Not that way." she shushed, climbing onto a lab table and pushing open the school windows to cold night air.
InvisiBilly turned off the light to decrease the chance someone would see their silhouettes. While Jackson nervously crawled to the same route Scarah had begun.
He peeked out the window seeing a sloping roof on the top floor of his school.
Wind blew past them giving his hot skin a chill. And he swallowed. It looked to be a long way down.
"Uhm." he looked back at the easy route to the hallway "Are you crazy?"
The roof wasn't wet or anything but one slip and he would be done for.
"Maybe a little." InvisiBilly said behind him, appearing for a moment to spook him.
He jumped almost falling out the window.
"Come on, InvisiBilly and me climb out onto the roofs all the time for Disappearing Club."
"Why?" asked Jackson slowly, trying to follow her.
She slid a little and cursed. Then balanced as she took off her heels and held them in her arms instead.
"Oh we play a game called Spy sometimes."
InvisiBilly nudged Jackson out the window as he got his first contact with the slant of the roof.
"It's pretty intense. But really fun. It's kind of like hide-and-seek… plus tag… plus capture the flag."
Jackson held onto the window still trying to balance, he laughed nervously. Trying not to let it sound like a sob "Y'know? I'm realizing something." he looked between them "I think I'll definitely have to decline that invitation to Disappearing Club. Thank you."
InvisiBilly chuckled, "Don't worry I'll spot you."
Jackson looked towards his voice somewhere on the roof, a chill passed through him as the wind blew. "Ha…" he bit his lip "Even if I could tell where you are, I feel like I'd take you down with me... "
Despite this he tried to square up.
And crouching scooted slowly along the roof. Freezing any time a tile wobbled.
Scarah tiptoed along stopping as she reached new windows, bright yellow with the light of a night class. She stooped to a crawl while Jackson tried his best to catch up.
She stiffened up.
Stop.
He heard in his head and froze just the same as she.
Hearing Scarah's voice echo in his head.
Someone heard something. A werewolf. Blast their good hearing…
She paused.
Ok I don't think they can see us. I think just the tops of our heads but it's too dark out here to tell it's us.
Jackson took a breath.
Do we REALLY have to go this route?
He thought back annoyed.
Aye, I can sense Mr. Hack the other way back. InvisiBilly closed the window though. He shouldn't think to go back this way. Just don't move unless I tell you and no one should notice us. Billy is already on the other side.
Lucky him.
Ha, you sure you don't want to join Disappearing club? You'd get in more practice.
Jackson didn't find it especially funny. His hands were cold and he felt off balance up here. His stomach turned trying not to look down. Trying not to shake too much, he felt like that would throw him off more.
Hey Scarah?
Yes?
I really REALLY hate this y'know.
The sound of her laughter echoed in his brain again.
'Course lad, I know everything~
Oh time to move.
She perked up slowly scooting forward. Stopping she held back a hand. And he kept stopping when she was. It kept on like this; him making slow progress. Her shushing him every so often.
Finally making it to the edge of the classroom where she stood up, and helped him climb to his feet.
Her eyes widened and she wordlessly began pulling him up higher on the roof scrambling to rest on the ridge of the roof a yard or two up.
Jackson didn't need to be a mind reader to guess someone heard them get to their feet. Peeking over the edge as he saw the window open, and a monster poke their head out into the open night. Based on their age he guessed the teacher. He heard them mumble something about gargoyles climbing around before scanning the area and pulling his head back in.
Jackson's heart pound, and he heard chuckling. InvisiBilly appeared standing in perfect balance next to them. Slowly dropping to sit alongside them as Scarah and him caught their breath.
He pulled a granola bar out of his pocket and bit into it looking more chilled out than Deuce. If that was a possibility.
"Man, you're missing out Jackson." He leaned back winking "Me and Scarah do this for the thrill."
"Or the view…" Scarah seemed to correct.
"Or the view." InvisiBilly agreed. "But you're too stressed out to enjoy this. I can see it in your face."
The pale pale boy gave him a smirk taking another bite of his snack.
Jackson's heart was still pounding, but he was right. Before anyone else said it he said it himself.
"Holt would probably enjoy it." he sighed "But I'm not… like him. His polar opposite in fact…"
"That doesn't mean you can't still have fun." InvisiBilly laughed, handing Jackson a second granola bar he had in his pocket. He took it tentatively. Then smiled.
"How'd you two get so good at balancing anyway?" Jackson asked unwrapping the bar.
"People forget I was a Fearleader too." Scarah shrugged.
They all sat in silence looking out over the school yard. It was windy and cold up here. But sort of peaceful. No one to look at him weird. Or ask him what he was doing up here. He could see some sports fields from here. The parking lot.
He didn't even flinch when some bats fluttered across the sky.
So long as he was balanced at the top of the roof… and he seemed pretty level, now that they weren't moving as much. The stars were out and he remembered for a minute how much he wanted to see the night sky for most of his life.
Night time was… more recent than he gave it credit for.
He always had known what it was supposed to look like. But compared to television depictions, the moon, the stars, were so much more than the images he'd been fed prior.
He took a bite into his granola bar.
"You two gonna show me how you usually get down or…" he asked looking between the two of them as they started laughing.
"In a minute" Scarah pushed her legs together looking at the half moon large and full in the sky above them. "Try to relax."
He tried.
Hearing the beat of the current song in Holt's headphones, he relaxed his shoulders. Embracing the music so foreign to him.
It was a good song after all.