The bell sounded in the distance and Doll sat down. Normally, she would've been at the front of the class but today, she was going to be taking lessons alongside her coworkers. But that was because this particular class was special. It was more of a training session and it was being run by the dean's right-hand man, Prof. Callie. He was standing at the chalk board, using the little stubs of white to draw and write upon the cracked and filthy blackboard. The lesson was about some minor renovations Hell was going to go through and what the other staff members, like Doll, were supposed to do with these new renovations. It was a very boring lesson and Prof. Callie's old, warbling voice didn't help matters. It didn't take Doll long to find herself bored by the lecture and, subtly, she turned around in her seat to study her fellow classmates.
Sitting beside her, smoking a cigarette and twiddling with his favorite knife, was her boyfriend Scorpion. The pair of them had hooked up after Doll ran into him scrawling on a row of lockers with spray paint. Where he even found that spray paint was beyond Doll, but she watched silently as he wrote crude messages across every locker and when he realized she was watching, he only grinned.
"Hey, Dollface!" he was just so casual about being caught that Doll had been intrigued enough just to watch him go on. After that pleasant little bonding-session, the young man had spray-painted Doll's own face on the walls and it was so beautiful that Doll found herself quite flattered. The rest was history and now here they sat together in class, though of course, neither of them were paying any attention to the lesson at all.
After watching Scorpion finish carving his name into the underside of the desk, again, Doll turned her attention elsewhere. Sitting beside Scorpion was Smith, a rough and quiet fellow. He was good-looking in a more rugged sense when compared to Scorpion. Currently, he was twiddling with a piece of metal, tapping and poking it. Upon closer inspection, Doll realized the hunk of metal was actually a harmonica. Knowing only two Hlleville College students with a harmonica, Doll knew where to look. Right behind Smith was Major, the music major of the lot. Doll watched him peek over Smith's shoulder as Smith tinkered with his favorite instrument. Doll figured he'd broken it and was asking Smith to fix it. He was a smith after all.
Sitting beside Smith was Twin, the snake boy Doll met on her first day here. Despite their initially rocky start, Doll had since grown used to his devious and callous behaviors and now the two often went out to Hlleville's bars and drank together, a slight irony given how they first met. He was currently shuffling a deck of cards and whispering to the girl behind him. Her name was Wick and she was holding several poker chips. Those two loved to play strip poker but, of course, they didn't dare do it now. Instead, they went for regular poker.
Ogling Wick from several desks away was Magician. Contrary to his name, he was a horrible wizard. He was also incredibly lame and foolish, having an oddly squeaky voice. He was the class losers and absolutely no one was intimidated by him. His only friend was a bunny creatively named Mr. Bunny (who was currently asleep in his lap) and he was the butt-monkey of many jokes, as proven by Fool who was busy blowing spit wads at Magician's back. Poor fellow. Doll was still debating whether or not if she wanted to help him win Wick's wild heart. It was clear that he was infatuated and Wick, herself, seemed to enjoy Magician's company and Doll did fancy herself a love expert. Oh well, maybe one day she would help.
Surrounding Wick were her three best friends, her Woe-Maidens. Doll liked all of them, despite them being as wild and loud as hyenas. Oh, speak of the Devil! Scarcely had Doll reflected upon how like hyenas the three girls were when they all burst out laughing for seemingly no reason at all. It was loud and discordant but no one even bothered to try to shut them up just because it wouldn't work. Oh, no wait! Someone tried to shut them up. And that someone was actually another trio of young girls. They called themselves Rosy Bayonets and though they weren't as giggly as the Woe-Maidens, they were still just as loud, always chatting at someone in their strange accents. Doll couldn't hear their words over the mechanical screeching of their steampunk outfits but she could see from their faces that they were trying to get the Woe-Maidens to calm down. This only incited further laughter from the latter three because suddenly, everything was funny.
"ENOUGH, you people! Need I remind you of the rules?!" Prof. Callie boomed, finally losing his temper. He clapped loudly in order to silence the rowdy class. Despite his shy, frail person, he could be very fearsome and commanding. It didn't help that he had the HC police force at his back either. There was only one man part of the police force, but he had enough strength and ferocity to match 10 cops. He was known only as Tamer and when he could sense Prof. Callie's displeasure, he growled. He glared at the guilty girls and raised his whip just a little. The Woe-Maidens got the picture and they forced their howls of laughter to become stifled giggles. It was obviously quite the effort.
To her right, in response to the Woe-Maidens' chastisement, Hobo Clown played several mocking notes on his harmonica. Doll smirked slightly while the other students laughed. She found him satirically funny and talented and he, like her, was on a vow of silence. Both of them only spoke when their words had to be sung, other than that, though, they were dead quiet. Hobo Clown cocked his shaven head in her direction and winked, not missing her pleased smile. They were the kind of friends who could sit together in silence and not feel awkward about it. Their friendship also stemmed from the fact that he was friendly with Scorpion too and had actually helped them get together. Knowing he was obsessed with coins, Doll tossed him a few stray pennies for his harmonica solo and he gave a humble bow as he pocketed them.
But now, with class somewhat under control again, the boring lesson continued. Doll continued to let her heterochromia eyes search the room in search of something more interesting. Occasionally, she would jot down a note or two in the tattered notebook she owned. She, like everyone else at Hlleville College, did like Prof. Callie, but they all hated this lesson so she wasn't the only one still dozing off. She was lulled into a sense of relaxation knowing her colleagues of Hlleville were at her side. But at last, the bell sounded in the distance and Doll let out a silent cheer while her peers vocalized their joy at ending class. Truly, even Prof. Callie looked happy the lecture was over.
"Shall we, Doll-face?" Doll turned to see her boyfriend extending his arm cordially. Doll smirked slightly and pretended to curtsey before taking his arm and gliding out of the class.
AN: I have a theory that the carnies act as both teacher and student in their Hell school and this fic portrays them as the students with Ticket Keeper acting as teacher. As you can see, this is a pretty standard class, students not paying attention as the irate teacher drones on until the bell rings and then everybody runs out.