Love Bites

By Toby Danger

Monster High is copyright of Mattel. All other characters mentioned are copyright of their original creators

This is a series of short fanfics, each one based on a certain Monster High couple. There will be various canon and non-canon couples featured. I'm planning for each story to be a little different from the romance stories we see so often in Monster High's webisodes and other media. I hope you all enjoy!

Frankie and Andy: A Game of Two Halves

In which Frankie learns a new sport and Andy learns how great having a partner is.

There was a spring in Andy's step as he approached the large sign-up chart which had been posted outside the school locker rooms. He had been waiting for this moment ever since the scaremester started. The sign up for the school sports programs. For the first time in decades, he was finally going to get to play sports, something he had been denied during his childhood years.

The only question was, which team to join? He was tempted by the SKRM team and casketball team, he'd heard many tales about it from Deuce and Clawd. But he was apprehensive about playing inside an enclosed court. While he had better control over his transformative power these days, there was always the chance of an unintended loss of concentration. The last thing he wanted to do was bust through the roof and send it crashing down on the bleachers, or get trapped inside the catacombs.
Which left the outdoor sports. Grimnastics, tennis and... batball! His eyes lit up at the sight of a batball sign up. It was just what he'd been hoping for.

"Hey Andy." He turned to see Frankie standing by him. She was also studying the chart, an anxious look on her face.

"Hey." He replied. "Are you signing up for sports too?"

"Not by choice." Frankie sighed. "I hadn't really planned on joining a team."

"Really?" Andy was surprised. Considering how many other activities around school Frankie volunteered for, he thought she would naturally want to join a team. "I thought you loved doing things in a group."

"I do, but I could never quite get into sports like I do everything else." She shrugged. "I don't know, they're always a little too complicated for me."

She stared at the chart again. "And I had fearleading and other things to do, so I gave up on sports. But now Coach Verizhe says me and the rest of the Fear Squad need to get our Physical Deaducation grades up, so we need to participate in a sports team."

Andy nodded in sympathy. "Well, it's not so bad. I can think of worse ways to earn a grade."

"I think I'd rather do double clawculus than get stuck playing a sport I hate."

"Well, which sports do you like?"

Frankie crossed her arms and stared at the chart with that intense, thoughtful expression he always thought looked cute. "I'm not sure. I don't really follow a lot of sports. I tried watching football with Dad once, but I found it boring. I can't swim in the pool without shocking everyone, I don't trust my limbs to stay attached during grimnastics, and I'm not sure I wanna play SKRM again. Once through that deathtrap was enough for me."

"How about batball? I was going to sign up." Andy indicated the name on the chart.

"Maybe... Clawdeen mentioned she was signing up. But I've never seen a batball game before though."

"Well, it's a really easy game to play. All you need to know is how to hit a ball with a bat and how to catch it." Andy spoke. "After that, you just need to pick up all the little nuances like bunting, wheel plays, sliding..."

Frankie looked at him, impressed. "Wow, you sound like you know a lot about this? Do you play batball?"

"I wish." Andy looked out into space, thinking back on his youth. "Before I ended up on Skull Shores, back when I lived in a city with my parents, I used to watch the normie baseball games in a small stadium nearby. I'd sneak in under the bleachers and watch them for hours. They were always so thrilling, and I wanted so badly to play it myself. But there were no other monsters around to play with, and I certainly couldn't join in with the human kids.."

"Aww.." Frankie spoke sympathetically.

"You know, back on the island, I actually tried to teach the Tiki's how to play batball once, using sticks and coconuts. To try to make friends with them."

"How did that go?"

He sighed. "They found it was more fun to hit the coconuts at trees... and me."

Frankie chuckled. "You poor thing.."

She returned to the chart and picked up the attached pen. "Well, it does sound fun, and easy... so what the heck." She signed her name.

"Great! You won't regret it." Andy signed his name under hers.

"I hope not. I already have trouble not falling apart during fearleading practice." Frankie rubbed her arm. "I really don't want to lose a limb trying to figure out batball."

Andy patted her shoulder in a comforting gesture. "You'll be fine. And hey, I have no idea how much the game's changed since I left civilization, so this will be a new experience for both of us."

Frankie's bolts sparked as an idea hit her. "Ooh! Since we're both pretty new to this, why don't we coach each other? You help me, and I'll help you out."

"Yeah, sounds good." Andy smiled. "I'm not sure if I'll be much help though."

"You've seen more batball in action than I have. I'm sure you'll be able to teach me a few things." Frankie grinned, now fully excited. "Just think, if we work hard enough, we might be able to actually make the official team."

At the sound of the crack of the bone bat striking the ball, Frankie looked up to see the ball flying through the air in her general direction.

"I got it! I got it!" She exclaimed, running backward so she could keep her eyes on the ball. As long as she kept moving and didn't trip up again, she'd actually catch it for once.
Too busy focusing on the ball to concentrate on her surroundings, she crashed into the fence with enough force to detach her leg. She fell to the ground in a heap. She glanced up just in time to see the ball land before her face.

Sighing, she pulled herself into a seated position and pulled out her emergency sewing kit from her pocket. As she began re-attaching her leg, she thought back on the last few days of practice. So far her experience of batball was somewhat hit and miss, the misses mainly coming from her inability to catch the ball. She could ht the dang thing just fine, it was catching it while in the outfield she couldn't handle. She either missed the ball completely or fell over while trying to keep track of it, and she was starting to get sick of it. She didn't expect to be an expert or anything, but it would be nice to get through a game without completely failing...

As she finished sewing on her leg, she heard loud cries of pain in the distance.
"Ow! Ow! Sunova... Gaaah!"

She looked over to see Andy on the batter's plate, hitting balls launched from a pitching machine manned by Coach Verizhe. Or at least, he was trying to. He seemed unable to hit the balls coming toward him, and was narrowly dodging left and right to avoid getting hit. His luck didn't last though, and one ball conked him on the head, sending him falling to the ground.

Frankie immediately rushed over and knelt down to check on him, pulling off his protective helmet. "Oh my ghoul, are you hurt?!"

Andy groaned and managed to give a weak smile. "Just my pride."

He sat up and stared ruefully at the pitching machine. "I don't get it. In the games I watched as a kid, the balls were never pitched that fast."

Coach Verizhe snorted. "Yeah, but those were normies playing. We monsters can throw the ball a hell of a lot faster and harder than they can." He patted the machine. "And this is just set to 'undead/phantom' speed. The vampires and werewolves out there can do even better."

Andy turned pale at the thought to trying to hit those pitches.

Verizhe spotted something at the far end of the field and scowled. "Euugh, Burns is setting fire to the balls again." He grabbed a large box full of batballs and set it next to the machine. "You carry on practicing while I sort him out."

He walked away, leaving Frankie to help Andy to his feet.

"So much for making the team." Andy sighed. "I knew I'd probably be a bit rusty, but I didn't think I'd be this bad."

"Hey, you're not terrible." Frankie patted his shoulder. "You're good in the outfield, and I've seen you pitch. You've got a really good arm."

She picked up one of the balls and glared at it. "At least you never drop them. I don't think I've caught one ball since we're started."

"Oh, everyone's a bit cack-handed when they start out."

"Right now I'm cack-everything! I would love to be just cack-handed. Maybe I'd catch a ball at least once." Frankie replied, sullen faced.

She looked to Andy. "How do you do it? Everyone else makes it look so easy."

Andy rubbed his chin, wondering how best to explain it to her. "Well, when I was practicing how to catch long balls, I realized that it's a bit like catching fish."

Frankie's eyebrows raised in confusion. "Jigga-wha?"

"When I first settled on Skull Shores, I had to learn how to gather my own food. Gathering fruit from trees, hunting boar, and catching fish from a stream with a spear." Andy explained, a faraway look in his eyes. "Learning how to fish was a pain at first. I was never able to spear anything, the fish were too quick for me. It took me a while before I realized I needed to anticipate where the fish were going, and strike them just as they passed rather than going for them directly. It's much easier to find something when you know where it's going."

Frankie looked out at the outfield thoughtfully. "I think I get it... I'm so busy keeping an eye on the ball, I can't concentrate on moving toward it. I need to guess where it's going to land and get there in time to catch it."

She slapped her forehead. "Ugh, how did I not figure that out? And I aced my last trigonometry test as well!"

"You're still learning the ropes. It happens." Andy picked up his bat. "How about I bat a few balls so you can practice catching."

"Great." Frankie picked up the balls and loaded them into the machine.

"Could you set the machine speed a little lower?" Andy asked. "I think I need to start a little slower and work my way up."

Frankie looked at the controls. "It only goes as slow as 'undead'."

"Seriously?!" Andy let out a frustrated sigh. "It'll take forever before I can even hit a ball toward you."

Frankie approached him. "Hey, don't sweat it. You're gonna hit those balls for sure, once I show you the Scary Murphy technique."

Who's she?"

"She was our Fearleading coach, back when we all went to her camp in Gloom Beach to train for the Mashional Fearleading championship."

Now it was Andy's turn to look confused. "How does fearleading help me swing a bat?"

"Scary Murphy made us do all these chores around camp like washing windows and cleaning the floor. By doing them repeatedly, we learned all the motions we needed for a new cheer routine. Perhaps you could do something similar so you can learn how to swing the bat faster."

"Sounds strange.. but I guess it's worth a shot." Andy took a few experimental swings. "This does remind me a little of when I used to cut down trees for firewood..."

"There you go!" Frankie returned to the machine and switched it on. "Just pretend you're hitting a tree with an axe, and you'll be hitting home runs in no time."

Feeling more confident, Andy returned to the plate and readied the bat. "Alright.. give it to me."

Frankie launched a ball from the machine... and winced as it hit Andy in the gut, doubling him over.

"Sorry!" She cried as he fell to the ground. "Maybe I should just pitch the ball myself...

Two weeks later...
Andy had never imagined this would happen. While he and Frankie's batball skills had slightly improved in the last two weeks, he doubted that they would be considered good enough to be chosen for the actual team. And yet, they had both gotten picked, albeit as substitute players. And now, on the first match of the Inter-School tournament, Coach Verizhe had asked then to take the place of two players unable to attend.

For the first time since he'd started playing, he felt legitimately nervous. He could see hundreds of students and adults in the bleachers, all staring at the players... and him. All eyes expecting him to go out there and play a good game, when he had barely just mastered how to hit the ball at monster speeds. How would they react if he messed up? Memories of enraged Tikis screaming at him were beginning to resurface.

It didn't help that the opposing team from Silent Hill High were some of the most bizarre and imposing monsters he'd ever seen, even by the standards of Salem's townfolk. One of them, a huge muscular creature with a massive metal pyramid-shaped helmet on his head, was doing nothing but staring at their dugout in a menacing manner. He could feel the panic rising within in, that primal urge to run to safety and smash anything in his way...

He felt a hand on his shoulder, jolting him back to reality. He turned to see Frankie beside, staring at him with concern.

"You okay?" She asked.

He nodded, not wanting to worry her. "Yeah... just feeling a little nervous. First game and all."

She gave a warm smile. "Yeah, me too. Just remember, if it gets too much for you out there and you need to calm down, I'll be right here, okay?"

"You always are." He replied, smiling back. It was true, it seemed he could always count on her to back him up when times were tough. Knowing she was there was already making him feel a little braver.

"But I think I'll be alright. We've come this far, it would be a shame give up now." He got up and picked up his bat.

"Beast, you're up!" Coach Verizhe called. "We've got the bases loaded, so try and hit it as far as you can, give the others time to make a run."

"I'll do my best."

As he stepped out of the dugout, Frankie called to him.
"Andy! Remember what we practiced! Just pretend you're cutting down a tree."

He glanced back and gave her a nod of acknowledgement, before he stepped out onto the plate.
The monster with the pyramid helmet was pitching. Andy barely had time to wonder how this guy could see that that thing on his head before it threw a blisteringly fast ball at him. It flew past him before he could react.

"Strike one!" The umpire called.

He readied his bat for the next ball. He swung, but missed.

"Strike two!"

He could swear the pitcher was gloating at him behind that helmet. He was starting to get angry.
He heard Frankie calling. "You can do it!"

As the pyramid head reared back for his final pitch, Andy recalled his training. He pictured a tree, like the ones on the island, and raised his bat as if it was an axe, ready to chop it down for firewood...

The ball was pitched. He swung. And this time, there was a deafening crack as he hit the ball.

It went flying through the air toward the bleachers, too high for any of the fielders to catch it. Andy was amazed that he had actually done it, he almost forgot to start running around the bases. Frankie's cheers joined with the rest of the team as all of Monster High's batters completed a full run of the bases.
He noticed the pitcher actually lift up his helmet and stare at the sky, before he looked at Andy with disbelief.

Andy just grinned. "I chopped down a lot of trees as a kid." He called out in explanation. The pyramid head looked even more confused.

Andy's home run gave Monster High an early lead, but Silent Hill High were no slouches. Throughout the game, they managed to close the gap in their scores, Monster High only just keeping a few runs ahead.
Finally, it came to the final inning, and Monster High were two points in the lead, with Silent Hill up to bat.

"We're almost there guys!" Coach Verizhe yelled to the team. "All we have to do is make sure they don't score any more runs. I want you guys on high alert. Catch every ball that comes your way! I want those creep's feet to never leave those bases!"

"We'll try but... that's a lot of feet, Coach." Heath spoke up, pointing at Silent Hill's current batter, a ghoul with a bizarre centipede like body with six arms and eight legs named Asphyxia.

Andy suddenly heard a strange sparking, hissing sound. He turned around to see Frankie, shivering while trying to surpress the sparks flying from her neck bolts."

"Are you okay?" He asked, alarmed. "You look worried."

Frankie put on a smile. Why would I be worried We're about to win. All we have to do is catch a few balls, which is the one thing I absolutely cannot do, and I'm probably going to mess up, and then we'll lose and everyone will laugh at me..." Frankie's shivering intensified as she babbled.

Andy held her shoulders. "Hey, relax. You've gotten really good at catching. And even if we don't win... it's just a game. It's not worth getting worked up over."

"I know, I know!" Frankie looked anguished, tears in her eyes. "It's just.. just.."

"You don't want to let everyone down." He finished. It was a trait he'd picked up on since joining Monster High. Frankie loved to help others, even at the expense of herself. She just couldn't stand the idea of making anyone unhappy, even if it was something beyond her control. That selfless attitude was something he admired, but also made him worry about her well being.

He closed the gap and held her in a gentle hug, causing her to gasp in surprise.
"Don't worry about winning or losing, okay. As long as you just give it your all, you'll never let us down."

He looked down to see Frankie seemed more at ease. She genuinely smiled. "Thanks... I needed that."

Andy grinned. "Come on, let's knock em' dead."

Frankie stood in the outfield, her eyes focused on the batter's plate and the monsters setting up to bat. The intensity on her face was clear to see. She was going to catch any balls that came her way or un-die trying. Nothing was going to stop her
She was beginning to get worried though, as balls flew in every direction except hers, and the monster Asphyxia was making her way around the bases. For a monster with such a long body, she was surprisingly fast.

Finally, Silent Hill had all the bases loaded. If her teammates didn't catch the next ball, Monster High was done for.

The last batter swung, and the ball went flying high in the air... right toward her! She broke into a run toward the rear of the field, guess from it's speed that it would end up there.

"Go for it Frankie!" She heard Andy yell out. It encouraged her to move even faster.

When she reached the border though, she looked up to see the ball was still high in the air, higher than she could jump. It would fly into the bleachers and give Silent Hill a home run. There was no way she could reach it.

Reach... She got an idea. She grabbed her right arm, the one wearing the glove, and wrenched it out of her shoulder. Then, with her left arm, she held it up as far as she could, using her mental control to move her detached arm ready to catch the ball.

The ball practically sailed into her waiting glove.

"OUT!" The umpire called, moments before Asphixia reached the home plate. The multi limbed ghouls surprised, then enraged as the umpire explained that since the catch was made with a gloved hand, it was still legal.

Frankie nearly fell to her knees in relief. The game was over, and they had prevented Silent Hill from scoring any runs. They had won.
Moments later, the entire team was surrounding her, lifting her up over their shoulders and cheering for her.

She was elated. She then saw Andy standing at the back of the crowd, staring at her with a look of pride.
She returned the look, giving him a thumbs up. This was as much his triumph as it was hers.

To celebrate their win, Coach Verizhe took the team to the Die-ner for a victory dinner.

"..And lets give a cheer to Frankie and Andy!" Verizhe raised his root beer toward the two, who were sitting together in a booth. "They may have been a bit hopeless during training, but they've developed into two fine players. I just know you two, and the rest of the team are gonna dominate the rest of the season."

"YEAH!" Everyone else raised their drinks and cheered.

Frankie blushed and shyly looked away, Andy just gave a nervous smile.

"Um.. thanks everyone." Andy called. "But really, it was all you guys..."

Frankie nudged him with her elbow. "Don't be so modest. It was thanks to those amazing home runs that we got in the lead in the first place."

Andy turned to her. "Anyone could have done that. You were the one who caught the final ball and saved the game."

"Yeah..." She smiled gratefully at him. "But I don't think I could have caught it without you helping me out in training."

"Hey, you helped me with my batting. I was just returning the favour."

"We make pretty good training partners, huh?"

"Yeah.." Andy smiled, thinking back to the fun... and occasional agony... they had experienced together during training.

Frankie looked at him with a hopeful expression. "I was thinking... maybe we could be partners for... other things besides batball."

Andy blinked. "Do you mean we could study together in Study Howl? Because that would be gr.."

He was silenced as Frankie, after checking to make sure no one was looking, leaned in and planted a small kiss on his lips.

When she reared back, he looked at her with utter surprise as she grinned coyly at him. "I'm thinking of another type of partnership. The special kind."

It took a moment for him to register when she was implying, but when he got it, the biggest smile he could muster crossed his face.
He was tempted to kiss her there and then, but didn't want to make a scene with the rest of the team and Spectra nearby. Instead, he edged closer, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and held her close.

"I would love that.. partner." He murmured into her ear.

The slight spark from her bolts and her bright smile was all the answer he needed.

END