The first day of classes fell on a beautiful fall day. The trees were still green, the weather was still warm, and students took their sweet time walking to class in their various buildings. Strangely dressed in a heavy sweatshirt, Abby herself crept slowly to class, her copy of Scare Theory Volume. VII by Karl G. Eyegout and an MU notebook stashed in her shoulder bag. Once she reached the steps of the Scaring School, she heard a familiar rush of wings.

"Sis! You gotta touch the foot!"

She leveled her brother with a well-perfected look. "The foot?" she repeated slowly, raising her eyelid slightly.

Nate pointed to the statue on their left, its taloned foot sticking from the pedestal. Students filed into the building in a line, all of them patting the metal talon before entering. Unimpressed, Abby continued her way into the school until she felt a tug on her arm.

"It's for luck! They say you have no chance of making it in the scare program if you don't touch the foot on the first day."

"That's nothing but a superstitious rumor. Our chances of making it in the scare program do not depend upon me touching the sweaty bacteria of our fellow scare students."

"Come on, Abby! We'll need all the luck we can get." Her brother pouted childishly. "The odds are kinda screwing us right in the ass."

"Don't be crude."

"I'll stop if you touch the foot."

Abby glared at him for a full few seconds before sighing. "Fine. I'll touch the filthy foot," she grumbled, scrambling furiously over to the statue and very quickly and hesitantly tapping the talon. Shaking off her hand, she wiped it on her sweatshirt and returned to Nate.

"Happy?" she snapped.

Nate grinned widely, his overbite showing off his extremely pointed canines. "Yep." Glancing up to the entrance, he nodded to Abby. "Ready?"

The twins each pulled up the hood of their sweatshirt over their heads. Even though it was still hot outside, the last thing they needed was to bring attention to themselves. The fastest way to do that was to bear a striking similarity to the Dean herself.

Walking into the classroom was an experience for many freshmen. It was built more like an auditorium, with the dome of the School of Scaring rising above them. The stained glass skylights lit the room in a deep orange, highlighting the statues of renown scarers who later became academics. Abigail Hardscrabble's was among them, notably with a missing scream canister on the pedestal.

Abby only spared it a glance before heading to the back of the classroom. A seat in the back wasn't an ideal learning seat, but she couldn't risk exposing herself just yet. Besides, she had nearly memorized all her textbooks.

Her brother took the seat beside her, kicking back in his chair. "Hey, got a pencil?" he whispered to Abby, who reluctantly gave him one. He then proceeded to doodle on his desk, which was already worn with scratches and artwork.

"You're not going to learn a single thing in this class, are you?" Abby sighed.

"Hey, it's the first day of class! No one teaches on the first day."

"Alright, students!" boomed a voice. "Welcome to Scaring 101." A large orange monster stomped his way into the center of class just as the last student sat down. The two Flint children's eyes flew open and they exchanged shocked glances. Then they both checked their schedules.

MWF - Scaring 101 - Instructor: D. Knight

"This is bad," Abby whispered.

Nate was more flustered. "What do we do? What do we do?"

"Calm down. We just have to-"

At that moment, a screech came from the window. Every student's head snapped up to see a figure in the window, scarlet wings extended. The creature flew around the dark room, making harsh noises as they went. Suddenly, they landed in the middle of the room with their wings drawn about their face.

Red wings parted to expose Abigail Hardscrabble's grinning face.

"Good morning, Abigail!" Knight greeted. "Come to see the fresh meat?"

Hardscrabble didn't answer, rather she skittered along the room and sized up each and every monster for herself. Abby and Nate shrunk back into their sweatshirts, but something caught Hardscrabble's eye.

A flash of silver beneath the hood.

Hardscrabble murmured something, but neither the students nor Knight caught what it was. Before her husband could ask, she was already motioning for Abby to stand. "You there. Yes, you in the sweatshirt in 80 degree weather. Stand up."

Seeing no other option, Abby decided to follow her orders. Luckily, the room was dark enough that no one could see her centipede half-a dead giveaway of her Hardscrabble blood.

"What's your name?" the dean's voice cut clearly through the room.

Abby swallowed harshly and closed her eyes. Steeling herself, she drew back her hood and revealed her face. It looked too much like her snake mother's to draw attention, but her leathery skin looked oddly familar. "Abigail, ma'am," she answered just as clearly. "Abigail Flint."

Hardscrabble's eyes widened the tiniest fraction before her face split into a wicked smile. "Abigail?" she repeated, barely containing the laugh in her voice. "Your name is Abigail?"

"Yes." Abby was fully aware she was named after her mother. It was impossible to be such a fan of the ex-scarer and not know her first name. In fact, it was almost common knowledge. But she never understood why her mother did so. Why name your daughter after the woman who left you?

"I see." The smile slowly morphed into a smirk as she visibly relaxed. "Well, then. Let's hope you are as good as your namesake." Giving her a slight wink, she turned and extended her wings. "Carry on, love," she said to Derek as she beat her wings. When she gained enough altitude, she flew out the window and into the sunshine.

Abby had since sat down, but she couldn't help staring out the window for a few more seconds. Unfortunately, every student in the classroom couldn't help staring at her.

"Hey, what are you morons lookin' at?" Nate snapped at them, making most of them turn. But a brave boy leaned over to her and asked her, "What that was all about?"

"How should I know?" Abby replied smoothly. "I've never seen her before in my life."

Having unintentionally made a name for herself, Abby retreated back to her dorm as soon as classes were over. Her mother's slimy husband-er, Professor Knight-had informed them they needed to pass the final exam in that class to remain in the Scaring Program. Although she knew she could pass it without difficulty, it was still comforting to her to dive into a scaring book for a couple of hours.

After she had gotten settled in blankets and some snacks, a knock came from her door. Groaning, Abby untangled herself and tapped over to the door. Opening it, she saw a familiar grinning fanged face.

"Arabella?!"

"'Ello, sis!" The other centipede monstress brushed past her, inviting herself in. "Wow! Is this your room? Where's your roommate? Don't have one?" Before Abby could even stutter out a reply, Arabella sat down on the other bed. "Say, maybe I could live here! Ha ha!"

"What are you doing here?" Abby finally sputtered out.

"Uh, my mum's the dean and my dad's a professor," Arabella spelled out for her like she was a little monstress. "Kinda gonna be here a lot!"

"No, I mean in my room! It's dangerous, they might catch you here. I don't think they'd like us hanging out. Especially after today..."

"Today? What happened?"

Abby explained everything that happened in detail. When she was finished, Arabella puffed her cheeks out in thought. "That's odd! Maybe mummy does recognize you."

"You think?"

"Dunno! But hey, we can go get dinner if you want! Mummy gave me money to go somewhere on campus. We can get something together, my treat!"

"Bella! I sort of have a problem here! What am I going to do about-"

Just then, Nate flew through the window in a mess of wings and a tail. Arabella looked surprised, but Abby barely bat an eyelid. When the monster gathered himself, he drew a cardboard pizza box from under his wings.

"Pizza for the ladies?" he teased, kneeling down as best as he could on his tail. Abby rolled her eyes and flipped open the cover to extract a piece with spider legs on it.

"No thank you?" Nate pouted. Then he noticed his stepsister hadn't yet taken a piece; rather, she was staring at it like she had never seen anything so strange in her life. "What? Oh, I hope you don't mind, I didn't know what you wanted. You got your choice of spider legs or garbage bits. Or I can fly down and steal you a slice from the frat guys." Arabella didn't answer for a moment. "...Bel?"

"I've...never had pizza before," she finally said faintly.

"That's a surprise," Abby intoned sarcastically. "Try the spider legs, they're better. Nate is what he eats."

"Hey!"

"Trash bits say what?"

As the two argued, Arabella reached for a piece with the spider legs. Taking a tentative bite, she chewed it slowly and let the flavor sink in.

Then her face broke into a wide smile.

"I...love it!" she squealed, pushing on the two to get their attention. Abby and Nate stopped bickering long enough to smile at Arabella's newfound love. Their smiles changed when they heard yelling coming from outside.

"Where is that guy? He's payin' for that pizza, then he's dead!" The three of them made their way to Abby's window to see the brothers of JOX gathered outside the dorm and looking angry. Nate noticeably slunk down out of sight.

"What? You stole this from them?" Abby snapped, kicking him with her foreleg. "From JOX? Are you serious?"

"I thought they wouldn't notice," Nate replied with a guilty smile.

"Hey! I think I saw him up there!"

"Time to go!" Sweeping up Abby, he shot out of the window with wings extended high. Beneath his sister's angry protests, he could hear someone cheering and giggling.

"Arabella?! You-?"

"There he is! Hey! Come back here!" Unfortunately, one of the other JOX members had wings as well. They weren't as big or as powerful as Nate's, but he also wasn't weighed down by two hefty centipede girls. As the frat brother gained altitude, Nate yelped.

"Sorry 'bout this!" he warned as he suddenly dived. With his wings folded, he cut faster through the air as they sped towards frat row. As soon as they made it past the bridge and onto the street, Nate dipped low and let go of Abby's claws.

The two girls fell to the ground. Abby landed and skid back on her legs, while Arabella fell flat on her tail. As Arabella groaned and got to her feet, Abby was brushing herself off. "Ugh. What a jerk."

Said jerk was now speeding through the air, whizzing around and sometimes even through the various frat houses. He had drawn quite a crowd for his air show; the other winged monster had trouble even catching up to him, and he wasn't as agile as Nate. The two kept up this chase for a few more minutes before the other eventually landed in pure exhaustion.

"Okay, okay, dude. You beat me," he panted. Nate, having not even broken a sweat, fluttered to a landing beside him and folded his wings behind his back. Smiling at his opponent, he was content to leave when the other spoke up again. "Wait, dude. Hey, you're pretty good. We could use a guy like you in Jaws Theta Chi."

One of the other monsters from the crowd spoke up. "Nah, he's one of those Gamma Roar Roar guys!"

"No way! Jaws Theta Chi is way better!" another yelled.

"Gentlemen, gentlemen. I have a solution that will be better than any of those." The crowd parted to reveal a new monster. His fur, though sleek, was a light ocean blue and he had two large horns that curled in the back. He marched up to Nate and extended his hand. "Jacob Worthington, president of Roar Omega Roar. What's your name, big guy?"

"Nate Flint," the other responded, shaking the hand that was offered.

"Uh-huh. Well, I think you'll fit right at home with those wings of yours. In fact, I-"

A screech interrupted them. Every monster turned their heads toward the sound of beating wings, followed by the crash of thirty legs on the ground. The dean raised her head and scanned the crowd with a barely contained rage.

"Would someone like to inform me what's going on? Where is my daughter? I know she is here," Hardscrabble called out. Everyone began to talk amongst themselves worriedly as they confirmed their neighbors hadn't seen her either.

Meanwhile, Arabella and Abby were on the steps of an empty house waiting for Nate. When Hardscrabble arrived, they shot up and started backing away.

"Oh no, it's Mummy," Arabella whined. "I'm in trouble!"

"I'm in trouble!" Abby snapped. "If she catches us together, I'm dead!"

Suddenly, the door of the house they thought was empty opened up. A few hands and tentacles shot out to clamp over Abby's mouth and pull her inside. Before Arabella knew it, her stepsister had vanished into the house. "Abby?"

Inside the house was cold and dark. The hands and tentacles removed themselves from Abby so the girl could sputter and flail around. "What-What's going on? What are you doing?"

"Shh!" A candle lit up the dark room, illuminating a girl with glasses. She wore a fanned out black dress that came halfway down her tentacle legs. "You're Abigail Flint, right?"

"Huh? Yeah. Who's asking?"

Another voice joined in. The tentacle girl held it over so a finned girl could speak. "We heard about you and Hardscrabble. What's the deal?"

"Well, like I said before, I don't know. I've never seen her before." She glared at the two as best as she could in the dark. "Can I go now?"

The tentacle girl broke in again, scrutinizing the young centipede monstress. "Hang on! Any girl Hardscrabble would take two glances at must have some Top Scarer potential."

"We want you to join," the finned girl added.

"Join?"

Suddenly, all the candles in the room lit up. Abby could now see clearly the five gothic monstresses of Eta Hiss Hiss crowding around her. HSS had a reputation for being the toughest, scariest sorority on campus, but some of the members looked quite eager to see her.

"Me?" Abby willed herself not to blush. Her mother, Dean Hardscrabble, had been a part of this very sorority—and they were asking her to join?

"Yeah." A tall monstress with horns moved to the front to peer at her. "You look tough for a freshman, and smart too. And those legs!" She bent down to inspect Abby's centipede half, the girl shyly tucking them in. "You sure you aren't related to the dean?"

"Maybe distantly," Abby replied faintly.

"Maybe you'll be our good luck charm this year!" the smallest said, grinning up at Abby with her sharp teeth.

"We've...had sort of a streak of bad luck lately," the finned girl explained. "We usually win the Scare Games at least once every couple years, but lately? It's just been the RORs and the JOXs."

"Yes, we believe you could help us win. Our reputation is hanging by a thread," the tentacled girl added.

"Well, okay," Abby agreed, her face flushed. "I don't know what I can do, but I'll do what I can."

"Good. I'm Lily."

"Phoebe," the finned girl introduced.

"Amber," said the horned girl.

"Sophie!" the littlest one exclaimed.

The last one was the biggest of all the girls, even passing Abby by a few inches. She had a patch of spiky hair that matched her spiked bracelets. "Lexi," she mumbled quietly, avoiding Abby's eyes.

"Well, as you already know I'm Abigail. But you can just call me Abby, everyone does. Pleasure to meet you all."

Brrring! Brrring!

Startled, Abby retrieved her cellphone from her jacket pocket. As she flipped it open, the girls gathered around her in interest.

"Hello?"

"ABBY!" Said monstress held the phone a few inches away from her ear in order to stop her stepsister from making her deaf. "WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay, calm down! And stop yelling." Holding the phone to her ear once again, she glared suspiciously at the HSS sisters and started to move into another room. They didn't follow her, but they were very interested in how her legs clicked across the stone.

"Hey, what's going on? How are things with your mom?" Abby continued as she moved from room to room, having no idea where she'd end up.

"Oh yeah, she was fine. We're getting dinner together...it's always so awkward. It's hard to make friends when everyone knows your mum can fail them out of college. Ugh."

"Wait, what? Aren't you making friends at Fear Tech?"

"...I don't know, maybe a couple. I'd much rather hang out here with you, though. You and your friends."

"Well, I don't know how that's going to work out since the only friend I have is Trash Bits."

Arabella giggled. "Trash Bits, ha ha! That's funny. I wonder what garbage tastes like."

"It's absolutely terrible for you, probably better you've never had it." Abby stopped once she came across a room with a red curtain. Half-listening to Arabella ramble about garbage and her newfound pizza obsession, she ducked under the curtain and into the hall of alumni.

Notable alumni lined the walls, each fearsome women in their own right. Abby skittered down the hall, observing the oil paintings and trying to guess what special skill each had. That one probably used her impressive fangs, that one looked like it could drop on a child from above.

At the end of the hall laid an empty area, where the Scare Games trophy would be stored if HSS had won the previous year. Two portraits flanked the display, Abigail Hardscrabble on the left.

She looked younger, probably in the prime of her scaring career when the painting was commissioned. She was in a familiar position, though-chin up, back straight, hands behind her back. A condescending look in her eyes.

"...Abby? Abby?" Arabella's voice floated through the speaker of her phone, shaking Abby from her trance. "Uh—yes."

"Hey, you alright? You kinda zoned out on me there."

"Yes, I-I'm fine. I was just...looking at something."

Suddenly, a beeping noise rung in her ear. "Oops. Hold on, Bella, I have another call." Click. "Hello?"

It was her mother, Bonnie. "Abby? Hope I'm not bothering you, baby."

"No, no." Abby turned away from the painting. "Just relaxing in my room."

"Ah. Where's your brother? He's not answering my calls."

That was strange. Nate hardly ever missed a chance to talk to his mom. What had happened with ROR? "I don't know. Maybe taking a nap or showering."

"Showering? Your brother?"

They both laughed. "So, how was your first day of class, sweetheart?" Bonnie continued.

"Fine. A bit boring."

"How are the dorms? Do you have everything you need? I can pick something up for you if you need it."

"I'm fine, Mama. Really. I'm having lots of fun here."

"Well...okay. But let me know if you need me, alright?"

"Yes, Mama. I will."

"Okay, baby. Well, I won't keep you. Take care of yourself. Love you."

"Love you too. Bye."

Bonnie set her phone on the table with a sigh and glanced around her apartment. She had raised two children in this place. It always seemed bustling when her twins were there, but now with them gone it seemed so lifeless and empty. Bonnie almost didn't know what to do with herself.

All she could do was sit and worry.

A/N: introducing hss! like it was a surprise that abby would join hss, lmao. and i'd like to thank badgerwolfuk for inspiring me to get off my ass and finish this up. thanks for the long reviews, dude! really appreciate it

next up, rising action! the conflict is introduced! stay tuned...