Misunderstanding

Scaring assignments in Deedstown are, for most creatures, the best part of a typical day at Scare School. For Casper, it gives him an excuse to hang out with his BFF (Best Fleshie Friend) Jimmy; for Thatch, it gave him an excuse to do what he does best; and in this case, for Carly, it gave her an excuse to visit family and old friends.

During this particular assignment, Thatch was on a roll, scaring fleshies left and right (and up and down in his bat form). He laughed triumphantly as a blonde-haired boy wearing a green beanie jumped, screamed, and fell backwards into the park fountain. Too easy, he thought. As the bell rang, signaling the students to return to the ship, Thatch looked around and spotted one more victim to scare, two fleshie kids chatting on a bench.

But as he snuck up closer to them and got a clearer sound of their voices, he noticed that Carly was one of them, and the other one was that Jimmy kid. And in his opinion, they were getting a little too chummy with one another.

He held his breath every time she laughed at something he said, and when he put his hand on her shoulder, he had to fight the urge to come out of hiding and knock his daylights out. "I think the bell just rang," she eventually said, "I should go."

"Say hi to Casper for me," he called back as she left.

Back on the boat, Carly sat in the back row across from Thatch, close enough to be together without seeming suspicious. But this time, all of her attempts to discreetly flirt with him seemed to fall on deaf ears. "Thatch," she whispered, "everything okay?"

He didn't respond. He didn't even look at her. And he didn't say a word the whole way back.

…

The rest of the day, Carly wondered why Thatch was avoiding her. She'd try to talk to him, but he'd just brush her off as if he didn't hear her. She sent him at least five text messages, but received no replies. Finally, she received one herself from him that simply said, "Meet me by the dock at 9:30."

Once she arrived at the dock where Cappy was snoring away on the ship, she waited with slight impatience before Thatch finally showed up. "Okay, I know we agreed to keep things secret," she began, "but you haven't said a word to me all day. What's going on?"

"We've only been dating for a few weeks," he said, "and you're already tired of me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not enough for you anymore," he continued," You'd rather hold hands with Casper's stupid friends than me now?"

Carly's eyes lit up with realization, but instead of retaliating like he'd expected her to, she surprised him.

She started laughing.

"You really think I would ever cheat on you," she asked, "Thatch, you cute idiot, I love you too much to ever do something like that." She kissed him on the cheek for good measure, and that was enough for him.

"So, you're sure there's nothing going on with you and Jimmy," he said.

"Of course not," she replied, "He's my cousin."