Chapter 12: Test of Love

"Sally, what will it take for you to want me?"

When all Jack Skellington received were disbelieving spluttering noises, accompanied by several "dear, God"s, he smiled and continued. "I mean, what do I have to do? I want a kiss, you know. A long kiss. Maybe an hour long make-out session! Oh, yeah, those are good!"

"Jack—"

"But we gotta be somewhere quiet. I hate doing that in front of people and having them stare—"

"Jack!"

"Huh?"

"Shut. Up!"

"What? Why would—" He paused. Around them, multiple of their classmates were staring, some open-mouthed and some grinning. The young prince immediately realized that his voice must've carried and now they—he and his new girlfriend—were the center of attention. Then again, it wasn't as if he wasn't used to being in the limelight; having to live as the Pumpkin King's only son tended to make him have to face everyone with confidence.

In other words, he was comfortable with their current situation.

"Hello, everyone! Why are you all staring? Ah, it's my beauty, isn't it? I knew you felt that way, Oogie..."

"Aw, hell NO! I am not checking you out, Bone-Face!"

"You say that now. How do I know you're not looking at my butt from behind, huh?"

This managed to lighten the mood considerably; almost everyone in the class burst out laughing. Sally ducked her head and buried her face in her arms, shoulders shaking.

"HEY! Dude, not cool!" Angrily, the Boogie Man grabbed one of his textbooks and proceeded to hit the backs of his friends' heads around him, that was, before he chucked it forcefully at a smirking Jack. The skeleton saw this and caught the offending book with ease.

"Jealous?"

"You want to die, don't you—?"

"I knew you would be! Oogie, if you felt that way, why didn't you let me know sooner?"

"Five seconds more and I will SERIOUSLY hit you!"

"...where exactly?"

He lunged. Jack managed to dodge him almost nonchalantly, skillfully landing on the table. Around them, classmates cheered. Oogie threw several punches and kicks, though he missed each one. But if he hadn't been against the Pumpkin Prince himself, he probably would have been successful on inflicting damage. After a few minutes of humoring Oogie (i.e. blocking, side-stepping, and taunting playfully) the skeleton slipped behind his friend and lightly pushed him just as he stepped forward for a punch. That, along with his momentum, led to the Boogie Man hitting his arm on a nearby desk and splitting it open. From the opening, several scratching noises were audible.

"Aww, damn it! Thanks, Skellington..." Oogie scowled, covering the break with his other free hand. "I'll kill you when I get the chance..."

"No more than usual, Oogs," laughed Jack heartily, striding over to the cabinet behind the teacher's desk. He pulled out a small black chest from within, smiled at the label, and threw it to his annoyed friend, not necessarily expecting him to catch it...

And in all honesty, the box probably would have hit him in the face. At least, had not Sally surprised everyone with her accuracy as she caught it (perfectly) without a blink, right before it hit the burlap sack. Sighing, she knelt down where he was on the floor and held her hand out.

"May I see your arm?" she asked politely in her calm voice. Sheepishly, Oogie nodded and sat limply as the rag-doll inspected his damaged seam. She quickly pulled out a thread and needle from the box (it was some sort of first-aid kit) and she professionally mended the stitch in just a few seconds. Satisfied, she retrieved the spool of thread and needle and replaced them in the box.

All the while, Jack was silently fuming. Why was it that he beat Oogie (at whatever stupid 'fight' they had) yet Sally was tending to the loser? Shouldn't she be in his arms, asking if he was okay? He didn't even start the whole mess!

"Are you JEALOUS, Jack?" laughed Devil from beside him, shoving his back cheerfully. "Sally! Don't piss your boyfriend off!"

"H-huh?" It seemed that the young rag-doll, after seeing everyone's eyes on her and Jack's slightly peeved face, begun to retreat back into her protective shell.

"Damn, I've never seen Skellington green before," she heard whispering from some girl. "He usually causes it!"

"Yeah, what's up with Jack?"

"I don't know, maybe 'cuz Oogie's getting the love..."

"Doy, he's been trying to hit on Sally since day one!"

"No, REALLY?"

It was horrible. Classmates gossiped without even bothering to lessen their volume! Nobody attempted to change their names into heavily-emphasized pronouns, either! It was as if the couple in question wasn't even there.

And of course, Sally was mentally crying.

Never was she one to enjoy hearing people talk about her. She hated even being mentioned! Her father raised her to be wary of what others said. He said not to stand out, not to draw attention. Instead, she should stick to the shadows and excel from behind, but never flaunt her achievements.

In other words, be invisible.

And that was it. The flaw to the plan!

She knew there was a risk to everything! Off the top of her head, she could name several hundreds of reasons why dating Jack would ruin her completely (yeah, damn you, heart!). But despite that, these reasons were apparently NOT enough to stop her from doing so anyway.

Stepping out of the shadows was just one she forgot to consider.

Stupid!

How could she let that slip by? It was obvious that her seventeen years of being unnoticed did not secure anything about the future! Look what happened!

She fell in love and her mental planner that had her future perfectly laid out was thrown in the dumpster.

Darn. She liked that planner...it had a pretty front cover.

Moving on...

"Hey, hey, Jack! Are you guys together yet?"

"Yeah, right! Sally hates his guts, remember?"

"Things change! Have you seen them fight today?"

"Yo, Sally, what do you think—?"

"As much as I absolutely enjoy witnessing your pointless interactions," drawled a cold voice from the front of the room, "my class time will not be wasted. Sit down!"

The whipped cracked.

Startled, all students scrambled into their respective seats, cringing as Finkelstein barked at them to hurry up. Sally barely managed to glance at Jack's stony face before her attention was drawn to the chalkboard.

It had been only a few minutes into the lesson when she gave in.

Alright, she had known that Skellington was upset, and that he ignored taking notes because of it.
She squirmed in her seat due to an odd feeling gnawing at her. It seemed to insist that she was causing Jack pain.

Guilt.

Ah, how she hated feeling guilty. If there was a feeling that was successfully distracting (omitting love), then it was that.

And she did not enjoy being distracted.

It was a sign of how desperate she was to make it up to Jack (though she never really wrong to him) that she completely forgot to make sure her father was not looking at her when she wrote the note. She didn't check, either, when she threw it back at the skeleton, hitting his arm.

Woken out of his admittedly-jealous thoughts, Jack blinked once, staring blankly at the crumpled ball of paper on his desk. Shrugging, he opened it.

And then he grinned.

Oh, he knew he loved her for a reason!

Hey, stop frowning. It makes you uglier than usual, and we don't want that, do we? I can barely take your face normally, anyway.

Besides, you know I like you best.

Love from Sally.

He knew her well enough to be able to translate the whole message. It really said, "Please don't be mad, it makes me feel down. I'm sorry if it seemed that I was ignoring you, but I really just wanted to help Oogie. You know I love you only."

Although Jack felt that the end was more of a stretch than anything else, it would have been highly accurate in Sally's eyes.

She loved him.

Considering how fun their first school-lunch together was a few days ago (with indirect kisses, jellied brains, and a whole lot of Undersea Gal) it would seem likely that Jack and Sally would have an equally eventful lunch as a couple.

Wrong.

It went by smoothly. Jack escorted her like a gentleman to the grand cafeteria, and then he went ahead and pulled her seat out for her. He brought her lunch instead of having her wait in line, managing to get one of the better meals available—steamed brains stuffed with maggots.

Delicious!

At the table, they talked about whatever came to mind, every now and then sharing secret smiles. To Sally's complete surprise (and delight) all girls that came up to flirt with Jack were promptly but politely refused. They all seemed flabbergasted that the Pumpkin Prince, renowned ladies-man, was focused solely on the quiet, reserved rag-doll transfer student.

And for once, Sally did not mind that she was the center of attention.

Jack was with her.

The real problem—and first test of love—was the following period.

Professor Corpse, for reasons unknown to the general public, was gone for Historical Halloween, which happened to be extended from before lunch.

A different man, with pale, snow-white skin and silver hair stood in front of the desk, arms crossed. Behind him was a familiar scythe.

The Grim Reaper.

His hood, which was attached to the back of the ragged black cloth he wore, was not covering his face and black eyes as usual. Most mortals would probably be surprised that he was not as demonic as he seemed on Halloween evening when he was scaring, and that he looked almost like one of them.

Although he was harmless, students had a great reason to fear him.

"You brats gunna take all day? I have to teach more of your stupid buddies in an hour," he drawled harshly, coldly glaring at each passing ghoul hurrying to their seats. They had ten minutes to get to class, but that did not matter to Reaper; all students that came in were marked tardy regardless.

Including Jack and Sally.

They were not last to enter the classroom, but he did spend more time bothering them.

"C'mon! Huh? Oh, look. Another one." The teacher smirked, approaching the two. Instinctively, Jack pulled Sally closer and wrapped an arm around her waist. "No public display of affection, Skellington!"

"Excuse us, Mr. Reaper, but we'd like to get back to our seats," the skeleton replied coolly, casually moving the rag-doll behind him. That, of course, did not go unnoticed.

"Hmm, what have we here?" The older ghoul shamelessly nudged Jack away and grabbed Sally's wrist. He yanked her forward and inspected her almost hungrily. The class stared in horror as he put a skinny finger underneath her chin and tilted her face upwards. "A new pretty doll, eh? Haven't seen that in a while..."

The teenager in question stared icily back, rebuilding her protective wall. Unbeknownst to most, her father had taught her how to handle situations such as these without showing any emotion. Even though she was nervous and trembling inside, she knew better than to let him know. Not to mention, Igor had her trained in the art of 'butt-whooping'...

Jack was to prove that he was her Romeo.

"That, sir, is sexual harassment!" With that, the Prince broke the hold Reaper had on Sally and protectively led her back to her seat, shooting a dark glare at the teacher as he did so.

The substitute merely laughed. "This class never fails to amaze me. Now hurry up so we can start!"

Before he retreated to his desk, Jack felt a pressure on his hand and was surprised to see his girlfriend smiling up at him. He squeezed back and whispered, "I love you."

She winked.

The warmth the two carried into the horrible lesson lasted only until Reaper became bored.

They were reading an ancient text, with symbols most did not understand. It was clear that Professor Corpse was not planning to teach them this until a few more months after they had learned the basics. The most one knew in the class (except a few) were only two symbols.

There were about a hundred on the page.

"Who would be nice enough to translate this whole garbage?" called out Reaper, reclining on his chair. "Anyone?"

When he saw all students throw him looks of pure hatred, his lips curled into a sadistic smile. Perfect. "How about Mr. Prince Hero Skelly? Just the first two sentences will do."

Jack's gnashed his teeth together, and the pencil he was holding broke in half under the pressure of his fingers. Oogie muttered a warning, and Devil merely shook his head. However, the future king ignored them and proceeded to mentally translate the page. Fortunately, he was one of the few who actually knew about ancient text; his father was a bookworm after all!

"Give me a little intro, kid. What's it about?"

"Well, sir," began Jack in a suave voice that made most girls swoon, "it seems to be a journal entry from one of the first Pumpkin Kings."

"No, really? I had no idea," was Reaper's sarcastic remark. "Please, enlighten us more! Go on, translate!"

Another pencil snapped, but it was not Jack's doing. "Alright. 'October the thirty-first. It seems to me that the hour of twilight is approaching. My work will soon begin.'"

Applause broke.

Literally.

The three sentences that Jack read actually took up half the page! It was impressive because nobody knew anything past the first symbol: October.

Sally beamed at him, clapping the loudest with Oogie.

His triumph, nevertheless, was to be cut short.

"SHUT UP!" roared the Grim Reaper. He threw the textbook at the chalkboard and everybody jumped. Scowling, he crossed his arms and glared defiantly at Jack. "Why clap for him? He was completely wrong."

It was a sign of how much the class despised him that all shut their books in disgust and began yelling curses.

"Damn you and the translations! He was right and you know it!"

"Yeah, what the hell's wrong with you?"

"I knew you were stupid, but I didn't know just how much!"

"Go jump into the lake!"

All settled down when the demon grabbed his scythe and pointed it at their general direction. His white lips were pressed in a thin line as his pupils grew red. "I won't hesitate to hurt you guys," he began softly, staring at each of their eyes as he scanned the room, "because I really don't care if you get hurt. I'm paid to stand here and fill in for your normal teacher. That's all. I have none of your best interests at heart.

"Jack Skellington was hopelessly incorrect because he did not translate the last part in the way it should have been. He said 'will soon begin.' Does anyone want to tell me why that is wrong? No? Well, obviously. You're all brain-dead. It is 'must begin.' I do not know what possessed him to say 'will soon,' but that is not it. He is as stupid as the rest of you, and I hope you realize that he 'will soon' be your king, one that 'will soon' lead us into state of absolute destruction."

Shock would have been an understatement. What...just happened? They gaped at him, mouths hanging open. Did he...did he just put Jack down in front of the entire class? The Jack Skellington? Not even Finkelstein dared to do that!

As for the Pumpkin Prince himself...he was quiet. And still. And emotionless.

And very unlike his usual self.

Silence was broken by the one person least likely to rebel against a professor-like figure.

Sally Finkelstein.

A/N: Happy Halloween, everybody! I'm sure you're all trick-or-treating, or maybe singing "Kidnap the Sandy Claws," but oh well!

I decided to update this fic a little quicker than usual because I realized it was Halloween Evening and I had to do something in honor of Nightmare Before Christmas. And what better tribute than make fanfictions of them all?

Most of you guys will probably see this after Halloween, so I hope you all kept safe! Throw away those opened candies! Be wary of homemade stuff! Etc...

And if you're reading this before trick-or-treating (though it's late and I can't imagine why) then remember to keep safe as well!

Heheheheheh.

Back to the story...

Yes, Sally is going to show us just what a rag-doll like herself can do! Watch out, Reaper!

And my reason for making the Grim Reaper a potentially-hot guy...I don't know.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Halloween once again!

This is Halloween, this is Halloween!

Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!