Chapter 13: Interior Decorating Creepers
While most everyone was still coming out of shock at Reaper's more-than-unkind monologue, Sally's hand was quick to shoot up. Her face had look of silent fury, and her other palm sported a destroyed mechanical pencil.
Pfft. And it had read 'unbreakable.'
The teacher seemed mildly surprised that someone had the nerve to annoy him even after seeing first-hand the ridiculing of the most influential student of the Academy.
But it did amuse him. "Whose hand is that? Oh, Rag Doll."
"Sally," she calmly stated in return, rising to a standing position. Remaining behind her desk in the same manner one would after being called on to recite something, she glared at the Grim Reaper. "Sally Finkelstein."
"Finkelstein? Sounds familiar...oh, yes. What did you want?"
"If I may, I would like to make a correction to your correction." The demon raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Sally took a deep breath before continuing. "You see, 'must' is not present in that sentence; in fact, there is no one symbol for it. The language back then found it redundant, and it was encouraged only to give basic words its own symbol. 'Must' is actually comprised of the symbols of 'will' and 'do.' As you know, words made up of the base symbols are placed together with no spaces in between. So for 'must' to be present, shouldn't both 'will' and 'do' have to be together? 'Do' isn't even in there! How could the translation possibly be 'must begin' if 'must' isn't even used? 'Will' is, though, and so is 'soon'. Therefore, is Jack not correct?"
They stared at her as she looked expectantly at the teacher.
If a pin dropped...well, first off, that would hurt the poor pin. Why was it always the pin anyway? Why not a paperclip? Regardless, the room was quiet enough to hear one of those things drop.
Anyway...
Classes don't normally have the same, general thought. High school especially, since of the many types of characters and mindsets for each student. Yet for the first time, everyone in the classroom (omitting one) had only three words in their heads:
What. The. Heck?
What was Sally talking about? Base symbols? No spaces and...what? Where did she get that information? Nobody's been taught anything about ancient text since roughly ten minutes ago!
But...
The way she said it...
It was as if...
"The hell are you talking about?" burst out Reaper into the silence, his voice sharp despite the obvious tinge of uneasiness. "How do you know that?"
"I studied it, sir," replied Sally calmly, no trace of nervousness or hesitation detectable. She didn't play with her hands, or shift her weight from foot to foot. Because that would be showing fear. And she didn't want that.
At all.
No, she stood tall and unflinching, eyes gleaming with an emotion nobody's ever seen her with.
Jack's jaw dropped to the floor when she shot him a warning, half-lidded sideways glance.
Unintentionally being completely appealing.
Damn...if that didn't turn him on...
Uh...he didn't just think that.
"You studied it?" deadpanned the teacher with an almost disbelieving look on his face. His red eyes finally returned to its normal hue. Good thing, too, because Sally thought he looked like a creeper. And not in a good way, either. "You freaking studied it? How is that possible? How the hell is that possible?"
"It's possible, sir."
"It's poss—alright, so if I asked you if you were fluent, you'd tell me you were?" he taunted coolly, leering at the younger ghoul.
In response—almost the complete opposite of what he was expecting—was a very small smile.
"I am, actually."
And he'd had it.
He snapped.
Finally.
"You're lying!" he yelled, still not completely over the previous outburst of the class that basically booed him off the nonexistent stage. "Nobody's seen this kind of garbage in centuries! What makes you think you know all about it when you haven't even lived a millionth of how long I have?"
"Not all old men are wise," Sally answered after a beat, lips twitching upwards slightly as though she wanted to smile. Which she did.
"What are you saying, you bratty little wench? Are you implying that I don't know any more than you do?"
"Like a boss."
See, she really could help it; she was having so much fun that she'd decided to drop all seriousness. Banters were especially enjoyable with people who didn't know how to throw comments and insults right back at you.
And she was getting a little bit bored.
Well, at least she secured herself some excitement—half a second later, the teacher had all but reverted back to 'Grim Reaper' mode (complete with the hood and glowing red eyes) and was now pointing his scythe at her. Darkness began to form around the blade.
"GET DOWN!" she called out to everyone in the vicinity, watching as all but her (ironically enough) fell to the floor and cowered under the table. At least, she thought everyone did.
"Sally!" yelled an angry-looking Jack, tugging down on her hand. She blinked; how did he get beside her so quickly? Regardless, she frowned at him and proceeded to gently kick his body away, managing to move him back to near his own desk where he belonged.
"Don't move," she mouthed to his shocked face, not realizing that he was actually blushing instead of her for once.
Huh.
If she had paid attention, she'd have realized ol' Jack-o got a nice shot of her pretty black panties when she kicked him.
And of course, if she had known that, she'd have been predisposed to kill him. But there was always time for that later...
Moving on...
Breezily, she glanced at the growing dark sphere Reaper was still creating, probably to harness as much power as possible. The lights of the classroom had been mysteriously put out, so the glow of the scythe illuminated the area. Unreal and almost right off a page of a tacky comic book, it was a funny sight, really, but the knowledge that it was still pretty dangerous made her keep from laughing at the absurdity of it all.
Tch.
"So, did you ever think of going into interior decorating, or are you just experimenting with that design?" she asked him as the ball grew larger and larger, with black spots circling it and tiny streaks of thunder dancing around. Don't blame her; it did look like something found in a catalog. Not the Grim Reaper, by the way, because nobody would really buy him to decorate their homes—that would be really weird and creepy; she meant the prettiness of the sphere of darkness. Ha.
Then Reaper began, in a voice to rival that of an enraged Oogie Boogie and Jack Skellington combined:
"YOU SHALL SUFFER FROM ETERNAL NIGHTMARES FROM NOW UNTIL THE END. AND WHEN YOU WAKE, IT WILL BE TO A BLAZING INFERNO OF—"
"You really should get out more—"
"—PAIN AND TORTURE WILL FOREVER GRACE YOUR—"
"—would that even really be gracing anything—?"
"—FACE THE WRATH OF THE GRIM REAPER, MASTER OF DEATH—"
"—that title's been claimed by several ghouls already, you know—"
"SHUT UP! LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY, AND LISTEN GOOD, FOR IT WILL BE THE LAST THING THAT REACHES YOUR EARS!"
"It's 'listen well,' by the way."
Sally was really having fun.
And that, my dear children, was why Reaper suddenly gave up all his shenanigans-slash-traditions (because really, why would anyone yell out the upcoming doom? Why not just wait for it to be a surprise?) and simply charged at the poor rag-doll.
See what words reduce ancient monsters into?
The lights flickered right back on, but only dimly. Many of the students gaped as the monster drew nearer to the unfazed teen. Jack moved to block her.
In fact, had the door not slammed open to reveal a flustered Professor Corpse, who then threw himself at the substitute and pinned him against the chalkboard with such force they never expected from him, then maybe Sally would have gotten mauled.
Or not. Igor had her trained in the art of butt-whooping, remember?
Mellow Instructor versus Substitute Creep; who will win?
"GRIM! What the hell do you think you're doing?" snarled the more favorable teacher whilst shaking the other's collar threateningly. It was an odd sight; Corpse never got mad before. He was the most laid-back teacher, after all, with his constant 'study hall' periods and naps in the lounge. Sometimes he forgot to show up to class completely and they simply sat there for two or three hours before the next teacher came and panicked. "Why would you attack a student? And Miss Finkelstein to boot!"
"Damn that, damn her, and damn you! That little—"
"Shut it! Do you have any idea who you're referring to?"
"Yes, I freaking do! That girl's been a pain! What makes her think that she can say she's fluent in an ancient language half of us don't even know about? Or that she's smarter than me?"
"Oh, I don't know, because she is?"
And suddenly, Sally paled. For the first time that day, she finally showed the fear in her face. She really hoped Corpse wouldn't say anything about her...
But of course whoever ruled the Underworld would not let her off the hook that easy.
They decided to make it worse.
"What are—?"
"Sally Finkelstein is the special case to our Academy! She's the school genius! Do you know that all the benefits we were given are because of her? All Academies in the damn Underworld fought to have her study with them! And trust me, there are several that are better than ours, but she picked us anyway! Her I.Q. is off the charts! Probably a hundred times higher than yours! She has never missed a question on any test, including the one we give across the Worlds! She is the only reason Halloween World is notable in the school system. Of course she knows more than you. She knows more than all the teachers put together! So don't you dare tell me you're better, because trust me, you are NOT!"
Sally sighed into the very stunned silence.
Cat's out of the bag now.
Damn cat.
A/N: Yo!
Yeah, I know, really short chapter. I guess this is some sort of filler. Heh.
I realize that my writing style is slightly different, but I hope it isn't too obvious.
And I also apologize for any mistakes.
I'll be honest,I'm not so sure if this fic will be discontinued or not. It's hard to write something you aren't too interested in anymore, but I'll try to fix that. :D
Oh yes, next chapter will probably be in Sally's POV. Heh.
Thanks for reading!