Chapter 21: Tragic Incident
Thatch, Slither, and Casper barely made it into gym class right as the bell rang. The teacher could only look at them disapprovingly as they rushed over to the bulk of the class. But of course, he never seemed to approve of anything short of the best. It was like his brain couldn't see the gray area, only black and white. It was annoying but who were they to speak out against their dimwitted gym teacher. "Now that we're all here, we'll be doing our physical today." His voice boomed in the large room, louder than necessary to talk to the class of children before him. Many of the students groaned, knowing exactly what that would entail. Thatch seemed really annoyed by it, adjusting the tightness on his cloak by his father's bat clasp so it was firmly held to his shoulders. Casper weakly smiled, rubbing the back of his neck. Geez, today was certainly a day.
The first thing they had to do was chase that dumb stuffed fleshie around the track and keep up with it, and so they did. Casper always hated this task because wouldn't he just float after something if he really wanted to catch up? But in this exercise, he was forced to run like everyone else. As they did every lap their teacher made notes on the clipboard, timing and judging everyone. Casper just wanted to keep pace with Thatch more than anything, though Thatch was being a try hard so Casper actually had to put in a good bit of effort to stay at the front of the pack of students. As they ran Casper kept looking over to the vampire, and he swore every time he did he was going to trip himself up.
Thatch's eyes were so focused on the stuffed fleshie always out of reach. The way his cloak blew behind him, so smooth and hiding his quick movements as he ran. Honestly, it was enchanting to watch, though not as soothing as when Casper would watch the vampire write. Something about the calm elegance suited thatch much more, even if Thatch seemed amazing in any situation, at least in Casper's eyes.
After the normal 5 minute run, they were instructed to climb up a rope. Again, Casper found it dumb. He could fly, and so could Thatch. Why would they be required to do such a thing? The ghost rolled his eyes, watching one by one as the students tried to climb. A few could, some couldn't. Honestly, it was like trying to make a monkey and a goldfish climb a tree, it wasn't a fair test to judge them all. But this was Scare School and things were bound to be unfair, so he just sucked it up.
When it was Thatch's turn Casper admittedly watched closer, seeing the vampire huff and start to climb up the rope. He did find it odd how Thatch climbed. Most people just tried to go up and down it like a pole, but when Thatch climbed he made the bottom of the rope wrap around his right ankle, and as he went up he was able to use his right leg to push down against the wrapped rope, pushing him up more. It seemed pretty effective, this way Thatch never lost any ground as he climbed- like some students did when they accidentally slipped up.
"Hey Mantha, what is Thatch doing?" Casper whispered to his zombie friend. Casper hoped the zombie knew more than he like always, and so it was only natural to turn to his friend whenever he had a question. He knew he was going to be doing that a lot with Thatch, after all, it had been Ra and Mantha he turned to when he felt his emotions get all jumbled up in the first place. Mantha pushed her purple hair back and shrugged lazily as she stared up, watching the vampire climb.
"I dunno really, I've seen fleshies do the same thing when climbing. Apparently, it's how they climb a lot of the time."
"Really, when did you learn this?"
"At Jimmy's school- that day we were sent in to see if we could scare his whole gym class." She noted simply, her arms crossed over her chest. The ghost knew Mantha hated this test, and for good reasons. Casper nodded and continued to watch the vampire as he reached the top. Thatch tapped the ceiling beam, then as he loosened the wrap on his ankle he easily slid back down, softly landing with a gentle thud on the padded mattress below the rope. Thatch dusted his hands off and grinned proudly as he walked over to Casper, the class thoroughly impressed with the vampire's skills- as was perusal. At times like these such things of who's side you were on was often casted out of mind, instead of more focused on grades and more important things- which was a relief to the new couple. For the first time in a long time, things actually felt normal, the way it should be.
"Good job," Casper said happily. Thatch shrugged and held the ghost's hand again, his chest puffed out proudly, but Thatch stood at such an angle the teacher couldn't see their hands intertwined. Casper understood why. Students were a battle, getting the teachers involved would be a war. They just wanted the peace to last as long as it could for now. Just them being them, doing normal school stuff.
The couple watched Mantha go next. She only got up about halfway before her arms decided to detach from her body, causing her to fall all the way back down. Her arms still remained on the rope, clutching it tightly as her body landed harshly on the mattress with one big thud, making her head pop off and roll off the mattress and onto the cold stone floor- and luckily towards the friendly ghost. Casper released Thatch's hand and moved quickly to pick her head up off the floor, brushing her hair away from her face so the zombie could properly see. "Hey there." He said jokingly.
"Ugh… Hi Casper." She mumbled softly, her eyes looking around until they landed on her body. She then glanced up towards the rope and Casper watched as her dismembered hands started to slide down the rope and over to her body that was just sitting up. Casper went ahead and helped Mantha put her head back on, then helped reattach her arms. "Thanks, Casper." She weakly smiled as she got up, dragging her feet as their teacher wrote her a failing grade for the rope climb. She returned back to her spot beside Ra, who tiredly yawned then started to stretch. It would be his turn soon enough.
It wasn't the first time she failed this, and Casper knew it wouldn't be the last. "You made it up pretty far this time." The ghost kindly noted as he floated beside Mantha, who rubbed her sore shoulders. He always wanted to be positive and support his friends, and he meant it. She made it a good bit more than she did last time, so he knew she had been practicing and honestly trying her hardest. That's all that matters!
"I guess I did… Better than last time, right?" Mantha tried to sound hopeful about her progress.
"About twice as far." Thatch interjected himself into the conversation as he watched the two friends. Mantha shot him an odd look, making the vampire get defensive over his claim. "What? You might beat me on the tests but I refuse to let you beat me in gym- so I kept an eye on you. You really do suck in gym."
"Thatch." Casper scolded lightly, hoping to keep some sort of peaceful feeling between them all. "Be kinder."
"I thought I was?" Thatch huffed, his arms crossed over his chest defensively, looking at Mantha carefully. "I said she was better on tests."
"Huh… You did." Mantha said coldly but seemed to accept his words anyway. Thatch still had a bit to go with his half insults and half complements, but it was a step. Mantha sighed and looked as Ra was called up to go next. The mummy dragged his bandage ass up to the ropes and started to ascend up the dumb wiggling rope. Ra did ok, he was rather good at climbing- due to him always climbing his bandages in desperate situations.
Thatch decided to ignore Ra's attempt at climbing and instead turned to face Casper. He had little interest in the mummy, and much rather speak to the ghost at any given time. "At least these dumb tests aren't so bad."
"Really? Last time you said you hated it."
"Well yeah, cause I was forced to fly after Dummy Girl crash landed into me." Thatch grumbled, reflecting back on the last time they had to do this dumb gym exam. "She's wood and it actually hurts, plus she made my arm sore, so my wing hurt the entire time." He shrugged after a moment, trying to brush off the distasteful memory. "As long as no one lands on me, it'll be fine." Thatch said simply. Casper could only smile gently in understanding.
"You'll do just fine. Maybe you'll come out on top today." Casper offered, briefly noting how Ra climbed back down the rope and looked pretty dang proud of himself after reaching the top, actually faster than Thatch had been. "Guess it's my turn." The blue-eyed ghost said as he left Thatch's side, heading over to the rope. In all honesty, he didn't get it. All he ever did was put his hands on the rope and acted like he was climbing when he was actually flying. He's a ghost, he'll never need to climb! It was ridiculous.
So the ghost started to climb like it was required, but for some reason this time he wasn't trying to fly. He was actually putting n the effort and using his arms to pull himself up. He reached the top a bit slowly, but he was happy as he tapped it. He put in the effort and it wasn't as bad as he thought! Casper looked down at the students, smiling- hoping maybe to earn more of Thatch's approval until he saw what was happening below. To him, he saw a circle around Thatch, Mantha by his side. She was trying to help him but the vampire kept hitting her hand away every time she reached towards his cloak. Casper let go of the rope and flew down, quickly landing in front of Thatch and dropping to his knees. He couldn't tell what was wrong, he was utterly puzzled as he looked at the vampire, who looked to be in horrid shape.
When Casper reached forward Thatch did not stop him, despite his eyes being filled with tears- probably rendering the vampire nearly blind. Luckily Casper was probably the easiest student to recognize, being pure white and the only ghost. Casper unclipped the bat clasp and pulled the cloak off of Thatch- he didn't know why but if Mantha wanted it off, then he would be glad to remove it for her. He then tossed it towards Mantha to tend to it. Mantha grabbed the cloak and just carried it away from the vampire, all the way across the room- away from all the other students. Casper noticed she was guarding something else that was laying on the floor, but he couldn't see from this angle nor did he have time to pay mind to it. Thatch was hurting.
Removing the cloak helped the vampire to breathe in fresh air. He was still gasping and acid tears were streaming from his eyes- just from the pain and Casper had no clue what caused it. Thatch's eyes were blinking rapidly as if trying to blink away the pain, and with every breath, he wheezed as if breathing felt like someone had been punching his internal organs.
Casper felt… oddly calm. He knew he should be panicking, but he felt no fear. He rubbed Thatch's back in soothing circles, letting the vampire work the fresh air into his lungs and calm down all on his own. "You're ok Thatch, just breath." He whispered softly. Casper ignored the fact that FrakenGymTeacher was standing nearby, watching with an expression that could only be read as shock. Casper didn't care if he was being kind and that was against the 'rules', Thatch was hurting, and Casper simply didn't know why. He had only been away for a minute at most as he climbed that dumb rope, and now Thatch was in terrible pain. "Come on, you're ok," Casper whispered. Slowly but surely Thatch was able to breathe easier and he was doing better. The vampire shifted, looking so tired now as he just laid down, his head on Casper's lap, his eyes shut tight as he simply took a moment to recollect himself.
"Is he ok?" Wolfie asked worriedly, his ears pressed back and his tail between his legs. "What even happened? I didn't see…" He whimpered nervously. He had no clue who would be dumb, brave, or cruel enough to attack Thatch. Casper didn't know the answer either. Surely someone saw what happened.
Slither lunged towards Mosshead and Dummy Girl, only to be stopped by Ra who was desperately holding the serpent creature back. "It was Mosshead!" Slither hissed. "He used garlic on Thatch!" Slither's voice was loud, and Casper found it rather frightening when Slither was mad, but he had no time to be scared.
"I didn't, it was Dummy Girl!" Mosshead claimed quickly as he moved away from the puppet. "I'm innocent!"
"Me?! Why I oughta pumble you, I wasn't anywhere near that vampire, clearly, it was Monaco!" Dummy Girl screamed in defense, causing the friendly skeleton to start to yell and argue with her. All the students were now fighting, trying to tell their point of view and claiming who they thought did it. Casper looked away from his classmates as a verbal argument broke out, leaving their dimwitted teacher confused as to who was at fault. Casper already knew whoever it was would get away with this terrible act- wait no. That's dumb. They could catch the student. If garlic truly was used, they could easily found out the culprit. Garlic had a terrible odor, and Wolfie was a damn werewolf with a big sniffer.
"Wolfie, smell for garlic!" Casper said quickly, his hand still rested protectively on the tired vampire's back. It was a comfort to feel Thatch breathing easier now, and seemed to be in much less pain.
The werewolf's ears pressed back, but he started to sniff the air. But he didn't get along when their gym teacher called for all their attention.
"Dummy Girl, Slither, Mosshead, Ra, Mantha, Wolfie, Casper, and Thatch must all go to the HeadMasters! We're going to find out who did this properly. The rest of you stay here." The teacher decided in the end.
"This is all your fault." Slither hissed to Dummy Girl.
"Oh shut it." She said firmly. "This is dumb. There's no evidence that I was involved." She said confidently. Thatch was glaring but said nothing to her. Casper only felt dread, gently supporting his vampire. Honestly what a mess- and he had been so hopeful things would get better.
The summoned students all nervously walked into the Headmaster's office. Alder and Dash were sitting at their desk. The smart of the two was actually writing down a report to cover this incident.
"Ok, these are all the people who matter?" The smart one asked the gym teacher, who nodded. Seems they got wind of the events a bit ahead of time- those gargoyles were useful for something after all. "Ok then, what happened?" He asked dully. Dummy Girl was quick to yell about her innocence, while Wolfie growled and yelled about trying to find the source of the smell. He kept saying only Mantha, Thatch and Mosshead smelled like garlic, then Slither was claiming clearly Dummy Girl was the mastermind.
Even Ra got involved begging the Headmasters to keep Slither away from Dummy Girl and Mosshead for their safety. Mantha, Casper, and Thatch stood near the back and watched. Thatch would have laughed if the situation had not been so dire and terrible for him. He was still upset he didn't have his cloak, and seemed to be having some lingering pain.
Mantha was holding garlic, the object she had been defending before while holding Thatch's cloak- which also held the scent of garlic, and because she had such objects she was standing a good bit away from the vampire just for his health.
Dash sighed heavily, using the one hand he controlled to cover his eyes, already tired of all the talking from the students. "Silence!" He yelled loudly. "One at a time!" Alder watched his more bossy brother yell at the students, finding all this more interesting than anything- even if he was terribly confused, as always.
"I'll explain." Ra decided confidently, raising his hand up like a proper student watching attention. Dash rolled his eyes and made a motion for Ra to continue. "We were in class, all doing our normal thing when Casper started to climb the rope. Then Mosshead put garlic in Thatch's cowl-"
"There's no proof!" Mosshead yelled.
"Uh, yes there is, I smell it on your hands," Wolfie growled loudly, his nose wiggling as if to help prove his point against the lying student. "You, Mantha, and Thatch smell like garlic!"
"Yeah Mosshead, shut up." Ra snapped and crossed his arms over his chest. "Anyways Mosshead put garlic into Thatch's cowl, honestly trying to kill him I think-"
"It wouldn't have killed him. Dummy Girl said it would just make him sick and he would be fine as long as he didn't eat it!" Mosshead cried, desperate to get the blame off of himself.
"So now you admit to it," Slither whispered. No one heard him.
"I didn't do anything, it was all Mosshead or Mantha, that zombie hates Thatch, clearly she's playing innocent like she was just trying to help him!" Dummy Girl pointed to Mantha to get the attention off of herself.
"Mantha is innocent, she helped save Thatch!" Ra snapped. "Mantha wouldn't do that, and Mosshead is too dumb to think about garlic, this was all your plan, oh this is dumb." The mummy muttered after a few moments. "Headmasters let me prove Mantha's innocence and show who did this." He pleaded as he went up to their desk, letting his hand rest on the edge of their desk, peering up at them with his begging brown eyes..
Dash sighed heavily and just nodded, already looking tired of all the students bickering. Ra seemed relieved. He looked back at all the other students, and for a moment his gaze rested on Casper, who was right beside Thatch to support the poor vampire. Ra looked at the teachers, looking nervous as his eyes started to glow green. "I'm not good at this, but I'm reading my dad's book on how to do spells. I'll show you my memory of the events." He explained as the young mummy started to cast his uncertain spell.
The room around them was fading, and instead, the gym was coming into view, but they were ghost-like, ha, just like Casper. Everything was a bit faded, so the real students they could still see clearly. The real Casper made sure to keep close to the real Thatch so no one got confused.
They were all seeing what Ra did now. Casper and Thatch had just left each other's side and they could all see Casper heading up to the rope. Ra was making idle conversation with Mantha about how he rather climb his comfortable bandages than the rough rope when they all heard it.
Thatch gagged suddenly and Ra turned around at the sound just to see the vampire raise his hands to cover his mouth and nose as if the foulest smell had just been thrust upon him in some terrible turn of fate, his eyes filling with tears as the smell of the terrible vegetable wafts up, enhanced due to the encasing cowl. Thatch shook his head and stumbled back, away from Ra, Mantha, and Slither. As he stepped back, much to his luck, his foot caught on his cloak and yanked it down- choking the vampire briefly but also causing the vampire to fall flat on his back at the sudden tug- and thankfully for the suffering vampire it let the garlic tumble out of his cowl, Ra saw it tumble just about a foot away from Thatch. The smell remained with Thatch, for it had sunk into the cowl of his cloak, giving no relief to the monster.
The vampire dry heaved, one hand around his stomach while the other was laid on the cold floor as he turned over onto his hands and knees, trying to hide his face from the rest of the class in fear of being judged for this weakness. By now the whole class, besides Casper had all taken note of what had happened. Ra then saw it, Mosshead smirking as he retreated back, going to Dummy Girl so they could watch the vampire together. The two seemed pretty amused as the vampire suffered before them.
Mantha spotted the garlic resting right by Thatch now and gave it a swift kick, sending it all the way across the gym before she kneeled down beside Thatch, putting a hand on his shoulder, only to smell the garlic still on him so she was trying to remove his cloak, which he resisted.
Ra, instead of helping Thatch noticed Slither actually looked enraged and was heading right for Dummy Girl and Mosshead- so he had to get between Slither and the two monsters, trying to talk him down. Ra didn't seem to be doing too good at calming the serpent monster, but he managed to stop the attack just by staying directly in the way and was physically trying to push Slither back to keep him out of a fight. He kept his hands on Slither's shoulders, his eyes desperately looking around for help. A circle had formed around Thatch, and much to Ra's relief Casper floated down and kneeled before Thatch- and not even knowing what was happening Casper managed to remove the cloak and tossed it to Mantha, who took it far away from the vampire.
Ra stopped the memory there, freezing it in time with Mantha guarding the cloak and garlic, Mosshead and Dummy Girl cruelly watching- Slither ready to attack while many of the other students looked on in horror. The real Ra looked at the Headmasters, who was taking in the scene carefully. They didn't seem overly surprised by Ra's newfound power, as if they had been expecting Ra to do something like this for awhile.
"Now uh… Once this spell breaks does someone mind catching me?" The mummy muttered. Slither looked confused but nodded, and when the spell broke Ra collapsed on the spot and Slither barely managed to catch him in time, holding up the unconscious mummy. Slither looked around with desperate eyes for anyone else but him to take over this job, and luckily Wolfie hurried over and instead took the mummy, helping the poor monster so Slither could go back to being gloomy all on his own.
Dash sighed heavily. "Mosshead, 3 days of detention after your classes. You'll spend those whole 3 detentions cleaning the cellar." He ordered, and the gargoyles dragged the swamp monster, forcing him out. "Everyone else is dismissed. Thatch, return to your dorm- uh…" He paused as he glanced at Ra, who was still rather limp and unmoving. "Along with the mummy... Everyone else back to class." They ordered. As they all left one of the gargoyles took Thatch's cloak and garlic from Mantha, freeing the zombie of the harmful items.
Thatch stopped walking, looking back towards his cloak, but after a moment just let it go. It wasn't his father's cloak, it was just one of the spares so he could afford to lose it. Casper gently guided Thatch, helping the vampire out of the office and down the stairs.