Months had passed since monsters returned to the surface.
For Frisk, living with Toriel had brought a feeling of belonging to their life. Before, they had been wandering the world, never remaining in one place for long, never forming any long lasting attachments with others. It seemed normal to live life like this, and they had not expected that it would ever change. For them, life was about journey and adventure, and of constantly seeing and finding new things. Dropping down into the underground, then, had been the greatest discovery of all. It was also the discovery that would change things forever for them.
Perhaps it was that Toriel and Chara gave them a sense of security that they had never had before when they journeyed the world. Toriel was a kind mother, and she made their meals, so having enough food to eat was never a problem anymore. Chara was a close friend, and their living together had resulted in an intimate companionship that fulfilled their need for affection. It was these two new factors in Frisk's life that made them believe that it was better to settle down than to continue a life of journeying. But, at the same time, their need for adventure, for discovery, was the one thing that had become unfulfilled.
So, when it came to the day that Toriel's new school opened, Frisk was actually rather excited. School was its own kind of adventure, because they would be able to learn new things every day. It might be less exciting than going on a journey, but they trusted in Toriel to be able to keep their interest with her classes. They had always wanted to see how school was like, too.
Toriel's school for human and monster children opened with her as both headmaster and teacher, and she had hired twelve other monster teachers as well. Frisk and Chara were both fourteen and were put into the sixth grade. Luckily, Toriel was their teacher for half of their classes.
On the day that school started, Chara and Frisk walked to school together. Chara was nervous and, as usual, kept their head low, while Frisk maintained their plain expression, but felt confident inside. They observed that the school had much more monster than human students. In their grade, there were only three other humans. To Chara's relief, these three human children seemed much more interested in the monsters than in them, so Chara was able to avoid talking to them as they walked into class. Frisk sat down beside Chara's desk.
Toriel taught their first class, which was English. It took a while for her to get the three human children to quiet down, as they couldn't help but talk to all the unique looking monsters to find out more about them. There was one monster child whose head was shaped like a hand, with blue skin and red fingernails, the thumb and index fingers separated, and the human children kept trying to figure out how this monster could see and talk.
"Now, I understand the importance of allowing human and monster children to interact with and learn about each other," Toriel said. "So, you will all have time to talk as much as you like later. For now, however, please remain quiet, so that everyone can hear my voice while I am teaching the lesson."
Frisk looked at Chara, who was already shifting their feet uneasily as they sat.
Toriel started their lesson with a review of English grammar, before moving on to reading and writing communication. This segued into their next class, human and monster social studies, for which she was also their teacher. She started with a brief description of the geography of the world, noting how big the surface was in comparison to the underground. In terms of land area, the underground would be considered just a small country when compared to the sizes of human countries.
Then, she moved on to history, which she emphasized was difficult to teach, given the troublesome events that had happened in the past between humans and monsters. She did, however, mention something that Frisk found quite intriguing, and – as the day progressed – they realized that they couldn't stop thinking about it.
"It is said that humans and monsters are different in this manner," Toriel began. "Monsters look very different from each other, but – on the inside – they are very much alike. It has been said that monsters are empathic, reasonable, and peaceful. Humans, on the other hand, look very similar to each other, but – on the inside – they can be very different."
"That is not to say that that is a bad thing. This difference happens because humans have different cultures with unique sets of beliefs, values, and attitudes. It is not proper to say that any one culture is better than another, and – in fact – as we study human history, we will note that many events happen the way they do because of the clash of different cultures."
"We are actually at a pivotal moment in history, the moment being the return of monsters to the surface world. We shall see what will happen as humans and monsters start to meet and learn more about each other, sharing our respective cultures. There will, of course, be conflict. But, we cannot look at every conflict as a black and white issue of the interests of monsters and the interests of humans colliding with each other."
"There is a belief in some human cultures that conflict is inevitable and will always exist. In a way, that belief holds a certain degree of truth. Monsters have also always had conflicts amongst each other. Historically, the difference is that monsters have usually been able to resolve their conflicts peacefully, by talking it out, while – unfortunately – many human conflicts have led to violence and war. At the same time, there have also been conflicts between monsters that have not been resolved peacefully, as well as conflicts between humans that have ended without any violence."
"The takeaway from studying history, then, is not about how we can end all conflict – but rather, about how we can learn to resolve our conflicts peacefully, without having to resort to fighting. We shall see, in the coming months, if the conflicts that will arise between humans and monsters can be solved without the use of violence."
After lunch, they had maths and science classes. Chara had some troubles with those subjects, but they were surprised at how good Frisk was with numbers.
"Well, I had to count and compare a lot of different numbers in my head when I was going through the underground," Frisk said. "I guess I got good at arithmetic."
"Lucky you."
In science, everyone received their own laptops, which was due to a donation given to the school by Alphys' new research institute. They were given several links to websites to read for the day, mostly news sites, so that they could keep up to date with all the current events in the world. To 'motivate' them to read these websites, Toriel assigned them to do a report on one particular news event of their interest, which was to be due at the end of the week.
They were allowed to take their laptops home. Frisk and Chara went back to their house by themselves, as Toriel had to stay for a bit longer to take care of administrative duties at the school. As soon as they got back, Chara went upstairs to their room.
Wondering what was going on, Frisk followed Chara after grabbing themselves a bite to eat. Chara was sitting at the desk in their room, typing away on their laptop. Not wanting to invade Chara's privacy, Frisk sat down on their bed and opened up their own laptop. It was on one of the websites that they had to read for homework. They felt a bit too tired to read it right now, so Frisk decided to ask Chara what they were doing.
"I made an account on the UnderNet," Chara replied in a brisk tone. "Hey, I think I just found your profile."
"...That's the first thing you do with your laptop?'
Chara turned to face Frisk. They narrowed their eyes and made a sarcastic smile.
"You know, back in the time that I lived, there was no Internet," Chara said. "But I've always wanted to check it out. So, yeah, I'm going to check everything out!"
Frisk turned back to their own laptop. Come to think of it, they hadn't logged on to their own UnderNet profile in a while. Maybe it was time to go there and check what was going on.
On logging in, they found 4381 status notifications and 726 private messages from their old friends.
"Hey, I sent you a friend request," Chara said.
Frisk leaned over Chara's shoulder.
"What's that you're playing?"
"Alphys told me to get this program called Steam. Then, she bought me this game," Chara replied. "She told me that it's really scary and fun."
"Scary?"
"Yeah. It's like this: you wake up inside this castle, and you don't remember who you are. Then, you go around, exploring the castle, and you find and read notes, and you have to hide from all the monsters!"
Chara had turned the light off, so their room was dark. It was ten at night. Toriel had already went to bed, so they had to play with the door closed.
Frisk looked at the screen. The character in it was going down a dark hall, carrying a lamp. All of a sudden, the screen went hazy, and Frisk became startled by a loud noise like a growl. Chara jumped back in their seat and stared at the monitor as a disturbing monster rushed at the player. The screen became red, and then it turned black.
That night, Chara slept in Frisk's bed (again).