Mabel wasn't having all that unusual a morning the day she became aware of a six inch tall skeleton staring at her tablet along with herself as she read. Well, until that point.

She had been keeping aware of the mug of coffee sat steaming slightly, just on the edge of her viewpoint, to the left of the cushioned arm of the lazyboy chair enveloping her. This was her third cup today and maybe the first she would actually get to drink. There always seemed to be a vacuum of time between a hot coffee being too scalding to drink, and as soon as you ignore it long enough to cool slightly it has decided to become ice-cold. She didn't like iced coffee. It went down the sink. So she had been scowling at the innocent beverage periodically, attempting to keep an eye on it in between focusing on her screen, like it was waiting for her to let her guard down.

That there was recently another event sparking what equated to hot gossip in the sedate old neighborhood Mabel considered a 'wrinkly wasteland', was the main cause of her absorption with the local chat forum on her device lately. She didn't know who half the people on there were but they were all apparently living in the nearby area. And although Mabel wouldn't usually socialize with 'the old people' who had the most free time to be on there, this forum had turned out to be a wealth of entertaining rumors interrupting useful but less interesting local event planning.

A young housewife across the road having a handyman over for over an hour already?

-Well of course her husband is at the office during the day, people do need work done you know it's perfectly innocent.

-What work is she having done?

-It must be nice to have money.

-What like you do Deborah I know you go golfing thats not cheap!

-Who's sat on the voice channel on their own?

-you're on voice honey, press the phone option again on the left menu then exit.

-Oh i know her, nice girl, her family used to do one of the farmers market stalls in summer I think.

-Is it a new kitchen?

-Old boy who lives in the house by the old oak will know, he tends to remember everything

-They wont see you typed that, hold on I'll get on voice and tell them

-No, no they had a new one when they moved in, they cant be having another one already.

-You never know.

-Oh that retired architect? Very introverted, is he even on here?

-It's not that fella number 14 had in last month, the tree surgeon is it?

*"Hello"

*"Oh hey G- Oh you're gone"

-Oh does anyone have his number? The tree surgeon I mean

-That was him on voice but he's logged off now, nevermind.

-The tree guy?

-No the Architect

-Pity it wasn't number 55, how long are they going to leave that rotten stump there? Its making the area look run down.

-Oh calm down its only a stump.

-I still say we should start a HOA.

-LOL!

-You're kidding, no one wants that except you Mandy.

-We'd all be getting court summons for garden ornaments and 2 inch long grass.

-I'm not Mandy Im not telling you lot my real name.

-Oh come on we know its you.

-Anyone? The number?

-Just web-search it Rick.

Life had gotten quite exciting really. It put the usual old chit-chat in the shade. Events across town had finally caught up to their sleepy little corner on the outskirts of Ebott. If magical monsters appearing in the world hadn't already been interesting enough. -Dominating the news for the past few years with the surprising revelation that they just yearned to visit coffee shops, malls and community centers like eager tourists with the dullest home lives.

-Well, this bit of news back in spring may not have been on any six o'clock broadcast, but for the little set of old streets around Mabel's home in Treemont avenue it had been like the event of the century; monsters moving into the neighborhood. No one knew if more would come along in future and their first ever monster locals had arrived a few months ago now but there was still plenty to gossip about.

Now all but the most determinedly shut-in humans in Ebott city and old Ebott-Town areas had seen, encountered, or even had full on conversations with monsters by now, whether in part of business or socializing. It had become like an unspoken point of pride to have the presence of 'their' monsters giving the Ebott region a sense of cultural and historical gravitas. And this might have been a weirdly inappropriate attitude if not for the outpouring of curiosity and fervor in much of the monster population themselves towards 'their' humans. And their way of making life interesting in the various oddities of their behaviors.

Mabel almost felt a little left out, having only really had a conversation with a hand monster long enough to give him directions, and having thanked what turned out thankfully not to be a pot plant when it held the door for her to a shop. Otherwise it was just not much different from seeing various ones in passing in the streets and shops. Just the same experience as seeing humans was really. Even one or two people from Mabel's little part of the world had claim to a monster co-worker.

But having them in the neighborhood was a big deal! For a bored bunch of mostly retirees. And this was the topic of conversation she had been logging in for since earlier in the year, and now again in the autumn, when it seemed like something might have been kicking off.

Considering her neighbor's in some cases cantankerous and fussy varieties of characters, Mabel had originally been a little worried about what bigotry might be testing the waters among their innocent concerns, when the monsters were due to move in back in April. The little old dear in her layers of soft blouses and knitted cardigans may have looked huggable to her visiting grandkids, and may have spoken with that softly frail meander that the most sweet-natured elderly seemed to specialize in, but inside was a downright troublemaker eager to get out, and what better way than by being poised to get her teeth (still her own thank-you-very-much, aside from a few implants…) into any deserving bigots in a proud storm inspiring community justice.

It wasn't exactly disappointing that no bigots had revealed themselves, other than the well meaning type of accidental racism that comes from people honestly trying to be inclusive a bit too hard. Which she did her best to avoid noticing her own protective attitude may have strayed into the borders of too. And even better, she supposed, was the pleasant surprise of witnessing people doing a very respectable job of collectively self-regulating to correct many misconceptions about monsters and being inclusive.

The conversation from a few weeks just before the monsters moved in was still visible a little way up.

-No we don't need monster friendly areas, thats singling them out for being different. No to the welcome signs too, its very sweet Jo but let's not scare them off.

-How about a well timed community event? It's a bit early in the year for a barbeque but maybe we could do a little get-together with finger foods.

-Oh my someones fancy

-It's not that fancy its just sandwiches and drinks

-Isn't that singling them out? Not like we do this for every new neighbor.

-We don't have to tell them

-I think it's a good idea

-They'll know if they join the forum and read back.

-Eh who does that. And if they do -HI NEIGHBOR that was a welcome party because you're monsters and we wanted to show we're nice, inclusive, totally not nosey people.

-I can contribute

-We all can do that, let's do a gather round then see who's free to do the shopping?

-Me too, who can host it this time?

-Me if you want. I don't mind.

-Who's 'me'? Your handle just says Buster's mom and you have a dog profile pic

-Does anyone even know what they look like yet? If it's plant monsters or bugs or something they might like something other than sandwiches.

-If it's plant monsters Charlie might know, he's into gardening.

-I don't think that know-how works for monsters hun. Well I mean it might but best we don't assume.

-I think most monsters eat sandwiches

-Even plants?

-Yep apparently. Might not matter what type they are.

-Why don't we just look on the Embassy FAQ pages? There's quite a lot there.

It turned out they were skeletons. Even as monsters go, that one was a surprise. And of the few houses Mabel knew were for sale, it turned out they were moving into the one a few doors down from herself. She knew it was silly but she found herself secretly a little smug that her part of the street had been favored by these novel people, as if her personal presence had reflected on the desirability of the street over the years.

Also it might be amusing to see more of Deborah next door to them being as entertaining as she was when she worked up the courage to beat anyone else to welcome them first. The rumor of them being two skeletons was confirmed by a very flustered Deborah getting the offer of a selfie with one of them who was declaring she must be an admirer. Mabel managed to throw a coat on and grab a cigarette as an excuse to witness the show thanks to Deborah boasting about; that is, announcing the act on the forum shortly before she dived out among the busy movers to knock.

Deborah wasn't the lightest lady to pick up but the exuberant creature managed it happily for a hug. Mabel had to duck back inside after the sight of Deborah's little feet briefly kicking in the air after leaving the ground, as pretending to smoke turned into a spluttering laugh Mabel had to disguise as a slightly too loud cough before escaping to carry on giggling inside her hall. The cigarette, as always, was put out with the burnt end snipped off for relighting next time, never to be actually smoked. It went in a chintzy little gold-edged flowery ashtray by the front door, next to a small fan she used when she 'smoked' to keep the smoke 'out of her hair', supposedly. It was a very useful way of happening to be outside to see things going on.

The neighborhood social elites got right back down to planning so the two skeleton brothers could be invited to the little get together the next Saturday. They couldn't make it Saturday? Sorry we meant the Saturday after!

On the day eight skeletons turned up. It had apparently been misheard it wasn't just the two brothers moving in but their cousins too. It explained the extra furniture deliveries that had followed their move-in. More human, supposed 'neighbors', came along to the small party than seemed to live in the area as well, so it was lucky the cooks and extra snack bringers had ended up in an unstated sort of competition to impress as the most fruitful providers on the planet.

Mabel herself had been quite proud her tray bakes of honey glazed chicken and sweet potato disappeared onto plates in record time on the night. She had spent a lot of time at the party casually enquiring who had made this or that lovely dish, cake, or sandwiches, in turn responding that hers was the humble bake that had been well received. While it never exactly gained her any favors or benefits, it was still a satisfying point of pride that after raising three children and catering for six grandchildren when they visited, the grandmother was aware she was pretty damn adept at making her food the stuff of fondly remembered visits. Doing the rounds with the food as a talking point led the way to all the catch-ups, who's-whos, and little rumors her heart could desire, as well as a few passing chats to one or two of the skeletons themselves.

The tall one Deborah from two doors down had the original introduction to was called Papyrus, and was apparently in a friendly competition with his energetic cousin Blue to meet absolutely everybody before each other. Both appeared dressed in an extreme array of 90's style party clothes, and when not running round a house party attempting to make new friends at breakneck speed, apparently worked in the embassy. They had also bought food, but Mabel had only seen the remnants of the signposted and decorated corner of the kitchen theirs had been in. When both asked together if Mabel had tried theirs, she just asked which dishes they made and lied that she did and she loved both of course.

Though not rushing to get round, a smoothly spoken Sans turned up and introduced himself, made a few humorous quips and chatted about the brothers move to the neighborhood, then thanked Mabel for lying about his brother's food as he had 'removed it' straight after it was placed, for safety until they could get some more practice at human food. He finished this comment with a tilt of his skull to look above Mabel's head, so she turned to see what it was and found herself staring at an orange chest.

She looked up into a different grinning skeletal face, turned to look back at empty space, so turned again to greet this gentleman. He also thanked her for lying about his brother's food, and additionally thanked her for the glazed tray bake. Mabel was happy she could add her first monster fan of her cooking. Before moving on she thought to ask if there were any other dishes she definitely tried and loved, which got a chuckle, and she made sure to remember the crunchy lasagne and glittery burritos, the latter being the specialty of another smaller skeleton just across the room, dressed in a stylish black and purple waistcoat and open jacket combo.

He had pointy teeth compared to the others and very pretty purple eyes, and Mabel wondered if she could get away with commenting on that, but he looked busy for now gesticulating enthusiastically as he talked to a small group, so she moved on.

Although she didn't personally chat with any more of the eight cousins beyond a brief hello, Mabel got to the stage she had fit in about as much socializing as she could handle for the night, and as the music was starting to get a little loud and those who were drinking a little more into party-mode, she didn't hesitate to head out fairly early, to the comfort of her own home, her own company, and most importantly her own bathroom.

Ordinarily, when getting as tired as she was, Mabel had got to the stage in life she wouldn't worry as much as in her youth about social niceties, and would ditch to go home without any farewells. To anyone mentioning it after, coo-ing that she missed finding them to say goodbye, and asking how the rest of the get together went. This worked for birthdays, weddings, and funerals. And once for a court appearance.

But this time she did want to at least figure out who was actually hosting the party. The door was wide open when she arrived with a lot of others, and if the host was there they had been swamped in the crowd at the time. It was at a lovely modern house eight doors down and not one she had come to before, and prior to that weekend Mabel found out where was hosting by chatting to Charlie next door as her internet had gone down and she couldn't check.

Bless him he knew where it was at least but also didn't know who the host was, and it slipped her mind to ask anyone else before the day. She had made the most of having a good nose around, appreciating the gleaming black counters and stone floors in the fancy kitchen, the stylish living room with professional looking music paraphernalia and open plan, and made her way through this now to a face she recognized in Jane from across the road. Jane knew everyone and their family tree.

The little old lady meekly barged her way through dancing bodies, calling out 'Don't mind me"s and "Oopsie daisy"s and gently patting a burly gentleman on the arm with a big sweet smile and a "Oh dear it's a bit packed here isn't it?" when he turned to scowl at who tried to shove by. Poor dear was getting pushed around the dancefloor into him, so he dropped the scowl for a smile and helped her past the last few people.

Jane, thankfully directed her to the patio outside where the young lady hosting; not whoever Buster's mom had been, was chatting to a couple and a tall stern looking skeleton in a red and black band shirt and jeans, with a big crack across one eye. He was standing listening with his arms folded.

Prisha, Mabel remembered. So this was where the party girl lived. Prisha had been the subject of her own small amount of gossip when she moved into the street a few years ago. Being quite young in a nice house to herself prompted the usual guesses of lottery winner or inheritance, before the more boring eventual reveal was that she had quite a good career in a specialist IT contracting company. She also found time to do DJing, which Mabel wasn't familiar with in terms of how well that might pay, but was apparently fairly well known in that industry too.

Looking at the part shaved hairstyle and glitter eyeshadow on dusky make-up, paired with a studded leather trousers and ripped t-shirt outfit that Mabel supposed was very fashionable punk rock style, she considered that one career was likely the 'your dream job might not work out', and the other was managing to get into her dream job after all.

Prisha was one of the sort of people who Mabel was quite happy to make time for. Nice girl, as old ladies blandly say. But she was, and despite how a few like Mandy might wrinkle their noses judging the anarchistic look, the young lady was grounded, decent, and just plain sweet to those around her, all the while usually decked out like a K-pop hell's angel.

As if the call to live up to such a good impression chimed out past the dulled bass of the music inside the house, (and possibly the sight of the smiling silver haired old girl making a beeline straight for her helped) Prisha cut short her companions conversation with that brief sort of 'just a minute' hand-raise, and beat Mabel to the punch with a big smile and hug and thanked her for coming to the quote, unquote "quiet little get-together" as both had a small laugh at that. Seeing as Mabel was already bundled in a coat, the youngster also thought to offer an escort to the side gate so her neighbor could escape without having to fight back through the packed house, and topped it off with remembering to ask if there were any food containers she could bring back to Mabel's after washing. Lovely girl.

Anyway, where was she… Oh yes that was back when the skeletons had just moved in. The gathering worked out quite well for everyone to get a lot of the curiosity out of their systems judging by how much it turned more into a drunk enough party that everyone seemed to forget they came for anything but fun in the first place. The humans had gained a nice first impression of their new neighbors, and had satisfied themselves to have given the monsters a good first impression of themselves in the unofficial welcome.

This weeks, incident however, was potentially a lot more serious for the street. Defensive eyes were directed to the house three doors down. Mabel scrolled back down to a discussion that was still active.

Flashing blue lights outside are a very good way to get everyone logging on to ask what's going on, and even if this was in the hour after things had already settled down, the lone police car and an officer trundling up to knock and have a nice discussion drew the attention of everyone who wasn't already aware at that point of what had happened.

Mabel, while not privy to whatever was said to satisfy the officers concerns, was guilty as charged as one of the forum's primary sources of intel on what happened from what she saw of the main event, having suddenly needed a cigarette by her postbox after hearing shouting in the street earlier that evening, and was able to inform about the young man throwing an impressive tantrum in the skeletons front yard.

Her presence wasn't unnoticed by the two humans or the monsters, along with a few other doors opening to shed light on the pavements nearby, so if it may have added to the stress of the situation for the four skeletons dealing with this, it was easily distracted from by the screaming human throwing a lamp from his truck parked on their lawn to break, also on the lawn, where an assortment of dented boxes, bags of variably strewn items and a bike were spread.

Mabel saw a girl in the doorway, huddled with her arms around herself as she appeared to be the target of the yelling and finger pointing while the tall skeleton with the scar, whose name the forum since informed Mabel was Fell, stomped to place himself in the young man's immediate view to do some yelling and pointing of his own. Another edgy dark clad shorter one Mabel hadn't seen before strolled with hands in pockets to stand at a ninety degree angle to the human visitor and Fell, somehow giving the scene a more dangerous feel as the two of them seemed to automatically work together to split his attention.

From what Mabel caught when voices weren't lowered, presumably missing some of the more interesting threats, was that the young man claimed to be the girls boyfriend; the young lady was no longer in favor of this; the young lady had been no longer in favor of this for over four months now; the young man loved her more than these skeletons would ever do; the young lady was a whore; again the young man loved her and would treat her better this time; the young lady was living here now; if the young lady wants the rest of her stuff she can come and get it herself; the young lady should watch out in future; the young man should watch out himself.

By then two more skeletons had turned up from the house. The short black clad (oh his name was Black?) one with purple eyes also stomped up, and the young man went from having a glaring match looking up at Fell and starting to look like his nerve was failing, to flying across the lawn in a purple glow to land on his ass by the truck. Orange-chest appeared in the doorway and swept the girl into a teary embrace. His name was Orange? Maybe a common naming trend for monsters.

Mr. Ex boyfriend drove off before the police came and it looked like the hub-bub was over aside from some muted conversation between the housemates clearing up the belongings on the lawn, so Mabel considerately left them without an audience for that indignity and went back in her house. The cigarette had been stumped out on top of her postbox ten minutes before when it had gone down to ash, so the butt went in the bin this time.

The online chat became like a pinball machine of rumors flying for the next few days up until today, and still Mabel wasn't sure what was true or not. A young lady in a house full of monsters. Nevermind that. -A young lady in a house full of guys. And it took nearly two months for anyone to notice she'd moved in?! For anyone to post about it at least.

Still 'The young lady' because no-one had managed to put a name to her yet, had been keeping her head down and thanks to the threatening ex was being protectively escorted to her job at some cafe and to college by her housemates, one of whom was her current boyfriend.

Mabel was corrected by Jane that no, it wasn't Orange, but another lanky one called Rus who looked similar with pointier teeth, who had been seen in passing in a passionate kiss with his girlfriend on their front porch recently, and Jane was corrected that no, Red, the edgy one was her boyfriend who had been spotted hand in hand on a date with her. And she first turned up when they did that disastrous barbeque in June didn't she? Came over with a lot of food after theirs didn't survive the first attempt.

Maybe she had an identical twin? Didn't someone say she worked at a bar in the evenings? Someone said she volunteered at the animal shelter, surely we cant be talking about the same person. Amusingly a few more witnesses had popped up until it was hazarded that maybe the girl was dating more than one.

-Maybe that's just how skeletons date?

-What? All at once? Lol

-Sounds like they're all having fun

-a LOT of fun

-Good for her!

-oh please behave yourselves, aren't we supposed to be talking about a neighborhood watch here?

And back to the boring bit, thought Mabel, as the chat had got back on track to the overwhelming reaction to the Ex incident, which was to discuss organizing a new neighborhood watch, partly in solidarity against any future troublemakers that might target their monster neighbors, but also because to be fair, one house down the road did get a break in in the summer and the idea had been bought up already once and then been left neglected.

Mabel left the more organized members to their planning, and finally looked up to reach for her coffee.

The little fellow sat on her armrest looked up from his own reading of her tablet and they made eye contact, old human eyes meeting big soft lights in dark sockets. Neither said anything for a moment. Another moment came along and joined the last. Mabel reached out to her coffee, finding it cold, and looked from the mug in her hands to the surprise miniature version of her neighbor to ask, "Do you like ice coffee?"

He looked up with a big, happy, sleepy looking grin and shook his head.