Frankie woke up to a sound very similar to the family alarm system. They yelped and fell out of bed. Did all places have the same danger alarm?
They rushed over to Clawdeen's bed, clamping their hands over their ears, heart pounding in their chest.
"Clawdeen!" they yelled, "Wake up! We have to go! Something's wrong!"
Clawdeen, half asleep, suddenly jumped out of bed, squinting as she grabbed her glasses, "What? What is it?"
"Can't you hear that?" Frankie backed towards the door.
Clawdeen paused, shaking out the drowsiness. She looked towards the sound and relaxed, "It's okay Frankie. It's just Draculaura's alarm." She went to rest a hand on their shoulder but the smaller monster flinched away.
Draculaura walked in at that moment to see a clearly distressed Frankie and a helpless Clawdeen trying to soothe them. Draculaura walked over to her side and shut off the alarm.
"What's going on?" Draculaura asked.
"Why do you have a siren as your alarm?" Frankie asked, still a little distressed. "I thought there was a fire or an intruder or an angry mob."
Draculaura frowned, "Sorry, I left my phone in here. I didn't realize it would be an issue."
Frankie breathed, "It's okay."
"I'll change it to something less…" Draculaura trailed off.
"Alarming?" Clawdeen offered.
Frankie smiled again and chuckled, "Thank you." they looked to Clawdeen, "Sorry I woke you up in a panic."
"Honestly? I don't mind." Clawdeen said, "I forgot to set my own alarm."
"Oh." Frankie said, "Then you're welcome!"
"You two should get ready for class." Draculaura said. "Before breakfast closes." She then left the dorm again, school bag in tow.
"How did you not hear that?" Frankie asked.
"I'm a heavy sleeper." Clawdeen shrugged and went to get ready for the day. Frankie did the same.
Since Clawdeen and Frankie were running late, they grabbed a bite to go, then went off to look for their lockers. Frankie was happy to have Clawdeen with them, equally as excited as Frankie was to be there. They quickly learned that Clawdeen was homeschooled and had no experience with other monsters either.
Frankie wondered if they could be considered friends. They didn't have any personal experience in this field. Did they need to know each other longer? Or was it more of a mutual decision? They had no idea but was happy to just enjoy Clawdeen's presence.
"I can't believe it! School." Clawdeen said excitedly, Frankie next to her looking around, "Here we are, walking down a hall way, with other kids! Just like in the movies."
Frankie wasn't entirely sure what she was talking about but the excitement and curiosity came with a pressure in their chest. They were still trying to grasp the concept of the building. It looked all the same yet so much different with the halls filled with other monsters.
"This is so cool, Frankie." Clawdeen said, looking around.
"This is all very confusing." Frankie said as they kept glancing around, "Most of my human parts were self-taught or grew up before schools existed." They stumbled around, unsure about their foot placement and still awkward about wearing shoes. They didn't really need them at home, "Am I walking right, highschool-ish? What kind of movies did you watch to prepare for this? Also, what's a movie?" They weirdly recognized the term but couldn't place the definition.
Clawdeen pulled them out of their thoughts, "Cool, these are our lockers."
Frankie smiled. They stared at the lock for a moment before a spark of a memory reminded them how it is used, and put in their combination, putting their bag inside.
Clawdeen turned to them again, "I'm so glad we're locker buddies."
Frankie grinned, leaning against their locker. The fact that Clawdeen seemed genuinely happy about that was baoding well for Frankie's hope that they were, indeed, friends.
Clawdeen was distracted yet again. "Look! How fun is that!"
Frankie turned and followed after her, almost tripping over themselves. When Frankie saw it, they were also excited at the capabilities of the vending machine. There one next to it that had a cartoon depiction of their dad. They knew Viktor and Mary had a few businesses but they never said what they were. Interesting.
"Look alive, ghouls." Draculaura said as she approached, hitting the machine with her elbow and grabbing the snack that fell out and walked away.
It was so casual and so…cool.
"Wow" they both said in unison.
"I don't think any of my parts were ever that cool." Frankie said.
"It's just like a movie." Clawdeen awed.
"What is a movie?" Frankie asked again, turning around to walk.
Clawdeen followed them and thought, "It's moving pictures with sound to tell a story. We should watch one at some point. You and your brains will probably love it. What are you into? Romance, comedy, rom-com, drama, dramedy, slasher, thriller horror? Maybe noir?"
Frankie blinked at some of the terms Clawdeen mentioned. They felt like they were short circuting, "I don't know what most of those are but it could be fun!"
"We'll find your genre." Clawdeen promised as they kept walking.
Frankie understands a lot of things, but there are things that they don't. They see the unknown as something exciting to find out! It is something they find good to affirm everyday with all the cool new information hitting them at incredible speeds.
They aren't completely in the dark about the world. Their various brain bits gives Frankie a sense of what is going on around them and recognizes many things. Though there are some things that still confuse them. They don't feel like they are warring with various personalities but they also still have facts from those brain bits.
Still, socially they get very confused. A prime example is when they first met a peculiar mummy.
"Check out the walking jigsaw puzzle" Cleo says
The term jigsaw refers to a picture printed on wood or cardboard that is cut into pieces of various shapes that are to be fitted together. The first was created by london cartographer John Spilsbury.
Frankie found it fascinating, but that wasn't really the point. They themselves were, admittedly similar to the art piece, being made of many pieces to create a whole image. So, realistically they can see the connection. It was a clever idea but the tone she used was a bit confusing though.
Instead of thinking too much on it, Frankie reverted back to what they knew to do when meeting someone new. A friendly introduction. It seemed to be the way to go.
"Hi, I'm Frankie." they said, "I'm made from a collection of dead people's body parts."
"And that hair? There is a reason why a dead person let you have it." the mummy said.
There was something in her tone that didn't seem quite right. It wasn't normal speech patterns, there was no complimentary tones to it either.
Then a feeling Frankie can't identify settled in their chest. The tone made them feel small. Frankie diminishes slightly.
Clawdeen spoke with a smile, "I totally disagree. I love the hair."
Clawdeen was definitely complementing them. So it stood to reason that, since Clawdeen was defensively complimenting them, Cleo's statement was an insult.
"Aww, who's this lost little doggy with her purple claws." Cleo said in a tone that definitely was mock friendly.
Just as Frankie was sondering is they should jump to their new friend's defense, Clawdeen ran them off with a ferocious growl. Frankie smiled as Cleo and her friend left, then noticed, across the hall, that a monster with green hair and sunglasses was staring at them. Well, not at them but at Clawdeen.
"Clawdeen, there is a very attractive monster staring at you." they said.
Clawdeen looked and Frankie concluded that Clawdeen thought he was also attractive so they pushed Clawdeen towards him.
Frankie smiled as she rejoined Clawdeen. The monster mentioned how she stood up to Cleo but didn't have the response Frankie was expecting. The gorgon had brushed the odd comment aside and Clawdeen introduced herself to him.
"I'm Clawdeen."
"I'm Frankie. I'm 16 Days old." Frankie said, hoping this will go over better than the little situation with the mummy.
Deuce smiled, "It's nice to meet you both."
Nailed it. Frankie thought.
"And don't listen to Cleo." He continued, "She's got mummy issues. She was wrapped in linen for a thousand years. Not great for the heart. I should know, I dated her."
"My heart belonged to a dead fishermen named earl." Frankie said, trying to make a connection.
Clawdeen seemed to be interested in the odd fact that Deuce had dated Cleo. Frankie had to wonder as well. So far, it seemed that they had nothing in common. He was so nice and Cleo was…less so.
Almost as soon as Deuce left, there was an announcement for Clawdeen to go to the headmistresses office.
"Ooo, the headmistress. She is so terrifying." Frankie said.
"NOW!" the announcer said.
Clawdeen took a breath, "I got this." she said as she started towards the office.
"Cool" Frankie smiled, following after the werewolf.
A/N
I just have to say, they/them pronouns was kind of hard to write consistently at first. I'm used to them in speech but it threw my writer brain for a loop.
I also should have mentioned this earlier but I am non-binary as well it's one of the reasons why I took to this and G3's Frankie so much. I have days that are more dysphoric than others and some pronouns just hit a nerve or dump on my self worth.
Anyway, you didn't ask for my life story so here we go!
