Furonica whined as she trailed behind Clawdeen. Her ears were tucked as she avoided the crowd of creatures all roaming inside the labyrinth of a high school. Even her glasses seemed nervous, not once sliding down her nose, too afraid to make a wrong move. She knew being homeschooled was way different than a regular school, but she didn't expect the stares. She wasn't even sure they were looking at her, but they were looking in her general direction, which was enough.

"Don't be nervous," Clawdeen threw her arm around Furonica. "You totally got this!" Furonica gave a small smile, momentarily forgetting the nervousness she was feeling. Then the bell rang, and it came back. She whimpered, pulling her ears down at the shrill ringing of the school bell.

Clawdeen winced, seeing Furonica's reaction. "You'll get used to it," she assured, giving her a pat on the back. "Come on." The two walked to a wall lined with coffin-shaped lockers.

Furonica looked down at the slip of paper with her locker combination on it. She tucked her bag and books under one arm and began twisting the lock to open it. Her brows furrowed as she tugged on the lock, and it didn't budge. She was sure she put it in right. She tried again, growling when it still didn't open. She pressed her head against the door with a sigh.

"Here," a voice said next to her. It wasn't her cousin, who was a few lockers down from her. It was a new, male voice. She looked over, seeing a boy with red sunglasses and snakes for hair standing directly next to her. He had piercings at the corners of his bottom lip, and a style that could only be described as leather obsessed.

Furonica took a step back, catching one of the books that was about to slip from her arm. She watched as the boy jiggled the lock and gave it a firm tug.

"There," he said, swinging the locker door open. "It's always a hassle to get it open the first time."

"Thanks," Furonica mumbled, stepping forward to put her things in her locker. The boy offered her a sharp-toothed smile as he took a step back, opening his own locker.

The front door of the school slammed open and in walked a monster, head held high with the false confidence they'd instilled in themselves just as they were walking up the stairs to enter. Black-and-white streaked hair was stitched into this monster's head, falling to the middle of their back. The monster wore patterns of different varieties that somehow managed not to clash too much. Their pale green skin was stitched and stapled in different places, holding them together.

They threw their hands up in the air. "Hey, what's up Monster..." their blue and green eyes darted around the hall, seeing everyone stare at them like they were alive. Immediately, their confidence left them, like a spirit in an exorcism. "High." They gulped. "I'm Frankie. Frankie Stein." A heat rushed to their cheeks as the buzzing came back to the halls as if they were never there. A passerby bumped into them, knocking the books out of their arms. The monster sighed.

"Need a hand?" Furonica asked, walking up to Frankie. She held one of their books in her hand.

"Oh, please don't tell me I lost one already," Frankie groaned, quickly looking down at their hands. They looked up, seeing Furonica holding a schoolbook with their name on it. She snorted, "Oh you meant that hand. Right." They grabbed the rest of their books and rose to their feet. "Thanks, I'm-"

"Frankie," Furonica finished. "Yeah, I heard." Frankie pursed their lips, scratching the back of their head. "I'm Furonica. I'm new, too."

The two ghouls walked over to the line of lockers. Furonica grabbed what she needed and closed her locker, the lock latching into place with a click. Luckily for Furonica, she actually attended gore-ientation, so she was able to get around to her classes just fine.

She and Frankie walked into their first class they had together. Frankie kept close to Furonica as the two scanned the classroom, looking for empty seats.

"Well, hello again," a voice said from behind them, walking into the classroom. The boy from earlier. He yet again offered a smile, showcasing his fanged teeth.

"Hi," both Frankie and Furonica replied. Frankie's neck bolts sparked lightly.

"I never got your name, by the way," he said. "I'm Deuce."

"Furonica," she introduced, shaking his hand. Her ears twitched as they started heating up. Deuce walked to his seat, and the two ghouls looked at each other, giggling. "Total hottie."

"I know, right?" Frankie agreed, turning to Furonica. "And did you see the way he looked at you?" The bolts around their neck sparked lightly as they stepped backward into the room. See, the thing about walking backwards is, you never know who behind you. Or would it technically be in front of you, since you're facing those behind you. The point is, not being able to see, and being as clumsy as Frankie was, something was bound to go wrong.

"Oh, my Ra!" a voice whined as Frankie's tall body toppled to the floor, limbs detaching. An alarmingly thin teen was on the floor next to Frankie, clinging tight to a designer bag, blue eyes frantically searching through it. Whatever the mummified girl was searching for couldn't be found in her bag. She sighed, closing her eyes. She slowly turned to Frankie, who was still searching for her right hand. That thing had a habit of running away. "Don't you know how to watch where you're going?!"

Frankie chuckled. "Of course I know how to watch where I'm going," they answered. "It's just hard to do when you're walking backwards. They noticed their hand running off with something in the palm. It looked like a jar, adorned with intricate gold and turquoise patterns. On the front of the jar was a hieroglyph of a heart. "Uh, is that yours?"

The girl gasped, a bit of sand falling out of the wraps covering her neck. She groaned, pushing herself to her feet. She chased after the limb, her body seeming to slow down the more the hand continued to scamper throughout the classroom. The monster fell onto her knees, grabbing her chest.

"I've got it!" Frankie called out, finally cornering the runaway limb. They chuckled in victory as they reattached their hand to their body. Wiggling their fingers around the jar in their hand, they turned around. They saw the monster on the floor, seeming to sink into herself. "Hey, are you okay?"

The girl looked up, part of her face starting to sink. "Give me that!" She snatched the jar away from Frankie, holding it as if it cost a fortune. "What is wrong with you?" She took a moment to compose herself.

"Cleo, she was just trying to help," Deuce defended, pulling the wrapped monster off the floor.

"They," Frankie corrected with a smile.

"Sick, me too," Deuce smirked. They turned back to Cleo. "They were only trying to help."

Cleo flipped her hair, "They wouldn't need to help if they didn't knock me over." She shoved the jar bag into her bag, quietly counting whatever was inside. "Ugh, how many organs does the body have again?"

A spark came from the bolts in Frankie's head. "78," they answered almost immediately. Their eyes widened and they chuckled in surprise. "Huh, I didn't know I knew that."

Cleo sighed, rummaging around in her purse. She pursed her lips, looking around the classroom. "One of them is missing."

Furonica pushed her glasses up, joining the conversation. "One of what, exactly?" She asked. Her ears tucked, "Y'know, i-if you don't mind me asking."

"My organs," Cleo answered, still looking around the classroom. Her blue eyes landed on a zombie at the front of the classroom, writing something down. "Hey, Ghoulia, can you help me find my kidney?" The zombie girl groaned, slowly putting her book in her bag. "Yeah, it's not in there." The zombie groaned again. "Of course I double checked. I'm not brain dead. Er, no offense."

Furonica furrowed her eyebrows. They were having a whole conversation, but Ghoulia was just groaning responses. She was speaking words, so how in the world did Cleo understand her? "Do you know what she's saying?" She whispered, leaning closer to Frankie.

"It's Zombie," Frankie said, heading over to Ghoulia. "It's pretty much an undead language. Right?" They sat down next to the zombie, extending their hand. "I'm Frankie!" The smile on their face slightly faltered as Ghoulia sluggishly shook Frankie's hand. "Oh! Also, Cleo! Um, don't worry about the kidney! You don't need two!" Cleo scowled at the monster, shoving all the jars back into her bag. Looking down into her bag, a small smirk spread onto her face, going unnoticed by everyone else.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This was supposed to be a bit longer, but I felt this was a good place to stop it! Okay, we have met Deuce and Cleorr! (sorry) Now we got to meet the others! This should be fun! Let me know your thoughts!!