immediately after Minipet Training 1.2
Siddie leaned over the sink in the bathroom, anxiously examining her face. Purple spots everywhere. Oh, Jack, how was she going to go to the rest of her classes today? It looked like she was blushing in spots. Ugly and embarrassing, and worse, it was her own fault. She hadn't paid close enough attention to the professor, had been too absorbed in babying Tox and surreptitiously peeking around the room for a good look at the other students. She'd been partly to blame for the sudden explosion of the FEAR mixture, along with its humiliating results.
Maybe it would wash off? She turned the taps on and scrubbed her hands anxiously and thoroughly with the bright-green soap, biting her lip and hoping. Rinse - no, the spots on her hands were still there. She tried again, and one more time, before conceding that no, the spots were there to stay. Oh darkness, how long were they going to stay? We they permanent? They couldn't be. No! There had to be some kind of spell or soap that would get them off. Was she going to have to go to Nurse Cricket? Oh, no. Please, no. She'd check all the other resources she knew first. Not that the school nurse wasn't good at her job, but she was scary, and Siddie suspected that Nurse Cricket was more likely to laugh and kick her out than help with a - a cosmetic problem. And the bugs. The bugs brought too-unpleasant associations to mind.
Oh, no - what if Sammy saw her? Or Shekh? Or G? She'd have to explain, and her friends would know she'd messed up. Unless she fibbed and made something up. In which case, they'd find out from some other source and then they'd know she'd lied to them, on top of the horrendous embarrassment of being seen with these awful spots. Murphy's Law guaranteed that. Siddie wondered sometimes who Murphy had been. He must have been some immensely powerful demon or something, to create one of the inevitable laws of life in Halloween.
She could change out of these clothes, but she couldn't effectively hide the spots. Her usual style could help her cover most of her skin - opaque stockings to hide her legs, gloves and long sleeves for her arms and hands, a high-collared dress or jacket - but she couldn't really do anything about her face. A veil thick enough to really conceal her would keep her from seeing well enough, and she couldn't very well wear makeup - no company had yet come up with a compound that would effectively blend in with shadowskin while absorbing light properly to give the right deep-black effect. Normally Siddie was proud of her beautiful, smooth shadowskin, but there were moments. And this was one of them.
No, she couldn't go out like this. It was too embarrassing. People would laugh.
Tox interrupted her panicky inner monologue by standing on his hind legs and batting at her skirts, letting out a demanding growl. She looked down, then dug the bag of candy out of her pocket and turned over another piece for him. "At least you got really good candy out of it," she told him, and was embarrassed to realize her voice was wavering. She was NOT going to cry over this! It was so stupid!
She scooped the nergal schink up into her arms - he gave her no resistance, too occupied with his new favorite treat - and bit her lip, eyeing the door. Her room was halfway across campus. She could hardly avoid anybody seeing her. At least, maybe, her exposure would be minimal, since the bell had already tolled for the next class period. She'd make a run for it, hope she wasn't seen by anyone she wanted to impress, and hide in her room the rest of the day. Her classes could go hang from the Gallows Tree; she wasn't going. Not with these SPOTS all over her.
And next time, she'd pay more attention in class, jackdammit.
THIS IS HALLOWEEN
WHERE IT IS ALWAYS HALLOWEEN (and sometimes exams)
