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Solo Part 2

Pepin arrived at her host family's house that Frightday night with nothing but a jump-drive for a change of clothes. Spending the weekend with them had to be booked in advance but they were no less excited to see one of their favorite fosters to come through in years. When the train finally left, Pepin giggled and bounced around on her tippy toes as she watched the figure of one of their youngest biological scarelings press its face to the glass . Surrounded by a warm orange glow, she could tell they had already started a great big dinner for the household of over 15.. not including minis. A couple of stomping sounds and soon the door opened and a cyclops peered down under the top of the doorway. "Hello Pepin-" it said, its deep, dopey voice as chipper as ever.

The glitch ghost felt her pixels going berserk off the edges of her form and quickly floated up the steps into the house that overlooked a shadowy crevice on the outskirts of Halloween Town. It was tall, very tall, and the interior was far larger than what the outside projected. There were tiny little windows littering the top of a spiral tower-like structure where she knew the scarelings slept. Every night while she stayed there she remembered each of them would be given a clean pair of socks, always ones that fit with little orange and black stripes knitted by the ageless ghoulmama. Ghoulpapa would slowly get around to each bed and kiss each one goodnight after they had a glass of water, and mom and pa would stand in the doorway wishing them a goodnight. Only half of the children were actually born to them, the other taken in ghosts and undeads that were fresh to Halloween.

"Come in come in, we were just about to eat dinner, Miss Molyneau~" chimed Momma Screecher. "You packed light huh? Good ghoul, always thinking ahead!" Taking the glitch by the hand she led her into the home and let the tallest boil shut the door behind them. "Its so good to see you again, its been over a year," she said, Pepin nodding ecstatically. A couple of the younger scarelings hid shyly under the enormous banquet table that had clearly seen better years. Etched over, stained, and possibly broken more than ten times, it still held up for dinner time. A pair of twin ghouls were racing down the stairs tugging at a poppet that had lost a limb already. They screamed when they realized who was there visiting and dropped the thing on sight.

"MISS PEPIN MISS PEPIN-" they chanted in unison and linked arms before spinning around the ghoul who started to move in slow cuts of motion. It was like making a whirlpool in the bathtub, the fast they spun the more Pepin glitched out.

"Ghouls, ghouls, stop it you're going to make her sick and we already have ectoplasm casserole in the oven," Mrs. Screecher reached to grab the two by their shoulders and pull them away. The cyclops boil lumbered over to the table with a tray in hand and suddenly all hell broke loose in the dining room. Scarelings danced at his enormous feet and giggled and shrilled with excitement at whatever he was carrying while the older ghouls and boils already sitting at the table started pounding their fists and shouting.


"IEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

From the kitchen arrived a tall and dapper fellow, dressed quite nicely in the sort of clothes a demon would wear but was actually a creature of the undead. After his ear-piercing shriek, the entire room had calmed, nobody dared speak and nobody moved (much). "We have tonight a special guest. Some of you remember her and some of you have yet to meet her. The last scareling to leave our nest-- Miss Pepin Molyneau," he said and bowed towards her. "Everyone please say hello."

Suddenly a roar of various noises, high and low pitched and some longer than others greeted the glitch ghoul who blushed a dark grey. "Aw thank you Papa-pa-pa-pa" That famous skipping sound in her voice made the man flash a jagged but sincere smile. Both he and the Mrs. remembered their names being repeated well. "I have some good news for everyone and I'm excited and super nervvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv---

about it. But we can discuss it over dinner right?"

"Absolutely Miss Pepin. EVERYONE? Dinner is served." Once again the man bowed and out of the kitchen the eldest three brothers came with carts stacked with food trays. Nothing was served in family sized dishes, everything had been prepared, sorted, cut, weighed, and organized to fit the needs of each family member. Pepin was given her tray first after being shown her seat. The special guest chair was splattered with various slimes, stains, and oozes from guests past. It was a throne of judgment- if you were generally liked then usually nothing was thrown at you. If you were say the teacher from the younger dayscare down the road? Usually you were welcomed with a little more hesitation.

Everyone began eating almost immediately. The sound that echoed through the room of smacking, crunching, sloshing, and growling was utterly voracious. But Mr. and Mrs. Screecher and their parents seemed to be perfectly fine with it. The louder, the better the food obviously tasted. Pepin was a quiet eater but at one dinners' past she was dared to throw her face into a slime cake- needless to say she went through with it and merriment was shared around the table.

"So Pepin what is this good news you speak of?" Mrs. Screecher asked. Only a couple of the nearby children, including the twins, were paying close attention to what the ghost had to say.

"Well its been almost a whole year since I've been at Amityville... as you guys kn-kn-kn-know. Exams are coming up and if I pass.. I will be a knob!"

"That is WONDERFUL Pepin!" clapped Mr. Screecher. "Absolutely wonderful, we are so proud of you!" The Mrs. was nodding her head and the twins just gasped with excitement. "Does that mean you will get to bully the other kids?
Will you hack all of their groansprings?
What happens when you're thrown in a locker at school?
Does it hurt?
Who teaches the bully class?"

Riddled by as many questions as she herself tended to ask, Pepin was prompt with her answers. "It might, there are still Hobs that are higher than that. I think Im getting too old to hack groansprings, I want to mess with something more dangerous," she giggled then hiccuped through a couple of frozen frames of motion. "I have never been thrown in a locker but I hid in one when I was spying on the gym teacher and the secretary. It doesn't hurt at all its fun, you can scare when you're in them. I dunno who teaches that yet but I am going to sign up FRRRST TH-

ING."

The ghouls looked absolutely fascinated by her answer. So fascinated that they couldn't rebuttal with any more interesting questions. "Be sure to let us know how you do on your exams so we can put it in the report card hall of fame-" Mr. Screecher chimed in after swallowing some pumpkin spice bread. "The scarelings love that competition. Even if you're not here, its like they have to meet the standards of these mysterious and talented figures that maybe slept in the same bed they did once."

Pepin nodded with another grey blush. "I remember the hall of fame. I remember Patty Scartooth and her track record with the headmistress at that ghoul's academy. I want a track record like that," she giggled and finished up.

Cleanup at the house was swift and painless. Trays were merely dumped into a giant crate which would later be power washed by the sons. "We don't have enough room on the desktop so we had to get a new laptop. It doesn't have much for a hard drive but we haven't put anything on it so that you have optimum room to sleep." Mrs. Screech started directing Pepin up to the room where the scarelings slept, hoping to beat the rush and let their guest have ample time and space to get ready for bed. Pepin yawned until her voice scratched out into an eight-bit tone, and rubbed her noisy eyes. "Thanks Momma, i would have brought my own room but I have it kinda chained down."

"Wouldn't want students to run off with your house huh?" she teased and the two laughed, their voices echoing through to the roof of the spiral room. After making sure Pepin was properly accommodated, she kissed the ghoul on the forehead and brushed back her hair. "Thank you for coming to visit us. We are always concerned for those that come through here even if they are as tenacious as you," she smiled. "Be sure to email us if you need anything. I mean tonight and anytime really," she laughed. By the time Pepin had stayed a full year at the house everyone was used to the change in technology.

Soon enough as Mrs. Screecher left, the stampede of children emerged into the room and surrounded the curious-looking glitch ghoul floating beside her 'bed'. "Where are you sleeping?
Is that a laptop?
Neato do you esplode when you get poked?
Can we play hide and seek bef-"

"Ghouls that's enough." Ghoulmama and ghoulpapa had arrived. There was a collective 'awwwwwww' from the herd of scarelings as they quickly scattered to their respective beds. "It's time for night-night. Lights out in five minutes," she said sweetly and slowly to them. "You can ask Miss Pepin about everything tomorrow okay? She's here the whole weekend you know~" With wide-eyes and all grins, the children creepily stared at Pepin, obviously pleased to know she was going to stick around for a little bit. "Everyone? Goodnight."

"Goodnight ghoulmama, goodnight ghoulpapa, goodnight Mrs. Screecher, goodnight Mr. Screecher-" The disoriented blabbering of too many people trying to talk at once actually paused and finally ended with, "and goodnight Miss Pepin."

Pepin smiled and covered her mouth. "G-g--ggg-goooooodnight every on---oonneeee-e-e-" The night ended with the soft giggle that everyone including Pepin was guilty of uttering. Soon everyone would be sound asleep as Pepin's screen-saver played a quiet, lulling tune.

Solo Part 4

A weekend with the foster family went by too fast. Pepin had barely noticed when Spookday had come around that she had to hop on the train back to Amtiyville. Wishing her host family and each of the children goodbye was hard. She'd forgotten just how CUSHY she had it there! Free food every night practically prepared with a show? Who wouldn't enjoy that? Sighing she tossed up her jump-drive she'd brought and turned back to wave one final time.

"I l-l-like you guys!" Pepin smirked, a joke the house played on one another despite loving each other very much.

"Bye Pepin, we l-l-l-like you too," replied Mrs. Screecher before turning and whispering something to her husband.

"OH Pepin hang on we almost forgot-" Mr. Screecher stepped forwards with a small satchel in hand. "Just to get you through the next year and all. Well.. sorta. ITS NOT MUCH, but.." he sighed nervously but the glitch ghoul just grinned wildly. "Thank you Mr. S-s-screecher," she cooed before pecking him on the cheek. The train had arrived soon enough and she presented her school pass to board.

Back to school... and time to take some exams.