Broken Souls

Chapter 21 - School Once Again

Monday morning brought C to near insanity. She had woken up at six in the morning, far earlier than her usual wake up time and was not in the best of moods. Thankfully, Papyrus was already downstairs making breakfast with Toriel, so the time before eating would be reduced considerably. Heaving herself out of the very comfortable bed, C staggered downstairs and into the kitchen, bleary eyes half-closed and hair an utter mess. Frisk also seemed to be awake and was already sitting at the dining room table, their eyes drooping closed.

"Hey Frisk." C said, slumping into a chair next to them. Frisk gave C the biggest, early morning smile they could manage, which wasn't that big but the sentiment was still there.

"Morning C! Are you going to school today?" They greeted. C nodded affirmative and they laughed,

"Wow, you must not be up for that huh?"

"Well, it has been over three months. And I was only incapacitated for a few days or so. I probably am..." C trailed off, "I just don't want to work."

"I understand." Frisk said, "When I came back from the Underground, it was so weird. Everyone had been continuing on their lives whilst I went through a cave saving a whole new race. It was quite hard for me to get back into school afterwards too." C chuckled,

"You probably had it harder than me then huh." she mumbled, "With all of that stuff."

Toriel chose that moment to walk over before Frisk could ask C what she meant, bearing two plates of hash browns and fried eggs. She laid a plate in front of each of them with a warm smile,

"Eat up you two, I'll be driving you to school in half an hour."

"Okay mum!" Frisk replied cheerfully.

"Kay Toriel." C responded, her mouth already full of food. Frisk giggled and then turned to their own food. The two ate their food in relative silence, listening to Toriel trying to explain to Papyrus that no the food wasn't supposed to be smoking and yes the fire alarm was needed.

By the time C had finished her breakfast, Gaster was also awake and had almost collided with her as she hurried back upstairs. He muttered a few hasty insults, mixed with apologies before disappearing downstairs. C meanwhile, went into Frisk's bedroom and ducked behind the sheet the two had put up to make a changing area. She sorted through an small pile of her clothes before finding a clean shirt and a pair of ragged black jeans.

At half six, Toriel drove Frisk and C to school. It wasn't a long drive but C was already feeling sick. Ever since she could remember, she'd had really bad motion sickness, although feeling sick on a perfectly straight road was reaching a certain level of stupid.

What had puzzled C at first was that whilst there was a monster school in the city now, Toriel had wanted for Frisk to still attend a human school. Apparently she thought that if Frisk separated themselves from humans entirely it would be bad for their job as a monster ambassador. C agreed, but pitied them, saying that humans were not the nicest to be around. At her remark, Frisk had shrugged and returned to looking out the car window, whilst C repeatedly forced Eev3e to stay down and in her bag.

When they actually got to school, Frisk wouldn't be able to see C again until lunch, which was all too far away for their liking. Although, they were quickly distracted by classwork and greeting friends. They hoped in the back of their mind that C was having as smooth as a first day back as she could. Although, with a half-sentient robot stashed in her backpack and having been around people like Gaster and Papyrus for three months, there were bound to be some problems. At least she had a friend.

===

"Howdy C!" Frisk greeted upon finally finding their friend's face among the crowd of students all rushing to lunch. C looked around startled then waved, somehow managing to navigate the throng of people effortlessly in order to reach Frisk. Behind C trailed another girl, with shoulder-length brown hair and a necklace similar to C's, only with a black heart pendant rather than blue. She waved at Frisk with a broad smile,

"Hello! C told me she'd made another friend, and you live with monsters too! That's so cool!" the girl said in a voice that somehow managed to sound excited and scared at the same time. Frisk blinked,

"Cool?" they asked, unsure of what the girl's intentions were by bringing up their family. C slapped her friend's arm playfully,

"What Rose means to say is 'hi my name is Rose and I'm a big doofus who finds monsters fascinating'." C explained, glaring mockingly at Rose. Frisk giggled,

"Okay then... Now did you want to find somewhere to sit?" they asked, indicating to the other students who had scattered themselves around the school grounds.

"Yes." C replied curtly, "I haven't eaten for three hours and yet somehow I'm hungry."

With both her friends laughing, C headed outside the crowded corridor to find a suitable tree to sit under. Once settled, the three began to eat their lunches whilst Rose endlessly questioned what monsters were like. Frisk was all too happy to answer each and every one, although C remained hesitant, having only stayed with the skeleton family. Frisk eventually managed to veer the conversation away from monsters and instead to how the older students were doing with their work. C began laughing,

"Honestly don't see why I came back. I've missed so much of exam material, there's no way I'll ever catch up!"

Rose frowned,

"I can get you extra work." she offered meekly, C waved her away,

"Nah it's okay, I don't want extra work. When exams come around, I'll just get Sans and Gaster to teach me. I know for a fact Sans dropped his job as a city sentry ages ago. He's been doing nothing with me for the past three months."

Both Frisk and Rose frowned some more at this statement.

"So you were incapacitated for only a few days then had almost three months of doing nothing?" Frisk asked sceptically.

C raised her hands in surrender and flashed them a grin.

"Whoops." she chuckled, "My sins have been exposed."

"To prison with y-"

Out of no where, a phone began to ring, cutting Frisk off with its annoying, loud ringtone. C jumped and scrambled for her bag, pulling out an old, battered looking phone. She almost dropped the vibrating object as she picked up and the loud yell came through the speakers.

"Finally!" Gaster's voice cried, "I had to remotely hack your phone to turn on notifications!"

"You can do that?" C asked curiously, glancing over at Rose and Frisk. They were both watching the unfolding conversation, and listening in, as Gaster had apparently found a way to make the speakers louder.

"That's not the point. You need to come here, now."

"Why?" C asked, shifting the phone to a more comfortable position as she lay down. Gaster huffed,

"Just come, it's for science!" He tried again. C chuckled,

"I can't miss school for a wacky experiment. And you were the one who told me to go anyway!"

"My past statement has no jurisdiction over what I say now. And yes you can miss school, because the experiment isn't wacky."

Rose opened her mouth to object but was too late.

"Okay fine."

The world flashed black as C sat up again and Frisk saw a glimpse of a blue jacket appear by C. In another moment of darkness, the jacket and C were gone, leaving Frisk and Rose alone together.

"I'm gonna get Mum to speak to Gaster when I get home." Frisk muttered angrily, "Dr Gaster can't go around abducting students, even if he is the Royal Scientist."
Rose grinned, a small payback plan forming in her head.

"Record it and show me. In the meantime, I have to come up with an excuse for C."

Frisk and Rose quickly exchanging phone numbers so the video recording could be sent, and also so they could keep in touch. Both talked about light and cheery topics for the rest of lunch, only bidding goodbye a few minutes before the bell rang. Frisk got to class in time, but Rose came in five minutes late. Not that she minded, new friends were important talk to after all.