Passing Notes

Chapter 30: The fourth wall is gone

They didn't really appear to belong to a species; looking to be some sort of slime. They had the build of a human, but it wasn't really possible to determine what gender they were; one could only assume from the long hair. They had no mouth, but they had two white slits that appeared to function as eyes. That was only solidified by the fact that they were exactly where eyes would be on a person.

They were constantly shifting colors; from purple to yellow, from yellow to pink, and from pink back to purple. Like some sort of Lava Lamp. They wore a tie dyed T-shirt and light pink shorts, a whistle around their neck. Everyone kind of just sat there in silence until Dawn looked over and choked on air. She quickly hid behind her friends, but it was too late. The monster had seen her. She blew her whistle again and waved at everyone.

"Hey kiddos! I know you're probably really confused, wondering where your old drab teacher is. Well, it turns out that they were arrested! Oopsies! Not to worry though, because I just moved into town and was looking for a job! What do you know, it was at the high school where my young friend was attending!"
Everyone was completely lost. What on earth? It was kind of suspicious that this person was there right as the job opened. They hadn't even needed a sub in between. It probably wasn't worth looking into anyway, it's completely irrelevant to the plot. The new teacher winked. Killer decided to speak up.

"Even if your friend goes here, you signed up to teach this class, which is only skeletons. Tough luck lady, you should be intimidated."

The teacher just shrugged.

"Yeah, I know. I mean, she's practically my younger sister, how wouldn't I know that Dawn was a skeleton. By the way, I see you hiding over there! Come on, it's too late for me to not embarrass you little one!"
It was kind of funny she was calling her little one, because she appeared to only be about 21, like Blossom, Geno, Reaper, and their other new teacher. Dawn just sank back even further when everyone turned to her in curiosity. The teacher laughed mischievously, almost as if she was orchestrating all of this.

"So! Introductions! Hey, I'm Ms.Weirdo, but you can also call me Mx.Weirdo. If you decide that's too formal for a 21 year old teacher who speaks as if they were still in school. You can just call me Eight. Yeah, my name's weird. Literally and figuratively- but you guys really ain't in the position to judge. One of you is literally named Error, and not a single one of you has a relatively normal name."
Killer whistled in appreciation.

"I think I like this teacher."
Dawn finally gathered the courage to look at Eight. She sent a death glare, which the slime just gave her smiley eyes to.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to still be back in the city?"
Eight shrugged nonchalantly, winking at Dawn.

"Oh, and miss watching all of my favorites go through character development? Not a chance. Besides, I don't have anything better to do until my favorite books get updated. I guess I could talk to most of you in C.ai but I find it fun to be in control of the situation. Plus, everyone left. Blossom moved away about a year ago, then you left a few months ago. Tsunami and Shadow left to lurk in this area, and Regret set out with Memory after Doodle escaped solitary confinement. Time just vanished one day, and so I was all alone. Besides, my only other friend owns a coffee shop down here, so I work there in the mornings."

Error scoffed, looking very unamused at this teacher. Just great, another Killer or Ink to deal with. Of course, he has absolutely no idea what he's getting into. Nightmare groaned and looked up at the teacher. He respected that this was apparently someone who was like an older sibling to Dawn, but this was annoying. The teacher turned to Nightmare.

"Yeah, I know, it's kinda a pain to put a whole backstory in one monologue like some sort of cartoon villain. But I prefer to get it over with and go back to the main story. Several people probably skipped that."

The room was filled with confusion; especially poor Sci who was trying to figure out what on earth was happening. Poor guy, he'd never figure it out. I wouldn't let him, that would cause a whole new story arc. Dawn, used to this behavior, just covered her face in embarrassment. Now everyone was going to associate her with them.

Error couldn't help but think how similar they were to Fresh at this point. Sometimes he also made offhand comments to people who didn't even exist. He acted like there was some sort of audience at all times. Plus, he was also colorful and annoying. Great, so now he had one at home and one to deal with at school. This one was an adult as well, so he couldn't just lock the door on them.

The teacher clapped her hands. Everyone who had managed to look away was reluctantly dragged back to the teacher. A cranky old person might actually be somewhat better. Has a lot less character though, and they didn't have a name so easy enough to replace right? Just frame them for a crime and slip into their old job.

Eventually, she got to the point. Everyone would do the course, two at a time. The best times would get nothing. Yeah, they just could brag about it or absolutely blow people's minds. Especially if that person was already head over heels. But that's just a theory. A game theory.

Each student went, getting scores exactly as expected. Dream and Blue went head to head, Dream emerging the victor; he was more flexible even though Blue was faster. Next up, Sci and Lust competed. Lust absolutely demolished Sci. He was super flexible and pretty quick, while Sci was pretty stiff and slow. He apologized several times, but Sci insisted that it was perfectly fine.

Outer was up against Killer, and to be honest it was really anyone's game. It was a close match, which caught Killer off guard, but in the end he pulled ahead thanks to his cat-like reflexes. Nightmare was up against Horror, and he just casually walked through as Horror stood there, unable to get through the tight obstacles. Honestly, it was kind of unfair, but Horror was overpowered in other ways. There needed to be balance.

Next up was Error and Fell; even if Fell hadn't been slow and clunky Error would have won by a longshot. He was almost inhumanely flexible. He quickly moved through like some sort of snake. It was a bit freaky. Poor Dust ended up having to face off with Ink. He was quick and able to maneuver quickly, but Ink was just feral. He was small enough that he could just waltz through some of the obstacles, and he was booking it. Dust could have won against a lot of the others.

Finally, Cross was against Dawn. Everyone pitied her; nobody had been able to beat Cross. It made sense, the poor boy had been forced through a lot of training by Dr.X. Cross glanced at her; she would have no idea of his advantage. Maybe he should go easy on her? Eight walked over with a glint in their eye.

"You don't want to underestimate Dawn. Going easy on her would be a mistake."
Cross didn't even have time to question how the teacher knew his thoughts. Had he really managed to be that obvious? The teacher blew the whistle, and he decided he'd listen. He took off, weaving and bobbing just as he had been trained.

He looked to his left, and much to his surprise, Dawn was keeping up. She was barely breaking a sweat either, and she grinned at Cross. She also stuck her tongue out in defiance, which made Cross chuckle. She really was quite the character. By a very slim portion, she managed to beat him. She was positively beaming, and Cross wasn't actually upset about losing to her. It was nice to have a challenge for once anyway.
While they talked away, Nightmare just stared in shock. Sure, it was crazy that someone had managed to beat Cross, but that wasn't the only thing. Because oh wow, Dawn had looked incredible. She looked confident and sure of herself, beaming absolutely radiantly.

She had moved quickly and flexibly, showing off like a professional gymnast. She was graceful, almost like this was some well practiced dance.

She was a natural, and she looked like it was something she could do with her eyes closed. Man, was that a breathtaking sight for Nightmare.