Blending In

Hey everybody! How's everyone doing? I'm doing fine, and that's only a bit of a lie. I may have done something very stupid to my ankle and it's effecting how I walk. From what I can tell, it's a pretty bad strain and it has a lot of bruising, but I think the only thing that hurts more than walking without a cane is the fact that I got it from walking off a curb wrong.

I'm sorry for complaining, but I feel like I should just say this since it's being such a bother. Hope you're all doing well.

I hope you enjoy this chapter, though!

Ed wasn't entirely sure how to start what was going to be a tense conversation, but he was running out of time. It wasn't like he could keep blowing off Ghoulia forever while everything was going on.

It had been about a day since Ghoulia talked to him about... well, what they talked about. He tried shutting things off in his mind but repressing it did very little to actually make him think about it, at least from an outside perspective.

Ed understood what Ghoulia was talking about, he really did. And he wasn't lying when he said that he wouldn't mind actually dating her. They got along great, they had plenty of the same interests, and they definitely hung out a lot already. But there was also the fact that he was, y'know, a human pretending to be a monster.

While he wasn't exactly Double D or Ghoulia levels of smart, he knew that wouldn't be a good combination. Which left him with a choice; should they include Ghoulia into the fold?

His immediate thought was "yes, they should," but he was also really biased and stuff. The only reason Double D was allowed to have Cerise know was because she had just as big of a secret to keep too. Ed wanted to bring Ghoulia in because he wanted to trust her.

That also opened up a can of worms about whether the others should know too, and how'd they all react, and he honestly didn't want to deal with all of this-

"Hey Ed."

Ed immediately abandoned the train of thought, happy for the distraction. Even if it was related to the dilemma he was having.

"Ghoulia, how's it going? Good to see you too, Cleo." Ed really was glad that the mummy was here too. She definitely worked as a buffer for any awkward conversations he was hoping to avoid. "I was just... I actually forgot what I was doing here. Was I supposed to meet you guys?"

"Sort of. We wanted some help showing a new student around and we figured it would be good to have you around as muscle." Ghoulia gave a light tap his arm, seemingly just as awkward as he was. "He's going to raise some alarms, unfortunately, so having someone around to scare them off would be good."

"Are you forgetting we're already scary without him? Because I'm willing to remind some people if need be." Cleo patted a side pocket that had a storage enchantment placed on it. She never left anywhere without her staff anymore, much like the others with their own tools. "I've got Eddy working on another part of the staff right now and I wouldn't mind giving a demonstration."

"Can we please not become corrupt with power already? I'd like a few more years of bliss before going dictator." The zombie sarcastically said. She as joking, though she did give Cleo the evil eye. "Besides, Bloodgood forbid us from using that on school grounds unless it's an emergency."

"Aw. That's no fun." Ed had wanted to test Double D's glider later and hopefully not crash immediately. "I was hoping to lord them over everyone like gods. Angry gods."

"Exactly! At least it would get my father and sister off my back if I were allowed to show off some power." Cleo let out a frustrated sigh, huffing loudly. "They've been so annoying lately. I think my fame is bothering Nefera and Daddy wants me to actually use it for the family business."