"Hey Lisa... can I ask you a question?" Sally asked uncertainly as she walked down the hall with her tall red haired friend, Actually Lisa was more like a body guard, people were scared to come too close to the tall strong demoness.
"You can I suppose." Lisa said with a shrug. She was not what one would call the most sociable individual in the world. "But that does not mean I will answer it." She added icily. Sally was beginning to think that just because she sounded angry Lisa was not always in a bad mood. She was hard to judge with her lack of facial expression.
"Why do you dress up like a nurse if your just a kid? I mean... I understand that you help Nurse Angelica everyday but do you have to wear that uniform?" The question had been bugging her since her first day of school three days ago. She knew Lisa must have been expecting it with her mind reading powers constantly keeping Sally on her guard but she had never built up the courage to ask. That first day had been her most eventful, Jack Skellington himself even apologized to her in Study hall when Lisa left to help the school nurse and Sally was left alone.
"Long story." Lisa replied as the bell rang for lunch. Sally grabbed her lunch out of her locker, Lisa didn't take anything. She never did. Sally had yet to ask her new friend why she never ate anything but she was too afraid to ask. "But I suppose we have time." Lisa said taking a seat at one of the many smaller tables that was positioned as far as possible from the center table where Jack and Oogie were sitting. "You see Sally, I'm not your age. In fact I'm twenty two... or at least I was. But I broke a rule and Angie flipped out on me."
"The school nurse?" Sally asked sounding surprised. She really had no reason to be surprised. Nurse Angelica had the same faceless trait that Lisa was famous for. But while Lisa had hair the color of freshly spilled blood Angelica's hair was the color of gold and fell in a gentle wave around her pale and perfectly smooth face.
"She's my boss. Or at least was my boss for a while. But we had an... um... disagreement." Lisa continued her voice growing suddenly very cold at the mention of her boss. "I did something without her permission and she thought that I needed a lesson in cooperating with others." The way she was speaking made Sally shiver with fright Lisa's voice had become overwhelmed with bitter hatred her body structure had tensed and her hands were clenched tightly. "So she turned me into a teenager and sent me here so that I could become," she made quotation marks with her fingers and her voice took on an icy sarcastic tone. " 'Accustomed' to working together with others with power. I'll show her accustomed, once I get back to full power I'll-" Lisa began her voice pounding in Sally's head; her fist colliding with the table with such force the sturdy table actually snapped in half. She turned the pale faceless skin toward the broken table and shrugged slightly. "We need stronger tables." She said dismissively, as she sat back down.
"I sense a little tension." Sally said letting the subject drop as quickly as possible. "Are we going to get in trouble for breaking that?" she asked anxiously.
"Tension? Really?" Lisa asked her voice was more distant than usual. "No we won't get into trouble. Jekyll breaks things all the time when he turns into Hyde. Drives the teachers crazy but nothing can be done about it. It's one of those flaws of an all powerful school." The bell let out a loud shriek letting the kids know that it was time for class. Sally stood up, threw away her trash, and followed Lisa out into the crowded hallway. "Well I'm off to help Angie, so I'll meet you after this class." Lisa said as they approached the dark wooden door with the bloody cross on the outside. Lisa was the only student Sally had ever heard refer to Nurse Angelica as 'Angie' so she had no doubt that Lisa's story was a true one. Otherwise Nurse Angelica would never have agreed to let Lisa help out at the nurse's office during her study hall.
"See you then Lisa." Sally said walking to the only class where she was ever alone. She wasn't too sure whether she liked the break because a few people who were afraid of Lisa took this time to talk to her or if she didn't like it because all she did was sit there and do homework because the few people who did talk to her never stayed around for long. Sally sighed heavily and walked to her class, stopping briefly at her locker to grab her books before she sat down in the fairly empty class. Her study hall was a small one, monitored by Miss Paris who was about as lax on the rules as a teacher could get. Sally sat down in her assigned seat next to a mortal looking boy with dark brown hair and eyes.
"Hey class, I'm not going to be able to stick around long, you know how busy I can be." Paris said apologetically as the tardy bell shrieked. Paris was Deirdre's younger sister and Pestilence of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Consequently she was always leaving the room to take care of out break after outbreak of mutating diseases. "So I'm hoping you can be mature enough to stay quiet." She said checking her watch. The class snickered and she flashed them a slight grin. "At least be quiet when Deirdre walks by. Ok? Ok."
"Yes Miss Paris." the class said together. This was sort of the ritual the class went through everyday. Paris would stay for a maximum of five minuets before she would be called to tend to some horrible potentially apocalyptic outbreak and they wouldn't see her for the rest of the class. Sally took out her history and began working on the assignment.
"What Halloween Town citizen was the first to make a name for themselves among the realm of the mortals?" Sally read softly to herself. She had no idea who that was, it could be any of the adults at the school.
"Dracula." came the reply. Sally looked up surprised that anyone had been paying attention to her at all, nevertheless actually took the time to answer her question. She looked around for the speaker but no one was even looking in her direction. She looked hopefully at Jack but he was sitting with his best friend Oogie surrounded by a ring of girls. Sally couldn't help but let out a small sigh as she turned back to her work knowing that she and Jack were just not meant to be. He was nice to her but it was out of pity nothing else, he could never fall for a girl like her. "The answer to the question is Dracula, he was making a name for himself long before the book was written." the voice said again. The speaker was most defiantly a male close to her age maybe a bit older. At last Sally saw that the speaker was the quiet boy next to her who had never spoken a word to anyone as long as Sally had been at school. She had never seen him even raise his hand in class.
"Thank you." Sally said uncertainly. The boy did not respond he continued writing notes from his Science book acting almost as if Sally had not spoken. His round glasses slid down his nose as he worked. Sally decided she might as well introduce herself. "Hi I'm Sally, Sally Finkelstien." Sally said politely. She waited curiously to see what the quiet boy would do. He sat up placing his pencil down and turning his dark hazel eyes on Sally.
"Vincent." The boy replied flatly. It took Sally a bit to realize that he was telling her his name. She was not used to communicating with many outside of her group of friends... mainly Lisa. And she was certainly surprised that the boy, Vincent, was talking to her.
"Are you from around here Vincent?" Sally asked trying to keep the conversation going. She was excited to have the potential for making a friend who was not going to beat up anyone who accidentally bumped into her in the hall. Though it did give Sally plenty of walking room when she walked with Lisa. Other students pretty much dodges out of her way.
"Not exactly." Vincent replied. He took his round glasses off and cleaned them on his white shirt sleeve. He dressed in a dark brown vest and white long sleeved collared shirt beneath it . He looked almost human but there was something about his demeanor that wasn't quite right. The way he acted around the dead made Sally realize that he was accustomed to having corpses walking around him at all times. And if he wasn't from Halloween Town then there was defiantly something strange about him. "I'm from a town called Silent Hill. It's connected to this world sometimes and the people there like to come visit your town. I came to visit but I... couldn't find my way back to Silent Hill." the boy mumbled looking rather humiliated at the confession. Sally was familiar with Silent Hill, many of the citizens wandered the streets of Halloween Town. They were welcome as long as they did not try to bring anyone back with them. It happened before and the Pumpkin King and Queen were furious. They even forced Dahlia Gillespie to return to Halloween Town and stay there for the same amount of time that the citizen of Halloween stayed in Silent Hill. It wasn't much of a punishment considering that Dahlia enjoyed her stay so much that she decided to live in Halloween Town. She faked her own death in Silent Hill and became a full citizen of the town of Halloween.
"Don't worry Vincent, you'll get back eventually." Sally said optimistically. "Are you staying with Miss Gillespie until you can get back to your home?" Vincent nodded. "If you don't have anywhere to sit at lunch why don't you sit with us. I know how hard it is to be new to Halloween Town." Sally offered. To her surprise Vincent went very pale and shook his head violently. "Already have somewhere to sit I'm assuming?" Sally asked surprised. She had never seen him even attempt to socialize with any of the other students.
"It's not that." Vincent replied. "Lisa scares me. For a while I thought she was one of the Silent Hill Nurses... I mean she looks sort of like them. But they were brainless and useless. She's smart... crafty... manipulative. She's not like Lisa Garland, the old Nurse from my home town, at least Lisa Garland was honest with people. She couldn't go into their heads or control them. She's dangerous and the teachers know it. They have to give her a different test from everyone else because they're afraid she'll read people's minds."
"Lisa Harper can be a bit... strong at times but I'm pretty sure she's good at heart." Sally said referring to the tall and bossy demon nurse. "You know... that is assuming she has a heart. I'm not exactly sure." Sally added with a shrug.
"I'm not sure either. As I said she's not a Silent Hill nurse demon. She's way too powerful for that. But we can still be friends without me having to associate with her right?" Vincent asked nervously. "I mean your really nice. It's just everyone is sort of scared to talk to you. You know, Lisa might hunt us down if we make a wrong move."
"I don't see why we can't be friends." Sally agreed. "And don't worry. I won't let Lisa hurt anyone, I'm sure she's not as bad as she makes herself out to be."
