Surviving Specter High: Werewolves 101

8 ~ Corgi-Zoned

I had never been more relieved for a school day to end. My classmates kept giving me weird looks, especially the vampires. Now, I could focus on more important things, like cleaning my room! Rusty, Asher, and Herb had followed me to the entrance of my tower since they had promised to help me, so I unlocked the door for them.

"Man, this is where you sleep?" Asher scoffed.

"Yes," was all I said.

"I mean, are they tryin' to be funny? This looks like the same place my aunt got locked up after she went insane," he weirdly remarked.

"I didn't know it was an actual living space for students," Herb muttered.

"It's not!" Rusty hissed. "Look at it. It's a prison."

Without a word, I headed into the shadows and climbed the spiral staircase. They all followed me while coughing up dust the entire time. As soon as we reached the top, the complaining intensified.

"Man, this place is gross," Asher monotoned before taking a sip from his soup cans.

"I think my mushrooms would wither in this environment." Herb nervously chuckled.

"Forget the mushrooms!" Rusty barked. "Millie's gonna wither in this environment!"

"That's why I want to make it over a little. You know, add my own special touch," I reminded.

"Okay, you got a bulldozer?"

"Man, your life must've stank if you're willin' live under these conditions," Asher blurted.

I huffed. "It didn't stink!"

"Then why are you puttin' yourself through this?" Rusty demanded.

"You guys are my friends! How can I leave now?"

"Easy," Asher droned.

Rusty sighed and approached me with a sympathetic look in his eyes. "Look, Millie, you're our friend, too. It's not like we want you to leave, we're just worried about you. I mean, you obviously have this romantic vision of . . . whatever, but it's not like that. I mean, sure, there might be suave idiot somewhere willin' to quote poetry, but everybody else is up to no good."

"It's like that everywhere," I reasoned. "The kids at my old school were less behaved than the ones here. At least here, the adults know the dangers, so the rules are more enforced. Where I'm from, everybody denies there's a problem. I mean, teenagers would make out in the bathroom."

"Seriously?!" Rusty nearly jumped back. "That's disgusting."

"You didn't know that?" Asher scoffed.

"What?! Like you did?"

"Uh, yeah. I've seen the movies from the '80s."

I cracked a smile. "Anyway, let's get cleaning!"

"Cool! I even brought my owner feather duster," Herb proudly declared as he pulled one out of his backpack.

"I think this is gonna call for more than feathers," Rusty quipped.

"Probably. Hey, wait, could you use your tail?" I asked.

He sneered. "No. You know how hard it is to clean this thing?"

"I can brush it out afterward."

"No. Nobody touches the tail. It's sensitive."

Asher choked on his iron-fortified soup. "Boy, you really are a putz, aren't ya?"

"What?! It is sensitive!" he defended. "It's like somebody tickling your nose."