Chapter Summary: After an intense situation the love birds take a moment to reflect on their actions, before realizing they are very late to their classes.

Casper smiled as they stopped by their tree, leaning against it heavily as the vampire doubled over, panting for breath while trying to suppress his laughter. "We're in so much trouble," Casper mumbled, pressing his back against the tree.

"Trouble? We just got out of it!" Thatch grinned widely. "Alder and Dash are in so much trouble!"

"We lied..."

"No, not really," he started, then at Casper's disapproving stare he quickly changed gears. "Ok, a small, white lie. It was just the frosting on top of the cake to assure everything went right." He tried to comfort the ghost.

"Right? We could have gotten them fired!" Casper yelled, then bristled and looked away from the vampire.

"And how is that bad?" Thatch grinned, tilting his head to the side in a curious manner. "We don't need them, they're the worst headmasters ever. Maybe we'll get some better ones with them out of the picture." He smoothly spoke and moved forward, letting his hand rest against the tree as he leaned close to the ghost, trapping Casper. "There's no need to worry. I handled it."

"It doesn't feel right."

"I told one, small little lie in all of that. I say that was a big accomplishment." He grinned and leaned close, staring into the ghost's eyes. "You trusted me and I made sure we got out with no trouble. Kibosh will make sure no one hurts you now."

"Your mom sounded so worried."

"And I'll call her and make this all up to her. Don't worry, Casper. Everything is going to be alright... Can't you smile? We're safe, no one can harm us now." He spoke softly. "Aren't you happy about that?"

"Y-yes." The ghost answered swiftly. He pushed himself off the tree and clung to Thatch, hiding his face in the vampire's shirt. "I'm happy but... A lie is a lie."

"It'll be fine." Thatch hummed, holding Casper close to himself, gently rubbing his back in a soothing, circular pattern. Casper melted against the vampire, nuzzling close to the former bully. "If we do somehow get caught, I'll get in trouble. You never told a lie, not once. Alder and Dash were going to lie and expel us, we only defended ourselves. We can't get expelled Casper, you know what happens then..."

"I know." Casper sighed softly, slowly lifting his head and watching the grinning vampire. "Honestly you're terrifying sometimes."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Thatch chuckled. "Now, with the Headmasters out of the way surely we'll actually get some protection, and Slither is tricking Dummy Girl. She'll pay for hurting you."

"And you," Casper reminded him. He hated it when Thatch forgot about himself. He so used to Thatch being so selfish and self-absorbed, but now the vampire barely paid his own health mind. "Thatch, are you eating? I didn't see you eat yesterday."

"I'm fine, Casper." Thatch gave that charming pearly smile and the ghost dropped the subject. If Thatch said he was fine, then who was he to argue? He was only a ghost with limited knowledge of vampires, let alone living vampires. "You should worry about yourself. You got to talk about ghosts today in Dr. Burn's class." He warned. "Which is starting soon, well I think we might be late."

"Me presenting, late?!" Casper gasped. "Why didn't you say anything!"

"I was distracted by-"

"Run!" Casper quickly pulled away and jumped in the air as he took flight. He didn't even look behind him as he started to make a mad dash back towards the school.

Thatch softly laughed and turned into a bat, quickly taking flight and following Casper. Thatch seemed to take this as a fun game, flying around Casper as if they were only racing and not running late, though because Thatch's focus was only on Casper he didn't realize the ghost was about to go through walls... And so one second Casper was there, next moment he crashed face-first into a stone wall.

Thatch fell back on the ground, retaking his human form and groaning and holding his face. "Dumb ghost..." Thatch mumbled briefly but then smiled. "You're going to be the death of me." He sighed softly and stood up, then noticed the pile of Casper's clothes on the floor. Seems the ghost didn't even notice he was without them now. Thatch sighed and picked them up, figuring he'll hand them back to Casper after class. He didn't feel too mad about flying into the wall surprisingly. It was his fault for not paying attention to where he was flying. Ghosts were honestly so cool... Thatch decided to just run the rest of the way to avoid face planting into anything else.

~~~

As Thatch walked into the classroom he got a glare from Dr. Burns who was standing up on stage beside Casper, who was looking rather sheepish. Thatch flashed a smile and headed on up, having to sit all alone in the front of the class. Ra and Mantha were sitting together, and Slither was in the back of the classroom with Dummy Girl, who started to whisper the second Thatch came in.

Thatch tried to ignore them, despite the sinking feeling in his gut. He settled into his seat, setting Casper's clothes on the chair beside himself before he turned around to Ra, who handed the vampire his backpack. Thatch got out his notebook and pen, prepared to take notes on... Well, Casper. This was certain to be an interesting class. The blue-eyed ghost weakly smiled, seeming a bit skittish but with the supportive looks from his friends and Thatch, he was feeling a bit better.

"So, as we were saying." Dr. Burns started. "Today we'll be reviewing ghosts, one of the most powerful creatures in the Underworld." He said, not noticing how Dummy Girl started to laugh, and Slither could only muster a weak smile and chuckles, though it was clearly forced; not like Dummy Girl cared to notice.

"Casper, powerful? As powerful as a slug." Dummy Girl laughed, raising her voice high enough for everyone to hear. Ra growled from his seat, turning around to confront her, but Mantha grabbed his shoulder and turned Ra right back around.

"No Ra, don't cause a scene," Mantha whispered to the mummy, who groaned. "It's for the best." Mantha kindly reminded, then looked over at Thatch who just huffed, not approving or disapproving of her actions. He wanted to fight Dummy Girl just like Ra did.

Casper nervously fiddled with his hands, looking up at their teacher for guidance, but as always he gave very little. Now he understood by Slither seemed so scared up on stage, and unlike Mantha he had no time to prepare, nor did he know much about ghosts.

"Uh so... Ghosts, right." Casper mumbled, clasping his hands together as he watched the class. "Um..." He paused, looking at Thatch desperately for help. Thatch lightly tapped his pen on his paper, then drew 3 ovals with circles on top. One of them was a long and thin oval, the other really big- it almost looked like a circle, and the other was just a normal oval with a circle on top, with random squiggly lines coming off of it. Under them, he wrote 'S' 'F' 'S' under the corresponding circles. Casper perked up quickly.

"Oh right um, my uncles, Stretch, Fatso, and Stinky, um," He paused again, wringing his hands together. "Ghosts sometimes, uh, get... special abilities based on who they were as uh, fleshies?" He uncertainty said, looking back at Dr. Burns who nodded calmly. Ok, not bad.

"My uncle Fatso was, well you can guess it, really fat." He weakly smiled, earning some weak laughter from the class. "And that transferred over to when he was a ghost. He's very big, and despite being a ghost he seems to weigh a lot, often breaking things he sits on." Casper explained, starting to feel more comfortable. It was easier to talk about other ghosts than himself.

"Then my uncle Stretch, he was always really sporty in his life, climbing trees and getting into places he shouldn't. Course he also had his huge nose, which he always seemed to break." Caper giggled softly, and he earned more laughter from the class. Hey, this wasn't so bad now! "As a ghost, he can, of course, stretch like a huge accordion or something, it's kinda funny to see... I don't think I need to explain uncle Stinky." Casper mumbled, and he got general nods of approval. No one needed to know those details.

"In general ghosts can fly, faze through things and go invisible. We can almost fit into any space and-"

"Why don't you talk about yourself, Marshmallow!" Dummy Girl called from the back of the classroom. "What about when you were alive, Marshmallow boy?"

"Shut your face, don't call him that!" Thatch stood up and turned around, shaking his fist threateningly at the puppet.

"Sit down," Dr. Burns fumed. "Casper should talk about himself now." He affirmed what Dummy Girl said. Casper nervously looked off to the side, trying to take a soothing breath.

"Unlike my family I uh... Got no special talents-"

"You can say that again," Dummy Girl sneered.

"- and uh..." Casper paused, looking down. "As you can see, I don't... Look human, neither does my family. Most ghosts can though," He spoke, looking back to Thatch. He smiled, mentally thanking the vampire for telling him some facts about his own kind. "When ghosts die we often forget our human lives, and if we remember, or find a photo of what we look like we only take on the vague shape or the most prominent features we use to have."

"How did you die?" Mosshead peeped up. He was sitting beside Harpy, and they were kept far away from Dummy Girl, and right in view of Dr. Burns. At least something was being done to assure those two did no more harm. Mosshead was more curious than anything and truly meant no harm by his question.

"I remember very little about that... And uh, that's not something..." Casper's voice failed him, his gaze dropping down. He really didn't want to talk about such things in front of the class.

"Can't even remember how you died, that's funny!" Dummy Girl hollered. Thatch went to stand up again, but Casper's pleading look managed to stop him. Thatch hissed, crossing his arms over his chest as he sat, fuming in his seat.

"Well then, a few points Casper forgot to mention." Dr. Burns took over when Casper refused to speak any more. Casper was honestly relieved, but he couldn't go back to his seat yet. He just nervously stood there, then flinched back when the teacher made motions to the ghost, talking about how he can make his legs disappear to fly so he was more streamlike, how he can change his appearance at will, such as his hair and so forth. He honestly got why Slither just wanted to curl up. Casper covered his face with his hands, and without meaning to actually went invisible. Dr. burns huffed angrily, waving his hand around and trying to find Casper, he also just made himself intangible out of pure embarrassment.

"Casper this is no time for games, I'm trying to teach a lesson here!" The teacher fumed.

"Uh, sir I'm sure Casper is just... showing us his awesome ghost powers?" Ra piped up, shrugging helplessly. "I mean, it's only good that he does so, so we can... see?"

"Uh right." Mantha pipped in, shooting Ra a glare for sounding so unconvincing. "I mean, it's not like every monster can do these things, and you made Slither display his tail and all, so why can't Casper show how cool it is to be a ghost."

"Oh.. r-right, of course." Dr. Burns cleared his throat. "Casper, great demonstration." He said into nothing, having no clue where Casper was, until the ghost revealed himself again, standing a few feet away from where he was before.

"Oh big deal, he can disappear." Dummy Girl mocked coldly. "Not really impressive."

"What's impressive is how your mouth continues to run. When does your battery die?" Ra groaned loudly. "Or maybe you're constantly pulling that dumb string on your back to keep your dumb mouth flapping, honestly you can create a tornado at this rate."

"Why I oughta knock you out- What?" She growled, looking at Slither who had placed his striped 'hand' on her shoulder to help control her. Slither leaned close to the dummy, whispering into her ear and effectively making her shut up, which only made Ra more suspicious. The students were all watching them, seeing the shade that was thrown around and in the end, they decided Ra had the best insults ever. Casper smiled gently at his mummy friend, thankful the attention was being drawn off him.

"Quiet!" Dr. Burns orders, smoke shooting from his nostrils. "Now then, to continue the lesson-" He was cut off by the school speakers, making the dragon angrily groan and shake his head.

"Attention all classes, please head to the main hall for an emergency announcement." A deflated Dash ordered, then hung up without even bothering to repeat the information.

"Well... Class dismissed, go on!" Dr. Burns angrily huffed, making a shooing motion to the students before he went back to his desk.

Casper hurried over to Thatch and flashed a smile as the vampire handed over his clothes. "Thank you so much, I was in too much of a rush." He tried to explain. Thatch just waved it off and started to gather his stuff.

"You were dying up there. Like a fish out of water."

"Hey, I wasn't that bad," Casper whined, earning an unimpressed look. "Well uh, I wasn't too bad considering I had no warning."

"There we go." Thatch smiled and nodded. "You did pretty well. Come on, I bet this announcement is going to be interesting."