"I swear, if I'm dying tonight because of you, I'm gonna haunt your ass so hard, Harrington!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! I'm gonna go full Poltergeist and shit!"
"Then bring it, Graveswood."
"Challenge accepted."
***
In which after years of suppressing their...
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Chapter Fifty-Seven: Dustin's Discovery
(The Pollywog, Pt. 3)
***
Alistair stared in confusion at the creature inside Dustin's ghost trap.
He remembered when his friend had burst into Mr. Clarke's classroom hours earlier, then twisted around and—quite loudly—whispered to them all to meet in the AV club room at lunch. He'd also included Max and Cami, which Alistair was grateful for—though he would have invited Max and Cami to come with them anyway.
Now, they were standing around the table, and Alistair stared at the creature inside the homemade ghost trap, his friends also around him as they leaned in for a better look. Dustin was the only one smiling before he lifted the strange creature out, holding it up proudly as he said, "His name is D'artagnan."
The creature being named after one of the musketeers from Three Musketeers wasn't lost on Alistair as he stared at it. It looked like some sort of slug, and it didn't have any eyes and was chirruping a lot. Something about the lack of eyes and chirrups niggled at something in Alistair's brain, but it was overwhelmed by the confusion of what exactly he was staring at.
Cami must have felt similarly, as her eyebrows were drawn together in puzzlement as she looked at the creature squirming in Dustin's hands as the cap-wearing boy added with a grin, "He's cute, right?"
Alistair didn't deign to answer, instead looking to Cami, who stared at Dustin like he lost his mind at thinking the slug was cute.
"D'artagnan?" Mike questioned.
"Dart for short," Dustin informed.
"And he was in your trash?" Max asked, sounding skeptical. Alistair had to agree. Dustin finding Dart in his trash seemed... odd. How did it end up in there?
"Foraging for food," Dustin answered.
"And you grabbed him out of the trash... and didn't wash your hands right after?" Cami questioned, her nose wrinkling, and Alistair found himself agreeing with her line of questioning; who knew what kind of diseases and stuff Dustin had picked up when he fished Dart out of his trash?
Dustin ignored Cami's reasonable question and focused on Max, extending his hands—and consequently Dart—out to the redhead as he asked, "You wanna hold him?"
"No," was Max's immediate response as she gave a shake of her head.
"He doesn't bite."
"I don't want to—" Max protested, but it was too late as Dustin immediately gave the creature over to Max. Her face contorted in expression of disgust as she muttered, "Oh God he's slimy!"
Barely five seconds passed before she tossed Dart to the nearest person near her, which unfortunately happened to be Lucas. His face also contorted into disgust as he exclaimed, "Ugh, he's like a living booger!"
