Poly

Chapter 27

That night I slept like the dead. I hadn't felt this peaceful since before all this drama started. Everything finally felt normal again. My alarm clock rang its usual shriek, as if someone pulled the hair from a banshee, and my hand quickly turned it off.
I looked at myself in the mirror of my vanity, and was for once contempt with what I saw. A green-skinned teenage girl, who had two amazing boyfriends, who both liked her a lot. A girl who was ready to face the day!

"The future's looking bright," I whispered to myself. 

______

Holt met up with me before school so we could go together. 

"I can finally show off my girlfriend at school," he said and slid his warm hands in mine. If I wasn't already fully charged up, that would've done it. His burning eyes zapped all the way through me, steadying my quick beating heart.

We stopped in front of the steps to Monster High. Only a few minutes till the bell rang, so no one was outside. We squeezed each others hands as a sign of "We've got this!" as we took one stair step at a time. Together we pushed open the heavy doors to the school and entered the big hallway.

A round of gasps sounded. Everyone turned around to stare at us. Dropped every conversation, mouths and eyes wide open, to make sure what they were looking at were the real deal; Holt and I standing proudly together in the hallway hand in hand. 
It fuelled me to the point where I felt like I couldn't run out of sparks. Holt were used to getting peoples attention; he was comfortable with an audience. I wasn't so sure I would be, but standing with him made me confident. 

Then a wave of whispers started. Some pulled up their iCoffins to take pictures, other pointed at their screens to then point at us. People didn't look at us with awe and admiration, they had this weird and disapproving look on their faces. Almost as if we were amusing them.

Draculaura walked over to us with a concerned look on her pale pink face. 

"Hey Drac, what's wrong?" I asked. She looked back at the crowd, and met my eyes again.

"It's not me you should worry about," she said with a low voice. Holts brows furrowed. 

"What are you talking about?" I asked. Draculaura pulled up her iCoffin from her bag, and showed me a the Ghostly Gossip post. I remember getting the notification about a new post a few minutes ago, but I thought I'd check it during free period. I let go of Holts hand to reach out for Draculaura's iCoffin. My vision was blurry until it focused on the headline: 

"Frankie Stein resurrects old triangle drama: Spotted with two boys in the matter of minutes!"

I almost dropped the phone in pure horror. Under the headline were two separate photos. One of me and Holt, and one of me and Jackson. They were taken yesterday on the steps,when I had the two talks with them about our relationship. Someone had seen us and gotten it all wrong!

"What the hell is this?" Holt boomed behind me looking at his own phone. I scrolled under the pictures, and read the article:

"Frankie Stein were seen with both Holt Hyde and Jackson Jekyll, looking very comfortable in both their arms. She traded one boyfriend for two! As we all know, Stein broke up with Neighthan Rot not too long ago, and did not waste any time looking for a new manster! Jackson Jekyll hasn't been seen with his now ex normie-girlfriend Clair, so could this mean that Frankie has convinced Jackson to leave Clair for her? And does Jackson and Holt even know that they share more than just a body... a boyfriend-stealing girlfriend?"

All the air left my lungs and my vision darkened. Someone leaked a false story to Spectra, who published it for all of New Salem to read. My legs lost all strength and I felt my body collapsed under me. Draculaura and Holt quickly caught me before I hit the ground. Holts body was burning hot against mine. I might as well have been a corpse.

"Who the hell sent this to Spectra?!" he roared at all the monsters who proceeded to take photos of us like a horde of paparazzi. 

"Alright, cut that out! Leave her alone!" Clawdeen's voice cut through the noise of crowd of teenagers. She and Cleo pushed them aside to get to me. My eyes filled up with tears, my body feeling a million times heavier. Nothing sounded better than just melting all the way down to the floor and just disappear. Cleo, Clawdeen and Draculaura helped me to the ghouls bathroom. From the corner of my eye I saw Holt confront a guy with his flashlight directed towards me. I wished he followed us, to make sure I was alright. I needed his comfort, but his temper got the best of him.

"Get that phone away from my face!" he bellowed and grabbed the guys collar, shoving him up the lockers. Then they disappeared behind the ghouls bathroom door, as the ghouls got me to safety. They placed me on the toilet seat in one of the empty stalls, so they could wipe my eyes, stroke my cheek and try to calm me down.

"You're gonna be just fine, ghoulfriend." comforted Draculaura.

"Don't lie to her, Drac." Cleo scoffed from outside the stall. While Clawdeen and Draculaura sat by me, Cleo stood by the sinks looking at herself in the mirror. "This is an absolute disaster." 

"Cleo!" Clawdeen barked, turning around to face her. "Not the time."

"She's right." I muttered. "This is beyond bad,"

"Told you," Cleo answered. Clawdeen rolled her eyes and turned back to me. 

"Hey," Draculaura squeaked and took my hand. "Maybe this is not ideal... To start a relationship with fake rumours from a gossip site. But you've got us. We'll figure out who did this." her soothing words stopped my eyes from tearing up. Draculaura turned around, signalling the ghouls to follow up.

"Your ghouls have got your back," Clawdeen comforted. Her confidence made me almost believe.

"If someone is leaking false information about you, then who knows who's the next victim? I can't risk that happen to my reputation. We need to talk to Spectra immediately." Cleo added with a firm hand.