Alive

Ch 1. Moving In

Moving day is hardly a ever a good day, not only are you leaving a house you grew up and had memories in, but you're also leaving the friends you've made... Unless you were maybe moving to a different neighborhood, then you could still hang out with those friends. Not me though, nope, old man fate decided that I, Brian Wills, move to a new town. It's a monster town called Hometown, the name is kind of ironic in my situation. The car ride there wasn't very enjoyable either; Judy, my 9 year old sister, kept whining on a game she was playing on her phone. I would've like to pull on her blonde pig tails for some sort of entertainment, but she could easily stick gum in my thick brown hair as a sort of revenge. My parents didn't seem to mind moving, they were looking forward to seeing monsters for the first time. I'm not very excited by the monsters, to me they're just as boring as the humans; only differences between us are our souls and use of magic. My old neighborhood was in Portland, Oregon, and we were just 10 minutes away from our destination; the time is 5:54 pm, we left the house 7 hours ago. I dozed off for a little and woke up because of my parents, "C'mon, time to get up, B." My dad said, "We're here!" I got out of the car and stretched, we didn't stop for a long time; the only time we did was when we got lunch. I looked around the neighborhood and, to my surprise, it really was a nice sight to behold. The autumn trees looked like a relaxing orange color, the town square made me feel like I traveled back in time to the late 90's, the monsters didn't look at their phones while walking like zombies, and the children didn't stay indoors to play video games all day; they genuinely liked being outside. It's as if this town is a sort of eye candy, you can't help but enjoy looking around at the scenery. It took me and my family about a grueling 3 hours to place the essentials that make a house. We had Chinese for dinner and it didn't take long for the family to start planning out how we're going to make plans, "We'll need jobs so we could make friends with co-workers." Mom said, "I could always go to a bar and work my magic." Dad said, my sister didn't want to share her plan, even though her and mine are the same; we were just going to make friends at the school like we always do. After a long day, I get to finally go to bed. Today was Saturday, so I get to sleep in and not worry about going to school yet. Before I decided to sleep, I wanted to take another look outside; I cracked the blinds to see and the town looked even better at night. Something caught my eye as I was looking outside, there was a purple lizard monster just standing outside, surveying my house. I opened the blinds all the way to let them know I see them stalking me. It took a few seconds for them to see me and when they did, they walked away. Mysterious purple monster: exit stage left. I let out a chuckle and I closed the blinds to go to sleep.

I could barely sleep that night, I couldn't feel comfortable sleeping in a new house. I guess making friends at school could wait, I'm not wanting to stay cooped up in this house. I put on a grey shirt, blue jeans, belt, knee socks, boots, and my grandpa's old bomber jacket. I did the basics of getting ready and made my way to find something to do around Hometown, plus it's a good reason to get away from more housework. I walked around and saw a few places I could go to later, like QC's diner or Ice-E's P"e"zza, but I'm not hungry. I went to the "Librarby" (yes, that's what it's called) to find something to do there. After reading all of the signs from businesses, I realized that my town has a spelling problem. Once I entered the Librarby, I was surprised when I saw another human sitting at a table! I planned out how I might meet with them, maybe comment on the book they're reading, or maybe tell them I'm the new guy. Even them seeing I'm a human could get them interested in talking to me. When I thought the moment was right, I made my move and sat next to them "Hello there." That's the best I could think of as a greeting, but all they did was look over at me and waved. The human had long brown hair that covered their eyes, they wore brown pants and a striped yellow and green long sleeve shirt. It was hard to tell what gender they were, so I asked for their name. They still said nothing, but they handed me their library card; their name was "Kris Dreemur". "Ok. Kris. My name is Brian, Brian Wills. I figured I'd go out if my way to talk to you because I'm the new guy." Other monsters heard what I said, considering this is the library, and began walking over and talking to me, a snake monster spoke first"Woah! Are you a human that can actually talk?!" I was confused at the question "Yes...?" I said, "Wow,  you're the only one who can then, huh? My name is Jockington." Then the armless yellow lizard next to him spoke "Heh, yo, I'm Monster Kid! What's yours, dude?" "Brian Wills..." "Do you go to our school?" MK asked, Jockington answered the question "No, he doesn't, he just moved in. Remember when we were playing soccer? We saw the moving van." MK thought for a moment "Oh yeah, that makes sense." Then Jockington turned over to me "Hey, you wanna play some ball? We were just about to head back to the field." I shook my head no and said "Nah, I already have other plans. Another time maybe." The two monsters were fine with what I said "Alright, yo, see you later!" "Yeah, see you around, new guy!" Then they left. I turned to talk to Kris again, but they were also gone. They left their address though, they must want to hang out at some point. I pocketed the paper and went on my way.

As I was walking around, I could see other monsters point and look at me while talking to their friends. I hope they don't think humans are taking over their town. I must've attracted the attention of one because a petite deer lady with Christmas attire stepped in front of me. "Hi there! I couldn't help but talk to you, considering how rare humans come here, so I thought I'd introduce myself! My name is Noelle!" She reached out her hand"Uh... hello there." I said, "I'm Brian." I shook her hand with a smile, I sometimes forget to but I remembered this time, I didn't want to make myself seem unfriendly towards Noelle, considering how polite she's being. "Nice to meet you, Brian! It's great to see that our town still attracts new people! Can I give you a tour?" I didn't seem interested "No, it's fine. I basically walked around most of this town anyway." "Even the school?" Noelle said with a questioning look. I thought for a moment, I did not go to the school "Ok, you can show me to the school." Noelle partially covered her mouth and giggled "Ok, follow me! I'll show you!" We walked together towards the school and, on the way, Noelle decided to make conversation "So what brings you here? Where did you live originally?" "I think my parents just wanted to live somewhere with variety and not some place as boring as Oregon." "I'm sure Oregon isn't that boring." Noelle said, I retorted "For them, it must've been. I had friends there, even my sister did. I'm sure my parents knew what they were doing." Noelle looked concerned "You could... always make new friends here. The other monsters here are very friendly!" I couldn't help but agree with that. "Yeah, I've already made a few friends I think. How about you, do you want to be friends?" Noelle seemed very happy with what I said. "I'd be happy to! Who have you met so far?" Then she gasped all of a sudden "Have you met Susie?!" She stopped walking then so did I. This "Susie" must be someone to worry about. "I don't think I have. What do they look like?" Noelle looked at the ground and thought for a moment "She... well... she looks... purple and has long hair that covers her eyes... a-and wears nice... messy clothes and um..." She blushed a little in her sentence, I interrupted her "You can stop. I think I've seen her, but I've never met her. I only met Jockington, Monster Kid, and Kris." "O-oh, ok, alright, but if you do meet Susie, try to be nice. I hear she can be pretty... mean." I gave a nod, showing how understanding I was to Noelle's sentence and we both continued towards the school. When we finally got there, it was bigger than I thought. "Here's the school! You'll be taking lessons here soon, huh?" I nodded "Oh, before I forget, how old are you?" Noelle asked, then I told her I was 16. "Ok, great! We'll be in the same class together! Dr. Alphys helps teach teens, so of course we'll be in the same class." "How many teachers are there?" I asked, "Just two monster teachers, actually. It's just Dr. Alphys and Ms. Toriel Dreemur." The human I met earlier! His mom is a monster?! I never would've guessed! "Anyway, if you ever need help with something, here's my address and phone number! I'll be glad to assist you in anyway!" I gave Noelle a smile as she handed me over the slips of paper containing her info. "Thank you, Noelle! I'll see you around sometime!" We both said our goodbyes and I made my way home, it was already 3 o'clock.

I was now on the sidewalk leading directly to my home and I saw the purple lizard monster from last night staring at my house again. It must be that one girl named "Susie" Noelle told me about, I couldn't believe she was staring at my house again. I stopped walking until I was about 8 ft in front of her. She must've known I was next to her because she began speaking. "You... you must be the 'New guy' I've been hearing so much about." "Don't act like you weren't aware of me." I said, "I saw you staring at my house the other night." Susie turned to face towards me, she looked like my height, I was only 6 ft. "Yeah? So? I can't help being curious. Especially towards another human." She smiled in an insane way as she finished her sentence. "You can even talk, unlike Kris. We'll be able to... discuss how things will go." I was confused, what did she mean "discuss"? "What do you mean, Susie?" Susie walked over to me and placed her hand on my shoulder and she said "I 'mean'..." Then she gripped tighter on my shoulder, I can feel her nails digging into me. I felt pain and anger going through me for my jacket. She continued "Are you going to a problem to me?!" She had the most insane look, I could see her cold stare hiding behind her hair and her teeth looked like they were ready for chomping. I was lucky my mom's car pulled into our driveway, she got out of the car and said "Hi Brian!" Great, now if Susie didn't know my name then, she does now. "Who's your friend?" Susie loosened her grip so it wouldn't look like I'm in pain. "Hi, Mom! This is Susie!" I looked over at Susie, she had a more innocent look on her face as she was talking to my mom, "We were just getting to know each other." "Your son is a cool kid, Mrs. Wills!" Susie yelled, I guess she only knew my last name before. Susie patted my shoulder to show she's not being aggressive to me around my mom. "Oh thank you, Susie! Brian, could you come inside? I have some chores I need help with." My mom said as she went inside, then Susie turned towards me again "See you around..., Brian." Then Susie let go of my shoulder and walked away. My shoulder felt hurt the rest of the day; I hope whatever I got myself into, it won't last. At least I'm still alive.