Like Father,Like Daughter - Hugs.And.Kisses (best novel books to read TXT) 📗

problems…" He muttered, his tail twitching under the table. How do I know this you ask? Simple: the tip hit me in the leg.

Vida gave Lock a smile, then turned to Aubrey, whose eyes I could've sworn were glowing red a second ago. "And you must be the new girl. Aubrey Skellington, right?"

"Yeah." Aubrey answered curtly.

Vida sent a look of disgust toward Barrel and I. "Why in the world would a Skellington be hanging out with the lowest end of the food chain?"

"Vida, do you like being turned into a slug?" I asked. "Because you should know I don't have a problem doing it aga-"

"What can I say?" Aubrey cut me off. "I like hanging out with my friends and boyfriend." She gave Lock a kiss on the cheek.

Vida's eye twitched. Barrel was having trouble not laughing. "Oh. I'll see you later then." She turned tail and left, her entourage following her, twittering incessantly.

Lock grinned. "I have finally discovered something that will make Vida leave me alone!"

Aubrey glared at him halfheartedly. "I believe 'thank' and 'you' are the words you're looking for." Lock hugged her and muttered 'I love you'. Aubrey sighed, pretending to be annoyed. "That works too."

I smirked. "That worked almost as well as when I turned her into a slug."

"I would've paid to see that. Five seconds and I already hate her." Aubrey growled.

"That's longer than most." Barrel commented. "I think you turned her into a slug in, what, three?"

"Three and a half." I responded, poking the food on my tray cautiously. It growled at me. "You know, I'm suddenly not hungry."

xXx

After school, we all headed straight back to Skellington Manor, preferring to avoid Vida and her 'pack' for the rest of the day. Thankfully, we managed to avoid her today and get back to the house.

Jack and Sally were waiting in the main room. "Whatever it is, we didn't do it." I automatically responded. Jack raised a nonexistent eyebrow. "Sorry. It's a reflex."

"Don't worry, you aren't in trouble, but we need to talk to Aubrey." She nodded and followed them upstairs.

"See you in a minute!" She called.

Ten minutes later, Aubrey came flying back down the stairs (quite literally), grinning. "Whoa, what happened?"

"Sally's pregnant!"

I blinked. "Wait, say what?"

"How the hell'd that happen?" Barrel asked.

Shock and Aubrey looked at him like he was speaking German or something. "Barrel, do you just not pay attention in health?"

He blushed. "No, I know about that! What I meant was, Jack's a skeleton and Sally was pretty much built from doll parts. How can Jack get her pregnant?"

"Well, apparently, the Grim Reaper can make it so that undead who want to have kids but can't, like Sally and Jack, can have kids. But only once." Aubrey explained. "They went to visit him while we were at school."

"So that means you're gonna have a little sister or brother?" Shock asked. If my ears weren't fooling me, she sounded excited. Aubrey nodded. "Cool!"

Barrel and I looked at each other. "Run on three?"

He nodded. "One…"

"Two…"

"Thr-"

"Try it and we'll gut you both." Shock said, walking out the door before we could move. Aubrey followed her, laughing quietly.

I blinked. "Scary."

"You said it." Barrel murmured, following the girls.

xXx

The next couple of months went by rather slowly. School does that, whether it be in living world or Halloween Town.

On a better note, Vida now absolutely despised me. One, I was dating Lock. Two, I was pretty much the most high ranked girl in town, and I refused to hang out with her. Three, well, there wasn't really a three, but I'm sure I could make one.

School was going pretty well actually. None of us were failing anything, Barrel was trying to work up the courage to ask Shock out on a date, and Lock was… well, Lock.

As Shock and I (Lock was probably skipping again) walked into Basic Magic and Potions, Ms. Aurelius, a witch, looked up. "Ah, there you two are. The counselor wants to see you both."

Shock and I glanced at each other and took the pink slips of paper from our teacher and walked out.

"What did we do this time?" Shock asked.

I paused to think. "Well… maybe when we switched the labels for the Frog's Breath and Dragon's Breath?"

"Yeah, but that was like two weeks ago."

I shrugged. "I don't know, that's all I can think of."

"Well, whatever it is, we can probably blame it on Lock."

"Shock!" I laughed, not really all that surprised.

We reached the door to Mr. Bitter's office and walked inside. Mr. Bitter was a vampire, and therefore had a windowless office and always had low lights. "Ah, Aubrey, Shock. Just the girls I wanted to see."

"Whatever it is, I blame Lock." Shock said quickly. I sighed and shook my head.

Mr. Bitter chuckled. "No, no. You two aren't in trouble this time. Actually, I was wondering if you knew your grades in Ms. Aurelius' class?"

We looked at each other again. "Um… passing, I'd hope." I replied.

"Oh, much better than passing. You two are excelling in that class. Therefore, Ms. Aurelius came to me with the proposition of moving you two up to her advanced magic class."

"But… that class is for seniors!" Shock exclaimed. "We aren't taking that for two more years."

"Ah, let me finish. I can only move you up if you two are alright with it."

Shock grinned. "I don't know about Aubrey, but I am."

"Same here." I agreed.

Mr. Bitter nodded and handed us each a schedule. "You'll start tomorrow."

xXx

"Advanced Magic?" Barrel asked. "Isn't that for seniors?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but Mr. Bitter said that Ms. Aurelius recommended us to be moved up."

Lock frowned as he looked over me and Shock's new schedules. "Yeah, but now most of your classes are moved. We hardly have anything together."

Shock rolled her eyes and took her schedule back. "Oh, stop whining. Look, we still have History of Halloween, Haunting, and Gym together."

"Gym doesn't count. The guys and girls don't even use the same gym."

"Yeah, well you still get to see Aubrey in those annoying little short shorts." I blushed heavily and shoved her.

"Shut up." I muttered. Lock grinned and put an arm around me, kissing my cheek.

xXx

After school let out, we all raced outside to get home. Unfortunately, we never got outside. "Vida's waiting for us." Shock told Barrel, Lock, and I as we neared the doors.

"Well, what if we went out the back and cut through the Graveyard?" Lock suggested.

"Better than trying to sneak past Vida." I muttered. "C'mon, let's go."


Chapter 5

Chapter 5

An old friend

"Where are we?" Shock asked.

Lock looked around. "I'm not sure. I didn't know the graveyard went back this far." Instead of heading straight back to Skellington Manor like we should have, we had hopped the back fence of the graveyard, continuing on that way. We thought it would just lead into the Hinterlands.

Boy, were we wrong. It led us into a part of the graveyard we didn't know existed, and neither did anyone else from the looks of it. It was overgrown with dead weeds and grass, and trees even more twisted than what we were used to made it even darker than normal.

Aubrey clutched Lock's arm. "Let's go back. This place is creeping me out."

I nodded. "I'm with Aubrey. Let's get- ow!" A sharp pain went through my foot. I cursed and grabbed it, hopping around like an idiot.

"What happened?" Shock asked. I couldn't tell if she turned around or not, I couldn't really see anything.

"I kicked something." I muttered, bending down. I shoved the weeds away from the spot in front of me. My fingers brushed against cool stone. I ran my hands over the square piece of stone, tracing the letters carved into it with my fingers. My eyes widened as I realized what it said. "No way… guys, you've got to come look at this!"

Lock peered over my shoulder. "Barrel, it's a grave. We're in a graveyard."

"Not the grave, smart ass!" I snapped. "What's written on it! Listen: 'Here lies her majesty Luna Nigh T'mare, Pumpkin King'."

Aubrey knelt down next to me, the little moonlight showing reflecting off her white hair. She touched the place just below my fingers, and then pulled her hand back, examining her fingers. "It's wet."

"Yeah, I know. The whole things soaked in something. Lock, a little light?" He obliged, a ball of flame appearing in his open hand.

Aubrey looked down at her fingers and shrieked. "It's blood!" I looked down at my own hands to see that they were stained red. I fell back with a cry, wiping my palms frantically on my shirt.

Shock looked around at the ground. "It's all over the place. There's a whole fucking trail of it!" (a/n: Subtle, isn't she?)

A quiet noise, like a sob, made us all shut up.

I stood quickly, forgetting the blood that covered my hands. "Did you hear that?"

Shock shushed me. "Listen!"

Another noise, louder this time. Shock's eyes widened. "Holy shit…"

"Now can we leave?" I asked.

Lock grabbed Aubrey's arm with the hand the fire wasn't in. "Yeah, let's go."

She pushed him off. "Hold on." She followed the crimson trail that stained the weeds and dirt carefully.

"Aubrey, it's usually best to walk AWAY from creepy noises coming out of thin air!" Lock called, running after her.

"Quiet!" Aubrey ordered over her shoulder. She placed two fingers in her mouth and blew, producing a high whistle.

There was a moment of silence, and then, "Aubrey?"

I couldn't see her face, but Aubrey's eyes must've been huge. "Sandy!" She exclaimed before taking off at a run deeper into the graveyard.

"H-hey! Aubrey, wait a minute!"

Shock grabbed my hand. "C'mon! We can't let them get lost in here."

I felt my face heating up, but ignored it as I nearly tripped over another tombstone. "Shock, slow down! You're faster then I am!"

She looked back at me. "You're a football player, Barrel!"

"Yeah, but-" I decided to just shut my mouth at that moment, because I nearly tripped again.

We caught up with Lock and Aubrey a few seconds later. "Whoa…" I muttered. In Aubrey's arms was a girl who looked a few years older than us. Tan skin was stretched tight over her