The New Salem Maul

[Ascreama Poweurgh]

'Oh, I'm sorry, I assumed you went to High Seas High or Monster High or something..' She nodded her head towards his attire.
She fumbled with the handle of her bag. 'Sorry about snapping, I, uh, don't get..' Her voice trailed off as her eyes wandered to the multitude of stores across the food court.
'I'm going to Hobbling Craft to get some new art supplies. I think the game store is near that. Want to join me?' She asked apprehensively, with a little excitement in her voice.  

[Ronan Aalto]

"High.. seas?" he looked confused. "I just transferred to Monster High." He looked a little unsure of himself now, fiddling with his scarf awkwardly. "Art supplies? you.. you are an artist?" She didn't look like what he'd imagine a typical artist should look like, but then again, what DID he expect her hobbies to be? Cooking maybe?
He gave a jerky nod. While he wasn't overly keen on spending an extended amount of time with the slimy female, someone who knew their way around could be useful he reasoned. Besides, he was supposed to be trying to meet people right?  

[Draconia St George]

Crashing sounds and screams from the parking lot? A strange chill running up her spine? Draconia knew what that meant, and she smiled as she saw Glen and the Q family step into the maul.

"Heeeey, it's THE Draconia!" Chase spotted her first, little surprise since the two of them were both nearly a head taller than most of the other monsters in the maul. Draconia gave them all a slight, shy wave and the group moved over to her. Draconia noticed that Chase's sister, Whinnie, looked a bit worse for the wear.

"So, I'm guessing Glen drove you all over?" Draconia asked. Whinnie nodded gravely and unclamped her hands from her purse strap.

"I have had safer times swinging in the barn over th' wheat thresher." The little blonde-and-pink-haired centaur informed Draconia, matter-of-factly. She leaned over and stood on tiphoove to whisper in Draconia's ear.

"We're s'posed to be school choppin', but I KNOW Chase's gonna duck out to the Barkade t' climb the rock wall blindfolded backwards....save us!" Draconia nodded.

"Glen, dear, would you mind if I took Whinnie and Colt for a mo? I've just the most fierce dresses to show Whinnie for the first day of school." It was going to be Whinnie's first day at Monster High in just a few weeks, after all.  

[Ascreama Poweurgh]

'Transferred..' The blob girl repeated under her breath 'So, you're new around here?'
The surprise on his face grew when she nodded. 'Yeah, I've been drawing since I could hold a pencil!' Which in retrospect wasn't that long, she'd stopped absorbing her school supplies when she was a child, but it was hard not to get so caught in drawing that by the time she realised half the pencil had sunken into her hand, goop had dripped onto the page and smudged the drawing. 'I want to publish my own comics one day, but I need to find a more permanent media first.'
She dug around her bag again and pulled out a folded booklet and handed it to Ronan. 'It's a map of the Maul' She smiled. 'Sometimes they run out of prints and you have to ask the Skinformation Desk for more, but the poltergeist lady behind the desk is grouchy..'  

[Ronan Aalto]

He nodded. "Yes, I did not wish to continue travelling the world with my parents. This was the compromise." He tentatively took the map, it was obvious he really didn't want her to touch him. "Um... thank you?" He managed a smile. "This will really help." He sounded like he meant that quite sincerely. She may be gross, but at least she was helpful and friendly.  

[Ascreama Poweurgh]

'That's interesting,' she said with a smile. Travelling any distance greater than the walks between classes was a little scary to her. 'What made you change your mind?' She asked, curious.
'This way' She gestured, holding her bag over her shoulder with one arm and started walking down the wide tiled walkways of the maul.
Her short legs struggled to keep his pace. 'Slow down! You don't know where we're going!' She huffed, wondering where she could by an ice-slush from...  

[Ronan Aalto]

he slowed down so she could keep up. "I got tired of the changes of home. Mother, changeability is in her nature but me.. " He shrugged, he wasn't even certain why he was telling her this. Maybe the guidance councillor was right and he did need to get all this out. "I wanted to feel solid ground under my feet for once. You know, be able to get to know people and not wonder how long it would be before we moved again and I would have to start all over." He shook his head. "Nevermind. It's not important anyway."  

[Ascreama Poweurgh]

They turned a sharp corner, avoiding a small group of zombie children out of day-scare. 'It must have been important for you to choose something so drastically different. But I get it,' she shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal 'I need to get out and meet new monsters too. That must has been ha-'
'I'm sorry!' She winced, catching herself rambling and apologised for the umpteenth time since they met. 'I don't mean to pry!'

They started up a small set of rot iron stairs and stood at an odd cul-de-sac. 'This place gives me the willies sometimes..' She said with a shudder. 'We're here, anyway.' A broad grin formed across her face as she ran over to the art supply store, pressing her hands and face against the glass. She looked at the fancy brushes and expensive papers, the glittering pots of paint in all colours. She giggled and snorted like a child in a toystore.  

[Ronan Aalto]

"It's alright." He smiled softly, maybe she wasn't so bad after all. As long as he didn't have to watch her eat.

He shook his head at her ridiculous behaviour. "I uh.. I will leave you to it then." he moved toward the nearby gaming store, figuring she wanted time to paw at art supplies.  

[Dashner Hawke]

Dashner walked into the maul, astonished. "I've never been here before..." he thought. He walked around, but he almost got lost. "Man, these direction skills."
He walked, and walked, and walked. He could never find a store that poped up at him.
He decided that he was hungry, so he walked into the food court. He then bumped into his good ol' friend Roswell Grey.  

[Melody Nocturna]

Melody entered the maul and smiled as she looked at the shop windows; their glass walls gleamed as they were showing off their new outfits and shoes. She sighed happily.
"Hey, earth to Melodork," Brandon mumbled knocking on Melody's head.
"Hm?"She asked awaking from her daze.
"Now's not the time to think, now's the time to actually spend some money," Brandon said irritably crossing his arms.
"Oh, would you hush? Mandi put me in charge of picking out outfits for you, so you might want to do a bit less complaining, and a bit more gracious that I'm not picking out outfits for you from the GhoulWill, got it?"Melody voiced as she leaned down and looked at Brandon in his eyes.
"Yeah...whatever, let's just go," he mumbled after a sigh of defeat.
"That's the spirit!" Melody said enthusiastically was they walked to the nearest shop.  

[Glen da West]

Colt looked up at his big brother and said, "But I wanna hang out with you guys."

"You sure about that?" Chase could not resist teasing his baby brother about his little crush on Draconia, leaning down and whispering, "You'd rather hang with us, or with ...?"

**Colt looked back and forth between the boys and the ghouls, until he finally trotted over toward his sister and Draconia with a shy smile and a sparkle in his blue eyes**

Chase then said aloud, "Remember sissy! The `rents said no Build A Werebear for him unless there's enough left over after his clothes."

"I know!" Whinnie huffed. "I know!" She turned to Draconia and mouthed a silent 'thank you'.

"Meet you in the food court for lunchies?" Glen smiled and he and Chase headed off in the direction of Grave Expectations (which was near the Barkade).

Colt offered his arm to Draconia with a smile (and a reach) and Chase was heard calling aloud,

"Colt's got a ghoulfriend! Colt's got a ghoulfriend!"  

[Draconia St George]

"Whew." Whinnie adjusted her cowghoul hat and gave Draconia a friendly nod. "Thanks. If we got stuck being dragged around by those two all day, I wouldn't get a lick'a shoppin' done. Who's that?" Whinnie pointed at Marceline LaGhede, who was waving sheepishly from the front of Fashion Bites.

"Oi! Marceline!" Draconia waved at her friend and led the two centaur kids over to her. "Marceline, this is Whinnie and Colt Q..Quadro....Quadrapheni.....Chase's siblings!"

Whinnie grabbed Marceline's hand and pumped it up and down vigorously.

"Pleasure t'meetcha! Wow, you sure got some bony hands!"

Colt peered out from behind Draconia's wing at Marceline and quietly mouthed a 'hi.'

"Here now, Colt, you're getting tangled in my-ow. Ow. OW!" Draconia fumbled as her wings got caught under a hoof, sending her nearly careening into Marceline's bags. "Oh, bloody bats...So terribly sorry!"

Whinnie held back a giggle, not seeming to notice Marceline's fangxiety.

"I'm startin' Monster High in a few weeks, and Colt here's going to have his first day of Kindergoreden!"  

[Dashner Hawke]

"Yo yo yo, Grey! What are you-- Oh, I know why you're here. It's the food isn't it?" Dashner and Grey both nodded. "Well, I don't know who's here today. Maybe I should text Draconia.," Dashner said as he took out his iCoffin and texted his beastie. She replied, I am with Glen and the Q family. Dashner decided they'd best not be bothed, so he said goodbye to his friend Roswell to go walk around some.
... Until he ran into some pink blob and a blue sailor dude.  

[Ronan Aalto]

"Yes?" the Selkie tilted his head at the staring bird boy. He wondered if that guy was lost and dug through his pockets for the map Ascreama had given him. "Need a map?, apparently they run out often."