Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kai Merha yawned.

Today had been a long day. A long day in a string of long, strange days. Most of last night and this morning had been taken up with the drive back from New Goreleans.

It had been the most epic drive home in the history of drives home. It had been so epic, in fact, that all four boos who had been in the van at the time - Ronan Aalto, Nero Du Sphinx, Gryff and himself, had sworn to never speak of it again.

Never speaking of it again, though, didn't mean it didn't happen and as a result, Kai was tired. He had intended, after dropping Nero, Gryff and Ronan off, to go home and catch some Z's, but Z's had been fleeting and soon he'd have to go to the Scareport to pick up his stepmom and dad anyways.

So he decided to get a pick-me-up and order something to drink at the Coffin Bean.

This may not have been his beast idea ever, because as he stood in line, staring at the product board and trying to decide what to get, his crippling indecision struck and left him utterly helpless in the face of Char Lene, the Furrista.

"Do you want a hot drink? A cold drink?" She asked him, hexasperated. "Small? Medium? Large? Venti? Grande? Extra Grande?"

"I...." Kai stammered. "Um...maybe...no, wait...I could get...or perhaps..."

Char-lene let out the sigh of a ghostomer service rep who was at the end of their shift JUST when the difficult ghostomer came in. She rubbed the bridge of her nose with two red-hot fingers.

"Would you like a glass of water while you decide?"

"Oh...sure!" Kai gave her a brilliant, crooked-fangy smile. With his glass of water in hand and a paper copy of the menu, he turned to find somewhere to sit and figure out what he HACKtually wanted to drink.

It was then that he spotted the new clot of monsters walking in, being led by Ronan. Kai brightened up.

"Aloha, Ro!" Kai greeted his bluddy. "Long time no see!"

"Actually, it hasn't been long at all." Ever-practical Ronan corrected Kai.

"True that, true that." Kai agreed. "Hey Dash! Jewels! Sally!"

He greeted the bird-boy and friends by flashing him the fang-ten sign with his left claw.

"Hey, there's a couple monsters here I don't recognize!"

Dashner grinned and nodded, lightly pushing Harry and Peggy forward.

"Yeah, bro! New students! This is Harry, and this is Peggy!"

"Gnarly. Nice to meet'cha!" Kai replied, and offered a claw to shake. "I'm Kai. Kai Merha. Mind if I join you guys?"

Sally was still trying to wrap her tentacles around what Harry had been talking about. It was something she hadn't even heard before. Something unique to learn about! Plus drums! She'd seen pictures of them before. The ones playing them always looked like they were enjoying themselves. Maybe she could try...

She looked up as Kai approached them and nodded to him, "Hello." she responded.

She sat down besides Jewels, noticing her behavior change. She tilted her head, then looked at Kai again, then back to the rest of the group. It was a pretty big turn out. She wondered if it would get any bigger than this. With the social moths around her, it definitely was a possibility.

She looked at Jewels, "How about some 'Life-By-Chocolate' cake? It sounds interesting." she suggested, hoping to distract her a little.

Ronan watched Harry interrogate the poor boorista.

"Do you think we should introduce him to Venus?" He shook his head and looked back to the small group.

Dashner was still mooning over Peggy and seemed to be ignoring Sally. Ronan frowned and nudged his dorm mate.
"I thought you two were dating?" He indicated Sally. "Was I misinformed?"

Ronan frowned, unsure how to answer that himself.

"Well... you went out together yes?" On what he'd assumed was a date given how nervous Dashner had been. Why would he be nervous if it was just two friends fanging out? He was never nervous like that around Marceline.

He looked to Dashner for clarification.

Jewels glanced up and whispered to Sally "You like him?" Indicating Dashner. Interesting, she hadn't pegged that bird boo as Sally's sort, then again, she didn't really know that much about the shy slender ghoul nor did she know much about Dashner. She couldn't help but wonder what was so special about the pegasus ghoul to get so much attention from the boo. Maybe falling from the sky was how you attracted guys where he was from.

"Too bad." Kai replied sagely. "You'd make a great couple. Hey, 'scuse me."

He got up, and headed back to the cash register. He'd finally....FINALLY decided on a drink! When he got there, he saw that the new boo was in a discussion with Char-lene.

"-says right here in the pamphlet our policies about scare trade, goreganic coffin beans, if you'd just read it-" She was trying to impress through the new boo's tirade. She turned to see Kai arriving and her eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head. Truly, this was the worst of all shifts. Weighing her options, Char-lene decided to dive into Kai's order rather than listen to more drum circle threat/promises. She turned to the grey-furred boy and tried to manufacture a smile. It was too close to the end of her shift; it wound up looking more like a paralyzed scowl.

"FINALLY picked a drink?!" Char-lene asked Kai. He gave her his trademark crooked grin.

"Yes! I'd like the scaramel latte with chocolate sprinkles. In fact...make it two." Kai gave Harry a nod. "One for me, one for the new boo."

Relieved, Char-lene dashed into the back to prepare the drinks herself rather than turn to Harry and see if he actually wanted the scaremel latte with chocolate sprinkles. She was worried she'd have to justify the sourcing of the sprinkles.

With the furrista gone, Kai gave the new boo a friendly grin.

"I picked that drink because it's the first one my friends bought for me when I moved here. This place is pretty different from where I came from and I had no idea how to get around at first. Some things, I still don't." He rubbed the back of his head.

"Hey, why don't we rejoin everymonster else? She'll bring the drinks right out to us."

Sally tilted her head, hearing all the different sides. Clearly, this was a big thing for most monsters. She shook her head, trying to make sense of it all.

"You like him?
"No, we aren't dating."
"Too bad. You'd make a great couple. Hey, 'scuse me."

Sally looked at them "I still don't really understand all of this." she tilted her head "We're friends, isn't that enough?"

"Gnarly, Harry!" Kai took his hand and gave him a firm shake. "So, disclaimer right away...I'm still kinda new to, you know, 'everything monster.'"

Kai made air-quotes in the air with his claws as the two headed back to the table with the rest of the Monster High student bodies.

"So if I say something that's out of line or rude, I apologize in advance, okay?"

They had a seat, Kai next to Ronan and Harry next to Dashner.

"So that said...can I ask what kind of monster you are? Wingless Peryton?"

"Fae, like....fairies?" Kai asked. "You're a fairy?"

Kai reflected on this. Of all the monsters he'd met at Monster High, he HAD never met a fairy or a goblin. He knew about the grudge between freshwater monsters and saltwater monsters, and the issues between minotaurs and centaurs, but this one was a new one.

"Does the Earl King mistreat goblins?" Kai asked.