Welcome to Gaia! ::

The quiet necromancer smiles, having made her first acquaintance. "thanks... Its nice to meet you too, Essi. I'm Necrolin Rosin Ni Blue, but I'd like it if you called me Nekki-"

Before the poor ghoul could finish, Estrella was already on her way to the tour leader. "oh..." in truth, she was not shy. Her voice was merely a defect of being a daughter of a necromancer, follower of the Eldritch Mythos. Her voice was just particularly dead to the point where breathing was the loudest sound she could verbally make, and it frustrated her when other monsters mistake that for timidness.

"YES. FINALLY." Atomica nearly jumped ten feet out of her chair when the bell ending first feariod tolled. Before Mr. Mummy could give her a disapproving glare, Atomica grabbed her bag and dashed out of the room as fast as her leg joints could take her.

SKRM practice! Atomica made a beeline towards the entrance to the catacombs that would lead to the roller maze track underneath the school. Tomorrow's match was the big final game, Monster High vs. Granite City! It was the squad's goal to win the championship two years in a row against their division rivals.

"Atomica! Wait up!" Atomica slowed her stride long enough for the captain of the team, Robecca Steam to float up beside her. Despite both of them being robotic students, the two of them didn't really fang out much. The only thing they had in common was the sport of Roller Maze.

"What's up?" Atomica asked, a little impatient. "Do you want my clawtograph or something?"

"Why would I..." Robecca looked a little confused for a moment. Atomica rolled her LED eyes. Wasn't Robecca AT Woestock? Didn't she KNOW what a famous superscar Atomica was now? "Well, nevermind that. I wanted to ask you if you minded letting Glen da West start the first round instead of you for practice? Clawd and I are discussing changing the starting lineup against Granite City tomorrow."

"Whaaaaaaaat." Atomica gave Robecca the most incredulous look she could manage on her shiny chrome face. "But if I switch with Glen, then I'd be on the third string! I might not even get a chance to skate!"

"I'm sure we're going to go through the whole lineup tomorrow, Atomica. It IS Granite City, after all. You know how rough they play! I'm just asking for the switch today so we can see how the lineup works together."

"But- but-" Atomica tried to protest. She was a SUPERSCAR now! What would her fans in the creature bleachers think if she was benched?! "But I want to be part of the starting lineup!"

A whining sound squeaked out of Atomica's voicebox, and she could practically hear Robecca's gears grinding in frustration.

"I'm sorry, Atomica, but we're going to try this out during practice. Please understand, it's for the good of the team."

"FINE." Atomica cut off her whining squeal and started stomping slower towards the catacombs. "But if my many, many fans complain about what you've done to me, it's not MY fault."

"O...kay...." Robecca, feeling a bit awkward, poured on the steam and zoomed ahead of Atomica down to the catacombs. She clearly didn't know how utterly famous and revered Atomica now was. She had no idea the risk of rioting in the stands that was now looming over the practice. Atomica threw her shoulders back and held her head high.

Dignity, she reminded herself. A superscar must always suffer with the greatest of dignity.

"Astrid?"

The soft voice with a Middle Eastern hilt to it spoke up. Layla's suspicions were indeed correct: it would appear to be a 'ghoul thing' to hide in the closest restrooms whereas boos probably blew off steam on the graveball field or something equally nonsensical.

She didn't want to make the poor ghoul any more uncomfortable than she perhaps already was, and thus kept a respectable distance from her while also holding out her hand in greeting.

"I'm Layla, one of the Boo Student Committee members, along with Kai and Frankie."

She gave Astrid a look of genuine concern.

"Are you okay?"

Kai watched Layla slither away with a sigh of relief. He turned to the new ghouls.

"Layla's one of the sweetest ghouls in all of Monster High. I know she'll be able to help Astrid out. So...should we continue the tour?"

He led Estrella, Necrolin (and, unknown to him, Umbra?) out of the grimnasium.

"Monster High is pretty huge, but once you get the fang of it, finding things isn't too hard. This is the first floor, and the li-bury, the creepateria, the clawditorium and the grimnasium are all on this floor. All of the smaller classrooms are on the second floor, and the very top floor is the bell tower. Underneath the school is the Catacombs, which, I guess are sort of huge and sprawling and easy to get lost in."

Through the hallways, Kai paused them at the stairwell that led up and down.

"So, we could go upstairs and check out some of the different classes - we have permission to look inside any class even though they're having tests so you can see. Or, we could go down into the Catacombs to the Skulltimate Roller Maze arena and watch the Monster High Nightmares practice. Let's see, which one would be better...."

Unfortunately, decision-making was Kai's greatest weakness. He began to agonize over the decision.

"Seeing the other classes would probably be great to give you ghouls an idea of how classes work in Monster High...but there's going to be a bunch of students in Study Howl and Phys Dead down watching the SKRM practice and that'd be a great way to meet new monsters...But then you wouldn't get to meet teachers like Ms. Kindergruber or Mr. Mummy....but you WOULD get to meet Coach Igor and Coach Verizhe....But we wouldn't want to draw attention away from the SKRM practice....or draw attention away from the final tests..."

Kai was starting to get wrapped up in indecision! Darn it, this was why he was looking forward to doing the tour with Layla...she was always a hexcellent tie-breaker when he couldn't come to a final decision.

"Let's go up! No, wait...go down! Or...we could stay on this floor and check the creepateria to see what we're having for lunch....or go outside and tour the tennis court and bat-ball field...except they're covered in snow so that's probably sort of inconvenient...No, no, stay focused...Up or down...."

"I understand."

Layla admitted as she slithered over towards the window and she propped herself up onto the ledge, allowing her serpentine lower half to dangle down toward the floor. She looked freely toward Astrid and smiled.

"No, I do. About two yearsss ago my Mother told me that I would be starting my education here at Monster High. I'm from Libya, which isss clear across the world and have never been to a public ssschool or been around other children my own age. I had been home schooled my entire life by royal tutors and my Mother herself. I felt so shut in when I first came here as though I could not go on. I knew nobody and was living at the Embasssy as I am now. It was a whole new world to me then, as I am sssure it is to you now."

She held up her hand to forestall what she was certain Astrid might wish to point out.

"No, it's not the same, but it is similar. And eventually I will return home, and the same can be said for you. You said it yourself; you came here by accident."

She shook her head.

"There is no such thing as a one way portal. By proving that there is a way to our world from yours, you have also proven there is a way to your world from ours."

She shrugged.

"There is no absence of help when you should need it. There are ssso many mad scientists and children of such, witches... all sorts who can help. That's what we do here. We help one another when its needed. You'll make it back, but in the meantime, why not make the best of it? I made sssome wonderful friends, and it helped me."

*Smile*

"It'll help you too if you just allow it."

Essi's suggestion snapped Kai right out of his reverie.

"That's a great idea! We'll head down into the Catacombs and meet some of the students!"

Kai rubbed the back of his head and grinned at Essi as he held open the large doors that led from the first floor of Monster High to the long, spiralling stone staircase that would bring them to the commons area of the Catacombs.

"Thanks....I needed that."

Kai grabbed one of the torches to light their way downwards.

"There's actually several different entrances to the Catacombs from the school...I guess the Catacombs came first and the school was built on top of them. But this way is the most straightforward, especially for new students who don't want to get lost. In fact, one of the big assignments in Mad Science class is hexploring the Catacombs. Maybe we'll be in Mad Science together next Scaremester!"

In Kai's opinion, it would be nice if the school would spring for some bannisters on the stairway...or maybe at least a rope on the open side of the spiral, but no students had fallen yet so maybe they didn't think it was necessary.

"While we're walking...why'd you ghouls choose Monster High? I always want to hear new kid's stories..."

The little tour group seemed to have caught up with Atomica Servo and Robecca Steam, who seemed to be having a...lively discussion on the way to the Skulltimate Roller Maze track. Suddenly, Robecca sped off, leaving Atomica alone as the tour group came up to her.

Kai cleared his throat.

"Hey, Atomica!" He greeted the tempermental automaton. Sometimes it was hard to tell what sort of mood she was going to be in. "These are some of the brand boo students who are going to start at Monster High next Scaremester. We thought it'd be gnarly if they could check out the SKRM practice."

Kai turned back to his tour-ees.

"Atomica's on the Roller Maze team! Their last match is tomorrow against the Granite City Gargoyles. They're kind of our school's big rivals...for SKRM, at any rate."

Kai introduced his tour-ees to Atomica. Then, while they got to speak with Atomica, he stepped aside for a moment.

"Just one sec, okay? I want to text Layla and tell her where we're going before we get too far. Sometimes my iCoffin signal isn't really good down in the Catacombs."

Marceline blinked at the witch, her jaw slightly agape... she was unsure what to say to him. Maybe it was hexams getting to everyone, but it seemed like every monster she had interacted with that day was not acting like themselves... and since the Cirque Sinistaire incident, that had Marceline a bit edgy. She bit her bottom lip.

"Well Glen," She began, "Tha'sall well an' good, and I'precciate you tellin' me that... but if Rory were so sorry for the boorish way he's actin', well I'm sure he'd tell me himself. And right now, I just wanna focus on passin' my hexams, not on my hex-boofriend... Now if y'will hexcuse me..."

And with that, she tipped her hat down to Glen and made for the creepateria without another word...