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There were still a few days before the field trip and though Belladonna had originally felt pretty positively about it, she had recently begun to doubt herself. It might be best to wait a little bit longer before she jumped into something so serious, but she had made a promise, right? She had signed up for it herself and no one had forced her hand. Plus she had already found a group that would be counting on her! Yet through all that, the young witch couldn't shake the feeling that maybe she shouldn't go...

With such worry fresh on her mind, Belladonna decided a nice walk would help clear her worry. With care she dressed in her newest outfit (a marvel of cleavage, pink and ribbons) before she trundled up one of her treats in its harness and headed out the door. Her familiar, Binx, had declined to join the excursion, citing he needed to catch up on his kitty-sleep while Belladonna rolled her eyes and exited the dorm.
Unfortunately for her, things turned out more stressful than she had hoped...
In about ten minutes flat the Love-A-Lot Treat Belladonna had brought along had shimmied from his harness and had bolted from the witch.

"SIR CUDDLEMUS RUFFLEAN BUTTIMAN THE THIRD!!" The witch shouted at the top of her lungs, her eyebrows set angrily over blazing pink eyes as she charged after the mischievous Treat,"You get back here right this instant!" It did no such thing and instead continued on its path toward the woods. Surely all the shouting would have caught the attention of the zombie, but it was the zombie standing on the edge of the forest that caught the treat's attention (who was usually just called Cuddley Ruffley Butt). In a flash it changed its course, darting across the bridge and toward the zombie, its little pink wings fluttering in the wind.

"Good Hecate!" The witch huffed as she turned on her heel and dashed across the bridge, making a Jack-awful lot of noise with her heels. The witch finally noticed the boil standing there with the Treat hovering around his ankles as though the zombie would protect him from the enraged witch, but the treat should have known better.
"Catch him!!" She shouted to the boil, not slowing her pace that lie in direct path of the zombie while simultaneously pointing to the treat that was now clinging to his pant's leg.

Holding on was exactly what the treat did.
Its little paws grasped at the boil's pants leg and when he lifted, the treat let out a tiny squeak and clung to it, the ends of its wings barely touching the ground.
This pleased Belladonna greatly for she let out an exasperated but very appreciative "Thank you!" before she dropped to her knees before the zombie and plucked the pet from his pants.
"You horrible little thing you!" She scolded it as one of her fingers tapped its nose in way of punishment. "Unless you want to stay in that closet forever and only come out for food and battling, you better learn to stop running away!" The treat huffed in the witch's arms, crossed its paws under its tuft of fluff across its chest like it had seen its owner do and glared at the ground. But it gave no more fight so Belladonna sighed, placed a kiss on its head and stood up to better thank the boy.

He didn't altogether tower over her, so Belladonna instantly liked him. (Not that she had anything against tall people... It was just not fun to have everyone looking down at you all the time is all...)
"Thanks for helping." The witch told him with a smile. "I'm Belladonna Divine! Its so nice to meet you! You go to Amityville, right?"
After a moment her cheeks flushed a little at how silly that was. Of course he went to Amityville, why else would he be on the school grounds if he didn't? Perhaps it was better if Belladonna didn't ponder that and instead try to work around her nervousness. She had to get back to being social! No more of this pesky hesitation all the time!! Instead, the girl smiled more at the boy and waited for his name.

It was probably best for all involved that Belladonna was not aware of the zombie boy's sudden infatuation. She was used to people leaning a little bit closer whenever she got around and though she wasn't totally sure of the reason behind it, she always attributed it to the pretty smelling perfume she wore. So instead of tapping her foot impatiently or covering herself up, Belladonna instead only bounced on the balls of her feet a little, which probably didn't help the situation anyways.

"Lost?" She echoed after him and scrunched her nose up as if the concept were foreign to her. Her pink eyes darted to the skull pin on his armband and a fresh smile broke out onto her face. "Ooohh! You're new and you got lost?" Sometimes zombies with stitched up mouths didn't have very descriptive speaking powers, but Belladonna was more than willing to be patient with this zombie. "It is a really lovely day out." Here she turned to take a deep breath of the air and let out in a woosh that made the treat's ears flatten against his head in agitation. It had been calm after being caught, but was now wiggling in the girl's arms. But she remained oblivious to the treat's agitation as she continued her conversation with the boil.

"Yes, the campus is rather large. But it gets much smaller once you know your way around... Are you... Are you looking for any place in particular?" After another moment of paused she jumped up on the balls of her feet again. "And what's your name?!" The zombie might not be a chatter box, but Belladonna would do her best to coax some answers out of him!

A pale hand shot out towards Belladonna and had she been given to any serious thought, she would have realized how very close it was to coping a feel. But the moment Mortimer offered his hand for a shake, Cuddley Ruffley Butt decided it was a good time to shimmy on down Belladonna and cling to the bottom of her skirt and hang contentedly. The witch let out a tiny squeak of surprise, but laughed when she realized the treat would not try to run away anymore.
"Mortimer! Pleasure to meet you!" She said as she took his one hand into both of her's and shook it vigorously. To be honest, she was not one for hand shaking as it wasn't what most ladies did (most ladies curtsied, as Belladonna would have had she not been holding a pesky little pet at the time of her own introduction) but not everyone could avoid shaking hands. So in lieu of this, Belladonna felt it was most necessary to show the exuberance of one's personality in one's handshake. Which, for the witch, meant that she would bounce. More. As if she hadn't done that enough already.

After a good shake, Belladonna let the boy's hand go and patiently listened to his tale of woe and misfortune. Well, she's sure it would have been filled with such things were he given the opportunity to speak about it. In any regard, she was at least satisfied that he was speaking more now.
"So.. You don't know where the Undead dorms are?" She smiled and cast her mind back to recalling where they were, but paused when he suggested a second course of action. "Food? Well, I suppose I am a little hungry..." But the witch paused, thinking. "Please understand I mean no offense by this, but... Um... Don't undead eat... Meat?" The last word was squeaked out as though the idea was unsettling to the witch.

At this time the little treat that hung off of Belladonna's skirts decided it wanted to not only hang, but to swing so it began kicking its feet back and forth. The little witch held up a finger to Mortimer to indicate she would return to their discussion in a moment and then placed both hands on her hips and bent forward so that she could address the pet.
"Now if you promise just to swing there and be good, you can stay. But if you try to run away again, you're done for. You understand?" She glared at the treat who paused its swinging to nod its head in understanding before it continued on its play.
"Alright then." The witch straightened up and returned her attention to Mortimer with a smile. "Mortimer, what were we discussing again?"

For a moment Belladonna was thrown by the boy's actions. She had only just stood up straight when he smacked himself and caused his glasses to go askew.
"You alright?" She asked with a tilt of her head, both hands instinctively reaching up to help before she halted them just under her bust. There had been another blue boil with glasses that had unsettled his glasses too and it was only a natural reaction for her to step forward and right them. But this boil was not that boil and now the witch felt trapped and uncertain. This was what outside did. Outside brought all the bad memories back without hesitation and right now Belladonna was feeling a couple of them.

What brought her back was the mention of meat.
Mortimer asked the question hollowly, as though he were repeating it and Belladonna realized he was trying to bring the conversation back. So she reached down and plucked the treat from her skirt (which wouldn't have been pulled down as it was attached to her corset-top and if that had been pulled down, well... Mortimer probably wouldn't have been standing still) and hugged it close.
"I like sweets..." She mumbled softly, but then gasped in horror. "You eat PETS?!" She nearly shouted, her hands clutching the treat tighter as though Mortimer might try to wrench it away from her and devour it right then and there.
But that was silly! He seemed so nice so far...

"I'm sorry, I'm not jumping to conclusions... Really... Its just that... You see, I'm a vegetarian... And not everyone is and there's nothing wrong with that!" She was getting flustered, this was bad... "Its just that most people aren't so they don't usually cater to my tastes... But sweets are fine. I'm not one for pillows... Do you eat pillows? I mostly just lie on pillows, you know... Relax with a good book or so..." She paused and bit her lower lip nervously. "I'm talking too much, hmm?"
With her eyes now cast down, Belladonna noticed his stuck out hand and found it... Curious. Hhmmm, what a curious boy!

"OH!" The witch nearly shouted at the zombie who quickly amended his first sentence. "OH MY HECATE! I am SO sorry! I didn't mean to imply that-- I would never think that you-- I am SO sorry!!" Was all she managed to get out before her hand was taken and shaken, then returned. Mortimer then made some motions at Cuddley Ruffley Butt, who seemed confused by them but reached out for the boy in any regard. For a moment the witch considered why her pet was taking a liking to the boil, but she didn't think it with malice or contempt, more general curiosity.
"I like pets... Quite a lot, so yes. I'd much rather meet them than eat them." Here she inserted a tinkling laugh that if one listened carefully enough to, could hear the nervous echo reverberating inside it.

But she didn't give Mortimer the chance for that. Instead she bounced back onto her heel a bit, as though surprised by his question.
"You don't..." A tilt of the head that brought some curls over her shoulder. "You don't know what a vegetarian is?"
For one moment she frowned and cast her eyes downward as she considered this. Then she returned her curious gaze to the zombie boy.
"I suppose you wouldn't know about them... Not that I'm implying anything of course, I just mean... They aren't very common among zombies..." She paused and waited to see if the boy would storm off in anger after that, but he didn't so she continued. "A vegetarian is a type of person who doesn't eat meat... I only eat non-living things, like plants or grains! Meat is just... Its so..." Here she began to huff and puff a little, one hand fluttering through the air in agitation.

"I really like animals and meat is animals so I don't like it!!" She finally sputtered, a little more dramatically then she had meant to, so one hand flew to cover her mouth as she stepped backwards from Mortimer, her eyes wide with fear. Surely he would chastise her or make fun of her or something awful! He just had to! He was so quiet!

Curiosity by this was raging within the witch, so when the zombie boil suddenly lit up in a smile she couldn't help but be totally thrown by it. Not in a bad way. Honestly, he was rather cute when he smiled like that.
"A zombie vegetarian?" Belladonna nearly cooed the words, as though they were precious to her. Another vegetarian? Who had a cute smile? Oh, the world was perfect!
So with perfect poise (or, well... At least as perfect as one holding a wiggling Love-A-Lot Treat in one's arms could be perfect) Belladonna stood and listened with rapt attention. In all honesty she resembled a small child listening to an adult tell them a wondrous tale, for her eyes were wide and her mouth formed a tiny "o" of interest.

"So... Eating brains makes you dumb?" She finally asked after letting his information soak in for a moment. "So what do you eat instead of brains?" It was an intriguing idea to say the least and something else he said perked her interest... "Ah!! Humans don't think I'm really scary either! I'm too... Um... What's the word?" She paused and waved a hand in front of herself to indicate everything from the tippy-tops of her shoes all the way to the stars on her hat. "Normal? Something like that... Its not very much fun to be treated differently because I don't look... Really scary." A pause and a frown. "But I am scary... Maybe not now... But... I can be!" For a moment she considered growling at him, but figured that wouldn't help her case. For now it was enough to know she had a kindred spirit in the fight against humans not taking her seriously. Not that she had met any or anything... But word got around.

In any regard, Cuddely Ruffley Butt was squirming too much so Belladonna set him down and watched as the little creature toddled over to Mortimer and latched onto his pant's leg. It turned its head up to him expectantly and gave him a look of "Well, go on!".
"Plants aren't too flat! And I don't know if they really taste green... I'm sure I could find you some plants you'd like. I'm almost a botanist expert, you know." She paused. "Ha ha, I like animals and plants in case you couldn't tell. What things do you like?"
Maybe she was doing it unintentionally, but Mortimer had spoken quite a lot just then and Belladonna rather liked hearing him talk. He was different... He had some nice ideas and the witch had forgotten they were supposed to be going somewhere... No, no, she was too bothered trying to coax the zombie into conversation and the treat into telling her what it wanted from Mortimer.