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There seemed to be a new student at Spooky High, one who looked nothing like any monster Oz had ever seen. That wasn't particularly strange in and of itself. What was strange was that several of the teachers seemed to have years of implanted false memories of her attending the school. It was a little frightening, but Damien's casualties were already in the double digits that day, so Oz supposed that she wasn't the scariest thing in the room. Still, he made sure to keep a cautious eye on her throughout his morning classes.
The girl's skin was a bright, rich purple colour, which deepened at the ends of the tentacles that formed her hairstyle. The eyes in the centre of her humanoid face were dark, focused on the notebook in front of her, but as Oz kept looking he noticed more and more eyes of an otherworldly green studding her body, accompanied by sharp toothed mouths. In some areas, her flesh appeared to be melting, a telltale sign of a monster trying very hard to keep an unfamiliar form. The girl's appearance was certainly intimidating, but... something about her felt very familiar to Oz.
At recess that day, when he went to find his friends (who were sitting in the library, apparently running scams on the school computers), he tried bringing her up.
"Does anyone know what's up with the new girl?"
Vicky beamed, eager to share what she'd learned, turning away from the dating site she'd been prowling.
"Oh, Tentacles? I heard that she's Z'Gord, apparently. Or, well, was Z'Gord," she said. A look of surprise bloomed on Oz's face, but she took it as confusion, and elaborated. "You know," she said, "that god that Polly and Miranda released? With all the blood and the locusts?"
Oz had actually been off that day, but he'd heard about it.
"Huh. Wild. Wonder what she's doing here?"
Brian looked up from the rigged chess tournament he'd been playing, a grin plastered on his face.
"Why so curious about her? Gonna ask her to prom?" he teased, and an embarrassed blush rose on their face. "Guys! I-It's not like that! I just wanted to know..." they said, but it was too late. Amira joined in on the teasing, and even Vicky. Soon enough though, the others had remembered what they were doing before, and enlisted Oz to help them earn money. Apparently, Brian had decided to buy a ghost costume to try and trick their classmates. They decided against mentioning that the actual ghosts attending the school would probably see right through him- or, well, not.
Oz kept thinking about the new girl- Zoe, apparently- until lunch the following day. They normally would've sat with Vicky, Brian, and Amira, their usual friend group, but today they'd gotten to the cafeteria a little late, and their friends were surrounded by the Wolfpack. It looked exhausting, but there was no room, so Oz decided to leave them in their predicament and find somewhere else to sit. Scanning the room though, he realised there were only two tables with free seats: one where the slayer was busy trying to kill Liam, and the one where Zoe was sitting. Crap.
The new-girl-and-possibly-eldritch-horror might've been scary, but she wasn't currently brandishing a weapon, so that won out in Oz's mind. Cursing their lateness, they made their way over to the table.
"H-Hey, do you mind if I sit here?"
Zoe looked up from the comic she was reading with a bubbly grin.
"Of course!" she replied, almost too eager. "My name's Zoe."
"Oz," he said with a cautious smile. Her excitement had thrown him off. Of course- somehow, they had forgotten how daunting it was to join a school halfway through the year, when everyone had already made their alliances. Especially when you were so different. So, when she reached out a tentacle, he bottled up his fears and shook it politely.
The silence stretched out for slightly too long, and Oz couldn't bear it. He opened his mouth before she could look back to her comic, hoping that something brilliantly witty and charming come out, and-
"Um. I th-think I've, uh, seen you around," he said, and immediately cursed his terrible conversation skills. What was this, a dating podcast? He really hadn't meant it to come out so much like a pick up line.
Intention or not, Zoe didn't seem to like it- her face immediately fell, and the mouth on one of her legs let out a disappointed sigh. He was not making a good first impression.
"I was trapped for ages in a totem that was apparently being passed around by your classmates. It's probably that," she said flatly, and Oz got the impression that it really wasn't something she wanted to talk about.
"N-No, I meant before that," they said, desperately trying to salvage the conversation. Zoe cocked her head, curious.
"Hmm. Well, you don't really strike me as a cultist, so-" the green eye in the centre of her 'hair' fully opened, partially covering her humanoid face, and turned its piercing gaze onto Oz. He could feel it staring into his depths, and it was all he could do not to bolt.
"Huh. You're not a normal monster, are you?" she asked, and her face was back to normal.
"Uhhh..."
Oz didn't really like to talk about that. But, surely, if anyone wouldn't be weirded out, it would be her, so he pushed down all the squirming feelings inside and answered, with a polite smile, "I guess not."
"Neat!"
Zoe beamed, an adorably dorky grin on her face. "So, what are you?"
Oz looked around, ensuring none of his friends were close enough to hear, before replying.
"... Fear," they said, sounding slightly embarrassed. Zoe seemed to like the answer though.
"Cool!" she said, spooning something hard to comprehend out of a tupperware. "We probably have met then, I guess. I've certainly caused a lot of fear in my time."
Oz laughed at that- "Believe me, I know,"- and the conversation lightened up. They learned that they had a few interests in common, and kept chatting until the end of the lunch break. Besides, Oz thought, it was so nice to finally talk to someone who got it. Who understood how it felt to be something that should, logically, be outside of this, bigger than this, but to want it so badly that you forced yourself into the right shape and made it fit.
Maybe talking to people for the first time wasn't so scary after all.