Hello, and welcome to part two of Red Ruby School for the Peculiar
and Powerful. If you are already signed up, nothing to worry about.
If not, go here. For those of you who are coming back,
this one takes place the next year. All former students except
Zephyr, Max, Fauna, Kyleen, and Maurice, (who are 3rd year) are now
in there second year.
It was just a normal day for the students of Red Ruby School. It
was their break day, and quite a nice day for one. The sun was
shining, the zebra birds were singing, and everyone was gathered at
Fauna's greenhouse. Fauna was watering the now quickly growing
Elephant Ear plant, Max was trying to catch one of Fauna's Vine
Monkeys, Kyleen was on the floor doing her homework, and Zephyr was
trying to get Feathers out of his hair, who was in turn fascinated
with his Blonde hair.
Max shrugged as he clambered over a shelf that Fauna had removed
plants from for cleaning, stretching out his arms tworads the leafy
monkey that was swinging from hanging plant to plant. "I just don't
do it." Kyleen called out from across the room, "Maybe that's why
you're failing and he isn't. Fauna looked up at Max. "Max, get down
here!" Max grinned. "But it's so much fun!" Zephyr continued his
struggle with Feathers. "Can you get off me?" Feathers grinned as
she scuttled across Zephyr's head. "But your hair is so cool!"
"Yeah, so is having it not pulled out of my head by a talking plant
doll!"
Boreas smirked slightly at the hilarious sight, then flicked his
fingers, sending a much more controlled breeze to dangle Feathers
away from Zephyr, landing Feathers away from him.
Feathers pouted as the breeze lifted her off of Zephyr's head and
into an empty flower pot. "But I like his hair!" she complained.
Zephyr rubbed his head. "Thanks." Fauna had already put down her
can and was arguing with Max. Max had managed to catch the Vine
Monkey and wanted to keep it as a pet. "But it's so cute!" Max
cooed, holding the confused plant up to face him. Fauna shook her
head. "vine monkeys need a lot of care and are a handful." Max
grinned and said, "But I'm a handful too! And I need a lot of
care!" Fauna shook her head. Kyleen stood up, papers in her arms.
"There. I'm going to go back to my dorm now if you need me."
Benjamin swung down from outside the door, opening it and holding
it like that. "Leaving so soon, Madam President? I only now got
here." He chuckled a little, then hooked his hands on the edge of
the doorway of the greenhouse and lowered himself in, the tail at
his waist disappearing as he did. In turn, a pair of massive ears
leapt up from his scalp, which turned and twisted, picking up every
little sound.
Kyleen frowned. "Oh, you must be the boy from last
year...Benjamin?" The others all looked up, and Max snickered. "Oh,
Maurice is gonna love seeing you again. She's been calling you
"that dirty vat" ever since she fought you."
"Maurice huh?" He smiled, then turned to Max and whispered, "I
think she likes me." He gave a joking wink, then sat down on the
ground and announced, "I did a bit of my homework over by the
glowworms. That's alright, isn't it?" The boy had grown rather
interested in the massive creatures, and had often been heard
attempting to converse with them.
Max shrugged. "I mean, the guy who removed most of them said that
they should be good now." When he heard the bit about Maurice
liking Bengianmen, he grinned. "Listen, I don't know her very well,
but there's a good chance she does. Maurice tries to intimidate
everybody around here, so anyone who can beat her in a fight
definitely has her respect."
Fauna turned around, having wrested the Vine Monkey from Max's
grasp. "Oh hey, Benjamin!" Max pouted. "C'mon, Fauna, he liked me!"
Kyleen shook her head and left.
Benjamin nodded a greeting to Fauna. "So, any news among the Garden
Society? Surely there's something." He tossed on a needy tone and a
joking smile, then stood up again. "I know there's no news from the
forest dorm, so there's got to be news elsewhere." He was clearly
bored, and it showed in his eyes, how his ears were positioned, and
how he stood. Stifling a yawn, he continued with a different topic.
"D'you think Miss Kyleen would be mad if I told her I was out after
curfew, but caught several students doing-" He lowered his voice-
"Nefarious things?"
Fauna was confused and a little worried. "W-what? What do you
mean?" Max hopped down and shrugged. "She'd probablly give you an
earful about breaking curfew." Zephyr was also confused, but for a
different reason. "Is no one going to tell me who he is?"
Benjamin turned to Zephyr, then smiled a serrated grin; his teeth
had been those of Munch for some time now. "Benjamin Marolf, nice
to meetcha! You can call me Jamie if you so please." He extended a
hand in offer of a handshake.
Zephyr smiled back. "Zephyr Storm, you can call me, er, Zephyr?" He
returned the handshake. The others were interested now save Max,
who had taken the opportunity to steal the Vine Monkey from Fauna,
and was now letting him crawl over his shoulders. "You still
haven't told us what you were talking about, Benjamin!" Fauna said.
Benjamin smiled and sat down on an empty shelf. "Well, allow me to
spin my tale." His smile grew a little. "Last night, at precisely
eleven thirty-two, Munch was happily trotting through the halls and
cleaning the place up a little. No later then eleven thirty-three,
however, we were distracted from our self imposed duties by the
sound of quiet voices and shoes scuffing against the ground, and a
door opening. Intrigued, we followed. A group of three boys had
entered a separate room, but the door was squeaky so I was forced
to hop into the vents." He brushed his sweater and a plume of dust
flew from it. "Speaking of which, I'll need to take a duster up
there tonight... Anyways, I followed through the vents, and found
where they had gone via Munch's ears." His flicked the massive ears
on his head. "I'm not yet sure what they were up to, but I nearly
had them. See, something squeaked in the vent and they ran." He
leaned back against the wall of the greenhouse and yawned,
stretching his body.
Now Benjamin had all of their attentions. Max asked, "Did you hear
them talking?" fauna asked, "Wait, who's Munch?" Zephyr asked, "Did
you see what they looked like?"
Benjamin looked at Zephyr. "Well, no. But I do know that they were
upperclassmen." Turning to Max, he said, "Well, it was sorta hard
not to. Once they had gotten away from the dorm halls and staff
quarters, they were practically yelling." And finally, turning to
Fauna, he smiled. "How can you not know Munch? He's this cutie!"
Sticking his tongue out a little, Benjamin pointed both his thumbs
at himself, and turned his head into the likes of Munch. He flicked
his ears one at a time, then blinked his massive amber eyes.
Fauna was entranced. "Oh, how cute!" Max nodded. "Hmm...I may have
a few ideas on who it is." Zephyr nodded as well. Just then, the
door to the greenhouse opened. "Zephyr, Vi need vat-Oh, it's
you."Maurice scowled and turned around, starting to head out.
"What's the rush, Maur?" "Yeah, c'mon in! Paradise Greenhouse
leaves nobody out." Maurice rolled her eyes. "Fine." she walked in
and found the darkest corner possible.
Benjamin tilted himself backwards, laying down and looking up so he
could look at Maurice. "Fancy another battle with ze dirty vat?" He
giggled and smiled again, his face returning to normal, aside from
the sharp teeth and huge ears. "Anyways, welcome to Paradise, how's
it been, hmm? Need to do any homework?" His smile was huge, and he
was full of energy, clearly enthralled by his story of last night.
Maurice scowled at him. "Maybe I do, at a time ven I can actually
hurt you." Fauna smiled. "It's been doing pretty well, thanks for
asking! The only one who should be doing homework here is.." she
nodded in Max's direction, who was upside down on his shelf. He
grinned. "Homework is for the weak!"