Frankenweenie (2)

Chapter 2: School
Victor headed down for breakfast the next morning. His dad lectured him about finding friends at breakfast. Sparky looked up at Victor waiting for him to reply. The truth was that Victor did have friends besides Sparky. Their next door neighbor, Mr. and Mrs. Van Helsing, had a girl the same age as Victor and she was Victor's second best friend. Her name was Elsa. Victor and Elsa met at the movies once and realized that they lived next door and after that, stayed in touch with each other. She and Victor had a couple of things in common. For starters, they both have dogs. Elsa had a black poodle named Persephone and, of course, Victor has Sparky. They equally were shy and liked to read. But, most of all, they loved making things. Of course, Elsa and Victor actually were the center of each other's affections. Elsa and Victor both kept this to themselves. Then there was Luke (this is really Edgar E Gore, but I gave him a different name, so don't sue me!). He was a classmate of Victor's and sometimes he tried a little too hard to make people like him.

C'mon, Victor! Sparky pleaded with his eyes. Just tell your dad that you do have friends! Sparky jumped up in Victor's lap and then, everything came out.

"Dad," Victor began. "I do have another friend." Mr. Frankenstein raised his eyebrows.

"Really?" Victor's dad asked, shocked that his son was telling him this. "Who is it?"

"Our next doo neighbor," Victor said. "It's Elsa Van Helsing." Sparky barked happily and showered Victor with slobbery kisses.

"Easy, boy!" Victor laughed. Mr. Frankenstein put a hand on Victor's shoulder.

"I'm so proud that you actually have another friend!" Mr. Frankenstein exclaimed. Victor looked over at the time.

"Oh no!" Victor cried. "I'm going to be late!"

*************

Victor managed to go and put Sparky in the backyard before he went to school. On the way to get his bike, he saw Elsa bending over the fence to pet Sparky.

"Hiya, boy!" Elsa cooed. Victor blushed. Elsa turned around.

"Hi, Victor!" Elsa called. Victor stumbled backward finally out of his trance.

"Uh," Victor began. "Hi."

"Going to school?" Elsa asked.

"Um, yeah. I guess so. Wanna come?" Victor asked, trying to find the right words to say.

"Sure!" Elsa replied. "I'll go get my bike!" Elsa ran off, leaving a stunned Victor behind.

**************

They both managed to make it to school on time. Soon, it was lunch. After lunch it was Victor and Elsa's favorite class, science. Their teacher Mr. Holcum was hit by lightning and the new teacher, Mr. Ryskuruski, was giving them a lecture about electricity. After a while, Victor and his class grew silent. Mr. Ryskuruski broke the silence.

"But," the teacher began. "It is very rare to have such incident!"

Suddenly, Toshiaki, one of Victor's classmates, hand shot up.

"But it's not rare!" Toshiaki cried. "Lighting happens to people all the time here! There's a thunderstorm almost every night!" Bob, Toshiaki's best friend, science victim and another of Victor's classmates, raised his hand too.

"My dad got hit twice! Bob exclaimed. Suddenly, Celia, the weirdest girl in Victor's class, began to speak. She rarely blinked and her unblinking stare matched her cat's unblinking stare. His name was Mr. Whiskers.

"They built New Holland on an abandoned gold mine," Celia explained, in her monitone.

"I heard it was a cemetary!" Toshiaki said. The weird girl continued.

"That's where they buried the miners!" Celia recited. Nassor, the tallest of the kids, stood up.

"It's the windmill that does it," Nassor said darkly. He pointed out the window. "Turning. Turning the air until the sky rages against the night!" The kids stared blankly at him.

"No. Cemetary. Definately!" Celia said. Elsa looked at Victor. He rolled his eyes. Then Elsa looked at the others.

We really do have weird classmates! Elsa thought.

*************

Sparky was busy playing with a tennis ball, damp from the other night's rain, running and throwing it up in the air. He looked over at the fence that separated his and Elsa's yard. Sparky saw another dog on the other side. Emmidiately that slipped his mind. He turned his back to the fence and threw his ball in the air.

"Arf!" Sparky barked he rolled the ball across the lawn and it went under a hole in the fence. Sparky peeked underneath the hole. He saw the ball, but he couldn't reach it. He jumped up and barked at the fence. Nothing. He barked again. Still, nothing. Sparky gave up and thought he'll never see the ball again. Until it rolled back into his yard! Sparky looked down at it and barked. Then he sniffed it. It smelled like an other dog. Sparky pushed his snout through an open plank in the fence. He sniffed around. The smell of the other dog was strong. Suddenly, his nose touched another dog's nose! Sparky backed up a bit, then he heard a bark. It was Persephone, Elsa's dog. Sparky didn't know her. He looked through a peep hole in his fence but saw nothing.



Once Victor got home, maybe he'll know who this new neighbor of his is...