Archive of Our Own ^beta

Of all the world that are, ever have been, or will ever be, few places are more dangerous than the halls of Spooky High School. In the 3-6 weeks leading up to prom, you would have a better chance of surviving a game of Truth or Dare with a Trickster God, but thankfully we can look down at this school not in the middle of chaos and love. Don’t get me wrong, 17 people have already died today, but it’s usually much worse when prom rolls around. 

It’s lunch time at the moment, and looking at this scene it seemed like any other day really. The various monsters of Spooky High are all at various tables. Some extort money from their fellow students, some converting various lunch tables into battle-read hover lunch tables for an upcoming debate, others still are eating food (and nothing interesting either like poison or actual fire. Just lame stuff like ham sandwiches. Those people are clearly not romance option material).  It was all quite normal. One Editch Cutie Pie new different however. As she ran into the cafeteria she just had to tell someone about. 

Trying to get the most bang for her buck with showing off to her friends, she went to the table of Brian, Amira, Scott, Calculester, and Liam. Brian and Amira were talking about their fantasy football league. Calculester was providing percentages for the djinn and zombie’s teams. Scott misunderstood what they were doing and threw a football at Liam’s head. The purple vampire is still on the floor and hasn’t moved sense. Always one to allow other people to enjoy their hobbies and interests, Zoe interrupted all of them to talk about her thing, “Guys, guys. Guys guys guys guys guys guys guy guy gu-”

“Zoe!” Amira interrupted, “I know you don’t have to breath, so you could literally do that forever, but please get to the point.” 

“Oh right. Sorry. So I was at the soup store buying clothes when I saw...THIS on twitter.” Zoe then struck a pose, arm and tentacle outstretched. The four still conscious high schoolers looked the eldritch horror up and down. Zoe was wearing one of her default outfits, her yellow hoodie with back legging. Sure, it was really cute, but nothing really new. Deciding nothing could be solved with sight, Scott decided to sniff it which seemed to lead to a result. 

“It smells new!”

“Yep, you’re looking at the first ever office Monster Prom merchandise! Zoe’s hoodie!” She moved here hand up and down the side of her top with a large smile on her face the whole time. The rest of the table was less impressed. 

“Zoe, I like a good hoodie,” said the always wearing a hoodie zombie said, “but you literally always wear that hoodie. I don’t get it”

“No guys, you don’t understand. Ever sense I fell hard into the Monster Prom fandom, I’ve always wanted some Monster Prom merchandise, but there was none. So I traveled to the future when they released the first ever stuff! And I got the hoodie.”

“I see Friend-Zoe. So time travel is involved. That answers my question of why there are two Friend-Zoes in the cafeteria” Calculester pointed over to another table where Damien and Dahlia are attempting to form a peace treaty with Milo being a neutral third party to help make it happen. Zoe was there as an unneutral fourth party trying to provoke the rivalry again. She did briefly look up and wake to her past self. 

Despite the time travel present however, everyone seemed to be calling upon their inner Liam as none seemed impressed (especially Liam who grunted dismissively in the brain injury induced dream he was currently having). Zoe’s enthusiasm began to subside, “Come on guys. I get you aren’t that into the fandom, but please be happy with me on this. It’d mean a lot to me.” All of Zoe's eyes, even the fake ones she drew on, all looked down.

“Oh no. Friend-Zoe. Please do not be sad. It was never my intention to make you sad!” A :( appeared on Cal’s screen.

“Yeah, sorry Zoe. Didn’t mean underplay your joy,” Brain added, “Why don’t you join us for lunch before you go back in time. We’ll tell you who ended up going to prom with Miranda.” Zoe’s eyes widened as a smile grew on her face and leg. She extended a tentacle to steal someone else’s lunch while sitting down to hear the story. Before anything could begin however, Amira hand an idea.

“Hey wait. Did you say that hoodie was on sale now?” Zoe gave an affirmation. Amira looked down at Liam with a toothy grin, “Great. In that case let’s go. I have an idea,” Not waiting for anyone Amira stood up and turned to to walk away from the table, “Hey Miranda! I need to borrow your wealth and ability to control the masses!”

Liam awoke from the floor a few hours later. Lunch had ended and the hall was empty, everyone else in the school was now in one of the 6 locations you could be that wasn’t the cafeteria. Picking himself up, he decided to pretend what cause him to lay on the ground (attacks by Scott do a number to your short term memory) didn’t happen at all, so he could be on his way. Dusting himself off, he noticed that his wardrobe had changed. All of his normal clothes were gone, now replaced with the yellow hoodie that Zoe always wears. He wasn’t wearing anything under it. 

What followed was an incredible amount of mental gymnastics for Liam. Sure, this was someone else’s brand and didn’t work with him at all, but he was wearing nothing else with no sign of his clothes. And besides, he had seen Zoe earlier. She wasn’t wearing this today which means he would still be original throughout the school. Satisfied with his decision, the hipster vampire made his way into the school proper which was at present empty. 

That would not last however as the bell rang for the end of 5th period, the halls were soon crowded. Unfortunately for Liam, lead to a sigh more horrible than anything else. 

Everyone

EVERYONE was wearing this same hoodie. And in the exact way that Liam was. No deviation. Whatever happened, Liam had before what he truly hated. He had become...MAINSTREAM! Liam’s mind began to spin. To figure out a way to make the hoodie unique or to convince himself that he was still outside of the mainstream. This reached a breaking point however as he heard a voice behind him.

“Oh Daddy! Look! We’re matching! Isn’t this great Papa!” Liam turned to see Dimitri in the same hoodie with a starry eyed smile in his face. And then Liam snapped. 

He stood there for a minute, not saying a word. Then in a sudden motion he ripped the hoodie off himself, proving to everyone he did in fact have nothing underneath. With a smile on his face and a glare in his glasses, Liam walked through the crowd butt naked, on the way to his next class. The group of Amira, Brian, and Zoe looked on in aw. The plan was to force Liam to be one with the masses for a day, but no. He had stuck to his principles and refused to be one with the pack. It was almost noble. So much so that they couldn’t help but stare (although it did help that Liam was walking away from them and had a really cute butt).