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God did he hate attending these meetings. Of all the things he could be doing that day, he had to go out of his way to spend several hours of it sitting in a stuffy meeting room with a load of prissy soccer moms whose false beliefs, colored hair, and fake personalities irritated him to no end. It was his fault he had to go though. His wife, being a teacher, didn’t have the time, and his kid was the only human kid in school who called a pair of monsters their parents. Someone needed to attend these meetings to represent kids like his, as well as the young monsters that also attended the same school. So, with this in mind he volunteered to join the PTA in place of his wife who found that she couldn’t attend, and to the joy of monster parents everywhere.
The short, bulky skeleton made his way silently down the halls of the school, a stack of binders filled to the brim with different forms and game plans for future sales held under his arm. His clothes were much more formal than his usual attire, consisting of a nice pair of slacks, a blue button up shirt, and a red tie to boot, black shoes covering his bony feet.
To anyone who passed by who didn’t know the skeleton well, they might have thought that he was happy. The smile that was plastered onto his skull looking joyful and cheery, his rounded, white dotted eye sockets looking surprisingly full of life. But, he was quite the opposite of happy. The smile on his face was something he had no choice but to wear, being a skeleton it was a permanent thing. As for the look in his eyes, well he was faking that. He had gotten used to making it look like he was in a good mood when he really was not, finding that it made people less likely to come up to talk to him, and possibly agitate him further.
It was a few minutes more of walking until he finally reached the door to the meeting room, and already he was able to hear the sounds of women bickering, laughing, sighing, complaining, the occasional sound of crumpling paper joining the mix. He stood silently for a moment, letting that temporary feeling of dread pass before giving a heavy sigh. Reaching out with his empty hand, he took hold of the door knob, giving it a twist before making his way inside, still wearing that convincing fake smile.
The room went silent when he stepped inside, all eyes on him as he looked around, giving a small wave to everyone inside. “Look who finally decided to show up,” said one of the women, standing up as she gave the skeleton a smug grin. She was blonde, her hair obviously dyed to look that way, the brown color of her eyes giving this away. The makeup she wore was just as obvious, her lips far too red for the color to be natural, and her cheeks too rosy for a woman her age. This, was Helen “You’re late again, Sans.”
The skeleton took a glance up at the clock, giving a small huff. He really was late. By a mere five minutes. Without a word he went over to the empty seat that had been saved for him at the table, placing himself between the two women in the room who he could actually stand.
To his right was Elaine, a rather thin, pale faced woman, her brunette hair reaching down just past her shoulders. To his left was Jean who was a fair bit bigger than Elaine, her face much more rounded, her skin olive in color, matching the short black hair that she wore. He knew both of them long before he had joined the PTA, what with both of their kids being friends with his own.
Helen looks around the room for a moment, flashing Sans a sort of dirty look before putting on that obnoxious fake smile of hers. “So now that everyone is here, why don’t we get on with tonight's discussion.” She said, setting down a small stack of papers, handing a sheet out to everyone who sat around the table, “Field trips.”
Sans looked down to the paper in his hand, reading it over for a moment before looking up to Helen with a rather, confused look. “we discussed this last week didn’t we? we agreed that the upcoming trip was going to be to the local science museum.” He asked, remembering back to the fairly recent discussion they had all had about this subject. Why would they need to discuss this again?
“That’s right, we did. And looking into the place a bit more, I’ve decided that we should change the location to somewhere more…age appropriate.” She said, her tone smug always, the statement obviously baffling everyone in the room.
“helen… do you mind explaining to us what the hell that’s supposed to mean? it’s a science museum, how is that not appropriate for the kids?” He asked, trying to think of any possible way this place could be bad for children. Most of the exhibits there were hands on to at least some scale, and all in all the place was pretty much made to educate both kids and adults alike.
Helen glared to Sans when he asked this, giving an exaggerated gasp at the ‘rude’ nature of the question. “Well, after we settled on taking the kids there I went to go and investigate some of the exhibits that we would be visiting, and found myself quite disgusted with the things some of them were teaching. I have pictures if you feel you need a bit more insight.” She explained, taking one of the small files that sat in front of her as she passed it across the table to Sans, giving him an expectant sort of look.
He raised a brow when she passed the folder to him, a feat even for him considering his face was nothing more than a skull. He reached down to the manila folder, flipping it open before taking one of the ten or so pictures that sat inside. The first picture was of one of the dinosaur exhibits, specifically and animatronic display of what looked to be a Tyrannosaurus feeding on a now dead triceratops.
The next few pictures were of similar things, from more of these dinosaur displays to some of the plastic mannequins that displayed the internal workings of a human being. Most of these things were totally normal, and expected, from a museum like this. “so uh… what exactly is wrong here? all of these displays are pretty standard.” He asked, looking up to Hellen, finding himself rather confused by all of this.
“I just don’t think some of these displays are very appropriate for children. I mean look at them! Those animatronics are bound to scare the kids!” She said, already starting to get herself riled up like she always seemed to at these meetings. It was sort of a terrible habit of hers… a terrible habit that just about everyone there hated.
He just stared silently at the pictures for a few more long moments, looking back up to Hellen with a rather curious look in his eyes. “hellen, i have a question for you. exactly how stupid are you? your kid, as well as mine, live among monsters who look far scarier than anything in these pictures.” He said in a sort of matter a fact way.
Hellens’ face contorted in anger at the condescending nature of his question, glaring at the still grinning skeleton, rage burning in her eyes. “I’ll have you know that I am the head of this committee, and I wont hesitate to kick you out for rude behavior.” She told him in a rather smug manner.
“you say this almost every week, and you have never even come close to going through with that threat. besides, you know your power isn’t totalitarian, you only have the power to put it up to vote.”
“Fine, I’ll put it up to vote right now. All in favor of Sans no longer appearing at these minutes, raise your hands and let it be known.” She announced, raising her own hand as she looked around the room. There was only one other bony hand up. None the women seemed to want him to leave. “You really voted to get yourself kicked out?” She asked, giving him a dirty look, lowering her hand.
He shrugged just a bit, looking up to her, those pearly white teeth of his shining a bit. “figured you deserved a little bit of support. but, it looks like i’m staying. too bad for you.” He told her, chuckling softly to himself as he lowered his own hand down, resting it on the table. “anyways, seeing as i won that little argument, what say we vote on whether or not to go to the museum one last time, hmmm?”
“Fine. All in favor of changing the location of the class trip, please raise your hands.” She called out, her own hand going right up. This time, she was completely alone.
“all in favor of going to the muesuem and moving the rest of this meeting along, hands up.” He followed up, his hand, as well as all the other hands in the room going right up. He looked back to Hellen, chuckling. “looks like you wasted our time once again hellen. better luck next time.”
She glared down at the skeleton, her eye twitching slightly as she took the folder that sat in front of him right back, ripping the paper a bit. And so, she sat silently for the rest of the meeting, letting her anger get the best of her as she kept an angry eye on the skeleton. Not that he cared any. One more victory for him.