Sus and Tem is Friends, Chapter 1

Sus and Tem is Friends, Chapter 1: What Happens When Weebs Try Shipping

*Bring bring bring*

The shrill ring of the school bell did nothing to dull the clamor in Ms. Alphys’s classroom. The congregation of high-school seniors were far too enamored with their conversations to heed its commandment of order and silence. At the head of the classroom, seated at her desk, a beleaguered yellow-lizard gathered the courage she needed to address her students. After she took a few deep breaths and gave herself a silent pep talk, Ms. Alphys rose and did her best to be heard over the din of the multiple conversations taking place around her.

“A-a-alright class. P-p-please quiet down. I-I-I know that the first day back from winter break is hard to get through but I have something that should help! A-a-and best of all, no homework...” As she spoke those last two words, it was as if someone had cast a silencing spell on every monster, human, and hard-boiled egg in the room.

With her students’ full attention on her, Ms. Alphys began to sweat, well sweat more than normal. She took a deep breath and forced herself to continue despite feeling the overwhelming urge to vomit every time she took in a breath.

“Y-y-yep that’s right, no homework, other than what you’ll need to do as part of the next project, which we’ll be starting on today by the way.” Before Ms. Alphys could say more, she was cut off by a collective groan from the students before her.

“C-c-come on guys. I-i-its not that bad, you’ll each be working with a partner!” After she revealed this aspect of the project, Alphys saw some relief wash over her students’ faces. “A-a-and just to make things extra fun, I’ll assign partners this time!” This final revelation was met with a groan far grander than the one from moments ago.

While Ms. Alphys’s final reveal hit everyone of her students hard, it caused a certain purple dragon to really squirm. While the teacher pulled out papers and organized them into neat stacks, Susie kicked the back of Kris’s chair in an attempt to get her beau’s attention.

Kris, used to Susie’s enthusiastic means of starting conversations, turned to see what she wanted. “Yeah Sus, what’s up?”

“What are we gonna do if Alphys doesn't pair us up?

“Not sure, I was just going to roll with it. Guessing that there’s not a lot we can do, you know?” Kris shrugged as he finished speaking.

“Easy for you to say smart guy, you’re a nerd. Reports and shit like that are easy for you.”

“You’ll be fine, besides, what’s the worst that could happen? So you might have to endure a few bad puns or handling all the “hands-on work.” Not like you haven’t overcome way worse lately, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess. How do you manage to always see the good in a shit situation? Susie reached her arm out and squeezed Kris’s shoulder after she had finished asking her question.
“Can’t help it, anyone that grew up around my brother, my dad, and my mom would turn out the same way, nothing but sunshine and rainbow farts...”

“Ha! Thanks freak, I needed a laugh.”

As Susie chuckled at Kris’s last comment, Alphys concluded her paper stacking. Satisfied with the piles, she pulled a folded square of paper from her coat pocket and cleared her throat. She continued to make coughing noises until she had everyone’s attention, whereupon she unfolded the paper and began walking between the rows of desks as she called out her pairings.

"S-s-so first we have Jockington and Monster Kid. N-n-next Snowy and Catti. A-a-and then uh…Berdly and EG.”

Upon hearing that he had been paired with EG, Berdly shot his hand up and the air and waved it about violently. “Oh Ms. Alphys, I hate to imply you made a mistake but you cannot possibly have paired me with Temmie’s lunch. This is a joke, correct?”

“B-B-Berdly! T-t-that’s a terrible thing to say about EG. I-I-I expect you to treat EG like any of your other classmates. B-b-besides, I am sure the two of you will get along great and the project will turn out well. I-I-I paired the both of you up because I wanted to see what my two smartest students could accomplish together.”>

Having finished admonishing Berdly for insulting EG, Ms. Alphys paused and squinted at the paper listing out the groups. From his angle, Kris could not make out any words; however, he could see a soy sauce colored stain on the sheet and figured that it was covering up whatever Ms. Alphys was trying to read. “O-o-okay, so then it looks like we have Noelle and S-.”

As soon as she heard her name, Noelle’s ears perked up. The second she realized the next word Alphys was about to speak began with the letter S, her heart began to jack hammer and the look on her face was that of a, well, a deer caught in head lights. The doe clenched her fists under her desks and began to quiver. Noelle prayed to the Angel above for the lizard to say the name she had said so many times to herself during many a steamy moment alone in her bed.

After a number of adjustments to the paper in her hand, Ms. Alphys was finally able to read her own chicken scratch. “S-s-silly me, that’s a K, not an S. N-N-Noelle that means you’ll be working with Kris.” Kris turned to look at Noelle just in time to see the doe slam her face into her desk, wrap her arms around her head, and mumble something unintelligible into the wood her face rested against.

“Well fine.” Kris thought. “Not like I’m all that psyched about being your partner either.”

Having not seen Noelle’s reaction to being paired with Kris, Ms. Alphys looked at the only two students who had not yet been partnered up. “S-s-so that just leaves Susie and Temmie, the two of you will be working together.”

As soon as she heard the news, cold tendrils of dread pulled Susie’s lips into a frown of concern. In that moment, Susie was certain that being paired with Temmie spelled the end for any chance she had at graduating on time, and that she was doomed to super seniordom.

As for Temmie, her face contorted into a look of abject terror. Susie and Temmie made brief eye contact before Temmie turned away so as to escort EG to Berdly’s desk. “Takes good car uh EG Berb-ly.” The dog-cat monster spoke as she deposited her fragile companion on the nerd bird’s desk.

As Temmie handed off EG to Berdly, Susie felt a familiar mix of emptiness and anxiety fill her stomach and then drop the bottom out of it. Soon after, the dragoness felt like she could eat the entirety of the cafeteria’s freezer with nary a second thought. Susie pressed her hand to her raging stomach and did her best to push the intrusive thoughts from her mind. She remained in her slouched state until she felt a hand wrap around her upper arm.

“You alright?” Kris inquired as he leaned back in his chair to reach Susie.

“Yeah, just need a minute, that’s all.” Based on the look on her face, Kris figured Susie would need more than a minute to overcome whatever was eating at her.

Before Kris could push the matter further, Ms. Alphys began addressing the class. “A-a-alright everyone, feel free to move your desks or rearrange yourself across the room as you’d like. I-I-I’ll pass out the paperwork and you can get started on figuring out your project’s topic from there.” The teacher then handed out paperwork to the students as they claimed their spots around the classroom.

“Alright.” Kris began as he stood up and let go of Susie’s arm. “I should probably go peel Noelle off her desk. You going to go get started with Temmie?”

“Guess I gotta, huh?” Susie sighed as she too rose from her desk and turned towards the window under which, the dog-cat monster had seated herself.

“If it helps any, lunch is on me.”

“With the way I’m feeling now, I doubt you could afford it.”

“That bad, huh?” A look of concern filled the human’s face as he spoke.

“Chill freak, I got it under control. Nothing to flip your shit over.”

“If you’re sure. Just let me know if stuff starts getting to you.”

“Yeah yeah, I know.” Susie waved a dismissive hand at Kris as she rose and stepped towards Temmie. After a few steps, the dragoness turned and walked back towards the human. “Oh and uh, thanks.” Susie pecked Kris on the cheek before leaving him to join Temmie at the window.

“No problem, Sus.” Kris replied as a blush spread across his cheeks.

As Susie walked towards Temmie, Kris made his way to Noelle’s desk. After clearing his throat next to the despondent doe did not cause her to rise from her slump, Kris tapped her on the shoulder. “Yeah, I know, I’m not your first pick for a project partner. But I can guarantee I’m nowhere near as bad as bird brain.”

Noelle released a drawn-out sigh and unwrapped her arms from around her head. “Oh, hey Kris, it’s not that…” Noelle looked about trying to find something to explain her outburst without revealing how desperately she had wanted to be paired up with Susie. “I uh, just wasn’t expecting to have to start on another project right after break finished up...that’s all!”

Kris noticed the way Noelle’s eyes shifted about while she spoke and that she had begun to perspire. “What’s she lying about?” The human thought as he pulled up a chair next to Noelle so that they could begin discussing their project.

At the same time Noelle blatantly lied to Kris, Berdly was giving EG the worst case of stink eye the egg had ever received in its life. “Ms. Alphys cannot be serious about pairing me up with this ovum outcast.” He mused as he continued to stare daggers into EG. “Perhaps she merely wants to see if I am capable of performing the work of two students while, at the same time, maintaining my impeccable GPA. Well my dear Ms. Alphys, I am most assuredly up to the task!” Having determined that he had struck upon his teacher’s ploy, a look of complete and utter smugness overtook the bird monster’s face.

While Berdly patted himself on the back, Temmie sat under the classroom window. It was after all, her “thinkins spot.” As Temmie waited for Ms. Alphys to deliver the project packet, she noticed Susie stride up next to her. The small monster's normal vibrating turned to trembling as the towering dragoness placed her back against the wall next to the window and slid down it until she was seated next to the dog-cat monster. Susie could almost hear Temmie gulp in fear when she looked at her.

“Uh…hey Tem.” Susie waved a hand towards Temmie and gave the small monster her best smile. Unfortunately for Susie, her best smile gave Temmie an all too clear view of her sharp teeth. Now totally shaken, Temmie did her best to return the dragoness’s stare.

“So Tem, got any ideas for our project?”

“Uh, hoi Suze. Tem not haz ideaz. EG ozelly de thinker, not Tem. You gotzies ideas?”

“Damn.” Susie said more harshly than she had intended. Before she sat down she had held out hope that maybe, just maybe, being paired up with Temmie would not be a death knell for her scholastic career. That hope was now very much gone.

“Oh NOES! Suze, no hurt Tem! Tem comez up wid ideaz, Tem pwomiseses!

“Wha, hurt you?” Susie growled in confusion.

“Pweaze no b mad ats Tem!”

“Temie, I ain’t mad at you, I just wanted to know if you had an idea for our project!” Susie spoke through a harsh whisper as Temmie began to hyperventilate.

“Uh, uh, uh, uh…Tem gotta go. Ba-bi!” With that, Temmie bolted for the classroom door before Susie could say another word. A second later the door was opened and then thunderously slammed shut. The sound of the door crashing against its frame caught the attention of everyone in the room. The entire class, and Ms. Alphys, turned to look at the cause of the commotion.

“W-w-what was that?” Ms. Alphys asked while she shoved a project packet towards Monster Kid. Ms. Alphys scanned the room to try and determine which of her students had just flown the coop. She eventually figured things out when she saw a shocked looking Susie sitting near Temmie’s forgotten backpack. “U-u-uh Susie would yo-.”

The teacher was cut off when the lunch bell rang. “O-o-oh my. L-l-lunch already? T-t-time sure does fly when you’re working on cool projects. R-r-right class?” None of the students paid their teacher any attention as they filed out of the classroom.

Susie had already shot to her feet while the bell was still ringing. She and Kris were about to hightail it out of the room when Ms. Alphys did something she rarely did, she spoke up.

“S-S-Susie! C-c-can you please hold up a minute? I-I-I’d like to talk to you real quick.

“Sure Alphys.”

“U-u-uh that’s Ms. Alphys but that uh...I guess that doesn’t really matter right now.” The lizard fidgeted as she waited for her student to respond.

“...Go on freak, I’ll catch up with you in a sec.”

“Uh, sure thing Sus.” Kris spoke through a grimace. He knew his teacher was nothing to be afraid of; to someone like him anyway. To someone with Susie’s academic record however; well, that was another story. Kris shot a glance over his shoulder towards Susie and Ms. Alphys as he closed the classroom door behind him. He took a few steps, stopped next to a row of lockers, and waited for Susie.

A few minutes later the door opened and Susie walked out. Without a word, Kris fell in alongside the dragon. Halfway to the cafeteria Kris spoke up. “So what was that all about?”

“Later.” Susie grumbled as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her purple jacket and jerked her shoulders to better situate the garment on her frame. A slight sneer was etched upon her downward-angled face, and she stomped, more than walked, down the hall.

Most of the students and faculty of Hometown High that saw Susie as she and Kris walked down the hallway wrote her off as being angry. Given the amount of time he had spent around the dragoness, Kris knew better. He saw through Susie’s charade of anger and knew that she was upset. “Whatever Ms. Alphys said to her must have really got under her skin. Guess lunch is going to be served cold today.” Kris pondered these thoughts as he and Susie segued from the path to the cafeteria to their lockers.

Kris pulled his winter coat along with a pair of mittens and a knit cap from his locker while Susie snagged her own coat and a splintered baseball bat from out of hers. Susie slung the aptly named “Hometown Special” over her shoulder while the two walked the rest of the way to the cafeteria in silence.

“Want anything in particular?” The human inquired while Susie dropped the arm holding the bat to her side and did her best to conceal it behind a jean clad leg. Both the human and dragon knew no good would come of anyone seeing Susie toting the “Hometown Special” into the cafeteria.

Susie took a moment to sniff at the air before responding. “Cheeseburger and fries don’t smell to bad today. Oh and a chocolate-chip cookie if they got any left.”>

“Sounds good.” Kris turned and entered the cafeteria leaving Susie alone. The dragon waited a short while until Kris returned carrying two white, Styrofoam trays. Each tray contained what the cafeteria workers claimed was a cheese burger, a carton of soggy french fries, and a surprisingly delicious chocolate-chip cookie.

“Thanks, freak.” Susie spoke as she began to walk down the hall that led to the school’s rear exit. “Lets get going, I got shit to work out before lunch is over.”

“Never would have guessed.” Kris replied as he gave the baseball bat the dragon had slung back over her shoulder an intense eyeballing.

“Heh, that obvious, huh?”

“As subtle as ever Sus.”

“Come on, before someone sees me with this thing.”

“Yeah, last thing you or I need is to be caught with that bat. Exactly how many acts of non-petty vandalism does it tie you to again?”

“Like four or five at best!” The dragon snorted in response, a smile beginning to work its way across her lips. She had to hand it to Kris, he always knew how to raise her spirits when she was down.

Susie pushed open one of the school’s rear doors and walked out into the winter cold and immediately b-lined towards a dumpster that had seen far better days. Kris followed but where Susie had stopped in front of the dinged-up dumpster, Kris walked behind it. After stacking the lunch trays on top of one another, the human proceeded to pull three milk crates out from under a blanket of snow. He set the trays on one of the crates and positioned the other two plastic boxes around the impromptu table.

“Lunch is served!” Kris called out to Susie just as the dragoness had finished placing the bat on the side of the dumpster, furthest from where Kris had set up their lunch.

As the couple sat down to their meal, Kris decided not try and broach the subject of exactly what Susie and Ms. Alphys had spoken of that had made Susie so upset. Experience had taught the human that trying to push Susie on something just made her dig her heels in as hard as she could. He figured she would spill her guts soon enough. She usually liked to talk while she vented her frustrations anyway.

Meanwhile in the cafeteria, Temmie had bought her lunch and seated herself in the corner furthest from the rooms sole entry point. Her terror trembles had subsided a few minutes after escaping Ms. Alphys’s classroom. However, the tiny monster was still on edge from what she perceived as having just barely escaped certain doom at the hands of the school’s resident, fearsome dragon.

Such was Temmie’s fear that she had spent the last few minutes looking for any hint of purple to make its way into the room. Her single minded focus was what allowed a doe, wearing a rather loud Christmas sweater, to unintentionally sneak up on the dog-cat hybrid.

“Hey Tem.” Noelle spoke as she took a seat next to Temmie. In response, Temmie popped into the air and let out a petrified squeal. Noelle, not used to being on the scare-inducer side of things, yelped in response to Temmie’s reaction to her greeting.

“So-sorry about that Tem, I didn’t mean to frighten you!” Noelle stammered as embarrassment tinged her cheeks red.

“It kay Nol, Tem just nerves. Tem looking out for Suze. Not gonnaz le Suze gets Tem!”

“Yeah, I was going to ask why you looked so scared and why you ran out of class earlier.”

“Oh, cauze Suze waz mad at Tem! Suze beat Tem up iv Tem no have project idea.”

“Oh…well I don’t think that Susie would beat you up over something like that. In fact, I don’t think she would beat anyone up.”

“But Nol, wat bout er siser Dez? Suze beated her up, ya?”

“Oh that…Well uh...yeah, I guess she did do that.” Noelle had not expected Temmie to remember the incident between Susie and her older sister. It took Noelle a few seconds to come up with a proper response but eventually, the doe began to speak. “That was a long time ago and Dess DID say some really horrible things about Susie and her mom. I mean when dad found out what Dess had said he was fuming, and dad doesn’t get mad about anything.”

“But Suze still mean n scarey. Tem still mab bout time Suze tell Tem EG never hatch! And Nol, howz Tem posed to work with sumbuubby that scar Tem? How Tem stop bean scar?”

“Well when I am scared of something, I try and imagine whatever is scaring me in a funny situation. For example, you could think of you and Susie drinking hot coco together in your room. You tell her a funny joke, she laughs real hard at it, and she spills some coco on her shirt. Then she starts to take it o-oh er I mean you get the idea, right?” Noelle’s breathing had become erratic as she asked Temmie the question.

“Oooooooh, sorta? Tem kinda still konfuzzed.”

“Oh, well maybe you could just try talking to her then?”

“Tem guez. That work good for Nol? Nol talked to Suze? Nol no if Suze nice person?”

“Uh...sort of? I mean me and Susie don’t get to talk much. She usually doesn't say much and if she is talking it’s usually to Kris...” A sour expression came over Noelle’s face as she spoke her human classmate’s name. “I guess the answer to your question is no.”

“Well, thatz k. Guess Tem try whatz Nol say Tem should tri. Maybe ask EG too. EG rell smart! Thanks Nol! How Tem can paiz back?”

“Oh Temmie, you don’t have to pay me back. Friends help one another out when they’re in trouble.” Though the words Noelle spoke were kind, the look on Temmie’s face made it clear that she really did want to return the favor to the doe in some way. “Oh well if you’re sure, you could…well it sounds weird but could you tell me what you and Susie talk about? Maybe give me some details about what she’s like?”

Yez! Tem canz does for Nol, no plobrum.”

“Thanks Temmie.”

The two monsters turned their attention to their meals and the topic of conversation shifted to more routine matters. Mostly video games, with Temmie occasionally asking if Noelle had ever heard about any games featuring “hotz demon boiz!”

While Noelle and Temmie talked, across the cafeteria Berdly was sorting through his own problems. The bird monster had a rather odd expression on his face. It was one of puzzlement. He was certain he had left EG on his desk back in Ms. Alphys’s classroom. But somehow the foodstuff was now seated across from him.

Adding to the strangeness was the fact that a half-eaten burger and an open composition notebook sat in front of EG. To make matters even more curious, the page the book was open to contained several project ideas. Intrigued, Berdly picked up the notebook and read through what was written. “These are fine propositions, spectacular in fact! I dare say they are almost as good as my own, well...almost as good.” The bird thought to himself as he looked through the list.

“Hahaha! Alright, who’s the joker here?” Berdly spoke to the students around him, all of whom shot him confused looks. “I mean, who put their leftovers and notebook in front of EG-er the egg?”

In a flash, Berdly realized that he had just called Temmie’s lunch by its “name.” A frown pulled down the corners of his beak as he looked around, waiting for the guilty party to step forward.

When no one did, the bird monster spoke aloud once more. “Fine then, be that way. I will have you all know that this is not funny in the slightest bit. You all are just jealous of my superior intellect and are trying to psych me out so I make a mistake and thus damage my here-to unblemished GPA. Plebeians the lot of you! I shall show you the power of my vast intellect, mark my words.”

With his piece spoken, the bird stormed out of the cafeteria. A few eyes followed the avian monster but most were used to his melodrama and paid his exit little heed. Had he stayed, Berdly may have been interested to see that EG, the lunch tray containing the half eaten burger, and the composition notebook had all moved to the spot next to Temmie. All with no assistance from a third party.