The math geeks Iām stuck on this bus with think that this is funny. So funny, in fact, that the harpy sitting in front of me shoots milk out of her nose when she hears the punch line. I donāt think itās funny at all. Iād rather be listening to the music I have stored on my iCoffin, but two hours into our five-hour ride home, my iCoffin gave up the ghost. It should have lasted the whole trip and then some except that one of my math camp roomies āaccidentallyā unplugged my iCoffin charger last night when she plugged in her fright light. I donāt even know why a ghost needs a fright light. What? Was she afraid she would trip over something and go ābump in the night?ā I realized what happened when we woke up this morning, but we had to leave first thing, so I didnāt have time to put a full charge on it. At least I got enough battery life to block out the two hours dedicated to the singing of āX number Bottles of Ghoul Juice on the Wall.ā To add to the misery, the seats on this bus only have room for two monsters, and Meowlody and Purrsephone are, of course, sitting together, which left me stuck in a seat next to a troll named Teala who had never been away from her bridge for more than a day until she came to math camp. She cried herself to sleep every night. Not that any other monster but me noticed but then again, I notice everything. I also noticed that Teala wasnāt laughing at any of the math jokes either. In fact, she seemed to be more miserable than I was. Well, now, here I was thinking she was missing her bridge, but if that were the case, why didnāt she seem excited about going home? āDish,ā I said. She turned and looked at me for a moment and then stared back ahead. āOkay--suit yourself then,ā I said and then tried to curl up in the seat to take a cat nap which I had almost accomplished when she said, āMy boyfriend broke up with meā¦by textā¦the first night of math camp.ā She still wasnāt looking at me, but she wasnāt crying either. āHe was my first real boyfriend andā¦and I donāt know why Iām telling you this ācause you donāt seem to care about any other monster besides yourself, and youāll probably figure out a way to use this to make me even more miserable.ā I didnāt show it, but that really hurt. Just because I enjoy the chaos that a good practical joke brings doesnāt mean that Iām intentionally cruel, does it? I donāt think it does, and besides, whereās the fun in kicking some monster when theyāre already down? Itās a lot more fun to see the surprise on a monsterās face when they think theyāve got it all together and you can āhelp themā. So I said, āGuess you better tell me the whole story then so I can do a thorough job.ā That actually brought a ghost of a smile to her face. Teala told me that her ex-boyfriend was applying to colleges and that he decided he needed to keep his āoptions openā in case he might meet his āintellectual equalā at school. At first, I didnāt believe he actually wrote that, and then she showed me the text. āDoes he really think heās that smart?ā I asked. She kind of shrugged and said, āHeās scary smart but not as good at math as I am, especially with differential equations.ā She told me he really wanted to get into this one school because his favorite mad scientist taught here. Iād never heard of the school, but I knew who the mad scientist was because Mr. Hack made us watch a bunch of his videos in class. The videos were deadly boring, but the mad scientist had this odd accent and strange speech pattern. I used to mimic his voice in class to make Mr. Hack jump. Iād wait until Mr. Hackās back was turned and then scream, āHuhhacckkk- theeese stuuudannts reeelease youuu wuh-ill ah-yat wa-unce!ā It cost me several days in detention and a trip to Headless Headmistress Bloodgoodās office the last time I mimicked the mad scientist, but even Mr. Hack admitted he couldnāt tell the difference between the scientistās voice and my imitation of it. We talked about a few more things, and then Teala finally fell asleep. I was able to finally fall asleep as well but not before having to hear another math joke followed by an explosion of milk from the seat in front of me.