Ticktock.
Ticktock.
Ticktock.
Clawdeen Wolf glanced up at the enormous grandfather clock perched against the wall of her Monster High economics classroom and sighed. Life usually moved at the speed of moonlight for the fashionable werewolf. But today—the last day of school before summer scarecation—time was totally dragging.
With only thirty-six minutes left until break began, Clawdeen was having a hard time thinking about anything other than relaxing with her ghoulfriends, long afternoon runs, baseball games, and—most important—endless hours to work on her newest fashion designs.
Most days, Clawdeen loved economics. As a talented designer with a dream of one day running her own fashion empire, Clawdeen knew how important it was for her to learn about the business of design. Even though her favorite part of fashion was the sketching and stitching, the fiercely independent werewolf never wanted to have to rely on other people to run her business for her. She intended to manage every aspect of her future empire, thank you very much.
But today, it was hard to focus on economics when there were so many other things on her mind.
Ticktock.
Clawdeen tried her best to pay careful attention to the lecture, but after a few moments, she gave up and stifled a yawn. Her head just wasn’t in the economics game. She thought about it and decided that she’d learned so much in class already this year, maybe letting her mind wander just a little bit during the last few minutes of the last class of the day wouldn’t be terrible. Fifteen minutes to go, and then she could dedicate every minute of the next two weeks to her Freaky-Fabulous Fashion Show.
She turned to a fresh page in her notebook and began to doodle. She tried to only sketch designs in her special design sketchbook, but because inspiration struck at any moment, almost all of Clawdeen’s school notebooks ended up filled with fashion sketches eventually.
As she leaned over her work, letting her creative instincts take over, Clawdeen’s soft, wavy brown hair cascaded past her shoulders. Her curls created a thick curtain around her desk. She bit her lower lip and focused, watching as a fabulous dress began to take shape on the page. Living in a small house with a huge pack, Clawdeen rarely got time to focus on her sketches without someone interrupting her work. These few minutes of alone time were precious, and Clawdeen wasn’t going to let them go to waste. She bent her head over the page and let the inspiration flow from her fingers.
As her pencil drew lines and curves, Clawdeen could see the dress she was putting on the page turning into something real. She pictured black satin embellishments on the bodice and a gold lining with the tiniest hint of purple peeking out of the neckline… or maybe the other way around? Purple lining with a gold accent? She would have to figure that out later. For now, it was all about shape. After a moment’s consideration, she scrubbed her eraser over the sleeves of the dress, turning it into a sleeveless design with a quick flick of her pencil.
Clawdeen grinned. Perfect. She closed her eyes, imagining the dress floating across the stage during a fashion show in front of hundreds—thousands!—of adoring fans. Monsters would be lined up around the block for a chance to buy the dress. All the stores would beg her to sell it as an exclusive. Clawdeen would be known around the world as the fashionista who had designed the dress of the century.
She opened her eyes again and cocked her head to the side. Studying the dress more carefully, she suddenly realized her ghoulfriend Frankie Stein, the daughter of Frankenstein, would look totally voltageous in this design. With its electric rawness, it was as if the dress had been designed just for her! Clawdeen must have had Frankie in the back of her mind as she sketched. She suddenly decided that even if every store in the Maul begged her for the right to sell it, Clawdeen would only make one copy of this particular design, and she’d give it to her ghoulfriend. She loved working up special pieces for the monsters she loved, outfits that were as unique and one of a kind as each of her ghoulfriends.
Just as Clawdeen was putting the finishing touches on the sketch of Frankie’s dress, someone bumped into her from behind. Her pencil scratched across the page. “Hey, watch it!” Clawdeen snapped, slamming the notebook closed. She flicked her gaze up and growled at Deuce Gorgon, who was racing past her toward the door of the classroom. She glared at him, annoyed that he had interrupted her design time.
“Catnap’s over, Clawdeen—school’s out for the summer!” Deuce called over his shoulder. With a wink, he bolted into the hallway.
Clawdeen looked around. Sure enough, the classroom was already half empty. It always amazed her how quickly time flew by when she was working on designs! Clawdeen swiped a fresh coat of gloss across her lips, stuffed her books and pencils into her bag, and headed out into the packed Monster High hallway.
“What’s up, ghouls?” she called to Frankie and Draculaura, the daughter of Dracula. Two of Clawdeen’s closest ghoulfriends were gathered together near Frankie’s locker, waiting for Cleo de Nile and Lagoona Blue to join them. Clawdeen hustled to snag the last of her things from her locker—a sparkle-studded mirror, a messy stack of loose sketches, and at least a dozen tubes of lip gloss—and made her way toward the waiting pack. “Are we still on for this afternoon?” she asked, linking arms with Frankie and Draculaura as she walked up to them. “Everyone want to fang out at my place after school to celebrate the end of the year with some ice scream? We can talk about the Freaky-Fabulous Fashion Show! I’d love to see what fun designs you ghouls have come up with to add to the collection.”
Because Clawdeen’s upcoming fashion show was a fund-raiser for Monster High, she had enlisted the help of her ghoulfriends to design some of the pieces that would be featured in the show. Though most of the show would be made up of Clawdeen’s signature designs, she also wanted to highlight her best ghoulfriends’ freaky fashions. With a few friend-designed pieces, the show would represent the true variety of personalities and styles at Monster High. And not only were they serving as guest designers, but the Monster High ghouls would be walking as models in the show too. Clawdeen knew that with her pack of ghouls involved in such an important way, the show would truly represent her as a designer. After all, her ghoulfriends were a source of inspiration to her, and their friendship was a huge part of who she was.
“I’m definitely up for screechza,” Frankie said, rubbing her stomach. Frankie was always up for screechza. “But I hope you’re not expecting me to come up with any dress designs. I think it would be totally voltageous to help out with set design or something like that, but the actual fashion design is probably best left to the experts.” Frankie pulled her black-and-white-striped hair into a ponytail and waved at some of their other classmates. She was the friendliest ghoul Clawdeen knew. “See you next scaremester!” Frankie said, waving at everyone who passed. “Have a great summer scarecation!”
“If you don’t want to design a piece of clothing, no biggie,” Clawdeen said. “But I’m happy to help you out if you change your mind. We can work on something together. A freaky fusion of my design and your style? We could really rock a look. What do you say?”
Frankie laughed. “Thanks, Clawdeen. But I’m much more comfortable working on my own kind of creations in the lab. I think I’ll stick to that for now. But I would love to model one of your designs on the runway, if you’ll still let me!” Under her breath, she muttered, “Let’s just hope I don’t lose my stitches.…”
“You’ll be great,” Clawdeen promised. “And I’d love to have your help with set design.” Clawdeen respected her friend’s decision, but she couldn’t imagine not wanting to design something! That and sports kept her blood pumping. At that moment, her whole body was buzzing with excitement. She couldn’t wait to get to work on the piece she’d sketched during economics. Frankie was going to love it! It would be the perfect piece for her to wear during the Freaky-Fabulous Fashion Show!
“I’m totally in,” Cleo added. “Did I tell you? I’ve already posted a few of my sketches online. I set up a poll so my fans can vote for their faves. I also sent the designs over to my close, personal ghoulfriend—Doomatella Verscarce—and she’s going to get back to me with her thoughts next week.” She flicked her long, shiny hair over her shoulder and smiled contentedly.
“That’s great, Cleo,” Clawdeen said. Clawdeen had a feeling the Egyptian princess’s design would be more than a little over-the-top once she got feedback from that many people. But over-the-top suited Cleo. “I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with.”
As Frankie and the other ghouls bid their classmates farewell for the summer howlidays, Draculaura stood on tiptoes in her platform heels and scanned the hallways looking for her boyfriend, Clawd. “Where’s my sweetie?” the petite vampire crooned. Her pink-streaked black hair swished from side to side as she looked up and down the hallways for any sign of Clawdeen’s brother. “I want to say good-bye before we leave school. It’s going to be so hard not seeing him every hour during summer break.”
Clawdeen laughed and rolled her eyes playfully. Draculaura and Clawd were practically inseparable. Even though Draculaura was a vampire and Clawdeen’s family were werewolves, all the Wolfs considered Draculaura to be part of their pack. Given that she was beast friends with Clawdeen and Clawd’s ghoulfriend, Draculaura was practically a member of their family. “Ghoul, chill. You’ll see him back at my place later,” Clawdeen reminded Draculaura. “He lives with me, remember?”
Draculaura’s already-pinkish skin flushed a deeper crimson. “Uh, yeah, I know! I just wanted to say good-bye—” Suddenly, her face split into a huge smile. Clawd had appeared around the corner, holding a Casketball under his arm. “Oh, look, there he is! Clawd, sweetie, over here!”
Clawd sauntered over and spun Draculaura around and around in a big hug. She rubbed his ears playfully. “Do you want to come over after school?” he asked Draculaura. “A few of us are getting together in our yard to throw around a ball and grill up some food.”
Clawdeen glared at him. “What do you mean ‘a few of us’? And where exactly are you getting together?”
“A few of the guys from the Casketball team,” Clawd said, shrugging. Under his breath, he added, “Or more like the whole Casketball team. At our house. Dad said it was okay when I asked him this morning.…”
“Well, Mom said I could have friends over after school,” Clawdeen said, clearly exasperated. “The ghouls and I are getting together to work on designs for my show.”
“It’ll be a full house, then,” Clawd replied sheepishly.
Clawdeen shot him a look, obviously annoyed.
Just then, Clawd and Clawdeen’s younger sister, Howleen, came tearing around the corner with a pack of her friends. “Smell you at home, sis!” she called out to Clawdeen. “Dibs on our room this afternoon! My friends and I are watching boo-vies!”
Clawdeen held up one manicured hand. “Hold on, Howleen. You can’t call dibs on our room. It’s our room. We share it, remember?” She narrowed her eyes at her little sister and added, “And what do you mean ‘watching boo-vies’?”
“Boo-vies?” Howleen said slowly. “Boo-vies… you know, those fun little videos with famous Hauntlywood actors and actresses? They’re stories written by screamwriters, and you watch them on TV or at the theater.…” Howleen cracked herself up. Behind her, her friends giggled. “Sound familiar?”
Clawdeen growled at her sister. “Really cute, Howleen. You’re hilarious. What’s not cute is you bringing your friends home when I’m already bringing my friends home. We were going to fang out in my room.”
“Our room,” Howleen corrected. “And feel free to fang out in there, as long as you don’t mind fanging out with me and my ghoulfriends. We don’t mind squishing in.”
Clawdeen glared at her sister, then her brother. “We can’t all have friends over.”
“Dad said it was okay,” Howleen argued back.
Clawd shrugged. “Why can’t we? The more the merrier. Catch you at home,” he said, tossing the Casketball in the air.
Clawdeen caught it and threw it back at him. “Ugh!” As Howleen and Clawd walked away, Clawdeen spun around and let out a loud, huffy sigh. “They drive me crazy!” she said to her ghoulfriends.
Frankie, Draculaura, Cleo, and Lagoona all stared back at her.
“Well, it sounds like it will definitely be a full house, like Clawd said, but maybe we can find fashion inspiration in all the chaos,” Draculaura said finally.
Lagoona nodded, running her fingers through her long blue-blond hair. The laid-back daughter of a sea monster was great at giving advice just when her friends needed it. “Yeah, we’ll just make the most of it, Clawdeen. It’s no big deal. Besides… they’re your pack. Believe me, I know it can be tough to have to share your house with so many siblings, but they are as entitled to have friends over as you are.…”
“I guess maybe you’re right,” Clawdeen said after a minute.
“Phew, I’m glad you’re not mad anymore!” Frankie said, a smile lighting up her face. “I hate when you fight with your siblings! You’re so lucky to have them. I wish I had siblings!”
“Fight?” Clawdeen laughed. “That wasn’t a fight!”
“It wasn’t?” Draculaura asked slowly. Growing up with Dracula for a father, Draculaura was used to a different family dynamic. She and her father discussed everything very calmly. She could never get used to the way Clawdeen and her siblings shouted at one another. They all had a tendency to say whatever was on their minds and often at a very loud decibel.
“Nah.” Clawdeen shrugged. “That was nothing. You know we bicker like that all the time. And you’re right, Frankie. I’m totally lucky to have them. As much as they bug me, I love my siblings… just like I love you ghouls!”
All the ghouls looked relieved to hear that they weren’t in the middle of a Wolf family war.
“We fight because we love one another. If I didn’t like them, I wouldn’t bother,” Clawdeen explained. “But bickering is what we do. It’s kind of our thing.” She laughed, and the other girls joined her. “Now, come on—if we want to have any chance of getting the cookies my mom baked last night, we’d better hurry. Between Howleen’s pack, Clawd’s pack, and all of us, it sounds like most of Monster High is gathering at my house. Let’s move it, ghouls! Cookies and screechza, coming right up!”