9

Journey to the Monster King

After Steven Kingsley escaped from Locker 39, everyone made their way to the front lawn of Scary School for the big send-off.

Archie the giant squid popped his enormous eyeball out of the moat that surrounded the school to witness the festivities.

Petunia, who had just been elected class president for rescuing everyone from Jacqueline’s haunted house, led her class to the front of the lawn. Mr. Grump followed behind them so he wouldn’t get lost. Next, Bryce McCallister led King Khufu’s sixth-grade class in a line next to Petunia’s class. The class had elected Bryce president because they believed he was still cursed to die at any moment and felt sorry for him.

No one was more thrilled to meet the Monster King than Charles Nukid. Charles had heard about the strict rules one must obey to survive Monster Kingdom. He couldn’t wait to arrive and start following them.

When all the classes had taken their places on the lawn, Principal Headcrusher stepped forward to address the crowd. “Good morning,” she said. “Who’s excited to go see the Monster King?”

The whole school cheered.

“Who’s excited about taking a ten-hour bus ride?”

There was a smattering of unsure applause.

“Well, you’re in luck, because we aren’t taking buses. Look!”

Principal Headcrusher pointed to the sky, and a whole brigade of young dragons burst through the clouds and flew down to the front lawn. The students went crazy with excitement.

“As a thank-you for being such good hosts for last year’s Ghoul Games, these dragon-students from Firecrest Middle School have offered to fly everyone to Albania to meet the Monster King!”

“Don’t you mean Albany?” Wendy Crumkin corrected.

“Nope. We’re going to Albania. I had to tell your parents you were going to Albany so they would sign the permission slips. None of them would have let you go to Albania, and your absence would have been a dire insult to the Monster King. Sorry to mislead you, but I probably saved all your lives by doing so.”

Most students were used to surprises like this and shrugged off the change in plans.

“And speaking of saving your lives,” Principal Headcrusher continued, “these are King Zog’s five most important rules. I wanted to wait to tell them to you so that they would be fresh in your heads.

“The rules are:

“Always say please and thank you.

“Always clean up after yourself if you make a mess.

“Never discriminate against a monster because of how it smells.

“Never sneeze, burp, hiccup, or cough when a monster is speaking.

“And lastly, never take anything from a monster without asking.”

Charles Nukid made a mental note of each rule. He kind of hoped he would have to sneeze at some point just so he could hold it in and follow Rule Number Four.

Principal Headcrusher continued, “Everyone find a buddy and ride two per dragon.”

A flock of girls rushed to Charles Nukid and asked to ride with him, unable to contain their giggles. Students from last year still viewed him as Scary School’s bad-boy rebel for being the only kid brave enough to wear gray shorts, a white dress shirt, and a polka-dot tie.

Charles moved through the sea of girls to find his one true friend—the only one he wanted to ride with. He didn’t care for all the attention and knew that the girls only liked him because they thought he was breaking the rules, when in truth he was the only one following the rules.

Charles found his friend, Penny Possum, lying on the grass playing dead. Penny always played dead whenever she felt threatened. The strategy had gotten her through Scary School alive thus far. She had short black hair that hung across her cheeks, and her eyes were so large, she could see in the dark.

Charles nudged Penny and said, “It’s okay. The dragons are friendly.”

With Charles’s assurance, Penny sprang up. She put on her superlarge sunglasses to cover her superlarge eyes.

“Want to ride on the dragon with me?” Charles asked.

Penny nodded.

She’d gone through three years of Scary School without ever speaking a word to anyone. Last year, Charles Nukid tried to save her life by urging her not to read Dr. Dragonbreath’s Rule Number Five. Penny gave Charles a piece of candy the next day as a thank-you. Charles didn’t understand why she was giving him the candy, so he brought her a piece of candy in return. Because Penny wouldn’t speak, they kept giving each other a piece of candy every day—neither knowing why they were doing it.

By the time Charles and Penny were ready to find their dragon, they were shocked to see that every dragon had already been taken. There was only one dragon left—the dragon everyone else was too afraid to ride.

Dr. Dragonbreath.

Charles was happy that he would get to spend time with Dr. Dragonbreath, whom he very much missed having as a teacher. He took Penny’s hand and pulled her toward Dr. Dragonbreath, but Penny started shaking her head and backing away.

“Don’t worry,” said Charles. “Dr. Dragonbreath is my friend. He won’t hurt us.”

Dr. Dragonbreath was not Charles Nukid’s friend. Charles annoyed Dr. Dragonbreath like no other because he followed every rule to the letter, so there was never any hope of making a meal out of him.

Charles and Penny took a seat on Dr. Dragonbreath’s back. Dr. Dragonbreath rolled his eyes when he saw who it was.

“Hi, Dr. Dragonbreath!” said Charles. “How’s class going so far?”

“Dreadful,” Dr. Dragonbreath replied with a snarl. “Four kids followed Rule Number Five, so I have to show up every day and teach them. I was so looking forward to a paid vacation.”

The lead dragon roared, blowing a stream of fire into the air, signaling the armada of dragons to take to the sky. The journey to the Monster King was under way.

Charles held on tight to the reins attached to Dr. Dragonbreath’s head, and Penny wrapped her arms tight around Charles’s waist. His heart skipped a beat. He had to take several deep breaths to slow it down.

As Charles soared over the ocean on the back of his favorite teacher with his best friend behind him, resting her head on his shoulder, he thought this was the happiest he could possibly be.

In this ghost’s opinion, Charles liked Penny a bit more than as a friend, but he would never admit that to me, so I won’t put words in his mouth.

As the flight continued, Penny noticed that the rushing wind was making a mess of Charles’s stiff hair. She enjoyed putting each hair back in place.

Charles looked to his left and saw Ms. Fangs flying next to him. She had turned herself into a bat and seemed to be struggling to keep up with the swift dragons. To his right he saw Fritz (who always wore swim goggles) and Tanya Tarantula riding together. Tanya had six of her eight legs wrapped around Fritz, who was shaking with fear that Tanya might bite him at any moment. There will be more about Fritz soon.

After several hours, the flying dragons reached the edge of Monster Forest in Albania. The kids’ imaginations ran wild thinking of all the different kinds of monsters lurking beneath the treetops.

Soon, they reached a hill where a great castle stood. Thousands of monsters were standing on the hill, cheering and roaring. There were balloons everywhere, bands playing, and a sign that read:

Welcome, Champions of Scary School!

Fireworks zipped past the flying dragons and exploded in the sky.

The students waved and the dragons blew fire in the exhilaration of the moment.

Unfortunately, everyone was so distracted by the deafening boom of the fireworks, they did not notice Penny Possum screaming.

One of the fireworks had clipped Dr. Dragonbreath’s wing. The impact caused him to jerk backward, sending Charles Nukid flying off his back. Penny tried to reach for him, but it was too late.

Charles Nukid was plummeting to certain death.