The moon was full in the sky. Bugs whirred. A cricket chirped. A wolf howled. “Awoo! Awoo!” But it was not a happy sound. It was a cry of distress. The wolf was in terrible trouble.
The wolf bounded down the empty street of the town. She looked over her shoulder. She was exhausted from running, but the mob of Normies was still after her. The moon was so bright; there was nowhere for the wolf to hide. She ran along the sidewalk close to a building, trying to stay in the shadows. How much longer could she run?
She could hear the angry voices of the mob. They were hunting her because she was different. Because she was a monster.
She turned a corner, hoping to catch her breath, but someone was right in front of her, ready to trap her! The wolf bounded forward as fast as she could, dodging past legs and hands that reached out to grab her fur. She took off like lightning down the street.
“It went that way!”
“Did you see it?”
“Don’t lose it!”
She couldn’t stop. She had to keep going. She dashed into a dark alley, but it dead-ended in a chain-link fence. In a single bound, she leaped over the fence, turning a somersault in midair—and in an instant she began to transform. Her claws turned into fingernails, her paws into hands, her snout into the nose of a teenage ghoul. When she landed on the other side of the fence, she wasn’t a wolf anymore; she was a weregirl.
The ghoul’s long mane of blue hair was streaked with purple and lighter blue and was held back in a thick ponytail. She wore a purple tank top and a stylish skirt with black heels. She was exhausted from running, but that didn’t matter; she couldn’t stop. She had to get away from the mob!
The glare of their flashlights brightened the alley. She tried not to breathe too loudly as she peeked around the corner to see what they were up to.
“It’s here somewhere…” she heard someone saying.
She was trying to stay absolutely still, but her foot slipped and landed on an empty can.
“Did you hear that?” asked a boy’s voice.
All the flashlights focused on a pile of boxes in the alley.
“There!” shouted someone in the mob. A beam of light shone in her eyes for an instant before she was off again.
She ran as fast as she could.
She checked behind her. No one had caught up with her yet.
The angry shouts of the mob were coming closer. She clambered up a wall and ran along the roof of a high building, but it was another dead end. There was an even bigger wall in front of her. There was nowhere else to go.
“Where could it have gone?”
The mob was just below her.
“Maybe it climbed the fence,” someone wondered.
“Nah, wolves can’t climb. Let’s check the other side.”
The weregirl had been holding her breath, hugging the shadows. But before she could relax, a giant orb of light flashed before her. It had come out of nowhere!
She rubbed her eyes. She blinked. Standing in front of her was a group of five ghouls. Bright, welcoming smiles flashed across their faces, but the weregirl didn’t wait to find out if they were friendly. She leaped back down into the alley.
She didn’t hear their warm words of greeting. She didn’t notice their fangtastic fashions. She didn’t realize that one of the ghouls had sharp canine teeth and furry ears poking out from among the brown curls of her thick hair…just like she had when she wasn’t a wolf.
“Hi, we’re your welcoming committee, and we would just like to say…” began Draculaura, the ghoul with jet-black hair streaked with pink. She was a vampire but a devoted vegetarian. “Uh, where is she?”
“Down here!” The weregirl blinked up at them. Who were they? Could they help her? Maybe they could! “Help me, please! They’ve got the place surrounded!” She spoke with a thick Scottish accent.
“Did you hear that?”
“Over there!”
The mob was circling back toward the alley!
Clawdeen Wolf, who was also a werewolf, noticed the crowd and shook her head. “So rude!”
“I think we’d better do something,” Frankie Stein suggested. The daughter of Frankenstein, she had two gleaming bolts poking out from either side of her neck.
“Of course,” agreed Cleo de Nile, the mummy princess. “But will we still have time for a bite…”
“I see something!” shouted a man in the mob.
“Ghouls! Let’s move!” Clawdeen urged.
The ghouls sprang into action. There was no time to lose. Frankie spotted an electrical box on the side of the building and zapped it with a sizzling bolt from her fingertips. All the floodlights in the neighborhood blinked and blitzed. Everything became dark.
“Whoa!” shouted someone down below. “Is there a blackout?”
“What’s going on?”
Meanwhile, Draculaura turned herself into a bat and dove toward the crowd in the dark. People covered their heads, shrieking.
“Ahhh!”
“What was that?”
Cleo whistled sharply, getting the weregirl’s attention. She dropped down a long mummy bandage for her to climb to safety.
“There!” shouted someone, spotting her as she scampered upward.
“Don’t let it get away!”
Together, the ghouls hoisted the weregirl onto the top of the building.
“Oh, thank you,” the weregirl said once she was finally safe.
“No worries.” Lagoona Blue smiled. The daughter of a sea monster, Lagoona was very friendly.
Frankie grinned. “Our pleasure.”
“Happy to help,” said Draculaura.
“It’s what we do!” Clawdeen was thrilled to meet another monster just like her.
The weregirl looked at all the friendly ghouls in front of her. She’d never seen anyone like them. She’d never seen anyone like her. “Who are you?”
Draculaura took this as her cue to finally deliver the speech she gave to all prospective Monster High students. “Hi, we’re your official welcoming committee, and we would just like to say—”
But shouting from below interrupted Draculaura’s introduction. The mob was angrier than ever.
“It circled back! Bust down the gate!”
“I’ll get the truck! Someone get the lights back on!”
“Where’s the ladder?”
“Boost me up, guys!”
Clawdeen was worried. “Uh, ghouls? I think the Normies figured out that they’ve been tricked. Time to go!”
Frankie pulled out the small glowing Skullette. The ghouls used it for transport when they were recruiting new students. It let them travel all over the world to find monsters in hiding everywhere. They all placed their hands on it—except for the new ghoul.
“Don’t worry,” Frankie reassured her. “We’re monsters too, obviously. Come on!”
The weregirl added her hand to the Skullette…and with a blast…and a flash…and a whoosh, they all disappeared in an instant from the roof.
Suddenly, they were standing in front of an ancient castle. Huge steps led up to the front door of the building, which was surrounded protectively by high mountains. Monsters of all kinds were going in and out of the castle, books in their hands. At last Draculaura could finish her speech!
All her friends crowded around the new ghoul.
“Okay!” Draculaura sighed with relief. “So, as your official welcoming committee, we would just like to say…”
“Welcome to Monster High!” everyone chimed in all together.