Monster High was a top secret school for monsters of all kinds. Before Frankie Stein and Draculaura met, they hadn’t known that there were other monsters in the world—other monsters who were lonely, just like they had been. They decided that they would create a special school for all the beasties, boogeys, and not-so-mythical banshees they could find. They were the first students, but soon they were finding mummy princesses like Cleo. They traveled to Greece to recruit the snake-haired son of a gorgon, and to Australia to find a surfing sea monster. The first weregirl they found was Clawdeen, who came to Monster High with all her werepup brothers and even her mom, who was now the art teacher.
At Monster High, the students accepted one another’s differences and learned about the monster world together. They even learned about the Normies, the people who weren’t monsters, so that maybe one day they would all know how to get along and monsters could come out of hiding. That was Draculaura’s and Frankie’s biggest dream.
The day after the new weregirl, Silvi Timberwolf, arrived, they were all sitting in science class together. Frankie had on goggles. She was watching very carefully as a frizzling zap of pure electricity arced between her fingers. She was using it to weld together two pieces of metal. Zap! Sparks flew into the air.
All around the room, monsters were working on experiments.
Rayth, a musician, carefully poured a test tube of bubbling liquid into a beaker. Gob, his purple blob monster of a partner, watched cheerfully. But then Gob got hungry and ate their experiment.
Lagoona was reading directions while Cleo added another ingredient to the plant they were cultivating. Uh-oh. Its leaves withered. Lagoona looked across the room.
Frankie was carefully adjusting a fixture on her project. Clawdeen handed her tools without looking up from her sketchpad. She was working on some new fashions that were experimental in their own way, if not exactly scientific!
“Frankie is really amped up about this project,” Lagoona noted.
Draculaura looked over at her friend, impressed. “Have you seen it? It’s a… It’s…amazing! Isn’t it?”
Clawdeen, continuing with her sketching, smiled. “You have no idea what it is, do you?”
“Nope,” admitted Draculaura.
“Glad I’m not the only one!” Lagoona added.
“No idea,” agreed Clawdeen.
“What is that thing anyway?” Cleo wondered out loud.
Frankie stopped working and raised her goggles. Wires spewed messily from the small metal object. It looked like some kind of battery. “It’s an ultra-high-density direct-current capacitor for storing high levels of electrical energy.”
The ghouls glanced at one another, baffled.
Cleo smiled politely. “Neat.”
“It’s like a super battery.” Frankie laughed. “I’m trying to put all that electricity”—she pointed overhead at huge coils—“into this! Imagine having to charge your phone only once a year! Oh, and for the Normies, electricity is everything. This device is really going to change their world for the better.”
Frankie hoped that if a monster invented something that helped the Normies, they might come to accept the monsters.
“Amazing!” exclaimed Draculaura, who finally understood.
“Fascinating,” Cleo added, genuinely curious.
Lagoona grinned. “Ace!”
But not everyone was impressed.
“Why would you want to help Normies? They’ve never tried to help us.” Moanica D’Kay sneered. The zombie was slouched against the back wall of the lab, one of her Zomboy minions standing on either side of her. They were dressed in khakis and button-downs. They kind of looked like prep-school students, but they gazed up at the ceiling, their mouths open, drooling a little bit.
Moanica sauntered over to Frankie’s table to get a good look at her project. She shoved Gob out of her way. Moanica began fiddling with the experiment. She pulled on wires and tipped it upside down. “How do you work this thing anyway?”
The Zomboyz laughed obediently.
“Moanica, don’t touch that,” begged Frankie. “It’s not—”
But Moanica never listened to anybody. She flicked a switch, and electricity sizzled from the giant coils into Frankie’s device. A flash exploded in the lab!
“Whoa!”
“Yikes!”
“No!”
The room was completely dark. Moanica was shocked—literally! Her mane of silvery hair was standing completely on end. With a shiver, she pulled herself together.
“It’s not done yet.” Frankie sighed.
Moanica didn’t care. She sauntered out of the room with her frazzled Zomboyz. Those ghouls annoyed her, but they had given her an idea. A terrible idea. A wicked smile turned up the corners of her mouth. She slammed the door behind her as she left.
The room crackled with energy; bolts shot from the sizzling coils.