Chapter 3
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Outside, the wind was blowing, and lightning flashed across the sky. Swirls of leaves careened through the air. An adult werewolf with a jaunty scarf around her neck was looking at one of the high-up castle windows. It was Clawdeen’s mother, who worked at Monster High. She was holding a large armful of wooden boards. She glanced up again at the window with concern.
Dracula was perched on a narrow window ledge. He was holding nails in his mouth and hammering boards over the windows in preparation for the coming storm.
“Will you get down from there?” Clawdeen’s mom scolded him. “You’re making me incredibly nervous.” The stormy winds were picking up.
“I appreciate your concern,” answered Dracula in his thick accent, continuing to hammer. “But the weather-human says that this is going to be the storm of the century!”
He gestured with his hands and nearly fell backward.
Clawdeen’s mom did not look reassured. “Well, watch your step up there! You’re going to fall!”
“Ha!” He laughed. “I’ve been taking care of myself for hundreds of years. I am not going to—”
His foot slipped. The other foot slipped. For a moment, he was bicycling both his feet in the air. The board he was holding spun out of his arms. Crash! Down, down, down he plummeted—right into Mrs. Wolf’s arms. She caught him effortlessly.
She raised an eyebrow and he was a little bit embarrassed—but only for an instant.
Dracula brushed a dark lock of hair from his eyes. “I did that on purpose,” he said coolly. “Thank you.”
Clawdeen’s mom laughed. She wasn’t fooled.
In an instant, Dracula transformed himself into a bat. He grabbed a hammer in his claws and, struggling with the weight of it, slowly fluttered back up toward the window. Mrs. Wolf watched him, shaking her head. Thunder rumbled in the distance.
The end-of-class bell rang, and students filled the hallways of Monster High. They were headed to their coffin-shaped lockers and then to the Creepeteria for lunch and Mummy Mochas.
“How was Humanology?”
“I have fearleading today!”
“Wanna play Casketball later?”
From the top of the stairs, Frankie looked down at the happy, chattering students. “Isn’t this great?” she said to Draculaura. “Just look at all these monsters. Together under one roof, making friends with one another.”
Lagoona sped by on her skateboard. Bonesy was trying to imitate her, but he fell off his board, and his skull rolled across the floor. He chased after it and stuck it back on his skeleton. Deuce Gorgon, the boy whose hair was made of hissing snakes, fist-bumped his buddy Gob.
“Looking good, Gob,” he said. But his fist went right through Gob’s rolls of goo and got stuck. He tried to pull out his hand, but he couldn’t. Gob wiggled back and forth along the hall until his goo could pop free.
Silvi, the new weregirl, was settling right in. She was using a giant paint roller to decorate Woolee’s fingernails. They sparkled with a rainbow of pretty colors. Woolee gave her a mammoth hug when she was done.
“It looks like our new ghoul has made a friend,” Frankie noted happily.
The ghoulfriends headed outside together. The storm was coming closer. The sky was getting grayer and grayer. Lightning flashed in the distance. The wind was beginning to blow forcefully.
Draculaura was reminiscing. “It’s hard to believe that just a few short months ago, Monster High didn’t even exist.”
“Yeah,” agreed Frankie. “It’s strange to think that just last year I was hiding with Pops. I’d never even seen another monster. Now I can’t take two steps without bumping into—”
Just as she said that, Frankie tripped over a ghoul’s legs. The ghoul was sitting on the steps that led up to the main entrance hall. She was all by herself, quietly reading a book.
The shy ghoul had a fringe of streaked blue bangs and shoulder-length hair. But something about her outfit and mysterious expression made her seem to disappear in the shadows or blend in to the stonework—even in broad daylight.
“Oh my ghoul, I am so sorry! I didn’t see you there!” Frankie apologized. She felt terrible.
The ghoul shrugged. “Yeah, I get that a lot. When you’re the daughter of the Boogey Man, you kind of, well, fade into the shadows.”
Draculaura gave the ghoul a friendly smile. “You’re Twyla, right? What are you doing here all alone?”
“I like to hang out here during lunch.” But she didn’t meet Draculaura’s eyes when she spoke.
“All by yourself?” Frankie questioned. She was always on the lookout for monsters who needed a friend.
“Sure,” said Twyla softly. Her voice was like the creak of a door in the middle of the night. “I like my alone time,” she added.
Draculaura grinned. “Hey, I like alone time too. Come with us and we’ll be alone together.” She linked her arm around Twyla’s and headed toward the courtyard with her.
Music was booming. Ari Hauntington was letting loose and singing her heart out. In the Normie world, Ari was a pop sensation known as Tash, but here at Monster High she could be her spectral self…which was a ghost. Still, ghost or Normie, she was always singing!
Monsters cheered as Ari belted out one of her top hits.
“We love you!”
“Sing it, ghoul!”
Twyla was nervous. She wasn’t used to being around so many people.
“You can always be alone at an Ari concert,” shouted Draculaura, trying to reassure her. “Alone with the music!” She and Frankie waved their hands to the beat.
Monsters were singing along and dancing. Twyla looked overwhelmed by it all.
“I used to travel the world, performing song after song, but now I’m here at Monster High, right where I belong!” Ari sang. Her long purple hair fell in curls to her waist. She seemed to sing even better when she was just being herself.
The ghouls cheered. “Isn’t Ari just creeperific?” Draculaura asked Twyla.
But Twyla was already gone. She had vanished into the shadows.
“Guess she’s not a music fan,” said Draculaura.
“Maybe she’s just shy,” Frankie explained.
“Oooh, I feel terrible. We should throw her a party to apologize. Like a really big party, and invite the whole school—” Draculaura’s imagination was running away with her. She was getting very excited.
“Yeah,” interrupted Frankie. “Maybe hold off on those invitations, Draculaura.”
Meanwhile, Deuce was rocking out to the music with his friend Rayth. “Man, wonder what it’s like to be up onstage like that?” he thought out loud.
“Deuce!” shouted Rayth, getting a great idea. “We should totally start our own band!”
“Yes! Yes!” Deuce pumped his fist in the air. “I am liking this idea.”
Rayth turned to the skeletons dancing beside them. “Bonesy? Skelly? You in?”
They started wailing on air guitars. They were psyched!
“That’s the spirit!” exclaimed Rayth.
Silvi and Woolee and their friend Venus McFlytrap overheard the boys.
“I play a lot of instruments,” Silvi told Rayth.
“And I’ve loved music ever since I was a seedling,” added Venus. The daughter of the plant monster had a punk-rock look: one half of her head shaved, the other half a pink mane.
Woolee, who didn’t talk a lot, nudged Silvi.
“And Woolee too!” Silvi said to the boys.
“Depends,” answered Rayth. “Can you ghouls do this?” He played some more air guitar, making all kinds of electronic noises.
The ghouls laughed and began strumming imaginary guitars too.
Deuce was impressed. “Wow! You’re good!”
“You are in!” Rayth shouted.
They all started air-jamming together—while the real music came from Ari singing on the stage.
No one noticed that overhead, the clouds were becoming thicker and darker. The storm was getting closer. Lightning flashed.