A/N: Monster House does not belong to me. I figured I should open with that. But now that that is out of the way, hello! My name is BuddingFabricator, and have decided to try my hand at writing stories using the wonderful tool of Fanfiction. Monster House was always a favorite of mine, so I thought this should be my first story. If you like, hate, or otherwise feel any emotion towards what I write, please don't hesitate to let me know what you think so that I can improve my writing for you! I'm excited to begin! Let's go!

Monster House: Classroom Chaos

The morning sun cast its rays on the suburban street, making the trees appear to be ablaze as the light struck the already bright orange leaves. Even so, a cool Autumn breeze blew through, keeping the temperature slightly cooler than average. Such conditions were to be expected in mid-October, and many of the leaves had already begun to shed their leaves. One leaf in particular had just fallen from the branch it had spent its summer on, and it began to drift lazily towards the sidewalk below. Just as the leaf was about to land, a bicycle sped by, exciting the leaf and many others into a frenzied dance across the sidewalk. The cyclist herself paid them no mind as she continued on through the street. She had a job to do, and that job allowed little time to care about the many leaves she rustled in her path. This was her first week of being assigned her new paper route, and she was determined to make a good impression on her customers.

The young cyclist continued down the street, slowing her pace only slightly at each house to ensure that her throw was straight and that each paper landed squarely on the porch of each house she targeted. As she rode, the young girl couldn't help but notice how identical each house was that she passed. The houses almost seemed to fit snugly next to each other like bricks in a wall. Suddenly, the girl pressed her brakes hard and skidded to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk. Placing her right foot down for balance, she gazed across the yard in front of her. The yard was nearly identical to every other yard on the street, with only one rather large exception: There was no house in the yard. Where the house should have been, there was a large hole, as though there HAD been a house there once, but someone had just plucked it right out of the ground.

The young papergirl remembered that there had indeed been a house in that yard once, and she remembered it vividly. The house was not like any of the others that had been there before. Rather than be symmetrical to its ornate counterparts that lined the street, the house had been constructed like a cube with no distinct features. It was as though the architect cared little for its outward appearance and only wanted to build as bland of a house as possible, though the house had been far from mundane. It had been built entirely from wood instead of utilizing the more common, brightly colored siding favored by homeowners. Over time, the wood had decayed and lost its color, giving the house a very old and creepy sort of feel to the adults who observed it. To the children however, the sense of creepiness had been multiplied tenfold by the stories of the house and the resident within. The girl remembered the chills she would always receive when passing by, and as the thought entered her mind she felt an unbidden shiver crawl up her back to her shoulders. The owner of the house had been none other than Horace A. Nebbercracker. The neighborhood's crabby and even spiteful old man.

Old man Nebbercracker had lived in that house longer than most people on the block could remember, and no one except Mr. Nebbercracker himself had seen the inside of his house. In fact, few had ever set foot in Old man Nebbercracker's yard. Nebbercracker always did his best to keep everyone and everything off and as far away from his property as possible. The adults kept their distance due to the signs he had posted. Signs to "BEWARE" and "KEEP AWAY". The children kept their distance due to the numerous rumors that surrounded Nebbercracker in his house. Some said he kidnapped children and forced them to make him Tapioca in his basement, others said that Old Man Nebbercracker was secretly an alien and that the house was his poorly disguised spaceship. The most common and widely accepted rumor surrounding Old Man Nebbercracker was that of his supposed wife. According to the myth, he was once a married man, but only kept her around until he fattened her up enough, and once she was ripe for plucking, Old Man Nebbercracker ate her for Thanksgiving Dinner. No one possessed any evidence that the rumor was true of course. But enough people believed it, therefore it might has well have been fact. Because of that, most youngsters kept well clear of Nebbercrackers property, but sometimes baseballs would get hit over the fence, or stuffed animals would blow into his yard, and seconds after they appeared, so too did Nebbercracker to claim them. Almost every child on the block had lost one of their prized toys to Nebbercracker, the young papergirl herself had lost a tricycle to Nebbercracker close to two years ago.

As the girl remembered her tricycle, her thoughts were brought to the events that occurred shortly after her beloved tricycle had been lost to the clutches of Nebbercracker. She lost it the night before Halloween, and on Halloween night, the house was gone. It had disappeared without a trace. Most of the neighborhood had gathered at the town hall to have a pre-trick-or-treating safety brief which had been basically mandatory unless the parents were enthused with being berated by the city council for the next year. When the meeting had adjourned, the girl had been ecstatic to finally begin her conquest for candy. She knew that that skipping Nebbercracker's house was a no-brainer, but when she walked up to his yard, the house was missing. And what was even more appalling was the long line of trick-or-treaters walking up the drive. Confused and curious at the same time, the girl had walked up to the front of the line to see three big kids and Nebbercracker himself handing out toys to the eager children. When it was the girl's turn, instead of opening with the signature "Trick-or-Treat!" to the big kid in front of her, she instead blurted out the question pressing on her mind:

"What happened to Nebbercraker's house?"

The big kid turned to look behind him, as if confirming the house wasn't there, then turning back around and saying, "It turned into a monster, so I blew it up."

Immediately more questions had flooded the girl's mind, but the answer had seemed straightforward enough to her, so she had shrugged and fell back into her trick-or-treating routine.

That night the young girl had been reunited with her tricycle, and shortly afterward Nebbercracker had moved down the block into a much more comfortable looking house. The change of scenery had seemed to improve Mr. Nebbercracker's demeanor, and after that Halloween he had changed from crotchety old dude to happy old pappy. No more malicious signs littered his lawn, and he seemed to gain a tremendous amount of energy, which he used in creating a small garden that soon flourished into one of the most beautiful gardens in the neighborhood. All in all, everything had turned out for the better…

A/N: And so there is the first chapter! Again, please don't hesitate to let me know what you think. I'm always looking for tips to improve my writing. Also please come forward with any scenes or stuff you'd like to see put into the story. I love feedback! Hopefully posting again soon!

-BuddingFabricator