Lagoona stared down at the incredible height between her and the pool. She inhaled through her nose and exhaled through her mouth, closed her eyes and prepared herself for the dive.
Everyone knew that Lagoona was the wild and daring type, so it was no surprise to anyone that she'd be attempting a five hundred foot dive. Though still, her friends couldn't help but be a little bit worried, considering this was her first attempt.
But that didn't discourage or intimidate Lagoona as she took the leap. During her fall, she flipped backward and forward, then did a spin before landing head first into the water. She emerged from the pool and shook the water off her face. "Woo! How was that?!" she asked.
"Amazing!" exclaimed Frankie.
"Yeah! Voltagious, Lagoona!" exclaimed Alivia.
After getting out of the pool, Lagoona took a blue towel and wiped herself off. "Good enough pics for ya?" she asked.
"Uh huh. These will look great in the yearbook," said Alivia before she took another picture of Lagoona whose hair was all mussy.
"Hmm, probably not that one," suggested Cleo.
Any time Alivia could take pictures was a great time for her, but this time in particular, she was really excited as she was taking pictures for Monster High's first ever yearbook in commemoration for the school's one year anniversary.
"Can you believe it will have been a whole year since we started Monster High?" asked Draculaura.
"I just hope I can do the yearbook justice," said Alivia.
Frankie placed a supportive hand on her sister's shoulder. "Don't worry. I know you will," she said.
"Just make sure you get my good side, which is here...and here...and here...and here..." said Cleo as she did different poses for Alivia to take pictures of.
The others just chuckled at Cleo's silliness.
Meanwhile, Draculaura looked back at the school. "I'm going to go see how the preparations for the party are coming along," she said to Clawdeen.
"I'll come with you," said Clawdeen.
Monster High was planning a party to celebrate the big occasion with Cleo in charge of the preparations.
The two made their way to the school while Cleo kept posing.
"Uh...Cleo, I don't wanna run out of film," Alivia said in the background.
Inside, all the other students were decorating the school. They were very excited for the upcoming event as it was looking to be one the biggest celebrations that Monster High had ever had.
Green and purple streamers lined the halls and balloons of the same colors floated in every room. In the center of the main hall, a long table was also lined with the same colors, from its tablecloth, to its plates, forks, knives and spoons.
On the second floor, Dracuala and Harriet observed the decorations.
"Well, it looks like everything is coming along nicely," said Harriet. "Cleo really outdid herself this time."
"As usual," said Dracula. "But a celebration of this magnitude deserves only the best."
Coming at the steps, the two saw Draculaura and Clawdeen waving at them.
"Hey, Dad!" shouted Draculaura.
"Hey, Mom!" shouted Clawdeen.
"Hello ghouls!" Dracula said waving back.
Harriet waved back as well, though while waving, she failed to noticed the steps in front of her and began to fall back. Luckily, Dracula quickly responded and caught her in the nick of time.
"Woo, that was close," Harriet said after placing her arms around Dracula's neck.
"Are you alright?" Dracula asked, blushing.
"Yeah...thanks," Harriet answered, also blushing.
After pulling Harriet away from the steps, Dracula and her looked away from each other with awkward smiles.
Draculaura turned her head to Clawdeen, cracking a slight smile. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I think Dad has taken a liking to your mom," she said.
Clawdeen cracked a smile as well as she looked to her mom fixing up Dracula's hair and straightening his tie. "Yeah, I noticed," she said with a chuckle. "I think my mom feels the same way."
Just then, Draculaura gasped as she came to a realization, excitingly grabbing Clawdeen by the arms. "Do you realize that if your mom and my dad get married, we'll be sisters!" she exclaimed.
Clawdeen had been one of Draculaura's best ghoulfriends for as long as Monster High had been around. The two of them were pretty much like sisters already, but the thought of them actually being legal sisters made her bounce with jittery excitement, holding onto Clawdeen's hands and jumping around.
"Well it would be nice to have a ghoul relative that isn't my mom," Clawdeen said.
The two ghouls giggled before looking back at their two parents.
However, as Clawdeen observed her mom bonding with Dracula, her smile began to slowly fade.
Draculaura's face beamed, clapping happily at the prospect of having another sister, when she noticed Clawdeen, with arms crossed, walking towards the door. She immediately followed.
"Clawdeen? What's the matter?" Draculaura asked as she and Clawdeen exited through the school doors.
A subdued Clawdeen and Draculaura went to sit on the steps.
Clawdeen then turned her head to Draculaura and gave her a half smile. "It's nothing, ghoul," she answered. Her face immediately went back to its subdued expression. "I'd love for my mom to meet someone, it's just times like these make me think about...my dad."
At the mention of the word, 'dad,' Clawdeen's tone and facial expression turned to slight anger.
Draculaura meanwhile jumped to her feet in surprise and shock. "YOU'RE DAD?!" she exclaimed.
Clawdeen pulled back a bit at her friend's reaction, though she could understand it. This was the first time she had ever told Draculaura or anyone at Monster High about her dad.
"How come you never mentioned your dad before?" Draculaura asked curiously.
"The subject never came up," Clawdeen quickly answered.
Draculaura noticed Clawdeen lean back on the steps, rapidly tap her claws and give an irritated growl.
"I'm guessing daddy issues?" Draculaura surmised.
"Yep, big ones," Clawdeen answered. "My dad abandoned me and my mom when I was a young pup, shortly after my brothers were born."
"That's terrible!" Draculaura gasped. "How could he do something like that?!"
"Raising nine additional pups was too much for him, I guess," Clawdeen answered, growing angrier with each word.
Draculaura couldn't imagine the thought of someone's dad just up and leaving them. She was lucky enough to have a father who had been there for her and supported her for the last 1600 plus years. Clawdeen always seemed like an easygoing type of ghoul, but she couldn't help but think that underneath it all, she was holding in some feelings of anger and resentment.
She went to put a hand on Clawdeen's shoulder when Clawdeen suddenly got up to her feet and composed herself before Draculaura got to hers feet as well.
"Hey! Things are too gloomy here! We're supposed to be celebrating, right?!" Clawdeen said, giving Draculaura a gentle elbow to her arm.
Draculaura was a bit skeptical as to Clawdeen's sincerity with her feelings. But despite this, she agreed that it was time for celebrating and being with friends and family. And while it appeared as though Clawdeen's wasn't exactly perfect, she had a new family and home at Monster High and she realized that was good enough for her.
One of the events at the celebration was a big feast and the lunchlady was hard at work, preparing the entrees. Cleo went into the kitchen to see how things were going.
"Mmm, things smell good so far. Everything is in order for the dinner?" Cleo asked.
The lunchlady listed off the items which included ham, though she still had to cook the pig and keep it from running away; chocolate covered spiders which were crawling all over the kitchen; and hot volcano punch which erupted from out of its bowl.
Unbeknown to her, Gob crept behind her, trying to get an early bite.
"And I haven't gotten started yet," the lunchlady said with intensity.
"Well...you keep up the good work," Cleo said with a nervous chuckle.
"Can do," the lunchlady said as she used one of her tentacles to grab a hold of Gob and chuck him out of the kitchen into two students, covering them with slime.
Cleo followed suit and made her way into the main hall. She was rather impressed with the decorations. Of course why wouldn't she be? She approved them. And given this was a monumental occasion, she was determined to make sure that absolutely nothing went wrong.
Just then, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, and Frankie rushed in towards Cleo.
"Cleo! We got a monster sighting!" exclaimed Clawdeen.
"Where?! Paris? Monte Carlo? No, actually, I'm feeling a bit Italian today,' said Cleo.
"Close," Frankie said sarcastically. "There's an article about a supposed monster living in the woods."
"Near a town called...Coolsville," Lagoona added.
"Sounds...'cool,'" said Cleo.
The rest of the ghouls groaned.
"Sorry, it was right there," Cleo said apologetically.
At first, Cleo was a little weary about leaving, but Draculaura assured her that her dad would take care of everything while they were gone.
So with that, Draculaura pulled out the monster mapalogue and Clawdeen, Frankie, Lagoona, and Cleo placed their hands on it.
"Coolsville. Forest. Exto monstrum!" Draculaura cried.
And so the ghouls disappeared in flash of light to their destination.