The school bell rang at old Gravedale High. It was dark and gloomy, typical Gravedale weather.

But today was a very special day. Well, special to humans.

"So, guys. I'm having a Halloween party at my place tonight." Sarah Schneider told her classmates. "I was wondering if you'd like to come."

The monster kids looked at each other. They didn't seem excited by the invitation.

"Yo, no offense, Baby doll. But Halloween ain't a monster thing." Sarah's boyfriend, Vinnie Stoker said.

"Yeah, it's an insult to all monsters!" Duzer sneered. "Humans dressing up like us like we're a big joke!"

"I happen to like jokes." said Sid the invisible kid, and Sarah's best friend. "I still don't know what to wear! How about my old Elvis costume?"

"I'm sure you'll look awesome in anything, Sid!" Sarah said. "So, are you guys coming? They'll be fun, food, and games!"

"I think it's a wonderful idea, Sarah!" Her teacher and uncle Mr, Schneider said.

"No way, man!" said Frankentyke. "That Halloween stuff is lame!"

Sarah sighed. Guess none of her friends wanted to go besides Sid.

"I'm going." said Gil Webber.

"WHAT?!" most of the class yelled.

"Why, Gil?!" asked Cleofatra.

"Like, Sarah said they'll be food there!" said Gil.

"Yeah! I'll have Papa Igor make a party monster pizza platter!" Sarah said.

Now her friends were interested.

"Yeah, man!" Frankentyke cheered.

"Just don't expect us to pay an entree fee." J.P. Ghastly said.

Sarah shook her head. "Oh, no. No one's paying anything, J.P." she said. "Everything's free of charge!"

The blue skinned monster grinned his yellow teeth. "In that case, count me in!"

"Me too, J.P." said Blanche, the southern belle zombie. "Anywhere you go, I go."

Sarah looked at Vinnie with hope in her eyes. "Vinnie, how about you?"

Vinnie shrugged. "Why not? It's not like I have any plans."

"You don't have to ask me! I'm going!" Sid said, hopping on top of his desk.

Duzer couldn't believe this! Her fellow monsters were going to a lame Halloween party! She looked at Cleofatra, who had a thoughtful look on her face.

"Cleo, don't you dare..." Duzer hissed.

"Sorry, Duzer. But Sarah's said there's gonna be lots of food!" Cleofatra can't say no to food if she tried.

"Oh, get a life, you guys." Duzer snapped, huffing into her chair. "You wouldn't catch me dead at a Halloween party!"

In Sarah's bright and sunny neighborhood, her mother Karen Schneider was placing black and orange balloons in the yard.

Also in her yard were jack-o-lanterns, spider webs, skeletons, orange and purple string lights, and all sorts of spooky decorations.

She was getting everything ready for the big Halloween party.

The monster kids were watching from across the street, hiding in a tree.

"Wow! What splendid decor!" Reggie Moonshroud said. "This'll be great!"

"So that's Sarah's mother, huh?" Vinnie said thoughtfully.

"You mean you've never met Sarah's mom, Vinnie?" asked Cleofatra.

Vinnie shook his head. "Nope."

"Come to think of it, I haven't met Sarah's mom either!" Reggie said with realization.

"Me neither!" Blanche gasped.

"None of us have, man!" Frankentyke said.

"Gee, what if Sarah's mom doesn't like us?" Cleofatra wondered.

The monsters weren't so excited about the party anymore.

"Cleo's right! We can't let Sarah's mom find out about us!" Blanche said. "She'll be terrified!"

"And she might find out about Gravedale! And she'll never let Sarah go there again!" Cleofatra said.

"Oh, please." a snide voice said from behind. The gang looked over and saw Duzer. "Maybe now you guys will come to your senses about this bogus Halloween party!"

"Well, it doesn't look like Gil's coming to his senses!" Sid said, pointing at Sarah's house.

Everyone gasped as they saw Gil walk over to Sarah's yard. "Whoa! Cool party so far, Sarah's mom dudette!"

"Huh?" Karen stopped decorating and turned. She let out a yell and jumped back.

"Oh, no!" Cleofatra wailed.

Karen patted her chest a little.

"Oops, sorry." Gil said.

"Oh, no. It's alright." Karen said. "You must be Gil."

"You know me?"

Karen nodded. "Oh, yes. You sound just as Sarah described." She looked across the street. "Are those the rest of Sarah's friends hiding in the tree over there?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah! There they are!" Gil waved. "Hey, dudes! What are you doing in the tree?"

"Oh, brother!" Duzer stomped over to retrieve her scaly friend. The other monsters followed.

"Gil! We told you to meet us over there!" Cleofatra said, pointing across the street.

"Oh, sorry dudette. Must of had water in my ears from surfing those gnarly waves this morning." said Gil.

"Yo, sorry about all this, Ma'am." Vinnie said. "We can explain-"

"Oh! You must be Vinnie!" said Karen. "That's a great costume you have on!"

The monsters blinked. "Costumes?"

"Uh, yeah. That's it, man! We're wearing costumes!" Frankentyke said.

Karen smiled. "Oh, I'm so glad Sarah invited you all! She says you're all the best friends she's ever had!"

"She did?" Blanche asked.

"Oh, yes. It's nice of you to stop by and visit. You're all going to love the party. In fact, we're going to have a prize for the best costume!"

"A prize?! Did you say prize?!" Duzer said with a glint in her eye. "What kind of prize?!"

Karen winked at her. "Oh, it's quite a prize." She looked at her wrist watch. "Whoa! Look at the time! I have a lot of work to do tonight!"

The busy mom walked away and the Gravedale kids heaved a sigh of relief.

"Whoa! Dodged that bullet!" Vinnie said. "If she knew we were real monsters, it'd be the last time we ever saw Sarah!"

"Well, what should we do now?" Cleofatra said.

"Duh! We're going to the party, Cleo!" Duzer told her mummified friend.

The monsters looked at the snake-haired schoolgirl.

"Wha'chu talkin' bout, Duzer?" asked Vinnie.

"I'm talkin' about going to the party!" Duzer said. "We're all going!"

"Something tells me Duzer's just in it for the costume contest prize." Cleofatra whispered to her friends.

"Hey, prize or not, I say we got tonight." Vinnie said. "We'll show up in our everyday duds. We just go and have fun like we normally do."

Once the sun set, Halloween night had officially arrived. Trick-or-treating children were out and about on this festive evening.

The kids gaped in awe of seeing the Gravedale kids walking down the street to Sarah's house.

"Cool costumes!"

"Awesome!"

"They look so real!"

The monster kids just kept to themselves and went on their way.

"So far, so good." Vinnie said. "They think we're in costumes."

"But we're like, totally not!" Gil said. "We're just wearing our everyday duds!"

"But these humans don't know that, man!" Frankentyke said.

"At least I'm gonna blow everyone's away at the contest!" Duzer said. She took out her mirror and applied some monstrous mascara.

"Everyone's got a fair shot, Duzer." Blanche said, applying black lipstick on her already black lips.

The gang arrived at Sarah's house. "Alright, guys. Just play it cool." Vinnie said. He knocked on the front door.

A second later, it opened and there was Sarah. She was dressed as a black cat.

"Hey, guys! Happy Halloween!" Sarah greeted her classmates.

"Yo! I'm diggin' the Halloween duds, Mama." Vinnie said.

"Aw, thanks, Vinnie." Sarah hugged her boyfriend. "We're having the party in the garage."

"The garage?" Cleofatra said.

"Yup, you'll love what I've done to the place." Sarah brought her friends behind the house. "Welcome to Halloween Party Central!"

She opened the door and to the monster's amazement and awe, Sarah's garage looked like the coolest monster hangout! Of course, it was decorated with grimacing pumpkins, skeletons, Halloween lights, and spider webs.

Bit what really impressed her friends was how filthy it was.

"Well, what do you guys think?"

"It's dark, and dank, and disgusting." Vinnie said. "And I love it!"

"It's awesome, man!" said Frankentyke.

"And smell that mildew!" J.P. said. "It reminds me of home!"

"It reminds me old Gravedale, really it does." Blanche said in her sweet Southern voice.

Sarah smiled, happy that she did good. But she noticed that there was a monster missing. "Hey, where's Sid? What's he coming as?"

Cleofatra gasped. "SID! We forgot about Sid!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis and his hunka' burnin' love has entered the building!"

The Gravedale kids turned and nearly screamed.

It was Sid dressed in his Elvis costume! He had the flashy white suit, the shoes, and the cape.

And the wig. But his invisible face was exposed!

Around his arm was his human girlfriend Crystal dressed up as a 50's girl. She had a cute hairstyle, record earrings, black top, pink poodle skirt and matching ascot.

But what really shocked them was that Sarah's mother was standing right next to them.

And Sid was completely exposed an an invisible kid!

"Hey, guys!" Crystal waved. "How do you like our costumes?" She giggled. "Isn't my Siddy the bee's knees?"

"Thank you. Thank you very much." Sid said in his best Elvis voice.

The Gravedale kids felt frozen. Sid had just blown his cover.

"What's the matter, guys?" Sarah said.

"I guess they've never seen an invisible Elvis." Karen said, carrying several boxes of pizza. "Vinnie, I ordered a special pizza for you with no garlic on it. Sarah told me you're allergic. And Gil, this one here has snails and seaweed on it just for you!"

"Cool! Thanks, Sarah's mom dudette!" Gil said, licking his extra long tounge across his green lips.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute!" Duzer said. "How do you what pizzas Vinnie and Gil like?"

"And don't you think it's gross to have snails and seaweed on pizza?!" asked Cleofatra.

Karen laughed. "It's not gross to me. After all, garlic doesn't agree with vampires and sea monsters have a unique taste in foods."

Blanche gasped. "So...you know that we're-?!"

"Real monsters?" Karen nodded. "Of course I know."

"WHAT?!" the monster kids shouted.

Except Sid. "What's with all the shoutin'?"

"Yeah, what's the matter, guys?" Sarah asked. "I've told mom about you guys a long time ago. I even had Sid over a few times."

"What? Why didn't you ask me, Doll?" Vinnie asked.

"I did. But every time I asked, you just say no and fly away!" Sarah replied.

Vinnie cringed. His shoulders stiffened. Perhaps he and Sarah need to work on their communication.

"But you said we were wearing costumes, man!" Frankentyke pointed out.

"I was playing a little Halloween trick." Karen winked. "I couldn't resist."

"Well, it was a really good trick!" Cleofatra said. "You sure fooled us!"

But it doesn't matter I feel you're monsters or not, what does matter is that you treat my daughter well and became good friends with her."

The monster kids felt much relief. Turns out Sarah's mom was just as cool as she was.

"Yeah, yeah, warm fuzzies all around." Duzer said. "Who's the winner of the costume contest?"

"Duzer!" Sarah said. Duzer was just as snippy as ever.

But Karen didn't mind. "The winner will be announced soon enough. Right now, let's get this party going!"

Everyone agreed without hesitation.

And so, everyone danced the night away and celebrated their first Halloween with humans.

And it turns out, it was the best night of their lives!

Once everyone danced and ate all the pizza, Karen spoke into a microphone.

"Attention, everyone! It's time to announce the winner of the costume contest! And after serious consideration and a review of all the wonderful costumes, the winner is..."

Duzer stepped forward.

"Sid!"

Duzer's jaw fell as Sid danced forward. Karen handed the invisible Elvis a plastic pumpkin trophy.

"Thank you, thank you very much." Sid said, still in character. "You've been a beautiful audience."

Duzer and her snakes hissed in anger. "What?! Sid?! I spent all day getting dolled up for this?!"

"Sid was not only in a great costume, but he stayed in character the whole time." Karen said.

"Besides, you're not even wearing a costume, Duzer." Sarah said.

Duzer humphed and dipped her shoulders.

"She's right. We're not wearing costumes so that technically makes us a disqualification." Reggie said.

"Fine! Who needs a stupid piece of plastic anyway?" Duzer sniffed. "I don't need a trophy. I know I'm hot stuff." She tossed her snakes back with sass.

"Yeah, only Duzer knows that." Sarah whispered to Vinnie.

"How about a victory dance with the king, little mama?" Sid asked Crystal.

Crystal laughed. "You don't even have to ask." She hugged Sid.

"Yo, how about we cut a rug, baby doll?" Vinnie offered his arm.

"With pleasure." Sarah took her boyfriend's arm.

As everyone danced, the Gravedale kids were finally strong the hang of Halloween.

"Y'know, Sarah. I think Halloween just became everyone's favorite holiday." said Vinnie.

Sarah smiled. "That's good news. Cause it's my favorite too!"