The next morning, the monsters were startled out of their sleep courtesy of Carrie's loud pop music blaring out of her iPod.
"Morning, guys!" Carrie said, bright and cheery.
"Must you play that infernal racket?!" Dr. Davenport hollered over the music.
"Lighten up, Doc! Music's a great way to start the day!" Carrie said. She hopped out of bed and danced her way to the bathroom.
"That Carrie makes a great alarm clock!" Mummy said as he stretched out of bed.
"But she's gonna give me a major headache!" Big Ed complained.
Carrie washed up as she let her music keep playing.
Dr. Davenport groaned as he rubbed his invisible temples. "Why couldn't she be interested in Mozart or Beethoven?"
Wolf-Mon howled as he danced to the music. "Because they're not as good as this jam, man!"
Carrie emerged from the bathroom fully dressed and ready to go. The doctor was relived when she turned her music off.
"Well, I'm off. I'll see you later guys." said Carrie.
"Have a good day, Carrie." said Doctor Davenport.
Carrie scoffed. "Fat chance. I'm going to school."
"Carrie! Better hurry or you'll miss the bus!" Helga called from downstairs.
"Coming!" Carrie grabbed her backpack and made a dash downstairs. "Bye, guys!"
Carrie hopped on the bus. There were a bunch of kids, but Carrie sat in her usual spot, the empty seat in the front of the bus.
Once she took her seat, Carrie put her headphones on and played some music. She didn't want to hear all the insipid gossip and chatter of her peers.
But once the bus arrived at her school, Carrie knew she had to put her music away or she'll be in trouble.
Carrie stepped off the bus and once she stepped into her school, she heard the kids gossiping.
"Look, girls. It's Creepy Carrie." a cheerleader snorted.
"I thought it was Scary Carrie." another cheerleader said mockingly.
"I heard her house is haunted."
"I heard her housekeeper is really a witch."
"I heard she pours blood on her cereal for breakfast."
Carrie tried to block them all out the best she could. When you're the daughter of a horror writer that was barely home, Carrie wasn't the most popular kid around. But she didn't care about popularity, who cares about school social status when she's fine the way she is?
But every so often, it does get to her.
Carrie got to her classroom for her first class, science. Ever since the monsters came into her life, Carrie tried the best she could at this class to find the right ingredients for the formula and how to do it right, despite the many formula flunks.
A woman came into the classroom. She was of average height with short, wavy blonde hair and round glasses. She wore a white lab coat over a short sky blue dress.
Every boy in the room swooned and gushed over the striking teacher. But she appeared to be quite meek.
The teacher cleared her throat. "Good morning, class."
"Good morning, Ms. Pennington." every boy in class said together.
Carrie rolled her eyes.
Just then, Carrie heard beat boxing and saw a girl she's never seen before walk into the classroom. She was a long haired brunette with brown eyes and wore a pink tank top with blue baggy pants.
Ms. Pennington turned and adjusted her glasses. "You, young lady, are late!"
The girl smiled, revealing her shiny braces. "No, I'm Alyson, Alyson Johnski."
The school bell rung. Alyson wasn't late after all.
"Oh!" Ms. Pennington quickly grabbed her clipboard. "Ah, yes. Class, this is our new student all the way from New York City, Ms. Alyson Johnski."
Alyson smiled and waved a little. Then she decided to find a seat, she walked up to Carrie's table. "Hey, this seat taken?"
"Uh, no. Go right ahead." Carrie and her classmates were a bit stunned. Nobody ever sat next to Carrie.
Ms. Pennington grabbed some rubber gloves. "Now, class. Today, we'll be talking about liquid nitrogen. The fire department was so kind as to provide us with some to-"
But Alyson and Carrie weren't listening. They were too busy chatting with each other.
After class, Carrie and Alyson were still chatting it up in the halls.
"So, you're from New York?" Carrie asked. "What's it like?"
"Pretty cool, but not as cool as L.A. I'm really digging the warm weather." Alyson replied. "So, what goes on in this zoo?"
"Well, first of all, stay away from the cream corn. It tastes like glue." Carrie said. She pointed to a duo of stylish girls wearing matching pink cardigan sweaters. "Second, avoid Becky and Laura. They're pretty much the pointy tip of the school food chain."
"And I think the coyotes are coming this way." said Alyson.
Carrie spun around and there were the two mean girls coming in their direction.
"What's up, Creepy Carrie?" said Caitlyn, a blonde with brown highlights. "Trying to make some friends?"
"Good luck with this one." Becky, a black-haired beauty scoffed. She inhaled the air near Alyson's space. "This new kid smells like street."
"You better run along, wannabees." Caitlyn snorted. "The freaks' classroom is over there." And the two girls walked off until,
"Who retired and made you hall monitors?" Alyson snipped.
The girls stopped. Every student in earshot gasped.
Carrie felt frozen like she was encased in ice.
Caitlyn turned to Alyson. "Excuse me?"
"First of all, who are you to call Carrie creepy with that bad dye job?" Alyson quipped. "And second, if you didn't spend so much money on chunky necklaces and grandma sweaters, you'd have enough to buy some class."
Caitlyn and Becky's jaws just dropped. They were served extra hard.
Enraged right off the bat, Caitlyn leered her angry eyes at Alyson. "Consider yourself on my hit list, Noob." she snarled. "Starting off with you and Scary Carrie excluded from my house party tomorrow night."
"Oh, I'm crushed." Alyson said, her sarcasm laid down thick. "At least Carrie and I are gonna have an epic party at her house."
"What?!" Carrie shouted.
"That's right." said Alyson. "And members of the dork side are not welcome!"
"Sticks and stones, Metal mouth!" snapped Becky.
The mean girls spun on their heels and stormed away.
"Wow, that was amazing!" Carrie said.
Alyson smiled proudly. "Standing your ground is everything when it comes to school." she noted. "And this house party we're having at your pad is gonna show 'em!"
Carrie's heart dropped. "Oh, yeah..." She plastered a smile. "Great."