Chapter Two A Monstrous Meet and Greet
The next afternoon found Kim and Draculaura in the living room as her friends arrived.
"Kim Possible, I want you to meet my friends," said the petite vampire. "This is Cleo deNile and her boyfriend Deuce Gorgon."
"Hey! How ya doin'?" said Deuce, waving. Tall and handsome, he was wearing sunglasses, and had snakes on his head that hissed in Kim's direction.
Cleo said nothing, but stood and sized up the petite normie with a royal scowl. Finally she nodded. Kim took in the dark skinned girl partially wrapped as a mummy. She was very pretty, and knew it. Finally her face softened.
"Are you related to a Doctor Anne Possible?" she asked.
"My mom, why?" asked Kim.
"My mummy knows her," Cleo said, "She got the recipe for brain loaf from her."
Kim made a face, but hid it quickly. "Not a connection I knew about."
"Tell her thank you, it was good," said Cleo.
"I'll do that," nodded Kim.
"This is Frankie Stein," said Draculaura, putting a hand on the patchwork girl's shoulder.
"Hi, Kim! Can I call you Kim?" she said, holding out a hand.
"I'd prefer it, actually," was the answer as she returned the shake. Frankie was very friendly, as Lala had told her. Her mismatched eyes and green skin were... different... but fit her well. The bolts in her neck were a surprise.
"Goulia Yelps," said Lala, indicating a short girl standing with a loose posture, like she was about to fall apart. Kim noticed her eyes blinked one at a time. She had gray skin and white and blue hair.
"Hello," said Kim.
"Uuuhhhhhh..." was the reply.
"Sorry? I didn't catch that," said Kim.
"She said she's happy to meet you," said Frankie, "I guess you don't speak Zombie?"
Kim shook her head. THIS is a zombie?
"Ghoulia's the smartest person in the whole school," said Lala.
"Uhhh..." said Ghoulia, turning her head in embarrassment.
"Don't be modest, you know it's true," said Cleo. "I wouldn't have anything less attending me."
"Uuuuhhhhh..." was the reply.
"Anyway, this is Lagoona Blue," Lala pointed to a girl with blue scales and blond hair with blue streaks. She had wide pale green eyes.
"G'day, mate! Welcome to Monster High!" she said with a wave, then held out a hand. Kim noted her fingers were webbed.
"Thanks! I appreciate the warm welcome!" said Kim. "You're from Australia?"
"Yeh, the Great Barrier Reef, to be specific," was the answer.
"And finally this is my best friend Clawdeen Wolf, and her brother, my boyfriend, Clawd!" she said walking over and taking Clawd's hand. She barely came up to his jacket pocket.
"Hey, how are you?" Clawd asked, smiling at his girlfriend.
"Nice ta meetcha," said Clawdeen, "I've heard of you before. You stopped those robots just before one smashed our house. Never thought I'd get a chance to say thanks!"
"It was no big. Just had to take down a tower and disrupt the command signal," said Kim. She still felt bad about kicking Shego into it, since she had later learned the thief had been kept out of the loop of Drakken's plan.
"Anyway it worked. Hey, Frankie, is Jackson gonna be here?" asked the werewolf girl.
"He wasn't sure," the girl answered, "You know how shy he is."
"Unlike his alter ego," said Cleo.
"Well, sit down, everyone!" said Draculaura, "Renfield, bring in the refreshments!"
"We all want to thank you for protecting Draculaura while she was at your school," said Cleo.
"No big," replied Kim, "I'm just happy nothing really bad happened, and that it wasn't the student's fault."
"Yes, that is encouraging," answered the mummy-girl as Deuce put his arm around her, "There's an uneasy truce between normies and monsters here."
"Sorry to hear that. But that's why I'm here, right?" the redhead grinned.
"Yeah, this is a great start to changing the bad feelings!" put in Frankie.
The manservant brought out two trays, one painted black and the other green. Both were filled with small cakes. Soft drinks sat in a cooler nearby.
As the afternoon wore on, everyone relaxed. Kim took note of the relationships going on around her. Ghoulia waited on Cleo hand and foot, and nobody seemed to notice. It was understandable- she had found out Cleo was ancient Egyptian royalty. Deuce was nice, but his snakes hissed at her if she came near him, and Cleo glared. Lagoona kept a bottle of water with her, and at one point Kim noticed it was bottled SEA WATER. She'd never seen that before. She noticed Clawdeen sniffing in her direction, and finally asked her why.
"You can tell a lot about someone by the scents they carry," the brown-furred girl explained, "I smell a male on you. Your boyfriend?"
"Yes, Ron Stoppable, my partner and boyfriend," she replied. She didn't notice behind her that Cleo relaxed at that.
Clawdeen nodded. "An animal of some kind too, overlaid with cheese."
"Ron's pet naked mole rat, Rufus," Kim confirmed. "You're really good at that."
"The nose knows, ghoulfriend," grinned Clawdeen.
Kim reached over and picked up a cake. She started to take a bite when Clawdeen's paw lashed out and slapped it out of her hand. The heroine's training took over and she jumped up into a defensive stand. "What was that for?" she asked.
The other conversations stopped and everyone was looking.
"You were about to take a bite of cake from the wrong tray," Clawdeen explained, sitting back and holding up her paws in a submissive manner. "I didn't have time to warn you."
"Oh, my Ra!" said Cleo, "That's right! Don't you know the difference? You could have died!"
Kim stood up from her position. "No. What are you talking about?"
Draculaura came over, gray eyes wide. "Kim, I should have explained. Food in a black container can be dangerous to living creatures. You should only eat from a green one. RENFIELD!"
"yes, Miss?" he asked coming into the room.
"Get the other tray! We almost had an accident!" said the vampire.
He nodded and left, coming back a minute later with another green tray with more cakes on it, which he sat beside the other and picked up the black one.
Kim stopped him with a gesture and hit the connect button on the wrist Kimmunicator. "Wade?"
The boy's visage appeared in the small screen. "What's up, Kim?"
"Do me a favor and scan these trays, please and thank you," she said.
A green beam of light swept over the trays and vanished.
"Well... Kim, the two on the table are fine. You didn't eat anything from the one he's holding, did you?"
"No, but I almost did," she answered, "What's wrong with it?"
"Depending on which cake you ate, you would be either very sick, or dead within two minutes," he answered.
"WHAT?"
"It's my fault, Wade, I should have warned her," Draculaura spoke up, "Undead monsters sometimes like to eat things that are dangerous to living monsters, which is why the trays are color-coded. Black for undead, green for living."
"We're so used to it, it never occurred to us you might not know that!" said Frankie.
"I'm so sorry, Kim! I take full responsibility for it!" said Lala, voice quivering and eyes moist.
"It's- it's okay, D. No harm done. But let me know of other differences like that, please and thank you!" answered the redhead. "And thank you, Clawdeen."
"No problem, ghoulfriend," the werewolf nodded. She relaxed as well, now that she knew Kim wasn't going to attack her.
Renfield took the tray out of the room.
A few minutes later the party had returned to normal. Ghoulia shambled over to Kim and sat beside her. "Uhhhh..." she said.
"Sorry?" asked Kim.
"Uuuuhhhhhh..." was the response.
Kim looked unhappy. "I'm really sorry, Ghoulia, but I just don't understand anything you say."
The zombie girl nodded, then reached into a pocket and pulled out a small device like an MP3 player.
"Uuuhhhhaaaa," she said, and from the machine a voice came out: "It's okay, Kim, that's why I carry this translator."
"Oh, that's neat! Where'd you get it?" she asked, looking closely. There was a speaker, an on/off switch, volume control, and a sliding switch marked "record" and "play".
"I built and programmed it," she answered.
"Wow, good work!" said the heroine, then she got an idea. "Would you mind if I copied the software into my Kimmunicator? Then we could still talk, even if you don't have it with you."
"Uhhh..." said the girl, and "Sure! That's a good idea!" came from the speaker.
Kim pulled a USB cord from a pocket, and connected the devices. She tapped buttons on the watch, and after a minute handed the translator back. "Let's try it."
"Ahhhuhhh..." said Goulia, and "I hope it works." came from the Kimmunicator.
"Guess it did," smiled Kim, "Thanks!"
"Thank you for the consideration," Ghoulia replied.
Just then the doorbell rang, and Draculaura ran over to open it.
"Apologize for being late," said a tall, pale blue girl in white furs. White flakes were falling around her, from no apparent source. Everyone called a hello.
"That's okay, come on in! The party's in full swing!" Lala stepped to the side. "Kim, come here a minute, please!"
"Abbey Bomnable, meet Kim Possible!" said their hostess.
"Is nice meeting you," nodded Abbey.
"You too," said Kim, "Is that snow?"
"Yes," answered Abbey, "Am yeti, from village in Himalayas."
"I see. I've been there, but never met any of your kind," said Kim.
"Obviously did not visit right mountain," said the girl, and moved to get herself a drink.
Kim and Lala stood side by side. "She seems a bit... cold."
Draculaura giggled. "Yes, most ghouls get that impression. But once you get to know her, you will know differently."
There was a sound from multiple iCoffins in the room, and everyone pulled theirs out. Kim looked over Lala's shoulder.
"Oh, it's an update from the Ghostly Gossip!" said Cleo, "NORMIE VISITOR IS FEAR LEADER!" she read, and there was a picture of Clawdeen slapping Kim's hand, with Kim's startled expression clearly visible.
Everyone looked around the room. "SPECTRA!" they called in unison.
A pale, translucent girl with violet hair flew up through the floor. "What's wrong? Didn't I get a good picture?"
Kim stared with wide eyes. A ghost? A real ghost?
"The picture was fine. It's the headline we have trouble with," said Clawdeen, pointing a finger in the girl's chest.
"I did it again, didn't I? Sorry," she looked ashamed.
"Don't apologize to me, tell Kim," Clawdeen stepped back, folding her arms.
Spectra drifted over to Kim and floated in front of her, bobbing gently. "I'm sorry, I came in just as that happened. Then I made up a headline to go with it." Her voice was soft, and had a 'far away' quality.
"Well, you'd better post a retraction," said Lala, "We don't want monsters thinking Kim is afraid to go to school here."
"Oh, I didn't think about that, I'll change it immediately," said Spectra. She flew up and out through the ceiling.
Lala looked at Kim, who was staring at the spot Spectra had passed through. "Kim? What is it?"
"I was just thinking..." she looked at the vampire, "You have a very diverse group of friends."
As the party broke up that evening, the normie heroine was confronted with all the monsters.
"Kim," said Cleo, "Since you've never met a monster before, and will be going to a school full of them, we all want you to know that we'll be there for you if you need us."
"Well, thank you all!" said Kim, "But I'm not sure I'll need..."
"Kim, we're monsters. We have... abilities... you normies don't," said Deuce, "You might need us."
Kim nodded. "You're right. Thank you all."
And with that, the party ended.