Chapter 2 - Lagoona Blue

The next morning, Monster High, as new as it was, had one less couple around. The only couple we had was done for. The other ghouls and I were happy about it. However, Cleo wasn't.

While we were walking through the empty halls, Cleo looked put out. Deuce looked like he felt all haughty and proud. Like he'd won the fight or he'd been the one to tell Cleo that it was over. Done. Gone. The love was not happening. It just wasn't.

"Where's the cafeteria in here?" Frankie asked, trudging along behind the entire group. She looked totally tired, like she hadn't gotten any rest at all.

"Do you think we know?" Cleo asked, looking back and glaring at her. "We haven't even found the bathroom yet, booger."

"Cleo, that's not nice." I said, shooting her a look that wasn't nearly as menacing as hers had been.

"So? She's getting on my nerves." the mummy shot back.

"She's only fifteen days old, Cleo." Draculaura said, not looking back at the royal pain in the butt.

Deuce didn't say anything. He just continued walking, like this conversation wasn't worth his time. And it wasn't, really. He knew already what we were just figuring out: Cleo was a queen bee-otch.

All five of us walked through the halls trying to find the "huge double doors with a sign saying 'Creepeteria" on them" that the women on the loud speakers told us about. "Has anyone seen these doors?" Draculaura asked, sighing in aggravation.

"Nope. I haven't." Frankie replied, still lagging behind.

"If anyone has a chance of seeing them, it wouldn't be you." Cleo growled, balling her fists.

"There they are." Draculaura said, not at all excitedly.

"Finally." Deuce breathed.

I went up and pushed the heavy doors open just wide enough for me and he came up behind me and pushed them open even more. We all walked through, and Frankie collapsed in a chair at a table right beside the door. I went right up to the sushi bar and started picking at the choices that Shouti had either made or ordered from a nearby sushi restaurant. I was guessing the latter after a I tasted a bite of wasabi. It tasted just like the sushi at my once favorite restaurant. I probably won't be going there anymore… I continued down the line of the lunch bar and I reached the register five minutes later with my plate heaping with food.

"You have a whole lot on your plate there, Lagoona." Shouti said, punching some buttons on the register as she spoke.

I felt kind of weird having her call me Lagoona. I didn't even know her. She was trapping me here. We were most definitely not on a first name basis.

"So? You people make us trudge through those hallways every day and don't even give us a map to tell us where we're going.

"All of you are going to have to work together and learn the twists of turns of Monster High. It'll become second nature before long." she replied, smiling and handing me back my plate. Now, instead of a plain white ceramic plate, the plate was a blue ceramic plate with sea shells set into the ridges. I stared at it for a second and Shouti smiled that same fanged smile. "Everything is themed here."

"Even the plates we eat off of?"

"Of course. Monster High is famously intricate already. You'll see."

"Oh, believe me, we already have."

"Good." she said, smiling even wider, showing her pointy canine teeth. "Get used to it."

"Lagoona! Over here!" Draculaura called as my conversation with Shouti came to an end. I turned and nodded to her. But when I looked back to ask Shouti one last question, she was already gone. I groaned. Seriously?

"Hey. What took you so long up there?" Frankie asked as I sat down at the table they were already sitting at. Monster High's creepateria was packed full with tables that I guessed would stay empty. There weren't nearly enough people to fill them. The tables must have just been for looks.

"There was just so much food, and after walking through the halls since yesterday, I've built up a pretty good appetite."

"Same here." Draculaura said through a mouthful of peach cobbler.

"What'd you get?" Frankie asked, picking around her plate of fries and a burger.

"Sushi, seaweed, some different fish, and kale chips."

"Kale chips? Seriously?" Draculaura asked, giving me a look that said kale chips sucked to her.

"Yup. I love kale chips." I replied, taking a handful and putting them all into my mouth. They only stared in what looked to me like awe as I chewed the chips.

"Seriously?" Draculaura repeated.

"Yes."

"Sushi? I've never tried sushi…" Frankie mused, studying my plate.

"Take a bite then." I said, pushing my plate over to her. She cut a piece off of an untouched piece of sushi and popped it into her mouth. She chewed and her expression slowly changed.

"Nope. I won't be eating anymore sushi." she commented after she finished the bite and swallowed.

"That's why no one eats sushi but only a select few." Draculaura said, pointing at Frankie with her fork.

"Obviously." Frankie agreed, nodding at Draculaura.

"Then don't take anymore of my sushi." I said, taking my plate back and taking a huge bite of the rest of the piece.

Frankie and Draculaura looked on in disgust. I stuck my tongue out at them with my sushi still in my mouth. They looked away and continued eating their breakfast.

"Okay, students of Monster High! We have a new activity for you guys to play at." Medusa said, coming on overhead.

"Oh, great." Deuce sighed, shaking his head. I noticed he did that a lot whenever anything about his family came up.

"You're going to be going Mountain Thingin'!" Maddi exclaimed, and behind us at the register, Shouti nodded in approval.

"Mountain Thingin'?" Frankie asked, looking at Draculaura and me for some sort of clue. But we had none, so she turned back to the intercom in the ceiling.

"'Mountain Thingin'?' you may be asking." Medusa said, echoing Frankie. "Mountain Thingin' is the term we use for bungie jumping off a cliff!" Medusa said excitedly.

Every single one of our faces changed, eyes widening and jaws dropping all the way to the floor.

"Don't worry. It's completely safe." Maddi said, trying to reassure us as much as she could, making it sound like Mountain Thingin' was Medusa's idea. I was beginning to like Maddi a bit more.

"And it'll be completely fun!" Medusa said even more excitedly than before.

"Yeah!" Maddi agreed loudly.

"So just follow Shouti to the cliff and we'll be there waiting for you with harnesses and bungie wires." Medusa explained, now sounding more businesslike. "See you there!"

After the intercom beeped and went off, everyone was just standing there in a stunned silence. Bungie jumping off of a cliff? And it was called Mountain Thingin'? Really? These people were retarded.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Shouti asked, smiling evilly. They all knew how we felt about this and they didn't care. But it was a have to, and it was gonna suck. "Follow me."

We followed her through the twisting hallways of Monster High. She walked through like nobody's business. And we still didn't know where a bathroom was that wasn't in the creepateria. That's where we'd all hopefully relieved ourselves.

"Don't worry, guys. Mountain Thingin' isn't so bad." Shouti said, not turning to look at us. She just kept going.

"Really? We're jumping off a cliff." Cleo pointed out.

"So? Jumping off cliffs isn't too hard." Shouti countered, still not turning around to look at us.

"Maybe for you, but for us, jumping off of a cliff has never been on the ole bucket list." I said, trying to persuade her to make Maddi and Medusa stop. They couldn't force us to do something we didn't want to do, right?

"Well, you'll still be able to cross it off." Shouti said, still not taking no for an answer.

"What if we don't want to scratch it off? Is it even that safe?" Draculaura asked, looking paler than usual.

"You'll still be able to." Shouti repeated, walking just a bit faster. We picked up our paces too.

"I don't want to jump off of a cliff." Deuce said, point blank.

The intercom crackled overhead and Medusa's voice poured out of it, loud and proud. "You don't have to, Deucey." she said sweetly, obviously telling everyone that Deuce was her favorite. Obviously. Obviously. Obviously. He's her freaking son.

"Mom!" Maddi exclaimed in the background, spluttering only a little.

"What, Maddi? Deuce is my favorite."

"I thought I was your favorite." Maddi said, not really sounding hurt.

"Nope. It's Deuce. Always has been, always will be."

"Why? I'm the one who stays up here and works with you every. Single. Day." she said, exasperated. It sounds like they've had this conversation before.

"Maddi, get over it. Not everyone can be Medusa's favorite." Medusa said, sounding like she was thinking, "What'cha gonna do?" Like it was a lost cause.

"Whatever. Deuce you're a baby." Maddi said, sounding entirely too jealous to be fighting over Medusa Gorgon. And then it sounded like she cut the Intercoms off.

We were still walking. Still walking. And Shouti didn't seem to be stopping anytime soon when she suddenly opened a door and went inside. We followed and I soon learned that she didn't go inside, she went outside.

The wind was blowing through all of our hair and the cliff was so tall. I couldn't see where it met the ground. The air was warm and so was the wind. The looks on the faces of my fellow students, though, were anything but warm. Maddi and Medusa were standing on the edge of cliff with their hands crossed behind their backs. They were smiling and probably trying to look welcoming, but right now, there was nothing in me but contempt for them.

"Hi, kids. Welcome to the Terror Cliff. My name is Medusa."

"And my name is Maddi."

"And we're here to get you into harnesses and push you off of Terror Cliff. Shouti will be assisting us with the students that aren't cooperative."

There had to be some law saying they couldn't do this to us. But then I remembered that I wasn't living in the human world anymore. I was in the Monster World, where nothing was written out in law books and monsters weren't jailed if they didn't follow these so-called laws. Monsters had a law of their own, something that had more to do with Monster ethics, not that we had many. You didn't harm other monsters. You kept them safe. And unless they did something to make you mad or something that violated this commonly known rule, then you had to continue to abide by the law.

"First up, or should I say, down, is Draculaura." Maddi said, trying to make a joke in this situation. No one laughed. Especially Draculaura.

"Come on up, or Shouti will have to intervene." Medusa said, waving the vampire up to the edge where they stood.

She walked over to the Gorgon and a gust of strong wind blew suddenly. Draculaura started to fall without the harness having been tied, but Shouti ran over and caught her before she plummeted to her death.

"Thanks, I guess." Draculaura mumbled, barely audible over the howl of the wind.

"You ready?" Shouti asked, fastening the harness onto Draculaura.

"Nope. Not at all." she replied, in a mock sweet tone.

"Good." Shouti said, pretending the response had been a more positive one.

Draculaura sighed. She patted her on the shoulder. She was finished with the harness. "You're ready." she said, walking over and handing the bungie wire to an animated gargoyle statue near the door we came through. She nodded at him and he nodded back, making a grinding sound as he did so.

"Alright, Draculaura, it's time for you to jump off of Terror Cliff." Medusa said in what sounded like her game show host voice.

"Do I really have to do this?" Draculaura asked, glancing back down to the ground below. I was scared for her.

"Yup." Maddi said, nodding her head at Draculaura. "Do you want to jump on your own, or do you want Shouti to give you a little, helpful push?"

"I'll jump on my own." Draculaura said, straightening herself up and breathing in deeply. Then she just fell. No sound or anything.

We all crowded over near the edge looking down. I searched for her. The wire was still here, the gargoyle still held on tightly, but the vampire was no where in sight. Then the wire started to get less tight. It was starting to come up. And so was Draculaura. She was shooting back up the cliff and we all stepped back to allow her through. Shouti went over to the edge, almost falling too, but she didn't. Her werewolf reflexes were super strong still, even though there were gray hairs around her hairline. She caught Draculaura under the arm and pulled her back up onto the ground.

"That was scary." she said, not seeming scared at all.

"Must've been. You almost had a heart attack going down." Medusa said from the far side of the cliff, commenting on how she hadn't reacted. Her face wasn't even flushed or pale. She just looked normal.

"Okay, everyone." Maddi spoke up. "Draculaura was the one going today. The rest of you are safe until we send another down tomorrow."

I sighed in relief, not even attempting to hide it.

"Get back inside." Shouti said, ushering us to the door we came out from. We followed her gladly.

"How did you not scream?"

"I wouldn't have been able to do that."

"Was it horrible?"

"How messed up was that?"

"No more questions!" Draculaura exclaimed.

We were back in the living area of the dorm part of Monster High. Everyone, including me, immediately began badgering Draculaura with questions about the bungie jump.

"It wasn't that bad!" she exclaimed throwing her arms around. "Stop asking me questions about it. I've answered all I can." She stormed off down the hallway and left us all just surprised standing there.

"All students," Medusa came over the intercom. "you need to make your way to the front office. Draculaura, try to stay with the group. Thank you. Just remember, front office." The intercom crackled and everything was quiet once more. The little pink and black vampire came stomping back down the hall. When she reached the group, she stopped and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Lets go." she grumbled, gesturing for us to get on with it.

"Okay, Mrs. Grumps-A-Lot." I said, starting down the hallway. I could only hope we were going the right way.

"I wonder what they want us to come to the office for…" Frankie mused, still lagging behind. I think she tends to stay in her own little la la land.

"Probably just telling us about some stupid agenda." Draculaura mumbled under her breath. I'm pretty sure everyone agreed.

When we got to the front office, no one was there except Shouti. She was behind the receptionist desk straightening up a stack of paper. "Hey, everybody." she said, waggling her pointy-nailed fingers at all of us as we packed in. "Medusa called you all here because we've noticed that all of you aren't adapting well to the halls of Monster High."

"You keep getting confused." Maddi said, turning her rolling chair around and revealing herself. I suspected Medusa was in the chair next to Maddi, but she didn't appear. "So we've printed out some maps of the school for everyone."

"Tardiness is laziness." Medusa said, stepping out of the shadows in the corner near Shouti. "That's what Athena always told us when I was in the huntresses. I was never tardy. And now, with your new maps, you'll never be late again!" she said excitedly.

"Also, you won't have to take the entire group when you leave the dorm area." Shouti chimed in, craning her neck around Medusa to look at all of us.

When we quickly made our way back to the dorms, I realized I might actually like this school. They had a humongous pool out back where sea creatures like myself could go for a swim. Frankie was excited about the science lab, claiming she was so into how certain mixtures reacted to each other. Draculaura headed straight out of the living area when we got back and told me she was heading to the library, probably to get away from the insanity that was Monster High. Cleo was excited about the small shopping outlet just outside one of the doors near the bungie jumping cliff. Deuce didn't say anything, instead just heading to his room and quietly closing the light green door. Maybe he and Cleo would get back together, because he was seriously not happy right now.

I walked over to the black and white tiled door near the window and entered the kitchen. I made myself some really watered down coffee, and went and sat in the living area. I watched the fire in silence for some time. I watched everyone come back and go inside their rooms. But then I heard something. A sound. So I got up and went to investigate.

Sure, investigation of a strange sound was not one of my brightest ideas. But there are only so many things you can be scared of when you're the daughter of the infamous sea monster. Maybe I thought it would be some party happening without me, even if I didn't hear any music or laughter. It was just a sound. When I got up to the third floor balcony, I noticed that the light green door was slightly ajar. I put my face up just enough to the crack and was able to see only one side of the dark room. There was a lamp on, giving off a warm color of light. I heard movement coming from the bed on the side of the room I couldn't see. I got down onto the carpeted floor just outside the door and peaked through the small crack there. On the light green carpet, a pink go-go boot stepped down from the bed. It hung slightly in the air and then I heard a small giggle.

"I'll see you tomorrow." a girl's voice said. I heard another voice say something, but I couldn't make out what was said. Then the second pink boot hit the floor and I was up. I ran and turned the knob of the door next to Deuce's room, and went inside. I gently but quickly closed the door and realized my mistake. I was in Draculaura's room. I hurried over to the closet and shut myself inside. It was empty, not yet in use, so either I was completely safe, or she would be fixing the closet up when she got inside. I heard the know jiggle and the door open and the vampire must've stepped inside.

Draculaura's floor wasn't carpet, it was real wood. Everything inside followed the pink and black color scheme, with some white thrown in there. I heard her cross the room and open a drawer. She must've taken out some pajamas and gotten changed into them. I heard the lamp click off and I was plunged into darkness. A few minutes later, the lamp came back on. The covers seemed to have been thrown away from the vampire and she was getting back up for something. I heard her footsteps coming closer and she was mumbling to herself.

"… scared of closets. No telling what's in them. Probably mom's animated Ken doll…" I couldn't really make sense of what she was saying, but she came over and threw the decorative wooden latch over the knobs. I was locked in. She crossed back over to the bed and the lamp went out seconds later.

I sat down on the floor of the closet and tried getting comfortable. There was no telling how long I'd be in there.