Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from Monster High, Ever After High, Disney Descendants, DC Super Hero Girls, and Project MC2 worlds which is trademarked by Mattel, Guru Studio, Disney, Dreamworks Animation's AwesomenessTV and MGA respectively. All characters are created and owned by Mattel, Disney and MGA and I do not claim any ownership over them or their story and it is not purported or believed to be part of the original story canon. This story is for entertainment only.
Episode Ten:
Bad and Bonkers
Everyone gave each other a blank stare before they ran up to the dorms to get showered and changed. No one wanted to bump into O'Malley anytime soon. They made their way to the chow hall and gathered their food for the morning meal.
As soon as most sat down to eat a raging O'Malley kicked open the door, "ENSIGN COOKIE!"
Vidalia Cookie, the lunch lady with the smooth dark features, glared at O'Malley with a sneer as she growled out, "What?!"
O'Malley kicked the nearest table and launched it towards Ensign Cookie. "Where is Mr. McSnuggums?"
Cookie ducked, stood up, then flung a towel over her shoulder, "Girl, ain't nobody got time for your nonsense. Have you checked under your bed for that thing?"
O'Malley grabbed a table and threw it, "So you've been talking to my bed to steal Mr. McSnuggums! Well you won't get one shiny copper out of me."
Cookie ducked again, then stood and motioned for the other lunch ladies to intervene, "Get this crazy girl out my chow hall, talking about conspiring with her damn bed. I can't work in these conditions; Captain Jones better give me a raise. An extra sip of serum or something for putting up with this..." She stormed off towards the kitchens muttering to herself.
The other lunch ladies tried and failed miserably to escort O'Malley out of the chow hall. When O'Malley reached for a grenade, Twyla and crew knew that they were done eating. They dumped their trays and made their way to Arr-gebra I, with LT Read.
Read was a thick woman with an even thicker accent. She greeted everyone with flat and boggy, "Oh hello, you kids got the rough of it this morning, didn't ya?"
Twyla raised her brows and nodded slightly as she took her seat. Read's earrings and bracelets and rings clanged as she walked around her desk to write on the board. She couldn't bend her fingers for all the rings she had on each one to include three on each thumb. So her handwriting was left up to interpretation. Luckily Read's numbers were the only thing legible which was mostly what they needed for math class any ways. She trued to brush her curly black locks out of her face but her hair got caught up in one of her many gold neck chains. She fussed and cursed before finally reaching into her jacket pocket to retrieve one of her many daggers. She sliced the offending hair and continued to write on the blackboard.
Twyla had hoped that class would go as normal, with Read explaining something, asking them if they had questions then immediately not understanding why any of them would have questions. But it was not to be so, as class went on, Twyla could hear muffled yelling echo down the hall. She knew it was only a matter of time before O'Malley came bursting through the door and she braced herself for it.
The glass scattered as O'Malley crashed through the window in a tumbled heap. She lay on the floor and stared at the ceiling as she screamed, "Damn you wall! You can't keep me from your secrets!"
Read slammed her hands down onto her desk, "Dammit O'Malley, what is wrong with you today? Your fuse has been significantly shorter than usual."
O'Malley looked over at Read and narrowed her eyes, "You, you did it, didn't you? You kidnapped Mr. McSnuggums! Where is he hiding! What have you don't with him?"
Read rolled her eyes, "O'Malley, seriously? Have you checked the refrigerator or something? You may have put him there when you got a midnight snack."
O'Malley sat up and pointed at Read, "Aha! See I knew you took him, because you know he won't fit in the refrigerator. See I caught you in your lie."
Read threw a dagger into O'Malley's chest. O'Malley looked down and touched her chest. When her hand came away red she screamed as jumped up and threw a grenade at Read. Read rolled, threw three daggers into O'Malley's chest and a dagger through the grenade fuse causing it to land with a thud on the ground.
O'Malley looked at the knives in her chest and screamed, "That frigging hurts!"
Read stood off to the side and threw several more daggers into O'Malley.
O'Malley stood still and frowned as blood pooled onto the floor. She spoke through clenched teeth, "I will frigging end you! Let me go, right now!"
Read sighed, "O'Malley, calm down. You can still move your arms. Go ahead. You can do it. See? No daggers are holding you down."
O'Malley slowly lifted her arms, seeing that she could move her arms freely, she cheered up and then paled, "Oh! Oh, that is wonderful, that is nice, wait. I don't feel so good."
Read opened the door, "Go visit Montoya in the infirmary, go on, she'll patch up those holes in your chest for you."
O'Malley walked through the door, "Yeah, there are a lot of holes for some reason."
Read threw the door shut, "Ugh, that O'Malley, 300 years and nothing's changed. Now, where was I?"
Ghoulia groaned informatively. Read titled her head, "What? I don't speak zombie."
Cleo raised her hand, "LT Read, you were going over independent and dependent variables."
Read nodded, "Right well, back to that then."
Once the bell rang Twyla and crew began to make their way to LT Walker's class Be Ye of Yon Sentence Making when they ran into yet another odd sight. There, in the middle of the hallway, was a very stressed out Duchess in black swan form flapping her wings and honking loudly while a snoring heap of a woman lay upon her. Blondie curiously walked up to the woman and tried to shake her awake, but Blondie was rewarded with a punch to the stomach. As Blondie backed away holding her abdomen the figure stood up while wiping drool on Duchess.
With one final flap, Duchess got away and turned into her human form though completely drool covered. She glared at the figure, "LT Bonny, I am not a pillow! Augh, why is it always me?"
Duchess then stomped off towards the latrine. Twyla held her nose as LT Bonny scratched herself in various places. She reeked booze and her navy jacket was smudged with whatever she had eaten for the day. She belched and a few stray black feathers flew out of her mouth and drifted to land in her wild curly mane of red. She blinked lazily as she reached up to remove the feather but missed her hair completely.
Blondie, still holding her stomach, whispered to Twyla, "Is this Bonny even a teacher?"
Twyla shook her head, "I'm not sure. I've never seen her before."
Bonny wiped the drool off her face. She rubbed her dark-freckled cheeks and groaned as a thin layer of crust fell from her eyes. She glanced at everyone and her dark brown eyes paused when she saw Billy, who was visible at that time. She leaned back and pointed a crooked finger at Billy as she yelled, "How dare you show your face to me after all this time Abner Darby."
Billy startled went invisible, which just irritated Bonny more.
Bonny licked her plump lips like there was still juice on them and smirked, "Oh, Abner, I'm not letting you get away from me this time."
She lurched forward and chased Twyla and crew into their next classroom. LT Walker strode over to the door to see what all the fuss was about. When she spotted Bonny, she held out her hand. Bonny's upper torso fell backwards although her legs kept moving forward which dragged her upper half along the ground.
Walker glared down at Bonny, "Nicki Anne, what are you doing? This is a school. Why don't you put those last two brain cells together and come up with your one lesson plan for the fall semester."
Bonny halfway stood up, but let her head rest on the back of her calf as she gazed up at Walker, "Well, I was taking an afternoon nap when old Abner decided to beg me for forgiveness."
Walker tapped her foot, "It's nine thirty in the morning, Nicki Anne."
Bonny waved her hand dismissively, "Potato, tomato. Listen, if you see Abner tell him, I hope he dies from dysentery this time."
Walker rolled her eyes and put her hands on her hips, "I won't tolerate your shenanigans in my classroom. This is a place of learning, leave."
Bonny stood up normally, turned and stared vacantly up at Walker, "No need to use all those highfalutin words with me."
Walker pointed to the open door. Bonny snorted, walked into the door, stumbled backwards then walked out the open doorway. Walker shook her head and closed the door. With Walker beside the door, Twyla could see why all the doors throughout the school were at a minimum ten feet tall. Walker was a very muscular eight-foot-six towering woman.
Walker glanced around at everyone, "Did everyone complete last night's homework? Place it on the desk so I can see. No cheating. You are just cheating yourselves out of an education." She strolled between the desk checking everyone's homework. Seeing that it was all done, she continued the lesson.
When the bell for lunch rang, Twyla and crew walked as fast as they could to chow hall. Upon sitting down, they heard the sounds of honking coming from the line. There was only one person who honked in the entire school, and that person was Duchess.
Once Duchess came into view, Twyla could see that Freddie was holding Duchess in her swan form, while Spectra balanced three trays of food.
Freddie cackled as she pulled more feathers, "Oh bird brain, how could you forget to take a battle buddy with you again." She yanked more feathers as Duchess honked in pain, "I might just have to slit this long goose neck of yours and have roasted duck. If I get approached by another LT because my classmates can't get themselves together, being tossed in an oven will be the least of your troubles. Understood, mother goose?"
Freddie tossed Duchess into the air and Duchess changed back into her human form. Duchess looked angry and her skin was red in random places but she looked okay, considering how many feathers she had just lost. Twyla didn't stare for long, she placed her eyes on her food and wolfed it down as quickly as possible. If Freddie was in a torturous mood, Twyla didn't want to get on her bad side. A shriek from Spectra however did cause her to look up, what could Freddie do to a ghost?
Freddie laughed as the shadow spirits ripped off Spectra's clothes. Spectra covered herself and tried to sink into the floor but the spirits pulled her back into view. Freddie smirked and pointed her fork "Don't think I didn't notice your absence this morning at PTV. To where did you float, hmmm? I told you, as soon as we got in the maze that you were to float through the traps and get me to safety. My poor shadow spirits had to do all the work that you failed to do. That's just not right, you will pull your weight around here or you might find yourself spending more quality time in the shadow box."
Spectra sobbed as she trembled and nodded, "Understood."
Freddie turned to look at Melody, "And you."
Melody flinched and looked up at Freddie, her eyes were dead and her expression completely vacant as Freddie grabbed her by the front of her blouse and pulled her close.
Freddie snarled, "I was told that you didn't run the course at all. My spirits say, you stayed behind, is that true?"
Melody blinked once very slowly and took as deep a breath as she could, "Yes."
Freddie grabbed a handful of Melody's hair and yanked her forward, "You really don't seem to understand the concept of a team. I thought I had thoroughly beaten it into you but apparently, you still have a few rebel chords left in you. Tell me, whatever am I going to do with you?"
Melody gulped and closed her eyes, a single tear rolled down her cheek, "Whatever pleases you."
Freddie laughed and threw Melody back, "Hahaha! Damn right, I will. But what would please me the most. Hmm." She drummed her fingers on her chin.
Twyla looked down and finished eating. She couldn't bear to watch Freddie torture people. No one else could either, but no one wanted to get up because they were too afraid to catch Freddie's eye. Darling made to stand up but Lizzie Hearts, a sophomore, grabbed her arm and shook her head in warning. Twyla sipped her drink slowly. What was Freddie going to do to Melody? And Poor Spectra! Twyla had never considered that Freddie's shadow spirit could touch Spectra. But it did make sense, Spectra had always been strong willed ghost, it would take someone truly evil to make Spectra do the things she had done and that someone was Freddie.
A resounding crack as something slammed against the table made Twyla look up. Freddie had decided to stab Melody in the throat with a fork. Students shuffled away from the table and clung to each other as Melody's eyes began rolling into the back of her head. Duchess screamed and ran to help Melody but was slapped back by Freddie, causing her to turn into a swan and fly backwards.
Freddie sneered, "Did I tell you to help her? Do what I tell you and you might just live. Now Melody, what have you to say for yourself, hmmm? Oh wait, there's a fork in your throat so I guess you don't have anything to say." She yanked the fork out of Melody's throat and collected the blood in a small vial as she ordered. "Duchess, take our dying DJ to the infirmary. I got part of what I wanted, no need to lose the rest of what I have in the process."
She stabbed a nearby shadow spirit with the fork and left the chow hall with a bounce in her step. The moment the door closed everyone in the chow hall ran over to check on Melody.
Farrah screamed, "Excuse me, coming through. I can heal her, coming through."
A space was made for her, Duchess held Melody's wound down so it wouldn't spurt blood and Spectra held napkins to cover herself as she watched from a distance. Farrah pulled her wand out of her pocket and a warm pastel orange light enveloped Melody. Lines of orange circles spun around the wound and stitched it closed. Those present stood with bated breath as they observed.
Melody coughed and when she opened her eyes, she wept bitterly, "You should have just let me die. It would have been so much better if my life had just ended. I don't think I can endure another day with her. Not one more day. Please kill me."
Spectra bawled and used the napkins she held as tissues.
Duchess sighed deeply, "Melody, come on. Let's get you to the infirmary."
Melody sat up and rolled her shoulder back, then stretched her neck moving it side to side. "That's okay, let's just go to class." She stood up and looked at Spectra. Her eyes widened and she covered herself with her hands, "Uh, Spectra you might want to ah..."
Spectra blushed and sank into the floor. Twyla let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as Melody and Duchess left the chow hall. The chow hall erupted with chatter as everyone discussed the cruelty of Freddie.
Darling whipped around and glared at Lizzie, "Are you satisfied Lizzie! Melody nearly lost her life-"
"It would have been off with your head if you had interfered!" Lizzie shouted.
"So your solution was to standby and watch!" Darling retorted.
Abbey folded her arms, "Hmph, foolish advice from cowards. Next time I do things my way."
Lagoona frowned, "I didn't want to make waves mate, I'm sorry, I didn't think she would do anything like that."
Evie stomped her foot and clapped her hands loudly, "Uh, hello we should all probably go to class. I don't know about you but I don't want to be in the halls when Freddie's shadow puppets are the hall monitors."
No one spoke or made eye contact as they left the chow hall. Twyla fixed her gaze on the black tile floor as she trekked. Freddie nearly killed her. She stabbed her, with a fork. Why? Why did she collect her blood? Why does she have so much power? Can she be stopped? There has to be some kind of weakness in her shadow defense. Think Twyla, think. What do shadows fear the most?
She felt her face warm and stepped away from the sunlight beaming through the windows. Her eyes widened as a solution to the Freddie problem presented itself. She mumbled, "The dark has to flee from the light." Now how do we harness it?