"Where is she? She was supposed to be here ten minutes ago!"
"Relax, she's coming. There's no way she'd miss it."
"Do you think she wimped out on us?"
"This is Abby we're talking about."
"Look, there she is!"
True to Sophie's word, the team of murmuring goth girls turned to see their president stalk out from the shadows of the trees behind the amphitheater. Hands behind her back, all thirty of her legs clicked against each other as she strolled across the field. There was a dark, serious look in her eyes.
"Abby! There you are," Phoebe sighed as she approached.
"You didn't think I'd miss it, did you?" Abby retorted with a wry smirk. Lily, Amber, and Phoebe made various awkward throat noises and couldn't meet her eye.
The amphitheater was filling with students now. The teams had to be there in advance, but of course Abby was fashionably late for reasons her sorority didn't understand. She glanced around and gasped. Ignoring her sisters' questions, she strode up to the first row of seats. "Mama, you made it!"
Bonnie set her phone down and smiled at her daughter. "Of course I did. I wouldn't miss it for the world."
"And you brought Mike and Sulley!"
"They brought themselves," Bonnie sighed, eyeing the two next to her who waved at Abby.
Abby laughed and smiled. "You guys are going to cheer for me, right?"
"I'm cheering for both of you," her mother insisted, as Mike and Sulley nodded enthusiastically. But before Abby could pout, another voice chimed in.
"—But I'll be cheering for you."
Recognizing the voice, Abby turned. Standing beside her, cloaked in a long hooded jacket, stood her sister. Her hood covered her face, but Abby could still make out the bandages hidden beneath. She was carrying a basket of baked goods, which Sophie dove for. Arabella held it out of her reach. "Ah, ah, ah! It's for after!"
"Arabella, you came!" Abby pounced on her, gripping her tightly in a hug.
"Of course I did. I'm your sister, after all," Arabella murmured, rubbing her younger sister's back. "I had to come and cheer you on."
Abby pulled away, tears in her eyes. She tried to blink them away with a smile. "Thank you."
Arabella smiled in reply. Then she turned to the snake monstress in the seats and her smile grew. "You must be Ms. Flint!" she exclaimed, bouncing up to her. "I've heard so much about you." She looked the older monstress up and down, blushing. "My goodness, you are so pretty!"
Bonnie blushed her own shade of violet. "Oh. Thank you. You must be Abigail's—erm, Dean Hardscrabble's daughter."
Arabella looked thrilled that Ms. Flint recognized her. "Yes! My name is Arabella, Arabella Hardscrabble. This is for you!" She pulled a small box from the basket and presented it to the other.
Bonnie blinked. "What? For me?" At Arabella's enthusiastic nod, and the fact that she didn't leave, Bonnie decided to open the box. In it was two beautifully crafted cufflinks in the shape of hissing snakes. Golden claws met her chest. "Oh my goodness. This is beautiful."
Arabella leaned over the side to point at the gifts. "Oh, yes, I made them myself. Mummy told me your birthday was in April—mine, too!—so the snakes' eyes are diamonds! That's our birthstone."
"But what is this for?"
"I thought I would give you something to commemorate our first encounter!" Arabella giggled, sweetly folding her hands together. "Besides, you're Abby's mummy, and you deserve something nice."
Bonnie's jaw dropped and she had no intention of picking it back up.
Abby groaned. "Are you trying to get her to adopt you?"
"Shh, Abby!" Arabella laughed, bounding over to her sister and putting a claw over her mouth. Before Abby could say anything else, they both heard a screeching sound fill the air. No one seemed to notice but them, but both of their heads swung to the stairwell. A familiar form landed and opened bright amber eyes to stare at them.
They matched stares in silence for a moment. Then the student council president's voice spoke up over the loudspeaker. "Please rise for the alma mater."
"You can do it, Abby," Arabella whispered, before tugging her hood down and disappearing into the crowd. Amber yanked Abby over to their side of the field, where the team stood in a line.
Abby felt her mouth move and she felt her throat vibrate with the words, but she couldn't hear herself singing. Everything seemed like white noise around her, except for one. Her mother's presence was so domineering that it sliced through everything else, taking over her thoughts. All she could see was that form, her upturned horns and those cold amber eyes.
"...hail to you."
Then she felt a hand on her shoulder, and suddenly the fog in her mind shuddered. Silver eyes slid numbly over to see Lexi looking at her worriedly. "It's okay. Don't get freaked out."
Abby's cloudy gray eyes suddenly cleared. Scowling, she shoved past Lexi and gestured for the group to gather around. "Alright, just like we practiced. Amber, you're first. Start strong."
Amber nodded and turned to the opposing team. She snarled at her competitor, a stocky purple frat boy with four arms. He growled at her back as they took their positions at the starting line.
"Hey, buddy, if you go easy on her, you might get her number!" Jeremy shouted from the sidelines. The boy smirked at her and winked, causing Amber to hiss.
As the timer struck zero, Amber raced forward in time with the ROR monster. She grabbed the scare report and glanced it over. The child's fear was vomiting. Right, Abby taught her this one: it was a specialized roar that sounded like throwing up. She just had to reach down into her vocal cords to pull it out.
Slithering over the toys gracefully with her tentacles, she tapped on the bed frame to rouse the robotic child. It glanced over to the sound, but Amber was already on the other side of the bed. When its head spun to see her, she dug out her most disgusting roar.
The teams watched the scream canisters on the screen give their percentage. Amber scored a 67%, while her competitor scored a 50%. All of HSS except Abby cheered; the president had a proud smirk on her face.
Amber sauntered out of the room, smirking at the boy. "That's how a girl scares."
"Next competitor to the starting line!"
Sophie bounced to the starting line, giggling and laughing. The blue monster with a nose horn next to her curled his lip in distaste. Abby grimaced; she had never really gotten Sophie under control, and there was no way to tell how she'd behave.
As the timer sounded off, Sophie bounced to the simulator. She gave her report a glance before swinging into the room on a line of webbing. Settling on the ceiling, she spun her webbing in her hands and dropped a small piece of it onto the robot child's face. When it awoke and peeled off the webbing curiously, Sophie descended from her perch and screamed.
Although she made a good score, her competitor's ended up being better. Abby's face remained cool and she congratulated Sophie on a well-executed scare, even as the rest of her team was disappointed.
Lexi was next. Abby gave her a comforting pat on the back and a shove to the starting line.
Lexi thumped her tail against the child's bed to awaken it, and then popped up from behind to scare it. However, her roar registered the lowest of her team's at 42%. Abby's face hadn't changed, but the rest of the team could tell she worried by the way she rubbed her claws together and scraped the pitch black paint off.
"That was still a respectable scare," Abby said, as Lexi lumbered back looking downcast. "Be proud of yourself. You've made great progress."
Phoebe made her way to the startling line after Lexi. Abby was impressed with the way she fanned her fins out in her roar: it made her seem much more uniquely terrifying. She managed to get HSS' overall score up by beating her competitor by 30%.
Lily was next. Although she seemed confident at first, she now turned to Abby with a hesitant look. Her competition ended up being the president's own twin brother. Abby stared at her for a moment before looking up to the ROR team. The boys were patting her brother on the back, encouraging and revving him up. Then her eyes returned to Lily's, and she nodded.
Lily took a deep breath before joining the starting line with Nate. She glanced up at the scores. She would have to beat Nate if Abby had any chance of pulling through for them. But despite his laid-back attitude, Nate was a Hardscrabble. He had natural scaring blood flowing through his veins. And Abby always did call her the weak link in the team.
The chances weren't looking good.
As the buzzer sounded, Nate leaped forward as his wings brushed out for an extra boost. Lily stumbled after him, left in his dust. As the boy inspected his scare report, Lily took a look at hers. The "five year old girl" had gelotophobia. She knew this scare: it was only the matter of pulling it off.
Nate had already entered his room. He slithered nimbly past the toys and up to the side of the bed. Instead of crouching low, he smiled at the dummy child.
Outside, the smiles slid from his team's faces and into confused frowns.
He beat his wings once, a powerful gust of wind waking the child up. As the robot rose, he didn't move to a scaring position. Instead, as the child looked at him, he simply waved. "Hey," he said.
"WHAT?" his team roared.
As he emerged, chattering arose among the stadium. Jeremy stormed up to him. "What the hell, Flint? You think you're funny?"
"Actually, yeah. I think it's hilarious to see your blue face go red," Nate laughed.
"You're a ROR! You're a scarer!" Jeremy shouted.
Nate's amused grin faded. "Not anymore. I'm sick of you losers. You know, when I joined you guys, I thought you would be cool and we could hang out. But my sister was right. You're only jerks who think you're better than everyone else because you wear these stupid, tight sweaters!"
He leaned over, his wings straining against the poorly sewn holes in the back. Finally, his wings won out. As the sweater holes ripped open, he extended his scarlet wings fully for the first time in months. The audience gasped in amazement as the light passed through them, making a gorgeous red tint.
"That's better." He beat his wings again, causing a hurricane force gust to sweep over the team and the audience. Folding them back, he turned away from Jeremy and his group to approach Abby.
"Nate," she began, her eyes wide. "You...threw the event? For me?"
He shrugged. "This thing is way more important to you than it is for me. And you were right, Abby. I should have listened to you. I'm sorry. Are we cool again?"
His twin softly smiled and embraced him. "We're cool."
"Thanks. It sucked being mad at you," he sighed, tucking his head into Abby's neck.
They parted, and he punched her playfully in the shoulder. "Break a leg, sis." Then he took off, flying over the audience only to land next to Oozma Kappa. They seemed scared of him at first, but from his body language he seemed to be gently apologizing to them. Abby smiled at the sight before taking a deep breath. She was next.
"Whoo! Go Abby!" Arabella cried from the sidelines. She had taken the seat to Bonnie's right, waving a HSS flag in the air. Bonnie was also cheering for her, as well as Mike and Sulley. Abby smiled at them before turning to where her mother had perched herself.
Again, she was caught in Abigail's ice cold look. But she didn't let it consume her this time. It was easier to pretend that her mother was also cheering her own, in her own way. She simply nodded and turned to approach the starting line.
"Heh. Your brother may have set us back, but you might as well give up. I'm going to beat you, after all. I'm a Worthington." Jeremy sneered at her, probably as an attempt to intimidate the seven foot tall centipede monstress.
Abby looked at him nonchalantly, offering him only a purse of her lips. "Years ago, when the Scare Games were first founded, a Hardscrabble and a Worthington stood on this very field. My mother wiped the floor with your grandfather. And now, history is about to repeat itself."
Jeremy snarled as he took his starting position along with Abby. "You're not even a Hardscrabble."
"If I'm not a Hardscrabble, you're not a Worthington," she replied coolly. At his disbelief, she smiled. "Know your enemy. Jeremy."
The timer hit zero. Jeremy raced forward on all fours, snarling and growling. Abby's legs made quick work of the distance, and they both glanced over their scare reports. Shutting hers, she entered the room more carefully than her enraged competitor.
While Jeremy crawled over the toys, Abby meticulously maneuvered all of her legs over them. Jeremy's low growls woke the child, while Abby's tapping legs roused hers. They were both cloaked in shadow except for their eyes. Jeremy's were almost red with fury, while Abby's were sharp and intense.
Jeremy leaped forward and gave a deafening roar. His score read 95%.
Arabella gulped. Bonnie, Mike, Sulley, and the rest of HSS looked worried and anxious: Abby would have to pull off an incredible scare to beat him.
Abigail simply watched from the sidelines.
Abby's eyes lit as the child looked around. She waited in the shadows for the perfect moment, when the child would let its guard down but not go back to sleep yet. She clutched at her chest, wishing for the dragon in her to help. Last time, her mother said her roar had too much of a hiss to be of any use, but that was going to change.
Once she saw the perfect moment, she leaped forward. Climbing back on her last eight legs, she held herself aloft as she spread her legs and claws. She roared with all of her might, at the top of her lungs.
Her score registered on the scoreboard.
98%.
Abby wasn't even aware what her score was when she exited. But by the excited smiles on her team's face, the proud one on her Mama's, and chants of "HSS!" from the audience, she could take a good guess who won. She drank in the sight of Jeremy looking devastated.
She turned around to look at the scoreboard. She had scored a record scare. An almost perfect scare at her age was unheard of. The rest of her team tackled her, all shouting compliments at her. Abby reveled in it: she would tell them that they mattered later.
Arabella pranced across the field in her dress, followed by Nate and Bonnie. She gave Abby a hug, but it was soon cut off by Nate lifting his sister in the air. They all kept talking around her, their voices mixing and blending in, and Abby smiled at all of them.
After most of the audience had left and things had winded down, Abby was left with her team and her family. Bonnie was discussing celebration plans with Mike and Sulley, while the team took turns admiring the trophy.
Just as she was passed the trophy, Abby's attention diverted to a screeching noise in the distance. Almost as if she was possessed, she began to follow it. The team didn't think much of her flimsy excuses for air, but Arabella noticed. Tugging on Bonnie's sleeve, she looked up at her. "I think we should follow her."
Bonnie raised a fin in confusion. "Why?"
"She's going to see Mummy."