Chapter 21:

It had been two hours, and Apple White had not returned. Snow White paced the floorboards of the room she was chaperoning, stopping to stare out the door window every now and again. Raven Queen could no longer stand to see Snow this way, so she abandoned her sleeping bag and went up to her.

"Hey," she started, watching as Snow stopped in her tracks. "Would you...would you like me to help look for her?"

Before Snow could respond, Draculaura stepped in. "I'll show you two around the school so you know where you're going. She may have decided to sleep in a different room,"

Snow sighed. "Impossible. I have all her things," she turned to the other girls and announced, "I will be back, girls. For now, I leave Ashlynn Ella in charge,"

"What!?" Ashlynn bolted upright from her sleeping bag. "Me!? Why me!?"

Shortly after Snow left the room with the two girls, Cerise entered the room with Ramona at her side.

"Please?" Cerise begged, gazing at her sister pleadingly.

Ramona rolled her eyes. "For the last time, no. Dad said no, so we should listen to him,"

"Dad's not here!" Cerise protested. "Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"

The sisters glanced over in the direction of the two she wolves laying by the window, and Ramona reluctantly gave in. "Fine. Let's ask,"

Clawdeen leaned on the bookshelf behind her, braiding Howleen's hair into dreadlocks. The scent of two other wolves hit her, and she looked up. "Cerise! There you are! Brocko was looking for you,"

Cerise felt her face heat up. "H-he was?"

"Yeah, maybe you'll see him at breakfast in the morning," Clawdeen's eyes wandered to Ramona, and she tilted her head curiously. "Who's this?"

"I'm Ramona," Ramona reached forward and shook Clawdeen's hand. "I'm Cerise's sister,"

"Oh!" Clawdeen took a moment to study the two girls. "I see the resemblance. You wanna sleep here with us?"

Cerise couldn't stop the smile she felt forming on her face. "We were about to ask that,"

As Cerise and Ramona both laid out their sleeping bags, Howleen asked, "Why do you guys only have fur on your ears?"

"'cause we're hybrids," explained Ramona, brushing through her hair and stretching her legs out. "Mom's a human, Dad's a wolf,"

"But Dad has a human form," Cerise went on, keeping her voice low. It worried her how loudly Ramona was talking, as Cerise had to be secretive about her heritage. "He isn't like you, where it's a combination of human and wolf,"

Clawdeen nodded understandingly. "I get it. So he's a Wulver?"

Ramona raised an eyebrow. "A what?"

"A Wulver," Clawdeen went on, releasing Howleen's hair. "A wolf that can transform. You see, most of the wolves here at Monster High are Werewolves, meaning that we're kind of a mix of both person and wolf. But, a Wulver can shift between the two forms,"

"Huh," Ramona brushed a finger against her own fuzzy ears. "So...we're werewolves, I guess," she turned to her sister. "You hear that, Cerise? We...oh," she noticed that Cerise had fallen asleep already. "Oh, well,"

In the room nearby, the boys were getting ready to sleep as well.

"What is up with this floor?" Hunter wriggled around a bit and grimaced. "It's all lumpy and weird, and-" he jolted in shock. "Ah! Something moved!"

Clawd glanced up from his bag, and he tried to stifle a laugh. "Um, dude? I think you're sitting on Invisibilly,"

Hunter shot up right away, and Billy rolled away and gasped for air. "FINALLY!"

The nearby boys burst into laughter, and Deuce tried his best to wipe at his eyes. "Oh, gods. The things that happen here..."

"Boys?" It was their chaperone, Hatter. "Is everyone here for the night?"

Dexter sat up and thought about it. "Looks like it. No one's missing, right?"

"No- wait!" the realization hit Clawd. "Jackson and Holt aren't here,"

"I see," Hatter remarked, turning to look towards the door. "Maybe-"

Before he could finish, the door swung open suddenly, and a bewildered Jackson stumbled in. There was a pair of flashing, light-up Sketchers on his feet.

"Why am I wearing light-up shoes!?" Jackson demanded to know, quite overwhelmed.

Deuce couldn't help but snicker. "Whoops, sorry, dude. Holt was wearing those earlier. We thought he was gonna take them off,"

Jackson huffed and dropped down, untying his shoes. "Damn it. Where did he even get these?"

"Is it true that you and your brother share a body?" Dexter inquired as he watched Jackson remove the shoes.

"Hmm?" Jackson rooted through his duffle bag and pulled out some clothing. "Yeah, and he does all kinds of crazy things. This isn't even the weirdest thing he's done,"

When Jackson said this, Heath picked his head up and had a thought. He'd been quiet for the past few minutes, but he finally decided to speak. "Jackson," he covered his mouth, trying to contain the smile. "Do you remember when...?"

"When what?" Jackson saw the look on Heath's face, and he had a feeling he knew what he was referring to. "Oh, when Holt dyed the hair on my favorite action figure black with shoe polish and then hid it in Mom's dresser so I wouldn't know?"

Both of them broke into laughter, along with a few others. Daring stared in shock. "He didn't! How old were you!?"

"Seven, I think," Jackson shook his head, still laughing. "My God, that doesn't even compare to-"

As if he knew what Jackson was referring to, Heath cracked up again. "I'll never forget!"

"Holt is so untidy, even when he was a little kid," Jackson began to explain, trying to contain himself. "He used to leave his things on my side of the dresser all the time, and I got so frustrated one day that I took his brand-new X Men figures and tossed them out our window!"

Everyone else laughed and laughed, but Daring and Dexter were both in shock. "Out the window!?" Dexter exclaimed. "He must have really irritated you!"

"Oh, come on!" Clawd gestured towards the Charming boys. "You can't tell us that you guys always have gotten along,"

Daring tried to explain. "Well, you see-"

"Daring," Dexter cut in, a smile spreading across his face. "Do you remember...?"

Daring stopped. "What?"

Dexter covered his mouth and started chuckling. "The autograph book-"

There was a pause, and then Daring gasped in realization. "Of course! How could I forget!?"

As the two brothers started laughing, Heath pushed himself closer to listen. "What happened? Tell us!"

After a moment, Dexter sat up and wiped at his eye. "Before we were in high school, there were these things called autograph books that were all the rage. Basically, you would go around with it to people you knew and get them to sign it, and it was sort of a game to see how many signatures someone could get. Anyway, I saved up all my allowance to buy a really nice one that had a blue cover stamped in gold,"

"I was so jealous," Daring continued. "You see, even though we are royalty, our parents would only gift us a small amount of money each week. Dexter was always very sensible and saved his money, while I had a bad habit of spending my money on the worst things,"

"Like what?" Heath wanted to know, intrigued.

Daring tried to think. "Oh, useless things. Pencils that were square instead of round, dragon breath tablets, potions that turned items of clothing different colors, and I don't even know what else,"

Dexter continued. "The day after I bought my book, I left it on Daring's nightstand so he could sign it,"

"He should never have left me alone with it," Daring chimed in.

"When I went to get it back the next morning, I flipped open the first page, only to see-" Dexter stopped, taking a long breath to stop himself from laughing once more. "He'd written, 'You are salty, buttered, and ready to charge into the mouths of moviegoers' on every single page- in Gryphon's ink! That's the worst kind of ink because It's so runny and it constantly bleeds through paper! Needless to say, he ruined my autograph book,"

The boys who were listening all gasped in surprise and laughed. "Wow!" Clawd leaned his head into his hand, still laughing. "What did you do?"

"I was so angry," Dexter admitted. "I didn't talk to him for a week! But then, Easter came along and our mother bought both of us autograph books, so that was the end of it,"

Easter! Jackson thought. The Fairy Tale people celebrated that holiday?

"See, that's nothing I'm not used to," admitted Clawd, lying flat on his front while propping himself up with his elbows. "Stuff like that happens a lot in my house,"

Daring turned to look at him, interested. "Oh, really? How many siblings do you have?"

Clawd thought about it. "Nine," he answered finally. "Not counting me. Two older brothers, one older sister, two younger sisters, and three younger brothers,"

"Wow!" Dexter gasped. "Ten kids!? That sounds insane!"

"You bet," Clawd responded. "Things do get pretty crazy. Once, my younger brother poured juice all over my laptop, so to get back at him, I coated part of the wood dining room floor in castor oil and called him down for dinner,"

Daring's mouth fell open in shock. "What happened!?"

"He slipped," Clawd explained. "And he crashed right into the glass of our oven door and broke it. He cried, and I had to give my parents my allowance money to pay for the broken glass,"

Deuce looked horrified. "When was that!? How old were you!?"

"Oh, that was a month ago," Clawd answered nonchalantly. He turned to a group of younger boys gathered near the back of the room and called, "Isn't that right, Howldon?"

Clawd's fifteen-year-old brother whirled around, eyes wide. "What did you tell them!?" when Clawd couldn't stop laughing, Howldon stood up and tossed a pillow in his direction. "Answer me!"

"If you throw another pillow at me, I'll tell them about the time you gave yourself a mohawk!" Clawd warned, still laughing. "And I have pictures!"

When Howldon acted like he was going to march on over there, Hatter called out, "Boys, quit fighting and get to sleep!"

Howldon puffed out his chest and acted like he was going to say something, but one his friends snapped, "Sit down!"

The laughter eventually died down, but when it did, something else happened.

"You did what!?" a voice yelled from an isolated corner of the room. "Ipecac syrup? What the hell is wrong with you, Bram!?"

The room went dead. Deuce's head snapped in the direction of the yelling, as did Clawd's. In the corner, Valentine was standing up and glaring daggers down at Bram, who honestly looked quite shocked.

"I was trying to help you!" Bram attempted to justify after a few seconds, but Valentine was having none of it.

"By making someone sick!? I don't think so, you trick-ass bitch!"

Hatter looked up from the tea he was drinking, looking irritated. "Language!"

It was then that Clawd remembered what happened with his cup of punch, and what happened to Heath, and he put two and two together.

"Bram," Clawd started, his brow furrowing. "Did you try to slip me Ipecac?"

Bram went silent, trying to think of a proper response. "W-well, that's what happens when you pick on vampires who don't deserve it!" he answered finally, crossing his arms.

"Yeah!?" Clawd's rage started to boil over. "Well, I didn't get affected by it! Heath did!"

Heath jumped in alarm, and then slowly sank into his sleeping bag, pulling a pillow over his face. Bram looked at him in surprise.

"Really!? But...how!?"

"He picked up my drink by mistake," Clawd showed his canines threateningly. "Do you even know what you did!?"

Bram stood up and pushed past Valentine, sneering down at Clawd. "Pity! I would never intentionally embarrass Heath. He does a good job of doing that himself!"

"That's enough!" Hatter cut in when Heath's flames burst and he started to get up. "You- sit down! And you," he turned his attention to Bram. "Stay right there and I will contact your parents! I'm sure they'll be very disappointed to learn that-"

"I DON'T HAVE PARENTS!" screamed Bram, swinging and punching Hatter in the shoulder, hard.

Hatter stumbled backward, and when Bram hissed and bared his teeth, Hatter reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small revolver, pressing it against Bram's cheek.

"Don't move," Hatter warned, his voice suddenly low and filled with rage.

Everything seemed to stop. Everyone stared at Hatter, all wondering if he would actually shoot Bram.

After a moment of stunned silence, Bram slowly put his hands up and took a step back. Hatter grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him back down on his sleeping bag.

"I've never had to threaten anyone like that in my life," Hatter spoke slowly, but articulately. "Lucky for you, I took my medication earlier, but I am still not afraid to do what I have to do," he leaned into Bram's face, whispering, "Please, for your own good, do not anger me again,"

He turned away briskly on his heel and slipped his revolver back into his pocket, sitting back down at the desk and re-opening his book. The silence continued, and everyone mutually agreed that it was time to go to sleep.

Hi! Yes, I've finally updated after more than a week. How long has it been? Ten days? Sorry about that!

I recently returned from my trip to Ireland! It was wonderful- I visited Dublin, Cork, and Killarney. It's a beautiful country!

But, yeah, now that I am back, I will be updating more frequently. I am going to community college on September 5th, but I only have classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so you'll be seeing a lot of me!