Clawdeen snorted awake, blinking, just as she felt something sharp zing against the back of one ear. She turned, glaring at Toralei and her lackeys, who giggled and pretended to ignore her.
"Gross." She'd dozed off and drooled all over one corner of her notebook. Clawdeen shoved it aside, flopping herself down atop her desk. Usually Home Ick kept her interested, but today Mrs Kindergrubber was just talking about the architecture of gingerbread houses, and she could hardly keep her eyes open.
"Attention! Attention." Cupid's voice rang out through the loudspeaker. "All students must report to the clawditorium immediately for an emergency meeting!"
"What?" said Kindergrubber, frowning. She waved her hands as students began to get up, gathering their books and backpacks. "Wait! That's not the Headmistress.. It could be a trick!"
"Oh, come on," said Clawdeen, rolling her eyes as she pulled herself together. "You're so Old World."
"Stop!" Kindergrubber tried, then, "Well.. don't eat anything they offer you!"
Clawdeen hustled through the doorway, merging into the sparse stream of students through the hall. She darted through traffic. The usual cluster of students around Gorey Fangtell's locker didn't exist, clearing up a four-yard stretch of hallway, creating a bottleneck at the intersection. She saw no zombies.
"Man, this place is becoming a ghost town," Clawdeen said, separating herself from the trickle of students and hurrying up a narrow staircase. Jogging past the sound & lighting booth on her way to the seats in the back row, she caught a familiar odor. She leaned into the open doorway. "Ghoulia? What are you doing?"
"Uuugggghh," said Ghoulia, grinning, and pointed down at the stage. A huge white screen covered the curtain. In the space between the stage and the seats, someone moved from one machine to another. Clawdeen spotted his reflection in a laptop screen as Ghoulia lowered the house lights and the room went hush.
Ghoulia turned to her laptop, typing. The white screen showed a brief image of a desktop background, then the notification of a new incoming call. Deuce stood back, half-closing the lid of the laptop, and Cleo's image burst onto the screen.
A murmur rippled through the gathered crowd.
She took a moment to compose herself, adjusting her already perfect hair and the neckline of her top. "Yes, hello. Good morning. Cleo de Nile here, but you already knew that." She paused, distracted by noise off-screen, and adjusted the camera's angle. "I'm afraid I'll have to make this quick. I've heard, through my loyal sources, that normie police officers are coming into our school, threatening our students, and actually arresting some of us. I ask you, what proof do they have? Have they given any reason for these heinous acts? More importantly, are we going to allow it?"
"Hell no," Venus shouted from her seat, and several other students cheered in agreement.
"The Headmistress might prefer that we 'go along' with this fascist regime. Certainly, from a political point of view, it makes things easier. But this is not a simple disagreement. This is political persecution of our kind. Why make it easy for them to destroy us? There is a list of names, a list of students who are expected to turn themselves in to the New Salem Police Department of their own free will. The list is held by the New Salem PD and, most likely, our own Headmistress. If your name is on the list, do not go quietly. You must fight! Do not allow these normies to think they can kill us so easily!"
A ragged cheer went up in the audience, and Deuce lifted the lid of his laptop, typing.
"A second murder took place over the weekend," Cleo said, squinting to read Deuce's message, her heavy brows knit together. She sat back, frowning, hands folded in her lap. "If you know or suspect any of your fellow students, please confront them first before going to the Headmistress. Obviously she's leading with her head rather than her heart in this matter, or she would be considering how these arrests affect us, as a group."
She shifted in her chair, crossing one leg over the other, and examined her nails for a moment. "This is only the beginning. The arrests are the first phase. New Salem will choose a victim, and they will try to exact a sacrifice. This is unacceptable!"
"Wait a sec." Lagoona rose from her seat, frowning. "Do you think the murderer is actually here, in Monster High? Or do you think.."
"New Salem is just looking for a scapegoat," Venus said, finishing her thought. They looked at the screen, where Cleo sat, squinting.
"Who is that? Lagoona? And McFlytrap. Of course." She sat back, looking bored. "I believe New Salem is intent on finding someone guilty. It's irrelevant whether or not the murderer is among us; it is imperative that we protect our own, and try to uncover the truth without normie interference."
"That's vigilantism!" Lagoona said, while Venus fist-pumped the air with glee.
"No, that's taking responsibility for our own kind. Or would you rather they pick the victim? Do you think you'll escape their notice in the pool, Lagoona?"
"Now, now, ladies. Let's not make it personal. We must come together. We are all monsters here, andwe will protect our own." Cleo sighed. "I'm being told I have to wrap this up. While you are busy defending your school on the front lines - and believe me, I wish I could be there with you - I'll be busy gathering reinforcements for the battle that will inevitably result. New Salem is threatened by us. Show them they have every reason to be afraid. Stand together, and refuse them!"
Ghoulia cut the lights. The screen and the room went black, and Clawdeen stepped back as the room filled with the shouts of excited students. Deuce smiled, giving Cleo a thumbs-up in the light of his laptop monitor. The lights came back on, and she looked out over the crowd, bothered.
"No.. There's going to be a riot," she said, and Ghoulia cocked an eyebrow, smirking.
"Uuuuhhh?"
"I know she said 'defend the school, defend your classmates', but I think what some folks heard.." Clawdeen pointed to the front few rows, where Venus, Lagoona, and several hangers-on were engaged in a tense debate. "What some folks heard was 'bring the fight to the normies'."
Ghoulia dismissed the thought with a grunt and a wave, shutting down her laptop and closing down the lighting booth.
"You don't really think she's going to show up, do you?" Clawdeen followed Ghoulia out through the clawditorium and into the cafeteria. "Isn't she locked up at home with her dad?"
Ghoulia nodded, and they slid into a table. "Rraaauuugghhh," she said, setting her laptop aside.
Clawdeen shook her head, watching other students filter out of the clawditorium. The tension in the cafeteria felt thick; she caught the scent of anger and aggression in the air, and the fur on her neck rose. "I wish I shared your faith in Cleo, but I think maybe this was the worst possible thing she could have done."