Raven Queen knew the second she'd finished casting the spell that she'd done it wrong. She knew that when they stopped falling through colour and sound that they would be in Wonderland. When they landed, Raven sat up and looked around, trying to guess where they were from her geography knowledge. The purple building in front of her was not a place she recognised. Raven almost thought it looked like a school.
The daughter of the evil queen lifted a hand to brush her hair out of her face. Her skin was green. Raven froze in shock.
Whilst she sat frozen Raven saw the main door of the building open and several rather unusual girls step out. They seemed to be looking at Raven and her friends. They were all wearing cheerhexer uniforms, Raven noticed, just as they group called out for Cupid. Raven turned slightly and noticed a girl amongst the Ever After High students who must have been Cupid. But this Cupid looked very different to the one she'd known at Ever After High.
Watching Cupid reunite with these other girls, something occurred to Raven. Cupid hadn't always been a student at Ever After High; she had transferred part way through the year. Perhaps this was her old school. The school Raven could never get her to talk about.
Movement in the corner of her eye caught Raven's attention and she shifted slightly. A girl, whose wolfish features were as obvious as they were on the girl who had reached Cupid first, was standing up and looking around in confusion. At first Raven assumed it was Ramona Badwolf. Then she noticed all the red in her outfit. It was Cerise. Cerise Hood stood there without her customary red hood and cloak to cover the fact that her father was the Big Bad Wolf.
Raven saw Cerise look down, then attempt to pull her cloak back over her ears. The daughter of Red Riding Hood panicked when she realised it wasn't there. Another wolf girl, this one clearly Ramona, stood up next to Cerise. Raven noted in some amusement that the twins were almost identically dressed, though Cerise's outfit had more red in it and Ramona's had more navy.
"Where are we? What happened? This doesn't look like Wonderland." Cerise's voice drifted over to Raven. The wolf girl hugging Cupid turned and grinned.
"Welcome to Monster High!" she declared.
Monster High, mused Raven. This is a school for monsters. Raven knew quite a lot about monsters, being the daughter of the Evil Queen and all. Technically, as a witch, she was classed as a monster. Back in Ever After, Raven had never considered that the Big Bad Wolf and his daughters were werewolves. Here in the monster world it seemed obvious.
Raven watched as the unknown wolf girl walked over to Cerise and Ramona.
"I'm Clawdeen Wolf," she introduced herself.
"I'm Ramona Badwolf, this is Cerise Hood."
"Clawsome, come meet the rest of the pack." Clawdeen led Cerise and Ramona away into the interior of the school.
Raven finally found her feet. Cupid smiled at her.
"Raven, Come meet the ghouls." Smiling at Cupid's obvious happiness to be there, Raven walked over to her friend and the others. "Raven Queen allow me to introduce Cleo de Nile…" A girl wrapped in bandages stuck her hand out for Raven to shake. "… Frankie Stein…" This girl seemed to have been sewn together. Raven had never heard of a monster like that before. "… Draculaura…" The smallest of the ghouls gave a fanged smile. Vampire, Raven guessed. "…And this is Ghoulia." The grey skinned girl let out a series of groans.
"She says it's nice to meet you," translated Cleo de Nile. "Don't worry; you'll pick up Zombie easily enough."
That was when Raven realised most of her friends were still lying on the ground behind her. Most of them seemed to be out cold. Ghoulia moaned again.
"She says shall we try to wake them up?" It was Frankie Stein who translated this time. Raven nodded. She was beginning to feel rather out of her depth and hoped that having her friends around would help her cope with this strange monster world.
Ramona and Cerise followed Clawdeen down several corridors. Finally she opened a door and stepped into the room.
"Howleen," she called out. "Get out here. New wolves visiting the pack." A slightly younger wolf jumped down from the top of a bunk bed that lent against the wall. This younger wolf let out a howl before walking over and shaking hands with the Badwolf-Hood twins as Clawdeen introduced them.
"I have a question," said a voice from the bottom bunk. A girl appeared from the shadows as if she had been part of them. "If the two of you are twins, why do you have different last names?"
"Who said anything about us being twins?" snapped Ramona in her best impression of their dad.
"If you're not twins why are you dressed so similarly?"
Ramona and Cerise looked at each other realising they had no way out of this one.
"It's rather a long story," Cerise began.
Apple White woke up confused. Why was she lying on the ground instead of in her bed? What could have happened last night? Raven's voice asked if Apple was okay. Everything came flooding back; the conversation in the Castle-teria, the spell, a look of panic on Raven's face, a feeling of falling. Slowly Apple let her eyes flutter open. A green skinned face was looking down at her. A scream escaped Apple's lips and the other girl backed away looking alarmed. Apple sat up and looked the other girl over carefully.
"Raven?" she questioned hesitantly. Relief washed over the green-skinned girl's face. "What happened?"
"I'm not entirely sure but it seems we've ended up at Cupid's old school, Monster High, instead of in Wonderland."
"Monster High?" Apple confirmed shed heard correctly.
"Yeah," Raven stretched out. "Apparently all witches have green skin here." Raven grimaced. Apple remembered a conversation they'd once had. They had just met the daughter of Glinda the Good Witch of Oz, who was a school year below them. The girl had told them about her mother's story and the other witch whose skin was green. Raven had declared to Apple that she was glad her skin wasn't green as it would clash terribly with her purple.
Apple noticed that Raven wasn't in the purple based outfit she'd had on earlier that day. Instead she wore silver jeans with silver top. Black spiky heeled boots came up to Raven's knees. A black jacket completed the look. The only purple in Raven's outfit was the gemstones in her eyes and round her neck. Apple thought her friend looked wicked fierce.
Wondering if her own outfit had changed, Apple looked down at herself. It had. Her skirt was gold, shorter and less flouncy than the one she had been wearing earlier. She also appeared to be wearing a white shirt with a red sleeveless jacket over it. When Apple looked up again she realised her outfit was similar in style to the one the black and pink haired girl was wearing.
An unexpected feeling of contentment washed over Apple. She turned to Raven and gave her friend a grin. Raven's eyes widened.
"Um, Apple. You, uh, kinda, sorta, have fangs!"
Lizzie Hearts sat up looking around in hope. Had Raven done it?
A large purple building blocked the skyline. Lizzie had never seen it before. Clearly, this was not Wonderland.
Disappointed Lizzie looked down again. That was when she noticed what she was wearing. Lizzie had never worn trousers before, but now seemed to be in black jeans with red hearts embroidered all over them. Her red shoes had no heel on them. She wore a plain red t-shirt with a jacket made from black leather. Taking the jacket off, Lizzie noticed the heart design on the black.
A sudden cold breeze had Lizzie replacing the jacket. In front of Lizzie stood a girl with blue skin and white hair that had blue, purple and pink streaks in it. Lizzie's first thought was that Poppy would love to get her hands on that girl's hair. Shaking her head to rid it of distractions, Lizzie turned to the unusual looking girl.
"Where are we?" she questioned her.
Before the other could answer her question, Lizzie found that all she could see was black hair and green skin, as somebody squeezed the life out of her in a hug.
"Lizzie I am so so sorry." That was Raven's voice, coming from the green skinned person hugging her.
"Raven, why are you green?"
"Well apparently I took us to the Monster World instead of Wonderland and witches have green skin here."
"how peculiar," commented Lizzie.
"It gets weirder," Raven warned her. Apple White stepped up next to Raven and smiled a rather fangy smile.
"Apple seems to be a vampire!"