CHAPTER NINE
Trish sat in her bedroom smelling the delectable scents of Thanksgiving dinner in the making. Thanksgiving, for some reason, was one of her favorite holidays. But suddenly, amidst the visions of turkey and cranberry dancing in her head, a vision of Randall popped up. She couldn't help but think that Randall must be miserable at this particular moment, smelling all this food from his kennel next to the kitchen and being forbidden to eat any of it. She stood up and went downstairs to see her eight-legged lizard friend.
"Hey, Reptile-Dude," she said as she entered the room where his kennel was. The kennel, located on the ground floor next to the pantry, was basically a wire fence pen, half of it inside the house and the other half extending outside to the yard. In the cooler months, Randall had taken to staying in the inside portion due to his being cold-blooded. He saw her come in, but did not greet her in return. He was shivering.
"Are you OK?" Trish asked, concerned. "You look like you just came out of Siberia."
"I fff-feel like it," he stuttered, teeth chattering. "It's 52 degrees in here!"
Trish looked at the room's thermostat. Sure enough, it was 52 degrees Fahrenheit in the room. She turned the setting up. "How'd you know? You got the temp right to the degree."
"L-lucky guess," he answered, still freezing his now-ice-blue tail off.
"It'll warm up in a minute," she told him. "You can go back to normal color now, you know."
"Too bad, I feel like being ice blue at the moment." he said. His shivering had already abated. "Jeez, I'm starving. I wish I could have dinner with you. I'm sick of kibble."
"I bet," Trish agreed. "You know what? We always have tons of leftovers at Thanksgiving. I'll sneak you some, okay?"
"Thanks! I haven't had any real food since the moldy, leftover pizza the gator catcher slipped me," he said appreciatively.
Trish reached over the kennel's fence and stroked Randall's fronds. He took her hand and rubbed it against his cheek.
"I'm glad you're friends with me," he said, meaning it. But at the same time wondering what on Earth had come over him.
Trish just smiled in response. "I'll see you later, Randall," she said, and headed outside.
*********************************************************************** ******* Sulley, Mike, Boo, Jade, and Iris were seated outside at a patio table in the mansion's back yard. The morning was brisk at 52 degrees (like Randall said, but they were all warm blooded and didn't mind too much), with scattered wispy clouds and a light breeze in the trees. The smell of food carried to them, tantalizing their senses.
"That food smells soooo good!" Mike said. "I'm drooling."
"That's nice, Mike," Sulley said sarcastically.
Mike simply rolled his eye. "You're probably drooling too, pal. Under that mask, no one can see it. Hey, what're we having, anyway? Do you think they're serving Tentacles A L'Orange?"
"Turkey with bread dressing, cranberry sauce, corn pudding-," Jade began, but was cut off by her mother.
"Acorn squash, homemade rolls-," Iris said dreamily.
"And sweet 'tatoes and pum'kin pie!" Boo cut in, excited.
Mike and Sulley had blank expressions (at least, Mike did; everyone figured Sull had one on under his mask). "I guess it would sound good if we knew what any of that was," Sulley said to Mike. The green sphere covered in pink merely nodded, for once without any response.
Sulley sat up straight and poked Mike. "By the way, buddy, what was that show you were watching this morning with those little, fat colored guys with grey squares in their stomachs?"
"Somthin' called Teletubbies," Mike responded.
"Teletubbies?!" Jade exclaimed. "Teletubbies are evil!"
"I thought it was kinda cute," Mike told her.
"Ew!" Boo said.
"See?" Jade said. "That show's meant for kids her age, and even she doesn't like them!"
"Sor-ry," Mike retorted. "I just can't help it if it reminded me of the shows I watched when I was little."
"You watched stuff like that?" Sulley asked his best friend, surprised.
Just after that moment, Trish meandered out to the patio. "Hiya, guys. Little nippy today, isn't it?" she said.
No one responded; they simply stared at her, though each for a different reason. Sulley didn't want to blow his cover by saying he was quite warm; Mike had been about to make a smart-aleck response but decided that he might offend Trish and get himself thrown out; Iris, Jade, and Boo were startled by how nice she was being and were rendered speechless.
Trish, however, misinterpreted their silence and thought they had found out about her relationship with Randall and were shunning her for it. "I can explain!" she blurted. "I found RandallonenightlookingatDad'scarandstartedtalkingtohimandnowwe'rereally closefriends!" She spilled her story, leaving her audience stunned and herself panting.
"You're friends with Randall?!" Mike exclaimed. "Don't you know what he tried to do?!"
"Yes! He told me the whole story. His boss asked him to engineer something to fix your energy crisis. He made a machine called a Scream Extractor and tried to kidnap a little girl to test it, but she got loose and somehow you two wound up with her. You tried to get her home and he tried to stop you, and you threw him into the gator-catcher's trailer in the Everglades," she explained what she knew. "He feels really bad about it now. Please, he's not the same guy you knew. Forgive him, please." Trish got tears in her eyes.
"Guess who he tried to kidnap, Trish," Jade said.
Trish thought a second, and then burst out laughing. "Mary. He-he tried to take Mary." She apparently thought this was absolutely hilarious. "No wonder he had such a hard time!"
"Huh?" Sulley asked, puzzled.
"She is going to be the next Houdini," explained Jade. "She is quite an escape artist and can sneak about so quickly that it seems she is teleporting. It's a rare person that can accomplish the level she has, and she's only 3 years old!"
"You're kidding," Mike said, not believing.
"I'm not," Jade responded. "It's a talent that usually makes her really tired. You must have interested her enough to keep her awake all that time she was in your care."
"This furry thing and his one-eyed spherical pal not interest her? They're so odd they've been quite a challenge to disguise." Iris commented.
"It's a good thing Dad doesn't think that anything unusual ever happens to him at home. Otherwise, you two oddballs would be screwed," Trish said. "Those costumes wouldn't convince him otherwise."
" 'Spose so," Sulley said. "It's remarkable Boo's disguise fooled anyone at the company."
Mike snorted. "I'm shocked that you'd even admit it."
A bell rang. "FOOD!" Jade and Trish exclaimed simultaneously. Every being scrambled to be first inside, eager to sample the year's Thanksgiving delights, even if the tentacles were omitted.
*********************************************************************** ** Clarissa stood in front of the camera in the Monster's, Inc. building for the second day in a row. A bunch of monsters, some of whom were named George Sanderson, Fungus, Celia Mae, and Thaddeus Bile (who went by "Phlegm"), had carefully put all the pieces of the shattered door back together for the second time, only to find twenty pieces or so were missing.
"Oh no!" a greenish slug-like teenage monster with braces named Smitty exclaimed despairingly. "Some pieces are disappeared!"
A yellow squash-shaped monster named Needleman smacked Smitty on the back of the head. "You idiot! They're lost, not 'disappeared'!"
Clarissa rolled her aquamarine eyes. She considered every last one of them a moron in the extreme. The sooner Sullivan and Wazowski returned, however, the sooner she could set her plan into action. In the meantime, she'd have to put up with these paramount lamebrains.
Into the room strode a female, two-legged monster covered in almost- black purple fur and wearing the white coat of a door-synthesis technician. She had about her a business-like air. Clarissa disliked her instantly.
"Pardon me," the purple monster said politely, looking past her dragon- like nose at the group on the floor. "I'm Michelle Price from the door synthesis department. I think that, if you could spare a piece, I could make a new copy of that door." She brushed back some blonde hair from the section of long, paler fur on top of her head and tried to put it behind her fox-like tufted ears, waiting for an answer.
The three-eyed, backward-kneed, burgundy monster dubbed Fungus pushed up his square glasses and said, "Let's see. We're missing a few pieces anyway, and this obviously isn't working, yeah, I think we should try it."
The other monsters that were helping him nodded in agreement. The blue creature with purple tentacles that went by Phlegm picked up a fragment of the door, coincidentally the one Sulley had saved from when the door had originally been shredded, and handed it to Michelle.
"Thank you," Michelle said, as she turned on heel and left, her long, tufted tail swishing behind her and leaving purple and blue sparklies in its wake.
Clarissa watched her leave, resisting the urge to trip Michelle by pulling on the camera cables strewn about the floor. Why Clarissa disliked kindly monsters like Michelle, not even her mother knew. All Clarissa know was that she had to be the top dog at whatever she was doing. However, yakking in front of a camera all day brought her no satisfaction in this department. She had a few ideas to mold her present situation to get herself some real power.
Apparently, her brother, Randall, had set up a secret lab in the factory. She pulled Randall's former assistant, Fungus, aside.
"Listen, Fungus, I've got a plan. But I need to know where my brother's little lab is. And you're going to tell me."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Fungus whimpered.
"Uh-huh. Sure." Clarissa stated sarcastically, the way her brother had a habit of doing. Strangely this scared the unfortunate Fungus into complying.
"Okay! I'll show you. But not while anyone is around."
"Excellent! Meet me here at quarter after midnight." Clarissa the Cheater instructed, chuckling evilly at her success. *********************************************************************** *** Sulley and Mike, Mary and Jade, Iris, Gill, Gill's wife Rose, and Trish sat down in the dining room, ready to eat the aromatic food beautifully displayed at the table. Almost ready to eat...
"I think we should have one of our guests say grace," Rose Bates suggested.
"I think Mike should say it," Trish suggested to her mother.
"Okay!" Mike said. He sat up straight, folded his hand, and cleared his throat. Then he hollered "GRACE!" loud enough to wake the dead and shoveled some turkey onto his plate with fervor.
Gill glared at Mike, turning red with offended fury. His wife Rose looked like she was watching a monster commit murder (in a way, she was- she didn't know Mike really was a monster. And it did look like he was committing murder, the way he was tearing the poor turkey to shreds). Trish was laughing silently, along with all the others at the table.
"Randall would've enjoyed that," Trish said to no one in particular.
Gill turned his glare to Trish. "Who's Randall?" He asked her.
Uh-oh. This could be bad, she thought "Um.," She began to think quickly. Hmm. Trish, being a college architecture student, came up with a reply. "He's in my computer blueprinting class," She said mendaciously, rather pleased with herself.
"Is this Randall fellow your boyfriend?" Gill asked, wanting to keep track of his daughter.
"No," Trish answered, a little too shyly. It made her sound guilty.
"You tell this Randall that if I catch him anywhere near here I'll set my alligator Stinky on him," Gill reprimanded warningly, wagging his fork at her.
Trish forgot her lie and snorted at her father's comment. "I don't see how you can set him on himself," she said, and stopped herself from saying any more by literally biting her tongue, hoping nobody caught her mistake. Unfortunately, they all did, and were staring back at her.
"Repeat that please?" Gill interrogated, leaning closer to Trish threateningly. "What - did - you- say???"
"Nothing," she answered quickly.
"I believe you did." Gill said, looking Trish in the eye. "Follow me to the kennel." He beckoned to his daughter and stood up. Trish followed meekly, the rest of the group trailing after her worriedly.
The group entered the kennel to see Randall inside with a book open in his hands. If Trish hadn't already screwed up, he would have been busted anyhow for being caught reading To Kill A Mockingbird. He was so absorbed in Scout Finch's adventures that he didn't notice the congregation make their entrance.
Gill saw the book and grabbed it out of Randall hands. When Randall looked up at him, Gill grabbed his fronds and pulled him to his feet.
"Ouch," Randall muttered, rubbing his fronds gently when Gill let go. Then he saw his audience for the first time, and guessed that his cat was out of the proverbial bag. He looked at the face of his beloved Trish and knew who told on him.
Trish looked back at him and got tears in her eyes. "Randall, I'm sorry. It- I just slipped." She was sobbing. It nearly broke Randall's heart to see her so upset.
"Have you been having an affair with my daughter?" Gill asked forcefully, getting Randall's attention. The absurdity of this questions caused Sulley and Mike to snicker before it turned into loud gaffaws.
"N- no! We're friends. Just friends. I think," he said, and looked at Trish. "I do have very strong feelings for Trish, I must admit, but I never acted on them because I was afraid I would loose her friendship. Sir, she's the only friend I've got, and really the only true friend I've ever had." Randall walked up to Trish and took her hands in his uppermost pair. "I love you, Trish. I really, truly love you."
Poor Randall. There he was, pouring his heart out, and Trish spooked. She pulled her hands from his grasp and backed away, shaking her head.
"Trish," Randall called quietly, desperately. He reached out to her, but she turned around and pushed her way past Sully and Iris, running away in tears.
Randall's vision blurred with sudden, painful tears. He really couldn't help it. It was the first time he had ever experienced heartbreak. It wasn't pleasant. It felt as though his heart was being minced by an herb knife and squashed by a garlic press before being thrown into the soup. All the room's occupants were staring at him.
"What're you looking at?!" he hollered. "I already feel awful. I don't need you making me feel worse!" with that, turned a sickly ash grey and slumped to the floor in a tangled, pallid lump. He sobbed with no way of stopping himself. The assembly slowly trickled away, until the only ones left were Sulley and Mike.
Mike's romantic experiences with his girlfriend Celia helped him to understand Randall's feelings. "Hey, Randall," the one-eyed orb called.
"What do you want, Wazowski?" the depressed reptile said curtly.
"Look, Randall, I know what you're going through, and it isn't easy," Mike said. "But you've got to stick it out, and get on with your life. Heck, she may even come around, once she gets over being upset and sees past her own surprise."
"What d'you mean?"
"Sometimes when you say The Three Words for the first time, a girl'll spook, 'specially if no one's said it to her before. You know, they don't know how to take it. Besides, she was reeling from her dad's mortification."
"But did she have to look at me like that? Like I was vermin?"
"Coulda been worse."
"Oh really?"
"Sure. When I first told Celia I loved her, she hit me with her purse."
Randall snorted. He thought that was kind of funny, when he pictured the snake-haired receptionist beating the green creature with a handbag, especially since Celia was taller than Mike by about two-and- a-half feet.
"And Celia looked at me like I'd just bitten her. Her snakes too. You know, they hissed and rattled at me, they were so mad."
Mike's humor was getting to Randall. The lizard was back to his normal color and smiling.
Sulley was smiling too. "So that's what you meant when you said 'women! Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.' You know, Randall, he came to work the next day with these huge teal bruises the size of large toads all over his body. I teased him the whole day."
Randall was laughing now. "I don't know why I hated you, Sullivan. You're a witty guy. Maybe you're winning streak reminded me of my sister."
"You have a sister?" Sulley asked, surprised.
"Twin sister, actually. Named Clarissa. She and I were really competitive growing up. We competed for grades, and entered every competition we could. Early on, Clarissa beat me easily. I worked my tail off to best her. By the fifth grade, I began to beat her at home and in lower levels of competition. She didn't like it. She was as good as she was going to get, though, so she resorted to cheating. She wrote her toughest words on her hands at the spelling bee, hid a map under her chair in the geography bee, weighted my racquet in the school tennis match, and pulled tons of other tricks to make sure she won." Randall complained
"The worst blow, though, was the dancing competition. I had signed up in a different region from Clarissa so I wouldn't have to deal with her. We didn't compete in the same contest until we both made the nationals."
"You were in a national dancing competition?!" Mike exclaimed, startled.
"Yep. National Junior Dance Competition. We were seniors in high school then. When I got there, I had a winning dance set to a swing jazz song called "In the Mood". Everyone else had disco."
Mike interrupted again. "What difference would it make if you had a different kind of music?"
Randall, a little irked by Mike's interruptions, explained. "The judges would be sick of disco and therefore would like mine better, and I'd stand out. Besides, this one jazz song really let me show off my dancing and choreography skills. Clarissa knew I had her beat. Dumb girl picked "Dancing Queen", not only a disco song but also a popular disco song, a song that five other competitors used. I practiced my dance for five hours before my turn, and decided to take a break and get some food. Clarissa took the opportunity and switched my disc for hers, so I had "Dancing Queen" and she had "In the Mood". I had only seven minutes before I was up. I knew Clarissa had taken it but I had to make due with what I had. I did my best, but only achieved second place. Clarissa received first place, using my song. She flaunted it in my face for years. When I made scarer at the company, she finally shut up. She's a news reporter on Channel Seven now."
Sulley looked at his old rival with newfound respect. "You had to put up with a cheater for a sister for all those years?" he said. "No wonder you despised me. I barely tried to be a top scarer and nearly broke the scare record. You probably assumed I cheated, like your sister."
Randall nodded. "When the little girl got through, Wazowski claimed I had been cheating. I nearly killed him."
"Call me Mike," the cycloptic creature said.
"And call me Sulley," The huge fuzzball instructed.
"You- you want me to be your friend?" Randall asked, barely believing it.
"You've changed, you loco lizard," Mike said, slugging the eight- legged thing in the arm. "Besides, we could use some advice on the local little kids so we can get home. I mean, there's got to be at least one kid in this neighborhood with a monster in its closet."
"How about I do a little sneaking about and find out?" the lizard inquired slyly.
"Okay," the pair of lifelong friend responded simultaneously.
"Meet you back here at midnight."
And chaos would soon be set in motion.
Trish sat in her bedroom smelling the delectable scents of Thanksgiving dinner in the making. Thanksgiving, for some reason, was one of her favorite holidays. But suddenly, amidst the visions of turkey and cranberry dancing in her head, a vision of Randall popped up. She couldn't help but think that Randall must be miserable at this particular moment, smelling all this food from his kennel next to the kitchen and being forbidden to eat any of it. She stood up and went downstairs to see her eight-legged lizard friend.
"Hey, Reptile-Dude," she said as she entered the room where his kennel was. The kennel, located on the ground floor next to the pantry, was basically a wire fence pen, half of it inside the house and the other half extending outside to the yard. In the cooler months, Randall had taken to staying in the inside portion due to his being cold-blooded. He saw her come in, but did not greet her in return. He was shivering.
"Are you OK?" Trish asked, concerned. "You look like you just came out of Siberia."
"I fff-feel like it," he stuttered, teeth chattering. "It's 52 degrees in here!"
Trish looked at the room's thermostat. Sure enough, it was 52 degrees Fahrenheit in the room. She turned the setting up. "How'd you know? You got the temp right to the degree."
"L-lucky guess," he answered, still freezing his now-ice-blue tail off.
"It'll warm up in a minute," she told him. "You can go back to normal color now, you know."
"Too bad, I feel like being ice blue at the moment." he said. His shivering had already abated. "Jeez, I'm starving. I wish I could have dinner with you. I'm sick of kibble."
"I bet," Trish agreed. "You know what? We always have tons of leftovers at Thanksgiving. I'll sneak you some, okay?"
"Thanks! I haven't had any real food since the moldy, leftover pizza the gator catcher slipped me," he said appreciatively.
Trish reached over the kennel's fence and stroked Randall's fronds. He took her hand and rubbed it against his cheek.
"I'm glad you're friends with me," he said, meaning it. But at the same time wondering what on Earth had come over him.
Trish just smiled in response. "I'll see you later, Randall," she said, and headed outside.
*********************************************************************** ******* Sulley, Mike, Boo, Jade, and Iris were seated outside at a patio table in the mansion's back yard. The morning was brisk at 52 degrees (like Randall said, but they were all warm blooded and didn't mind too much), with scattered wispy clouds and a light breeze in the trees. The smell of food carried to them, tantalizing their senses.
"That food smells soooo good!" Mike said. "I'm drooling."
"That's nice, Mike," Sulley said sarcastically.
Mike simply rolled his eye. "You're probably drooling too, pal. Under that mask, no one can see it. Hey, what're we having, anyway? Do you think they're serving Tentacles A L'Orange?"
"Turkey with bread dressing, cranberry sauce, corn pudding-," Jade began, but was cut off by her mother.
"Acorn squash, homemade rolls-," Iris said dreamily.
"And sweet 'tatoes and pum'kin pie!" Boo cut in, excited.
Mike and Sulley had blank expressions (at least, Mike did; everyone figured Sull had one on under his mask). "I guess it would sound good if we knew what any of that was," Sulley said to Mike. The green sphere covered in pink merely nodded, for once without any response.
Sulley sat up straight and poked Mike. "By the way, buddy, what was that show you were watching this morning with those little, fat colored guys with grey squares in their stomachs?"
"Somthin' called Teletubbies," Mike responded.
"Teletubbies?!" Jade exclaimed. "Teletubbies are evil!"
"I thought it was kinda cute," Mike told her.
"Ew!" Boo said.
"See?" Jade said. "That show's meant for kids her age, and even she doesn't like them!"
"Sor-ry," Mike retorted. "I just can't help it if it reminded me of the shows I watched when I was little."
"You watched stuff like that?" Sulley asked his best friend, surprised.
Just after that moment, Trish meandered out to the patio. "Hiya, guys. Little nippy today, isn't it?" she said.
No one responded; they simply stared at her, though each for a different reason. Sulley didn't want to blow his cover by saying he was quite warm; Mike had been about to make a smart-aleck response but decided that he might offend Trish and get himself thrown out; Iris, Jade, and Boo were startled by how nice she was being and were rendered speechless.
Trish, however, misinterpreted their silence and thought they had found out about her relationship with Randall and were shunning her for it. "I can explain!" she blurted. "I found RandallonenightlookingatDad'scarandstartedtalkingtohimandnowwe'rereally closefriends!" She spilled her story, leaving her audience stunned and herself panting.
"You're friends with Randall?!" Mike exclaimed. "Don't you know what he tried to do?!"
"Yes! He told me the whole story. His boss asked him to engineer something to fix your energy crisis. He made a machine called a Scream Extractor and tried to kidnap a little girl to test it, but she got loose and somehow you two wound up with her. You tried to get her home and he tried to stop you, and you threw him into the gator-catcher's trailer in the Everglades," she explained what she knew. "He feels really bad about it now. Please, he's not the same guy you knew. Forgive him, please." Trish got tears in her eyes.
"Guess who he tried to kidnap, Trish," Jade said.
Trish thought a second, and then burst out laughing. "Mary. He-he tried to take Mary." She apparently thought this was absolutely hilarious. "No wonder he had such a hard time!"
"Huh?" Sulley asked, puzzled.
"She is going to be the next Houdini," explained Jade. "She is quite an escape artist and can sneak about so quickly that it seems she is teleporting. It's a rare person that can accomplish the level she has, and she's only 3 years old!"
"You're kidding," Mike said, not believing.
"I'm not," Jade responded. "It's a talent that usually makes her really tired. You must have interested her enough to keep her awake all that time she was in your care."
"This furry thing and his one-eyed spherical pal not interest her? They're so odd they've been quite a challenge to disguise." Iris commented.
"It's a good thing Dad doesn't think that anything unusual ever happens to him at home. Otherwise, you two oddballs would be screwed," Trish said. "Those costumes wouldn't convince him otherwise."
" 'Spose so," Sulley said. "It's remarkable Boo's disguise fooled anyone at the company."
Mike snorted. "I'm shocked that you'd even admit it."
A bell rang. "FOOD!" Jade and Trish exclaimed simultaneously. Every being scrambled to be first inside, eager to sample the year's Thanksgiving delights, even if the tentacles were omitted.
*********************************************************************** ** Clarissa stood in front of the camera in the Monster's, Inc. building for the second day in a row. A bunch of monsters, some of whom were named George Sanderson, Fungus, Celia Mae, and Thaddeus Bile (who went by "Phlegm"), had carefully put all the pieces of the shattered door back together for the second time, only to find twenty pieces or so were missing.
"Oh no!" a greenish slug-like teenage monster with braces named Smitty exclaimed despairingly. "Some pieces are disappeared!"
A yellow squash-shaped monster named Needleman smacked Smitty on the back of the head. "You idiot! They're lost, not 'disappeared'!"
Clarissa rolled her aquamarine eyes. She considered every last one of them a moron in the extreme. The sooner Sullivan and Wazowski returned, however, the sooner she could set her plan into action. In the meantime, she'd have to put up with these paramount lamebrains.
Into the room strode a female, two-legged monster covered in almost- black purple fur and wearing the white coat of a door-synthesis technician. She had about her a business-like air. Clarissa disliked her instantly.
"Pardon me," the purple monster said politely, looking past her dragon- like nose at the group on the floor. "I'm Michelle Price from the door synthesis department. I think that, if you could spare a piece, I could make a new copy of that door." She brushed back some blonde hair from the section of long, paler fur on top of her head and tried to put it behind her fox-like tufted ears, waiting for an answer.
The three-eyed, backward-kneed, burgundy monster dubbed Fungus pushed up his square glasses and said, "Let's see. We're missing a few pieces anyway, and this obviously isn't working, yeah, I think we should try it."
The other monsters that were helping him nodded in agreement. The blue creature with purple tentacles that went by Phlegm picked up a fragment of the door, coincidentally the one Sulley had saved from when the door had originally been shredded, and handed it to Michelle.
"Thank you," Michelle said, as she turned on heel and left, her long, tufted tail swishing behind her and leaving purple and blue sparklies in its wake.
Clarissa watched her leave, resisting the urge to trip Michelle by pulling on the camera cables strewn about the floor. Why Clarissa disliked kindly monsters like Michelle, not even her mother knew. All Clarissa know was that she had to be the top dog at whatever she was doing. However, yakking in front of a camera all day brought her no satisfaction in this department. She had a few ideas to mold her present situation to get herself some real power.
Apparently, her brother, Randall, had set up a secret lab in the factory. She pulled Randall's former assistant, Fungus, aside.
"Listen, Fungus, I've got a plan. But I need to know where my brother's little lab is. And you're going to tell me."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Fungus whimpered.
"Uh-huh. Sure." Clarissa stated sarcastically, the way her brother had a habit of doing. Strangely this scared the unfortunate Fungus into complying.
"Okay! I'll show you. But not while anyone is around."
"Excellent! Meet me here at quarter after midnight." Clarissa the Cheater instructed, chuckling evilly at her success. *********************************************************************** *** Sulley and Mike, Mary and Jade, Iris, Gill, Gill's wife Rose, and Trish sat down in the dining room, ready to eat the aromatic food beautifully displayed at the table. Almost ready to eat...
"I think we should have one of our guests say grace," Rose Bates suggested.
"I think Mike should say it," Trish suggested to her mother.
"Okay!" Mike said. He sat up straight, folded his hand, and cleared his throat. Then he hollered "GRACE!" loud enough to wake the dead and shoveled some turkey onto his plate with fervor.
Gill glared at Mike, turning red with offended fury. His wife Rose looked like she was watching a monster commit murder (in a way, she was- she didn't know Mike really was a monster. And it did look like he was committing murder, the way he was tearing the poor turkey to shreds). Trish was laughing silently, along with all the others at the table.
"Randall would've enjoyed that," Trish said to no one in particular.
Gill turned his glare to Trish. "Who's Randall?" He asked her.
Uh-oh. This could be bad, she thought "Um.," She began to think quickly. Hmm. Trish, being a college architecture student, came up with a reply. "He's in my computer blueprinting class," She said mendaciously, rather pleased with herself.
"Is this Randall fellow your boyfriend?" Gill asked, wanting to keep track of his daughter.
"No," Trish answered, a little too shyly. It made her sound guilty.
"You tell this Randall that if I catch him anywhere near here I'll set my alligator Stinky on him," Gill reprimanded warningly, wagging his fork at her.
Trish forgot her lie and snorted at her father's comment. "I don't see how you can set him on himself," she said, and stopped herself from saying any more by literally biting her tongue, hoping nobody caught her mistake. Unfortunately, they all did, and were staring back at her.
"Repeat that please?" Gill interrogated, leaning closer to Trish threateningly. "What - did - you- say???"
"Nothing," she answered quickly.
"I believe you did." Gill said, looking Trish in the eye. "Follow me to the kennel." He beckoned to his daughter and stood up. Trish followed meekly, the rest of the group trailing after her worriedly.
The group entered the kennel to see Randall inside with a book open in his hands. If Trish hadn't already screwed up, he would have been busted anyhow for being caught reading To Kill A Mockingbird. He was so absorbed in Scout Finch's adventures that he didn't notice the congregation make their entrance.
Gill saw the book and grabbed it out of Randall hands. When Randall looked up at him, Gill grabbed his fronds and pulled him to his feet.
"Ouch," Randall muttered, rubbing his fronds gently when Gill let go. Then he saw his audience for the first time, and guessed that his cat was out of the proverbial bag. He looked at the face of his beloved Trish and knew who told on him.
Trish looked back at him and got tears in her eyes. "Randall, I'm sorry. It- I just slipped." She was sobbing. It nearly broke Randall's heart to see her so upset.
"Have you been having an affair with my daughter?" Gill asked forcefully, getting Randall's attention. The absurdity of this questions caused Sulley and Mike to snicker before it turned into loud gaffaws.
"N- no! We're friends. Just friends. I think," he said, and looked at Trish. "I do have very strong feelings for Trish, I must admit, but I never acted on them because I was afraid I would loose her friendship. Sir, she's the only friend I've got, and really the only true friend I've ever had." Randall walked up to Trish and took her hands in his uppermost pair. "I love you, Trish. I really, truly love you."
Poor Randall. There he was, pouring his heart out, and Trish spooked. She pulled her hands from his grasp and backed away, shaking her head.
"Trish," Randall called quietly, desperately. He reached out to her, but she turned around and pushed her way past Sully and Iris, running away in tears.
Randall's vision blurred with sudden, painful tears. He really couldn't help it. It was the first time he had ever experienced heartbreak. It wasn't pleasant. It felt as though his heart was being minced by an herb knife and squashed by a garlic press before being thrown into the soup. All the room's occupants were staring at him.
"What're you looking at?!" he hollered. "I already feel awful. I don't need you making me feel worse!" with that, turned a sickly ash grey and slumped to the floor in a tangled, pallid lump. He sobbed with no way of stopping himself. The assembly slowly trickled away, until the only ones left were Sulley and Mike.
Mike's romantic experiences with his girlfriend Celia helped him to understand Randall's feelings. "Hey, Randall," the one-eyed orb called.
"What do you want, Wazowski?" the depressed reptile said curtly.
"Look, Randall, I know what you're going through, and it isn't easy," Mike said. "But you've got to stick it out, and get on with your life. Heck, she may even come around, once she gets over being upset and sees past her own surprise."
"What d'you mean?"
"Sometimes when you say The Three Words for the first time, a girl'll spook, 'specially if no one's said it to her before. You know, they don't know how to take it. Besides, she was reeling from her dad's mortification."
"But did she have to look at me like that? Like I was vermin?"
"Coulda been worse."
"Oh really?"
"Sure. When I first told Celia I loved her, she hit me with her purse."
Randall snorted. He thought that was kind of funny, when he pictured the snake-haired receptionist beating the green creature with a handbag, especially since Celia was taller than Mike by about two-and- a-half feet.
"And Celia looked at me like I'd just bitten her. Her snakes too. You know, they hissed and rattled at me, they were so mad."
Mike's humor was getting to Randall. The lizard was back to his normal color and smiling.
Sulley was smiling too. "So that's what you meant when you said 'women! Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em.' You know, Randall, he came to work the next day with these huge teal bruises the size of large toads all over his body. I teased him the whole day."
Randall was laughing now. "I don't know why I hated you, Sullivan. You're a witty guy. Maybe you're winning streak reminded me of my sister."
"You have a sister?" Sulley asked, surprised.
"Twin sister, actually. Named Clarissa. She and I were really competitive growing up. We competed for grades, and entered every competition we could. Early on, Clarissa beat me easily. I worked my tail off to best her. By the fifth grade, I began to beat her at home and in lower levels of competition. She didn't like it. She was as good as she was going to get, though, so she resorted to cheating. She wrote her toughest words on her hands at the spelling bee, hid a map under her chair in the geography bee, weighted my racquet in the school tennis match, and pulled tons of other tricks to make sure she won." Randall complained
"The worst blow, though, was the dancing competition. I had signed up in a different region from Clarissa so I wouldn't have to deal with her. We didn't compete in the same contest until we both made the nationals."
"You were in a national dancing competition?!" Mike exclaimed, startled.
"Yep. National Junior Dance Competition. We were seniors in high school then. When I got there, I had a winning dance set to a swing jazz song called "In the Mood". Everyone else had disco."
Mike interrupted again. "What difference would it make if you had a different kind of music?"
Randall, a little irked by Mike's interruptions, explained. "The judges would be sick of disco and therefore would like mine better, and I'd stand out. Besides, this one jazz song really let me show off my dancing and choreography skills. Clarissa knew I had her beat. Dumb girl picked "Dancing Queen", not only a disco song but also a popular disco song, a song that five other competitors used. I practiced my dance for five hours before my turn, and decided to take a break and get some food. Clarissa took the opportunity and switched my disc for hers, so I had "Dancing Queen" and she had "In the Mood". I had only seven minutes before I was up. I knew Clarissa had taken it but I had to make due with what I had. I did my best, but only achieved second place. Clarissa received first place, using my song. She flaunted it in my face for years. When I made scarer at the company, she finally shut up. She's a news reporter on Channel Seven now."
Sulley looked at his old rival with newfound respect. "You had to put up with a cheater for a sister for all those years?" he said. "No wonder you despised me. I barely tried to be a top scarer and nearly broke the scare record. You probably assumed I cheated, like your sister."
Randall nodded. "When the little girl got through, Wazowski claimed I had been cheating. I nearly killed him."
"Call me Mike," the cycloptic creature said.
"And call me Sulley," The huge fuzzball instructed.
"You- you want me to be your friend?" Randall asked, barely believing it.
"You've changed, you loco lizard," Mike said, slugging the eight- legged thing in the arm. "Besides, we could use some advice on the local little kids so we can get home. I mean, there's got to be at least one kid in this neighborhood with a monster in its closet."
"How about I do a little sneaking about and find out?" the lizard inquired slyly.
"Okay," the pair of lifelong friend responded simultaneously.
"Meet you back here at midnight."
And chaos would soon be set in motion.