Ok i guess i sort of lied about it being a while/a few days before i post another chapter. Idk i got some unexpected motivation and free time, so you guys get another chapter
Im also thinking of drawing some refs for this fic. Nothing crazy, just a picture of michaela and MAYBE sulley and randall. If i do end up making refs/a ref i'll stick it in the first chapter. Dont worry tho, i'll actually let you guys know if i do that so you dont have to keep checking the first chapter to see if anything new has been added there.
Btw, michaela's nickname in this is 'kayla, just a shortened version of her name. I could have spelt it as 'chaela instead but idk it just seems sort of weird trying to spell it that way instead of just "kayla". If you guys think it should be spent that way instead tho just lmk and i can change it :)
On the day of the exam, Michaela and Randall were determined, if a little bit anxious. They quizzed each other back and forth as they headed towards the School of Scaring, making their way up the stone steps.
Sulley smirked at her from his place with the RORs a few yards from the base of the stone stairs, watching the girl.
"I am going to wipe the floor with that little know-it-all."
"Yes, yes you are big blue," Johnny said, reaching out and removing the crimson letterman jacket from where Sulley had flung it over his shoulder.
Sulley turned to him, "Hey, what're you—"
Johnny smiled, dusting the jacket off, "It's just a precaution. RORs are the best scarers on campus, Sullivan. Can't have a member come in second."
"Oh come on, I'm gonna destroy that twerp!" Sulley insisted.
"Well, then you'll get this back in no time," Johnny said, folding up the jacket. "It's time to start delivering on that Sullivan name."
Sulley looked on after the ROR's as they made their way inside, scowling slightly to himself before trudging off after them. He'd deliver on his name, alright.
He entered the classroom, passing by his fraternity brothers who took their place in the gallery as Sulley dropped into a seat in the front row.
"Today's final will judge your ability to assess a child's fear and perform the appropriate scare In the scare simulator." Professor Knight addressed the students, turning and motioning towards a modular made to look like a human child's bedroom that was arranged on the stage, a small robotic dummy tucked into the fake bed. "The child's sensitively level will be raised from bed wetter to heavy sleeper. So give it everything you've got."
The students stared at the simulator with varying degrees of apprehension.
"Dean Hardscrabble is with us this morning to see who will be moving on in the scaring program and who will not," Professor Knight continued, gesturing to the Dean who stood to the side, unsmiling as she casually adjusted her record-breaking scream canister. "Let's get started."
Soon the first student stood on the platform under the stage's oppressive lights that shined down over him.
"I am a five-year-old girl afraid of spiders and Santa Clause," Professor Knight read from a file where he sat at a desk lined up in front of the stage, "Which scare do you use?"
The boy onstage gulped as Dean Hardscrabble stretched her wings and flew up to the viewing platform above the room, settling in front of a circular window.
"Uh, that's a seasonal creep-and-crawl." He answered as he looked back to his professor.
"Demonstrate."
He gingerly stepped through the door of the simulator, creeping along the floor before lunging at the robotic child with a roar. The dummy lurched up from the bed and screamed in response. He looked towards Professor Knight with an expectant, hopeful look.
"Results will be posted outside my office." Was all the professor said.
As the students each awaited their turn with the simulator, Michaela took out their primary scaring textbook for some last-minute cramming.
Sully watched her, resentment settling heavily in his chest as she leafed through the pages, completely oblivious to his stare. He glanced behind him to the RORs still up in the gallery, watching.
Standing, Sully walked past Michaela, knocking her books to the floor.
She looked up and sent a mild glare his way. "Hey, do you mind?"
"Don't mind at all." He shrugged, beginning to stretch obnoxiously as he warmed up for his turn with the simulator.
Randall looked at Sully before glancing back towards Michaela and standing with his stuff, "Come on, 'Kayla. Let's just move."
She nodded and slid from her seat, leaning down to gather her fallen books from the floor.
Picking up the last of her textbooks, she spared Sulley a glance, "Stay out of my way. Unlike you, I had to work hard to get into the scare program."
Sulley side-eyed her, blowing out a quick breath of derisive amusement through his nose, "That's because you don't belong here."
Michaela stood there for a moment, anger stewing in her chest. Stepping forwards, she gave a low snarl.
Sulley looked down at her in surprise, then proceeded to jerk towards her as he gave his own snarl, making the girl jump back.
He chuckled at her reaction.
"That's what I thought." He said under his breath, going back to stretching."
She glared at him, grinding her teeth together before throwing her books to the side as Randall watched nervously from where he had already moved seats. Getting in Sulley's face (or as close as she could manage) she snarled again, tapering off into a low growl.
It wasn't long before the class's attention was drawn to the two students facing off, watching as the two fought against the other for the upper hand in their admittedly juvenile battle for dominance.
Randall watched in growing alarm as his small friend stood up against the much larger boy, silently concerned that Sulley was going to lash out and snap her in half at any moment. Noticing Dean Hardscrabble watching from the walkway above, Randall tried to catch Michaela's eye and signal for her to just back down already, but the girl's focus was entirely on the other in front of her.
Sulley and Michaela were moving closer and closer to each other, the girl letting out a particularly loud snarl as she snapped at him with her teeth. Sulley lurched away from her, tripping over one of the girl's discarded books and stumbling back. He staggered into the pedestal holding the Dean's famous scream canister, bumping into it before he was able to right himself.
The room watched in horror as the scream can wobble in place precariously before falling to the floor with a resounding clang.
Michaela and Sulley stood, frozen, as the can rolled across the room. It eventually came to a stop, appearing undamaged. The two slowly let out a relieved breath.
The can then promptly burst open on one end, a shrill scream escaping from the confines of the metal cylinder and propelling it into the air. Students ducked for cover as the can wildly rebound off the ceiling and walls, the ear-splitting scream steadily emptying out. At last, it fell in front of Michaela and Sulley with a gurgle, completely spent.
They stared, the two students frozen, jumping when the canister abruptly sprung apart in a mess of metal and springs.
Dean Hardscrabble landed heavily behind the two, wings outstretched. She straightened up, slowly folding her wings behind her and coolly striding between them, picking up the broken, drained can from the floor.
"I-I'm so sorry," Michaela said.
"It was an accident," Sulley added.
Dean Hardscrabble looked back at them, her tone unnervingly steady as she spoke.
"What, this? My one souvenir from a lifetime of scaring? Well, accidents happen, don't they?" She set the destroyed can down and folded her hands over each other, "The important thing is no one got hurt."
"...You're taking this remarkably well," Michaela noted tentatively.
"Now, let's continue the exams." The Dean said, looking sharply at Michaela, "Ms. Wazowski, I'm a five-year-old girl on a farm in Kansas afraid of lightning. Which scare do you use?"
Michaela looked around, confused and almost afraid to speak, "Sh-shouldn't I go up on the—"
The Dean leaned down towards her, her gaze piercing the small girl's as she sternly repeated herself, "Which scare do you use?"
Attempting to gather her whits, Michaela quickly answered, "That is a shadow approach with a crackle holler."
"Demonstrate," Dean Hardscrabble said.
Michaela took a deep breath, barely half a second into her creep when the Dean held a hand up to her.
"Stop. Thank you."
"But I didn't get to—"
"I've seen enough." The older woman said and turned away, looking to Sulley, "I'm a seven-year-old boy—"
Before she could complete her sentence, the boy let loose a loud roar directly into her face.
"I wasn't finished," the Dean said blandly.
"I don't need any of that stuff to scare," Sulley replied with an easygoing shrug.
"That stuff," Dean Hardscrabble said, "Would have informed you that this particular child is afraid of snakes. So a roar wouldn't make him scream, it would make him cry, alerting his parents, exposing the monster world, destroying life as we know it, and of course we can't have that."
She turned away from him, "So I'm afraid I cannot recommend that you continued in the scare program. Good day."
Michaela could only watch as the Dean's words visibly registered in Sulley's head.
"Wait, what?" He asked, a hint of incredulity in his voice, "But I'm a Sullivan."
The Dean smiled, clasping her hands together once more, "Well, I'm sure your family will be very disappointed."
Sulley glanced up to the entrance of the classroom at the sound of its double doors opening, spotting the RORs as they left the lecture hall without so much as a backward glance, taking his fraternity jacket with them.
He stared after them with a look that almost made Michaela feel bad for him, the sentiment quickly fading when he spun back around to look down at her sharply, pure hate filling his eyes for a moment before he stalked off.
The girl's attention turned back to Dean Hardscrabble when the older woman began to address her again.
"And Ms. Wazowski, I'm afraid what you lack is something that cannot be taught." She said, looking down at her without an ounce of remorse, "You're not scary. You will not be continuing in the Scaring Program."
Her words hit Michaela soft at first, before slowly sinking into her gut and wrenching at her insides.
"No, y-you've made a mistake. Please, let me try the simulator." She begged, "I'll surprise you!"
The Dean, unphased by her pleading, merely looked down at her with a cold smile, "I doubt that very much."
The older woman nodded to a mildly stunned-looking Professor Knight before turning and leaving a desolate Michaela in her wake.
The winter break passed with few occurrences. Michaela's Mother was sympathetic and attempted to cheer her up to the best of her ability, but nothing could fill the void that had taken its place inside Michaela's chest.
Weeks passed. It was soon January and the start of a new semester. The cloud coddled sky stretched outside the classroom in a never-ending gray that blanketed itself across the cold campus, mirroring Michaela's mood as she fidgeted in her seat while her new professor droned on about scream can design, her new major.
"Some say a career as a scream can designer is boring, unchallenging, a waste of a person's potential." The professor paused, letting out a deep sigh. "Open your textbooks to chapter three. We will now plunge into the rich history of Scream Can Design."
Michaela lifelessly opened the textbook in front of her, her eyes idly wandering across the classroom. They eventually fell to Sulley, who had been glaring at her since he'd first laid eyes on her at the beginning of class. His hand was wrapped around the yellow cylinder of the scream can they each had on their desks, crushing the metal with the sheer force of his fingers as he stared her down.
She mustered up the strength to glower back at him for a moment before turning her attention to the front of the classroom again, an empty feeling taking over once more. After cycling through various emotions over the break, she'd found herself falling into numb acceptance more often than not.
When the class finally ended, Michaela walked down the steps of the building in a detached manner, ignoring Sulley as he loomed over her and continued to glare down at her furiously, following her all the way across campus. He was seething with unbridled hate and obviously wanted her to know it.
Michaela ignored him. She couldn't be bothered to scrape together any semblance of emotion inside herself.
Going straight to her dorm room, she closed the door in Sulley's face and clicked the light on, shedding her thick outer coat now that the winter air was no longer nipping at her. She stared blankly at her MU hat nestled on her window sill, glancing up past it at the School of Scaring that her room had a perfect view of. Because of course it did.
Looking down at her Scream Can Design textbook in her hand, she finally let some emotion run through her. Rather than the pang of heartache followed by thick tears she had come to expect during the break, she felt unchecked rage well up inside her.
She had lost her chance, the chance she had worked so hard to get. Not just that, but the chance that had been set up so perfectly it was almost a dream come true.
She hadn't seen Randall once since she'd gotten back either, almost like he was purposefully avoiding her. She wasn't sure how he was even managing it considering that their dorms were literally right across from each other.
And as if things couldn't be any worse, Sulley was following her everywhere she went like a furious shadow hellbent on reminding her of how badly she'd messed up.
She squeezed her eyes shut in frustration as she felt the telltale burning of unshed tears between in lids, letting out a yell and hurling her textbook at the wall.
She sat down heavily on her bed, letting her face fall into her hands and ignoring her calendar as it fell behind her from the wall and over her bed.
She had really messed up. Feeling the onslaught of tears still forcing their way into her eyes with no regard to whether their presence was even wanted or not, she let a quiet angry growl. She'd had enough of crying, but it seemed her body disagreed.
Moving to curl up on her bed, she put all her focus on stopping the persistent tears before they had a chance to make their appearance. She lay there for a long while, eventually turning onto her back and inadvertently rolling halfway over her calendar that had fallen from its place above her bed. She looked up to where it had been before she'd thrown her textbook, eyes catching on the Scare Games flyer that had been previously hidden—The same one she'd tacked to the wall way back on her first day on campus.
She sniffled a little, nose runny from the combined efforts of the cold weather and her attempts as withholding tears. Pushing herself up, she reached out and took the light blue flyer from the wall.
She stared at it for a moment, her mind void of all thoughts. Sighing, she leaned back again, resting the flyer over her chest, uncaring if it became crinkled. Her eyebrows furrowed as she idly began to humor the inklings of a hypothetical fix-it-all solution for her current situation, staring up at the ceiling.
Letting her brain run rampant, she soon found her idea was slowly becoming more and more grounded in reality.
Thinking on it a while longer, she promptly jolted upright on her bed when she came to the abrupt realization that technically, her plan could work if carried out correctly.
A faint smile slowly crept across her face as she folded the creases out of the paper, looking it over before letting it fall over her duvet as she shoved herself up off her bed, wiping at her still damp eyes with a sleeve.
Grabbing her coat, she ran to the door and yanked it open, finding Sulley still standing there.
"Outta my way!" She yelled, squeezing past him and slamming the door closed behind her before rushing down the hall as she pulled her coat back on, feeling Sulley's eyes on her until she was out of sight and hopping down the steps to the base floor two at a time.
She tore out of the dormitory and made her way towards Fraternity Row, her breath fogging up in front of her as she sprinted through the overcast campus.
She soon came upon her destination, a crowd filling the area facing a large outdoor stage that had been set up.
She watched as the Greek council president—Claire, stood up and dressed the crowd.
"Welcome to this year's Greek care Games kickoff." She said, tone bland with disinterest.
"THE SCARE GAMES!" The vice president practically shrieked, proceeding to scream into the mic with unchecked energy.
"Okay, relax Brock." Claire said, leveling him with a look before turning her attention back to the crowd, "We have a special guest. The founder of the games, Dean Hardscrabble."
Brock moved away from his mic so the Dean could step up from where she had been patiently standing behind him, holding a hand out to calm the cheering crowd.
"Good afternoon." She began, "As a student, I created these games as a friendly competition. But be prepared. To take home the trophy, you must be the most fearsome monster on campus." She ended with a faint smile gracing her features. "Good luck, and may the best monsters win!"
The vice president took his place back at the mic as the Dean stepped away, "Alright, everybody! Where closing down sign-ups, so we'll see you all—"
"Wait!" Michaela shouted from where she'd scrambled to the top of a car, "I'm signing up!"
Dean Hardscrabble's eyes narrowed at the girl.
"Uh, you'd have to be in a sorority or co-ed fraternity to compete." Claire reminded her from the stage.
Michaela turned and desperately searched through the crowd. Finally, she found what she was looking for.
"Behold! The next winning greek house of the Scare Games," She said grandly, "The brothers, my brothers, of Oozma Kappa!"
She pointed towards the small group with a flourish as the crowd turned to the Oozma Kappa members, who looked almost as surprised as everyone else.
"...Hi," A rosey-cheeked boy finally said awkwardly. A balloon tied to a post next to him suddenly popped, plopping over his face as the crowd began breaking out in stifled laughter.
"Ms. Wazowski, what are you doing?" Dean Hardscrabble inquired, sounding remarkably like an exasperated and scolding mother as she made her way down the short steps of the stage.
"You just said the winners are the most fearsome monsters on campus," Michaela said, meeting the older woman's stare, "If I win, it means you kicked out the best scarer in the whole school."
"That won't happen," She replied flatly, turning and beginning to make her way back towards the sage.
"Then how about a little wager?" Michaela offered. A murmur spread throughout the crowd as Dean Hardscrabble paused, shooting the younger girl a predatory look over her shoulder. For a moment Michaela felt like the older woman was going to swoop down at carry her off somewhere to be killed, but she forced herself to stand her ground, "If I win, you let me back in the Scaring Program."
"And what would that prove?" The Dean snarled.
"That you were wrong," Michaela replied resolutely.
The crowd broke out into murmurs once more at the girl's words.
Dean Hardscrabble appeared to think for a moment as she appraised the girl standing on the car in front of her.
An empty smile spread over her face, "Very well. If you win, I will let your entire team into the scaring program. But if you lose… You will leave Monsters University."
Michaela pursed her lips, not letting herself cower away from the older woman's sharp gaze.
"Deal." She nodded.
"Now all you need to do is find enough members to compete." The Dean said, turning on her heel and walking back to the stage.
"We need six people, right?" She said in mild confusion, gesturing to the small group of six.
"Sorry, we count bodies not heads." Brock said, pointing towards the two-headed boy, "That dude counts as one."
The two heads glanced at each other in surprise before looking down in slight humiliation, pink staining their cheeks.
"A-Anybody else wanna join our team?" Michaela said, looking around desperately and ignoring Dean Hardscrabble, who watched on with an amused smile. "Anyone at all? It's co-ed!"
She spotted Randall siding through the crowd, her eyes lighting up, "Randy!"
He froze, looking back at the girl, "Uh, hey... 'Kayla…"
"Randy thank goodness, I need you on my team!" She said, smiling in relief down at him.
"Oh… sorry," He stepped out into the open, proudly revealing his crimson ROR cardigan, "I'm already on a team!"
"Boggs!" Johnny called him over, making Randy jump.
He looked back to Michaela, whispering just loud enough so she would hear, "I'm finally in with the cool kids, 'Kayla! Don't blow this for me."
She watched him leave, a crushing weight pressing over her.
"Do the thing," Johnny said to the lanky boy.
With a nervous smile, Randy disappeared.
"Oh, where did he go!" Chet pretended to look around as the other RORs broke out into chuckles.
Michaela bit her lip, glancing over the crowd again, "Please, anybody! I need one more person, just one more!"
"Yeah, sorry. Doesn't look good for you." Claire said, cocking her hip out, "We have to move on, your team doesn't qualify."
Michaela found herself nearly stumbling off the side of the car as the vehicle began to jostle with the force of someone very heavy climbing on top of it.
"Yes, it does!" Sulley's voice rang out behind her, setting his hands on his hips, "The star player had just arrived."
Michaela whirled around to face him.
"No! No way!" She yelled up at him before looking back around frantically, Sulley watching her with an obnoxious smile, "Someone else, please! Anyone else!"
"We're shutting down sign-ups, okay? Is he on your team or not." Claire asked in mild annoyance.
Michaela turned back around to face the tall boy, looking him up and down with distaste. He merely grinned down at her expectantly.
She made an angry noise in the back of her throat, drawing it out before finally spitting out her words, "Fine! Yes, he is on my team."
Dean Hardscrabble looked between the two with a faint smile, "Good luck."
Michaela glowered up at the taller boy, who continued to smile down at her.
"Alright, Wazowski! What's the plan?"