Chapter Four Pranks and Plans
The next morning, Kim walked down a corridor, map in hand. She thought she had memorized the route to her locker, but it was proving elusive.
A few other students were walking, or shuffling, or gliding by on their own business, and no one bothered her. Until a loud, brash voice behind her called out.
"Hey, normie!"
She turned, and there was the bull-headed guy from lunch yesterday, glaring at her. He stomped up and leaned over her. Kim, used to fighting henchmen who were just as big, if not bigger, stood her ground. He was wearing the red t-shirt and black pants. If she remembered right, Draculaura had told her his name was Manny Taur.
"Can I help you?" she asked pleasantly, looking up at him.
"You're supposed to be some chick who saves the world, right? Well, I gotta say I ain't impressed," he said in a loud voice.
"Too bad," said Kim, shrugging. She had met his type before, a bully (literally, in this case) always spoiling for a fight with those smaller and weaker than him. "I'm not here to impress you."
"You normies make me sick," he said, "Always acting like you're better than us monsters. Well, you ain't!"
"And just when did I do that?" she asked, folding her arms.
"You're here, aren't you? A normie in a school for monsters?" he bellowed.
"Whatever happened to the Monster High ideals of tolerance and acceptance?" asked Kim, cocking her head at the big guy. Maybe she could still head off a fight. It was the last thing she wanted, after all.
That startled him for a moment, then he leaned down and snorted. "Do you know how much I hate red?" he snarled in her face.
"And here we go..." thought Kim. "Then why are you wearing that shirt?"
Other students had stopped to watch, but no one interfered.
"Why you... normie!" he drew back a fist the size of a ham, and Kim got set to defend herself.
Just at that moment everyone's attention was taken by a female voice calling "HEEEEELLLLP!" Kim and Manny stood up to see what was going on.
A copper-colored girl (a robot? thought Kim) wearing a blue and black dress, with hair the same color, was on roller skates, weaving from side to side along the corridor, obviously out of control. Her arms were waving, trying to keep her balance, and her legs flailing around. She slammed into a couple of lockers, but somehow kept her feet under her.
"Robecca, fold your skates up!" called Manny, his fight with Kim forgotten.
"I can't, they're stuuuckk!" was the reply, as the girl sailed by.
Kim reached into the side pocket of her cargo pants and pulled out her grappling gun. She fired just to the side of the girl, and the claw flew in that direction.
"When it wraps around her, grab the wire and pull," she told Manny.
"Right!"
As usual, Kim's aim was perfect. The claw sailed by her, then with a twitch of the gun, twisted and coiled around her. She continued to fly down the corridor, directly toward two monsters, who cringed and waited for the impact.
"Now!" Kim and Manny grabbed the wire and gave it a hard yank. The robot girl's feet jerked from under her, and she sat down hard, making a "KLANK!" as she landed. She slid a bit, and came to rest just shy of the two in front of her.
Everybody ran toward her, and the two she had almost slammed into did as well. They knelt beside the robot girl as she tried to get untangled from Kim's grapple line.
"'Becca, are you okay?" asked a gray-skinned girl with pink hair and wings. She had a French accent.
"Are you dented?" asked the other, who had red and green hair and was wound with flower vines.
"I'm fine, thanks to..." she looked up at the other end of the wire to find Kim holding the gun. "Oh, you're the normie I heard about, aren't you?" She had a British accent.
"She's definitely not related to the BeBes," she thought. "That's me. I'm Kim Possible. What happened?" Kim asked.
"I don't know; my skates got stuck open," said Robecca. She pulled a leg up so she could inspect the bottom of her shoe. There were inline wheels along the sole. She pressed sideways against them, but they made only a slight movement and a grinding sound. "Something got in the mechanism."
Kim tapped the connect button on her Kimmunicator. "Wade?"
"Yeah, Kim?" the pudgy boy asked.
"Scan these skates and tell me what's jamming them, please and thank you," she said.
"Sure. What happened?" he asked as they all heard the sound of keys clicking.
Kim told him, and a brief sweep of the green beam gave the answer. "They're jammed with sand."
"SAND?" asked Robecca, "I don't know how that's possible... I haven't been through any that I know of."
"Not just sand, a particular kind of sand... cat litter," Wade added.
I can do something about it, hang on a sec," said the second girl. She looked at Kim. "Thank you for saving all of us."
The redheaded heroine nodded and smiled. "No big. Just glad I was in position to help."
"I'm Venus McFlytrap, and these are my best friends, Rochelle Goyle," she gestured at the gray-skinned girl, "And Robecca Steam." indicating the copper girl.
"Nice to meet you," said Kim. She hit the retract button on the grapple gun, and the wire was pulled back in, ready for use. She put the gun back in the pocket.
As Venus used her vines to pull the sand out of the skates, Manny got Kim's attention.
"I gotta apologize," he said, "I had you pegged all wrong." He stuck out a hand.
"Accepted," said Kim, taking it.
The big monster moved off, and Kim turned back to Robecca.
"You know, if it's that dangerous to your, uh, mechanisms, maybe we'd better find out where it came from," she said. "Don't want it happening again."
Nobody noticed that a particular black-and-orange werecat who had been lounging across the top of several lockers watching the mayhem casually got up and left. "That was fun, but it's time for this cat to scat," she thought.
As she sauntered down the hall, she suddenly realized she had a problem. "Me, Meowlody, and Purrsephone are the only cats in the school. If she traces that litter, it will lead straight to us. And Bloodgood said we would all be suspended the next time we were caught pulling a prank." She took off to find the twins.
KP/MH KP/MH KP/MH
Thanks to Spectra having seen the whole thing and taken pictures, the Ghostly Gossip's blog had everyone in Monster High aware of what happened. Kim's popularity soared, and she was greeted warmly everywhere she went.
During a break at fearleading practice that evening, they sat on the bleachers to rest. Suddenly Spectra flew up through the seating and hovered beside Kim, only halfway out.
"We haven't formally met," said the ghost, "I'm Spectra Vondergeist."
"Kim Possible," said the redhead. She couldn't help but stare a bit, and Spectra noticed.
"Not used to ghosts?" she asked with a smile.
"Never met one before," was the answer, "I didn't know they actually existed."
The blue-glowing girl giggled. "Yeah, it's fun keeping the normies guessing. Can I get an interview with you?"
"Well..."
The ghost pouted. "Look, I'm sorry I messed up at D's party. I'll get it all right this time. Please?"
"Okay, then," said Kim.
"See that you do," interjected Clawdeen, giving the ghost a glare.
"I do have to say you got some good pictures of me helping Robecca this morning," said Kim. "I signed up with your blog after I saw them."
That made Spectra smile. "Thanks. That was the most exciting thing to happen in a while. Speaking of that, have you found out where the sand came from?"
"No, I didn't have time today, but I'm going to do some looking tomorrow," Kim answered.
Nobody knew Toralei and her buds had been hiding in the gym, listening. Having heard what she needed to, she motioned at the door, and the trio, as quiet as cats can be, slipped out.
Spectra pulled her laptop from nowhere and put it on the seat. She started typing. "Let's see..." she scanned the questions she planned to ask.
"Now that you've had a couple of days here, what do you think of Monster High?" she said.
Kim wiped her face, glanced at the fear squad and grinned. "Well, most of the monsters I've met are great people! This place takes some getting used to; the halls are confusing, and the decorations are like nothing I've ever seen before."
"Yeah," agreed Draculaura, "Her school is completely opposite; bright, sunny, and cheerful. It took me some time to get used to it."
"Doesn't anybody want to know what *I* think?" asked Cleo, loudly. She was sitting with her back to them, arms crossed and back stiff.
"Not particularly," answered Clawdeen.
"Well, then, in that case finish your interview later; break time's over," said the mummy-girl, and stood up. "Let's go,
troops."
Everyone rolled their eyes but complied. Kim gave Spectra an apologetic look, and headed back to the floor.
Outside, Toralei, Meowlody, and Purrsephone were discussing the situation they found themselves in.
"We cleaned up the litter, but might have missed some," said Toralei, "If we did it will lead straight back to us. We've got to stop her investigating until we sweep again. Any ideas?"
The other two looked at each other and shrugged.
"Hmm..." she thought for a minute, then her face lit up with an evil grin. "I know what to do now! Let's go!" And the trio disappeared into the darkened halls of Monster High.
