Disclaimer: This is a complete work of fiction, there's no resemblance to actual persons or events or places. If so, it is utterly not intended. We do NOT own Monster High, or anything to do with it. Nor do my co- writer, xTheCrazyDancingPersonx and I own ANY songs, lyrics, artists, labels – nothing. Their exposure in this story is completely non – profit and just for fun. I (we) are not claiming to own anything except our own darn story plot. Thank you.

Heartlessly Heartfelt

Chapter Sixteen

The room suddenly fell deadly silent and Mrs. Shea glanced to the Southern Belle, giving an assuring smile. "Good to know we've got an example here!" Upon noticing the blush that matched the color of the ghoul's radiant hair, the teacher nonetheless beckoned Operetta to the front of the room. "Come on, there's nothing to be scared of!"

'Scared ain't even where it begins, darlin'...' the musical diva said to herself as she slowly rose from her seat, walking past the throng of monsters known as her classmates - feeling as if they all had their gazes glued onto her. Which they did.

"So, what's the first thing that comes to mind when I say 'music', hmm?" Mrs. Shea inquired.

'Th' fact I can't sing live.' Operetta thought, only before shaking it off. She couldn't get nervous. She didn't get nervous. She was... Operetta. She had never ever gotten stage fright - she always managed to calmly explain her 'issue' and that was that. But, in front of so many others? Normally, she would just have to say so to one or two, but a whole crowd...

"Lettin' yer heart an' soul out in what ya love." she blurted out. That was the second thing buzzing around in her head. Better than nothing at all, right?

Mrs. Shea nodded, "That's a very good answer, not one that I've ever had before actually." She seemed very happy with that answer. "Alright my dear, have a seat."

Operetta let out a sigh of pure relief, but she did remember that surely at one point or another she would ask them to sing solely. She remembered this from previous vocal classes she had attended at a young age. "Thank ya ma'am." She returned to her seat next to Holt Hyde as quickly as possible. And when she sat down, he held her hand. It was a pretty sudden move, but Operetta felt a smirk appear on her face.

'I… gotta get outta here soon.' She thought to herself, trying to come up with a master plan. 'I'll wait a little bit, then excuse little ol' me sayin' I gotta use the bathroom and record myself acapella! Perfection.' She smiled to herself, not entirely aware of what was going on, since she was off in her own thoughts for a bit.

'BAHAHAHAHAH,'

Holt narrowed his eyes in annoyance. Why was Jackson hysterically laughing via mind link?

'What's your issue, normie?' He asked his other half, his literal other half.

'I still can't believe you came out, to the Jaundice Brothers.' He laughed again.

'You're such a jerk, shut up. Don't ruin my moment with this lovely songbird next to me.' He warned his alter ego.

'Mhm, this is the quietest you've ever been since… I've ever known you.'

'Stop distracting me, damn it. Would ya chill out?!'

'Now you know how I feel on the daily norm.'

Holt gave his head a shake and rolled his eyes. He was choosing to ignore Jackson for now, since he was the one who requested him out in the first place, not wanting to have anything to do with singing in class. "Well, now – my lovelies… we will do some vocal warm ups." She gave her knuckles a crack as she sat down at the piano, "I'd like for all of you to stand up please, take in some nice calming breaths and I'll give you an example of a scale."

She played eight notes, starting on the C key of the piano, low enough on the keys to make a good starting point. "This is gonna be so lame," Holt Hyde cursed softly to himself, causing Operetta to narrow her eyes in his direction.

"Think of reading music as learning how to read. You started off with learning the individual letters of the alphabet but when they're combined – they make words. Sometimes we're still learning new words." She turned to face them, despite sitting on the stool of the piano. "The first thing you must learn," she grabbed herself a blue marker as she made her way over to the white board hanging in the cabin. She drew two sets of five lines. "when music was first written down centuries ago," she giggled, "some of you might remember this even."

There were some giggles and laughs, realizing that very well may be true.

"It started out with ten lines in all and two things called key signatures. One they called a 'treble' clef. Operetta, would you be a dear and come up here please?"

Not that she overly wanted to be called upon, but she was and she made her way up to the front nervously. She was overjoyed when Mrs. Shea called attention to her beloved shoes. Heels that had the very treble clef she was talking about, to show everyone. "Ain't they beautiful?" She sighed happily.

Mrs. Shea nodded, "They are for sure," she explained how to draw the iconic treble clef as well as it's paired up partner, the 'bass clef'. Later the grand staff was separated for the both of these key signatures and this is how you see music, piano music specifically – arranged. "Any questions so far?"

By the extremely blank expressions on every single student body's face, she heaved a sigh. "Alright, that's enough of that. Let's move on for a bit." Glancing out over the faces, she wore a very warm smile. "I… want to hear your voices. Samples of your voices, even just small ones – whatever song comes to your mind when I call upon you. Just so it'll give me an idea where to place you beside one another. Some voices create dissonance that's very upsetting and… not, pleasant to the ears. Especially those with sensitive hearing."

The odd noise was heard from the crowd, but other than that – a pin could've dropped and it would be a big jolt in sound waves. Before one of the students sneakily spoke. "Take him instead!" A random class mate decided to pick on Heath Burns, not giving up their own identity though.

Mrs. Shea sighed, "I really don't like that, so whoever you were who said that – be warned that normally I pick the one who does the volunteering, but since I didn't catch who that was, I guess it is Mr. Burns up first."

Heath was actually very nervous and had tossed and turned when he should've been sleeping. This was so… unreal, so – mortalfying. He didn't even know what he was going to sing as he approached the front of the room, by the piano and where Mrs. Shea sat elegantly. She tapped a deep red pump softly as she waited. The young man didn't say anything and looked over to her sheepishly for guidance.

"Okay what I'm truly looking for here," she figured that she'd better explain it to everyone instead of just the person solely at the front of the room. "is just a sample of your voice so I know what I'm working with here. I already know that the majority of you have limited knowledge of reading music so that's a start. But now I want to hear each of your voices individually. So just give me a quick sample of whatever song comes to your mind."

Heath took a few minutes to think before he took in a quick deep, but shaky breath. "You had me hooked again from the minute you sat down, the way you bite your lip's got my head spinnin' around. After a drink or two I was putty in your hands, I dunno if I have the strength to stand. Oh-whoa… trouble, troublemaker yeah that's your middle name. Ooh-whoa, I know you're no good but you're stuck in my brain." Taking another quick breath, he took his acapella version of the song to the chorus. "And I wanna know, why does it feel so good but hurt so bad? My mind keeps saying 'run as fast as you can'. I say I'm done but then you pull me back, I swear you're giving me a heart attack, trouble maker."

He could've sworn that his entire being was mimicking that of an earthquake, he'd been shaking so much! It was clearly nerves, but judging from the round of applause – he didn't seem to have done badly. "Mhm," Mrs. Shea nodded in approval. "well done. You must sing with an instrument because you were rather intimidated - but you just proved that you don't need an instrument, you sound good on your own." She complimented him, glancing over at the extinguisher if she needed it. He thanked her humbly, to which she spoke up once again. "You choose someone please Mr. Burns."

Heath nodded, he didn't need to look and pick anyone out of the crowd – he just did. "Clawd."

Clawd Wolf took in a deep breath; he'd just been called upon to sing in front of the entire room full of anticipating students. He'd have been extremely nervous if his ghoulfriend was here and part of the crowd, but she wasn't so that would make this process a little bit easier.

Making his way up to the front of the room, beside the piano – Mrs. Shea gave him a reassuring nod and warm smile. He sighed, singing off a few lines of the first song that came to mind. "On my way see my friend who lived a couple blocks away from me yeah, as I walked through the subway – must've been 'bout quarter past 3, in front of me… stood a beautiful honey with a beautiful body, she asked me for the time. I said it'd cost her, her name, a six digit number and a date with me tomorrow at nine. 'Did she decline?' – noo… 'Didn't she mind?' – I don't think so. 'Was it for real?' – damn sure. 'What was the deal?' – a pretty ghoul aged 24. 'So was she keen?' – she couldn't wait. 'Cinnamon Queen?' – lemme update. 'What did she say?' – she said she'd love to rendezvous. She asked me what we were gonna do I said, 'Start with a bottle of moet for two.' He'd kept his eyes tightly closed and he held clenched fists just to try and disguise his nervousness. It was extremely scary being the only person up in front of everyone, singing. He smoothly shifted into the chorus. "Monday. Took her for a drink on Tuesday… we were makin' love by Wednesday, and on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and we chilled on Sunday. I met this girl on Monday, took her for a drink on Tuesday… we were makin' love by Wednesday, and on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and we chilled on Sunday."

Mrs. Shea politely cut him off, "Well, well! Mr. Wolf… well done. Once you get into the comfort of a song, you sing it so well. You had a beat going on and it was very nice indeed!"

Shocked to hear any of this, he nervously thanked Mrs. Shea and was very quick to get to his seat before anything else was said. Heath gave the B.M.O.C a thumbs up. Clawd smiled and gave an appreciative nod feeling so glad and relieved that was over with.

"Alright, I'm glad we've stretched and ran laps around the entire camp. Now, we are ready to perfect the arts of dance! Everyone take a quick 5 before we head into the studio." The studio - was just another cabin like all the others.

"Holy crikey mate, I signed up for a leisure song and dance camp – not physical deaducation all over again." Lagoona wiped the sweat off her brow, taking a five minute break to lather herself up in moisturizing cream.

Draculaura groaned in a cheerful manner. "If I wanted to run like this, I would've signed up for sports camp. Not dance class, but I'm sure we'll get to the lovely art of dance soon!"

"Quit your complaining, lazy ghouls!" The harsh teacher directed them, "Line up and this will be easier on your pathetic lack of souls."

Draculaura felt her bottom lip begin to quiver. "She's mean!"

Lagoona sighed, "It's okay ghoul, try to hang in there. Less than an hour left! We can make it!"

Gillington Webber walked by and noticed his ghoulfriend lathering herself up with her much needed lotion. "Hey there," he greeted her – an automatic blush coming to his face.

She blushed just as hard. "Hey,"

Draculaura grinned from one cute petite ear right over to the other. "Ooh, I'll leave you two lovefish alone!"

Gil and Lagoona both blushed together even more. "So how's camp treating you so far?" He asked her as they took a walk together away from the commotion.

She shrugged her shoulders, "Other than dance class and the free use of the camp's facilities like the pool and recreation cabin – there's nothing much around here for me. I'm not much of a singer love, but I bet you sing great in the shower." She giggled, her long blond hair tied back to keep it up and out of her way.

"No, I don't really sing." He gave her a small smirk, "Sorry about that."

She shrugged, "I'm gonna find it so interesting to hear my ghouls and the boys sing and stuff, but I'm not much of one for it m'self. I'm looking forward though, I just wonder what all this preparation is for. Some kind of competition maybe?"

Gil took a moment to think about it, that made the most applicable sense. "I think you're right."

"MISS BLUE – THIS IS DANCE, NOT A CLASS IN SOCIALIZATION 101!"

"Oh, there's my cue – gotta go hon." She hugged him and jogged off back towards the group, leaving her boyfriend to head in the direction he was going alone.

Before you shoot me because it's been forever and five days – just take a moment to reflect on this update and how much you potentially enjoyed it xD

Please R & R if you so wish to, it's always massively appreciated guys! :)