At lunch Friday, the ghouls sat down at a table. Purrsephone and Lagoona made their exchange for Purrsephone to have several pieces of sushi. Purrsephone was happy for this because it temporarily distracted her from the news she was about to deliver.
"I've got bad news, ghouls," Purrsephone said. "I want be able to make to fearleading practice after school today."
"After pissing off Toralei to get a spot on the team?" Cleo said. "What reason could you have to miss your first practice with us?"
"I've got detention," Purrsephone said. "I fell asleep in Mr. Rotter's class."
"That is such entrapment," Ghoulia groaned. "If he doesn't want people to fall asleep during his class, he should try harder to be more captivating."
"I could not agree with you more, Ghoulia," Purrsephone said and then her eyes widened in shock. "Holy crap: I understood that."
"I told you that trick would work," Draculara said.
"And you were right," Purrsephone said. "Anyway, there was no way I was going to make it through Mr. Rotter's class awake: not with as little sleep I got last night after that bad dream I had."
…
(Begin dream sequence)
Purrsephone was in a restaurant, sitting at a table with Toralei and her sister.
"I'm so glad we could make up after everything that's happened," Purrsephone said.
"So am I," Toralei said as she grinned. A trap door opened above the twins and dumped bird feathers onto them. Meowlody was unaffected but Purrsephone started gasping for air as the inside of her throat began swelling.
"Don't worry: I know what to do," Toralei said as she grabbed a steak knife from the table. "I've seen this done on TV like eight times."
"You can't give her a tracheotomy with a steak knife!" Meowlody yelled.
"You're right: I should use something bigger," Toralei said as she put down the steak knife and pulled out a machete from behind her. "In the interest of me not nicking anything I shouldn't, I'm gonna need you to remain perfectly still," Toralei said as she leveled the machete to make the incision.
(End dream sequence)
…
"Fortunately, it was at that point that I woke up screaming," Purrsephone said as she finished telling everyone about her dream. There was an awkward silence among the other ghouls as they absorbed what they heard.
"There's something wrong with you," Abbey said flatly.
"Seriously: you don't need to share everything with us," Frankie said.
I think I liked it better when you didn't talk, Frankie added to herself.
"Moving on," Cleo said, eagerly wanting to put this subject behind them, "it's unfortunate you won't be able to make it to practice today. I have something else in mind if everyone's willing," Cleo said as she looked at Lagoona.
"What's going on here?" Purrsephone asked.
"Cleo's asking Lagoona if you can come to her birthday party on Saturday," Frankie explained.
"Oh," Purrsephone said as she realized how awkward things were. "If it makes any difference Lagoona, I am very sorry about telling people that you grew up in British prison."
"That didn't bother me," Lagoona said. "Australia hasn't been a penal colony for over a hundred years before I was born. And yes, you can come to my party."
"Alright. Will there be sushi?"
"Of course."
"Who else is coming?"
"Just our closest friends," Cleo began. "We're having it at my place, which my dad agreed to on the conditions that I limit it to less than twenty-five people."
"How are you planning to do that?" Purrsephone asked, remembering the last time Cleo threw a party at her place that it got out of hand very quickly.
"Abbey has volunteered to be our bouncer," Cleo answered, causing the yeti girl to grin and crack her knuckles.
"That'll do it," Purrsephone said. "Is Holt going to be the DJ?"
"He and Operetta are going to alternate duties in that area," Cleo said. "That way, Jackson can come and enjoy the festivities as well."
"Of course, his ability to mingle will be limited while he's wearing his acoustic dampening headphones," Purrsephone said as she put her hand around her chin and started stroking it.
"Why are you so interested in Holt and Jackson?" Frankie asked. "And how did you know that Jackson uses special headphones to make sure he doesn't turn into Holt?"
"I think I know," Draculara said in a sing-song voice. "She likes Jackson: that's why she asked about him, that's why she's paid attention to him and knows how he uses headphones to prevent transforming into Holt and that's why she tried to make Jackson feel better even though she risked word getting out about her not being mute."
Damn, she's good, Purrsephone thought as her eyes widened due to her now being pushed into a corner.
"Draculara is absolutely right," Purrsephone admitted. "I like Jackson."
"Why?" Cleo asked flatly. "He seems so boring."
"With all the excitement I've had with Toralei and my sister, a little boring would be a nice change of pace," Purrsephone said. "Besides, he's cute in an adorably dorky kind of way."
"Look Purrsephone," Clawdeen began. "You should stay away from Jackson. He and Frankie and Holt are going through some complicated stuff that you do not want to get in the middle of."
"Actually, this might be for the best," Frankie said. "Between Holt and Jackson, I like Holt more because he's so high-energy. I'd have told them this by now except I was worried that it would just destroy Jackson."
"But now he can have me as a consolation prize," Purrsephone said with a wide grin.
"Exactly," Frankie said. "If you want to pursue Jackson, this could be what's best for everybody."
"I'm glad we're in agreement about that," Purrsephone said. "Because I would very much like Jackson's cell number."
"Okay," Frankie said as she gave it to the werecat.
…..
Purrsephone walked into classroom that had been designated for detention and took a seat. A few other students were in there, but the teacher who was supposed to look over them hadn't arrived yet. Purrsephone was not looking forward to this: she didn't have a lot of homework to do and once she got that out of the way, she'd have nothing to do but sit quietly.
As she was thinking about this, Mr. Hack walked into the room.
Things are starting to look up, Purrsephone thought.
"Alright, you know the rules," Mr. Hack said as he sat down, took out a small pillow from the bag he had with him and placed the pillow on the desk. "Stay in the room and keep your traps shut and I didn't see anything." He then placed his head on the pillow and closed his eyes.
Mr. Hack was well known among the habitual troublemakers at Monster High for his somewhat crooked take on detention. While his terms certainly limited what could be done, most people used the time to play cards, join Mr. Hack in naptime or text their friends on the outside. The troublemakers didn't usually care about anything any authority said but they were so grateful to Mr. Hack for this arrangement that they made sure not to disturb his nap (mostly out of fear that doing so would aggravate him into revoking his generosity).
Purrsephone took out her icoffin and sent a text to Jackson. It read, "I got your number from Frankie. What's up?" (1)
"Not much," Jackson replied. "You?"
"Detention," Purrsephone texted back. "Fell asleep during Mr. Rotter's class."
"That is such entrapment," Jackson texted. Purrsephone quietly chuckled at how he used the exact wording as Ghoulia.
"Totally," Purrsephone texted. "I play video games sometimes. Is it just me or does every game involve shooting stuff?"
"That's pretty much the case with most major releases," Jackson replied. "You are not the only one who has noticed that." There was a pause as Jackson worked on a new text.
"I have an online friend who hates the pokemon games due to them pretty much being supernatural cockfighting, but decided to give one a shot because it was a change of pace from constantly shooting things."
Purrephone and Jackson made small talk for quite some time. One of the things they talked about was how Heath had a date with Scarah later that night and how neither of them saw that coming.
"I get off from detention at 5. Want to meet up in the park so we can talk in person."
"Yes," Jackson texted.
Purrfect, Purrsephone thought. She looked at the clock on her icoffin and noted that she and Jackson had texted back and forth for about forty minutes. It didn't seem that long.
She decided to spend what was left of her time in detention getting her homework out of the way.
…
After school that day, Toralei got on her motorcycle and rode to a bridge that was about two blocks from the park. Walls had been built around the area beneath the bridge so it could be used as a home for a family of trolls. She walked up to the wall and knocked on the door.
A female troll opened the door. She was large, with broad shoulders, thick arms and a pot belly atop tree trunk thighs. She had green skin with squarish facial features, somewhat large breasts, pointed ears and dark green hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks (which was very likely due to trolls being infamous for their poor hygiene).
"Hi Teala," Toralei greeted her kind-of friend that she had kept in touch with a bit ever since she got away from her involuntary trip to Math Camp.
"Hi Toralei," Teala said with a gravelly, unfeminine voice (2) as she stepped outside. "I'd invite you inside but the place stinks more than usual, even by troll standards. My grandparents are coming for dinner on Sunday so mom's gathering engreadiants to make possum pot pie."
There isn't a single part of that sentence that didn't gross me out a little, Toralei thought.
"That's fine," Toralei said. "I hope things have been going good with you because I've seen better days." Toralei explained her situation with Purrsephone. "So I'm having a little get-together with two of my non-werecat twin friends and I was hoping you could make it."
"I'd love to!" Teala responed enthusiastically and then went to hug Toralei but the werecat held up her hand to stop her.
"Five feet of distance at all times," Toralei said and then lowered her hand. "Especially when you smell like motor oil and week-old salad dressing. Which reminds me: I'll need you to bathe before the get-together."
"Okay," Teala agreed. "I'll take my monthly bath one week early before meeting your other friends."
"Great," Toralei said. "Now how would you like a ride on my motorcycle?"
"I'd love that," Teala said gleefully and then toned it down. "But what about the five feet rule?"
"You can get closer than that once I put on my helmet," Toralei explained, then turned around and walked over to her motorcycle, a Honda CBR.
"Cool," Teala said as she walked behind Toralei and admired her motorcycle.
"Yes, it's very cool," Toralei said as she put on her helmet. She wasn't very fond of the bike at first because she originally wanted a Kawasaki Ninja, which was sleeker and less bulky than the CBR. Unfortunately, her step dad refused to give her one due to it being a high-performance machine, making it both expensive and ill suited for beginner riders.
Toralei handed the spare helmet she kept in the bike's under seat compartment to Teala. The troll girl put on the helmet and they both got on.
…
Author's notes: (1) I don't text much and what little I do, I do in complete sentences. Imagine they had this conversation the way people actually text.
(2) I imagine Teala sounding like Grenda from 'Gravity Falls' but less manish.