Just so everyone knows I'm switching Paige from being a lacrosse fanatic to a Martial arts one! I just thought of some great ideas for it and I wanted to use that instead. Thanks for understanding!
Paige grumbled sleepily as Molly's abnormally loud alarm clock blared loudly throughout the close quarters of the room. She covered her face with the blankets as the light of day shot through the window and greeted them on their first day of school. Paige heard Molly whisper something along the lines of 'shut the thing up before I smash it' and Paige responded with a 'too tired.' Both girls were reluctant to wake up, even if both had promised to accompany one another to breakfast. Paige finally gave up on chasing away the sunlight and ripped off the blanket from her curvy body and pulled the blinds up to allow the sun to hit them full-blast. She stretched her long arms and scratched the back of her head groggily before pushing the lump in the other bed that was Molly.
"Come on, Molly, up," Paige yawned and waited for Molly to pop out of the covers, "Molly?"
"Go away," she mumbled in reply, "tryin' to sleep."
Paige rolled her eyes as she quickened the speed of her shaking on the girl and when it wouldn't work she snatched up the covers off the girl. Molly hissed at the bright sun and her fingers searched for the hem of the blanket while her bat wings folded over her eyes as a cover. Paige realized that their alarm was still ringing sharply and deafeningly, so with the little patience she had in the morning Paige slammed her fist down on the snooze button. She clock let out a halfhearted beep before breaking on the oak bed stool. Paige made a line to her clothes and began to change into the outfit her mother insisted she wear on the first day of classes. An old senior jacket that her mother had from her 'glory days' that she received when she went to her senior room and a blue mini skirt that stopped halfway to her bony knee caps. Along with her mother's prized flats, Paige admitted she didn't look ugly as she posed in the mirror on the door.
"Not bad, Paige," Molly stretched as she too made her way for her clothes and picked out an outfit that consisted of a blue dress without straps and two slits in the back for her wings to comfortably sit until they were needed. She too had a pair of flats and combed her brown hair briskly with a big comb and Paige took to combing hers with her fingers lazily. Molly grimaced at her own hair, before smirking at Paige's style, but not saying anything to ruin her new friendship since her brothers, and his frat brothers.
The two sophomores gathered the different supplies they would need for each class that they would go to, and locked their keys onto the ring of their notebooks. Paige locked the door tight and Molly began walking down the hall towards the stairs. Chasing after her, Paige knocked into another monster on her way, and judging by the look on Molly's face she didn't want to look up.
It was Johnny Worthington, the oversized eggplant. Still with the arrogant smirk and exaggerated puffed up chest hidden under his fraternity jacket. Next to him was a short dark red crab wearing a RΩR hat, a bug with four unusually pink eyes and a blue body with four arms that made him taller than Johnny and a RΩR jacket without the stupid collar, a green furred monster with three eyes and jagged teeth coming out of his giant mouth, and lastly, a light purple haired monster with small horns sticking out on the top left and right of his head with a RΩR shirt like the bug's.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Johnny smirked down at her and Paige glared at him defiantly, while the other males snickered, "that's a senior jacket, right? What's it doing on a loser sophomore like you?"
Paige bit her tongue, "As an upperclassman, it should be your duty to get me to class without me being late. Right now, you're in my way."
The crab didn't seem to like her attitude, "hey! Watch how you talk to Johnny, you stupid little girl!"
Paige glared down at the gray crab who glowered right back at her, "watch it, shorty, I'm a big fan of sushi."
The crab's eyes widened in shock at her comment, and he stammered while blushing worse than her. She could tell by his expression that he was at lost for words or smart comebacks, and the other frat brother's stared at her in disbelief; she had back talked one of them. She hadn't let them push her aside, but she had done it to them instead. And instead of being angry, Johnny let out a laugh.
"My, my, you're a feisty one, eh?" Johnny laughed, and patted the crab on the head, "calm down, Chet, she didn't know any better. Soon, she'll realize that were people she doesn't want to mess with." Paige shrugged unconcerned and unbothered by the attempt of a threat that the senior made.
"I'm sorry," the crab, Chet, mumbled and looked down at the ground, then back at up with her with a hateful eye. She glared down at him before looking over the fraternity to Molly, who was watching with worried eyes, but she continued to look down at her watch for the time. Paige cursed inwardly; she couldn't let him make her late on the first day of class!
What do I do?
"We should teach you some respect," the pink eyed bug announced as he frowned down at her, but his words seemed more directed at Johnny than her.
Johnny shook his head, and the bug looked away from her, "no, as annoying as she is, I don't have time to waste it on a nobody. Move out of the way, Bones."
Paige stared at the monster with a baffled expression. "Bones?"
The monster grinned widely as if the most amusing joke in the world had been told, "yeah, that's your name, right? Has to be with that stupid thing on your head."
Paige glanced upwards at her bone mask and could feel the horns uncurling, and then pointing diagonally with her anger. It was true; many didn't see a fragment of the bone line in their lifetime, she reminded herself, but the rude pig in front of her could have at least asked my name, "it's not stupid, it's special. At least I don't look like an over-sized eggplant!"
The frat brothers, Johnny excluded, sucked in a shocked breath and Molly covered her mouth behind them to stop herself from laughing. Johnny was again stuck just looking shocked and stupid in front of her, a sophomore to a senior. Even one of his frat brothers, the bug, had to cover his mouth with two hands, but the others looked unamused and unimpressed. Chet looked livid now, and was snapping his pinchers in place as if he would cut her up as soon as Johnny gave the order. However, the latter was too busy just looking dumb. Quickly as he lost it, his pompous air returned and his smiled replaced his open mouth, "I would watch it, Bones, I'm not so forgiving the second time."
Paige's eye twitched, "not my name, Worthless!"
Johnny's eye twitched in the same manner, but his expression now looked darker and anger like she had called him by an old nickname, "what did you just call me?!"
The frat brother's looked from one monster to another, and although they seemed slightly intimidated then, Paige defiantly stood her ground, "you heard me." Johnny looked furious, no outraged and in Paige's heart, she was afraid, but she refused to give them the honor of seeing that emotion from her. Johnny appeared taller now, as if it was possible and no longer puffed out his chest but he had grown two or three inches in height. The bug and the crab laughed darkly and the three eyed monster and the bear monster watched silently to see the outcome.
"Hold on tight!" A voice, Paige realized to be Molly, shouted and the dueling monsters turned to face Molly who was sprinting towards them with her wings unfolded. She was going for Paige, but shoved Johnny aside and grasped Paige's arm. The latter was stunned at the strength of her friend as she pulled her across the blue carpeting with speed, but she was going the wrong way.
"Molly! The stairs are the other way," Paige shouted over her shoulder, when Molly readjusted to grab the collar of her senior jacket instead. Johnny and his frat were on their tails, and catching up since they didn't have to carry anyone along.
Molly grinned at her new friend, "who needs stairs? There is no fun in them." Paige stared in confusion before really looking at the direction her friend was running in.
To the window.
"YOU'RE CRAZY!" Paige screeched as the distance to the window shortened with each passing second.
Molly laughed in response. "I know!"
The winged girl crashed into the window with the loud shattering sound of glass bursting into their ears, and they were falling. Paige stared at the ground in panic and tried to shout for help, but the words wouldn't leave her lips. The ground neared and Paige could only manage to shout.
"Fly, Molly, start freaking flying!"
Molly's wings began to flap quickly, but it wasn't enough. No, no, no, no!
"MOLLY!"
Molly heard the cry of her friend, and it spurred her on. She flapped even faster than she had before, and soon they were no longer falling, but flying upwards. Paige grasped the area of her chest were her heart was, and took in a deep breath. It was too close for her, and she wasn't sure if she was angry at or grateful to Molly, who had risked their lives like that.
Soon, they were close enough to the ground to be dropped safely to the soft green grass. Paige landed ungracefully on the cool ground and tumbled backwards landing on her butt. Molly, on the other hand, simply brought her wings in and landed with her two furry feet on the ground. Molly offered a hand to help Paige up, and reluctantly, Paige grasped it.
"That was crazy, and dangerous. I, no, we could have been killed," Paige scolded as she released Molly's hand and the latter returned her books to her. Molly nodded slowly, and reverted her eyes away from Paige to look at the ground, "but good job."
Molly stared at her wide eyed, but quickly smiled and rubbed the back of her with a blush on her face, "really? I was just so tired of hearing him call you Bones, and threatening you. What a jerk."
As the two girls dusted themselves off, Paige gulped at the amount of crimson blood trickling from her leathery wings and the shards jammed in them. With cautious hands, Paige gently pulled out the glass chips from and used the sleeve of the shirt hidden beneath her senior jacket to wipe away the blood. Molly hissed and her wings writhed in pain. Paige couldn't believe that Molly had done something as reckless and stupid as jump out a glass window, just because Johnny was threatening her. Paige deemed Molly to be the type of monster that valued the lives of friends and family more than her own. It was admirable to a degree, but still stupid, Paige reminded herself. As soon as Paige cleaned up the last of the blood, Molly tucked in her wings and examined them closely for any more glass. Paige brushed off the blood on the grass, and tearing off the sleeves soaked with blood off her shirt.
Molly checked her watch once again and let out a groan, "we missed the opportunity for breakfast! Unbelievable! No one does that to me!"
"Where do we go now?"
Molly regained her composure, "I'll show you the way, just follow me.
The two female monsters arrived at the Scare building right on time, and even with a couple seconds to spare, but not enough to enjoy the fine cafes that the campus had to offer. And it was evident that they hadn't eaten, because their stomachs roared for energy but they settled on the free coffee that one of the teachers was handing out before they went inside the Scare building. Paige sipped the bitter brew while Molly dumped it after the first long gulp, obviously not a fan of coffee.
"Alright, listen up," a voice ordered above the noise of the morning, "I am professor Knight and I am going to be teaching all of you the fundamentals of Scaring this year. I have your classes all right here, and I'm going to ask the following students to stay for this class and others to come back later." The professor was a medium height monster without hunching over with orange scales and bony like spikes poking out from his head and tail. He had bushy eyebrows and a scowl present on his face with glasses covering his two eyes. He wore a white shirt and a striped tie that made him look like a teacher, especially with the clipboard at his side.
Paige saw a familiar green monster walking towards her and waved politely at him. He waved back with a smile on his face and walked over to her and Molly. "Hey, Paige."
"Hey, Mike," she greeted and pointed to Molly, who was rubbing coffee off her tongue, "this is Molly, my roomie." Molly managed to nod her head, but still scrubbed the coffee off her tongue furiously.
Another monster walked up next to Mike, and he seemed more nervous than the Mike, even if he was taller and looked even a little scary, "this is my roommate, Randy Boggs." He resembled a lizard, with purple and blue skin, three pink antennae poking out of his disc shaped head and eight limbs, four walking and four hands stuck out to greet the females. Although, he looked like a true scarer he didn't look like he could actually see. He blinked awkwardly and widened his eyes to see her and Molly clearer. It took him several tries to grasp their hands before he caught her's with one pair and the Molly's with the other.
Randy shook their hands with vigor similar to Mike's handshake from yesterday, "it's great to meet you to. I hope we have classes together; any friend of Mike's is a friend of mine."
Paige was happy to be finally greeted politely since Molly or Mike, "it's great to meet you as well, my name is Paige Jordan and this is Molly Perry." She gestured to her friend who was flipping through her papers randomly and allowing them to flop down to the ground.
Randy smiled, "well, I hope I have classes with you, Miss. Jordan."
Paige nervously rubbed the back of her head, "no need for formalities, just Paige is good." Randy's smile vanished and he stared down at the floor with a timid expression instead. My, someone is sensitive. Mike was not paying attention to his roommate or female friend, but kept his eye trained on Professor Knight who was reading the class lists aloud. Paige mentally scolded herself for getting so distracted, but she was sure that Mike would inform her if her name was called, "-and that's all the students I have for Scaring 101. Please enter through these doors and find a seat immediately. As soon as I get this sorted out, we will begin class. Understood?"
A chorus of 'yes sirs' rang through the dimly lit hallways of the Scaring Building as students began to leave to enter the large doors and fade from view. "Well, I guess we won't have class together, Paige," Mike sighed and Paige smiled at the disappointed tone in his voice. "But maybe I will see you around?"
Paige nodded and so did Molly who was finished looking for papers and brushing coffee off her tongue, "definitely. Bye, Randy, it was nice to meet you!"
Randy blushed from the compliment, "thanks, Paige. I hope that this won't be the last time we meet. And goodbye, Molly, it was nice to see another pretty face besides Paige's."
Molly looked confused as if she wasn't sure to thank the lizard monster or call him a flirt, but she settled on waving silently and watching the two male monsters walk together side by side in deep conversation into the class. All of the other students, most likely sophomores, juniors and seniors, conversed with one another and reminisced about the past years they had at the school. When the door shut behind the freshmen, Paige noticed a familiar shaped object lying on the cold floorboards. It was Mike's old MU hat and Paige concluded that he had brought the hat, but hadn't noticed. Paige frowned; she didn't think that was true; it looked like something he treasured deeply. Perhaps Randy had brought it with him?
Paige shook her head at the stupid thought; Randy was polite and a gentleman, why would he do something like that? She lifted the hat off the ground and dusted it off before walking back over to Molly while tucking the hat safely into her binder. She would return it to Johnny before the day was out because she was sure that he would panic without his prize possession, "alright, will the next group of students please step up when I call your name."
Professor Knight read off a list of new monsters, and they waved goodbye to their friends and entered anther room not too far from the one Mike went to. "And Molly Perry," Professor Knight finished, "alright will those students please report to the room two doors down to the left please. And the rest of you, well, you don't have any of my minor classes."
Molly and Paige exchanged puzzled looks before Paige walked over to Professor Knight who had hopped down from the chair that allowed him to tower over them, "excuse me, Professor?"
He turned to face her, "yes?"
"There has to be some kind of mistake, I shouldn't be in an advanced class," Paige clarified and he raised an uninterested eyebrow, "I'm a sophomore, not a senior or junior."
Professor Knight shrugged his large shoulders, "I don't know what to tell you. You're not on the list for my morning classes, just the afternoon ones which means you're advanced." Paige opened her mouth to protest, but Molly placed a hand on her shoulder.
"It's okay, Paige," Molly reassured, but even she sounded unconvinced, "you'll do great. Will still see each other at the dorms, right?" Paige nodded slowly, and Molly strode away from her and the professor to the last room. Paige then realized that she was the only monster left except Professor Knight who was mumbling something about unorganized monsters and responsibilities. He adjusted his glasses before flicking through his rosters.
"What's your name, kid?" He asked, and Paige replied coolly, "yep, you're in my afternoon class with the juniors and seniors…what did you say your last name was?"
"Jordan," Paige replied and his eyes flickered with remembrance, "why?" As quickly as his shock arrived it vanished and he waved his hand absentmindedly away in a shooing manner.
"Never mind," he responded back before turning his back to her and walking towards his first class of the day, "well, the last thing this school needs is another troublemaker." Paige frowned and wanted for him to elaborate, but he slammed the doors closed; leaving her with her thoughts and questions.
Paige exited the Scare Building and staggered down the steps past the gargoyles and onto the freshly trimmed grass below. She was confused on why she wasn't in a less advanced class. She had never been the smartest or the scariest in any of her classes at Fear Tech. Of course, Paige wouldn't call herself stupid or meek, but she doubted her abilities in such a class. And the other thing bothering her was what the professor had said.
The last thing we need at this school is another troublemaker.
Paige stopped midstride and furrowed her eyebrows. What did he mean by that? Her mother had never spoken of herself or her husband as the class clown or misfit of Monsters University. She could already tell that she and the professor were not going to have the best teacher-student friendship.
As a new student, Paige wasn't sure where she should go. She hadn't signed up for a full-time schedule until second semester so her two classes of the day were in the afternoon only. Paige mentally slapped herself for not checking her schedule and thinking how she could have avoided the whole Johnny situation. And avoided the nickname 'Bones' as well from the oversized eggplant with horns.
She settled on heading to one of the cafés that the school's campus had to offer, and headed off in the direction that was marked on her map. She had actually marked all food related buildings, even the secret cafeteria of the teachers and staff. The list of eateries was long and made Paige's stomach growl in anticipation; The Growl, Monster Café, Tastes Like Nature, La Miniscule Cafe des Monsters, Blended Edibles, and the Coffee Closet. She settled on the Monster Café when the guide clearly listed that they were infamous on campus for their hot sludge sundaes which she could use. She began to walk again and hummed a small tune as various monsters greeted her, even if they didn't know her name.
"Hey Bones!"
"You must be Bones, how's school so far?"
"Looking hot, Bones!"
Paige glared at them in disgust, especially the one who had called her hot, and continued on her way hoping not to run into any other students. She was glad that lady luck was on her side, and she managed to avoid any other monsters who would call her Bones. She managed to find the quaint little restaurant and sighed in relief while her stomach growled for food.
It was simple and designed similar to the rest of the school with pointy teeth poking out of the letters of the restaurant. It had a blue and white striped canopy to cover the outside tables where monsters discussed their classes and new teachers. It had glass windows that were covered with letters and old newspaper with pictures of cheese flies and hot sludge sundaes that made the paper edible. The door had a large blue 'Welcome Students' sign on it. Paige pushed the door open where the aroma of fresh food hit her full blast. She looked at the several monsters flipped through text books and jotted down notes in large binders.
Paige decided to seat herself, since no one was waiting to seat her and grabbed a menu on the way to her preferred seat. She sat in the corner booth and removing her many supplies that her mother had packed for her to use. Soon the same girl who had told Paige she had a face problem waltzed up and offered her a glamorous smile, "hey girl! What would you like to order on this fine day?"
Paige had flipped through the menu and didn't really find anything that was eye catching even if she was hungry. "Do you have monster munchies?"
The girl nodded suspiciously, "yes, but there not on the menu. More for the staff, then customers."
Paige shut the menu and handed it to Carrie. "I want a giant bowl," Paige decided and spread out her arms to show the size, "this big of monster munchies, please."
Carrie looked ready to protest, but shrugged instead before skipping off with new found energy to the kitchen to hopefully place her order instead of place a complaint. Paige sat quietly in the corner; bored beyond anything and upset that she had no one to talk to. She would have talked to anyone, well, maybe not anyone. But luck was unsympathetic, and it gave her a very different person to speak to.
"Hello," a cold voice greeted, and Paige looked up into dark icy eyes that looked ready to pierce her soul, "are you Paige Jordan?" It was a female, with a dragon like head and long red wings similar to Molly's with little claws sticking out of the ends. She had a multiple legs sticking out of a shell like body and a maroon colored jacket covering the top half of her pale underbelly. It was then Paige realized how quiet the room had become and how many eyes were trained on them.
"Yes," Paige retorted in a defensive tone, "and you are?"
The woman's indifferent eyes observed her calmly, "I am Dean Hardscrabble. And you, young lady, have ruined my first day back to school."