It was officially the second week of the new school year at Monster High. Frankie and Jake arrived on campus and sat down at a table, joining Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo, Ghoulia, Jackson, Clawd, Gil, Deuce, and Heath. Everyone greeted each other instantaneously.
"Anybody predicting how their second week is gonna go?" Jackson asked.
The rest of the gang responded with a 'so-so' gesture.
"I hear ya." Jackson said, nodding.
Clawd changed the subject and looked at the ghouls and Jake.
"Did you guys have fun at the Maul yesterday?"
"We sure did!" Frankie replied happily.
"What'd you guys do?" Gil asked.
"We ate pizza at the food court, Clawdeen, Lagoona, and Cleo went clothes shopping, and Frankie, Ghoulia, and I showed Jake the arcade there." Draculaura said.
"That was my favorite part of whole trip! The games in that place were just joyous." Jake said, swooning.
"Looking for clothes wasn't so joyous, unfortunately." Clawdeen mused.
"Yeah, we couldn't find anything we liked and the prices were unbelievable." Lagoona said.
"I think they've gotten more expensive since the last time we've been there because I honestly don't remember them being that high at all." Cleo said.
Deuce chimed in. "That sucks. I would've tagged along but my mom made me catch up on unfinished homework from last week, so that was fun."
"Why didn't do you do it while we were in Study Howl? You had the entire period to get caught up." Heath said.
"I don't know, I guess I didn't think of it." Deuce replied with a shrug.
"Yeah, you were too busy talking to us." Clawd joked, giving a smirk.
"Oh, whatever!" Deuce exclaimed.
All of a sudden, Toralei, Purrsephone, and Meowlody approached the gang out of nowhere. You might say they were looking for trouble.
"Hey, everyone. Got room for three more?" Toralei greeted smugly.
Jake, Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo, Ghoulia, Jackson, Clawd, Gil, Deuce, and Heath expressed their disapproval at their adversary.
"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in." Clawdeen remarked, disgusted.
Toralei ignored that comment. "I heard you guys had a Michael Jackson listening listening party on Saturday."
"And why does that concern you?" Gil asked.
"I'm gonna answer that question with a question. Why weren't we invited?" Toralei asked, referring to herself, Purrsephone, and Meowlody.
"Two reasons. One, we didn't want you there, and two, you've never even heard of Michael Jackson and wouldn't have a clue who he was unless we told you." Jake said.
"That doesn't matter. It still would've been nice if you asked us if we wanted to come." Toralei said.
"Well, I'm afraid you're a couple days too late, sorry." Jackson said.
Toralei, Purrsephone, and Meowlody uninvitedly joined the gang at the table, much to their annoyance.
"Since we're on the subject of music, Jake, what artists do you have on your phone?" Toralei asked.
"None of your business." Jake said snidely.
Without warning, Toralei snatched Jake's phone off the table, unlocked it, and opened Musi.
"Hey! Give me my phone back!" Jake commanded while trying to reach for it, but to no avail.
"Give him his phone back, Toralei!" Frankie said angrily.
"Hold on, I just wanna see what artists he likes to listen to. Let's see what we got here. Michael Jackson, the Beatles, ABBA, the Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi? Jake, what is this?" Toralei asked, giggling in a mocking tone.
Jake was able to snatch his phone from Toralei's hands.
"Nothing you'd be interested in."
"I have to say, you're music tastes are pretty lame, man." Toralei said.
"Whatever!" Jake exclaimed while crossing his arms.
"Hey, don't insult his music tastes!" Clawdeen said defensively.
"Yeah, he can listen to whatever he wants!" Heath added.
Toralei rolled her eyes in derision. "You guys are such babies. Purrsephone, Meowlody, let's go."
Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo, Ghoulia, Jackson, Clawd, Deuce, Gil, Heath, and Jake watched Toralei and her friends leave. They were sure glad they were out of their sight.
"I can't stand that cat! Every time I see her, I just wanna...oooohh!" Clawdeen grumbled.
At that moment, the bell rang. The gang went inside the school and walked to Dead Languages. On the way there, they noticed that Jake was still distraught.
Concerned, Frankie looked at Jake and asked, "You okay?"
"Yeah. It's just that the more I encounter Toralei, the more I dislike her." Jake responded.
"Don't let her get to you, bro. She's just likes to mess with people for no reason." Deuce said, placing his hand on Jake's shoulder.
Jake, Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo, Ghoulia, Jackson, Clawd, Deuce, and Heath went to the aforementioned Dead Languages, while Gil went his own first period class.
Mr. Rotter stood in front of his students. "Good morning, class!"
"Good morning, Mr. Rotter!" the class greeted in unison.
"Today, we will be taking notes on dead languages from Down Under, so pay very close attention." Mr. Rotter said.
Lagoona got excited because she was from Australia.
"Down Under? That's where I'm from! This is going to be exciting!"
Lagoona's friends were happy for her in that moment.
Mr. Rotter began his lesson for the day and the class followed suit.
(1 hour later)
When Dead Languages ended, the main 6 ghouls, the 4 mansters and Jake headed out and walked down the hall together.
"Lagoona, were you excited your home country was represented in first period?" Jake asked her.
"I sure was, mate! All the talk about Australia was so nostalgic to me, and it made me a little homesick at the same time, but that's okay because there's always family trips!" Lagoona said with an optimistic feel.
"Heh, yeah!" Frankie said.
At that moment, the ghouls, Jackson, and Jake went to Mad Science, their second period class; Clawd, Deuce, and Heath went to their own classes.
XXXXXXX
3 hours later, Clawculus came upon the day. Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo, Ghoulia, Jackson, and especially Jake were all dreading it since they shared the class with Toralei.
The gang sighed and sat down at their seats. Operetta took note of this.
"Hey, y'all. Why the long faces?" Operetta asked, tilting her head to the side.
Cleo pointed behind her with her thumb, alluding to Toralei, Purrsephone, and Meowlody.
"Oh..." Operetta said awkwardly.
"Toralei gave me a hard time earlier this morning." Jake said.
"How so?" Operetta asked.
"She took my phone, looked at some of the singers I listen to and made fun of me for it. She said my music tastes were lame." Jake said.
"Your music tastes aren't lame, they're rad! Granted, we've only heard Michael Jackson, but still!" Operetta said happily.
Jake smiled knowingly. "Thanks, Operetta. Stuff like this usually doesn't bother me, but it was the way Toralei said it and her attitude that got me."
"I understand. But don't worry about her, your ghoulfriends got your back, pal." Operetta said with a smile.
That alone made Jake feel better. He hadn't gotten this much support from friends since elementary school.
When the bell rang, Mr. Mummy got up from his desk and stood in front of the class, putting his hands together.
"Alright, class, today we will be reading chapter three of your Clawculus books, so take those out and we'll begin." Mr. Mummy announced.
The students grabbed the aforementioned textbooks and put them on their desks. Mr. Mummy went back to his own desk and opened up his book so the class could follow along.
A short time later, Toralei found a way to mess with Jake by repeatedly swinging her leg back and forth so that it would hit his seat. It didn't take him very long to notice it.
"What are you doing?" Jake whispered while looking behind him.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Toralei whispered, dodging the question. Purrsephone and Meowlody snickered.
Jake shook his head and continued reading from his textbook. However, the constant kicking of his seat was beginning to get on his nerves.
"Toralei, stop!" Jake whispered with irritation.
"Toralei, stop!" Toralei mocked. Purrsephone and Meowlody giggled at this.
Draculaura stepped in. "Toralei, seriously, stop it! Leave him alone!"
All Toralei did was meow derisively while her friends were laughing hysterically.
Jake did his best ignore to the cat bully and tried to focus on reading.
Just ignore her, Jake. She'll stop eventually.
The kicking of his seat went on the point where Jake was starting get pissed off. He turned around in a huff.
"Toralei, stop!" Jake yelled angrily. His yell was loud enough for the whole class to hear, including Mr. Mummy.
"Toralei, whatever you're doing to Jake, knock it off or I'll send you to Headmistress Bloodgood's office." Mr. Mummy warned.
"Sorry, Mr. Mummy!" Toralei said with her arms crossed. She had a mocking frown on her face as well.
Jake looked at Jackson and whispered, "God, she's so annoying!" to him.
"I know! Don't worry, we'll stand up for you. We got your back." Jackson reassured.
Jake nodded and continued reading. Unfortunately, Toralei just wouldn't take a hint and kept kicking his seat. She seemed to enjoy doing it, too. This wouldn't go unnoticed, however, as the ghouls, Jackson, and Mr. Mummy immediately caught wind of it.
"TORALEI!" Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo, Ghoulia, Operetta, and Jackson shouted angrily.
Mr. Mummy intervened. "Alright, Toralei, that's it! Headmistress Bloodgood's office, now!"
Toralei got upset and begrudgingly marched out of Clawculus. The rest of the class was relieved while Purrsephone and Meowlody hid behind their textbooks, not wanting to be seen.
Now really angry, Toralei headed to Headmistress Bloodgood's office with a sour expression on her face.
"I can't believe that wimp of a normie ratted on me!" Toralei complained to herself.
When the werecat made it to Headmistress Bloodgood's office, she sighed and knocked on the door.
"Come in!" Bloodgood said from inside.
Toralei opened the door and entered the office, scowling.
"Toralei? What did you do this time?" Bloodgood asked.
"Why don't you ask Jake Wilder? He's the reason why I'm here in the first place." Toralei replied snidely.
Headmistress Bloodgood nodded and reached for her megaphone. She spoke, "Jake Wilder, I need to speak with you in my office please." into it and set it back down.
A few moments later, Jake came in. The door was already open but he closed it once he arrived.
"You wanted to see me, Headmistress Bloodgood?" Jake asked politely.
"Yes, Jake. Toralei came to my office and according to her, you're the reason why she's in here. Did something happen between the two of you that I need to know about?" Bloodgood asked.
"I can explain. You see, while we were in Clawculus class, Toralei kept kicking the back of my seat, and, uh, even after I told her to stop, she kept doing it." Jake explained.
Toralei just squinted at Jake dersively while he scowled at her.
"Toralei, is this true?" Bloodgood asked her.
At this point, Toralei was forced to confess and tell the truth. She knew that if she lied to the head of Monster High, it would hurt her reputation and her image badly.
"Yes, Headmistress Bloodgood, it's true." Toralei said. Her tone of voice showed shame and embarrassment.
Headmistress Bloodgood nodded. "Why were you even kicking the back of Jake's seat in the first place?"
Toralei sighed. "Because...he and his friends had a Michael Jackson listening party and I wasn't invited!"
Jake was absolutely dumbfounded. He figured Toralei was always a bit petty, but not to these levels. Headmistress Bloodgood, on the other hand, leaned back in her chair as she didn't know what to make of the situation.
"Are you friggin' kidding me?! You were kicking my seat because we didn't invite you to the listening party?!" Jake asked in pure shock.
"Yeah! I wanted to come and you guys didn't even bother to ask me. I didn't even know about it until Spectra and Manny told me!" Toralei exclaimed.
"We didn't invite you because we didn't want you there, Toralei! You're an obnoxious jerk who only causes problems for other people around you!" Jake yelled.
Toralei gasped, taken aback by those words. "You take that back right now!"
Headmistress Bloodgood intervened. "Both of you, calm down! Look, Toralei, while I can understand your frustration of not being invited to a party that you really wanted to attend, antagonizing another student is NOT the answer!"
"Thank you!" Jake said with a sigh of relief.
"And Jake, you have every right to be angry with Toralei, but calling her names isn't going to help matters either. It's better if you take a more calm approach." Bloodgood said.
"Ha!" Toralei quipped, pointing her index finger at Jake.
"Headmistress Bloodgood, with all due respect, I meant what I said when I called her a jerk." Jake said.
"Oh, I'm sure you did." Toralei said sarcastically.
Headmistress Bloodgood sighed as she was starting to get annoyed at the bickering between the two students in her office.
"Alright, I'm putting an end to this right now. Toralei, apologize to Jake. Now."
Toralei reluctantly gave in, even though she didn't want to.
"Fine. Sorry for kicking your seat, Jake."
"Thanks." Jake said. He was still mad at Toralei, but her apology made him feel a little better.
"Now that this all settled, the two of you may head back to class." Bloodgood said.
At that moment, Jake and Toralei left the office and began heading back to Clawculus.
Toralei glared at Jake. "You're gonna pay for getting me in trouble!"
"Whatever you say." Jake said nonchalantly.
The two went inside Clawculus and sat down at their desks. Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo, Ghoulia, Operetta, and Jackson wanted to know how everything went down.
"Did Toralei apologize to you?" Frankie whispered to Jake.
"Yeah." Jake whispered.
"Good!" Operetta whispered with a thumbs up.
For the rest of the block, Clawculus continued like normal.
XXXXXXX
At lunchtime, the students of MH were lined up in the creepateria ready to eat. Jake, Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo, Ghoulia, Operetta, and Jackson got their food and sat down, followed by Abbey, Robecca, Spectra, Clawd, Deuce, Gil, Heath, and Manny joining them.
"So Jake, I, uh, heard you got sent to Headmistress Bloodgood's office." Gil told him.
"Mm-hmm. Well, she moreso asked me to speak with her." Jake said.
"What for?" Manny asked.
"She wanted to know what happened between me and Toralei." Jake responded.
Spectra chimed in. "What did happen between you and Toralei?"
"She kept kicking the back of my seat in Clawculus class. Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo, Ghoulia, Jackson, and Operetta can even testify." Jake said.
"Yeah, that wasn't a fun period." Clawdeen said.
"So, what did Bloodgood do about it?" Clawd asked.
"She made Toralei apologize to me. Granted, the apology probably wasn't sincere, but oh well." Jake said.
"Her apologies are never sincere unless she does something really messed up." Cleo said.
"Makes sense." Jake said, nodding. He took a bite of soup. "But there was something Toralei said to me, um, on the way back to Clawculus that really threw me off."
"What'd she say?" Deuce asked.
"She said I'm gonna pay for getting her in trouble. What do you guys think she meant by that?" Jake asked apprehensively.
Frankie chimed in. "Probably nothing. She likes to say that kinda stuff just to mess with people and scare them."
"I don't know, I think she actually meant it this time. What if she tries to hurt me?" Jake asked, starting to get nervous.
"Don't worry, Jake, we're not gonna let that happen." Draculaura reassured.
"If she even attempts to lay a claw on you, then so help me!" Clawdeen growled.
Jake's paranoia was starting to kick in. As stated before, it could get to bad levels and he had several close calls with panic attacks.
"Oh man, now I'm freaking out! I mean, I initially brushed off what Toralei said, but since I brought it up, I can't stop thinking about it!" Jake exclaimed.
Worried, Jake's friends tried to calm him down. They all huddled closer to him.
"Jake, it's okay. Just try to relax." Frankie reassured.
Jake took several deep breaths in and out, and also drank some water. Thankfully for him, this helped.
"Okay, I think I'm calm now. I'm just not gonna think about it." Jake said with a sigh.
Frankie, Draculaura, Clawdeen, Lagoona, Cleo, Ghoulia, Abbey, Operetta, Robecca, Spectra, Clawd, Deuce, Gil, Heath, Jackson, and Manny all nodded. They kept an eye on Jake for the rest of lunch.
When the gang finished their lunch, they went outside and sat in the grass.
Lagoona looked at Spectra and Manny. "It's a shame you two missed out on the Michael Jackson listening party."
"I know! I wanted to come so badly but I was too busy with headlining the Ghostly Gossip. That's not something you can just put off." Spectra said.
"And I couldn't come because my mom grounded me for throwing eggs at my neighbor's house." Manny said.
"Why were you doing that in the first place?" Jackson asked, confused.
"Because it's fun!" Manny said mischievously.
The gang shook their heads, smiled, and facepalmed.
"It was still nice of you guys to ask us, though." Spectra said with a smile.
"That's what friends do!" Jake said happily.
The gang continued engaging in conversation with each other until the bell rang and had to go back inside, enduring fifth and sixth period.
XXXXXXX
At the end of the day, school was over once again. After saying bye to their friends, the main 6 ghouls and Jake left.
Jake and Frankie got in the car and headed home. They entered their house and were greeted by Viktor and Viveka.
"Hey, kids!" Viktor said.
"Hey." Frankie and Jake both said.
"How was school?" Viveka asked.
"Fine, I guess." Jake replied tiredly. He took off his shoes and plopped on the couch, with Frankie doing the same.
"Why just fine?" Viktor asked, curious.
Jake bit his lower lip. "I don't wanna talk about it."
The Stein parents exchanged confused glances. Frankie completely understood, though.
"Okay..." Viveka said awkwardly.
Suddenly, Jake's phone rang. He pulled it out and answered it.
"Hello? Wait, Michelle, calm down. I'm staying with a friend. Yes, I know I left without telling you but I'm living with my friend now. Don't worry, Michelle, I'm okay. Alright, bye." Jake spoke into the phone, and hung up.
"Who was that?" Frankie asked.
"The foster care place. The lead social worker wanted to know where I was and why I left. I told her I was living here. She was scared to death." Jake said.
"Oh. Well, I mean, you did leave without giving them notice." Frankie said.
"Yeah, I know, but like I said, they'll be just fine without me." Jake said, and leaned back.