After returning from the field trip from Monsters Inc, we then proceeded to train for a bit in scaring, with me actually going to Mike specifically.
"Mike, can I talk to you in private for a sec?" I asked, him nodding, since we'd finished training the others for the day and I had to train him next. So we went to the basement and he asked the question.
"What's up?" he asked.
"I wanted to let you know something about the scaring. I didn't want to say this in front of the others, but you also need improvement with your scares, despite your passion about it," I said, him being confused.
"I don't understand. Are you saying you don't think I'm scary?" he asked.
"No, no, you're scary alright. That big eye on you and the fact your face is your entire body? It actually scared me when I first saw you, to be honest," I admitted truthfully. Even though he looked like he did in the movie, I felt Mike looked quite creepy, way more than Sully did. "The issue you have is not your appearance, not your technique, and it isn't your knowledge of scares. It's execution that you falter a bit on," I said, which Mike looked at in surprise.
"Execution, you say? Could you explain further?" he asked.
"Your knowledge of every single scare in the book is incredible, and I know you don't need to learn any of the moves anymore, since you've got them down pat. But whenever you do the scare, you don't give it enough OOMPH, if you know what I mean. You need to do it quickly, but loudly. You need to find the match within you and ignite it into a blowtorch. Dig deep and let out the true beast within," I said, Mike nodding at that. "Now, let's practice. I'll show the scare you need to do, then you try to do it as good as I do," I said as I then proceeded to do a scare that would frighten children afraid of monkeys and geese. It was a mixture of a goose honking and monkey screeching, which I did loud enough to be heard upstairs. Mike then proceeded to do it, but his wasn't nearly as loud.
"I see what you mean, now. I need to work on it, don't I?" he asked.
"And that's why we're going to train in private from here on out. We'll sneak out after dinner is done and I'll train you a bit more at the sewer where the first game was held," I smiled, him nodding at that. "The echos from the drains will be our gauge for how good your execution was. We'll be doing this three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, as well as on the weekends when we have spare time together."
"Okay, sounds great!" Mike smiled as we then proceeded to join up with the others and head to bed after a hearty meal.
After having a chocolate triple fudge cake delivered to our house by the crab guy of ROR and us eating it in front of him, which he was annoyed at, we then got ready for the next scare game, where we were placed inside of a maze, one each for every team and, when the starters went go, we were to try and find our way out of the maze together (we all had to work together again) all while scaring the kids and avoiding the teens. Our team actually managed to place first yet again, while the teams afterwards consisted of SCP, HSS, and then PNK, my training paying off in spades! And the members of ROR looked pissed at how they were eliminated, which I saw they were actually trying to win, but they weren't about to admit it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, hold the horses! ROR has been eliminated from the Scare games for the first time in 23 years! This event is getting VERY intense!" Claire gawked in shock, which I smiled at how ROR went to me and frowned at us.
"Nice to see you weren't trying to throw the match at all and you still lost," I smiled at them.
"Whatever kind of tricks you're pulling, I'm going to find them out, and I'm going to make sure you don't win these games, at all," Johnny frowned at me.
"No tricks, no pulls. Only treats and push-ups. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to bask in the fact that we're up against three sororities and I'm going to have fun at an all-girl party after today," I smiled.
"You stink," said the newest member of ROR, me seeing it happened to be a creature that looked like a living tree from... of all things, Lethal Company, one of the most recent horror games before I'd went into this world.
"And you're all bark," I said, which actually got Randal to guffaw at before he growled at us. "By the way, Randal, you're a traitor, and I don't like you at all. Next time, try choosing your friends instead of the cool crowd," I frowned at him as I walked off, but I did hear him say one thing while I walked away.
"That's the last time I lose to you, Bandifoot," he frowned at a distance. So he now viewed me as his opponent, but I didn't care. He'd learn that Sully was a better scarer than him and he'd probably be better than me as well. I then looked at Hardscrabble and she looked to be intrigued at the performance and how ROR had lost, which I went to her with a smile.
"Did that surprise you, per chance?" I smirked at her.
"A little bit, yes. ROR looked to be really trying, but they still lost. It's quite surprising that they'd ever be eliminated at any point, let alone at the halfway point," she admitted.
"Don't worry, we'll keep 'em coming to the very end," I smiled at her as we then went to the other sororities and I suggested to them that we have a girl party, which they were all smiles at.
"You don't want to invite your frat friends besides Narleen?" asked Voicebox, which her true name I'd learned was Cleo Pikma.
"They need a bit of a rest after this, and I'm sure that they'll be fine on their own," I smirked.
"Yeah, I agree with what she said. We've been training every day that we can, we deserve a day to relax," Don admitted as he was still panting a bit.
"Well, if you'd like, you can invite your frat friends, so long as they behave themselves," Carrie smirked.
"Don't worry, we're very respectable," Squishy said happily.
"And you've been improving quite a lot! First place twice in a row, and we all eliminated ROR together! That alone deserves a party and a place on the front page of the school paper! Heck, we could also invite EEK to join in," Undine smiled widely.
"I'm sure they'd love to be invited," I smirked widely.
The party in question was very fun, and I saw that, as promised, the boys of Oozma Kappa were, indeed, very kind and respectful to the girl monsters. And three of the members actually managed to net a girlfriend from the different sororities in the process! Don managed to find a kinship with Rhonda Boyd, the lone slug monster from Eta-Hiss-Hiss, which was good, considering that she was also an older girl of about 30 years of age, and that she used to be a member of working in the car industry before deciding to join the college's scare program, which she was a second-year student.
The twin-headed brothers of Terry and Terri were actually both in love with one of the extra members of Slugma-Slugma-Kappa, that being another twin-headed duo that were named Joy and Peace, the latter two actually admitting to the brothers that they were not only jealous of our success, but they had a huge crush on the brothers since first seeing them at the school, but that they didn't dare approach for fear of being ostracized for liking the losers. "We understand, but it doesn't matter now, since we're planning on winning and getting into the Scare Program in the process," Terri smiled.
"And we have twice the heads, so that means twice the brain power," Terry said happily, which they then got a kiss from the two-headed girl, which she was in the form of a snake-like woman with purple hair on both of their heads and fur on her rather than scales. Oh, and both of them had large, bat-like ears on their heads and they had one horn each, with them being on the outside portions of the sides of their heads.
And finally, the last of them to get a girlfriend was Squishy with, surprisingly, Ursa Shift. And it was mainly because when they accidentally bumped into each other, Ursa turned into her bear form for a bit before looking like she was going to run off, but Squishy held her hand instead. "I-I don't want them to see me like this..." she said with a blush on her furry face.
"You don't need to be afraid of what you really look like. It doesn't matter about outward appearance, just how you scare others," Squishy explained.
"Who taught you that? It's... actually kind of nice," Ursa asked.
"Barri did, and she's told us that our skills have been improving a lot!" Squishy smirked.
"Fine... I'll try to look like this normally in public a bit more, but if they make fun of me, I don't know what I'd do," she frowned.
"Well, considering that you can change your form to be literally any scary thing you can think of, just show 'em their inner fears like you tried to do in the sneaking challenge," I smiled at her, which Shapeshifter frowned at me. "I didn't show it at the time, but I was actually scared of that thing you showed me. It's uh... a personal reason," I admitted.
"Your mind had a lot of freaky thoughts in it, which is where I got the idea to turn into that statue thing. You always call it 173... do you have a bunch of numbers for scary things in your head or something? And where would you see something so scary anyways?... And now you're thinking 1048 when you see me like this?" she asked, me frowning as I saw the others were busy partying on the other side of the room, so I frowned.
"If I tell you, nobody knows, not even Felinia. Okay?" I said.
"Promise."
"When I come from, there are a different form of SCP that are basically internet horror. 173 was the statue and you look shockingly like 1048. The statue can move blindingly fast if you look away from it or even blink and the teddy bear can make clones of itself out of different scraps and has evaded capture while still making clones in the facility it was in," I said.
"Hmm... when, you say? Are you sure you're Barri Bigfoot? Because I didn't hear about internet before," Ursa frowned.
"I'm actually her great-granddaughter... from the year of 2023," I said, her looking at me in confusion.
"What? They made doors that late in the future?... And wait... if you come from the human world... then how did you get here?" Ursa asked.
"When my little sister, who looks more human than me, was being scared by Bill Sullivan. He was sneaking around after dark trying to get extra points, you see," I lied, which made her look confused before she then put two and two together.
"Wait... what? More human than you?... A-Are you saying... what I think you are?" she asked, me looking around to see the others were still busy partying.
"The statement of human children being toxic is a lie forged from Waternoose's family since the start, made to prevent the world of monsters from intertwining with the human world of the past. But as for my sister, she was 1/4th monster, while I'm 5/6th monster. And the other parts are human. I was born thinking I was part of freak show deformities when, in reality, I'm a near-identical lookalike to my great grandma, Bigfoot herself, who had been banished to my world in the 1920s," I frowned.
"How... what do I do with this information?" Ursa asked.
"Take it to the grave, at least until I can convince Waternoose to give some kind of explanation for everyone on how adults aren't toxic, cause I doubt he'd lift the rule for children being toxic. But please, do not tell anyone. I'm putting my trust in you for this, okay, Ursa?" I frowned, her sighing and smiling.
"Fine, I agree to that. But in exchange, make it so that you compete at the very end in the scare simulator challenge. Prove that even smaller and cuter monsters can be just as frightening as big and scary ones," Ursa smiled.
"Oh, and so you know, the inner fear that you showed me? It's known as Monster 5 from a horror game. The game is called Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion," I smiled.
"Well, with a game like that, it's no wonder you aren't terrified of us at all. You got quite a tolerance to fear," Ursa giggled as I then saw that only now were the other members looking at our group.
"Hey, what's all secretive and giggly over here, huh? I could use a... wait... Ursa, what's up with the look?" asked Carrie, who looked at her with confusion.
"Um... this is what I really look like, okay? I didn't want to show it, because if Hardscrabble knew this was my true appearance, then I'd never have gotten into the scaring program," she said with a frown.
"Well, I can see where you're coming from. But you don't need to hide it anymore, especially with Oozma Kappa's recent success," Donna Soohoo smiled, her being the very first disguise I'd seen Ursa in from the party on the first day of school.
"I'm just worried about what Hardscrabble might say. Since, you know, I'm not scary looking. We all know that Oozma Kappa's members didn't look scary, and numerous others have been kicked out of school before them," Ursa said with concern, me then going to her and holding her paw.
"Don't worry, if she says ANYTHING during next week's hide and sneak challenge, I will defend you no matter what, got it?" I smiled at her.
"Really? Even after all the stuff I did?"
"All in the past. Besides, I'm honored we have three teams of girls going up against a team of all guys. If any of you would happen to win, it'd prove girl power rules. And if we win, it's proving that the little guys have big bites and we also get Hardscrabble to admit her bias," I smiled.
"And we're gonna try our hardest, too! HISSS!" Rosie hissed followed by the rest of her clique.
After the party had finished, we then went to get ready for the next few events, with Mike being the most improved of the week with him learning how to really execute his scares much better than before! He was now able to roar as loud as Sully, hiss as well as the members of HSS, and use the quickness of ROR when they used their scares!
And now, it came to the Hide and Sneak game, where we were tasked with going into a large mansion (it was Harscrabble's, of course) and us all being assigned to find a hiding spot that none of the campus guards could find us hiding in. And just as before, HSS was the first ones to be eliminated as all the rest of us managed to do well in hiding, with Sully being the bear rug, Mike being the globe, Don hiding on the ceiling with his suction cups, Squishy hiding in the stuffed animals alongside Ursa's true form (the lucky ducks had something in common), Narleen hiding in the refrigerator, Art disguising himself as a scarf on a tree hanger, and me?
I had my own innate power that I'd discovered during training, where I found I could make my fur change color to match whatever I was hiding by, making a perfect camo suit, EXACTLY like Randal! I used this to get past the guards by hiding in front of the countertop with this skill. Hiding in plain sight! And once again, Oozma Kappa got first place, followed by Python Nu Kappa and last place being Spooky Creepus Pho.
"Woo! We got first again!" Narleen cheered happily as Hardscrabble looked to be watching us from the sidelines, but looking perturbed. And of all things, when I was giving hi-fives to the rest of my teammates? She then flew off after I looked at her, which I then proceeded to chase after her, which she flew the whole way to the scare program building and looked to be about to enter before I spoke up.
"Is something up, Hardscrabble?" I asked, her looking at me with a frown.
"Nothing's up, I'm just hoping to do a bit of research," she said, me frowning at that.
"Research about what, exactly?" I asked.
"Nothing you'd be interested in."
"Oh yeah? Is that why you looked annoyed at me hi-fiving my teammates? And when you noticed I was watching you, you fly off?" Once I said this, Hardscrabble frowned as I saw it. She was shaking a bit. "Tell me something. What do you know that I don't?"
"If I said it, I don't know if you'd be offended of the accusal. I was told that you were dangerous from a member of ROR," she said, me frowning at that.
"How so?"
"Do you really want me to say it out loud?"
"Just whisper it."
"U-Um... fine," she said as she got as close as she could to whisper to me, making sure no one was watching us. "I've heard that you're... part human," she said, me frowning at that.
"Which member of ROR told you that?" I frowned.
"Why do you want to know? You're not upset at the accusations?" Hardscrabble asked, looking surprised. Again.
"I'm not upset about the accusation. I just want to know who would be spreading rumors about me. No doubt they're hoping to try and get some dirt on me so that I get disqualified from the games, huh?" I frowned.
"The accusation is serious, though! If you're human, you could be a walking biohazard! I'd need to call the CDA to detain you!" she said, me frowning at her angrily.
"I can assure you, Hardscrabble, that I am not toxic. And I am not a walking biohazard. I've been in physical contact with almost all of my teammates, a few from the other sororities, even Johnny from ROR. Speaking of, since they're trying to mess with me, I have to tell you something that THEY did," I frowned as I then went to her ear hole and whispered to her. "During ROR's party after the second event, they not only tried to prank and embarrass Oozma Kappa, but they also snuck beer onto the campus for the party. I have witnesses from Eta-Hiss-Hiss and Python-Nu-Kappa that it happened, since I had to carry two of PNK's members to the showers because they were so drunk they couldn't wash the multicolored paint off of themselves OR even walk straight," I spoke. And every word I said, it made Hardscrabble's eyes grow wider and angrier.
"You're... You're absolutely sure about this, right? That is even more of an accusation than what ROR is saying about you!" she said to me.
"Have your guards inspect ROR's entire building for the booze, even their trash if need be. I guarantee that you'll find it there. As for me, you have nothing to fear. I am not dangerous, and I am not toxic. If anything, ROR is the toxic ones, just in the form of their blood-alcohol level as opposed to deadly poison," I frowned as I then proceeded to walk myself down the steps. "Oh, and if it was Randal, have him meet with me in private someplace. He wants to be a sneak, I'll be a sneak right back," I frowned at her as I then walked my way down the whole way to Oozma Kappa's dorms, where I saw the others in the class were in the house already and looked at me in surprise.
"Are you okay, Barri? You just vanished out of nowhere," Art asked.
"I'm fine, Hardscrabble told me that a member of ROR was trying to accuse me of being part human," I said, which made Sully gawk.
"Isn't that impossible, though? I thought a monster would be poisoned by any human, adult or kid," he asked.
"I know, right?" I asked, trusting the ones in Oozma Kappa that knew the secret would keep it. "I never once said I was part human to her, because that's honestly ridiculous, so I told her I wasn't toxic and then outed ROR's booze party, since they're still trying to mess with us. And speaking of, maybe we should also warn PNK and SCP about this, just in case ROR wanted to get them eliminated, too," I said as I then had our group call the two leaders up and tell them about ROR's latest trick, which they understood the problems of and agreed to team up with me, even if we were still in heated competition.
"Kick their butts and we'll try to kick yours, too!" Carrie smirked widely.
"I'll try to make sure that our group sleeps in shifts from now on. If they found out about my true appearance, then I'll be in BIG trouble from Hardscrabble for sure! I'll be sure that no one knows your secret either," Ursa said as we then hung up and we decided to sleep in shifts as well, with me and Sherri deciding to be in charge for the first three hours, which would then be followed by Terri, Terry, and Art.