Lost In Purple

by Lupinelectro

After being invited to the Rush Week parties at Frat Row by an old friend, Melanie learns how to overcome her antisocial nature from the best fraternity on campus. Soon, she'll find herself stuck in between the stresses of schoolwork, fraternity conflicts, and within the confusing processes of falling in love with someone she doesn't belong with.

60. When Everything Becomes Bleak (Part 2)

Lost In Purple

Chapter 60: When Everything Becomes Bleak (Part 2) - Proudness Is Passing

Johnny's POV

"Monsters University
We give our heart to you
We want you to be proud of us
What ever we may do

No matter where life takes us
Your light will come shining through
From Monsters University
Alma Mater, we love you

Monsters of the world
Can you hear the call?
At Monsters University
You're welcome, one and all

Monsters University
We never will forget
The golden years we spent with you
And the monsters that we met

Wherever children are dreaming
We'll bring them nightmares too
Oh, Monsters University
Alma Mater, hail to you"

Every monster on campus goes wild, throwing their hands in the air and tossing their caps high into the sky. The night is as calm as it could be, and reminds us all of those amazing summer nights you would spend with your best friends. However, the calmness is about to be turned into pure disarray for tonight. The excitement in the air is intoxicating, putting the entire ROR fraternity on cloud nine. Nothing could make us happier than to perform in front of everyone, but to also come out on top as the winners of the most fearsome event on campus. Just like all the years before, we've proven ourselves to be unrivaled! I'm hoping that my father will be proud to learn that I've met his expectations once this is all over. He's been controlling my life for the past few months all because of this anyways.

"Welcome to the final competition of the Scare Games," The goth Greek council member announces.

This is our cue to move up the field and towards the Scare Simulator in front of us. We will of course have the ability to sit down and all, but who can refuse the spotlight once it's given to them. While we bask in said glory, it's the griffin members turn to hype up the crowd. "It's time to see how terrifying you really are, in the Scare Simulator!"

The makeshift stage is set up within the amphitheater and looks professional as can be. The two simulators have a bed that's turned to the side along with various other homely goods, and the metal supports hold everything like stage lights and the sliding walls that have our fraternity logos on them. Obviously, all eyes will be on the right simulator because of our unmatchable magnitude of Scaring.

"But be warned! Each simulated Scare has been set to the highest difficulty level. First Scarers to the starting line," The Greek council member instructs.

This will be easy, like I've said the entire semester. I can see them standing over there in complete panic, which can only be a good thing for us. Let's just make a plan and get this over with. "Alright listen up. Upper class men are last, which means Bruiser and Boggs are first. Chet and Chip go after. Javier and I will finish off strong. Anyone disagree with that?" I direct.

The guys all look at each other in agreement, all except Javier. "Señor, I think we should put Boggs second to last. Since he's been performing flawlessly, I would like for him to surprise everyone and maybe get some Scaring Scouts to look his way," He negotiates.

I turn to Boggs and see him tense up, playing with his hands to suppress his nervousness. He's has technically been performing flawlessly, it's just his scaring isn't top notch. His first Scaring exam was pretty average when compared to the top of his class, but Javier is right, maybe this will cause the Scaring Scouts start considering to keep their eyes on him.

"You alright with that?" I ask.

He nods without saying a word and continues staring at us as if we caught him off guard. He's clearly not prepared for all this attention, but it'll be good for him.

"Then we'll do that. Either way, everything will turn out the same no matter how we do it. You're up first Bruiser," I guide.

Bruiser hypes himself up, excited to take the stage. He stomps over to the starting line synchronously with that old grandpa squid guy, speaking to himself while twitching relentlessly. He's drooling too which will only help him decimate this guy more than he probably should. I kind of feel bad for this matchup simply because this guy doesn't seem like he'll walk out in one unscathed piece. An ambulance might have to come pick him up because he'll pull his leg muscles or lose control of his respiratory system. I'll just create some comedic relief for Bruiser and let him know that he can take things a little slow.

"Hey Bruiser," I call out from the sidelines, "You take it easy on grandpa!"

He looks over to the old man and laughs maniacally before the two legged hippie freak says, "Release the beast, Don!"

Yeah this will be over pretty easily. Just like that, the buzzer starts counting down. We all look at the color signals at the top of the stage start from red, change to yellow, and flicker to green. The crowd screams out in exhilaration as Bruiser sprints to the doorway of our fake little friend. He takes quite a lead over the old man, but it's unfortunately not a race so there's no advantage to it. Both of them pick up their scare files and examine them thoroughly, picking apart their randomly generated human child piece by piece until they can decide on what the best approach is. Giant screens above the simulators turn on to show everyone the process of scares, proving to everyone how complex it is to voluntary endanger oneself within a human bedroom.

Both enter the rooms swiftly and silently… at least that's what I wished. Bruiser hastily throws himself into the bedroom without even thinking that there could be things on the floor that could expose him in the human world. With a not so graceful fall, he creates a thump that awakens the fake child, mustering a roar that's quite mediocre. He only fills the scream score half way…which is what any normal Scarer could generate. I can't help but growl since I know he could do better, that we could be doing better than this. In a competition like this, every 'scream volt' counts, and we've already lost a significant amount in just one scare because of a careless mistake. The old man's score ends up being put on the scoreboard and it's a tad bit better than what Bruisers' was. Everyone shrieks for Oozma Kappa, drowning the amphitheater in a bubble of noise. Bruiser looks around in utter bafflement, not understanding what just happened as he screwed everything up.

"Thanks for taking it easy on grandpa," The old man smirks.

I guess it's time to get serious. Chet is going up next and waddles his way out to the finish line. A set of monsters go into the rooms and shuffle the place around so nobody knows what to expect, they even switch out the scare cards to keep us on our toes. In under a minute, we're all ready to go again. Chet puts his hat on backwards before he sends himself down the field and up onto the stage with the two headed noodle of a monster. They both read their scare cards and enter the rooms confidently. I don't really care for paying attention to the scares that the Oozma's pull off, so I don't even look away from Chet's intricate movements, winding around every toy on the ground as if they were serrated pebbles on a path. He steps up onto the bed and lets out a raspy growl while clamping his claws at a rapid pace. His score ends up at around 80% full, which is incredible in terms of one scare. Soon he'll be one of the greats just like Javier, Chip, and I. The Oozma's end up getting a lower score on this one, so we seem to have pulled it back together.

The next round is pretty quick. The squishy pink fellow gets a similar score to the others, showing everyone that they have a very consistent performance. Chip ends up getting a good roar out but the scare card didn't necessarily match up with his strengths, so his score was lower than Chet's. We were proud of him seeing him use his rhinoceros-like bellow regardless of the outcome. A Scarer wouldn't normally get a score like that with such a tricky child.

The next round is the one that I look forward to the most. It's Javier's turn to send shivers down everyone's spines, along with… the purple hippie monster. Whatever, he's more funny looking than scary. Jav's got this one in the bag. He completes the scare within at least 30 seconds by crawling on the ground and letting out a nasty sounding rattle that only a bug-like monster like him could make. I have to let out a loud cheer of my own along with Chet and Bruiser once we see it. Not only was it badass, but it made me more than proud to see my best friend pull off such a devastating Scare. It was quite the boost we needed too since the hippie monsters scare was so underwhelming that everyone had to groan after seeing it.

We eventually get to the weird round, the face off between Boggs and Sullivan apparently. I still would have rather of had him go first or second so that he didn't have to reach such high expectations, but I'll have to stay confident that he will do pretty well. We all stand on the sidelines with our arms crossed, watching as Sullivan tries to act all tough and give Boggs a disrespectful look before the buzzer goes off. Boggs is able to dash up to the stage and read through his scare card just as fast as Sullivan does. He crawls on the ground before sticking to the wall and blending in with the pink wall and becoming completely invisible. He waits and waits and waits for the fake child to awake but it never does. That's when everything changes. Sullivan lets out his deep, thunderous roar in the opposite simulator. It shakes the entirety of the stage as if it was the worlds worst earthquake, causing him to plunge to the floor on the opposite end of the bed so we can't see him. He pops back up with pink hearts all over him and generating one of the worst scares I've ever seen. I don't even think his score reaches 25% which leaves both fraternities at a tie.

I'm absolutely seething right now. Boggs hasn't had the greatest performance this year anyways, but he performed flawlessly and reasonably within our expectations. This however is the nail in the coffin that having him join was not the best idea; I could say that it was a grave mistake even. I couldn't be more embarrassed right now. Looking at that score makes my joints ache. Boggs waddles down from the stage, looking at the monsters in the audience stare at him as they point and laugh. He eventually runs right into me and lets out a 'huh' as he stumbles backwards.

"Hearts?!" I scorn.

Boggs then turns over to look at Sullivan and mutters some creepy sounding sentence that I don't even want to listen to, how he feels isn't what's important right now. He reverts back to a multicolored normality, still not caring about what he just did to us. I couldn't care less about what happens to him from here on either, I simply just don't want to even be affiliated with him anymore.

"You're out Boggs, that wasn't even close to being ROR material. Not only did you just tarnish the ROR name, you've embarrassed me and the rest of us beyond belief," I growl.

Boggs let's put a couple of stutters before I push him away to Javier and Chip, trusting that they'll deal with him. I have to end up being the one to finish all of this nonsense since nobody else could put an end to it. I strut to the starting line, leaning down onto all fours and glaring ahead at the stage.

This is it Johnny. This is the last scare you'll have in front of the entire school, and the last school event you'll ever be a part of. This was your home for the past 4 years, you ruled campus for all of it, and it all comes down to this…the scare that will prove to not only you, but everyone, that you belong on a Scare Floor. I can see it now, the grandness that the factories offer, the fun drives to and from the factories showing the amazing sunrises and sunsets of the city, meeting all these incredible people just like me who won't idolize me for the sake of being popular. Being happy with what I've done and who I am… it gives me a sense of freedom that I've never had before. No matter what your father may think, no matter what the JOX or HSS or PNK think, no matter what anyone thinks, you'll be the monster you've always wanted to be.

Just like that, I'm ready for this to all be over. The cheers from the crowds never falter, even when Mike takes his place right next to me. I won't lose to him. "Don't take the loss too hard…you never belonged here anyways," I state.

There's no response from him. That only means I got into his head and finally made him realize that he won't ever be a monster like me. He doesn't have the voice, the build, or the intelligence for it. You can only learn so much from a book, which is all he's had to go on. When compared to someone who's had real experience, he's nothing but a high school student that's just learning the ropes.

The buzzer flashes from red to yellow to green, and I'm delighted to be doing this one last time. Everything feels natural and tranquil, as if I've been passionately doing this since I was born, and in the grand scheme of things, I have. Everyone I ever knew had some sort of origin related to Scaring; I lived and breathed Scaring. Nothing will get in my way. When I find myself on the stage, grasping onto the scare card and reading through it, everything seems to line up perfectly for me in terms of my scare. A seven year old boy from swamps of Louisiana who's afraid of the underworld. For me it's a pretty simple scare. All I have to do is walk up to the bed and let out the my most basic of scares. My vocal cords and lung capacity make it easy for me to sound exactly like some demonic creature, and since I look similar to a prominent religious figure in human folklore, that only means that I'll ace this scare along with everything else I've done. After bursting through the door, I study the room of all of its obstacles. There's many toys scattered about that could give me away, but avoiding them is nothing but muscle memory. I lower myself to the ground, not even thinking about where my feet land since they avoid them by themselves. I can't help but smile as well, all because I know that this is the one scare that will end everything. Oozma Kappa will finally be put in their place, my parents will finally be proud of what I've done, I'll be guaranteed a job…all sorts of things will be locked in place.

I don't even build up the suspense, I just jump up, open my mouth, and roar like I've never roared before. My thoracic cavity rumbles, my false chords vibrate remorselessly, my adrenaline runs rampant. This is how it's supposed to feel with every trip into the unknown of the human world, which is something none of the Oozma's will ever feel in its entirety. The fake child sits up and does it's high pitched monotonous scream while flailing painfully, ending my scare. The crowds outside of the simulator go berserk, screaming out to me as I exit. There's nothing else I want to do more than take in all the love they give me. By raising my arms into the air, I accept the fact that I'm going into the history books as one of the monster worlds greatest. There's nothing else I could ever want more than that.

"Amazing performance by Worthington!" The griffin council member announces.

Stepping down from the stage I look back up to see that my score is at around 95% full, meaning that I still have a little bit to work on, but it's overall unbeatable for monsters who haven't even taken Scaring 102. I walk back to my brothers and receive massive hugs from them, and except from Boggs of course. Chet seems to be a little more kinesthetic than the others, but I don't mind. If I can be the fuel to his fire, then so be it.

More narrating occurs from the Greek council, building up the suspense of the outcome of the event. "The Oozmas will need a record-breaking scare to win this!"

We all glare at the left side screen, waiting for the green beach ball to perform his mediocre scare. He's just sitting there staring at the wooden wall, contemplating about every little he's been through most likely. He thinks it's finally his chance to shine, but I couldn't agree less. Mike closes his eyes for a few seconds in silence and then leaps onto the bed and letting out a raspy howl that doesn't have a whole lot of power to it…and his score ends up at 100%.

Everything becomes a blur. The thousands upon thousands of hours I've spent on bettering myself haven't been enough apparently. Am I not better than him? Has the 4 years of Scaring meant nothing in the grand scheme of things? Was I never meant to be a Scarer since I couldn't even beat someone with little to no knowledge of the subject? I guess that's it then, the future I was envisioning just a few minutes ago will not happen, it's nothing but a distant dream that won't ever be taken from the clouds. I guess I won't be getting that job at Monsters Inc or Fear Co then, I guess my father won't finally be proud of me after all these years...I guess I won't feel any sort of real freedom.

I just leave the amphitheater in a silent rage, realizing that my life is about to become a nightmare. I guess I was wrong about everything…and I guess Melanie was right.