Monster High - The School Grounds

[HH Bloodgood]

Monday Morning - Final Hexam Day

To say that the student bodies of Monster High seemed less-than-eager to come to school today would be a massive understatement. Even the non-zombie students lurched in slowly, groaning with dread at the tests they were about to be subjected to.

It was the last day of the Scaremester - after today, they would all be free to enjoy the Winter break. But until the students could get to that glorious, snow-covered freedom, first they had to conquer Final Hexams.

Mr. Hackington could be heard cackling from the Creature's Lounge as the copy machine spit out his final test. Mr. Mummy cracked his fingers and it sounded like popscorn popping. Even kindly Mrs. Kindergruber had a hard edge to her eyes as she cleaned off her glasses, prepared to inspect final project dishes in Home Ickonomics.

There were some bright spots, though! Physical Deaducation had no final hexam, so that had been named a free period for students. Some of the Skulltimate Roller Maze team had agreed to spend that time down in the Catacomb racing track, preparing for the final match of the SKRM season from later this week. The Art Class would be unveiling their final projects in the Grimnasium instead, to show off what they'd been working on for the entire Scaremester.

And, rather than the last class hour of the day, the students would all be gathering in the Clawditorium to see the Drama Class put on a one-act play. A banner over the Clawditorium entrance informed everymonster that the play was called 'Sinistaria!' and that it starred Arillena FaeDathanna and Gil Webber. The Drama Class had spent all Sunday rehearsing, and today was finally the big day to debut the play.

Each student body as they crawled into the school glanced at the clock....8 hours left....  

[Kai Merha]

Kai was one of the first student bodies in the door on the last day of the Scaremester. He wanted the extra time to set up his massive collage in the Grimnasium for Art Class. Instead of feeling too worried about hexams, he was actually relieved that he'd gotten his final project finished in time. And so, in the nearly empty Grym, Kai began assembling his materials.

"MEW."

Kai looked up from attaching the sparkly glass pebbles to the upper left quadrant of his collage (titled "Diversity: The less you have De verse it is") to check his iCoffin.

"Why did I agree to let Glen download a Grumpy Bat ringtone?" Kai asked himself as he checked the phone. The ID read "Octi." Kai grinned.

"Octavia!" He answered a little surprised. Octavia Tempest was his step-sister, a 14-year old Kraken who lived most of the year with her father in the Bermuda Die-angle. The time difference was so great between there and Monster High that the two of them usually only talked late, late at night for Kai. "What's up, steppie?"

"I hate school!" Kai heard the underwater-y tones of his little step-sister ring out angrily. "Why can't it be done yet?! This year is the WORST."

Kai pulled the iCoffin from his ear an inch as Octavia launched into a blistering rant. This hadn't been a good year for her at Blackwater Academy, the elite Kraken school she attended. Octi was a late gloomer, and she was trailing behind the rest of her class socially. Her friends had become concerned with mer-boys, scare and makeup, and she was....not there yet. Kai's heart broke for her.

"And don't get me started about the MERMAIDS. UUUGGGHHH." Octavia groaned into the iCoffin. Kai winced. Octi had a bullying problem with mermaids who went to a nearby mer-school on top of everything else. The end result was that she wanted to leave the Die-angle and spend Cryptmas with her mom and stepfamily as soon as possible.

"Fang in there, Octi! Only one more day!" Kai sent as much mental encouragement in the words as he could to Octavia. He did a mental calculation. Being the morning here meant it was the late evening for her, after a full day of end-of-scaremester school. She groaned again.

"You're SO lucky you only have one day of hexams. I have two, and THEN I have to pack, and THEN spend 18 hours on a scareplane in that awful, dry air."

"And then you'll be here, and you'll get to see your mom, and my dad, and me. And Glen and Nero and all of my other friends you met during Summer break. And they're all looking forward to a chance to see you again."

"Yeah..." Octavia sighed. "I guess I just needed a reminder what I was looking forward to."

"I think I did too." Kai told his step-sister, smiling at the sound of relief in her voice. "Thanks for calling."

"Good luck with hexams!" She told him, stifling a yawn.

"You too! Fang in there just a little longer, okay?" Octavia promised she would, and the two step-siblings said their goodbyes. Kai hung up his iCoffin and had a look at his collage. Diversity was his theme, and what was more diverse than his family tree? He reached into his bag and pulled out a picture of his immediate family....his normie mom and her girlfriend, his mad scientist dad and his Kraken wife and her daughter. In the middle, there was him. He pasted up the image in the center of the collage. He held out his thumb and squinted one eye at the painting.

"Perfectly imperfect."  

[Atomica Servo]

"LOOK EVERYMONSTER - IT'S ATOMICA!" Somemonster shouted as Atomica stepped up to the stairs of Monster High. Atomica knew she looked freaky fab in her brighter-than-bright outfit-and-legwarmer ensemble today. She wanted to stand out, after all. Being the closing act at Woestock had resulted in a massive output boost to her popularity factor. Now, instead of monsters looking at her as just one of Gryff's hench-friends, she had a popularity all of her own.

"Atomica, would you sign my backpack?" A nerdy creature thrust his backpack at her. Atomica shook a digit at him.

"Sorry, but I need to preserve my atomic battery for test-taking today. My audio receptors recorded our Woestock performance and I'll be burning them to CDs for sale at Prom next Scaremester. You can buy limited-edition clawtographed copies then." A rumble erupted from the crowd at that news. Atomica hadn't exactly asked the Rest In Peace yet if it was okay to sell their performance, but she was positive they'd all say yes. Why wouldn't they? They were all superscars now!

"Atomica, could the Rest in Peace play at my Bat Mitzvah this freakend?" A bespectacled purple-skinned ghoul asked the automaton. Atomica flashed her a conciliatory smile.

"Sorry, but A and the RIP are taking a performing hiatus for the howlidays." Again, not something she'd discussed with the rest of the band, but Atomica had calculated that there was a very strong possibility at least half of the band was going to vanish for howliday-related reasons. And with even one component missing, there was no way the band could match the performance they had at Woestock. You couldn't launch a program if you were missing a programming nodule, after all.

"Atomica!"

"Atomica!"

"Miss Servo!"

Student bodies all shouted, trying to get her attention. Atomica made it to the top of the steps and turned around to face the masses.

"My a-gore-ing public! Be sure to come and see me tomorrow in the Skulltimate Roller Maze final match! ...and the rest of the team as well, I guess."

A cheer swelled amongst the adoring students as Atomica swept inside the school. The rest of the day was going to be SOOOOO boring compared to being the center of attention!  

[Glen da West]

"Run for the hills!"

*HONK!*

"We're all gonna undie!"

*SCREECH!*

The source of this morbid commotion? The giant green and black S-Boo-V that was barreling into the parking lot, skidding uncontrollably on the icy roads, and barreling in circles! Round and around it goes, where it stops ...

Well as luck would have it, it swerved to a stop right into a parking spot, in between two other vehicles, Draculaura's, and ....

"Oh my ghoul! Did we hit the Mister Rotter's hearse!?" Whinnie Q cried out and the driver's side window slid down and the top half of a snow parka with no face visible peaked out and inspected...

"Nope! We're good!" Glen announced, and at that, the driver's side door popped open, as did the passenger's side doors and out hopped, tumbles (whatever) Glen's passengers; Draconia and Hellene (he wouldn't hear of them flying to school in this weather and freezing their scales/feathers off!) and his boofriend Chase and Chase's sister, the aforementioned Whinnie.

Glen, in his oversized to a comedic extent parka, dropped down from his seat to the pavement, and promptly slipped on a patch of black ice and landed on his keister.

"Oh just what I need! A mortal injury on the day of the SKRM championship!"

"Its hardly a mortal injury." Hellene steadied herself against the side of the SBV. "I think you'll survive."

The group started for the entrance of the school and Glen said, "I hope so! Tomorrow is the final game of the season and we're up against those rotten gargoyles. We just have to win!"

"An' you will my fiendishly adorkable boo!" Chase declared with a hearty clap on his boofriend's shoulder. After picking him up again where he was sent sprawling, he added, "We'll all be in the stands, cheering you on! AmIright?" Chase looked around with a bright smile for confirmation.

"I will." Draconia confirmed. "It's another one of Glen's 13 dates."

"I'll be covering it for the Gory Gazette." Hellene answered.

"Ah's lookin' forward to it myself." Whinnie admitted. "It's muh first SKRM game. Haven't had the chance to see one quite yet."

"You're in for a treat then!" Glen chirped happily as Chase opened the school doors and held them for the ghouls to enter first, and then Glen, finally setting foot (hoof) inside himself.

Glen paused and started looking around, then growled and undid his hood, pulling it back for a better shot at actually seeing anything.

"What are you looking for?" Draconia asked her beastie.

Glen answered, "Cleo. I'm supposed to meet her here. I called her last night and asked her if I could borrow some of her..." Glen then saw the expectant gazes of his friends and blinked. "... er, nooooothing?"  

[Draconia St George]

Although Glen's response was decidedly suspicious, Draconia couldn't tarry.

"I'm due at the Clawditorium to get ready for the play. PLEASE don't have this be something that blows up the school before we get to put on Sinistaria!" She asked Glen.

"What about after?" He asked, but the look Draconia made him immediately beg off. "I'm joking! I'm joking! It's nothing like that!"

With that bit of relief, Draconia bade her friends goodbye and headed up the stairs to the Clawditorium. Mr. Where was already there, as was Gil Webber. Gil was checking out his outfit for the play.

"Hey, Draconia!" The river-monster greeted her. "Check out these costumes! Looks like Wydowna got them done just under the wire."

"Oooohhh..." Draconia looked in the box of costumes, admiring the bright, bold colors (to stand out on stage) and brilliant patterns on the circus outfits. She choked up a little bit with pride and uhh-mazement. "I can't believe this is hacktually going to happen. A play I wrote is hacktually going to be performed!"

"Wrote AND directed." Mr. Where corrected, checking his watch. "Speaking of which, if we want to get dress re-hearse-al in during the first hexam hour, the rest of the cast should be arriving soon. Would you direct them to get dressed and prepare for the curtain call?"

"Of course, Mr. Where!" Draconia helped Gil slip out of his lettermanster jacket before handing him the clothes that his character would wear for the first half of the show. "Break a fin, Gil!"

"Fangs!" Gil grinned at Draconia behind his glass water-filled helmet. "When you see Arillena, will you tell her I want to talk about the dialogue in the opening scene real quick?"

"Certainly." Draconia sat down just outside of the main Clawditorium doors, going through the outfits to ensure that everything was there as Gil went inside. A few bats fluttered in the pit of her stomach.

"Oh, this is going to be so hexciting!"  

[Layla LaMia]

Kai Merha

"Layla! Take a picture with me!"

"Clawsome performance, Layla!"

"Sign my fearbook, Layla!"

"Go out with me Layla!"

"Sign my forehead, Layla!"

How on earth did this happen!? ONE grrformance and suddenly she had fanboos -- and fanghouls!? She just did it as a favor to Atomica, and to hopefully 'get out there' a bit more as Mother wanted! And now she was in the process of being mobbed by her schoolmates en route to getting ready for her first classes of the day!

She had to make certain her Final Hexam project she had been working on for weeks for Arrrt class was ready and ducked covertly, and discreetly, inside of the grimnasium where all of the projects were set up for display.

Her own was quartered off with velvet curtains and guarded by four Anubis jackals to keep out the curious looky loos. And what luck! There was only one student in the grimnasium, and she was certain he would not want a clawtograph!

She slid up behind Kai Merha hexpertly...

"Psst! ..... PSST!"

"Gah!" Kai jumped and spun around, his tail rattling when he spotted his gal pal and art frienemy, Layla. It was Layla, wasn't it? It was kind of hard to tell with the over-sized hat on her head and the large glasses over her eyes. Tail was kind of an undead giveaway tho... "Layla...?"

"Is it safe? Nobody is hiding in here with a camera or clawtograph book, are they?"  

[Kai Merha]

Layla LaMia

"Is it safe? Nobody is hiding in here with a camera or clawtograph book, are they?"

Kai looked left.

Empty grym.

Kai looked right.

Still emptry grym.

"Nnnnnnnnno?" He asked, not quite sure why Layla asked him such a thing while dressed like a spy.

"Phew!" Layla replied, taking off her hat and scarf. Kai shrugged and went back to adjusting minor details on his collage.

"Oh, hey!" He suddenly thought of something and turned to Layla as she looked under the large velvet curtains and (apparently borrowed?) Anubis Jackal guards she had by her artwork. "Layla, about that Howliday ball you're hosting at the Embassy?"

"Yesss, what about it?" Layla asked, looking back from her mysterious sand sculpture.

"Can my sister come?"

"Octavia?" Layla smiled. "Is she in town?"

"Not quite yet, but soon. And it sounds like she's been super-stressing the last couple weeks."

"Poor ghoul." Layla frowned. She had met Kai's step-sister during summer scarecation. "Of coursse she can come to the ball. It would be my pleasssure to sssee the daughter of the King of the Kraken again."

"Great! Thanks, Le. I really appreciate it." Kai grinned. Surely a big ball like this would distract Octavia from her school woes. "If there's anything i can do to help, just name it."

"Well, there isss one thing..." Layla replied after thinking about it. "I ssstill need to have everyone draw names for the Sssecret Sssanta Claws hexchange."

"Yikes. Cutting it a little close, isn't it?"

"I sssuppose so, but we've been ssso busy the last few days I just haven't had the chance to do it."

"Gotcha. Well sure, no problem. What do I need to do?" Kai asked, rubbing some glitter from his collage off his hands.

"I'll hext you the list of attendees from Monster High. If you sssee them before I do, just ask them to blindly pick a name from the list, and that's who they'll play Sssanta Claws for."

"Oh, okay. That sounds easy enough." Kai checked his iCoffin and saw the list pop up from Layla's hext. "I'll hold off on drawing for myself until the end. You know, just in case there are any stragglers."

"Thank you." Layla smiled, a bit relieved at being able to share the workload with somemonster else. "We ssshould be able to talk to every monster who wants to participate by the end of the day."

"Gnarly."Kai replied, looking down the list. Who would he run into first....?  

[Damyn Faolan]

After the Concert The blonde Changeling made her escape before any of her new friends noticed she had run off. The energy she had felt from performing had vanished and been replaced by panic.

~

Today, Arillena bolted around a corner and pressed her back to the wall. So many more people than before new her name. And it terrified her. She didn't think she had made a a big impression during the concert. At least she hadn't been trying too. Not even 4 feet into the school and she was surrounded.

"There's one of the new Ghouls!"

"Isn't that Arillena? I read about her in the Ghostly Gossip!"

She hadn't been expecting this at all. The timid Fae kept quiet and thought of a way to avoid being spotted again. She shut her eyes and Focused. Had anyone noticed her hiding would have seen the Blonde disappear under a ripple in the air.

Hopefully she could get around in a less panicked manner this way...She hoped as the Invisible Faerie backed away from the hyper students.  

[Marceline LaGhede]

Marceline had come to school early that morning; with all of her attention focused on Woestock (and how to deal with her very high-profile breakup), she barely gave herself time to study for hexams. And so, she holed up in the die-brary with her hextbooks, desperately trying to cram as much information into her skull as possible.


But now, as student bodies were filing into the school, Marceline found herself distracted...

"Hey, Marceline! Great show this weekend!"

"Oh! It's Marceline! From Atomica and the RIP!"

"Uhhh-mazing set, ghoul! I didn't know an aggoredion could sound like that! I always thought it was, like, a polter-ka kinda thing..."

While she enjoyed her newfound popularity, Marceline was feeling more like disappearing at this very moment. If she failed her hexams, she faced being grounded for the winter break, possibly the summer! She groaned, burying her head in her hands. This wasn't going to work... she grabbed her books and hurried out of the die-brary, running straight into an invisible Arillena.

Damyn Faolan

Arillena

 

[Rorrim Rory Bludworth]

Rory was running a little late today. Usually Mirrorverse was a rather empty place; there were only four inhabitants in it currently. There was Rory, of course, and his mother, Mary. There was also Hagetha Mistie, the rotund and sarcastic 'assistant' to Mary...a witch who was working off her punishment given to her by the Global Witches Coven for her attempt to conquer the world using hypnotized Monster High students last fall.

The fourth inhabitant was a prisoner. Not Mary or Hagetha's prisoner, but rather someone who had been stuffed into the Mirrorverse to imprison them - something Mary was very displeased about. Rory had never met the prisoner, as she was being held up in a corner of the mirror dimension he wasn't allowed to go near. But apparently lately the prisoner had been causing some problems, and as a result there was quite a bit more chaos in the Bludworth household than Rory was used to.

"So what if she's free?" Hagetha argued with Mary at the breakfast table, which was hastily filled with bowls of cereal and milk rather than the cooked breakfast Rory had become used to from Hagetha. "It's none of our business. It's not our story."

"I don't want her plottings to disrupt my home any more than she already has." Mary insisted firmly and icily. Having the Global Witches Coven exile Hagetha to the Mirrorverse to be her assistant was one thing - Mary had a say in that. Some uppity headmaster from another dimension stuffing a criminal in her home because that was easier than dealing with her in his own dimension? That was QUITE another! "It was tolerable enough when she was in that ridiculous glass prison they put her in. Now she's broken out of that, wandering around and she's bound to start causing trouble."

"She's only got access to mirrors from her home dimension." Hagetha pointed out as she slapped some sliced bananas on top of Rory's cereal. Rory just did his best to keep out of the discussion. This unknown prisoner sounded dangerous. "So she tries to get her revenge on the jerks who caused her downfall, so what? It's what I'd do!"

Mary gave Hagetha a raised-eyebrow stare. Hagetha cleared her throat.

"I mean...I'd serve out my time quietly and welcome being reformed." Several bananas worth of slices had been piled on Rory's cereal at this point. He politely moved his bowl to the side and Hagetha's sliced bananas began to pile on the tabletop.

"If it bothers you so much that she's wandering around over in the Ever After corner of Mirrorverse, then boot her back into her own reality." Hagetha suggested, helpfully. She cackled. "I'll even lend you the boot!"

"I really don't want to get personally involved." Mary replied. "Like you said, it's her story, not ours. I don't need her noticing the other dimensions that Mirrorverse connects to and have her try mucking around in those as well. But...maybe I can devise a way to...'coerce' her to go back to her reality on her own."

Mary looked thoughtful. Rory coughed. It diverted Mary's attention and she looked at the clock.

"Rory, you're going to be late for school. You don't want to miss your last day of the scaremester."

"Oh, r-right." Rory stammered. "I'm a little nervous."

"About what? The fact that an Evil Queen is wandering around free in Mirrorverse, using her evil magic powers to find ways to mess with her home dimension?" Hagetha asked bluntly as Mary sharply cleared her throat.

"I was more nervous about my Dead Languages final hexam, but now that you mention it..." Rory gulped. Mary sighed.

"Rory, the happenings of other dimensions don't concern you in the least. Even a monster that passes through the mirrorverse cannot interact with any dimension except their home dimension. So even if there IS a queen with magical powers that SOME may classify as evil in the Mirrorverse-" Mary gave Hagetha a sharp look. "She can't do anything except minor interactions with own homeworld."

"Probably." Hagetha added to another sharp look from Mary.

"Interactions from one dimension to another are forbidden by the Global Witches Coven." Mary informed Rory. "As you grow older and prepare to fully enter the coven you'll learn of these rules. Other than Mirrorverse, there are very few ways one reality could interact with another."

"At least not unless you're talking about black holes and deep space." Hagetha chimed in. "But most witches don't worry about anything that far away."

"Yes, that or directly bringing a mirror from one dimension into another. But that's quite forbidden by the Coven, for good reason."

Rory froze.

He thought back to a few weeks back, when he had brought his then-ghoulfriend Marceline into Mirrorverse and showed her around. He thought about how he'd presented her a gift...a non-functioning mirror from his mother's repair workshop.

"It's malfunctioning, it's never worked." Rory had told Marceline. "See? It's white. Completely blank!"

Had he broken a witching law by giving that to Marceline?!!!

Rory gulped.

"You'rerightI'mgoingtobelate-" He spit out, knocking sliced bananas all over the ground as he grabbed his bag and headed for the nearest mirror to Monster High. "Seeyoulater!"

Rory dove through the mirror, ending up in the boo's bat-room on the first floor of Monster High. He tried to calm himself as he pushed through some vampires and headed out into the hallway.

It wasn't a big deal...was it? It was a malfunctioning mirror anyways. It didn't lead to anywhere. It was blank.

Should he ask Marceline to give it back? That was a conversation Rory dreaded even more than the Dead Languages final hexam...

"Glen! He'll know what to do!" Rory suddenly thought of his witchy cousin. Maybe Glen would have some advice for him. He was always 'bending' witch rules and finding creative solutions to problems. Maybe he'd have an idea here.

Rory turned the corner of the hallway and started to look for Glen da West.  

[Damyn Faolan]

Marceline LaGhede

The Faerie let out a tiny shriek of surprise and fell backwards as her Invisibility spell was interrupted. The other party's book fell everywhere. Arillena instantly reached out start gathering those nearest to her. "Oh dear, I- I'm so sorry I did not mean to-"

The blonde looked up froze.

Ari had intended to approach Marceline after the Concert, but in the chaos had been too focused on fleeing to remember. She remembered their last encounter in these hallways. The changeling's hair and eyes faded to a panicked white as she stood up quickly with what books she had picked up and timidly held them out. She was shaking slightly and avoided eye contact.

"S-sorry..." She mumbled. But for what she wasn't sure. Suddenly everything she had wanted to say earlier became scrambled in her head. She didn't want to run, but wasn't sure what to say either.

Nearby a couple students noticed them and started whispering.

"Is that her? The new ghoul Spectra wrote about?"

"Why do you think Marceline and the others put up with performing with her, after what she did...?"

More color faded from the Faerie as her ears picked up the whispers.  

[Marceline LaGhede]

Damyn Faolan

.

Marceline scrambled to keep on her feet, confused at what she'd just bumped into... until Arillena's invisibility wore off. She squeaked, desperately trying to grab all her books and run... until she too heard the whispers of the student bodies in passing. Biting the inside of her cheek, she knew it was time to do something about these rumors... but Ari looked like she was about to spring off into the crowd and vanish again!

"Wait, I... Look," Marceline sighed, "I've been really meanin' t'talk t'you about Ro-- about all these rumors goin' round about us... I think it's time we cleared things up, don'you?"  

[Layla LaMia]

Draconia St George

Outside of the Clawditorium...

"Hexcussse me, Draconia?"

Layla, back in her hisspionage get up, took a break from guarding her Final Hexam art project from curios "looky loos" to speak to some of her confirmed howliday ball guests.

Draconia looked up from the outfits she was inspecting to blink in surprise at not just the way Layla was attired, but also the way she was active secretive, her eyes hidden behind dark, purple shades (indoors no less!) and holding a scalped skull out to her.

"I am sorry for waiting so long to asssk." She said, offering the skull over to the dragon ghoul. "Things have been so hectic preparing for Final Hexams, but would you care to draw a name for my ball's Sssecret Santa?"  

[Draconia St George]

"Oh! Of course!" Draconia replied. She had no idea that Secret Santa Claws was such a covert affair. She reached a claw in and felt around in the slips of paper until grabbing one that 'felt' right.

"Who isss it?" Layla asked. "That isss, if you can say."

She didn't want to spoil the secret, of course, but she was undying to know who Draconia would be gifting to. Draconia opened up the slip of paper and raised an eyebrow.

"Harry Herne." She read the name off the slip. "That's going to be a tough one...he's such an odd boo. Every time I've tried to talk to him I swear he's going to jump out of his skin."

"Hmm...maybe he's just shy." Layla theorized. She tucked the skull back under her arm. "There are many more ssstudents I want to get to before class ssstarts. Sssee you later!"

"Good luck with hexams!" Draconia waved as Layla slithered off. She looked down again at the name on the paper she'd drawn. "Harry Herne....hmm..."  

[Glen da West]

Glen stood covertly by the front entrance to the school, watching the snow fall on the outside while several students tracked through it scarily on their way inside of the main hall of Monster High. He made certain to keep clear, just on the off chance that someone tracking the wet snow and slush might get some anywhere near him.

Glen reached up to pry open his furry hood to take a peak at his iCoffin, a boring normal one mind you, not his usual one that also doubled as his wand. That one was locked away in his mom's office safe where he couldn't get to it.

Yup! He still had plenty of time before he had to get to his first class, Dead Languages. That was his only other Final Hexam today, aside from Mad Science, and both classes came relatively easy for the Glenster. Mad Science because he adored the subject, and Dead Languages because -- well, sheer dumb luck.

Still, he wanted to make sure all went well today, hence why he was waiting for Cleo to arrive at school, most likely with Deuce on her arm.

"Glen? Isss that you?" Her voice sounded familiar, but Toralei was always pulling funny little pranks like that so again he reached up and looked out of his hood, to find two amber 'snake eyes' looking in at him.

"Oh HI Layla!" Glen smiled at the lamia princess. "It's me alright! What's snow with you? Ha!"

Polite as always, Layla smiled at Glen's little joke (it was a joke, right?), and even added a friendly chuckle for humor's sake, as she spoke, "The Howliday Ball I am hosting isss soon. I'm here for the guestsss to draw names for the Secret Sssanta?" And she offered up the skull with the little slips of paper inside.

"Oh right!" Glen exclaimed, only too eager to plunge his hand into the skull to fish around for just that perfect name. "I almost forgot all about it!"

He withdrew a slip and unfolded it, "Now let's seeee......."

And he held it out at arm's length to try to see it through his parka hood, no luck! He then pushed his gloved hand almost all of the way through the hood to try that way... hm, too dark. He huffed, then turned to the princess and held the paper out to her.

"Would you mind?"

"Oh not at all!" Layla exclaimed, only too eager to find out another of whom would be giving to who. True, it was supposed to be a Secret Santa, but she was hosting the Ball -- so that made it alright. Didn't it? She looked at the paper and read to Glen, "You got Kai Merha."

"SHHHHHH!!!" Glen frantically waved her down. "It's a secret!"

Layla 'zipped and locked' her lips, then gave the strange little witch a thumbs up before she moved on to get some more names drawn before the first class started. Kai. What luck! And he already had an idea of just the perfect gift to give him, too! All he needed was to call his Aunty Glinda for Oz Hexpress Delivry and...

"There you are!" The regal toned voice caused Glen to turn around and look up, and he pulled open his hood to find himself staring into the disdainful stare of...

"Nefera? Hi! I was hexpecting Cleo..."

"I know who you were hexpecting, Glen. Cleo told me all about the favor you asked but my sister has her own Final Hexams to worry about so I thought I would deliver these for her."

Nefera shoved a small, ornately decorated chest towards Glen, about the size of a small box. Glen had asked Cleo if he could borrow a trinket or two, perhaps even an amulet, to help bypass his mom's strict "No Magic" grounding for this important week. Good grades warranted a loop hole, amIright?

Glen took the chest into his hands and looked up at Cleo's older sister, perhaps the most hated student in Monster High hissstory. "Gee, Nefera. Thanks!"

"Don't mention it." The self righteous princess waved off his 'thanks and turned and walked for the entrance, Glen being too preoccupied with opening the casket's lid to see thee wicked (get it?) smile on Nefera's face as she exited thee school.