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The last hour of school....

The Clawditorium was full to the gills...the entire student body of Monster High packed in, counting down the seconds until they were free.

The lights lowered and the rumbling sounds of chat died down. A spotlight flooded the stage, and the curtain pulled back. Just off to the side of the stage, in the wings, Draconia watched as her play started to unfold. The overture started to play.

Arillena FaeDathanna and Gil Webber stood on stage, dressed in black and yellow school uniforms in front of a backdrop of a fictitious school, 'Creature Academy.'

"Oh, Hunk." Arillena said to Gil, who took her claws in his.

"Oh, Khandi." He replied, with exactly the perfect infection Draconia had hoped for as the director. The two sounded so utterly in love up on the stage.

"Wasn't hiss-tory class interesting today? I never knew that Creature Academy had such an uhh-mazing past!"

"Yes," "Hunk Griefsteak agreed with "Khanie Kane." "Especially the part about retired Creatures. Except..."

"Khandi" paused and looked at "Hunk," confused.

"What is it, Hunk?" She asked, as the lighting dimmed a bit and "Hunk" stepped forward to speak.

"Well, I heard it from my parents...the legend of a Home Ick creature...a creature so heinous and evil that she was wiped from the records! They said that she was so twisted and wrong that she tried to use her students to take over the world."

"The world?!" Khandi gasped.

"Yes!" Hunk replied. "So when Headmistress Vamprina of Creature Academy found out, they threw her out! ....into a pit. A large, deep, smelly pit. And even worse...they denied her tenure!"

Draconia was pleased to hear Mr. Rotter, Ms. Kindergruber and Mr. Verizhe gasp in horror.

"Oh, Hunk...that's so frightening!" Khandi shivered as Hunk wrapped his arms around her. "I'm glad she's not around anymore."

"I agree. Come on, let's go home. No student wants to be around school AFTER classes have ended...right?"

Hunk and Khandi exited stage right. As they left, the lights flared up on stage left.

Cackling perfectly and rubbing her claws, Toralei stepped into the scene, dressed in a murky, swamp-colored dress.

"That's right, you putrid little pipsqueaks!" She hissed at the vanishing students. "Run away! Soon, I will have my revenge on you - on every student going to Creature Academy! So swears Bogetha Blarg!!!!"

The overture kicked in again, and the play, 'Sinistaria!' officially began. For the next hour, the students in the clawdience sat rapt as the story unfolded. They booed and hissed at Heath Burns as Norman McBore as he teamed up with Bogetha Blarg to hypnotize and capture every student at Creature Academy. They clapped and cheered as Hunk and Khandi evaded capture and saved their friends from being turned into a traveling circus act. And everyone ooed at the end when Norman McBore revealed that he did it all for love, love of Bogetha and the two resolved to reform as the entire school threw them a wedding and reinstated Bogetha's name into the hiss-tory books.

(the ending went a little differently in real life, of course....the play was only 'based on' real events after all.)

As the wedding bells chimed and the overture raised up for one last time, everymonster in the clawdience stood up and gave the Drama Class a standing ovation. Draconia wiped tears from her eyes as Arillena, Gil and the rest of the cast took their bows.

It was a scream come true.

Roswell's spaceship was caught in an astoroid belt of Saturn circling the planet a few times and delaying his return back to Monster High.

It was there her heard a song, not his own, but one of another ship, a distress signal, one he would not ignore.

"Some one needs our help, MAX."

Beep boop. MAX whistles in agreement.

Draconia was euphoric, fanging out with some of the other Drama Class students as they talked about the play. Toralei, especially, was enjoying soaking up all of the attention. Draconia glanced down and checked her phone.

Shad was one of the monster she DID happen to have the number of, as a matter of fact. She had it to give him a call when new issues of 'Dead Beat Zine' came in stock at the Looking Glass. 'Dead Beat' was a quarterly publication of poetry that Draconia knew Shad regularily sent some of his beats to.

Draconia typed back to Melody



Draconia sent on his number. She paused for a second, and then typed another message.

"There was a perfectly good hexplanation for why I was acting so weird all day..." Rory mumbled to himself, but he didn't say it too loudly. Let everymonster else think that the nerves of his first final hexams at Monster High got to him. Temporary insanity was a much easier reason to unlive with than the truth.

Rory reached into the skull and pulled out a name.

"Astrid Fantasy?" He read off the slip, and then came to a sudden realization. "Oh no! The crazy ghoul from Woestock!"

Draconia suddenly realized that this was a bit more serious than she'd thought. Melody had spent an entire scaremester abroad traveling, and though her texts and posts to Draconia the whole time had been pleasant, she hadn't once mentioned Roswell Gray. And now she was asking how to start a conversation with Shad?

Well, it wasn't too hard to put two and two together!

Draconia texted back.



Draconia ruminated for a bit. Schemes to put couples together was not her thing...that was more Glen's style of meddling. But maybe she could help Melody arrange a low-pressure way to talk to Shad...



The Looking Glass was private enough for a couple of monsters to chat, but public enough that there was no way to feel trapped in a conversation, Draconia reasoned. And she could arrange for Shad to come by and pick up the book before she left for her date with Harry. That worked, didn't it?

Peggy walked along with a spring in her step. Heimdal interrupting her thoughts

"Are you really going to wear a DRESS for the ball? Like.. a full on fancy dress? No sneakers, right? "

She shushed him "maybe... maybe I should.. just this once"

She checked her iCoffin for messages. It was quiet today

"Cold! Cold! Cold!" Tori pulled her scarf closer around her neck and bundled her coat up more, while running into the green house trying to evade hurling snowballs.

Quickly closing to the door to the much warmer green house, 3 snowballs *pifted* against the glass, and Tori was happy to be out of the fray.

"Now all I have to do is wait for Spring...." She joked smiling to herself.

The moaning of THE DATE OF DOOOOOOOOOM....

A tear in reality opened near the glass roof of the greenhouse. Harry Herne fell out of the crack and crashed through a table full of plants. The tear zipped back up as Harry rolled over and moaned. It had been a long night fighting with his Old Monster but it was worth it. Harry had won and secured Ari's gift. All he had to do was ask the Dragon to the Ball at the Lamia Embassy. Clutching the scroll his father had given him, Harry staggered from the greenhouse for a shower and a nap. The young Sidhe prince never noticed that among the shattered remains of the table was a broken sign: PLANTED BY TORI UNDERBRIDGE.