Monster High 4: Back and Deader Than Ever
Page 18
Granite turned onto I-5 north. No longer just a freeway, it was now a road paved with endless possibility.
“Say good-bye to Salem,” Cici called.
Sage and Nine-Point-Five clambered onto the sofas and waved. But not Melody. She moved up front and sat beside Granite. She vowed never to look back again.
And then her phone rang.
The number was Jackson’s but the voice—lively and amped—was D.J.’s. “No chance you’re hitting the road without me,” he said, guitar blaring in the background.
Melody laughed—one part surprise, two parts relief. Jackson hadn’t abandoned her; he’d abandoned himself. For her. It was the ultimate sacrifice. It was love. It was awesome.
“We do need a roadie,” Melody said. “The money is terrible, and the food is worse.”
“I’ll take it!” D.J. texted his location, and the tour bus turned around. It was the perfect end of one story and the ultimate beginning of another. Smellody out.
EPILOGUE
RAD TO THE BONE
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2
The maple trees had been replanted to form an arch. From above, the fall leaves—red, yellow, green, orange, and brown—looked like a pixelated rainbow. The redwood-and-glass building at the end of the arch, a pot of gold.
At least that’s how it appeared in the photograph that hung above the entrance.
Mr. D, dressed in faded jeans and an untucked black button-down, was standing in front of the satin ribbon that stretched across the glass like gift wrapping. Lala stood beside him, twirling a parasol in one hand and holding gold scissors in the other. Count Fabulous was perched on her shoulder wearing a pink-and-black-striped sleep mask and his new back-to-school tiara.
“Welcome to…” Her father tugged a rope, and a pink-and-black banner unfurled. The crowd gasped. Radcliffe was not the name inside the school’s crest. Thanks to Lala’s urgings, it had been changed to something more meaningful. Something that would remind its students of the night that started everything—the night Frankie Stein lost her head. The night she exposed the RADs. The night normies reordered the letters on the Merston High sign. The night that marked the beginning of the end.
“Welcome to Monster High,” Mr. D said to the hundreds facing them. “The most state-of-the-art educational facility in the country!”
Applause.
“I could spend all afternoon telling you about the acres of land we have made available to our athletes, the portable charging stations, the fountain desks and water lanes, the stone-melting tools, the accessory and clothing design electives, the modern mummy classes, the air-conditioning fedoras, the portable heat lamps, our music program, our animal rescue shelter and grooming spa…”
Lala beamed. Count Fabulous flapped his wings.
“… but I’ll let you see them for yourselves.”
“Woooo-hoooo!” someone cheered.
Mr. D held up his palm. “But first there are several people I need to thank.” He looked out at the crowd and smiled.
Smiled!
“Ram de Nile for funding the project (applause) and the Wolfs for their remarkable construction (applause). The Steins, Ms. J, and our new voice teacher, Marina, for developing a challenging and nontraditional curriculum that also fulfills all of Oregon’s state standards (applause). Mr. Weeks for agreeing to serve as principal (applause). Deuce Gorgon and Clawd Wolf for convincing the Oregon Sports Organization to recognize our teams (massive applause). And…” Mr. D took off his sunglasses. He squinted into the sun and then put his arm around his daughter. His touch warmed her in a way that Clawd and cashmere never could. “Most of all, my remarkable daughter Lala and her electrifying friend Frankie Stein. I don’t know many girls who would spend their summer persuading me to open up your school to normies. But they did. And so I have (enormous applause). And I assure you they did it without the help of Sirens.” Melody and Jackson laughed. “So without further ado, I give you… Monster High!”
Deafening applause.
The Wolfs covered their ears while Lala leaned forward and cut the ribbon. Everyone charged forward.
Lala watched the stampede but didn’t join in. Her father’s arm was still around her. She was close enough to smell his self-tanner. For some reason, he wasn’t rushing off either. Lala wanted to savor this moment as long as she possibly could.
“Did you really mean that?” she asked, looking up at his strong jaw.
He gazed at her. His black eyes looked more like shiny pearls than stones. “Mean what?”
Lala considered making something up. She was still afraid to show him how much she wanted his approval. Not for fear of what he would do, but rather for fear of what he wouldn’t. Trusting him with her feelings would take time. But she finally trusted herself. And she knew that no matter how he reacted to the things she said or did, she’d survive. She might even thrive.
“Did you mean that I’m remarkable?” she pressed. “Do you really think that?”
“One of the most remarkable women I know,” he said, and then looked sadly at something far beyond the trees. “I don’t say it very often, do I?”
“Um, I can count on one fang how many times you’ve said it.”
He chuckled once without smiling. “I guess I always assumed you knew.”
Lala pulled herself out from under his grasp, the tender moment broken like a spell. “Why would I assume that?” Her hands began to shake. She popped an iron pill and swallowed it without water. It stuck to the back of her throat, like so many things she wanted to say but never could. “Dad.” She swallowed again. Bite by bite… “We communicate by satellite. You live on a boat and talk to a headset. Your take more pride in your tan than your own family. You freak out my pets!” She forced herself to face him. He was looking at his polished black shoes. “Maybe it’s because I don’t eat meat, or I’m dating a Wolf, or I agree with Uncle Vlad that our house would look cool with a splash of color. But whatever it is, I—”
“It’s your mother!” he snapped, fangs bared.
Huh?
“Laura,” he said, using the name her mother had given her. “Do you have any idea how much you look like her?”
Lala showed him her fangs in an indignant attempt to prove otherwise. She regretted it immediately.
“You have her fire. You are the only woman who challenges me the way she did. The only person. You make me question the things I believe in. You take the black and white out of things and try to add… pink.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Color is unpredictable,” he said, as if admitting something more.
“Like normie death?” Lala asked, catching on.
He nodded. “Like the pain of losing someone you love to something you will never understand.”
Lala stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “You won’t lose me.”
“I’m afraid I already have,” he said, his eyes beginning to water.
She fang-poked his arm. “So the first one thousand five hundred and ninety-nine years were a little rocky. It’s nothing we can’t fix.”
Her father sniffle-laughed and pulled her close. “Remarkable.”
Arm in arm, they crossed the threshold to Monster High and joined the others. They looked like every other father and daughter. It was fang-tastic!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A very voltage thanks to my editor, Erin Stein.* Your genius and enthusiasm keep me sparking. XXXXX Lisi
Also by
LISI HARRISON
Monster High
Monster High
The Ghoul Next Door
Where There’s a Wolf, There’s a Way
Alphas
Alphas
Movers and Fakers
Belle of the Brawl
Top of the Feud Chain
The Clique
The Clique
Best Friends for Never
Revenge of the Wannabes
Invasion of the Boy Snatchers
The Prett
y Committee Strikes Back
Dial L for Loser
It’s Not Easy Being Mean
Sealed with a Diss
Bratfest at Tiffany’s
The Clique Summer Collection
P.S. I Loathe You
Boys R Us
Charmed and Dangerous: The Rise of the Pretty Committee
The Cliquetionary
These Boots Are Made for Stalking
My Little Phony
A Tale of Two Pretties
Turns out, she’s a bolt relative of Frankie’s.*
**Get it? Frankie Stein? Erin Stein?***
***Bolt relative? Blood relative?****
****… Forget it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Welcome
Dedication
Prologue: Let’s Get Visible
Chapter 1: Ghouls Just Wanna Have Fun
Chapter 2: Vamp of Approval
Chapter 3: Substitute Creature
Chapter 4: Look What the Bat Dragged In
Chapter 5: Spree at Last!
Chapter 6: Rock Blocked
Chapter 7: T’eau-Dally Dissed
Chapter 8: On Your Marks… Get Set… T’eau!
Chapter 9: From Campus to Camp
Chapter 10: Access D-Nied
Chapter 11: camPAIN in the Butt
Chapter 12: Friday Night Fights
Lost Chapter: (Whose Unlucky Number Shall Go Unmentioned)
Chapter 14: Birds of a Feather
Chapter 15: Green Pleas
Chapter 16: Roadie Trip
Chapter 17: RIP, Count Slackula
Chapter 18: Fan Male
Chapter 19: The Bus Stops Here
Chapter 20: Shock and Ka!
Chapter 21: Stressed to Kill
Chapter 22: Shoe D’état
Chapter 23: A Sight for Four Eyes
Chapter 24: T’eau-Dally Stoned
Chapter 25: Frankie Doodle Dandy
Chapter 26: Over the Rainbow
Epilogue: RAD to the Bone
Acknowledgments
Also by Lisi Harrison
Copyright
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Mattel, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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First e-book edition: May 2012
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ISBN 978-0-316-20183-4