The Storm Twins Conquer Monster High

Chapter 12: Just who are Naomi and Veronica?

Chapter 12: Just who are Naomi and Veronica?

    Cleo heard Nefera screaming about some 'stupid vampires' all the way from the Creepateria. It was rare to hear her sister have so much anger and hatred in her voice. She knew in that moment that Nefera was still upset about the gum issue from earlier, and that someond had finally given her a taste of her own medicine, that someone had finally beaten her sister.
    She saw Nefera run past her, her kohl eyeliner messed up from crying, and enter the nearest bathroom stall in the ghoul's bathroom to fix herself up. The mysterious wad of gum was stuck to her sister's favorite pair of expensive gold heels.
     "Oh my Ra! Are you okay?", Cleo asked her sister, secretly smiling to herself, as the video of her sister screaming and overreacting about the gum on her shoes that Cleo had posted on her Eek-Tok had gotten a lot more views than Cleo was used to getting.
     "Someone left their gum out and now it won't get off my shoes! I have been trying to get it off since the beginning of lunch, and it isn't coming off! Its like its glued on there or something! My shoes are ruined!", Nefera sobbed dramatically.
    "Maybe it was an accident, you have no idea whose gum that is...", Cleo started to say, but Nefera cut her off.
    "I think I know who did it! It was those stupid vampire twins that you keep around! The ones who tried to argue with me the other day! My special aging curse specifically made for vampires wouldn't work on them either!", Nefera said.
    "How do you know it was them?", Cleo asked.
    "When they strutted past me as if they thought they were better than me, the one with the pigtails popped her gum. It was a different color from the gum on the floor, but I suspect that they have something to do with this!", Nefera said.
    "Well, you were mean to them and now you're blaming them for your own problem? Get an unlife.", Cleo told her sister, leaving the bathroom because she was getting tired of Nefera's endless complaining about her first world problems.

     When Cleo got to her dorm though, she found something in her purse that hadn't been there that morning: a lipstick container with a note written in deep purple ink attached to it. The note simply read: "This thumb drive contains all the footage of Nefera's bullying and sabatoge that she did over the past week. I hope that this helps you somehow and go ahead and show it to Bloodgood.".
    She had no idea where the thumb drive came from, and its black and silver color scheme didn't really hint at anyone in particular. Yet thinking about the ink color though... black, silver, and purple... And Nefera had specifically mentioned twins...
     One of Draculaura's new friends, Elissabat, certainly fit the description, but unfortunately, it couldn't have been her, because she was too nice, and most importantly, she wasn't a twin.
    But checking her contacts, she thought that she knew who it was: Naomi and Veronica, her new friends and those mysterious vampire actresses who she had lunch with and liked to ask for advice from. They wore purple, black, and silver, and most importantly they were identical twins! And Nefera had mentioned gum specifically, and one of the few ghouls that Cleo had seen chew gum more than anyone else was Veronica. Naomi had also hinted at the idea of pranking Nefera during their conversation at the Coffin Bean the other day.

     The next day after class she went to see Ghoulia in the library to ask about the footage. When it came to technology, Ghoulia was the smartest ghoul in school. If anyone could figure this out it was her.
    First they looked at the footage on Ghoulia's personal laptop. Sure enough, it contained all the footage of Nefera trying to sabatoge her and her friends as well as her every instance of bullying during the past week that she had been visiting the school.
     "Where and whom did you get this from? Because clearly whoever is responsible for this has incredible hacking skills. To get this footage, someone clearly hacked into the Monster High security system and recorded all the data from where Nefera was during that past week.", Ghoulia said, adjusting her glasses and moving a stray blue hair that had fallen in her face out of the way.
     "I'm just curious, that's all.", Ghoulia continued.
    "Well, I think that it was my new vampire friends, Naomi and Veronica. They are identical twins and have the most amazing, goth fashion sense that I have ever seen. I also noticed that they tend to wear a lot of purple, black, and silver in their clothes and jewelry...", Cleo said, showing Ghoulia the modeling photo of the twins that they used as the profile picture for their personal email.
     Ghoulia looked over the photo and found many things that just didn't add up. Cleo claimed that the Twins were vampires, but upon closer inspection of Veronica's ears, which clearly showed with her long, dark, hair being pulled back into two high ponytails with little black satin hairbows and a shiny, metallic, spiky headband, Ghoulia noticed that her ears were round on the edges, like a normie's ears, rather than pointed like a vampire's ears. Their mysterious smiles also failed to show fangs of any kind. Yet, their pale lavender, almost white, skintone looked completely inhuman. And both Naomi and Veronica's earrings had little SH symbols on them, like they were wearing some kind of special designer brand.
    After thinking for a bit, Ghoulia couldn't help but realize just what the SH stood for. Clearly, these mysterious twins were not from the Human World, hence their unusual skintone.
    But what if they were from that mysterious Shadow High dimension that she had read about in a mysterious, old journal that she had read from the library a while back? They certainly fit the dark, creepy aesthetic perfectly. And if the dimension was abandoned, what if some other creator gods had taken to opportunity to claim it as their own and give it life? But if Cleo had a thumbdrive from Shadow High and those Twins had clearly visited their world, how did they get there? The mirror portal system from the journal sounded absolutely ancient and much more complicated than the current portal system in the Catacombs.
     Yet Ghoulia remembered seeing a mysterious mirror in the Monster High attic before when she was sent up there to get some old books to bring down to the library. It had all sorts of unusual symbols engraved into its frame, is if describing a ritual or a history of sorts. It was massive, around 6 and a half feet tall and 3 feet wide. She remembered being very cautious of it, despite it always being in that attic, as if it had some kind of inexplainable aura about it.
    When she explained her theory to Cleo, Cleo's gold eyes looked at her with shock, "Ghoulia, that sounds insane. This dimensional travel stuff sounds made up, and why would I, of all ghouls, hang out with Normies?"
    But the more she tried to deny it, the more Ghoulia's theory made sense. The Twins didn't have pointed ears or fangs like normal vampires. She had never seen them turn into bats or drink human blood once. Despite claiming to be vampires, they had even been hesitant to try the Cherry Juice with more than minimal blood in it at the Coffin Bean. And Nefera's special aging curse that only worked on vampires had failed to affect the Twins in any way. But the possibility of them being Normies failed to explain their unusual, pale gray-purple skintone. All this mysterious SH symbolism on their earrings and the name Shadow High couldn't just be a coincidence, as there was no existing designer fashion brand with those initials. Cleo had seen the mirror in the attic as well, and it absolutely looked big enough to be used as the entrance and exit to a portal.
   
     The next day, after showing the footage to Bloodgood and thankfully getting to keep the thumb drive after Bloodgood had uploaded it into a file on her computer, and after lunch, Cleo and Ghoulia headed to the Monster High attic to check out the mirror. Ghoulia even had pictures of the journal pages with her, as someone had already taken the journal out of the school library, unfortunately.
     As soon as they recited the words required for the ritual, used their monster abilities at least once to summon the monster energy required to activate the portal, and thought about where they were trying to find, the mirror filled with a green and purple smoke, forming a portal. Cleo was amazed. Ghoulia had been right. The mirror portal system was indeed real. She felt tempted to stream the footage of the portal on her Eek-Tok account, but she decided not to film it, as this was too personal for that and they had agreed to keep it a secret for now, as this specific portal system had been considered too dangerous and was off limits by Bloodgood according to Monster High's school rules.
     "Ghoulia. You stay here, I'm going in.", Cleo said, stepping into the portal, not caring if she was going to get in trouble or not, as Ghoulia took a seat in the corner, pulled out her green Switch, and began to work on her Monster Impact account while she waited for Cleo to return from the other side of the portal.