Turn the Lights Off (under revisions)

Chapter 2

My hand shakes with excitement as I reach for the doorknob. As one hand turns the knob, the other taps my pocket to make sure the formula is still there. It is. I made sure to tuck it back into my pocket after I put it on Headmistress Bloodgood's desk. It's far too precious to be left in her possession.

I push the door open just a crack when another hand on the other side pulls the door open at full force, yanking me forward just a bit.

"Oh! Hey!" a girl on the other side chimes. "You must be the new kid! I'm Clawdeen, and you're..." her furry wolf ears twitch as she sniffs me. "You're human?" she asks, tilting her head forty-five degrees like a dog.

"Yes," I answer shortly.

"Woah! Monster High is admitting humans now?" she asks enthusiastically. "I got turned down when I tried to get into Monster High before I found out that I was half werewolf. Are you just half human too? What's your other half? Why don't I smell it?"

I scowl slightly as she surveys me with her oversized brown eyes. "I'm just human," I tell her.

Now it's her turn to pout. "How? I thought Monster High was very strict about not admitting humans."

"Well, if you've ever actually read the school rules, you would know that that's not an official rule, and there aren't any laws against it either," I inform her.

"Wait," she says with an amused smile. "You read all two thousand pages of the school rule book?"

I shrug. "It took me about a month, but yeah."

"Wow, I couldn't get past the introduction," she muses.

"I don't read introductions unless they're part of instruction manuals or textbooks," I tell her. "They can be quite a waste of time to read, but I often find that I waste more time by not reading it when I am reading something that actually requires one."

She nods. "That's a good rule, I guess."

She indicates for me to follow and inquires, "So, how did you find Monster High? My mom left me with her necklace, and I could see the building when I looked through it. It's kind of a long story, but it's magical and it led me here. What led you here?"

"I found it," I tell her.

"How did you find it?" she importunes. "My dad is a monster researcher, and he couldn't find this place. It's extremely well hidden."

"Really?" I requisition. "I just mapped out all the lei lines in the United States, then I found an unreasonable amount just a few minutes outside of New Salem, so I found a local map and retraced all of the ones in the area, and they made a large asterisk. Then I found a trail and followed it until I found the place where all of the lei lines converge. Here."

"And that worked?" she asks, pausing dead in her tracks. "What about the barrier meant to keep the humans out? How did you bypass it?"

"I just assumed it would be there and ignored it," I say simply.

"That's quite the leap of faith," she notes.

"I honestly thought that this was common sense," I confess. "Why are you asking me all of this? If a human really wanted to find this place, I don't think it would be all that hard."

"You must be really smart," she chuckles, "because not even a seasoned professional like my dad can find this place."

"Huh," I respond vaguely, accepting the compliment. I would have said something along the lines of "He should find a better job," but instead I start down the hallway again.

"So, what kind of things are you into?" she asks, taking the lead again.

I shrug. "I don't know. It varies. It's all dependent on what piques my interest at the time."