Chapter Text
The harsh glare of the sun bounced off the shiny metal bumper of the bus and into Lily’s eye in a downright maddening way, but she did her best to avoid making any complaints. Slinging her overstuffed backpack onto her shoulder, and dragging her suitcase from the trunk of her father’s car.
“I can’t believe my little girl is going to the best scaring school in the country!” Her mother gushed, pulling her into a bone-crushing hug that left the young monster wincing.
Lily glanced over her shoulder to see her best friend Rosa being fussed over by her own mother, worrying over her daughter missing anything in the numerous bags held in her four hands.
“Mom I hate to break it to you, but the bus can’t keep waiting.” Lily chuckled, pulling away from the short woman’s embrace. Her mother smiled, wiping a tear away.
“I know, we’re just trying to make the most of this. Right honey?” She said, looking at Lily’s father, who seemed lost in thought for a moment before snapping back to reality.
“Oh! Uh… Yes, we uh… hate to see you go, sweetheart.” He replied awkwardly. Lily tried not to show it on her face, but she could not help but feel a little hurt, her father had not exactly been enthused like most parents would be to find out that their daughter had gotten into such a high-profile school for a career as lucrative as scaring.
Lily’s uncle gave her father a playful pat on the shoulder. “Ah, she’s gonna be fine. I became the monster I am today thanks to MU!” He pulled out an envelope from his faded MU jacket, and held it out to her, but pulled away at the last second.
“Ah, ah, ah, missy! Now this here is money for uh… Textbooks!” He winked “I’m gonna give this to you, but I am expecting something in return for this.”
“Good grades? Like that's going to be an issue for me?!” Lily scoffed.
He chuckled “Nothing that serious kid! You might have this guy named Arthur Knight as a professor, he and I go way back! If you have him as a teacher, tell him I said hi!” He smiled, finally handing her the envelope.
“Last call for Monsters University!” The bus driver announced, making the small crowd jump.
Lily and Rosa quickly scrambled to grab the last of their bags and squeeze onto the bus. Filing into a pair of seats near the rear of the bus, they watched as the small coastal town they called home disappeared into the blur of moving scenery.
Lily let out an exhausted sigh and she flopped back onto the hard mattress. The dorm room was bathed in the warm orange glow of the setting sun outside as Rosa continued to go about setting up all of her personal effects on the opposite side of the dorm.
“You already done packing?” She asked, struggling to hold a poster up to the wall while placing tape for it to hang on.
“Yep, just getting out the bare minimum. I don’t plan on staying in regular dorms for very long.”
“Right, you plan on joining one of the sororities. I honestly still can’t picture it. You, in a sorority I mean. You know how many parties they throw and how much you dislike that sort of scene?” Rosa said as she finished putting the poster up.
“Well, I’ve decided that, since we’re with a whole new crowd of people now, it’s the perfect opportunity to start fresh y’know? Get outside my comfort zone a bit.” Lily leaned forward, resting an elbow on her knee.
“Maybe you can finally get yourself a boyfriend.~” Rosa teased, causing Lily to clam up. Rosa giggled, sitting down on the edge of her bed. “I know! I know! Baby steps! But you’ve been reading fake stuff like ‘Sleeping with the Fishes’?” She pulled a Romance novel out from seemingly nowhere, squinting as she read the title.
“G-gimme that!!!” Lily snatched the book out of her friend's hands, a blush coating her face as Rosa burst out laughing.
“You’ve been living vicariously through these fictional characters since junior high!” Rosa stood up, hands on her hips.
“Listen I’m gonna work on passing my first year, and climbing the social ladder first! After that, I’ll start worrying about messing with guys.” Lily explained
“Well then, I’ll hold you to it!”
The sound of eager chattering filled the old lecture hall of the school of scaring as students eagerly gathered their things to leave for the rest of their first day of classes. The high domed ceiling created the perfect echo chamber for sound to bounce off of the aged dark wood.
Lily weaved her way through the crowd going against the flow of students to try to reach the front of the room. Keeping her limbs close to her body to minimize accidentally brushing against somebody as she moved.
She mentally sighed in relief as she finally broke through to the round open space in the center of the room. Professor Knight was busy clearing his writing off the chalkboard as she awkwardly stood by the table in the center of the room, waiting for him to notice her while her fingers fidgeted with the strap of her bag.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there!” He said with surprise as he turned around, his brows raising over the rim of his large glasses. “Can I help you with anything miss…?”
“Oh! Um, Blake. Lily Blake.” She replied, and his eyes widened slightly in surprise again before looking her up and down.
“Blake? You wouldn’t happen to be related to Kenneth Blake, the scarer, would you?” Knight readjusted his glasses.
Lily nodded. “Yep. He’s my uncle. He asked me to tell you he says hi?” Her voice went from affirmative to awkwardly questioning.
The professor laughed goodnaturedly. “We were roommates back in the day! Oh, he must be grinding his fangs that he’s not the one here teaching you! He always bragged about being the better scarer, but I’m the one who got the doctorate.” Lily was taken aback at the otherwise calm monster going on a small rant. Knight seemed to realize this, as he quickly composed himself, straightening his tie and clearing his voice. “Anyway, he was, and still is, an impressive scarer. You’ve got some big shoes to fill miss.”
Lily swallowed the frog that had magically appeared in her throat. “I’ll try not to let you down, sir.”
The first week of classes was over almost as quickly as it had started, and with the dawn of the weekend came the first semester’s most anticipated event, Rush Week.
Lily nervously fussed over her appearance, trying to smooth out imaginary wrinkles in her shirt. “Ugh, I look like shit. I bet my eyeliner is smudged isn’t it?!” She grimaced.
Rosa shook her head as she sighed. “You’re fine! It's just your nerves trying to keep you from going in there.” She nodded in the direction of the campus’ most prominent sorority for scarers, Slugma Kappa Theta.
It stood as one of the largest houses on fraternity row, with large pale green letters above the front entrance reading EKO. The bump of the music could easily be felt from where they stood in the middle of the cul-de-sac, multicolored lights flashing to the beat from just behind the windows.
“You don’t get it, if I don’t get in I can’t compete in the scare games, and if I can’t compete in the scare games, I can’t win the scare games! And if I can’t win the scare games, I won’t have anything impressive for my resume, and then what company will hire me!” Lily was clutching her horns to the point her knuckles were turning white as she panicked.
“Woah, woah, woah! Calm down, it's going to be fine, they’d be fools not to pick you! And even without the scare games, you’ve still got the skills to go far, I know it!” Rosa placed a reassuring hand on Lily’s shoulder as two more pried her claws off of her horns.
Lily closed her eyes taking a deep breath, steadying herself, her feet planted on the ground as she tried to find her sea legs as her mental ship went over another wave. She was quickly snapped out of that mental imagery at a voice calling out to them.
The pair looked over to see a tall blue insect monster lightly jogging up to them, waving. Rosa broke away from Lily to meet him halfway. “Javi! I was wondering where you were, I haven’t seen you all week!” She exclaimed, pulling him into a hug.
Lily looked on in confusion as the two tall insect monsters exchanged greetings, her gaze flicking back and forth between them. Rosa finally remembered she was there and introduced them.
“Lily this is my cousin Javier! Javi, this is my best friend Lily.” She practically dragged Lily over as she introduced her. Javier gave a small nod, a casual smile on his face. “Sup.”
“What are you doing here man?” Rosa questioned, lightly shaking him on the shoulder.
“I’m rushing, same as you two!” He replied, pointing his thumb behind him to the largest house on the block, ROR.
“Woah, I hear those guys are pretty strict. You sure you wanna go for them?” Lily asked.
Javier narrowed his eyes. “What, you think I’m not good enough to get in?” He leaned in, causing Lily to retreat into herself, had she said something wrong?
But her panic was lifted away as he stood straight, laughing. “I’m kidding! What, can’t take a little joke?”
Lily laughed along nervously as Rosa slapped her cousin upside the head. “Don’t tease her like that!” She scolded.
Lily stood there as she watched Rosa chide him before turning to her. “Hey, Lils. Why don’t you head inside? I’ll catch up with you in just a sec, kay?” Lily meekly nodded before turning on her heel and shuffling towards EKO.
Once she was out of earshot Rosa turned back to Javier. “Can I ask you a favor?”
“What? Let me guess, it has to do with her?” He replied, crossing his arms.
“Yes. Listen I know you’re both scaring majors, so you probably have some classes together. And you saw her people skills need some…work. So could you do me a solid and look out for her a bit for me, I just don’t want anyone to give her a hard time, she doesn’t have a ton of friends other than me. I’m not asking you to be super close to her, just make sure she’s doing alright. Pretty please?” Rosa begged, her upper pair of hands linking together in a pleading gesture.
“Sure, but I am not gonna hold her hand and babysit her.” Javier rolled his eyes.
“She’s three months older than you.” Rosa corrected.
Lily clutched the red solo cup, half-full with a punch that was definitely spiked, close to her chest as she squeezed past the dancing bodies crammed into the living room of the house. The music was so loud she could feel the reverberations in her bones and hated it.
She had caught glimpses of girls wearing EKO regalia but had not had a chance to actually talk to any of them due to getting jostled around by the crowd of partygoers. Her below-average stature certainly did not help as she craned her neck to try and spot a small pocket of space to escape to.
“You good?” Lily jumped at the hand on her shoulder. Whipping her head around to see Rosa. Her pupils had contracted into thin slits against the red of her irises. “Yikes! It only took like 20 minutes of this mess to get to you huh? Let’s get you some fresh air!” Rosa planted a hand on her other shoulder and began steering Lily through the crowd to the back porch.
Getting out onto the porch and away from the crowd felt like coming up for air after being stuck underwater. Lily finally relaxed, even if only a little.
They went to lean against the railing overlooking the backyard. A decent-sized firepit was burning with several people sitting around it smoking. Another, somewhat larger group of girls were gathered around having a very loud conversation. From the looks of things, they were already plastered, swaying back and forth, giggling to themselves.
Lily sighed, resting her chin on her forearms as she watched them. Focusing on something to try and block out the thrum of the music just beyond the sliding glass door. She closed her eyes, humming along a little to the music.
“You gonna finish that drink?” Rosa asked.
“Nah, you can have it.” Lily handed over the cup and watched as her friend downed it in one go.
Her gaze snapped back to the crowd of drunk girls in the yard as they formed into a circle around two of them. And while Lily could not exactly see what was going on, she could hear a very heated argument breaking out.
Her eye twitched with irritation, her tail flicking from side to side. Just when she was starting to calm down and enjoy things, they had to go and ruin it. She stood up straight, marching down the steps towards the cluster, Rosa following in confusion.
“Lil’s what are you thinking?” Rosa bent down to her height to whisper.
“Getting a little peace and quiet. Feel like lending me a hand?” Rosa nodded, bracing for the noise.
Lily thumped her chest and cleared her throat. Taking a more stable, wider, stance she took a deep inhale.
“WILL YOU ALL PLEASE JUST SHUT UP!!!!!!” The shout was so loud it caused everyone in the yard to recoil, covering their ears at the sudden high volume.
There was a wave of silence that overtook the crowd following the cry. Lily smiled in satisfaction at the peace. “Thank you!”
Rosa spread her wings, fluttering over the crowd to land in the center.
“Now ladies, I’m sure that you both have very good reasons for being upset with each other. However, this is not the time or the right headspace to have such an argument. You might say something that you’ll forget in the morning but certainly regret. So let’s save this mess for tomorrow and go home for the night.” Rosa suggested, already guiding one of them back to their group of friends.
Murmurs spread in agreement through the crowd, and it quickly dispersed and they began to drunkenly make their way home.
Suddenly a slow clap started causing Lily and Rosa to turn around. There stood a tall, willowy monster clad in an EKO sweater. “Nicely done ladies!” She smiled, showing a hint of razor-sharp teeth. “Those are some impressive conflict resolution skills Pink!” She turned to Lily. “And did that big screech come from you Purple?”
Lily nodded in response and the girl’s smile widened. “Damn girl! You’ve got some pipes!” She held a hand out to her. “Thalia Simons! President of Slugma Kappa Theta.”
Lily stared at her wide-eyed for a moment before returning to reality. Quickly wiping off any sweat from her palm on her shirt before eagerly shaking the president’s hand. “Lily Blake. And this is-”
“Rosa Moreno!” Her friend finished.
“Well ladies, I know we’ve only just met. But I can see some real potential here! How would you two like to become pledges for EKO?”
Lily was practically vibrating with excitement at the offer. Whilst Rosa looked confusedly at Thalia. “Oh! I’m not a scaring major, but she is!”
“Interesting… Well, the offer still stands! How about you give me your answer tomorrow? Come by the house at around… let’s say... Two?”
Before Rosa could interject further Lily was already thanking Thalia profusely for the offer. And she did not want to dampen her best friend’s mood, they could worry about it in the morning.
(Elsewhere in Fraternity row)
The party at ROR was in full swing as Johnny Worthington bumped cups with his newfound friend Javier. Several older guys wearing the fraternity’s red crowded around him, laughing at every joke he told.
He found it comical that these upperclassmen were sucking up to him, a freshman pledge. But he was used to the fact that his family name carried an extreme amount of weight wherever he went.
Johnny leaned back against the pristine white railing of the balcony, soaking in the praise. When an ear-piercing scream echoed out from the Sorority directly next door.
The conversation halted as they all turned their heads in the direction of EKO. Johnny’s brows raised in surprise. “What the hell was that?!”