《怪兽大学》第19章

The ROR house was packed with monsters. They all turned when the Oozmas walked in. "Uh, hello," Squishy said nervously.

The crowd stared at them blankly. Then recognition swept through the group, and the party monsters hooted and shouted happily.

"Oozma Kappa!"

"These guys are crazy!"

"What you did today was insane!"

Mike looked at his team and smiled. "Oozma Kappa," he said, "tonight, we party like Scarers!" Art quickly burst onto the dance floor, twisting and gyrating wildly.

Don also strutted his stuff, and Squishy started dancing with the PNKs, who seemed to really enjoy his company. "I've never stayed up this late in my life!" he told the girls.

Then Squishy spotted Sulley standing off to the side by himself and decided to lasso him onto the dance floor. Reluctantly, Sulley gave in and was pulled into the crowd. Soon, he was doing some monster moves of his own.

While the team danced, Mike wandered out into the hallway. Along the walls were portraits of past Scare Games winners. And there, set on a pedestal, was the Scare Games trophy, which the RORs had won last year. Looking at the golden trophy, Mike could see his own reflection. It made him look exactly as he felt: big and impressive. I can win, he thought.

Meanwhile, at the party, Johnny noticed the Oozmas on the dance floor. He whistled and called out to the crowd, "Hey, quiet! QUIET! On behalf of the RORs, we'd like to congratulate all the teams that have made it this far! Let's hear it for the PNKs! Looking good, ladies!"

The girls took a little bow, and the crowd cheered. "HSS!" Johnny continued. "Very creepy!" After more cheering, he turned back to the crowd. "And finally, the surprise team of the scare games, OOZMA KAPPA! Come on over, guys."

The crowd parted and a spotlight hit the Oozmas. "Let's hear it for Oozma Kappa!" Johnny cried.

The Oozmas smiled. But suddenly, without warning, gallons of paint were tossed into their midst, splattering the entire group.

The crowd was confused, but Johnny started laughing. Then a machine shot glitter confetti at the Oozmas and a ROR tossed a bucket of flowers. "The most adorable monsters on campus!" Johnny howled. Then he shouted, "Release the stuffed animals!"

Another ROR brother yanked on a rope that was connected to a net. A huge pile of cute little stuffed animals dropped on top of the Oozmas. A camera clicked and caught the Oozmas' glittery, horrified expressions.

The next day, the humiliating photo was on the front page of the school newspaper. Mike was doing his best to keep his team's morale high, but it wasn't easy. "Don't worry. Nobody reads the school newspaper," Mike said as they walked to class.

"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure they read the quad," Art replied. Mike looked up and saw the entire quad plastered with the same embarrassing photo. Students were looking at the photos and laughing. And just when it felt like it couldn't get worse, Mike and the Oozmas saw a monster flying through the air — pulling a banner with the words "Cutie Kappa" on it.

Up ahead, Johnny and the RORs were busy selling T-shirts and mugs featuring the Oozma photo. Mike was furious. "Hey, what are you doing?" he demanded.

"Raising a little money for charity," Johnny replied with a laugh.

"I want you to stop making us look like fools," Mike said angrily.

Johnny held up a copy of the Campus Roar and pointed at the Oozmas' ridiculous picture. "You're making yourselves look like fools," he said. "Let's be honest, guys. You're never gonna be real Scarers, because real Scarers look like us."

Then Johnny flipped the newspaper over and pointed to a Monsters, Inc., ad in the classifieds. "But hey, if you really want to work at a scare floor, they're always hiring in the mail room." Johnny and the crowd laughed.

Sulley couldn't take any more. Fuming, he turned and walked away. The Oozmas, sad and dejected, were close behind. "Hey, hold up!" Mike called after them. "Don't listen to him! We just need to keep trying —"

Sulley turned and faced Mike. "No, you need to stop trying! We're just embarrassing ourselves. You can train monsters like this all you want, but you can't change who they are."

As the Oozmas watched Sulley leave, Don turned to Mike. "We appreciate everything you've done, but he's right. No matter how much we train, we'll never look like them." He sighed. "We're built for other things."

The Oozmas left, following Sulley back to their house. Their heads were all hanging low when Mike got an idea. "Guys!" he said, a new light in his eyes. "I've been doing this all wrong. We're going on a little field trip!"

精吓会会所里挤满了怪兽。OK会队员一进门，所有人都齐刷刷地转过身来，“那个，大家好。”史乖宝紧张兮兮地打了个招呼。

大家一脸茫然地注视着OK会成员。可是,这些怪兽很快就认出了他们，接着还爆发出一阵热烈的欢呼声。

“是OK会！”

“这些家伙简直酷毙了！”

“你们今天表现得太亮眼了！”

麦克看着自己的队友，笑着说：“OK会的兄弟们，今晚就让我们一起尽情狂欢吧！”说罢，阿拱已经跳进了舞池，尽情旋转着。

老唐也得意地炫耀着自己的舞技。史乖宝则和粉红美少女队的姑娘们跳起舞来，他似乎很受这些女孩儿的欢迎。史乖宝对她们说：“长这么大，我还从没玩到这么晚过！”

这时，史乖宝发现毛怪正远远地独自站在一边，就决定把他拉到舞池中央。毛怪只好不情愿地走进了人群。很快，他也跳起了自己独创的怪兽舞步。

队员们都沉浸在舞会中，而麦克则走出舞池，来到大厅里。大厅墙上挂着历届“惊吓杯”冠军的画像，厅里还有一个基座，上面放着精吓会去年赢得的惊吓赛奖杯。金灿灿的奖杯上倒映出麦克的身影，看起来分外高大威猛。麦克也觉得自己正是如此。我会成为冠军的。麦克默默地对自己说。

在派对上，强哥发现了在舞池中跳舞的OK会成员们。他吹了一记口哨，对着怪兽们大声说：“嘿，安静！安静！现在我要代表精吓会祝贺所有晋级的队伍！让我们掌声欢迎美少女队！姑娘们，你们今晚真漂亮！”

姑娘们轻轻鞠了一躬，在场的怪兽一下子欢呼起来。“接下来是黑丝丝队！”强哥接着说道，“她们非常会吓人！”一阵更大的欢呼声过后，强哥转过身面对着大家说：“今晚压轴出场的是本次比赛中的黑马，OK会队！来吧，小伙子们！”

人群退到两边，一束聚光灯照在了OK会队员身上。“掌声欢迎！”强哥大声喊道。

队员们绽放出灿烂的笑容。可突然，几大桶油漆猝不及防地倾倒下来，泼得他们满身都是。

大伙儿都没缓过神，强哥却哈哈大笑起来。这时一台机器朝OK会射出了五彩礼炮，一名精吓会成员朝空中抛出一大捧鲜花。“欢迎全校最可爱的怪兽们！”强哥大声号叫着，“再来点儿毛绒玩具吧！”

另一名精吓会成员将一根连接着网兜的绳子猛地一拉，一大堆可爱的毛绒玩具便掉落到OK会队员的头上。边上的照相机“咔嚓咔嚓”地记录下了队员们绚丽多彩却又惊恐万分的面孔。

第二天，这张充满羞辱色彩的照片出现在校报的首页。麦克尽可能地让大家振作起来：“别担心，没人会看校报的。”可这并不太管用。大伙儿一边听麦克说着，一边走向教室。

“对，校报是没人看，但四方坪一定有人看啊。”阿拱回答道。麦克一抬头，发现整个四方坪都贴满了他们的窘照，同学们一边看一边笑。这时麦克和大家的心情都已跌到了谷底，没想到一只怪兽从空中飞过——边飞边展开一张横幅，上面写着“小可爱OK会”。

而就在不远处，强哥和精吓会的其他成员正忙着兜售印有那张OK会照片的T恤衫和水杯。麦克气坏了，大声质问道：“嘿！你们在干什么？”

“只是为慈善机构募集点资金而已。”强哥笑嘻嘻地回答。

麦克怒不可遏地说：“我要你们马上停止丑化我们形象的举动！”

强哥举起一份校报，指着OK会那张滑稽的照片说道：“是你们自己搞得像傻瓜一样。实话告诉你们，小子，你们永远都不可能成为真正的惊吓专员，因为像我们这样的才是！”

强哥翻过报纸，指着分类信息上怪兽电力公司的广告说：“不过，如果你们真想在那儿的惊吓层找份差事，可以去收发室看看，他们那儿常年招聘员工。”说完，强哥和周围的同学又大笑起来。

毛怪再也听不下去了。他气得冒烟，头也不回地离开了人群。OK会的其他成员也都灰心丧气地紧跟在毛怪身后。“喂，等一下！”麦克在后面大声喊道，“别理他，我们只要再加把劲儿——”

毛怪转过身来冲麦克喊道：“够了，你别再费劲了！我们只是在自取其辱而已。你可以按照自己的方法训练队友，但你不可能改变他们的本质。”

大家只能眼睁睁地看着毛怪离开。老唐叹了口气，对麦克说：“谢谢你所做的一切。但他说得对，不管怎么练习，我们也不可能像精吓会那样，我们不是这块料。”

大家都跟着毛怪回会所了，一个个都垂头丧气的。麦克灵光一闪，有了主意。“大伙儿，”他就像发现了新大陆一样说道，“之前我都弄错了。我们要做的是实地考察！”