Monster Scouts #1: Started by Paintball
by Chloe Gilson
Chapter 1
“Mom! Mom!” Paintball burst through the Monster’s Hotel door, with Portrait, Splatter, and Canvas at her heels. “Mom, guess what?” The four of them were panting.
“What, honey?” Paintbrush asked.
“Well,” Paintball began, then looked at Portrait.
“There’s a troop of Girl Scouts that are selling cookies at school,” Portrait said.
“Can we get some?” Canvas begged.
Paintbrush sighed. “Why, you don’t need any,” she said.
“Please, please, please!” All four monsters pleaded in unison.
“Fine,” Paintbrush gave in. “But only one box.”
“For all of us?” Splatter frowned.
“Yes. Or, actually, you can get none,” Paintbrush offered.
“No! No! One’s fine,” Paintball said quickly.
“Thank you!” Portrait exclaimed.
The next day, Paintball, Portrait, Splatter, and Canvas hurried to school.
“There’s the table!” Splatter exclaimed, pointing. The monsters rushed over.
A girl came over. “Hi, I’m Kayley. How can I help you?” She smiled.
“She’s nice,” Paintball whispered to Portrait, who smiled in agreement.
“What do you have?” Canvas asked.
“Lots,” Kayley replied. “Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs, Do-Si-Sos…”
“Ooh! Let’s get Tagalongs,” Splatter interrupted.
“It’s not nice to interrupt,” Portrait pointed out, but Kayley laughed and said, “No, the enthusiasm is fine.”
“So can we get Tagalongs?” Splatter repeated. “Mmm, peanut butter.”
“Peanut butter chocolate?!” Paintball craned her neck to see. “I’m with Splatter.”
“Sounds good,” Portrait agreed. They all looked at Canvas.
“Fine with me.” Canvas shrugged.
“Great!” Kayley handed Splatter a box of Tagalongs, took their money, and counted out the change, which was passed back to Portrait.
Paintball had been staring at Kayley the whole time. “Kayley?”
“Yes?”
“It looks like Girl Scouts is a lot of fun. What do you do there?”
Kayley smiled. “Yes, we definitely have a lot of fun. We play games, go camping, go on hikes, work for Girl Scout badges, sell cookies, sing songs…”
“Ooh. I wish I could join,” Paintball sighed sadly.
“I wish you could too. Sorry,” Kayley agreed kindly.
Meanwhile, Splatter had opened the box of Tagalongs and bit into one. Her eyes grew huge. “Mmm, I think I’ll eat all of this!” She teased. Laughing, she started running away.
“You better not!” All the other monsters began to chase her.
Eventually, of course, the other monsters caught up and the four split the cookies evenly. Splatter ate a few right away, but the others only tried a few nibbles and saved the rest.
At home, they had to share some too, so Paintbrush gave them more money to buy another box, which was Tagalongs as well. The cookies were very popular among the Monster’s Hotel.
“Portrait?”
“Yes, Paintball?”
Paintball and Portrait were sitting together at lunch.
“I've been thinking… I really really wish I could join Girl Scouts,” Paintball said.
“I do too,” Portrait areed.
“But, wait! I just thought of something,” Paintball exclaimed. “What if we could set up a scouts troop of monsters? Like the Monster Scouts?”
Portrait grinned. “Sounds awesome! Could we do cookies, too?”
“Definitely!” Paintball thought for a moment. “Let’s use mom’s leke recipe.”
“Oh yeah, yum, yes!” Portrait enthused.
“Splatter! Canvas!” Paintball motioned for them to come over, which they did.
“What’s happening?” Canvas inquired.
Paintball explained the idea. Splatter and Canvas agreed.
“Sounds great,” Canvas said.
“Awesome!” Splatter exclaimed.
Chapter 2
At home, the four asked Paintbrush for her leke recipe. Paintbrush pulled it out of a recipe book.
“Here. But be careful, especially with the salt, if you add too much it tastes completely, horribly disgusting!” Paintbrush warned.
“We will,” Portrait assured her.
“Let’s try it now,” Splatter suggested.
“Okay, sure,” the others agreed.
They scuttled around the kitchen, getting the ingredients. When the other monsters came home, they helped. Soon a batch of cookies was slid into the oven, and the kitchen cleanup began.
Finally, the kitchen was sparkling clean. And then Portrait remembered the cookies.
"Oh, no," she groaned. "They're burnt."
Everyone else groaned.
"Well, then, we can't sell these," Paintball said. She reached for a cookie and took a cautious bite. "Hmm... Not bad, actually."
So everyone else took a few cookies, and they were gone.
"Portrait," Acrylic spoke up, "what did you mean by sell?"
So Paintball, Portrait, Splatter, and Canvas explained the Monster Scouts idea. Everyone wanted to join.
"That's great," Canvas said. "We need to recruit more members."
At school the next day, Paintball, Portrait, Splatter, and Canvas sat at the lunch table, discussing the Monster Scouts.
"Hey, girlfriends. What's up?"
The four monsters looked up to see Tiffany, who was very pretty and very popular. She was pink, with beautiful blue eyes.
"Uh, nothing," Portrait answered quickly. Yes, Tiffany was popular, but not the kind of monster they wanted in their Monster Scout troop.
"Sounds fun... Cookies?"
"Cookies? Oh, no," Portrait replied. "Um, we were talking about... Um..."
"Rookies," said Paintball.
"Bookies," said Splatter.
"Hookies," said Canvas.
"Yeah, rookies," Portrait said, trying to cover up the others' answers. "Uh, we really like... Chess."
"Oh, okay." Tiffany seemed suspicious. "Well, TTYL, gals." With that she turned up her nose and stomped away.
"Uh oh, I smell trouble," Splatter said.
Everyone nodded.
"Okay, meeting! Come to order!" Paintball yelled over the noise and excitement. They'd decided to have a starting meeting. "First thing, we need to elect a president, secretary, and cookie officer."
"A cookie officer?" Pigment asked.
"To be in charge of making cookies," Paintball said. "Okay. Nominations?"
"Paintball, for president," Gloss called. "It was her idea."
"Seconded," agreed Mural.
"Okay, let's vote. All in favor of me as president, raise your hand." Paintball counted all the hands. "All against?" Not a single hand was raised. "I guess I'm president. Now, secretary?"
In the end, Paintball was president, Portrait was secretary, and Watercolor was cookie officer (she's good at math).
"That's good," the president said. "When will we have meetings?"
"I have soccer on Tuesday and softball on Wednesday," said Primer.
"I have piano on Monday," said Sheen.
"I have baseball on Wednesday, ice hockey on Thursday, and basketball on Saturday," said Pastel.
"And I have swimming on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday," said Paintball. "We'll have to figure this out."
Everyone had sports or lessons at different times, but Watercolor figured out which events could be changed, and meetings were planned for Fridays at 4:00.
"Awesome," Paintball said. "Portrait and I will figure out badges. Meeting adjourned."
The monsters left the meeting. Except for Paintball, Portrait, Splatter, and Canvas. Paintball said, "okay, guys. What do you think of Tiffany?"
The others paled. "Trouble," Canvas spoke up. "Knowing her, she'll want to join, and if we don't let her, she'll get mad and try to ruin the troop. Maybe she'll start her own. We want monsters to join our group, right?"
Everyone agreed, that did sound like Tiffany. "We'll have to be careful," Splatter said.
"Maybe we should discuss it at the next meeting," Portrait suggested.
"Good idea," agreed Canvas.
The next day and all the rest of the week, at Paintball's instructions, all the paint monsters asked their nice friends to join. By Friday, there were several friends that were interested, and the meeting was very full.
"Order!" Paintball shouted. "Let's start with attendance."
Paintball's attendance sheet ended up looking like this:
Paintball
Portrait
Splatter
Canvas
Watercolor
Jenny
Acrylic
Bella
Landscape
Lisa
Primer
Easel
Mia
Pigment
Alice
Sheen
Gloss
Dot
Abstract
Elena
Pastel
William
Dylan
Thomas
Mural
Annie
Cyclops
Magic
"Cool, 28, that's a lot of scouts," Paintball enthused. She proceeded to explain Monster Scouts. "And anything else?"
"I think should elect a cookie committee," Watercolor announced. "We can't have 36 monsters in one kitchen, but at the same time, I couldn't do it all by myself."
Primer, Bella, Elena, Mural, Annie, Landscape, Lisa, and Easel volunteered to join. "Nine monsters should be enough."
"Anything else?" Paintball asked. "All right then. Meeting adjourned."
"Meeting adjourned!" The other monsters repeated.
Everyone was really excited. Today was the first day of selling cookies (and possibly recruiting members, if neccessary).
"Guh lug, wat," said Palette.
"It's 9:00!" Portrait shouted to the excited monsters. Immediately everyone was in their place. The monsters had shifts. Some worked at selling cookies, while the others pretended to have an awesome sound.
All was well until a specific pink monster with beautiful blue eyes showed up. Tiffany headed straight toward the cookie table. Paintball felt herself swelling with anger and almost walked over to punch her in the face, but Portrait stopped her, shaking her head. She held an electric arm to her lips. Standing together, they saw Tiffany lean in and snatch a cookie. She swiftly snuck away and ate it. Paintball and Portrait saw the amazement in her eyes as she tasted Paintbrush's secret recipe.
Tiffany walked back toward the table.
"Hey. How's it going, girlfriends? How about if I join?"
"Well..." Portrait began uncertainly, "I'm not sure, Tiffany. A Monster Scout is reliable, responsible, does the right thing, and... Doesn't make a big deal when they don't get what they want." Portrait put special emphasis on the last one. "I'm not sure if you fit under... Any of those conditions, really, Tiffany."
Tiffany's face had gone from smiling to boiling mad very fast as she heard truth pour out of Portrait's mouth. "OMG! That's so totes rude! Humph!" And she stomped off in a huff.
Acrylic, who'd been listening, groaned. "Boy, is she going to get us back."
Chapter 3
The next day of selling cookies began.
“Paintball?” Pastel looked worried. “Thomas saw Tiffany setting up a table nearby. He says to hurry over.”
“Oh, no!” Paintball cried. “What does that mean?”
“I’m not sure, we should really go check it out,” Pastel answered.
“Okay. Portrait, come on.” Paintball and Portrait hurried after Pastel to see all three of his friends gathered behind a bush. Dylan was nice. Thomas was nice. William was a snobby pest.
Paintball, Portrait, and Pastel gathered behind too. Tiffany had a table set up with a big sign that said Tiffany Scouts. Paintball groaned. “She’s mad at us, and now she has to steal our idea?”
“It’s okay,” Portrait assured her. “Tiffany doesn’t seem to have many customers. All I see is her fan club, Monique and Terri. Everyone else is at our table. Those cookies look familiar, though… I wonder where she got them…”
“Tiffany’s so pretty,” said William. Paintball and Portrait glared at him. The guys snorted.
“But the cookies!” Portrait said.
And right on cue, Tiffany stood up. “You guys, we’re eating too many cookies. I’ll go get more.”
The Scouts looked at each other. “Right, let’s follow her. Paintball, Thomas, c’mon,” Potrait instructed. They walked slowly and quietly behind Tiffany until they came to their own table. They watched Tiffany wait until the cookie-sellers were occupied, then snatch up a whole basket of their cookies!
“That-” Paintball began indignantly, but Portrait interrupted, “Paintball, we’ll fix it.”
The work day was nearly done, so they waited it out, but immediately after, Paintball called a meeting and explained.
“Oh, that’s horrible!” Alice said, and everyone nodded.
“I have an idea,” said Watercolor. “Didn’t mom say the cookies would be horrible if we put in too much salt?”
“Oh yeah!” Canvas recalled. “Are you saying we should add too much salt?”
“Yes,” Watercolor answered. “Of course, we’ll have to make some good ones for selling, but the cookie committee can watch over those, and we’ll have the baskets of bad ones shunted off to the side, like we’ll use those when we run out.”
“Brilliant!” Jenny enthused.
“I have an idea as well,” Magic spoke up. “Last week, we practiced a spell to decorate cookies. My decorations looked great, but tasted awful! I could do that on the bad cookies, and I need practice with that spell anyway.”
“That’s awesome!” Paintball agreed.
“Oh, another thing!” Magic exclaimed. “I have a friend, Wanda, who goes to my school. She’s REALLY good at magic. She could help us out, or she could pretend to be on Tiffany’s side but pretend to mess up the spells, or both. She’s a pretty good actor, too.”
“If she’s willing to help out, that’s really great,” Paintball said. “And she’d probably do both.”
“I’ll ask her tomorrow,” Magic promised.
The next day, a meeting was held early, before cookie selling started.
“News?” Paintball said to start the meeting.
“The cookie committee baked the salty cookies,” Watercolor announced. “We put in tons of salt! Augh, they tasted totally horribly disgustingly gross! We baked the good cookies, too, and they’re great.”
“This is Wanda.” Magic gestured toward a silver monster with neon pink eyes.
“Hi!” Wanda said in a friendly voice. “I was told there’s a group called the Monster Scouts that needs help being good at magic, and a traitor to the enemy, is that correct? And I agreed.”
“Cool,” Paintball said, then checked the clock. “Oh, my! Magic and Wanda, you guys should start the decorations.”
So Magic took the bad batch and Wanda took the good one. Magic pulled out her wand and waved it, mouthing something. Beautiful decorations covered the bad batch, but they smelled awful. Wanda took a look at Magic’s decorations, and copied them exactly onto the good batch. Then she pointed her wand at the bad batch and instantly the smell was gone. Wanda kept the wand pointed at the bad batch, laughed, and said, “Impilius.”
Magic cracked up. So did Wanda.
“What’s so funny?” Bella demanded.
“That spell,” Magic said between giggles, “Gave those cookies the taste of old socks.” And she started laughing again. So did everyone else.
Finally, Paintball sat up straight and said suddenly, “Guys! We’re starting in 5 minutes!”
So places were scrambled to, including Wanda at Tiffany's table, and soon monsters were checking it out and buying cookies.
Paintball and Portrait summoned Dylan and Thomas to accompany them in spying on Tiffany. Then they hurried over to Tiffany’s table. She didn’t seem to have recruited anyone.
Wanda stood near Tiffany, conjuring things for her by magic at Tiffany's command.
Eventually, Tiffany sighed. “We ran out of cookies again! I’ll go get some more. Guys, keep working.”
Portrait carefully followed Tiffany back to the Monster Scout table and back, while Paintball, Dylan, and Thomas waited for them.
“Hey, gals. Got the basket,” Tiffany announced when she came into the clearing. Portrait ducked behind the bush with her friends to watch.
The spying monsters tried very hard not to bust up laughing as Tiffany and her friends each took a cookie and bit into it. But they noticed Wanda secretly pulling out her wand and tapping her own cookie. Probably making it taste good.
"Ptooey!" All of them, except for Wanda, spat it out, surprised for a moment. Then, "Water! Water!" They ran around shrieking.
"What's the matter?" Wanda asked innocently.
Paintball, Portrait, Dylan, and Thomas looked at each other, and sprinted back to their table cracking up, to share their tale.
Chapter 4
"Hilarious!" Acrylic said between peals of laughter. All the monsters were rolling around laughing like insane maniacs.
Paintball, Portrait, Dylan, and Thomas had just told them the story of Tiffany Tastes The Disgusting Cookies.
Just then, Wanda walked in. She took one look and immediately knew exactly what was going on. She blinked. “Guys?”
Slowly, they stopped laughing.
“It went really well-” She began, but Portrait quickly interrupted, “I think we all know what happened pretty thoroughly.” A few monsters snickered.
“Hey, we actually had quite a few monsters we recruited to join Monster Scouts,” Paintball said. “Here: Julissa, Courtney, Eden, Matthew, Leslie, and Jack. We’re really growing!”
The fourth and final day of selling cookies had arrived. Nobody had asked to join yet, and there were so many Scouts already that they didn’t push it.
The spy group (Paintball, Portrait, Dylan, and Thomas) had went back to check on Tiffany, but she wasn’t there.
“Looks like she finally gave up,” Thomas said hopefully.
“Yeah. But she definitely could have kept her club, but stopped selling cookies,” Paintball pointed out.
“That’s probably more accurate,” Portrait agreed. “Tiffany’s not the giving-up type.”
It was almost time for Dylan’s cookie-selling shift then, so they hurried back to their own table.
That’s when Tiffany walked up to their table. And before the Monster Scouts could do anything, she’d opened her big fat mouth.
“You guys are just so, so interfering,” she said. “But, so, have you conside-”
“No,” Portrait interrupted flatly.”We’ve already told you, we don’t want you.”
“Fine, then, be that way,” Tiffany replied snootily. She turned to face Paintball. “We’ll be meeting again.”
Paintball raised her eyebrows. “Oh, yeah? Well, the Monster Scouts will be ready.”