Chapter 10: The Moment of Truth

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During a few days now, April has been studying normally without any troubles, yet she was still thinking about the last conversation she had with the president of the Roar Omega Roar fraternity. She hasn't talked to him nor his fraternity comrades since then. But during these days, she has been observing the Oozma Kappas training and performing. She doesn't know what happened to them since that day when they got humiliated in front of the whole university, but they sure were working more and harder than in the first two events. Mike has been training and helping his comrades very hard, the Oozma Kappas members were giving all their best and improving, and Sulley seems to be for once working hardly too. 

-

There is the third event of the Scare Games; "Don't scare the Teen". The remaining fraternities have to walk through a labyrinth with many human figures panels on the walls who could be activated to show off in front of the monsters. The participants have to hide when they confront these panels before they get seen, to progress through the labyrinth. Eventually they can roar against children figures. April, watching on a corner, could hear buzzes from the figures panels. She crosses her fingers for the Oozma Kappas to make it. First coming out, are the RORs.... and then here come the OK in second place.

 "First place, ROAR OMEGA ROAR! Second place, Oozma Kappa!", the vice-president of the greek council exclaims, "Third place, HSS!"

 April yells victoriously, arms in the air. The PNKs are the fraternity who didn't succeed and are eliminated. The ROR, the OK and the HSS are remaining in the competition.

The next day, as April is walking towards her studies with a box of noodles to eat, she can see the Oozmas once more into training for the next event. She can hear their conversation going on. Mike is pointing out where everyone is hiding.

"Kiosk! Pile of leaves! Standing out in the open!", he yells.

Art is standing, staring at a butterfly.

"And there should be one more...."

He hears a whistle from up above.

"How'd I do?", Don whistles, clutching with his tentacles on a branch up a tree.

"Oh, not too shabby, Don!", Mike cheers.

"Thanks! I cannot get down.", Don whistles back, worriedly. 

April chuckles, happy to see the progress in everyone of this fraternity. She can see Sulley trying out a hiding spot in a bush, who is noticing April walking by. April gives a thumb up, grinning to him while nodding. Sulley smiles at her, as a reaction to her cheering.

-

During a few mores days, the Oozmas were training, and April's hopes on them grow more, knowing definitely that they surely got a chance against the RORs. A few times, she has hung up with the Oozmas at lunch, at breaks, in the evening, at their fraternity house.... She even got better along with Sullivan. They were now friends. They still don't share their opinions on some things, but they still got along. 

-

The next event, "Hide and Seek", consists in monsters disguised as guards who will look after the few competitors left, inside the Roar Omega Roar house. The fraternities have to hide into different spots and not get seen by the guards, while trying to escape the house. From this house, emerges the owners of the house first, and then the Oozma Kappas. The two remaining victorious fraternities are to face each other in the last event of the Scare Games very soon. April claps her hands together at the team.

"We're down to two remaining teams! Roar Omega Roar and Oozma Kappa!", exclaims the greek council president.

The Greek VP opens a black envelope and announces...

"Which leads us to the final event. "Every one of your skills will be put to the test. The scare simulator will prove who's the best." Tomorrow night you finally get to SCARE in front of the whole school!"

As April sees the Oozmas starting to walk away, she comes to them to cheer them up. She chooses to come to them when the crowd is not around them, knowing that the people have become very fan of them.

"Congrats, guys! You will strike these games down!", she yells.

"Oh we sure will!", Mike says proud of himself and his team.

"Group hug, everyone!", Art yells out, hopping to Mike and hugging him.

Mike chuckles and Squishy, Terri, Terry and Don join in the hug. April giggles at seeing them. Then Terri offers a hand to April, noticing that she hasn't joined in.

"Hey come on, you too!", he says.

April shakes her hands aside.

"No, no. It's okay, I don't-"

"Come on here!", Mike calls out, as the fraternity starts calling her out, insisting.

"Oh, well ok.", April gives up, joining the group hug.

"Yay!", everyone but April in the hug, exclaim, which makes April chuckle.

She notices that Sulley isn't in the hug. He is nearby on a corner, looking worriedly on the floor with concern and crossed arms. 

"Hey, come on, big guy. Join us.", April offers.

But he doesn't listen. She lets go off the guys.

"I'll be back.", she assures to the team.

She walks to Sullivan, crossing her arms at him, still showing on a smile.

"Hey Sulley. You okay? Big guy don't like hugs?", she asks jokingly.

Sulley startles as he heard her. 

"Oh, sorry. I haven't heard you.", he lies, nervously.

April looks more concerned, sensing the lie in the tone of his voice.

"You sure? You nervous because of the final event, maybe?", she asks.

Sulley chuckles nervously, rubbing a hand behind his back.

"I dunno what you talking about.", he says.

April stares at him with a worried frown, not even blinking and showing him that she isn't convinced by him. Sulley sighs, giving up.

"Hardscrabble talked to me.", he mumbles.

April's eyes widen.

"What? For what?", she asks.

"About Mike. She....", he hesitates before trying out something, "She isn't really confident about us. She doesn't think all of us got a chance."

"All?", she asks, before looking at the rest of the Oozmas who are still celebrating and cheering themselves up.

When she looks at Mike, she realizes, turning back to Sullivan.

"It's about him, isn't it?", she deadpans

Sulley nods.

"Look, she may say this, but who knows? Mike might be scary after all. This last event, I'm sure he'll succeed it. Don't worry. And he is with you guys. Support him the best you can. I know there can be a way for Mike to be scary and to prove Hardscrabble wrong. You and Mike will get back into the scare program together. I know that.", April cheers him up.

"Heh, sure.", Sulley says, still worried.

"Don't worry big guy, you'll win this, all together.", she says, elbowing him on the arm, not noticing the worry in his eyes.

What April doesn't know yet, is that Sulley heard Hardscrabble and he knows what she said.... and sadly agrees.

"Well, I got to go, I'm feeling tired. And you might be tired too. So I hope for you to rest the more you can for the next event.", she chuckles.

"Ok, see you.", Sulley waves a hand at her, as she starts walking away.

"Bye Oozmas.", she calls out to the guys.

"Bye April.", they call out in chorus, as they too start walking to their own fraternity house, still cheering themselves up, followed by Sullivan who still looks worried down to the ground.

April yawns as she walks towards the dorms, not doubting any second of what will happen at this last Scare Games event. Something that will make scandal and show dishonor towards one of the two remaining teams.

-

And now.... finally.... the last event of the Scare Games. Many of the students here on Monsters University are gathered around the arena, to see the last event of the games. The students are heading to the final event of the Scare Games as the alma mater plays. April joins in. After a while, the Alma mater ends and the event can finally start.

"Welcome to the final competition of the Scare Games!", the Greek council president exclaims.

The crowd cheers the two remaining teams. April can see far in the distance Hardscrabble appearing farther away in the stadium and glancing toward Oozma Kappa. Her eyes narrow. April holds her hands together tightly.

"Please win this one guys. You got so far into it.", she whispers to herself, praying.

"It's time to see how terrifying you really are in the scare simulators!", the vice-president announces.

We see a simulator for each team.

"But be warned, each simulated scare has been set to the highest difficulty level!", the president warns out.

The games begin with Don going up against Reggie. April watches the two competitors closely, hearing out a few callings coming out from both the teams. Johnny yells from off to the side.

"Hey Bruiser, you take it easy on Grandpa!"

"Oh shut it....", April mumbles, deadpanning with her eyes shut, remembering what she told him last confrontation and knowing how stubborn and so sure he can sometimes be, "This is of no use to be like that, please."

Art calls from the other side.

"Unleash the beast, Don!"

Don looks nervous, but does his best to cover. A light flashes red, yellow, green. GO!

They're off! Don gets to his door, pulls out a dossier and reads the info on his child. A Jumbotron shows Don entering the room, carefully. The crowd waits with anticipation. April observes the action pretty closely, her attention fully concentrated on Don and Reggie. Don finds the room filled with toxic toys, he scratches his chin unsure how to proceed then looks at his tentacles and gets an idea. Meanwhile, Reggie creeps into his room and steps on a squeaky rubber duck, accidentally. But he recovers. As the sim kid sits up, Reggie turns and scares him immediately. The scoreboard shows Reggie's score. It is pretty low. April can see down on the arena that Johnny is not happy. But Reggie comes out cheering, as if he did well. To Don's side, the sim kid sits up and we see Don on the ceiling. He swoops down toward the bed, hanging by an arm. Don's scare registers on the board, and eclipse his by a small percent. The Oozmas are thrilled! 

"Ya killing it!", April exclaims, thrilled too by the score.

Don stepping out of the simulator with new found confidence. He looks to Reggie and the RORs and tells him something before marching proudly. Reggie and the RORs are a little shocked. Two referees finish rearranging the toys in the room, they give the thumbs up when it's ready.

"Next group to the starting line!", the president exclaims.

Terri and Terry go off against Chet from the RORs. Green light turns on, GO! Chet, as he got in the room, dances his claws around the toys to the bed and lets out a fearsome roar. The score board shows Chet taking the lead over the OKs. The RORs cheer at Chet's score. To the Oozmas, the door opens and in walks the silhouette of a human. But then the human splits apart into a four-armed, two-headed creature and lunges into the foreground revealing Terri and Terry, roaring. The kid screams. On score board showing this scare taking the OKs just below the RORs' lead.

Next, Squishy against Chip. To the Oozmas, the sim kid lies quietly in bed when the closet door opens. Is that Squishy in front of the door? The kid's eyes scan the room and go back to the door, Squishy's gone. A second later, the kid turns and Squishy is suddenly right beside him.The sim kid screams and Squishy's scream can fills up just over half way. The score board shows Oozmas have taken a small lead! Squishy's mom cheers wildly. April chuckles as she could hear her. Chip on his side does a terrifying scare. The RORs reach past the Oozmas. April can hear the Oozmas cheering up Art.
"Come on Art, you can do it!/Come on buddy!"
This time its Art against Javier. Art comes in, taking large steps across the room then balancing on his hands. It's a mixture of break-dancing and yoga. He flattens and rolls under the bed.A four-armed bug monster, which is Javier, from the ROR team let's loose his scare. The bug guy creates an even bigger lead. The ROR brothers cheer. Art appears at the kid's side and strikes a strange yoga pose. Art's scream can only fills up halfway. Not enough points to pull up to the RORs. Mike is disappointed. It's not looking good for the Oozmas, the RORs have too big a lead. But they rally anyway. April crosses her fingers for them.

"Next up, Sullivan and Boggs!", yells the vice-president.

Randy and Sulley take their places at the starting line. The light turns and they're off!Sulley stops at the door, opens his dossier. Mike watches as Sulley studies the information. Sulley heads inside. He carefully dodges every obstacle and positions himself at the end of the bed. Mike and the misfits watch Sulley on the Jumbotron. Randy disappears into his room, climbing the walls. Sulley slowly lurches up over the kid and does a big roar. The room shakes and the sim kid screams. As his simulator shakes from Sulley's roar, Randy drops to the ground and is thrown off his game. He blends into a heart rug this time and lets out a meager roar.The score board is now showing that the scores are now tied!

"And it's all tied up!", the vice-president exclaims.

Sulley joins his team as they celebrate. They're almost there.

"Oh, tough break for the RORs!", the president adds.

April cringes at the look on Randy and what happened to him on the screen, sorry for him. Randy sees them celebrating as he backs up and runs right into Johnny. Johnny is fuming, outraged by the chameleon's performance.

"Hearts?!!", he shouts.

Johnny stares daggers at Randy.

"Way to go, Boggs!", Chet scowls.

Randy looks back at Oozma Kappa celebrating. April watches her friend, if ever they were still friends, as he suddenly has changed attitude and glance in an instance against the Oozmas, more specifically Sulley. April sees that he is muttering something, but can't figure out what. 

"I need to talk to him afterwards. Just in case....", she whispers to herself, feeling concern towards Randall.

"Worthington and Wazowski to the starting line!", the vice-president exclaims.

All eyes are on Mike. Mike pauses, a bit of doubt setting in. He looks over and sees Hardscrabble looking in his direction. Sulley approaches Mike, encouraging him. Mike's nervousness fades when he hears this. Mike heads to the starting line. He's right next to Johnny, who also told him something, but in April's opinion, it doesn't look like cheers. She frowns at him, but yet she can't get angry at him. They are on the final event, and right now, one of the teams had to win. And there is still something she had to figure out of him before deciding if being angry at him or not. He was distant to her last exchange. And he didn't dare to say anything else than asking questions on her. Maybe one day she could figure out.... or talk with him about it. April then suddenly notices that Johnny turns his head around to look at the crowd of people around the arena, looking for something. He stopped as he sees April. April keeps her frown on, being stern on him but showing some concern still. Johnny simply sighs, turning back towards himself.

The light immediately turns and they're off! Mike and Johnny are neck and neck. They enter their simulators. Both of them rush to their simulators, getting inside after reading the infos of the sim kid. Johnny creeps toward the bed. Mike takes his time, dodging toys and distracting the kid with a scratch to the bed. Johnny goes in for the kill and roars with all his strength. Johnny almost fills his can, taking the team's lead close to the top. April could admit, she got thrilled by his performance. It was impressive to her. Johnny could almost have brought her chills. She can't hold it but chuckle, her expectations on him not having been enough than this. 

"He sure is pretty scary that's no joke....", she mutters to herself, admiring his performance still.

"Amazing performance by Worthington!", the vice-president exclaims.

We see Johnny walking out like a champion. The ROR brothers chant.
"Johnny, you're my hero!", yells Chet, which makes April snicker, with a fist on her mouth.

"The Oozmas will need a record breaking scare to win this!", the president says.

April now looks at the Oozma's screen, hopeful on him.

"Come on, you can do it.", she whispers to herself.

Mike crouches by the bed, contemplating his next move. He hesitates for a while, thinking a bit and reminding himself of all the discouragements. Mike's eye suddenly opens and he leaps up over the bed and ROARS! The can is filling itself. The winners of the Scare Games are....

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