THE PACK IS GONNA HAVE TO BUY THE SCHOOL A NEW BUS.

A lot had changed in Seabrook since Carson came in as a Freshman. Zombies and werewolves were fully integrated into society, having jobs and positions on school teams. The wolves even moved into town, though the den was reserved for pack meetings — led by Carson and Willa of course. In the last year, she'd transitioned to a full time alpha, and Willa was made her beta.

Since becoming the Great Alpha, Carson took her responsibilities very seriously. She made sure that the werewolves wanted for nothing as they emerged into society. Despite her age, even the older wolves knew the girl had a good head on her shoulders, and often, they could see the resemblance between her and her deceased father. They spoke in the same confident tone and carried themselves the same way, giving no one reason to doubt that they were natural-born leaders.

The only small problem was that Carson's senior year was almost over, and the girl had to think about college. She may have left off the little tidbit about her being a witch on all her applications. It was the only way for scholarship offers to begin pouring in. Like many Seabrook graduates, she was planning on attending Mountain College.

The campus was only an hour and a half away from Seabrook, meaning she could return to the pack at any time if there was an issue. Many of the other wolves wanted to follow Carson to college as well, but there were far too many anti-monster laws still in place in other towns. But one zombie, in particular, was working toward breaking down those barriers.

A recruiter for the Mountain College football team would be at the final football game of the season, ready to watch Zed's performance. If he was as much of a star as they'd heard — and he was — then Zed would be the first monster to ever attend college. With that out of the way, hopefully, Mountain College would invite other monsters to apply, seeing that they were just as valuable to have as their human students.

Everyone at Seabrook was buzzing with excitement for the football game. Even at practice, the stands were full. Carson managed to keep an eye on the team while also leading cheerleading practice as well. When she went to get some bottles of water for the squad on the sidelines, she also went over to Zed.

"How's it going?" she asked the quarterback. "Do you feel like you're gonna win?"

"Oh, we're totally gonna win," he said, grinning and slinging an arm over her shoulder. "And then you guys are gonna clean up at the National Cheer Off. We're leaving this school with a bang."

"Winning is our specialty," she agreed.

"That it is," Coach said, running up to them. He'd been so happy this entire season. "Hey, Zed, Carson."

"Hey, Coach," Carson said, leaning against Zed.

"Yo," the zombie greeted.

"Thanks to you, I'm a brand-new man," Coach gushed. "No more going to the mall in pajama pants. And no more living in my mom's basement!"

"Thank you, Zed!" They turned and saw Coach's mother cheering from the fence and waving a sign around.

"Hi, Mom!" Coach said excitedly. "I am so pumped for tonight's championship game. I prepared a victory dance."

"Oh, we have got to see that," Carson told him, laughing a little.

Coach broke into a choppy dance that was similar to the robot while humming out a few notes.

"All right. Poppin' and lockin'. Okay," Zed said, hyping him up. Then he pulled out some papers he had tucked in the back waistband of his pants. "Tonight's game is really important, Coach, so I scripted all of our plays."

"Oh, thank you so much, Zed," Coach said, taking the plays. "This is gonna help us a lot."

"I got you."

"Thank you. See you guys," Coach said, rushing off.

Carson watched him go with an amused smile. "Isn't it the coach's job to script the plays?"

"Eh, he needs all the help he can get," Zed admitted sheepishly. "I think his real passion is fro-yo."

"Alright, get out there, Z-Man," she said, giving him a shove toward the field. "We'll be cheering you on."

While Zed rushed out to run drills with the blocking sleds, Carson returned to her squad and passed out the few water bottles she'd collected. Then she instructed them to start from the top, working on their halftime performance they'd be doing before the marching band went on. As they went through practice, she spotted Zoey walking to her brother with a tablet in her hands.

Eliza was given an awesome opportunity to intern at Z-Corp, the company that created the technology powering the Z-bands. It was an amazing step for her, but it meant she was having to finish most of their senior year online, which included lots of video calls to all of her friends to keep her in the loop. She was hoping to make it back to Seabrook for graduation, at the very least. Even while far away, Eliza was one of Zed's biggest supporters, knowing how important it was for a zombie to go to college.

"All right, let's cheer our team to victory!" Carson said, blowing her whistle. Many of the football players took a break to get some water and watch the short routine the cheerleaders started. "Five, six, seven, eight!"

As the routine went on, Addison ended up leading at the front while Carson did the flyer routine. Since being made captain, she made a few changes to the roster to make room for all the werewolves that joined the squad. One change included putting Stacey on the floor and moving Bree to a flyer position. She'd been working hard over the years, wanting the spot desperately. After seeing her put in so much extra work with Bonzo, Carson thought she was good enough to put in competitions.

"We are the Mighty Shrimp. We wanna hear you shout. From the left and from the right, turn up the volume now. We are the Mighty Shrimp. It's time to show you now. We got the stuff to light you up. It's getting hotter now. We're getting hotter now. It's getting hotter now!"

Once the routine was over, everyone clapped for them. Addison instantly ran up to her boyfriend, who greeted her with a smile. Everyone else followed as well.

"Hi," Zed said, putting an arm around her.

"You guys, tonight is our last chance to cheer at a Seabrook football game," Bree said, hugging Bonzo tightly as she spoke.

"Ga zurlah urbrah," Bonza said, looking at them all.

"I know. I wish we could be cheerleaders forever too," Bree agreed. "Maybe we should flunk science so high school never ends."

The Aceys and Carson had matching expressions on their faces. As if they'd ever sacrifice their good grades — all four, as well as Zed, were in the top ten when it came to class rank. Bree saw their faces and smiled sheepishly.

"Nah, we just have too much chemistry," she said, giggling and hugging Bonzo tighter.

"We are so gonna win tonight," Coach told them, shaking with anticipation.

Zed nodded and looked at Addison with a smile. "And when we do—"

"We'll be together forever," she finished for him.

"Aw!" Bree cooed.

"When I say Sea, you say Brook!" Zed then chanted. "Sea!"

"Brook!"

"Sea!"

"Brook!"

Carson laughed and then pat Addison on the shoulder. "Hey, I've got a wolf boy to go track down. But meet at five to load the equipment on the bus?"

"Sounds good," Addison said. "Tell the twins I said 'Hi'."

With that, Carson rushed off the field to find Wyatt. She'd been able to catch his scent while being lifted in the air. He was outside with Willa at the patio tables by the cafeteria. One thing she loved about being a werewolf now was how easy it was to find those she was looking for. And Wyatt knew she was coming too.

As soon as Carson rounded a corner, Wyatt was there to wrap her in his arms.

"There's my cheerleader," he said, his arms around her waist. As Carson tilted her head to the side to lean against his chest, he swooped down and placed a kiss to her exposed neck.

"Barf," Willa said, rolling her eyes in amusement. Given that having a mate was rare amongst wolves and that most never found them but were perfectly happy and in love with those they chose on their own, Willa had no problem making fun of how clingy Carson and Wyatt were. She could never imagine herself being so sappy.

"One day, you're gonna get in a relationship, and I'm wondering if you'll be able to take back what you dish out," Wyatt told her, scoffing.

"As if. None of these Seabrook Shrimp are worth my time," she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

When they heard a whooshing sound, Carson and Willa both looked up to see a meteor flying across the sky. In the last year, meteor showers had been frequent, but now there were several flying over Seabrook each day.

Almost like it was in response, the moonstone necklaces they were wearing began to glow.

"Our moonstones are acting weird," Willa said, holding hers with a frown.

"They are," Carson agreed. "But the magic feels the same — untampered with."

"Something big is happening," Willa continued.

"Something big is happening," Wyatt told them. Then he pulled out a Seabrook pennant that was stuffed in his pocket and waved it around. "Biggest football game in the universe."

Carson couldn't help but grin at how adorably excited he was. Willa, however, wasn't as impressed. "Just the biggest in Seabrook," she corrected. When a member of the spirit team came up to try and paint Willa's face, as they'd been doing for people all afternoon, the wolf growled at her, her eyes glowing a golden yellow as she did.

Carson giggled while Wyatt sighed at his sister's behavior. "Come on. You know how important a win is for all us monsters." Wyatt needed a win so that he could maybe go to college too. "Seabrook needs you, cheer wolf."

Willa rolled her eyes. "You want a fierce werewolf leader to rally a football team?"

"And what do I do?" Carson asked, raising an amused eyebrow.

"You make cheerleaders cry when they aren't good enough," she said flatly, knowing she had a point.

Wyatt then waved the pennant in Willa's face and continued to grin. "Come on."

Willa grimaced, but they could tell she would budge eventually. They would make her into a cheer wolf yet.

☽︎

Willa's loud howl echoed through the streets as she stood atop the school bus that would be driving the Seabrook players to the game. She held a sign in hand and had a crowd of fans watching her from below.

"Let's tear these Eastside Eels apart. Destroy them! Yeah!" she cheered loudly, the crowd getting excited. Then she swooped down and scraped her claws across the top of the bus, creating sparks and tearing into the metal.

From the ground, Carson and Wyatt watched on with Zoey next to them.

"Maybe just a bit too much school spirit," Wyatt said uneasily. The wolf was on his knees with Carson standing behind him. She was pulling the top half of his grown-out hair up into a messy ponytail so that it wouldn't get in his eyes while he was jumping around in the stands — the wolf got a little too enthusiastic about football, or any sport, really.

"Eh," Carson said, shrugging. "It's the top. No one will notice the damage."

"Unless it rains," he said, pointing to the sky. It was cloudy and they could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Thankfully, it was an away game and they wouldn't need to play in the rain.

"Get our Mighty Shrimp on this bus so we can defend our turf!" Willa shouted. "No outsiders mess with our pack. Yeah! When you're from Seabrook, you are Seabrook. Seabrook! Seabrook! Seabrook!"

As Willa led the chanting, the tablet Zoey was holding rang. All three of them crowded around it to look at Eliza, who was calling in. Wyatt got back on his feet now that Carson was done with his hair.

"Liza," Carson greeted brightly.

"Hey, Carson, Wyatt," she said.

"It sucks you're not here for this," Wyatt told her. "We all miss you — mostly Wynte — oof!"

Carson had elbowed her boyfriend in the gut to silence him. The last thing they needed was for someone to out Wynter's small crush on the zombie hacktivist before she got the chance to herself.

"Wait, what'd you say?" Eliza asked as the image on the tablet began glitching. "I couldn't h - hear what he s-s-said."

When the video cut out altogether, Carson smacked Wyatt's shoulder. "You are so lucky the storm is messing with the signal," she said, shaking her head. "Or I would've let Wyn use you as a tackling dummy to warm up for the game."

"Fair," he muttered sheepishly. Then he smiled. "Forgive me?"

"Of course," she said, kissing him on the shoulder she hit. "I'll see you at the game. Get there safe, okay?"

Then Carson ran over to where the other cheerleaders were. They lined up in front of a big banner that read 'Seabrook Football,' and it was time for the players to load on the bus.

"Okay, everyone, let's give it up for our football team as they head off to victory!" Carson shouted while rustling her pom-poms together. Everyone cheered loudly as the band played some music. "Here they come!"

Except it wasn't the football team that broke through the banner. It was Bucky and Shrimpy that came out. Carson laughed and covered her mouth as her brother did a few backflips before landing and doing jazz hands for the crowd.

"Thank you. Thank you for coming to see me off for my big game!"

"You're not even on the football team, Bucky," Stacey told him, shaking her head.

"Um, that's President Bucky," he corrected, scoffing. "And as president, all accomplishments are my accomplishments. It's gonna be a banner year for me, now that I've organized the—" As he spoke, Bucky took one of the flyers from the stacks that the Aceys were handing out and read them. "National Cheer Off!"

"Um, your sister and Addison organized the Cheer Off," Lacey informed him.

"We invited squads from all over to compete," Carson added. Then she took in a deep breath of fresh air. "So many new teams to squash."

Then, because there was no banner, someone turned on the backup fog machine, finally giving the football team their cue. They ran through the fog, led by Zed, and the crowd began cheering for them.

"Go, Seabrook!" Zed shouted, letting all his teammates pass him. "Hey, Seabrook! Seabrook! Go, go, go! Go, boys!"

Willa let out a howl, and the other wolves echoed it. As they did, the final member of the team wandered over to Zed, her head down and covered with a helmet. Wynter, their best player on the defensive line up.

"Hey, hey. You are going to kill it out there tonight, okay?" As he spoke, Zed grabbed the face mask of her helmet. "Those Eels think that they can keep you caged up. They think they can keep you on a leash! But you are no cuddly puppy. You are a fierce beast of the forest!"

Wynter got more in the mood and nodded furiously. She and Zed let out howls as her eyes and necklace glowed. "This shrimp be cray!" she exclaimed.

"So cray! Go, Wynter!" he said, pushing her toward the bus.

Wynter rushed off at full speed, only to end up running headfirst into the bus and crushing the metal. The cheering instantly stopped as people looked at the wolf, wondering if she was okay.

"The pack is gonna have to buy the school a new bus," Carson muttered while rubbing her forehead. It made Addison giggle.

"Too much?" Wynter asked, wincing as she looked at Zed.

"Never too much!" he shouted back at her. "You do you!"

As the time to leave grew near, the crowd simply began chanting over and over. "Seabrook, Seabrook, Seabrook!"

As they did, Zed moved to the cheerleaders. Addison put her arm around his waist and wished him good luck. Then Carson spotted two nervous people walking through the crowd timidly, both wearing blazers with the Mountain College logo on them.

"Look who I spy," Carson said in a singy tune. She directed Zed's attention to the recruiters, who his father just greeted.

"This is it," Zed said, taking a deep breath. "Together..."

"Forever," Addison said, nodding.

Then a loud clap of thunder sounded, making them look up. "Meteors," Zoey pointed out.

"It's nothing new anymore," Carson told her, shaking her head.

"Yeah, it's been regular since the werewolves recovered the moonstone," Zed added, looking away from the meteor shower.

"It's so Seabrook," Addison gushed, grinning. "Come on!"

They all made their way over to the recruiter. Seeing as Addison and Carson were already accepted, they thought it might help his chances if they were with him.

"Oh! Here he is now," Zevon said, seeing his son coming over.

"Oh, hi," the female recruiter said, clearly nervous to be talking with a zombie.

"I'm a recruiter from Mountain College," the man introduced over the thunder. "And we need... we need—" He trailed off and looked at the sky with wide eyes.

Zed laughed, not noticing why he was distracted. "You need to recruit me to Mountain College!"

Carson tensed up, her magic crackling in an unfamiliar way. She slowly turned on her heel and looked up at the sky. And she saw exactly what got the recruiter so shaken up. Something was coming out of the clouds.

"Oh, no. Oh, no!" the recruiter screamed.

"What?" Zed asked before he too turned around.

From the sky, a huge, glowing ship was descending. Once people began to notice it, the screams began as they began running to try and hide. Carson could hardly believe her eyes, but it surely explained the static feeling in the air that had her magic so wound up in an unnatural way.

"It's a UF—"

"Whoa," Addison cut Zed off.

"I quit!" the recruiter screamed while running away. "I'll never leave home again!"

"Wait, wait, wait! Don't go!" Zed shouted after him. "You have to recruit me to Mountain College."

"Zed, I think something a little more important is happening," Carson snapped, not taking her eyes away from the ship.

"This can't be happening," Bucky said, hiding behind a car with Bonzo and Bree.

"Someone tell me I'm imagining it, please," Bree pleaded, terrified.

Then the storm raged even more. Strong bolts of lightning began hitting all over town. Windows were breaking and things were catching on fire. It was total destruction, and people were getting hurt.

"Wolves!" Carson shouted, her eyes glowing as she growled.

"We have to protect the moonstone!" Willa said.

The moonstone, that was moved to the center of town after the wolves moved out of the den, was where they all met, surrounding their power source. They couldn't risk the aliens or the energy surge destroying it. They also had to protect the town.

"Set up a perimeter," Carson ordered while also putting up a protective forcefield around the stone like she had before Seabrook Power was destroyed. "Get defenses over there. We don't know if they're just going to hover or do something else."

A bolt of lightning came down just where Carson was standing, but Wyatt pulled her out of the way just in time. They fell to the ground and looked up at the imposing ship, wondering what was going to happen to them with the arrival of aliens.

Of course, the only one that wasn't scared or ready for a fight was Addison. The girl was standing directly under the ship and looking up in wonder.

"She's so stupid," Carson muttered, keeping an eye on her cousin in case she needed saving.

"I can't believe this," Addison said as Zed ran to check on her.

"Don't know if we should be standing here or running for our lives," Zed said a little sarcastically. He was trying to pull Addison away, but she wasn't budging. "Addy, they could laser us to dust! And of all the days they could've picked. Now, come on! I'll get you to safety."

"I'll handle myself. Thanks anyway," she said, still looking at the ship. "We don't even know what they're here to do."

"I think they came to blow up the town!" he snapped.

"Or this could be the start of something new," she said hopefully. "And if it's the end, at least I'm with you."

Finally, something happened to knock some sense into Addison. Lights came down from the ship, right over where they were standing. Some sort of symbols shined on the ground before it began to crumble and break apart. Zed grabbed Addison and they ran away before they could fall into the shallow hole that was created. It was too far, but Carson could've sworn she saw something sticking out of the asphalt.

But then a car exploded behind them, and Wyatt dragged her away so that nothing would hit them. The other wolves followed, finding places to hide where they could still have the ship in their eyesight — granted, it wasn't hard considering how big it was.

During all the chaos, Zoey's tablet had been abandoned. Wynter was the one to find it. Miraculously, Eliza's connection hadn't crashed during the invasion.

"Eliza," Wynter said, her voice going up an octave as fear crept up on her. "I don't know what's gonna happen, but you should know, I like you and I really miss you and I had the best time when we got fro-yo before you left for Z-Corp."

"Sorry," Eliza said, her image splitting a bit. "Wynter, you cut out there. W-w-what?"

"I like you! I really like you!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

"What — what was t-that?"

Suddenly, lightning hit the tablet, knocking it from Wynter's hands. She shook them, trying to ignore the heat. The tablet itself was completely broken in two and fried. Wynter sighed defeatedly before running to catch up with the rest of her pack. She arrived just as the aliens did.

A large, blinding beam of blue light shot down from the center of the UFO. A group of aliens dressed in blue and silver set foot on the ground, their features covered by masks that covered their whole faces. The aliens seemed to ignore the townspeople and huddled around the broken asphalt where Addison and Zed had been. Carson had been right about something sticking out of the hole.

Carson narrowed her eyes and moved forward to investigate, but Wyatt kept a tight grip on her hand, keeping her in place until there was a plan. The aliens removed their masks, revealing that they looked fairly human except for their blue hair. They were discussing something, but even with enhanced wolf hearing, the storm was too loud to overhear.

Then, without any kind of strategy, a few zombies, football players, and wolves rushed at the aliens. But they easily fought them off, using some kind of forcefield to push them all back and deal out blows, easily beating them.

"Absolutely not," Carson said, her eyes glowing red. "They're dead if they think they can come for our town."

"Zombie out, Zed!" Bucky pleaded, tugging on Zed's jersey.

"Don't overreact!" Addison exclaimed. "They could be our friends."

"The town is on fire, Addy!" Carson snapped angrily. "Wolves, get ready for a fight."

"Line up!" Zed told the football players.

Together, they approached the group of aliens that were coming near as well. They didn't seem aggressive, but Carson never let her defenses down. She and Zed led the group. Magic swirled around her hands while Zed deactivated his Z-band. The wolves bared their fangs and growled, harnessing the power of their necklaces. The Z-Patrol had also arrived, their sirens blaring.

As they got up to the aliens, Carson noticed how they seemed startled and flinched back. They weren't ready to attack or be attacked, apparently. And it didn't help when Zed got in the face of the guy seeming to lead them, roaring and growling, getting zombie slobber on him.

Addison stepped up and pulled her boyfriend back. "Zed, stop! Enough!" she insisted, fixing his Z-band. The wolves also backed off a bit, their eyes and necklaces no longer glowing. Carson was the only one to stay close to the aliens, acting as the first defense if things changed.

"Oops," the blue-haired boy said while looking around. "It seems our arrival may have caused a small, somewhat destructive energy surge."

"You think?" Carson asked them flatly.

Suddenly, a wave of red energy emerged from Carson, sweeping out across the town. It put out all the fires and calmed all the fritzing electricity around them. Then she looked skyward and whispered a spell to calm the raging storm. The aliens looked on in awe, never having seen power like that. They also hadn't seen zombies and werewolves.

"Astounding," one with short, cropped blue hair said.

"Tread carefully," Carson warned, looking between the three at the front. Then she took several steps back to join her people. Wyatt was there in an instant, standing with his chest ot her back and holding her hand.

The aliens then began to whisper amongst themselves, which made Carson uneasy. She didn't like waiting. But then the boy picked up a stray flyer off the ground, and they all smiled.

An alien with a blue bob haircut stepped up, quite confident as she spoke. "Take us to your leader."

"Your cheerleader," the third alien said.

Bucky instantly stepped up, but Lacey grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "No," she whispered, shaking her head.

It was Carson who returned to her place in front of the aliens, joined by Addison this time. Her cousin was the only of the two with a warm smile to greet them. "Hi."

"We accept your invitation to the National Cheer Off," the alien told them.

Before anyone could question them further, Mr. Wells stepped up. "Z-Patrol, arrest them!" he ordered. The officers instantly rushed forward, following orders.

It was evident that the aliens didn't know what 'arrest them' meant, as they still had pleasant smiles on their faces. Boy, was their intergalactic bubble about to burst.

"Aliens," Wyatt breathed out, finally relaxing as handcuffs were put on them. He's come up behind Carson. "Cheerleading aliens."

"And they're gonna see earth and the trophy in their rearview mirror as they fly back home," Carson muttered.