Pixar One- Shots

How Do I Become A Scarer? (Monsters Uni.)

Scaring.

It's the foundation of our civilization.

Without scream energy, where would we be? A better question is, who knows? We've been reliant on this source of energy for so long; a world without it is simply unfathomable, to most. Scarers are the monsters we all should aspire to be; what I aspire to be.

From the time I was around five years old, I have known that a scarer is what- no, who I am. I may not be conventionally scary, but that doesn't mean I can't be fierce. I know every scare tactic there is, and every phobia. I know exactly how to use any fear to my advantage on the scare floor. Of course, I've never officially been on a scare floor (legally, anyway).

"This is not working." Mike muttered, putting his pencil down and crumpling up what was his tenth attempt at writing out his own experiences. The words had sounded so fluid in his head, but when he tried to put them on paper... Mike reread his own words with a frown. Writing things down and playing around with the sentence structure was supposed to help with a lack of creativity, but it didn't seem to be doing anything for him.

I only have another week or so to finish my application, Mike reminded himself. It was mid February, and if he was going to attend Monsters University in the fall- which he'd been working towards for the last thirteen years- he had to finish this entrance letter within the next two days. Everything else for the application was finished, but he didn't want to risk accidentally being ignored because his papers arrived to the school late. If he didn't finish this soon, he'd get distracted by all the other work he had piling up, and nothing would get done.

Narrowing his eye at the paper, Mike tried to organize his thoughts. He'd always been able to organize everything, and he'd been acing his classes since the day he started school. Everything had been going great- not that it wasn't now, but in the last month, the work had really begun to pile up. To make matters worse, Mike had developed a bad habit of procrastinating. His entire academic success system was getting harder and harder to maintain, and pretty soon, assignments would start slipping, and his grades would fall, and he wouldn't make into university-

Stop! You're only making things worse!

Mike took a slow, deliberate breath, trying to calm himself down. It was pointless to think that way. Self pity wasn't going to get him anywhere. Mike glanced at the alarm clock next to the desk in his bedroom. 9:45 p.m. He could stay up for at least another hour and a half to get some work done.

"Priorities." Mike mused out loud. "Obviously this essay is the most important at the moment.." the other large projects Mike had to get done weren't going to be due for another two weeks, at the soonest. Of course, they were large reports, which is why such a large time frame was allotted to complete them. For a brief moment, Mike considered going back to attempting to write the entrance letter, but immediately dismissed the idea. Nothing was happening with that. Mike considered the other assignments he had to juggle. Along with the two reports on how exactly screams were transformed into electricity, he had a workplace 30 conversion sheet that needed to be completed. That would need to be given to the teacher on Friday, so it wouldn't hurt to work on that.

"Numbers are easier to work with than grammar and sentence structure." Mike muttered, standing up to find the conversion paper.

By the time he'd finished the math questions, it was well into the night, and despite the lingering stress over the remaining work to be done, Mike flopped onto his bed. For a while, sleep didn't come. As usual, far too many thoughts were running through Mike's mind to allow him to sleep. Most of his thoughts concerned his future.

Can I really do it? Get into MU?

Will I be successful?

Will I be happy as a scarer?

Mike closed his eye tightly. Who knew what the future held? It was going to arrive one way or another; he'd just have to wait and see.

Hey guys. So this was extremely short, I know. This was just something I wrote based off of how I have frequently felt lately. It was a stress relief one shot more than anything. Also, I have to warn you guys that these won't be every Friday anymore. This book'll be more of a casual thing now. I'll publish these stories whenever I get them written. I'm doing this mainly because school is starting right away. There could very well be large intervals of time between one-shots now, but I think it'll be worth it. There'll be a rise in the quality (and length..!) of these stories.

I want to thank you guys for sticking with me and showing me so much support with every story you read here. It really means a lot to me. Thanks for reading! As always, requests and constructive criticisms are welcome!