Monster High is enjoying high spirits during a swim meet as mermaid/ghost hybrid Sirena Von Boo and Australian ghoul Lagoona Blue earn very high scores from the judges, including Headless Headmistress Bloodgood, Mr. Where, and Mr. Hackington. In the crowd, Spectra Vondergeist is struggling to find any new piece of gossip to put on her blog since she has posted nothing new in a while. Angered over her recent suspension from the Fear Squad due to plagiarism on an essay, Toralei Stripe tells Spectra a lie about Clawd,Clawdeen, Howleen, and the other werewolves having were-fleas. As soon as Spectra posts this little tidbit, and the students read it immediately, many of the students around Howleen put distance between her and themselves, Heath Burns and Deuce take their leave from Clawd, and Clawdeen, furious about that outright lie, causes the Fear Squad pyramid to collapse into the pool, much to Toralei's amusement, and cause the squad to be accidentally electrocuted by Frankie Stein.
Afterwards, Clawd, still believing the gossip, keeps his distance from Draculaura, having other guys like Johnny deliver gifts to her. Afterwards, Draculaura notices that she seems to have picked up a ghost haunting her as her locker acts up under its own power, she speaks out of turn during Mr. Rotter's class, and the ghost fixes up her hair. Concerned, she goes to speak to Sirena, Twyla, and Rochelle Goyle. Deciding to speak to Spectra about it, they find her as Clawdeen chews her out about her were-fleas post from earlier. When Draculaura mentions being haunted by a ghost, Spectra suddenly becomes deeply concerned, and leaves without explaining herself. Still wanting to help Spectra with writing honest, truthful pieces in her blog, Clawdeen goes after her, followed by Dracluara, Twyla, Rochelle, and Sirena. When they find her in the attic of the school, they watch as she takes a key and opens a mysterious doorway and disappears into it, after nearly discovering them when they made some noise. Still keeping to her promise to help Spectra, Clawdeen goes after her, and the others follow. They soon find themselves leaving Monster High aboard a Viking-esque ship, piloted by the daughter of the Grim Reaper, River Styxx. Her father is away at a convention in Las Plagus, so she has the boat all to herself. That's when Spectra appears, concerned as to why they are on River's boat. It's then that she and River explain about the Ghost World, and how many of Spectra's old friends still live there while many, like her, Operetta, and others went to Monster High instead. River's boat is going to take them back to Spectra's old school, Haunted High. s at that point that River asks Spectra why she's coming home to the Ghost World, and Spectra explains that Draculaura is being haunted. River finds that impossible, until she remembers the legend of the Red Lady, the most scariest, and notorious, ghost in the Monster World, who was believed to have found a way to quickly travel between the Ghost and Monster Worlds, building her infamous reputation with every ghostly crime. She was finally apprehended and locked away with it believed that her crimes were so heinous, it would take centuries for her to work off her debt to the afterlife.
Soon after River finishes telling the story, the ship falls under attack by a ghostly pirate ship and it's crew, led byVandala Doubloons, who was only doing it for a Ghost Pirate Class project and needed River to sign off on it. Vandala panics upon seeing Draculaura and the others, known in the Ghost World as "solids," and worries about their presence at Haunted High. River tries to help by disguising them in Grim Reaper robes, but Sirena does not need one due to her being half-ghost herself. Also, due to Drauclaura, Clawdeen, Twyla, and Rochelle being solid, Spectra has to help them enter Haunted High by opening the doors for them. Sirena is amazed that her parents never told her about Haunted High, while Spectra is amazed by how it's like nothing has changed, until River points out the chains that many ghosts are dragging after themselves.
Those are Detention Chains, handed out to the ghosts by Haunted High headmistress, Principal Revenant. The chains are handed out to rule-breakers with the job of working them off being extra homework, or chores. Vandala remembers how long it took to work off her last set of Detention Chains, and worse still, you're restrained from ever leaving Haunted High until you work the chains off. As the ghosts and solids head to the Creepateria to ask about Draculaura's haunting, none of them notice Revenant watching them with suspicion from her office window...
