Author's Note: This is intended to be just a collection of drabbles to help me get back into writing, but they might turn into full chapters to a continuing story. If I add more chapters they will all be connected and continue on with the story, but I will try to end each one in a way that could properly end this story. I hope you enjoy and if you liked it, please leave a review, even if it is just you saying that you like it. It will still make me happy.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Hannah-Barbera and not I.
Chapter 1
Summer had always been a blessing and a curse for young Sibella. On the one hand, she was able to go back home and spend a few months with her doting father. But, it also meant being separated from her fellow students, with whom she had grown very fond of over the years. Missing her friends used to be the only thing that made summer depressing; now it was not only missing her friends, but there was going to be a lot of tension and arguing in Castle Dracula this summer.
Sibella's foot tapped anxiously in it's red flat as she sat at her desk. Her purple canvas luggage was packed and piled neatly by the door, ready to be taken away when her father's coach arrived. The room was unnervingly quiet now that she was the last student at the school. The air felt stale and drafty since she was sitting right in front of the window. The creaking of old floor boards and the occasional pitter patter of rats was the only thing that interrupted the silence. Although her roommate was gone, Sibella kept expecting to hear the cackling, gleeful laughter of her phantom friend and moment.
With so much quiet around her, Sibella could only think back to recent events in an effort to prepare herself when her father to take her home. So much had happened in the past few months that her mind was still doing it's best to make sense of it all. First, she (and the school of course) lost some of the best gym teachers Grimwood's Finishing School for Ghouls had ever hired. Not only did Mr. Shaggy Rogers and his talking canines stick it out for a whole semester (which is a record for the school), they also coached her and the other ghouls into winning their annual volleyball game for the first time. Just thinking about their victory against Calloway's Military School for Boys brought a fanged smile to Sibella's coral-painted lips. Nor could she forget how brave her teachers (and surprisingly) the Calloway boys were in coming to rescue her and the other Grimwood girls from the spider witch's lair. Sibella still couldn't believe that those separate events all happened within a mere month of each other.
But the issue that was eating at her had nothing to do with those adventures. Ever since she had heard of her father's fur-brained scheme of kidnapping Shaggy and forcing him to race in the count's annual "Monster of the Year" race, Sibella had been simmering in hurt and betrayal after boiling with rage. But that was just the beginning of the list of reasons for her to be mad at her father. If kidnapping wasn't bad enough, then turning Shaggy Rogers into a werewolf without the human's consent was even worse. As she thought about the events, Sibella let out an angry huff that caused her lavender bangs to fall out of place. She ran her slender fingers of an even paler shade of purple through her hair to fix it and then through the long, darker violet locks to calm her nerves. She was a Dracula after all and she needed to be poised when confronting her father.
The scenery before her helped ease her as well. The sky was smothered in dark clouds and a fierce wind was forcing the dead trees in the area to dance and flail. A short gust of wind blew through Sibella's window and with it, the scent of moldy air and the promise of rain. The preteen vampire inhaled deeply before letting out a happy sigh from what she had smelled. Just as soon as Sibella started feeling calm, the thundering ring of the cathedral-like doorbell filled the mansion-turned schoolhouse. Sibella took a deep breath and raised herself from her wooden desk and headed toward the door.
There was a gentle knocking on her bedroom door to which the young vampiress opened to greet the knocker. Before her stood a blue octopus with a toupee of red hair combed down the middle. The octopus stood erect on all eight of his tentacles and leaned back to give the impression of proper posture befitting of a butler. Sibella greeted the octopus with a friendly smile and thanked him in advance for taking her luggage downstairs. Normally, Sibella preferred to fly down the staircase in her bat form whenever she greeted people. But knowing that her father was the one waiting for her downstairs, Sibella just was not in the mood.
Every step she took felt like it added a five pound weight to her thin ankles. The tattered hem of her violet dress poured over each step while Sibella gradually heard her own heartbeat clearer by the second. She saw her headmistress, a short, sturdy woman dressed in her usual pink dress and red high-collar cape. The puffed strands of short, black hair bounced when Ms. Grimwood turned her head from her guest to greet Sibella with a warm smile on her red lips. The guest, a tall gentleman dressed in a formal black suit, smiled up at the vampiress as well.
Sibella couldn't help but arch an eyebrow as she saw the man. He looked significantly different from the last time she had seen her father and she wondered if it was related to the incident that she reminded herself that she was mad at him about. His skin was a sickly green color when it should be a healthy shade of purple. His combed hair used to be black with a stripe of grey wrapped around the middle of his head. That streak had now spread to take over the lower half of his fine hair. Such a drastic change in appearance did have Sibella concerned, but she would ask him about it when they were alone.
"Ah, there you are, my little Sibella," he greeted joyfully in his thick Transylvanian accent. To this day, Sibella always thought it funny that she and her father had different accents when either one spoke English. She use to speak just like her father, but all her years at the American finishing school all but erased her own Transylvanian accent; perhaps that was one of the other reasons why she felt her father and herself growing apart.
"Hello, Daddy," replied Sibella in a tone that was quiet even for her. Normally her voice was just barely above a raspy whisper, but today it was noticeably low when greeting her father. Such a tone did not go unnoticed either since the count's smile quickly fell into a guilty frown.
"Well then," added Ms. Grimwood so as to eliminate the awkward silence that had suddenly appeared, "I suppose this is goodbye until August. Sibella, you have a good summer and I look forward to your return for the fall semester," she said while giving the lithe girl a warm hug. As she held Sibella close, she whispered as quietly as she could into the girl's ear. "Be firm when standing your ground but don't be too hard on your father."
Sibella gave a small smile to the older woman whom matched her in height. Ms. Grimwood always gave her the best advice and the vampiress would be sure to keep her words in mind. Just as Sibella turned to leave with her father, a frantic grumble of growls came from the next room. A green dragon, no larger than a welsh corgi, ran into the foyer and nuzzled his round head into Sibella's leg. The girl chuckled softly and crouched down to run her fingers down the dragon's scaly and ridged back.
"Oh, Matches," said Sibella in a warm tone, "I wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to you. You promise to look after the school and Ms. Grimwood while I'm gone?"
The young dragon eagerly nodded his head and wagged his spade-tipped tail while grumbling out something that sounded like "sure will." Sibella gave the dragon one last pet before straightening up and waving goodbye to the headmistress.
"Farewell, Sibella. Farewell, Count Dracula. Have a safe trip and do write if you can," were Ms. Grimwood's final words to her oldest student and her father- at least for the summer.
Sibella followed her father to the ebony, horse-drawn coach that awaited them. Two black-coated horses stood at the ready by a skeleton driver dressed in a grey, double-breasted coat and top hat. The blue octopus had just loaded the last of Sibella's luggage onto the back before giving a bow to the count and his daughter. Sibella held up the skirt of her dress at her sides and politely curtsied to the butler before stepping into the coach after her father. The coach jerked into movement before settling into a somewhat steady ride down the dirt road.
Dracula sat across from his daughter and anxiously crossed one leg over the other. He watched his daughter as she simply stared out the window for a while; her green eyes dull and calculating. The count cleared his throat and brushed a stray lock of hair behind a pointed ear as he mustered up the courage to say something. If there was ever a person or monster, dead or alive, that could make him feel nervous about saying anything, it was his daughter.
"So is green this year's trending color, Daddy?" asked Sibella while keeping her gaze on the gloomy woods around them.
"Oh-uh, this?" he asked while looking over his hands. "No, dear. It's just a silly side effect from this new sun block I tried. The bottle said it should ware off in a few days. I hope it is true, I've been going absolutely batty all summer- "
Sibella shot her father a nasty glare just as soon as he had sucked in his lips before saying another word. She wanted to tell him off right then and there, but that would be letting him off too easy. He, of all people, had no right to complain as far as Sibella was concerned. She wanted to make him wait, to anticipate the moment when she would tear into him about his stupid race. Sibella was furious with her father but she knew there was a time and a place for all arguments and inside a not-so soundproof carriage was not one of them.
"So what are the special plans for tonight, Father?"
Dracula swallowed a hard lump that had suddenly appeared in his throat. Now he really knew that he was in trouble when Sibella switched from her loving name of "Daddy" to her menacing use of "father".
"Special plans? Oh, well I'm afraid there won't be any tonight, my dear one. You…you are not the only one who is mad at me," he finished softly.
This had caused Sibella to falter from her angry mood into giving her father a curious look. Vanna Pira, Dracula's girlfriend, always planned something special for when Sibella was home from finishing school. For the winter break, Vanna Pira had taken them out for ice-skating in which Dracula spent more time falling down than actually skating. It was the freshly-turned vampire's way of trying to bond with Sibella. Although Sibella had always appreciated the gestures, such events always left her feeling uncomfortable. Anytime Dracula and Vanna Pira were in the same room, they would usually make goo-goo eyes with each other and couldn't be torn away from the other for more than a minute.
Sibella wasn't sure if she should be grateful or concerned for Vanna Pira's absence. In the past, Sibella would have loved the opportunity of having the summer home all to herself and her father. When it is just the two of them, Sibella and Dracula usually have deep and meaningful conversations (not to mention that they can make all the puns they want and not a single one of them gets lost on the other, unlike with Vanna Pira). The two of them really connect and were always so happy together. Much to many people's surprise, Dracula can be a very loving and supportive father. But any time he is ever with Vanna Pira, his mood swings constantly from happy to annoyed to furious and back again. Vanna Pira has a hard time getting all of his jokes and her simple-minded ways of thinking tend to get on his nerves. But Sibella would be lying if she said that Vanna Pira didn't make her father happy most of the time.
But now that tensions are high, Sibella wasn't sure if she could handle just her and her father all summer. She had actually been counting on Vanna Pira to be on her side. Sibella and her friends had seen the whole race when it was broad-casted and whenever Vanna Pira had done the commentary, it was very obvious that she had been rooting for the former Grimwood gym teacher. The count's daughter would just have to wait until they reached the vacation castle in the meantime. Hopefully she would be able to stand her ground against her father with only her own two feet.
I hope this first part was enjoyable. I haven't written anything in a long time so I apologize if I need any minor and/or major improvements.