AN: Hey guys, gals, and non-binary pals! This is my first ever fanfiction and it is inspired by arguably the most amazing movie in the Scooby Doo universe. Please be nice but constructive criticism is welcome. I'll try to update this story at least once a week but no promises.

Chapter 1: A New Arrival

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters here except for Lauren, Marcella, Tara, and Jazz.

Lauren walked up to the school with her father. She had dressed up for the occasion, it being her first day and all, and was wearing a scarlet dress that went down to her knees and a pair of black flats. Her blonde hair was straightened for the occasion and she pushed it out of her eyes as she walked past her father and into the building. Lauren wasn't just going to any school. She was going to Miss Grimwood's Finishing Academy School for Ghouls; an exclusive school for daughters of monsters.

A disembodied hand flew over to her and her father and shook their hands and was followed by a stout woman with jet black hair and a pink dress who walked over and with a smile, said "You must be the new student! Welcome! I'm Miss Grimwood and you must be Lauren."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Grimwood," Lauren replied when something started rubbing against her leg. Looking down, she saw a tiny little green dragon rubbing its head against her leg. She bent down and picked it up before planting a kiss on its forehead and said "Hello, there! What an adorable dragon you are! I'm Lauren. What's your name?"

"That's Matches." Miss Grimwood told her affectionately.

"Matches, hmm?" Lauren cooed. "Sounds like a tough guy name. Are you a tough guy?" In response, Matches flexed his wings and growled before hugging her again. Lauren laughed and said "Positively terrifying."

As Lauren played with the dragon, her father took Miss Grimwood aside and told her "Lauren means the world to me. She is my only child and her mother died when she was younger. She is the only person in this world I love and if anything bad were to happen to her-"

"Mr. Black, the ghouls at my school have never been in any sort of danger before. She will be perfectly safe, I assure you."

Pitch smiled at her and said, "My dear lady, you can call me Pitch if you prefer."

"Well, Pitch, I assure you that your daughter's safety will be my number one concern."

"Thank you, Miss Grimwood." Pitch said, placing a hand on her shoulder before turning to Lauren and saying "I'll be going now, sweetie. I love you."

Lauren sat down Matches and ran towards him before flinging her arms around his torso. "Goodbye, father. I love you." Pitch kissed the top of her head before grabbing the edge of his cloak and twisting it, disappearing into the nearest shadow.

Miss Grimwood placed a hand on Lauren's shoulder and said "Come along, deary. I bet the other girls are just dying to meet you." A loud howl followed by a bat flying by came as a reply to Miss Grimwood's statement. "Ah, here's one of them now." Miss Grimwood said as the bat flew in front of Lauren's face and turned into a girl.

"I'm Sibella, Count Dracula's daughter. Fangtastic to meet you," she said.

Lauren held out her hand and said "I'm Lauren, the boogeyman's daughter. It's nice to meet you, too."

The same howl from earlier suddenly filled the air, but the source was seen this time. "Helloooo! I'm Winnie the werewolf." said the new girl.

"Hi! I'm Lauren, the boogeyman's daughter."

Another girl came through the door then. "Hi, I'm Elsa Frankenteen."

"Hi, I'm Lauren."

A head popped out of the wall, soon followed by the rest of the body and the girl said, "Hi, I'm Phantasma."

"Lauren. It's a pleasure."

A small girl bobbed into the room and yawned very loudly. "I'm Tanis. Are you the new girl?" Tanis asked.

"Yeah, I just got here a couple of minutes ago," Lauren replied.

"I hope you're in good shape," Elsa said.

"Good shape for what?" Lauren asked.

"So that you can help us beat those Calloway Cadets," Sibella said.

"Yeah. They win every time. I'll never get a trophy for my mummy case." Tanis sighed.

"What is it that they're beating you guys at?" Lauren asked.

"Why volleyball, of course!" Phantasma replied. "Yes, we have a match against them every year but they always win."

"Volleyball? Oh, I love volleyball!"

"Really? How do you know how to play?" Winnie asked.

"I played all the time at my old school." "You mean you went to another ghoul school before?" Phantasma asked.

"Oh no, I went to a human school."

Everyone gasped audibly at this. "A human school? Didn't they try to chase you away or anything?" Tanis asked.

"No! I had lots of friends and was on the volleyball, tennis, basketball, and track teams."

"Why did you leave, then?" Elsa asked.

"Well, I was asked out by a guy and my father didn't like that so we left home and here I am. I still stay in touch with my friends though. We text pretty often." and Lauren held up her phone for a visual.

"Since you played volleyball, do you think you could help us prepare for the match?" Miss Grimwood asked her.

"Yes of course! When is the match?"

"Next week."

"Not as much time as I'd like us to have, but that'll do. How many of those

Calloway Cadets are there?" "Six." "Excellent. That means we can all play because there's only supposed to be six players on a team."

"Well, I'm glad that's all settled. Let me show you to your room."

"Thank you, Miss Grimwood." In her room, Lauren took out the clothes from her suitcase and put them up in their respective drawers. Then she shrugged out of her dress and shoes and pulled on a pair of shorts and a baggy T-shirt before climbing into bed and going to sleep.

"I was thinking we could start the day off with some early morning exercises." Miss Grimwood explained to Lauren, who was wearing a pair of skinny jeans, a sweater, and a pair of black flats.

"Oh, well I'm not really dressed for it."

"Nonsense. I was thinking you and the other girls could do some ballet is all. Here's you a tutu."

"Well, thank you." She said, pulling it on. The music began and the girls started dancing, Lauren trying to keep up with the strange routine. Nervously, she glanced over at Sibella and said, "How am I doing?"

"Fangtastic, Lauren! We'll be in great shape when we play those Cadets in volleyball." Sibella said, twirling around.

After a hearty ballet practice, Lauren suggested, "How about we go on a run and then maybe practice some volleyball?"

"That sounds like a marvelous idea, Lauren! You girls have fun." Miss Grimwood beamed at them before leaving.

"When do we start?" Winnie asked, howling with joy.

"Well, we can't go running in these outfits. What we need is proper clothing." Lauren said.

"But we always play in our normal clothes." Phantasma started, confused.

"And that may be why you always lose. People who play in proper athletic attire always

have a better performance than those who do not. What we need are some team uniforms but for the time being, you guys can train in some of my stuff. C'mon." and Lauren walked them into her room. She was searching through her stuff when she found her phone. Inspiration took over and she said "Gather round, ghouls!" They gathered around her as she held up her phone. "Look into the camera and smile," Lauren commanded and they did so. She snapped a picture and showed them. "This is called a selfie. It's where a person takes a picture of themselves and a group of friends." Lauren explained as they all stared.

"Oh, can we take another one?" Sibella asked.

"Yeah, but with funny faces?" Tanis added.

"Heck yeah!" Lauren said, holding up the phone again. This time, she scrunched up her eyes, crossed them, and stuck her tongue out. Everyone struck a face and the picture was taken. "Those look great!" she exclaimed before starting her search for clothes. She pulled out a pair of shoes, shorts, and a running tank for everyone, including herself, before handing them out. Lauren tugged her own stuff on including one of her favorite running tanks that said "I Run-I'm slower than a turtle stampeding through peanut butter-but I Run" She pulled out her phone and was uploading the pictures to Instagram and Snapchat with the title 'Just hanging with the ghouls'.

Phantasma floated over and asked her "Are you really that slow a runner?"

"Oh, no! It's just a shirt. It's meant to be funny. I've got dozens of them." She pocketed her phone and asked, "Are you girls ready to run?" That was met with a chorus of agreement. "Let's go, then." On the way outside, Lauren pulled her hair up into a ponytail. Once out the door, she set the pace and the other girls filed in behind her.

"There's nothing like feeling the wind running through your hair!" Sibella said, letting it fly behind her.

"This is good for the heart. Mine are both beating fast." Elsa said from behind her.

"Ahoooo! How ya doin' Tanis?" Winnie asked her.

"Great, Winnie! I've got built-in leg warmers."

"I just love running through the trees!" Elsa said.

"Me too!" Phantasma said, literally running through one of the trees nearby.

"Nice one, Phantasma!" Lauren called from the front. "What say you girls speed things up a little bit?" "Yeah!" And with that, Lauren picked up the pace. They ran until they arrived at the volleyball court. It was severely overgrown with weeds and vegetation and was placed near a small orchard of crab apple trees. The ghouls started devouring them while Lauren picked one up and asked, "What is it?"

"They're crab apples! They're fangtastic!" Sibella said.

Lauren bit one and chewed. "Oh my gosh! These are amazing!" She quickly ate the rest. The girls ate their fill of crab apples before Lauren wiped her hands off and said, "Ok, girls, we should probably clean off the volleyball court."

"And when we're finished, can we take another picture?" Winnie asked.

"Yeah and we can hashtag it 'Team victory!'"

"What's a hashtag?" Elsa asked.

"A hashtag is something you add if you want to categorize it with a certain topic," Lauren explained. "How about I put some music on for us to work to?"

"Oh, is it opera?" Phantasma asked.

"Er, no," Lauren replied.

"Does it cause chills to run down a person's spine?" Winnie asked her.

"No," Lauren repeated.

"Is it Egyptian?" Tanis asked.

"No, it's contemporary pop." This was received with blank stares. "Look, just listen," Lauren said, plugging her phone up into her speaker, turning the volume all the way up, and playing a playlist on Spotify. The air was suddenly full of music that got the ghouls dancing. "It's not opera, but it's still good," Lauren said, making her way towards the weeds.

"Good? This music is fangtastic!" Sibella said as she helped Lauren clear the court.

An hour later, the girls had fully cleared the court and replanted the weeds several yards away from the court. Reaching into her drawstring bag, Lauren pulled out a volleyball and said "Okay, ghouls, there are three types of hits that you can do with a volleyball. Do any of you know any of them?" When this was met with silence, Lauren tossed the ball lightly with her hands and said, "The three types are the bump, set, and spike." Then she demonstrated each one in turn before going on. "The bump is the most common type, used in most situations unless the allowance of another is provided. A set is best used when closer to the net and a spike should only be used if you are right beside the net. I say we divide up into groups of twos and practice bumping, setting, and spiking to one another then, later on, we can practice serving, and then we can actually play."

They divided into groups of two; Winnie and Tanis, Phantasma and Elsa, and Lauren and Sibella. They got on different sides of the net and practiced each hit in turn. They worked at it for nearly thirty minutes before Lauren said "All right, girls, I propose we work on serving now." and they did for the next ten minutes.

Lauren stopped the practice yet again to suggest "Alright, ghouls, we should divide into groups of three and play a real game." and so they did. Lauren, Sibella, and Phantasma on one side and Tanis, Winnie, and Elsa on the other. Lauren, because of experience, served first and the game began. She beamed as Tanis ran up and bumped it back over the net and Phanty set it back over only for Winnie to set it back which was then bumped back over by Sibella only for Elsa to bump it high into the air. Lauren ran forward, jumped up in the air, and spiked it, hard, into the ground. "First group with 21 wins," Lauren said as she landed back on the ground. It took a long time before anyone got to twenty-one but after finally two hours of hard playing, Lauren's team won twenty one to nineteen. "Good game, girls! Really. Now, about that picture, Winnie asked for." They all piled up by the court and Lauren snapped picture after picture, passing around the volleyball so that everyone got a turn holding it. Then individual pictures were taken with the ghouls posing with the volleyball by the net. After a while, the sun began to set. "Okay girls, pack it in, we need to head back to the school. It's getting late."

"Can we race back?" Winnie asked.

"Oh most certainly," Lauren replied. The girls were quick to line up as Lauren scooped up her bag and put it on. "To make things interesting, the winner should be the one who gets to design the shirts we wear to that volleyball match."

"You might as well just give me the paper because I'm going to win," Winnie said.

"Care to put your money where your mouth is?" Lauren asked.

"What?" Winnie asked her.

"Expression waisted." Lauren mumbled before saying loudly "Ready, set, GO!" and she was off like a flash, closely followed by the other ghouls. They booked it back to the school, Lauren winning by a hair.

"I know you're now in charge of making shirts but could you still make them blue?" Phantasma asked her.

"Phanty, I said if one of you won. Since I did, we'll all just have to work together to make those shirts."

"Can we do it now?" Tanis asked.

"Sure. Follow me to my room." The ghouls walked into Lauren's room and she plugged her phone into the speaker, playing the music from earlier. She moved around her drawers, pulling out several color swatches before asking "Which one do you ghouls want to use for the shirts?" She laid out swatches of blue, purple, lime green, pink, and white. She looked over to see each ghoul holding a different swatch. Sibella held the purple, Phantasma the blue, Winnie the white, Tanis the pink, and Elsa held the lime green. Lauren smiled and said "I suppose we can each have a different colored shirt. What we need to decide now is what we want them to say." There was a collective moment of silence while everyone pondered what the shirts should say.

"What about 'Grimwood Ghouls?" Sibella suggested.

"Oh, I like that. What about you, ghouls?" Lauren asked.

"Yeah, nice one, Sibella," Winnie said when her stomach grumbled.

"You know, when me and my friends were over at each other's houses, we would usually order pizza while we hung out. It's almost like having you ghouls over, hanging out in my room is almost as good as hanging out at my place. Anybody want pizza?"

Winnie whimpered appreciatively before saying "Pizza! I love pizza!" The others nodded and Lauren dug around in her purse.

"I've got several Transylvanian dollars from father. Five should do it." And with that, she spun in a circle, a trick Pitch had taught her and disappeared. She landed outside the pizza joint. Lauren walked inside and said, "Three pizzas with everything on them except garlic would be great, please."

"Hanging out with a vampire, hmm?" The guy working at the register asked her.

"Yep. And I like this one so it wouldn't do to have her dissolve into ashes."

The guy laughed and asked "Who's your monster parent? You look like a human."

"I may look like a human, but looks are the only thing we have in common. Pitch Black's my father, you know, the boogeyman." Lauren said, smiling slightly.

"King of the monster world, hmm? I suppose I'll have to check under my bed tonight, huh?"

"You never know," Lauren replied innocently.

The man laughed before saying "That'll be four Transylvanian dollars."

Lauren exchanged the money for three hot pizzas. "Thanks, dude," Lauren said, before spinning on the spot and appearing back in her room. She laid the pizzas out and said "Three pizzas with everything on them, except garlic, of course. Got an extra bit of spiderwebs because I know the chef and there's also snails, tadpole tails, and rat's eyes." The girls each took a slice of pizza and ate while Lauren tucked away the shirt swatches. They could work on those later.

Lauren crashed on her bed and grabbed a pillow and held it in her lap. "So what do you ghouls normally do for fun around here? I know that volleyball is the only sport you guys play, and it's an annual game so you won't have any sports teams but what about clubs? Do you have a Key Club, a student council, a yearbook club, or even a book club? Or maybe a chess club? You don't need a lot of people for that."

"No, we don't have any sort of clubs. We usually are either working on school work or preparing for the volleyball match or the Halloween party with our parents." Sibella explained.

"You don't have any dances or parties or pep rallies or anything?"

"No. But what's a pep rally?" Phantasma asked.

"A pep rally is where everyone in the school gets together for a few hours and celebrates. The marching band plays music and- oh my gosh tell me you at least have a marching band!"

"No, we don't. And we are the whole school. Just the six of us with Miss Grimwood as the only teacher." Elsa explained.

"You mean all you do is classes, volleyball, and the Halloween bash?"

"Yep," Winnie replied.

"You don't hang out in each other's rooms? Spend the night? Watch chick flicks and talk about boys?"

"What's a chick flick?" Tanis asked in response.

"Girls! There is so much you must learn!"

"But isn't that human stuff? We're ghouls, not girls." Winnie said.

"But I'm a ghoul and I like doing human girl stuff and anybody that wants to do some human girl stuff with me tonight is perfectly allowed to. Those that don't, help yourself to some pizza and feel free to leave." When nobody left, Lauren smiled before saying "There are lots of things human girls do at what is called a sleepover. A sleepover is where a group of two or more girls spend the night at one of their friend's houses. Since we don't have houses, we can use our rooms, and for the time being, my room. Now at a sleepover, girls do various things. They eat snacks like we did ie. the pizza, they watch movies, they take selfies, lots of those, they have pillow fights, they play games like truth or dare and would you rather?, and they talk."

"What do girls talk about?" Tanis asked.

"Anything that comes to mind. Who they think is cute, who they have a crush on, guys that they've dated but broke up with. But they don't just talk about boys. Girls can talk about school, clubs, sports, what college they want to go to, what they want their wedding to look like, funny stories, things like that."

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?" Phantasma asked with a giggle.

"Good conversation starter. Before I begin, everyone sits down and get comfy." Lauren threw the pillow aside as everyone clambered on the bed and got comfortable, the pizzas in the middle. "I personally have never had a boyfriend. I moved because I was asked out. But, I did have some best friends who were guys. Could I show you guys pictures of my old friends?" When the heads finished nodding their consent, Lauren pulled out her phone and brought up a photo album full of pictures of her old friends.

Here's a group picture of me with my closest friends. I'm the blonde one on the far right. The girl on the far left is Tara. Beside Tara is Jazz and beside her is Marcella. Those are my three closest friends. I have a lot of pictures with them. There we are drinking Starbucks, there we are trying on beach hats at a store, there we are at the beach, there we are at a school dance, at a pep rally, a football game we went to a lot of those, middle school graduation, at driver's ed, there are me and Jazz at track, me and Marcella at tennis, me and Marcella at volleyball, me and Tara at basketball, me, Jazz, and Tara at the VA, and the rest are just random. Now that you know everybody here's more pictures at dances, pep rallies, clubs, football games, and during class and lunch. It may be a bit overwhelming, seeing all these people and knowing they all went to school with me but my school had seven to eight hundred people in it."

"So where's the boy that caused you to move?" Tanis asked her.

"Oh, my father deleted his pictures from my phone. He was okay with every other guy because they were just my friends but Tug wanted to be my boyfriend so that was the end of that." Lauren sighed before saying "So what about you ghouls? Anyone here got a thing for a Calloway cadet?" She knew that was the wrong thing to say as soon as she did.

"No. Those cadets are awful. They always win, but it's the gloating and the teasing that annoys us." Winnie said.

"Though the new one isn't that bad. The newest, sixth, Cadet hasn't teased us." Tanis allowed.

"Only because he joined nowhere near the volleyball match." Elsa replied.

"Well, this year's going to be different. We're going to win and that's the end of it. Mark my words, ghouls when I say that by the end of this week, Tanis will have a trophy for her mummy case!" Lauren said. After the cheering died down, Lauren asked "You ghouls wanna watch your very first chick flick? There's no tv so we'll have to use my phone."

"What's a chick flick?" Phantasma asked.

"It's a movie, mainly for women, usually with some kind of romance or comedy. Or we can watch an action movie. You know what, I know this one movie series you ghouls would love. It's called Harry Potter and it's about this boy wizard who is sucked into this magical world full of magical creatures and he has to battle this one evil wizard to set the wizarding world free. There's wizards, mermaids, werewolves, ghosts, thestrals, unicorns, dragons, phoenixes, centaurs, a basilisk, giant spiders, dementors, and all sorts of strange things that you ghouls would love. Whaddya say? Your first ever movie be one of the best ever made?"

"You had me at werewolves." Winnie said.

"And me at ghosts!" Phantasma giggled.

"All of those big, scary monsters! I totally want to watch it!" Tanis cried.

"Yeah, those monsters will be cool." Elsa agreed.

"You bat! It'll be fangtastic!" Sibella said, stretching before curling up into a ball.

Lauren pushed the pizzas onto a counter and stretched out on the bed so that everyone could see her phone before starting the movie. YouTube is a beautiful thing.

AN: Well, that's my first chapter. I hope you lovely readers enjoyed it!