Tuesday, November 27
There's been a lot of changes in my life recently. Not necessarily huge, shocking events, but rather a subtle divergence from the normalcy that's led to the creation of a new normal.
I've spent more time with new friends lately. I've regularly stayed late working on the yearbook with Savana, Sami and Sam, and I've also increasingly spent leisure time outside of class with Julia. While at first, Tanis seemed to take offense to the fact that I was spending more time with someone else outside of our core friend group, things have improved. I've learned to balance my time better and prioritize my long-lasting best friendships with Winnie, Tanis, Elsa and Phantasma, whilst also getting to spend a bit of time with new friends. Tanis seems to have relaxed and there's been no more issues with her claiming that I don't spend enough time with her, so I guess that's good.
There's only a week and a half remaining of this semester, and it's shaping up to be one of the best semesters I've ever had!
Sybella smiled at the last sentiment she wrote down in her journal, before setting it down on her desk so she could change into her clothes for the day. Today, the vampiress wore a tie-dyed tank top marked by different swirls of various shades of orange, as well as some shorts. It was extremely warm outside for this time of year, nearly 70 degrees for a high. Typically it was only in the 40s or 50s, but Sybella didn't mind the slightly warmer weather like many of the ghouls did. A lot of them preferred the colder weather.
After getting dressed, Sybella gathered her belongings into her backpack and went down to get some breakfast before Science. Upon arriving at the dining hall, she noticed everyone but Tanis was already there.
"Can you guys keep a secret?" Phantasma was asking as Sybella came into the room.
All of them nodded.
"Sure." Sybella verbally confirmed, to let Phantasma know she had heard what the phantom had said despite just joining the group.
"Okay. Get ready for some juicy gossip." Phantasma giggled.
"Hey everyone!" Tanis said, as she joined the rest of them.
"You're just in time for the gossip!" Elsa informed.
"Ooh. What is it?" Tanis inquired.
"I've got a major crush on someone in our Science class." Phantasma smirked.
"Woah!" Winnie responded in surprise. "I wasn't expecting that."
"Who is it?" Sybella asked.
"Yeah, I'm dying to know!" Tanis followed.
"You already are dead, silly." Phantasma punned. "I've got a crush on Isaiah."
"What?" Sybella almost spit out the cereal she was chewing. "Why would you like him? He just screws around all the time in class."
The vampiress thought back to all the times in Creative Writing that Isaiah had messed around and been the class clown. The time when him and Nick made fun of her sub-par woodshop skills also came to mind. How could Phanty have such bad taste?
"He's a free spirit and just says what's on his mind. He's pretty cool. And super handsome." Phantasma admitted. "I personally like the free spirit type, being one myself. Literally."
"Are you gonna try to talk to him?" Winnie inquired.
"Well...I'd like to, but he probably doesn't even know I exist." Phantasma sighed. This was very unlike the phantom to be girlishly crushing on someone, especially someone like Isaiah.
"That's probably a good thing." Sybella rolled her eyes.
"What are you talking about? Just because he's a class clown doesn't mean he's stupid. I bet he's super smart under all that bravado." Phantasma dreamily defended.
"Okay, if you say so." Sybella shrugged. She didn't really want to get in an argument with Phanty, but the vampire absolutely could not see what the ghost saw in him. He was a shallow screw-around that probably never had a deep thought in his life.
"We've gotta get to class." Phantasma pointed at the clock on the wall, which showed it was ten minutes to 9. "I can't wait to see Isaiah again!"
Sybella had never seen Phantasma like this before. It was like she was lovestruck for someone she'd never even talked to.
Sybella sat in her usual spot next to Sidney and Kathryn in Science. Kathryn hadn't arrived yet, but Sidney was sitting patiently in her seat waiting for class to start and sipping a cup of coffee.
"Hey." Sidney said.
"Hi." Sybella replied a tad distractedly. She was glancing over at Phantasma, who was intently looking at Isaiah in a daydreamy fashion. Isaiah didn't seem to notice, but Phanty occasionally averted her gaze, presumably as to avoid people thinking she was staring. Phantasma was the edgy type, so people knowing she was crushing super hard on a cute boy could potentially ruin her reputation. "Phantasma sure is staring hard at that guy."
"Ooh! I wonder if she likes him or something?" Sidney perked up.
Sybella decided there would be no harm in sharing with Sidney. Sidney was a close friend, and secrets didn't apply with close friends...at least not ones that weren't harmful.
"Yeah, she told me she does. I don't get what she sees in him though." Sybella sighed.
"Maybe she sees him in a different way than you do." Sidney shrugged. "We all have different types."
Before Sybella could respond, Mr. Menville started class just as Kathryn walked in the room.
"Alright class, since we're all here, we can get started. Today we will be learning about mitosis!" Mr. Menville informed.
"Why do we need to learn about this?" Isaiah said in a combative tone.
Mr. Menville completely misread Isaiah's tone however, given his response. "What a brilliant question! Wanting to learn why we are learning is an incredibly deep thought to have! Learning about learning is the first step on the path to lifelong learning. We are learning about mitosis because it's what happens in our bodies every single day!"
Mr. Menville continued going on and on about why they were learning about mitosis, which is clearly not what Isaiah meant by his snotty remark. Despite this, Phantasma still stared at Isaiah just as dreamily as before. What in the world did Phanty see in that creep?
The bell had just rang, signalling the end of Spanish class.
"Alright class, have a great rest of your day." Mrs. Innes waved goodbye to her students. "Remember, you should start preparing for your final oral presentations next Tuesday and Thursday."
"What's the matter, Sybella?" Julia inquired. "You seem a little bit off."
"It's okay." Sybella assured. She didn't want to come off as a moody grump like she had a month ago when the fathers were here. "Something about a friend is just bugging me is all."
"You want to take a quick walk outside and talk about it?" Julia asked.
"Sure." Sybella replied, looking at a nearby clock. She still had fifteen minutes until she had to go to her Yearbook meeting. "My friend Phantasma has a crush on this guy, but he's totally wrong for her."
"How do you know he's wrong for her?" Julia asked, holding one of the side doors open for Sybella. It led to the area by the volleyball court.
"He's always screwing around in class, and never has anything nice to say about anyone. He was making fun of me last year in Woodshop class too, because I wasn't as good at making stuff as he was." Sybella explained.
"Well, maybe your friend sees something different in him. A side of him that you can't see, perhaps." Julia offered. It was a similar explanation to what Sidney had said this morning, but Sybella wasn't entirely convinced. The vampire princess's mind was made up about the type of person Isaiah was.
"Yeah, I guess." Sybella shrugged. "I just don't want Phantasma to get hurt."
Julia and Sybella had entered the volleyball court area, and were pacing around it as they continued talking.
"You don't know if she will. I don't know her very well, but I bet she's a smart girl if she's friends with you. She'll do what's right for her." Julia responded.
Sybella supposed the witch was right. She just wanted an easy-fix solution that would make her confident that Phanty wasn't going to get hurt by Isaiah in some way.
"Yeah, you're right." Sybella agreed. "Thanks for talking with me. I've got to get to Yearbook now though."
"Okay. See you tomorrow in Philosophy!" Julia smiled, as she waved to the departing vampiress.
"See you later." Sybella said as she went back in the school and headed to the Yearbook classroom.
The faces of Savana, Sami, Sam and Miss Lillard greeted Sybella as she arrived at the Yearbook meeting. It seemed the purple-haired vampiress was always the last to arrive.
"'Sup. How's life?" Savana inquired of her fellow vampiress. "How's your mental?"
"Okay, I guess." Sybella shrugged.
"Just okay?" Savana pushed.
"Yeah. My friend is crushing on this guy, but he's a jerk." Sybella lamented.
"Hey, that's a great idea for a song title!" Sami exclaimed. "I Don't Like Your Boyfriend? No, wait, I Don't Really Like Your Boyfriend."
"Yeah, that's catchy. Put it in the notebook." Savana instructed.
Sami took out a small notepad and scribbled something down, presumably the song title.
"Sorry to hear you're going through that, Sybella." Miss Lillard replied.
Sybella thought about mentioning the guy she was referring to was Isaiah, as Miss Lillard was well-aware of his poor character from their Creative Writing class, but she thought better of it.
"You four have been doing a wonderful job of taking pictures and doing interviews with faculty. Although I believe you still have yet to do yours, Sybella." Miss Lillard reminded, in a very non-judgemental tone.
"I've got mine set up with Coach Micucci next week at 4:00pm." Sybella informed.
"Excellent. What I was going to say, however, was that it's time to start doing some class polls. During lunch, you'll put out a ballot box where people can vote for the student that best fits each category." Miss Lillard explained.
"What are the categories?" Sami inquired.
"That's what I'd like you all to come up with right now." Miss Lillard answered.
"Sportiest?" Sybella asked, thinking about the recent volleyball game.
Sami began taking notes on each person's question ideas in her notebook.
"Drama queen?" Savana suggested.
"Most innocent?" Sybella asked.
"Tanis." Savana said, and laughed. "She's a shoe-in for that poll."
"Best couple?" Sam added.
"Most likely to become famous?" Savana listed.
"Teacher's pet?" Sami inquired.
"Social butterfly?" Savana asked.
"Bubbliest personality?" Sybella offered.
"Most organized?" Sami brainstormed.
"Best smile?" Sybella questioned.
"Best dressed?" Savana came up with.
"Awesomest most OG homie?" Sam added.
A chorus of "no's" and laughter broke out among the other three students.
"Yes, girls, I think all the categories you wrote down are excellent." Miss Lillard suggested. "The ballot box will go out next week at lunch for these categories, and students can vote all week. We'll publish the results in the yearbook at the end of the year."
"Cool! I'm excited to see the results." Savana said.
Sybella was excited to see the results too. It would be cool to see who would win some of these categories...especially sportiest. Given Grimwood's only had a volleyball team, and no other sports, it would essentially be a competition between the seven girls that were on the team. Sybella couldn't help but think of Phantasma's crush for "best couple." Maybe the vampiress shouldn't be telling so many people Phanty's secret...less for the phantom's sake, and more so that the gossip wouldn't spread and people wouldn't choose Phanty and Isaiah for best couple.
Sybella had eaten dinner once again with her Yearbook crew instead of Miss Grimwood and her friends. She was just getting back to her room for the night when she bumped into Tanis.
"Hi Sybella. Have fun with Yearbook today?" Tanis cheerfully said.
Sybella was still a little cautious that Tanis might be upset about the vampiress missing dinner with her friends occasionally. Tanis hadn't expressed any disdain or hard feelings towards Sybella about this in recent months, but they had never really talked about Tanis's frustrations since the original argument they'd got into either.
"I did! Did you have a good dinner with the others tonight?" Sybella inquired.
"I had fun, but I'm not sure about the others. I was actually eating dinner with Sarah tonight." Tanis revealed, much to Sybella's surprise.
"That's cool! I'm so glad you guys are hitting it off so much." Sybella smiled. "I'm going to head to bed now, but I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast."
"Yeah, me too. It's getting late." Tanis agreed. "Sleep well!"
Sybella was surprised how well that interaction went. Maybe Tanis truly didn't have hard feelings anymore about Sybella not eating dinner with them, especially since the mummy didn't have dinner with the others tonight either.
Wednesday, November 28
Why would Phantasma like Isaiah so much? It's one thing to not mind a person, but to be romantically interested in them is a whole different story. I know Phanty can do better than him. Doesn't she have any taste?
Thinking about what she'd written earlier this morning, Sybella recognized her journal entry was far less positive than yesterday's, but she needed to vent a little. Breakfast had gone decently. Sybella was glad Phantasma didn't bring up anything about Isaiah, as quite frankly she didn't want to think about Phanty's ridiculous crush much more. The vampiress was in Communication class now.
"What's up?" Sybella heard a familiar voice say from next to her. It was Sarah, who had just arrived and was getting out a notebook and pen.
"Nothing much." Sybella replied. "I heard you and Tanis were hanging out last night. How was that?"
"It was fun! Tanis is pretty cool, even if she is a bit innocent. I love how much she's into history. It's neat to have someone to talk about my love of historical events with." Sarah admitted.
"Yeah, Tanis is awesome…" Sybella trailed off for a moment, before Mrs. Lange began the class.
"Hello everyone, today we're going to discuss situated knowledge." Mrs. Lange began. "Situated knowledge is a form of knowing something from your experience, or because your identity predisposes you to approaching life from a certain standpoint. For example, Eric's knowledge might be different than Sarah's, because Sarah is female and Eric is a male. Both of them have had different experiences in life because of their identities - physically, emotionally and spiritually - and that leads them to see things in different ways."
Hmmm...maybe it was okay if Phanty had a weird quirk of crushing on some dumb guy. Maybe as a ghost, Phanty had a different perspective than Sybella did. Isaiah was a ghost too after all, so maybe there was something attractive about him that only ghosts were privy to. Sybella realized that probably wasn't what Mrs. Lange was talking about, but nonetheless, she took momentary comfort in realizing that she didn't have to have the same perspectives as Phanty did and that was alright. Nothing would likely become of her crush anyway.
The vampiress had just gotten herself a salamander sandwich for lunch, and was sitting down in the dining area with Elsa, Phantasma, Winnie and Tanis.
"So, are you still hopelessly in love with Isaiah?" Elsa teased.
"Yeah, I guess. I feel like he doesn't even notice me though, so I'm not really sure if I should talk to him. He probably will never have any feelings for me, so it's probably best I just forget about him before I get hurt." Phantasma admitted, sounding a bit down.
Phanty's revelation gave Sybella an idea. Maybe once Phantasma actually talked to Isaiah, she'd realize what terrible boyfriend material he'd be.
"No, I think you should talk to him." Sybella suggested. "Maybe that will help you see what he's really like."
"Really? You think I should?" Phantasma asked uncertainly.
"Yeah. That way you'll know if he'd make a good boyfriend for sure, instead of wasting time wondering." Sybella falsely comforted.
"Okay. Thanks! I actually have class with him next, so I'll go up and talk to him then." Phantasma replied. "You're the best, Sybella!"
Good. Isaiah would likely behave poorly when Phanty talked to him for the first time, and then she'd finally get over this silly crush once and for all.
Sybella was currently in her last class of the day, Philosophy. Most of class time had already passed, with just a small portion of the period left.
"Class, with our remaining time, I'd like to go back and discuss a question Sybella proposed in the beginning of our class. That question is, who defines what 'good' means, and what 'evil' means?" Ms. Ward inquired. "Can anyone raise their hand and give me their opinion?"
"I think good correlates with how others view the effect of your actions." Julia shared her thoughts. "If your actions affect other people in a really negative way, then your actions would be defined by them as evil. If you affect people in a positive way, then your actions would be defined as good. It's all subjective, I think."
"Excellent, Julia." Ms. Ward began, before Sybella raised her hand with a question. It was quite frankly a very self-serving question, but it was something she'd been thinking about quite a bit with the Phantasma and Isaiah dilemma these past few days.
"Yes, Sybella?" Ms. Ward called.
"What about, like, the people you associate with? Does associating with or liking a bad person mean that you are a bad person?" Sybella wondered.
"Interesting point. What do you all think, class?" Ms. Ward asked.
"I think it really depends on what you do with that person." Johnny replied.
"Yeah." Sarah agreed. "Going off of what Johnny just said, if you don't do bad things with a bad person, simply associating with them doesn't automatically mean you're bad too. You decide your own actions, not other people."
"That is a very insightful response, Sarah. Thank you." Ms. Ward appreciated. "I would be minded to agree with that myself. You are responsible for all your own actions, and you do not have to behave in the way others do just because you are around them. Many of you perhaps even have a friend who might be considered a 'bad' person, or a friend of a friend that is 'bad.' That doesn't mean that you are bad people though."
Sarah and Ms. Ward's words really comforted Sybella. Just because Phantasma liked Isaiah, it didn't mean she was automatically going to be influenced by him or start behaving like he did. Besides, what Phantasma chose to do in her life had no impact on Sybella. Phanty was a strong woman who could make her own choices, and Sybella had no doubt that she'd make the right one once she found out what Isaiah was really like from talking to him.
"I'll see you later, Sybella." Julia waved, as the bell rang.
"See you tomorrow!" Sybella waved. The vampiress was finally going to stop worrying about Phanty. It was just a silly little crush that didn't mean anything, so there was no reason to fret about it.
Ironically, Sybella could see Isaiah from a distance, standing close to someone else in the hall. Sybella had to walk that direction anyway, so she walked a little closer to the phantom. As she approached, she realized something: Isaiah wasn't just standing close to someone else. He was kissing with another person right in the hallway! Phantasma was going to be super mad about that.
Sybella eagerly came closer to see who it was, trying to make it seem like she was just casually walking past.
"'Sup, homie." Isaiah noticed the vampiress and he stopped kissing the person.
Her jaw dropped to the floor when she saw the person he was smooching with.
"Oh hey, Sybella." Phantasma said, as her lips parted with Isaiah's. "I took your advice, and I'm so glad I did. I want to be the first to introduce you to my new boyfriend, Isaiah."
Author's note:
Quite the plot twist, huh? Haha
This is going to be a short author's note, as the only reference for reference time was that the song idea that Sami came up with, "I Don't Really Like Your Boyfriend," is an actual song by the band Avenue Beat. If you remember from chapter 30, that's who I named each member of Sybella's Yearbook team after.
Hope you're excited for the thrilling conclusion to this story arc next chapter!