Author's note:
Alright, here we go! This chapter officially begins the girls' final year at Grimwood's! There are only two "seasons" of five chapters each in this fanfic as well.
Enjoy!
Monday, August 26
My senior year. I can't believe I'm starting my final year at Grimwood's ever today. It feels like I've been at Grimwood's my entire life...which is partially true. I've been living at Grimwood's 9 months out of every year since I was 5 years old, so the majority of my life has literally been spent here.
However, I want to embody a different attitude this year toward the idea of my time ending at Grimwood's. I don't want to mope, feel sorry for myself, or waste my last year at an amazing place wishing I didn't have to leave. Rather, I'm going to make the most of my senior year here, and have all the amazing experiences I possibly can with my friends. Both old ones like Tanis, Winnie, Elsa, and Phantasma, and new ones like Sidney, Kathryn, Julia, and many more.
This is going to be the best last year anyone could ever have.
For once, Sybella was more than on time arriving back at school. As she should have been, given today was the morning of their senior breakfast! This was a very informal event, however, which Miss Grimwood planned specifically for her five students that lived at Grimwood's. The headmistress made a special breakfast for the girls: omelettes, pancakes, waffles, biscuits and sausage links. It was a huge amount of food, but Sybella was delighted to be treated to such a special banquet to celebrate the first day of her last year.
"How was your summer, girls?" Miss Grimwood inquired of her ghouls.
"It was great!" Tanis exclaimed excitedly. "Sybella, you have to tell her your big news!"
"Oh yeah!" Sybella smiled. "Remember how my daddy didn't buy me very much of a birthday gift last year?"
"Indeed I do." Miss Grimwood acknowledged.
"Well, that's because he had an even bigger birthday gift he was keeping as a surprise for when I finished my semester. I got a car!" Sybella exclaimed.
"Isn't that amazing?" Elsa chimed in.
"That's wonderful, Sybella! I'm very proud of you." Miss Grimwood praised.
"Fangs a lot." Sybella bared her fangs in a playful way.
"I wish I could get a car!" Winnie wished.
"You will someday, Winnie." Miss Grimwood responded. "Sybella was very lucky to have gotten a car at such a young age. Many people have to buy their own car and can't afford it until college or after."
"So you drove here this morning?" Phantasma inquired excitedly.
"Yep." Sybella said, pulling out a picture of her car which had been developed from her camera. It was a meager black hearse, with a few dents on the trunk. Regardless, the vampiress still loved her baby car despite its imperfections.
"Woah, that's so cool!" Winnie exclaimed.
"Fangs so much, but you've already seen the car this summer!" Sybella teased.
"I know, but it's still super cool!" Winnie joked.
At that moment, Olly came out from the kitchen with five different platters on five of his tentacles.
"Excellent! Breakfast is served!" Miss Grimwood pointed out. "I also have your schedules for you while you're eating."
Phanty was the first one to get her schedule.
"Hey, there's only three classes on this schedule." the phantom observed.
"Indeed. I informed you of this last year, but perhaps you have forgotten. You see, the Ghoul Board has determined that each student only needs 120 credits to graduate high school. Each of you girls have successfully completed 96 credits, meaning you only need 12 credits, or three classes, per semester to graduate. However, you can choose to take extra credits if you wish. For example, Sybella opted to be a teacher's assistant for Mrs. Griffin's Human Studies course." Miss Grimwood explained.
"Oh, okay." Phantasma shrugged, reading her schedule out loud as the others received theirs. "Looks like I have Environmental Studies, Government and Sociology."
"However, Tanis, you have the typical four classes." Miss Grimwood explained further.
"I know, because I failed Driver's Ed." Tanis hung her head for a moment, before realizing it wasn't something to be super ashamed of. "That's okay! I've got Environmental Studies, Communication, Government and Sociology."
"Looks like my schedule has me in Environmental Studies, Literature, Government and a teacher's assistant for Mr. Menville's science class." Elsa read off.
"I've got Environmental Studies, Government and Sociology." Winnie read off.
"I have Environmental Studies, Literature, Government and then being a teacher's assistant for Mrs. Griffin." Sybella read her schedule off, right before she took a bite of her pancake. "Strange though, my schedule has a red stain on it. It's not from me either, I haven't even had any syrup yet."
"Hmm...I can confirm it wasn't from me either." Miss Grimwood shrugged.
"That's cool! So we're all in Environmental Studies and Government together, plus all of us but Sybella are in Sociology together." Tanis changed the subject. "That'll be amazing to have so many classes together!"
"I wonder who the Environmental Studies teacher is. Maybe someone we've never had before?" Elsa suggested.
"Oh no, you've met him. Mr. Menville teaches Environmental Studies." Miss Grimwood replied.
Sybella didn't particularly love Mr. Menville due to his ineptness when it came to reading the room, but she supposed she could suffer through the class. It was certainly a topic which interested Sybella, especially after the events of last year with the oil spill.
"Hey, where's the blood syrup?" Elsa inquired.
No one responded, signalling that they didn't know where it was either.
"That's quite strange, Elsa. It was here when I set the table for you girls this morning." Miss Grimwood shrugged. "To be honest, some strange things have been happening around here this morning. Windows opening by themselves, things moving around."
Sybella gave Miss Grimwood a surprised look. She wasn't really sure what to make of the headmistress's assertion that mysterious things were going on. Nonetheless, Sybella quickly forgot about it as the headmistress changed the subject.
"Anyway, you have your first volleyball practice with Coach Micucci this evening. Sybella, I believe you have your first Yearbook session as well right before practice." Miss Grimwood reminded.
"Oh my gosh, look at the time!" Tanis exclaimed, pointing at the clock, which showed 5 minutes to 9:00am.
"We've gotta get to Environmental Studies." Elsa said.
"Thanks for the delicious breakfast, Miss Grimwood!" Sybella praised.
"You're quite welcome, Sybella. Olly is the one you should be thanking though, as he did most of the preparing." Miss Grimwood pointed at the octopus.
"Thanks, Olly. You're an amazing cook!" Sybella complimented.
Olly didn't respond of course, he just looked sort of blankly back at the vampiress.
"Have a great first day, girls." Miss Grimwood smiled, as she watched her five favorite students head to their first class of the semester.
Sybella and the others arrived in the classroom, and were promptly greeted by Mr. Menville.
"Hello, girls! Great to see you again!" Mr. Menville smiled.
"Good to see you again, too!" Tanis cheerfully commented back.
As she scanned the room, the vampire princess noticed quite a few familiar faces: Sidney, Isaiah, Jordan and Barry, the individual who had bullied Elsa several years ago. Luckily, according to Elsa, Barry never really said anything to the Frankenstein's monster anymore and just left her alone.
"'Sup, Bella?" Sidney greeted.
"Well, there's one big thing that's up…" Sybella joked. "I got a car!"
"Woah! Really?" Sidney's tone of voice raised from sly to excited.
"Yeah! My dad gave me one." Sybella exclaimed, showing Sidney the picture of her new vehicle.
"A 1988 Hearse Station Wagon? That's amazing!" Sidney said.
"You know what else is amazing?" Mr. Menville said in front of the whole class, apparently overhearing the witch's comment. It was quite an awkward way to start class, but that was pretty on-character with Mr. Menville's personality. "The environment! This class is going to teach you to appreciate the environment around you more, because of how beautiful and important it is."
"I already appreciate the environment!" Barry snapped, as he opened the window and whipped a bottle of juice outside.
"If you did, you wouldn't be littering." Mr. Menville said disapprovingly. This was the first time that the vampiress had ever seen Mr. Menville not approve of any student's behavior, as he usually seemed quite agreeable and naïve when it came to what his students were doing. "Do any of you remember the oil spill here at the school last year?"
Most students nodded, but a few sat there without moving their head at all.
"Good. It was indeed a tragedy and one of the most irresponsible things I've seen in my lifetime." Mr. Menville shook his head in frustration. "Now, we're going to start the class by going over some basic terminology related to the environment. The first term is…"
Mr. Menville paused when he reached the chalkboard, looking from side to side.
"Did anyone steal my chalk?" Mr. Menville inquired. "I know I brought some in here before anyone came in this morning, and now it's completely gone."
All the students shook their heads.
"Hmmm...that's odd." Mr. Menville shrugged. "Well, I've got some extra in my pocket."
Odd indeed. The same thing had happened with the syrup this morning at their senior breakfast. Was there some sort of pattern to this?
Sybella thoroughly enjoyed the Environmental Studies course far more than she had thought. Mr. Menville seemed to have improved as a teacher and actually taught them some interesting content in today's class. Hopefully he could keep it up.
Now, it was time for Sybella to go to her Literature class. Given Mrs. Innes was the English teacher at Grimwood's, she imagined that she would also be teaching the Literature class, but she didn't know for sure.
As soon as the vampiress entered the classroom, her assumption was confirmed. Mrs. Innes was indeed the instructor for her Literature class. She noticed several familiar faces once again: Alexis, Eric (unfortunately), Tate, and of course, Elsa.
Sybella chose to sit in the empty seat next to Elsa and Alexis.
"Hey, Sybella! How was your summer?" Alexis chirped.
"It was great! I got a car!" Sybella showed Alexis a picture of her new hearse. "How was yours?"
"That's beautiful!" Alexis answered. "Mine was good. Nowhere near as exciting as that, though!"
Sybella was going to respond, but she was cut off by Mrs. Innes starting class.
"Greetings, everyone. This is Literature class and my name is Mrs. Innes. Most of you have had me before for English and/or Spanish, but I see a few faces in here I do not know." Mrs. Innes greeted. "This semester, we're going to focus on some of the most famous books from around the world, from United States literature to British literature to even Italian literature. Now, I have a stack of books, and because I truly value active participation and learning in this class, I would like you all to pick what book you would like to start the semester off with."
Mrs. Innes looked through the stack of books, and her jaw dropped when she reached the second one. "Class, who wrote on the cover of The Mystery of Haunted Island?" Mrs. Innes snarled. "These are my personal copies of the book and this was quite rude to do."
Sybella read the message written on the book Mrs. Innes was holding up. The message read "Leave Grimwood's if you want to survive! Signed, The Phantom."
No one responded.
"And who wrote on The Haunted Showboat's cover?" Mrs. Innes became even more angry, holding up the book which had "Bitches gonna hate, haters gonna bitch" written on the front cover in red permanent marker.
"Oh, that one was me." Eric admitted. "I learned that inspiring quote this summer and thought others might wanna know it too. I don't know who wrote on the other one though."
"Well, whoever did, this is not funny and actually quite racist towards phantoms, in fact." Mrs. Innes growled.
Sybella was getting a bit nervous. Who was masquerading around as "The Phantom," and why would they be doing this?
Walking to Yearbook, the vampiress thought about why someone would masquerade as "The Phantom." Simply calling oneself "The Phantom" wasn't supposed to be spooky, given this was a ghoul school after all, yet the message written on the cover and the strange occurrences happening all day were hinting at some sort of a haunting of an evil spirit or something. Calling themselves "The Phantom" would be like a human calling themselves "The Human" in an attempt to be frightening. It just didn't make sense. Regardless, there was nothing Sybella could do about the odd happenings, so she decided to just enjoy Yearbook.
"What's up, fam?" Savana greeted as Sybella came in room 88. "How was your summer?"
"It was good, fam." Sybella joked back. "I got a car!"
"You did? Bitchin'!" Savana nodded in a cool way.
"I wish I could get a car." Sam sighed.
"You'll get your license later this year." Sami reassured. "We've got Driver's Ed with that coach guy, remember?"
"Oh yeah. The one we have Health with this semester." Savana reminded.
"My condolences." Sybella teased.
"Wait...what's the problem with him? We don't have the class until tomorrow." Sami looked a bit worried.
"Oh, I think you'll find out pretty quick for yourself." Sybella laughed. "Seriously, he's not horrible once you get to know him though. He's just a bit of a character."
"Hi girls!" Miss Lillard said as she came in the room. "I hope you all had a good summer, and I'm so excited to have you back here this year. Did you do anything fun this summer?"
"I got a car!" Sybella exclaimed.
"We wrote a bunch of music." Sami shared.
"That sounds delightful!" Miss Lillard smiled.
"Delight! That's a great song title!" Savana suggested.
"Put it in the notebook." Sam instructed.
Sami took out her notebook, and scribbled "Delight" under the titles "I Don't Really Like Your Boyfriend" and "F2020."
"What's so bad about 2020?" Sybella inquired.
"I don't know, but I have a feeling it's going to be a bad year." Sam shrugged.
"You know the drill from last year, girls." Miss Lillard said. "Take a look at the Yearbook layout, and start filling in stuff where you can. Later this week, we'll start taking some pictures for the yearbook."
The girls all went over to their workstations. Sybella, Sami and Sam logged on to their computers, while Savana picked up a magazine and started reading it. The magazine read Terrifying Teen Mag.
"The five kisses you must master." Savana read. "Ooh, the little peck kiss! Sexy."
"That's not the yearbook, Savana." Sami rolled her eyes. "We're supposed to start working on the yearbook."
"I'm getting to it!" Savana huffed. "I've gotta do my research first. Interesting, the butterfly kiss!"
"I guess at least that's not the strangest thing happening today." Sybella laughed.
"What do you mean?" Sami questioned.
"You haven't had weird stuff happening all day in your classes? Chalk disappearing, threatening comments written on book covers, a strange person called 'The Phantom'?" Sybella listed off possibilities.
"No, nothing like that." Sami laughed. "Just the normal ignorant students here and there in my classes."
"Oh my gosh, this is so hot! The forehead kiss." Savana read off the third type of kiss. "The princess hand kiss. Cool!"
"First you've actually gotta have someone to kiss." Sami joked.
"Quiet, you!" Savana pawed playfully at Sami, as she read the name of the last kiss. "Oh my gosh, this one is almost too hot to handle! The mouth-to-mouth kiss!"
Sybella dwelled for a moment on Sami's response to her comment. Were strange things only happening to her?
Sybella had just finished changing into volleyball shorts and a tank top for practice. It appeared everyone else was waiting for her already.
"Hey everyone, I'm curious about something. Did you have anything strange happen in your other class today?" Sybella inquired of everyone but Elsa, given she was in Literature class with the vampiress.
"Yeah...Mrs. Lange's master textbook had a threat written on it." Tanis revealed. "It said to leave Grimwood's and never come back!"
"We did too." Elsa confirmed.
"I didn't have any other classes, so no." Winnie responded.
"Me either." Phantasma followed.
"We didn't." Sarah shrugged.
"Neither did we." Kathryn denied.
"That's so freaky!" Tanis shivered. "I hope it's not another evil spirit like Revolta!"
"That's not going to happen. Besides, what evil spirit calls themself 'The Phantom'? It's probably some kid fooling around." Elsa assured.
"That's really strange." Sybella became lost in the land of thought for a minute, until Coach Micucci showed up.
"So, let's get started! Enough time has been wasted already." Coach Micucci criticized.
"We were all here." Elsa confronted. "We were just waiting for you."
"I know, that's what I was saying. I wasted 30 minutes at the gas station trying to decide between a beef and a chicken burrito. Then, I realized, why choose when you can have both?" the coach exclaimed. "Now, I've brought some special guests here to play against you guys."
Coach Micucci pointed to all the Calloway Cadets, who were currently making the trek over from Calloway Military School.
"We're gonna cream you again this year! You might as well give up now." Tug taunted as he arrived.
"We'll see about that!" Winnie hassled back.
The girls quickly took their places on their side of the net, and Sybella made the first serve. Miguel retrieved Sybella's serve and hit the ball over the net. Tanis attempted to hit it back, but she accidentally swung at the air while the ball hit the ground.
"Ah, darn it!" Tanis pseudo-swore.
"What's the matter? Are you scared of us real volleyball players? You girls are just a bunch of weenies who couldn't hit a ball if you tried." Tug snapped.
"Hey, settle down, man. It's just a game." Miguel attempted to calm his teammate down.
Sybella knew the Cadets were wrong, but the fact that they had lost such an easy serve made her worried that their last volleyball match in October would be a repeat of last year's game.
"We haven't done this in so long!" Winnie exclaimed, as she brought a sleeping bag into Sybella's room. They had decided over the summer to do a sleepover on the first day of classes, just for old times' sake. It was something they had done all the time as little kids, but they hadn't had a good old fashioned slumber party in forever.
"I'm wiped." Tanis yawned. They had already spent over an hour reminiscing about all the good times they'd had at Grimwood's throughout the years, on top of having a jam-packed first day, so it totally made sense that Tanis was tired out.
"Me too, I'm ready for bed." Elsa admitted, as she returned from bringing her sleeping bag into Sybella's room.
Suddenly, they heard a groaning noise coming from the hallway.
"What was that?" Tanis jumped.
"It's probably nothing. Let's just get to sleep." Phantasma urged. "Goodnight everyone."
"Goodnight!" Sybella reciprocated, as everyone began curling up in their cozy sleeping bags.
The five ghouls heard a cackling noise out in the hall again.
"Alright, this time I know I heard something." Tanis whimpered.
Before Sybella could respond, a shadow of a figure appeared in their door.
"Ahahahahaha!" the shadow started cackling.
Sybella jumped up from her coffin, and noticed a creepy witch with a distorted face staring at them, with blood on her hand. The witch quickly burst in their room and began trying to grab them.
"Oh my god, run!" Tanis screamed, as she leapt out of the room, while the witch was no longer blocking. All the other girls quickly followed. No one verbalized it, but all of them knew that making their way to Miss Grimwood's room for help was the smartest move.
"Stay away from Grimwood's!" the evil witch...or was it a phantom?...cackled, as she ran down the hall after them.
The girls sprinted to Miss Grimwood's bedroom, and all of them shook her awake at the same time so she would be sure to wake up.
"Girls, what's the problem?" the sleepy headmistress asked.
"There's an evil witch chasing us!" Tanis cried out. "She's in the hall and will be here any moment."
Miss Grimwood jumped out of bed, and glanced out in the hall.
"Girls, there's nothing out there. But I believe you. I've heard reports from Mrs. Innes and Mrs. Lange about threats being written on books. Now, if you'll feel safer, you may all bring your sleeping bags in here for the night." Miss Grimwood offered.
All the ghouls peaked around the corner, and saw just what Miss Grimwood had said: absolutely nothing. Where could the witch have gone?
"Ummm...I guess I'll go back to my room?" Sybella said uncertainly. On one hand, she didn't want to potentially put herself into danger, but at the same time, she didn't think it was a real witch. It was likely someone screwing around, as Elsa said.
"Yeah...we'll let you know immediately if anything strange happens." Winnie stuttered a bit, clearly also unsure what to make of the situation.
"Okay, girls. Please feel free to come in here if you have any more strange things happen." Miss Grimwood kindly offered. "I'm sure Matches would love having some company."
Sybella looked over towards Matches, who was curled up in the fuzzy dragon bed Miss Grimwood had purchased for him, fast asleep and snoring cutely.
Tanis was the only one who didn't look completely certain about returning to Sybella's room, but she didn't raise any objection...at least not verbally.
"There's safety in numbers." Winnie bravely replied. "Besides, that witch surprised us once. She won't be so lucky again."
"I hope not." Tanis said uncertainly, as they headed back to Sybella's bedroom for the night.
Even if this was some student playing a ridiculous trick, that still didn't negate the creepiness of the person breaking into the school at night to haunt them. If someone was that crazy, who knows what they might try to do while the ghouls were sleeping.
Tuesday, August 27
We made it. Nothing else happened overnight, but that creepy witch that snuck into our room just as we were falling asleep to scare us. Was this another evil spirit like Revolta who was planning to psychologically scare us until she kills us?
No. I can't think that way. Why would an evil witch steal a syrup bottle or write a dumb note on a textbook? It's just some student playing a stupid trick. There's no use worrying about something that might not even happen.
"Thank goodness, we made it through the night." Tanis said, sounding relieved.
"Of course we did, silly." Phanty comforted. "I honestly think it's someone playing a trick. Not an evil spirit."
Phanty's affirmation of her own uncertain thought process comforted the vampire.
"I'm going to change out of my pajamas, if you don't mind leaving for a minute." Sybella asked.
"No worries." Winnie understood.
"I was just going to change anyway." Elsa said.
"Yeah, I've gotta change my wrapping anyway this morning." Tanis informed.
"See you guys at class!" Phantasma waved, as she left the room with the other ghouls.
Sybella wondered why she didn't say "at breakfast," until she looked at her alarm clock and realized they had slept through it. It was a stressful night and it took them a long time to fall asleep after the witch attack. Nonetheless, Sybella and the others would have to grab something quick from the garden, like an apple, and eat it on the way to class.
Sybella quickly slipped on a yellow skirt and a top that looked like a black-and-white checkerboard, so she would look nice for her first day as a teaching assistant. The vampiress quickly made her way down to the garden to grab an apple as she rushed off to class.
"Hi, Sidney." Sybella said, letting out a happy sigh. She was relieved to have some sense of normalcy in her life again after the surreal events of last night.
"Hey." Sidney said, a bit somberly.
"What's the matter?" Sybella inquired, a bit concerned given Sidney's disappointed tone of voice.
"I heard about what happened with your witch last night." Sidney said, still sounding sad.
"Yeah, pretty freaky, huh?" Sybella nodded.
"Yeah, and racist." Sidney replied. "If this is some joker appropriating our witch culture, then fuck that person. I thought Grimwood's was an inclusive place."
"Has anything strange happened in your classes?" Sybella inquired.
"Not except the ones you're in." Sidney shrugged.
That was super weird. Why was the witch only targeting the five of them?
"Alright, mornin' kids." Coach Micucci informally spoke. "This is Government class, where we learn about the government."
"You're teaching this class?" Elsa asked.
"Of course! I can't think of anyone better...to tell you how horrible the government is! Do you know they charged me $1,000 in taxes this year? And I already paid $600 last year!" Coach Micucci grumbled.
"You have to pay your taxes every year." Phantasma rolled her eyes.
"You do? Well, of all the lousy, rotten…" Coach Micucci muttered. "Anyway, I'll try to be unbiased in my teachin'. Anyway, the petty, stupid, oppressive government is made up of three branches."
All of a sudden, the lights completely went out.
"Oh god, it's that creepy witch again!" Tanis exclaimed.
Within about 30 seconds, the lights flickered back on. However, a very unpleasant surprise was waiting for them in the light: a threatening message written on the board! The message read: "Grimwood Ghouls: Beware of the wrath of The Phantom! Leave now before you regret it!"
"Zoinks!" Phantasma exclaimed.
"What does that mean?" Sidney questioned.
"I don't know, it just felt right." Phantasma shrugged. "I think I heard it as a kid or something."
"I thought you said monsters were non-threatening!" Coach Micucci looked at the class.
"They are!" Sybella spoke up. "It's someone messing around, probably."
"That message looks pretty threatenin' to me…" Coach Micucci gulped. "I'm going to have to consult with Miss Grimwood about this. Class dismissed!"
"Woohoo! We got out of class early!" Sidney exclaimed.
Sybella wasn't happy about it though. Who was this witch, and why was she bent on haunting all the classes the vampiress and her four best friends were a part of?
Sybella tried to shake off the frustration of not really getting to experience her first Government class by distracting herself with the fact that she was about to start her first day as a teacher's assistant. Despite the unpopularity of having to go to class for most students, the vampire princess really enjoyed learning new things and usually loved her classes.
"Hi Sybella!" Mrs. Griffin excitedly greeted. "I'm so excited to have you as my teacher's assistant this semester!"
"Me too!" Sybella smiled. "I'm honored that you chose me."
"How could I not? You're one of my brightest students!" Mrs. Griffin smiled.
Sybella noticed several familiar faces in the class: Julia, Tate, and George.
"I thought I was one of your brightest students!" Tate challenged.
"Young man, this is the fourth time you've taken my class, and you've flunked it every time!" Mrs. Griffin rolled her eyes.
"That's because...uh...I'm too smart for this class! Yeah, you're not challenging me enough!" Tate defended.
Mrs. Griffin ignored Tate's silly comment and started her class.
"Alright students, let's get started!" Mrs. Griffin began, just as the lights went out again.
Oh no. Sybella thought. Not another threat from The Phantom.
This time, when the lights went back on, there was no message, but rather, the witch herself appeared.
"You have not heeded my warnings to leave! Now, you will suffer the ultimate consequence!" the witch cackled, as she lunged at Mrs. Griffin.
"Run, students!" Mrs. Griffin shouted.
All the students burst out of their seats, as Tate shouted "Oh my god, it's a real witch!" Julia, an actual witch herself, put her hands on her hips disapprovingly.
The students darted from classroom to classroom, entering it to seek safety (and disrupting the other classes currently happening in each respective room) and darting back out as soon as the witch followed them in. It felt like some sort of wacky door chase scene.
After alarming numerous students and teachers in the process of going from room to room, the witch finally cornered the girls in Ms. Cohn's classroom.
"Now I've got you!" the witch laughed maniacally.
"No, you don't!" Phantasma shouted, as she whipped her heavy Sociology textbook at the witch.
"Ow!" the witch yelled as she fell to the ground. However, the witch's feminine tone suddenly became a masculine one, which caused Sybella to become skeptical.
"That's not a real witch!" Sybella said.
"Oh lord, is it Eric playing another prank again?" Elsa sighed.
All of a sudden, a menacing looking boogeyman wearing bandages and fake fangs came into the room, and unmasked himself, revealing the face of Eric.
"No, I was dressed as the vampire-boogeyman-mummy." Eric admitted. "Some idiot named Barry was making fun of me, so I thought I'd show him by dressing up as a boogeyman and ruining his reputation!"
"But why were you dressed as a vampire and a mummy at the same time?" Winnie inquired.
"Hey, I don't make the decisions here. My brain does!" Eric explained, as he shuffled away. "Anyway, gotta go! Everyday I'm shufflin'!"
"Now, let's see who this witch really is!" Ms. Cohn said, as she ripped off the witch's mask.
"Tug Roper?" the class gasped in unison.
"I knew it!" Sybella exclaimed.
"Wait, how did you know?" Tanis asked in shock.
"No one that was a monster would call themselves 'The Phantom' in order to scare people away. It had to be a human. I also knew the witch was a fake because of the blood on her hands. It wasn't real blood at all...at least, not entirely. It was blood syrup that Tug spilled when we stole the syrup bottle from the breakfast table yesterday. Also, that stain on my schedule? That was blood syrup that Tug had spilled too when he was looking at our schedules in Miss Grimwood's office before we had arrived that morning. He wanted to know everywhere that Winnie, Phantasma, Elsa, Tanis and I would be during the day, so he could go to our classes and scare us. He also made that comment about if we were scared at the volleyball match. That's what it's all about, right? You wanted to scare us away from Grimwood's so you wouldn't lose to us in the volleyball match during your last year as a Cadet, am I right?"
"Yeah, you're right!" the unmasked Tug sighed. "I snuck in open windows so I could get in and out of Grimwood's without being noticed. I wanted to scare you all away so we'd win by default this year! It would be humiliating if we lost to you our last year, so I had to make sure you wouldn't win! Besides, we've won 6 years, and you've won 6 years! This year's game is the tiebreaker, and I couldn't let you dumb ghouls win."
"Does the rest of your team know about this?" Elsa asked.
"No!" Tug harrumphed, clearly frustrated he was caught. "At least, not most of them. Grunt is the only one that liked the idea. The others said it was so-called cheating."
"It is cheating!" Julia, one of the students who had been chased room to room, called out. "And incredibly racist. Besides, why would you think a monster would be scared away by a monster?"
"You guys were scared by Revolta, so I figured another witch would do the trick!" Tug explained.
"And why would you think you would win by default if we didn't play? Wouldn't the game just not be counted then?" Winnie rationalized.
"Oh, I can explain that. He's just an idiot." Sybella insulted.
Miss Grimwood entered the room at that moment. "Ms. Cohn just called me and let me know what happened."
"Oh c'mon, it was just a little joke!" Tug whined.
"A joke is one thing, but breaking and entering, vandalizing school property, reading confidential student schedules, and threatening my students is not. You're lucky I don't call the police on you, you scoundrel." Miss Grimwood scolded. "Instead, I'm going to call Colonel Calloway and let him decide how to reprimand you."
"Oh god, no. Please! Anything but that!" Tug pleaded.
"What a jerkwad." Phantasma sneered as Tug followed Miss Grimwood out of the room, pleading with her.
"One thing's for sure, he'll never be doing that again once Colonel Calloway gets through with him!" Winnie laughed.
"Well, I guess this mystery is all wrapped up!" Ms. Cohn remarked.
"Let's go back to class and try to make something out of this bizarre day." Mrs. Griffin laughed.
Sybella was happy the whole witch thing was over and done with. She knew something was fishy with this whole "haunting" business, and only Tug could think up something this ridiculous.
Sam, who was also in the Sociology class, concluded the mystery for them with a sentiment.
"Sammy Dammy Doo!" Sam howled.
The entire class gave her a strange look.
"What? I was trying to do a bit." Sam shrugged, followed by shaking her head, as the class continued to look at her with confusion. "Jeez, some people just can't take a joke."
Author's note:
Let's start off with reference time!
- The two books vandalized by Tug, "The Mystery of Haunted Island" and "The Haunted Showboat," are titles of episodes from The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
- Room 88 and the fact that Sybella's car is from 1988 is a reference to the year Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School came out.
- The songs Sami wrote down in the notebook ("F2020," "Delight" and "I Don't Really Like Your Boyfriend") are references to actual songs by the band Avenue Beat (who, as previously mentioned, are the real-life namesakes for Savana, Sami and Sam's characters).
- Phantasma exclaiming "Zoinks!" is an obvious reference to Shaggy's catchphrase.
Given this fanfic is basically a spin-off of Scooby-Doo, I wanted to do a chapter in the style of a typical Scooby-Doo episode. I hope you all enjoyed this fun little twist on a classic Scooby-Doo mystery!