Tuesday, April 30
Time has gone like lightning. I can't believe it's already the end of the semester. I've only got four days of class left, and six class periods. One of the final classes will happen tomorrow: the final Woodshop class, though it is contingent on finishing a wooden coat rack by the end of tomorrow's class. I've got two more music classes, in which we'll do the same we did all semester: learn about some musician I don't really care about and maybe sing a song or two. In Mass Media, I'll have to take a final exam on Friday on everything I've learned in the course. But the most exciting last class is Driver's Ed, which will conclude with my long-awaited Driver's Test on Thursday, awarding me a driver's license.
The girls were at lunch, sitting at their normal table of six that included Sybella, her four best friends, and Kathryn.
"Woohoo! You're amazing, Sybella!" Tanis complimented.
"Yeah. It must have taken a long time to figure out a way to soothe Tanis's worries about being short." Winnie followed.
"Oh, not too long. It took about four classes, and it was easy when the course material sometimes connected to Tanis's problem." Sybella bragged. "You know, I never thought making a wooden step stool in Woodshop would make me have an epiphany that height is a social construct."
"Are you nervous for your driver's test, Sybella?" Kathryn inquired. "I think it's Thursday morning, right?"
"Yeah. I guess I'm not too nervous. Coach Micucci says I'm the best driver in the class, besides Sidney." Sybella responded.
"I'm really nervous though. I feel like I suck at driving. I'm never gonna pass!" Tanis panicked.
"What specifically are you bad at?" Kathryn asked.
"Everything! In today's class, Coach Micucci accidentally turned on a song called 'Cupid Shuffle' instead of the guided driver's test practice, and I was swerving all over the road!" Tanis admitted. "It got really confusing during the 'now kick' part."
"Don't worry about it, Tanis. I'm sure you'll do fine." Sybella reassured. "You're a good driver."
She didn't want to lie to Tanis, but the poor mummy was so worked up that Sybella felt she had to comfort her.
"Really?" Tanis inquired.
"Of course. You'll be amazing! You literally don't need to do anything else except stay calm and do your best." Sybella plainly suggested.
"Aww. Thanks, Sybella. You're the best!" Tanis smiled.
She just hoped Tanis would do well enough to pass the driver's test.
Wednesday, May 1
Today is the day. The final Woodshop class. I just hope my fingers are able to work fast enough to get everything done, so I can sleep in on Friday.
The vampiress had decided to dress modestly today, in a simple t-shirt and blue jeans, since she knew she had to make a few more cuts of wood in order to create a few of the hooks for her coat rack. It turned out to be a good thing that she did, because upon getting to class, she remembered that she hadn't actually made any of the hooks yet for the coat rack. Sybella definitely had her work cut out for her.
She certainly wasn't going to miss the loud machinery noises, the gross smell of the hot glue guns, or the fear of accidentally hurting herself with one of the tools after this class was over. Oh, how she loathed that.
"Class, this may be the last time we see each other." Mr. Ward reminded.
"Well, I guess this is it, old friend." Isaiah said. "I feel like I barely got to know you."
"Aww, that's sweet, bro." Nick replied.
"I was talking to the hot glue gun." Isaiah corrected. "This is the last time I'll ever use it."
"What are you talking about?" Mr. Ward snapped. "Your coat rack only has one hanger! You still have the rest to glue on."
"You said make a coat rack. So, I figured I could save time by just making it for a coat." Isaiah shrugged.
Before Mr. Ward had time to react, he noticed another thing that required his attention. "Johnny! Stop horsing around and cutting Tyler's leg off with that saw! That's not what it's for."
"What's the problem? It'll go back on." Johnny whined.
"Yeah, see?" Tyler replied, as he reattached his half-cut leg with ease.
"Anyway, if I can get a word in edgewise here, today's your last day...but only if you can finish your coat racks, which is our final project, by the end of class. Anyone who doesn't will report back here at 9:00am Friday morning like usual to complete the project." Mr. Ward finished explaining.
Sybella didn't necessarily like this class, so she was elated to hear that she would probably not have to come in Friday. She quickly cut a 2x4 up into small chunks, without bothering to make it look fancy.
"Can I borrow the glue gun, Tom?" Sybella asked the mummy, who was at the workstation next to her.
"Sure!" Tom agreed, as he handed her the gun.
Sybella quickly was about to glue the chunks of wood onto the coat hanger, until Mr. Ward stopped her.
"Sybella, what are you doing?" Mr. Ward scolded. "These are just shards of wood. You didn't even measure it so they're spaced equally."
The vampiress felt somewhat mortified at the instructor's accusation. "I'm sorry, sir. I was just trying to finish up by the end of today's class so I didn't have to come in on Friday."
"Sybella, I can tell you're a good student." Mr. Ward started warmly, before his voice became more serious. "But you can't race through a project if you want to make something useful. Part of woodshop is making your creations look good, so rushing through a project so you can sleep in on Friday isn't going to give you a good final result...or a good grade."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Ward. I'll remake the hooks so they look good." Sybella blushed.
"That's the spirit, Sybella! You're just lucky I caught you before you glued those on." Mr. Ward chuckled.
Sybella tried again, realizing that rushing through her work would only make it obvious that she'd been sloppy. She was able to remake the hooks with the remainder of the class period, and glued them on. This time, her hooks looked beautiful, and ultimately resulted in an A on the project from Mr. Ward and longer night's sleep when Friday came.
Thursday, May 2
Today is finally the day.
The day I take my driver's test. I can't believe I may have a license by the time the clock strikes noon.
Sybella was the most excited and the most nervous she'd ever been at the same time. It wasn't every day you took a test to determine whether you could drive anywhere you wanted or not. Even though she didn't have a car of her own at the moment, that didn't cause her excitement to dwindle any less.
She didn't really feel hungry for breakfast, as her stomach was already full of (metaphorical) butterflies. She knew she had to eat something though, otherwise she might get hungry during the test. Coach Micucci had said on Tuesday that she'd be the second one to take the test, after Sidney, so it was a good idea to get some food in her now even if it was just eating a small bowl of cereal.
The vampiress felt in the mood to wear something fancy, but not a dress as not to limit her range of motion while driving. After much thought, she finally decided on a suede fringed skirt, as well as a denim shirt, before going down to get a bowl of cereal.
Sybella waited nervously for her turn on the sidewalk out by the school parking lot. After several minutes of pacing and nervousness, Matches came out to join her. It seemed he could tell that Sybella was feeling a bit anxious, so he rubbed himself up against her leg in a gesture of affection.
"Thanks Matches. I just really want to pass this test." Sybella hoped Matches would stay around a little longer to keep her company, but he'd already gone off to venture in the outdoors. The weather was finally getting warm enough for him to be outside the whole day, so she didn't blame him for leaving to explore on his own.
Sybella's heart fluttered a little when she saw a black car drive up right next to where Sybella was standing.
"So, did I pass, coach?" Sidney inquired as she opened her car door.
"Pass? You drove better than I do! In fact, you should be the one administerin' this test!" Coach Micucci exclaimed. "You can take the passenger's seat while I switch to the back seat so I can finish some work up quickly."
"Paperwork?" Sidney asked.
"Nah, I gotta win the Tri-Wizard Tournament and stop Voldemort from comin' back from the dead." Coach Micucci admitted, as he hopped into the back seat. The coach had a sandwich in one hand, and his video gaming device in another.
It comforted Sybella a little to know that Sidney would be joining them. She was always the comic relief, and boy, did Sybella ever need some relief from her anxiety right now.
"Are you sure a student can be the one giving this test?" Sidney said uncertainly.
"Of course! Besides, I'm lookin' up every couple of minutes. And you passed the test, so you're not a student anymore. Consider yourself promoted to teacher's assistant!" Coach Micucci declared.
"Really, me?" Sidney gasped, clutching her heart in a silly, surprised way.
"Salt the Earth!" Coach Micucci responded.
"You mean salt of the Earth? Aww, thanks. You too, Micucci." Sidney reciprocated.
"No! I mean I gotta salt the Earth by Voldemort's grave so he can't dig out of it!" Coach Micucci elaborated. "Stay dead, ya bastard!"
"Okay, where to first?" Sybella asked. She was anxious to start her driver's exam, but not exactly sure if Sidney or Coach Micucci would be the one to answer her question.
Sidney clearly wasn't sure either, as it took her a few seconds to respond.
"Let's get the parallel parking out of the way." Sidney said, as she waved her magic wand. To Sybella's horror, she opened a parallel universe!
"Nah, just kidding." the witch quickly responded as she shut the portal before anything could come in or out.
"What's in that universe, anyway?" Sybella asked curiously.
"Monkeys and stuff." Sidney said, as she motioned for the vampiress to start driving.
Sybella drove a few blocks and quickly made it to her first challenge: two parked cars, with a space big enough for a car in between.
"Just remember the activity we did in class. Well, except the part where I crashed into Elsa." Sidney sheepishly smirked.
"Oh yeah!" Sybella replied, as she pulled ahead so she was even with the car in front, then turned her wheel and backed up, before finally straightening it out.
"That activity was actually helpful to you guys?" Coach Micucci chimed in from the back seat. "God, I was just tryin' to fill time!"
"Pretty good!" Sidney said. "You're a teensy bit crooked, but no one would care that much if you're not 100% perfectly straight. There's no way anyone would hit you. Now, you can drive around the block. You don't have to do anything other than just drive normally and be a functioning part of traffic."
"Sure." Sybella shrugged. She hadn't expected the driving test to be that easy, but she supposed the best way to show you knew how to drive, was to drive as one normally would in an everyday traffic situation.
For the first half of the block, Sybella drove seamlessly, perfectly blending in as a part of everyday traffic. Once they got halfway around, they encountered a traffic jam.
"What's causing the slow down?" Sybella questioned.
"Ah, this road's always bogged down during the morning commute." Coach Micucci grumbled.
"Oh, there's your problem. Guy riding a llama." Sidney pointed to a man on a large white llama, who was slowly sauntering down the road in front of a car. People were starting to go around him. "You can go around him, Sybella."
Due to having the car windows down for some fresh air, Sybella could hear the loud honks of disgruntled drivers. Just as she was about to pass, she also heard the llama-riding man speak up.
"Alright, alright! She's moving as fast as she can! Can't you see I'm trying to ride this llama here?" the man sighed, responding to the honking cars passing by. "My boss said I was boring; just another yes man who couldn't think outside the box. Well, who's uncreative now, Mr. Sanderson? Hahahahaha!"
"That was uhh...strange." Sybella responded after passing the shouting man.
"Another left turn ahead!" Sidney instructed. "Turn onto Dinkley Highway, then a right on Jones Street, and finally another left on Blake Boulevard."
Sybella turned onto the highway, and picked up speed to 55 miles per hour briefly.
"Doing great, Bella!" Sidney responded, as the vampiress prepared to turn off on Jones Street by slowing down to the new 30 miles per hour speed limit.
In a matter of another minute, she'd driven Jones Street up to where she had to turn on Blake Boulevard. The vampire princess made sure to make her last turn delicate and precise.
"And you're back at Grimwood's! I'm happy to say...YOU PASSED!" Sidney exclaimed.
"OH MY GOD!" Sybella screamed. "I passed? I can't believe it!"
Sybella hadn't felt as excited as she did in that moment in a long time. Sure, she got excited sometimes, but this was something different...it was a sense of pure joy.
Sybella waited in the classroom for the rest of the period to see how everyone else did. So far, Winnie, Elsa, and Phantasma had all passed their tests. Assuming Tanis was almost back from her test, Sybella suggested that the girl ghouls should meet their mummy friend to congratulate (or comfort, depending on the outcome) her.
"Have a good summer, Lucas." Sybella said to the sole student remaining in the classroom.
"You too!" the zombie replied.
The ghouls began getting excited as they saw the familiar black car pull into Grimwood's. Though they expected a flawless park job at the curb, Tanis instead smacked into the curb, causing the car to jolt to a stop. Tanis got out of the car, looking heartbroken. Sybella knew what had happened.
"Hey Tanis! So what's the word?" Elsa obliviously said.
"I...I failed." Tanis hung her head.
"Let's just say, if you didn't have a witch in the car with you, you would have done more than fail. You'd be dead...again." Sidney teased. "In other news, you know that llama we saw this morning? They demoted the guy, but according to a billboard I saw, the llama's been hired and is now head lawyer at the firm. Doesn't say much, but that probably works in its favor for incriminating cases."
Sybella frowned back at Sidney, pointing at a crying Tanis.
"Oh...I'm sorry, sweetie. You're just not ready to drive right now. Not everyone can pass on their first try." Sidney attempted to cover.
Even though she knew it was Tanis who'd failed the test, Sybella felt like she had failed Tanis. She felt like she made Tanis overconfident by telling her she just had to do her best, when the mummy clearly needed a lot more practice. Sybella should have told her that while Tanis had the time to still improve. Tanis could have practiced and maybe gotten good enough to pass the test, had Sybella not lied and told Tanis she was good to protect her feelings.
One of the best moments of Sybella's life had been darkened by lying to protect her friend.
Sybella had a lot to think about in Music class today.
Elsa was comforting a crying Tanis. Mrs. Frumkin was already going on and on about blues singers of the 20s. Sybella's mind was swirling about how her lie to Tanis may have affected her performance on the driver's test. Now Tanis would have to wait until December to retake the test, and she'd also have to retake Driver's Education over again next semester.
With some thought, Sybella realized it wasn't entirely her fault that Tanis failed, but she still felt horrible for trying to comfort Tanis by telling her a lie. She knew Tanis wasn't good at driving, so she was frustrated with herself for saying something that wasn't true just to protect her friend. Though Sybella knew she was probably overreacting, she decided to make a vow to herself never to flat-out lie to protect a friend's feelings again. She felt icky fibbing, and it was important to tell the truth or simply just not say anything at all. Lying was easy, and the solace of hiding an ugly truth could sometimes be comforting, but now she better understood how lying to protect someone could come back to bite you...or the other person...in the butt.
Friday, May 3
The last day of the semester.
I'm feeling a little better than I did yesterday about lying to Tanis about how good she was at driving, but I think I understand now that I can't fully blame myself. Tanis was not great at driving regardless, but telling her she was good and lying to protect her feelings didn't help matters at all. It only hid the truth and gave my friend a false sense of security, when she needed a push to help her improve her driving skills.
I can't blame myself for this, but I can use this as a learning experience to how better to confront the ugly truth, instead of lying and pretending it doesn't exist.
Sybella was ready for the Mass Media final exam. Mass Media was not only her favorite class this semester, but one of her favorite classes at Grimwood's period. She'd spent some extra time studying at lunch today, and thus came into the classroom a bit later than normal. Nearly everyone was already in their seats when she arrived.
"Ready for the final, Sybella?" Sarah asked as Sybella took a seat.
"Yeah! Are you?" Sybella replied.
Sarah nodded, but Alexis gave a much more enthusiastic response. "Hell yeah I am!"
"We're gonna rock this final, guys!" Phantasma exclaimed from next to them.
"You better believe it!" Winnie howled in agreement.
"Class, I can't believe this is our last day together. You've all been such a wonderful group of students and I'll be truly sad to see you go." Mrs. Lange admitted. "Now, we'll get started on the exam in a minute...I imagine Tardy Tate will be coming in any moment."
Tate was almost always tardy, so much in fact that it became an expectation that he would be late, earning him the nickname Tardy Tate. As if on cue, Tate booked it into the classroom.
"Sorry I'm late Mrs. Lange!" Tate panted, trying to catch his breath.
"What's your excuse this time?" Mrs. Lange asked, clearly not amused.
"Hold-You-Up Hal saw me in the hall." Tate answered.
A scruffy male werewolf peeked his head around the corner in the classroom.
"Hey Tate!" the werewolf, who Sybella assumed to be Hal, said. "This Mountain Dew has 67 grams of sugar per bottle! Wanna discuss the oversweetening of today's carbonated beverages for the next 55 minutes?"
"Sorry Hal, I gotta take a test now." Tate said.
"Ah, no worries dude." Hal shrugged, as he left the classroom.
"Well, if you're quite finished talking to your friend, I'll hand out the test." Mrs. Lange said to Tate, causing him to blush a little.
Mrs. Lange handed a test to Sybella first, who quickly scanned the test before starting. It didn't seem hard at all...only 30 questions, all of which were on various topics they had covered: beauty norms, advertising, debate and persuasion, stereotypes, the music industry, and various other theories. This was going to be a breeze!
Sybella was one of the first students to finish her test. After handing her test to Mrs. Lange, the vampiress was allowed to leave class early so she could pack up her belongings to go home for the summer. She'd already done most of her packing though, so Sybella simply gathered her belongings and read a book titled The Mystery of Haunted Island in the living room area close to the front door. Winnie and Phantasma were the first to join her.
"How do you think the test went?" Phantasma asked.
"Fangtastic. I didn't have trouble with any of the answers. I know I'm going to get an A." Sybella boasted.
"Same here!" Winnie said. "That test was a breeze!"
"Yeah. A dead person could have aced that test. Oh wait…" Phanty smirked.
"All ready to go, girls?" Miss Grimwood asked, coming into the room with Matches right behind her.
"Yep. Just waiting for our fathers to get here." Sybella responded.
"I hope you all have a great summer. Not to scare you three, but when you come back in the fall, I truly hope you make the most of your time here and start thinking about your post-graduation plans. You only have two years left, after all." Miss Grimwood reminded.
"Don't remind me." Tanis whimpered, as she came into the room. "I'm gonna miss Grimwood's so much!"
"Life outside Grimwood's isn't so bad. You'll like it, I promise. The real world is cool." Kathryn chimed in, referring to the fact she did not live at Grimwood's.
"Yeah." Sidney agreed as she arrived to wait by the front entrance of Grimwood's with Kathryn. "Remember how much you guys liked that day we went out and explored the human world?"
"I guess." Elsa, the last to join the others, shrugged. "I suppose we'll just have to get used to a new life after Grimwood's. It won't be so bad."
Sybella heard the familiar horn of her father's Drac-Mobile.
"Sybella! I'm here to pick you up!" Dracula called from outside.
"Bye everyone!" Sybella smiled, picking up her suitcase handle to head outside.
Everyone waved goodbye to the vampire princess. Another year had officially ended at Grimwood's, with two more exciting ones to come. Despite her worries about the future and leaving Grimwood's, she couldn't wait to see what new experiences she'd have in her remaining time here.
Author's note:
That concludes another year at Grimwood's! As per usual, any character that was a student and had a speaking role during this semester came back for a cameo in this chapter. I didn't include Barry, the student who bullied Elsa two chapters ago, as I'm satisfied with how his character arc ended and I didn't want to just put a filler scene in of Sybella bumping into him in the hall or something.
Without further ado, it's reference time!
- Yet another callback for this recurring gag! Coach Micucci's video game that he plays during the driver's test references Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
- The names of the roads Sidney lists off that Sybella needs to turn on during her driver's test are named after Velma, Fred and Daphne's surnames.
- The book Sybella reads while waiting at the front door, "The Mystery of Haunted Island" is the title of an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
We'll be going into the girls' junior year at Grimwood's in the next chapter, so if you have any feedback for how I could improve this fanfic, please don't be shy and feel free to leave a review!