Monday, January 13
My last semester at Grimwood's.
Over the break, I received my acceptance letter to Leopold University. Both my daddy and I were thrilled that I got into the college I wanted, but at the same time, the idea that I could be leaving Grimwood's feels almost surreal to me. I've made a vow to myself to enjoy the twists and turns of whatever the year might bring. I want to stay in the moment as much as I can, so I can enjoy the year to the full extent.
The vampire princess was still the only ghoul who had a vehicle. Her friends were most certainly jealous of her 1988 Hearse Station Wagon, but they also loved the fact that Sybella could drive them around wherever they wanted. Of course, they still had to ask if she would be willing to drive them places, but Sybella almost always said yes.
"Thanks so much for driving us back to Grimwood's, Sybella!" Tanis appreciated.
Sybella had offered to bring her friends back to school this semester, rather than inconveniencing their parents and forcing them to make a special trip to Grimwood's. Sybella's house was the furthest away from Grimwood's after all, and she passed by all the other ghouls' houses on the way to school, so it was really no hardship for her to pick her other friends up and carpool with them.
"No problem." Sybella replied. "Happy to help you all out!"
"I'm super excited for all our new classes!" Tanis chirped.
"Me too. It'll be weird to only have three classes this semester, though." Winnie commented.
"Yeah, and I only have two!" Elsa reminded.
"Well, I know what I'm excited for." Phanty changed the subject a tad. "Seeing my boyfriend again!"
"Aww...that's sweet." Tanis cooed. "I wonder if the rest of us are going to get boyfriends this semester."
"I doubt it. Besides, I'm happy being single." Sybella shrugged.
"I wouldn't mind dating someone." Winnie shrugged.
"I'm not ready for a relationship." Tanis stated. "It's so much drama."
"But it's so much excitement being in love! It's not all drama." Phanty explained.
"You and Isaiah have fought, though! Several times!" Tanis emphasized.
"Yeah, but you can't always agree with everyone on everything. It's rare that you find a perfect match." Phantasma informed. "It's normal to have fights on occasion."
"I feel like I would need to find a perfect match to be able to date someone, though." Elsa commented. "I don't have time to screw around with constant drama."
"You don't know how it feels until you've been in love." Phanty argued.
The girls were silent for a moment.
"Well, isn't anyone going to argue against her?" Elsa inquired.
"None of us have been in love before, though. How can we?" Sybella answered. "Anyway, we're here."
Miss Grimwood stood on the drawbridge to the moat, waving cheerfully at her girls.
"Hello, girls! Happy last semester!" Miss Grimwood smiled.
"Hi Miss Grimwood!" Tanis chirped.
"How was your break?" Winnie asked.
"It was good. I caught up on quite a bit of paperwork and had some time to relax with some of my favorite books." Miss Grimwood smiled. "Now, I believe you all have Debate first? That will be in Room 46 with Mrs. Lange."
"Mrs. Lange again? Cool! I really like her." Tanis commented.
"Yeah, she's super nice." Sybella reciprocated. "We'll see you at dinner, Miss Grimwood!"
"You won't, Sybella. Don't forget you have the first Yearbook meeting of the semester tonight." Miss Grimwood corrected.
"Oh, you're right!" Sybella had almost totally forgotten. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
That felt odd to say, but Yearbook generally took up several hours, and Sybella usually just grabbed something to eat either with the Yearbook team, or at the dining hall after the meeting was over.
"'Sup, guys?" Sidney waved as she came towards the girls. Sybella could see Sidney's wizard father, who had dropped her off, in a green 1981 Suzuki Jimny. "So...hey Winnie, I wanted to ask you something."
"Sure." Winnie shrugged. Sidney wasn't usually an awkward person, so the werewolf didn't seem to know what to make of Sidney's strange pause and stuttering in her sentences.
"You wanna, like, hang out tonight or something? If you're not busy?" Sidney inquired.
"Oh, sure! That'd be super fun!" Winnie howled with excitement. "Actually, we can all hang out tonight! Except Sybella, of course, she's in Yearbook. What a great way to celebrate the end of our semester!"
"Oh...no. I meant like just the two of us." Sidney elaborated.
Phantasma began to invade Winnie's personal space for a moment to whisper something in the werewolf's ear. "Uh, Winnie, remember what we talked about in the car? I think that might be what Sidney wants here."
"Oh, okay." Winnie quickly replied, not processing what Phanty was implying immediately. "Wait a minute, you mean…"
"You know, like a date." Sidney offered, looking very uncharacteristically shy.
"Uh...Sidney, are you saying you...like me?" Winnie meekly questioned.
"Of course I like you." Sidney plainly stated.
"No, I mean...like like me." Winnie clarified.
"That's what I meant. You haven't noticed?" Sidney hinted that her affection for the werewolf should have been obvious.
"Should I have?" Winnie looked back at her friends, wondering if any of them were less naïve to the witch's feelings.
"I certainly didn't." Sybella looked shocked at Sidney's admission.
"Oh come on." Sidney began to sound more like herself. "I've literally made a bajillion comments like this before in all the classes Sybella isn't in."
"Why not in any classes I'm in?" Sybella looked offended.
"I don't know. Wasn't important to the plotline yet, I guess." Sidney shrugged while breaking the fourth wall.
"What plotline?" Elsa inquired.
"This is news to me." Winnie pondered. "Uh...I guess I can go on a d-date with you. I'm absolutely not committing yet, though."
"Okay, awesome! I'll see you girls later." Sidney waved, as she headed to whatever her next class was.
Once Sidney was out of earshot, Winnie began to try to process the situation with her friends.
"What should I do?" Winnie panicked. "I never would have thought Sidney was in love with me! I don't want to be a lesbian!"
"Winnie, sometimes it's not about the labels people want to put on you." Phantasma advised. "You just have to love whoever you love. Do you like Sidney?"
"Yeah, I really like her! She's super cool and funny!" Winnie smiled. "But...I don't know how to date a girl. What do you do if you want to kiss? Do I have to have advice about periods and stuff?"
"Well, you just kiss her then. And yes, you have to have daily advice about periods, so start thinking." Phanty laughed. "Winnie, you've never thought about dating someone that isn't a guy?"
"Not really. I always thought I'd find a guy and marry him, and we'd have kids." Winnie admitted.
"Winnie, I wouldn't worry so much about labels." Sybella advised. "Society likes to label people all the time, but it's ultimately your choice if you want to accept them. Just because you're dating a girl doesn't mean you have to identify as some uber-lesbian, unless you want to. It's really all up to you."
"What if people judge me for dating her, though?" Winnie followed up.
"Well, people are going to do that no matter what, unfortunately. That's just the society we live in." Phanty somberly informed.
"I guess I'll have to think about it." Winnie seemed uncertain.
"Oh, one more thing. When you date a girl, you have to slap her on the butt and exclaim 'gurrrrrrl!' at the top of your lungs." Phanty teased.
The werewolf gave the phantom a very strange look.
"Hey, I don't make the rules here!" Phantasma laughed, as the ghouls arrived at the Debate classroom.
Now that Sybella had been at Grimwood's for so many years, she recognized almost the entirety of the 18-person class. Among the class included Joey the werewolf, Jacob the werewolf, Tyler the zombie, Charlie the goblin, Tom the mummy, Jonathan the werewolf, Isaiah the phantom, Ali the vampire, Melissa the werewolf, Kathryn the vampire, Sidney the witch, and (ugh) Eric the werewolf. There was only one male Frankenstein's monster in the course that she didn't recognize, whom Elsa sat by.
"Hey, how are you? I'm Elsa." Elsa greeted her fellow Frankenstein's monster.
"I'm good. My name's Alex." the male Frankenstein's monster replied. "Say, weren't you the TA in my science class last year?"
"Yeah! I was! I forgot you were in there. I guess we never talked much." Elsa shrugged.
"I enjoyed that class quite a bit. Science is an extraordinary field of study!" Alex exclaimed.
"Hey, Sidney, you're in this class?" Sybella said in surprise, as she tuned out Elsa's conversation with her apparent new friend.
"I am! I didn't know you all were in this class too, or I would have just walked with you!" Sidney replied.
"No worries." Sybella shrugged, actually quite glad for Winnie's sake that they'd had the chance to help the werewolf process through the situation.
At that moment, Winnie sat down two seats away from Sybella, next to Sidney. Kathryn was sitting on the other side of Sybella.
Sybella got out a quick "hi" to her fellow vampiress before Mrs. Lange started class.
"Hello, class!" Mrs. Lange smiled. "I believe I've had most of you in class already, but for the few that I haven't, my name is Mrs. Lange. I will be teaching this Debate course for the semester. One of the first things we'll be doing in this course is working with partners. To start off our course, I'd like to figure out what you already know about debating. In partners, you will be debating what the best food to have for breakfast is."
Mrs. Lange stopped her explanation when she saw a raised hand. "Yes, Kathryn?"
"Do we get to pick our partners?" Kathryn inquired.
"I'm afraid not. I'd like you to step out of your comfort zone a bit for this class, so I'm going to randomly assign the partners." Mrs. Lange explained. "The partners will be as follows. Tom and Isaiah, Winnie and Sidney, Phanty and Charlie, Melissa and Ali, Tanis and Tyler, Sybella and Eric...oh, I think we'll have to have two groups of three, given we have an uneven number. Jacob, Kathryn, and Jonathan, and Elsa, Alex, and Joey will be our two groups of three. Please go sit over by your partners and discuss what you're going to debate. Once you have decided on a topic, please approve it with me so that no two groups debating against each other have the same topic."
At least debating against Eric would be easy.
"Why are we discussing what we're debating with the person we're debating against?" Sybella inquired in a confused tone.
"Oh, no, apologies that I didn't explain that better. You will debate against another group, working in partners. You will be working with your partner to come up with a debate strategy." Mrs. Lange clarified.
Oh no. How could Sybella ever work with someone as dumb as Eric?
"Yo, Sybella, over here!" Eric waved, causing Sybella to roll her eyes. She didn't know if he had seen her frustrated eye movement, but honestly, she didn't really care.
"Hi Eric." Sybella said in an exasperated voice.
"Oh come on, you're not still mad about me reading your diary to the entire school, are you?" Eric snapped.
"How could I ever still be mad about that?" Sybella replied sarcastically.
"Yeah, you'd have to be some kind of bitch to still be mad about that!" Eric laughed, not picking up on Sybella's vocal tone. "Anyway, what's our debate strategy? I was thinking of calling the other group idiots and then throwing a pie in their face!"
"We can't throw a pie in their face, Eric." Sybella was clearly not amused.
"Aww, we can't? But I already baked it this morning!" Eric whined. "It's blueberry!"
"How did you even know we were going to have this assignment this morning?" Sybella questioned.
"You can never be too prepared." Eric warned cautiously.
"Well, what's your favorite breakfast food, and how can we convince the other group?" Sybella tried to push Eric in the right direction.
"My favorite breakfast food is cereal." Eric replied.
"There, that's a start!" Sybella guided. "Now how can we convince the other group?"
"Convince them? Why would we need to do that? Everyone knows I'm always right about everything." Eric boasted.
Sybella sighed. Clearly this was going to be far more difficult than she could ever imagine.
It had been a frustrating experience trying to work with Eric. It seemed like whatever the vampiress said, Eric would counteract it with some dumb remark. Sybella would just have to do the best she could despite the werewolf's antics.
"Alright, students, it's almost the end of the period, so it is time for you all to present. Eric and Sybella will go first against Winnie and Sidney." Mrs. Lange chose.
Sybella's heart sunk a little bit when she heard that her and Eric would have to go first. She supposed it was good to get it out of the way and be done, however. The werewolf and the vampiress headed towards the front of the room to begin their presentation.
"We'd like to open by saying that pancakes are the best breakfast food." Winnie started to argue.
"Heck yeah! They're so freaking delicious." Sidney agreed.
"No way. Cereal is the best because you can literally have it so many ways. You can put milk in it, you can add chocolate chips or fruit." Sybella argued.
"Besides, Sybella and I are always right!" Eric bragged. "Anyone who states any opinion that we don't share is automatically wrong."
"Eric, that's not how debating works." Mrs. Lange explained. "You have to give a reason why the other person is wrong."
"That is my reason, though. I'm always right and you can't tell me otherwise." Eric continued to boast.
"I'm afraid that's not a valid reason." Mrs. Lange challenged.
"Then you'd be wrong!" Eric argued back. "See, I'm learning how to debate already! I'm so glad I took this class!"
Sidney ignored Eric's ridiculous comment and continued to argue her point.
"You can add chocolate chips or fruit to pancakes too." Sidney rebuked.
"You can't really eat it on the go, though." Sybella pointed out.
"You're right…" Winnie stuttered a little.
"No she's not! I do it all the time!" Jonathan exclaimed, taking out a plastic container with a green lid, which he revealed to contain chocolate chip pancakes.
"Good job, Sybella and Eric! You've won the debate." Mrs. Lange called the winner. Sybella was so relieved. She never thought she would have won with Eric as her partner. "Next is Phantasma and Charlie, against Tom and Isaiah!"
"Biscuits are obviously the best breakfast food, dudes!" Isaiah exclaimed. "You can do so many awesome things with them! You can put jelly on 'em, you can put gravy on 'em, and you can even turn 'em into an egg sandwich!"
"Sorry to disagree with my own boyfriend, but waffles are the best breakfast food." Phanty argued. "You can add a lot of things to those, too. Strawberries, chocolate chips, blueberries, syrup…"
"I disagree. Can you put gravy on a waffle? Gravy's the best!" Tom argued back.
"No, but you can put jelly on them. If you're really inventive, you could make an egg sandwich out of two waffles, too." Charlie suggested.
"Aw man, that sounds amazing!" Isaiah said, suddenly remembering he was trying to win a debate. "I mean...I don't agree with that!"
"I'm afraid I've already reached a verdict." Mrs. Lange decided. "Phanty and Charlie win!"
"Sweet!" Charlie exclaimed.
"Next will be Tanis and Tyler versus Melissa and Ali." Mrs. Lange announced.
"I argue it's better to SKIP breakfast!" Melissa revealed.
"Yeah, it can help you lose weight!" Tyler agreed. "Oh wait, I'm on Tanis's side. I mean, that's really stupid! You should eat eggs for breakfast!"
"They're both healthy and good for you!" Tanis rebutted.
"No, you should skip breakfast. It's healthier to stop overeating and just skip the meal." Ali argued back.
"What if you're already a healthy weight though?" Tanis pointed out.
"Yes, that's a large hole in your argument, I'm afraid." Mrs. Lange told. "Tanis and Tyler win! For our last debate, we will have the groups of three! Kathryn, Joey, and Jonathan versus Jacob, Elsa and Alex!"
All six students came to the front of the room to give their arguments.
"Well, we argue that the best breakfast you can have is an omelette." Kathryn began.
"Yeah, it has all sorts of healthy veggies inside!" Joey followed.
"Plus, it's got cheese! Delicious cheese! How can you go wrong with cheese?" Jonathan argued.
"You can put cheese on cereal too!" Jacob debated from the other side.
"Eww, no!" Elsa shook her head in disgust.
"Cereal is the best breakfast because, if you have the right kind, it can be loaded with whole grains, oats, and other healthy fibers to start your day off right!" Alex attempted to convince.
"Yes, and it's been scientifically proven that fiber is the best way to start your day." Elsa complemented Alex's point.
"Well...it's been scientifically proven that cheese is the best way to be awesome!" Jonathan argued back.
"Elsa, Alex and Jacob win!" Mrs. Lange exclaimed. "Good job, everyone. It looks like we've wrapped up a few minutes early today, so you may get a head-start to lunch or go to your next class. See you on Wednesday!"
"We make a great team, Winnie!" Sidney smiled at the werewolf in a flirty way.
"Yeah, we do!" Winnie smiled, her tone getting a bit more cautious as she continued. "Even if we didn't win."
Sybella was a bit sad that Winnie didn't seem to be able to cut through the feelings of whether she liked Sidney or not due to the barrier of the label of being lesbian. Of course, Sybella would never want Winnie to date Sidney because she felt pressured to. The vampiress simply wanted Winnie to do what she wanted without the pressure of society telling her that she was "different" or "weird" simply for liking the same gender. Love was love, as far as she was concerned, and Winnie should be able to make her own decisions without the judgment of society.
After a quick lunch, Sybella had reassured Winnie briefly about her date tonight with Sidney before the two ghouls headed their separate ways. It was time now for Deviant Behavior with Ms. Cohn. The vampiress wondered who she'd know in this class. She quickly found out when she made her way through the door and her eyes explored the surroundings.
The vampire princess noticed a plethora of familiar faces: Ben the werewolf, Jordan the vampire, Johnny the goblin, Daniel the werewolf, Lucas the zombie, Kenzie the witch (!), Julia the witch, and Sarah the witch. Surprisingly, there was a male phantom, a female Frankenstein's monster, and a female mummy that Sybella did not recognize in the course.
"Hi again!" Kenzie chirped. Sybella was very thrilled she had Kenzie for at least one more class.
"Hi!" Sybella smiled.
"So, what's up? Anything fun going on in the life of Sybella?" Kenzie spoke.
"Well...my friend…" Sybella debated saying anything about Winnie's issue, but she decided to share with Kenzie. She seemed like a trustworthy and respectful person. "My female friend thinks she might like another girl."
"That's cool." Kenzie said, like it was no big deal.
"It is, and it's surprising." Sybella added.
"Not really. Some people just fall in love with a person rather than their gender. I'm asexual, so it doesn't really surprise me." Kenzie revealed.
Sybella didn't know such a thing existed.
"What's that?" Sybella inquired.
"It just means you don't feel sexual attraction to other people. I prefer purely romantic relationships, personally." Kenzie explained. "You can be a lot of things. Some people prefer to only date people that they're deeply in love with, that's demisexual. There are lots of different labels you can put on it, but in reality, you don't have to label anything. You can just be whoever you want and stay true to yourself."
"Did you read my lesson plan for today, Kenzie?" Ms. Cohn laughed.
"No. Why's that?" Kenzie chuckled along, albeit in a bit of an awkward way due to not knowing what Ms. Cohn meant.
"That's exactly how I was going to introduce the class." Ms. Cohn exclaimed, shifting her focus from Kenzie and Sybella to the entire class. "Hello, class, and welcome to Deviant Behavior. In this course, we're going to discuss types of behavior that society considers to be deviant and strange, and talk about how they might not be so strange after all. Our friend Kenzie has done a great job of doing so already, however. Would you like to restate what you said, Kenzie?"
Kenzie looked a little shocked to be called out by Ms. Cohn, but clearly the instructor liked her a lot.
"Oh. I was just saying that society likes to label people, but many things don't have to have these huge labels attached to them if you don't want them. You can be casually lesbian, for example, but you don't have to wear a huge "I'm a lesbian" sign everywhere you go if you don't want to. Labels are there to help you understand yourself better, not to be shoved in your face or confine you." Kenzie insightfully explained.
"Excellent explanation, Kenzie! I couldn't have done it better myself." Ms. Cohn smiled.
Kenzie was absolutely right. Labels shouldn't confine a person...they should just help you educate yourself on your own identity, not be forced upon someone. She only hoped Winnie could understand that in relation to how she felt about Sidney.
Sybella was greeted with the usual "sup" by her Yearbook teammate and friend, Savana.
"'Sup to you too." Sybella joked in response.
"So, what's crack-a-lackin'?" Sam inquired.
Sybella couldn't help but think about Winnie, who was on her date with Sidney as the girls spoke.
"I'm thinking about Winnie...she's on a date with Sidney right now." Sybella informed. The vampire princess wasn't really sure if Winnie would care if she told people about her date, but she assumed probably not.
"No, I was asking literally." Sam corrected. "Savana left her popcorn crack-a-lackin' in the microwave and I was reminding her."
"Oh shit, I forgot!" Savana ran over to attend to the microwave.
"Oh my gosh, Winnie came out as gay?" Sami exclaimed, causing Sybella to immediately regret saying anything. "Good for her! That's so neat!"
"No, she didn't...I mean, she's not sure...ugh, I'm sorry. I should never have said anything." Sybella buried her face in her hands in embarrassment.
"Don't be, I think it's cool!" Sami elaborated. "Monsters should love whoever they want to love. So what if Winnie likes a girl? So what if I like a boy? Anyone should be able to love whoever they want..and love whatever they want to love, for that matter. I personally love turkey."
"Is that even legal?" Savana misinterpreted.
"I said I loved turkey, not a turkey." Sami rolled her eyes.
"I loved a turkey once. Tate the Turkey, to be exact. Came out to pet him every day, but one cold day in November, he wasn't there anymore. Tragic." Sam shook her head.
"Point taken." Sybella laughed. "What do we have to work on today?"
"Well, the photos are all in, and we've got the cover figured out." Miss Lillard jumped in, showing the girls the cover art. It was a picture of the goose that Sam had taken back in the fall.
"Interviews I guess, then?" Savana shrugged.
"Works for me." Sami agreed.
The girls all headed towards their workstation, continuing to laugh and joke as they worked together to copy and paste the interviews they had written in word processing documents into the digital master copy of the yearbook.
Tuesday, January 14
I'm so happy for Winnie that she's figuring herself out...however, I really hope her date with Sidney went well last night. I haven't heard anything from her yet, so I hope Winnie was able to break out of her shell and truly enjoy the date. I just want her to be happy and not afraid to love someone because society tells her she shouldn't.
Sybella was as eager as ever to head down to breakfast to find out how Winnie's date went last night, so she quickly threw on a pair of jeans, as well as a shirt with a skull and a rose on it, with a green jacket over it. Before she made it down the stairs, she saw Elsa, who had a surprise of her own to share with the vampire.
"Hey Sybella...so I don't want you to be jealous, but I've got something to tell you. I've already told the rest of the girls at dinner last night. I think I'm in love with Alex!" Elsa revealed, causing Sybella's jaw to drop. "He's so cool, and he's super into science. I've never felt on the same level with someone intellectually as much as I have with him."
"Why would I be jealous? That's awesome and I'm so happy for you!" Sybella comforted. "Does Alex know about your feelings yet?"
"Um...not yet, but I'm going to tell him soon. I'm just a little nervous. I don't want to ruin our friendship when it just began." Elsa's tone grew cautious.
"That makes sense. Just don't wait too long, or you're going to work yourself up over nothing." Sybella warned.
"I won't." Elsa replied, as they began walking to breakfast together. Upon arriving there, Sybella grabbed a bowl of cereal whilst Elsa took a biscuit with some strawberry jelly. The former's eyes lit up when she saw Winnie.
"Winnie, oh my gosh! How was your date with Sidney?" Sybella excitedly inquired.
"It was amazing. She's so cool and funny, and we had such an amazing time just talking to each other!" Winnie replied. "I was thinking about it all night, and I think I'm going to tell Sidney I like her and I want to date her. How do you think I should do that?"
"You just did." a familiar voice replied. Sybella quickly saw that it was Sidney, who happened to be walking past. "Aww, I love you, Winnie. I'm so happy you want to be with me, because I want to be with you too!"
"Really?" Winnie awkwardly asked, quickly realizing she obviously already knew the answer. "I mean, you're not going to pressure me into being an uber-lesbian like you?"
"What do you mean, like me? I've literally never dated anyone before!" Sidney shared. "I'm just a monster who likes another monster, and that person happens to be you. Honestly, I just think you're super cool and always seem very empowered in yourself. We don't have to label our relationship as anything, if you don't want. There's no pressure."
"Okay...I guess I'm just a monster who likes another monster too." Winnie smiled, as Sidney put her arm around Winnie. It was a tad awkward as neither of them had ever dated before, but Sybella felt that just made it all the more authentic and pure.
The girls had an enjoyable breakfast, with Sidney and Winnie planning out their relationship in a hypothetical, playful way. To everyone's surprise, when Sidney got up, Winnie lightly slapped her bottom and shouted "gurrrrrrrl!"
Sidney just looked a bit bewildered and laughed.
"What? That's what you said I was supposed to do, right Phanty?" Winnie explained, apparently taking Phantasma's advice way too literally.
"I didn't mean it literally!" Phanty began cackling at the fact that the werewolf actually took her joke as the truth.
"Well, I've gotta get to class, but I'll see you later...babe." Sidney added at the end, smirking cutely.
"Bye...uh...babe." Winnie giggled back, clearly being playful with the idea of having her first relationship ever.
Sybella loved the fact that the two lovebirds felt comfortable expressing their true feelings for one another. However, it was time for her to also get to her next obligation...being a teacher's assistant for Coach Micucci!
The vampiress was greeted by a smiling Coach Micucci as she entered the room. Given the class was mainly taken by freshmen, Sybella didn't recognize many of the students.
"Hey, Sybella! Ya ready to help me introduce the class?" Coach Micucci inquired.
"Yes! I couldn't be more ready!" Sybella felt invigorated from knowing her friend was so happy with her new relationship.
"Alright then, let me just get these hooligans ready for ya." Coach Micucci shifted his focus from Sybella to the class. "Hello you creepy little child-adults! I know it's the first day, and you don't wanna be here. Hell, I don't wanna be here! I'd rather be playin' a video game or eatin' a burrito or somethin'. But, I'm here, you're here, so let's make the best of it. This is Gym and Health. On Tuesdays, you'll have gym, on Thursdays, you'll have Health. Oh, and this is my teaching assistant, Sybella. Any questions?"
"Uh...so can you explain how the vagina works?" Jordan, a vampire who had taken the class three years ago with Sybella, asked.
"Didn't you take this class with me?" Sybella inquired. "Why are you in it again?"
"Oh, he's been takin' it every semester. He still can't seem to figure out how the vagina works." Coach Micucci shook his head. "I get it, though. I can't even figure out how it works yet! In fact, why the hell have I even been allowed to teach this for four years?"
"Umm…" a shy female brunette vampire raised her hand, stuttering a bit. Sybella looked over at Coach Micucci to see if he was going to answer, but he simply motioned that the purple-haired vampiress could answer the student's question.
"Yes? What's your name?" Sybella inquired.
"I'm Alyssa." the vampiress replied. "I was wondering...um, are we just learning about, like, physical aspects of the body, or are we learning about emotional things, too? Because I think I have feelings for, um, this girl, and I'd like to understand more if that's okay."
Sybella felt an "aww" moment in her heart. She had literally just gone through this with Winnie, so she knew exactly how to answer the question.
"It's always okay to have feelings for anyone you feel like you're in love with!" Sybella assured. "And yes, we'll absolutely go through this in class. Feel free to ask any questions you want. There are no stupid questions."
"Oh, I think there are some." Coach Micucci tried to subtly point to Jordan, who had his hand raised, presumably with his predictable question again. "Now, I ain't got nothin' planned for the first day of Gym, 'cause I don't even start takin' school seriously until the third or fourth day. So, I don't know, do whatever ya want. You can even leave if ya really wanna."
"Umm...let's make it a free gym day." Sybella attempted to compromise with Coach Micucci, hoping the slightly different wording would make the students less dismissive of the coach's class. She remembered how she felt being in Coach Micucci's class three years ago, and she wanted the students to at least take a little more out of it than she did.
"Fine by me." Coach Micucci shrugged.
While some students played basketball, others threw a frisbee back and forth to their partners, and a few utilized the school's tennis rackets, Sybella felt a sense of pride and accomplishment over how she'd started the class. She felt very confident that she knew how to make students happy while they learned, and truly believed she was going to be an amazing teacher. Moreover, she was incredibly happy that she could take a lesson that her friend had learned and teach it to her students. It was a very important lesson, after all. Everyone should absolutely love who they want to love, and not overfocus on labels if they didn't feel they fit, because no label shoved in someone's face would ever be as powerful as a true, authentic feeling.
Author's note:
I hope you all enjoyed the beginning of the end of the girls' time at Grimwood's! This was a bit of a tough chapter to write, as I wanted to tackle the topic of sexuality which is increasingly becoming a part of people's lives as they begin to navigate love. Hopefully I did a decent job making it seem authentic and like a very positive, empowering lesson rather than something forced in just for the sake of tackling the topic. I think authentic diversity is a very tough thing to write, because it can easily just be kinda crammed in a story in a tokenist way without having real substance behind the characters' unique identities, and admittedly it's my first time ever really doing so in fanfiction, so I really hope I did the topic justice. If you have feedback on how I could have done something better, I'm more than happy to take it into account and discuss it!
We're also starting off the season with a sort of unorthodox reference time, as I'm not really sure if these qualify as references, but here goes!
- Sidney's father driving a 1981 Suzuki Jimny is a reference to what numerous fans claim to be the vehicle model that Shaggy drove in Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers. Granted, this was never officially stated or confirmed in the film. However, from what I've seen, the general consensus among the fandom is that Shaggy's vehicle design was based off of that particular car, so I wanted to pay homage to that.
- Since this is chapter 46, the girls' Debate class taking place in room 46 was sort of me trying to pull a Simpsons-type reference, where they often embed the episode's production code within the episode (i.e. on license plates, ID numbers, etc.). As someone who is a huge Simpsons nerd and recognizes all the production codes of the episodes whenever they pop up in-episode, I thought it would be a fun little touch to add to this chapter.
I always appreciate reviews on what I could be doing better, and love getting faves/follows as well, so if you're enjoying the story so far and want to let me know, please do so by giving it a fave/follow or review!