Fangs for the Memories

by WildwindVampire

A "Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School" spinoff fanfic. It's been several years since Shaggy and Scooby left Grimwood's. Now in their teenage years, Sybella Dracula and her friends come to terms with the newly remodeled Grimwood's School for Girl Ghouls, as they enter their last few years at Grimwood's. Meanwhile, an old enemy lurks in the darkness, seeking revenge on the girl ghouls.

50. A Ghoulish Grimwood's Graduation

Author's note:

It's hard to believe that this is the final chapter of Fangs for the Memories. Even though this kind of got put on the backburner for two of the three years I've been writing this, it was so enjoyable to write every single chapter of this story and share it with you all. Arguably, the pandemic was a huge help in getting this finished, as I fully acknowledge I was moving at an incredibly slow pace before this past year, given only five chapters out of the 50 chapters came out pre-pandemic haha. For as hard as this pandemic has been, one small upside to it is that it gave me the chance to be able to consistently sit down and write every week. It would have taken me another 10 years to write these 50 chapters at the pace I was going before lol.

I'm looking back at my very first author's note for this fic as I write this, in which I mentioned that there aren't a lot of great fics that don't feature the girls acting super out of character or sexualized. There were definitely a fair share of silly jokes that could be considered sexual in here, but I really hope you all feel I achieved that goal I outlined in the first chapter, which was writing a story about the girl ghouls which stayed true to the original characters we all fell in love with from Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, without sexualizing them. I also hope no one was too disappointed about the Revolta plotline being for only half of the story, but I had always intended this fanfic to be more coming-of-ageish, so the intention from the beginning was to have that storyline wrap up at some point.

Lastly, I just want to thank everyone who has given me encouragement on this fanfic over the years. This fanfic definitely hasn't blown up or anything, which I wouldn't have expected it to because I recognize the writing is very quirky and silly, but the few personal message conversations and reviews I have gotten over the years about it have always been so sweet and mean a lot to me. I always incredibly appreciate the favorites and follows as well, so to the group of people that have done that (around 40 at the time of writing this), thank you so much. I truly hope you enjoy the final chapter of this story.

---

Monday, May 4

Countdown to graduation: 6 days

Everything feels like it's changing.

I am graduating from Grimwood's in a week, the school which I have resided at since I was 5 years old. Life is change, which is good...but it kind of feels bad as well. Everything about Grimwood's seems like it's so core to my life, even the little things like getting breakfast with my friends every morning or going to class every day. What am I going to do when it's all over?

I remember back to when my biggest worry was about losing my best friends due to the expansion of Grimwood's. There were little bumps in the road, like being jealous of Tanis and Tom, or Winnie's "social media" popularity for that brief period, among other things, but I'm still best friends with Phantasma, Winnie, Tanis and Elsa four years later. In fact, the expansion possibly made our friendships stronger. I warmed up to my new classmates and even made several new friends along the way. Sidney. Kathryn. Julia. Kenzie. Savana. Sami. Sam. Even before that, I warmed up to a human gym teacher and his two canine companions, despite my initial hesitation about how frightened they were. Now, graduation seemed like such a scary change that it makes me wonder why I was ever worried about losing my friends four years ago. One major thing I do worry about, however, was not seeing three of my friends on a regular basis anymore.

Whatever the change brings, I must remind myself that I am a strong vampiress who can handle anything that comes my way.

---

Sybella hopped out of her coffin, whilst setting her notebook and pen on the side table next to her dresser. As had become a routine now each Monday, the vampiress prepared to take a walk around the perimeter of the Grimwood's woods with her friend Julia. It was a semi-warm day out, with the high reaching around 60, so the weather still required Sybella to prepare for the cold just a tad. The vampire princess dressed in some ripped blue jeans, a t-shirt that said "totally batty" on it, and a thin pink sweater.

The vampiress quickly grabbed her belongings and exited her bedroom. As she walked, Sybella could feel something brush up against her leg. A quick glance down showed her that it was Matches, the school's faithful and loving pet dragon. The vampire hadn't even thought about that...how was she ever going to say goodbye to Matches? She could still see her friends on a somewhat regular basis, but she likely wouldn't see Matches at all anymore. The thought of this broke Sybella's heart a little bit. Luckily, Julia was already waiting for Sybella at the bottom of the stairs, which would provide a decent distraction from that thought.

"Hey, Sybella! Ready to take our last Monday morning walk?" Julia inquired.

She agreed with everything in that sentence except the word "last." She didn't want it to be the last time she ever walked with Julia!

Ignoring her fear-fueled feeling, Sybella simply responded "Yep!"

"Great! Can you believe this is the last time we'll ever walk around the Grimwood's woods?" Julia reinstated the nervous feeling within Sybella. The vampiress certainly hoped it wouldn't be the last time she walked around the woods area, which she had grown to love over the 13 years she had spent here, but she supposed she only had a few more days to take another walk if she was going to. Sybella just wanted to do all of her favorite things at Grimwood's over and over again so it would never have to be the last time she did anything.

---

It had been a brisk, enjoyable walk with Julia. The two ghouls had spanned a wide variety of topics in their conversation, everything from the assignments they had left to complete this week to what college life might be like.

"How are you doing about leaving Grimwood's, Sybella?" Julia inquired. "I was sad at first, but I've come to terms with it. It's bittersweet."

That was the magic question. Sybella hated to admit it, but the thought had been in the back of her mind pretty much the whole walk regardless of what they were talking about.

"I'm...okay...I just didn't think it was going to be this hard." Sybella admitted. "I thought I had gotten past my fear about leaving this place. I applied to a good college and I'm looking forward to going there, so why am I still worried about leaving this school?"

"It makes perfect sense." Julia rationalized. "It's been your home for 13 years. It's been more of a home to you than your actual home, technically, which you're only at for 4 months out of the year. Of course you're going to have feelings of wishing you could stay here forever, but you just can't let those feelings take over you. You can't stay here forever."

"Maybe if I do a crappy job with all my assignments and suddenly fail them all, they'll hold me back." Sybella joked.

"Sybella…" Julia sternly said, realizing that the vampiress was only half-joking. "It's going to be fine. We have to leave either way this Sunday after the graduation ceremony, so would you prefer to spend your last few days at Grimwood's moping, or making the most of your time here?"

"The second one, obviously." Sybella picked.

"Good. Remember, it's normal to be sad, but you just can't let it completely consume you." Julia advised.

Sybella felt a little embarrassed, because it felt like Julia was sort of talking down to her, but the vampire princess knew that wasn't the case. She was just being realistic and trying to help Sybella.

"You're right! Thanks for getting me back on track!" Sybella responded, hoping to make it seem like she was as smart and mature as Julia, so it felt less like she was being talked down to.

As the girls took their last few steps towards the front door to Grimwood's, Sybella took in all the sights: the moat, the gargoyles on the roof, and even the coarse, worn wood around the doorknocker. She knew it very well might be the last time she ever saw those things.

"Great walk, Sybella! I've really enjoyed doing these with you." Julia smiled.

"Me too! I'll see you in Cohn's class." Sybella waved.

"Bye!" Julia waved back, as she went the other direction at the split in the hallway.

Now that the walk had concluded, it was time for Sybella to get some food in her, prior to her first class of the day.

Sybella felt a little haunted taking her normal route to breakfast. The halls felt empty - not in the sense of there being no one there, but by the fact that they seemed to remind her that her time here was almost up.

The vampiress was torn from her emotions by Tanis, who was also walking to breakfast. That was probably a good thing, as Sybella didn't feel like any of her feelings were particularly rational at this time.

"Hi Sybella! How was your walk?" Tanis asked.

"Oh, it was fangtastic." Sybella smiled and nodded, despite not feeling in a "fangtastic" type of mood.

"Good! I'm starved, I need some breakfast in me before we debate today." Tanis's stomach growled at that moment to confirm her words.

"We're not debating today, though." Sybella reminded the mummy. "We're working on our final project."

"Oh, that's right!" Tanis suddenly remembered. "That project where we have to debate why people should take the class."

"Good morning, guys!" Winnie interrupted, as she joined the two ghouls. "Yeah, isn't that gonna be fun? I love how meta that project is!"

When the werewolf, the vampire and the mummy arrived at the breakfast table, they noticed that their phantom, Frankenstein's monster and witch friends were already there, just sitting down and getting ready to eat. Sybella, Tanis and Winnie quickly did the same, each taking some cereal and a biscuit.

"Do you ever wonder what happens to tigers when they die? Do their striped-y souls go up to heaven?" Sidney sniffled.

"You're not still thinking about that Frosted Flakes tiger, are you?" Winnie rolled her eyes, knowing her girlfriend was talking about the tiger standee that Coach Micucci had briefly brought here several years ago to bring in extra money for the school.

"Maybe…" Sidney started to fake-cry.

"Aww, I'll give you some comfort, babe!" Winnie fake-comforted her girlfriend's fake emotional episode.

"Hold on, guys." Tanis pointed to Elsa, who seemed legitimately sad and looked like she was about to tear up. "What's going on? You seem down."

"That's because I am." Elsa admitted. "Alex and I...decided to go our separate ways after this week. His parents can't afford to send him to MIT, so he's going to Moranis College to study science."

"Can't you guys still talk on the phone?" Phanty inquired. "That's what Isaiah and I were planning to do...until I dumped his punk ass! I mean, until we decided to go our separate ways."

"It's not the same though. I'm going to be getting my master's degree and Ph.D. there too, so we'd be apart for at least eight years. At that point in life, who knows what he'll be doing, or what I'll want to do. I think it's just better to end it now before things get strained." Elsa hung her head.

"Oh Elsa...I'm so sorry." Sybella hugged the Frankenstein's monster.

"It's going to be okay." Phanty promised. "It hurts at first, but at least you're going out on good terms."

"That's true, I guess." Elsa still seemed heartbroken.

"How's everyone else doing?" Sybella took the moment to ask about their departure from Grimwood's.

"I'm great. I can't wait to be out of this place! I thought I was going to be here until I was dead…" Phanty smirked.

"Oh wait…" the entire room, except Elsa, said, knowing what the phantom was going to say.

"Don't you ever get tired of that joke, Phanty?" Elsa snapped, before immediately realizing her own overreaction. "I'm sorry."

"I'm definitely gonna miss this place...but it's time to move on." Winnie said. "I can't wait to graduate on Sunday!"

"Yeah, me too!" Sidney agreed. "The only downside is that I'm going to miss being with Winnie!"

"We'll talk every night on the phone!" Winnie promised.

"Good." Sidney leaned in close to the werewolf, nuzzling the scruff on her beard.

"Well, I can wait to graduate." Tanis cautiously said. Sybella was glad to hear there was someone with a similar opinion in the bunch.

"I know how you feel, Tanis. It's hard leaving this place after being here for most of our lives." Sybella sympathized.

"It will be hard for this place to have you leave, too." Miss Grimwood said as she entered the room. "But we'll manage. And you'll manage, as well. I have an enormous amount of faith in you all, because you have overcome so much. You've thwarted a homicidal witch twice, you've gone through a big change with our school expanding, and you've all done exemplary in school. For the most part you have all gotten excellent grades in every single one of your classes."

"If you're talking about me failing Math, that's only because I kept bumping into Hold-You-Up Hal in the hall and getting marked tardy." Phantasma explained.

"Hey Phanty! Would you like to talk about the increasing divisiveness of modern politics with me for the next 65 minutes?" a werewolf, who Sybella quickly realized to be Hal, questioned.

"No, sorry Hal, I've really gotta get to class." Phanty excused.

"Ah, no worries, dude." Hal shrugged, as he walked away.

"Phanty's quite right, you should be getting to class." Miss Grimwood urged.

All the girls nodded and quickly began packing up their belongings. It was officially time for the ghouls to begin their final week of classes.

---

Sybella wanted to sit in her normal spot between Sidney and Kathryn, especially given Winnie was sitting in her normal spot on the other side of Sidney. However, Sybella had to sit by her partner, another vampire student named Ali, whom she did not know very well. Deviating from the norm in one of the last times Sybella would ever get to sit by her friends felt like a punishment of sorts. However, Sybella kept her head up with a smile on her face, and waved hello to her fellow vampiress.

"Hey, Ali. Ready to get started?" Sybella inquired.

"Sure." Ali agreed, just as Mrs. Innes interrupted her.

"Alright class, remember, today is a work day on your final project, which is arguing why someone should take this class." Mrs. Innes instructed.

"Wait, then who's arguing that you shouldn't take the class?" Phantasma asked.

"No one is. The point of this assignment is for me to evaluate you on how well you can come up with a clear, coherent argument on your own, without having the other side's arguments to build off of. Well, that and it's the only Ghoul Board benchmark we haven't covered yet." Mrs. Innes looked a bit red in the face. "Presentations will take place during Wednesday and Friday's class."

"What did you take away from this class?" Ali inquired.

It took Sybella aback for a minute, causing her to blurt "Me?"

"Of course you, silly." Ali laughed. "Who else would I be talking to?"

"Umm…" Sybella felt a little flustered from making such a silly comment. She paused for a moment, thinking about what most influenced her from this class. "I think the ability to look at both sides of an argument. Even when I'm arguing for a particular side, sometimes the other group has had some really good arguments that have convinced me to think differently about the issue."

"Yeah, I can agree with that." Ali nodded. "This class has definitely made me think differently about there being two sides to every story."

"I think that could be a great angle for our presentation! There are two sides to every story, and taking Debate as a class helps you see the importance of understanding others' arguments and perspectives, instead of just writing them off as wrong." Sybella suggested.

"That's an awesome idea! There's no way to know why someone else has the perspective they do, so it's important to fully understand why they feel that way before judging the merit of their argument." Ali added.

Sybella hadn't realized Ali was quite this smart! She was typically very quiet in class, so Sybella thought she might force Sybella to take on the brunt of the workload, but she couldn't have been more wrong. She was super happy she was getting to work with someone so smart, especially after having worked with Eric previously in the class.

Speaking of Eric, Sybella could hear him talking with his partner, Joey.

"So, I say, whatever the other group argues, we just completely ambush them! Just say they're wrong constantly, sometimes even talking over them before they finish their argument to say they're wrong. Even if they're right, we'll say they're wrong! If they ask why they're wrong, we'll just say they're so wrong that it would be wrong to tell them why they're wrong! We can't lose!" Eric exclaimed with glee.

"Hell yeah, dude! We're gonna get that A for sure!" Joey exclaimed.

Apparently neither of them listened to Mrs. Innes's instructions that they wouldn't be debating against any group. It would certainly be interesting, and perhaps a bit comical, to see how horribly their presentation turned out.

---

Sybella munched on a slice of tadpole tail pizza at the lunch table, with all four of her best friends, in addition to Sidney and Kathryn, by their side. She didn't usually sit down for lunch, and would sometimes just grab something to go. However, given it was their last week, the purple-haired vampiress wanted to enjoy some quality time with her fellow ghouls.

"I think we're going to knock this project out of the park!" Kathryn exclaimed.

"Yeah! This is some of the best work I think we've ever done at Grimwood's!" Tanis, who was Kathryn's project partner, agreed.

"I've gotta head off to my next class, so see you all tomorrow!" Sybella waved. She kind of enjoyed talking to Kenzie a bit before class, so she always made sure to leave a little early to allow time for their conversation. The vampiress also remembered she had her final Yearbook meeting of the year this afternoon, which would unfortunately not allow her to eat dinner with the rest of her friends.

The other ghouls waved back and said their goodbyes, as Sybella threw away the paper plate which previously held her pizza, and shuffled off to her next class.

Walking through the halls once again felt a bit eerie to Sybella, knowing it would be one of the last times she would ever come this direction.

"Hey Sybella." Kenzie smiled as she caught up to Sybella in the hall. Usually the witch was already there waiting in class when Sybella had arrived, so her presence surprised the vampiress a tad.

"Hi!" Sybella replied back.

"So how's it feel to be in your last week of school ever at Grimwood's?" Kenzie chirped, as the two girls entered the classroom together and sat down. This had become an incredibly common question for Sybella, and she didn't quite know how people expected her to respond. 'Amazing?' 'Fantabulous?' 'Fangtastic?' She didn't feel any of those things. She felt a sense of loss and like she couldn't believe everything she knew was going to disappear in a couple days.

"Fine, I guess." Sybella finally uttered. "I don't know how people can be excited about graduating, though. I'm really going to miss this place like crazy."

"Yeah, but you've been here for your whole life. It makes sense. Just let yourself feel whatever you feel and don't try to compare how you're feeling about graduation to what others are saying." Kenzie advised.

"You're right." Sybella nodded. She just wished people's advice would stick more. Everyone's feedback seemed to comfort her briefly, and then she'd just go right back to thinking about school ending again. "I should just enjoy the time I have left while I'm here."

"Exactly." Kenzie nodded. "So, what topic were you thinking for our final presentation?"

That's right. Sybella had been so caught up in thinking about her project for Debate class (and, as much as she hated to admit it, worrying about leaving here) that she'd completely forgotten about the one for this class.

"Umm…" Sybella tried to think, hoping she would immediately think of a topic as she spoke. "Sexuality?"

The vampiress then immediately felt a little bad because she knew Kenzie identified as asexual and might feel self-conscious.

"That's a great idea!" Kenzie smiled.

Other students had begun coming into class now, and it appeared Ms. Cohn was about to start class.

"Happy last week, class." Ms. Cohn greeted. "Today, we will be having our final lesson of the semester, as Wednesday will be a work day for your final presentations on Friday. Today we will be talking about the topic of love and lust. Does lust negate love?"

"I think lust is okay in healthy moderation, as long as you're not letting it overtake you or completely fetishizing a person's existence." Sarah gave her opinion.

"I'm not sure lust is a good thing." Kenzie stated. "Lust can be very unhealthy and make you so pleasure-focused that you forget to love and care for the person."

"We have two very contrasting opinions here." Ms. Cohn pointed out. "Is there anyone else with an opinion on the balance between love and lust?"

Sybella felt pretty unqualified to answer this question, given that she had never had any sort of intimate relationship with anyone. Moreover, she was still kind of thinking about leaving Grimwood's in the back of her mind.

"I think that's just it. It just has to be a balance. You have to balance the two so that lust doesn't take over." Brynn built off of Ms. Cohn's comment.

Sybella sort of related this idea of "balancing" to her worries about leaving Grimwood's, given she was already thinking about it all the time anyway. Of course, the topic of lust and love didn't really compare to her concerns about leaving Grimwood's, but the vampiress was desperate for anything that could make her feel better at this point. Maybe that's what everyone was trying to tell her...that it was okay to be sad about leaving, but she needed a balance between that and enjoying herself. It all made sense now!

---

With her newfound acknowledgement that it was okay to be a little sad while still enjoying her last few moments at Grimwood's, Sybella took it upon herself to make it a mission to ensure her last week was as memorable as it could be. She hadn't really thought deeply about what Julia had told her this morning until now, but the witch was absolutely right that wasting her last week moping around and wishing she could still be at Grimwood's was silly, given she was still at Grimwood's. Living in the moment and not anticipating sadness before the sad thing actually happened were going to be Sybella's secret weapon for the next week.

"'Sup, Sybella?" Savana greeted her fellow vampiress in the usual way.

"Hey Sybella, we've gotta put you to work today given it's your last week!" Sami joked. This caused Sybella to slip back into worry for just a minute, before catching herself and resuming her upbeatness.

"Well, what's left to do?" Sybella chuckled.

"Well…there wouldn't have been anything, but it seems someone overwrote three pictures on our camera that weren't in the yearbook yet." Sami put her hands on her hips, staring directly at Sam.

"Geez, sorry!" Sam sighed. "I saw some geese, and knew I had to get pictures before they were gone."

"There are geese here every day!" Savana argued back.

"Oh, there might not be someday. Did you know that 20% of geese are ruthlessly killed for food every single year? Tragic." Sam shook her head.

"What were the pictures of?" Sybella inquired.

"Nothing much. Just pictures of the outside of the school and stuff." Sami shrugged.

"Well, that's not that hard. I can take those with you." Sybella offered.

"If you want. I'm happy to make Sam do it too. You're graduating in a few days and going off to college, you've likely got enough on your plate without having to correct Sam's mistakes." Sami responded.

"Wait, you're going to college?" Savana naïvely questioned, before Sybella could respond to Sami.

"Yeah." Sybella nodded, surprised the fellow vampiress didn't realize this.

"What did you think was after graduation?" Sami asked disapprovingly.

"Marriage?" Savana shrugged. Sybella couldn't tell if it was jokingly or not, but she certainly hoped so.

"Kids these days. They don't know nothin'." Sam shook her head.

"Oh, hello Sybella." Miss Lillard greeted when she entered the room to join the girls. "I'm so proud of all you girls for all your hard work this year! This is going to be even better than last year's yearbook. I'm especially proud of you, Sybella, for graduating!"

"We're really going to miss having you around here." Sami said.

"Thanks!" Sybella smiled, trying not to tear up too much. She had really grown to love the quirkiness of her Yearbook team over the last two years, and would miss them probably more than they'd ever know.

---

Tuesday, May 5

Countdown to graduation: 5 days

I'm already feeling better today than I was the last several days. I want to make these last few days at Grimwood's as exciting and magical as I can, to truly make my time here go out with a bang. Today, my only obligation is being a teaching assistant for Coach Micucci's gym class, which should make for an easy day. Knowing Coach Micucci, he probably just has a free day planned or something.

Also, surprisingly, there really doesn't feel like that much work to consume me at the end of my high school career. There are the two big projects for Deviant Behavior and Debate, but that's it, and even then, they're both group projects. I guess that's just another reason for me to enjoy the end of my time here even more!

---

Stretching, the vampiress got out of her coffin. She had a little extra time this morning, so she debated starting to pack, but she didn't want to waste her last few days by doing that. Instead, she decided to head down to breakfast first.

Sybella donned a camo jacket with a purple t-shirt underneath, and some black leggings, as she headed down to the breakfast table. To her surprise, she wasn't the only one down at breakfast yet, despite how early she believed she was.

"Hey Sybella! What are you doing up so early?" Tanis inquired.

"I could ask you the same thing." Sybella chuckled.

"I just wanted to enjoy the peace down here while I still can." Tanis said, a hint of sadness in her voice.

"Yeah. Same here." Sybella nodded. Both of the ghouls sat in silence for a moment. Neither of them felt awkward about the silence that overtook the room; rather, both of them knew that they were thinking the same thing. The vampiress tried not to tear up, as the lack of any sound felt eerie to her. She'd promised herself that she wasn't going to get overly sad about this again…

Luckily for her, Elsa came in and joined the girls, breaking the silence.

"Hey guys. How are you?" Elsa asked the two silent spooks.

"Pretty good!" Sybella tried to switch her mood back to the way it was when she woke up: chipper, instead of down.

"I'm alright." Tanis muttered, in a very non-convincing way.

"So, have you all got a big project in your Public Speaking class?" Sybella attempted to change the subject.

"Yeah! We do!" Winnie chimed in as she arrived to pick out her breakfast. "We've gotta do a speech on what we believe in most in life."

"That sounds like a pretty big project." Sybella presumed.

"It definitely is. I think I'm going to say goodwill towards everyone, because that's the best way to make an impact on the world." Winnie stated. "Being kind towards others makes others want to be kind towards you."

"What are you doing your speech on, Tanis?" Sybella asked.

"I'm going to do mine on the idea of hope." Tanis answered. "We've all got to have hope, otherwise, life can get really depressing."

"I'm doing mine on logic." Elsa added. "Thinking logically about things is very important if you want to keep yourself grounded in life."

"What are we talking about?" Phanty asked as she joined the girls.

"The topic we're doing for the project in Public Speaking." Winnie replied.

"Oh! My presentation is about fun." Phanty responded.

"Don't you think you should take your presentation a little more seriously?" Sidney, who Sybella hadn't noticed was there previously, chimed in.

"No, I mean what I believe in most is having fun. If you can't find the joy in life, then what's the point?" Phanty added. "That's what I'm doing my presentation on."

Sybella had nearly munched through her regular morning biscuit with the exception of a few bites when she noticed the time.

"I better get going." Sybella observed. "I've got to go teach the last gym class with Coach Micucci today."

"Okay, good luck!" Sidney giggled, likely because she knew the ridiculous antics that would likely ensue with anything Coach Micucci was involved with. Quite frankly, Sybella didn't blame her. Even after teaching for Coach Micucci for a full semester, having him as a volleyball coach every year, and being in at least one of his classes every year, the vampire princess still didn't quite know what he was going to do.

---

"Good morning, coach!" Sybella greeted as she entered the gymnasium.

"Hey, how's it goin', Sybella?" Coach Micucci inquired.

"I'm great! Great and ready to teach! What are we doing today?" Sybella wondered aloud.

"Appears the only thing I haven't done yet according to the Ghoul Board's standards is yoga! But I don't wanna teach that girly stuff!" Coach Micucci harrumphed. "In fact, maybe we could just have a free day where I 'strongly encourage' everyone to do yoga, but if they don't, I can just say you all revolted against me if the Ghoul Board asks! Yeah, that's what I should do!"

"If the Ghoul Board says we have to teach it, shouldn't we teach it?" Sybella put her hands on her hips disapprovingly.

"Eh, the Ghoul Board says a lot of things." Coach Micucci shrugged. "Like, they say I should be gradin' you on your attendance. I don't care if you're not here! Hell, I don't even wanna be here! I'd rather be at home sleepin' and dreamin' of eatin' a burrito or somethin'."

"Coach...would it be helpful if I just taught the class?" Sybella inquired. She didn't really think Coach Micucci would take her up on it, but she hoped it would push him to become more motivated and teach it himself.

"Would it?!" Coach Micucci looked gleeful. "Alright, I'll just quickly introduce the subject and let you teach the little hooligans while I make a vending machine run!"

"There's no vending machine here…" Sybella looked confused.

"I know. I'm gonna run to Moranis College and get a candy bar from there!" Coach Micucci replied with joy. The coach switched his attention to the students before saying "Alright, since it's your last day of gym, we've gotta…"

The coach paused for a moment as he looked down at a paper labeled 'Required Standards of the Ghoul Board.'

"Oh damn it! I totally forgot to have ya do the Ghoul Board State Tests! Okay, do you think you can do the downward facin' dog while running and doing twenty jumping jacks in under a minute?" Coach Micucci frantically thought up.

"I don't think I can!" a mummy yelped out, as he tried to get down on his hands and knees, while also jumping and attempting to run.

"I think we can get it all in during the three hours. First, let's have you guys run the mile." Sybella suggested. "Then, you can each do the twenty jumping jacks, and we can end the class by learning some introductory yoga poses."

Sybella didn't really know much yoga, but she had learned some poses from when Sidney taught Coach Micucci's class during freshman year.

"That was really smart thinkin', Sybella. You teach this class way better than I do!" Coach Micucci complimented.

The vampiress wanted to say something like 'well, duh' but instead, she politely smiled and said "Thanks!"

"No problem. You're gonna be a great teacher someday, I just know it!" the coach smiled.

It was rare for the coach to compliment anyone or anything, so it always felt extra special and genuine to Sybella when he did.

---

Sybella had successfully organized the class period in such a way where she was able to help all of the students accomplish the remaining Ghoul Board objectives. Currently, the students were just finishing up doing some yoga poses.

Alyssa was doing the downward facing dog pose, while a mummy student who Sybella believed was named Nathan did a forward bend.

The vampiress frowned a bit when she came up to Jordan, who was definitely not doing what Sybella had told him.

"Why are you eating, Jordan? You're supposed to be doing yoga." Sybella tried to ask in an understanding tone, without being mean or sounding frustrated in any way.

"Yoga? Ah, man! I thought you said yogurt." Jordan said as he swallowed a bite of yogurt, and tossed the yogurt cup to the side.

"It's okay. Just do a yoga pose." Sybella chuckled.

"Which one? I don't know anything about Yogi." Jordan misspoke.

"Well, he steals picnic baskets." Coach Micucci interjected. "Oh wait, you were talkin' about yoga, weren't ya?"

"Yes. And just do the downward-facing dog. That's one of the easiest positions, in my opinion." Sybella advised.

"Thanks!" Jordan got into the correct pose, however, he unnecessarily began barking like a dog.

Despite the little oddity in Jordan's yoga position, Sybella felt a great sense of accomplishment from helping a traditionally problematic student get on the right track. Even with the difficulties of being a teaching assistant for a class with a challenging instructor (and not "challenging" in an academically rigorous way), the vampiress truly felt like this experience helped her be more prepared for pursuing teaching as a career.

---

Wednesday, May 6

Countdown to graduation: 4 days

It's astounding how fast the week has gone already. I have to present for Debate with Ali today, which I don't think I could be any more ready for. With the exception of a couple slips yesterday, I did a relatively good job not being too sad about leaving here. I hope to do even better today so I can enjoy the amazing day ahead!

---

Sybella dressed up a little more fancy today for her presentation, wearing a blue mock-neck sweater and a black skirt with red bats on it.

"I'm glad I don't have to worry about that." Sybella heard Tanis chuckle from out in the hall, just as the vampiress had stepped out of her room. "I just have to make sure my bandages are all in place!"

"The perks of being a mummy." Sybella chuckled along. "That should be the name of your autobiography, if you ever write one."

Tanis's giggle in response was cut off by Elsa joining them. The Frankenstein's monster uncharacteristically wore a green-ish dress.

"Wow, Elsa, you look really fancy!" Tanis observed.

"Thanks. I wanted to try to dress up for one of my last presentations ever at Grimwood's." Elsa explained.

"You look great!" Winnie added, as she joined the gaggle of ghouls. "But you seem a little down, still."

"Yeah, I am." Elsa hung her head. "I just keep counting down the days until Alex and I have to break up."

"We've gotta do something about that!" Winnie cheerily comforted. "The end of our high school years are something to be enjoyed, not to spend moping around!"

"I know...but...what am I gonna do about Alex? I'm gonna miss him so much." Elsa looked like she might tear up.

"Breaking up doesn't mean that you can't still be friends with Alex though, right?" Tanis reminded. "Phantasma stayed friends with Isaiah."

"I mean, you're right...but I just love him so much." Elsa sighed.

"Wasn't this a decision made by both of you, though?" Phanty probed, presumably overhearing part of their conversation and gathering what it was about, when the rest of the girls arrived at the breakfast area.

"Yeah. We just thought it'd be better for both of us if we didn't try to make it work long distance, because we'd miss each other too much." Elsa admitted.

"And what are you doing right now?" Sybella questioned.

"Missing him...but I haven't even lost him yet!" Elsa realized.

"Exactly. If just the idea of being without him makes you miss him this much already, maybe it's better to just try out the relationship even though it has to be long distance. You can always change your minds if it doesn't work out." Sybella suggested.

"You know what? You're right!" Elsa had an epiphany. "There's no harm in just trying it out. That way, we can see what makes us happiest, and if that's not having a long-distance relationship, then we can just be friends. We don't know what's best for us yet, so I guess you're right there's no reason to pre-emptively break up. I'm gonna go to class right now and talk to Alex!"

"Good!" Sybella smiled, happy knowing that Elsa was happy.

"Go tell him how you feel, my lass! Run to him!" Phantasma dramatically exclaimed.

---

The remainder of the ghouls finished up their breakfasts and quickly scampered off to class. Winnie had been lamenting a bit about where Sidney was, as it was kind of odd for her to not join them for breakfast. Much to the werewolf's delight, she saw her girlfriend already sitting in class.

"Where were you?" Winnie asked in a concerned tone.

"Sorry, babe." Sidney apologized. "My dad and I got a late start and I just got here like a minute ago. I thought I better hurry to class."

"It's okay!" Winnie smiled. "I just was worried you were going to be late for our presentation."

Sybella headed off towards her partner, Ali, as Winnie and Sidney kept conversing.

"Ready to present today?" Ali inquired of her fellow vampiress.

"Yup. You?" Sybella questioned back, though the only answer she got back was a nod, given Mrs. Lange was just starting class.

"Good morning, and happy second-to-last day of class." Mrs. Lange warmly greeted. "Today, we are going to do the first group of our presentations. I'm hoping we'll be able to get through quite a few of them. Are there any volunteers to start us off?"

"We can go!" Sidney eagerly raised her hand, and lifted Winnie's, despite the werewolf looking a tad uncertain. Sybella had thought about raising hers, but clearly Sidney was far more ready to present.

"Alright, Sidney and Winnie. Go right ahead. I'm excited to hear your arguments!" Mrs. Lange anticipated, as the werewolf and witch got up out of their chairs.

"We want to argue that you should take this class because it teaches you perspective-taking!" Sidney began.

Oh no. That was almost exactly what Sybella and Ali were going to be arguing. Of course, while there was no way she could have known unless she asked Winnie, Sybella felt super embarrassed that their topic was just a repeat of another group's.

"Before this class, I was pretty set in what I believed. I thought debating meant arguing for what you believed in blindly to convince the other person." Winnie started.

"However, when we took this class, both of us realized that debating also means taking perspectives of others' into account so you can understand where they're coming from." Sidney further explained.

Yep, this was almost Sybella and Ali's presentation exactly. Why hadn't she asked what topics her friends were doing? All of this could have been avoided had she just checked to make sure there wasn't any overlap in their topics.

"Besides, you might even learn something new and change your perspectives if you open your mind to new possibilities!" Winnie interjected.

Sybella put her hands over her face. She was so embarrassed and didn't know how she was ever going to make her final presentation now that her idea had already been used.

"What if learning about others' perspectives makes your own views weaker, though?" Mrs. Lange challenged. "Isn't it better just to stick to what you believe?"

Sidney and Winnie both looked a little surprised. They hadn't expected someone to argue against them, much less Mrs. Lange.

"Well, no." Winnie stuttered.

Sidney stepped in to tackle the question, since Winnie seemed like she was struggling to think of a rebuttal. "Understanding others' perspectives is going to strengthen your argument, because if you pay attention to what your opponent is saying, you're going to know better how to better argue your own side. Besides, what's the worst that can happen? Your opinion changes?"

"Debating is about learning how to use others' perspectives to better inform how you think, and taking this class will help you learn that important skill." Winnie seemed to regain her footing to conclude the presentation.

"Excellent work, girls!" Mrs. Lange clapped along with the rest of the class. "For those of you wondering, you've now discovered another purpose of this assignment: being able to debate even when you don't know when the other person is going to argue back.

Sybella thought it had seemed odd that they weren't debating against anyone for this last assignment, given that was the whole purpose of this class. It was very sneaky for Mrs. Lange to slip that into the assignment as an extra component to tie together everything they'd learned in the class.

"Alright, who would like to go next?" Mrs. Lange questioned.

"Ooh! We can, we can!" Eric practically leaped out of his seat before Mrs. Lange even responded. Joey also joined him up at the front of the room.

"We're arguing that you SHOULDN'T take this class!" Eric revealed. "This class sucks! Mrs. Lange is a slavedriver, she regularly fails people for no reason, and in fact, I heard she sneaks out into the catnip patch on her lunch breaks to get that sweet, sweet buzz, if you know what I mean."

"Besides, what could you ever learn from the perspectives of others? The only perspective you've gotta worry about is your own, which you should never ever change, because if your perspectives change, that means you fail." Joey exclaimed. "Speaking of perspectives changing, did I ever tell you guys about the day my dad's perspective changed forever...about the IRS?!"

"Yes, many times." Mrs. Lange looked livid. "The whole point of this assignment was to argue that you should take this class. Even if you were allowed to argue the other side, you are providing no evidence to back up any of your claims other than scare-mongering."

"Oh...should I not use this offensive Halloween witch mask to mock Mrs. Lange then? Eric said I definitely should." Joey shrugged.

"Sit down!" Mrs. Lange roared.

"This only backs up our points more! We've tried to argue for what we want, and you won't let us!" Eric cried out. "I'm requesting to audit this class!"

"Do you even know what audit means?" Mrs. Lange sighed.

"Yes I do!" Eric argued. "I'm going to report you to the IRS so you get audited on this year's taxes, that's what I mean!"

Mrs. Lange simply ignored Eric and motioned for the next group to go. "Sybella and Ali, how would you like to take us out of our misery...I mean go next?"

Sybella glanced over at Ali, mouthing "are we ready?" Ali shook her head, which caused Sybella to become even more anxious.

"I...I'm sorry. We're not ready." Sybella sighed, looking mortified.

"What do you mean, you're not ready? I just talked with Ali this morning and she said that you both were excited about what you were presenting." Mrs. Lange inquired.

"Well, we were ready, but Winnie and Sidney kinda did the same topic as us." Sybella admitted.

"That's completely acceptable. You're all arguing for the same topic, so there was bound to be some overlap. Besides, I have faith that you'll both put your own unique spin on it. Unlike those who just presented." Mrs. Lange subtly insulted.

"Hello, IRS?" Eric asked, picking up the classroom's phone. "I'd like to report a financial CRIME!"

"Put that down, young man, or I shall have to send you to the office!" Mrs. Lange demanded.

"Oh that's okay, I'm already supposed to go there at 9:30 this morning for at least five different reasons. Which happens to be right now! Have a good day, y'all. God bless us, everyone!" Eric announced his departure, as he left the room.

"Alright." Sybella nervously began her presentation. "We think you should take this class because it helps you look at all the sides of an argument, rather than just one."

"Taking into account someone else's perspective is an important life skill that can make you better understand people in general, even outside of debate." Ali continued.

"There are always at least two sides to every story, and actually understanding why someone else thinks the way they do will help you be both a better listener and a better friend." Sybella jumped off of Ali's comment.

"What if I don't like others' perspectives though? What if someone has a really dumb perspective that I simply think is wrong?" Mrs. Lange challenged.

"Sometimes, people do have dumb perspectives." Sybella tried not to laugh, thinking about what had happened with Eric. "But you often still have to work with them, so understanding them as people can help with knowing why they think the way they do, or, if need be, arguing against them."

"Just because someone has a dumb perspective, doesn't mean you can't try to help them change for the better. If you're informed on how to debate, which you'll get through taking this class, you'll be better able to convince them that their perspective is harmful." Ali concluded.

"Great presentation, girls." Mrs. Lange applauded. "I believe Phantasma and Elsa are next on my list, if you two would like to go."

"Sure." Phanty agreed.

Sybella felt a huge sense of relief that Mrs. Lange didn't mind that their topic overlapped with Winnie and Sidney's. The vampiress felt her and Ali did a pretty good job putting their own little spin on the topic, differently than Winnie and Sidney had done, if she did say so herself.

"This class presented us with a wide variety of opinions. Our world is defined by opinions, because everyone usually has one on almost everything." Elsa stated.

"In a world defined by opinions, it's more important than ever to be able to form your own educated opinion." Phanty made her case.

"Your opinion is always interconnected with others' opinions, because we coexist with so many people every day. Other people are always influencing your experiences in life." Elsa continued.

"Debate class teaches you how to form your own opinions so you can be educated on topics, with real-life experiences of having to argue against someone, which many of us have to deal with on a regular basis." Phanty said.

"Is this really like arguing with someone in real life? I've very strategically chosen the assignments, and it's all simulated. Rarely in real life do you have the opportunity to simply stand up in front of a room and have dedicated time to make your argument." Mrs. Lange challenged.

"Even if it might not be exactly like real-life, this class covers important topics that simulate arguments about issues we might run into in real life." Phanty argued.

"Being more educated on what you're passionate about allows you to make better arguments, and this class teaches you how to do that." Elsa finished.

"Excellent work, girls." Mrs. Lange clapped. "Tanis and Kathryn, would you like to go next?"

"Yeah!" Tanis exclaimed. "Our presentation is focusing on empathy."

"We'd like to argue that understanding others' perspectives allows you to have empathy for them." Kathryn made her point.

"When I came into this class, sometimes I had no idea why people had the perspectives they had. People can have weird beliefs about stuff, but I think engaging in a deep discussion or debate with them can not only help you understand them better, but also make you have empathy for them." Tanis explained.

"You never know what someone has gone through, but probing them and asking them why they have the beliefs they do can take away that emotional barrier between you and them." Kathryn reasoned. "It's easy to put up emotional walls and just think what someone else thinks is stupid, but this class teaches you it's okay to be vulnerable with your emotions and say what you really believe."

"Vulnerability can be a bad thing, though. All sorts of people have been hurt or ridiculed for stating their real beliefs." Mrs. Lange interjected.

"I respectfully disagree with you, Mrs. Lange." Tanis answered. "Being vulnerable can also be empowering, because it allows you to have a real conversation with someone else. If you're vulnerable with someone, they're more likely to be vulnerable with you back."

"This class helps you learn about empathy and emotions, as well as how to make a good argument, which is why this is absolutely a must-take for everyone." Kathryn concluded the presentation.

"Wonderful, wonderful!" Mrs. Lange smiled. "Now, next on my list, is Melissa and Jacob."

"Alright! I think y'all should take this class because it's flippin' awesome! You've got the coolest teacher in the world, who I must say looks very nice today!" Jacob overzealously exclaimed.

"Mrs. Lange is indeed awesome, and so is this class." Melissa tried to fix Jacob's misstep. "Anyway, this class teaches you it's okay to have strong opinions, as long as you listen to others' opinions."

"Mrs. Lange is so nice. She's very fair with her assignments, just like I hope she'll be with this one. I give Mrs. Lange an A+ for effort, just like I hope she'll give me that on this assignment!" Jacob complimented his teacher.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to butter me up." Mrs. Lange looked suspicious.

"Oh, I get it! This is the part where I'm supposed to argue against you!" Jacob came to the conclusion. "Well, you're wrong, and you're lookin' super foxy today, by the way! Love what you did with your hair, gurl!"

"Listening to others' opinions is very important to be able to come up with your own…" Melissa stumbled, clearly not sure what to make of her partner's departure from the topic at hand. "If you want to be able to argue in favor of something you're passionate about, or against something you feel strongly opposed to, this is the class for you!"

"Thank you for trying, Melissa. Jacob, I'm afraid the presentation required more work than complimenting me." Mrs. Lange disapprovingly informed.

"What do you mean by that? I spent all night writing compliments about you! Including classics such as 'I must have died and gone to heaven, because you're an angel!', 'I hope this is CPR class, because your teaching took my breath away!' and 'Is your summer job giving out parking tickets, because man, you are fine!'" Jacob cheesily read off his paper.

"Tyler and Alex are next." Mrs. Lange looked at her list, ignoring Jacob's cheesy attempts to woo her into giving him a good grade for a job poorly done.

"We would like to argue that this class teaches you logic." Alex began. "Arguments are, by nature, logical, and by teaching us how to make a well-planned argument, it has ultimately improved our logical reasoning skills."

"Yeah...um…" Tyler stuttered, clearly not sure how to word things as Science-y and technical as his partner did. "This class teaches you how to argue stuff in all disciplines, includin' Math, Science, um...what's the other one...Recess...no, I mean, History!"

"What I believe my partner is trying to say is that this class can apply to any academic subject, regardless of what you're best at." Alex corrected Tyler's clunky wording. "It may also cause you to rethink what you have already agreed upon. I am sharing this with the permission of my romantic partner, but just this morning, my partner and I changed our opinions on staying together despite our graduation. We had originally thought it would not work for us, but through making a cohesive argument, my partner was able to change my mind so we could stay together."

"Yeah, they sure did!" Tyler agreed, not adding much to what Alex had already said.

Oh my gosh, Elsa and Alex decided to get back together? Sybella was so happy for the two lovebirds!

"What if changing your perspective isn't a good thing? What if someone tries to do so manipulatively?" Mrs. Lange threw a metaphorical wrench into their argument.

"Well, that's why you need to take this course." Alex challenged. "This class allows you to better think through arguments so that they can be stronger. If you believe strongly in your argument, surely it would be difficult for someone to manipulate you into changing it."

"It sure would be!" Tyler added, without actually adding anything.

"Good job, boys." Mrs. Lange smiled. Sybella assumed she was just trying not to make Tyler feel bad, since he clearly tried even though he failed pretty miserably in the vampiress's opinion. "We have two groups left! Tom and Charlie, would you like to do the honors of going next?"

"Absolutely." Tom agreed. "We did something a bit different for ours. We are arguing for why you should take this class through the lens of a book. This book, Mystery Mask Mix-Up, contains quite racist stereotypes about Asian people. It mocks them ruthlessly, but the book's argument makes it seem like it's totally normal and natural to do so."

"Taking this class allows you to form your own perspectives about life and recognize ones that are deceptively trying to get you to believe something bad." Charlie continued.

"These negative perspectives don't necessarily just appear in books, but they are quite common in real life. People often try to make you deceptively agree with them, even if what they believe is something offensive or harmful to others." Tom presented.

"How can one know that a perspective is inherently bad, though?" Mrs. Lange challenged. "Couldn't anyone say any perspective is bad just because they don't like it?"

"Well, they could…" Charlie stumbled, before regaining his footing. "However, if your perspective is antagonizing, harassing or disparaging someone else, then you know you have a harmful perspective."

"This class will teach you to be okay with changing your perspective through understanding all sides of an argument, should you ever hold any bad perspective without knowing it." Tom concluded.

"Wonderful!" Mrs. Lange exclaimed. "Last but not least, we have Isaiah and Jonathan."

"Alright my dudes, are you ready to be presented to?!" Jonathan exclaimed.

"Well, you'd better be!" Isaiah overzealously shouted, as he brought in a confetti machine, which he apparently had outside the door, and pressed the button so it sprayed confetti everywhere.

"I said, are you ready to hear a PRESENTATION?" Jonathan yelled, holding up an electronic sign that flashed "applause" in red neon lettering.

"I don't think they're ready, Lil J!" Isaiah boasted, picking up an airhorn and sounding it off. The sound of the horn created an ear-piercing noise that echoed throughout the classroom.

"With all due respect for hyping up what's about to happen, when is the actual presentation going to begin?" Mrs. Lange challenged.

"Oh god, we forgot to plan the actual presentation! We spent so much time trying to figure out how to hype it up that we never decided what we were going to say!" Jonathan facepalmed.

"I knew there was somethin' we were forgetting!" Isaiah seemed frustrated with himself.

"I think we can still turn our grade into an A. A, as in, Abraham Lincoln." Jonathan had a sly grin on his face as he pulled out a five dollar bill.

"God no!" Mrs. Lange snapped. "Well, given that was...or would have been...our last presentation, this marks the end of the class."

All the students, including Sybella, looked confused, as they knew that there was supposed to be class on Friday. Mrs. Lange apparently picked up on this and resumed speaking. "I know we were supposed to have presentations on Friday too, but since we were able to get through them all today, I wanted to give you all a day off on Friday to focus on your projects for your other classes. You've all been such an amazing class, and I'll miss seeing your faces on Friday, but you deserve a rest."

Mrs. Lange's announcement was met with heavy cheering from all the students, who began excitedly packing up their backpacks and exiting the room. All of them except Sybella, however.

"Also, to those of you graduating on Sunday, know that I am very proud of you and I'm positive you'll do great things in the world!"

Sybella honestly wanted to meet one last time in class on Friday, so she could see everyone again, and be mentally prepared for the course to end. Heck, she didn't even feel ready for her time at Grimwood's to end, and this sudden announcement of no class on Friday felt like it only sped up the inevitable.

---

Sybella munched on her cold salamander sandwich whilst deep in thought about what she wanted to do for her Deviant Behavior presentation. She and Kenzie would be discussing it today, so Sybella wanted to be fully prepared with an idea. She sort of drifted in and out when listening to the rest of the ghouls' conversation.

"We rocked that presentation!" Tanis exclaimed.

"Heck yeah! We all did! It was a howl!" Winnie said, adding an actual howl in for authenticity.

"Now the three of us just have to do as well on our Literature presentation...ugh, so many presentations!" Phanty sighed. "I'm going to be dead before I'm done...oh wait."

The rest of the ghouls facepalmed.

"Ugh, not that joke again!" Kathryn laughed.

"I think that's my cue to exit." Sybella chuckled along. "I've actually gotta start planning my presentation for Deviant Behavior, too."

The rest of the ghouls waved goodbye as Sybella shuffled off to class, once again lost in a sea of thoughts about what she might do. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she almost didn't notice Tate, a screw-around student that had been in a few of her previous classes.

"Hey Tate." Sybella smiled and waved. She figured it would be the kind thing to do.

"Whassup my dude?" Tate simply greeted, as he walked by.

Sybella received a much more warm greeting when she entered the room to find Kenzie waiting for her.

"Hey Sybella! Ready to start planning?" Kenzie inquired.

"Yeah!" Sybella enthusiastically replied, even though she wasn't actually feeling that confident about any idea in particular.

"So, we decided to present on sexuality on Monday. Do we want to present on any particular sexuality, or just the concept of sexuality in general?" Kenzie probed.

"Umm…" Sybella paused for a moment, before remembering that Kenzie might want to use this opportunity to teach the class more about her own sexuality. Besides, Sybella was interested in learning more about the subject anyway. "Do you want to present on asexuality? You know a lot about it already, so maybe you want to teach other people?"

Kenzie looked a bit taken aback in a flattered way. "Really? You think people would be interested in knowing more about that?"

"Yeah, absolutely." Sybella nodded. "I know I would be."

"Oh wow. Thank you! I've never had too many people ask me about it before, so it means a lot that you want to know more." Kenzie smiled. "You're a good friend, and I'm definitely going to miss you in a few days when you graduate."

Sybella was going to reply "thanks," but Ms. Cohn interrupted her by addressing the class.

"Class, today is simply a planning session for your presentation on Friday. Please take this time to discuss everything you would like to include in your presentation with your partner." Ms. Cohn instructed.

"Psst. Hey." Daniel whispered at the two girls, with his partner Ben nearby. "Do you guys wanna switch topics?"

"We weren't assigned topics. You can choose whatever you want." Kenzie looked confused.

"Yeah, but the catch is that we were thinking we could switch after you'd already done all the work. It's a win-win for everyone!" Daniel chuckled.

"No. Do your own work, please." Sybella rolled her eyes.

"Aww man. Now what are we gonna do? Actually put effort into this? I don't know if I can do that." Ben complained as he walked back to his seat with his partner Daniel.

"I think we might already be set, then." Kenzie said. "So we're decided on asexuality then?"

"Yeah, so let's get started planning what we want to say!" Sybella exclaimed.

The vampiress was super happy that they were able to come to a consensus on their topic so easily! Naturally, Sybella also found Kenzie to be super cool, so the vampire princess was excited that she would get to work with one of the coolest people she knew on her last-ever final project at Grimwood's.

---

Thursday, May 7

Countdown to graduation: 3 days

What a great day with Kenzie yesterday. These are the types of memories I've been hoping to make in my last few days here. Not only did we plan out our whole project so it's flawless, but we also got to chat a little bit about Kenzie's future. Apparently, once she graduates in a few years, she wants to be an academic researcher in another country, or go into some academic teaching field in a college. That's so cool!

Today, I've got to assist Coach Micucci with teaching his final Health class of the semester, and afterwards, I am handing out yearbooks with Savana, Sami and Sam at lunch. Here's to hoping I make as many memories today as I did yesterday!

---

Once again, Sybella chose a dressier outfit today so she looked more fancy for both Coach Micucci's class and giving out the yearbooks. Perhaps the second one wasn't quite as important as the first, but she wanted to really look good given she was one of the faces representing the Yearbook team. The vampire princess wore a purple embroidered dress, with laces on the sleeves. Sybella thought that made her look quite elegant, if she did say so herself.

Upon heading down to breakfast, the vampiress gave Matches his normal pets on the head as she passed by. Sybella was a bit surprised to see Miss Grimwood sitting down at the table with the other five girls.

"Oh good, you're here, Sybella. Good morning!" Miss Grimwood warmly smiled.

"Hi Miss Grimwood. How are you this morning?" Sybella inquired.

"Fantastic!" Miss Grimwood exclaimed. "I wanted to talk to you, Sybella. I was originally going to do this in private, but I figured since everyone will find out anyway, I may as well just say it to the six of you. Sybella, if you would be interested, I would like you to give a brief speech at our graduation ceremony."

The vampiress couldn't believe it. Was it because Sybella was so eloquent with her words? Because she was a good student? Why didn't Miss Grimwood pick Elsa, Winnie, Tanis or Phantasma?

"I'm…" Sybella was lost for words for a brief moment. She quickly regained her composure so she could respond to Miss Grimwood's wonderful request. "Of course I'll give a commencement speech! But...why me?"

"Well, you see, you're our valedictorian, Sybella. You were the only student who got an A+ in every class." Miss Grimwood revealed.

"Damn. I knew I should have worked a little harder in Math to get that A+ instead of an A!" Winnie swore.

"I'm so honored! I'll write something up immediately!" Sybella frantically promised. "When do you need it by? I could probably give it to you by the end of the day."

"Don't worry, Sybella. You don't need to rush or turn it into me or anything like that." Miss Grimwood assured. "Just have it ready by the graduation ceremony on Sunday morning. I completely trust you and I'm sure whatever you come up with will be stupendous!"

"Ah man." a hulking werewolf named Max Dadrio, who Sybella remembered liked to be called 'Mack Daddy' butted into their conversation. "I gotta start getting my grades up so I can write that vale-dictator speech next year! I was thinking something like this… 'Well, it's been a long, pointless, stupid road, but I guess at least we get a crummy piece of paper that tells society we're smart! And never forget, I'll always be your Mack Daddy!'"

Miss Grimwood simply shook her head in disgust, clearly trying to be subtle so that Mack Daddy didn't notice.

"Woah, valedictorian?!" Tanis gasped. "That's so cool, Sybella!"

"Yeah, what an honor!" Sidney agreed.

"Thanks, guys!" Sybella felt a little overwhelmed. She was incredibly excited to have been given the honor to speak at their graduation, but at the same time, she felt like there was a lot of pressure on her to come up with a good speech in a few days, which worried her. She didn't want to let anyone down.

Even though it was a few minutes early, Sybella decided to just head off to class now to give her a little bit of thinking time before anyone came into Coach Micucci's class.

"Umm...I've gotta head to class now. I'll see you guys at the yearbook table at lunch." Sybella informed.

"Okay, see you later Sybella. And congrats again!" Elsa exclaimed. She seemed in a much happier mood now that her and Alex had gotten back together.

Sybella waved goodbye to all her friends and headed off to get a very short period of solitude, before she dove right into another big responsibility: helping Coach Micucci teach his final health class!

---

The vampiress enjoyed her alone time, thinking about the speech. Giving herself a moment to think about it made her realize that she probably could get the speech done in time for the graduation without having to sloppily rush. She had pretty much finished planning the final presentation with Kenzie, which was her only responsibility after today, other than the speech. Essentially, the speech would be like another homework assignment that she had to complete within a couple of days, just like everything else she had done at Grimwood's. It wouldn't be that bad.

Sybella watched the students flood in the classroom door as it grew nearer to 9:00am. Once it seemed like everyone had arrived, Coach Micucci got out of the chair he was sitting in and started class.

"Hello, all you creepy little child-adults. Thank god it's the last day I've gotta see your ugly mugs." Coach Micucci insulted, to which Sybella gave him a dirty look. "Uh, I mean, aren't you excited it's the last day? Because I am! Now, today's gonna be our wrap up day."

"You mean like a day where we wrap up the loose ends of the course?" Alyssa asked.

"Nah, I meant I'm gonna turn this rap music up! Some girl reminded me I forgot to tell ya to put on a condom a few years back, so ever since, I've played this song so I never forget to educate ya on birth control!" Coach Micucci walked over to a boom box, putting in a cassette tape and pressing play.

A bouncy beat played for a few moments as an intro, as a rapper shouted "Contra$eption on the track, bitch!" right before the bass drop.

"Ayy man, ya wanna know what could really ruin ya day? Not wearin' a condom, and havin' a baybay!" the rapper rhymed. "If ya girl comes over and wants to fuck, go to the store and get a condom cuz it only costs a few bucks!"

Sybella facepalmed as the embarrassing song continued.

"You can take a sexy picture, just put a rubber on your Richard!" the artist rapped.

"Please stop this awful song." Alyssa whined.

"Why?" Coach Micucci inquired. "You hormone machines gotta learn how important it is to wear a condom sometime!"

"When ya go to meet her, just put a condom on ya weiner!" the rapper continued.

"I think she's right, Coach. There's a much better way to end the class than this." Sybella inquired. "Just have everyone write a question they still have about the class, and the two of us can answer them. I really liked when you did that with our class."

"Ya did? Wow! Three-years-ago me was so much smarter! I should get him to teach this class instead of me!" Coach Micucci exclaimed, as he stopped the song. "Alright, you heard Sybella! Please write one question you have still about the class and hand it up to one of us. If ya don't have a question, then just don't write nothin'! Once everyone's done, we'll answer 'em."

A few minutes passed as the students quickly scribbled down their questions, and handed them up to one of the two. Sybella found it interesting that most students handed their questions up to her. She figured it was likely because they trusted her to answer their question in a more delicate and sensitive manner. Sybella shuffled through the slips of paper that she received.

"Let's see…" Sybella read off the first one. "Do both parties need to wear a condom? No, they do not. Only one person needs to."

"Really?! That's news to me!" Coach Micucci took out a notebook marked 'things I didn't know' and wrote it down.

"The next question is, what is an appropriate BAC to have?" Sybella read. "Since BAC stands for Blood Alcohol Content, the highest legal amount you can have in your blood is 0.08."

"0.08?!" the coach exclaimed. "All these years, I've been tellin' people 0.8! And I thought BAC stood for Bitchin' Alcoholic Celebration!"

"It doesn't. Next question, when should you start getting your period, because I haven't gotten mine yet?" Sybella had a concerned look on her face when she read that question. "All of you that would have asked that should have gotten your period by now."

"Oh my god! What's going on then?" a male mummy began to freak out.

"Hold on. Only females get periods. You have nothing to worry about, Murray." Sybella assured the mummy.

"Oh thank goodness." Murray breathed a sigh of relief.

"Let's see, the last question I have is about sex. When is the normal age to lose your virginity?" Sybella read. "Well, there is really no normal age, it's just whenever it happens…"

"Oh no, we can't answer that! The Ghoul Board said to tell you hooligans to only practice abstinence, no matter what!" Coach Micucci interrupted Sybella. "Now, I think Sybella's read through all hers, so I've just got my question. How do you get a girl to like ya?"

Sybella waited for a moment for Coach Micucci to answer, but he never did. His objection didn't even make sense, given he had just provided them with a lesson on the importance of wearing a condom.

"Well, anyone? I answered all your questions, why can't you answer mine?" the coach snapped. "Anyway, here's the last student's question. Does society view sex in an unhealthy way? Nah, absolutely not. In fact, I think our society's view of sex is too healthy! We need to make it a little unhealthier for a balance!"

"Does anyone have any other last-minute questions or comments?" Sybella inquired, giving the coach a little bit of a dirty look.

"Uh...vagina?" Jordan commented, for the billionth time.

"Class dismissed!" Coach Micucci facepalmed.

"Thanks, Coach Micucci. It's been a lot of fun being your TA this semester." Sybella smiled, as she packed up her belongings to get to her next obligation.

"No, thank you, Sybella. You really helped make this class one of the best ones I've ever taught. I'm really gonna miss you and your friends when ya graduate on Sunday. You're the first students I ever taught, and it's gonna be sad to see ya go." Coach Micucci said very sincerely. "I'll never forget any of ya."

Very rarely was the coach ever so vulnerable and complimentary of anyone, so Sybella was incredibly humbled by Coach Micucci's kind remarks.

"Thank you so much, coach. I'll never forget you either." Sybella smiled, as she waved goodbye to the coach and all the students she had helped him with.

Despite her frustration and hesitance about him at first, the vampiress had warmed up to him quite a bit over the years. Sybella knew that she probably would never forget about Coach Micucci either for as long as she lived.

---

The vampiress hurried over to the Yearbook table, as she had spent a few extra minutes talking to Coach Micucci after class, and she didn't want to let down the rest of her Yearbook team by being late.

"Sorry I'm a few minutes behind. I got caught up talking to the teacher I'm assisting this semester." Sybella apologized.

"Hey, no worries, girl." Savana patted Sybella on the back. "We're just getting set up. Besides, even if you were late, we could have covered for you. We gotchu."

"Fangs a lot." Sybella bared her fangs playfully.

"Yearbooks, get your yearbooks here!" Savana began calling out, as they set up their table at the front of the dining hall area.

"Oh come on, you're not selling hot dogs! You've gotta put some more energy into it." Sami coached, as she switched her focus towards her potential customers. "Do you want to remember this year? We're not just selling a plain old book, we're selling memories! You'll never forget about this year if you buy a yearbook!"

"That's quite the sales pitch, Sami!" Sybella laughed.

"I'll take one!" Winnie said, approaching the booth.

"That'll be $20." Savana held her hand out for the money.

Winnie took out her wallet and got out a 20 dollar bill, which Savana immediately snatched from her hand.

"Jeez Savana, are you eager to get that money or something? It's not even going to you." Sami laughed.

"Sorry, guess I just got a little excited." Savana giggled.

"We'll all take one too!" Tanis chirped. It appeared she was representing a big group comprised of Elsa, Sidney and Kathryn.

"Okay, that will be $80 between the four of you." Sami informed.

"Looks like I've only got $15." Sidney sighed.

"Well, I guess I know what we have to do." Sam declared, as she held the last quarter of the pages in her hand, and looked like she was about to tear them out.

"No!" Sami, Savana and Sybella all shouted out at the same time.

"Winnie, do you have an extra $5 I can borrow?" Sidney inquired.

"Sure!" Winnie exclaimed, as she dug through her wallet to find five additional dollars.

"Thanks, sweetie. You're the best!" Sidney smiled, as she kissed Winnie on the cheek.

"Ah man, I wanted to rip out the last quarter of the book." Sam hung her head.

"Well it's a good thing you didn't, those things cost a shit-ton." Sami looked relieved.

"Hey, I'll take one too." Phantasma said, handing Sybella the $20. In return, Savana handed her a yearbook. "Thanks!"

"No probs." Savana coolly said.

"I'll take one too, but I only got $10. Can you give me like half a yearbook or something? Just rip out the crappy stuff." Nick, a brown-furred werewolf that Sybella recognized from Woodshop class requested.

Sam had a mischievous look on her face as she was about to rip out half of the pages.

"Oh, heavens no, Sam." Miss Lillard fretted as she noticed what the werewolf was doing. "I'm sorry young man, but you'll either have to find ten more dollars or miss out on the yearbook this year."

"Ah man. These yearbook people are always harshin' my mellow." Nick scoffed, as he walked away disappointed.

"What a miscreant!" Sam tried to distract from what she was just about to do.

"I just came to talk to you, Sybella." Miss Lillard stated. "In case this is the last time I'm able to talk to you, given how busy the graduation ceremony will likely get, I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work over the past two...or should I say four years. You have been one of my favorite students, and we'll really miss you here on the yearbook team."

"I'll miss you all too." Sybella smiled.

It felt like every single situation she was in these past few days meant some sort of goodbye. The vampiress tried not to be too sad about it, but the constant reminders that it was going to be her last instance of doing something at Grimwood's made her feel down.

---

The day had flown by, and it was already time for the ghouls to have dinner. All of them were already sitting down at the table and chatting, while they were waiting for Miss Grimwood to serve the dinner that Olly was making.

"That's super cool that you guys found a way to stay together even while you're going to college." Winnie said to Elsa, referring to her and Alex.

"Yeah, we're going to call each other every other night." Elsa looked elated. "It's gonna be more challenging not seeing him every day, but I think our relationship is going to work out amazing!"

"Guys...I just thought of this. How are we going to keep in touch?" Sybella mentioned. "Tanis and I will see each other regularly, but Phanty's going to work on her music, Winnie is going to coach, and Elsa's going to MIT. After this summer, we're not going to be able to see each other much anymore."

Sybella hadn't fully thought through what she was saying, but actually getting her thought out aloud made it seem much more real than it had before.

"I don't know if I can handle not talking to you guys regularly." Tanis whimpered.

"Dinner is served, girls! It's spaghetti and beetleballs!" Miss Grimwood smiled, as she placed the food on the table. It was Sybella's favorite meal, but given the depressing turn the conversation had taken, she didn't really feel excited about it like she usually did.

"We should try to set up weekly phone calls. Like, we can reserve an hour or two every week on say, Fridays, to talk on the phone and catch up with each other." Winnie suggested.

"That's a great idea...I don't know if it will be the same, though." Tanis sighed.

"It won't be, but we'll get used to it." Phanty said in a colder tone than Sybella would have liked. The vampiress couldn't really tell if it was because she was hurting and trying to protect herself, or if she just really didn't care, but Sybella assumed it was the former. "Everything's changing now, so there's no way that it will be exactly the same as it is now. It can't be. Despite all that, I have no doubt our friendship will persevere!"

Sybella felt a pit in her stomach when Phanty said that...it was almost a little haunting, because the phantom was absolutely right. There was no way everything could always be the same, and they would just have to have faith that their friendship would triumph. All the vampiress could do is desperately hope that it would.

---

Friday, May 8

Countdown to graduation: 2 days

My last class ever at Grimwood's happens today. Even in my wildest dreams, I don't think I could ever imagine what my last class at Grimwood's would be like. I've been living, studying, and breathing here so long that it just felt like I'd be here forever. I still don't even know how to imagine what the day is going to bring. All I can do is just try to embrace the unknown and enjoy my last class as much as I possibly can.

---

Sybella had to take a deep breath after writing her journal entry, because simply writing those words worked her up a little bit. She knew better than to try to force something to be a good day, especially after her experience this past Halloween with being so disappointed with her father not showing up that it ruined what could have been a very fun weekend. However, she still had the urge to make this day feel as special as possible given it would be her last time ever taking a class here at Grimwood's.

The vampiress tried to distract herself from her own thoughts by focusing on what she was going to wear today. For the third day in a row, Sybella chose to dress up given her big presentation in Ms. Cohn's class. Looking around in her closet, the vampire princess decided to pick something different than she usually wore: a black button-up shirt along with a lavender skirt. Sybella rarely wore button-up shirts, but the fact that it was her last class made her feel a little more spontaneous in choosing how she wanted to look.

With a sigh of uncertainty, the vampiress left her bedroom for the morning and headed down to breakfast, so she could kickstart whatever the day had in store for her.

"Woah, you look nice today, Sybella!" Tanis exclaimed.

Tanis's compliment made the vampiress feel happy, as Sybella previously wasn't sure if the different look worked for her.

"Fangs a lot!" Sybella smiled.

"I can't believe this is Sidney's last breakfast here." Winnie lamented, changing the subject.

"It doesn't have to be. I can ask my dad if I can come here tomorrow!" Sidney offered.

"Do you think he'll let you?" Winnie tried to make sure.

"I don't see why he wouldn't. I'll be with him all summer, but this is my last opportunity to hang out with you guys." Sidney assured.

"That's awesome! We should try to do something fun tomorrow to celebrate our last full day here." Elsa suggested.

"I was thinking of just walking around all our favorite places here." Sybella offered.

"That sounds fun!" Phanty replied. "Maybe we could go for a dip in the moat?"

"A walk through the garden would be fun too!" Tanis mentioned.

"Maybe even a game on the volleyball court, just for old time's sake?" Elsa brought up.

"That all sounds really fun." Sybella expressed her interest.

"I love that idea! We need to make the most of our last day here." Winnie agreed.

"So, what are you all doing this morning?" Sidney asked.

"I didn't have any plans." Sybella shrugged.

"If no one's doing anything, do you guys want to walk around the school after breakfast? You know, like, one last time?" Sidney proposed.

"I think that could be really fun!" Tanis chirped.

"I like that idea too." Sybella agreed.

A chorus of "me too"s and "that would be fun"s broke out throughout the breakfast area, demonstrating that all six of them liked the idea. Sybella thought it would perhaps give her some closure to take one last walk around the entire school, so it felt more real that it was the last time she would ever walk around the full perimeter of Grimwood's.

---

The girls walked around for several hours, reminiscing about the memories they had made in each of the rooms as they went past. While it did give Sybella a bit of closure, it made the vampiress a little sad as well. She knew she'd make more memories in college and beyond, but it also made her departure from Grimwood's feel far more real. Sybella's heart broke a little with each room they passed, because she knew once the ghouls had passed it, they would never see that room again.

"Remember when we were 9 and our coaches made us do ballet?" Winnie laughed, pointing towards the old gym upstairs.

"Yeah! We were so awkward back then, but it was so much fun!" Phantasma remembered.

Sybella was going to reply in agreement, but she felt a little too emotional to do it at the moment. They had made their way around the entire school now, and instead of feeling full of closure, Sybella felt empty.

Clearly everyone else was becoming sad as well, as the other five ghouls began looking around, unsure of what to do next, now that they had walked around the entire school.

After several minutes of silence, Tanis finally said what everyone was thinking. "So...uh...what do we do now?"

"We move on. We're done here, so let's just go to lunch and then get to our afternoon classes." Phanty snapped.

"Oh...yeah...you're right." Tanis gulped, clearly shocked by Phantasma's cold reaction.

"I'm not really hungry." Winnie sighed. "I'm just going to go to class early, I guess."

"Me too." Sidney said, clearly not happy with Phanty's comment, but too uncomfortable to say anything.

"I don't have an afternoon class." Elsa hung her head. "I guess maybe I'll just make another lap around the school."

"Um…" Sybella paused for a moment, hoping someone would say something to break the awkward environment Phanty had made. To the vampiress's disappointment, no one did. "I guess I'll see you guys later."

"Okay, uh, bye guys!" Tanis waved.

As everyone said their goodbyes, Sybella felt quite uncomfortable with Phanty's coldness and frustration towards the others' grief about leaving Grimwood's. She didn't understand why Phanty would be so detached and cold about their last time walking around the school...did she not care about Grimwood's? Did all her time here mean nothing?

---

Though the ghouls' walk around the school this morning had provided some closure, walking down the hall to her final class ever at Grimwood's felt even more eerie. Seeing Kenzie sitting in her normal spot in the classroom quenched Sybella's nervousness for a little while.

"Hey, Kenzie. Well, this is it, I guess." Sybella laughed, a bit awkwardly.

"Yep. Our big presentation day!" Kenzie chirped. Sybella had actually meant 'the end of her time at Grimwood's' by 'this,' but she supposed Kenzie's version was far better.

"Indeed it is." a third voice said in agreement, making the two girls jump a little bit out of surprise.

Both of them quickly realized it was the voice of their instructor, Ms. Cohn. Sybella was a little surprised Ms. Cohn had arrived so early, as usually Kenzie and Sybella had the classroom to themselves for a good 15 minutes before anyone else came in. The vampiress kind of wished that the same thing would have been the case today, given it was the last time Kenzie and Sybella would get to talk on a regular basis, but the vampire princess tried not to get too overly frustrated about it.

"Girls, it's great to see you here and prepared already! I want you both to know that you have been my two star students in this class. I've quite enjoyed having you in two of my classes. I know Sybella is graduating this weekend, but hopefully I'll get to see you take another course from me, Kenzie." Ms. Cohn smiled.

"I definitely will!" Kenzie beamed, looking quite happy about her teacher's ravings over her.

"Excellent." Ms. Cohn responded. "Do either of you have plans for the summer?"

"Nothing much." Sybella admitted. "Just traveling to see my sister and her husband, hanging out with friends, and preparing for college."

"We're going to travel up to Oakhaven for a few weeks to visit relatives." Kenzie revealed.

"Sounds like an enjoyable summer." Ms. Cohn replied, before getting distracted with the fact that students began to flood into the classroom. "Hello everyone, today you will be giving your final presentations. I have prepared an order for us so we don't waste any time trying to figure out who's going when."

Sybella loved Ms. Cohn, but she sure could be very curt at times.

"Jordan and Lucas, you will be going first." Ms. Cohn announced. "You now have the floor."

Lucas nervously sauntered up from his chair, while Jordan eagerly bounded up to the front of the room. It struck Sybella odd to see two very different reactions from people in the same group.

"Today, we're presenting on Deviant Behavior." Jordan began.

"Yes, we know that!" Ms. Cohn impatiently said. "What is your subject?"

"It's...wait for it...Deviant Behavior!" Jordan repeated.

"You were supposed to pick a subject that we've learned in this course, not the overarching subject of the course." Ms. Cohn corrected. "I repeat, what is your subject?"

"Well, I've always been more of a History guy myself, but I'm going to have to say English." Jordan cluelessly commented.

"She's asking for the topic of our presentation." Lucas whispered. "Ours is about...uh...the societal construction of deviance?"

"Are you sure? You don't sound very confident about it." Ms. Cohn challenged.

"Yeah! Society says things are bad, and that makes them deviant. You shouldn't do bad things. Therefore, you shouldn't do deviant things." Lucas concluded.

"Oh! I've got this one! Deviants say things are bad, so therefore, you shouldn't do society!" Jordan reworded and jumbled Lucas's argument.

"Sit down, young men. It seems like you were quite unprepared for this." Ms. Cohn growled. Sybella had never seen her be so frustrated, but at the same time, this was definitely up there with one of the worst preparation jobs she'd ever seen for a presentation, and she'd seen some pretty bad presentations over the years. She supposed that half of the group was comprised of someone who took a class eight times, so him giving a presentation that likely had seconds of preparation put into it wasn't all that surprising. "Sarah and Anna, you two are next."

Sybella admittedly didn't know the name of Sarah's partner, who was a female Frankenstein's monster that tended to keep to herself most of the time.

"Our presentation is on the deviance of witchcraft as a religion in the human world." Sarah introduced. "Witches are seen as heathenous, unholy, and sinful. Their entire religion is questioned and stigmatized by the most practiced human religions, such as Christianity, Judaism and Islam. However, I would argue it's based on a belief that witches are always casting evil spells that hurt people. People are labeling witchcraft as deviant without even understanding the meaning behind it, which isn't surprising given, like we've learned in this class, that's what society does for all deviant behavior."

"People are afraid of what they don't understand, so they turn difference into something to be feared." Anna briefly said.

"When fear is created, then people begin to panic and act irrational, even when it doesn't create any actual harm. In the 1700's, so many human women that weren't witches were brutally burned at the stake, simply because humans got afraid and thought witches were evil. Most of the people burned at the stake weren't even witches, but poor, innocent souls who were accused of practicing a legitimate religion." Sarah shared.

"This not only demonstrates the harm of stigmatizing witchcraft, but how harmful pegging deviant behavior as inherently evil can be for the whole of society." Anna continued.

"So, in conclusion, witchcraft is a very legitimate religion and a lot of people practice it, so don't be a witch-hating jerk!" Sarah sassed.

Sybella wasn't at all surprised Sarah chose witchcraft as her topic. She had done so in nearly every single presentation Sybella had seen her make.

"Excellent presentation!" Ms. Cohn complimented. "Next on my list is Johnny and Nathan."

Another name Sybella didn't recognize. The vampire princess had noticed the male phantom before in class, but she had never learned his name.

"We're talking about gaming as a deviant behavior. Gamers are usually seen as nerds and people that don't have a life." Nathan began.

"That's not necessarily true, though. Anyone can be a gamer, and it doesn't require you to be a huge nerd." Johnny added. "I love gaming, personally, and I wouldn't say I'm a nerd."

"Society tells guys that they have to like sports and stuff, but you should just like whatever you like." Nathan stated.

"Yeah! Do what makes you feel good!" Johnny replied.

The whole class, especially Ms. Cohn, seemed like they were anticipating Johnny or Nathan to say something else, given the presentation was so short, but a few moments of silence made it safe to assume that it was apparently the end of the presentation.

"Good job, boys." Ms. Cohn nodded dutifully over the sound of hands clapping. "Let's have Julia and Brynn go next."

The witch and the mummy walked up to the front of the room to speak to the class. Brynn cleared her throat before speaking first.

"Our presentation is on the deviance of recycling and being a so-called 'tree hugger'." Brynn announced.

"Hell yeah, that's super deviant. I never would do that!" Daniel exclaimed as he tossed a plastic bottle into the garbage. The plastic bottle appeared to have messages printed all over it by the manufacturer, including 'recycle,' 'please don't throw this in the trash' and 'for the love of god, put this in a recycling bin!'

"Well, we're actually here to argue that it shouldn't be a deviant thing. Taking care of the environment is incredibly important and should be seen as a person's basic civic duty." Julia counterargued against Daniel's blurt.

"Environmentally-conscious people are often made fun of, or told that their efforts to save the Earth are extreme or unnecessary." Brynn pointed out.

"The environment is unfortunately even seen as a politicized issue that's divided among party lines." Julia shook her head in disgust.

"A deviant behavior is a behavior that somehow deviates from social standards." Brynn defined.

"People don't want to take responsibility for our Earth's suffering, so society makes being environmentally conscious into something deviant." Julia stated.

"People think it's deviant because of their own laziness preventing them from seeing that things humans are doing to the Earth are destroying it." Brynn continued.

"To take away the stigma of taking care of the environment being deviant, we need to have more initiatives like recycling, litter walks, and environmental protests to fight for our Earth, or we might not have it for future generations." Julia concluded.

"Excellent work, girls!" Ms. Cohn appreciated. "Next on our list is Daniel and Ben."

Daniel and Ben oddly began shoving each other, pinching each other, and slapping each other silly when they got to the front of the room, much to the rest of the class's dismay. After a few moments, they stopped and looked at the rest of the class in a very serious manner.

"Bullying." Daniel said in a deep, serious voice.

"Bullying is a deviant behavior because you're taught to be nice to people, but screw that! It's fun to be mean! See?" Ben exclaimed, as he punched Daniel in the arm.

"Oh god, right in the funnybone!" Daniel shouted. "Why do they call it the funnybone? It's not funny at all!"

"It is to me!" Ben said, pulling out a small clown's mallet and hitting him over the head with it, as it made a goofy sound.

"Daniel, you've already done this presentation last year, and you didn't even get a good grade on it!" Ms. Cohn looked sternly. "Either take this somewhere or pick a new topic, and quickly."

"Okay, fine." Daniel sighed. "Our presentation is now on the deviance of alcohol! When something tastes that good, you know it's gotta be sinful!"

"Deviance isn't about sinning. It's about social behaviors not being seen as acceptable in society." Ms. Cohn reminded.

"Fine! We'll do another topic." Ben harrumphed.

"So, how about Miss Grimwood's catnip patch, huh? She said it's for medicinal purposes, but don't you think it's because she's doing something DEVIANT with it?" Daniel yelled.

"That will be quite enough, young man." Ms. Cohn snapped. "Let's move on to our final presentation, as clearly there's nothing of substance here. Sybella and Kenzie, it's your turn."

Sybella actually felt pretty confident giving her presentation, after following such a bad one. Ms. Cohn already said that Sybella and Kenzie were her favorite students, so she highly doubted that they would get a bad grade on their presentation given how much preparation they had put into it.

"Today, we're going to be talking to you about asexuality." Sybella started.

"Asexuality means that you do not experience sexual attraction towards anyone." Kenzie explained. "However, it does not mean that you do not experience romantic attraction towards people. Many asexual people date others and feel very romantically about them, they just don't have an interest in having sex with anyone."

"A closely related term to asexuality is demisexuality, which means only experiencing romantic attraction towards people that you have formed a deep emotional bond with." Sybella defined. She hadn't been aware of the term 'demisexuality' either, but Kenzie had told her what to say.

"Sex is seen by society as the end-all, be-all. People equate sex with love and love with lust, but not everyone has feelings of lust, and it's important to know that." Kenzie pointed out. "Sex is often also seen as a physical act, without taking into account the emotional and even spiritual things that happen while you're having it. Many asexual and demisexual people feel that society's overemphasization of the physical causes them to feel less like they want to have sex."

"It's essential that we don't stigmatize sex as a physical-only act, and also, that we remain aware that not everyone experiences sexual feelings." Sybella concluded. "Any questions?"

"Uh...I haven't felt sexual feelings in like an hour, and I'm worried that means I'm asexual. Does it?" Jordan asked.

"Definitely not." Kenzie laughed. "If you were asexual, you'd never feel any sexual feelings."

"Oh thank god! So my hee-hee zone still does have a purpose!" Jordan looked relieved.

"I just wanted to say you guys had a great presentation." Julia raised her hand. "I didn't know that much about asexuality, so I appreciate you both presenting it in any easy-to-understand way."

"Yeah, you both did a really good job!" Sarah agreed.

"Indeed they did." Ms. Cohn smiled. "As did you all...well, most of you. This has been a wonderful class and I have very much enjoyed teaching you all. For those graduating this Sunday, I hope you do amazing things, and for the rest of you, I hope you have a wonderful summer!"

Sybella was incredibly happy that so many people loved their presentation and found it useful. She'd found learning more about Kenzie's identity incredibly useful herself, both so she could better understand her friend and better understand the world.

Just as Ms. Cohn finished, the bell rang to signal the end of class. This bell was different from any other bell she'd ever heard at Grimwood's, however. Not in the way it sounded, but because of the fact that it not only signaled the end of this class, but the end of all classes at Grimwood's for Sybella. The realization that she would officially never sit in another class ever again at Grimwood's made Sybella sad, even despite all the warm comments from her classmates and a hug from Kenzie.

---

Saturday, May 9

Countdown to graduation: 1 day

This is the last full day I will ever have at Grimwood's. I want to make the most of it, but at the same time, I'm worried about Phantasma. Her cold and unfeeling reaction to our time together at Grimwood's ending makes me feel like she's going to ditch us once we graduate, because she's acting like none of the memories we made here together even matter.

Regardless, I can't worry too much about Phanty, otherwise I'm never going to be able to enjoy the time taking in the scenery outside. I promise myself that I will make this a happy day that I'll look back fondly upon no matter what.

---

The vampiress almost didn't want to get out of her comfy coffin this morning, but Sybella knew that if she stayed in bed, she wouldn't be able to make the most of the dwindling moments she had left here. Stretching her arms, the vampire princess got out of her coffin and closed the lid before heading over towards her closet to pick out an outfit. It felt a little strange not to wear something fancy given her habit of doing so the past few days. However, she knew the day would only consist of her relaxing with her friends, so she put on a casual pair of purple shorts along with a blackish purple t-shirt that had "Ghoulsome" written across the front.

All of a sudden, the vampiress could hear a scratching at her door. At first, it alarmed her a little, until she realized it was just Matches, likely looking for attention.

"Hi Matches!" Sybella cooed, talking sweetly to the pet dragon. Matches rubbed up against her in response.

Despite Sybella's initial rush to get down to the breakfast and start her day, she decided that it was more important to take a pause and just enjoy the moment she was in. For a few minutes, Sybella simply sat down on the floor and petted the dragon. She thought about what a loyal, faithful companion Matches had been for all the years she had been at Grimwood's, and found herself getting a little sad that after tomorrow, she wouldn't get to see Matches anymore. There was so much that she would be losing, but instead of worrying about it, Sybella realized the best way to keep the sadness away was to simply stay in the present, without anticipating what might happen in the future.

After a long, thorough pet-down, Sybella gave Matches one final touch on the head before finally heading down to breakfast.

"I can't believe this is our last last breakfast!" Winnie joked, referring to how they had already had a "last" breakfast with Sidney yesterday. Speaking of the witch, Sidney was already sitting at the breakfast table with the other four ghouls.

"I kinda hate to just have the same thing again." Elsa sighed. "You know what we should do? Go out somewhere to eat to celebrate."

"Oh yeah, Sybella could drive us somewhere in her car!" Tanis exclaimed.

"You know what I loved?" Sidney asked, looking a little mischievous. "That time we went to McDonald's."

"McDonald's? We only went there because we literally had nothing else to eat! Revolta chased us out of the school and we had to live in a cabin, remember?" Elsa reminded the witch.

"Yeah, but I still liked it." Sidney chuckled.

"You know, I liked my raw burger there too!" Winnie agreed. "Let's do it!"

"That's a great memory: we spent our last breakfast at school eating at McDonald's." Phanty chuckled. "I'm down, though."

It seemed everyone liked the idea, except Sybella. She would have much preferred to eat at Grimwood's, but she supposed she'd settle for McDonald's, given Tanis had inadvertently volunteered her to drive everyone there.

---

Sybella felt incredibly embarrassed to be pulling into a McDonald's drive-thru on what should have been the ghouls' last breakfast at school. Nonetheless, she rolled down her window in preparation to order, as her friends all gave her their orders.

"I'd like a raw hamburger!" Winnie exclaimed, almost with glee.

"I'll do a hamburger." Elsa said.

"Me too." Phanty apathetically muttered.

"I'm never doing a Big Mac again! Why would they make a burger so big? I'll do a kids' meal. That should be small enough." Tanis ordered.

Sybella didn't get to hear Sidney's order before the person opened the window to take their order, but she saw Sidney mouth the word "hamburger" as well. Sybella would just have to hope that she had read Sidney's lips correctly.

"We'll do six hamburgers, but can you make one of them raw?" Sybella ordered for all the girls.

"Okay. Would you like to make that a Travis Scott 'It's Lit!' Meal by adding a Sprite?" the employee asked in a monotone voice. "You could also make it a Notorious B.I.G. 'Big Poppa' Meal by adding three Big Macs and three Cokes. If you want to change everything up, you could also get the Migos 'Bad and BBQ' Meal, featuring our secret 'skrt skrt' sauce."

"No, we're good with just the burgers." Sybella informed.

"Alright, pull up to the next window and I'll have your total." the employee mumbled.

Sybella did as instructed, and pulled up the next window, handing the man $20. As the employee took their money, Tanis leaned up from the back seat and began speaking.

"Umm, I'm sorry we all look so odd. We stopped on the way to return these costumes to the costume rental shop." Tanis apologized.

"Lady, this is McDonald's!" the employee exclaimed. "A car with four monkeys and a sassy teenage cheetah are right behind you!"

"Umm...thanks for the tip. Have a good day." Sybella smiled, as she took the bag of burgers from the employee. As she pulled ahead for a moment to hand everyone their food, the vampiress could overhear the conversation in the car behind her.

"MOM!" a young female cheetah with her fur dyed all black moaned. "It's not a phase! How many times do I have to tell you that people should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their spots! Ughhhh, no one understands me!"

"Chelsea, we've loved you ever since the day we adopted you, but we just really wish you'd stop monkeying around with this goth phase!" the largest monkey, presumably the father, replied.

Sybella didn't really know what to think of what she saw, so she simply handed out all the burgers and drove away.

---

The McDonald's was only about five minutes away from the school, so it didn't take Sybella very long to drive everyone back there. Sybella pulled her hearse into the driveway of Grimwood's, admiring the beauty of the school. It was an incredibly beautiful day today, with highs getting up to around 80 degrees and clear, sunny skies for miles.

"That was really good." Winnie patted her full stomach with satisfaction.

"Yeah, I'm going to miss McDonald's." Sidney whimpered playfully.

"I'm going to miss this school." Tanis whined, as the ghouls began walking around the perimeter of the school, towards the Grimwood garden.

"Oh come on, guys, you act like you're dying or something. It's fine!" Phanty snapped. "We're just moving on to the next stage in our lives. What's the big deal?"

"It's funny you say that, because you seem to be the one making the big deal." Elsa called out.

"Somebody finally said it." Sidney acknowledged.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Phantasma growled.

"You get really hostile and aggressive whenever someone brings up leaving Grimwood's. Doesn't this place mean anything to you?" Sybella asked. "It clearly does to the rest of us."

"Of course it does! There's just no reason to be sad about it." Phanty discounted. "We're leaving. So what? We're going to have enough to be worried about with our future plans."

"What do you mean?" Winnie asked.

"Nevermind." Phanty backtracked, pointing at the garden they were passing. "The Grimwood's garden is going to be great this year. I can already see the squash coming up a little bit."

"Yeah, I'm going to miss all the fall harvests." Elsa sighed.

"Phanty, what's bothering you?" Sybella changed the subject back to the original one. The vampiress expected to receive a snarky remark back, but she certainly never would have expected what actually ensued. For the first time ever, at least that the vampiress had seen, Phantasma broke down and started crying.

"I don't want to leave Grimwood's either!" she said between tears. "I'm scared about what's going to happen next. I want to start making my own music, but there's no security in that job. You don't get a paycheck unless you come up with a popular song. I'm going to miss these days so much, when it was so easy and we could just do whatever we wanted."

"It's okay." Sybella hugged the sobbing phantom. "We all feel that way, but I'm sure you're the most scared of all of us. Once you go out into the job world, your job is the only one that doesn't get a regular paycheck."

"You could always get another job on the side." Winnie offered.

"That's true. Maybe you're right." Phanty agreed. She still seemed like something was bothering her, though.

"Why didn't you just say something, then?" Sidney inquired.

"I've been looking forward to graduating for so long, but now that it's here, I hate the idea of leaving here. I guess I'm just embarrassed because I thought graduation would be the happiest day of my life." Phanty admitted.

Phantasma was usually relatively muted about her feelings, so Sybella was a bit surprised to see her go so in detail about how much she was struggling. Clearly this was something weighing on her very heavily.

"We all thought that, but all of us feel the same way as you." Winnie comforted.

"Everyone thinks graduation is going to be the happiest day of their life, but it comes with the consequence of having to leave the people and places you love." Sidney advised.

"I don't know how I'm ever going to leave this place! I love Grimwood's too much!" Phanty started crying again.

"Phanty, you're not alone. All of us are feeling the same thing right now, but we don't want to remember our last day here as us all moping around wishing we didn't have to leave." Sybella advised. "Let's take a walk through the woods, and a swim through the moat. Maybe we can even slip in a game of volleyball."

"Sybella's right!" Elsa agreed. "Let's make this a day to remember!"

"Heck yeah!" Tanis pseudo-swore in approval.

Sybella was admittedly quite surprised at herself with how big of a leap her attitude had made from Monday to Saturday. On Monday, she was the hopelessly depressed one that needed Julia to comfort her. Now, she had not only taken Julia's words fully to heart, but she had come up with her own words of wisdom to help her friend who was struggling. Maybe Sybella really was emotionally ready to leave Grimwood's!

---

The girls had a blissfully fun day talking and walking through the woods together, as well as taking a dip in the moat. Each of the girl ghouls were just getting ready to get out and play some volleyball.

"I haven't had this much fun in a long time!" Tanis chirped.

"Why didn't we swim in the moat more often?" Winnie asked, shaking herself off so she didn't have wet fur. "This was so much fun!"

"Thanks for the lift, Alexandra!" Elsa complimented, as she took a step on the shark's back to get out of the moat. Alexandra had previously been their two headed-shark, but after the accident last year with the oil spill, she had lost one of her heads. Despite this, Alexandra still seemed quite resilient and had gotten back to health after a little bit.

Sybella looked up when she heard the sound of the Grimwood's vultures crowing twice.

"Sounds like it's two o'clock. Are you all still up for a game of volleyball?" Sybella inquired.

"For sure!" Sidney exclaimed. "It'll be fun to finally play with you guys."

Sybella sort of forgot that Sidney had never played with the ghouls before. She felt so much like a part of their core friend group, now that the vampiress didn't think about the fact that she wasn't on their team.

"See you guys later!" Tanis waved politely to the living gargoyles sitting on the roof before changing the subject. "Um, so what do you think college is going to be like?"

"I imagine it's going to be kind of similar to this, except the classes are going to be a lot harder." Elsa pointed out. "And of course, it won't be quite as home-like as it is here."

"We don't know that for sure." Sybella tried to look at the positive. "Maybe once we get used to it, it will feel just as much of a home as Grimwood's is."

"I really hope so." Tanis said, sounding slightly worried.

As the girls approached the volleyball court, Sybella realized something unfortunate.

"Oh, crap. We forgot to grab a volleyball." Sybella sighed. "I guess I'll run back to the gym and get one."

"Don't worry, I can conjure one up." Sidney promised. She'd gotten quite good at controlling her powers now, especially since the crash course Miss Grimwood had her take before fighting Revolta.

With a wave of her wand, a ball of light appeared. However, instead of conjuring up a volleyball, a very large gray car came out of the black hole Sidney had created. A frazzled looking old man with white hair burst out of the car.

"Marty!" the old man rasped. "It's your kids, Marty! We've got to go back to the future!"

"Ah damn it, I'm always accidentally conjuring up this stupid guy and his DeLorean." Sidney rolled her eyes, as she zapped him and his car back to whatever reality he was from. "Here's the ball."

Just as the volleyball appeared before the girls' very eyes, another extraordinary thing happened: three of the cadets from Calloway Military School were coming over. Sybella recognized them as Miguel, Jamal and Baxter once they got a little closer.

"Hey girls!" Miguel cheerfully waved. "Have you got a minute?"

"Um...maybe just a minute…we were kind of busy playing our last volleyball game." Phanty cautiously replied.

"We just wanted to tell you girls that you're awesome." Baxter smiled.

This caused Sybella to immediately wonder if there might be some ulterior motives to the cadets saying this. They had certainly been civil in the past with them, but at the same time, Sybella still didn't trust them to say such a nice thing.

"Okay?" Elsa shrugged.

"Look, I know we've kinda not been the nicest to you girls over the years, but since you're graduating tomorrow, and so are we, we just wanted to tell you girls that you're pretty badass." Miguel clarified.

"Yeah, the fact you girls are so unique with all your special abilities and powers is pretty awesome." Baxter exclaimed.

"We shouldn't have shit on you so much when we were younger. That wasn't right. Clearly, some of us still haven't realized that, but the three of us have." Jamal apologized.

"By 'some of us' you mean Grunt and Tug?" Elsa joked.

"Yeah, unfortunately." Miguel looked embarrassed. "Anyway, we don't want to take up any more of your time, but I hope all you girls know how cool you are. Never stop being yourselves."

With that, the cadets waved and walked back to their school.

Sybella never would have thought anything like that could have ever happened in a million years. She had always seen the cadets as these macho, prototypical ignorant humans who hated monsters, so it was really flattering to know that clearly she and her friends had made enough of an impact on the cadets for them to come over and compliment the ghouls. If she could turn some of the cadets' opinions around about monsters, she knew in her heart that she was on the path to becoming a great Human Studies teacher.

---

The ghouls had such a fun day, between playing volleyball, walking in the woods, swimming in the moat, and yes, even getting McDonald's. Sidney had gone back home now to spend the night with her father, as per usual, but would be back in the morning for the graduation ceremony. Sybella almost felt like she wanted to go to bed now out of exhaustion. However, she still had another big "last" that had yet to occur: the ghouls' final dinner with Miss Grimwood.

"Do you guys remember that time we had to stay at Calloway for a day?" Winnie brought up.

"How could I forget?" Sybella laughed. "Do you remember that crazy election last year?"

The girls' reminiscing was cut off by Miss Grimwood and Olly, both of whom came in the room side by side.

"Alright girls, Olly has cooked up a delicious feast for you for your last night here." Miss Grimwood smiled. "Slimy clams with alfredo sauce and spaghetti noodles, as well as some oregano toast, fruit salad, and for dessert, ice cream."

Sybella knew the typical side to have with a pasta-based meal was garlic toast, but since she was allergic, Miss Grimwood was kind enough to prepare an alternative for everyone involving oregano. Obviously, since she had never eaten garlic, she didn't know the difference and thought the oregano version tasted quite good.

"Looks great, Miss Grimwood! Thank you!" Tanis licked her lips.

"You're quite welcome, but I'm afraid I can't accept the thanks. It seems the one thing you girls still have to learn before you graduate is to thank Olly, not me. He made the meal." Miss Grimwood chuckled. Olly didn't seem to care despite Miss Grimwood's assertion, and just continued handing out water glasses to each ghoul.

"I can't believe this is our last time eating dinner here at this table." Phanty sighed.

"It is quite surreal. Girls, I know I've said this many times, but I want you all to know how incredibly proud I am of you. You all have grown up so much since I first had you as students, and you have changed me for the better as a headmistress, too. You girls are the first class to ever graduate from Grimwood's Finishing School. When I decided to open my own school 13 years ago, I wanted to teach students all they could ever want to know, but I never would have expected to be taught so much about being a better individual by you five." Miss Grimwood almost looked as if she was tearing up a little bit. "I'm going to miss you all very much, and I know you all are going to do amazing things in the world."

By the end of Miss Grimwood's speech, not only was she crying, but all five ghouls were starting to tear up.

"I agree, Miss Grimwood." Sybella said between sniffles. "This school has taught me so much, and I know I'm a much better vampire from being educated here, by you and the school as a whole."

"I'll never forget this place as long as I live!" Winnie said before breaking into a sobbing fit.

"I'll never forget this place as long as I don't live!" Phanty joked, but in a very sad way.

"It was an honor to be educated here, because this place is magical!" Tanis appeared to be crying the hardest of any of the ghouls. "I don't think there could be any better school than this one."

"I'm going to miss this place so much!" Elsa tried not to cry, but ended up doing so anyway, causing sparks to fly a little bit from her head bolts.

After a brief crying fit, the girls tried to stop focusing on leaving and continued to discuss all their old old memories instead. It was bittersweet for Sybella to remember all the fun, crazy, and meaningful things that had happened over the years at her school. In fact, at the moment, Sybella couldn't think of a more enjoyable way to spend her last night at Grimwood's.

---

Sunday, May 10

Countdown to graduation: 0 days

Today, I will leave Grimwood's forever. Over the course of this week, I've been going back and forth about my feelings about leaving here. Of course, I'm still sad to leave, but I feel like I'm finally ready to move on to the next big adventure in my life. My time here at Grimwood's has been so incredible and I couldn't have asked for a better childhood. However, I also acknowledge that I am no longer a child and I want to start making steps towards following my life's passion: teaching. The first step to doing so is going to college, and I'm ready to take my first step out into the world.

I've realized that going out into the big, "scary" world doesn't mean that I will be all alone. I will still have a big support network of friends and family to help me whenever I need it. Tanis will be at Leopold with me, as well as Alexis and Sidney. Given Sidney's relationship with Winnie, no doubt Winnie will also be visiting Leopold quite often. Even though I won't see Elsa and Phantasma very much, we've still promised to have our weekly call every Friday, and I can choose to call them on my own if I need help. On top of all of that, I will likely make new friends at Leopold that I can also count on.

Today will be the closing of a long, enjoyable chapter in my life, and I can't wait to start the next one.

---

Sybella didn't have her usual choice of what to wear today. Obviously, she had to put on her graduation cap and gown that Miss Grimwood had given them all before they went to bed last night. She was a little surprised that Matches hadn't come to her room like he usually did, but the vampiress figured perhaps the dragon was busy snooping around whatever Miss Grimwood had made them for breakfast.

Suddenly, she heard a loud knocking at her closed bedroom door. Sybella quickly ran over and answered it, to see Winnie, Elsa and Tanis all at the door. All of them had somewhat concerned looks on their faces.

"What's wrong?" Sybella inquired.

"We don't see Miss Grimwood anywhere. The table is completely empty, and we don't even see Matches." Elsa informed.

Hmmm...how strange. Where would Miss Grimwood be on such an important day for them?

"I'll help you look around." Sybella committed, as she quickly fastened up the last button on her graduation gown before leaving her room.

"Hey, what's the problem, guys?" Phanty asked, as she floated down the hall.

"We can't find Miss Grimwood." Sybella explained.

"We've looked all around the school, and we didn't see her anywhere." Winnie mentioned.

"Oh no! I'm not even ready to graduate yet, and now Miss Grimwood's probably dead or something!" Tanis went to the extreme.

"She's not dead. Besides, being dead isn't so bad. You should know!" Phanty giggled.

"Have you guys tried looking outside yet?" Sybella suggested.

"That's the one place we didn't look, but why would she be out there? She said she was making us breakfast." Winnie reasoned.

"Well, it doesn't hurt to take a look." Sybella pointed out. "It's a much better solution than thinking she's dead."

"Yeah...I guess you're right. She's probably fine." Tanis gulped. "But I'm still really worried."

The other four ghouls followed as Sybella led the way outside. To their surprise, a gigantic celebration was being set up by Miss Grimwood, with a little help from Matches and Olly. Even Legs, Grimwood's pet spider, was helping hang some "congrats graduates" signs from trees with his webs. There was a huge table full of breakfast foods, a big stage, and many rows of folding chairs.

"Hello girls!" Miss Grimwood chirped. "I'm sorry for not telling you about this, but I wanted to keep it a surprise. It seemed like such a nice day, and a graduation in the gym frankly sounded quite dull. All of you are the first graduating class ever at Grimwood's and I wanted to make this as special as I could so you'd never forget today."

"I...I don't know what to say. This is incredible!" Sybella responded.

"Woah, there's even a DJ!" Winnie pointed out. To Sybella's misfortune, it was very much someone she knew...the horrible barista at the coffee shop they had attended when at the college fair with the Gravedale High students.

"What's up guys, gals and nonbinary pals!" Dan awkwardly exclaimed. "My name's Dan the werewolf and I'm gonna be your DJ today! So, what songs are the kids into today? I was thinking of playin' some really dope music from Bill Withers! That dude goes so hard!"

"I don't think any kid knows who that is." Phanty informed.

"Ah, man. Bette Midler it is, then!" Dan said, as he pulled out a record and began playing it.

"Feel free to grab some breakfast before the ceremony starts, if you like." Miss Grimwood offered. "We've got quite a few options - waffles, eggs, sausage, pancakes, biscuits and omelettes."

"Thanks, Miss Grimwood. We will!" Sybella promised, as she and her friends headed over to the breakfast table.

"I can't believe Miss Grimwood would do something like this for us!" Winnie said in awe.

"I can." Elsa smiled. "Miss Grimwood is one of the nicest, most thoughtful people I've ever met."

---

The girls had an enjoyable time chatting among themselves, and other students as they trickled into the ceremony. Miss Grimwood had requested that all the graduates sit in the front two rows, so that they could easily walk up on stage when handed their diploma. Sybella smiled when she saw her father, Mavis, and Johnny arrive and sit in the audience towards the back. There wasn't time to go over and talk to them now, however. The ceremony was about to start!

"Good morning, everyone. Today is a special day for many reasons. It marks the end of an era for our graduates, and the beginning of something new. Every one of our graduates today has succeeded by working very hard, and learning about the world, the essentials of life, and themselves. If you weren't aware, our current senior class is in fact the first group of students to ever graduate from Grimwood's Finishing School for Ghouls. This is why I am so incredibly proud of them, and they will always live on in our legacy as a school. Before we begin announcing the graduates' names, however, we have a very special program for our graduates and our audience today. I would like to introduce the first of our speakers, who is a very special friend of one of our teachers, Mr. Kasem." Miss Grimwood introduced.

Sybella couldn't imagine who this might be. She had honestly thought she'd be the only speaker, so she wondered who else could have been important enough for Miss Grimwood to want to speak.

"I present to you, the esteemed Mr. Don Knotts." Miss Grimwood announced.

"Hey guys! I'm here to tell you a lot of things today, but I'll start with the most important. Don't do anything I wouldn't do! No matter what! And there's a lot I wouldn't do…" Don's expression turned serious. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've gotta put the finishing touches on my new amusement park, Don-sneyland! I've gotta program that last rollercoaster to play a recording of my voice warning people 'you're KNOTT gonna be ready for this!'"

And with that, Don Knotts started running the other direction, before he slowed down and began panting heavily with exhaustion.

"Uh oh, looks like I need a snack to increase my energy first!" Don pulled out a banana and a container of chocolate custard in his pocket, and quickly ate it, before continuing to sprint towards his theme park. "KNOTTS AWAY!"

"Before we have our next speaker, we have a special musical guest!" Miss Grimwood said, though oddly looking a little worried. The headmistress motioned for Coach Micucci, who was standing closeby, to come up on stage.

"Where is he?" Miss Grimwood whispered, though Sybella could half-hear it. She couldn't hear the coach's response. The two of them talked for a moment, before looking like they came to an agreement.

"It appears our special musical guest didn't make it here for some reason, so instead, we have another treat for you. A band from our own school will be performing. They call themselves Street Rhythm!" Miss Grimwood announced. To Sybella's shock, her Yearbook team: Savana, Sami and Sam came up on stage.

"Who was the musical guest supposed to be?" Savana asked her bandmates, probably louder than she should have.

"I heard they had the Yodeling Wal-Mart Kid lined up, but he bailed at the last minute." Sam answered.

"No they didn't!" Sami scolded Sam, as the latter began to smirk. Sami then turned her attention back to the crowd. "Alright, this graduating class is so delightful that we have to play a song for you that we call 'Delight'!"

The band played a couple of different songs, all which Sybella thoroughly enjoyed. By the loud cheering at the end of each song, the audience seemed to enjoy it quite a bit too.

"Thank you, thank you!" Sami shouted over the cheering once the band concluded their last song.

"Peace out!" Savana yelled.

"Goodnight, St. Louis!" Sam randomly screamed.

"Wow, that was really good!" Winnie, who was sitting next to Sybella, whispered. "I wonder who was supposed to perform."

To the side of the audience, Sybella noticed a man that she found to be very creepy-looking. He had a ghostly white face and long black hair, and held an ice cream cone in his hand.

"Ah man, I shouldn't have stopped off for ice cr-hee-hee-eam!" the man said, as he moonwalked back to his car.

"Now, each of the teachers at Grimwood's would like to give our graduates some advice." Miss Grimwood stepped to the side to allow the teachers to come on stage.

"Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars!" Mr. Kasem advised.

"Be kind to each other. Kindness is the best form of art." Mr. Welker took his turn.

"Always remember that you define your own history, so learn from your mistakes and take inspiration from your successes." Mr. Jaffe stated.

"The best advice I can give you is to never give up on your dreams." Dr. Christopherson said.

"Care about others as much as you care about yourself. Taking care of others is important, but you also need to make sure you're happy." Mr. Messick smiled.

"Respect your elders!" Mr. North snapped, much to everyone's surprise except Sybella. She always found him to be the one teacher who, as her father put it, was an 'asshole.' "Kids these days ain't got no respect!"

"Keep positive vibes in your heart!" Mrs. Frumkin chirped.

"There's always at least two sides to every story." Mrs. Lange's voice boomed through the microphone. "Make sure you look at every perspective before judging someone."

It warmed Sybella's heart a little to know that Mrs. Lange seemed to be taking inspiration from her final presentation in class.

"My philosophy is to let your past mold you, but don't let it completely define you." Ms. West suggested.

"Creativity is everything. Never stop trying to create a better version of yourself." Mr. Ward gave his insight.

"Don't let what others think about you define you. No one should make you ashamed of who you are." Mr. Bergman spoke.

"Find your worth in authenticity!" Mrs. Griffin philosophized.

"You are such a talented and smart group of students, and I'm sure you're all going to do great things." Miss Lillard smiled.

"We are all beautifully imperfect, socially constructed beings. People will try to make you insecure and apologize for your identity, but it is important to stay down to Earth and empowered in yourself." Ms. Cohn offered her piece of advice.

"Be the change you want to see in the world!" Mr. Menville quoted.

"Fight for what you believe in, no matter how wrong ya are! In fact, if you're wrong, you should fight for it harder!" Coach Micucci advised, causing Miss Grimwood to look a little uncomfortable.

"Excellent advice, everyone. Before we get to honoring each one of our graduates individually, our valedictorian will be giving a brief speech." Miss Grimwood announced.

Sybella felt a little chill down her spine as the headmistress announced that it was time for her to give her speech. Even though the vampiress was prepared, it was still a little nerve-wracking to speak in front of that many people. Nonetheless, the vampire princess put on a brave face and went up on stage, standing at the center by the microphone.

"Hello, graduating class of -" Sybella saying the year was cut off by the microphone creating an echo effect. Apparently Sybella had a worried look on her face, because Miss Grimwood motioned for her to simply keep going. "Over the past week, I have experienced a mix of feelings about leaving Grimwood's: sadness, because I'm leaving a place that means so much to me. I've felt nervousness about going out into the big, scary world on my own. I've also felt happiness, and a sense of accomplishment, which I know everyone here feels as well. We are not just graduating, we are officially moving into the first stages of planning our lives, and taking steps to making our dreams come true. I've been at Grimwood's since I was 5 years old, and this place has been my home. Even if you haven't been here since you were 5, I'm sure many of you consider this place a home too. Grimwood's truly brings out the best in people, because of all the wonderful teachers and students all around us. I can say definitively that the relationships we've created here have changed us forever, and it will be hard for any of us to ever forget all the positive memories Grimwood's has gifted us with. As we each prepare to take the next steps in our lives, we must remember to keep Grimwood's in our hearts forever!"

The crowd began roaring as Sybella finished her speech. She was incredibly happy and a little surprised that the speech resonated with everyone so much. She'd put a lot of time into prepping her speech, but at the same time, she never thought her own words and thoughts could ring true for so many people.

"Excellent job, Sybella!" Miss Grimwood beamed, clearly incredibly proud of the vampiress. "Now, it's the moment you've all been waiting for."

"Flashdance?" Jonathan called out from the audience.

Miss Grimwood ignored the dumb remark. "It's time to introduce each of our graduates, and give out diplomas to everyone."

"Sweet!" Barry's father shouted in the audience. "I never got a high school diploma. Now I'm finally set! I love this school!"

"Our first graduate is Anna Abell." Miss Grimwood announced, as the Frankenstein's monster from Sybella's Deviant Behavior class came up on stage. "She'll be studying Theology at Moranis College."

Anna shook Miss Grimwood's hand and grabbed her diploma, as she walked back to her seat.

"Next is Winnie - " Miss Grimwood was cut off from saying Winnie's last name by the reverberation of the microphone. "She'll be coaching the volleyball team at Trickell's School."

Winnie came up on stage, looking super elated. She eagerly took her diploma and shook Miss Grimwood's hand, before returning to her seat.

"Isaiah Babineaux." Miss Grimwood read the next name. "Isaiah is going to be working as a theme park operator for the Tunnel of Love."

"Hell yeah I am! Thanks Miss G!" the phantom yanked the diploma from Miss Grimwood's right hand without shaking her left one.

"Julia Bellaveau." the headmistress continued. "She will be attending Harvard University and majoring in Environmental Studies."

"Thank you, Miss Grimwood." Julia smiled as she got up on stage and gently took her diploma.

"Barry Boogeyman." Miss Grimwood said, as Barry came up to the stage. "Barry is taking a gap year."

"Yoink!" Barry yanked the diploma right out of Miss Grimwood's hand and ran off stage, as if he were stealing it, despite that it was his to begin with.

"Gun it, Pop!" Sybella could hear Barry yelling as he ran away. In a matter of a few seconds, the vampiress could hear tires squealing, presumably from Barry's father's car.

Miss Grimwood tried to subtly shake her head in confusion and disgust, though Sybella noticed it.

"Jonathan Caldwell." Miss Grimwood continued. "Jonathan will be working at the local movie theater."

"That's what they think! Hahahahaha!" Jonathan laughed evilly, without any context.

"Alright, then." Miss Grimwood looked confused at the werewolf's odd remark. "Next up is Amber Carlswell. Amber will be attending Leopold University to study teaching."

Sybella was incredibly happy to hear that she at least knew one person in her program. She had really liked Amber when they were in Theater class together, so Sybella was eager to get to know the other vampiress even better.

"Thank you so much, Miss Grimwood!" Amber chirped and gave the headmistress a hug rather than a handshake.

"Sarah Carpenter." Miss Grimwood stated. "Sarah will be attending Leopold University to study philosophy."

"Thanks Miss G." Sarah replied in a cool, non-excited fashion.

"Phantasma - " the microphone cut off as Miss Grimwood was going to say her last name once again. "Phantasma will be working on creating a music career post-graduation."

"Thanks, Miss G." Phanty looked like she was starting to tear up a little when she went up on stage.

"Tanis - " Once again, the sound of Miss Grimwood's voice echoed so much that the last name couldn't be heard. The headmistress tapped the microphone several times to get it to work. "Oh my, I apologize. Tanis will be attending Leopold University to study history."

"Thank you so much!" Tanis said between tears, as she shook Miss Grimwood's hand and took her diploma.

"Sybella Dracula." Miss Grimwood smiled. "Sybella is our valedictorian this year, graduating with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She will be attending Leopold University this fall to become a teacher."

"Thank you, Miss Grimwood." Sybella thanked, as she shook her beloved headmistress's hand and took her diploma. "I'll never forget this place as long as I live."

"Kathryn Ellington." Miss Grimwood read the next name. "Kathryn will be going to Kingston University and studying Sociology."

"Thank you." Kathryn smiled, looking overwhelmed with joy as the vampire took her diploma.

"Joe Erickson." Miss Grimwood said. "Joe will be working at his father's business selling homemade souvenirs in Transylvania."

The werewolf looked very modest, simply taking his diploma and going to find his seat.

"Tom Falen." Miss Grimwood announced. "Tom is going to be studying chemistry at Leopold University."

"Thanks!" the mummy said, as he took his seat next to his best friend Tanis.

"Jordan Freise." Miss Grimwood said, as the vampire oddly came up on stage and started shaking his own hand instead of the headmistress's.

"Wow, it's nice to meet me!" Jordan said in surprise.

"Jordan, you're supposed to shake my hand for the diploma, not yours." Miss Grimwood corrected.

"Oh! That makes so much more sense." Jordan breathed a sigh of relief, while shaking the headmistress's hand and taking his diploma.

"Johnny Goberth." Miss Grimwood said the only goblin graduate's name"Johnny plans to attend Moranis College to study business."

Once Johnny had taken his diploma and sat down, Miss Grimwood read the next name. "Nick Horatio. Nick will be working at a marketing firm."

"Thanks, Miss Griswald!" Nick enthusiastically said, butchering the headmistress's name.

"It's Grimwood." Miss Grimwood corrected. "Next is Gabriel Hushuka. Gabriel will be working at...the patriarchy?"

"Hell yeah! They love seeking out narcissistic assholes like me to ruin everything!" Gabriel chuckled, as the Frankenstein's monster took his diploma.

"George Jabrinsky." Miss Grimwood announced the werewolf's name. "George will be working at Max and Jax Minner Construction Company."

George took his diploma and sat down, without saying anything to Miss Grimwood. Sybella found it a little sad that people couldn't even bother to thank her, given this was such a special occasion.

"Tyler Matuska. Tyler will be working at Swamp's End General Store" Miss Grimwood said as Tyler walked up. Just as Tyler got up on stage, the floorboards suddenly caved in, causing him to fall through.

"Oh my goodness, are you okay, Tyler?" Miss Grimwood shrieked in horror.

"Eh, no harm done." the zombie shrugged, popping his broken arm back into place and taking his diploma.

"Joey Nathanson. Joey will be attending Masculinity University." Miss Grimwood informed.

"I sure will be! I can't wait to learn how to be even more of a macho ass!" Joey laughed, as the werewolf ran off stage with his diploma.

"Jacob Paring. Jacob will be writing his own book, which he wants to be the next great American novel!" Miss Grimwood shared.

"I've got this amazing idea! It's this dystopian society where everyone's divided up into districts, and they force two children from each district to fight in an arena as a sporting event! Isn't that an insane idea?" Jacob explained. "I call it, The Famished Games!"

"I'm so sorry Jacob, but I'm afraid that's already been done." Miss Grimwood sorrowfully told the werewolf.

"Damn it!" Jacob shouted, snatching his diploma angrily out of the headmistress's hand. "Back to the drawing board for me!"

"Harry Porter. Harry is going to Darrow University so he can create his own academic program that he hopes will spread across academia." Miss Grimwood introduced.

"Muggle Studies is gonna be the biggest program in the monster world someday!" the wizard bragged, taking his diploma.

"Jack Rutter." Miss Grimwood read. "Jack is also going to be pursuing a career in the music industry."

"Yep! I'm thinking of doing some sort of witty name...like Ranklin D. Froosevelt." the werewolf informed, as he took his diploma.

"Ben Sandstone." Miss Grimwood announced. "Ben is going to be working in an automotive shop, Murph's Mechanic Shop to be specific."

Ben simply nodded and took his seat.

"Daniel Sachmeyer." Miss Grimwood grew closer to the end of the list. "Daniel's going to Rome to sell selfie sticks."

"You're damn right I am! They're the best waste of money I can think of!" the werewolf exclaimed, taking his diploma from Miss Grimwood's hand.

"Sidney Scheel." Miss Grimwood announced. "Sidney is going to Leopold University to study Communication."

"Thanks, Miss G!" Sidney fist-bumped the headmistress as she proudly claimed her diploma.

"Jimothy Simothy." Miss Grimwood slightly stuttered due to the odd name. "Jimothy is going to be working at a milk factory."

"You can be sure the milk I make is always skimothy!" the mummy promised as he took his diploma.

"Brad Smythe." Miss Grimwood stated.

"Umm...Miss Grimwood, it's Brad N. Smythe!" Brad politely corrected, ensuring to put emphasis on his middle initial.

"Oh, my apologies." Miss Grimwood blushed. "Brad will be attending the University of California to study scriptwriting!"

"Thanks, Miss Grimwood!" Brad shook the headmistress's hand, as he claimed his diploma and stepped off the stage.

"And finally, Eric Stoker." Miss Grimwood concluded reading off the graduates' names. "Eric will be working this summer as a counselor at Camp Rock."

"Hell yeah! I heard Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers are gonna be camping there this year!" Eric presumed.

"Isn't that, like, just a movie?" Winnie whispered to Sybella.

"I am ecstatic to present to you...the first graduating class of Grimwood's Finishing School for Ghouls." Miss Grimwood announced, as the crowd went crazy.

"Oh my god, we did it!" Winnie screamed, as her and everyone else began throwing their hats up in the air.

"I can't believe it!" Sybella exclaimed as she caught the hat she threw in the air.

Without saying anything, everyone began running over to see their parents so they could congratulate their children. Sybella noticed that a couple of students chose to talk to their own peers for a moment. Sidney seemed to be talking to Kathryn, while Amber embraced Brad in a big hug as they both threw their caps up in the air together.

It appeared Savana, Sami and Sam were also talking to someone too about their performance. All three of them were gathered around a man wearing a suit, with huge pink sunglasses with the lenses in the shape of stars.

"Girls! I saw your performance and I was amazed!" the man shared. "You girls are going to be big stars! I'm with Decade Records, and I'd love to give you all a record deal. How would you girls like to go to a restaurant to discuss this more?"

"Oh my gosh, we'd love to grab a bite to eat with you!" Sami exclaimed. "Got any suggestions, Savana?"

"Well…" Savana dug through her pockets. "I've got this coupon to Taco Bell."

"Sold!" Sam agreed, as the three girls and the record producer headed towards the restaurant.

Before Sybella was able to make her way over to her family, she saw someone she never expected to see again. When the vampiress turned around, she noticed a vampiress with long red hair, standing next to a male vampire with black-ish hair and a red cape.

"Oh my god." Sybella gasped. "Callie?"

"Hi, Sybella." Callie meekly waved.

Sybella had spent months saddened over Callie's disappearance. After her first semester at Grimwood's, the two vampires' schedules didn't line up, and Sybella never ran into Callie despite promising that they'd stay friends at the end of their first semester courses. Following Revolta's revenge, Miss Grimwood had informed Sybella that Callie had completely left Grimwood's due to her father's wishes.

"I never thought I'd see you again!" Sybella hugged the vampiress, but kept it short once she realized perhaps the vampiress wouldn't be comfortable given it had been so long since the two had talked.

"I know...I'm sorry." Callie hung her head a little. "I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know how to get in contact with you. My father took me out of Grimwood's because he was worried about Revolta."

"I couldn't let my daughter be kidnapped, or vorse!" Sylvester defended.

"I know, and I don't blame you." Sybella promised her friend's father. "I'm just so happy to see you again. But...why are you at this ceremony? You don't even go to this school anymore."

"I felt really bad that I just disappeared without saying anything." Callie apologized again. "I knew you'd be at the ceremony, and I had to come here anyway to get my transcript for my year at Grimwood's. I really wanted to see you again."

"So, you must have graduated now too?" Sybella asked.

"Yeah. I've been going to Crystal Cove High School for the past three years, and I'm headed to Leopold University this fall." Callie informed.

"What?!" Sybella shrieked in happiness. "I'm going there too!"

"You are? That's amazing! We'll get to see each other then!" Callie joyfully confirmed.

"Hey, look! The performer's here, Miss Grimwood!" Sidney pointed out.

"That's not the artist I hired, Sidney. I'm afraid it's just an impersonator." Miss Grimwood corrected.

A very burly man wearing a t-shirt reading "Thriller," with his hair dyed black and white clown makeup smeared on his face, came up to Sidney and Miss Grimwood.

"Hee hee, motherfuckers." the man said in a deep voice.

"Sybella, you had an excellent speech!" Miss Grimwood smiled.

"It vas indeed excellent!" Sybella heard the voice of her father say from behind her.

"I'm so proud of all of you girls!" Frankenteen Senior gushed.

"You did a wonderful job, Sybella!" Phanty's father agreed.

"Best speech I've ever heard!" Mummy Daddy complimented, as he gave his own daughter a hug.

"Thanks, everyone." Sybella smiled.

"No need to thank us! You were the one who rocked that speech, dude!" Johnny said.

"I have something I want to tell you, Sybella. Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to run Grimwood's forever." Miss Grimwood sighed. "I'm getting up there in age, and have been teaching for most of my life. 13 years ago, I finally lived out my dream and opened my own school. However, now, as I'm getting closer and closer to retirement...when you're done with college, I'd like to talk about you coming here to teach. Perhaps then, I could train you a bit for a few years to eventually take over my role."

Sybella was awe-struck by Miss Grimwood's revelation. "What? I couldn't. Grimwood's is your school. I could never do as good of a job as you do."

"There's no one I'd trust more in the world to take over my role than you. Besides, you shall have plenty of training both from Leopold University, and from me after you finish your four-year degree. You'll be well equipped to take over the role, and I'm sure you'll do just as good as I do, if not better." Miss Grimwood smiled.

"I...I don't know what to say." Sybella gasped. "Grimwood's is my favorite place in the world. It's such a welcoming, transformative place for everyone."

"That's exactly why you should have it." Miss Grimwood argued. "Of course, if you're not comfortable with taking on my role, I'd never push you. However, I must admit, I'd love to see you take my place someday. I can't imagine anyone doing a better job than you would."

"No, no, I'm very comfortable!" Sybella promised, as she gave the headmistress a big hug. "Thank you!"

"Woah, that's so cool, Sybella! Congrats! You'll do a great job running Grimwood's." Mavis agreed with the headmistress.

"Oh, and Winnie, I also wanted to talk to you. Perhaps if you do train to become a gym teacher, you could teach gym with Coach Micucci." Miss Grimwood added.

"Hell yeah!" Coach Micucci, who was apparently nearby, agreed. "I'd love to have ya on board, Winkie."

"I'd love that!" Winnie's eyes lit up.

"I'm so proud of you, Winnie." Papa Werewolf howled. "Being asked to teach at the school you went to is a very high honor."

"I think this calls for a big celebration!" Tanis suggested.

"Yeah! Maybe we could go out and celebrate with some pizza at Papa Igor's?" Phantasma offered.

"Sounds like fun to me!" Elsa committed.

"Alright everybody, I'm paying for everything. No if's, and's, or but's! Ve're going to have the biggest splurge of the century to celebrate our daughters graduating!" Dracula exclaimed.

"Hey, what happened to all the moms, dude?" Johnny wondered, looking around in a very confused fashion.

"Oh, they'll be along any minute now." Sybella promised.

"Could we join you?" Sarah's father, Anthos, asked.

"Only if you want, of course." Sarah interjected.

"Yeah, we'd love to come too!" Kathryn popped into the conversation.

"Like one last big volleyball team outing." Kathryn's father Michael interjected.

"Don't forget about me!" Sidney added in.

"Sounds like you girls have a fun day ahead." Miss Grimwood smiled. "I'll let you get going now, but first, the last thing I will ask of you as your headmistress is a hug."

"You have a fun day ahead, too. You didn't think we'd celebrate our graduation without you, did you?" Sybella asked.

"Sounds wonderful!" Miss Grimwood exclaimed.

As everyone said their goodbyes, including hugging the headmistress anyway and giving Matches some affection, Sybella reflected on her time at Grimwood's. This school had truly helped shape her, and changed her in infinitely positive ways as a person. Now, the vampiress would be taking her first step into the big world, so she could help shape others and change their lives for the better.

She couldn't help but think back to when Grimwood's expanded four years ago, which made her realize how far she had come through all the amazing experiences she'd had there. The vampire princess didn't know where life was going to take her next, but one thing was for sure: it was going to be a fangtastic ride as she took on the world.

---

Author's note:

That's a wrap, folks! I had so much fun creating this story over the past few years, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it! I know this was a super long chapter too (28,500 words, which is by far the longest piece I've ever written), so if you've made it this far, thank you!

Before I get into the references, I'd like to thank a couple of very special people. Thank you so much to Mr. Spinner for proofreading the first 20 chapters of this fanfic. Your interest in my fanfic from the beginning definitely kept me inspired to write this, and even though I know things kinda fell off at the end with your busy schedule, I truly hope you know how much your proofreading efforts were appreciated! In addition, everyone on here should read his fanfic The Wolfman of Grimwood, which is another Ghoul School story with some Reluctant Werewolf elements and it is amazing!

Saving the best for last, I'd like to give the biggest thank you humanly possible to my best friend Bradford N. Smith for proofreading every single chapter of this fanfic, and even doing a little virtual writing workshop every week to brainstorm ideas and correct errors. Not only this, but for this chapter specifically, he literally spent an entire day reading this for me just so it would be perfect. I seriously can't thank you enough for all your encouragement and support over writing this fanfic. There would be so many more typos in this fanfic if not for you haha. Also, since it's pretty obvious now, I may as well just say that the character Brad N. Smythe is totally inspired by Bradford :) You also absolutely have to check out Bradford's fantasy Guess Who scripts, as well as some original series pitches, on his BradfordWritesScooby site!

I did a little twist on my challenge to myself at the end of every semester, and instead of giving everyone who appeared during the semester a line in this chapter, I gave every student and teacher who appeared in the entire fanfic a line. I didn't want to go crazy and give every random character that ever appeared a line, because that would just be too much and would seem forced, but I'm proud of myself that I was able to give every character a line in this!

In addition, I gave Barry the last name of "Boogeyman." In this universe, I decided it's a similar thing to how "Dracula" is Sybella's last name, since in the Boogeyman is seen as a single entity, and not a monster species like a werewolf or a mummy.

One last time, it's reference time, and there were a lot of references in this!

- Jordan thinking Yoga was "Yogi," and Coach Micucci mentioning that Yogi steals picnic baskets, of course references Yogi Bear.

- The book Tom and Charlie reference in their presentation, "Mystery Mask Mix Up," is the title of a Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? episode which includes a racist scene of Scooby and Shaggy dressing up like Chinese waiters.

- The girls reminiscing over doing ballet in the gym when they were 9 years old is a callback to a scene from the Ghoul School film, where Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy do ballet with the girls.

- Kenzie mentioning she was going up to Oakhaven this summer is a reference to the name of the town in Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost.

- Sybella wearing a shirt that says "Ghoulsome" on it was a reference to an exclusive Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School t-shirt sold at Hot Topic, which featured Sybella on the front with the word "Ghoulsome."

- When the girls go to McDonald's, all the celebrity meals were references to the fact that McDonald's has begun making celebrity-themed meals in real life. Seriously, like a BTS meal just came out while I was writing this chapter haha. The Travis Scott meal is a real one you can buy at McDonald's, though it's not actually called the "It's Lit" meal. There's no Notorious B.I.G. Meal or a Migos "Bad and BBQ" meal lol, though the latter was a riff on their song "Bad and Boujee," which if you haven't heard, don't listen to it, because that's an hour of your life you'll never get back. And yes, I know the song's only 5 minutes long, but the other 55 minutes will be questioning all your life choices up until that point haha.

- The old man and his DeLorean that Sidney conjures is a reference to the film Back to the Future.

- As I've mentioned before, Sybella's Yearbook team (Savana, Sami and Sam) were inspired by a real-life band named Avenue Beat. Their band name in this chapter, Street Rhythm, is a parody of their real-life name.

- Another Avenue Beat reference! Sam joking that the Yodeling Wal-Mart kid was going to come to play at the graduation references that the real-life band actually went on tour with the Yodeling Wal-Mart kid. If I could link videos on this site I would, because there's a super funny one of the band on tour with the Yodeling Wal-Mart kid, where they ask him how he's doing and (keep in mind he's like 9) and he replies something like "oh, just ballin' every day like usual" or something. It's hilarious haha.

- And another Avenue Beat reference! "Delight," which Sami says is the first song they're going to sing, is the name of one of the real band's songs.

- Sam saying "Goodnight St. Louis" at the end of their performance is a reference to the Ghoul School film ending with Shaggy saying the line "Like, meet us in St. Louis!"

- Mr. Kasem's advice "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!" was the phrase that Casey Kasem used to sign off of every American Top 40 show, which he hosted. I thought that would be a nice last line for his character to have :)

- Mr. Menville's advice, "Be the change you want to see in the world!" is a famous quote by Oscar Wilde, which is one of my favorite quotes.

- Winnie coaching volleyball at Trickell's School is a reference to Trickell's Triquid, a 'water substitute' that was sold in "Revenge of the Man Crab" (from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated) at a volleyball game. Maybe a bit of a stretch for a reference, but I thought it fit haha.

- Isaiah's last name being Babineaux is a reference to a character of the same name from the show Girl Meets World.

- Amber's last name being Carlswell was inspired by Alice Carlswell, Mr. Carlswell's (who dressed up as The Creeper in "Jeepers, It's the Creeper" from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?) daughter from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

- Sarah Carpenter is named after singer Sabrina Carpenter's sister.

- George working at Max and Jax Minner Construction Company is a reference to characters from "Battle of the Humungonauts" (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated).

- Tyler working at Swamp's End General Store is a reference to the name of the store the gang visits in "Which Witch Is Which?" (Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?).

- Jacob's story, The Famished Games, is a reference to The Hunger Games, hence the running joke where he keeps coming up with story ideas that have already been done in a very famous way.

- Harry Porter is a reference to Harry Potter. Muggle Studies references the name that wizards call humans in that Harry Potter franchise. In addition, the college that he plans to attend, Darrow University, is from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

- Jack's last name being Rutter, the fact that he's pursuing a music career, and wanting to name himself 'Ranklin D. Froosevelt' references the real name of Ritt Momney, a musician who recently became popular after doing a cover of Corinne Bailey Rae's "Put Your Records On."

- Murph's Mechanic Shop is a reference to the gang's mechanic for the Mystery Machine, who is mentioned in "It's Mean, It's Green, It's the Mystery Machine!" from What's New, Scooby-Doo?.

- Daniel selling selfie sticks in Rome is a personal reference. I traveled to Rome in 2015 and was shocked to see that there are literally souvenir booths selling selfie sticks everywhere lol. It's a huge money-maker there, for whatever reason.

- Eric's last name being Stoker references Bram Stoker, the author of the book Dracula.

- The label that Street Rhythm signs to, Decade Records, is a reference to the name of the record company the gang visits in "The Diabolical Disc Demon" from The Scooby-Doo Show.

- Sami's line "Do you wanna grab a bite to eat?" followed by Savana's comment "I've got this coupon to Taco Bell" is a reference to lyrics in the song "Delight." Ironically, in real life, the band signed their record deal to the Valory Music Company in a Taco Bell, which possibly inspired those lyrics in their song.

- Callie attending Crystal Cove High School references the school the gang went to in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

- I've mentioned these references before, but in case anyone forgot, Sarah's father Anthos is a reference to the villain from "The Warlock of Wimbledon" from The Scooby-Doo Show, and Callie's father Sylvester references the vampire from "A Fit Night Out for Bats" from The Richie Rich / Scooby-Doo Show.

- Don Knotts' advice ("Don't do anything I wouldn't do! And there's a lot I wouldn't do!") mirrors the same thing he told Daphne in the final chapter of another fanfic I've written, Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake. Don Knotts eating bananas and chocolate custard references what he gave the gang as a snack in The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode "The Spooky Fog."

- Speaking of Coast to Coast, Eric getting a job at Camp Rock and commenting about Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers camping there this year is the exact same job that Daphne's boss took in the last chapter of that fanfic. Winnie's line "Isn't that just a movie?" also is the same thing that Shaggy said in response. I thought it would be quite fitting, given Eric was written as a very dumb character, to have him get the same ending as Daphne's boss (who was similarly dumb) haha.

Thank you all so, so much for reading this fanfic! For anyone wondering if I plan to write more in the future, the answer is definitely yes, but I don't have anything concrete in mind that I'm going to start publishing right away. I have a few vague ideas of fanfics I might want to write, so stay tuned!

Looking at how I ended the final author's note for Coast to Coast, I apparently told everyone to be themselves and go cuddle someone lol. Of course, there was a context for me saying it there, but why not end this one the same way without any context lol?

That being said, thank you for reading, always be yourself, and go cuddle someone! hahaha