Disclaimer: I do not own Monster High, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.

Monster High: In Session

Chapter one: An old end and a new beginning

Old Salem, Oregon is a relatively small town located relatively close to the ocean; it was about ten miles from the ocean tops. With a population of an even one-hundred and fifty-thousand as of the latest census, Old Salem was one of the smallest towns in the state in terms of population. However, that was only if just the human population of Old Salem was taken into account, for you see it wasn't just humans living in Old Salem.

There were also monsters.

Yes, you heard that right; monsters such as the ghosts and goblins from fairy tales that parents would read to their young children at night when putting them to bed lived alongside the humans or 'normies' as the monster population would refer to humans as. The monster populace of Old Salem did boost the overall population of the town, but not by a whole lot; the monsters added only two-thousand and seventy-nine, barely more than one seventy-seventh than the number of humans that lived there.

As such, the monsters were vastly outnumbered by the humans, although the two groups tended to live mutually and not cause each other any trouble. The two groups also had a tendency to live separated from one another, with the monsters all living in one part of town while the humans lived everywhere else. Granted, there were some humans living in the monster neighborhoods of Old Salem, and there were a few monsters that lived in the areas populated by the humans.

…One such example of monsters living in the human part of town was Dracula Helwing, a vampire, who lived in a very inexpensive apartment building in the poorer part of that neighborhood. Dracula was a moderately tall and handsome-faced man, standing at six feet two inches. His face was framed by the bangs of his jet black hair, the rest of which was bound in a single man's ponytail that was long enough to reach halfway down his shoulder blades.

As befitting of someone who lived in the projects of Old Salem, Dracula was not dressed like someone who was well-off; he wore a long-sleeved light gray shirt under a red plaid shirt that was completely open in the front, a baggy pair of blue jeans held up with a simple black leather belt, and a clunky looking pair of white sneakers. Dracula also wore a simple lanyard around his neck, attached to which were some keys. Mind you, the whole ensemble that Dracula wore was not what a lot of humans would first think of when imagining a vampire, but it was all that the man could afford.

Dracula was sitting at a relatively small table in his apartment with Draculaura, his adopted teenaged daughter. Just like her father, Draculaura was a vampire; she also had many of the same traits as him, such as pale pastel lavender skin, ever-so-slightly pointed ears, and of course a pair of vampiric fangs. Her hair, while also black like Dracula's, had streaks of rich purple or hot pink in it, and as long enough to have bound in twin ponytails that fall down her back, simply so like her adoptive father's lone ponytail.

Also similar to Dracula, Draculaura was dressed like what one would expect from someone who lived in the projects of Old Salem; a light brown baggy long-sleeved shirt under a light gray baggy t-shirt, a pair of baggy cargo shorts held up with a belt, a pair of white socks and a pair of sneakers that looked similarly as clunky as what her father wore. Not very fashionable for a teen girl like Draculaura, but it's all that could be afforded.

The two vampires were sitting across from each other at the table, eating a meager meal that was basically one bowl of instant ramen for each of them. Looking at the bowl of ramen before her, Draculaura remarked, "We're eating ramen again?" Looking up from her meal to her dad, Draculaura said, "Do you know how much sodium is in this stuff?"

"We're vampires, sweetie," Dracula replied in a dry tone, "We don't necessarily have to worry about taking in too much sodium. Besides, this is all that I could get with what we were able to scrounge up." Draculaura sighed in a resigned, mildly annoyed tone as she took her fork and started eating what little food she was able to get for breakfast today. The vampire teen girl was at least thankful that her father remembered that shrimp flavored ramen was her favorite.

Despite the dryness of his tone that he used when he admonished Draculaura for complaining about what little food that they were able to get, Dracula understood that his daughter was hungry for something more substantial than the diet of an average human college student. Dracula truly wished that he could do more to make sure that his daughter had sufficient food to eat, even more so since there's only so much that they can benefit from by consuming blood.

At least Dracula and his daughter have good, friendly neighbors that help them out from time to time; the one old human lady who lives in the apartment across from the Helwings regularly sends a selection of baked goods that she makes their way; Dracula, thankful for the generosity of said old lady, has lost track of the number of times where he and Draculaura had dinners that consisted entirely of baked goods that they had received from the old human lady.

Once Draculaura had scarfed down what little food there was in her meager morning meal, she got up from the table, went over to the sofa in the living room section of the apartment, grabbed her backpack that was sitting on the one far end seat, and then turned around to face Dracula as she slung her backpack on over her back. "Well dad, I ought to be getting to school now. I'll see you when I get out of school later today."

"Have a good day at school, sweetie," Dracula replied as he waived his adopted child good-bye before she proceeded to head over to Old Salem High, a regular public high school. Due to its location in the projects area of the town, Old Salem High's overall population, both students and staff, was over ninety percent human. Draculaura stood out like a sore thumb among her fellow students as she was one of the very few students over at Old Salem High who wasn't human.

Dracula, after a minute since Draculaura closed the door behind her when she left for school, turned his attention back to the bowl of instant ramen that sat at his place at the table before him. He chose some manner of spicy chicken ramen, as spicy foods were the only kinds of foods that were able to 'get his taste buds dancing' as the vampire man puts it. He took another bite out of his own meager meal, discovering that in the time since he sent Draculaura off that his ramen had gone cold.

Understanding a bit of his child's resentment to having to rely on such meager rations for daily meals, Dracula nonetheless continued to eat, as he also understood the value of taking what one can get. As he continued to eat his (now cold) spicy chicken-flavored instant ramen, Dracula was once again finding himself with a desire to do more to have a better life. It wasn't a desire that he had for his sake alone, either; Dracula wanted to do a lot more to give Draculaura the life that he felt she deserved.

What kind of a father would he be if he didn't want to dote on his adopted daughter?

Draculaura sat in her first period class with the rest of her classmates, feeling a bit insecure in that class as she always did as she was literally the only monster in the class. The class didn't start up right away, as they had to wait around for the morning announcements to be announced over the intercom system of the school. Finally, a pinging sound coming from the intercom system speaker in the one upper corner in the front of the classroom signaled the beginning of the morning announcements being played.

The students in the class, aside from the meek Draculaura, all cheered a bit as the announcements were about to be made, since that meant that they could get on with their day. "Alright, settle down the lot of you," ordered that class's teacher, an early sixties woman who was a head shorter than Draculaura's father but looked to be roughly double the vampire man's weight (an estimate on how much the woman weighed). She had a bush of curly, bright orange-red hair, red-colored horn-rimmed glasses, and she wore a pastel cream shirt with yellow polka-dots, a pastel skirt that reached halfway down her shins, white socks and black slip-on shoes.

After the students in that class had settled down, the person speaking over the intercom began to make the morning announcements. "Good morning, Old Salem High," a moderately young-sounding woman's voice said, "These are the morning announcements for today. Firstly, there will be no classes on Monday, as there will be repairs made to some of the student bathrooms in light of some of the toilets breaking down."

This announcement drew cheering from all of the students in Draculaura's class; the vampire girl herself, although she didn't cheer, was likewise glad for the day off of school to look forward to, if only because she'd be able to eat at home because Old Salem High could no longer afford to provide students lunch for free. "In local news here in Old Salem," the woman speaking over the intercom continued, "This Friday night will see the football game between our school's team, the Old Salem Wombats, and the team from Old Salem Magnet, the Old Salem Wildcats."

A good number of the students in the class scoffed indifferently at the news about their school's football team going up against the football team of the magnet high school in Old Salem, which was the only other high school in the town. Draculaura was among the many in her class who did not care for sports, and would be just as happy if the Wildcats beat the Wombats as she would if things went the other way around. Regardless, she wouldn't be attending the football game due to lack of interest.

"Continuing in local news," the woman making the announcements went on, "Old Salem mayor Henry Ruben is expected to receive Ramses de Nile, one of the candidates running for mayor over in Old Salem's sister city of New Salem, as a guest of honor at a fundraiser dinner that will be held at Old Salem City Hall later tonight. This came as a surprise as another notable person from New Salem, Amaterasu Kyubi, is already expected to attend the dinner."

This part of the morning announcements is what got Draculaura's attention. With piqued interest, the vampire girl shifted her gaze over to the intercom system speaker in the one upper corner in the front of the classroom; news about Old Salem's sister city of New Salem, which is populated mainly by monsters, always stuck out to Draculaura. She had always felt out of place living in Old Salem, as the vast majority of its population consisted of humans, and wondered what it'd be like to live in a mainly monster-populated city.

Draculaura was even partly aware of who Ramses de Nile was; he's an extraordinarily wealthy mummy that is aiming to achieve political power by becoming New Salem's mayor, hence why he's running for mayor. Draculaura once saw a newspaper article that had a picture of the mummy man in it; he stood alongside two teen girls, one that looked to be about Draculaura's age and the other looking to be a few years older than that. The article said that the two girls were Ramses's daughters, but the vampire girl didn't recall seeing a name for either of the two mummy girls in that article.

The name of the other New Salem resident expected to attend Mayor Ruben's charity dinner tonight was completely lost on Draculaura, however; it sounded vaguely Japanese to her, so maybe it was the name of a Japanese monster, or 'yokai' as they are also called. Either way, the vampire girl had no idea who exactly Amaterasu Kyubi was; maybe if she looked into that dinner over at City Hall later, Draculaura may learn more. But she didn't want to attract undue stares from people who thought she was being weird.

The morning announcements went on for a bit longer until they finally ended and the teacher of Draculaura's homeroom class began the class period. This class was a math class, and despite how she was one of the best in the class at the subject, Draculaura still did not achieve perfect grades regularly, although she still did well enough to pass. Some adults who took note of the vampire girl's performance in the math class felt that she could do better, with some of said teachers citing how a mix of the class being at a time where many students were still trying to wake up and Draculaura not receiving proper nutrition due to how low-income her family was being key factors that limit her abilities in class.

Regardless, Draculaura got right to work on her assignment when it was passed out.

While his adopted daughter toiled away in the American public school system, Dracula was at work at the handyman business that he was employed at, a job that he got partly because his superior physical strength as a vampire allowed him to do more than any of his human co-workers. They did not begrudge Dracula for this; in fact, some of them were rather glad to have someone who on his own could do some heavy lifting that usually required at least three (human) people at a minimum to do without a machine.

As the vampire man was sitting at a table with two of his human co-workers during lunch break, Dracula and the others were approached by their boss, a mid-fifties human man who was balding; this man was fair-skinned, had a bit of a paunch, and wore a buttoned-up blue plaid shirt worn under suspenders attached to his tan slacks, plus a pair of brown shoes. When he reached the three men, the boss gestured to Dracula.

"Hey, Drac," the boss said as he addressed his vampiric employee, "There's this pair of men who are here to see you."

Dracula, with piqued interest, looked up at his boss with a wry eyebrow. "…There are men here to see me?" Dracula asked, sounding genuinely confused.

Shrugging in a manner to show that he was likewise lost on the matter, the boss said, "They asked for you specifically, saying that they need to see you as soon as possible."

"Yo Boris, do you know who those shmucks that are asking for Drac here are?" one of the two human workers sitting with Dracula asked.

"They work in some big important lab located over in New Salem," the boss, revealed to be named Boris, explained. With an amused smirk, Boris continued, "The thing is that they're both human, instead of monsters like what I was expecting when the secretary told me a pair of guys from New Salem wanted to see me for something."

With a shrug, the second human sitting with Dracula remarked, "Well not everyone living over in New Salem are monsters." Turning to regard his vampiric co-worker, the second human man continued, "Just like how everyone living here in Old Salem are humans."

Dracula, knowing full well what his human co-worker was trying to make a point of, nodded a few times in agreement before he turned to look up at Boris again. With the look of mild confusion in his expression persisting, Dracula asked, "Do you at least have the names of those two guys, boss?"

"Some scientist looking older guy named Victor Frankenstein and some guy in his early thirties dressed like a wizard," Boris explained, "The younger guy is clearly some manner of assistant to the old scientist." Figuring that he had to go see what these two guys that came here for him wanted with him, Dracula got up and went over to Boris's office, where Victor and the wizard guy were waiting for him.

…

Upon entering Boris's office, Dracula spotted the two men inside that had to be Victor and the wizard guy that were looking for him. Victor was dressed in a white lab coat worn over a white long-sleeved white shirt and buttoned-vest that was blue and pastel blue stripped, a pair of maroon slacks held up with a belt, a pair of black work boots, and a pair of black leather gloves that went halfway up his forearms. Victor was a fair-skinned man, and his graying hair was all slicked back and long enough to reach halfway down his shoulder blades.

As for Victor's wizard companion, he was also fair-skinned, but looked much younger. He had jet black hair that reached the top of his shoulders, and he wore a blue long-sleeved robe that reached his ankles, a pair of brown soft leather boots, a slightly pointed and drooping wizard's hat that matched his robe, and he held a simple wizard's staff in his right hand. Dracula, as he stepped into the office, was unsure what to make of either of the men.

"My…boss here said that the two of you wanted to speak with me?" Dracula said in a tone that was more asking than stating a fact. When he had spoken up, Victor and the wizard both turned around to face him.

Seeing the vampire man standing there, Victor said, "Ah, about time that we found you, Dracula van Helwing." Taking a few steps closer to Dracula, the old scientist man held his right hand out to offer a handshake as he said, "I'm Dr. Victor von Frankenstein, and my associate here is my assistant Allister Aesirson, a very talented mage working for me at the labs over in New Salem."

"Mr. Frankenstein said that there's something big he wants to offer you," Allister remarked.

"Tell me, is there somewhere here at your place of work where we may have a private conversation?" Victor asked, "Some of what I wish to discuss with you is of a rather sensitive nature, and I'd rather that prying ears and eyes aren't around."

The vampire man was getting more questions than answers as his time with Victor and Allister continued on. Even so, it was clear that Victor and his assistant were inviting Dracula to join them for something, and vampires had a thing for accepting invitations. Gently shaking his head, Dracula said, "Sorry, but the station here doesn't offer a whole lot in the ways of privacy."

Nodding once in an understanding manner, Victor said, "That's just as well. I was planning to invite you out to join Allister and me for lunch, so we can have our private talk there."

Now Dracula was even more confused by this seemingly eccentric old scientist man; he knows who Dracula is, clearly has some sort of plan in mind for him, and is even inviting him to join him and his wizard assistant for lunch. The vampire man really wanted to know just exactly what it was that Victor wanted with him. Deciding to see this through so he could get to the bottom of what was going on, Dracula nodded once in agreement.

"I'm going to have to clock out first, but that shouldn't take me long," Dracula informed Victor and Allister. The two of them nodded in understanding agreement, and after Dracula had explained things to Boris and got the okay from him, he clocked out of work and left with the scientist and the wizard. Dracula was surprised, when he walked out of his place of work, to see a limo parked outside, and it was over to said limo that Victor and Allister were walking to, as if it was as casual as Dracula having to walk to work.

Turning around to look at the clearly surprised Dracula, Victor asked, "Well? Aren't you going to come along with us?"

Dracula, knowing full well that his daughter would be jealous of him when he told her that he got to ride in a limo while she was at school, got his sense of self back before he walked over to the limo, climbed into the back with Victor while Allister got in the driver's seat, then took off for what was the fanciest restaurant in town, which wasn't saying all that much as they were still in Old Salem.

Dracula soon found himself seated in a secluded booth in a steakhouse restaurant, with Victor sitting right in front of him and Allister sitting on Victor's left. Despite how the restaurant that the three men were eating at specialized in steak, none of the three men had ordered any steak or items that were beef; Dracula got a plate of chicken tenders, Victor had salmon, and Allister got some sort of pork dish.

Victor said that the whole meal was on him, and that Dracula shouldn't have to feel hesitant to order whatever he wanted; as such, the vampire man sprung for some leafy green salad that had bits of fruit in it; he also got some 'gourmet' mac n' cheese side dish and a whole baked sweet potato, and the largest sized glass of soda served at the restaurant. After polishing off his mac n' cheese side dish, Dracula said, "So, Victor."

The old scientist man and his wizard assistant both turned to regard Dracula as he spoke with notable seriousness in his tone. "Your assistant here said that you had something big that you wanted to offer me," the vampire man continued, "And that you wanted our talk to be private." Arching a wry eyebrow, Dracula said, "So tell me. What is it that you went through so much trouble to get me here with you?"

Victor crossed his fingers together as he rested his elbows on the table. His hands were up, and he rested his chin on his locked fingers. "…Dracula, I'm going to be honest with you," Victor began, closing his eyes as he spoke in a serious manner. Opening his eyes again and giving Dracula a serious look, Victor said flatly, "New Salem is in danger."

Dracula's eyes widened a bit out of surprise when he heard what Victor had just told him. "New Salem is in danger?" the vampire man asked, sounding just a little bit incredulous, "What are you going on about?"

"You heard the news from New Salem, right?" Victor asked as he gestured at Dracula with a wave of his hand, "Ramses de Nile is one of the candidates running for the office of mayor over in New Salem, where I and a lot of others all live."

"Your point?" Dracula asked, arching a wry eyebrow.

With another gesturing wave, the old scientist man said, "Even without Allister's ability to divine the future, it can be told by a good number of people that a lot of what Ramses plans to carry out should he win and get sworn in as mayor would result in a lot more harm to New Salem than good. You know about the projects here in Old Salem, right?"

Nodding twice in an affirmative manner, Dracula replied, "Yeah. I live in the projects."

"Imagine the whole of New Salem, aside from the one lone neighborhood where all of the city's wealthy elite lives, being as poor, run down and occasionally crime stricken as the projects here in Old Salem," Allister remarked, a hint of serious grimness in his tone and expression, "That's basically what New Salem has to look forward to if Ramses wins the mayoral elections and gets to carry out his plans that he says is in the city's best interests, but in reality are just meant to boost his already insane wealth."

The vampire man was taken back a bit out of surprise to hear what Victor and Allister were telling him. If what they said was true, and Dracula often did not question the divination skills of wizards such as Allister, then New Salem as a whole was doomed to become just as badly off as the Old Salem projects, and that neighborhood only made up a small portion of Old Salem as a whole. Still, that was the difference between Dracula and the two men who invited him out to lunch; they lived in the danger zone whereas he didn't.

Gesturing his right hand at Victor and Allister, Dracula asked, "And you two believe that bringing this to my attention would help things out…how, exactly?"

"Here's the deal," Victor began, "I need you to move over to New Salem and enter the elections for the office of the city's mayor." Dracula, who was taking a sip from his soda at that time, spat some out due to sheer shock over what the old scientist man was asking of him. Gesturing with his right hand, Victor explained, "It shouldn't be too big an issue. Your family's line had lived in the New Salem area for years on end, and you yourself used to live over in New Salem for long enough to meet the minimum residency requirements to run for mayor, even though you moved here to Old Salem a while ago."

What Victor said was true. The Helwing family line, of which Dracula drew what little pride he still had left in his life, has quite a bit of history over in the primarily monster populated city, enough of a history to give Dracula's theoretical candidacy for mayor of New Salem a good bit of standing power, at least enough to stand up to Ramses de Nile in any capacity. However, all that was left of the Helwing family line was Dracula himself; Draculaura, who was adopted thus not a true blood member of the Helwing family line, was only able to help carry on the line because she was literally the only child Dracula had. Ramses de Nile, who had a loving wife and two daughters that were his by blood, painted a much better and more stable picture for the folks of New Salem than a single father raising his adopted child.

Victor and Allister could both see the skepticism in the face of the vampire man. "You don't think that you can do it, do you?" Victor asked, piquing Dracula's interest and getting him out of his thoughts, "Well no need to worry. Allister and I, as well as a number of men in both the mad scientist and mage communities of New Salem, will cover everything that you need in order to enter the running for mayor."

"Do you think the people living in New Salem would even want to vote for me?" Dracula asked, "I mean, I would be going there as a single father of a very low-income family, also I have virtually zero skill and experience in politics." Gently shaking his head, Dracula said, "I'm just not seeing how I'd be mayor material."

"Like I said, we'll cover a lot of what you need," Victor replied in a casual tone, "And there's no need for you to worry about being 'low income'." Dracula watched as the old scientist man took out a small slip of paper and slid it on the table to him. Dracula soon recognized it as a lottery ticket. "…Allister and the other mages in New Salem divined the future to get these numbers," Victor explained, "This lottery ticket will net you an incredibly large jackpot that will cover any expenses that you would ever have to worry about."

Dracula had a wry look of suspicion on his face as he looked at Victor and Allister. "…I thought that it was illegal to use magic to divine the future to obtain winning lottery tickets," Dracula said, "Not to mention how there are safeguards in place to prevent such magics anyway."

Nodding in agreement, Allister said, "For the monster-ran lotteries, yes." Pointing to the lottery ticket that Victor had pulled out, the young wizard explained, "That's for a normie-ran lottery which, although is immoral to do so, is not illegal for us wizards to foresee winning numbers, and said normie-ran lotteries have no such protections like what monster-ran lotteries do."

The vampire man still regarded the lottery ticket with a skeptical look. "…I still have some issues with all that you guys are doing," Dracula admitted.

"As do I," Victor admitted in a mildly lamenting tone. The older scientist man let out a sigh as he gathered some of this thoughts. "…I regret that such things had to be done," Victor admitted, "And that we, those being myself, Allister and our respective communities over in New Salem, were the ones who had to resort to doing such things." Victor had is eyes closed for a bit as he reflected on the lengths that he and his fellows had to resort to. Opening his eyes as he put all of his focus on Dracula, Victor continued, "But given what would happen otherwise, if Ramses de Nile wins the mayoral elections in New Salem, what we did to build up what we need to stop that mad mummy's bid for mayor is the lesser of two evils."

"Besides, imagine what good can be done with the funds you're being offered here," Allister said to the vampire man while pointing to the lottery ticket, "Sure, how said funds were obtained wasn't moral, but the funds in and of themselves can be used to do very moral things, plenty of which will help sell the idea of you being mayor of New Salem to the citizens."

Dracula still was unsure of accepting that lottery ticket; granted, the monster law that bars using divination magic to foretell winning lottery numbers (as well as safeguard spells that prevent such magics anyway) had a surprisingly overlooked loophole in that there's no such protection for the lotteries held by humans, meaning that, technically, what Victor, Allister and their fellows did was actually perfectly legal. Dracula was surprised that normies would so blatantly fail to think of the possibility of someone from the monster community using magic to obtain winning lottery numbers from the future via divination.

…But a good point was made in how this (technically legal) potential windfall, while immoral, could be used to do things that were very much moral. It also helped that it would give Dracula the financial standing he would need as someone aiming to run for mayor, should he decide to accept the offer and work with Victor and Allister in whatever they needed him for. The vampire man still had some reservations about accepting the lottery ticket and begin working together with the two men, but one thing suddenly popped up into his mind, a thing that gave him a lot to think about in regards to if he really ought to take the lottery ticket;

Draculaura.

The vampire man realized that, should he accept the offer that Victor and his assistant were making him, then he could finally provide his adopted daughter with a life where she had more to eat than a college student's diet and the generosity of neighbors in the apartment building that they live in. And it wasn't just a shot at better food, either; Dracula and Draculaura would have a home that was far more suitable to them than a small two-bedroom apartment in the projects of Old Salem, and Dracula was certain that his child would love having money to burn, going on trips to shop at a mall like all teenage girls, monster or human, have a tendency to prefer.

Dracula closed his eyes and he thought a lot about all that would entail should he accept working with Victor and his fellows. He rested his elbows on the table as he locked his fingers together and rested his chin on said locked fingers. After a few tense moments for Victor and Allister, they saw Dracula open his eyes as he gave them a serious look. Dracula ended up telling the two men something that he had no idea how it would change things that were to come.

"…I'm in."

END, MONSTER HIGH: IN SESSION CHAPTER ONE

Author's notes;

…Yes, I'm actually doing this. I actually got the inspiration to start work on a Monster High story when I was doing research on the Monster High series back when I was working on chapter eleven of my Yu-gi-oh! 5Ds story (no, I am not joking). The world of the series was surprisingly interesting to me, like it was a g-rated version of Rosario Vampire. After letting the story mull around in my head a bit, I decided to actually start work on at least the first couple of chapters. I have no idea how well this story might catch on, but as I always say in situations like this, there's only one way to find out about that.