I avoided my father for the next two days. I felt bad about what I had said, but I knew that if I wanted anything to change; I couldn't crawl back to him and apologize. I had to be strong. If it wasn't for Samantha, avoiding my father would be so much easier. However, my father was staying up during the day now. So, I found myself spending more time in my room than I wanted to. Uncle Vlad had replaced my coffin with a bed, and I was finding myself not sleeping as well as normal.

The day before I was going to shop with Clawdeen, I found my way up to the attic. It was super dusty, and I was sneezing left and right. Unable to stop myself. The bats in the belfry squeaked in protest and fluttered around the roof trying to find their way out. I apologized to them, trying to make my way back down when a bat fluttered down and landed on my shoulder.

I instantly fell in love with him, and fed him some fruits in my room. Keeping him a secret from my family. He especially loved chirping and nuzzling my cheek when he landed on my shoulder. I named him Count Fabulous and gave him some old doll clothes to liven him up a bit. Of course he didn't like them at first, tearing them off and fluttering away. I would get upset because I liked those clothes and eventually he would nuzzle my hands to apologize. I prepared him a little bed of old clothes in my closet, the least likely place that my family would go and find him.

A text interrupted our bonding time as I fed him some apricots, and I quickly checked it.

Meet outside n 15?

"Time to go shopping, Fabu!" I grinned at him, feeling truthfully excited about something. The bat squeaked at me and went back to his fruit. I hurried about and searched high and low for something more…normie. Nothing extravagant, but nothing too plain.

Clawdeen hadn't sent me a message demanding why I had kissed her brother's cheek, so I assumed that Clawd hadn't said anything to her yet. Which I was super glad about, but I felt bad as well. Why did I do that? I was dating Valentine…wasn't I? Also, Clawd was Clawdeen's brother? If I wanted to be friends with Clawdeen that meant that I couldn't be having feelings of her brother. Right?

If it was back in the 17th century, Clawdeen would've been ecstatic if her brother was to court me. Not only did that meant that she'd be closer to me, but back then that also meant her social status would increase, and her options to marry would be better. Now, if I were to date her brother – not that I was considering that at all – she would gain nothing from it.

Of course, this was completely hypothetical. I was in love with Valentine.

I settled for a pink skirt, fish net stockings, and a cute white button up shirt. After I blew a kiss towards Count Fabulous and wished him a goodnight I hit the light switch and closed the door.

A ring on the doorbell echoed throughout the house. I hurried down the hall, checking my purse for my wallet, makeup, and phone before starting down the stairs. Samantha had gotten to the door first and was talking to Clawdeen and another girl. Well, she was trying to talk to Clawdeen, but was receiving a cold shoulder. The other girl was replying sweetly, like she had no reason to hate Samantha.

The new girl interrupted whatever Samantha was trying to say by waving enthusiastically. "Whoa, Laura, killer heels! Where did you get them?"

I waved a hand, grabbing my parasol, "One of my friends is way into heels, and she can get her hands on anything. Er…" I trailed off, looking at her inquisitively; Clawdeen stepped forwards and jerked a thumb towards her friend.

"This is Frankie, she lives across the way," Clawdeen explained, "She's new to the school as well. I hope you don't mind that I asked her to tag along."

"More the merrier!" I responded cheerfully, "Nice to meet you, Frankie!"

"Nice to meet you too, Laura," Frankie said, extending her hand. I went to shake her hand but Clawdeen guided me towards the door.

"Ready to go shopping for some Americanized clothing, Lala?" Clawdeen asked, as I hurriedly yanked a coat down from the coat rack. She continued to push me out the door when Samantha stopped us. Frankie was already out the door, and turned to look at us curiously.

"Laura, you don't need the umbrella there isn't any rain," Samantha replied, cheerfully. Smoothly, she reached down and gripped my parasol. She was stronger than she looked as she tugged the umbrella from my grasp. Clawdeen's hands tightened into fists, but before she could react in any other way, I grabbed another parasol by the door and stepped outside.

"I like to be ready for the unexpected," I shot back, ushering Clawdeen outside before shutting the door quickly. I sighed loudly and smiled at the two girls. "Thanks for doing this with me; I would be totes embarrassed if I showed up as a fashion faux pas!"

"Don't mention it! It's an excuse for me to get out and spend my allowance. Let's shop till we drop, girls!" Clawdeen said as we started down the street. "My brother is being an idiot and won't drive us, says he has to take Cleo to the spa for something," she rolled her eyes and growled slightly. I stared at her in curiosity.

"Who's Cleo?" I questioned, hiding under the umbrella from the sunrays. I was wearing like SPF 100 so the sun wouldn't burn my skin, but I knew that after a while it would wear out and then I would be burning up. Literally. Thank god for parasols, jackets, and sunscreen. I'd be toast!

"My ex-best friend and my brother's current squeeze," Clawdeen growled, curling her hands into fists. "Ugh, that…She was just using me to get to my brother!"

I felt my chest tighten slightly. He had a girlfriend?

No! I shouldn't be thinking that about Clawd. I was dating Valentine, let alone the fact that Clawd is Clawdeen's brother.

"Don't be so harsh on Cleo, she means well...er...sometimes..." Frankie defended, and then opened her mouth like she was going to prove it but then closed her mouth.

"God, she is totally all wrong for my brother! If you think of the most high maintenance person you know, double – no triple that and you have Cleo!" she crossed her arms and let out a growl, adding, "I would rather have you date him, honestly, and you're a vampire!" Clawdeen quickly covered her mouth and looked down at me, "No offense."

"None taken," I said with a smile towards her, "but I don't think my father would be too happy about me dating a werewolf," I frowned and stared at the pavement. "Also, a werewolf and a vampire dating? That sounds like a punch line to a really offense joke."

Frankie giggled, and I froze. Oh no. She probably thought we were insane! Or worse- Wait! My father told me that everyone on Radcliffe Way was some sort of monster. If Frankie lived across the way from me, she must be one too!

They both saw me staring and Frankie quickly held her hands up and giggled. "Don't worry, Lala, I'm a monster as well! My father and mother created me just sixteen days ago!" she said with a smile and then reached towards her hand and rubbed a spot. Eventually, the skin colour rubbed off and a mint green colour showed.

"You must go through a lot of concealer," I murmured without thinking. They both giggled and Clawdeen threw her arm around my shoulders.

"You are going to get along with the others great! Which reminds me, we are meeting up with Blue and Abbey at the mall. We all need to look killer, there is a dance coming up and we all need to look fierce," she said as we stopped at a bus stop. "Hopefully you brought change, but if you didn't I'll pay for you to get on."

I reached into my purse, pulled out my wallet, proceeded to open the coin portion. After digging around I held out some coins towards Clawdeen and she separated the money into the right amount of me. I committed the coin amount to memory. I still had a couple months until my 1600th birthday, when I could get my driver's licence officially, and it wasn't like my father or Uncle Vlad would always be willing to drive me places.

We chatted as we waited for the bus, and when it pulled up we climbed on. I still didn't know what to think about this. I had never taken the bus before. My father had enough money that I never needed too, since we always had cars. We sat down near the front so all three of us could sit beside each other. The bus smelt of dirt, sweat, and a nauseating mixture of perfume and cologne.

When we arrived at the mall I was amazed at the size. Back in Romania, my father had a tailor that made our clothes for us, but now we were living across the world from her. There was no way that we could get her to make something for me within the next week Besides, here a custom designed ball gown or dress might be a bit too much. I didn't want to stand out more than I already would.

After all, I was a foreigner, with a funny accent. It didn't help that I was short, and had a heart shaped birthmark on my cheek. I was going to stand out regardless; I just had to try to put a positive swing on everything.

Clawdeen and Frankie hooked their arms with mine and we ventured into the mall. So many stores, so little time. I was disoriented for a few minutes until we arrived at a map and Clawdeen pointed out a few stores that we would go too first after meeting up with Abbey and Blue at the cafeteria.

They led me down the corridors and to a large area full of smells and people. I was engrossed in the map when I looked up and everything hit me all at once. It was confusing and made me dizzy. Clawdeen and Frankie didn't seem to notice and guided me over to two girls standing near the rails looking at the bottom floor.

One was very tall and looked strong and proud. She had long very pale blonde straight hair pulled back by a headband. Blue and pink stripes streaked her hair nicely. She was wearing a black and blue dress with purple heels, and honestly? I had never seen anyone look so intimidating before. Her eyes flashed to mine and she looked at me coolly, before they shifted towards the two girls on my arm and they warmed slightly.

I swallowed thickly, and looked to the other girl. While she was still much taller than me, she was shorter than Clawdeen. Her hair was blonde, which faded into a blue colour. Out of all the girls, she was the only one not wearing a skirt. Instead, she wore baggy pants, a cute tank, and some fingerless gloves. She grinned at me and waved her fingers.

"Lala, meet Abbey," she waved her hand towards the tallest of the group and then waved her hand towards the other girl, "and Blue."

"Nice to meet ya," Blue said with an Australian accent.

"It is a pleasure," Abbey had a thick Russian accent. I smiled at them before Clawdeen nudged Frankie and pointed down to the first floor. A male with red hair was walking around with two others, one of which had the tips of his hair dyed yellow. Frankie's face darkened slightly and Clawdeen whistled. The three guys looked up; the third guy waved and started up the escalator.

"Clawdeen! Oh no, he's coming over," Frankie fumbled with her skirt and adjusted her hair. The third guy wore a hat and sunglasses, even though we were indoors. He gave a lazy wave and opened his mouth about to say something when the redhead pushed the other guy out of the way, whom fell over, grabbed my hand, and kissed it.

"Hey, baby, want me to warm you up?" he said and winked. My mind went through possible meanings before taking my hand out of his and looked at the other guy. Hoping that he would be able to see inside the modern day teenage boy mind well than I could. He simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Dude, don't be a pervert," Sunglasses smacked the redhead before leaning on the railing. "I'm guessing you're Laura, Clawd's new neighbour. The name's Deuce Gorgon, I live beside Frankie."

Gorgon. That was an easy one, Medusa's son. I had met Medusa a long time ago, back when she had decided not to be confined to a cave and ventured out. She had her head covered with a cloth and eyes wrapped with a bandage to keep from turning people.

It would explain Deuce's hat and sunglasses indoors.

"Are you okay?" Frankie asked the other male, reaching forwards and offering her hand to him. His face went a faint shade of pink and his heart quickened. He mumbled something that sounded like a yeah, before accepting her hand.

"And I'm Burns. Heath Burns, what's yours?" Heath asked ignoring Deuce entirely.

"Laura," I replied, before turning to the others, "Do you want to come shopping with us, Deuce, and…?"

"Jackson," the guy replied shyly, he dusted off his jeans, avoiding meeting my eye.

"Aw, baby. Not going to invite us all?" Heath asked, "That's cold. I haven't been this cold since Abbey rejected me."

Abbey held up a hand, "My temperature is perfect. I do not need to be…warmed up," she gave him a cool look.

I giggled, and Heath looked like he was about to deflate before he placed his hand on the railing and winked at me. No one had flirted with me since Valentine started courting me. I felt my cheeks heat up and I looked away. Clawdeen stepped in between Heath and me.

"Alright, alright. Heath, cool down," she flicked her fingers at him. "Us girls are going to go shop till we drop, if you want to carry our bags then join us. If you're just going to drool over us, then leave."

Deuce dropped his hand on Heath's shoulder with enough force to nearly topple the red head over. "We're here to check out the new video games, as much as we'd love to carry your things, we've got a mission."

"Uh, yeah we've heard there is a new-"

"Don't mean to be rude, Jackson, but we've got some shopping to do," Clawdeen interrupted, "You guys have fun being boys."

We made our departure from the boys then. We worked our way through almost every store in the mall. The amount of bags I carried just grew and grew. I tried on so many clothes, and after getting the approval of the girls, I purchased them. My closet seriously needed a makeover for school.

I was drowning my emotions by spending money, I knew that, and gladly accepted that it was my fate. Sure, my father might be a bit irritated when he sees my credit bill, but…he spent more on a yacht he has never been on, at least I'm using what I purchased!

Halfway, I began to notice a subtle jealousy that the girls seemed to be emitting. The others hadn't even come close to purchasing half of the amount I did, and they put down more items than they bought. I felt bad and didn't know what to do. After being alive for so long, money just accumulated and my family had its hands in nearly every business in Romania, let alone Europe.

However, the girls didn't have the endless funds as I did. Immediately after I noticed this, I stopped purchasing things. I didn't want to seem like I was rubbing my wealth in their face, especially after they had been so kind to me. Instead, I helped them!

"Lala, why didn't you buy that cute dress?" Frankie asked as the others were trying things on, she had a few bags of things she had purchased. A super fierce dress with edgy lines and in contrasting colours, shoes, and a bunch of makeup and hair accessories.

"I have enough, besides you guys spent most of your time looking at things for me, I shouldn't be selfish!" I defended, not telling her the full answer. She gave me a look before patting my shoulder.

"You never have enough clothes," she said with a shake of her head, "the difference between is, is that you have a lot of money and a lot of shopping to do since you have nothing from…"

"This decade?" I asked in good humor, Frankie nodded her head, relieved that she didn't have to offend me herself.

"We have a lot of clothes we can mix and match to make ourselves look fabulous! My parents made sure that I had plenty of clothes to wear, and I've only been alive 16 days now. We don't really need to shop," Frankie explained, waving at the assortment of bags at our feet.

I smiled and gave her a one armed hug before the others emerged with their choice of clothing, as they went to pay for them, Blue checked her watch.

"Hey gals, we should be heading over to the spa," she informed us, and looked at the bags of clothes we all held. That might be a problem at the Salon.

"I'll call my uncle and ask if he can pick up our bags, after our spa time you can stop off at my house to grab your bags," I suggested and pulled out my cell phone. The girls smiled largely, relieved that they didn't have to carry around the bags while we headed over to the spa.

It took some convincing, but eventually Uncle Vlad agreed to pick up our bags and we headed towards the parking lot. As we waited, Clawdeen filled me in on the current gossip at school. Who was with whom, areas of the school to avoid, and who was on the major 'do not talk to' list. Cleo was on the top of it.

Uncle Vlad pulled up, but didn't step out of the car. I knew that he was just trying to save himself from using an umbrella since the sun was at its highest. He rolled down the pitch black windows and smiled at me. "When you said bags, I thought you meant at the most ten."

"Then you must never have been shopping with your niece," Clawdeen teased, opening the backdoor and tossing her own bags into the back before helping me with mine. "If she had enough time, I'm sure she would'a bought out the entire mall."

I flushed pink and the other girls laughed, all in good humor.

"I'll pick you girls up after your spa date," he said and waved goodbye before speeding off. I grinned at the girls and they smiled back at me.

"Spa time!" Clawdeen and Frankie shouted and started heading off. I followed after them obediently with Abbey and Blue beside me.

^v^ ^v^

The spa was super high end. When we entered they made us wait, and by fifteen minutes Clawdeen was starting to get impatient. People who arrived after us were being allowed to enter before us. I stood up, walked over to the counter, and waited until the lady looked up at me.

"Yes?" she asked lazily as she paused reading her magazine.

"I believe me and my friends have an appointment," I said smiling sweetly at her. She looked at her list.

"Name?" she asked looking slightly irritated.

"Dracula," I replied, smiling. Her eyes flickered up to me and a brief fear shot through her eyes. She stood up looking flustered.

"You must be Dracula's daughter, I am so sorry I didn't recognize you!" the woman said and hurried around the counter and air kissed me. I returned the gesture.

"No need to apologize, I should've told you that we had reservations the first time. I've sometimes got bats for brains," I laughed and she ushered us into the back room where she told us to change into more comfortable clothes and then left. It wasn't the first time that I had ever used my father's influence. I still felt guilty whenever I did it though, the fact that the people in the shop went from being calm and relaxed to panicking over the fact that Dracula's daughter was in their store always made me feel bad.

The girls stared at me, some in awe and some in confusion. I felt my face heat and I looked away. I knew they had been expecting just pedicures, manicures, haircuts and colouring but if I was going to go to school there was no way that I was going to go with pores this big.

" I'll pay for you guys since my father has discount here and you guys were so kind and helpful today." I replied as we changed into the pink robes and took our makeup off so we could get facials.

"Draculaura! That's like five hundred per person! That is way too much!" Clawdeen argued putting her hands onto her hips, but she was already changed. I supposed she didn't realize that we were getting the full treatment.

"With my father's discount it's like one twenty five per person," I replied not understanding what was wrong.

"Still, way too much! We just met for god's sake!" Clawdeen said, crossing her arms. When I turned to look at her, I saw that instead of looking angry, she looked completely guilty. I felt bad, and frowned.

"Deenie, I'm sorry…I just...I feel so bad for causing so much fuss both times we met, and then today I bought so much stuff for myself and barely helped any of you," I urged clasping my hands in front of me before smiling, "Besides, full coverage! Haircuts, styling, waxing, message, pedicure, manicure, and facials! We'll have everyone staring on Monday!"

The others waited on baited breath. I knew that if she didn't accept it, the others wouldn't either. She looked hesitant before she finally smiled, "Alright, but I owe you like 10 for this."The other girls giggled and cheered, happy that Clawdeen had accepted.

A/N: Almost forgot to upload this! Thanks for all the kind reviews so far guys!

Chibi-Chanx - The dolls come with little diary entries. The two I was talking about are Clawd and Draculaura's 'School's Out' Diaries from the dolls that are packaged together!

Don't forget to leave me a review~!