It was that night when Lincoln was in the TV room watching the latest ARRGH! episode with Phantasma sitting next to him; another big bonus for being at the school was that Ms Grimwood actually let them stay up late to watch TV and movies as long as they got to bed at a reasonable time. On a previous night he even got to watch this monster movie marathon with Shaggy and Scooby.

"Such fun this is Lincoln even if most of the ghosts aren't real..." Phantasma told Lincoln who smiled at her; while he had Clyde who was as big a fan of the show as he was, he did have to deal with none of his siblings being into the show (not even Lucy). So having another friend into it was a plus for him.

"Thanks Phanty... Say Phanty, it just occurred to me... Were you ever alive as in having been a human? Were you a born a ghost?" Lincoln asked having finally realised it and Phantasma gave one of her shrieking laugh.

"Off course I was born a ghost to my phantom parents and I age like a normal person; as for the difference between my kind of ghosts and those of those who had died... It's complicated and you should hear it from Ms Grimwood as part of a lesson..." Phantasma answered and they heard yelling outside and Lincoln decided to go outside and to the hedges to see that on the grass there was Colonel Calloway ranting that he will have his men run 10 laps in the morning.

"Colonel?" Lincoln asked as the Colonel realised Lincoln was there and then gave a cough.

"Mr Loud; sorry to be disturbing you at this hour... Just that I have just looked at the grades of the test that my men took with the new substitute teacher that I hired since I didn't realise the paperwork that I had to catch up on... Well, can you keep it between us when I say that these have to be the worst grades that I had ever seen since opening up this academy? My new substitute said that they seemed distracted " Colonel Calloway explained looking over the hedge and Lincoln giggled not envying what the Calloway Cadets would have to endure from the Colonel in the morning as he then went back inside.


The next morning Lucy sighed as she had awakened in Lincoln's bed; having decided to spend the night in his room due to missing her older brother too much. Lucy hated realising just how much she had taken her only brother for granted and with him and Lori gone; it just didn't feel the same. He was the best one for her to come to for advice, to share in their belief of the paranormal and for him to help with her poems.

This wasn't even the first time that she claimed it for the night and she was sure other sisters had the same idea as she was found the twins fighting with eachother to see who would get to claim the room for themselves for the night.

True they got to have video calls to see how he was getting on but it wasn't the same as having him there and from what his friends said whenever they there thanks to Lynn inviting them to use their house as their personal clubhouse since Lincoln left; their friend group didn't seem to find their calls to him the same as actually having their unofficial leader there.

She woke up and looked towards her precious Edwin bust that she had facing away from her; "morning Edwin; I sure hope that your dreams weren't filled with more secrets that you are keeping from me!" Lucy told Edwin as she faced away from it with her arms folded. The link that Lincoln messaged her kept her in denial and shock for the rest of the day.

Vampires of Melancholia her favourite show; she thought that the show had ruined itself when it introduced Tristan to make it like some sort of stupid comedy instead of the introspective compelling romantic drama that it was before, all to cater to teenage girls attracted to the actor just like her 2 oldest sisters no. But no it turned out that Vampires of Melancholia had existed long before her beloved show; as a black comedy sitcom where Tristan was one of the two main leads since the beginning. In fact Griselda didn't even appear in that show until the final season!

In retrospect; if she had looked up the wikipedia page before for the show then she would have found out that that when the show debuted there was an outcry from fans of the old show and when the show first premiered she was much too young to have experienced it. But this all meant that her beloved show and the books based on it all this time were far removed from their soul and instead of destroying it, adding Tristan actually returned it to its roots.

Her friends in the Morticians Club had similar reactions as well when she ended up informing them of this.

She had her turn in the bathroom and went downstairs for breakfast; "So how was staying in Stinkcoln's room for the night Lucy? Do you miss him that much because I sure don't!" Lynn Jr made a big deal of asking as Lucy sat down and the family (even Leni) weren't fooled by her behaviour. Besides Lily (who had noticed that her only brother wasn't around anymore and was crying a bit more than usual); it was actually Lynn who was taking Lincoln being gone the hardest of the siblings. Despite all her roughhousing and making fun of him; she did care about him and was looking forward to looking out for him when he entered middle school but now he was far away.

"I wonder what Linky is up to right now?" Leni wondered as she dug into her breakfast.


After breakfast Lincoln and the Grimwood girls heard the sounds of panting outside and they went out and it was coming from the Calloway grounds; they looked and Lincoln saw that Colonel Calloway true to his word was having his students do a marathon around the entire school grounds. "Lucky you all gets the honour of the lowest test scores in the history of your school; if what I heard your Colonel shout last night is accurate!" Lincoln laughed getting their attention as the girls just watched and thought that it looked like a good workout.

"Hey; you're the new human at Grimwood's? For your information; it's not our fault; have you seen Ms DiMartino the substitute?" asked the shortest and clearly youngest Calloway Cadet as Colonel Calloway had him keep going.

Lincoln continued laughing and paused when he recognised the name and asked "wait; did you say..."

"Lincoln? Is that you! What a funny turn of events; I was substituting here while visiting relatives and told that the girl school next door has a new boy student and I find it to be you!" Ms DiMartino made herself known in a blue military uniform and Lincoln found himself lovestruck and lost for words as before making her giggle.

"Come on now students; time for class..." Ms Grimwood called from the door as they went inside with Elsa helping drag Lincoln by the arm inside as he got himself out of the trance.

"Sorry about that girls and thanks Elsa; I got her as a sub teacher in the last school year and my grades suffered... I had to redo a test from within my locker." Lincoln explained and they found amusement except for Sibella who didn't like how Lincoln was looking at that teacher.

"Why did I react like that and was that jealousy? How can that be if my friend was acting like other human children who ends up crushing on teachers... Wait... I did like him stroking me when I found him and how nice he was in, a charming young man and that second stroke last night and I found my heart actually beating for a change... Could I be?" Sibella was thinking to herself and pondered an image of themselves kissing. "I'm sure now..." Sibella thought realising that the image was quite pleasant to her and she found her heart beating again.