I'm going to try for another story. Not sure how long it is going to be. Just trying to group together a lot of ideas that have been floating around in my head for a long time.
This story is set in the premise started by the book "Genies Don't Ride Bicycles". I like the idea of someone making an absurd wish that alters reality and they get stuck like that, even after the genie is long gone from Bailey City.
A new student started at Bailey City Elementary School today. She had the ill luck of being assigned to Mrs. Jeepers' classroom in the third grade. The kids at the school, particularly third graders, believed she was secretly some kind of vampire or witch with a magical green brooch that could hypnotize kids into behaving. She was not the third grade teacher you wanted to end up with.
Of course, all of the parents and teachers loved her, given her students had the highest test scores in the entire school. But the kids feared her, and in the case of Eddie Matthews, hated her, for making them behave and work hard.
The new student Elena heaved a heavy sigh internally as she was dragged into the third grade classroom where a woman with a strange, flowy accent introduced her to the rest of the kids. After that, the teacher, directed her towards the only empty seat in the classroom, which happened to be near a red-headed boy who looked her up and down like she was made of dung.
Elena tucked one strand of her long, strawberry blond hair behind her ear and sat down, doing her best not to look in his direction. But that meant staring at the strange teacher at the front instead, who ALSO had red hair. Though none of them were the same. The boy next to her, ("Eddie" apparently as the teacher had to immediately call his name to stop him from throwing a paper airplane across the room), he had curly bright red hair. Whereas the teacher Mrs. Jeepers was more pumpkin orange, but also curly. Elena's was completely naturally straight and more strawberry blonde than true red. But her paleness of skin matched the other two red-heads in the room regardless.
Once Mrs. Jeepers had Eddie under control again after the interruption, she continued on with the social studies lesson and Elena tried to stay focused on that to block out the snickers and whispers of curiosity around her.
By lunch time, Elena had learned Eddie was a total jerk to literally everyone, but most of the other kids were nice enough. Elena had somewhat made friends with Liza and Melody, and by extension Howie, but that also meant Eddie was part of their social circle at all times, which was grating on her nerves big time.
During lunch, the kids were going on and on about how Mrs. Jeepers was a vampire and that Eddie was going to get himself killed by her if he didn't stop drawing attention to himself during class. Elena found it mildly interesting, the idea of a real life vampire, but still utterly, hilariously absurd.
"You've got to be kidding me!" she finally burst out. "Why would a vampire want to teach a bunch of third graders?"
'She's just sizing us up for the next meal!" Liza declared. She seemed to be the most dramatic of the group.
"I mean, how long has she been here? If she wanted to eat you, hasn't she had plenty of time to do it by now?" Elena argued.
"It is halfway through the year." Liza conceded with some hesitation.
"But we saw a coffin in her basement!" Melody exclaimed. "I don't know what her plans are, but she is a vampire. And Eddie had better watch out! He's so annoying he will be first on her list of snacks if she ever gets hungry!"
"And that brooch of hers is clearly magical." Howie added. "It glows green, her eyes flash, and kids are forced to behave, even Eddie, which is a miracle. Only something supernatural could control Eddie."
"Shut up" Eddie sneered. "I'm not scared of Mrs. Jeepers and I'll prove it!"
Eddie didn't get very far with his attempts to "prove it". But it did give Elena time to witness the famous brooch powers in action and they were correct that her eyes seemed to flash green for a split second when she used its power. But the whole thing was more fascinating than terrifying to Elena. She spent the rest of the day watching Mrs. Jeepers every move while trying not to get caught not paying attention to her school work. Elena was always careful to avoid meeting her gaze. From what Elena could tell from watching Eddie's idiotic antics, meeting Mrs. Jeepers' gaze or staring too long at the brooch was dangerous and how she was pulling off whatever magic trick she had. Elena did eventually, reluctantly, had to refocus back on the worksheets in front of her or she wouldn't have any work to hand in at the end of the day.
Two weeks passed of surreptitiously watching her possibly-vampiric, possibly-a-witch teacher. Elena continued to hang out with Liza and Melody and just ignore Eddie as much as she could. She did her homework and took tests when required. But spent most of her trying to watch Mrs. Jeepers while pretending that wasn't what she was doing.
This apparently pissed off Carey, the rich girl, who until now, had been the untouchable highest scoring kid in class, even when compared to Howie. For upon receiving the class scores yet again, Carey finally burst out "HOW is she scoring higher than me?! She's not even paying attention half the time and just staring into space!"
Elena sunk down into her desk slightly, facing burning for once. It wasn't her fault the schoolwork was too damn easy. She wished the scores weren't public so nobody would ever have to know. But it was some kind of school-wide contest to encourage kids to work even harder.
Eddie used the moment to mock Carey and boast that Elena could probably beat her on a test blindfolded. Carey fired back that Eddie couldn't outscore a rock, so who was he to criticize? Mrs. Jeepers walked back into the classroom at that moment, clearly furious, having heard the start of the argument from the hall where she was discussing something with Principal Davis.
"Both of you, sit down this instant!" Mrs. Jeepers eyes flashed as she rubbed her brooch. "I don't want to hear another word from either of you for the rest of the day."
When the bell rang at the end of the school day, Mrs. Jeepers' voice managed to float over the sound of everyone rushing to leave as quickly as possible. "Elena, stay a moment. I have something to discuss with you."
Elena froze in fear for a moment. Had she noticed Elena's intense study of her for the past couple weeks? Or the way she would never quite look her in the eye or at her brooch? If her teacher was a vampire, did she fear Elena discovering her secret?
Eliza and Melody glanced back at her with worry and mouthed "We will wait for you" as they left the classroom. Elena approached her teacher's desk with trepidation once the classroom was empty and the door had been closed. She kept her head down and stared fixedly at the corner of the desk.
"Elena, will you not look at me?" Mrs. Jeepers soft, musical accent called to her.
"Um…. No I'm fine" she sputtered, unable to come up with an excuse for her behavior and she stared even harder at the desk. The desire to look at her was overwhelming. She was practically gritting her teeth to avoid doing it.
She heard her teacher release a sigh, as she sat back down at her desk.
"Well anyway…" she began, "I've been in discussions with Principal Davis and your state guardian. We all think moving you up to the 5th grade might be best for you. You are not being academically challenged enough in my classroom."
"Wait, what?!" Elena looked up at her teacher in shock. Meeting her gaze was like being transfixed but also hit in the face with a bowling ball. Or maybe it was just the shock of what her teacher had just said.
Her teacher smiled her odd, little half smile, having finally captured her student's gaze. "Elena…" she breathed softly. "We all want what's best for you. You barely pay attention in class and still pass tests with flying colors."
Oh the pull to agree with her was so strong, but Elena clenched her hand until her nails bit into her palm, piercing the skin slightly. Mrs. Jeepers flinched in that instant and averted her gaze at the same time. Elena released a shaky breath she had been holding and went back to staring hard at the desk.
"I don't want to." Elena whispered. Then gathered her courage and spoke louder. "I don't want to skip any grades. All of my friends are in this grade. I want to be around kids my own age. I can pay better attention in class if that is the problem."
She could feel Mrs. Jeepers studying her, even as she kept her eyes fixed on the desk, examining her cup of pens and pencils with intense focus.
"Do you need a tissue?" Mrs. Jeepers suddenly asked, holding one out.
"Huh?" Elena, confused by the sudden change of subject.
"Your hand." Mrs. Jeepers indicated.
"Oh, yes, I guess so." Elena took the tissue and pressed it against the slight crescent cuts on the palm of her hand.
"If leaving the third grade behind upsets you enough to hurt yourself, then I suppose you can stay. Maybe I can discuss with Principal Davis about providing you some extra work to keep you busy."
Elena breathed a sigh of relief. "I would prefer that."
"Very well. Dismissed"
Elena bolted before any more could be said.
Liza and Melody were outside waiting for her. "Are you OK?!" they shouted as they saw her clutching a tissue to her hand.
"Yes, I'm fine. I just accidentally cut myself."
Liza and Melody looked at each other in distress. "Did she try to bleed you dry?!" Liza sobbed dramatically.
"What? No! I told you. It was an accident. I did it to myself." Elena defended in exasperation.
"Then why did Mrs. Jeepers hold you back and talk to you in private?" Melody asked, arms crossed.
"It was just a lecture on not paying attention in class. She said my grades in school were no reason to disrespect her by daydreaming all the time and that I should stay more focused." Elena shrugged it off.
"Man! Mrs. Jeepers is strict!" Howie said, coming up from behind them with a soccer ball he and Eddie had been kicking around while they waited. "I'd let you do whatever you want if I were the teacher. It's not like you need to pay attention to do well."
Elena blushed. "Well really I'm just faking that daydreaming stuff. I actually spend all of my time trying to figure out if Mrs. Jeepers is really a vampire."
Eddie laughed. "You're as bad as Liza! Believing in all of that Dracula nonsense!"
For the next week or so, Elena made a point to at least appear more attentive in class, but she was still careful to never make eye contact with Mrs. Jeepers' gaze. And her teacher was now silently slipping her 5th grade level work, in addition to the normal work, which kept her more busy and less preoccupied with spying on her teacher's every move.
It was during this time that they met a new neighbor called "Eugene" and her friends claimed he was a genie and he was granting them wishes. Everything they wished for was coming true. Elena thought that was absurd and decided to prove it by making a wish so ridiculous it would never come true. As they stood on the playground discussing all of this, Elena declared her wish to her friends: "I wish I was the same type of vampire as Mrs. Jeepers, whatever she is."
Predictably, Liza gasped in horror and looked faint. Howie and Melody exchanged worried looks, but Eddie laughed big and loud and slapped her on the shoulder. "That's the spirit!"
Elena smirked proudly to herself when nothing magical happened. Which ended all serious discussion of Eugene really being a genie.
After returning to class from recess though, things began to get odd. Elena suddenly found the ticking of the clock and everyone's breathing nearby to be obnoxiously loud. She drummed her pencil on the desk to try to distract from it, but even that sounded too loud, so she stopped.
Every time a kid answered a question aloud during the lesson, she wanted to cover her ears. But she forced herself to remain motionless. The soft, much quieter voice of her teacher was the only voice in the room that didn't grate on her.
She felt restless, like a caged animal. Her skin itched everywhere. She shifted around in her desk and then tried to hold herself still. The clock kept ticking its slow, loud ticks. The afternoon seemed endless.
She stared out of the window, trying to calm herself by gazing at the trees outside.
"Elena" her teacher called.
So uncomfortable she was, that without thinking, she turned and met Mrs. Jeepers gaze, who had been eyeing her restlessness with preoccupied concern.
Elena's blue eyes met her teacher's green eyes, but for once, she felt no pull to keep looking, and she easily looked away again.
"Please settle down and pay attention, Elena" was all she said and went back to teaching when Elena nodded.
Elena dragged herself through the rest of the afternoon and rushed home.
She tossed and turned all night. Every little sound outside, the whisper of the wind through the trees, the hooting of owl, aggravated her as she buried her head underneath her pillow fruitlessly. By morning, she hadn't slept a wink, but dragged herself to school anyway.
This pattern continued. She could only stay awake at school because she slept the afternoon away as soon as she got home. Then she was up most of the night reading, playing video games, or even, lately, taken to wandering around outside out of boredom. But she had to be very careful with that. Bailey City was very quiet and still at night. A child wandering around on their own was easily noticed if she wasn't careful with her movements and where she wandered.
During the school day, she was always exhausted and picked at her food during lunch time. She lied to her friends that she was eating a big breakfast and eating a lot after school and so that's why lunch was just so hard to eat now.
During recess, Elena sat under the tree and talked with Liza while Melody, Eddie, and Howie kicked a soccer ball around. She never felt like playing and Liza was too chicken to play.
"Are you sure you're OK?" Liza asked for the thousandth time. "You've been white as a sheet for days and you keep complaining you're freezing even though the weather is warm."
"mmmhhh…" Elena mumbled. "I think I want to go back inside."
Elena wandered back into their empty classroom. Sliding back into her assigned seat, she put her head on her desk and closed her eyes.
A couple minutes later, goosebumps rose on the back of her neck and she jumped out of her seat. Mrs. Jeepers was standing in the doorway, examining her with a piercing gaze.
"Are you feeling alright? Do you need to see the nurse?" she queried.
"I'm fine" Elena mumbled, staring down at the floor.
Mrs. Jeepers seemed to finally have enough for she crossed the room before Elena could react and grabbed her chin and forced the girl's face up.
Their eyes met for the second time in weeks.
"I ask you again: are you sure you're alright?" Mrs. Jeepers' eyes locked with hers, as though she was trying to force a confession through strength of will alone.
"I said I'm fine." She bit out furiously, and wrenched herself out of Mrs. Jeepers' grip with a strength she didn't know she had. She wasn't sure why she was so angry all of a sudden, but she glared right at her teacher, unflinchingly. And then ripped her gaze away from her with ease when the other kids started filing back inside from recess.
Elena sat back down at her desk with rigid, barely contained anger while Mrs. Jeepers was quick to make her way to back to the front desk since they were now other kids present.
Sometime later in the day, as the kids worked in silence, Elena finally dared a glance at her teacher again. She froze for a moment in surprise before looking back down at her worksheet in front of her. Mrs. Jeepers was normally busy with her own paperwork or other lesson prep, or walking around to help kids with their work. But this time she was sitting at her desk and studying Elena intensely.
Elena's stomach churned under the fierce scrutiny and then her stomach completely betrayed her. She bolted from the room without waiting to ask for permission and made it to the bathroom just in time to empty what little food she had consumed at lunch into the toilet.
But it wasn't enough for her body and it hurled again. Shaking, sweating, freezing on the cold bathroom tile floor, and on the verge of tears, she gripped the edge of the toilet seat as the next wave hit.
In that moment, cool hands wrapped around her hair and pulled it back out of her way. Elena knew immediately who it was, even though she hadn't heard her come in at all.
Mrs. Jeepers didn't say anything. Just held her steady until her stomach was finished emptying itself.
Elena was too tired to care at this point and just sagged against her in relief.
It was calm and quiet in the bathroom. Elena could almost fall asleep here.
"If you can stand, it's time to go to the nurse's office." Mrs. Jeepers jerked on her as if she had already started to doze off.
Instead of allowing herself to be pulled to her feet, she released a collection of insane-sounding giggles.
"What's so funny?" Mrs. Jeepers snapped at her.
"I guess genies really do ride bicycles," Elena giggled hysterically, "And vampires definitely wear polka dots…"
There was a momentary silence at this announcement while she continued her mad giggling. "What on earth are you talking about?" Mrs. Jeepers sighed. "You must be delirious with fever." Elena was pretty sure she was still stone cold, so she just giggled harder.
Mrs. Jeepers half-dragged her to her feet. "Nurse's office. Now." And practically frog marched her there.
"Must be some kind of stomach bug." The nurse said, waving her hands in confusion. "She's not running a temperature at all, but she can't keep any food down. Other than that, she's perfectly fine. She just needs more sleep."
It was the last thing Elena saw or heard before she blacked out completely.
Elena awoke, still feeling quite ill, in a bed that was definitely not her own, in a room she did not recognize. A large window was open nearby and she could see the last rays of the setting sun coming through it. Still dressed in her clothes from school, she made her way over to the window and instantly recognized where she was. It was the Clancy Estate. Every kid in town would recognize this house. It was believed to be haunted and their teacher lived in it. Elena gulped. This couldn't be good. Why did she wake up here of all places? And now the sun was down too.
Suddenly, the bedroom was flooded with light. She blinked in the brightness of it.
"Do you want to try to eat anything? I can make whatever you want." Mrs. Jeepers offered.
Elena stared at her open-mouthed, remembering that giggling episode she had had in the bathroom earlier that day. Was this it? Would she to be killed for her momentary insanity?
"I talked to your state guardian and the school Principal and they both agreed I could look after you until you're well." She smiled her odd little half smile.
Elena had no idea what to say to that. The silence was only interrupted by her stomach growling. She grimaced in pain at the empty feeling.
"Come. You need to at least try to eat a little." Mrs. Jeepers beckoned her.
Elena had no choice but to follow her into the depths of the mansion.
Elena ended up sitting at the kitchen table, glancing around herself morosely.
"I'm not hungry," she complained. "If you make me eat, I'll just throw it all up again. I can feel it."
Mrs. Jeepers crossed her arms and slowly tapped her foot in irritation.
"Tell me about this stupid genie you mentioned during your delirium." She suddenly barked.
"ah, oh that," Elena sheepishly looked everywhere except at her teacher. "Some new neighbor. Liza was convinced he must be a genie because everything she, Melody, Howie, and Eddie wished for seemed to come true for a few days. I mean, I know that sounds completely stupid…" she trailed off.
"And what does this possible genie have to do with you being so drastically ill?" Mrs. Jeepers spoke sharply, her patience was clearly running thin.
Elena laughed nervously to herself. "Well, it doesn't matter now. Whoever he was, he's vanished. Not been seen in weeks. And nothing strange has happened since then."
"Nothing, except your inability to stay awake in class, and lack of appetite, and horrible sudden illness." Mrs. Jeepers pointed out. "Did you make a wish of some kind, Elena?"
"Why would I do that? Genies aren't real." Elena kept her eyes glued to the corner of the kitchen tablecloth, memorizing the abstract designs on it.
"I would say you're lying because you can't look me in the eye, but you've never liked looking me in the eye, have you Elena?"
"That's because you make people do things they don't want to do!" Elena glared at her directly now.
"Only for their own health." Mrs. Jeepers barely spoke above a whisper.
Then she continued in a normal tone of voice. "I'm going to guess this pretend-wish of yours was ridiculous? Something to do with polka dots? I remember that also getting mentioned in the bathroom."
Elena stared at her sourly in silence, for once holding her gaze.
"Idiot girl." Mrs. Jeepers breathed in, seeming to find whatever she was looking for in her eyes.
"I think I hate genies more than leprechauns now, which is quite an accomplishment."
Elena just looked bewildered at that comment.
"What am I supposed to do with you now?" Mrs. Jeepers pondered aloud. "I have no way of finding this genie, if it's even possible."
"You could feed me. I'm hungry." Elena snapped spitefully, but blushed when her stomach gave another large growl.
"Yes, I suppose I shall..." Mrs. Jeepers responded, still contemplating the girl in front of her.
Elena glanced up at her in apprehension, not sure what that reply was supposed to mean.
But with no more words, Mrs. Jeepers pulled her into the living room and onto the couch. Without warning, she swiped one of her long green nails across the pale skin of her bare forearm. Blood appeared along the cut line immediately and Elena's mind went absolutely blank. She had leaned forward and latched on in an instant. Silky smooth to the taste, sweeter than any ice cream sundae, the liquid slowly soothed the fire that had been burning in her gut for too long. She was allowed to drink her fill while Mrs. Jeepers stroked her hair like she was a cat to be tamed.
Never having felt so totally satisfied before, Elena could do nothing else but snuggle into the lap in front of her and pass out.
She didn't wake up again until the next sunset. It had been a full and complete sleep, free of all dreams.
Mrs. Jeepers was waiting for her and allowed her to feed from her again.
After that, she was bouncing off the walls with energy. Her teacher had seemingly foresaw that and had raided her old bedroom, bringing all of her books, video games, and homework over to her house to keep her busy.
At first, she had enjoyed the freedom to do as she pleased for several nights. But the novelty of it quickly wore off and soon she was asking "When am I going back to school?"
"Maybe in a few more days." was always the evasive answer, followed by distraction. "Did you finish the work I already gave you?"
Elena found out she was definitely not going back to school when she was shaken away one morning and was so sleepy from it that she didn't properly wake up until she realized she had been dragged onto an airplane. "Where are we going?" she yawned
"Sssh, sleep!" was all she got and it seemed to work because she was out like a light the next second.
Waking up that evening in a new bedroom, in a foreign country, in a castle, just made her throw a tantrum fit for the worst of third graders.
"You lied to me!" she shrieked. "I was never going back!"
"It was the only way. Vampirism in a child in America? We would have been discovered in a day." Mrs. Jeepers explained, but not surprised by the tantrum. "Romania is the only country where it is still safe to raise a child of this nature."
There was a lot more throwing things and screaming, but in the end, what was done was already done.
While she wasn't kept locked up in the castle 24/7, she was home-schooled. It was hard at first, but given how young she was, she picked up the Romanian language very quickly and soon enough no one could tell she wasn't born a native speaker. Only Mrs. Jeepers and a few other relatives spoke much English, but it allowed Elena to maintain the English she knew, otherwise she would have lost it completely, given enough time.
Mrs. Jeepers promised her they could go anywhere in the world later. But her childhood needed to be here for safety reasons.
Elena did eventually share the exact wording of the stupid wish she had made to the genie. Which meant they found out that Elena had exactly the same powers as Mrs. Jeepers, meaning she could use the Fairy Stone as well if the need arose. Leprechauns are tricky creatures. Having two living vampires that could potentially use the stone wasn't a bad insurance plan at all.
Glad I got that out. Really needed to write this story. Still debating if I want to add more in some way. There are so many ways I could expand this. I could go into detail about how you raise a vampire child in Romania haha. Or have some epic adventure story where the leprechaun king comes back and manages to steal the Fairy Stone from Mrs. Jeepers this time but doesn't know Elena also has the ability to use it... Or do this same story, but everything from Mrs. Jeepers' point of view instead of Elena's, since Mrs. Jeepers is the adult and had way more responsibilities to think about... I really like that idea. That may be next chapter. PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THIS STORY FOR POTENTIAL UPDATES! AND PLEASE REVIEW!
Story notes I made while I was writing:
This is kindof a self-insert story since this is how I felt in third grade reading these books. Like bitch! If my teacher was a vampire, that would be fabulous! I would want to know everything about her! Bailey school kids have no appreciation for what is awesome and spend all of their time being afraid of her instead.
Elena really did need to skip a grade, but Mrs. Jeepers was mostly concerned with this kid figuring her out because she had too much time to study/focus on her teacher's activities instead of being busy with schoolwork. She only let the kid stay in third grade because of the show of extreme willpower to NOT look at her, even clenching her fist to draw blood to avoid looking. Mrs. Jeepers was impressed at the level of stubbornness and restraint in one so young lol
I think Elena's father is alive, but lost custody for lack of care reasons. So she's a ward of the state right now. Her mother died when she was a baby, so she has no memory of her. Basically, I don't want nosy parents around. Ha
And Mrs. Jeepers can use that brooch etc to hypnotize people into agreeing with her on anything, so it was really easy for her to take possession of Elena when she needed to.
I want to say these vampires must feed on humans. Blood bags don't work long term and are only useful in emergencies. So Mrs. Jeepers must feed every night and now has to feed double amount since she's letting the girl leech off her. Blood sharing is not an unusual thing to do between lovers, or between mother and young child. It's still human blood. They're just eating it from another vampire's blood.
Vampire blood, whether they're born with it or get it some other way, always allows them to age to adulthood. Nobody gets stuck in child form.
If Elena seems to move on from stuff quickly, well remember she's 9 years old and a ward of the state. She's a bright nine year old, but still a little kid nonetheless. She adapts very quickly.