CHAPTER 2 MEAN GHOULS

Draculaura seethed in the boo-vie theater lobby while she waited for her friends. A sweet ghoul with long black hair highlighted in cherry pink, she hated making a fuss. Still, the history of the vampire queen was so important. She had really hoped the boo-vie would bring this issue into the public eye.

But now everyone was angry with her.

“Thanks for talking the whole time!” said Manny Taur, plowing past her after the movie ended.

Catty as ever, Toralei couldn’t help making a snide comment. “Make way… it’s Her Royal Fakeness!”

Howleen, her punk pink hair glowing brighter than ever, was just plain irritated. “Draculaura, you owe me a movie.”

Poor Draculaura! She was embarrassed, but when she tried to explain herself, she just made matters worse. “Sorry if I got carried away,” she apologized. “But that Veronica. She just frosts my fangs.”

Her good friend Lagoona Blue shook her scales. “You’d better get used to her. The Vampire Majesty boo-vies are the most popular ever made.”

“Popular does not mean good,” insisted Draculaura. She wasn’t going to drop this. She couldn’t. It was a matter of pride in her scaritage.

Hoodude swooned over an enormous cardboard poster of Veronica von Vamp. “Well, I loved it! And her!” He gave the photo of the boo-vie star a sloppy kiss.

All the ghouls laughed. But not Draculaura. “The real story is so much more fangtastic. I should know. I did grow up in Transylvania. At the royal vampire court. We don’t usually talk about it. Had to leave in a hurry.”

Robecca Steam stopped in her tracks, her gears and gadgets jangling. She was thinking about something that Draculaura had said during the boo-vie. “How is it,” she asked, “that there hasn’t been a vampire queen for four hundred years?”

“Yeah,” chimed in Frankie. “Tell us all the voltageous details.”

“Especially the romantic parts!” added Hoodude, tagging along behind the ghouls as they left the theater.

Her friends’ curiosity helped Draculaura feel a little better. “Well, after the last queen’s reign ended, the search began for the next ghoul in line.”

“I love this!” Hoodude could be such a goof sometimes.

Draculaura continued. “They used an ancient jewel, ‘The Vampire’s Heart,’ which was supposed to magically lead the way to the future queen. The search has gone on for four hundred years, but they still haven’t found her.”

Clawdeen stopped walking. “So the queen could be anybody?”

“And anywhere?” said Lagoona, stunned.

All of Draculaura’s friends gathered around her. What a story she had to tell!

“Yep,” said Draculaura. “Now wouldn’t that make a better boo-vie?”

“I’ll say!” said Hoodude. In his excitement, Hoodude tripped on the curb and accidentally zapped Heath with his volatile voodoo powers.

“Yeeowwch!” screamed Heath.

“Sorry, Heath,” apologized Hoodude. “I still can’t control my voodoo powers.”

The teens had reached the front gates of Monster High. It was after dark and time for classes to begin. The bell tower chimed, announcing first period.

Hoodude stumbled closer to Draculaura. “Maybe you’re secretly the queen!” he said to her.

“Wow!”

“Cool!”

“Claw-some!”

All the kids who had been making fun of Draculaura a little while ago looked at her in a whole new moonlight. Her werewolf boyfriend wrapped an arm around her. “Whoa!” he said in his low growl. “Clawd Wolf, dating royalty!”

Draculaura blushed.

“Allow me, Your Royal Highness,” said Clawd, making a big show of holding open the front door to the school.

Frankie Stein rushed forward, getting into the spirit of it all. “Would you prefer the diamond or the gold crown, my queen?” She held out an imaginary jewel box.

Draculaura giggled. “Come on, Frankie, I think I’d know if I were really the queen.” But she couldn’t resist the fun. “I choose diamonds! They go with everything!”

Hoodude, who still had his popcorn box from the movie, held it up to his mouth like a megaphone. He yelled into it as the group of friends headed down the hallway. “Hear ye! Hear ye! Make way for Queen Draculaura!”

Monsters grabbing their books from their coffin-shaped lockers stared. They were still annoyed at the fuss Draculaura had made during the boo-vie. Draculaura felt embarrassed again.

Clawd headed off to the Creepateria. “I’ll text you!”

“Bye!”

“See you at Mad Science class!” said Frankie Stein, hurrying down the hall.

Draculaura stepped up to her locker, but before she could open it, Gory Fangtel and two of her sinister sidekicks appeared.

“Puh-lease, you the queen? You don’t even have your vampire powers yet,” sneered Gory. Gory was a super chic vamp with angled bangs, pointed ears, and teeth like razors.

Draculaura withered under her cold stare. “I… I… never said…”

Toralei and her cool cats, Purrsephone and Meowlody, joined the taunting of Draculaura. “You think you’re all bat, but what have you ever done? Meow!”

The ghouls laughed meanly but stopped when they saw Frankie and Clawdeen approaching. There was nothing those cats hated more than that werewolf girl.

“You’d better watch your fangs!” Clawdeen warned Gory Fangtel.

Lagoona Blue wrapped a shimmery arm around Draculaura. “Don’t fret, love. It’s what you think that’s important.”

Cleo de Nile sauntered over. “Do you want me to unleash a plague on them?” she asked Draculaura, raising one perfectly plucked eyebrow. “Because I have a new amulet that I’ve been dying to try out.”

The mean monsters took a step back. Everyone was scared of Cleo… even her friends.

“Thanks, ghouls,” said Draculaura meekly. “But… I… can fight my own battles.”

“You’ll be queen when trolls fly!” Gory laughed, and with that she turned into a bat and swooped down the hallway to class.

Toralei hissed at Draculaura before she too sauntered away with her friends.

Draculaura slumped against her locker. She was upset. “They’re right.” She sighed. “I have never done anything important. That’s why I don’t have all my vampire powers yet.”

“What do you mean?” asked Lagoona Blue.

“Gory got hers a couple of hundred years ago by saving a vampire lord from a sunburn. SPF, like, a thousand. I haven’t done anything close to that. I may never get my powers.”

Draculaura’s friends crowded around. They knew how special she was—but how could they help Draculaura to realize that?

“You have something amazing in you,” said Robecca. “I feel it—in here.” The beautiful girl with the steampunk style touched her own heart. She wasn’t making this up to help Draculaura feel better. She could really feel something glowing within her when she was close to her friend. Draculaura really was special. “You are going to surprise everyone.”

“I hope. Thanks, Robecca.”

But Draculaura still didn’t have much faith in herself. What could she possibly do to gain real vampire powers?