Stormy Knight- Prom Queen of the Undead Read online

  “Oh please, Jerry,” Candi said. “I think it is funny.”

  “Excuse me?” Principal Cunningham stood up from his chair. “Who are you and what gives you the right to just burst into my office?”

  “You call this an office?” Candi laughed. “I have shoe closets bigger than this.”

  “Mommmm!” Stormy groaned as she sunk her face into her hands.

  “Wow, your mom is outta sight!” Kenny said.

  Principal Cunningham looked at Stormy. “Stormy, is this your mother?”

  “Yes,” Stormy sighed.

  Principal Cunningham glanced over to Candi. She was wearing a super-short, red mini skirt, a red v-neck halter top and matching knee-high boots.

  “Well, if that’s the case then,” he shook his head, “I’m surprised you haven’t been in here sooner.”

  “That’s it,” Candi shouted, smoke pouring out of her ears (literally) as she pointed at Principal Cunningham. “You, sir, are a PIG!”

  Instantly, Principal Cunningham’s eyes glazed over; he dropped down on all fours and started oinking—and the oinking, while bad, was just the start. Next his ears grew. Then his legs and arms both turned into tiny little legs. A curly tail appeared.

  Candi looked at her magical work and smiled. “I think that is an evolutionary improvement.”

  “Mom, I don’t believe you did this!” Stormy turned to her.

  “Groovy,” Kenny said. “She’s like a super vamp. Isn’t she?”

  Candi focused on Kenny. “Oh, my daughter! How nice of you to bring me a snack.”

  Stormy jumped from the chair to stand between her mother and Kenny.

  “Mom, you can’t kill him!” Stormy said.

  “No, of course not,” Candi licked her lips, “he’s already dead. Well, mostly dead. But I can help him by putting him back to rest.”

  “Yes, she can help me!” Kenny said. “I want her help!”

  Candi pointed to Stormy and slid her out of the way using a bit of her telekinetic energy.

  Stormy saw that her mom had that look in her eyes and knew protesting would only fall on deaf ears.

  Candi motioned to Kenny. “Come to me, ghost.”

  “Kenny. My name is Kenny.” He walked towards her.

  Candi embraced Kenny then opened her mouth wide. Long fangs appeared. Then she stuck those fangs deep into Kenny’s throat.

  Stormy wanted to turn away, but somehow she couldn’t as her mom inhaled, literally sucking Kenny’s form into her. It was over in less than two seconds, but it felt like a lifetime.

  Candi looked at Stormy, wiping a corner of her mouth with a well-manicured finger. “Thanks for the snack dear. Ectoplasm is like blood plasm, but even tastier and with less calories.”

  “Mother!” Stormy slammed her hand down on the desk. “You can’t just go around eating people like that!”

  Candi shrugged. “He wasn’t people anymore dear; he was a ghost.”

  “You can’t just eat ghosts either,” Stormy protested.

  “Sure I can.” Candi shook her head. “Anyways, I did him a favor. He wanted to be completely dead again.”

  Stormy knew she was right. Kenny had said he did want to go back to the place where he came from, or something along those lines. She pointed at Mr. Cunningham who was oinking away in the corner. “Well, that still doesn’t give you an excuse to turn my principal into a pig.”

  “My dear, I am a vampire queen. I don’t need an excuse to turn a mere mortal into a pig.” Candi walked over and wrapped her arm around Stormy’s shoulder. “You as my daughter should learn to embrace your vampire side. It’s such a gift.”

  Stormy slowly pulled away from her mom. “But Mom, I just want to lead a nice normal mortal life.”

  “Fine.” Candi waved her hands in the air. “You can try to be a plain, normal mortal if you wish; but the thing is, you aren’t normal. And I don’t know why you’d ever wanna be.”

  Stormy crossed her arms tightly. “I just do, Mom.”

  “Fine.” Candi rolled her eyes. Despite the fact that she was at least a thousand years old, she sometimes acted like a spoiled child. “Though using your powers could help with your current problem. I mean, you could make everybody forget about what happened in your silly class.”

  “Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll work it out.” Stormy pointed to her head. “I’ll take brain power over vamp power any day.”

  Candi moved forward and kissed Stormy on the forehead. “You are stubborn, I will grant you that. You get that from your father’s side.”

  With those words Candi disappeared and Principal Cunningham transformed back into his human form.

  “What am I doing here on all fours?” he asked.

  Stormy shrugged. “No idea, sir. I just assumed it was that you’ve been working too hard.”

  Principal Cunningham pushed himself up to a standing position then straightened his tie, trying to look as dignified as a man who had just been on all fours oinking could.

  “Yes…yes, I believe you’re right. Stress can do strange things to the body and mind.”

  “Yes, sir.” Stormy nodded. “And that’s what happened to me in class. All the pressure of school and softball and life. I just started talking to myself. I snapped a little…” Stormy lowered her head. “I’m sorry. I won’t let it happen again.”

  “I can see how that can happen,” Principal Cunningham agreed. “I’ll talk to Mister Nugent and explain the situation. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Stormy said.

  Chapter 7

  Luckily for Stormy the rest of the school day passed without any major incidents. Sure, some kids would whisper amongst themselves, smirking when she walked by. And sure, Rosey was telling anyone who would listen about Stormy’s little mishap. But Stormy was positive things would be forgotten as soon as some other kid did something embarrassing. This was high school; someone was always doing something embarrassing.

  The walk home with Marco and Corey started out like any other: they talked about what the teachers did to drive them crazy, what they were going to do that weekend, what movies were in town and all that until finally, Marco couldn’t take it any longer.

  “Okay, Stormy,” Marco said. “If you’re not going to tell us, I have to ask. What was that breakdown all about in Nugent’s class?”

  Corey shot a glance at Marco then looked at Stormy. “I wasn’t going to broach the subject, but I must admit I’m interested also.”

  Stormy walked on in silence for a second or two then said, “I had a stupid ghost bugging me. He was driving me crazy, so I snapped. But luckily, or unluckily depending on how you want to look at it, my mom the vampire queen showed up when I was in Cunningham’s office and ate the ghost. She also turned Cunningham into a pig and when he turned back he pretty much forgave me for talking in class.”

  Marco and Corey glanced at each other, then Marco gave her a dismissive wave. “Fine, don’t tell us.”

  Corey pointed at Stormy then said in a very scholarly manner, “While I can’t completely rule out the possibility of ghosts, or for that matter even vampires, the odds of them existing are very, very slim. And the odds of the queen of vampires coming to Littleton and having a child with your father are, well… Let’s just say you’d have a better chance of winning the lottery.”

  As they continued walking, Stormy thought of saying, but people do win the lottery…because as strange as it may seem, she knew her mom really was a vampire and she truly was part vampire. And she could prove it to them easily enough if she wanted. She could just lift each of them up with one finger. No normal girl could do that. Heck, no human could do that. But she didn’t.

  Nope, instead she just lowered her head. “Sorry guys, guess I just snapped under pressure.”

  Marco put his arm around her while Corey patted her shoulder. She would have preferred it the other way around, but for some reason liked it this way too.

  “Even you are allowed to snap once in a whi
le,” Marco said.

  Corey nodded. “Yes, Stormy. While you may not be super human, or for that matter super-naturally human, you are quite accomplished. Studies do show that stress does take its toll on those of us who are more accomplished. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves.”

  “Is that so?” Marco said a bit cynically.

  “Well, of course I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Marco,” Corey said.

  Stormy wasn’t sure if Corey was just giving Marco a hard time or not; but it still made her smile. Parting ways one by one, Stormy trudged ahead alone to her house.

  * * * *

  When Stormy arrived at her house, she was glad to see her dad was home early and out in the yard whistling while he cut the grass. It was days like this when Stormy was happy he worked at the post office and knew a thing or two about magic. She was even happier to see he was pushing the lawn mower and not trying to use magic on it considering the last time he tried to ‘magic the mower’ it didn’t go very well.

  The minute her dad saw Stormy, he shut down the mower. “What’s wrong, honey?”

  Stormy walked over to him. “Uh, not too much. At least, I don’t think it’s too much.” She looked down at her feet. “Actually, I have no idea.”

  “Is it that Rosey Cheeks again? I told you, you either just need to ignore her or turn her into a toad.”

  Stormy looked up at her dad. “No, for once it’s not Rosey Cheeks.”

  “Then what is it?” Dad put both hands on Stormy’s shoulders and looked her in the eyes. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Because I’m pale?” Stormy asked.

  Dad shook his head. “No, because the irises of your eyes are a little bluer than normal. That’s a sure sign of somebody who’s seen a ghost.”

  “Really?” Stormy asked.

  Dad let go of her to put a hand over his heart. “I can’t make this stuff up. I thought I noticed the same look yesterday, but didn’t want to say anything. I figured you would tell me if I needed to know.”

  “Then yes, I did see a ghost yesterday and today,” Stormy said. “He was a kid, my age. His name was Kenny.”

  “Well, Stormy, it’s natural for somebody with your unnatural powers to see a supernatural being now and then. Ghosts are just unhappy spirits and you are bound to run into them on occasion. Actually, I’m surprised this doesn’t happen to you more often. So did he talk to you?”

  “Yes. He insisted he liked being dead and wanted me to kill him,” Stormy said.

  Suddenly, a very serious look came over Dad’s face. “So, he was happy being dead?”

  “Yes,” Stormy said.

  “Well, that’s different.” Dad shook his head. “Most ghosts are folks who refuse to die until some unfinished matter gets finished. Happy dead are supposed to be left as happy dead. If you wake them they tend to turn into unhappy undead. Not a pretty sight at all.”

  “What damage can they do since they don’t have real bodies like we do?” Stormy asked.

  “Not much. If they concentrated really hard, they may, and I mean may, be able to jump into a person’s body and make them do things.”

  “Ooooh. That’s so wrong on so many levels,” Stormy said.

  “But don’t worry, honey.” Dad laughed. “There’s no way any ghost could do that to you. You are far too powerful for that.”

  “Phew, that’s good.”

  Dad got serious again. “Still, if somebody, somehow managed to get enough unhappy undead together, they would feed off of each other’s negative energy.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Stormy said.

  “No, that would be nasty.” Dad nodded. “And no natural force on Earth could stand up to them. Only a being like you or your mother would have any chance against them.” Dad smiled and patted Stormy on the shoulder. “But don’t think too much about it, I’m sure this was just an isolated incident.”

  Stormy hoped her dad was right. Not the part about a group of ghosts becoming a nearly unstoppable force, but the bit about it being an isolated event.

  “So did you get rid of Kenny?” He looked behind her, then waved his hand through the air slowly. “He’s not still here. Is he?”

  “No, Dad. Mom showed up,” Stormy said.

  This caught his attention. “Really? Did she ask about me?”

  Stormy shook her head. “No, she was too busy turning my principal into a pig and eating Kenny.”

  “She turned Cunningham into a pig?” Dad smiled.

  He was enjoying that a bit more than Stormy was comfortable with.

  “Yeah, but he turned back after she left,” Stormy said.

  “Your mom is getting so mellow. Years ago, she would have roasted him on a spit and had him for dinner.”

  “Oh, gross, Dad.”

  By the look on his face, Stormy gathered that he realized he had probably given her a bit too much information. He changed the subject.

  “So, did she get rid of the ghost?”

  “Yeah,” Stormy said. “She kind of absorbed him—and she really seemed to enjoy herself too.”

  “Your mom does love to relish in her powers,” Dad said.

  “That’s an understatement,” Stormy told him. “However, I still don’t like the idea of a ghost popping up in my school and bugging me.”

  “Like I said, I’m sure this was an isolated incident.” Dad smiled at her with his patented, I’m a dad, everything is going to be all right smile. “But I’ll do some research. I’ll ask around the spiritual world just to make sure. Will that make you feel better?”

  “Yes, Dad, it would.” Stormy gave her dad a kiss on the cheek and then headed into the house. She had to admit she felt a little better, a little more reassured. There may not be a lot of times when it’s useful to have a dad who dabbles in magic, but this was one of them.

  Chapter 8

  Later that evening, Stormy met up with Marco and Corey at Ten Pin Lanes, the local bowling alley—after all, there really wasn’t much else to do in Littleton.

  As they stood in line to rent their bowling shoes, Corey looked at his iPhone and hypothesized, “Doing an analysis of our last twenty games, I predict that Stormy will bowl a 194 and that Marco will come in around 201 when it is all said and done.”

  “Ah, come on, Corey.” Marco finished tying his lucky bow on his bowling shoes. “Why can’t we just bowl for once without all your mathematical mumbo-jumbo crap?”

  “Um, sorry man. I guess I sometimes just get carried away,” Corey sheepishly replied.

  “You guess?” Marco laughed.

  “Oh, leave him alone, Marco.” Stormy turned to Corey. “I actually like your intellectual commentary. It adds substance to what would otherwise be just another trivial night of bowling.”

  Marco glanced over to Stormy with a bewildered look on this face. She almost had the feeling that he wasn’t happy with her response, then he smiled.

  “Ah, it’s all right, dude,” Marco said. “I would have to question whether you were really you if I didn’t hear at least one mathematic equation or scientific fact come from you. Let’s just get something to eat. I’m so hungry I could eat a lion, a horse AND a jackalope!”

  “Uh, for your information, there is no such thing as a jackalope. It’s just a made-up animal from some folktale,” Corey said. “It’s about as possible as our good ol’ friend Stormy here actually being vampire spawn.”

  “Nev-ver-mind.” Marco scowled.

  Corey merely stared back.

  “What? Do I have to play referee between the two of you tonight?” Stormy asked, a little peeved that Corey still doubted her being part vampire. “Why don’t we just get our food and get on with some bowling?”

  They all got up from tying their shoes and headed over to the snack counter to order their usual—three orders of nachos, one with jalapeños, two blue raspberry slushies, a root beer float, chicken tenders with a side of ranch dressing, and some licorice.

  “Maybe you should invest in t
his thing called a wallet.” Marco laughed as Stormy fumbled with the wadded up money she was trying to get out of her pocket. “Here, I’ll cover it.”

  “No need.” Stormy pulled out the curled up money and plunked it onto the counter.

  “Oh gee, who do we have here?” came a voice from behind her.

  It was none other than Rosey Cheeks and, as always, she was accompanied by Jinna and Shyra. The group was flanked by the three big football players from school—Jarrod, Zac and Chad.

  “Guys,” Rosey said to the football players, “what do you think about these two jerks being here tonight taking up valuable space?” She directed her gaze towards Corey and Marco.

  “Uh, gee Rosey, we don’t mind.” Zac pointed down the alley. “Plus, it’s a big place with lots of lanes.”

  “Of course you mind, you imbeciles!” Rosey glared at him, as if daring him not to agree with her.

  “Oh, yeah! Right! We do!” Zac pounded his right fist in the palm of his left hand.

  “We do, too,” Jinna and Shyra chimed in like the obedient sheep they were.

  The three football players took a step towards Marco and Corey however Stormy wasn’t about to let her friends get pounded. She positioned herself between the boys. “Like you said, there’s plenty of room here. We don’t have to fight.”

  “Yeah, we do,” Jarrod said.

  Stormy knew she could use her hypnotic voice on them, but she wanted to try something else. It was a trick her mom taught her, one of transferring energy from one being to another.

  Using her body as a conduit, unbeknownst to the others she gradually transferred the energy from the football players into Marco and Corey. It kind of tickled. She glanced over at Marco and Corey; a moment ago they had been acting as if trying to blend into the floor but now they were standing upright, chests out, fists pumped.

  “Sorry, kid.” Chad grabbed Corey by the jacket. “Gotta keep my woman happy…but hopefully you’ll still help me with my math next week.”

  “Math? No, let’s try physics,” Corey said.

  “What’s that mean?” Chad asked.

  “I mean that Newton’s law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”