Once upon a time there was a ghoul whose beauty fairly reflected her heart.

Once there was a kingdom where the ghouls were wondrous fair yet none could hold a candle to Snow Bite of the raven hair.

In manner she was proper and graceful, in attitude generous and kind; that she was considered fairest never crossed her mind.

For she shared a gothic cottage deep in primeval wood with seven friends who were zombies and for the eight of them unlife was good.

But elsewhere in the kingdom lived a princess who was almost as fair, but almost wasn't good enough for this royal dynastic heir.

Each day she would consult a mirror that answered her questions true, yet the answer to her only question was, "Snow Bite is still fairer than you."

So the princess decided to fix it so that she'd be alone at the top and she reached for a beautiful apple from that year's bumper crop.

"I'll use a special amulet to curse this apple to its core, so that when Snow Bite has a taste of it, she'll be the fairest no more!"

So the princess drank a potion that made her shabby and grey though it really hurt her fashion sense to have to dress that way.

Then she snuck out to the cottage and found a place to lurk while she waited for the zombies to shuffle off to work.

But before she could put her plan in motion with the apple cursed, Snow Bite came out of the cottage and happened to see her first.

"Why hello there won't you come in, I've just put on some tea and I've warm carrot muffins that are totes tasty as can be."

She had not expected Snow Bite to be so sweet and nice and the thought of giving her the apple actually made the princess think twice.

So the princess asked for a mirror, she wanted to steady her face, but Snow Bite said, "A mirror? I don't have one in this place....

You see my face is not reflected in polished metal, still water or glass and I'd rather not be reminded of that whenever one I pass."

This confused the princess greatly as she decided what to do next; with her hand around the bright green apple that carried Snow Bite's hex.

Then the princess pulled the apple out as she was headed toward the door, and dropped it in the trash can saying, "This thing's rotten to the core."

And lest you think the princess had totally changed her stripe, she said, "If Snow Bite can't see her reflection then who am I to gripe?"

Once there was a kingdom where the ghouls were wondrous fair, but Snow Bite was still the fairest of all and the princess didn't care.

Jackson came over tonight to return my pie plate. Father got to the door before I could and totally went all Transylvania on him. "Good evening. Vat can I do for you?"

I was like, "Oh, no!" but then Jackson asked to borrow a hammer 'cause he needed to drive a stake into something. It flustered my dad so much I think he turned a shade whiter. Then Jackson said, "Gotcha!" and my dad regained his composure...barely. "Draculaura, you have a visitor!"

I was this close to moving my passport from 'misplaced' to 'lost' when I decided it was time to call in some backup. I invited Clawdeen, Frankie, Ghoulia, Abbey, and Cleo for a creepover/passport hunt. I may or may not have mentioned the part about the passport hunt before they showed up, although according to the ghouls, I definitely did not. It is possible I did not mention it since I have been under a lot of stress lately. Frankie came to my rescue when the grumbling started to get out of hand and said we could turn it into a treasure hunt and that it would be fun. The other ghouls were not completely convinced that it would be fun, but Frankie could convince a werewolf to run barefoot through a field of wolfsbane. We turned my room upside down - literally; Abbey is very strong. Cleo wanted to know when the last time I had used it was, which I think was when we all went to Scaris. I didn't really need it for that whole 'Queen of the Vampires' thing when we jetted off to Transylvania. Cleo suggested that maybe I left it in my luggage, so we all headed to my closet. Dad had put in some new track lighting, which makes it totes easier to find things now, and my clothes no longer smell like torch smoke. We went through all of my luggage from the trip; this took some time, but we found nothing except an old croissant. We had to keep Abbey from eating it, which made her crabby. Not that all the other ghouls weren't crabby by this time too, and that's when Ghoulia, who was lying on the floor, pointed up to a shelf that had previously been hidden by the luggage. "Does that box say 'Passports'?" Abbey reached up and took down the box. Frankie opened the lid and pulled out a passport. "Draculaura, this passport expired 60 years ago."

ART CLASS I

Class Description: A studio art course with the goal of introducing students to boo techniques and mediums in creative expression, especially emphasizing claws on learning. Students will be required to submit a final project for exhibition at the annual Monster High Art Festival.

This totally bites. I want to do a self-portrait for my project, but how am I going to do that if I can't see my reflection? I suppose I could bring some of my portraits from home, but that feels like I'd just be copying another artist's work. Bats...

I guess I will paint from an existing portrait of myself. I chose one that I sat for in Scaris back in the 18th Century. I remember the artist was a werewolf with red fur and a notched ear who was very intense and liked to paint flowers and starry skies.

I'm finished, and I still don't know if it really looks like me. This is deadfully disappointing...sigh...maybe I should be painting how I feel and not how I look; and since I am totes in touch with my emotions, this could be fangtastic.

This may not be fangtastic. Clawd had to cancel our date tonight because he has to study for his scary aptitude test. Now I'm almost out of Runny Mascara Black. Pffffttttt, I'll just paint my classmates then. That will show him. Okay, it won't, but it might make me feel better.

This is fun! I think I'll try some still life, too. Ooh, Abbey's chainsaw!