6 June

I have lost my passport. Okay, maybe “lost” isn’t the right

word, maybe “misplaced” is better, or at least it makes me
feel better to think of it just not being really “lost, lost”;
 because “misplaced” means I can actually come across it
by looking in places where it is not normally kept,
whereas “lost” means the possibility of me ever finding it
again is dreadfully small. I am not in panic mode yet,
though. There is still time to find it before I have to leave
for Shibooya. I hope. Clawd thinks I need to apply for
another passport, but that would mean giving up and
admitting that I really have lost it instead of just misplaced
it. I can hear Dad now, “Draculaura, it is totes
irresponsible of you to lose such an important document.”
Okay, maybe I can’t exactly hear him saying “totes”, but
the rest of that sentence comes through loud and clear. I’m
doing my best not to tell him, which is waaaay easier since
he’s out of country right now… with his passport not lost
or misplaced, I’m sure.
13 June
I am sitting in the student exchange gorientation class
right now. I am pretending to take notes, which makes Mr.
D’eath happy. It also has the curious effect of keeping him
from repeating himself, which means the class doesn’t go
as long. If I were legitimately taking notes, these are some
of the subjects I would have written down:
1. Do not lose your passport. This is an important document,
and it is your responsibility to keep up with it.
2. One time Mr. D’eath lost his passport and never got the
chance to go on his exchange trip, which meant he had to
stay home and work in his father’s shoe store instead of
getting to see the Eiffel Terror.
3. Do not lose your passport.
I think I would be getting a lot more out of this class right
now if I weren’t being constantly reminded of this. Bats! I
know it has to be somewhere - “Well, of course, it has to
be somewhere Draculaura, things don’t just vanish into
thin air.” Oh, yeah? What about Invisi Billy? “Okay -
except for Invisi Billy.” Lagoona just snorted again, I
know that snort; it’s what she does when she tries to turn a
laugh into a sneeze. I wish I were sitting next to her so I
could be in on whatever it is that she’s laughing about, but
Mr. D’eath won’t let us sit next to each other because,
apparently, we’re “disruptive.” So not fair, and right now
Lagoona needs some encouragement. She’s already
missing Gil, and she hasn’t even left yet. I’m going to
miss Clawd, too, but our situation is totes different than
theirs is. I should talk to the ghouls and see if we can do
something special for them. Ooh, I think Mr. D’eath is
wrapping things up. Feariously? Again with the lost
passport? I get it already… I just wish I had gotten it
before I lost… er… misplaced it. Sigh…
15 June
I went over to Clawd’s house for dinner tonight. It was
fun. His mom always makes sure to cook something
without meat in it for me. This time it was pasta with
scarinara sauce. She also made meatballs, but, of course, I
passed on those. The Wolfs treat me like I am a member
of their pack, and I always feel so special when I’m there.
It made me think of Lagoona again, and how even
something as simple as dinner is such a scary hard thing to
make happen for her and Gil. When we finished eating,
Clawd and I went for a walk. If he was worried about me
being gone, he did not show it. I think some ghouls would
take this as a sign that something was wrong, but I know
better. There’s barely enough room in our relationship for
the drama I bring to it, so I’m glad Clawd doesn’t add his
own. Speaking of drama, I told him about my passport.
Clawd snorted, but it wasn’t because he was trying to turn
a laugh into a sneeze. It’s a “concern snort” which tells me
that a solution has been released in his brain and it is
currently trying to find a way out that does not sound like
an order. Clawd is used to barking out orders. I guess that
comes with being the captain of both the football and
caketball teams. “I think, maybe you should get a
replacement,” he said. “If you apply now, you’ll have
time. If you wait, you won’t. That happened to Clawdia
before she went to school in Londoom - it was a total pain
in the fang.” I told him I would download the paperwork
and fill it out, but I still don’t want to admit that it’s
actually lost. I wonder if there is a box on the form
for “misplaced”? I know it’s totes silly to carry on like
this, but I don’t want to give up until I find it.
25 June
It wasn’t hard to get the ghouls to agree to act as hair and
makeup artists, it wasn’t hard to get Cleo to ask her dad
for the use of a limo, it wasn’t hard to get the mansters to
dress like body guards, but it was deadly difficult to get
Gil to agree. “I don’t want to do it,” he said. “It’s just
going to fall through, and then we’ll both be
disappointed.” I finally had to resort to an intervention. Gil
thought he was going to have a game day with the
mansters at Deuce’s house, but not so much. When he
walked down the stairs to the basement and saw all of us
sitting there, he turned to Deuce and said, “I knew I
smelled a trap.” Deuce said, “I could have just stoned you,
but I’d rather have you mad at me than Lagoona.” It took a
while, but after we laid out the plan… several times… he
finally agreed. He was a nervous wreck on the way to pick
her up, but by the time we arrived, with no flat tires,
engine trouble, alien invasions or Heath Burns incidents,
he was so excited he could barely stay in the limo while
we went to get Lagoona. They had a clawsome day just to
themselves, and we got to be a part of it. Totes perfect.
27 June
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 that 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 wolf’s bane.
We turned my room upside down - literally; Abbey is very
strong. Cleo wanted to know when the last time I 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.” Abbey dumped the box in the
middle of the floor, and we all started going through them.
Cleo said, “This one expired 30 years ago, and what is up
with your hair in this picture?” It was a phase. Ghoulia
flipped through the one she was holding, “Only 15 years
out of date.” Clawdeen jumped to her feet with the one she
was holding. “Found it, and it’s only expired by… TWO
WEEKS!” I had two thoughts as I watched my ghouls
freaking out with concern. Number one was “Misplaced,
not lost”, and number two “Good thing I already applied
for a replacement.”