THE VAMPIRE UNDERGROUND

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN

“OK. I want you all to pay attention. This is very important.”

The students stared at Mr. Barker with undivided attention as he stood at the front of Film class, a medium-sized poster of the movie Twilight in his hands.

“We’re not watching that, are we?” Brin said.

“We’re going to begin the class by looking at the vampire movie genre, reflecting on its history and analyzing its merit, so…”

Mr. Barker ripped the Twilight poster in two. The class applauded!

“…we’re definitely not going to be looking at Edward and Bella. Who here has heard of a movie called Nosferatu?”

Almost half of the students raised their hands, surprising the teacher. A big smile appeared on his face. When the students lowered their hands, Ash still had his up high in the air.

The teacher said, rather frustratingly, “Yes… did you have a question, Ashley?”

A couple of students snickered. Ash shook his head. “Please, Mr. Barker, for the love of God, call me Ash.”

“Yes, of course. Ash.”

“I was wondering if we could talk about the short films for a moment?”

“What?” He looked out at all the students. “You guys want to talk about your movies?”

“YES!” everyone shouted.

“OK, but real quick, guys. We have a lot of material to get through today.” He turned back to Ash. “What’s your question?”

“The group wants me to be the star, but I really don’t want to be. I don’t want to be an actor, period. And not in a million years would I ever want to sing on camera!”

“I understand your frustration, but—

”Mr. Barker,” the tall and slim Colin Cleaver said, “I really want to be in my movie, but they’re saying I have to write the script! I can’t write. You’ll give me an F. I don’t want an F.”

“It’s OK. If you don’t—” The teacher was inundated with raised hands and loud voices snapping at him from every foreseeable angle.

Brin raised her hand up high and said, “I want to direct our movie!”

“What?” Anaya said to Brin. “We had a deal!” Then she turned to Mr. Barker. “I thought you said we were allowed to—”

“QUIET!” The teacher shouted so boisterously and vindictively that a student in the back hid under her desk. Mr. Barker looked to be a sweet guy. But not now. “This is unacceptable. What are you guys, first graders? You’re high school upperclassmen. One at a time, please. Or I’m just gonna give you all F’s on the short films. How does that sound?”

Nobody responded. The students all looked up at their teacher with apologetic puppy-dog eyes.

“OK, look,” Mr. Barker said, “here’s the deal. Ash. I’m sorry. You’re singing. Colin. Anyone can write a five-minute movie. I trust you to do your best. And Brin and Anaya.” He stared at the two vastly different girls for a moment, before he said, “Here’s the deal. The most prepared of the two of you gets to direct the movie.”

“Oooh!” Brin jumped out of her seat and raced up to the teacher, dropping a sheet of paper in his hand before she had even stopped moving.

“What’s this?”

“I typed up an outline last night. For our movie.”

Mr. Barker glanced down at Brin’s outline, which was slim at only a third of a page.

“OK…”

Before the teacher could say another word, however, Anaya stood up, her gut hanging out over the desk. Her poor make-up and wet, messy hair job didn’t seem to phase her confidence. She had more than a piece of paper in her hand. She had a packet.

“What do you have, Ms. Frost?”

“I have the script,” she said, handing it over to Mr. Barker. “It’s the first draft, about twelve pages in length. It still needs work, but it’s a start.”

“OK then.”

“OK.” Then she handed him a second packet.

“And what is this?”

“It’s my shot list,” Anaya said. “I’ve mapped out every shot I want in the movie.” She brought her hands to her hips and stuck out her giant gut proudly. “Prepared enough for you?”

The teacher nodded, and Brin knew her defense was a lost cause if she didn’t perform a memorable temper tantrum. All she could think of to say was: “But Mr. Barker… she’s… she’s… evil!”

A few students laughed. But the teacher didn’t say a word. He stared forward, past Brin and Anaya, and focused on, of all things, Brin’s backpack.

He stepped past Brin and lifted up the top flap of her backpack. He pulled out the vampire mask.

“I was looking for this,” he said.

“Oh! That’s right!” Brin glanced at Anaya, who was enjoying every moment of Brin’s public display of embarrassment. “I was going to give that back—”

“You took it from me?” he said, turning back to her.

“I… uhh…” Brin looked at Ash, who tried to appear innocent. She sighed. “I wanted to… uhh… scare my mom with it, the way you scared me with it yesterday.”

“You have to ask, Brin. Come on. I’m docking a point from your video for this.”

Mr. Barker walked back to his desk, holding the mask close to him as if it were his own deformed little baby.

“So does this mean I get to direct the movie?” Anaya said.

“Yes, you can direct the movie.”

Mr. Barker dropped the mask into his bottom desk drawer.

“I’m sorry,” Brin said. “I didn’t think—”

“Both of you sit down,” he said. “No more on the short films. It’s time to discuss our first horror film of the semester. F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu. Who here has ever seen a silent film?”

Brin sat back down at her desk in defeat. Not only had she lost the chance at directing the movie, but she suddenly found herself on the teacher’s naughty list. And it was only the second day of class!

“Hey,” Anaya whispered, as the teacher turned around to set up the DVD player. “The deal’s off. You lost us a point you stupid bitch.”

Brin’s mouth went agape as Anaya stood up with a toddler-like smile. The teacher seemed to be struggling with the player.

“Did you need help with that, Mr. Barker?”

“Yes, thanks.” He tossed Anaya the remote control. “I thought I had it figured out yesterday. I hate technology.”

“I know what you mean,” Anaya said, smiling at Brin as she walked to the front of the room and quickly got the project and player working.

Brin crossed her arms and sunk down in her chair.   

I may be a bitch, Brin thought, but at least I’m not the teacher’s pet.