A New Zing

The Drac Pack

Frank turned his attention to Dracula as soon as Thomas was done introducing his younger sister to the group "Hey buddy!, what have you been doing?" Dracula gave him a very much plastic smile as he looked sharply at Arwen who gave him a smug look in return.

"Never mind that!" He waved his long arms in dismissal and demanded, "What you been doing?"

"We wanted to practice our big number for Mavis' party and then these losers wouldn't get off the bandstand," Wayne answered, still gnawing zombie Beethoven in his jaws.

"Okay. Put down Zombie Mozart, Bach and Beethoven this instant!" Dracula ordered.

Reluctantly, the trio of monsters tossed, butted or spat out the zombies composers over to the vampire, and the wolf pups scampered off.

"Did you get to rehearse at all, Zombie Beethoven?" Dracula asked the zombie.

Zombie Beethoven shook his head and groaned in fifth symphony "Eh, eh, eh, eeeeeeeeeeh."

"Listen, Drac, we wanted to play something like old times. We even thought maybe you'd sing with us," Wayne suggested.

"Ah, heh, heh" Dracula chuckled nervously "C'mon fellas, you know that I haven't sung in public sinceMartha." Arwen blinked and her eyebrows raised.

"Who is Martha? Is she your friend?"

Everyone froze at her statement and Dracula suddenly became very quiet. Thomas coughed and pulled her slightly close to him "Don't mention that name in front of Dracula sis" Arwen gave him a confused look but nodded in response.

"Yeah, but, we just thought how much, you know, Mavis would love it," Frank added trying to lighten up the mood.

"I SAID NO!" Dracula suddenly shouted and then released a blood curdling roar as his eyes went red and his fangs elongated "RAAAAAAAAAWWW!" before his face returned to normal. "DON'T ASK ME AGAIN!" Then he spoke more pleasantly, "Okay, now let's hug the zombies, let's all make up."

The vampire's roars had thrown his friends off-track and terrified.

"Wow. He really scared you." Wayne looked up at Frank with a teasing smile, and Murray glanced up at him with a grin. Arwen merely giggled at his reaction while Thomas let out a full blown laugh.

"I wasn't scared. I was being polite, okay?" Frank tried to deny it. Thomas merely patted him in the back with a smile "It's alright to feel fear Frank" Arwen nodded in encouragement.

Johnny watched them with interest. A moment later, Mavis appeared upside down in front of Johnny, which startled him by her sudden presence. "Hey, what're you doing here? I thought you were planning."

"I, uh...I had other things to take care of. Uh, I never caught your name," Johnny said, trying to make an excuse and change the subject.

"My name's Mavis" She replied.

Johnny lit up at hearing her name "Mavis? That's a pretty neat name" Mavis blushed as she smiled shyly. "Yeah, my mom picked it. So, are you gonna tell me your name?"

"Me? Oh, my name, good question" Johnny thought nervously for a moment to try to pick a name that doesn't give away his human nature, while he felt his hair for a moment he remembered his disguise and came up with a name. "Well obviously, I'm Frankenstein" he said as he leaned against the side of the wall.

"No, you're not" Mavis giggled. "Frankenstein is my uncle over there, the gentleman hugging zombie Mozart" Mavis pointed to the golem monster and Johnny looked over to see Frank with zombie Mozart in a painful headlock.

"Right, of course he's your uncle" Johnny tried to think of another identity for his disguise. "Well, um, you see I'm not the Frankenstein. I'm his..." another idea clicked in his head, "...cousin, Johnny Stein."