Saturday, December 3, 2011

DRACULA'S CHEERLEADERS: A short story.

DRACULA'S CHEERLEADERS.

     Joe placed three plastic bowls on the coffee table in front of the wide screen TV. In the center bowl he poured in a bag of bite size candies. In the two smaller bowls he was going to fill them with microwave popcorn just before the movie started.
     Joe wondered if Ted was going to come tonight. He had not be over for schlock movie night for about five weeks. He had gotten married just over five weeks ago to a woman he meet in church. For the next two weeks after the wedding he would call and say he was not going to be able to make it over that week and not wait for him. He did not call at all the last three weeks.
     Joe wondered if Ted's wife did not want him to come to movie night and leave her alone. She was welcome to come if she wanted. Joe invited her even though she did not seem to type to enjoy schlock horror and sci movies. She said maybe she would come. She did not seem like she really wanted to come.

     At fifteen minutes to seven o'clock Joe made two bags of popcorn in the microwave and filled the two waiting bowls on the coffee table.
     Bill and David were never late on schlock movie night. Tonight the it was ten minutes pass seven and they were not there.

     A few minutes later there was a knock on the door of the apartment and Joe open the door to find Bill alone. Bill always drove David over since David sold his car.
           “Where's Dave?”
           “I dropped him off at his new job.” Said Bill as he walked in and sat on the couch.
          “A new job? He quit that job at the store?”
          “No it's a new part time night job at a burger joint. He's working nights there.”
         “Why did he get a second job?”
         “He needs to help out his parents. They're not doing too well since the market went down. All their retirement funds were invested in stocks.”
         “That's too bad. I guess he won't be coming over for schlock movie night again for a while.”
         “I wouldn't bet on it.” Bill picked up a candy from the bowl. “What's tonight movie from the cinema wasteland?”
         “I found this in a thrift store a few days ago. It called DRACULA'S CHEERLEADERS.”
        “You're joking. I've never heard of such a movie.”
        “I can't find any information about it online. The cover art on the DVD case looks like it was printed on a home computer printer and has an screen capture from the movie. I saw the first few minutes and it looks like it was shot on home video like VHS or something like that.”
        “Is it a pro DVD disk or a home burn job?
        “It's a recordable.”
        “It might be someone's home movie. Maybe a student film.”
        “Well it looks perfect for schlock movie night.”

   Joe put on the movie and they watched it on the big screen television. The movie was as Joe said was shot in a video format of some sort before digital cameras or even the old Hi8 format.
   Who ever shot the film did not use a tripod and could not hold a camera steady to save their life.
   The plot seem to be made up as they shot the feature. A goth girl brings Dracula to life during some kind of an occult rite. Dracula is played by a tall man in bad heavy make up and a cheap looking cape.
   Dracula turns a group of four cheerleaders into vampires during a slumber party and the vampire girls dressed in their cheer leading uniforms seduce some nerds and kill them for their blood in a badly shot scene.
   At the end of the film the father of the goth girl finds the coffins of Dracula and the cheerleaders in the cellar and set fire to them. The prop coffins seem to be made of cardboard and went up quickly.
   The film was less than a hour long. Joe and Bill laughed though the whole the film as they ate up all the popcorn and most of the candy.
   After the movie was over they talked about all the low points of the movie. Bill wished he knew who made the film because he wanted to know if he made another bad movie like it.
About nine o'clock Bill looked at his watch.
       “I got to make an early evening of it tonight. I got to get some things done early in the morning.”
      “I'll see you next week then.”
      “I'm afraid not. I'm taking a night school course starting this week. It's going to be a two year course.”
     “Oh are you finally going to get that degree in business?”
     “Yes. If I'm ever going to take over the family business I'm going to need it.”
     “Well good luck with that. Sometimes I think about taking a class but I never got around to it.”
      “Well they say it's never too late.”

   Bill left and Joe went over to the DVD player and removed the DVD movie and placed it back in it's case.
   He stepped over to a bookcase next to the television. In it was his collection of DVD movies. On the top shelf was the movies he played at the weekly schlock movie night. He placed DRACULA'S CHEEREADERS on the shelf with the others and looked them over. He started to count them.
   There was a hundred and nine movies. They had been watching movies together as a group just about every Monday for just over two years.
   Joe wondered what he was going to do on Monday nights now.
   Just was well he then thought. He needed to cut back on the candy and popcorn anyway.

The End.

DRACULA'S CHEERLEADERS is copyright 2011 by Teel. Not to be reprinted or reposted without permission.




No comments:

Post a Comment