The class started to laugh. Everybody, except for Maria and Lizzy.
“I wouldn’t think a ghost would need to use the bathroom,” Lizzy commented.
Now the class really started to laugh.
Lizzy shrugged. “Unless of course they want to see how much of themselves they can or can’t see in the mirror…”
I headed into the hallway hoping the ghost would follow. She did.
“Hey, girl. Can you see and hear me?” the ghost asked from behind me.
“Yes,” I said out of the corner of my mouth without turning around.
“This is so far out! After all these years, to finally find somebody who can see and hear me. I knew you were different! I knew it!”
“Yeah, yeah,” I said still not turning around.
The ghost teen appeared in front of me. “Yes, finally somebody to talk to.”
Looking past her, I walked down the hallway and said softly, “I don’t want people to think I’m crazy!”
The ghost stopped. I didn’t want to walk through her, but I did. It gave me a chill.
“Oh, yeah, I guess other people would just think you are talking to yourself,” the ghost said.
“We can talk in privately in the bathroom,” I mumbled, heading forward and not looking at the ghost.
“Sure, sure,” she said eagerly. “My name is Margaret Zimmerman. My friends call me Margo.”
I liked the fact that she gave me her name. Once again, another M name...not sure if that meant anything. We reached the door to the girls’ bathroom. Before I could go in, the door swung open, knocking me down. Matti stood above me.
“Oops. Sorry, Zara,” Matti said. “I didn’t mean to hit you with the door. I’m in a bit of a rush. I don’t want to be late for cooking class. We’re making cookies today,” she said pulling me back to my feet. Matti started dusting me off. “Sometimes I get too excited,” she said.
“No problem, I’m fine.”
“I like this girl,” Margo said. “She reminds me of me.”
I started towards the bathroom door. Matti grabbed me from behind.
“Ah, Zara,” she said meekly.
“Yes, Matti?”
“Uh, I don’t know how to say this delicately, but well, you remember I had the burrito special for lunch?” Matti whispered, looking very serious.
I stopped. Turning to Matti I said, “Oh, I didn’t notice.”
Matti nodded her head. “Don’t go into the toilets Zara. It’s kind of nasty in there. I think I knocked myself out twice. Can you hold it for few minutes while the stink clears out? You’ll thank me later…”
“Sure, Matti,” I said, smiling and feeling a little embarrassed. “Thanks for the warning.”
Matti took off. Looking over her shoulder she said, “No problem.”
Margo just looked at Matti. “Nice girl. Weird, but nice girl.”
I looked around making sure the coast was clear. “Okay, let’s talk out here for a bit.”
Margo looked at me. “Sounds like a plan.”
I quickly checked out Margo’s clothing. Her suede dress and boots, long orange colored hair put up into weird looking double buns and a yellow flower in her hair, made her look like she came out of a TV Land rerun. I guessed she had passed in the 70’s or 80’s.
“How old are you, Margo?” I asked.
“How old am I or how old was I?” Margo asked me. Looking up at the ceiling she said, “Technically, I guess I don’t have an age. Being a ghost can be so uncool.”
“How old were you when you….”
“Died?” she said.
“Yeah, that.”
“It was 1973. I was 16,” Margo said.
I pushed the door open a crack, just to sample the air.
“I can test the room out if you like,” Margo said. “I guess being a ghost has some advantages.”
“Can you smell things?” I asked.
“Yes, I actually have a super sensitive sniffer.”
Margo slipped through the door. A second later she bopped her head through the door gagging.
Margo slipped back into the hallway. “Better give it a few more minutes.”
“So you were 16 when you died? Wow, bummer.”
Margo smiled. “I was an orphan, so it wasn’t so bad. No one to really miss me. I had some classmates who were sad. But they all have good lives now, so I’m glad about that. At least as glad as a ghost can be.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Talking to you.”
“I mean why are you still hanging around middle school?”
Margo’s smile widened. “Should have known that. It’s been a long time since I talked with anybody, so I guess the brain is a little dusty.” Margo then popped open her head. Reaching in, she pulled out her brain. Lowing the brain to her mouth, she blew off some dust. Closing one eye, she examined the brain with the other. She must have been satisfied that she did a good job cleaning it because she tossed her brain up into the air, back into her forehead. The forehead snapped shut.
“There. That’s better,” Margo said.
I walked into the bathroom. Sure, it might still stink a little, but after seeing that display, I just felt better talking to Margo the ghost in private, rather than out in the hall. Margo followed me into the bathroom. She took a deep breath.
“Not too bad now,” she said.
“I repeat, why are you hanging around the middle school?” I asked.
Margo looked at me. “Back in my day, this was the high school,” she smiled. “I was always happiest here. I was a track star.”
“Oh, ah, okay,” I said slowly.
Originally I planned to get Margo into the bathroom and get rid of her, send her back to wherever ghosts belong. But after meeting Margo, I started to believe she might have a role to play in finding the super ghost. After all, a good plan should be flexible.
“So, Margo, have you sensed anything different lately?” I asked.
Margo stood on her tiptoes and started sniffing the air. She floated up off the ground, inhaling stronger. Touching back down on the ground she said, “I smell a strange presence.”
“Another ghost…?”
“You mean, Harry?” Margo said.
“Yeah, him.”
“Yes, I met him a few years ago, he is a grumpy old thing,” Margo said.
“Don’t worry. I sent him back to where he belongs.”
Margo wiped some phantom sweat off her head. “Phew.”
“Harry told me there is a super ghost around,” I said.
Margo took a few steps back. Scratching her head she said, “A super ghost? That’s when one of us becomes super strong. Right?”
“Yep,” I told her.
Margo shook her head. “Those things are bad news. They can upset the mental and physical energy of the world. They can send people crazy and there are enough crazy people without a super ghost!”
“That’s why I need to stop it. Think you could sniff it out?” I asked.
Margo sat on floor, legs crossed. “Hmmm, ghosts smell one way. You people smell another way. Sure, I can do that.”
“So, you’ll work with me?” I asked.
Margo’s eyes opened wide, staring at me. Margo’s back straightened and she held out a hand for me to shake. “It’s a deal!”
My hand passed through hers.
“Where do you want me to start?” Margo asked eagerly.
“Nothing personal,” I said, “but I think it’s best if you stay away from me unless you have some information for me.”
Margo laughed and pointed at me. “Gotcha. You don’t want people thinking you’re loony tunes, talking to somebody they can’t see.”
“Yeah.”
Margo nodded. “Yep, that would be bad for your rep.”
“Glad you understand.”
Margo looked me in the eyes. “One thing I’ve learned all these years from being a ghost is that humans don’t deal well with things they don’t understand.
” She paused to think for a moment. “I’ll sniff it out. I’ll start with the second floor. You can trust me.”
“Thanks, Margo. I appreciate it.”
Margo lifted her arm up, “High five!” she shouted.
Margo was taller than me so I had to jump up to reach her hand. Just as I reached it, she stretched the hand way up, I pretty much high-fived her elbow.
Margo laughed. “That was a high-five ghost style!” she said.
I watched Margo float up into the ceiling. Then I headed back to science class.
Chapter 3: Gym and The Art of Ducking
“You did what?” Maria said, as we walked to gym class.
“I let Margo go. I think she’ll be a valuable member of our team.”
“You know she’s a ghost, right?” Maria thought at me.
I simply nodded.
“Ghosts are bad news,” Maria thought at me.
“This one can help us. She’s a good ghost,” I insisted. “Where is it written that all ghosts are bad?”
Reaching into her backpack Maria pulled out a cloth bound book. “It’s in the Basic Ghost Primer. Did you even read this?”
“I skimmed it,” I said, trying to defend myself. “It was kind of boring and it all seemed like good old-fashioned common sense to me.”
Maria opened the book up to page seven. Thrusting the page in my face she said, “See!”
I read it.
RULE SEVEN:
GHOSTS ARE EVIL, DERANGED, AND BAD NEWS. THROUGHOUT RECORDED GHOST HISTORY, ONLY ONE GHOST HAS EVER NOT BEEN EVIL OR DERANGED.
HE WAS A YOUNG GHOST NAMED JASPER.
HIS NAME WAS LATER MISSPELLED IN COMMON FOLKLORE AND STORIES.
“See,” I said, pointing to Jasper’s name. “Not ALL of them are bad.”
Maria slammed the book shut and threw one finger in my face. “One in all of history.”
“Well, now there are two,” I said firmly. “Maybe. I hope,” I said less firmly.
“Are you insane?” Maria screamed in my brain.
“Remember you couldn’t sense her? I think that meant she wasn’t violent,” I insisted.
Maria lowered her head. “Okay you might have a point…”
We all headed off to our sports lesson. Normally, I’m not too keen about the dressing room. For one thing, it tends to smell like two day old rotten eggs. For another, I’ve never been big on undressing and dressing in front of people. Hey, I’m shy. I admit it. Finally, I don’t like getting whacked with towels. I don’t think anybody really does.
I sat on the bench next to Matti and Ming and switched into my blue gym shorts and gold t-shirt as quickly and quietly as possible. Good thing my shorts had pockets so I could hide my zapper and yo-yo. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any questions. Stealth and avoiding eye contact is the key to keeping my secret. After tying my shoes, I stood up and weaved my way out of the dressing room into the gym.
The gym had a moveable wall down the middle, separating it into a boys’ side and girls’ side. Coach Carlin stood near the entry to the gym, ushering us all in. Coach C, as we called him had a big mouth...and I mean a really huge mouth. His upper body was huge, super wide and strong like a gorilla, but his legs were really little. He always wore a cap (even inside) and a whistle around his neck. And, man, did he like to use that whistle. He blew it right then to grab our attention.
“Okay, ladies,” Coach C shouted. “Move quick! Time to get out here and begin exercising. We have two minutes before dodgeball starts. Anybody not in here in 120 seconds gets ten pushups.” Coach C loved making us do pushups.
As much as I am not a big fan of dodgeball, I am less of a fan of pushups.
Once we had all rolled in, Coach C gave us our marching orders. Pointing to the far end of they gym, he said, “Okay, kids whose lasts names are A-M, go to the far side. The rest stay here.”
My teammates and I started walking down to our end. Coach C always figured that if he split us up using the alphabet, teams would come out even. He never quite noticed that there were far more kids in our class with last names that started with N, R, S and T then any other letters. My team, the beginning of the alphabet, was always outnumbered.
“Okay, this will be two ball dodgeball. Or double dodge as I like to call it!” Coach C smiled, proud of his joke. He paused for laughter, but heard only silence. “You get hit, you’re out. You catch the ball, the person who threw it is out,” Coach C explained even though we all knew the rules. Face it, the rules aren’t that complicated. You throw balls at people and try to hit them – hard. It’s fun to be the thrower, not so much to be the victim.
Coach tossed one ball to Matti on our side and another to the other side’s hardest throwing girl, Lulu (I know, her name doesn’t suit her!). Coach blew his whistle for the “game” to begin. Balls started flying back and forth. One headed right for my head. I ducked at the last second and heard the ball whizzing over me.
As if I didn’t have enough to worry about, I saw Margo running into the gym. Well, actually floating off the ground into the gym, but her legs moved quickly like running.
“Hi, ZARA,” Margo called, as I ducked under another ball. “Dodgeball makes me glad I am a ghost. Of course back in my day girls didn’t play dodgeball. I guess that’s why they were called the good old days….
Forgetting myself for a moment, I answered Margo. “Dodgeball is okay. It’s the price we pay for progress!”
Ming heard me and answered. “Sure, it’s okay. If you like getting pounded. Plus, I’m not sure why you call this progress,” she paused. “But it is kind of exciting!”
Just as Ming finished making that statement, she got hit in the stomach by Lulu. Lulu laughed. Ming bent over and then crawled to the sideline out of the game, mumbling, “I’m so glad I didn’t just eat lunch.”
“I’ve got some good news and bad news and I’m not really sure which is which,” Margo said.
I picked up the ball that knocked Ming out of the game and tossed it to Matti. Matti could throw harder than me. Might as well let her scare the other team.
“What?” I said to Margo.
“The smell of the building is off. There’s definitely a super ghost around. I’ve checked out everybody outside this gym and they are all clean. So, it has to be somebody here,” Margo said proudly. “Well, clean is probably too strong of a word. A lot of them are pretty stinky. But, it’s human stink, not ghost stink.”
“Ok,” I said slowly, darting to the left to dodge another ball.
“But, there is a super ghost in this school. And this is the only place I haven’t checked out. So, Zara, the super ghost is in this room.”
“Well then, sniff it out!” I said. Luckily, the rest of my teammates were either too busy trying to dodge to save their skin or clobber the other team...way too busy to notice I that I appeared to be talking to myself.
Margo gave me a salute. “Right. I will give you a thumbs down when I find the rotten one!” She started sniffing each one of my team mates.
Turning back to the game, I saw a ball headed directly towards my face. Without even thinking, I used my telekinetic powers to stop the ball less than half an inch from smacking me in the nose. Reacting quickly, I reached up and grabbed the ball. I’ve got to admit having telekinetic powers is very handy.
“Darn!” Katie Smallgoods said, stomping her foot on the ground. “I thought I had Zara nailed!”
I spent the next ten minutes or so watching Margo go from girl to girl in the gym, sniffing them. At the same time, I needed to keep my head in the dodgeball game in order not to lose my head in the dodgeball game.
By the time Margo finished sniffing all the girls in my class (okay, that does sound weird), the dodgeball game was winding down. Only Matti and I were left on our team, against Lulu and Katie on the other team. Both of them are on the basketball and volleyball teams. Believe me, Katie Smallgoods has to be the most poorly named person in the world. You hear the name and you think of a tiny girl sitting beh
ind a computer. Katie Smallgoods does sit behind a computer, but trust me, you would see her there. She stands taller than Matti and had long lanky arms, which meant she could really whip a ball.
So far I had survived the game on a combination of being naturally wily and quick, with some aid from my telekinetic power. When one of Lulu’s fastballs-of-death curve balls came at me, at the last second I caught it and sent it back at her. I have to admit I was pretty impressed with myself.
“We can do this Zara,” Matti yelled to me. “They’re bigger than us, but you are playing fantastic!”
“Thanks, Matti,” I said, diving under a shot by Katie.
“Okay, all the girls are clean!” Margo shouted to me. “Some of them really stink, but none of them reek of ectoplasm ghost goo. So, I’ll head over to the boy’s side and sniff out the guys now.”
I gave Margo a little wave just to acknowledge that I’d heard her. She paused. Then for some reason she came back towards me. I sighed. I thought we had this settled.
“Ah, Zara, I hate to point this out, especially when you are dodging balls for your own life and all, but I haven’t checked out all the girls yet….”
“Who you missing?” I asked quickly.
“I just missed Katie!” Matti told me with a sigh, thinking I had been talking to her.
Margo put her ghost hands behind her back. “I haven’t sniffed you yet…”
I shook my head and dove under a dodge ball at the same time. I looked up at her from the ground. “Why me?” I asked.
Matti answered, “Ah Zara that’s how this game is played. The other team basically tries to clobber us!”
Margo looked down on me. “I mean I hate to accuse you since you are the ghost hunter but how do you know that you know what you know?”
“Huh?” I said, standing to my feet and dodging another ball.
Margo sighed. “It’s just the super ghost could be controlling you and you don’t even know it. Now that would be bad, don’t you think….”
“Yep, that would be bad!” I told Margo.
Once again Matti answered. “Zara, of course this is bad! We are going up against the two hardest throwers in the school! But we can do this!”
The Super Ghost Page 2