“Lead the way!”
* * *
The morning of the Ghostcoming football game, Cecily wakes me up in a flurry of excitement.
“Look, look!” she screams. “I’m almost completely solid!”
“Whoa, yeah you are!” I say. “How did you do it?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I just went to sleep thinking about how excited I am to be walking, and tried to visualize what I would look like if I were solid again. You know, thinking happy thoughts. And I guess I fell asleep thinking about it, because the next thing I know, I’m awake and looking like this!”
“That’s great, Cece. I’m so happy for you!”
“One more day till the dance. We can do this, don’t you think?”
“I think anything is possible,” I say. “I mean, look at where we are!”
Around six that evening we head over to the football field for the opening ceremony, and grab seats next to Mia, Trey, Marcus, Jessie, and their other bandmates James, Trevor, and Miles. I don’t know that much about football, but the ghost version seems slightly different from the one I’m familiar with. Some of the players are floating while some are on the ground running. Sometimes the ball gets thrown, while other times it gets magically lifted out of people’s grasp and tossed halfway across the field in the opposite direction.
“I take it, from the look on your face, that you’re a little confused?” Mia asks, smiling.
“Well, um, yeah,” I confess.
“I can’t really help you, because I don’t understand much, either. But there are all these rules about when you can use your powers and when you can’t. Like, if you’re within a certain yard length, you can float and use your powers to get the ball back. Stuff like that.”
“Please tell me I don’t actually need to learn any of the rules?” I plead.
“You don’t. Believe me.”
“Phew!”
We spend the first half gabbing about how the rest of our first full week at Limbo has been, and we take this opportunity to ask Mia what the best clubs and sports are. Cecily and I both have to join something in the next three weeks.
“I’m on the track team,” Mia tells us. “Oh, and I’m also on the school newspaper, the Limbolater.”
“Limbo Central has a newspaper?” Cecily asks, and I’m just as surprised to hear it as she is.
“Yup. It comes every week on Friday morning to the Tabulator in your room. You didn’t hear the incoming message this morning?”
“I guess we’ve been a little distracted,” Cecily says.
“What do you think you want to do?” she asks us.
Cecily doesn’t say anything, so I jump in. “Well, I’ve always really loved photography. Is there a photo club?”
“Nope. Ghost photography is tricky. But both the yearbook club and the newspaper need photographers. They had three last year and they all alternated between the two clubs. But one guy just left, so they’re probably looking for at least one new person. Colin takes photos for both—you should ask him about it.”
“Oh, Colin’s into photography?” I ask, trying to sound nonchalant.
“He’s really talented. He’s always trying to get our editor to put in creepy, black-and-white abstract photos, and he gives them artsy names like Empty Bridge or Fruit versus Man, and our editor, Stacy, always says no. They, like, fight constantly. It’s kind of amazing.”
Just then, the Limbo Central cheerleaders come out and Cecily’s eyes widen.
“Looks like someone just found her afterschool activity,” Mia says, nodding at Cecily’s expression.
“I tried to warn her against it, but she just won’t listen!” I throw my hands up.
Mia sighs dramatically. “Kids!”
Cecily smiles, and then turns to Trey and says, “Parents! They don’t understand anything.”
Finally, the game is over, and none of us has any real idea what happened except that Limbo Central won—rah, rah!—and that puts everyone in a great mood to celebrate tomorrow.
Colin finds us after he’s gotten changed. I see him coming from yards away, and I’m simultaneously dreading this moment and looking forward to it.
What is wrong with me??
“Good game,” I say. “Congrats!”
“Thanks. Listen, I’m really sorry I never said anything to you about the dance after that day on the beach. And that Georgia and I got back together.”
“That’s okay,” I say, because I’m supposed to say something.
“Really?”
“Well, I mean, no, not really,” I reply, as this week’s frustration rises up inside of me. “You should have had the courtesy to tell me you decided to go with Georgia, but it’s fine. I’m not mad. Being honest from the start would have saved me a fight and a visit to the principal’s office, that’s all.”
“I know,” he says, his shoulders falling. “I guess I just wanted things to be different than they were, but in the end, I didn’t have the guts to change them.”
“I don’t have any idea what that means, but okay,” I reply.
“So … can we still be friends?” he asks, flashing me the Dimple.
“We can be friends.” I offer up a smile. “Just as long as you know that the Ghostcoming Queen crown is coming home with me.”
And I’m so not joking.
Not even a little bit.
“It’s no use,” Cecily says, and plops down on the sand in exasperation. “I’m not going tonight.”
“Uhm, excuse me?!” I screech. “If I’m going, you’re going.”
“So don’t go.”
“I have to go! I’ve been working on this costume for, like, two days. Also, I basically challenged Georgia and Colin to a dance-off.”
“Okay, so you go and I’ll stay home.”
“I’m not leaving you home alone. That’s depressing.”
“Then it suits my mood perfectly,” she replies, and drops her head into her hands.
“Come on, Cece, don’t be like that,” I say, sitting down next to her in the warm, golden sand. “We’re going to have so much fun tonight that we won’t even care what we look like, I promise.”
“But everyone else will—especially Georgia.”
“Who cares? Who cares what Georgia thinks? Let’s just go and have fun with everyone else and forget about her. Okay?”
“Okay … ”
I decide to go back to the room to relax a little before the dance. My costume is pretty much set—I mean, it’s about as good as it’s going to get at this point. But Cecily stays a little longer to work on hers more. She’s managed to turn her black leotard a very, very, very dark blue at best, but at least that’s progress!
I drift off to sleep, but at some point the door slams shut and I shoot up out of bed like it’s a school day and I slept through my alarm.
“What time is it? Have you been gone all afternoon?” I ask groggily.
“It’s six, and yes, I have been. I wanted to see if I could get the blue any lighter.”
“And … did you?” I ask, a little afraid. If she did and I’m supposed to be looking at it, we’re in trouble.
“Yes.”
“And … is that it?” I ask again, hesitantly.
“No, I didn’t want everyone to see me in it, so I changed it back.”
“Oh, good.” I sigh, relieved. I don’t really care about people seeing me, so I didn’t bother to change my outfit before I left the beach. But Cecily, apparently, is banking on the element of surprise.
I start primping and perfecting my look—only things I know I can change on my own already—like smoothing out my hair and giving my cheeks and lips a little color, which I finally managed to figure out. Having perfected all that I can, I look in the mirror on the back of our front door. The results? One pair of black fishnet tights, one red-and-black tutu with alternating panels and patterns of red hearts and black spades, one black leotard with white stripes, one black collar with red hearts, one headband with a red heart stic
king out of the top, and one pair of black pointe shoes.
We figure this is the only time when our pointe shoes may actually give us an advantage, and since Cecily hasn’t managed to change hers yet, we both keep them on.
“You look so good! I’ve never seen a better Queen of Hearts in my life,” Cecily says with admiration.
I can already tell she’s getting cold feet about what she can make happen, which will automatically translate into colder feet about going to the dance. I know I’m going to have to work some rare magic to make her keep up her end of our deal. Nothing the Queen of Hearts can’t handle …
“Let’s see what you’ve got, Alice in Wonderland,” I say excitedly. “Your rabbit hole awaits you … ”
When I first got the idea for these costumes at the Dead Man’s Treasure Chest, I knew they would be perfect for us. I mean, Alice falls down a rabbit hole and ends up in a world of CRAZY—hello?! That’s literally exactly what happened to both of us. One minute we’re alive and normal, the next—BOOM! We fall through a hole in the earth and here we are, in a world of CRAZY.
Then there are the costumes: for one, both Alice and the Queen of Hearts wear poufy skirts, i.e., tutus! Alice has blond hair—okay, Cecily’s red hair is, well, red, but it’ll do in a pinch. And me? I managed to add some red highlights to my brown hair, so that works! It even goes with our personalities. Cecily is all happy and innocent, and willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I’m all, “Off with their heads!” Just kidding.
Sort of.
Anyway, it’s perfection and I’m pretty sure no one else will be showing up in the same outfits tonight.
“So, let’s see it!” I say again.
“I need to go outside the room,” she says, shyly. “The whole energy thing.”
“Oh, right. Well, I can just turn it down on the Tabulator,” I reply, heading toward the device to decipher it.
That’s when I get an idea.
A horrible, frightfully disturbing, very bad idea.
What if I only say I’m turning down the energy in the room, but I don’t really do anything to it? Then Cecily thinks she’s making all these changes on her own! Okay, okay, it’s against the rules. So yeah, that’s one big, fat red flag. But, I mean, she’s come so far already! Who am I to say for sure that she can’t do it all on her own? She’s getting stronger every day. I know she’ll have a blast at the dance if I can just get her to forget about the way she looks and the things she can and can’t do and just have fun. Let loose. As long as she doesn’t go crazy with her costume, no one will suspect a thing …
Right?
Before I know it, I’m lying.
“Okay, we’re good to go! Show me.”
She starts to concentrate, and suddenly her black leotard turns lighter, transforming into a Dodger blue.
“That looks great!” I say. “Is this the color it was before?”
“Pretty much,” she says. “But I’m not done.”
Then she adds two white stripes to her leotard on each side, extending from her straps, like suspenders. “See, it’s like her dress!”
“Totally!”
“I wish I could do more,” she says. “If I could, I would give myself cap sleeves and change my tights and even give myself a headband. Maybe if I just concentrate really hard … ”
“It’s worth a try. You’re doing great so far!”
Then something bad happens. Okay, I do something bad. It’s my fault. But I can’t help myself! She’s trying so hard and I just want her to succeed so badly! So … I close my eyes and think about how happy she would be if she could make these changes. Then my mind wanders to how she’s really had my back with Georgia, and even though she could have chosen to stay neutral or whatever, she’s hasn’t. Like, at all. And on top of that? She’s even going to the dance for me. I mean, let’s face it, she’s been totally bummed out and hasn’t wanted to go for days. But she’s going because she doesn’t want to let me down. That’s a true friend.
I’m not exactly trying to change her outfit for her, but I’m not exactly not trying to, either. Before I know it, I’m turning her tights and pointe shoes white, giving her leotard blue cap sleeves, and tossing her a blue-and-white headband for a finishing touch.
Uh-oh.
“Oh my god, look at what just happened! Look at my outfit!” she screams. “I can’t believe this! This isn’t possible, is it?”
“Of course it is! All you needed to do was concentrate a little,” I say, trying not to sound too surprised. “I told you everything was going to work out!”
Yikes.
Now I’m REALLY dead.
* * *
The whole walk over to the school I feel like I’m about to hurl. I can’t believe I just did what I did. I’ll be expelled! I’ll be the shortest living ghost of all time! Everyone is going to know. Aren’t they? I mean, there’s no way they’re not going to know. What was I thinking???
Suddenly, I feel weak. Faint. I grab hold of Cecily’s hand as I stumble a little, trying to catch my balance.
“Are you okay?” she asks, concerned. “What’s the matter?”
“Uhm, I, uh, don’t feel so good all of a sudden. It’s my stomach.”
“Lou, you’re white as a ghost! I mean, you know what I mean.”
I don’t know what is happening to me but I’m losing steam—fast. I feel like a car with slashed tires. Energy is seeping out of my pores. Even sitting down feels like way more effort than it’s worth at this point, and it takes all the strength I have left to keep from just falling to the ground. I rack my brain to try and think of any reason why this could be happening … anything that Colin may have told me over the last week about powers and overusing them or something?
Then it hits me.
It’s in the Limbo Central Rules!! It says—explicitly—that using your powers on another ghost not only takes double the strength and power you need to alter yourself, but it also causes extreme exhaustion. EXTREME EXHAUSTION. That’s why my legs have suddenly turned into two pieces of very overdone spaghetti. And why Georgia fell to the ground on the beach that day after she blended me into a sand smoothie!
Uuuuuuugggggggghhhhhh.
How am I supposed to dance circles around Georgia when I don’t even have the strength to walk TO THE DANCE?!?! Even if people don’t assume foul play from Cecily’s outfit, they’ll know something’s wrong the second I show up acting like I just had surgery to remove all of my bones.
“Lou, are you feeling okay? Can you still walk?”
“Yeah, I think. Just, slowly,” I say. I really want to start floating again, but it will be too suspicious.
Because of my delicate state, it takes us way longer than it should to get to school, but we finally arrive and luckily there’s enough excitement from the moment we enter that no one seems to be paying too much attention to me.
People have really gone all out on their costumes. We have ample time to gaze around the room while we stand on line to sign up for the dance-a-thon and get our number. Within moments, I spy Romeo and Juliet, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice, Christopher Robin and Pooh from The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Edward and Bella from Twilight, Mia and Adam from If I Stay, and Fred and George Weasley from Harry Potter. By FAR my fave.
“Nicely done!” Mia says, spotting us on line. “The Queen of Hearts and Alice—awesome! I loved Tim Burton’s version of that story. But Tim Burton is basically, like, a god.”
I can see Trey trailing a little behind her.
“I didn’t even recognize you with your hair like that!” I say, staring at the spitting image of Hazel Grace Lancaster from The Fault in Our Stars. “And you even have the oxygen tubes and everything! Oh my god, it’s perfect!!”
A limping Trey, aka Augustus Waters, sidles up next to her.
“Well, you guys look awesome,” Cecily says.
Then I spy him across the room. Yup, he’s Four.
From Divergent.
Which
means, she-devil must be …
“Tris! She’s Tris!” Chloe coos, as we approach the front of the line. “Isn’t she, like, the most perfect Beatrice ever?”
Mia, Cecily, and I just nod and smile. Okay, okay, they smile. I just stand there waiting for this moment to be over.
“And you are?” Cecily asks Chloe.
“Duh, I’m Cinderella. Isn’t it, like, so obvious?”
“I’m not into fairytales,” Mia says unapologetically.
“So, who are you two, anyway?” Georgia says, coldly, to me and Cecily. “And where are your dates?”
“We came together,” I say firmly. “Just me and her. Sign us up.”
“That’s not how it works. You have to be a couple.”
“We are a couple,” I reply. “We’re the Queen of Hearts and Alice from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I know you know that. Now give us a number.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” she says, smirking.
“You should be afraid,” I say, getting angry.
Then Mia steps in, bless her heart. “Technically, a couple means two. And here we have two people dancing together. See? One and two, i.e., a couple. The only part of the requirements you have any say on is whether or not they are from a work of literature, which, unless you’re as ignorant about books as you are about people, you can clearly see they are. So, let’s just drop this insanity right now. Give them a number.”
Loving this girl!
Georgia’s got nothing, but I can tell the wheels in her head are spinning fast. She’s trying to think of another way to disqualify us.
“Hey, guys!” Colin calls out, appearing at my side as if by magic. “Lucy, Cecily, you look great! I can’t believe you managed to change your outfits so quickly. You two are, like, the fastest, strongest ghosts we’ve had here in a long time.”
“You know, Colin, you’re right,” Georgia says, but not in that “way to go!” voice that Colin has. Something’s a-brewin’ in her mind.
And I think I know exactly what it is.
“Colin, how long did it take you to change your outfit?” she asks.
Ghostcoming! Page 9