The second reason could be because the ghost is trying to exact some kind of revenge. That sounded nothing like Shane. As far as I had discovered about him, he didn’t have a mean bone in his body. Or mean anything in his anything. Whatever.
On to the third reason. An unrequited love. I hoped that wasn’t it. Because that would make him a ghost and a player, and me a fool. I snapped my laptop shut. It’s now official. If Shane only pretended to like me so he could get a new body out of it, and I had fallen for it hook, line and sinker, then that would make this officially the Worst Week of My Life.
Chapter Five
When I got up the next morning, thoughts of Shane filled my head. I wondered if he thought of me when he woke up. Then I wondered if he slept. Then I wondered where he might be right now and why he wasn’t here with me. Then I wondered if I could be losing my mind getting so wrapped up in a guy. For all I knew this might be part of a huge game he always played to get what he wanted.
As I walked to school, every little noise made me look over my shoulder for him, to see if he could be walking behind me. He wasn’t. I got all the way to campus and saw my friends sitting on the wall as usual. By the looks on their faces, I could tell something very unusual was probably about to go down. This appeared to be a theme in my life.
I marched over to them, about to accuse Sixx of spilling the beans about Shane, when Creepshow made it clear what all the shared glances were about.
“Surprise!” he yelled, and whipped his hands out from behind his back.
Relief that it wasn’t about Shane washed through me. I stepped forward and looked at what he had in his hands, recognizing some kind of event tickets. I took them and read that they were for the Battle of the Bands this coming weekend at the City Auditorium. Jett and Creepshow and I had been talking about this for weeks. I’m not sure how he pulled this off, but he obviously did it for me, for my birthday. I looked again at the tickets in my hand and fanned them out. There were four of them. I threw my arms around my crazy, movie-loving friend and hugged him so hard I could hear his ribs crack. Belatedly, I realized he smelled really good. Why I hadn’t I noticed that before? I pulled away and looked up at him.
“Creep, I don’t care who you robbed for these, just know it was totally worth it!”
“Whoa, Juice. If I’d known that’s all I had to do to cop a feel, I’d be buying you cheesy boy band tickets all day long.” Jett reached over and pinched my butt, while I hugged Creepshow and I could feel Sixx slapping his hands away.
“Really, Jett, can you like, totally get out of the gutter for ten minutes?” Sixx used her I’m-disgusted-with-you voice, which she thought made her seem so much more mature than she was. We didn’t have the heart to tell her it just made her sound like a queen bee.
“It’s cool.” I said. “I can take care of myself.” I turned back to Creepshow. “We’re takin’ The Gator, right?”
The Gator happened to be Creepshow’s beloved, beat-up, old van. An old Ford Econoline, it had been painted an awful shade of green. I asked once how The Gator got its name. Creepshow told me that when he first got the van, he considered painting it, but after sanding down one spot, he found the paint had been layered on so thick, and aged so old, it seemed practically like leather. Kind of like an old alligator’s skin. So, the name stuck. Same as me, and Jett, and Sixx, and even Creepshow himself, The Gator had earned her nickname. I loved that van as much as I loved my friends. All my most favorite high school memories so far were with these four people in that green van.
Creepshow looked at me as though I might be going crazy. “How else we gettin’ there? Fly?”
“You’re right, Creep. Stupid question. I don’t know what gets into me. I’m not myself lately, I guess.”
Jett lowered his shades to join the party. “So, you like, dig the tickets?”
“Jett, are you kidding me? I love them. I love even more that we are all going together. That’s the best part of the present.”
It wasn’t until the bell rang and I started walking back to homeroom that I realized that Shane had yet to put in an appearance.
I walked into the homeroom classroom and immediately it reminded me of him. I remembered him sitting in the same seat he occupied the first time I met him. Just thinking of him made me recall how beautiful he seemed to me that day. How his face, all lit up with a smile, just made his blue eyes a deeper blue and sparkle like the ocean at night. I visualized him sitting in the chair and wondered how long he had watched me before he went from “ghostly” to “friendly”. Before I knew he belonged to the supernatural world, he was just a hot guy with a hotter smile. The thought of it was so wonderful, I broke into a stupid smile myself.
“What in the world are you so friggin’ happy about, Juice? It’s school, not Disneyland.”
Cassie Carmichael, another one of the evil cheerleaders, jolted me out of my pleasant memory, which she had probably been programmed to do when she got her brain chip at cheerleading camp. At least that constituted my current working theory.
“Oh, hi Cassie. Always a pleasure.” I tried to maneuver around her. But, I’d already tripped her trigger and now, with me clearly in her crosshairs, she was in the mood to toy with her prey.
“Not so fast, Juice Bag.” Clever re-imaginings of my nickname happened to be only one of a number in her insecurity-inducing bag of tricks. “I asked you a question. Why are you so happy?”
“Is it a crime to just be having a good day?”
“It is when you’re you. What do you have to be so happy about? You’re ugly, you have no social life and no boyfriend. That sounds like a sad, awful life to me.” Cassie looked around to make sure everything she said was heard by everyone within earshot. Cassie needed to perform in front of an audience.
“I’d rather be her than you, with your fake hair and way too much makeup, friends who talk about you behind your back, who make plans with you only after making sure nothing better might be happening, and a boyfriend who cheats on you with your best friend Jenny Harmon.” The voice belonged to Shane, quite calm and without emotion.
I spun around to see him sitting in the same seat I had just been imagining him in. I couldn’t believe what I had heard. Or seen. I thought I was the only one who could see Shane. Clearly, he had been working on some new tricks. Cassie had some trouble with it, too. She whirled on Shane, about to rip into him, when Jenny Harmon came flying down the aisle.
“Cassie! I swear Brian said you were broken up! It was that weekend you went to your Dad’s in Malibu. Remember? You came home and said you weren’t broken up and by the time I found out the truth, well, it was over and I’m so sorry, it only happened just that one time!” Jenny’s voice was nearly at a wail now as she pled with Cassie.
I took the opportunity to slip past Cassie, who had now unleashed the full force of her attention on Jenny instead of me, and I slunk down into the seat next to Shane.
“Thanks.” I said. “She’s a viper.” We both watched as the Cassie and Jenny Show yammered its way from the classroom and into the hall. They passed Mr. Blake on the way out. He knew better than to tangle with the queen spider and let them go. I returned my focus back to Shane.
“So. You’re back. And you’ve got a few new tricks up your sleeve, I see.”
“Yup. Finding that even though I waited sixty years to get to you, I don’t like to be away from you for very long. Plus, I got bored. Been practicing some stuff.”
“Hmm. Anyway, thanks for what you said. How did you know all that stuff about Jenny and Brian anyway?” I pulled out a notebook and pretended to work. I didn’t need any more attention on me than Shane already directed.
“Oh, another cool thing I’ve learned about being a ghost? You can eavesdrop on anyone.” Shane winked at me.
“Awesome. That should come in handy.”
“Let me know. I’m available most days.” He leaned back in the chair and laced his hands behind his head. He was obviously enjoying his new parlor tricks.
I laughed. “Yeah. I’ll just bet you are. You have been busy.”
“No, I am. Mostly now I just wait around for there to be a good time to come see you. And I’ve been working on certain ghost tricks.”
At the front of the class, Mr. Blake was calling roll, so I had to lean forward and whisper. “Like what?”
“Like knowing just when to appear, obviously.”
He whispered his answer, which caused me to giggle, because it was so unnecessary, which then caused me to have to stifle my giggles, which only caused me to giggle more.
“Obviously.”
“So, is that Cassie girl always so mean?”
“Only when she’s awake.”
“Be serious, Juice.”
“Sorry.”
Mr. Blake started reading the announcements of the day, so it seemed safe for me to stop whispering. In my normal voice, I tried to explain the wonder that was Cassie Carmichael to Shane. “When we were younger, Cassie and I used to be good friends.” I twirled a piece of my hair, remembering how we used to pal around. “Then, sometime after the fourth grade, she started gymnastics, which was followed by cheerleader’s camp, and then cheerleader’s tryouts, and pretty soon we didn’t have the same hobbies anymore.” I studied the ends of my hair, pretending to look for split ends. I didn’t care about Cassie anymore, why was my voice breaking? “It only took one summer and we weren’t even friends anymore. She somehow became my mortal enemy. Thank heaven for Sixx and the guys.”
“They seem to be great friends.”
“Yeah. I feel pretty lucky.” Sometimes, I felt blessed.
“If you ask me, they’re the lucky ones. I think they’d probably agree with me.”
Okay, if Shane kept talking like that, I would seriously have a hard time acting cool around him. It was actually getting harder to just look into those amazing blue eyes. The homeroom bell sounded just then and I had to laugh. I’d been saved, literally, by the bell. I returned to Shane and I knew before I looked, that he’d be gone. When were we ever going to talk about how to get a host body for him? Could he be delaying the conversation on purpose?
Man, this frustrated me! I got up to leave the classroom, slung my backpack over my shoulder and jammed my hands angrily in the pockets of my hoodie. And felt the piece of paper. Drawing it out, I saw the now familiar writing. I’m not stalling. I promise, Juice. Yeah, yeah. Promises, promises. Still mad, I headed out to my next class.
Chapter Six
“Ugh, Creepshow! How is it that you’re still single?” We had gathered for the noontime break and Sixx was complaining about Creep’s lunch again. To say he had strange tastes had to be the understatement of the year. Today his brown bag consisted of an onion sandwich and a can of sardines. We were all totally grossed out.
“Dude, can you sit downwind, at least?” Jett sat at least ten feet away with his beanie practically covering his whole face.
“I don’t bag on your food, man.”
“That’s because I don’t eat weird crap, dude.”
This had gotten ridiculous. I had been trying to find a good time to tell the guys about Shane and they were acting like a couple of three-year-olds. I looked helplessly at Sixx. Thankfully, she took charge.
“Can you two clowns stop acting stupid for two seconds? Juice has something important to say.”
Creepshow stuffed the rest of his lunch into the bag and crammed it into his backpack. Jett quit ripping wrappers off spearmint gum and they both gave their attention to me. Now that I had it though, I wasn’t even sure where to begin. I stared at them both while I thought of where to start. Sixx looked at me for a few minutes and then got mad.
“Oh, for crying out loud, Juice.” She stood up and started pacing around. “So, first Juice was in her homeroom class and she meets this new guy. He’s totally hot and they start talking, and she likes him, and he likes her, and she asks him what he’s doing in her homeroom ’cuz his last name is Elliot and her homeroom is for N through Z, right? So, he has no answer for that and they keep talking, and the bell rings and that stupid jock Brian Yates comes in and practically sits on him, but before he does, the cute guy, whose name is Shane, he like, evaporates into thin air. So, Juice is sitting there all shocked, and before she gets up to leave the classroom, she sees something written on her notebook, and it’s from him and he wrote like, see you later or something. So, long-story-short, she sees him all the time and they’re into each other, and he’s a ghost, and they want to be together, but he needs her to find him a body so he can be human again. And Juice has been wanting to tell you about it, but can’t find a way and now, when she wanted to tell you something completely important, you two start acting like a couple of dorks.” Sixx stopped talking and took a deep breath and sat back down.
“Shoot, girl.” Jett raised himself up from the grass to a sitting position and even took off his sunglasses. “You messin’ with the dead?”
“He’s not the dead. Well, maybe not exactly. I’m not sure what he is, if you want to know the truth. I just know I like him.”
“That’s good enough for me.” Creepshow piped up, hollering from where he’d been eating his nasty sandwich. He ambled over. “If you like him, Juice, then that’s all I need. I like him, too. Tell him to come on out. We won’t bite.”
I could have kissed Creep. I looked back at Jett. He seemed to consider it for a moment, then he nodded. “Me too, Juice. If you like him, then I know I will too. Tell him he’s got two new friends.” He lowered his shades and tried to lean back, but not before I kneeled down and gave him and Creepshow each a hug.
“See?” Sixx looked pretty satisfied with herself. “I told you they’d be on board.” She refocused on me. “Now, we just need to find you a body. How exactly does that work?”
“Be pretty awesome if I could tell you right now, wouldn’t it?” I replied, morosely. I looked up, almost afraid to meet their eyes. I had no idea how to answer Sixx’s question.
“Juice. Are you telling me that after I got MacGregor High’s pathetic version of the Rat Pack behind you on your quest for true love, you don’t even know how to change the ghost into a guy?” Sixx faced me, hands on her hips, impatiently waiting for my response.
“Not exactly. I mean, Shane left a note for me that he intends to tell me. He just hasn’t done it yet.”
Creepshow jumped up and began rummaging through his backpack. He came up with his notebook and he opened it to a blank page. Shoving it into my hands, he goes, “So, make him tell you now.”
“Creep, that’s not how it works. Shane, he just comes out when he wants to. I don’t control him, or anything. He just shows up.”
“I bet that’s not true. I bet he shows up when you need him. If he cared for you he would, and it sounds as though he does, Juice. It sounds to me, anyway, like he does.”
I thought about what Creepshow said for a minute. And it kind of made some sense. The times when Shane showed up I did need him, I sort of just willed him to be there. The first time it seemed almost like an answer to my birthday wish. After that, whenever I thought about him, he just was there. So maybe I could control it. Sixx, Creepshow, and Jett were all looking at me so expectantly, I had to give it a shot. Wordlessly, I took a pencil out of my own backpack and wrote in the notebook Creep gave me.
Shane, I wrote, I need you to come here. I told my friends about you and they all want to help. Now my friends are your friends. I closed the notebook and tossed it on the ground in front of the four of us.
Jett looked at the notebook and then back up at me. “Now what?”
“I don’t know. The last few times I just went to my next class and he’d be sitting there.”
“So maybe you just do that again.”
“Maybe.”
We all just stood there, looking at the notebook again. Suddenly, a wind came up, out of nowhere, and the pages fluttered and began to flip back and forth. I knew what would happen, but I loved the look on my friend’s faces when they saw i
t for the first time. Of course, the wind breezed the pages in the notebook to the page where I had written my plea to Shane. And of course, right underneath it, I could see his reply. Tell your friend I said thanks. I’d love to meet them. How about tomorrow morning at the beach. 7a.m.
“Seven in the morning?” wailed Sixx, throwing her hands up in the air. “Ok, now even ghosts are early risers? That just blows!” Sixx’s complaint got interrupted by the bell. Lunch ended.
Thank heaven it was Friday. I only had three more classes to endure until the weekend began. And for once, I had an actual weekend to look forward to. Tomorrow morning my friends and I would finally know how we could help Shane find a host body. And tomorrow night we would be going to the Battle of the Bands. I hadn’t had two things to go to in the same weekend in, well, never.
Weekends like this were almost unheard of. This had shaped up to be the best week ever. Maybe I would even get a boyfriend out of all of this. The prospect seemed almost more than I could hope for. Yep, this definitely had the makings of the best week of my life. Still the weirdest, but the best.
Chapter Seven
Saturday morning I woke up to the alarm at six thirty in the morning. I glared at it, about to go back to sleep, when I remembered why I set the annoying thing in the first place. Then I got majorly excited. I jumped up and pulled on clothes as fast as I could. Leggings, a big oversize t-shirt. I yanked on a hoodie and threw a beanie on over my unruly blond hair before rushing out the front door.
Pedaling down to the beach, I inhaled the fresh smell of the salty, early morning. The chill of the day was still in the air, but I knew it would burn off before too long. Sometimes, this was the best part of the day, before cars and smog and noise spoiled it. As I rode, I could see the shadow my bike made riding alongside me. Together, we turned the corner toward the beach and I could feel sand crunch under my wheels as we got closer to the destination.
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