Barry muttered something under his breath as he pulled up camera footage of what appeared to be a white puff of something floating down the stairs. He turned the laptop around so everyone could see.
Oh wow! The ghost had actually been photographed. “Cool!” I said.
“The lady in white that people have seen for decades is still there,” Gary told Clara. “She’s a sweet old lady, spinster former school teacher, and not interested in crossing over, not as long as there are children who need looking after. She was keeping an eye on Eddie.”
Clara smiled and clapped her hands together in excitement. “So the farmhouse really is haunted?”
Huh?
Gary seemed as surprised at Clara’s enthusiasm as I was, but he nodded. “And she’s harmless. My brother caused all the noises and the vandalism.”
“Wonderful!” Clara exclaimed. “Now when I get my farmhouse restored I can advertise that my newly established B&B is officially haunted. It’ll be great publicity.”
The six of us exchanged amused glances. “It will be very successful,” I predicted, “and the resident ghost will make frequent appearances.”
The meeting adjourned and Barry, still grumbling about having his thunder stolen, stormed out, his laptop under his arm.
Scott helped Clara out of her chair and then shook hands with Gary. “I hear congratulations are in order.”
Gary’s jaw tensed. I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t want to get into the details about his family stuff. “For…?”
“Didn’t you get the lead in Macbeth?”
His jaw relaxed. “Yes. I hope you’ll come to a performance in January.”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Scott said. He offered his arm to Ms. Pelson and waved goodbye.
Gary, Annabeth, Sean, and I all walked out together, just as the custodian came in to sweep the room. We stopped in the hallway.
“How’s Eddie?” Annabeth asked Gary.
“Okay, I guess. He’s still sad about his mom.”
I shook my head. “She was driving a 2001 Saturn with over two hundred thousand miles on it, so it’s possible her brakes failed on their own because the car was so old. Still sad, though.”
Gary raised an eyebrow. “How did you…? Oh.”
“Right,” I said.
“Say, anybody want to go get a coffee?” Gary glanced at the three of us, but then settled his gaze on me. “Or tea?”
Annabeth hooked her arm through Sean’s and let a mischievous smile creep onto her face. “Sean and I have to go…” She mumbled some ending to that sentence, but I knew she was just making an excuse so Gary and I could be together.
“Caryn?” Gary asked.
I caught Annabeth’s eye and her expression said, “Go for it.” “Sure,” I told him.
Gary took my hand, causing a tingle I hadn’t felt since Quince, and led me down the stairs to the lobby.
“All’s well that ends well,” I heard Uncle Omar say in my right ear.
“Quoting Shakespeare now?” I asked him. Unfortunately I said that out loud and my date, uh, Gary looked at me funny.
“I didn’t say anything.” Gary squeezed my hand before releasing it.
I smiled and pointed toward my right ear. “Uncle Omar. He always has to have the last word.”
We got to the bookstore just as it was closing, so Gary ordered a to-go coffee for himself and hot mint tea for me. We took our drinks and went outside, because it was a beautiful late fall evening with a full moon. The night air was crisp and there was no wind to chill us. Since we were both dressed warmly and were sipping hot beverages, it was a pleasant stroll across the deserted campus.
“What are you doing for Christmas?” Gary asked me.
I laughed and almost choked on my tea. “Uh, we just had Thanksgiving, and we’ve still got final exams to get through.”
Gary put an arm around my shoulder, a gesture I never would have allowed a few weeks ago. Now it felt natural. “I know. Just asking.”
“I’m going to Houston. Mom and George are going on a belated honeymoon to Hawaii, and attending the wedding of George’s son while they’re there. So I’m hopping a plane Christmas Eve morning to spend the holiday with my dad. Dads.” I cast a sideways glance at Gary to see how he took that. He didn’t flinch. Awesome! “Dad said he got the three of us tickets to The Nutcracker downtown that night.”
Gary nodded and we walked along in silence. Not an uncomfortable silence, just a peaceful, companionable quiet.
“I’d ask you what you’re doing, but I already know,” I said.
Now that got a reaction. Gary tossed his empty cup into a nearby bin and turned to face me. “Even I don’t know what’s planned for Christmas.”
“Want me to tell you, or do you want to wait?”
Gary wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in close. He was obviously thinking about it. Finally he asked, “Is it good or bad?”
“Good.”
He gave me a hug. “Okay, just the highlights.”
My ability to see other people’s futures is truly a gift, but sometimes I think it would be better if I just let them find out the old-fashioned way—by living life. Sort of the way I have to find out stuff about my own life. Still, I could see the whole scenario playing out super-fast in my head, and it took all my willpower not to blurt it out, blow by blow. For the record, here’s how it’s going to go:
Ned’s going over to Brenda’s house Christmas Eve, supposedly to help hang stockings. He reaches into his pocket but genius Eddie figures out his true intentions and calls him on it.
Ned’s going to say something like, “Yeah, okay, you got me. I was going to slip something into Brenda’s stocking when she wasn’t looking.” Since Eddie’s already figured it out and Gary’s dying of curiosity, Ned will pull a jewelry store box out of his pocket, get down on one knee and pop the question.
Brenda won’t answer right away, mostly because she’s overcome with emotions. Good ones. “Yes, I’ll marry you,” she will finally choke out at barely a whisper.
Ned will place a huge solitaire emerald-cut diamond on her left hand. Then he’ll pull her with him under the plastic mistletoe hanging in the doorway and kiss her.
Eddie will say something like, “Ewww, gross!” but Gary won’t say anything. He’ll be taking the whole thing in. Pretty soon he’ll wonder aloud what both sets of grandparents will have to say about Edward Harrington Jr. marrying the daughter of blue-collar workers. Neither Brenda nor Ned have an answer for that, but I’m hoping that both the Harringtons and the Riddells will be happy for them, once they get over the shock. I know Olivia will be thrilled from the Other Side.
And best of all, Ned and Brenda will get married on Valentine’s Day. Kind of a cliché, but also kind of romantic. I hope I get to go, because the glow I’m seeing on her face in my head can’t be half as great as the real thing.
I pulled back a little so I could look Gary in the face. “So the Reader’s Digest version is that Ned’s got a very expensive Christmas present for your mom. She’s gonna love it.”
I think maybe Gary knew what I meant, but our thoughts weren’t on parents at that moment. We were both way too distracted by that romantic full moon overhead and the fact that we were there together. I mean really together. Gary pulled me in and lifted my chin. Starting out slow and soft, he built up to a long, passionate kiss.
I sighed and kissed him back. Quince who?
A word from the author…
I am a former high school English teacher and author of CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE PSYCHIC (The Wild Rose Press Inc., 2010), which was a 2011 Epic Ebook Contest finalist. My YA novel GENIUS SUMMER was released in November, 2014 and was awarded The Literary Seal of Approval in 2015. Contemporary romance CERTAINLY SENSIBLE was released by The Wild Rose Press Inc. in December, 2015, and received The Literary Classics Seal of Approval in 2016. And CERTAINLY SENSIBLE was a 2016 Literary Classics Gold Medal winner.
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Teenage Psychic on Campus Page 25