Ghostly Read online

  I forced myself to keep talking before I became hypnotized. “Chose me for what?”

  “Well, to help me, actually. I chose you because I thought you were the one.” Shane looked down and the moment his blue eyes weren’t visible, I felt as if the sun’s rays had been taken away from me, from the whole world. When he looked up again, I felt the heat of his smile and I could breathe again. “I thought you might help me become human.” And then the breath left my body.

  ****

  When I came to, I lay on the floor next to my stool and a whole crowd of kids stood around me. From miles away, I heard Mr. Sabbitch, the science teacher, telling everyone to stand back, that I needed air, and the crowd parted. I looked around, but Shane wasn’t among them. Arms from somewhere lifted me to a sitting position and another arm offered me a paper cup of water. I grabbed it and drank thirstily, draining it in one gulp. Another arm offered a second cup and I drained that one too.

  “Lucy, are you okay?” Mr. Sabbitch’s deep voice boomed next to me and I nodded in response. “You sure took us by surprise. Usually, you’re so quiet. I do think you should go to the nurse’s office. Jenny? Can you walk with her?” He indicated one of the cheerleaders Sixx and I barely tolerated.

  “Okay, Mr. Sabbitch. I’m feeling okay. I’ll walk there on my own.” I stood and started to gather my backpack and notebook.

  “Well, normally I wouldn’t allow that. But I know I can trust you, Lucy.” Mr. Sabbitch scrawled something on his notepad and tore it off. Handing it to me, he said, “Now, straight to the nurse’s office, Lucy. And have her let me know if they want to send you home.”

  I opened the door into the empty hallway and started toward the nurse’s office. I couldn’t believe what just happened. I had never fainted in my whole life. I wasn’t squeamish, not really. About frog guts, yes, but fainting? Never. Yet, the words Shane had said sent me slithering to the floor like a doped up snake. How freakin’ embarrassing. And just where did he even go? And what could all this noise be about making him human? I had some even better questions than that. How could I help him? Why did he choose me? And the million dollar question: What could be so special about me?

  I realized as I thought about it, I just got madder. I wasn’t just walking to the nurse’s office now, I stalked toward it. Taking a deep breath, I slowed my pace and tried to get a hold of myself. Frankly, the idea of Shane being human wasn’t all that unappealing. What would it be like to hold his hand or tousle that mop of blond hair? I couldn’t deny the fact that he was super cute, and those eyes of his were the most amazing shade of blue I had ever seen.

  I reached the nurse’s office and pulled open the door. There wasn’t anyone else inside, but then, without provocation, the door closed in front of me. I whirled around and found myself looking at Shane.

  “Seriously, you have to stop doing that! If you keep sneaking up on me, I’m going to have a freaking heart attack. You already made me faint, for crying out loud!”

  “I’m sorry. I came to see if you were okay. I didn’t mean to scare you. I guess I may have been too honest too fast.”

  “No, it’s okay. It just took me by surprise, I guess.”

  “Wanna get out of here?”

  I didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

  Chapter Three

  Getting off of school grounds in the middle of the day proved a lot easier than I thought it would be. Everywhere we went, Shane just kept creating diversions. When we passed the library, Miss Pritchard, the librarian, looked up and began heading in my direction; Shane just pushed over a huge cart full of books, and she headed over to them instead of me. We kept walking. He did the same thing when we needed to pass the gym door, knocking over a stand full of basketballs. The wrestling coach and half the football team, on their way to lift weights, were too busy trying to round up twenty escaping balls to pay any attention to me ducking past the open gym door.

  “We’re almost out of here!” Excited, I grabbed for Shane’s hand. I could only feel air. I stopped walking and looked at him. “You can shove all those things over, but I can’t hold your hand?”

  “Yeah. That’s one part that sucks.” He aimed those blue eyes on me full force. “’Cuz I want to hold your hand, Juice. I do.” He looked at me, his blue eyes turning a grayish color, suddenly mimicking his melancholy tone.

  I needed to focus or we’d never be out of the freakin’ school. “Okay, we only have one more hurdle. We have to get me past the administration office. The front door is just past there. What magic trick do you have up your sleeve for them, I wonder?”

  “Won’t know till I get there.”

  “Okay, come on then.”

  We scooted down the hall and around the corner. The administration office lay straight ahead. It seemed like barely controlled chaos with secretaries and staff and kids all moving back and forth in the office space. I didn’t know how I might get past it; the whole front of the office consisted of paned glass that opened right out on the front doors. But, Shane was way ahead of me.

  “Juice, you go on ahead and just walk past. I’ve got this covered.”

  “Did you see how many people there are in that office? The place is packed. There is no way someone isn’t going to notice me.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got this,” he repeated. He seemed so sure and confident, I had to trust him.

  I shrugged, adjusted my backpack on my shoulder, and started past the windows. Shane went inside the open office doors. I couldn’t believe what my ghostly new friend could do. I tried to be casual about it, and sneak past as fast as I could, but I found myself staring at everything Shane did. The key to not being noticed is to not be noticeable. So, I strolled past the window boldly rather than sneakily. But I couldn’t resist keeping one eye on Shane, curious as to what he would do. Without me seeing him move, he appeared in the office and swept his hand across the crowded countertop. Papers and books and envelopes went flying, and teachers and secretaries and kids started freaking out all at the same time. In the chaos that ensued, I bolted.

  After I spotted my opportunity to duck right past the confusion, suddenly Shane was by my side again. We slipped through the front doors of the school undetected. What a rush!

  “Whew! That was crazy! Where to now?” I was up for anything.

  “I’ve got just the place.”

  ****

  Half an hour and one bus ride later, we were down by the beach. There were plenty of people there, considering it was a school day, but no one paid much attention to the school-aged girl walking in the sand in black high-top Chucks, apparently talking to herself. Of course, I wasn’t. I had been talking to Shane, but no one could see him except me.

  We sat down in the sand, far from the water, but still close enough that I could smell the salt in the air and feel the spray on my face. It felt like walking through the sprinkler in my front yard. I closed my eyes and heard the sounds of the surf whooshing and pounding behind me and felt the sun cooking my skin and drying the sprays from the waves almost as quickly as they had landed on me. It was the perfect place to take me. How could he know?

  “I miss that so much.” Shane spoke beside me. I rolled over to look at him and realized I had been so lost in the enjoyment of my favorite place in the world, I’d almost forgotten he had come with me. “I used to finish my ride on the waves, stick my board in the sand and just lay there, no towel or anything, and just feel the heat from the sun baking my skin. I loved that feeling.” He lay back and laced his hands behind his head. “And I could sit out there on my board all afternoon, with my feet dangling in the water, and there wasn’t any other place in the world I wanted to be.”

  I faced Shane. “Okay, Shane, you know I have questions and if you didn’t bring me out here to let me ask them, then I’m leaving, right now.”

  Shane rolled over on his side and propped himself up on one elbow. “I know, I know. And I am going to answer every one of them, I swear I am. Or, at least as many of them as I can. Okay, shoot.�
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  “Wow, that easy, huh? All right, to begin with, let’s get the obvious out of the way. You’re a ghost, right? I got that part?”

  “Yup. You got that part right. I’m a ghost.” I guess that was why he didn’t seem worried about sunburning and I already felt the red crawling over my shoulders and arms. I glanced down at my legs, thinking of my next question.

  “You said you had been watching people at the school? How long have you been doing that?”

  “I’m almost afraid to tell you.”

  Oh, great. Did he see my face plant in the parking lot last year?

  “Tell me anyway.”

  “Sixty years.”

  Well, that explained the funky clothing.

  “What? Sixty years? I wasn’t even alive sixty years ago. In all that time did you freak out anyone else besides me?”

  “Nope. I’ve never even approached anyone else. And don’t ask me the next question, because the answer is, I don’t know. I don’t know why I started talking to you. I don’t know what it is about you that made me know you wouldn’t start screaming like a mental patient and running from the room.” Shane sat up and scooted back to face me. “I just knew it, that’s all. I just knew that for the first time in all these years, I found the right girl.”

  I sat up too. This was getting good. “So, what happened to you?”

  “Well, clearly I died somehow. I’m not sure how. I am sure I died at that school, though.” Shane grabbed a stick and started drawing in the sand.

  “Ok, seriously? That’s creepy. I’ve never heard anything about someone dying on campus.”

  “I’m fairly sure it’s not something they’d advertise in a flyer or anything.”

  “Um, does this mean you’re, like, sixty years old?”

  “No! I am not sixty years old. I’m the same age I was when I died. I’m a tenth grader, same as you. We’re both fifteen years old.”

  “I just turned sixteen today.” I asserted haughtily.

  “Well, that makes you the older woman then.” He smiled and his impossibly blue eyes sparkled at me even in the bright sunlight. “Happy birthday, Juice. I need to get you a present now. What can I get you?”

  I looked again at Shane’s beautiful blue eyes and then the ocean in front of us. “Nothing. I can’t think of a single thing I want right now. Sitting here with you is perfect.”

  “No imagination.” He rolled onto his back again and closed his eyes.

  “Whatever. Last time I compliment you.” I tried to sound snotty, but I couldn’t pull it off. I was too happy. I hadn’t been lying; everything about this moment seemed completely perfect and I wouldn’t change a thing. I laid down next to Shane and for several minutes we just lay there, aware of how close we were and yet unable to touch each other or even hold hands. Finally, Shane spoke.

  “So, you haven’t asked the reason why I’m here, why I’ve come and shown myself to you especially. Don’t you want to know?”

  It scared me to respond. Numb, I just nodded.

  Without opening his eyes, he continued. “I chose you because I knew you would help me. I need to find a host body so I can be alive again.”

  I almost fainted for the second time in one day.

  Chapter Four

  “What in the world did he mean by ‘a host body’ anyway?” came Sixx’s disembodied voice in my ear.

  I lowered the phone and glared at it. I’d been talking with Sixx and she would not let me off the hook about my afternoon at the beach with Shane. When I didn’t return to school the rest of the day, she of course thought the worst possible thing and when I got home there were only fifteen messages on the answering machine from her to call.

  “Well, what do you think he means, Sixx? We’ve all watched enough of Creepshow’s boring movies to venture a guess, don’t you think? We need to find someone close to his age, or at least his last alive age, who resembles him, at least as much as possible.”

  “What’s this ‘we’ thing all of a sudden? You’re not in this with him, are you?”

  I didn’t say anything.

  “Are you, Juice? Balls of crud, you are!”

  “Well, what’s wrong with it anyway? I mean, he like, chose me and everything. That means something, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah, it means you’re getting all wrapped up in a ghost who can’t even French kiss you, or take you to the movies or prom or all those other gag-me events you’re always mooning around about.”

  “Well, he could if I find him a host body.” I said indignantly.

  “Balls. Of. Crud.” Sixx enunciated every word. “Can you even hear yourself?” In a high-pitched sneer, she mimicked me. “‘He could if I find him a body.’ Now you sound like one of those B-movie thrillers Creepshow has on Beta, for the love of lice!” She talked so loudly now, I had to hold the receiver away from my ear. “Have you even told the guys about any of this?”

  “No! We agreed not to, remember?” Truthfully, I didn’t know how Jett and Creepshow would react to Shane, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to find out. Jett could be pretty progressive when it came to these kinds of things, but I had never gotten a read from Creepshow in this direction at all.

  “Okay, I won’t tell them. Does Shane know you told me about him?”

  “No, I haven’t exactly shared that with him yet.”

  “Oh. So, tell me. Did he share with you how you’re supposed to get him a host body?”

  “He said I can find one at school. He hoped for one in our same grade as he used to be in. And I thought it would be good if the new body sort of resembled him.”

  “Oh, I’m sure you did.”

  “Man, Sixx. Not like that.” It offended me that Sixx would think me so shallow I would only be interested in what Shane’s host body would look like.

  “You know, Juice, this whole conversation is starting to make me trip. You realize we’re talking about body-snatching here?”

  “I don’t think it’s exactly that.”

  “Are you new here? Let’s recap, shall we? You meet the guy of your dreams, only he’s not real, he’s a ghost. He can’t hold your hand, or kiss you, the way a real boyfriend would, until you help him find a body he can hijack and make his own. And oh, yeah, you’re hoping it’ll be a hot one. Did I get everything right there, Juice?”

  “You’re making it sound so bad, Sixx. You’re making Shane seem so awful. I wish you could meet him.”

  “Well, so do I, Juice. But in more breaking news, he’s a ghost! And you’re the only one who can see him. So, that is totally not happening anytime soon.”

  “I know.” I couldn’t have felt more defeated. I knew Sixx might be right about it being so futile, but she didn’t understand how I felt when we were together. I realized she wouldn’t know until I told her. I took a deep breath and started. “There’s something I need to explain to you, Sixx.”

  “What is it?”

  “There’s a little bit more involved here than just him asking me to do it. I know I haven’t known Shane for very long, but there’s, I don’t know, a connection, I guess you could call it, between us, that has never happened to me before. I don’t have another word for it, Sixx. I feel connected to Shane in some way. I felt it from almost the first moment I met him.” I braced myself to hear a sarcastic remark from Sixx, but once again she surprised me.

  “Juice, you’ve been my friend when no one else would be. You’re the smartest girl I know. If you feel somehow Shane is right for you, then I’ll do whatever you need me to do to help. And I know we haven’t told Jett or Creepshow yet, but they both love you. I know they’ll do whatever you need.”

  I didn’t speak for minute. Truthfully, I felt overwhelmed. Sixx had never spoken that way to me before in the whole time that I had known her. I thought she had probably never spoken like that to anyone in her whole life. My eyes welled with tears over the love I felt for my friend just then. Because I knew she would hate it, I waited another minute before I spoke so she wouldn’t hear the tears i
n my voice.

  “Thanks, Sixx.” I kept it brief, afraid my voice might crack and give me away, even over the phone.

  “Yeah, whatever. You need to get off my phone now. I’m so totally bored of this topic.” That sounded more like my Sixx. This one I knew.

  “Okay. See you tomorrow, Sixx. Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight, ghostrider.” She hung up while I still giggled.

  ****

  After I hung up with Sixx, I did what I always did when I needed information about a subject I knew nothing about; I turned to the Internet. Mr. Blake, my homeroom teacher always told us that we had it easy because of the World Wide Web. He said when he was our age, he had to research all his papers in gigantic encyclopedias, photocopying pages in the library, and handing in typewritten pages corrected with liquid paper. Yeah, Mr. Blake really laid it on thick. He didn’t try to get away with the old walking-up-hill-both-ways-in-the-snow story, but he still got a good one in there now and then.

  I did an Internet search on ghosts and quickly became overwhelmed by the number of responses. Clearly, I needed to narrow my search. Okay, I thought. I’ll try ghosts and host bodies. I just hoped I didn’t die soon and have some CSI team investigate my hard drive the way they were always doing on television and have my mom need to explain what I had been doing on these websites.

  Entering ‘Ghosts and hosts’ narrowed the findings. I got a ton of hits on blogs from people who were truly ‘out there’. No, thank you, to the freak zone. I had enough weirdness going on for right now. Then I zeroed in on a couple of sites that looked promising. One site had an article about people who had died and were trapped between now and what it called “the hereafter,” because of some unanswered question. That seemed to be right on target.

  I opened the site and read the article. It said that some ghosts haunted the place where they died, sometimes for years, usually for three main reasons. The first might be because they needed to know why they died, if they died of natural causes or who killed them. This would be especially true for ghosts who happened to die before their time. That sounded exactly like Shane. If dying in his teens wasn’t dying before his time, I didn’t know what would be. I kept reading.