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There was a ghost staring at me past Mr. Rotchboddum’s classroom door.

She was my age, or looked my age, but with a ghost, she could’ve died a hundred years ago. I couldn’t tell what kind of clothes she was wearing, usually just their age, hair color, ethnicity, and their energy. I could also sense if they wanted to murder me or have me pull up a chair to tell me their life story. In the last five years since I learned I could see and hear ghosts, I’ve had all sorts of experiences.

This one…I couldn’t get a full ‘read’ on her.

A psychic once tried to explain how everything has a frequency, but I failed that science test.

The ghost staring at me right now was white, long blonde hair, thin, and her energy was sour.

I wasn’t rejecting the notion that the ghost was standing there to mock me for the F I got last week.

“So.”

I couldn’t look away from the ghost.

“I was wondering…” That was Ethan next to me and he took a breath because he was nervous to ask me to fill in for him at the bookstore we work in downtown, Books-n-Brew. I knew he was about to ask me because he’d been asking me every Friday since I started two months ago, a full month after I moved to Haven Rock to live with my grandparents.

Spoiler: he didn’t know I could communicate with ghosts.

Another spoiler: no one did except my mother who decided it was the perfect excuse to go on a bender, break her three years of sobriety, and get herself not only sentenced to prison for attempting to rob a police station (she believed the Uber driver when he told her it was the jewelry store she requested), but also a seventy-two hour hold in the mental health hospital that turned into six months. When my mom decided she no longer wanted to take care of her daughter, she went out with a bang.

Overachiever.

My mom and I shared similar looks. Both medium height, but we were slender. She had a reddish tint to her hair whereas I was more a brunette girl. Pale skin, way more pale than I’d like. I wish I could get a tan every now and then. She had curl to her hair. I did not. Mine was straight as an arrow, along with my hips and waist. I wish I had an ass, something my mom had. In the overall looks department, neither of us were ugly. My mom got hit on all the time. Me, guys tended to give me attention but no one went out of their way to be super chivalrous or ask me out so I assumed I was more of a Plain Jane. I was okay with that because if no one paid me attention, good or bad, then all the better for my survival.

Maybe my mom and I weren’t that similar after all.

“I was wondering if you’re busy tonight⁠—”

“Why tonight?” I was messing with him. I knew why, and he was not hitting on me. It was the Homecoming football game with Halloween the following week so I knew in another week, we’d be repeating this same conversation.

“Uh. You know, I have a thing⁠—”

The ghost began heading our way.

I straightened up, more alert. She looked hungry. Focused and determined.

She was coming straight at me.

Tilting my head to the side, I forgot about Ethan until she was directly in front of me and she licked her lips, staring at the middle part of my chest, like she was looking inside of me.

Alarm spiked in me.

Was she…? I gasped. She was.

She began to extend a hand toward me, touching my body.

She was going to try and enter me. This ghost wanted to take over my body.

“I don’t think so,” I snapped at her.

Ethan suddenly stopped talking. “What?”

Her eyes jerked to mine and understanding flooded her. Color spread throughout her, making her almost look like a normal living human being. She surged away from me with her finger still in the air. “You can see me.”

Well. Crap. Now I was in a situation. A ghost who knew I could see her, but she didn’t know I could also hear her and I was standing by another human who didn’t know I was conversing with a ghost beside him. How do I get myself into these situations?