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She gasped at Cassian. “Are you kidding me? Library chick? I am no chick. I am a lady. I am a lady of the library. I am very important. I keep things organized. If it wasn’t for me, the library would run amok. What is the point of even having the Dewey Decimal System if it’s going to be ignored? Come, Colette. I can’t lift the books myself, now can I?”

Poof!

Benji appeared, staring at me. So small. Ghostly pale. The pun wasn’t intended. His hair was drooping. His eyes were so sad. His entire form was flickering in and out.

“Benji.” New fear rose in me.

Beatrice began screaming. She was pointing at him. “He can’t—you can’t—” She rounded on me, her tone chilled with condescension. “You brought a poltergeist to our school?”

Benji looked as if he could start crying. “I don’t mean to be this way. I’m not a poultergism.” He spoke so softly, like a child whose feelings were hurt. His head hung down before his little shoulders raised and he lifted his chin to me. “There’s no one in the house anymore. I didn’t know where to go. I can’t go to your boyfriend’s house. He has a boundary around it.”

Noah.

Beatrice was still screaming. “He cannot stay here. I demand that he leaves. You can banish him from the premises. I never—” She stopped, an odd expression on her face. Her head was in mid-tilt, her hand in the air and she froze before an eerie calmness came over her. Her arm lowered. She blinked, her face now serene. “You don’t seem to be an evil poltergeist.”

Benji clicked his feet together. “’Cause I’m not. I’m not a poultergism. I’m not bad.”

“Right.” Her tone turned cunning. She flicked her gaze my way. “He could help with the library.”

I blinked at her.

She was right. He could.

Could he?

“Benji, you can move things. Can’t you?” He’d moved my grandma.

His head ducked again before he nodded, now shy. “I just don’t like to scare Livings.”

“Can you help my friend here? She gets upset with the library, but can you move books when there aren’t Livings around?”

Beatrice scoffed at that. “They’re always around. Kissing. Touching each other. Pulling the books and not putting them back in their rightful place.”

“Ahem.”

She caught herself and cleared her throat. “Right. If you won’t help me, then I’ll suffer the help that is available.” She curled her lips, looking down at Benji. “Even a little poltergeist who doesn’t seem to realize he’s a poltergeist."

I growled. “Can you not refer to him as that? His name is Benji. He is eight years old.”

She scoffed again, shaking her head. “All poltergeists are children throwing temper tantrums. You’re making my point for me.”

“Do you want help or not?” I snapped.

Cassian suddenly laughed, uncomfortably, and moved to stand in front of me. “Uh. Yeah. Tutoring.” His hand went to my hip and he pulled me back a step.

I realized I’d been drawing attention as people were beginning to go to their classrooms. The first bell already rang, but I only registered it now. We had a couple minutes.

Cassian cleared his throat, ducking his head down a little. “Do you need me to stay?”

I wavered, unhappy that my time with him in the morning was cut short by all the ghosts, but I also didn’t want him to be marked late for class. “No. I’ll just finish this up.”

“Okay.” He stepped close again, discretely looking up and down the hallway before he pressed a soft kiss to my shoulder, stepping around me at the same time. His hand trailed behind him, tingles following. “See you later then.” He winked before being swallowed up by the crowd.

Benji moved closer to me, looking up at me. “The library lady is mean.”

I groaned in defeat, turning into my locker and kneeling down, pretending to be on my phone. “Think of it this way. You’re helping me by helping her. If you weren’t helping her, distracting her, she’d be bugging me all day.”

He leaned down a little, his head so close to mine. “She can’t do that. You have schooling things to do.”