Ghost of a Chance (6 page)

“Yeah, well, I'm sure you'll be fine.” I start to quicken my pace a little bit. Time to get away from this lunatic.

“Hey!” she calls as I start to walk away from her. “What's your name?”

I think about giving her a fake one, but then I realize she's probably going to find out my name soon enough anyway. I sigh. “Kendall,” I say.

She nods. “Kendall. Pretty name.” I look at her for any signs that she's being fake or sarcastic, but she's not. “I'm Lily.”

“Lily,” I say. “Okay, sounds good!” I turn around and start to walk back toward the front of our group, but she calls my name.

I turn around. “Yes?”

“Can I ask you one more question?”

“I guess.” We're almost at the door to the elementary
school now, and I'm this close to getting away from her.

She tugs on a strand of her hair and looks around, confused. “How come nobody can hear me but you?”

*  *  *

Great. Lily's a ghost. How, how,
how
does this keep happening to me? Seriously, until recently, none of the ghosts I saw had any personal connection to me. Now, in the span of, like, a month, I've attracted Brandon's mom, and now Madison's sister. (And Micah's sister too, but she doesn't really count. I mean, I found Micah because of her, not the other way around.)

I have a vague memory of Ellie telling me something about Madison Baker's sister dying. But that was a few weeks before school started, and for some reason I just assumed Madison's sister was a lot older than us. Like, twenty-five or something. Plus Madison wasn't really on my radar at that time—I didn't have a crush on Brandon then, so she didn't really have any bearing on my life.

I really should start asking everyone I know about their dead relatives so I can be better prepared for this. Or at least start keeping a list.

“I don't know why no one can hear you but me,” I say, turning and walking quickly toward the elementary school. I follow the line of my classmates into the school, letting the warm inside air envelop me like a nice cozy blanket. My new plan is to just ignore Lily. No way I want to get
involved with anyone related to Madison Baker. Plus I kind of have no choice. I can't talk to Lily when people are around. No one can hear her. They'll think I'm crazy and talking to myself.

Mr. Jacobi is standing in the lobby, looking down at a clipboard and talking to another teacher, probably from the elementary school. I didn't realize it when I first walked in, probably because I was so distracted by Lily, but there's already a bunch of middle school kids standing around in the lobby. Must be kids from other classes at our school who are also involved in the program.

I look back up toward Mr. Jacobi. Why aren't we getting this show on the road? I really want to get this over with. But he's not showing any signs of being productive. He's just chatting away with the elementary school teacher. She's short and pretty, with long red curls and a fair complexion. Probably he thinks he's going to make a love connection with her. At the expense of his own class.

Lily's in the corner now, frowning as she stands on her tiptoes and looks around. I hope she's looking for her sister and not me. I quickly turn around and get very busy staring at the wall, where a bunch of second graders have hung up their art projects. Hopefully, if I don't meet Lily's eye, she'll get the message that I don't want to be bothered.

Wow. These art projects are actually really good. One of the kids drew a picture of a donkey, and it looks just like a
real donkey. Every time I try to draw pictures of animals, I always end up messing up the legs. But this kid really knows how to draw. I look at the name on the bottom. Drawing by Tatiana Shaw. She's probably some kind of seven-year-old art savant or something.

This picture's probably going to be worth millions someday. That's totally how people make big money in the art world. They have an eye for talent, and they snatch up paintings before anyone's ever heard of the artist, and then, when the artist gets big, the buyer sells the paintings and gets rich. That's what Ellie's aunt used to do. Of course, then she ended up making a mistake and sinking all her money into this one artist whose art never really panned out, and she lost everything.

But I'll bet I could get this one really cheap, since the artist is only in second grade. Although I'm not sure pictures of donkeys are really that much in demand. And now that I'm looking at it, this donkey might actually be a horse. It has ears like a donkey, but its height is definitely—

“Yo, girl,” someone says, and pulls my hat off my head.

I turn around. Micah.

“Oh,” I say, surprised. “It's you.”

“Yup. It's me.” He grins.

“I didn't realize you'd be here,” I say. “I didn't know eighth graders were participating in this program.”

“Only some of us.” He grins and wiggles his eyebrows
up and down, like he's letting me in on some kind of secret. Then he leans in and says, “I'm actually very good at math. But a lot of people don't realize that because I'm so good-looking.”

I stare at him blankly, wondering if he's joking. He doesn't
seem
like he's joking, but he can't seriously think it's okay for him to claim he's so good-looking that a lot of people don't know he's smart, can he? Like, on what planet is that acceptable? Not to mention, you don't even have to be good at math to be here. I mean, I'm here. So the standards are pretty low.

“Well, that's great.” I reach out and take my hat out of his hands and shove it into my pocket. Then I stand on my tiptoes and pretend to be looking around for someone. Lily's still in the corner, and when she sees me, she waves. I quickly look past her, wondering what would happen if I just pretended I couldn't see or hear her, like everyone else.

“Do you know if there's going to be snacks here?” Micah's asking. He's rummaging through his bag. A bunch of papers come tumbling out and fall onto the floor. A kid walking by steps on one of them, leaving a huge dirty footprint on the front.

Micah doesn't seem to notice. I sigh, then bend down and pick up the papers.

“Thanks,” he says, not even bothering to look as he
crumples them and shoves them back into his bag. “There it is!” he says a minute later. He pulls out a half-empty bag of Cheetos and offers me one. “Want?”

“No.” They definitely look stale.

“Heeeeyyy,” an annoyingly familiar voice trills. “What are you guys doing?”

“Hey, Madison,” Micah says, sounding happy to see her. Which makes no sense. Who could be happy to see Madison? “Want some Cheetos?”

“No, thanks.” She smiles and twirls a lock of hair around her finger. She definitely wears extensions. There's no way her hair curls that way naturally. It's too perfect. I search her head for signs of clip-ins, but there are none. Does Madison have real hair extensions? The kind people pay thousands of dollars for?

Because that would be ridiculous. My dad won't even let me use the clip-in ones. He says they're unnecessary. I keep trying to tell him that most things in this world are unnecessary. And that if he's that worried about it, maybe he should stop drinking so much bottled water.

“So what are you two lovebirds doing over here?” Madison asks, giving me and Micah a knowing smirk. “Wanted to get some alone time, did you?”

“Yup,” Micah says, putting
his arm around me. “Just getting a little alone time.”

My mouth drops. Is Micah delusional? Why is he putting his arm around me? And what is he talking about, getting some alone time? We are not. He just came up to me while I was looking at a picture of a donkey/horse. Plus as far as he knows, I have a boyfriend.

“That's so cute,” Madison says. “So are you guys, like, a thing now?”

“No,” I say at the same time Micah says, “Not officially.”

He pulls me closer to him. Wow. He actually has very strong arms. I wonder if he's been working out. It's really a shame that he's kind of crazy, because he's very good-looking. Not as good-looking as Brandon, of course.

“Kendall just broke up with Brandon,” Micah says sadly. “She's going to need some time to process that.”

“How did
you
know I broke up with Brandon?” I ask.

“It's all over school,” he says.

“It is?” How is it all over school? I didn't even realize anyone in school knew that me and Brandon were together, and now people are talking about us breaking up? I know it's totally shallow, but I get a little thrill thinking about it.

Madison's smirk is still playing on her perfectly glossed lips. She's probably the one who told everyone that me and Brandon broke up. I resist the urge to glare at her.

“You okay, Kendall?” she asks. “You seem a little sad.” She juts out her bottom lip, like she's doing an impression of me. Which is crazy. I'm not even pouting.

“I'm not sad,” I say.

“Are you sure?” She looks at me suspiciously. She wants me to have some kind of meltdown so I'll confess that I miss Brandon and she can feel all happy about my misery. Well! She has another thing coming.

“I'm sure. I'm really happy to be here with Micah.” I try to think of something I can do to prove it, so I reach into my pocket and pull out my hat, then pull it down over Micah's head. “Ha-ha!” I say. “You're wearing my hat!” It's supposed to be playful and flirty, but I must not be a very good flirt, because the whole thing just seems kind of weird.

“Ew,” Micah says, pulling it off and handing it back to me. “No, thank you.”

“Ha-ha,” I try again. But I'm kind of insulted. Why doesn't Micah want to wear my hat? It's perfectly clean. And so is my hair. I just washed it this morning.

“Hello, students!” Mr. Jacobi says from the other side of the lobby. “If I can have your attention, please!”

Everyone kind of ignores him, probably because most people can't hear him. The end of the day is the worst time to try to get kids to focus. We're all too excited about finally being out of school.

“Hello, people!” Mr. Jacobi practically screams. “Can we all please quiet down? It's never too early to start setting a good example for the young children we're going to be tutoring.” He shakes his head and looks at the teacher standing next to him, the one with red hair he was talking
to earlier. She gives him a sympathetic look, like she's glad she's spending her days taking care of little kids and teaching them to draw donkeys, instead of having to hang out with the likes of us.

Finally we all settle down.

Micah moves closer to me.

Like, uncomfortably close.

I'm about to move away, but then I see Madison watching us from the other side of the room. So I stay where I am.

“Excuse me,” Lily whispers, coming up behind me. “I'm really sorry to bother you, but can you please tell me why you're the only one who can hear me?”

I put a blank look on my face and try to concentrate on what Mr. Jacobi is saying. Although, it's hard to focus when he's just going on and on about how he's expecting us all to represent our school in the best light possible and blah, blah, blah.

“Hello?” Lily asks. “Kendall? I understand that I'm dead and all, but how come no one else can hear me?” She's not being rude about it. She sounds legitimately bewildered. When I don't answer her, she wanders away, back over to where Madison is standing. I watch her go, saying a silent thanks that she's leaving me alone.

But as I move my eyes back up toward where Mr. Jacobi's standing, I catch Brandon's gaze. He's standing next to Jason
Fields and looking back to where I'm standing, obviously not paying any attention to what Mr. Jacobi is saying. My breath catches in my chest, and everything kind of stops, almost like the world switches over to slow motion. He's wearing his gray-and-navy jacket, the one that makes him look like an Abercrombie model. Or at least a Disney star.

There's a slightly sad expression on his face, and for a second I think maybe he's going to come over and try to talk to me. Which I know is silly, since Mr. Jacobi is talking to us and everyone is actually being quiet for once, and if Brandon started coming over to me right now, it would definitely cause a disturbance.

But Brandon isn't looking away, so I give him a tiny smile, and he starts to raise his hand, like maybe he's going to wave. My heart thumps in my chest, and warmth rushes to my cheeks. If Brandon is waving at me, maybe he's not as mad as I thought he was.

So I make my smile a little bigger, and he raises his hand a little more. My heart starts dancing around. If he waves, what am I going to do? Definitely I should wave back, but then what? Am I going to try to talk to him after tutoring? Should I text him? Should I—

At that moment, for some stupid reason, Micah reaches out and grabs my hand. Like, he is
holding
my hand.

And Brandon sees Micah do it. And then Brandon quickly moves his eyes back to Mr. Jacobi.

I drop Micah's hand like it's an explosive.

Great. A chance to maybe make some progress with Brandon, and what happens? It gets wrecked.

And the worst part of it all is that Madison Baker is watching the whole thing with a satisfied smile on her face.

*  *  *

The rest of the after-school meeting is a ridiculous waste of time. We're supposed to get assigned students and peer groups, but Mr. Jacobi apparently got his wires crossed with the red-haired elementary school teacher and she didn't have anything ready, so nothing gets accomplished except for all of us standing around getting lectured about being good role models.

The afternoon goes from bad to worse when I get home and my dad informs me that we (me, him, and his girlfriend, Cindy, are now apparently a “we,” according to my dad—how cozy) are going to Best Buy to pick out a TV for my room.