I Can Talk to Ghosts...

Alan sat behind the wheel of a 1967 Shelby GT 500. A polished and sleek red with perfectly cleaned rims and dark tinted windows. He'd worked two and a half+ summers straight for that car, and nobody but him got behind the wheel of it. He was parked in a hardly used side of the school parking lot (as so no one scratched or dinged his car with their doors or what) staring at the front doors of Leon High School. It was his senior year, last year to be a kid, last year to have no responsibilities over doing his homework... his last year to worry about someone discovering his secret. The only other person in the world who knew about his secret was his girlfriend Kyra. She'd caught him talking to himself in the library when in reality he'd been helping the old librarian organize some books. He wasnt a very good liar, so when she'd asked what he was doing, she'd known right away that he was hiding something and had ended up tickling it out of him. She thought it was really cool, being able to see and talk to ghosts and all, but after he told her about the not-so-friendly ghosts she was a little less enthusiastic (though was still probably 90-95%). She was only a junior, and they'd met in the ROTC program, but after going on a three day field trip for it they'd gotten together.

He leaned back in his seat and sighed. He was avoiding a ghost actually; that's why he was in his car. There'd been a particularly annoying ghost that had been appearing more and more frequently lately and it was starting to drive him nuts. He had just pulled his Ipod out of his ears when he spotted Kyra. She was kind of hard to miss with her bright green backpack and red pants. She was like that; a little weird, but had a good sense of who she was. Though, sometimes it seemed she was, just maybe, missing one or two screws. A smile graced his lips as he turned his car off and then got out locking it behind him. She walked pretty fast, so he had to jog for a moment to catch up to her but soon fell in step with her (a lovely curse of their ROTC program).

"Well, arent you in quite early?" She looked at him as he joined her.

"I'm escaping a, pursuer." He shrugged.

She laughed, "Again?"

He shrugged again, "I just cant get rid of him."

"Well, talk to him? Maybe he's got some "important message" from the other side or something for you." She suggested.

"Maybe..."

They walked up through the school doors where other students were already starting to gather. The bell was maybe 25 minutes away from ringing so they went up to the library. They headed to the non-fiction section where they went and sat in between the bookshelves of the languages and around the world fairy tales and folklore. It was their signature spot since they could sit there with nobody else around and it was where they ate lunch. They put their backpacks in front of them and then sat back against the bookshelf behind them.

"Are there any ghosts in here today?" Kyra asked.

He shook his head, "No, not yet anyway. But there could be by lunch."

"Alright."

"Why?"

"No reason, just wanted to know before I did this..." She grinned as she suddenly put her fingers to his sides.

He started laughing as she tickled him for a moment as he tried to get away.

"No! Kyra... Ah!" He laughed and then managed to grab her hands and retaliate.

He tickled her sides as well and then pulled her to him as he did. She leaned into him until she was laying on his legs and he stopped tickling her and they just sat there for a moment. She turned and looked up at him as she poked his cheek.

"Hey Alan." She said.

He looked down at her, "What?"

"I love you." She smiled.

He smiled at her and then leaned over and kissed her forehead, "I love you too."

She suddenly poked his side again making him jump as he sat up again, "You're such a dork."

"Nerd." He poked her nose.

"Dorky Nerd." She said catching his hand and taking it in hers.

"Nerdy dork." He stuck his tongue out at her.

The bell rang for first period.

"Darn." He sat back as she sat up.

"Dont worry." She stood and started messing with his hair as he got his back pack, "We still got lunch."

"I know." He stood up finally.

"To class I go." She said as they walked out of the library, "What are you going to do for an hour Mr. I-dont-have-first-period?"

He pushed her with his shoulder, "Ah, I'll just go visit the instructors or something."

"Well have fun with that." She smiled as they reached her science class.

He stuck his tongue out at her as they hugged goodbye, "I will."
...

Alan sat at the ROTC tables just outside the doors to the rooms. There were a few other students who were here early but didnt have a first period and they seemed just as bored as he did. He was writing in a notebook when suddenly a ghost floated right through the papers and the table. It startled him and he jumped when its head went through his pencil and hand he and sat back against the wall behind him. It was a young ghost, maybe late teens he looked like. He was dressed in punk clothes with piercings all over his ears... and there was a bullet hole in his forehead. He came out of the table and floated in front of him looking down.

"What do you want?" Alan asked quietly as to not look like a weirdo sitting here talking to himself.

The ghost pointed away from the school and up passed the football field; out toward the far North side of this part of the town, "You... you have to go up there."

"What?" Alan looked from where he was pointing back to the ghost, "Why?"

"She's coming back." He said.

"She?" Alan raised an eyebrow at the ghost.

The look the ghost gave him said he probably would have punched him in the head if he could have, "Dont you know the history or this town? The secrets that everybody says is just stories?"

Alan shook his head.

The ghost made a face again and got closer, "Well you better find out, or it'll be the end of you and all your people here..."

Alan was about to say something as the ghost suddenly disappeared, "Wait! Hold on a second!"

Two students walked passed the table and gave him funny looks for shouting out at nothing all of the sudden. He just smiled sheepishly and went back to his notebook. What the heck was that ghost talking about? Some dark secret of this town? Yeah right, this place was more boring than having to read an entire non-fiction section of a library... by yourself. He looked at his watch that he always wore on his left wrist, 8:49, he had three minutes before the bell would ring for second period. He put away his notebook and phone and decided to head up and meet Kyra before she slipped into her second period, maybe she'd know something about what that ghost was talking about; she had a thing for weird stories.

As he climbed the stairs he saw the same ghost down in the quad kind of just lingering there, but then he looked up and their eyes met. Alan shook his head and kept walking; if not a little faster. He went around to the science/history/government classes hallway and then waited outside her science class room. It wasnt that long until the bell rang. The door swung open and like always, she was the first one out of her class room and it took him a second to register she'd just darted passed him. He swung around and grabbed her backpack strap that wasnt over her shoulder.

She looked back, "Alan? Well hey there."

"Hi." He said pulling her to the side, "Hey, do you know anything about the town's history?"

"You mean like founding year, mayors, stuff like that?" She raised an eyebrow.

"No, no... I mean like, weird stuff. Anything, strange happen here?" He asked.

She nodded her head slowly, "Oh- you mean the sorcerer story."

"Sure..." He looked at her, "So something weird did happen here?"

"No, something super strange supposedly." She laughed for a second, "There were like, four S words in a row."

He rolled his eyes at her but was smiling a little, "Dork... alright, tell me it at lunch?"

"Sure. Im just surprised you havent heard of it yet." She shrugged, "But I like tellin stories."

"Okay thanks." He kissed her cheek as the minute bell rang; luckily his class was just down the hall from her's.

She smiled, "No prob. Now go! Before you are late."

She pushed him down the hall a little before she disappeared into her history class. He fast-walked down the hall and into his class just as the late bell rang. Yay, government with ghost stories on the mind... what a fun day this was going to be.