Page 46 of School Spirits
“I wasn’t… You know what? Just forget it. It was stupid anyway.” With that, she slammed her notebook shut and got up, asking Mrs. Steele if she could go to the restroom.
As she left, Adam folded his arms on top of his desk, leaning toward me. “Do you think it’s drugs? I bet it’s drugs. I took an awareness course about drugs last year. At thecommunity college.”
I was still staring at the door, so it took me a moment to realize Adam was looking at me.
“Huh?”
“Beth Tanner. On drugs. Is she? Because I’m voting yes.”
“Don’t be a jerk, Adam,” Romy snapped. “She was really freaked out.” Twisting in her desk, Romy faced me. “We should talk to her. When she gets back. Maybe PMS could go over to her house, see if we can pick up any energy readings—”
“You have got to be kidding me,” Adam groaned, and Romy turned back around.
“You should take this more seriously,” she said. “Look at what happened to Mr. Snyder, and now Beth. You could be next.”
I knew Romy was doing that thing she did a lot—assuming everyone knew exactly what she was thinking. But Adam didn’t know about the picture of him with Beth and Mr. Snyder, or Romy’s theory that Mary was seeking revenge on the founding families of Ideal, so he just stared at her, eyes wide.
“Um…what the hell does that mean?”
Romy’s face was bright red, but the bell rang, saving her from having to answer. Adam shoved his desk back and began gathering his things, muttering something about “freaks” under his breath.
As Romy and I headed for the door, she turned to me. “It had to be Mary that Beth saw, right? Which means her spirit isn’t just tied to the school.”
I just nodded, lost in thought. Itcouldn’tbe Mary. I knew how to deal with ghosts, and the salt thing had never failed. Was there another ghost prowling the halls of the school?
I saw Beth one more time, during P.E., but she just sat on the bleachers, surrounded by her friends and still looking kind of gray. I tried to catch her eye, hoping to talk to her a little more about what she’d seen, but every time our eyes met, she looked away.
By the end of the day, I’d nearly convinced myself that Beth was wrong. The doll had unsettled her, and who could blame her? A mutilated Barbie that looks like you strung up in your locker? That would upset anyone. Still, worry slithered through me. This was supposed to be a simple, easy job. I couldn’t have screwedthisup, too.
Romy and Dex were both waiting for me by my locker when the last bell rang, and if a little thrill ran through me at seeing Dex standing there, seemingly okay, I tried my best to ignore it. He had his shoulder against the door, leaning down to listen to Romy. As I got closer, I could hear her saying, “Maybe Mary has some sort of grudge against those families.”
“So the ghost of Mary Evans is pissed off at the descendants ofsomepeople who did something. For somereason,” Dex summed up. When Romy nodded, he bent down, taking her shoulder. “Rome, can you hear yourself when you talk?”
Irritated, Romy rolled her shoulder, knocking Dex’s hand off. “Why are you even in PMS if you don’t believe in this kind of stuff?”
“Because this school is so boring, I thought I might actually die, and ghost hunting seemed like a fun way to spend some time,” he replied. “And it is fun. I like creeping around abandoned buildings, and scouring cemeteries, and pouring salt on—Oof!” He grunted as my elbow slammed into his ribs.
Looking down at me, Dex made a face, but added, “Fries. I like pouring salt on fries after I’ve creeped around abandoned buildings and scoured cemeteries. It’s just…this seems like a stretch, Romy.”
Romy pressed her lips together, and I wasn’t sure if she was hurt or angry. Finally, she spit out “Whatever” and stormed away from us. I stood there, torn. Dex and Romy were both my friends, but now they were mad at each other. Was I breaking some kind of girl code bynotwalking away with Romy?
“Rome!” Dex called after her. She didn’t turn around but she did raise her hand and flip him off.
Dex just sighed. “Well, that’ll be with us for a while. Romy can hold a grudge like no one’s business.”
“You shouldn’t have picked on her,” I told him as I put my things in my backpack.
“I didn’t!” he cried. “I just pointed out that her theory is insane.”
“Which she saw as picking on her,” I said once we’d joined the flow of students heading toward the parking lot. The buses lined up under an awning.
“Okay, so maybe I could have phrased it a little nicer, but life at Mary Evans High is rough enough for Romy. The PMS thing has already made her a target. If she starts spouting off about a ghost wanting to kill the homecoming queen…” He shook his head. “There would be no end to the crap they’d give her.”
“So you were trying to protect her by…being mean to her?”
By now we were outside. While the other, luckier kids who had their own cars walked through the parking lot, Dex and I took our places on the sidewalk. Romy was several feet away, very pointedly not looking at us.
“I just know how tough it can be when everyone thinks you’re some kind of freak,” Dex said, his voice suddenly tight. “When I was a kid—”
