“Ugh, Creepshow! How is it that you’re still single?” We had gathered for the noontime break and Sixx was complaining about Creep’s lunch again. To say he had strange tastes had to be the understatement of the year. Today his brown bag consisted of an onion sandwich and a can of sardines. We were all totally grossed out.
“Dude, can you sit downwind, at least?” Jett sat at least ten feet away with his beanie practically covering his whole face.
“I don’t bag on your food, man.”
“That’s because I don’t eat weird crap, dude.”
This had gotten ridiculous. I had been trying to find a good time to tell the guys about Shane and they were acting like a couple of three-year-olds. I looked helplessly at Sixx. Thankfully, she took charge.
“Can you two clowns stop acting stupid for two seconds? Juice has something important to say.”
Creepshow stuffed the rest of his lunch into the bag and crammed it into his backpack. Jett quit ripping wrappers off spearmint gum and they both gave their attention to me. Now that I had it though, I wasn’t even sure where to begin. I stared at them both while I thought of where to start. Sixx looked at me for a few minutes and then got mad.
“Oh, for crying out loud, Juice.” She stood up and started pacing around. “So, first Juice was in her homeroom class and she meets this new guy. He’s totally hot and they start talking, and she likes him, and he likes her, and she asks him what he’s doing in her homeroom ’cuz his last name is Elliot and her homeroom is for N through Z, right? So, he has no answer for that and they keep talking, and the bell rings and that stupid jock Brian Yates comes in and practically sits on him, but before he does, the cute guy, whose name is Shane, he like, evaporates into thin air. So, Juice is sitting there all shocked, and before she gets up to leave the classroom, she sees something written on her notebook, and it’s from him and he wrote like, see you later or something. So, long-story-short, she sees him all the time and they’re into each other, and he’s a ghost, and they want to be together, but he needs her to find him a body so he can be human again. And Juice has been wanting to tell you about it, but can’t find a way and now, when she wanted to tell you something completely important, you two start acting like a couple of dorks.” Sixx stopped talking and took a deep breath and sat back down.
“Shoot, girl.” Jett raised himself up from the grass to a sitting position and even took off his sunglasses. “You messin’ with the dead?”
“He’s not the dead. Well, maybe not exactly. I’m not sure what he is, if you want to know the truth. I just know I like him.”
“That’s good enough for me.” Creepshow piped up, hollering from where he’d been eating his nasty sandwich. He ambled over. “If you like him, Juice, then that’s all I need. I like him, too. Tell him to come on out. We won’t bite.”
I could have kissed Creep. I looked back at Jett. He seemed to consider it for a moment, then he nodded. “Me too, Juice. If you like him, then I know I will too. Tell him he’s got two new friends.” He lowered his shades and tried to lean back, but not before I kneeled down and gave him and Creepshow each a hug.
“See?” Sixx looked pretty satisfied with herself. “I told you they’d be on board.” She refocused on me. “Now, we just need to find you a body. How exactly does that work?”
“Be pretty awesome if I could tell you right now, wouldn’t it?” I replied, morosely. I looked up, almost afraid to meet their eyes. I had no idea how to answer Sixx’s question.
“Juice. Are you telling me that after I got MacGregor High’s pathetic version of the Rat Pack behind you on your quest for true love, you don’t even know how to change the ghost into a guy?” Sixx faced me, hands on her hips, impatiently waiting for my response.
“Not exactly. I mean, Shane left a note for me that he intends to tell me. He just hasn’t done it yet.”
Creepshow jumped up and began rummaging through his backpack. He came up with his notebook and he opened it to a blank page. Shoving it into my hands, he goes, “So, make him tell you now.”
“Creep, that’s not how it works. Shane, he just comes out when he wants to. I don’t control him, or anything. He just shows up.”
“I bet that’s not true. I bet he shows up when you need him. If he cared for you he would, and it sounds as though he does, Juice. It sounds to me, anyway, like he does.”
I thought about what Creepshow said for a minute. And it kind of made some sense. The times when Shane showed up I did need him, I sort of just willed him to be there. The first time it seemed almost like an answer to my birthday wish. After that, whenever I thought about him, he just was there. So maybe I could control it. Sixx, Creepshow, and Jett were all looking at me so expectantly, I had to give it a shot. Wordlessly, I took a pencil out of my own backpack and wrote in the notebook Creep gave me.
Shane, I wrote, I need you to come here. I told my friends about you and they all want to help. Now my friends are your friends. I closed the notebook and tossed it on the ground in front of the four of us.
Jett looked at the notebook and then back up at me. “Now what?”
“I don’t know. The last few times I just went to my next class and he’d be sitting there.”
“So maybe you just do that again.”
“Maybe.”
We all just stood there, looking at the notebook again. Suddenly, a wind came up, out of nowhere, and the pages fluttered and began to flip back and forth. I knew what would happen, but I loved the look on my friend’s faces when they saw it for the first time. Of course, the wind breezed the pages in the notebook to the page where I had written my plea to Shane. And of course, right underneath it, I could see his reply. Tell your friend I said thanks. I’d love to meet them. How about tomorrow morning at the beach. 7a.m.
“Seven in the morning?” wailed Sixx, throwing her hands up in the air. “Ok, now even ghosts are early risers? That just blows!” Sixx’s complaint got interrupted by the bell. Lunch ended.
Thank heaven it was Friday. I only had three more classes to endure until the weekend began. And for once, I had an actual weekend to look forward to. Tomorrow morning my friends and I would finally know how we could help Shane find a host body. And tomorrow night we would be going to the Battle of the Bands. I hadn’t had two things to go to in the same weekend in, well, never.
Weekends like this were almost unheard of. This had shaped up to be the best week ever. Maybe I would even get a boyfriend out of all of this. The prospect seemed almost more than I could hope for. Yep, this definitely had the makings of the best week of my life. Still the weirdest, but the best.