I originally wrote this as a short intro to the characters in my Perth Paranormal Mystery series, and then never did anything with it. So, enjoy this little snippet of high school life when your sister is a ghost and everyone in town thinks you’re a freak.
Lee and I made it back to Perth just as the final bell at Perth High School rang, which I thought was pretty impressive since ghosts don’t wear watches. The plan had been for the two of us to stake out a property in Trinidad, and then meet up with Pansy and Bagel to report our findings before the PPS, the Perth Paranormal Society, investigated on Saturday evening.
My twin came through the double doors of the red brick building, her waist length black hair covering most of her face as she bolted down the wide concrete steps. She was futzing around in her purse, and as she came closer, I could see she’d located her cell phone and was pulling the antenna out like she was going to make a call. I waved when she looked up, and she put the phone up to her ear, pushing her hair over her shoulder and revealing a dark stain on her green silk shirt.
Oh no, not the silk.
As the crowd of students around her thinned, I could see the dark brownish-red stain continued down one leg of her daisy-embroidered jeans. Normally I would have made some comment about eating food instead of wearing it, but the redness around her eyes told me she’d been crying, and the look on her face let me know that the tears would come back with even the slightest of provocations. I kept my smart-aleck comments to myself, for once.
“Hey, Tiff. Yeah, it’s been a really hard day and I don’t want to talk about it,” she said into the phone as she drew closer to us. I guess my name was Tiff today. Honestly, it’s not like she could say my real name out loud—I’d been the only Gerri we knew.
“Um, noted, but are you still meeting Bagel at the Firefly? You look…a little messy,” I said, gesturing to the stains.
“At this point, I don’t even care. I just want cheese fries and a milkshake,” she said, still holding the cell up to her ear. She pulled a section of hair forward to cover most of the stain.
That’ll totally fix it.
“Here comes the pancake,” Lee said from behind me.
“Bagel,” I replied, drawing out each syllable for emphasis. “Or you could just call him Dario if his nickname bothers you that much.”
“What’s the fun in that?” Lee asked, one furry white brow arched. Now was not the time to let Lee know that my nickname for him had been Jerkface. No, my primary concern right now was for my sister.
Bagel’s long legs ate up the sidewalk, the wide legs of his jeans making furious swishing noises as he came bounding over. “Are you okay? Annie told me what happened at lunch with you and Danielle,” he paused to eyeball the stains. “Chili day, huh? Looks like she got you good.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Pansy said, her dark brown eyes beginning to shimmer with unshed tears. “I just want a milkshake and to hear about the place we’re investigating this weekend.”
She started across Main Street toward The Firefly Cafe, Bagel followed in her wake. I began floating after them, but Lee motioned for me to wait.
“Which one of these little twerps made her cry?” Lee asked, searching the crowd of teens still lingering on the sidewalks.
“Danielle? Umm…over there,” I gestured toward the school sign where she was talking with her friends. “Long blonde hair. Purple book bag.”
Lee nodded, hands on his hips as he took note of the culprit. Posed like that, I imagined a breeze blowing his shabby brown bath robe behind him like a caped superhero. The thought made me smile as I followed Pansy and Bagel across the street.
We waited for the waitress to take their orders before Pansy put the cell back up to her ear. “Okay, Tiff. So what’s the deal with the house in Trinidad?”
I filled her in, pausing every other sentence as she relayed what “Tiff” was telling her to Bagel. We were just getting to the part where the husband was secretly taking things out of the house to pawn, because he had a gambling problem, when Danielle and her BFF Aubrey strutted into the Firefly.
Danielle stared straight at Pansy as she leaned toward Aubrey’s ear, one hand over her mouth so her whisper wouldn’t be overheard. Whatever she said made the two collapse into giggles and they made their way to the other side of the diner, shooting looks back to Pansy and Bagel’s booth as they went.
“Subtle as a freight train, aren’t they?” Lee sneered as the two settled into a booth of their own.
“Anyway,” Pansy continued, trying her best to ignore the distraction. “So, there were no PopTarts, right?”
PopTarts was her new codeword for ghosts. After finding a dead body and being chased by some really bad dudes a few weeks ago, everyone in town knew her name. Talking about ghosts in public wouldn’t do her any favors.
“Yeah, no ghosts at all,” I confirmed.
The waitress returned with their food and I waited for her to leave before resuming my report. “This dude is trying to convince the wife that she’s going crazy and that all of these missing things never existed in the first place. He’s moving things around and leaving cabinet doors open. Now she’s convinced there’s a ghost.”
I hadn’t noticed Lee floating off during my retelling of what we’d found, but the high-pitched squeal from the other side of the diner had me whipping around in time to see Danielle stand up while holding the bottom of her shirt away from her body. Chocolate milkshake was splattered across her shirt, a section of hair, and the majority of one arm.
The diner had gone completely silent as everyone stared, so I had no problem hearing Lee when he spoke. “I made sure to get some in her fancy little purse here, too.”
Oh no.
The waitress came running with a dish rag as everyone in the diner began talking at once, the commotion almost drowning out the sound of Pansy’s cackling laughter.
“Thank you, Lee,” Pansy said, plucking a napkin from the little dispenser on the table to wipe away a tear.
“What were you thinking?” I asked, shocked that he’d do ghost things in public.
Lee shrugged, “What’s the point in being dead if you can’t have fun with it once in a while?”
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t suppress a chuckle of my own. Jerkface was slowly growing on me.
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