Today's word count: 1,694 words
Running total: 6,758 words
Summary: The newscasting club decides to do a show about the auditorium ghost, since there's nothing better to cover. There's also a new chapter start told from Kenneth's POV.
Also, there is a reference to The Guardian.
“Well, he said that there’s a ghost in the auditorium!”
I knew it. Ashley’s really into conspiracy theories and the Occult, and she’s always suggesting we do segments on things like “now the first lunar landing was staged” and “how to properly perform a séance.” This is admittedly one of her better suggestions, but it’s still pretty bad. Chase groans, and I think even Brian winces a bit.
Ashley ignores this as best as possible and continues. “Think what you want, but it’s true! Sometimes, when the choir practices in the auditorium, they’ll hear weird noises from the sound system—even when the sound system is off!”
“Ashley—Ashley,” Chase says, spinning around to face the girl. “Did you ever consider that maybe it’s just some asshole who likes to spook everyone out?”
“He’s still mad about the Jack the Ripper incident,” Brian mumbles tenderly. “You don’t have to listen to him.”
Chase goes to say something, but succeeds in nothing more than flailing about and making some noises or frustration before turning around again.
Ashley continues. “And sometimes the other auditorium controls don’t work like they’re supposed to. The lights flicker and stuff like that. Well, apparently, there’s these dressing rooms and stuff under the auditorium. And a pretty long time ago, there was this kid who was new in town and wanted to scope out the school—just like you, Kenneth. But, you see, he was walking around without a guide or anything, and he got up on the auditorium stage, and he fell through a trapdoor… they found his dead body the next day. Now, he haunts the auditorium…”
“Laaaaaame,” says Chase, not helping anything. Ashley looks a little more hurt, though. Can’t really blame her. As much as I don’t like her, I like Chase even less.
“Well, I think it’s a good idea,” says Brian, trying to boost his girlfriend’s morale?
“Would you think it’s a good idea if someone other than Ashley had suggested it?” Chase again. It’s a good question, but the only answer we will ever get is from our own deduction: probably not. Brian gives Chase the dirtiest look one can manage when they’re a little bit high, which is more of a vacant stare than a dirty look, and then turns his attention back to Ashley.
“Well, what do you think, Kenneth?” I ask, trying desperately to steer this conversation back to grounds where not everyone was preparing to kill one another. Looking at Kenneth, though, I realize this was a probably bad idea. His glance has once again glazed over and he is staring at nothing. I wonder how much he has even heard of our conversation.
At the sound of his name, he refocuses and jerks his head toward mine. “Huh? What?”
“Um… did you hear Ashley’s topic proposal?”
“About the ghost? Yeah, I heard it.”
“Well… what do you think about it?”
“It’s… okay.” He rubs the back of his neck. “It’s not really news, though…? I don’t know, what sort of stuff do you normally cover?”
I sigh. “Whatever we can. Not enough stuff happens around this school to fit a twenty-minute bi-weekly news show.” It’s a sad truth.
“So… what are you covering this week?”
Silence. All of us wrack our brains to try and remember anything we had filmed.
“We’re doing that segment on sports, remember? And like, what people think of it.” Ashley offers, rolling her eyes at the thought of such a boring section.
“And we’re supposed to do that story on new testing policies at the school,” Chase adds. Then he sighs and slumps forward. “Only… the newspaper came out last week, and they covered the same thing. And then Dean’s going to say we copied, even though it’s really the other way around, and he’ll use it as an excuse to beat me up again.”
“Oh, that’s what happened?” Ask Brian, pulling away from Ashley. “Dude. You should have told me. I thought you put your eye out yourself or something.”
I bite my lip. I don’t really care whether or not Chase gets beat up at school. Hell, I’d do it if I could be sure to win, but Chase fights dirty. He’s hard to hit. I was actually there to witness the fight a few days ago, and his underhanded tactics were honestly the only way he would have got a hit on the dean’s kid. But it saved him there. Dean seemed pretty pissed about something and he probably could have put Chase in the hospital if he really wanted to (and if Chase had just stood around accepting the beating).
Well, regardless, I don’t really want to hear this not-so-tender conversation between Chase and Brian and I wish they’d just stop so we could move on to more important things.
“Humph. What could you have done, anyway? Annoy him even more in your drug haze?”
Brian deflects this dig by ignoring it. “What happened between you two, anyway? I though you had some sort of agreement not to fight anymore because you saw him rape a girl, or something.”
“Well, it’s off, apparently. He got impatient or something. And he didn’t rape anyone. If he had done that, I would have gone to the police, and then I’d never have to deal with that asshole again.”
“Then what did he do that he didn’t want anyone to know?”
“…He was buying limited edition collector’s figures.”
An awkward silence permeates the room. Kenneth speaks first.
“What’s so wrong with that?”
“He thinks it’s too geeky or something,” Chase sighs. “He didn’t want anyone knowing he was a fan of graphic novels. But then they started making all those comic book movies, and suddenly it’s cool to have liked the Guardian before he was a movie.”
Brian asks, “Who is ‘The Guardian?’”
“It’s not that important,” Chase says, wanting to be over with this conversation as soon as possible.
We’re all quiet for a good bit of time. Once again, Kenneth is the one to break the silence.
“So, um… the Friday show. Well, it doesn’t look like we have a lot of content, and if this story goes well it could be a huge hit. I mean, what if we actually see paranormal activity down there? And even if we don’t… well, how hard could it be to fake it? Do it all in darkness with a tiny bit of light, maybe have someone walk past a door in a way that it just leaves a shadow or something.”
We are all silent for a few minutes. I speak first, but I know I’m saying exactly what everyone else is thinking.
“Kenneth White, you are devious.”
Brian speaks next. “But, you know…”
“…that could actually work,” Chase finishes.
“So we’re actually going ghost-hunting?” Ashley looks excited now. She’s standing straight up with her hands clasped, not even a square nanometer of skin touching her boyfriend for once.
Kenneth laughs and smiles a bit, revealing rows of perfectly straight teeth. He grows more attractive to me by the second.
I ask, “Does that mean you’ll join us? I don’t want to pressure you or anything. But…”
“Don’t worry, Scarlett. I’m joining the club. It could be a lot of fun.”
Ashley is getting really excited about this. She starts talking fast about all the things she needs to do. “All right! Well, first, we’ll have to do this at night, so we’ll need permission to come to the school then. Can’t do it while everyone else is here, and everyone knows that spirits are most active at night. So we’ll need principal permission—“
I cut her off. “Kenneth, can you get that for us? You don’t have quite the bad reputation everyone else here does…”
“Yeah, I’m sure I can do that.”
“All right! We’ll definitely need a teacher to get in. Mr. Williams could do that. He’s the one who told us the story in the first place. I don’t know if he likes me very much…”
Chase offers, reluctantly, “Well, he likes me a lot. I can ask him.”
“Great! All right, then we’ll need equipment… I don’t have any ghost-specific stuff. Does anyone here have ghost-sensitive equipment?”
The silence is so prevalent that comic background crickets can almost be heard.
“Well, not matter. Maybe a regular camera and tape recorder will do fine. We have a camera here, right?”
“Yep,” says Chase, dragging out the first consonant.
“I have a tape recorder, if no one else does. It’s very portable,” says Brian.
Ashley smiles at him. “I knew you’d come through for us, Brian!”
I stand up. “Okay, then! There’s nothing much more to be done until we get to editing. Everyone knows what they have to do, right?”
Everyone answers in the affirmative some way or another.
“Okay, then! Meeting is adjourned for today!”
Scene III
Everything Is Coming up Roses, but Every Rose Has Its Thorn; or, I’m Worried
Kenneth
I began school at Century High on Sunday.
It’s Wednesday night now. I joined a club, and tonight, we’re supposed to do this ghost investigation. I don’t know whether or not I believe in the paranormal. I mean, I’ve never seen it, but I say if there’s no concrete evidence one way or the other, I won’t make up my mind. I try to be as open as possible to this sort of stuff. But just in case nothing happens, we’ve scoped out the basement and we’ve found a good way to stage a ghost sighting if nothing happens.
I’m the first to arrive, after Mr. Williams. Apparently, he teaches history two grades in a row: freshman and sophomore. I’ll only have him a little bit, then. Like Chase told me, he’s a little bit eccentric, to say the least, but he’s friendly enough.
He smiles as I approach. “Hey, Kenneth! It’s good to see you out tonight!”
“You’re here pretty early.”
“Yeah, well…” he rubs his hands together for warmth. “You see, I’ve been telling the school’s ghost story for most of the years I’ve taught at this school, just waiting for someone to finally want to investigate it. I’ve always been interested in the paranormal—I don’t believe in ghosts, per se, but I do believe that there is something that makes us see weird things sometimes—so I’ve always wanted to know the truth about the auditorium ghost.”
That makes sense, I guess.
“Well, it’s a good
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment