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in the split river cafeteria, the group gathered around, each grabbing food for the impending movie night. jenna stood with charley, maddie, and rhonda, while wally was off in the back, wielding the cart.
being that maddie was still on her expedition for answers, charley began listing off some of the other ghosts that were stuck in their past lives, "then there's mina."
"and what happened to her?" maddie inquired cautiously.
"she was crushed by a stage light in '87. hasn't left her theater job since." rhonda responded, nonchalantly squirting ketchup onto her food while charley handed a box to maddie.
"our very own phantom of split river." charley quipped casually. "okay, who else?" maddie prompted, going down the list.
"uh, yuri. he hangs out by the pottery wheel all the time, but he only speaks russian" wally chimed in, taking cookies from the container and nudging a food cart forward.
"what about the bus crash kids?" jenna remembered. they stood outside all day every day, they had to know something.
charley nodded, recalling their spectral ghosts, "tyler, rachel, jacqueline, jonah, erin, marci, zach, and stephanie."
but before they could continue brainstorming, simon bolted inside, running straight up to maddie, "we need to talk. bus stop, now." he sternly demanded, looking straight into maddie's gaze.
as simon hurried toward the exit, rhonda and wally exchanged incredulous glances, shocked by the fact that the boy could see and talk to her.
jenna felt a lump in her throat, frozen now that the secret was out while charley just pretended to be shocked. maddie glanced around the room, her jaw dropping slightly as she let out a light chuckle, immediately following after simon.
"did he just—" wally stumbled over his words, taking a hesitant step forward, "she just-"
"yeah." rhonda echoed in disbelief, "they did."
👻
as rhonda, charley, wally, and jenna slowly crept up to the bus stop, maddie was sat having a full blown conversation with simon.
"and say what, exactly? that i broke into mr. anderson's car? that i stole his phone? that you're a ghost and i can talk to you? the second that gets out, no one's gonna believe anything i say, nicole included." simon argued, trying to figure out how to go about proving maddie's death.
"we've gotta stick with the things we can prove. i mean, anderson's got money in his wall, and he kept that piece of my phone when he should've turned it in, maybe that's enough." maddie suggested, her voice tinged with determination.
