The Unseen

Bianca

I go to lunch and sit alone like usual. I scan the crowds of people. Landon has this lunch. But so do the bitchy popular girls from English. Ugh, why do girls have to be so mean?

Over by the popular girls, stands a girl my age with black, wavy hair. She wears a short skirt and a tank top. She wears a headband in her hair and is completely gorgeous. She's the kind of girl that you have to look twice at just to make sure you were actually seeing her. But why isn't there a swarm of girls who wish they were her standing around her? Someone like her usually has a nice-sized group of fake friends. That's when it hits me.

I'm the only one who can see her. She's not really here, she's dead. The girl notices me staring at her and she gets a hopeful look on her face. She gives me a questioning look saying, 'Can you see me?' I nod and she walks over to my table.

"Is this seat taken? Ha, nevermind, even if it was they'll never notice me anyway." She sits down across from me. "I'm Bianca by the way."

I look around to see if anyone is watching me then decide I don't care. "I'm Rain."

"Rain? Like from clouds?"

I nod.

"Well that's different. I kinda like it. Can I call you Rainy?" Bianca asks.

"Sure, I don't see why not."

She twirls her dark hair around her finger. "Can I ask you something?" Bianca doesn't really wait for an answer. "How can you see me? Nobody else does except for the others."

I shrug. "I don't really know. I've just always been able to see de....you guys."

"Rainy, I know I'm dead. Have been for....three years now? Wow, time flies when you're gone."

"Do you know how you, uh, died?" I ask. Some dead people that I've come across have no clue how they died. Others know exactly how they died and walk the earth, haunted by their death and in turn, end up haunting others. Those are the ghosts that normal people get alarmed by and are often the ones that end up on the ghost shows. (One of the few bonuses about my ability is that I can watch ghost shows and see the ghosts or if they're fake, not see anything. Ghost Adventures is my favorite, the ghosts are usually real). The last type of ghost is the kind that knows they're dead, knows why, and just finds something to do with their existence. I have a feeling Bianca is of the last type.

She taps her fingernails against the table which makes a sound for me but no one else. "My boyfriend was driving in the school parking lot with me in the passenger seat. He crashed into a tree in the little foresty thing behind the big rock? You know where it is, right?"

I nod.

She goes on, "I didn't know for a while until I saw my neighbor hand my mom a newspaper article and my mom started crying. Of course I had to read it so I did and figured it out. Now I just kinda hang around the school. It's the most interesting place I've found so far. Davon usually sticks around here too. Did you go in on the student parking lot side?"

"Yeah, does Davon have longish, dirty blonde hair?" I ask, wondering if maybe this Davon was the guy I saw in the parking lot this morning.

She nods. "He usually hangs around there feeling sorry for killing us. I already forgave him like a thousand times, but he won't usually hang with me. Maybe you could try and convince him to let it go?"

I sigh. "I could try. I don't know if he'd listen to me. I've never really tried helping any of the dead people I've come across. I'm having the longest conversation I've ever had with someone dead right now."

"Oh, ok. So when are your friends coming or do they have a different lunch?" Bianca asks, messing with her nails again.

I shrink back a little. "I don't really have any."

"Awesome. Now you do." She snaps to attention and smiles at me.

I smile. "Really? Everybody just thinks I'm a freak."

"Well, I don't. You're the only person that can talk to me other than other dead people and most tend to stay away from me anyway. I don't understand why, they just do." Bianca looks around, a little upset.

I laugh quietly. "You intimidate them. You're freaking gorgeous."

"Well, thank you. For the same reason, I'm surprised you don't have any friends. Or boyfriends..."

I smack her arm. My hand goes right through it even though it appears solid. Vibrations shoot up my arm. My spine tingles. It's the strangest sensation.

"Whoa," we both say at the same time.

"That was weird," I say, rubbing my fingers together.

"Just like you, you freak!" one of the popular blonde girls says as she stops by the end of my table.

"Talking to yourself? That's weird. Landon doesn't go for weirdos. Sorry!" a red head adds.

"What? Landon and I were partnered up for an assignment. What makes you think I want to 'get with him?'" I ask, annoyed with them. I wasn't talking to myself, I was talking to Bianca. They just couldn't see her.

Blondie snaps her fingers in disbelief. "Don't act like you weren't all over him."

Red Head adds, "You have to like him. Everyone does."

"Yeah, he's like, the hottest guy at this school," another blonde, obviously a fake one, says.

"Shut up, Britney," Blondie commands the fake blonde. "Fiona and I were going to do the talking!" Blondie points to Red Head and I assume her to be Fiona.

"Yeah, you and Megan got to do the talking last time. It's my turn," Fiona says, apparently recalling the last time they went to torment someone.

Britney starts to argue, "But you alwa-"

"Anyway, just lay off Landon. He's mine," Megan cuts off Britney, annoyed that they started arguing.

"In your dreams, whore!" Bianca yells after Megan.

I laugh, "How do you know she's a whore?"

She angrily twists her fingers together, "Well, I was in school with her sister and her mom had an affair with an old teacher. I figured the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." She devilishly grins. "Plus I caught her hooking up with Dean Heck behind the bleachers last year."

I make a mental note to remember that. It could come in handy some day.

Lunch ends and I go to my next class. Bianca and I make plans to meet up at the big rock after school. She said she's gonna go do some "investigating" in the boys' locker room. It is also just a coincidence that most of the football team has P.E. this hour.