Crossing Over | ✔️

CHAPTER 1: "So the ghost haunting you is maybe a football player?"

"Alkyne is an unsaturated hydrocarbon containing at least one carbon-" Mr Wong, my science teacher, droned on. 

I mentally tuned out and stared out of the window facing our football field. The well kept green grass was cut to precision and expertly trimmed, just for football players to brutally run over it and destroying the field. Why they keep it so perfectly trimmed is beyond my belief.

As I am staring out of the window, lost in the world of why they spend so much time and money on keeping the field trimmed, I don't notice the small drawings being made on my notebook.

Only when my pen is forcefully rolled off my table, I see it. The doodles that weren't there a few minutes ago. And doodles and especially weren't made by me.

The drawings was a simple one of a guy holding a football and has a jersey on, with the words MVE on.

MVE?

I pick up my pen and when I look back at my paper a word is hastily scribbled on it.

HELP!

I sigh and look around, hoping to see whoever is trying to contact me. I am however just seeing the faces of my fellow classmates actually listening and making notes on what Mr Wong is saying.

"Like other hydrocarbons, alkynes are generally hydrophobic but tend to be more reactive." He continues, but I tune him out (again) and my blue eyes dart around the room, but I am met with nothing suspicious.

Becca gives me a questionable glance, but I shrug her off as the shrill ring of the bell cuts off my search. I put all of my books into my bag and get up.

"Is someone here?"  She asks lowly as we're exiting Mr Wong's class.

"I got a message in my notebook. Does MVE means anything to you?" I ask her as we're heading to our lockers.

"MVE? Is that what it wrote?" She asks looking probably just as confused as I'm feeling.

"Yeah. And I trophy, but the MVE was on the jersey a stick figure was wearing." I clarify and a look of recognition pass in Becca's hazel eyes.

"Oh, of course. The Mountain View Eagles!" She shouts in exasperation.

The Mountain View Eagles were our neighbouring towns football team. Why didn't I see that sooner.

"So the ghost haunting you is maybe a football player?" Becca asks in a low tone, as we stop at her locker.

"It could be. Meet me in the computer lab next period. We can Google any deaths of football players of Mountain View?" I suggest, but Becca's face crumbles.

"I have that biology test." She groans and I sigh.

"Oh yeah, I'll search on my own and let you know." I answer and she nods and I walk further down the corridor to my own locker.

Since I spent most of my time at Becca's locker, the corridor is pretty much empty when I reach my own. I take my science books out and retrieve my dark purple diary.

The photos on my locker door wiggle and fall off. Just as the mirror is about to fall, I catch it and look around. No one's in the hallway and I am 100% sure that it's a ghost. I always get this remarkable chill in me and I can't describe it. It's like a heightened sixth sense that I get when a ghost is around.

"Look, whoever you are, I want to help. So please refrain from breaking my locker." I mutter under my breath. Even though no one's close, I don't want to risk being a freak show talking to herself.

My photos stop wiggling and I put my mirror back on. It's quiet.  The chill is gone.

I close my locker and speed walk towards the computer lab. Luckily it's relatively empty, so I take a seat in the corner and log in with my school ID.

I open the web browser icon and patiently wait for the Google search bar to start up. I type in 'mountain View Football player death.' , hoping to get a result.

There isn't a death of a football player that catch my attention, but actually a death of a cheerleader.

The small town of Mountain View was shocked this morning with the untimely passing of the school's head cheerleader, Allison Bennett. She was killed in a freak accident involving her older brother, Adam Bennett. Adam was driving her to cheer practice when a drunk driver came out of nowhere and hit them. Her brother Adam survived as well as the drunk driver. Allison was killed on impact. The town of Mountain View is mourning the death of one of its brightest lights.

After reading that, I felt tears in my eyes, but blinked it away. I don't deserve to mourn a girl I barely knew. I took a deep breath and looked at the flickering lights in the lab.

"Allison? Let me help." I say softly. I am met with silence, but I know I'm not alone, because of the intense chill in my spine as well as the obvious unexplainable light flickering.

"I know it's hard, but just focus all your energy on me. Take note of details on me. On my face, body or clothes or whatever. It'll be easier to appear to me then we can talk. I want to help you." I try to convince her.

The flickering stops, but I still feel her presence. She's very upset, not in the angry way, though. I know the different feelings of ghosts. Allison is very sad and frustrated for leaving so soon.

Gosh, if it was me, I will be too.

After a few more minutes of silence, Allison finally appears in the chair next to me. I look at her and relief crosses her features when she sees me looking at me.

"Y-you can see me?" She asks hesitantly.

"Yes. Hi, I'm Claire. I assume you're Allison?" I say sensitively. She has golden blonde hair with grassy green eyes and she's still wearing her blue and white cheerleading uniform.

"Yeah, but everyone calls me Ally. I struggled to find you. The other, uh, ghosts referred me to you. They said you can help me contact my family." She says straight to the point.

The fact that I am famous in the spirit world, isn't something new.  Normally when ghosts approach me, they said some other ghost or soul told them about me. Or normally I just see them hovering about.

"Yes, I can do that, but it is not normally that easy." I state and she frowns.

"Why not?" She asks.

"Well, you obviously want to cross over once your message is relayed?" I ask simply and she nods.

"So, we need to make sure that's what will make you go and then there's the obvious issue that your family might not believe me." I say grimacing as I remember all the times people blatantly refused to believe me and called me the devil or satan or sometimes even accused me of preying on the death of their loved one.

"I just need to tell my brother I'm sorry and that it's not his fault, cause I've seen him and he looks terrible. He blames himself and he's just, not coping." She says and a tear escapes her eyes.

And then she's full on crying. I sigh, fully feeling her pain.

See, one of the down sides of my ability is that I feel exactly what the spirits around me feel. If they're sad, I'll sometimes start crying with them. Or if they're angry, I'd get random bursts of anger. It's very draining to say the least.

I put a consoling hand on Allison's back and she jumps.

"You can t-touch me?" She asks through her tears.

"Only if you allow me. You have much more power than you think. If the spirits I help, is open to it, I can physically touch them. Same with me. My mindset needs to be completely open, but that can be to my disadvantage if it's a evil spirit, you know?" I try to explain and she nods. She dries her last tears.

"So do you think your brother will be open to hearing me out?" I ask, when I assessed that Allison really just want to converse with her brother one final time.

"Yes, I believe so. He needs to hear this, Claire. You have to help me." She says desperately.

"Then I guess I'll be cutting class to drive to Mountain View."