"My parents were very nervous about me coming here." My roommate, Bella Shaw, walked with me to our last class of the day, biology with Mrs. Earl.
"Why?" I looked over at her. Her arms were wrapped around her books in front of her chest, and her cat ears poked on both sides of her messy bun.
Bella was a cat, pretty much. She had cat-like features, like her ears and her gray eyes with a slit down the middle, and cat-like reflexes, like today she had lunch at the top of an oak tree.
She shrugged. "I guess because I had never been away from home before. I had to move from Hawaii to Texas all by myself. None of my older brothers or sister have moved off the island yet."
Bang.
"That's right. You have a big family, don't you?"
"That's right! I have two older brothers, Andrew, he's the oldest, and Harry. Then I have an older sister, Eloise." Her eyes twinkling as she talked about her family.
Bang.
"At home, did you ever have any sleepovers," I kept my voice low.
"Tons! I live in a huge house, and all of our relatives lived very close by, too. So, if we weren't spending time with our family, our friends came over. Didn't you ever have sleepovers?"
My grip on my backpack strapped grew tight. For a split second, I was back in my last home. The parents were screaming at each other as their biological daughter cried at the top of her lungs. I slung my duffle bag over my shoulder and placed my acceptance letter from HSSV between my lips as I jumped out of my second story window. I shook my head. "No, I didn't."
Bang.
Bella was quiet for a moment. From the corner of my eye, I could see her trying to shift the weight of her books in her arms. "I'm glad you're my roommate, then. We can have sleepovers every night!" She slung her arm over my shoulder and hugged me to her.
I smiled as my chest grew warm. "You're right."
Bang. BANG!
"Wait," I put my arm in front of Bella to stop her. "Did you hear that?"
"No, what?"
I looked around us in the hallway. One wall was lined with lockers while the other side had multiple other opened classroom doors. "I've been hearing a banging."
"Really?" She looked down the hall again. "I haven't heard anything."
Another bang came from a closed door we were standing in front of that was labeled "Custodian". "I think it's in here." My hand grasped the handle and turned. The door swung open for me revealing piercing black eyes bulging at me. "Whoa. Are you okay?"
"I-I couldn't get out. I-I phased through the door and couldn't get back out." It was a guy about my age, with bright silver hair that hung in his eyes. He pulled his legs into himself, and the mops and brooms fell around him. One mop fell straight through his head and landed on the floor he was sitting on.
"Is that your power? You can phase through stuff?" Bella turned the light on in the closet and bent down so she could see him better.
"I'm a ghost." A discoloring under his eye showed under the bangs that were hanging in his face.
"Are you okay?" I reached to brush his hair out of his eyes, and he flinched away. "You can't touch me."
"Why not?"
He shrugged. His breathing quickened. "I just told you. I'm a ghost."
"You died?" Bella screeched.
I reached over again and was able to brush a few strands of his hair out of his face. A bruise around his left void black eye stared back at me. His eyes widened. "How-how did you?"
I smiled at him. "I guess I can."
"She was the only one who heard you in here. How long have you been in here?" Bella and I pulled the mops off of him, and I helped him to his feet.
"I-I'm not sure. A few days maybe," it took me a while to steady him. His feet even started phasing through the ground.
"I'll bring you to the nurse. Bella, I'll catch up with you later, okay?"
"Uh, yeah. Sure," she tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "I'll see you at the dorms."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You're Aiden Fenderson, right?" Miss Rosalie had her clipboard out and was writing a few things on her form. She had done a complete look over of the guy I found in the closet and didn't find anything out of the ordinary for him.
"My friends and family call me Danny."
"Your the freshman that didn't show up to any of your classes today. Was it because you were stuck in the closet?"
"I guess so. Sometimes I get stuck in rooms because my hands won't grab the handle."
"I've dealt with a few ghost-type powers before. Most of them have to be super focused to use their ability. Maybe you're the same way. You can't grab something unless you're focused." Miss Rosalie held up her pen in front of Danny and leaned forward so her eyes were level with his. "Focus on this pen and take it away from me."
Danny focused on the pen and slowly lifted his hand and hovered it in front of the pen. His hand became less transparent, and he was able to take the pen out of Miss Rosalie's hand.
Miss Rosalie smiled. "See? You just need to focus a little harder, and you can grab objects."
Danny smiled up at Miss Rosalie and played with the pen between his fingers.
"You're dead, Danny?" Miss Rosalie continued writing on her clipboard.
He shrugged. "I guess. I don't remember anything. All I remember is waking up here one day."
"And then you walked into the closet?" Miss Rosalie deadpanned.
He swiftly nodded, then his eyes met mine. My heart began pounding in my chest and my cheeks burned. My hands clapped over my cheeks, and Miss Rosalie chuckled.
"All right, you two. We're all done here, so get to class. No more skipping for you, Mr. Fenderson."
"I didn't-" Danny started, but Miss Rosalie waved us away as she continued writing.