Chapter Text
With the first day of September, another summer is gone and another grueling year of school starts. Luckily it’s the last period, and you only have an hour before you can go home.
“Okay people, my name is Ms. Ward, and yes, there are assigned seats. Let’s go around and have everyone introduce themselves, and then we’ll go over the disclosure document.”
You watch as she goes around asking everybody’s names, frowning slightly in confusion when she skips over a cute boy sitting in the back row. Nobody else corrects her, so when she gets to you you quickly say your name and then turn to face him. “I’m sorry, what was your name?”
Everybody looks back at him. The girl in front of him responds hesitantly. “Emma?”
“No, sorry, the person behind you.” The boy’s eyes widen slightly.
“There’s nobody behind me,” Emma says slowly.
“Um, yes there is, Ms. Ward skipped him.” You’re getting a lot of weird looks now, and the boy is shaking his head frantically. Ms Ward clears her throat.
“Y/N, I didn’t skip anyone, there isn’t anyone sitting there this period. Are you feeling alright?”
You know he’s there, but you also know if you keep insisting when nobody else seems to see him you’ll be labeled as a crazy person. “Sorry, yeah. Must have been a trick of the light.”
She doesn’t look convinced, but she moves on. Your cheeks burn as the kids around you whisper. You stare down at your desk, staying quiet for the rest of class. You can feel the boy’s eyes on you, but you don’t dare look at him. You don’t need to give anyone any more cause to call you insane.
The bell rings, sending students scurrying out the door. You pack up a bit slower, watching the boy out of the corner of your eye. He puts on his backpack and hurries out the door after all the other kids. You hurriedly follow him, keeping on his tail despite his attempts to lose you in the crowd. You follow him all the way to the back of the school, where he finally stops and turns around. “What do you want?”
“Why can’t anybody else see you?” you ask bluntly.
“Why can you?” he retorts, folding his arms. You stop, confused. He rolls his eyes. “They can’t see me because I’m dead. So again, why can you see me?”
“You’re… you-you’re dead?”
“Yes. For almost fifteen years now. Keep up.”
You slowly sink down to the ground, trying to process his words. A sudden suspicion hits you and you look up at him suspiciously. "Am I on camera?"
He shakes his head.
"You don't look dead."
He sighs, turning around and removing his backpack and jacket. You gasp at the bloody hole in his back and he quickly puts his jacket back on. There's no hole or even a blood stain on it, you notice with a bit of confusion.
"I wasn't wearing the jacket when I got shot," he explains. "I guess ghosts don't bleed, so it looks pretty normal."
"But why are you haunting a high school? If you're dead, wouldn't you go some place more interesting?"
He sighs. "Don't you have a bus to catch or something?"
"Technically?"
"Then shouldn't you go? They're going to leave soon."
"Fine. But you're not getting rid of me that easily."
°•°•°•°
You don't see the ghost for the next week, and you start thinking you imagined the whole thing. Maybe you were going insane after all.
You're trudging towards your locker on Friday when you see him again. Your eyes widen and you quickly hurry towards him. "You're real!"
He grimaces. "Yep. You found me," he says unenthusiastically. "Why aren't you scared of me? Literally anyone else would be avoiding me like the plauge."
"Seriously? I have scarier dreams about failing AP chem."
He sighs again. "How about this; I'll answer five questions and then you'll leave me alone."
"Ten questions."
"Six."
"Eight," you reply, crossing your arms.
"If you want me to say seven I'm not going to. You get six, nothing more."
"Fine." You put your hands on your hips, trying to think of which questions to ask. "Why do you go to school if you're dead?"
"I died here, so I can't leave."
"There was a shooting here? I don't remember ever hearing about it."
"Like I said before, it was fourteen years ago. Nobody likes to talk about it, and since I'm the only one who died it wasn't counted as a tragedy. Nobody liked me anyway."
"Oh, okay." You sit down on a bench, deciding not to push him on it. It's clearly a sore subject. "Um, why hasn't anybody noticed you? And why don't you look, I don't know, ghosty?"
"That's two questions." He raises an eyebrow.
"Fine, just the second one. You look very solid."
He sighs, walking over and sticking his hand into your shoulder. You inhale sharply, feeling as though someone had poured ice water on you. "Okay, okay, you're a ghost!"
He smirks slightly as he withdraws his hand. "The more conscious something is, the harder it is to touch it. So I don't have to concentrate very hard to touch walls and things, but animals are harder and people are the hardest."
"But you could touch me, if you really wanted to?"
"Is that one of your questions?" He asks, his cheeks a bit pink.
"No. No, sorry." You shake your head slightly to clear it. "Oh my gosh, I haven't even asked you what your name is, I'm such a jerk. That's my fourth question. What's your name?"
He looks slightly amused. "Peter." He hesitates, rocking his feet. "You're Y/N, right?"
"Yeah. You remembered?" You couldn't help but be a bit pleased. Even though he's dead, he's still one of the cutest boys you've ever seen.
"Don't read too much into it," he tells you, his tone aloof again. "You're the only one who's been able to see me since I died, it makes sense that I would remember."
"Whatever. I need to go catch the bus, I'll save my last two questions for later."
"That wasn't part of the deal, you can't save them for later!" He instinctively tries to grab your wrist but his hand sinks through.
"I'll see you later, Peter," you sing-song, waving goodbye. You hear him huff in annoyance as you turn away and smirk.