Ghost Betweens (5 page)

"Knock it off, will you? I don't want any rumors started about something that hasn't happened."

"Rumors about what? I love rumors."

Josh jumped as Kendra came up behind them, followed by Whisper. Kendra walked over to Zach, gave him a peck on the cheek, and sat between the two boys. Whisper settled in next to Josh, and his heart jumped up into his throat. She smiled and mouthed, "Hi," and he did the same. How did girls manage to sit so close without actually touching? He wanted her to melt into him like yesterday at the farm, but he wasn't about to push it.

"What rumor are you guys talking about?" Kendra said, practically bouncing on the lip of the concrete planter. "I love gossip. Tell me, tell me, tell me."

Zach shook his head, while Josh tried to head her off. "It's nothing, Kend. It didn't happen anyway."

"It doesn't matter if it's true or not, I still want to know." She turned to Zach. "Come on, baby. I'll totally make out with you this weekend if you tell me."

"You'll make out with me anyway," Zach said, fighting to keep a straight face.

She leaned past Josh, winked at Whisper, who was doing her absolute best not to crack up, and looked back at Zach. "Not if I'm mad at you."

Zach said something in a low voice to her. He had no doubt she knew he liked Whisper, but that didn't mean he wanted her blabbing that with her sitting right next to him. He turned to Whisper and said, "She does this all the time. You get used to it."

"It's hilarious," Whisper said. "Is this rumor even worth her getting worked up?"

"It hardly ever is."

Whisper chuckled and looked over at them. "Did you ask Zach about yesterday after we left? They seem fine, so I'm guessing nothing happened."

"No, it hasn't come up yet." He turned to Zach and Kendra, who were still arguing in lowered voices. "Hey, did you guys see anything yesterday after we left?"

They both stiffened, and he could have sworn Kendra turned pale. After a second or two, both put on fake smiles.

"No, nothing," Zach said.

"We left just a couple of minutes after you guys," Kendra added.

Josh frowned and turned back to Whisper, who looked as confused as he felt.

"Are you guys sure? You don't look very happy about it."

Zach forced a laugh. "No, we didn't see anything so we left."

Kendra rolled her eyes, stood, and said, "Seriously, Josh, why do you have to always push the questions too far? I swear." She grabbed Zach's hand and stomped off. Zach didn't look back.

"That was weird," Whisper said.

Josh nodded. "Yeah. She doesn't usually act like that."

Whisper gave a half-smile. "I'd agree with the nervousness part, but she seems the type to stomp off in a huff."

"No, she's a get in your face type. So is Zach. That's one reason they get along so well. Plus I never push her too far. I mean, I do when I'm teasing her, but never seriously."

Before Josh's brain realized he was alone with Whisper for the second time in two days, the lunch bell rang, signaling the start of the passing period to fifth period. Whisper stood, and picked up her backpack.

"Do you think they'll show to Mr. Baxter's class?"

"Yeah. Zach wouldn't miss it, and besides, she's pissed at me, not you, so she can make a show of ignoring me."

Whisper laughed. "You guys seem to have quite the relationship. Sometime you need to tell me about it."

A lump jammed into his throat. Was she trying to get him to ask her out? Should he? Instead, he chickened out and said, "Yeah, totally. I will."

"Sounds good. I have to get to class, so I'll see you after school."

"Okay, I'm looking forward to it."

She gave him a knowing smile and walked off. He watched her go, and then turned to head to his own class. Damn. Why did reading girls have to be so hard? Did she want him to ask her out, or did she just want to be friends? He wished Zach were here right now to bounce the question off of him. But he'd already said Whisper liked him. He shook his head and tried to push it from his mind so he didn't drive himself crazy.

As Josh and Zach headed to Mr. Baxter's class, neither said anything about Kendra's outburst. He had a silly thought that Zach didn't even remember it, and if asked, Kendra wouldn't either. But that was stupid. There was no supernatural force blanking their memories. Why would he even think something like that?

They walked into the classroom and found the girls already there. Kendra gave him a big smile and discreetly pointed to Whisper before she gravitated over to Zach. What had that meant? Whisper looked up from the computer screen and smiled. His heart skipped a beat. Had Whisper been talking about him with Kendra? Or was Kendra simply trying to play matchmaker when Whisper wasn't interested like that?

He pushed it out of his mind for the moment and stepped forward to the monitor. "These are amazing," Mr. Baxter said. "You four got some great pictures. There are energy blurs, energy balls, mist, partial apparitions, and even some full-bodied ones. And you're not pulling one over on me? These were all taken yesterday afternoon in that half-hour?"

Whisper nodded. "It might have been a bit longer than thirty minutes, but if so, it wasn't by much."

"Forty-five minutes, tops," Josh added.

"Yeah, but Josh and Whisper had all the fun," Zach said. "They actually saw some cool stuff. Kendra and I couldn't. And believe me, I tried."

Mr. Baxter nodded as if he expected it. Josh didn't think it would be proper to ask right now, but he filed it away. He glanced over to Whisper, and they shared a look that said she'd caught it, too.

Mr. Baxter continued scrolling through the pictures, and when he reached the end, he pointed at the shots of the tree. Josh shuddered when he thought of the ghost cycling through its last moments before the hanging. "I don't see anything on these last few. Why did you take them?"

"That was all Josh and Whisper," Kendra said. "They said they saw some funky ghost hanging himself or something. Gag."

"Yeah, but we didn't see anything," Zach said. "And we looked even after they left."

"Nothing," Kendra echoed.

Mr. Baxter looked up at Whisper and Josh. "But you saw something? Something that wouldn't stick to the digital photos?"

"A farmer," Whisper said. "He hung himself."

"We watched him do it over and over. Like he was stuck in an endless loop."

"I expected plenty of residual activity, but these other photos? Wow."

"You expected stuff?" Zach said.

"Sigh, Mr. Baxter. You're showing your nerd."

"I'll ignore Ms. Phelps, and say, yes, I was expecting a few bits of evidence. It would be hard not to get something at that place. But this? This is almost unimaginable."

"What do you mean?" Josh asked. "What kind of place is it?"

He waved his hand to shoo the question away. "Not now, not now. But can you four do me a huge favor? With the cameras again?"

"Back to the dirty old spooky farm?" Kendra asked.

"Not today, but maybe tomorrow." He glanced up at them, a look of concern etched on his face. "You don't mind giving up a Friday afternoon at the farm tomorrow, do you?"

"No way," Zach said. "You couldn't keep us away."

Everyone laughed.

"Yeah, I guess that pretty much sums up all of our opinions," Josh said. "Except maybe Kendra."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Shows what you know. I don't mind." She gripped Zach's arm a bit tighter, though.

"Yeah, that goes for me, too," Whisper said. "I can't wait to go back. But why tomorrow? Why not this afternoon?"

"I have another task for you. As I said, if you don't mind." When they each nodded, he continued. "I'd like you to go in teams of two to separate locations. A park, a shopping center, a gas station, anywhere. Take a few pictures and examine them on your own computers when you get home. Email me if you find anything strange." He handed them each a business card with his name and email address--the generic Gmail one he gave to all his students.

"Ooh, I like this assignment, Mr. Baxter," Kendra said. "Come on, Zachy. I want to go take pictures at the mall."

"Good, good," Mr. Baxter said. "Mr. Hart, Ms. Douglas, maybe you two could go somewhere a bit less crowded. A local park perhaps? Don't stay long," he chuckled and looked at Zach. "Though I believe you may be out of luck, Mr. Riley."

"Whatever. I'll be good, Mr. Baxter. We'll take pictures before we shop."

Zach shot a pleading look to Josh, who laughed. But then it sunk in. He was going to be alone with Whisper again. That was way awesome, but butterflies flapped around in his stomach. And they started to multiply.

He turned to Whisper. Was she blushing? "Are you okay with this? Would you rather go with Kendra?"

Kendra made a clicking sound, and when he looked at her, she mouthed, "Don't be dumb," and motioned at Whisper.

Before Whisper could answer, Mr. Baxter said, "You don't mind, do you, Ms. Douglas? Because I'd really like to team you up with Mr. Hart on this one."

Whoa! Was Mr. Baxter trying to set them up, too? No, why would he do that? But what was going on?

Whisper blushed harder, noticeable to Josh this time, and nodded. "Yeah, it's fine. He proved he's a gentleman yesterday."

Kendra rolled her eyes at Josh, grabbed Zach's hand, and walked out. "We'll see you guys tomorrow."

"Pictures, Ms. Phelps. Remember the pictures." As they got to the door, he added, "And homework!"

"Don't worry," Zach called back as they left.

Whisper giggled, and Josh and Mr. Baxter just shook their heads. "Doesn't really matter," he said. "I believe you two are the key, being as you saw the apparition in the tree and they didn't."

"What's going on, Mr. Baxter?" Josh asked. "Something more than you're telling us. That's easy to see."

"I know, Mr. Hart, but you're just going to have to trust me today. Email if you see anything this afternoon, and head over to the farm tomorrow after school. Don't bother coming to see me. Email me again tomorrow night about the farm, whether anything big shows up or not. Take as many pictures as you can, but only stay a short time, just like yesterday. Got it?"

They both nodded.

"I'll clue you in later, I promise. But I don't want anything tainted until I see more of what's going on. Okay? Now get to it. I'll see you both in class tomorrow."

They said goodbye to Mr. Baxter and headed for Josh's car.

*****

As Josh scrolled through the pictures he'd taken at the park, his mind wandered to Whisper. They'd got along great, but he still couldn't tell how she felt about him. He should just man up and ask her out. What was the worst thing that could happen? She could say no. He'd been rejected before. But he really liked Whisper, and he wanted to be her friend even if he couldn't date her. So the worst thing might be that she wouldn't want anything to do with him. It would be better to just wait and see what happened. Knowing Kendra, he wouldn't have to wait long, and if Whisper wasn't interested, it'd be Kend's fault, not his, and they could stay friends.

His phone jarred him out of his thoughts. He looked and saw it was Zach. "Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing. Just seeing how things went for you guys. Ghost-wise for me, you and Whisper-wise for Kendra." Kendra must've been with him because he heard her yell at Zach for being a jerk.

Josh laughed. "Nothing to report. No ghosts, and tell Kend that Whisper and I had a good time as friends."

He relayed the message, and Josh heard a brief scuffle, in what he imagined was for control of the phone. After a few seconds, Kendra's voice rang in his ear. "Seriously, Josh, how can you be so blind? The girl is hot for you. Ask her out."

Zach's voice filled the background with shouts for Kendra to give him the phone back. Finally, after more sounds of a scuffle, Zach was back.

"Sorry, dude. You know how she gets with this kind of stuff."

Josh bit the inside of his cheek to refrain from cracking a joke about Zach needing to control his woman. Zach would probably relate it to Kendra, and they'd both be in big trouble. Instead, he asked, "Did you guys find anything?"

Josh groaned. "Yeah, every frickin' shoe sale in the mall. But nothing ghost-wise. Kendra was good and took ten minutes of pictures. I kept snapping as she shopped. Ow! I mean we shopped. While we shopped."

Josh lost it and almost dropped the phone in laughter. It wouldn't have been as funny if he knew Zach didn't have a good time. But Zach always had fun with Kendra, no matter what he said.

"Anyway," Zach said when order had been restored on both ends, "we just wanted to know how everything went. See you tomorrow, dude." Kendra said something Josh couldn't make out. "Kendra says to not be a wimp and ask Whisper out."

If it were only that easy. "Tell her to not worry about it. If it happens, it happens. It shouldn't concern her."

"No way, dude. I'm not telling her that." She yelled in the background that she should be told what was being said.

"Just tell her I'll try. Okay?"

"You're going to get me beat up, dude. You know she can't resist gossip. Ow! That hurt, Kendra! See you, dude."

"Good luck," Josh said, but he wasn't sure if Zach heard. He shook his head, wondered if he and Whisper would be like that, and decided to push it out of his mind. He got started on his real homework.

The four walked around, snapping pictures as they went. Everywhere Josh turned, he could see something, but nothing substantial. By the looks on Whisper's face, she experienced the same. Zach and Kendra grew giddier and giddier as they went.

"Man, this is so cool," Zach said. "Are you guys getting all these blips and streaks on your cameras?"

Kendra snuggled up next to him. "Totally, babe. It's pretty awesome."

Josh walked over to Whisper. "I don't know. Cool and awesome aren't the first two words coming to my mind."

"Yeah. Creepy is first, second, and third for me. And I'm getting a lot more than just blurs and blips. How about you?"

"Uh-huh. No fulls, but plenty of partial apparitions. I wonder if we have enough for Mr. Baxter yet."