1So, I just recently watched Casper for the first time in years and fell in love with it again. It's amazing, even though the ending still makes me angry. Beautiful, yet so bittersweet. Of course, that's why I decided to do a series of stories to ensure a happy ending for Casper. This is obviously the first one I'll be getting up, but I have a story about the night of the Halloween party, and another future event. This one will be more of a works in progress. It was all originally intended to be a oneshot but then the writing started flowing and it was going to end up being too long and complicated, so I separated them. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Casper. Or he would be human again.
Friday. December 8th , 1999.
It was a little pathetic, really. Kat was so easily lulled to sleep no matter the time of day or place. To the sound of a lullaby, the sound of rain, being rocked to sleep-as a small child of course-or just watching snowflakes fall against the window. The last was what currently brought Kat to her sleepy state. Only problem was, she wasn't at home, warm in her bed with her big comforter wrapped around her.
She was in at Friend High School, in Calculus class with Mr. Boyle as a teacher. Not the place to take a nap, not at all. The high school senior was just so exhausted that it couldn't be helped. The rumors of senior year being a breeze were a complete sham, Kat Harvey had learned. Of course, that might be due to the fact that she was taking all AP and Honors courses this year. Dad and his stupid lecture at the end of junior year, encouraging her to not make her last year of high school a joke. After all, working hard for three years would go to waste if she stopped now. And of course, Kat listened. You think she wanted to give up her 3.7 GPA and class rank of 23rd? Hell no.
But if she kept falling asleep in class-this one particularly-colleges would be turned off by a list of detentions. So far Kat had lucked out, getting by with warnings. Teachers respected how hard Kat worked and knew it would only be natural for her to be tired. All the classwork she had to keep up with! It was wonder that she didn't have a breakdown. In the end though, it never dawned on them to lighten up on the homework load; that would be the last answer in their minds.
Yet as Kat thought about this somewhat amused as she drifted off to dreamland, she considered how insulted her teachers would be if they knew that it wasn't their work that kept her so tired. Truth be told, Kat worked through the homework in a breeze, starting the minute she got home and finishing by 5:30, right in time for dinner. The rest of her evenings were left open for whatever she wanted, which usually consisted of talking to friends on the phone for awhile, then finding Casper and exploring Whipstaff in bouts of mischievousness.
It was during such a night, just last week, that Kat, while running around the house with Casper-well, he floated-had run into a little room she had never seen before in the attic. She couldn't really make anything out as it was dark so early now, but she could see the outlines of what looked like a large armchair and a chaise set up against the walls with a single box sitting between them. Figuring that Casper would keep going for awhile before a while before he realized she wasn't with him anymore-he really was a funny thing, with more energy than a ghostly 12 year old should be allowed-, Kat took the box and made her way back to the bedroom that she shared with Casper.
Sitting down on the bed and sinking lightly into the covers, Kat wrenched the box open and found a large stack of orderly papers, pressed down by a black opal paperweight. She slid the papers out from under it carefully and unbent the corners of the top paper. It was an account of James Theodore McFadden's time at the Boston Asylum; when he was first admitted and when he left. Kat saw that he had arrived July 3rd, 1906. He had gone a little wild at home in Whipstaff Manor on June 23rd- Casper's birthday. He would have been 13. His father had started screaming about how he would find a way to restore life to his son if it was the last thing he ever did and was throwing heavy items all around the library. At one point a sharp object he attempted to throw cut him and James had paused, staring at the blood and then stabbed his arm again and again. The hired help had found him like this and were understandably frightened. Kat couldn't imagine how she would feel to find someone in that state of mind. The papers underneath were notes from Mr. McFadden's psychiatrist during his visit, and they were full of memories of Casper.
It seemed that Casper -Casper James McFadden had been quite a mischievous boy. Although he had just started boarding school a year before he died, he'd had plenty of time to cause chaos, if the late McFadden's humorous account of an angry call for Casper's principal meant anything. Apparently Casper had led some classmates into sneaking a group of toads into a Professor Stockley's classroom, causing the man to pale and immediately reprimand the entire class. But before he found the culprits, Stockley had sat down at his desk chair, only to belatedly find it covered in superglue. The class erupted in an uproar of laughter, and McFadden also recounted an elated Casper's retelling of the story when he'd come home for one of his occasional visits. McFadden had ostensibly only laughed and embraced "his dear boy, the joy of his life," Kat read with a slight smile. She could see this side of the friendly ghost she knew so well. Casper would never intend to hurt anyone-he just had a lively sense of humor.
And not for the first time, Kat wondered what it would have been like to live in the same time as Casper, to know him when he was alive. The night of her Halloween party had served only to make her admit to the feelings she'd been unsuccessfully repressing for the ghost. After all, she herself would get thrown in a mental institution if people knew she was falling for a ghost. At the party she'd been given the glimpse of human Casper; he'd took her hand, danced with her, held her in his arms, given Kat her first kiss. Kat would have done anything to keep him in human form.
Kat had shifted through the rest of the papers documenting McFadden's stay at the asylum, laughing at his stories about Casper and his earlier life with his brothers-the infamous Ghost Trio. But just when she almost put them away for the night, Kat noticed another paper in the bottom of the box. It was so worn and crinkled that it had just blended in with the box, and when she picked it up Kat handled it with great delicacy. Unfolding it she struggled to read the writing. It was very messy, completely the opposite of McFadden's psychiatrist. Every inch was with what looked like different formulas, different chemical equations.
Her heartbeat increased as she looked at what had to be McFadden's early attempts of creating what she now knew as the Lazarus formula. A formula to bring someone back to life. It had been McFadden's obsession during the last years of his life, with his utmost desire to restore life to his dead son, Casper. But everything Kat saw looked like failed attempts, full of mistakes and the handwriting got messier with each new try. Kat frowned as she saw that it wasn't likely that any one of these formulas could work. She would have dearly loved to try to make that formula. She sighed and flopped herself back on the bed, completely frustrated.
Kicking the rug that was next to her bed, Kat stopped short when she felt the floor start to give. She snapped up quickly and bounced of the bed, pushing the rug out her way to examine. One of the boards was loose, but Kat wasn't surprised; it didn't match the rest of the wood. It was quite drastically different and she wondered how someone had accidentally placed it there. Unless...unless of course it was on purpose. To throw someone off in order to hide something.
With a grunt Kat wrenched the board out of place and fell back with the force of it giving way. She sat back up and peered into the dark hole, finding only a simple black box. Curious, Kat reached in to grab it, grimacing as she ignored the cobwebs that engulfed it.
"There you are! I've been looking for you all over! Your dad said dinner's not ready yet, so we still have some free time! Do you want to go outside and play some baseball?" Kat jumped, almost scared out of her skin when Casper zoomed in right behind her, launching into a stampede of question, as was his habit. Kat took a deep breath and slid so that she hid the hole from Casper, who was now flying around happily.
"Casper you nearly gave me a heart attack! I know you sometimes forget but, I really can't sense when you're coming. I'm only human. Give some warning next time?" She tried to glare at him, but like always it was no use. Casper rendered her temper useless-against him at least.
He did have the manners to at least look abashed. "I'm sorry Kat, I just get so excited sometimes! You know that, and I know that you know that. And I also know that you love me too much to really be mad Besides, I really do want to play baseball! What do you say?" Casper looked so exhilarated that Kat had to laugh and shake her head at him. "You are very good at killing my temper, I'll give you that! But don't you know? It's freezing outside! Typical Maine winter in early December, you know?"
Kat almost regretted telling him that, because his eyes immediately died. His death day, December 20th, was coming up before too long, and Casper was always miserable during this month. It brought back painful memories he could suppress any other time of the year. There was also the fact that it meant another year of his existence had passed where he was ghost. Strangely enough his mind had matured to that of a 16 or 17 year old boy recently, yet his corporal form remained that of a 12 year old. And all the time, Kat continued to age; she had turned 17 November 9th.
Luckily they were saved by Dr. Harvey's squeaky holler that dinner was ready to be served. Casper made his speedy escape, leaving Kat to wallow in guilt. She threw that feeling aside though, and reached back into the floors hole to grab the box. Kat placed it on floor, and opened it gingerly, avoiding touching it as much as possible. When it was open she stared at the contents quizzically. It seemed to almost be a like a chemistry set, with little containers of chemicals and strange looking ingredients. There was a sheath of paper rolled up in it as well, tied with a red ribbon.
Her heart pounding once again, Kat slid the ribbon off and unfurled the paper excitedly. She smiled and laughed, finding exactly what she had wanted. It was the recipe to the Lazarus formula, and McFadden's account about his elation at finally finding the right equation. Perfect.
And it was over this sheath of paper that Kat mulled over late every night, completely draining her of sleep. It so excited her that she couldn't put it down. She was quickly becoming obsessed with it, and pulled it out from hiding under her bed the second she was convinced that Casper had fallen asleep. She would read it over and over again until by now she knew it by heart, and so it occupied her thoughts at school as well. So it was no wonder that she was so sleepy.
The sound of a ruler snapped on her desk brought Kat out of her reverie and she yelped involuntarily. Snorts of her fellow students accompanied a low growl in Mr. Boyle's throat as he stared down at her with injured contempt in his eyes. Kat could only stare back helpless, trying to bite down laughter. Awakening to Mr. Boyle's old, wrinkled face was quite different than the way she had been imagining waking up for the past month. His face so close to hers, with his mouth drooping open and breathing disgusting breath on her face was definitely not what she pictured. But now probably wasn't the best time to think about that.
Kat looked at Mr. Boyle meekly, hoping that he couldn't tell that she didn't care about falling asleep in class. "Miss Harvey, this is the third time in the past week that you have fallen asleep in my class. Do you find something to be wrong with the way I teach? Or are you simply bored, and feel yourself above your fellow classmates? If you prefer, I could take away this time to explain this nights homework, since you can't be bothered to pay attention."
She swallowed hard. The worst thing about Mr. Boyle had to be the fact that he spit when he talked if he was angry and being that he was so close to Kat she found herself sprayed with his saliva. She tried not to vomit and glanced apologetically at her classmates, especially her good friends Stephen and Laurie. They offered amused grins in return and rolled their eyes behind Mr. Boyle's back, and seeing this encouraged Kat. So she piped up, "Sorry sir, I don't mean any disrespect at all. I just haven't been sleeping well lately. And...well...I already completed this night's assignment when you first started explaining it." Kat spoke with such disarmingly real regret that Mr. Boyle took a step back and blinked. He then sighed, and shook his head in exasperation. "Well do see that you fix that. Sleep is important you know. And if you are so far ahead of everyone, perhaps you would care to explain it to your peers if they don't understand it-Oh drat, class is over. See you all on Monday.
The class chatted animatedly as they quickly gathered their books and scurried out of the classroom. Kat in particular was glad that it was time for the weekend, because that gave her all the more time to work on creating the Lazarus formula. It would just be hard trying to stay away from Casper; they spent so much time together...
"Hey girl, come back to the world of the living. I know you got a thing for the dead, or the undead rather, but please stay with us, we need you," Stephen teased as he and Laurie caught up with Kat. The three had been very close friends for over a year and were often seen around town together. When Kat first moved to Friendship, she hadn't found many of its living occupants as welcoming as one dead one, but things started to change after the Halloween party. Amber had lost control of her classmates and people were more likely to talk to her than before. They had raved about the party and how they needed to have another Halloween party at her house. Kat was thankful that no one brought up Casper, because that was something she truly didn't want to put up with. But yes, everyone had helped her to finally feel like she belonged somewhere.
Kat rolled her eyes at Stephen. "If you must know, I don't have a thing, for the dead or undead. Living is my thing. But I'm questioning how much you value your own life at the moment. Keep it up." Stephen just grinned at her cheekily and swung his arm around Laurie. The handsome black haired, brown eyed male had liked the gorgeous blonde and blue eyed girl for over a year before he'd mustered up the courage to ask her out last year. Of course, it had taken a great deal of pushing and threatening from Kat, who know that Laurie reciprocated his feelings. But Kat was sworn to secrecy by both and it drove her crazy to know that her two good friends were being so stupid about each other. It finally took a threat of castration for Stephen to ask Laurie out. They ended up going out, and Kat could bask in the glory of being the one to bring them together. "Of course he values his life. He has a date tonight with a very gorgeous lady. Sorry we won't be able to hang out tonight, but you know it's our 1 year anniversary. Maybe tomorrow night?" Laurie was soft spoken, but one of the sweetest and most entertaining people Kat had ever met. She could talk about anything to her and know that Laurie listened to everything. Kat also appreciated how it hadn't become awkward between the three once Stephen and Laurie had started dating. They were such good friends.
"Don't be silly, I don't mind. Besides I have stuff to think about tonight. We'll see about tomorrow night. You guys have a good time, and I'll talk to you later." They had arrived at Whipstaff manor, for most homes were within walking distance of Friendship High School. Kat opened the gate quickly and heard Stephen's excited question of what she had to think about, and Laurie's gentle but insistent assurance that it was none of his business.
She walked the road, hearing the crunch of the snow below her feet as she came home to Whipstaff Manor. Kat remembered the first time she'd seen the manor, how she had viewed it with derision and questioning her dad's sanity more than ever for bringing them there. Had she ever thanked him for doing so? It was the best thing to ever happen to Kat.
At least, one of the best things.