April, 1999
Bellamy is six years old when they move into their new home. He doesn't want to move. He likes his old house and his school and his friends. But mum says they have to move away from Octavia's dad and Bellamy decides that that is a good enough reason, even if he's not happy about it.
"You won't have to share a room with O in this house." Mum tells him, pulling into the driveway of their new home. It's big. Way bigger than their old one. There is heaps of room for playing in the front yard and there is already a tyre swing hanging in the tree. Bellamy wonders if the family that lived here before had a kid. Maybe he'd meet them at school. They would know all the best secrets about the house.
"Will she still be close? What if she cries?" Bellamy asks, too much concern in his voice for a six year old.
"Mama will be close this time. I'll get her." Mum says, opening his door and lifting him from the truck. Bellamy goes straight to the swing, testing the ropes before climbing into the tyre.
"Be careful, sweetheart!" Mum calls, when he's swinging he can see her over the top of the car, getting Octavia out. Octavia is only a baby still and she doesn't really do much yet, but Bellamy loves her. Mum has to work lots and so she says 'his sister, his responsibility.' But she says it will be different here.
"Do you want to come see your new room?" She calls when Bellamy doesn't answer. He waits until the swing is at its highest and then jumps. He hits the ground, the palms of his hands scraping on the grass. It hurts but the jump was too much fun for him to really care.
He follows mum inside and up the stairs to his new room. The furniture is new and not his but the bed looks good to jump on and there is a big chest in the corner that mum says he can put his toys in. Mum leaves his suitcase on the floor and asks him to unpack and then come downstairs for dinner.
"What are you doing in my room?" A voice asks. He turns around really quickly and gets a dizzy feeling. Sitting on his new bed is a little girl, she's smaller than him but probably only a little bit younger. She's wearing a dress that Bellamy knows his mum couldn't afford even though he doesn't really understand money yet. She's got her blonde hair in two braids and bright, blue eyes. She looks confused.
"This is my room. I just moved here." Bellamy tells her, wondering if he should call mum back. She always told him that it was dangerous to go into the house of strangers and he should always check with her before visiting someone. The Blake's weren't bad people, but this little girl could be lost.
"No. I live here. MUM!" She yells, running out of the room, "MUMMY, DADDY." Bellamy follows her out onto the landing and stops. She's gone. Maybe she is a ghost. He's watched Casper like a hundred times so he knows about ghosts, but that little girl didn't look like Casper.
He goes back into his room, to unpack his things. Mum would be mad if he didn't and she had been in a better mood since they started driving three days ago. She didn't even get mad when Bellamy asked if they were there yet lots of times. He puts his clothes into his dresser as neatly as he can, making sure his shirts and pants stay folded. He doesn't want mum to have to iron them if she doesn't have to. He'd do it himself, but mum says he isn't allowed to use the iron yet.
After he's finished unpacking he opens the big wardrobe. It's empty but it would be a good hiding spot for hide and seek when O gets a bit bigger. He opens the chest at the end of the bed and that's empty too. He slides under the bed and this time finds something. Wedged between the floorboards is a pink ribbon. He pulls it out, deciding it will be a good present for Octavia when it's her birthday in October. He places it on his dresser for later.
"Bell, come down for dinner!" Mum yells up the stairs and it's something she doesn't say very often. They didn't have dinner together at their old apartment. Mum usually told Bellamy to eat in his room, to stay out of Octavia's dad's way.
At the dinner table Bellamy asks mum if the people that lived here before had a little kid, like him. Mum tells him that they do, but they had to move to the city because she got sick. The hospital here couldn't help her.
After his bath and his mum has read him his story, the little girl comes back. He can only see her because he has the nightlight plugged in. He's not scared of the dark. He's too old to be scared, but he doesn't like not being able to see in case he has to get up and check on Octavia or mum.
"How come my mummy and daddy aren't here?" She asks. She's sitting crossed legged on the bed and is still wearing the same dress. He supposes ghosts don't need to have baths.
"My mum said that the people who used to live in this house had to move 'cause their kid got sick." Bellamy tells her. He's sure he should probably say this different, but he's six and he doesn't really know how. "I think you might be a ghost." The little girl puts her hand over her mouth and starts to cry. Bellamy moves to sit beside her and puts one arm over her shoulder. That's what makes mum feel better when she's sad. The little girl feels solid, which surprise him. Ghosts aren't solid.
"I don't want to be a ghost." She cries.
"I can see you still." Bellamy tells her, "So maybe you can be my friend?"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. My name is Bellamy." He says, smiling.
"Mine's Clarke."
And that's how Bellamy Blake becomes friends with Clarke, the ghost.
Bellamy has his first day of school a few days later and mum takes him into his class for the first time ever. The girls in the first grade think Octavia is really cute and loves the way she was clinging to Bellamy, who is piggy backing her into the classroom.
He sits next to a boy, called Nathan Miller. There is another boy in the class called Nathan Maxwell, so Bellamy calls his Nathan, Miller. Miller tells him about the girl that used to sit in the seat next to him. She had been hit by a car a few months ago and now she is in hospital in the city. Miller shows Bellamy a photo at the front of the room. It's of Clarke, the ghost in his bedroom. Bellamy doesn't tell Miller this. He hasn't even told mum. Mum wouldn't want to live in a haunted house. And Bellamy really likes it there.
Fairly quickly, quicker than he thought, he also becomes friends with three other boys. Monty, Jasper and Wells. Wells had been Clarke's best friend and he talks about her all the time. He's positive that they're talking about his Clarke, because Clarke has told him some of the same stories. It's a bit weird, having a ghost for a friend, because he has to pretend he hasn't heard some of the stories before. They would want to see Clarke if he told them, and he is pretty sure that he is the only one that can see her.
Over the summer he goes to all his new friends houses, but they never come to his. He doesn't really understand why, but he doesn't mind, because Miller has a bigger television and Jasper's dad is teaching them some cool science experiments and Well's has a pool and Monty's mum makes the best ice-cream sundaes. They play games on Miller's Nintendo 64, they play in the woods and they swim. It's the best summer of Bellamy's life.
But nothing beats staying up after his mum has gone to bed and talking to Clarke. She draws the best pictures to go with their stories and they go through more crayons than he ever has in his life. He's sad that Clarke can't leave his bedroom. He knows when she tries she just disappears for a while. He'd like to be able to hang out in the living room with Clarke and his sister sometimes. He's also sad that Clarke can't walk through walls or make things move like ghosts can in the movies.
But he wouldn't change Clarke for the world. He likes her just as she is.
September, 1999
"What do you do while I'm at school?" Bellamy asks one night. Mum has already gone to bed and it's the first time he's really wondering what Clarke does when she is alone.
"I don't know. It's kind of fuzzy when you're not home." She admits, looking down. Bellamy had learned that she was a six months younger than him when she died, but it had been her birthday a few weeks ago. She looked older than she had in March. So they decided must be six by now. He'd stolen some cookies from downstairs on her birthday. Clarke couldn't really taste them, but it made her smile anyway.
"I wish you could leave the room." Bellamy mutters, kicking his shoe on the floorboards. He's supposed to go to Monty's house this weekend, but he really wants to finish the drawing for the story they're telling instead.
"I wish I could too." She agrees.
"You must get bored." Bellamy says sadly.
"I don't think it counts as being bored if I can't remember. And I'm never bored when you're here."
"What about when I'm asleep?" He asks.
"I think I must go to sleep too." She says slowly, as if she's thinking about it. "I can't really tell."
Knowing that Clarke isn't bored while he's not there does make him feel a little better about going to Monty's on the weekend, but it also makes him feel a little bit guilty. She can't play or draw or have fun when he's not there. She's all on her own. Even if she doesn't remember.
One day he makes the mistake of telling mum a story with Clarke in it.
"Who's Clark?" She asks, "Is he new at school?"
"She's the girl who used to live here. The one that had to go to hospital." Bellamy says, deciding to tell mum the truth. She's always told him he wouldn't get in trouble if he just tells the truth.
"Bellamy, how do you know about her?" Mum asks, she sounds mad. Bellamy frowns. Why is she mad when he's telling the truth?
"I think her ghost lives in my bedroom." Bellamy shrugs his shoulders, helping himself to another cookie.
"Bellamy Blake. You listen to me now. That poor girl is not dead, but she's very, very hurt. You can't make fun of someone's memory like that. There is no ghost in your bedroom." Mum scolds.
"She is real, mum! I talk to her every day!" Bellamy cries, jumping out of his chair. His loud outburst makes Octavia cry, but he doesn't really care right now. Clarke is real. He has her drawings to prove it.
Bellamy is sitting on the landing outside his bedroom, listening to mum on the phone. Clarke is sitting in his doorway humming quietly and colouring in their drawings.
"It's like she's his imaginary friend. He shows me pictures that they've drawn together. Apparently she can't come out of his bedroom." Mum is saying. Bellamy thinks she is talking to Monty's mum. "You're right. He must have heard it from the other boys. The Jaha's are close to the Griffin's and so are the Jordan's… I'll talk to David about it as well… Thelonius maybe not…"
"My last name is Griffin." Clarke tells him, holding her finished picture up for him to see. It's way better than anything he can draw. He can't imagine why his mum thinks he has drawn them.
"You're not my imaginary friend." Bellamy tells her, "You're real."
"Well, duh."
March, 2000
Bellamy is finally allowed to have people over on his seventh birthday. He's really excited, because even though he knows Clarke won't be able to talk to them, they will all get to hang out together. Miller, Wells, Jasper and Monty are going to sleep over. Mum has made a cake and they have blown up balloons to decorate the living room.
He'd already opened his present from mum and O and it's a Nintendo 64 and he knows it's second hand but he hasn't stopped playing it all morning. Octavia is one and a half, as he proudly tells people, but she keeps trying to pull the cords out. It's annoying.
Clarke is probably waiting for him upstairs, but he is too engrossed in his game to go check on her. She's started to remember some of the time while she was alone, so Bellamy leaves all his books for her to read. They do his homework together as well, so Clarke learns the new words he is learning in second grade too, as well as the maths, which Bellamy thinks is hard and Clarke thinks is easy.
Bellamy turns the game off when he hears a knock on the door. It's Wells, who gives him a present and his mum gives Bellamy's mum a tray of food. Bellamy tears the paper off his present and grins. It's a remote control car. He and Wells drive it up and down the hallway, while they wait for the other three.
He has a fun day with his friends, he gets more cool presents and mum lets them watch a movie 'til late. She's put mattresses down in his room, so they can all camp out and they're going to stay up so late.
They stumble into bed at nine thirty, which Monty announces is the latest he's ever stayed up. Bellamy grins because last year he stayed up til midnight with Miller on New Years Eve.
"Happy birthday, Bellamy." Clarke says, sitting on the edge of his bed. He jumps, he hadn't seen her but he doesn't say anything. They had agreed it was easier than making him look crazy. The five boys talk until late, Clarke occasionally saying something she thinks Bellamy should say and making jokes that only he laughs at because only he can hear them. Just over an hour later, everyone except Bellamy and Clarke are asleep.
"I miss them all so much." Clarke tells him, lying down beside him. She has tears in her eyes. "I wish I wasn't dead."
"Me too." He whispers. "It would be so much funner if they could see you too."
December, 2001
It's almost Christmas and all Bellamy wants to do is play outside in the snow, but Clarke is pretty much around all the time and when he goes outside he can see her watching from his window. A few months ago Bellamy had gone to stay with his grandma for five nights and Clarke practically lost her mind with boredom. So he tries to hang out with her as much as he can.
"How can you be dead but still growing?" Bellamy asks one day, throwing his ball against the wall and catching it. Mum was going to come in and yell at him soon. The thud drives her crazy.
"I don't know." Clarke wonders. Her hair is longer, but still in the braids and her blue dress is the same, but still fits her. She's still smaller than Bellamy, but she is definitely not five years old anymore.
"It's weird. Miller and I read this ghost book at school and the house was haunted but the ghost could go into all the rooms and he looked like he did when he died. He was all bloody and stuff." Bellamy tells her. She likes hearing about what they do at school.
"I don't look the same now."
"It's weird you can touch things too." Bellamy says, "Isn't your hand s'posed to go straight through it?"
"Guess not." She says, hitting his ball so it falls his dresser. He glares.
"It's just weird." Bellamy tells her. He's lying on his stomach scooping the ball out when his fingers brush against something else. He pulls out the dusty, pink ribbon he had found the first night he lived in the house. He'd completely forgotten about it.
"Hey! That's mine!" Clarke says, excitedly taking the ribbon from Bellamy and pulling it through her fingers.
"From when you were alive?" He asks.
"I think so."
It's a few days later that Bellamy takes the ribbon downstairs with him. Clarke doesn't like wearing it in her hair and he thinks that maybe Octavia will. She's three now. She likes things like that.
Bellamy is tying off the end of the little plait in Octavia's hair and is about to tie in the ribbon when he hears a gasp.
"Bellamy." Clarke whispers, looking at him in shock. She's downstairs. For the first time in two and a half years.
"How did you get down here?" He asks, forgetting the Octavia can't see her.
"I walk from upstairs." Octavia says, toddling slightly to her toy box in the corner of the room.
"The ribbon." Clarke says after a moments thought. "It's from when I was alive."
"Are you haunting a ribbon?" Bellamy asks, snorting with laughter. He knows ghosts can haunt things and not just houses. He's seen it on TV.
"When you came down here, I felt like I could follow. And so I tried and I… I actually could." She tells him, a little breathlessly.
"You can follow me when I have this?" He asks, holding the ribbon up and expecting it. It doesn't look magic or anything, a little dusty, but otherwise just an ordinary ribbon.
"Can we try and play outside, please Bell?" She begs, ignoring his question and looking longingly into the snowy backyard.
They try putting the ribbon in Clarke's pocket, to see if she's able to go wherever she wants when she has it, but it doesn't work. It's as though she is anchored to the ribbon, but without Bellamy carrying it, the ribbon is anchored to the house. Clarke can't get out of whatever room the ribbon is in.
And that's how Bellamy ends up carrying a pink ribbon with him everywhere he goes. With Clarke being able to leave his bedroom he no longer feels guilty for going out with his friends. She starts coming to school with him, leaning over his desk and telling him the answers to hard questions. As he is getting older, he is actually starting to worry about Clarke's education. So this is good. She is back to being smarter than him. When she's bored she sits in the corner, behind the bookcase and colours. Most days, he wishes he could join her.
She comes to his friends houses, she watches him play baseball. She comes the next time he has to stay with his grandma and makes faces at him while he's trying to be serious. She makes fun of the babysitter, a nice lady called Vera, when she tries to make Bellamy eat his vegetables. She tries to make Bellamy laugh when there are other people around. It's embarrassing but he's so happy to have her with him. Even if he has to carry her ribbon with him everywhere he goes.