Chapter Two
-JT's POV-
"Okay, watch carefully," I said to the little boy beside me. "This is going to be classic."
"I don't get it," Collin said, confused by my huge grin. "How can you be having fun? You're dead." I glanced at him for a second. He had died from cancer a few months ago, but he looked much healthier now. He still had his hospital gown on (it's not like we could just stop at Ghosts R Us and pick up a tee shirt and jeans) and he was still bald from chemo, but you can't be sick when you're dead. You can't really feel anything at all.
"Exactly," I said. "If I was alive, could I do this?" It was timed perfectly. As soon as the jock went to sit down, I yanked the chair away, and he landed right on his butt. Perfect. I laughed with the rest of the class at his startled expression.
"Whaa?" He mumbled, standing back up.
"Take your seat, Owen," the teacher scolded.
"That was mean," Collin said, his brown eyes wide.
"He's a mean kid," I stated. "And it's not like I really hurt him. The way I see it, I'm just speeding up the karma."
"I thought you did it because you thought it would be funny." I shrugged.
"That too."
"How are you so happy? I'm not happy. I want to be alive."
"We all want to be alive, Collin. But we're not. So we should just make the best out of what we are. I mean, think of the good things. We're not in pain. We don't have to deal with drama, like that—" I gestured to a couple fighting in the corner of the room. "—and we can do whatever we want, whenever we want, wherever we want." I'd given this spiel to so many kids so far that it just rolled off the tongue now. I didn't even have to think about it.
"But…we can't grow up. And I can't be with my mommy or daddy anymore." I frowned; it killed me when the little ones mentioned their parents. Literally. Okay, that was a bad pun, but you know what I mean.
"Try not to think about what you can't do," I offered. "It'll drive you crazy."
"What about my grandma? She died when I was a baby. Where is she?" I wondered about stuff like that all the time. I saw ghosts around a lot, but not nearly as many as I should. And I hardly ever saw elderly people. If there was a heaven or something, how come I didn't get to go? I was a decent kid, I think.
"She could be anywhere," I answered. He thought for a few minutes, and I waited patiently. The first few months, even years for some ghosts, could be really hard and confusing. Well, honestly, it was always confusing, but the beginning is always extra difficult.
"How come you came to me? Is this your job?" Collin asked. I was waiting for him to ask that; they always did at some point.
"I guess I come to you guys because I want to show you that just because you're a ghost, doesn't mean you have to be sad or evil or angry. I'm not an expert, but I've had a few years to get my bearings. Plus, I love kids." And I did; it reminded me of when I was PJ J.T. If I'd ever gone to university, I probably would have done something kid-related.
"Do you help kids all the time?"
"Not all the time. But I have done it plenty of times."
"What do you do when you're not?" I smiled.
"This," I said, peeling some gum off the underside of a desk and sticking it in the jock's hair. I chuckled. It was so easy to amuse myself. "Or sometimes I watch my old friends. Oh, and I saved a cat once." Collin's eyes lit.
"I had a cat!"
"Really? What was its name?"
"Carpet!" I blinked, then burst out laughing, unable to restrain myself.
"How did Carpet get its name?" I asked once I'd sobered up, my lips still twitching. Collin smiled for the first time since I met him.
"I don't know. My brother named her. I wanted to name her Collin Junior but my mom said that was a boy name."
"But Carpet isn't a name at all!"
"I know!" He laughed, which made my day. Then he seemed to get an idea. "Can I visit my family?"
"Of course you can! You know, I heard that animals can even see us. Maybe Carpet will see you." His eyes grew wide and hopeful.
"That would be awesome!" And then he disappeared. I grinned. When you don't know how to use the transporting ability correctly, you end up popping all over the place. All you really have to do is strongly will to be a place, and then you're there. Unless you don't have enough energy, in which case you need to stop and regroup every couple miles.
With my job done, I didn't really feel like staying at Degrassi any longer. I mean, come on, it's school. Before I left the classroom, though, I waltzed up to the front and tugged on the map. It shot up, curling around itself. As the teacher fumbled with trying to tug it back down, I drew a smiley face with its tongue sticking out on the blackboard. Feeling accomplished, I walked through the closed door and sauntered down the hallway.
What to do? I asked myself. I thought for a few minutes, and then decided on visiting Toby at college. It took a few pops to get there, considering he was several miles away. I was panting by the time I got to class.
He was staring at the professor, deeply engaged, scribbling notes onto a cluttered piece of loose-leaf without even looking down.
"You have become a zombie, my friend," I told him. But seriously, his eyes were glazed over, and I wouldn't be surprised if he started drooling. And he looked like this every time I saw him.
I was about to leave, when class was dismissed, and Toby shoved his things into his bag and slung it over his shoulder. I followed him out to the courtyard, where he scanned the crowd.
"Toby!" A girl called. We both spun around at the same time. The girl standing there had long dark hair, pulled back by tie-dye scarf. She was short and thin, and had big green eyes rimmed in dark lashes.
"Not bad," I commented, shrugging.
"You must be Jess," Toby said. She straightened her posture, trying to look professional, and stuck out her hand.
"Jessica Raymond, parapsychology major," she announced, rolling her shoulders back. Toby shook it, smiling. I cocked my head to the side; that word was just too big for someone who never even graduated.
"Toby Isaacs," he said.
"I'm so glad a found you! And the fact that you're willing to help? Wonderful!" Help with what? I wondered.
"It's no problem. Do you have all of your equipment?" She nodded and held up a black leather duffle bag.
"I probably won't need it today; I just want to see if he's here. We'll do some warm up exercises for now, and see where it goes. My report isn't due for two weeks and four days, so if we come up short we can try again another time." She glanced at him sheepishly. "That is, if it's okay with you."
"I'm happy to help," he responded. I was still deeply confused, and decided to follow them as they headed for Toby's dorm. He was helping her with something college related, that was my guess. What did para….whatever she said mean? Huh. I guess I'd find out soon enough.
It took me a little longer than them to get to his dorm, considering I was still tired from the pop over and didn't feel like transporting there and expending even more energy.
When I got there, they had already started setting up…something. There were a bunch of those little wood squares with letters on them—from that game Scrabble—scattered around the ground, and the girl—Jessica—was fidgeting with something in the corner of the room, kneeling on Toby's top bunk, while he stuffed some papers into a folder.
"Should we get started?" He asked once he'd put the folder into a drawer.
"Sure. The sooner the better." She hopped down and sat on the bottom bunk, and Toby just stood there awkwardly.
"You can start at any time," Jessica prompted.
"Um…okay. JT Yorke…" My eyes widened at the sound of my name. So was that what this was all about? They were going to try to contact me?
"Uh, if you're hear right now, listening, this is Jessica." He gestured to her.
"Nice to meet you," I said sarcastically.
"She's a parapsychology major, which means she's studying the paranormal. You know, ghosts and stuff. And if you can hear me, that means you, huh?"
"Ghost is an ugly word. I'd rather you think of me as a….non-living entity. Yeah, let's go with that."
"Anyway, she's doing a report that has to do with child and adolescent ghosts—why innocent kids become ghosts, whether they can leave their place of death, stuff like that. I offered to help her, because sometimes I feel like you might just be around, watching me. So, if you're here, could you let us know somehow?"
I chuckled. "Of course, Toby." I pulled the straw out of a McDonalds cup that was sitting on his dresser and ripped off the corner of a sheet of paper that was sitting next to it. I glanced at Toby and Jessica, who both had eyes opened so wide that it looked painful. I crumpled up the paper, stuck it in the end of the straw, aimed, and fired.
It hit Toby right in the middle of the forehead. I laughed at their befuddled expressions.
"That's him, all right," Toby croaked out.
"JT," said Jessica.
"Yes?"
"If there's anything you'd like to say, feel free to spell it out." She pointed to the scattered game pieces. I rolled my eyes, picked up an 'F', and held it in front of their faces, trying to freak them up. They leaned in closer…and I chucked it lightly at Toby's head. I laughed again; this was actually quite fun!
They were still reveling over what had just happened, trying to figure out what 'F' stood for—nothing, really—as I arranged the letters to spell 'HAHA'. They glanced down, and if you looked close enough, you could see traces of a smile approaching Toby's expression.
"I'm going to jet," I announced, deciding to leave it on that note. "I might come back tomorrow, if I'm feeling generous. Just, if you want to take pictures, make sure you get me from my good side."
And with that, I popped away with no specific destination in mind. Just the way I liked it.
AN: Okay, just a few things: I'm pretty sure you can't major in parapsychology (you can just take classes on it and all) but…oh well. In my brain you can. Also, some of you mentioned Liberty—she might come up in a later chapter. (; Rick is next, and I will warn you in advance that it'll probably be a rather angsty chapter. But you probably could have guessed that…