"Hey, sunshine, wake up."
It was the next morning, and Kate was still asleep.
"Hey, kid, wake up."
Kate stirred, but didn't awaken. Joey sighed, frustrated. "Hey, kid!" he yelled.
The teenage girl immediately sat up. "What the hell?" she asked, groggily. She saw Joey and groaned. "Ugh, it's you."
"Nice to see you, too. Aren't you gonna be late for school?"
Kate looked at her watch. "Oh, my god, Joey, it's 6:30! The bus doesn't pick me up until 7:25!"
"Early to bed, early to rise, makes a kid on time for school."
"Quit fucking nagging me! I'm going back to sleep!"
"Yeah, right."
"What? What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to talk your ear off, that's what. I'm going to annoy the hell out of you."
"You already do that," Kate remarked, annoyed.
Ignoring her, Joey started talking rather loudly non-stop about random things. Kate covered her head with her pillow, but Joey just got closer to her and talked even louder. Finally, Kate screamed, "Shut up! God, don't you ever shut up?!"
A few seconds later, her father pounded on the door. "Shut the fuck up, Kate!"
Kate groaned. She got up and got some clothes off the floor. She turned to Joey. "Can you like, leave the room for a few minutes?"
"Sure, kid."
Joey went through the door, leaving Kate to get dressed. When she was ready, she said, "Okay, I'm done."
"Get out here!"
Kate was a little startled. She opened her door and saw her father standing outside the room. "What the fuck is your problem?!" he screamed at her. "You woke me up!"
"Sorry, Dad."
"You better be fucking sorry! Don't do it again!" Then, he stomped off back to his room.
Kate shut the door and sat down on her bed. "Well, he's a bright ray of sunshine, isn't he? Of course, I'm sure the people in New York also heard you."
"Ha, ha."
Later, the school bus picked Kate up. She nervously got on, hoping that no one there would see Joey. She sat in the very back, by herself, and became bored.
"Geez, did something die in here? This smells as bad as a sewer. Hey, you better hold on to the seat or you'll bounce off."
"Joey," Kate said, softly.
"What? Just callin' it like I see it."
"I hope no one hears you."
"Don't worry about that. I'm like your own personal imaginary friend. Only I'm not made up."
"Oh, great," Kate mumbled.
Joey talked most of way to the school, but Kate ignored him.
When the bus stopped at the school, which was a junior and senior high school combined, all the teens on the bus got off. They all went in the building, and they got ready to start the day.
Kate went to her locker and got her books and supplies for her first class, then went into the classroom.
"Damn, schools have changed a lot since I was a kid," Joey said. Where is everyone?"
Kate sighed. She opened a notebook and wrote, "I'm not talking right now."
"Okay, well, I'll talk and you write."
Kate wrote, "No."
"You're right," Joey said. "You gotta listen to the teacher and learn. I won't talk during the lessons."
True to his word, Joey didn't talk during classes. In between them, though, he wouldn't shut up. He asked what this was and what that was and made (mostly) sarcastic remarks about everything. Kate was annoyed all day but didn't say anything.
At lunch, Kate sat by herself. "Hey, kid, why are you sitting alone?" the ghost asked.
Kate shrugged.
"Hey, there's a fine-looking bunch of people. Go sit with them."
The teenager shook her head.
"Oh, come on. I'm sure they'd love it if you joined them."
Kate glared.
"Suit yourself."
Kate's Physical Education course was her next to last class. "Ah, geez," Joey said as Kate went to the girl's locker room.
"Just don't look. Go through the wall next to the room."
"Hey, weirdo. You talking to yourself?"
Kate turned around. Some of the popular girls were standing behind her and snickering. One of them said, "You're more of a psycho than everyone thinks."
Joey asked, "Hey, kid, 'you going to take that?"
Kate ignored all of them and went to her gym locker. One of them slammed it shut and said out loud, "God, aren't you a little too old to have imaginary friends? Why are you talking to yourself?"
Kate tried to open her locker, but the girl kept her hand on it. "Can you please move?" Kate said, dully.
"Sure, psycho." Most of the girls who heard her laughed.
Kate felt awkward the whole time. P.E. was the worst class she had. It didn't help that Joey kept complaining about him being pulled toward her every time she got too far away from him. She was relieved when the class was over.
School couldn't get over soon enough. Kate sighed as she grabbed her backpack and shut her locker. She got on the bus and rode home.
"So, uh, kid."
Joey tried to talk, but Kate stopped him. "I don't want to talk about anything. I just want to go to bed."
"This early?"
"Yeah. I always do. I'll do my homework later."
"Don't you want to get it done and over with?"
"Leave me alone, Joey!"
"Alright, alright. I'll let you sleep, if it'll make you less cranky."
"Thanks. You're too kind," she said, sarcastically.