Chapter 6: Taking A Fresh Start?

"My name is Ralph Edwards, or that used to be my name when I was still alive. As ghosts we have nicknames for each other, so almost nobody knows me as Ralph anymore," the ghost, now known as Ralph, replied.

"Ralph Edwards? I don't think I ever heard of you," Cody said, trying to think if he had ever heard of someone going by that name.

"I think you did. Someone mentioned my name Saturday evening."

"Really? I'm pretty sure nobody said anyth-…" Suddenly he remembered that he had heard the name Ralph before. "Wait, I think I do remember. You're Professor Crumbs' boyfriend, aren't you?"

"So you do have brains, young man? I'm impressed," Ralph smirked. "Yes, I used to be Brian's boyfriend when I was alive."

"Brian? That's his first name?" The ghost nodded. "I still don't get why you're here now though. Professor Crumbs isn't here anymore, what do you want from us?"

"I need you or your wizard boyfriend to give Brian a message from me," Ralph sighed. "But I'd rather explain that to the both of you together. I don't feel like telling the same story twice."

"Okay, I'll get Max if you won't try to harm us," he said, on his guard against any possible evil plans this ghostly appearance still might have had.

"Don't worry, I'm really not evil. I just want my message delivered to Brian."

"Alright, I think I believe you," Cody stated, more at ease. "Um, the door?" he asked, remembering how Ralph had captured him in the living room.

"It's open."

Relieved that he was finally able to leave the living room, Cody immediately ran toward Max's game room to tell his partner about what had just happened. However, when he reached the hallway he saw his boyfriend standing there chatting with Zack, who already had his coat on. He hoped Max had been able to talk to him and give him some useful advice.

"Oh Cody, there you are! We couldn't find you," Max exclaimed.

"Yeah, we thought you were already in bed," his twin added.

"Sorry guys, I was reading a book. Guess I got so absorbed in it that I forgot about anything else," he tried to explain his absence to Zack so he wouldn't ask questions. His brother had enough things to worry of his own; a house-ghost didn't need to be added to the list.

"Honestly Cody, you can be such a nerd sometimes. Reading a book while you could be playing the best game ever? Unbelievable," Zack smirked. "Anyway, I should be going home, bro." He paused for an instant and added, "And don't worry, I won't go to any bars tonight."

He didn't say it out loud but Cody was immensely relieved. This could mean his twin brother was finally starting to take his life seriously. Maybe the things Max told him had moved his brother more than he would have expected.

"Sweet!" he grinned. "So, wanna go back to New Beginnings with me tomorrow?"

"I don't know, I'm still not sure about that."

"That's okay, Zack. But if you change your mind, just call me, okay?"

"Will do, little brother, will do."

As soon as Zack left, Cody remembered why he had stormed out of the living room. They still had some unfinished business to handle with Ralph the ghost.

"Mmm, Max?"

"Yeah, what's up, sweetie?"

"Um, when I was reading your brother's ghost book, something really weird happened…" he started.

"Let me guess, the ghost?" his boyfriend interrupted him. "I hope he didn't scare you too much!"

"Well, he did at first, but then he started to talk to me and…" Cody explained until he got interrupted again.

"You talked to the ghost?"

He replied with a short nod.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that could have been? Ghosts can talk you into death!"

When he heard what kind of danger he could have gotten himself in by just talking to a ghost, his face went completely pale. It was a good thing he hadn't known this when Ralph had spoken to him.

"Don't worry, honey, he's harmless," he tried to assure his clearly distressed boyfriend. "In fact, he needs a favour from us, so he needs to talk to both of us."

"A favour, really?" Again, Cody answered his question with a small nod. "And did he mention his name by any chance?"

"He did. He claimed to be Ralph, your Professor Crumbs' ex-boyfriend." At this point his explanation made Max gape at him in shock. Clearly this wasn't exactly what he had been expecting.

"You gotta be kidding!" Max exclaimed. "I have to see this!"

Before his partner had finished his sentence, Max had already left for the living room. Cody, on the other hand, was a little less eager to face the ghost again. Even though he had just stated that he was harmless, he still didn't feel at ease with Ralph. The idea of a ghost just creeped him out too much. Nevertheless, he followed his boyfriend into their living room.

"So you two have finally come. Good, I was getting bored," the ghost said when Cody and his boyfriend entered the room.

"And you must be the ghost claiming to be Professor Crumbs' boyfriend," Max asked, taking his wand out of his trouser pocket and readying himself for a confrontation.

"Yes, in my previous life I was Brian's boyfriend," Ralph answered.

"Brian? You mean Professor Crumbs' first name is Brian?" Max exclaimed in surprise. "That's so weird; I always thought he would have a more old-fashioned name — something like Albus perhaps."

"Never mind the name. Why are you here and what message do you want us to deliver?" Cody suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah, Cody's right! He told me you wanted a favour of us, so spill it, man," his boyfriend added. "And don't try anything funny; I still have my wand ready."

"I can see that, thank you," Ralph the ghost replied. "But you're right, I do owe the both of you an explanation. You see, each ghost is offered a family or a house to live with. Usually this happens at random, but there are also cases where ghosts choose the people they live with. Of course I belong in the second category because I chose to live with you two."

"Um, why us?" Cody asked, still indignant that the ghost had chosen them to scare, or to live with as he called it.

"Isn't that obvious? You and your wizard boyfriend immediately reminded me of myself and Brian. You two are how we could have been, or should have been, if fate hadn't been so cruel to us."

"Fate? You killed yourself! Fate had nothing to do with it," Max exclaimed. "You killed yourself and made Professor Crumbs suffer for the rest of his life!"

"No! That's not true, but thank you for mentioning it. That's actually why I came here," Ralph countered.

"Hm, excuse me, Ralph, but Professor Crumbs told us the whole story two days ago," Cody said. "We know you killed yourself."

"I know… I was there, I heard it all," the ghost said. "You see, I have been living with you ever since you two moved in here and I had a quiet life seeing how much you two loved each other. Until two days ago, when I saw Brian entering your house. Needless to say I was shocked to see him here, but I wasn't really surprised to learn he was there to make sure you were living with a girl. For me that proved he hasn't changed at all after my death."

"That's not true, he did change!" When he heard Max shout like that, Cody thought it was adorable how his boyfriend was defending his old professor.

"You're right, but I only heard that later when he told you guys our story. Honestly, it was a real shock for me to discover he thought I killed myself because I didn't want to live with him anymore. Before this I didn't even know ghosts were able to cry, but after Brian's story I actually cried for hours. Because what he said, what he had believed in for years and had crushed his life, wasn't true. That wasn't what happened."

"So, what did happen then?" Cody asked, somehow actually believing their house-ghost was telling them the truth.

"You remember what Brian told you about my death? That we were arguing and I turned my back and walked away from him?" Both Cody and Max nodded, anxious to hear more. "When I walked away from Brian, I started to think about the things he said; I started to think maybe this time he really was being honest with me. So I turned around and when I looked him in the eyes I saw love — lots of love for me and a cry for forgiveness. At that moment I knew Brian wasn't lying and honestly wanted to give up everything for me. So I decided I wanted to go back to Brian, but then fate decided to play a cruel game with us. You see, I hadn't noticed that close to where I was standing there was oil on the bridge, thus making it very slippery. While turning back to Brian I accidentally stepped in the oil and slipped away."

"You fell from the bridge?" Cody and his partner exclaimed at the same time.

"Yes, when I was about to return to Brian, I slipped and fell off the bridge. I died almost instantly."

"But, that doesn't make sense!" Cody yelled, not sure if he believed Ralph's story. "You can't just fall off a bridge. Wasn't there a railing or anything?"

"Unfortunately no, there wasn't. This happened a long, long time ago, in a very remote village. Everything was shabby. There were no railings. Nothing to break my fall. I just fell...and that was the end of it."

"But what about Professor Crumbs?" he persisted. "He saw it happen; he must have seen it was an accident!"

"That's what I thought too for a long time, until I heard Brian tell talk to you guys about it Saturday night. It was only then that I realized how hard this must have been for him; I've never known I caused him so much pain. This is all my fault, you know… If I hadn't been so stubborn when he came back for me…"

"That's not true, Ralph," Cody assured the ghost, wishing he could hug him to comfort him. "Okay, both you and Professor Crumbs made some mistakes, but your death was nobody's fault. Neither you or Professor Crumbs could help it."

For the second time in two days, Cody and his boyfriend were almost speechless after hearing the sad story of Professor Crumbs' life. He had thought that what Max's old professor had gone through his whole life was bad: having to live with the thought that your boyfriend preferred killing himself over living with you must have been so hard. But this was even worse; now it had become clear that the old professor had been living with hurt his whole life for nothing. Nothing!

Cody wasn't sure how they should handle this. Surely Professor Crumbs deserved to know what really happened on that awful day when he thought he saw his partner commit suicide. Yet Cody was afraid this news might actually crush the old man even more. How would a man react to the realization that he has lived a life of agony based on an awful misunderstanding?

"We have to tell Professor Crumbs! He has to know!" His partner had finally found words to say something and had apparently decided what the course of actions should be. He could live with this: his boyfriend was right; the old professor had the right to know the truth.

"That's actually part of the favour I wanted to ask you two," Ralph interrupted Cody's thinking process.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of that for you," he assured the ghost. "But why can't you just go over to him and tell him yourself?"

"I can't. Once a ghost has chosen a house or a family to live with, he can't leave their house anymore. I'm bound to this place," Ralph explained. "And I don't know if I'd be able to talk to Brian anyway. Seeing him here two days ago really made me all emotional and tongue-tied. You doing this for me, and for him, is really the only option I have."

"And when we help you, will you stop making things happen in our house?" Max demanded. "You scared my boyfriend!"

"I know, and I'm terribly sorry for that." He couldn't believe his own ears: the ghost was actually apologizing to him. "Just do me this favour and tell Brian my story, and that I have always loved him. You'll never hear from me again after that, I promise."

Cody nodded, which was apparently the key for Ralph to disappear. Of course they would do that for him. Both professor Crumbs and Ralph deserved this. And another plus for him personally was that they would get rid of their ghost too because even though he knew now that Ralph was harmless, and even likeable, somehow he still scared him a bit.

Tuesday September 22, 2015

The next day, Max Russo was to be found sitting at Professor Crumbs' desk in his office at WizTech. He had just finished telling his old professor what had happened at their house yesterday evening, including what had really happened when Ralph died all those years ago. The professor had taken the news just like his boyfriend had expected. First he hadn't believed Max, and then he had started crying and left him alone for a while.

All alone in his old professor's office, Max was getting a little worried about the old man. He hoped he wouldn't be doing anything stupid now that he knew the truth. Max would never forgive himself if anything happened to Professor Crumbs due to the news he had brought him. Why did he have to be the one to bring this news anyway? Cody had offered to accompany him but he had declined the offer, thinking Professor Crumbs would feel more comfortable with just him there.

But now Max actually missed his significant other: Cody would have been a much better messenger. All he had been able to do was let the old man go to another room to be alone and cry…

"Professor?" he exclaimed when he saw the old man re-enter his office. "Are you alright?"

"No, Max, I'm pretty far from alright," the professor sighed. "I feel empty, very empty—as if my whole life has been a lie. You know, I don't even know if I want to continue doing this. Long ago, when I buried myself in my magic lessons, I did that because it was like I was taking revenge on Ralph… on the one who made my life miserable. But now that I know Ralph didn't kill himself I don't think I can keep on doing this; it would feel like I'm murdering his memory again."

Yeah, Cody definitely would have been a better choice for this than him. But he was here now, instead of his boyfriend, so he had to make sure Professor Crumbs at least felt better before he went back home.

"I don't know, Professor. I don't think you should give up something you've loved for so long. I'm sure Ralph wouldn't want you to throw your life away on his account again."

"Maybe you're right, maybe you're not. I just don't know what to do!"

"Well, why don't you take some time off from WizTech and other wizard things to think about what happened and consider your possibilities," Max suggested. "And when you come back from your time off, in a few weeks maybe, you can make a new and fresh start in life. A life where you can honour Ralph's memory this time."

"You know, that's actually not a bad idea. Not at all," Professor Crumbs replied. "It looks like you can be pretty smart too, Max. That was some great advice."

"Thanks, professor," he said, glowing in pride that his old professor actually called him smart. "I guess I'll be going now if you'll be okay?"

"Don't worry, I will," Professor Crumbs reassured him. "And I'll let you know when I return from my time off."

"Sounds like a plan!" Max said, after which he rapidly made way out of WizTech School.

While looking for a nice and unseen spot from where he could zap himself back to home, he took his cellphone from his pocket and scrolled to Cody's name in his address book. It was actually very stupid but he had never succeeded to memorize his boyfriend's cellphone number, even though he used it daily. He guessed he probably just didn't have the mind to memorize numbers.

"Hey sweetie," he said once his boyfriend answered his phone.

"Hey Maxie, how did things go with Professor Crumbs?"

"Well, he reacted exactly like you said he would. At first he was shocked and felt lost, but then I advised him to take some time off to re-evaluate his life," he explained.

"Wow, that was amazingly good advice, Maxie. I hope it works for him."

"Thanks! I hope so too, but it's all up to him now," he said. "Anyway, what are you up to? I thought you'd be at New Beginnings by now."

"I would've been, but right before I got in the car Zack called me and asked if he could tag along."

"Zack asked you that?" he exclaimed in shock.

"Yeah, I know, it was quite the surprise for me too. I had hoped he would go there with me on the weekends, but I never would have thought he would want to go there today."

"Maybe it's a good sign?"

"I hope so, sweetie. I really hope so," his boyfriend replied. "But I have to go now. Thanks to the little detour I took to get Zack, I'll be running late."

"Okay, guess I'll see you tonight. Take care, Cody."

"I will. Love you," his significant other added right before he hung up the phone.

After a short conversation with Mr. Winters concerning their criminal records – which were blank, as was to be expected - Zack Martin left for the sports area of New Beginnings while his brother walked off to his job of helping kids with their homework, mumbling something about reading 'Tom Sawyer' to some little boy.

Unlike his brother, Zack wasn't officially volunteering at the centre yet, although his paperwork had all been fixed. But today he wanted to change that, because Max's advice actually had made a really big impression on him.

It was actually strange but unlike Cody, Max had really come through for him. Even though the things he'd said weren't that different from what Cody had been trying to tell him all the time. With his brother's boyfriend it wasn't the same: they had been so alike in the past. When he heard his story and his advice, Zack had believed it more than anything his brother or anyone else would have told him.

That and the rather odd experience he had with Coach Mike yesterday had influenced his decision to accept the old man's offer of helping him coach and then replacing him in a few weeks. Meeting Coach Mike had been such a strange experience, yet the old man seemed to have a really attractive charisma around him. There was something about Coach Mike that made you trust him right away — that made you feel good and welcome with him. It was no wonder all the kids at New Beginnings liked him so much.

So when he arrived at the basketball court it didn't surprise him in the least that Coach Mike was sitting on the bench looking around over the field doing no coaching at all. A small smile appeared on Zack's face when he walked over to him, hoping the offer would still stand.

"Ah Zack Martin, I didn't expect you back so soon," Coach Mike spoke when he noticed him. "But that doesn't matter. You're welcome here. Let's go look for a customary coaching outfit for you."

Zack was astounded. Apparently the coach already knew why he was there and that his answer was going to be yes, despite that he hadn't told anyone of his decision yet — not even his brother, his brother's boyfriend, or Mr. Winters.

"Um, Coach? How do you know why I'm here?" he asked.

"I just know, Zack," the old coach smiled. "I'm right, aren't I?" he added with a wink.

"Well, I-I-I," he started. While he was thinking about his answer for a last time he looked around the field at the playing kids, and then at the spectators. Suddenly he discovered among them a really hot girl, who was looking in his direction...in a very flirty way! Before he could say or do anything about that, he saw Coach Mike looking at him in anticipation and said, "Yes, you're right; I'm here to tell you I'm taking on your offer."

"You see? I knew you would say yes," the coach laughed at him. "Now let's get you that outfit and I'll officially introduce you to the team."

During the whole training – which was, like last time, lots of fun – the hot girl kept looking at him flirtatiously. It really felt good for him to know there were still girls – and hot girls even – interested in him. He hadn't become an unattractive jerk after his break-up with Bailey after all.

Bailey. More than ever she was going through his mind now. If it hadn't been for her, he would have gone after that girl straight away. But now? Now he wasn't sure what to do: he really wanted Bailey back; he'd believed she was the one for him and was still head over heels for her. But this girl flirting with him was really hot and really into him.

But Bailey… He really wanted her back and getting it on with this girl might be the end of that ambition. If he gave in to her flirting attitude, he might lose the one girl he loved more than anyone else forever. He couldn't do that, he just couldn't. There was no way he would give up his chances with Bailey right now. Not when there was still the slightest possibility that they might end up back together. And besides, getting a girl on the first day of volunteering here might make it look like his only reason for volunteering in the first place was to get girls.

Soon after he made his decision, his first official basketball training was over. It had been really great and had given him a feeling of satisfaction. Max and Cody might have been right after all: this started to look like something he really needed to do. Maybe this could be this fresh start his brother and Max had been talking about. He should remember to thank both of them soon, but for now he settled with expressing his gratitude to the man who had given him this chance: Coach Mike.

Author's Notes: Looks like Zack is finally on the good way to get his life back on track: he even managed to resist a hot girl flirting with him. The old Zack wouldn't have been able to. Let's hope Bailey will still want Zack too… And poor Prof. Crumbs too! But maybe now he can think about Ralph without feeling the pain all the time.

The character of Prof. Crumbs doesn't have a first name in Wizards Of Waverly Place so I decided to name him Brian which is one of the 4 names of Prof. Dumbledore from the Harry Potter-series. As you all know Crumbs is based on him so It thought this would fit him.

Many thanks go out to Elianna22 (betareader) and the-lovely-anomaly (editor)!