Chapter Ten
Fern walked into the teacher's lounge the next morning and picked up a copy of the local paper. They were forced to print an early edition because of the post, and numerous articles within the newspaper outlined the chain of events, starting with the initial post and ending with a report on the location of Mr. Armstrong, who was spotted leaving the country just after midnight. Fern smiled slightly and moved into Dr. Richardson's office, where the secretary was going through his agenda for the day.
"At nine-thirty, you're meeting with the Board of Directors to discuss the situation involving Margie Barber and Dr. Hopkins. His lawyer will be in attendence, but Mitchell will be representing Margie and trying to defnd the situation. She's still sticking to her story that the diary entry they found with the...act described inside," the secretary blushed, "wasn't written by her, but according to some technology detective at the station, it was edited while she was actually in the interview. I don't know how that particular entry will hold up, but there is plenty of evidence pointing to her as the seductor. I foresee this meeting taking up most of your day, then you have paperwork to do for the football team's upcoming travel day," the secretary listed. Dr. Richardson sighed and dismissed her before picked up the morning paper. He scoffed and tossed the entire thing in the trash, making Fern smile as she walked around the grounds.
As students poured into the school, Fern noticed an older women in a flowing dress walking through the halls, and occasionally, through the students themselves. She waved to Fern, who stopped and waited for her in a small hallway leading to a side entrance to the library.
"I was hoping to find you here, young dear," the woman smiled. "My name is Madam Montgomery, and my husband was headmaster here approximately one hundred years ago. The work you've done to clear this place of partying prankster spirits has gotten around, and I hear my daughter might return here soon. The others ran her off, as they did me, but I see you're the type to accept any and all sorts of companionship," the woman winked. Fern gave her a confused look, and the woman chuckled, "I've been watching this school longer than Savanna whoever could even imagine. It's about time we get more open about that sort of thing, but no matter. I've come to ask you something about your future scandal-bashing."
"I understand that my tactics might've been a little brisk," Fern began, but the woman raised her hand, "No, no, I don't mind you being a little devious if it helps people, and my, my, my, you certainly helped people, didn't you?" she laughed, walking with Fern towards the administrative offices. "What I want to tell you is to be fearless and never doubt yourself. Besides, you're dead! The concerns of the living shouldn't bother you in the least, just as they haven't bothered me for centuries. I just stick around here to make sure this place doesn't completely crumble to the ground. That's why I'm here today, for the board meeting. You should come...another time," she smiled. "You should check on your old friends today. Rosewood Academy was created to bring people together, even those with a baseline education. If you maintain your connections with them, that bond could certanly be mended, especially once we weed out all the...bad apples!" she whispered, chuckling as Margie and her grandfather walked past the offices and into the board room.
Fern decided to follow the strange woman's older, closing her eyes and picturing Elwood City High. She arrived in the school's library, where Sue Ellen, George, and Buster were sitting at a small table with a school counsellor. Fern wondered why they were with a school official until she hid in the aisle near them: They had started a grief club to discuss their losses.
"I'm grateful that the three of you wish to come forward as one entity to speak of your grief, and that the three of you are coming together to celebrate a life you were unable to celebrate in the past because of the beliefs of others," the counsellor nodded. "I wish that we could have helped young, troubled Fern, but what's done is done, and I would like to know what the three of you wish to do to honor her death so that others do not follow a similar path."
"I want to publish her articles, all of them, in the local paper, as well as other editorials and articles involving situations like hers," Sue Ellen explained. The counsellor nodded and looked to George, "I...um...I just need help getting through this. I never got closure with her, and I just...I wish I could've talked to her after she published her article," George stammered.
"Perhaps you should write a letter," the counsellor suggested. Buster laughed, "Nah, no, you need to get the message directly to the source. She's still here. I've spoken with her, and-" Buster said, but the counsellor shook her head firmly, "No, no, that's not why we're here. And I hate to refute you, Buster, but that sort of thing isn't possible. Ghosts, just like aliens, are not real," the counsellor said firmly.
Fern grinned from the stacks and moved to a particularly thick section of books. In one swift movement, she pushed them all from the shelves, triggering the librarian to dart to their side of the room. The counsellor, who cried out when the books fell, blushed vividly as the librarian examined the mess. She then placed the books back on the shelves, her face pale from worry. The counsellor asked what could've caused such an event before she walked away, but the librarian could only shrug and get back to her job.
"She did that," Buster whispered, looking up as Prunella entered the room. Arthur entered directly after, but it was Prunella that Buster watched enter the room. "She's a clairvoyant. Fern told me so when we talked to each other. Prunella, tell her you can see and talk to the dead."
"Buster!" Prunella hissed through gritted teeth. When she saw the counsellor staring, she sighed heavily, "I know that sort of thing couldn't possibly be real. I take my medication faithfully every morning and evening to control my thoughts and keep the so-called evil thoughts from my brain," she chanted, her voice so monotonous that Fern laughed. The sound entered Prunella's ears and she blushed vividly.
"We know you're lying, Prunella," Buster smirked. "Come on, lady, let us speak our mind. That's why we wanted to start this grief club. I'm a grieving man, and I want more people to realize that their loved ones stay behind sometimes to see what they're up to. Prunella, come on, stop chanting that crap they told you and back me up here."
"Buster, come on, I thought this was a serious group," Arthur whispered. The counsellor nodded, gesturing for him to explain why he decided to show up. Arthur sighed, "My sister's best friend died, and I just...I can't wrap my head about it. I saw my mom when she got the call, and since then, I've felt so detached. But DW, she feels so horrible, and she can't figure out what happened to her friend. Then Kate told everyone DW got a gift from Emily that a friend of mine delivered, and I just...I need help getting through this."
"That's what Fern was doing at your house!" Buster cried. "Come on, lady, don't shake your head at me! Fern was at their house the day Emily died. She was talking to Kate when I went to the kitchen for a soda, and—hey, let me talk!" Buster exclaimed. The librarian shushed him as the counsellor held up her hand, "Buster, I'll have to stop you because that sort of stuff only happens in movies and on television. It does not happen in real life, and I'll ask that you respect the others and refrain from discussing that sort of thing."
"But that would make more sense than the truth," Arthur admitted. "Kate made sure DW found the box, and when she opened it, it was a charm bracelet that Emily told her about but never gave her. Mom said that Emily's mom or nanny must've delivered it, but Kate disagreed, and I was there the whole time and didn't see anyone go up there, so...maybe Buster's right, and maybe Prunella is right too."
"I think Prunella and Buster are right," Sue Ellen nodded. "I've felt Fern's presence since she passed, but the other night, I was able to see her. My mom thought this amulet was supposed to ward off spirits, but apparently it makes the spirits easier to see," Sue Ellen shrugged, taking off the amulet and showing it to the group. The counsellor sighed heavily and put her head in her hands, unsure of where to go from there. Luckily the bell rang, and because the club was only allotted time during second period, the group had to disburse. For the first time in a while, the group left together, agreeing to meet again after school just like they used to do when they were at Lakewood Elementary together.
Fern smiled to herself, moving to a balcony so she could watch the students of Elwood City High mingle. She felt as if a tension had been lifted from the school, even when her eyes fell on a very quiet Francine. Fern looked around wishing she could spot Catherine posing as "Charley the student," but she knew Catherine had moved on now. She wondered who else might show up next before moving to the Elwood City High gym to see what George was up to. Unlike the day before when Catherine was there, he was attempting to participate in the class, much to his coach's surprise. Fern smiled as she sat in the rafters, looking down to the group as they went through their exercises.
After a little while, Fern decided to drop in on the Rosewood Academy board meeting, but when she arrived, she found a mass of arguing people surrounding a sobbing Margie. Fern almost laughed at the scene as she moved to the clock tower to look over the grounds. The maintenance man was there again, a light smirk on his face. He gestured to a black-clad girl sitting in front of the clock. Fern approached her and sat beside her.
"I was wondering when you'd get back here. I was told to come see you when I got back into town. I'm Lady Montgomery's daughter," she introduced, extending her hand. Fern shook it before following her gaze to the grounds. "This place doesn't look the way it does when I last was here, but truly, Savanna and the others kept this place entertaining. Every Friday, they would pull the fire alarm or come up with some sort of prank. I found it entertaining, but Mother thought it was best if I kept away from them. So, I journeyed to France for the first time and discovered a vast estate to wander. She sent for me the other day when she first discovered they'd crossed over, but after over fifty years, I was surprised to hear she was able to find closure, and even more surprised to learn that so many others were able to move on as well. What in the world were you able to do here?" Lady Montgomery's daughter questioned.
"Savanna found closure from her murder," Fern suggested. "Otherwise, I'm not really sure why they left other than she was here. Savanna was the one in charge of everything, the one who kept everyone together for the night's parties. When I got here, everything changed, so I'm not sure how things were to know exactly how everything changed," Fern said.
The daughter nodded, sighing slightly, "Well, I'd like to come back here if Mother will allow me. When the meeting adjourns, she'll tell me yay or nay, but either way, I'd like to come back here if you're willing to share this place with me. My name is Patricia, by the way, but you can call me Pat when Mother isn't around. If Mother is around, I am always 'Lady Montgomery's daughter', no exceptions," Pat sighed heavily. "I ended my connections to that posh lifestyle years ago, decades even, but Mother has very high persuassion skills."
"You're not the only one parting ways from that lifestyle," Fern smiled, looking up as the worker departed. "Life without money isn't always as good as life with plenty, but I feel like my life was decent, at least when I was a young child," Fern muttered. Pat nodded and looked down to the school's grounds. Several board members were leaving at ridiculous speeds, one of them running to escape the school. Pat shook her head solemnly, "This place used to be better when everyone was held to the same standards, when each student was challenged to be the best they could be before they arrived, not afterward, and when everyone could be here with our without money. Those days of our past did not last long, but that just proves how greed played a role in Rosewood Academy's upbringing."
Fern nodded as Lady Montgomery burst up the stairs, wrapping her arms around her daughter and sighing heavily with relief, "Oh, darling, I thought you would just never get here. It's so good to see you, but I'm afraid the board meeting did not end as planned. Mitchell Barber had a heart attack right in the middle of the room, and little dirty Margie is a wreck!" Lady Montgomery exclaimed, swooning towards the floor. Her daughter guided her gently to the floor as Fern peered out the window. Sure enough, an ambulance was waiting at the street as paramedics rushed Mitchell Barber out of the school. Several cars were waiting to follow the ambulance as a police car arrived. An officer ran around the area, speaking to each driver, then he got into his car and drove away, leading the other cars out of the area.
"His day shall come eventually whether it is today or tomorrow," Pat whispered, fanning her mother gently. Lady Montgomery nodded as Fern looked down to the school's grounds again. She looked back and moved towards the stairs, "I think I'll go with them to find out what happens," Fern said. Neither woman replied, so Fern rushed downstairs and managed to get to the ambulance just as they finished boarding Mitchell. Fern sat in the passenger seat, using the rear view mirror to watch as two paramedics and a board member worked on the man. Fern could sense his situation was dire, and a few blocks from Elwood City General Hospital, the man's heart stopped beating, sending his spirit into the cabin of car.
"You, girl, you're a ghost!" Mitchell exclaimed, eying Fern carefully. "What the hell are you doing here anyway? Am I supposed to die or are you just a spectator?" he questioned. Fern shrugged, "I guess I'm just a spectator. I've followed the situation with your granddaughter, and though I missed the meeting, I can only imagine whatever it was you heard within those walls. I don't know whether to feel sorry for you or happy for your misfortune. Either way, I'm just here to see what happens to you and to help you if you need it."
Mitchell scoffed, "Help me? You sound as if you're proud of the scandal within those halls. I worked hard for that school, that academy!" Mitchell exclaimed, coughing heavily. A moment later, he disappeared as his body's pulse began again. Fern returned her gaze to the road as the ambulance drove into the ambulance bay of the hospital. She got out and followed behind the men as they rushed Mitchell inside. Mere seconds later, his heart stopped again, and Fern crossed her arms in defiance as the man began to yell at her, "You have no respect for my academy! None of those monsters do! I was doing what's best for my granddaughter, and now they're acting as if she's some sort of slut!"
"Are you aware of the allegations against your granddaughter?" Fern questioned. Mitchell shrugged, "Well, no, not really. She just wanted me to help her get into the school, so I introduced her to Dr. Hopkins. He's always enjoyed helping the young minds of the community, and since Margie's return...well, she has been far more emotional, according to her parents. I thought she was just a normal teenager, but now they're saying she secuded him. And others are saying he's been doing that for years, and I agree with them because they feel Dr. Hopkins targeted my granddaughter, but I don't know what to believe!" he cried. "You're watching for a reason, dear. Please, help me work through this!" he pleaded.
"Come on, we're losing him!" a nurse called. Fern looked to the man's spirit as he pleaded with Fern for help. She sighed softly, "I can't help you work through this. I barely know the truth, just as no one else in that room knows the truth. Whether she seduced him or not, relations occurred, and I did witness them. Others have as well, but everyone turned a blind eye to the madness. Why should people turn a blind eye to such misfortune? A young girl's innocence was taken, and whether she was truly innocent or not, the law will never care. Work through the situation however you wish, but if you don't go back to your body, you'll die before you get the chance," Fern pleaded. The man turned around and saw his body laying on the table, a man over him doing chest compressions while several others worked around him.
"You're right, whoever you are. You're right that it doesn't matter. I'll support my granddaughter, and I'll fight the Angel of Death. Thank you," Mitchell cried, stepping over to his body and fading back inside. Fern held her breath until the nurses clarified Mitchell Barber did indeed have a pulse. Fern then waited nearby until he was sent to a room. When he was comfortable inside and his family was allowed to visit, Fern was satisfied with his condition. She then left the hospital for Rosewood Academy, where she found Lady Montgomery and a few others playing bridge in the school cafeteria. Pat was watching nearby, her arms crossed while a cigarette smolded in her fingers.
"I knew this would happen," Pat muttered, finally taking a puff of her cigarette. "I was worried they would make this place boring again, and here it is. They want Rosewood Academy to be the playground they remember from their era, but this is a place for education, not poshness!" Pat sighed, exhaling a ghostly plume of smoke. Fern looked them over and felt herself agreeing with Pat. These people were just as bad, if not worse, than Savanna's gang of partying poltergeists. Fern approached the table as the women laughed at some ancient joke Fern didn't bother trying to understand.
"You all need to leave if that's what you plan to do here," Fern said firmly. Lady Montgomery discarded a card and laughed at Fern's measely attempt to get them to leave. Fern glared at them, "The entire problem with this school is judgment. You judged the ghosts of before, the ghosts who supposedly caused you to leave this place with their horrid pranks, but I see what happened. You wanted to continue your lifestyle, and they got in the way, so you left, willingly, but blamed them for your so-called misfortune. This place was always as horrible as it is now. You need to leave and let a new era come into power. Go, all of you. Go!" Fern shrieked, sending a shockwave through the room. The cards dissolved, as did the classic drinks and the cigarettes with their long filters. Fern watched as their expressions changed from defiant to dumbfounded. She smirked as the women gathered their skirts and left the room, all except one: Lady Montgomery's daughter.
"I'll help them find a new place to work on their bridge game," she said, nodding to Fern cordially. "Thank you for your help, and I'll return when they're settled. I've been meaning to catch up on my reading, and I think with the partiers gone, I should be able to read peacefully in the library again. You take me as a reader, by the way. You should introduce me to this new age literature, gradually of course," Pat smiled. Fern agreed, watching the woman as she followed the others out.
With Rosewood Academy quiet again, Fern decided that curling up with a good book would be the perfect way to spend her afternoon. She moved to a section containing mystery novels and plucked a book off the shelf. She took it to the clock tower, settling next to the glass clock face to delve into the fantastic streets of Sherlock Holmes.
Patricia entered the clock tower carrying several old books in her arms. She looked at Savanna's magazines with contempt as she sat on a nearby bench. She sighed heavily and looked Fern over. It was night now, and the glow from the moon made them both look even spookier than normal. Pat sighed again as she opened the top book.
"I always missed reading, but then again, Mother thought literacy wasn't for women like me, women who could use their power, not their education, to get everything they wanted," Pat scoffed, flipping through the pages. "When I was in France, I attempted to learn the language, but Mother's continuous harping was in my ear, always reminding me that no lady should know more than her man. Too bad I became sick before I found a decent man who knew everything in the world, a man I could never surprass in knowledge nor in strength," Pat smirked. "Sorry if I'm disturbing your reading, miss. I just...sometimes one just needs to vent their feelings to the proper source, and you take me as a wonderful listener."
"My best friend when I was living claimed I wasn't a good listener once, but she confirmed I was not long before I...made my decision. You can continue talking about whatever you need to talk about," Fern said, closing her book. Patricia nodded, closing her own book and looking up to Fern, "I, um..., I'll be honest about something. You're the first suicider who hasn't cast this place under a constant spell of gloom. It's as if you were meant to die that way when you did, which is just...I've never seen anything like that.
"You see, not long after I came here to spend my days with my mother, one of Rosewood Academy's oldest board members jumped from the roof on the opposite side of the building. He left a suicide note about the thickness of all of our books combined, and he blamed everyone he'd ever met for his untimely demise and constant unhappiness. Parents almost refused to send their children here because of the constant storms, the strange happenings that befell almost everyone here, and the overall feeling of the event. Finally, he was banished from here by a local priestess, but no one ever talks about the event. You, on the other hand, will probably be talked about for years by everyone in the community. You and your story will finally put Rosewood Academy back into the minds of Elwood City's residents, and for good reasons...once all these scandals clear up, of course," Pat smiled.
"I thank you for saying so. Sadly, I feel happier now than I ever did while I was alive. I wonder if that comes across when people encounter me here," Fern pondered. Pat shrugged, "I'm not sure, but...oh, Mother wanted me to inform you that Mitchell Barber should live from his heart attack. She said a friend of hers at the hospital noticed you were there earlier. He said if it wasn't for you, Mitchell might've remained outside his body for too long and passed away. Is that true?"
"While I despise Margie and her grandfather for my own personal reasons, I wanted him to live to work through his issues. My issues couldn't be solved when I was alive. I think I would've always lived in a constant state of misery, the woe of so many great writers. But as I am, I'm happier, and I was able to work through each misfortune, past and present, to become better. He never would've done that," Fern said, shaking her head softly as she looked out to the school's grounds. "It's beautiful up here, by the way, more beautiful than I thought this place could be. Maybe if Mitchell lives long enough and no more scandals pop up, the entire school can see how beautiful this place truly is."
"You're a good soul, Fern Walters," Pat smiled, opening her book again. Fern did the same, and the two read by the light of the moon until morning, when the decided to venture downstairs to see what happened during the night. Mitchell Barber was resting peacefully, they reported, and the police managed to work through Margie's journal to determine that she did not post the most devious of her diary entries. They allowed her to delete it from the blog, which made Fern very happy, but everything else remained, and the lawyers of Dr. Hopkins vowed to use those entries against her in civil court.
Otherwise, the school was quiet, and students soon filed through the doors to begin their day once more. Pat decided to walk the grounds, leaving Fern inside the building to decide what to do for the day. She wasn't sure what she would do, but she knew that no matter what she eventually decided to do each day, numerous people supported her for not only her decisions but her actions as well.