"Honestly Brad I do not know how many times I have to say this b-"

"Yes, yes," Brad said impatiently, "I have terrible language, blah, blah, let me read now." Andy gave his middle son a stern unimpressed look at immediately humbled the teenage boy. "Sorry Dad," he mumbled.

"Just read," Andy said coolly.

Obeying his father Brad quickly turned to look at the book and began to read.

I guess I was in kind of a bad mood because of Jesse interrupting my little heart-to-heart with Father Dominic. But that was no reason for him to come up behind me as I was walking toward the group around the fire and whisper, "Behave," in my ear.

"Going on her previous interactions with ghosts, particularly this lot, I say there was plenty of need for Jesse to say that," David observed.

I flashed him a look of annoyance. "I always do," I said.

Everyone snorted at that one. Yeah right.

You know what he did then? He laughed! And not in a very nice way, either. I couldn't believe it.

"Strangely enough I can," Helen said shaking her head disbelievingly at her daughter's thought process.

"So can I," Andy grinned.

When I got close enough to the group to be able to make out the expressions on their faces, I didn't see anything to convince me they weren't still the same ghosts who'd tried to kill me - twice - in two days.

"Well they're not killer ghosts, they're just deeply hurt children who want revenge," Helen said sadly.

"Wait a minute," Josh said when he recognized me. He climbed quickly to his feet, and pointed accusingly at me. "That's the bitch who -"

"Excuse me!" Helen snapped. "What did you just call my daughter, young man?"

"It's not me!" Brad protested. "It's the book! See!"

"Oh sorry honey," Helen said softening, "I was talking to the book."

Brad stared at her as if she was mental but was quick to continue reading when he glanced at his father.

Jesse stepped quickly into the fire lit circle. "Now," he said, "I told you who these people were -"

"You said they were going to help us," Felicia wailed from where she sat the skirt of her evening dress poofing up all around her. "But that girl there kicked me in the face this afternoon!"

"Like you didn't deserve it," Jake muttered.

"Oh," I said, "like you weren't trying to drown me at the time?"

Father Dominic stepped quickly between me and the ghosts and said, "My children, my children, do not be alarmed. We are here to help you, if we can."

"Thank God Father Dominic is there or otherwise we might be reading about another catfight or something worse," Andy said.

"Why couldn't there be a catfight?" Brad moaned under his breath. It would be so hot to see the likes of Carrie, Felicia, and Suze wrestling in mud together.

"Pig," David muttered. While he wasn't exactly pure being a teenage boy he still felt that women shouldn't be ogled like that.

Josh Saunders, stunned, said, "You can see us?"

"I can," Father Dominic said solemnly. "Susannah and I are, as I'm sure Jesse explained mediators. We can see you, and we want to help you. Indeed, it is our responsibility to help you. Only, you must understand, it is also our responsibility to ensure that you don't harm anyone. That is why Susannah tried to stop you earlier today, and, if I understand correctly, the day before."

This caused Mark Pulsford to say a bad word. Felicia Bruce elbowed him and said, "Cut it out. That guy's a priest."

"At least someone has manners," Andy grumbled.

Mark said, belligerently, "He is not."

"Yes he is, moron," Jake rolled his eyes.

"He is so," Felicia said. "Can't you see the little white thingie around his neck?"

"White thingie," Brad snickered.

"I am a priest." Father Dominic hastened to cut the argument short. "And I am telling you the truth. You can call me Father Dominic. And this is Susannah Simon. Now, we understand that the four of you feel a bit of resentment toward Mr. Meducci -"

"A bit of resentment? A bit of resentment?" Jake echoed. "Bloody hell Father D talk about understating things!"

"Jake!"

"Oh right, sorry Dad," Jake said sheepishly.

"Resentment?" Josh, still standing, glared at Father Dominic. "Resentment? It's because of that jerk that we're all dead!"

Only he didn't say jerk.

"Kids," Andy rolled his eyes. Hopeless the lot of them.

Father Dominic raised his white eyebrows, but Jesse said, calmly, "Why don't you tell the father what it was you told me, Josh, so that he and Susannah can begin to understand."

Josh, his bowtie hanging loosely around his neck, and the first few buttons of his dress shirt undone, lifted a hand and ran his fingers frustratedly through his short blond hair. He had obviously been, in life, an extremely good-looking boy.

"Urgh," Brad groaned, "she's not going to lust after another ghost is she?"

Blessed with looks, intelligence, and wealth (his parents had to have money if they could afford to send him to Robert Louis Stevenson School, which was as expensive as it was exclusive), Josh Saunders was having trouble adjusting to the only misfortune that had ever befallen him in his short, happy life:

His untimely death.

"Poor boy," Helen murmured.

"Spoilt brat," Jake muttered.

"Look," he said. The sounds of the waves, and now the crackle of the little fire they'd made, were easily drowned out by his deep voice. Had he lived, Josh might have been anything, I thought to myself, from professional athlete to president. He exuded that kind of confidence.

Both Helen and Andy sighed. It was awful when a life filled with so potential is destroyed when it was still so very young. Those poor parents.

"On Saturday night we went to a dance," he said. "A dance , okay? And afterward, we thought we might go for a drive, and park - "

Carrie chimed in: "We always park at the Point on Saturday night."

"The observation point," Felicia explained.

"It's so pretty," Carrie said.

"Really pretty," Felicia said with a quick glance at Father Dominic.

"Who are they kidding?" Jake snorted.

"Yeah right," Brad rolled his eyes.

"Even I wouldn't fall for that," Andy muttered.

I stared at them. Who were they kidding? We all knew what they were doing parked at the observation point.

"Actually," Helen said rather amused, "I suspect only Suze knows what they were doing. Both Father Dominic and Jesse are from different worlds."

And it wasn't looking at the view.

"Yeah," Mark said. "Plus no cops ever come by, and make us move. You know?"

Andy and Helen rolled their eyes. Teenagers.

Ah. Such honesty was refreshing.

There were a few snorts at that.

"All right," Josh said. He had shoved his hands in his trouser pockets. Now he took them out, and held them, palms toward us. "So we went for this drive. Everything's going fine, right? Same as any other Saturday night. Only it wasn't the same. Because this last time, when we went around the corner, you know, that hairpin curve up there, something rammed us -"

Brad looked angry as he read this, Helen shuddered and Andy was gripping tight on her hand as he thought of how that could have been his own children.

"Yeah," Carrie said. "No lights, no warning, nothing. Just bam."

"Poor kids," Helen murmured again.

"We went right into the guardrail," Josh said. "No big deal. We weren't going very fast. I thought, Shit, I crushed the fender. And I started to back up. But then he hit us again -"

"Son of a bitch!" Brad swore. Andy didn't correct him this time he was thinking exactly the same thing.

"Oh, but surely -" Father Dominic began.

There was a couple eye rolls at that.

Josh, however, went on as if the priest hadn't spoken.

"And the second time he hit us," Josh said, "we just kept on going."

"As if the guardrail weren't even there," Felicia put in.

"We went straight over." Josh slipped his hands back into his pockets. "And woke up down here. Dead."

Everyone shuddered at that. It sounded awful falling, and falling, and falling, only to wake up as a ghost on the beach instead of in your own bed finding out it was a nightmare.

There was silence after that. At least no one spoke. There was still the sound of the waves, of course, and the crackling of the fire. Spray from the sea, blown by the wind, was coating my hair and forming little ice crystals in it. I moved closer to the fire, thankful for its warmth...

And realized, all in a rush, why the RLS Angels had gone to the trouble of building it. Because that's what they'd have done if they'd still been alive. They'd have built a fire for warmth. So what if they could no longer feel its heat? It didn't matter. That's what live people would have done.

And all they wanted was to be alive again.

Helen felt her eyes sting with tears at this. She couldn't even imagine what those poor children must have felt and it could have so easily been her own children.

"Troubling," Father Dominic said. "Very troubling. But surely, my children, you can see that it was just an accident - "

"Give it up, Father D!" Jake shouted.

"An accident?" Josh glared at Father D. "There was nothing accidental about it, Father. That guy, that Michael guy, came at us on purpose ."

"But that's ridiculous," Father Dominic said. "Perfectly ridiculous. Why on earth would he do such a thing?"

"Oh come on!" Brad snapped.

David shook his head. "There is an extent you can believe in the good of a person before it becomes ridiculous in itself."

"Simple," Josh said with a shrug. "He's jealous."

"What?" David said sceptically.

"Jealous?" Father Dominic looked appalled. "Perhaps you aren't aware of this, young man, but Michael Meducci, whom I have known since he was in the first grade, is a very gifted student. He is well liked by his fellow classmates. Why in heaven's name would he...No. No, I'm sorry. You're mistaken, my boy."

"Well liked?" Brad snorted. "In what reality?"

I wasn't sure which universe Father Dom was living in, the one where Michael Meducci was well liked by his fellow classmates, but it sure wasn't this one.

Brad looked horrified that he said something similar to Suze while his brothers laughed loudly at his face.

As far as I knew, no one at the Mission Academy liked Michael Meducci, or even knew him, outside of the chess club. But then, I had only been there a few months, so maybe I was wrong.

"No you're not," Brad said grudgingly. God he hated this.

"He may be gifted," Josh said, "but he's still a geek."

"Jerk," David muttered.

Father Dominic blinked at him. "Geek?" he ventured.

Everyone looked vaguely amused at this. Poor Father Dominic he must have felt like a foreigner around all this teenagers.

"You heard me." Josh shook his head. "Look, Father, face facts. Your boy Meducci is nothing. Nothing. We" -he pointed at himself, then gestured toward his friends - "on the other hand, were it . The most popular people in our school. Nothing happened at RLS unless it had our seal of approval. A party wasn't a party until we got there. A dance wasn't a dance unless Josh, Carrie, Mark, and Felicia, the RLS 'Angels', were there. Okay? Are you getting the picture now?"

David and Jake rolled their eyes.

Father Dominic looked confused. "Um," he said. "Not quite."

David and Helen giggled a little at that while Jake and Andy grinned.

Josh rolled his eyes. "Is this guy for real?" he asked me and Jesse.

"Jesse isn't going to be any help," Jake rolled his eyes.

Jesse said, without smiling, "Very much so."

"Okay," Josh said. "Then let me put it to you this way. This Meducci guy? He may have the sparkling GPA. But so what? That's nothing. I've got a 4.0. I hold the school record in the high jump. I belong to the National Honor Society. I play forward on the basketball team. I've been president of the student council for three years in a row, and for a lark, this spring I tried out for, and got, the lead in the school drama society's production of Romeo and Juliet. Oh, and guess what? I was accepted to Harvard. Early decision."

"Bright boy," Helen murmured.

Josh paused to take a breath. Father Dominic opened his mouth to say something, but Josh barrelled right along.

"Kids," Andy rolled his eyes.

"How many Saturday nights," Josh asked, "do you think Michael Meducci has sat alone in his room playing video games? Huh? Well, let me put it to you another way: do you know how many I've spent caressing a joystick? None. Want to know why? Because there's never been a Saturday night when I didn't have something to do, a party to go to or a girl to take out. And not just any girl, either, but the hottest, most popular girls in school. Carrie here" - he gestured at Carrie Whitman, sitting in the sand in her ice-blue evening gown - "models part-time up in San Francisco. She's done commercials. She was homecoming queen."

"Two years in a row," Carrie pointed out in her squeaky voice.

Josh nodded. "Two years in a row. Are you starting to get it now, Father? Is Michael Meducci dating a model? I don't think so. Is Michael Meducci's best friend like mine, Mark over there, captain of the football team? Does Michael Meducci have a full athletic scholarship to UCLA?"

Mark, obviously not the group genius, went, with feeling, "Go Bruins."

"Like Brad," Jake whispered to David who snickered quietly.

"What about me?" Felicia demanded.

Jake rolled his eyes. Vain girls...

Josh said, "Yes, what about Mark's girlfriend, Felicia? Head cheerleader, captain of the dance team, and, oh yeah, winner of a National Merit Scholarship because of her superior grades. So, keeping all that in mind, let's ask that question again, shall we? Why would a guy like Michael Meducci want people like us dead? Simple: he's jealous."

"Jealousy can do a lot of things," Andy agreed, "but it's very rarely a motive for a murderer."

The silence that swept in after this statement was almost as penetrating as the smell of brine permeating the air. No one said a word. The Angels looked too self-righteous to speak, and Father Dom seemed stunned by their revelations. Jesse's feelings on the subject were unclear; he looked a little bored. I guess to a guy born over a hundred and fifty years ago, the words National Merit Scholarship don't mean much.

"I doubt he agrees with the Angels," David said.

I pried my tongue from where it had been stuck to the roof of my mouth. I was very thirsty from my long hike down, and I certainly wasn't looking forward to the climb back up to Father Dom's car.

"She should have brought some water," Helen said, "and she really shouldn't do this at night, she needs her rest."

But I felt compelled, despite my discomfort, to speak.

"Or," I said, "It could be because of his sister."

"And that's the end of the entry!" Brad said slamming the book shut. "How awesome is it that I get the shortest entry so far?"

"Why am I related to you?" David despaired.