Disclaimer: We don't own Pokemon, Pikachu, or Monopoly. Neither of us sees dead people, but if you sue us, we'll pretend we do, and then plead insanity. (And this joke will make more sense once you read the fic.)
Author's Notes:
Lucia: Hi, all! Dana and Lucia here, writing a story-
Setsuna: Or attempting to.
Lucia: *baps her muse on the head* Quiet, you! Um, anyway...
Dana: Yes, where were we? Oh yes! What brought about this story? Well, it's all Lucia's fault...
Lucia: *sighs* Yup, it's always my fault, isn't it? ^_~ But I guess it was...*points wildly at her dog* his idea! Not mine!
Dana: *snrk* Oh of course, blame the dog! And I suppose it's my cat's fault as well? Well, she does like to jump on the keyboard... Maybe if she did in the proper order...
Joanie: *meows*
Dana: Never mind. ^^
Lucia: *pets cat* Nice kitty. Nice kitty. Pretty...*gets starry eyes and falls over*
Dana: Aheheh... where was I? Oh yes... author's notes... just take it this way, this fic was inspired by a song, and since Lucia's distracted by the kitty I'll tell you which... Hotel California. And that should throw you for a loop completely... Lucia, anything to add? *pokes co-author*
Lucia: Kitty. *_* Um...yeah...it was inspired by Hotel California... And in some way, that led, in my twisted mind, to ghosts. (A couple of the lines...)
Dana: And well... that led from one thing to another...
Lucia: Suprise! She wanted Hiro! ^^ Kitty...^_^
Dana: Blow out your candles and maybe your wish will come true! *holds up cake* ^^ *kitty shaped cake* ^^
Lucia: Kitty! *sticks face in cake*
Dana: *hands Lucia the cake and laughs nervously* Enjoy the fanfic... ahehe...
Archiving: Nope, this is ours, and WE (not Lucia and I, I think I'm being imperial here) ARE MEAN! Archiving only on end of summer and Lucia's site. Okay, and fanfiction.net too. Cause I'm nice. Confuzzling sentences, ne?
Feedback: Feed the kitties! And the authors too. ^^ Millions of authors die each year due to lack of feedback... Have a heart! Give some feedback!
~~~~~
I floated downstairs and through a wall, peeping in on the family unloading stuff into the living room. This family wouldn't last long. None of them did, when they found out that there were ghosts living in the house. Too bad, too. The boy is so sweet-faced and full of life. Just the opposite of me. He looks really nice, I reflect, and wish I was alive so that we could be friends.
"No one's stayed here very long..." the mother is saying, reflecting my own thoughts. "And when I tried to ask why not, I got some evasive answers...something about ghosts and a great tragedy."
"Satoshi!" she yells suddenly. "Take your stuff upstairs and pick out a room."
"OK, Mama," the boy, Satoshi, I assume, yells. I follow him upstairs, where he pokes through the rooms, until he comes to the room that used to be mine. "Cool!" he says cheerfully when he sees the old laundry chute. I had said pretty much the same thing when I first saw it. He immediately drops the box and suitcase he's carrying and fishes a penny out of it, dropping it down the chute and beaming.
I didn't mean to materialize. It just tends to happen when I watch people enjoying themselves. He turned around, and with a startled squeak, jumped back. Oh, great, now I've done it. This one will last even less than the last five. His eyes widen and he sticks his hand through where my chest used to be.
"Cool," he says. Wait. Did he just say "cool"?
~~~~~
"My name's Satoshi," I tell the red-haired boy who's in front of me. He's about my age... This is really cool. I didn't think that I'd find any friends in this house, and maybe he can be my friend. I wonder if he wants to be friends, though. My Mama moves so often, it's not funny anymore, "what's your name?"
"Shigeru." He replies uneasily. I smile and move my hand. He really seems nervous and I don't know why. It's kind of like when I'm getting a really big gift for my birthday and I don't know what it is. You know, that kind of surprised.
"I need to tell Mama about this. She..."
He waves his arms frantically about. "No, no, please don't do that. Then she'd want to move and take you away..."
I think I can understand that. I don't want to move. Not if the house has cool things like this. "Wanna be friends?" I ask. It's kind of funny, the look he has on his face. I mean, and I thought he looked surprised before.
~~~~~
"Y-yeah," I stammer. "I would love to be your friend. Can I call you Sato?" He nods solemnly up at me, his big brown eyes making him look innocent. How adorable. "What do you like to play?" I asked him.
He pauses to consider for a moment, and pulls a stuffed toy out of his suitcase. "This is my stuffed Pikachu toy," he says, pointing to the little yellow mouse-like creature.
"Pikachu?" I ask. "What's...Pikachu?"
He frowns. "Everyone knows who Pikachu is! He's a guy on TV and he follows this girl around on adventures. And he gets the bad guys to leave them alone by zapping them."
"Oh..." I said, still mystified.
"Anyways, me an' Pikachu like to play in the woods and stuff together...and sometimes we play board games."
"I like board games," I replied tentatively.
"OK!" He says. "Then we can play Monopoly. 'Least until Mom gets the Playstation hooked up."
~~~~~
Shigeru still kind of looks kind of confused. But I drop Pikachu on the bed then kneel beside my bags and start to look for some of my games. They have to be somewhere in here... "Ah, here's Monopoly! I want to be the racecar... is that okay?"
I look up at him and he nods. I smile and set the game down, pulling it apart. "I normally have ta play this with Mama. She says I don't know the rules right." I unfold the board. "I can play just fine. What piece do you want, Shigeru?"
He sits down, a dazed look on his face. "Oh, um, the dog?"
I smile and hand it to him. "Here."
Okay, maybe Mama was right. "Um, do you know how to play-?"
I can hear my Mama's footsteps on the stares, "Satoshi, where...? Oh, there you are darling. Satoshi... what are you doing sitting there by yourself?"
I crinkle my nose and fold my arms across my chest. "I'm not alone, Shigeru's with me!"
My mother looks blank then smiles and nods. "That's nice, darling. You need to try and unpack your things. There's a lot of work you have to do."
She leaves me and I smile at Shigeru. "My Mama's funny, isn't she?"
~~~~~
"Ano..." I say. "Sato, your Mama's gonna think you're nuts." I state, looking at him. "I'll help you unpack, OK? Then we can play some more."
"But I thought you couldn't touch stuff, cause my hand went right through you," Sato says. I concentrate for a moment, getting my hands to solidify enough to pick up a box. "Ohhh," he says. "Cool."
I grin at him and begin to unload the box, putting stuff in the drawers of the dresser the moving people already brought up. "See?" I tell him cheerfully. "No prob."
~~~~~
I'm really glad that Shigeru's willing to help me. I mean, there's so much. And there's gonna be more... I'm just happy to have a friend like him. I mean, I really want him to be my friend...
We move so much, though, so I'm worried that I'll have to move away from here, and him, too. And I don't want that to happen.
"Hey, Sato, who's this?" He asks, and I turn from putting away socks to see what he's holding.
"Oh, that's a picture of my Mama and my..." I turn away and put my socks in the drawer some more. "My Dad. He left us a couple years ago..." I'm not a little baby. I'm not gonna cry in front of Shigeru...
Dad leaving really messed up everything. I think that's why Mama's so sad. And why my sister's off at boarding school. The family just got torn all to pieces... but I'm not gonna think about that. I'm not...
"That's pretty tough, Sato..." He says softly and sets down the picture frame again.
"But it's not that bad, cause you're here now, Shigeru." I say with a smile.
~~~~~
I must be blushing. I certainly feel embarrassed. "A-arigatou, Satoshi-kun," I mumble. "Ano...everyone else...was afraid of me. So I'm glad you're here, 'cause you're not scared of me."
He looks somewhat puzzled. "Why should I be scared of you? You haven't tried to hurt me or anything."
"Cause I'm a ghost!" I reply.
"So? You're a nice ghost," he says cheerfully, attempting (unsuccessfully) to hug me around the waist. I firm up for a second and put my arm around his shoulder. "You're nice, Sato-kun."
He sticks his tongue out at me. "'Course I am!" He looks a little sad. "You'll always be my friend, right, Geru?"
"Sure," I agreed. I wasn't going anywhere.
~~~~~
I can't help but smile. I really believe him! He'll always be my friend... well, it's something nice ta think about for the time being, at least right now. I mean, Mama can't move right yet...
I know she doesn't do it... malic... malcil... mailc... like she's mean or nothin', but still, she always decides to move once I've finally started to fit in. Sometimes, we're not even there long enough for that...
"Thanks." I smile and hug him again.
"I'll miss you when I have to go ta school, though..." I say, crinkling my nose. I hate school...why do I have to go, anyway?
"I'll be here when you get back though, Sato..." he says softly.
Well, I guess that's true. I grab some more clothes and start to shove them in the drawer. "You could always go with me, couldn't ya? That'd be so cool!"
~~~~~
I blink. "I don't know if I could, Sato-chan. I've never tried to go anywhere before. I just kinda...stay here. I think ghosts are supposed to be bound to the place where they die or something."
"So you can't leave this room?" Sato pouts.
"Well...maybe I can, now that I have a reason to. I'll try to go to school with you, Sato. Cause I really want to!"
We've finished putting his stuff away. He doesn't have that much- maybe because he moves so often. "We could try playing a game, again." I frown. But not Monopoly.
Sato pauses to consider, and then dives into the chest by his bed we didn't bother emptying and comes up with a pack of cards. "How about War?" he asks.
"Sure!" I say, since he picked my favorite card game.
~~~~~
We play cards until my Mama comes up stairs to tell me I need to get ready to take my bath and eat dinner. She shakes her head at the cards all over the floor. "I was playing..."
"Well, clean up, we'll be eating soon."
I nod and stare at Shigeru once Mama's gone. "I guess I need to go... it was fun."
He smiles. "It's not like you'll be gone forever."
"Yeah true... so you'll think about going to school with me? I start tomorrow and I don't want to be alone..."
He nods sincerely. "I promise I'll try."
I smile and we clean up the mess of cards. "Thank you, Geru. You're gonna be a great friend."
He's blushing again. He's such a silly boy. "Thank you, Sato. I'm glad you think so."
I smile and then I hear my Mama's voice. I crinkle my nose. "I don't wanna take a bath... I hate taking baths..."
He smiles. "Oh come on, it won't kill you or anything."
"I know but Mama buys this girly smelling stuff..." I crinkle my nose again and Shigeru laughs out loud. I blink. "Did I say something funny?"
~~~~~
"Yeah..." I giggle at him. "But the girls will like you better if you smell like girl stuff instead of dirt 'n stuff. At least that's what Ma used to tell me."
Sato blinks at me. "But I don't like girls. They're icky."
I shrug. "Yeah, but Mama always said that when I got older, I'd feel bad for not being nicer to the girls. And Ma always knew what she was talking about, so I believed her."
Sato makes a face. "Ano...and I trust you...so I guess I have to be nice to girls. Although that red-headed girl next door said hello when we were comin' in. She seemed OK, if a little bit bossy."
I laughed. "Yeah, I've watched her a couple of times. She's a little bit tomboyish, and don't make her mad, but other than that, she's OK."
He looks at me. "Really? Then maybe we could all be friends. I mean, if that's OK with you, an' she doesn't mind that you're a ghost."
"OK, Sato," I agree, just to make him happy.
~~~~~
Shigeru really knows what he's talking about. I mean, my first day of school isn't even turning out that badly, now that he's around.
Kasumi's even nice. But I like Shigeru lots better.
Of course, we haven't even gotten to the recess. But how could things go bad when I have Shigeru around? He's my bestest friend ever...
"Hey, Shigeru, do you eat lunch?"
"Satoshi, who are you talking about?"
I look up at the teacher and smile. "Oh, just to myself, Mishihara-sensei."
The teacher shakes her head. Hey, I don't want anyone to find out about Shigeru... "Satoshi, you're pushing it too close."
'S'all right, I don't mind.' I write down on my paper with a smile. I know he can read what I write, so it's a good way to talk to each other.
"The teacher is going to think you're insane."
I wrinkle my nose. 'But I'm not.'
We argue like that and then the class gets let out for lunch and recess. You know, Shigeru never answered my question! "Shigeru, do you eat lunch?" I ask as I get my backpack and my Pikachu.
"Aren't you too old to take that to school?"
I glower up at him. "I am not! Pikachu's great so I can take him around with me..."
We argue like that until we reach the schoolyard. Shigeru shuts up abruptly, and I wonder why... Oh, everyone is looking at us... I blush, I hate bein' stared at like that, and rush off with Pikachu in my arms and Shigeru behind me.
"See what you got yourself into!" he says all superior like.
I hmph in his general direction then sit down and end up starting to eat from my lunch box. "You're..."
"Stop it, I need my lunch money..." Whoever said that, well, they don't seem rather enthused by it at all. I set down what I was eating, getting up to peak around where I'd secluded myself from the rest of the playground.
"Hey! That's not fair!"
"Sato..."
"It's, *not*, Geru!"
There's a pair of bullies over their, picking on a blond haired kid. Kind of looks my age or so... That's one thing that I don't like at all - bullies.
"Oh, come on, Hiroshi," the girl with magenta hair laughs, "you need to fight back more than that!"
Hiroshi groans and I run forward. This isn't fair at all! They shouldn't be picking on him like this... "Sato, don't!"
Sorry, Shigeru... "Hey, stop picking on him!" I shout at the two. The blue haired guy blinks and bursts out laughing. I decide right then and there that I don't really like the bigger kids at the school.
"He thinks he's gonna stop us!"
"What, gonna use your little stuffed Pikachu on us?" the girl remarks snidely.
"I-I-HEY! Give me back Pikachu!"
~~~~~
Oh, great. The bullies stole Sato-chan's stuffed Pikachu. And he, being Sato, is charging the boy with the blue hair, trying very ineffectually to land a punch on the older boy, who just yawns and blocks Sato's punches. "Here, Musashi!" the boy yells, throwing the Pikachu to the girl (Musashi). She giggles, and they begin to play keep-away. Hmmm...this would be a good time for me to make a ghostly entrance.
I grab the stuffed toy from midair, and I know that all the bullies can see is the Pikachu floating in midair. I grin and let myself drift into focus. Both bullies yelp, and they take off in less time than it takes for me to say "Boo."
I worry for a second that they'll be back with a teacher, and then I realize that they won't tell anyone because no one will believe them anyway and they'll just look stupid.
"Heya," Sato's saying to the blond. "His name's Shigeru. He's nice. And I'm Sato."
~~~~~
I can't help but smile 'cause of the stunned look on Hiroshi's face. "Wow... um, my name's Hiroshi... I guess you all ready knew that..."
I nod and Shigeru's just grinning.
"Thanks... wow, what are you? I mean you just showed up..."
I decide in the next ten minutes, that Hiroshi is pretty cool. I mean, he's nice to know and he's nice to Shigeru and that makes him great.
He's kind of treating Shigeru like I did when I first met him... you know, cause he's so great and stuff. Sometimes I just don't know how to think right.
With a smile, Shigeru hands me back my Pikachu and I smile. "Thanks."
"Welcome, Sato."
"So... wow... is it your first day here?"
I nod. "Yep... Mama and I just moved in..."
We go on and on, talking about where I like, where he lives, figuring out that we live a street away from each other...
"Cool, cool! You have to come over... It'll be fun to play with you! Both of you. And maybe Kasumi'll be able to come out, too..."
I don't think I've ever been so happy. I mean, I've never had so many friends in such a short amount of time. It's... really nice. I hope Mama's gonna see it the way that I do...
I blink at the sound of that bully, Musashi's, voice. "There they are! Over there!"
Shigeru has a big grin on his face as he fades out of existence... Hiroshi looks appropriately wowed. "Hiroshi, Satoshi, Musashi and Kojiro say that you started some sort of commotion."
Hiroshi's got the most innocent expression plastered on his face. "What do you mean, Kujitaka-sensei?"
You know, he really is going to be a great friend. Cause he has the teacher eating out of his hands...
"But we saw-!"
"No! This is enough. You're taking up my free time." The teacher turns to storm off.
Kojiro gets big eyed and shoots a whiney glance at Musashi. "But! Kujitaka-!"
"I said that's enough! Give the boy back his lunch money, I *know* this is what this is all about, and leave them both alone!"
Musashi and Kojiro look defeated, but it's the sort of thing that swears there will be vengeance. Who cares? Shigeru can kick their butts.
When they're gone and we're all away, I look at Shigeru and Hiroshi and start laughing. "That was great! This is the bestest first day of school ever!" But when there's a beginning, the rest only gets better, or so my Mama likes to say... and I'm really sure that this is going to turn out all storybook perfect.
~~~~~
Author's Notes:
Lucia: Hi, all! Dana and Lucia here, writing a story-
Setsuna: Or attempting to.
Lucia: *baps her muse on the head* Quiet, you! Um, anyway...
Dana: Yes, where were we? Oh yes! What brought about this story? Well, it's all Lucia's fault...
Lucia: *sighs* Yup, it's always my fault, isn't it? ^_~ But I guess it was...*points wildly at her dog* his idea! Not mine!
Dana: *snrk* Oh of course, blame the dog! And I suppose it's my cat's fault as well? Well, she does like to jump on the keyboard... Maybe if she did in the proper order...
Joanie: *meows*
Dana: Never mind. ^^
Lucia: *pets cat* Nice kitty. Nice kitty. Pretty...*gets starry eyes and falls over*
Dana: Aheheh... where was I? Oh yes... author's notes... just take it this way, this fic was inspired by a song, and since Lucia's distracted by the kitty I'll tell you which... Hotel California. And that should throw you for a loop completely... Lucia, anything to add? *pokes co-author*
Lucia: Kitty. *_* Um...yeah...it was inspired by Hotel California... And in some way, that led, in my twisted mind, to ghosts. (A couple of the lines...)
Dana: And well... that led from one thing to another...
Lucia: Suprise! She wanted Hiro! ^^ Kitty...^_^
Dana: Blow out your candles and maybe your wish will come true! *holds up cake* ^^ *kitty shaped cake* ^^
Lucia: Kitty! *sticks face in cake*
Dana: *hands Lucia the cake and laughs nervously* Enjoy the fanfic... ahehe...
Archiving: Nope, this is ours, and WE (not Lucia and I, I think I'm being imperial here) ARE MEAN! Archiving only on end of summer and Lucia's site. Okay, and fanfiction.net too. Cause I'm nice. Confuzzling sentences, ne?
Feedback: Feed the kitties! And the authors too. ^^ Millions of authors die each year due to lack of feedback... Have a heart! Give some feedback!
~~~~~
I floated downstairs and through a wall, peeping in on the family unloading stuff into the living room. This family wouldn't last long. None of them did, when they found out that there were ghosts living in the house. Too bad, too. The boy is so sweet-faced and full of life. Just the opposite of me. He looks really nice, I reflect, and wish I was alive so that we could be friends.
"No one's stayed here very long..." the mother is saying, reflecting my own thoughts. "And when I tried to ask why not, I got some evasive answers...something about ghosts and a great tragedy."
"Satoshi!" she yells suddenly. "Take your stuff upstairs and pick out a room."
"OK, Mama," the boy, Satoshi, I assume, yells. I follow him upstairs, where he pokes through the rooms, until he comes to the room that used to be mine. "Cool!" he says cheerfully when he sees the old laundry chute. I had said pretty much the same thing when I first saw it. He immediately drops the box and suitcase he's carrying and fishes a penny out of it, dropping it down the chute and beaming.
I didn't mean to materialize. It just tends to happen when I watch people enjoying themselves. He turned around, and with a startled squeak, jumped back. Oh, great, now I've done it. This one will last even less than the last five. His eyes widen and he sticks his hand through where my chest used to be.
"Cool," he says. Wait. Did he just say "cool"?
~~~~~
"My name's Satoshi," I tell the red-haired boy who's in front of me. He's about my age... This is really cool. I didn't think that I'd find any friends in this house, and maybe he can be my friend. I wonder if he wants to be friends, though. My Mama moves so often, it's not funny anymore, "what's your name?"
"Shigeru." He replies uneasily. I smile and move my hand. He really seems nervous and I don't know why. It's kind of like when I'm getting a really big gift for my birthday and I don't know what it is. You know, that kind of surprised.
"I need to tell Mama about this. She..."
He waves his arms frantically about. "No, no, please don't do that. Then she'd want to move and take you away..."
I think I can understand that. I don't want to move. Not if the house has cool things like this. "Wanna be friends?" I ask. It's kind of funny, the look he has on his face. I mean, and I thought he looked surprised before.
~~~~~
"Y-yeah," I stammer. "I would love to be your friend. Can I call you Sato?" He nods solemnly up at me, his big brown eyes making him look innocent. How adorable. "What do you like to play?" I asked him.
He pauses to consider for a moment, and pulls a stuffed toy out of his suitcase. "This is my stuffed Pikachu toy," he says, pointing to the little yellow mouse-like creature.
"Pikachu?" I ask. "What's...Pikachu?"
He frowns. "Everyone knows who Pikachu is! He's a guy on TV and he follows this girl around on adventures. And he gets the bad guys to leave them alone by zapping them."
"Oh..." I said, still mystified.
"Anyways, me an' Pikachu like to play in the woods and stuff together...and sometimes we play board games."
"I like board games," I replied tentatively.
"OK!" He says. "Then we can play Monopoly. 'Least until Mom gets the Playstation hooked up."
~~~~~
Shigeru still kind of looks kind of confused. But I drop Pikachu on the bed then kneel beside my bags and start to look for some of my games. They have to be somewhere in here... "Ah, here's Monopoly! I want to be the racecar... is that okay?"
I look up at him and he nods. I smile and set the game down, pulling it apart. "I normally have ta play this with Mama. She says I don't know the rules right." I unfold the board. "I can play just fine. What piece do you want, Shigeru?"
He sits down, a dazed look on his face. "Oh, um, the dog?"
I smile and hand it to him. "Here."
Okay, maybe Mama was right. "Um, do you know how to play-?"
I can hear my Mama's footsteps on the stares, "Satoshi, where...? Oh, there you are darling. Satoshi... what are you doing sitting there by yourself?"
I crinkle my nose and fold my arms across my chest. "I'm not alone, Shigeru's with me!"
My mother looks blank then smiles and nods. "That's nice, darling. You need to try and unpack your things. There's a lot of work you have to do."
She leaves me and I smile at Shigeru. "My Mama's funny, isn't she?"
~~~~~
"Ano..." I say. "Sato, your Mama's gonna think you're nuts." I state, looking at him. "I'll help you unpack, OK? Then we can play some more."
"But I thought you couldn't touch stuff, cause my hand went right through you," Sato says. I concentrate for a moment, getting my hands to solidify enough to pick up a box. "Ohhh," he says. "Cool."
I grin at him and begin to unload the box, putting stuff in the drawers of the dresser the moving people already brought up. "See?" I tell him cheerfully. "No prob."
~~~~~
I'm really glad that Shigeru's willing to help me. I mean, there's so much. And there's gonna be more... I'm just happy to have a friend like him. I mean, I really want him to be my friend...
We move so much, though, so I'm worried that I'll have to move away from here, and him, too. And I don't want that to happen.
"Hey, Sato, who's this?" He asks, and I turn from putting away socks to see what he's holding.
"Oh, that's a picture of my Mama and my..." I turn away and put my socks in the drawer some more. "My Dad. He left us a couple years ago..." I'm not a little baby. I'm not gonna cry in front of Shigeru...
Dad leaving really messed up everything. I think that's why Mama's so sad. And why my sister's off at boarding school. The family just got torn all to pieces... but I'm not gonna think about that. I'm not...
"That's pretty tough, Sato..." He says softly and sets down the picture frame again.
"But it's not that bad, cause you're here now, Shigeru." I say with a smile.
~~~~~
I must be blushing. I certainly feel embarrassed. "A-arigatou, Satoshi-kun," I mumble. "Ano...everyone else...was afraid of me. So I'm glad you're here, 'cause you're not scared of me."
He looks somewhat puzzled. "Why should I be scared of you? You haven't tried to hurt me or anything."
"Cause I'm a ghost!" I reply.
"So? You're a nice ghost," he says cheerfully, attempting (unsuccessfully) to hug me around the waist. I firm up for a second and put my arm around his shoulder. "You're nice, Sato-kun."
He sticks his tongue out at me. "'Course I am!" He looks a little sad. "You'll always be my friend, right, Geru?"
"Sure," I agreed. I wasn't going anywhere.
~~~~~
I can't help but smile. I really believe him! He'll always be my friend... well, it's something nice ta think about for the time being, at least right now. I mean, Mama can't move right yet...
I know she doesn't do it... malic... malcil... mailc... like she's mean or nothin', but still, she always decides to move once I've finally started to fit in. Sometimes, we're not even there long enough for that...
"Thanks." I smile and hug him again.
"I'll miss you when I have to go ta school, though..." I say, crinkling my nose. I hate school...why do I have to go, anyway?
"I'll be here when you get back though, Sato..." he says softly.
Well, I guess that's true. I grab some more clothes and start to shove them in the drawer. "You could always go with me, couldn't ya? That'd be so cool!"
~~~~~
I blink. "I don't know if I could, Sato-chan. I've never tried to go anywhere before. I just kinda...stay here. I think ghosts are supposed to be bound to the place where they die or something."
"So you can't leave this room?" Sato pouts.
"Well...maybe I can, now that I have a reason to. I'll try to go to school with you, Sato. Cause I really want to!"
We've finished putting his stuff away. He doesn't have that much- maybe because he moves so often. "We could try playing a game, again." I frown. But not Monopoly.
Sato pauses to consider, and then dives into the chest by his bed we didn't bother emptying and comes up with a pack of cards. "How about War?" he asks.
"Sure!" I say, since he picked my favorite card game.
~~~~~
We play cards until my Mama comes up stairs to tell me I need to get ready to take my bath and eat dinner. She shakes her head at the cards all over the floor. "I was playing..."
"Well, clean up, we'll be eating soon."
I nod and stare at Shigeru once Mama's gone. "I guess I need to go... it was fun."
He smiles. "It's not like you'll be gone forever."
"Yeah true... so you'll think about going to school with me? I start tomorrow and I don't want to be alone..."
He nods sincerely. "I promise I'll try."
I smile and we clean up the mess of cards. "Thank you, Geru. You're gonna be a great friend."
He's blushing again. He's such a silly boy. "Thank you, Sato. I'm glad you think so."
I smile and then I hear my Mama's voice. I crinkle my nose. "I don't wanna take a bath... I hate taking baths..."
He smiles. "Oh come on, it won't kill you or anything."
"I know but Mama buys this girly smelling stuff..." I crinkle my nose again and Shigeru laughs out loud. I blink. "Did I say something funny?"
~~~~~
"Yeah..." I giggle at him. "But the girls will like you better if you smell like girl stuff instead of dirt 'n stuff. At least that's what Ma used to tell me."
Sato blinks at me. "But I don't like girls. They're icky."
I shrug. "Yeah, but Mama always said that when I got older, I'd feel bad for not being nicer to the girls. And Ma always knew what she was talking about, so I believed her."
Sato makes a face. "Ano...and I trust you...so I guess I have to be nice to girls. Although that red-headed girl next door said hello when we were comin' in. She seemed OK, if a little bit bossy."
I laughed. "Yeah, I've watched her a couple of times. She's a little bit tomboyish, and don't make her mad, but other than that, she's OK."
He looks at me. "Really? Then maybe we could all be friends. I mean, if that's OK with you, an' she doesn't mind that you're a ghost."
"OK, Sato," I agree, just to make him happy.
~~~~~
Shigeru really knows what he's talking about. I mean, my first day of school isn't even turning out that badly, now that he's around.
Kasumi's even nice. But I like Shigeru lots better.
Of course, we haven't even gotten to the recess. But how could things go bad when I have Shigeru around? He's my bestest friend ever...
"Hey, Shigeru, do you eat lunch?"
"Satoshi, who are you talking about?"
I look up at the teacher and smile. "Oh, just to myself, Mishihara-sensei."
The teacher shakes her head. Hey, I don't want anyone to find out about Shigeru... "Satoshi, you're pushing it too close."
'S'all right, I don't mind.' I write down on my paper with a smile. I know he can read what I write, so it's a good way to talk to each other.
"The teacher is going to think you're insane."
I wrinkle my nose. 'But I'm not.'
We argue like that and then the class gets let out for lunch and recess. You know, Shigeru never answered my question! "Shigeru, do you eat lunch?" I ask as I get my backpack and my Pikachu.
"Aren't you too old to take that to school?"
I glower up at him. "I am not! Pikachu's great so I can take him around with me..."
We argue like that until we reach the schoolyard. Shigeru shuts up abruptly, and I wonder why... Oh, everyone is looking at us... I blush, I hate bein' stared at like that, and rush off with Pikachu in my arms and Shigeru behind me.
"See what you got yourself into!" he says all superior like.
I hmph in his general direction then sit down and end up starting to eat from my lunch box. "You're..."
"Stop it, I need my lunch money..." Whoever said that, well, they don't seem rather enthused by it at all. I set down what I was eating, getting up to peak around where I'd secluded myself from the rest of the playground.
"Hey! That's not fair!"
"Sato..."
"It's, *not*, Geru!"
There's a pair of bullies over their, picking on a blond haired kid. Kind of looks my age or so... That's one thing that I don't like at all - bullies.
"Oh, come on, Hiroshi," the girl with magenta hair laughs, "you need to fight back more than that!"
Hiroshi groans and I run forward. This isn't fair at all! They shouldn't be picking on him like this... "Sato, don't!"
Sorry, Shigeru... "Hey, stop picking on him!" I shout at the two. The blue haired guy blinks and bursts out laughing. I decide right then and there that I don't really like the bigger kids at the school.
"He thinks he's gonna stop us!"
"What, gonna use your little stuffed Pikachu on us?" the girl remarks snidely.
"I-I-HEY! Give me back Pikachu!"
~~~~~
Oh, great. The bullies stole Sato-chan's stuffed Pikachu. And he, being Sato, is charging the boy with the blue hair, trying very ineffectually to land a punch on the older boy, who just yawns and blocks Sato's punches. "Here, Musashi!" the boy yells, throwing the Pikachu to the girl (Musashi). She giggles, and they begin to play keep-away. Hmmm...this would be a good time for me to make a ghostly entrance.
I grab the stuffed toy from midair, and I know that all the bullies can see is the Pikachu floating in midair. I grin and let myself drift into focus. Both bullies yelp, and they take off in less time than it takes for me to say "Boo."
I worry for a second that they'll be back with a teacher, and then I realize that they won't tell anyone because no one will believe them anyway and they'll just look stupid.
"Heya," Sato's saying to the blond. "His name's Shigeru. He's nice. And I'm Sato."
~~~~~
I can't help but smile 'cause of the stunned look on Hiroshi's face. "Wow... um, my name's Hiroshi... I guess you all ready knew that..."
I nod and Shigeru's just grinning.
"Thanks... wow, what are you? I mean you just showed up..."
I decide in the next ten minutes, that Hiroshi is pretty cool. I mean, he's nice to know and he's nice to Shigeru and that makes him great.
He's kind of treating Shigeru like I did when I first met him... you know, cause he's so great and stuff. Sometimes I just don't know how to think right.
With a smile, Shigeru hands me back my Pikachu and I smile. "Thanks."
"Welcome, Sato."
"So... wow... is it your first day here?"
I nod. "Yep... Mama and I just moved in..."
We go on and on, talking about where I like, where he lives, figuring out that we live a street away from each other...
"Cool, cool! You have to come over... It'll be fun to play with you! Both of you. And maybe Kasumi'll be able to come out, too..."
I don't think I've ever been so happy. I mean, I've never had so many friends in such a short amount of time. It's... really nice. I hope Mama's gonna see it the way that I do...
I blink at the sound of that bully, Musashi's, voice. "There they are! Over there!"
Shigeru has a big grin on his face as he fades out of existence... Hiroshi looks appropriately wowed. "Hiroshi, Satoshi, Musashi and Kojiro say that you started some sort of commotion."
Hiroshi's got the most innocent expression plastered on his face. "What do you mean, Kujitaka-sensei?"
You know, he really is going to be a great friend. Cause he has the teacher eating out of his hands...
"But we saw-!"
"No! This is enough. You're taking up my free time." The teacher turns to storm off.
Kojiro gets big eyed and shoots a whiney glance at Musashi. "But! Kujitaka-!"
"I said that's enough! Give the boy back his lunch money, I *know* this is what this is all about, and leave them both alone!"
Musashi and Kojiro look defeated, but it's the sort of thing that swears there will be vengeance. Who cares? Shigeru can kick their butts.
When they're gone and we're all away, I look at Shigeru and Hiroshi and start laughing. "That was great! This is the bestest first day of school ever!" But when there's a beginning, the rest only gets better, or so my Mama likes to say... and I'm really sure that this is going to turn out all storybook perfect.
~~~~~