I'm so happy, my hair is finally on its way back to blond. Not that any of you care – thank you all for the reviews – Lolly- I'm going to make her different from the book, but I definitely WILL NOT let her sleep with Paul (Suze, maybe – but not her, that was just…wrong, and I'll never forgive you for that) – I didn't notice any other questions out there, so if there are any, then ask…also Jesse should make an appearance this chapter, but it will be real quick – his role becomes more important later on, so… read on folks….

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Chapter 9 (wow, I've come so far – heee heeee, okay, outburst, sorry)

"No way! Not only is that gross and wrong, but that is against all humanly nature! I mean, come one father Dom, what happened to that 'No Violence' talk that you gave me earlier?" Paul was still sitting in the chair next to me, with a boyish smile on his face, and Father Dominic was sitting across form me, with a smile on his face, obviously thinking that his idea was the best thing on the planet at the moment, holding a little vile of, get this, lice. No joke here. He wanted to put LICE in Bryce Martinsen's hair. That perfect hair. I'm sorry, but when

(a/n – I know I should use something different – but I loved the lice, it's so original, yet so different, so I kept it, hope you all don't mind – if ya do, then say so, and I'll rewrite this section, no questions ask – I'll still try to make it a little different though)

"Suze, it's the perfect way to get him out of the school, think about it, he'll be gone for like a week or two, just the amount of time needed to get Heather gone." Paul said. Next thing I know, Paul and the so called 'Good Father' were plotting a way to destroy Bryce's perfect hair. And it was perfect, I should know. I had been so close to it. It was-

Oh, shut up Suze, you have Paul remember.

"Stop it you two!" I yelled "there has to be some other way."

"Well, do you have anymore ideas, Susannah?" Father Dominic asked with his eyebrows raised.

I sat there and thought for a second, determined to find a better idea. Only one thought came to me, and I already knew it was a no.

"We could exorcize her." I said with a shrug of the shoulders. Father Dom's reactions were immediate.

"Absolutely not! That is unorthodox. A ghost needs to choose to leave on her own free will. I will not force Heather to leave-"

I didn't hear the rest of the priest's words. I was looking at Paul. He had a weird smug look on his face, and I knew immediately what he was thinking.

"Umm, Father Dominic?" Paul interrupted, "why don't you let Suze and I talk to Heather, we might be able to convince her to move on, you know, from a teen's point of view. She might listen to us. Then, if that doesn't work, we can use the lice tomorrow."

"I think we should try that." I chimed in, "I mean, what's better than a little girl talk? And Paul can be my body guard if things start to get a little out of control."

Father Dominic looked at the two of us, and then sighed as if coming to a decision. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to try this." He stuck out his finger and started pointing at us, to make sure we understood his next words. "but under no circumstances are you to perform an exorcism. I want both of you to promise me you won't do so unless you have my consent, which you don't have so at the moment."

After Paul and I both promised, Father Dominic glanced down at his watch. "Well, aren't the two of you lucky? The last period of the day just started. Suze, why don't you go wait outside for a minuet, I need to ask Paul a question. Then I'll send both of you off to class at the same time, if I remember correctly, the two of you have that same class together."

I left Father Dom's office and sat down in one of the chairs next to his door. I sensed more than saw someone sitting next to me. I glanced up to see Bryce sitting down next to me. Umm, shouldn't he be back in class?

"So," he said "does my guardian angel have a name?" okay, so that was one of the lamest pickup lines I had ever heard, but it was so cute.

"Susannah Simon." I said as I stuck my hand to meet his in a greeting. He looked at me a second, than asked "your Jake's new step-sister, aren't you?" wow, do you mean to tell me that Sleepy actually talks about me? That he actually talks at all?

I nodded my head, suddenly a little uncomfortable. "Hey Susie," I managed a small polite smile as I corrected the use of the name that only my dear little mother is allowed to use. "It's Suze."

"Oh, right, Suze," he said "would you want to go out to dinner on Friday?" wow that was shocking. Ha, Gina would be flipping out, not that Bryce is her type or anything, but still, there's a senior in front of me, a HOT senior, mind you, asking me out.

Remembering Paul I replied, "Sorry, but I can't"

He frowned a little, and than perked up, in a manly sort of way I mean, "how about Saturday?" okay, I couldn't help but let out a little laugh.

"No, you misunderstood, I mean I can't-" before I could finish, Paul walked out the office and saw the two of sitting there and frowned. Paul held out his hand and helped me out of the seat. "What's going on here?" he asked. All the sudden the mood in the room changed, and I got the sudden picture of two wolves fighting over the position as Alpha Male and over the Alpha Female, me.

"Nothing really, Bryce just asked me out, so I was declining his offer." At least now I would get a better idea about how Paul felt about me, and of course, I was right on target, when Paul took my hand and started pulling me towards what I assumed was our next class, hey I still hadn't looked at my schedule, so I wasn't to sure where we were going. "Come on," Paul said, "we're going to be late." Paul turned his head and looked Bryce straight in the eyes. "You better stay away from girl."

"I didn't know she was taken, dude." Bryce said in defense as we exited the school office. Once we noticed that no one was around Paul started talking.

"Okay, so I figure all we have to do is shift Heather in to the Shadowland, if she doesn't go willingly of course. If we do have to shift her, than all we do is tell Father Dominic that she moved on, that we succeeded. We leave out everything about shifting. No offense to the priest, but I'm not about to tell him I'm a shifter, and I'm not letting on to any of my other powers."

"When are we going to do all of this?" I asked.

Paul stopped, thinking about something. Finally he said "we'll have to do it in the night, so we won't have an audience, but," I caught what he was saying, resisting the need to laugh I cut in before he could finish what he was saying.

"I've snuck out of the house plenty of times, it shouldn't be a problem." I saw eyebrows rise, and knew that I probably startled him a little with that. "I've been kicking ghost butt since I could walk, most of the time I would have to sneak out at night to do so. It shouldn't be that much of a shock."

"Now that's my type of girl." Paul said before he bent down and gave me kiss. Unfortunately we had a class to attend, and he knew it.

"So, is one o'clock a good time?" I asked right outside of our next class, English with Mr. Baits, as Paul had told me.

"Sounds find to me, do you want me to drive you home after school, and we can find a safe place where I can pick you up?"

"Yeah, now, we got a language to learn." I said and rolled my eyes at myself for making such a lame joke, but to my relief, Paul did laugh.

I dropped my books on my bed, thinking about all the homework I had to do and trying to forget about tonight to actually accomplish some of it. First day at my new school and I was already behind. It figures, right?

I plopped down on a vacant spot on my bed, and pulled my geometry book onto my lap. My school back in New York was a couple chapters behind, so I had a bit of catching up to do. No slacking off for little old me. I managed to get half way through a chapter before he came.

"You shouldn't trust him, Susannah." I was so absorbed in the current math problem, that I hadn't even noticed that Jesse had materialized into the room. So of course it startled me enough to let out a scream. Before I could even respond to Jesse, my door had opened.

"Susie, are you all right?" it's touching how much my mom cared, but now wasn't the time.

"I'm fine mom, I just saw a mouse." Of course, Brad had come to see what the commotion was about, seeing that his room was right next door. Upon hearing the mouse comment, he started cracking up.

"You mean to tell me that the all mighty Suze is scared of a little tiny mouse?" Dopey asked, still laughing.

"Brad, that's enough." Andy said walking into the hallway, obviously hearing about the mouse. "I guess I'll have to set up some traps. Did you see which way it went?"

Great, one ghost materializes in to my room, and what do I get? A family mouse hunt. Isn't my life just swell?

"It went into the bathroom, but do you think we could reschedule the mouse hunt to a latter date, I have a lot of homework to do."

"Hey Jake," Brad called "you'll never guess this." Dopey went racing downstairs, obviously to tell Sleepy about my "mouse fear"

"Brad, don't make me take your speakers away." Andy called after him. "We'll look for the mouse later. Dinner will be ready in fifteen." With that he was gone, leaving me with my mom, and Jesse, but since no one can see him right now, lets not count him.

"Susie, this doesn't have anything to do with-" I knew where she was going. With me being a freak. "It was a mouse mom, honest." I said, saving her the trouble. She nodded her head, and retreated.

I turned myself back to Jesse, and glared.

"It is not nice to lie, Susannah." You have to be kidding me.

"What did you expect me to say? 'Oh, sorry about that, I just got a little startled by the ghost of a cowboy that wont leave my room.' I don't think so"

"I'm not a cowboy." Jesse said sternly.

"Yeah, whatever you say."

"So your parents don't know about your powers. Why?" ok, can someone say nosy?

"Umm, first off, that's parent. My father knows perfectly well about my powers. And second off, you can stay out of my life."

"Okay, if that's how you feel."

"That's how I feel." I said in an even tone, crossing my hands over my chest to prove my point. There was a few seconds of silence, and than I remembered the first thing that Jesse had said.

"Who shouldn't I trust?" I asked, suddenly a little wary.

Jesse just shrugged his shoulders and said. "Why should I tell you Susannah? You want me to stay out of your life." I hate it when people twist my words like that, but then again, that is what I said.

I sighed, realizing I would get no where if I didn't make some sort of peace with this ghost. "Okay, how about this? When it comes to my safety you can bug in as much as you want, but in return you have to allow me to ask questions to find out what's holding you back."

He seemed to think about this for a moment. Than he shrugged saying "it is fine with me, Querida." There goes that Spanish thing again.

"And don't call me any of those names in Spanish." I watched a small smile crawl on to his face, and noticed, not for the first time might I add, that he was pretty cute for a dead guy. Almost cuter than Paul. "Now who it that I shouldn't trust?"

His smile went upside down into a frown of concern. "Paul." say what? "He's evil, Susannah. You must stay away from him." Okay, now that got me laughing. Paul? Evil?

"Susannah, please. I have been around for a long time, and I've never felt anything that evil."

"Yeah, right, thanks for the laugh, I needed that Jesse. But really, Paul wouldn't hurt a fly" I said, my voice full of confidence.

"I would not be too sure about that. Some are very good at masking there true selves. I don't like this Paul."

"Yeah, you and a bunch of other guys. Gees, Jesse, you sound like a jealous boyfriend."

"Just be careful around him, Querida."

"Hey, how do I know that you're not the one that I need to be careful of?" I asked, but before I could get an answer, my door swung open.

"Are you talking to your self?" Sleepy asked as he poked his head in to my room.

"God Jake, don't you knock?"

"Sorry, but dinner's ready." I got up and fallowed my new step-brother out to the hallway, and almost missed hearing Jesse say. "I'd never hurt you, Querida" but there was nothing I could say to him about that, because of the blond surfer in front of me, completely un aware of the ghost haunting my room.

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