Manifest

By Rivertam

Chapter One
A/N- Well, yet another fic to update! Smart me! (NOT) Well, I called this fic Manifest because I like the word manifest. No alternative motive, that word has nothing to do with the fic. This is pre-Twilight because I haven't read Twilight. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED IN TWILIGHT! And this is before Haunted or even Darkest Hour.

Well, on with the fic!

"Okay, everyone, let's go around the table and tell everyone about our goals for this year!" said my mom, disgustingly happy about the New Year. I really don't see what's so great about it; odds are it's going to be just like the old year. I'm probably going to nearly get killed a lot more than any normal people, probably be driven home by the police at least three times, probably going to date more than my fair share of psychopaths.

So what's so special about the fact that it's all happening in a new year?

I'll tell you: nothing. Absolutely nothing is special about this time. Not one thing.

Dopey goes first. Hilarious. "My goal is to be able to bench press 120." Yippee for him.

Next up is Doc. Great. Even though he is by far my favorite, being mildly sane and a lot smarter than anyone else and his family, something told me he wasn't going to shut up for a while.

He took a deep breath and started yammering, "My goals are to have over one hundred percentile final average in all my classes, not be targeted by any older, and consequently physically superior male who is intimidated by my intellect, attain a score in the top three percentile of my contemporary discoveries in astrobiology camp."

What are my goals for this year? Let's see, what if I told them the truth?

"Well, mom. I'd really love it if, just to shake things up, I didn't almost get killed by some ghost with misplaced anger issues. You see, while it may seem like I'm a loony, I can actually see and feel ghosts! As a matter of fact, I had a conversation with good old dad not three hours ago! Ha ha, isn't that hilarious? Oh, and if the guy I had a crush on actually liked me back. One thing about this guy that I like: He's dead! Isn't that just the greatest? Then there's no danger of Sle- Jake beating the crap out of him if he dumps me or something!"

Oh yeah. That would go over well. Thanks, but I'd really rather not spend the rest of my teenage years in a cozy little room in Lakeshore. I'm sure it's a really great place and all, but come on. I really don't like lying to them, but if there is one thing I don't need it's men in white coats with straight jackets coming after me. I love my life. NOT.

Doc was by no means finished. "Well, there's astronomy venture I've been spending a great deal of time on, a theory that when all of the Galilean Moons are aligned with Jupiter then Phobos and Deimos are actually move to a point where they are horizontal by the combined force of the gravity. I will, however, need to save up a total of two hundred thirty-five dollars and seventy cents, that's including tax, naturally, to purchase the telescope with high enough magnification to see these subtle changes."

Even Mom and Andy are losing him at this point.

"Suze!" my Mom chirped. Yes, chirped. Like those little birds that live in our backyard and eat the birdseed that Andy buys. "Your turn!"

I didn't say any of those things, about the mediation or Jesse. Instead, I just resigned myself to the inevitable. "My goal is to keep a C or above average in all of my classes."

Happy?

My mom smiled weakly and announced it was Sleepy's turn.

Of course, we really shouldn't have bothered. "My goal is to save up enough money for the Camero by the end of the year."

Wow, that was a hardly a shock. Why did we even waste perfectly good time asking such a dumb question?

Mom is the one who always said, "There is no such thing as a stupid question."

She obviously hasn't ever been in the same science class as Dopey.

Another family walked in, the kind with those little kids that scream and the parents that glare. My favorite. It was when those little kids started crying and shrieking even louder when I noticed someone else.

It was a chubby kid; all dressed in black with lots of chains around his neck. His hair was down to his neck, it was dark with blond highlights. He had thick eyebrows over very very gray eyes; he was looking at everyone with a calculating stare, as though he was pondering the meaning of life and thought these people might have the answer.

It wasn't his clothing, hair or even weight that made me notice him. It was the fact that someone had just walked straight through him. He had a very faint glow, dampened greatly by his dark clothing, but it was still there.

That could only mean one thing. This guy didn't really care that people were walking through him; he barely even seemed to notice. That would be because he was dead.

I sighed and glared at the food on my plate. Here we go again.

A/N- First Mediator fic. What do ya think? Please review!