(A/N: I finally updated! Sorry for taking so long! At least it's twice as long… :) have fun reading it… I doubt it though. Nothing exciting! But I added some fluff at least. :)……)

Disclaimer: Everyone except Rachael belong to Meg Cabot!

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CHAPTER 19

TRIGONOMETRY

"So, how did your date go?"

I asked casually during lunch on Monday. The sun was beating down quite hard, but I didn't mind too much. If I got sun-burnt, I'd probably turn to tan the next day. CeeCee however, did not have the same luxury as me. She was sting in the sun, but complete in jeans and a long sleeves tee. She had pulled her sun hat down, over her eyes, and her whole face was thrown into shadow. You might have though that this looked weird, but CeeCee's ensemble actually looked really cute on her.

CeeCee blushed, but Adam grinned.

"Okay." Adam said, as CeeCee said "It was fun." They looked at each other, and CeeCee went "Good" and Adam went "Great."

I laughed. "Details?"

They both looked uncomfortable.

I laughed again. "Don't worry, CeeCee'll tell me. Some day."

I saw CeeCee smile at me, careful not to show Adam. This obviously meant yes.

We were quiet for a while, until Adam went, "Hey, Suze, how about your date? Where did you go? Wasn't it a surprise or something?"

I grinned. "Yeah. It was great."

"Yeah, but where did you go?"

I swallowed my mouth full of pasta. "Six Flags theme park."

"Holy Shit."

"You're joking."

I shook my head, still grinning.

"You two are so destined for each other." CeeCee said.

I smiled at the compliment.

"Just be sure to use a condom though." Adam added, grinning wickedly.

"ADAM!" I yelled in embarrassment, at the same time that CeeCee shoved him, hard, so that he fell to the ground, spilling half his coke can on my shoes in the process.

"Cee!" He yelled, at the same time that I yelled "Adam!" again.

"Guys, shut up!" CeeCee hissed, but it was too late. Sister Ernestine had already seen us.

"Mister Mc Travish, Miss Webb and Miss Simon." She spat my name as if it were something foul. "Have you no respect? Detention for each of you. And Miss Simon, father Dominic would like a word with you."

"Now?"

"Yes now, what do you think?"

"I think you're a horrible wrench," I muttered under my breath.

CeeCee looked at me in horror, but Adam laughed softly. "Right on Sister."

I rolled my eyes at them, and, sighing, got up, brushed all the sand off my butt and made my way down towards father Dominic's office.

I didn't bother knocking, just pulled the door open and marched in.

"Hello Susannah."

I plopped down into the seat in front of his desk.

"Hey father Dom. What's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Paul."

"Oh. Okay, why's that?" I asked, my eyebrows raised. He wanted to talk to me about Paul. Why didn't he talk to Paul about Paul?

"Well, I've noticed he's been acting a bit odd lately. Not quite himself. More…"

"Human?" I suggested.

He frowned at me, the way principals are supposed to frown at you when you say something not very nice about another pupil.

"Relaxed is the word I was looking for."

"Oh. Sorry."

"Would you know why that is?"

I looked up at him in surprise. Paul hadn't told him about him and Rachael?

"Well, yeah, I think. Ever since he's been going out with Rachael-" I broke off, as I watched father Dom choke on his coffee.

"What?" he spluttered?

"Rachael. You know, I introduced her to you a couple weeks ago?"

"The ghost?"

I nodded.

"Oh no. Not him as well."

I looked up at him, confused. "What do you mean?"

"He wants to bring Rachael back to life, doesn't he?"

"What?"

But he had already read the answer in my facial expression.

"Oh dear Lord." He murmured.

"Father Dom? What are you worrying about? It's really simple. Look how easy it went with Jesse! All you had to do was wave that stinky stuff-"

"It's called incense."

"Right whatever, and then the sky opens up and…"

"Susannah, it can cost you your life."

I gulped. I never thought he would have figured it out.

"It can?" I pretended to look shocked. "Gee, I was lucky wasn't I?"

"Susannah, you knew perfectly well that it could have cost you your life. I can't believe you didn't tell me, or at least Jesse-"

"If I had told Jesse he wouldn't have agreed to do it."

"Neither would I." He muttered.

"That's exactly the point father Dom. It was the only way Jesse could come back to life. Do you think I would have done it if I didn't think it was 100 percent worth it? I knew Jesse wouldn't have agreed if it could have gone wrong, and neither would you. That's why I didn't tell you. Because you would have said no, and-"

I broke off, catching a glimpse pf his face.

"What?"

He handed me a box of tissues, and all of a sudden I realised I was crying. Again. Oh God, what is wrong with me? I never cry, and when I do, I can't stop.

I buried my face in my hands and sat there like that, crying for 5 minutes, before I realised that I forgot to put on waterproof eyeliner and mascara, and dried up in a matter of seconds. Father Dom, who had been patting my shoulder for the past five minutes straightened and sighed with relief. You could tell he wasn't accustomed to 16 year old girls crying in front of him. 6 year olds maybe, but not 16.

"Sorry." I said. "I should have told you. It's just that you would have said no and…" I trailed off, not knowing how to finish.

Father Dom was silent for a while.

"I know how you feel." He said. "I used to be in love with a ghost too. I don't think I ever told you."

"Yeah." I said quietly. "You mentioned it before."

"I have?" He seemed surprised. "Oh dear. Looks like I'm starting to lose my memory."

I smiled.

"You really love him don't you?" He asked.

"What?" I asked, startled.

"Jesse. You love him don't you?"

"W-well- I d-don't know-w I mean…" I trailed off, blushing furiously. "Yes."

Father Dom had a far away look in his eyes.

"What was she like?" I asked, carefully, not to screw up, in case he never told me anything about her and I wouldn't be able to blackmail him into doing something someday if it would come in useful. Hey! Don't look at me like that. I'd only do it if I really needed it!

He didn't reply at once.

"She was 18 years old. Ginger hair, always worn down. Her name was Eryn." His eyes were bright with emotion. "But she moved on, so I became a priest. I was convinced it was my fault she has moved on so soon, and I thought God would erase my sins…"

I looked at him. Poor father Dom. I wished there was a way I could have helped him. A sudden thought struck my head, as if I had finally found the light switch, and switched a light bulb on in my head.

"Father Dom…" I began slowly. "You know that when you die, you can either go to heaven or hell… But there's a theory that your soul gets re-incarnated. But you see, I had a friend… a ghost friend. She was re-incarnated. Back into human form. Her name was Flora. She says that…" I broke off, as father Dominic interrupted me.

"I know what you are thinking Susannah. But I do not love her anymore, and I am sure that she is in heaven. She moved on. She's gone. And I am a priest, Susannah. I cannot give up my priest hood for this. Sometimes…. Sometimes you've just got to accept fate. This is the way He wanted it."

Stupid devoted moron. I thought. Do you love her or not? If you love her, isn't that the most important? I mean, even God must know that. It's not like he is some evil tyrant. If he really is all forgiving, and it's for the love of your life, he would forgive you for it, wouldn't He?

I mentioned this to father Dom, but it "didn't work that way". A lot of stuff doesn't work that way apparently, Jesse told me after school, when he was trying (and failing) to explain to me how to do my trig homework.

"You see? You have to add the adjacent side with the perpendicular bisector to find the hypotenuses' length. (A/N: don't believe this, I'm writing utter crap.)

I sighed, and dropped my head into my hands. "What?"

Jesse bent forward to write something in my note book, and I squinted to see what it said. 'The adjacent is equal to the opposite side. If you add the hypothenuse with the…' I stopped paying attention, and stood up. He had been trying to get me to understand this for an hour already.

"Jesse, this is hopeless. I'll be right back, getting a drink. You want anything?"

He shook his head, smiling down at me. I stood on tip toes to kiss him on the lips, before leaving the room. He kissed me back, softly, and I smiled, loving the way his lips felt on my own.

Don't go querida. Stay here. With me. No one is home, except for Bradley, who's in the garden phoning that Debbie Mancusso girl.

I stopped probing into his mind, and whispered into his ear, "Let's take a break."

I think he agreed with me, if the fact that he pulled me back into his embrace, and started kissing me all over again was a sign. I let my hands wander through his hair, and he slid his hands down to my waist. Soon enough, Jesse's shirt was lying on the floor, and we were on the bed – in a very comfortable position I might add. - My hands were making their way slowly down from his chest and he groaned and pulled me closer, wrapping his arms around my waist – preventing me to pull away. As if I'd ever want to do that. We came up for breath, and I looked down at him. Good thing I had forgotten to apply lip gloss, or he'd have it all over his face. He was looking up at me, a devil-ish smile dancing across his face.

Oh God. I thought. Stop reading my mind!

"I think you're extremely sexy too." He whispered in my ear.

I blushed a deep shade of purple and tried to sit up. Except that Jesse was making this very difficult, seeing as how he still had his arms wrapped around my waist. Oh well. I thought. I like it better this way anyway.

I smiled down at Jesse; as he tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear, and leaned down to kiss him again. We lay like that, occasionally coming up for air, and I didn't think anything could have ruined my mood.

A while later I was lying on the bed, Jesse's arms wrapped around me, my head leaning on his chest. Unfortunately for me he had put his tee shirt back on. I heard the front door slam, sat up quickly.

Shit. Was it this late already?

I heard someone climb up the stairs, and quickly got off the bed, and sat down in my desk chair, Jesse following me close behind.

"So the hypotenuse is the longest side, and the adjacent side is always opposite the angle. But then how do you find the length?"

I heard Jesse sigh. "It depends. You need the formula. S-O-H, C-A-H, or

T-O-A."

"What?" I asked, confused. As you can tell, maths is not my best subject.

"'S' stands for sine. 'O' stands for opposite side and 'h' is the hypotenuse. 'C' equals cosine, 'a' is the adjacent and 'T' is-"

A knock on the door interrupted Jesse's very interesting – not – speech.

"Oh. Hi Suze, Jesse."

"Hey mom." She looked quizzically at me, obviously wondering what Jesse was doing here. "Jesse promised to help me with my trig homework. Hope that's okay with you."

As soon as she heard the word 'homework' my moms face relaxed. "Oh that's really nice of you Jesse. I'll tell Andy to cook for 6 people then, shall I?"

"Oh, thank you, that's very kind, but I have to get going soon. I have an essay to finish and-"

He was interrupted by my squealing. "I GET IT!" I laughed out loud. "Jesse I get it!" I threw myself at him and hugged him, still laughing.

My mom backed out of the doorway. "Of course. You're always welcome Jesse."

Jesse smiled at my mom from where he was hugging me back. "Thank you Miss Ackerman."

My mom closed the door softly behind her, and I started explaining enthusiastically to Jesse how to do the sum. Jesse smiled and nodded after I was done explaining. "Finally." He grinned.

"I couldn't have done it without you." I confessed.

"I know."

"Hey!" I shoved him playfully. "You were supposed to say "of course you could have"."

Jesse smiled down softly at me, and I wrapped my arms around him, never wanting to let him go, although I had t o eventually.

(A/N: I am such a sad and boring person that I decided to write a completely useless chapter. Also I am brain dead. Don't blame me. Blame all the teachers at my school who enjoy watching us suffer under all the pressure of homework and the exams in 4 weeks. Please review!)