Hello, people, I'm back!!!! Hope u liked my 1st chapter!!! Anyway, enjoy the 2nd chapter, and PLEASE REVIEW!!

-pisceangirlpower

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Two

THE GHOST

She made quite a dramatic entry.

She was crying. Correction, she was bawling like a baby. She practically jumped on top of me, still crying. "Whoa, whoa," I said, pushing her off me. "What do you want?" "I…me…" the ghost wailed.

She had long blonde hair. Really long, about half-way down her back. She was wearing a tight green T-shirt and casual white cargos. She had nice features was quite pretty.

"Okay," I said, handing her a Kleenex. "Wipe your face and tell me what happened to you." She took the Kleenex from my hand and wiped her face, and blew her nose in it. Then she sniffled. "I-I'm Ariel. Ariel Windsor." She sniffled again. "I l-live, I m-m-mean, used to live, in New Y-York. At least before I died!" At this, she burst out crying again. I frowned and handed her another bunch of Kleenex. "Go on," I said. "I can help you if you tell me how you died." "Y-Yeah," she said, still sniffling. Funnily enough, I thought Ariel sounded an awful lot like Christie, Paul's girlfriend. Weird.

Ariel took out a sheet of Kleenex from the bunch in her hands and wiped her nose clumsily. "I-I was on a flight from New York to Carmel to meet my sister. And suddenly th-there was this crazy confusion in the plane with everyone screaming and the people in the seats near the wings running helter-skelter. The pilots lost control of the aircraft. We were bang in the m-middle of the ocean. Then I came to know that one of our wings had caught fire and it was too late to st-stop it. And splash. The plane plunged in-into the water and everyone drowned. I didn't die from drowning, though. Mine and a bunch of other people's deaths were because the fire spread to one of the exits midway as we were careering through the air. Unfortunately, my seat was right near that exit. It tore open and I flew out through the air. And because we were at such a high altitude, I froze to death before my body even landed in the water."

"Tragic," I mumbled. "So you…I mean you as in you in your spirit form, found yourself in the air?" "Yes," said Ariel. "I was terrified out of my life. Literally." She smiled weakly at her feeble joke. "How many survivors?" I asked. "Two," said Ariel, tears beginning to form in her eyes again. "Actually three, because when I was last there, the survivors were a teenager and an adult and a small baby who was totally far away from them, floating on a part of the wing, bawling its head off. I doubt the teenager and the adult even knew the baby existed." "Oh." She sniffled.

"Susannah!" came Jesse's exasperated voice, as he walked into the room, his hands on his hips. He was about to say something, but his voice trailed off when he saw Ariel. He's a mediator too, in case you had forogotten. Ariel just acted as if he didn't exist. She got a surprised expression on her face when she saw Jesse staring at her. "Can he see me?" she whispered to me. "Yeah," I said. "Him and another guy I know. He's my boyfriend." "Hi," said Ariel. "I'm Ariel Windsor. I just died a few hours ago. I came to your girlfriend for help." She held out her hand for Jesse to shake. Jesse shook it. "I am Jesse," he said. "Jesse de Silva. My girlfriend is Susannah Si…" "Call me Suze," I said, cutting him off. "Okay."

"Um…are you going somewhere?" asked Ariel. "Actually, yes," I said. "We're going to the beach with a couple of friends." "Oh," said Ariel. "Can I come along? I mean, not like to follow you or anything, but, you know, there aren't any beaches in New York…" "You can come," I said. "And I know there aren't any beaches in New York. I used to live there." "Oh," said Ariel. "Hey, you got a spare bikini? I can't go to the beach like this." She pointed to her clothes. "Um," I said. "Hate to rub it in, but dead people can't change clothes." Jesse stifled a smile at this. "Oh," said Ariel, with a sour face. "Right. I had forgotten I'm…uh…not alive." "Yeah," I said, wincing. "Anyway, let's go."

We walked out of the house and got into the Ford. Jesse (obviously) drove, I (even more obviously) sat in the front seat and Ariel sat in the back seat (which other seat could she sit in, anyway?).

"So…" said Ariel. "You two live together?" "Yeah," I said. "Oh." "Yeah." "So…who are these friends of yours?" asked Ariel. "Our friend Paul," I said. "And his girlfriend, Christie." At this, Ariel just went quiet. "What happened?" I asked, turning my neck to look at her face. "Christie…as in Christie Windsor?" said Ariel asked in a funny voice. "Um," I said. "I don't know her last name, actually. Why? Is she related to you?" "She's my sister." "Oh." "And I don't think she knows of my death yet." "Probably not. But she's bound to get the news within a couple of days." "Couldn't you tell her?" "Are you crazy? She'll think I'm a freak. And besides, I barely know her!" I said. Seriously. Why do ghosts always have to be so weird?

"Oh…okay," said Ariel. "Nice cargos, by the way," I said, trying to cheer her up. "You think so?" she said, instantly distracted. "Yeah, sure!" I said. "Where'd you get 'em?" "SoHo!" she said. "20 off!" "Wow," I said. "Steal!" "You stole those pants?" asked Jesse, in a shocked voice. "No, silly!" I laughed. "By 'steal', I meant 'it's a steal', as in 'you got it really cheap'!" "Oh," said Jesse. "I see."

"Hey Paul!" I called. Paul and Christie had already spread out a huge sheet in the sand and were sitting on it, laughing and talking. "Hey!" said Paul, getting up and running up to us. He saw Ariel and tried not to look shocked, as if he knew her from a picture or something. But apparently because of Christie, he acted as if he couldn't see Ariel.

At first, I barely recognized Paul. He had changed so much! He had colored his hair a light brown and now you could see patched of his real golden hair showing up in between. His hair was quite long too, now – at least a couple of inches below his ears. He was even more tanned than he used to be, and it looked like he had worked hard on his abs and biceps (I could make out because he was shirtless).

Paul ran towards us and hugged me. "Man, it's been weird without you guys!" he laughed. "Come on." He gestured towards their sheet on the sand. We walked towards the sheet, and removed our flip-flops and sat down on it.

"So," I said to no one in particular, but a little more to Christie. "Christie. What's up?" "Nothing much!" said Christie, smiling. Just then Ariel, who had sat in the car while we had gotten out of it and gone into the beach, had gotten out and begun to walk towards the beach. But she had barely taken five steps when she changed her mind and went back to lean against the car. She looked quite sorrowful.

"So…where did you live before you settled in with Paul?" I asked Christie, trying not to pay attention to Ariel. "Oh," said Christie. "I lived at Evergreen Hill," said Christie. "Attended Robert Stevenson's." "Cool," I said. "How'd you meet Paul?" "Oh," Christie laughed. "We didn't exactly have a normal meeting! It was something like this. We were both at the café up town with our own friends, and we were standing at the counter. Then Paul took his milkshake from the counter guy, and yeah…you guessed it right. He spilled it all over my cashmere sweater. I was totally furious at him. I swear I could have murdered him right there and then! Then we started coming to the café more and more everyday, until he said hi one day. And that was when it started. We became close friends, and then he asked me out. And here we are!" "Oh," I said. "Interesting." To be honest, I wasn't paying 100 attention to what Christie was saying, because my mind was on Ariel.

Ariel was fidgeting around and pulling the strings on her cargos. She looked as if she was trying very hard to not cry. Oh no. I hoped she would try hard enough, because I didn't have any Kleenex on me right now.

"I'm going to the shore," annouced Paul, getting up. "Anyone interested?" I waited to see if Christie volunteered. When she didn't I jumped up. I needed this opportunity to tell Paul about Ariel.

As we walked to the shore, Paul immediately asked me about Ariel. "Who's that ghost who ws leaning up against your car?" he asked. "She looks terribly familiar!" "Yeah," I said. "Betcha must have seen her in some photo album of Christie's or something, 'cause she's Ariel Windsor, Christie's sister." "Sister?" asked Paul, dumbfounded. "Yep," I said. "She came wailing to me as I was getting out of the house to get to the beach. Told me that she died a few hours ago when her plane's wing caught fire and crashed into the ocean." "Flight!" cried Paul. "Right! I remember now! Christie had told me that she'd be visiting for a couple of days from NY! Oh my God. Christie's gonna flip when I tell her this." "You're not," I said, sticking my left foot into the water and watching the frothy wave lick my toe.

"What?" he said. "You're not going to tell her," I repeated. "And why not?" asked Paul. "Paul, Paul, Paul," I said. "You've really lost your sharpness. Have you forgotten that your girlfriend has no clue what a mediator is?" Paul got a blank look on his face. "Yes she does," he said, almost causing me to look up at him instantly. "What?" I said. "You told her?" "Um, no, not exactly," he said, fiddling with his hair and going a bit pink, as he did when he was a little uncomfortable. "Sh-she's one herself, you see." "WHAT?" Now he DEFINITELY caused me to look at him. "Christie's a mediator, too." "Oh. My. God. Are you serious?" I asked, quietly. "Yes," he said. "More than I've ever been in my life."

"Wow." I said, quite dumbstruck. "So…I guess the four of us can hang around a lot. You know. The mediator company." "Yeah," Paul smiled. "Anyway, does this sister of Christie's know that Christie can see and talk to ghosts?" "Doesn't appear like it," I said. "I mean, I don't know for sure, but that's what I think." "Okay. What's her name, anyway? Christie told me, but we hardly spoke about her." "Ariel," I said.

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HOPED U LIKED THE CHAPTER!! I promise I'll update as soon as I'm done with the 3rd chapter. Sorry if I'm a little slow writer, but I'm trying to write as fast as I can, and I'm having Finals right now. just 3 more papers to go…I'll be done then!! Then I'll write faster & more, for sure!!

AND PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!

-pGp