I'm out of school! … Thought you ought to know.

Chapter 1: Warning Bells

Being dead isn't exactly as much fun as "three pickles dancing in a skillet", as my friend Howdy had once said and I've been gone a good four months. You can't eat or feel the wind in your hair, but the universe is in motion around you, tickling your skin. I don't have many emotions because I don't need them anymore. The good part is that all gets replaced with knowledge. No, seriously, I can think of any book and in less than a heartbeat, I've read every single word from the publisher to the author's note on the back cover. I've learned new words… In every single language. The only thing I can't do is predict the exact future even though I know everything. I just know what's right and wrong. Hey, we can't all be perfect now, can we? Despite of all of this, the thing that really creeps me out is that I haven't seen another ghost since I died. That's weird because there should be a lot of spirits by now, but I'm the only one floating down an alley or walking through a wall. I've tried to leave town to see if I could find someone else, but the farther I move away, the more tired I get and can't move on.

So I've decided to stay put and wait. I know this is the right thing to do because… Hey, I know everything now. The universe is always right, remember? Although one thing that I could get correct without the universe that everyone misses me. My parents are aching from the loss and have started running to church to get help. Coping with death isn't easy and it just makes my heart twinge to see my mom crying herself to sleep at night. Now, you may call me harsh, but I can't cry, nor feel sadness so I can't help it. All of my friends seem distant from each other after I left this world. I was kind of their leader and someone they looked up to and without me… Well, I guess there's been a lot of waterworks.

All of this will be useless to you, but it's to set the stage for this scary thing. Remember how I said that I know everything? A week after I died, Bijou was walking from her house to the clubhouse for the first time ever since I bit the dust. I could see that she was crying as she stumbled onto the sidewalk and so, even though she couldn't sense my presence, I walked alongside her like we used to everyday. Then, we thought of each other at the same time, and well… I learned that she liked me. Not just as a friend, but she wanted me to be her boyfriend, her real, live boyfriend. This goes against everything I thought of as a human and at first, I was a little shocked. However, the universe told me that it was all right and something inside me… I haven't been able to feel it for weeks, but… It bubbled inside my chest and made me feel warm. Now see, if I walk into a room and someone is thinking of me, they can feel the cold radiating from my ghostly body. (The rest usually involves screaming and running down the stairs.) But with Bijou… I feel warm and she doesn't recognize the cold from myself. It's great, it really is. The only problem is that… She doesn't know that I've been walking with her for three and half months after my death and I can't really tell her. I'm perfectly content with just being by her side, but the universe is telling me to do more. So I do.

Which is why I'm standing out here at Bijou's front door, watching her unlock it, and briskly walk into her house, dark circles around her eyes. She stopped putting makeup on, usually because she'll run into the girl's bathroom to cry, ruining her mascara. Her hair is usually messed up, pigtails lopsided and eyes halfway closed. Rosy cheeks are replaced with white and she's lost weight. It's sickening to see, but part of her is still there, making me stay with her. Or maybe it's just to get that warm feeling.

Bijou walks into her room, settling onto her bed and closing her eyes, drifting off into slumber. Here's my chance.

I'll have to explain this part nice and slow because it may get a little confusing to a mortal like yourself (No offense, I was once human too.). I can find an opening in someone's mind and tap into it. You know, like tapping into a maple tree to get the syrup? When the time is right, I put myself in their mind, letting them see and hear me. Now, this can only happen if their mind is completely open, for example, when they sleep or space out.

However, I've never tried to tap into someone's mind before. Why? Because I don't want to scare the heke out of anyone. Imagine if I did that to Oxnard, who shakes at the mention of the boogeyman, or Maxwell, who would be in for the scare of his life since ghosts goes against anything he ever believed in. The universe says that I shouldn't tap into anything anyway, but with Bijou? Ha, of course I can hack into her mind! … Well, I haven't gotten an answer from the universe yet, so I might as well give it a shot.

I close my eyes when I can feel her drowsiness and before I know it, I'm standing in Paris, positioned right under the Eiffel Tower. Bijou's dreams are pretty cool, aren't they?

Speaking of said French girl, I can see that she seated herself under a tree, cooling herself in the scattered wind. I think of her and immediately, I'm by her side. Something's different about me and I can feel gravity's pull on my body. I look at my hand, and to my surprise, it's solid, but misty around the edges. Well, it's a start to humanness.

"Bijou. Wake up, Bijou."

She groggily opens her eyes, something I always missed. Yawning, she sits straight up, finally looking me in the eye. Her jaw drops.

"You-you-," Bijou stutters, mouth opening and closing like a fish. "You're supposed to be dead, why aren't you dead?"

I frown. "You want me to be dead?"

"Non!" Bijou gasps, jumping to her feet. "Never! B-But…"

Slowly, her face falls and she lets a wry smile pass her lips. In a dead whisper, she says, "O-Of course. Zhis is only a dream." Bijou shakes her head. "Only some stupid dream…"

"Bijou, I know you love me," I say, smiling a bit. I have to take this slow to convince her that I'm a ghost and indeed, not apart of her dream. What better way to attract attention then talking about l' amour?

"V-Vhat?"

I step closer to her. Man, it feels good to walk again! "You love me. And I love you back."

Gently, I give a small kiss on her rosy lips, pulling away after three seconds. I stare warmly at her and brushing her hands with my fingers. "I love you, Bijou, and that's why I'm here," I repeat, taking a seat in the warm grass of France. Or, Bijou's dream, it doesn't matter what you want to call it. I look up and see that Bijou is still dazed, knees buckling underneath her. I frown.

"Are you alright?"

She smiles and shakes her head. "My imagination is chaotic when I'm dreaming. But I'm enjoying it even though it's not real."

"But it is real."

She glares at me and sneers, "Oui, mon ami, if you are alive and just confessed you like me, then I'm zee pope. I just never want to wake up now."

"Bijou," I start slowly. This might be a little harder that I expected. "Well, I'm not alive, I know that for sure…" Rubbing the back of my neck, I make a check in with the universe. "But I'm not exactly dead either. See, I'm a… ghost… And I just came into your dream to tell you about me being a… ghost. You're not shocked are you?"

But before she can answer, I feel this huge burn in my chest and zap out of her head, finding myself sprawled on the Bijou's floor and breathing hard even though I don't need to breathe. Groaning, I roll over, letting the pain die out. But before it is all gone, I can hear Bijou's hyperventilating. Concerned and enduring the white-hot knives diving into my arms and chest, I sit up, floating on her carpet. She's sweating and looks as if her eyeballs were going to pop out of their sockets. Well, I guess she was shocked. Huffing, Bijou jumps out of bed, kneeling down to catch her breath.

Then Bijou's mother hollers downstairs in French to her daughter. "Bijou! I have croissants in the oven, would you like some?"

"Y-Yes, Mother! I'll be right down!" Bijou yells back.

"I want some croissants," I mutter in perfect French.

Bijou looks up at the spot where I'm flopped onto the floor. Whoa, I didn't know she could hear me. She blinks in fear and slips on two socks, bolting down the hall with lightening speed that impresses even me. Once downstairs, her mother says to her, "Ma petite Bijou, you look like you've seen a ghost."

Correction: Bijou has just heard a ghost, she kissed one in a dream, and will see a ghost tomorrow.

SxMFan: Well, it looks like Hamtaro is busy haunting Bijou. The last chapter is next, just a heads up. PRESS THAT BUTTON RIGHT THERE, THE ONE THAT SAYS REVIEW, DO IT, DO IT NOW! Thank you for your participation!