Title: Ghost You Know (3/5)

By: a_lil_nothing

Rating: PG w/ some language.

Summary: Emily, Naomi, & Katie in middle school.

Notes: 1) Could be considered a prequel to A Comet Appears. Some of the same characters are here. This takes place before the start of series 3 (when they're in middle school) so in this universe I guess series 3 is the sequel. 2) I've changed my narrative to a sort of first person. Just trying it out. Let me know if it works or doesn't work. 3) Feedback is always appreciated. Thanks to everyone that left feedback on my other fics and favorited them. 4) Not beta-ed so please point out mistakes and such so that I may correct them. Thanks!

*

Ghost You Know

*

Naomi POV

I have to admit it was a bit unsettling to be sitting with Emily again the next day. This made it two times in two days. We'd met up after class to combine our notes for the essay and since I was the faster typist (blogging works wonders on the computer skillz but apparently kills the penmanship) it was my job to take her bubbly, girly handwritten notes and thread them with mine. I was quite astounded to find Emily's writing style was similar to my own. Our words and sentences flowed together rather nicely.

Being with Emily was an interesting experience. She was unnervingly quiet at times but something about her was peaceful. Her brown eyes were always friendly and her smile was soothing. She had this look to her like she was thinking all the time, about everything and anything. I wondered what sometimes. I obviously wasn't too good at conversations. I loved to debate issues not talk about the weather (unless it dealt with global warming). Maybe if I ended up becoming some sort of friend with her after this I would get used to actually being friendly with someone instead of antagonistic with everyone. 'Let people in' like my cow of a mum would say. Lucy and Amy didn't count since, after all, they let me down more often than not.

"Where you from?" Emily asked me without preamble.

"What?"

"Your accent. You're not from Bristol."

"Yeah." I thought it was relatively clear I wasn't.

"And…" she waited for my response.

"I'm from London."

"London?" her brows crinkled in curiosity, "Why you here then?"

I couldn't read the notes, type and carry on a conversation at the same time. "What is this? An interview?" To be honest, it came out a little more briskly than I expected. The look on her stunned face made me feel like rat dung instantly.

"No, I- Sorry." She turned back to her notebook, drawing something that looked like a… garden design? What the…

"Mum got a job at University." I explained, feeling awful I'd been so rude. "That's why we're here."

"What she do?" Emily hadn't looked at me to ask the question. I guess she wasn't that mad at me for being a prick. Or, she intrinsically knew I sucked at talk-fests. One of the two. Or, both?

"She's a…" I sighed, "Social anthropologist." Emily looked at me again, it was like crickets were chirping in her brain. "She studies social behaviour." I could tell she was baffled by mum's occupation. People usually were. "She studies people and their ridiculous lives."

"Oh!" she beamed, "Sounds interesting."

"No, not really." There was my bitchy tone again. I inwardly groaned- I definitely sucked at chin-wagging. Emily obviously wanted to talk to me; she was open and willing to listen to me. But, it made me prickly for some reason. Dunno why. "Can we get back to this, please? I need to go soon. I'm meeting up with some friends later."

"Oh, sorry. Yeah." She went back to her drawing.

*

She'd spent 5 minutes beetling around drawing that garden of hers with her different colored pencils and markers whilst I continued to type our paper. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed once she'd finished the drawing she switched over to one of our reference books and began to furiously write on a binder. Now, I wasn't sure, but it looked like Katie's binder. The one she used in history class.

"There. We're done." I finished spell checking the document and commanded the computer it to print a copy. The printer was loud, one of those old dot matrix ones mum still used. "Do you want to read it?"

"Me?" she looked up from her writing.

"Yes. It's half yours."

"I trust you." And with that straightforward reply she carried on.

Curiosity got the best of me. I leaned over, "What you doing?" Her face said it all. "Is that-" I knew it! She was doing Katie's part! I stole the binder from her and held it above my head. I knew she wouldn't come after it.

"Get off. Give it back."

"Why? This isn't right, Emily."

"She's rubbish at everything. Please don't tell on her." Emily's face illustrated the conflicting emotions so well. She was an open book. Maybe that was the issue. She was wide open and I was closed off. "She's my sister, all right?"

I didn't really understand what that meant but I retuned Katie's binder to her. "Whatever." I grabbed the printed report and gathered my things. "See you around, Emily."

I didn't know why I felt so disappointed as I walked out of the library.

*