Jess leaned against his bed angrily. "Did you hear all that?" he asked, hoping Leslie would be there.

She was.

"Yeah. Don't worry about it," Leslie advised.

"How can I not? If I'm not careful, they'll send me to some rehab something…" Jess said.

"Do you even know what that means?" Leslie asked laughing.

"Course I do," Jess mumbled; he wasn't in the mood to laugh.

"Look, Jess. Once school starts again, everything will go back to normal," Leslie said looking Jess straight in the eye.

"But I don't want it to go back to normal," Jess whispered. "I want you to stay."

"Did I say I was leaving? Come on, don't look so dejected. Everything will be all right, I promise," Leslie said encouragingly. Jess sighed and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, Leslie was gone and his room was bathed in sunlight. He had obviously fallen asleep, which was odd. But the past few weeks had been odd, so it wasn't something new.

"Momma, please give us some money for something," Jess heard Brenda shriek as though she was in agony.

"Fine! Go to town with your friends! You can each buy one thing," his mother shouted back.

He heard his sister's shouts of joy and the front door close. Jess swung his legs over his bed and then walked downstairs.

"Jess-" his mother started.

"Morning," Jess said before heading out of the house quickly. Now was not the time he wanted to be bombarded with concerns about his abnormal behavior. It wasn't his fault that Leslie only came back to him. It wasn't his fault that he was the only one who could see her. It wasn't his fault! None of it! Before he could have time to dwell on any of his other thoughts, a car parked in the driveway of Leslie's old house, caught his eye. It was a big moving van. Obviously that Damien kid was moving in. He cautiously headed over there, aware that his hair was extremely untidy. As he got closer he saw someone sitting on the fence that surrounded the place. It was Leslie. She had her legs dangling over the side and was looking quite bored as she watched the progression of moving boxes. When she saw Jess she waved happily to him. Jess waved back and then nearly hit himself. Damien's dad and thought he'd been waving to him and had waved back.

"Hi, Jess!" Damien shouted, hopping out of the van.

"Hi, Damien," Jess said half heartedly.

"So, we're actually moving. It may not be nice out here, but think of the fun we'll have!" Damien said as he walked over to Jess.

"Yeah, fun."

"Have you explored the woods around here…" Damien started talking at high speed, seemingly unaware that Jess wasn't paying attention. Jess glanced over at Leslie and saw she was doubled in laughter. Jess made a face at her, but was smiling nonetheless.

"Hey, you two," Damien's dad said walking up.

"My name's Mr. Crawford," he said holding out a hand to shake with Jess. Jess hesitantly shook it. Mr. Crawford leaned down closer to him and whispered, "You haven't heard any stories about ghosts have you?" Then he laughed. Jess frowned and tried to figure out what he was talking about. Then he remembered talking to the two men who had wanted to buy off the place; obviously Mr. Crawford wasn't a believer in ghosts.

"Of course he's not. He's not the type," Leslie said as though she had read his thoughts.

Damien looked from Jess to his Dad.

"You made that up?" he asked disbelievingly.

"Yeah," Jess shrugged.

"That's brilliant! Me and my dad were wondering who could've made those old creeps that frightened," Damien said as he started to laugh.

"Good job," Mr. Crawford said to Jess, smiling widely. Jess, though not quite ready to accept them, had a feeling this family wouldn't be so bad after all.

A/N Hello! Thank you a billion times over for my reviews!! I will really try to write and post more soon. But until then, peace out:-D