Chapter 3

First Year of High School

With the summer coming to an end, Molly was hoping that her last few days of summer would be amazing. She couldn't be anymore wrong. For Molly's last few days of summer, the Ghost Council brought her to the Ghost World so they could tell her about her responsibilities as the new Chairwoman.

It was boring days like this that made Molly wish she hadn't considered being the new Chairwoman. After all the time she spent learning all these boring responsibilities, Molly could have used that time to ask out Libby on a date. Instead, she was forced to learn about how the Ghost World works.

Once the first day of school began, Molly had to get up extra early to attend her celebration as the new Chairwoman. Molly soon put on the Chairman's cloak, transforming her into her wraith form before Scratch opened a portal to the Ghost World.

The two friends flew through the Ghost World together as the time for Molly's celebration got closer. Molly stood on a stage in front of what appeared to be all of the ghosts who lived here. With a reassuring smile, Scratch stood by Molly's side to make her feel more comfortable.

"Spirits of the Ghost World, we would like to introduce our new Chairwoman, Molly McGee!" Sir Alister announced.

At that moment, Molly floated to the front of the stage to introduce herself.

"Hello, everyone! I am Molly McGee, and I will be the new Chairwoman of the Ghost World! Unlike the previous Chairman, I promise to make the Ghost World the best it can be! I promise that the Flow of Failed Phantoms would never return, and all ghosts are free to do whatever they want!"

The ghosts already started to like their new Chairwoman as they all cheered for her. As Molly's speech came to an end, she floated off stage as she spoke to Scratch and the Ghost Council.

"So, how did I do?" Molly asked.

"You were great, Moll! Everyone loved you!" Scratch replied, happy for his best friend.

"Indeed! Consider this to be your first step as Chairwoman of the Ghost World!" Grimbella smiled.

Suddenly, the sound of sarcastic slow clapping can be heard. It was at that moment when Molly heard a familiar voice that she hoped to never hear again.

"So, you are the one who is replacing the Chairman? You will never live up to how great he was!"

At that moment, Molly turned to the ghost who spoke before she glared at her in anger.

"Jinx! What are you doing here?"

"Oh, just came to see our new Chairwoman." Jinx said as she floated towards Molly. "Why the Ghost Council chose you, I would never know!"

"What? Jealous that you didn't get to be the Chairwoman yourself?" Scratch taunted Jinx.

Jinx soon turned to Scratch and shot back, "No one was or ever will be better than the original Chairman! There can be a second best Chairman though. Perhaps if Molly would just hand me the cloak."

"I don't think so, Jinx! I don't trust you! Let's not forget that you were the one who killed Libby and nearly let the Chairman banish her soul to the Flow of Failed Phantoms!" Molly reminded Jinx, still angry with her for killing the girl she loved.

"My only regret is that I didn't kill you too!" Jinx yelled a glare. "You'd better enjoy your time as Chairwoman while you still can, McGee! Once I have my revenge, I promise that the Ghost World, Brighton, and everyone and everything that you love will change!"

Without another word, Jinx floated away. As Jinx was gone, Scratch decided that it was time for him and Molly to go back home.

"Sheesh! Looks like Jinx is still being a sore loser!" Scratch said, dismissing Jinx's last words as an empty threat. "Come on, Moll! You wouldn't want to be late on your first day of school!"

"Oh, you're right, Scratch!" Molly remembered that she should head to school today. "Let's go!"

"Before you leave, Ms. Chairwoman, we just want to discuss one more thing with you." Bartholomew spoke up.

"Have you ever heard of a creature called a Frightmare?" Lucretia asked.

"A Frightmare?" Molly repeated, having never heard of that name before. "I haven't. What is it?"

"Frightmares are extremely dangerous ghosts that have been trapped in the Flow of Failed Phantoms to keep them from causing trouble in the human and ghost world. That is until you ended up destroying the flow." Sir Alister reminded Molly.

Remembering what happened, Molly realized she could have thought it through better. She was so desperate to free her friends, she didn't realize that she was setting free dangerous ghosts.

"So, what are we going to do about the Frightmares?" Molly asked.

"Well, this is one of the reasons why we need to train you to be the Chairwoman. Whoever is the current Chairman is able to control the Frightmares." Grimbella explained. "Just go back to your human world for now. We would let you know if we find anything relating to the Frightmares."

As they were dismissed, Molly and Scratch floated through a portal back to the human world. The talk about the Frightmares kind of had Molly freaked out over the whole situation. A bunch of dangerous ghosts were on the loose, and it was all her fault!

Molly wasn't going to let it bother her too much though as she was sure that she could find a way to fix this. For now, she was just going to let the Ghost Council figure out where they are. To keep her mind off the whole thing, Molly took the time to get ready for school.

Once Molly finished her breakfast, she heard a knock on the door. She opened the door to see Libby, who was greeting her with a smile.

"Libby!" Molly gave Libby a hug before the two of them kissed each other on the lips. "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you too, Molly! I hope your training to be the Chairwoman hadn't been too difficult." Libby hoped.

"I'm not going to lie. It was pretty exhausting." Molly sighed. "Thankfully, we can now spend our first day of school together. We can walk to school together after we take Darryl to the bus stop! Let's go, Darryl!"

Once Darryl got ready, he followed Molly, Libby, and Scratch out of the house. As she walked to the bus stop, Molly noticed something different about her brother.

"Darryl, is that a jacket you are wearing?" Molly asked, noticing the leather jacket her brother was wearing.

"Uh, yeah!" Darryl replied, as if the answer was obvious. "I'm meeting June pretty soon and I have to look good!"

"Since when have you ever cared about looking good for someone?" Libby raised a confused eyebrow.

"Uh, that's not important!" Darryl dodged the question.

Meanwhile, Ollie was waiting at the bus stop with his sister as the two of them have been discussing what had happened a few days ago.

"I still don't think this is a good idea, Ollie! Mom and Dad are going to kill us if they ever find out we are friends with a ghost!" June explained.

"Relax, June! Maybe we should just listen to Molly and just make an effort to be friends with Scratch." Ollie suggested.

Truthfully, June didn't like the sound of that. "Yeah, I don't see that happening!"

Before long, Molly, Libby, and Scratch showed up to drop Darryl off. Upon noticing Scratch, June let out a disappointed sigh.

"Great! The ghost is here!" June retorted.

"I didn't exactly want to see you either, Four-eyes!" Scratch countered.

"Now, Scratch! Don't be rude! We are all friends here!" Molly reminded.

"Yeah! And the same goes for you too, June!" Ollie lectured his younger sister. "Anyway, I hope you enjoy your first day of school!"

"Bye, Darryl! Try not to get into any trouble this year!" Molly hugged her brother goodbye.

With an amused grin, Darryl replied, "I make no promises, Molly!"

At that moment, Molly and her friends began their walk to high school, leaving Darryl and June alone together. They both soon glanced at one another with a couple of awkward smiles.

"So, you look great today, June! I mean, not that you didn't look great on any other day." Darryl tried to correct himself. "Ugh! I'm really messing this up!"

June simply giggled in response, knowing what Darryl was trying to say. "It's nice to see you too, Darryl!"

Meanwhile, Molly and her friends approached Brighton High School. The building looked a lot bigger than the last school Molly and Libby attended.

As they entered the building, Molly and her friends looked around their new school as they walked through the hallways. Molly and Libby were happy to see their classmates from their previous school, but there was one classmate who caught their attention.

"Hey, Andrea!" Molly and Libby called out for their friend, who turned and greeted them with a smile.

"Molly! Libby!" Andrea rushed over towards her friends before giving them a hug. "I haven't seen you since the school dance last school year! How has your summer been?"

Both, Molly and Libby shared a couple of amused grins with each other, ready to give Andrea the news.

"Oh, you know! It was alright! Nothing much happened!" Libby replied.

"Except, Libby and I have just became girlfriends over the summer!" Molly exclaimed.

Upon hearing the news, Andrea let out an excited squeal. "Oh my gosh! This is incredible! I knew that you two would get together someday! I just know that you two would get married in the future, just like how I'm destined to someday marry my crush, Alina Webster!" Andrea gave a dreamy sigh as she stared at a photo of a girl with red hair.

Before long, Andrea put the photo away before noticing Ollie for the first time. She didn't see him at the previous school and assumed that he just moved in.

"So, who's your friend?" Andrea asked.

"Oh, this is Ollie, a new friend who just moved in the neighborhood!" Molly introduced. "Ollie, this is Andrea, a friend from school!"

"Hi, Ann-drea! I'm glad to meet another one of Molly's friends!" Ollie, waved.

Upon realizing the mistake Ollie made, Molly and Libby began to panic. They both placed a couple of hands over Ollie's mouth so he won't repeat his mistake.

"Ollie, you are not supposed to mispronounce Andrea's name!" Libby explained.

"Wait, it's okay!" Andrea assured. "I know that I've been obsessed over my name pronunciation for so long, but I've been working to not freak out over it."

Hearing this surprised Molly and Libby. After all that they had been through with their friend, Molly and Libby could tell that Andrea has come a long way from being the bully they met in first grade.

"Even so, I still prefer that you refer to me as Ahn-drea in the future. Anyway, I think it's time we head over to our classes! I'll see you later! Also, it was nice meeting you, Ollie!" Andrea waved goodbye.

With that, Andrea made her way to her class before Molly and her friends decided to head to their first classes as well. Just like in their last school, Molly and Libby were happy to find out that they get to share the same classes together.

The school day was pretty relaxing for Molly and Libby. Since it was their first day, they were mainly getting to know their new teachers and getting used to their new classes. Everything has been going well until Molly heard a random student scream. This caused her to sigh, knowing that Scratch was scaring students just for the fun of it.

Once the last bell of the day rang, Molly and Libby walked through the hall as they were ready to go back home. They were about to leave before they were greeted by two familiar faces.

"Oh my gosh! Molly! Libby! We just heard everything from Andrea!" Molly and Libby's friend, Kat exclaimed, unable to contain her excitement.

The other girl, Sheela was just as excited as her friend. "Is it true that you two are officially a couple?"

"Uh, yeah! Libby and I have gotten together over the summer." Molly explained.

Hearing this caused Kat and Sheela to squeal in joy. After all the effort they spent bringing Molly and Libby together last year, Kat and Sheela were glad that all their effort paid off.

"We are so happy for you. So, what couple nicknames do you have for each other?" Kat asked.

"Couple nicknames?" Molly and Libby repeated in unison.

"Of course! Surely you two call each other something other than your first names!" Sheela replied.

Both, Molly and Libby stared at one another in silence before they shook their heads.

"Oh, it's okay! I'm sure that you have time to think about it! We both wish you luck on your beautiful relationship!" Kat said before she and Sheela made their way back home.

With the school day over, Molly and Libby joined Scratch and Ollie on their walk back home. During the walk, Scratch was bragging about how he was scaring students throughout the school.

"You should have seen the look on that guy's face! I just wish Darryl was here so we can pull off these scares together!" Scratch laughed.

Ollie simply glared at Scratch as he wasn't amused by this in the least. "You know, ghosts who torment others like that are the reason why my family and I became ghost hunters in the first place!"

"Oh, relax! It's all in good fun!" Scratch assured.

"It really isn't, Scratch!" Molly pointed out. "What is fun is us getting to see our friends again! It was great seeing Andrea, Kat, and Sheela!"

Scratch then turned to Molly with a puzzled look. "Who the heck are Kat and Sheela?"

"Really, Scratch? You don't remember them?" Libby asked in disbelief. "They tried to get me to be Molly's girlfriend last year. We went camping with them when we had to deal with Howlin Harriet. Molly and I just talked to them earlier in the school hallway." Remembering what they just said to her, Libby thought it might be nice for her and Molly to have nicknames for each other. "You know, Molly! Kat and Sheela do have a point! Maybe we should come up with couple nicknames for each other!"

"That sounds like a lot of fun!" Molly agreed. "Let's see! How does Sweetie sound? Honey? Dreamboat?"

Before Molly could say another word, Libby placed a gentle finger over her lips. As much as Libby loved Molly's enthusiasm, it might be for the best that they both take a moment to think of good names for each other.

"Let's just take our time to think of good names for each other! Let's see!" Libby thought for a few moments in silence before she thought of a name for her girlfriend. "I got it! Molly, how would you feel about me calling you Sunshine? Like, you're the sunshine of my life!"

"Sunshine?" Molly repeated before a wide grin formed across her face. "I love it! Of course the best girlfriend ever could come up with a wonderful name!"

Molly's compliment caused Libby to blush slightly as she was glad that Molly liked the name. Now all that was left was for Molly to think of a name for her.

"So, have you thought of any other nicknames for me?" Libby asked.

Molly pondered a new name for a moment before she replied, "Actually there is a name that I have been thinking about calling you for awhile. How does Ahuvati sound?"

Surprised by the fact that Molly knew what that word was, Libby said, "I see that you have been doing some research on Hebrew language.

Molly nodded. "Of course! Do you remember when you told me that you loved me in Hebrew on the night my family and I celebrated Hanukkah with you and your mom? Well, I thought I could try to do the same for you!"

"So, what does Ahuvati mean, anyway?" Ollie raised a confused eyebrow.

"Ahuvati is how you say my love, or my beloved in Hebrew." Libby explained before turning to Molly. "That sounds like a beautiful name, Molly! I love it!"

"So, it's settled! We now have wonderful nicknames for each other!" Molly exclaimed before holding Libby's hand. "I love you, Ahuvati!"

"I love you too, Sunshine!" Libby smiled, using her nickname for Molly for the first time.

Seeing Molly and Libby being cute together caused Scratch to roll his eyes in annoyance. It wouldn't surprise him that Molly and Libby would be calling each other by their nicknames throughout the walk back home.

"Looks like we are going to hear their mushy nicknames for each other throughout high school." Scratch sighed.

"It's not that bad! I think Molly and Libby are kind of cute together!" Ollie admitted, expressing that he supports Molly and Libby as a couple.

Throughout the walk back home, Molly and Libby have been flirting with each other while giving each other kisses on the lips. Now that they have new nicknames for each other, Molly and Libby were happy to begin this new step to their relationship.