When June Haunts May by Celaine Charles

“Have you ever seen her
in a class?”

What was he getting at?
“We don’t have any classes together. But I don’t have any classes with you
either.”

“Okay, so how about the
fact that she was cold as ice when I touched her shoulder?”

The chills she’d sensed
from June had felt like relief in the blazing sun, but she had noticed them.
“What are you saying?”

Reid pulled her
underneath a yellowing oak in an empty yard. Ignoring her look of annoyance, he
glanced over his shoulders before whispering low and close to her ear. “Did you
know Pinedale High is haunted?”

First the woods and now
the whole school? May stepped back, hands up in feigned surrender. “Okay-okay,
I get it. Prank the new kid. You know, I’m sorry I even thought about checking
in on you. I don’t have time for this.” She about-faced and strode down the
sidewalk without him.

“Wait, what? I’m not
pranking you.” He caught up in only a few strides, his long legs veering her
off to the side. “Please, hear me out.”

May’s mind flipped
through any example of a high school boy wanting her to hear him out.
This had to be a trick. “No, you listen to me. I’ve been the new girl far too
many times than I care to count. And I get it. I’m easy prey…perhaps even a
challenge.” She thumped him in his too-close-to-her chest. “But I’m not
playing.”

“I think June’s a ghost.
I’m not kidding or pranking you. And I need you to listen.”

Flashes of her strange
interactions with her new friend…if she could even call her that…flickered
through May’s mind. They’d only known each other for a couple of days, but she
had sensed something off.

She turned away from him,
trying to put everything together. Bouts of June’s chilliness, yes. But
earlier, it had been strange how fast she’d flown down the spectator stands.
Before that, she struggled to push open the main school doors.

May had attributed June’s
glossy hollow eyes to the lighting, but maybe it was because of something else.
She closed her own eyes for clarity, kicking her foot into the grass. Maybe
allergies?

She tucked her hair
behind her ear, running the strands between her fingers as more details
registered. June’s peculiar way of speaking was odd, and her clothes that first
day, like a blast from the past. She was still wearing her penny loafers…with
pennies inside.

May dropped her backpack,
shook her head at Reid, who was waiting for her to process. But her brain
wasn’t cooperating. “Ghosts?” The word spat off her tongue like she’d swallowed
a flick of her cat’s tail.

“I know I sound insane.
I’m not. I promise.” He glimpsed her with creamy brown eyes. They were the
color of Great-Grandma’s sweet tea, and she was overheating inside and out,
ready for a tall glass.

“Is this why you’ve been
crying at the pond during lunch?”

“What?” His face
scrunched, cheeks burning past the eighty-degree temperature outside to a
brighter shade of full-blown embarrassment. “No. I mean—I’m not crying at the
pond. What are you talking about?”

“What are you
talking about?”

They stood at an impasse,
shock etching along both their eyebrows and drawn lips. Her mind raced for
something to say, and if she had to guess, he was in the same boat.

 

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