Ghost story (no title yet) Chapter 1

Chapter 1

‘Faded memories’

After months of endless fights, my mother and my father had finally decided to stop arguing and just go different ways. I was to follow my mother to Cherry Hill in New Jersey, while my father was to remain in New York. Lucky him!

If you think about it, New York is wasted on a 45-year-old man, but it’s just perfect for a 17-year-old girl and her divorced mother. So, why did my mum decide to be the one to move out? And to New Jersey? Obviously I wasn’t consulted on the matter, but simply dragged out of fantastic New York and into ever-boring Cherry Hill.

All of that happened… erm… about a month ago, I think. You see, lately I’ve been having some problems remembering things. New Jersey’s air might be bad for me.

‘Oh, Amber, I found a beautiful house in Forest Hill Drive. It’s such a lovely place, you’ll love it!’ My mom had said so enthusiastically, but I knew better. She was still deeply in love with dad, but he was deeply in love with his 20-something secretary. Such a cliché!

I didn’t remember the journey to our new home, nor did I remember my first day at school, or any day after that. I must have blocked them out of my mind.

One day I found myself standing in front of a little cottage-like house. I didn’t even know whose house that was. I checked the door bell ‘Grace & Amber Carlines’. ‘Yep,‘ I thought to myself ‘This is my new home.’

And so I entered it, seeing a spotless clean new kitchen, a traditional cosy living room with a little fire place and two bedrooms upstairs.

The biggest one, I figured, was my mother’s, Grace, and the other one was mine, Amber.

In a strange way, it was as if I finally woke up one day and I was me again.

My new room wasn’t bad at all, yeah, it was a mess., but I liked it.

My big bed had been made, but most of my things were still packed up in big boxes.

I’ll have to sort them out sooner or later.

My new school was Cherry Hill High School East. It was fairly big and reasonably safe. But then again, I was used to NY high school‘s standards, where you risk to be killed any second. On the contrary, in fairly-safe Cherry Hill, everyone was ignoring me.

I felt invisible all the time.

Frankly, I didn’t mind them not considering me at all, being alone was pleasant sometimes. The only embarrassing moments where at lunch time, when I used to sit by myself at the cafeteria. Not that I would eat their food, of course not! In NY lunch was a fast choice of salad and fruits, but in Cherry Hill they didn’t seem to know what cholesterol was and their meals consisted mostly of fried chicken and beef tacos with all sorts of toppings, not to mention that the portions could have fed an entire family.

However, my lonely lunch times didn’t last long. I can’t quite remember how it happened, but one day Daisy, a pink-haired girl with big brown eyes and model-like features and body started to sit with me. In no time others followed her example.

There was Tony, an Asian looking guy with spiky hair and acne, but a muscular body; Jimmy, skinny, but athletic, his cute feature and blue eyes made him very good-looking. His hair was blue, just like his twin sister Wendy. She took was incredibly skinny, too thin for her big head.

They all seems to believe that wearing colourful outfits was a good idea. I’d never dared telling them how wrong that was, because in their weirdness, they all looked great to me.

I found it very strange when this bunch of guys started to hang out with me. It didn’t seem like we had anything in common. I mean, they looked like they’d just came out of a clothing session with Patricia Field and I, on the other hand, was very plain. With my shoulder-length red hair, my dark brown eyes, my very normal body (curvy, but not fat) and my blue jeans and my, usually dark-coloured, shirts or t-shirts.

They’d told me they were all born in New Jersey and, when we first talked, they were all happy to have someone new to talk to.

I never understood what they meant, but I guessed it was hard for them to fit in, just as it was for me.

I was very happy to have them with me, not only because I was not longer alone in the cafeteria, but because my mother was taking the separation from my dad very badly. And day after day, she would just sit in the big living room and cry her eyes out. She wouldn’t talk to me and she could barely look after herself. I was incredibly worried about her, but whatever I would say, didn’t seem to effect her mood in any way. It was as if I wasn’t even there.

‘Mom, why don’t we do something together?’ I would say ‘We could go to the mall. I could do with some new clothes and so could you.’ I would suggested. However, her answers were only sobs and tears. Never a word.

‘What do you think I should do?’ I asked Daisy one morning, after another pointless attempt of getting my mother out of her depression.

‘Amber, it’s gonna take time. She’s grieving!’ She answered.

‘Grieving? What are you going on about?’ I insisted confused.

She paused for a second, thinking of the most appropriate answer and always looking so puzzled every time I had some questions for her.

‘Well,’ She started saying, then hesitated and went ‘She lost her love! She’s grieving the lost of her love! Poor woman!’ She explained sighing.

‘Have you ever been in love?’ I asked her, trying to get to know her a bit better.

‘I’m in love every day, Amber!’ She answered laughing.

‘Every day with a different person?’ I insisted. Getting something personal out of Daisy was incredibly hard.

‘Yeah, you could say that.’ She replied vaguely.

‘Gosh, then… you lose love every day too. How you must be suffering!’ I added jokingly.

She looked at me, with her big brown eyes and looking deadly serious said ‘You’ve no idea.’

That awkward moment was luckily interrupted by Jimmy and Wendy rushing to class. We quickly followed them in.

Another good thing about being friends with them was that we had every lesson together. I would normally sit with Daisy, the twins would sit together and Tony would sit by himself at a desk near ours. It was unbelievable how we could always talk during lessons and never ever get caught. Tony loved skipping classes and he never seemed to get into trouble.

‘Wanna go to get a burger?’ He asked during English, without even bothering to whisper anymore.

‘No, you know I don’t like skipping school.’ I answered keeping my head in the books.

‘Oh, c’mon babe… let’s have some fun!’ He insisted.

‘I said, I don’t want to!’ I snapped and I was sure that this time Mrs. Thumbling would have caught me, but she didn’t. I sighed in relief, while I could hear Tony and Daisy laughing.

‘It’s not funny! My mom’s already a mess, I can’t give her anymore trouble.’ I hissed at Daisy, then turning to face Tony ‘And, for once, why don’t you try to stay in school for the whole day? You might like it.’ I suggested him, not really believing it myself.

‘Yeah, right!’ He answered sarcastically.

‘Just leave her alone.’ Wendy came into my defence ‘There’s nothing wrong with wanting to learn something, you know?’ She added.

I was sure that she was being nice to me, but she was also speaking for herself. She loved school and everything about it. She wasn’t in any club, but she loved to stay behind after lessons were over just to observe other clubs and their activities. And she loved studying. She was always at it. The perfect student. It was hard to believe that she had a twin like Jimmy.

‘I’ll go with you.’ Jimmy said, as to prove my point. ‘I can’t be bother to stay here all day today. Let’s leave the girls to themselves and let’s have a look at some new once for ourselves!’ He added charmingly.

Jimmy was good-looking and both Daisy and I found him attractive, but none of the other girls at school seemed to even look at him. How could a guy with such beautiful sweet eyes and such an athletic body pass unnoticed was a mystery to me.

‘Ok, let’s go after this then.’ said Tony gesturing at the class.

He’d just finished his sentence when someone knocked at the door. Mrs. Thumbling told them to come in.

‘Good morning, the new student is here.’ Informed her Ms. Gills, the receptionist. Then she moved a side and gestured someone to enter the classroom.

‘Oh, very well, very well! Guys, please settle down! Starting today, we have a new student.’ She quickly read the note in her hand and looked back at us ‘Mr. Jack Jones!’ Then, smiling, she looked at the new guy.

He walked in slowly, almost in slow-motion. Or, maybe, I imagined him like that. He was stunning, gorgeous, absolutely dreamy! So, perhaps, in my mind, his entrance was like the one of a movie star in some romantic flick. When you need a few more seconds to take in all that glorious beauty.

His long lean legs were carrying a perfectly athletic, but not too muscled body and his skin was flawless and his features, perfect. He had very short light brown hair, black sweet eyes and big kissable lips. And when he shyly smiled at us and a adorably cute pair of dimples appeared on either side of his cheeks. I felt I was gonna pass out.

‘Hi.’ That was all he said, but it wasn’t only because his voice sounded rough and melodic at the same time that I found myself blushing, but it was because, for the first time since I started school, someone was looking right at me. And that someone was him.

Then, his beautiful eyes quickly moved to Daisy, and then Jimmy and Wendy and finally to Tony.

The guys everybody ignored were finally getting some attention.

‘Let’s see… it says here that you come from Orlando. How lovely!’ Mrs. Thumbling said, interrupting his scrutinizing.

‘Yes, ma’am.’ He replied looking at her politely.

Mrs. Thumbling slimed, obviously mesmerized by the beauty of this teenager. Was he even aware of his charm?

‘Ehm, let’s find you a seat.’ She said quickly looking around the room ‘Oh, there at the back.’ She added pointing at our seats. She was so taken by Jack Jones that she didn’t even realize that our seats were taken.

He thanked her, not mentioning the embarrassing mistake, and walked to our desks, to then sat beside an amused Tony.

I couldn’t help peaking at him every now and again. All the dedication to the lesson up until his entrance was completely gone. Jack was all I could think about.

‘He’s hot, isn’t he?’ Daisy commented, whispering for the first time since I’d met her.

‘That’s an understatement.’ I whispered back giggling.

When, after a few minutes, I looked back at Wendy, she was blatantly staring at him with her mouth half opened. I elbowed Daisy and we both giggled. Wendy quickly turned to look at us and scorned annoyed. However, she wasn’t the only one to look annoyed. In fact, I could tell that Jimmy and Tony didn’t really like Jack. Envy is just a bad thing.

After the English lesson, Tony and Jimmy disappeared, promising to meet us after school at the gates.

Us girls walked to our next class, Spanish, and were all happy to find Jack standing by the door talking to Mr. Perez, our teacher. It seemed that we were in luck and our new gorgeous classmate was going to be with us for another hour.

‘Wendy, dear, try not to be so obvious this time.’ Daisy scolded her.

‘I didn’t mean to… but, did you see him? He’s like… perfect!’ She said blushing for even thinking about him.

‘We know, Wendy, we know. But you have to act cool. All the other girls will be all over him in no time, he’ll get tired of them and he’ll be all over us. Men always want what they think they can’t have.’ Daisy seemed to know an awful lot about boys, but I’d never seen her with a guy before. Maybe that was a tactic as well, since she was pretty enough to be on a cover of some magazine. Of course, in our school, nobody seemed to notice her. I started to think that they knew she was unobtainable. Maybe all that coolness she talked about had back-fired.

We got into class and Wendy sat next to Daisy. Whenever Jimmy ditched school she would sit with me or with our pink-hair friend. She was so used to have someone beside her that she would get almost paranoid if she didn’t. I didn’t particularly mind. When I sat alone I could concentrate on the lesson better.

However, today both Daisy and Wendy regretted their decision of sitting together, since Jack Jones was assigned the seat next to mine.

When he took his place he gave me a quick nod, almost unnoticeable and got some stuff out of his bag. I felt my emotions running wild and I kept telling myself to calm down. I took my pen and started copying some stuff down from the board.

‘Hi, I’m Jack.’ He whispered ever so softly. I could barely hear him. He must have been worried of getting caught talking on his first day at school.

‘I know… I mean, we had English together,’ I whispered back sounding incredibly stupid ‘I’m Amber, by the way.’ I added hoping to sound a bit less of a moron.

‘Amber… that’s a nice name.’ He said ever so quietly.

‘Thanks’ I replied blushing and trying not to look at him in the eyes.

‘How long have you been here?’ He asked.

‘I moved here from New York about… ehm… a month ago.’ I answered trying to sound as convincing as I could. He didn’t need to know about my memory issues just yet. Or ever.

‘You don’t sound too sure.’ He continued, smiling.

Damn, I was such a failure.

‘Well, it’s not a month just yet… almost.’ I answered adding a little laugh, that was supposed to lighten up the situation, but it came out so nervous and hysterical that made me look like a lunatic.

After that, he kept looking ahead and I kept thinking what an idiot I was.

It wasn’t until last period, at Algebra 2, that our lessons and miraculously our desks matched again.

‘Hey,’ He whispered when he sat next to me ‘I’m happy to be next to you again. I met some very annoying people so far.’ His beautiful lips were scarcely moving as he spoke.

‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.’ I was very surprised that he would prefer my company to the one of anyone else in the school.

I observed him as he took his pens and calculator out. He looked even more handsome now, perhaps more relaxed than before. First days are tough. I should know. Shame I couldn’t remember mine. Although, considering how nobody ever looked at me, I probably made a fool of myself.

‘You know,’ I said looking at him ‘You don’t look 17. I mean, you look older then us.’ I explained considering how much taller than many others in school he was (over 6-feet tall is pretty unusual for a 17-year-old) and how his voice sounded a little more mature.

‘That’s ‘cos I am older.’ He replied whispering so softly I had to lean closer to hear him. I looked up at him with a puzzled expression on my face. ‘I’m 18. I had to skip a year due to an accident. I’d rather not talk about it.’ He explained quickly.

‘Oh, I see… Sorry, I didn’t mean to. I mean, I didn’t know, but if I’d known I would have never asked… obviously, if I’d known I wouldn’t have asked because I…’ I looked up at him in terror realizing how I’d just went on blubbering like an idiot.

But, while my eyes held terror, his held amusement. He put his hand in front of his mouth to hide a smile and said ‘You’re so funny. I wish I could share more classes with you.’

He said it whispering, probably not meaning half of it. But to me, his words, meant almost everything.

It was normal for me to feel sad at the end of a school day, since it meant coming back home to a crying depressed mother. But today it was even harder, because I would have had to wait until the next day to see Jack again.

Once again, I spent the evening listening to my mother sobbing and, later, crying herself to sleep. I really wanted to call my father and tell him about her, but I knew that it was the last thing she would have wanted. On the top of that, he never called us. It was as if he’d forgotten he’d ever had a daughter. And, although that hurt me, I couldn’t even imagine how painful it must be for my mother.