Chapter Three

Ashgrove High is the oldest school in town. Its exteriors gave out a mystery and foreboding vibe that no matter the paint used to beautify it the building still maintains its eerie aura.

Some students believe that the school is hunted and even created a club in other to prove it. But some have learned to embrace its spooky appearance and Mysterious past. 

Before the summer break, all students were looking forward to enjoying the long vacation away from the school premises. But now the atmosphere is different the students are happy to be back. Happy to see some of their schoolmates who travelled out of town for the holiday. Some were even happy to be back because of how boring they were at home throughout the holiday.

But this happiness doesn’t always last. I give it a week or two their excitement will be replaced with dread.

The school bus parked at the end of the parking lot offloading its passengers. Miranda was the last to get off the bus. Her clothes and hair were dried like it was never wet in the first place. She was walking through the parking lot, heading to the school building when she spotted the car that wanted to ruin her first day of school.

She began walking towards the car and at the same time imagining the kinds of damage she could inflict on it. But she was awakened from her imagination when a familiar voice called her.

“Mimi!”

She looked away from the car to a red-haired girl that waved in her direction. The girl wore clothes that the thrift stores in Ashgrove can’t sell and wore boots that looked so expensive Miranda thought she must be crazy for wearing them on the moody ground.

Miranda walked up to her. “Hey, Taylor.” Taylor hugged Miranda. something Miranda isn’t too much of a fan of. “I’ve missed you so much.”

“Missed you too. How was Japan?”

“Beautiful. The air there is better than anywhere else. I wish your uncle lets you come with me. It would have been way fun.”

“I know.” She gave a sad expression on her face.

The girls began to walk towards the school building. “Oh before I forget did you hear about the new principal?”

“New Principal?”

“Yea, someone announced it on the group chat that they created for us Sophomore seniors.” Taylor saw the confusion on her friend’s face. “Mimi this is why I always tell you to socialize more. So you wouldn’t miss out on important matters happening in school. Are you even on the group chat?”

“No.”

Taylor sighed heavily “Ok I will tell the group admin to add you. You don’t need to talk if you don’t want to.”

“Ok. Thanks.”

“It’s not Ok. Thanks. This is our sophomore year as seniors. This is the time to go wild, have fun, meet new people, have a boyfriend and have sex.”

Some students glared in their direction when Taylor mentioned ‘sex’. “Yea like you guys are still virgins,” she tells the students. “What I am trying to say is let this academic year be different for you. Loosing up. We have been friends for two years, but it feels like I barely know you.”

Miranda didn’t know what to say. Knowing who she was she tried not to get close to anyone in other for them not to find out her secret. The first she met Taylor was her first day of attending Ashgrove High. She walked into the principal’s secretary’s office and noticed a red-haired girl seated at the end of a bench waiting to be called into the principal’s office.

She sat on the bench, the girls did not speak to each other. and a few minutes later, a chubby lady carrying two files walked out of the principal’s office. “Oh, you are finally here.” Talking to Miranda. “The principal would like to see you girls now.”

After a brief talk with the principal, they were left to fend for themselves in the school. There was this eerie vibe that Taylor sensed from Miranda that got curious. Miranda was the type she had not seen before, usually, the kind of girls she hangs out with were the ones that wear the latest clothing brand. But since they were both new students and share the same class, she thought she could stick to her till she was able to adapt to her new school. Taylor thought it would be simple that every person would want to hang out with her, but Miranda was someone different. She flat out told her “No.” when Taylor asked if she could hang out with her after school.

Made her interested in her more. It took a while for Miranda to be comfortable around Taylor. When she finally did both girls were always together. Even with that Miranda tries to keep her distance.

I wish I could tell you what I am but I fear things would turn out differently

Taylor was scrolling through her phone trying to find the one picture of their hot new Principal. As she complains about the number of photos on her phone, Miranda noticed something at the far end corner of the school building. She saw Zikki’s pals pulling a student away from everyone’s view. She knew what they were going to do to him. Irritated and annoyed, she picks the perfect damage to inflict on Chris’s car.

As they were heading close to the entrance door, Miranda closes her eyes and imagines her target’s car. It felt like time stopped as she spoke some words out of her mouth. All the windows of the car began to crack which eventually made a loud sound as the windows shattered to pieces.

The sound from the glass and the siren from the car shook the students outside. “The Ghost of Ashgrove high has struck again.” A student shouts running towards the scene with a camera in hand. Someone signalled the boys at the far end corner and the driver raced down in panic. Miranda watches as they run towards the car, pushing anyone that was in their way. She gave a smile when Chris had his hands on his head, frustrated.  

“What just happened?” Shocked Taylor finally spoke.

“I guess the ghost of the school didn’t like where he parked.” Taylor was not sure what was disturbing the most, the thing with the car or that she just saw her unfazed friend smirk a bit.

“Let us go inside.” Miranda guides her friend into the building.

They are four Info-board scattered inside the school building. There was one close to the entrance another far down the hallway and two more on the first floor. It was done this way to avoid students clustering the Info-board close to the entrance and obstructing the flow of students passing. Yet the majority of the students prefer to view their names and the class they would be in for the whole academic year.

Miranda and her friend were not ready to push their way through the sea of students to find their names. Rather they walked up the stairs, into a hall in search of one of the two info boards. They noticed a group of students checking something and it was the board. It got to their turn to check Taylor scanned the list. The class they were to enter is Class 5. But class 5 was divided into Class A, B, C, and D. in an effort to reduce the number of students in one class. Taylor couldn’t find her name in the A class but eventually saw hers in the B class.

“Class B. Ok. Let’s look for yours.” She goes through the same class in hopes to see her friend’s name. “It is not in Class B.”

“What’s not in Class B?”

“your name.” She sighed in disbelief “I didn’t see it in class B.”

“Are you sure?”

“I have seen it now.” Her fingers place on the name ‘Miranda Lewis’ “You are in Class D”

“Class D?” she walked up to the board to confirm herself.

“It’s like the ghost of Ashgrove High is upon us as well. It has succeeded to separate us for the first time since we started attending this school.” Taylor slowly felt frustrated. “Who will I copy my homework from? Who am I going to depend on during tests or even exams?”

While Taylor was busy asking herself frustrating questions Miranda could feel her heart racing fast. She had mixed feelings of excitement and concern. The two names she recognized on the list of students in class D apart from hers gave her mixed feelings of excitement and concern. The two names were Zikki Anderson and the other was his Ex Faith Abel.