Chapter 1: The Popular Girl

Oaken Hills was a small town with a varied history. The whole town was built around a sacred tree. A long time ago according to the town's history a man named Oscar Oaken discovered the dilapidated and run down town of Oaken Hills and vowed to bring it back to life with the few locals who refused to leave. The only thing he had brought on his travels was a seed from an oak tree. It was customary in his family for many generations that once you reached 18 you were given a seed from the family’s oak tree and had to travel the world looking for a place to call home. Once you found that place you were to plant the seed and if you chose well then, the seed would bring prosperity and good luck to you. 

This is exactly what happened with Oscar for not long after he planted that seed did prosperity begin to return for the town. The abandoned mine exploded a few days later and in the rubble both rubies and sapphires were found in the mines. Even rarer than that were gems that looked like a combination of the two. The only two jewellers left in town quickly got to work on the gems and tourists began to pour in to buy them. The town was on its way up from there and the local businesses just kept booming. Everyone thanked Oscar for the oak that brought them such prosperity that they created a festival around it. Now every year in the summer they honour the oak and the man that brought life back into the town. 

Everything was happy and prosperous as the town grew more and more lively but remained its quaint size just like its people wanted. The local high school was starting up a fresh new year and like one would imagine any school to be it was full of secrets. Teenagers being something they’re not for some reason or another or teenagers being bullied for choosing to stay true to themselves rather than conform to what society wants from them. One of these teenagers was none other than Cassidy Bones, the head cheerleader and all around happy go lucky popular girl. She had blond hair and blue eyes and most of the school loved her. The rest didn’t really care and were more focused on their own lives.

She led the cheerleading team to many victories and helped to choreograph many routines to support her fellow sharks to victory at many sports events. She even kept her grades up. They weren’t perfect but they were good.

You would never think a girl like that would be carrying around any secrets, would you? There’s no way she had any particular reason to look behind her every few steps as she walked to her bike after school every day or that she circled the area surrounding school twice every day to make sure no one was following her before cycling as fast as she could to the big house on the hill. Why would she do such a thing? Well, it’s because the perfect popular girl would never want anyone knowing she lives in a cemetery!!

“How was school today dear?” her mother asked.

“My head is way too itchy at the minute mum. I’ve put up with this all day. It was a struggle. I need to change really quickly and I’ll be back but school was good. Cheerleading practice went well but the new girl still needs to practice at home and she refuses.” Cassidy replied.

Cassidy’s mother understood her daughter wanting popularity but what she couldn’t fathom was why she had to go to such lengths to be liked. As Cassidy stood in front of the mirror in her room, she carefully took off her blond wig and put it on the mannequin and wiped the makeup off her face so she could see her real self. The only real thing about Cassidy was her blue eyes and her love of being popular. The truth was that she had red wavy hair and freckles and at home it felt good to be herself. She would always wear pink and other bright pastel colours for school but at home she couldn’t wait to take them off and slip into her much more comfortable dark clothes. A black pair of denim shorts and a black off the shoulder top with a dragon outlined in foil print. This was the real Cassidy Bones. After this she went back downstairs to talk with her mother.

“Why is there a body on the table again mum? Did dad run out of room again?” Cassidy asked.

“We weren’t expecting anyone today and so your father shut down the freezer to swap out some parts. We’ll have him moved soon but for now we’re doing ok. I had to turn the thermostat all the way down so how about you go outside for now and keep them company.” Her mother requested.

This was Cassidy’s other secret. Not only did her parents run a funeral home and own a cemetery on the same land but this line of work has been in her family lineage for a very long time and that spiritual energy has been passed from mother to daughter since the very first Bones opened up a funeral home so long ago. This spiritual energy grew with each new member of the family and when Cassidy was born, she was granted the power to see and talk to ghosts.

She spent every day after school having tea with a resident ghost and talking for hours. Not every ghost passes on straight away, some have unfinished business, some simply want to hang around until they get bored and others want to stay and wait for the ones, they love to join them and Cassidy was happy to help the time move faster. Another teenager at the high school with secrets would be none other than Noah Litmen the schools best sports star on his way to getting a scholarship. It’s a shame he couldn’t actually care less though.