Ghosts {L.P.}

6:25

Ｇｈｏｓｔｓ Ｇｅｔ Ａ
Ｓｅｃｏｎｄ Ｃｈａｎｃｅ

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။||||။၊|• 0:20

Riya spent a solid ten minutes stood outside her school, barely at the end of the staircase and only a few feet away from the glass entrance doors.

Students pushed into her sides, completely brushing over the catatonic girl's existence with ragged breathing staring at the doors as if they were about to spring into life and munch on her like a piece of fresh minty gum.

However, it wasn't the doors themselves which Riya feared, instead she was frightened by what the doors contained inside the concrete building.

"Riya?" Just like a frightened rabbit Riya jumped, bracing herself against the railing of the stairs behind her rather than fiddling with the cropped long-sleeve orange top.

Julie had been the one to call out her name, hair pulled into a fluffy ponytail formed with her thick curls, a colourful striped shirt halfway running down her exposed shoulder and comfortable purple leggings over her legs, she was dressed as if ready to spend the next few hours jumping around in some Zumba class.

Riya's hammering heart slowed at the sight of her friend, one of the only two people in the entire school who wouldn't judge her for seeing a trio of dead ghosts from the 90s, after all Julie saw them too so if they were crazy at least they were crazy together.

"Hey Julie."

At first, Julie didn't catch on to why Riya's breathing was so ragged, or hands so shaky she was gripping at the straps of her backpack to keep them still; however, something clicked inside her mind when she connected the dots of the prior weekend and the fact that Riya was looking everywhere but at the daunting sign of the bright blue bobcat with the somehow still standing name of the school.

"Scared to go inside?" Riya didn't even bother denying it, there was no use denying the obvious, she nodded while returning to picking at the sewn ends of her shirt.

"Last time this happened, and I went inside school, I was covered in a bucket of ghost confetti. So you could say I'm a bit scared to go inside this time."

Julie sighed, the warning bells ringing across the entire field, class would soon begin and if Principal Lessa caught the two still frozen literal steps away from inside the school she certainly had the power to kick both Julie and Riya out of the only class they enjoyed on a weekly basis, music.

"Do you want to go in together?" Riya looked up from her shuffling feet, eyes wide in fear and anticipation of what Julie's words encompassed. "That way you at least won't be covered in ghost confetti alone, and I bet Flynn would be down to yell at them if that were to happen."

Riya laughed, her quiet laughter mixing in with the mindless chatter of students trying to finish off their stories before being suffocated into a classroom for half the day. She finally looked at Julie with something other than fear or the same sadness from the weekend, instead there was pure sagged relief in her entire body, as if Julie's offer had pushed a weight of her already heavy with responsibilities shoulders.

"I'd like that." With a dramatic flare Julie straightened up, extending her arm for a giggling Riya to interlock with her own before taking towards the entrance one graceful step at a time.

The cold air of the air conditioning inside the school pushed the baby hairs out of Riya's foreheads, her grip against her backpack and Julie's arm tightening while her heart clenched in anticipation for the worst to happen.