The Half-Ghosts: A Spirit Prince

Ch. 1: Hemmett Absorbs a Lesson

From the back of the room, Hemmett d'Espers-Fitzhugh tried to pay attention to the boring mortal teacher. The glow of the candles in the lecture hall made him sleepy, and he found it hard to materialize in a really alert manner. All around him, students in various forms of spirit and mortal and somewhere in between huddled over their desks, taking notes. Seeva d'Espers wrote so fast, her pen lit up with blue sparks. Hemmett watched the bright blue patterns this created and wondered why he wasn't better with spectricity. Seeva and her siblings, the twins Evam and Saveema, all had great control of spectricity, the enlivening blue energy of the spirit world. His cousins--and they were continually outdoing him.

Hemmett stretched his neck to see what his twin sister, Aether, was doing up at the front of the room. He could see her black curls bobbing and her elbow working as she took notes. He couldn't imagine why she'd need to take notes on a spectral script lecture. Spectral script was the easiest thing around--

Hemmett jumped as he felt a jolt. He turned to see the mortal teacher behind him, her suit smoking, her hair on end again. She'd gotten too close to him. Sometimes when people startled Hemmett, he shocked them by accident. Sometimes he didn't even need to be startled.

Hemmett gulped as the teacher tapped her foot. Spectricity control! Why couldn't she teach spectricity control instead of this cruxed spectral script? Why, this stuff was so easy their pet bat-chi's at home could do it!

"Mr. d'Espers-Fitzhugh, I've asked you not to shock me!" barked Ms. Cockleberry.

"I have such trouble controlling it," complained Hemmett. "It isn't my fault. Mom and Dad say you should do a better job of teaching us how to keep from zapping mortals."

He had made that up, but why not? His mother and father had founded the school along with the other parents of half-ghosts. This teacher wouldn't listen to Hemmett, but she might take his parents' words more seriously.

"I'm a writing teacher," she said, giving him an arch look. Hemmett could almost hear what she was thinking: just because his parents founded the school, this half-ghost thinks he can mouth off in class and blame me for anything that goes wrong.

Hemmett grew excited for a moment--was he finally developing seer abilities? Could he finally hear others' thoughts, pick up on mental messages? He concentrated, listening to the minds of those around him. Silence--only silence. He had imagined the teacher's words, not sensed them.

Several of the older, more studious half-ghosts--including Hemmett's sister, Aether--shook their heads in his direction. Hemmett desperately wanted to tell them to go down an Underwood portal, but he kept his mouth shut.

Maxine and Joanny of the Vallejos clan giggled at Hemmett; their older sister Jayn glared at them. Pompous Jayn thought she knew everything. The oldest of the Vallejos kids, she had seven younger siblings in various combinations of ghost and mortal. Now she was smiling at the teacher--a total suck-up, as usual.

"Back to our lesson: translating spectral script into mortal writing," said Ms. Cockleberry. "This is one of the most important ways spirits communicate long distance. Much more effective and safer than texting in the spirit realm--Mr. d'Espers, will you please put the phone away?"

Evam withdrew a phone from his lap and shut it off. The Vallejos clan stirred and a few of them moved farther away from him. He gave them a half-smile and shrugged. Jayn glared.

"Ms. Cockleberry, you said Evam would be disciplined if he texted in class again. You know my family is allergic to electronics."

Ms. Cockleberry looked up at the mirrored candles that ringed the room and nodded.