Dead!

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I should mention that Maya Jackson was still wearing those stupid headphones when she literally ran into me. "Whoa, sorry Ivy," she mumbled as she picked up her phone. Maya pushed her thick, black hair behind her ears and sat down in one of the chairs, furiously typing something into her phone.

I sat down next to her, since I had nothing better to do. "What are you working on?" I asked Maya. If I was back at Millard Fillmore High School, I never would have talked to the chubby, Hispanic (well, part-Hispanic, but what was the difference?) emo girl voluntarily, but she was one of the few people that I knew around here.

"I'm just finishing up my Frerard fanfic," Maya stated as she took off her headphones. "I've been working on it ever since I got here...wherever this is, but that's not important. I finally have time to work on it!"

"What's Frerard?" I asked.

Maya gasped. "Do you seriously not know what Frerard is?!" she exclaimed.

"No," I said. "What is it?"

"It's the pairing of Frank Iero and Gerard Way from My Chemical Romance, obviously!" Maya said. "Frerard is my OTP. I ship them so hard."

And this was exactly why I didn't talk to Maya. "That's...uh...interesting," I said.

"What? You don't ship band members?" Maya said.

"No. Why would I do that? That's just a waste of time," I said. "Besides, I don't even listen to stupid rock music from ten years ago."

"But I don't just listen to rock music from ten years ago!" Maya argued. "I also listen to rock music from eleven years ago!"

"Same difference," I said.

"And...I'm done!" Maya exclaimed as she stopped typing. "Want to read it over before I post it?"

"Not particularly," I said.

Maya shrugged. "Suit yourself," she said as she clicked the "Publish" button. Nothing happened. "Wait, why isn't it working?!" she exclaimed as she clicked the button again. "FOR THE LOVE OF THE HOLY EMO TRINITY, WHY WON'T THIS THING WORK?!?"

"Try turning it on and off again," I suggested. I wasn't a computer geek, but I did know that much.

"But then I'll lose everything that I've written," Maya said.

"Does anyone even read this Frerard crap?" I asked.

"Yes! I have almost ten thousand reads! The really popular stories have way more than that."

"Whatever you say, Maya," I said.

"What am I supposed to do?" Maya asked. "My Wattpad's still not working!"

"Check to see if your phone's connected to the Internet," I suggested.

"It's connected," Maya said.

"Then I really don't know," I said. "Maybe it just won't let you post to the accounts that you had when you were alive." I took out my phone and went to my Instagram to check this theory. As expected, when I tried to update my status, it didn't work. I could look at my accounts, but I couldn't post.

"Wait, what?" Maya said as I did this. "Are you saying that we're dead?"

"You didn't know?" I said.

"No!" Maya exclaimed. "So we're in Hell?!? Did I die and go to Hell? If this is Hell, then why isn't Brendon Urie here? Can't I go join the Black Parade instead?"

"You're not in Hell," I explained. "Actually, this is more like purgatory. We're waiting to be sorted into Heaven or Hell."

"How do I know that you're not just lying to me?" Maya asked. "You lied to the entire school about Reyna Sherman being pregnant. How do I know that you wouldn't lie to me about being dead?"

"First of all, that was Caroline, not me," I said.

"You didn't try to stop her," Maya argued.

"It seemed like something that Reyna would do," I stated. "Second of all, I'm not lying to you."

"I don't believe you," Maya said as she put her headphones back in.

"It's the truth, Maya!" I exclaimed.

"I don't care," Maya grumbled. "I'm just going to listen to MCR and pretend that none of this ever happened, even though my followers are going to kill me. I haven't updated my fanfic in six days. I usually update every three."

"You really need to get a life," I commented.

"How can I have a life if I'm supposedly dead?" Maya asked. I didn't really have an answer to that one. "There. I outsmarted Ivy Livingston."

"Do you want proof that we're dead?" I asked. "Just ask that guy over there. Joe's been here for the last two hundred years."

Maya wasn't really listening. She was still messing with her phone, but she had gone silent. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the screen. I looked over her shoulder and saw what she was looking at.

Frequently Asked Questions!

Q: Where am I?

A: After your death, you were transferred to the Iowa Sector waiting room, brought to you by your friendly neighborhood Celestial Bureaucracy. Make yourself at home: you will be here until you are selected to go to Heaven or Hell.

"It's true," Maya whispered. "I really am dead." That was when Maya began to cry. Maya was an incredibly ugly crier. This was another thing that would have never happened if this was a movie. Maya would have had a single tear dripping down her face, but that wasn't what happened. "WHHHHHYYYYY IS THIS HAPPENING TO MEEEE?!?" Maya whined as the tears continued to pour out of her eyes.

"Calm down Maya," I said as I handed her a tissue.

"I miss my mom," Maya mumbled as she dried her eyes. "If she was here, at least she would comfort me over hot chocolate and enchiladas."

"Now serving Number 355!" I heard. "Number 355, please come to the front of the room! Number 355! To all others: remember that numbers may be called out of order. Number 355!"

That was when a gangly boy with rectangular glasses, light brown hair that was pretty long for a guy, and green eyes came over to us. He was wearing a shirt with some incredibly nerdy reference that I didn't get on it, jeans, and sneakers, and he was typing something into his phone. He looked over at us and said, "If my math is correct, and I think it is, then at this rate, we're going to be here for the next forty two days."