Are You Out of Your Mind?!

Oh, brothers- aren't they wonderful?

"I don't wanna get away from you, Lyra,"

"I don't want to Lyra, oh, Lyra," cooed a disgustingly sweet voice from right behind Kent.

It was the boy from earlier that day, the dead one. I called him Blondie. I know, I'm very creative with my nicknames. Be jealous, very, very jealous!

"Shut up, Blondie. Just because they're in your seat doesn't mean you can harass them! Obviously they were having an argument like all girlfriends and boyfriends do, until you so rudely interrupted!" his sister scolded gently.

"He's not my boyfriend," I replied automatically. Aren't I awesome with nicknames?

"Who would go out with her?" Kenny scoffed.

Ouch. And thus was from the guy who wanted more than a hug, the filthy hypocrite!

"I would," Blondie yawned lazily, "glad to know she's available."

"She's not available to some dead guy like you!"

"I bet she likes me more, at least I don't diss her to her face!"

"What do you say about her behind her back?"

Blondie's sister rolled her eyes.

"I'm Cora, and that annoying thingamabob is my brother. Just call him Blondie; no one used his real name anyway."

"I was just thinking that his name was Blondie! I'm totally psychic!"

Cora just looked at me like I was a queer little oddball she had never seen before.

Just great. Now people who are already dead think I'm kooky.

Blondie gave a deep, rumbling laugh.

"Lyra, babe, we are going to get along just fine."

I winked at him, "Keep dreaming, honey."

Kent snorted in disgust.

"We believe it was a man who killed us, but we're not sure. He has blond hair and knows the school pretty well, but that's all we know," Cora continued professionally.

"We've been dead for a year now," Blondie added seriously, then, "can you introduce me to that blonde girl you hang out with?"

Blondie must have been talking about my badass bestest friend ever, Kaylee. Kaylee is the most rational crazy person I know. She has gorgeous, naturally platinum blonde hair and streaks of midnight blue. She's funny and smart, but has more brain farts than he average goldfish. In a nutshell, she's a tad lacking in common sense.

"She's alive, stupid," Kent chortled haughtily.

"Shut up."

"Cora, Blondie, we'll do our best to track down your killer, but it's a little hard to do that with the tiny amount of information you gave us," I intercepted the argument before it began.

"Meeting adjourned," Kent said playfully, whacking the bus seat with what I guess was an imaginary gavel. The siblings blurred before our eyes, two flickering flames on a candle that got extinguished, dissipating into smoke.

"You sure know how to make an ass out of yourself," I said slowly.

I couldn't help the smile on my face.

------------------------------

School kind of blurred by after the first week, and I watched it all pass me by on the sidelines. I had two A.P. classes, which was apparently rare for a freshman. The two college level subjects Human Geography and Environmental Science were offered, but most kids took Human Geo. A.P.E.S. was the abbreviation of the full course name, which I am too lazy to write out. Haha.