At the End of the Garden

Chapter Two

"Last night Nadia and Millie from Set Two stayed late at the library, they said it must have been there because the doors started opening and closing on their own. And they thought they were being watched the whole time."
Despite retelling a 'scary' story, my classmate couldn't hold back his laughter as he spoke to his friend during Form time.
"How did you manage to get two girls to speak to you?" His friend replied, taking it just as seriously.
I didn't believe it either. For starters, our library doors were automatic and also very sensitive. All it took was a gust of wind or something dropped on the floor close by and the doors would open on their own. Plus, if the two girls had already been talking about a ghost, it wouldn't be surprising if they started to feel paranoid about being watched. Still, during Form, Angie had buried her head into a book and was paying no attention to me. So, I listened to the conversation happening behind me for entertainment instead. I probably wouldn't have even been interested if Sidney hadn't mentioned a 'ghost' just ten minutes ago.
"Shut up." The first boy retaliated to last comment, then continued, "that's not the point."
"What is the point then? Don't tell me you actually believe it?"
"Of course not. A bunch of Year 7's and 8's keep getting freaked out, I heard one say it's a vengeful spirit living in the caretaker's shed." He spoke the words 'vengeful spirit' in a mocking tone.
"The building at the back of the field? The creepy looking one anybody could make a scary story about? Also, what are you doing talking to Year 8's? Nonce."
The conversation ended with a spat between the two boys and I stopped listening. I looked to Angie. Could she have been listening too? But she didn't move her eyes away from the words in her book. When I told her what I heard on the walk to our first lesson, she just hummed and nodded like a parent hearing their young child talk about their day. There was no chance of Angie buying into it, no way I would. I was more confused about how a group of sixteen-year-olds were talking about it.

My confusion hadn't lasted long and I almost forgotten about it until second period, Maths. It was likely because I sat behind Sidney Mathews and his presence reminded me of what he had said this morning. Usually, he liked to drag people into what ever trouble he was making, which was mainly just non-stop talking. But personally, I didn't get up to much in that lesson. I sat next to Eden.
Like all subjects, Eden was an overachiever in Maths. This meant he was least likely to drop from A* to A in this class. I didn't mind Maths, I didn't think it was that difficult. You're given a question and all you have to do is remember the one set way of solving it. Easy, right? Because of Eden's academic ability, we didn't talk to each other much here. He just got on silently with his work. The only time he looked up was to tell the person in front to be quiet and face the right way, which was still mostly rare. Sidney was surrounded by other people in class he could talk to, who weren't going to tell him to be quiet like Eden did. When he did try to talk to us, the conversation usually contained snarky comments to wind Eden up, but my boyfriend rarely wasted even a moment humouring him.
To my surprise, that day, Eden was the one to start speaking first. Even though all he had to say was:
"I'm staying late after school today, are you still coming back to mine?"
I wouldn't be in trouble if I ditched Eden and went straight home, which I was tempted to do most nights he stayed at school late.
"I left my English book at yours last week. I was planning on going to yours to get it." I said. Truth be told, I'd actually completely forgotten about the book until Eden mentioned going to his house.
Eden nodded and went swiftly back to his work. I caught myself staring at him as he turned away, waiting for something to happen. Maybe I wanted to catch his gaze like they do in all those romantic films. It was always hard to avoid Eden's eyes when he was looking straight at you. They were painfully blue, like they were shrouded in ice. They were actually intimidating to look at, almost unnatural. He got them from his father. He didn't look up again. Our eyes didn't meet. I gave up staring.
So, I looked back at my own work, but as I turned my head I caught Sidney looking in our direction but he quickly turned away. Smirking, as he usually did. It was his way of tempting me to talk to him so he could wind up Eden. After taking one look at the numbers on my page, I didn't bother to resist him. I leaned over the desk and poked him in the back with my pen.
"I ain't done anything." He said, not turning around.
"Well, now I think you've done something."
"I swear I haven't." Sidney replied. He laughed honestly as he turned in his chair to face me. "Whatever it is, I either didn't do it or didn't mean to."
"I was only going to ask you something."
"Oh, really?" He said, then started dramatically rubbing his shoulder. "You poked me pretty hard."
I heard Eden sigh as if struggling with his work.
"Did not." I responded, "I had a question."
He nodded and waited for me to ask.
"What did you mean when you said something about a ghost this morning?"
"Well." He was already laughing to himself. "Locally, I believe people call ghosts the spirits of people who have - "
My first instinct was to kick the back of his chair, but I laughed it off instead.
"I don't think ghosts are related to your work, Sidney."
I jumped at the sound of Eden's voice, he sounded exactly like a teacher. It was lucky for Sidney that real teacher in this class was more of a push over than Eden was.
"She started it."
I gasped childishly. A noise I was embarrassed by the second it came out of my mouth. Before I could formulate a real response, Eden had given a cold glare the way his father or a teacher would. I huffed.
"Wow, won't make exceptions for his girlfriend - damn, I dunno if that's good or not - okay! Okay! I'm turning around." Sidney responded to Eden's same glare directed at him.
This series of events had got me no closer to finding out what was so special about the ghost. I was too stubborn to let it go, especially after I'd asked and didn't get an answer. However, Eden's wrath was stronger, so I was going to have to wait until another time to find out.
That would be the case if Sidney was any good at listening to instructions. Much to Eden's dislike, he turned around a minute later to finish our conversation.
"Basically, people are saying that there's a ghost going around the - "
"It's still not related to your work Sidney." Eden didn't even give him a chance to finish.
" - and it only comes out after school ends, might be because it's getting dark early." Sidney choose to ignore Eden.
"It's just a stupid story about a ghost of that girl, Luka, to scare the Year 7's. That's it." Eden said to me in his adult, fed up tone. "Now turn around." He added for Sidney.
"Luka?" I said out loud, to neither of them in particular.
Sidney shrugged at me, still smirking, as he started to do as he was told. The light from the window caused a glint in his eyes as he finally turned to face the front of the room.
"A girl who used to go here." Eden said as he began to concentrate on his work again. "It's really not that interesting."

I updated Angie on my discoveries later. Not because I thought she cared, but because it filled a bit of silence between us.
"Surprisingly it was Eden who told me, weirdly, he said that - "
"I heard." Angie snapped. "I don't sit that far from you."
I didn't expect Angie to respond. Instead I thought she would just nod and pay the bare minimum attention like she did this morning. Her reaction made me think she was annoyed.
"Errr, sorry."
She ignored my comment and flipped her hair out her face like you would a fly in hot weather. All she responded with was: "ask your boyfriend where he heard that from."
"Heard what?"
"About the ghost being that girl."
"Luka?"
"Yes!" She snapped again.
"Why don't you ask?" If she was going to act mad at me, I was going to do it back.
"He's your boyfriend. Besides, you were the one who was interested before, it wouldn't sound as weird as me asking."
"As weird?"
"Yes, as weird. You are sixteen, it's weird for you to believe in horror stories."
Her comment left me in a grumbling, defensive mess repeating about how I didn't actually believe in the ghost.
There was thirty seconds of silence where Angie looked in the opposite direction. She eventually rubbed her head as a sign of her giving in to it.
"Sorry, that was no way to ask for a favour."
I had gotten pretty used to Angie's irritable personality. She had a sharp tongue that could send anyone running in the opposite direction. She never answered questions about herself, no matter how trivial. She didn't smile at people she didn't know. Whenever she tried to help, she ended up spitting poisonous and unhelpful remarks. And she kept her circle very small. It was almost like a survival mechanism. She never hesitated to attack, even if it was uncalled for.
"I didn't think you were interested." I said.
"Not about the ghost, about the girl, I want to know why people are talking about it again."
"Didn't she go to this school?"
"They're all wrong about it..." Angie muttered, loud enough for me to hear.
"Sorry?"
"Didn't you know? Luka ran away. She isn't dead."

*************

AN:

Don't think we started saying 'Nonce' until about 2018, but I'm not changing it.

It's also canonically Eden's birthday tomorrow! He would be nineteen in 2020.