Luna's Ghost

7

I laughed as Dylan told yet another joke as me, Shaun, Dad. . .and Sharon sat at the dinner table that Saturday night. I was staying over at Dad's place for the weekend and was having a blast hanging out with my dad and step brothers, much to the chagrin of my wicked stepmother.

Helen and Johnny told me they would see me later and faded away so I could have dinner with my brothers and father. It was a little weird, since they usually never left me but I brushed it off. I couldn't have them with me all the time and they had the right to go off and. . .do whatever ghosts did to entertain themselves.

I eyed Sharon as she sat stiffly in her chair, her eyes fixated on her plate in front of her. She hadn't said a word to me since I got there early that morning, and I could tell she was waiting to push me out the door as soon as Monday came around. I tried to not let myself get irritated.

Sharon had been like that ever since Dad introduced me to her. For the sake of making my dad happy, I tried to get along with her, to get to know her, even though by no means would she be my mother in any sort of way, she'd barely acknowledged me. In fact, in the two years she'd known me, she'd said maybe ten words to me.

I focused back on what Shaun was saying. He was talking about something drama going on within his debate teams. Two of his other teammates were fighting with each other and it was causing the whole team to lose track. Who would have known a debate team could have so much drama?

Dylan talked about how boring school was and Sharon kept admonishing him about doing better, to actually stay awake in class and do his work. He replied by rolling his eyes and stuffing his face with mashed potatoes.

"What about you, Grace?" Dad asked. "How was your first week of school?"

"It went by okay," I said. "There was a fight on the first day--"

"Did you record it?" Dylan asked, his eyes wide with interest.

"Dylan!" Sharon admonished.

"What?"

"No, I didn't record it," I answered. "I stepped out of the room when it was happening. And I don't like recording sh-- I mean stuff like that. It's stupid and it creates more drama. That class I'm in where the fight happened has a lot of drama and I don't want to be a part of it."

"That's smart," Sharon said and cast a glance at Dylan. "That's what you should be doing."

I nearly fell out of my seat. Sharon acknowledged something I said? Sharon acknowledged me? Hell must've been having a popsicle stand that day 'cause I never thought that would happen.

"Other than the fight, anything else interesting happen?" Dad asked.

"I made a--sort of--friend."

"How do you make a sort of friend?" Shaun asked.

"I talk to her sometimes, but in the class we're in, she sits with her other friends and we don't sit together."

"Well it's a start," Dad said. "Maybe you two can get closer over time. What's her name?"

"Madison."

"Maybe you could try sitting with her more? Go sit with her and her friends?"

"Yeah, I guess I could try that." I mean, I didn't have anything else to lose.