Dark Beauty

Chapter four

History class was next for me. That made me happy; History was my favorite subject.
I didn’t have history with Jake, but I did have it with Peter. I could try to make him say something about Jessica. It would much easier if I could just say: your girlfriends’ ghost is here and she won’t move on until you know that her death wasn’t your fault.  However, if I said that, he would think I was crazy and would never talk to me again (not that he talked a lot to anyone anyway). One thing I know is that I’m not giving up; I don’t know about Jake, but I sure won’t.  
Well, I still had time to think what to say to Peter; the history classroom was way down the corridor. 
‘I will help you to try and make him talk about me. Maybe if he knows that there’s someone here for him, he might not feel so lonely or even so guilty. He’s kind of popular but never had many friends and after we started dating he spent most of the time with me.’ Jessica said appearing from nowhere.
‘Ok, please help me, because English class was terrible. He didn’t say a thing.’
‘I will. I just don’t know how yet, but I will think of something. Try starting a conversation with him.’ Jessica said.
I walk into history classroom. It was all made of wood with a sofa in the corner; there where many desks like all the other classrooms and there were a lot of old books piled up on the teachers’ table.
I sat on a desk next to peter. As I sat, I greeted him; he looked up, greeted me back and then went back to reading that same book he was reading earlier today.
‘Since this is a new year, you will sit with a partner to get know your classmates better. Just for today, sit with the person next to you.’ The history teacher said. She had short blond hair and wore glasses. She seemed to be in her fifties.
My partner for today was Peter, since he was the one sitting beside me.
‘What’s up with all these group work today can’t we do one thing alone.’ Peter mumbled.
‘It’s only because it’s the first day of school. Nearly all schools do this. I’ve transferred from schools enough to notice that.’ I said to Peter, trying and failing, to start a conversation. He didn’t say anything back. 
In fact, he didn’t seem to even pay attention to what I just said. He was back to reading again and by the looks of it; he seemed to be finishing it.
‘He’s normally very kind and polite, you know. He’s just sad; that’s why he’s acting this way.’ Jessica said, appeared out of thin air again. I should’ve gotten used to it, but I still jumped when she started talking. 

As soon as the teacher started talking and explaining how she would grade us, Peter shut his book and payed attention.
That gave me time to talk to Jessica without him noticing.
‘This isn’t working. He doesn’t even look at me.’ I complained.
‘I have an idea. Ask him why he is so sad. Say that above the clouds there is a blue sky. I always said that when he was sad.’ Jessica said. ‘Who knows, he might speak to you this time.’ It didn’t seem like a terrible idea. No harm in trying.
The teacher had finished the explanation. She told us to discuss with our partner what we most enjoyed about History and also talk about ourselves, so we got know each other better. 
Luckily, for me, this was a great way to know more about Peter. 
‘So, since when do you study here?’ I knew Peter would never start the conversation, so I did.
‘Since fifth grade.’ Peter said without even looking at me. If I didn’t know the reason why he was acting like this I would have gotten really mad.
 Just then, I realized: he didn’t know that I knew, so it would seem normal if I just got mad at him for being rude
‘Hey, did I do something to you? Because we met you’ve been acting like you hate me or something.’ I said in a tone that was angry, but hurt. I did that so he would feel sorry for me.
Apparently, it worked. Peter looked at me with a surprised expression on his face, that quickly turned into an, I’m-sorry-face.
‘I’m sorry. I’m just in a bad mood today. It’s nothing against you… or Jake.’
‘See, isn’t he cute?’ Jessica said with a very squeaky voice. I hadn’t noticed that she was still here.
‘Look Peter, I don’t know why you are like this, but I do know that above the clouds there is a blue sky.’ I said looking at him. That hadn’t been a good thing to say. Peter looked at me with a surprised face that turned sad. In the end, it was a failed attempt.
‘I know.’ he replied in such a low voice that I almost didn’t hear him.
For the next thirty minutes, Peter and I talked. He didn’t say anything about Jessica (although that wasn’t surprising), but he did smile at me sometimes. 
That seemed to make Jessica very happy. I know she was anxious, but we couldn’t expect Peter to tell us something about her on our very first conversation. First, I needed to try to bond with him and become friends. 

History class passed by very quickly. Soon we having our last class before lunch. I shared this class with Jake.
We talked about many things, but mostly about Peter. We did not know how to tell him we could see ghosts and that his girlfriends’ ghost was there with us. 
We only knew that the first thing we needed to do was befriend Peter. We also had to try and make him happier. Most importantly, we had to make sure he would not try to hurt himself or something like that. 
That class passed by so quickly that it felt like we had been talking for just fifteen minutes.

We went to lunch; compared to my other school, the food was quite good. At least, in this one the food didn’t “move” suspiciously. The cafeteria was very big with two buffets; one with salad and food and another with desert and in a far corner, (I hadn’t even noticed) there was a juice machine and soda machine. I wonder why it was so isolated from the rest. There were four food pyramids one in each corner and there was a menu next to the door of the cafeteria.  
Everyone sat at the tables in separate groups, the Jocks, the Goths, Cheerleaders etc. I always found it interesting how people ended up organizing themselves in different cliques. There were some tables in the corner. Jake said he always sat there. He said it was where people who didn’t belong to any group sat.
 In the table next to us was Peter, he was eating alone. Did I say eating? My bad, I meant playing with his food.
 ‘Since when did he stop eating well?’ I asked Jessica; who had just appeared.
‘Since the day I died. On the first day, he didn’t eat anything. Now he eats, but still not enough to be healthy. He isn’t the same anymore; he always ate so much. When we used to go to the movies, he would get gigantic popcorn and a big soda just for him. Now he barely touches his food and he lost so much weight. I’m so worried’. She answered looking at him.
‘We are working on a plan, okay, Jessica. Don’t worry, we won’t let him do anything stupid.’ Jake was so confident that it was like he already knew what to do.  
‘Yeah, we won’t let nothing happen. You said today he was already smiling a little remember?’ I said trying to be as half as confident as Jake.
‘Thank you guys, I don’t know what I would do without you. This means a lot to me.’ Jessica smiled.
Jake smiled back that wonderful smile of his. I could see it in his eyes that he really wanted to help her.
How can such a nice person not have any friends? I can’t understand. It was probably because everyone thought he was strange; he did always seem to be talking alone. Or maybe he did something very embarrassing when he was younger and everyone still remembers. People can be mean sometimes. 
However, I was glad to have met him.