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“Did you know senior died here a few years back?” Tommy hears a student whisper to their friend.
“Nah man, those are just rumors. You can’t believe everything you hear you know.” the other kid says as Tommy goes to pay for his lunch tray.
“No way man! The school is definitely haunted,” the first student argues, “this one time I put my pencil down, look away for one second, and poof! It vanished!”
“I think that’s just you being and idiot.” is the last thing Tommy hears as he pays for his food and walks away.
‘Haunted my ass…’ Tommy thinks as he sits at his usual table. Tommy is a sophomore at L’manHigh and his entire freshman year he hadn’t had anything “paranormal” happen. Well there was that one time in the bathroom stall where the lights cut out. If he screamed like a little girl who saw a spider that day then that was between him and this so called “ghost”.
Of course the rumors were nothing new, he had heard of them on his first day even, and it’s not liked he believed any of them. But he can’t help but feel a little paranoid when entering a dark room alone or waking the abandoned eerie halls after everyone has left.
His thoughts were interrupted by the loud clatter of a lunch try being dropped onto the table, it was his best friend Tubbo. Ranbitch standing awkwardly behind the small brunette, shifting from foot to foot nervously.
“Hey boss man!” Tubbo greets excitedly, “You wanna come over later today? Me and Ranboo are going to play some Mario Cart at mine and I wanna beat your asses.” the boy explains with a mischievous grin. Tommy groans in disappointment.
“Sorry Tubs, I have to stay after,” Tommy explains with an annoyed tone.
“Detention again?” Ranboo asks with an amusing face, taking Tommy’s silence as a yes. “I’m not surprised.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean!?” Tommy shouts at the fucking tree sitting next to Tubbo. He’ll have you know that Tommy is a very big man who gets all the woman and is very cool.
Tommy let out a huff as the three boys continued to talk until the bell rang and they said their goodbyes as they went their separate ways.
———
It was nearing the end of the day as Tommy sat through the last five minutes of the boring lecture the professor was droning on about. When the bell finally rang all the kids rush to get up and out of the building that was essentially hell on earth. Tommy, however, was still sitting at his desk. Chin resting on his hand as he watched the birds hopping around from the window.
He stayed like this for another five minutes until the teacher got up and left the room. That’s when Tommy promptly decided he should probably get some work done and pulled out his homework. If he was going to be stuck in detention he may as well do something, yeah?
Tommy was only 15 minutes into his math homework when he got stuck on a problem. It was just Tommy in the classroom, sitting right beside the window. The sun slowly but surely setting in far off horizon, just above the trees that were scattered around around campus. It’s was peaceful… for now at least.
“Ugh…” Tommy groaned out in frustration as he let his head fall onto the desk. He just wants to go home.
A sudden harsh chill runs down Tommy’s spin. He hears a faint whisper in his right ear and he freezes as eyes go wide. But instead of words of pain and Anguish or threats to get out he hears… the answers to his homework..?
“What..?” Tommy ask in a quiet voice as he whips his head around, frantically searching for a source.
He doesn’t find one.
“The answer is A,” the voice repeats itself. Tommy turns back to his paper and stares for a moment before circling the letter.
Tommy just sits there in shock, mind in overdrive with thoughts and questions running through his mind at top speed.
‘What the hell is happening?’
‘Is this a ghost?’
‘Oh I’m so dead…’
‘Were the rumors true?’
‘Am I really getting answers from a ghost?’
‘This question better be right.’
He was interrupted however (how rude) because he heard it again.
“The next one is C.” it whispers and Tommy circles. This continues until all the questions on the paper are filled out and its ready to be turned in.
Just after they finished the page the teacher pokes his head in, startling Tommy, and tells him he can go home now before leaving to who knows where again. Tommy mutters a quiet “Okay” in response and packs his stuff up. He gets up to book it the hell out of there but stops at the door and turning back, staring at the empty classroom.
Tommy musters up all the courage he had in that moment and hesitantly says,
“Thank you for the help… uh I’m going to leave now.” and Tommy turns out the door with a quick ‘bye’. He could have swore he heard a faint echoey laugh from behind as he speed walks away.
Tommy walked home in a daze that day.