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Going Ghost!

Chapter 21 Word Count: 7,386 TW: Canon-typical Master List || Previous || Next

“Previously on this Clone High fanfiction: the main ensemble cast was very into Harriet’s play production—of course, after the school’s auditorium burnt down.” CJ narrated. “CJ missed out on some odd, unsavory romantic tension, the burning down of the Grassy Knoll, and the start of Joan’s chronic illness.”

“It’s called Psylly Legs.” Abe informed her.

“I know.”

CJ opened the front door expecting her lanky friend but instead was met with the greying skin and matching grey pantsuit of Candide. She stared at the large, green reptile draped over Candide’s shoulders like a fur scarf. She narrowed her eyes, half wondering if the reptile was even still alive in that position or if it finally became a taxidermized scarf. The reptile blinked at CJ, nulling her suspicions of Candide’s animal cruelty. CJ glanced up at Candide’s face, mirroring her scowl. She attempted to slam the door in her face, failing only because Candide was quick with her foot, blocking the door. Candide snaked her hand between the frame and the door and pushed it back against CJ. CJ relented, trying to keep Candide from opening the door and entering her domain—it was almost territorial, the way CJ pushed her body against the door to refuse Candide’s entry.

Candide, stronger than the adolescent, forced the door open and welcomed herself into the Scudworth residence. She peered down at CJ. “Where is he?” She demanded.

CJ rolled her eyes and stepped away from the door. “No one else lives here, it’s just myself and the dinosaur.” She turned her back toward Candide and waltzed across the living room.

Candide inhaled sharply. “You know, I would have thought that was an amusing way to inform me that Scudworth is still here, had he not told me about that little science fair project of yours.” She pointed toward the back porch. “And there it is, right? Playing in the yard.”

CJ raised an eyebrow and sat down on the couch. “I’m very serious. The accident was seven years ago, and you need to get over it. Forgive yourself, it wasn’t your fault.”

“Insect.” Candide spat. She walked toward the wall that supported the staircase. “You know, I’m surprised that you still live here. I thought you had made a bet with Scudworth. Shouldn’t you be halfway across town, living rent free?” She inquired.

CJ exhaled. “I made a deal with Scudworth, yes.” She leaned back against the couch and scrolled through her social media page.

“Why are you still here?” Candide asked.

“Why do you care?” CJ grumbled.

Candide shrugged her shoulders; she took a photograph of CJ and Scudworth off of the wall. “Oh, it’s none of my business, I’m just curious. Wondering if you had changed your mind about the whole thing.”

CJ scoffed, which turned into a laugh. “Changed my mind? Are you insane?” She sat up and looking over the couch at the blonde.

“It was merely a thought that I had.” Candide sung. “No need to get worked up about it… Unless there’s something more to the story.”

CJ knitted her eyebrows together. “I was beginning to think that there was sign of intelligent life in that dull flesh sack of yours, but as it turns out, you’re just as delusional.” She slowly turned back toward the TV and leaned against the couch again, too stunned to resume scrolling on social media. “I am biding my time.”

“Biding your time? That’s an interesting way to tell me you care deeply for your father.” Candide corrected CJ.

“No, I do not care for him.” CJ, in turn, corrected Candide. “There’s just a lack of apartments in the area that I would rather be in.” She spoke through her teeth.

Candide nodded, returning the photograph to its place on the wall. She picked up a different photograph from the accent table against the wall. “Honestly, it’s very hard to believe you when you mumble like that. But I suppose all teenagers mumble.”

CJ huffed. “And you’re nothing but an intrusive individual, you’re sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.” She crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side to look at her phone.

“Well played.” Candide praised.

CJ hummed.

Candide walked over to the back of the couch with a photograph in her hand; she stood behind CJ and held the frame between her two hands. “You know, if you had told me that this was you as a toddler, I wouldn’t have believed you.” She hummed. “You look so happy sitting with Scudworth and Mr. B.”

CJ glanced up from her phone and stared at Candide through the reflection of the TV; she merely hummed again.

“I don’t think his infatuation with me has anything to do with the fact that I’m a living and breathing female,” Candide began. “I think it has much more to do with the females he’s related to. He’s seeking attention from those similar to him and his family.”

“Ew.” CJ grimaced.

“You don’t think he misses his mother?” Candide asked.

CJ raised her eyebrows and inhaled deeply. “It’s not that he misses his mother, it’s more that he misses the abuse. You remind him of such abuse—that’s why he’s so infatuated with you and obsessed with the idea that you’re in love with him when you’re clearly not.”

Candide nodded. “I see…” She glanced down at the photograph in her hands. “You know, you remind him of his sister.”

“That is a lie, good try though.” CJ turned her head toward the TV. “Put the picture back where it was.”

“I’m only looking at it.” Candide hummed. “Your father will do anything over a simple obsession, sad, isn’t it?” she asked. “Why do you think he so easily agreed to your little deal?”

CJ grimaced again. “He is not obsessed with his own clone.”

“Well, he’s not infatuated with his own clone, I can tell you that much.” Candide let out a breathy laugh. “He’s obsessed with you in a very… disgusting, fatherly way.”

CJ snorted; she covered her mouth and attempted to stifle her laughter. “Wow, just when I thought you couldn’t get any more insane—.”

“Please, I’ve seen the way you, of all people, look at him.” Candide held the photograph out in front of CJ’s face. “No one looks at anyone like that unless they’re in love.”

“That’s an unsuspecting child being held by a man who made nothing but mistakes in his life.” She spoke with a wide grin. She pushed the photograph away from her face and back toward Candide. “Get that out of my sight.”

Candide brought the frame back toward her, behind CJ’s head. “You’re uncomfortable.”

“You’re insinuating something disgusting.” CJ scoffed.

Candide crossed her arms and held the frame at her hip, the photograph toward her body. “No, I’m simply telling you the truth,” she paused. “You don’t care for him, do you?”

CJ tensed her shoulders and looked back down at her phone. “I treat him like an enemy.”

A smile spread across Candide’s face. “Explain that to me.”

CJ shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t understand why you, of all people, need me to explain that to you. Isn’t that you’re whole schtick? Treating everyone like they’re an enemy?”

Candide slightly shrugged her shoulders and turned away from the couch. “If that’s how you view me.” She walked back toward the accent table.

“I know him better than anyone else, you’re supposed to keep your enemies closer than friends.” CJ told her. “It works.”

Candide placed the frame back down on the accent table. “Does he usually take this long?”

“Yes, actually.” CJ confirmed.

“SCUDWORTH!!!” She shouted. “YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE US LATE.”

CJ scrunched her nose and knitted her eyebrows together. “Did you have to scream for him?”

“Yes.”

“MISTER B, HURRY UP! WE NEED TO LEAVE; CANDIDE IS ALREADY HERE!” Scudworth hollered from upstairs.

Mr. B hobbled down the stairs. “I’m waiting for you, Wesley.” He reached the bottom of the stairs and spotted Candide staring at the family photographs. “Candide.”

“Mr. B.” The blonde greeted the butlertron. “Does he have his presentation ready?”

“Is it ready? Yes. Is it good?” Mr. B paused and stared off into the distance.

“That answers that for me.” Candide drew her lips into a thin smile.

CJ let out a huff. “I’m not surprised.”

“No one asked you.” Candide was quick to respond to CJ.

Mr. B rolled around the couch and up to CJ. “This is for you.” He handed CJ a packet. “While we’re gone.”

CJ nodded and took the packet from Mr. B only to place it on the couch next to her. “Okay.”

Mr. B sighed. “That is a list of house rules and emergency numbers while we’re gone, in case you can’t reach one of us.” He told her. “I suggest you look at it, Wesley.”

CJ nodded again. “Sure.”

Mr. B rolled his eyes toward the TV. “Could you take this seriously?”

“I could take this in the way that you want me to, but I’m going to react in a way that’s relevant to me.” She informed him. “There’s nothing you can do about it, you’re lucky if I so much as ‘need’ you while you’re on this business trip.” She continued to scroll through her social media, mostly ignoring the posts. “I have two friends I can bunk with if I really need to, both families are aware of my pet and don’t mind as long as I take care of him. I have a part-time job to keep me busy and I’m sure there will be some homework to do—if I go to school. I highly doubt that anyone is going to be there since you three aren’t—.”

“For the love of—please go to school.” Mr. B nearly pleaded with her. “Do not skip.”

CJ inhaled deeply. “I’ll do my best, but I cannot make any promises.” She kicked her feet up onto the coffee table. “I likely won’t need you while you’re gone, I can literally take care of myself; that’s the basics of you parenting me, for me to be able to take care of myself when needed, is it not?”

“You are so difficult to talk to.” Mr. B commented.

Candide spoke with a smile. “Ah, independent types, they think they know everything, and they think they can do everything. I wish my foster daughter was as independent as CJ, here.” She said thoughtfully. “Instead, my foster daughter calls me over every little thing; ‘I need a ride’, ‘I think I need to go to the hospital’, ‘I need money to go to the mall with my friends’, ‘I need you to pick me up from the Grassy Knoll’—thank God that place burnt down. I’ll never have to pick her up from there again.” She complained. “The needy calls are endless.” She walked back toward the couch and stood behind it.

“Ew, you’re someone’s foster mother?” CJ asked. “How’d that happen and why don’t I know who it is?”

“You teenagers think you’re too cool for parents and guardians,” she explained. “Either my foster daughter is pretending to be cool in front of everyone at school or she just thinks it’s embarrassing to have to superintendent as a foster mother—quite frankly, I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have me as a foster mother, have you seen me?”

CJ nodded. “You’re conceded.”

“Much better than Scudworth, at least.” Candide snapped.

CJ nodded again. “Fair point. There’s a reason absolutely no one knows who I live with… or who I am.”

Scudworth came barreling down the stairs. “WE’RE RUNNING LATE, WE’RE GOING TO BE EXTREMELY LATE.”

“I don’t blame you.” Candide validated CJ’s feelings.

“I do.” Mr. B said.

Candide shrugged. “At least you’re not needy.”

“You sound like a great foster mother.” CJ feigned a compliment. “Wish you were my foster mother; some people just get so lucky.”

Mr. B nudged CJ. “Behave this week and keep your comments to yourself.”

“Again, I cannot promise anything.” CJ reminded him.

Scudworth stood at the front door. “Are you two going to stand around and continue to talk to a worthless teenager or are we going to get on the road to make it to this business trip?” He asked, growing more anxious as the other two dillydally. “I have a presentation! Let’s go!” He swung the door open and dragged his suitcase and briefcase behind him.

Mr. B rolled after him with his own bags in his hand. “Wait…!”

Candide chuckled. “There’s no presentation, I just wanted to make a fool out of him.”

CJ smirked. “As exciting as that seems, he’s perfectly capable of making a fool of himself without the additional hand in the matter.” She paused a video on her phone and glanced behind her. “If this isn’t a business trip where he has to make a presentation, is it some other type of business trip?”

“A retreat.” Candide said.

CJ chuckled. “You know, he probably didn’t pack any vacation-style clothes, right?”

Candide nodded.

“I mean, making him waste his time on that presentation would have been the icing on the cake, but you opted not to tell him that this was also a retreat, therefore, he likely has to buy appropriate clothing.” CJ explained Candide’s own plan to her.

“There’s nothing funnier than a prank at someone else’s expense.” Candide told her. “It’s only going to get worse for him, I don’t plan on letting up.”

CJ shook her head. “I don’t know who I feel worse for—him or the Board for dealing with you two.”

CJ crumpled a piece of paper between her hands slowly; she glanced between her friend, Abe, and the rather elderly teacher who was probably cognitively dysfunctional. As the teacher turned his back toward the front several rows of the class as he lectured, she stared at the back of Abe’s head and raised her arm. She whipped the paper ball at the back of his head but missed entirely. The ball bounded off of the teacher’s desk, causing him to turn around and stare at the front rows. One of the students simply coughed while it was still silent. The teacher walked toward the front of the class and began to lecture again, not bothering with figuring out who made a noise. He approached the whiteboard and kept his back to the class as he drew a diagram from visual representation of the topic. CJ saw another opportunity to throw a paper ball at Abe; she took the opportunity to crumble another paper and chuck it at the back of his head, this time, hitting him.

Abe looked behind him, scanning the classroom for the culprit. CJ had waved her hand to grab his attention; Abe, as a response, shook his head. CJ nodded and lifted her phone out of her lap and pointed to it then him. This caused Abe to slump in his chair, begrudgingly. He turned back toward the whiteboard and watched their teacher as he slid his phone out of his pocket.

CJ tapped, rapidly, at her phone screen, unlocking it with her password and staring at the messenger app, expecting Abe’s message to her.

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(🎩) Abraham Lincoln

AL: I’m not getting in trouble because of you. We’ll talk later please. You: youre not going to get in trouble, he doesnt even know his own name. I know you have things to do after this class. You: are you busy after school? AL: Why are you asking? AL: You never ask to hang ot unless you’re upset. AL: Out** You: rest assured, friend, im not upset You: im just asking because maybe i want to do something if youre free. AL: I’m free after 5. You: i mean, Scudworth is gone for an entire week, i have the PERFECT opportunity to do the one thing ive always wanted to do wihtout his stupidass bothering me about it. AL: please dont be ghost hunting AL: please be something normal You: do you want to go ghost hunting with me?????? AL: And would you look at that I’m super busy. You: Abe please You: Abe You: please Abe AL: no. You: sav e me abe. You: ab save me. You: only ghost hunting can cuer me You: cure* AL: Where are we going to hunt ghosts in this town? You: easy. You: cemetery. AL: NO. ANYWHERE BUT. You: abandoned houses You: we could straight up just summon ghosts I dont know what to tell you AL: Fine you win. You: yay You: can I pick you up? Do you want me to? You: ill pick you up. dont worry about it. AL: Are you inviting Topher? You: he told me to eat shit. You: hes just as bad as Scudworth about ghosts, he doesnt believe that theyre real and he makes fun of me for the whole “supernatural survivalist schtick”. its not a schtick. i cant explain it! but you know what i mean, right??? about the ghost thing? You: i mean its not just ghosts!!! AL: I’m pretty sure Topher thinks you’re a ghoul if that’s what you mean You: o You: yeah checks out You: i think when Scudworth comes back we should see if hes a skinwalker. something has been going on with him and i totally think hes a skinwalker. AL: I am not helping you with that. Topher would though just to prove you wrong. You: OOOOOOOOH good idea. so when im right i can rub it in his face. Topher is the best candidate for that because hell do almost anything weird. i cant believe ive never thought og that before. he can get close to Scudworth and since hes also weird, like in that swere rat sort of way, he sould be fine if Scudworth is a skinwalker. youre so smart. AL: That’s not at all what I wanted to be called smart for but thank you. I’ll see you at 5, ok? 12:44

📱﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏📱

CJ grinned and put her phone back in her lap; she had successfully made plans that didn’t involve someone else inviting her (like usual).

“Where are you crazy kids running off to so soon?” Abe’s foster mother started, playfully, nagging Abe and CJ. She stood between the kitchen entrance and the dining room. She smoothed her skirt with her free hand, holding a drink in the other. “Aren’t you going to stay for dinner?”

Abe turned to face his foster mother. “Really?”

“You and your friends never spend time here anymore; you never spend the night in.” She commented. She took a sip of her drink. “Just don’t stay out too late, come back at a decent time.” She told Abe, clearly worried about him staying out late and not having a sleepover.

CJ peered around Abe’s thin form and waved at his foster mother. “No need to worry ma’am, I’ll make sure Abe is home, in one piece, by 11.”

“CJ.” Abe whined.

CJ snickered and slipped out of the front door. She looked over her shoulder and continued speaking to his foster mother. “I promise he’ll be home at a reasonable hour. He won’t be surrounded by any hooligans either! You can count on me to make sure he stays well-behaved, ma’am.” She leaned slightly backward as she hollered.

“CJ.” Abe whined again, following her out the front door.

Abe’s foster mother giggled.

Abe slammed the front door behind him. “My foster parent’s already worry about me after everything. You can’t just say those things to them.” He protested on her way of joking with his foster parents; his voice also cracked with embarrassment.

CJ shrugged her shoulders, finding herself to be humorous. “I’m just trying to build rapport with your family. I’m almost certain that your mother giggled.”

“Foster mother—.” Abe inhaled deeply and approached the passenger side of her car. “That’s not the point I’m trying to make.”

“What point are you trying to make?” She asked whilst unlocking her car.

“They like you; you don’t have to try.” Abe told her. He swung the car door open and slid in. “Can we ride with the top down? I keep forgetting how small your car is.”

CJ inhaled deeply and started her car; flipped the switch for the top to fold. “Puh.”

“What?” Abe asked. “They think you’re responsible…” He tilted his head to the side.

CJ raised her eyebrows. “Subjective. That’s how I present myself and I do that on purpose.” She got back out of her car and opened the cover. “That’s why they think we’re going to the movies tonight with some of our friends and not some cryptic expedition. I don’t want either of us to look bad for doing something weird.” She sealed the top and climbed back into her car. “Who better to lie than someone who can keep a straight face?” She asked.

“You.”

“That was rhetorical.”

“Oh.” Abe blinked. He inhaled sharply and looked at her. “Hey, are there any good movies out? We could always do that instead.”

She gripped her steering wheel and groaned. “But you agreed to go ghost hunting with me earlier. I have everything already in my car.” She tried now to sound like she was whining. “Be honest with me, did you only agree to ghost hunting to shut me up?”

“Well…”

CJ huffed.

“No, it’s not like that!” Abe began backtracking.

“No? Because it sounds like you agreed to keep me quiet.” She spat.

Abe bobbed his head from side-to-side, “it sounds bad when you say it that way…” He turned his back toward the passenger door and looked at CJ. “I just didn’t want to be bothered all day long about… y’know… ghost hunting.”

CJ furrowed her brow and slowly turned her head to look at him, keeping a firm grip on the steering wheel. Her mouth was slightly agape as if she was going to say something to him; instead, she closed her mouth and turned her head away from Abe. She stared at her steering wheel, eyes darting between her hands. Her knuckles were turning white from her tight grip. She swallowed hard. “Just say no, I’m nothing like Scudworth.” She took her hands off of the steering wheel.

“I just didn’t… want… to upset you…?” Abe tried to defend himself.

CJ nodded slowly. “You can always get out of my car.”

“W-what?” He stuttered.

“I said you could always get out of my car.” She repeated. “Do I have to say it in another language?”

Abe shook his head. “Why are you so angry?”

CJ shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe I’m not angry, just disappointed that my friend seems to think it’s okay to agree to something to keep me quiet.” She turned her car off and took her key out of the ignition. “I’m not forcing you to come with me. In fact, if I remember correctly, I did ask to see what time you were free.”

Abe sputtered. “I—no. You know what, do I need to get our conversation out? You weren’t asking at all!”

CJ nodded, standing her ground. “I sure was.”

Abe reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “You absolutely were not.” He unlocked his password-less phone and opened his messaging application. “Let me read it to you,” he started. “You said: ‘are you busy after school’, ‘im just asking because maybe I want to do something if youre free’, ‘do you want to go ghost hunting with me’. You then begged me to agree with you by saying: ‘Abe please, Abe, please Abe’ and ‘save me Abe, Abe save me, only ghost hunting can cure me’. That’s not asking.”

CJ knitted her eyebrows. “Are you a dolt? I asked if you were free and said that I would want to do something if you’re free. What were your replies to me?”

Abe stared at his phone. “Uh, well…”

CJ huffed and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She unlocked her phone and entered her messaging application. “You asked me why I was asking you if you were free, you told me I don’t ask to hang out unless I’m upset, and you said you were free after five. I asked if you wanted to go ghost hunting with me, you said ‘And would you look at that I’m super busy’—I thought you were joking, which is why I sent a meme: ‘Abe please, Abe, please Abe’ and a second meme: ‘save me Abe, Abe save me, only ghost hunting can cure me’. You asked where we would hunt ghosts, and I told you where.”

“I—well—you see.” Abe sputtered.

“Get out of my car.” She demanded. “You changed your mind, you don’t want to join me. Get out of my car.”

“You’re right, I did agree. Maybe I should have said something different instead of ‘And would you look at that I’m super busy’ all because I didn’t want to go ghost hunting. But I don’t know what these ‘memes’ are!” He protested.

“And you can ask Topher that, goodbye.” She raised her eyebrows and gave Abe a thin-lipped grin. Her light green eyes, usually filled with boredom, pierced his skin with nothing but hatred.

Abe sighed in defeat; he opened the passenger door and slipped out of her car. He gently closed the door and tried to stare at her through the tinted windows. She saw him just standing there, defeated and slumped over, but she had made up her mind. She didn’t want him to join her because it wouldn’t be fun if she was the only one that wanted to go ghost hunting. He did it to shut her up—he agreed just so he didn’t have to hear her complain about it. What a shitty thing to do, she thought. She threw her car in reverse and pulled out of his driveway.

She drove several minutes down the road and pulled her car into her clonefather’s driveway. She put her car in park and looked at her phone—several messages from Abe.

📱﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏📱

(🎩) Abraham Lincoln

AL: CJ AL: I know you’re driving, please don’t text and drive, or read this and drive. AL: I wan you to look at this when you’re done driving… AL: Maybe I just don’t understand why you got so upset; we still could have gone ghost hunting. We made the plans and everything. You: no thanks AL: This is something that you wanted to do. You: ok AL: Well, if you won’t go with me, why not ask Frida and Harriet? Aren’t they into similar things? You: i dont want to ask them AL: Okay… are you still friends with Julius, Vincent, and Catherine? Ask them to join you? Or at least one of them? You: i really think youre missing the point. i asked you and only you why would i want to go with anyone else? You: do you not see what im getting at? AL: Oh 17:45

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Abe called her; she contemplated letting her phone ring itself into voicemail, but for some reason, she picked up.

“What?” She asked, harshly. She listened to Abe ramble some apology that she didn’t exactly believe. She nodded as he droned on and on. “I’m going to have to cut you off for a moment. I don’t think I’ve done things ‘I don’t like to do’ just because we’re friends and you asked me. I don’t see how that applies to me, we have vaguely similar preferences and interests, same with Topher, although I’ve done things with him that I don’t like to do because that is the friendship we had. There are things that he won’t do with me and things that I won’t do with him because we had these conversations, and we have boundaries—as friends.” She explained. “I’m not talking to you about this anymore, okay? Bye.” She removed her phone from her ear and hung up on Abe while he was still talking.

She sat in her car and stared at the garage door. She picked her phone up again after a lightbulb turned on in her brain.

CJ and JFK stood at the trunk of CJ’s car. Her trunk was filled to the brim with ghost hunting equipment, piled on top of her typical occult survival gear and shovels that she had never removed to clean from her sleepover with Joan, Harriet, and Frida. JFK pulled a small, handheld device out of a hard plastic case. “So, uh, what’s this one?”

CJ glanced over at the cellphone sized device in his hand. “That is an electromagnetic frequency meter, otherwise called an EMF meter or EMF.”

“Is this what they use in all those ghost hunting shows?” He asked.

CJ nodded. “It sure is. Do you know how it works?”

JFK shook his head. “Uh, nope!”

She nodded slightly. “Well, I’ll show you how to use it inside. For now, all you need to know is that it EMF is a field of electrical and magnetic energy—think electrons and protons—and how they interact with each other. The meter itself measures the intensity of the field or the frequency of the field. This isn’t the best way to explain it, but I guess it will suffice.” She shrugged her shoulders, and she pulled a thermal camera out of its case. “I don’t particularly like using EMF meters in ghost hunting because AC currents give off the same frequency as electromagnetic fields.”

“AC current? The air conditioning?” JFK stared at her, dumbfounded.

“Ah, no. I mean manmade electronics; such as electrical wiring, outlets, anything that ca be plugged into the wall like a charger for a computer, a TV.” She explained to the captain of the football team.

JFK nodded. “Ghosts and TVs are the same?”

CJ looked up from the contents of her trunk and stared at JFK. “I-.” Her jaw hung open as she tried to fathom his way of thinking.

“What?”

“Well, when you put it that way, yes?” She questioned her own intelligence. Maybe JFK isn’t the moron everyone makes him out to be, she considered. “That’s why I don’t like using EMF for ghost hunting.”

JFK nodded, thoughtfully. “Because the ghosts and, uh, wiring can be the same thing.” He gasped. “Is that why ghosts can possess TVs and kitchen appliances?” He asked, wide-eyed.

“Erm, I-I don’t know? Maybe? I never thought of it that way.” CJ stumbled over her words, stunned by his questioning. “I suppose that would make sense if the energy of a ghost is similar to that of the appliance, the ghost could effectively control the appliance—even on accident as it’s trying to control its own energy form.” She tried to rationalize JFK’s way of thinking in a way that she, too, could understand. “EMF is purely theoretical, though. There’s an unexplained theory, being that ghosts are related to a natural phenomenon that we cannot detect because EMF does not measure human electrical currents.”

JFK nodded again. “Humans aren’t the, uh, same as kitchen appliances because we are, uh, organic.”

CJ tucked her chin to her chest and slowly turned her head back toward the items in her truck. “Right…” Her voice trailed. “EMF can’t detect humans because of that, I think.”

“Makes, uh, sense to me!” JFK chirped. “Why would humans change from organic to EMF when they die?”

“Erm…” CJ swallowed hard. “What? Don’t repeat your question— I just don’t know the answer to that.”

JFK shrugged his shoulders and grabbed two flashlights from her ghost hunting bag. “What else are we taking inside with us?”

CJ looked down at the EMF meter in her head, the thermal camera in front of her, the EMF meter in JFK’s hand, and two flashlights. “Oh, erm, this.” She pulled a small microphone out of her bag. She placed her EMF meter down for a moment and plugged the small microphone into the thermal camera and clipped the handle to the side of the camera. “I use this to actually catch sounds, the microphone built into the camera isn’t that great of quality… for some reason?” She picked her EMF meter back up and grabbed the handle of the thermal camera. She stepped away from her car.

JFK kindly shut the trunk, holding less items than her and pulled her car keys from the back pocket of her jeans to lock her car.

“I think you’re, uh, thinking too hard. We probably just run on organic electricity when we’re alive.” JFK told her as they began walking toward the front door of the abandoned house.

“Well, maybe. I know human electricity—at least neuronal—is formed by sodium, potassium, and calcium. Electrolytes, essentially.” CJ stated. “I guess I should look into what goes into manmade electricity...” Her voice trailed off. “If there’s a connection between electrolytes and manmade electricity then there might be an explanation as to why people can perceive phenomena or other anomalies. But that wouldn’t explain why EMF doesn’t pick up organic electricity.”

“I, er, still think you might be overthinking it.” JFK told her.

CJ blinked and at the abandoned house with a blank expression. She reached forward and jiggled the doorknob; she pushed the rickety door forward and coughed at the dust that fell from the movement of the door. “Ew.”

JFK walked into the house first. “This place gives me the, er, heebie-jeebies.”

“It’s haunted…” CJ reminded him.

He nodded. “I, uh, have a confession to make. I thought you were, uh, joking when you said this place was haunted. Usually when girls invited me places it’s to—.”

“Ohhhh-kay,” CJ interrupted his train of thought. “I am not that kind of girl, number one. Number two, aren’t you ‘loyal’ to Joan? And three, aren’t you the one that’s been dying to hang out with me, and I keep coming up with generic excuses?”

JFK glanced down at CJ. “Er uh, fair point. I, uh, do kind of feel bad for leavin’ Joanie at the hospital.”

CJ shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t feel too bad, I’m sure Abe went to go comfort her in her time of need. That’s what he does best, bails on plans to go see Joan.” She grimaced. She placed her EMF meter down on the nearest table and took a look around the decrepit house.

“I’m sorry, what?” JFK stopped himself from walking away from CJ.

CJ shrugged again, taking in the atmosphere of the house. “Abe has, allegedly, always been obsessed with Joan and I don’t foresee that stopping anytime soon.”

“Fuckin’, uh, what?” JFK cocked his head to the side as he stared at CJ. “Are you tellin’ me Lincoln went to see my girlfriend?” He hugged the EMF meter to his chest.

“Guarantee it. Ask your girlfriend.” CJ continued to, nonchalantly, look around the living area of the haunted house. She admired the few sheets draped across several pieces of furniture but cringed at the thick layers of dust and debris. There were holes in the ceiling of the first floor, allowing her to vaguely see into the room above them. “If you do ask, I’d ask tomorrow, it might be late.”

JFK looked around the living area; he noticed the rusted, lightless chandelier above CJ’s head. “Are you sure Lincoln went to see Joanie?”

CJ shrugged her shoulders and turned back toward the table she set her EMF meter on. She held her thermal camera up, angled above the table toward the opposite side of the room. “I don’t have any reason to doubt it. On more than one occasion, Linco-Abe cancelled plans with me—or with Topher—because your girlfriend has simply asked him to do something for her or to hang out. Honestly, I don’t know what kind of friend does that sort of thing, but if I’ve learned anything since the beginning of this school year, it’s that a good friend doesn’t ditch you when you already have plans.” She turned the thermal camera on.

JFK licked his lips uncomfortably. “So, you, uh, really think that’s where he is?”

She hummed and adjusted the settings on her thermal camera. “When isn’t he following her like a lost puppy?” She paused. “I used that idiom correctly, right?”

JFK nodded. “Yeah.” He stared at her, waiting for her to continue speaking, assuming she was asking a rhetorical question. “Are you upset with ol’ top hat?” He asked.

CJ shrugged and lifted the thermal camera to eye level and stared at the screen unhealthily close. “Well,” she grunted lightly. “I don’t want to say this and frame it in a bad way, but I originally asked him to come ghost hunting with me. As it turns out, he only agreed to it, so he didn’t have to listen to me talk for the rest of the day, he didn’t actually want to do this activity with me. So, when I learned that, I bit the bullet and asked if you were free instead. I don’t want to waste my time with inconsiderate people. If he can’t participate in an activity he doesn’t like, he’s not worth my time. I seldom suggest activities, I mainly participate in activities he enjoys, regardless of if I enjoy it or not.” She explained.

He knitted his eyebrows together and ignored the slightly blare from his EMF meter. “I didn’t realize—.”

“Thank you, by the way.” She cut him off. “For hanging out with me. I’m sure this isn’t your ideal outing, and I can appreciate you being a real friend.”

JFK looked down at the EMF meter in his head; several lights at the top were lit up and it was still making a slight blaring noise, alerting him of the electricity it was picking up. “Er uh, yeah. A real friend.” He paused. “Wait, I was your, uh, second choice?”

CJ inhaled deeply and began to turn toward JFK; she paused when her thermal camera picked up a human shaped form by the staircase. “Not necessarily. If I wasn’t uncomfortable hanging out with someone who is in a relationship with a girl who thinks I am trying to steal her boyfriend from her, I think you’d have been the first person I asked. Topher and I have boundaries, we know what activities not to invite each other to. Lin-Abe was the only other option, really. Julius was busy, so was Catherine, and Vincent and I aren’t friends at this point in time.” She overexplained.

“Uh, my thing is lighting up, by the way.” JFK flipped his EMF meter toward her, showing a blinking number of 3.1.

CJ nodded. “I’ve been listening to it. My camera is picking up a strange phenomenon by the staircase.”

He stepped closer to her and looked at the screen of her camera from over her shoulder. He dropped his hand to his side, with his right hand gripping the EMF meter tightly and his left arm curled to hold the flashlights under his arm. “So, uh, back to the other thing…” His voice trailed. “I was your fifth choice?”

CJ sighed. “No.”

“So, what was I?” He asked.

CJ furrowed her brow. “The guy who said he would come ghost hunting with me?”

He shook his head. “No—well, yes. I, uh, mean why’d you ask me?”

CJ lowered the thermal camera slightly. “I… don’t actually know. Maybe because I just thought you would say yes? I guess when I initially asked, I started to second guess that because I thought you would rather stay with your girlfriend. Topher informed me, after I had asked you, that your girlfriend was in the hospital for some nostalgia-related disorder.” She tilted her head to the side, eyeing her thermal cameras screen.

JFK chuckled slightly. “You, uh, thought I’d say no because Joanie’s in the hospital?”

CJ shrugged her shoulders and nodded slightly. “Well, I’d assume so, but I stand corrected, don’t I?”

He nodded. “Mhm.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“You just did.” He told her. “But, uh, you have something else on your mind.” He chuckled again.

CJ inhaled deeply and shook her head. “You’re ridiculous.” She looked behind her at JFK. “Give me a flashlight, I’m going my leave my EMF meter down here.”

“Oh, here.” JFK handed her one of the two flashlights under his arm.

CJ pocketed the flashlight. “What is Abe’s problem?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think he knows what he, uh, has.”

She knitted her brow together in confusion. “What does that mean?”

“Uh, well, I think Abe takes his friends for granted.” JFK tried to explain. “I think we all do at some point.”

CJ nodded. She began walking toward the staircase, as she moved, the figure slowly vanished from the screen and was nowhere to be seen, in person, when she approached the staircase. “I guess that makes sense.” She looked at the cracked staircase; some steps were missing wood and others were rotting. “I guess I just don’t understand.”

JFK slowly followed her toward the staircase. “What don’t you understand?”

“He keeps telling me how angry he is with Joan, how she let him get bullied during the first week of school, how she let him get cancelled. He keeps saying he’s upset that she never stood up for him or even helped him out—in fact she let him make a fool of himself for the luncheon at the beginning of the year. He tells Topher the same things—Topher and I talk about it. Maybe we’re just replacements for his old friend group and he will always go back to Joan for anything.”

“Who needs a flaky friend like that when you, uh, have me, am I right?” JFK draped his arm over CJ’s shoulder.

Behind them, there was a thud—the sound of plastic against wood. CJ and JFK turned their heads to the direction of which the sound came. CJ’s EMF meter was on the chair near the table instead of where CJ had left it.

“Active tonight.” CJ deadpanned.

JFK stared at the moved EMF meter with wide eyes. “There’s, uh, no way. You did that on purpose. Somehow.”

CJ shook her head. “Erm, no. I didn’t.” She walked back toward the table and stopped in front of it. “It’s a lot colder here, now. Scientifically improbable, but entirely wicked.” She smiled. She turned on her heels and looked at JFK.

“Yeah, uh, the ghosts won’t come after us when we leave, right?”

CJ chuckled. “No, of course not. I think.” She paused. “Yeah, no, definitely not. Ghosts, theoretically, are attached to their environment or a specific object in their environment—such as the house or a piece of furniture here. The only way a ghost should be able to leave is if we were to take the object they are attached to.”

“Do you, uh, believe that?” He asked.

CJ froze.

“Do you?”

She glanced around the room, uncertain. “Not particularly.”

“Uh…”

“I have certainly never been followed home by anything strange and unusual—not even Topher would follow me home and he’s strange and unusual. Though, I am certain my cl-foster father is a ghost, I just can’t prove it.” She thought for a moment; she shook her head like an etch-a-sketch. “Erm, that being said, I might enjoy the occult, but I couldn’t tell you the difference between fact, theory, and conspiracy because there is no fact when it comes to this sort of thing. It’s all a form of pseudoscience, theory, or conspiracy. Really. There’s no scientific backing as far as I’m aware or concerned. But, I suppose, the unexplained phenomenon is proof in it of itself, but why this unexplained phenomenon occurs, beyond anyone’s scope of knowledge.”

“But I could, uh, take home a ghost?” He asked.

“Are you asking because you do or don’t want to?”

JFK stared at her. “I don’t think the ghost of Ponce would appreciate me, er, bringing home another ghost.”

“The what?” She asked; she searched his face for some semblance of him joking or teasing her. “The ghost of who?”

“The ghost of Ponce! My old friend—he died tragically after we had a, uh, argument.” He explained. “He tried to tell me he wasn’t a ghost, I think he said he’s a genie that lives in my head.”

CJ blinked. “A… genie…” She glanced around the living space of the haunted house. “Oh, dear god. Let’s talk more about this Ponce ghost…”

“After ghost hunting?”

CJ nodded. “Sure, after ghost hunting.”

#oc: cj scudworth #clone high x oc #clone high x oc fanfiction #the genetic puzzle reblog #reblog

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theclassclone · 8 days ago