My first day of fifth grade had been horrible. It was filled with being surrounded by people I did not know and being teased excessively. It came with the territory of being the weirdo new kid.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRb9Yrz27Kj
Ash kept true to his promise and stayed with me throughout the whole school day. I always managed to sit in the back of the room with an empty desk beside me so that Ash could sit with me. Ash wasn’t very good company though. He kept falling asleep, while mumbling about how he already took these classes.
There were several instances when I got stared at funny because I was talking to Ash. Sometimes I forgot that I was the only one who could hear and see him. I got picked on a lot that day. The other children were relentless in making me feel like an outsider. It had gotten even worse when a boy had approached me at lunch.
“You don’t belong in fifth grade. You still have an imaginary friend like a baby! Maybe you should be in kindergarten!” a rude boy with black hair and brown eyes had teased me.
“I don’t have an imaginary friend!” I had denied.
“Then who do you keep talking to! You certainly don’t have any friends!”
With those words my whole world had felt dead. Ash couldn’t cheer me up either. I had gone home and locked myself in my room to sob hysterically. My nanny had tried consoling me, but I kicked her out each and every time. Ash had stayed with me. He stayed quiet though while he patted my back. I had never wanted to go back to school after that.
It was late into the night when Ash finally came back to me. He still had a rather solemn look on his face and it made me feel kind of guilty for not being able to be much help. He always kept his promises to me, but I couldn’t even keep the most important one to him.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlzsHDGq5sa
Ash sat dejectedly at the chair to my desk and just stared out of the window. His normally expressive green eyes were dark and appeared more hazel than green. I would’ve given anything in that moment to be able to take the pain away from him. But, alas, there was nothing I could do except keep looking.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ43OGvBnFIK
“Ash, how about I ask mom for her laptop again? I can try to see if I might’ve missed something when I went through the online public archives,” I asked Ash hopefully.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDiHeGZl0i4
“You’ve already looked. All you could dig up was the name of this stupid, old house. Someone made sure that the fire and everything else was practically erased!” Ash rebutted after a few moments of silence.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1cbvmWniv
I sighed. He was right. I had looked online prior to leaving to the library. It was six in the morning and Ash hadn’t been awake. My mother was getting ready to leave when I asked her if I could borrow her laptop. I had sat on the old living room couch and looked up everything I could. It took nearly an hour for me to even find the name of the house! When I had finally found it after several attempts of typing in the address, the public archives refused to let me see any information on it. I kept getting an error notice.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5rNOXfplnS
Unfortunately, that was the moment Ash decided to wake up and come looking for me. I had explained that all I could find was the name of the house and I could visibly see the disappointment that came off of him in waves. I had given him a reassuring smile before telling him that we would go to the library anyway later on. He had flashed me a brief, if not dejected, smile before we had gone back up to my room.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyjDtRi0Mxs
“Who would want to erase the history of the house?” I questioned myself out loud.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDACnrCCLAh
Ash just continued to look out of the window. I sighed before getting up and leaving in search of my mother. I found her in her room laying out her morning nurse outfit. Her room was far more decorated than mine. She had pictures of her wedding day, the day I was born, my father, and even pictures of my younger self all over her room.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5PM6paGWca
“Mom can I ask you something?” I asked after she noticed me and invited me in.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZlstTi3vfr
“Sure, Mae flower. What’s on your mind?” she responded.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6mDKveZyAe
“Well, I was wondering about the house. I couldn’t find much of anything online in the public records,” I answered after taking a seat on her bed.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkhVYmj5LUg
“Why are you wondering about the house hun?” She inquired suspiciously.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHhq2j31qtM
“I’m writing a story and I wanted to see if the house has any cool history that I could add to it!” I quickly lied.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWJpNwf9wEJ
“Well, I could stop by city hall and see if I can get the property records for you. sweetie. It’s always a good thing to have those anyway,” my mother replied after a moment’s thought.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYsZ7bQsRuQ
“Alright mom, thank you. I’m going to go to bed. Sweet dreams.” I kissed my mother on the cheek before hurrying out of her room.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkc4HB4hBJO
I couldn’t wait to tell Ash the good news. This was a lead! If my mother is successful in getting the records, then we might have a chance to finding out Ash’s real name!563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmnBYfjxIFC
Hurrying into my room, I closed the door behind me before turning to Ash. He was lying on my bed tossing a tennis ball up and down again. His brown hair was covering his eyes and I could see tear stains that ran down his cheeks. Walking over to my bed, I sat down. Ash didn’t even acknowledge me when I laid my head on his chest. All he did was stop tossing the ball up and down. I curled my hand into his shirt and inhaled his scent.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgdzJ9lES29
I’ve always taken comfort in his scent of spring rain. It was a comforting scent when I couldn’t leave my assigned room because I was a “hazard.” Ash was the only thing keeping me sane in that nut house.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEKZEsg9Nip
“Mom said she’ll get the property records for me,” I spoke after a long moment of silence.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaswBFyA5gZ
Ash didn’t verbally respond. He tightened his arm around me and dropped his head onto mine.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC10fx8DeWw
“Do you think we will be able to find anything?” I asked after not being able to stand the quiet.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCKPnpYRY1v
“Hopefully,” was his only response.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNoTtPF1qjF
“Well why don’t we change so we can go to bed, okay? Tomorrow’s another day.”563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL4gde8VAFG
Ash replied with a curt nod of his head before I got off of him and he disappeared.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0OvzjjCoel
According to all of the folklore about ghosts, they can’t change their clothes from what they died in. That’s not the case. Ash can change his clothes any time he wants. Where he gets his clothes, I’ll never know. I don’t even want to ask. I’ve always assumed he bases his style off of the clothes he wore when he was alive.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmV0RijQvCQ
I couldn’t very well ask anyone else, though. I didn’t know any other ghosts and I didn’t know anyone who knew anything about ghosts either. So there was no one to really ask except Ash. I don’t think he knows either, to be honest. He was alone for a long time and he didn’t know any other ghosts.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz6Sr4XMtOm
I shrugged my thoughts away before rising from my bed and heading over to my dresser. I pulled out a pair of long pajama bottoms and a t-shirt that had a cuddly kitten on it. I placed my clothes on my bed before removing the clothes I had already been wearing. After putting on my pajamas, I tied up my long, dirty blonde hair into a high pony tail and headed towards the bathroom to brush my teeth.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡf8fgnfsAVm
By the time I got back into my room, Ash was already asleep on my bed. He looked so innocent when he slept. I would never tell him that though. He would freak out!563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzo6rofIH4u
I had discovered ghosts slept after staying up one night with Ash when I was younger. I was reading a book when I heard snoring from the left side of my bed. There was Ash, sleeping with an arm over his eyes and the other hanging off of the bed.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpvEtkEtaQa
A loud snore took me out of my memories. I shook my head before closing my door and turning off the light. Ash was strewn about the left side of the bed, as usual. I pulled the blankets from under him and got into my side of the bed before turning over and falling sound sleep.563Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9SjFRkVE3m
