Hello! Another chapter finished.  Sorry for the long wait, but I'm happy to tell you, there will be more regular updates on this story now. Enjoy!

My phone vibrated, and the screen's glow lit the dark dorm room. I debated letting it ring, but with my luck, it'd fall off the dresser and smash beyond repair. If I woke up my roomies, they'd likely beat me with it for disturbing their beauty sleep, or worse demand to know why I got in so late. God help me if that happened.

I fumbled to pluck the phone off the table. One missed call—Wynter. I texted her back.

What's up? A somewhat loaded question.

A nanosecond later, her message popped onto the screen. OMG. You're ALIVE!

One death tonight was more than enough, thanks.

I glanced at the armchair in the corner. Jake, like a cat too large for its basket, curled his body against the armrest, and his feet hung over the other.

I didn't have the heart to tell him he couldn't stay. But if my roomies knew Jake McGee was sleeping in our dorm room? My bed would be in the hall, permanently. They barely tolerated me as it was.

Kennedy doesn't have you hanging from your toes, does she?

Out after curfew and at the scene of a suspicious death? If Crossroads Preparatory School had a dungeon, I would've been the first person to confirm the rumors of its existence—that is, if I survived the experience.

No, torture begins tomorrow. I texted her back, not sure if I was referring to the punishment or Jake's spirit reminding me of how royally I screwed up.

At least you're not expelled, right?

I stared at the flashing cursor in the message box. Being expelled wasn't even close to the top of my worry list. But not being able to hang with Wynter would suck the remaining happiness I had for school though.

Right? She asked again.

I chuckled at the thought, expelled. Short of prison, death, or graduating, there was no escaping its walls, at least none that I knew of.

What? The keys clicked away as I typed. And actually get to leave this place? Perish the thought.

Still, I wish I was ten thousand miles from my parents right now.

I cringed, knowing how her dad tended to overreact. That bad?

Maggie, my roomie, snorted in her sleep, and I glanced up afraid that I might have woken her. Then she rolled over and tugged her blankets tight around her. My cell lit up with another message.

Imagine a nuclear explosion, times that by a hundred and you'd be getting close. Grounded until I graduate.

Really?

No... but almost that long. She was writing something else. Should probably sign off. If dad catches me with my phone, he'll freak. I stole it from his desk, so I could call you.

Hey, don't get in any more trouble for me. Your dad already hates me. Last thing I wanted was for him to ground her from ever speaking to me again.

For my BFF? No biggie.

It is a biggie. I texted, feeling a little abandoned after Chloe's backlashing. It's not like Chloe's talking to me.

Yeah, no idea what that's about. Crap, dad's coming. Chat tomorrow.

I stared at her message until the light on the screen went out in my hand or I fell asleep because the next thing I knew, someone was shaking me and the distinct scent of peppermint lingered in the near distance.

I peeked my eyes open and screamed.

Maggie's cold cream covered face hovered inches above mine. Loitering behind her, Tammy, brushed her teeth letting the toothpaste foam build up at the edges of her mouth. Her blonde hair wrapped pink twisted hot rollers like Medusa's serpents.

"Ha, ha, hysterical Tessa." Maggie leaned back and crossed her arms.

Jake flopped onto the bed beside me with a chuckle. "Scary aren't they? I would've pulled the sword."

The sight of these two in the morning beat most of the terrifying stuff I'd come across. If given a choice, I'd take a ghostly encounter any day, at least I had a chance of getting rid of them. My twisted roommates on the other hand, I was stuck with until the end of the year.

Tammy spat into her cup and wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her pink jammies. "Is it true?"

I rubbed my eyes and yawned, pretending I had no idea what she was talking about. "Is what true?"

"Don't play stupid. This—" Maggie shoved her phone in my face.

The screen was so close to my eyes I had to push her hand back just to make out the first line.

But before I even had a chance to read beyond Chloe's name at the top of the text, Tammy nudged Mag's. "You think she'd remember the love of her life dying."

Jake fidgeted with the blanket brushing my arm making it tingle. I kept my sight on Maggie and placed my hand over Jake's making sure the blankets didn't suddenly take flight. If Jake tapped into his new poltergeist abilities, these two would be the first to point and shoot their cameras.

Maggie glared at Tammy then turned her attention back to me, nestling into a spot on the edge of my bed. "We just wanted to know how your date went last night."

"Leave me alone, Magpie."

Her mouth gaped, and wisps of her chocolate brown hair stuck to her face. "Is that any way to talk to your concerned roomie?"

That's rich. She acts like I'm invisible since the first day we met and now she suddenly sees me? The only thing she's interested in is becoming more popular than she already is.

"What? And give you news breaking content for your next blog post to your hatchlings?" I tighten my fingers around the corner of my pillow. "Yeah, I'll pass, thanks."

"People want to know what goes on around school. It's not like I force them to read my blog."

They only read it to ensure she hasn't mentioned them in her latest shaming.

"Whatever, just leave me out of it." I tipped forward and wiped a lick of cream from her face and held it up. "Or I'm sure your fans would love a picture of what it takes to stay so beautiful."

"You wouldn't."

I shrugged, smeared the cream on my pillow case and said nothing. I'd rather let Maggie stew about that possibility than give her an answer.

She narrowed her eyes. "Fine, don't tell us."

Tammy dumped her toothbrush into the cup. "There's more than one way to get a story, Tessa."

Then Tammy spun on her heels heading back to the bathroom. Maggie, lagging behind, texted something into her phone then closed the bathroom door behind her.

I slid my hand off of Jake's. "Sorry. If they saw those blankets floating, I'm sure they'd still be here interrogating me.

He looked at his fingers. "It never even occurred to me that I could do that—cool."

"Try not to terrorize anyone with your new super powers today, okay?"

He glanced at the bathroom, and the corners of his lips turned up like he had every intention of ignoring that request. "How are you going to get ready if they've barricaded the bathroom?"

I pulled the nightstand drawer open and grabbed a brush, my toothbrush, and a few other toiletries. "There's a water fountain outside. It works in a pinch."

He raised an eyebrow, eyeballing the stuff I'd just dumped on the bed. "This is more of a regular occurrence, isn't it?"

"I'm a low-maintenance kind of girl."

I grabbed a shirt from my dresser and flipped it on overtop the one I was wearing. Turning, so my back faced him, I pulled off the dirty shirt from underneath. My jeans had Garm goo on them, so no possibility of leaving them on. I stood with my weight on one leg since my stupid ankle still had an out of order alert registered with my brain.

"You mind?"

A grin spread across his face and he folded his hands behind his head. "Not at all." 

"Nice try." I rotated a finger, indicating he should turn around. "Well, if you hang out here long enough, I'm sure my roomies—"

He held up a hand and shivered. "Don't finish that sentence. I'm still trying to erase the clothed versions of those two from my thoughts."

He flipped onto his stomach, and I shimmied into a pair of skinny jeans. I brushed through my knotted auburn locks, straightening them out. If only untangling my web of mistakes was as easy. I tossed the brush back in the drawer and tied my hair into a loose bun.

"You know, this is my first time in the girls' dorms," he said looking at the wall. "Somehow, it's not how I'd imagined the experience."

"Let me guess," I paused and glanced at the closed bathroom door, "your version had fewer monsters in it."

"Actually, I never envisioned getting past the door, but I might have gotten a kiss goodnight." He gave me a half smile and glanced at the armchair. "Never in a million years would I'd have dreamt up this reality."

My heart ached for him.It was a lot to take in—for both of us. My guilt clung to me like wet clothes, reminding me of whose fault this was.

"We'll figure something out." I bit my lip and averted my gaze, trying to vacate the room before I burst into tears at the sight of him sprawled across my bed.

"We'll go through my dad's notes," I said, stepping into the hall.

A couple of minutes later, I returned to gather my book bag from the floor, when the bathroom door peeked open.

Jake's eyes widened, then he disappeared from view. I guess my roomies didn't just terrify me. I chuckled and set off for my first class.

About halfway down the dorm hall, Jake rested against the wall watching our fellow students pass by him without a word.

"Did you see that?" He picked up his pace to catch up. "I disappeared through the wall."

By his astonished tone, I knew he still hadn't grasped the permanency of his situation. My stomach lurched. No way I could do breakfast.

Lydia's straight blonde hair draped over her shoulders as opened the door to her room. "Tessa! Wait up. I'll walk with you."

"Are you okay?" She jogged a few steps closer and licked her lips. "I heard about Jake."

Next to Winter, Lydia had to be my only other friend at school—that is unless Chloe miraculously stopped hating me.

Lydia fidgeted with a book in her hand, silent, like she didn't know what else to say. Hell, if there were something she could say, I'd love to hear it. Right now, all I wanted was to be alone with my sadness and guilt, but escaping life was proving more difficult with each waking minute.

"If I said I was?"

"You'd be lying." She wrapped her arm around mine. "By the way you sneak peeks at Jake in class, there's no way you're all right."

"If I were you..." she kept talking as we walked arm in arm.

"Tessa?" Jake's voice cracked over the sound of Lydia's words. "That's the third person..."

I stared at the floor tiles as they passed beneath our feet like they had some magnetic pull that prevented me from looking up. My cheeks felt hot and the air hard to breathe.

Lydia droned on in the background about some guy but I couldn't listen. God, I was even failing as a friend.

I can take on a Garm, Hellhounds and even Seth, but facing Jake with him knowing how I feel about him?  I crumbled into tiny pieces. Knowing that he and I can never be— My eyes threatened to spill over. I kept silently praying the ground would just open up and swallow me whole.

"Am I the only person who didn't know?" he said like he'd just figured it out. "They were trying to set us up. Weren't they?"

God kill me now. Seriously. Anytime would be great. "I-I—"

Jake's cold fingers slid under my chin. "Come on, Tessa. Look at me."

I kept my eyes fixed on the ground. What does he want from me? I admit it, I screwed up. But now he wants to know about my feelings for him?

"I can't." I broke free of Lydia's hold and escaped out a door into the courtyard.

"Tessa! I didn't mean we had to do it today." Lydia yelled after me.

I tore across the paving stones between the planters. Dead leaves crunched beneath my sneakers. I could run but the thing about ghosts, they had a way of haunting me. Jake was no exception. With his hands shoved in his pockets and a grin on his face, he blocked the only other door that led back into the building.

"It's not like you can avoid me forever." Jake vanished from sight and reappeared in front of me. "Besides, I think I might be faster than you.

I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand. "We'll see about that."

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