THE PAST.

Wally always left stupid notes in Michelle's locker. She mentioned about how she seen it in a movie once and thought it was the sweetest thing ever.

Her one little comment, shifted the trajectory of their relationship in the sweetest way possible.

When Michelle opened her locker that morning, another note fell from her locker. She smiled as she bent down to pick it up.

Meet on the south side of the school by the girl's locker room. The note read.

She furrowed her brows. Typically, Wally hadn't asked her to meet somewhere, in fact, he'd normally be by her side by the time she read the note, but he was nowhere in sight.

She shut her locker and made her way the locker one.

"Wally?" She called out.

Nothing.

She kept her brows furrowed as she made her way around the area. Absolutely no one, just her.

She opened the note once more and read over the note. She traced her fingers over the ink.

She folded in back up and slipped it into her pocket.

Maybe, someone was messing with her. She hadn't bother to really take a good look at the note until now, but it wasn't in Wally's handwriting. She hadn't even recognized it.

Michelle looked up once more and saw no one in the hallways. It was just her.

Only Michelle.

She sighed, licking her lips, and made her way back to her locker.

Who would've left that note? What was the point? Maybe it was a mistake, she thought. That would be the thing that made the most sense.

She wanted it to make the most sense.

She brushed her hair behind her ears and finally caught view of Wally sliding the note in her locker.

She paused in her spot and watched him struggle to fit the note inside as she held a small smile.

Michelle felt off. Something wasn't right. She pulled the note out of her pocket and read over it once more.

Whoever wrote the note dotted their "I's" with circles and the handwriting was messy, like they had been rushing.

For now, she would shake it off and make her way towards her locker.

Wally had his back pressed against the nearby locker and finally caught sight of his girlfriend.

"Any particular reason your loitering around my locker?" She asked.

Wally only shook his head and stuffed his hands into his letterman jacket.

She opened her locker and there was Wally's note. She exchanged the previous note with his and shut it. Her arm pressed against the cold metal as she unfolded his note to read.

"Fifteen kisses for the jacket." She read, "What does that mean?"

Wally shrugged his shoulders, smiling, "Gonna have to kiss me to find out."

Michelle rolled her eyes, trying to hide the smile that crept onto her face, "You're such a dork." She chuckled.

Wally stepped closer to her, leaning in, "But you love it." he whispered, his breath warm on her cheek.

Michelle's heart raced as she felt his lips brush against her skin. She tilted her head up towards him, closing her eyes as their lips met in a gentle kiss.

As they pulled away, Wally grinned at her, "That's one down." He said, holding up a finger.

Michelle laughed, feeling giddy and light-headed. "You're seriously going to keep count?" She teased.

Wally leaned in for another kiss, his hands resting on her waist. "Of course I am," He murmured against her lips. "Fifteen is a big number, you know."

Michelle wrapped her arms around Wally's neck, pulling him closer to deepen the kiss. Their lips moved in sync, as if they had been doing this forever.

When they finally pulled away, Michelle grinned, "Only twelve more to go," She said playfully.

Wally chuckled, "I can't wait."

Michelle leaned in for another kiss but was interrupted by the sound of the school bell ringing, "We should probably get to class," She sighed.

Wally nodded reluctantly, "Yeah, I guess so. But first..." He leaned in for one more quick kiss before pulling away and grabbing his backpack from the ground, "Eleven!"

Michelle watched him go with a smile, feeling grateful for his playful spirit and the warmth of his kisses. She knew that he would always find a way to make her laugh and feel loved, no matter what challenges they faced.

THE PRESENT.

Maddie had to see it with her own eyes. So, she stood next to Wally and Hunter as Michelle, once again, watched Jennifer drop her kids off at the front of the school building, just like she had everyday. Just like she told Maddie the day prior.

Seeing it made it real. That Michelle just wanted some answers. The Michelle just wanted to know why. To possibly seek justice for herself.

"What happens when she leaves?" Maddie asked.

"We wait to see how Michelle looks. It determines her day." Wally answered.

Michelle had told Wally that he didn't have to stand there with her. They all had their own shit going on and he really didn't have to stand there and watch her practically sorrow in her own pain for six and a half minutes watching Jennifer day in and say out.

She knew that Wally's shit was just as important as hers.

And yet, he stood close enough just to give Michelle her space when she stood on the school's edge.

"Do you have any idea why she killed her?" Maddie asked.

Wally simply shook his head and began making his way towards Michelle.

Hunter tugged on Maddie's arm, a sign for them to leave the two alone. No matter how Michelle felt after seeing Jennifer, whoever who was standing with Wally that day would leave before Michelle ever noticed.

Michelle had met Wally halfway and a small smile was painted on her face.

"Doing good?" Wally asked.

Michelle gave him a genuine, but small smile, "Doing good."

Wally returned the small smile and wrapped the girl in his arms. Just like old times... whenever Michelle was down, Wally would be right there to make her feel okay.

The two of them made their way towards the gym and just like always, another meeting started and Mr. Martin discussed why they could possibly do this weekend.

"I'll tell you what I wanna do. I wanna figure out why Mr. Anderson was talking to someone on his phone about giving me money last night."

Mr. Martin slowly nodded, "Ok. I'm— I'm not sure how to board that, but—"

"Wait, who was he talking to?" Wally asked.

Maddie shrugged her shoulders, "That's what I'm trying to figure out. So I need to know if anyone here has seen anything."

The room grew silent and Maddie grew irritable, "Seriously? All we do is haunt the halls of this stupid school, and none of you have seen anything suspicious from Anderson?"

"Oh, well, ok. Well, one time I saw Mr. Anderson misspell the word fundraiser on a Boosters club poster, and I— he forgot the D. I feel like that's pretty suspicious coming from and English teacher." Wally said.

Michelle glanced over, resting her hand against his shoulder and rubbed it. He was smart, but not like... witty smart.

"Pretty sure there's a pun in there." Hunter said, "A play on words."

"Sorry, sweets, we don't just stand around staring at the living all day." Rhonda said, "I mean, some of us do."

"No. You plan weekend fun like movie nights."

"Well, we do what we can to break the monotony, Maddie. That's all." Mr. Martin explained.

"If I may, to be fair, watching the same five sports movies over and over again is kind of monotonous, Mr. Martin." Charley smiled.

"I thought you loved Rudy." Wally said.

"No. I don't think any of us like Rudy."

"Wow." Wally sighed, "You like Rudy, don't you?" He asked Michelle.

"It's... okay. In ways." She smiled softly.

"I can't even." Wally pouted, placing his hand over his mouth.

"Ok, sonic none of you have seen anything, then what about the others? Maybe one of the other ghosts has seen something."

A beat of silence passed and the meeting soon ended.

The group found themselves in the library. Wally, Michelle, and Charley looking for a different movie to watch that wasn't Rudy.

Wally had pushed the movies on the opposite sides of each other so he was able to see Michelle. Though she said she was fine, something seemed off.

"Everything okay over there, captain?" Wally asked.

Michelle looked up from the movie she held in her hands and gave him a small smile and nod.

"Why would it be?"

"We both know that Rhonda was talking about you earlier."

"It's nothing. I've learned to not take her words to heart anymore." She said, her voice barely above a whisper.

She began to place the movies she wasn't interested in back on the shelves and Wally watched her movements closely.

"She can't stop you from doing that." Wally spoke, "You do whatever the fuck you want."

Michelle sighed, placing the movies back on the shelf. She made her way towards his side of the shelf.

"Rhonda and I are very different people and what I do will never affect her or change the way she may feel about me." She explained, "That doesn't matter to me anymore. What's matters is you and me and whatever happens next."

Wally smiled, taking her hand in his, "You're right. It's just you and me, and that's all that matters," He said, his eyes shining with affection.

Michelle smiled back, feeling a warmth spread through her body. She leaned in and placed a soft kiss on his lips, feeling a rush of electricity between them.

As they pulled away, Wally grinned at her, "I like the sound of 'you and me and whatever happens next'."

Michelle chuckled, feeling her heart flutter. "Me too." She replied.

"Have you two lovebirds found a movie yet?" Charley asked.

"Yeah, Bull Durham."

"Eh, too much baseball."

"Ok. Uh... The Natural."

"Way too much baseball."

Wally shuffled through some more movies and smiled, "Boom, we got it. Rad Racing."

"Oh, is that the one where they do the BMX bike ballet at the school dance?" Charley asked.

"Yes, it is, and it's freakin' amazing."

"Oh, no, it's absolutely not though. Sorry."

"Okay, I'll pick the movie." Michelle smiled.

Meanwhile, Maddie wanted names of people who may have answers on Mr. Anderson. So, they wrapped up their party in the library and moved on to the cafeteria.

"Then there's Mina." Charley said.

"And what happened to her?" Maddie asked.

"She was crushed by a stage light in '87." Rhonda answered, "Hasn't left the theater since."

"Our very own Phantom of Split River." Charley joked.

"Ok, who else?"

"Uh, Yuri. He hangs out by the pottery wheel all the time, but he only speaks Russian." Wally added.

"There's the bud crash kids." Michelle said.

Soon, Maddie's friend Simon approached the group he couldn't see, "We need to talk. Bus stop now."

He left and Maddie followed after leaving the group alone.

"Did he just— she just—" Wally stumbled.

"Yeah." Rhonda said, "They did."

Rhonda, Wally, and Hunter were quick to follow the duo as Charley and Michelle faltered behind.

"You knew?" Charley asked.

"I think she made it obvious that she to talk him. We talked about on the roof." Michelle answered, "I can only assume that you know."

"I was there when it first happened."

The duo finally caught up with the others and found Wally staring at Simon.

Maddie's voice soon flattened as the others stood on the other side of the bus stop.

"What are you looking at?" Simon asked, turning around, but nothing was there.

"Nothing. Don't worry about it."

Simon stood to his feet and finally left Maddie alone with the others. Rhonda was the first to approach and placed her hands on the railing of the bus stop.

"Nice chat with your friend?" She asked, "You know, I told you some pretty personal shit yesterday. You didn't think to maybe mention that you can talk to the living?"

"Okay, not the living, just— just Simon."

"Oh, just Simon. That's a big fucking deal, Maddie."

"I wanted to tell you. I tired, but—"

"But what?"

The four of them looked back and Charley and Michelle, who in turn looked back over their shoulders.

"Oh, my God, you both knew." Wally muttered.

"What the hell?" Rhonda shouted.

"Does Mr. Martin know?" Hunter asked.

"No, no." Charley reassured, "I don't— I don't think so."

"So what was your plan?" Rhonda asked, "Find some way to us Maddie's special ability for yourself and never tell the rest of us?"

"We don't have a plan." Michelle answered.

"Like hell you didn't." Rhonda scoffed, "You know that you would've used that shit to talk to Jennifer and you wouldn't tell anyone else."

"Okay, Rhonda, let's take a breather." Wally suggested.

"How are you not pissed right now?"

"I'm p— I am pissed, Rhonda. I'm just— I'm trying to make sense of all of this. This is very new to me. I don't know how to feel—"

"They kept this from us." Rhonda said, "She kept this from you and you're trying not to lose it in front of her? What the fuck do you think she was going to do with it? Act on revenge? Seek justice?" Rhonda turned toward Michelle, "And you wouldn't tell anyone?"

Michelle took a step back as Rhonda took one more forward, "Ok, I'm sorry. I really am, but never my job to tell you anything about Maddie."

"But your job is to watch your murderer every day. In the hopes of what, Michelle? You don't gain anything from doing that. You're just making it worse for yourself."

Michelle only nodded, tears pricking the corners of her eyes as she backed away and made her way back into the school.

And of course the argument only grew worse.

Maddie couldn't handle it anymore and followed Michelle back into the school in the hopes of looking for her.

She soon found Michelle in the art room. It was vacant during this hour and the girl stood next to a painting that hadn't been touched.

Maddie entered the room and Michelle looked over her shoulder, giving the girl a small smile before facing the painting once more.

"I'm really sorry." Maddie took closer steps towards the girl.

"You didn't do anything." Michelle said, "I think she wants to be helpful because she's right. She just as a terrible way of going about it."

A beat of silence grew between them and Maddie finally took a glance at the painting that sat on the canvas.

"Did you paint that?"

Michelle sighed, "Before I died the school was supposed to hold this art exhibit and I was going to finish painting it in front of everyone." She explained, "They canceled it and moved it to the next night and put my work on display anyway. And the only people who came were my grandma, Jennifer, and Wally."

Maddie looked at the painting again, taking in the vibrant colors and the details. "It's beautiful." She said softly.

"It's not finished. It will be finished. I can't finish it." Michelle turned towards Maddie, "But it's not my unfinished business. So, I'm not really worried about it. But you know what you're unfinished business is... I think it's best to try and talk to the people we mentioned earlier. They'll be closed off, but being nice to them may get you the answers you want."

"Have you tried it? Talking to them about you?"

"I wanted to. Then I sat with the idea. If I found out what I did to Jennifer... for her to hurt me... I could never apologize for it. So I never did it." Michelle answered, "It kind of sounds like I'm not sure of anything that I want and it's true. I want to know why she killed me and I want to know why she was so angry, but I also don't know if I'll be ever be okay after knowing."

Maddie glanced over at Michelle.

She wanted to know the truth, but the saying truth hurts was true.

Michelle gave Maddie a small smile, "I would probably start with Mina. She stays in the auditorium, but things may happen there that we may not know of."

Maddie nodded, "Thank you."

Maddie began to make her way towards the door and gave one more glance towards Michelle. Her back had been facing her, now looking back at her painting.

Maddie left and Michelle was alone.

Only Michelle.

WALLY AND Rhonda couldn't get over the fact that Simon was able to communicate and see Maddie. It was strange and odd and it had never happened to any of them.

But, before Wally would track down the boy, he made his way around the school to look for Michelle.

She wasn't on the roof, she was in the art studio, she wasn't in the locker room. He couldn't find her anywhere and he grew concerned.

He knew at this point that she didn't want to be found, not by him. Not right now.

And she wouldn't be found until nightfall.

She sat down by the tree that they had their typical field day. She sat with her legs close to her body and her cheek resting against her knee.

She heard footsteps approaching her. She turned and saw Rhonda approaching her. Michelle didn't bother say anything as Rhonda sat down next to her.

"I'm sorry." Rhonda muttered, "I was angry. I was angry at you and Charley for not saying anything. It's not really like either you, Lemon Drop."

Michelle finally turned her head, her cheek still pressed against knee as she faces Rhonda.

"No one could ever hurt in the Jennifer did and I know I'm like a broken record when I keep telling stories about her. I only ever did it because I felt like you would understand." Michelle said, "To have someone you trusted hurt you in ways you never thought they could. I knew you would understand and I'm sorry if I bothered you with it."

"I'm sorry if I ever made you feel that way. I've been here for a long time and no one ever understood what I was going through, not even Mr. Martin, but you did. Two sides of the same coin, if you will."

Michelle have the girl a small smile and a nod.

Michelle laid down in the grass and Rhonda soon joined.

Michelle sighed, "If you're really sorry you'll hold my hand right now."

"I don't think I'm that sorry."

But she grabbed Michelle hand anyway and the two of them laid their in silence. Nothing but the breeze making noise as it brushed through the grass.

They were soon found by Hunter, who has asked them to follow him to the library.

They sat around a small table and Rhonda began to explain why they were the Spilt River Devils rather than the now Spilt River Bandits.

"After the bus crash, people started getting these ideas that the Devil mascot was partly to blame instead of, you know, black ice."

"Plus none of the survivors wanted to wear their uniforms anymore." Wally added.

"So they changed the mascot and became the Bandits?" Maddie questioned, "Thank you, guys... for everything. I'll tell everyone the truth tomorrow. Mr. Martin, everyone."

"Maybe don't." Wally said.

"Really?" Charley questioned.

"I think he's right." Rhonda added, "I think we should keep this contained, you know, for now."

"What do we do now?" Hunter asked.

"Now we have to find some flowers."

The flowers were for Mira. To praise her on her job of protecting them from the harms way.

And in return, she explained that Mr. Anderson had always been in the auditorium banging on something. She stood to her feet and opened the escape hatch.

The five teens made their way down and began looking around and Wally was able to find receipt that would later have Mr. Anderson put on administrative leave.

And with that out of the way for now, it was time for movie night in the gym for the ghost of Split River.

Michelle made her way down the hall, making her way towards the gym. Wally on the other hand, was looking for her and he found her; meeting her halfway.

"I was looking for you." He smiled softly.

"You found me."

"Everything okay?"

Michelle returned his soft smile, "I'm better. I talked to Rhonda. We're good."

"Good. Great."

Michelle sighed. She knew Wally had been heavily pissed earlier because she and Charley had kept that secret from her, but it had been overshadowed by Rhonda's comments earlier, but it left Michelle with time to think.

To think about her time here and do think about Rhonda's words.

"What if... I don't go and see Jennifer tomorrow?"

"I'd be by you're side no matter what."

Michelle softly smiled, "Then I won't go."

"Are you sure that's what you want to do?"

She heavily sighed and the two of them stood in silence for a moment before she nodded his way.

Wally gave her a small smile, engulfing her into a hug. She lazily rested her arms around his torso and he felt a small smile grow slightly against his chest.

He placed a small, almost feather like kiss on top of her head.

It was a major thing for her to do, but the real question was... could she actually do it?

— lucy has something to say !!

also slapped a mature rating on the fic because 🧍

ghost can have sex btw :)

anyway height chart i made even though it's now irrelevant

also are the chapters too long? do you like when chapters are long?

bye :))))