Ordinary Ghosts by Eireann Corrigan

Author:Eireann Corrigan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

CHAPTER 16

When I wake up, my eye hurts a little less and I can open it slightly and even look at light. Ice it a little more and call and leave a message on Dad’s voice mail and tell him that Soma’s going to be over and that I hope he isn’t blowing my college fund gambling or anything. Make sure my cell phone is charged, finish off the lo mein, and get in the shower.

I’m on campus by 7:30 PM and it’s cold out—bitter Hartford kind of cold, but the whole night is stretched out in front of me and I’m too excited about it to think of the frost that has to be forming on the outside of the organs in my body. Because I can’t feel my face, I can’t feel my eye. So that helps. As soon as I get through the gate, I check around at each parking lot to make sure I’m alone on campus.

First thing I do is climb up to my little corner of the Ainsley House attic and just check on things up there. So far, it doesn’t look like anyone has discovered my spot. No mice. No bats. No owls. Back downstairs, I raid the little kitchenette in the corner of the first floor and make myself hot cocoa in a Styrofoam cup. It’s weird to drink the faculty’s hot cocoa—even weirder than drinking my dad’s beer out of the fridge.

I wander around the first floor looking for a door to the basement and find nothing. For some reason, there are three different bathrooms and four storage closets, but that’s it. Go upstairs and let myself into Mr. Verlando’s office. I don’t even get so nervous anymore. This has to be an expellable offense, probably even more grievous than letting myself into Dr. Watkins’s office, but my heart isn’t even racing like usual. Guess I figure it’s the weekend—who would show up to work or school on a weekend? Besides me. Verlando’s desk is as messy as my locker. Papers, napkins—there are test scores just strewn out on electronically printed reports. Edwin Farnham III? Did extremely well on the SAT. That’s not particularly useful, but it’s interesting, anyway.

I don’t know what I’m expecting to find. There’s no map of the United States with tacks indicating where my brother has been. There are half a dozen coffee mugs clustered on the desk with various stages of mold growing on the bottoms. And there are drawers, all open. None of them lock and they’re all crammed with files.

My file is under my graduating year and it’s thick compared with the others. I hadn’t been nervous before but now it’s tough to breathe, it’s like I have to wheeze through the lump in my throat. I don’t want to open it. What does Verlando know, anyway?

He knows enough. When she wasn’t flirting with our wilderness guide, Miss Gabaldon managed to observe that I seemed uncomfortable in a leadership position on the freshman camping trip.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.