Of Ghost Boys and Thermoses - prologue

     “Hey broseph, we gonna hit the WiFri today?” Spencer Wright was stopped on his way out of the school building as his ghostly friend floated in front of him.
     Spencer looked to around quickly to make sure no one was near him, before returning his gaze to his friend. “I dunno. Rajeev and Shinella are both out sick today, so we could probably just go back to the house, right? Besides, I have an essay due in like, two days.” He started walking again, and this earned a pout from the older of the two.
     “Yeah, but I’m really in the mood for some snackage, and your parents don’t keep anything good around the house. It’s a dishonor to the legacy of my refrigerator.” He crossed his arms over his chest, pout fading a little as he floated in front of Spencer once more.
     The brunette laughed a little and rolled his eyes. “Alright dude, we’ll go to the WiFri. Just don’t make an order that makes me look like I’m eating for ten this time.” As he reached the end of the school’s courtyard, he turned onto the sidewalk in the direction of the popular food chain.
     Billy returned his arms to their usual position, dangling at his sides, and spoke in an accomplished tone. “Sweet. The Cobra needs his nourishment, though.” His eyebrows lifted as he smirked at the younger boy, who only rolled his eyes.
     “You don’t need nourishment, you’re a ghost.”



     “Jessica honey, do you know where your brother is? It’s getting late, and I can’t find him anywhere in the house,” Jane Wright called into her daughter’s room, where she was greeted by a tight fist stopping just before her face upon opening the door. Sometimes she thought Jessica practiced too much.
     The girl lowered her hand and relaxed. “How should I know? It’s not my job to keep track of my older brother,” When Jane didn’t respond, she shrugged as she said, “Try that WiFri place or something. I think he goes there with that annoying friend of his a lot.”
     The redhead smiled as she gave a “Thanks, Jess,” before brushing her daughter’s hair, which had fallen loose from her ponytail, behind her ear and sliding the door shut. A minute later she was sitting in the family’s old car, listening to the engine roar to life. Once the slight sputtering had reduced to a steady purr, she pushed a button to open the garage door and rolled the car out onto the street. Twisting the wheel to align herself on the road, she made her way to the restaurant her son spent his time at.
     Upon arriving, she couldn’t see Spencer. Not until she entered and walked around a little bit, when she found him sitting on a couch that was tucked into a corner of the building, laughing at an unknown source. He moved his lips like he was talking to someone, but she didn’t see any person where he was looking.
     “Hey Spencer, who are you talking to?” He jumped at her words, obviously not having noticed her. His eyes flicked from her to the place they were focused on previously for a moment, before he made up his mind.  
     “Uh, no one. I mean, I wasn’t talking. I was just laughing because I remembered something funny Rajeev told me the other day.” He blinked. “Anyway, what’s up? Did something happen, normally you just call if you want me to come home.”
     She raised her eyebrows a bit, recognizing the way he was speaking from several other times she had asked him if he was talking with anyone. “No no, nothing happened, aside from your sister almost punching me in the face,” she chuckled. “It was just getting late, and Hugh started dinner, and you weren’t answering when I called.”
     “Oh, uh, sorry mom, I hadn’t noticed you called me,” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and winced as he noticed the 3 MISSED CALLS in bold print staring back at him.
     “Oh man macabroni, you’re screwed,” came the teasing invisible voice from behind the boy. He glowered at the other for a moment before his eyes returned to his mother once more.
     “I guess I forgot to turn it off of silent after school, heh…”
     “Oh, it’s fine, Spencer,” she replied, offering a hand which he took, allowing her to pull him up. She bit her lip for a bit, thinking before adding a second half to the sentence. “And, are you sure you weren’t talking to anyone? I could have sworn I saw you saying something.”
     He immediately shook his head, in a way that almost looked trained. “Nah, you must have imagined it. Now, should we start home?” After smiling at Jane, he began to make his way towards the door, followed closely by his mother.
     Once they were half way home, no one had said anything. “Uh mom, are you okay? You’re normally more talkative than this in the car.”
     She glanced at him in the mirror hanging off the car’s ceiling. “Oh yeah, of course.” Looking back to the road, she spoke again. “Honey, Principal Ponzi has been telling your father and me that’s he’s… Worried. About you.”
     The teenager snorted. “Mom, Ponzi’s not worried about me. He just wants to ruin my life.” A few seconds later, he suppressed a laugh at something that was inaudible to Jane.
     “Honey, he’s your principal. He doesn’t want to ruin your life; it’s his job to make it better.” She pretended not to hear Spencer’s disheartened mumbling. “He says you haven’t been paying much attention in class, and that sometimes he sees you talking to yourself.”
     She noticed the dusky-haired boy lift his head at those words, before lowering it to the position it was in before and lifting his eyes instead. “Mom, he’s like, crazy. He’s probably making it up.” His hand reached for the back of his head, but he pulled it into his lap again when he noticed what he was doing.
     “He thinks it might be the pressure of living in Hollywood. We did move here pretty unexpectedly and right after Billy’s death, too. I understand if you’re anxious.”
     Spencer’s shoulders stiffened before his reply left his lips. “Mom, I’m not stressed out about living here! Sure, I mean, I don’t have as many friends as I did in our old town or anything, but it’s not like everyone hates me. That’s really just Lolo and Cleat, but they hate everyone who isn’t popular. Besides, I have two great friends.” To himself, he had to admit that Rajeev wasn’t the best friend he could ask for at times, but he could always but Billy in that spot instead. His mom just didn’t have to know that.
     She drove in silence once more a bit before giving Spencer one more short sentence. “He suggested transferring you somewhere else temporarily.”
     At this, the boy straightened and his eyes went wide. “What?? Mom, you can’t honestly be thinking of transferring me! We just moved here less than a year ago. If you’re worried I’m stressed out, at least give me some time to adjust!” His face morphed into that of a worried child, and it was even more so for the face only one person in the vehicle could see.
     “Brozart, you can’t move somewhere else! What about me? I’m not so sure I trust your family to be in my house alone for more than a couple hours,” The boy who said this was sitting as sloppily as possible;  leaning back with his legs laying over the driver’s seat chair, where Jane occasionally moved through them as she shifted in her seat. Not wanting said driver to think he’s any crazier than she no doubt did, Spencer only mustered a tiny shrug in response.
     A small sigh came from the woman behind the wheel. “I don’t want to force you to move again, not so soon, but Mr. Ponzi has convinced me that it might be a good idea. Besides, I still have family in this nice little town I used to live in. They have kids and a guest bedroom, so I’m sure they wouldn’t mind you staying with them for a while.”
     Spencer slumped into his cushioned seat once more, folding his arms over his chest.  “But… What about my friends?”
     “They’ll be fine without you. And you can keep in touch through texting, right?”
     A groan, not as small as the sigh from the front, echoed from the car’s back. He hitched up his shoulders again and looked down, but said nothing.



     One week and multiple pleading sessions later, Spencer found himself stepping out of a car into the “nice little town” his mom was from. Looking up, he could see a sign labeled AMITY PARK- A nice place to live! Which had what looked like a burnt hole in between the c and e in “nice.” Well, at least whoever designed the billboards for this town had a decent sense of humor.
     A slender redhead, not-so-slender blonde, and much shorter black-haired girl followed him in their exit of the car. “Funny, I don’t remember the advertising design being so strange,” Jane crooned, following Spencer’s gaze.
     “Well son, we’re going to head inside. Take your time; we want you to feel as comfortable as possible before meeting the people you’ll be staying with!” The blonde man, Hugh, chirped. On their way inside, he patted Spencer on the head, causing the teenager to flinch and squint one eye. At the same time, the youngest of the bunch stuck out her tongue and laughed a little before following.
     Spencer waited until the rest of the family had entered the large, obnoxious building in front of him before turning around. “Well, this looks like it’ll be interesting.” The voice came from the boy he had turned to, who was now hovering in front of him. “Did they really need to put that huge FentonWorks sign on there? It’s so, clashy, with the rest of the building. And the rest of the town. Maybe the world. Think I could do some redecorating while we’re here?” He smirked and moved his gaze to the other boy on speaking the last few words.
     His shoulders shook a bit as he laughed, “I don’t think that would be the best idea. I’m glad I convinced you to come along though, this place would probably be boring as heck if I was on my own.”
     “Well, there is the fact that it’s supposed to be a ghost hotspot.”
     “I’m sure that’s just a tourist trap, Billy. I mean, we know you can only see ghosts if you’re wearing some of their stuff. So, unless Minotaur lives here, I’m pretty sure it’s faked,” Came the lighthearted reply. Billy opened his mouth to say something, but moved his focus to farther down the road.
     As Spencer turned to see what he was looking at, there was a slight movement in the shadows behind FentonWorks- or, the house- and a quick flash of light. “Whoa Niagbro Falls, you see that?”
     “Yeah I did!” A grin grew on the boy’s face as he spoke. “Maybe this won’t be such an uninteresting time after all, we’ve already got a mystery to solve,” he said jokingly as he hunched forwards and wiggled his fingers.
     “Ha, yeah. I just hope it’s not anything serious, I mean it’s probably just some thing that’s normal around here that we don’t know about.” The ghost shifted into a position that mocked standing, now hovering only a couple inches off the ground. “We should head inside before your family flips.”
     The younger’s only reply was a nod and to begin walking. As he opened the door, the two were greeted by the familiar family, along with a woman who bore a striking resemblance to Jane- minus the blue jumpsuit, - a bulky man- also in a jumpsuit, what was up with that? - and two children, one tall girl with a similar hair color to the adult women, and a boy who looked a bit like Spencer, but shorter and with darker hair. Glancing at the boy’s shirt, Spencer was glad he hadn’t worn his favorite shirt- the white one with the red ghost on it- because the other boy’s was similar to that, as well; it had replaced the ghost with a simple oval and moved the red from the sleeves to the collar.
     Spencer smiled at the boy, who looked about his age, but the eyes under the dark hair were transfixed on the spot above his shoulder where his ghostly friend hovered.