Kat Wells is the perfect student, cheerleader, and daughter. But that's not who she really is, not truly. The real her is hidden behind a perfect mask that nobody sees, except him.
Wally Clark was the perfect jock, friend, and son. But everything ch...
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Kat was delighted when Wally explained what "field day" meant. In fact, she couldn't wait to burn down the school. M. Martin explained the rules to everyone in a simple sentence, "Let it all out, there are no rules to follow."
As Rhonda started spraying gas onto the field, Wally, Charley, and Kat put together a special something. "This paintball match is going to be epic!" rejoiced Charley. As they didn't have plastic guns nor special paintball equipment, Wally went in search of masks from the science lab while Kat went in search of paint. They always kept those in the janitor's office and were usually used for prom, homecoming, or if a match was to happen. But not today.
"Hey you," she spotted Dawn putting on lip-gloss taken from a girl's purse who was grabbing some books from her locker. "Hey, you," she responded back as she smiled too big. At first, Kat had been thrown off by her behavior, but she usually got used to it.
She actually really liked Dawn and didn't believe her behavior had been caused by the use of illegal substances. She had spotted Dawn several times talking to some of the ghosts that were stuck and believed that they were still alive.
She knew how to get to them, even if at the end, it made no difference. But she was still intrigued by it.
"I wanted to talk to you about something, actually," the tall girl's eyes sparkled with interest as she began to walk by Kat's side. "Do you want to know someone's phone's password? Or maybe do an anti-séance? Or no, I know, maybe—" she started rambling, as she usually did, but Kat cut her mid-sentence. "I wanted to talk to you about M. Martin." She had noticed that Dawn never took part in his meetings and, on a larger scale, never really talked to him.
To confirm her suspicion, she saw dawn made a weird face as she suddenly went quiet "don't you find it weirds that he is the only ghost from the 50's ? like only one and there is no other ghost older than him ?"
She furrowed her brows in deep concentration. "You're wrong," she finally said as Kat was stacking boxes of paint on a trolley.
"What do you mean?" Kat stopped mid-movement to look at her friend. "M. Martin is not the only one."
"Who? Where? How?" She felt a sudden rush of adrenaline as if knowing this information would get her closer to the truth, but Dawn's mind was already elsewhere as she was testing different highlighter pens on her skin like a child. "Oh my god," Kat muttered, trying to keep her calm.
"Dawn?" she sighed, and the other girl turned around in surprise. "Yes?"
"Who else died in the 50s?"
She was about to answer when a voice called Kat's name from up the stairs. "Miss Wells? Are you in here?"
She pushed the trolley in the direction of the voice. "M. Martin, what are you doing down there?" The janitor's office was right next to the boiler room in the school's underground. No one would go in there except if they were looking for something or someone.
"I was just wondering if you needed any assistance."
She took a deep breath and turned around to speak to Dawn, but to her surprise, she wasn't anywhere to be seen. She finally turned back to the professor with a smile and said, "Actually, yes, I'd love that."
She gave up for now, knowing she would confront Dawn later and they would talk to anyone tonight.
Kat had never played Paintball before, and yet this was the best game of her death. Charley and Rhonda, who were done with putting things on fire, were waiting for them outside the school. When Wally finally joined them, he handed her a mask, and they all began to fill up balloons with paint, putting their munitions in a bucket per person.
"Do we team up?" asked Charley.
"It's every man for himself," replied Wally, making the rest of them chuckle in impatience.
They all arrived at a different school entrance and counted to one hundred before rushing in and throwing paint at each other. As her ammunition began to run out, Kat was being chased down by Wally. They were both soaked in paint, trying not to slip and fall.
As she tried to flee on the field, he caught up to her and, trying to grab her arm, he fell and she went down with him. She landed on her back, and he got on top of her, threatening her with a balloon.
"No, please, please, I surrender," she begged between two laughs. "Okay, okay," he dropped it on the floor and began to place gentle kisses all over her face, making her laugh even more.
His hands gently laid on her stomach, leaving goosebumps on her skin as his mouth slowly made its way to her lips. As he was about to kiss her, he felt something liquid crash on his head, and soon he couldn't see anything besides blue paint all over him. "Got you!" she just said, running away. "You have to be kidding me!"
He started chasing her again, and when he finally caught up with her, he kissed her without hesitation. A fearless kiss as he put his hands on her hips, and she got on her tiptoes, forcing him to bend a little. Kat felt as if sparks flew all around them as he kissed her harder, hugging her in the process. She didn't have any more paint to defend herself, and it's not like she'd ever want to.
☾⋆⋆★⋆⋆☾
As the night settled in, a secret meeting was being held in the boiler room. Once they were all cleaned up, Kat had convinced Charley and Rhonda to meet her and Wally in there. She then went to find Dawn, who accepted to follow her down here too. "Tell them what you told me," Kat asked the hippy girl as she began to braid her hair. "About the smartphones' passwords? Or the global warming?"
Rhonda sighed, rolling her eyes up in despair. "No, not that," Kat tried again. "About M. Martin!"
Suddenly, her eyes widened in recognition. "Oh yes! That he isn't the only one who died in that fire." Everybody went still. Wally and the two others had heard the story a million times from M. Martin. He had saved his entire class from a fire but had died in the process. He had never mentioned anyone else. "What are you talking about, Dawn?" Charley asked her. "Well, about Janet in the bunker."
"What bunker?" Wally was shocked at the revelation. He got closer to Kat and their hands grazed. "This bunker," Dawn pointed at the wall behind one of the boiling machines. Kat got closer, running her fingers over the wall until she saw it. There was a door hidden behind. The handle could be seen in the daytime, but it took them all a minute before seeing it too. "You never saw that before?" she asked her three friends who shook their heads. "M. Martin usually goes when we need paint or something," replied Rhonda. "And this place gives me the creeps," added Charley.
"Where is the key?" Wally asked, but Dawn was already inside the janitor's office, taking the key, and a few seconds later, they all went through the door.
There, in the middle of the room, was a desk with a teenage girl, her nose up in a book. Wally cleared his throat, and she lifted her head. She had big round glasses and black hair tied in a ponytail with a ribbon. She was clearly dressed in 50's fashion as she looked at the rest of the group in surprise.
"Are you in my class?" she asked.
"No, actually, we are not," Kat replied.
"Okay then, you're in the wrong class, and I need to finish this," she responded, focusing again on her book.
"What the hell is that?" Rhonda whispered at the scene. They all suddenly felt so uncomfortable at the discovery that they just watched in silence at the new ghost who had been hiding in plain sight for the last decades.
