What Ghost? (Complete)

Chapter Four: Meeting Lance Allot

Billy scratched his head as he looked at the bed on the other side of the room. He had a roommate? Seriously? How the hell was he supposed to hide Becky's 'existence' from someone who lived in the same room? He shook his head. The nightmare just kept getting worse and worse.

"Hope he's cute!" Becky said, nodding in the direction of the other bed as she sat cross-legged on Billy's bed.

Billy gave her a withering look, finished unpacking and stuffed his empty duffle bag on top of the cupboard. He turned on the radio, as he always did when he wanted to chat to his sister. He'd learned at a young age to keep it on in the background so people didn't think he was talking to himself and belonged in a mental hospital.

He flopped down on the bed next to Becky, secretly relieved he could finally talk to her. Okay, so she was annoying most of the time, but it was still good to have someone to talk to about what was going on in his life.

"So whadya think? Not as bad as you thought it'd be?" Becky asked.

"Are you serious? I don't remember anyone mentioning a roommate!"

"Honestly Billy, you're such a stress-head. You've had friends sleep over heaps of times and there's never been a problem."

"That was for one, maybe two nights max. This is for like twenty-four-seven! He's gonna think I'm a nut case if he hears me talking to you."

Becky jumped up and clapped her hands, grinning with excitement. "Oh my God billy, I'm brilliant! I have the best plan. What if every time you wanna talk to me, you pretend to make a phone call? That way you can just talk normally, no matter who's around!"

Billy smiled for the first time in hours. "You're right...you're a genius!" He pulled his mobile out of his pocket and put it to his ear. "Why didn't we think of this years ago? Would have made life a lot easier."

"'Cos everyone back home knew each other, and it would have been too hard to fake conversations and explain who you were talking to. Here, nobody knows anyone from back home." She waved her hand at the radio playing in the background and it turned off. "It'll also be awesome not to have to talk over the radio all the time!"

Billy sighed, feeling some of the knots in his stomach slowly unravelling. "Thanks Beck, I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You mean besides have a much simpler life?" She laughed.

Becky sat back down on the bed, a serious look on her face. "Hey, I'm really glad you made up with mum before she left. She was so relieved and happy."

Billy frowned. "I looked at that other girl and her parents, and decided I'd hate my family to ever be like that."

"They were pretty weird eh? They never even looked at each other the whole time we were there. Anyway, enough of this boring crap...  let's go explore!"

Billy groaned. "Dinner's in half an hour. How about we chill 'til then eh?"

"Fine, you chill then. I might go see if I can hunt up some locals. Places like this always have spirits hanging around with juicy stories to tell. Be back soon."

"Take your time," Billy said as she vanished.

As soon as she'd gone, he jumped up from the bed and set up his laptop on the desk. He loved Becky, but time alone was a luxury not to be wasted. He hooked up his wireless modem and logged onto Facebook. He smiled when he saw a couple of his old friends were on-line. He'd been chatting for about ten minutes when there was a knock at the door.

The door opened to reveal a rather portly man with a big smile on his face.

"Hey Billy, I'm Mr Ballou, one of the boys' boarding supervisors. Pleased to meet ya." He stuck out his hand and Billy shook it. "All settled in I see? I'd say welcome to Hellesville but it always sounds so sinister." He chuckled at his own joke. "Anyway, I'll let you get back to what you were doing. Just wanted to introduce myself and let you know if there's anything you need I'll be around. See you at dinner." He smiled, closed the door and walked off whistling.

Billy sighed and turned back to his computer. Less than a minute later, the door flew open again and a tall, gangly guy about the same age as him barrelled into the room. He spotted Billy and stopped in his tracks, pushing his glasses back up on his nose.

"Hey, Billy right? I'm Lance... Lance Allot. Yeah, I know... parents with a weird sense of humour. So, where you from?"

"Sydney... you?"

"Small town about 100 kilometres from here. Doubt you'd have heard of it. So what are you in for?"

Billy frowned. "Sorry?"

"You know, what did you do that got you sent to boarding school? Kids who come here from the city 've usually been kicked out of a few schools."

Billy smiled. "Nah, nothing like that. My parents are working overseas for a year, and they thought I'd be safer tucked away in a boarding school in the middle of nowhere."

Lance looked disappointed. "Buggar! I was hoping to have a bad-arse for a roommate. Oh well..."

A cold breeze brushed past them as Becky re-entered the room. Lance looked confused. "Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"Like a cold wind or something? Gave me the shivers."

"Nope," Billy said, looking daggers at Becky. "My mum'd tell you someone just walked over your grave. She always says that when someone gets the shivers." He chuckled.

Lance didn't look convinced, but luckily the dinner bell rang, and Billy heaved a sigh of relief. He grabbed his jacket off the bed and turned back to Lance. "Cool, dinner, I'm starving. You ready to go?"

"Ummm... yeah... sure." Lance shrugged and smiled. "Come on, I'll show you where the dining room is."

Billy looked back at Becky as he grabbed the door handle to pull it closed, a warning look in his eyes. She really needed to be more careful.

"Yeah, don't worry about me! I'll be fine!" Becky sniped. He shook his head and closed the door.

"And he's not even cute!" Becky yelled through the closed door. Billy chuckled softly to himself as he followed Lance to the dining room. She really was hopeless.