What Ghost? (Complete)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Karma

They went to the office first, so John could see which of his old teachers were still at the school. He was hoping that even after five years most of them would still be here.

"Yes!" he hissed, as he read down the list of teachers' names. "The two that gave me a really hard time are still here. So we'll need to go to the maths staffroom and the PE staffroom. Man, I can't wait to mess with these guys' day!"

They headed off down a hallway with closed doors lining each side. Becky poked her head through the door of a few as they passed. "This whole school thing looks so boring. Half the kids are either asleep or staring blankly into space. It's one of the things I never envied Billy having to do."

"Yeah, it pretty much sucked. I mean, there was some good stuff I enjoyed doing, but a crappy teacher could make your life a living hell. These two were like that. It was as if they had decided their mission in life was to make us as miserable as possible. Well...you know what they say...Karma's a bitch!"

They arrived at the maths staffroom, and John found the first of his target teacher's desk, Mr Black. They surveyed his desk and then looked at each other.

"So what do you wanna do?" Becky asked.

John smiled. "This guy was obsessed with order and neatness. So we create his worst nightmare. Can you open all the drawers for me please my sweet?"

Becky chuckled as she opened all the drawers in Mr Black's desk, and the filing cabinet behind it.

"Okay done. So now what?" she asked.

John rubbed his chin. "Maybe something subtle, like rearranging the entire contents of the drawers so nothing is where he remembers putting it. Or should we just toss it all everywhere so he knows straight away?"

"I like the subtle idea best. It'll do his head in for much longer." She winked and started lifting the files out of the filing cabinet and slipping them into other drawers, while John concentrated on the desk drawers containing smaller items.

It took about twenty minutes until they were happy with the results, and then the wicked grin came back to John's face. Becky chuckled at the look...he was really enjoying this. And so was she! It was awesome being involved in stuff for a change, instead of having to sit in the background and watch.

"One final touch I think. He used to call me Johnboy, and used a southern drawl to accentuate it. Do you think you could help me write a note?"

Becky looked towards the printer in the middle of the room, and a piece of paper floated over to the desk. "Sure. Exactly what auspicious words did you have in mind for this dirtbag?" She laughed at the look on his face.

"How about: "Karma's a bitch...Johnboy was here!"

"Perfect," Becky giggled as she lifted the marker until it hovered just above the page. "I'm not very good at this, but here goes..."

The marker scrawled the words across the page, and John cracked up.

"That even looks like a ghost wrote it!"

"Cool. So where do you think we should leave it?"

"Somewhere he won't find it straight away. Maybe the bottom drawer of the desk?"

Becky nodded. She waved to open the bottom drawer, and then lifted the note off the desk and slipped it into place.

"Damn you're good at this!" John grinned, and then sighed. "Pity we won't be here to see his reaction. Although I have a pretty good imagination; I think I can picture it well enough." They stood hand in hand surveying their handiwork for a second, and suddenly John waved his hand, sending the various articles on top of the desk whizzing around until they settled into a state of random disorder.

"Now I'm happy. Okay, one down, one to go," he said excitedly, grabbing her hand and dragging her off down another hallway.

While they were on their way to the PE staffroom, the bell rang for the end of the second last period of the day. Fortunately, Becky remembered that Billy, Lance and Kate had a double period, so they didn't have to worry about running into them in the hallway. After a few minutes, all the doors in the hallway were closed again, and they had reached the staffroom they were looking for.

Becky couldn't get over the differences between the two staffrooms. Where the other one had screamed order this one was total chaos. The areas around each desk were full of clutter. Memorabilia signed by famous athletes, and countless trophies for different sports, lined the shelves and walls.

John scowled. "Half of this stuff belongs to the students, but Mr I-have-all-the-power-Jones reckons if they were won during a school event they belong to the school. Honestly, the guy is such a jackass." He walked over to one of the shelves and looked at a trophy. "This was one of mine. I was the school swimming champion two years running, in years eight and nine. I stopped swimming after that, couldn't see the point. This guy made my life a living hell from then on, reckoned I was 'letting the team down' blah, blah, blah."

Becky squeezed his hand and grinned. "I think I have an idea about how to ruin this guy's day. How many of these trophies have your name on them?"

"I'm not sure...maybe four or five...why?"

"Well, then we won't need to leave a calling card this time will we? And I don't think all his signed memorabilia would look quite so good if it happened to get soaking wet." She pointed to the fire-sprinklers above their head and winked.

John threw back his head and roared with laughter. "Man, you are so good at this kind of stuff!"

Becky shrugged. "I've had a lot of practice. I had to do something to relieve the boredom. Okay, so you find some trophies with your name on them and see if you can move them to his desk. I need to find a candle or something to burn."

She headed towards what looked like supply cupboards and waved the doors open, watching John out of the corner of her eye in case he needed help moving the trophies. She giggled with pride as she watched the trophies floating towards the desk. She was actually surprised by how quickly and how much he'd improved. He'd obviously been practicing when she wasn't around.

On the very bottom shelf, she found what she'd been looking for, a box of candles covered in dust. She waved to lift them out and floated them over to the desk John was busily covering in trophies.

"Wow, I had no idea so many of these were mine. No wonder he was dirty when I gave up swimming, it must have severely damaged his trophy collecting ability." He chuckled as the last trophy landed on the desk.

"Right, so I've never done this whole spontaneous combustion thing, but I know it's possible...so here goes nothing. Wait, are you done? Are we ready to get out of here?"

John floated over and gathered her into his arms. "Yep, all done. Thanks for helping me do this Beck, it's been a hoot. But there's just one more thing before we go. I always wanted to make out with a gorgeous girl in a staff room. Guess it's my lucky day."

As he bent his head to kiss her, Becky whispered "mine too..."