My Haunted House

Chapter 4

I've been living in Erie for about a week now. The funny thing is ever since Tim saw that girl in my window the activity in my house has subsided. Of course, occasionally all hear footsteps in the middle of night, but other than that I haven't seen anything strange.
My first week of school was great. School was like my safe Haven. When I was at school I didn't have to worry about seeing that dead girl.
I was walking to the bus stop on Thursday morning, when Tim approached me. "Hey, I was wondering if you would want to go to the lake with me on Saturday to feed the fish?"
I smiled at him. "I would love go,Tim!"
"Will your parents let you go, through?"
I thought about it for a minute. After my mom thought I made up that story about the girl in the bathroom, she said that I was just lonely,and that I needed to make real friends, not imaginary ones. She would be thrilled to know that I would be going out with a real friend."Yeah, I don't think they will mind."
"Great. Well, we better get going, the bus will be here any minute."
"Okay." I replied.

When I got to homeroom Mr. Vander greeted me with a smile. I greeted him back with an even bigger smile. I took my seat behind a short red-headed girl, who I now knew as Lydia. "How are the ghosts in your house?" Lydia snickered.
I decided to play it cool. "Lydia, the spirits in my house are quite well. Thanks for asking"
Everybody turned to face us. Oh my gosh, I just admitted that I had spirits in my house. Everyone started laughing at Lydia. My friend Kim chimed in. " Lydia, everyone knows that ghosts aren't real." Lydia's face turned bright red. I became friends with Kim on my second day of school. Tim introduced us at lunch, we bonded instantly, I felt like I knew her my whole life.
"Thanks Kim." I muttered under my breath.
Kim muttered back a welcome.
I never told Kim my house was haunted. She thought it was just a rumor. I wasn't ready to let a bunch of ghosts jeopardize our friendship.
Just then, the announcements came on. The chatter in the classroom quieted down. We all stood up from our desks to recite the Pledge.

After the announcements were over we all lined up single file. We were going to my favorite class, art. I loved expressing my creativety. One of my favorite things to do in art was schetch. I loved to schetch because it became so much more in the end.
In art today Mrs. Crow informed us about the project we would be working on for about the next week.
"Now I want you to draw something that is passionate to you. It can be anything that is school appropriate."
After Mrs. Crow was done, I went over to the supply bin and pulled out two pieces of tan draft paper, a big eraser, and a pencil. I then went over to Kim's table. I took my seat between Kim and Tim. I got started on my drawing immediately. I knew exactly what I was going to draw, a picture of Times Square at Christmas time. I started out drawing large buildings. I darkened in the roofs of each building. This was supposed to act as snow. I then drew a couple of ice sickles on some of the buildings. To finish off the buildings I decked them out with a whole bunch of Christmas lights. I was going to start on the giant Christmas tree, when Mrs. Crow made an announcement.
"Threre are five minutes left in class. I want you all to start cleaning up."
Kim, Tim, and I both looked up from our art projects at the same time. They both looked at my drawing. Their eyes widened in suprise.
" That's an amazing drawing!" They both exclaimed in unison.
"Thanks guys, but it's really not that great."
"Compared to both of ours', yours is by far the best."
I looked over at both their drawing. There were scratched out marks on both of their drawings. I guess mine was the best. To both of them I said, "Both of your drawings are good."
They both just looked at me like I was crazy.
After we finished cleaning up the bell rang for us to leave. I was sad, I really wanted to work on my project some more. We all lined up single file, and headed down the hallway to meet Mr. Vander. Mr. Vander greeted us with a smile. Ever since I moved here I never saw Mr. Vander in a bad mood. It kind of creeped me out. I guess it was than being in a bad mood all the time.

When we got back upstairs Mr. Vander started math class. I was never a big fan of math. In fact, it was my least favorite subject. Today in math we were learning how to multiply three digit math problems. At my old school my math teacher taught us two ways to multiply. The first way was traditional, and the second way was lattus. I preferred the traditional way. All the boxes in lattus confused me. Mr. Vander pass back the papers.
"Everyone I want you to try these problems on your own. Remember what I taught you."
I was always great at multipling big numbers. The only thing I struggled with in math was the metric system. I just didn't understand it.
I was the first one done with my math problems. That suprised me. I thought I was going to be the last one done. I raised my hand. Mr. Vander came over immediately. I handed over my paper to him. He checked my paper so fast I thought my head was spinning.
"Chelsea, you got all the problems right."
I couldn't believe it. I usually always made a little mistake here and there, which would cause me to miss the problem.
"Are you sure I got all the problems right?" I said in a confused voice.
"Absoutely. I even checked them twice."
Mr. Vander smiled at me as he walked back to his desk. How could a person be that happy all the time? It just wasn't normal.
I waited impatiently at my desk, looking up at the clock, counting down the minutes until lunch.

Fifteen minutes later we headed down to the cafeteria for lunch. I always packed my lunch. I didn't want to chance the school's gross looking food. At this school they made us sit with our homerooms. At my old school the teachers let us sit wherever we wanted. I sat in the middle of a large white table, Kim on my left side, Tim on my right side.
" So Chelsea, you have any plans for the weekend?" Kim asked.
I looked at Tim for just a minute.
"Kim, why don't you come with Chelsea and I to the lake on Saturday." He didn't ask this as a question.
"I wouldn't want to impose."
"The more the merrier." Tim replied.
That went better than I expected, I thought to myself.
The rest of lunch went pretty quick. I had to wolf down my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple and some chocolate milk. I just finished when the teacher,Mr. Lance, blew his wistle, which meant we had to go back to class. All of the kids, including me rushed out of the cafeteria.

The rest of the day went pretty fast. Before I knew it I was on bus 14 riding home. I was nervous about asking my mom about spending the day with Tim, even though I knew she would say yes.
When I got home I looked all around the house for my mom. She was nowhere to be found. I went up to Hannah's room and banged on the door.
"Come in!" Hannah yelled. I bursted into the room, almost tripping on a history book that was in the middle of the floor. Hannah looked up from her cell phone, taking her ear buds out of her ears.
"Chelsea, you really should be more careful where you walk." Hannah scolded.
I was going to say something insulting back, but I decided not to.
"Where's mom?" I asked.
" She just called before you came home. Said she had to stay a little bit later at the office."
"Ok." I replied, disappointed.

I waited for what seemed to be a century. I nearly fell out of my chair, when I saw my mom's red Rav4 appear in the driveway. I rushed out of the house to meet her. When I reached my mom she had three bags of groceries in her hands.
"Let me help you with that." I said, as I took two bags out of her hands.
"Thanks honey."
"Welcome mom." I replied.
I helped my mom unload the groceries. I thought that this would be the best time to ask.
" Mom, I was wondering if I could go out with a friend, to feed the fish, this Saturday."
" Who's the friend?" My mom asked.
"Tim Hemlock." I replied.
A smile appeared on my mother's face. " I was best friends with Tim's mother in high school. She was valedictorian."
I knew now I had a good chance of going.
"Can I go?"
"Yes. You can go. I'm so proud of you for making a real friend."
I gave my mom a huge. "Thanks."

That night I had a dream. This was the first time I had dreamt since I moved in. My grandmother appeared. My grandfather was nowhere to be found. My grandmother was wearing a yellow dress.
"What are you doing here?" I asked.
" I came to warn you not to hang out with that Hemlock kid. He's going to stir up history that was meant to stay in the past."
Fury rose in me. She was dead. She couldn't tell me what to do!
"Grandma, your dead. Stop telling me what to do!"
My grandma took a couple of steps towards me. She was so close that I could smell her dead breath.
"Silly, Silly girl. Don't you see she's getting stronger. Bringing back the past will give her more power."
"I don't care grandma, this is my life, stop messing with it.
My grandma got right up in my face and slapped me. I winced."You've been warned!" My grandmother yelled.
Her body started to disappear."You've been warned." My grandmother whispered, as the rest of her body disappeared.
I woke up in a sweat. I wanted to scream. My left cheek burned from where my grandma hit me. I didn't scream because I knew my mom wouldn't believe that her dead mother hit me. I sat up in my bed and wondered, if my grandma could hit me, what could the evil dead girl do?