By Next Thursday

Chapter Fifteen

Meredith's eyebrows furrowed deeper and deeper as she scanned the file in her hands. Curious to what her concerned expression meant,  I stood behind her and peered at the neatly printed rows.

Student Name: Rory Edwin Johnson

Age: 18, as of 1/12/2014

Grade: 12

The page went on for another half page of information I didn't care about or need, before it finally reached student reviews and records.

Suspension History: Grade 9; caught putting a homemade formula known to cause indigestion in fellow student's lunch.  Grade 11; attempted to burn a fellow student's name into the Bio. Lab wall. Grade 12; caught taking various supplies from Chem. Lab storage unit without permission.

Student Report/Recommendations: Rory is a bright young man with a promising future in medicine. He has devoted much of his high school career to lab work and has an impressive resume. However, Rory has been noticed to have trouble interacting with other students as well as, after the mandatory student psych. evaluation, was placed under the "watch" list for showing traits of a Sociopathic or Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

I stopped reading and looked at Meredith, her wide eyes probably mirroring the shock in my own.

"No way," she breathed. "Maybe this was a good idea after all..."

After we had reached school that day, I knew Jay seemed rather uncomfortable being near me after our heart-to-heart so I let him be and chose to roam with Meredith. I didn't tell her about what transpired between Jay and I, especially since I wasn't quite sure what it all meant myself. Neither Jay nor I were any good at or used to sharing our feelings, so we decided to refocus on the task at hand; trying to find where in the hell my body was.

Meredith at first was one hundred percent against my plan to break into the school records. First, it was due to her guilty conscious. Meredith had a pristine record and a natural inclination to follow rules. Violating the school's privacy so bad was against her very molecular composition.

After I convinced her it was necessary and that, if for a good cause like ours, it was okay, she moved on the paranoia that we'd get caught. It never failed to amaze me just how often Jay and Meredith forgot I was even a ghost. I was invisible, for god sakes.

In the end I grabbed a few different files, including my ex-best friend, Angie's, and "Crabby" Gabby's. Although, yes, Gabby was a nut job with every reason to want to murder me, her file came up with zero links to my disappearance. In fact, one of the committees listed under her activities gave her a direct alibi. Their meeting times were the same time I went missing so there was no way she could've done it. Even if I did sleep with her boyfriend and piss her off.

All that led up to Meredith and I reading Rory's file and the shock it left in it's wake.

Despite the odd fear spreading through me, I gave Meredith a smug look. "Told you this was a good choice to check these files out."

"I just.. Wow." she exhaled. "I used to help Rory with English. He was just the average science nerd. We knew him."

"At least you weren't the one who lied to him and then managed to get him obsessed with you. For all we know, he isn't my kidnapper. However, this kid's definitely off his rocker. Seriously, 'sociopathic' tendencies? Jesus Christ."

Meredith's fingers fidgeted with the edges of the papers. "I wonder what he was caught stealing from the Chem lab," she said thoughtfully. "The dates of his suspension were last month... But people rarely get caught the only time they do it. No, who knows how long he's been stealing from the labs. He probably just got lazy or cocky that time around."