Ghost of Her Past [Rewrite]

Chapter 1- The Beginning

Jesse woke up the next morning feeling like a zombie. Her eyes were restless, struggling to pry themselves open, and her shoulders and neck ached horribly. Still, with great effort, the raven haired girl managed to roll out of bed to start the day.

She tugged on her red and white t-shirt and overalls, and straightened out her hair so that it didn't look like she had a wrestling match with the blankets this morning. She completed her outfit with her golden yellow hair clip, pinning back her left bangs. When she was relatively satisfied with her looks, she stepped out of her bedroom and left the basement into the Order Hall.

Radar, of course, was already there when she arrived. He was busy dusting and polishing the trophies, keeping them nice and shiny. Jesse was grateful for his work, knowing full well that she didn't have the time to do any of that herself. She remembered her office being an atrocious mess, but when Radar came along, everything was so neat and organized that she had no clue where everything was. The office ended up turning mildly messy to Radar's dismay, but it was good enough for Jesse so eventually he let it go.

She approached the young teen with a smile. "Morning, Radar."

Radar immediately stopped and turned to face her. "Morning, Jesse," He paused, his grin melting into a frown. "You look..."

"Awful?" Jesse guessed.

"Tired!" Radar squeaked. "I was gonna say tired."

        Jesse groaned. "I know, I know," She pressed her hand against the side of her face. "It was a rough night. Let's just get today over with. What've you got for me, Radar?"

       The young teen still looked a little concerned, but he snapped out of it and ripped his notepad from his inventory. He violently scrambled through the pages until he found the right one. "Uhh, doesn't look to be too busy today. After all, things have settled down since the Admin was defeated. Lukas came by earlier today wanting to talk to you, but I told him that you were resting-"

       "Wait, earlier?" Jesse planted her hands on her hips, glaring at him accusingly. "Radar... what time is it?" Radar paled.

      "Uh, well you see- um-"

      "Radar..."

       "Y-you looked pretty tired last night after having that nightmare, and so I thought that m-maybe I could let you sleep in a little bit-"

       "Radar!" Jesse said finally. Radar squirmed under her hard stare and gulped.

"It's half past noon," Radar confessed finally. Jesse's mouth fell open, only now realizing how tired she had actually been before. The nightmare had shaken her up, but she had to admit, the rest had definitely revitalized her. Still, that was half of her day already gone. She could've gotten a lot of stuff done by now.

"Radar, you should've woken me up," Jesse said sternly, arms folded across her chest.

Radar bit his lip. "I know," He squeaked. "I'm just... I'm just worried about you. With all that sleep you've been skipping out on... it isn't healthy. I knew you wouldn't sleep in willingly, so I took matters into my own hands. I just want to make sure my boss is okay."

Jesse's gaze softened, her shoulders sagging in defeat. Radar... he was such a sweetheart. He'd grown so much over the past two years in her care that she was starting to see him as something like an adopted son; a part of the family. She always thought that he only saw her as his boss. She hadn't realized that he cared about her just as much as she did... maybe even more.

"Radar, you're sweet," Jesse smiled. "But you know I can take care of myself."

"Can you?" Radar asked. "You're so busy worrying about the well-being of other people that you don't even stop and think about the well-being of yourself. Sure, you do well in battle, but you tend to shrug off your own mental health quite quickly. When you do that... it scares me, and I think it probably scares the others too."