My Best Friend's A Ghost

Cole

Cole was a little weird, and he knew it all too well.

He had learned that not too long after he had turned eight, when an invisible monster had hurt him and he started seeing people that others couldn't see. His parents had gotten him tested to see if he was schizophrenic, but the test came back negative. Cole knew that he wasn't crazy, but he just couldn't explain how he was seeing 'invisible people'.

Then one day, he had found an ancient book at the library that had said that there were people who could see ghosts—people like him. However, the book also said that the ability to see the dead was very rare and few people had it.

The discovery was both a blessing and a curse for Cole. On one hand, he finally had an explanation for what was happening to him. But on the other hand, nobody believed him when he told him that he was seeing ghosts. Eventually, he stopped mentioning it and tried to ignore the ghosts that he could see.

That is, until he met Mark.

He wasn't sure what possessed him to try and befriend Mark(the ghost had tried to scare him the first time they had met and was a bit of a jerk for a while afterwards) but try he did. And, surprisingly, it worked. It didn't happen overnight, but soon he and Mark became good friends. Cole had come to enjoy having Mark as a friend, and Mark—despite him denying it—cared about Cole in his own way. Case in point, when he had pranked Kai for a week after the red ninja had made fun of Cole.

Mark also helped Cole train. Something that Cole had learned early on was that Mark was actually a former student of Sensei Wu's, but Mark hated his old teacher(he blamed his death on Sensei and was constantly complaining to Cole about how much he wish was alive so he could punch Sensei in the face. It took Cole ages to talk Mark out of his more violent ways to exact revenge). Still, he was willing to at least give Cole some pointers.

Though, sometimes Cole wished that Mark was less enthusiastic about it.

"WAKE UP LOWLY MORTAL!!!!"

Cole yelped as he quickly sat up in bed—and instantly whacked his head on the bottom of Jay's bunk. A curse flew out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

Laughter sounded as Cole recovered from his injury. Groaning, Cole opened one of his eyes and glared at the offender. "Was that really necessary?" He growled lowly.

"Uh, yeah," Mark replied, smirking unapologetically. "It's hilarious. And it's the only way that I can get you to cuss."

"Cursing is a sign of weak verbal skills."

"Says you." Mark walked—well, floated—over and flicked Cole's forehead. "Come on, let's go. Time for some training."

"Ugh, what time is it?"

"Time-to-get-your-ass-up-and-train o'clock."

"Language." Cole glanced at the alarm clock in the bedroom and groaned. "It's six-freaking-am, Mark!" He complained, laying back down and throwing his pillow over his head.

"I know. I was feeling gracious today, so I let you sleep in instead of getting you up at 5:30. You're welcome."

"Go back to sleep, Mark. It's too early."

"Can't sleep. And come on, Cole. I thought you wanted to be the big, strong leader that your team deserves."

Cole groaned. "Low blow, dude." He grumbled, slowly sitting up.

"I know. Come on, get up! And hurry up, otherwise I'm hiding Jay's thingamabob."

"It's called a DS, Mark. And what have I told you about messing with the other guys' stuff?"