By Audrey Horne
Part One: Ghosts
Not many people had keys to Sweet Sunny Angel Valley Junior High. Principal Claudia, Ms. Ho (the cafeteria lady), Creepy Curtis the janitor, and Miss. Tattlonya, Claudia's secutary all owned a set, but little RamonaQ was the only student with a set of keys. Ramona was the editor of the school newspaper, Sweet News. Putting together a weekly newspaper wasn't a easy chore, so Ramona spent alot of free time doing layouts, editing stories, and selling ads. Principal Claudia wasn't too keen at first about giving Ramona keys to the building, but she proved herself trustworthy. Ramona made sure she always turned off any lights she turned on and never, ever let anyone else in the building. Ramona had proved herself responsible, so now Principal Claudia pretty much let her do what she wanted.
As always, Ramona was working late again. There were only two days left until she had to send the layouts to the printer and there was still tons of work to be done.
Chuckkkkky, the most popular person at Sweet Sunny Angel, had made public his bid to run for class president. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be big news. It would have been expected. However, when Suzanne announced that she would be running against him, the news spread like wild fire.
Suzanne had been the most popualr girl at Ben Frank Junior High. But when the school exploded, all it's students were transferred over to Sweet Sunny Angel. Now, Chuckkkkky had a sworn enemy in Suz. He wasn't gonna let some new girl take his throne away from him. Chuckkkkky had purchased two full pages of the Sweet News to announce his bid and diss Suzanne.
"I don't think Chuckkkkky should be able to purchase ads," asst. editor AudreyHorne told the staff at the last staff meeting.
"Well, I think he should," piped in Terrigina, the other asst. editor. "His money is good!"
Terrigina wasn't very fond of AudreyHorne. Before the merger of the two schools, there had been only one asst. editor at Sweet News... Terrigina. Then when the two schools united, Principal Claudia chose another asst. editor to help with the extra work load. Terri felt Audrey was a threat. Terri desperately wanted to be editor of the paper next year after RamonaQ graduated. Before Audrey came, Terri was a shoo in for the job. Now she had competition.
"You're just saying that 'cause Suz is your friend!" Terri spat at the meeting.
"Well, Chuckkkkky's your friend!" Audrey shot back.
After much debate, Ramona had decided that the best course of action would be to let Chuckkkkky print his ad, but only if Suz agreed to buy the same amount of space. Audrey presented the idea to Suzanne, who agreed on the spot.
"Anything to help defeat the cheater Chuckkkkky!" Suz had told her.
So, now Ramona had to add four extra pages to this week's edition of the paper, with only two days to finish it. RamonaQ was stressed.
The class election wasn't the only big news on the playground. Sweet One :) had disappeared during recess a few days earlier. Authories didn't know if she ran away or was kidnapped. So far, there hasn't been any signs of foul play, but it hasn't been ruled out. Just thinking about it made the hairs on the back of Ramona's neck stand on end.
The Newspaper room is divided is divided into three parts. The main part is the classroom, where the teacher's and student's desks were located. Directly behind the teacher's desk is the Layout Room, where the students do layouts and work on the computer. A door and a large glass window seperate it from the classroom. The window takes up most of the wall, so the teacher can see what the students are up to. The other room, the Photo Lab, is where the students process film, of course.
Ramona stared blankly at the computer screen. Her head was beginning to ache and her fingers hurt from all the typing. She looked at her watch. It was 10:30pm. She had worked passed her usual quitting time of nine o' clock. Ramona was sure that Creepy Curtis had already went home for the evening.
"I need to get out of here," she said to herself.
Ramona grabbed her backpack and was gathering up her things, when she heard the computer give a chime. She turned to the monitor. Someone had sent her an instant message.
The message read:
Neil A. - Hello, Ramona.
Ramona sat back down in front of the keyboard and typed her reply.
RamonaQ - Hey there. Who's this?
Ramona just knew it had to be Principal Claudia checking up on her. Maybe Claudia wanted to catch her having cybersex or something. Well, Ramona had news for her: She wasn't that type of girl.
The computer chimed again and another message appeared on the screen.
Neil A. - My name is Neil.
RamonaQ - Well, duh. But I don't think I know any Neil's.
Neil A. - Maybe not, but I go to your school.
"Oh yeah, we'll see about that," Ramona thought to herself, grabbing a copy of last years yearbook. She flipped to the index and searched for Neil A. She couldn't find a single one. Maybe this Neil person was a transfer from Ben Frank, so he wouldn't be in the yearbook.
RamonaQ - Well, I think you're pulling my leg. Who is this? Principal Claudia is that you?
Neil A. - You're wrong. I do go to Sweet Sunny. In fact, I'm inside the building right now.
Ramona's jaw dropped. This person had to be a crackhead. Ramona knew she was the only one in the school building. There was now way anyone could be inside somewhere logged on to a computer terminal.
Ramona was ready to call his bluff, when another window opened up on her computer screen. It was a streaming video image, looking like someone was using a webcam. The video was dark and blurry. Ramona squinted her eyes trying to see what was in the video.
It looked like someone walking down a long hallway. In fact, it looked like the hallway of a school. Ramona could just barely make out the lockers along the walls.
RamonaQ - Kinda creepy, but you'll have to do better than that to scare me.
