“Hey, he’s your ghost.”
“I ain’t never been this excited to go to school.” Julian beamed as he fell back into step next to them.
“You need to stay close,” Yadriel told him sternly. “I don’t want people thinking I’m talking to myself.”
“Gotcha.” Julian hovered right behind Yadriel’s shoulder.
Cold pressed from Yadriel’s neck down to the small of his back. He shivered. “You don’t have to stand that close.”
Julian took a step back. “Got it, got it, got it,” he said, bobbing his head along in a nod as they melded in with the sea of people heading through the front doors of the school. It was a large cement building that was two stories tall and a dull shade of beige.
Maritza bumped her shoulder into Yadriel’s. “We’ll figure it out; don’t worry so much,” she told him.
“It’s like you don’t even know me.”
She laughed and gave him a shove.
Walking through the halls, it was impossible not to be jostled every few feet by other people. There were too many students, and the school was too small.
“This is really weird,” Julian said as a girl walked right through him. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. The good thing was that, this time of year, someone running into Julian would just think it was the late October chill. Even though it was only in the high sixties, it was cold enough for students in Los Angeles to be walking around in puffy coats and fur-lined boots.
They reached the turnoff for Maritza’s class. “All right, you two behave,” she said, heading down the hall. She grinned over her shoulder and waved. “Be good and learn something!”
Julian moved closer to Yadriel’s side. “I don’t actually have to pay attention in class, do I?”
“No,” he murmured quietly, trying to move his mouth as little as possible to not attract attention, but everyone seemed quite content to ignore him, just like any other day.
“Good,” Julian said. “’Cause I can’t sit still for that long.”
“I’m shocked.”
Yadriel ducked into his first class, and Julian chased after him.
Turned out, sitting still for “that long” meant all of five minutes before Julian was up and roaming the classroom. While Yadriel did his best to take notes on the judicial branches of the United States government, Julian passed the time staring out the window and moving people’s pens when they weren’t paying attention.
At one point, Julian crouched in front of a boy and shouted in his face as loud as he could.
Of course, the boy didn’t move. Unlike Yadriel, who jumped so hard he knocked his textbook to the floor, then everyone turned to look at him. Yadriel face burned crimson. “S-sorry.” He scrambled to pick up the book and shot Julian a glare.
Julian clamped his hands over his mouth, dark eyes wide. “I’m so sorry,” he said, but Yadriel could see his smile peeking around the edge of his hands. Saw the way the corner of his eyes crinkled, not to mention his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.
When the lunch bell rang, Maritza met them behind the science hall. There was an open-air hallway that was always deserted, since half the students went off campus for lunch, and the rest of them hung out in the quad. It was a good place for some privacy.
And for Yadriel to lecture Julian.
“You’re going to get me in trouble!” Yadriel told him.
Maritza sat against the wall, eating a bag of Doritos Blaze, her eyes pinging back and forth between the two.
“I wasn’t trying to!” Julian said, holding his hands up defensively and clearly trying very hard to keep a straight face.
Yadriel glared. “It’s not funny!”
Julian pressed his lips between his teeth, but laughter escaped through his nose.
Yadriel turned to Maritza. “Will you do something?” he demanded.
Maritza licked the Doritos dust off her fingers and rubbed her palms together. “Should I curse him now?” she asked, wiggling her fingers at Julian.
Julian scrambled back “Whoa, whoa, whoa!”
The sudden panic on his face was satisfying, Yadriel had to admit.
When Maritza laughed, Julian scowled. “Y’all play too much; that’s not funny.”
“Oh, we play too much?” Yadriel threw his head back. “Hah!”
“Wait.” Julian squinted at Maritza and tipped his head to the side. “I thought you said you couldn’t do magic?”
“I said I wouldn’t do magic, not that I couldn’t,” she clarified.
“Because of the vegan thing?”
“Yup, because of the vegan thing.” She nodded.
“It’s at least locally sourced—the Lopez family runs the local butchery, and they supply the community with animal blood,” Yadriel pointed out.
“That doesn’t make it better.” Maritza scowled.
“Why don’t you use your own blood?” Julian asked.
“It’s forbidden.”
Julian looked to Yadriel. “Why?”
“It’s too powerful,” he said, leaning his back against the wall as he let out a heavy sigh.
Julian arched an eyebrow. “And that’s a problem?”
“It’d be like trying to light birthday candles with kerosene,” Yadriel tried to explain. “It’d be overkill. The candles would catch on fire, and then the cake would burst into flames,” he listed off. “But then the kerosene is tied to your life force, so you end up using all your energy and magic reserves just to light some dumb birthday candles, and then you’re dead.”
“That seems like a bad metaphor.”
“It’s an analogy.”
Julian waved him off. “Can we just go find my friends now?” he asked. “I told you they wouldn’t be at school.”
“I still have to take my math test,” Yadriel told him for the hundredth time.
Julian opened his mouth to complain, but a voice cut him off.
“Hey!”
Yadriel jumped and turned.
Patrice stood at the end of the hall, giving him and Maritza a curious look. “What are you guys doing?” She was one of their friends, or, well, she was mostly Maritza’s friend. During lunch, Yadriel sat with Maritza and her group of friends, which was always some level of awkward. Maritza had way more friends than him, most of them fellow members of the girls’ soccer team. Yadriel used to play soccer, too, but not anymore.
“Oh, you know, just plotting,” Maritza said casually.
Yadriel glanced from her to Patrice, once again wondering how she could remain so calm and lie so easily under pressure when he always broke out into a cold sweat.
Patrice just laughed and shook her head. “Okay, weirdo.” She smiled before waving at them to follow. “Come on, we grabbed one of the picnic tables in the quad.”
“Coming!” Maritza scooped up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. She gave Yadriel a shrug.
He sighed but followed her lead. There was no reason not to, and, besides, ignoring Julian for the next twenty-five minutes sounded like a good idea.
Julian groaned his protest but trudged after them anyway.
The girls piled up on a picnic bench in the quad, laughing and talking together while Yadriel sat on the edge, forcing himself to eat the sandwich he’d bought from one of the snack stands on break.