Chapter One

You know, if you're asked to housesit a place that's rumored to have a ghost living in it, say no. No matter how much money they promise to pay you, no matter how much you want to stay in a haunted house, walk away. Say no and never look back.

I made the mistake of saying yes, and now I'm going to regret meeting Jacob Owens for the rest of my life. If you're wondering how you've lived a haunted house all this time and have never once had any trouble with the ghost, that's great! But sometimes the ghost is just biding its time, and you'd better get out of there as fast as you can.

My name is Roxanne Maricela Foster, and this is my story.

It started on the first day of October, when my alarm went off at seven o' clock am. I tried to ignore it, but eventually my mom came upstairs.

"Roxy! Your alarm's been going off for almost fifteen minutes now! Get up!" She shut off my alarm and went back downstairs.

Groaning, I sat up in bed. The blinds were closed, but I could still see the golden sun peeking through the cracks, throwing slits of brilliant light around my room. I couldn't see outdoors, but I could hear the two neighbor's boys, who were in middle school, throwing a ball around in their front lawn.

Since my bus comes at around eight fifteen, so I basically have an hour to get ready. Normally I have even less time, so this will be a cinch. A fast shower, followed by a good five minutes deciding what to wear, applying make-up, and making my bed adds up to a half-an-hour.

But when I come downstairs, my mom is making pancakes and Dad is frying bacon, while at the same time making us a fruit smoothie.

Dad's favorite way to get fruit in the morning is through the smoothie, and I can't say I blame him. It's hard to say no to a pineapple-strawberry smoothie.

Mom turns around from the stove, looks me up and down, then turns back to the griddle, saying, "That's a nice choice, Roxy."

Blushing, I look down. Mom and Dad normally like my outfits, but it's always nice to hear them say it.

Jeans are always my dad's favorite, so I put on some flare jeans. Very retro, but I kind of like it that way. Paired with a maroon baby-doll blouse, silver high-tops, and silvery hoop earrings that Mom got me, it's a definite crowd-pleaser.

"Thanks, Mom." I say as I sit down at the warm kitchen table, scarred beyond even the most skilled carpenter's repair skills. The sun is up higher now, and I can see Joes (short for Joseph) and his brother Darren doing skateboard tricks in front of their house. Before the boys were in middle school, I used to baby-sit them. They were the silliest kids I've ever stayed with for more than an hour, but it was fun.

"Here you go, sweet-pea." Dad plops down a glass full of a green-ish brown-ish colored drink.

"Wow, Dad. This looks great." I'm lying, of course, but trust me; it tastes a lot better than it looks.

I take a sip, trying to sort out the flavors. There's something in it… yeah, it's banana. I take another sip, but come up with zero.

"Hey, Daddy, what's in this?" I ask, holding up the glass.

"Umm…. Banana, kiwi, broccoli, carrots, blueberry, and just a little apple." Dad replies, flipping a piece of bacon high into the air.

"Really? All that?" I shook my head, wondering how I had missed so much.

"Eat your pancakes, Roxy. You're going to be late." My mom scolded.

Looking at the clock, I realized she was right. If I was going to catch the bus to school, then I'd have to get going immediately. How did time fly so fast? I wondered.

Grabbing the pancakes, I raced to the door, catching my brown trench coat off the banister as I went. Snatching my book bag, I turned to my parents, who had followed me to the door. "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!" I kissed them both before heading out the door. "Remember, you've got cheerleading afterwards!" Mom called after me.

Ugh, cheerleading. The only reason I do it is that I don't have to do something equally lame, like Chess Club, or Math-Letes. Most of the girls on the team are popular, spoiled brats. They snob almost everyone in the school, and still everyone either wants to be them, or date them. Pathetic, if you ask me.

Penelope Holland is the worst. She's head cheerleader, and is the brattiest girl in school. Since I don't wear my cheerleading outfit every day, or designer outfits, I am on the outside. It doesn't help that the group where I spend my time doesn't have a popular kid to save our lives. True, we're not outcasts, but we're not the inner social circle either.

Speaking of that, I could see the two people from my group standing at the bus stop. Relieved, I waved at them.

Only Amber noticed, but she bumped Dick and said something to him. Dick caught on and began to wave too.

Yeah, I know what you're gonna say. "Oh, wow! Dick, as in Dick Grayson?" Yeah, that Dick.

Dick's parents are little on the crazy fan side when it comes to Batman. All their kids are named after Batman characters. What's even creepier is how they look a bit like their characters. Do their parents know a genetic specialist or something? Anyway, yeah, Dick's full name is Richard Grayson Graves.

Nobody except his parents and us know his full name, and he pretends to hate it. But Amber, myself, and the gang know him well enough to tell that he actually kind of likes it.

"Hey guys!" I puff as I get close enough to them. "What's up?"

"At the moment, we're discussing Halloween costumes." Amber tugs on a strand of her hair as she speaks. "I'm going as Poison Ivy." I didn't expect her to choose a Batman character, but Amber always goes as someone with red hair. I guess she wants to stay as true to the character as possible.

Amber's got this gorgeous head of curly red hair, but she only actually keeps it curly on Halloween. She's gone as Princess Anastasia, Daphne Blake from Scooby Doo, when we were younger she went as Kim Possible, and when she still lived in Phoenix, Arizona, she went as Raggedy Ann. I only know that because her mom told me, and I don't intend on telling Amber that I know.

"I'm going as Robin." Dick sighed. "Same as every year."

I had to agree with him on that one. Ever since he was little, he's always gone Robin. The outfit is really starting to suit him now, but he was the laughing stock of the whole class when he wore it in second grade.

His mask slipped off, and because he couldn't see he tripped on his cape and ended up with a face full of Halloween cupcake icing.

"What about you?" Amber asked, shivering and pulling up her hood.

"I'm going as a person from a masquerade ball." I replied, buttoning up my coat. We had only been waiting for a few minutes, and already the sun had disappeared and a strong wind was blowing, scattering leaves like autumn snowflakes.

"That's cool, Rox! You come with a lot of cool ideas!" Dick exclaimed encouragingly. "The sock hop queen!" I didn't think that that costume had really taken a lot of effort; I had borrowed some of my grandma's old clothes!

"The zombie cheerleader!" I was pretty proud of that one, mostly because I got to rip up a uniform.

"A nerd!" That one had been a cute costume, but I had put it up now, and wasn't going back to it.

"You forgot the year she did Harley Quinn." Amber reminded him. "Roxy looked really good in that costume! It really suited her."

"I don't have blonde hair, though." I told her gently. "My hair is brown."

"It was all covered up because of your mask! Anyway, that was a fun year! Remember how Jack tripped over his Grim Reaper robe and ended up in that cauldron of fake blood?"

"And how I ate so much candy that I puked?" Dick laughed, shaking his head. "Good times."

Jack was the fourth member of our little gang, and a bit of a nerd. True, he got top marks and was funny and easy to be around, but sometimes he would do something really geeky, like giving us all Star Wars names. Yeah, that was a bit unsettling. But we had gotten over that and actually kind of enjoyed it now.

Then the bus pulled up and we all piled in, too cold to keep talking and eager to get at least some sort of windbreaker.

When we got to Silvergate High, the first bell hadn't even rung, so we could hang out until Jack and the last member of our circle, Jesse Griffith, got here.

Jesse Griffith is a football player, and like me, he's good at it but hates it. The whole beating up geeks thing doesn't float his boat, especially since Jack and he are best friends.

He probably would have a cheerleader girlfriend if he acted like jocks were supposed to act: big egos, with tiny brains. Don't look at me like that! Jesse's a good friend, but going out with him? Ew.

Silvergate isn't a terribly big high school, but it does have enough kids to make maneuvering in the hallways a little tricky. Luckily, we like to meet in the music room, where Amber has band. She plays the clarinet, and she's really good at it, too. Sometimes she even composes her own music.

The music room was empty when Dick, Amber and I got there. It was quiet compared to the halls, and dark. Dick flipped on the lights, and we each took a seat to wait for Jesse and Jack.

We didn't have to wait very long. Soon the door almost flew off its hinges as Jesse pushed it open.

"Are we late?" Asks Jack, pushing up his glasses. "Our bus was five point three minutes later then usual-"

"It's alright!" I break in. "We haven't started yet!" Us in the club (we like to refer ourselves as the Jedi. It was Jack's idea, and we went along with it.) refer to it as 'starting' whenever we hang out with each other.

"Oh. That's good." Jack sat down with a thump near Amber. "What are we talking about today?"

"What you're going to be for Halloween." Dick spoke up. "I'm Robin-"

"Dude, again?" Jesse asks in his deep, baritone voice. "What is this? The tenth time in a row?"

"Yeah." Dick slumped. "My parents won't let us be anything else. The worst thing about it is that they make the costumes themselves. It even has a utility belt."

I had to admit, that was kind of cool.

"I'm going as Poison Ivy." Amber looks up from the book she's reading. From the cover, I can tell it's a music book. Amber reads music the way other people read novels. It's kind of strange, but hey, Dick's named after a sidekick!

"You should have done that when Roxy was Harley Quinn!" Jack spoke up. "Then I could have gone as the Riddler, Jesse could have been Bane, and-"

"Enough!" Dick clutched his head. "My parents say enough of that at home!"

"I'm going as a lady from a masquerade ball." I state. "What about you two?"

"I'm going as a sorcerer, Jack's a medieval assassin." Jesse says, gesturing at the two of them.

We all stare at him for a minute, then bust out laughing. The idea of scrawny Jack, with his glasses and braces playing the part of a stealthy assassin and big, brawny Jesse playing a mysterious sorcerer is one of the most ridiculous ideas I've ever heard!

Okay, maybe it wasn't so ridiculous considering that last year Jesse went as a geek and Jack went as a jock. They loved dressing up as people that no one could ever mistake them being, much to Amber's chagrin. But she seemed okay with it right now, laughing along with the rest of us.

Jesse grinned, seeming to have got the reaction that he was looking for. Jack gave a high-five, and I realized they had probably thought up those costumes just to see what kind of reaction they got. I giggled, shaking my head. They knew just how to make us laugh, even if we didn't want to.

The bell rang overhead, signaling the start of class. Dick and I have first period together: science. As much as I hated science, math, and all other uncreative subjects, at least one of my friends was in each, which made it bearable. Creative subjects, like music and art, were my favorites, but Penelope was in those classes and made every attempt to ruin my work.

Yes, I'm on her team. And yes, I'm rather good at it (at least, I've heard that I am). But Penelope wants me to act like her, which basically means that I'd have to ditch my group and be an airhead who puts down everyone because they're pretty. Oh, I think I'm going to throw up.

"Hey, Leia! Did you get the assignment for calculus done?" I turned to look at Jack. Yeah, he calls me Leia. And Amber is Mara Jade, who is apparently Luke Skywalker's wife. Dick is Han Solo, and Jesse is Lando Calrissan. You wanna make something of it?

"I've got it done, but I think Mrs. McCormick is trying to make us into Math-Letes!" I exclaimed, shuddering. In case you didn't know, only the nerds and geeks are Math-Letes. It's the lowest of the low, and nobody but those already there want to be on that level.

Jack may be a bit of a science fiction nut, but he's a cool kid. He's good at math and all other types of smarticle stuff. But when it comes to creativity, he's hopeless! Amber and I come up with the ideas, then the Jedi take on the project, until Jack squashes it, or tells us that it won't work exactly in that way.

But sometimes we don't listen to him, which is usually disastrous. Like the time we decided to make a sled run out of the slide at the playground. The police never did find out who knocked over the swing set.

"Nice." He nodded approvingly. "Maybe I can check it over before you hand it in, help you fix a couple problems."

I gratefully dug out the wrinkled paper and handed it to him. "Thanks, Jack."

"No problem! I'll give it to you during Study Hall!" Jack waved, walking away and getting swallowed up by the masses of kids.

"Come on!" Dick grabbed my hand. "We're going to be late!"

Somehow he already had his science textbook, and was dragging me towards my locker as fast as he could.

"I can walk, Dick!" I yanked my hand from his grasp. No, we were not dating, and holding hands would just make that look plausible. I don't have a boyfriend, and don't intend to. You should hear the rumors that circulate in the girl's locker room!

Besides, I have never crushed on anyone and don't know what it's like. Even if I did, that boy was basically target practice for my dad's shotgun.

"Alright, alright! I was just trying to help!" Dick let his hand fall to his side as I opened my locker and grabbed my science book, calculator, and scratch paper. Normally you don't have to do math in science, but Mr. Cooley was not an ordinary teacher. You know how most books and TV shows say that teachers exist to oppress the free will of kids world-wide?

Yeah…there are only like one out of every fifteen teachers that are like that, and no, Mr. Cooley is not one of them. True, many teachers are dull and dreary, but they don't punish kids for walking in the middle of the hallway!

Anyway, Mr. Cooley incorporates math into his science tests and lab reports, and expects us to do the same. It's not that much extra work, and is kind of enjoyable. You know how most people say school is dumb and boring and they're just waiting until they get out so that they can "Dragon Up" or whatever? Sorry, I shouldn't reference kids shows.

Wow, I just realized how much time I spend with Dick's little sister, Babs. Babs' real name is Barbara Gordon Graves, and she's twelve. Really a sweet kid, but watches way too much TV and references it way too much.