A Fiery Friendship [1x1]

((Uuungh.... Frick man here I go....))

Janine flinched when Sean hissed at her about being here, somewhat hurting her that he must've had the same feeling of mutual dislike for her as she did for him. But it didn't hurt nearly as much as when he placed the charred glasses on her lap. Once they were there, she was able to smell the burnt scent much more clearer, making her realize that the smell from earlier was these glasses. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at the charred objects, until she couldn't hold the tears anymore. They rolled down her cheek and onto her blankets, and her voice cracked as she spoke up.

"I thought they saved her.... I... I tried to.... But the fire was... Too much.... I ended up passing out.... I tried so hard.... I'm... Sorry Sean. I'm so sorry," Janine said as she tried to inch the sadness into her heart. She knew that if her emotions got too high, she'd be in danger; both her and whoever would be in her way. Her chest ached from both her injuries and from the emotional pain clustering in her chest, making her gasp a little as she sobbed.
 
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Sean snatched the glasses back and shoved them back into his pocket. He could feel anger building up in him the longer that he stayed. He stood up to leave just as Janine started talking. He stared down at the ground as he listened, holding tightly to the rail on the edge of the bed. He lifted his hair ever so slightly so that his eyes were still hidden behind his fringe. He took a deep breath. "You never cared about her." He breathed. "You couldn't have."

"You never appreciated her. She was always so nice to you, but you were just salty and boring." He lifted his face to look at her fully. "How much can you say you cared about her when you couldn't recognise me as soon as I came in? I look exactly like her!" He pointed at his face, and then turned his face down at the bed. "Why are you the one that's alive?" He muttered. "Dodie had real potential. She was gonna go to college. She was gonna be a photographer. She would have been amazing."

"And now she never will be. And it's all your fault." He turned on his heel and walked to the door.

Dodie stared at her brother in horror. "Sean! What the hell!" She shouted, loudest she ever had. "That was horrible!" She ran at him, trying to grab him. "Apologise! Apologise to her right now! Say sorry!" She was surprised when Sean actually paused, just before he walked out. But just as quick as he had though, he was walking again and off down the hall in record speed. "COME BACK AND SAY SORRY!" She screamed after him, but he just kept running.

She didn't realise that she was crying. She took a few steps backwards and then went to Janine's bedside. She knew that she couldn't hear her, but she spoke anyway. "Th-that's not true. None of what he said was true. I mean, I did want to go to c-college, but it's not your fault I'm dead!"
 
Janine had her eyes closed when Sean spoke up. When he said those first few words, she sprung them open, her eyes filled with shock and appall. She wiped her eyes to see Sean better as he talked, and her eyes were quick to be filled with anger and resentment towards Sean. She interjected a few times, but he was able to over talk her since her throat still hurt.

"You asshole! I cared for her like she was a part of the family! My sister! We loved her just like you did Sean! You're not the only one who misses her!" Janine shouted as he left the room. She couldn't hold back her emotions at this point. It was too much. All that Sean said bounced around in her head too harshly, and she shook her head with a sob.

"Dodie's dead... She's dead and it's my fault... He's right... I shouldn't have gone down in the basement. We should've gone in the bathroom, ghosts or no ghosts.... I'm sorry! Please come back to us! I tried! I tried so hard! I'm sorry!" Janine screamed as she felt her chest tighten with sadness. She squirmed and flailed as her emotions flooded her, and it triggered the machines to beep and wail as she sobbed with her hands covering her eyes.
At this point, Janine's mother came back from running a few errands, and had just seen Sean running past her with tears in his eyes. She was puzzled at first why he was here, but then screams brought her attention to her daughter. She ran to her room and saw Janine flailing around like she was possessed and rushed into the room. She realized what was happening and dropped her purse, trying to shush Janine and calm her down.

"Janine! You have to calm down! It wasn't your fault! Janine!" Janine's mother shouted as she put her daughter's hands down. The nurses that responded to the machines rushed in and tried to pry the mother from Janine's emotional form, making her argue at them in order to let her go in and calm her.
Instead, the doctors inserted sedatives into her tubes, but they weren't working as fast as they should've been. Janine felt her chest tighten and her breath quicken, and she felt herself teetering to the edge of changing. This made her open her eyes and cry out to her mom, who mouthed to her to calm down and control herself. Janine whimpered and tried to lower her emotions down to a less dangerous level, and once she managed to do so, the sedatives that were held back kicked in, and quickly put her to sleep.
 
Dodie reached out to try and take a hold of Janine's hand, to no avail. "N-no, that's not true!" She whimpered, still trying to take her hand. "I want to come back, I-I-I do!" She dipped her head, staring at the bedsheets. "I can't! I-I just can't!" Pure weakness overtook her as she felt down to the ground, kneeling on the hospital tile.

She lifted her head as the machine's started making their noises, she lifted her head. "St-stop," she whispered, reaching out to touch the heart monitor. "You're gonna hurt yourself." She watched helplessly as the doctors all worked together to knock Janine out, and she stayed on the ground, knees pulled right up to her chin. She closed her eyes, wishing that she could just go to sleep, but she couldn't. She just couldn't. She didn't move from where she was for a very, very long time, afraid that if she did, Janine might just fade away.



Lunchtime, one week later

The bell rang for the start of breaktime. Mr Laurence - Janine, Sean, and Dodie's maths teacher - raised a hand as everyone started to pack up. "There is a service for Miss Thompson in the Assembly Hall. You don't have to go, but it would be greatly appreciated if you would." His usually bright voice was rough and worn out. "If you do go, you will have the opportunity to go and say a few words about her. Again, you don't have to." With that, he sat down at his desk.

Everybody already knew about the service. It was the only thing anyone had been talking about for the past few days.

Sean got up out of his chair, slipping his maths folder into his bag. All through the period, he had been changing between looking at Janine and looking at Dodie's empty seat.

Of course, the seat wasn't really empty. Dodie had been sitting on the floor the entire time, carefully watching over her brother and best friend, all the while knowing that if something did happen, she wouldn't be able to do anything to stop it. She watched as Sean left, walking in the direction of the Assembly Hall - the assembly hall was to the left, while the lunch hall was to the right.

When you were walking to the Assembly Hall, it was impossible to miss Dodie's locker. There was a small table sat in front of it, covered in flowers. Most of the flowers were white, pink, or purple. None of them were red, or orange, or yellow. Too much like a fire. On the front of her locker, her school picture was put up. Finally, people had stuck up post-it notes to say their final words about her. Dodie had already read them all. Some were plain, others were cringeworthy, and there were a few that seemed truly heartfelt. The worst ones to read were the ones from the people in Yearbook.

Dodie stood up from the floor. She looked at Janine. "Are we leaving?" She asked for the sake of speaking.
 
A week after being in the hospital, Janine had gone back to school, much against her mother's recommendation. Strange how an incident provokes kids to go to school. Janine understood why her mom wanted her to stay; she feared that Janine's heightened emotions would get the best of her and trigger an incident like what nearly happened at the hospital. Janine feared it as well - she had been willing to show her secret to Dodie and Dodie only, and since she was gone, there was no need to risk showing it to anyone else.

On her way to school, Janine had wondered on how to keep her emotions in check. If she didn't, she'd have an episode and might reveal her secret to the entire school. Her only thought on this was to be void, or minimal, in emotion. She decided to not talk, look, or even acknowledge anyone while at school. Not even her teachers.

In Mr. Laurence's class, Janine was two rows away from the complete back and three rows away from the side. Closer to the middle one could say. She never liked being seen so easily, yet this was one of her favorite classes. She loved helping Dodie with her work even when she openly complained to her, but she knew that Dodie knew Janine was teasing her. Or at least she hoped. Dodie was a desk in front of her, which used to be a joy to Janine in the past, but was now just a sore to look at. She barely had looked up from her position ever since she had sat down, which was her head buried in her arms as she shrouded herself with her black hoodie. She was constantly sensing Sean looking at her since she was a couple of desk positions in front of him, and was tempted to make herself worked up enough lunge at him to make him stop, but she kept herself sullen and blank so she wouldn't feel too much.
She barely heard her teacher's voice when he spoke, so she was oblivious to his words near the end of the class. However, she did hear him speak of the Assembly Hall, so she knew what the class was doing as the students left. She didn't get up as quickly as everyone else, instead keeping herself buried in her desk as her body stayed still.

Although, as class emptied, the small sounds of scribbling could be heard by Janine. The scribbles lasted for a good few minutes more as the class was now empty except for the teacher at his desk, watching Janine with pity and sadness in his eyes. When she was finished, Janine lifted her head up with no noise, and a piece of paper that had a bunch of words on it. She folded it in half and wrote something on the folded blank space, but all that could be seen was she covered it was a heart. Janine then put her pencil away, and gathered her bearings before she stood up, putting her stuff away and leaving with a slow and deliberate pace. She looked to the left towards the Assembly Hall and stared at the doors at the end, wondering if she should go and say something.

It didn't seem like a wise idea, as if she broke down, it would be over for her. 'Besides,' growled Janine, 'I don't need everyone to know how I felt about Dodie. What I feel is mine and her business alone.... She is my friend. And that's that,' Janine finished in her head with a snort. Despite that, she still went down the hall towards the doors. However, she didn't go all the way down; instead, she stopped at Dodie's locker with her desk - it had a picture of her on the front and flowers beside it. There were many departures from various students on there, and most of them made her bare her teeth with a low snarl. How stupid were these kids? Did they take it seriously?

"I heard it's paradise in Heaven. Make sure you send a postcard xD
,Jackson"​
It took everything in Janine to not try and look for the bastard and maul him to death. She took a deep breath and winced, forgetting the pain in both her chest and back from the injury. She cleared her throat and leaned the folded up paper on Dodie's picture frame, where it was slightly opened for one to possibly read. On the front was a single word followed by a symbol.

"Dodie <3"

She stared at the paper as if she should open it or not, standing a few paces away as she looked at the table as a whole.
 
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Dodie kept on staring at Janine. "Are you going to get up?" She asked. Ever since she had gotten used to the whole ghost thing, she had become far more monotone, melancholic and even a little more passive-aggresive than she would be comfortable with before. She tried to poke at Janine like she would have done usually, though of course her hand went right through. She sighed. "What're you writing?" She mumbled, folding her arms as she waited for her friend to finish.

When Janine eventually stood up, Dodie was too late to peek and missed her chance. She sighed. She guessed that it was just a note to get out of class or something like that, so she brushed it off and followed after her.

As she was walking through the halls, it was quite odd to walk past people who would normally say hi, only to have them dip their heads and not look even slightly in her direction. It was probably because of Janine. She probably couldn't have looked less friendly if she tried. "Hey, cheer up a bit." She tried, but it sounded half-hearted. Dodie herself hadn't felt cheery in a week.

She kept on walking towards the Assembly Hall, not realising at first that Janine wasn't following. She was just about to pass through the door when she noticed. She turned her head to look back and noticed that she had stopped at her memorial. Dodie tilted her head in confusion and walked back towards her. "Are you..." she looked at the note, then back at Janine. She wasn't surprised that she wasn't going to go to the service. It wasn't really something that Janine was likely to do.

Dodie reached out to note. "I-I want to read that." She whispered, trying to grab it. "Please. Please let me read that." She didn't know who she was speaking to. She just needed to know what Janine really, really thought about her. She kept on swiping at it, but every time it slipped right through her hands. "L-LET ME READ IT!" She shouted. Suddenly, there was a click in her and Janine's heads as Dodie's hand connected with the letter. The piece of paper slipped off the table and fell to the ground. At the same time, the flame of the only candle on the table grew from maybe a half-inch up to a full inch. Unbeknownst to her, she had just become visible to Janine.

Dodie stared at the paper on the floor, to the candle, to her hands. "Did...did I do that?" She whispered. She knelt down on the ground and reached out to the paper. At first, it slipped back through her hands, but when she tried again and focused on it, she could pick it up. She stood up, still holding the letter in her hand, though she had to actively focus on it. To anyone else, it looked like a letter floating in the air. Slowly, she opened it up and started reading, still not realising that she could be seen now.
 
Janine had stared at the table for a few more seconds before she turned in the direction of the lunch hall, even though she wasn't feeling very hungry. However, she knew that if she didn't eat now, her hunger might get the best of her and bite her in the butt later on. Perhaps it was wiser to force down a piece of meat than to wait and then ravenously go off in public in search of food.

With this in mind, Janine began to start walking, until she heard a click in her head. She stopped and tilted her head in curiosity, wondering where the sound came from. 'Interesting... Where'd that come from?' Janine thought as she turned around. Once she turned around, she noticed the candle flickering nearly twice its height and the piece of paper one the floor.

What she saw immediately afterwards was a complete shock to her. She saw her paper print picked up... By someone she knew wasn't supposed to be there.

Dodie.

Janine turned around in utter amazement and shock as she absentmindedly snuck behind Dodie, trying to convince herself that it was an illusion. That her mind was playing tricks on her in her sadness. No matter what the reason, Janine began to panic. She stood back and opened her eyes wide.

"G-g... G-g-g-g," Janine stuttered helplessly.

The letter would start off as a bit misleading considering the type of message it was holding;

"Dear Dodie,

When we first met, you were a pain in my ass.... A strange, chatty, positive pain in my ass. You often took a glance at me and smiled, which irritated me to no end. And then-"

The letter would be snatched away by Janine as she wheezed into hyperventilation, due to her noticing the few students looking over at Janine to see what the matter was and barely seeing the randomly floating letter. This motion only made Janine panic more, as she had to get through her (quite literally) if it was to be a quick snatch from the ghost's hands. a chill ran throughout her body as she retrieved her, which made Janine's fear go through the roof. Her breathing was reduced to quick wheezing pants, and she slammed her back against the lockers behind her, triggering a wave of pain to go through her body.

"Ghost," Janine squeaked before she passed out.
 
Dodie jumped as the letter practically flew out of her hands with incredible force. "H-hey!" Dodie stuttered, standing back up quickly. She looked at Janine with a sigh, not having quite realised the full situation yet. "If you put it back, I'll just pick it up again," she mumbled, reaching over to try and pluck the letter back out of Janine's hand, though the girl stumbled further out of Dodie's reach. "C'mon..." she muttered, reaching out one last time to try and catch it.

That was when Janine finally finished her sentence - well, it was more like a word - and then collapsed. Dodie stared in shock as things started to piece together in her head. The fear in her face, the fainting, the word...she had seen her. Jodie's body erupted with all sorts of emotions, joy to fear to a little bit of disappointment that she wouldn't be invisible anymore. Still, it seemed like no one else could see her, by the way that they sprinted through her.

She watched as many students started to gather around Janine.
"Get a teacher!" Someone shouted. As they ran past, they bumped the edge of Dodie's table. She couldn't help but be a little bit angry about that, but she was preoccupied with fazing her way through the crowd to get to Janine's side.
"Bet it's because of Do," someone muttered. 'Do' - a deer, a female deer - was a nickname that some people called Dodie if they didn't like calling her Dodie or Dorothy. Dodie looked around to try and see who it was, but they must have left. Instead, she crouched down next to Janine and bent her head towards her ear.
"It's okay. I don't want to hurt you," she whispered, putting her focus into touching Janine's hand lightly.

Just then, two of the boys from the rugby team approached. "C'mon, lets just get her to the nurse's office," one of them said. Together, the two of the boys hoisted Janine up to her feet and sort of half-dragged her to the nurse's office. Dorothy followed close by, making sure that Janine kept on holding the letter so that she could read it once she was in the office.

The boys let themselves into the nurses rather old looking office, laying Janine down on the bed then leaving to tell a member of staff that they'd put her in there. Dodie stood over the bed, looking down at Janine. "Please don't end up back in the hospital," she whispered. "I'll have to go with you, and I don't want to do that." She reached over to Janine's hand, and went about the task of trying to pry the letter out of Janine's hand. It was difficult - her mind kept on slipping and she lost the touch, which meant she had to try all over again.
 
While it seemed like it was only a few seconds of darkness, in actuality, it was a little over half an hour since she had fainted, but within that moment, she had strange visions that scared her awake. Janine gasped and opened her eyes, her pupils temporarily slits before she blinked them back to normal. Her stomach ached like hell, and she prayed it wasn't her stomach being hungry and trying to force her to hunt, but after a moment she remembered that her stomach always did that when she fainted. It would go away after a while of staying still.

With a pant, Janine sat up with her mind in a haze, and looked around as she tried to figure out where she was. Then, a nurse came in and saw Janine sitting up, and walked over to her with relief and concern. "Are you okay? How do you feel right now?" The nurse asked as she lifted a hand to feel Janine's forehead. Janine would've snapped at the teacher for getting too close to her head, but she was too shaken at the moment to resist. She simply replied that she was okay, which probably was a fib, and asked for water. When the woman left the room, Janine exhaled and growled a little.

'Unbelievable,' Janine thought, 'I can't believe I fainted. For a moment, I thought I saw Dodie in front of me,' the teenager thought with a growl. "I must be going crazy. Do demons do this when they go crazy?" Janine muttered to herself as she rubbed her head and looked to the right.
 
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In the time that Janine was blacked out, Dodie couldn't bring herself to leave the nurse's office - at least, not stray too far. Since the nurse's office was right near the rest of the offices - the headmasters, the principals, the counsellors, and other important staff members - she took the opportunity to drift through walls, while leaving the still unopened letter underneath the bed, since only she could reach it there.

She drifted into the headmasters office for the third time before she went back to the nurse's room. She peered over the widely hated teachers shoulder into the email. In the inbox, she spotted an email listed titled as 'Yearbook is a Waste of Money and Should be Closed!'. Dodie pouted, furrowing her eyebrows. "No it shouldn't," she grumbled. The headmaster - Mr Huuf - stood up to get a glass of water from the water cooler.

Dodie bit her lip in hesitation. There wasn't very much risk for her, was there? Impulsively, she focused on picking up the mouse and moving it to the delete button. As soon as she was sure the email was gone for good, she stepped back and retreated to the nurse's office, hoping that Mr. Huuf hadn't seen anything.

In the nurse's office, she sat down on the ground by Janine's bed, crossing her legs as she waited. A minute or so after she sat down, Janine got up. Dodie lifted her head and opened her mouth to speak before the nurse rushed in. Because of where Dodie was sitting, the lady walked right through her. Dodie huffed. "Rude," she muttered as she pushed herself to her feet. She dusted off her skinny jeans and watched the Nurse leave.

She turned her attention to Janine, smiling a little. She cleared her throat. "Is it really so difficult to believe that I'd bother you even when I died?" She asked, cupping her elbows.
 
When Janine heard a voice somewhere in the room, she flinched and lifted her head up so quick one would've thought she'd get whiplash. She twitched her ears as she scanned the room, then quickly saw a figure ahead of her. And it looked like Dodie. Now that Janine was sitting down, she couldn't get away easily enough, but she steeled herself to stay put, since it looked like her. It was crazy, and damn near impossible, well, at least she thought it was. Was this really Dodie? As a ghost? And she could see her?! Janine felt like fainting again.

"Well.. Uh... I'm not sure... I-" Janine stopped when she heard footsteps coming in her room.

The woman came back in and gave Janine a cup of water for her to sip on, then left the room, telling Janine to rest a while longer while she was here. Janine complied, and then realized that she had lost her letter. With a gasp, Janine frantically searched all over her bed for her letter, praying that she hadn't lost it. As she searched and moved the bed a little, the fan that was blowing cool air in the room moved the letter underneath, and made its way towards Dodie without Janine realizing it. Soon it eventually made its way to the ghost, and revealed its contents.

"Dear Dodie,

When we first met, you were a pain in my ass.... A strange, chatty, positive pain in my ass. You often took a glance at me and smiled, which irritated me to no end. And then you tried to talk to me, which puzzled me to infinity. But then one day, you did something that nobody did: you took a picture of me. I remember how angry at you I was for you doing so without my permission; I confronted you with a threat-laced question, but you weren't phased. 'Why did you take a picture of me?' I asked.

Your answer is still a mystery to me.

'My teacher said to photograph what interested me most. You're very interesting to me,' you had said.
At first I thought you was teasing me and ignored you, but as time went by, I realized how serious you were. When you told me I was your friend, I was truly at a loss for words. I never really had a friend. I didn't know what friends did, and before you I didn't care - but when you came into my life all I wanted was to make myself worthy of being your friend.

I didn't apologize for much when you were around... But I guess since you're not anymore, I'll just say this:
I'm sorry for not being nicer whenever you whined over something. I'm sorry for taking your camera and chipping it a little when I shouldn't have. I'm sorry for scaring away your friends when they got near. I'm sorry for teasing you when you worried over something.

I'm sorry for destroying your life. I never meant to hurt you Dodie, and I wish I could turn back time and push you out the way from danger. I wish you were with me Dodie - I never realized how badly this type of pain could hurt. But I guess there's comfort in knowing you'll be in a happy place. But you taught me that having a friend isn't bad at all. So thank you for giving me the one thing I had asked for my whole life... A friend. You will always be a member of my family.

Love forever,
Janine"​
 
Dodie giggled. She watched as the Nurse walked in and then right back out, waiting to speak so that Janine didn't look like she was insane. "I've been like this-" she began, before she felt something drift through her foot. She turned her head down and looked at the letter. Glancing at Janine for a second, she knelt down to read the letter so that she didn't have to hold it.

By the time she finished, she was in an extreme limbo of melancholy, fighting back laughing-sobs. She touched her index finger and her middle finger to her throat, something she did often when watching sad movies or just in generally emotional moments. She smiled at Janine, a big beaming one with all teeth as she picked up the letter and placed it into Janine's hand. "You never destroyed my life. It's just...changed a little." She said, still smiling. She let go of the letter, letting it sit in her friends palm.

She moved to be standing more beside Janine. "If you're wondering, I've been like this ever since you woke up in the hospital." She said. "You just couldn't see me then." She hesitated, looking down on the bedsheets. "It's...really weird to see your own funeral." She added in a whisper.
 
Janine kept searching for her letter until she heard the sound of paper sliding across the floor. She lifted her body up like a deer in headlights, and saw the paper float over to Dodie. Her first impulse told her to try and grab it away before she read it, but she was already too late; Dodie had already begun reading it. So Janine just sat down on her bed a bit flustered and embarrassed, waiting for Dodie to finish reading it and tease her already.

When she saw Dodie finish, Janine sunk herself within her jacket even more, almost like a shy child, and whimpered a bit, waiting for Dodie to say something. She peeked out from under her hood to see Dodie smiling, making Janine tilt her head in confusion. Not being used to showing too much emotion, Janine was puzzled; surely nothing that she said was funny right? Was she mocking her? Janine absentmindedly stuck out her hand when the letter was handed over to her, slowly and gently grasping it so it wouldn't fly out of her hands while the fan was on. So Dodie wasn't mocking her? Dodie liked her letter? She wasn't teasing her about her emotions? A tightness rose in her throat... Janine could recall feeling this reaction before, but she couldn't remember what it meant. Then when her eyes began to well up, she remembered - it meant she was going to cry. Normally she didn't like showing this emotion, as it struck her as a weakness that others didn't need to exploit.

When Dodie moved closer to her, the tears had already come down her cheeks. "I'm... So happy that you're not mad at me or teasing me. I'm not used to showing my emotions.... If you can recall," Janine said as she put her hands on her lap. When Dodie said that she was in the hospital, Janine grew hot and embarrassed even more. "O-oh..... So you saw the argument?.... And my breakdown...?" Janine asked nervously.
 
Dodie opened her mouth, just about to start the teasing, but then Janine thanked her for doing the direct opposite of that. Her face flushed in shame and she closed her mouth again. She smiled. "You're crying," she pointed out softly. She turned to the small bedside table and reached out to the full box of tissues. She furrowed her eyebrows in concentration, and though she was aiming to pick up the whole box, she could only muster up one tissue. She sighed and handed it over to Janine, dropping it into her lap so that she didn't have to focus on it so much.

She folded her arms at the mention of the argument. "It wasn't an argument." She grumbled. "It was just Sean. Horrible, horrible Sean." She tried to summon up the emotion that she usually put into her voice when she spoke about Sean - usually a sort of bitter, angry tone - but she couldn't do it. Her voice just sounded melancholic. As far as previous encounters went, no one could see her but Janine. She was tempted to ask Janine to tell Sean that Dodie wasn't properly dead, but that'd just get her sent to a mental asylum, or something.

She sighed. "You know that the stuff Sean said wasn't right, right?" She whispered, looking down at the ground. "He was just...angry. Y'know, like you get the five stages of grief. You get denial, then anger, then bargaining, then depression, then acceptance. He's at depression now." She breathed in slowly and then breathed out. "So I've been following him about a lot. I want to make sure he doesn't hurt himself."
 
Janine sniffed and wiped her cheek with her jacket sleeve when Dodie noted her tears. It was hard to recall the last time she had cried this much. Perhaps it was because she had never cried this much before. "Yeah, I guess I am crying aren't I? Huh.... Pathetic aren't I?" Janine asked as she turned to her friend. She watched as Dodie tried to grab the box of tissues on the table, and tilted her head curiously as she struggled to grasp the tangible item. At first, Janine didn't think that she'd be able to be able to touch it, already forgetting that she had been able to touch the letter that she wrote, so it was surprising all over again when Dodie managed to touch a tissue - but only one tissue. She sniffed appreciatively and grabbed the cloth when it was placed on her lap, wiping her eyes and setting it down on her lap.

Janine looked over to Dodie when she mentioned her brother. She nodded at Dodie's words, but they didn't make her feel any better. He still hurt her a bit with his assumptions and statements. Even so, she couldn't blame Sean for how he felt... She didn't like him when she normally saw him, but seeing him go through his emotions made her pity him. The fact that she was able to see Dodie was still a shock to her. Now that she thought about it, the fact that she isn't scared or wary of Dodie's ghost talking to her at this point in time is strange to her.... Very strange indeed.

"Depression huh? I understand..." Janine mumbled softly. Then, Janine had a thought. "Perhaps.... If you wouldn't mind me... To help watch out for him? I may not like him, but he's your brother. I won't let him hurt himself either... I'll be very distant," Janine said with a small voice.
 
Dodie shook her head. "Dude, ghost." As if to demonstrate, she walked right through the bed, standing with Janine's leg passing through her lower torso. "I sit around and no one notices. It's only been one week and I've still seen enough tears to last me a lifetime." She was obviously trying to sound optimistic, but it still wasn't working for her.

She lifted her head and gave one of those huge, genuine smiles that she used to wear all of the time. "Really?" She asked quietly, stepping out of the bed and standing by the bedside table. "I mean, you don't have to. I know you really don't like him." She smiled. Dodie, while knowing that Sean probably did love her somewhere deep down, still struggled to sympathise with her twin brother sometimes. The funny thing was that when they were young, from when they were born until they started middle school, they were best friends. Then Sean started football and was done with her.

"He won't let you get anywhere near close to him, you know that, right?" She said, avoiding Janine's eyes. As far as Dodie could tell, Sean had been neutral to Janine before, but due to the change in circumstances, he really, really hated her now.
 
Janine sniffed when Dodie passed through her bed and lower half of her body. She blinked in surprise, unable to take in the new abilities that Dodie possesses. How can Janine get used to her best friend being a ghost? Is she going to be able to? Janine didn't know what to think in honesty. She'd have to think about it a bit longer.
Either way, she'd offered her services to Dodie in terms of watching over Sean - from a distance of course. She can understand his emotions, but only at a general standpoint; with these things, every emotion runs way deep, and Sean was just filled with intense anger and sadness, which was perfectly normal. Janine also knew that the target of his emotions are aimed at her, and Janine understood why he thought that way. She couldn't blame him..... She blames herself after all.

"No.... I want to. I may not like him, but I will do it since he's your brother.... And yes, I will keep my distance from him. That's a given," Janine said with a small huff. She adopted back further to touch her back on the wall, sighing as she twirled her fingers around. Suddenly, a voice startled Janine into yelping in her hands, jolting the bed a little.

"Are you okay in there? Do you need anything?" the voice of the female offered as she walked into the room. Janine jumped and shuffled her body in order to try and hide Dodie, but she then remembered that she was invisible, and didn't need to be hidden. Janine felt her face grow hot with embarrassment, and she stuttered as she spoke. "U-Ummmm... N-no... No thank you," Janine responded. The nurse nodded and went back to her office, telling Janine to rest as she retreated to her chair.

Janine sighed and put a hand to her chest. Her heart was beating much more faster than it should. "Not cool," Janine growled as she settled back down.
 
Dodie watched Janine and the nurse's brief interaction, a bemused look on her face. She snickered and smirked. "Were you trying to hide me there?" She asked, still snickering a little. "It's only you that can see me." She leaned in closer to Janine's face, still smirking. "So you better watch you're not wheeled off to the looney bin for talking to thin air." She whispered. She laughed out loud, shuffling out of the bed and standing in front of the window.

From the nurse's room, you could see a path, not too far away. The path was pretty much entirely framed by trees, most of them really tall, and it started around the back of the sports equipment cupboard. While all the other exits and entrances to the school had security cameras on them, there wasn't any surveillance on this path, or in front of the door. Because of that, it was a popular path for people skipping school, or smoking during break times.

Dodie wasn't expecting to see anything on the path. Instead, she watched a blue and black blob travel down the path, puffs of smoke surrounding them. Squinting, Dodie leant further into the window. She smacked her lips together as she tried to figure out who it was. It all clicked together at once in her head and her face formed into a scowl. "He's skipping school!" She shrieked, smacking her hands against the window that she couldn't pass through, since it was an outer wall. She would recognise her brothers bright ginger hair and football jersey from a mile off.

She pouted, and turned to the locks on the window, leaning close to try and slip them open. Her hands kept fazing right through, and she lifted her head to look at Janine. "Sean's out on the smokers path," she said, pointing out of the window.
 
Janine sighed when the nurse left, only to tense up when Dodie leaned in close to her face and teased her about trying to cover her presence. She gave a few nervous murmurs and rubbed her hood. "S-sorry....? Just a reflex I guess..." Janine said with a sheepish chuckle. She froze when Dodie mentioned being sent to the crazy people's home, her eyes narrowing with half irritation and half mockery. "Huh. Whatever. You can't expect me to ignore from talking to you so easily... I wish I could pinch your little soft head of yours," Janine said with a laughing huff.

She threw away her tissue when Dodie moved to the window, not expecting for her to see anything as she sat down. Once Dodie said that she saw someone, Janine's ears perked up as she looked to the bright window. "Who? Who's this 'he' you're talking about?" Janine asked as she watched Dodie flip out a bit. She walked over to the window and looked around, suddenly seeing a boy walking out of the school grounds and I to public streets. It was in fact Sean from what Dodie pointed out, and from seeing the back of the jersey that he was wearing.

Who else would've been wearing a 'Thompson' branded shirt?

"Great.... Where is he going?"

Janine asked as she nodded her head; she knew what she had to do now: sneak out of the room and follow the teenager. But how was she going to do that? At least, as far as getting out of the room was concerned... The whole process of escaping was actually quite simple: grab her stuff, sneak out of the room via the door, and leave. However, the damn door was heavyset, and it was creaky -- more creaky than wood from an abandoned cottage in the forest.

"Dammnit.... The door. It will give me away," Janine whispered as she turned her head halfway to the nurse's office.

Janine knew the door would surely burn away any hope of stealth that she would wish to keep, making leaving the room impossible. She needed to find out how to distract the woman long enough to grab her bag and go. "Any suggestions?"
 
Dodie hit her fists against the window to no avail. She puffed out her cheeks and folded her arms. "I cannot believe him!" She exclaimed, the shock and horror clear in her voice. She looked over to the door and she laughed a little. "I'll do something!" She squealed, always excitable, and in a second she had sprinted right through the door.

A second later, she zipped into the nurses' office, which was to the left of the infirmary room. The room was relatively bare, with three metal desks with uncomfortable looking seats, one extra bed in the case of emergencies, multiple metal bookshelves and dozens of metal cupboards with glass doors and labels. The desks were facing away from the door.

All three of the school nurses were at their desks, all typing away at their noisy keyboards. Dodie looked around the room, her eyes falling on the medical cupboards. She walked over and placed her hand onto the glass cover. It felt thin enough to break, but not with your bare hands. She looked ever so slightly to the right, and her eyes fell on a small fire extinguisher. She smirked as she walked the two footsteps and fixed her ghostly hands on the surface. She bunched up her shoulders as she lifted it, and lugged it over to the medicine cabinet.

Dodie lifted the fire extinguisher and crashes it through the thin glass. It shatters every which way, with medicine bottles smashing onto the floor and spreading brightly coloured liquids everywhere. The nurses all jump out of their skin and look over at the mess to see a floating fire extinguisher. Seeing that they saw her, Dodie continues to smash in all of the glass windows, which combined with the nurses' screaming provided enough noise cover for Janine to escape easily.
 
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