Afterlife Academy by Jaimie Admans Page B

there a minute ago.
    Ugh, this place is so weird.
    “Don’t look so shocked,” Caydi
whispers. “This lesson sucks anyway.”
    “Yeah, all he does is tell us
all the things we can’t do,” Clare adds. She’s still frowning at me, but that
remark wasn’t completely unfriendly.
    They’re right, of course.
    Mr Bosenak drones on at the
front of the room. Caydi doodles something in her book while Clare stares out
the window.
    I open the first page of my
textbook and read it.
     
    Being a ghost might sound like fun at first, but like
everything else in this world, there are rules. Nothing can exist without law.
Without law, there would be anarchy. Rules must be followed.
     
    You must NOT:
    - Interact with the living.
     
    This includes:
    - Attempting to talk to them via a medium.
    - Attempting to talk to them via some other method.
    - Attempting to talk to them via Visualisation.
    - Attempting to send messages to them via technological means.
    - Attempting to send messages to them via physical means.
     
    When you return to Earth, you must NOT:
    - Attempt to contact the living. This includes but is not
limited to contact via letter, email, text message, the Internet, medium, or otherwise.
    - Attempt to visit your loved ones.
    - Attempt to touch them.
    - Attempt to alert anyone of your presence.
     
    “Wait a minute,” I say suddenly.
    “Yes, Miss Richardson?”
    Oops, I didn’t mean to say that
aloud.
    “Um…” I stutter. “It says here
that we go back to Earth. Is that true?”
    “I’m afraid that’s not my area
of teaching. If you would kindly keep your mind in this class, Miss Richardson.”
    “Is that true?” I whisper to
Caydi when Mr Bosenak has gone back to droning on.
    She shrugs. “I don’t know.”
    I think about that for a moment.
So maybe we get to return to Earth? That would be brilliant. I could go and see
Wade. He would be so shocked. But thrilled, obviously. And Sophie. Sophie would
just die to see me again, I know she would. And
my parents. Mum and Dad. Poor things, they must be devastated. I have to find
out about this. I have to know if it is possible to go home. I have to go home. I’m sure this has all been some kind
of huge mistake. Girls like me don’t die. And I don’t fit in here, so obviously
I don’t belong.
    Who cares about some stupid
Ghost Law textbook? I have to get back to Earth, and when I do, there is
nothing that will stop me communicating with Wade. Certainly not some stupid
ghost law.
    Eventually the class ends and Mr
Bosenak tells us to go for lunch. I hope all the classes here aren’t this
boring. No wonder everyone is dead. If they weren’t, they’d probably all die of
boredom anyway.
    Caydi and Clare go off together.
I thought they might ask me to eat lunch with them but they don’t.
    I’m just about to go and sulk in
a quiet corner of the canteen when Anthony grabs my arm.
    “Want to get lunch?” he asks.
    “Oh,” I say, surprised. I
thought that he might want to avoid me at all costs. “Yeah, sure.” Because
sitting with the school loser is better than sitting on my own and being the school loser. It’s not like Sophie or any of
the crowd back home are going to see me here.
    “That was boring,” Anthony says
as we walk over to the canteen. It’s strange how the walk is one we know so
well and yet it’s so different.
    “I thought you liked all that
boring junk. You know, chemistry, maths, physics, laws of the universe, etc.”
    “I like stuff that’s useful,” he
says. “Not stuff that’s just a teacher standing there telling you all the
things you’re not allowed to do.”
    “Hopefully there’s a different
class that tells you all the stuff you are allowed to do. There are certainly some weird things on the curriculum here.”
    “No kidding.”
    “I want to know what the point
of Ghost Laws is,” I say. “I mean, if there is a chance we get to go back home,
which I assume there is because that guy just spent two hours telling us