“I don’t actually—”

“Sweet Pea is, like, the only person Miss Flora Mae even talks to,” says Oscar, like that’s suddenly something worth bragging about.

Way to put me on the spot. “Not true. She talks to other people.”

“Well, you live next to her, don’t you?” asks Greg.

“More like she lives on either side of her,” says Oscar. Immediately, he realizes he’s said too much and looks at me in a panic. Mom and Dad getting a divorce was sort of big news here in town. No one really knows why they got a divorce, but it’s not every day that the town therapist, who is known for her marital counseling, gets a divorce herself. That’s scandal enough without people knowing they’re basically neighbors now.

“Huh?” grunts Cooper. “What does that even mean?”

I let out a puff of air. “My mom lives on one side of her house and my dad lives on the other.”

“Whoa,” says Greg. “That’s so weird.” But he doesn’t say it in a mean way. More like when you find out that narwhals are real or that the heart of the shrimp is located in its head. “Are you excited about double Christmases and double birthdays?” he asks.

“Yeah,” says Cooper. “I’ve always been kind of jealous of kids with divorced parents. Double gifts. Double allowance. Double vacation.”

I stare down at my half sandwich and tamale, considering where to start. “It’s really not that great,” I mumble.

“Sweet Pea,” says Greg, “I meant to tell you, I found this YouTube channel that’s nothing but America’s Most Haunted Easter eggs and conspiracy theories.”

“Oh, cool,” I say. And then trying to sound very casual, “Maybe you can show us during our library hour?”

I thought maybe once I got to know Greg, the anxious feelings would go away, but it only made it worse. He loves my and Oscar’s favorite TV show, and every time he and his family go on vacation, they do whatever ghost tour is local to that city, so he’s, like, very cultured. He’s even gone on a cemetery tour in New Orleans. And on top of all that, he has two cats. A boy cat person! They’re both fat tabbies (one with a stubby tail) who lived in the dumpster behind his uncle’s Cajun restaurant in Houston. Their names are Gumbo and Beignet—how cute is that?

Greg’s eyes shine as he continues. “One guy thinks Cliff VanWarren isn’t even alive and that he’s actually a ghost. Like, that he died during filming in an early season and his spirit still hosted the show until it was canceled.”

Did I mention that he’s not even a little bit ashamed of looking like a big nerd? I like people who like the things they like, even when others don’t get it.

Oscar gasps. “You don’t think it was the episode on Mackinac Island, do you? When he fell down that rocky hill?”

Greg thinks about that for a minute and then nods. “Totally possible! I mean, it sounds unbelievable, but if you look at the evidence—”