I held up my hand. ‘Wait. What was the cousin’s name?’

David consulted the book. ‘Hector.’

‘Hector?’

‘Yes.’ David looked back down at the book. ‘Hector de Silva. His mom called him Jesse, though.’

When he looked back up, he must have seen something in my face since he went, in a small voice, ‘Is that our ghost?’

‘That,’ I said, softly, ‘is our ghost.’

Nineteen

The phone rang a little while later. Dopey yelled down the hall that it was for me. I picked up, and heard Cee Cee squealing on the other end of the line.

‘Ms Vice President,’ she said. ‘Ms Vice President, do you have any comment?’

I said, ‘No, and why are you calling me Ms Vice President?’

‘Because you won the election.’ In the background, I heard Adam shout, ‘Congratulations!’

‘What election?’ I asked, baffled.

‘For vice president!’ Cee Cee sounded annoyed. ‘Duh!’

‘How could I have won it?’ I said. ‘I wasn’t even there.’

‘That’s OK. You still won two-thirds of the sophomore class’s vote.’

‘Two-thirds?’ I’ll admit it. That shocked me. ‘But, Cee Cee – I mean, why did people vote for me? They don’t even know me. I’m the new kid.’

Cee Cee said, ‘What can I say? You exude the confidence of a born leader.’

‘But –’

‘And it probably doesn’t hurt that you’re from New York, and around here, people are fascinated by anything to do with New York.’

‘But –’

‘And of course, you talk really fast.’

‘I do?’

‘Sure you do. And that makes you seem smart. I mean, I think you are smart, but you also seem smart because you talk really fast. And you wear a lot of black, and black is, you know, cool.’

‘But –’

‘Oh, and the fact that you saved Bryce from that falling chunk of wood. People like that kind of thing.’

Two-thirds of the sophomore class at Mission High School, I thought, would probably have voted for the Easter Bunny if someone could have gotten him to run for office. But I didn’t say so. Instead, I said, ‘Well. Neat. I guess.’

‘Neat?’ Cee Cee sounded stunned. ‘Neat? That’s all you have to say, neat? Do you have any idea how much fun we’re going to have now that we’ve managed to get our hands on all that money? The cool things we’ll be able to do?’

I said, ‘I guess that’s really . . . great.’

‘Great? Suze, it’s awesome! We are going to have an awesome, awesome semester! I’m so proud of you! And to think, I knew you when!’

I hung up the phone feeling a little overwhelmed. It isn’t every day a girl gets elected vice president of a class she’s been in for less than a week.

I hadn’t even put the phone back into its cradle before it rang again. This time it was a girl’s voice I didn’t recognize, asking to speak to Suze Simon.

‘This is she,’ I said, and Kelly Prescott shrieked in my ear.