13. SEEING THINGS
NEAR MIDNIGHT ON FRIDAY NIGHT, Leesa sat at her desk, pouring over her biology book. Avril Lavigne’s “Goodbye Lullaby” CD was playing softly in the background for the third or fourth time. Leesa had been too consumed with her studying to bother changing it, but this time the raucous sounds of “What the Hell” pulled her attention away from the book. The parts about needing time to play and needing to be a bit crazy sure sounded like a good idea to her right now.
There were a million things she would rather be doing than studying tonight, but finals started on Monday, so it was time to buckle down. She would rather be doing something with Rave, of course, or hanging out with Cali, Stacie and Caitlin playing Guitar Hero, or even bowling on Caitlin’s Wii. Or watching a movie, or reading a good book, or…. Her mouth stretched open into a big yawn. Sleeping wouldn’t be a bad choice, either.
A week had passed since her graveyard dream, and she was still having trouble getting a full night’s sleep. She had not experienced any other weird dreams that she could remember, but she woke up a couple of times almost every night and wasn’t always able to fall right back to sleep. She had hoped her talk with Rave yesterday might help, but last night had been as restless as the others. Oh, well, she thought, sleep wasn’t going to be much of a priority for the next week anyhow.
At least she had drawn a pretty good exam schedule. Biology would be her second toughest test, and she’d be getting it out of the way first thing Monday morning. The rest of her exams were spread out one per day, which was nice. Cali had two finals on Tuesday and Caitlin had two on Wednesday, but Leesa had gotten lucky and avoided any doubles. The other nice thing about her schedule was physics would be her final final, on Thursday. She giggled at the phrase, “final final.” It wasn’t really all that funny—she was definitely getting punch drunk. But it was great to have her toughest test last. She could pull an all-nighter for it if need be and then crash after the exam, knowing her studying was over.
That was a week away, though, so she turned her attention back to biology. She planned on doing another hour or so of work tonight, then to spend most of Saturday on physics, with some reviewing of English and psychology, and then return to biology on Sunday.
She yawned again. If she was this tired already, she thought, when her studying had barely begun, what was she going to be like next week? She would be a basket case for sure. She reached for the open can of Red Bull—a college kid’s best friend during exams—that sat on the corner of her desk. Another boost of energy was definitely in order. Her hand was a couple of inches from the can when her tired eyes popped open and a gasp escaped her throat. Had she just seen what she thought she had seen? She couldn’t have.
She stared at the Red Bull, now grasped firmly in her right hand. She could swear the can had just slid the final few inches across the desk into her hand. But that was impossible, right? She must be even more tired than she thought. Her mind was playing tricks on her. It had to be. She had probably just zoned out for an instant, and didn’t see her hand cover those last couple inches. Yeah, that was the ticket. She had just zoned out.
What other explanation could there be? Even Rave couldn’t move quickly enough to be invisible, and he wouldn’t play that kind of trick on her even if he could. Maybe it was the work of a ghost, she thought, though she didn’t really believe in ghosts. Of course, she hadn’t believed in vampires either, until a few months ago. And now she was entertaining the idea that the dead could climb out of their graves, so why not ghosts, too? What the heck—the more the merrier. Ghosts, goblins, witches…lions and tigers and bears, oh my! She shook her head at her silliness as the famous refrain from the “Wizard of Oz” echoed in her head. Even if ghosts did exist, why would one push a can of Red Bull into her hand? She doubted any ghost would be interested enough in her studying to help her out by moving the energy drink for her.
Maybe it had been an earthquake that moved it, or a sudden shift of the earth’s axis or magnetic field. She found herself looking around the room to see if anything else had moved, and then chastised herself for her foolishness. No, her mind was simply playing tricks on her. She was overly tired, and that was it.
She gulped down an extra couple swallows of Red Bull and got back to work.