Out of Trouble... Sort of.

I finally got my laptop back! I was in trouble for about a week, and Mom is still pretty angry with me.
So far, I haven't really 'seen' Maude again. I know she is there, and sometimes I catch a glimpse of her out of the corner of my eye, but she hasn't come back as solid as she was the first night Avalanche and I saw her, and she hasn't been able to talk to me.

The other thing is something else. I've caught glimpses of him too (I don't know what it is, but calling it 'him' makes it seem a little less scary, although not much); but he's always dark shadows though. There hasn't been anything major happen since the first night, but lots of little things keep happening to make me jump, like things moving around or my alarm going off at random times during the night, even though it isn't supposed to. I haven't been able to sleep at all, and I'm always tired. It's also almost always freezing in my room now.
Maude seems like she's getting weaker, and this other thing is getting stronger. Since she was so strong to begin with, I sometimes wonder if he isn't feeding off of her strength and making her go away. I hope she doesn't go away completely, forever.

Mom still won't believe me about the ghosts, not even when I told her about Avalanche's Ouija board. I just got into even more trouble for messing around with one.
She also says Avalanche isn't allowed over any more... I don't know what to do! Avalanche is the only one who can help me, I'm really scared of the one ghost, but I don't want to get into any more trouble by sneaking her over.

Avalanche's e-mail

From: Avalanche Vitruvian = avalanchedownthemountain@gm.com
To: Edie Hastings = takemetoyourbeach@y.com
Sent: Friday, March 9, 2012 3:30 PM
Subject: You ok?

Hey Edie!

Guess what!? It turns out bringing spooky things through a Ouija board and destroying your room is the one thing my parents feel pretty strongly about, and they finally got mad at me about something! I can't believe it, I'm so excited! Of course, since it's my parents we're talking about, all that really happened was mom shook her head and said she was disappointed in my lack of respect and I got a strongly worded e-mail from my dad in Africa, but get this: Some of it was even in caps!

Anyway, back to business... How've things been going on your end? Is Maude still there, and have you been able to talk to her? What about the other thing that was causing all that damage? I'm pretty sure Maude didn't do all that. That thing really freaks me out, I hope you're ok!
I've been doing lots of research on our problem... I watched a whole marathon of Ghost Hunters yesterday, plus I flipped through a couple of my mom's books. I have some ideas we can try, but I have to be over there to try them.
Is there any way you can convince your mom to let me come over soon?

I honestly can't wait for spring break to be over, which is weird for me, but school is the only place I can see you!

TTYL!
Avalanche

Busted!

Maude

For the next few minutes, it seemed like a tornado had hit my bedroom! The curtains flapped against the walls and blew around wildly. They finally ripped in half from all the abuse. My posters tore off the walls and turned to tiny shreds of paper, dolls flew around, bouncing off the walls with their skirts blowing up over their heads, and the whole room was filled with flying books.

I snatched my special, autographed copy of Meet Marie Grace out of the air as it whizzed by my head, and Avalanche managed to snag the autographed Meet Cecile for me. The other books could be replaced, but I didn't know when I would have the chance to meet the authors again!

So, we each had a book in our hand when my bedroom door suddenly flew open and my mom stomped in in her PJs.

The paranormal stuff in the room suddenly stopped, and Maude faded away. I could just barely see her against the wall.

"What is going on in here?" Mom demanded, standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips. She looked around at the damage in the room furiously, then gasped when she saw the books on the floor and the two books in our hands.

"Are you two actually in here throwing books and destroying your room?!" she asked us in shock.

I shook my head and Avalanche and I both tried to explain what had happened with the Ouija board, but she wouldn't listen.

"Do NOT try and blame this on ghosts, Edith. I am furious at both of you! You're both far too old to be doing things like this, especially in the middle of the night! Avalanche, get your things together, I'm taking you home as soon as I get dressed."

She started to stomp out the door, but stopped and turned and looked at me. "Since you're apparently still wide awake, you'd better start getting this mess picked up while I'm gone.We'll be having a talk about this when I get back from dropping Avalanche off."

As soon as the door was shut behind her, I half expected the violence and winds to pick back up, but they didn't. Avalanche found her backpack under a heap of clothes and one of the curtains, and packed the Ouija board up.

"I'm really sorry about all this, Edie," she started, but my mom came back just then, and ordered her out to the car. "I'll do some research and figure out how to fix it," she yelled at me as she headed for the door.
My mom glared at her and she didn't try to say anything after that. No matter what she said, I had a feeling the only place I'd be seeing her was at school from now on.

I heard the front door close behind them, and had a sinking feeling that I was all alone, at night, in a haunted apartment.

The lights in my bedroom flickered as if I might need reminded of this fact, but I really didn't.

I was terrified.

Maude

Both Avalanche and I nearly jumped out of our skin when we heard the soft voice in the darkness, even though it didn't sound particularly threatening.

We knocked over our chairs as we jumped up and rushed to find the light switch. Unfortunatly, my bedroom isn't as tidy as it could be, and Avalanche tripped over some shoes and fell into my bookshelf. I don't think there was a book left on the shelf after that. With all the noise we were making, I was sure my mom would be in to investigate, but miraculously she never woke up.

I finally got the lights on and looked around the room, squinting in the sudden bright light. Avalanche was struggling to climb out of the bookcase with the shoulder of her shirt torn and her curls looking a little less bouncy than they had an hour ago.

"What was that?" I half-shrieked at her. "Please tell me that was you making funny voices!"

"No," said the soft voice from earlier, now coming from the opposite corner of the room. "It was me." Avalanche's mouth dropped open, and I whirled around to see a girl about my age standing there.

A transparent girl.

A ghost.

After my initial shock to have a freaking ghost girl in my bedroom, I noticed that she did indeed look like the girl in the photograph Avalanche had picked up earlier, and that she wasn't anything like what I expected a ghost to be like. She wasn't a hazy cloud that drifted around and she wasn't covered in a sheet with clanking chains. She was about my height with glossy, red hair that was tied back with a black ribbon. She was wearing what appeared to be a gray flannel dress, black tights and these weird, black boots with buttons up the sides, and her nose was covered with freckles. She looked a lot like me, actually. Only... did I mention she was totally see-through?

As weird as it sounded, she didn't seem threatening at all, and I sort of calmed down. Avalanche, on the other hand, did not.

"Wha-wha-wha!!!" was the only sound she seemed capable of making at the moment. Her mouth gaped open, and she kept pointing at the ghost girl.

"Who are you??" She finally forced out.

"I aready told you," the girl said impatiently. "My name is Maude. I heard your summon with the witchboard and drifted over to see what the ruckus was about, and when you broke the circle, you brought me in."

She appeared to think for a moment, then looked at me.

"You really should not have broken that circle, you know. You can let in all sorts of nasties that way."

I shivered and looked over at Avalanche.
'What does she mean when she said we broke the circle?" I asked. "What circle?"

I noticed Avalanche looked really pale, and she cringed. "You took your hands off the planchette as the lights went off. That's what opens the doors your mom talked about. I guess I forgot to tell you not to do that."

Maude nodded. "I do not wish you any harm, but I must warn you, I am not the only thing that got through."

Avalanche and I looked at each other in panic. "What else came through?" I asked. I was really regretting not listening to my mom at this point.

Just then, the lights in my bedroom flickered and two toy horses flew off of the shelf over my bed and hit the wall so hard, one of the legs of my favorite stallion shattered.

"That can't be a good sign," Avalanche said blankly.

It was a Dark and Stormy Night

I'm not allowed to play with Ouija boards.

Ivy says they're just a goofy board game and I tend to agree with her, but my mom says they can be used as doors, and it's best to leave those kinds of doors tightly shut.
Avalanche says my mom is right... Except for the tightly shut part. She's been bugging me to play with one with her for a while now, but since my mom hates them, I've always said no.

Late yesterday afternoon, just as it was starting to rain, Avalanche popped up unexpectedly and asked if she could spend the night since we didn't have school today (some kind of all day teacher's meeting... I love those!). As she was politely talking to my mom and asking for permission for an unexpected sleepover, I noticed her green eyes were practically glittering with mischief, but Mom didn't seem to notice. She just said it was ok if Avalanche stayed over, and then she went to bed early.
As soon as her door closed behind her, Avalanche unzipped her backpack and hauled out her prized, battered Ouija board, a pack of pink birthday candles, incense, and a cheap Bic lighter.

"Look what I brought!" she exclaimed happily, holding it out to me. "Now we can really have some fun!"

I looked uneasily at my mom's door... the light was off, and she'd had a bad headache. I knew she wouldn't be coming out to catch us in the act, but it seemed wrong to disobey her. I just didn't see what all the fuss was about; it was just a goofy game! She'd never know...

Finally, I shrugged and took the game. Curiosity over what the big deal was had won.
"We can set it up on my desk," I suggested. "But Mom will smell the incense, so we shouldn't use that, or the candles. We'll be in huge trouble if she finds out we lit things on fire." I dug around in the hall closet and found an old camp lantern with dying batteries to use instead.
"Who are you trying to contact?"

Avalanche shook her head, making her glossy black curls bounce on her shoulders. "I don't care. Anyone, really. You don't really get to choose, you just ask the board if you have a spirit present and then you ask it stuff you want to know. The spirit you get could be anyone. I talked to a guy who said he was Grover Cleveland last week.
"Hey, who is she?" Avalanche suddenly pointed to the top of the stack of papers and old photographs I was busy clearing off my desk to make room for the game board; I had spend the weekend working on a family genealogy project for my history class and had all kinds of old family photos scattered around.

I looked at the photo Avalanche had picked out. It was an old cabinet card of a girl about our age. She was wearing clothes that must have been stylish for the time, but were horrbily old fashioned to me. The name 'Maude' had been scribbled on the back in pencil, but there was no date or anything else to identify her.
"She'd be a good person to ask the board about, I guess. I don't know anything about her. My family thought she was my great-great grandmother's sister, but her name wasn't Maude, so we have no idea who she is. I guess we could ask about her family."
I switched on the camp lantern, and we turned off the lights in my bedroom. Immediatly, I felt a little creeped out.

Avalanche placed the planchette on the board, and with my fingers trembling a little, I put my fingers on it next to hers.
Since she had done this before, she was the one who asked the questions. She asked if there was a spirit present, and the board immediately told us there was. I was ready to stop right then, but Avalanche kept asking stuff. Next, she wanted to know if there was more than one, and when the board said there was, she asked "how many are there?"
I knew it was just Avalanche moving the little pointer, but I nearly jumped out of my skin when the planchette pointed at the number 7.
Avalanche didn't say anything, but the pointer began to move again.
This time, it spelled out B-E-H-I-N-D Y-O-U

I jerked around, but didn't see anyone there.

"Avalanche, come on... this is getting crazy! Let's put it up and watch a movie or something," I said nervously, but Avalanche just shook her head.
"Who is Maude?" She asked the board, but to my relief the planchette responded by moving to the ''Good-Bye' space on the board.

But my relief was short lived as the batteries in the latern gave out and the room was pitched into complete darkness.

Hello," came a quiet voice from the darkness behind us.

"I'm Maude."

How I celebrated my birthday!

I'm twelve now! Or... three. However you want to look at it.
Even though money is pretty tight still, Mom got me some really nice gifts. She got me a Lego Friends set, two hand-knitted hats that are gorgeous, and a my little pony.
My party has been postponed thanks to a water leak in our apartment. Mom said I could invite one friend over, but a bunch of kids was too much. She got me a Tinkerbell cake, and I invited my new friend, Bernadette, over since Ivy had too much homework.

I missed seeing Ivy, but Bernadette is really cool. She likes Tangled just like me, and has an American Girl doll. I forgot to ask which one, though. She just moved into the apartment next to ours, and she's my age! I met her a few days ago as she and her mom were bringing over some boxes from their old house, and she told me she'll be enrolling into my grade at school. It'd be awesome to have a friend I can hang out with more often. Ivy is my BFF, but she's so busy with school and now skunk training, I don't get to see her too much.

Anyway, Bernadette got permission to stay overnight and Mom popped us some popcorn and said I could watch my first PG-13 movie a whole year early! I was excited, and Bernadette and I picked out an older movie neither of us had ever seen called Overboard.
We loved it, but we didn't look at the rating until after we watched it and we were a little disappointed to find out that it was only PG. Boo, hiss, but we had fun anyway!

After it was over, Mom said it was time for bed, so we made a tent out of some chairs and an old blanket and pretended that we were camping out. I love an excuse to use Mom's old sleeping bags!

Overall, I think it was a great birthday!

Skunks and Birthdays

I'm pretty sure that by now, everyone is wondering what happened with Ivy and the skunk. Shockingly, Ivy didn't really get in trouble at all... All her moms did was take it to a vet to have it de-scented and sent Ivy to her therapist a few extra times to make sure it wasn't a 'cry for attention.'

It wasn't, Ivy just really wanted a pet. I still don't know why she chose that one, but from what she's said, her moms were dragging their feet on getting her a kitten, and the skunk seemed friendly enough. He is really friendly, to tell you the truth. It's easy to forget that Ivy actually dragged home a wild animal, he's super tame. We got him home to my house before my mom even noticed, and we figure that was pretty impressive.
Speaking of my mom, she threw a fit when she discovered the stowaway. I don't blame her, but even though the whole thing was Ivy's idea, I got in trouble. Mom took my laptop away and I only just got it back. She said I knew better, and that I shouldn't have let Ivy bring him along.
Which is true, but it still isn't fair. Everything always seems to work out perfect for Ivy.

Oh! I almost forgot! My birthday is coming up! I was born in a leap year, on February 29th, so basically I'm going to turn 3 this year since leap years only happen every couple of years.
Ok, I'm joking... Usually we celebrate on March 1st, so I'm really going to turn 12. Mom says I can invite some friends over and have a little party if I want to, and I was pretty excited. Only... once again, there isn't much money and rent is due, so I'm going to have to get creative with my party and do everything myself, including make the decorations. All of my friends come from families who are a bit more well off than we are, and everyone else always gets elaborate store bought stuff.
I'm a little nervous now... I think it could be fun, and I have a lot of cool ideas, but I'm afraid my friends will think my party is cheap and stupid.
Anyone have any advice?