The Locker by Richie Tankersley Cusick

killed yourself … had a tragic accident … or were —
    â€œMarlee, are you okay?”
    The voice was so close to me that I jumped and gave a little scream. Noreen stepped quickly away, then dropped to her knees beside me.
    â€œI didn’t mean to scare you! Oh, gosh, are you all right?”
    â€œSorry,” I breathed. “I didn’t even hear you.”
    â€œWould you rather be by yourself?” Her face wrinkled up in concern. “You know … I’m here if you want to talk.”
    Of course I wanted to talk. But what could I possibly say that wouldn’t sound absolutely insane? I had to go to school here … I had to see these kids every day as long as we stayed in Edison.…
    â€œNo,” I said finally and sighed. “But thanks for offering. That means a lot.”
    â€œI was talking to Tyler, and he told me what happened,” she went on, dropping her eyes like she didn’t want to embarrass me.
    â€œI’m sure everyone knows about it,” I said glumly, feeling even worse when she gave a hesitant nod. “I’ll be avoided like the plague.”
    â€œNo, you won’t.” She moved over and put her arm around my shoulder, giving me a reassuring squeeze. “Of course that won’t happen. Once people get to know you, they won’t even remember this locker stuff. And anyway, you have me. And Tyler,” she added, grinning. “Speaking of plagues.”
    I smiled a little, but it didn’t last long.
    â€œWhat are people saying?” I confronted her, noticing how she drew back a little at my question.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œYou know. About my locker. The things going on. What are people saying about it? I know you’ve heard something.”
    She looked like she really didn’t want to get into it, and she tried to laugh it off.
    â€œ You know what they’re saying.” She rolled her eyes and gave a high-pitched laugh. “Just what you’d expect them to say. That the locker’s haunted. You know. Stupid things like that.”
    I stared at her. “Did they say that before I got here? Or just since I’ve been here?”
    Now she looked really uncomfortable.
    â€œWell … you know how kids are … how stuff like that gets started when there’s some kind of unexplained tragedy.”
    â€œSo you knew I was getting a haunted locker, and you didn’t tell me.”
    â€œWell, what was I supposed to say?” Noreen defended herself. “It’s just stupid stuff kids make up! Nobody really believes it! And how would you have taken it if I had told you? You’d have laughed yourself silly and thought I was crazy!”
    I stared at her a minute. She bit her lip and looked away, and then she looked straight back at me.
    â€œWell, you would have! You know you would have!”
    I didn’t know how to respond to that. So instead I burst out laughing, and after a few seconds Noreen laughed, too. In fact we laughed and laughed so hard that my sides hurt by the time we finally stopped.
    â€œWelcome to Edison High.” Noreen sighed, wiping her eyes. “Oh, and by the way, here’s your locker, and I hope you don’t mind if it’s haunted. Geez …”
    â€œWhy do kids say it’s haunted?” I wanted to know.
    â€œWell, maybe haunted isn’t the right word,” she tried to explain to me. “Maybe it’s just more—you know—superstition. I mean, the girl who had it disappeared. So of course nobody wants to use her locker. Like you could catch bad luck from touching anything that belonged to her.”
    She thought a minute, then laughed again.
    â€œAnd the jokes. Sick ones, you know the type. ‘Oh, sorry I don’t have that homework assignment—I walked by Suellen’s locker and it disappeared!’ Dumb stuff like that.”
    I mulled all this over, casting her a sidelong glance. “And