The Dead Kid Returns

Part 2: The New Kid

The new kid came into the class, and almost nobody noticed. When the new kid had first shown up, there had been the usual introductions, but almost immediately after, the new kid seemed to fade into the background, forgotten.

Except one girl, who watched the new kid move, and wondered.

Her name was Bethany Ann Cooper, and she was regarded as a bit odd, because she once said that she remembered a time when a dead kid had come to the school, and even claimed to have given this dead kid a kiss.

When everyone else laughed at that idea, she retreated, but her reputation remained, and so she usually was alone.

But now that loneliness seemed to help her, as she focused on the new kid, wondering.

The first time she noticed something odd about the new kid had been three months ago, when one day, out of the blue, she looked at the new kid, and stared crying.

A sense of grief, of sadness so great she simply couldn’t contain it overwhelmed her, and all she could do was cry.

This feeling stayed with her whenever she was around the new kid for the next couple of days, and then vanished.

Odder, she found herself overlooking the new kid again, like she had before the feeling had occurred.

Until a month later, when it happened again.

This time, she fought through the grief, trying to focus on what was causing it, and when the feeling started to fade a couple of days later, she realized the feeling was familiar.

But the last time she had felt it, it had come from the dead kid, the day she kissed it.

She remembered the cycle the dead kid had followed, how sometimes it seemed more alive, and when that happened it also seemed more like a girl, despite the way it was dressed. Then the feeling would fade, and even Beth had stared to doubt the dead kid’s gender.

And now this same feeling was coming from the new kid, only this time it was strong enough to make her weep whenever she felt it.

She was sure that behind the new kid’s boy clothes and name there was the spirit of a girl, a bright shining light kept shuttered away from the world.

And the grief she had felt was that girl spirit struggling to get out of its cage, and suffering because it could not.

So now she watched the new kid carefully, and wondered.

She wondered how she could help the suffering girl inside the new kid, before it’s light went out for good.

Then she remembered one day she had shared with the dead kid, and an idea came into her mind, and heart.

And that gave her an idea how to help the new kid, if she could figure out exactly how, and when.

If she had the courage to make it work.

If she was right, if her feelings were accurate, and not just an echo from the past.

And if the new kid would let her help.

But she could only try, and see.

And then time would tell.