And Kayla is patient enough to listen through my whole speech! By the time I’m done, her gaze is still fixed on me and I’m half expecting her to report me to the clinic.
Then a smile crawls across her lips. “This is what happened in Kathryn Bernardo’s hit horror movie,Pagpag: Nine Lives.”
14
I’m watching a modern-day miracle happen before my very eyes. For the first time in her seventeen years of living, Kayla Tan decides to break curfew. Under her parents’ strict orders, she’s always supposed to go straight home after school.
When the milk tea stand at our canteen malfunctioned one day and everyone who stayed after school got free drinks, Kayla still went straight home. Even when a Taylor Swift impersonator had an impromptu performance at Saint Agnes, Kayla skipped because it was scheduled after dismissal.
And plot twist, her parents were surprisingly cool with it. When Kayla called her mom, Auntie Grace gave her permission to go home later than usual when Kayla said she was bringing me to Bible study (not taking credit, but Ididcome up with the alibi). My rebel best friend didn’t even crack when we asked my sister for her ID so I could leave school with Kayla.
Since the Swifties Who Crochet club took over the library for their weekly “stitch meeting,” Kayla and I sneaked into Achi’s office again to do more research. Correction:I’mdoing research. Kayla’s been binge-watching thePagpagmovie again.
“So the ghost appears because the group broke all the superstitions they were supposed to do at the wake…” Kayla keeps dictating thePagpagmovie plot as she replays the same scenes over and over again on the office projector.
She then fast-forwards to where the movie shows the ghost’s backstory. “And the reason the ghost shows up is because his wife made a deal with the devil—that her husband could come back to life if his ghost murdered nine people…”
The room goes silent and I look up to see that Kayla paused the movie. Concern floods Kayla’s face when she looks over her shoulder. “Niks?”
“Yeah?” I say, while still trying to decipher another article about the dead pigs that were brought back to life.
“Is there… would you…” She pauses and lowers her voice. “Did you do a… deal too?”
I stop and scan her face. “Are you asking me if I’m capable of murder?”
“I mean, I think you’re capable of anything.”
Only Kayla Tan can make a murder accusation sound like a compliment.
“As much as I love the idea of murder—”
“Murdering nine people,” Kayla clarifies.
“Murdering nine people,” I repeat. “I don’t think we’ll find the answers behind my dad’s reappearance from some ghost movie.”
“Should we try another movie then?”
I tell her to stop scrolling through Netflix and check out my progress. She gets up from the couch and takes the other desk chair. “See?” I say, gesturing toward Achi’s computer and my extensive notes. “Scientific research.”
Kayla’s forehead scrunches as she reads the back of the prom countdown flyer that Dani shoved in our faces. At least she provided me with extra paper for my notes. “Why are you writing about pig organs?”
“There are scientists from Yale who were able to revive these pigs that had been dead for an hour.”
“How?”
I read the note I had underlined. “With a nutrient-rich fluid.”
“Very specific,” Kayla says sarcastically. “Maybe we can pump your dad’s ghost with Gatorade.” She purses her lipsand skims more of my notes. “These theories sound way too scientific.”
“And you think your murder theory is better?”
“Than reviving a ghost with Gatorade?” she says. “Um, yeah!”
Kayla then asks me to repeat more details of when Pa first showed up, what his ghost exactly looked like, if he mentioned anything about a timeline.
I double-check again to make sure that Kayla’s actually being serious. Kayla has always rode along whenever I’d rant about Dr. Derrick, Dani, how white chocolate doesn’t deserve to be called chocolate—but this whole stuff about Pa and his ghost?
“You really believe what I told you?” I ask. “The whole thing about my dad coming back as a ghost?”
