Chapter Four - The Ghost Shores

Much to her displeasure, Carla is persuaded by Mallory to join Jesse on a roadtrip to the city during winter break.

December, 2012


                 Carla had loved winter when she was younger. She had always loved going to the park with her father and spending hours in the snow, sledding and having snowball fights, and eventually buying hot chocolate on their way home. But she had grown to love the summers of Sunflower Shores, and before she knew it, winter became something she began to loathe. As the snow fell, she had been forced to store her bike away into the garage, not to come out until spring came around. The Wildflower Trails were icy and slick, and after Mallory had slipped and sprained her ankle on the path, the two had concluded that the trails were not a winter-friendly location. Carla had shuddered at the thought of accidentally losing her footing at the outlook, and tumbling down the steep cliffs. She would miss the beautiful view, but she didn't want to risk a broken leg, or worse, a broken neck.

And so, Carla and Mallory spent their winter weekends at each other's houses. With winter break and Christmas coming up, most of their time on the weekends was spent binge watching their favorite childhood Christmas movies, and at one point Carla helped Mallory's family decorate their Christmas tree. Their walks to school became much quieter as well; the biting cold of the winter mornings drained any conversation topic from them, and Carla instead focused on keeping herself warm, mostly by burying her head into a large scarf that Anabel had given her. She remembered the old lady had told Carla that she'd need it, and Carla was glad that she had received such a gift. She was sure that if it weren't for the extravagantly patterned scarf, she would lose all feeling in her neck and chin.

There were only three days until winter break when Mallory suddenly spoke up on their way to school.

"So, do you have any plans for the break?" She asked casually. Too casually. Carla could tell that there was ulterior motive behind the question, and narrowed her eyes.

"No, not really." Carla responded shortly, her voice muffled by the scarf. Guessing by the excited smile that lit up Mallory's face, that had been the right answer. Oh no.

"Great, that's great!" The blonde chirped.

"Why do you ask?" Carla asked carefully.

"Well, uh..." Mallory trailed off. "You see, every winter break Jesse's sister comes to visit, and takes her on a trip to the city. She always invites me to come with, and it's a really fun time!"

Carla didn't like where this was going.

"So she wanted me to ask you if you wanted to come with us...?" Mallory said with a weak smile.

"No."

"Come on Carla, she really wants you to come too!"

"No!"

"How come?"

"I just..." Carla desperately searched her mind for a reasonable answer, but she couldn't think of anything that would convince Mallory. "I just don't want to." She huffed.

Mallory faced Carla with big, pleading eyes. "Please, Carla?" She begged. "I'll be there too! We'll have so much fun, at least think about it, okay? For me?"

Carla couldn't refuse that. She couldn't help but feel like she had just kicked a puppy as she looked deep into Mallory's eyes. She sighed with a scowl, and buried her face deeper into the scarf. "Fine," She sighed with an air of finality. "I'll ask my dad about it."

"Yay!" Mallory cheered as she skipped ahead cheerfully, a huge grin now plastered on her face. "Thank you Carla, I'm sure Jesse'll be so happy that you can come!"

Carla simply grumbled into her scarf.

#

Much to Carla's displeasure, her father was absolutely ecstatic to hear that she had been invited, and even pushed her into going. The trip was four days long, from the 27th to the 1st of January, and they would be staying with Jesse's sister.

"Yeah, well, won't you be lonely here? For four days? All by yourself on New Year's Eve?" Carla had asked, desperate for him to change his mind. 

"Of course not!" Her father had laughed, "I was actually thinking of going to visit Anabel and spend New Year's with her family, and I'm sure you'd have much more fun with your friends instead." 

Carla disagreed; Anabel was wonderful company, and she had wanted to thank the old lady for the lovely scarf. But it was too late, and she had promised Mallory that she would join them if her father allowed it. And she desperately didn't want to disappoint Mallory.

And so, on the 27th of December, Carla had packed her bags and sat in the living room until she heard the crunch of gravel as a car pulled into their driveway. With one last goodbye to her father, she made her way outside where a navy blue van awaited her. In the front seat, she could see Jesse, who gave Carla a cheerful wave. Carla made a pathetic attempt at a smile, and raised her hand as a greeting. A woman climbed out of the driver's seat, and Carla assumed that she was Jesse's sister. She had the same freckled face and dusty hair, but it was combed back into a neat braid, while Jesse's hair was short and in a permanent state of bedhead. 

The woman gave Carla a wide smile as she approached her. "Hi! You must be Carla. I'm Sasha, Jesse's sister!" She practically beamed. "I've heard a lot about you!"

It took a total of fifteen seconds of knowing Sasha to realize that much like her younger sister, Sasha did not have a concept of personal space. Upon approaching Carla, the woman pulled her into a big, tight hug that took her breath away. Literally. She could not breath.

When she was finally released from the lethal hug, Carla cleared her throat. "Um, what kind of things have you he-?" 

"Here, I'll take your bags, go take a seat in the van!" Sasha cut her off, already reaching for Carla's bags.

Realizing that it was pointless to convince Sasha that she could grab her bags by herself, she simply mumbled a quiet thank-you, and pulled open the van door. She was surprised to see that Lauren, Jake, and Olivia were also nestled into the van, along with Mallory and Jesse. The only available spot was the middle seat in the back, right between Mallory and Olivia. No window seat for her.

"Hi, Carla! You're the last stop!" Lauren chirped with a grin as Carla tried to climb over Jake's legs. The boy attempted to pull his long limbs in, but it was no use. She waved off his stuttered apology, and practically fell into the empty spot. 

"Well that's good, 'cause I don't know how we'd be able to fit another person!" Carla exclaimed as she dug into the crevice of the seat, where somehow her seatbelt buckle had gotten buried. "I didn't know that it would be everybody who was coming!"

Lauren grinned. "Don't worry! If we need space, we can just tie Jake to the roof." Jake simply scowled at her.

Mallory laughed, then turned to face Carla. "Yeah, I think this is actually the first time all of us could go!" She explained. "And this time we've got you too, so this year is pretty crowded."

"Yeah, last year I had way too much homework to be able to come," Jake huffed. "Who does that? Assign homework during Christmas break? Some teacher's are so cruel."

Jesse poked her head out from the front seat. "I got a ton of stuff assigned during the break," she sighed, "But I'm gonna try to do it all when I get back!"

Olivia gave her a disappointed look. "Why didn't you do it before the trip? I already finished all of mine, now I don't have to worry about it."

"Yeah Jesse, knowing you you'll put it off until the day before school starts!" Lauren laughed. Jesse simply scowled and crossed her arms.

#

The city was roughly a four hour drive away from Sunflower Shores, if Carla remembered correctly. It had been a very boring trip back when she was moving to the small town in March, but then again, that first drive had just been Carla and her father. Neither of them were conversationalists, and the only thing that filled the silence between them was some sort of folk music from her father's CDs.

But this time, the mood was the complete opposite. Jesse had blasted the music, and the whole car sang along in loud, exaggerated voices, and Carla couldn’t help but join, even though she didn't even know most of the songs that they played. They all told stories about each other, like how once Lauren had accidentally headbutted Jake in the face, and broke both his nose and his glasses. Like how in first grade, Mallory had been left behind during a field trip to the sunflower fields, and no one had noticed until the buses had already returned to the school. They told Carla about all their inside jokes and how they met, traditions they had and the people they knew. 

From what Carla picked up from the conversations, Sasha had moved to the city to attend University. She worked as a waitress at some sort of expensive restaurant, and with her excellent charisma, she had no trouble with receiving a crazy amount of tips each night. Every year since she moved to the city, Sasha would drive back to Sunflower Shores to spend Christmas with her family, and then take Jesse and her friends to the city for New Years to see the amazing fireworks show.

Carla had also learned that Jesse also had an older brother named Dominic. Apparently he and Sasha didn't get along well at all, so he was excluded from their city trips. Apparently he was also not so keen on referring to Jesse as a girl, so Jesse had no problem with his absence. She didn't say anything on the matter, but Carla silently decided that she would have no problem with never having to meet him.

The hours went by quickly, and finally, the cityscape came into view. The others cheered enthusiastically as they reached their destination, and while Carla held no joyful feelings towards the city, she couldn't stop herself from joining them. The city looked the same as she remembered: cold, dreary, gray. But with the company she was with, it seemed a little brighter.

Sasha's apartment was much smaller than Carla had expected, and as they filed inside, Carla couldn't help but wonder how Sasha expected to fit all six of them in it. In the living room there was a couch that folded out into a bed of some sorts, and a mattress took up most of the floor. There was also a spare bedroom with a bed large enough for two. After a game of "guess the number between 1 and 100" hosted by Sasha, the sleeping arrangements had been made. Olivia and Mallory took the couch-bed, Lauren and Jake took the mattress on the floor, and Carla was forced to take the spare bedroom with Jesse. 

Carla was absolutely positive that the game had been rigged.

She could barely tolerate sitting across from Jesse at school, how would she survive four nights of sleeping next to her? Jesse, on the other hand, was completely untroubled. In fact, the freckled girl seemed absolutely ecstatic to share a room with Carla. Wonderful.

"It's not that bad, Carla!" Mallory had laughed when Carla had finally managed to catch her alone and explain her predicament. 

Carla let out an exasperated sigh. "Are you sure you don't wanna, I don't know, switch with me? Or that maybe there's enough room on the mattress for me too?"

"Oh, you don't want to sleep on the mattress," Mallory hummed, running a hand through her hair. "Jake kicks and Lauren snores. It's horrible."

"Then, then," Carla said desperately, "Do you want to switch? Or maybe one of the others wants to switch?"

Mallory just laughed again. "You'll be fine! Now c'mon, dinner's gonna be done soon." With an encouraging pat on the shoulder, Mallory brushed past her and left the room. Carla simply let out a frustrated groan. 

#

After an especially late dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, the group had all huddled together in the crowded living room to watch some movie that Carla had never heard of. It was a film about monsters and ghosts, and while it seemed to be built to be a horror movie, it seemed strangely melancholic to Carla. But obviously she was the only one who thought that way, because everyone else was left wide eyed as they got ready for bed. 

As Carla settled into the unfamiliar bed that smelled of dust, Jesse was strangely silent. Carla guessed that perhaps the movie had shaken her up a little bit too much, and didn't think much of it. The nostalgic city sounds started to lull Carla to sleep, but just as she was about to succumb to her exhaustion, Jesse shuffled slightly.

"Hey....Carla? You're awake?" She asked quietly.

"Mm." Carla grumbled in response, with an irritated edge.

"Do you believe in ghosts?"

Silence. Carla didn't know how to respond to that.

"Did you know that some people call Sunflower Shores the town of ghosts?" Jesse asked. Carla desperately wanted to ignore her and sleep, but her curiosity got the best of her.

"Why?"

Jesse shuffled again. "Some say that it's a place where souls go to move on. The ocean is like... some sort of entrance to the afterlife, and Sunflower Shores is usually where they make peace with the life they're leaving behind, or something like that." She was silent for a beat. "And apparently there's a lot of sightings of ghosts, especially of loved ones recently after they pass away."

Carla snorted. "You sure you didn't just make that up?"

Jesse sat up abruptly. Her face was illuminated by the city lights outside the window, and she looked offended. "Of course I'm sure! It's true!" She insisted in a loud whisper. 

Carla turned onto her back, and stared up at Jesse. "Well, then have you ever seen these ghosts?" 

Jesse's face fell and after a moment, she dropped her head back onto the pillow. Carla couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt at her reaction.

"I guess I haven't," She grumbled. "But...well, just 'cause we don't see them doesn't mean that they aren't there." Jesse then turned away from her. "Maybe they only appear to who they want to see them."

Carla huffed and turned away as well. "Goodnight, Jesse." She said with an air of finality. Much her to her surprise, the freckled girl didn't say another word for the rest of the night.

That night Carla had a dream that she was flying over Sunflower Shores like a leaf being blown by the wind. She caught glimpses of the outlook, the Wildflower Trails, the yellow bricked school, the sunflower fields, the rusted playground. Seagulls and flower petals flew by her side as she looked over the place that had so quickly earned a place in her heart.

And as she was carried over the ocean and the town became small and distant, a single thought came across her mind as her surroundings became nothing but blue sky and ocean.

'This isn't so bad.'

Author's Note

i hope it's okay! i set a goal to write up until chapter 10 during spring break, so hopefully i'll be posting a bit more!