Now he definitely sounded amused.

“And now you’re going home,” he went on. “Good night, querida.”

He kissed me one last time, a brief peck good-bye. I knew that any second he was going to disappear.

But there was still something else I needed to know. Ordinarily, I’d have asked Father Dominic, but since he wasn’t around…

“Wait,” I said. “Before you go… one last thing.”

Jesse had already started to shimmer. “What, querida?”

“The fourth dimension,” I blurted out.

He had begun to dematerialize, but now he looked solid again.

“What about it?” he asked.

“Um,” I said. I’m sure he thought I was just asking to keep him there for a few more precious seconds. And truthfully? I probably was. “What is it?”

“Time,” Jesse said.

“Time?” I echoed. “That’s it? Just… time?”

“Yes,” Jesse said. “Time. Why do you ask? For school?”

“Sure,” I said. “For school.”

“The things they teach now,” he said, shaking his head.

“Cat food,” I said, holding out the bag. “Don’t forget.”

No wonder we can’t seem to make it past second base.

He took the bag from me.

“Good night, querida,” he said.

And then he was gone. The only sign that he’d been there at all were the badly fogged windows, steamed by our breath.

Or rather, by my breath, since Jesse doesn’t have any.

Chapter

five

Mr. Walden held up a stack of Scantron sheets and said, “Number-two pencils only, please.”

Kelly Prescott’s hand immediately shot up into the air.

“Mr. Walden, this is an outrage.” Kelly takes her role as president of the junior class extremely seriously… especially when it has to do with scheduling dances. And, apparently, aptitude testing. “We should have been given at least twenty-four hours’ notice that we’d be undergoing state testing today.”

“Relax, Prescott.” Mr. Walden, our homeroom teacher and class advisor, began passing out the Scantron sheets. “They’re career aptitude tests, not academic. Your scores won’t show up on your permanent record. They’re to help you”—he picked up one of the test booklets lying on his desk and read from it aloud—“‘determine which careers are best suited to your particular skills and/or areas of interest and/or achievement.’ Got it? Just answer the questions.” Mr. Walden slapped a pile of answer sheets onto my desk for me to pass down my row. “You’ve got fifty minutes. And no talking.”

“ ‘Which do you enjoy more, working while a) outdoors? or b) indoors?’” I heard my stepbrother Brad read aloud from across the room. “Hey, where’s c) heavily intoxicated?”

“You loser,’” Kelly Prescott chortled.

“‘Are you a ‘night person’ or a ‘day person’?” Adam McTavish looked mockly shocked. “This test is totally biased against narcoleptics.”

“‘Do you work best a) alone or b) in a group?’” My best friend, CeeCee, could hardly seem to contain her disgust. “Oh my God, this is so stupid.”

“What part of ‘no talking,’ ” Mr. Walden demanded, “do you people not understand?”

But no one paid any attention to him.

“This is stupid,” Adam declared. “How is this test going to determine whether or not I’m qualified for a career?”

“It measures your aptitude, stupid.” Kelly sounded disgusted. “The only career you’re qualified for is working the drive-through window at In-N-Out Burger.”

“Where you, Kelly, will be working the fryer,” Paul pointed out dryly, causing the rest of the class to crack up….

Until Mr. Walden, who’d settled behind his desk and was trying to read his latest issue of Surf Magazine, roared, “Do you people want to stay after school to finish up those tests? Because I’ll be happy to keep you here; I’ve got nothing better to do. Now, shut up, all of you, and get to work.”

That had a significant impact on the amount of chitchat going on around the room.

Miserably, I filled in the little bubbles. My misery didn’t just stem, of course, from the fact that I was operating on zero sleep. While that didn’t exactly help, there was the more pressing concern than career aptitude tests. Yeah, they don’t much apply to me. My fate is already laid out for me… has been laid out for me since birth. I’m destined to be one thing when I grow up and one thing only. And any other career I choose is just going to get in the way of my true calling, which is, of course, helping the undead to their final destinations.

I glanced over at Paul. He was bent over his Scantron sheet, filling in the answer bubbles with a little smile on his face. I wondered what he was putting down as fields of interest. I hadn’t noticed any entries for extortion. Or felony theft.

Why, I wondered, was he even bothering? It wasn’t like it was going to do us any good. We were always going to be mediators first, whatever other careers we might choose. Look at Father Dominic. Oh sure, he had managed to keep his mediator status a secret… a secret even from the church, since, as Father D. put it, his boss is God, and God invented mediators.

Of course, Father D. isn’t just a priest. He’d also been a teacher for years and years, winning some awards, even, until he’d been promoted to principal.

But it’s different for Father Dom. He really believes that his ability to see and speak to the dead is gift from God. He doesn’t see it for what it really is: a curse.

Except… except, of course, that without it, I never would have met Jesse.

Jesse. The little blank bubbles in front of me grew decidedly blurry as my eyes filled up with tears.

Oh, great. Now I was crying. At school.

But how could I help it? Here I was, my future laid out in front of me… graduation, college, career. Well, you know, pseudo-career, since we all know what my real career was going to be.

But what about Jesse? What future did he have?

“What’s wrong with you?” CeeCee hissed.

I reached up and dabbed at my eyes with the sleeve of my Miu Miu shirt. “Nothing,” I whispered back. “Allergies.”