Lunch at Clovis Martian High School was always busy. There are the big groups of kids that are usually pushing themselves to the front of the lunch line to there for one friend near the front, so everybody else who isn’t friends with them has to move out of the way or get trampled.

"TOMMY!" A girl shot shouts over the noise of the cafeteria. Her red-brown hair was cut short at the jaw and she had Twisted it back away from her face, the rest sticks out wildly behind her. A tall boy with shaggy black hair, a black rock band shirt, and grey jeans turns and waves her over.

An elaborate tattoo peeks out from the collar of his shirt as one of their friends tug on it, messing around with him. She beelines her way over to their table.

She swings both her legs over the bench and plops down next to Tommy, stealing half of his foot-long sub. "You know Ash, you could at least ask," Tommy says trying to make a grab for the other half of the sub, but Ash twists and takes a bite.

"Not as fun though." Ash crams the sand witch into her mouth and holds the sandwich with her mouth. She quickly zips up her dark blue hoodie with her free hands before the sandwich fell apart onto her lap.

The boy sitting across from them snorts. "You’re always such a lady."

"Shut up Damian. Your mannerisms are worse than mine. You gonna drink your apple juice?" Ash asks pointing at the unopened bottle next to his hand. He shrugs hands it over.

Tommy sighs eating the other half of his sub. "The injustice. You ask Damian for his apple juice, but not me for my awesome turkey bacon sub?" Jake, a skinny redhead in a red and black sweatshirt, pokes him in the ribs.

"Ow! What was that for?" Jake smirks at him and tilts his head to the side making his red curls fall into his face. "Come on we all know you make enough for the both of you. Have since the 4th grade."

Tommy turns on Jake, simultaneously hiding his face from Ash when someone taps him on the shoulder. The table turns and finds a ghost of a girl hiding behind her dark hair.

The small group takes in her strange clothes. She has on a baggy long sleeve grey shirt, the sleeves are long enough to hide her hands, and a long black skirt that is over her feet. She holds out a black leather wallet with a broken chain out to Tommy.

"You dropped this in the hall." She whispers Ash bearly hears her over the din of the cafeteria. They stared as Tommy took the wallet from her.

"Thanks. I hadn't realized I had dropped it. Mom woulda killed me, you’re a lifesaver. The girl ducks her head and hugs herself as Tommy checks his wallet to make sure nothing was missing. Ash was surprised she hadn’t darted the moment Tommy took his wallet. She took the opportunity to talk to her.

"So what’s your name? I haven't seen you around here before," Ash give the girl a big friendly grin. "My names Ash" The girl sighs and wrings her hands making Ash notice her long pale fingers.

She also deflated a bit, not that Ash thought she was very elated and bubbly in the first place.

"Claire Rhiley." She says exasperatedly like it is a question she hears a lot. She starts to fiddle with a strand of her hair, the bold black standing out against her long pale fingers.

"I've been in the same school as you since kindergarten, same class every year." Both Ash and Tommy make an 'oh SHIST' face. "We are in the same homeroom too."

Claire looks over to Tommy as he put his wallet away. Ash bites down on her lip and Tommy rubs the back of his neck. The two of them have known each other for that long, but neither remember or recognize Claire. Claire could see the shame on their faces as they start to apologize to her. She just shakes her head and murmurs that it's fine.

Claire knows she isn't noticeable. She didn't think that they would remember her. She stood there awkwardly, wanting to dart way. Suddenly a shout came from somewhere in the cafeteria, followed by a roar of laughter. Ash and her friends were momentarily distracted and she bolted out of there.

Claire could hear their voices start up again but they faded as she wove her way through the crowd. Quickly and quietly she made it to her usual spot outside.

It was one of her favorite spots at school besides the library and the class kitchens. It was an oak tree on the top of a small hill. It sits at the outer edge of the courtyard, standing out from the tree line of the forest behind the school.

The tree has been there since the founding of the school and many of the students believed it was haunted. But Claire highly doubted it was, she seemed to be the only ghost around here.

She passes a couple of football players tossing the ball around, good naturally poking and cracking jokes at each other. Clair sets down her backpack at the base of the tree. She tucks her skirt underneath her legs and sits down, tucking her legs to the side.

She pulls her lunch box out of her bag and zips it open, pulling out her sandwich. One of the football player s glances in her direction and excuses himself, passing the ball to someone else and starts walking over.

The football player walks up to Claire and tucks his hands into the back pocket of his jeans. "So, are you gonna bring the cookies to the after game party tonight?" He asks, plopping down next to her, the sliver cuffs in his braids clicking together. She sighs but wears a small smile.

She took a bite out of her sandwich and shrugged. "Hi Conner, I'll drop them off before the party starts." Conner groans and sprawled out on the ground, tossing his arm over his face.

"Why don't you stick around this time? Come on!" He whines. Claire bumps him and Conner removes his arm and looks at her, faking pain. "Ah! How could you? A grave injury before the Big Game!” Conner fakes a big gasp and slaps his hands to his cheeks. He looked like he was trying to imitate the scream. “Oh, I know! You’re really rooting for West Dale! Oh, the cruel-" Clarie dropped a brownie on his face.

"Here I saved you one before Papa devoured them."

"Score," Conner says sitting up, he unwraps the brownie and takes a big bite. Claire smiles but it fades away. She pulls her legs to her chest, resting her head on her knees.

"Conner... I don't mind going to your games and watching you play. But," Claire pulls out a strand of hair and starts messing with it.

"At your party, I will be just as invisible as I am here."

"That's because you always hide." He says nibbling on the brownie, "you should try something new or at least a little noticeable."

Claire looks at him, her doubt obvious. "Like what?" Conner lays down again, shoving the rest of the brownie into his mouth. Clair sighs and looks away. In the crowd she spots Elizabeth Terence, a small pretty blond girl, talking to somebody Claire can’t see. She seems pretty excited about something.

"What about a new outfit? Change it up a bit." Conner says, drawing her attention. Claire frowns and lets her knees fall to the side. Though before she could say how that wouldn't change anything, something explodes on her chest.

"Oh my God, Julian. You hit someone!"

Stunned, Clair looks down to see a big mess of red paint splattered all over her chest. She doesn't think this is what Conner meant by 'changing it up'. The paint soaked right on through her sweater, she isn't quite sure what to do.