Ty had to search really hard around the large high school area. The little guy ran fast and he disappeared quickly leaving no trail behind. Eventually, he had found Gecko outside hiding behind a bush and apparently having a quarrel with someone else. The way he managed to find him was by dodging a broken flying laptop screen, which came out of a bush and nearly hit him on the head. One could hear that Gecko was being bullied by someone while he was desperately trying to fight back. 

When Ty uncovered the bushes and stepped inside a little meadow, he saw Gecko who was still furiously throwing things at a transparent man who enjoyed himself greatly by the events, munching popcorn. Ty recognised him as the popcorn-eating prisoner-looking man he saw earlier sitting on the school cabinets. Elinor and Ty knowingly exchanged a look with each other as if they just hit the jackpot.

“Can’t – believe  – that – you – are – still – here!” With each word Gecko threw an object at his transparent opponent who just let the objects pass through him. In the next moment, he pushed Gecko to the ground and threw popcorn all over his victim’s face.

“You deserve it, buddy! You’re never gonna be strong like me. Boohoo,” he said, smiling. Gecko almost started crying again.

“I can’t believe that I am also bullied by you all the time, too. What did I do to deserve this?!” Gecko yelled as he was still struggling to get up from the ground. 

The big transparent man thought for a moment then turned around. He had just begun unzipping his black and white trousers when he saw Elinor standing in front of him in her camisole. His jaw dropped to the ground. Literally, which made Ty flinch but Elinor did not seem to be affected. The man put his jaw back and whistled.

“You are totally my type!” he said, winking and measuring the redhead up and down, nodding to himself in satisfaction. 

Elinor didn’t say anything in return, just glared at him in silence. Ty, weary of him, stepped forward to face him as he was standing behind the girl in the shadows before. He stopped in front of the bulky transparent prisoner-looking man, his legs slightly apart and his hands on his side, ready to defend himself if he needed to. He just managed to find another ghost and if he was like Elinor, then having the two of them together might cause an even greater disaster than the tsunami he had to suffer before. This man did not seem to be as serious as Elinor since he was carrying a faint smile on his cheek even when he got surprised by the two of them catching him red handed. He looked comical in that black and white prisoner outfit and with his half smile. Tyson did not know what to do with him as he glanced at Gecko, who remained seated on the ground but watched them attentively. 

This man was a ghost but this man was also a bully, thought Ty. How would you fight against a bully ghost? Ty scratched his head. 

The bulky man stared at the newcomers the same way as they were staring at him, thinking to himself: Both newcomers seemed to show a very displeased expression. They also appeared to be able to see him. 

The girl was alright, since she was transparent just like him but the boy! He was supposed to be a human!

“How come you can see me?” the man asked, turning towards Ty. His eyes opened wide with wonder and honest curiosity, his faint smile still remaining on his repertoire of expressions. No anger, guilt, or anything remorseful was visible on his face, despite the fact that he had just been scolding someone for fun. He was also not showing awareness either about the fact that he was being judged.

Because he was being judged. Mainly by Elinor as Ty was busy figuring out what to do with the new ghost companion. He hated bullies so he could not help but judgingly look down on him by the end of his thought process, too. 

The bulky man waved three times in front of Ty`s blue eyes. He confirmed that yes, this young pretty boy was definitely capable of seeing him and yes, this young pretty boy was definitely not in the mood to answer to him. He started to get impatient as getting a reply out of the newcomers seemed impossible. Both the pretty boy and the pretty redhead were deliberately ignoring him. After watching and judging the prisoner-looking ghost, they turned to Gecko at the exact same time.

“You alright?” they asked simultaneously. Ty helped him up from the ground. “Sorry I didn’t help you earlier. I thought you may want to fight your own fights,” he was trying to make up an honest sounding answer to cover his ignorance and hesitation and the fact that he wanted to buy lunch instead of helping him. This reminded him how he was starting to feel even hungrier now than before. His stomach grumbled. Ty hoped that it wasn't too loud.

“Your lunch break is gone,” that was all Gecko said with a straight face. Ty’s eyes opened wide. Did he just see through him? Was he a mind reader? “Here, eat this,” the boy handed over his own lunch. It looked appetising and completely unaffected by the recent events. No injuries, which instead were covering Gecko’s body and his shattered laptop.

“T-Thanks” Ty muttered and hesitated to take the sandwich. He felt guilty for accepting the bullied kid’s unharmed food.

“It’s not poisoned,” Gecko continued with a straight face. He noticed Ty’s reluctant behaviour while he was opening the sandwich box. In the box, there was a perfectly harmless large egg sandwich with lots of chicken and vegetables inside. It looked tasty. Both boys’ stomachs gurgled. Ty glanced at Gecko then broke the sandwich in half and handed one part back to him. Gecko took it gratefully and started demolishing it. Poor fellow seemed really hungry.

Ty observed him eating before he began his half. They were quiet for a while sitting and consuming their food in great understanding. Gecko broke the silence.

“People say that you only care about yourself Tyson Shawn and I agree. One of the many plausible reasons why you did not want to help me was that you did not want to risk getting in trouble, which would mean breaking your excellent record of being a top student thus getting ridiculous afternoon punishments and probably no lunch breaks. As Mr. Shawn senator’s son, you have responsibilities and have to keep up your reputation. You seem to be quite spoiled to me.” He paused for a moment, then his face distorted in disgust. “You were moving during the fight as you owned the place and you also enjoyed being in the spotlight the same way as that Jon.”

Ty sighed as he heard the mentioning of his father’s name. He got confused by Gecko’s words. Did he mean to ask a question? Was he trying to say ‘thanks’? Was he just stating facts? He sighed again. 

“You are wrong about certain points. It is true that I can be egoistic at times – everyone is, but I am not that good of a student and I don’t care about my reputation or my father as much as others say.” 

Ty wanted to make sure he cleared that one misunderstanding out but he left out Gecko’s observation about the fighting part because he felt that the short boy was right about that point. The way the blonde spoke to him seemed definitely weird, a bit too blunt and robotic and he saw ghosts, too. Did he have the same type of life as him? Was he also trying to get rid of his ghost the same way as he was trying to remove Elinor from his life? He wanted to know more about him. Maybe he was not alone in this. Maybe they could find a solution if they worked together.

“What’s your name?” Ty asked, his eyes wide with curiosity. 

“Isaac Newton,” Ty raised an eyebrow. “I am not kidding!” Gecko continued and raised his hands defensively, “My stupid mother. She said this name would bring me luck. It only gave me misfortune so far,” he put his hands on his forehead.

“It’s a great name,” Ty was trying hard not to laugh. He almost choked on the sandwich instead. When he finally got back to his senses, he noticed how Elinor seemed to be choking the same way as him. Tears came out of her eyes as she glared at Ty.

“So you are connected to a ghost, too,” Isaac remarked. Tyson perked up. Did that mean that Isaac was connected as well? Did that mean he knew what Ty was going through? Meanwhile, the bulky ghost man was studying Elinor with great interest and did not seem to notice how she was purposefully moving further and further away from him each time he tried sitting or positioning himself closer to her.

“So you, too,” Ty continued, pretending to have a calm expression while Isaac nodded. 

They were similar! That was great news to Ty. He was more than thrilled to get to know Isaac and his ghost companion after this response but he worried that if he showed too much enthusiasm then it would scare the short blonde guy away. Isaac looked peculiarly serious and robotic. He did not seem to show much interest in him or even the fact that he had just found out about another person who was like him and saw ghosts. Isaac looked as if he just asked questions out of politeness. Maybe they were both afraid that their enthusiasm would scare the other away, thought Ty. Ty really just wanted to jump in Isaac’s neck and hug and kiss him. He thought that would hurt the guy’s fragile body as he was already bruised enough for today. He would also look foolish doing that and he could not accept acting uncool.  

“Who is your big companion?” Ty noticed how the prisoner-looking man started hugging and kissing Elinor. The redhead seemed desperate for Ty`s help. She kept looking in his direction, mouthing and signing the words “Help” using the American sign language. Ty shrugged his shoulders and kept on eating. Elinor caused a small wind around them to blast away the unwanted wooer and to show her anger.

“She can also cause natural phenomena?” Isaac asked Ty. He seemed pretty laidback, not giving too much attention to the wind or Elinor or his own ghost. Ty nodded in agreement, also being quite laidback with his attitude, mirroring Isaac to not scare him away. 

“So what’s his name?” It seemed that Ty and Isaac joined forces to ignore the transparent creatures together for the day. The bulky man grinned at Elinor and attempted to impress her by creating a small rainfall over Isaac. When the short shower had ended, Isaac took off his shirt and squeezed it to get the water out of it then put it back on, still completely ignoring the ghosts.

“I just call him Alex the Worm. Otherwise his name would be Alexander Vermont,” Isaac shrugged as the cold T-shirt touched his skin. “He claims to be a once renowned scientist in the world. I doubt that since there are no records of him. I searched everywhere.”

“Same with Elinor,” Ty said. “She claims to be a famous supermodel even though she is nowhere to be found. Although I haven’t searched that much...”

“At least now we know that there is a pattern. My research about ghosts has led nowhere so far. Maybe they are something else and not ghosts as we call them,” Isaac leaned forward. “I assume you know her ever since you were born,” he asked Ty who nodded in return. Isaac’s expression perked up for a second. He sighed afterwards. He pointed at Alexander, “He claims I saw his face before my mother’s or the doctors’.”

“I just wanted to see a childbirth,” Alexander explained innocently. When everyone looked at him in suspicion, he said, “It’s not as disgusting as you think it is. What people show these days in the media is fairly similar to a horror story or the middle ages. Overly exaggerated,” he gestured downwards, “A child given birth to is a beautiful view. Fascinating,” then he wandered off, looking to the distance with watery eyes leaving Elinor alone. She breathed out slowly, relieved that her harasser had finally left her alone. Now to her biggest disdain Isaac began staring at her, openly checking her out.

“So her name is Elinor?” he asked Ty who nodded. He remembered mentioning her name earlier. He also knew that because of the rumours going around about him and Elinor, Isaac may have been able to make the connection about her identity. He guessed it right. 

“Is she the one that everyone is talking about? The “hot chick” Elinor Sonel?” Gecko pointed at the redhead like a child was pointing at an animal at a Zoo.

Ty nodded.

“So she can make herself visible to others and apparently for a very long time,” Isaac seemed to sink deep into his thoughts as he pressed his eyebrows with his fingertips. He was interrupted by Alexander’s burst out.

“What? I could never do that!” he shouted. “Just how powerful are you?!” he stared at Elinor, who flipped her hair back and sat a bit straighter.

“I am only as powerful as the one I possess,” she hushed, looking proudly into Alexander’s eyes. All of a sudden, Alexander sat down as if he had just lost his physical strength.

“I can still cause an earthquake,” he said.

“Yeah, up to 2.5 according to the Richter Scale,” Isaac smiled at him. “You are a weakling,” at that moment Alexander tried to make an earthquake again. Just then, the ground began slightly shaking. Alex’s face tensed even more as he was trying to intensify the earthquake but soon he gave up.  

“Something is oppressing me,” he moaned. “Or someone,” he glanced at Elinor who made a faint smile. “Goddess,” Alexander said and bowed to her, “I am all yours! You can block me any way you want,” he grinned which made Elinor stop smiling immediately.

“If what Elinor said is true then I am happy that I am not that strong and that is why my ghost cannot cause too much harm to others,” Isaac told Ty whose face turned really pale as the conversation went on. “What happened, did you just choke on the food again?”

“No,” gulped Ty. “I won’t ever believe that the tsunami was my fault!” Ty’s eyes opened wide, terrified by the thought as he just said it. The next moment, he threw the empty lunch box at Elinor and dashed away. 

Isaac and Alexander looked back at the red haired, curiosity in their eyes.

Instead of giving a reply, Elinor glanced at her feet with her emotionless face before vanishing into dust.

“That child looked very troubled,” Alexander nodded. Isaac blinked twice then he opened his eyes wide as if he had just made a realisation of something. He ran home on that day without a word as well.