Free School Spirits (Hex Hall Novel, A) by Rachel Hawkins Page A

excited, and it was all I could do not to wince. Humans getting involved with the supernatural was bad enough, but exorcisms were way more than a bunch of teenagers could handle.
    “Have you guys ever found anything?” I asked.
    “We thought we got some ghostly voices on a tape recorder once,” Romy offered. “At this creepy abandoned house in the next town over. And Anderson’s closet door opened on its own one time.”
    “Because he had his window open,” Dex muttered, and Romy shot him a look. “ Maybe it was because of that. We don’t know. It could’ve been…other stuff.”
    “Sure, why not? I just, uh, don’t want to wear a T-shirt that says PMS, okay?” I added, and Romy stuck out her hand. “Deal.”

CHAPTER 11

    W e shook on it just as the bus pulled up to the school. “Try to get kicked out of P.E. again today,” Dex told me as he gathered up his stuff. “We can hang on the football field.”
    “Ha-ha,” I muttered, slinging my bag over my
shoulder.
    Romy and I made our way to English while Dex sauntered off to his first class. We got to Mrs. Steele’s room before the second bell, so Romy tossed her backpack onto the desk next to mine and said, “Gonna run to the bathroom. Watch my bag?”
    “Sure,” I replied as she dashed out the door.
    As soon as she was gone, my eyes fell on her bag. Should I look through it really quickly? I wasn’t sure if there was anything related to PMS or the case in there, but Mom said to check everything. If anyone asked what I was doing, I could just say I was looking for a pen.
    My fingers were already reaching for the strap when something heavy landed on my desk. Startled, I looked up to see Adam sitting there.
    “Hi,” he said, smiling.
    I drew back my hand. “Um. Hi.”
    “So I guess you decided to be a ghost hunter after all.” He was still smiling, but there was something weird in his face. He looked kind of…bummed.
    When I didn’t say anything, he hurried on. “I mean, I just saw you talking to Romy and Dexter when you walked in, and you guys seemed really friendly. Especially you and Dex.”
    I was so confused that all I could do was stare at him while my brain raced for something to say. Why did Adam care who I was hanging out with? “They’re nice,” I finally said lamely, and Adam gave a little shrug.
    “So, anyway, I was going to ask you this yesterday, but…you know.”
    Adam had gone kind of red and stammery, and I braced myself for whatever it was he wanted to ask me. “Anyway,” he said again, “could I get your number?”
    I blinked. What—oh, my cell phone number. Which he wanted. So he could call me.
    “Sure,” I said, hoping I sounded normal. Because this was normal. Boys asking for your phone number. I scrawled it across a sheet of notebook paper and handed it to him. Adam grinned, looking relieved.
    “Awesome,” he said, nodding his head.
    Romy returned, flopping into her desk with a huge sigh. When she noticed Adam, she gave a little wave. “Hey, Lipinski.”
    “Romy,” Adam replied, but he didn’t really look at her. To me, he said, “Okay, well, I’ll, uh, see you around, Izzy.” He waved the piece of paper. “And call you.”
    “Right,” I said, still wondering what his deal was.
    Once he was back at his own desk, Romy leaned over. “How do you have two dudes crushing on you in less than twenty-four hours at this school?”
    I whirled around. “What?”
    “Lipinski practically left a drool marks on your desk, and Dex is even goofier than normal in your presence.”
    The third bell rang then, saving me from answering. But as I pulled out a pen and paper for Mrs. Steele’s vocabulary quiz, I snuck a glance at Adam a few rows over. He was sneaking a glance at me , so I quickly looked back to the front of the room. There had been something kind of…dreamy in his expression, but that wasn’t because he liked me. How could he? We’d spent all of five minutes together yesterday.
    As for Dex, well, he