I sighed and glanced towards the clock for the umpteenth time. Seriously, how can they be this late for something they scheduled? I was waiting for some absurd meeting that the school counselor had wanted to have, presumably about “my future” or some nonsense like that. Like I had any confusion about that. Straight A student, top of the school, too many extracurriculars to even count. Knowing my parents, if I even mentioned doing anything other than going to some fancy university I would be met with sheer pain and agony.
Genuinely, if they keep me here much longer I’m just going to leave. I mean, it’s after school. What on earth could they want from me that would make them expect me to stay here this late. School had ended at 3! It was ten till 4! I was starting to suspect that maybe the counselor had already left and this was some elaborate prank from someone with a grudge. I decided I would wait until 4, then I was going.
Big surprise, ten minutes of nothing later I had packed up my things and started to head out. I’ll write an email later, I thought. Since they had delayed me for so long, I had missed the bus. I could wait, but I wanted to get the exercise and as such started walking home.
“Hey, bro,” said a voice, right as I turned to start walking. “You get held up by some random staff person?”
I turned back around to face the mysterious voice, and was faced with a kid who looked my age, sitting on the curb. Huh, I thought. I didn’t notice them before… Shrugging it off, I decided to respond.
“Yeah, did the same happen to you?”
“Ha! Nope,” they said with a grin, hopping up and dusting off their lap for no apparent reason. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion.
“Uhh, okay… Why are you still here, then?” I asked, trying to be polite.
“Why not? Anyways,” they said, walking over to me. “You walking home?”
“Y- Uh, yeah? I suppose.” The longer this conversation went on, the more confused I was getting. What sort of person would have this casual of a conversation with a complete stranger? And why me of all people?
“Great! Hope you don’t mind if I walk with you, then,” they said, strangely confident. “Lead the way!”
If I had known then how much of an impact this strange kid would have, I would like to think that my common sense would have possibly won the debate of whether or not walk home, but I know it wouldn’t have. It didn’t then, either. And so, I started walking.
For a while, we just walked in silence, and this strange kid seemed to have no intention of talking to me further. Why are you even here, then? Unfortunately, my shy kid exterior must have gotten to my brain and I couldn’t think of any good way to start the conversation. Which, in and of itself, was strange. Normally I had a ton of thoughts swirling around this head of mine that I had to keep contained. I shrugged it off and decided to just say whatever came to my head next.
“I, uh, didn’t catch your name,” I asked, though it was technically a statement. As I spoke, I turned my head to face them and smiled, the polite, fake smile you would use when talking to someone you dislike but have to be nice to. Due to (primarily) frequent use, I had perfected this smile so it looked almost identical to my real smile.
“That would be because I never said it,” they replied, smiling back at me, and I could tell that theirs was genuine.
“O-kay, could you tell me your name, then?”
“I can, but you won’t like it!” They still seemed rather cheery, but I was starting to get annoyed by their replies.
“And why would that be?” I asked, dropping the fake smile. If they were going to be difficult, I was going to be difficult, as well.
“I…” they said, pausing dramatically, “am unnamed!” They grinned and did a little spin.
My first thought about that was “Did they seriously just spin? How hard are they trying to act silly?” Then I realized what they had just said.
“You… don’t have a name? Isn’t that… illegal?” My mind was racing, trying to understand what they meant. It appeared that they were being entirely serious, not just being sarcastic. And before you say, “How could you tell? They could just be really good at keeping a straight face,” no, they could not. One of my main skills is being able to tell what people’s intentions are. Happy, or just faking? Sad, or just faking? Telling the truth, or just faking? I can tell at least 95% of the time. So I could tell that this kid was being entirely truthful that they did indeed not have a name.
“Woowww, I’m shocked you know that! Someone is interested in laws!” They laughed, stopping walking and turning towards me.
“It is illegal to not have a name, HOWEVER,” they said, holding up a finger to cut off my response, “There are two things that make that law not apply to me. First off, laws kinda don’t apply to beings external to the mortal plane, and second—”
“Excuse me, what? What do you mean ‘external to the mortal plane’? I mean, sure, supernatural stuff, whatever, that may or may not be real, right. But I feel like I wouldn’t be able to perceive you if you—”
“Please hold all questions and comments until the end,” they said, cutting off my rambling. “I was going to explain that later, so just chill. Now, where was I?” They paused for a second, seemingly trying to remember, eyebrows furrowed. Their face cleared and they continued, “Ah, right! Second, since not having a name is kinda annoying, my name is actually… Unnamed! I probably could have used clearer language, but that would’ve ruined the fun, ya know?” They smiled. “Now, what was it you were asking me?”
Now having had more time to process this, I stayed more composed as I talked this time. “What do you mean by external to the mortal plane? Wouldn’t that make it impossible for me to see you?”
“You know, that’s what I thought, too. Evidently, that’s not the case. Most people can’t, but you’re just built different, I guess.”
“Right…” I wasn’t really buying it. It seemed like they believed what they were saying, but it was possible they were just confused. “So… what exactly does that mean? Like…” I tried to figure out a way to phrase it without sounding offensive. “What… are you?”
They laughed. “That is a good question that I only partially know the answer to. I’m a spirit/ghost thingy, I unfortunately can’t be any more specific than that.”
“Okay…” I wasn’t big on supernatural stuff, so that was good enough for me. In fact, I wasn’t even aware of any more specific categories for spirits/ghosts at that time! “Do other spirits know more specific categorizations for themselves?”
“Yeah, I just don’t really fit the bill for any of the types. And I don’t care enough to do a bunch of stuff to try and find out!” They were trying to appear happy and nonchalant still, but it was obvious that this was something that bothered them. Not wanting to upset them, I hastily changed the subject.
“You said that others couldn’t see you, so how did you know that I’d be able to?” Realizing that we were just standing still, I started walking again as I said this.
“Well, we’ve interacted with each other before.”
“We have?”
“Not really, but you avoided me in the hall, so that meant you knew I was there.”
“Oh… cool” It was clear that this was a big thing for them, but I really couldn’t remember it at all. At this, we both kind of fell into an awkward silence as we walked.