poses for Taylor's video. It's so much fun to have a gang to hang out with like this. I actually feel normal.
That is, until toward the end of the game, when I begin to sense spirit energy around us. I can feel it weaving among the people, as if it's seeking out someone in particular.
Jason interrupts my thoughts by knocking me on the arm and then pointing down at the cheerleaders. "Courtney looks like she's doing a striptease at the fifty-yard line."
I sit up. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, man. I don't know what kind of Kool-Aid she's been drinking. Check her out."
The team has just gotten a first down, and the cheerleaders are going crazy. Taylor moves toward the fence to get a better camera shot of Ryan. When several people in the crowd start mumbling and laughing, I see her spin the camera around on Courtney.
" What is she doing?" Clay asks.
I glance down at her. Instead of leading the cheer of "First and ten, do it again, go, go, go," she's looking down at her body, and—no, she did'unt!—she's feeling herself up! She's rubbing her own boobs like she's never felt them before.
"This is totally rental porn," I hear from some guy behind me.
And it just gets better. Next thing we know, she goes over to her bag and pulls out chewing tobacco. She begins to chaw away on it, spitting on the ground.
"Did she just grab herself between the legs like she's ... adjusting herself?" Celia asks with shock on her face.
Jason seems embarrassed for her. "It's like she's playing pocket hockey."
"Oh my God." She's lost her mind. I smack Jason on the leg. "Stop watching her!"
"Kendall, everyone is watching her."
It's true. I peer out onto the field, and even the safety for Hillside is so distracted by the sideline show that he totally misses Ryan when he sprints by him and into the end zone.
While the crowd erupts into cheers, I watch as Courtney takes her sweater off. Thank heavens the cheerleader sponsor is out on the field with a letter jacket and covers her up. What in the world would possess Courtney to do that? Then I stop my own thoughts at the word possess. My skin itches. Something's not right in suburbia.
"Kendall, are you all right?" Jason asks.
"We've got to gather the team and look at the video that Taylor's shooting."
He groans. "Not another investigation. Come on, Kendall."
"We have to, Jase."
The ghost huntresses have work to do.
Chapter Sixteen
"Roll it back, Taylor," I say Sunday afternoon, glued to the television set. We're all at Casa Nichols, spread out in Celia's room watching the video from the football game last night. Even Seamus, her bulldog, seems engrossed. "Watch what she does right there."
Sure enough, Courtney Langdon grabs her crotch in front of the several hundred people who have turned out to see RHS play Hillside.
"Why is she doing that?" Taylor asks. "Bless her heart."
Celia turns her eyes on Taylor. "Bless her nothing. She's a bitch."
Taylor's mouth falls open. "She's still a person, and she's making a fool out of herself."
I watch closer as Courtney keeps scanning around her, like she's seeing something in her peripheral vision. Then you can see her pompoms moving next to her; her head jerks quickly to see what's going on. She's definitely aware that something is around her.
Celia leans forward. "This is the best part. Watch this."
Riveted, we all stare glassy-eyed as Courtney throws down her pompoms and lets out what can only be described as a war cry and charges the field. Coaches nearby drop their clipboards as they dash off after the wayward cheerleader.
My mouth drops open. "What the hell?"
Taylor points. "Absolument incroyable! Absolutely unbelievable!"
This was the most bizarre occurrence of the night. As the players are shaking hands after the game, Courtney barrels into the crowd and completely tackles one of the visiting team's players. She starts pounding him with both of her fists until one of the RHS guys pulls her off him, her legs still flailing about.
"Holy shit. She's gone," Celia notes. "Is that your professional opinion?"
"She's off the chain. What's happened to her? Is she possessed?"
I think for a mo' and then say, "Not according to Loreen. Spin that back,Taylor." After the tape resets to where Courtney's looking around her like something's there, I explain. "See how she seems to be spotting something out of the corner of her eye? Well, that's more of a sign of an oppression than an actual possession. If she were possessed, she