13 Ghost Stories in 13 Days

Die School Musical

10 min readJun 21, 2021

The two most popular guys in school tossed a lacrosse ball around the cemetery and talked of ways they could make their last semester more epic.

“We could park the principal’s car on the roof,” Nixon suggested.

“Did that last year,” Thad answered.

Nixon whipped a lacrosse ball toward Thad, who caught it easily.

“We could steal our rival school mascot and put him in a steel box with a radioactive isotope, setting up a Schrodinger’s Wildcat situation in which the kid that plays Wally Wildcat is neither alive nor dead,” Nixon said.

“That’s not epic enough,” Thad said, unimpressed.

Nixon tossed the lacrosse ball toward a mausoleum, where it seemed Thad would be unable to reach it. Thad casually stuck out his stick and made the catch look easy. Nixon frowned.

“We need something seriously epic,” Thad said.

“Maybe your days of doing epic things are over,” Nixon said. “Maybe don’t have it in you. Maybe you’ve gone … lame stream.”

Nixon whipped a pass at Thad’s head. Thad was so worked up about being called lamestream that he reacted too late. The ball knocked him in the head he collapsed onto the well-maintained grave of a beautiful young woman.

Thad woke up to find Nixon poking him with a lacrosse stick.

“Dude, I was messing around,” Nixon said. “You’re not lame stream.”

Thad rolled over and looked at the grave next to him.

“Am I dead?” he asked.

“Nah. But this chick is.” Nixon said, analyzing the picture on the gravestone. “Shame. She was a babe. Our age, too. Damn.”

Thad looked years on the gravestone.

“She died 50 years ago this very night,” he said.

Nixon scooped the lacrosse ball and thoughtfully began to cradle it.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Nixon asked.

“Life is fleeting and we should stop wasting it on petty high school nonsense?” Thad asked.

Nixon pretended to toss the lacrosse ball into Thad’s face.

“Dang, how hard did I hit you?” he said. “Nah. What I’m thinking is that we dig this little lady up. Bring her back to life. And then we make ourselves a little wager. A truly epic bet.”

“I’m listening,” Thad said.

“I bet you there’s no way you could make this dead chick prom queen,” Nixon said.

Thad rubbed the bump on his head and glared at Nixon.

“Sorry dude,” he said. “Necrophilia is not really my thing.”

“I didn’t say anything about that,” Nixon said. “But whatever happens on prom night is none of my business. That’s cool, though. Maybe you really are lame stream…”

Thad took his lacrosse stick and stuck it into the dirt in front of the grave.

“Start digging,” he said.

Hours later, they had finished using their lacrosse sticks to dig up the dead girl. They opened the casket. Her corpse was lying with her arms folded, wearing a beautiful pink dress.

“She’s ready for prom already,” Nixon said. “This is gonna be too easy for you.”

“What do we do now?” Thad asked.

Nixon went into the pocket of his North Face and pulled out some candles. He rolled his eyes into his back of his head and started muttering incantations in Latin.

“Bro,” Thad said. “Where did you learn Latin?”

Thad stopped.

“It’s to help me with my SATs dickhead,” he said. “Now please. Don’t interrupt. If I do this wrong it can get very … messy.”

Nixon continued his incantations, A cold wind swept across the cemetery. They felt the ground shaking. The lights of the candles blew out.

Thad pulled out his cellphone and shined it toward the grave. She was gone.

“If we can’t find the body, you lose the bet,” Nixon said.

“That’s not — ”

They were cut off by a girl’s voice behind them.

“Chester?” she said. “Is that you?”

They turned around. The dead girl stood in front them. She shielded her eyes from the glow of the cell phone. Her skin had shrivelled and worms crawled out from where nose should be, but she was walking and talking and it was clear to Thad that Nixon was right. She had definitely once been a babe.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Thad said.

“What worked?” the girl said. “Where’s Chester?”

“We don’t know any Chester,” Nixon said. “I’m Nixon Reagan and this is Thad Kuhl. We’re the coolest guys at Devil’s Creek High.”

“Neat,” the girl said. “I’m Betsy.”

They helped Betsy into the back of Thad’s Jeep Wrangler and drove her to a party at the meanest girl in school’s house. They pulled up, music blasting. Kids were doing keg stands on the front lawn. They greeted Thad and Nixon with high fives. Jamie St. James, the meanest girl in school, and Thad’s former girlfriend, met them at the door.

“Thad, you came,” she said. “And you brought… A girl that’s been dead for 50 years that you dug up in the cemetery?”

Betsy looked confused.

“Very funny, Jamie,” Thad said. Then he turned to Betsy. “Don’t listen to her. She just acts like this because her dad left her mom for his old army buddy.”

Jamie gave Thad the middle finger and stormed away.

The party was epic. They did a choreographed dance to a song by the Weeknd and it went viral on TikTok. They played beer pong together and Betsy sunk the winning cup, her finger flying off with the final toss. At the end of the night, everyone jumped into the pool. Betsy was too afraid.

“I can’t swim,‘ she said.

“That’s all right,” Thad said. “I’ll stay out here with you.”

Jamie St. James came up to them, holding up her cell phone.

“She’s just afraid to go in the water because she’s been dead for 50 years and she’s going to decompose,” Jamie said. She pointed to her cell phone. “I found the article. Betsy Banks. Died on prom night. 50 years ago this very night.”

Thad turned to his cruel ex-girlfriend.

“That’s enough, Jamie! Can’t you not be a jealous thot for one night?”

But it was too late. Betsy started crying. Tears flowed straight out of her eye sockets. She ambled through the party, dragging her right leg behind her.

Thad ran out and met her in the street.

“Betsy, wait,” he said. “Let’s go back in there.”

She stopped at the edge of the street.he

“Why?” she said. “So they can all laugh at me? You know what they say about me is true, right? I have been dead for 50 years. I remember the accident vividly. I still feel it in every aching bone.”

“No one’s gonna laugh at you,” Thad said. “You’ll be with me.”

Betsy looked up.

“Yeah right,” he said. “You’re just going to grow tired of me and move on with your life and stop visiting my grave after 27 years like my last boyfriend did.”

Thad paused.

“Whoa,” he said. “27 years is a really long time to spend mourning at your high school girlfriend’s grave. That dude really loved you.”

Betsy looked up at him.

“You think?” she said.

“Oh totally,” Thad said. “Like seriously. That’s honestly nuts. We should find him.”

“Oh, Chester’s long gone now,” she said. “But I don’t care anymore. I have you, right?”

“Totally,” Thad said. He ran his fingers through his long lax bro hair. He was more nervous than he thought would be. “Listen, Betsy. I wanted to ask if you, maybe, wanted to go to prom with me?”

Betsy draped her cold dead arms around Thad’s neck.

“I think that sounds so neat,” she said.

Prom night approached and it seemed like Thad was a slam dunk to win the bet. Everyone in school loved Betsy. She was sweet, kind, and could vividly recall the day John F. Kennedy was shot.

“They let us leave school early,” she would say.

“Wicked,” was the usual reply.

Thad was falling in love with her. She was smarter than the other girls in school, probably because she had 50 years to reflect on childish things. And she made him laugh. He gave her his lacrosse jacket and he soon forgot all about the bet.

Nixon Regain was the best midfielder in the entire county. He didn’t lose on the lacrosse field and he didn’t lose bets. On prom night, he knew he had one last chance.

He put on his best suit and knocked on the door of the mausoleum that Betsy had been staying in since they reanimated her. He held a bouquet of black roses. The mausoleum door creaked open. He walked in. Betsy sat in a stone chair, surrounded by dozens of lit candles. One of the artsy girls in school was inside fixing her hair and makeup. Betsy turned around. She looked beautiful. You could hardly tell she’d been dead for 50 years. Nixon swallowed hard.

“I got you these funeral flowers,” Nixon said. “I think we need to talk.”

And then he told her everything. How he raised her from the dead. How Betsy was nothing but a bet.

When he left, Nixon paused to look in the mausoleum window. Betsy had set Thad’s lacrosse jacket on fire.

Thad waited for her at the gates of the cemetery. She looked beautiful and shivered in her prom dress.

“Why aren’t you wearing my lacrosse jacket?” Thad asked.

“Set it on fire,” she said, pushing past him, her cold dead arm sending a chill down his spine.

“But why?” Thad asked.

Betsy spun around. Her bones creaked.

“Is there anything you want to tell me about the night you and Nixon Reagan raised me from the dead?” she asked

Thad paused.

“Betsy, listen…”

“Am I a b — b” she said. “Am I a b — b — ” She started coughing. Something rotten flew out from deep within her body. She cleared her throat. “Am I a bet?”

“Yes,” he said. “No? I don’t know.”

Betsy turned to leave.

“Yes, it all started as a bet, but when I took that bet I swear I didn’t really think Nixon could raise the dead,” That said.

“He’s been taking Latin to help his SATs since first grade, of course he can raise the dead, Thad.”

“But it became so much more,” Thad said. “Betsy. I love you.”

“Cry about it at my funeral,” she said.

Thad stood unhappily in the back of the gym as the principal announced the prom king. Nixon Reagan. Everyone cheered. Thad tried to boo, but he was drowned out.

Prom queen was announced next. Betsy Banks. Everyone cheered as Betsy took the stage. Nixon held her hand up as everyone cheered. Betsy tried to look for Thad. Nixon grabbed her and kissed her.

Suddenly, Nixon turned white.

“I forgot as part of the curse if anyone untrue tries to kiss her, he dies,” Nixon said. Then he collapsed to the ground.

Betsy pushed through the crowd to find Thad.

“I guess I’m cursed,” she said.

“Hi cursed,” Thad said. “I’m sorry.”

Betsy rolled her eyes so hard it literally fell out of the socket. He helped her put it back in.

“Can you forgive me,” Thad said. “I learned a lot about life this week. It’s fleeting and it’s important that — ”

He was cut off as the back door of the gym flew open. An old man with a cane ambled in. He wore a jeff cap and his eyes sparkled like those of someone much younger.

“Chester?” Betsy said.

The man walked slowly forward with his cane.

“Betsy,” he said. “I needed to see with my own eyes. I waited by your grave for 27 years.”

“Where were you the last 23?” she said, unimpressed.

“I got old,” he said. “I got tired. Can you ever forgive me?”

Thad cleared his throat. “Uh, listen bro, I’m kind of in the middle of my own forgiveness speech here. So if you could just give us a second.”

Chester whacked him with his cane. Thad yelped out in pain.

“Betsy please,” Chester said. “We can finally be together.”

Betsy looked up at him. Tears welled from her eye socket, washing her makeup away and making her once again look very dead.

“No,” she said. “I can’t. I’m sorry Chester.”

“That’s right,” Thad said, stepping putting his arm around Betsy. “She’s with me.”

“No, Thad. I’m not.” Betsy pulled away.

The rest of the students gasped. They all really thought she would choose Thad. He was the most popular guy in school and really good at lacrosse. She turned to address them.

“Being underground for so long, I realized some things. It doesn’t matter if you’re a lax bro, or the meanest girl in school, or the prom queen, or a girl who died 50 years ago this very night. This high school stuff doesn’t matter. If I stay here I’ll never be more than Thad Kuhl’s girlfriend or Chester’s dead prom queen. I’m going to make something of myself. I’m going to college.”

She reached down to Nixon’s dead body and grabbed the keys to his Wrangler. She paused at the back door.

“Take care of yourself Thad,” she said.

Thad watched her walk into the parking lot and struggle to start the Wrangler. Jamie St. James, the meanest girl in school, came up beside him.

“Where’s she going?” Betsy asked.

“To live her life,” Thad said.

They both watched as she finally got the Wrangler started and pulled it in reverse, slamming into one of the teacher’s cars.

“So I took Latin with Nixon,” Jamie said. “And the curse wears off the second she leaves the boundaries of the town. She’ll be a pile of bones before morning.”

Thad watched her drive into the distance until he could no longer see the Jeep. He hoped he’d meet Betsy again someday, but not for a long time.

He turned back to his classmates and to Chester.

“Is this a prom or a funeral?” he said. “Let’s start dancing.”

The only rule of 13 Ghost Stories in 13 Days is that the story must be posted the same night I started writing it.

13 Ghost Stories in 13 Days

Die School Musical

Written by Mark Macyk