Afterlife Academy by Jaimie Admans

no idea what that was
anyway.”
    “I was a bit worried about
having to catch up,” he continues excitedly. “But it’s good that we’re all at
the same level.”
    This boy really likes maths.
    “So, what do you have this
afternoon?” I cut in before he starts going on about the joys of quadratic
equations.
    “Visualisation,” he says. “Same
as you, right?”
    I nod. I don’t tell him that I
really, really want to visualise Wade.
    “You wanna see your folks?” he
asks me.
    I shrug.
    “I don’t,” he says. “I’d rather
wait until after the funeral is over and that. I bet my gran is in a right
state now. I don’t think it would do me any good to see her.”
    I nod.
    But I have to see Wade. I have
to know how bad his injuries are so I know how long it will be before he can
come and rescue me.
    “Hey, Ant! Over here!” some boy
yells as we walk into the canteen.
    Anthony smiles and waves at him.
“I’ll catch ya later,” he yells back.
    I look over at the boy. It’s not
Anthony’s roommate. It must be someone else he’s made friends with.
    Huh.
    Anthony’s made a new friend.
    I’m about to say something
sarcastic when another boy waves at Anthony and beckons him over.
    Anthony waves back but moves his
hand in a “no” motion.
    We walk closer to the food line
and yet another boy shouts at us.
    “Anthony, man, sit with us!” He
thumps the seat beside him and again Anthony smiles and waves but says no.
    Other people wave to Anthony as
we pass. When we join the lunch queue, a boy near the front turns round and
says that we can cut in front of him.
    “It’s okay, thanks Scott,”
Anthony says sweetly.
    Huh.
    Anthony made new friends.
Anthony made a lot of new friends.
    Anthony is popular.
    That’s a bit of a turn-up for
the books.
    I get that he’s kind of a nice
guy if you give him a chance. And he wouldn’t be bad-looking if you gave his
hair a trim and changed his glasses for contact lenses. But he still loves
maths, has a scientific calculator in his front pocket, and he’s still a geek.
    And people like him.
    Even I like him a little bit. I
mean, the long hair is kind of cute, and if you tilt your head the right way,
the glasses could be considered adorable. He’s not perfect, but maybe perfect
is overrated. After all, Wade was perfect, and he bloody got me killed, didn’t
he?
    We collect our lunch from
Narcissa. She smiles and winks when she sees me with Anthony and puts another
tub of ice cream on my tray. If this was the real world I would weigh a ton by
now.
    Anthony and I sit at the same
table we sat at yesterday.
    “So… someone got popular,” I say
as we sit down.
    He blushes and starts unwrapping
his sandwich.
    “Did I miss something major this
morning?” I ask.
    “Nothing,” he says. “But things
are different here. People think I’m cool because I know the answers in maths.
And hey, no one stole my glasses.”
    I know I look guilty at that
because he quickly backpedals and says, “I’m only joking.”
    “You can go and sit with those
boys if you want,” I say to him. “You don’t have to eat with me just because
you feel sorry for me.”
    “I don’t. I kind of like eating
with you.”
    I find it totally cute that he
blushes again when he says that. I can’t help but smile at him.
    “So you’re popular and I’m the
outsider,” I mutter. “This really is a screwed-up dimension.”
    He shrugs. “You just need to get
more involved. So far all you’ve done is sit around and moan that you’re not
supposed to be here.”
    “I’m not,” I say.
    “Just make the best of it,” he
says. “No one wants to die. But for some people this is a fresh start. Maybe
you should look at it the same way.”
    “I really don’t need a lecture
from you of all people,” I snap.
    “Fine,” he says, holding up his
hands in surrender. “But I think the teachers are right. I don’t think you can
go back. I think you just have to accept what’s happened to you and move