My cell rang at ten till six. Jess was talking before I could even say hello.

"So what are you wearing, the dress or the butt jeans?" she asked, sounding nearly as breathless as I felt.

This was it: the first night of the rest of my life, the beginning of my social ascension at Carol High School. Pom squad try-outs were a couple of weeks away, but it looked like I was going to be accepted into the ranks of the trendy and gorgeous even before I was issued my official Cougar Pride dance team uniform.

I'd scored a date with the hottest guy in school over a Bunsen burner in junior chem. I was a year ahead and Mr. Hottie a year behind, but it was clearly fate--and not smarts or a lack thereof--that had made us lab partners.

"The dress," I said, taking one final spin in front of my mirror. "The one with the yellow and brown flowers."

"Yellow and brown? I thought they were red."
 
"Nope. Remember, it's the one we got at--"

"Take a picture and send it to my email," she said. "The stepmonster is still borrowing my phone until hers is fixed, but I'm online and--"

The doorbell rang and I did my best to stifle a squeal of excitement. "He's here!" Josh Pickle--lame last name, but trust me, he's studly enough to pull it off--was really here to pick me, Megan Berry, only marginally cool sophomore, up for a date!

"Okay, go! But IM as soon as you get home. I want to hear everything!"

"Will do. Bye," I said, already halfway to the front door. I had to get there before my parents. Dad was wearing his weird "who flung poo?" monkey pajama pants and could not be allowed to interact with anyone. Therefore, I could not afford to play it cool and make my senior sex god wait at least a few seconds so it didn't seem like I'd raced to the door like a total loser.

But whatever, Josh had to know I was into him. It's not like I was very good at hiding my feelings where he was concerned and he'd still asked me out.

"Right. Deep breath," I whispered, my biggest smile on my face before I'd even opened the door. "Hey, give me just a sec and--"

Oh. My. God. There was a dead person on my porch.

Again.

My flesh crawled and my stomach threatened a second showing of the seven-layer salad we'd had for dinner.

"Mom!" I screamed, barely able to force out the word through the massive, softball-sized lump in my throat. I slammed the door in the guy's face, and fumbled with the lock, doing my best not to hyperventilate.

This could not be happening! Josh was supposed to be ringing my doorbell, not some dead guy.

It was a guy right?

I opened the door just a crack. Yep. Definitely a dude. The shoulder length hair had thrown me for a second. The fact that his face was half covered in grave dirt--eww!--didn't help things either. At least he hadn't decomposed...much. He must be a fairly recent member of the Unsettled.

"What is it, Megan? Dad and I were right in the middle of--Oh my god!" Mom spied the dead guy and jumped about a foot in the air, then turned and raced back into the kitchen. She emerged seconds later with a bunch of newspapers and began spreading them on the floor near the front door.

Deja vu hit like a ton of bricks. It was suddenly as if the past five years hadn't happened, as if I hadn't been zombie-free and normal long enough to lull me into thinking that freedom was permanent. Even with the creepy dreams I'd been having lately, I'd never thought my powers were coming back. After the attack, my entire family had assumed I was done with Settling the Dead.

But the guy on the porch, the newspaper on the floor to catch the dirt... God, it was so horribly familiar I expected to look down and find myself wearing the Hello Kitty pajamas I so loved when I was ten.

"Invite him in, Megan. I'll go get the record book. I'm sure I stuck it somewhere in the walk-in." My mom brushed her long brown hair out of her eyes and shot me an excited smile. She was excited about this! Excited I was once again one of the freakiest kids in the Midwest.

"No way, Mom. Josh could be here any second. I'm not going to do this tonight!" Or any night if I had my say about it, but no need to go there just yet. I knew my mom considered our family's legacy as Settlers of the Dead something wonderful, a vital paranormal service to those recently troubled in death and blah blah blah.

"Megan Amanda Berry. You invite that boy in. Now. That is a person out there, a person in need of your help, and--"

"I know it's a person mom, but it's a dead person. His life is already over. Mine doesn't have to be."

"Megan--"

"Seriously, my life will be over if Josh shows up for our first date and sees a corpse in the entryway." I used my most reasonable tone, and willed her with wide brown eyes to take pity on me in my moment of desperation. I mean, couldn't she understand the position I was in? Everyone felt sorry for the kid in The Sixth Sense, and he was the only one who could see the dead people. Creepy, yes, but at least he didn't have to worry about a zombie tailing him to softball practice and scaring half the population of Carol, Arkansas.

"Well then, you'd better hurry and take his statement before Josh gets here." She disappeared into the kitchen, no doubt on her way to her and Dad's room to look for the Book of Unsettled Records. I'd thought I was done with that thing after what happened, after that night--

Even with the humid air streaming into the house, I shivered. I didn't want to think about that night. Not now. Not ever. The dreams were bad enough.