text: [Themes: Mystery, Slice of life, Religious, Christianity, female protagonist, photography, mystery, ghosts, ghost hunt, cat, teenagers, teenage protagonist, church, religion]
  
  Casey glances around the newspaper office. "Orchid is gone, right?"
  
  "Yes, she left. Why do you ask?"
  
  "I wanted to give you this while she wasn't around." He hands you a thick, well-leafed notebook. "It's just kind of a guide kind of thing, with some general information and directions, just to help you get around. Don't let Orchid see it."
  
  "Are you sure I'll require so much background material? And why shouldn't Orchid see it?"
  
  "Well, Robin," Casey says, and he spins around a chair to sit on it backwards in what he surely thinks is a very casual and friendly pose, "Orchid is a church member, and you're not, and you missed the lock-in, so you don't have a lot of the context that Orchid has. I just wanted to put you on an even footing. And for your second question, I might have written some things in there that I wouldn't have said to Orchid's face."
  
  You nod, and slip the notebook into your backpack. "I'm sure you've adequately prepared me for my mission."
  
  "Yes, I have. You're welcome. No, wait, I've got one more thing to say. Make sure you take lots of pictures, obviously. It's your job. That's one." He starts counting on his fingers. "Um, it's more fun if you run off by yourself, so make sure you get Sharon off your back. That's two. And keep an open mind. I mean, just because you don't believe in ghosts doesn't mean you're not gonna see one.
  
  "So, yeah. That's three things."
  Robin & Orchid
  An exercise in photojournalism by Ryan Veeder & Emily Boegheim
  
  Sharon, in her wisdom, decided that everybody should sleep in this cramped corner of the church basement.
  
  Battered toys spill out of the toybox and across the floor, piling up in a corner of the room. Cupboards are mounted high on the walls, out of reach of tiny fingers, and an enormous blue recliner sits underneath them. It's already dark outside, and the doors west to the basement stairway and south are dark as well.
  
  Your sleeping bag is lying on a tidy patch of floor, ready for when you finish your investigation.
  
  Orchid is lounging around, lecturing you.
  
  "You'd better hold onto this," she says, handing you the camera, "you're the official photographer. Just don't forget, if you see something that might be evidence of a ghost, make sure you take a photo of it."
  
  You slip the camera strap around your neck.
  
  [Author's Note: High school journalists spend the night in a church, investigating reports of a ghost.]
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  Casey's notes
  a Polaroid camera (being worn)
  
  Orchid notices your notebook. "What's all that?" she asks.
  
  "Oh, Casey gave it to me. It's just some notes about things in the church."
  
  "Is there anything about me in there?"
  
  "I don't think so," you lie, and Orchid loses interest.
  
  > About yourself
  You are Robin Monaghan, high school junior, associate reporter for the West High Warbler. You are not overly fond of churches, and you have never claimed to believe in ghosts, but here you are.
  
  "Oh, and," Orchid adds, "don't turn the lights on while you're looking around unless you have to. Some ghosts won't appear unless it's dark, and we've only got tonight to gather all our evidence."
  
  > take a the photo of Orchid
  (with the Polaroid camera)
  You snap a picture of Orchid. The camera whirrs and vibrates and eventually spits out a print of the photo.
  
  Sharon stomps into the nursery. "There are supposed to be some blankets somewhere in this nursery," she says. "Robin, can you find them and grab them for me?" She looks thoughtfully at the child-sized cots scattered around the room.
  
  > examine sharon
  Sharon is the student teacher assisting the staff advisor for the West High Warbler. In the past the staff has always managed quite well without a student teacher, but she does come in handy as a chaperone for situations like this.
  
  "Okay, girls," she says. "Here's how this is going to work."
  
  > look at Orchid
  Orchid, like most girls your age, is taller than you. Her cheeks are covered in freckles that you had never seen before tonight; she must put makeup on over them for school. You have the uneasy feeling that there are more freckles on her left cheek than her right.
  
  She notices you examining her, and you look away.
  
  Sharon continues, "This is your story and your investigation, so don't expect me to be running around the church with you all night." She pushes one of the cots up against the wall.
  
  > read the notebook
  The notebook is thick, and as you flick through the pages, it looks like it's nearly full. Surely Casey didn't make notes about everything in the church? How long did he spend on this anyway?
  
  There's way too much information here to sit down and read it all at once, but you can look up anything you want to know about.
  
  Sharon pulls another of the cots toward her and lines it up with the first one. "I don't care if you stay up all night, tomorrow isn't a school day so it's not my problem if you're exhausted. Personally, I want my eight hours, though."
  
  > look up ghosts
  (in Casey's notes)
  [This action may cause some slight lag in the browser version of this game. We sincerely regret any inconvenience.]
  
  You flick through the notes and read Casey's scrawly handwriting: "I don't know how much you already know about the ghost in the church so I'll give you the whole story. Jennie Bancroft is the name of the ghost that haunts Grace United Methodist. She used to be alive, but then she died, in or around the church, sometime in the distant past. I keep meaning to look up when she died but I haven't had time.
  
  "When people see her, she looks like a teenage girl in pigtails. I don't think she shows up covered in blood or anything like that; she's just a sad girl. Obviously a lot of the time she's invisible though.
  
  "Some of the evidence that we have for her existence includes:
  
  - sounds of footsteps and a girl crying when nobody else is in the church
  - cold spots in rooms, rooms that suddenly become cold for no reason
  - stuff goes missing, then shows up again
  - you see someone at the end of the hallway but when you get to the end of the hallway there's nobody there
  - basically everybody has seen her out of the corner of their eye at some point
  
  "Debate continues on the subject of how Jennie died. Popular theories state that she jumped off of the church steeple, or she drank poison, or used a space heater to carbon monoxide herself. According to one explanation she died accidentally, because she was using a Ouija board, but that theory is idiotic. Jennie Bancroft definitely committed suicide, and it was definitely because of a boy she was in love with."
  
  Sharon continues, "So I'm going to stay here and sleep, and you two are going to get on with your investigating, and not wake me up unless there's a life-threatening emergency or something."
  
  > look up casey
  (in Casey's notes)
  You flick through the notes and read Casey's scrawly handwriting: "Dear Robin. I am Casey, your friend. I am writing to you from the past. Back here in the past it is very dark, but we have hope that you, in the future, will be able to rekindle the flame of enlightenment and lead us to wisdom. Have you seen a ghost yet? If you haven't seen a ghost, keep looking around until you do. Thanks. Sincerely, Casey."
  
  "Orchid, pass me that cot in the corner, will you?" Sharon asks.
  
  Orchid pulls a face but goes to get it.
  
  > look at the cot
  Each cot is composed of scratchy fabric stretched over an aluminum frame, and there is no way any of them could be very comfortable.
  
  "Just don't complain to me when you've spent the whole night ghost-hunting and have nothing to show for it. Thanks, Orchid." Sharon pushes the last cot into place alongside the other two and frowns at the result.
  
  > look up orchid
  (in Casey's notes)
  You flick through the notes and read Casey's scrawly handwriting: "Here's an anecdote about Orchid. This happened just recently. I didn't tell you, because I wanted to save it for here. Okay:
  
  "I'm at school after hours because of rehearsals. But we're still in the fairly lazy stage of the production, so there's lots of time to just goof off around the school. So while the underclassmen are sitting around in the hall running lines, I head up to the drama office, because there are donuts there.
  
  "But Orchid and Aiden Kingsley are already up in the office, and as soon as I poke my head in Orchid looks up and says 'Actors only, please!' and I'm like 'Actually, I am an actor,' and she says, 'Well, you know what I mean.'
  
  "No, Orchid! I do not have the slightest idea what you mean. I would have just grabbed a donut and left, but you're not allowed to take the donuts out of the drama office, so I just left.
  
  "I wouldn't say I hate Orchid. Hate is a very strong word. I completely hate Aiden, though."
  
  Sharon unrolls a thin mattress on top of the cots. "I expect the West High Warbler can find some other story to run if this one doesn't work out. It'll be a nuisance, though."
  
  > search the cupboards
  There are way too many cupboards, and you can't even see what's on the top shelves from here, much less reach them. Surely there's a better way to find out where the blankets are kept than just hunting through everything.
  
  > look up Sharon in the notebook
  You flick through the notes and read Casey's scrawly handwriting: "Why do people like Sharon want to become teachers? (By 'people like Sharon' I mean 'people who obviously hate everything about teaching, even and especially students'.) If you're already completely jaded and cynical after your first semester of student teaching, isn't that a sign that you should give up on K-12 education and possibly on life in general?"
  
  > look up the blankets
  (in Casey's notes)
  You flick through the notes and read Casey's scrawly handwriting: "What I heard is that you guys are going to sleep in the nursery, which doesn't make sense because there are couches in the youth rooms, but I guess those couches are pretty grody actually. I see your point. They keep some blankets up in the cupboards, but somebody as short as you is probably going to have to climb up on top of the recliner to reach them. No offense, Robin. I'm just saying. You're really short."
  
  Casey glances around the newspaper office. "Orchid is gone, right?"
  
  "Yes, she left. Why do you ask?"
  
  "I wanted to give you this while she wasn't around." He hands you a thick, well-leafed notebook. "It's just kind of a guide kind of thing, with some general information and directions, just to help you get around. Don't let Orchid see it."
  
  "Are you sure I'll require so much background material? And why shouldn't Orchid see it?"
  
  "Well, Robin," Casey says, and he spins around a chair to sit on it backwards in what he surely thinks is a very casual and friendly pose, "Orchid is a church member, and you're not, and you missed the lock-in, so you don't have a lot of the context that Orchid has. I just wanted to put you on an even footing. And for your second question, I might have written some things in there that I wouldn't have said to Orchid's face."
  
  You nod, and slip the notebook into your backpack. "I'm sure you've adequately prepared me for my mission."
  
  "Yes, I have. You're welcome. No, wait, I've got one more thing to say. Make sure you take lots of pictures, obviously. It's your job. That's one." He starts counting on his fingers. "Um, it's more fun if you run off by yourself, so make sure you get Sharon off your back. That's two. And keep an open mind. I mean, just because you don't believe in ghosts doesn't mean you're not gonna see one.
  
  "So, yeah. That's three things."