A teacher told me once
That I am the ghost of my school.

He said this because I do what I like-
Walking through halls during class, getting odd schedules, skirting the outside boundaries of events.

But always quiet. I do what I like,
but I do not cause trouble.

But the way he said it,
and his expression after he'd said it,

made me wonder how much he knew
at the time.

I guess it was always pretty obvious, once tiny red lines began to crawl onto my skin
And fade away again.

When I had to be excused from class
With a red face and shaky shoulders

When I wasn't at school for a week with no explanation,
only to return three months after break ended as if nothing had happened at all.

I still get called a ghost, sometimes,
but I heard him tell another teacher that he regretted saying it at all

Because he'd heard what I did over winter break,
and how close I had come to becoming a real ghost.