Wally Clark

**Wally Clark** is a lovable ghost from the 1980s who was a star high school football player in his glory days.

## History

### Football Career and Death

Wally began playing football because his mother wanted him to play. At one game, his coach benched him so he could rest his knee, but his mother told him his coach didn't know anything and he couldn't get a scholarship if he wasn't playing. She encouraged him to get the coach to put him back in.

Wally was later killed in a football tackle at the homecoming game his senior year when his neck snapped. He says he never made it off the field.

### Maddie's Death

When Maddie Nears died, Charley brought her to the Split River High Afterlife Support Group. Later, Wally found her and introduced himself. She said she was trying to fill some gaps in her memory and he offered to help. While talking to Wally, Maddie realized she had her backpack and phone with her when she died, but didn't have those items with her in death. He said it might be good that she didn't remember everything, as he sometimes wished he could forget. Maddie asked Wally to help her by forcing a confession out of someone, but he told her he couldn't do that. When Maddie questioned Rhonda joking about her death, Wally said Maddie should find it encouraging, as it meant she'd eventually be able to joke about her own death.

### The Drowning Swimmer

Wally and the other ghosts were relaxing by the school pool when one of the swimmers, Ava, hit her head on the side of the pool and started drowning. The ghosts all watched as Claire Zomer pulled Ava out of the pool and successfully preformed CPR.

### Field Day

When Mr. Martin sensed that Maddie was struggling with being stuck at the school, he suggested they move up their annual field day, in which they went to the field at the school and destroyed things. Wally was very excited about this and tried to get Maddie excited about it as well. When she didn't get excited, Wally drove up to her with a golf cart and had her get in the driver's seat. He cheered her on as she ran into things and explained that field day was about taking out their frustrations on the high school.

### Continued Investigation and Movie Night

While the group was planning a movie night, Maddie came in and said she wanted to figure out why Mr. Anderson told someone he'd given Maddie money. She asked the group what they knew about Mr. Anderson and was upset when they said they didn't know anything about him. They continued talking about movie night and Wally was upset to learn that Charley didn't actually love the sports movies Wally kept picking. Later, he and Charley went through the library, but Charley continued to reject all the sports movies Wally suggested.

Maddie decided to ask the other ghosts in the building for help, so Charley, Wally, and Rhonda told her their names and where they hung out. While they were talking, Wally and Rhonda were shocked to see Simon come in and speak to Maddie. They went out to the bus stop, where they watched her talk to Simon and then confronted her about not telling them he could see her. They realized that Charley knew and started arguing with him about not telling them.

Wally and Rhonda couldn't figure out why Simon could see Maddie when no one could ever see any of them, then they watched as the police took Simon in for questioning. When Maddie discovered that the school's mascot had been changed from devils to bandits, she asked them about it. Rhonda explained that after the marching band bus crashed, some people said the devil was to blame. The survivors refused to wear their old uniforms anyway, so they changed the mascot and got new uniforms. Maddie thanked them and said she'd tell Mr. Martin and the others about Simon, but they told her she shouldn't. They then watched as Maddie talked to Mina, who haunted the theater after being crushed by a stage light. Mina told her that Mr. Anderson came in often and worked in a room below the stage. They all went down there and found devil patches by a sewing machine, as well as an invoice for new band uniforms that Mr. Anderson had signed. Maddie decided to have Simon call and find out if Mr. Anderson had actually paid for the uniforms. They learned that instead of buying new uniforms, he'd just replaced the patches on the old ones and pocketed the money that had been raised.

At movie night, they watched Charley's pick Ghost. Wally cried and said it was better than Rudy.

### Homecoming

As Homecoming approached, Wally got himself hyped up. When Maddie asked about him dying at the Homecoming game, he said that was true. He was running and then he heard his neck snap. It didn't hurt, but he hated that he didn't die in the end zone so he could give his mom another win. And every year, his mother still comes to the game. At the game, he pointed her out to Maddie and said she always left a seat open next to her and he believed it was meant to be his. He also told her that he played football because his mom wanted him to, not because he enjoyed it. Maddie told him he didn't need to keep doing what she wanted and he could do whatever he wanted instead. While he watched the game, he remembered his mother pushing him to play even when his coach had benched him. He decided to take off his jersey and leave. He thanked Maddie for helping him get free and then asked her to go to the Homecoming dance with him as friends. She said yes.

Wally picked Maddie up for the dance in a gold cart and gave her a corsage made of paper with his football number on it. At the dance, Wally pulled Maddie onto the floor to dance with him.

Later, Wally danced on his own to Steppin' Out. After that dance, he told Maddie he was Homecoming King his senior year and the votes were in before he died. When he saw that Maddie was distracted, he said it was a bad idea for them to come together, because she wasn't ready to be dead. Despite this, she later found him outside and apologized, then kissed him.

### Anti-Séance

Wally and the other ghosts decided to help Maddie recover her memory of the day she'd died. They had Maddie eat a burrito, her last meal, and sang the last song she heard before she died, but it didn't help. Dawn suggested trying an anti-séance and Maddie agreed to try it.

The anti-séance didn't end up helping Maddie as she was unable to conjure a memory. It did, however, help Dawn, who recounted the day she'd died. Later, Rhonda, Charley, and Wally were looking for Maddie when the lights flickered and they realized it was Dawn crossing over. They didn't remember that happening when Janet left. They then found Maddie, who said she needed to talk to her mom because she thought her mom might have killed her.

### Discovering the Truth

Charley and Wally questioned Mr. Martin about Dawn crossing over and how it differed from Janet's. They wondered if looking back at their lives would actually help them instead of hurting them. Mr. Martin said it hurt too much to look back and told them he died in a fire a student started when he turned his back at the wrong moment. He was able to save his class but not himself and it haunted him. He also told them he didn't have any more answers for them.

Wally went to Maddie and asked her about being with Dawn right before she crossed over. Maddie said she'd just told Dawn that she didn't deserve to be treated as she had been. She thought Dawn had just finally heard what she needed to hear. She also admitted she was scared of learning the truth about her own death. Wally said she was the one who encouraged him to face his fears and they hugged.

Wally then went with Charley to start looking into the past for clues about what had happened. They discovered that Mr. Martin had died in a fire like he said, but a student had also died: Janet Hamilton. They also learned that a fallout shelter was built in the place of the old lab. They went down to the shelter and found notebooks where Mr. Martin had been taking notes on them. They also found an article that stated that surviving students said that Mr. Martin had started the fire. Rhonda discovered them and told them to let it go. She also showed them that Mr. Martin had a collection of items that were with them when they died. Soon after that, they learned they were trapped. Both exits were blocked. Maddie found them, but couldn't get inside. They told her not to trust Mr. Martin, not knowing Mr. Martin was already watching her.

## Relationships

### Romantic

Wally has strong feelings for Maddie Nears. He kissed her at the homecoming Dance.

### Familial

Wally started to play football for his mother, it was her idea.

His parents donated a new scoreboard to the school after he died.

## Notes and Trivia

* The school's football stadium was named after him.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Grave the Last Dance
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Twilight End Zone
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 My So-Called Death
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Fault of Our Scars
5. ↑ Dead and Confused
6. ↑ Ghoul Intentions
7. ↑ Séance Anything
8. ↑ Madison's Body