Rhonda

**Rhonda** is a ghost who was killed by her guidance counselor.

## History

### Death

Rhonda was killed by her guidance counselor, Mr. Manfredo. According to Rhonda, Mr. Manfredo was the nicest man she'd ever met. He cared about her in a way her parents never did. He encouraged her to do well and set her up to do well in the world. However, when she got her acceptance letter to Berkeley and went to show him, he changed. He got angry with her because he thought they were something other than what she did. She went to leave his office, but he killed her via strangulation.

### Maddie's Death

After her death, Rhonda joined the Split River High Afterlife Support Group, led by Mr. Martin with the goal of all of them eventually crossing over, which a member named Janet had recently done. When Maddie Nears died, Charley brought her to join their group. Rhonda asked her how she died and the whole group was surprised to find she didn't know, as everyone else in their group remembered their own deaths.

When Maddie came back to the group and said she needed them to scare a confession out of someone, they told her they couldn't do that. Maddie left the group in anger, but came back while they were discussing literature and Rhonda's death. Maddie was surprised to hear Rhonda joking about it, but they said Maddie should find it encouraging that they were all able to joke about their deaths.

Rhonda and Maddie both slept in the teachers' lounge. When they woke up to teachers coming in and out, Rhonda told her that it was the place where teachers let their guard down and they could learn all about them. When the teachers started talking about Maddie, Rhonda said it wouldn't be long before they moved on, just like they had when Rhonda herself died. When the police questioned the staff about Mr. Manfredo, the guidance counselor who killed her, no one would say a single bad thing about him.

Rhonda and the other ghosts were relaxing by the school pool when Ava, one of the swimmers, hit her head on the side of the pool and nearly drowned. They watched as Claire Zomer pulled Ava out of the pool and did 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. When Charley talk to Maddie, he sent her to talk to Rhonda. Maddie asked Rhonda for her story with the guidance counselor. Rhonda told her the story, which involved Mr. Manfredo, whom she loved and trusted, turning on her and killing her.

### 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.

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.

The ghosts then had their movie night, where they watched Ghost, which Charley chose. Mr. Martin was shocked to see Rhonda join them, as she usually boycotted movie nights. She said she'd been there for 60 years and needed to get out of there. She asked him to help her the same way he'd helped Janet.

### Homecoming

Rhonda worked with the other ghosts to decorate for Homecoming, an annual tradition to allow Wally to relive his glory days. Rhonda participated under the instructions of Mr. Martin and their plan to allow her to cross over. At the game, she told Mr. Martin she was ready to do whatever it took. As they watched, Mr. Martin noticed Maddie watching Claire and asked Rhonda about it. She said she had no idea what it was about, so Mr. Martin asked her to keep an eye on Maddie because he worried she was straying from the path.

Rhonda helped Maddie find a dress for the Homecoming Dance, to which she was going with Wally. At the dance, Rhonda asked Maddie where her date was, but Maddie was distracted by following Claire and Xavier. Rhonda later left the dance to look for something.

### Anti-Séance

Rhonda 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.

Mr. Martin questioned Rhonda about them helping Maddie. He said that Maddie needed to get her feet firmly planted in the afterlife. He said he didn't think Rhonda was really prepared to cross over, though she insisted she was.

Rhonda went from there to the anti-séance, which 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

At the next meeting, Charley and Wally questioned Mr. Martin about Dawn crossing over and how it differed from Janet's. They thought that maybe looking into the past could actually help them move on, not hurt them. Mr. Martin firmly told them that looking back was too painful. He told them he died in a fire a student started when he turned his back for just a second. He was able to get his students out, but not himself. Rhonda said that made him a hero, but he still blamed himself. He told them he didn't have any more answers for them.

Charley went to Rhonda after the meeting and asked why she wasn't asking more questions as she was really trying hard to cross over. Rhonda brushed off his concerns, saying Charley was out of his depth.

Rhonda later discovered Wally and Charley in the fallout shelter, where they had discovered that Mr. Martin lied to them about the fire. Surviving students reported that he had started it and both he and Janet had died in the fire. He also had notes on all of them and things they had on them when they died. As they talked, they heard the door shut and realized they were trapped, with both exits blocked. When Maddie heard them calling for help, they warned her not to trust Mr. Martin, unaware that he was already watching her.

## Relationships

### Familial

She says her father was a pencil pusher who was barely home and her mother cared more about how their house looked than Rhonda.

## Notes and Trivia

* She's a fan of Jack Kerouac.
* She is a Beatnik.
* The last song she heard was "He's so Fine" by The Chiffons. This song came out in spring 1963, indicating she died around that time.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Grave the Last Dance
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Dead and Confused
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 My So-Called Death
4. ↑ The Fault of Our Scars
5. ↑ Ghoul Intentions
6. ↑ The Twilight End Zone
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Séance Anything
8. ↑ Madison's Body