Charley

**Charley** is a ghost who was Maddie's introduction to her new reality.

## History

### Dating Emilio and Death

Charley dated Emilio Figueroa in high school. They met soon after Emilio came to Split River as an exchange student while on a camping trip. The other students teased Charley for being gay, but Emilio encouraged Charley to come out anyway, believing he would feel better when he did. When Charley's parents asked him why he never dated anyone in front of Emilio, Emilio told them they were dating, believing that his parents already knew he was gay. Charley was furious and wrote Emilio a letter saying he never loved him and never wanted to see him again. Then he went to drown his sorrows in some French fries, which killed him because the school cafeteria cooked their French fries in peanut oil, to which he was allergic. He says hearing the jokes the other students made about the gay kid dying because he was allergic to nuts was worse than dying.

### Maddie's Death

When Maddie Nears died, Charley introduces her to the ins and outs of her new reality, including what she could and couldn't do as a ghost. He took her to the gym, where Mr. Martin, [[Rhonda, and Wally Clark were waiting. Mr. Martin welcomed her to the Split River High Afterlife Support Group. After the meeting, Charley walked around the school with Maddie. When he noticed her watching Xavier Baxter, he questioned if she was going to spend her entire afterlife watching him. He encouraged Maddie to try to move forward, saying she could end up just bopping around like Dawn, a ghost who had been there since the 70s.

Charley later took Maddie to the mens' locker room showers, which he called his office. There, he warned her that she might not like the answers to the questions she had, but she couldn't let people go on believing her boyfriend killed her. After she'd observed what was happening at the school, Maddie came back to the group and told them they needed to scare a confession out of someone. They told her they couldn't do that. They encouraged her to try moving forward, like they were, though she didn't believe they really were as they were still there. While they were meeting, a large crowd came in for Maddie's vigil.

Charley was shocked that Maddie's friend, Simon Elroy, was able to see and hear her. Maddie asked why he was, but Charley didn't know because it had never happened before. He also told her not to mention it to the other ghosts, because she didn't want to become a messenger service. Despite this, at the next meeting, Maddie asked if any of them had talked to a living person. Mr. Martin misunderstood what she was asking and reframed it into a discussion of how they could say goodbye to the living.

Charley later asked Maddie if it had happened again and suggested maybe it could happen if there was a person who really couldn't let you go. He also told her there were some cops in the principal's office and she was sure it was about her.

Later, while the ghosts were relaxing by the school pool, one of the swimmers nearly drowned. The ghosts all watched as Claire Zomer pulled her 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. While they were doing this, Charley noticed that Maddie seemed upset. When he asked her about it, she said she'd had a fight with Simon because he believed a teacher that she looked up to had killed her. Charley told her she should talk to Rhonda.

### 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.

Charley went to Maddie when Rhonda and Wally told her about Simon being taken away for questioning. He told her that she wasn't the only person there who had unfinished business. He told her about dating Emilio until Emilio outed him to his parents. Then Charley died and was doomed to seeing Emilio there. After finishing his story, he told Maddie she wasn't alone. They're all Split River Devils. Maddie asked why he was a devil and she was a bandit. They went to Rhonda, who 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. Maddie joined them and gave Charley a notepad. She told him to write down what he needed to stay to Emilio and she'd make sure he got the note.

### Homecoming

Charley reluctantly helped the other ghosts set up the decorations for the Homecoming game. This was an annual thing they did for Wally, to let him relive his glory days. When Charley left with Maddie to check Claire's purse for any clues, they overheard Claire probing for information about the investigation. As they went back to work on the decorations, Maddie asked Charley how he was doing with the letter to Emilio. He told her he was on his twelfth draft. He continued to work on it as the game approached, even working on it at the game.

Before the dance, Charley gave Maddie the letter to Emilio for Simon to copy. It was 16 pages long, so Maddie encouraged Charley to write it as if he were still alive. Charley agreed to re-write it. Maddie then told him once Emilio read the letter, Charley would have to forgive himself and start living his death.

When Simon gave Mr. Figueroa the revised letter, Charley watched him as he read it. Once he was done, Charley said he was finally read to forgive and live his death like Maddie had said. He suggested that Maddie try to do the same.

### Anti-Séance

Charley and the other ghosts decided to help Maddie investigate her death, which meant trying to recover her memories of the day she died. He asked if she'd ever done anything to upset Mr. South. When she said no, he suggested she might have blacked it out like he blacked out all of eighth grade. They tried singing her the last song she remembered hearing and having her eat a burrito, which had been her last meal, but neither worked, so Dawn suggested an anti-séance. The séance didn't end up helping Maddie because she was unable to get into her memory, but it helped Dawn, who recounted the day she died. After the séance, Wally, Rhonda, and Charley were looking for Maddie to make sure she was okay when they realized they hadn't seen Dawn since the séance. When the lights flickered, they realized she had crossed over and didn't recall the same thing happening when Janet left. They then found Maddie, who was at the edge of the school property and told them 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.

Charley went to Rhonda and asked why she didn't have more questions. He said they were friends and she could talk to him, but she brushed him off.

Charley then went with Wally 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

He dated Emilio Figueroa when they were in high school. Emilio believed that Charley got all the bad parts of being gay without any of the joy and encouraged Charley to come out. When Charley's parents asked him why he never dated anyone, Emilio told them Charley was dating him, believing that his parents already knew he was gay. Charley was angry with Emilio and wrote him a letter letting him he never loved him and never wanted to see him again, then drowned his sorrows in some fries, which killed him due to his being allergic to the peanut oil they'd been cooked in. He said the worst part of it was having to watch Emilio find the letter. After Charley's death, Emilio grew up and became a teacher a Split River High and also the sponsor of the LGBTQ club. Charley went to every meeting.

## References

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