Cubby Sporrong’s Story: as told on a Tuesday afternoon, sitting on a ledge outside Montgomery Ross Fisher building around noon.

Background: Cubby is from Redlands, California. She is a freshman at USC, white, 18-19 year-old female. I met her through my sorority Delta Gamma, and we also have the same Linguistics class.

Cubby: Ok, so there’s supposedly a ghost, um, that haunts Mariposa Elementary School in Redlands, California. And the ghost’s name is supposed to be Billy, and he’s supposedly a thirteen-year-old boy who was hit by a bus riding his bike. Um, and I believe that was like 20 years ago, um, I’m not entirely sure. And anyway, um, people from all around the country come looking for Billy the ghost of Mariposa Elementary School. When I was in fifth grade, they, like, shattered all the security videos and stuff trying to find him because they think that Billy won’t be there if he knows he’s being watched by security cameras. Apparently that’s a myth. And, um, basically he’s supposedly been seen, like, haunting the hallways of Mariposa Elementary School and like playing tether ball but… So that’s, that’s that.

Reaction: Cubby was very skeptical of this story, despite the fact that she attended Mariposa Elementary School. She often used words like “supposedly”, as if she were trying to convince herself of its truth while she was telling me the story. I’m not entirely sure where she learned it, but it seems likely that she would have heard it from other kids in her school, maybe even teachers. I find it hard to believe in the story since Cubby is so suspicious of it, but the story itself seems somewhat plausible. Nonetheless, it also took place a while ago, so it may be inaccurate or simply legend now.