Ghost Roast by Shawnelle Gibbs, Shawneé Gibbs and Emily Cannon
Chelsea is heading out for the last day of school, being hurried along by her mom. She wants to borrow $20 to go to Burger Shack later to celebrate, but her mom doesn’t have the money. Outside, Chelsea’s friends are waiting in a convertible. As Chelsea runs out the door, her mom reminds her that her dad, Doug, is picking her up and to wear your seat belt! So embarrassing. Pulling into school, Jasmine and Alexis are talking about after school plans. One boy, Justin, wants to meet up in the cemetery, but Chelsea isn’t really on board with that idea. It's not because she’s scared of ghosts like her friends taunt, it's that her father, who just so happens to text her at this exact moment about a new commercial he wants her to see, owns Ghost Roast… He’s a ghost hunter and Chelsea doesn't want anyone to find out because she thinks it’s embarrassing.
Well, it’s a little bit more complex than just embarrassing. Chelsea’s father's business did a better job at removing her chances of a normal social life than of removing ghosts. The business didn’t really bring in any money and things got harder and harder until her parents divorced. Chelsea grew up, took her mom's last name, changed her look and actually got friends.
Eventually Chelsea does look at her dad’s new commercial and it’s totally cringeworthy. Later, on the bleachers, Chelsea can’t escape it as Alexis has been sent the commercial and all of Chelsea’s friends have a laugh over it until school hottie, basketball god and Jasmine’s boyfriend, Justin Langley, comes over to make sure they’re all going to the cemetery that night. Er… sure, Chelsea says through gritted teeth.
There is quite a crowd at Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 that night as well as a few joints and bottles in brown paper bags making the rounds. Reluctantly, and bowing to peer pressure, Chelsea takes a drag and a swig as a few of her classmates go looking for ghosts. As Chelsea follows Alexis and Jasmine, she drops her phone and sees an actual spirit from the corner of her eye… but maybe she’s just bugging? Well, if she is, so are others as the guys call out that they can hear spirits further in the cemetery.
It’s not ghosts, it’s the police and they’re being busted for criminal trespassing. Aw man. At the station, Chelsea is really worried about how her mom is going to react. What she doesn’t consider is that her dad is the one picking her up and her friends recognize him from the Ghost Roast commercial. And he is not happy. Oh boy. Chelsea doesn't see someone taking pictures to post on Instagram.
On the drive home, Doug “goes easy on her.” Chelsea is grounded and her summer is canceled because now she’ll be helping him at work. The next day, Chelsea heads sheepishly to Ghost Roast. In addition to her dad, Chelsea will also be working with Russell, a guy she used to live near who she remembers being a nerd. Chelsea’s dad shows her some of the equipment and sets her to organizing the office. As she’s sneezing because of all the dust, Chelsea sees Jasmine’s Instagram post telling everyone she’s the daughter of the Ghost Roast Guy. Arrrrrgggh!
Hours later, after a lot of cleaning, Ghost Roast gets a phone call. Chelsea answers and finds the caller is reporting a ghost in their attic. They've got one! Russell will hold down the fort while father and daughter go hunt some ghosts. Well, Doug does, Chelsea stays in the van. After 35 minutes, Doug comes out with the entity… a raccoon.
On an illicit FaceTime later with Jasmine and Alexis, Jasmine sort of apologizes for posting the picture and outing Chelsea’s connection to Ghost Roast, but hey, she’s a junior influencer, her followers and brands might help her dad’s business. They both encourage Chelsea to ditch work to go to Biloxi Beach.
In the office the next day, it seems Jasmine’s influencer post may actually be working, the phone has been ringing off the hook and the commercial has over 8000 views. There is even talk of being on TV in time for Halloween, and a guy from Harrington Manor called to make an appointment… but… but… Biloxi Beach!
The whole Ghost Roast crew head to the Harrington manor, a former plantation, so Chelsea is ready to blast some old slave owners to smithereens for what they did to her ancestors. Mr. Scott Harrington greets the Ghost Roast team and offers a tour with his Aunt Agnes who seems a little senile. She is 93 so she's allowed her eccentricities, even if it’s calling out to her dead pet cat Roman. During the tour, they see a picture of John Harrington who built the plantation, and though Scott acknowledges slavery is a low point in human history, Chelsea points out the Harringtons seem to have done well for themselves because of it. Scott wants to turn the manor into a high-end hotel, not the historic site Aunt Agnes wants for the ghost chasers it currently draws. Scott needs the Ghost Roast team to get rid of any potential ghosts so he can start making profit.
As Chelsea explores the manor, she comes across a cat… a ghost cat. GASP. It’s Roman! However Chelsea thinks she’s tripping and not seeing a nonagenarian's dead pet. Ten minutes later the Ghost Roast team has a lucrative contract signed by Scott which will last them the summer. As they leave, Chelsea sees a ghostly woman in an upstairs window disappear.
The team is at Harrington Manor installing monitoring equipment all over the house to pick up any phenomena on camera. As Chelsea is working in the library, the books start moving and then flying about. Chelsea begs the ghost to stop messing with her, and they do just in time for Russell to walk in. Together they head to the West Parlour where the ghost messes with Chelsea when Russ leaves, it’s the woman from the window. She’s 100% visible and after Russ scares the shit out of Chelsea by walking back in the room, Chelsea tells him she saw a presence, but they can’t tell her dad even though it’s the number one reason they’re there. Speaking of Doug, he’s happy with their work so far and decides it’s a good time to go through ALL their gear in minute detail and picks up a ghostly signature straight away sending him into a ghost roasting tizzy. Doug can’t see that it’s only Roman the ghost cat he’s trying to ghost-murder. Suddenly the readings on the equipment go off the charts. Only Chelsea can see the cute ghost boy who's come to rescue Roman.
Chelsea can't stop thinking about cute ghost boy. Even her Grandma’s jambalaya doesn’t gain her attention until her mom gives her a nudge. Chelsea tells her mom, who has been dying to get the place on the national landmark register for years at the preservation society, about Harrington Manor. Her mom warns her if she does see anything spooky she must tell her dad, he’s the expert. Doug’s Grandma Hazel, who could see spirits and who rescued him from an effed-up early home life, had a stroke during an encounter with a dark spirit, so ever since, Doug has vowed to get even with that, and all, spirits. Well, Chelsea doesn’t mention the ghost cat or cute ghost boy, but she needs to know who he is… research time!
Jasmine and Alexis come to visit Chelsea at the office. Chelsea continues to be embarrassed by her dad, but her friends love Doug and take selfies with him. Soon they’re all back at Harrington Manor where Roman is stuck in a tree much to Aunt Agnes’s distress. Doug tries to “help” rescue the kitty, but he can’t see the ghost cat and is only really placating the old lady. He also doesn't see the cute ghost boy rescue Roman. Chelsea does though. At another job, Chelsea is distressed to see how her dad deals with ghosts, which is essentially to destroy them with his legally distinct device for busting ghosts (not Ghostbusting, mind you). She was communicating with the spirit and maybe could have saved it and helped it move on but now it’s zapped.
Back at Harrington Manor, the gardener encounters a dark presence in the woods. He tells Scott he was raised in the bayou, that it was definitely a revenant, and quits on the spot. Well, that’s the third gardener to be scared off. Inside the house, the Ghost Roast team is taking EMF readings. Chelsea spots the lady ghost again and refuses to tell her dad, she doesn’t want someone who might’ve been a slave in life to be blasted.
When Doug makes a hardware store run, leaving Chelsea and Russell to chill on the veranda together with strict instructions not to split up and to stay where they are, Chelsea immediately sees Roman and follows the ghost cat into the hedge maze only to run into cute ghost boy. Cute ghost boy wants to know who she is, why she is scaring Roman and what she is wearing, though he grants that her presence is entertaining. He also introduces himself as Oliver Harrington and warns her to leave the property because all value was pillaged a long time ago, but then he disappears, leaving Chelsea lost in the hedge maze. Thank goodness Roman eventually comes by and leads her out. Unfortunately she's led straight to her worried father. She thought she was only gone for a little bit, but she wandered away against his clear instructions and was lost for an hour.
Scott turns up then distracting her father who shows him the evidence they’ve collected, a strange light at the end of a corridor, oOoOOoo! Strangely, it looks like Chelsea is looking directly at it. Huh, weird. As Doug is reassuring Scott he can handle the entities, he tells them about the family graveside beyond the hedge maze which coincidentally is where all the gardeners freak out and quit.
Later, Chelsea is researching the Harrington family line in hopes of finding Oliver which makes her mom so proud, but she can’t seem to find him. Meanwhile, Jasmine and Alexis visit her at the window and want her to hang out for a couple of hours. Chelsea knows better than to sneak out so she asks her mom who consents. They head to a party but despite all the people, Chelsea can’t stop thinking about Oliver and how she is one of the only people who can see ghosts.
The next day at Harrington Manor, Aunt Agnes is having tea and annoying her nurse by mentioning someone called Marie who the nurse says doesn’t exist. As Chelsea is examining old Harrington Family pictures for Oliver, Aunt Agnes calls Chelsea over to chat. Aunt Agnes has seen the ghosts of Harrington Manor since she was a little girl, making her parents think she was plain crazy. She’s never heard them though, so she’s very surprised Chelsea has. Aunt Agnes ends the conversation with an ominous warning that there is something dark on the grounds.
After Aunt Agnes leaves with her nurse, the female ghost who Chelsea has seen a few times comes in to tidy up. When Chelsea asks if she will answer some questions, the ghost disappears. During her lunch break, and telling her father beforehand, Chelsea investigates the grounds, recording it on her phone. She comes across a stable and is startled by a ghost horse but it’s really friendly and starts to nuzzle her. Oliver is also there. He was going to take Apollo the horse to graze by the pond and invites Chelsea along. They talk as they walk and Chelsea asks if Oliver’s family were slave owners and he admits that they were. Oliver always knew, even as a child, it was wrong. By the time he was old enough to do anything, slavery had been abolished, but he hired and paid former slaves a living wage, an unpopular course of action in Louisiana thanks to Marie, a former slave and second mother to Oliver, who taught him a lot and opened his eyes. Chelsea learns that Oliver's birth mother, Olivia, died during a yellow fever outbreak and that Olivia Harrington was the daughter of John Harrington who built Harrington Manor!
As Chelsea is recording Apollo bothering the ducks in the pond, her dad comes storming over, he’s been trying to get in touch with her for ten minutes. He decided to send her home with a dock in pay, without the cheese puffs he bought her, and with the cost of the rideshare coming out of her pay. Plus, she has to deal with her mom. Her mom nearly has a meltdown and starts blaming herself, she doesn’t know about any cute ghost boys distracting her daughter, but all Chelsea does is promise to be more focused.
The next week, Chelsea sticks to her promise and refuses to let Oliver distract her until Friday during her fifteen minute break which is spent flirting at one of the most beautiful spots on the estate. Later, Oliver tries to sidetrack her while she’s monitoring the cameras and wants to meet her at noon in the gardens. Chelsea is worried her dad will pick up Oliver on his equipment and blast him but it’s too late, Doug and Russ come into the hub and sense Oliver’s cold spot. They grab their roasters and chase after it, Chelsea shouting “run” to Oliver. Oliver however, has fun stealing Doug’s legally distinct device for busting ghosts and taking it outside.
Doug is worried the entity is getting stronger and wants to consult his colleagues, so for their safety, he sends Chelsea and Russ home at 11:30. In the rideshare, Chelsea gets out before the car can leave the estate and heads to the hedge maze to meet Oliver. At first they get into a fight about the actions of their families, but it moves on to keeping Oliver safe. Chelsea suggests he hide near the bridge, but that area has always scared him, so instead, he will stay at the old gardeners’ cottage. Neither sees the dark entity near the cemetery over the bridge watching them.
Jasmine and Alexis swing by Harrington Manor and pick Chelsea up, they invite her to the beach, but at Chelsea’s insistence, they drop her off at the preservation society where she uses microfilm to research. Hours later, Chelsea finds Oliver Harrington in an article from May 1879 talking about him hosting a ballyhooed gala to raise money for a school to educate former slaves and their children. Guests included Frederick Douglass! She then finds another article from June 1879 saying Oliver has been reported missing. Huh.
Meanwhile, back at Harrington Manor, Doug is frightened and injured by the dark entity at the cemetery as he’s installing equipment. He had to go to the hospital after falling from a ladder and hurting his knee pretty badly. Chelsea wants to go back and tries to enlist reluctant Russ into helping her by telling him the truth about the ghosts but he doesn’t want to lose his job. Regardless of having help, Chelsea returns, taking a legally distinct device for busting ghosts with her. She walks past the main house being watched by Marie and straight to the old gardeners’ cottage, ready to blast Oliver for hurting her dad. Oliver is able to evade her, so she heads to find him at the main house only to finally, properly meet Marie. She has a story to tell, one Oliver doesn’t even know.
Marie explains that she was a slave at the manor when it was a plantation and worked for Oliver’s mother. She was fifteen when Oliver was born in 1862. Olivia’s husband died in the civil war a year and a half before Oliver was conceived, and her pregnancy was embarrassing, but her father did not want to lose another child. Originally Oliver was going to be given to an orphanage but when he was born, everyone agreed he may be able to pass as white. Oliver was conceived in love and was wanted by both parents. Marie, who had been delivering secret messages between the two, met Oliver's father, only known as Mr. Bernard, who was a black man living in the French Quarter. Unfortunately, she didn't realize Olivia's father had her followed and no one heard from him after that day.
Chelsea no longer believes Oliver is responsible for her dad’s injury, but thinks there is something else on the property, something connected to Oliver that was traumatic. His last real memory is of the spring salon, there were many in attendance but his uncle Garrett was clearly not enjoying the event because people of color were also there as guests and Garrett was a huge racist. They had a horrible argument and then Oliver remembers nothing, and Marie says it’s because he died that night. She tells him she tried to protect him because, she reveals, Oliver is her nephew by blood because Olivia was her half-sister. Garrett, who clearly murdered Oliver, lived at the plantation for forty years, letting the house fall into disarray and died bitter and angry.
Well, Chelsea hefts her legally distinct device for busting ghosts because she knows what to do: find uncle Garrett out at the cemetery. Apollo is outside the house waiting for them. Meanwhile, Chelsea’s mom is calling everyone, no one has seen her, Jasmine and Alexis think she might be with her secret boyfriend. In the end, Chelsea’s mom calls her dad, and with Russ at the wheel learning to underage drive on the fly, they head to Harrington Manor.
Chelsea and Oliver have reached the bridge leading to the cemetery. Apollo is spooked and Oliver feels pain as his memories flood back. In June 1879 he met his uncle here who was raging. Garrett pushed him and Oliver cracked his head as he fell. With this revelation, Oliver is no longer afraid and they head over the bridge.
In a very dramatic fashion, Garrett appears and tries to force them away. Meanwhile, Doug and Russ have reached the manor and hear the commotion. Her legally distinct device for busting ghosts has been sent flying, but violence isn’t Chelsea’s way, so she tries talking to Garrett. Garrett didn’t mean to hurt Oliver, he only wanted to protect his family legacy, but that legacy was also Oliver’s. Garrett was angry, confused, and jealous, but also unapologetically and violently racist. Meanwhile, Doug and Russ have arrived and they can see everything. Doug has his legally distinct device for busting ghosts ready and as Garrett moves to attack, he blasts the dark spirit.
Chelsea, Doug and Russ are knocked out by the explosion, Oliver is nowhere to be seen, and Marie sees it all from the main house while watching over Aunt Agnes. Marie is able to manifest enough energy to wake Aunt Agnes and signal there is a problem. Aunt Agnes puts her teeth in and calls for the police.
Chelsea is in the hospital surrounded by her mom, dad, Aunt Agnes and Scott. They all believe she can see and speak to ghosts. Her mom and Aunt Agnes are going to make sure Oliver’s story is told. Her dad insists that all future communication with ghosts is transparent, pun intended.
One month later, Harrington Manor is hosting an event to unveil Oliver Harrington in the family history. The manor will no longer be turned into a luxury hotel, but preserved as a national historic landmark. As her mom is giving a presentation including a portrait of “vintage hottie” Oliver to the guests, Chelsea ducks out into the hedge maze. Roman is roaming the maze… and so is Oliver! They both thought the other had been blasted to pieces. Chelsea and Oliver head inside, and Oliver is very impressed. Jasmine and Alexis come and find Chelsea to join them on the tour of the grounds, and at Oliver’s encouragement, she does because, he says, she can’t just chum around with the dead when she has a life to live. Oliver clinks his champagne flute with Jasmine’s and both her friends GASP!
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