My friend's high school ghost story and it's actually terrifying

I wasn't going to post this but a girl I study with told me something that happened at her high school like 13-14 years ago and I genuinely cannot stop thinking about it. sorry in advance this is gonna be long, I'm not a great writer :(((

So she went to this well-known all-girls high school in the countryside. competitive school. the way they had it set up was brutal: top students by grades got sent to the school dormitory, and those kids had to do self-study until midnight every night. regular commuter students got sent home at 10pm.

She was a dorm student. One night after midnight study hall, she and her two friends A and B were heading back to the dorm when she realized she'd left some books she needed for homework the next day back in the classroom. So A and B waited outside while she went back into the building alone.

The school was OLD. like genuinely massive grounds, old building, no lights. she's basically feeling along the walls in the dark trying to get to her classroom.

She grabs her notebook and then.

A woman SCREAMS outside.

Not like a yelp. a full piercing shriek.

She literally collapsed onto the floor from shock, then pulled herself together and ran out of the building.

A and B were outside crouched down, shaking.

She asked what happened and one of them could barely speak, just kept pointing. over there. OVER THERE.

The direction they were pointing had this one dim light and some kind of tall staircase or elevated structure. she looked and looked and couldn't see anything weird. so she asked again.

And the friend finally got the words out:

"while we were waiting for you, there was a girl just... standing over there. it's past midnight so she's gotta be a dorm student right, but she's just standing in some random spot and rollcall is soon. so I kept calling out to her to come down. and she just stood there. staring at us. smiling."

and then it clicked for both A and B at the same time, that's when they screamed.

It was early fall. The school had already switched everyone to the fall/winter uniform. mandatory for ALL students at the same time, no exceptions.

The girl standing there was wearing the SUMMER uniform.

On top of that. pale. extremely pale skin. not saying a word. just smiling.

Our girl (the one telling the story) kind of laughed it off, said they must be seeing things because they're finally studying for once lmaooo, said maybe some kid just accidentally wore the wrong uniform, and dragged them back to the dorm.

But A and B would not stop shaking.

Back at the dorm, a teacher did a full headcount, then locked the door from the outside and left.

And then it happened AGAIN.

Another scream. from inside the dorm this time, from the little communal kitchen area.

Two girls had gotten hungry and decided to make instant ramen. one was at the water dispenser opening the cup noodles, the other went to the communal fridge to find her kimchi container.

The girl at the fridge heard the cup noodle girl muttering to someone.

She walked over with her kimchi and asked "who are you talking to?"

The cup noodle girl pointed at the window.

There was a girl standing outside, peering in through the glass. cup noodle girl had been telling her to come inside, stop standing out there in the cold. but the girl outside just... smiled. didn't answer. just watched.

And then they both remembered.

The teacher had done a full headcount. The door was locked from the outside. nobody could have gotten out.

Summer uniform.

Pale skin.

Same description as what A and B had seen earlier that night.

The dorm lost its MIND. the kids who actually saw it were basically half-fainting. next day the whole school knew. the atmosphere was unhinged, everyone was already scared of the old building and now there were TWO separate sightings in one night.

Then a teacher, for reasons nobody understood, decided to tell the students about something that had happened at the school years before.

"Yeah... that's probably her. every year around this time someone says they've seen her."

Several years earlier, there had been a string of holidays that landed perfectly: a national holiday right before the school anniversary day, which meant Thursday through Sunday off. so everyone left early Thursday.

A group of girls stayed after school to play hide and seek before heading home.

One girl hid inside the janitor's closet, the one where they kept the cleaning supplies.

Her friends knew where she was. and thought it would be funny to lock it from the outside.

The lock was flimsy. they genuinely thought she'd be able to open it from the inside no problem.

Then they all just. went home.

The girl inside waited. and waited. she pushed at the door. it wouldn't open.

At first probably thought it was a prank. then more time passed. no one came. door still won't open. she's alone in this huge school.

Friday. Saturday. Sunday.

Three days.

Monday morning the school erupted when she didn't come back but no one knew where she was. the friends who played hide and seek assumed she'd gotten out and gone home on her own. the janitor's closet didn't even cross anyone's mind. or maybe someone suspected and was too scared to say anything. we'll never know.

When someone finally opened the closet during cleaning time, she was crouched inside, frozen in the exact position of trying to push the door open, and she just... fell forward.

The inside of the door was covered in scratch marks from her fingernails.

They said when a person dies in extreme fear and panic, rigor mortis sets in faster. she probably had food at home she never made it to. physically a person can survive a few days without eating but she was alone in the dark in a locked box and they think the terror itself is what killed her.

After the teacher told this story the whole school got even more chaotic. rumors were flying everywhere until the PRINCIPAL got up at morning assembly and said there was absolutely no such incident at this school and everyone needed to stop spreading rumors.

So then the students went back to that teacher and asked directly.

And the teacher said: "I don't know."

Not "that's not true." Not "I made it up." Just.

"I don't know."

One of the girls who saw the summer uniform ghost ended up taking a leave of absence, then transferred out entirely because she just couldn't do it. other kids left the dorm. the aftermath was bad.

and that's the story. early fall. every year around the same time.