Aspire

When Ernie Colstad’s favorite student commits suicide, it creates a crisis on two planes – on earth at Audubon High School in Boise, Idaho and on the nearest spiritual tier wherein his spiritual guides Ariel and Ulstrah operate.
The goal of his guides, or ahtars, is to help Ernie’s soul progress to the point that he aspires to achieve a higher life form. Unfortunately, they find themselves in the same predicament of most human sentients – they can sense a spiritual reality beyond their own tier but don’t fully understand how it works.
At the funeral, Gail Whittaker, an assistant principal, gives him an especially close hug that makes Ernie wonder if she’s available. When Ernie researches the life of Marisa Trenchard for his euology, he learns that Marisa had started a secret club designed to surreptitiously help “problem students” find success at school. Two of Ernie’s friends and colleagues, Ratif Habib and Marquez Alexander, agree with Ernie that they should help keep the club functioning as a way to honor Marisa’s life. However, the goals of her club and the goals of the school's administration don't align, and the teachers may be accused of insubordination if their activities are discovered.
Ernie's primary barrier to spiritual awakening, or his avidya, is that he is too cautious, stemming from his childhood when his step-father verbally abused him. On the spiritual plane, his two guardian angels try to help Ernie find the fortitude to deal with the crisis and other problems from his past in order to improve his chances to transcend to their tier. Their problem is how to inspire Ernie to make morally correct decisions without interfering with his free will.
Ernie’s own spiritual contemplations are naturally affected by questions over why Marisa committed suicide and whether she is still exists in a spiritual form. At one point, he is walking up a hill when he sees a line of geese on the horizon. It crosses Ernie’s mind that Marisa might be free, like one of the geese, and upon praying to her, the line of geese turn his way! Indeed, Ulstrah, one of Ernie’s guardian angels, commandeered the lead goose and caused the V-line to head toward Ernie. He is filled with goose bumps, as it seems to him that the Universe, or God, or perhaps Marisa, herself, has answered his prayer.
Ariel, meanwhile, witnesses the entire episode, including how the goose felt, and argues with Ulstrah over the merits of her maneuver. For some reason not made apparent to Ariel, Ulstah later vanishes, leaving Ariel alone to be Ernie’s ahtar. Another ahtar speculates that Ulstrah might have transgressed by interfering with the free will of the goose.
In the next week, Ernie learns of Phillip Duncan, a senior member of the secret club, and one who yearned to be Marisa’s romantic partner. He has hacked into the school files and found a list of kids the administration wanted to transfer to an alternative school, mainly because they scored poorly on ISAT, the statewide tests. Marisa had approved Phillip’s hacking, so she could find out which students were targeted and undermine the removal plan.
Ernie and Ariel have to deal with the legal and ethical dilemma of whether he should try to stop Phillip from hacking into the principal’s email. But Phillip keeps uncovering more information, vital to the secret club and to Ernie.
To further complicate Ernie's life, he becomes romantically involved with Gail Whittaker, his immediate supervisor.