Milo Manheim Reveals Which School Spirits Costar Is ‘My Frat Bro’: ‘We Play Pool Until Sunup’ (Exclusive)

The students of Split River High School may not always get along on School Spirits, but they come together offscreen

“We have such an enthusiastic, positive cast,” Milo Manheim, who plays Wally Clark, tells PEOPLE. “I could go on and on about every person in the cast and give a monologue about what’s so great about them. Everybody has a kind heart and everybody’s got a good soul. Generally, Nick [Pugliese] is keeping the party going. He’s always keeping the vibes up.”

Manheim, 23, says he considers Rainbow Wedell one of his best friends and calls Spencer Macpherson “my frat bro.”

“I love going out with Spencer,” the actor says. “He’s like a brother to me, and we just have a great time. We play pool until sunup.”

And of course, the show’s stars have a group chat.

“It was recently changed from ‘School Spirits’ to ‘New School’ when we added our new characters. And it is alive and well,” Manheim says. “If you were to read the text, it’s kind of an embarrassing love fest of all of us just expressing our gratitude over and over again. So grateful the universe aligned to give us such an amazing cast and crew.”

Season 2 sees Maddie (Peyton List) exploring how Janet (Jess Gabor) came to inhabit her body and whether or not she can get it back. As Maddie comes to terms with her situation, she also opens up to the idea of being with Wally.

“He is falling for her day by day, harder and harder,” Manheim says. “And I think it just adds to the torment that Maddie goes through because the deeper she falls for Wally and the deeper he falls for her, the harder all of this is.”

Manheim credits Maddie with helping reinvigorate Wally as he waits to cross over. “He was pretty complacent in the afterlife and living a simple life with his friends,” the Zombies star says. “It’s almost like her arrival 40 years later restarts him and gets him thinking again. Now he’s starting to question everything. He’s new to thinking this deeply.”

Manheim says he doesn’t “necessarily identify with being a jock” like Wally, but that he and his character “are very similar” in other ways.

“I love football, I’ve got three fantasy football leagues I watch all the time. I love to play it,” Manheim says. “And I also love musical theater and dancing. We don’t see that in Wally, but we see this softer side of him, where he is almost poetic in his ‘80s lingo sometimes. And this season, every now and then, Wally drops a piece of knowledge or a truth that somebody needed to hear.”

Manheim has enjoyed discovering the ‘80s as he’s researched his role.

“One of my favorite things about this show was literally watching every ‘80s movie, listening to strictly 80s music on the way to work,” he says. “I really love that decade and everything that came out of it. It’s a nostalgic decade. I don’t know why I feel so connected to it, but I love it and I’m so grateful that Wally was from that time.”

One thing Manheim doesn’t quite connect to from the show: the supernatural element.

“I don’t really necessarily believe in ghosts,” Manheim admits. “But as I watch the show, I think it’s done in such a way that it makes sense. It’s almost as if, if there were to be an afterlife, this would be the one. And maybe there’s more rules to it. It’s something that we definitely are going to explore the rest of this season and possibly in season 3, if that happens. But I do like thinking about it.”