Chapter 1
"-and you know what Skulker tried." Danny was saying as we walked towards Mr. Lancer's classroom for first period. I looked over at the raven haired teen I'd been friends with since second grade, waiting just like Tucker for the end of what Danny had been through that morning while we were asleep. "The idiot tried to steal a Fenton Thermos."
"What is he going to do with it, suck himself up?" Tucker asked, laughter in his voice.
"Tuck, he'd use it to suck Danny up." I pointed out, grabbing the strap of my spider backpack. I turned my eyes back at Danny as my mind went racing with worse case scenarios and said, "Please tell me he didn't actually get one. The last thing we need is for him to have a Fenton Thermos."
"No, thankfully." Danny admitted as we turned into Mr. Lancer's classroom only for the three of us to stop in the doorway. No one was sitting in the class and something was written on the chalkboard.
Class, go to the auditorium. – Mr. Lancer
"Right, that's what Jazz was talking about." Danny mumbled, turning around to walk out the door.
I glanced at Tucker who shrugged, showing the same look I knew I had on my face. We followed Danny and ended up finding ourselves in a crowd heading towards the auditorium. By the time we found a seat, Tucker and Danny had gotten separated from me and I ended up sitting behind them. I leaned against the back of their chairs and asked, "So what's this all about?"
"I think Jazz said it was something about the C.A.T.s?" Danny said, not sure of himself.
I glanced up at the stage and saw Jazz and one of her classmates taking a seat on either side of a podium as Mr. Lancer walked out. "Fun." I droned, leaning my head against my arms propped up on their chairs. Tucker leaned back and I could almost smell his deodorant but just deemed myself too lazy to move at the moment.
"Your future is not carved in stone, people, but it may be carved with a No. 2 pencil." Mr. Lancer said, getting the quietest this school ever got as his moment. He held up the atrocious wooden pencil as if it was a lifesaver.
"Oh please." I said, finding Tucker had the same thought.
"Quiet, this is important."
I stared at Danny a moment, not sure if he was serious or joking until I noticed his face. He was serious. I glanced over at Tucker who was as surprised as I was. Maybe even more.
"As most of you have probably forgotten, you will be taking the Career Aptitude Test on Saturday." Mr. Lancer said, sitting his pencil down on the podium as he picked out a few students to look in the eye. Something close to a smile appeared on his face as he turned his body towards Jazz. "Do well, like Miss Fenton here, who got-"
"The highest score in the history of the C.A.T." Danny droned as Lancer said the same.
"-and a successful future will be assured!" Mr. Lancer announced, clicking through some hattie-toottie fine class pictures on the screen I'd seen in real life all too much.
As my mother loved to say, "Money doesn't buy happiness, but it sure does help it along."
It always wanted to make me gag.
"Fail like Irving "Third Degree" Burns here," Mr. Lancer said, turning towards the other teen who had manage to fall asleep in the short time since he sat down. Irving jumped to alert when he heard his name only to realize what Mr. Lancer was saying. "Who got the lowest score in the history of the C.A.T., and you will be doomed to a career at the Nasty Burger."
Not because you're not good at remembering doesn't mean you won't be good at life. I wanted to yell that at Mr. Lancer, but everyone here believed if you weren't any good at school, then you were a failure.
Irving jumped to his feet. "Hey! Working at the Nasty Burger takes brains, you know!" He turned more to us then Lancer as if he was teaching us. "If those forty-two Nasty Secret Herbs and Spices in our Nasty Sauce are overheated, it could cause an explosion that could take out a whole city block!"
I kid you not, I think I actually heard a cricket chirping. I turned towards Matt Matthews, an upper classman who was popular because of his ability to make random animal sounds and was sure it was coming from him. A girl next to him was stifling laughs behind her hand.
"Oh, who am I kidding." Irving said, drooping as he walked off stage. "My life is over."
Mr. Lancer picked up a sealed envelope and held it up so everyone could see. "These aren't just the answers to the test. They're the answers to your future. So study." Mr. Lancer picked up a briefcase and put the envelope inside before closing it and handcuffing it to himself. I'm sure he'd be regretting that next time he had to go to the bathroom. I mentally cringed, giving myself a mental picture I wished never to think about again.
"Remember, it's your future. Do you want fries with that?" Mr. Lancer dead panned.
I sighed, the sad excuse of a joke hanging in the air as the man walked off stage.
"Dude, you ok?" Tucker asked, getting my attention towards the teen in front of me who looked almost panicked. "Danny?"
A shiver ran through-out Danny's spine, though I didn't see his ghost sense as he said, "Ya, what? Nothing." He shook his head, clearing out something that had worried him, that much I knew.
"There's nothing to worry about." I said, wondering if he was worried about the C.A.T.s. "When you get the chance, you're actually as smart as your sister."
"Ya right." Danny threw off, slouching in his chair as all around us people started heading off towards class.
"If you want, we can try and help you." Tucker offered. Quickly he added, "And Sam can keep hold of the Fenton Thermos."
A smirk appeared on Danny's face. He stood up and grabbed his bag from the floor. "Come on, Lancer will be wanting us back in class."
-.-.-.-
Let x, y, z be three positive integers satisfying y=3x, z=4x, x+y+z=3k, k is an integer. Which of the following is the smallest value of k for which x, y, z are even number?
A – 8
B – 10
C – 12
D – 16
"What, do you mean even numbered or is an even number?" I asked the paper resting on my book as I laid front down on my bed. I dropped my head down onto the foot of my bed as my brain fried. I'd been at this for over an hour now and wasn't even half way through the practice test they'd given us today. I know it wasn't required to pass, but colleges do look at your test score and I wanted to go into law. I needed a good grade on this.
My cell phone buzzed, getting me to get my head out of my bed and sit up. I picked up my cell from my nightstand and saw it was Tucker. "Hey Tuck." I said, putting the phone to my ear.
"Hey, you wanna go to the Nasty Burger for a bit?" Tucker said. "I need the fresh air."
"Sure I'll meet you there." I replied, kicking my feet off my bed. "How's Danny doing?"
"Jazz answered the phone and said he's still studying." Tucker said as I found my boots and put them on. "I guess she's holding onto his phone until he's done enough for her standers."
"That's good she's helping him too." I offered, pressing my phone between my cheek and shoulder as I lased up my boots. "I'll see you there then."
I dropped the phone into my opened hand and closed it when it made contact. After getting my shoes on I grabbed my wallet and put it in my skirt pocket, out making sure Grandma knew where I was going as I walked out. As I got close enough that I could see the Nasty Burger I saw Tucker walking towards me. "So how far in the practice test did you get?" I asked once he was in ear shot.
"I stopped at fifty." Tucker shrugged as we headed towards the door. We noticed Lancer sitting in the outdoor patio tables, still with the briefcase handcuffed to his hand.
"Shouldn't you slacker's be studying for the C.A.T?" Lancer asked, getting us to stop at his table. I'm sure that's the exact reason he sat there so close to the door. To stop anyone he recognized to see their reaction.
"I've already studied." Tucker said.
I put my hand on my hip as I gave the old man a reassuring smile. "I'm sure we'll do fine." I offered.
"The test answers in this briefcase may indicate otherwise." Mr. Lancer said, holding up the said briefcase. "Enjoy your Nasty Burgers while you're still on this side of the counter."
The man started laughing like this was the best joke he'd heard in months, which it might as well have been but I found myself holding back my laughs cause of what happened next. His burger quickly jumped up and smacked him in the face.
"Fast Food Nation!" Mr. Lancer cursed as the burger left, flying away from the restaurant.
My first thought, after the laughs left me, was the Lunch Lady must be around and we'd have to deal without Danny for it. We watched the burger lead a restaurant's worth of paddies fly through the air and up above the roof.
We should have seen this coming, but before anyone knew what was going on Danny landed heavily onto a table inside the restaurant and started the all too familiar panic. Tucker and I held opened the doors, trying to herd the blind people out of harm's way. I heard the employees yelling at each other but between the dinner crowd and the ghost fight with some little girl I couldn't hear what they were saying. We made sure everyone was outside before leaving the restaurant ourselves, knowing Danny could handle the little girl. I saw him pick up a packet of Nasty Sauce but was pulled towards the crowd watching the fight through the windows by Tucker.
There wasn't any warning. No one that knew enough about the Nasty Sauce was watching to yell. Later we found out from Danny that he had heated up a small packet that had been thrown into the ghost girl's hat and that had caused the explosion. I saw Lancer use his briefcase as a shield as Danny came hurdling towards us. We were close enough the explosion pushed us back, though thankfully no broken glass hit us as Danny landed by us.
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance! Run!" Mr. Lancer cried out, turning around and getting as far away as he could with the crowd right in front of him.
I turned towards the two, noticing Tucker finishing one of the flyaway burgers before he got up. "Danny, who was that ghost you were fighting?"
Danny got up to his feet and helped me up. "That was Box Lunch, the daughter of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady."
"Yikes." I said, finding myself harmonizing with Tucker exactly.
"Actually, it's more of an ew. I don't know what's going on." Danny offered as he looked down. We noticed a medallion with the letters CW written on it and he leans down to pick it up. "But this medallion might give us a clue- huh?" He froze after hooking a finger threw the medallion's strap before reaching around to pull something off his back. What he pulled away shocked not just me, but all three of us. "Oh my gosh, the answers to the C.A.T.s!" He held them up with a smile on his face as he declared, "Hello, great future!"
"You're not actually thinking of peeking at the answers, are you?" Tucker asked, him and I on the same page for once in a long time. I put my hands on my hips, wishing I could put the thought of giving the answers back to Lancer into his head.
"Of course I am." Danny said, letting the lights split over him, turning him back to Fenton. "Aren't you?"
I glanced at Tucker, already knowing his answer as I grimiest. This wasn't good, I knew it.