Chapter 1
In the hallways of Amity Park High School, a raven-haired, blue-eyed 9th grader dug around in his locker, his brow furrowed.
A freshman girl dressed mostly in black walked up to him. "Hey Danny. How's it going?" she inquired.
"Oh, it's going great," the frustrated boy replied, his voice tinged with sarcasm. "I forgot to do my math homework. That always makes for the best day." He stopped rummaging around in his locker as a thought crossed his mind. "I might be able to do it second period, though. Do you have the assignment, Sam?" He looked up at the girl hopefully.
She winced. "Uh, not for your class' homework…"
"Oh, that's right," Danny said dryly. "You're in the honors class now. If you'll excuse me, I have to find someone else who's bad at math." He slammed his locker door shut and started down the hall.
Sam watched him go, put off by his bad mood. Then, shaking her head, she turned around and headed to her first period class.
'Now, who's in my class?' Danny thought to himself, scanning the hallway for a classmate. 'Tucker is in Iowa visiting his grandparents. Dash might pound the crud out of me just for reminding him that he's repeating geometry a third time. Hmm…'
Suddenly, he caught sight of another freshman girl, this one with shoulder-length reddish-blonde hair and blue-green eyes. She wore a dark pink T-shirt with a light blue tank over it, jeans, and purple Converse. Her colorful ensemble reflected her vibrant personality. She was creative and artistic, as the sketches and photos plastered to her open locker door would suggest.
'Hayley! She's in my class, and she won't beat me up. I think.' He walked over to the girl, who was putting things from her locker into her forest green backpack.
"Hayley?" She didn't respond, but simply continued to pull books out of her locker, a troubled look on her face.
"Hayley," Danny repeated, a little louder. Still, she didn't seem to hear him, though he was standing right next to her. Finally, he almost yelled, "Hayley!" while reaching out and touching her shoulder.
She whirled around to face him, terror in her eyes. She relaxed slightly when she realized it was only him, but still seemed nervous.
"Are you okay?" Danny inquired, pulling back his hand. As soon as she had turned around, his ghost sense started going off like crazy. This never used to happen around Hayley. What about her had changed in the past couple weeks? He covered his mouth, trying to hide from view the blue mist escaping his lips.
"Yeah, sure, I'm fine," Hayley said harshly. She took a deep breath. "Did you want something?"
"Just the math homework," Danny replied, feeling a bit indignant from her rude reception. His hand still hovered in front of his mouth.
Hayley stopped short. "There was math homework?" She asked apprehensively.
"Uh, yeah," Danny said raising an eyebrow, "Are you sure you're okay?" He sat next to Hayley in biology, and she was usually pretty on top of her schoolwork. According to her, her parents had told her the only way they would pay for her art lessons was if she consistently made the honor roll.
"Yes, I'm fine." Hayley snapped. She zipped up her backpack, slammed her locker shut, muttered "Bye," and walked away.
Danny's ghost sense gradually slowed down as she stalked off, and stopped completely when Hayley rounded the corner.
"That was weird," Danny said to himself. "My ghost sense has never gone off around her before. And she was acting really strangely, too. Something's up. I just don't know what."