Mr. Lancer stared at his class with the same apathetic expression he had worn every minute of the last three years, which happened to be as long as he had taught this class. He had once had hope for this particular group. Tucker Foley, the greatest technological mind in the town, even as a freshman. Dash Baxter, a promising athlete who was destined to get a football scholarship. Danny Fenton, the child of the towns resident mad-scientists who happened to be right all along, had kept an A- average ever since he started schooling that gave letter-grades. Sam Manson, a girl who was never afraid to speak her mind and was likely to become a great political voice in adulthood. Every last one of the students in that class, at the beginning of their freshman year, were practically destined to be good, influential people. Mr. Lancer had believed with all his heart that they would be amazing, but only half-way into the school-year everything fell apart. Danny Fenton was in an accident that took him out of school for almost two weeks. When he returned, He, Sam, and Tucker were inseparable and impenetrable. Dash, Paulina, Star, Kwan, and Valerie formed a group that was just as close. The two groups immediately became opposites in the social food chain of the student body, Danny's Trio becoming known for poor attendance, falling grades, and lack of focus. The A-Listers, as they called themselves, were known for poor grades as well, but power and popularity amongst the student body, along with more interest in their social activities than anything else made them the very opposite of the Trio. Mr. Lancer watched some of his best students give up on their grades in exchange for other activities. Daniel Fenton, however, shocked him the most. The boy was caught in a nasty accident and put in the hospital. The moment he came back after only two weeks away, he went from A's to D's. Daniel started missing classes so often he had detention three times a week, yet he missed those as well. He often requested to go to the restroom and, upon his return much later, would have a slight limp or bruise or cut, as if he had been in a fight. He began sleeping in class more often than not and eventually was only present and awake, in the classroom, on a school day, during class, nine times a month. His behavior led his two best friends to follow his example to a lesser extent. They occasionally didn't go to school at all, claiming that they had prior engagements that were more important. Mr. Lancer couldn't help but be disappointed that they had fallen so far from the great potential they once posed for this world. The three now used their talents for their own activities, of which Lancer had no knowledge what they did in their free-time. He had his suspicions in the past, but any and all attempts to discover the truth led only to more questions and failure. Mr. Lancer had all but given up, but after a recent event, he changed his mind and decided to give one last attempt before abandoning all hope. He had recently seen Tucker and Sam much too close to a fight between Danny Phantom and a ghost known as Skulker. The two had looked comfortable and almost as if they were used to the situation. They both had some form of weapon and happened to be assisting Phantom, a local hero. The ghost boy had been causing many problems for almost as long as Mr. Lancer had been teaching this specific group of students. Only a month after Daniel had returned from the hospital in his freshman year, Phantom had appeared. The ghost had begun fighting its own kind in Amity Park, supposedly protecting the townspeople from the ectoplasmic entities. He had been fighting for the people of Amity Park for three years now and had saved countless lives. There had even been occasions where the young ghost had saved the entire town from a major threat, such as Pariah Dark, who had brought the entire town into the ghost realm. Mr. Lancer had been clued into the connection between the Trio and the Ghost problem only days after that specific event, at which point he overheard them discussing it in detail only someone in the middle of the battle would have been able to know. Mr. Lancer couldn't help but let a small smile slip onto his face as he looked at his class, for he knew he would likely learn the truth about the secretive Trio only a few days later. He had only been looking at the class for a few seconds, but with all the thoughts and memories swirling through his head, the man couldn't help but feel as though it had been almost the entire hour.