Chapter 02
"Danny, I think you should give this guy a chance before passing judgment on him," Sam said, scanning her notes for class. Danny turned to Tucker and gave his other friend a gaping look.
"Sam, the guy attacked me!" Danny couldn't believe his friend was defending the new bully. "Why should I give this guy a chance?"
"She's probably just defending him because he's a fellow Goth," Tucker whispered to Danny. But Sam heard it and glared at him.
"And he just happens to be in my math class," Danny said with a tired sigh. "At least I only have to see Dash during lunch." Which was mostly true. Sometimes the jock caught Danny in the hallways between classes, and Danny watched Dash play football from the top of the bleachers during games. But Danny did his best to keep off Dash's radar the rest of the time.
"Speaking of the blond blockhead," Sam muttered when she noticed Dash walking down the hallway with his teammates.
"And there's the Gothic dark lord," Tucker said, nodding his head toward the other end of the hallway where Devon was coming with a small group of women trailing behind him, though he gave them no notice.
"I'm in hell!" Danny banged his forehead on his locker. He couldn't escape without running into either Dash or Devon.
"Fenton!" Devon shouted, his voice seeming to echo in Danny's ears as all other noise filtered out of his hearing. The sense of dread filled Danny, and the hairs on his neck stood on end when the new man's shadow loomed over him. Devon grabbed the Danny's shoulder and spun him around before slamming him into the lockers again. "I'm taking a chick out on a date tonight. Give me some money."
"I don't have any money," Danny said quickly. His jaw clenched as he glared at the man. Why did the bullies always think they could take everything from him?
Devon snorted as he shoved a hand into the back pocket of Danny's baggy jeans. The half ghost's mind froze at the fact that some other man had his hand in his pocket. Danny glanced to his friends, but both of them looked too stunned to say or do anything. He choked on a gasp when he felt a hand squeezing his buttocks. Not finding a wallet, Devon tried the other back pocket. He repeated the same action, groping around for a bit before removing his hand with Danny's black wallet between his fingers. A smirk spread onto his face as he took the few bills from the wallet.
"Thanks for the twenty bucks," Devon said, tossing the wallet back to Danny. It smacked the man in the forehead before dropping to the ground. Devon waved as he turned to continue walking down the hallway.
"Are you okay, man?" Tucker bent down to pick up his friend's wallet.
Danny slowly turned to his friends before he snatched the wallet out of Tucker's hand. "Yeah, give him a chance." Danny directed a sneer at Sam. "He just groped me!"
"Danny, you really need to grow a backbone," Sam said, though she was concerned about the groping. She watched Devon walking away from the corner of her eyes. "You always let the bullies walk all over you."
"I didn't see either of you jump in to help me," Danny grumbled. He glanced down the hallway to see Devon get stopped by Dash. "There's something weird about that new guy."
"You mean other than the fact that he used the excuse of stealing your wallet to grope you?" Tucker asked innocently, holding back a snicker. He knew he shouldn't find it amusing, but it was funny to see Danny's reaction.
"Yes, other than that." Danny glared at his friend. "Every time he comes near me, I get this bad feeling, like there's something wrong with him, but he doesn't set off my ghost sense." A troubled expression crossed his face.
"Maybe he just sets off your gay-dar," Tucker suggested before bursting into laughter.
"Tucker!" his friends shouted at him, and Sam punched him in the shoulder. Tucker winced as he rubbed the sore spot.
Meanwhile down the hallway, Dash stopped the new man after he saw what happened with Fenton. He looked over the Goth man, his lip curling up in a sneer of disgust at the all black apparel. He never did like the Goth fashion, and now he hated it even more.
"No one touches Fenton without my permission," Dash warned, glaring at the dark eyed man before him.
"I didn't know he was taken already." Devon smirked when Dash's face grew red with anger.
"You're new here, so I'll let you off this time," Dash growled. "I run this school, and if I tell you to stay away from someone, you better keep your distance. Fenton's my punching bag." He grabbed Devon's hand, ripping the bills from his hand.
"Someone likes to act like a big macho man." Devon's grin remained firmly on his face. The people of this school were pretty amusing, especially the ones that reacted so easily to his actions. "Do you practice acting tough in front of a mirror?"
Dash moved to attack Devon, but his team mates saw it coming and held him back. They didn't need Dash getting detention for fighting and being banned from the big game that weekend.
"See you later, Blondie!" Devon waved as he passed the group of jocks and headed down the hallway toward his first period classroom.
"That punk!" Dash growled, the challenge to his authority hurting his pride.
"You can kick his ass later when we're not on school grounds," Kwan whispered as he patted his friend's back in an attempt to calm him. "We need you in the game, so just ignore that punk while we're at school."
Dash shrugged off the hand on his shoulder and stormed down the hallway to where Manson was beating Foley over the head with a notebook while Fenton laughed at his friends. When he reached the group, Dash gave Fenton a hard shove into the lockers before continuing on his way like nothing happened. Kwan jogged to catch up with his teammate, overhearing Fenton say something about how he was sick of always being picked on by the jocks.
"Are you jealous that someone's moving in on your punching bag?" Kwan tried to keep the smile off his face.
"Fenton's been my punching bag for the past four years," Dash answered through clenched teeth. "No one gets to abuse him but me."
"Dash," Kwan said, placing a hand on his friend's arm to make him stop, "why does it matter? It's just Fenton. He's a loser. Why do you care so much about who picks on him?"
"If Fenton's going to suffer, it'll be by my hands." Dash slapped the other man's hand off his arm.
Kwan watched his friend storm down the hallway, feeling at a bit of a loss. He never understood Dash's hatred for the loser. Every time he tried to ask his friend about it, Dash answered with "Fenton's a loser who deserves to suffer" or he avoided the question altogether. What could have happened between them to cause Dash to hate Fenton so much? Kwan wondered as he headed for his first class. He hadn't met Dash until their freshmen year at Casper High, and Dash seemed to know about Fenton from before high school. Maybe Fenton can give me some answers, Kwan thought upon entering his history class.
