Danny stood in the living room of the empty house, looking around at a whole lot of nothing. It was dark, but he could still tell there wasn't anything to look at. The forlorn look on his face clearly bugged Jazz, because she said, "Look, there's no use being mopey about it. We should get settled in, and then we can worry about ghosts and everything else." She put a hand on his shoulder, trying to meet his eyes, but he wouldn't let her. She frowned, and said sternly, "It's not our fault the school can't afford to be fixed anymore."

"My friends…" Danny started, but then he changed his mind and shrugged his sister's hand off his shoulder. "Whatever," he said, heading to the stairs. "I'm going to look at my new room." He was so mad that they had to leave Amity Park suddenly like this. So many people lived in that town, regardless of the school district changeup. How many people would suffer now that he was living in Arcadia Oaks? Who cared about the school's funding or "the merging of school districts" when thousands of people's lives were at risk because he wasn't there to protect them? Couldn't they just fix the school again? He didn't want to go to Arcadia Oaks High. He wanted to be home.

He didn't get very far up the stairs before he heard a bone-shattering crash from outside. The whole house shook, and you could hear it wobble, even though there wasn't anything in it yet.

"OH, COME ON," shouted their dad from outside. "NOT THE GHOST PORTALLLL!"

"The ghost portal?" Danny and Jazz said in unison, locking eyes. They ran for the front door.

It had completely crushed the asphalt of the road, sticking up at an odd angle. Apparently Jack and Maddie Fenton, Danny and Jazz's parents, had rented a crane to carry the ghost portal to their new house. Jack had clearly insisted on giving it a try. Of course, that hadn't gone very well.

Danny hadn't known they were planning on bringing it with them. But now he realized that the reason that his parents made them move out so late at night was to avoid any traffic with their gigantic ghost portal. He'd assumed it was because they were being frantically erratic again. Jazz had driven Danny there in her own car, which meant that of course they hadn't seen their parents and the crane. Maybe, if the portal wasn't broken, things could still work out, maybe the ghosts would stay localized here.

"I can't believe Dad messed the portal up AGAIN," complained Jazz, as her mom examined the crane. "Now the road's all messed up, too."

"Hang on," said Maddie. Everyone hung on while they waited for her to decide what happened. She pointed to a component on the crane, and with a small "Humph," she stood up. "This mechanism here, it's been tampered with. There's a screw that's missing."

"HAH!" barked Jack, pointing at his daughter from inside the crane. "Take that, it WASN'T my fault!"

"This time," muttered Jazz.

"BEEP BEEP BEEP," said the Ghost Portal, shutting up everyone.

"Uh," said Danny, "is it supposed to do that?" He stared at the portal, waiting for the worst to happen, and noticed some very small movement on the door. It looked like a tiny, glowing worm was wiggling its way up the portal's door, though Danny didn't know anything about glowing worms or why they'd want to be on the portal.

"No, it's not supposed to be making that sound," said Maddie, giving the portal a hard look.

Suddenly the worm-like thing shot up into the sky, growing longer and larger, never getting free of the door. That was really strange - until Danny saw how it moved, watched it split apart in the sky, heard the haunting screams. It was a swarm of ghosts. They'd just escaped through a crack in the ghost portal door.

Maddie shivered. She looked at Danny, at Jazz, and Jack. "Did you feel that?" Feel that? Did they even see what just happened?

"Ice cold," said Jazz, shivering. "Let's just finish the packing." They were acting like they hadn't just freed practically every ghost in the Ghost Zone. Why weren't they more worried?

"I feel bad about leaving the portal out here like this," said Maddie, "but we've got to, for now until we can either rent a new, working crane, or pay someone who has one." That's when it hit Danny: the ghosts were invisible. Well, invisible to the human eye, at least. They were acting like they hadn't seen it because they truly hadn't seen it. Well, in that case, Danny decided that he hadn't seen it, either. He went back into the house, up to his empty room, and stared out the window. Surely the ghosts would attack any second. He sat there for what seemed like forever, waiting for a sign, and eventually fell asleep.

Danny looked at the clouds hanging in the blue sky. He knew they were coming. His parents had accidentally made sure of that. And he knew they didn't mean to release them all at once, that his parents wanted them trapped just as much as he did, but he still wished with all his heart they hadn't done it. They should've left the portal behind.

Danny kept his eye on the sky, squinting, trying to see if there was anything flying around up there. Nothing. Where did they all go? Last night, his parents had accidentally released thousands of ghosts upon the new town. His parents didn't know they were responsible, and they had leapt into action, ready for battle as they always were. Danny had been asleep, so he didn't get to fight any ghosts. Though, he kind of wished he had. Now he just felt like a helpless sleepy teenager.

But the strange thing was; after just an hour of chaotic rampaging, it had stopped. Every single angry ghost had just disappeared. Very little actual damage had fallen on the town, as the news reported, and so most people continued with their daily routines. Everyone in town was still frazzled, however. The citizens of Arcadia Oaks clearly were denying the nature of the attack, which was par for the course. Something had attacked the town around 3 am; a pack of bears? An angry mob? Was it a prank by some college students? The knowledge that it wasn't any of those things dangled in the back of their minds, Danny knew, and they were ignoring it. Eventually, though, if an attack happened again - and Danny knew it would - they would have to accept it. Ghosts were real.

He shoved his hands lower into his jacket pockets as he walked to school, grumpier than ever and regretting every action that had pushed him here. The shutting down of Casper High, the move, the friends splitting up to different schools. No one would have his back now, not like Sam and Tucker did. They were the only people he could truly trust, and they were gone, off at a fancy private school. Sure, Jazz knew his secret, and protected him all the same, but she hadn't been there for him like they had. She hadn't been there for the accident, she hadn't helped him come to terms with his sudden departure from true humanity. She hadn't held him in her arms as he cried for the life that he lost, wailing as he stared at the mirror, into eyes that weren't his anymore.

Danny grimaced as he reached the school. Just another reminder that he didn't fit in. He found his way to the gym for the welcoming assembly, and sat in the bleachers as far away from everyone else as he could.

Mr. Lancer walked into the gym, stopping in front of the microphone, and spoke. "Ahem," he said forcefully, quieting the kids in the bleachers. "As you know," he continued, "Casper High School in Amity Park has been shut down, due to the district losing their funding. Why the school lost its funding isn't important, because we're here now. We were very lucky to have found Arcadia Oaks High, because it had the space for us." And it was the only public school willing to accept the kids at all, thanks to Casper's reputation, thought Danny.

"Another thing I should add," said Mr. Lancer, "is that I will be the new principal! Mr. Strickler's sudden absence for the second time in one school year has left the position open. Coach Lawrence was tired of standing in for him... again." There was a quiet murmur from the kids, because they knew they were supposed to laugh but it wasn't really very funny. "You all have your schedules," Mr. Lancer continued, "and if you have any problems with them, ask in the main office. If you need help finding your classrooms, either ask an available faculty member or a fellow classmate. That is all."

The gym floor filled with teenagers, the swarm trying to make their escape through the two exits, but the going was slow. Danny took the time to check his schedule again as he slowly shuffled forward with the crowd. "Mr…. uhh… hm." His first class was Spanish, with a Mr. Uhl.

"It's pronounced, 'ooh-l,'" said a voice behind him, and Danny jumped out of his skin. Behind him stood a short kid, with brown hair, a sweatervest only half tucked in, and braces. As they continued to sluggishly move forward, he said, "Hi, I'm Toby. Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you…" He smiled at Danny, braces flashing.

Danny didn't smile back. "I'm Danny-" He was going to say "Fenton," but decided against it. Who knew what this kid had heard about his family? He was probably just going to make fun of him if he knew Danny's last name.

"Uhl's a real mean guy," continued Toby. "My friend Jim has him first period, too, and the stories he tells…. Whew, I'm tellin' you." He thought for a moment, then said, "Hey! Why don't you look for Jim when you get there? He needs a study buddy who's actually taking the class, and you'll need help catching up! It's perfect!" Danny gave him a strange look, hoping it would communicate how weird he thought all this was.

Toby saw an opening in the crowd, and took it, getting swept ahead of Danny. Toby turned back before he disappeared completely and yelled, "Jim's tall, with black hair, and he wears the same blue sweater every day! You can't miss him!" And then he was gone.

When he was finally free from the mob of teenagers, Danny wandered down hallways searching for Mr. Uhl's classroom. He heard a noise from above him, and he looked at the ceiling. He didn't see anything. But the noise persisted, a strange sort of scuttling, thought Danny. Like a rat or something in the vents. He listened harder, and realized there was another, lower frequency, too. Almost like… it was almost as if someone was muttering something up there. What kind of a person could fit in those vents? What were they even doing there? Danny tried not to think about it as he hurried the rest of the way to his class.

He sat down close to the back, hoping no one would claim the seat as already taken. Class started, and the teacher introduced himself. "Good morning, class," he said in an Austrian accent. "My name is Senor Uhl. I know many of you are new here, but we are too far into the school year to restart our curriculum. You will have to catch up from your classmates. Now, onto roll call." The teacher ran down a list of names, and aside from raising his hand when his name was called, Danny stopped paying attention.

His focus shifted to the world out the window. What was going to happen out there? Were the released ghosts planning something? He couldn't help but feel that an attack was imminent. He had no idea of their motivations whatsoever, so everything was speculation at this point. But he couldn't help but worry… And what was that thing in the vents earlier? It couldn't have been a human person, but why would a ghost be hanging around up there? Something weird was going on.

"Jim Lake!" called out Senor Uhl, and Danny's attention was sucked back into the room. He'd been so preoccupied with worrying he'd forgotten that Toby had told him to look out for his friend Jim. Danny wondered what he looked like, who he was. But no one was raising their hand. There wasn't even a kid in the room wearing a blue sweater.

"Absent again," muttered Uhl. He rolled his eyes as he made a mark on the sheet of paper and finished the roll call. "Okay," said Senor Uhl, "now, we're going to pick up where we left off yesterday. I'll give you kids an extra 15 minutes at the end of class to catch each other up. We were talking about animals last class, if you'll remember. We'll review: rana is frog, leon is lion…" Danny tried to keep focused, but his mind drifted. Class was always so boring. It didn't matter what he told himself or how hard he tried to force himself to focus; his brain had a mind of its own, and it usually decided that learning in class was garbage.

He was coming up with more theories on what the ghosts were doing when he heard the distinct sound of sneakers on polished school flooring. Someone was running down the hall, and when Danny looked at Senor Uhl, he could see that the teacher already knew who it was. A fairly tall kid burst his way into the room, and he was panting his guts out. "You're late again, Jim," said Uhl, his scowl deepening.

"Sorry," said Jim in response, giving no reason for being tardy, and moved to sit down in the only free seat in the room: next to Danny. Jim leaned over and whispered, "What'd I miss?"

Danny shrugged, and then said, "I haven't been paying attention, sorry, man." Jim sighed and got his notebook out of his backpack. He began taking notes furiously about whatever Uhl was saying. "Uh," Danny whispered, "I met a guy who said he was called Toby in the-"

"Shhh! Can't you see I'm taking notes-" Jim stopped and looked up from his notebook. "Wait, I've never seen you before. Are you new?"

Danny raised his eyebrows at Jim. "Yeah, just like all the other Casper kids." Jim just stared back at Danny with a blank expression, like he didn't know what "Capser" meant. It was a weird reaction, since the whole school had spent a lot of time accommodating all the new kids, even holding pre-switch assemblies at each school to prep both groups. "You know how Casper High School in Amity Park shut down? How we're like, all going here now? I'm one of the dozens of new kids, Jim."

Jim raised an eyebrow. "Uh, okay. Sorry, I guess I've been too preoccupied with my own stuff to notice the change." Must've been pretty preoccupied, thought Danny, if Jim seriously had missed the several announcements. "Wait, you said Toby talked to you?" asked Jim.

"Uh, yeah, I met him after the welcome assembly," said Danny. "He said to uh, talk to you about getting caught up with the class… he suggested we work together?" Danny ended that on a very unsure note, because Jim didn't seem that interested in distractions right now. And Danny knew he counted as a distraction, as sincere as he was.

"Really? He said that?" Jim shook his head, sighing as his shoulders slumped. "If I'm being honest, I'm not the best at this class, either, and I'm also behind - but not as much as you… I'm in danger of failing, actually."

"Oh," said Danny. His hopes hadn't really been that far up, but he was still disappointed to be without any help. He knew it would be pretty much impossible to pass this class so late in the year without inside help, and Jim was his in, as far as he could see. And he'd said no.

"Jim. Lake," growled Senor Uhl. He was clearly unhappy about the two of them whispering in class. "Interrupting my lessons again? Do you have something you want to share with the glass?"

"No, sir," replied Jim, gritting his teeth. "I was just asking Danny here to leave me alone." He gave Danny a glare that told him it was time to be quiet. Danny didn't think he should try talking to Jim again.

He sighed, eyes wandering back outside. Things seemed to be normal for now. Even though he missed Sam and Tucker a whole lot, he was disappointed to have not made a friend with Jim. Well, Danny thought, it can't really be helped. We just don't have anything in common. Jim doesn't fight supernatural beings on the daily. He doesn't have to worry about the safety of the whole world. And he probably isn't leading a double life either.