Daddy's Little Heroes
By Prenn, who dearly wishes for more reviews! Thanks!
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Chapter 1: Fourteen Years Later
It was a sunny Saturday morning. Fourteen-year-old Taylor Masters was lying on a towel by the pool. She had convinced herself she was far too pale to go to school and her father—Vlad Masters—had let her stay home.
Taylor tanned easily, so she'd be back in school by tomorrow to show off her new tan to all of her friends.
Aiden Masters was a senior in high school. He had it all—the girlfriend, the grades, and the varsity letter. And it was all thanks to father's money. Aiden just didn't know that yet. But what he did know was that he'd be able to get into any college he wanted because money was no object.
He was the son of a billionaire, after all. That made Aiden Masters a billionaire too. Girls think that's hot.
Unlike his brother and sister, Leo Masters wasn't a social genius. He was just beginning to hit puberty and his body was built like a child's, even though he was fourteen. Leo was actually more of a geek. He'd be sitting at his laptop all night doing some research on something dumb like aliens.
Vlad would never say it out loud, but he truly thought his money was a waste with Leo. Leo never did anything with the money he got for birthdays, Christmases, or allowance. He'd save it. To Vlad, "saving" money might as well be "throwing away" money.
At around three o'clock, a limo was dispatched to the school to go pick up Leo. The limo driver was timely, so Leo would need to only wait about two minutes before he left the school. There was a rule for the family that if the limo driver was more than ten minutes late, Taylor and Leo had the power to give him the sack.
Aiden had a fancy sports car, so that's how he got home.
After a long day of tediously pampering herself, Taylor sat on the couch filing her nails when her brothers walked through the door.
"How was your day, princess?" Aiden asked his sister.
Taylor flipped her blonde bangs out of her eyes. "Oh it was lovely."
Aiden sneered at her teasingly and then walked upstairs probably so that he could type on his laptop. It was almost always something for school because that's what he enjoyed. He was all about grades and sports. He was the ideal son that any parent would be proud of. He was top of the class and top of the line, well-respected by students and teachers, and well-loved by his hot girlfriend Raven.
"Taylor, you'll never guess what happened today." Leo sat down next to her. Taylor and Leo got along better than they did with Aiden because they were less mature.
"What?" Taylor asked curiously. Leo was one of the few people in the world who was worth pausing to listen to. They'd always shared a special bond. Probably because they were twins.
"There's two new students in our class. They just moved here from up north. Actually, they used to live here a long time ago. But then they moved and now they're back—"
"Stop rambling, Leo." Taylor interrupted.
"Sorry. One of the kids is a goth and she's really hot. And the other is a really cool dude that believes in ghosts. His name is Casey Baxter and her name is Lolita. Cool names, too, don'tcha think?"
"I'm sure you and that guy will get along great, but it doesn't make me happy to hear that there's new competition as to who's the hottest girl in our class." Taylor swooshed her hair to one side, so that it rested flatteringly on her neck.
"Of course the other boys still think you're the hottest. Why wouldn't they? I'm just saying that Lolita is really, really hot."
"So do you know what this means?"
"No not really."
"I'm going to school tomorrow!" Taylor stood up dramatically and pointed to the air like those silly superheroes in comics did. Taylor looked at Leo. "And I'll be wearing that cute pink dress I have and my new violet sandals. And it will all look great with my tan skin and my freshly manicured nails, see?" Taylor put her nails in her brother's face. That was one of the better things about Leo—there was no scaring him away.
The next day, Taylor put her long blond hair in a side ponytail. Her violet eye shadow matched her eyes perfectly just like her shoes. And the pink dress and nails were the highlight of the outfit.
Leo sat next to Taylor in the limo that drove them to school.
"Ugh. Yeah, I forgot it was this school. I don't even remember why we moved to Amity Park when we loved it in Wisconsin." Taylor looked at the sign to the school. "Casper High."
"Dad said the moving trip had something to do with business."
"Then why are we still here after three months? I was so looking forward to visiting Watson University when I turned eighteen."
"That's an all boys' school."
"I know!"
"Here we are, Mr. and Miss Masters." The limo driver said.
"Actually, for future reference, I prefer "Ms. Masters"." Taylor said. The driver nodded.
"There she is." Leo pointed out Lolita on his way into school. Taylor, who always walked into school with him, grimaced at Lolita.
"What? She's not even pretty. And she has no style." Taylor said. "I'm disappointed in you, Leo."
Leo scoffed in disagreement.
Lolita was at her locker getting her books. She was skinny and had almost no curve and her hair was straight and plain. It had a purple streak in it. Lolita wore blue lipstick and black eyeliner and her clothes were maroon and black. And she had combat boots.
"Who wears combat boots?" Taylor commented to Leo as Lolita closed her locker and walked to class.
Leo shrugged.
Taylor and Leo had every class together except for two. This was probably because they had the same last name. As for their two electives, Taylor chose cheerleading and dance. And Leo chose band and computers.
In Taylor's dance class was her best friend Karmen. Karmen was just as girly as Taylor. They were always dance partners and they loved to show off and get wolf whistles from the guys.
"Sorry I'm late." Taylor noticed Lolita entering the room. Lolita handed the teacher—Ms. Gray—a hall pass slip.
"Ms. Gray is never going to accept that." Karmen scoffed.
But she did.
Karmen's eyes went wide. "But she's never…" Her voice trailed off.
And then Ms. Gray told Lolita to join the rest of the class.
Taylor walked over to Lolita so she could talk to her while the rest of the class did warm-ups. Taylor put on a fake smile. "Hi. I'm Taylor. Are you new here?"
"Yeah. I came yesterday. I'm Lolita." Her voice was surprisingly light, but it was weak and small.
Just like the rest of her, Taylor thought. "So are you into dance?" Taylor pretended to care.
"No, not really."
Oh thank God! Taylor thought.
"It's the only class that wasn't full." Lolita said honestly.
Anger now brewed inside of Taylor. But she had to pretend to take it lightly. "Dance is to be taken very seriously."
"I know." Lolita looked down.
"Then maybe you should check those class lists again because I think a class could open up."
"Too late."
"Too late for what?"
"My schedule's already set. I can't change out."
Taylor sighed. I guess we're stuck with her.
After the warm-ups, Lolita was supposed to give an audition like everybody else in the class. Lolita put a CD in the boom box which was in the center of the room. The music was loud and rocky and Taylor could tell by the faces on the other students that they did not like this at all. Lolita danced loosely with no rhythm. She wasn't even very strong. In fact, she was downright awful.
Taylor smiled and Lolita approached her. Taylor clapped slowly. She was the only one clapping. "I think I've changed my opinion of you. You might want to stay in this class after all."
Lolita smiled shyly, not realizing how bad her dancing was.
At lunch, Taylor invited Lolita to sit with her and Karmen. "Why did you invite her?" Karmen whispered.
"Don't worry. I've got a plan." Taylor said. Taylor looked at Lolita and watched her pull out her lunch. It was all veggies and fruits. How strange. "You sure like your fruits and veggies, huh?"
Lolita nodded. She looked at Taylor's lunch. "Is that grilled caviar?" She asked Taylor nauseously.
Taylor nodded. "Want some?" She offered with a low chuckle.
Lolita backed away. "No thanks. I'm a vegetarian."
How odd, Taylor thought. And Karmen laughed.
"So what brings you here in the middle of a school year?" Karmen asked Lolita.
"New foster parents." Lolita said casually.
"Oh." Karmen regretted asking.
"I really don't mind talking about it. I'm just glad to have the parents I've got now. The ones I had before…well they were science geeks. They were going on and on about ghosts and stuff. And then I got moved back to the Baxter family. They were the couple who were originally watching me. They're all normal I guess. Does everybody in this town believe in ghosts?"
"Ghosts? Who cares! My life is one-hundred-percent ghost-free." Taylor said with a proud smile.
"And I really don't know anything about ghosts." Karmen said quietly.
"My brother would probably be into that kind of junk." Taylor said.
"Cool." Lolita said.
"So you really do believe in ghosts?" Taylor teased.
"I've never actually seen one, but my mom—my real mom—used to tell me all about this Danny Phantom ghost that would save the town from all the bad ghosts just so the citizens would be able to sleep a little better at night. My mom told me she and Danny were best friends."
Taylor and Karmen both thought that was a sweet story even though they didn't like Lolita. "That's a nice story." Taylor finally said. It was the first thing she said to Lolita that wasn't a lie.
Taylor just wanted to forget everything Lolita had said about ghosts. But Taylor couldn't forget when she saw the impossible. Outside the school in the parking lot, there was a woman with bluish green skin. Her hair was in green dreadlocks and she wore a red jacket that said "Johnny's Girl" on the back. And then she flew away. She flew.
After the last bell of the day had rung, Taylor looked everywhere for Karmen but could not find her.
But Taylor did find her brother Leo. She took him by the arm and they ran outside where Taylor spotted their limo. She pulled him into the limo.
"Why are you in such a rush to get home?" Leo asked. He fixed his messy brown hair back to the way it was before they ran.
"I'm not in a rush. I just wanted to talk to you in private." Taylor said. She dumped her homework on the floor and turned towards her brother. "Do you believe in ghosts?"
Leo gave her a weird look. "Yes. Why do you suddenly care? I thought you said ghosts were a bunch of nonsense."
"Well I think I saw a ghost. Earlier. She was middle-aged and had green skin and she could fly. I've never seen that kind of nonsense before. Have you?"
Leo was silent. He pulled out his laptop from his backpack. Leo showed his sister pictures on the internet about ghosts.
"Those aren't real ghosts, Leo, those are from movies. I'm talking about real ghosts, not bed sheets or people in makeup and wires. I'm telling you about the living thing."
Leo rolled his eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about then."
"Lolita told me about someone named Danny Phantom. She said he was a ghost."
"Lolita's involved? Why didn't you say so!" Leo typed in "Danny Phantom" into the search engine slot. The image results were all from newspapers about twenty years ago. "Gee, this guy is old if he was our age twenty years ago. And I can't seem to find a recent picture of him."
"Maybe he's dead."
"Duh! Taylor, he is a ghost. He's already dead."
"Well there's no need to be nasty about it! I was thinking maybe he wasn't dead-dead before but now he is."
"It seems like he used to be some sort of hero."
"Dad might know about him. We should ask."
"That's…not a bad idea, Taylor." Leo smiled and put the laptop back in his bag.