Chapter 4:

Danny POV-

'Did I really just hear him right? Dash invited Sam and I over to his house after school?' I thought to myself.

The suspicious part of me couldn't help but question his motives, I wondered if he maybe had some kind of prank lined up for me, but then, why invite Sam? Dash may be a bully, and an idiot for that matter, but he, I at least hope, knows better than to pick on a girl. I studied the jock.

I will admit that it took guts to come over here, and essentially, surrender his friends. I looked over at the popular table, which regarded Dash with looks of scorn. In a way, I felt bad for him, I mean, yesterday he found out that the wimpy nerd that he used to pick on, actually could have kicked his ass into last week, and today he looses his friends. I just wanted to know why.

I didn't ask him to apologize, and I certainly didn't expect it from him, and then he thanked me. I mean, what was that? I almost asked him but then I saw that he still looked at me with a blue-eyed, almost pleading look, and I realized I still hadn't answered his question. I looked at Sam who arched an eyebrow in my direction as if to say, 'I don't care, it's your decision.' At that I sighed and turned to Dash.

"Okay, Dash. We'll be there," I told him. He grinned, which was weird for me. Most of the time when he is grinning he has just gotten away with bullying some poor kid, but now, his grin clearly indicated that he was happy that we could join him.

'Seriously, what is up with Dash?' I wondered. I half expected him to jump up and leave now that we had given him an answer, but he didn't he just continued to shovel the rancid mystery meat into his mouth.

When the bell rang, we departed for out next classes. Sam walked beside me. Once we were safely out of earshot, she turned to me.

"Okay, what was that?" she wanted to know, "Was he like…overshadowed or something?"

"No, he wasn't…and that's the weird thing, all that weirdness was completely Dash," I replied.

"Okay, then I guess the bigger question is, why?" she asked.

"I don't know," I shook my head, still confused myself. I stopped in front of my locker, looking around to make sure no one was there and then turning my hand intangible and reaching inside of my locker to get my books for my next class.

"All I do know is that we need to be way more careful now," I told her and we started walking back the way we came.

"Yeah, says the guy who just reached inside of his locker intangibly," she retorted sarcastically. I rolled my eyes.

"You know I only did that because nobody is around," I reminded her but she shook her head.

"Come on Danny, you know you've been careless lately, especially with that little incident with Dash yesterday," she glared pointedly at me.

"Sam, you said it yourself, my secret is safe," I replied.

"For now," she added.

"Don't worry, it's going to stay a secret. Anyway, I've got to get to class. Meet you after school, okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, okay, Danny," she smiled, still shaking her head.

Lancer POV-

I couldn't resist, despite my better judgment, I followed Danny after lunch got out, staying behind a good twenty feet, just to make sure that I went undetected. I saw him and Sam stop at his locker and I ducked behind a nearby pillar. In the reflection of the trophy case, I saw, what looked like…

'No, that can't be right,' I mentally scolded myself, how would Danny be able to reach through his locker? Once he collected his books, they once again started walking, this time towards me. I stayed behind the pillar, slowly, sliding farther out of view, around the pillar, with each step they took.

"…be way more careful now," I heard Danny tell Sam.

"Yeah, says the guy who just reached inside of his locker intangibly," she playfully scolded him back.

'So that is what I saw,' I told myself, 'But how is that possible?' I wondered. How would Danny be able to turn a part of his body intangible. I was hoping that maybe Danny or Sam would mention this, but they once again moved out of earshot within a few seconds. At this point, I had to step out from behind the pillar.

There wasn't much I knew about intangibility, but I did know, however, that it was a power that was limited, almost exclusively to ghosts.

'Could Daniel be a ghost?' I considered, before instantly shooting down the idea. No, I decided, Danny could not be a ghost, he was much too human for that. 'Maybe it has something to do with exposure to one of his parent's experiments,' I reasoned with myself. 'However, my knowledge of ghosts is pretty limited. Maybe I should speak with the professionals, I'm sure they have some idea of what is going on with their son.'

And with that, I had made up my mind and a plan was already set in motion.

Tonight, during an evening walk, I would go speak with Daniel's parents at Fenton Works.

Finally, the release bell rang and the kids shuffled out into the crowed hallways, pushing and shoving their peers to try and get to their next classes. I smiled to myself.

'At least Danny got a head start,' I thought, 'Maybe he'll be able to get to some teacher's class on time.' And with that, I shuffled down the hallway to my own class in order to start my lesson to a group of less-than-enthusiastic students.