Chapter 4

Man, when is lunch?

I hope Paulina doesn't notice my make-up.

Oh, Mom's planning on pizza tonight, awesome!

Daniel dropped his head to his desk, covering his ears as if that would stop the other students' thoughts from leaking into his brain. Dana was right, he needed to expose himself to this more often to build up his barrier. This was Ledwidge's class. This one he needed to be alert in. Ya, right. All these people's stupid thoughts were giving him a headache.

Man, my left are is still killing me.

"Huh?" Daniel sat up, looking for the owner of that thought only to see Danny and his two friends walk into the classroom.

Danny waved with his right hand, which looked a bit awkward since he was also holding his science book with that hand.

Daniel waved back, smiling to be polite. His smile dropped as he realized it was Danny who was complaining about his left arm. Wasn't that the arm the ghost dog had messed up on Phantom when he had tried to save him? Not like Daniel needed saving but it was nice to have help.

"Quiet down!" Ledwidge ordered as his voice overlaid the bell.

Daniel's eyebrows raised, surprised Ledwidge had the class silent with just those two words when the rest of the teachers couldn't get that.

"I want to see your homework on your desks." Ledwidge ordered, picking up an opened notebook from his desk.

Man, I never finished them.

Daniel turned to the desks behind him and saw Danny staring at a mostly blank sheet of paper.

"Daniel Painter, I presume?"

Daniel turned back towards the front to find Ledwidge standing in front of his desk. His black eyes the only give away he wasn't human. "Yes sir." Daniel nodded, doing anything he could to act like a normal teen.

"Find someone after class to get the vocab list." Ledwidge said before making a mark on his sheet and moving on to Danny behind him. "Mr. Fenton, you continue to surprise me."

Daniel turned around, only to stare in surprise. A faint, almost nonexistent green mist was being pulled from Danny's body as the boy fought to control his emotions.

"A simple assignment and you can't even complete that." Ledwidge almost laughed as he inhaled the green mist. He marked something down on the paper as he moved over to the girl Danny hung out with.

Daniel turned back around, trying to look like he was studying his new science book and the chapter the class was on but in reality, his mind was reviewing The List of Alien Outlaws on Terra Firma. Daniel smiled to himself, a memory with more space than a supercomputer had its perks.

Alien: Cigma Number 17

Human Alies(es): Michael Ledwidge

Area of Infestation: Madison, Wisconsin, Amity Park, Ohio

Illegal Activities: Illegal drain of energies

Planet of Origin: Sinva 2

Alien Species: Otopian

Current Danger Level: High. Cigma's goal is to build up enough ecto-energy to destroy Earth. Has jumped up in The List three times in the past month.

Special Abilities: Negative Telepathy, Ecto-collecting, Extraterrestrial level 4 speed, level 3 strength, level 5 flying, shap-shifting.

Negative telepathy, no wonder Daniel wasn't able to pick up any of Number 17's thoughts. Ledwidge couldn't read minds but he also had a permanent barrier surrounding his thoughts.

Ecto-collecting! That's what Ledwidge was doing. But how was he collecting ecto-energy from Danny?

Fenton.

Fenton Works.

That had to be it. His parents worked with ecto-energy so some must have attached to him.

But why was Ledwidge aggravating Danny to obtain it? Daniel found himself biting his pen in frustration. He didn't know enough about ghosts to get anywhere with this. Too bad Casper didn't have a ghost class.

"Open your Earth Science books to page 404."

Daniel yawned as he made his way back to Lancer's English classroom. The bell for the end of the day had rung about five minutes ago and everyone had left. Well, everyone but Danny who had somehow gained a detention and his two friends who were in the hallway outside the door waiting for their friend.

As Daniel walked up the girl was showing her friend a page from her notebook, getting a laugh from him.

"Hey, Sam and Tucker, right?" Daniel asked before sitting on the floor next to them.

"Ya." Sam nodded her head as she took her notebook back. "Oh, right, you wanna talk to Danny's parents."

"Ya." Daniel nodded. "Hey, what all do you know about ghosts?"

"Not much, really." Tucker said, looking reserved.

Daniel lowered his barrier only to be bombarded with concealed worry. It wasn't thoughts formed into words, but emotions and, what felt kind of like swimming in soup. The two friends were aiming to protect Danny and they thought Daniel was a threat. But why? Why would they even think Daniel would hurt Danny?

"So what you doing in Amity Park?" Sam asked.

"My mom got a job at Axion Labs." Daniel lied, bringing up the barrier as his headache was already coming back.

"Oh, so she might run into Valerie's dad." Tucker said.

"Maybe." Daniel shrugged, having no idea who Valerie was. "How long is Danny's detention?"

"About an hour normally." Sam said, going back to her notebook in her lab.

Daniel leaned upwards, trying to see what the girl was working on only to find different styled logos all ghost related and used the letters DP.