Sorry for the long delay. Had the chapter written, but between having to evacuate due to flooding, losing half of my belongings and getting a promotion, well things have been a bit busy.
Will try to get the next one out sooner. Thanks for all the reviews
As per the usual Danny is all property of Mr. Hartman.
A few days had passed and nothing had changed at Casper High. Students piled into classrooms to hear boring lectures, stood in line to buy lunch, and ran laps in gym class. The week had gone by without major incident. No random ghost attacks and no sightings of the ghost boy. These trivial matters went unnoticed in most part by the student body except to a select few.
First the Fentons thought it suspicious that the ghost boy didn't rear his head in public, and even though their main concern was the welfare of their son currently, the absence was duly noted. Second, Valerie was oblivious to the fact that Danny was absent from classes due to her gloating over finally defeating Phantom. No sign of the white haired specter had been seen in days and she felt elated in her victory.
Now the third person who felt a void in his daily routine had no real clue as to why until it became very apparent. His punching bag was missing. Dash Baxter realized that a few days without stuffing Fenton into a locker was making him tense. His daily beatings and berating of the lanky classmate loosened his muscles and relaxed his nerves. He was a bit on edge.
"Hey Dash, how's it going?" Valerie asked as she walked into the classroom.
"Horrible. I have all these knots in my shoulders and I can't stop shaking my legs." Dash said obviously jittery and in need of a massage.
"Why, is something bothering you?" Valerie asked trying to feign mild concern. It was no secret that ever since her decline into lower middle class, all of her 'so-called' friends made a quick deal of losing her number.
"Nah, I just need to get rid of some of this pent up energy and work out some muscles."
"So hit the weight room."
"It just isn't the same."
"The same? The same as what?"
"The same as taking a nerd and stuffing him into a locker. Forcing an entire body into a small crammed space and pushing it closed locking him in there."
"Well this building is full of nerds, geeks, and dweebs. Pick one."
"It just isn't the same." Dash again said with a sigh.
"I'm going to punch you." She quipped dryly. "It isn't the same as what?!"
"It can't be just any nerd. I need it to be Fenton. The feeling I get when I wail on him is almost Zen-like."
"You have issues you know that?"
"Whatever. The minute he gets back to school I will make sure he gets the beating of a lifetime."
"Gets back?"
"What, you didn't know? Fentardo landed himself in the hospital a few days ago." Dash said with a puzzled look to her. "I thought you two were buddy-buddy and all?"
"Well yeah, sort of, not as of late." Valerie hadn't really noticed his absence. Thinking back she couldn't recall seeing him in school, and the lack of the trio in the lunch room was now becoming apparent. Sam and Tucker had been spacing out more lately she mused, well Tucker always spaced out, but Sam was acting more zombie-like than usual. No wonder. "Wait, he's in the hospital? What happened?!"
"Geez, where have you been? Under a rock." Dash asked bewildered at her reaction.
"Now I'm really gonna punch you! Just tell me." She demanded.
"I thought I was tense."
She raised her arm and formed a fist.
"All right, all right. He went and got himself buried alive or something."
"Buried alive!"
"It was all over the news like days ago. He had to be pulled out by a SWAT team and a crane."
Her jaw dropped to the floor. She realized that she was in her own world as of late, but to not notice that one of her friends had been hospitalized and spread all over the news, she felt like an ass. She quickly turned heel and ran out of the classroom. Hopefully visiting hours weren't over.
"The CDC?!?"
That wasn't the kind of thing that Danny needed to hear at the moment. His parents had just come into his room to check on him, when he saw the mixed expressions on their faces. Remembering the incident at the hospital, he made the mistake of asking if there was anything wrong.
"That's what I said, but the doctor seemed insistent." Maddie said with a look of concern on her face. She walked over to his bedside and felt his forehead for any signs of a temperature. He felt a bit cold, which worried her, but the fact that he was so pale worried her more. With all that blood loss it was to be expected, but he should be a bit better by now right? "It seems that with the irregularities present in your blood samples, and your condition, he had no other choice."
"What kind of irregularities?" Dread was written all over Danny's face. He looked to Sam, who had taken a seat at his desk, to find her wearing the same expression.
"For the most part they didn't tell us much, but we were shown the tests and there seemed to be ectoplasm mixed into all of your samples." His mom started to say missing the very large gulp Danny had just taken. "I was surprised to say the least."
"I know what the problem is!" Jack boomed from the doorway.
Danny all but jumped out of the bed at the sound of his father's voice. His mind was running in a thousand directions, but they all seemed to end up at the same place. It seemed his parents were finally to learn his secret………
"Ghosts!"
The crowd went silent.
Jack could tell from the expressions on their faces that they were expecting that response.
"I'm serious this time. It is the work of ghosts. I mean come on, the ectoplasm in the blood, the attack on the lab, Danny's accident. I bet they are all connected." He stated the conclusion and slammed his fist into his other hand with vigor.
"The attack on the lab?" Sam asked from behind Maddie.
"Yeah, these specters came right in from the ceiling and tried to tear apart the lab. We were in the kitchen when we heard all the ruckus." Maddie said as she took a seat on the edge of Danny's bed.
"They were there to destroy our latest invention for sure!" Jack boomed.
"How could they have known what we were working on dear? I mean we had just finished it." She said turning back to her husband.
"The same way they got past our defense system in the first place. They are a crafty bunch." He said while grabbing at his chin in thought.
Danny turned to Sam with a puzzled look. They both had already begun to formulate possible suspects. Who would have been able to break into the house without setting off the 'Fenton Security System'? Everything was silent for a moment until Sam broke it to ask a question…..
"What invention was it Mr. Fenton?"
Big mistake.
Instantaneously Jack's face lit up with pride, Maddie put a big grin on, Sam smacked her forehead, and Danny's face filled with absolute fear.
"Glad you asked!" Jack said as Maddie and he ran out of the room to go fetch the contraption.
Sam turned to face Danny very slowly. Their eyes met and she regretted it instantly.
"You've doomed me, you know that right?"
