Danny meets Sidney Poindexter.

Danny was bored again.

Clockwork had sent him back to Casper High - something about a potential ally. So he had followed Jazz to school, as he had already memorized Sam and Tucker's schedules, and sat in on her first few classes. But Jazz was taking all AP classes, and Danny quickly lost track of what was going on. Finally, after spending lunch with his sister and friends, Danny resorted to exploring. He'd thought he'd been all over the school back when he was alive, but Danny was sure he could find something new. Maybe he'd just sneak into the teacher's lounge.

As Danny was passing by the freshman lockers, he felt a tingle up his spine. His vision suddenly shifted to shades of green, like night vision goggles. Danny stopped.
He hadn't experienced this before, but he thought he recognized what it might be. Danny had read a book in Clockwork's tower, that had explained that some ghosts had the ability to sense each other. He wondered if maybe he was one of them. Danny hovered in the hallway, trying to get used to his new eyesight. He didn't know how to turn it off, but he could figure that out later.

One of the lockers was glowing. Danny hovered closer. Cautiously, he stuck his hand inside the locker and unlocked it. The door swung open. The locker was empty, except for a wide, silver mirror. The mirror glowed softly, and Danny could see his reflection despite being invisible.

Beyond curious now, Danny reached out to touch the mirror. The second his fingers made contact, the world shifted again. This time, everything was painted in a grayscale.

Danny stepped back and looked around. The hallways had suddenly filled, but Danny was sure he hadn't heard the bell ring. No one seemed to notice him, so he assumed he was still invisible.

At first, Danny assumed the change in vision was just another power manifesting. He wandered the halls of the school, listening in to snippets of conversations. But after a while, he realized that, of all the students and staff surrounding him, he recognized none of them. Danny stopped in the middle of the hallway, staring around at the other occupants.

They were starting to gather in a way that he found uncomfortably familiar. The students called out jeers and encouragement. Danny hovered over the crowd, edging closer to the center of the commotion. In the middle of the circle stood three boys, two large and muscular, the other small and fragile-looking.

Danny sighed. Of course it was bullies. He watched as the larger boys shoved the smaller one back and forth, knocking books out of his hands and kicking them away. Eventually, the crowd trickled away and the boys seemed to get bored with their prey. They pushed the boy to the floor and stalked away, laughing and chatting as if nothing had happened.

Of course, no adults had bothered to investigate the noise. Danny was thoroughly unimpressed with the staff of Casper High.

He floated down towards the floor, watching the boy pick up his scattered and battered books and papers. He looked near tears, but also incredibly exhausted, so Danny took a risk and gently brushed one of the farther papers a little closer.

The boy looked up. He blinked. Suddenly, Danny realized nervously, he looked absolutely furious.

"Who are you? How did you get here?" He roared.

Danny glanced down at his hand, still touching the paper. Unlike the rest of the world, his skin was still pale green. He looked up at the hallway. The school was still black and white. The change in color had only occurred to his surroundings. Danny glanced at the boy. His eyes were glowing white. Danny sighed. It seemed he'd wandered into a ghost's lair. No wonder the other students hadn't reacted to him.

Though, Danny had to wonder why a ghost's lair would form as a school where he was bullied. It didn't seem very relaxing.

"Who are you?!" The boy screamed again.

Danny held up his hands in surrender. "Hey, man, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to trespass. I didn't even know I was trespassing."

The glow began to spread from the ghost's eyes to the rest of his body. He began to hover just off the floor.

"Uh, hey," Danny stuttered. He desperately wanted to avoid a fight. He still didn't understand his powers. "If you just point me in the right direction, I'll leave, like, right now. Just tell me how and I'll go."

The boy blinked. The glow began to recede. "Really?"

"Yeah, of course!" Danny nodded almost too enthusiastically. "I didn't mean to come here in the first place, it was an accident, I don't know how I did it. What's your name, anyway?"

The boy seemed too shocked to answer. "You... You want to know my name?"

"Yeah, sure." Danny shrugged. "If I know your name, I'm more likely to remember not to trespass."

"I'm Sidney." The boy said nervously. "Sidney Poindexter. This is my lair."

"Yeah, I got that. Nice to meet you Sidney, I'm Danny."

"You as well." Sidney sounded far too hesitant for the greeting to be genuine. "I think I know how you got in. There's a portal, in a mirror in my locker. You probably fell through."

"Oh, the mirror!" Danny threw his hands up, pretending to ignore how Sidney flinched. "That makes so much sense, actually! Can I get back the same way? It would save a lot of time if I didn't have to find my way out of the Ghost Zone."

"Out of the Ghost Zone? What do you mean? There's no way out, I've searched."

"Uh, yeah," Danny said hesitantly. He wasn't sure if Sidney meant harm to the living world. Danny really wanted to be friends with this ghost, he didn't want to fight, but he would if he had to. "There's a permanent portal now. It opened a few months ago."

"You mean..." Sidney's eyes grew wide, glinting behind his large glasses. "I can leave? I don't have to stay in this hellworld anymore?"

"You can leave," Danny frowned. "As long as you stay peaceful with the humans. There's too many causing chaos out there already."

Sidney scoffed. "I would never become a bully like that, harassing people. I just want to get out of here."

Danny thought in silence for a moment. "Come with me, then."

"What?" Sidney stared at him.

"Come with me, through the mirror. It's the fastest way, and I don't remember where it is anyway. You can show me." Danny grinned, trying to seem as friendly as possible. He did his best to ignore his fangs poking at his lips.

Sidney didn't seem to care about them. "You'd spend time with me?"

"Sure, man! I haven't met any other ghosts my age. Er, apparent age, anyway. I'd love to hang out with you!"

Sidney watched him for a long moment. Finally, he stuck his hand out to shake. "I think I like you, Danny. Let's go find that mirror."

This chapter just did not want to cooperate.