Ronald Kwan knew a few things in life.

First of all, no one called him by his first name except his dad. And Kwan had been lucky enough to avoid hearing that for quite some time. There were a whole host of issues there, but if he was going to talk about it to anyone, it would only be to the one and only Dashiel Baxter.

(Dash had some of his own hang ups with his dad, but for an entirely different set of reasons. Dash's dad had been a good dad. Great in Kwan's mind from what he remembered of the man. Definitely not an abusive asshole. Far from it. But the man had died and it'd left a definite mark on Dash. Kwan thought he was perhaps the only kid in school who knew Dash had attended elementary school with them and had not been the hottest new kid starting up middle school.)

Second of all, or because of it, Kwan was determined to make something of himself in schoolwork. The only thing 'his nerd' did was type and print off any of his papers. The Welters didn't have a computer at their place. Oh. Mikey was also willing to explain things when Kwan was having difficulties understanding something and asked Mikey to explain for him. Good kid.

Which is why Kwan appreciated Mikey calling him out when he got swept up with Dash and the other guys, or fell back to old and bad habits. When goofing off or going along with Dash or he automatically pulled the crap he did as a kid to other kids. Taking a joke too far. Bullying. That sort of thing.

(Also, probably related to his dad. But Kwan wasn't going to talk to any guidance counselor. That teenage therapist they'd had in the school for a short time pulling him into her office had gone bad enough. Thank god she was gone. Still, he didn't want to talk to the one they had now. Or Jazz Fenton. Spike may have found a good ear and someone to bounce his problems off of with his parents, but Kwan wasn't Spike and he was not going there.)

Thirdly, Kwan knew what everyone else living in Amity knew. And dealt with. Ghosts were real. Which, come on. It's like the town wanted to be the growing ghost capital of the world with the name. Or this school. Casper. The whole town seemed to roll with it too. Even before ghosts really started showing up everywhere.

There was Bloody Mary's, a local restaurant/bar that Kwan's dad frequented. The road by Shelley River, leading to the walking and biking trails in the nearby woods was called Crane Drive. Even better, the closest inn to that river trail area was called Sleepy Hollow Inn, right off of Crane Drive. Like they wanted you to put the names together. (surprise, surprise, the longest of the trails was Ichabod Trail) There was Ash Tree Park too, over in Treetop Village area, where Dash's house was at. Kwan was counting that one after reading the short story in English class last year.

And fourthly…

Well. Kwan could go on for a while of things he knew in his life.

But yeah. The main facts were he knew he had a shitty dad, hated being called 'Ronald', had a desire to do well in school, to grow past who'd he been as a kid, and that this place meant dealing with ghosts.

All and all, considering pretty much all those facts tied back to his dad except one, Kwan really didn't mind the whole ghost issue that much.

Until lately.

And all he did was trip.

"Where is Kwan?"

Frowning, Dash twisted about in his seat. Kwan had been right behind him and Brody. They'd all been joking around when they entered, bumping into each other and stumbling over each other as they had attempted to enter the classroom at the same time, tripping in through the door. Kwan had definitely come in with them. Dash was sure of that.

"He was right behind us Mister Lancer."

Where did Kwan go?

The guy never missed a class if he could help it. Dash had, a few times, covered Kwan's rear when the guy showed up to school and refused to stay or return back to the Welters when he got sick. Kwan was anal about school, homework and study times, practice…his whole life in general. Things had to be just so and routines kept.

Very different from when Kwan was a kid. He'd been super disruptive and chaotic. The kid no one wanted to mess with back then. Other kids kept their distance. Like Dash had done.

At least during elementary school. Middle school had been different.

It was around that time Kwan realized who Dash was and well, that was probably the start of Kwan being as much opposite of his dad as he could. Probably. Ha. Kwan had straight up said that'd been the moment. As if Kwan wouldn't have gotten to that point of defying and rebelling against his dad and his dad's wishes and grinding up as much desire as possible in how he used to do whatever he could to win over love from the asshole. Kwan would have gotten there eventually.

Along with all the steadfast anal thing he gained once in foster care, living with the Welter family. Stability, Dash remembered Jerry Welter saying once or twice. Of course an adult put some word or term to it in summing it up. Still. Jerry and Teresa were both great people.

Meeting and getting to know Kwan's dad during middle school really answered questions on who Kwan was, when he was an unruly childhood terror and the reserved anal guy of now.

There was no way, if at all possible, Kwan was missing a class.

Dash hardly got much out of what Mister Lancer was going on about. He was too busy taking peeks over at the door. Class was nearly over. Where was Kwan? Something had to have happened. What? What had happened?

Catching the movement from the corner of his eyes, and because he'd been keeping watch, Dash's head shot up as Kwan stumbled into the room.

"Hey man! Where'd you go?"

Face flushed red, sweating and panic clear, Kwan's head snapped up, swiveling over to Dash with large eyes, breathing hard.

"Woah. What happ—"

"So kind of you to join us with five minutes left of class, Kwan."

The dismay Dash would have expected from that pronouncement…wasn't there.

Dash gaped.

What the hell happened to Kwan?

"I…" Kwan's eyes kept skittering around the entire classroom. Panicked adrenaline from whatever had happened, pretty clear. "I, uh, was just… Sorry. I didn't mean to not be in class Mister Lancer. There was this whole ghost—"

"Say no more."

What ghost?

"I am sure your classmates can pass on any notes from today."

Kwan could forget asking Dash.

Dash was asking Kwan questions.

Sure, the big guy wasn't perfect, but the past few weeks were not good.

Kwan was normally the reserved one, the one who was more likely to speak up about any acts of bullying. Rubbed off on Dash. That much was clear on the few times Kwan was not at school. Dash tended to get into more antics without Kwan around. But! Mikey was happy to point out, overall, the level from Dash was going down. Even with Dash's favorite punching bag of Danny Fenton.

But the past few weeks were not good.

Dash was the one at times, telling Kwan to 'chill'. More of Kwan's worst from much of elementary and middle school was being lashed out. It was startling. Kwan was normally so on top of that these past couple of years. From what Mikey noticed and knew. He would sometimes get swept up with what the other guys were doing or wind up doing something himself that Mikey knew Kwan didn't realize. But the big guy was insistent on Mikey pointing out those times to him. Wanting to be better, do better, not be the worst. And Mikey was happy to oblige.

Something was going on with Kwan. Mikey could not fail to notice it. More irritable than normal. Questions for help on understanding class material had gone up. Mikey was noticing the irritability there when he was assisting the big guy with studying. Kwan was more tense and alert, on edge. Disappearing at various times through the day. Mikey overheard stuff from the other guys, like Dash or Brody or Zach or Cody. Small things. Little things. That all added up.

Kwan was the most scholastic of the popular kids. In the fact he insisted on doing all his own work. No matter what. Unlike some of the other popular kids shoving off their stuff to be done for when they were busy. Mikey as his nerd, was mostly used for checking over things or tutoring kinds of things. And often typing and printing up Kwan's papers. As Kwan didn't have a computer at home.

It was strange overhearing all those little things mentioned adding up. Disappearing and missing parts of class. That didn't sound like the Kwan of recent times.

"Okay Kwan." Mikey closed up the notebook and rested his hand on it. Annoyance flared across Kwan's face, head snapping up, and eyes narrowing at Mikey. But Mikey forced himself to swallow and push on. This couldn't keep going as it had been. It had to be faced and tackled head on. "Something's been going on with you the last few weeks."

A muscle in Kwan's face twitched. And, deflating, Kwan looked away. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"I know. It's written all over your face. But what is it? You should probably focus on solving that before solving any of your math here."

"I am!"

Flinching, Kwan yanked himself back from snapping at Mikey, drawing his body inward.

"I'm trying."

The frustration was clear.

"We've been trying for a couple weeks now."

"You and," Mikey paused, thinking. "Dash? With the amped up attempts to get Phantom's attention?"

Jerkily, Kwan's chin went down in confirmation.

Mikey frowned, baffled.

"Okay. What is going on, big guy? How does Phantom become an answer for it?"

Heaving a big sigh, Kwan pushed himself back from the library table, standing. "It's probably easier to show you. Maybe you can think of a better method to figure it out than what we're trying. Grab my hand."

Odd. But…

Mikey hopped up himself and took the offered hand. "Sure."

Kwan turned his head to Mikey, eyes narrowed seriously. "Hold on tight and don't let go."

"Okay? Sure thing, Kwan."

With a couple quick little stuttering steps, Kwan scuffed his shoes deliberately across the carpeted floor, pulling Mikey…down?

"This." Kwan declared. "This is what's going on. I keep tripping into…this. Making me miss parts of school and never always knowing when. Usually not on purpose, but I've figured out scraping my feet quickly will do the trick so, uh, I can do it on purpose. But it's proven real difficult to make sure I walk a certain way to avoid, well, this."

Kwan swept his arm out, gesturing to what surrounded him and Mikey.

Wide eyed, Mikey stared, head swiveling all about them.

"Yeah," he squeaked out. Eyes still wide. "Yeah. I can see how Phantom comes in."

Mikey forced himself to clear his throat.

"So, uh, big guy. How do we…get back?"

"Look for something for me to trip off of again. Which, sometimes takes a while. It's usually a door. While trying not to piss off any occupants there."

Occupants? Mikey swallowed, hard. Eyes big, Mikey nodded. His voice thin and quavering again, sounding small to go with feeling small in all that surrounded him and Kwan. "Okay."

"Incoming," Sam announced. Danny's head shot up from digging inside of his locker for schoolwork to be shoved into his bag. Tucker and Jazz were both peering around, but it hadn't been his ghost sense going off. Which meant Dash.

Or…Kwan?

Danny blinked at Kwan bee-lining it over at them with a look of determination.

This was new.

"Hey, I need your help with something."

"Help?" Danny asked. Mind blank as to what exactly. He looked over to his friends, seeing if they had any idea. "Uh, with…?"

Jazz's face had brightened, taking a bouncing step forward. "Oh! You're finally tak—"

"Not that," Kwan groaned out.

Oh man. Danny glanced back and forth between Kwan and his sister. Kwan was someone who Jazz had offered helping like Spike, wasn't it? Except, as far as Danny knew, Spike had been the only one to really take Jazz up on her offer. Avoiding Jazz's face now, Kwan directed his attention specifically to Danny. Danny stared back. What then did Kwan need help with?

"It's ghost related."

Sam's arms crossed. "Is this about you and Dash's recent attempts to get Phantom's attention?"

Oh. Oh right! Those two had been doing that the last couple of weeks.

Oh no. That was it, wasn't it? Kwan's whole manner had brightened, latching onto Sam's words, seeming glad about one of them knowing what he was asking about. Aghast, Danny slumped. Mind frantically working a way to let Kwan down on setting up any meeting with Phantom for whatever him and Dash wanted.

"No! Yes! Uh, kind of?" Loud, stumbling, Kwan fell way to uncertainty. "I've been—"

"My parents may be scientists studying them, hunting them down, but that doesn't mean I can get you to Phantom. Sorry." Danny shut his locker door, shoving the last of his notebooks into his backpack and zipping it shut. He stood back upright. "Can't help you there, Kwan."

Kwan leaned his body over into Danny's path, feet lifting up in weird careful steps to plant himself before Danny. Odd. Danny shook the weird way Kwan did that off, sighing and readying himself.

"Listen. I'm sure whatever you and Dash are up to—"

"It doesn't have to be Phantom. He was Dash's first thought. Trying to talk to him and… Look! Mikey pointed out the obvious with you and Jazz being easier to get a hold of about this."

Startled, thrown for a loop at this, Danny stared at Kwan. Him and Jazz? Frantic, pressing, words spilled out of Kwan.

"It's really annoying! I want none of it! The whole ghost thing never bothered me before, but this is driving me nuts! I'm not your parents, I don't want to be there! And I'm not a ghost! Not equipped for it! I mean, I've kind of had to figure out some ways of dealing with it, but I'm missing classes and falling behind and I can't plan around it and it's destroying everything I've worked for!"

Sucking in a breath, Danny stared wide eyed at Kwan as the larger guy grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him closer and higher. Eyes boring into Danny's eyes, his nose flared, Kwan gave Danny a shake. Frozen at the physical treatment from Kwan, Danny did nothing but stare back, shocked.

"I am a hundred percent done. Done with it."

Danny swallowed at the deep growling, gnashing of words out of Kwan. He put his hands up. Placatingly. "Okay, okay, I got it. You're done with it. Can you…can you set me down and tell me with what you're done with?"

Kwan's face went blank, eyes going down to his hands. Then he hurriedly set Danny down, brushing the shirt back into place, and took a step back. "Sorry about that."

"That's…fine," Danny tentatively assured Kwan.

Sam snorted from behind him. Shortly after, Danny felt her reassuring presence on his side. Then another familiar feeling to his other side with Tucker.

"I don't know what your problem is Kwan, but that doesn't give you a pass on treating Danny that way."

"Something does seem to be taking a toll on you mentally from what I've gathered the past few weeks," Jazz spoke up from behind Danny. "It's been ghost related? A specific ghost giving you problems? There hasn't been anything out of the norm. Uh, not that we've noticed or as much as you can say normal in anything with ghosts!"

Kwan rubbed the back of his head. "It's not with a ghost. More…connected to them? Look. Can I, can I talk to your parents?"

Danny's eyebrows shot up.

He shouldn't be surprised, but still. Someone wanted to speak to his parents? Most tried avoiding them. Years and years of being their son showed him how much his parents offset classmates and his classmates' parental figures.

"What is this even ab—"

Danny broke into coughing, a hand flying up to his mouth, attempting to hide the gasp of cold air.

"Wrong pipe," he quickly declared. Coughed more into his hand, hunching a bit over, all while his eyes searched the area around them. Where was the ghost? Who was it?

The answer came fast and obvious, filled with loud declarations as the ghost flew through the wall and into the hallway. The Box Ghost. Danny inched his way backwards, back behind Sam and Tucker who drew up and stepped in front of him, granting Danny cover from Kwan's view.

"Oh, come on!" Aggravated, Kwan was marching up to the Box Ghost. "I'm in the middle of fixing something right now! Go back!"

"Who are you human to tell I, the Box Gh—"

Danny's jaw dropped.

Kwan's footing skittered, sneakers squeaking on the shiny linoleum, arms flailing and stretching out as he fell. Grabbing a hold of the Box Ghost. And continued falling. The faint shimmering of green spreading to encompass him as he fell to the floor. Into the floor. Box Ghost being yanked right along with him.

Gone.

No Kwan.

No Box Ghost.

Just…gone.

"Uuuuuuuh." Tucker stepped cautiously forward, wide eyes meeting Danny's own wide ones. "What just happened? Does…does Kwan have some sort of ghost power or… What the… What just happened?"

"I don't know!"

A few seconds later, stumbling, Kwan came out of a locker and into the hallway, arms out to catch his balance.

Out of a closed locker.

Through a closed locker.

Danny stared.

Gob smacked.

Kwan sighed, straightening back up, arms going back to his sides. "Thank god there was a door nearby that time. So, uh, Danny? Jazz? About talking to your parents…?"

Wide eyed, Danny's arm flung out. "Just what was that?!" He squawked. "Where'd you go? Through the floor? The locker? What door? And what'd you do to Box Ghost?"

"I tripped." Kwan stressed the word, jabbing a finger in the direction of his feet. "I've been doing it for weeks now. Anytime my feet catch or skid enough on the floor, whoosh! And I find myself in a whirling swirl mass of green, floating a—"

"The Ghost Zone?!"

Danny, Tucker, Sam, and Jazz all stared at Kwan. All in shock.

"You've been tripping in and out of the Ghost Zone?"

Eyes wide, pleading and hopeful, Kwan nodded furiously. "Yeah! I didn't know the name, but yeah! It's really, really, really annoying. I just want it to stop. So that's why I—"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Danny held up a hand. His mind working through what Kwan was saying and what he'd seen. This was crazy. But. "Did you just…yoink a ghost back into the Ghost Zone?"

Blinking, Kwan took a moment to take in Danny's incredulous question.

While Danny was stuck, thinking of all the trouble that could be solved if he could do that. No more thermos! Just, yoink! Right back into the Ghost Zone! So much trouble and hassle, gone. Was it a ghost power? Could he do that?

"Uh, yes? I guess I did? Anyway, I'd really like it to stop."

Kwan's eyes pleaded hopefully at Danny again.

"Soon," the larger guy added. "If possible."

"R-right."

Kwan felt a little bit like a moron.

Only a little.

It hadn't been obvious. He'd looked after all. Nothing visible. Apparently though, soaked in ectoplasm.

The Fentons could keep his sneakers.

They'd been his absolute favorite pair and kind of costly, but Kwan preferred assurance of not missing chunks of his day and tumbling into the Ghost Zone.

So, goodbye favorite sneakers.

Easy decision.

Not sure what made his sneakers different from anyone else walking around Amity, but whatever.

Kwan was happy.

"Hey, Wulf. This might sound weird, okay, a lot weird. Buuut. Um, can I, kind of, maybe…havesomeofyourbloodtocoatmyshoesin?"