Chapter Three (Ambushed)

"Beware! I am the Box Ghost, master of all things cardboard!" the Box Ghost screeched, floating down the school's hallway. "Tremble in fear of my spectacular boxes!"

Danny leaned his head back and groaned loudly. "Not him. Not now."

Sam, who was standing across from him, rolled her eyes. "It's just the Box Ghost," she pointed out. "This will take you about ten seconds max."

"More like five," he corrected, "but that still doesn't mean I want to deal with him."

"Since when does anyone want to?" Sam teased, making the boy before her chuckle. "You know the usual. I'll cover for you if needed, but it's lunch period, so I think you'll be okay."

Danny gave a simple nod and sprinted over to the janitors closet, shutting the door. Sam then shoved her textbook from her prior class into her locker before unconsciously glancing back over at the closet. Her eyes happened to drift past the door and onto Julia, who was standing across the hallway.

Next to her was some girl that Sam didn't recognize. They both were busy chatting and laughing, which somehow put the Goth at ease. Perhaps if Julia made a new friend, she wouldn't be interested in hanging around Danny so much.

Pause.

Sam was surprised at this thought crossing her mind. Danny was nothing more or less of her best friend, so why didn't she want Julia around him? After a few seconds of overthinking this, she brushed it off, chalking it up to just being an overprotective best friend.

"He's just a friend," she muttered to herself. "Just a friend."

"Who?"

Hearing the sudden voice to her left made her jump and twist to the side. Tucker was standing there, staring at her with a raised brow. She exhaled sharply and moved her hand to her chest. "Dude," she started, "you scared the living daylights out of me."

"How? You're dead inside and you don't like daylight," Tucker quipped.

Sam cracked a small smile, but didn't respond to that statement otherwise. She shut her locker door and straightened her bag on her shoulder. "You ready for lunch?" she asked him, to which he shook his head.

"Can't join you today. Lancer's forcing me and Dash to work on that group project. We'll be spending lunch in the library."

"Really?" Amusement danced in Sam's eyes. "Bummer. That's got to be the worst lunch date in the history of lunch dates."

"You're telling me. I'd rather Dash stuff me in my locker and call it a day," Tucker responded. "Anyway, where's Danny?"

"Dealing with the Box Ghost. No one too serious."

The techno geek cringed. "Man, that guy doesn't give up, does he?"

"What did you say about me, Foley?"

Before Tucker even had a chance to turn around, he was snatched by his shirt and yanked the other way. Dash was there, as expected, his face twisted in anger. Tucker gulped, boldly staring the jock in the eyes.

"I, uh, was actually talking about someone else, Dash."

"That's what I thought," Dash growled. "So, I'm not thrilled about having to spend my lunch period in the library because you made us fail that project. You know what that means, right?"

"Uh, that you'll be thankful Lancer is giving us a chance to make it up?" Tucker tried.

"No. That means I'm angry, and when I'm angry, I want to do angry things," Dash sneered. "Can you guess what angry thing I'm going to do to you right now?"

"No," Tucker answered, "but if I really had to take a guess, I'd say it's either going to be a wedgie or my head in a toilet."

"Bingo, loser."

"You know, maybe if you actually worked with your partner on the partner project, you wouldn't be in this predicament. This isn't just Tucker's fault," Sam pitched in, coming to her friend's aide. Dash glared at her, his lips curled in a snarl.

"Can it, Manson."

Unbeknownst to the trio, Mr. Lancer walked up behind them. He then cleared his throat, announcing his presence. The teens spun around, with Dash looking the most caught off-guard in the group. His lips twitched into a nervous smile as he released his grip on Tucker's shirt.

"Mr. Baxter, Mr. Foley, I do believe we have a lunch session to attend to," the teacher told the boys, crossing his arms. They both nodded respectfully before moving towards the library with Mr. Lancer trailing behind them.

Shortly after they departed, the door to the janitors closet cracked opened and Danny poked out his head. "Is it safe to come out now?" he asked Sam, who nodded. He fully pushed open the door and stepped out, sighing in what seemed to be annoyance.

"See, that's the appropriate reaction you should have after dealing with the Box Ghost," Sam remarked, chuckling. "That didn't take five to ten seconds, by the way."

"Yeah, I know," Danny agreed, walking over to her. "All he did was run away. Well, he's a ghost— fly away, I guess? It wasn't fun chasing him around."

The Goth smiled. "I'll bet. Ready for lunch?"

"Tucker isn't coming?"

"No, he's making up that partner project with Dash in the library."

Danny cringed. "Sounds fun," he replied, sarcasm lacing his tone. "I guess it's just me and you for lunch today, if that's okay."

"Yeah, of course," Sam answered quickly, getting ahead of herself. Wanting to avoid sounding too excited, she cleared her throat and calmly said, "That's fine."

She was happy to have one-on-one time with him, with no Julia around to exclude her from conversations the way she always did. That, and watching her hit on Danny constantly was extremely uncomfortable.

The pair made their way to the cafeteria and sat at their usual table. All was well, with both of them joking around and eating their lunch for the first ten minutes, but then Julia appeared, completely dampening Sam's good mood.

"Hi!" she chirped, setting her backpack down before taking a seat. "Sorry I'm late. I got caught up."

Sam couldn't help but make a mental note of that apology. It seemed like Julia was implying that she was expected to join them at lunch, almost like she was a permanent member of the group. That thought rubbed Sam the wrong way, but she tried not to let it show on her face.

"No worries," Danny dismissed, smiling warmly at Julia. "You didn't miss much. Well, you missed Tucker."

The brunette cocked her head. "I did? Where is he?"

"He's in the library making up a group project with Dash," the Halfa answered.

"Dash? Dash..." Julia rubbed her chin, mulling over the name. "That blonde guy from class?"

"Yep," Danny confirmed. "Also known as my very own personal bully. If I had enough money, I'd pay him to leave me alone instead of having him constantly wail on me each chance he gets."

Julia frowned deeply, not liking what she just heard. "Really?" She pressed her hands together. "An everyday aggressive bully? Have you reached out to an adult about this?"

"Of course not. Dash isn't worth any of that."

Sam, who had been picking at her salad the entire interaction, glanced over at Julia. Her lips were pursed, almost like she was upset. "What do you need me to do?" she questioned. This made Danny pause in eating and look over at her in confusion.

"Uh, nothing, really," he answered. "Just pretend he isn't there."

Sam thought Julia's question was a bit peculiar, but it left her mind as quickly as it entered. The brunette fell silent, turning her attention to her food. Without hesitation, Sam took that opportunity to engage in a different conversation with Danny.

"Yo, Dash! That was some practice, huh?"

Dash, clad in nothing but a towel, crossed the locker room with a cocky smile plastered on his face. "You know it, Kwan! Tomorrow's practice will be even more intense. I can't wait for it."

He walked over to the shower area and stepped inside, closing the curtain behind him. After throwing off his towel, he turned on the water. Kwan must've made his way over there, because when he next spoke, he sounded closer than before.

"So, listen, we're all headed over to the Nasty Burger. You in or what?"

Dash rolled his eyes. "Can't. My parents grounded me for failing that dumb project in Lancer's class."

"The one Foley made you fail?" Kwan asked. "I thought you made that up today."

"I did," Dash responded, "but it doesn't change the fact that I still got the F in the first place."

There was a moment of silence between the two before Kwan finally spoke again. "Fine," he said, sounding defeated. "Don't worry, though. We'll nail Foley for that tomorrow."

Dash smirked at the thought. "I like the sound of that."

They both said their goodbyes, and eventually, everyone in the locker room cleared out. Dash decided to take his sweet time in the shower, knowing he had nowhere important to be but home. He even washed his hair, being quite serious about not rushing.

He was in the middle of rinsing his hair when the lights in the locker room went out, save for the one emergency light. He stopped and instinctively looked around, realizing that was pointless considering the fact that he was inside the shower.

"You've got to be kidding me," he growled. He finished rinsing his hair before shutting off the water and fetching his towel. He didn't know why the lights suddenly shut off, but he took it as a sign to get out of the shower and head home.

Once he got to his locker, he felt around inside of it for his clothes. He was about to dry off and change until he heard a slight shuffling noise coming from across the locker room. He quickly looked over in that direction, keeping his eyes trained there.

"Kwan?" he called out. "Is that you?"

No response. He waited a few seconds, but after standing in complete silence, he brushed it off and swung his focus back to the task at hand. He stripped off his towel and dressed himself, but as soon as he got his clothes on, he heard the noise again, only closer this time.

"Hello?" he hollered towards the lockers, sounding much more impatient this time. "Kwan? Mike? I know one of you are over there!"

Silence.

Now fueled by anger and impatience, Dash decided to go take a look over by that area. He moved forward, but before he could continue over to the lockers, something caught his attention.

The light switch.

It was down, which meant someone had turned off the light while he was in the shower. He felt relieved; surely this was one of his buddies pranking him. Either that or someone thought the room was empty and turned off the light themselves, but that seemed unlikely because the shower had been clearly running at that time.

"All right, guys. You got me." He strode over to the light switch and flicked it on. "You guys can come out n—"

He was unable to finish his sentence, because as soon as he turned over his shoulder, he was ambushed. Whoever was attacking him had enough strength to overpower him and knock him down to the ground. He opened his mouth to scream, but his attacker held a knife to his throat, silencing him instantly.

"You bullies think you're so high and mighty," the person snarled. "Parading around like you're so much better than everyone else. Do you, as a bully, ever wonder what being bullied feels like?"

Dash chanced a glance to the side, attempting to identify his attacker. Although they were wearing a hoodie, he could clearly see who this person was. "I know you," he gasped out. The attacker pressed the knife against his neck, prompting him to freeze and fall silent again.

"No you don't, because if you ever tell anyone about this encounter, you will regret it."

Dash's thoughts were so scattered at that point that he almost forgot how to function. His heart was beating so fast that he believed it would beat out of his chest. Despite him being scared out of his mind, he mustered up enough courage to ask, "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to leave Danny alone. No more picking at him, because if I see or even hear about you doing that, you're going to answer to me." The person latched onto his hair and leaned closer to his ear. "Trust me. You do not want to answer to me."

"Fine, fine!" the jock cried out. "I won't pick on him anymore!"

"Good. Glad we had this conversation. Remember what I said, though," the mystery person reminded him. "Tell anyone about this and I will be back, and the second time will be the last time."

Once Dash felt the knife move away and the person shift from atop of him, he scrambled to his feet and bolted out of the locker room, stopping himself from looking back.