Author's Note: I am just on a roll today. I own nothing.

32 Oddly Popular

Dani rolled her eyes at Tanya when she got to school the next morning. It seemed that Tanya had decided a wardrobe update had been in order. She'd swapped out her red beret for a beanie that started off blue, though the bright color quickly faded to midnight black like flames fading into the night. Dead center of the band was a stylized purple E. She's swapped out her other clothes for Ember merch as well, a pair of black skinny jeans with blue flames at the hem and a black t-shirt with the image of the pop diva on the front. She was playing that same song on the speakers of her PDA.

"Are you seriously gonna play that all day?" Dani asked and Sam nodded.

"It's getting really annoying how often I hear that song. I can't turn on any radio station these days that doesn't play the oldies that isn't playing 'Remember by Ember' Basically on a loop." Sam said rolling his eyes at Tanya. Dani frowned at Tanya who looked wholly unbothered by Sam's scorn.

"You wouldn't get it, Ember's a way for me to express my individuality." They stepped up into the school as Tanya spoke and their eyes were assaulted with Ember from all sides. Posters had been hung up overnight, everything from glossy official posters to pieces of printer paper with the pop star printed on them and newspaper and magazine photos were plastered up on the walls. Sam stared incredulously.

"Yeah, you're so original, every single one of you." He deadpanned but Tanya didn't seem to notice. Dani frowned.

"Is there an echo in here?" She asked, Sam frowned at her but then he heard it too. They rounded the corner and found most of the rest of the school, they too were decked out in Ember merch. The song was echoing from all sides. Dani thought about just plugging her ears at this point but the bell rang before she could decide, though she could barely hear it over the music. It was almost a relief when Lancer called for silence so he could explain the machines in front of them. They were supposed to help them cram for the Northwestern Standardized testing that was coming up on Friday. Someone had switched out the disks though and instead of the learning program an Ember concert was projected in front of them on the screens. Dani and Sam were quick to remove the devices but the music didn't stop when Lancer removed the disk. In fact it started coming from the slightly open window.

Lancer had completely lost control of the class at that point, so when they started jumping out of the window no amount of yelling could get them back to the classroom. Dani glanced at Sam next to her. He was rolling his eyes at the crowding students as they rushed out of the room, either by the door or more available window. Dani glanced up at the front of the room. Lancer had rushed out to see what was going on. Dani stood to look out the window but the minute she reached it blue mist escaped her mouth and she looked over at Sam. He looked around, she looked back outside hopping onto the windowsill. Lancer had gone to the edge of what appeared to be a crowd made up of every person under twenty in the school, except Dani and Sam.

Outside a full concert seemed to have broken out on the street in front of the school. A flat bedded semi had pulled up to the school, bedecked in Ember's colors and a full surround sound system. On the bed of the truck was the pop idol herself along with her band Dani frowned. Where was the ghost? She was distracted again as Lancer cleared his throat into a bullhorn.

"Attention freakishly dressed teen idol! You are to cease and desist this immediately!" He called out through the bullhorn. Ember up on stage laughed.

"Desist this Grandpa!" She called out adjusting a dial on her guitar. She played a riff and a wash of red spread over the crowd, the red light seemed to catch in the eyes of the gathered teens who whirled on Lancer practically snarling as he balked and Dani's jaw dropped.

"Ember's a ghost!" Sam was standing next to her by now and she dove behind him transforming and flying though Sam, out the window and straight to Lancer. She seized his shoulder turning them both intangible as the mind controlled students lunged, seemingly with the intent of tearing the teacher to pieces. They missed, the horde of teens passing through the teacher and Dani without ever touching them. They stumbled to a halt just past them looking dazed and confused. Dani let go of Lancer and faded into view well above the crowd.

"Time to knock the pop princess off the charts!" She said before turning to the truck. But it was empty. Ember and her bandmates had vanished. Dani frowned turning invisible as the crowd below her began to come back to themselves. She flew back into the school, transforming back into herself before they headed out to meet the rest of the school. Tanya had been in the crowd and looked quite out of it when Sam and Dani caught up to her. The rest of the school day was a blur. Most of the student body was completely out of it, ignoring the teachers in favor of talking about Ember. Sam came over that night and they shut themselves up in Dani's room to do some research. A few hours later Dani threw up her hands.

"Ok I give up. I cant find anything about a pop star dying that matches her in the last century." She ground out laying her head down on her desk. "And every web search just comes up with info about her stupid concert on Friday."

"Yeah, maybe we're coming at this the wrong way." Sam said from her bed where he was sitting with his laptop. Dani stood from her chair and stretched, stepping over to Sam as he typed away on his laptop. Peeking over his shoulder she saw that he had typed up 'McLain Obituary Last Ten years'. He scrolled past a few and Dani pointed to one entry.

"Click on that one!" She said and he obeyed.

"Mr. and Mrs. McLain are saddened to announce that their daughter Rachel passed away. Her life was taken in the recent housefire that destroyed the McLain family home this past Thursday. Investigators have ruled the fire an accident, caused by an unattended candle." Sam skimmed ahead in the article but Dani had spotted the date on it.

"Sam this is from four years ago. She wouldn't have been much older than us." Dani pointed out quietly and Sam nodded, clicking open a new tab. He pulled up Facebook and frowned typing Rachel McLain into the search.

"Looks like this is her. And it looks like she wasn't too popular." Dani nodded as Sam scrolled through her old account. Most of her posts were about music, concerts she wanted to go to and a few videos of her practicing guitar and singing. She'd had a boyfriend, but it looked like she'd found out he was cheating on her and aired all their dirty laundry with an angry post. After that he posts abruptly stopped. Dani frowned checking the date on the last post. She hissed out a breath between her teeth.

"The fire had to have happened that night." Dani winced at that as Sam nodded.

"That's terrible, and now she's a ghost bent on what controlling teens?" He asked closing out the tabs. Dani shook her head.

"I don't think that's it. I think she wants the recognition she never got, any way she can get it." Dani frowned, sitting back at her computer. There was a knock on the door and it opened, Maddie standing there with a plate of cookies.

"How's the studying going? I made cookies, don't worry Sam I used an egg substitute." She said with a grin and Dani smiled.

"Pretty well." Sam nodded taking one of the offered cookies.

"That's good. I can't get your sister to do anything but listen to that Ember McLain song on repeat today. I swear I have no idea what's going on with her." Maddie said and shrugged, setting down the plate of cookies next to Dani. "Well you two have fun. Dinner is in about half an hour." She left and Dani turned back to Sam.

"We need to go after Ember."

"Yeah, but we have no idea where she is. Short of wandering around town hoping we find her what should we do?" Sam asked closing his laptop. Dani frowned opening a new tab on her computer.

"Looks like she's super secretive when she's not on stage, just up and disappearing. Which she's probably actually doing. But I don't know if we can wait until Friday." Dani pointed out and Sam frowned.

"We may not have a choice Dani. We'll keep an ear out but if we don't hear anything we may have to sneak into the concert." Dani glanced over at Sam.

"Um Sam, you're loaded you could literally buy backstage passes."

"Where would the fun in that be?" He asked and Dani snorted.

"Well if that's the case we should probably actually review for this test." Dani said with a laugh pulling her notebook out of her backpack. Sam rolled his eyes.

"Only if you pass me a few more of those cookies." He teased. She snagged one and handed him a few more. Through her mouthful she began to go over the English notes she'd managed to get that day.