A/N: Written for Ectober 2021, Day 31: Insomnia. (I know, I know, I'm late. At least I got the first scene up on tumblr for the day of.)

Recently, Paulina has noticed that none of her friends are getting enough sleep, but surely getting to the bottom of things will solve that, right?

"So." Paulina shifted on Star's bed, bracing herself with her arms as she leaned back and stretched out her legs towards the pillows. She crossed her ankles as she fixed Star with a look. "Let me get this straight. Fenton's overshadowed, and you're hearing an echo of the ghost boy in your head."

One of those things happening in a week? Yeah, okay, it was Amity Park, that kind of thing happened. But both?

No. There had to be more to this story than Star knew. Paulina could smell it.

Star, who'd finished her tale in person after Paulina had reached her room, offered a weak smile. "Either he's overshadowed or he noticed the camcorder Kwan had hidden when he and Dash pulled their prank and Foley helped him fake it to mess with them." She was leaning against the headboard, a pillow at her back and a blanket over her legs, in a rough mirror of Paulina's position. One arm rested in front of her while the other held the ice pack back in place on her shoulder. Paulina hadn't really given Star a choice on that front, but at least Star hadn't bothered trying to argue. Much.

Still, Star's explanation about Fenton sounded a mite too complicated to be what had actually happened, but it wasn't like the son of ghost hunters being overshadowed was simple, either.

Maybe Kwan was wrong. Kwan, Dash, Valerie, Star— All of them. There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this that wasn't explained by convenient editing or some previously undetected, possibly long-term overshadowing.

Then again, maybe it was the pressure getting to all of them, herself very much included. Maybe, chasing a wild story like this and reading too much into the situation was to be expected. Maybe this was nothing more than a desperate distraction from everything else that went on.

Contrary to appearances—because she was very good at keeping up appearances—her life wasn't easy. It took a considerable amount of work to maintain a flawless appearance with seemingly no effort at all, and she did more string pulling at school than even Star understood, let alone Dash. Maintaining her network was hardly a walk in the park. It was one of the reasons she had to be so merciless when it came to those allowed on the A-list. If anyone sensed weakness in her, she'd be done, and she couldn't afford to lose her position when it had taken her so much to claw her way to the top.

Valerie had had to go. Even if the others hadn't necessarily understood that, they'd given up their fight without too much protest—even Star, for all that she'd tried to maintain some semblance of friendship with Valerie.

That was why Paulina hadn't been surprised when Valerie had accepted her new lot in life and decided to give Paulina the cold shoulder. If the circumstances had been reversed, she'd have done the same—except with a bit more of a focus on revenge. Paulina wouldn't have gone down without a fight. Not that Valerie hadn't fought, but she'd decided to blame Phantom for her plight, leaving Paulina to deal with the easy things, like muttered but ultimately empty threats and enough glaring to make her skin prickle from being watched.

So the fact that Valerie had dropped her secondary grudge completely to phone Paulina now, with something that very obviously was not a prank call?

Paulina had not been foolish enough to ignore it.

Star was most definitely off kilter, which had to be a ghost thing like she'd figured and simply something that was thankfully not contagious. Paulina was grateful she wasn't in Star's place right now, and she knew chances were very good that was down to luck alone. But the news about Fenton? News Kwan and Dash and apparently Valerie were in on but had decided to keep her out of, despite it being a very important tidbit of information that she should have known?

Well, it's not that she didn't believe it, exactly. This was Amity Park. Being overshadowed, however briefly, was an uncomfortably common occurrence. It had happened to Paulina herself more than once. Usually, she could only pinpoint when it had happened by the horrible realization that she was missing time or—more often—that general state of confusion she was left with after the fact, supplemented by stories of her acting out of character or talking to herself.

But Fenton?

She would've bet her favourite nail file that Fenton was his usual self, and she wouldn't even lend that one to Star.

"Why don't we talk to him?" Paulina asked. "I know Valerie was going to, but why wait for her? I've got his number. We can phone him now."

Star blinked. "You have his number?"

Paulina's eyebrows rose. Star really hadn't slept well, and maybe for longer than this thing had been going on. She'd have to remember to ask her what else was bothering her a few days after this blew over. "I have the number of everyone in school who's interested in girls." Frankly, she'd have had Fenton's number even if she didn't; aside from when she'd spent time with him in no small part to see Manson's blood boil, he'd judged that beauty pageant, and Star surely wouldn't have forgotten that.

Sure, most girls in school had deleted Fenton's and Foley's numbers after he'd picked Manson, but she knew the value of keeping records of these things.

You never knew when it might come in handy.

Clearly, Star had thought she'd been exaggerating last time she'd mentioned that.

"Right, of course," Star murmured.

Paulina didn't miss Star's glance at the clock or the way she shifted the ice pack. "You can bear the cold for four more minutes."

Star pursed her lips, but she didn't protest.

It was a good time not to be able to read minds. Paulina didn't need to hear that amount of cursing in her direction. She got enough of that verbally from Manson, albeit usually in the form of snide remarks. "So? Should we phone him? It'll distract you."

"Valerie said not to."

"And we're listening to Valerie now because—?"

Star shrugged her good shoulder. "She knows about this kind of thing."

"How? Because she thinks Phantom and that ghost dog—which I'm not even sure is his, by the way—ruined her life?"

"I don't know; she just…does."

"So you're taking her word for it." It might be because Valerie had been the one insisting on it, but Paulina was pretty sure it wasn't a matter of Star falling back into old habits. As much as she yielded to Paulina now, as much as she'd once caved under Valerie's stubbornness, Star had a spine and would stand her ground on things that really mattered to her.

Well.

She would as long as Paulina wasn't threatening to cut her off the A-list, anyway, but that only worked because Paulina reserved it for the times she needed to get her way.

"We're calling him," Paulina decided, picking up her phone from where it lay beside her on the bed near her purse. "We won't say anything about Valerie thinking he's overshadowed. We don't need to. He should jump at the chance to help us either way."

A quick glance told Paulina that Star didn't look convinced, but she didn't argue as Paulina scrolled through her contacts to find Fenton's number. She hit dial and then speakerphone before dropping her phone on the bed between them.

"Uh…hello?"

"Danny," Paulina cooed, using his first name in what was admittedly a somewhat false show of respect, "it's been so long since we talked."

Star managed to stifle her snort, but Fenton—Danny; if she thought of him as Danny until this was over, she wouldn't slip up when it mattered—made an impressive sputtering sound before croaking, "Paulina?"

She wasn't in his contacts. Interesting. There'd been a biding war amongst the lower ranks of the school for her contact info barely a month into ninth grade, and she knew Fenton—Danny—and Foley had been in on it at some point. She'd have thought Foley would've wheedled the info out of someone, but if he had, Danny hadn't kept it.

"Who else would it be?"

Danny coughed. "Um…right. Is there, uh, something you want?"

"Would I only be calling you if there was something I wanted?" She wasn't going to give him a chance to answer that. "I'm having a party next weekend. You and your little friends are all invited. I thought I should tell you personally."

She could make sacrifices for Star's sake.

"Uh—"

"Don't tell me you don't want to go."

"Well, it's just, um, the last party you invited me to wasn't, uh…. Sam has this thing planned. We're busy. And if you're hoping I can get you an in with Phantom for some reason, I can't."

He brought it up, not her. Perfect. "Oooh, speaking of the ghost boy, has he come by to empty his thermos recently?"

"What?" The word came out in the same register as Dash's usual scream. Danny cleared his throat before adding, "Why, uh, why would you think he'd do that?"

"Well, duh, you have a giant ghost portal in your basement, and he wouldn't just let the ghosts out here after he went to all the trouble of catching them. If he could easily open portals into the Ghost Zone himself, he wouldn't bother using a thermos when he's fighting."

Silence.

Paulina raised her eyebrows at Star and covered the microphone portion of the phone with her thumb before whispering, "Seriously, I can't be the only one who's thought of that. Even if he and his sister aren't actively helping Phantom do it, they're stopping their parents from realizing. They have to be."

"Maybe they figured no one else realized it, either?"

Paulina huffed. "How oblivious do they think everyone in this town is?"

"If Fenton is overshadowed? Very. Because if that can be hidden from his parents, it should be easy to hide it from the rest of us."

"Even his loser friends?"

"Maybe they're in on it."

"Or maybe—"

"Okay. Yeah. Phantom knows how to access our portal. But he doesn't let the ghosts through just so he can fight them."

Paulina pulled her hand back and shot a triumphant smile at Star. "I never thought he would. But, listen, when you see him, I need you to tell him—"

"I just said I can't get you an in with Phantom, so I can't pass along a party invite if that's what you really want."

He was willing to interrupt her now? Maybe he was overshadowed.

"It's actually for me," Star said. "Valerie said she was going to talk to you, but…. I need help."

Paulina hadn't planned to lay it all on the table quite that simply, but maybe it was best to just get it over with.

"Oh."

Danny didn't sound surprised, and he wasn't resigned. It almost sounded like wariness, except there was something else in there she couldn't quite pinpoint. "Did Valerie already talk to you?" Paulina prompted, hoping to get a better idea of what Danny was thinking.

"She asked me to meet her at the park by my house as soon as I could get there."

That was definitely uncertainty in his voice. "Did she tell you anything about Star?"

"She said she was going to explain everything when we talked in person."

Paulina rolled her eyes and gestured to Star. "You tell him."

"I—" Star bit her lip. "I keep hearing things. Like, it's a ghost thing, I know it's a ghost thing, but I don't know how to make it stop."

"Like what?" Now Danny sounded doubtful. Did he think this was a prank? He must. It was a wonder he hadn't pretended they'd gotten cut off and hung up. "Rattling chains, footsteps, laughter, someone just going 'ooooOOOOooo'?"

Star glanced at her, and then she sighed and said, "You know how Phantom woke up the entire town last night?"

"Yeah?"

"That's what I hear."

"Huh?"

"I can still hear him yelling at everyone to wake up."

"You—what?" There was genuine alarm in his voice now. Good. He'd finally realized they were serious. "But why would—? You shouldn't— He wouldn't do that on purpose. He might not even know."

"Which is why we need you to tell him so he can help us."

"And if your parents have something that might help," Star added, "I'd be willing to try it."

"Right. Right. Um. Yeah. I know a few things you can try. I'll run back home and grab them. You can meet me and Val in the park."

He hung up without saying goodbye, but Paulina was hardly fussed about that. She grabbed her phone and tucked it back into her purse before getting to her feet. "Let's go."

"Valerie's not going to be happy about this," Star warned, but she still got up and traded the ice pack for a lightweight shrug.

"I'm more concerned about you than what Valerie thinks about this," Paulina said, "especially if she didn't tell Fenton anything. Seriously, what was she thinking? She told me she was going to him for help."

Star mumbled something, but she was happy enough to follow Paulina through the kitchen—tossing the ice pack back into the freezer as they passed by—and out the door as they headed in the direction of the park.

By the end of this, if nothing else, Paulina would either catch the same insomnia bug as her friends or sort things out so they could all get some sleep and be their normal selves again.

Valerie was sitting on one of the park benches when they got there. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, jumping to her feet as they stopped in front of her.

"Getting help for Star," Paulina retorted. She crossed her arms and met Valerie's glower head on.

"That's what I'm doing!"

"Uh huh. And you're doing that by not telling Fenton what the problem is?"

"You talked to Danny?"

"Guys, please don't fight," Star said. She dropped down onto the bench and rested her head in her hands. "It's loud enough as it is."

Valerie growled but sat back down. "I was going to come right back to your place," she muttered.

"This is faster," Paulina said as she checked her phone and then sent a quick message to Dash telling him where they were and asking for him and Kwan to meet them.

"It's also going to be a lot harder."

"Why? If Star's here, then she can tell us right away if anything Danny tries works."

Valerie pursed her lips but finally spat out, "It's complicated."

"What, are you trying to get back together with him?"

"Guys!" Star snapped, finally looking up again. "Stop it. Paulina, you know Valerie's worried about Danny, too, because of the whole overshadowing thing, and Valerie, you know Paulina's just trying to help."

Valerie huffed. "The road to hell and all, I guess."

Paulina hmphed but otherwise let that one slide for Star's sake. There was room to sit on the bench, but not unless she sat next to Valerie, so she opted to settle on the arm rest by Star. She doubted Danny would be too much longer; from her current vantage point, she could see the metal monstrosity that topped the Fenton house over the treetops. Once he found whatever it was he'd been looking for, he'd—

"Hey, guys."

Paulina started and both feet hit the ground as she slid off her perch. She hadn't even heard Danny approach. From the way Star had jumped, neither had she. Even Valerie let out a startled breath before checking her watch.

"Sorry." Danny's smile was sheepish as he walked around to stop a couple of feet in front of Star. His backpack was slung over one shoulder, and he slipped it off and dropped it at his feet. "I don't know what exactly is going on with you. I've only got a few guesses now, but I swear I'll look into it more after we try this."

"So what are your guesses?" Star asked. "How can I make this stop?"

"One of the easiest things to try is Fenton Plugs," Danny said. He knelt to unzip his backpack and came up with a pair of earplugs. He offered them to Star, and she shot them a dubious look before taking them. "Look, thing is, this might not be Phantom at all. There are shapeshifters and other ghosts who would pull this kind of trick."

"You don't think it's Phantom?" Valerie asked. "What if it's some new power he hasn't used before?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "That's why I'll still need to do some digging. I don't know how long it'll take, but I promise I'll do it as fast as I can."

Paulina wondered if he assumed they wouldn't think it weird that he could get information on ghosts that wasn't related to hunting them. Whatever; it was probably because he was overshadowed. Or at least overshadowed some of the time, however that was supposed to work. He'd have to know what was going on even if his parents didn't. "So who is it if it's not the ghost boy?"

"Maybe Youngblood? He was one of the two ghosts on the pirate ship that one time, remember? He always has his presence masked from adults, but he might have figured out how to mask his presence from anyone he wants, too. Maybe even Phantom."

"Phantom can sense other ghosts?" Valerie's surprise wasn't warranted in Paulina's opinion; the ghost boy had to know when to show up somehow. "That makes so much sense."

"I-I mean— Maybe?" Danny laughed. "It's not like I know everything he can do."

"I'll bet you don't," Valerie muttered, and Paulina frowned. Did she really think Danny had more info on the ghost boy than anyone else? If she had to pick one of the Fenton kids, she'd have gone with Jazz in a heartbeat. Jazz at least defended Phantom; Danny would usually just get quiet whenever someone started talking about the ghost boy.

"Anyway, if it's not Youngblood playing a prank on you, you might've gotten an extra dose of dream dust and ectoplasm, but either way, the earplugs will help. They're safe, I swear."

"But they're just earplugs," Star said as she flattened the foam of one before rolling it between her fingers.

"Not quite. These ones will absorb any low level ecto-contaminants you've been exposed to. Just toss them in a mason jar in the morning and use a new pair the next night, and you can give me the jar at school when you're through all the pairs. I can make sure they're disposed of safely in case you were exposed to anything. Anything more than what someone usually gets from living here, I mean."

"If she just tossed them in the garbage," Valerie said, "there's a decent chance they and some other household trash would gain sentience, isn't there?"

Danny winced. "Maybe? That's why the glass jar is a good bet. It takes a long time for glass to absorb enough ecto-energy to act like anything other than glass, so my parents keep ghosts behind glass all the time."

"But don't your parents treat their glassware? To make it phase-proof?"

"Only long-term containment stuff," Danny said, and Paulina blinked. He didn't seem to realize it wasn't a question Valerie should know to ask. Seriously, when had she learned about all of this? It hadn't been when she was part of the A-listers. Paulina rather doubted Valerie could've known so much and never talked about it.

If she'd dated Danny long enough to know how his parents did all their crazy ghost hunting stuff, she wouldn't be asking him for confirmation about anything; she'd merely comment on it.

Sure, everyone knew she didn't like the ghost boy, but not liking the ghost boy did not translate to having that sort of knowledge.

Paulina pushed that aside to deal with later. Right now, she wanted to know more about what Danny thought about Star and whatever creepy ghost had decided to do this to her. "Enough about the boring containment preparation stuff. You said a ghost might be haunting Star specifically? Because, what, she looks like a good target?"

Danny shrugged. "I mean, I don't know that it's Youngblood—I haven't seen him around—but it's the sort of thing he would do. He's already done it to me; made my family think I was going nuts. I wouldn't put it past him to pick a random target, especially if he picked up a new skill since we last met and knows how to only haunt a particular target."

"Well, isn't that just swell." Valerie's voice was flat. "Danny, I need to talk to you for a minute. Privately."

"Uh-um—"

"Now."

Valerie got to her feet and grabbed his hand in one smooth motion. As she pulled him away from them, he stumbled before getting his feet under him. She led him a good two dozen or so feet away, far enough that she clearly thought she wouldn't be overheard as she started whispering furiously to him.

They were not far enough away that Danny's startled yelp of "What?" went unheard.

Paulina wouldn't be surprised if people across town had heard that one, really.

Danny tried to pull away, but Valerie hadn't let him go.

Interesting.

She'd known his reaction to this news before she'd started.

Valerie was gesturing with her free hand, and Danny must have stammered something out in response that she wasn't impressed with. When he started rubbing the back of his neck and saying something else, she jerked him closer and hissed something to him.

Whatever it was, it made Danny stop fighting her, and she dropped his hand.

He glanced over at them before looking back at Valerie.

Great.

This was about them, somehow—or at least about Star, though Paulina couldn't imagine what Valerie had to say about Star that Danny didn't already know.

"Hey," Dash called out, and Paulina looked over her shoulder. Maybe Danny had been looking at Dash and Kwan? That would make more sense when it came to something Valerie would want to talk to him about in private. Paulina hadn't told her she'd invited them, of course, but she wouldn't have been surprised to learn that Valerie had correctly made that assumption.

"What'd we miss?" Kwan asked as he and Dash jogged up to them.

"I got earplugs," Star said. "That's about it."

"See what else he has in his bag," Paulina said, reaching down to lift it onto the bench beside Star. "There must be something."

"Wait, what do you need earplugs for?" Kwan asked, shooting Star a concerned look.

"Some stupid ghost thing," she said. "Fenton's not sure what it is."

"You asked Fenton?" he repeated, sharing a look with Dash. "Look, uh, I wasn't kidding about what I told you before. I don't think it's a good idea to trust him until we know what's going on."

"Valerie's talking to him about something private now," Paulina said, flicking her fingers in their direction. "It can't be about the overshadowing or she could've brought it up in front of us."

"She told me she had to talk to Danny anyway," Star whispered. "That must be what all that's about."

"It…it might still be the overshadowing thing if she didn't want you to freak out," Kwan suggested. "If she's sure and she didn't say—"

"You think she's sure?" Dash interrupted. "Like, sure sure?"

Star pulled a blue HAZMAT suit identical to the one Maddie Fenton usually wore out of the backpack and made a face. Paulina reached down to pull it out of her hands and toss it to the other side of the bench. "The only thing I know for sure is that no one is desperate enough to start wearing that."

Judging from Star's glance at the suit, she wasn't quite as sure about that as Paulina.

It was a good thing Paulina wasn't about to let her do something so foolish.

"There's a racket in here, too," Star said as she yanked it free. "No, wait, no handle. Maybe it's part of a dreamcatcher? Or— Wait. There's a bit at the bottom here that looks like it's supposed to attach to something, but I didn't see a rod if it is a racket." She ran her hands over the rim before showing it to them. It was a large metal ring with some sort of glowing green netting strung inside.

Kwan was looking between the contraption in Star's hands and Danny's backpack. "How'd he even get that in there? Isn't it bigger than his backpack?"

"It's Fenton," Paulina pointed out. They'd all had enough close encounters with Jack and Maddie barging into the school or the mall or the Nasty Burger—usually after Phantom had taken care of the ghost problem—to know that fitting things that should be too large into a space that seemed too small had to be a closely guarded family secret. "That's something he could pull even if he wasn't overshadowed."

"I guess," Kwan muttered, "but if he's—"

"Is there anything we can use against him if he decides to attack us once he finds out we know he's overshadowed?" Dash interrupted. He reached across Star to grab the backpack and dug inside, pulling out a thermos—predictable—and a pair of hideous earrings—less predictable, in Paulina's opinion, but maybe a little less so than she'd initially thought, since they looked vaguely like something Manson wore sometimes. He let the backpack fall to the ground at Star's feet.

"Dibs on the thermos," Kwan said, but Dash laughed and shook his head.

"No way. This one is mine. You can have the weird dreamcatcher racket thing."

"I wonder if I'm just supposed to hang it up in my room?" Star asked, glancing at Paulina.

"How should I know? I'm not going to put up something in my room that might discourage the ghost boy from visiting."

Not that he would ever come.

If she couldn't get him to turn up to one of her parties, there was no way she'd rate a private visit.

If he had any human friends in this town—besides what must be more an arrangement of convenience with Danny and Jazz than anything else—then they knew how to keep their mouths shut.

"You want one of the earrings?" Dash asked, holding one out to her. "In case you get whatever this is from Star?"

"It's not contagious!" Star protested, but then she bit her lip. "At least, I don't think it is."

Paulina eyed the earring and then flipped her hair over her shoulder with one hand. "I'll risk it. If I come down with something, the ghost boy will help me."

"If you can find him," Star muttered, but Dash merely shrugged and handed Star both earrings—or whatever they were supposed to be. She put them on the bench beside her.

Kwan was still examining the circular net thing. "You know, I think it is supposed to be a dreamcatcher. I kinda remember hearing the Fentons saying something about this. It catches ghosts."

Dash scratched his head with his left hand; his right still held the thermos. "How? A butterfly net would be more effective than that thing."

"Like a dreamcatcher catches dreams, I guess?"

Dash dropped his hand and smirked. "Guess the Fentons aren't athletic enough to make a discus thing they have to throw."

"Like that would even fly properly if you did throw it." Kwan held it out to him. "Feel it. The balance sucks. It wouldn't go where you wanted it to."

"Okay, before you guys break something that might help me," Star said, reaching out to grab the ring before Dash could, "give it back. You can play frisbee after I'm fixed."

"You're not broken," Paulina murmured.

Star tilted the device in her hand before placing it on the bench beside the earrings. "It feels like I am."

Paulina opened her mouth to reply but caught sight of Danny and Valerie walking back towards them. Finally. She cleared her throat and nodded towards them, and the others fell silent and waited, watching as the pair approached.

Danny was the first one to speak. "So, um, Valerie filled me in."

"On everything?" Kwan asked, looking more at Valerie than he was Danny.

Danny squirmed nonetheless, shifting his weight and rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah. Look. I'm not, uh, overshadowed. I don't know what you saw, but—"

"We ain't buying what you're selling, Fentur—uh, Fenton," Dash interrupted. "If we should even be calling you Fenton."

Danny sighed. "It was edited."

Paulina frowned even as Dash and Kwan visibly relaxed, rolling their shoulders and smiling at the admission. Valerie did not look similarly relieved—lips pursed, shoulders tensed, standing like she expected something to explode and was ready to run far away from this entire situation—and Danny still looked as nervous as he had the first time he'd gotten up the courage to ask her out. She knew what Danny was saying, of course—it went back to that prank Dash and Kwan had pulled—but she wasn't sure she could believe him.

"Edited, huh?"

That was Star.

It didn't sound like she entirely believed him, either.

From the way Valerie's face twitched at Star's words, she'd heard that, too.

Only, wait, if Danny was lying and Valerie knew, why was she letting him get away with it? She wasn't on Foley's level, but she was a lot better at technology than the rest of them. She'd know if something was edited. Danny couldn't have just fed her a convenient line.

Plus, if Danny were overshadowed after all, why would Valerie let him—and the ghost—get away with it? Paulina knew she still cared about him, and her hatred of ghosts wasn't limited to Phantom.

"Yeah," Danny said. His eyes flicked from Star to Dash. "Which, for the record, doesn't mean I want to go back to you whaling on me."

Dash smirked and set the thermos on the bench before cracking his knuckles. "Don't recall saying you have a choice."

Danny merely shrugged, so Paulina crossed her arms to help resist the urge to kick Dash in the shins for being so blind. A quick glance at Kwan told her he wasn't any better. Boys. Were they really that unobservant?

Or was it just because it was Fenton? Because he was telling him what they wanted to hear and because Valerie wasn't contradicting him when they were trusting her to do that?

"Star's not wearing a jumpsuit," Paulina cut in, as much to distract Dash and Kwan before either of them said anything worse as to distract Danny from what had already been said. She nodded towards it, which at least had everyone looking there instead of staring down each other. "You cannot think she needs to wear that."

"It's a HAZMAT suit," Danny said. "I packed Mom's standard PPE for handling ecto-contaminants. That's all. You don't have to wear it."

"For the amount you'd be exposed to, you'll be fine," Valerie said, giving Danny a sidelong look as if she really couldn't understand his logic. "It can't be worse than someone being overshadowed for a minute or two."

"Yeah, well, I didn't know how freaked out she was," Danny said. "I was kinda freaked out when I heard what was going on."

"I'll bet," Valerie muttered.

Seriously.

What did she know that she wasn't sharing with the class?

"Anyway," Danny said before Paulina could figure out how to press Valerie for details, "if it's an external sound kind of thing, the Fenton Plugs will block it at night and help clear up any residual stuff, and you can wear the Fenton Phones during the day if it's still bad." He gestured towards the earrings. "If that doesn't help, you can try the Ghost Catcher—"

"I knew it caught ghosts!"

"—which will get rid of any ecto-contaminants that have actually sunk in," Danny continued, ignoring Kwan's interruption. "If they're, I dunno, semi-sentient or something and they try to latch back onto you right away before you have a chance to use the thermos, then I'll have to borrow the Xtractor, but that'll be quick and painless for you. It's like someone shoving a shop vac in your face for a few seconds. You'll definitely feel it, but it doesn't hurt."

"You speak from personal experience, don't you?" Star asked.

"Unfortunately."

No. Wait. Something still didn't add up. If Fenton had been overshadowed and overshadowed for a while—Star had said she wasn't sure how long but that it was long enough for Kwan to worry—then his personal experience with that thing should come from when the ghost inside of him was pulled out. Meaning he shouldn't be overshadowed any longer. Right?

Well, unless the ghost came back. Or he deliberately freed it so the ghost could come back. Or if the overshadowing thing was recent after all. Or if he wasn't lying when he said the video was edited, though Paulina still wasn't sure she could believe that.

That excuse seemed a bit too convenient for her taste, at least when Danny acted so nervous. If it were all a giant misunderstanding or especially if it were a deliberate prank pulled off by editing some footage, she would've expected Danny to milk it for all it was worth, to play it up and string Dash along. He'd had a golden opportunity to do so, but he hadn't. Dash would've made him pay for it later, but how many people would've been able to resist that?

It didn't sit right with her.

It sounded like Danny was simply telling them what they wanted to hear.

Paulina shifted on her feet and looked at Star, but she was chewing her lip again, clearly more focused on what Danny was saying than how he was acting around Dash—or around any of them, for that matter.

Paulina caught Valerie's eye, and the other girl raised her chin slightly. She was practically daring Paulina to call out her and Danny, but if Paulina did that, Danny might not help Star—

Crud.

No wonder this mess had been keeping the others up at night.

She might be wrong. Paulina knew that. Danny might be lying about the whole editing thing, but that didn't mean he was lying about not being overshadowed. There could be a third option, something of which Valerie was well aware but not telling the rest of them.

Then again, considering Paulina knew she wasn't forgiven for kicking Valerie off the A-list, Valerie might have decided to side with Fenton on this. If he'd asked for her help to pull a prank on all of them, Valerie might've jumped at the opportunity, even knowing that someone might see through it and not buy excuses of ignorance.

Of course, it wasn't like they couldn't ask for a second opinion. Paulina could sweet talk a nerd and get some straight answers about whether or not something was edited, and Valerie would know that.

Maybe she was overthinking this. It was a little involved, after all. Valerie might still be nursing her grudge, but it would've taken some coaching to get Fenton to say things in a way that Valerie knew would set off Paulina's alarm bells. It would've taken time. Had they had the time? Was Danny a better actor than she'd ever suspected?

Maybe.

Or maybe one of the reasons Valerie was so nervous was that she knew Paulina would be trying to figure this out, and she didn't want Paulina to realize the truth.

Whatever the truth was supposed to be.

"So let me get this straight," Paulina said. "If it's an external thing, the earplugs and earrings will help, and if it's an internal thing, the dreamcatcher will help."

"I mean, the earplugs will help if it's only a bit of residual—"

"Why not just use the dreamcatcher thing now?"

"Well, I…." Danny faltered. "I guess you could. You'd just need to go through it, Star. I know it looks like there's a net, but there isn't. It's only a hollow ring, like a small hula hoop. The net bit is, like, light and ecto-energy from excited molecules or something like that. I never paid that much attention to Mom's explanation. I just know it works."

"From personal experience?" Kwan asked, and there was a funny sort of inflection in his voice.

Maybe the boys weren't as oblivious as she'd thought.

Star didn't protest when Kwan picked up the ring from her again.

Danny swallowed. "Yeah, but Jazz and I have pretty much gotten on the wrong end of most of Mom and Dad's stuff. Anyway, I should go. I'm supposed to meet Sam and Tucker. Val, I'll talk to you later, okay?"

He'd only taken one step back before Dash was moving to intercept him, but Valerie tackled Dash before he could reach Danny. He hadn't expected it, and she managed to take him down. No one else was able to move fast enough to catch Danny before he turned and ran.

As if that weren't the most suspicious thing Paulina had seen today.

"What the heck are you doing?" Dash protested as he pushed Valerie away.

"He's helping Star," she ground out as she got back to her feet. "You can't seriously think now's a great to time to whale on him when you have to know you shouldn't be doing it anyway."

"Whose side are you on?" Kwan asked. "Ours or Danny's?"

Valerie shot him a disgusted look. "Right now? Star's. Because she needs help. And Danny's helping. You think that if none of this stuff works that Danny will happily try something else if you beat him up at every opportunity?"

"Oh." Dash almost looked contrite. "I didn't think about that."

"No kidding you didn't think about that," Valerie retorted. "Just cut him some slack for once. It shouldn't take the possibility of him being overshadowed to make you change your tune."

"Wait," Kwan said, "did you know the video was edited this whole time? Were you pretending you thought you knew which ghost was overshadowing Fenton just so we'd lay off him?"

Kwan's question finally let things click into place in Paulina's brain, and she shared a glance with Star as Valerie hissed, "Yes!"

Star gave her head a minute shake and shot Paulina a pleading look. Let it go, please, it meant. Star didn't care about the truth if it meant she got some peace, and the boys were buying it—if only because it was the truth they wanted to hear. Why would they want to dig deeper when Valerie—someone they trusted—was offering an explanation that made sense, even if it was entirely too convenient? Valerie would know that. They might know it, too, if they thought about it for two seconds, but they were too happy that Fenton supposedly wasn't overshadowed after all to care.

Still, she could at least pretend to believe Valerie.

For Star's sake.

At least for now.

True, instant gratification was incredibly satisfying, but Paulina knew how to wait. Even if they didn't involve Dash and Kwan in this right away, she and Star could play the long game. A little bit of patience could go a long way.

Paulina nodded, just slightly, and Star looked relieved. Thankfully, Valerie was too busy scolding the boys to have noticed—at least as far as Paulina could tell.

"Look, I need to run, too," Valerie said as she turned from Dash and Kwan to Star, "so let me know how all this goes, okay?"

"Okay," Star said, and Valerie smiled before waving and turning her back on them.

Dash muttered something to Kwan as he climbed to his feet and brushed off bits of loose grass, but Paulina kept her mouth shut until she was sure Valerie was gone. By then, Kwan was sticking his hand through the ring (to no apparent effect) while Star watched, and Dash had moved on to making snide remarks about Fenton and the family's ghost tech.

She didn't really need to wait for a better opportunity. "So what's on the rest of that video?" Paulina asked.

Kwan shot her a surprised look. "What?"

"The video," she said. "The one for your prank. Is there anything else on it?"

"Like hours of the empty alley behind the Nasty Burger?" Dash asked as he reached up to scratch his head. "We've looked at the good bit."

"Foley would've taped over them coming back and finding the camcorder," Kwan added. "It's not like there's going to be evidence of them doing something. They're not that stupid."

Paulina shrugged. "I still want to see it. Like, what if the ghost boy showed up? They might've had help." She paused for a beat as Dash and Kwan exchanged looks themselves before saying, "You can just give it to me. I can check it myself."

She needed to see that video.

She needed to know if there was anything else on there that might shed some light on this whole thing. Between Danny and Valerie—

"I've got the same camcorder as you," Star added as she turned to Kwan, "so you can just give me the tape and Paulina can watch it at my place at some point."

Paulina let out her breath slowly. Good. Star wasn't going to fight her on this. That would've been inconvenient.

Kwan shrugged and put the ring onto the bench beside Star. "Sure, whatever. Just give it back when you're done so I can reuse it." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, in the rough direction of his place. "I can grab it now if you want. Meet you back at your place and be on standby when you try the net thing."

Star smiled. "Sounds great."

Kwan nudged Dash and soon the two of them were off. Once they were out of sight, Paulina said, "Thank you."

"Are you going to explain what you're thinking?"

She turned back to Star. "It might be nothing."

"It's almost never nothing."

Paulina pursed her lips. "My main concern is getting you back to normal."

Star snorted. "That's my main concern, too, but that doesn't mean I didn't notice how weird that whole thing was." She hesitated. "Do you really think there might be something more on that video or do you just plan to get a second opinion on it being edited?"

"We live in Amity Park, and you and I both know they haven't fixed those cameras behind the Nasty Burger since their electronics got fried in that ghost attack like two months into ninth grade. If you were sure it was a dead spot, wouldn't you be a bit more careless there than somewhere else?"

"So you think Fenton's overshadowed after all."

"I don't know. I just know that Valerie does know or she wouldn't be siding with him on this, whatever she says."

"So do you have a plan?"

"We figure out how to silence that screaming in your head," Paulina said as she settled onto the bench and started to repack the backpack, "and then we watch the video and see if we can figure out any other secrets this town is trying to hide."

"And if there isn't anything?"

Paulina knew that was a very real possibility. She did.

She also refused to believe this story was as simple as Danny and Valerie were pretending. "There won't be nothing, but if there is…. If there is, we'll come up with something else to tell Fenton. It'll be easier to trick him if he's not with his friends, but separating them can't be that hard."

"Valerie's going to be suspicious."

"Bully for Valerie. The way she's acting, I wouldn't be surprised if she had something to hide, too."

Star stopped attempting to shove the ring back into the backpack and met Paulina's eyes. "Do we really want to know if she is? People keep secrets for a reason. It might be better to let sleeping dogs lie this time."

"Maybe," Paulina allowed as she took over trying to wedge the ring into place, "but I'd rather know what we're dealing with than not."

"Do we tell the boys?"

Paulina's mouth twisted. "That depends on what we find out—assuming there is anything to find out."