Chapter Eight: Phantom Gallery

Wes was exhausted. It was Monday morning, and no amount of coffee could help him at this point, he was a lost cause. He had gotten about half an hour of sleep the night before while doing more ghost research. He had only slept at all because he tripped over a few art supplies left over from when he was making his charts, and decided that the floor was somewhat comfortable and it was worth too much effort to get up. His father found him in the morning, choosing to ignore the creepy pictures of both Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom tacked to the wall. Thankfully, all Walter said was to clean his room as soon as possible, because frankly, it was a complete mess. Everything from sharpies and bottles of superglue to cassette tapes about ghosts and random soda cans littered his bedroom floor. He was not looking forward to cleaning it all up.

At the moment, all Wes could hope to do was survive the school day. On the bright side, he still looked better than Danny. His hair stuck up at odd angles (more so than usual), his eyes seemed to be permanently cast in shadow (to the extent where Wes had almost convinced himself it was makeup), and his entire walk seemed to be lopsided. Unlike most, who just assumed Danny was a Grade-D slacker, Wes knew why Danny was so sleep deprived. Because after all, he just spent the entire weekend evading the Red Huntress's wrath.

Apparently she was convinced that Wes actually was Phantom, and kept comparing him to an unknown girl named Danielle (which Wes was pretty sure had to do with Danny, because come on, Daniel and Danielle?). Wes had no clue how the huntress knew who he was, but he had a horrible suspicion that she attended Casper High, which meant that she was a fellow student. But who? He also felt offended that she believed the real Phantom to be him, but couldn't bring himself to be angry. After all, she had beaten Danny up pretty bad and he did next to nothing to fight back, and that... strangely satisfied Wes. That, and she had managed to figure out that humans could be ghosts – she just got the wrong human.

Wes picked at parts of his eraser with his nails as a distraction to stay awake in third period. So far it wasn't doing a very good job. His head felt heavy, and his eyelids kept trying to glue together every time he blinked. Currently the teacher, Mrs. Rosenbalm, was taking role. She looked over the class apprehensively.

"Where's Grey?" she asked. "Bathroom?"

"Absent," Sam assured her.

Mrs. Rosenbalm made a "tsking" noise, "That's the sixth time this year. And usually that girl has a remarkable attendance!"

Sam growled something under her breath that nobody but Tucker caught. Mrs. Rosenbalm started the history lesson about something with America... and somebody getting pissy because they didn't have whatever rights (God, that's all of American history). The color of the blackboard appeared to eat the chalk; Wes couldn't see anything on the board. His head seemed to sink down to his desk, his eyelids shut and refused to open, and Mrs. Rosenbalm's nasally voice was drowned by deafening silence.

Wes always had non-sequential, random dreams, that were usually too abstract to describe. So the scene that built itself below his conscious wasn't too out of the ordinary.

There was a carousel... somewhere, the sky not even apart of Wes's dream. It didn't exist. The carousel didn't have horses, it just had random spokes with people on it. The people faded and twisted, like they weren't exactly tied to the fabric of reality... the people were ghosts.

"Hey look Wes," the Red Huntress said, she held up a blue haired doll with a creepy painted smile, "this is Danielle. You're like her."

Wes didn't know what that meant. The Red Huntress wasn't there anymore, or the carousel. Suddenly, Wes was in Vlad's mansion, in the Packer's room, with Star. She was leaning against a display case, grinning at him.

"Are you sure you don't want to be Phantom?" Star asked. "Danny pulls it off."

Wes felt a twinge of jealously at that, but forced it down, "Danny's a ghost."

Star bounced on her feet. "Everything in this room is a ghost," she swiped at an invisible something, "We can't touch anything."

"That's kind of dumb," Wes says. "Who makes a room like that?"

Star's face went slack, and there was a voice that wasn't her's,"President Roosevelt..."

Wes was confused, "President Roosevelt makes ghost rooms?"

SMACK. Something loud erupted next to Wes, nullifying his dream and pulling him back into the classroom. He looked next to him for evidence of the noise, and found a wrinkly old hand... Mrs. Rosenbalm. She had caught him sleeping in class and had woken him up.

Wes pulled his face from the desk, which had stuck to it with sweat... gross. About half the people in the room were glaring at him. He noticed Danny looking dazed two rows down.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Rosenbalm looked slightly satisfied, "Weston! Fenton! Since you both seem adamant about sleeping in class, you will be paired together for the upcoming class project."

Paired with Fenton... Surprising even himself, Wes was ecstatic. Being paired up for a project was the perfect way to collect research on Danny. When they weren't working on history, it would give him an excuse to be around and actually observe Danny. This is the luckiest break he'd gotten in over a week!

Danny, meanwhile, was still mostly asleep and hadn't processed everything that Mrs. Rosenbalm said. "Tha's o'ay," Danny slurred. "I'm usually used as a projectile... I'll be fine, Jazz."

Mrs, Rosenbalm frowned,"Daniel Fenton! I am talking to you! Get your face off of your desk and look at me!"

Danny suddenly jerked up, meeting Mrs. Rosenbalm's eyes, "Oh right, sorry. Get on with the lesson."

"Fenton, you're working with Weston on the next class project," she said simply.

Danny's eyes were saucers when he threw a glance over at Wes, clearly horrified at the thought of working with him. Feeling somewhat victorious, Wes smiled at him. You're mine, ghost-boy.

Wes and Danny decided that they would go back to Wes's place to work on the project. So the two of them walked in heavy silence to the Westons' apartment. Wes tried to initiate conversation multiple times, but Danny usually only responded with simple answers, unwilling to talk to the red-headed boy. Soon enough, they reached their destination, and Wes showed Danny to his room. He let Danny walk in first, who promptly froze in the doorway.

"Uh... Danny?" Wes said, "Are you okay?"

"I think the real question is if you're okay."

"What?" Wes said, thoroughly confused.

"I mean, sure, I have some ghost stuff in my room – but that's only because of my parents. This... this is another level of unhealthy."

Ghost stuff? What was he talking ab – oh, right. His Fenton and Phantom pictures he'd pinned on the walls. The entire gallery of photos was there for the entire world to see. Damn, this was mortifying. His Dad was right, he should've cleaned his room.

"I – I – I can explain," Wes said quickly.

Danny shrugged, sitting on Wes's bed, "Don't bother." He suddenly broke into a grin, "I mean, at least you got my good side."

Ten days later, and Wes still hadn't pulled down his 'Phantom Gallery' as Danny had dubbed it. Sure, it was mortifying for when he had unexpected visitors, but Wes wasn't willing to let his personal embarrassment get in the way of his precious research.

He and Danny ended up getting a D on their history project. Danny had a long week hunting ghosts, and Wes... well, Wes had a long week hunting Danny. Unfortunately (or fortunately for team Phantom), Wes's evidence hadn't progressed in the slightest since the dragon attack in the cafeteria. However, an encounter with ex A-Lister Valerie Grey on October 5th leaves some unanswered questions in his head.

"Hey, um, Weston," Valerie approached him at his locker, "can I talk to you during lunch?"

Wes was completely taken aback. Was she asking him on a date? He could've sworn that she had a thing for Danny... "Uh... yeah! We can talk – at lunch."

"Great," she shifted, almost like there was something tense in the air, "meet me on the roof."

"The roof?" Wes wondered.

"Mm," she nodded, "yeah. That way we're alone."

Wes didn't really think in between the lines as to Valerie's motives for meeting on the roof. All he got out of it was 'pretty girl' and 'alone'. So with his mission to expose Danny momentarily forgotten, he trekked up three flights of stairs to reach the roof.

When he got up there, Valerie was waiting for him, casually leaning against the railing, "What took you so long?"

"Stairs," Wes explained.

She raised an eyebrow, as if there was something puzzling about that answer, but quickly dismissed it. "I'm just going to out and say it, I know it's you Weston. That it's always been you, ever since the disaster with Axion Labs and the stupid ghost dog. I was just too naive to put it together. I mean, I've known about half ghosts for months! Ever since the whole thing with Danielle and... Vlad. I know I'm rambling, but the point is, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking straight when I tried to kill you as Phantom the other day, everything just happened so fast, and," she paused to breathe, "could you ever forgive me?"

Wes stared at her. In that moment he almost wanted to facepalm. Couldn't the universe let him have a normal date for once?!

"Uhh..." he said, "I'm sorry, what?"

"Please Wes," she said. "It's killing me knowing that I've been attacking an actual human for the past year. And even though you're kind of a dick, that's better than a coldblooded ghost with absolutely no morals bent on the destruction of humanity."

"Is this some sort of prank?" Wes asked.

Valerie broke from her ranting, "What do you mean?"

"You think that I'm literally Phantom. Like, half-ghost and all?"

"I know that you're Phantom. Come on, Weston, I'm not as thick-headed as the rest of Amity Park. When people started comparing you to Phantom, you tried convincing people Fenton was Phantom instead as an alibi. But I know the truth, you can trust me. I mean, we've allied probably about five times now, and you're not someone I particularly want as my enemy now that I know who you are. So is there anyway you can find it in your heart to forgive me?"

"Forgive you for what? Look, Valerie, I don't know what you think is going on, but I'm not Phantom. I'm telling the truth, it's Fenton! If you want to confess all your sins to someone, go blather to him."

Valerie growled, "Stop playing dumb!"

"I'm not! I literally have no clue what you're talking about!"

"Then why'd you meet me up here? If you're not Phantom, why'd you come to talk to me today?"

Wes was caught off guard. He couldn't just tell her that he thought it was a date, so he reluctantly held his tongue.

Valerie smirked, "Gotcha, ghost-boy. Now, since we're both on the same page, we have to agree that we can't just keep fighting each other like we have been. I want to form a truce with you."

This is ridiculous, Wes internally groaned. Since he couldn't convince her that he wasn't Phantom, he might as well attempt to get information out of her, "What kind of truce?"

"Neither of us reveal the other's identity, and that we work together to bring down ghosts – but only when they're too powerful for the both of us. I know that I don't want all of my thunder stolen."

"I-" Wes started before being cut off again.

"And also," Valerie's expression grew more serious, "lay off of Danny. While you may think that he's a good alibi for your own secret, he's not. Sure, he looks vaguely similar to Phantom, but he's way too prepubescent, out-of-shape, and not nearly snarky enough. Plus, I like him, and that means he's under my protection, got it?"

Something about that was funny to Wes. Danny was under Valerie's protection. "Got it."

Valerie turned to the edge of the rooftop, and smiled. Wes's world was shaken when red armor instantly appeared over her normal clothes, turning her into a very familiar figure in Amity Park. He had suspected that it was a student, but he would've never guessed...

"It'll be a pleasure working with you Weston, or should I say, Phantom."

Valerie Grey was the Red Huntress.

"Hey Danny," Wes drawled, "how's it going?"

Danny groaned, he was so not in the mood for this today. Johnny 13 and Kitty kept popping out of the Ghost Zones at the worst moments for their anniversary. Danny didn't have a girlfriend, but he was pretty sure an anniversary wasn't usually spent terrorizing eight year-olds' bowling parties with your trusty bad luck shadow.

"What do you want Wes?"

"I just have a question that might interest you," he paused. "Is Valerie Grey a ghost hunter?"

Danny froze. Oh God, what had Valerie done? She already incorrectly suspected that Wes was Phantom, so had she revealed that she was the Red Huntress? Not good... so not good. Yeah sure, technically the Red Huntress was Danny's proclaimed enemy – but Danny cared about Valerie as a friend.

Danny snorted, "Valerie Grey... hunting ghosts? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I mean, how would she be able to afford equipment?"

"Dunno," Wes shrugged, "but I think I just scored you a truce with the Red Huntress. You owe me now, Phantom."

Danny's fake smile faltered.

"And you know what else?" he said, "She confirmed the existence of half-ghosts. It's only a matter of time, ghost-boy."