Chapter 5: Bolt!
Danny arrived at his house and went inside. His mom was trying (don't ask, please) to make dinner, and Jazz was hanging by the phone, waiting to see if she had to order out Chinese or not. Mr. Fenton was sitting at the table with something that looked suspiciously like a new ghost invention.
"Uh, Dad?" Danny said. "What's that?"
"This?" Danny's dad picked up the invention and pushed it into Danny's face. "This is the Fenton Thermos 2.0! Since I can't find the original Fenton Thermos-" Danny tried very hard not to look guilty-"I made a new one! It's better, more versatile, and check out the clear glass- you can see the ghosts floating around!!"
"O-kayâ," Danny said. The new Thermos did sound better, but he thought his dad would get suspicious if two thermoses went missing. So Danny escaped from his dad and went up to his room. Halfway there, a KA-BLOOSH told him that they were definitely having takeout that night.
At school the next day, Danny and Tuck were waiting at the entrance for Sam to arrive. Usually, it was Sam who was waiting for them. But that morning, Sam hadn't been there. When she finally did show up, it was 5 seconds until the bell rang.
"Sam, are you sure you're okay?" Tuck said. "You're kindaâlate."
"I just had a bad morning. Come on, we've got to class to get-I mean, get to class." Sam blushed and entered the school hurriedly.
Danny turned to Tucker. "Have you ever had that weird feeling that Sam's hiding something from us?" he said.
The rest of the day was very weird. Wilson-who wasn't finished with his revenge-attacked three times. The girl ghost from before came to save them each time, but before Danny could ask her any questions, she disappeared.
But this is the weird thing- every time the girl appeared, Sam seemed to get more horrified and less secure. By lunch, she was absolutely terrified, and jumped at the slightest mention of a ghost.
"Sam, please tell us what's going on," Danny said. "We're you're friends, we can know."
"Ummâumm"
"Sam, if you really don't want us to know, just say so," Tuck said. "It's okay, we'll understand."
"NO!!" Sam said so loudly half the school turned to look-the student half. "YOU'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND!! NOBODY EVER WILL!! IâJUSTâCAN'TâTAKE IT ANYMORE!!" With that, she took her backpack, stood up, walked away, and ultimately-left school. No, really, she actually bolted in the middle of the school day.
Danny and Tuck stared. "Did she justâleave?" Tucker said.
"I think so," Danny said. "You know what that means, right?"
"Right," Tuck said. The two bounded over to the front lawn of the school and started chanting: "GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO!!!"
Danny smiled. Back at Marmel, bolts like this had happened all the time- not from emotional breakdown, but to annoy the teachers. When that happened, it was traditional to cheer the person on. And usually, bolts usually led to something much cooler.
All over the schoolyard, kids who had gone to Marmel during the time that Danny and Tucker were there realized what was going on and instantly joined the two in chanting. Kids who hadn't gone to Marmel just stood there, confuzzled. But soon enough, they realized what was going on, and a few joined the throng-even Paulina, who only did it as soon as she saw that there were a few popular kids in the crowd.
After about ten minutes, most of the school was chanting "GO GO GO GO GO GO!" along with the two. They didn't know who bolted, but they were happy about it. After fifteen minutes, the fun kinda wore off. "Now what?" a random voice said.
Danny stepped to the front of the crowd. Wellâ if you wanna know, meet me at the park at 7:00 tomorrow night."
"What for?"
"You'll see"