Still, she called anyway, "Mom? Dad?" There was no answer. She followed the noise to her own room, where she noticed misty vapour sleeking away, and instantly knew that she was dealing with a ghost.
"Why don't you let me just ask my friend, Danny?" she asked, at next morning's breakfast, to her parents, who were both drinking coffee and absorbed in their morning paper. "His parents are real ghost hunters. They'll probably even do it for free."
"Samantha dear," her mother answered without taking her eyes off from the paper, "you don't understand how the world works. This Fenton family runs that shady business out of their own home, and their rates are incredibly cheap. You can't expect them to be any good; therefore, I'm hiring the most expensive, thereby the best ghost hunting professionals out there."
"But I know Danny. They actually know what they're doing. I'm serious. And how exactly did you find this expensive Fountain Family Ghost Hunting Extraordinaire? I didn't think you could find things like that."
"Internet. And money. With those two you can do anything. And you know dear, that your father and I don't approve of that Danny boy as a suitable boyfriend. His family is poor and terribly undignified. We've already found some suitors from rich families."
"Isn't it a little early to be thinking about my marriage... and Danny's not my boyfriend! He's just a friend!"
After school that day, Sam and Danny were walking home together because she had asked him to check out her haunting. This of course caused more rumours about them being a couple while they claimed they weren't.
"Go to your house?" he had exclaimed. "Why? Is there a project due tomorrow?"
"No, there's just a ghost."
"Oh, just a ghost." He put sarcastic emphasis on the word just, although he had become slightly accustomed to ghost hunting, and it came to him more naturally than any school assignment.
"My mom hired these really expensive professionals to take care of it."
"Why don't we just let the pros take care of it?"
"I don't know," she replied honestly, "but I just don't trust them for some reason. Just because they cost a lot doesn't exactly mean they'll be any good. Anyway, I just want you to check it out, make sure no one gets hurt."
As soon as they entered her house, alarms burst into noise and they noticed broken dishes, emptied cabinets, and wrecked furniture. Two eccentric parents, the Fountain mom and dad, approached them.
"Don't you know there's a ghost in the vicinity?" the dad shouted madly. "This is a danger zone! What are you two doing here?"
"I live here," Sam answered back. "What are you doing? You're ruining the house. My mom paid you big bucks for this."
"You can't be too careful with a ghost. I know it's around here somewhere." Another alarm went off, and they instantly responded to check out a supposed ghost warning. Sam thought they looked like two criminals running from a police siren.
"See Danny, I told you they couldn't be trusted. Danny? What's wrong?"
"The ghost is nearby," he said, quivering. A vapour escaped from his mouth, telling him that the ghost couldn't be faraway.
The ghost was a small boy, shivering for his clothes were ripped. Sam instantly sympathized with him. He was so skinny that she would even consider giving him meat! but that was stretching it a bit too far. She warned Danny not to harm the ghost too much, as he seemed so harmless.
The ghost lunged at Sam, but Danny intervened, transforming into his ghost form. They both became transparent and disappeared behind the walls. After a short scrap, Danny emerged victorious, although he had let the ghost escape since he was holding back on his full power. Suddenly, they heard more alarms and the Fountains quickly approaching.
"I think they're targeting me!" Danny realized.
"Run!" Sam screamed, and they did just that, climbing a spiralling staircase and hiding in her room. The Fountains were just outside, trying to follow the beeping noises of their detectors, and were slowly making their way to Sam's door.
"I guess you were wrong. Their equipment really does work."
"It's probably just a fluke."
"If you say so." Looking around, the thought suddenly occurred to him that he was in Sam's room. "So this is what a girl's room is like. It's actually messier than mine."
"It's not my fault. I just cleaned it a couple days ago. Those ghost hunters must have messed it up. Hey, bracelet's gone!"
"What bracelet?"
"You know, the one you got me for my birthday last year. Those ghost hunters probably use hunting as an excuse to get into rich houses and steal all the jewellery they can snatch. It was really important."
"Wow, I didn't know it meant that much to you."
"Anyway, those ghost hunters are fakes. We should report them to the police."
"Then how do you explain their equipment targeting me?"
"I told you. It's just a fluke."
Just as she said that, the hunters exploded into the room with gigantic and dangerous looking weapons, especially to Danny.
"All right, where's the ghost?" the dad demanded.
"There's no ghost in here!" Sam tried to say innocently.
The dad pondered with crooked eyes, watching his scanner carefully. He knew there was a ghost somewhere in the room, but where? He scanned under the bed, in the closet, but couldn't find anything, until he suddenly noticed a reaction coming from the boy, Danny, smiling nervously.
"Aha! There he is!"
"No! Don't hurt him!" Sam protested, spreading her arms wide and standing between him and the gigantic cannon the Fountain parents were holding together.
It was too late as the shot was fired. She closed her eyes in anticipation, but the blast didn't hit her. She opened her eyes, and saw the ghost trapped in a net.
"Just a net?" she realized, both relaxed and perplexed. "You weren't going to hurt him?"
"Of course!" the dad laughed, as though she had asked something elementary. "Did you think we were criminals or something?"
"Well, I actually thought your whole ghost business thing was a scam to steal from rich houses," she confessed with a nervous blush.
"Why would we need to steal? We're filthy rich! The real crook here is this ghost."
"But he looks so innocent!" But on closer protest, she noticed that in fact the ghost had indeed stolen her bracelet, and there were bits of furniture stuffing too. As a final act of evil, the ghost threw the bracelet somewhere in the distance. "I'm really sorry! I should have trusted you."
"Of course! We're the most expensive and thereby the best ghost hunting professionals out there. We take pride in our work! And you going to get the Fentons to do this job. Let me tell you: they couldn't even catch a ghost, well... even if they saw one! And what kind of name is Fenton anyway?"
"Hey, I'm right here," Danny reminded them. "You're talking about my parents, and even though they're very weird and creepy... they know what they're doing when it comes to ghosts."
"That may be, but Sam, your parents were willing to spend any amount of money, and even let themselves being tricked into paying us double for no reason at all, because they wanted to make sure their daughter was safe by hiring the highest quality ghost hunters possible."
"They really said that?" Sam stuttered slightly, slightly surprised, slightly touched.
"Now if you don't mind, we have a job to finish. We'll make sure this ghost doesn't commit any more crimes, but it's strange... according to my scanner, there's still another ghost in this room."
"It's probably malfunctioning," she suggested with beads of sweat rolling down her face."
"Well, it's not like we're getting paid to twice the job... well actually, we are, but that's not the point. We're done here. Stay safe. Except, your parents have expressed interest in matching you with our son, our very rich son, Donny Fountain. He'll do much better than your boyfriend over there. What kind of name is Danny anyway?"
"What? Marriage?" Danny totally freaked out. "Isn't she a bit too young! And, I'm not her boyfriend, just a friend!"
Eventually, things settled down and the Fountains finally left, although not before checking their scanners a few more times and eyeing Danny suspiciously, causing some stressful moments.
Danny stayed behind to help clean up the house, and look for the bracelet. Eventually they both found it and tried to grab it at the same time, and ended up touching hands for just a brief moment. They both laughed it off and decided to pretend it never happened.
"Well, I guess everything's taken care of," Danny announced.
"I'm still embarrassed about what happened though," Sam said sheepishly.
"C'mon, it wasn't that bad, and at least you learned your lesson."
"I guess your right. Maybe not all expensive things are scams. Some of them are actually really good quality, like that bracelet."
"Actually, I got it for half price at a garage sale."
"You bought my birthday present at a garage sale!"
"Hey, it's the thought that counts..."
"Yeah, you're right." You canspend as much money as you want for what is not there, and you might get a good product, she thought, when all you really need to do is reinforce what is already, and always, there.