I'm pretty proud of this. If I do say so myself.
Have you ever noticed how weird the word backwards sounds if you repeat it enough? Try it.
His parents had swept the room with the ghost finder five times. His dad was quite enthusiastic. He was ecstatic his son claimed to have seen a ghost on the first day in the new house. But after five searches, no clue, not even spectral residue showed up on their databases. Jack Fenton was miserable. Maddie assured Danny she believed him, but then asked if maybe the jet lag had caused him to hallucinate. Jazz broke out the psychology books on reasons why a boy would imagine a basically naked girl walking out of his personal shower. The results were not pretty.
"I'm telling you, I saw her!" Danny yelled. "She was standing right there and yelled at me for being in her room! And then she went to get changed." He strode over to the bathroom and slammed the door open. The bathroom was empty. The showerhead wasn't even dripping.
Jack muttered something about "the boy who cried ghost" before slumping downstairs for more cookies.
Maddie kissed him on the forehead before telling him to go to sleep soon, he had his first day of school the next day.
Jazz gave him a hug and told him not to be ashamed of sexual fantasies, they were normal for a boy his age.
Danny was fuming when he went to sleep. He tossed and turned for hours, imagining the girl floating around his room while e was asleep. Or worse, appearing before him again. He could not take another failed explanation for his parents.
Seriously, this girl had wreaked more havoc and embarrassment than anyone he had ever met before.
Okay, maybe she was tied with Jazz in that department…
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Danny stumbled out of bed at seven, to the merry tune of his shrill alarm clock. He sent a ghost ray at it and the piece of plastic was fried.
Danny went over to the closed bathroom door and was about to open it when he stopped and looked at it suspiciously. This door betrayed him yesterday. He would take steps to outwit it today.
He knocked on the bathroom door, feeling stupid. After all, it was his private bathroom.
"I'll be out in just a minute!" A feminine voice called from inside.
Danny sighed. He hated it when he had to wait for the bathroom. He strode over to his dresser.
And then froze. It was the girl from last night. She was still in the shower. He grabbed a ghost gun and crept towards the bathroom door, hoping to see her again and prove to his parents that he was not crazy. And hopefully, prove to his sister he was not hormone-addled. Danny flung open the door.
Nobody was inside. He looked everywhere inside the bathroom, but no one was there. He even checked under the sink. Nobody. He wiped off the steamy mirror. He was ghostly pale.
That metaphor made him laugh. Of all life's ironies…
Danny was a little freaked out, but decided that a shower could not be missed. He turned on the water and stepped in, relaxing instantly. He reached for a bar of soap.
And felt his hand close on something else. His eyes widened in shock. A girl's razor.
Danny was very close to freaking out. He took deep breaths and leaned against the tile wall behind him. It must be Jazz playing a trick on me, he thought. He calmed instantly. Jazz getting revenge, or merely harassing him was by no means out of the ordinary.
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Danny got out of the house as fast as he could. He wouldn't be able to stand another "new school, new attitude" speech from his mother. It never worked, not matter how optimistic he became.
He reached the schoolyard and got many curious glances. Amity was a fairly small town and troubled millionaires' children caused quite a stir. Danny ducked his head and darted through the crowd and into the school. Last thing he needed was a peppy tour guide to follow around.
The office was located in the middle of the school. A very unfortunate place for a public room. Danny felt like a rat in a maze. It took him ten dead ends before he found it and then the principal was busy. Busy doing what; Danny was curious. It didn't take long with the murmurs of "check… aha… Damn you!" and the fervered tapping coming from inside.
After about fifteen minutes and twenty-six seconds (not that Danny was counting) the principal called him in. He was old and was wearing a very obvious toupee. Danny couldn't think of what else to describe him as, except that he gave off the effect of a very smug lizard.
"So, Danny." He said sleekily. The lisp did nothing to dissuade Danny's impression of him. "What do you think of our quaint town?" He chuckled at his own comment.
Danny stared blankly back at him.
There were a few seconds of silence before the principal cleared his throat, clearly disturbed at the student's behavior. "Well, then. Let's take a look at your classes, shall we?"
Danny's classes were pretty much the basics. All his required courses, Art and two periods of study hall. His first period was, of course homeroom, but he had unfortunately (the principal's words, not Danny's) missed it. His next period was math. Fun.
Danny grabbed the sheet, nodded to the principal and barged out o the room. The principal sat there, vaguely wondering if he had welcomed a student, or just been robbed.
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Danny was slumped at his desk, copying down the algebra problems on the board. The people next to him kept on flicking glances over. He heard one of them whisper that they heard he brought a un into school. Danny chuckled.
Luckily the math teacher did no feel the need to torture young children. All Danny got was, "Oh, yes. The fresh meat. Sit down Mr. Fenton."
The teacher, Mr. Swycowski spoke again. "Okay, class. Solve the problems!"
Danny began. He was forced to divide to very large numbers, yet refused to take good notes concerning which numbers were left over. He wouldn't be surprised if he got the whole paper wrong.
"You dropped a three."
Danny yelped and jumped. Sitting on his desk was the girl. The shower girl. At his new school. He gazed at her, horrified as she pointed to his work. "You see, here. You had three left over, but you forgot about it and went on to divide eighty by two." She spoke slowly, as if talking to a kindergartener.
Mr. Swycowski didn't look too worried, but he inquired anyway. "Are you all right, Mr. Fenton?"
One of the kids next to Danny sniggered at his expression.
"There's a-…" He began, and then stopped. They couldn't see her. Nobody was reacting to her, slouching across his desk. They were only reacting to his own facial expressions as he saw her. "Never mind." He muttered and bent over his work once again.
He waited until everyone else went back to their work, before talking to her. "What are you doing here?" He hissed under his breath. Nobody was listening anymore.
The girl shrugged and tapped her fingers on his desk. "I was bored. And I decided to take a walk to my alma mater, and here you are." She looked like a cat, guiltily pleased, yet smug.
"What, are you stalking me?" Danny asked. His face was growing red. "Why am I the only one here who can hear you? Why can't anyone else see you?"
The girl shrugged. "Beats me, NASA boy." Sam stood up and began to stroll between the desks. "Don't worry! Most of these people are making the same mistakes." She threw her arms up into the air in exasperation. "What is the school system coming to!" She shook her head in dismay. "Oh, right! Your question!" She exclaimed walking back over to Danny. She clearly ignored the first question. "I hang out here to play pranks on people."
She demonstrated by sticking her arm through the blonde girl's head and wiggling her fingers on the other side. The girl slapped her ear, and looked around fearfully for the mosquito. Sam covered her giggles. Danny suppressed the smile that tried to come across his face.
Danny glared. "That's not nice." He stated. The excuse sounded weak even to him. He barreled on. "And my name's Danny, not NASA boy."
The girl rolled her eyes. "Yeah. And my name's Sam, not shower girl."
Danny looked confused and said outright, "When have I called you that?" The few people around him stirred, and then turned back to their respective work.
Sam rolled her eyes. "I can read people's thoughts randomly." She said. "It's a curse." She sighed and looked melodramatic.
Danny glared. "Whatever. Could you kindly leave me alone? I have to do work."
She shrugged. "Whatever." She mimicked him. She stood up and walked through three people and a wall. Those people shivered.
A boy with red hair, one of Sam's not-quite-obstacles raised his hand. "Mr. Swycowski, could we close the window? It's letting the cold in."