The next morning, Harry and Jaime woke up at a more reasonable hour; both of them came down for breakfast at around 9:30. Once again, their mother was already awake so she made them breakfast again.
"Do you trust Vlad?" Jaime asked her.
"To be honest? No. Not after everything he's done. But Danny does and we've learned to just respect our differences on the subject," Sam replied.
"I don't believe that he's good," Harry asserted, his eyes narrowed.
"I'm not sure," Jamie reasoned. "Despite everything Dad said, I've still never met the guy, so I'm not going to make any character judgments just yet."
"Hopefully you'll never have to meet him. If you ever do run into him, it's probably going to be one of his plots to get you to join him or something. Just remember to be careful around him," Sam warned.
"Hopefully we'll never need to worry about it. Come on, sis, let's go to the mall." Both of them kissed their mom goodbye, hopped onto their electric scooters, and headed over to Amity Park Mall.
They were drinking milkshakes in the food court when part of the A-list drifted by them. In other words, all of the jocks, cheerleaders, and other preps were grouped together in a massive group of impenetrable popularity. Jaime noticed that her brother had forgotten his milkshake and was staring dazedly at one of the leaders of the group.
"Katrina…" he mumbled, his gaze fixed on the Latino girl.
"You can't be serious," Jaime chided.
"Why not?" Harry asked, coming out of his daze.
"Katrina Baxter? Oh, I don't know, maybe because she's out of your league!"
"What? That's ridiculous."
"Right" she replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "And even if she did want to go out with you, there's her twin brother Josh you need to watch out for." They both fixed calculating gazes on the brother in question, a broad, black-haired boy with medium-to-light skin coloration. He was wearing one of Casper High's signature leather jackets and was joking around with his fellow jocks.
"I really can't see how they're related, much less twins," Jaime commented.
"They're fraternal, genius."
"I know that. It's just…he looks so much fairer than she does."
"Have you ever seen their parents?"
"No, why, have you?"
"Yeah, they chaperoned our dance back in eighth grade. He's really Caucasian, blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, the works. She's Hispanic, and almost looks like an older version of Katrina."
"I wonder if Mom and Dad knew them when they were in high school." He shrugged.
"We can always ask tonight."
"Nah, I don't want to make them have to go through another explanation of their childhood for us. We can always just look at their yearbooks."
"True." Just then, Katrina walked up to the table where the Fenton siblings were relaxing. The rest of the A-list was nowhere in sight.
"Yoo-hoo, Harry!" she cooed. Harry sat there, dazed.
"M-me?" He finally stammered. Katrina giggled.
"Yes, you, silly. I was just wondering if you could do me a really huge favor and…"
"And what?" He asked eagerly.
"I was wondering if you would go…" please say 'go out with me' please say 'go out with me' please say go out with me' he pleaded with the fates. However, instead of a date, he got a really cold sensation creeping down his back. Harry slowly reached back and yanked his hand away when he felt a chilly semisolid. He looked at his fingertips and realized that they were covered in chocolate ice cream. He turned around angrily to see Josh, who had clearly just shoved his ice cream down the smaller boy's shirt. Josh crossed over to the other side of the table to join his sister, who was cackling hysterically.
"If you would go away and stop chasing me, loser!" She smirked and the two of them left, no doubt to relate their story to the rest of their preppy comrades. Harry simmered for a bit, then realized that someone was tapping him on the shoulder.
"What?" He asked, agitated, as he turned around to face his sister.
"Okay, one, don't yell at me since I'm on your side. Two, we should clean this stuff up so that it doesn't stain your clothes permanently and make your skin all sticky. And three, the part of your eyes that are normally blue are glowing green." Harry took a few deep breaths with his eyes closed, and then opened them again.
"Now they're better," she reported.
"I guess that happens whenever we're really angry or something."
"I guess. Hey, that gives me an idea, maybe you can go intangible to get this ice cream off you."
"I don't know…it's a lot easier to do in ghost mode, and I can't exactly transform with so many people around."
"Just try it. See what happens."
"Fine." He concentrated for a second and made himself intangible, so that the ice cream fell through him and landed on the floor. "Hey, I did it!" He said excitedly.
"Yeah, great, now try and stop it before you sink into the ground again." He looked down and, sure enough, he was submerged halfway up to his knees. He jumped up and regained tangibility so that he landed with his feet on solid ground. His face contorted into a mischievous smirk.
"Maybe I can use these powers to get back at Josh."
"Nah…we've had our powers for what, three days? There's no way we're strong enough to actually pull offa good prank yet. Besides, you really shouldn't be abusing them like that."
"Yeah, I guess you're right…"
"You know I'm right," she asserted. "Do you want to get some more ice cream?"
"Nah, I think I've had my fill of cold stuff for today. Anything you need while we're here?"
"Yeah, I should get a pair of headphones at the music store; mine are getting kind of worn out and they're due for a replacement."
"C'mon." The siblings threw away their milkshake containers and walked over to the music store, where Jaime picked out a set of blue headphones. They went to the cashier, who rang up the purchase. Jaime opened her pocketbook and pulled out a few bills.
"What? I don't believe it! I'm just a dollar short!"
"It's alright, I'll cover you this time," Harry began as he reached for his wallet.
"That won't be necessary," a third voice said. The Fenton kids turned around and saw a third teen who looked to be a bit younger than Harry, but a little older than Jaime. His jeans were slightly frayed around the knees, and he was wearing a black AC/DC shirt. He had messy brown hair and dark green eyes. He pulled out five dollars and bought the headphones, and then handed them to Jaime.
"Thanks," she said, a slight blush tingeing her cheeks.
"No problem. What did you say your name was?"
"She didn't." Harry said flatly. Jaime elbowed him in the arm.
"I'm Jaime Fenton. And you?"
"Andrew Volta." She giggled nervously.
"I like your shirt. It goes well with your name," she said.
"Thanks." A slight blush appeared on his cheek. "My dad says that AC/DC was huge when he was growing up."
"Yeah, my parents listen to them all the time." Harry began shifting from one foot to the other impatiently.
"What's wrong?" Andrew asked him.
"Nothing, it's just…we were kind of in a hurry and we're going to be late…"
"Oh, then I don't want to keep you. See you around, I hope. Bye, Jaime…"
"Bye, Andrew…" The boy walked away.
"What is your problem?" She angrily asked her older brother.
"What are you talking about?"
"You scared him off! How could you do something like that?"
"Jaime, we don't even know who he is."
"I do! He's in the grade above me at the middle school. He's really shy, but I think that he's really cute. And you made him leave!"
"Sorry…I just…got into 'overprotective older sibling mode,' I guess."
"You got that right!" she said, and stalked off.
"Jaime, wait!" He followed her back to the parking lot where she was getting onto her scooter. "I didn't know that you felt that way about him."
"Well, maybe you should have found out before getting rid of him!" she shouted and zoomed away in the direction of their house. He sighed, got onto his scooter, and followed her.
Harry arrived home to find his mother adjusting a photograph that was mounted on the wall in a hallway.
"All right, what did you do?" she asked.
"What?"
"Jaime came home two minutes ago. She was crying hysterically, and yelled something about you and a kid named Andrew, then ran up to her room. What happened?"
"Well, we were at the record store and Jaime didn't have enough money to buy the pair of headphones she wanted. This kid Andrew came up and bought them for her, and they started having a conversation. I got a little overprotective of her, and said that we had to go so that Andrew would leave us alone. He walked away and Jaime just snapped at me. She ran away and I followed her here." Sam sighed.
"I know that this is going to be tough for you, but you have to let her get into her own relationships. You can't be so overprotective of her."
"But what if one of the guys does something nasty to her?"
"Then you can beat the crap out of them, either with or without ghost powers. But the chances of that happening are infinitesimal. Jaime's a smart girl. She won't start going out with someone seriously if they're that type of guy. You know that." She fell silent, and Harry smirked a bit.
"What?"
"I was just curious…did Dad get very overprotective of you or Aunt Jazz?"
"You're kidding, right? I think Jazz went through more boyfriends than the captain of the cheerleading squad at our high school, he scared so many away. And while we were at college, he successfully convinced every single frat boy on campus that if they came within fifty feet of me, he'd scorch the only thing making them able to get with a girl in the first place to a crisp."
"Ouch."
"Ouch is right. But he didn't actually do anything; just the threats and a few near-misses were effective enough."
"Okay, now I see where I get it from."
"Hey, don't give him all the credit; I had to beat down my fair share of competitors."
"I thought that you two had started dating in your senior year of high school."
"We did. But Danny was a real hottie back when we were in our early twenties, and a fair-sized chunk of the female student population wanted a piece of him."
"Are you implying that I'm ugly now?" A disembodied voice asked.
"Danny, come out," Sam said, the large grin on her face belying her annoyed tone. He complied and materialized just to her left. He was sitting on the table in human form, but he quickly got up, walked over to her, and kissed her hello. They broke apart and he turned to Harry.
"I had a talk with Jaime. She's feeling a lot better, but I told her that she can't expect you to behave perfectly around her male friends." Father and son wore twin evil grins.
"Danny, you're supposed to tell him to be nicer to her boyfriends." He shrugged.
"It's like my dad always said-teenage boys are like wild animals. If they can get past Harry, then they're sure to be good enough for our Jaime."
"The male Peking order never ceases to astound me," Sam said dryly. "Come on, let's get dinner ready." The two of them headed into the kitchen.
Well, this waslonger than the last one and less explanations. You like?