Yeah, I know it's been a while, but you'd think that being on spring break for two weeks would give me time to write something like ten chapters, right? Wrong! Trust me, I've been lucky to have had time to eke out this one chapter. Oh yeah, and as an added bonus I fixed up chapters 1-6 so that the dialogue isaligned more coherently. Well, I won't keep you any longer. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!

Ahh, the first day of high school. A fresh start for those cursed with unpopularity throughout middle school. A new chance to make friends and start relationships, a breath of fresh air in a new learning environment…aw, who am I kidding? High school sucks, especially for someone as unpopular as Harry Fenton. He hadn't been in school for more than five minutes when Josh Baxter shoved him into a locker. He didn't even know whose locker it was, as they hadn't had orientation yet and hadn't been assigned lockers. It would have been easier had his sister been there so that they could support each other, but she was in seventh grade so she still went to the local middle school. Thank god for friends, anyway.

Harry had two of the best friends anyone could ask for. Zach was the tallest member of the group, standing at five feet, six inches. He had brown hair and blue eyes, and usually wore a gray T-shirt and jeans. He also was inseparable from his signature navy-blue Michigan baseball cap. Taylor was just a bit shorter than Zach at 5'5". She had black, shoulder-length hair that she always wore down and green eyes. She was wearing jeans, a white shirt underneath a plaid, long-sleeved shirt that was rolled up at the sleeves, black converse shoes, and a black baseball cap jammed backwards over her hair. At the moment, she was frantically trying to test different combinations on the locker while Zach was reassuring Harry that they'd find someone to get him out…eventually.

"Don't worry about it guys, I've got everything under control," Harry's voice reached them from the interior of the locker. "Is anybody else watching us?"

"As if anyone would pay attention to a couple of nobodies," Zach replied sarcastically.

"Good," Harry rejoined and phased out of the locker. He rematerialized standing in-between his two friends.

"I forgot you could do that," Zach thought out loud. "It's gonna be weird getting used to you having these powers," he mused.

"Not as weird as actually having to get used to them, believe me."

"So your dad had them when he was in high school also?" Taylor inquired.

"Yeah, he got his just before freshman year."

"Did he ever use the phantom advantage for some ghostly get-back?" Zach asked, a mischievous grin appearing on his face.

"Oh yeah. Which reminds me," Harry replied with a mirror image of Zach's grin. He went intangible, flew into Josh, and made the jock run headlong into a couple of lockers. He then left the boy to deal with his sudden, inexplicable migraine. He rematerialized and gave Zach a high-five.

"You know, you really shouldn't be abusing your powers like that," Taylor chastised. Harry sighed and the three friends headed into orientation.

"I guess you're right. I mean, my dad did say that he only got ghostly revenge on people for really serious stuff.

"And by serious stuff you mean…?"

"The school bully making a move on my mom,"

"Ah,"

"Bull," Zach asserted. "I'm sure your dad was all mature," he made quotation marks in the air, "when he got older, but knowing him I'd say that when he was fourteen he was one of the most prolific and proficient pranksters around."

"Whoa…prolific? Proficient? You're giving me a headache with these huge words," Harry whined as he held his head in his hands.

"Relax, Harry. It's not his fault he can be a bit of a geek sometimes," said Taylor.

"I'm not a techno-geek!" Zach shouted.

"I never said anything about technology," Taylor argued.

"Yeah, but every geek has some sort of hi-tech stuff on them. I don't, therefore I'm not a geek."

"You're not a techno-geek, but you're still a geek. Face it."

"As soon as you face the fact that you're a Goth."

"I am so not Goth. Do you see black anywhere on this outfit?"

"Besides the cap and shoes, you mean?" Taylor blushed.

"So I have a bit of a negative outlook on life. That doesn't make me Goth," she countered.

"Mr. Fenton!" The principal's voice rang out from the stage. Mr. Lancer strode over to the three friends. He was considerably more rotund than he had been in Danny's day, as well as more wrinkly. In addition to this, his pointy beard was no longer black; it was white splotched with shades of gray.

"If you can't keep your friends quiet, I'm going to have to separate the three of you," he warned. Then, more to himself than anyone else he muttered, "I could swear that I had the exact same problem with your father," He strode to the podium again.

"It appears that several of the products of my former students are joining the ranks of Casper High this year. We have the children of Dash Baxter and Paulina Sanchez," Josh and Katrina stood up and bowed their heads in clearly faked modesty. "As well as Kwan Cho and Star Astra," a boy that looked to be of Asian descent but with very fair skin also stood. His letter-jacket indicated that he was also on the football team and as such was one of Josh's cronies. "And, last but not least, Danny Fenton and Sam Manson," Harry stood up and the other three shot him nasty glares.

"Now," Mr. Lancer continued. "Although it appears as though most of you resemble your parents more than you may realize, don't even begin to think that you'll be afforded any special treatment because of their merits or shortcomings. You all come to me objectively; you are equal to each other and the other freshman in every way. The only thing being the offspring of former pupils gives me is the opportunity to avoid some of the shortcomings that your parents had here, such as Mr. Baxter's D average or Mr. Fenton's frequent unexplained absences and disappearances during ghost drills." Harry, Zach, and Taylor all shot ominous looks at each other. "Of course, hopefully there won't be as many ghost attacks as there were back in your parents days, and we have Inviso-Bill to protect us, but even so…" his voice trailed off dramatically leaving most of the occupants of the room feeling slightly nervous, except for one student for whom any feelings of fear were replaced by rage.

"He's not Inviso-Bill! How many times does he have to tell this town that his name is Danny Phantom!" Harry shouted. An awkward silence followed.

"Since this is your first day I'll excuse you, Mr. Fenton, but if you ever let your emotions get the better of you I'll be seeing you in my office pronto. Kapische?" Lancer finally said in a cold voice.

"Kapische," Harry replied softly and sank back down into his seat.

"Now, if nobody else feels like interrupting, form an orderly line and come up here so I can give you your class schedules and locker combinations." Everyone stood up and shuffled towards the stage.

"Whoa, man, that was harsh of him," Zach muttered to his friends.

"It's okay, I can deal. Besides, I shouldn't have shouted like that. If I can't control myself then I might totally expose my dad, sister, and I," Harry replied.

"Stop beating yourself up over it," Taylor reassured him. "Yeah, you probably shouldn't have shouted at Lancer on your first day, but at the same time you have every right to defend your dad." They approached the stage and got the necessary items from Mr. Lancer. Thankfully, their lockers weren't too far apart from each other and the three of them had most of their classes together. The throng of students moved towards the doors to the auditorium when suddenly Harry breathed out a wisp of green smoke.

"What was that?" Taylor inquired.

"Dad calls is a ghost sense," Harry whispered back. "It means that there's a ghost around and I have to take care of it. But I'll need a private place to transform."

"Why can't your dad take care of it?"

"He says that one of the best ways for us to train is by fighting ghosts just like he did at our age. Besides, he says that school is nowhere near as important to miss as work."

"I'll take his word for it," Zach muttered as Skulker phased downward into the crowded auditorium. Everyone screamed and swarmed out of the room. Mr. Lancer pulled the fire alarm and followed them. Once everyone except the trio was gone, Harry transformed in a flash of green light and flew up to meet his opponent.

"Well, well, well," the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter mocked the hybrid. "If it isn't the spawn of my old prey, Phantom. If my employer didn't have an important use for you then I'd be hunting you like the animal you are right now, but fortunately for you I'll have to content myself with this!" A Fenton Thermos popped out of his right arm and sucked Harry inside. At this point Skulker noticed his two friends standing there in shock. He flew down to them.

"Boo."

They both screamed and ran outside, right into Mr. Lancer.

"What's the matter with the two of you? And where's Mr. Fenton?" Zach and Taylor shot glances at each other.

"He…was kidnapped by that ghost!" Zach finally replied.

"What! We need to get him back! I'll go inform our town's leading expert on ghosts. I'm sure that, given the circumstances, we'll be able to get him away from his job to work on this." He turned his back on them and headed over to the emergency phone.

"Wait! Who'se the town's leading expert on ghosts?" Taylor shouted to him. Lancer looked back towards her with a smirk on his face.

"Why, Mr. Fenton, of course."