A/N: Oh, wow. I have to tell you guys that I've been altogether overwhelmed by the response to this story. I wasn't expecting such a positive reaction. Thank you very, very much to everyone who read the first chapter, especially those of you who reviewed. I'd completely forgotten just how giddy reviews can make you. Particular thanks to Shimegami-chan, who I've been throwing my thoughts off of, and who is letting me borrow something for a later point in this story (not this chapter).

To those of you who are wondering what the orb of light was . . . well, remember how I mentioned that there were things in the story that were part of another fan fic idea? Well, the orb is one of them, along with the chain Danny wears (which, incidently, is invisible when he's in ghost form). So for the purposes of this story the orb of light is just a plot device, something to get Lancer where he needed to be.

Sadly I think the first part of this chapter is stronger than the second part. But then, the second part also went places I hadn't been expecting it to. Plot-wise I had intended to take this chapter a little farther, and then I realized that I'd hit a line that would make for an excellent end and that I'd already hit my intended length mark, so I stopped. Hopefully that'll work out okay for everyone.

That's enough from me. Once again, huge thanks to the reviewers, and I hope you enjoy chapter two just as much as you appeared to enjoy chapter one.


Chapter Two: Assignments and Tourism

Why did I take it?

To his credit, Mr. Lancer had waited a whole hour in the hopes that Phantom would come back. Once that hour was up, however, he had gone home out of it, taking the sketchbook with him, reasoning that it was better that he had it than risk someone less ... reputable ... finding it. After all, it wasn't like he never saw Danny Phantom. He could, in theory, try to grab the ghost's attention after one of the many attacks Casper High regularly experienced.

Though he hadn't managed to gain any sleep that night, the teacher was quite proud of himself for managing to ignore the temptation of having the personal sketchbook of the local hero. He hadn't opened it.

Yet.

Given his lack of sleep and the fact that his mind kept wandering back to the black book in his briefcase, it was not surprising that Mr. Lancer was acting strangely. In fact, the only detention he had given out that day was to Dash Baxter for slamming Danny Fenton into lockers. Both students and faculty had inquired as to whether he was well after that.

A prime example of their concern was the look Fenton was currently giving him.

It was last period English and for once Mr. Lancer was in complete agreement with the students wish for the day to be over. After all, it was Friday and that meant the weekend was nearly upon them.

Weekend. Alone. With Phantom's sketchbook. Suddenly Lancer was less eager for the day to be over.

Unfortunately for the stressed educator it was definitely one of those days, as the bell choose that moment to ring. Mr. Lancer sighed, then remembered that he had an assignment due.

"Don't forget to put your creative writing assignments on my desk, people! I won't be accepting them later. No excuses."

Not bothering to see if his students listened or not, Lancer grabbed the chalkboard eraser to begin the process of clearing the day's lesson off the board. How in the world am I going to keep myself distracted from that sketchbook? It was wrong to invade the privacy of anyone in that manner, even that of a ghost. No matter how much he wanted to.

Throughout his train of thought Lancer had been vaguely aware of the students hurrying past him to get to their weekend freedom, so turning around to find one of them still standing there with a sheet of paper in his hands caused the teacher to jump.

"The Importance of Being Earnest! You shouldn't sneak up on people like that."

Daniel Fenton had the grace to look apologetic, "Sorry, Mr. Lancer."

"Never mind, Mr. Fenton. Can I help you with something?"

"Are you okay? Not that I object or anything, but you didn't give me a detention even though I was late for class, which is really weird . . ." Danny trailed off helplessly.

Mr. Lancer gave his student a considering look, a little touched by his obvious concern and slightly amused by his commentary.

"I'm fine, Mr. Fenton. I just didn't get much sleep last night, as I'm sure you can understand. As for not giving you a detention . . . everyone deserves a break once in a while, even habitual troublemakers such as yourself."

The truth of the matter was that when Danny had walked into class five minutes late Lancer had every intention of punishing him. But when he'd gotten a good look at the boy he'd changed his mind. Danny looked like shit, obviously he hadn't slept at all the night before, but just as obviously there was something bothering him.

"Was there anything else?"

Danny shifted slightly, looking uncomfortable. "Um, actually... yes. I wanted to apologize."

Mr. Lancer blinked, "What for?"

"For this," Danny muttered handing over the paper in his hand. Lancer glanced at it, the page contained a hand written poem that was most likely the teen's creative writing assignment.

Danny hurried on with his explanation before his teacher managed to say anything.

"I know you prefer these things to be typed but my computer got blown up in a lab accident last night, so I couldn't type it up. To be honest, it's not even what I wanted to hand in, but the assignment I did originally was on the computer that was destroyed and I lost the only hard copy I had along with my sketchbook. So I wrote this last night, but I know it's really bad and I wanted to say I'm sorry for disappointing you. Again."

Lancer stared at the agitated Fenton for a moment before the short speech filtered through.

"You lost your sketchbook?"

Danny had an upset but surprised expression, like he hadn't expected that to be the part that Lancer zeroed in on, "Yeah. I lost it in the park last night and it had my assignment in it."

The teacher was upset enough on the behalf of his student that he didn't even register the coincidence. "I'm sorry, Mr. Fenton, I know how much your drawing means to you. As for the rest of it, I'm sure the poem is fine and if you find your original assignment feel free to pass it in and I'll mark that instead."

"Really?" The blue-eyed teen had gone from surprise to shock. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Lancer laughed out loud at that one, "Yes, I'm sure. And yes, really. Good luck finding your sketchbook."

Danny blurted out his thanks before heading out the door.


Historically speaking, Amity Park had always had more than its fair share of paranormal activity. It was what had brought the Fenton family there in the first place. However, about a year and half after the ghost attacks became a serious issue, the city council realized that something had to be done. The property damage had been escalating beyond the point where the city could afford to fix it all.

So the Amity Ghost Tourism Group (AGTG, if you were a skeptic before, you won't be when you leave!) was born.

The logic was simple enough, Amity Park needed money to fix the problems caused by ghosts, so why not capitalize on ghosts to deal with it? AGTG was run by the city and profits made from ghost related tourism went first and foremost to dealing with all ghost related damage.

What they hadn't been expecting was just how much money there was to be made.

The mass public apparently found the whole idea quite appealing, even laughing off the wavier they were required to sign upon entering Amity Park as part of the 'ambiance.'

Sections of Amity Park now held the feeling of a ghost related theme park thanks to the activities of the AGTG, and the tourists ate it all up. Most never knew that one out of four 'ghost attacks' were for real and that their oddly dressed guides were actually carrying ghost hunting equipment made by Jack and Maddie Fenton.

It was Saturday, Mr. Lancer was currently occupying his time by taking a look at AGTG's most recent project, the Museum of Amity Spooks (Come see our Danny Phantom exhibit!). For Lancer it was an effort to kill two birds with one stone. One, he was doing something to distract himself from the sketchbook which currently lay on his kitchen table, and two, he was researching Danny Phantom in the hopes of finding something that might help him locate the spook.

While he was having some luck with the former, the latter was turning out to be an exercise in futility.

The Danny Phantom exhibit had provided no useful information, mostly consisting of pictures, a life size doll, accounts of each time the ghost had been spotted and an overview of the on-going debate on whether or not Phantom was a hero. About the only thing Lancer had learned was that Phantom was very rarely seen without another ghost being involved, which, if he'd taken the time to think about it, he should have known in the first place. And while the rest of the museum was interesting it was less than informative for Mr. Lancer's purposes.

I wonder if Jack and Maddie Fenton could help?

The thought was dismissed almost as soon as it was formed, the couple were ghost hunters and certainly would not be willing to track down Phantom in order to return his property to him.

In true tourist-trap fashion you could not exit the museum without going through the gift shop first, which was why Mr. Lancer now found himself staggered by a sea of merchandise.

Phantom paraphernalia was everywhere. Lancer was horrified to see that almost one full wall of the monumentally sized shop looked like the inside of certain female student's locker. Luckily, at some point, someone with an ounce of sanity had stepped in, so there was also a considerable number of books on ghosts and Amity Park itself, as well as plenty of the kinds of items tourists loved to buy and then throw away when they got home.

"Kind of scary, isn't it?" Daniel Fenton's voice drifted over from the teacher's right, "I actually think the gift shop has more stuff than the museum itself."

"If you keep popping up out of nowhere I'm going to start to think you're a ghost," Lancer joked.

Emotion flickered across Danny's face, but before the teacher could identify it the teen was laughing shakily while he rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. So what brings you here? I always thought the only interest you had in ghosts was in how they affected your teaching schedule."

"Very funny, Mr. Fenton." Inspiration hit before Lancer had time to wonder at the boldness Danny showed outside of the classroom, "I was here to see if the Museum would be a good place to go on a class trip."

Actually, that might not be a bad idea. Bring the students here then get them to do a write up on one of the local ghosts. It might actually catch their interest for once.

"What about yourself? I can't image that you're here for educational purposes."

"Waiting for Sam," Danny gestured in the direction of his friend. The self titled ultra recyclo vegetarian was currently standing behind the checkout counter in a purple and black jumpsuit with a name tag that said 'Hi, I'm Sam!' under a smiley face. She looked extremely irritated.

"I wasn't aware Ms. Manson had a job."

Danny shrugged slightly, "It's money that's not coming from her parents. At least Mom specialized her jumpsuit for her. The manager wanted her to wear an extra pink one that they had."

Lancer mentally agreed that a scenario in which Samantha Manson was forced to wear pink probably wouldn't be pretty.

The two wandered through the massive gift shop, chatting aimlessly. Mr. Lancer began to wonder once again why this animated teen had so many problems. He was obviously intelligent, and if he was relaxed the boy was good company. Danny, however, rarely seemed to be relaxed.

Take right now for instance, Mr. Lancer had no idea what had caused the change but Danny had stopped walking, shivering slightly. Since Danny was looking at the wall Lancer couldn't see his face, but the adult was willing to bet that Danny's eyes held the haunted look he'd seen before.

"I have to go," Danny mumbled suddenly. "It was nice talking to you, Mr. Lancer, but I just remembered that I promised Sam that I'd bring something over for her. Bye."

With that the high school student bounded out the door.

Well, that was strange. I knew he disappeared randomly during school, I didn't know he did it during the rest of his life too.

School was understandable, what teenager didn't want to get out of class? Danny skipped more than was normal, but that could be written off.

I suppose it's possible that he really forgot to bring something for Ms. Manson.

But Mr. Lancer doubted it.