Turns out that Elle was right about 'the' part of speech and Dash decided that we were the reason he failed that assignment and beat us up and shoved us in a locker. Elle and I weren't let out until the end of the day when the janitor found us. Since the jerk got the idea to shove something in the holes you fit the lock through we couldn't just phase out of it without raising some questions. Home wasn't much better with Jazz being completely into this new singer, Ember McLain and all but ignoring us, and Jack livid that we were late coming home. A fist connected with my gut and I doubled over in pain and on the ground in seconds. Elle gave me a sad glance but made no move to help me. It would only make it worse if she did. Jack punched her on the right side of her face. By now I was beginning to stand up and was getting punched and slapped again. He glared at us before he broke Elle's ankle by crushing it beneath the heavy lab boots. He then walked up the stairs and went into his room. I carried Elle up to our room and got Jazz. Lately the only time our sister paid attention was when she had to tend to our wounds. Jazz wrapped Elle's ankle the same way she wrapped my wrist; which wasn't healing that fast because of the damn ghosts always showing up, though thankfully healed enough that it was usable again. Jack doesn't seem to care if we have the phones since he thinks that Jazz got them for us. We still owe her a thank you for covering for us.

Tucker finally figured out what was up with Skulker and now he's back in the Ghost Zone. We haven't seen him a day or two. Apparently his two PDAs were synched together and when Skulker had wired it into his suit he became bound to the schedule Tucker created.
"I AM THE BOX GHOST! I HAVE POWER OVER ALL THING CARDBOARD AND SQUARE! TASTE MY CORRUGATED CARDBOARD VENGEANCE!" Dani and I looked at each other and then she clocked him right in the face. He went flying through a wall and we ended up in a warehouse. "PREPARE TO BE CRUSHED BY THE FORGOTTEN POSSESSIONS OF-" He turned to the right and read the label on the box, "ELLIOT KLAVITZ FROM ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, ILLIOS!" The boxes gained a glowing green aura and flew right at us. We turned intangible and let the boxes pass through us.
"Can we get this over with?" Elle's voice was bored and annoyed.
"We have a test to study for." I finished off the sentence and crossed my arms. Sam and Tucker rushed into the warehouse and sucked him into the thermos. "Ok Dani when was the telephone invented?"
"Ummm… 1745?"
"No."
"1475?" I answered on my turn.
"No." Tucker glared at the both of us.
"1903?"
"1764?"
"1845?" Sam shot a look of pity in our direction.
"No, no and no."
"1760?"
"No. Just stop guessing. It was invented in 1876 by…" Sam let the sentence hang for us to fill in the blank.
I thought for a second. "Benjamin Franklin from Germany, right?"
"I thought he was from Berlin…"
"You're both wrong. First of all, Danny, Benjamin Franklin invented electricity. Second, Dani, Berlin is in Germany, and he was from Scotland. I don't know how you two made it to high school." I mentally chuckled at that. If only Tucker and Sam knew. I can't believe they actually fall for this. I know. I mean if they knew we had to hack the school mainframe to change our grade so that we barely pass they'd freak. Which reminds me did you change our grades back down to D's? I thought it was your month… Oh shit. Our report cards were mailed yesterday! Well this is just perfect. Oh yeah. Fucking perfect. We changed back to our human forms and walked out of the warehouse and to where the blazing neon sign read 'FentonWorks'. The house was eerily quiet when we walked in.
"You're late." Jack dragged us down to the lab and chained us to the far wall. I couldn't turn my head to see him. I heard him walk around, the banging and clanging of metal told us that he made something while we were gone. He came back into view holding, what looked like, a branding pole. The tip was in the shape of an old calligraphic D. I swallowed as the temperature in the room rose while the fireplace in the corner raged with an intensity that raged. The doorbell rang and we stared at the ground as Jack walked back up the stairs. It was probably the mail because for some reason the mail in Amity Park was delivered at 8 at night instead of the morning. "You're free." He undid the chains without another word and left us in the lab. We walked upstairs to our bedroom and then shifted to our ghost forms for patrol.

The next day was more annoying than eventful. "What is up with the Box Ghost today?"
"Well he's attacked seven times and we've sent him back to the Ghost Zone seven times. I think he's got the message."
"BEWARE FOR I AM THE BOX GHOST BEHOLD THE LUNCHBOX OF FEAR!" Random foods started spilling out and then a thermos.
"Bringing your own thermos to our battles now? You know it would save us both a lot of time if you showed up already in it." The Box Ghost just glared at me while Elle sucked him up.
"You know this kook is starting to get on my nerves." Tucker raised an eyebrow.
"Starting?"
"Shut up Tucker…" We continued on our way to school. In the halls Dash decided to 'wail on us.' What we ever did to make him hate us I'll never know. Oh, Ember, you will remember! Ember, one thing remains! Oh, Ember, so warm and tender! You will remember my name! The song blared from Tucker's cell phone. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out and ignored whatever set it off. When the four of us walked into the school Sam, Elle and I stopped dead in our tracks. Ember was everywhere. Her poster lined the halls and her face was on everyone's shirt. The three of us shook our heads and continued on the day like normal. As night fell my phone chimed with a message from Sam.

DarkAngell: Ok am I the only one who finds this whole Ember thing overrated?

Twinsanity: Nope

MadnessDoubled: I'm with you Sam. We gotta go though.

Twinsanity: See you tomorrow

With that Jack burst through the door. Without even caring who heard our screams he tied us down and had his way with us for hours on end. The sun was beginning to rise by the time he left.

I walked into school the next day with Elle and one look at Tucker and I almost fainted. He had on a bright blue wig with flame-like designs. He also had on heavy black eyeliner with a purple E on his shirt. "Tucker you're starting to scare me, and I fight ghosts on a daily basis."
"It's an Ember thing. You wouldn't understand." We decided not to ask or even acknowledge its existence. The school board decided that our school wasn't smart enough so these machines were brought in that pretty much programmed your brain.
"So what did your report cards look like?" I shrugged.
"Could be better."
"Could be worse." Elle piped up behind me. Sam sat just in front of Elle and I. As soon as Lancer hit the switch Ember's voice blared through the helmets. Elle and I couldn't get them off fast enough and I don't think Sam even put hers on. Things were pretty good for the rest of class. You know, until Ember's tour bus showed up outside the school. Sam and I held Tucker back and Elle was pushing him backwards.
"Must. Have. Ember. Ticks!"
"We're going to have to reprogram him." Not much later did Sam come back with a rope and we dragged him down the hall and ended up tying Tucker down in front of one of the brain-thingies. Sam followed Dani and I outside to where the rest of the school was cheering for Ember.
"Tell me who you love!"
"Ember! Ember! Ember! Ember! Ember!" The whole school was chanting her name. A chill ran through me as my ghost sense went off. I whipped my head around looking for the ghost. When I couldn't find the ghost Sam looked very annoyed. My ghost sense once again told me a ghost was near. Then it dawned on me; Ember was the ghost. I looked at her band to see they all had green skin and Ember herself had a slight aura to her. Sam's said before that we don't have any glow or aura to her and Tucker, so it must be something only other ghosts can see. "Great…" I muttered and shifted into my ghost form. I signaled Elle to stay human and raced toward her. Lancer pushed his way to the front of the crowd and then held up a megaphone to his mouth.
"I order you to cease and desist!"
"Desist this grandpa!" Ember strummed her guitar and blue sound waves sent Lancer flying into the air. As much as I wanted to let Lancer hit the ground I had to save him. I grabbed his hand and set him down before he realized what had just happened. Ember then announced her concert at midnight and then threw tickets into the crowd. Yeah that'll go well… I flew back to where Sam and Elle were and then transformed back. Lancer just walked up to us.
"Just because the rest of the school isn't here won't stop me from giving you an education." He grabbed Elle and Sam's wrist, who both grabbed onto me. Sam looked at me and smiled. Turning Sam, Elle and I intangible and we silently slipped out of the school. Elle and I transformed and each grabbed one of Sam's hands. Just before we took to the skied Lancer's voice echoed through the school "Lord of the Rings! They're slipping right through my hands!" I laughed and muttered to Elle and Sam; saying he didn't know how literal that was. The three of us took to the skies flying toward the building that had a, rather large, cardboard cut-out of Ember. Underneath it read 'Bucky's Music Mega Store.` I looked down and saw the crowd flooding into the large, circular building. "Are you ok Sam?"
"Huh what? Oh yeah. Fine. Flying's nice." Elle and I looked at each other and Sam was looking at the ground so none of us saw when the Ember cut-out was right in front of us. We slammed into the cardboard Ember and fell on top of the roof. "Falling stinks." Grabbing Sam by the arms again we phased into the building to see a crowd probably as big as Amity itself. "I don't think they'll love seeing their idol sucked into the Fenton thermos."
"I don't think so either Sam."
"We need a distraction." Elle looked at Sam and she sighed.
"Yeah, fine. I've got a plan." We dropped her off on the cut-out that was on the right side of the stage. A large red marker appeared from thin air; well at least I didn't see where she kept it, and she went to work defacing the teen idol's face. A loud squeaking sound was heard and everyone turned toward Sam and the now defaced Ember. "Hey look, it's Ember McLAME!"
"Oh great, a critic. Maybe you'll like my new song better!" She started to strum her guitar but was stopped by Dani who shot two blasts of ecto-plasmic rays at her.
"Do you take requests?" My sister asked in a fake sweet voice.
"How about 'beat it?'" Ember looked pissed.
"How about I lay down a few power cords instead, Dipsticks!" With a strum of her guitar a green ray of skulls shot at us, knocking us a few feet back when it hit. She then laughed like one of those cartoon villains and teleported away in a swirl of blue fire. I scanned the room before I was pulled upwards by my sister. We flew through the roof and found Ember standing there, waiting for us. The fight was short lived because I figured out half way through the battle that the crowd's chanting of her name only made her stronger. Elle and I were almost put under a love spell. Elle wasn't affected because there wasn't anyone around she would fall in love with, and the same went for me. Don't get me wrong, I loved Sam but in the same way I love Danielle. The spell didn't have any effect on us which made Ember seriously mad. She shot a blast of music at us and caused the cut-out of her to fall off the building, and completely drain our ghost forms for the moment. Sirens wailed from the ground below and armored cars came from all directions. Lancer was blaring on about a grounding thing the hall passed for the night, and our parents. We were thrown into one of the many cars and then driven to our home. Upon arriving at the large brick building we were, literally, thrown through the door by the cops. Jack just glared at Jazz and sent her to her room. Not a word about punishment of anything. If looks could kill we'd be even more dead than we already were. He raised his arm and pointed toward the kitchen, or more specifically the lab. Dani looked at me and we started down to the lab; knowing that he would use that branding pole from earlier. We were chained in the same spot as before. The anticipation and suspense as the pole was heated up made the air thick enough it felt as though you could physically cut it. The pole was ready sooner than we hoped, though to be fair we hoped it was never ready, and it was placed on Danielle's left shoulder. The pain seared through her as it did with mine. I felt the pain subside slightly as the pole was removed. In minutes I would have the same thing happen. I wanted to phase through the handcuffs and comfort her. I felt helpless. All I could do was sit there and watch her cry. Without warning the pole was being thrust against my skin in the same general place Dani had the pole placed. I smelled burning skin as the hot metal burned through my shoulder. Time passed slowly every second that passed with the metal searing my skin felt like hours. As the pain died down the hissing of cooling metal sounded in the room as Jack left us in the lab. I winced at the pain moving my shoulder brought. I looked at the ghost portal as it lit up slightly to see a woman that looked like a gypsy float out.
"Hello children. What do you wish for? I will grant you each one wish." I turned my head away from her as much as I could. I dared to glance up when she just stared at us. With sad eyes she turned and went back into the ghost zone leaving us alone again.

Jazz came down into the lab almost a half an hour later and finally untied us when she realized we weren't in our room. By then we were so tired we just floated up to our room and wished for sleep to take us; it never did, not like I expected life to throw us a bone now. Twin sets of rings appeared around our waists and travelled along our body turning our street clothes into a black HAZMAT suit and our scythe necklaces had taken on an icy fire look to them. The scythes glowed a toxic green and then disappeared off the chain. I held out my hand to Dani when an ice like substance started forming. I pulled my hand back in shock and then flew off to the midnight concert that Jazz no doubt snuck out to see.

We phased into Sam's room where she was studying for the test tomorrow. "We need your help, Sam. Ember's concert is going live in 5 hours and we've gotta stop her." Sam turned around and looked at me. "Have you thought about asking Tucker?" It took all of 3 seconds for it to sink in. "TUCKER!" I grabbed Sam and we flew to the school as fast as we could. I walked into Lancer's classroom with the girls following close behind. "12. Hours. Of. Intensive Standardized Test Prep." I felt really bad about leaving him there for 12 hours straight and apparently so did Sam as she kept apologizing and Dani looked like she was about to cry. Tucker ushered the three of us out and we went off to the concert.
"Ember! Ember! Ember! Ember! Ember!" The chanting got louder the closer we got to the music store. We snuck backstage through the entrance outside where the guard was sleeping soundly with a box of donuts under his chair. I shook my head and then we went intangible through the door.
"Ok Tucker just cut the power and we'll do the rest." He stated flicking switches and then rattled off some formula from the Intense Prep and then Ember along with Dash, Kwan and two other football players. With a snap of her fingers all four of them had the four of us captured.
"Later Dipsticks. I gotta go rock my world. And when I say my world, I mean MY WORLD!" The rockstar walked out to the center of the stage. "HELLO AMITY PARK! TELL ME WHO YOU LOVE!" The crowd responded on cue.
"Ember McLain! Ember McLain! Ember McLain!" Ember's hair flared up even more at their chanting. I was mad because I couldn't phase and I couldn't fight back. My eyes stung like I had them open too long and the ice-blue color was replaced by a neon green. I blinked away the color and then out of the corner of my eye I saw Dani kiss Kwan.
"Ah! She tasted like geek!"
"EW! He tasted like failure!" All the football players ran like a monster was chasing them. My eyes flashed green again and I switched to my ghost form. I tackled Ember and she went flying. "Mind if I jam with the band?"
"Sorry. I don't do duets!" Her guitar was strummed and a fist came flying at me. I was hit back and then Elle hit her from behind. She picked up the microphone as Ember was about to sing. "No vocals in this song." Ember swung her guitar at her but was blocked by the pole. I went to attack but Ember flew out of the way and she trapped us both in a magenta vortex and laughed.
"You can't beat me. Not with the whole world chanting my name!" I think she can control when her hair flares up because it flared just as she finished her sentence.
"We need some way to break the spell, but how?" Danielle turned me around just as I finished my question and I saw Tucker. I snapped my fingers as I got what she was trying to say.
"Tucker! Sing!" Sam looked at me like I was crazy but I gave her a look telling her I had a plan. Tucker looked at me.
"I thought you said my singing sucked…"
"He was just kidding, Tucker. You rock!" I shot Tucker a thumbs-up to emphasize Dani's point.
"Your right. I do rock!" Tucker started singing loudly and the whole audience got quiet. The vortex disappeared and things were being thrown at Tucker.
"Ok you can stop now." Sam dragged him off stage and Ember looked at the audience.
"Tell me who you love! Tell me who you love!" She fell to her knees and then on her side when she got no response from anyone. "Say my name… Say my name…" She started mumbling like a crazy person and I sucked her into the Fenton Thermos. The crowd was pretty much gone by the time Ember was inside.

Lancer was livid. He was complaining about everyone's test scores on the IST and then excused Tucker from the session of the prep thing. Danielle and I were called up to the office and we knew it was because we had hacked into the system and changed our grades to their normal D's. All in all it wrapped up nicely for once, as nice as it could anyway. When we got home from school we saw what appeared to be a moving van on its way to the upper side of town.