Ectoplasmic Secrets

Summer's Nearing End

Summary: There's just two weeks left until their first day of high school.

Just two weeks. That was all that remained before summer break would be over and freshman year of high school would begin.

Tucker scowled at the envelope he held in his hands. It was as if it only existed to remind him of how fast the summer had gone. At least it was a good one, he thought to himself. He and his two best friends had gotten to spend a lot of time together and were now closer than they'd ever been before. They'd done a lot, from swimming to camping to just hanging out in general. It was a summer worth remembering.

Sam had accidentally revealed that she was hella loaded one time when Tucker and Danny had swung by her house to pick her up before they went down to the Nasty Burger. Apparently she hadn't been thinking when she told them her address and didn't realize what she'd done until it was too late. But no matter, it didn't change a thing about the close bond the three of them shared.

Tucker snapped back into the real world, got into his mom's car, and put the envelope on the dashboard as he pulled on his seatbelt. Angela pulled the car out of the parking space she'd been waiting in and turned onto the main road, away from Casper High School. "So, what classes did you get this year?" she asked her son as they came to a stop at the streetlight.

Tucker inwardly sighed and took the envelope back into his hands. The front was plain except for the generic sticker with his full name and grade printed on it.

Tucker Maurice Foley

Grade: 9

He turned it over and opened the seal before pulling out the papers inside, the majority of which were boring registration papers, fees and whatnot. The paper on top was the only one that held any real interest to Tucker at the moment as he took it and read over it. "I got the basic stuff, English 1, chem, algebra 1 and geometry. Dunno know which ones will be first semester."

Angela raised an eyebrow, "So that there isn't your real schedule yet?" Tucker shook his head, "No, we get that on the first day. This just says what classes we'll have in no specific order." Angela nodded in understanding before asking, "What electives did you get this year? Hopefully you at least got into computer programming. I know how much you were looking forward to that class."

Tucker grinned, "Matter of fact, I did. I got computer programming, media tech, PE, and marketing for electives this year." Angela smiled a bit, "Four out of eight of your classes are electives? Seems you've got it made!"

"Yeah, this year. Next year's gonna be harder since I'll have to do my world language credit then." Tucker sighed. "Well, that's good. Gives you this year to get used to high school before it gets too difficult."

"Yeah, guess so."

Tucker pulled out his phone and snapped a quick picture of his class list to send to the group chat. He looked out the car window for some time on their drive home. In the distance Tucker caught sight of something green flash through the sky. Angela had apparently seen it too as she bent down a little to watch ahead with slightly wider eyes. "Tuck, honey, do you mind putting the radio on?" He nodded and pressed the button before going straight to 44.9, the EER, or Ecto Emergency Radio.

"-and we've just received word of a new attack near 34th and Maple. Yes, that's 34th Street and Maple. We highly recommend you avoid the area if possible. The threat seems to be low rank; however, you can never be too cautious with these things. From news channels in the area we are able to tell…" Angela turned the volume down a bit, having heard what she needed to. "Well, looks like we're gonna have to take a little detour."

Tucker sighed and leaned back in his seat, "Man, I was supposed to be meeting the others in five minutes!" Angela just shrugged and shook her head, "Ghosts. What're you gonna do?"

"Yeah, if only we lived in some other normal town that doesn't get attacked by the supernatural everyday." he said bitterly. "Well, you know your Pa and I chose to come here for the career opportunities and quite frankly it's been working out well for us. We're able to provide for the family and that's what matters." Angela said. "I think you mean Dad came here for the career. You could probably get a job at any hospital in Illinois." Tucker reminded her. Angela quirked a small smile, "Yeah, maybe so. But Amity ain't so bad once you get used to it. Even got some of the lowest crime rates in the country."

Tucker had to agree there. He wondered briefly if it was perhaps because people worried more about the supernatural attacks than anything some humans might try. Or maybe it's because there seems to be government agents around every corner these days, he thought.

The drive back home ended up taking at least fifteen minutes longer than it should've with the detour they had to take to avoid the attack. They'd listened to the news report on the way to hear that thankfully no got hurt at this particular occurrence and that the GIW agents on the scene were able to detain the threat.

By the time Tucker made it to the park near his house to meet up with his friends, he was about a half hour late. "Well, well, look who decided to finally show up." Sam said from the park bench where she was sitting with Danny and a big black and purple bag with some towels in it. "Shut up. We had to take a detour because of an attack." Tucker said, carrying his own towel under one of his arms. "Another one? In broad daylight?" Danny asked. "Yeah, but I don't think it was a major one or anything. Apparently the GIW handled it pretty quick." Tucker said, but immediately found himself regretting saying the last part.

"Oh, well that's just fantastic, isn't it?" Sam growled, "Because killing, torturing, and experimenting on every ghost they can find, innocent or not, will definitely make them stop terrorizing the town." She clenched her fists, "I still don't get it. Why do both of you guy's parents even keep working for those monsters?!"

Tucker raised his hands up in surrender, "Hey, my dad's only a technician in one of their office buildings. He doesn't have anything to do with whatever missions and experiments they do. Plus government salaries are pretty fine." Sam just continued to scowl.

"My parents just hate anything with ectoplasm."

Sam turned her glare onto Danny. "What? It's not like I'm actually on their side. Neither is Jazz."

A bit of her anger fled her, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I can't blame you guys." Tucker chose then to flip the direction of the conversation, "So, we're still going to the water park, right?"

A couple of hours later the trio found themselves taking a break under an umbrella on the grass. The late afternoon sun in August had worn them all out after some time of going on various water slides or sitting in the wave pool. "Y'know, I still think Maximum Velocity is the best slide here." Tucker said. Danny smirked, "What? No way dude, Mammoth Falls is definitely a way bigger drop."

Tucker pointed to his best friend, "Yeah. Drop. As in singular. Maximum Velocity has like seven drops and goes way faster!" Sam raised an eyebrow at the two, "Think what you like, but I still say the clear winner here is Tornado."

"Because it's in the dark?"

"Because it's in the dark."

Danny suddenly remembered something, "Hey Tuck, what classes did you get this year?" Tucker adjusted his red beret, which had gotten soaked on the last slide they went on, "You didn't check the group chat?" Danny shook his head, "Nope. Left my phone at home."

Tucker pulled his own phone out, of course he had a totally waterproof case on it, and opened the picture he'd sent, zooming in to read it again. "I think all three of us have the same core classes this year, English 1, chemistry, algebra 1 and geometry?" Upon receiving two nods he went on to recite his electives.

"Nope. Well, I've got PE, but we'd only see each other if we have it at the same time and still only on days we happen to do coed." Sam sighed. "I've got PE and media tech. Dunno if we'll get in the same classes though." Danny said.

Tucker closed his phone, "At least there's a good chance we'll get some of our harder classes together, plus lunch hour." The other two agreed quietly. Sam noticed her stomach growl and dug into her bag to pull out some celery sticks and peanut butter. Danny noticed and raised an eyebrow, "I thought you weren't supposed to bring food in the park." Sam smirked and dipped a piece of celery in the little cup of peanut butter she'd opened, "You're not. But honestly, who's gonna care enough to come stop me? Besides, they only made that rule so that when people got hungry, they'd have to buy food from the park." Danny just shook his head and laughed quietly.

For the next five minutes the trio were quiet. Tucker had started playing a game on his phone, Danny was nearly asleep, and Sam just ate her snack, enjoying the peace. Unfortunately, it was broken when Sam caught sight of a group of loud jocks walking somewhat in their direction, although they obviously hadn't noticed any of the trio. Sam nudged Danny, who peeked one eye open at her. "Your favorite person's here." she said and pointed with her eyes. Danny followed her line of sight and groaned, "Why does Dash always seem to have a knack of showing up whenever we got out in public?" he asked.

"Relax. He probably won't even notice us. Or if he does he'll probably just ignore us. This is way to public of a place for him to try and beat you up." Tucker reasoned once he'd caught on to what the others were talking about. "I hope you're right." Danny murmured and put his head back down, closing his eyes once more.

As the group passed by Tucker looked through the different faces. Dash, Kwan, Jacob, DJ, some faces he recognized but couldn't put a name to, plus a couple he'd never seen before. The group was loud, constantly horsing around, and swearing loudly. Fortunately, none of them seemed to take notice of the trio as they strolled by, likely headed towards the Tornado water slide.

Five or so minutes later Sam had finished her snack but the three continued to just be lazy for a while more. The shadow of the umbrella had shifted a bit since they'd all sat down for a break, leaving a part of Sam's leg exposed to the hot late afternoon sun. Honestly though, it was a beautiful day the trio had chosen to use their season passes to the water park for the last time.

"We aren't gonna split up once high school starts, are we?" Tucker asked seemingly out of the blue. Danny, having known him for so long, could tell this question must have been weighing on him for a while. His blueish green eyes were dull and his mouth was creased into a small frown. "Tuck, our friendship has lasted since we were infants. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon and I kind of doubt she is either." Danny said, gesturing towards Sam at the end. Sam grinned, "Nope. You're stuck with us."

Tucker smiled a little and shrugged, "We're probably gonna end up with pretty different schedules, plus there'll be a lot of new people from different elementary schools…chances are at least one of us will start getting more and more distant until we'd just stop talking anymore. We probably won't even notice it's happening until later."

Sam scoffed, "Alright, I'm the observant one here so from now on I'll make sure that doesn't happen, got it?" Danny rolled his eyes in amusement, "Tuck, really, don't worry. We'll still at least have lunch together every day. Sam and I aren't going anywhere, promise."

Tucker nodded feeling slightly reassured, "Good. Cuz you two are the only real friends I got right now." He was determined not to lose either of the two of them. He didn't know what he'd do without them. But they are right, he thought, who says high school has to change that? That summer had brought them closer than they'd ever been. True that in two weeks would be the start of a new chapter, but they'd still be the same people with the same friendship, now and forevermore.

A/N: Shoutout to anyone who can figure out the meaning/importance of using the number 44.9 as the Ecto Emergency Radio station! Give your best guess in the review section! Good luck! :)

Stay tuned! I plan on posting one more chapter today, likely within the hour!

Thanks for reading! Feel free to drop a review if you've got some time to spare! :)