Ectoplasmic Secrets
Splitting Images
Summary: Summary: The ghost of a deceased student from Casper High mistakes Danny for the typical high school bully and Dash for an innocent nerd.
"Man, it sucks that your locker was destroyed. And by the freaking Box Ghost!"
Danny sighed, Tucker was right, it did suck, mostly because his old locker had been practically right next to his two best friends'. It had been easier that way to spend more time with them between classes...but wait, wasn't he actually trying to avoid them currently? Well then maybe it's not such a bad thing after all...
"Yeah, the Box Ghost is a joke, everyone in Amity Park knows that." Sam said, "So where's your new locker?"
"Pretty much on the other side of the school. It's number, uh, 724." Danny said, rereading the note the office had given him.
Tucker looked surprised by that. "No way.."
"What?" Danny asked, confused.
Sam took the liberty to explain, as apparently she was in on whatever it was as well. "It's an urban legend around here. They say locker 724 used to belong to this kid, Sydney Pointdexter, way back in the 50's. Apparently he got bullied really bad, so bad that practically the whole town either knew about it, or was in on it."
Wow. And he thought Dash and his gang were bad enough.
Sam continued, although a hint of sorrow laced into her words, "It got to be too much for him to handle after a while, and now they say his ghost still haunts locker 724, waiting to get his revenge. Apparently some people even theorize that Pointdexter is the reason this town is so swarmed with the supernatural."
Danny's eyes widened in curiosity, "What? No way that's why." If he were being perfectly honest, he'd never really thought about why the ghosts were in Amity Park before, they always just were. In fact, he'd never heard anyone talk about why they were there.
All the reporters ever talked about was how much damage was caused week after week. All the parents ever gossiped about was ways to keep their kids safe. The doctors only ever worried about the ones injured in the attacks, and the construction workers only ever complained about how they needed more workers. The police only told everyone how they were always making new protocols. The insurance agents only cared about how their company was doing, and the GIW only thought of how to end ghosts once and for all, never once wondering how it all began.
Sam shrugged, "They say he was so angry at the people of the town for either ignoring him or hurting him all those years, that he cursed the town itself. However, that's all been disproved recently as they've discovered loads of written proof of ghosts here since well before Pointdexter was around."
"And that is the tragic tale of the late Sydney Pointdexter" Tucker said before taking off his hat, "you will be remembered, fellow outcast." He put his hat back on and looked pointedly at Danny, "But dude, seriously, I'd perform an exorcism on that locker before using it if I were you."
"I'm just surprised you've never heard that story before, even more so that your parents haven't brought it up at some point. I mean, I thought they were always talking about that stuff." Sam said.
"Oh they talk plenty about ghosts. Doesn't mean I actually listen."
He be even more surprised than Sam if his parents didn't at least know about this supposed urban legend.
The trio kept walking down the hall. More than once they had passed bulletin boards where they may have noticed a "Save the Frogs" poster or two hanging alongside other notices. It was Sam's most recent activist project, to put an end to the studying of real, live frogs in the science classes. She had tried to pitch an idea to the board during the previous week that would have involved using mechanical frogs to do studies with instead, but unsurprisingly it had been rejected. They had claimed it was too expensive and wouldn't give students the same experiences.
They rounded another corner and found yet another one of Sam's posters, but instead of hanging neatly on the board, it was being crinkled between fingers as it appeared a group of jocks had stumbled upon it.
As anyone who knew Samantha Manson could tell you, she didn't take kindly to the sight.
"Put that back!" Sam yelled across the hallway, drawing the group's attention. Their smiles faded and they instead cast annoyed looks her.
"Nah, I think I'll keep it" Dash said.
Tucker and Danny had moved up so they were standing just behind Sam.
Sam's eyes narrowed, "You motherfucker-"
"Sam!" Danny interrupted, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Come on, they're not worth it."
The three of them had gotten into enough trouble with this particular group in the past, and didn't need to be starting anything over a poster.
A series of mocking "aw"s came from the group. "Your freaky little boyfriend come to save you, Manson?" Dash asked. "Good. For a second I thought she was gonna try to use some of her creepy dark magic shit" another jock added, which earned some weak chuckles.
"Leave her alone" Danny warned.
"Or what?" Dash taunted, "Or what , Fenton? You gonna infect us with some freaky ghost disease?"
Danny's mind froze the second he registered those words. He can't know. He can't possibly know. Why would he say that though?
"With all your weirdo parents' experiments I wouldn't be surprised if you were some sort of mutant ghost freak."
Dash's words bit deep and Danny's breath caught in his throat. So Dash didn't really know, and yet his statement wasn't at all false.
He couldn't come up with any reply and ended up just staring at Dash blankly for a few moments.
"Come on guys," Kwan suddenly said to the rest of the group, "let's go find someone who's actually cool to talk to."
The gang voiced their agreement and started off past the trio. Dash shoved Danny aside as he passed, before crumpling up the poster in his hands and chucking it into the trash.
In the background Danny registered Sam going on an angry rant with some very colorful language as she retrieved the poster out of the trash, and Tucker who was trying to calm her down, saying the poster was mostly fine anyways and that Dash had done far worse before. Danny himself hadn't even moved from where was standing. All he could think about was how Dash was actually right that time, even if he hadn't known it. He didn't even know what he was yet, except for the fact that he fit neither the label of a human nor ghost, yet somehow both at the same time. Dash was right, he was some mutant ghost freak.
The accident had been weeks ago by then. Most of the time he was able to forget about it, but every once in a while something would bring back the memories of it. Whether it was an odd ache in his arm and hand that he had held onto the wall of the portal with, or a random twitch he couldn't control, it made him think about that moment.
Tucker must have noticed how out of it he was because next thing he knew, his friend was right in front of him with a concerned and sympathetic look on his face. "Hey, don't listen to what Dash says, you know that he's wrong."
But he's not...
"You're not a freak, in fact you're probably the most normal person I know."
He tried to act like that comment had actually helped more than hurt.
Or so you think.
It wasn't until the break just before his last hour class that Danny had actually gone to his new locker. Unfortunately it happened to be all the way by the band room, and therefore a good distance away from most of his classes.
The locker itself did happen to look slightly more rusted than the ones around it, but it was likely either a coincidence, or the reason that particular locker number had been chosen to be involved in the tale.
Suddenly Sam walked down the hall, carrying a large box and moving rather quickly.
"Sam? What are you doing?" Danny asked.
"As far as you've heard, nothing. And I'm definitely not sneaking frogs out of the bio lab" Sam replied with a sly grin and carried on down the hallway.
He shook his head and opened his locker. Strangely, there was an old mirror in the back of it, but he ignored it and put a couple of his unneeded notebooks inside.
Something in his peripheral vision moved and he glanced to see Dash walking alone down the adjacent hallway. His thoughts flashed back to earlier that day, the things the jock had said, and even other happenings over the previous years.
There was still three minutes till class started. More than enough time for one little bit of ghostly get-back.
After double checking that no one was around, Danny turned invisible, caught up with Sam, who was still nearby, and took a frog, before heading off in Dash's direction.
A minute and a half later, nobody who had seen it could say they didn't get a laugh out of it. It wasn't often Dash got shaken up like that, after all.
Danny reappeared by his locker again within moments. The sounds of the chaotic laughter and yelling were still audible. A wide grin appeared on his face and he laughed at the memory of the look on Dash's face.
"You."
Danny whipped around and found a face drained of all color, save for the red eyes, just two feet from him. He backed up instinctively.
"How dare you bully that poor boy and humiliate him in front of all his pals!"
The voice was a bit nasally, but nonetheless sounded chilling with it's added echo. It didn't take the flare of light in his red eyes for Danny to figure out that this was a ghost, but it certainly solidified that fact.
It took a moment to figure out that the "poor boy" the ghost was speaking of was actually Dash. This ghost must've seriously misinterpreted the situation. "Me? Bully Dash? I think you've got it wrong. That's was just-"
The ghost interrupted, "Save it buster. I know what's going on here."
Danny decided to try once more, "No, listen, that was just a prank!"
It didn't seem to work as the ghost's glare turned even more malicious. "That's what they all used to say."
He didn't know what or who the ghost was talking about. What he did know however, was that he needed to end this situation fast, or at least do something about it, because currently he was in the middle of a school hallway, in human form, arguing with a ghost. Not the best way to keep a secret identity.
He slid one hand in his backpack, reaching for the thermos he now kept there. As soon as he grabbed the device, he heard a faint voice in the distance, quickly coming nearer. Before the ghost could get another word out, Danny jumped forward and grabbed a hold of him, dragging them both down through the floor and into the school basement.
Once there, Danny changed into his ghost form, not hearing the gasp from the ghost, who was staring wide-eyed at him.
"You're the halfa!" he exclaimed, "Holy sweat socks! And I thought you were just one of those ghost fellas who looked so human they could almost be mistaken for one."
Danny didn't know if he just hadn't heard the ghost right or not, but either way he was confused. "Wait, I'm the whata?" he asked.
"The halfa!" the ghost said like it was common knowledge, "you know, half a boy, half a ghost."
Is that really what I am? That doesn't make much sense...yet it makes so much sense at the same time.
"Everyone in the Infinite Realms have been talking about you" the ghost went on, "You have all our powers while you're still alive" he seemingly realized something suddenly and became filled with rage again, "and you have been using your powers for EVIL?!"
"C'mon! It was one prank! I wouldn't say that's evil." Danny said.
The ghost didn't seem to agree. "Bullies are the biggest evil I had ever seen during my life. The worst part is that one of them lives inside of every one of your pals, everyone in Casper High, and EVEN EVERYONE IN AMITY PARK!"
Suddenly it all made a bit more sense. Why the ghost had shown up after Danny had opened his locker. Why he went after the first form of "bullying" he had seen. His 50's attire and slang. And last of all, that vengeful tone he used when he referenced his own experiences.
Danny may not have been the smartest kid in school, but that didn't mean he could just overlook that many coincidences.
"...you're that kid, aren't you? The one who got bullied by most the school. The one who had locker number 724."
The ghost looked just slightly surprised.
"My name is Sydney Pointdexter. Whenever there is a nerd in need in this school from now on, I'll be the one to give the bullies a taste of their own medicine."
The bell rang shrilly above them, something Danny was only able to hear with the help of his heightened senses.
Hoping that Pointdexter wasn't a strong enough ghost to resist, he pointed the thermos. Somewhat surprisingly, it worked, and the ghost was sucked inside the strange device.
"Believe it or not pal, but we're really not that different."
That night Danny sneaked downstairs into the lab again when no one was there and released the ghost of Sydney Pointdexter back into the Ghost Zone. After hearing the ghost's words echoing through his head the rest of that day, Danny had come to a decision to try not to use his supernatural abilities to get back at Dash. It was probably best to avoid falling down one of those types of slippery slopes, after all.
A/N: Hello again! Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
I'm honestly surprised I got this up in time on the day I had promised.
Posting date for the next chapter is currently Thursday, March 14th!
UPDATE! New posting date is now Thursday, March 28th! Apologies, it's been a bit of a tough week.
SECOND UPDATE!! So so so sorry I had to push the posting date back just one more week to Thursday April 4th! 99.9% guaranteed it WILL be up on that date, and there won't be anymore delays. Thank you all for your patience.
If it gets to that day/the day after and there is no new chapter, just check back here and I should have a revised date :)
Thank you all so much for reading/favoriting/following/reviewing! "See" ya next time!