The remote clanked loudly against the glass coffee table as Buster tossed it down from the couch that he had been occupying all day.

He had been channel surfing to avoid the boredom of being left alone in the large house he now called home, but finally gave up. Over 200 channels and there was still nothing worth watching. He ran his fingers through his blonde hair as he leaned back into the plush cushions, deciding to take a nap instead.

Just as he was about to drift off, the front door swung open and in barged his cousin, Dash Baxter, along with his best friend. "Hey dude, me and Kwan were just gonna go kick the soccer ball around in the yard before dinner. You wanna come with?" Dash asked him as he absently searched the hall closet for the ball.

Buster grimaced at the offer, he was never good at sports, but kicking the ball around didn't really require skills. He was about to agree when Dash emerged with the ball, "Come on man, don't waste the last day of summer on the couch."

He smiled at the mock pleading expression on the guy's face, "yeah you're right. Let's go" he said as he hopped off the couch only to be rewarded by obnoxious cheering and a hard slap on the back by Kwan. Buster tried to keep his balance but failed miserably and landed on the ground, muttering to himself he rose to his feet and followed the rowdy sixteen year-olds out the back door.

He had to admit, it was pretty fun hanging out with Dash. The guy was as strange as they get but he was interesting to say the least. Not once since Buster had moved in with his family had Dash treated him with the pity Buster had recently gotten so used to receiving from most people.

It was a nice change.

Before Buster had arrived, he had been worried that his cousin would resent a new kid taking over the house, but he was pleasantly surprised that the boy was actually excited to meet him. He guessed Dash hated being an only child as much as he did.

The cousins discovered pretty quickly that they didn't have much in common, Dash was a bulky jock while Buster was the gullible class clown. However, Dash thought his jokes were hilarious and was impressed with the amount of food he could eat and Buster thought his baseball card and action figure collection was amazing.

Dash had helped him set up his new food cabinet in the guest room that was now Buster's room and didn't even get grossed out by the moldy croissant. They had spent his first night staying up playing video games, Buster actually won half the time. Buster even watched a few of Dash's favourite romance movies and had to admit that they were touching.

The change in environment had been good for him and sometimes, Buster felt like his old self again.

A loud crash followed by an 'umph' brought Buster out of his thoughts only to witness Dash and Kwan sprawled out on the ground laughing while rubbing their heads as the ball rolled away. Realizing what happened, Buster joined in on the laughter and watched the two friends help each other up.

Buster looked down and slightly frowned at the scene, he couldn't help but be reminded of playing soccer with his own friends in Lakewood. He had, on many occasions, ended up on the ground rubbing his head when they were up against Mighty Mountain, right next to Arthur in a similar predicament.

He missed everyone in Elwood city, but leaving Arthur and his family had been nothing less than torture. DW would never admit it, but Buster knew she was holding back tears. Mr. and Mrs. Read, Arthur and Kate didn't bother holding back and neither did Buster. Even Pal seemed to be crying in his own dog way. They promised to write, email, text or call everyday but it wasn't the same as seeing them in person.

Buster looked at his watch and sighed, Arthur would still be asleep for a few hours so he couldn't call him until after dinner. He shook his head to free himself of the depressing thoughts and turned his attention to the ball that was flying towards him and quickly moved aside to avoid getting knocked out.

"Look out dude, you're acting kinda spacey," Kwan called out in his version of an apology. Buster narrowed his eyes but jogged over to where the ball landed then kicked it back towards them.

They played for hours and didn't notice the sun was about to set until his Aunt called them in to eat. Buster's stomach gave a large growl in response causing the three boys to laugh, Dash bent down and picked up the ball then slung his arm around Buster's shoulders while still laughing as they walked over to the door.

"You ready for your first day at Casper tomorrow?" He asked, "remember, if anyone is giving you trouble don't hesitate to let them know you're a Baxter."

Buster guessed Dash was pretty popular at their school by the way he regularly boasted but Buster wasn't really interested in sharing that popularity so he ignored the second part of the statement, "I'm kind of nervous actually, I always thought I'd have my friends around in high school but now I have to deal with making new ones."

Dash nodded at this and Kwan took the opportunity to reply, "Don't sweat it man, you're a funny kid. I'm sure you'll make tonnes of friends!"

Buster shot him a nervous grin, "thanks Kwan," he replied before receiving another powerful pat on the back. Thankfully Buster was able keep himself on his feet, the boys chuckled at his expression and raced off to wash up and get ready for dinner.

Popping the last button into its hole on his pink pajama shirt, Danny Fenton was finally ready for bed. He hummed happily to himself as he climbed under the cozy blankets, looking forward to a good night's sleep before his first day of year-long torture tomorrow. He let his head fall in a soft thud and instantly shut his eyes, he was exhausted.

Technus had kept him busy for the last few days with a grand evil scheme, but luckily Danny was able to intervene.

It was a strange underground plot. The citizens weren't even aware that they had been under a state of attack and Amity Park was able to enjoy their last few days of summer in peace. Danny and his friends being the exception.

Danny had given up on trying to have a vacation a long time ago anyway, but he still cherished the few hours of sleep he could find.

Just as Danny was entering dream world, he was rudely interrupted by a sudden burst of cold air rushing through his lungs and past his lips. His eyes shot open and he furrowed his thick eyebrows, "oh great, can't a guy sleep for five minutes?" he muttered as he intangibly slipped through the covers and jumped out the window before transforming in mid-air.

He smiled slightly at the rush he felt from the small stunt while he whipped his head from side to side in search of the offender. He spotted Skulker not too far off, heading towards the mall. "He's probably running errands for ol' Vladdy again," he commented as he picked up the speed towards the large metal ghost.

Before he could land a surprise punch, Skulker spoke without turning around, "I'm not here to hunt you tonight Whelp, so you can go back to sleep."

Danny scoffed, "As if I would listen to you, you hunk of junk" he barked as he sent an ecto-blast towards his adversary. The ghost grinned and flew out of the way before returning the attack with mini rockets.

They glided through the air, releasing several attacks all over town for about twenty minutes before Danny finally blew off Skulker's metal head. In a flash of bright light, he captured him in the Fenton thermos.

Danny sighed and wiped his forehead with the back of his arm as he slowly floated up onto the roof of the building behind him. He let his legs appear and folded them so he was sitting cross-legged. He still had time left to get in some sleep since Skulker wasn't much of a challenge, but he didn't feel like heading back just yet.

The night was quiet and the stars were beautiful, he felt like enjoying the moment.

He sat in the silence for a few moments before the front door of the house across from him swung open. Even though Amity was used to the presence of Phantom, Danny quickly turned invisible to observe the intruder.

A boy a bit younger than Danny ran out the door and stopped on the side walk, looking frantically around as if searching for something. Danny had never seen the boy before. Granted, Danny did not know everyone who lived in the town, he had still become pretty good with faces over the years of saving the citizens.

His eyebrows furrowed in confusion when he realized that it was Dash's house that the kid had run out of, he was fairly certain that Dash did not have any siblings though. Danny silently watched the mysterious kid as he desperately searched around for something.

For a moment it felt like they locked gazes but Danny was still invisible.

The boy scratched his head and slumped his shoulders before slowly walking back into the house. Danny waited a few more minutes longer, watching as the door slammed shut. Reappearing, confusion painted on his face, he shot up at an unnecessarily fast speed across the sky.

Danny was still wondering about Dash's new guest as he let go of his ghost form from above his bed and promptly fell into place. The kid looked scared, but it wouldn't have made sense for him to run towards the ghost fight if it was the ghosts that he was afraid of.

Danny sighed, it didn't really matter what the kid was doing, it wasn't like he was dangerous or something and it was getting late. He turned on his side, letting his eyelids slide over his now blue eyes and finally fell asleep.

Earlier

With his knees brought up against his chest, Buster sat on his bed staring out of the window. He had just woken up from a nightmare and didn't feel like going back to sleep. He couldn't really sleep even if he wanted to since he could hear Dash snoring from across the hall with both their doors shut…he was much worse than Arthur.

He reached over and gabbed a box of cookies he had on the side table and began munching on them as he watched the skyline. He would be exhausted in the morning as he had to get out of bed at 7 am. It wouldn't really help with first impressions, especially with the teachers, but there wasn't much Buster could do about that.

He stuffed the last cookie into his mouth and leaned onto the head board, he was about to close his eyes before something in the sky caught his attention.

It was small but was rapidly growing with random occasional flashes of light. Buster's eyes widened with shock and got wider the longer he stared at the speck. Suddenly it split into two spots in the sky.

A large flash of green light emerged from the smaller speck and at that Buster jumped out of bed and grabbed his phone. Hitting Arthur's number on speed dial he yelled to his friend without so much as a hello, "Arthur, ALIENS!"

His friend's confused voice came through the phone in reply, "Buster? What—"

Before he could speak the alarmed Buster continued screaming, "there are two UFO's outside my window right now, Arthur I have proof! I told you it was Aliens!" Buster ran up toward the window to get a closer look, but he couldn't see them anymore.

"Buster calm down, you were just dreaming again. There are no such thing as aliens," Arthur said in soothing voice that only caused him to become more anxious.

"I wasn't even asleep, I was staring straight at them for a whole minute. There was a huge flash of green light!" He protested loudly not even caring that there were three other people in the house sleeping.

"Do you see them now?" Arthur asked.

"No" he replied as he headed back toward his bed and sat down on the ground, leaning up against the side.

"It was just another dream, take a few breaths and go back to bed," his friend advised. Buster closed his eyes in frustration, he was sure it wasn't a dream. He wasn't even asleep for crying out loud!

"Arthur, I'm telling you I know what I saw! I've been telling you for months, the aliens are here and I have proof! Arthur, my mom…"

Before he could finish the thought he was interrupted, "no, Buster you are supposed to be moving on! You can't go down that road again, please just calm down."

Buster was about to continue protesting when a bright flash of blue light filled the room, catching him off guard. He shot back up onto his feet and towards the window.

"Buster? Are you there?" Arthur's voice came from the phone that he had dropped on the floor.

He looked around the sky but saw nothing that could have caused the intense flash, he picked up the phone "Uh yeah, sorry for the scare Arthur. I'll just go back to bed now," he told his friend as he continued to stare out the large window.

"Okay, call me when you wake up alright?" Arthur said in a concerned voice.

"Sure," he distractedly agreed before hanging up.

Throwing his phone onto the bed, he ran down the stairs and straight out the front door. He didn't stop running until he got to the sidewalk and frantically looked around for the UFOs.

The sky was as quiet as could be, if he hadn't seen the light for himself he would have thought it was the most peaceful and beautiful night of the summer.

His eyes landed on the rooftop of the building across from the house and for a millisecond he thought he saw something glow, a shiver ran through his spine despite it being a warm summer night. He was utterly confused, he was positive he hadn't imagined the aliens. He couldn't have, he wasn't delusional!

Although his sanity was debatable among his friends, he was pretty sure he couldn't have imagined such a vivid image. Buster scratched his head and slumped his shoulders in defeat, maybe it was all finally catching up to him. Arthur was right, he had to let go.

With a dejected sigh Buster turned around and walked back into the house.

He went straight back to the window and stared at the bright moon, he was about to turn around and attempt to sleep when he noticed something moving.

Up in the sky was a streak of something glowing flying across the sky. Buster stood there, stock still, as he watched the UFO disappear into the darkness. He continued to stare at the spot for a long time until he finally shook himself out of the shock. He slowly climbed back in bed and lay down, eyes still wide open.

Buster wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.