When Buster sat down at the table for breakfast Dash looked up and smiled, "Did you sleep well buddy?" He asked cheerily and returned to his cereal.
Buster shot him a death glare that went unnoticed, "yeah as well as I could with you snoring all night," he replied. Although Dash wasn't the source of his unrest Buster felt like dumping some of his frustration from last night onto the boy so he made sure to lace his tone with animosity. However Dash seemed as clueless as ever to Buster's bad mood and continued to chatter on. As Buster downed some breakfast and tuned out his cousin's ranting his mood slightly lifted and he began wondering what his first day would be like.
They finished getting ready and Dash offered to drive them both so he climbed into the passenger seat and waited for the school to come into view as he stared out the window. The car ride was rather quiet until Buster couldn't take it anymore, "Hey Dash?"
The boy glanced over and grunted in reply, indicating that he should continue, "Do you believe in aliens?"
Buster expected Dash to laugh at the question because it was how people around him had responded all his life, however Dash furrowed his eyebrows and bit his lip in deep thought. "Well I didn't always, but when you live in a place like Amity you better learn to believe in the unbelievable," he finally replied as he pulled into the parking lot of the school.
Buster wanted to ask what Dash had meant but the boy had already gotten out of the car before Buster had the chance. He opened up his own door and slammed it shut before jogging up beside his cousin. He was about to ask but was interrupted by a large guy tackling Dash onto the grass and a series of other similarly built guys joining in after a shout of "Dog pile!" Buster slowly backed away to safety from the group of boys that he assumed was the rest of the football team.
Finally Dash freed himself and came over to where Buster was awkwardly standing by a tree, "Dude, do you need help finding your way around or are you good?" he asked.
Buster could tell that Dash didn't really feel like playing tour guide by the way he kept turning and waving to random people. "I think I'll manage, you can go ahead," he said as he flashed him a smile. Dash smiled back, waved and ran away.
Once his cousin had disappeared into the crowd, Buster nervously made his way to the front doors while taking deep breaths. He didn't want to have an asthma attack from the growing anxiety and stress. He looked down at the schedule he received a few days ago when he first registered and found his way over to his assigned locker. He dumped a few things in before looking for his first class.
It took a while, after asking three different people he finally made his way to his first period class. The students were scattered around the room and the teacher wasn't there yet so he walked in and sat in the middle row. A few people looked at him so he smiled and waved, but they didn't wave back. Buster frowned and looked down at his desk, this was going to be harder than he thought.
Before he knew it, the bell rang and the teacher, Mr. Lancer, walked in and started to call out attendance. Mr. Lancer raised an eyebrow when he came to him, "Mr. Baxter? Any relation to Dash Baxter?"
"Uh, he's my cousin sir," Buster answered. This caused a rumble of murmurs to erupt in the room and Buster slinked lower in his seat. Sure it would be nice to be as popular as Dash, but he preferred to stay out of the limelight. All the stares where making him uncomfortable.
As the day continued on, Buster made absolutely no progress in the friend department. He had even cracked a few of his best jokes but was unsuccessful. He slowly walked to his locker to switch a few books before lunch. He dropped his bag on the ground and twisted the lock to pry the door open. Once he was done, he shut the door only to be met with the devilish looking face of a brown haired boy in a familiar Letterman jacket. "Um, can I help you with something?" He asked innocently as he stared at the boy.
"Oh I was just wondering if you have gotten well acquainted with your locker?" the guy replied as he smirked, "If not, I have a method that works wonders." Before Buster could decline the 'offer' he found himself being lifted off the ground and almost getting shoved inside the small metal compartment.
"Hey! Put him down Luke!" Dash screamed from the end of the hall. He stomped angrily over and grabbed Buster right out of the offender's hands and placed him down on his feet. "You messed with the wrong kid," Dash said in a steely voice through clenched teeth. You could count every vein popping out of his neck and his eyes bulged out of his head. Buster had never seen this side of Dash and it was frightening.
Luke tried to defend himself, but Dash was much stronger. He pulled back a mighty fist and it connected straight with Luke's left eye and knocked him off his feet. "Let that be a lesson for the rest of you, NO ONE touches a Baxter," the boy growled at the crowd, slung his arms around Buster's shoulder and steered him towards the cafeteria.
Rounding the corner towards his locker, Danny came face to face with a large crowd. He rolled his eyes, 'seriously, a fight on the first day of school?' he thought. However, Danny thought it would be best to make sure it wasn't something serious so he tried to make his way through the crowd to get a better look. Before he made much progress, the crowd split to allow someone from the center to pass through.
Danny wasn't really surprised to see that it was Dash who marched out. The boy was notorious for starting fights, especially with Danny. What surprised him was the boy on the ground who had been at the other end of the fight. 'Since when did Dash beat up football players?'
When Danny turned back to examine Dash for any sign of ghostly possession he noticed a frightened boy hidden under Dash's arm. Danny had almost missed him, he narrowed his eyes and realized it was the mystery boy from last night. He reached over to rub the back of his neck in confusion, as he watched to two disappear. Since when did Dash get a brother?
He took a few steps back before turning around to head for his locker when he slammed into someone. "Umph, hey watch it Danny!" the victim of his clumsiness said from the ground.
Danny chuckled and mumbled an apology while helping his friend off the ground, "Sorry Tuck, I didn't see you there."
"Hey guys," a bored voice came from behind them as they got Tucker to his feet.
"Hey Sam," they both chimed in unison without needed to look to see who it was. The three headed towards Danny's locker while catching up on each other's day as he phased his hand through to grab a few books.
"So what was up with the crowd?" Tucker asked casually leaning up against a neighbouring locker.
"Dash was in a fight with Luke," Danny replied shooting his friends a puzzled look, "since when does Dash have a brother?"
"Dash doesn't have any siblings," Tucker said confidently.
"But he does have a cousin who moved here last week," Sam matter-of-factly added while smirking.
Danny looked at her with a raised eyebrow wondering how she knew. "I guess that makes sense, I think Luke was trying to pick on his cousin," he supplied as they walked away from the lockers and towards the cafeteria.
Sam nodded, "well now everyone will know not to even look at him the wrong way," she added while rolling her eyes, "perks of being a Baxter."
"Great, that's exactly what Casper needed. A Baxter reigning the halls for four more years." Tucker grumbled as he looked to see the kid slumped uncomfortably in his seat at the A-list table.
"Come on guys, look at him," Danny said while plopping down onto the hard bench, "he looks harmless."
Giving him a sideways glance while unwrapping her homemade sandwich, "looks can be deceiving, a few days with the A-listers and his true colours will shine through," Sam quipped, annoyed by Danny's innocent views on the shallow nature of the popular crowd.
"Blood is blood dude," Tucker added almost unintelligibly through a mouthful of food.
Danny rolled his eyes at his opinionated friends and spared a glance towards the new Baxter, there was something about the boy that made Danny feel like there was more to him than being a selfish jock. Maybe it was the look in his eyes that Danny had witnessed the night before, but for one reason or another he didn't feel like mentioning the encounter to his friends. It seemed too private, the boy had seemed so afraid.
"Well, speaking from experience, even clones have their fair share of differences," he retorted, only receiving exasperated sighs in response. At that, they finally dropped the topic and began discussing other matters. They carelessly laughed and argued, feeling relaxed in each other's company, until a familiar mist interrupted their conversation.
Before Danny even had the chance to groan in response, an enormous green creature emerged from the floor of the cafeteria followed by panicked shrieks as students scattered away and hid under the tables. "Guys get under the table, it's not a high level ghost. I can handle it myself," Danny whispered to his friends hurriedly before sneaking out of the room unnoticed. Even if the ghost wouldn't be a threat to Danny it didn't mean it wasn't a threat to the large body of students it was currently holding hostage, He had to act fast.
Doing a quick sweep of his surroundings Danny allowed the white rings to envelope his body to reveal his alter ego. Not wasting anytime, Phantom raised his arms and flew up and back into the cafeteria. He charged his fists with powerful green energy as he ran his eyes over the room to evaluate the student's locations so he could ensure they would not be caught in the crossfire.
Danny turned to his destructive opponent and stopped dead in his tracks, the energy in his hand fizzled as he momentarily allowed the sudden fear to take over him. His eyes locked on the creature's claws, dangling by one foot was a student. As quick as the uncertainty had found its way to Danny's demeanor, it was replaced by a confident and determined look in his eyes as he bolted towards the creature.
Allowing the energy to rebuild midflight, Danny blasted the ground beside the creature to capture its attention all while keeping his eyes trained on the flailing victim within its clutches. The creature was tossing the boy around as if he were a rag, it was dangerous. The boy could snap his neck, Danny had to get him free. "Hey! Tall, dark and slimy. Pick on someone your own size," he shouted.
The creature stopped its erratic movements and fixated on Danny's floating form before slightly leaning back and releasing an enormous glob a green slime from its mouth. Danny was about turn intangible to avoid being slimed but realized that the students behind him wouldn't appreciate the act. Quickly changing tactics, Danny filled his lungs with air and blew out an icy breath, encrusting the slime-glob. Taking the opportunity of the distracted creature that was watching the glob shatter on the floor, Danny blasted it in the gut. It roared in shock and pain then lifted its arms to clutch the hurt area but not before flinging the boy out of its grasp.
Acting quickly, Danny shot out towards the boy to intercept his fall and simultaneously released a powerful icy blast to coat and immobilize the creature. Grasping the kid with one arm, he swiftly collected the ice-covered ghost with his thermos. With the threat gone, Danny turned his head to meet two familiar eyes staring at him in silent panic. The boy in his arms was no other than Dash's mysterious cousin looking at him with the same fear in his hazel eyes from the night before. Feeling uncomfortable under the gaze, Danny swept the room for the A-listers and spotted Dash crawling out from under a table.
"Buster!" he yelled with genuine worry lacing his broad features. Danny adjusted his grip on the boy and flew over to Dash, he gently placed him on his feet then turned invisible and flew out before anyone could acknowledge him.
The ride back home was torture, Dash hadn't said a word since the incident in the cafeteria. Buster was still pretty confused about what went down and he really wanted to release the string of questions buzzing around in his head but instead he crossed his arms and stared out the window. He knew what he did was stupid, running towards the aliens is never a good idea, but he needed to talk to it. It was important. He didn't care if they scared him half to death, he needed information and this was the closest he has every gotten to an alien in its true form before.
Buster bit his lip as he wondered why no one else reacted as he expected, they just got down under the tables as if it were a lockdown, as if they had done it a thousand times before during a drill. Maybe it had something to do with Dash's strange statement from the morning.
Then there was the white haired alien that had saved him. He almost seemed human if you looked close enough, but the glowing and flying gave away his alien status. Still, he had saved a human from another of his own kind. Why?
Buster was confused and frustrated, his hands were curled into tight fists. He needed answers.
He let out a sigh and focused his vision, his eyes were still trained towards the passenger side window. He noticed that the scenery around him was standing still so he shifted his eyes to look ahead of him, intending on glaring at the red light but realized that they were not at a traffic light at all. Dash had parked the car at the side of the road and was sitting with his arms crossed, waiting. Buster raised his eyebrows in surprise, he didn't think Dash wanted to talk to him.
"Uh, Dash? Why'd you stop?" He asked cautiously, Buster had witnessed his cousin's anger today and did not want to be at the receiving end of it any time soon. Dash turned his head and looked at him with an incredulous expression that caused Buster to shrink back into his seat.
"Why do you think dude? You could have died today, how could anyone be that stupid? I mean didn't you see everyone else hide, why would you run towards the thing!"
Buster didn't know how to reply to that, for a guy he only met a week ago Dash was being pretty protective. It was nice to know he cared, but he didn't feel like explaining himself. His reasons were too personal to share. What he needed was answers, so he ignored the questions and asked his own, "Is this sort of thing normal around here? People were scared but no one was else but me was shocked to see the aliens."
Dash raised one eyebrow as his lips curled into a slight amused smile, "Aliens? What are you talking about?" he asked.
Buster was confused, just seconds ago the guy was yelling at him for running towards the green creature and now he was acting as if he hadn't existed. "You know the 'thing' I ran towards, that everyone hid from!" he all but yelled in frustration. It was overwhelming to have such solid proof after years of convincing his friends and family, he wouldn't let go now.
Laughter bubbled out of Dash's throat and he rested his forehead on the steering wheel and clutched his stomach, his weird behaviour was really getting on Busters nerves. Just when he was about to snap at him, Dash got up and wiped a tear from his eye and said, "Those weren't aliens man, they were ghosts. I thought Amity was world famous for 'em, I'm surprised you didn't know. But even if you thought they were aliens it was still stupid to run towards it."
Buster could tell that his anger had dissipated completely, yet Buster muscles tensed further at the statement. "Ghosts? But they were glowing and the creature was green!" He protested, he had come so close to proving everyone wrong. It wasn't fair.
"Yeah I know, they aren't like you see in the movies but they're the real deal. We've been living with them for years, take my word for it." With that he shifted gears and pulled pack into the moving traffic as if the situation had been resolved on his end. However, Buster did not feel the same way, his head pounded from the new information. It wasn't that he didn't believe in ghosts, on any other day he would be amazed at the discovery. He would have wasted no time to call Arthur. However, aliens were more important. He needed to prove to the world that they were real. That was his first step and he had almost tasted the small victory only to have it snatched away in an instant.
The remainder of the ride was silent save for the soft humming coming from Dash. As they pulled into the driveway, Buster remembered something he wanted to know. "Why did the white haired one save me and fight the other one?" He asked abruptly before Dash could jump out of the driver seat.
Dash turned to him, "man, I can't believe you've never heard of Phantom. He's a superhero, it's his job to save you from evil ghosts. He's awesome." Then he pushed open his door and disappeared into the house.