Dash sighed as he walked back to his house after a boring morning as a lifeguard. He didn't want people to fall and nearly drown so he could do something but he had been hoping that someone attractive near his age had shown up before he left. Fenton had been the only person his age that was at the pool, and while he was easy on the eyes, Dash wouldn't let himself think more on it.

"Snap out of it, Dash, you can't be having these thoughts! What's the matter with you? You're a guy, you need to like girls." Dash groaned and opened the door to his house and walked right up to his room to fall back into his bed. His parents were working and so he had the house to himself until they came back home around five o'clock. The thoughts about Fenton though slicing through the water though would not leave his mind as he tossed about on his bed trying to take a nap.

"Of all the times my best friend had to go out of town." Dash groaned with annoyance. He needed something to take his mind off of things and Kwan was off with his family visiting relatives for a couple weeks. Even Paulina was off on some cruise with her family enjoying the warmth of some ocean or sea for the next month or so. He could try to call up one of his other football buddies but he didn't feel like that. He kept on thinking about Fenton and how much he had changed since they were freshmen.

At the beginning of their freshmen year, Danny had been scrawny and short. He was an easy target and fun to rough up a bit. Dash never went too far with his bullying but that didn't stop him from making his life miserable from time to time. Looking back on it all and all that he'd done, Dash started to feel like a heel. He didn't know why he treated Fenton so badly but there was just something about him that made him want to act aggressively towards him.

"Great… I go from having weird thoughts about Fenton to feeling guilty about what I did to him!" Dash groaned into a pillow before he jerked up out of his bed. He needed to focus on something otherwise he was going to go crazy. He stripped out of his life guard uniform and put on some gym shorts and an old t-shirt before he went downstairs to their basement where Dash's father had set up a small gym. It wasn't a whole lot, mainly free weights, a couple benches, and a few other things, but what held Dash's interest at this point was a large broken in punching bag that he had been taking his aggression out on for years.

He wrapped his hands and wrists up with the cloth hand wraps he had and went about punching the old bag. He held his fists up as he bounced about on the balls of his feet before he let into the bag with a series of jabs before he'd bounce right back. Dash had taken boxing lessons when he was younger and while never got in the ring to fight he did like all the exercise and kept at it years later.

He bobbed and punched at the bag as if it were a real person he was sparing against laying punch after punch into it. Before he knew it he had worked up quite a sweat and had to stop to take a breather. He was drenched now as he sat on a bench and took a drink from a bottle of water he had brought down. The feelings of exerting so much energy felt good to the blond man as he sat there trying to catch his breath. He didn't get to feel this way too often except when he was playing sports and with it being summer he wouldn't get a chance to play until football started up in the fall again.

As if on cue, Dash heard his phone start to ring and he saw Kwan's name pop up as the ID. He smiled a bit to himself as he answered the phone, still breathing really hard.

"Hey, man, how's California treating you?"

"Ehh, it's fine. Haven't really seen much besides my grandparents' house out in the middle of nowhere, but it's got a lot of nice scenery. What's up with you though, I catch you at a bad time?" Kwan chuckled, "Or did I catch you during a good time?"

"Oh shut up, I was just working out on the punching bag and stopped for a rest when you called. I had a really boring morning at the pool and needed to burn off some energy."

"Oh yeah, today was your first day lifeguarding," Another soft chuckle came from Kwan and Dash could already tell he wasn't going to like what he said next, "Rescue any babes today? Give anyone mouth to mouth?"

Dash groaned at the kissy noises his friend made but shrugged it off, "No, no one really comes to the pool in the early morning. Mainly it was just some old folks doing some exercise in the pool. A few people sunbathing in the early sun before it got to hot, and some people who just swam about. Like I said it was boring, and the only person there that was our age was Fenton."

"Fenton?" Dash groaned and mentally kicked himself at mentioning him again. He had just gotten the guy out of his mind and he just had to go and bring that up again.

"Uh… Yeah, dude's on the swim team it seems. Was pretty good to, swam back and forth for about two hours before calling it quits."

"I guess all that running away from you our first few years of high school really got him in good shape."

"Yeah, I guess…" Dash looked up at the ceiling unsure of what else to say. Fenton really did seem to have a lot of stamina and it actually surprised him that the guy wasn't a part of the track and field team.

"Earth to Dash… You still there man?"

"Huh, oh yeah sorry, just was spacing out I guess. Need to get some lunch or something in me, and maybe find something to do for the rest of the day."

"Could always just draw more of those comics I've seen you do."

Dash grumbled at hearing that. He had been drawing for years and as he got older he found himself often drawing silly little comics with jokes that were mildly funny. The last few years though he had been refining his skills into drawing comics of his favorite hero and protector of their town Danny Phantom. He always felt embarrassed though about anyone knowing about his work, and Kwan often liked to tease him about it even though he thought they were quite good. He even was able to create some pretty good action scenes in Kwan's opinion.

"C'mon, man, you gotta stop thinking that your drawing is nothing special. It's seriously awesome and I think you should show some more people. I mean that one comic you made of Phantom and the Ghost Snakes? That one alone was better than half the comics I've seen."

"Ehh… maybe I will draw or something, not like I've got anything better to do with my best friend gone for the summer." He smirked teasing his friend.

"Oh please, I'll be back in a few weeks and we can hang out as much as you want assuming you don't rescue a girl at the pool and fall in love," Kwan laughed and Dash heard someone speaking in a foreign language in the background.

"Coming, Mei-maw! Listen, man, I gotta go. I'll call ya later this evening though for a real chat and I'll tell you about a few things I found out here. See ya."

Dash said goodbye and hung up his phone leaving him in the quiet basement with only his thoughts. He sighed to himself feeling lonely again and went back upstairs to his room to grab the sketch book he used to get his ideas on what to draw out of his head. Maybe Kwan had the right idea, he grabbed a pencil and eraser and walked back down to the kitchen to pop something in the microwave to eat. He'd draw a bit and maybe plan a new comic and maybe go rent a video to watch later.

"Maybe this time I'll have Phantom face some kind of ghost bat that lives in a cave." Dash smiled to himself as he started to sketch out Phantom and a few bats as he waited for his lunch to heat up.