Like is hilariously cruel. - Bender (Futurama)
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Night fell over the camp slowly as the sun moved below the top of the ridge. The sky still glowed a bright orange putting everything in a long, gradual twilight. A cool breeze came over the ridge, moving down into the valley. Danny was leaning against a rock near the waterfall, resting. It had been a long and event-filled day and frankly he was glad to see the end of it. From where he sat he could see down into the valley where the rest of the camp lay. It was already pretty dark down there. Various light shone about the lower camp, pinpricks of intensity in the growing darkness. Closer to the waterfall some boys were trying to dare some girls to go skinny-dipping with them. The girls, though, were having nothing to do with the idea. Danny couldn't understand why the boys even tried since the councilors would be down soon to round up everybody. They were sure to be caught if they actually did it. Danny was a great believer in not getting caught.
Danny was surprised that for once he was anxious for camp to be over. Normally he looked forward to camp as a way to great away from the weirdness of his parents. He loved them dearly but they were always embarrassing him in one way or another. He often wondered what it would be like having normal parents, like Sam -- except that Sam's parents weren't really normal, and Tucker's parents were obsessed with their stock portfolio, Paulina's parents were just incredibly snooty, and Valerie's parents...Danny shook his head. Did anybody have normal parents?
But for once he found himself longing for the "normalcy" of his crazy parents over all the craziness at camp. A ghost that oozes evil, Sam getting all weird about Abigail, and Abigail getting all weird about the ghost, and hanging around him and slamming his parents. Maybe the real problem was that in other years he hadn't been a half-ghost, wasn't sensitive to ghosts haunting an area and didn't have to worry about someone catching him turning into Danny Phantom. At home he at least had a better idea of where and when he could go ghost and not get caught.
Danny was falling asleep leaning against the rock when he heard someone ask, "Hey, Fenton, you in?"
"In on what?" he asked. He recognized a boy from the other cabin, Oak -- Stan or something like that.
"We organizing a panty raid on the girl's tents later tonight. You gonna join us?"
"Won't you get caught?"
"Nah, we're gonna wear masks and it will be over so fast the girls won't know what hit them."
"I don't know. I think you're asking for trouble."
"No," the other boy said. "Nothing will go wrong. We'll have a little bit of fun scaring the girls and if we're lucky maybe cop a couple of their panties for souvenirs. What do you say?"
"I don't know..." Danny demurred.
"No panty raid!" Dash's voice shouted behind them. "No! I've got into enough trouble already. One more incident like last night and I'll get kicked out of camp. I need this job, it's community service I can put on my college athletic scholarship application. So no one is going to screw up for me."
"Oh, come on," the other boy protested. "The peepshow was your idea, why can't we have our fun?"
"Because I'll get blamed for it. The Head Ranger has been on my butt all summer. She'd never believe me if I told her I didn't do it. So get it through your thick head,, no more pranks!"
"Alright, OK, let me go, you're hurting my arm."
Dash lowed down and saw that he had grabbed the other boys arm and was twisting it fiercely in a direction it wasn't meant to go. He let go. "No pranks!" he repeated, "now get to camp, it's lights out! You, too, Fentonini!"
Back at the tent Danny told Tucker about the impending Panty raid,
"Do you think we ought to tell Sam?" Tucker asked.
"If she knew we knew then she'd blame us for letting it happen."
"So you're going to let some boys go rummaging through her clothes?"
"Tuck, I tried to do the right thing last night and only ended up getting in more trouble. Tonight I'm staying out of it.
About two hours later they could here a rustling among the Oak Leaves tents as the boys there got ready for their raid. Danny hadn't been sleeping because of the hard ground under his sleeping bag got up and stood by the opening of their tent trying to see what was going on.
"Back in your tent, Fenton," Dash called out. He was patrolling their handful of tents making sure that no one from their cabin participated. Danny ignored the jock and continued squinting through the darkness to see what was happening.
About a half dozen boys from the other terrace where Oak Leaves had set up their tents were sneaking up a trail at the far end of the clearing to where the Sumac girls had pitched their tents. The boys seemed to be making a lot of noise for a sneak raid.
Danny could see them begin to infiltrate among the Sumac tents. He expected to hear some outburst ant any moment. Suddenly a whistle blew shrilly in the dark. A short stocky woman stepped into the clear holding something in her hand. Her hand swung back and flung whatever it was at the lead boy. Mrs Doi's voice rang out. "Get 'em ladies!" The thing she flung struck with a wet, smacking glop. From around the tents the girls of Sumac piled out, each holding something in either hand. In a instant the air was filled with flying globes, the splat and sputter of struck boys.
The raid collapsed almost as fast was it had happened. Boys were running every which way to evade the pursuing girls armed with what appeared to be an endless supply of water balloons. One sailed close over head. He ducked then called out, "Hey, watch it!" As he stuck he head back over the top of the tent he could see a girl in a pair of combat running away. He didn't need to hear her laughter to know. There was only one pair of combat boots in the camp.
As the last of the boys ran into the woods for safety the girls gave up a cheer that woke up the rest of the camp. "Two, Four Six, Eight Sumac Cabin girl's are great!" they chanted. "Oak Leaf Boys are dirty, wet snakes!"
After a few more chants Mrs Doi hustled her girls back to their tents. Dash and Porcipine were out helping Booger find the missing panty raiders. Danny finally ducked under the tent flap and crawled back into his sleeping bag.
"Is it safe?" Tucker asked from under the cot he couldn't figure out how to fold back up.
"Yeah. Just watch out for Sam, I think she still has a few water balloons."
Morning came all too soon, cold and damp. The sun was shining brightly in the East and if one could find a space to sit in its light things weren't too bad. Danny was wrapped in his blanket for warmth. A plate of eggs, bacon and toast on his lap. At his feet was a paper container of orange juice. What he wanted was a couple more hours of sleep and maybe a double Nasty Burger with hot, crispy fries.
A voice intruded on his thoughts.
"I remember."
Danny looked and found Abigail sitting next to him. "Huh?" He grunted in confused response.
"I had a nightmare last night," she said, setting her juice down by her feet and spreading out a napkin over her lap. "It was the worst nightmare I've ever had. I woke covered in sweat — I mean literally wet. I didn't think stuff like that ever happened." She took a bite out of her toast, chewed for a moment, then continued.
"I dreamed about a pair huge scary eyes. I couldn't bear to look at them but I couldn't look away. It was like I had turned to stone. It seemed to go on forever." She took another bite of toast. "Then I noticed that there was a body beside the eyes, hanging in the air, swaying all gruesome like. I wanted to scream but I couldn't. Up till then it seemed like an ordinary nightmare..."
"I didn't know that nightmares could be ordinary," Danny said despite himself. He had had enough of Abigail the day before and was determined to say nothing so she'd leave as quickly as possible.
"Well..." Abigail stammer, throwing off the track by Danny's unexpected question. "I mean...dread, paralysis...Those are kind of normal for a nightmare. But...But I suddenly realized that while there was a body hanging on the air and those flaming eyes, there was no head. And somehow that was worse than everything else. Then I guess I did scream or something and woke up, shivering and covered in sweat. But I then I remembered. That wasn't really a dream. It was what I'd seem in the cabin — wasn't it?"
"That what I saw."
"How did I get out of the cabin? What happened to the ghost?"
"You don't remember?"
"I feel like maybe I was flying through the air and there was that green-eyes monster carrying me. And I remember running through the forest, smacking into trees, tripping over roots and not being able to stop. I think that green-eyes monster was trying to abduct me, I got free and he chased me back to camp — but it's all so confused. What happened to you guys?"
Danny wasn't sure what to tell her. She was blaming him for what he had rescued her from. He wanted to clear his name without tipping her off that he was Danny Phantom. He tore off a corner of his toast, dipped in his yolk and chewed thoughtfully. "We, uh, heard you scream. I went back in and saw you on the floor and that ghost thing hovering over you." Danny said. "I grabbed you by the arm and pulled you out. Then we just sort of all ran. I guess we lost track of you in the woods. I don't know if the ghost followed us or not. I was too busy running." He hoped that Abigail would not think to ask Tuck or Sam for their versions in case they didn't match up.
"It's weird," Abigail said. "Yesterday I was telling you how people tended to forget about the ghost. And then it happened to me. I absolutely could not remember seeing it at all. Total denial. It was like I was being overshadowed or something. If you hadn't questioned me last night, tried to force me to remember I don't think I would have remembered at all."
"I didn't mean for you to have a nightmare," Danny said, sincerely.
"My skin still crawls when I think about, but I would rather know then have something like that suppressed for the rest of my life. God — How can they expect us to eat something swimming in so much grease," she said pointing to her eggs.
"I'm assured that they were cooked in trans-fat free vegetable oil."
"That's supposed to mean their healthy to eat?"
"I don't know about that."
"Well you don't seem to have a problem eat them. Want mine?"
Danny looked down and found that his plate was already scrapped clean. He looked over at Abigail's plate. Two yellow eyed eggs stared back at him. Grease was pooling around the edges. "Those are nasty. I think I've lost my appetite."
"Ok." Abigail started picking up her stuff.
"Wait!" Danny said. "After you remember about the ghost, did you call in your father?"
"My dad?"
"You know, the Men without Fashion Sense."
"No! I'm not going to call in Dad. I can handle this. I've got lots of stuff that will work in a situation like this. I came here for a vacation and — damnit — I'm going to have a vacation." She stood up and turned towards the dumpster, then turned back. "But you ought to call your father and find out more about this type of ghost."
"I'm on vacation, too." Danny grumphed.
Abigail wasn't gone for more than a minute when Sam suddenly plopped herself down. "Consorting with the enemy again, I see."
"Is that why you threw a water balloon at me last night?"
"Danny, how could you accuse me of a thing like that? If I had meant to hit you, you know I would have."
"Well, if you were trying to be anonymous you should go around wearing those combat boots!"
"Aren't we in a good mood this morning..."
"So what kind of a breakfast does an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian get? The rest of us got greasy, half-fried eggs."
"Toast and more toast. I think they burnt it so it would be more ultra-recyclo, if you know what I mean."
"She came to tell me she finally remembered the ghost yesterday. That's all."
"Took her long enough to say that, if that's all she said."
"Sam, can you just drop it."
"No, I can't. this just like you and Valerie all over again."
"You told me that already."
"And you're not listening. Danny, I'm only doing this for your own good."
"Can't you pick of Tucker for a while. I'm sure he has something he needs help with."
"Already folded his cot for him. And don't forget T'Keisha because he sure hasn't."
"You keep helping people like that, you're going to lose your Goth creds."
"I'm just trying to keep you alive. What's so hard to understand about that?"
"I have a mother, all right? I don't need two!"
"Arrgg!" Sam marched away
Danny sighed, then stacked his stuff on top the plate. He looked at the sun, which had barely cleared the horizon far away. Barely morning and already his day was a mess.