The enitre GROSS team was hard at work. Calvin, Hobbes, Jason, and Marcus had roped off the gym and were painting it pink with hearts, roses, and frills. Normally, this would be the kind of thing that would have a member sentenced to death, but this was all part of their plan.

"Let's go over this one more time," said Calvin. "We tell the girls we want to show our love, get them to come in here, block off all the exits..."

"And fill the room with mice and stink bombs!" cried Jason.

"And mice bathed IN the stink bombs..." continued Marcus.

"And mice with stink bombs tied to their tails!" finished Hobbes. "Only a tiger could come up with that last one."

At this moment, Boo was flying through the halls, looking for someone to...help. His companions trailed behind him.

"Wait for us!" called Wendell.

"You know I hate high-speed floating!" complained Quivers.

"Don't be a wimp," said Boo. "We're finding a way to apologize to these kids!"

They ended up flying into the pink room, where the GROSS Club was still hard at work. Boo stared in awe. "I don't believe this..."

When the ghosts noticed the boys, they quickly turned invisible.

"The girls are never gonna forget this one, guys!" grinned Calvin.

"I'll say," smiled Jason, grabbing more paint.

"Awwww!" chorused the trio of ghosts. How sweet! The boys obviously felt deep affection for the girls!

"Man, I shoulda tried doin' this for girls all those years ago..." grumbled Wendell.

"That's so cute!" giggled Quivers.

Boo's eyes lit up. He had an idea! "Well, if it's girls they want, it's girls they'll get!"

"Are you casting a love spell?" asked Quivers.

"Even better! We're gonna make all the kids here think it's Valentine's Day, every day! And they'll never question why! There'll be all the love, the songs, the passion, the excessive use of pink! Here we go!"

Now, Hobbes, if you will remember, had the power to see ghosts, like many other animals. As Boo began to cast his spell, the tiger noticed the three ghosts. "What are THEY doing here?!"

But the spell had already been cast and the ghosts vanished as quickly as they'd appeared. Bewildered, Hobbes turned to the others. "Guys, remember when those ghosts almost brought the Darkling to destroy us all...?"

Calvin was lost in deep thought. "Not now, Hobbes. I don't feel good. Something's wrong..."

Jason twitched. "I feel that way, too."

"What's the date?" asked Marcus.

"July 19th," said Hobbes.

"IT'S VALENTINE'S DAY!" realized Calvin.

Their screams echoed through the hallway.

Boo listened happily. "Hear that? Sounds like screams of joy to me."

"Really?" said Quivers. "I think that's screams of terror. I'd know."

"A scream's a scream, man," said Wendell. "They start to sound alike after a while."

Calvin peeked into the main room through a connecting door to see that all the girls were panicking as well, but for a slightly different reason.

"Oh no!" gasped Susie. "It's Valentine's Day and none of us bought any cards!"

"Let's go, ladies!" shouted Lucy. The girls stampeded out in a huge pack.

Calvin slammed the door and turned to his friends. "This gives us a little time. What do we do?!"

"Hit them at full force!" cried Marcus.

Hobbes was the only one who stayed calm. "Boys, boys. You know nothing about girls. If they come in here and see this, you'll be so smothered with love, kisses, and who knows what else to be able to release the traps."

"It'll take forever to repaint this room!" moaned Jason.

"Let's just hide here until tomorrow," said Marcus.

"Agreed!" nodded Calvin. They all sat down. "I'm bored."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Double D was strolling through the halls when the girls made their return. There was a resulting flurry of card-giving.

"Oh my," mused Double D. "These holidays certainly do creep up on one. I wonder if I should get a card for Nazz."

He glanced down the hall to see Kevin giving a card to Nazz. "No," he sighed sadly. "How could I? Not with Kevin as my competition. I'll just have to move on..."

Suddenly, Marie Kanker zoomed down the hall with one thing on her mind. "Pucker up, cutie!"

"Gracious!" Double D took off running.

Nearby, Charlie Brown was also sitting by himself. "Not one card."

Snoopy walked by with a huge stack of Valentines and gave his master a lazy smile. "Sometimes a beagle gets lucky!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This was very chaotic, of course. And when things got crazy at camp, they had a habit of getting crazier. At that very moment, a certain OTHER ghostly trio was flying into camp...the Hitchhiking Ghosts! Ezra, Gus, and Phineas, who had been on several adventures with the kids.

"Ezra, we were just here!" complained Phineas.

"Yeah," replied his friend, "a week ago. A few minutes off the job won't hurt. I just love seeing what those crazy kids are up to!"

"I like the crazy part the best," said Gus.

The ghosts took one look at the card frenzy and didn't know what to think. Gus was the first to react. "Awesome! Crazy!"

For the first time, Ezra was uncomfortable with the zaniness surrounding him. "REALLY crazy. Aside from Double D, no one's ever mentioned love when we're around. There are hearts everywhere..."

"Too...much...pink and red!" Phineas gasped for air.

"Let's find Calvin," said Ezra. "If anyone here knows what's going on, it's him!"

The ghosts found the boys all huddled in a small mass in the decorated gym.

"I really can't stay..." murmured Jason.

"Baby, there's love outside," shivered Marcus.

"What the heck is going on?!" cried Ezra. Something wasn't right!

"I guess you ghosts don't have good calendars," said Hobbes. "Don't you know it's Valentine's Day?"

"It's July 19th!" exclaimed Phineas.

"Exactly," said the boys in perfect unison.

"Craaaaaaaaaazy..." Gus whispered to the other ghosts, who all looked uncertain as to what to do.

Ezra smiled sweetly at them. "Excuse us, kids. We have important supernatural business to attend to. Enjoy yourselves!"

Immediately his smile faded and the ghosts flew down the hall in a serious fashion. Something was going on!

"Think it's a villain?" asked Phineas.

"No," said Ezra. "Only another ghost could do something like this."

"From the mansion?" wondered Gus.

"Probably not," replied Ezra. "No one there knows these kids."

Phineas screeched to a halt. "Wait a second...I sense something! ...The vending machines have Chex Mix Bold Party Blend! My favorite kind! Man, my breath's gonna stink!"

Ezra sensed something as well. "There's something in that room!" He flew though a wall, only to be met by screams. "Whoops, girls' locker room."

"That wasn't an accident," grumbled Gus.

At that moment, the other ghostly trio showed up. "Hey, what's going on?" complained Boo. "We like to cast our spells in peace! ...oh. It's YOU."

Ezra narrowed his eyes. "Boo. Wonderful to see you again."

"So," Boo said, trying to seem cool, "...what brings you to camp?"

"We're best friends with these kids!" cried Phineas.

"Are not!" Wendell shot back.

Gus raised his ball and chain threateningly. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!" growled Boo. "We're already their best friends! Ain't that right, Quivers?"

"The fat one has bad breath," whispered Quivers.

Phineas angrily started chasing the other ghost. "Fat?! You can insult my breath, but body mass is another story!"

Boo got up in Ezra's face and poked him. "Listen, Ezra Dobbins, friends or not, what are you doing here?"

"More importantly," glared Ezra, "what are YOU doing here?"

"I asked you first!"

Hours later, they were still arguing.

"I'm not answering you 'till you answer!" sneered Ezra.

"I've got all eternity!" sang Boo.

Gus could stand it no longer. "WE'RE HERE BECAUSE YOU'RE SCREWING THINGS UP BY MAKING EVERYONE THING IT'S VALENTINE'S DAY, YOU MORONS!"

"Ruining?" Boo's eyes widened. "Perish the thought, my dear...Goose."

"The name is Gus Gracey! Ezra, can I hit him?"

"Unfortunately," sighed Ezra, "they're just as powerful as us."

"'Just as'?" laughed Boo. "I'd say we're even more powerful, if you ask me!"

Wendell made a graph appear out of thin air. "We're not ruining things at all. According to my statistics, the majority of the camp loves what we've done!"

Phineas pointed to some numbers on the chart. "Yeah, but look at all the kids who DON'T like it. Calvin, Jason, Marcus, Hobbes..."

Waving his hand, Boo made the graph vanish. "That's only a few names," he said quickly, trying to sound defensive.

"Yeah, but Calvin's the kid we, you know, killed that one time," reminded Quivers.

Ezra stared in shocked silence. "Wow. Never heard THAT story."

"Hey, everything's fine now!" cried Boo. "All I'm saying is, most of the camp's happy! Heck, we'll try cheering up the unhappy ones, too!"

"The way to cheer them up is by making things normal again!" asserted Ezra.

"We can go at this all day, Dobbins," said Boo, "but we're staying. I happen to like it here."

"If SOME people didn't eat so much Chex Mix!" said Quivers.

"Bring it on!" cried Phineas. "You're not so thin yourself!"

"Forget it, Phinny," sighed Ezra giving nasty looks to the Ghostmaster group. "It's SO difficult to deal with stubborn ghosts other than ourselves."

(To the tune of "Lucky Enough to be a Ghost" from Casper)

Ezra and Boo: I'm telling you, I'm right!

Ezra: Right? Are you crazy?

Look at what you did

You're ruining a childhood of some innocent kids

Boo: Don't judge us, buddy!

We're obviously pros

These little guys are having fun and what they say goes

Wendell: I've been doing research and my facts are straight

Love is never a thing these kids could hate

Phineas: We know them better, adventures we've had

And trust us, most of them say romance is bad!

All: You are so insane

We all must complain

And 'cause we feel like it, it's all in song

Now, we ain't uptight we don't know if we're right

But we're all really sure that you're wrong!

Quivers: I hate to jump in but if you ask me

I am here with Boo and Wendell completely

Gus: Don't be so wimpy and listen and see

I'll beat you senseless if you don't agree

All: You are so insane

We all must complain

And 'cause we feel like it, it's all in song

Now, we ain't uptight we don't know if we're right

But we're all really sure that you're wrong!

Ezra sighed again, seeing that they were getting nowhere. "Fine. We're leaving now, but I'm warning you, Boo! These kids need time to just have fun, not be saddled down by love! If you go over the edge on this one, we'll be back!"

And with that, the Hitchhikers flew off.

Wendell turned to his friends. "Glad that's over. Now what, Boo?"

"Let's see how things were in our absence," said Boo.

The ghosts found Nazz in the main room, gathered with Sarah, Jimmy, Lucy, and Susie. "So I invited everyone at camp over to my house to celebrate Valentine's Day!" she was saying. "We all live near each other already, and we're having a bonfire!"

"Please tell me you didn't invite Calvin and his friends!" whined Susie. "They'll probably ruin things!"

Lucy clenched her fists. "If they do, we'll be ready."

"Huh, Calvin's not too popular," mused Wendell. "I can relate, man."

"Think we should work some magic on him?" suggested Quivers.

Boo motioned to the gym. "Let's check on him..."

They peeked in the gym to see Calvin, Hobbes, Jason, and Marcus pacing around in a circle, chanting "NO GIRLS!" again and again.

Boo winced. "That would take a lot of charming. Tonight, let's see if we can find someone easier."

"When can we leave?" Marcus asked the other boys.

"When Valentine's Day is over!" shouted Jason.

"But tomorrow's Valentine's Day, remember?" reminded Hobbes.

Jason moaned in anguish. "You're right! What do we do?"

"Tomorrow, we stock up!" cried Calvin. "We'll wait this thing out, no matter how many Valentine's Days we have to stand! Grab all the Kool-Aid you can carry!"

"Do you think we were wrong about this whole spell, Boo?" asked Quivers.

"We might have cast it with the wrong people in mind," admitted Boo, "but it's like I said! We're doing more good than bad! I say we see what happens tonight. Sounds pretty darn romantic."

The ghosts left at the wrong time. If they had stayed around a second later, they would have heard the boys discussing a raid on a certain party...

Ah, it's nice to see the two pairs of ghosts together at last! Actually, in the Fame, Fortune, and a Muppet Movie episode, the Hitchhikng Ghosts mention not liking the Ghostmasters, implying something happened between them that we don't know. In fact, we still don't know. But if you ask me, the Ghostmasters are definitely more powerful.

Although the Hitchhikers were posted in one of my stories first, I actually wrote the Ghostmaster one before them. Therefore, the Ghostmasters are what I consider my proto-Hitchhikers...even if they're both rip-offs of Casper's Ghostly Trio, anyway.

Speaking of Casper, the song in this chapter was written for the movie, but cut. It's on the DVD and has almost become the Hitchhiker's theme. No, wait, it IS their theme.