Chapter 3:

Escape Attempt

Danny's mind had most definitely not been on his schoolwork throughout the day. No, instead he had been worrying about what Dash thought he knew about him and what he was going to be able to do about it. Anything that gave Dash any more leverage over him than his towering six foot frame already did was bad.

Very bad.

And because he didn't know what it was exactly that the guy thought he knew, Danny kept on worrying about it more and more and more and more until neither Sam nor Tucker could do anything to calm him down.

History passed by in a worried daze. Notes from his friends asking what in the world was going on started to pile up on his desk, unanswered and unnoticed.

Math was a nightmare, because even though Dash wasn't very good at the subject and the teacher came down the aisle several times to frown at his work on the timed team drills, the blonde managed to look up over the row to flash a positively evil smirk at him.

Thankfully they didn't share Literature, but even without Dash in his direct line of vision, Danny was antsy and completely unaware that he was being called on to answer some question about a fat man called Falstaff until the teacher had actually tapped him on the shoulder.

He spent lunch running around the building trying to avoid Dash and teachers and the A-listers and his friends, hoping to catch a few minutes of time to think things through alone.

He ended up with no food, two disgruntled friends, and a peeved teacher for causing a ruckus in the halls, but at least he hadn't been cornered by the footballer. That made it a success in his book, no matter how much his stomach was grumbling afterward.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a blur of dropping a thousand test tubes in chemistry, staring blankly at the wall in study hall, and hiding in the janitor's closet through PE.

There was no possible way that he was going to voluntarily put himself in a position to be pummeled, punched, punted, or pelted by Dash after what had happened that morning. And knowing the bully, the blonde would find some way to come after him in the gym with much bodily harm done to one party and no repercussions on the other.

Coach Teslaff would be ready to squash him to jelly and then make him run a marathon when she finally caught up with him, but it would all be worth it if he could make it through this nightmarish day alive. He was willing to run that marathon if it meant Dash couldn't keep up with him.

He had actually, somehow, miraculously managed to avoid the bully since lunch. Danny had caught glimpses of the boy looking for him, but he managed to slip into lockers or around corners quickly enough to remain undetected in the halls of the school.

He just needed to keep this up game of hide-and-seek for a couple more minutes. The bell had already rung and most of the students had left for home or the mall or the Nasty Burger. Dash knew that he had at least one detention and surely he wasn't desperate enough to wait the hour after school. He couldn't be that high of a priority. There was always tomorrow, right?

Plus, Dash had to catch a ride home with Kwan or whoever he had caught a ride with today… he couldn't just wait around indefinitely… oh man. But he had seen Dash walking to school today. He hadn't come with anyone and he didn't have to leave with anyone. He had all the time in the world to wait right outside of Lancer's door. Oh man, this was not good.

Danny peered out around a hallway corner to see if the coast was clear only to discover that it wasn't. A small group of A-listers were waiting around his locker as if they had nothing better to do than fill the hallway of the losers after school was released.

Danny fell back around the corner very quickly, hoping that nobody had seen him, but he knew even before he heard the cry that Dash had. Dash had been on the lookout the entire time and saw the bushy black hair peeking out around the corner. In a flash, toned legs took Dash across the floor in a speed that he rarely felt the need to exhibit in a practice. He tore down the hallway, followed by Kwan and a couple other kids who were only too glad to chase after the dweeb.

Danny had no chance to escape the group without using his ghost powers. They were all Casper's top athletes and were motivated by seeing the most fun they would have all week at the end of this chase.

They were too close behind him; he hadn't had enough of a head start to go invisible or intangible. They could see him. To disappear now would be to definitely expose him before many Phantom-crazy teenagers instead of being confronted by one who might have an inkling of what was going on.

Definitely not a decent trade off there.

Even the adrenaline pounding through his veins and propelling his feet faster than he had ever before had cause to run in human form was not enough to help him escape. Dash had him pinned against the wall within several seconds and the guys with him soon added their arms to the clamping down of a struggling Danny.

Fortunately for them, all of the teachers and figures of authority had gone home for the day. No one was going to break this up.

"Hey Fentone, I want to have a little talk with you…" Dash drawled.

The rest of his posse grinned, knowing full well what one of Dash's little talks would do to the kid. He would end up inside a locker with Dash's socks for the night, or with his underwear flying high next to the red, white, and blue.

It would be an interesting "conversation" for them to listen to, that much was for sure. Dash had been talking all day long of how he wanted to corner the black-haired kid and now they had. It was time for the fun to begin.

Danny eventually stopped struggling. There wasn't anything that the wimpy human Fenton could do against half of the Casper High football squad. But all the same, it went against everything in him to allow himself to be restrained like that.

He found that it was easier if he didn't look at their eyes, the eyes that gleamed with the self-importance of bullies ready to pommel their next victim who had no clue how easily he could take them all out. So he looked down at the floor between the hoard of them.

Dash was the closest as he had gotten to Danny first. He held him a little too closely, breathing very heavily with a triumphant and almost relieved gleam in his eye. Danny looked away once he had recognized the look. Whatever happened would not be pleasant for him, he could be certain of that, and he began resigning himself to a particularly nasty whaling session.

He winced, suddenly wondering why he had to put up with all of it. Why didn't he just disappear? Blame a ghost when he reappeared the next day…

Dash didn't let him put any inklings of his half-baked plan into action, however, but pulled him off the wall with one hand on the back of his shirt collar and the other holding onto his arms. He flashed a smile at his followers and told them to go home.

A couple of the boys protested at first, saying they'd stuck around long enough that they should at least be able to get a piece of the action. Dash pinned them with a stare hard and long enough to remind them exactly who was the king of Casper High and whose touchdowns had given their team any kind of recognition or special treatment with the teachers. Still disappointed, they trickled away one by one, but not without throwing one last glance or taunt at Danny.

Soon it was just Dash and Kwan left.