I'm trying not to let the updates go very long, but looking at how rough and short my first drafts of these chapters are combined with my work load... I apologize if it takes longer than you like.

Chapter 4:

Out of the Frying Pan

The group of A-listers grumbled at being dismissed. They resented being told to go home when Danny was all cowed and ready to get beat up in a spectacular fashion. They had been looking forward to this all day, almost as much as Dash had, egged on by their leader's constant comments about how badly he was going to whale on Fenton and how things were going to go down.

So the group was understandably disappointed at being told to go home, but they saw that they had no choice. No one went against the king of Casper High.

They stomped loudly enough down the halls to let him know that they weren't happy about this, but by the time they were out of the building they had struck up plans to meet at the Nasty Burger or hang out with the latest Call of Duty at someone's house.

After a few minutes, the footballers were gone. It took a little while longer for the echoes to die down and Dash to decide that his posse was gone and the coast was truly and finally clear.

It was only then that Dash decided he could let his guard down the tiniest fraction of an inch, not releasing his grip on Danny any, but relaxing some of the tension in his expression and shoulders.

It gave Danny hope that he might possibly be able to wheedle his way out of this mess now that there wasn't a whole gang of guys ready to beat up on him if he moved a single muscle the wrong way.

The odds had definitely moved in his favor and he began to entertain ideas that such an escape was possible, even if the rational part of his brain told him not to get his hopes up too much.

Still, he had to give it a shot.

"Hey Dash…" he tried to ease into the swing of things here. "You know that I'm late for detention, right? And Lancer is really upset with me right now, so I don't think that he would be happy if he found out that you were holding me up."

Maybe, maybe, maybe Dash would listen to reason. Danny crossed his fingers. He didn't expect it of the jock, but with his hero job came an unflagging belief in the goodness of humankind, even down to the football players.

Dash looked at him, clearly surprised at what he had said, at the fact that Danny was late to detention. It wasn't the fact that he was late; that was perfectly normal—he was late all the time, actually.

It was fairly obvious, however, that Dash had forgotten that he had caused the slim boy to get detention first thing this morning by running into him and detaining him on the site of his fight with Skulker. Detentions didn't mean much to the guy. He had never had to deal with them, given his star status with every single detention-doling teacher.

But part of the statement did register in his mind. If Danny was supposed to be in detention right now, Lancer must still be in the building and he could come snooping around at any moment searching for the missing delinquent.

He couldn't let the vice principal find them… find him and what it would look like he was doing. The man could only turn a blind eye so much and when there was no one else to look at in a deserted school, it would be hard to escape the notice of the teacher.

"Okay…" Dash acknowledged, nodding his head slowly.

Danny snapped to attention, his jaw hanging open at a ridiculously wide angle. Disbelief, shock were plainly written on his features, but he couldn't blame himself even if he had been able to see how ridiculously he looked at the moment. He was still too floored at what had happened.

Had… Dash… actually… just listened to him? Followed his advice? Made a smart decision for once in his life? It was almost too good to be true.

"Kwan, grab his other arm," Dash ordered.

Of course it was too good to be true.

Dash began to tug on Danny, drawing him further down the hallway. It soon became clear to the helpless teen that Dash had no intention of letting him go to detention, but was merely moving to a less conspicuous location in case Lancer did try to find him.

Only after they had made it nearly down the length of the hallway did Danny begin to realize where they were going and just how bad this whole thing could end up being. He swallowed heavily and began to back peddle as Kwan opened the door to the bathroom. Oh no. He was not going to get dragged into the bathroom by two guys who felt that they could do anything to him that they wanted. No. That was not right and he wasn't going to let them do anything to him.

His heart was racing as he began to imagine every swirlie he'd ever gotten rolled into one. The prospect was not a pleasant one.

He would tell them the truth before he let anything like that happen.

As Phantom, he could give them both a piece of his mind that they would never ever forget.

Then Danny shook his head, what was he thinking? The whole point of everything he had done so far was to keep anyone from figuring out the truth. If Dash and Kwan, the leaders of the A-list found out his secret, there was no way that everyone in the entire school wouldn't know about it by the time the bell rang at the end of the day. And shortly after that, the entire town would know. He would have to leave, hightail it out of there before the GIW showed up to cart him off to sector 51 and inject him with so many things that his head was already beginning to spin just thinking of them.

They were inside the bathroom now. Dash kicked open a stall and shoved Danny inside. He looked up with wide blue eyes. What on earth was Dash going to do? His heart beat loudly and painfully for a few very long moments.

Then, without taking his eyes off of Danny, Dash quietly told Kwan to go home.

His right hand man and best friend was shocked. They always did the bullying together. Surely, he couldn't have meant it when he told him to go home. Right? But Dash stood there, looking fixed in his ideas and wearing a threatening expression that he usually reserved for nerds and the opposing football team.

Kwan didn't understand why, but he knew what his friend wanted. He would honor his request. So with a halting, "Okay, Dash," Kwan walked out of the bathroom and left the school.

Both boys held their breath until they were sure he was long gone.

Dash sighed in relief and Danny had absolutely no idea what to expect now. Nothing about this was Dash-like any longer. He didn't know what kind of a game the jock was playing, but it seemed like someone had changed the rules without telling him and he was just thoroughly bewildered.

He looked up expectantly, but the last thing he expected was for Dash's countenance to completely change.

Dash took a deep breath and backed up, far away from Danny so that he was leaning back against one of the sinks.

Instead of the proud, tough bully, he looked like a tired, wary, and sorry teen. He ran a hand through his blonde hair as Danny tried to reconcile the Dash with a minute ago with the Dash facing him now.

The change was so abrupt, as if a switch had been thrown or an overshadowing ghost had been knocked out of him.

He had seen that happen before, had ripped the ghost out of Dash himself on the football field. The kid in front of him looked about as tired and lost and confused as he had when he lost his huge football-playing ghost half.

What Danny saw now was a side that had been taking prominence over the past several days, but a side which Dash was careful to never let any of his underlings see. It would have been the social death of him.

It made Danny really begin to wonder what was going on. What would have made Dash look so… lost?

So… haunted?

He was still the head of the A-list.

Paulina was his devoted girlfriend (well, devoted to him unless Phantom was around).

And even though his game had suffered a little bit since the incident where Danny had pulled the ghost out of him during the football match, it wasn't enough to affect Casper High's record, or his popularity, or the offers of a hundred colleges across the country.

He should have had nothing to worry about.

It was completely unlike the jock to let anything faze him. Well, anything except a loss, a bad test grade, a bad practice, a bad day when he would take it out on him of all the people in the high school, but other than that, yeah, nothing fazed Dash.

"Uhh… Dash?" Danny planned to ask what on earth the kid was planning to do with him now and started out slowly because he still didn't really know what was happening.

It was good for him that he had started out slowly and hesitantly, because even as slow and hesitant as it was, Dash was jarred out of his daze and bolted upright.

When his eyes rested on Fenton holding onto the bathroom stall door looking at him with an odd expression on his face, he suddenly remembered who he was and who Fenton was and what he was doing.

Well, hope you liked it. And, as always, reviews make my day. :)