The rest of that day was a trial.

Danny had to regain consciousness first. From the look on his friends' faces, it had probably taken a while.

When Sam, Danny, and Tucker mustered up the strength to traverse the near-black hallways, they were eventually found by the vice principal-slash-English teacher, Mr. Lancer, who interrogated them relentlessly on where they'd been. What did he expect, an hour-long confession? Eventually Lancer dismissed Sam and Tucker, bringing Danny to his office...where a smiling Dash leaned against the wall, as if he knew exactly what was coming.

Detention. For a week.

Livable, thought Danny, though what wasn't livable was the fact that Dash, in the end, won.

When Danny was finally let go—after a stern lecture—he ignored Dash's presence and walked straight out of the room, surprised to find Sam and Tucker sitting in chairs outside the door. They looked at him simultaneously. Shouldn't you be in class? He wanted to inquire, he didn't want them to get in trouble for his sake. But he remembered: Lancer had him in there for a long time. They might not have been there the whole duration. In fact, just as he thought this, the last bell of the day rang, students began milling through the halls on their respective ways home.

"I'll walk home with you today, Danny," Sam said.

"Why?"

"In case something happens again," she reasoned.

"Me, too," Tucker added.

It was madness but it felt right, "Alright," he agreed, "I just gotta do something first."

Yeah, Lancer assigned Danny the task of cleaning up the cafeteria with the maintenance people, but that could be overlooked.

They were on the doorstep to his house—they'd walked all the way, a farther distance than the Nasty Burger, but tolerable—and Danny was dead on his feet. He couldn't resist swaying every few minutes. Sam bumped her shoulder once against his in an attempt to support him, it didn't do much, but it was nice of her. He unlocked the door with his keys and found his sister and parents standing in the living room talking, a little heatedly.

"You know that this is going in my memoir—" Jazz cut herself off, turning to look at the trio.

"Uh...I brought my friends over, is that okay?" Danny asked.

Maddie glanced at Jack, "I don't mind," she said, "What are you planning on doing?"

"...Video games," Danny lied.

"Sounds good to me," Jack shrugged. His son could only nod.

The three of them walked upstairs to Danny's bedroom. He shut the door quickly.

"You know," Tucker started, "I think that ghost would've been less angry if you and the rest of the vegans of the school hadn't changed the menu."

Sam stared at him, "What?"

"I'm just sayin', if you didn't try and force your beliefs on everybody..."

"I can't believe you!"

"Okay!" Danny erupted, "Less arguing about stupid crap, more figuring out what's going on!"

They both looked at him like he'd grown a second head. Then, they grew contrite. Tucker, anyway. Sam was still angry. She didn't say anything else, though.

Danny didn't often interrupt their quarreling. He'd had enough craziness in one day, he didn't need more. He knew they were scared and confused and that was making them say dumb things, but this was ridiculous. If they were anyone else he'd be much worse off. Tucker was a genius when it came down to it, and Sam was like the sharp black eyeliner pencil in her makeup kit he'd seen her use at lunch. They needed to keep their heads together. Including Danny himself. He took a breath.

"I don't know what there is to figure out, it's pretty obvious to me," Sam said, "Ghosts exist. One is haunting our school. That's it."

"Yeah, but how do we get rid of it?" Danny almost demanded.

Sam and Tucker resembled fishes.

"Why don't we just tell your parents?" Tucker said after a pause, "They're ectologists."

It made perfect logical sense but it didn't satisfy the burning in Danny. He wanted that lunch lady gone. He wanted to chase her away with his own two fists, he...he stopped that train of thought. Where did that come from?

"I...yeah," he mumbled.

Tucker's gaze on him felt like it bore into Danny, "You're not gonna, are you?"

Danny gulped, then spoke with a bit more force than he meant to, "No! Unless you've forgotten, I'm...a ghost now, too! I don't know what the Portal did to me, but it did something, and what if I'm dead?" It was a weak argument, even to him, but it seemed to be enough for Tucker. In fact, both he and Sam looked spooked. 'What if I'm dead,' sounded stupid to Danny, but...if it convinced Sam and Tucker not to tell his parents for a while longer...

If something my parents built gave me freaky powers, then maybe something they built can get rid of them...he'd think about that later.

"I'm sorry," he said, "I don't mean to tell you guys to stop yelling at each other, and then turn around and yell at you guys."

"It's not your fault," Sam reassured him, "We were being stupid."

It was strange she was ready to admit that when she'd been pink in the face a few moments earlier, but he didn't point it out. They were all trying to think through what was going on. Things could be let go. Tucker looked like he wanted to say something to rebuke her, Danny said before he could, "What's happening to me?"

"I don't know," Tucker replied, "We can't tell your parents. They might experiment on you or something," he suddenly seemed horrified at what he'd said.

Danny gawked at him. He hadn't thought of that. But, his mom and dad? They loved him! They'd never...well, if he wasn't normal anymore...but that was crazy, he was still himself.

Sam blurted, "You can't just say something like that!"

Tucker whirled on her, "Shut up, already!"

Sam's expression contorted first in shock, then anger, and Danny just about had enough.

"How about you guys get out, try to get over yourselves and don't come back till you do?!"

It was Tucker who turned to look at Danny first. Sam's eyes slowly wheeled to him. It was a moment before Danny continued, "I mean it! We're never gonna get anything done if you're like this!" Who said we had to get anything done? Said a voice in the far reaches of his mind. He held his bedroom door open for them.

Tucker gulped audibly, adjusted the shoulder straps on his backpack and left. Sam looked at the spot where Tucker had been, then at Danny, her eyes were guilty but she left, too.

Everything was quiet in their wake. Danny sighed.

"...have a happy school day." The school morning announcements over the intercom ended. It was the next day and first period class, Tucker hadn't said a single word to Danny, who guessed that meant he hadn't gotten over his grudge with Sam yet. From what he could overhear, some kids had done silly stunts during the Lunch Lady's blackout the day before. He wasn't surprised. Exciting, unexpected things didn't happen much at Casper High, so when something did occur, students took advantage of the opportunity. The announcements also mentioned that someone extremely vandalized the cafeteria kitchen on police-alerting levels. If someone saw an officer, that was why. Danny winced.

At lunchtime Danny chose to sit in the part of the commons area that was outside. He barely poked at his tray.

What did this all mean? What was wrong with him? Why did he want to fight so badly? He couldn't deny it, either. The Lunch Lady was—encroaching, on something she—it?—shouldn't have dared. She attacked his friends. He couldn't tolerate that. He refused to. It was like the very notion went against the fiber of his being.

He was taken aback when Sam and Tucker appeared in the seats in front of him. He'd been so immersed in his own thoughts he hadn't heard them walking up.

There was a pregnant moment.

"We made up," Tucker spoke up.

"Yeah," Sam agreed, "For you. You're the one with the problems, we should be helping you."

Danny thought he saw something large and moving in the distance, but he ignored it; probably a tree swaying.

"As your friends," added Tucker.

Danny gradually smiled, "Thanks."

That was when the wind spiked.

A horrible scent, like rotten carnage, blew over the three of them, and not only them. Danny heard people cry out, "Oh, god, what is that smell?" repeatedly.

They all gawped in disbelief and awe as a swirling mass of redness manifested above the school. Meat. Miles of...meat.

It was impossible not to hear the cackling female voice declare:

"It's lunch time!"