Danny transformed—there wasn't really any flashiness about it, he just did it without a second thought—thankful that the hallway they were in was lacking of witnesses—that really was weirdly convenient. They all jumped—yes, even the Box Ghost—when a loud bell rang, and Danny remembered that everyone was supposed to be attending an assembly (something about the havoc that had been wreaked on their school lately, he couldn't blame the staff for wanting to say something about to the student body as a whole) that day. Floating above the ground high enough to be on eye-level with Box, Danny glanced back at his friends.

"You guys go to the assembly," he said, "I'll get this moron!" They took his suggestion, turning around and presumably heading for the auditorium in a near-sprinting gait. For a split second he marveled at his own steeliness. Then again, he'd dealt with Box many times before now and he knew the guy—ghost?—didn't have much bite behind his bark, and, geez, did he bark a lot for such a loser. Danny didn't often call others losers, but Box was a ghost, he didn't count, right?

What Danny had only barely noticed was that Box had brought a bunch of boxes with him, hovering in the air behind him, he definitely noted their presence when their contents were flung at him. It was silverware. Meaning, knives. Danny cringed backwards and went intangible upon his back hitting a row of lockers. The knives were thrown with so much force some of them actually stuck in the metal of the lockers. Danny stared at them warily for maybe a moment too long.

The Box Ghost rammed into him bodily with enough momentum to send Danny's semi-transparent body rocketing through numerous walls and rooms, till finally he landed somewhere he didn't recognize immediately. He was too busy unwillingly changing back to human form. Crap! He thought, freezing in position, lying painfully on his back. Box hadn't wasted any time following him, materializing through the wall in front of Danny while exclaiming, "Tremble before the might of the Box Ghost!"

There were boxes in the room they were in, Danny noted with mild dismay. They were lifted up with green ectoplasmic energy. Danny prepared for pain, anything, but all that happened next was a bunch of…clothing…being dumped on him. He sputtered, buried underneath piles of costumes. Muffled by the cloth around him, he heard cackling, then, "Beware!" Nothing else.

Struggling to free himself, there was suddenly the sound of shuffling fabric…

He dug through the props, head popping free, just in time to see curtains being pulled open. He absolutely froze. At a loss, completely drawing blanks, he merely waited for them to come apart all the way, revealing seats upon seats of his peers, as well as Principal Ishiyama and Vice Principal Lancer on the stage with him; when the openly goggling gazes of the students before them became too hard to ignore, they looked behind them and joined in on the gawking.

There was a girly hat resting crookedly on Danny's head, on top of everything.

"What the hell?" Said one kid.

"That's Fenton!" Spoke another.

The second time Danny had ever been in Lancer's office, and it was because he was in trouble again.

"I don't know how you got in there without anyone noticing," Lancer said, "But you will tell me how, and why."

"I…" Danny couldn't think of anything, "I…don't know."

Lancer scoffed, "You 'don't know' how you got onto a stage? What, did you do this for attention?"

The question was so bald it made Danny bristle. "No!"

"Then, do tell."

This wasn't going to go in his favor.

Danny trudged to his next period class in a foul mood. Lancer hadn't believed a word he said. Danny barely believed a word he himself said. Lancer hadn't mentioned calling Danny's parents, but the boy was sure that was what was going to happen. He didn't look forward to that. People looked at him without even trying to hide it as he passed them by. He went to his locker, grabbing the stuff he'd need out of it. He didn't expect the sudden sense of multiple presences behind him creeping up slowly. He blinked and turned around.

Dash Baxter and several others who were obviously on the football team, telling from their Lettermans, were standing there, blocking all directions so Danny couldn't possibly pass them by. It was rather surreal. Didn't this sort of thing only happen in cartoons? But, here they were, oozing superiority. He kept a neutral face on.

"Uh…?"

Dash didn't deign to speak. One of the other boys did it for him, "What the fuck was that earlier, Fenton?"

"An accident," Danny blurted. I got lost? It sounded feeble even to him.

A snort, "Yeah, right."

"Look," Danny said, an old flare of temper igniting, "It doesn't matter."

The same boy who'd spoken first marched forward until they were practically chest-to-chest, "Don't fuckin' talk to me that way!"

Danny was surprised they were going this far, it brought back unpleasant memories of when he was in middle school. "What is your deal?"

A strong shove sent Danny smacking against his own locker, "I don't like your tone, asshole!" Danny was flabbergasted. Beaten by the Box Ghost, of all humiliating things, and now he had to deal with this? Foulmouthed pigs. There was no way Danny would let them make him feel like a lesser person like they had years ago.

Dash was watching it all, smiling like a jerkass.

"You'll have to deal with it," Danny spat.

To his extreme shock, one of the boys reached out with no warning, grabbed him by the back of his neck, and threw him to the floor. It wasn't very hard to do. Danny's strength in ghost form was useless right now. He hit the ground with a grunt, eyes wide.

"He's not worth it," Dash commandeered, the others looked at him, stopping respectfully. Respectfully. Danny was floored, and not just literally. "If he acts up again, he knows what'll happen." The three boys nodded, and then they all just walked away, like nothing important had just happened.

Everyone was watching, but no one stepped forward to ask Danny if he was okay. They turned away. He lay on the ground, stunned, waiting for something to happen that would make sense. Nothing did. He got to his feet after a long moment.

Was this what he was now in everybody's eyes? A piece of shit, not worth the time of day?

Something pulsed coldly inside his locker, which he closed with numb fingers. He didn't notice it.

"Bullies…"

Once he got home, his parents were sitting at the dining table in the kitchen discussing something. They stopped once he entered the room. Jazz was also there, nose in a book. Danny waited for them to scrutinize him, to ask him what he'd thought he was doing earlier that day during school, but it never came.

"Hey, there, Danno," Jack said, "Your mom and I want to tell you something."

"Okay?"

"We'll be investigating your school during class hours tomorrow," Maddie clarified.

Danny wasn't sure how to feel. His parents, staking out Casper High? Where everyone would see them, know who they were?

"What?!" They all looked at Jasmine. She leapt up from her chair and moved to Danny's side, placing a hand on his shoulder, "No! You can't! Danny is at a very critical stage in the development of his peer groups, he's already considered a…" Foot in mouth. She seemed to realize what she was saying. It wasn't too hard to figure out. Huh, she was showing cognizance of her own words for once.

"Nice," Danny grumbled.

"Wait, wait," Maddie backtracked, "Considered a what? Danny, has anyone been bullying you?"

Danny paused.

"I'm sure someone has been," Jasmine said, "The way I hear them talking—"

"Jasmine, let your brother speak!" Maddie snapped.

"Uh…" Danny sighed, "Yeah."

"What's happened, son?" Jack was concerned.

"Some guys cornered me today and kinda shoved me to the ground," he explained, reliving the experience even as he said it, "That guy I told you about, Dad, was one of them."

"They shoved you, to the ground?" Jack repeated, as if he was trying to wrap his mind around the concept.

"Yeah."

"That's it," his father growled, "When we go there tomorrow, I'm talking to this Lancer V.P.," one of Jack's hands formed a fist, "And we're settling this."

Danny thought that would probably only make it worse, but there was no changing it now.

The next day at school Danny saw that he wasn't the only bullied kid in Casper.

An overweight band member was being harassed by two of Dash's teammates, Danny found a different route to his class in order to avoid them. What could he do? His parents were already in the school someplace and most likely trying to get a hold of Lancer. Who knew, maybe it would fix things. He doubted it.

Unbeknownst to him, after the two jocks were done messing with the poor band kid, one of them walked by Danny's locker. It opened by itself and slammed him in the face, closing itself again neatly as the guy cursed and generally freaked out.

At lunch, Danny sat with Sam and Tucker.

"I'm glad your parents are taking action, Danny," Sam said, "I'm sorry I wasn't there to tell them to screw off."

Danny shrugged, "You didn't have to, even if you were there."

"You're my friend! Of course I would have."

Danny wanted to smile, but just couldn't.

Tucker asked, "Dude, remember what I said about possessing people?"

Danny raised his eyebrows. "Yeah?"

"Try it. Get revenge. You deserve it."

Danny processed that. He dwelled on it for multiple moments. There'd been a dark feeling in his gut ever since the incident yesterday. For once, the thrumming in his chest had nothing to do with it.

Without notifying his friends he was doing anything at all, he turned intangible and invisible. He slunk over to where Dash's table was, across the commons from where Danny and his ilk sat. He wasn't at all shaken by the fact Paulina was sitting there as well. After her stint with Danny at the dance, she'd taken to getting closer to the school footballers. It was impossible not to know; everyone talked about it. She'd famously chased Dash away in front of everyone for Danny and now she was shunning the latter and being friendly with the former.

Danny wondered how to do this.

He was intangible, wasn't he? So he should be able to just…step into Dash's body from behind…

And just like that, he was taller than he remembered. His arm was making a gesture he hadn't been before. Except it wasn't his arm. It was thicker, and clad in a Letterman jacket sleeve. He was Dash Baxter…but…he wasn't. His other hand held Dash's tray of food.

"Bro? What's up?" Someone inquired, gruffly.

He must have looked strange. Correction: Dash looked strange.

…Good.

It was Danny's intention to spill the food on Dash's tray over the quarterback's head, but his limbs felt far too alien and they shook and wobbled as he raised the tray. Panicking slightly, Danny gave up and watched in astonishment as it went flying for Paulina, landing on her in a mess. She hadn't had time to dodge. She shrieked in horror, her eyes meeting his—Dash's—in outrage and disbelief.

Dash's body jerked backwards twice as Danny tried his best to flee, escaping the mortal confines like a, well, specter.

He rushed back to where Sam and Tucker were, and found them slack-jawed.

"Oh my gosh," Sam burst at last, it hit Danny dimly that she was Jewish and didn't like to take God's name in vain, "Was that you?"

"It was," he confirmed.

"That was amazing!" Tucker was ecstatic, quietly, though, so as not to attract unwanted attention. "What'd it feel like?!"

Danny, pointedly ignoring the scene in the other end of the commons which was surely happening, although he thought he could hear Paulina's indignation even from this distance, thought about that question, "It felt like—not being you. Y'know what I mean?"

Tucker nodded readily, "I think so. Your powers are so cool."

Danny…grinned.

"Are you sure…" Sam trailed off.

Danny turned to her, "Sure of what?"

"That you should be using them like that?"

Danny cocked his head, "Well…it's not like it didn't need to happen."

"Yeah, Sam," Tucker crowed, again, not too loudly—Paulina was storming out of the commons, oh boy, "It's about time that asshat looked bad."

Sam didn't say anything else.

About an hour later Danny was called to go to the vice principal's office. He could only guess this had to do with his parents and what they said they'd do.

"Sit down, Danny," Lancer bid him, calling him by his first name for the first time since Danny'd met him. To Danny's chagrin, Dash was already there. He'd been hoping he'd have his parents there, but evidently they were nowhere to be seen.

"Normally I would have called both your parents here, but seeing as Mr. and Mrs. Fenton are scoping the school," Lancer went on, "I'll talk to you both myself."

Danny did not look at Dash.

"I understand that the two of you do not get along," Lancer began, "Therefore, this is my only piece of advice: avoid each other, or face the consequences."

He was talking like Danny was intentionally causing trouble, too. He was flummoxed at first. Then, he seethed.

"I don't think I need to explain it further. You are dismissed."

Dash stood up immediately and left. Danny was left incredulous.

"You can't be serious…"

Was Lancer glaring at him? "I am, Mr. Fenton. Now, please leave. I have things to attend to."

Danny shook his head and walked out, turning over his luck in his mind and wondering why his life had turned into the disorder it had.

He drifted as an invisible ghost through the hallways near the end of the school day. He couldn't bear the looks others gave him so he'd opted so just avoid being seen altogether. It was to his total alarm when he got near his locker he saw Dash nearby, at his own locker. Danny hadn't even noticed they were close locker-neighbors. He stayed still, unseen and silent. His thoughts began to burn. He hated Dash. He really, truthfully, without a doubt did. He hated his cronies, he hated that he was hailed as a worthier person in general by everyone when he didn't deserve it, he…

He was going to do something about it.

He flew down the hall and was halfway to Dash when something happened.

Danny's idea had been to sneak up on Dash and spook him, kind of tame compared to what he really wanted to do, but he didn't get the chance before he saw a figure emerging from…

His…

Locker?

He watched in consternation as the grayscale, glasses-wearing boy that crawled intangibly out of locker seven hundred twenty four whispered in wonder, "I'm free?"

"What in the flying hell?" Dash shouted.

Danny still wasn't visible, but the ghost of Sydney Poindexter was. That's who this ghost had to be, because Danny's breath was misting like it always did when an ecto-entity was near, and Tucker had told him his locker was haunted. Apparently, he'd been right.

Just feeling this ghost's aura was enough to set Danny off, he solidified himself and was grateful he was in ghost form, his hood and goggles concealing his identity—Sam had pointed out that when he wasn't wearing them, he wasn't that hard to recognize, green eyes, white hair or not—as he barricaded himself between Sydney and the rest of the kids around, who were one by one looking to find out what had caused Baxter to yell.

He felt an indescribable protectiveness. He thought it extended to his friends and family only, but as his eyes, behind the goggles, roved over the crowds of students, he realized he wasn't doing this just because the feeling inside told him to. He was doing this because it made sense. Ghosts only made nuisances of themselves from what he'd seen so far. If he didn't intervene it could get bad.

"You're a bully, aren't you?" The ghost accused.

That caught Danny off guard. "What?"

"Don't try to deny it, buster!"

Danny didn't know how to respond.

The confusion of everyone around was palpable.

"Let's see how you like getting bullied!" Sydney raised his arms and they glowed green. The lockers—all of them—began to shake and rattle.

People started to scream.