Danny left an hour early for school. His parents recently invented a new ghost hunting device, and Danny didn't want to be its Guinea Pig. Luckily, Jazz saw his pallid fear at the kitchen table when his dad introduced the "Fenton Go Getter 3000," and made up an excuse about getting to school early for a group project.

Danny climbed into the passenger seat and Jazz started her small red car. The ride was pretty quiet, but 3 minutes into it, Danny finally said, "Thanks, Jazz."

His ginger sister smiled, and told him, "Seriously Danny, don't mention. If I had to be greeted with a contraption that could end my life every morning, I'd want to get out of there, too."

His sister had that power; to turn any one of her many selfless acts into a simple, common favor. Danny was positive that his sister would rather eat breakfast before school, but instead brought him to school extra early every morning. He was so grateful to have such an understanding and selfless sister; he didn't tell her that enough.

When Jazz parked the convertible behind the school in the parking lot, Danny saw it was 7:04. He had a lot of time to kill, but he still had to actively read two chapters in The Scarlet Letter, so he waved goodbye to his sister and gave her an appreciate smile before hurrying to the library to actually get stuff done.

…

Danny had just finished the last assigned chapter when he heard the five minute bell ring. He quickly packed up his things, and turned to leave his chair. He looked up for maybe a second, saw a swish of red hair, felt something sharp against his forehead, and then found himself staring at the carpet of the mass library, his head throbbing.

"Jazz! Watch where you're going!" Danny accused, and began to sit up.

"Who's Jazz?" a familiar voice asked. Danny immediately stopped massage his aching forehead, and looked up to see a certain Kim Wate staring back at him, offering her hand. Somehow this situation seemed oddly familiar. Danny took the girls hand, and answered her question once he was upright again.

"Sorry about that," he tried laughing it off awkwardly. "Jazz is, er, my sister. You two have the same color hair, and that's all I really saw, so I just assumed. Are you okay?"

Kim nodded. "It's you I'm worried about. When you went to stand up, you sorta clonked your head into my elbow. It's really red… do you want to go get some ice?"

Danny's head was throbbing, but he had to get to class so he told his friend, "I'll be fine. Do you want to head to English?" He needed to get the subject off his aching skull.

"Actually that's what I came up to talk to you about – you know, before I knocked you over... We don't have English today. Apparently Ms. Greene had flat on the way to school this morning. We have a free, so I thought I'd save you the trouble of walking all the way over there to see for yourself."

"Oh thanks," Danny smiled, even though his head was aching worse than he could ever remember. He was sure if he'd been a ghost, it would've healed by now, but he couldn't very well excuse himself and go ghost in front of Kim – he hardly even knew her.

"You definitely don't look good. I think it's forming a bruise. Come on, I'll go with you to the nurse."

"I'm fine," Danny lied.

"Listen I don't even know where the nurse is and I'm curious, so come on." She signaled for Danny to leave the library, and at first, he was going to argue, but the longer they stood there, the more he could feel his heart beating inside his head.

"Come on, just for ice," Kim begged. That was when Danny reluctantly agreed. The four eyed girl beamed with excitement as Danny's head bobbed up and down. He led the way, and as he was pulling open the glass door to the office, he checked his reflection, and realized Kim had been right. He had quite an ugly bruise forming. His head must had been bleeding pretty badly on the inside because the bruise was colored as if it had been a there the entire day. Perfect, Danny complained.

The nurse handed Danny a bag of ice to stall the internal bleeding, and Kim and Danny left without saying another word.

"Thanks," Danny smiled.

Kim almost burst into a laughing fit, but she controlled herself. She couldn't stop herself from saying, however, "You're thanking me? This whole ugly mess is my fault."

Danny smiled at the ginger girl, "Don't be ridiculous, I ran into you."

"And yet I somehow come out unscathed," Kim smiled gently Danny returned the soft expression. He glanced at his phone. "So what do you want to do? We have half an hour till our next class."

Kim shrugged; today was only her fourth day at this strange place. "You decide," she offered.

Danny thought for a moment, but realized everywhere that was cool that he knew of he only knew how to get there by phasing through walls. How boring his life would be if it weren't for his ghost powers.

"We could go to the courtyard?" Danny suggested. The courtyard was good… it was safe.

He led the way, and Kim and Danny sat down at a wooden picnic table. "So I feel like I don't know you very well," Danny thought aloud. "Tell me about yourself. How was your school before here? Similar, different?"

Kim shrugged, "It seemed a lot bigger that's for sure."

"Where did you say you were from again?"

"Middleton, right outside of Denver, Colorado."

Danny nodded, and continued, "So what did you do for fun?"

/Save the world,/ Kim thought, but knew she couldn't say it.

"I was a cheerleader," Kim shrugged.

Danny suddenly felt the air around him grow sense. "/You/ were a cheerleader?"

Kim crossed her arms over her chest. "Is it that hard to believe?"

"No… I guess Middleton and Amity Park cheerleading is different…" Kim could tell he didn't think she could actually do anything, and honestly proving him wrong while wearing bulky glasses and her hair up wasn't ideal.

"So why'd you move?"

"I wanted to stay with my aunt. She hasn't been feeling good."

"I'm sorry to hear…"

Kim appreciTed the sincerity, but her fake dying aunt wasn't really her number one concern at the momet. She had some questions of her own for Danny.

"Do you mind if I ask you something about Amity Park? Even if it sounds a little… crazy?"

Danny's silence encouraged Kim to continue. "I've heard the city has a bit of a, er, ghost problem."

Danny's voice caught in his throat and his wind pipe tensed up. He was suddenly aware of every breath he was taking, and had to control his breathing so he appeared calm. He couldn't see it, but he could tell his face was growing more and more pallid as the blood drained from it. He tried to swallow, but his throat seemed to have swelled, and he couldn't breathe. How could she even know that?

"R-really? That's odd… that you would hear that, I mean… I certainly haven't seen any ghosts."

He could feel the sweat drip across his forehead in anxiety, and he was terrified Kim would see through his lie. Luckily, Kim simply nodded and told Danny, "Okay just wondering."

Danny was about to change the subject when Kim sort of announced, "I'm going to head to the bathroom before class starts. See you at lunch!"

...

Kim really needed to talk to Wade, but first she had to get away from Danny. Why did that ghost question make him tense up? And who was lying to her? The Guys in White or Danny? What if they both were...

She needed to sort this out with Wade. Once out of Danny's view, she began to sprint to the nearest bathroom.

As soon as she was inside a bathroom, she looked underneath all the stalls, and luckily saw no feet. She pulled out her blue handheld and tapped the green button. The chubby kid appeared on the screen.

"Kim! I was just about to call you," the young boy greeted.

"Really? What's the sitch?"

"I've got some information on the ghost kid."

"Let me hear it."

"He has an arch nemesis – or nemeses, it's two. Jack and Madeline "Maddie" Fenton. They have two children: a boy and a girl, and live at 1438 Apparition Ave."

"That's really helpful, thanks Wade!"

"You bet, what did you want to talk about?"

"You've pretty much covered it for me, thanks though!" Kim smiled broadly as she signaled off.

It would appear Danny had been the one lying. Now the question was, why?

...

"What do you mean 'she knows'?" Tucker asked his anxious friend in Algebra II. The teacher had instructed them to work as groups, so naturally, Sam, Tucker, and Danny paired up to do something besides math.

"I mean, she asked me about ghosts. Isn't that a dead giveaway?"

"Not at all," Sam replied simply. "Maybe she heard people talking. It has nothing to do with you, personally. She probably doesn't even know your parents are ghost hunters. You should be fine."

Danny nervously chattered his teeth and stomped his foot repeatedly. For his sake, he hoped she was right.

"Besides I said how we shouldn't befriend her. It isn't my fault it's backfiring on you now," Sam lamented, still feeling a bit grouchy toward the ginger girl.

Danny sighed quietly, "That's the thing, though. She's really cool, and I want to be her friend. Plus… who else does she have? She isn't exactly loved by all, you know?"

"I like her too Sam," Tucker commented. Sam only rolled her eyes. "You two disgust me."

"Do you even know her?" Danny asked. "You haven't even tried to get to know her, Sam."

Sam pushed her bangs out of her face. "Ugh! She's just so normal and weird. I don't want that kind of friend. Not to mention she's a stereotypical girl!"

"What does that even mean?" Tucker questioned the goth girl. Sam rolled her eyes. She shouldn't need to explain this kind of thing.

"Seriously Sam, what do you have against her?" Danny questioned. Sam wanted to pull her hair out. Boys could be so dumb!

"I don't have anything against her… I just don't think you know her very well. You keep asking her to tag along to our events, and it's getting old."

"You don't think I know her well?" Danny asked, ignoring the last part of Sam's complaint. "You hardly know her name!"

"I have an idea!" Tucker piped up. "I'm going to flip a coin. Sam – if you win, we'll stop pushing to be friends with her, but if Danny wins, you have to ask her spend the night on Friday."

"What?" Sam was outraged by the terms.

"What's the matter? Can't handle a little coin toss? And I thought you were confident…" Danny's words were said with a smile and in a joking manner, but they both knew that it would an indirect strike towards Sam, and she felt the kick hard. "Fine, she agreed, but I get to call it."

"Fair enough," Danny admitted. "Okay, Tucker, in the air,"

Tucker flicked his thumb upwards, and Sam called out in a hushed tone, "tails".

The coin landed on Tucker's palm, and he removed his hand away from it to reveal the emblem on the shiny quarter.

"God Fucking Damnit," Sam cursed under her breath and slapped the desk hard.

Danny and Tucker smirked at her teasingly.

…

Danny had an okay time in his history class. It was dense, tedious material, but at least he got through the hour, and finally the familiar chime of the end of the day bell dinged, and he raced to pack his things to head home. Today didn't feel like a Nasty Burger day.

He finally found his locker and lazily through three heavy textbooks into his backpack.

"Hey Man," a best friend of his greeted. Danny looked up. "Oh hey, Tuck. What's up?"

"Just getting my things together," he sighed and began twisting the lock next to Danny. Being upperclassmen this year, they finally earned their right to get a top locker. "We still going to Nasty Burger?" Tucker asked. "I'm not really up for it today," Danny admitted. Tucker was rather shocked. "Really? But doing homework before ghost hunting was always your idea so that we all make sure we stay on top our studies."

"I know… just… maybe we shouldn't go ghost hunting tonight either.…"

Tucker slammed his locker shut and faced him. "What has gotten into you?" Danny sighed, and repeated, "Kim's interrogation just has me on edge okay? I think we should lay low for a week or so…" Tucker raised his hands up in defeat. "Your call, Man."

Danny sighed. "I wish it wasn't…"

"Do you want my opinion?" Sam asked, seeming to come out of nowhere.

Danny nodded desperately.

"You are completely overreacting," she told him truthfully. Danny slumped his shoulders and sighed. "Look, I'd just rather be safe than sorry, okay?" Sam rolled her eyes. Whatever.

"And don't forget what you have to do today," Tucker teased. "That certain red head is heading over here, and she is about to get the surprise of her life when a certain Sam Manson will ask to hang."

Sam groaned, and wanted to punch Tucker for reminding her, but never got the chance because an annoying perky voice came from behind the Goth girl. "Hey guys," Kim greeted. "Are we going to that burger joint today?"

Danny smiled at the girl. "No, not today actually, but Sam wanted to ask you something." Danny stepped aside to give Sam the floor. Kim's attention was on her.

She cleared her throat. "Erm, yes, I did, as a matter of fact. I'm not sure if you free," and I hope your not – she added to herself. "But do you want to spend tomorrow night at my place? We all watch a movie at my house, and you can spend the night if you want."

Kim smiled cheerfully. "Sure that sounds great. I'll see you guys tomorrow. I gotta get home."

She sprinted off down the hall, her ginger ponytail flying behind her.