Danny held the envelope in his hands, white but for his name printed neatly on the front. He was waiting for Sam and Tucker before he opened it, and the suspense was killing him. He hadn't had much time to study the past year, and he was terrified the little piece of paper in his hands would bare the proof of that.
He could just see the looks on his parent's faces, well on his mom's face, his dad didn't think he needed much of a formal education, schools didn't teach ghost fighting after all. The worst would be Jazz, she'd give him that look and say she was proud of him for trying, but he'd know she was disappointed. It was kind of embarrassing that he still wanted his sister to feel proud of him, but as long as nobody ever found out it he didn't feel too bad about it.
Sam showed up first, her own envelop held loosely between two fingers.
"You think you passed?" She asked nonchalantly.
"With my attendance record?" Danny scoffed. "I hope I'm that lucky, I wish I were the one stuck with the cramtastic two-thousand for hours instead of Tucker."
"I'm here!" Tucker yelled and came at them running. "You guys ready? Coz I am so ready."
As one they tore open their envelopes and unfolded the sheets of paper within.
"Yes!" Both Danny and Tucker cried out, leaping into the air to slap each other high fives while Sam kept up her disaffected scowl.
"All A's baby!" Tucker kissed his report card. "I love that machine."
"Same as always." Sam shrugged and put the paper away.
"Mostly B's and a C." Danny laughed and hugged his friends. "And Red said I wouldn't make it, I did better than him! We have to celebrate, like all of us! It's finally summer, and I'm not getting grounded."
"You're going to call and rub it in his face, aren't you?" Sam asked.
Danny was already dialing.
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Jason sneezed and drew his blanket more tightly around him. He'd gotten a minor infection days ago that had flared up the previous night, and he was really sick for the first time since he'd had a bad reacting to the bunny wraiths. He hadn't had to worry about infections when he was mostly ghost.
He was wrapped up on Dick's sofa with a mug of coco in one hand, a book in the other and the T.V blaring in the background. His hair had gotten some more white in it, and there were thin red circles forming in his eyes. At the rate they he was going Dick estimated he'd look like a ghost again in a few weeks.
Jason tuned a page and the book slipped through his hands, he growled and picked it up again. The intangibility was back again, though the hat hadn't yet made its return. He finished of his coco before he had the chance to drop that too.
"Hey, Little Wing, wanna see something cool?" Dick called from his bedroom.
"What?" Jason called back.
Dick popped into view, a microscope in his arms. He set it down the table and slipped in a slide.
"What is it?" Jason asked sliding of the sofa, his blanket still around his shoulders to look.
"Your friend's blood." Dick said.
"Dick!" Jason glared at his brother. "Why d'ya have samples of my friend's blood?"
"Just look." Dick pushed him towards the scope.
"If you let that vampire bite you and start… Cool." Instead of regular red cells, Danny's all had a glowing green spec on them.
"See what happens when l give if a shock of ecto-energy." Dick pressed a stick against the slide and before Jason's eyes each cell turned bright green.
"It's still creepy ya have this." Jason said, looking up.
"Sure." Dick took out another slide. "Now let's look at your blood. This is from when those dogs used you as a chew toy." Dick defended before Jason could complain. "It really got everywhere."
"Yay for accelerated healing." Jason mumbled. His own blood cells were shifting between green and red, glowing with a pale, shimmering light."
"See." Dick ruffled his hair. "As ugly as you are right now, you can still be pretty on the inside."
Jason elbowed his brother in the gut, knocking the breath out of him without looking back.
"Okay, one more." Dick wheezed. He changed the slides again. "I got this when I stitched you up a few days ago." Jason bit his lower lip before looking that time. Only a few red cells were shifting to green. "Looks like the greens been slowly building itself back up."
"How did this happen?" Jason asked, looking down at his still normal hands. "Dick, d'ya think there's a way to fix it?"
"I don't know." Dick said, taking a look at the blood himself. "The only way the timelines matchup is if you were in the Ghost Zone for a few extra months you don't remember." In the kitchen the phone started ringing. "I'll get it."
Jason looked back at the microscope and switched in his older blood slide.
"Phone call for the invalid." Dick said, tossing Jason the phone.
"'Sup Boss." Jason said, keeping his eyes on the scope.
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The first day of Summer was, well very warm and summery. It was Danny's idea to go to the miniature golf course of all things to celebrate their passing grades, too bad he'd suggested in front of their parents. Apparently the golf course was the only place in Amity that hadn't seen a ghost attack yet, and they wanted to find out why, while also getting in some family bonding time.
Jazz had of course been made to go along with it too, the place was at least quiet enough for her to work on some early college applications in peace. Good thing Danny's friends were used to weirder things that his parents or she was sure her little brother would be mortified.
Her little brother was nowhere in sight, but the difficulty his friend Tucker was having hitting his golf ball gave her a clue as to where he was hiding. With how often he used his powers in public she'd almost been genuinely surprised that they hadn't figured out his secret yet, then breakfast had come to life. As much as they loved their parents, both Fenton children knew they were completely clueless.
Jack and Maddie Fenton were investigating a mini windmill. Talking excitedly about whatever readings they were getting. Jazz just hoped they wouldn't notice anything off about Danny's ghost friend had arrived. As though her thoughts had summoned them, a motorcycle came up the parking lot and a boy was practically dragged by his brother up the path to the table where Jazz was sitting.
The boy pulled off his helmet and she was surprised by how different he looked. He didn't even have that a hoody on anymore, now dressed in a pale collared shirt and jeans. His frown was gone for a moment when his brother ruffled his two tones hair then he pushed the man away carried on by himself to his friends, not looking back.
"Hey there." The boy's brother slid into a seat across from her, a cheerful smile on his face. "Are you sure this is a mini golf course?"
"I think so." Jazz looked around, expecting some weird paranormal phenomenon to change the location into something else.
"Oh. Just checking." He leaned in closer to her. "'Cause I always thought you had to go to heaven to see an angel."
Jazz felt her face flush red, not so much at the words as how unexpected they were. She was in no way adept at flirting, and any time someone else initiated it, they were easy enough to brush off. They didn't smile like the boy in front of her. Thankfully she was saved from having to make a reply when a golf ball flew from the teens on the field straight at his head.
He caught the projectile and glared at where it had come from. Both Danny and Red pointed at each other, their faces the picture of childish innocence and the older boy threw it back.
"They grow up so fast, right?" He asked. "One minute they're following you everywhere, the next they're trying to kill you with golf balls."
"I'm guessing you're Richard." Jazz said holding out a hand for him to shake. "I'm Jazz."
"A lovely, musical name, for such a lovely musical voice." Instead of shaking her hand, Richard lifted it to his lips. "How haven't we met before."
Jazz was ready for it this time, and just laughed his words off. "You'd better stop before one of our brothers decides to strangle you in your sleep."
"Hey don't joke about that." He looked back at the boy's skittishly. "Mine really would."
"And you think mine wouldn't?" Jazz asked.
"Would he do it with my own shoelaces?" Richard asked. He cast a wary eye at the kids who'd somehow forgotten the golf and were using their clubs for a mock sword fight. "Hey, I'm going to snack bar real quick, can I grab you a soda or something?"
"Sure." She said. He'd only been gone a few minutes when a loud booming voice echoed through the golf course.
"BEWARE!" A dozen boxes were suddenly floating in the air, they were turned upside down and golf balls rained down on the grassy course. "I AM THE BOX…"
"GHOST!" Jack Fenton yelled, a huge blaster already as he charged at the blue ghost.
"Dear, the new containment unit!" Maddie ran after him. "We'll get a lasting sample from this one for sure!"
"And no funny business with that boy while were gone!" Her dad, pointed a finger at Jazz when he spun to catch the piece of equipment his wife threw at him.
Richard had just been on his way back and saluted at her father before the huge man disappeared around a mini volcano. Jazz felt her face heat up again, and this time she found herself thinking she'd be the Death-by-embarrassment ghost before she had the chance to talk to another boy again. Richard brushed some golf balls of off his seat and slid a soda in front of Jazz.
"Those are your parents?" He asked, his eyes fixed on the general direction of the loud screaming and explosions.
"That's them." Jazz hid her flushed face in her arms.
Richard burst out laughing so hard he started coughing. He took a sip of his soda and brushed his hair out of his face. "Your parents are awesome."
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Danny had run off to rescue the Box Ghost from the Fentons, and exercise that had them both tired out by the time it had been accomplished. Apparently he was a friend of Jason's and he's heard frightening things from the Fentons about what they'd do once they caught a ghost.
At the end of the day Jason was yawning as they made their way back to the motorcycle.
"See, I told you you'd have fun." Dick nudged his little brother, almost tipping the tired boy over.
"Ya just wanted an excuse to flirt." Jason said. His put off expression slowly fell and he sighed sadly. "I couldn't tell them."
"There's still time." Dick wrapped and an arm around his little brothers shoulder and roughly pulled him closer. "It's not like you'll never come back. A few more tweaks and the tube in the cave will be a little less than excruciatingly painful." Dick chucked, but slowed his walk when the joke didn't even get an annoyed scoff from his little brother. "We talked about this Little Wing, you can't just not tell them."
"I know." Jason leaned into Dicks hold. "I'll tell them before we go. There's still time, right?"
"Yeah." Dick picked up the boy and lifted him onto his back. "There's still lots of time."
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Frederich Isak Showenhower sat in a bare white room. He hated that place, and the GIW agents that routinely tried to interrogate him about his family's wealth of knowledge on ghostly artifacts. He didn't care about their threats, there was nothing left he could lose.
Without his staff he had nothing. His knowledge of anything else he could use to rise to power was just that, knowledge. He needed ghosts to fetch those kinds of things for him, and no ghost would obey a human willingly. It was all that ghost boy's fault, if it weren't for that brat and his friends then he would still be traveling throughout the world, committing perfect crimes with the help of those stupidly powerful ghosts.
He glowered at the white walls; if he had that ghostly power he could have gone intangible and left the prison of the incompetent agents who couldn't hold a ghost to save their pathetic lives. Suddenly a hand reached through that wall and grabbed the back of his white jumper, pulling him with it to the other side.
"Freakshow." The blue-skinned ghost that stood in front of him was practically radiating power. Its fanged mouth curling into a smirk.
"Plasmius." The human greeted, unsure of what this ghost wanted from him.
"We have a common enemy in Amity Park." The ghost said. "I have a business proposal that I think will benefit us both immensely."
"Phantom." Freakshow said, and the ghost's smirk widened. "I'm listening."
"What do you know of a ghost called Pariah Dark?"