Danny rubbed at his eyes, trying to keep the sleep away as he marked times for when they would want to edit the footage. They had over a hundred hours of footage for them to crawl through. It was tedious work, but it at least kept him distracted and let him focus on something so he didn't give into sleep.

Something that was easily done. The three of them had no desire to sleep, too wired from the events of the night. But the fact was that they had to drive home in an hour, so despite how they felt about it, they needed to get some sleep.

So Danny had grabbed a large container of salt from the kitchen and poured a circle around the three of them. He held the bundle of sage in one hand and ran the recorders with the other while Sam and Tucker slept around him.

The light from the sun was finally coming through, chasing away the dark and shadows. It helped to make the school feel a little bit safer.

Though now the three of them knew what was hiding in the halls.

The sound of a door slamming made Danny jump, which in turn woke up the other two. The two of them scrambled to sit up, letting out gasping breaths. Danny reached up and patted Sam's shoulder. She turned toward him with her eyes wide, before slowly letting out a breath. "Lancer?"

"Lancer," Danny repeated, standing up and taking a step towards the school doors. Lancer came up to the glass doors and waved at them. He fumbled with the keys a bit before unlocking the doors. Danny didn't step out of the salt circle until Lancer opened the door. "Mister Lancer, glad to see you."

Lancer chuckled. "Now, that's something I wasn't expecting to hear. Interesting night?" Tucker dashed past the two of them, carrying one of the cases of the camera gear. Lancer barely got out of the way. Danny sighed and rubbed the back of his head as Lancer narrowed his eyes as Tucker made his way to Danny's car and put the cameras by the trunk. "Everything… okay?" Lancer asked as Tucker looked back at the school, chewing on his lip and glancing at Danny.

Sam answered Lancer as she put another case outside of the school. "We're alright, but… I don't think anyone's going to believe us."

Lancer's eyebrows lifted. "Really?" he mused as he pursed his lips.

Tucker walked up to the school and gingerly picked up the cameras. "Yeah, no. This was… this was crazy." He lifted the cases and took two steps away. He paused and turned as Sam put another case outside. "Hey, Lancer… was the teacher's lounge supposed to be locked?"

Lancer frowned. "Yes. I ensured that it was before I left for the night."

"FUCK!"

Lancer jumped at Tucker's curse, taking a step back. He looked back at the other two. Sam took a deep breath and looked at Danny. "Can you clean up? I'll talk to him."

Danny didn't want to. He wanted to sleep. Now that the sun was up, the fear wasn't there anymore. All he felt was a bone weary exhaustion.

He didn't say that. Instead, he nodded at Sam. "Thanks, Sam," he said, turning toward the rest of the cases and the salt circle. He sighed and grabbed the broom and dustpan that they had set out before trying to get some sleep, as restless as it was.

Lancer watched silently as Danny brushed the salt into the dust bin. "I… take it I should view the security cameras?"

Danny paused. He had forgotten about those. "Yeah, teacher's lounge around 4 last night, maybe the school hallway by the band room, and the kitchen."

"I'll ask Principal Ishiyama about it," Lancer said, looking as Danny tossed the salt container. "Was that from the kitchen?"

"Box said it expired three years ago."

"Ah," Lancer said, rubbing at his nose. "Well, I guess I can't fault you for taking that then." Lancer looked at the rest of the gear. "Would you like some help?"

"Please."

Laner carried the last set of the camera gear over to Danny's car with Danny. The two of them approached at the same time Tucker pulled out of his parking space and threw the car into drive and sped off just on the wrong side of reckless. Lancer followed Tucker's car with his eyes as Sam walked up to the two of them. "He's shook," she said simply. "I don't blame him, but he'll be alright."

"Really?" Danny asked.

Sam shrugged. "He will be." She sounded a little less sure this time. "I think he'll just need some time and space." She held out her hand, Danny's sweater covering half her palm. She made a gimme motion with her hand.

Danny raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Give me your car keys, you're not driving yourself home today." She repeated the motion. "You didn't sleep."

Danny shrugged. "I'll be fine. Home's not that far."

Sam stepped forward and put her hands on her hips. "And that's not good enough for me. You're going to give me your car keys, and then I'll drive you home." She glanced at Lancer and then back at Danny. "We can hand over the cameras to your parents, you can get a good nap in, and then you can drive me back."

Lancer chuckled. "Well, I'll say it would make me more comfortable knowing that you're not driving while exhausted."

Danny sighed and reached into his pocket. He popped the trunk and then handed the keys over to Sam. "Fine…" he said. The way Lancer chuckled Danny was sure he didn't sound as put out at the idea of Sam driving his car as he should have been.

Lancer paused. "There anything left inside?"

The two of them shook their heads at the same time as Sam started heaving the cases into the trunk. "No, we've gotten everything out already," Danny said after doing a quick check. Lancer gave them a nod and then went back to lock up.

Sam reached over and pushed Danny away from the trunk. "Get in the car," she ordered. She smirked and indicated the passenger side with a smile. "You can get some sleep."

Danny let out a hum and looked at the cases that had been arranged around the car. "You sure?"

Sam nodded. "I'm sure." She fiddled with the zipper of her sweater, or rather his sweater. "Do you need something to act like a blanket?"

Danny shook his head. "No, no. You can keep that…" he said as he started moving around to the passenger seat.

"Hmm… far cry from 'You've stolen my sweaters'..." Sam chuckled. She met his eyes and he pretended not to hear her as he got into his car. He leaned the seat back and let out a sigh and closed his eyes.

He was asleep before Sam finished putting the cases in the car.


It didn't take long for it to come time to turn in the project. Danny, Sam and Tucker had long been ready to turn it in. Between Tucker's love of technology and his parents literally being professional audio techs, they had gotten the project done within the first week.

The energy in the classroom was electric. Most of the class was excited, eager to either see what others were going to show, or to show off their own projects. Although, a few students were panicked, afraid to get called first, praying that they'd get one extra week to wrap up their project.

The lights in the classroom were off, and Lancer let everyone move their desks into groups. He passed out bowls of popcorn as everyone muttered. Danny was late coming in, carrying an extra bowl of popcorn.

Unbuttered.

Perfect for a vegan like Sam, though the nutritional yeast she had him pour over it was weird, even for him.

And that was saying something, considering how much he liked kiwi and bubblegum milkshakes.

Sam perked up as he approached. "Danny!" she said happily. She took the bowl in her hands and popped one of the kernels into her mouth. She broke out in a wide grin and turned toward him. "You actually did it!"

Danny rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, well…" He leaned over the desks. "I took a little bit of time and burned some incense while I was in the teacher's lounge. I don't know if it helped; whatever was in there did a good job of hiding during the day."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "The teachers let you do that while you were making this in there?"

Danny nodded. "Miss Tetslaff even walked in on me doing that." Sam leaned back just slightly as she took that in and Danny looked around and continued to whisper, "I thought for sure I was going to get in detention. Instead, she just looked me up and down and said, 'You're that kid that stayed the night, right?' and when I nodded she just let me do my thing. Before she left, she said all the teachers were interested in our video."

Sam let out a low whistle. "Well, glad your parents did the video editing then!"

Tucker cleared his throat. "Um… excuse me, I did the video editing, they did the sound mixing."

Sam reached over and patted Tucker's shoulder. "And we're all very thankful."

"You better be…" he muttered, before biting into a piece of beef jerky.

Danny tilted his head. "Lancer let you bring that in?"

Tucker shrugged. "He said he'd allow it today. He let you make Sam's plain popcorn so…"

Sam held up a kernel. "It's not plain! It's got yeast on it!"

Danny and Tucker both scooted their chairs away from her.

Sam reached over and grabbed Danny's chair and pulled him closer to her. He definitely didn't let out an indignant squawk, no matter what the other two said. He was saved from defending himself when the bell rang and Lancer stood up in front of the class.

"Alright, everyone, I'm sure you all know what's going on and you've all been waiting for this. I'll be honest, this time so have I. Normally, I'd drag this out, but I'm just as interested as you are and I want to sit down and start watching this. So Mr. Fenton, Ms. Manson, and Mr. Foley, if you three would be so kind as to turn in your project!"

"With pleasure!" Tucker shouted, jumping up and handing over the disk. Lancer took the disk and popped it into the dvd player as Tucker walked back amongst snickers accusing him of being a teacher's pet.

Tucker sat back down in his seat at the same time the video started. The class settled down as the Fenton Works logo as Sam's voice started playing in the room. The class didn't quite stop talking as Sam explained the idea of a paranormal investigation and what they had been hoping to find.

Though chatter died when the camera's cut to Danny. "Ma'am! I know you're in here!" Danny heard himself shout.

The video paused for a moment and Danny's voice cut in as the screen tore with jittery lines shaking across the screen, reminiscent of old VHS tapes when paused. "For those of you wondering, I got grounded for this," Danny's voice played back before the video started.

"I can feel you during the day! I've already got one foot in the door here! So if you need some energy to do something, you can use mine."

The video switched between several of the static cameras before ending on a hallway, and Tucker's voice came on. "We didn't know it at the time, but this happened right after Danny invited the spirits to use his energy."

The picture was still for a moment, the only way you knew the video was still playing was the clock ticking in the corner from the security footage. The class burst out in a flurry of activity as one of the locker doors slowly opened.

"Oh come on!" Dash shouted pointing at the screen. "You expect us to believe that?"

The video paused again, this time it was because Lancer had clicked the button on the remote. "Mr. Baxter, please settle down…" The class quieted as Dash sat back down in his seat with a huff. "And… for the record," Lancer continued, "the security footage shown here is from the school's cameras. Myself and Principal Ishiyama both had reviewed the footage before giving it over to the Fenton's. None of the three of them had entered this hallway before this moment."

Sam groaned and leaned back. "Now you say that! That would have been great to get on video!"

"Well, you can imagine why I wouldn't want that recorded," Lancer said sheepishly. "Now, unless there are further interruptions?"

This time the class was absolutely silent.

"Very well…" Lancer said before hitting the play button again.

The video continued uninterrupted, showing the trio sitting in the kitchen and talking with each other. Quickly switching between the various cameras they had recording at the time. The class all chuckled when the sound byte of the Lunch Lady telling Tucker to "eat his vegetables" played, but they all got quiet again when the cameras switched to Danny setting up in the hallway.

Sam shoved some of her popcorn into Danny's hand as they watched him set up in the video. Danny looked at his cameras and then back over his shoulder, "So… this hallway has always felt a little off to me. I'm not the only one. There's a rumor in the school that there was this kid, he was so bullied that when he died, his soul got trapped in his locker because of how many times he was shoved into it."

Danny shifted uncomfortably as his video counterpart pulled out an audio recorder and began doing an E.V.P session. "Are you the spirit of Sidney Poindexter?"

Danny had waited a few seconds before playing back the recording, as Tucker narrated. "As Sam explained to me earlier, there are different kinds of responses you can get while doing an E.V.P session, this is an example of a class B."

Floating text appeared on the screen as the audio from the recorder was played back. The words came through, sounding strained, like the person was having trouble breathing as they were speaking. "Not… My… Name."

Danny mused on the screen. "Not my name?" he repeated. He hit record again. "Are you not Sidney?"

Again floating text appeared. "Yes.. I am…"

Danny on the screen frowned and tapped the record button. The video switched from his camera to the security camera and Danny continued to talk on the screen. "Not my name, but you are Sidney" Danny leaned back and pointed at the air. "Oh! You're not Poindexter! That was an insult wasn't it?" Danny quickly hit record on the recorder again. "Who called you Poindexter?"

Tucker's voice chimed in again. "This one, we weren't too sure what it was meant to be. Can you make it out?"

Floating text appeared on the screen. This time followed by a question mark since the trio weren't too sure what the spirit of Sidney was saying. "Spector?"

Everyone jumped when the sound of ceramic clanging against the ground rang out in the room. Lancer fumbled for the remote, ignoring how he was kicking around popcorn. He quickly hit rewind, even though the sound byte was being repeated.

"Mister Lancer?" Tucker said, standing up slightly. "Everything okay?"

Lancer hit pause, slowly and mechanically turning around. "You three… you really don't know? You actually recorded that?"

The three looked at each other. "Uh, yeah?" Tucker said, scratching at his head. "We have no idea what it means though."

Sam narrowed her eyes. "You do though…"

Lancer rubbed his hand down his face. "Good lord…" He looked at the paused screen before seeming to notice he had spilled his popcorn. "Ah…" he intoned before wordlessly picking up the popcorn and walking it over to the trash.

He dumped the popcorn and stared down at the trash can for a full minute. It was so quiet in the classroom you could hear the clock ticking. The entire class sat with bated breath. Lancer looked back up at the trio. "If you three do know, this isn't funny."

Sam stood up, knocking her chair back. "We don't know. And I don't like that you're accusing us of something."

Lancer rubbed his face again. "Sidney died a few years before I started school here. I never met him." He took a deep breath. "But the school counselor got under fire for not helping him enough. I never met her myself either. She was on leave at the start of my freshman year." He looked at Sam and said, "Her name was Penelope Spectra and she was accused of making the kids feel worse. She was fired and given a chance to clear out her office. She killed the principal and then herself."


They didn't get to watch another video after that one; enough distractions had happened during the video that there wasn't going to be enough time to finish the next one. Lancer had instead let everyone study for their other midterms.

In theory, that's what they were supposed to do, but instead, everyone in the class kept asking the trio if all that really happened.

The three had to split up into their various classes until they had the same lunch period again. Danny sat down with his lunch and tried to eat as much of his sandwich as he could before Sam sat down across from him. He had gotten about half of his ham and cheese sandwich down before she sat across from him.

He waited for the offhand comment about how good her vegan meal was, but it never came. Instead she glanced around. "Hey, Danny, were people… weird… last period?"

Danny choked down his food and washed it down with his water before raising an eyebrow. "Weird how?"

"People were staring at me, more than usual at least."

Danny let out a hum as he tried to recall. "You know, not that I can think of?"

Tucker slid into the seat next to Danny, before dropping his head against the table. Danny's lunch tray rattled as Tucker groaned.

Sam raised an eyebrow and poked him. "Any chance you know why everyone was staring at me?"

Tucker turned his head and looked up at Sam. "Sam… please don't take this the wrong way. But I really hate you right now…"

Sam leaned back and folded her arms. "Me? What did I do?"

Tucker waved his arm around the school. "So, I did all the editing right?" he turned to Danny, "Well, your parents suggested I upload it somewhere. One, just in case I lost the dvd, and two, so they could share it as an advertisement. So I started a youtube channel, posted it there and forgot about it till now. Well… Marsha the cute brunette in-"

"Tucker," Sam interrupted, "You say every girl is cute or hot."

Tucker rolled his eyes. "Anyways, Marsha has lunch two periods before us, and apparently she found the video I posted online."

Tucker paused as he seemingly realized he had yet to take a bite of his lunch. He sat back up and took several large bites of a burger, (and now that Danny was paying attention, where on earth had he gotten that?) before Sam leaned forward. "Fascinating, but why does this make you hate me?"

"I'm getting to that." Tucker said, pulling out his phone and sliding it over to Sam.

Sam looked at his phone before setting it down, gently. "Tucker…" She began slowly. "This video has five thousand views."

"Yup."

"Our school has eight hundred students."

"Yup."

"What the hell?"

"Yup."

Danny took the phone from Sam and looked at the view count. "Wow… that's a lot of comments."

Tucker rubbed his face. "Do you guys know how the youtube system works? Basically, the more interaction you get on your video, the more likely it's going to get put in front of people. We're not big, not by a long shot… but…" Tucker rubbed his face with his hands. "Guys… no one else out there has someone like Danny to help them find ghosts."

Tucker put down his lunch and leaned forward. "So here's why I hate you…" He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Anywhere else you want to do one of these investigations?"

Danny turned toward Tucker. "You want to start a whole series?"

Sam rapped on the table with her knuckles. "Alright, we split the earnings an equal three ways. I'll keep doing the research for where to go, but I want to do some videos on the environment."

"Deal!" Tucker said, throwing his hand out for her to shake. "Probably a good idea to do some side content too! Me and Danny can do let's plays or something."

"Do I get a say in this?" Danny asked, groaning.

Sam put her elbow on the table and placed her chin in her hand. "Come on, I mean… wasn't this fun?"

Danny looked at Sam and raised an eyebrow. "Am I the only one here remembering that Tucker got attacked by a demon?"

Tucker shrugged. "I definitely haven't forgotten, but…" He rubbed his fingers together in the universal sign for money as he continued, "I think we can actually make something of this."

Danny groaned and rubbed his face. "I'm not getting out of this am I?"

Sam laughed and played with her hair. "Well… Uh… I happen to know that the old paper mill has had some weird shit happen at it." Danny froze and Sam smirked. "I'm guessing there is something to that?"

Danny sighed and turned to Tucker. "Well… if you hear someone telling you to beware… just laugh at him."


Paranormal Investigation of Amity Park's Casper High.

NicoNicoREE: Wow, the production value on this is really good! I'm impressed.

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FootballKing: I still don't believe this, you guys had to have paid off Lancer

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FilledWithStars: I'm never going near the teacher's lounge again!

15 likes

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Fashionista: I asked around, the teacher's lounge used to be Spectra's office!

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CheeseHead: Quite impressive! I look forward to your next one!

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