Chapter Six: The Good, the Bad, and the Bullies

"I am standing outside. Therefore, I am outstanding!" - Unknown

Vladimir Masters/Plasmius will be the end of my sanity.

I'm not surprised that he knows Eileen exists. The presence of a ghost teacher at Casper High is common knowledge, at least among the townsfolk. But, he seems to know that I'm more familiar with her than most, and that's what worries me. And, what the hell is "Imprinting?" I want to believe that Vlad's just being his usual fruit-loopy self, but his style has always been to use hard facts to get under your skin. If he mentioned Imprinting, then it must be important.

The question is, do I ask Eileen about it, or do I not because that's exactly what Vlad wants me to do?

I'll worry about it later. Maybe my and Mira's fake fight will help clear my head.

"All good, dude?" Mira asks when I come back to the group.

"Good as it can be, I suppose," I say.

"That's good enough for me," Blairman says, still perched behind his camera. He claps twice. "Chop chop, people! We have a fight scene to record. Paulina, Dash," he points to each person in turn, "I want you two farther back. A little more… Right there! Perfect. And, you, uh…"

"Mira," informs the girl he's pointing to.

Blairman snaps his fingers. "Mira! You're with the humans. You'll be the evil ghost who's attacking them."

Yeah, no. I start to retort but stop when I remember what Vlad told me about Blairman and how I've been upsetting him. Was Vlad telling the truth? I don't know, but he was wrong about one thing: I know damn well how much words can hurt you. "Uh, Blairman," I say more gently than I want to. "I don't want Mira looking like a bad guy."

Blairman is quick to mask his irritation. "It's all in the editing, my friends. When the time comes, we'll digitally alter her appearance to make her look more monstrous."

"Cool!" Mira pipes.

I'm still unsure, but if Mira's okay with it… "Alright."

"Cool. Alright," Blairman repeats. He flicks his hand toward the humans, and Mira raises two thumbs and flies into position. To me, Blairman says, "I don't need to tell you your role."

"Protect the innocent," I say. "Got it."

I fly in front of the camera, and Blairman calls out, "Three, two, one, and we're rolling."

Time to do some acting, I guess. I command in my most heroic voice, "Uh, unhand those…civilians, you…fiend."

While Dash and Paulina huddle together as if afraid, Mira balls her fists at her sides and shouts, "Never! I will, um, have them…f-for my…control! Or, something."

"You guys aren't very good at this," Dash comments.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

Blairman groans loudly. "We'll fix it later. Just get to the fight."

Now to hit Mira without hitting her. I'll do my best. "Do not worry, citizens!" I call, still using the heroic voice. "I will save you!" I fly up to Mira, who looks at me with that fake glare. "Take this, you heathen!" I throw a punch just past her.

She throws her hands over her side and moans and groans dramatically. A few giggles sneak in, and I have to swallow my own laughter. But, we're being so ridiculous that it's hard. Even Dash and Paulina are grinning.

Mira kicks, not even trying to hit me. I dodge and lightly push her toward the ground. She gets the idea and propels herself down until she is lying in the grass and leaves, sprawled out on her back.

"Oh no!" she fake-moans. "The great Danny Phantom - snort - has-has defeated me!"

"The great Danny Phantom?" I cackle.

At this point, none of us can take it anymore and we all bust up laughing at the sheer stupidity of it all.

"Oh, for Pete's sake!" Blairman, however, does not find it funny. He looks up from his camera and glares daggers at us. "We are not kindergarteners playing pretend! I want to see real action! Real danger!"

Is that why you really sent those rats and the lion to school? is what I want to say. But, no. I won't accuse him. Not yet, anyway. "That would involve really hurting Mira," I say instead, "and I'm not about to do that."

"So, he doesn't like it when girls get hurt," I hear Paulina mutter.

I look down and see her crossing her arms and angrily looking away from me. Dash offers me a sympathetic shrug.

Fed up, I descend in front of those two. "Paulina, I'm sorry for whatever I did to piss you off. But, could we please-"

"You know darn well what you did, Phantom," Paulina hisses.

I throw my hands in the air in frustration. "I don't! Please tell me, so I can make it right."

"I told you, Paulina," Dash says, trying to be the mediator. Which is weird for him. "Guys don't think the same way girls do. I'm pretty sure Phantom genuinely does not know why you're mad."

I never thought I'd say this, but, "Thank you, Dash."

"You know what?" Blairman says suddenly. "How about you all take a break?"

He snaps his fingers, and suddenly the top of his camera opens up. Impossibly long wires shoot out of it and wrap themselves around me, Dash, and Paulina individually before we can process what's happening.

I start to make a witty but angry remark, but Blairman adds, "I will not have my stars fighting. Whatever the problem is, sort it out. In the meantime, Mira, I'd like to interview you for the documentary, if that's alright." His tone says that he'll do it anyway.

Mira stammers, understandably confused.

"Great!" Blairman pipes. "As for the rest of you, I'll see you when you like each other again."

That might take a while.

With a flick of his wrist, Blairman has the wires throw us deep into the forest. Luckily, I grab Dash and Paulina's arms just in time to turn the three of us intangible so that we pass harmlessly through the trees and brush. I stop once we're close enough to the ground. The landing still hurts, but it could have been a lot worse.

"You guys okay?" I ask as we climb to our feet and brush the dirt and leaves off of us.

"I don't even know why I'm here," Dash laments. "I'm not mad."

"You should be!" Paulina retorts, getting as in his face as she can when he's roughly a foot taller than her.

My Ghost Sense goes off, but I'm too annoyed to care. "Hey! Here's an idea," I snap. "How about you explain to me what the hell I did wrong, because I'm clearly the only one who doesn't know!"

When Paulina only stands there with her fists clenched and her teeth bared, Dash starts us off. "It's about this morning. When Sam Manson hit Paulina in the face."

Seriously? "How is that my fault? I didn't tell her to do that!"

"But, you didn't defend me!" Paulina growls. "Sam just walked up to me and hit me out of nowhere, and all you did was clap for her!" Her voice breaks at the end, the hurt seeping in. "You're supposed to defend people. I…I thought you were starting to like me." The fight is gone, and there's sheen to her light green eyes that wasn't there before.

Dash puts a hand on her shoulder and gives me a side-eye as if to say, You see what you did?

Why is Paulina hurt? She's the reason I almost let go of most of the only people who really care about me. Why should Paulina be this upset, when Sam was only defending me?

…Because Paulina doesn't know I'm Danny Fenton.

Guilt slams into me. Of course she's upset. From her perspective, she was slapped in the face by someone I barely know if at all. And, instead of telling that person off, I applauded them. Looking back, I should have scolded Sam and gave her a wink or something so she'd know I didn't mean it.

I don't care what Blairman says about my Obsession and how I fulfill it. I'm not a hero. This only emphasizes that. As wanted as gum on your shoe, as Paulina put it. At times like this, that's a pretty accurate description.

"Paulina," I say, hugging my arms around myself, "I'm sorry. You're right. I-I was being a jerk."

"More than a jerk!" Paulina argues. I flinch at her tone and hope neither of them can hear the tiny, pathetic noise that pops out of me. "You're supposed to look out for people like me. Not side with a worthless loser like Sam!"

"I know. I'm so sor-" The apology dies in my throat. "Worthless loser?"

"Well, she is one," Dash says casually.

Paulina sighs. "We talked about this, Phantom. Even without her connection to Danny Fenton, Sam's no friend of ours."

"But, 'worthless loser?'" My voice shakes as all traces of guilt are replaced with a rising fury. "I get that you and Sam aren't friends. I get that Danny Fenton is a bottom-of-the-barrel…piece of gum to be stepped on." My voice shakes worse at that. "But, 'worthless loser'? Don't you ever use either of those words to describe someone!"

At this point, both of them are backed up against a tree, with Dash standing protectively in front of Paulina. Their eyes are wide in shock as they cower. I don't know what my face looks like. Snow starts falling heavily above us, and I know I've lost control of my ice powers in my rage.

But, I don't care.

Ghost Sense again. I don't care about that either.

They called one of the most important people in my life a worthless loser.

"You know what? I'm not that sorry anymore," I say. "In fact, when Sam hit you, I wish I'd whistled and demanded an encore! Do you wanna know why?" They don't respond. They just keep staring and shivering from either fear or cold or both. Somehow, that only angers me more. Everything is tumbling out of me, and I can't stop it. I don't know if I want to. "Just because I can see this town from the sky doesn't mean I don't know what happens on the ground. I know what you two do. I know about the jeers and the catty remarks, and god damn it, who do you think pulls those kids out of lockers?"

"So, that's how they get out so fast," Dash comments stupidly.

Paulina narrows her eyes at him. "Not helping, Dash."

A small part of me is screaming for me to stop talking before I reveal too much. That part is overwhelmed by two years of constant insults and mean-spirited laughter. Two years of being beaten up and getting my head dunked in toilets. Two years of getting punished for not being handsome or rich or charismatic.

Two years of being told I'm unwanted. Two years of believing on and off that it's true.

"Phantom," Paulina says carefully, "why do you care so much about this?"

"Yeah," Dash adds. "I mean, you're way better than any of those losers. When you were alive too, I'm sure."

Curiosity cools the anger just enough that I will the snow away; at this point, there was at least two feet of it. Dash and Paulina let out relieved breaths. I don't let them get comfortable. "What do you think I was like as a human?"

Paulina smiles cautiously, as if soothing a wounded animal that has its claws extended. "Well, considering how brave and thoughtful and charming you are, you had to have been pretty popular."

"And, even if you weren't, like, in the in-crowd," Dash continues with that same look, "you were probably popular in your own right. Like, that guy who's everyone's best friend! That would make sense." Paulina nods in agreement.

Reaper once called me "an inherently kind soul, one who wishes to bring peace and happiness to others." I know they meant it, that the Ancient truly does see me that way. I try to keep that in the front of my mind. Reaper's calm, quiet voice saying those kind words and telling me how proud I should be of my past adventures. Bub - a sweet thing who couldn't have been more than a few months old when he died - happily sucking on my finger and gazing at me with those wide, innocent eyes. Cornelius - a goblin-esque toddler who lost his ghost-parents when Pariah Dark reawakened - hugging me and thanking me for avenging his family. Eileen singing praises when I finally mastered Duplication and jumping in the way of the Fenton Ghost Peeler so that I wouldn't be the one who got exposed. And of course, my human friends holding me and telling me they love me.

I hold on to the memories as tightly as I can, but they slip from my grasp as new memories push their way through.

Being shoved to the ground for no other reason than the fact that I'm an easy target. Getting invited to a party on the off-chance that Phantom would show up as a result, only for that invitation to be revoked when a certain someone met up with Phantom and, "If I invite you, I can un-invite Danny Fenton and his loser-friends!" Becoming the stress ball that gets thrown across the room in frustration after another someone flunks a test, which happens often. Hearing the words "ugly" and "stupid" and "loser" being tossed carelessly in my direction.

Seeing my parents aim lethal weapons at me. Eating dinner robotically and without tasting when they start ranting about destroying ghosts, especially Danny Phantom. Trying not to look at that long scar on my side that my own father gave me.

Fighting back tears and ecto-energy when the world becomes too much to bear. Hiding in the Box Ghost's Haunt when I can't fight it anymore.

"What are you? A ghost trying to fit in with humans? Or, some creepy little boy with creepy little powers?"

"Both. Uh, neither? I don't know!"

"You're a freak! Not a ghost! Not a boy! Who cares for a thing like you?"

"I wasn't popular," I say at last. I don't recognize my own voice. "I wasn't in the in-crowd. I wasn't everyone's best friend. I had three friends, and one of them was my big sister. I was shy and awkward and I got weak-kneed when I talked to a girl I liked. I still do! Only now it's worse, because my powers act up when my emotions run high." Like right now, I think bitterly as frost coats the ground around my feet. I need to stop. I need to calm down, sit down and meditate for a while, but the words keep coming. It's like something is forcing me to talk. "My favorite subjects are math and science. Given the chance, I will ramble on about the solar system for long after everyone's stopped listening. I've spent more time stuck in a locker or with my head in a toilet than anyone should. Do you know what that means?"

Paulina's mouth is wide open. Dash's voice is quieter than I thought possible for him. "You…you were a nerd?"

A sob falls out, a few tears with it. I don't wipe them away. Let these two see me cry. Let them see that their actions can affect even their carefree, unflappable hero. "I wasn't a nerd. I was at rock bottom. Not even the nerds wanted me. I was nothing. I - hic - I was less than nothing! I was a waste of space, and-and everyone let me know it!"

Through the green blur of my tears, I can see Dash and Paulina's worldviews shattering. Dash realizes that he's been idolizing a puny weakling. Paulina realizes that she's been crushing on a pathetic loser.

I was having fun with these guys two days ago. Dash Baxter and Paulina Sanchez are capable of being friendly and nice. That fact makes all of this hurt even more.

I sniff and wipe my eyes and nose. "Let me tell you why I applauded Sam today. It was because she fought back. Something I never had the guts to do myself."

Having said my piece, I turn tail and walk away. I don't know where I'm going. I just need to be somewhere else.

Thank god, Spectra isn't here. She'd have a field day with me. She always has a field day with me. She feeds off of misery, and I'm an all-you-can-eat buffet.

I'm actually relieved to see another wisp of cold blue air leave my mouth. "Alright, who's there?" I demand. "I'm warning you, I'm really in the mood to hit something!"

"Um," the ghost says, gaining visibility a short distance away, sheepishly holding her hands behind her back. "Could you not hit me too hard?"

"Mira," I sigh. Hitting something would feel better, but I won't turn down a friendly face. "How much did you see?"

Mira tugs on her jacket and doesn't look at me. "I came in when you started saying that…that bad stuff about yourself." That was after the first time my Ghost Sense appeared. Hm… "Blairman told me to check on you guys. He wanted me to bring a camera and record what happened." She gives me a little grin. "So, I told him where he should be aiming that camera."

It takes a moment, but a loud laugh bursts out of me, and man, did I ever need it.

But, the mirth doesn't last. Mira frowns deeply and says, "You didn't mean all that stuff, did you?"

I nod, swallowing a new lump in my throat. Why wouldn't I mean it? It's all true, isn't it?

"Well, it's not true," Mira says, walking up to me. She's a few inches shorter than I am, but I feel so small despite the warmth in her glowing red gaze.

"It is true," I lament. "I'm ugly and dumb as a rock and the only people who give a shit about me end up getting dragged down with me." I will not cry again. I will not.

Seeing Mira's face, anyone would think that I was saying this about her. "You're not ugly and you're not dumb. You are super nice and fun and-and dorky but, like, in a good way-"

"What do you know? We never went to the same school. You never saw me look over my shoulder in case someone was looking for a punching bag. You never heard the way everyone talked about me. Well, I heard every word! I felt every punch! I believed I was a freak, and I still do!"

Damn it all. My head is low as I make those ungodly sounds and push my hands through my hair.

When I first met Mira, she had only just died and had no idea what was going on. I brought her to her parents. I fought off the ghost who killed her and dumped him at Walker's Prison. I know how I must have been in her mind. She saw me as a hero. A guy who's selfless and kind and a little bit goofy.

Now, she can see how wrong she was. Maybe she'll leave before she ends up as low as I am. I wouldn't blame her. She still hasn't responded, so she might have already left-

"Fight me."

I lift my head up and choke down my sobs. "W-what?"

Mira has backed up and is bouncing on the balls of her feet, throwing punches in my direction. "Come on. Fight me. Put up your dukes!"

The scene is so random that I instantly stop crying. "Okay, first of all, you look ridiculous."

Mira stills. "Said the guy who wears a jumpsuit in his day-to-day life."

"Point taken. And second, what in the Ancients' names are you doing?"

"My uncle's a bodybuilder," she says as if that will explain anything. "He says that physical exertion is a good way to work out your frustrations. And, Blairman wants us to fight anyway, so come on!" Back to hopping with her fists in the air. "Let's go, Phantom! Let's go!"

This…is happening. This crazy woman wants me to fight her. "I'm…not…doing that?"

"What, you scared? Scared you're gonna lose to a girl?"

"Do you know how many times I've had my ass handed to me by a woman? Believe me, that's hardly the issue."

"Then, what's the problem? Come at me, bro!"

Suddenly, she lunges and starts slapping me! I shout out a startled curse and try to block her with my arms. When that fails, I try pushing her away, which somehow transitions into the two of us being engaged in a slap fight that wouldn't be out of place in a sitcom.

"Knock it off!"

Mira is thrown back, rolling through the dirt and landing hard against a tree. Leaves and rocks and branches are sent flying. I hear the rustle of animals scattering and the panicked cries of birds flying away.

The guilt comes back in full-force. My most powerful attack is called the Ghostly Wail for a reason. It's loud as hell, it creates massive shockwaves, and it shoots an intense fear into all who hear it.

I just used it on Mira. It was a very, very small one, so no real damage has been done, but I used it on Mira.

"Whoa," she gasps, slowly climbing to her feet and using the tree trunk for support. She meets my gaze with a mix of awe and terror. "Was that the Ghostly Wail you told me about? Now, I get why you always said no when I asked to see it."

"That was barely a Wail. You don't wanna be around when I do it on purpose." I run a hand over my face, exhausted but not because of the Wail. "That, right there, is why I'm not going to fight you. When I'm this upset, the slightest things set me off and my powers go haywire and I hurt people. I hurt them real bad."

I picture Vlad laying in a frosted heap and convulsing as he froze from the inside. I picture Valerie being sent flying by the biggest ghost ray I'd ever made.

I picture the world torn apart, a desolate wasteland, and those red eyes, so wrong and so familiar, that held nothing but hatred and rage.

"What makes you think you can change my past?"

"I could destroy you, Mira," I choke the words out.

"Danny," Mira says softly, "I trust you. For Pete's sake, my boyfriend killed me only a few short months ago, and I'm trusting you, a boy, to fight me and not destroy me in the process. Doesn't that count for anything?"

How is she still so innocent? "I don't trust me."

I turn to walk away and am almost knocked over by something sharp and white-hot. My hand meets my burning shoulder as my eyes lock on Mira. Tiny lightning bolts zip casually over the hand she holds in front of her.

"Come on, Frosty," Mira taunts. "Let's make some thunder snow." She hears herself and grimaces. "That sounded sexual, didn't it?"

"A little," I say. "But more importantly, did you just banter?"

Mira shrugs. "That's how you do it, isn't it? Did I do it right?"

She bantered. She's trying to be like me. In her own weird way, she's trying to make me feel better. I bared my bruised, broken soul to her, and she's still here. Just like Sam and Tucker and Jazz and Valerie. Just like Reaper and Eileen.

I wipe a tear from my eye and feel a smile pull at my lips. "Not bad for your first attempt, sparky. But, allow me to give you some pointers."

Mira smiles back, ready and determined. "There's my guy."

The fight is on.