Hey everyone! So first of all shout out to the two people who favorited my story! Love you guys! Thank you! Also I wanted to let you know I have up to chapter eight written out, but I haven't revised it yet. So I'll be working on revising while continuing to write as much as possible and hopefully I'll have more out soon. I really hope everyone likes this chapter!

Chapter 3

A loud and persistent ringing interrupts the first peaceful sleep I've had in three days. Groaning, I bury my head in my pillow and slam the snooze on my alarm. Today is The Dreaded Monday. The first day of Ghost Defense 101.

"Danny! It's time for school! I made bacon!" The loud voice of my mother calls for me up the stairs, followed by garbled screaming and a lot of muted running. Groaning once again, I sit up and shake the hair from my eyes. Today is going to be a horrible day. I have no proof of that, but there is something in my gut telling me to go back to sleep. There is something telling me the only thing waiting for me on the other side of that door is disappointment and misery. Talk about paranoid. I sigh and walk to my closet. Might as well get ready.

After grabbing my backpack and running downstairs I carefully avoid the new and very dangerous looking weapon sitting precariously on the table and grab a bowl of cereal. No use trying to eat the brightly glowing bacon, it'll probably come alive soon anyway. The bowl clinks against the sink as I put it down. Running out of the house I just barely hear my parents yell for me to have a good day before the door slams shut and I'm off to meet my friend's before school.

"Hey! Danny! Wait up!" I hear from behind me. Tucker has his usual jacket tugged halfway on as he jogs up to me.

"Hey Tuck… how you doin?" I sigh as I glance back at my friend. I watch as he struggles the rest of the way into his coat before shooting me a wry grin.

"Well, I'd say I'm doing well, but with the day we have ahead of us I'm not entirely sure that covers it." He's still grinning while he speaks though so I know he isn't feeling the same sense of danger I am.

"Ready to face the unknown? Untold horrors and never-ending embarrassment brought on by my parents teaching abilities… not sure if I'm ready for that to be honest…" Tuck sees the look on my face and reaches to put a hand on my shoulder.

"Come on dude, how bad could it be? I mean, you deal with your parents all the time at home. It'll probably go by just like any other class." He means to sound reassuring, but with every word my sense of dread feels like a five-ton weight clinging to my shoulders.

"Yeah… cause every other class is a cakewalk…" I know I'm being pessimistic, but I can't stop myself from looking at the downside on this. There's no way this will end well. Luckily, Sam comes walking up to us from out of her green house right then. She always does know just when I need a distraction.

"Hey Tuck! Hey Danny! Look at these!" She shoves her cupped hands out to us so we can see the collection of blueberries in her palm.

"Wow Sam! Those took really well! How many bushes do you have now?" plucking one out of her hand as I spoke, I laugh at Tucker who makes a show of gagging when he gets offered one.

"I have three, but they're all still pretty small. This handful is all I got off all of them. They're still pretty young, but in a couple years I'll be able to get a lot more off of them." She looks so proudly down at the blueberries I have to smile at the mostly unknown motherly nature of our goth friend. She is so passionate about the things she believes in, and often the quickest to a fight. It's rare to see her caring side, but Tuck and I both know about it, and rely on it in many cases. Then Tuck has to ruin the semi-peace I started feeling since meeting up with Sam.

"So how do you think today will go, Sam?" She cuts a glare over at Tucker as if sensing my deflating mood before looking reassuringly back at me.

"I have no idea how today will turn out, but I do know we're all in this together, and we'll have each other's backs. On to more important topics, did anyone do the English assignment this weekend?" With the new question being asked we spend awhile going back and forth debating the definition of 'completed' before finally talking about the assignment itself. All in all, not a terrible start to a terrible day. I still wasn't prepared for what happened next.

"Dash! Go long!" The shout came from somewhere behind me, but I knew what was coming. I had two options, duck the ball that was about to hit me square in the head, or let it hit me and pretend to be hurt. I see the faces of recognition on my friends before suddenly I'm standing facing the opposite direction, hand in front of my face to catch the ball that is, quite accurately, aimed directly for my head. Two twin gasps came from the shocked people beside me, as well as an angry shout from the jock who was supposedly about to 'catch' the ball.

"What the hell was that Fentina?!" I look at the ball in my hands in shock, not remembering making any conscious decision to catch it.

"Uhm…" My ever-wonderful fluency in the English language supplies me. Sam coughs beside me, I glance at her quickly while bringing the ball down from in front of my face.

"I've been teaching Danny some moves… to help him from getting things thrown at him… since you A-listers love doing that so much." The last part was said with venom and a snarl directed at the two football loving jocks. I smile secretly to Sam. This is why you need to learn to lie Fenton.

"Yeah right, that was just luck. Fenton can't actually…" Kwan flounders for words for a moment. Bullying never really was his thing. It's obvious he doesn't like it. Yet he keeps doing it so he can stay popular. To be honest, I rather feel bad for the guy. Dash on the other hand…

"Fentoenail could never do anything! He's just a freaky loser!" Dash appears smug at his apparent victory over the 'freak trio'. Moving to walk towards the school away from them, Dash stops as he hears me speak.

"You're right Dash."

"Danny!"

"Dude!" my friends try to argue but I hold up my hand to stop their protests.

"You're right. But remember, this 'freaky loser' just intercepted your pass." I watch as my friends struggle to hide their laughter. Dash's face burns bright red in anger as he takes a step toward me. For once, I don't step back. I know he was going to hit me, but his punches feel like a fly tapping on my skin at this point. He is nothing to me, and with one year of school left I almost feel ready for him to know that.

The bell rings, halting his next step forward. He sags as Kwan pulls him along towards school, shouting back at me as he goes.

"I won't forget this Fenton! Lunch today! You're mine!" I sigh and roll my shoulders. Looking back at the faces of my concerned friends.

"What?" They gave me the blankest stares I think I've ever seen before turning to face each other.

"'What' he says, 'what'. What do you mean what you idiot! What was that?!" Sam looks somewhere between furious and proud and I'm honestly not sure what emotion I find more terrifying.

"Yeah dude! You basically challenged Dash to a fight. What's gotten into you? Are you okay?" Tucker looks more worried than anything else, so I decide to handle his questions first.

"I'm fine, I don't know what got into me. I think it's just the stress of this class on top of everything else this year and knowing it's our last year here you know? I just really want to get this over with." I finish my explanation with a sigh and startle when I feel a hand land on my shoulder.

"Dude… Danny… It's gonna be okay, okay? We got this. We're here for you. Just don't do anything crazy like that without warning us first huh?" Tucker finishes with a nervous chuckle and a small shake to my shoulder.

"Guys, I hate to break this up, but we are so late to school it's not even funny. Seriously, can we do guy talk later?" We all laugh as Sam pushes us along the sidewalk towards school. For the first time all morning the heaviness that had settled on my shoulders feels a little bit lighter. Maybe today will be okay…

Oh poor Danny what will the rest of today bring? Can't wait to post the next chapter! I had so much fun writing them! I hope you all enjoyed! see ya all soon!