With Tucker being much older, and no Danny, Dash was taking his aggression out on some other poor underclassmen. Just enough not to get into some serious trouble, since one injury to Valerie on the field and he could become the hero again. Dani knew how tempting it was to use her powers to really put that jerk in his place, but at the end of the day, he wasn't worth the trouble. Still, the temptation loomed especially at lunch when once more he was on the warpath on those poor freshmen that he had made his targets into.
Dani seethed her teeth as she clenched into her fork, and Val replied, "Uh...Dani, you do need that fork to eat the mac and cheese...I know it's gotten even more worse with Dash, but I don't want you to get into detention, please...", resting a hand on Dani's arm.
"I know, I know... this fork would be better off jammed into his throwing hand though.", Dani scoffed as Val gave a small huff of agreement. "He is my quarterback, but even then, I gotta agree with you a bit there, girl.", Val said.
"Can't you do something about it, since you are teammates with him after all?", Sam suggested. "I mean, I've always loved you doing the whole football thing, showing the patriarchy what for.". She held her fist up, though not over her head. "But you being the center of the team's success and not him has really drove him up the wall.".
"Well, I would, but the problem is Coach Calhoun wants 'good team chemistry' and stirring the pot with Dash won't just stick between the two of us but affect the rest of the team, and I like most of the other guys, they've been supportive.", Val explained.
"Only because you keep helping them win.", Sam countered. "Point.", Val smirked as she pointed her spoon at Sam.
Dani had to smile at their banter, chuckling, and slightly had to unbend her fork back into shape, and resume eating her mac and cheese, and snickered slightly as she remembered older Danny's memories of Jazz trying to tutor Dash, "Good thing that Jazz is away from here...I still remember those gross moments Dash pretended to need a tutor when he was literally mooning over Jazz, forgetting that she got a boyfriend in Tucker.", hoping that she wasn't wrong in the new timeline.
"I don't think he actually knew.", Sam suggested. "I think Dash was too oblivious to notice unless you hit him right in the face with it. Actually, was Sam and Tucker dating at that moment?".
"Uh, maybe? Maybe not, it's so fairly close together I might be misremembering it.", Dani admitted. Val pointed out, "Through you have to admit that Jazz was rarely seen without Tucker as her best friend, so perhaps they had talked it out or something during all of that tutoring thing...".
Dani nodded, replying, "Point.", as it made sense since Jazz and Tucker were in the same high school and back then, since Casper High is one of the two high schools in Amity Park, since there's also Casper Junior High, and Casper Elementary, and then there is Amity High. And there's also a couple of Catholic schools; elementary and junior, on the other side of Amity Park.
The nearest town is Elmerton which is like 30 miles away, where their high school is rivals with Casper High and Amity High, and vice versa and such.
"Still feels so weird that he had a crush on your sister.", Sam shook her head as a grin crossed her face. "Could you imagine if he-".
"Please, Sam, I want to keep my lunch. I don't want to think him as my brother-in-law.", Dani closed her eyes as Sam and Val chuckled. "Well, at least we won't have to see him much soon. Just two more years of school and that's it.", Val sighed.
Sam grinned softly, "You have to admit that colleges are more strict than high school, I bet they couldn't give Dash the chance to play college football until he passes his grades. It's a miracle that Mr. Lancer barely passed him last year, even if you showed him up, Val.".
"Hey, we still need someone to throw the ball well enough just in case I'm having a rough day.", Val pointed out. "Still, the sooner we find someone else, the better...".
"Not for those Dash tortures; he gets cut or something... might need to call the police.", Dani suggested. "At least there's someone around here to make sure to stop him if he goes too far.", Sam smiled as Dani gave a small nod.
"Yeah. We're talking about Sidney, right?", Dani laughed before the other two joined in as lunch came to an end. Indeed, that was quite a bizarre day when Dani and her gals met Sidney Poindexter, the ghost haunting Locker 724.
Sidney was literally a student here in Casper High back in the 1950s, and since he was unfortunately stuffed into his locker numerous times thanks to being bullied, he became able to haunt his locker after he died in his senior year.
She remembered the mess that happened with him and Danny before; basically, getting payback on Dash, Sidney mistook Danny for the bully and Dash as his victim which led to Danny losing his body to Sidney for a bit.
Dani's memories had things go a different direction since she did something similar to Dash when he was acting like a real jerk that needed to be brought down a peg. It was just the fact that Dani was a girl that kept Sidney from trying to body switch her; Sidney admitted he had his principals and would feel wrong by possessing a girl.
It certainly was enough time for her to quickly explain things to him that Dash was the bully and the two of them came to an understanding though Dani insisted she didn't need any help in terms of taking care of Dash or others like him while she was around.
And so, occasionally when someone goes too far, Sidney's there, and he gives an account for his side to tell Dani, to know what happened, and with some workaround, the kid who does the bullying is either suspended or put in detention for the month or year, depending on things.
Though there is the rare case when a student gets expelled for either going too far beyond the line of bullying towards the point of grievous harm to someone. And with teenagers and hormones, obviously some students might tend to go beyond simply kissing; usually it was with both parties' approval, but Sidney did once have to do something when it was clear one half was being taken advantage of. And of course, the even rarer case of an inappropriate 'friendship' between a teacher and one of the students which amazingly Sidney hadn't observed. Dani certainly was glad to know about that.
Dani took a deep breath as class started once more. If there was one major downside she could already see with the wish; it was her having to go to school and actually have a fairly normal life. At least before, she could do whatever she wanted and go wherever without any complaints; except for one time she had to escape a truant officer in a city.
After an hour and half of class time, there was a call to the auditorium by Principal Ishiyama for an important announcement about tomorrow, and so, all the students were going to the auditorium, with the teachers supervising and observing.
Dani whispered to Val and Sam, "What do you think what's going on?", and Val replied in a whisper, "Couldn't be a ghost attack or you'd know...", and Dani nodded, as Sam whispered, "Maybe the other high school team got sick or something.".
Val shrugged as Dani whispered, "Shh, she's coming to speak!", seeing Principal Ishiyama arrive at the podium, "Hello, students. I've received news that our beloved school is going to participate in a beauty and talent show, for both girls and boys. There's a beauty pageant for the girls who wants to participate, while a talent show is for the boys who wants to participate, and tomorrow, they are arriving.", and the student assembly gasped and murmured and tittered in excitement.
"Must be one of those traveling nationwide shows, you know, a bit more of a prestigious situation?", Val said as Dani looked around, "All I know is quite a few folks are excited. Mainly the girls with that beauty pageant.". That was an understatement as the Team Phantom trio could easily tell.
"And of course the simple-minded masses fall for the same old garbage.", Sam rolled her eyes as Val chuckled, "Guessing you're not a fan of beauty pageants, eh, Sam?".
Sam snorted, "Understatement. You have no idea how much I had to rebel against my mother, considering her...her awfully sunny disposition and forcing me into dresses and all when I didn't ask for it. I only do dresses when I want them to show my love of darkness and all.", with a scoff.
"I wouldn't mind trying on a dress myself.", Dani commented with a nod, "But only for dances and such...This is kinda...", and Val suggested, "Off-putting?".
"Yeah, you're not exactly able to personalize it. I bet Sam would do this if she was allowed to wear dress that screams death and darkness and a ton of eyeliner.", Dani teased as Sam smirked.
"That I might do. If only just to make my mother faint.". Sam still cared for her mother at the end of the day, but those two in terms of personalities and truly bonding was like oil and water. "And the talent show's obviously going to be restricted by sex, probably to give the guys something to do, so no chance for me to do some goth poetry.".
Principle Ishiyama dismissed the school as everyone headed out since class was over, leaving the trio once more walking home to school. Dani took a few steps before she felt her breath go cold. Sam and Val quickly noticed.
"Ghost?", Val asked, her tone a bit quieter as Dani glanced around. "Yeah, let's just wait though on that. See if anything happens.", Dani suggested as the girls nodded.
They walked on a bit more before they heard a scream and a car explosion, and they immediately walked quickly, turning around the curb corner to see a few citizens running in fear and such from the parking lot of a minor park as they had walked a couple of blocks from school, with a car burning with gratefully no trapped citizen, but in the air is a laughing, floating ghost, huge in green spectral energy, looking like a muscled man with dark armor and a dark skull executioner mask, and in his hands is a giant glowing green axe in black, green, and red accents.
"Well, so much for the hope that it would just pass on through town without causing trouble.", Dani sighed as she leapt into a nearby bush and changed, flying out in her ghost form to combat the executioner.
"Hey, buddy!", Dani called him out. "No one's needing to lose their head today so how about heading home to the Ghost Zone?". The executioner growled before he swung his axe at her causing her to duck out of the way and then avoid another slice.
Dani yelped in surprise as she saw that somehow the axe was able to be called back without physically calling it and narrowed her eyes as she knew she'd have to lead the guy to an empty warehouse or something where the executioner wouldn't hurt humans with that axe or worse.
"Come on, follow me!", Dani called out as she moved, getting him to chase her for a minute as she was trying to figure out a good place to fight. However, after a few moments, he came to a stop and then flew off another direction.
"Hey, wait a sec! We're supposed to fight! Don't run away!", Dani shouted. She chased right after him, but the ghost quickly gave her the slip, causing her to fly around for minutes before she finally gave up. He had fled and wasn't causing any more trouble for the moment, which was very peculiar to her.
She quickly returned to the others before powering down. "That doesn't happen too often.", Dani bit her lip as she explained to her friends. "Normally, most ghosts will fight me to the end until they're in the Thermos or I'm dead-dead.".
"This one just decided to wreck someone's car, take a few swings and flee? Yeah, very odd.", Sam shook her head. "You should let Danny know to keep his eyes out at least; but not to try and fight it.", suggested Val. "Your brother's getting bolder by the month if you don't mind me saying. Thinking he can fight almost like you.".
Dani smiled by hearing that; oh, how ironic that was. "Well, obviously, it is somewhat true, just he's still too young, his body can't exactly keep up. Fine in a short burst if it's a quick fight with someone not so powerful like, say, the Box Ghost, but going toe to toe with say Skulker or Technus, he better turn tail and run.".
Sam replied, "At least he's home around now since his school lets out earlier than us, that's good for him to be safe from that guy.".
Dani nodded, "True. So, want a snack at my house and do a bit of homework before you two head home?", and Sam replied, "Gods, yes. I'd want to stay out of my mother's range a bit longer if she heard about this beauty pageant from her prissy social circles of the other girls' mothers...I hope Gramma Ida distracts her somehow.".
Gramma Ida was basically the trio's grandmother, considering that Dani's grandparents had either passed on or retired in Florida, and Val...well, since her mother died when she was young, there was never much contact with Val's grandparents. And Gramma Ida is literally the coolest grandmother figure ever as she was inspiring Sam and the others in many things, and Gramma Ida adored the trio as she saw that they were more like family to her precious granddaughter than Jeremy and Pamela, Sam's parents.
"Hopefully.", Val chuckled as the girls got home. Despite the earlier attack, the executioner made no more appearances for the rest of the night, which really bothered Dani. There was just a nagging feeling on the back of her mind about this ghost, but what exactly?
A good night's rest didn't bring any real answers as the younger Fenton siblings ate breakfast. "So, no sign of the lumberjack?", Danny asked, since the two of them were alone.
Dani chuckled, "He's not a lumberjack, Dan-Dan, he has an axe, yes, but he's more related to medieval times. His role was to basically carry out... um, capital punishment for kings and queens.". How the heck was she going to describe a headman properly for someone Danny's age? She sure as heck wasn't gonna say that the guy made a living in beheading prisoners.
"So, he chopped prisoners instead of trees?", Danny asked as Dani sighed and nodded. "Talk about medi-evil!", he smiled at his pun as Dani snickered before rubbing his hair.
"I swear, never change who you are, Danny-boy.", Dani commented, and Danny nodded, "I won't, sis! So, let me guess, he's too strong for me?".
Dani nodded, "That's right. If you see him, text me immediately. Do not go to fight him, just text and turn around. He's...he's like Skulker and Technus.".
"Oh...Okay, I promise I will text you quickly when I see him, Dani. I won't go anywhere.", Danny replied, and Dani smiled, "That's my good little brother. Now, let's better finish breakfast. I don't want you to miss your bus!", as she intended to use her scooter to head to her high school herself.
"I could just easily fly...", Danny muttered under his breath. It was a few hours later when Casper High was once more ordered into the school's auditorium. As the trio walked on their way, Dani could feel her breath going cold once more as she quickly tried to see any sign of the ghost. "Bathroom.", Val whispered. "We'll cover for you if anyone asks.".
"Thanks.", Dani whispered right back as she slinked into the girl's restroom and made a quick check that no one was in before hiding in one of the stalls and became a ghost once more.
In the meantime, the rest of the students took their seats as Principal Ishiyama called for everyone to quiet down. "Thank you.", she smiled. "Now then, I know many of you are eager to get back to class...".
There were a few grumbles obviously indicating that almost everyone would rather not be in class at the moment. "So, this won't take very long. I'd like you all to please give a hand for our guest, Miss Dora Mattingly!".
A long blonde-haired woman with bright blue eyes, dressed in a modest dress of blues and greens like a peacock, wearing gloves, along with an oversized ring on one of her hands came up, "Thank you! Thank you for the welcome, children!", smiling brightly as the audience clapped and applauded.
Val blinked softly as she whispered, "Never saw an oversized ring like that before...", and Sam replied, "Me either...She's too bright for my taste...Smiling a lot...But have to admit that dress is kind of cute, though I would do it purple and black for my taste, and without the gloves too.".