Dash, Kwan, and Dale were in the school library after the final bell had rung. It had been about twenty minutes since then, and the only people remaining were them, the Librarian, and two other students, one drawing, and one sleeping. Dash couldn't blame him. The library was quiet, and comfortably warm, and staring at physics equations wasn't helping matters. Dash rested his head on his hand and sighed, watching the meaningless letters and mathematical symbols drift and swirl into incomprehensible squiggles. His eyelids felt heavy.
Dale sighed loudly, shaking Dash out of his stupor. "Okay, I need a break," he said. "If I look at this stuff a second longer my brain is going to fall out of my head in a warm goopy mush."
Dash nodded in agreement, closing his book. "Let's practice passing," Dash suggested. "Kwan's lateral could use a lot of work." Kwan punched Dash roughly on the arm and Dash and Dale laughed, ignoring the glare shot their way by the sleeping kid.
"Love to, but we can't," said Dale. Dash cocked his head.
"There aren't any teams practicing today, so all the equipment's locked up," Kwan said.
"Let's just ask Teslaff, school hasn't been over that long," suggested Dash.
Dale shook his head. "She's out of town for the weekend, remember? Something about her dad?"
Dash tsked, frowning. He put his foot against the table and leaned back in his chair, trying to balance it on two legs. He stared at the ceiling tiles. "So what do you wanna do then?"
The three of them sat in silence. Dash could hear pencil scraping against the paper of the girl a few tables down, and the clicking of the keyboard coming from the librarian. There wasn't really anything to do but study, but Dash would rather count ceiling tiles than go back to staring at maximum velocity and acceleration problems.
"We could… play hide and seek?" Kwan suggested tentatively, breaking the silence. Dash's chair came crashing back onto four legs as he stared at Kwan.
"Hide and seek?" he asked incredulously. How old were they? Was that really the best they could come up with?
"Do you have any better ideas?" Kwan countered.
Dash sighed. "No." They sat there for a moment.
"One two three not it!" yelled Dale, followed immediately by Kwan.
Dash groaned, but smiled. "Alright, stick to the ground floor on campus. I'll give you fifteen seconds."
"Twenty!" said Kwan.
"Fine." Dash put his hands over his eyes. "One…" he heard his two friends run out of the library and Dash continued counting.
"Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen-seventeen-eighteen TWENTY! Here I come!" he yelled, earning a loud "shh!" from the librarian.
Dash walked quickly out of the library. Most of the classrooms were locked, which left the cafeteria, the gym, the field, and the bathrooms. Detention was being held in the cafeteria, so they likely wouldn't head there. He doubted either of them would be bold enough to hide in any of the women's rooms. Not much, but a start. He decided to start with the nearest men's room.
It only took a minute to look in all the stalls and see that they were all empty. He turned to leave when the door opened.
Fenton walked in and jumped when he saw Dash, causing a smirk to sprout on the jock's face.
"How's it hanging, Fentonio?" Dash put an arm against the wall to block Fenton's way.
"Hey Dash," he said tiredly.
"What are you doing here after hours, Fentonowski?" He leaned in closer to Fenton, who leaned back in response.
"Detention. Too many tardies. Can you let me pee now?"
Dash retracted his arm. "Fine. But only 'cause I got important business to take care of." Dash slammed his hand into his palm. "You got a butt-whoopin' coming tomorrow though, I guarantee it."
Danny slipped past Dash and into a stall, and Dash left the restroom. Next stop was the field.
There was a lot of ground to cover on the field, but Dash didn't mind. The smell of grass and fresh air was enough to make him linger a bit longer than necessary. He would need to check the track, the football field, the bleachers, the tennis court, and do a perimeter of the school.
As he began walking toward the tennis court he heard a shout, coming from the track. That must've been Kwan or Dale! There weren't any teams scheduled to practice today.
As Dash ran toward the track, it became apparent that the shouting had not come from Dale or Kwan, but in fact, two ghosts. One was a crazy-looking guy with a shock of white hair and the other was the hero of Amity Park—Danny Phantom. Dash's heart pounded in his chest. He got a front row seat to watch his hero take down an evil ghost! This time there were no students to get in the way or teachers ushering him to "safety" to keep him from watching.
Dash watched in anticipation as they traded blows, blasts, and banter, only disappointed for a moment when he realized that he had left his phone in the library and couldn't record the fight.
Before long the fight had ended with the bad ghost—Tetanus or something—sucked up into the thermos, and Phantom flew off. Dash's heart dropped when he realized that he had forgotten to ask for an autograph.
"Wait! Mr. Phantom!" Dash called. Phantom flew off toward the football field and Dash followed, albeit somewhat slower than the airborne hero.
He got to the field and, glancing around, saw no ghost in sight. He ran over to the bleachers to look underneath, foolishly hoping that he just might catch the hero.
He finally rounded the corner and ducked around the benches. His heart leapt. Glowing slightly in the shade of the stands was Phantom, live and in person. Er, not live, Dash corrected.
Dash opened his mouth to speak when suddenly there was a bright flash of light that washed away the shadows of the bleachers. A ring of light hung around Phantom's waist.
Dash watched in awe as it split, each ring traveling across his body, turning black into white and blue. Dash gasped when it reached his head, changing the glowing white to a familiar inky black. Phantom turned at the sound, bright blue eyes growing owlishly wide as he realised what Dash had just seen.
"D-Danny Fenturd is—Danny Phanturd?!"