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Valerie felt pleased with herself. Sure she would have preferred to catch the ghost dog, or Phantom (take him down a few pegs), but if she was being honest with herself, showing up to the Paranormal Self Defense class practicum with Phantom in tow would have raised way too many questions. Most of her classmates would probably come in with blob ghosts.
Although she has heard a few scheming to get the Box Ghost…
Whatever. Finally catching that slimy, scaly, slippery giant ghost worm nicely straddled the line between what was feasible for her from an outside perspective and what she, personally, considered an accomplishment.
She walked into the classroom with her head held high and set her Fenton Thermos mk. 10 (the only containment device approved for the class) squarely in the center of her desk.
Star twisted in her seat to face her. "Hey, Val, what didya get?"
"Giant ghost worm."
"Nice. That'll be pretty unique. Pauli and I tried to tag-team some ectopuses over the weekend but we were only able to get one. Good thing I had a backup blob ghost, right?" She sighed. "They're so fat and cute. I wonder if they can be domesticated."
Valerie doubted it, but she shrugged noncommittally. The rest of the class dribbled in over the next fifteen minutes, with Danny sliding through the door just before the bell rang, as usual.
"Alright class," said Mr. Lancer, wheeling forward the class's Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™. "As you all should know, today, your practicum is due. You will be coming up one by one and releasing your ghost into the-" he sighed, then inhaled deeply, "-Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™, whereupon you will explain to the class how you located and captured the ghost in question. When you are finished, you will recapture the ghost and place your thermoses on that shelf, to be picked up by the Fentons for, yes, Miss Manson, ethical release into the Ghost Zone. Any questions?"
Dash raised his hand. "Can I get an extension?"
Mr. Lancer turned his gaze briefly towards the ceiling. "See me after class, Mr. Baxter. Any other questions? No? Then, do we have any volunteers?"
All hands stayed down. Hey, Valerie was proud, but not volunteering to present first proud. That was crazy.
"That's fine, I'll just pick randomly, then. Mr. Gregor, you're first."
Elliot stood up and made his way to the front of the classroom like a man made to walk the plank. He stuck his thermos into the socket on top of the Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™ and hit the release button. Blue-white light briefly filled the space. When it cleared there was…
Nothing.
"Hey!" shouted Dash. "It's empty!"
"No, it's not! It's Youngblood!"
"I must confess," said Mr. Lancer, "it does look empty."
"You just can't see him because all of you are adults already, and I don't turn eighteen until July!"
Danny raised his hand. "Neither do I."
Elliot looked like he wanted to argue for a moment, but then his shoulders slumped forward. "Aw, man. You couldn't let me have this?"
Mr. Lancer tapped a dial on the front of the Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™ with his pen. "The ecto-detector would have outed you–"
There were a number of snickers from the jocks' side of the room.
"--in any case, Mr. Gregor. You can return to your seat, now." He made a note on his clip board. "My homework is invisible to adults is a new excuse for the books, though. Mr. Fenton, you're next."
"'Kay," said Danny, passing Elliot on his way up. "Prepare yourselves to be amazed!" He slotted his thermos into place and hit the release button.
Valerie shielded her eyes from the light and suppressed a laugh. She was glad Danny had actually gotten something, considering how skittish he was about ghosts, but that intro was–
"Daniel! Release me this instant!"
Wait, what the heck?
Valerie looked up to see Vlad Plasmius glaring at Danny through the walls of the Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™. Vlad Plasmius. Better known as Vlad Masters. Mayor of Amity Park. Richest man in the world. Scarily powerful ghost with a great disguise.
She felt her jaw drop.
"May I introduce to you, the Wisconsin Ghost!"
"It's Plasmius, you insufferable brat!"
Mr. Lancer cleared his throat. "Mr. Fenton, did your parents help you catch this… Plasmius?"
"I borrowed some equipment from them, but that's within the rules, right?"
"Let me out!"
"Hey, you heard Mr. Lancer. You'll be released into the Ghost Zone after school with everyone else."
"Speaking of which, you should start your presentation."
"Oh, right. So, what happened was that I snuck up on him while he was monologuing in his evil lair and hit him over the head with–"
"You did not! And I don't have an evil lair!"
"That's debatable, but you know what? Fine," groaned Danny. "Spoilsport. Anyway, I started by baiting my trap with cheese–"
"Daniel!"
"I pretended to be the mayor of Green Bay and called–"
Plasmius hissed at him.
"Okay, okay, what I really did was tell Mr. Lonely Cat Guy that I'd tell him my mom's number if he helped me with a school project."
"Mr. Fenton," started Mr. Lancer, obviously concerned.
"It was a lie, of course! Guys and girls, the only ghost you should give digits to is Phantom."
"That is not what happened!"
"My man, I'm trying to make this less embarrassing for you. Work with me here."
"Mr. Fenton, must I remind you that this practicum is a graduation requirement?"
"No, no, I've got it. But it is, like, super embarrassing for him."
Honestly, Valerie didn't know why she was surprised at this point. Danny never had normal presentations. Not since the gorilla thing.
“What are you talking about?” snarled Vlad.
“Aw, it sounds like it was so traumatizing he doesn’t even remember it…”
“Mr. Fenton, please.”
Danny shrugged. “I told him I’d be more likely to consider letting him adopt me if he could win a fight with Fright Knight, because, like, that’s something I could do in Freshman year, and he’s never beaten him, and when he showed up afterward to gloat I snuck up behind him and souped him.”
“ Backstabber!”
“The worst part is that I didn’t even think he’d do it. Like, I’ve made exactly zero attempt to hide the utter disdain I feel for this man. It was a joke. I said I didn’t expect him to do it, but apparently he took that as a taunt or challenge or whatever. I was just going to bring Wade, but then he showed up this morning, so I was like, why not?”
“Wade?” asked Mr. Lancer.
Danny reached into his hoodie’s front pocket and pulled out the teeniest tiniest blue-green blob ghost. “This is Wade. I call him that because I found him in a pool.”
Wade squirmed out of Danny’s grip and flew up to chew on his hair.
“You know you aren’t supposed to bring uncaptured ghosts into the school,” said Mr. Lancer tiredly.
“ That’s what your focus on?” ranted Vlad. “And you call yourself a teacher–”
“And that’s enough.” Mr. Lancer reached over to hit the capture button and disengaged the thermos. “You can go back to your seat now, Mr. Fenton. Mr. Ishiyama?”
Kwan bounded up to the Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™ and gleefully slammed his thermos down into the socket. “I caught the Box Ghost!”
“Oh, no,” muttered Danny.
“BEWARE! I AM THE BOX GHOST AND– Oh, my, this is a lovely box. Is it for me? I ACCEPT THIS TRIBUTE! FEAR ME!”
The Fentonworks™ Ghost Glass™ Containment Cube™ began to levitate. Valerie pulled her class-approved ecto-pistol from her bag. Honestly, in retrospect, something like this was bound to happen.
At least, she noted, seeing all of her classmates pull out their approved ecto-pistols, she wouldn’t be the only one stuck fixing it this time.