EPISODE FIVE "Splitting Images" pt.3

Danny walked toward Dash, who was pounding the heck out of the soda machine. "C'mon! Gimmie my soda!" Then he did something I couldn't comprehend.
"Hey, lemme help ya out there, pal!" He fixed the machine from the inside, and the can came rolling out. Dash gulped it down in a chug.
"Thanks, Fenton." He crushed the can in one hand.
"Hey, no problemo!" What was going on here? I was sensing not Danny.
"What, are you goin' through puberty?" Seriously, does this happen to boys? I hadn't ever really known a pubescent boy before. I would ask Tucker, but if he had already gone through it I felt really bad for him. Me and Tuck looked at each other, as if agreeing that this was uber-weird.
"Uh, y'know, I'm a little tight on quarters. Think you can get a few more sodas for me and my pals?'
"Heh,he. You betcha!" So...not only was he abusing his powers, now he was using them to help Dash?  And steal. Definetly not Danny. A mother load of sodas rolled out of the vending machines.
"Danny! That's stealing!" Danny loaded his arms with the pop cans.
"Well, I'm sure that poor kid lost more than his fair share of quarters to the...vicious bullies of this school. It's time somebody evened the score." I finally understood the individual words of his sentences, but they made even less sense. Either Danny was a really good actor, or something else wasn't. Danny tossed a can to every kid he passed in the hallway. "Hey, everybody! Egg creams on me!" Kwan caught his can.
"I don't know what the heck an egg cream is, but thanks!"
"Well, this is new."

"Hey, Fentonmeister! We're short one for touch football." Kwan put his hand on Danny's shoulder. "You in?" 'Danny' looked up at him in amazement. I sensed a setup.
"Posiloutley, absitively!"
"Posiloutley? Hah ah ha ha! When did you get a sense of humour?" Danny's always been funny to me... The crowd murmured and shouted excitedly as they walked outside with Danny. Well, time to go see him get creamed. Danny saw that his locker was open and hurried to close it. Did he really own anything that valuable? He continued on as if nothing happened.

Tucker and I stood just outside of the playing field as the team made their huddle. Danny ran off excitedly to his position, and the rest of the guys hung back for a second. Plotting their... plot. I was just hoping they could knock some sense back into him. The match started and Danny was handed the ball. He stood there, confused as his teammates left him wide open. "Well, it was nice knowing him." Very nice. He was one of my only true friends, even though we were so different.

"Think I could have his computer?" Tucker and I both flinched. I closed my eyes. I heard the sound of tackling and crushing and imagined the powder that was left of him blowing away in the wind. When I opened up my eyes, he was fine. In fact, he was winning! He giggled retardedly as he ran the ball to the other team's side. The rest of their players scratched their heads. Danny did a very odd winning dance, and Tucker and I exchanged surprised smiles. I glimpsed at the turf. I thought I saw something written, but when I looked again it was all trampled because Danny's parents had just walked ontop of it. "There's a ghost in here, I CAN FEEL IT IN MY BOOTS! And I'm not leaving this campus 'til these gloves grab some ghost." Someone should take those away from him. He held them up and smiled deviantly, as if he was a small child playing with fireworks. Mrs. Fenton's device beeped as she pointed it at Danny.
"A ghost? That can't be right." She looked up at her husband. "Hmm. Looks like we'll be staking out the school all night." She looked over at us. "Don't wait up." Okay. Not like I would've anyway...
"Well in that case, I'll need to use the little Ghost-Hunter's room." He took off his gloves and tossed them to Tucker. "Hold these gloves, son. Where I'm going there's no need for that much power." What is even happening. Danny's parents both ran off.
"Party at Fenton's house!" Dash raised both of his fists in excitement. The rest of the zombies  sheep cheerleaders and jocks cheered in agreement. Like they always did.
"Hot dog! Where does he live?"
"It's your house, bonehead." Kwan turned to the rest of the field monkeys. "Is he hilarious or what?" Danny smiled stupidly. This was just getting annoying. This obviously wasn't Danny.
"Free soda, a touchdown, and the opportunity to trash a classmate's living room. How easily the pom-pom and letter jacket set is swayed."
"I don't know... Danny seems a little...off." Ya just got that? I didn't bother arguing about his passiveness, because we had more important tasks at hand. I looked down at my SAVE THE FROGS button. Hmm...
"Although... the residual popularity effect could work to our advantage!" I ran out into the field. "Oh, Kwan! You simply must" I held a button up to his head height, which was my entire arm's length up, "wear one of these SAVE THE FROGS badges. It's all the rage." Kwan looked at it, unsure.
"I dunno..." 'Danny' took the bait. Out of my hand, to be specific.
"Hey, boss badge! Can I have one?" And so it begins... Danny pinned it to his shirt, which attracted the rest of the group.
"Hey, I want one!"
"Me too! I can wear it with my Old Army lime green baby tee!" I almost wanted to give them to everyone except Paulina, but her friends would all join. And she had a lot of those.
"Gimmie one, yo! I started this trend!" No. No, you didn't even want to try one. Danny and I started this trend, even though he was off-Danny.
"Hang on, folks! Plenty more in my locker where that one came from!" Me and Tucker ran to go collect the 'prizes'. Things were finally starting to look up for me.

I was almost at my locker, when one of them flew open and scared the crap out of me. Tucker practically fell backward. The face of...Poindexter appeared in the mirror. "Sam! Tucker! In here!" He knows our names?
"Poindexter?" The ghost became frantic.

"No! It's me! Danny!" I looked into the mirror to see the black and white alternate high-school dimension which existed on the other side. "Poindexter took over my body and sent me into this bizarro spirit world!" I glanced back at Tucker and we both crossed our arms.
"Prove it."
"In second grade Tucker threw up in your lunch box, but he told you Ricky Marsh did it." I could almost feel Tucker's fear of my wrath.
"What? I kicked him off the monkey bars for that! It was you?" I pointed accusingly at Tucker, but didn't have time to get mad at him. I thought I recognized Danny's voice. Me and Tucker leaned in closer to the mirror.
"Danny?" He started pushing on the mirror from his side.
"The mirror acts as some kind of portal but I can't phase through it!" He stopped pushing and sighed. He bowed his head. "Serves me right. I'm only in here because I was acting like a bully." Lesson learned? "Now I'm in here and I'm gonna get bullied FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY!" Yep. But...I want to see him!
"You might not be able to get out. That doesn't mean Poindexter can't get back in."
"I doubt he's in a big hurry to get back to where he came from." Danny thought for a moment.
"I think I know how to get him in here! Here's what you need to do: Tell him that a bully is putting some kid into this locker. Then use the Ghost Grabbers and throw him in. He might get back here, then I can handle it." 
"Are you sure? I...don't want to see you get hurt." Tucker nudged me and I elbowed him back hard.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." What was I worrying about? He's pretty much invincible.
"Okay. See you soon!" I ran to go find...other Danny.
"Hey! Wait up!"
"Stay here with the gloves!"
"Oh. Right."

He was still in the field waiting for the...Badges! Oh, well. I needed to save Danny first. The real one. Man, this was getting confusing. "Danny! Come quick!"
"What's the dilemma?"
"No time! Hurry!" He followed me as I ran into the hallway leading to 724.  We neared the turn... "A bully is shoving a poor, defenseless nerd inside his own locker!" I stood in front of Tuck, blocking Danny's view of him to make a better ambush.
"Tucker! I'll save you!" Poindexter changed into DP. I admit, the real Danny was much hotter when he changed. He looked around. "Hey, there's no nerd gettin' shoved inside his locker!" Tucker smiled devilishly, the gloves behind his back. He stepped toward PoinDP calmly, then quickly raised the gloves over his head.I realized that they were much too large for his hands. Poindexter yelped as Tucker grasped him.
"There is now!" Tucker threw the ghost into the mirror. It let out a very dramatic NOOOOOO before it was sealed there. It was silent for a couple of seconds. "So, you and Danny, huh?" I tried to hide my blush.
"Wha-? Whatever do you...mean?"
"You know... I never would've guessed."
"Tuck, he's my friend and I worry about him."
"Riiiiiight. Sam and Danny, sittin in a tree. K-I-S-S-" I grabbed his shirt.
"Tucker, I still haven't had a chance to freak out at you for the lunchbox thing. And you know that I will."

"Okay! Alright!" I let go of his shirt. I loved how I could scare Tucker into doing anything. Danny popped out of the mirror, and landed on Mr. Lancer, who I just noticed was carrying a now-spilled box of frogs. He ran after them. "No! Come back!" It was entertaining to see fat teachers chase frogs. Sarcasm mode: ON.
"Oh, dear. Whatever shall we do." Danny walked up behind me. "Good one, Danny!" He looked mopey. Always with the mopey.
"Yeah, Danny! ...But how do we know you're really Danny?" His voice, his mannerisms, I could go on.
"Because I used my powers for the wrong reason and became exactly the kind of person I hate! It got me into a load of trouble, and I'm not gonna do that again." He reached into his locker and took out the mirror.
"Now that's the Danny I remember."
"Just one more thing to do." He smashed the mirror on the floor. It shattered loudly.
"Fenton! That's school property!" Mr. Lancer was wearing a badge...and so was everyone else behind him.
"I can explain!" He blinked. "Actually, I really can't."
"I'm holding you responsible for this! And the escaped frogs! But seeing how upstanding students like Dash Baxter have made their opinions known, I'm willing to overlook the frogs. Ms. Manson, you could learn a thing or two from them about activism." I frowned. I started this whole thing! He just loves Dash. He never blames anything on Dash. "Still, that leaves the matter of your locker. I'm going to have to assign you a new one." On the opposite side of the school from ours. Beside the band room. Nice. Why? Because he likes to pick on Danny. This teacher was so stupid.

"Hanging with band geeks, Fenton?"
"No amount of free soda is gonna fix that!" The football players walked away. Random band members walked up to Danny, who wasn't enjoying his new locker at all. Neither was I. How were we supposed to spend breaks together?
"Hi, I'm Lyle. Wanna help me clean my spit valve?" He held up a dripping instrument. Danny sighed.
"My fifteen minutes of popularity are up. And I wasn't even here for them!"
"Yeah, but at least it wasn't a total loss." I held up the robot frog I was holding. My campaign had suceeded, which I guess I should thank Poindexter for. "Looks like this baby's gonna get some use after all!" It was carried out of my hands by... The box ghost. Who else?
"HaHA! I am no longer the box ghost. I am now, the Mechanical Frog ghost!" The frog short-circuited and the ghost dropped it. It landed on tuckers head with a clang. Way to treat the equipment, buddy. "Uh, Changed my mind! I am once again the box ghost, who will have nothing to do with mechanical amphibians! BEWARE!" He phased through  the nearest wall. Why does he even try? It was so bad, it wasn't even funny.

"Now there's a guy who knows exactly who he is." The frog on Tuck's head croaked.