Operation Amity

2

Danny didn't like this new transfer student. Not one bit. He stared too long, his gaze lingering on his scars. No one was supposed to notice those. Nobody ever did. The last thing he needed was someone sniffing around all the little things about him that didn't quite add up.

Danny shot Sam a look as he took his seat next to her

"There's an empty seat behind Mr. Fenton," Mr. Lancer unfortunately pointed out, making Danny inwardly groan.

Danny could see the kid looking at him with a sharp gaze out of the corner of his eye as he made his way to the back of the room. It gave him the creeps. And to make things worse, for the entire class period, he could feel his eyes boring into his back. Danny was out of there the second the bell rang, dragging Sam and Tucker with him.

"Something's not right with that transfer kid," Danny whispered hurriedly as they all stopped by their lockers. He wrung his hands. He didn't know what it was, but there was something. "He was staring at me the entire class! This is the last thing I need with the ghost activity spike right now!"

"It's super shady for sure," Sam remarked, furrowing her brow. "Maybe we should check to see if—what was his name?"

"Something Edogawa," Tucker helpfully supplied.

"—if this Edogawa is somehow ghost-related. We can safely assume that he's not a ghost himself or being overshadowed since your ghost sense didn't go off. But maybe he's working with one?"

Tucker looked up from his PDA. "But ghosts never work with humans. We're 'puny and horrid beyond belief,'" he imitated mockingly, making air quotes, "so ghosts aren't exactly lining up to have a tea party with us."

"Doesn't mean it couldn't happen," Danny shrugged. "Ghosts aren't predictable."

"Nah, man. Ghosts are super predictable. How many times a week do you throw the Box Ghost back through the portal? If I didn't know you, I'd think your ringtone was 'beware,'" Tucker retorted.

Danny sighed. He had a point. Most ghosts (or at least the ones that showed up in Amity) would never deign to even speak to a human if it wasn't for the purpose of terrorizing them. Even so, Edogawa's interest couldn't be a coincidence. At school, he was as average as they came. Subpar grades, plain face, typical build. Nothing about him should stand out. So why?

Sam crossed her arms. "Even so, we should look into it, don't you think? Anything fishy around here is always ghost-related."

As the trio turned into their next class, Danny was met with the wholly unpleasant surprise that not only was Edogawa in his math class too, he was interrogating everyone else around him like he was the police or something. Edogawa sat backwards in a chair, listening intently to some guy Danny didn't really know.

Danny shot him a glare when his back was turned and sat down on the opposite end of the room, putting his head down on the old wooden desk to pretend he wasn't going to eavesdrop. He peeked through his arm to watch.

"And you say Fenton's parents are ghost hunters?" Edogawa said, jotting down notes in a little black notebook. Danny could hardly believe his eyes.

The red-head he was talking to nodded. Danny thought his name was Wes or something? "Oh yeah, he's a real loser. His parents are totally crazy. You should see their van! It's loaded up with all kinds of wacky stuff."

Edogawa frowned and muttered, "And that makes him a loser?" but closed his notebook and thanked him for the information nonetheless. Well, it was a point for him in Danny's book, although he still didn't appreciate the nosiness. Not when he had a huge secret to keep.