Doctor Dash

Chapter 20

"That was such a great party."

Lex turned his head away from his friends to frown at the other boy, who rolled his eyes and grinned at the boy beside him after his sarcastic comment. Since his first day at the new school, Lex decided he really didn't like Jeremy and his friend Vincent, who enjoyed teasing other students far too much.

"Your dad must not have a very good job if he couldn't bother spending enough money for a cooler party. You didn't even have a clown." Jeremy snorted with a triumphant look in his eyes, like somehow he was superior to Lex.

"Clowns are lame," Lex stated flatly. That wasn't what he really thought about clowns, but his father forbade him from mentioning anything about that time he encountered the ghost of a clown. His father fought ghosts, and sometimes, he couldn't avoid Lex being involved when the ghost appeared suddenly while they were out doing something. The clown ghost appeared out of nowhere, harassing the citizens of Amity Park, and Lex considered that one of his most terrifying experiences so far. It definitely didn't rank as the top, which was a horrific moment in his life that left him feeling sad and empty inside, but since then, he grew to dislike clowns.

"I thought it was a fun party," Denise said before she popped one of her crackers into her mouth. Since the day Lex stood up for her after she read out loud to the class, Denise fell into their little grouping, and when snack time rolled around, she came over to join Lex and Xander while they ate.

"Of course you would," Vincent said and nudged at Jeremy like he was expecting the other boy to give him some show of approval for his comment. "Your parties are total snooze fests."

Denise dropped her hand away from her mouth, about to eat another cracker, as she lowered her brown eyes. She hunched down in her seat, appearing even smaller than usual.

"Denise has good parties," Xander argued, his mouth pursing as he stared at the two bullies. "Better than yours."

"How would you know?" Jeremy asked as the teasing smirk slipped onto his face. He leaned over the desk, and Xander gulped visibly as he sank an inch or two in his seat. "You've never been invited to my parties."

"Sounds like a good thing," Lex said, looking bored when Jeremy snapped a glower at him. "No one even wants you at their parties anyway. Being a dumb face doesn't make people like you."

"What was that?" Jeremy demanded, brandishing a fist.

Lex lifted an eyebrow at the other boy. Was a little fist like that really supposed to scare him? He had ghost powers! They didn't always work the way he wanted, his control over them being rather lacking, but he certainly couldn't find a reason to be scared of Jeremy, especially after the punch he laid on the bully that first day. His father was teaching him how to handle himself in a fight, even if his father didn't want him to fight. At least, not against a normal human and certainly not with his ghost powers. He was only eight years old, and he already saw plenty of things that would probably leave Jeremy curled up in the fetal position sobbing as he wet himself. And that was without even stepping foot into the Ghost Zone.

Jeremy really wasn't worth the effort to fight anyway. Lex only stepped in that first day because he overheard them teasing Xander about not having a mother. He struggled not to close his own hands into fists as he remembered that. Not having a mother wasn't something to make fun of. Not having a mother was really painful, and everyday hurt when he remembered his mother wasn't there anymore. The flashes of memory from that day still woke him up at night, and he couldn't get back to sleep again unless he crawled into bed with his father and had those reassuring arms that told him everything would be all right eventually around him. Jeremy didn't understand the pain of not having both parents, but Lex suspected he would never understand with that pigheadedness he had.