Seeing Double

Duet With Myself - Part 1

"You can't keep calling him Inviso-Bill!" Paulina said. It was unbecoming for a lady to raise her voice, but she could not let this pass.

"It sounds better than ghost boy," Dash said. "He needs a hero name."

"Yeah Paulina, the dude fought a dragon," Kwan said. "A dragon!"

School had just ended and they were loitering at Kwan's locker. He leaned against it with his arms crossed, a dumb grin on his face as if that fact settled it. And Dash leaned against Kwan with an elbow on his shoulder.

"Then give him a good one," she said. "Gawd, he's too handsome for a lame ass name like Bill."

She wanted his real name. And she wanted to know how long ago he had died, how it had happened, and if he'd had a girlfriend. If so, was that girl still alive? Was she young still or an old lady?

"What about Ecto-Man?" Kwan said. "Like cause he's made of ectoplasm?"

"Ew, no something good I said." The next time she saw him, Paulina would ask the ghost boy herself. Trying to think up a name was useless.

"Hey, I don't see you coming up with any ideas," Dash said. "Good try, Kwan. Oh! What about Ghost Buster?"

"Nah, cause the Ghostbusters are a team," Kwan said. "That's like calling John Lennon 'A Beatle' or something. It doesn't work."

"Good point," Dash said. He groaned and draped himself over Kwan. "Naming things is hard, man."

Paulina rolled her eyes. They could have gone on swapping name ideas for hours, but thankfully the boys spotted Fenton and Foley walking by and couldn't resist yelling after them. "Hey Princess Peach! Where's your crown?" Dash said. He straightened up and cracked his knuckles.

"Foley you better get yourself a plunger," Kwan said. What a loyal sidekick, trying to follow the theme. "Uh, cause Bowser could come for him at any minute!"

The guys laughed and high fived each other. Foley flipped them off without looking and the nerds kept walking.

"Hey Fentina!" Dash really wanted Fenton to look at him. She could see a vein pulsing in his neck as the blood rushed to his face. Wow, it was pathetic. Fenton walked out of the building with no reaction. Dash punched a locker. "The fuck, it's like he's not even scared of me."

"I wonder why," Paulina muttered. It's not like Dash could actually beat anyone up. Not without risking his spot on the football team. Kwan tried to put a comforting arm over his shoulder, but Dash shrugged it off and stomped after Fenton.

Unfortunately, Paulina could empathize with his frustration. The little nerd had been ignoring her too. Not that she ever cared about him, but their date had ended oddly. Actually, it hadn't ended at all. It was interrupted by the ghost attack.

It was a given that there be some kind of follow up, wasn't it? But Fenton never texted or acknowledged her at all. And she didn't care but it was kind of insulting. Never in her life had she been ghosted like this. By someone under her league at that! She hoped Dash would punch him or something, at least once.

But she had more important concerns. Where was Manson? The goth nerd didn't go home with the other two? Paulina had never paid much attention to them, so she didn't know if this sort of thing was normal.

Kwan had been talking about something and Paulina had been pretending to listen, but she dropped her pretense when Manson finally walked by.

"I'll catch you later," she said, trailing after the girl at a measured, but fast, pace.