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"Well, he sounds like a cute boy, so he must be one."
"It's a ghost, Paulina."
Jazz knew how this discussion would end, but she always stuck around just because it was mildly entertaining. Besides, the bell wouldn't ring for another five minutes and the small group of people crowding around the Casper High Princess and blocking off her route to math class wouldn't disperse until Paulina was ready to go to her own class.
"Come on Val," Paulina groaned, rolling her eyes. "I don't know why you have such a grudge against him. He's saved, like, the whole school by now."
"Don't remind me," Valerie grumbled, her face tensing in annoyance. Phantom had been the bane of her existence since his fights started 'causing trouble for anyone caught in the crossfire of his stupid battles.' "Look, with that mask, you can barely hear its voice and you definitely can't see its face. You've seen some of the ghosts; they're not exactly pretty. And your little crush won't change that it's probably the same."
Paulina scoffed, yet again rolling her eyes. Valerie, as far as Jazz could tell, was only her friend because she was wealthy. Paulina and her gaggle of "A-listers" would ditch anyone, no matter how close they were to them, as soon as they didn't fit in. Ashley had been an A-lister a while back, but after Dale dumped her, she lost her ticket to popularity and got kicked out of their club. Valerie's relationship with them was a ticking time bomb, in Jazz's opinion. Most families were two financial emergencies away from bankruptcy, the Fentons included. Paulina and Dash were rich enough to be immune from that. Valerie wasn't.
Jazz was thankful that Danny had found Sam and Tucker and didn't find popularity worth disgracing them or himself for. It showed he could be mature without anyone else's influence, which she was proud of. Considering Paulina would be very interested in Danny if she heard about Phantom showing up around their house a lot, she would definitely try to get him on her side.
Danny would shut her out completely and go to Sam's house like normal if that ever happened. He was inseparable from her and Tucker, and not even Paulina could change that. Jazz was the proudest older sister for that fact.
Jazz looked down at her watch. About two minutes left. Yet when she looked back up, Dash was approaching. Considering his attendance record, he might continue the conversation far past the bell. Jazz leaned against the cold metal lockers and resigned to being late and, at the very least, getting to hear the end of the discussion before the math teacher scolded her.
"Not every ghost is some blood-sucking, world-destroying, ugly monster, you know," Paulina continued, smiling up sickeningly sweet at Dash when he came to stand next to her with a hand on her waist.
"Are you saying Phantom is some evil freak, again?" Dash shook his head. "My girlfriend is right." Paulina smirked at Valerie the moment Dash said that. "I've heard some theories that he's so handsome he hides his face to protect us from being blinded or something."
Jazz had read some religious texts that claimed that about angels, gods, and some primordial monsters. That one look could blind someone, turn them insane, or just kill them on the spot, burning them alive the instant they looked at the entity. She tried to stifle her laugh that Dash thought those things were the same as Phantom, who did figure eights midair when he was bored and played with blob ghosts like they were kittens on calm weekends.
The school bell rang loudly through the halls, yet it seemed Jazz was the only one who cared. Paulina didn't even blink at the obnoxious sound. It wasn't a surprise, then, that not a single person took that as their cue to go to class. Not when their princess decided the bell wouldn't change her plans.
"Or," Valerie countered, her annoyance seeping through even stronger. "It's so ugly and monstrous that it hides its face so everyone will think it's harmless. It could be trying to lure you in by pretending to be nice so it can murder you. Or worse."
"Or worse," Paulina mocked, giving air quotes to make her point. "You're being paranoid, Val. If you have any proof, show us all right now. Cause otherwise you're just being rude to someone who's saved our lives for no reason, which is, like, so weird."
Paulina was right that Phantom wasn't the monster Valerie made him out to be, but Jazz hated agreeing with the petty, shallow, spoiled princess. Especially when she decided to antagonize Valerie so bluntly.
Jazz knew she was a black belt who could take down the prim and delicate cheerleader without even trying.
Valerie put her hands on her hips and looked about ready to start getting into a fight with Paulina since she started being more purposefully condescending than before. Yet Jazz knew she wouldn't harm an innocent person—let alone someone she considered a friend—no matter how much they pissed her off, so there was no actual danger.
That was why she was comfortable with Danny inviting her over every once in a while for study sessions. And why Paulina and Dash would never get the same approval.
That being the case, Jazz found herself caring less and less about the conversation every second she was later to class. She tuned out whatever Valerie said, hoping it would be over soon. The two girls had had this argument several times now, and it never ended with any kind of agreement. Usually just a huff of annoyance and one of them stomping off, only to be sitting together at lunch an hour later talking about fashion or something.
Paulina had a pathetically obvious crush on Phantom, despite no part of his body showing under his full-body black and white hazmat suit, not even his face under his thick hood and green-black gas mask. Apparently his distorted voice, muffled by latex and metal, by itself was incredibly attractive to her, enough to ignore that he obviously wasn't human.
Valerie, meanwhile, had nothing but hatred, annoyance, and disgust for Phantom. She thought he was a horrifying monster with nothing but malice under his suit. Apparently Phantom had caused some trouble for her father a while ago. Nothing major, even with Cujo's best attempts to cause mayhem for everyone in town. But enough that she decided to wake up one day and blame him for everything wrong in her life. Nevermind that he had saved every single student in school at least once, including her.
"The Chrysalids! What on Earth are all of you standing around for? The bell has rung already!"
Normally, Jazz disliked Mr. Lancer's often grating voice, but this time all she could do was sigh in relief when every single person but her jolted in place thanks to his shout, then quickly ran off before he could take their names down for detention. Not that Jazz could judge; she did the same thing, quietly disappearing around the corner with the intention to give a weak, pleading smile to the teacher. She was always kinder to her, considering she was the only student in her class with straight A's. She felt half bad that Dash, Paulina, Valerie, and all the others nosing into their conversation wouldn't get that courtesy considering their lackluster grades and attendance.
But only half bad, considering they were the ones who made her late in the first place.
She could hear the loud, sharp clanging of metal on metal from downstairs the moment she entered the house, but it was almost familiar, comforting even, to Jazz. Her parents closed the portal whenever they were going to be distracted with work—Jazz's suggestion, which they happily took since it made their work days easier—which meant that Phantom's job would be done much sooner. After he rounded up the stragglers, he could relax knowing all the ghosts of the day were tucked away in the thermos on his utility belt.
Jazz shifted the plastic bag in her hand as she set her backpack down on the kitchen floor and hung up her car keys, taking off her shoes for the rest of the day. It was almost 4:00pm, which meant Danny would probably be home already.
A small side effect of living in a house with a ghost portal meant that she could actually sense the ghost in her bedroom before she even opened the door. Developing a sensitivity to ghost energies had taken some getting used to, but that thankfully meant that she wasn't startled by the masked figure hovering ominously over her desk in the dim room. Phantom's heavy, deep breathing and foreboding gas mask might have freaked out even Paulina if she found him in her room.
Jazz, though, when he looked up at her with his otherworldly neon green eyes glowing through the darkness of the goggles, merely reached down into the bag and pulled out the fancy Swedish chocolate bar she bought and held it up.
An excited gasp flew out from his mask before Phantom pulled back his hood. "Yay!" he said, after ripping off his mask to reveal a wide, happy grin on his face, floating over and taking it from her. He ripped off the packaging like a starved wolf and immediately broke off a large chunk to starting scarfing down. With a mouthful of his snack, he said, "Sorry about coming in without asking, but I think I left my water bottle in here yesterday."
"Yeah, you did." She nodded over at her windowsill, where the black and blue water bottle covered in little white stars sat, half full. It was thanks to the curtains being closed that it was dim in here, but after she turned on her overhead light and opened them up, Phantom probably looked a lot less threatening to normal people. "I forgot to give it back to you after we finished studying. The chocolate is for acing your quiz, by the way. Congrats!"
"Couldn't have done it without you," he muttered, a small green blush forming on his cheeks as she handed him the bottle.
Everyone deserved a treat as a reward for doing well, in her opinion. Especially Danny, who struggled more than anyone else with having time to study and do homework with all the ghost fighting as Phantom. Thankfully, he had his two best friends and his sister to help anytime he needed it.
"More studying after your snack?"
Danny nodded, already halfway through it. Melted chocolate covered the corners of his mouth. He sighed, clearly tired yet still joking around with her. "Unfortunately. Mr. Lancer must want to kill me all over again, cause the homework never stops."
She couldn't help a small laugh. He was like that when she was in Danny's grade, too. "No, it does not. Enjoy!" she said, right before he phased through her wall into his bedroom with his mostly-gone snack in one hand and his water bottle in the other.
Both Paulina and Valerie always seemed a lot sillier to Jazz every time they had that stupid argument. Because they were both wrong. Phantom was neither a horrifying monster nor a godly entity.
He was and would always be just Danny, her little brother.