Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Knock Knock

The swoopy-haired boy looked up from what he was doing, hearing the knock on his door. "Come in, June." He could always tell when it was his sister. She's the only one who knocks politely, not like his dad who bursts in or his mom who calls out from the other side of the door.

Opening the door, June popped her head into her brother's room. "Ollie, have you seen my jumper cables?"

"Not lately, did you pack them back up when we were going to move?" Now that the Ghost Chaser Chen's no longer chased ghosts, they had to shut down their MeTube channel. His dad was offered to work at the family rubber glove factory (despite his latex allergy) and the family had gotten packed up and nearly moved out of Brighton. Why didn't they move? The same reason Ollie learned to trust ghosts, Molly. She came up with turning Ruben's root beer into a business and got them working with the Davenports. They got to stay in Brighton with a new root beer pub and everything was back to normal… though they had to unpack everything that had been re-packed.

June tried to think if there was still a box unaccounted for. "Hmm, it could have gotten mixed in with the filming equipment…" She almost left the room, now having a new lead to follow, until she noticed that her brother was intently focused on his daily planner. "What are you up to?"

"Oh-" Ollie turned the book so that it was facing June, the page for today was covered in writing of various colors and several post-it notes and scribbles of correction. "I've got a date with Molly today and I can give my utmost guarantee that it will be the most perfect date in the history of perfect dates!"

His sister read over his messy handwriting, noting how often things were scribbled out and replaced or corrected with notes. "Wouldn't it have been easier to do this in pencil?"

She had a point, but it was too late for that now. "In hindsight, yes." Ollie agreed. "But it doesn't matter, I've got our day all planned out. First, there's a crepe truck that stops by the school at noon. Molly mentioned that she hadn't tried them yet, so I figured it'd be the best way to start. After that, we'll go to the movies at one thirty, arriving fifteen minutes early to allow for bathroom breaks and any additional lines for tickets or snacks. And to top it all off, there's a mixed music showcase at the Bandshell this evening. We'll dance under the twilight, and it's going to be so magical!"

That sounded like a lot for one date, but June supposed that was what couples did when they were together. "I'm sure Molly will like it. How long have you been planning this?"

"Since 4:30 this morning." Ollie shrugged, he'd made the preliminary itinerary last night before bed but the final draft came when he woke up and triple checked on everything they could possibly do today. He had to account for any last minute changes that could pop up the morning of, such as a pack of wild raccoons commandeering a hot dog cart and closing off a section of the park that they may have casually strolled through.

June paused with a blink. "You know, statistically speaking, it is very likely there will be unaccountable obstacles to these sorts of plans." Since when has anything they and their friends have ever done gone completely according to plan?

Regardless of what June said, Ollie was still optimistic, "But it's only 'very likely' not completely certain. Which means there's a chance that everything will go perfectly!" He was going to give his girlfriend the best date ever and no probability facts would get in his way!

His sister shrugged. "Sure. Hope challenging the universe works out for you." She sincerely meant that. June left to continue her search and left her smitten brother to get ready for his date.

OXOXOXOX

Soon after, Ollie arrived across the street at the McGee house. After knocking on the door, he straightened his shirt and jacket while he waited for Molly. He could hear the sound of footsteps getting louder and the door swung open to reveal his girlfriend, "Ollie! Hi!" She made a tiny wave with a lopsided smile.

Ollie waved back and chuckled as he returned the gesture. "Hey Molly, ready to go?" he held out his non-waving hand to her. Molly nodded and placed her hand in his, the action sending butterflies in their stomachs.

"Izzat Ollie?" A voice that was somewhat muffled by potato chips asked from the living room. The couple looked back and saw Scratch sitting at the living room table with his tablet and a bag of chips. He looked intensely focused on his screen for some reason.

"Yup! We're going on our date now!" Molly reminded her BFF.

The ghost nodded, not looking up from his tablet. "Have fun you crazy kids, I'm in the middle of a hot debate. Some stupid city kid thinks fireworks are better than pizza and I WILL PROVE HIM WRONG!" Scratch shouted before stuffing another handful of chips into his mouth.

Leaving Scratch to his own personal battle, Molly and Ollie walked away holding hands. It was a relaxing walk to their first destination. They chatted about whatever came to mind as their arms lightly swayed by their sides. Molly had a bit more bounce in her step and was so animated when she was talking, her presence was both calming and energizing simultaneously to the boy connected by her hand. Whatever they had been chatting about was interrupted when a tiny grumble came from the girl's stomach. Embarrassed, she let go of her hand and wrapped her arms around her torso while she turned away. "Heh, heh… guess breakfast is wearing off…"

Ollie saw this as the right moment to reveal the first part of their perfect date. "Then it's a good thing our first stop is at that new crepe truck."

That got Molly to turn back to him, embarrassment now forgotten and replaced with excitement. "I've been wanting to try that place! I can't wait!" She grinned with glee at the prospect of sweet crepes and imagined how many different choices there would be.

In Ollie's eyes, he saw golden rays of sunshine and sparkles surrounding her figure as everything around them slowed down just a bit. The bright beams were still not as bright as her smile, one beaming with pure joy. Ollie's got hearts in his eyes and a lovestruck grin plastered to his face while he watches her, letting out a gentle sigh.

The couple arrived at the school parking lot and spotted the truck. It was kind of weird there wasn't anyone in line, but they chalked it up to good luck. They sped up their pace and approached the counter. "Hi, we'd like-" Ollie tried to order, but the lady in the truck held up a hand and had him stop.

"Sorry kids, we're all out of ingredients for today." The crepe lady regretfully informed them.

"What?! How can you be out?" Ollie asked.

The crepe lady had a haunted stare in her eyes: "Kindergartners. A whole field trip worth of them." In the back of her mind she could still hear their screams. Their loud, unceasing screams.

There couldn't have been a way to plan for this. But Ollie figured there could still be a way to salvage this. "Don't you have any ingredients left?"

"I got ice, and I got strawberry syrup. Can't make crepes with those." The crepe lady shook her head sadly.

And so Ollie's idea of the perfect date was crushed at the starting line. Maybe it hadn't been wise to challenge the universe? Fate loves a good challenge. He turned to his girlfriend, hoping she wouldn't be too disappointed that he couldn't get her the crepes she'd wanted. But Molly wasn't upset at all, rather the gears in her head seemed to be formulating an idea. "Do you have any way to crush the ice?"

The crepe lady was confused but nodded. "Yes."

A smile grew on Molly's face. "Can you use the ice and syrup to make snow cones?"

"Yeah! I can do that!" The lady liked her idea and set to work making the new treats for the couple.

"Great idea Molly!" Ollie praised his girlfriend. She always amazed him with her creativity. She was flattered by the praise and giggled. Why did this girl have to be so darn cute!?

Two strawberry snow cones inside crepe wrappings were placed on the counter. The crepe lady wiped her brow. "Whew, had just enough for two cones!"

The duo paid the regular price for two strawberry crepes and looked for a spot to enjoy their frozen treats. "This looks great!" Ollie couldn't wait to try a bite. He had his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth as he placed his spoon in the ice.

"WAH!" The sound of a little kid crying stopped Ollie in his tracks. There was a little boy nearby kneeling beside a colorful mush on the ground.

Approaching the small child, Ollie could tell that colorful mush had been a popsicle based on the popsicle stick pointing out of the side. "Did you drop your ice pop?" Ollie knelt down to the boy's level. The little kid sadly nodded, his lip quivering as he tried not to cry. The older boy gently smiled and offered his snow cone without a second thought. "Here, you can have mine. It's strawberry." The little kid gratefully accepted the snow cone and spoon and happily went on his way.

When Ollie stood back up, Molly was watching him with a loving, sparkling gaze. She ceased her swooning and made a quick run back to the crepe truck, coming back with an extra spoon and handing it to Ollie. "It's a little smaller than a banana split, but I think there's enough artificially flavored strawberry ice for both of us." Molly held the remaining snow cone between them.

Her boyfriend beamed. "I'd like that." They each took a spoonful of snowcone and tasted its cold sweetness together.

OXOXOXOX

After salvaging their first stop, Ollie led the way to their next destination. "Alright Olliepop, what's next on the agenda?" Molly leaned against his side as they walked.

Ollie quickly checked the time on his phone, they were right on schedule and the theater was only a block away. "There's this new movie out that I think you'd like. I've got tickets for the next showing."

Molly's eyes lit up. "You mean that animated musical one?"

"Yeah!" The boy knew he'd made the right choice. Who wouldn't love a cartoon where the characters burst into song?

"Fifi! Where are you Fifi?!" The couple noticed a frantic lady on the other side of the street. She kept shouting for a 'Fifi' and was searching around in a panic.

Not one's to leave someone in distress, Molly and Ollie crossed the street and approached the woman. "Excuse me ma'am, are you looking for someone?" Ollie asked.

"My dear puppy Fifi has run off!" The lady wailed. She held up an empty leash that looked like it had snapped at the collar. "She's so young and out there in the big, scary world all by herself!"

Molly and Ollie shared a look of resolve and nodded to each other, they could see the movie later. There was a puppy in trouble that needed their help. "Hey, hey, don't cry, we'll help you find Fifi!" Molly assured the distraught lady.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" The lady profusely thanked the two, shaking their hands with a little too much force.

Shaking some feeling back into his arm, Ollie prodded for more information. "Can you tell us where Fifi ran off and how long ago it happened?"

"It was a few streets back, around a half hour ago. I tripped running after her and lost sight of where she went." The couple were given some exposition. Minutes later, I didn't have time to write, the lady led them back to where she lost sight of her dog. The whole walk the lady went on and on about her precious Fifi "-and she always tries to go after crows that get too close! So I wasn't worried until she pulled her leash so hard it snapped!" she blew her nose into a handkerchief.

Molly and Ollie searched high and low for a clue to where the dog had gone. The hyperactive girl weaved through the alleys between shops and around various public structures, even searching under a literal rock, while Ollie asked anyone close by if they had seen anything. Another forty minutes had passed by and Fifi was still nowhere to be found, so the couple and lady regrouped. "Alright, so we've covered the surrounding three and a half blocks." Molly was slightly out of breath as she spoke. "There's still a whole lotta Brighton left to cover, and we need a way to narrow it down before Fifi gets too far away."

She was right, they needed a lead soon. Brighton was a small town, but it was still a big place for a tiny dog to get lost. Ollie recalled what they knew about Fifi, where she ran off, why she ran- "Miss, you said Fifi went off to chase some crows, right?"

The lady nodded. "Yes, they keep bothering her on walks. Whenever she sees one, she lets out her adorable growl and tries to jump at them."

"... How good of a jumper is Fifi?" Ollie followed up.

"Very good, she loves leaping onto the couch to watch late night talk shows with me." The lady sniffled, missing her beloved nightly routine with her pooch.

Ollie snapped his fingers, he knew exactly how to narrow it down. "Molly, we've been searching for a dog on the ground. But what if Fifi was higher up-"

"Like if she had followed the crow back to its nest!" Molly gasped, finishing Ollie's thought. "Sweet baby corn! I think I saw a bird's nest near the candle store!" The enhappifier led the way back to where she thought she'd seen the nest, and sure enough, there was one perched on the side of the roof. There was a ball of white fluff beside it, occasionally moving and making a deep growl. "Up there!" Molly pointed up at the missing dog.

Fifi's owner was near hyperventilating when she saw her dog up that high. Ollie's mind raced to figure a way to get up there. "There could be a ladder or some stairs inside the building, so maybe-MOLLY!"

His girlfriend had a plan of her own. She hopped on top of a dumpster and hoisted herself up onto a ledge above. "I got this. It's just a little climb and I can grab Fifi!" she called down to reassure those below. She nearly lost her footing on the next step but quickly caught herself and recovered, flashing a smile that said 'forget you saw that, it won't happen again'.

Taking a look at Molly's intended path, Ollie had to agree that it would be easy enough to climb. The ledges were close enough together that she could easily latch on to the previous one if she mis-stepped. Ollie was awed by her determination. Molly didn't let anything stop her from rescuing a puppy. Even without a curse to remove her fears, she was incredibly brave, and unlike him, lacked a fear of heights to hinder her climbing ability. While he wished he could do something to help his girlfriend, there was someone else who needed his help more at the moment. Fifi's owner was in tears, scared that something would go wrong, and her canine companion could get hurt. "Fifi means a lot to you, doesn't she?" Ollie gently placed a hand on her shaking shoulder.

The lady loudly blew her nose into a tissue before answering. "She's my precious baby! I don't know what I'll do if anything happens to her!"

"Fifi is lucky to have someone who cares as much as you do." Ollie continued, his voice soft and understanding. "I bet she misses you as much as you miss her."

The lady's breaths were evening out while she talked, calming down as she thought about the love she and her Fifi shared. "She's such a mischievous puppy. She'd run off and get into some ketchup, then jump into my lap and give me kisses." Thinking of the positive was helping distract her from her worry.

Taking a quick look back at Molly, Ollie grinned. "I think she's ready to give you more of those kisses." His words caused the woman to look up and see Molly standing before them, a sweet expression as she locked eyes with her boyfriend and held up the tiny terrier in her arms.

"Fifi!" The woman and her dog were reunited and the puppy kisses commenced. "Oh, thank you both so much!"

Ollie proudly put an arm around Molly's shoulder. "You were great, Mollberry." The nickname earned a little blush on her cheeks. Sure they missed their movie, but they brought just a bit more good into the world instead.

"So were you." She returned the sentiment. Though there was still something on her mind. "Ya' know, I haven't seen any sign of that crow Fifi had been chasing."

Seen only by the couple, a larger ghost bird flew past them. The implications set in. "… I don't think that was ketchup she was getting into…" Ollie muttered with a wide-eyed stare.

OXOXOXOX

Nothing had gone the way Ollie had planned it today. But just because two out of three things went off the rails doesn't mean the last one would, right?

The canceled sign slapped over the poster for the mixed music showcase said otherwise.

"Canceled due to a freak elevator accident?!" Ollie read incredulously.

Cutaway to a hospital room where the musicians that were supposed to perform were lying in bed in varying states of body cast. Everyone glared at one guilty-looking guy. "'Ooh, what does this button do?' Apparently it sends us crashing down three floors, Keith!"

Back to our duo, Molly was bummed about the cancelation. "Aw, I was ready to bust a move." She'd already started thinking of which of her dance moves to show off on the way over. She glanced at her companion, noting that he was even more disappointed than she was.

It wasn't not having the musical showcase that had Ollie down. Folded neatly into his pocket, was the plan he had made for their perfect date. He tried so hard to make this the best date Molly has ever had, she was so special to him and seeing her smile was what he treasured most. But he let her down, he couldn't give her the perfect date she deserved.

"Ollie-" she called his name, getting him to gaze at her. That positive smile brighter than sunshine awaited him. "We may not have a live band, but if we find a radio or something, we could have our own private dance?"

There was that endless positivity and creativity of hers, always finding a solution in the darkest of moments. Although in terms of dark moments this ranked pretty low, more of an inconvenience really. "That sounds… perfect." Ollie pushed his bangs back unconsciously, making his girlfriend swoon. "First we need to find a music player."

Molly tapped a finger to her chin, deep in thought. "Hmm… (tiny gasp) I know!"

Across the park, Patty and some of the other seniors from the retirement home were showing off their new hip replacements with a free-style dance off. Patty pulled off an impressive and indescribable break-dancing move that earned her a round of applause. "Ha! Try and top that, Elbert!"

"Patty!" A young voice caught her attention.

The lively older lady saw two of her favorite kids heading towards her and her group. "Molly McGee and Ollie Chen, come to see me show the rest of these old timers how to bust a move?"

"While that sounds amazing-" Molly wished she'd seen the indescribable move previously mentioned. "We were actually wondering if we could borrow your CD player for just a little bit?"

"Sure! We're not even using it anyway, Bobby's been beatboxing this entire time." Patty revealed, gesturing over to her lover continuously beatboxing. He didn't stop. If he did, he'd lose the beat he'd built up. But he did give a thumbs up.

Molly gave a brief hug to the senior. "Thank you so much!"

Patty smiled fondly. "Of course. Now, what did you need that for anyway?"

Ollie began to explain "There was supposed to be this mixed musical showcase-"

"Say no more." Patty held up her hand. "We came out here for the same thing. We were all raring to get our groove on before the darn thing got canceled. We've been popping and locking our joints to fill the void."

"But it ain't filling anything!" Elbert shouted.

Patty was having none of this. "Quiet Elbert, everyone here knows you've been cheating anyway!"

A quick pan revealed Elbert was wearing a robotic exoskeleton atop his pants. "You have no evidence!"

Knowing that it wasn't just the two of them disappointed about the performance, Molly felt that this wrong needed to be righted. "Ollie… I know I suggested a private dance for just us…"

He knew what she was going to suggest, and his only objection was that he didn't think of it first. "The more, the merrier, right?" He confirmed that they were both on the same page.

Molly nodded and addressed the elderly. "Patty, would you all like to come with us? We could make our own music at the bandshell?" The young girl offered.

"That's the best idea I've heard all day." Patty accepted, rallying the seniors with her. "Bobby, you can take a break from beatboxing till we get there." Her man took the opportunity to stop and take in some deep breaths, he'd rebuild his beat when he could breathe again.

One of the other old ladies raised her hand with her phone. "Can my son come too? He's supposed to drop off an unwanted box of fairy lights for me."

Molly and Ollie shrugged, why not? They gave the lady the go-ahead and let her text her son. That lady's son was with some friends when he got the message. He showed them the message and took them all with him on his way to the bandshell. The group of senior citizens and the teenage couple were pleasantly surprised to see a few extra people come up to meet them. Upon seeing the excess fairy lights, Molly suggested stringing up one or two for lighting. The idea was accepted and soon she, Ollie and the non-elderly adults were setting up lights on the edges of the bandshell.

Their actions did not go unnoticed by other passersby who passed by and saw the group, more people came to join in on the fun. Molly and Ollie welcomed all who came by, and many had things to contribute to the impromptu get-together. One guy had a bunch of old towels for people to sit on, someone else had bought way too many snacks and passed them around, an older teen had some wires and cables to connect the CD Player to the Bandshell's sound system, and one really apathetic man brought cups.

Molly's positivity was infectious and soon there were dozens of people showing up to put on a spur of the moment dance party at the bandshell. It got to the point where Ollie had to get out his planner and start keeping things organized. He directed the pack of balloons to be placed by the side so they wouldn't get in the way of people dancing, towels and chairs were kept an ample amount of distance to be close but not squished, and the cups be placed on a folding table beside the snacks and some soda brought by their principal. As Ollie made sure everything was going smoothly, he kept sneaking glances over at his girlfriend, the reason everyone was here and having a good time was because of her. Her small suggestion grew until everyone was enhappified, and it was incredible to watch as the joy brightened up Brighton.

That was his girlfriend, bringing joy and happiness everywhere she went. Molly McGee was the most amazing person he'd ever known. Her hopeful spirit and boundless optimism captivated him from the start. Even when he was a ghost hunter, she kept pushing him to see things from a new perspective. They learned and grew from their experiences together, supporting and teaching one another through hardships and peace. His feelings and admiration for her only grew with time, and he could feel that it was mutual.

Realizing that he had been staring at her with a completely smitten smile etched into his face, Ollie resumed his focus on finishing the final touches to the snack table. A few newcomers looked to him for assistance afterward, and he gladly helped them, unaware that Molly was the one watching him with the exact same smitten smile as she held her hand to her heart.

Once everything was all set up, there was only one thing left to do. "May I have this dance, Mollberry?" Ollie playfully bowed to Molly, offering his hand to her while they stood at the edge of the designated dance floor. The upbeat music from the eighties was different from the music they'd danced to before, but they were different from before too.

"It would be my honor, Olliepop." Molly took his hand with a goofy curtsy. They stepped into the crowd and contributed their own unique dance to the scene. It was silly and uncoordinated, but they might have been having the most fun out of everyone.

OXOXOXOX

The sun had set long before the spur-of-the-moment gathering winded down. After all the dancing and the subsequent cleanup, the only ones still remaining at the bandshell were Molly and Ollie. The couple sat on the edge of the stage, fingers interlocked while they leaned against the other. "Whew-" Molly wiped her forehead with her free hand. "I had no idea things would escalate like that. That showcase wouldn't have been nearly as much fun had it happened." At the mention of the original plan, Ollie let out a sigh he didn't even realize he'd been holding. Molly studied his expression, recognizing when he had something on his mind. "Everything alright, Ollie?"

Ollie opened his mouth to say something, then lightly shook his head and re-decided his words. "It's nothing big. I just… I planned this big perfect date for us and nothing went the way it was supposed to." Molly was going to interject and reassure him, but he continued on. "But you… you were so amazing today. You didn't let any setbacks get you down, and you turned every situation around with your positivity and determination." He earnestly went on, seeing the red color grow on her cheeks. "I feel so lucky to have you as my girlfriend."

"Awww, Ollie." Molly's eyes sparkled, placing her other hand atop the one already holding his. "Don't sell yourself short, you were incredible today too!" It genuinely surprised him to hear her say that. "You planned so much just to make me happy. When people were upset, it was your kind, empathetic self that brought their smiles back. And that party would have become anarchy without you there to keep things on track. Cob knows how crazy parties get when you have a pile of balloons. I'm the one that's lucky to have you!" She smiled brightly, resulting in Ollie's heart catching in his throat.

He was flattered by her words, his face reddening like a tomato. "Gosh, I-um… wow." he rubbed the back of his neck, trying to form a coherent sentence. He lightly giggled and looked Molly in the eye "That's a big compliment coming from the girl who enhappifies the whole town."

"That is my goal after all, to bring joy and life into my forever home!" Molly was so confident in the path she was on. It made her boyfriend stop and think, his eyes shying away so she wouldn't see the doubt hidden inside him. It didn't work, she still noticed the shift.

Wordlessly, Molly prodded him with the simple action of leaning her cheek against his shoulder. Her gentle smile assured him that he could tell her anything and she'd be there to listen. "I don't know what's next for me. I haven't figured out what my goal is right now." He admitted. He wanted to engoodify the world, and for years he believed he could do that by getting rid of ghosts. Things have changed recently. He and his family had given up hunting ghosts, and now he wanted to help them. His parents have the root beer pub, June has her gadgets, he was the only Chen that hadn't found a new path for himself.

If just Molly's presence was reassuring to him, then her words were more so. "That's normal isn't it? We're still young and have our whole lives ahead of us. Not even I know what I'm going to become, but if I keep doing what I love I know I'll find it someday, and so will you."

Ollie had already found one thing he was looking for, a partner who understood him right down to his soul. "Thanks, and at least there's one thing I'm sure of-" he hadn't even said anything yet and his face was already turning bright red. "I really, really like you Molly." His hands held hers just a little tighter.

"I really, really like you too." Molly bashfully replied. The blushing must be contagious, Molly's face was turning red too. They were content to simply sit there enjoying each other's company, listening to the quiet sounds of the night (and the distant screaming of Elbert as his exoskeleton pants caught fire) but an idea popped itself into the enhappifier's brain. "Y'know, I overheard that the local shelter has a surplus of adorable kittens right now."

Ollie connected the dots, seeing where her train of thought was heading. "Are you thinking of holding a kitten adoption in the park-"

"-And inviting kittenless kids whose homes are looking for a furry friend." Molly continued his sentence.

"Let's do it!" They shouted together, grinning and excitedly holding up their intertwined hands. As they walked on home they discussed their plans, Ollie would get the forms ready and Molly would contact pet-less households, and they'd get it all set up the day after tomorrow…

… and Ollie would never have believed the turn his life would take that day.

Chapter Text

Entering his garage, Ollie was perplexed to find a giant logo in the center of the room. "Theme Song Takeover?"

"OLLIE!" Molly burst out from behind the logo with Scratch, unintentionally jumpscaring her boyfriend.

Letting out a short scream, Ollie jumped back an inch while Molly and Scratch came around to the front beside him. "GAH! Molly?! What is this?"

"It's your Theme Song Takeover-" Scratch told him. "You do your own take on our theme song, that sort of thing. The squirrel let us borrow back the logo for the afternoon."

Molly pulled an arm around his shoulder and brought Ollie closer. "It's a fun and catchy, non-canon way to summarize your character arc this season."

Scratch rolled his eyes. "Which everyone should know anyway. I mean it's not like the episodes only made it to script form or something crazy like that."

"Hmm…" Ollie thoughtfully put a finger to his chin. "I guess I could give it a shot."

"That's the spirit!" Molly shoved a microphone into his hand. "Speaking of spirits-Hit it Scratch!" She pointed over to her ghost BFF.

"Hitting it!" Scratch pressed the play button on the music player. The music cued up, and the scenery changed in an instant to a blue background.

"Lost on what I should do~" Ollie stood in the center and started singing.

"My ghost hunting days were through~" An old Ghost Chaser Chen's poster is crossed out in red marker by the ex-ghost Hunter and then tossed in the trash.

"I had to find a new way to engoodify the world~" Waving his arm over his head, Ollie let a trail of sparkles scatter about as he longingly sang about his need for a purpose.

"Turns out I was needed most~" Ollie stepped backwards into a ghost portal, splitting his soul from his empty shell body.

"By a council run by ghosts~" Falling into the portal, Wraith Ollie landed at the Dark Dais. The Ghost Council eagerly surrounded him and the Chairman robes flew across the screen.

"Cause the robe, cause the robe it has chosen me~" Wraith Ollie slides down the robe like the rainbow in the original theme song.

"That's better~" The chairman's robe landed on Ollie and gave him his chairman appearance.

"Lotta pressure~" A mountain of scrolls and expectant ghosts surround the new leader of the ghost world. Ollie folds in on himself nervously with a lopsided grin to match.

"To prove I'm worthy~" Ollie shakes off the doubt and lifts himself into the sky.

"A kid with a ghost world to lead~" The council pass down a scroll until it reaches Ollie sitting at the end.

"Hope this gets you caught up to speed~" Ollie turns to look directly at the audience while he stamps the scroll.

"Fixing it all must be my destiny~" As chairman, Ollie fixes various problems for ghosts. Straightening a sign, fixing a hole in the ground, giving Bartholomew a thumbs up on his mini quiches. For the last three notes, he sings to a light shining down on him.

"He's so dreamy!" Molly stage-whispers to Scratch beside her as they watch him sing.

"So now I'm Chairman Ollie~" Ollie finished his song and the background returned to the original location in the Chen garage. Molly was eagerly applauding her boyfriend, while Shell Ollie beside her gave an apathetic "Woo."

Rejoining with his body, Ollie passed the microphone back to Molly. "That was pretty fun actually!"

"Told ya!" Molly smugly grinned.

"I've got some homework to do, but afterwards I'd love to hear some of the other theme songs!" The boy suggested his plans to his girlfriend.

"You got it, Olliepop!" Molly winked, pointing a finger-gun at her boyfriend.

Ollie waved goodbye and went back inside his house, leaving Molly and Scratch with the Theme Song Takeover logo. "Aaaawwww" Scratch smacked his face, realizing what came next. "We gotta push this thing all the way back where it came from! I knew we should have put wheels on it!"

"Come on Scratch, put some backbone into it!" Molly started shoving the heavy logo offscreen.

"I don't have ANY bones!" Scratch protested as he pushed the logo with her.

OXOXOXOX

A portal whirled open inside of Ollie's room, a figure wearing a long black robe floated through before closing the portal. "Yes! Got it on the first try this time!" The figure pulled the hood of the cloak down to reveal Wraith Ollie, glowing orange and grinning at having gotten the hang of using portals. "Hey me, I'm home!"

Shell Ollie was sitting on the bed reading a book (upside down, but he didn't care) and looked up at the chipper soul that addressed him. "Welcome back to the unending torment that is life."

Ollie paid his soulless body's comment no mind as he dived back in. It felt weird readjusting to a solid, walking body after floating around as a spirit for the last three hours. Leaving his room and heading down the hallway, Ollie's good mood was interrupted by the sight of a spider crawling across the wall. "AH-"

"There she is!" A young boy's voice called out. Darryl and June rounded the corner and ran to grab the spider. "Heidi, we told you not to wander off!" Darryl scolded his spider, who seemed apologetic. Ollie shuttered while watching Heidi hop into her owner's hands.

"Oh, Ollie, you're home." June realized it was actually her brother standing before her and not just his shell. "How was the Ghost World?"

"It was great!" Putting the spider freak-out behind him, Ollie was excited to tell his sister about his day. "The council gave me the grand tour and explained what duties I'll be upholding as the chairman. I even get a monogramed stapler!"

Darryl snapped his fingers, recalling what June had told him earlier. "Right, you've got the robe now! Congrats on the new job."

Ollie was about to thank Darryl, before his sister added. "He still hasn't told mom or dad about it." Ollie's face froze into a panicked smile and nervous sweating.

"I'm… working up to it." The new chairman rubbed the back of his neck. Telling his sister he was in charge of the Ghost World was easy, but telling his parents, on the other hand… he wasn't afraid of how they'd react, but he was very, very nervous about how they'd react. "I need to wait for the right moment to break the news. Uh-Hey what are you guys up to?" He changed the subject.

June took his bait, and took Heidi into her hands. "We're building a robotic body for Heidi Hairylegs!"

"It's going to be sick!" Darryl was pumped up. Imagine the possibilities of having a spider with a mechanical body the size of a person! Imagine the pranks that could be pulled…

The 'chaos duo' (as they've been dubbed by the school staff) hurried along to June's lab. Now alone, Ollie sighed. He had to tell his parents today, he couldn't keep putting it off.

OXOXOXOX

Ollie poked his head out the side of the kitchen door, eyeing his parents who were in the middle of a conversation. "-and then it hit me… we add Root Beer Floats!" Ruben excitedly told his wife his latest idea.

Esther loved it. "Perfect! It'll add some variety to the menu! We'll need to get a steady supply of vanilla ice cream though…" Business was booming at Ruben's Root Beer Pub. It made their son happy to see them have something new to pour their passion into. Shutting down the MeTube channel and giving up on chasing ghosts had left a big hole in their daily lives. "We'll work on ice cream arrangements on Monday. Tomorrow is a family-bonding Sunday and you know what that means…"

"The Chen Ghost chaser dri-" Ruben's enthusiasm dropped as the words left his mouth. "-ills… which we don't do anymore. Because we don't hate ghosts… except the one in the canister."

Ollie cringed, at least his dad caught himself. They had been hunting ghosts for as far back as he could remember. It was a big change and his parents were still adjusting to it. His mom and dad had been against ghosts since they started dating, so some old reflexes and habits kicked up before they stopped themselves. Ruben couldn't help but shudder when Geoff hugged him and got ectoplasm all over his clothes. And before they remembered to disarm an ecto-sensor, it picked up Scratch's signature and his mom instinctively grabbed a boo blaster.

They were trying. They listened to their kids while trying to navigate this new normal. Sure, it would have been nice if they'd started listening to Ollie back when he first tried talking to them. Yes, it hurt him when they dismissed him at the convention, and he may never have brought it up with them, because why would he want an old wound reopened? At least his stress nightmares didn't include his parents rejecting him anymore-

"Ollie?" His mom finally noticed his swoopy-haired head watching from the doorway.

The boy cleared his throat and awkwardly shuffled up to the kitchen counter by his parents. "Hey… y'all…" Ollie mentally facepalmed, 'y'all'? That sounded like a cowboy!

His parents didn't seem to mind his odd greeting, or if they did, they didn't say anything about it. "Your mother and I were just talking about what we should do as a family this Sunday. Maybe you or June have some ideas?" His father asked.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you guys about something…" Ollie hesitated.

"If it's about the birds and the bees, let's wait until after Darryl goes home." Esther spoke way too casually.

"OH MY COB NO! It's absolutely nothing like that!" Ollie's mortified outburst was loud enough to startle his dad. Realizing he'd accidentally yelled in his dad's ear, Ollie sheepishly apologized. "Sorry."

Ruben chuckled, understanding why his son suddenly shouted. "It's fine, Ollie. So what did you want to talk about?"

His parents' expecting gazes made Ollie feel smaller. Come on, he could work up the courage to talk to them! It wasn't like he had to convince them that their worldview was wrong, just that he was now the leader of an entire world. At 14. And it's made up of the very beings they used to hunt. "Mom, dad, I-"

The tense air was shattered by the arrival of Heidi Hairylegs in a robot body. June and Darryl followed behind as they excitedly showed off their project. "Check out Heidi! She's tall enough to blend in with society!" Darryl proudly exclaimed. All they needed was a trench coat and they'd be set to sneak into R-Rated movies!

The vibe was totally thrown off, and now all the attention went to the spider maneuvering the robot suit. Actually, June was piloting the suit, but the mini-control panel made Heidi feel like she was actually driving. "Don't mind us. We just came in for a juice break." June assured her parents as she directed the robot body to open the fridge and pass them some juice boxes.

"You built that in one afternoon?" Esther was impressed by the creation.

"It didn't take the whole afternoon." June had worked on the blueprints and frame for three days now. But the final build only took eight hours to build with Darryl as her lab partner. He had no idea how the stuff worked, but he listened to her instructions and worked hard, for the sake of giving his spider a mech suit.

Darryl took a long sip of his apple juice. "It still needs some oil, the joints squeak when they move."

"I think we've got some in storage, let me go check." Esther led the kids and spider with a robot body out of the kitchen.

Left with just his dad, Ollie figured he'd hold off on the reveal until his mom returned. It'd be easier to tell them both at the same time rather than telling one and then have to do it all over a second time. "Speaking of storage-'' Ruben reached over into a box on the counter, one leftover from the recent re-packing, then unpacking over the canceled move. "Look what I found while I was putting the stuff away."

Ruben held out an old photograph and passed it to his son. Ollie's eyes widened as he recognized his younger self and his dad in the photo. "I remember this…"

Flashback sequence engaged!

Eight-year-old Ollie intently watched as his father demonstrated the proper way to hold a goo gun. "Now once you make sure you're holding it steady-" Ruben aimed the modified water gun at a fake ghost. "You aim and press!" His goo gun shot out a blast of green, sticky substance.

Esther loaded up another water gun with the ghost-immobilizing slime. They hadn't expected their son to ask to join his parents in hunting ghosts, but they welcomed his interest with open arms. True, the couple had yet to actually capture a ghost, and it was more of a side hobby than a business, but now that their son wanted to join in, maybe they could make this into something more. If they did, they'd certainly need better equipment than what they were using. "Ready, Ollie?" Esther handed her boy the loaded goo gun, keeping hold until she was sure he had a grip on it.

Little Ollie did what his dad had shown him, sticking out his tongue as he concentrated on his aim. He pressed the release and watched the slime blast forward and hit his target. "I did it! I hit the ghost!" His first training session was off to a good start.

"That's my boy!" Ruben affectionately ruffled his son's swoopy hair, making the kid laugh.

"Look at my little ghost hunter in-training! Pretty soon this will be a real family business." Esther praised her oldest child. Her phone suddenly went off, and she checked the caller ID. "It's the babysitter." She relayed before taking the call. "Hello?... June took apart the toaster?! … Well, did you let her try putting it back together?"

With his wife on the phone, Ruben knelt down to Ollie's level. "Dad, getting rid of ghosts is going to make the world nicer, right?" Little Ollie asked.

"It will." Ruben assured him. "You're such a good kid Ollie, always wanting to do good and help others. Being a ghost hunter won't be easy, but know that we'll always have your back." He pulled Ollie into a hug.

Ollie was thrilled, he'd found a way to not only engoodify the world but also make his parents proud of him. The latter was why he wanted to hunt ghosts like them, so they'd be with him instead of leaving him at home with his sister and a babysitter. Their expectations would be higher, and he couldn't afford to disappoint them. Ollie would become someone they could be proud of.

A flash went off, and the guys looked to see Esther snapping a photo of them with a Polaroid camera. "Now this one's a keeper."

Returning to the present time…

The photo of Ollie and his dad hugging was scratched and slightly bent, yet the picture was as vibrant as the day it was taken. Ollie smiled bitter-sweetly, it was a dear memory of his parents' love, and a sour reminder that he'd been so eager to hurt ghosts at a young age. "You were so little back then-" Ollie heard his dad say. "But you've always had a big heart. Always wanting to 'engoodify' the world."

'I wanted to engoodify by hurting innocent ghosts, you mean' Ollie dared not voice his thoughts.

Esther returned from helping the chaos duo, and she looked like she had an idea to share. "The kids told me there's a new mini-golf place in Mewline. That could be fun for the weekend."

Her husband liked her idea, and they conversed about it. Ollie wasn't paying much attention to what they were saying. Maybe he should back out now? What if they were against his new job and forbade him from doing it? No, they weren't like that, they liked ghosts now. Ollie was not exactly sure why this was so difficult, was he afraid they'd disapprove of him-it! Disapprove of it! He needed to rip the bandage off!

"I'm the new Chairman of the Ghost World!" Ollie blurted out, immediately clasping his hands to his mouth once he realized he had actually said it out loud.

… "What?" His dad tilted his head. Both adults were understandably confused by the sudden outburst.

Taking a deep breath, Ollie readied himself. "Mom, dad, remember how Scratch cursed the Chairman's robe to seek the most worthy? It-it chose me."

(Behind Ollie outside the window, Heidi's robot body had gone rogue and was running around on its own. Darryl and June chased after it.)

"Wait-" Esther pinched the bridge of her nose, processing what her son was telling them. "That robe chose you! Wasn't that meant to find a new ruler of ghosts?"

(Darryl caught Heidi as she was ejected from the robot body. June frantically pressed the buttons on her remote but it wasn't responding.)

Ollie nervously grinned. "Yeah, so Scratch brought me and Molly to the Ghost World-which was completely falling apart-and the robe insisted that I become the chairman. At first, I turned it down, and we tried to find someone better suited for the job… and there wasn't. We had to save the presidents, I magically closed a bottomless abyss, and I took the job. Part-time, of course!"

(The robot was going haywire, its arms and torso rotating like helicopter blades. It whacked the remote from June's hands and crushed it.)

"Then… Ollie, you're in charge of the ENTIRE Ghost World?!" Ruben was still wrapping his head around the idea. His son, ruler of the afterlife?!

(Darryl briefly ran off to grab something, while June stood in the robot's path. Blocking it whenever it tries to move.)

"I know it's a lot to take in. And it sounds like it's way too much for me to handle." Ollie rubbed his arm, nervously looking away. "But the Ghost Council will help me figure things out. So you don't have to worry about me doing this alone."

(The robot whirled its arms again, trying to hit June. Darryl ran back over and smashed a plastic lawn chair over it. June took her turn to run off-screen while it was preoccupied with Darryl.)

The wait for his parents to respond was agonizing. Ollie tensed up and clenched his eyes shut, then two gentle hands reached out and held his shoulders. He opened his eyes to see his parents smiling proudly at him. "It's a shock to say the least…" his dad spoke. "But we're proud that you've found this path for yourself."

(June returns with her jumper cables, driving them into the robot's back and letting the electricity overload it.)

"R-really?" Ollie's voice sounded hopeful yet uncertain.

(With the robot stunned, Heidi used her webbing to string her former robo-body up like a pinata. And just like a pinata, Darryl and June grabbed sticks to whack it with. They alternated hitting it until it blew up.)

Esther looked her son in the eyes. "You will always make us proud Ollie, no matter what." Her reassurance drove Ollie to pull his arms around his parents and pull the three of them into a hug. Ruben and Esther returned the gesture, holding their boy close.

A burned smell entered the room. "Did someone burn toast?" Ruben asked, causing the hug to break up as the other two noticed the smell and its source; the lightly charred chaos duo entering the kitchen.

"The robot body turned evil, and we had to destroy it." June explained before anyone could ask. "We need a trash bag and a broom to clean up the debris."

Ollie moved to help the younger duo. "Want some extra help?" His sister and Darryl nodded eagerly. They grabbed what they needed and went back to the yard, before leaving, Ollie shot his parents a thankful smile.

Ruben and Esther waited until the kids were gone to turn to one another with concern. "Ollie is in charge of the whole Ghost World! That is a massive responsibility!"

"He's not even in high school yet! This is more than some part-time job…" Ruben shook his head. A year ago his son was a ghost hunter, and now he's the ghost LEADER!

"Do you think he'll be able to handle it?" Esther trusted Ollie, he wanted to engoodify the world, and now he could engoodify an entire world. A job like that would come with immense stress. What if it became too much?

Ruben held his wife close. "I can't answer that. But Ollie knows we'll support him however we can. If he's in trouble, he can count on us."

Change could be scary and uncertain, but the Chen's were a family, and they would grow stronger and closer as they changed.

Chapter Text

Mayor Brunson tapped his microphone, the feedback screeched from the speaker beside him. The sound made everyone around cringe and plug their ears. "Oof-OK. Welcome everyone to the first ever Brighton Derf Tag-Team Survival War!"

The mayor and crowd were at the outskirts of Camp Brighton. Everyone was armed with Derf guns and a bloodlust in their souls. Among the crowd were Ollie Chen and Libby Stein-Torres, their suction dart guns were loaded and ready to be unloaded. "This is going to be so cool!" Ollie couldn't wait to start.

Libby shared the excitement. "I know, right?" When the event was announced, Libby and Ollie learned they were both interested in these sorts of survival games and jumped at the opportunity, teaming up in an instant.

"Just so we are all clear on the rules, let me restate them." The mayor addressed the players. "This is a tag team game. You will all be working in pairs. Every pair wears a vest-either cerulean or maroon-" The mayor held up the different colored vests. "-That matches with the special Derf darts we have provided. You must work together to tag the targets on the front of each vest that matches your color. I do not want to see any maroon darts on cerulean vests, people!"

Ollie looked down at his maroon vest, Libby had the cerulean one. The garments were held together in the back, and large targets were positioned on their torso's. "The darts will stick to the targets and cannot be pulled off without the special remover we have up here." The mayor held up a bottle of solution. "You all have ten minutes to get in position. When you hear the signal, then you may open fire. Once both team members have been shot at the target, they will be eliminated. The last two standing will win this-" He held up a really nice gift basket. "A gift basket full of things like candles and scented oils. I dunno, it might be a nice thing for a date night."

The two Ghost Friends had no interest in the prize, they craved the fun and thrill of survival. The signal was given for the pairs to start running, everyone scattered around the woods and settled themselves into position. Libby and Ollie went and found an old tree and some bushes to crouch behind. "Wow, this is the perfect spot. Not too far from the entrance, not too deep, enough cover to hide us from all angles except for directly above." Ollie mused. The only way anyone could find them was if they were flying over their heads.

Libby chuckled with a slightly maniacal tone. "Ooh yeah, I came here a few days ago to scout the best starting point. One of the first rules to survival is to know the land." Preparing for the inevitable zombie apocalypse had keened Libby's senses and survival instincts. If the regulations had allowed it, she would have brought forest critter musk to hide their scents from their opponents, but apparently no outside materials or objects could be brought because someone might cheat.

His partner's eagerness for the game did not unnerve Ollie. He was thankful to have someone who understood the importance of starting with a strong defense and camouflage. "Did you survey the rest of the woods for similar hiding spots?"

"Of course!" Libby assured him. "There are four other spots with similar tree and foliage cover. We should head northeast once the game starts. If another team is at that location, there will be a hole in their defenses through the spot between bushes." The usually timid girl relayed their starting strategy.

"Or, hear me out, we could use this cover for an ambush." Ollie suggested.

The two spent the remaining time figuring out their game plan. "By the way Ollie, thanks for teaming up with me." Libby dropped her 'survivor' attitude to sincerely thank her friend. "Who knew we both enjoyed Derf wars?"

"Guess it never came up in conversation." Ollie figured. "Come to think of it… have we ever hung out without Molly and Scratch with us?"

"I don't think we have!" Libby realized. It never occurred to either that they'd only hung out as a group. Molly is the one who brought them all together after all. The enhappifier and her ghostly companion were with Andrea today. Apparently there was some battle bot competition going on at the school. "Huh, how did we not notice that?" The boy shrugged in response.

Once the prep time was over, Mayor Brunson shot a Derf gun that doubled as an air horn and let the game begin! The dart from the Derf airhorn-gun shot up into the sky and knocked down a bird. The mayor watched it crash down with concern… but the bird got up and flew away unharmed. "Phew, almost killed a tiny, innocent creature."

He could not see the ghost butterfly that flew off from where the bird had landed on it.

OXOXOXOX

The duo did not immediately leave their hiding spot. They'd decided on Ollie's suggestion, they had complete cover while several other teams went running off to hunt their prey. "I hear leaves crunching at three o'clock." Ollie whispered over his shoulder to Libby.

Crouched back to back, Libby and Ollie packed their Derf guns and waited for the sounds to get closer. The sound of a cracking twig signaled their victims were within range. The teens burst out from the bushes and open fired on the unsuspecting souls. "IT'S AN AMBUSH!" One man's voice was familiar.

"Wait-Ollie!?" The other man gasped.

"DAD?!" The swoopy-haired one finally noticed who they were shooting suction darts at; Ruben Chen and Pete McGee. Further inspection revealed a cerulean dart stuck in the target on Pete's vest.

Realizing that his target had been hit, Pete groaned. "How can I already be out?! We just started!"

"You're not out yet-" Ruben consoled him. "Both of us need to be hit before we're out of the game." He felt a conflicted soul wavering with his Derf gun aimed at him. Ollie hesitated, he wouldn't fire yet. Ruben repositioned his Derf gun alongside Pete, entering a good-old-fashioned standoff with the kids. "So, it's come to this."

"You've taught me well, father. It is time for the student to become the master." Minutes in, and they were already using showdown cliche lines. The core principle of Derf wars was that once you turned your Derf gun on another, you were enemies. There was no love or friendship… unless it was a tag-team like this. But other than your game partner, everyone else you ever loved was dead to you until the end. Then you could make up and go get a frozen yogurt.

Ruben chuckled. "You really believe I've taught you my best moves? No, I've only shown you the surface of-"

Another maroon dart whizzed by and struck itself into Ruben's target. It wasn't one of Ollie's darts. Vicious laughter came from around the corner. "Nice of you to stand out in the open for me!" Of anyone who could have shot Ruben while he was monologuing, nobody could have predicted it would be Mrs. Roop the history teacher. "And you kids already did the dirty work for us and tagged out Mr. McGee. Save your bullets honey, we got a freebie this time." She addressed her wife Pam, who ran up to her side.

"Go! Go!" Libby practically pushed Ollie out of their hiding spot. It had been compromised. The students bolted away and gave themselves a good distance from the ones who stole their kill.

"They're escaping!" Pam saw the kids leave and was about to go after them, but was stopped by her wife.

"Let em' go for now. Those two know what they're doing, there's plenty of weaker fish to fry before them." Mrs. Roop reasoned.

The women continued their hunt while the dad duo stood around dejectedly. "That was too anticlimatic." Ruben complained, upset at not having been taken out, but taken out in a sneak attack. "Esther can never know about this." He would hide this shame until the end of his days. Or until Pete accidentally lets it slip next time they do karaoke.

OXOXOXOX

The Ghost Friend duo had the same idea as their new rivals did, take out the weaker teams first. They didn't have to search long before Ollie pushed them both against an upturned log. "Kat and Sheela are headed this way." The two peaked out from around the log and spied their classmates searching for other players, unaware that they'd been spotted.

Sharing a conspiratory glance and nod, Libby and Ollie did the same thing they had done earlier and waited for their classmates to come closer. Once in range, the two somersaulted around the sides of the log and fired at their opponents. The vests they needed to hit were on the opposite sides, so the fire of darts made a cross over the other. "Hit the deck!" Kat shouted, crouching just a moment too late and receiving a suction dart to the target.

Sheela grabbed her friend and took cover behind a rock, firing her Derf gun at Ollie before he could take her out. Libby and Ollie rolled back behind the log, both sides were now covered with minimal chance of being hit on the target. "This doesn't look good." Libby grumbled.

Ollie did not falter. He made note of the placement of trees and other obstacles, and saw an opportunity. "Watch this." He fired the Derf gun at a branch, it flung the dart away and nailed the target on Sheela. The girls were frustrated by such an unlikely maneuver. Libby was impressed, and Ollie was gobsmacked it had actually worked.

Their opponents retreated in defeat, while Libby's jaw hung wide open. "That was incredible!" It was the polar opposite of when Molly was armed with a Derf gun, no matter what she did her darts would ricochet back and hit herself. "How did you get such good aim?"

Truth be told, Ollie was a good shot, but even he thought that move would fail. "There was a ride at this one amusement park, and I sort of used it for target practice…" he sheepishly admitted.

"Target practice for what?" Libby asked.

Ollie gave her a deadpan look, raising a single eyebrow. 'Oh, right, ghost hunting.' Libby realized, making just an 'ah' sound that meant she understood him.

The sound of rustling leaves meant someone else was nearby. Libby saw a Derf gun and a vest the same color as hers. She showed no mercy, letting out a battle cry as she showered them with darts. "Haha! No one sneaks up on Libby Stein Torres! Not even-my-my therapist!?"

Libby's therapist waved a white flag, their teammate pulled the downed player away while Libby cringed. That was definitely going to be brought up at their next session. "You have a therapist?" She heard Ollie ask.

"Yeah, to handle my anxiety." Libby responded. "I know everyone is an enemy in Derf wars, but I really hope there's no hard feelings for the brutal elimination."

After eliminating her therapist (from the game), Libby led the two of them in tracking their next victim. Her bloodhound of truth persona was showing as she sniffed out footprints and found a trail. Ollie followed her lead and kept an eye out for any ambushes. He was so focused on threats from behind or around them, he very nearly missed a different threat right in front of them. "Wait-Libby No!" He was just barely able to grab the girl by the sweater and pull her away from the plant she almost stuck her face in.

"Ollie-" Libby stumbled into the dirt.

"Sorry! But you almost touched wild parsnip!" The boy hastily explained. "It causes skin irritation and rashes!"

That was news to Libby, they looked like harmless, tiny yellow flowers. "Oh-those are things I could certainly do without." She shuddered. Ollie held out his hand and helped her up. "Thanks for the save. Any particular reason you knew about the plant?"

"Actually, I really enjoy growing flowers." Ollie revealed. "I've only recently been able to get a decent garden growing in my backyard. It's important to know what sorts of wildflowers are harmful, in addition to beneficial ones."

Libby was intrigued. "So what kind of flowers have you got in your garden?"

Ollie grinned proudly. "I grew tulips!"

A brief cutaway shows Ollie back at home, watering a small patch of tulips. A little green frog sits among the flowers, happily content in the surrounding flora.

Back to now, the duo had spotted another duo: Nashua and Georgie. Ollie crouched down low while Libby scaled a short tree, hanging upside down like a bat. The torrent of suction darts was sudden, and their classmates had no defense against them. They were easily tagged out as they screamed in horror. Ollie and Libby high-fived at their success.

OXOXOXOX

The number of teams still in the game dwindled, reaching into the single digits as they tagged each other out. The team of Ollie and Libby were in hot pursuit of another team. It wasn't anyone they knew, just random background characters. The other team turned to shoot at them as they ran, forcing the kids to slow down as they dodged the suction darts.

"They're getting away!" Libby stumbled over a large tree root in the path. She saw her partner coming to help her and pointed her arm towards their targets. "I'll be fine, keep going!"

Ollie understood and nodded, he easily hopped over an even larger root and chased after the other team. Catching up just in time to hear the sound of Derf guns firing. He rolled over into a bush to avoid fire, but no darts came his way. "Huh?" Ollie peaked over the top of the bush to see what happened.

It wasn't the other team firing at him, it was them getting fired AT. The background characters grumbled, both having been hit on the targets. "Darn teacher and baker. They came out of nowhere! I swear, anyone could be a ninja these days!" One of them complained, the ninja classes he'd taken felt wasted. It sounded like their assailants were Mrs. Roop and Pam, taking out yet another team he and Libby had been tangling with.

Ollie ran back to where he left Libby, she was on her way to join him when she noticed his return. "Did you get them?" Libby asked, taking loud breaths as her lungs required a break from the sprint she'd done.

"No, Mrs. Roop and Pam got them before I did, apparently." Ollie was relieved the other players were out, but they still had their most dangerous and unlikely rivals to deal with.

Still needing a breather, Libby leaned against a tree and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "You've got way more stamina than I do. What's your secret?"

Hanging back by the tree with her, Derf gun loaded in case of a sudden attack, Ollie answered, "Healthy eating and exercise. I also really liked skating back when I lived in upstate New York, it really honed my agility."

"That explains your talent for Turnipball." Libby realized.

"Which I STILL do not understand." Ollie added. Maybe Libby could explain the game to him.

"Aside from softball, I'm not one for athletic recreation." Looks like the boy was still going to wait for a Turnipball explanation. "I'm more of a beat-poetry and literary woman."

Ollie recalled the book she'd written recently. "Your Turtle Riders book is an enjoyable read. Weren't you working on a sequel?"

The girl tucked her neck slightly into her sweater, a recent misadventure with Molly still fresh in her mind. "I've got a good draft that I'm still finalizing." She still needed to tweak a few things here and there, but she was content with the story she had created. "Being around books my whole life makes me feel like there's a spiritual connection between me and the words I put on the page. I'm crafting another world visible only in the confines of imagination. Books are so fascinating like that."

"I agree." He wasn't a writer like she was, but Ollie enjoyed reading books very much. Researching historical facts and legends was his preferred category, but anything involving the paranormal called to him. "Which reminds me, can I take a look at that pop-up book of yours sometime?"

"Of course!" Libby smiled. "Come to think of it, reading this one book was how I got invested in seeking out truths and the supernatural. It was an older book called 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind'."

The boy recognized that title. "Oh! I know that one! It's a must-read for paranormal investigations. Have you heard of another one by the same publisher, 'After the Twilight Falls'?"

Libby seemed to be familiar with his recommendation. "Oh! The one about famous ghost sightings! Yeah, it's really gripping!" This was nice, the two of them were finding more common ground. They'd been the 'Ghost Friends' for a few months already but only just realized they could have a mutual discussion about paranormal literature. They'd gotten so caught up in their discussion, however, a Derf dart zoomed right between them and bounced off of the tree they leaned against.

"What-How-" Ollie frantically looked around, he should have noticed someone coming close. "Where did that come from?!

"Where, you may ask?" A new voice spoke, seemingly coming from nowhere. In actuality, it was coming from behind a tree a few feet away. "You should be asking 'how'... and the answer is-" A puff of blue smoke and confetti erupted in front of the teens. Irving the Illusionist made his presence known. "MAGIC!"

Ollie's eyes lit up with childlike wonder. "(Tiny gasp) Stage Magic…"

Another man caught up to his game partner, it was Weird Larry and he looked alarmed. "You brought smoke bombs!? AND confetti!? That's against the rules, we're going to get disqualified!"

Irving wasn't worried in the least. "Psssh, we're out in the middle of the woods. How would they even find out?"

"Are those more smoke bombs in your back pocket?" Libby nervously pointed out, already backing away with Ollie.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Irving raised an eyebrow.

"Their fuses are lit." Ollie gulped.

The magician turned his coat around and saw that the fuses were indeed lit. The teens had already dived behind a hill for cover while he and Larry had zero time to defuse the situation… or the smoke bombs. "Oh phooey."

A cloud made up of several different colors of smoke erupted over the forest. It could be seen from miles and miles away. Even a shot of the planet would have a colorful 'poof' visible from space. The two standing at ground zero coughed and hacked up fumes and confetti, Irving's jacket had been almost entirely burned in the back. Larry wheezed loudly "I think they'll find out."

It was moot either way, they couldn't be disqualified before Libby and Ollie used the distraction to shoot their targets and tag them out. Irving was too tired to be mad. "I'm going home and taking a bubble bath." Using one last trick, he pulled up a drape and dropped it as he vanished… he tried to vanish. He could very clearly be seen running away as he dropped the cloth.

Despite how terribly that all went, the illusionist managed to impress one person. Ollie was awed by the fake magic, earning a bugged out stare from Libby. He realized what he was doing and quickly turned serious. "Molly can never know about this." He insisted.

Libby wholeheartedly agreed. "I'll take it to my grave."

OXOXOXOX

A drone flew over the woods, a speaker duct taped onto it. "Attention! There are only two teams remaining!" The staticky voice of the mayor sounded over the treetops. "We do not have any cameras, so we will abide by the honor system. Don't shoot the winners after they shoot you. Say, does anyone have the remote for the drone?" That was the last thing heard before the drone crashed into a really tall tree and a squirrel stole the remains.

The teens had a pretty good idea of who the other remaining team was. "It's gotta be Mrs. Roop and Pam." Libby was certain of it. "It's a rival showdown predestined by our first encounter. This could get messy. Are you willing to fight by my side in such a battle?" She addressed the boy beside her.

Ollie matched her resolve. "It's Derf or nothing."

The two teams ventured through the woods in search of one another. Preparing for the final showdown to begin at any moment. Any moment turned into maybe ten to fifteen minutes of running around aimlessly. The woods were huge. At last, two pairs of worn-out Derf gun wielders met in a conveniently empty clearing. "I should've known you kids would be our last obstacle." Mrs. Roop addressed her students.

"It was predestined after all." Ollie repeated what Libby had said in her previous line of dialogue. Calling back to their first encounter (y'know with Ruben and Pete), the duos were locked in a staring showdown. Derf guns were pointed, stares were hardened, a tumbleweed blew by somehow. The one to make the first move would decide which way fate would swing.

The triggers were pushed, and the suction dart guns were aimed at their respective colors and… nothing happened. All four of them were out of ammo.

"Darn thing, used up all the darts." Their teacher smacked her Derf gun.

Instead of a valiant final stand, the match would be decided by who found a stray dart first. While the married women were searching on the forest floor for any dropped ammunition, Ollie pulled Libby aside and hid in the brush. He wordlessly opened his jacket and revealed a massive stash of darts of both colors. "Where did you get those?!" Libby kept her volume to a whisper.

"I didn't think there'd be any sort of clean up, so I've been picking them up this whole time. You know I'd never let litter sit around." Ollie's voice was at the same volume as hers. He knew there were more stray darts around the woods, and it killed him that he had very little chance of finding them all. Perhaps he'd ask June for help manning a search drone to locate the rest. He'd have to account for the amount used and what remained with the other players, but-wait! They still had a game to win!

Ollie handed Libby a cerulean dart and took a maroon one for himself. They started reloading their weapons when the other team's voices got closer. "I don't think we'll find any darts around here hun." Pam sighed regretfully.

"We'll find some." Her wife assured her. "I promised we'd win that gift basket for our anniversary tomorrow, and I don't break my promises."

The Ghost Friend duo waited until the women's footsteps had gotten far enough away, then they continued their hushed conversation. Their own resolve faltered with uncertainty. "We're doing this for fun, right?" Ollie double-checked. "We never cared about the prize."

"Yeah." Libby confirmed. "But they do." Assuring each other that they were on the same page, the two shared a nod.

The ladies wandered back in a circle, still on the hunt for Derf darts. As if a miracle occurred, two darts rolled over beside them, one of each color. "Ha! Told you we'd find some!" Mrs. Roop scooped up the ammo, taking one for herself and handing her spouse the other.

Rustling from the bushes alerted the women that they were not alone. The two refilled their Derf guns and prepared to fire. Libby and Ollie emerged from the shrubbery, trying to act naturally, then surprised when their opponents open fire on them. Both darts hitting Ollie and Libby's targets.

"Aw beans, looks like they got us Libby." Ollie feigned disappointment, swinging his arm across his chest in a 'gosh dang it' manner.

"Looks like you two won fair and square." Libby conceded, suppressing a pleased grin.

Their history teacher and her wife celebrated their victory as they all made their way out of the woods. The teen duo strolled several feet behind them, happy to know their loss was not in vain at all. There was still something Ollie wondered about, however. "Hey Libby, how'd you get into this survival stuff in the first place? Was it another book?"

Libby chuckled "Oh no, nothing like that. Back when I was a toddler and my dad was still around, he'd always leave on post-apocalyptic movies when my mom was out." Her eyes widened with a terrifying stare. "It's been engraved into my memory all these years. The horrendous screams, the bloody kills, the sight of a zombie being ripped right down the middle as their maggot-filled insides spray everywhere… I had to be prepared." She went right back to speaking casually on that last bit.

Ollie was shocked into silence. How was he supposed to respond to this information? His mouth ended up speaking ahead of his brain "Your dad does not sound fit to raise a child."

Libby had to agree. "That's exactly what my therapist said."

Chapter Text

"-And that concludes our business for today!" The young chairman straightened out the curse documents he and the council had been going over. It had been a two-hour long discussion on recently enacted curses that had taken the entirety of Ollie's chairman shift to sort through. He didn't mind the paperwork, and that alone was enough to earn the admiration of his council.

"A most productive session, Mr. Chairman." Lucretia stated. "We stayed on topic the entire time." The change in authority had been very much welcomed. Although the council could call Scratch a friend now, he was terrible with these sorts of discussions. They'd be lucky to go through half of what they went over today. No scrolls had been doodled on either, they'd lost count of how many little drawings of tacos or a butt had to be erased before the scrolls were filed.

Ollie handed off the documents to Alister, who promptly filed them inside the Curse Cabinet. "And going 'digital' has kept the Curse Cabinet from overflowing!" Their new chairman continued to hit their admittedly low-bar of approval.

Grimbella pulled out a vintage weekly planner and double-checked the schedule for tomorrow. "We have you scheduled for tomorrow from four to five thirty Mr. Chairman, does that still work for you?"

"Yes, I'll be ready and waiting at the usual spot." Ollie confirmed the pick-up. He couldn't open the portal or turn into a wraith on his own. He relied on one of the council members to conjure the portal for him. "Thank you all as always."

"It's our pleasure, Mr. Chairman!" Bartholomew graciously made a quick bow before he and the rest shuffled off to wherever they were heading next.

Ollie pulled down the hood of the robe, swooping out his bangs in the process (Somewhere in Brighton, Molly's 'swoopy sense' went off) and took a short detour before he returned to his body. He opened up a portal to what could only be described as the afterlife equivalent of the DMV. It was where the scaring seminars and spooky business were held. He wouldn't feel right leaving the Ghost World if there was still someone that needed his help.

It seemed like the place was dead today… pun totally intended. Ollie guessed that meant his job was officially finished today and prepared to open another portal back. He heard a gasp and suddenly the boy was pulled into a squishy, marshmallow-y hug. "Hi buddy! It's me, your pal Geoff!"

The wraith chuckled. "Yeah, G-E-O-F-F, right?" He teasingly asked.

"Not to be confused with J-E-F-F, which is me." Another ghost followed behind his afterlife partner and greeted their living friend. "Hey Ollie, just getting off work?"

Geoff let go of the orange ghost and returned to Jeff's side. "Guess what! We're thinking of opening a Dead & Breakfast!" He could hardly contain his excitement. "We just got our paperwork! Once we fill it out, we can bring our dream we've had since Tuesday to unlife!"

"That's fantastic!" Ollie was happy for them.

Jeff fondly rolled his eyes while rolling his arm around Geoff. "We're still work-shopping a couple of ideas. We haven't settled on a location or a name for our place yet." So far their biggest disagreement was whether they should allow Scratch to be a guest. Jeff was insistent that it would be a horrible mistake.

"But there is one thing that's been decided!" Geoff continued, trying not to burst from excitement. "My household-famous flapjacks will be the main attraction of the breakfast part of Dead & Breakfast!"

"That sounds delicious." Ollie did enjoy a good pancake, especially with maple syrup and fresh fruit.

The green ghost nodded. "Eeyup. No better way to show how much you appreciate someone than by making them a special dish."

His simple comment reminded Ollie of the occasional tea breaks he and the council would have, and the exquisite mini-quiches Bart would bring. Those four old souls had been helping guide him as the new chairman for close to two weeks now. He'd thanked them every time but had never given anything to show his thanks. It gave him an idea. "You're right Geoff! In fact, I should cook something for the Ghost Council to show how much I appreciate them!"

Jeff's curiosity was piqued. "Wow. Coming a little out of the blue, but a nice gesture. What'll you make?"

Ollie opened his mouth… and deflated to silence. He had no idea what to make, and he didn't know how to cook either. "Uh, I-" he trailed the vowel out "-have never cooked before."

"For real?" Jeff was surprised.

"I mean, my dad tried to show me how to make root beer once…"

We cutaway to sometime in the recent past, Ruben and Ollie cannot get anything to come out of the root beer keg of Ollie's batch. They opened it up and the root beer was SOLID. Not frozen, straight up a solid substance.

"… didn't exactly go well." Ollie rubbed his neck nervously.

Geoff was back to invading his personal space in a matter of seconds. "No need to fret little buddy, we'll help you out."

"You will?" Ollie smiled hopefully.

"We will?" Jeff raised an ectoplasmic eyebrow.

"Sure. Tell you what, we'll meet up at your place tomorrow and whip up something so delicious and full of love, it'll make a grown man cry." Geoff promised. Granted, in these sorts of scenarios, he was usually the grown man that ended up crying.

Ollie grinned. Together they would make something amazing before he had to go to work tomorrow. He couldn't wait!

OXOXOXOX

The following morning, Ollie was already in the kitchen after breakfast. He'd gotten everything out that he believed he needed for cooking and was just waiting for his ghost pals to show up.

Ruben chose that moment to walk past the kitchen just as the ghost portal was opening. "Hi, Ruben!" Geoff burst from the portal and gave the man he'd once traumatized a hug. Jeff exited behind his partner, eying the living man skeptically. He hadn't forgotten about Halloween.

The green ghost released his hug and went with his afterlife partner to join Ollie in the kitchen. Ruben shuddered at the ectoplasm coating his shirt and jacket, trying to wipe off the slimy substance while a thought crossed his mind. "If my parents ever come to visit, I've got to introduce them to Geoff. They never believed me, but who's got ghosts in his house now, dad!"

Ollie looked up from his phone and greeted his guests. "Morning Geoff and Jeff! Thanks for coming over to help."

"Anything for a friend!" Geoff cheerfully stated. "Now about the dish-I found a recipe for some guy's 'Super Awesome Nachos' that sounds like a blast of flavor!"

The young chairman didn't seem as excited by the suggestion. "Nachos might be too messy for the council."

The indigo-colored ghost voiced his idea next. "OK, how about this, have you ever had sliced prosciutto on melon?"

"Uh, no. I'm a vegetarian." Ollie explained.

Jeff shrugged "Eh, Your loss."

"How about something with chocolate?" Geoff suggested. "Everyone loves chocolate. I even drowned in it."

"Actually, I already found a recipe." Ollie pulled up a web page on his phone, showing it to the ghosts who hovered over his shoulders. "Cornbread scones. Healthy yet delicious, it won't make a huge mess, and every ingredient is humanely sourced."

Reading over the recipe, the ghost couple agreed that it sounded simple enough. "Sounds like a plan!" Geoff approved, watching as Ollie brought out the ingredients he bought last night.

The three of them got to work. The dead duo passed Ollie the ingredients as he mixed them. It seemed to be going well. The key word 'seemed'. Ollie had never done this before, and minor things slipped through the cracks. Not sifting the flour made it a bit clumpier, and the amount of sugar and baking powder required was accidentally doubled in a measuring error. It shouldn't have come out too badly… although Ollie setting the oven heat too high caused a much larger setback.

"… Is it supposed to be on fire?" Geoff calmly asked.

"No. No it is not." Ollie responded, stunned with shock.

Jeff flew over and grabbed a fire extinguisher, dousing the burning cornbread until it was nothing but charred goo. You couldn't even tell it was food anymore. "So the first try didn't work and fire is nothing to be ashamed of." The indigo ghost assured the crestfallen boy. "We'll toss this batch and try again."

"Hang on-I can't in good conscience let any of this go to waste." Ollie's concern for the environment took priority over the edibility of his creation.

The ghost couple cringed. "But this stuff isn't even food anymore!" The green one exclaimed. "You'd be basically eating garbage and what kind of depraved soul would ever do that!?" The three stared in silence for a moment, all of them coming to the same conclusion. "… Right, I'll go call Scratch."

OXOXOXOX

"Alright, so…" Geoff emerged from a portal after ten awkwardly silent minutes of leaving the other two waiting. "Scratch can't make it today. He and Molly are painting a mural together."

"A mural? Huh, well she does draw really good potatoes." Ollie mused, trying to imagine what his girlfriend and her ghostly BFF were painting.

Geoff reached an arm back into the portal as he spoke. "So I went and got the next best ghost to help… SHARKIE!" He led the aquatic ghost pet into the kitchen. The ghost shark entered with a happy flip, then nuzzled up to the one that brought him. "Scratch made Sharkie, and the little guy got his appetite and tolerance of garbage food from him. I know this because I am Sharkie's godfather." He proudly declared. Being the godfather to his best friend's shark pet/son was one of Geoff's greatest honors.

Sharkie flew over to Ollie and Jeff for more pets. The former indulged in giving him some scratches behind the fin while the latter picked up the tray of ruined cornbread. "Let's see if Sharkie can keep these down." Jeff hoped for the best and offered the blackened goo to the shark.

Turns out that Sharkie's taste buds were even deader than he was. The ghost shark ate up the food(?) with no problem and licked his lips afterward. Ollie wiped his brow, relieved "That solves the waste situation. Let's try this again."

Geoff and Jeff guided Ollie closer this time around. "Now, you gotta sift the flour before it goes in." The green ghost demonstrated, shaking the strainer dish so it rained the ground-up wheat into the mixing bowl.

"Right. Sift it in." Ollie was handed the flour after Geoff handled the first half. He continuously shook the strainer so no clumps formed. As it got down to the last bit, the remaining clumps of flour refused to fall apart and exit into the bowl. "Come on-" Ollie shook it harder. Desperate to finish sifting the measured flour.

"That's good, you can stop now." Geoff assured the boy.

But Ollie refused to stop. The flour had been measured exactly and if those last few bits wouldn't go in, then the calculations would be off! His wrists were sore from the continuous shaking, but he didn't stop, not until the strainer slipped from his grasp and flung itself into Geoff's belly, then ricocheted back into Ollie's face. The holes in the bottom of the strainer left an imprint on his face, but hey, at least the last bit of flour went in!

Jeff helped Ollie carefully measure every ingredient. And we mean carefully, it took an excruciatingly long time to slowly add everything down to the most precise measurement. Jeff tried a few times to tip the ingredient in a little faster, but Ollie would stop him and insist on keeping it at the speed of molasses. After five minutes, the indigo ghost got fed up and quickly poured the exact measurements for the rest of the ingredients. Ollie still felt the need to measure them with a ruler.

The more cautiously made batch went into the oven with high hopes. To the relief of all, the end result came out looking like the photo you'd see in a cookbook. "We did it!" Ollie cheered, grabbing the tray with his oven mitts and placing it on the cooling rack. "Geoff with a 'G', Jeff with a 'J', would you do the honors of the first tasting?"

"Do you have to ask?" Geoff excitedly took a scone from the tray, forgetting it was still hot. He ended up juggling it in his hands to avoid ghost burns. Jeff used a napkin to avoid the heat when grabbing his.

The ghosts bit into the cornbread scones and… their expressions did not look good. "Something's wrong. These things are completely flavorless." Jeff gave his honest critique.

"What?!" Ollie gasped. "How did that happen?! I measured everything correctly!" He held up a measuring cup full of sugar and a pinch of salt. "See! The sugar is at the exact measure… ments…" That's when it hit him. He was holding the carefully measured sugar in his hand. The same sugar that was supposed to be in the cornbread.

The deceased couple watched the boy, who took a long, sharp inhale as he grappled with his second failed attempt. Geoff carefully took the sugar away from Ollie, whose eye started twitching, and brought up the good news. "Hey~ It's better than last time~" He had a 'sing-song' tone to his voice.

Finally exhaling the deep breath he took, Ollie passed the flavorless cornbread to Sharkie, who gobbled it up. "Good thing you have Scratch's seemingly endless stomach." Then the shark playfully booped his nose to Ollie's. "Aw, and the soft gooey center he hides in his heart."

Jeff, taking a sip of tea to get some flavor back on his tongue, added his two cents about the absent blue ghost. "Honestly, I think Scratch died of heart failure." He took another sip and looked up to see the shocked looks coming from his lover, the chairman and the Ghost Shark. "C'mon! You've all seen how he eats!" They all had to nod in reluctant agreement at that.

OXOXOXOX

Going super carefully still hadn't worked, so Ollie might have started taking his failures out on the recipe. He stared intensely at the ingredients he measured, eyes wide and unblinking. He sifted the flour vigorously, creating a dust cloud of flour that left everyone else coughing. But not Ollie, he didn't have the luxury to cough. He would perfect this recipe no matter how many times it would take.

After pouring in the sugar, which he made certain every last bit went in, it was time to mix. Geoff and Jeff both offered to help at several points, but each time Ollie flusteredly assured them that 'he had this', so they stuck to just passing the next ingredient over. Ollie might have been mixing a little too aggressively as the dough became tougher in texture the more he mixed. "Was stirring always this much work?" The boy struggled to move the whisk, because obviously the dough getting harder meant it hadn't been mixed enough and not the opposite.

"Ollie, you might be overdoing it just a tad." Geoff warned him.

When Ollie stopped the mixing, it had gotten so tough that the whisk had gotten stuck inside. "I can fix this! I can fix this!" He pulled at the whisk like it was a sword in a stone. Sweat and pulsing veins were evident on his face as he refused to cease his attempts to free the kitchen tool. Jeff couldn't keep watching this and simply used his ghost powers to lift the whisk out of the batter. "Ha ha… I got it." Ollie's voice took a more crazed tone, with him seemingly unaware of the ghostly assistance.

It took forever to get the batter out of the bowl and shape it into scones, not just because of the extremely tough texture but also because Ollie was insistent they each be exactly five centimeters and two inches. Geoff and Jeff stepped aside and let the young chairman mold the dough as he desired. The deceased duo floated over to the doorway for their own private conversation. "Geoff, should we really let him keep going like this?" The more muscular of the two asked his partner.

"Aw, he's just learning something new," Geoff assured Jeff. "You need to make mistakes so you can learn from them. Look at me, I've made so many mistakes and learned so much! And I've only gotten killed once." he sagely nodded.

Jeff raised an ectoplasmic eyebrow, not entirely convinced this wasn't going to end without something exploding. "Sure, OK, but we need a backup plan for when-"

"'If'-" Geoff corrected.

"... 'if' this gets too out of hand." Jeff knew there was no 'if's in this scenario. "I have a solution, but I'm going to need you to promise me something if we end up resorting to it."

The green ghoul gasped. "You know I'm terrible at secrets! I said I'd take it all to my grave, but then I got to my grave and everything came spilling out like when I tried to fit in that crop top!"

"No, this isn't something that requires a secret," Jeff clarified. "If we use my backup, then you have to promise that Scratch can't be a guest at our D&B."

"It won't come to that though, Ollie's doing great!" Geoff's praise could not be backed up as well as he believed. The ghosts turned back around to see that Ollie had got the ruler back out and was measuring each cornbread scone to ensure they were identical. Jeff wordlessly motioned between the boy and his lover, making sure he was seeing this. Geoff's eyes drifted slightly apart and his goofy grin remained "This is fine."

Ollie kept his eyes on the cornbread scones the entire time they were baking. The millisecond it looked like one was burning he'd be ready to save it. Thankfully for his sanity, nothing burned, and he removed the third batch from the oven without any complications. "Yes! Third time's the charm!" The boy used a pair of tongs to grab a piece and give it to Geoff.

One bite into the cornbread and Geoff felt his teeth crack. "T'is 's not f'ne." He spoke through broken teeth. Good thing he was a ghost and could fix that by the next scene.

Jeff and Ollie grabbed their own pieces and clanked them against the table. Bread should not make a banging sound. "You over mixed it." Jeff bluntly explained what had gone wrong.

"It's OK-I can fix it!" Ollie's eyes had a crazed ring around the iris. "We'll try again!" The swoopy-haired boy re-gathered the ingredients. "We'll do it as many times as it takes!"

"Don't you think you could use a break?" Jeff was concerned about this pursuit of cornbread perfection and how unhinged this scenario was becoming.

"No way! I can keep going for hours!" Ollie insisted while grabbing the milk. He poured the dairy beverage into the cup… which, in his overzealous state, he placed upside down. Milk spilled all over the table and all Ollie could do was watch with a frozen stare. He cried a little.

OXOXOXOX

It's getting sad watching Ollie's attempts to make another batch of the cornbread scones. Sharkie was still trying to eat the previous batch of rock-like bread while the boy was desperately trying to keep it all together. It finally came to a head when they realized all the cornmeal had been used up.

"We-we can't be out!" Ollie frantically searched around the kitchen. "There has to be more! CORNBREAD NEEDS CORN!"

Geoff and Jeff shared a glance, the green ghost finally caved. "Fine, go get the backup plan." He resigned to the previously mentioned conditions. Maybe it was for the best. Imagine what would have happened if Scratch had been allowed to stay at their D&B. It would have been a whole episode of conundrums.

Without another word, Jeff opened a portal and went to retrieve plan b. Geoff was left alone with the boy desperately searching the kitchen for corn and the ghost shark using the rock-solid bread as building blocks.

10 Minutes Later

Jeff finally returned, shopping bag in hand, to find Ollie clinging onto his afterlife partner and looking like he was trying not to cry. Geoff had him wrapped in a big marshmallow-y hug and was talking to him "-and that was the third time I ruined my pancakes. I also learned there wasn't a fire department in the Ghost World."

"Ollie-" Jeff got the boy's attention and lifted the bag for him to see. "You have to go to work in an hour and there's no time to try to make the cornbread scones again. Let's try something else." He reached into the bag and held out a box of microwave ready Bell Pepper Puffs.

Once the box was in Ollie's hands, he looked over every inch of it carefully. Then he pulled out his phone and started typing something. "Uh, what are you doing?" Geoff wondered what he was up to.

"I need to check the company that made this for work ethics and environmental impact." Ollie answered.

Jeff facepalmed. "Of course you do."

The online search came up clean, so Ollie gave the pepper puffs the OK. Following the instructions on the box, he put the puffs on a plate and set the microwave timer. An uneventful three minutes passed before the puffs were ready. Ollie removed the plate from the oven and inspected the food. "It looks good. But how about the taste?"

The ghosts were offered the puffs and each took a bite out of one. They both gave it a thumbs up. "It's a success!" Jeff confirmed. "Great job Ollie!"

"But I didn't actually make this." Ollie didn't feel he deserved the praise. He failed to make a dish and resorted to microwaving food.

Geoff slung an arm around Ollie. "And that's OK. You've learned an important lesson today. When you're really bad at something, accept that you can never improve."

Ollie and Jeff stared at the green ghost, proud of himself for delivering the aesop of the story. The young chairman finally spoke up after a brief silence. "… I don't think that's a good moral."

Chapter Text

It was a beautiful morning. Several students from Brighton Middle School were gathered at the nearby park for the volunteer flower garden planting. One such student was Ollie Chen, working hard with a smile on his face as he carefully placed the rose seeds in the soil.

"I love getting an early start on engoodifying the day!" Ollie wiped his forehead as he completed his section… way ahead of the rest of the kids who were not as used to waking up early like him.

As Ollie walked around seeing how everyone else was doing, he noticed a familiar face among the kids. "Darryl?! I didn't know you were volunteering!"

His girlfriend's brother turned around from his poorly done planting job to address the engoodifier. "Yeah-no. I didn't volunteer for this. I got more detentions than there are days left of the school year. This is my 'community service' sentence." The younger boy was not at all happy to be there.

"Oh…" Ollie awkwardly rubbed his neck. "Well… you're doing a good job at-let me see that." The swoopy-haired one bent down to inspect the seeds Darryl had planted. "You can't just have seeds clumped up in the dirt! They should be planted at a depth of two times the width of the seed!" He quickly demonstrated by replanting one of the seeds Darryl placed.

Seeing an opportunity, Darryl grinned faux-innocently "Sorry, I couldn't see what you did there. Can you do it again?"

Ollie wasn't falling for it. "Yeah, nice try. If you really didn't see it, I'll guide you while you replant them." He made sure to emphasize the 'you' part.

Darryl mumbled something about that usually working on Molly and got back to work, apparently having actually paid attention to how he was supposed to plant the seeds. Ollie gave him a thumbs up and a big smile.

The principal chose this moment to approach the two boys, holding a box carefully in his arms. "Mr. Chen fantastic work as always! Darryl… I'm just glad nothing has exploded so far."

"Good morning Principal O'Conner. What's that box for?" Ollie wondered.

"See for yourself." The man lowered the box to show the boys what it contained. Inside was a young little lemming. "I'd like you to meet Linus the lemming. Brighton Middle School's new mascot!"

Linus instantly gained the admiration of everyone around him. He blinked and tilted his head, not understanding why people were cooing and squealing at him.

"Yes, yes, very adorable isn't he?" The principal shared his students' sentiments. "Darryl, for the next part of your 'community service' I need you to watch Linus until sunset today." He somewhat hesitantly handed the box containing the lemming to the source of his greatest headaches.

Darryl, who hastily finished up planting the seeds, accepted the box and adorable rodent. "But that's all day! Am I supposed to just bring him to all my classes? (Excited Gasp) Do I get to skip class?!" He was suddenly very much into the idea of taking care of the school mascot at the prospect of less school.

Principal O'Conner pinched the bridge between his eyes, here comes that chronic migraine again. "Yes, as long as you stay within the school grounds you can miss class. Once everyone has completed the flower garden, you may go back to school and spend the day with Linus. I am hoping this will teach you a lesson about responsibility." His face grew serious as he leaned in closer to Darryl. "But if anything should happen to this perfect little angel, not only will this and the volunteer work not count towards your detention tally, I will also see to it that you attend summer school detention."

Biting back a gulp, Darryl nodded frantically. Detention during the school year was one thing, but summer school detention would ruin his schemes for the summer! "Got it. I'll take good care of Linus." To sell his sincerity, Darryl gave the lemming a quick kiss on the forehead.

Satisfied with Darryl's response, Principal O'Conner left the students to attend to some urgent business. Some hooligan was stealing all the pencil sharpeners and leaving every pencil dull and unable to write! Ollie left to go check on other stuff and left Darryl and Linus on their own.

-Fifteen minutes later-

Darryl is sitting next to the box with his phone in hand, a new episode of his new favorite reality show was just starting up. "I'm Johnny, the brains of the outfit." "And I'm his twin brother, Randy, the handsome one."

Ollie came walking back by the younger kid. "Hey Darryl, thought I'd say goodbye before going back to school and... where is Linus?"

"Chill my dude, the little guy's right in-" Darryl froze in horror, the box he'd been guarding was empty! "... here?"

"Where's the lemming?!" Ollie whipped his head around hoping to catch sight of the tiny rodent close by. Darryl frantically lifted the box over his head and rummaged through the newly planted garden for the critter. The boys went in circles until the older of the two spotted movement past the nearby sidewalk. "Over there!"

Linus was chilling in the basket of a bicycle belonging to a little girl. The girl didn't notice the extra passenger and pedaled away out of the park. "STOP!" "WAIT!" Ollie and Darryl couldn't get the girl's attention before she left them in the dust. Who knew a pink bike driven by a first-grader could reach 25 mph in only a few seconds?

"This is horrible…" Darryl muttered in disbelief. "I'M GOING TO HAVE TO GO TO SUMMER SCHOOL!" His sister's boyfriend shot him a questioning look. "... oh and Linus is out there too." Darryl's priority motivation was evident.

Unlike Darryl, Ollie's priority was the safety of the new school mascot. "We have to go save that lemming!" Grabbing Darryl by the sleeve, the swoopy-haired boy led them off in the direction the bike went. They had until sunset to get Linus back before anyone finds out about this.

Walking in the opposite direction, Molly and Scratch strolled along on the former's way to school. "I Molly McGee guarantee that by the end of the day, Mr. Pham's love of teaching will be rejuvenated! I got one heck of an inspirational speech prepared, not to mention some inspirational posters and a special surprise that even SMELLS of inspiration!" The overly peppy girl relayed her plans for the episo-day to her BFF.

Scratch feigned interest, too busy filing his non-existent nails. "Uh huh, sounds like a fun day Moll. D'you think my ectoplasm's been a little dull lately? Be honest, cause I heard about this guy who can work wonders on a dead body."

To the duo's surprise, Molly's brother and lover come running past. Molly smiled and waved to them. "HI-"

"No time to talk!" Darryl shouted. "My summer is being cycled away, and it's all reality TV's fault!"

Molly and Scratch were befuddled by the out-of context comment and raised an eyebrow at one another as the boys ran out of sight.

OXOXOXOX

Tired and out of breath, Ollie and Darryl took a breather once their target made a pit stop. The quarter-monthly tri-annual farmer's market morning was in full swing down the streets of Brighton. A full eighteen people showed up to peruse the grand total of five and a half stalls. The boys caught up to the bicycle and could see Linus popping his head out of the basket. "There he is!" Ollie gasped in delight.

An impromptu marching band came between the two Ghost Friends and the Lemming in the bike. It lasted just long enough for Linus to hop out and escape into the crowd. "UGH! Why did a marching band have to show up at this exact moment!?" Darryl complained.

Having lost sight of the rodent, the boys needed a plan. "There has to be a way to track him down. Think Ollie, think…" The older boy racked his brain for ideas. "Lemmings are herbivores, so maybe he went over to the veggie stand for a snack." He reasoned.

Darryl made a 'snirk' sound at Ollie's suggestion. "Yeah, sure, almost all of the veggies they've got are turnips. A guy on the run and free from the shackles of school isn't going to want turnips." He motioned for Ollie to follow his lead, said lead was towards the cookie stand. Darryl leaned against the table and eyed the older lady running the stand. "Good morning miss, have you seen a lemming run by recently?"

"No." The lady curtly answered.

"Oh." The wind knocked out of his sails, Darryl's confidence faltered. "... can I just get a bag of the chocolate chips?"

The stall owner placed a bag of five chocolate chip cookies on the table. "Ten dollars."

Darryl turned to Ollie, giving him a tiny nudge. On instinct Ollie went to hand over the money before coming to his senses. "Wait, why am I paying for this?"

"I'm saving up for a Nintari, I don't have the dough to spare for this dough." Darryl grabbed the slip of paper from Ollie and handed it to the lady in exchange for the cookies. He plopped one in his mouth and offered another to Ollie. The older boy wasn't amused, but accepted the cookie nonetheless. Dang, they were good cookies.

With cookies in hand, the boys continued to search for Linus. Eventually, they spotted the little guy getting a drink over at the fish booth. "On the count of three, we run and grab him." Darryl spoke in a hushed whisper to the older boy.

"I don't think that-"

"Three!" Darryl couldn't wait for Ollie to finish, not even counting the rest of the numbers before diving towards the water-filled bin. Linus saw him coming and ducked under the piles of flopping fish contained in the container. Ollie winced as Darryl belly-flopped into the live fish bin and dug around for Linus. "Ugh, I can't find him with all these fish in here!"

As Ollie approached, Darryl shoved a fish at him. "WOAH-"

"Hold some of these while I look." Darryl tried to get Ollie to grab the writhing freshwater creature.

Ollie's face was turning a sickening green at how close the fish was to him. He shuddered "There has to be another way that doesn't involve-" He tried not to gag "handling fish."

"Uh, what's wrong with fish?" Darryl noticed the pure disgust Ollie exhibited towards the fish.

"Nothing's wrong if you're just looking at them. But touching fish-" Ollie held back the rising feeling coming from his stomach to his throat. "They're just so-so scaley and slimy." He absolutely hated the feeling of touching fish, and staring into its eyes as it gasped for breath was only making it worse.

"It's only for a little bit." Darryl forced several fish into Ollie's arms. "Do it for Linus." The younger boy tried the old 'do it for someone' guilt trip to persuade Ollie to keep his grip on the fish.

Ollie forced back a gag. "Fine-(grrk) f-for Linus." He had to have maybe seven or eight fish in his grasp, it was horrible, some were slapping his neck with their fins. He was going to take a shower the first chance he got.

With the container mostly empty, Linus couldn't hide from Darryl for long. "No getting away this ti-" The water and fish oil made it too slippery to keep hold of the lemming. Linus used Darryl's head as a springboard and ran right under Ollie's legs. If he hadn't been holding up all these future seafood dishes, he could have grabbed Linus, but no, he just HAD to be the guy who held the fish.

"Linus!" Ollie started to lose his balance and dropped the disgusting fish all over him. The fish gasped for water and Ollie gagged and hurriedly threw them back in their container while Darryl climbed out. How this happened without any fish casualties was a miracle. "We've lost the lemming again." The older of the two groaned.

Wringing out his soaked hoodie, Darryl voiced his own gripes. "If I had the whole Chaos Crew with me, we would've bagged that lemming ages ago!"

Ollie recalled hearing that name before, specifically as a chat group his sister was in. "Isn't June part of your group?" Frankly, he was too afraid to ask about some of the schemes his little sibling was contributing to, even before she and Darryl joined the Ghost Friends they got up to their own episodic adventures that necessitated at least two calls to the fire department.

"Yeah, she would be the best person to help with this! She'd already have some sort of jury-rigged trap." Darryl praised the absent Chen sibling. "Actually, the last time she made a trap it got confiscated by Principal O'Conner… OH! What if we stopped by the school and snag it out of the secret safe he uses just for the stuff he confiscated from us!?"

"Darryl, we are not turning this into a heist!" Ollie countered. "For so many reasons."

"Ugh, fine." Darryl huffed. "Why'd June have to be busy on a coding project with Andrea today?"

It took a bit for the two to find Linus again… because apparently someone else found him first. The moment Darryl saw the lemming in the hands of a guy wearing a tight suit and sunglasses, he pulled Ollie back behind a wall. "This is bad. This is really, really bad." The young troublemaker started to sweat and tug at his hair.

"What's the big deal? We just go up and tell that man we've been looking for the lemming he has." Ollie stated what he thought was a simple solution.

"'That man' is Gustavo Roquefort, the biggest cheese wheel dealer in the state!" Darryl enlightened his companion. "He's also an ex-associate of mine. We had a business fallout, and now he's got it out for me!"

How far did Darryl's dealings reach? Ollie believed it would be safer if he never learned the full scope, but he had to pry at this one. "Do I dare ask what happened?"

Darryl bit his lip and avoided any form of eye contact, finding the dirt below much more fascinating to look at while he divulged information. "I may have sold him an invisible satellite…"

"WHAT?! Where would you get-How would you even know-" Ollie's eyes snapped open as he realized what Darryl had done. The boy's unconvincing grin confirmed his belief. "There was no satellite. You sold him literally nothing." He buried his face in his hands, yep Darryl was a dead man.

"In my defense, I had a perfectly valid reason for scamming him… but for your own well-being, I can't elaborate any further." Darryl assured him.

Ollie took a deep breath to relax, this wasn't too bad, there was still a reasonable way to deal with this. "Right. You stay here while I go talk to him by myself-"

"Oh no you don't." The engoodifier was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. "Roquefort instantly despises any guy better looking than he is."

"Uh… thanks, I guess?"

"The only way we can talk to him is to cater to what he likes. Y'know besides cheese." The raise of a single eyebrow signified the concoction of a scheme in his scheming recently-turned-twelve-year-old mind. "We're going to have to stop by the school after all."

OXOXOXOX

Ollie did not feel right sneaking back into school when he had inadvertently ditched class that morning. Evidently he wore his feelings on his sleeve, as Darryl noticed his attitude change when they entered the building right before lunch. "Relax dude, I've got a contact who'll write up a very convincing doctor's note for a fair price."

"It's June, isn't it?"

"Eeyup. And I can guarantee that it is (cough-mostly-cough) legal."

Their destination was the bleachers at the pool. As Ollie had now learned, there was a hidden compartment where Darryl stashed some emergency supplies. "Now Oll', I can't just have a secret storage out in the open where anyone can find it. I have a key that I've stashed somewhere else for extra safe keeping… although once I show you where it is I'll have to find a new hiding spot." Darryl realized, quietly hitting a balled up fist to his forehead. "Darn, and the music room was the perfect spot! We don't have a music teacher, so there's no reason for anyone to go there!"

Ollie stopped. "Darryl. We have a new music teacher."

The sound of a tire screeching could be heard when Darryl abruptly stopped mid-step. "SINCE WHEN DO WE HAVE A MUSIC TEACHER?!"

"Since Molly raised enough money from her booster club to get Dr. Melody hired." He would've joined the club, but his chairman duties took up his after-school time.

Darryl's voice made some weird sounds out of disbelief. How was he supposed to know?! He wasn't in that scrip-episode! "NO! I specifically picked a room with no teacher so they can't be implicated if something falls apart! I swore I wouldn't get any teachers thrown in prison again!"

"Again?" Nope, he wasn't going to dig deeper into whatever transpired.

Music class wasn't happening this period, but Dr. Melody was still in the classroom getting the next lesson planned out. Ollie and Darryl crouched beside the door, they had to distract her somehow. "Hmm, the fire alarm is too risky, we don't have any bugs to release inside the vents. My drone was also confiscated and is in the safe." The schemer was having trouble scheming. They needed a distraction that wouldn't cause too much attention, he needed something much more mundane and simpler than he could concoct.

Luckily, Ollie knew what to do. "Let me handle this." He ran to his locker and back, bringing along an instrument case. He steeled himself before opening up the case. He had to do this, it was the only way.

Dr. Melody was going over which song she'd teach her talented tuplets in the coming weeks. Then she heard it. The screech of a recorder crying out in pain. "That sounds like a horribly mangled version of the national anthem!" She dropped what she was doing and rushed out the door to find the source of the mangled music. Over by the water fountain, Ollie played the recorder as off-key as he could manage while hastily scanning a music sheet for the national anthem. "Ollie Chen?!"

Ollie pretended to be surprised by her arrival. "Dr. Melody, you've come just in time! I've hit a learning roadblock with this song and I just can't get it to sound right!"

"Let me see that." The music teacher scanned her eyes over the music sheet Ollie was using. "Well, it's no wonder you're having trouble, this sheet is a misprint that was supposed to be discarded!"

"Oh no how did that happen?" Despite Ollie's flat delivery and aside glance at an un-emptied recycling bin (courtesy of cutting back janitor hours), Dr. Melody was none the wiser.

It seemed the teacher knew the correct composition by memory as she guided Ollie on how to properly play this piece. With her distracted, Darryl snuck into her classroom and made a beeline for one of the cabinets. Thankfully, it hadn't been opened, and his box labeled 'Boring financial report' was still there! He retrieved his key from the box and snuck back out, wincing at the sound of the recorder as he made his escape.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ollie saw Darryl give the signal that he was successful and hurriedly removed the recorder from his mouth. "Thank you Dr. Melody, now I can play this, and I have to get going, but I'll see you in class tomorrow!" There was barely a break between his words. Dr. Melody was left wondering what just happened as her best recorder player dashed away.

The boys trekked under the pool bleachers and used the key to Darryl's stash. "Here we go-" The owner of the hidden compartment pulled out some disguises, one of which he passed to Ollie. "These should let us deal with Roquefort without raising suspicion."

"This is a hockey uniform. With a maple leaf on it." Why would a hockey player be less suspicious than a regular teenager?

"The man has a large client base in Canada. Hockey is his third favorite sport, it's important not to go with his number one favorite sport because that would be too convenient." Darryl plopped the hockey helmet onto Ollie. "And the helmet hides your hair and face."

As one put on the rest of the hockey uniform, the other put his disguise on. Darryl had a denim jacket, slim sunglasses, ripped jeans and combat boots, and topped it all off with a very familiar blue wig. "If anyone asks, my name is 'Chilly Chadston' and your name is 'Liam Dodger'."

"Those do not sound like real names." Ollie was losing confidence in this plan. He hoped the kid knew what he was doing. At least no one was in the hallway to see him dressed like this…

"Ollie?"

Standing right outside the teachers' lounge were Molly and Scratch, the latter of whom now wore a tweed jacket with leather patches. Boyfriend and girlfriend made awkward, extended eye contact. "… I can explain later."

Darryl pulled the hockey-dressed boy along with him. "Come on, we gotta go!"

Molly took a closer look at what her brother was wearing as the boys continued on. "Darryl, did you take that wig from my closet?!"

OXOXOXOX

"Hi, we're here to see Mr. Roquefort."

The bouncer looked down at the young duo, much too young to have any dealings with his boss. "Beat it kids, before-wait… are you a hockey player?"

Ollie grinned nervously, hoping the buff man couldn't see how badly he was sweating under the helmet. "U-uh Yep! I'm a hockey player!" He felt Darryl give him a nudge and gesture to the maple leaf insignia on his uniform. "… eh?"

"Hmmm." The bouncer glared intensely, before switching to a casual joyful tone. "What a coincidence! Hockey is Mr. Roquefort's third favorite sport!" He opened the door for the two. "Go right ahead!"

Darryl clicked his tongue and gave finger-guns to the man while he led Ollie inside. It seemed to be a regular cheese shop, but at the back was the man with the tight suit and sunglasses they'd seen back at the market. "Who do I have the pleasure of speaking to?" He studied the new arrivals carefully.

"I'm Chilly Chadston." Darryl lowered his voice, puberty still hadn't made it to his vocal cords so he did what he could. "And this here is Liam Dodger. We were on our way back from a hockey game when my pet lemming escaped, and we were told that someone matching your description had seen him."

"Oh, this fella' belongs to you, huh?" Roquefort held up Linus, tired from a long day of freedom and nibbling on fine cheeses. "Little guy smelled the Parmesan in my pocket and followed me. Not sure if he should be eating cheese though."

The lemming was exhausted and in their reach, the boys thought they were in the clear. "Thanks for taking care of him. If you give him back we'll buy a nice big mozzarella wheel." Darryl bargained, clearly knowing how to deal with this man and his business.

"Sounds like a good deal to me." Everything was going smoothly. Too smoothly. Roquefort handed the lemming to Ollie right as the rodent got a second wind and crawled up the boy's sleeve.

"Eep-Linus!" Ollie flailed around trying to remove the lemming from his shirt. In his panic, he accidentally knocked off his helmet and revealed himself.

Roquefort gasped as he saw the true face of the hockey player. "HEY! YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL!"

The angry tone and somewhat compliment confused the one it was directed at. "Um… thanks?"

"Gustavo Roquefort doesn't like guys more beautiful than me!" He grabbed a chunk of cheddar and smashed it in his grasp.

Darryl grabbed Ollie by the arm and hurried him to get out. "So we're really grateful that you found Linus, so we'll just-" In his haste, Darryl forgot to deepen his voice.

"I know that voice!" Roquefort snatched the blue wig off of the younger boy, revealing his natural brunette hair. "DARRYL MCGEE!?"

"We're busted." Darryl's eyes shrank to tiny dots. He jumped up and took back the wig. It was technically on loan from Molly.

The boys scooped up the lemming and tried to escape. The bouncer from earlier blocked the door, the only way in or out. Ollie held up his hands and backed away slowly from the imposing man. "Now I'm sure there's a peaceful way we can work this out…"

"Forget peaceful! Make a break for it!" Darryl grabbed the discarded hockey helmet and tossed it through a window. The glass shattered on contact. "Defenestrate yourself!" Darryl tossed Linus outside before he jumped through himself!

"WHAT!" Ollie wasn't in a position to try and mediate a calm resolution, especially now with the broken window. His options were limited and, ultimately, defenestrating himself was the best option. Miraculously, neither the boys nor the lemming hit any broken glass. That was lucky! But Linus used the seconds before Darryl jumped through to escape down the street. That was unlucky!

While Ollie and Darryl pursued the lemming once more, Roquefort watched them from the broken window. "NOW YOU START BREAKING MY WINDOWS!? THAT'S IT DARRYL MCGEE, YOU'RE GETTING THE BIG WHEEL!" He pressed a button on his phone and a panel opened up on the wall behind him. It was a massive wheel of cheese, Gorgonzola to be precise, with what appeared to be rocket boosters on the sides. Roquefort locked onto Darryl's heat signature with his phone and sent the data to the cheese wheel's homing mechanism. Target locked and thrusters on; the cheese wheel propelled itself forward with the intent of crushing its target… after it crushed the intact window of the store entrance. "NOT MY OTHER WINDOW! WHY DIDN'T YOU USE THE ONE THAT WAS ALREADY BROKEN!?"

Linus was making great headway through town, weaving in and out of the way of civilians who his chasers couldn't avoid as easily. "Ollie-" Darryl didn't stop running while he spoke. "You know what we need right now?"

"A soft, biodegradable net that will gently catch Linus without hurting him?" He guessed.

"Nope. We need chase music!" Darryl reached into his pocket and pressed play on his music app.

Wacky saxophone and kazoo chase music accompanied the boys while they chased Linus across town. They hopped over barrels falling out of a truck, they skid across freshly mopped flooring in the grocery store, they scaled ladders leading to rooftops, all to catch the slippery rodent who avoided their capture at every turn. They almost had him at one point before a weird noise filled the air, it was the giant cheese wheel rolling directly towards them. It then became a three-way chase between Linus, Ollie and Darryl, and the rocket-guided wheel of cheese aiming to run them over. Linus ran up a tree in the park while the boys hopped behind the same tree to avoid the cheese wheel. They thought they'd gotten rid of it, but the rockets changed direction and kept barreling after them. The chase scene went through a senior center bingo session, past the marching band that spontaneously occurred that morning, and made a lap around the Root Beer Pub; Ruben and Esther could have sworn they just saw their son run by while being chased by cheese but realized that was very unlikely. Linus got a good several yards ahead of the boys, going in the direction of the school. Ollie and Darryl were more than a little preoccupied with the giant wheel of cheese catching up to them, struggling to keep an eye on the lemming while running out of stamina. Molly and Scratch were walking back home, the school day had already finished, when they witnessed the two running from the cheese wheel. Girl and ghost shared confused glances with each other.

"The school is just around the corner!" Darryl shouted, the wacky chase music finally coming to a close.

"And the sun is starting to set!" Ollie pointed out. Their time was almost up.

Darryl gasped. "I WON'T LET MY SUMMER BE TAKEN BY A LEMMING OR OVERSIZED CHEESE!" Desperate times called for desperate measures. Darryl hit a number on his speed dial and prayed the other line would pick up.

To his relief, the call went through. "Hi, Darryl. Andrea and I just finished-"

"JUNE WE HAVE A CODE SAFFRON!" Darryl shouted into his phone.

They could hear June sigh from the other end of the line. "What are your coordinates?"

"We'll be in front of the school in thirty seconds!"

"Got it!" June ended the call.

Ollie was only mildly surprised to hear his sister on the other end. "What's a code saffron?!"

Darryl didn't say anything, he just pointed up to one of the windows on the second floor of the school. June Chen popped her head out to check the exact location of the target and ducked back down momentarily. She brought up a repurposed goo blaster that had been modified and shot a ray of concentrated heat at the cheese wheel. The red beam melted the Gorgonzola on contact and fried the boosters driving it. June checked down below and waved to the boy giving her a thumbs up and her brother staring dumbfounded. "Hi Ollie! How'd you like my new heat ray?"

"Haha! June ex machina!" Darryl shouted. "Thanks for the save! That ray is so cool!"

"It's a heat ray, it's not meant to be cool. It's very hot." June bluntly explained. "But you're welcome!"

With the cheese problem taken care of, all that was left was to catch Linus. The lemming was startled by the cheese explosion, but took notice of the hot cheese goo coating the pavement and scurried over for a lick. "Oh no you don't!" Ollie picked up the lemming. "You'll burn your tongue! Also, I'm not sure if lemmings can properly digest dairy."

"You caught him Ollie!" Darryl ran up and was given the lemming to hold.

They made it just in time. As soon as they entered the building, Principal O'Conner came out of the teacher's lounge. "Wow, I can't believe Molly McGee reignited Mr. Pham's love of teaching in a single school day. Speaking of McGee's-" He noticed Darryl and Ollie coming over with Linus. They were tired, dressed in denim and a hockey uniform and slightly smelled like melted cheese, but they presented the unharmed and cuddly lemming to the man. "Ah Darryl McGee. I trust you had an uneventful day watching Linus?"

“Pssh! We just chilled all day.” Darryl casually fibbed. “Now about my community service?”

"Yes, this counts, and you will be excused for today and this will be counted for your detention tally."

"Fantastic!" Darryl beamed. "I think I learned a lot about responsibility while doing nothing but watching Linus all day. I'm gonna head on home." He relaxed his arms behind his head as he strolled out of the front door. Leaving Ollie and the principal by themselves.

"... He lost the lemming right away, didn't he?"

"Yup."

"You get a pass for today too, then."

OXOXOXOX

After taking a slight detour to store Darryl's disguises back in storage, he and Ollie finally arrived back at the McGee house after the sun had set. Molly and Scratch were in the living room, the latter in the middle of reminiscing about his time as a teacher… which apparently was just this afternoon.

"-and kids these days have no respect for the school faculty! I mean just this week there has been a rampant theft of pencil sharpeners on campus!" Scratch relayed his woes. He'd apparently gotten way too into his new teacher persona.

Molly fondly rolled her eyes at the ghost, then noticed the two who'd just entered the house. "Hey guys! Have fun today?"

Darryl shrugged, "Meh. Pretty tame day." He pulled out the rest of the cookies they'd bought this morning and started snacking on one.

"Woah! Are those home-baked style chocolate chip cookies!?" Scratch sprang over once the scent of cookies wafted into his nostrils.

"Sure are!" Darryl held one up for the ghost to see. It's chocolate chip-y goodness still delicious after a long day.

Scratch latched onto the kid. "Darryl, have I ever mentioned how much I treasure our brotherly bond?" He eyed the remaining two cookies hungrily. They called to him.

"You can have one. But let's get some milk for these bad boys first!" Darryl raced Scratch to the kitchen. Left behind was Ollie, a thousand-yard stare in his eyes and the indescribable feeling of 'what just happened today' stuck in his mind.

His girlfriend knew that haunted look, she'd seen it many times before. "First Darryl shenanigan, huh? Let me go grab something for ya!" She scurried up to her bedroom, finding a box full of the same shirt in various sizes. Picking out one that would fit Ollie, Molly took it back down and handed it over. "TADA! Your 'I just survived my first Darryl shenanigan' commemorative t-shirt!"

Ollie held the shirt up against his chest, it did indeed have 'I just survived my first Darryl shenanigan' embroidered onto it in a fun, whimsical font. Also included were numerous exclamation points and a tiny winking Darryl at the bottom. Ollie knew he did good today, and helping Darryl was his own reward. But he couldn't help but wonder if the whole adventure was worth it for a shirt.

"Thanks for looking out for him." Molly softly smiled at him, leaning in to deliver a smooch on his cheek.

Placing a hand over where he'd just been kissed, Ollie couldn't help the lovestruck smile blooming onto his face. Oh yeah, THAT was worth it.

Chapter Text

A portal opened in the eternal night of the Ghost World. A grumpy blue ghost floated through with a book in hand. How long had it been since he'd been summoned to the Dark Dais? Though unlike before when he was summoned by force, this time he was here by request.

"Scratch! Good to see you!" Waved the chairman glowing orange from his desk. Ollie was the only one here today. The remaining members of the Ghost Council were on a 'corporate retreat' as their chairman had explained it. Really it was an excuse so he and Scratch could have some one-on-one time without being disturbed. "You brought the book of rare curses, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, I got it right here." The older ghost waved the tome in his hand.

Scratch handed the book to Ollie, who floated over from his desk. "I told you we weren't done with this conversation." The robed wraith referenced an earlier event between the two. The other night, the Ghost Friends had been on a mission in a 'hexed chateau' and while the ghost had been fake, the outing revealed that Scratch was in possession of the missing Book of Rare Curses that belonged to the Chairman.

"Hey, I'm not the one who kept the book! Molly hid it before I gave up the robe." Scratch defended himself, and maybe threw Molly under the bus a tiny bit.

"That explains why it's color-coded." Ollie flipped through the book that was now filled with sticky tabs of blue, yellow, pink and black. "Ooh, she even made an index."

The former chairman leaned his elbow on the current one's shoulder. "And by the way, the council doesn't know I had the book right?"

"Um, not to my knowledge, no."

Scratch clapped his hands together. "Great! I do not want Alister finding out in particular. He'll get all 'high and mighty' that he was right about me hiding the book." Sassy hand gestures accompanied his words.

Ollie continued to skim through the pages of rare and powerful curses; the colorful tabs were really helpful in sorting through the different types of haunted hexes. "Portal into the mind, entering dreams, time loop, this thing does have some powerful stuff in it!"

"Got an idea of what'cha wanna cast first?" Scratch read over his shoulder.

The chairman hesitated. "I don't know if I'm going to cast any curses." He may be in a ghost form now, but he was alive. Casting curses sounded like something left to real ghosts.

"Come on! You make me give back the book, and you aren't even going to use it!" The blue one complained.

"I mean, I've only used a curse once to close that abyss." Ollie recalled the incident where he received his position. "Was that even a curse?" He wondered.

Scratch flipped himself in front of Ollie, a strange determination set ablaze within him… and it wasn't from the spicy burrito he'd had for lunch. "I cannot float by and do nothing while you waste this potential! You are the most powerful being in the afterlife right now, and you haven't ever done a real curse! The time has come for me to pass on my wisdom of all things cursed and 'chairman-y' to you my swoopy-haired protege."

Ollie did a double take. "Hang on, what's happening?"

"I'm teaching you how to properly cast curses." Scratch laid it out plain and simple. "You're actually the second kid I've ever taught cursing to. The first was Darryl, but that was a different kind of cursing."

OXOXOXOX

Ollie sat at the desk with a notebook, ready to jot down any notes from this lesson. He had to scour the pages for a blank one. Scratch caught something and stopped the pages. "Is that a doodle of Molly's name inside a heart?"

That was when Ollie discovered he could blush in wraith form (he didn't have blood now. How did that work?) "How about we get to that first lesson!?" The boy closed his notes in embarrassment.

There'd be plenty of time to tease Ollie about that later. Scratch had knowledge to impart. "Tell me Ollie, what do you think the most important part of a curse is?" He quizzed his student.

Ollie thought about it carefully before answering. "A failsafe? So the curse can't backfire."

Scratch had a different answer in mind, but the kid had a good point. Time to pretend that was where he was going. "A failsa-Yes! A failsafe! Very good! Because it is so important to make sure a curse can't go horribly, horribly wrong. Although they pretty much always go wrong, so deal with the hand you're dealt."

"So what sort of limitations do you recommend?" Ollie asked.

Scratch actually had to think hard about that one. "Hnnn… a time limit! The longer a curse stays, the more suffering it usually brings. Which is great if you're cursing someone who cut in front of you at the hot dog stand. Not so great when it takes the fear away from your best friend, and she launches herself across the city."

Ollie took his words to heart, coming up with a quick curse for their own convenience. The chairman floated up higher and took on a more saturated hue. "AS THE CHAIRMAN I IMPOSE MY MIGHT, FIVE MINUTES I LIMIT ALL MY CURSES TILL THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT." Ollie shrank back down to normal size, a glow settling on him briefly as his curse went into effect. "Now we don't have to worry about a curse overstaying its welcome."

"Eh. It was fine for what we needed." Scratch conceded. "But your technique is lacking on multiple levels. Lucky thing you have the best curser as your mentor. I've cursed myself and Molly nearly a hundred times by now! I know all the moves."

The orange wraith was actually excited to learn. "This is going to be a (hopefully) very informative Saturday!"

"It's Sunday, actually." Scratch corrected him.

"Is it? Man, time feels weird here." So Ollie has increased his hours here recently, the eternal night was probably throwing off his sense of time.

Moving forward, it was time for Scratch to teach his 'protege' his actual first lesson. "Now aside from that little introductory bit we just did, this is going to be the REAL first lesson." He made sure Ollie was listening intently before continuing. "The true, most important and valued part of a good curse… PRRRRRRESENTATION!" He trailed his 'r's and struck a pose.

The current chairman looked skeptical. "How is that the most important part of a curse?"

"Observe-" Scratch stretched his ectoplasm and moved into position. He does the following but without changing shape or distorting himself, staying as blue and blobby as he always is. "Curse casting! Something, something rhyming! Ghostly whoozits or whatever!" He dropped the act. "Now did that send a shiver of fear down your spine? Or were you left bored and ready to change the channel?"

"Yeah, it was pretty boring." Ollie nodded.

"Observe again-" This time Scratch twisted himself into horrifying shapes and appeared genuinely scary. His voice echoed with an unsettling tone mixed with his own voice. "CURSE CASTING! SOMETHING, SOMETHING RHYMING! GHOSTLY WHOOZITS OR WHATEVER!" Even the background changed color and bent to his will. He dropped the fake curse and took a bow. "You may now applaud!"

That display definitely earned an applause, which Ollie gave earnestly. "That was so much better! Could you have been a theater kid when you were alive?"

"Probably!" Scratch had no idea, but being a performer sounded like a pretty good life! Whatever he did before he died had to have been incredible. "It's your turn Ollie. Pick a curse and put on a show!"

Ollie took out the book and referred to the index Molly made. "Let's see… blue is for shape-shifting, yellow means shenanigans, the pink ones are curses Molly loves, and the black ones are genuinely bad curses." Curious as to his girlfriend's taste in curses, Ollie picked out a page with a pink note. "Here I go-" The chairman allowed his form to stretch and tower over the Dark Dais, his face no longer visible from under the robe which glowed a more saturated orange. He tried putting more flare into this curse than the previous one. "AS CHAIRMAN OF THE GHOST WORLD I REACH DEEPER INTO OUR SOULS. REVEAL WHAT IS UNDERNEATH AND WHAT MAKES US WHOLE."

The dramatic curse settled on the two present, and Scratch awaited whatever it would cause. Nothing visibly happened as far as he could see… but he could smell something. A lot of something's. "What is that smell?" He sniffed under his armpit. "Some of it's coming from me!"

"I cast the 'Soul Scent' curse." Ollie revealed the page he had read from. "It reaches deep inside us and releases the unique scent of our very being. For instance, you smell like strawberries and the ocean."

"This is the best I've ever smelled, actually." Scratch mentioned. "And you smell like fresh-cut grass and a moonlit night. I don't know how but you do."

The young chairman invaded Scratch's personal space as he awaited his feedback. "How was my presentation? Where can I improve?"

The former chairman used a finger to scooch the orange wraith a few inches away from him. "Not bad for an amateur. Still a bit rough around the edges, nothing the best mentor in the Ghost World can't smooth out with a few more lessons."

"Little presumptuous to call yourself the 'best mentor' in the Ghost World." Ollie playfully smirked.

"Hey! I'm a better mentor than I am a chairman. Which is not easy for me to admit. I mean I wasn't the worst chairman, sure I got taco crumbs in the curse cabinet, but it's not like I blew up Death Valley or anything!" He shiftily looked away, smiling nervously. "Which brings us to lesson numero dos: unintended consequences."

Ollie pretty much figured what this lesson would entail. "Like, say, if you put a curse on a girl to always be with her, she gains the ability to summon you?"

"Molly told you bout that, huh." It had been so long since he was magically summoned to Molly's side. Of course, nowadays, they didn't need a curse to always be together or come over when the other needed them. It also led to stricter 'don't bother Scratch while he's in the tub' guidelines. "Yeah, that's the kind of unintended consequences I'm talking about. To demonstrate, I want you to pick out a shapeshifting curse and cast it on us. But you can't read what the curse does ahead of time. We will endure the effects for a measly five minutes and come out wiser than we were before."

"Okay…" Ollie flipped to a blue-tabbed page and only read the curse as he cast it. Not going super big with his performance on account of having to hold the book, Ollie still went for the echoing voice and towering figure. "TRADE AN OUTWARD TRAIT BETWEEN US TWO, A SIGNATURE PIECE TO MARK WHO WE ARE. ALLOW US TO EXPERIENCE EACH OTHERS LOOK, AS LONG AS WE KNOW WHO IS WHO!"

A cursed cloud engulfed Ollie and Scratch, sending them both into coughing fits. "(Hacking noises) That one has some kick to it!" Scratch hit his fist into his chest, knocking out a little puff of green smoke from his mouth. He looked at the wraith, not looking any different from before the curse. "Huh, that should've done something…" Scratch scratched his head.

Ollie's ghostly yellow eyes widened. "Uh, you might want to check a mirror." He advised the ghost.

"What? I got some burrito in my teeth?" Scratch took a hand mirror out of nowhere and looked at his reflection. His cutie bit was gone, replaced with very familiar swoopy bangs. "AAAAHHH! I'VE GOT YOUR TEEN HEARTTHROB HAIR! Oh no…" he flew over and pulled down the hood of Ollie's robe, the orange wraith lacked his signature hairstyle and now sported the two blobs usually on top of Scratch. "YOU'VE GOT MY CUTIE BIT! GIMME BACK MY CUTIE BIT!" He tugged at what should be his hair, but it refused to budge off of Ollie's head.

Ollie wasn't bothered by the switch, he was actually pretty amused. He lightly laughed as he tried to console Scratch. "Hey-hey-It's only for five minutes, remember?"

"FIVE MINUTES IS GOING TO FEEL LIKE AN ETERNITY!" The ghost was not consoled at all. He was now rocking back and forth in a fetal position.

"Come on Scratch, it's not so bad." Ollie attempted to coax him out of his ball of woe.

"Maybe for you! But the cutie bit is MY signature look! Now I look like the lead singer in a boyband!" In his frenzy, Scratch accidentally did the hair swoop bit that Molly was a fan of.

Seeing the hair flip from another perspective, Ollie kind of understood what it was now. "So that's how that looks…" That gave him an idea, and he took his phone out of the robe's sleeves. "Oh! Let's take a picture and send it to Molly."

"Eh-" Scratch's face twisted in disgust and then fear. "NO! NO ONE CAN EVER SEE THIS!"

Ollie wrapped an arm around the blue ghost and posed for a selfie. "Say cheese!"

Scratch's anguished wails filled the air while he pulled on Ollie's robe and tried to wrestle the phone away from him. "Over my already dead body!"

The current chairman couldn't help but laugh as they had a tug of war over the phone. "Come on Scratch! You look cute!"

"STOP MAKING IT WEIRD OLLIE!"

In the skirmish, the camera went off. And through the grabbing of the screen, the correct sequence was dialed for the photo to be texted to Molly.

Back in Brighton, Molly and Libby were chilling in the latter's room. Feeding her turtles and snacking on chips. Molly heard her phone ding and pulled it out of her pocket. "Who's it from?" Libby asked.

"Ollie. He and Scratch are doing something in the Ghost World today." Molly unlocked her phone to see the text. What awaited her was a pretty good shot of something that made her cringe. "I told Scratch not to send pictures of his butt anymore!"

OXOXOXOX

The first two curses had worn off, and their ectoplasmic hairstyles returned to their rightful owners. "Woo-glad that's over." Scratch stretched his back and arms. "Moving on and never speaking of the previous incident again. This next lesson is going to be an improv exercise."

"Sounds easy enough." The young chairman naively believed.

"And that is where you are wrong. Improv is a difficult art form to master. You must be quick with your wit and ready with a spontaneous response to anything. It involves a lot of 'yes and's and thinking on your currently nonexistent feet." Scratch lectured, holding a deep respect for the theatrical arts once again. "Curses are the same way. The book has some specific stuff but we living impaired usually come up with our curses on the spot. And we make 'em rhyme. It's chaos. And Ollie, you're a little too orderly for spontaneous improv cursing."

"What?! I can so do an improv curse!" Ollie insisted.

Scratch smirked. "Prove it. Show me chaos."

He could do this, Ollie knew he could. What kind of curse would be spontaneous and chaotic? There had to be a way to figure out-NO! He couldn't overthink this! He had to do something-ANYTHING! He clenched his eyes shut and ran with whatever the first idea that popped into his head. Growing into his scary, cursing mode, Ollie let his mouth do the talking for his head. "I CURSE US, SCRATCH AND OLLIE, TO uh… WATCH THE ROBE DANCE AND BE GROOVY! TO START A DISCO PARTY AND- I don't know-HAVE MUSIC PLAY OUT OF THE ROBE'S HOOD… IE!"

The curse went into effect, taking the chairman's robe away from the orange wraith and causing it to burst into a disco dance while appropriate music played from the opening at the top. Scratch and Ollie watched from the sidelines, watching the ancient, powerful article of nether-worldly fabric boogie like the seventies were still a thing. To be fair, there was an overabundance of disco music in the Ghost World, since it was also considered 'dead'. "Tada! Is this weird enough for you?" Ollie held his arms out and gestured to the dancing robe.

"I've seen you eat a veggie lover's pizza with a fork. This ranks pretty low compared to that." Scratch bluntly stated. "You get a passing grade for this curse though. Never knew the robe had such moves!" Wait a minute, Scratch recognized those moves. "Hey! It's doing the shimmy 'n' sweep! I made that up to get everyone else to do my work!" He saw the judging look Ollie was giving him. "Why are you surprised? That is the kind of person I am."

Pushing aside that nugget of information for later, Ollie did notice how the robe was dancing. It copied not only some of Scratch's moves but some of his moves too. From that time he taught Geoff a new dance move during a songburst montage in an episode that 'totally' made it to air. "I guess it's recalling the muscle memory of those who've worn it. Although I don't recall ever doing those kinds of moves." The robe switched to some strange moves that seemed more in line with a villainous victory dance.

Scratch had a feeling he knew who the robe got that from. "Ugh. I bet it picked that up from Jinx when she had it that one time. She would do a gloating victory dance wouldn't she? The nerve!" Scratch rolled his eyes.

Hearing the name of the ghost who tried to take over the living world reminded Ollie of something that happened recently. "Speaking of Jinx, she finally found out I'm the new chairman." Ever since that same incident when she took the robes, the purple ghost had been trapped in June's phantom canister.

"Oh, and how'd she take it?" Scratch couldn't wait to hear this.

FLASHBACK

Ollie portals into his garage after a long day of chairmanning in the Ghost World. June is sitting at the workbench with a communication device hooked up to Jinx's canister. "Welcome back Ollie, how was your chairman work?" His sister greeted him.

"Hold up-" A voice came out of the device, Jinx's to be exact. "Did you say chairman work?"

"Yup. The Chairman robe chose my brother to be the new Chairman of the Ghost World." June answered casually.

It ended up becoming a test of how loud the communicator's volume could get. "AS IF SCRATCH GETTING THE ROBE WASN'T A BIG ENOUGH INSULT TO THE ONE TRUE CHAIRMAN NOW ALL THAT POWER IS IN THE HANDS OF A LIVING TEENAGER?! WHEN I GET OUT OF HERE I-" June winced and set the volume to mute. The siblings shrugged and moved along with their day.

END OF FLASHBACK

Scratch laughed loud and hard. "HA! Oh, I wish I could get a picture of the look on her face." He wiped away a tear forming from the laughter.

"Sorry, no visual data comes from the canister." Ollie regertfully informed him. "June took a lot of precaution to ensure she doesn't get out." And yet Jinx still continued to try and trick his sister into freeing her. It never worked. June was too smart to fall for anything she said.

Once the laughter subsided, Scratch couldn't help but feel a little pity for his nemesis (Hey! He had a real nemesis! Cool.) being trapped indefinitely in a device that looked like it was meant to contain the temperature of soup. He blamed the kids' empathy for rubbing off on him and pushed the thought aside for now.

OXOXOXOX

Once the robe had finished dancing and the disco died down (but it would one day come back with a vengeance!) Scratch and Ollie went back to the Book of Rare Curses to pick out one more curse for their final lesson.

"How about the curse that makes the songs stuck in your head play out loud?" Scratch pointed to a page.

"Too close to what we just did." Ollie dismissed the idea and turned the page.

"That curse lets you understand animals, but only when they insult you." Scratch pointed to another.

"No animals around here." Ollie reminded him and flipped the page again.

"Ooh, this curse can turn someone into an owl beast!" Scratch once more suggested a curse.

"I'd rather not." Ollie lost track of how many pages they'd gone through at this point. He turned the pages backwards and returned to the colorful index added by his girlfriend. "Hmm, We haven't done any that fall under the 'shenanigans' category." Choosing a random yellow tab, Ollie chose a page and liked the result. "How about a truth curse?"

Scratch tapped his chin. "Hmm, sounds like it could easily backfire on us… yep! That's a shenanigan! Fire away Ollie!"

Agreeing on the curse, Ollie went into his scary cursing mode. "I CURSE THE TWO OF US, TO ONLY SPEAK WHAT IS TRUE. WE CANNOT HIDE WHEN ASKED, REVEAL THE SECRETS ONLY WE KNEW!" The curse took effect evidenced by the brief blue glow around them. "We have five minutes to ask each other anything, and we have to answer honestly-"

"Got it! What's the most embarrassing thing in your search history?" Scratch beat him to the first question. He'd had the whole curse sequence to think of a question, and he was going for the big guns.

Forced to answer the truth, Ollie sighed and held a hand to his forehead. "'Why can't I whistle', everyone else can do it, but I can't get it right!" He was ashamed of this fact.

Scratch was more disappointed with the answer. That wasn't some awkward revealing truth! "Lame. OK, your turn now and make it good. I do not divulge my innermost secrets easily." Unless he was bribed. With food.

Considering his options, Ollie chose to ask one he suspected of the blue ghost. "Are you the one who keeps sabotaging the churro cart?"

"Yes." Scratch bluntly admitted to the crime. "AND I'LL DO IT AGAIN!" It was back to him again, he'd probably get similar answers to the whistling thing if he tried to ask about embarrassing stuff. Might as well ask something simple. "Let's see… huh… what do you think about being the chairman?"

"I still don't think I'm the most worthy for the job."

Silence. That was not what Scratch was expecting. "Wait, what?" Maybe the ghost heard him wrong. He could have some waxy ectoplasm building up in his ears. Did he have ears?

Ollie steadied himself, bracing for the unavoidable truth that was about to come out. "I was a ghost hunter for so long, and within a year I'd done a 180 and am now the ruler of the Ghost World. The robes say I'm the most worthy and every day I try to prove to everyone, including myself, that the robe made the right choice. But no matter how much engoodifying I do, there's a part of me that is still holding onto the guilt from my past and my mistakes-a-and it won't let me fully forgive myself even though I want to!" Why couldn't he let it go? He was trying so hard to move forward, but those midnight thoughts kept him up some nights as he tried to silence the doubts. How long has it been since that time in the video store? The guilt had shrunk considerably since then, but it still lingered in the back of his mind.

It wasn't the first time Scratch had heard the boy pour his heart out, at least he wasn't sobbing on him like before. "Kid, you've been chairman for almost two months, right?" The wraith nodded a confirmation. "In that time I haven't seen any sort of screw-ups on your part around here. Compare that to me, I lost the robe to Jinx, overflowed the curse cabinet, left Sharkie unattended while I was getting coffee, I actually did blow up Death Valley!... dang truth curse." He wished he hadn't admitted that. "Point is, We are vastly different chairmen. I made messes. You clean up messes. Despite that we have a common ground, we've both made mistakes and learned to grow and change from them. I was grouchy, miserable and lonely before I made the best mistake of my afterlife, cursing Molly McGee."

Ollie couldn't hide the smile at the mention of Molly. "She does tend to see the potential in other people." Like himself. Truthfully, meeting Molly was what started the chain of events leading to both of their character developments.

"I've become a whole new ghost since she made me want to be a better person. And you, when I first saw you I hated you." Scratch honestly admitted.

"I know." Ollie didn't blame him. Their first real meeting did not go smoothly.

Scratch kept going. "I didn't think you'd ever change your ways, but look at you now! I would never have believed the ghost hunter would become the ghost chairman, probably also because I was chairman at the time. Even more unbelievable is that we're actually friends."

The young chairman let out a tiny gasp. "That's the first time I've ever heard you call me a friend!" He quietly said in awe.

"Yeah, this dumb curse won't let me filter my feelings with jokes and indifference!" Scratch needed to remind him that if he had a choice he wouldn't be getting so mushy. "And yes, you are my friend. You and Molly even let me third wheel on your first date so I could eat ice cream under the table! I'm going to go off-topic if I keep thinking about ice cream, so here's what I'm trying to say; those doubts might not completely fade, but the mistakes you made are what helped you turn into someone worthy of being the chairman." The ghost folded his arms and smiled proudly. "You've come a long way kid."

Moved by Scratch's forcibly honest words, Ollie held out his arms while his eyes sparkled. "Permission to hug?"

Scratch groaned reluctantly. "Permission granted." He couldn't brace himself for the incoming hug from his so-called protegee. It wasn't as crushing and tight as the hugs he got from Molly, which made it a little more bearable. Seeing how genuinely happy the boy was, Scratch wrapped a single arm around his shoulder. "Yeah, yeah, enjoy the sappiness while you can. The curse is gonna wear off in a minute or two anyway."

Like he'd said, the truth curse wore off shortly. The lessons imparted from the previous chairman to the current one had been finished. But Ollie still felt there was something they needed to do. "I know you didn't want to take a picture earlier… but what if we took one that was a little different?"

"Different how?"

Back at Libby's house, she and Molly were watching a video on the latter's phone. "And look! The dog is copying what the bunny is doing!" Molly was overflowing with joy from the cute video.

A notification came up, Libby leaned in to see what it was. "Another photo from Ollie." The girls both hoped it wasn't another Scratch-butt pic and opened the message. The image made the girls briefly jump back before realizing what it was. Libby grinned, amused. "Looks like Scratch's dramatic cursing is spreading."

Molly was feeling even more joy seeing the photo of her best friend and her boyfriend. Scratch and Ollie took a selfie in their scary 'cursing' forms. Scratch warped his face into a terrifying, sharp-toothed vision of nightmares. The bright orange glow obscured Ollie's face from inside the robe, but he stretched his torso around Scratch like a snake and grew his hands into intimidating claws. The horrific image had a single word underneath 'boo'. "Yep, those are my guys." She laughed.

Scratch and Ollie put away the Book of Rare Curses and prepared to head back to the living world. "I have to admit, casting curses is kind of fun." Ollie wasn't planning on doing it often. But a limited curse every now and then wouldn't hurt.

"See! Now you get it!" Scratch prepared to open the portal home. A different portal opened up in front of the two of them. "You expecting someone?" Scratch looked back at Ollie.

Alister emerged from the portal and noticed the blue ghost at the dais. "Oh Scratch, excellent timing. There's something important I need to discuss with you."

"I WAS NEVER HERE!" Scratch opened a portal, grabbed Ollie by the front of the robe, and pulled them both inside.

"... I was just going to ask if he wanted to join my lute band."

Chapter Text

It was late in the afternoon one day at Ruben's Root Beer Pub. The brewery's namesake was polishing some new bottles when he heard the front door open and someone come rushing inside.

"Dad, I'm here!" Ollie leaned against the counter, catching his breath. "I am so sorry I'm running late! There was a dispute between these divorced ghosts and-"

Ruben calmed his son down from talking a mile a minute. "No need to apologize. I know you have a busy schedule." His son had promised to come by and help out at the pub today. He couldn't control there being issues in the Ghost World that needed the Chairman to step in. "And besides, it's been a slow day. You wouldn't have had much to do anyway."

Ollie looked around and noticed only three other people in the pub, he really had lucked out at not missing a crowd. "Ah. So I guess I'm… done here?" The boy wasn't sure if he should still help, or go home, or a third thing.

"Not exactly. I've got something you can help with." His dad turned around and quickly fixed something behind the counter. He held out a freshly made root beer float and handed it to his son. "I need someone to taste test the ice cream that came in this morning."

That got a grateful grin from the boy. "I think I can manage that." Ollie took the sweet treat, along with a spoon, paper straw and some napkins and went to take a seat at one of the tables. He had his choice of where to go, though a head of light blue hair caught his eye. "Oh, hi Andrea!"

The young influencer looked up from her phone and happily waved to her friend. "Ollie! How long has it been? Take a seat!" Andrea invited him to her table. Though the two didn't hang out very often, they were pretty good friends. Especially with their families working together, they ended up talking more often.

"Thanks." Ollie sat down and placed his stuff on the table. Andrea was drinking a specialty blend of root beer rather than a float like he was. "What kind of root beer did you get?"

"This one has kind of a minty flavor to it. I didn't get what it's called, but it tastes fab." Andrea took another sip. "Reminds me of that one winter in Austria where I had the best mint tea! Have you ever been?"

"Not really an easy place to travel to." Ollie awkwardly sipped his float.

As quickly as the subject came up, it left when a new one popped up. "BTW, I haven't seen you outside of school much lately. What have you been up to?"

Without thinking, Ollie answered truthfully. "I've got a part-time job that's been keeping me busy."

"No way! Where do you work? I have to drop in and say 'hi'." Andrea missed the 'oh I messed up' look in Ollie's eyes as he realized what he said.

"Uhhhh…" Ollie froze in a panicked sweat. Andrea didn't know about ghosts, well she kind of did, she'd encountered them before. But she didn't know the truth-truth about the Ghost World and his friends like Scratch and the others. Frankly, Ollie had no idea how she'd take it, let alone how she'd react to hearing that he was the leader of all ghosts. He needed a believable lie and fast! "I… I meant that I'm… helping out around here! The Root Beer Pub!" He smiled nervously, it wasn't actually a lie. He did help out around the place from time to time. "Just cleaning tables and serving drinks. Not making drinks. I have to specifically make it clear I have no involvement in the creation of the root beer."

Andrea tilted her head. "Is it like, a health violation code or whatever?"

"Nope. I LITERALLY cannot make root beer… or any sort of food that isn't microwaved." Ollie clarified.

The bluenette accepted the answer and went back to check her phone. "Ugh, have you seen the latest stuff on ClickClock? Absolutely nothing is trending that has earned it." She showed the webpage to Ollie. The top 10 videos were, like she said, absolutely nothing. "Putting DVD's in a frying pan? Jump scare grandpa in the shower? One video is just a mime pretending he's trapped in a box!" Andrea voiced her disgust.

Ruben chose that moment to pipe up from over at the bar. "Ollie, weren't you afraid of mimes until you were eight?"

"Dad!" Ollie nearly slammed his hands against the table when he shot up, mortified at having that bit of history said out loud.

His dad seemed to realize his mistake. "Ooh… OK yeah, shouldn't have brought that up in public. That was completely on me, sorry son!"

To Ollie's relief, Andrea went right back into what she'd been talking about before the interruption (but not without holding back a couple of laughs) "What I'm saying is, ClickClock is starved for some good media."

Ollie raised an eyebrow. "What about your videos?"

The bluenette sighed dramatically, slumping her face against the table. "I've hit a slump. There hasn't been anything stream worthy in days!" She dragged out the last word, rolling her face onto the table.

"Oh, that stinks." Ollie didn't know what to say.

"I need something fresh! A total shake up." Andrea lamented. "Preferably without an identity crisis." She added, much to Ollie's befuddlement.

As if the heavens themselves answered her pleas, the plot started moving forward. "Huh-" The teens could hear Ollie's dad checking his own phone during the lull in business. "I never noticed we hadn't made any new kind of advertisement since the grand opening."

Ollie could see the gears turning in Andrea's head, the glimmer of inspiration lit up her face. "That's what I'm missing! Product placement!" She spoke as if she'd solved the mystery of the universe.

"… Should I ask where you're going with this?" Ollie hesitated to ask.

"So I used to do commercials for Davenports before we went out of biz. After hyping up your dad's root beer, I haven't done any other advertising stunts." Andrea explained. "The catchy jingles, the bargain of our deals, that one guy working the mic who listened to my nail polish tips, it's been too long!"

Ollie couldn't relate, but this was something Andrea was passionate about. And what Ollie was passionate about was helping. "Dad just said we haven't had a new ad since we opened two months ago. What if we made one?"

The suggestion was perfect for not only Andrea, but Ollie's dad too. "OMG! That is totes the best idea!" The girl was 'totes' on board already.

"That'd be a huge help, you two." Ruben walked over to the teens. "If you wanted, you could shoot here tonight after we close."

Andrea mulled it over. "A little short notice, but I am so into the challenge! I'll get some gear from back home and meet back at… what time do you close?"

"Eight." Ruben answered.

"Hmm, not much natural light by that time. No matter, I have just the thing to make the colors pop on screen for any time of day!" Andrea finished off her root beer and headed out to get what she needed.

Left alone with a melting root beer float, Ollie was also coming up with some ideas for the video. It had been a while since his family stopped doing their MeTube channel. He couldn't be too rusty after not filming for a few months. Yeah, this would be fun!

OXOXOXOX

Ollie and Andrea arrived back at the root beer pub just as Ruben was locking up. He let the teens inside and handed Ollie the keys. "Be back home by ten, and don't forget to turn off the lights and lock up when you're done."

"Sure thing, dad." Ollie accepted the responsibility (and keys) while he and Andrea took their stuff inside. The two were on their own now, and Ollie knew just where to start. "One thing really quick-" he set his backpack down and pulled out a nice, yet hastily made poster board and hung it on the door. It was a sign reading 'filming in progress' "There we go. That should deter distractions from distracting us."

To Ollie's dismay, it seemed like Andrea hadn't heard what he said. She was focused on setting up her lighting and makeup. She had her laptop and selfie-stick equipped phone ready, she even packed a green screen, apparently judging by the green tarp poking out of her bag. "Couldn't pack too much, but I've done more with less. It'll be so cute to film a whole commercial by ourselves! When filming the Davenport's commercials, we had our own crew. If we'd had more time, I could've gotten them to work their magic, but alas, they were already booked for this evening."

Elsewhere in Brighton, Weird Larry was outside his shop filming a commercial with the aforementioned film crew. "Are you sure we can't get the skunk stink to be smellable on TV?" The pawn shop owner asked, while his skunk was getting blush applied.

Back to the actual story, Ollie seemed unsure of the scale she was planning. "I don't think we can make an actual commercial. A short promotional video would be more manageable with just the two of us." He'd never shot a commercial before, but had plenty of experience making short videos on MeTube. "I brought some of our old filming equipment. It'll give us better quality than filming with a phone."

The two finished setting up their respective gear. Now came the important part; what direction to take their video. "So Ollie, I have a few ideas for us, but first I need to hear the root beer pub's jingle." Andrea requested.

"We don't have a jingle." Ollie informed her.

"Don't have a…" Andrea trailed off, dumbfounded. "Doesn't every business have a jingle?"

"... Not really."

Andrea was mystified. "You mean, stores without commercials don't just play their jingles on the radio where only old people listen?" This was an eye-opener for the girl. "Wow… that's just crazy. I feel like my entire worldview has flipped on its head."

"Yeah, I've been there." Ollie muttered while he rifled through his backpack. Aside from the sign he made, everything else inside the bag was already in there when he grabbed it. The stuff was a little random, but perhaps it could prove useful during filming. He reached in and pulled out a rubber band ball… ok, not everything could be useful. "... This isn't even mine."

Moving along, the lack of a jingle actually helped narrow down the ideas Andrea had. "Without a catchy tune, and with no time to write one. We need to focus on grabbing the attention of our viewerbase." She scrolled onto the top of the front page of ClickClock. "A strong presence and showy opening are how some of these videos have made it to the top, with no regard to actual content. I mean look at this one!"

The phone was shoved in Ollie's face just as the video loaded. A very familiar baby doll wore a red cape and waved sparklers around while shouting, "Lord Doom, Number One Superstar!"

"See! It's called possessed baby doll, which sounds pretty far-fetched, but it got into the top ten videos of the week because it draws in the viewers within seconds." Andrea explained. Ollie wasn't going to mention that he knew the ghost in the video.

"So how do we compete with sparklers and charisma?" Ollie asked.

The bluenette had a plan. "Only with the single most effective and merchandisable culture; we go kawaii."

"Go ka-what?"

"Kawaii. You know, super adorbs characters like Konnichiwa Koneko. Fluffy pastel animals. Ribbon-filled lolita dresses." Andrea accompanied her sales pitch with visuals from her phone. "It started in Japan but Kawaii culture has reached all over the globe! Except Antarctica, apparently, they're still in a grunge phase."

After the explanation, Ollie had sort of an idea what she meant. "Oh! I have one of those things in my backpack!" He reached inside and pulled out two identical pairs of fuzzy socks. "Does this qualify as kawaii? It's fluffy, a pastel mint green color, and has my favorite animal on it, a capybara!"

"Um, I guess it's kawaii. But why?"

"Capybaras are such friendly critters! They are also smart enough that-"

"Actually, I was wondering why you have two pairs?" Andrea clarified her confusion.

"Ah, that." Ollie sheepishly saved his capybara facts for later. "I completely forgot that I bought one the other day and bought another." He still had the receipt, but debated whether he should return the extra or give it to Molly. Did she like capybaras? That was the decision maker.

While the socks could be considered cute, it wasn't what Andrea was looking for. "It's a step in the right direction. But I've already got just what we need." She unrolled her green screen. "Let's get that camera rolling!"

OXOXOXOX

The two finished filming, Andrea directed them and was now putting the special effects into place. "A sparkle here, a winking pony in the corner… fini!" She saved her work, then looked over to her current business partner who was taking a drink of water. "Ollie, come see the finished piece!"

Ollie placed his reusable water bottle down and knelt beside Andrea to see her laptop. "Let's see how it came out."

Andrea pressed play and the video started. J-pop dubstep music blared from the speakers as Andrea and Ollie in the video struck a pose against a dreamy, pastel background. Bright-colored anime animals popped up around them and animated rainbows filled the screen. The colors transitioned into the duo sitting at the barstools with glasses of root beer. Cute Chibi faces appeared on the root beer mugs and the teens' faces went through a bishoujo-style filter. Bubbles pile up over the screen, and they pop to reveal Andrea winking at an animated unicorn in the corner. A star-shaped wipe crosses the screen and reveals Ollie as he moves to face the camera. A pastel chibi capybara floats beside his head. Hearts and the katakana for 'doki doki' change the scene again to a root beer keg seen through a pink dreamy filter with lots of sparkles. The video closes with Andrea and Ollie clinking two bottles of root beer over their heads, and animated diamonds and sparkles come flowing out of the tops.

Once the video was finished, Andrea looked at Ollie for approval. "So how much do you love it?"

"Um… I have some notes." Ollie awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "For starters, the name of the pub was never mentioned."

"…" Andrea froze with her mouth stuck in a hopeful smile. Ollie was concerned and waved a hand in front of her face. Her face fell along with the rest of her head when she face planted into her keyboard. She had gotten so hyperfocused on the kawaii aspect, she forgot they were doing this to advertise the root beer pub. "The cuteness is an all-encompassing void. It sucked me in. I went in too deep." The boy almost put a hand on her shoulder when she whipped herself back up. "Kawaii culture is too powerful for this. We need reshoots and a new direction."

Ollie gave her some space and went to set the camera back up. "Maybe I could direct this one? I did plenty of videos back when my family had our-" He mumbled the next part. "-ghost hunting-" and back to normal "-MeTube channel."

"Give it a go!" Andrea encouraged him with a thumbs up. Not an actual thumbs up, rather she put an emoji of one on her phone and showed it to him. "June was just mentioning the other day how much fun you and her had making those ghost videos." The influencer was properly introduced to the youngest Chen during the grand opening of the pub, they bonded over coding and a friendship was born. "It's too bad you stopped, I would have totally been down for doing an interview about my experience with ghosts. I did some vids of my own last year, you've probably seen them, and I've seen them like three or four times, so I probably have a better idea what they're like than most people."

The irony of much of what she said was not lost on the teenage leader of the Ghost World. "That's a whole bag of worms for another time." Ollie muttered to himself. Shaking his head, Ollie focused on the matter at hand. "So I was thinking we could do a sort of pitch like the one we did for your parents. You know, highlight the selling points of the place, showcase the quality of our product."

Andrea wasn't entirely sold on his sales pitch about making a sales pitch. "Hmm, there's only two of us. Would that really have the same effect?"

"Sure it will!" The boy was confident. "We can recreate what we did before but with fewer people… and I don't have my clip-on tie… and I can't brew the root beer myself, so we have to use what's already made… and we don't have the judging table…" That confidence faded with each sentence. "Alright, so we can't recreate what we did before. It's like they say; 'if you can't redo, make a new song or two'."

The bluenette recognized that phrase. "Isn't that from a 'Boys Back in the Streets' song?" She wasn't a fan of boyband music, but recognized it from other videos or music playing in stores.

Ollie was mortified that she recognized it. "Uh- haha-yeah! I must have heard it once…" Andrea raised an eyebrow, not buying it. "Er-My mom liked the song back in the early 2000s?" He tried again, Andrea didn't budge. "... they're my favorite band and I know the words to all of their songs." Ollie finally admitted his guilty pleasure.

This got a smirk from Andrea. "All of their songs?"

Whelp, time to demonstrate his singing voice. "~Why won't you tell me, exactly how you want it to be~" Aw dang, this boy can sing! Why couldn't he have gotten more than one song!?

Andrea applauded his singing. "You are coming to karaoke night and singing that."

"Can we please start filming?!"

OXOXOXOX

Filming took longer than editing this time around. Andrea let Ollie use her laptop for the editing process, but he surprised her by finishing it in under fifteen minutes. "Save the changes, and… it's done!" Ollie announced.

"Wow, you are a fast editor." Andrea hopped off the bar stool she'd been sitting on and came back over to the laptop. She missed the uncertain shifting of his eyes when she mentioned editing and went ahead and pressed start.

The video starts, showing Ollie behind the bar and Andrea walking over. "Hiiii!" Andrea excitedly greeted. "My friends told me the root beer at Ruben's Root Beer Pub is the best root beer in town."

"You heard right!" The Ollie in the video confirmed. "A-" his voice cut off and a low quality image of the shop's logo appeared noticeably placed on a generic red background. "Ruben's Root Beer Pub-" Ollie's voice spoke over the logo. It left as abruptly as it came and returned to a still of Ollie looking at the camera. "-eer pub. We have a root beer for everyone! We have…." He stopped. The film continued to run on Ollie looking at the camera, then he peered down and read from his notes. "Classic blend-" a close up of the kind in question interrupted him announcing it. It switched to another kind, but no sound came from the video. The same happened with the next type before it switched back to a closeup of Ollie. "-ore earthy aftertaste. And come try our n-" another sudden cut to a photo of a root beer float. They weren't going to make one just for filming, so Ollie took a picture of the one he had earlier… which had already been halfway finished.

The picture cut back to Andrea, the same clip from the beginning. "My friends to-" suddenly switching to a new clip. "-So much variety! How can anyone choose?"

"I kno-" Ollie's response was interrupted by the pub logo from earlier. "At Ruben's Root Beer Pub!"

The video came to an end, bewildering its own creators. "Ollie! That was the worst editing job I've ever seen!" Andrea might've been very direct, but she was right. Clips were not properly synced to audio, the cuts were all jumpy, it was a mess. "What about all the videos you made with your family?!"

"I've never been in charge of editing! I've seen my mom and June do it, so I thought I could do what I saw them do! I was the research guy!" Ollie went off. Why was he the worst editor in his family!? He didn't even know how to add special effects. "But the audio wouldn't sync-the clips were hard to cut-I think I accidentally uploaded something to ClickClock!"

Pulling up the website, Andrea checked her account and noticed a short video had indeed been added. "You want the good news or the bad news first?"

"Bad news, it makes the good news easier to swallow."

"Bad news is you did post a few second video to Clickclock." Andrea confirmed his concerns. "Good news is that the clip is going viral!"

Ollie looked over at the screen, it was a short bit from the first take, of him doing his signature hair swoop. The clip was titled 'How do I cut and paste footage into video editor?' and the view count kept going up. A very noticeable comment caught his eye from one user of the name N_H4PP1F13R (WOOOO THATS MAH BOYFRIEND!) He smiled at the comment, then noticed a few other comments actually answered the question in the video title. "Huh, that's helpful." He'd have to remember that for later.

Andrea was amused by the mishap. "Going viral on accident is no easy task. Even more when it's not anything embarrassing happening to you." She whipped her head around to make sure no one was listening to what she was about to reveal. "One time I did a 'how-to' on choosing the right accessory for your pony, and my pony, Majesty, pooped on my mothers favorite rug! The clip went viral for two days and my mom was so mad that she cut off my credit card for a week!"

The story was a little relatable, not because of the pony but for accidentally making her mom angry. "That sounds bad but I've done worse. When I was little, I got lost in a mall trying to find this costumed mascot of a dragon character from a show I liked. My mom was furious when she finally found me."

Ollie's story hit its mark, Andrea muffled a snort. "Yeah, yeah, we can keep trading stories, or we could finish our video."

"Finish the video. We really need to get it done." Ollie concluded. "We tried it your way, and we tried it my way. Which only leaves us one more option."

"We combine our strong points and direct it together." Andrea followed. Ah, the cliche of combining individual strengths never fails. "We'll go closer to your concept, but I'll handle the effects and the 'WOW' factor."

Swoopy hair agreed. "Yeah! Let's make this last take count!"

They set up their equipment for one final try! But first, Andrea needed to purge his video from her laptop. "This cannot be allowed to exist." She shook her head, sharing in the shame Ollie felt towards it.

OXOXOXOX

The start button is pressed on a video and it plays. A spinning logo for Ruben's Root Beer Pub sparkles onto the screen briefly before fizzing away to reveal Ollie and Andrea sitting at the barstools. Ollie's voiceover played over them. "Looking for a fizzy refreshment in the Brighton area? Ruben's Root Beer Pub has something for everyone." The two teens clinked their root beer bottles together, releasing animated bubbles from the clink.

A splash of root beer transitioned into a quick montage narrated by Andrea. "More variety than you can name. Freshly brewed on site. And now you can enjoy a root beer float with your choice of brew and sweet vanilla ice cream!" Andrea and Ollie showcased various products, using some creative editing for what they didn't have on hand.

The sparkly logo from the beginning returned, with both teens talking over it. "There's no better root beer than the ones you'll find at Ruben's Root Beer Pub!" A fissure of fizz erupted over the logo and ended the video.

"Be honest, do you think we could have done more? We had to cram it all into thirty seconds and if we had more time-" Ollie's rambling was silenced by a straw being shoved into his mouth.

Molly giggled after finding a creative way to get her boyfriend to stop for a moment. "Ollie, you and Andrea worked really hard on that video, and it came out great!"

It was a few days after Ollie and Andrea made the video. It was uploaded the day after, once they showed it to his dad for approval. While it wasn't the highest trending ClickClock of the week, their promo made it to number 8 in their region. More customers came to check out the pub, so they could definitely call it a success. And success is best celebrated by taking your girlfriend on a date to your family's business and sharing a root beer float.

Ollie swallowed a bit of soda and removed the straw before talking again. "Thanks Mollberry. Though I am still wondering how a video of a bowl of alphabet soup that spelled 'soup' beat us by a thousand views?"

Esther picked that moment to walk by their table. "You know, Molly, whenever Ollie has alphabet soup he insists on eating the letters in alphabetical order." As a parent it was her duty to reveal embarrassing facts about her son to his lover.

"Mom! That was ages ago!" Ollie insisted. True, he hadn't had alphabet soup since the last time he was sick, back in November. But he was still going to eat it alphabetically next time too…

Thankfully, Molly noticed someone arriving and changed the subject. "It's Andrea and Alina!" The chipper girl waved the newly arrived couple over to their table.

"OMG, Hey Mmm-Ollie!" Andrea waved back, her other hand stayed holding onto her girlfriend's, whom she then leaned over to. "That's their ship name."

"Ah, right on." The redhead approved. Ollie hadn't met Alina yet, but he'd heard about her from both of the other two girls present. "Name's Alina, nice to meet you Ollie."

"Nice to meet you too." Ollie returned the sentiment. The girl lived one town over in Mewline, so she probably only visited the town on business or to see Andrea.

Andrea was beaming with excitement. "Alina saw the vid we made and wanted to come check it out, so we're having our weekend date here!"

"Aww, us too!" Molly chimed in.

Alina addressed the boy once more. "Gotta say Chen, that was a cool promo you two did. Davenport was telling me how you guys collabed on the work."

"I mainly contributed to the premise and staging, the flare and effects were all Andrea." Ollie humbly shared the praise.

"Come on Ollie, you kept it all from becoming an overly kawaii mess." Andrea reminded him. "We might not have trended at the top, but we had fun making it, and now we get to enjoy what we set out to promote."

"Well said, Davenport." Alina gave Andrea a quick kiss on the lips. Making the bluenette's face match her girlfriend's hair color.

Molly 'awed' at the gesture, then came an idea. "What would you guys say about turning this into a double date?"

The suggestion was met with unanimous agreement. Molly hopped out of her side of the booth to let Alina in, then planted herself down beside Ollie while Andrea went to order a float for her and Alina. Ollie and Molly went to drink out of their float when the former remembered something. "Oh, by the way, Molly, how do you feel about capybaras?"

Chapter Text

Ollie laid back on the couch with a hand rubbing his forehead. It was his first day off in a little over a week, no scrolls to sign or ominous voids creating potholes in the roads to deal with. He could just relax and take a break for a day.

"Hey, Ollie." The boy looked up to see his little sister looking down at him.

"What's up June?" He pulled himself upright and offered the other half of the couch to her.

June plopped herself down next to him. "Not much. But I've had a pretty busy week." She counted out her fingers while recalling her latest endeavors. "I recalibrated the Phant-O-Meter, tested Scratch's taste buds per his request, learned he was allergic to carob and that I need to disclose ingredients to ghosts before offering food, Darryl and I toppled an illegal toothpaste scheme while doing our own scheme. Nothing too major, I guess."

"Huh, you have been busy." Ollie commented. "So have I, I guess." Come to think of it, it had been a while since the two of them hung out and did something together. Oh no, were they getting to an age where they spend less and less time together?! "When was the last time we did something with just the two of us?"

"April 28th, we went grocery shopping for mom and dad. Then on our way home we got balloons from this guy handing them out for balloon awareness day." June helpfully recalled.

Proving his point, Ollie made a decision. "We need to have a fun sibling day, just you and me!" Ollie pointed to both of them.

"Really?!" His sister sounded excited.

"Really." Ollie held one hand to his heart and raised the other. "I give my Ollie Oath to spend the whole day with my little sister! Now is there anything you want to do? Anything at all?"

June had to think about that. What was something she could do with her brother? There was something that came to mind, but she wasn't sure he'd be up for it. "I've always wanted to explore the Ghost World. I know it's your day off-"

"That's a great idea!" Contrary to what June had thought, Ollie was delighted by her suggestion. "I can't wait to show you how I've engoodified the place! And all the cool ghost stuff! There's so much I want to-" he stopped and smacked his forehead. "Shoot!"

"Ollie?"

"I can't open a portal on my own. I haven't scheduled the council to pick me up today so we have to ask Scratch or Geoff to-"

To their shock, a ghost portal opened up right in the living room. Their friendly, green friend came out and greeted the kids. "Hi guys! Your pal Geoff is here to visit!" They hadn't even needed to spell his name to summon him. The ghost appeared all on his own. "Is Ruben home? I thought we could hang out for a while."

June directed Geoff to the ceiling. "He's upstairs. Do you mind if we use that portal to go to the Ghost World?"

"I don't see why not? Go ahead!" Geoff gladly allowed the kids to use the portal.

The Chen siblings dove right into the swirling vortex, their colorful souls separating from their bodies that fell to the floor. "Wow, you barely feel it happen." June had only become a wraith once before, you'd think there'd be a stronger sensation to leaving your body, but it happens so quick you hardly feel it.

"I barely feel anything." Shell Ollie droned, not picking himself off of the floor and requiring his spirit to do it for him. "Make sure our parents know I took June with me today." The true Ollie tasked his husk. The shell blinked one eye at a time. "... Great! Thanks me!"

June's shell had slightly more energy, pulling herself back up to the couch all on her own and took out her phone. "Shell June, can you keep yourself and Ollie out of trouble until we get back?" The girl was no stranger to weirdness, talking to her own body barely made the top ten strangest things she'd done that month. "Meh." The empty shell shrugged, watching with indifference to the world around her.

Geoff shuddered. The empty shells were so unsettling. "Like a driverless car… I'm gonna go away from these creepy guys now. Have fun in the ghost world!" He waved goodbye to the siblings and floated upstairs. Ollie and June left through the portal just as they heard the shriek of their dad, who'd been so focused on the computer that Geoff phasing through it caused an accidental jumpscare.

OXOXOXOX

The Ghost World looked much better than the previous time June had been there. It was much more unlively and no flow of misery swirling up in the eternal night sky. "Wow, this is how the Ghost World is supposed to be."

"Yeah, isn't it incredible!?" Ollie did a little flip in the air and spread his arms out wide. "There is so much I want you to see!" He took her by the hand and led her through the streets. Floating felt so natural here, June just instinctively knew how to move in her new form.

"Chairman Ollie!" "What's up Chairman?!" "Thanks for getting my ghost cat out of a tree!" "Has that sobgoblin infestation on the corner of Nightmare Street been dealt with?"

So many ghosts called out to the orange wraith who floated by, he greeted them all with a warm and sincere smile. "Hey Carl! Nothing much, Ms. Fenderson. Remember to keep Cookie away from the window, Sam! Still quarantined for now, Gary. I'm off duty when I'm not wearing the robe, but I'll check on it during my next shift."

June hadn't realized how popular her brother was as the new Chairman. He certainly got more done and cared a lot more than those prior to him (no offense to Scratch). Ollie had become a wraith every day for at least the last two weeks, that level of dedication endeared him to the deceased almost as much as his competency did. On a bonus and slightly more self-serving note, it meant June would have a breeze conducting research with someone who could help her get into areas with restricted access. But first, she wanted some first-person accounts on ghostly subjects.

"The Ghost World is so much bigger than I could have ever imagined." Ollie spoke to his sister while moving forward. "Although we can portal to wherever we want, we should still stick together so we don't get seper-" Wait, Ollie looked back and noticed the red wraith was no longer by his side. "... ated."

His sister hadn't wandered far, she was speaking to a purple ghost girl and taking notes in her notepad. "You want to know if ghosts can have unique abilities?" The ghost repeated what June had asked her. "Some do, but it really depends on your unfinished business, I think? I heard there's a ghost in the pacific northwest who could turn people into wood because-"

"Excuse me, so sorry to interrupt-" Ollie interjected. "But I need to talk with my sister for a moment."

"Oh! Of course Mr. Chairman." The purple ghost excused herself and kindly waved to the two as she departed.

June looked up from her notepad to see her brother looking at her in concern. "Ollie, I was conducting an interview!"

"You can't just go off on your own here, June. If anything happened, and I wasn't around, I-I'd never forgive myself." He wasn't upset at her, he loved her curiosity. But he had to be sure she knew that just because he was in charge around here didn't mean it was safe to wander away from his sight.

Sighing, June understood his concerns. "OK, I won't float off if you let me conduct more interviews later." She bargained.

"Deal." Ollie accepted her terms. Noticing where they were, the older sibling had an idea. "Oh! June, there's a place over there I want to show you!"

June let her brother lead her over to a store that, according to the sign on top, was called Boo! Buster. "Is this an old video rental store?" June had never seen one in person before. Technically she wasn't exactly 'in-person' at the moment.

"Yeah, when stuff dies in the living world they pop up here! Plus, a friend of mine works here." Ollie opened the door, allowing June to go in first before he closed it behind them.

"Couldn't we have just gone through the wall?" June wondered.

"We could, but that is considered rude." Ollie explained ghost etiquette.

A green ghost with a ponytail noticed the customers and lit up when she saw the orange specter. "Ollie! Good to see ya!" She leaned against the counter while the wraith siblings floated over.

"Hi Blair! This is my sister, June." He introduced his ghost friend to his fellow Ghost Friend. "June, this is Blair. I helped her on my first Ghost Friends mission."

Blair offered her hand to June, who accepted the handshake. "It's nice to meet you, Blair."

"Likewise, kid." Blair proudly adjusted the 'manager' name tag pinned to her ectoplasmic vest. "I was going to pass on now that I've got my unfinished business taken care of, but now that I'm free to roam the afterlife I've got to have a little fun for a while. And what better way to enjoy being dead than to pass on my extensive knowledge of horror movie tropes and behind the scenes trivia to more ghosts who can put them to practice." Once she saw the 'haunt wanted' sign in the store window, Blair gladly took the manager position. She'd been staying in a video store since the 90s, might as well get paid to stay in an operational one. "And the best part of the job, I've got my own personal copy of my favorite horror movie, Blood Mansion, that I can watch as many times as I want! And it's on laserdisc!"

June looked around the store, it was filled with VHS tapes and other long-unused media formats. She spied a display labeled 'Manager's choice' filled with a very nice selection of horror movies. Besides that, there was a poster for 'Ghost VCR' rentals. "You rent out VCR's too?"

"Yup." Blair went back behind the checkout stand and pulled a neon-colored VCR out from a cabinet underneath. "It's the only way to watch any tapes around here. Glad to finally find a living person who knows what a VCR is and doesn't think it's a 'weird toaster'." She rolled her eyes in the chairman's direction.

"It was one time." Ollie mumbled.

Knowing that they could rent a player, the Chen siblings searched the store for a movie to rent. "I've never watched a ghost tape before." June didn't know where to start when it came to finding something to watch. It had to be something special, something she couldn't see in her world. A video cover caught her attention and she gasped.

"What is it?" Ollie heard the gasp and came to find the wraith staring at a video in shock and wonderment.

Picking up the box, June held it out for Ollie to see. "They have 'Midnight Mountain'! This movie has no known copies remaining!" She'd researched lost media before, and this film was one of the more notable ones that had a miniscule chance of being found.

"No known copies remaining in the living world." Blair corrected her. "Little known Easter egg about lost media. If all copies are gone in your world with no chance of recovery, they wind up over here."

This was news to Ollie. "Wait, for real?!"

Blair nodded and directed them over to another display. "The scary flicks are my favorite flavor of film, but no one can deny the allure of watching something that should be lost to time."

The wraiths scanned the display. Ollie vaguely thought he recognized some of the films, but looked over to June for confirmation of their rarity. Her jaw hung open as she laid eyes on some of the greatest losses of Hollywood (and one weird flick from Argentina) that hadn't been seen since long before she was born. "Ollie, this is incredible! People have searched for decades for any of these, and they're all right here! To rent!" It came with a sobering realization. For these films to be in front of them, it confirmed they no longer existed on the other side. No one could ever find a missing copy in life and would have to become a ghost to view them.

The manager could tell that the younger girl had realized what it meant for the films to be here, and offered a little ray of hope. "There's still plenty of lost films not in the ghost world, which can only mean they can still be found somewhere."

That got June to brighten up. "That is a good way of thinking about it." The green ghost left the two to figure out which movie to rent. Ideally, they'd like to see all of them for historical significance and novelty.

"Are any of them about ghosts?" Ollie asked while holding up two tapes.

"Not that I know of." June read off the backs of the boxes, which seemed to have been custom-made by Blair if the commentary was any indication. "You know what this kinda reminds me of? When we would pick out candy to bring home after school at the end of each month."

"Oh yeah! We'd walk over to… to… what was that place?" Ollie blanked on the name.

June raised an ectoplasmic eyebrow. "Barnaby's Treat Trove? We'd go on the last Friday of every month and get candy to bring home."

"Oh yeah! We'd take forever picking candy and mom would be out waiting to meet us in the car." Ollie recalled the establishment from when they lived in New York. "Yeah, we may not want to take forever to pick out a movie though." His sister agreed and tried to single out a tape. She thought it was kind of strange that Ollie forgot Barnaby's Treat Trove. They had that tradition every month for six years until they moved to Brighton.

A movie was finally agreed upon and taken to the front to be checked out. "This one please." June placed the tape on the counter. "And we'd like to rent a ghost VCR as well."

Blair moved to ring them up when a thought crossed her mind. "Hold up, do you two have a ghost TV to hook the ghost VCR up to?"

Cue Ollie smacking his hand into his face. They could get the VCR, but living world televisions wouldn't be compatible. "June, you wouldn't be able to rig it up, would you?"

"I think that is beyond what even I can do." June answered honestly.

The conundrum would have to untangle itself later, for outside the shop a cry for help went out. "HELP! THIS IS A CRY FOR HELP GOING OUT!"

Ollie turned determinedly and quickly looked back at his sister. "Wait right here, I'll just be a second." He flew out in a streak of orange light, fast enough to blow up a little wind behind him.

The video store manager was not surprised by this. "Oh boy, there he goes again." She rolled her eyes and addressed June. "You might want to go after him. He could be a while if left unchecked."

On the one hand, Ollie had told her to wait right there. On the other hand, Ollie had made her promise not to wander off, and she wasn't about to let him set a double-standard of running off on his own. "Thanks Blair, but we probably won't be able to rent the video today."

"It's fine. I'll just have to bring the movie over to you guys one night. Maybe even a double-feature." Blair saw June off as she went after Ollie. The green ghost smiled, the young girl was a sweet kid. A miniature portal opened up behind her and spat out a new VHS tape to add to the inventory. Blair recognized the title as another lost film. "Looks like the last copy of 'Hitchhiking Gorilla' got destroyed. Bad news for film searchers and good news for me since I get an advanced screening!"

Outside, June caught up to Ollie in time to see him lift a billboard off of a ghost who was pinned down underneath. With a not insignificant amount of effort, Ollie moved the board enough for the other ghost to wiggle free, albeit with his body flatter than a pancake. "Thank you Chairman Ollie! I never meant to knock that over, I got distracted by a flock of dead birds and smacked right into it."

Ollie inspected the support beams that should have been at the bottom of the billboard. "Hmm, looks like it hasn't been maintained in quite some time. Let me get my robe and I can have this fixed up! Maybe even reinforce it with an additional frame, maybe new paintwork-"

"Ollie!"

He noticed his sister beside him and jumped a bit. "June!? I told you to wait for me!"

"It's your day off. You shouldn't be working today." The red wraith reminded her brother. "And if I'm not allowed to wander off from you, then it would be a bad example to run off without me."

She was right on both counts, Ollie could not become a hypocrite, or worse, a bad example! "OK, yeah, I shouldn't have done that. And it is my day off…" But he couldn't just leave this mess in the street. "This billboard has to be moved aside. I can't lift it by myself without the robe, so I'll need a little help." Together with his sister and the newly flat-chested ghost, they managed to drag the damaged billboard into the closest alley. Ollie swept up the little debris remaining and had June write a brief note that the chairman would repair the damage tomorrow and stick it to the board. With that all taken care of, the Chen siblings went out to see more of the Ghost World.

OXOXOXOX

Once everything had been settled, Ollie took June over to what appeared to be a ghost park. June had to admit, she had never been to a park where all the plants were dead. One had to wonder if they were ghosts of plants that had died or if they just showed up there. The afterlife was full of curiosities that couldn't be covered in just a day.

"I think it's around lunchtime, hard to tell with it always being night here." Ollie relied on his nose to find what he was searching for. "Let's sample some ghost food like-" he found what he was looking for, pulling June in while he stretched his other arm out to reveal. "The churro cart!" The food cart that Scratch loved to patronize and/or steal from had a heavenly glow over it. The glow came from a ghost flying overhead testing out a new flashlight.

June blinked. "Is that the only food cart around here?" She liked churros, but felt the ghost world needed more variety.

"..." Ollie moved the two of them slightly over to the right and repeated his previous gesture at a stand beside the churro cart. "The pretzel cart!" It was also bathed in a heavenly glow, that ghost was still flying around with that flashlight.

"Eh, that'll do." June shrugged. The siblings didn't have to wait long before they could order and receive the pretzel-y goodness that was pretzels. Taking a bite out of hers, June was puzzled by the taste. "Is this what salt tastes like here?" She didn't like it, it tasted bitter and a bit peppery.

Trying his own pretzel, Ollie could tell what she meant. "I think it's… parsley?" He guessed. This explained the short wait for pretzels. "I wish I had an explanation for this, but I don't." His sister moved to throw away her pretzel in the garbage bin, and was intercepted by the orange wraith. "We can't just waste this!"

"Do they even have carbon footprints here?" June pretty much figured out her brother's reasons for not being wasteful… sort of.

"Good question, but I'm referring more to the vendor being close by. It would hurt his feelings to see us throw away the snack he worked hard to make!" Ollie took the pretzel from June. "I'll get you a churro and…" He gulped. "-I'll eat both of these myself."

True to his word, Ollie bought a churro for June and forced himself to eat the terrible pretzels. June did not envy him, the only way those pretzels could taste worse would be with cilantro. Like a champ, Ollie finished the pretzels and was thankful to be in a form that couldn't be killed by food poisoning. He had to sit down for a while, and they found a bench next to a goo-filled fountain. June kicked her squiggly ends like they were her actual legs while finishing her churro, looking around at the many ghosts roaming around. "Ollie, can I conduct my interviews here?"

"Sure, June-" He forced back a gag. Ollie still needed more time to let his ghost body process the affront to snacking it had ingested. "I-I need to sit down a bit longer. Just stay in front of the fountain where I can see you, alright?"

June nodded, retrieving her notepad. She glanced around for her first subject. A purple ghost with an indigo hoodie and a ponytail floated past and caught June's eye. "Excuse me!" She stopped the ghost. "I'm June, a living girl who separated my soul from my body to visit the Ghost World, and I'd like to ask a couple of questions about your experiences here."

"Oh, uh sure! I can answer a couple of questions." He accepted.

Clicking her pen, June got to work. "How different is your day-to-day routine compared to when you were alive?"

"Hmm, let me think…" He pondered, setting up a quick montage of ghosts being interviewed by June.

"I still have to brush my teeth. Cadaverties are a real pain." A ghost lady instinctively held the side of her mouth.

"Yeah, I died of blood loss from amputating both of my legs. But you can't even tell the difference!" A ghost man with an old-timey mustache exclaimed.

"I've never thought about where the food we eat goes." A tall ghost might never be able to stop thinking about that question from now on.

"Always add the 'till death do us part' in the wedding vows. The marriage is still legal once you die if you don't." A woman ghost clearly hoping to upgrade her spouse in the afterlife shared her advice.

Ollie watched June go from ghost to ghost, asking questions and jotting down responses. By the ninth ghost, she finished her process and said goodbye to the ghost, in mandarin! She returned to the bench where her brother waited for her. "I didn't know you were learning mandarin."

"It's a recent thing." June shrugged. "You've been busy lately, I never got a chance to tell you. You're either off engoodifying or kissing Molly."

The orange wraith's face turned red (still weird he could blush without blood) "W-We haven't-Me and Molly haven't kissed yet! I mean not on the lips at least." They'd kissed on the cheek and maybe forehead once, they were still working their way up to a proper kiss.

Moving past her brother's flustered response, June grinned and flipped through her notes. "The interviews went great. I've got lots of interesting data from today!" She was mostly happy that the ghosts had been OK with her taking an interest in them. They indulged in her curiosity and answered all of her questions, and only one was left with existential dread of where the food went! June made a decision. "Ollie, do you think I can come visit the Ghost World on a regular basis like you do?"

Ollie had to mull it over. "Maybe… but you'd have to have a chaperon."

"Heads up!"

A shout drew focus away from the conversation and onto a ghost who had lost control of his oversized bouncy ball. The ball bounced and knocked over various people and objects alike, indiscriminate in its chaotic wake. It was heading for the wraith siblings next, Ollie's turnip ball instincts kicked in, he deflected the comically large bouncy ball away using a dead branch under the bench as a paddle.

The bouncy ball went sailing over the horizon with no sign that it would come back down anytime soon. With the ball's reign of terror stopped, the ghosts nearby cheered for their savior.

"Our chairman saved us again!"

"Chairman Ollie is the best!"

"… that was my ball…"

He wasn't even on duty and he was still earning popularity points. June was impressed. "Wow, I had no idea you were so popular here."

Ever modest, Ollie downplayed the attention he got. "It's really nothing. I'm just doing what needs to be done."

"It's such a stark contrast to how it was back in New York." June innocently commented, unaware of what she accidentally reminded Ollie of.

Yes, as the most competent and benevolent chairman, Ollie was incredibly popular. And even in Brighton he had friends and a good reputation. But life wasn't always so kind to him. Growing up, neither of the siblings had many real friends. June found her place with more of the other neurodivergent kids at school, joining up for RPG games and science stuff. Ollie was the one who had a harder time finding friends. His parents had already made themselves known to be ghost hunters before Ollie ever joined them. He'd had some people tease him about his parents when he was little, but once he decided to become a ghost hunter too… it got worse.

Most kids made fun of Ollie for believing in ghosts. He was such a kind, helpful and bright kid that the teachers liked him, and he had a few normal friends who he thought accepted him. They never called him 'ghost boy' or pranked him into thinking there was a ghost nearby. He knew his friends genuinely liked him, but when he was eleven he started to realize they really only knew him on the surface.

Younger Ollie had been talking with two of his friends after school before getting a call from his dad to meet him in the backyard for drills. Ollie excused himself and was halfway down the hallway before realizing he had left his backpack at the classroom door. He went to retrieve it and overheard his friends talking about him.

"Poor Ollie, it's ridiculous that his family thinks ghosts are real."

"I feel so sorry that they dragged him into that. Hopefully, one day he can grow out of their delusions and have a normal life."

It hurt. It hurt so much to know that's what the friends he trusted thought of him. They didn't see his hand reach inside the door and take his bag back before running back home, trying to hold back the sadness inside. He made it outside and passed the elementary school where his little sister was waiting for him.

"Ollie! I've been working on a new invention that you're going to love!" She waved him over, eager to reveal her new Phant-O-Meter. She had no idea how down he was feeling, and yet just her enthusiasm to join in his interests was enough to lift him up out of the dumps.

Through thick and thin, Ollie and June always had each other's backs. She was the only one he could call a true friend before coming to Brighton. When he switched sides to being a ghost friend, the hardest thing was keeping it from June. He had been scared they would drift apart with their views now clashing. Thankfully, she jumped ship to loving ghosts too, and they were stronger than ever. And they weren't alone now. They had finally found more true friends that would always be there for them, though their bond as siblings would remain special.

"Ollie?" June's voice called him out of his thoughts.

He just smiled. "Just thinking." He reassured her. "I think I might know one other place where you could do some serious research here."

OXOXOXOX

The ghost library looked even more ancient than the ones in the living world. Despite that, it was pretty modernized inside. They had 90s-era computers and state-of-the art dial-up-connection!

June floated up to the librarian's desk and looked up at the 1800s-styled librarian. "Hi, it's my first time here. Where would I find the section on 'souls and spirits'?"

The pale green librarian ghost tutted and peered down at the wraith through her glasses. "Young lady, that is not a proper greeting. I will not divulge any information until you can properly introduce yourself."

Ollie stepped in between June and the crotchety librarian. "That won't be necessary. I think I remember seeing that section the last time I was here." The orange wraith herded his sister over to one side of the library. "I should have warned you, the head librarian is… she's got outdated views." Was the nicest way he could put it.

They found what June was looking for on their own, a shelf filled with knowledge about how souls and ghostly apparitions worked. The little red wraith had no idea where to start, so she picked up the first one that caught her eye. "Soul color theory?" She flipped through the pages, gauging whether it was worth her time to read all the way through. Her hand stopped on a page that got her attention. "Ollie, listen to this! Only one percent of golden yellow souls become ghosts! Due to their joy-bringing nature, they are unlikely to die with unfinished business and those that do don't take long to complete it and pass on."

"That explains why Molly is the only golden ghost I've seen." Ollie finally had an answer about his girlfriend's unique coloring and joy powers as a wraith.

June continued to skim through the book, searching for the sections that covered red and orange ghosts, when a loud shout could be heard from outside. The younger sibling lowered her book to see her brother press himself against the window. He found the source of the cry and sprung into action. "I'll be right back, stay here." Just like back at the video store, Ollie bolted off to help some ghoul in need.

The wraith left behind was not amused. He promised he wouldn't do that again. June returned the book to the shelf and resigned herself to go fetch him once more.

Exiting the library, June spotted Ollie around the corner helping plug a bursting pipe outside a creepy cafe. He grunted while adjusting the pipe to the best of his ability to bring it down to a gentle leak. "This will have to do for now."

The cafe manager wiped his brow in relief. "Thank you Chairman! I'll get a hold of a ghost plumber right away."

Ollie didn't see the need for him to go to the trouble when he was right there. "If I go get my robe I can use my power to weld it shut-WOAH!" he was cut off by a hand grabbing him by the back of his neck and pulling him away.

He looked up to see June was his captor while she addressed the cafe manager. "Sorry, I need to take my brother back. You should go call that plumber." She dragged the orange wraith back over to the library entrance.

"What the heck, June?"

"You went off again even though you said you wouldn't!" The frustrated tone of hers hit Ollie enough to realize what he had done. He winced and was about to come up with an apology of sorts when she continued. "You've been increasing your own workload by volunteering yourself to help anyone in need." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

She had him pegged. Ollie rubbed his neck and looked away. "Just a little bit." He poked his fingers together. "I can't help helping. Doing good deeds and engoodifying the afterlife is why I'm here. I can do so much and help everybody who needs it." In the back of his head he recalled Scratch getting on his case about this habit of his around the time he first started.

"Ollie…" June moved to put her hand on his shoulder.

Another shout was heard by the duo, this time a frustrated one coming from inside the library! The siblings looked at each other and went back inside. The librarian was furiously whacking the side of the retro computer. "This darned devil box! I knew relying on this was a terrible idea!"

"Is everything alright?" The wraith boy and his sister approached the front desk.

"This blasted computation system stopped working!" The librarian huffed and gave the computer one last smack on top. She hated it, but since the chairman decided it was easier to digitize information, she was forced to rely on it to manage the library.

June floated up higher to get a better look at the screen. "I can fix the system." The technology was primitive in her eyes, so it would probably be a simple fix.

To her shock, the librarian laughed in her face. "Oh, you are a funny child!" When she realized the wraith was still firmly staring at her, she realized she wasn't joking and sneered. "Oh, were you serious?"

"Yes. If you let me-"

"You are a little girl. How could you possibly know anything about such overly complicated technology?" A flash of hurt crossed June's face as the ghost lady shooed her away like she was a bug. Her eyes landed on the orange wraith and realized who it was. "Oh, good! The chairman is here! Won't you please fix this problem?"

"No."

The librarian and June were shocked to hear the word come from Ollie's mouth. That couldn't be right. This was the chairman who always fixed everyone's problems. The green ghost laughed nervously. "I'm afraid I must have misheard you, it sounded like you said-"

"I'm not helping you." Ollie was firm. For once, he did not jump at the chance to help someone, he wasn't even just a little bit tempted.

The crotchety ghost sputtered. "B-but why?! You have to fix this!"

Ollie held June firmly by the shoulder. "June can handle it. There's no one better with machines than her."

"She is a young girl! What could she possibly do?!"

"Let her fix the system, or we walk… er, float." Ollie didn't back down, his sister watched him in stunned amazement.

Seeing that the chairman refused to budge, the librarian reluctantly led them to the server room.

OXOXOXOX

June phased through the door to the server room and instantly figured out the problem. "I've figured out the problem!"

The librarian rolled her eyes. "She has only been in there for mere seconds! How could she have found the cause so fast!?"

June opened the door and pointed to the center of the room. "There's a giant bouncy ball crashed into the modem." Yup. That same ball Ollie deflected earlier had finally come down and smashed into a critical component of the library computer system.

The orange soul had no need to admit his part in this to the older lady and focused on what mattered. "How long will it take to fix it?"

"Hmm-" June inspected the damage. "Get me some tools and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I can get it fixed in under an hour."

"You got it!" Ollie zipped off to retrieve the items she needed and the snack to fuel her. The librarian stayed behind to keep an eye on June.

Once June got what she needed, she set to work repairing the broken modem. She'd hardly ever worked on tech from the 90s, but it was basic enough that she didn't need to tinker with it. With the unpleasant ghost lady watching her, June felt compelled to finish her work as efficiently as she could manage. She would prove that not only did she know what she was doing, she was an expert at her craft. With the finishing touches and the last bite of her sandwich, June reconnected the modem to the system. What was broken whirled to life and brought the network back online.

"I must say, that was splendid work." The librarian admitted and went to thank… Ollie? "Thank you chairman for delegating the matter."

Even after all her hard work, this ghost wasn't going to thank June. Ollie had to resist the urge to let his ectoplasm spike out in fury. "You know, I think it would benefit the library staff to take a class on modern sensitivity training. I'll speak with the council about arranging a session for this weekend." The young chairman made his anger known and took June by the hand. "Come on little sis, let's get out of here."

June followed Ollie out, not missing the disgusted way he looked at the librarian and the way she responded with visible dread. Once out of the building, the boy let his anger fall and knelt down to his sister's level. He studied her face, looking to make sure she was alright. "If that lady won't say it then I will, thank you, June." He ran his fingers across her ectoplasmic hair.

When it came to what bothered Juniper Chen (aside from being called Juniper), it was never the reputation or opinions people had of her family's former business. Yeah, it hurt when she was young that others criticized her for believing in ghosts, but she soon realized she didn't care what people thought about their cause, and it became just a mild bother. It was when she was underestimated that it got under her skin. People thought that she was too young, that her autism was a problem, sometimes even just being female was reason to believe she couldn't do something. She wouldn't be given chances to prove herself, so she'd make her own chances and prove them wrong.

In spite of the opposition she faced, June's family never underestimated her. They trusted in her abilities and knew she would succeed. Out of all of them, it was her older brother Ollie who had the most faith in her. Today wasn't the first time he'd championed to get her an opportunity she'd been denied and, sadly, she knew it would not be the last time. She'd finally found her place in Brighton where her talents could shine, and her brother would always be the one cheering the loudest.

The little red wraith wrapped her arms around her older sibling, he reciprocated the hug right away. "You're welcome Ollie." June would always have him and Ollie would always have her.

OXOXOXOX

A new ghost portal opened up in the Chen household's living room. Two brightly colored souls flew in with the smaller of the two going on about her plans. "-and while you're doing chairman work I can study and conduct experiments! There is only so much we can learn about ghosts without traveling to their world!" June couldn't wait to start visiting the Ghost World all the time like Ollie does.

Ollie chuckled at her excitement. "One step at a time, June. We need to talk to mom and dad about this first."

Looking down, their empty shells were sitting on the couch where they left them. Shell June in particular didn't seem to have moved at all and was still on her phone. "Hello me, how was your day?" June floated down to her body. The shell finally looked up from her phone. "Meh."

June dove back into her body, wobbling a little as she became whole again. "Bodies are still weird." She regained her balance and watched Ollie return to his body-

"HHNNRGH!" The now whole Ollie groaned in pain and clutched his head.

"Ollie?!" June scrambled over to his side while he rubbed his forehead.

The boy held up a hand. "I'm fine. Just been getting some headaches lately." It's been happening a bit recently, mostly once he returned to his body. But they subside pretty quickly so he didn't worry too much about it.

June, still concerned by what she had just seen, helped Ollie up to his feet. Her eyes passed over his phone and noticed something. "I think someone was trying to call you a bunch of times."

Puzzled, Ollie grabbed his phone and checked to see four missed calls from Molly. "Huh, I should call her back." He pressed her contact and waited for her to pick up. "… Hi Molly? I saw you tried to call me earlier?"

"Remember we were gonna go see a movie?" Molly's voice came over the line.

Ollie paled. "Oh… wow, I totally forgot about that!" He clutched his hair and frantically looked at his sister. She nodded for him to 'go see her' and he started power-walking over to his girlfriend's house. "I'm on my way over to your place. We'll watch something as soon as I get there-"

The youngest Chen listened until she heard the front door close before frowning. "Ollie would never forget about a date with Molly." Her brother was too head over heels for his girlfriend to let a date slip. Something wasn't right. "I need to drop my plans for Ghost World visits for the time being. The more pressing matter I need to look into is if there are any side effects to being a wraith."

Chapter Text

"Get me the ink stat!"

"Right here!"

It was like a hurricane rampaging around the Dark Dais. Ollie and the Ghost Council were huddled in a small bubble within the storm, crowding around a scroll like an operating table. Who knew one bad typo could lead to such unintended havoc?

Ollie dipped a feather into the ecto-ink and carefully added a line at the top of a 'u', editing the word 'gust' into 'gast'. The storm ceased with the correction and all was calm once more.

With a collective sigh of relief, the five at the dais slumped over and took a breather… metaphorically. They couldn't actually breathe as ghosts. The youngest of the group wearing the black robes spoke up. "Out of all the paperwork and scroll stamping this week… that was the only one I truly hated."

The chaos wasn't too unusual for the group in charge of managing the Ghost World. Dealing with curses and hauntings invited mayhem into their jobs, and they were the ones meant to put out the fires. Luckily, nothing had actually been on fire this week, if you don't count Grimbella mistakenly eating a ghost pepper in her sandwich on Thursday.

Sir Alister read over the newly amended scroll. "One cannot notice the letter has been edited. Excellent work Oliver!" These four old ghosts had been referring to their new leader as 'Mr. Chairman' for some time before one of them slipped and called him by his first name. Ollie didn't mind and said they were welcome to call him 'Ollie' since they were friends, though they ended up sticking to his proper name 'Oliver'.

Lucretia materialized a trailing list into her hands and checked off a box. "Weekly council to-do list item #142, spellcheck spells, has been completed."

"We are progressing through our list quite nicely this week." Grimbella commented. "Though item #54 is still ongoing."

The green ghost of the bunch huffed. "Composing our own theme song is not a quick nor easy task!" Alister had been working on giving the council their own theme song for days, and it was not going well. The rest of the council moved forward with other duties after the song somehow became a limerick. Alister legitimately had no idea how that happened.

Ollie sent the fixed scroll on its way and was ready to tackle his next task. "What's next on the list, Lucretia?"

"We've reached list item #143." The purple ghost didn't seem to be happy about this one.

Bartholomew tried to recall what that item was. "That's not the one with the kiss is it?"

"No, it's recovering that misplaced lightning talisman." Lucretia reminded him.

The chairman hadn't heard of that before. "A talisman?"

Grimbella stepped forward to provide an exposition. "The talisman of great shocks went missing almost thirty years ago. When activated, it causes random lightning strikes throughout the Ghost World. It hasn't been a priority since it only activates after its name is spoken aloud."

Ollie tilted his head. "Didn't you just say its name out loud?"

A moment of silence… then a lightning bolt came from nowhere and zapped Bartholomew. "Great, now it's a priority." The charred blue ghost grumbled.

The chairman clapped his hands together. "OK, tracking down the talisman… Do we know where it was last sighted?"

Lucretia opened up a folder full of reports, now nicely spruced up with scented tabs she received from Ollie for her Death Day, and flipped through the pages. "Unfortunately, it appears we don't have that information on hand. I believe the records room should have what we need, however."

"Then that's where we need to go." Ollie decided. "To the records room!" Another bolt of lightning came down and would have hit the wraith if he hadn't ducked. "And quick!"

OXOXOXOX

The records room had thankfully been reorganized by Ollie weeks prior. The clutter was nonexistent and everything not digitalized had been neatly filed. The tricky part was figuring out how the information they needed had been sorted. "I'm not sure if it's in the 'cursed artifacts' drawer, or the 'supernatural powers' drawer." Ollie admitted, there had been so much to organize that he skimmed through the data until he could figure out what it belonged under.

Alister floated to another cabinet. "We mustn't rule out 'unnatural occurrences' either." All five of them took their share of the contents and searched through for any mention of the talisman's whereabouts.

After twenty minutes with no news, Grimbella took a moment to stretch her back. "Hmm, what's this?" Her eyes drifted over to one of the cabinets and spotted something stuck behind it.

The others put their files down and joined the pink-hued ghost to inspect what she found. "It appears to be a very squished box of scrolls." Bartholomew observed.

Alister motioned to levitate the box out of its hiding place, but Grimbella got in the way. "Up-up! I am the one that found it, so I must be the one to extract it. Carefully."

And careful she was, Grimbella nudged the box upwards with her arms. Slowly. Very slowly. The rest of the council stood and silently watched in awkward silence. So very awkward was the silence. It felt like an overly drawn out gag with the amount of time it took the prideful ghost to dislodge the box.

Once the box was finally free, Grimbella passed it over to the chairman who looked it over. "These scrolls should have been digitized months ago! How could they have ended up stuffed back there?"

The Ghost Council had a pretty good idea. "Scratch." They sighed simultaneously.

"He was nowhere near as enthusiastic about paperwork as you are, Oliver." Sir Alister pinched the bridge above his nose. "Scratch may be our friend, but he was a nightmare to work with as our boss. You are a child, and he was vastly more childish despite being a grown man."

"Aw, come on. How childish could Scratch have been?" Ollie gave his predecessor the benefit of a doubt.

The four elder ghosts shared a flashback:

The council were fast asleep, bunking together in one bed due to space issues. A portal opened up on the ceiling and Scratch plopped down with an armful of pillows. "SURPRISE PILLOW FIGHT!" He threw the pillows like a madman, or maybe like a ghost who'd overindulged in sugar and boredom. The council scrambled for safety, but there was no escape, only chaos and feathers.

"I can still hear his laughter…" Lucretia shivered. "Anyway, how should we handle these scrolls Mr. Chairman?"

Faced with a few dozen scrolls overdue for computer entry, Ollie couldn't leave it alone. "I'll enter these into the system right away, you four keep searching for more on the talisman." The chairman pulled out a 90s computer and manually transferred the information, one scroll at a time. He typed as fast as he could without making errors, he had to finish this quickly and get back on track.

"Wonderful job Oliver! Always so diligent!" Grimbella praised the wraith typing a mile a minute, already on his second scroll.

The search for clues continued, the council picking up where they left off. Except for Bartholomew, "Hey, who moved my stack?" His papers had been nudged aside, unknowingly by himself. He refound his place and speed read through, as the youngest (not counting Ollie) Bartholomew earned respect by being the most serious about his work, which might also cover up the fact that he was the most sensitive. At his pace he'd finished his papers a good while before the rest did. With maybe another two minutes before the others caught up, he quickly checked his flip phone and opened the council's ghostial media page (which he ran). The latest comment got a frustrated sound out of the blue ghost. "We got a couple reports about random lightning strikes."

Ollie didn't take his eyes away from his work. "How's the damage looking?"

Bart scrolled through the messages for damage assessment. "Eh, nothing major yet. Just singed ground and walls, a ruined umbrella…" He clicked the next page. "Ooh! Your 'Move Along Lil Ghosties' initiative has helped another one percent of ghosts find peace and move on, bringing the total percentage up to eighteen!"

That was one of Ollie's first acts as Chairman, to help reduce the overcrowding issue and assist ghosts with their unfinished business. Eighteen percent was much higher than he could have hoped for, but with more ghosts always arriving, that percentage would fluctuate. "That's great news, thanks for the update Bart!" The orange ghost took a second to look back.

The youngest of the council smiled. "It's nice to feel apprecia-" ZAP! Another bolt of lightning shocked the ghost. "AGAIN?!"

Not long after, Ollie finished the data transfer of the last scroll. He wiped his sleeve across his forehead. "Whew! All done. Were you guys able to find anything?"

Lucretia held a stone news tablet up for all to see. "As a matter of fact, we did. As you can see chiseled here, there was a donation made to the museum of supernatural history. It is dated a few months before the talisman was reported missing."

Ollie leaned over and took a closer look at the carving on the slab. He'd wonder why they were using rocks for newspapers in the nineties some other time. "There's a good chance it was mistakenly added to the donation!" He connected the dots.

"Precisely." Sir Alister nodded. "We must make haste and visit the museum at once… right after we put away these files we took out!"

OXOXOXOX

The supernatural history museum has a fair number of daily visitors, especially now with their latest exhibit on dead horses. The quintet in charge of running this world portalled onto the front steps, floating up to the top to purchase entry tickets. Grimbella was the first to reach the top and came nose to nose with a ghost bear. "Oh, are there exhibits outside now?"

The bear roared in her face, it wasn't an exhibit. Everyone else came up just in time to see the bear clamp down onto Grimbella's hair. "Hey!" a familiar voice shouted, causing the bear to stop. "What did I tell you about biting other ghosts?" None other than Sally Tugbottom floated up and held a disappointed finger towards her best friend.

Sally's ghost bear let go of the councilmember and lowered his head sadly. His bandanna-wearing bestie gently scratched behind his ear. "There you go. Sorry about that, this one's with me-Oh, hey Ollie!" She recognized the wraith boy from her hometown. "Come here to see the dead horse exhibit?"

"Actually, we came to find a missing talisman that's causing lightning." Ollie wringed his hands under the sleeves. A random lightning bolt struck behind him, zapping a ghost eating a hot dog. The electricity roasted the weenie and the ghost took a bite, smiling as it tasted better now.

"That would explain why that keeps happening." Sally had wondered about the lightning.

"Yeah, but I'll put a stop to it" Ollie assured the Brightonian hero.

Lucretia looked on proudly at the young chairman. "That's our chairman! After this he'll have completed 142 and a half items on the weekly to-do list! You can blame Sir Alister for the half."

"I'm working on it!" The green ghost interjected.

Sally wasn't as excited to hear that as the council was. "You've already done that much in a little under a week?" It was Friday, the week wasn't even over!

Ollie didn't pick up on her tone. "Oh, there's also been some little things I've helped with here and there. Just engoodifying the Ghost World a little bit every day!"

As Sally watched the young chairman and the council make their way into the museum, she had a sinking feeling in her gut. She did not like what she heard, what he was doing was NOT 'a little bit every day'. Her bear nudged her arm, a familiar worry in his eyes. "I know, I'll talk to him."

Inside, Ollie hardly had a second to check out the exhibits. The curator popped out of nowhere the moment he and the council entered the building. "Mr. Chairman! And the Ghost Council! To what do I owe the esteemed pleasure?" The curator bowed.

Not comfortable having someone bow to him, Ollie tried to present himself as casual. "Oh, hey there! We're here to ask about a donation from a few decades ago."

"We believe a talisman was donated by a clerical error." Bartholomew added, showing the curator what they found in the records.

The curator took a closer look. "Hmm, yes, I recognize those items. And I do believe there was a talisman of sorts in that batch."

"Can you please describe it?" Ollie asked.

"Let's see… if memory serves, it was gold, not quite diamond-shaped but close, and there was a jagged green stone in the center." The curator recalled.

The chairman turned to his council, Sir Alister nodded. "That is the talisman we seek. It is of the utmost importance that we acquire it. Do you still have it?"

"Unfortunately…" The curator grimaced. Pretty much telling Ollie and the council all they needed to hear. "We had a bit of a situation last year…"

The quintet was led to a roped off portion of the museum, an area in total disarray. "What happened here?" The chairman gaped.

"Frightmares. They caused havoc and made off with a few items, that talisman included."

Grimbella tutted at the disorganized mess. "And you haven't cleaned up?!"

The curator was ashamed. "It was decided to focus on new exhibits rather than repair and reopen this area. It wasn't deemed a priority."

"By whom?" Grimbella questioned.

Lucretia leaned over to the pink ghost and whispered, "Ahem, by you." The taller of the female barristers flushed and recalled a matter about this museum a year earlier.

Seeing the state this part of the museum was in, Ollie knew he had to fix this. "I can have this place fixed in just a few minutes. Would you mind if I-"

"Oh, yes please Mr. Chairman!" The curator eagerly accepted the help.

Ollie rolled up his sleeves. Repairing the room was no sweat with his powers, he'd do some good here, locate the talisman, and be home in time for Wolf's Den… wait, was that on today? Ollie couldn't recall what day it aired. Eh, problem for later. The chairman robes stretched his form and brightened his orange hue as he called upon his powers to restore the room and its displays to how they were supposed to be. Museum patrons felt the shift in power and took notice of the chairman at work.

ZAP

A lightning bolt from the talisman collided with one of the walls, the one closest to the crowd of ghosts. Bartholomew was a little bit relieved. "At least it didn't hit me this ti-" he got zapped by another bolt. "WHY?!"

The wall hit by the lightning had started to crumble, threatening to bury everyone in the rubble. I mean, they were already dead, but it would still hurt. Ollie waved one of his arms back and redirected his powers to reverse the damage. "AS CHAIRMAN I REPAIR WHAT HAS BEEN BROKEN, RETURN TO YOUR PREVIOUS STATE NOW THAT I'VE SPOKEN." His 'curse' voice echoed and his orange ectoplasmic aura shined. A wave of his power restored all to its former glory.

The onlookers cheered for their chairman, who made all the damage go away like it never happened. One ghost wasn't cheering, she studied the orange ghost with concern. Ollie returned to his normal height, trying not to appear as tired as he felt. Thank cob all ghosts had lines under their eyes, all he had to do was smile and that would convince himself all was well.

"Thank you Chairman Ollie! I hope that wasn't too much trouble?" The curator bowed again.

"It was no trouble at all." Ollie waved it off. "But back to the talisman, how are we going to find it if a Frightmare took it? Actually, why would they take it?"

Sir Alister tapped a finger on his chin. "Their behavior is quite erratic. Perhaps it was because they are attracted to chaos. The talisman may not have been active, but they could sense its potential for chaos."

That made a lot of sense, enough for the rest of them to agree with the green ghost. The purple one nodded. "There's only a few places Frightmares would nest. Does anyone want to take a break before we resume our search?"

The rest of the council denied wanting to take a break, and though Ollie would like to sit down for a few, he could wait until the random lightning bolts were stopped. "I feel great, let's keep looking."

"Your work ethic is very admirable, Oliver." Bartholomew praised him.

Alister agreed. "Yes, other ghosts could stand to learn to be more like you."

The quintet opened up a portal and flew in one by one. Ollie was about to go in when a hand reached out and tapped him on the shoulder. "Ollie?" None other than Sally Tugbottom was beside him. "Could I speak with you before you leave?"

Bart poked his head back through the portal to see what was keeping the chairman, Ollie turned to him. "I'll catch up in a few." The barrister retreated into the portal before it closed, leaving Ollie and Sally by themselves. The folktale heroine led the young leader over to a bench, patting it for him to take a seat. "Was there something you needed, Sally?"

"Ollie, I've seen you around the Ghost World more often lately. Working harder and longer than usual." Sally started.

She was correct, he had been extending his hours just a bit. The more good he does, the more he wants to do. "It's nothing really. I'm just trying to be the chairman you all deserve." He assumed her words as a compliment.

It was not a compliment. "You are a really kind boy, Ollie. You're always trying to help everyone… but you can't forget about helping yourself too."

"Wait, what?" Ollie was bewildered. "Why would I need to help myself?" That sounded selfish, he wasn't a chairman that would indulge in what he personally desired. He was a chairman giving the Ghost World what it needed.

Sally recognized this behavior, the over-helping altruism that made a person blind to their own needs. "I'm going to tell you something I wish somebody had told me before it was too late. You're only human. If you keep overextending yourself and doing too much… well you won't be able to help anybody if you work yourself to death."

Ollie heard what she was saying, and he understood that she was worried. But he's not 'only human', he's the most powerful ghost in the Ghost World. He had everything under control. "I appreciate it, Sally, but I'm fine. Really." He picked himself off the bench and conjured a portal, bidding goodbye to the ghost and flashing a reassuring smile to convince her before disappearing.

"... yeah, that's what I said too."

OXOXOXOX

In a time-saving montage, the council and Ollie investigated different spots where Frightmares were likely to visit. Each location came up empty, and the lightning continued to strike at random. There was a nightclub, lightning struck the disco ball. At an overcrowded truck stop diner, lightning struck the pie display. A ghost circus, lightning struck a ghost elephant that kicked Grimbella into the tent. Finally, at a playground, lightning struck a sand castle just after a little ghost finished it.

"This is getting us nowhere!" Bartholomew cried out in frustration. "We need to narrow down our options!"

The chairman tapped his wrist against his head. "Come on, think! What do we know about Frightmare behavior?"

Wracking her brain, Lucretia listed out what she knew. "Hmm, they are attracted to and desire chaos… there has to be more-OH! Only the chairman could command them!"

Sir Alister snapped his fingers. "Yes! They feared his power and on some occasions tried to appease his wrath with offerings!"

"Now we're getting somewhere!" Ollie became chairman after the Frightmare's had been resealed, which meant they would go somewhere the previous rulers would go. "Scratch was the previous chairman so they probably left it somewhere important to him!"

Lucretia grimaced. "They would not have recognized that a new ghost had become chairman. It was the robe they recognized, they still believed the previous chairman was the one still around."

"Then let's go somewhere that was important to the original chairman. Do you know where that would be?"

The older ghosts knew somewhere, their reluctant reactions were their tell. Their younger boss was watching them expectantly, he trusted them, so they needed to trust him with this. "We know just the place, young Oliver." Sir Alister relented. "We'll take you there."

Ollie didn't know what to expect with how the barristers were acting. They led him to somewhere he'd never known existed, a chamber hidden away from the rest of the Ghost World yet within floating distance from the Dark Dais. The entrance was blocked off with cursed chains and a keyhole. Alister reached into his hair and pulled out a skeleton key, one which undid the locks and allowed the five inside.

"This is the private chamber of the original chairman." Sir Alister informed the current chairman. "It is where he resided when he was not at the Dark Dais."

"We never dared go in here, even after his destruction." Grimbella recounted.

All five of them were seeing the inside for the first time. A dark and lonely place that had gone unused for quite some time. Despite the grand onyx interior, it felt more like a cave than a room. There was a monolith in the back and some scattered stones against the columns. The rest of the chamber was bare and impersonal.

Ollie approaches the monolith, wiping away a layer of dust to see a carving depicting the original Chairman. The tyrannical being whose role and robes the still-living boy had inherited. "I never met the old Chairman. I've heard what he was like, and I know Molly literally killed him with kindness. But I don't really know anything about who he was." He looked back to his council. "Like what was he like when he was alive? How did he come into power? Would it… would it be alright to ask what you know?"

The four hadn't wanted to speak of their old boss since his destruction. They worked under him and respected him while he was around, and they still feared him and what he would do if they didn't meet his expectations. It wasn't until Scratch took charge that they realized being ghosts didn't have to be all about misery. That there was more to the afterlife than serving a singular entity who did not care about any of them and solely focused on his own needs and desires.

Bart spoke up first. "Truthfully, even we barely knew anything about him. The Chairman was already in power when all of us died. No one could say where he came from or if there were any other chairman before him."

"He may not have ever been human." Lucretia shared. "This is just something we have discussed among ourselves, and Miss McGee's actions have given credit to our theory. We believe the Chairman was never alive, and that he was the embodiment of misery itself." It made sense, there was nothing about the original Chairman that could be called 'human'. Not a single shred of humanity in his entire being.

The young wraith stared at the image of his predecessor. He had big robes to fill. How many centuries had the first Chairman ruled? Ollie was just a fourteen-year-old kid, and he held the weight of the afterlife on his shoulders. He would be the opposite of what the original chairman stood for, he would bring happiness and fulfillment to the ghosts who've spent ages creating misery and being unable to find peace. There were so many expectations of him, he had to live up to them. This was Ollie's purpose, to lead the Ghost World into a new era.

Resuming the search for the talisman, Sir Alister lifted some stray rocks out of a pile. "I actually wish that lightning would strike. Then we'd see where it was coming from."

Bartholomew huffed. "Speak for yourself. You're not the one that keeps getting zapped." The blue ghost felt all eyes settling on him, and a sinking feeling dropping into his stomach. "Oh no."

Within minutes, Bartholomew had been tied to the top of the monolith to be used as a lightning rod. He couldn't even find the words to describe how done he was with everything, his resignation to his fate and annoyance at his coworkers was written all over his face.

"Sorry Bart." Ollie looked at him sheepishly, he was the only one who objected to the plan. "This really was the best idea we had."

"Let's get this over with." Bartholomew sighed.

Sure enough, the next lightning strike went directly for the blue ghost. The rest of the council traced the source of the electricity back to one of the rock piles. Ollie dove over and dug down, finding a not-quite diamond-shaped artifact with a squiggly green gem in the middle. "The talisman of great shocks! I found it-" The gem on the talisman glowed intensely, sparks surrounding it.

"… Did we forget to mention that saying its name out loud a second time increases its effects." Grimbella couldn't have remembered this detail earlier!

The talisman went crazy. Dealing with a windstorm earlier was one thing. But now a lightning storm?! Everyone dove for cover, except for Sir Alister who hurried to untie Bartholomew. He freed the grumpy ghost but got in the line of fire-er, lightning. Alister braces for the shock, but it never comes. "Huh?"

Ollie is floating in front of Alister, holding out his hands to suppress the lightning. It stings his hands and he bites back a shout of pain. With the power of the robe, Ollie takes hold of the electric current and directs it back at the talisman. The blast hits the jewel and shatters it, relieving the talisman of its power source and rendering it useless.

The orange wraith slumped to his knees. That move was really taxing on him. He had the urge to lay down and pass out, but he forced himself to get back up and inspect the source of their troubles. "I think we can check this item off the list."

"Splendid work Oliver!" Lucretia cheered.

"Stupendous!" Grimbella clapped.

Bartholomew was still sizzling from that last shock, and merely gave two thumbs up as his ectoplasm twitched.

Sir Alister held out his hand to the wraith and helped him up. "Sorry guys, I had to break the talisman to stop it." Ollie apologized for the loss of a questionably antagonistic artifact.

"It was just some old relic." Sir Alister assured his liege. "You protected not just the Ghost World, but us personally. No chairman has ever done that for us." Over his shoulder, Bartholomew was going to complain that he still got used as bait. The ladies clamped their hands over his mouth, saving objections until after the nice moment.

Humble as ever, Ollie didn't see what he did as a big deal. "You four aren't just my coworkers, you're my friends. I wouldn't let anything happen to you… and I do feel bad we had to use Bart like that." That part earned the forgiveness of the youngest barrister; he still would give his other coworkers grief about it when they got home later.

The boy's words moved the green ghost before him, earning a genuinely caring smile. "You know Oliver, I was knighted when I was alive. I have served kings and royalty and chairmen since I was close to your age. None of them would have come between me and a lightning bolt. You are a very special soul, a true prince if I may, and working alongside you is one of my highest honors."

Ollie didn't know what to say, except for: "Thank you, Sir Alister."

Their business done, and another item checked off of their to-do list, the five headed out of the chamber. "So what shall we do with the old Chairman's chamber?" Lucretia wondered.

Grimbella stopped, the mention of the old chairman reminding her of something. "The old Chairman-Oh dear! The soul audit!"

The other three old ghosts gasped, reminded of such a matter. The purple one held a hand to her head. "Oh my word! It is time for the soul audit! How could we let that slip?!"

Ollie tilted his head. He'd never heard of a soul audit before. "Um, what's a soul audit?"

Bart shook his head. "Not 'a soul audit', THE soul audit! It is a very important process that the Chairman does every century! We've never personally worked on it and, as such, it completely slipped our minds that the time for it has arrived!"

Lucretia went on to explain just what the process was. "The soul audit takes account of every soul that has been in the Ghost World in the past one hundred years. Every ghost, all who have moved on, even wraiths must be accounted for! The process took days for the old Chairman to complete as more people would die during the audit."

"That's a lot of souls." Ollie's eyes widened.

"It is." Alister confirmed. "This will be the very first one done without the original Chairman. So we will assist you in completing the audit."

They were going to help him? Ollie is the Chairman, he's here to help THEM! "It's alright. I'm the Chairman, I can manage it on my own! You will need to handle the rest of the work while I'm busy with this." The council saw him as the best Chairman they ever had. He can't fail their expectations! He'd do this on his own and prove he's the Chairman they need. "I give my Ollie Oath that I can complete the soul audit by myself."

Ollie figured he had made the right call, they looked so proud of him for being ready to tackle this task on his own. They were so happy that their chairman was competent enough to not need his hand held through a big milestone. He'd get dinner and a good night's sleep and start the audit first thing in the morning!

OXOXOXOX

When Ollie arrived home through the portal, his room was already dark and his shell was in bed. "Wha…" the orange wraith looked at a clock. It was past midnight! He was supposed to come home hours ago! With everything that happened, Ollie had lost track of time, he'd even missed dinner. "I guess if my body ate then it's alright."

Gently nudging the sleeping shell, Ollie's body woke up pretty quickly. "Sorry I'm late!" The soul apologized before returning to his body. A sharp pain coursed through his head and he bit back a pained sound. Were these headaches getting worse? Ollie shook it off and checked his phone. His shell hadn't bothered to respond to the texts his parents sent early in the evening.

'Hey Ollie, when you get back come and meet us at the Root Beer Pub, and we'll all go out for dinner.' Was the text sent by his mom.

"Huh, I didn't know Brighton had a root beer pub-" Another headache interrupted his confusion. He should sleep it off. This was nothing to worry about.

Right?

Chapter Text

It was the start of a new school week, not just any school week. Brighton Middle School will be having their finals for the school year by the end of the week! Molly McGee had a skip in her step as she walked alongside her ghostly BFF and her turtle-loving BFF. Someone else caught her eye just up ahead, she told her friends she'd meet them at her locker and ran forward.

Ollie Chen felt like he was dragging his feet just to get to school. He yawned with a hand over his mouth, clearly tired. "Ollie!" He didn't have time to react before Molly ran up and greeted Ollie with a great big hug.

Seeing his girlfriend, Ollie instantly brightens. "Good morning Molly!" He chuckles lightly, turning his body to hug her back. Taking a moment to enjoy her touch, Ollie lets out a loving sigh that brushes against Molly's ear, making her giggle.

The couple switched positions and held hands as they resumed the journey to school. "I haven't seen you all weekend. Has the Ghost World been busy?" Molly asks with a smile on her face, though her outward appearance doesn't match the way she's feeling inside. Hoping that Ollie would recall the nature walk they were supposed to take on Sunday. The one he never showed up for.

"Yeah, super busy." Ollie answers, giving no indication that he remembered the missed date. "So apparently, every century the chairman has to do the soul audit. Accounting for every soul that's been in the Ghost World over the last one hundred years. And I've been working on it by myself for the last two days now."

"Sweet baby corn, that is a lot of souls…" Molly whispered in a shocked hush. "Hang on, you did that all by yourself?! Wasn't that like-thousands of souls?!"

"Might be closer to a million, actually." He wasn't sure what the percentage was of people who became ghosts when they died. "And I've only gotten through a few hundred so far. It might take all week to finish." If it took the original Chairman several days with no breaks, it would take twice as long for Ollie, who had human needs…

Molly's jaw dropped. "That is so much work! Why can't the Ghost Council help you?"

"They need to take care of the rest of the work while I'm focused on this." It was true, but it was more about Ollie needing to prove he really was the best chairman, they put so much faith in him, he had to deliver. "Besides, I can totally handle it, I'm perfectly fine." He was maybe a little tired, but knowing that he would come home to the girl he so dearly loved made the tiredness bearable.

His girlfriend was still shocked by the workload he'd done over the weekend. "Yeah, I guess that explains why you missed out on the nature walk-" Molly stopped, realizing what slipped out.

Ollie looked back at her, realizing he had accidentally missed another date! "Oh-I- That just completely slipped my mind!" He didn't remember making any plans, but he needed an excuse so she didn't end up hating him. "I… I thought we were doing that next week!" He nervously grinned.

"Oh…" Molly guessed it was possible he got the date wrong. "Yeah, we can just go on that walk this Sunday. Once you're done with that audit."

Truly, Ollie felt awful about missing their date. He'd missed or was late for most of their dates recently, he felt he was failing her as a boyfriend. After the soul audit was finished, he vowed to take Molly on a really nice and romantic date. He would finally work up the courage to tell Molly that he loved her and, hopefully, they could have their first kiss.

Feeling this was an appropriate time, Molly was about to bring up some of the other events he'd missed last week, when a ghost portal opened up. Bartholomew poked his head through "Are you ready to go Oliver?"

The young chairman regertfully looked at his lover and hurriedly caught her up. "Yeah, so I totally forgot about finals week until last night. The council agreed to open up a portal every hour, so I can jump back and forth between chairmanning and taking notes." He'd be switching every thirty minutes. As a wraith, he could open his own portal back, but he needed help to get over. It was the best option, since he needed to be in both places all day and couldn't leave the actual learning to his shell.

"Wait, you'll be switching between human and wraith all day?! But I still need to talk to you!"

Ollie took both of her hands in his. "I promise I'll have time to talk after first period. I'll see you in thirty minutes!" He reluctantly let go and stepped into the portal, releasing his orange soul from his body and crossing over into the Ghost World. His shell was left behind. "Another day spending our existence in the institution of learning. Woohoo."

Molly didn't even get a second to feel bummed about what happened, because as soon as one Chen left, another showed up. "Ollie, I-aw, it's just his shell." June was disappointed to find she'd missed her brother.

"Yeah, Ollie's going to be hopping in and out of his body today." Molly relayed.

"What are bodies other than meat sacks that hold a skeleton together?" Shell Ollie chimed in.

Seeing as she had missed her opportunity to talk with her actual brother (and Shell Ollie could only provide pessimistic comments), June turned her attention to his girlfriend. "At least you're here Molly. Can you tell me everything you know about what's going on with Ollie?" The younger girl took out her notebook and a pen, giving it a little click. Then another click. June kept clicking the top of the pen for no reason other than her own enjoyment.

Molly's face scrunched up in a forced 'trying to be positive' smile. "Wha-at?" She stretched out the vowel and avoided eye contact. "There's nothing going on with Ollie! He's just been really busy lately. It's not anything to get all worried about!" She said it more to herself than to June.

"No, there's definitely something abnormal about his behavior lately." June flipped to a page in her book. "I've made a list of everything 'off' about Ollie lately. Number one, he skipped out on helping out at the Root Beer pub and act-"

The enhappifier grinned unconvincingly. "He hasn't been 'off'. Ollie must have had a perfectly good reason for not helping at the pub. Like he had a good reason for missing our date… and missing Wolf's Den Wednesday… and volunteering at the retirement home…" Her smile faded with each missed activity. Molly's eyes were little dots and her mouth formed into a straight line, sweating nervously and awkwardly. June wordlessly jotted down notes. "... So-I've gotta get to class now, I'll leave Shell Ollie with you, make sure he gets to first period-OK BYE!" The older girl nudged the soulless husk to his sister and hurried off. Shell Ollie slowly turned his head and weakly waved goodbye.

Molly ran all the way to her locker, leaning against it to catch her breath. Libby and Scratch were already waiting for her when she arrived. "I'm guessing talking to Ollie didn't go so well?" The ghost phased his head through the locker door, he'd been sitting inside nibbling on some chips Sharon packed him as a snack.

"It-I wouldn't say it went badly. He just had to go back to the Ghost World for a little bit, and he promised we'd talk after first period science." Molly explained.

"I thought he waited until after school to do Chairman work?" Libby recalled a few times he left during school hours, but given that one time was during 'the great recorder revolution' she didn't blame him.

Once more, Molly filled in what the other characters missed. "So Ollie has to do this huge soul audit thing, and he's switching between school and work all day."

Scratch's eyes bugged out. "All day!? Has he ever gone wraith that many times in a single day before?"

Libby was similarly unnerved. "That doesn't sound like a good idea."

"Have some faith in him, Ollie knows what he's doing!" Molly defended her BF. "This soul thing is a really big deal and he's been distracted all weekend. So distracted he apparently mixed up the dates for our nature walk! He thought it was THIS Sunday, not yesterday!" She wasn't worried. Nope. Not one bit. Molly McGee would never pretend she wasn't worried and convince herself to believe his obvious excuse for missing their date. (Yes, she would.)

Would the Bloodhound of Truth need to sniff out some truth later? June wasn't the only one who'd noticed there was something going on with Ollie lately. Libby wasn't fooled either, but it didn't seem like Ollie was hiding a secret. It was something else. "Uh huh." Maybe she should change the subject, for the sake of Molly's sanity. "Tabling this discussion for later, did you finish your English report?"

Thankful for the change in topic, Molly's grin became genuine, she reached into her bag to pull up her homework. "Oh, I finished it. And I added some tastefully appropriate stickers on the margins." She had chosen 'Cinderella' for her story analysis and brought out the princess stickers, some sparkles, a clock and a pumpkin or six.

Scratch took one look at her report and gagged. "Ugh, I have no clue what you girls see in fairytales. I mean-knights in shining armor, true love's kiss, those don't happen in the real world!" His repulsion was in no way a response to Molly not choosing a ghost story for her report. At least Libby came through for him on her report.

The girl who lived in a bookstore at the very least could share some knowledge to console the ghoul's opinion of the genre. "You know many elements we know from modern fairy tales were actually invented by the film corporations of the modern world. For instance, Snow White was originally woken up when the servants carrying her glass coffin dropped her and dislodged the poison apple from her throat."

The blue ghost was delighted and appalled. "You mean to tell me they removed the vomit!? Where does the family-friendly softening end?!"

OXOXOXOX

Science class went on as normal. Scratch made himself invisible and sat on Molly's head while she took notes. The duo and Libby were the only ones to notice a portal open on the ceiling and an orange figure dropped out of it and landed in his body. Upon realigning his two halves, Ollie hissed in pain as the recurring headache resurfaced, biting his lip to keep himself from being too loud. Other than his fellow Ghost Friends, his reaction had gone unnoticed. There were always students groaning at the lessons, it made it easier to blend in.

Molly could barely focus on taking her own notes for the remainder of class, every few minutes she'd look over to see how Ollie was doing. Everything seemed normal for now, he was diligently taking notes without his headache returning. All was well until the end of the period. "Alright students, before you go please leave your homework on my desk." Miss Lightfoot instructed.

Ollie reached inside his backpack, his eyes widened. He searched around every conceivable space and came up empty. Smacking his forehead, Ollie got up and approached his teacher. "Miss Lightfoot, I am so sorry, but I forgot to put my homework in my bag today."

Miss Lightfoot was surprised, this was a first for the boy. "You can bring it in tomorrow, but I'll have to deduct points for every day it's late."

"That's fair." Ollie agreed.

Molly got out of her seat and handed in her own homework, then turned to talk with Ollie. Her boyfriend had already started leaving the class with the other students, not even looking at her. "Wha-Ollie!" She hurried ahead and cut him off outside the classroom. "Where are you going?"

"Um, second period." He thought it was obvious.

"You promised you'd have time to talk after first period!" Molly reminded him.

Ollie raised an eyebrow. "I don't remember saying that." He had no idea what she was talking about.

Molly drooped in disappointment, and he knew he had made a mistake somewhere. "I mean, I probably did say that and it just- I-I'm a little distracted at the moment. There's so much to do today!" He stepped around her, trying to act normal. "I'll see you later!" He took off to his next class.

Scratch floated back over onto Molly's shoulder and studied her face. It was clear that his mix-up had unintentionally hurt her. He may be friends with the boy now, but if he ever did anything to hurt Molly he'd shave the swoopy hair right off his head! "Moll? You OK?"

"Oh, pfft." She tossed her hand nonchalantly. "It's all good. It's like he said, he's just a little distracted right now." She wanted to believe him, so she would.

Meanwhile, Ollie made it to the classroom and took a seat. "Uh, Ollie-" He looked up to see Libby staring at him from the doorway. "What are you doing in Mr. Pham's room? We have gym this period."

The boy blinked and noticed everyone was staring at him. How did he go into the wrong classroom?! "Silly me! I guess I walked here on autopilot!" He gathered his bag and left to get to his real class. Libby got a better look at his face when he passed her, there were dark circles under his eyes. From her experience, they looked dark enough to indicate he hadn't slept well in a couple of days.

Ollie arrived for gym period before the nick of time. Really, he got there before a kid named Nick who had a weird obsession with time travel. The engoodifier tried to listen to Mr. Bates who went over what they'd be doing today, but he couldn't stifle a yawn from escaping his mouth. Libby had correctly figured out he hadn't slept much the past few days. What she hadn't known was that he left his shell behind for a few hours of the night to get some rest while he worked on the audit. The body is what needed sleep. That way he could get more done and feel rested once he went back in.

"Am I boring you, Mr. Chen?"

The angry voice of Mr. Bates snapped the boy wide-awake. He hadn't meant to yawn too loudly. "No sir! Everything's good! I'm fine!" Ollie was glad he got yelled at, it kept him alert long enough until the next portal opened up. He needed a distraction to sneak over to the bleachers while the class was playing basketball…

Along came a random student passing through the gym carrying a large bucket. "I finally gathered all the marbles lost in the yard over the years! There has to be eight hundred of them in this very tippable bucket.

… "Sorry about this." Ollie whispered an apology. He caught the basketball and threw it towards the guy with the marbles. The proximity of the ball closing near him caused him to flinch and tip the bucket.

"GASP! MY MARBLES!"

"EVERYBODY FREEZE! WE HAVE A CODE M!" Their teacher belted out, trying to warn the students before it was too late. The game became a race to see who could slip over the most marbles the fastest.

While chaos unfolded, Ollie stepped back under the bleachers and snuck out to the Ghost World again. Shell Ollie came back out and slowly tripped on a marble and landed face first on the gym floor. "Falling down in life is inevitable."

OXOXOXOX

During the break between second and third period, a handful of students came into the science room to chill or get ahead on their schoolwork. June used her break differently. She used it to look over her observations regarding her brother. Darryl was with her for moral support.

"So June, what kind of hypothesis is this?" Her partner in crime asked while he continuously clicked the same pen June had been clicking earlier in the chapter.

"It's Ollie. For a while now he has been acting irregularly, and I have recorded every oddity I've witnessed." She showed her list to Darryl, who apparently hadn't noticed his sister's boyfriend acting differently. "Number one, he skipped out on helping out at the Root Beer pub and acts confused at the mention of the pub. Number two, the flowers in his garden have been wilting and dying. Number three, there was a capybara on TV, and he didn't start gushing over how cute it was. Number four, he put a recyclable bottle in the regular trash bin."

Darryl winced. "Yeah, that one has me convinced." For Ollie to forget to recycle, something serious had to be going on. "Think it's some kind of curse?"

Flipping her notebook to a later page, June laid out her research on wraiths. "I can't rule out that possibility. However, the effects of curses are instantaneous. Whatever's going on with Ollie has been happening gradually over time, and there's a pattern that I've noticed-"

"Hey June!" a new voice accidentally interrupted the girl. The Chaos Duo turned their heads to see Andrea Davenport coming over to their table. "You were just talking about your brother, right?"

Hiding her research before Andrea could see the paranormal notes, June greeted her friend. "Hi Andrea."

"Wassup." Darryl raised a hand.

"And yes, we were just discussing Ollie's strange behavior." The bespectacled girl confirmed. Though the ghost parts needed to be omitted in regular conversation, the rest of the discussion could be discussed with those outside the Ghost Friends group. This was one unbridled truth she needed to keep bridled for now.

The bluenette felt some relief that her friend had already realized the abnormality. "Good, I was hoping you'd know something. Ollie walked into my classroom last period by mistake, and he looked like he'd barely slept." The young influencer had been sitting in the seat right next to where he had temporarily sat and had caught a glimpse of the dark circles Libby had noticed.

The Chaos Duo shared an uneasy look. "Is there any chance he's just really sleep-deprived?" Darryl hoped it was a simple explanation.

June voiced her own concerns. "It might be just a bi-product of the true problem. I have a hypothesis, but I still need more time to confirm the data." She hoped to confirm or disconfirm her data soon. For Ollie's sake, June prayed that for once her theory would be wrong.

Speaking of the other Chen sibling, Ollie himself stumbled outside the classroom door. He held onto the door frame for balance, he'd just reunited with his body and the headache had him feeling a little dizzy. "Ollie?" His sister's voice helped clear his head a little.

"Hi sis, I'm on my way to music class."

Darryl tilted his head. "Isn't music class the other way?"

"Oh! Yeah, it is!" Ollie made light of his blunder. "I must be so tired from gym I got turned around! Thanks, Derrick!" The engoodifier reversed course and headed to third period.

… "Did he just call me 'Derrick'?" Darryl looked at June. She was already adding it to her list.

Despite his best efforts, Ollie was late for music class. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten lost, but he had. "Ollie Chen, you're late!" Dr. Melody wasn't upset, but shocked that such a diligent student was late for the first time.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Melody. It won't happen again." He took his seat, but failed to produce his instrument like the other kids. It took Ollie a second to realize he was the only one without his instrument and he smacked his forehead. "Ugh, I forgot to bring my recorder! I'll go get it from my locker!"

Dr. Melody stopped him before he could get up. "It's alright Mr. Chen, you can simply take notes today." He'd never left his recorder behind before, and he seemed frazzled today, so his teacher let it slide just this once.

Ollie was actually the only one still playing the recorder as his instrument. Everyone else had ditched theirs after the recital and picked something else. Ollie hated the recorder as much as the rest of them, but if the new teacher was impressed by his skills he had to keep going, how could he disappoint her by quitting? "Thank you Dr. Melody."

His blunder actually gave the music teacher an opportunity to remind her students of an early lesson. "It is truly ironic to forget a recorder. As you may recall, it receives its name from the Latin word recordari, which translates to 'remember'."

As the class went on, Ollie found that he could barely focus. The headache from earlier still lingered, and his mind was preoccupied thinking about how much he still needed to do back in the Ghost World. At some point, the girl who sat beside him (was her name Abigail or something?) asked if he was sick or something. "I'm fine." He mumbled, barely heard over the tooting of a French horn.

Across the room, Molly's attention was fixated on her boyfriend rather than her flute. Distracted so that she accidentally held a very long note that got her classmates staring at her. "Oops. My bad."

OXOXOXOX

Ollie's next return from the Ghost World came right before lunch. Molly and Scratch were with his shell when he returned and witnessed the painful reunion between body and soul. "Woah. That's not right." Scratch had seen the kid go back in his body before, and it never brought pain.

"Don't-don't worry. This is nothing." Ollie, needing to take a few heavy breaths, was not reassuring. The three met up with Libby in the cafeteria and took out their lunches… er, most of them did.

"What happened to your lunch?" Scratch had a mouthful of his remaining snack chips muffling his voice when he noticed the only other guy at the table hadn't brought out any food or beverage.

Ollie looked in his bag and couldn't find any food. He hadn't brought lunch along today. "Oh! I'm not that hungry, I… I had a big breakfast." He lied. Come to think of it, Ollie wasn't sure if he even ate breakfast this morning? He hadn't had much of an appetite lately anyway. "I'll just go and get a bottle of water." He excused himself to go buy a drink from the vending machine nearby.

Unlike the bottle of water Ollie was getting, Libby and Scratch weren't buying anything. "Do I need to point out how obvious a lie that was?" Libby eyed her best friend, how could she not notice what a bad liar her boyfriend is?

Molly's eye twitched, her smile was as forced as her next words. "He could have had a big breakfast! We don't know!" If Ollie told them not to worry then they shouldn't worry, right?

They didn't have to wait long for Ollie to return with a bottle of water. He returned to his seat and retrieved his notebook from his bag. This was the perfect time for Molly to talk to him. They had twenty minutes or so before the portal came up, and it was a free period. Molly had just opened her mouth when Ollie spoke first. "If it's alright with you guys, I'm going to go over the notes my shell took until the portal arrives."

Molly deflated, her lips still forced into a smile. "Oh, yeah I get it, gotta make sure your soulless body did his job while you were doing yours. Cool, coolcool."

Sipping her milk and looking the other way, Molly unconvincingly tried to act like she didn't mind. The invisible ghost floating over her shoulder lowered himself to her eye level. "Hey Moll, I've got an idea how to get him a message-"

OXOXOXOX

History was the next class on Ollie's schedule. Mrs. Roop went on with her lesson unaware that one of the students wasn't all there. "-and in addition to the myths that they could grant a wish, the Aztec skulls were also rumored to have wiped out an entire clan of hunters."

Wraith Ollie snuck in through a portal in the back of the room. He floated over to his body and jumped in, but the intensity of the headache and the pain of reuniting were at an all-time high. Ollie couldn't help the pained cry that escaped his throat.

Everybody was staring at him. "Ollie Chen?! Why are you making a disturbance during class?" His teacher had been caught off guard that it was Ollie of all students interrupting the lesson.

Ollie fought back the disorientation he was feeling. "I'm-I'm sorry M… maam." What was his teacher's name again? "I've just been dealing with a bad headache today. It won't happen again." It was true, even if he downplayed how terrible it felt. His teacher continued on while Ollie kept his head down. He simply stared at the notes his shell had taken, not bothering to continue where he left off. He wondered why he was here, the Ghost World needs him, and he was just wasting time.

Through the air vent, a tiny slip of paper slipped through. An equally tiny ghost possessed the paper with a devious grin and chuckle. Scratch flew the paper over to where Ollie was seated, it was brilliant, he'd fly under the radar and slip the note onto Ollie's desk without anyone notic-

"THERE'S A MAGIC FLYING PAPER IN THE ROOM!" Nashua pointed at the floating paper above the class. Scratch's smug grin fell when all eyes were turned on him… except for Ollie's ironically.

"ABORT MISSION!" Scratch tried to retreat, but Mrs. Roop grabbed the paper.

"I have told you kids a dozen times that I do not allow note passing of any kind in this classroom. Magic, flying notes included!" She took 'Paper-Scratch' over to her desk and dropped him into the paper shredder. "Take a good look, this is what happens to notes I catch!"

Scratch came out of the shredder in ribbons along with the note. He cried out in pain. "WHY DIDN'T I LET GO?!"

Once class had been dismissed, Ollie headed out to catch his next portal which was arriving in a minute and a half. But someone was waiting for him outside the door. "Ollie!" His girlfriend pulled him aside while the other kids swarmed out.

"Gah! Molly! What are you doing?" He sounded snappier than he'd meant to.

"I told you in my note that I wanted to talk with you between classes." How could she have known the note (and her best friend) had gone undelivered and into the shredder. She led the two of them into an empty hallway. Under the fluorescent lights, Molly could tell Ollie was much more stressed and worn out than he'd been that morning. "Ollie, I've really wanted to talk to you about something."

Ollie checked the clock anxiously, he had forty-three seconds. "Can't this wait until later?"

"Ollie, are you sure that you're doing OK? You seem pretty drained-"

"It's nothing."

"I know you've said that, but it just-It feels like-"

"I can't stay, I have to get going."

"But, Ollie…" Molly hesitated. Trying to find the words on the tip of her tongue. She waited a few seconds too long, the portal opened up behind her. She looked back at it and then up at Ollie.

The young chairman did the same, glancing at the portal and then back to his girlfriend. He couldn't go when she wasn't smiling. "Molly, everything is totally normal. I'm fine." He gave her hands one last squeeze before letting go to step into the portal. His orange soul flashed her a smile. "I'll be back soon, Mollberry."

She cracked a smile. "See you when you get back, Olliepop." Molly watched the portal flash away once her boyfriend passed through it. His empty shell was left with her, lifelessly staring at nothing in particular. Maybe she could talk to him, just as a practice run. "So Ollie, you keep telling me everything is fine. And I really, really want to believe you… but I… It feels like you're drifting away from me." She finally admitted. "These last two weeks I've barely gotten to see you. I know how important being the Chairman is, and you've got the entire Ghost World to look after. And just… Please let me know how you feel. I really miss you."

Shell Ollie blinked one eye at a time. "..." Molly didn't wait for the husk to respond. She had to wait until she could hear the real Ollie's response. She nudged the shell towards his next class, ushering him to go while she remained by herself in the hallway. A melancholy melody starts up, ushering in the musical number Molly was about to sing.

"Why do you feel so far away?~" Molly started the song in the chorus.

"You're here one minute then you're gone~" She turned around in a soft spin, hugging her arms across her chest. "I'm trying to ask you how'd all this start?~" Molly looks up and the scene blurs into a transition.

"Give me one moment please just stay~" Molly tried to catch up with Ollie inside a classroom. He goes to a pulled down map of Italy and ducks behind it before Molly can reach him.

"As you take the portal behind that chart~" Molly pulls up the chart but finds only Shell Ollie, who walks past her. "Don't let us grow apart~"

A brief few notes played as the song went into a verse. Molly sings over an imagine spot of her and Ollie, the latter of whom is holding the Chairman robe. "I've done my best to support you~" Ollie dons the robe and instantly becomes the chairman. "In this new role of yours~"

The couple is now walking down a hallway. "Though the times you've walked into walls~" Ollie walks right into a solid wall and falls down. Molly watched with concern. "Has been more consistent~"

The tempo picked up as Molly saw a chasm form between her and Ollie. "But as the space between us grew~" Ollie closed a door before Molly could get to him. "You kept closing the doors~" She noticed the 'boys restroom' sign and backed off.

"Plans we made you cannot recall~" Molly waits alone on a bench, sadly looking left and right for any sign of her boyfriend. "And eyes that look so distant~" She and their friends sit at a dinner booth laughing together, except for Ollie who's vacantly staring out the window.

Another chorus starts, Molly chases Ollie through a revolving door. "Your chairman job's keeping you away~" He comes out as a wraith while Molly spins in place.

"Your life won't wait while your gone~" Molly is back in the real world, singing sadly as she peeks into a classroom watching Shell Ollie barely listening to the lesson. "Something's going on with you~" Molly steps away and holds her hand up high to the light. "When did it sta~art?~" She holds a long note, lowering her head and closing her eyes.

A crowd of students keeps Molly from reaching her boyfriend. "Ollie just once, can't you stay?~" He's already reached the portal before she can catch him. Molly lowers her hand as the portal fades. "The path your on maybe I cannot chart~"

Molly holds her hands to her chest, eyes shining sadly. "You'll always have my heart~" She reaches her hand out one more time. "Don't let us grow apart~" She holds the note while the remaining piano notes close out the song. The lights go off around her, Molly looks over her shoulder and sadly returns to class.

OXOXOXOX

Molly checked the clock on her phone, quietly speaking under her breath. "He's running really late." She looked around the corner, keeping an eye on Shell Ollie waiting behind the school. School had been out for over an hour and the orange wraith was nowhere in sight, his body had been sitting on a concrete ledge since he got out of his last period. Molly had hung back further, wanting to give her boyfriend a little space to settle into his body before she went over.

A whirling whoosh got her attention and she saw the portal open up next to Shell Ollie. The orange wraith looked tired and didn't say a word before rejoining his two halves. He didn't shout this time, but the reunion still looked painful. He was growing numb to the pain and brushed it off with barely a reaction. Molly saw him start to walk away and hurried over to him. "Ollie, wait!"

"Huh?" He tried to shake the cobwebs from his head. Was it Molly's imagination or did he look like he was halfway between normal and his shell? "Oh, uh… hi." He barely looked at the girl who'd caught up to him.

"I get that you've been crazy busy all day, but now that school's out you can take a little break, right?" Molly hoped he'd say 'yes'.

Ollie took a little longer to answer, it seemed he finally got his bearings and perked up a tad. "Um… sure. I guess I can…" His bangs flopped against his forehead, where was the swoop?

"Great! Because I've really wanted to talk to you about all this." Molly rubbed one of her elbows while she spoke. "I was thinking we could stop on the way home for some ice cream. Like Scratch says, 'Conversations are always better with ice cream'."

"Yeah, that sounds nice…" Ollie agreed. "But I have to ask… who are you?"

Molly paused, then laughed nervously. "Haha-that's not very funny, you know who I am!"

Ollie shook his head. "I really don't."

"Come on, stop joking around Olliepop." She forced a laugh out, his joke didn't land, he could drop the act now.

Confused, Ollie asked. "What's an Olliepop?" It sounded so strange to him, like a pun on his name and lollipop, or a brand of soda.

Alarmed, Molly looked up and gazed into his eyes. She couldn't find his usual warmth, the soft gentle shine those brown orbs held when they would lock glances at each other. He stared at her like she was a stranger. Ollie genuinely didn't know who she was.

Molly felt her blood turn to ice and her heart break as the truth sunk in. Ollie lost his memory of her! Whatever was happening to him, it was much more serious than she could have imagined. "Sweet baby corn, you're not joking-" she whispered in shock. "Ollie-" Molly grabbed the boy by the shoulders, panicking and shaking him. "Ollie, don't you remember me?! I'm Molly McGee! I'm your girlfriend! Enhappifier of Brighton! Is this ringing any bells?"

"No… eergh!" Ollie felt a headache coming on. His focus was drifting away from the distraught girl before him.

Seeing that he was spacing out, Molly continued to shake him. "Please, Ollie! Snap out of it! You can't forget me! I can't-" Tears welled up in her eyes. "I can't lose you!"

Despite her desperate pleas, Ollie's attention shifted away from her and onto the searing pain in his head. Numbing his feelings and blurring the world around him. "I'm… fine… excuse me…" he held his head and turned away, paying no mind to who he was leaving behind.

"OLLIE WAIT! COME BACK!" Molly tried to follow, but she didn't get more than a few steps before tripping over herself and falling on the ground. Ollie didn't notice this and kept walking away. "OLLIE! OLLIE!" All she could do was call his name as he disappeared from view.

The noise attracted the attention of two others. Libby and Scratch had returned to see what was keeping the couple, only to find Molly kneeling over and crying. "MOLLY!" Her friends rushed to her side, immediately pulling her into a hug.

Returning their embrace, Molly broke the bad news. "Ollie-(sniff) Ollie doesn't remember who I am!" Her friends were stunned, hardly believing what she'd just said.

"Wait, what?" Scratch uttered in disbelief. Swoopy Hair was head over heels about Molly!

"How… how did this happen?" Libby cautiously asked, patting Molly's back.

Lingering in their embrace for another minute, Molly pulled herself away to answer Libby. "I don't-I don't know." Her expression changed, turning her tears into determination. "Something is wrong with Ollie, and we are going to find out what it is and fix it!" Eyes shining, and her face reddened from crying, Molly knows Ollie needs help whether he knows it or not. "I will not let him down."

Chapter Text

The following morning, Molly, Scratch and Libby were up bright and early to get a jump on their dire task: find out what's going on with Ollie and fix it. Libby had brought over as many books on specters and paranormal issues as she could carry. The girls focused on searching for answers while the ghost stayed by Molly's side for comfort and reassurance, like he'd been doing since they got home yesterday.

"Ugh, this one's a dud too!" Libby was frustrated, but avoided taking it out on the book and set it down carefully. She'd combed through every inch of her pop-up book last night with no luck. It was all she could do while at home with her mom.

"I'm not even sure what I should be looking for," Molly admitted. "How do you search for 'why does my boyfriend keep forgetting stuff including his girlfriend'?!" Her voice went a bit higher with her emotions, prompting another pat on the back from her roommate.

"Hey, hey-we're gonna fix him, okay?" Scratch had felt powerless last night. While Libby hit the books, he kept Molly company. She didn't bring up what had happened to her family, but she was terrible at pretending she wasn't hurting. He'd slept in a cobweb hammock above her bed to be closer in case she needed him during the night. Fortunately, she slept through the night but only because her best friend was there to be her shoulder to cry on and tire herself out.

Molly wrapped her arms around her marshmallow-like best friend/adopted ghost sibling. "I know." She exhaled.

Scratch wasn't done yet. "By this time tomorrow we'll have Ollie back to his old self. Annoyingly chipper and making oogly eyes at you." An odd noise perked his non-visible ears. "Hey, does anyone hear a 'baba da bap'?"

The sound was coming from the shelf above Molly's bed, and upon reaching inside Molly found the source to be a glittery, gold-banded wrist communicator. "Oh yeah, June made these for the Ghost Friends."

"That was the time with the river-rafting ghost, right?" Scratch scratched his head.

"No, it was when we went to the hexed chateau." Libby reminded him of the previous misadventure.

"Right, when we brought Sharkie… why don't we ever use those things?" The ghost had an excuse for not using the gadget, he had misplaced his after the first use. Sharkie might have eaten it, he wouldn't put it past the ghost shark.

The beeping tone rang again, Molly answered the call. "What's the sitch?"

June's face appeared on-screen, she looked worried. "Did you see Ollie's wraith return to his body yesterday?!"

"Y-yeah! Right after school… but-wait, why are you asking?"

"Ollie's wraith never came home yesterday!"

The air in the room froze with dread. Libby grabbed the bracelet from Molly while the girl was processing this new information. "We're coming over. There's a lot we need to talk about."

Taking back her bracelet and seeing June had ended the transmission, Molly desperately turned her attention to the blue ghost. "Scratch-"

"Way ahead of you!" He opened a portal, anticipating what she would ask. "I'll check the Ghost World, you two go to his house."

The girls were already climbing down the ladder. "Thanks Scratch!" Molly closed the entrance to her room and hurried down. Besides Libby, her brother was also waiting for her down below. "Great, you're here too! We got a crisis on our hands!" Molly dragged them both down the stairs with her and went straight to the Chen household.

OXOXOXOX

If Ollie was doing anything in the Ghost World, it would be chairman work. Scratch portaled to the Dark Dais where the Ghost Council was working on something. "Scratch?" Alister lifted his reading glasses. "If you're here to drop off that shark of yours on us again-"

"I'm looking for Ollie!" Scratch got to the point, he didn't have time to discuss sharksitting habits.

The barristers changed their tune from annoyance at the previous chairman, to pride of their current one. "Oh, Oliver is busy with the soul audit." Lucretia answered.

"If only you could be as diligent as he is." Bart pointedly looked at his former boss. "He's been working nonstop since he got here yesterday."

"Such a fine boy!" Grimbella praised.

"HE'S WHAT?!" Scratch was not admiring the kid's work ethic like the others, he was alarmed by it. "I've got some words for you morons later, right now I need to get to Ollie."

Scratch's seriousness caught them all off guard. Lucretia opened a portal at his request. "He's in the old Chairman's chamber. It was the only place big enough to hold all those fil-"

"Yeah, great. Don't wanna hear it." It wasn't possible for Scratch to care less about what they were saying. He floated on through the vortex and floated into a ceiling-high stack of paperwork. "Ugh. Think I got a papercut in my eyeball." Knocking over the tower of files, Scratch was treated to the view of dozens of identical stacks and a figure in a black robe working at a desk in the middle of it all.

The Chairman finished looking over the file of a light blue ghost, then sorted it into the 'disposal' void because the soul in question was not actually dead. "There you are!" He looked up at the light blue ghost approaching him. As Scratch got closer, he noticed a change. Usually the wraith's face was visible when the hood was up on his head. Right now, the only thing visible in the face hole was glowing orange ectoplasm. Like how the old Chairman looked.

"Scratch, I am busy." The Chairman barely acknowledged him, immediately grabbing another file to get started on. His voice sounded oddly flat.

The older ghost slammed his hands against the desk. "What the heck are you still doing here?!"

"... My job." He moved to stamp the file, and was intercepted by his predecessor, who yanked the stamp away and knocked the contents of his desk onto the floor.

"You know what I mean! First you get obsessed with this soul business, and now I find out you've been cooped up in this musty old cave since yesterday!?" Strangely, the kid didn't react to his outburst other than simply retrieving the objects thrown about, and using his powers to fix the stack of paperwork Scratch had knocked over when he came in. Was he even listening?! "HEY! I'm talking to you!" He grabbed the Chairman by the sleeve, seeing that he was about to grab his stamp and file again. "Look at me when I'm berating you! Do you remember what I said when you were first starting out?" No answer, the wraith only stared. "I told you that you have an eternity to fix the Ghost World and that you can't miss out on your actual life. You listened to me then, why the backtracking on your character development?"

The boy tilted his head. "What do you mean? This is where I belong. I'm the Chairman." The hands holding his sleeve let go, and he was free to resume his work.

This was not normal at all. Scratch could tell the kid was really out of it, but how out of it was he? "So… what would you describe our relationship as? Enemies to friends? Mentor and mentee? What pops up when you think of you and me?" Scratch prompted as a test.

A moment of contemplation, then the robed one gave an answer. "Former and current Chairmen."

"Woah, woah, wouldn't you say we're friends?" That wasn't good. The kid made no effort to rescind his answer, he went back to his job. "Do you even care about me?" The blue ghost sounded a bit hurt.

"All ghosts matter to me. It is my duty to govern and keep the peace for all the souls in the Ghost World." Nothing personal, no emotional weight to his words. He still spoke in that flat-tone that Scratch had started to hate more than any weird bonding moment they'd had. The Swoopy Hair he knew would always call him a friend. How had he become so detached overnight?

This was much worse than what Scratch could have imagined, this kid was spending too much time in the afterlife, he needed to get out and touch grass or get some sleep. "OK, enough is enough!" He lifted the Chairman up and brought him to the door, placing him down and nudging him towards the exit. "You've been here far too long. You need to go home, Ollie!"

"... Who's Ollie?"

If Scratch had a heart, it would have stopped.

OXOXOXOX

The remaining Ghost Friends arrived at the Chen household. Ruben led them inside while he rambled. "We had dinner with the Davenport's last night and didn't come home until late. We caught Ollie's body before he went to bed and assumed his soul had only recently stepped out and would be back shortly because he's done that before!" He led the kids to the garage, where June was fixated on her computer and his wife tended to their son's shell. "This morning when we saw June she said Ollie came home without his soul and hadn't seen him since dinner so she assumed that he had come back."

Molly's eyes landed on Shell Ollie, who was lying on the couch looking worse for wear. Esther moved aside, so the girl could kneel down and take his hand. The worried mother paced around and picked up where her husband left off. "We checked the old ecto-detector and found no traces of ectoplasmic activity in the household since the kids left for school! Ollie's soul never made it home and when we checked his body…" She didn't need to explain further. Even for a soulless husk, Shell Ollie was in bad shape. He was awake but breathing heavily, out of energy and unable to respond with even a bleak statement.

Clutching his hand tighter, Molly couldn't stand seeing even his empty body in pain. She shouldn't have deluded herself into thinking all of his behavior was normal, she should have listened to June and found a way to prevent this. "June, you were right yesterday. Something IS seriously wrong with Ollie. I didn't want to believe it, and I sure as corn never imagined he'd forget who I am-"

"Hold up-" June paused whatever she had been typing and swiveled her chair to face her friends. "Did you say Ollie forgot you?"

The sad enhappifier nodded. "He didn't remember me at all when we met after school."

June felt her stomach sink, her heart raced. "No- nonono!" Her hands typed faster than anyone could follow. Her parents and friends held their breath as they awaited the youngest girl to elaborate on her response. With one last click, June's data had been finalized… and the color drained from her face. "I-I was right! Oh, cob I was right!" She was horrified at being correct.

Darryl ran to his best friend and gently held her arm. "June?..." He feared what she had to say. They all did. Libby and her parents crowded around her computer, while Molly and her brother's shell stayed put.

With Darryl and Libby guiding her to take a deep breath, June calmed herself enough to explain her findings. "Since Ollie took me to the Ghost World, I've suspected there were unknown side effects to spending prolonged time as a wraith. I had a theory but no solid evidence to back it up… until Molly's recount of Ollie forgetting her. Unfortunately, I have now confirmed what I feared was the case: The longer a wraith is apart from their body, the more memories they lose until they've completely forgotten their human life."

Silence hung in the room, the ramifications of what was said sinking in. Ruben was the first to speak up, trying not to let his voice quiver. "Ollie wouldn't-he couldn't just forget everything!" He hugged his wife, who was just as horrified as he was and trying to remain calm.

Molly felt herself shaking. Holding onto Shell Ollie's hand was the one thing keeping her from completely flipping out. "We can fix it, right?! We can make him remember?!"

Libby was also shaken by the revelation, though something stood out. "How did his condition get so bad so quickly?" He had been frequenting the Ghost World much more in the last two weeks. Yesterday, however, the effects seemed to get worse after-Libby gasped. "The constant back and forth between human and ghost!-"

"-likely accelerated the memory loss exponentially." June finished Libby's train of thought, having already caught on to the same idea. "That is almost certainly what happened."

The youngest boy in the room saw a simple solution to all of this. "Couldn't we just nab him and shove him back into his body?" Darryl wondered why no one else had thought of that.

"It's not that simple." June debunked his plan, having already accounted for that possibility when she started her research. "Any reluctance to return to the body affects the connection between shell and wraith." She pulled up a chart on her computer. "According to the data, the will to live is needed for wraiths to properly rejoin their bodies, or else they get rejected."

Great, there was no easy way to restore Ollie. Ever the optimist, Molly hoped it could still be early enough to convince him to come back. "Scratch went to see Ollie in the Ghost World. I bet any second now he'll pop in and say the memory loss hasn't gotten too bad-"

A portal opened up and out came Scratch. "This is really bad! Ollie has totally forgotten who he is!" Way to kill the hope, Scratch.

Containing her panic, Molly reluctantly let go of Shell Ollie and stood up. "OK, OK-We need a plan and fast!" She tapped her finger to her forehead, able to feel all eyes on her as everyone looked to her for a solution. "Right, so… we need to get Ollie to remember who he is. We'll need to become wraiths to get into the Ghost World…" She tapped her balled hand against her palm. "Here's what we're going to do, the Ghost Friends will go over and get Ollie back while Mr. and Mrs. Chen watch our bodies-"

"We're coming too," Esther insisted. "Ollie is our son. There is no way we are going to sit down and wait." She felt Ruben squeeze her shoulder, being as resolved as she was to save their boy.

Libby knew they couldn't leave all their shells behind without supervision, and she was no stranger to watching over empty shells. "I'll stay and watch your bodies instead."

"I'm gonna sit this one out too." Darryl raised his hand. "I don't know Ollie as well as you do, I won't be much help getting his memories back." He knew where he was most useful, and it was taking care of the bodies of his sister, his best friend and her family.

No one argued over the trade-off. They all knew what they needed to do. Scratch opened a portal for the group. "Everyone going on the rescue mission hurry and get your butts into the portal."

Molly leaped through with zero hesitation, changing into her golden wraith form. June followed next, emerging as a red-colored wraith. That only left…

Ruben was frozen, staring at the swirling hole in reality and what it meant. How much of his life had he spent hating and wanting to eliminate ghosts? It had been only a few months that he had changed his stance and given ghosts a chance. He was still adjusting to having the one that scared him as a child as a friend. To reach his son, Ruben had to become what he had once hunted. He felt a hand take his own, Ruben and Esther silently turned to one another. She'd been the only person to take his traumatizing incident seriously. They became partners in ghost hunting and in life. They adjusted through this lifestyle change together, and together they would take this leap.

"For Ollie." Ruben readied himself.

"For Ollie." Esther did the same.

The Chen parents stepped into the portal and felt their souls split from their physical forms. Their eyes had been squeezed shut, opened to take in their new forms. Ruben was an indigo colored wraith, the same color as Jeff with a J. Esther was a blush-pink colored wraith, her glasses remained on her form like they did with her daughter.

"This is incredible!" Esther studied her wraith form. If her oldest child weren't in danger she'd love to test out her ghost abilities.

Ruben poked his ectoplasmic form, it really did feel like a marshmallow. He poked too hard and his hand went through his side and got stuck. When he tried to free his arm, he caught sight of his empty shell and flinched. "Incredible, and really weird."

Scratch grinned at the irony of the former ghost hunters being ghosts. "How the tables have turned."

The smallest, red wraith ushered everyone to the portal. "We need to get going!" They all followed June's lead and left through the portal.

It was down to Libby, Darryl, and five soulless husks. They all stood around awkwardly, till the turtleneck-clad girl realized something they had forgotten. "... We should call your parents and come up with a good reason to miss school today."

OXOXOXOX

The quintet arrived outside the entrance to the Chairman's Chamber. They weren't alone either, the Ghost Council were huddled before the large doors, having their own hushed conversation. Lucretia was the first to notice the presence of the newcomers and directed the rest of the concerned council over to speak with them. "Scratch, we need to talk about Oliver."

Alister was visibly worried over the young Chairman. "We came to check on his progress after you left, and something is very wrong. Oliver is acting differently. Do you have any idea why that might be?"

The light blue ghost felt his eye twitch, any restraint he'd been holding onto snapped. "Oh gee, I wonder? Could there have been a reason I had to see him so urgently?" His sarcasm was laced with sweetness as fake as artificial sweetener. "Maybe it's because he's lost his memory of everything that makes him human?!"

The barristers gasped, checking with the other wraiths whose sad faces confirmed that Scratch was telling the truth. "But-" Grimbella stammered. "But how could this have happened?!"

"I got a pretty good idea." Scratch was feeling peckish, he supposed he could chew out the council to curb his appetite. "You pompous old retainers encouraged him to keep working past his limits! He's been here since yesterday working nonstop, no breaks, no snacks, he just keeps going! That boy would willingly stay here and fix everything if you let him! And you did! He forgot who he is and you four forgot about human limitations! Ollie isn't a ghost like you, he is a living teenager. Trying to keep up with your work ethic pushed him too far!"

It wasn't just the council, even the wraiths who came with Scratch were stunned by his rant. As much as he denied it, he cared for the ex-ghost hunter. Some of that may have been subconscious views on work habits, but most of that was out of friendship for the boy.

Scratch's words had the intended effect on the Ghost Council. Each of them couldn't make eye contact with the rescue party and felt ashamed for the unintended consequences they allowed to happen. That young orange wraith is the best chairman they'd ever known, but also the only chairman that still had a human life to balance. What worked for them was not best for the boy. They could have encouraged him to pace himself and not keep him working past his scheduled hours. But they didn't.

The older ghosts floated aside and gestured to the chamber. "Please, help him." Bartholomew spoke softly. The wraiths were allowed into the chamber, with Scratch stopping at the back of the line. He knew his old coworkers never meant for this to happen, and the guilt they felt was enough punishment. And it's not like he didn't feel some responsibility for this too…

There were files piled up to the ceiling inside the chamber, it was impossible to move without bumping into a stack. The Chen's and Molly couldn't care less about the paperwork and shoved it aside until they spotted a dark figure among the light-colored files. "Ollie!" four voices overlapped.

The disturbance went unnoticed by the Chairman, who kept sorting the files unaware of the guests. It wasn't until they were floating right in front of him was he aware of their presence. "Ollie! Ollie, we're here!" The golden girl flew up close.

"... How may I help you?" He flatly asked.

Esther came up to his right. "Ollie, you may not remember us, but we're your family!"

"And your girlfriend!" Molly added.

The robed one didn't react, simply staring blankly in the direction of the pink wraith. Ruben joined his wife and each of them took one of the boy's hands in theirs. Esther took the lead, speaking in a gentle voice only a mother could have. "I'm your mother, and this is your father. We are your parents, Ollie Chen. Even if you can't recognize who we are, you're still our son."

The Chairman tilted his head slightly. "I'm sorry, but you are mistaken. I am the Chairman of the Ghost World." He removed his hands from theirs and grabbed another file to review and sort.

Disheartened, Esther and Ruben exchanged saddened glances. The indigo-colored father intertwined his hands with his wife, silently telling her not to give up yet. Ruben moved away from his wife and reached across the desk to hold his son's shoulders, though the boy did not look up and continued his work. "Oliver, you are such a great kid. You have endless empathy and courage. Watching you grow up has been one of the greatest joys in my life. You have no idea how proud you make us, how much you mean to us. That's why you need to come back to us. You can't stay here.”

The robed one finally lifted his head, raising his parents' hopes. "No, this is where I must stay. It is my duty to serve the Ghost World. That is my purpose." And just like that, he crushed their budding expectations of getting through to him. Their pleas fell on deaf ears. The Chairman was hardly paying attention to their words. It didn't matter to him, he had a job to do. He placed the soul's file in the correct spot and went to grab another, taking notice that several piles had been knocked over by his guests.

Feeling helpless while their son floated past them, Ruben and Esther were at a loss. They shouldn't have expected this to be easy, they should have known it would take more than words to get their boy back. They should have known better, but it didn't make it hurt any less.

"Hey-" Their son's girlfriend approached them. "He's still in there." That's all the couple needed to feel reassured. Molly followed the Chairman to where he was cleaning up the scattered files. Restacking the papers with a wave of his hand, and removing the files that had gotten mixed up. He beckoned a few files to himself, and a golden wraith got in his way. "Is there any chance you could stop and take a quick break?"

"... No."

"Then at least hear me out? OK?" Molly felt the files pass around her and settle in the boy's grasp. He made no indication that he was listening, there was no way to find out except by talking to him some more. "I know you can't remember who you are, you've probably forgotten you're still a living human."

The Chairman turned to face her. "I am a ghost. I am not alive."

His emotionless voice hurt to hear. Molly couldn't even see his face. He felt farther away than ever, and he was only a couple of inches away. "Yes you are! Your soul is separated from your living body, you are a wraith, all of us are… except Scratch." Oh, Molly…

Flying in front of him again, Molly accidentally knocked the files away that he'd been carrying. The Chairman bent down to collect them off of the floor, Molly did the same and helped him clean up her mess while she pressed on. "You moved to Brighton last year, you and your family moved across the street from my house. The two of us clicked and we-we had so much in common! Then I found out your whole family hunted ghosts, and it made things more than a little difficult. But you changed. I mean just you being the ruler of ghosts is proof of that! We spent even more time together, and I got to know all of you, good and bad, you let me see every side of what makes you, you." The two collected all the files and stood (floated) back up. Molly handed him her half of the files, unsure if he was truly listening to what she was saying. "There's so much you have in your life, friends, family, your dreams and your future. You can't give all of that up for this."

Accepting the files handed to him, The Chairman added them to the stack he was holding. "Thank you." At the bare minimum he remembered his manners. "I am very busy right now. There is much I need to do to…" He blanked. What was the word he used? "To… 'Make you good?'"

"You mean 'engoodify'?" Molly sadly corrected him.

The Chairman thought that was a much better word. "Engoodify… what an interesting word."

"It's your word, Ollie!"

The boy tilted his head, the only real way that he'd been able to emote since they arrived. "I don't understand what 'Ollie' means?" Why did he feel as though he'd heard that word before? Perhaps he sorted a file of a ghost by that name? He couldn't be sure, all those ghosts and their data sort of blurred together. A lot of stuff blurred together… he needed-he needed to focus. Focus on his work. That made sense.

"Ollie is YOUR name!" Molly insisted. She watched her boyfriend move along and bring the files over to his desk, already distracted by the audit once more. He'd zoned out on work instead of listening to what she had to say. Molly drooped, he was right here! He was right in front of them and was too absorbed in his role to understand what they were telling him.

Upon seeing his best friend brushed aside by her amnesiac lover, Scratch reached over and wrapped his arm around the Chairman to keep him still. "Cob-darnnit kid! We're trying to help you!"

Scratch should have realized holding the most powerful being in the Ghost World wouldn't keep him for long. The Chairman stretched like a living shadow, removing himself from Scratch's grasp and springing himself into his desk chair. "Scratch, please let me return to the audit." He wasn't mad or annoyed, which made Scratch mad and annoyed.

Molly's eyes widened, catching onto something the robed boy said. "Wait, you know who Scratch is?!"

Four pairs of wraith eyes were on the blue one. Seems he hadn't mentioned everything from his first trip. "Don't get too excited. He knows me but only as the Chairman before him. None of our real friendship was retained."

"Hmm-" June was in a 'pondering' pose, obviously pondering. "It appears that without his memories, Ollie has no emotional attachments. He's forgotten his living life, but Ollie should still be able to recall memories from his time as a wraith." Most of her brother and Scratch's friendship happened in his human form. Those bonding moments were gone, yet he kept his superficial knowledge of the ghost. "In this emotionally numb state, he's latched onto what he can remember: His role as the Chairman and the duties he fulfills."

Her parents could tell when their girl had something in mind, she had her focused stare fixated on her subject. "June, honey-" Esther addressed the girl. "It's your turn to give it a shot."

June nodded, floating over to her brother. If he still remembered his time as a wraith, maybe a memory from the Ghost World would help him recognize her. "Sorry to interrupt." June tugged on the robe, getting him to turn to her. "Do you remember when you showed me around the Ghost World? We went to the Video Store, got horrible pretzels in the park, and you cornered a really mean librarian into letting me repair the computer system at the library. There was also an unusually large bouncy ball."

The Chairman needed a moment, trying to piece together what this young ghost was talking about. It was pretty fuzzy, but he did vaguely recall assisting a red ghost in a library. "I did deal with the librarian when she was giving a ghost a hard time… was that you?"

"Yes, that was me!" June should have seen the pattern by now and known not to get her hopes up. "You kept wandering off to help ghosts in need when it was your day off. I talked with you about overworking and how worried I was-and still am- about you pushing yourself past your limits." She always looked up to her brother, metaphorically and literally, he was taller than her, she felt so small grasping his robe, that empty hood of pure orange ectoplasm staring blankly down at her.

The wraith answered her in the worst possible way. "I'm fine."

June did not believe him. "No, you are most certainly not fine." She had to keep pressing him. "You've been separated from your physical form for an unprecedented amount of time. On top of working overnight without sleep or food, you've been neglecting your own needs to get this audit done! You must be exhausted. How can you help anyone if you aren't even taking care of your own well-being?"

After taking a few seconds of contemplation, The Chairman flatly provided what he perceived as a valid reason. "My own well-being does not matter. Everything I do is for the good of the Ghost World. As long as I am able to complete my duties, nothing that happens to me matters…" He drifted off again, returning to the file he'd been distracted from. He was a good Chairman, he would never take or harm his people like the one of older times had. He would give and help, he would never be selfish. Knowing that… that he did good was… all he needed… right?

The smallest wraith regrouped with her friends and her parents. They were all feeling down that nothing they'd said had stirred him even a little. June was really scared for her brother, he was so far gone at this point. "Talking to him isn't working." She leaned against her mom. "We need another way to reach him."

Ruben agreed with his daughter. "At this point, I'll try anything." Was the fear of being too late to save his boy gnawing on the father's heart? You betcha! He wished he could say he expected his son to react to him, but somewhere deep down he knew it would be either June or Molly who'd snap him out of this state. When both of them failed… no! He had to keep ignoring those pessimistic thoughts!

Scratch sat his tush down on a lower stack of files. "Whatever we do, it'd need to be something that goes straight to his heart. Cause that head of his isn't working." The stack of files beneath him wobbled and collapsed, the ghost popped off before he could go down with it. He shiftily looked back and forth. "Wasn't me."

The pink bespectacled wraith rubbed her daughter's arm while she tried to come up with any idea to get her son back. Like her husband, Esther was fighting back the intrusive thoughts of failure. "What if… we all worked to jog his memory? Perhaps a group intervention is what he needs?"

Molly clapped her hands. "Yes! We all pour everything we got into this! And nothing says 'group intervention' like a big spontaneous musical number!" It was the best (and so far only) option. If this doesn't work then most of them were sure nothing would.

A slower Broadway-style tune started. The Chairman was still seated at his desk reviewing another file and sorting it. He couldn't grab another file as Ruben knelt down by his side. "Can you remember what your life was like before~"

Molly floated over onto the opposite side of the Chairman. "The person that you are, you can't let it go~"

Esther joined her husband and brushed her hand on the ancient robe's sleeve. "You can't forget the home you've got waiting for you~"

Lastly, June leaned over the top of the desk chair to peer down at her brother. "Ollie please listen, I still need my big bro~"

The tune picked up speed. Scratch grabbed the chair and spun it around until the Chairman was facing his direction. "You're more than just the chairman, remember how we met~" The ghost held the last note as the background shifted to a theater, where the present and former chairmen were on stage.

"Once a ghost hunter with some oddly swoopy hair~" Scratch dumped one of the old Chen Chaser weapons in the boy's arms, then flipped his own cutie bit to mimic and/or mock his hair habit.

"Eager to hunt some haunts such as I~" The blue ghost bounced in place while he sang and gestured to himself. "Changed your tune, gave helping the dead a try~"

Scratch lassoed the boy with his arm and pulled him close enough to lean on his shoulder. "Flipped the script from how you were back there~" He held the last note as the song switched up into the chorus.

In the blink of an eye, the scene changed to a nondescript background. The Chairman was surrounded by the whole group singing around him. "Recall who you are~" The boy wandered away, trying to get back to his desk. The singing group blocked his path and pulled the Chairman back to them. "Don't drift off too far~"

June wrapped her arms around her brother's arm, singing a solo line. "Let it all come back to you, feelings you can't resist~"

Suddenly, the Chairman slipped out of June's grasp and fell through the floor. The whole group sang in unison again. "You give everyone all that you can~" Ruben and Esther reached out and caught their son, each holding an arm to carry him as Scratch and the girls joined them. "It's our turn to lift you up to stand~" They all huddled closer around the boy. "There's lots we like about you, how bout a list~"

The song changed to a faster bridge section. The Chairman was front and center while all but his parents took turns signing lines.

"You're the turnipball mvp~" June helped her big bro hold a googly-eyed paddle to strike an incoming turnip.

"Did fundraisers for charity~" Molly sat with her boyfriend atop a ridiculously large jar of money labeled 'Save the whales or something'.

"Won't eat anything that's meaty~" Scratch plugged his nose and held out a healthy salad, stretching his arm far away and dropping it into the kid's hand so he wouldn't have to be near what he perceived as an abomination to his taste palette. "Uck!" Scratch winced in disgust.

"Your garden has floral variety~" June knelt down with her brother beside his backyard garden, filled with various colorful flowers.

"You volunteer for the elderly~" Molly directed the Chairman to a senior center. Inside there were old people doing wheelchair races.

"Very kind, passionate and friendly~" Both June and Molly hugged the orange wraith affectionately.

"My friend here thinks you're dreamy~" Scratch flew above the three and smugly pointed to Molly.

The gold wraith blushed. "Not the time!"

Taking a brief instrumental segment, Ruben and Esther spoke off to the side. "What if this doesn't work?" The indigo wraith tightly held his wife's hands.

Esther looked into his eyes, holding back her own desperation. "It has to!"

One more chorus to go! "Recall the real you~" Everyone sang the rest of the song together. Shoving the boy in the robe in front of a mirror, a blurry image of his human self stared back at him. "To your soul be true~" The Chairman floated away, not caring about the unclear image in the mirror that faded when he turned away.

"The life you lived you mustn't forget~" His parents held out family scrapbooks to their boy, their smiles wavering. June and Scratch pleadingly guided the wraith to Molly, who presented a crudely drawn board of future possibilities. "There's still so much you haven't done yet~"

The Chairman is at a crossroads. One leads to the Dark Dais and the other leads to his house back in Brighton. "You're too dear for us to lose~" He begins wandering towards the Dais, only for Scratch to form into a wall and block off the path. "This can't be the road you choose~"

The Chairman's loved ones (minus Scratch who is still a wall) are on the opposite path, each reaching out a hand for the boy to grab. "Take our hands we know you want to~" Scratch reforms into his normal shape and urges his successor towards the others, who all continue reaching out to him. "Ollie you need to recall the real you~" The song closes, slowing down once the words are said.

The songburst was over, their positions had changed with the Chairman floating in front of his desk, while his expectant family and friends waited with bated breath for his response.

…

There was no response. The Chairman went back to his seat and continued on with the audit. He didn't react even a tiny bit, or even acknowledge that he'd heard them. He'd completely ignored their last effort like he wasn't even paying attention.

The crushing heartbreak fell unanimously on the group. It didn't work. They'd given everything into that musical number hoping to reach their boy, and he hadn't heard them.

A choked sob was all that could be heard in the otherwise quiet chamber. Four turned to the one in the back where the sob came from, June. The littlest red wraith couldn't help but break into tears, heaving and crying as her heart felt like it had been torn out. "June?" Her parents flew to her side, watching their daughter shudder with grief.

"He's really gone, isn't he?" June sorrowfully looked up at her parents. Her young heart was shattered by the belief her brother wasn't coming back. "Ollie's gone-" She choked on a sob, practically begging for someone to tell her otherwise.

Ruben and Esther were speechless. What could they say? What could they tell their little girl? The pink wraith felt tears falling down her own cheeks and scooped her youngest child up in her arms… to share the pain of losing her oldest child. "June, I-… Ollie is-" Esther couldn't hold it back any longer and let out a wail. Her boy wasn't coming back.

The indigo wraith wrapped his arms around his wife and daughter, unable to keep himself from breaking down too. There was nothing he could say. They'd really lost their son. That sweet, empathetic boy they'd raised for fourteen years was no more. And there was nothing they could do to bring him back.

Scratch lowered his head, looking away from the grieving family. He too, was mourning the kid's death of personality. Internally, he blamed himself for getting him into this mess in the first place. If he had been a better chairman, if he hadn't cursed those robes, they never would have picked his best friend's boyfriend. His dumb and reckless actions were the domino that started the chain of events leading to this. Leading to him losing a friend.

The only one not breaking down was Molly. She watched the Chen's hug in stunned silence, then looked at Scratch, who was drooping with sorrow. Finally, she turned her head backwards to look at her boyfriend, unaware of his family mourning him. Snapping her ghost head back into position, Molly clenched her fists at her side forcefully. "No…" The others looked over at the golden wraith. "No. I'm not going to give up on him." Her eyes burned with a determined resolve. She would keep believing even if it seemed all hope was lost.

"But, Moll-" Scratch started.

"Keep your 'but' to yourself Scratch!" Molly cut him off. "I am never going to stop trying to get him back! I don't care if it seems impossible, I know the real Ollie is still in there! The Ollie that I…" Her eyes widen, and her voice trails off. There was one thing she hadn't tried yet. One last chance only she could pull off.

Scratch and the Chen's watched the gears turn in Molly's mind. Pressing pause on their mourning to see what she would do. The girl floated over to the Chairman, coming up behind the desk and taking him out of his chair. "I need to keep working." He tried to go back, but Molly's firm grasp stopped him and turned his form towards her.

"Stop. Please just... stop." Molly's quiet urging succeeded in getting the Chairman to stay still. "I need you to look at me." He gave no response, but he stayed where he was.

Molly reached up and grasped the robe's hood, gently pulling it down so she could see his face. She held back a saddened gasp once she saw him. The solid orange glow they'd seen from under the hood was nowhere to be found, his ectoplasm had faded and dulled to the point it was almost grey. What also struck Molly was his eyes, how utterly exhausted and empty those eyes of his were. No, it wasn't just his eyes, the boy himself was empty and drained of all that he was. Everyone now understood the true extent of the damage done to him, since he's The Chairman he forced himself to keep going even when he was exhausted and far beyond his limits. That's the kind of soul he is, he'd give everything even when he himself had nothing left.

His girlfriend raised her hands and placed them on his cheeks. "Ollie... Ollie, look at me." Her soft voice and warm hands gently guided the boy to look her in the eyes.

That empty expression of his shifted ever so slightly when he met her gaze. Molly had a sad, wobbly smile and tears streaking down her golden face. She gazed at him with countless emotions running simultaneously, though none were more prevalent than her burning feelings for him. She could see it in the way he stared at her, he was lost. This boy was lost, but when he looked at this girl, he felt drawn to her. The fog in his head lifted just enough for him to give her his full attention. He wanted to listen to her, he wanted her close. Who was she?… Who was he?

"Ollie." She tearfully smiled. "You have to come back to us. There are so many people who care about you and can't stand to see you like this. Like me. You are one of the most important people in my life, and I can't lose you." Her heartfelt words struck a chord in his heart. But none more so than what Molly said next. "I love you Ollie…"

Molly cupped his face and pulled him into their first kiss. The moment their lips touched, her golden love-fueled joy energy sparked up and coursed through them both. His eyes widened and shined while the golden sparks formed a heart over their heads. The nearly grey wraith was brightening into his true orange hue, while a flood of memories came surging back to his mind at a breakneck pace. He remembered her. He remembered it all. The memories of his life and who he was were restored by the act of Molly's love. A love that he reciprocated with his whole heart.

Slowly pulling away, Molly opened her eyes to see Ollie with tears pooling in his own shimmering eyes. Staring at her lovingly like she was the most precious thing in his life. "… Molly." The way he said her name was filled with so much love, so much hope, so much certainty, in such a way that she knew his true self had been brought back from the brink.

Molly couldn't speak, she couldn't stop crying. But these were happy tears. No words would come out, all that came from her throat were short laughs. Ollie did the same, unable to articulate anything else, and his own tears refused to stop and streamed down his cheeks. They wrapped their arms around each other and pulled into a tight hug, holding each other for dear life while crying and laughing tears of joy. The couple never-EVER wanted to let go.

"Ollie!" A young female voice cried out.

A red blur threw herself into the hug, tearfully grinning as her brother recognized her. "June!"

"Ollie!" Another voice shouted.

The pink wraith joined the hug. Ollie hadn't seen her in this form before but instantly knew who she was. "Mom!"

"Ollie!" A male voice shouted this time.

The indigo wraith added himself to the group hug. Like his mother, Ollie would know that voice and shape anywhere. "Dad!" The last remaining ghost not included in the group hug floated over. "Scratch!"

"What'cha saying my name for? You didn't forget me." Regardless of that, Scratch did join the hug after a moment anyway. "Welcome back, Swoopy Hair."

Tears of sorrow had become tears of joy all around, though you wouldn't catch any coming from Scratch while people could see him. Ollie was huddled in the center of the hug, loving every moment of it. He was home.

"I hate to break this up-" June looked up at her brother, her face directly under his. "But you need to get back to your body."

The hug separated, and they all gave Ollie a little space. He wiped his wet eyes with his sleeve and cleared his throat. "Right. Yeah-" He was so tired, the soul audit had completely worn-... Ollie suddenly was aware of the hundreds of soul files still waiting to be filed. He winced at all the work that was still left to do. "Oh no, what are we going to do about the Soul Audit?"

"Leave the paperwork to us!"

The chamber doors swung open, the Ghost Council arrived heroically posing in the doorway… at least until a few files threatened to fly out, and they needed to close the door behind them and hurry inside. Most of the council immediately stepped in to finish the work, except for Lucretia, who floated over to Ollie and the others. "We can manage the soul audit. You must go now, Oliver."

At the urging of the old ghost, Ollie nodded and accepted their help. "Thank you." He removed his robe and folded it neatly, placing it on the desk. Turning back around, he found that Scratch had already opened a portal back to the living world. June had just gone through, and his mom pushed his dad in. Molly held out her hand to her boyfriend, he gladly took it in his and joined her and Scratch as they jumped through together.

Involuntarily squeezing his eyes shut as he came out on the other side, Ollie could hear voices as soon as he exited the portal.

"You're back!"

"Mission accomplished!"

Opening his eyes, Ollie found himself in his garage. Libby and Darryl were waiting for everyone with their shells scattered about. June and his parents immediately rejoined their bodies. His dad shivered at the sensation, while his mom stumbled a bit before regaining her footing. June wobbled and grabbed a table so she wouldn't tilt over in her chair. Blinking and recentering herself, she peered down at her phone and the mobile game that her shell had been so engrossed in. "Huh, Shell June got a new high score."

Molly let go of Ollie to do a backflip into her shell. The young teen gasped as her skin regained its proper coloring and she sat up. Shell Molly had been sitting beside Shell Ollie, probably since they'd left. Ollie floated in the air hesitantly, watching as Molly helped his shell up and walked him over to his soul. The two halves stared at each other, the bright orange soul taking a good look at himself before he became whole again. When he was ready, Ollie returned to his body and braced for the pain… but it didn't come. It wasn't painful to reenter his body this time. It felt different, unlike any other time before.

The reunion didn't simply feel different, it looked much different than everyone else's. Everyone stared in awe as Ollie lifted off the ground, the warm orange glow of his soul surrounded and flowed around him like a sunset colored aura. His eyes glowed yellow and a light breezy current swept his hair around. It was a magical sight to see. The phenomenon did not last long and the glowing faded and Ollie… immediately passed out from exhaustion and fell face-first into the floor.

Everyone winced, practically feeling that themselves. Darryl sighed and headed for the kitchen. "I'll get an ice pack."

OXOXOXOX

Ollie was out for almost the entire day, only waking up around sunset. Everyone was there to comfort him when he woke up, and inform him how this all happened when he asked. After an emotional breakdown and dinner, it was nighttime and Scratch had gone to retrieve the Ghost Council at Ollie's request.

Molly stood with her boyfriend in his backyard, holding his hand and making sure he was steady, helping to support him physically and emotionally. "Are you sure about this?"

Ollie, who was still reeling from all that happened, squeezed his girlfriend's hand a little tighter. "I'm sure." He meant it. His mind was made up, but it didn't make it any easier.

A portal materialized and out came Scratch. "Sorry for the wait. These guys had to 'find an appropriate place to pause'." He repeated what his former coworkers had said to him with airquotes.

The four members of the Ghost Council floated into the backyard and immediately went to check on the boy. "Oliver!" Sir Alister called out his name. They all hovered closely to make sure Ollie was doing alright.

To their relief, Ollie smiled at them. Bearing no ill-will to their accidental role in what happened. He seemed to be doing better at the moment, but he'd still be dealing with exhaustion and fatigue for a while. "Hi guys."

"Oh, Oliver-" Bartholomew sadly held his hand on the boy's shoulder. "We are incredibly sorry we let this happen."

Grimbella lowered her head. "We never meant to push you that far. You have our deepest and sincerest apologies."

"We haven't been alive for such a long time, we'd forgotten how your needs would be different from ours." Lucretia felt terrible for not noticing how overworked he'd gotten. They were supposed to look out for this boy, and they'd done the opposite.

Ollie accepted their apologies. "It's alright, I know you didn't mean any harm. If there's anyone who can understand and forgive people who make mistakes, it's me." His kind grin alleviated some of the guilt weighing on the ghost's hearts.

Alister cleared his throat. "We've all been very worried about you… and so has one other-"

"Huh?-" Ollie barely got the syllable out of his throat when a black blur flung itself against his chest, nuzzling him with sad affection. "Robesy?!" The Chairman Robes were once again sentient and acting on their own, like they were before he accepted his position. The robe seemed to be begging him for something…

"The robe began moving on its own a short while ago," Bart recalled. "It hasn't done this since you became the Chairman." Ollie had already figured out why this happened…

"And as our Chairman, we promise to be more sensitive to your needs going forward." Grimbella promised on behalf of all of them.

Ollie bit his lip, looking troubled. "That's-that's what I needed to speak with you all about." He hugged his arms to his chest, struggling to look the Council straight on. "I've made a decision… I-I can't be the chairman anymore."

The four ghosts reacted in shock. Ollie did not expect anything different. "You're resigning?! But why?!" Lucretia gaped.

Sir Alister was quick to point fingers. "Was it because of something Bart did?"

"Seriously!?" The dark blue ghost snapped. "Why can't you take shots at Grimbella for once?!" The pink ghost narrowed her eyes at his suggestion.

"We do promise to assist you in a way that this won't ever happen again!" Lucretia nearly begged.

Ollie couldn't keep a smile, recalling all that he learned once he'd woken up. "It's not that simple… June explained it to me. The memory loss is a phenomenon that occurs when wraiths are away from their bodies for too long. There is no safe way for me to continue being the chairman while I'm still alive, the frequency of how much I'd need to be a wraith guarantees the memory loss will persist."

His sister had made it clear in no uncertain terms that this WILL happen again if he stays as the Chairman. It wasn't even just the memory loss he had to worry about, forcefully separating his body and soul had proven to be unhealthy for both halves. It was safe to become a wraith every once in a while for a few hours, but doing it multiple times a week worsened the effects. Between burning himself out and forgetting his life, it was no wonder the connection between his shell and wraith severed and left him in such a terrible state.

Ollie needed to set some boundaries so he could heal, giving up his job had to be done. Between giving up the robe or giving up his memories and loved ones, it was never a contest. It was an easy decision but the hardest choice. Ollie never wanted to disappoint anyone, and he would have to let down the entire Ghost World. He'd gotten so stressed out over believing he'd failed them all that he'd thrown up what little food had been in his system. Luckily, Scratch had gotten a trash bin before he hurled all over his bed.

"I'm sorry-I am so, SO sorry!" Ollie teared up, feeling his body start to shake, and his stomach tie itself into knots. Molly stepped back over to her boyfriend and wrapped an arm around his back, gently rubbing his shoulder and calming his rising panic. "I never wanted to disappoint everyone." His heavy breathing stabilized before it got to the point he wouldn't be able to speak.

"Oliver-" Sir Alister placed his hand on Ollie's free shoulder. He smiled sadly. "You could never disappoint us." The rest of the council floated beside him, sharing his sentiment and assuring Ollie that they were not upset at him.

Lucretia sighed. "We will all miss having you around. But we understand and respect your decision." This boy had been the correct choice for the role of ruling the Ghost World, but far too early. As much as they respected and cared for Ollie, they couldn't force him to sacrifice his life to keep order in the afterlife.

Alister felt he still had some wisdom to impart. "Everyone has one life, us ghosts have already lived ours, you need to live your own." Their young boss smiled gratefully, silently thanking them all for allowing him to do this.

The animated robe wrapped itself around Ollie's torso. If it could cry it would have. It didn't want Ollie to go, it loved Ollie! "Hey-" The teen petted the robe on its hood. "I promise this won't be forever. When I'm a real ghost, I'll return to my position as The Chairman." Ollie promised his robe, the council, and the Ghost World.

The four barristers were glad to hear their favorite Chairman would return one day. But until that time, they still needed a leader. "Someone will need to be your regent in the meanwhile." Lucretia brought up. "Do you or the robe have anyone in mind?" Behind her, Bartholomew crossed his fingers, hopefully.

Ollie hugged the robes nuzzling him, giving them a little more affection before he relinquished them. "Robesy, can you please find someone to hold down the fort for me?" Letting go of the teen boy, the robes nodded. They already had someone in mind to take over. Ollie watched the black robe lead the Council back into their world. He and Molly waved goodbye, though they knew they'd see them again soon.

Seeing as everything was resolved, Scratch floated back into the house. "I'm getting a soda."

The young couple were left by themselves in the backyard. They hadn't had any time by themselves since… well, what happened yesterday. While Molly couldn't have been happier to have her boyfriend back, she knew this incident would leave some emotional scars on him. "How are you feeling?" She quietly asked.

Ollie let out a heavy sigh. "I'm… I'm not fine." He admitted. "But I'll get better-" He turned to face his girlfriend, taking her hand in his. "-especially now that I know what's really important to me." Molly could hear the weight on his words, the subtle squeeze on her palm, and his blooming smile lit by the light of the moon and some porch lights.

"Molly…" Ollie looked her in the eyes, his cheeks flushed pink and his heart beat loudly in his chest. "I didn't get a chance to say this back in the Ghost World. But I… I love you too."

Those magic words left his mouth, setting both of their hearts aflutter. Molly beamed with that wonderful smile that soothed his nerves and brightened his world. A mutual happiness born of love made every hard moment leading up to this worth it. "Ollie!" Molly couldn't help but squeal his name.

Suddenly, Ollie looked away and the blush on his face deepened. A wobbly nervous smile accompanied his bashful demeanor. "So I-Since I didn't get to fully enjoy it under the circumstances I was hoping-um… do you think we could maybe kiss again?" He shyly requested.

Molly could feel her smile threatening to break her jaw. "I'd love to!" She hardly gave her boy a moment to prepare before she leaped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. Ollie caught her in his arms and felt his lips crash into hers. He had to take a step back to steady himself, not just from the momentum of her jumping at him, but also so he wouldn't faint from the overwhelming love filling his heart. This was it. This was that beautiful, romantic kiss they'd been waiting for. Ollie reciprocated the love Molly had given him, and Molly's heart had never been so full of the love Ollie had given her.

The kiss parted, yet the couple were still on cloud nine. Molly and Ollie lovingly leaned their foreheads together, soaking in this beautiful-

"Again?!" Scratch came back through the door, holding a root beer and pretending to be offended at the display of affection. "I already had to watch you two lovebirds suck faces once today!"

Chapter Text

"Hurry up, June! We'll be late!"

"My legs are not as long as yours, Ollie!"

The Chen siblings hurried down the streets of Brighton, trying to get to their destination on time. Their momentum was stopped by a busy intersection. They were forced to stop and wait until they could cross. The store beside them had a TV in front, playing some sort of infomercial that neither paid attention to at first. "-and now a word from the Chairman-"

Ollie's ears perked up at the word and he looked over. On screen there was a man dressed as a large couch with a crown on his head. "I'm a sofa darnnit!"

Stifling a laugh, Ollie turned back and continued waiting for the light to change. Hearing the word 'chairman' took him back, it had been a little over two years since his run as the Ghost Chairman. Life has changed since then-"Walk sign! Go!" He took his sister by the hand and led her across the road. Their destination was right around the corner.

The McGee's and Libby came into sight. Darryl pointed to the incoming duo and got Molly excitedly beckoning them. "Ollie! June! You made it!"

The Chen siblings reached their destination and stopped to catch their breaths. "We are so sorry we're late!" Ollie apologized.

"My latest drone had a slight malfunction-" It spontaneously combusted. "-and we had to clean it up." June explained. Perhaps using an untested homemade battery was not the best decision.

"You two are just in time." Molly assured her boyfriend and his sister.

Everyone had changed just a little bit over the last two years. They were all taller, and Molly's ponytail had gotten longer. June wore her hair in a low bun while Darryl's hair started to flop over from gravity. Molly and Ollie were sixteen now, and Libby would be sixteen in the fall. The three of them were going to be juniors in high school soon. Darryl and June, who were both fourteen, would be joining them as freshmen once school started. The middle school teachers had celebrated their freedom from the chaos and the high school staff dreaded their arrival.

The teens weren't the ones who'd changed the most. No, that went to Scratch. Two years ago they had discovered the truth that he was a wraith and he returned to his rightful body and assumed his real name: Todd Mortenson. He'd forgotten his time as a wraith and went on to live the life he'd always dreamt of. This was the same bus stop where Molly had seen him go and now-

"Here it comes!" Pete was the first to notice the bus heading their way. They were all eager, Molly in particular was bouncing on her heels with excitement. That bus couldn't stop any sooner for her, but when it did, a familiar figure quickly made his way to the door.

The aging fifty-something man grinned and greeted the welcome party. "What, no balloon arch spelling my name or a welcome back cake?" He teased the group while he set his suitcase down.

Molly couldn't hold herself back, she ran and hugged the man tight. "Scratch!"

Scratch returned the hug. "Heh, missed you too Moll."

Oh? Now this is a surprise. Todd remembers his time as Scratch. It happened exactly one year ago. As for HOW this happened… that's a story for next time. (Winks to audience)

Once Molly released her friend from her hug, he stretched out his arms and back. "Ugh, that bus was uncomfortable. Should've gotten a neck pillow." Uncomfortable ride or not, he'd promised his family that he'd return to Brighton each year on July 7th for a few days. This was the first anniversary of that day, and since then he'd been in frequent video contact with everyone. Scratch didn't travel back alone this time. He realized his companion still hadn't gotten off of the bus. "Adia?"

The older lady had heavier luggage than her friend. And she struggled to lift it down the aisle. "Why didn't I get one with wheels?" She asked herself.

Everyone noticed she needed help. Scratch turned to go back for her, but Ollie beat him to it. The teen ran up onto the bus and grabbed one end of the large suitcase. "Here, let me help."

Adia appreciated it. "Thanks." Together they took the luggage off the bus, Sharon and Molly joined in to lower it down the stairs. With the passenger and her baggage off, the bus closed its door and drove off. "Yeah, I'm not as light a traveler as Scratch is." Adia chuckled.

Now that Adia could put down her luggage, Molly came up close, eager to finally meet this woman face to face. "It's so good to see you outside my phone screen, Adia!" With age, came the restraint to not tackle her into a hug on the spot… but it was very tempting.

"I could say the same, I finally get to meet Scratch's other best friend in the flesh." Adia had first spoken with Molly the day Scratch returned to his body. She was unaware of what had occurred until the following year after Todd came back from a trip to Brighton, explaining to her about lost memories of being a ghost. She would have had a hard time believing him… if his friend Geoff hadn't come by to back him up.

"Welcome back to Brighton you two." Sharon stepped over next to her daughter, her husband and son joining her. "And it is our pleasure to meet you, Adia."

The McGee parents shook hands with their new friend, not exactly new, they'd spoken with her on video before. Scratch couldn't hide the joy on his face, his Adia from his Todd life and his family from his Scratch life were finally one big life. Molly nudged his side, "Go on, introduce her to everyone."

Scratch chuckled. "Sure, why not? Adia-" He extended his arm out towards three of the McGee's. "You already know Sharon and Pete. And also Darryl, who I'm sure has some amazing mischief he's going to get us into!"

"I can neither confirm nor deny that." Darryl smirked. "But if you survive you get a free shirt."

"'If' I survive?" Adia had heard of his exploits, and knew when he said 'if' he REALLY meant 'if'!

Wrapping his arm around Adia's shoulder, Scratch turned her to face the other teenagers all lined up to meet her. "And here's the rest of our Ghost Friends group, I'm sure you remember them from some of those photos. The boy with the swoopy bangs who helped with your luggage is Ollie Chen."

Ollie gave a sweet smile. "Nice to meet you."

"On his right is Libby. She can sniff out secrets and loves turtles." Scratch moved his arm to gesture to the next teen in the lineup.

Libby shyly gave a small wave. "Hi."

"Next up is June. Ollie's little sister and one of the smartest and most brutally honest kids you'll ever meet."

June adjusted her glasses and looked up. "Hello Adia, I've heard a lot about you from Molly and Scratch."

Scratch moved his arm out towards the last in the lineup. "And here's Geoff who-" Scratch stopped and did a double-take. "GEOFF!? When'd you get here!?" It wasn't just him, no one had noticed Geoff sneak his way into the group. Scratch had to admit it was pretty scary.

The ghost laughed. "Ah, I've been here since I came out of the portal." That answered absolutely nothing. Geoff stretched his arm over Scratch's head and held it out to his companion. "How've you been, Adia?"

Adia laughed and shook hands with the green ghoul. "I've been good. Thanks for asking." She'd already met Geoff many times over the year. As a ghost, he could open up a portal from the Ghost World to wherever he wants. Adia was a little jealous, that kind of fast travel would save tons of time and money.

Pete grabbed Adia's luggage, struggling to carry it on his own. "Let's-let's get you two settled in-" His eyes widened in dawning horror. He and the rest of his family WALKED there! They had to carry the luggage all the way home! The man bit his lip, trying not to whimper as he imagined the strain this would put on his back.

"Yeah!" Molly had a skip in her step as she led the way. "Let's drop off your stuff and then hit the town for some fun!"

The former ghost smirked. "You know it's too bad we didn't come in the winter. It'd be really fun to ride a toboggan." Right on cue, everyone simultaneously sneezed. Scratch cracked up. "Ahahaha-oh that is a great curse!"

OXOXOXOX

A few hours later, the group of Molly, Libby, Ollie, Scratch and Adia were out and about in Brighton. Sharon stayed back at the house with Pete, who'd been lying with an ice pack on his back. Geoff volunteered to help the Chaos Duo with an experiment, seeing if ectoplasm could be used to power a rebuilt drone. It was down to the initial four Ghost Friends to show Adia how much her hometown had changed since she was a kid.

"Behold! Brighton's own wind turbine factory!" Molly introduced their first stop.

Adia was beholding the once dilapidated factory, now renovated and back in business. "Wow, this sure is a sight to see."

Ollie excitedly shared what he thought was the best part. "And thanks to the power generated by the turbine's, Brighton's on its way to carbon neutrality!"

Scratch had his own piece to add. "The day this opened I couldn't enjoy it, I got sliced in half by Jinx and put on trial. It was also the day Molly killed death so-eh, sort of evens it out." He moved his hand like he was balancing a scale.

"Our next stop is-" with the magic of being written in text, the five were already at their next destination. "Ruben's Root Beer Pub!" Molly showed off the brewery.

Inside, Ruben already had a couple of bottles waiting for the group. "This is my dad." Ollie introduced Adia to the owner of the pub. "He started making root beer as a hobby, and, thanks to Molly, we found a way to turn it into a business." He gave a wink to his girlfriend.

Molly blushed at her boyfriend's gesture. "I really can't take credit. This was a group effort… I can, however, take credit for my idea of a hedgehog playpen. I still have not given up on that." The one feature of this establishment's inception that hadn't come to fruition. Molly wanted that hedgehog playpen. She wanted it so badly.

In a flash, the five of them moved to the next place. "The Brighton Bandshell!" Molly presented what she saw as the crown jewel of Brighton. Not to be confused with what was actually considered the crown jewel of Brighton, an overly shiny nickel on display at city hall.

Adia vaguely remembered hearing that there had once been a bandshell in town. Libby came up beside her and dropped some lore. "A tornado destroyed the original in the late seventies. Molly brought the whole town together to build this one."

"Don't forget who the true hero was. I stole a bus full of k-pop stars for the concert!" Scratch bragged.

"You also stole from a credit union." Molly recalled the little incident that happened during the fundraising.

"I put it back!"

Adia raised an eyebrow. "Wait, Todd, didn't you used to work at a credit union?" Silence fell over the group, the implications sunk in.

Moving on! The group stopped for a late lunch at their next destination. "This is the Thai restaurant run by my Grandma Nin!" Molly announced, though they were already sitting down at a table and eating. A little late to announce that, but it looked better for them to already be eating when the scene cut away.

Scratch talked with his mouth half-full of food. "It used to be Sam's Diner, till Nin took over and brought Sharon on to cook."

"What a memorable episode." Molly nodded, sipping her Thai tea. Yes, who could forget such an adventure where her mother rediscovered an artistic way to come to peace with her culinary past.

With another quick change of scenery, everyone was in the park. "This is the statue of Brighton's true hero and founder, Sally Tugbottom!" Molly gestured to the statue.

Time for Libby to drop even more lore onto the newcomer. "Her brother Ezekiel stole the credit for her actions, but we uncovered the truth and brought history to light!"

Ollie also had something to add. "Not to mention, Sally is also the current chairwoman of the Ghost World."

"You guys really have met some interesting ghosts." Adia was wowed. Scratch had mentioned meeting historical figures like Lincoln before, but it was hearing that him and the kids had met local icons she'd heard in her youth, such as Ezekiel Tugbottom or Sonia Davis that made this ghost stuff all the more special. The figures of yesteryear were still around to see their hometown find new life and flourish.

"Next up, this is the flaming pit caused by Darryl and June's shenanigans last week!" Molly took them to a gaping hole in the middle of the park grass. There were still embers burning inside, but none of the flames spread outside the pit.

Adia AND Scratch were puzzled by whatever the heck this was. "You said last week? It's still burning!" Scratch couldn't believe it.

Molly had gotten used to the inexplicable nature of the pit by this point. "Yeah, the fire won't go out. We all tried. But on the upside, people have been using the flaming pit to roast marshmallows!" She pointed over onto a corner of the sidewalk, where a vendor had set up a stand to sell marshmallows, hot dog wieners, and roasting sticks.

The older man's interest had been hooked. "Well, I'm sold! Long burn the pit!"

OXOXOXOX

After the visit to the flaming pit, Libby got a call from her mom and had to leave to help out at the book store. Their quintet down to a quartet, they ended their town tour and found someplace to relax. They found an open picnic table in the park and sat down.

"Brighton's definitely gotten a lot brighter since I lived here!" Adia remembered her hometown being in a downward slump when she left it. In all her years traveling around the globe, the thought of coming back to where she was born rarely crossed her mind. But seeing it with new life, and meeting the people that lived here, she understood why Scratch wanted her to come visit with him.

Molly was filled with pride for her town. "Yep! It's living up to its name!" Save for the random raccoon attacks and the strange abundance of bird deaths, it was a really nice place to live.

As much as Scratch loved sitting down, he'd actually been enjoying walking around after being stuck on a bus for a few hours. "After climbing mountains and trekking through the jungle, it makes a walk in the park REALLY feel like a walk in the park." He stretched his arms behind his back, hoping he wouldn't hear his old bones creak.

"Ooh! Is that what you did before you came here?" Molly's eyes sparkled with wonder. Scratch had kept quiet about his adventures for the past month so he'd have stories to tell Molly when he came to visit.

Adia was also reminded that her best friend hadn't had a chance to catch up with his other best friend since they arrived. "If you two want to take a walk and swap stories, go ahead."

The teen girl did want to spend some time with her long-distance bestie, though she didn't want to leave her boyfriend and her newer friend behind. "What about you two?"

"We'll be right here when you get back." Ollie was on the same page as Adia. Molly and Scratch had been apart for a year, they needed time to themselves.

Molly and Scratch accepted their offer and wandered off, the former leading the way with a promise of showing the man a tree she'd planted that had almost reached her height. It was down to just Ollie and Adia at the picnic table.

"Soooo…" Ollie tried to think of something to talk about. "Do you have any questions about… any of this? Like the town, ghosts, the flaming pit…"

Adia tapped her chin, there was something she'd heard that had her curious. "Actually, I would like to ask about a ghost thing."

Ollie breathed a bit of relief. "Oh, I can definitely answer any ghost questions! What would you like to know?"

"You said before that Sally Tugbottom is the current chairwoman of the Ghost World. How did that happen?" Adia asked, unaware of how connected Ollie was to the answer.

The boy froze momentarily, pulling himself back while trying to figure out how to explain this. Seriously, out of ANY question?! "First, how much has Scratch told you about the deal with the Chairman robe?"

"He told me he was the ruler of the Ghost World for a bit, then he trained his quote-unquote 'swoopy-haired protégée' to take over for-" Hold up. Hadn't Scratch referred to Ollie as 'swoopy-bangs' during his introduction? "Wait a minute, Scratch was talking about you wasn't he?!" Adia connected the dots.

"Yep. Scratch was my self-proclaimed mentor and cursing teacher." Ollie chuckled. "I was in charge after Scratch but had to step down after a few months. The robe chose Sally as my regent to rule until I become a real ghost." He couldn't have come up with anyone more suited than Sally. She was dependable, a good leader, and her bear was well-behaved towards the Ghost Council. She'd been passed up during the initial chairman search, but her actions had made her the runner-up for the position.

Adia raised an eyebrow. "Why'd you step down?" Oh boy, she was opening a can of worms. And she'd opened cans of worms before, her and Scratch went fishing once. He fell overboard and got a hook stuck up his nose-getting off-topic here.

Taking a deep breath, Ollie prepared himself. "It's kind of a long story-" Not too long if it got resolved by chapter 11. "But the same memory loss that Scratch went through when he was a wraith happened to me. Only it got accelerated by me burning myself out from overworking and constantly jumping in and out of my body."

"Oh, oh no." Adia was concerned by what she had just heard.

"Molly brought me back to my senses. I couldn't keep being the Chairman while I was still alive, so I had to give up my position for now." Ollie recounted.

Adia felt bad for bringing this up. Scratch had never mentioned anything about this and for a good reason. "I'm really sorry, that had to be difficult for you. No one at your age should have to deal with… well, all of that."

Ollie smiled sadly. "It's alright, I'm doing better now." He didn't immediately get better overnight, it took some time for Ollie to completely recover from the aftereffects of the incident. His physical and mental health took a big hit. He never needed everyone's support more than he did afterward. "It's thanks to my friends and family, they helped me heal and looked out for me."

"I've only met one member of your family, but I know you have amazing friends." Adia looked over in the direction Molly and Scratch had gone. Before she'd even met the rest of the Ghost Friends, she'd figured they were a strongly knit group.

Following her lead, Ollie also gazed out towards the park. "Yeah, they are amazing." One standout memory from school crossed his mind. "I was exhausted and low on energy, it took until right before middle school graduation to get my body feeling like it should. I had my gym final three days after that happened and I fainted during it. Libby was there, and she hauled me over to the nurses' office-"

"HEY YOU GUYS!"

A very distinct voice interrupted the conversation. The two could see Scratch off in the distance, shouting out loud instead of walking over to them. "THERE'S A LITTLE GIRL SELLING CUPCAKES! DO YOU WANT ANY?"

"Do you want one?" Adia turned to Ollie, who shook his head 'no'. "NO, THANKS, WE'RE GOOD!" She shouted back.

"COOL!" They could just barely see the man giving them a thumbs up before going out of sight again.

That happened. Now to pick the conversation back up. "That sounds like it was really rough." Adia empathized.

"It was," Ollie sighed. His mental health at the time had fared just about the same. "I only made it harder on myself. My stress levels were increased and my emotions felt out of whack. I was a mess." He gave a single, mirthless laugh. He'd always gotten nightmares when he was stressed out, long before moving to Brighton. Previous nightmares had involved guilt for his ghost hunting past, or his parents abandoning him if they found out he no longer hunted ghosts. The latest addition to his nightmare collection was losing himself, of what could have happened or if it happened again.

"I was beating myself up for unintentionally hurting the people I loved." His own family had thought they'd lost him. How could he have done that to them? "But they all understood I had no control over it. Everyone just gave me unconditional support and affection, and no one gave me more of that than Molly." Whether he needed to take a walk and get some fresh air, or when he felt super tired and needed a hug and a shoulder to cry on, Molly was there. She held his hand when he needed to ground himself out of his own head. She held him close and let him nuzzle up to her. And of course, they'd finally gotten to the point in their relationship where they would give each other kisses, ON THE LIPS!

Adia grinned. "You two are very close aren't you?" It wasn't hard to see that those two teens were crazy about each other. Ollie lit up when talking about his girlfriend, it was really sweet.

Ollie bashfully rubbed his neck. "We've been through a lot together these past few years. We even had our first real fight as a couple late into freshman year."

"Seriously?! What could possibly get you two into a fight?"

"Stage magic." Ollie spoke seriously. "It lasted two days and thirteen hours."

Moving on and not elaborating any further, Ollie continued with what he'd been saying before. "Molly has always been there for me when I needed her, and I've always done the same for her when she needed me." For as much as Molly helped him when he was at his lowest, he wished that she'd never need him to do the same for her. Then Scratch left. Losing Scratch really hurt Molly, but she knew he was happy and could support his second chance at life even if it meant not being a part of it.

Then, at the end of the same summer, sweet, old Patty passed away. Patty had no regerts so she did not become a ghost. Molly avoided grieving until she learned Patty wasn't a ghost, she was truly gone. She'd lost two friends that summer and her mental well-being took a dive for the first two weeks of high school. It took everyone to help her grieve and start healing, but it was Ollie that she truly opened up to about her feelings. "She's always got such a big heart. So when it's hurting…"

Adia figured what he meant. "Like when her best friend didn't remember her." Once she reunited with her childhood friend, Adia could tell someone else had given him the spark to live (though she had no idea how literal that was). He didn't know himself, but he confided in her that he still felt incomplete. He was missing an important piece of his soul.

"Yeah." Ollie confirmed sadly.

"It hurt when I left Todd when we were kids. And it hurt when he never followed through on meeting up as adults. There were so many times I would regret not answering his texts… and how badly I hurt him. But if he suddenly forgot all about me… I couldn't even imagine how I'd hold up." Adia confessed. She'd seen Molly as such a strong, bright girl. But to be that strong she needed people like Ollie by her side to restore her light when it starts to flicker.

"It wasn't easy for any of us, but after what we thought was the end, everything sorted itself back into place. I mean, just look at them now!" Ollie cracked a grin and pointed to where he could see Molly and Scratch in the middle of a conversation of their own.

Scratch was in the middle of recounting his past month of adventures to Molly. "-I even gave a monkey a shower!... I do NOT recommend it!" This earned a chortle from the girl.

The two at the table couldn't hear what the other two were talking about, but they could see the joy radiating off of them clear as day. "That girl truly does 'enhappify' everyone and everything around her. No wonder Todd started using that word… though I still don't get what 'sweet baby corn' means?"

"It's a catchphrase." While Ollie had no idea how that one got started, as a supportive boyfriend he accepted it as one of her cute quirks. "Enhappify is less of a catchphrase and more of her core ideal. I've got one too, 'engoodify'." Out of every person on the planet, he found the one who also had their own 'en-something-ify' mentality. Ollie knew pre-destined soulmates were not a thing (he checked), but he was certain the connection he and Molly had was special.

"Oh wow, there's another word. Think it'll bug Scratch if I use it?"

"Absolutely!"

"Wonderful!" Adia cracked a mischievous grin. She cared for her best friend more than anyone, yet sometimes it was fun to get on his nerves. Kept things from getting boring. "In all seriousness-" She went back to the prior subject. "It's very reassuring that you two have each other to help deal with trauma and the hard stuff."

Ollie caught the bittersweet way she kept her eyes down with a small smile. "That's how you and Scratch are too, isn't it?"

The boy saw right through her. Did this kid have a sixth sense for empathy or something? "Ever since we found each other again. He travels light, but his emotional baggage is heavier than the one you helped me get off the bus. Plenty of nights we'd stay up talking, sometimes it's just catching up on the little things, a lot of times it's rebuilding the trust and support we let break down over the years. Scratch-he's dealt with more than his share of difficult times and if there's any way I can help him manage his issues, then I will."

"You and Scratch are truly important to one another." Ollie could feel it in the weight of her words, the relationship once burned had been reforged into a stronger one. However, there was still something he wasn't sure of. "If you don't mind me asking, what IS the nature of your relationship with Scratch?"

"Come again?"

"I mean, are you two in a relationship or are you just friends…?" Ollie clarified, a little embarrassed to ask.

Adia needed to think about it… she'd say they were more than friends but not exactly romantic. With great timing, she spotted Scratch further out in the park still walking with Molly. The older woman cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted like they'd done earlier. "HEY SCRATCH! ARE WE DATING?"

The man in the distance paused, also trying to come up with the answer. "I DON'T KNOW!... DO YOU WANT TO?"

"SURE, WHY NOT?"

"COOL." She could see Scratch giving her a thumbs up, totally chill over what had just happened. Molly was not chill and could be seen freaking out around him.

Ollie was flabbergasted at how casual that was. Adia turned back around like it was no big deal. "Guess that answers that." Somehow it only raised further questions. Ollie was pretty sure these two weren't the types to kiss or go on dates. He should ask Andrea later if there's a better term for what describes their bond.

Remembering how their talk got started, Adia snapped back to another question she'd been holding onto. "Speaking of answers, I do want to ask you one last question." Ollie listened and gave her a nod to go ahead. "Since you're free from being the chairman, what's next for you? Do you have any other goal for yourself?"

Two years ago, the day before he got the robe, Ollie had been asking that very same question. He thought he'd found the answer, but it became much more complicated than he'd anticipated. He's grown and matured since then, and time has let him figure out how to answer that question. "You know, I really enjoyed helping ghosts figure out their unfinished business and letting them find closure. It really felt like I was making a difference to them. During my time recovering, and even months after when my stress would get really bad, I was on the other side of the process. My friends and family helped me manage how I was feeling, and Libby pushed me and Molly into talking to a therapist about… as much as we could without letting the truth about ghosts slip. Helping others and being helped, it's got me interested in becoming a therapist."

"Really?" Adia raised her brows in surprise.

"It's something I can do to help anyone, living or dead." Ollie had a lot of studying to do to reach his new-ish goal, but it would be worth it. He'd engoodify the world by helping those who were struggling with their own inner turmoils. It wasn't some grand plan to fix every problem out there, but it was what Ollie could give.

"I think that's a wonderful dream." Adia sincerely believed.

Ollie had one more dream for his future, one he didn't feel he needed to say aloud just yet. Once they were old enough, he wanted to get married to Molly. Then, further down the road, the two could start a family of their own. They were only sixteen now, they had many years before that dream could be realized. Even with those dreams for his future, Ollie wanted to live in the now. He only had one life after all.

"How about you, Adia? Do you and Scratch plan to keep traveling the world?" Ollie wondered, though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

The older lady grinned. "You bet! It took so long to realize our dream, we're going to travel and explore the earth probably till the day one of us dies. And who knows, maybe we'll move back to Brighton if we become ghosts."

"If that ever happens, we'd be happy to have you."

The sun was beginning to set, an orange hue had snuck up on the blue sky. Ollie saw movement from behind Adia and leaned to the side to get a better look. There was a bubbly girl excitedly waving at them. "Ollie! Adia!" Molly eagerly beckoned them over. Scratch stood by and let his best friend expend her energy rather than him.

Seeing their partner's coming back, Ollie and Adia got up and walked over to meet them halfway. The teenage boy felt butterflies in his chest when he saw his adorably happy girlfriend illuminated by the sun's golden rays. "Hey Molly, you two have fun?"

Molly reached out and took Ollie's hand in hers. "You two need to see this! There's a swarm of fireflies over by the park entrance! They look all bright and glowy like a thousand tiny stars!" Her eyes sparkled when she spoke. "Come on, we'll show you!" The enhappifier led the way with her companions in tow.

Scratch and Adia walked a few paces behind the young couple, getting into their own chat. "Adia, I realized that I have made a horrible mistake!"

"You finally realize orange shorts clash with that blue Hawaiian shirt of yours?" She guessed.

"Does it?!" Scratch gasped, boy he was not ready to hear about her opinions on his socks and sandals combo. "I mean it's supposed to be all lively colored to bring out my renewed vigor-Wait no that's not it! I realized all this time after remembering I was a ghost, we've never taken Sharkie to the ocean!"

Adia was well acquainted with the ghost shark he'd created. "I've never swam with a ghost shark before, you might be onto something." She'd swum with regular sharks (and one very confused dolphin), and Sharkie was much smarter than any of them. "We'd have to find a place with no endangered sea life. Can't risk another international incident."

"It was a NEAR-international incident! No one ever found out it was me who sat on that-"

Molly and Ollie were only sort of listening to the discussion behind them. The couple had caught each other's eyes and shared loving smiles. "So Olliepop, what were you and Adia talking about while we were off?" Molly tilted her head curiously, the remaining golden sunshine sparkling around her. Ollie still thought it wasn't as stunning as her resilient and loving heart.

Back to what she asked, Ollie coyly grinned and looked aside. "Not much, Mollberry. Just life… though I might have told her about this really awesome girl I know." The orange color of the sky lit up Ollie's features, most noticeably the soft way his eyes settled upon her. Molly had to contain her happy squeal while she leaned in closer to her boyfriend, forever grateful to have found this boy who loved her as much as she loved him.

Ollie rested his cheek against Molly's head while they walked. Life would continue on for everyone. There would be good times and bad times. But Ollie was never alone, he had Molly, his family, his friends, so many people to share in all that was to come. He was certain that they all had a bright future to look forward to!