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Jazz stepped back and stared at Danny. She waggled her finger to the left, and he moved over a couple inches so he wasn't directly in front of the window. Jazz released a very heavy sigh.
“You glow too much. It's a dead giveaway.”
Danny gaped. “Did you just make a ghost pun?”
“No, I used a cliche. Which you're supposed to know because that's something Mr. Lancer covers.”
“Pss. That was a ghost pun! I'm so proud of you.”
“And I'm rolling my eyes at you. You cannot enter an Invis-o-Bill lookalike contest as Invis-o-Bill!”
“I'm entering as Phantom-”
“Same thing,” Jazz huffed.
“It’s not as you know it.”
Jazz glared at him. Danny dropped his eyes to the floor.
“Look, I know it’s stupid-”
“I’m more concerned that it's dangerous. You entered under your own name, Danny! If you show up as a ghost, people are going to get real suspicious real fast. You can’t pass for human like that.”
Danny stuck out his arm. The glow around his ghost was rather noticeable. And perhaps more telling, hard to replicate with earthly means.
“Fine. I will not attend as myself. But I need that fifty dollars, Jazz!”
“You could just do your chores and earn your allowance.”
“That wouldn’t cover everything.”
“Uh-huh. And why are you talking to me about this anyway instead of Sam and Tucker?”
Danny blushed, looking out the window. Better to deal with the glare than his sister's knowing look. Eventually, he spat it out.
“It’s for a gift for them,” he muttered. “I want to get us tickets to a Doom concert.”
“Isn’t that a video game?”
“With a killer soundtrack! So please, help me win as a human so I can take them out. Please, please, please!” Danny threw himself at his sister.
With a heavy sigh, Jazz patted his hair. “Okay, little brother, let’s see what type of cosplaying tips we can find.”
Danny twisted in the mirror. They didn’t do half bad. A Fenton jumpsuit, dyed black, with some white gloves. They’d found white hair spray at the Halloween store. On his hip was a real Fenton Thermos. Gotta use everything he could to his advantage! They had been able to replicate the glow, sorta, by making a body paint out of very, very watered-down ectoplasm. It gave his skin a green tint, but oh well. The biggest concern was accidentally absorbing it before walking on stage.
He propped his fists on his hips and nodded at his reflection. He got this.
Jazz knocked on the bathroom door, sticking her head in. “Ready? Contestants have to be there in twenty.”
“What do you think?” He spun for her benefit.
“You look great. You’ll win for sure, Danny.”
The contest was held at Amity Park Park. There was a small stage and a large tent for contestants to hang out in before the contest kicked off. Danny was surprised by the number of people participating. He didn’t think he, ahem, Invis-o-Bill, was that popular. A smaller contest pool would have increased his chances of winning; he really, really wanted those tickets for Sam and Tucker.
He had it all planned out. How he’d ask them out, fan out the tickets, tell them how wonderful they were. All things that he couldn’t do until he bought the tickets, and he couldn’t do that unless he won.
Biting his lip, he signed in at the bottom of the sheet of paper. To his surprise, Paulina and Dash were on the list. As was Wes. A few names he didn’t recognize. All in all, a full dozen people across Amity Park were competing.
He planted himself in a corner to scope out the competition. There were a few younger kids, which Danny found enduring but also no threat. Paulina hadn’t even tried, simply dressed in a black body suit with white go-go boots. She aggressively scanned the tent, as if looking for someone, but her gaze kept flicking to the same corner where Dash talked to another participant. Putting aside the fact that Dash put way more effort into his costume than Danny expected, the guy he was talking to? Could give Danny a run for being Phantom.
He was tall and lanky, and his hair fell so naturally Danny knew it was dyed and not a wig or Danny’s own spray-paint dye. His jumpsuit looked like a functional latex unit, versus Dash’s lycra number, and, holy cow were those luminescent contacts? He was showing Dash some light under his gloves that produced a green glow in his palm, the light intensifying Dash's jealousy.
Danny picked at a stiff lock of hair in front of his forehead. Frowned at the glowing body paint that he had been slowly absorbing. Rubbed over a part of the dyed white hasmamt suit that hadn’t taken to the color properly.
He was going to lose his own look-alike contest!
“Okay, Fenton.” Paulina slid up next to him. “It looks like we both don’t want Wes to win. So how-”
“That’s Wes?!”
Paulina blinked at him. “You couldn’t tell?”
“No!”
“Huh. I guess hair color can change how someone looks.”
Danny swallowed his tongue.
“Anyway, I knew it was him because he asked me for my stylist last week. I can’t believe he got his hair done for this. A dye job like that is more than the prize.”
“Maybe he’s a fan?”
“I’m a fan. And I’m going to win this Invis-o-Bill contest, and then Invis-o-Bill will take me on a flight as a prize.”
“Pretty sure the prize was fifty dollars-”
“Invis-o-Bill is going to take me on a flight! But only if I get his attention by winning. And you’re obviously not-”
“Excuse you. I could win this. You didn’t even do your hair!”
“So I think we need to team up and make sure Wes loses.”
If it was between him and Paulina, Danny was winning. “We might have to take out Dash too.”
She pursed her lips. “Dash doesn’t have the same build. Invis-o-bill has more of a swimmer's body. Plus, you see his shoes? They’re not even solid white!”
No, but Dash’s converses had been painted with blob ghosts. Again, Danny was impressed by Dash’s effort and interest in his ghost self. Pity the jock couldn’t direct a fraction of that positive energy toward his grades.
“Fine. We’ll just take down Wes. Do you have a plan?”
“We need to scar him.”
Danny choked. “What? You want to, what, slash his face?”
Paulina sniffed. “This is why you’re a loser. No, I don’t mean give him an actual scar. I just mean we have to make him ugly. Get his face dirty. Slash his costume. Do you have any of your parents' weapons on you? One of those ray guns?”
No, and he regretted it. He could have faked a ecto-ray with a gun and cemented a win.
“Just the thermos.”
“Does it suck up humans?”
“ I am not sucking Wes into a theramos, Paulina.”
“Reason number two you’re a loser - you don’t have conviction.”
Oh, Danny had plenty of conviction! But he wasn’t going to actually hurt someone.
“You know, Phan-, Invisi-o-Bill,” God, Danny couldn’t wait until his actual name caught on, “would never take you on a flight.”
With a huff, he marched toward Dash and Wes. While he agreed Wes could not be allowed to win, there had to be a better way.
“Wes.”
“Fenton.”
They stared at each other, neither blinking. Dash coughed into his fist.
“Didn’t realize you were a fan, Fenturd. I thought with your parents-”
“Not my parents. Now go away, Dash. Paulina was looking for you, and I need to talk to Wes.”
Dash looked between Danny and Wes, both still trying to pin the other to the floor by eyesight alone. “Yeah. I’ll go…find Paulina.”
“Why are you here, Wes? And why’d you dye your hair? Getting too many carrot top jokes?”
Wes swept invisible strands away from the side of his face. “What, this? See, I had this theory. That inverting your hair color does nothing to hide the shape of your face.”
“Well, it failed. I didn’t realize it was you.”
“But I knew immediately it was you.”
“You’re seeing things. Now, why are you here?”
“The fifty dollars.”
“Your outfit costs more than that, you’re in the hole if you win. Why are you really here?”
Wes leaned in close. “I’m going to make all of Amity Park see that a color change doesn’t do shit to hide someone’s identity. They're still recognizable. You’re Invis-o-Bill. Or Phantom. Or whatever name you go by.”
“One, I’m not. And two, all you’re proving is that you’re a really good cosplayer. “
“Why are you here, Fenton? I thought you’d avoid a contest like this.”
Danny grit his teeth. He couldn’t say ‘easy money’. He didn’t want Wes to think he was desperate.
But he was. He needed that fifty dollars. He’d saved for the Doom concert; he was so close and he was running out of time to buy tickets. Those tickets would be the perfect first date to take Sam and Tucker on. He needed to win.
“I had nothing better to do on a Saturday.”
The screech of microphone feedback had them both wince. Danny heard someone mutter sorry a few times before the sound cleared up.
“Welcome to Amity Park’s first Invis-o-Bill look-a-like contest. He might be able to turn invisible, but we still see and support him.”
Like seeing the effort some people put into their costumes, Danny was touched. It was nice to know not everyone in town hated him.
“Now, here’s how this is gonna go. I’ll announce a candidate’s name and number, and they’ll come out of the tent and line up here on stage. We have a panel of judges up front, but you get to vote too! Text BILL, that’s two-four-five-five, to vote for your favorite. Are you ready?”
The crowd screamed. Not as much as at a Humpty Dumpty concert, but a respectable volume for a community mid-Saturday event.
“Contestant number one, Paulina Sanchez!”
“Look,” Wes said, whirling on Danny. “Everyone will see my white hair and know it’s me, just like they’ll see your white hair and know it’s you. And then they’ll realize hair color doesn’t actually matter, and they’ll stop thinking you can’t be Phantom because you have black hair, and then-”
“Contestant number five, Wes Weston!”
Wes made an ‘I’m watching you’ sign and stormed out of the tent.
Thanks to ghostly hearing, Danny could pick up a few loud comments from the crowd.
No way, that’s Wes?
I would never have known. I’m so used to him with red hair.
He looks like, really good in that tight suit.
Same body type. Similar build. I never would have guessed in school, but with his freckles covered and hair dyed….
Look, he even poses for a ghost ray like him!
Danny looked down at his costume. The makeshift glow paint was gone, fully absorbed into his skin. His jumpsuit looked more grey now than black. And what was he thinking, walking on stage with a Fenton Thermos. He didn’t carry one around on his hip as a ghost. It was all wrong. Wes was going to win!
He looked around the tent. Only three people hadn’t been called. If he was last, he could transform. Go out as Phantom and totally win the fifty dollars. No one would see him change! But Wes would notice the change in costume. Paulina too, and maybe Dash.
He really wanted to take Sam and Tucker to that concert…
But Jazz’s voice in his head held him back. It was a bad idea, for so many reasons. Besides, it would serve Wes right if he won.
Quickly, Danny pulled out his phone and texted ‘Wes’ to 2455. He hit send just as the announcer called his name.
The stage was crowded with all the contestants, but Danny found a spot behind a child and next to Dash. He rocked on his feet and waved to people with the thermos in his hand. It was a struggle to keep up his smile, and the announcer kept reminding everyone to text their votes.
The panel of judges was, of all people, Lance Thunder, Mr. Lancer, and who Danny thought was the night manager at Nasty Burger. He for sure cruised through that place too often as a ghost if that dude was considered an expert in his looks.
His eyes caught a flash of red hair, Jazz lingering in the back of the crowd. For her, he smiled. He avoided going the dead giveaway route, conceding that Wes was going to win and the prize money not landing in his own hands. She, at least, would be proud of him.
It didn't take much time for the judges to pick a winner, and the popular vote was so skewed they closed the poll early. Wes kept trying to stare Danny down, but for once Dash’s large shoulders were a boon: they were easy to hide behind. Danny kept shifting to put Dash between him and Wes.
“Everyone, please thank all our contestants! We had a greater turnout than expected, and I'm sure Invis-o-Bill appreciates the support.”
“Where is he?” Paulina whined, looking at the sky.
Wes pointed at Danny, but she didn't notice.
“But it's time to announce our winner, and it’s Wes Weston!”
“No!” Wes screamed, “My hair changed color, but it's still my face and I look NOTHING like him. You should have voted for Fenton.”
“Him?” Paulina wrinkled her nose. “Fenton is skinny, but Invis-o-Bill is fit.” She gave Wes a once-over, narrowing her eyes. “Basketball fit.”
“I think you're right, Paulina.” Danny leaned around Dash to show Wes a flash of teeth. “Wes looks so much like Invis-o-Bill. How do we know he's not? And just pretending to be alive.”
Wes sputtered. “You have his face! You have his weapon!”
“I could get you a thermos if you really wanted.”
“I want you to admit you're a ghost!” Wes yelled.
The park went silent until someone in the crowd coughed. Wes deflated, shoulders slumping, and Danny felt a little bad for needling him in public. He didn't want to town to think Wes was crazy, just wrong.
“So,” the announcer drawled, “if you don't want to win are you dropping out of the contest?”
“No,” Wes spat. “I could use that money.”
The announcer placed a crisp fifty-dollar bill in his hand. Wes huffed and marched across the stage to the tent. Slowly, the rest of the contestants followed.
“I don't know why he thinks a dweeb like you is Invis-o-Bill.” Dash said, pushing Danny out of his way to get to the stairs first. “He's a much better fit.”
“Misdirection,” Danny dry panned. “He wants to convince you he's not, because he is.”
Paulina’s head snapped toward Wes’s retreating back. He would feel a little jealous at the attention Paulina would give Wes, except Danny was pretty sure Wes wasn't into Paulina. Or girls. That guy had a lot of feelings bottled up.
Danny tripped over his own feet at the thought that Wes's finger pointing was pigtail pulling, but shook it off. Tucker and Sam had his bi heart.
Once in the tent, Danny regretted coming in costume. He itched to remove the jumpsuit, wash the grey paint from his hair. He strode right through the prep space to the other side of the crowd, where Jazz stood waiting.
“I had my fingers crossed the whole time, hoping you wouldn’t do something stupid like transform.”
“Hey!”
“And you didn’t. Because you're actually pretty wise when you stop to think, little brother.” Jazz leaned down to kiss his forehead.
Danny left the lip smudge.
“Thanks,” he muttered. “You were right, entering was a risk. I’m glad I did though, just to mess with Wes.”
“And here I was, thinking you were mature.” Jazz slipped a few bills from her pocket. “I guess you don’t deserve this then.”
“Jazz…”
“I know how much you want to take Sam and Tucker out. So, I talked to Mrs. Fisher next door. If you rake her leaves next weekend and the one after that, she’ll pay you fifty. So this is a loan from me. I expect you to rake those leaves and pay me back.”
Danny wrapped his arms around her tightly. “You’re the best.”
Jazz returned the hug. “Anything for you, little brother.”