For a change of pace, someone mentioned having Lancer's POV and thought that it was a really good idea to mix things up a bit. No one needs to remind me on the lack of update for any of my stories. I am completely aware of that and annoyed with myself on my inability to produce any piece of material I'm happy with, but on the bright side, at least my wording, phrasing, and grammar has improved thanks to my beta-reader.

Please enjoy now.

Chapter 10

(Lancer's POV)

How in the name of William Shakespeare could this have possibly happened, of all things? To have my entire class taken to some strange world and have them taken out into these wild lands on their own for some prize like one of those reality shows on television these kids nowadays are so wrapped up around. These were children for the love of Ernest Hemingway! Naïve, undisciplined, unruly children, most who've probably never had to face anything like this at all, and to have them out there on their own against who knows what!?

My mind was just completely at a lost at what to do. Yet a nagging feeling inside me couldn't help but make me feel like this was partly my fault as well.

I was the adult, their teacher, and their current guardian. It had been my job to ensure their safety, and I had failed. As a teacher I had failed; twenty years of experience and I have nothing to be proud of if I'm so incompetent to let those kids go off all alone like, like on… some playground treasure hunt!

Sighing, I held my head between my hands, as if to keep it from breaking apart. If I had hair I'm pretty sure I would have yanked all of it out by now. This whole situation was so frustrating and in all my years as an educator it made absolutely no sense. There were just too many gaps, gaps that seemed to be getting bigger and bigger with no answers to fill them. Though I prided myself as being a well-educated man I couldn't come up with anything logical to explain several dilemmas and questions I have had since arriving here.

What in the right mind had me actually letting those children go off like that? What was it that was holding me back from clearly stating my disagreement in this whole charade? Ghosts I can handle, as strange as that may be. After all, Casper High is one of the hot spots for ghost attacks to occur. The paranormal beings of what used to be just myths attacking Amity Park is also easy to digest, but this!

It was just too much. I'm more than certain that as soon as I get back home I'll break my diet that I had been working on for the last two years.

There was no one else around, I couldn't stand stay close to the camp where I had last seen my students, and had walked off a bit to try and clear my head of all these pieces that just weren't connecting. I was so absorbed in my own panicked state of mind that I didn't notice that I now had some company.

"Lovely night isn't it?"

"GAH!!!!!"

I nearly leapt out of my skin by the sudden appearance of the same strange little man we had encountered when we had first arrived in this peculiar place. Clutching at my pounding heart I couldn't help but gape at him as he softly chuckled.

"I'm sorry," he said, leaning over on his staff. "I didn't mean to frighten you like that."

"N-N-Not at all," I replied, trying to get my breathing back to normal.

The man walked over to my side and gazed up at the sky that could be seen through the trees with his hands behind his back. "Lovely night, eh?" he repeated.

"I suppose."

"Did you know that the night sky from your world and the night sky from this one are exactly the same?"

"No, I didn't," I admitted, now looking up at the sky as well. Now that he mentioned it… There were some similarities, a lot actually. The same constellations that could be seen this time of year could be seen here and I'm pretty sure that if I didn't know better I'd say I was looking up at the stars from my apartment.

He smiled gently and turned to me and said, "Yes, people can learn the most surprising things if they'd only stop to pay attention and try to care."

Déjà vu!

"That's what I usually tell my students…" I muttered. It came out louder and much bitter than I had intended. I hoped I hadn't offended…um…

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "But I didn't catch your name."

"Oh don't worry; my name isn't important right now. After all, isn't it the names of your students that are currently occupying your mind?"

I opened my mouth to say something but I couldn't because it was the truth…Wait a minute! I glance over at the man humming softly to himself. 'How did he know that though?' I wondered.

Once again, it seemed like this strange person was reading my thoughts.

"Oh I don't have to be able to read thoughts to know that you're worried about your charges," he answered knowingly. "You are their teacher and you do have a responsibility to watch over them, so it's only natural that you feel concerned about their well being." His shoulders shook with silent laughter. "And not mention that you have been talking to yourself over here for the past half hour." A blush rose to my cheeks. "And, forgive if I had been rude, but I couldn't help over hearing some of your descriptions that you gave some of your students." He closed his eyes and sighed contently before opening his eyes again and once more returning to observe the sky.

"Yes, well I um…" I cleared my throat and followed his gaze upward.

"You seem to know a bit about them." He stated casually, still looking up.

"Well, yes, as their teacher for nearly two years now I would like to think so," I replied.

"And yet with the young there is only one thing that is for certain."

"And what is that?" I inquired curiously.

He turned to face me with another knowing smile, looking up (since he was a very small man). He waited a bit before giving his answer.

"They always find a way to surprise all those whom come before them." There was an undisputable truth in that statement; after all, kids these days tend to keep a lot to themselves.

"Now then, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask you bit about some of your students." I stared at him a bit surprised. This certainly came out of the blue, and I wasn't used to being asked that question by a stranger.

He must have mistaken my expression and quickly apologized, "Oh! I didn't mean to be rude, but I was a tad curious."

"Oh, no, you weren't being rude," I assured him with what I hoped was a convincing smile. "I was just surprised by the question that's all." I quickly explained, "It's just unusual for me to talk about my students outside of school or work hours."

"And why is that?" He raised an eyebrow at me. "I was given the impression that you care deeply for you pupils."

"I do." I immediately replied, a little angry that this man was implying that I didn't care. Any good teacher would care.

He wasn't in the slightest offended by my tone and just ignored it, chuckling silently to himself. "Well of course you do that much is obvious!" He declared, taking his staff and pointing it (quite rudely I may add) at my face. "It's written all over your face." He laughed. "I'm just surprised that you're not someone who likes to brag about the accomplishments that your charges have achieved."

"Well that depends on what you mean by accomplishments…" I muttered under my breath.

He cocked his head, staring at me with a strange look. "And what is it that you are hoping for your students then?"

I sighed as memories after memories of students whom I knew had the potential to do well but for some reason chose not to, rushed through my mind. "I'm hoping for them to apply themselves a bit more towards something that will actually benefit them in the future instead of wasting their precious youth on frivolous teenage things."

"Hmm… I suppose you are referring to academics then?" My new companion pressed on, absently observing the ground.

"Not just that. Their school work would be a nice start, but to also get involved in constructive activities instead of 'chilling' and 'hanging with their dogs'." I used air quotations to emphasize my point, I honestly don't understand much of the way kids talk these days. For the love of Oliver Twist there were times where it was like hearing a completely different language being spoken right outside my classroom, and it makes me wonder if these kids will ever speak in proper English. I couldn't help but sigh in frustration once more. "Many of them are bright, but that brightness just goes in the wrong direction."

"Is that so…?" The smaller gentleman next to be stroked his chin before asking curiously. "And which one of your students would you be referring to?"

I bit my lip, unsure if it was ethical to talk about my students in this way with someone whom I've met just a little over forty-eight hours ago, but something inside of me was in deep need of someone listening to me for once. A teacher I may be in a school where I teach over one-hundred and eighty students a day it was rare to find even two who actually listened to me when I'm talking.

Then again, I didn't have to actually name my students.

After a moment I answered. "There are several students whom I know have potential but just don't use it. One of my students particularly…" Yes, when it came to unused potential this one name always jumped into my mind. "He's very bright and clever," which was true. There were instances of pure genius in some cases such as last week when he had somehow managed to come up with a perfect solution that instantly froze an accidental fire in the Chemistry lab before it burned down half the room. "And has shown some signs of leadership," I still have a hard time believing that the same boy who was constantly used as a scrape goat by the football team led a group of teenagers in a battle against ghosts and then did the same thing except this time to fight Mayor Master's new policies. "All in all, this young adult has all the qualities of a good student and someday being great but…" I trailed off unsure how to phrase my thoughts.

"But…?" the smaller man beside me started to drag the staff in his hands in the ground, drawing strange shapes.

I let out what felt like my millionth sigh within this hour. "But he chooses not to and even sometimes hides those qualities." I might not be the most observant of teachers but I do try to keep tabs on most of my students, especially the more extreme cases. The one thing about this student (whom I refuse to name in order to give the young man a sense of privacy) is that right from the start he had been the shy type and not really wanting to draw much attention to himself, and yet somehow managed to, and in completely creative and rather unusual ways.

Though I can pretty much guess where the unusual part comes from…

As for the creative part…well, in all my years of teaching I've never met a student who could come up with even a quarter of the things he and his companions have pulled in the last year and a half they've been at the school. It's still a mystery to the entire school board and fire marshal how a fifteen year old managed to sneak into the school's power box and completely rewire the entire system without being caught and without setting anything on fire.

"It's just so frustrating sometimes to see a student like that not reaching their full potential and on purpose at that!" I threw up my arms out of at least a year's worth of exasperation related to this student.

The yet to be named gentleman next to me didn't say a thing and merely started humming again. After a minute he spoke, "Maybe this student is just channeling it towards something else…?"

I shook my head at that. "No, this student doesn't participate any of the school's extracurricular activities and as far as I know he doesn't seem to have any other activities that aren't school related."

"Are you certain of this?" He raised an eyebrow in mirth. What was so funny about this I have absolutely no idea. "Those of the younger generation do tend to keep a lot of secrets from the older one."

He had a point there. Teenagers these days just never found it in them to go to an adult for help, no matter how badly they need it. They either choose to deal with the problem themselves, turn to their friends for help, or not do anything about it and just ignore it hoping it would go away. I can understand why adolescents wouldn't want to get help by someone much older than them, I was young too. No matter what the bathroom wall in the teachers lounge says I am not that old. But what I don't understand is the extremes that some of these children will go to and actually try to hide them.

I've noticed a lot about this school, such as how Polly Henderson from my third period class has been suffering from depression since her parents got a divorce or how Jason Luker has some sort of reading difficulty but has too much pride to get the help he needs, no matter how many times I recommend it. Or about how Paulina Sanchez had to attend a special camp last summer because of an eating disorder.

I am not blind to what happens to my students.

It seemed to me that today's kids saw it as 'cool' to be able to prove themselves as strong by dealing with these burdens themselves. If they survived it made them stronger but if they didn't… it would make them seem as weak or even strange by the other children, who are sure to torment for them and to top it all off they;d have to deal with the consequences that follow.

Over all, this world has seemed to have turned into some survival game itself and innocent kids are the players. There's only so much that a teacher can do to help and sometimes it just isn't enough.

"I just wish that… (sigh) I don't know… that… these kids could at least turn to each other for support and know that they don't always have to deal with everything themselves."

The night seemed to have gotten a bit calmer since the time that I came out here. For once, I allowed myself a moment of peace from the chaotic processes of my mind and just enjoyed the evening sounds. I didn't even notice that my companion for this evening had left and was now walking away from me until he spoke up.

"Your feeling towards these children is admirable you know." He looked back and smiled gently at me. Somehow that smile seemed as though it was looking straight through me. "But sometimes certain lessons have to be learned through hardships, even if that means not having someone around to share the pain." Bending down he picked up a simple stone from the ground and held it up in his hand. "Even the roughest edges can be smoothed out with the right amount of patience and conditions, and in the end something precious can be found underneath the harshness that was once there. It's merely a matter of paying attention long enough to notice the changes." He placed the stone back on the ground and continued on his way, leaving me behind to ponder over his words.

"OH! I almost forgot!" He called out. "There something that you need to see back at the camp, just come back when you're ready."

I blinked at him and just stood there watching him retreat back the way he came. Why did it seem that the longer I stayed here the more and more I realized that nothing of so many years of college or any number of educational degrees or PhD's could possibly come close to explaining what I have seen and been through over the past two days. Suddenly memories of those three years of therapy started to resurface and a feeling of dread that I'd be signing up for another three years once I got myself and my students back to Amity Park.

Amity Park…

I didn't even want to think about the angry parents and press coverage I'd have to deal with when we all got back. True, ghost related activities was a normal topic on the news these days but having a massive kidnapping that involved an entire classroom of Casper High students would be sure to be all over the front page of the paper.

Or at least page three.

Ghosts had always been an extremely large headache to deal with, ever since that one ghost with an obsession with meat showed up and completely desecrated the exterior west field of the school. And with an increase in the number of ghosts since that time there have been multiple law suits and the school budget had been stretched as far as it could possibly go with all the ghost related damages the school has had to pay for.

Heaven knows the number of times that the Feds had come over to the school to question the kids there about the ghost boy. Honestly, if those men haven't been able to catch the ghost boy that had almost all the female students falling head over heels for him I doubt they'd be able to catch him any time soon. Everyone in the country was becoming familiar with the signature sight of snow white hair and glowing emerald eyes.

The ghost boy of Amity Park was fast, strong, and smart. A powerful and deadly combination, in a way it made sense for so many ghost hunters to try and take him down. There was just no telling what a ghost like that would do if he one day decided to turn evil. He may cause thousands of dollars of damage around the city but there was one thing for certain that most of the residents in Amity Park understood; the ghost boy kept other ghosts out. Maybe it was because the ghost entity was territorial or Amity Park was his final resting place or some other theory that ghost experts have come up with but there was no denying that Phantom mostly fought ghosts and never any human who wasn't a ghost hunter.

At least ninety-nine percent of the population at Casper High has seen the ghost boy fight off another ghost at least on five different occasions. I've seen the ghost boy myself plenty of times and many of those times it was for a brief moment before I was running away the other way. The few times that I have, unfortunately, remained long enough to actually witness the ghost boy fight I've managed to realize that the ghost boy was very very good at what he did.

His fighting style was calculated and unpredictable and just by the look in the ghost boy's eyes it could be easily seen that Phantom doesn't stop planning his next move and using the recourses he has around him to his advantage with some of the most ingenious strategies I've ever seen. I never even heard of the CIA acting with as much precision and accuracy as the ghost boy integrated in his battles.

I had a feeling that if the ghost boy was actually alive and went to Casper High then he would most likely have been one of the most brilliant of students that the state had ever seen, and would have, without a doubt, gone off to do great things. It was such a rare thing to find a student, let alone a teenager, with that much focus and concentration and actually used those qualities to their best advantage.

I a sense of longing washed through me when I thought of my own students, wishing that at least a few of them had some the same characteristics as the ghost boy. Not the destructive and dangerous ones, mind you, but the ones that made it possible for the ghostly teen to defeat much larger opponents despite the odds. A public menace or not one couldn't help but admire that sort of fighting spirit.

As I made my way back I pushed away the puzzles that clouded my mind but that was a mistake on my part, as soon as those thoughts were gone images about the gruesome fate of my students came with celerity sending me back into a maelstrom of a migraine. Sometimes I wondered why I even got into the profession of teaching; it certainly didn't pay much that was for sure. A truck driver probably makes more money than I do, and they don't have to go through ten years of higher education to do it.

Maybe my mother was right… I should have become a dentist instead.

"!!!!!!!!!!!! I WAN'T TO GO HHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMME!!!!!!"

"I WANT MY MOMMY!"

"I WANT REAL FOOD!!!!"

"I MISS MY BLANKEY!"

Sense and Sensibility! With all that my mental health has had to go through the past two days all this noise was not helping, I thought with irritation. Wait a minute? Noise?

Why would there be noise, it's been quiet ever since the kids were all sent on their way to fend for their lives so why would there be—unless… I came to a complete halt as the realization slammed into me like a bullet train. Was I imagining it?

"This place SUCKS! Yo, when I get home I'm gonna slam the school with a whole much of litigators and stuff."

"Ugh! My hair is like so ruined, I'm NEVER going outside again, there were all these huge bugs!"

"I'm missing the new episode of How to be a Super Hot Cheerleader! Hailey had just got back together with Chris after he cheated on her with her friend's cousin's sister's aunt's brother's girlfriend!"

The mispronunciation of words, the mindless gossip about the latest television sensation about spoiled teenagers, the constant complaints about clothes and hair! I'd recognize this sort of meaningless whining anywhere! But could it truly be…? I ran as fast as I could, the voices of my students getting louder as I approached. When the camp got into view I saw not one but several, at least twelve students, all there and all in one piece. A wave of relief undulated through me. True, it wasn't all of my class but I has at least a third of the way there.

"Children!" I cried out joyfully. Seeing them completely unharmed brought me nearly to tears. There might just be hope that there wouldn't be as many lawsuits as I initially feared.

They all turned in my direction before rushing over to meet me halfway. By the look of their faces they probably missed having a wise and strong and educational role model around to guide them. Like a dam breaking loose they all started an outcry that most likely broke my eardrums.

"…I want to go home!"

"…Where's Star and Paulina?!"

"…How could you let this happen?!"

"…Where's the bathroom!?!"

They were all talking at once, trying to get my attention. How ironic is it that the one time I get students wanting to pay attention to what I have to say for once it is absolute chaos? White Fang! This was even worse than the end of the year concert last year when that band… what were they're names again…? Dumpy Monkey… Eggy Weggy, Hickery Doo…? Oh, never mind! I have no time to dabble on the ridiculous names of the bands that these kids were in to today. The point is that this was worse than that.

"Huckleberry Finn!!!! Everybody calm down!!!" I bellowed. Instantly my students hushed down and I could finally speak clearly to them. This is where years of handling teenage mobs can come in handy. "First things first, I will call out roll and if you're here please call out here or raise your hand." I knew that order had to be established first and these kids need order, whether they like it or not. It helped to keep them calm and more importantly it gave me some reign of control over the situation, no matter how trivial it may be. "Alright then… Nathan!"

"Here." Good, one less student I don't have to worry about.

"Kevin."

"Here."

"Dash."

Silence… there was no response. I called out again and still no response. Some of the students began to look on the verge of panicking so I continued calling out names, making sure to keep a mental tab on who was here and who wasn't.

"Ashley."

"Here."

"Mikey."

"H-Here."

"Joshua."

"Here."

And so it went on until at the end of the role call I had counted all but eight students here. Besides Dash Baxter the other missing students included Paulina Sanchez, Tucker Foley, Star Conners, Danny Fenton, Valerie Grey, Kwan Su and Sam Manson. Even though I only had eight students left there were multiple possibilities as to why they have yet to return like their fellow classmates, none of the scenarios playing in my mind right now were exactly pleasant reasons either.

'Calm down.' I told myself, 'Focus on the students you have right now and try to find out what happened.'

The students were now starting to talk amongst themselves in scared tones when it was clear to everyone as to just whom was still missing. Various theories were already floating around about them being dead, actually winning this ludicrous game, or even one about being made Spider Queen or some nonsense. (Though most likely that last one was about Samantha Manson…) I let out a mental sigh. What was I to expect from teenagers after all, gossiping seemed to be a natural instinct to them. Although it wasn't their sudden creation to rumors as it was that I found more than half of those likely, considering our situation and all that has occurred in the last few days.

"Children!" All talking stopped and for once I had their undivided attention. Maybe there was something good out of this forsaken place after all… "I'd like for each of you to tell me, one at a time what happened."

I should have known that it wouldn't last. The words 'one at a time' obviously translated to 'Shout as Loud as You Can at the Man Who Might Just Need Hearing Aids Next Year' in teen slang. A rush of words poured out of over twenty students' mouths and all that I could gather were a few bits and pieces that made sense.

"—there were these huge bugs that tried to kill us!—"

"—so gross and slime everywhere—"

"—nothing to eat but mush—"

"—dead bug and we thought it'd be cool to write with it on the ground—"

"—some creepy message that looked just like the one on episode two sixty-eight of Galatic Battle—"

"—my hair got ruined!—"

"—wish we could've taken a picture of it though—"

"—I hate camping!—"

I really hate my job sometimes…

(Several Hours Later…)

I leaned heavily against a tree trying to get something solid to anchor me to what little sanity I had left.

After countless tales about the misadventures of my currently present students, I had just about aged another ten years from having to deal with their ramblings. There were a few pieces of information that I managed to make even the slightest of coherent sense that actually helped my mind process everything at once.

Apparently, the students had either woken up alone or near some other student, each of them with the supplies they had been given prior to the start of this absurd contest. I've also managed to gather that all of the students were involved in some sort of danger involving large and grotesque creatures or unique plant life. Some of the females in the group had broken nails, and apparently Mickey and Lester had found the corpse of a dead creature and wrote with its bodily fluid on the ground before they had realized that they didn't have a camera…

Stranded out in the middle of a forsaken jungle and these kids still managed to only think about imitating television? And yet they can't even do the reading assignments I give weeks in advance.

Another peculiar thing that has come to my attention was that as soon as the students were in any sort of mortal peril, and in some cases, reduced to a sobbing train wreck the necklace that was also given to each of them started to glow and the next thing they knew they were only a few miles away from where we had all started. Also, it had been that strange man I had been conversing with earlier that had led them back here as well.

All in all, after two days of mental apprehension on my part, I was no closer to knowing what was going on here as Edgar Allen Poe was at not being considered partially insane.

'…'

I REALLY should have been a dentist.

Well that's enough since this was about over 4,000 words long and that's all I could write about Lancer without having to drone on and on like he is known to do. I'm sorry that this took so damn long to actually get out. I know that I really haven't been updating at all (see nonexistent). I've been trying to get my mind back on track with my stories since my goal is to have at least ONE finished before I graduate high school next year.

Thank-you so much to everyone who has been waiting for this, you've all been extremely patient with me. And thanks to the person who actually gave me the idea to have Lancer in this one Luiz4200.

Thank-you to my amazing beta-reader inukagome15 who never ceases to make me grateful for her great editing with this story, I suck at grammar and punctuation. Just take one look at any of my rough drafts and you'll find ten errors in one sentence.

I'm still not sure as to whom I will be depicting in the next chapter but I'm guessing that I ought to show what's been going on with the others huh? Let's see… I've done Dash, Paulina, Sam, Kwan, Star, and now Lancer. That leaves only Valerie, Tucker and Danny… Damn it! There might not me enough characters to finish unless the chapters are really long or I make it into part 1 and 2 or repeat some of the characters.