Lancer passed out the tests and sat down at his desk to read his book, but for the first time in a long time, he couldn't enjoy it. He kept thinking about how he was sure the answers had been gone, but when he checked for Jazz, they were right where he left them.

He must have made a mistake. Meanwhile, Danny was losing a war with himself.

Danny didn't feel like himself anymore. He felt like he was going to be sick. He looked at the answers and scribbled them into the blanks on his test. He felt a serious urge to stop now and turn the answers in, but he knew he couldn't. His head throbbed and his eyes burned.

I should turn them in,

But Lancer will fail me!

How can I be a hero if I can't even honestly take a stupid test?

A test that decides my future! I can't turn the answers in, now.

I need to stop! I need to do the right thing!

I'll end up at the Nasty Burger!

Is that so bad?

Yes! What will Sam and Tuck think? What will Jazz think? What will my parents think?

Dad said the test didn't matter.

Jazz the "Future Brain Surgeon" seemed to think it mattered!

It's wrong.

It's right!

No, it's not.

But what if it is?

It's not.

It's my future!

I can't do this!

Yes, I can. I have to! A hero deserves a great future,

But what kind of lousy hero does this make me?

One without a future, if I fail.

Danny put down his pencil. Sam and Tucker were watching him as they worked. Sam thought Danny looked horrible. Tucker was worried he might have a heart attack right there in his seat. He tried to ask Danny if he was okay, but Lancer cut in.

"Mr. Fenton, Mr. Foley… Is there a problem?"

Danny looked up nervously. He had to make a decision.

"No problems, Mr. Lancer," Danny said guiltily. He had hated the decision as soon as he had made it. He had to finish the test.

Mr. Lancer went back to his book, but again, he couldn't focus.

A thought occurred to Mr. Lancer. Had the seal been broken when he looked at the answers last? Now that he thought about it, it seemed that it was highly likely. Maybe he would just check one last time…

Jazz rushed to the school. She didn't know what she'd do when she got there, but she had to do something.

She was too late! She looked into the classroom and Danny was already taking the test. Even worse, Mr. Lancer was opening his briefcase! No!

"Count of Monte Cristo!" Mr. Lancer cried, making all the students jump. Danny was sweating bullets, as Mr. Lancer walked towards him. The answers hadn't been in the briefcase. When Lancer got to Danny's desk, he immediately spotted the answers half hidden underneath.

"Mr. Fenton, see me outside NOW!" Lancer yelled, red in the face. "And bring the answers with you…" he finished with a whisper that Tucker and Sam could barely hear. Danny's heart sank.

They walked outside to meet a very pale Jazz, who had seen the whole thing. She had wanted so badly for Danny to do the right thing.

"I don't know how you got these answers, but I will find out!" Mr. Lancer turned to Jazz.

"You too, Ms. Fenton!" Lancer said to Jazz. "And while we're at it…"

Lancer walked back inside. He reappeared in the hallway with Sam and Tucker by the collars.

"I'm sure you two were in on this!" Lancer said to Tuck and Sam.

"No!" Danny cried.

"Oh yes, Mr. Fenton!" Lancer said loudly. "They are coming too!"

In ten minutes, they had all arrived at the Nasty Burger. Danny's parents pulled up in the Fenton RV. Maddie and Jack hoped out.

"Mr. Lancer, what is the meaning of all this?" Maddie began. "Danny is something wrong?"

Little did they know the gauge on the Nasty Sauce container was on yellow zone, right before the red, and the sauce was slowly heating to a dangerous temperature, while the beeping alert was ignored.

"Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, Daniel… this is the Nasty Burger," Mr. Lancer began. "When people fail, this is where they end up, whether they fail because they don't study, or because they… cheated." Lancer held up the stolen test answers ominously.

Danny's parents gasped in awe.

"Danny, is this true?" Jack asked.

"Did you cheat?" Maddie finished with a sad look.

Danny looked down in guilt, not wanting to meet his mother's eyes. With the look on his parents faces, he now knew he had chosen wrong, and not because he got caught.

"Yes. It's true,"

"We are very disappointed in you…" Jack told Danny.

"How could you do something like this?" Danny's mother asked him.

"I don't know…I…" Danny trailed off.

Tucker looked away awkwardly, not knowing what to think. Jazz looked at her brother with what should have been disappointment, but wasn't. It was pity. She was more upset with herself. She couldn't help thinking that she could have stopped all this from happening.

Sam looked straight at Danny, thinking of how and why he took the answers. She couldn't say it was right, but she wasn't mad at him, or disappointed, or even upset with him at all. She felt like she watched him lose a war with himself. It was too familiar…

"We are here to find out exactly how he got these answers," Lancer continued. "These three are here because they obviously knew something about it!"

"No, they don't," Danny lied. He didn't want his friends and sister paying for his mistake. "Well, Jazz did, but I talked her into believing I didn't have the answers."

"They how exactly did you get these answers?" Lancer asked.

"I… had help," Danny replied nervously.

"From who?"

Danny was thinking at the speed of light. He looked up at his friends and sister for suggestion, but the three had looks of confusion and horror on their faces, including Sam who was usually the brains of the group, and Jazz who always covered for him. They had nothing to offer, but Danny thought of something.

"Danny Phantom," he said. It wasn't technically a lie, and a ghost was the only thing that would explain the test-answer switcheroo. Everyone had genuine expressions of shock on their faces.

"Danny!" Maddie cried. "You never trust a ghost! Look where it has landed you!"

"And," Jack continued. "You never…ever trust a filthy rotten ghost like Phantom!"

His mother's comment stung. His face looked even more dismal now. He had expected it, but it hurt just the same, especially since he wasn't feeling like a hero right now. He felt filthy rotten.

Jazz looked at Danny in utter sadness. She felt like it was all her fault. Her baby brother was in trouble that she could have stopped. Her parent's hated his other half even more now.

Sam was feeling similarly. Even though the cheating was bad and he should have never done it, she felt like he didn't deserve this kind of torture. No kid should feel like their parents hate them.

Tuck wanted to defend Danny, and to tell his parents about all the times he had used his powers for good. He wanted to tell them that his pal messed up, but every dude has got to make a mistake every now and then.

"I could just rip that ghost apart!" Jack finished viciously. He mimicked the action of ripping something.

Danny looked at Jazz. Jazz looked at his face, and couldn't take it anymore. She decided to do something.

"You can't punish him, Mr. Lancer, if he wasn't the one who stole the test answers!" Jazz said like a lawyer. "Technically, Danny Phantom stole them,"

"But I still cheated," Danny said. He didn't want to get off easy, because it wasn't anyone else who stole those answers; he did it himself.

"Exactly correct," Mr. Lancer said with authority. "I think we should discuss Daniel's punish…"

"Shh!" Danny said, focused on something a bit more worrisome.

"You won't get out of your punishment by trying to get me to be quiet, so I suggest…"

"Do you hear that?" Danny asked.

"This is not a game, Daniel!" Lancer said, his voice raised.

"No, I hear it too!" Tucker chimed in.

Soon they all heard it. Danny turned to walk towards the sound with everyone following. They found out that it was the Nasty Sauce monitor…

But it was too late…

"We need to get out of here!" Danny yelled at the others.

BOOM