Chapter One: Introduction

I'm Andrew Jack Fenton, but call me Andy. I'm almost fourteen, pale and skinny, have black hair and purple eyes, and I have three best friends. Their names are Marine McClain (yes, she is the ghost daughter of Ember), Jade Foley (she looks nothing like her dad), and Adrian Baxter. I live in Amity Park, right in the same building that my dad did when he was my age. My grandparents moved to another state, but I still see them sometimes. I have my dad's old room.

It didn't take long to figure out that Jade was hiding something, and that all of our parents seemed to know about it. I always knew that she was a little different. And I knew that Marine knew about it. It annoyed the heck out of me, but what could I do? Anyway, so I knew there was something weird that she wasn't telling Adrian and me. It was August fifth when I found out. Adrian and I desperately wanted to know where she always disappeared to, why she refused to talk about ghosts, and why she always said that it was to keep us safe. I just didn't expect it to be anything involving Shade Plasmius.

Shade Plasmius was a ghost girl that came out of the blue two years ago. Like Danny and Danielle Phantom, she saved the town on a nearly daily basis. Shade was always a little mysterious, and a little quieter than the Phantoms. I knew that she was not related to the Phantoms, or if she was, it was distant. Adrian always said that she had seemed to be sadder, more solemn than the Phantoms, who joked and laughed when they fought. This would always make me snort and say that he probably liked her. She revealed early on that she was a halfa during a fight with Vlad Plasmius, lovingly (insert sarcasm) dubbed the Fruit Loop.

Back to the point. Jade was super smart, sometimes a little Goth, but other than that she could have been my sister. She was always snarky when it came to certain students (cough Paul cough Leanne cough A-list cough COUGH). I never really expected her to be the type to have secrets the way she did. But on July fifth, she was running off again for some random reason, and I finally got Adrian to follow me. We snuck behind her, and she went to a deserted alley.

"Hey, Marine. Ready to kick ghost butt?" she said casually. Marine phased through the wall.

"Yep. Man, I wish Andy and Adrian could come along . . ."

"So do I. But Andy's not going to get his powers until he's fourteen at least. That's when his dad got them, and you know he may not get them at all."

"You were born with them," said Marine stubbornly, like when she was arguing that I had used a cheat on a video game. Jade frowned.

"You know full well that I wasn't 'born' with them. I was created with them," she said bitterly. I looked at Adrian, who gave me a fearful glance. Created? What was going on? Then Jade laughed.

"Oh, they all actually think I'm related to Tucker. I thought you would remember, Marine." This was scaring the heck out of me.

"Jade, you're acting weird again," Marine warned. Jade sighed.

"I know . . . I'm sorry, Marine. It's just a stupid impulse. Stupid." Jade seemed to reprimand herself. I stared, trying to figure it out. Then something extremely weird happened: a wisp of blue mist came out of Jade's mouth. I frowned; it was August!

"Ugh, let's go," she said, and then something even stranger happened. A lavender-colored light formed at her waist, turning into a glowing white ring about the size of a hula hoop. It then split into two, one moving up and one moving down.

Where the rings had been, she changed. Rather than her usual clothes, which were a pink tank top and jeans, a strappy black top with a swirly S on the front, black gloves, white boots, and black hazmat pants were there. When the rings passed her face, her blue eyes turned neon green. Her wavy hair changed only slightly: where the red hair was, green replaced it, but the black highlights stayed the same. In short? Jade became Shade Plasmius. Marine powered up a little, making her guitar appear and letting her hair flare up. Adrian and I watched, dumbstruck, as the two flew off.

"Well," I said, sort of denying what had happened, "Now I know how she gets us out of the lockers without knowing the combinations. She phases the lock off." Adrian nodded.

"Dude, did you hear everything that she said, or did you only notice the last bit?"

"I heard everything."

"Then do you know what she meant by, 'Andy's not going to get his powers until he's fourteen at least. That's when his dad got them, and you know he may not get them at all'?"

"If I knew I'd tell you. Powers? My dad? I'm just as confused as you are." My dad was an astronaut, not a superhero, and I knew better than anyone did that I was hardly the type to be extra-ordinary.

"Dude, let's just pretend we don't know, then help them out at some point," I shrugged.

"Sounds good to me. Wanna ask Mr. and Mrs. Foley if they know about Jade?"

"I'd be surprised if they didn't, but we'd better check." We walked over to Jade's house, which was only a block from where we were. I knocked on the door and Mr. Foley answered.

"Hey, Andy. Adrian. Jade's not here right now . . ."

"We know. We wanted to talk to you and Aunt Jazz about her . . . we're kind of worried," I said. That made him open up the door immediately and call Jazz down. We sat down in the kitchen, and the two concerned parents listened intently.

"I'm sure you know that Jade runs off with Marine a lot, and they won't tell us why," Adrian began. They relaxed.

"Don't worry, boys. They're perfectly safe," said Aunt Jazz. Uncle Tucker glanced at the TV. It was showing Danny Phantom, Marine, and Shade fighting a large monster of a ghost.

"It doesn't look like it," I observed, looking pointedly at Shade dodging blasts and doing nothing else.

"What-you followed them, didn't you?" asked Aunt Jazz.

"Yeah, kind of. So you know about her?"

"Yes, we did. She's not biologically our daughter, but that makes no difference. Danny Phantom found a baby in the clutches of Vlad Plasmius. That was Jade."

"That's why she was acting all creepy," I muttered. Well, Adrian and I thanked them and left. Adrian had homework, and I had finished mine, but I had stuff to do at home.

There's one thing that only my family knows about me. Adrian and Marine know about it, but only to a certain extent. What is it?

I am a Danny Phantom fan. Full out, total geek, Phantom fan. So you can imagine what I mean when I say that it's not a joke that I have about six DP t-shirts, go as ghosts that he's fought for Halloween, and have interviews of his from years ago recorded on my laptop. I know pretty much all there is to know about Phantom that is public. I'm nuts about that kind of thing.

The day before, I'd found out Phantom's email address, and decided that I had to email him. This is how it went:

Dear Danny Phantom,

I am probably your biggest not-totally-insane fan. I feel great knowing that you're protecting the town. You're my idol, right up there with my parents, because you do what's right even if it isn't easy or popular. You haven't saved me personally, and I have never seen you in real life, even though I live in Amity. I know Marine and Shade, though. So . . . how are you? Do you know the Fentons very well? Any chance that you're going to write back (you must get tons of fan mail)? Anyway, I hope you don't mind me writing, and I hope you don't have too rough a day with both of your lives.

Andy Fenton

I knew that being a halfa had to be hard, so I figured that Danny would appreciate it. I sat on my bed for a while, thinking about Marine and Jade . . . mostly Marine. I thought about how she was almost always smiling, always great on the guitar, always pretty. Yeah, I've had a crush on her since January . . . of our fifth grade year.

So. . . I don't know what to say here except . . .

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom no matter how awesome that would be. There. I said it.