Chapter 1

Music blasted from the gigantic stereo. The three teens all danced, unaware of another member of the foursome who wasn't joining in on the fun. Even Sam, normally moody and gothic, danced around to the pop-ish sort of music. Finally the music softened and the rhythmic dancing slowed. That was when Sam noticed Emily, stretched out on the couch, her nose, as usual, buried behind a book.

"Em, come on, dance with us!" Emily raised her hazel eyes slightly from the pages of the book she was reading: Small Steps, by Louis Sachar. It was the sequel to another good booth, Holes, and this one was even better because it had a character with cerebral palsy in it. And boy, could Emily relate to that. Emily herself had mild cerebral palsy, as a result of loss of oxygen at birth. Cerebral palsy is a disability where there is some sort of brain damage that results in malfunctioned muscles; in Emily's case, too tight muscles. Cerebral palsy affected everything Emily did: her balance, her speech, even her eyes. It also caused something called a startle reflex, which caused Emily to jump a lot more than most people when she was startled. She walked unaided most of the time, but for long excursions she used one forearm crutch. Her crutch was now lying neatly parallel to the couch

"Guys, come on, you know I can't dance." Emily protested. Danny sat down by Emily's feet, making a muffled sort of THWUMP noise.

"So what? I can't dance, either, but that doesn't stop me from trying. And it provides a good laugh for everyone, too." Sam and Tucker giggled.

"It's not the same!" Emily shouted in frustration. "You don't have a physical condition that stops you from dancing; you just inherited the bad dancing gene from your father." She giggled only a little as she thought of big Jack Fenton trying desperately to dance to disco music and not look like a complete idiot. "I physically can't dance." At this point, Sam joined Danny and Emily on the couch. Tucker followed suit.

"Since when has the word can't been in your vocabulary?" Sam questioned. Emily sighed.

"Since about 8:00 this morning." Danny gave a sympathetic sigh.

"The popular kids, again, huh?" Ever since Emily had transferred to Casper High at the beginning of the year, she had been routinely harassed by the popular kids for being handicapped. Paulina took great fun in pointing out how she was perfect, while Emily was nowhere near, and Dash had developed a daily routine of knocking Emily down, which wasn't all that hard with her bad balance, and then stuffing her in a locker. The only good thing about Casper High at the moment for Emily was that her three best friends were there.

Emily nodded. "Yup. Paulina was demonstrating her new cheerleading moves right in my face, and then she was like all sarcastically, 'Oh, Emily, you should try out for the squad. Oh yeah, that's right, you can't, 'cause you're a cripple.' And all her popular cronies laughed so hard and I was soo upset. I was crying in the bathroom for like fifteen minutes before I regained enough cool to actually go to class."

"I'm gonna kill Paulina for that..." Danny growled, his normally blue eyes glowing green. Sam grabbed his arm before he could do anything though.

"Danny, stop! Remember what happened the last time you used your ghost powers against the popular kids?" Danny stopped and considered for a moment.

"Yeah, you're right. I don't want another Poindexter situation on my hands." Suddenly a loud beep made Emily jumped. She looked over at Tucker. A small light on his PDA was blinking, and a message was scrolling across the screen.

"It's Crystal!" Tucker exclaimed, referring to the latest girl he had asked out and been denied a date. Apparently, this one had changed her mind.

"She wants me to meet her at the ice-skating rink-now!" he continued excitedly. Without further ado, he leaped off the couch and headed for the door.

"I gotta see this." Danny said in an undertone to the girls, and he and Sam followed Tucker out the door, leaving Emily on the couch by herself.

"But I can't-" Emily started, but no one was listening to her. With a resigned sigh, she picked up her crutch and started after her friends.

At the skating rink, everyone was on the ice, except Emily. Tucker skated who Crystal, who appeared very interested in his various PDAs, and Sam and Danny skated together. Emily sat by the side of the ice, surrounded by a mound of coats and purses. She watched with growing frustration as kids even younger than her skated around the rink with ease, some even doing spins and jumps. Her unease grew as Star skated towards her.

"Hey, Emily, why aren't you skating?" she asked sarcastically. "Hmm...oh yeah, because you're a stupid cripple!"

"Ahhhhh!" Emily let out a scream of rage, more animal-like than human. Having CP ruined her whole life, she thought bitterly. If she didn't have CP, she wouldn't be continually harassed, she wouldn't have muscle cramps, she wouldn't have bad balance and four surgeries in her fourteen years. She would just be a regular kid. Like everyone else.

"I wish I didn't have CP!" Emily screamed impulsively through thick tears blinding her. Everyone was looking at her, but at this point she didn't really care. Unbeknownst to her, Desiree, the wishing ghost, was lurking the rafters. Desiree smiled in glee when she heard Emily's frustrated wish.

"This one will be great." she said softly to herself in delight. Suddenly, her voice rang out through the ice-skating rink.

"So you have wished it, SO SHALL IT BE!" There was a blinding flash of light...and then there was nothing.

A/N: A bit short, considering the seven-page chapters I've been churning out lately. But it's a good first chapter, in my opinion. I have a bit of writers block, so what do I do? Create yet another new story! Please don't kill me for not updating my other stories! ducks heavy flying objects As always, review!