"Mom I don't want to go to school though!" A small girl with bouncy blond curls whined.

"Oh Grace-y, don't worry! It won't be scary." Said her mother who was packing her bagged lunch.

"Who said I was scared?" She replied back, crossing her arms.

Her mother just gave her a look that gave her the impression that she knows all. Grace uncrossed her arms and sighed. "But what if I don't make any friends?" She asked quietly.

The mother looked over at her daughter sympathetically and quickly went over to give her a hug. "Don't worry Grace. You'll do fine. I bet you will have at least one friend by the end of the day." She said kissing her forehead. She knew it was hard for her to adjust to the new city. She was only seven.

Grace smiled at her mother and looked at her new Hello Kitty watch and gasped. "Mom! We're late! It's already eight forty!"

"No sweetie that's a twenty. It's eight twenty, and we are going to be late if you don't hurry up. Are you ready to ride the big girl bus?" Her mom asked. Grace nodded enthusiastically. "Okay, get your backpack and I will see you after school." Her mom said, giving her the bagged lunch.

"Okay! Bye mom!" Grace said, quickly pecking her mom on the cheek and running to get her Dora the Explorer backpack. As she closed the door their apartment door, she felt a new since of pride, going all the way to the bus stop all by herself, but as soon as the feeling struck her, another one washed over.

What if she didn't make any friends? It was already a few weeks in to the school year and everybody there has probably already has their group of friends. Would she be made fun of like she was in her last school? She just wanted to move back to Florida—the real place she belonged. She had friends there. Just because her daddy had to move for work didn't mean he had to take the whole family! But he did, and now here she was in a strange new city. She was surprised when she looked up and already found herself at her bus stop.

So she waited. And waited. And waited. After about ten minutes she turned back to ask her mom for a ride, but suddenly she heard it. She turned back around and saw a dirty bus pulling up to her stop. She quickly got on it when the doors opened, but she stopped when she saw there were no seats left and that there was already two or three to a seat.

"Sit!" The bus driver demanded when Grace didn't move. She finally seemed to snap out of it and walked back. She went up to a seat and asked a boy a little older than her, "Can I sit with you?"

The boy blew a bubble before replying. "No."

"Oh… okay." She said feeling put down. She went to the next seat. "Can I sit with you?" The girl didn't reply, just turned up her earphones. She looked out at the sea of heads. They all seemed to be staring at her like she was a monkey in a cage. She quickly sat down with the girl. As long as she continued to ignore her, she would be okay. Luck seemed to be down on her though.

"Who said you could sit here?" The girl spat. "Get out." She said pushing her off of the seat.

Great, she wasn't going to make any friends here either. She felt herself starting tearing up she got back on her feet and wiped the moisture out of her eyes. She finally went to the very back where a boy with rather large glasses was sitting alone. "Can I sit with you?"

"No." He stated and quickly looked away.

"But there are no more seats on the bus!" She exclaimed, exasperated.

He looked at her and then looked around and indeed saw there were no more seats. "Fine." He sighed and scooted over. She sat down and didn't say anything else for the rest of the bus ride.

When she got to school it wasn't any better. The only person that acknowledged her existence was the teacher. She was nice, but she always had other things to do. The other kids already had their friends and didn't seem to notice her existence. When she tried going up to a group at recess they all just stared at her until she left.

It looked like her mom's promise was an empty one. She wasn't going to have any friends by the end of the day, and with how things were going, by the end of the year either.

She missed Florida so much. Suddenly she had an idea. She quietly slipped past the recess supervisor and went inside the school. The teachers were all at lunch. Good. Now she needed to fine the boiler room. She decided to start with the first door she saw. She pressed her ear to it. When she didn't hear anything, she peaked it open a crack. It was a janitor's closet. She moved passed the decorated doors, knowing those were classrooms. She quickly found what she was looking for.

She opened the metal door and saw a bunch of strange machines. It was a bit spooky so she hurried past them. She finally found the staircase leading up and went up them, and opened the door at the top. The sunlight blinded her for a second, but then she walked out, letting the door close behind her.

With her apartment in Florida, they owned the very top floor, so they got the roof as well, and they set up lawn chairs on it and when ever Grace was feeling sad or depressed, she would go up and just look at the clouds.

Now she looked around her it seemed like a nice enough place. There wasn't anything too repulsive. She felt her shoulders relaxing and her worries ebbing away, like she left them all down below. She quickly found a spot where she could lay down and look at the clouds. She put her hands behind her head and smiled. Nothing could bother her now.

Or so she thought. Suddenly she heard someone yell out in pain. She whipped her head around to see two figures… flying? She rubbed her eyes to see if she was seeing it right. They were still there when she opened her eyes again. One of them was a robot with his head on fire, except for the fire was green. He was smirking evilly down at a boy with white hair and a black and white lab suit on. He was holding his side and glairing up at the flying robot.

"Like my new toy whelp?" The robotic one said.

"Frankly, no." The boy replied and out of nowhere a glowing green orb appeared in his hands, and he threw it at the robot. It hit him and he was sent spiraling through the air. When the robotic one finally regained its balance, the missile that was on its shoulder was charred and no longer working. Grace looked at the fighting pair in wonder. What were these things?

"My new rockets!" The robotic one exclaimed after seeing the damage. Then he growled and the old rocket was replaced by a row of new ones. "That's the last time--" He was cut off when all of the rockets came to life. They were heading straight for the boy but Grace wasn't paying attention to him anymore. She was busy with the fact that the boy was standing in front of her, and when he suddenly disappeared, all of the rockets were heading for her.

She stumbled back in a blind panic and suddenly the ground just seemed to end. She opened her eyes and found herself falling. She had fallen off the roof. She screamed.

As the ground seemed to rise up beneath her she realized she was going to die. 'I don't want to die!' she thought. 'I'm to young!' Before she could think anything else, she abruptly stopped and with an "Oof!" and the next thing she was flying back up to the roof. The boy with silver hair saved her.

He gently put her down on the middle of the roof and asked worriedly, "Are you okay?" Grace's mind momentarily shut down and she looked up at the boy with a total loss of words. It didn't last long though.

"Watch out!" She yelled as she saw the robot fire something else at the boy. It was too late though, and he was blasted back. Grace gasped put her hands over her mouth. The boy skidded to a stop and groaned. He didn't get back up. Grace almost ran over to him to see if he was all right by the robot beat her to it.

"You can't win them all Ghost Child." He said leaning over his body. Grace did a double take. 'Ghost child?' they were ghosts?!? Before she could think anything else the boy… or the ghost suddenly whipped out a… soup thermos? "I must be dreaming." Grace stated to herself. Suddenly a blue vortex seemed to suck the robot ghost in to the thermos and the ghost boy put a cap back on it.

He sighed in relief. Then he wearily glanced over at Grace. She froze. The boy then walked over to her. The ghost was coming after her now! She panicked and looked around for an escape. There was none, except for the trap door she came out of. She sprinted over to it for dear life and tried to yank the door open. It was locked. She kept at it though, as if it would magically open. Then she pounded on the door and yelled, "Help! Help me!"

She looked back at the ghost who was also frozen now. She pressed herself against the door and yelled, "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Finally the ghost unfroze. "Okay! Okay! I was just going to see if you were alright!" He said, putting his hands up as if surrendering. He backed away.

Grace looked at the ghost suspiciously. He sighed, "Don't worry, I'm used to that reaction." He looked a bit saddened by it. Grace felt a pang of guilt. He did save her life, after all… even if he was the same kind of thing that was in her closet at night. She let guard drop a little, but when she looked back up he was gone.

She was alone. At first it was just a fact until she realized she was stuck on the roof. For a second Grace panicked again. How was she going to get down? Her question was answered when suddenly the door opened and out stepped the ghost boy. "I thought you were going to need some help with getting down, so I unlocked it for you."

She looked over him. He didn't seem very scary. The ghost she heard about were evil and make-believe. "Are you really a ghost?" She asked unbelievingly.

The boy winced at the question. "Uh- yeah. Pretty much." He replied.

"You don't seem very scary though." She stated.

"That's because I'm not trying to be scary. I'm a good ghost." He said shrugging.

"A good ghost?" She repeated, and he nodded. Suddenly a thought struck her. "Like Casper?"

"Like who?" He asked confused

"Casper the friendly ghost!" She elaborated, surprised he hadn't heard of him.

"What? My name is Danny Phantom…" The ghost called Phantom replied, his eyebrows knitted together.

Grace sighed giving up. "Never mind. My name is Grace."

"Oh!!! I get it now! Casper the friendly ghost! The one my parents always made me watch growing up! How could I forget?" He exclaimed. There was a pause. Suddenly he looked back down at her, grimacing. He had slipped a bit.

Grace blinked. He had parents? No, he used to have parents. He was dead now. 'That's kind of sad!' she thought. "Do you ever see your parents?" She asked him, almost timidly.

He winced again. "Uhh—yeah…"

"Oh, well then it isn't that bad!" She said.

"Well, actually, they don't know it's me." He corrected, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Why don't you tell them?" She asked.

"… Umm, because they hate ghosts, I guess. They especially hate me, probably even more than everybody else in this town does." He said wearily. Why was he spilling all of this to a little girl? There was a pause. "Why are you on the roof?" He asked suddenly, as if it finally struck him as odd.

Grace opened her mouth, but then closed it again. Suddenly she walked to the edge of the roof and looked over the kids. Phantom cocked an eyebrow and followed her over. After a moment she said quietly, "Well… when I can look down at everybody, it feels like all of my problems fly away on the wind. When I am above all of it… I feel free." Phantom nodded knowing exactly what she meant. "And I don't have any friends. I'm new."

That took him as a surprise. "Oh." Was all he was able to say. He knew how she felt. Before he met Sam and Tucker he was an outcast too. He still was, but it was a lot more bearable with his friends. "Well, I'm sure that you will make friends soon."

After a pause Grace seemed to brighten a bit. "Well, actually I already have one friend. You!"

Phantom froze. "Oh! Yeah! Me… okay."

"Do you come here often?" She asked.

"Not unless there's a ghost attack." Her shoulders slumped. "Why?" He asked.

"Because I thought we might be able to meet up here." She replied sadly.

"Oh." He said again. This was really getting awkward fast, even if she didn't notice. Sure she was a cute little kid, but he didn't want to skip lunch everyday. "Well there are a lot of ghost attacks around here, so I'm sure we will see each other soon." He said, trying to comfort her.

"Okay!" She exclaimed, happy again.

Suddenly the bell rang and they both winced. "I'm late!" They both cried.

"Bye Phantom!" Grace said hurriedly and opened the door and ran back in to the school.

"Bye!" He said back taking off towards Casper High.

-Later that day-

"Mooo-ooom!" Grace called closing the door behind her. "I'm home!"

Her mom appeared around the corner. "How was your first day?" She asked helping her take off her backpack.

"It was awesome! Well at first it stuck, but then I met a friend at recess!" Grace said, already having decided to leave the part out about the roof and the fight and the whole ghost thing.

"I told you that you would have a friend at the end of the day! So what's her name?"

"It's actually a boy. His name is Danny Phantom!" She exclaimed.

"Oh really? What a strange last name!" She said mostly to herself. "Well come on, I made you some cookies!"

Grace then skipped off excitedly into the kitchen.

-midnight-

Danny Phantom flew up to his bedroom window and looked in to his room, checking if the coast was clear. He quietly groaned when he saw his mom sitting on his desk chair, looking both worried and mad. She was expecting him to sneak in through the bedroom window. He looked at the clock sitting on his desk. It was two hours past his curfew. He was doomed. He floated back down to the sidewalk and changed back to Fenton form. He had to do it the hard way.

He walked up the steps to his house and tried to open the front door quietly. When the space was big enough he slipped in and closed it quietly behind him. Then he noticed that he was consumed in a rather large shadow. He gulped and turned around to face his dad, with his arms crossed and his face expecting an answer.

"Uhh… hi dad!" Danny said with a false cheeriness, trying to sound like nothing was wrong.

"MADDIE HE'S BACK!" Jack yelled up the stairs. Then he turned back to Danny and asked, "Do you know what time it is?"

"Ten?" Danny asked. His dad just looked at him disbelievingly. Danny sighed. "Okay okay, it's twelve. I'm sorry! I can explain!"

"Then explain yourself young man." His mom said, coming down the stairs.

Danny cringed and said, "Well actually I can't. But can I go to bed… it's been a long day for me…" He said. His parents looked him over properly for the first time. He had dark circles under his eyes and bruises on his arms and a large one on his face.

Immediately they were worried. "Honey, what happened to you?" His mom asked, gently touching his face.

Danny drew away sharply and said nervously, "Oh that… that's nothing, don't worry about it."

"Is it that Dash kid?" His mom asked.

"No, no nothing like that…" Danny said, looking around the room as if trying to find an escape.

"Was it a GHOST?!?" His dad yelled excitedly.

"No!" Danny replied quickly. Then he sighed, he looked as if he could collapse from exhaustion. "Can I go to bed now? Thanks." He said, running up the stairs with out an answer.

His parents just stood at the bottom of the stairs, looking up the staircase. Then his mother sighed. "I'm worried about him." She stated.

Jack rubbed her back comfortingly. "I wonder what he dose in his free time. He always comes home beat up and exhausted… but I can't really see him in a gang or anything. I just don't know what to think…"

Jack nodded and said, "Don't worry, Danny's a good guy, he'll pull through."

Maddie just closed her eyes and whispered, "I hope so."

As soon as Danny closed the door he collapsed on to his to his bed, but he wasn't able to sleep. He had to many too many thoughts buzzing around his head. He had caught six ghosts since lunch, except what Skulker said worried him the most.

He delivered him a message to him, saying that Vlad said to tell him that he was coming soon to kill his father, make him Vlad's apprentice, and to take Maddie. Right after he said that, Vlad's bird appeared and told Skulker that he misunderstood and that he was supposed to keep Danny from knowing that and instead just distract him when Vlad gave the signal. 'There goes Skulker's day job.' He thought.

So Danny just had to make sure he. was on the lookout, because when Vlad comes to Amity, it's never a good thing. Finally he fell in to a restless sleep.

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TBC…

Hey guys! I'm back! Sorry I haven't updated Tornado in forever… but I've been too busy writing this one! And this one is really kind of complicated. It's two different plots intertwined into one story. One is with Grace and the other one has to do with Vlad…

Hopefully it'll all come in to a full circle by the end.

Anyways please tell me what you think of it so far!