Chapter 1

Sara Louise

2 years. That's how long it'd been since the accident that changed my life forever. And no, I don't mean the one that gave me ghost powers. I mean the one that killed my dad.

My mom had been dating this new guy in town. Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I don't like the guy, but he could be a little…strange… Mom says he has a daughter about my age, Sara Louise. She also said that Sara Louise and I could get to be "great friends".

I think not.

Well, it all started one evening. Mom and Frank were in the living room, watching "The Hills" on TV. Jazz was crouched behind the stairs like a four-year-old, spying on them like Mom's date was actually something remotely interesting. Mom dating any guy that wasn't Dad made my blood boil, so I decided to be a real spazz and call down the stairs, "Jazz! I'm reading your diary!" I stretched out the words and made them as eardrum-shatteringly loud as possible.

"You're WHAT?!" she screamed, face twisted in rage, jumping out from her hiding place and blowing her cover royally. Mom and Frank's heads turned. Jazz's cheeks and the bridge of her nose turned as red as her hair. She smiled, embarrassed, as she walked up the stairs to meet me in the hall. "Why have you got to be so immature sometimes?" she snapped. "Grow up," she added, right before she slammed the door in my face.

"At least I'm not spying on people," I said through the keyhole. Jazz threw a pillow at the door as hard as possible.

"You know, fifty percent of all household accidents happen on stairs," said Frank. I slapped my forehead. You see, this was just the thing I was talking about when I said "strange".

Right before I turned on my heel to get myself a Gatorade from the kitchen, I saw a picture of Dad hanging on the wall with a terrible heart-wrenching pang. I couldn't understand how Mom could date someone, knowing that Dad died still in love with her. I clenched my fist, still trying to look my Dad's portrait in the eyes; somehow it was harder to look at his face now that he was dead.

"Kids! Come down here!" I heard my mom's voice from downstairs and squeezed my eyes shut. Jazz burst from behind her door and slid down the banister. I walked down the stairs slowly, clutching the left banister as hard as possible.

Frank wrapped an arm around Mom's shoulders. They were both beaming down at us. "We have great news," said Mom. My stomach dropped. "We're getting married!" they said together. A lump appeared in my throat. "And that means that Frank's daughter Sara Louise will be moving in with us," she added. I let out a low groan. "Isn't it wonderful? We'll all be Dales now!"

A tiny flame was growing inside me, like someone lit some inner candle that no one of my consciences could blow out. I could almost feel my eyes glowing green. "I think I'll keep my own last name, thanks," I said as nonchalantly as possible. Jazz cleared her throat.

"Aw, this is…this is great," said Jazz, hugging Mom. I felt like a real butt for crashing the moment and all, but it was just too much. I hoped that Mom would understand.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"I don't understand, Danny."

Jazz and I were given the task of carrying Frank's and Sara's stuff into the house. Sweat trickled down the side of my face as we trooped from the moving van to Mom's room to the upstairs and back down to the van. Personally, I didn't get why Sara couldn't carry her own stupid cardboard boxes. She had two arms that weren't broken. I guessed some people were just born divas. And what about Frank? He was bigger and stronger than both of us. He should get his lazy butt in here and help us, I thought insolently.

"I don't understand YOU, Jazz," I retorted snappishly, setting a really heavy box down on the bare floor of Sara's new room, a really good, big one with the best view in the house and a closet big enough for Jazz and I to stand in it and close the doors without being cramped. Figures that Little Miss Daddy's Girl would get the best room. "How can you approve of Mom marrying another guy? Dad never thought about anyone else!"

Jazz sighed, setting a box down on a glimmering wooden desk against the right wall of the room that was apparently Sara's laptop, or something. "I know, Danny, I know," she said awkwardly. "Mom and Dad…geez, they were the best couple in the world. The unstoppable Fentons, Jack and Maddie. And for a while, I couldn't figure out how she could date another man, too. And Danny, she was so much in love with our dad. But times change and…people change. Life moves on, Danny." She laid a hand on my shoulder. "And sometimes we can't just sit in the past." With that, she left me standing in the middle of the carpeted room, staring at my shoes, to get more boxes.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

After a few days of getting everything ready and a wedding that I missed a good part of, the day finally came when Frank and Sara arrived. They pulled up in front of the house in a black car that looked like it'd been yanked out of an old movie. It was going to keel over any minute. My palms were sweaty with nervousness. Here was the Great Halfa, known all over the world, almost shaking. So I can face ghosts but I can't face my new life with my family totally screwed around? Pretty pathetic, I told myself, slamming myself. I saw a head bobbing up and down, to the beat of the radio, probably, behind the shaded back window. Frank stepped out of the car. So did his daughter.

Oh. She was that Sara Louise.

She was tall and redheaded, with her waist-length hair in a long, loose braid. Her ocean blue eyes sparkled with curiosity, even excitement at a whole new life ahead of her. She was wearing a hot pink skirt with what looked like gold-painted plastic play coins and gold fringe attached to it that reached her sandaled feet. She also had on a black 4-H T-shirt with a thin, moss green, untied shawl over her shoulders. She had her pale fists balled around the handles of two brown leather suitcases. She was probably the most unpopular kid at school, the lowest of the low, beneath me and my friends on the food chain, if that was even possible. Living with her might just put me on a new level of unpopularity. I don't know how I could've missed that. There aren't that many Sara Louises running around.

Boy, she was making a scene. Kids from school that were walking by my house had stopped to look at her odd choice of clothes, giggling, and some of the real jerks were pointing and probably calling her names. I braced myself for a screaming fit from Sara…

Okay, either she was deaf or really stupid. She didn't even seem to hear Dash and Kwan having a good laugh over her. She always acted like this at school, but I thought surely without the peer pressure she'd blow her cool. I know I would.

Oh no. She was headed for the door with Frank. I braced myself. Jazz looked actually happy for a second, but then a ghost of a frown passed over her face (no pun intended).

"Danny," she said, "Jazz." She sounded really calm, setting her suitcases down by the door. Jazz had a look on her face for just a second that just screamed, 'Don't call me Jazz', but then she continued to smile. She didn't sound nasally and congested like you average nerd. Not that I'd admit that. She walked over and threw her arms around my neck in a hug. I patted her back awkwardly. "So, I guess we're siblings now, huh?" she said after hugging Jazz. I wanted to say 'Well, duh' but Mom would kill me.

She grabbed her suitcases and headed for the stairs. "Danny, help your sister with her bags," said Mom. My cheeks burned. I started for one of the suitcases.

"No, please, I'll handle it," she said. I raised my eyebrows. "Thanks anyway, though," she added. Jazz and I followed her upstairs.

"Poppin' room," she said happily, gazing around her new place without blinking and plopping down on her blank off-white sheets.

She kicked off her Greek-looking sandals that laced all the way up to her knees and rested her head against her shoulder.

Jazz plopped down on the bed beside her and threw an arm around her shoulders. "This is so great. We're going to have so much fun."

Yeah, right.

Jazz and I headed down the hall after we showed Sara where all her stuff was.

"So, you're not any more excited about this than I am, huh?" I said.

"What are you talking about?" she asked confidently, even though her cheeks were pink.

"Oh, come on. I saw the look you gave her back there."

"Try to keep an open mind, Danny. I'm actually excited about this."

"I'm not."

I crossed my arms. Jazz put her hands on my shoulders, looking down with pity and understanding in her eyes. "I understand," she said, looking at a family picture across the hall. "But Mom really loves this guy. Don't you think it's about time that we did something for her, instead of the other way around?" I slumped over. "Try to keep an open mind, okay?" she finished. Then she took a sharp right into her red-painted room and closed the door. Good riddance to her. I will most certainly NOT keep an open mind. All Sara and I will be is housemates. That's it, I thought stubbornly. I slouched into my room and shut the door as hard as possible, almost rattling a priceless heirloom vase off of its table in the hall.

I had some more time ahead of me.