A/N: More of this while I work out the kinks in Don't Believe the Lie so I can start posting that. Yay!

Remember to send any plot points you want to see in particular in this! I'll try to incorporate them.

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

Note to self: never ever go down into the lab and ask Dad what he's up to.

Today started out normal enough. I went to school, got bullied, and went home. At home, I decided to head downstairs to fix the new Thermoses my parents had made.

But Dad was in the lab. So, I tried to sneak back up, but he'd already seen me.

"Danny boy!" I hate that nickname. "Come here and see what your ol' dad's doing now!"

I winced, but turned to see my obnoxiously orange, hazmat-suited dad sitting in front of the opened Portal—which made me wince more—with a fishing rod in his hand.

Wait.

"Why are you fishing in the Ghost Portal?" I asked.

"Ah, I'm testing out the new Fenton Fisher!" He held up the line, showing off the glowing? wire. "It's a specially designed, high density wire coated in our patented Fenton Ghost Resin!" He tugged it taut twice, grinning widely. "No ghost can break through this puppy!"

"Um, yeah, great, Dad, but I just—" I thumbed over my shoulder at the table of Thermoses, but Dad cut me off.

"See, now all I have to do is toss this into the Portal—" he did so "—and wait!"

I flashed him two thumbs up. "Awesome, Dad, so I'm gonna—"

Dad's eyes went wide. "Hold that thought!" He handed the Fisher to me, yelling quickly, "Nature calls!" before running upstairs.

And of course, as soon as Dad was gone and I had turned to look at the green swirl that had cost me half my life, the Fisher rod bent. "Aw, crap," I moaned as the chills ran through me, stronger than the mediocre ectopuses—ectopi?—that often showed up in that first month, and on par with the Lunch Lady's meat monster form. Without any reeling in, the Fisher tugged the ghost out of the Portal.

"Oh, crap!" I gaped at the huge, blue and green dragon that was now taking up half of my parents' lab.

I guess having such a high ceiling in here was a good idea.

Then, there was green fire coming at me.

"CRAP!" I barely managed to transform and dodge it by turning into mist. Wait, mist? When did that start?

More importantly, DODGE THAT CLAW!

That done, I turned back to the dragon. "Okay, what the hell?"

"I WANT TO GO!" it screeched, the basement rumbling and shaking from the sound. "I HAVE TO GO!"

One of my eyebrows jumped up. "Um, you'll have to wait in line behind my dad. Not that you'd fit in our bathroom…."

That got me another blast of fire to the face. Yay.

Luckily, intangibility worked on ghost fire. Still, I had to wave the smoke away, hacking on the bit I'd inhaled. "Seriously, we've got a no-smoking-unless-something-blew-up rule in the lab! I'm gonna get grounded if this stuff sticks around!"

"I WANT BALL!"

Okay, I think the fire's better than the claws. I dove away, the claws swiping through the air above me. Unfortunately, I misbalanced and fell to the ground, the air getting knocked out of me in the fall. The claws swung again before I could recover, and I winced back as three gouges were cut into my stomach by the dragon. The blood that I expected was green, glowing, and gooey, feeling more like yogurt than blood.

Either way, I was ticked. "Okay, you are going down!" I flew straight at the dragon, uppercutting it in the nose. It was thrown back, something detaching from its neck and flying off to the side.

And suddenly, the dragon was a girl. I've heard of frogs turning into princes, but a dragon becoming a princess?

Eh, I'm half-ghost, I should be ready to believe anything.

The girl sniffled, brushing her long, blonde braid behind her shoulder as she glanced up at me with her bright, red eyes. Er, red in color, not just from crying.

"I j—just w—wanted t—to g—go to the b—ball," she sobbed, "but m—my horrid mummy wouldn't l—let me!"

And the Portal sucked her back in.

Only in my house would the ghost of Cinderella show up.

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

"Wait, seriously?"

Apparently, Tuck still thinks life can't get weird. Where has he been for the past two months?

"Yeah, Tuck. Seriously." I had told them about the dragon-girl ghost person thing. Sam seemed to have gotten past the oddity of the fact that Cinderella's ghost stopped by my house last night, but Tuck really fixated on that.

"No, really, dude, a dragon?"

"Yes, Tuck," Sam and I both stated, highly exasperated. Then, Sam turned to me.

"You said that it clawed you?" she asked, her violet eyes studying me for a reaction.

I blinked. "Um, yeah, why?"

"And… you were bleeding?"

I still wasn't catching on. "Yeah. Why, Sam?"

"How badly?" This time, Tucker asked. He'd caught on quicker than I had, not exactly a norm in our group dynamic.

My brow furrowed. "I don't know, I was a bit more worried about getting rid of the dragon before it tore down my house."

"Danny, you were clawed by a dragon. Isn't that the slightest bit worrisome to you?" Sam demanded, her own brow furrowing but in concern rather than confusion.

"Should it be?"

They both rolled their eyes at me. "When it'd send most people to the hospital, uh, yeah, it should!"

For a moment, the three of us just stared at each other. Then, my eyes widened. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, what?" My gaze jumped between the two for a moment, my head whipping back and forth. "You mean, I somehow—my powers—I speed-healed?"

Sam's fists went to her hips. "Looks that way, doesn't it?" We'd been heading outside for lunch, and Sam stopped us by the door. "Danny, we're still figuring out how the… accident affected you. Maybe you should keep track of stuff like this, things that've changed because of the accident." She shrugged. "It could be helpful, y'know, if ghosts keep popping up around here. At least you'd know what injuries to worry about and what will just heal in a few hours."

I nodded, and we opened up the doors to go out onto the lawn for lunch. Well, Sam and I went out to one of the picnic tables, Tucker waited by the doors, trying to ask out each girl that passed him to the Back to School Dance that was coming up.

The dance was an annual thing, usually happening the first Friday of October, but this year, it got knocked back a week due to the random delays or cancellations of classes that had been going on. Don't tell the teachers, but I'm thinking classes will continue to be delayed or cancelled, seeing as we weren't exactly equipped to deal with the random ghosts that escape the Portal daily. Luckily, they're usually along ectopus level rather than Lunch Lady level, so I can get rid of them pretty quick.

Usually.

Anyway, while we sat down and started to unpack our lunches (Sam refused to eat anything served in our cafeteria since the Ultra-Recyclo Boycott and I refused to eat anything served in there after being attacked by half of it), Tuck hit on every girl who walked by. Within two minutes, he came over and sat by us, exuding a dark aura that normally people would expect from Sam.

Wait. Aura?

I took a second to really look at Tuck. Yep, there was a slight black shine around him that felt like I felt the last time I got a D on a paper. Depression, I suppose, but why could I see it?

I shook my head and turned to him. "Strike three?"

"More like strike three hundred," he complained. "Almost three hundred girls in this school, and not a single one agreed to go to the dance with me!"

"Don't worry, Tuck," Sam said, stirring some sort of low-fat, no-sugar-added dressing into her salad, "there's still half a week until the dance, I'm sure someone will go with you. You can't have asked everyone."

Tuck pulled out his PDA, calling up the school roster and flicking through it. "No, nope, I've asked every girl in school."

Sam scowled at him, then stabbed at her salad.

Tuck's eyes were drawn off to something coming down the street. "Except her."

And then, every guy's eyes were drawn towards the sidewalk as Paulina Sanchez, most popular and prettiest girl in the school, walked up to the building. As she walked, guys literally fell over while watching her. One poor kid even crashed his bike into the fountain.

Tuck and I sighed, resting our chins on our hands so we could continue to watch. "Paulina…."

Sam scoffed, probably rolling her eyes, but we were too busy watching Paulina pick a tree to sit under and pull out her own lunch. "Oh, please. Girls like Paulina are a dime a dozen."

Tuck and I shared a look, then started digging through our pockets. "How much change ya got?" I asked, pulling out a couple pennies and a nickel. Damn. Wonder if you had to buy them a dozen at a time….

"If you guys are really so interested, why not you go ask her out?"

Tuck shook his head. "Can't. If I got shot down by the band geeks, there's no way I'm anywhere near her league."

Both turned to me, and I gulped. "I—I can't. I get all weak-kneed when I talk to cute girls."

As soon as it left my mouth, I knew that was the exact wrong thing to say.

Sam's scowl returned, about twenty times worse. "Oh, and you have absolutely no problem talking to me?"

"Uh, I—"

"Save it." She stood, dragging me up and shoving me towards Paulina. "Go give your 'weak knees' some exercise."

I winced, knowing I'd have to do some major apologizing for that later, but continued towards Paulina. As I got over by the tree she was sitting under, I put one hand on the side of the tree, leaning against it. I opened my mouth to introduce myself, but my powers decided this would be the perfect time to turn my arm intangible. I smashed into the tree, then fell to the ground, wincing as the fall aggravated the claw marks from last night.

Even worse, Paulina had noticed me. Cold blue eyes glanced down at me as she flipped her long, black hair behind her shoulder. "Please don't say you've suddenly 'fallen' for me," she said, her voice thick with a Spanish accent, "that line is so last semester."

By then, I'd pushed myself back up to a standing position. "Um, n—no, I wasn't, and I'm sorry other guys did." I shook my head to clear it. "I, uh, was actually wondering, um, if—if you'd like to go to the—the B—Back to School Dance with, um, with me?"

She glanced up at me, an eyebrow raised. "And you are?"

I inwardly winced. Of course the most popular girl in school had no clue who the hell I was. "Um, I'm Danny. Danny Fenton."

And my powers sabotaged me again. This time, they turned my pants intangible, causing them to fall around my ankles, showing off my boxers to the whole school. My face turned bright red as everyone laughed.

Including Paulina. "Well," she said, still chuckling, "a gentleman usually tips his hat, but I'll give you points for originality."

I winced outwardly at that, tugging my pants back up. But then Sam was standing beside me, resting a hand on my shoulder and glaring at Paulina. "Kudos, Danny," she said, her glare intensifying, "you just set an all-time speed record for drowning in the shallow end of the gene pool."

And now Paulina jumped up to glare at Sam on level ground. "Oh, no," the Latina exclaimed, "you did not just call me shallow!"

Sam's hands went to her hips. "If by 'shallow,' you mean 'do I think I can stand in a puddle full of you and not get my feet wet,' then, yeah, I called you shallow. Whatcha gonna do about it?"

My eyes went wide as both of theirs narrowed. Oh, crap. I do not want to be in the middle of this impending fight. Before Paulina could do or say anything, I tugged Sam away, calling back, "Bell about to ring, sorry, gotta go, bye!"

Once we were back inside (after dragging Tucker in behind us), I sighed. "Okay, never doing that again." Then I turned to Sam. "And can we please not start fights at school? You don't need to get suspended again."

Sam's nose tipped up as she huffed. "That little witch deserves to get knocked down a few pegs." Then she scowled. "Besides, being suspended for a week was totally worth it. Do you even know what the school was going to do with those poor mice?"

Tuck and I rolled our eyes, but at that point, the bell actually did ring, and we all split up for class.

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

I spent all of last period being glared at by Dash Baxter. First off, he still didn't forgive me for the whole trapping him in a ton of meat thing, and secondly, we got our first math quizzes back, and, needless to say, math is not his best subject. Hell, school isn't his best subject.

In any case, Dash wanted to pummel me as soon as possible, and I had the choice whether or not to let him. So, naturally, I hightailed it out of the classroom as soon as the bell rang. I was at my locker and quickly trading out my books for my homework when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

I jumped and spun, terrified that Dash had caught up to me, but relaxed when I saw that it was Paulina who'd wanted my attention. "O—Oh!" I gasped. "Um, h—hey, Paulina."

"Hi, Danny," she replied, batting her eyelashes at me. "I was wondering—"

Then I was getting shoved into my locker. Of course Dash would catch up at the worst possible moment. But once I was surrounded by nothing but darkness, I let my eyes flash green as I actually called on my powers to turn my whole body intangible.

I had just gone out of my locker, invisible and intangible still, when Dash was saying, "Hey, hot stuff, I don't think we've met." I snuck up behind him, getting ready to push him into the locker instead. "I'm Dash Baxter, and I'm—" I chose that moment to attack.

But instead of the rewarding feeling of putting Dash into a locker, I felt myself get sucked inside of his body.

"What the—?"

One of Paulina's eyebrows jumped up. "Excuse me?"

I blinked, then realized I was seeing everything from about five inches above my normal line of sight. I took a moment to mentally take stock, able to feel my own body, but also Dash's, as though I was inside a mascot suit. His hands moved with mine, as did his feet and head, yet I could still feel his thoughts, hazy and unfocused as though he were dreaming or asleep.

Weird.

"Um, hello?" Paulina was trying to get my—Dash's—attention, so I glanced back at her.

"Sorry. Yeah, I'm—" A thought came to my mind, that I could make Dash out to be a weirdo so she'd not bother with him. I smirked, and luckily I think I kept it to just myself as opposed to showing it on Dash's face. "I'm president of the glee club, I collect toenails, and in my free time, I scrub my mom's feet." I bent onto a knee and grabbed at Paulina's feet. "I'll scrub yours, too, I love scrubbing feet!"

As expected, Paulina's face scrunched up into a look of disgust. "Ew, let go, you freak!" She pulled her foot loose, and I took that as my cue to exit Dash's body and go back into my locker again.

From outside, I could hear Dash saying, "Ughhh, what happened? And why do I wanna scrub my mom's feet?" before he took off.

Sweet, I can plant ideas subliminally.

Then, I was falling out of my locker and onto the floor. My bookbag fell to one side, something small and golden tumbling out. I glanced up at Paulina, who helped me stand. "Th—Thanks."

She smiled at me. Paulina smiled at me! "You're welcome, Danny." Then, she saw the thing that had fallen from my bag and gasped. "Ooooh! What's this?" She picked it up, and I saw it was a necklace.

It was gold, with a strange green gem that had a dark green, almost black, stripe down the middle like a cat's eye. It was on a thin gold chain that looked delicate but managed to hold the heavy pendant.

Oh, wait, she'd asked me something. "Uh, that's—that's for you," I stammered. "Yeah, I—I got it for you if you wanted to go to the dance with me, because I thought I might wanna give you something if you said yes, and that's—um, that's what I wanna give you, if—if you wanna go with me."

Luckily, something stopped me from continuing with my stuttering explanation. That something was Paulina's lips on my cheek. I blushed brightly as she grinned at me.

"Of course I'll go with you, Danny!" she said, clasping the necklace around her neck. "Pick me up at seven, okay?" Then she waved and walked away.

I stared after her for a moment, then a grin slowly spread across my face. "...She said yes? She said yes! Yes!" I threw both my arms into the air happily.

And my pants fell. Again. Without paranormal sabotage.

And of course Lancer was coming by at that moment.

"Pantless again, Mr. Fenton?" he asked rhetorically. He shook his head. "That's the third time this week you've been caught, how do you kids say it," he opened a book titled How to Speak Hip for the Unhip, "'dropping trou.'" He put the book away, glaring at me again. "I think it's high time I saw your father for a parent-teacher conference."

I winced. "Aw, man, my dad?"

"Yes." He grinned, holding out a belt. "In the meantime, this will keep your pants up and," once again he consulted his book, "out of trouble with 'the man.'"

He handed me the belt and a yellow slip of paper, then left.

I stared down at the paper and sighed. "Let's hope Dad caught something today or he's gonna be even more ticked at this note…."

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

"H—Hey, Dad," I stammered as I headed downstairs. I've never been more glad that my parents are selectively oblivious in my life. "Uh, catch anything?"

"Son, I couldn't catch a cold!" He was resting his chin on his hand, glaring into the Portal. "I've been sitting here all day and haven't gotten a single bite!"

I glanced down at the note. Now I really don't want to tell him…. "Um…."

"I'm so frustrated, I want to take my rage out on the next person who gives me bad news!"

Great.

He turned to me, smiling. "Anyway, you wanted to say something?"

Crap.

"Um, sorta. M—Mr. Lancer—"

"Mr. Lancer what?" His eyes narrowed at me. "Is this bad news?"

I quickly hid the note behind my back, smiling nervously at him. "Um, Mr. Lancer…."

Then, I had an idea. Dad could go to the meeting without even knowing he'd been.

I dove into my dad's body, making his eyes glow green as I smirked. "Mr. Lancer wants to have a word with us!"

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

I flew my dad—us?—to the school for the meeting. We sat in Lancer's office, across from the substi-vice-princi-teacher, who greeted us warmly. "Hello, Mr. Fenton."

"Hi, Mr. Lancer," I had Dad say, "What is this meeting about, may I ask?" Yes, be polite, that's the only way to get out of this in one piece.

"Well, there've been a few incidents with Danny… involving his pants."

Okay, time to do damage control. "Did his pants fall down again? Oh, poor Danny! He studies so hard, he forgets to eat! I know this because I'm his father, and not him."

GAH, I need to learn to shut up while I'm ahead!

Lancer gave me a confused look, but continued. "In any case, something needs to be done so this doesn't happen again."

"Of course, Mr. Lancer." Time to lay it on thick and pray it works. "After all, you don't need more work than you already have. See, we Fentons believe that teachers are underpaid and under appreciated!"

Lancer grinned brightly. "I like your style, Mr. Fenton. In fact, I'd like you to chaperone the upcoming school dance."

Yes! Home fre—

Wait. WHAT?

"Ch—Chaperone? Well, I'm not sure—"

"I am." He grinned again, standing up and holding out a hand for me—Dad—to shake. I had Dad stand as well. "See you Friday," he said, "or, as the kids say," and out came that book again, "'catch you later, G!'"

I wanted to do one of those anime sweat drops, but at least I'd survived the parent-teacher conference.

Now to survive the dance.

With my parents as chaperones.

I'm screwed.

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

"And that's what happened at the meeting yesterday."

I'd just finished explaining that fiasco to Sam and Tuck after school the next day. We'd chosen to hang out at the Amity Park Mall since Tuck was still trying to get a date for the dance. He'd come to sit with Sam and I after striking out again.

"So your parents are chaperoning, who cares?" Tuck said, laying his chin on top of his folded arms. "At least you have a date." Then, he perked up, glancing at me. "Hey, think you could do that possessing thing to get me a—?"

"Forget it, Tuck. You can get your own date, like I did." I dug into the burger I'd bought.

Sam rolled her eyes, mumbling to Tuck, "Does he have to take off his pants and act like a dweeb, or will either one do?"

I scowled at her. "Hey!"

Sam shook her head at me, then swirled her salad. "Seriously, guys, I'm glad I'm not going to the dance. Saves me the embarrassment of wearing the stupid dress my parents tried to force on me."

Tucker smirked at her. "So, no one asked you, huh?"

Sam scowled back. "Well, maybe if I was as pretty as Paulina…."

I frowned, still confused about that. "Why are you so down on her, anyway?" I shrugged. "So she's pretty, that's not a crime."

She pursed her lips. "Looks can be deceiving, Danny."

But then, the chills hit me. I shuddered, rubbing at my arms, as I spun to stare at the Abyss store, where a dragon had just burst out of the door.

"Ghost time," Tuck stated unnecessarily. Then he pulled my tray towards him. "Can I have your fries?"

I rolled my eyes but transformed under the table. With that done, I flew over to where the dragon was shrieking.

"Gee, haven't we met before?" I dove away, barely dodging the fire it breathed at me. "Okay, let's try this again. Hi, I'm Danny Phantom, and you are?"

The stupid claws missed, but then the stupid tail swung around, knocking me into another store. I winced, rubbing at my sore head. "Testy, got it."

I flew back into the air just as a wave of green fire struck the spot I'd been. I threw my shoulder into the dragon, but it grabbed me and slammed me to the floor, pinning me with one of its claws.

"MUST HAVE TEE!" it yelled in my face.

I blinked at that. "Tee? Oooh, good idea. Coffee can make you a might jittery. Better yet," I sunk through the floor, waited a moment, then zoomed back out, "how about some punch!"

I threw my fist into the dragon's face. I tried to follow where the dragon had fallen, but it was suddenly just gone. I flew down to the floor, changing back as I landed. Sam and Tuck ran over.

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, checking for any obvious new claw marks or burns.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered, then I frowned, "but that's the second time I've fought that dragon. We need to investigate." I glanced back at them. "What about you guys?"

"Fine," Tuck said, "unless you count the fact that I'm still dateless." He pulled out his PDA, listing off a few names that had failed him. "I've hit almost every girl in school, except…." He glanced at a girl who was heading our way. "Valerie."

Valerie Grey was a few social rungs below Paulina. Not queen bee status, but pretty damn close. She wore an orange headband to keep her curly black hair out of her green eyes, along with a yellow shirt and orange skirt.

She walked straight up to Tucker, who was trying to look as date-able as he could. "Yeah, Sucker, was it?"

"Uh, Tucker," he said. "Or Tuck. Or Tuckerino."

"No one calls you that," Sam and I both said.

Valerie ignored us. "Which ends in 'no,' which just so happens to be my answer unless something happens in the next two minutes that makes me dateless."

Wow, her timing is horrible. At that moment, Dash Baxter's best friend ever, Kwan Joeng, came running over. "Hey, Valerie!" he exclaimed. "You'll never guess what happened!"

Oh, yeah, this can only be bad for Valerie.

"Donna said she'd go to the dance with me, so you're totally dateless! Bye!"

And he ran off, leaving Valerie to sigh and turn back to Tucker. "Pick me up at seven thirty." She left.

"Yes!" Tucker pumped a fist into the air, looking at us. "Some might call it the rebound, but I call it a yes! I got a date!" He smirked at me, pointing down. "And the pants are still on!"

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

When I got home after that, it was to see my parents fussing over the whole chaperone thing. Dad in particular seemed to be highly against it, mostly because he didn't want to dress up.

Jazz was thrilled though. "This is the perfect thing to get you guys away from your sick obsession with ghosts!"

"I don't even remember volunteering to go to this dance!" Dad exclaimed. "It's all a vague blur…."

Jazz pulled me off into the hallway, letting Mom continue to wrestle Dad into a tie. "By the way, Danny, just so you know," she crossed her arms, grinning slyly down at me, "I'm onto your little secret."

My eyes went wide, and I nearly dropped the glass of water I was holding. "What?"

She ticked things off on her fingers. "The clumsiness, the nervousness, I can't believe I didn't see it before!" She smiled. "You have a girlfriend!"

"It'salieI'mnota—" I blinked. "Wait, what?"

"You. Have a. Girlfriend," Jazz said, enunciating each word and smirking.

I shook my head. "She's not my girlfriend."

Jazz smiled. "I know, she's your best friend."

My brow furrowed. "What?" I shook my head again. "No, I'm taking Paulina to the dance."

Dad screamed something about ghosts from the kitchen.

Jazz glanced back at me. "You'd better tell her your family is insane now, Danny. If you marry her and she finds out later, that's entrapment."

"Ha, ha, Jazz, very funny." I rolled my eyes. Then, I sighed. "I'd better go get ready…."

I shuffled past Jazz, heading upstairs. Okay, I have to find the ghost, get rid of it, and keep my parents from doing anything too embarrassing. ...I can handle that.

I hope.

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

I straightened my tie as Tuck and I chatted with Sam over my webcam. "Alright, shirt's tucked in, pants are up and belted on," I grabbed the Fenton Fisher, pressing the button to turn the Fisher into its compressed form, "unbreakable ghost fishing line tucked neatly away just in case…." I slid the tiny fishing rod into my jacket pocket. Then, I looked at the computer, where Sam was supposed to be finding out about the ghost dragon. "How's it going on the research, Sam?"

"Hang on, I'm sending it to you now," she said. A moment later, a webpage popped up on my screen. "There."

I glanced at the site. The home page showed an image of the dragon I'd fought twice now. "That's it!" I clicked on a link to more info. "Okay, it says 'The first Amulet of Aragon was given to a princess in the Middle Ages. It transforms the wearer into a dragon under states of emotional duress or anger.'" I looked closer at the amulet the dragon wore, seeing a golden chain with a gold and green cat's eye pendant. "Oh, no, that's the pendant I gave Paulina!" I blinked. "Wait. You mean, I'm going on a date with a dragon?"

Sam was practically glowing as she smirked. "Like I said, looks can be deceiving. I'm sure you boys will have a wonderful evening." She signed off.

I turned back to Tucker. "She really wants to go to the dance," I realized.

Tuck gaped. "B—But she said she didn't want to!"

I glared at him. "We're her best friends. We should have known."

"Well," Tuck said, shrugging, "there's nothing we can do about it now, right?"

Yeah…. Unless someone randomly decides to ask her.

...Which I can make someone do.

My eyes glowed green as I smirked at Tucker.

His eyes went wide. "No. No! No way. Forget it. Absolutely not."

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

I had Tuck knock on Sam's door. When she opened it, she gaped. "Tucker? I thought you were going to the dance with Valerie."

"She cancelled on me last minute. So I thought, why not we go together? Like, as friends?" I made Tucker smile at her.

"Gee, I dunno," she said, "it's so last minute, and you know I'm against school-sanctioned events…."

"Oh." I really thought she'd wanted to go…. "Okay, if you don't want—"

"But if you really want to, I guess I can. Wait a sec and let me go change into that stupid dress my parents got me!" She slammed the door, and I vacated Tuck.

"Have fun at the dance, bye!"

I flew off before he could yell at me.

I had a dragon-slash-date to pick up.

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

When I landed outside Paulina's house, I drew in a deep breath. Okay, have to figure out a way to get that necklace back. Without ticking off the potential dragon.

"Paulina," I said, testing out an idea, "about that amulet. It's a family heirloom, and I really need to get it back." I sighed. "No, that's stupid…."

Then, the door opened, and the biggest man that I'd ever seen (not including my dad) was standing in the door.

I grinned nervously. "Um, hi! You must be Paulina's dad."

And there's a finger in my face. "If you upset her, we are going to have a very violent talk."

Then Paulina came out in this gorgeous pink dress. "Papa! You're scaring him!" She grabbed my arm and started tugging me towards the way to school. "Come on, Danny, we're going to be late!"

Mr. Sanchez smiled brightly at his daughter. "Have a wonderful night, baby!" Then he glared back at me. "I know where you live."

"A—And I'm glad we had this talk!"

And I let Paulina drag me far, far away from her psycho, over-protective dad.

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

We only danced for a few minutes before Paulina stated she'd get too sweaty if she kept dancing. I grabbed us both some punch and sat down with her at one of the tables. "Look, um, Paulina, I, uh, I found out that that amulet I gave you—"

She smiled brightly, reaching a hand up to touch the necklace she still wore. "Oh, I love it, Danny! It's so gorgeous!"

I shot back with a nervous grin. "Um, yeah, but I—um, I found out that it was actually, um—" I glanced around and saw Sam and Tucker across the room— "Sam's! It's, um, Sam's. She left it at my house the other day, and I didn't realize until now that—"

Paulina's glass broke. And Lancer was heading over to my dad.

Crap.

"Um, I'll go get you another drink, be right back!"

I ran off over to my dad, turning invisible along the way and possessing my dad. Which was good, because apparently, he'd been asked about the conference. Which he didn't remember.

At all.

And of course Mom was curious why Dad didn't seem to remember. "What conference, Jack?"

Luckily, I could hijack Dad's answer. "Oh, Mr. Lancer and I just had a small talk about Danny. Don't worry, I spoke with Danny about it already, Mo—Maddie." I saw Sam and Tuck across the room, and quickly yelped, "I'll go get us some drinks!"

I didn't even bother to vacate Dad before I rushed over to my best friends.

Tucker gaped, and Sam's eyes widened, but both quickly masked their surprise. "Um, hi, Mr. Fenton," Sam said, always the fast talker, "what's up?"

I made my (dad's) eyes glow green. "It's me, guys." I slipped each of them a walkie talkie, knowing it'd be quicker than texting on our cell phones. "I need you guys to do something."

Tuck nodded. "Shoot, Mr. F." He chuckled at calling me that.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Tuck, run interference between my parents and Mr. Lancer. Sam, I need you to keep an eye on Paulina."

Sam smirked. "Oh, this dance just got fun." She took off after Paulina.

That done, I headed over to the punch table and finally jumped out of my dad. I grabbed the third walkie talkie from his hand and started looking around for my date (who hopefully was not currently a dragon).

Of course, no sooner had I thought that very hopeful thought than I heard the all-too-familiar roar of the ghost dragon. "Aw, crap." I snuck down the hall to where the sound came from and found myself outside the girls' bathroom. My face turned bright red, but I swallowed my pride and stepped into the very pink bathroom to stare up at a dragon that held someone in its hand.

Then of course, the dragon took off through the roof, and I had to transform to follow it. We flew out into the football stadium, and I floated in front of the ghost dragon. "Okay, Paulina, take it easy. You don't wanna hurt—" Then I noticed that Paulina was the someone in the dragon's hand. "Paulina?" I glanced up at the dragon. "Sam?"

"SHALLOW GIRL!" the dragon shrieked.

"Yep, that's Sam." Then came the fire. I spun around it, barely missing the wave of green. Once I had avoided that, I dove in to throw a punch. "Sorry, Sam, but this is gonna hurt!"

She flew into one of the stands, crashing through it, but she recovered quick and rushed back at me, using her claws to swipe me into and through another stand. Luckily, I went intangible and managed to avoid the stands.

I did not avoid the fence behind the stands. I crashed into the chain link fence, sliding down it but luckily not changing back like I would've a week or two ago. I guess I am getting better at this.

Then I saw the two people who were gaping at me. "Um," I stammered, glancing between Dash and his date, "stay in school!" And I flew off through the stands again to finish the fight with Sam.

Just as the walkie talkie crackled to life. "What?" I barked into it.

"Danny, your dad's heading over to Lancer. It doesn't look good, you'd better get back here, now!"

"Oh, well great! I'll be there as soon as I get rid of the giant fire-breathing ghost dragon!"

"Okay, just wanted you to know."

And the walkie talkie crackled to death.

"Perfect." Time to finish this up.

Sam roared back towards me, blowing more fire in my face. I ducked, but sadly, the top of my hair got caught in the blast. I patted the fire out of my hair, then dove at Sam, grabbing her by the tail and swinging her around several times before tossing her off into the distance behind the school.

Once she'd disappeared, I brushed off my hands, smiling brightly. Then the smile fell as I remembered the warning from Tuck. "Aw, man, Dad!"

A quick flight into the school, and I was dropping into Dad just as he was trying to beat off the guy "hitting on" Mom.

In other words, he didn't recognize Lancer at all.

Mom stared at Dad after he yelled at Lancer. "Honey, what are you talking about? This is Mr. Lancer. You know, from the parent-teacher conference."

And I've never been more glad to have possessed my father before Mom spoke. "Oh, yes, but in this light I didn't recognize him. Doesn't he look like George Clooney, Mo—Maddie?" The song that was playing changed, and I made my dad drag Mom onto the dance floor. "Oh, I love this song!"

And I left Dad as soon as Mom began dancing. I am not getting in the middle of that.

So I took off through the roof once more, just in time, too, as Sam had just flown back as well. I sped up enough to hit her with a roundhouse kick before she'd readied herself for the fight. Unfortunately, she managed to get off a burst of flame as she was knocked back, but I dodged it, yelling at her, "You throw fire like a girl!"

Her aura flared. I hadn't noticed it flaring before (unlike with the Lunch Lady), but now I realized the dragon had a fainter aura around itself but a stronger aura around the amulet. Huh.

She lunged at me, but I flicked open the Fenton Fisher. "Ghost-proof fishing line. Unbreakable to ghosts and dragon ghosts!" I cast the line, then flew quickly around the dragon, wrapping it in the fishing line. "Way to go, Dad!"

With the dragon tied up, I flew us both to the ground before taking the amulet off Sam. She slowly shrunk back down to her normal size, rubbing at her head and somehow not messing up the fancy, spider-like hairdo she'd done for the dance. She sat up, trying to get her feet back under her.

I stretched out a hand. "Here, let me help."

She grabbed my hand in a gloved one of her own, and I lifted her up. Once she was standing, I took a look at her dress.

It had a black bodice with fishnet sleeves that tucked into aforementioned black, fingerless gloves. The skirt was a stream-lined violet that was a couple shades lighter than her eyes and shimmered in the light.

"Wow," I gasped. I glanced back up to meet her eyes. "For a dress your parents picked out, it's really… you."

She blushed lightly. "Thanks. I actually did some adjustments to the dress to make it more me, but I'm glad it worked."

"It really did." Great, now I was blushing, too. I rubbed the back of my neck. "Um, so, w—we should probably head back in, right?"

Her blush was starting to fade. "Right."

We started in, walking side by side. I was staring down at the amulet I still held in one hand as I transformed back to human mode. "I guess I need to figure out what to do with this."

Sam looked down at it. "Well, why not just toss it back into the Ghost Zone?"

I shrugged. "Doesn't seem right, y'know? I'll just hang onto it to give it back to the girl who had it." I tucked the necklace into a pocket.

"That's really sweet, Danny."

We walked in silence for a few moments, then I glanced over at her. "I'm sorry about the other day, Sam. You know I didn't mean to say you weren't—um, I think you're—It's more that I've known you since before I was interested in girls, so I guess you're the only cute girl I'm able to talk to easily."

She smiled slightly at me. "Thanks, Danny. And I'm sorry I was so unsupportive of you going with Paulina tonight. You deserve to have a good time tonight. Or, well, y'know, if there hadn't been a ghost dragon involved."

We both chuckled as we went back into the dance, just as the last song came on. I turned to Sam. "So, since both our dates didn't exactly pan out—" I motioned over at where Dash was hitting on Paulina— "would you like to dance?" I held out a hand to her again.

She took it, then paused, staring at me with an eyebrow up. "Promise me you'll keep your pants up?"

I chuckled. "I'll do my best!"

As we danced, I could hear Tucker complaining. "Wait a second. I'm dateless again? What's a guy gotta do to get hooked up around here?"

The chill this time was very slight, so I didn't even shiver as the ghost girl from earlier popped up next to Tucker. "I want to go to the ball!" she shrieked.

I could hear Tuck's eyes go wide. "Um, on second thought, I do not need a date that badly." He ran over towards us, yelling, "Hey, guys, wait up! Lemme cut in!"

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

We all thought that that would be the end of things with the dragon ghost, and, frankly, it was. But we had a huge shock when we saw the headlines the next day.

Ghost Boy Saves Dance from Dragon!

Sam turned to me as we all read over the paper. "Someone saw you?"

I nodded grimly. "Dash and his date. Er, first date. Y'know, before he picked up Paulina."

Sam bit her lip. "Looks like you won't be able to fly under the radar with this, Danny. What're we gonna do?"

I glanced down at the headline. No picture was attached to the story, and the description was vague enough that it didn't really even sound like me, human or ghost. I folded up the paper with a shrug. "For now, nothing. All they've got is a story, and even that will just die out in a few days. I'll just have to avoid being seen from now on, and how hard could that be?"

Famous last words.

|)4|\||\|`/ |*|-|4|\|70|\/|

A/N: Okay. About the same length in half the time! Yay! See what happens when I've got no schoolwork and am bored out of my mind at home?

Anyway, read and review, and remember to send in requests for changes you'd like to see!