Chapter 2

Valerie was sitting in her bedroom. She huffed, exasperated. It was 3:10. She hadn't expected Phantom to show up, had she? She had been staring at her bedroom wall for over half an hour, waiting for the ghost boy to phase through. But he never came. Valerie would give it another five minutes and then she would call it quits. She sat there, twiddling her thumbs.

The doorbell rang. She let her dad answer it. After a while her father called up the stairs. "Valerie! There's a kid here, says he knows you. He says he's picking you up to go to the mall."

Valerie sat there, dumbstruck. Phantom rang the doorbell? Her dad didn't recognize him? Maybe it wasn't him. Aw, heck, of course it was. Phantom rang the doorbell?

"What's his name?" she called back down. She had to make sure.

There was a pause. "He says his name is P. Hantom," her father answered doubtfully. Valerie nearly laughed out loud. So Phantom used his witty banter in situations other than fighting? Interesting.

"I'm coming!" She was about to run downstairs, then stopped. She dove under her bed and pulled out some of the smallest ectoweapons she could find. You could never be too careful. She still didn't trust Phantom completely.

Then she rushed downstairs. "Thanks, Dad!" she called to her father, then stared, her mouth agape at the figure in the doorway. That's why her dad didn't recognize Phantom.

First of all, he was wearing a baseball cap to hide his astonishing shock of white hair. He wore it facing forwards. Good, Valerie thought. He knew what baseball caps were actually for. He had a blue t-shirt with a spiraling design spreading from his shoulder to his waist. He wore dark skinny jeans and black converse shoes. His ethereal glow was still there, but it was easy to look over.

Valerie stood there, mouth still wide open. It was weird enough seeing the ghost in a hospital gown or her own shirt and pants, but seeing him in ordinary clothes took her breath away.

"Uh, right," she said, breaking the awkward silence. She turned to her dad's suspicious look. "Uh, me and my friend…" She thought for a moment. "…Percy… are just going to the mall to hang out a bit."

Mr. Gray's stormy look cleared. "All right. Be careful." He smiled at the boy in the doorway. "Have fun, you two."

Then Valerie and Phantom were alone on the doorstep. "Percy?" he questioned, cracking a smile.

"Hey, I was under pressure." She grinned, then quickly hit it in a blank expression. "So, are we going to the mall?"

"Uh, yeah," Phantom said, chuckling nervously. He rubbed the back of his neck. Valerie blinked. That gesture was so Danny-like. Danny Fenton. Not Danny Phantom. The boy she had had a crush on for quite some time. For the first time Valerie noticed the similarity between the two names. She turned it over in her mind. Blushing, she shrugged it off as a coincidence.

They started walking towards the mall. The ghost-hunter realized she had never seen Phantom walk on the ground for this long before. It was strange. "Oh, yeah!" the ghost suddenly said. He brought out a package wrapped in brown paper. "Here are your clothes. Thanks for letting me borrow them."

"Oh, thanks," Valerie said, placing it under her shoulder. They were approaching the mall now. They walked on the concrete sidewalk to the glass doors and swung them open.

Watching Phantom in ordinary clothes in an ordinary setting was like watching him on another planet. He fit in. "When did you die?" she blurted out, unexpectedly. "Uh, sorry. If it's like, a hard subject or something, but you said you'd answer my questions."

Phantom nodded. "No, it's fine. And about a year ago. Why?"

"Well, you seem to know the time period well." Phantom was leading them towards the ice cream parlor. "Heck, you seem to know Amity Park Mall well. I mean, if you died a hundred years ago you'd probably think things were pretty strange. "

"Yeah. I lived here before I, um, well, died."

"Really? Who were you?"

Phantom didn't answer. Valerie grimaced. "Fine. We'll leave that unanswered for now. Anyway, we need to pick what flavor we want."

They stood in line patiently until it was their turn to order. Valerie picked lemon meringue and Phantom chose double fudge with extra chocolate sprinkles. They sat down at one of the small round tables that surrounded the small parlor.

For the first few minutes they said nothing, enjoying their ice cream. Valerie frowned. "You eat?"

"Uh huh."

"But, how's that even possible? I mean you shouldn't have saliva let alone a digestive tract."

"U – I – oo," Phantom replied, fudge filling his mouth.

Valerie smiled. "You must really like fudge."

"My dad really likes – liked it. I guess it rubbed off on me." He blushed, as if he had said too much.

Valerie's brow furrowed. She had never thought about a ghost having a family. Was it possible? Unless…

"Phantom, are your parents still alive?" she asked, a frown emanating in her voice.

The ghost licked his lips, but more out of nervousness than savoring the delicious fudge. He seemed to contemplate the question, weighing the pros of cons of answering it truthfully. "Uh, yeah, they are."

Valerie leaned forward on the table, curious. "Do I know them?"

Phantom was actually sweating. Chalk that up on the list of things the ghost shouldn't be able to do.

"Yes."

"Who are they?" Valerie was almost touching Phantom's face, she had leaned forward so far. She quickly retreated. "I mean, do they still live in Amity?"

Phantom took short breaths. "Yes, they still live in Amity. No, I'm not going to tell you who they are."

"Not yet, you're not," Valerie grinned, a demonic smile brushing her face for a second.

Silence filled the air for a while. "Um, I'll pay for the ice cream," Phantom finally offered to the conversation, digging into the pocket of his jeans.

"With what?" Valerie asked, confused.

The ghost pulled out a wallet and out if it a ten dollar bill. "With money, what else?"

"Yeah, but where do you get it? I mean, you obviously don't work for it. You don't steal it do you?" Her eyebrow went up suspiciously.

"No!" he said indignantly. He went up to the counter to pay. When he came back, Valerie bombarded him with more questions.

"Then where do you get it? Oh wait, you're not going to answer that one either, are you?" Valerie smirked.

Phantom smiled, sadly.

"Hey, you were involved with those robberies a while back, though, weren't you?" The smirk changed into a suspicious scowl. "Explain that."

Phantom took a big breath. "Look. I was being controlled by this guy called Freakshow. Remember that gothic circus that came into town? Well, he was the ringmaster. He had this orb thing that could control ghosts. He made me steal all that stuff." The ghost's eyes clouded over, as if it was painful to remember. "I fought it, but it was too powerful." He shuddered. "Anyway, the orb shattered and Freakshow was arrested. They gave all the stuff back."

Valerie frowned. The ghost had names, dates. It seemed like a truthful explanation. But he still wasn't completely acquitted.

"And what about that time you kidnapped the mayor?"

Phantom sighed. He had explained this story way too many times. "The mayor was been overshadowed by this ghost called Walker. He was the one holding me captive."

Valerie frowned. So the ghost had an excuse for that one as well. There was only one other thing Valerie held against him. And it was also the most important. "What about Axion Labs?"

This time, Phantom leaned forward. He had obviously been preparing for this. "First of all, I'm sorry Valerie. I'm so sorry. I never meant what happened to happen. And second of all, it wasn't my dog."

The breath caught in Valerie's throat.

"He just had this sort of Jekyll-and-Hyde kind of attitude. Also, I was careless. I didn't mean for the lab to get messed up. I mean, he was just looking for his squeaky toy." He chuckled, nervously. "Kind of cute, right?"

Valerie just stared at him.

"So, I guess this means I'm not forgiven?"

Valerie glared at him. "No, ghost. You ruined my life. I'll forgive you for that other stuff, but that, that… That was unforgivable."

The ghost and the ghost hunter looked at each other for a while. Phantom was the first to look away.

Unforgivable.