Diamond was frazzled. Her grandmother had told her more about Danny, Sam, and Tucker; about how they fought ghosts together and protected the town.

Lucile had taken Diamond down into the basement and outlined exactly where the Portal used to be. She had explained how her parents had had it removed when her father retired and got a real job.

Diamond read Sam's diary, with a small hope to prove her grandmother (and the photos) wrong. Unfortunately, all it did was confirm it, throwing everything she thought to be true out the window. There was one page of the diary missing; torn out. It was towards the front, where Sam was describing Danny going into the Portal. Diamond didn't think much about it.

She was in her room looking at a model NASA rocket Danny had made, but her mind was on the Portal. She was upset it wasn't there anymore; she would have liked to see it.

The Ghost Portal, the very thing that had changed everyone in the town's lives forever.

'It's growing on me,' Diamond realized with a slight hint of dread. 'I wanted nothing to do with any of this, with ghosts, and now I'm daydreaming about a doorway to a "Ghost Zone." What has my life come to?'

Trying to distract herself, she went over to the window. Outside, she could see her parents on the street corner, setting up tables and folding chairs. Even though it was late afternoon, it was still cool enough for outdoor work, as spring hadn't fully kicked in yet.

Diamond went downstairs to the basement and searched the boxes her parents were going to sell for the Fenton Finder.

"I know I'm going to regret this, but I want to find something. I don't know what, just something, anything, to prove all this," she muttered to herself. A growing anxiety, almost a need, for the object was implanted in her brain.

She desperately searched a few more boxes, but not seeing it, she bounded upstairs. She found her grandmother in the kitchen and gushed, "Grandma, where's the Fenton Finder? I need it."

"Why, honey, whatever is the matter? Slow down, slow down, I just sent the box it was in outside with your parents. I didn't realize you wanted it. You can go get it, I'm sure."

Diamond rushed outside as soon as she knew where it was, barely letting her grandmother finish. Once there, she spotted it, grabbed it, and ran back inside. Lucile stopped her. "Whoa," she said, "Diamond, Dear, what's the rush? We aren't starting the sale 'til tomorrow. You don't have to run."

"Sorry, Granma," Diamond said contritely, "I just wanted to… to see if it still… um, worked." She admitted somewhat meekly.

"You still don't have to run, Diamond. It's not going anywhere."

"Sorry."

"It's okay," she chuckled. "But maybe we overreacted, hmm?"

"Uh… yeah. Maybe," She smiled.

"It's alright, just go."

"Thanks."


Diamond was in the basement. She wasn't sure why she lied to her grandmother about the reason she wanted the Finder. She had a feeling it worked; after all, why else would it turn on in the first place? She was determined to find that ghost. Wow. Was she really starting to believe that?

In ghosts?

She took a deep breath, walked to the center of the old Lab, and turned it on.

"Welcome to the Fenton Finder," it deadpanned. "A ghost is near. Please turn to your right."

'Here goes nothing,' Diamond silently hoped this would not be a repeat of yesterday.

She turned.

There was… nothing.

Diamond turned again, perhaps expecting a ghoulish specter to appear out of nowhere, but there was nothing.

The Fenton Finder spoke. "Ghost is still to your right. Turn again."

And again, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Maybe it is broken," Diamond muttered. She looked at the Finder, at all the gadgets adorning it. She tilted it to the side to look underneath it. She flipped it around to face her, seeing if there was some sort of sensor, when—

"Ghost located."

Her heart skipped one beat too many, and she waited for it to restart.

Slowly, she turned it around to look at the screen. A picture had appeared of the ghost, but Diamond was totally unprepared to see…

Her hair. It showed her hair. Her white lock, to be exact, and part of her face. Those little "Target Locked" thingies were framing it.

"Wha… what?" Diamond said aloud.

The Fenton Finder almost sounded exasperated when it responded. "Traces of ghost DNA found in a lock of hair. Entity is level one, low ectoplasmic signature detected. Thank you for using the Fenton Finder." It powered down.

But… how…?

Oh God…

She started hyperventilating. "My hair is a ghost. My hair is a ghost. My hair is a ghost. Myhairisaghost. I'm a GHOST! Oh my God! I'm freaking out! Whaddo I do? Granma. Gotta find Granma. She'll know. No. She'll freak out… smother me 'cause she was right, or something. What else?"

She franticly scanned the room with hawk eyes.

"Dream-catcher. That's it; I'll use the dream-catcher. Slow down," she took in a deep breath, held it, then let it out. "Alright, Fenson. Here goes… How many times have I said that today?" She laughed nervously as she crept toward the Ghostcatcher. She tentatively reached out a hand, slowly extending it 'til her fingertips made contact with the glowing surface. She flinched.

"Oh…" she said when realized nothing had happened. Braver now, she pushed her hand all the way through. Peeking around the edge, she could see her hand. She wiggled her fingers. Still, nothing happened. No green slime, no explosion, nothing.

"Hmm…" She pulled her hand out and grabbed her hair. Cautious, yet still slightly curious, she leaned forward and pushed her handful of hair through. She realized she couldn't see what it looked like, so she reluctantly stuck her head through. She gasped, nearly opening her fist. What she saw… it was beyond anything she could have imagined.

Yet somehow, almost as if a deep, dark secret, she had expected it.

Her hair, only her lock of white, now had something floating over it. Diamond didn't know what it was at first, but then it dawned on her: it was something else.

Call it a Spirit, call it a Soul, call it a Phantom for all you know, it was something else.

Something from beyond.

And it was hereditary.


"I'm telling you, Tessa, something freaky is going on," Diamond glanced nervously down the hall, worried something might jump out at her from the rows and rows of pale green lockers.

"Girl, you're just overreacting. We both know ghosts aren't real. You probably just didn't get enough sleep last night," Tessa patted her friend on the shoulder.

Diamond was wearing her usual attire of faded jeans, a standard-looking white T-shirt with light purple trim and an oval, and sneakers to match. Her hair hung limp over a purple backpack.

She looked to her left as a black-haired boy shivered, rubbing his arms. Tessa walked past, dragging Diamond with her. "Either that, or you did see a ghost, and now it's coming back to get you," she joked, lightly elbowing her friend in the ribs.

Diamond didn't laugh.

"Come on," Tessa prodded, "what else did you discover yesterday, Di?" She took out and started fiddling with her T.E.S.S.A.3, an invention of her own design. The prodigal technology geek was the heiress to Axion Labs, which her great-grandfather had bought.

"Well, to be honest," Diamond answered, "I don't know. I found the Fenton Finder—"

"Wait, wait, wait. You found the Finder?" she smiled. Then snorted. Then started giggling. Then she started laughing hysterically, doubling over.

Not finding this at all amusing, Diamond said, "Yeah, yeah. Come on already, we're going to be late for Biology class."

Tessa stood up, wiping her eyes with her braid. "Okay, okay. What else did you find?"

"I uncovered the Ghostcatcher, which is like a big dream-catcher. But the scary thing is, it actually WORKED. Both of them. The Fenton Finder said my hair has ghost DNA, so I stuck it through the Ghostcatcher, and it, well… separated," she tried to explain. "Like, I was holding my hair, but a vision of my hair, or something, floated over it."

Tessa nodded as if she was her doctor. "Hm. Hm. Alright: You definitely didn't get enough sleep last night," Tessa observed, knocking on her friend's head.

They were about to enter the Biology room, when two twin girls, both blondes, walked past them. They snuck a glance at Diamond, and started whispering. The person in question heard a snatch of their conversation: "…Danny Phantom's great-granddaughter…" But they were soon out of earshot.

"Come on, stop staring," Tessa nearly had to drag Diamond through the door. They waved at the Masters siblings. Formally known as Reyna and Matthew, everyone at Casper High called them Yin and Yang, even the teachers. Said twins waved back, then they and their friend—David, if Diamond remembered correctly—shared a knowing glance.

'Jeesh,' Diamond thought, 'Everybody's acting weird today.' She felt ill at ease as Mr. Jebson instructed the class about blood samples.


Diamond sighed.

She was in her room, flipping through the pages of Sam's diary, again. Tessa was going to come over later, to make sense of the situation. Or, as she put it: 'to convince you nothing weird is going on.'

Until then, the worried teen was seeing what she could find on the Portal. Her great-grandmother had written that it was a revised version of an experimental project from Jack's and Maddie's college days, and was a door to the realm of the dead. Freaky. One of the corresponding pictures Sam had taken showed the dials set to specific numbers, which the diary explained was important to Danny's

And there the page had been ripped out. Right when it was describing him go into the Portal and get frickin' ghost powers. Diamond was perturbed, but she didn't think too much about it.


If anyone has a better chapter title, please let me know...